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.
Today is CNY eve.
It was great to wake up in the morning without having to leave the house for work.
In conjunction with the CNY last week my boss had directed the staff to take 3 days of compulsory leave starting today and ending on the following Tuesday. This means that the company will resume normal business operation on Wednesday next week.
Taking advantage of the off day I embarked on a few chores immediately after my morning tai chi exercise and breakfast.
I swept the upstairs and downstairs floor, emptied the rubbish from all the waste bins in the house and dumped them into the outside storage bin, filled an empty container with new laundry refill and washed the family car.
Done mindfully and unhurriedly I actually enjoyed doing these mundane household chores. More than just chores, I imagine doing such tasks as exercises for my mental and physical well-being.
While I was doing these chores my wife was busy cleaning, cutting, sorting and getting ready all the meat and vegetable ingredients for tonight's reunion dinner. She had scheduled the afternoon to cook up a feast for the family reunion dinner.
It was my wife's decision that starting from this year we should cook our own food and eat at home rather than spend lots of money eating outside in a fancy restaurant. Since we already have a new daughter-in-law it was all the more meaningful to eat at home as a family unit.
Wishing everybody
Happy Chinese New Year,
Gong Xi Fa Cai.
May the year of the Horse bring good health, happiness and prosperity to all.
The greatest gift that you can give someone is your TIME because when you give your time you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back.
Dear Mommy thank you for giving your TIME to the family.
On this special day the family honours you with happy birthday wishes and may you always stay happy and healthy.
A big thank you to all my relatives and friends for their kind support in attending the wedding dinner of my daughter, Amy. If not for them the event would not have succeeded according to plan.
When we planned and budgeted for a 20 table dinner function we had some misgivings if all the dinners in the guest list would come and whether the angpow receipts would be sufficient to pay for the cost of hosting the dinner. We were not interested to make money out of the function. We would be happy if the receipts would be sufficient to break even with the cost of the dinner.
By 7.00pm, the schedule time of the start of the dinner only half the tables were filled and we were wondering if we should cancel some tables. Then after 7.30pm more guest started to trickle in and we became more hopeful as the guests started to fill up the vacant seats.
It was only after the dinner had started that we realised why so many guests arrived late, after the scheduled time. The severe traffic congestion in many parts of the city due to the FA Cup finals being held at the national stadium in Bukit Jalil had delayed many of the guests from coming to the restaurant. No wonder I received sms messages informing me of impending delay in arrival by some guests due to the horrendous traffic congestion. Some even had to abort the journey to the restaurant in frustration mid-way because they had difficulty entering the city.
As we could not wait indefinitely for all the guests to show up we gave the green light to start the dinner at 8.30pm. Thankfully by this time we estimated that more than 95 percent of the seats had been occupied.
The dinner ended at 10.00pm. As a contingency measure I had brought along my cheque book in the event that I was required to issue a checque to the restaurant to cover any short falls in the cash receipts. After tallying all the angpow receipts we were delighted that although the cash that we had collected from the paying guests were insufficient to cover the operating cost of hosting the dinner, the deficit was minimal.
Incurring a total deficit of RM195.80 for hosting a 20 table dinner the figure translates to only a deficit of RM9.79 per table.
We were very happy that after accounting for prepayments to the restaurant the cash receipts were more than enough to settle the restaurant's bill.
The time has come to start planning for relocating our residence from Kajang to Puncak Jalil.
The auspicious day to settle in to our new house has been determined after my wife's consultation with the temple medium. It is on Christmas day 25/12/2012.
I have already started the whole process by drawing up an inventory list of furniture and other house items for the big move. The next task is to identify what company to engage for the big move.
After living in a 15ft x 55ft double storey terrace house in Kajang for the last 30 years I am leaving with a heavy heart. No doubt the family house is such a small abode but nevertheless it has provided the shelter and protection that enables me and my wife to raise our children. However over the years the house has outlived the ever growing needs of the family to the point that we need a bigger house than what the current one can provide.
Today the real estate agent came to take some shots of the house. The pictures are required by the potential purchase to secure a bank loan for the purchase of the house. I hope that I and my wife can sign the sales and purchase agreement with the buyer before we move out. We have no intention to rent out the property nor keep it vacant for too long.
On a hot Sunday afternoon five daddys decided to dine out with their family members to celebrate Father's Day
Thur 5.30am. KL LCCT international departure lounge. Sending my son and his girlfriend off for their holidays in Macau. Even at such an early hour the airport was a hive of human and commercial activities.
Air Asia is actively promoting self check-in as evident by the presence of so many self-check signage and kiosks around the terminal with a corresponding reduction in the number of manual check-in counters. I saw many weary travelers sleeping on the benches. Some even slept on the floor beside their luggage.
Icouldn't detect any rotten potatoes in the pile. The whole stock of sweet potatoes looks fresh and edible to me. However my wife still insisted on hand picking the tubers to her most exacting specification.
Weather forecast predicts a temperature of 32 deg C and a passing shower or two for tomorrow Sunday. I sure hope that tomorrow morning the weather is cool with clear sky and no shower when I and family members trek up the hillside cemetery in Ipoh to honour our ancestors and sweep the tombs in conjunction with the annual Qing Ming Festival.
Lost in Jonker Street. 5/2/2012, Melaka.
The lantern lit but eerily empty night scene at one of the many narrow side streets off Jonker Street.
Walking back to the car park after the visit to busy Jonker Street night market our family group almost got lost wandering along the maze of narrow streets until we encountered a kind family group near a mosque who gave us the correct direction to our destination.
Then joining the large group of Muslim men and women who had just emerged from the mosque after their prayers and who were walking along the same direction as us we soon arrived at the bridge beside the Melaka river where we had earlier parked our cars.
Chendol Drive-In, Sat 5/2/2012 Melaka
This stall is reputed to sell the best chendol in town. Due to the absence of parking space some customers double-parked by the road side either buying take-aways or to consume the sweet drink right inside their cars; never mind in so doing blocking half the busy street and disrupting the traffic flow.
The Melaka folks seem a tolerant lot because despite double-parking in front of the chendol stall blocking half the street passing motorists didn't blast their horns. This sort of behaviour would be deemed unacceptable in KL roads.
Following the example of the locals we hurriedly gulped down the iced dessert in our cars and then moved on so as not to inconvenient passing motorists.
At a gift shop in the Aeon Cheras Selatan Mall during the CNY holidays on Jan 27, 2012.
I noticed my daughter bought a few strips of assorted colour paper at the store.
I knew these strips are used for folding paper stars. Not too long ago I too folded paper stars from strips that I cut out out from white A4 paper, an activity which which gave me many hours of enjoyment.
Nevertheless, I asked her about the paper strips. "It's for making lucky stars," she said with the hint of a smile.
I knew that she wanted to make lucky stars for someone special. Knowing the identity of that special person in her life I conveniently chose not to ask her. That special someone is certainly not me, her dad nor her mom. Later she bought a fancy glass bottle from another shop.
As the threesome, me, wife and daughter continued our stroll along the the aisles of the shopping mall I started to think about folding lucky stars for that special someone in my life too.
I wonder where among the maze of folders in the pc hard drive that I had downloaded and saved that forgotten YouTube video clip on origami star folding. You see, I've already forgotten how to fold paper stars.
Annual family CNY reunion dinner in Ipoh Sun Lee How Fook Restaurant. A memorable occasion as you can see the natural smiles and joys reflected in the faces of the family members.
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