Retiring Again

Today is my last of work at Wawasan Bersatu Sdn Bhd. Thank you for everything. So long and bye bye to corporate world.

Baby Ryan's Full Moon Celebration

Though we don't see the neighbour who live in the house across the street from ours often as they leave home for work early in the morning and only return late in the evening we were pleasant surprised to receive a full moon gift pack from the couple.

The gift pack contains some pretty impressive traditional full moon celebration items ie a 1/2 bird roasted chicken, chilli sauce, two red hard-boiled eggs, pickled ginger, a marble butter cake and an assortment of Chinese style steamed pastries, all packed in a beautifully themed paper box. In the old days when nobody was marketing such gift packs, parents who want to celebrate baby full moon would have to procure the items separately, packed and distribute them by themselves, a very labour and time intensive exercise.

What is full moon celebration? According to Chinese custom, when a baby turns one month old, a ceremony is held to celebrate her first month of life (the Chinese term translates as "full moon"). This coincides with the end of the new mum's confinement period, and both mother and baby are formally introduced to the extended family and friends for the first time.

In return for their kind gesture my family will visit the couple bearing gifts for their baby boy.
Photo: Though we don't see the neighbour who live in the house across the street from ours often as they leave home for work early in the morning and only return late in the evening we were pleasant surprised to receive a full moon gift pack from the couple. The gift pack contains some pretty impressive traditional full moon celebration items ie a 1/2 bird roasted chicken, chilli sauce, two red hard-boiled eggs, pickled ginger, a marble butter cake and an assortment of Chinese style steamed pastries, all packed in a beautifully themed paper box. In the old days when nobody was marketing such gift packs, parents who want to celebrate baby full moon would have to procure the items separately, packed and distribute them by themselves, a very labour and time intensive exercise. What is full moon celebration? According to Chinese custom, when a baby turns one month old, a ceremony is held to celebrate her first month of life (the Chinese term translates as "full moon"). This coincides with the end of the new mum's confinement period, and both mother and baby are formally introduced to the extended family and friends for the first time. In return for their kind gesture my family will visit the couple bearing gifts for their baby boy.

Doing something for the benefit of the less fortunate.

In another two weeks time I will be retiring for the second time from a well-paying regular day job.

After that as a retiree what am I going to do with my spare time? 

Definitely not going out to look for another regular job. And definitely not staying in the house the whole day doing nothing but watching TV shows.

For the relatively comfortable and good life that I have been enjoying all this while, now in my golden years I feel the time has come to give something back to society.

I am seriously looking at volunteering as a helper to feed homeless street people in a soup kitchen outfit.

Sitting in pain

Aikido national Kyu Grading at MAA HQ Dojo June 15 2014

The painful condition of my right knee was making it difficult to sit balanced and upright in seiza. As a result I had to sit with my backside raised and my torso tilted forward to cope with the pain. It was more like half kneeing instead of sitting down.

After some time the pain became so unbearable that I had to change to sitting cross-legged.

I am not sure if anyone noticed my awkward sitting posture. If they did no one was telling.

Getting up on my feet from the sitting position was also difficult. I had to brace my right knee with my right hand in order to stand up straight.

Tomorrow I have to go to INTi to start the new training session and I wonder how I would cope with the painful knee condition. Pray that after a night and a day's rest the knee will get get better.

A window to the past

Just completed mounting the new "Orient" wall clock on the wall. At a time like this I wish that I was a 6-footer so that I didn't need to climb a ladder to mount the clock

To most people a clock is just a time piece to tell the time. To me a clock is like a window to my past.

In my growing up years as a boy I lived with my grand mother in a shop-house in Ipoh surrounded by watches and clocks. At that time all my grand mother's sons,who were my uncles, were tradesmen dealing with the sale and repair of watches and clocks. After school although I had no interest in the watch and clock business I would dutifully obliged my two uncles to help out in attending to customers at the counter.

Now the watch and clock business is no more. After my grandmother and uncles passed away none of their descendents wanted to take over the business.

I am surprised that the Japan-made brand "Orient" which existed in the 1960s when I was still a school boy is still in the market today.