Another ex HPSM colleagues get together

Another ex colleague from HP days decided to drop back into Malaysia for a visit, along with his wife and son. I have not seen Tuck Choy for at least 9 years (since the days we spun off from HP). And of course this was as good an excuse as any for all the ex HP (and quite a few current HP) people to get together.

Mei Poh started the ball rolling by emailing a bunch of us (I suspect the list was the same as that from Ah Luan's visit a few months back). Some of us (yours truly included) then forwarded the email to others who were not on the list and before you know it, at least 15 of us were committed to have dinner with Tuck Choy, Rebecca and Matthew.

As with Ah Luan's visit, there were quite a few people whom I have not met for almost a decade!!. Some have aged visibly. Hair were greying, waist pouch were showing but none were unrecognizable. A couple of them even look about the same as they did ten years ago!.

Dinner was at Marche @ The Curve. That was a good choice by Mei Poh as it allowed everyone to come at their convenience and eat whatever they wanted. The only thing that kind of spoilt the evening was the aircond was not working. The early birds like Kuen Kuen, Ah Key and myself started about 7pm and by 8pm, I was beginning to ooze oil and sweat!. Marche's staff claims that the aircond was centralized by the management of the Curve. The least they could have done was to have scrounged around for some stand fans. No such luck.

There was a lot of info exchanges (where are you now? How's the other half and kids? Where do you stay? etc..). It was a great evening of camaraderie and friendship.

Jessie suggested that we make an effort to get together again ASAP. The next excuse - bowling!!

The passage of time

I was doing a spot of spring cleaning to rearrange some of my stuff and came across a scrap book that I had kept when I was in China in 1992. Quite a few of the people in the photos have already passed away but the story of how we got back together as family is worth repeating.

In 1991, the Malaysian Government finally allowed it's citizens to visit China unconditionally. In the past, such visits could only be made by those over 55 years old and even then, they had to be vetted by the Police Special Branch to ensure no affiliation's with the Communist Party of Malaya.

I took my mum, her brother (my uncle) and my wife to Guangzhou in September 1991. We spent 1 week in a very remote, rural farm where my maternal Grandfather was born and bred. It was more than 100km from Guangzhou (go westward past Foshan to the county of Gaoming, to Hup Sui Jen and onto the little farming village of Pin Hung Chuen). That's where at least one branch of the Lee family in Malaysia originated from.

Left my mum and uncle in Pin Hung Chuen for another week while my wife and I went to Meisan (on the border between Guangdong and Fujian province - pronounced as Moi Yen in Hakka) to visit her 2 brothers (her father left them there when the communist took over. Never went back as he was a landowner and during the cultural revolution, landowners had a tough time).Spent a week in Hakka county before meeting up with my mum and uncle in Guangzhou city. I had reserved us rooms in Equatorial Hotel in the city center.

But that is another story.

The story this time was about my Grandma (maternal) who had married in China, bore 3 children (that we know of - there was rumors of a 4th girl). Husband passed away and she went to Nanyang (as Malaya was called then), remarried, got my mum and uncle and passed away when my mum was 13 or 14 years old.

When we went back to China in September, another family of relatives also arranged to go back to the old village where my maternal grandma was from. Mum asked them to check if grandma left anyone around. When we met back in KL 2 weeks later - my mum was told that my mum still had a surviving brother and sister! A flurry of snail mail followed to confirm identities and expectations and we were back in Guangzhou in Jan 1992. Mum made sure uncle knew that if he accepts us as family he is fully cognizant of the fact that we were not rich (despite the expectations in China that Nanyang was paved with gold!)

As they say - a picture is worth a thousand words. And I would leave these photos here as memory to those days we reconciled as family in Jan 1992.

Here is a group photo of the bother and sisters with the sister-in-laws. Next one here is with my first cousin (he was a deputy director of land department in Guangdong province before he retired). The following photo is with my Uncle and 5 of his 7 children. 2 more were back in the village near PanyuAnd with cousin sister Sim and her family. Then there is my 3rd cousin and wife. They do not have any kids. And a bunch of nieces. Cousin sister Kiew and her family. Last but not least (on Uncle Hon Chung's side), cousin sister Ming and her family. And then there was the families from 2nd uncle who had passed away a few years before this trip.The next couple of shots are the families from my Aunt's side. By which time, I had problems remembering who was who!

The story did not end there. From the Shen family side - Uncle Hon Chung had addresses of his cousins in Malaya and we were tasked to find them. Find them we did and we ended up with another set of uncles and aunts in Serdang.

Sadly, Uncle Hon Chung and Aunty Yuet Ngan has now passed away. I managed to bring Mum back to Guangzhou for another visit 10 years after the first, i.e. in 2002. All the nephews and nieces have grown and many have their own families now.

That would be yet another story!

Birthdays and such....

I seem to have many people that I know who have their birthdays in April. Both my God daughters have their birthday half a month apart. My half brother's next week and (according to my facebook) another 6 friends, colleagues and/or acquaintances have their birthdays spread out through the rest of the month.

I am on leave today (one of the 2 days a month,we are suppose to take to compensate for the 10% pay cut that the company has implemented). Managed to file my income tax returns online, paid the balance of taxes due and cleaned up some personal paperwork.

Auntie June wants to borrow my Unser in June, so I decided to send the vehicle for a bit of repair (rear sensors and seat belts). Unfortunately, it is Friday and the area around the workshop I wanted to go to was packed jammed full of cars as the masses of Muslims performed their Friday prayers.

So I went and picked up 2 Miki-Ojisan cheese cakes to celebrate Elaine W's birthday - a day earlier. Why 2? because they are quite light and small. With so many people in the office, one would not have sufficed. And as luck would have it, it would also be Teo's birthday next week. So we did a double celebration. Miki Ojisan has 2 outlets that I know of. The one in Bangsar Village and the other in KLCC. I also got her a box of hot cross buns that Dlish was selling in Bangsar Village.

And I just cant get rid of that nursery rhyme from my head
Hot Cross Buns
Hot Cross Buns
One a penny
two a penny
Hot Cross Buns

And those were from the days when it was 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a British Pound!.That would make it about 2 sen each for a Hot Cross Bun (at the current equivalent of RM5 to a Pound @ 1 penny per bun)!.

Damn!! Those were the days.

April 2009 Chinese All Soul's Day (QingMing)

Today - 5th April is the Chinese All Soul's Day or Qing Ming. It is also sometimes referred to as grave sweeping day or tomb cleaning day. That's the day where one is expected to go to the graveyards of your immediate departed relatives, clean that up and offer prayers to them. You are also expected to "transfer" some assets to them by burning money (Hell Bank Notes), paper cars, houses and any other modern amenities that one can fashion into a paper model to be burned for collection in the hereafter.

Normally, I don't care much for Qing Ming. I think it had been years since I went to pay my respects to my paternal grandparents or Father in law. Their ashes (they were cremated) are interred in the Qin Loong Shan (Golden Dragon Mountain), a Buddhist temple somewhere after Rawang town. My Father in law passed away more than 15 years ago and my paternal grandfather - almost 20 years ago now (who remembers??). Grandma passed away a few years back.

Their ashes are in urns and kept in a backroom. Their ancestral tablets are on shelves with their photos attached. Husband and wife can buy an ancestral table with provisions for 2 photos to be placed side by side. I just think it is a big scam for the temple authorities to get "donations". The little bit of 2 inches by 3 inches of space cost between 1000 to 5000 Ringgit back then. Now, with more people willing to buy such spots, the temple has built another shed to house more of these ancestral tablets. And I'm pretty sure, the prices has increased significantly too.

I only went this year because my mother in law wanted to go and her sons were not able to send her. The temple has expanded a lot more since the last time I was there. They now have a huge prayer hall that is lined on one side with large statues of Buddha and Kuan Yin (the Goddess of mercy). And on the walls are murals of Buddha sermonizing or whatever.

The only thing that I really appreciate in the temple were all the bonsai plants that the monks had cultivated.

Faith is a complicated thing.