Yin Chee
|

Yin Chee

This is our ‘san goong yan’ (new maid) – I whispered to the neighbourhood kids – as we sneaked our heads over the doorway to our flat.  We wanted to stealthily check out the lady who was washing our clothes in the bathroom but she spotted us immediately. Yin ‘Chee’ (‘sister’ Yin) was only about 17 when she…

The Odeon
|

The Odeon

Throughout my time working at the Odeon, I had at best a love-hate relationship with it.  It wasn’t always that way.  When I was younger, I stayed at home whilst all my older brothers and sisters were out all day and night working.  I wanted to join them, but thanks to my position in the…

Choong Fee

Choong Fee

It would seem in hindsight that he never stood a chance, even from the moment he was named as a baby.  All the girls in our family have the middle name ‘Min’ and all the boys, ‘Choong’.  His name was Choong Fee. Shortly thereafter, my mom saw a fortune teller.  He told her it was…

The Car
|

The Car

This is my mom in our first car.  In the early years, my parents used to get around on a scooter.  Road safety laws have come a long way since those days when several of us would pile on top of each other on the scooter to get around town. Anyway, one day, my mom…

The Fortune Teller
|

The Fortune Teller

According to my dad, mom planned on having four kids.  This pic shows the four oldest kids – and that would have been it – neither I nor half my siblings would have existed. Then my mom visited a fortune teller. He told her he could see her husband marrying a second, younger wife in…

Mom’s Smile
|

Mom’s Smile

Found a pic of my mom smiling today.  That’s rare.  She usually looks wistful, stoic, maybe a bit weary.  I don’t know if that was just how she was, or whether she was ill without yet knowing it. I know that just before she found out she had cancer, she had travelled back to China…

The Funeral
|

The Funeral

All my parents’ martial arts friends were there.  A large group dominated by housewives who were Tai Chi students of my dad.  There were one or two who remained life-long family friends, but I never cared for the majority of them.  Even at that young age, I saw them as a bunch of privileged, mean…

|

The Hospital

I remember clearly the day my mom had to pack her bags to be admitted to the hospital. At 5 or 6 years of age, my understanding of the difference between illness and death was that if you were ill, you went to the hospital, stayed for awhile, then you came back. If you died,…

Ramadan Around Malaysia – My Google Hangouts-On-Air
| | |

Ramadan Around Malaysia – My Google Hangouts-On-Air

Print PDF I’m almost scared to announce this for fear of jinxing these Live Broadcasts but here it goes! After a 3 months+ enforced hiatus from my weekly Google Hangouts-On-Air thanks to my relocation nightmare that included a failed internet service restore, I’m back in the game with a vengeance. I’m running a series of…