Weekend reflection: I was banking on living for a long time yet.

In this photo taken in 1972, we were in lower 6, Tien Fen and I were actually seated next to each other. You see her, the pretty shoulder hair? and I the plain short hair.




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Last Thursday night, I thought I was fit as a fiddle and though I have lived past my half a century, I was banking for living for at least another quarter. Then I was in Emergency Dept for unexplained chest pains for half an hour. It was good to check it out, and I had ECGs, blood tests and Xrays. It turned out I was having a viral infection which after a week, is still causing me discomfort and reminding me to slow down.

Nothing prepared me from the news a friend just sent me. A mutual friend had died. All three of us started school on the same day, and Tien Fen was my class mate when we were in the last year of High School. I had not seen her for 38 years, and I not going to see her again.

Today's her funeral and I reflect on my own immortality. Tien Fen is not the first to pass on. In fact she's the 4th. I wonder what her eulogy will be like, and what mine will be like. In the mean time, I better live my life so that I will leave behind a legacy and my friends and acquaintance will sing, For she is a jolly good fellow.

Farewell my friend. You were the sweet classmate that we in form 6 regarded you as the bridge that spanned across the Arts students to the Science students.


http://www.methodistcollegekl.edu.my/

Heartfelt Condolences to Mrs Chiu's Family
Methodist College Kuala Lumpur
Offers Its Heartfelt Condolences

Mrs. Chiu (nee Luk Tien Fen)


Mrs. Chiu, a senior lecturer at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur, was called home to the Lord on 7 June 2011 after a short illness. She passed away at the University Hospital, Petaling Jaya at around 11.30pm surrounded by family members and friends.

Originally from Sibu, Sarawak, the late Mrs. Chiu served the College for over 26 years as an Economics lecturer. Her dedicated teaching and care for students reached beyond the classrooms. She was advisor to the Christian Fellowship group and served as Head of the Arts Department for many years. More recently, she was appointed as Head of Economics Panel.

Mrs. Chiu will be dearly missed and fondly remembered by the staff, former and present students as a loving and caring teacher, a friendly person with an easy smile and a loyal staff who has touched the lives of many students and colleagues. She has served the College well with her dedication and discipline.
Our prayers and heartfelt condolences go to Mr. Chiu Ching Siang, her loving son Ti Ming, family members and dear ones as they go through this difficult time.

The wake service will be held on the 8th and 9th June, 8.30pm at No. 5, Gui Yuan Funeral Parlour, Jalan 229, Kampung Tunku, Section 1, Petaling Jaya. The funeral service will be on Friday, 10 June at 10.00am at the same place.

Scenic Sunday: Big hair, Big heart

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http://www.shaveforacure.co.nz/section/about_shave

Shave for a Cure is the LBF’s signature fundraising event.

First held in 1999, Shave for a Cure has grown into a national movement. Over the last twelve years, New Zealanders have registered, dobbed in their mates, fundraised, organised their events and shorn their locks as a way to demonstrate their solidarity with those living with blood cancers like leukaemia.

Their families, friends, work mates and teammates have donated, supported and joined them to help us reach our goal of 10,000 people shaving. That’s one for every person living with a blood cancer or condition in New Zealand.

Anyone can Shave for a Cure including: artists, businesses, celebrities, hairdressers, medical professionals, individuals, families, schools, sports teams, social organisations, universities and so many more.

Shave11 is a fun and easy way to raise money, while showing empathy and solidarity for leukaemia patients, many of whom suffer hair loss as a result of life-saving treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The LBF is the national charity dedicated to supporting patients and their families living with a blood cancer or a related blood condition. The LBF receives no government funding. With your help we can continue to fund our core services – patient support programmes, research, information, awareness, and advocacy.
Join the Shave craze. 4 to 10 April.

Shave for a Cure promises to be another hair-raising affair! Whether you are a business professional, student, celebrity, sports team or other group, this is your chance to join the thousands who have shaved to support the 10,000 New Zealand children and adults living with a blood cancer like leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma or a related condition. Show solidarity with those living with blood cancers or conditions; tell friends and familiy and sign up to Shave!

These two young men from my church Mt Albert Baptist Church didn't know it, I was secretly in love with their tresses. When Eric came to my church as the intern training in youth ministry and leadership from Carey Baptist College, his big hair stood out.

When I saw him, without his hair, I asked him if he did it for Shave for Cancer, and he said yes.

So I did a quick interview. He is Kelepi Eric Mailau, orignally from Tonga. I greeted him Melo Lei lei, which means hello, and I shared with him this joke that my ESOL students told me,

What did the Tangniwha/ monster say after he ate Tonga. I want Samoa(some more). Eric laughed.

Here is Eric and Isaac Lovatt. I know Isaac's younger brother Thomas and Sister Jessica. Isaac plays for the band in church, and when he blew the trumpet, he blew me away.

They both cut their hair for Child Cancer Foundation on the 2nd of December 2010. Eric raised $1500 and Isaac around the same , not sure the exact number but it was close to Eric's.

Ka Pai and Paki Paki, Eric and Isaac.

The best of all, I got to know these two guys.

Today, a young student had her hair shaved off, she has a beautiful Sigourney Weaver head. I told my colleagues, I am toying with the idea of doing it next year when I get enough time to market my idea. I don't have a beautiful rounded head, I have a flat Asian head.

Two years ago, another church member Rhiannon Dilworth, was 15 when she shaved for the same cause.

scemic sunday: mobility scooters

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http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/
These scooters are a God sent.

Macro flowers Saturday: A Tribute to H.

Today, we joined our friend M and her family as we celebrated her daughter H's life. It was a moving service. I didn't know H, but I knew M. This is the second tragedy for M. H was a young woman plucked from us too soon.

H was a good student, a great teacher. Her colleagues and her students came to the service and they sang. I saw tears in her students' eyes.

Everyone there at Mt Albert Baptist Church, had a heavy heart. I introduced myself to M's son O and daughter in law C. I told them I empathized with them. Today they buried a sister, 18 months ago, they buried a daughter.

Today, I heard from the Bishop of Christchurch who talked about the earthquakes of Christchurch and Japan. He said, earthquakes are not acts of God. The beauty of this world is acts of God.

This post is for your M & B. Sorry you have to join me and O & C in the bereaved parents club.


Macro Flower Saturday
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As a teenager, Helen told her friends she wanted "Release Me" by Pearl Jam played at her funeral. This was her exit Music.

Father...ooh...oh...oh...
I see the world, feel the chill
Which way to go, windowsill
I see the world's on a rocking horse of time
I see the birds in the rain
Ohh...ohh...ohh...ohh...

Oh, dear dad, can you see me now
I am myself, like you somehow
I'll ride the wave where it takes me
I'll hold the pain...Release me...
Ohh...ohh...ohh...ohh...

Oh, dear dad, can you see me now
I am myself, like you somehow
I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me
I'll open up...Release me...
Release me (3x)
Ohh...ohh...ohh...ohh...

Macro Flowers Saturday: Hibiscus

Macro Flower Saturday
http://blueberrycraftandhobbytime.blogspot.com/p/join-my-photo-challenge-flowers-on.html


I continue my series of my School, Pt Chevalier's Crops for Christchurch, with these lovely hibiscus. These are no ordinary hibiscus. A student and his parents thought of this great idea of decorating our market with these blooms. Do visit my other two sites to read more of this.




Malaysia has chosen the Hibiscus as her National flower. I don't know why. Malaysia is a controversial word to many people. It can be very passionate in this family. There are two parts of Malaysia. It started with east and west malaysia. Then they changed the West to be called Penisular Malaysia.

The water engineer is the only one born in West Malaysia. I was born in Sarawak, and the kids else where.

scenic sunday: Taro/yam

On the 15th of the Lunar New Year, the Chinese like to eat yam. I asked my older and wiser siblings if they knew the history to it.

y sister Elizabeth: The Chinese people likes anything fa fa fa. U plant 1 stem of yam it will multiply very fast. Fa sounds like prosperous.

My brother Charles: Becos Yam can be kept for more then 6 months it is important staple food especially if the usual growing season pattern is severely disrupted by unusual seasonal factors

I just like to eat it once in a while, but I don't like preparing it as the sap can make you itch. I don't serve it because the rest of the family don't like it and don't adhere to Chinese values.



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In my Kwong Liang dialect, we call yam HU TOU. We eat them different ways, and there are different types and sizes. We eat the leaves and stems as well.

The Polynesians have some very big ones, and by the time they ship to Auckland, they are very expensive. They also eat their leaves. Often at parties and pot luck dinners, they will bring a big pot of boiled taro with corn beef, or leaves.

During the reunion dinner, I met S & R for the first time. S is a Foochow, E. is a Teo Chew. We started talking about Teo Chew food and the Teochew restaurants I have been. I was describing their famous teo Chew dessert ORH NEE. It's literally a glob or lump of white paste. Everyone just spoons froom the communal dish. S. explains that it is yam made with lard and ginko nuts. It is very sweet and you don't have to chew the paste. It is a dish that you have to get used to. But the Teo Chews like it, because when ever they have a function, they always serve it.

Yesterday, J brought some Yam fritters and some fried NIEN GAO. J sliced the NIEN GAO very thinly and sandwiched it between two thin slices of yam, then put in a batter of glutinious rice flour. This is a New Year goodie. For nostalgic reasons, and knowing how much work has been put into making it, I tried some. I don't normally like NIEN GAO, but I like yam. My friend K. back in Singapore knows this, and gives me raddish/daikon cakes instead.

When I was in primary school, the school tuck shop operator was a Foochow Family. They sold yam cakes or ORH KUEH. They were big slabs and we ate them with chilli sauce. years later, I was in Kuching, where there were mainly Hakkas like the water engineer. The yam cakes were dainty and I voted with my legs.

In my junior secondary school, my teacher Mrs. T taught us beef puffs with a yam pastry. I took some home and everyone liked it. Mum was very smart, and in no time, she learnt to make it. You can eat this at restaurants serving HU KOK during the Dim Sum.

In some restaurant, they have a yam basket. Thin strips of yam are sandwiched between two Chinese sieves, and deep fried. The result is like a basket or bird's nest. Fried veg and morsels of meat are served inside the basket.

Then for a sweet watery dessert, there is the Bobo Chacha. It's a concoction of tiny cubes of yam, sweet potatoes, sago pearls in coconut milk. I don't like this because it is very sweet and the coconut milk makes it very rich.

There is a smallish red yam which comes from China, and they eat it during the Moon cake festival. I first saw them in Singapore.

I actually prefer the yam boiled, and eaten with some salt and a little butter. My Grandpa used to grow them, he also had a smallish ones, but are brown and bigger than the China red ones.

***The yam here is what people in the West call Taro. In South Est Asia, they call it yam***

Another thing mother made was abacus, it was the 1st time I ate it and super nice, it was not like the abacus I see in Singapore. Maybe mother wasn't successful, hers was very spherical, but it was better than the sticky and chewy ones here. It is not easy to find it here, so every time I see it, I buy and I remember mother's. Grace

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Ruby Red Tuesday/rednesday:Garbage Truck

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http://www.suelovescherries.blogspot.com/
Our Garbage truck drivers and collectors are another group of workers that we mustn't take for granted.

For us here in Auckland, if there is a public holiday, the garbage collection skips to another day. With Boxing day being on Sunday, we thought the collection would be on Tuesday. But they came early on Monday, before people were awake, and my husband heard them but he was too late. I said that they shouldn't have come on Monday, and there were so much festive waste. It would be very unpleasant in our summer heat.

A lot of people must have complained, and they came again, I heard them and rushed out to the truck as they had past our house. I asked if they would wait for us. The husband came with the wheelie bin, and I happened to have my camera ready.

Here Ka Pai or good job to the men and women on this route.

Watery Wednesday: In the zoo

http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

I was twenty before I went to the zoo. Now my sister Grace sends me photos of the zoo. She asks, " Whose tail is it?"

Prize?

A free entrance to the Singapore zoo. LOL

Ruby Red/Rednesday: Banzai

This photo is new, but the latter part of this post is a repeat. I did it in 2009.

Those readers from Malaysia and Singapore will be familiar with this story. It is the story that is with the family. My brothers now live in Australia, but they are very passionate when they tell it to the younger generation. Of course, this story must not die out.



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My brothers, Charles, Joseph and Henry are going to have a field day when they read this post. As boys, they naturally have more interests in war, though I have listened first hand from my Dad.

Banzai in Japanese, or at least during the World War 2, aka as the Japanese invasion, means "Hail to the Emperor." The fierce Jap soldiers required anyone seeing them to prostrate 90 degrees, lift one hand out and say," Banzai!" Then the Jap soldiers will let you go. If you don't, you would be knocked by the gun, and beaten or forced with water into your stomach or thrown to jail.

Whereas, in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, Banzai means "Go to Shit." So according to my brother Charles, the Chinese were very enthusiastic in saying ," Banzai! Banzai". The soldiers not knowing this, would let them go. The rest of the population like the Malays were beaten really badly.

My Dad, and later Henry related this story. Dad really needed to banzai/shit. When he was heading towards a toilet, he encountered some Jap solders. His quick thinking made him lift his hand to show them his toilet paper, and saying Banzai at the same time. Misunderstanding him, the Jap soldiers let him off. I teased Dad in his later years if he shat his pants, and he only laughed. He said, now we can all laugh, it was no laughing matter then.

This shop in Mt Eden is called Banzai, it sells Japanese snacks. I always snigger when I see it. You won't catch me going into that shop. Now it has become a restaurant.

***When the water engineer wears his Japanese cap, I scold him to be a ratbag, his Dad who was beaten up twice by the Japs would roll in his grave. The Japanese caps and uniform were Khaki in colour. The water engineer's hat is blue and made in China. I don't think China would make such a cap in Khaki colour.***

Outdoor wednesday: Rock climbing

Where there are rocks, Sam will climb.
Feel his blistered and calloused palms.
There he is.
Up he goes and down again.
I suspect in his previous life, he was a monkey,
No, corrections.
He was an orang utan.
Because his mum came from Borneo.

Auckland is a volcanic city. There are lots of volcanic rocks.


http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

Outdoor Wednesday : farm in Rotorua,

In 2000, we toured New Zealand and met a lovely gentleman from Florida. He was in his seventies. It goes to show that it is never too old to travel.

I invite all of you to come and visiting my lovely country. We are a small country packed with goodies. For an added bonus, our currency is very small.



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Photohunt: Natural

http://tnchick.com/

My take for this week, using horses to pull wagons as a natural form of transportation.

Here in Devonport, the horse and cart is a tourist attraction. I do not know if the driver knows that these boys are getting a free ride.

Can you tell me if there is a difference between a wagon and a cart? I thought it is a wagon, but the company calls it a cart.

Macro flowers: stock flowers

These stock flowers are not native to New Zealand but were brought in from England, They have different pale colours and I like this most.

Matthiola (pronounced /ˌmæθiˈoʊlə/,[1] syn. Mathiola R.Br.), or stocks, is a genus of flowering plants named after Pietro Andrea Mattioli.

A cool season annual or perennial. Flowers are singles or doubles in a wide array of colors, very sweet smelling, and often used in bouquets of cut flowers.

My daughter came home for dinner after finishing her thesis and I gave her these flowers. She asked about the vase. I told her it was given to me by my friend T. Her daughter who lives in New York sends her flowers via inter flora. (Hint hint hint)

Yesterday, I did an interview with a young girl. She touched my heart when she told me her mum is her best friend and she had such great attributes for her mum.



I have joined this meme for a while now, and I am loving it. First I love flowers. Second, the badge for this meme is the North Borneo Orchid.

Join Macro Flowers Saturday, a photo meme for macro photos and close-ups of flowers, garden flowers, wildflowers, blossoms, flowers with insects and butterflies (no insects without flowers), flowers with raindrops and whatever beautiful plants, plant seeds or berries you have, in close-up.

First time visitors, please read the rules. They are simple but I do ask that you, please, use a MFS badge or link back to MFS in some way. Thank you.

Macro Flower Saturday

Sunday bridge: Roy clements park

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This bridge/walkway crosses a small creek, but spans over a long stretch of swampy patch. Without this, it would be difficult to appreciate the fauna and native bush and ducks swimming in the creek. This place is named after Roy Clements, a teacher of Mt Albert grammar who spearheaded the tree planting and cleaning up of this area. Now, the students get a short cut to the school.