Remember.....

We met in church....the Chans, the Chins and I. After that we went out for lunch at a local restaurant. The food was good and we really enjoyed ourselves. For the Chans, it has been some time since they tasted Malaysian dishes so they really like them. There was so much to talk about.....their lives in Brisbane and our lives here in Malaysia. The topic on politics is never far and today especially they were waiting to know the outcome of the election results in Australia.
The get together for lunch was not enough so we met again for dinner. This time i got to meet Kelly, the Chan's only daughter, and her husband and her two sons. Oh, her two sons are really cute. The younger son, Nelson, looks exactly like Shawn, Kelly's brother when he was at that age.Then, there's Jeanie Chin's grandson Nathan, who too looks exactly like his father when he was a little boy. So imagine the 'oooos' and the 'ahhhs' when we saw these little ones. Truly, this brings back memories when we were young then. Well, i guess at this time in our lives, all we have will be our memories....... our happy times or otherwise.
Anyway, i shall be meeting the Chans again in the not so distant future in Brisbane i hope. Kelly and her family will flying back to Holland tomorrow night. Eddy and Lucy Chan will be going to Singapore for a week......Sydney for another week...then back home to Brisbane. What a flying visit but we were certainly glad to see each other again.

Remember.......

Sunday 22nd August 2010.....a day of reunion again. The Chans are in town. They emigrated to Down Under more than twenty years ago and today they are back for another visit. This is true friendship...never forget each other.....trying to meet each other when ever possible. I remembered the times I spent at their home in the palm oil estate. What wonderful times we had. This is one family who was very hospitable and still is. The invitation to their home in Brisbane is still open.....come visit anytime...just let us know. This has been their parting words whenever we contact each other.
Jeanie and Solomon together with their grandson are also in town for a visit, and also to meet the Chans. I truly thank the One above for our friendship.We have continued to be good friends all these years. Throughout we have supported each other, encouraged each other, cried together in our sorrowful moments and laughed together in our joyful moments...and the moments i like best were the times we laughed at our sillyness. It's good to be able reflect on our actions and reactions on hindsight. This helps to mould our character to become better persons i hope. We are already in our sixties, and we are still learning about life. Indeed, life is a long learning process....we can always learn something new every day.
Today, after church, we will have lunch at a restuarant in town....a time of fellowship. After all the chatting and laughing, we'll say goodbye and hope to meet again sometime in the near future. I guess this is what life is all about..........

Remember.....

We met for breakfast. As i had thought, the topic of conversation was centred around her adaptation to life in the city and the grandchild of course. After breakfast, the three of us set out to paint the town red. Our first task was to accompany her to three banks to close accounts and to transfer funds to other accounts. Then we to the shops and the market to get all the much need ingredients for her cooking spree in the city. The amount of food and dried ingredients that she bought will be enough to last her for the next two months or so. She kept telling us that it is so easy to get all the stuff she needed in a small town like Teluk Intan which, of course, i totally agreed with her. This is one of the reasons which i would like to stay permanently in this small town. I would certainly like to go 'jalan-jalan' in the city once in a while.['Jalan-jalan' means visiting or touring in the local language].
Many of my friends who had migrated to bigger cities always have the same old complain when they come back to visit Teluk Intan. The people in TI are so much friendlier. It is so easy to buy stuff needed for cooking. In the big cities, one has to travel a long distance just to get some stuff. The most important thing is, just with a trip to the town, all the household bills will be paid. In the cities, one has to locate the relevant places first before one can pay the bills and these offices can be far from each other. Not so in Teluk Intan. One can just park the car in one place and almost all the offices are within walking distance. Well, my advice to all my friends who were adventurous enough to migrate to cities after retirement is this...it's time to learn to use the computer and pay all your bills online........hahaha........

Remember....

Today is August 16th. Half of the month left. It seems time is just flying. To my students, time seems to move so slowly. They are just waiting for their exams to be over and then to have a good time during the year end holidays. Ah...the minds of the young! We older folks will just dread the start of another year. It will mean we have to make contingencies for the new year. It is interesting to see parents make all sorts of plans for their children for the coming year. As for me, though Christina is now married, i still have some plans in my mind. At the moment, the coming addition of a new member to the family circle is in my uppermost mind. I realized that eventhough i had a western type of education and influence, in many aspects, i am still very chinese in my thinking. I guess this is the legacy my parents left me...to take care of the family. This trait is already ingrained in me that i can't change much. Many a time, i wish i could change but i simply can't because it is like forsaking my duties....and this is not good for my conscience.
Today, i am also going to meet one of my morning walk croonies for breakfast. She has migrated to the city of Kuala Lumpur but miss us too much. So she comes back to Teluk Intan quite often to do her shopping of fish and chicken and to meet up with her friends of which i am one of them. I know we will be talking about her new life in the city and also about her granddaughter. ....

Remember....

Remember...

Today is the first day in August. How time flies. It is just like the blink of an eye and we have already entered the second half of 2010. i am trying to recall what are the stuff i have done so far. Apart from the usual household chores, i managed to complete two patchwork blankets for my girl. At the moment, i am sewing a smaller one for the future grandkid. As i reflect upon my days , i realised that i'm just like my mother. She too did a lot of patchwork in her life time for family members, friends and relatives and she even sold a few to good friends. I remembered mom would asked me to take her round to all the garment factories around town and to buy all those remnant materials for her patchwork. She would buy them by the sacks and when she reached home, she would sort them out piece by piece. The ones that she could use, she would put them aside in boxes and the unwanted ones would be thrown away. i used to nag at her that she was just wasting good money as she would had thrown away more than she could use. As a result ,i started using the smaller pieces to create my own patchwork. Because the pieces of material were so small, i had to hand stitched the patchwok. It would be impossible to use the sewing machine. So mom had the whole sewing machine to herself. In a way, this was a good arrangement because we didn't have to share the sewing maching. So today, i need to thank mom for those smaller pieces of remnant material. If they were thrown them away, i would not be making use of them. By sewing, i have found a good way to make good use of my time other than reading or listening to the news on CNN, BBC, Aljezeera or the Australian news network. Mothers' Day this year has long passed but i would like to take this opportunity to say thank you mother. As usual, mother knows best what is good for her children when she had rested from her labours......i hope too that i will be able to leave a legacy for Christina when i migrate to another planet.