No Kampung To Balik To

I remember the time when we always looked forward to the holidays, just any kinda break, and we'd hit the road to KL, Klang or Penang. Those were the days where we did everything as a family.

In Penang, we'd have a large house in Jeselton Crescent all to ourselves, where our neighbours were mostly expats who were too far away to bother us. And we'd go shopping in Komtar or go to the beach and eat and eat and eat.

In KL, we stayed in a residential area called Overseas Union Garden and also spent alot of time just shopping. I don't remember much about eating in KL. Maybe the food lauyah? :-)

I remember once I went into a gents in Sungai Wang Plaza. THAT was eye-opening.

And we always bought some kinda trinket or whatever and we'd take to school and show off to our classmates in our cowtown, and go, "Bought in KL, you know?!?"

Then the matriarch of the family relocated and there was no cause to travel anymore, since she's just a few streets away.

It's been almost 20 years since I've been to KL and almost 10 years since touching Penang soil. Surprising to many, but nowadays I only do stuff when it's absolutely necessary.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all Hindu readers a belated Happy Deepavali and Muslim readers, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, Everyone!

Finally, it's mid-autumn festival today. Should have been a month ago, if not for the double seventh-month. It has been so long ago since we finished eating all the mooncakes, pomelos and groundnuts we received from friends and relatives this year.

Having relatives in the restaurant business help alot in getting free mooncakes hehehe

Spent the past week just eating and eating and sitting around until my bum also looks round round like the pomelo :S

Chinese has this super dumb tradition of giving "buah tangan" to friends, relatives and acquantainces during such festivities and the other party reciprocate with almost similar stuffs and some will recycle their "buah tangan" as well, by giving out what they received to another person, instead of buying new ones, which is truth be told, a waste of hard-earned money.

I remember when I was a kid, we used to buy lanterns to play, and we had to light candles inside the lantern. I understand that now they use battery operated light bulbs or something safe.

Anyway, back in the old days, my parents had to buy us MANY lanterns each mid-autumn festival, because we kept burning them, unintentionally, of course, and then our lanterns will have a large black hole right in the middle of the lantern, even before the 15th day of the 8th lunar month!

And my lantern was always the rabbit (or hare). I remember there weren't much choices. It was either the hare or the rooster, and the rooster is so fugly lah.

Now, they come in the shapes of ultraman, pokemon and what-not. Maybe we'll even have Lara the Tomb Raider or Catwoman soon.

I miss playing with lanterns :-/

Happy Merdeka!

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

- John F. Kennedy 20th Jan, 1961

Yea rightttttttttt

The only thing I can thing of, and look forward to, yearly, when the country celebrates her Independence Day is that I can finally, FINALLY have a break from work.

I hope some silly idiot (double adjectives on purpose) will NOT call me up at odd hours, or give me a ring when he hears the Negaraku on the radio. Bah!

Happy holidays, everyone!

My Observation on Ghost Month

To me, the 7th month in the Chinese lunar calendar is always full of eerieness.

From my observation, there will be a lot of deaths, especially in the first and last few days of the month. That's why older folks need to take extra precaution.

In a residential area near my house, there were two deaths, just a few houses apart, on the first day of 7th month this year.

Also, I feel that there are extra accidents in this month, and some very freaky type too. And in 2006, there will be TWO 7th months! Be careful!

Talking about deaths, it's quite contagious. Once somebody dies, there will ALWAYS be somebody living nearby who will go as well.

I used to joke that the deceased needs mahjong kaki, but that's not funny, right? =)

Recently, in a bad year, there were THREE deaths along my street. They were months apart, but they all happened within that calendar year.

My neighbour told me that some time in the late 1950s, something similar happened. Three of our residents also died within a year.

Eerie, isn't it? Wonder when the next cycle will be ..........

Related post:
I Felt a Presence ....

Celebrating 200620062006

What is 200620062006? It's once-in-a-lifetime, so must blog on this.

First 2006 - 20th June

Second 2006 - Year of 2006

Third 2006 - 8.06pm lor

If you've missed the chance to celebrate this occasion, then wait for 200720072007 muahahaha

Don't CHEAT! -.-"

A Toast to All Mothers ~*~

Every 2nd Sunday in May is Mother's Day (well, in most parts of the world lah). Every year also headache, how to celebrate it? What to get for Mama? Where to dine?? Aiyooo, no budgetttttttttt ....

For readers who have yet to know the history of Mother's Day, here is a comprehensive article on how Mother's Day came about.

Mother's Day History
Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday.

At first, people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother's day tradition.

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and to express appreciation of their mothers

Sourced from here.

Beat This ~ a Chinese New Year Card in May!

This has got to be one of those record setting moments. I received a Chinese New Year card in the post this morning. Woo Hooo!

Chinese New Year 2006 was like a hundred days ago! Oh my, I guess this nearly beat the historically once-a-century second of 010203040506.

Lest you thought that it was sent in January, 2006 and took this loooooong to arrive, I should mention that this card was sent from China on 25th April, 2006. Don't blame the postal department larrr.

What was the sender thinking ... I also dunno ... I mean Chinese New Year 2007 is gonna be here soon!

But the card says: Wish You Good Health, Peace and Happiness in 2006

There's still 7 months & 3 weeks left in 2006 hehehe and there's a saying that goes "It's better late than never".

So I guess, it's never a wrong time to receive well wishes like this, ya?

P/S: I spent 010203040506 playing with my pet monkeys. Isn't that special enough?