Pleasurable nostalgia

As I grow older I feel that reconnecting to relatives,old friends and making new friends had become more important and enjoyable. Events where relatives and old friends can meet had become sources of pleasurable nostalgia and with greater freedom to relax and less interference from the demands of work, there are more opportunities to bond with new friends.

Some years ago (21)

Date of entry:  13 July 1948

What do I actually want to do?  I am already 30 plus but I am still uncertain.  There are opportunities, I must admit.  So, what am I waiting for?

By Woon/Joon SC

Ha...ha....

George Burns quotes:

• Nice to be here? At my age it's nice to be anywhere.
• Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years.
• By the time you're eighty years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it

Bob Hope quotes:

1. She said she was approaching forty, and I couldn't help wondering from what direction.
2. You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
3. Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle!

The bond that endures

I was at my Father's house yesterday on Mother's Day.  Sister and I talked a bit about Mother, basically comparing Father with Mother.  While driving home I thought a lot about my Mother.  

I can never forget the fact that it was Mother who gave me the support to apply for a place in University.   After completing Form 6 (that was 45 years ago) my Father had encouraged me to work.  I remember he showed me an advertisement for a Cadet Journalist position with the New Straits Times and asked me to apply.  Probably he was worried that he would not be able to support me as well as my 3 younger brothers through university. 

At that time I had already got hold of an application form for placement in University Malaya.  I was therefore hesitant to apply for the job and at the same time I dared not apply for a place in the university.    I filled up the form in pencil, photostated all the necessary supporting documents and placed it in the drawer.  But everyday I would take it out and look at it.   After about one week my Mother waved me to one corner of the house and whispered "You want to go to university right?".  I nodded.  "Then apply" she said and she took out the form from the drawer.  "Where to get money to pay the fees?" I asked.  "Don't worry, I'll see what I can do" she said.  Although it is almost 14 years since she passed on, I still miss her a lot. 

Unconditional love

"A mother’s job is probably the most laborious in the world, often comes without a Manual, and once appointed, there is no such thing as turning back or throwing in the towel. Once a mother, always a mother!

From morning sickness to labour pains, a mother’s worry for her child ceases only with her last breath. Sacrifices she makes often come unrecognised, undervalued and often, taken for granted.

Her sweat was probably dry before you could even notice it. Her burnt skin from the kitchen was probably forgotten. Her tears went unseen. Her sleepless nights unrecorded. Her fatigue, unmentioned.

But yet, a mother’s love will always stand strong like a flame that burns despite all odds. This is the real meaning of “Unconditional Love”. Untainted. Come rain or shine".

Quote: Sairana Mohd Saad in what-am-i-without-you-mother

She got a new nose after 33 years!

Rakhi, who is from a small village in Gujranwala (in Pakistan), was married off to Ghulam Baksh when she was just 13. Belonging to the same clan, Rakhi, like most rural women, had no say in the wedding. She was regularly subjected to domestic violence.  Rakhi was 19 and already a mother of two — a boy and girl, when her husband chopped off her nose!  Her children grew up with their mother’s face always covered with a little cloth patch on her face and a veil on top of it at all times.  Now 33 year later Dr Hamid Hassan took up the challenge of constructing a new nose for her, using flaps of Rakhi’s skin. 

Read full article Violence against women: Years after he cut off her nose she smiled to spite his face

Girls'Day out!

Four things a woman should know:
How to look like a girl, How to act like a lady, How to think like a man, And how to work like a dog.
Author Unknown

This is torturous!

Sushi class with Meng Foon, Melissa, Shirley and others 

Sushi Chef painstakingly showing us how to do it

Samples of sushis made by the Chef

The 2 trays infront made by Me!

Hey..so proud of our self-made sushis!!

We CAN have peaceful demonstrations

A group of protestors in Surabaya carrying out a peaceful marching demonstration escorted by police outriders.  Perhaps the authorities in Malaysia could take a lesson from Surabaya?  

A gift from the Creator

Your life is a gift from the Creator. Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life. - Billy Mills

Dinner at Castell to celebrate the boys' birthdays

Robbed off their childhood!

I secretly recorded these pictures at a car wash at the back of a restaurant. Shall I make a report? Although the children were not being bullied, they did looked unhappy. Also we have laws against child labour! They were washing the plates,pots and pans non-stop. Both were not wearing gloves. The elder one was wearing a pair of rubber boots, the younger one was barefooted!

Some years ago (20)

Date of entry 9 March 1949

Daughter Kim was teaching her younger sister the Malay language. Kim said : " 'Saya' is 'ME'. Her younger sister said: "Okay. So 'saya' is YOU!"

By Joon/Woon SC

Note: The younger sister was actually me, hee..hee..

Some years ago (19)

Date of entry: 14.8.1948 (Saturday)

Today is the first day of the Perak Turf Club Autumn Meeting. Mr. Wong and I went to Ipoh at 2 pm and reached the race course at 3pm. It was the starting of the 5th race. We then bought a cash sweep each and subsequently for each of the succeeding races. The nearest number we got was in the 8th race. Our number was 1991 and the number of the first prize was 1985.

We drank beer and whisky, half peg, after every race. Each of us lost about $10.

I then went to my cousin's place, Rex Hotel, and the whisky in me began to work. I felt giddy and vomitted in the wash basin in Room 7. I could not control myself and slept on the canvas bed till the next morning.

Now, remember again..never over drink!

By Joon/Woon SC

Mr. "What's left"

A person cannot be judged by his appearance

人不可貌相，海水不可斗量

A person cannot be judged by his appearance in the same token as the sea cannot be measured with a bucket.

Maid, 13, left starving...

Indian police rescued a 13-year-old maid who was locked up by her employers in their apartment with little food and water while they vacationed in Thailand.

The girl was rescued after spending 6 days locked up in the apartment, in an upper-middle class New Delhi neighbourhood.

News reports say her employers were doctors. The neighbours heard her crying for help and called police.

A child welfare official said the girl ran out of food after two days and was weak with hunger.

India's child labour laws make it illegal to employ children under 14, but the law is rampantly flouted.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au

Aging gracefully!

ON TURNING 70
'I still chase women, but only downhill'.

ON TURNING 80
'That's the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing.'

ON TURNING 90
'You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.'

ON TURNING 100
'I don't feel old. In fact, I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.'

Quote - Bob Hope

Clip art credited to www.picturesof.net

Our broadest smiles

I met this Hokkien speaking woman (about 60+) several days ago. She does not speak English, just only the Chinese dialect Hokkien. Here goes a translation of our conversation:

Hokkien woman: Hey... you look familiar...I think I have seen you before. Are you from Parit Buntar?

Me: I lived in Parit Buntar for 10 years. Maybe we went to the same school?

Hokkien woman: School? Cannnot be. I have never been to school.

Me: Were you in the Chinese primary school near the river?

Hokkien woman: Yes, I know about the Chinese primary school near the river. But I had never been to school. When I was small I used to help my father sell "tit-bits" outside that school. I used to envy the girls who go to school and always stared at them.

Well, talk about a small world. Although I do not remember her, possibly she remembers me

because she had wished she was like me, able to go to school?

Me: Where did you used to stay in Parit Buntar?

Hokkien woman: Actually along the river, 2 miles away from the Chinese primary school

Me: You are now staying in this condo?

Hokkien woman: Yes, I am staying with my daughter, looking after her 2 children.

Hokkien woman: You know, I brought up my 2 children all on my own. When my son, the second child was only 1 month old, my husband left me for another woman and never came back. I had to do all sorts of odd jobs to buy milk for the 2 children. I carried my son on my back and washed clothes for people. I also washed houses and offices, sold curry puffs and "kuehs". I put my son on my father's bicycle and cycled into the villages to prick the ears of little girls for 50 sen per child. I also used to sew and would sew until 2 or 3 am in order to earn some money to pay their school fees. You know, I worked and toiled for 25 years. Now they are big.

When she was telling me her life story, she was smiling all the time. I think she was not complaining, she was just so proud of her own ability to overcome life's harsh challenges.

I brought up my 3 kids singlehandedly too. But compared to her, my experience may have been a walk in the park, maybe along a tough mudder course, slippery at times but generally okay.

At the end of the day both she and me can put on our broadest smiles.

人生

生活从来都不是一帆风顺的，成功从来都不是唾手可得的。生活从来都不是容易和一帆风顺的，出现挫折，一要通过自己的努力去改变.

Some treasured things

Family ties are treasured things
and far though we may roam,
the tender bonds with those we love
still pull our hearts toward home

得不到的永远是最好的

Women still the najority of the world's poor

Image credited to www.chipchick.com

Today is the 101th anniversary since March 8 was first observed as International Women's Day in 1911. In some countries like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday.

The very first International Women’s Day was held in 1911 to protest unfair wages and poor working conditions for women. Granted, a lot has changed for the better for women, still much remains to be done. It was noted on the IWD website, “the unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence
against them is worse than that of men.” It is a fact that "Women are still the majority of the world's poor, unhealthy, underfed, and uneducated. They rarely cause violent conflicts but too often bear their consequences and Women are absent from negotiations about peace and security to end those conflicts. Their voices simply are not being heard." (quote Hilary Clinton)

Of Zimbabwe's 1.3 million orphans, some 100,000 are living on their own in child-headed households!

Photo credit to http://aaron9902.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/topic3-child-labor-poster/

Photo credit to http://riteshmin2.blogspot.com/2011/08/child-labor-prohibition-and-regulation.html

According to a 2010 UNICEF report, 13% of Zimbabwean children are engaged in child labour (which the International Labour Organization (ILO) defines as work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful to children and that interferes with their schooling). In the capital, Harare, the figure is closer to 20%.

A study of child labour in Zimbabwe conducted by the Ministry of Labour together with international and local partners including ILO and UNICEF, released in June 2011 concluded that "the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour is on the rise and cause for concern." The report identified poverty as the main driver of children being employed, along with "the breakdown of the family unit due to HIV and AIDS, as well as the inadequacy of the social services delivery system."

According to UNICEF, of Zimbabwe's 1.3 million orphans, some 100,000 are living on their own in child-headed households. Many such children are forced to leave school and find work as street vendors or labourers on tobacco farms, tea and sugar plantations, and in mines in order to support younger siblings.

PLEASE READ FULL ARTICLE ZIMBABWE: Child labour on the rise

Some years ago (18)

Date of entry: 11 July 1948 Sunday

University education constantly calls to my heart. It is my thought now and again that without going through this stage of studies,very little can be done, very little or no success at all can I achieve during the course of my career. I must determine therefore to go to an university at the first opportunity.

Today my thought is centering at the St John University at Shanghai. This university as I have heard, offers a course in English of an advanced standard, much better than those in other Chinese universities. Besides, it is situated in Shanghai, the biggest city and port in China, the centre of culture, industry and commerce.

The subject I would choose, I think, should be English Literature. I should try to be a translator, reporter, a journalist, an editor, a school master, a writer, a secretary, etc.

I should save $1000 a year and after 4 years I should be studying in my desired university.

By Woon/Joon SC

Note: My father never realized his dream of pursuing a university education, but his desire was realized 4 folds through his children and many many folds through his 16 grandchildren