The New Writer

by: Jeremy, almost 8 :-)

Note from Author : S = Stranger

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Earth Hour 2010

The kids has been eagerly waiting for 27 March 2010, 8.30pm since Earth Hour 2009! (You can read about Earth Hour 2009 here).

This year we planned to  have an 'Ice-cream party'. Kids begged to invite some friends over. Stephanie who went for a play-date a few doors away came back at 6pm with 3 friends (Dylan, another boy whose name i cant remember and his sister).

"I said they could have dinner here," she announced to me. Before I could say anything, she turned to her friends and said "See I told you my Mother very good one. You can have dinner here."

O...kay.... they are having dinner here, and I dont have enough food, but lots of ice-cream! I hurried out to buy more food - hokien-fried noodles and cantonese-fried noodles. The kids didn't eat much tho. They were waiting for the ice-cream!

Jo's friends turned up too. 3 of them -  Suk Hwen, Divya and her younger sis. Of course, by default, the Leong family, is also expected to be here! The came of course, which made the gathering merrier :-) They came with a puppy they rescued from a drain a week ago.

So, that's 12 kids, 5 adults (including my maid), 2 dogs, 2 hamseters and 2 terrapin-turtles, celebrating Earth Hour at my place! I enjoyed it. I always enjoy having guests. Kids had a blast.

Earth Hour - so switching off electricity for 1 hour per year. Did that make a difference? Last year after Earth Hour 2009, I cleaned up / sorted through a big box of plastic bags.

I counted 144 plastic bags of all shapes and sizes in here!

I became more environmental-conscious after that. I started bringing my own shopping bag during groceries shopping. My favourite :

I'm happy to report that now I have less than 20 plastic bags at home, and they're used to line the trash can. :-)

So, as CW pointed out in her FB status : every moment is Earth Hour...Reduce, Recycle, Reuse (3R)

Blur

Somedays, I can be very blur....

Went to the mornin market like this :

The maid had a good laugh at me :-P

Trekking at Gasing Hills

After 4 kids, I was way overweight. FitLine helped shed off a lot of excess weight, but still looked flabby. So, I decided to join the gym in 2005. I was with the gym for more than 2 years. Went 2 - 4 times a week, for usually 2 hours (including sauna & shower) and I felt great!.


Then my kids got older and I realised that I do want to spend more time with them despite my busy schedule. Exercising together is the perfect solution. So, I quit the gym, and we started exercising together in the evening, usually around 5pm. Sometimes we go to the nearby Bukit Jalil park where they'll play at the playground and I'll brisk walk, while keeping an eye on them. Sometimes we cycle around our housing area, somertimes we walk the dog, sometimes we just walk.

A few friends have been telling me about Gasing Hills, but I was too lazy to check it out. I was happy to be able to brisk walk and work up a good sweat at Bukit Jalil.

So, after almost 3 years of turning down invitations to go to Gasing Hills, last Saturday, I decided to take my kids there. SC who invited me before was pleased to see us. (Jeremy couldn't wake up at 630, and so he didn't come along.). We started trekking with a group of people - friends of friends of friends. I guess we are all buddies when it comes to trekking.

It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Should have come here long time ago! Within 15 mins, I was ready to call it quits. Sure I could run and brisk walk in Bukit Jalil, but I guess I'm not fit to trek! :-P  But the other 3 kids were 'running' ahead of me! So... (I've to save face ma, especially in front of the kids, hahah), I trudged on. It was about 3 km and 80 mins of "I can do this, I can do this". I kept thinking "Thank God Jeremy didn't come along. Else I might have to carry him!!"

When we completed the trek, the kids were jumping up and down, still full of energy and ready to go another round! So I have to tell them "Mommy got work afterwards! Must go home NOW!" hahahah. (Steph is watching me type this and asked me if I lied? Of course I did not lie. I just had the perfect excuse not to go through the jungle trek immediately)

Kids enjoyed it so much they wanted to go back. We did plan to go back the next day (Sunday) at 5pm. But it rained!!! (Divine intervention? Heehee). On Tuesday morning we got up extra early (for a school holiday), and off we went again. This time Jeremy came along!.

For me it was better than the first time. Jeremy got tired half way through and kept complaining that his legs were 'burning'. All of us kept encouraging him to finish the trek (there's no other choice, it's either finish the trek or stay in the jungle!).

We went back again on Friday morning, but this time Jo and Jeremy begged off. They were not feeling well.

I guess we would only be able to go during the weekends when school starts again. Join us anyone? Trekking is Fun! :-)

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Qing Ming

As a kid growing up in a Taoist family, I remember Qing Ming as a 'Family Picnic Day". We will wake up early, and arrive at my Father's Parents' graves around 7.30am. My father's siblings and their families would usually be there too. And there will be food galore - sweet cakes, meats, fruits etc. I remember there was even a whole roasted pig! (One of the siblings must have had a great awesome year!) After all te praying and burning of offerings, we get to eat!! Yes, having a picnic at the gravesite! That was the best part! :-D

Of course this pix didn't come from my childhood. I googled it and 'borrowed'. It sparked a memory. :-)

Qing Ming is an expression of filial peity -  a way to respect, honor and look after ancestors in their afterlives as well as seek their guidance for their living descendants. In this regard, many cultures and religions have similar practices. Some may visit the graves of their parents or other ancestors, leave flowers and pray to them in order to honor and remember them, while also asking their deceased ancestors to continue to look after them.

When I beame a Catholic and then married a Catholic, Qing Ming became irrelevant. Hubby's father was buried in Penang, and we never had time (or rather, never made time) to travel to Penang to practice this Filial Duty. We Catholics do have our own version - the All Souls Day, which is on Nov 2nd every year. We do our duty by praying and celebrating Mass for the deceased. Christians have been praying for their departed brothers and sisters since the earliest days of Christianity.
 
This year is the first time since a long long time that I actually took note of Qing Ming. It's already 8 months since Pa passed away. Time flew by, and it felt like just yesterday he was still with us. And as this is the 1st Qing Ming after his death, we were told that we have to observe it 3 weeks earlier from the actual date (April 5th, 2010) 
 
The kids were excited. A week earlier, they were helping Por-Por fold Joss Papers. Altogether, they must have folded a million! :-D

Yesterday was their first experience of Qing Ming. My father was cremated and his urn is placed in the Ching Fatt Zhi Temple in Kwong Tong Cemetary, KL. As Christians, we did not participate in the prayers, but our presence there is our way of showing great respect to a beloved father and grandfather.
 

Everyone helping to prepare the 'table'

Simple Fare for a Simple Man

His Soul will rest in Peace, knowing he has filial descendants

Some people believe that their ancestors actually need to be provided for by their descendants, thus the burnt offerings. Others do not believe that the ancestors are even aware of what their descendants do for them, but that the expression of filial piety is what is important. Whether or not the ancestor receives what is offered is not the issue.

After everything, Jeremy asked, "When are we having the picnic?"

Why you didn't Call me?

I don't know if this happens in other cultures? For us Chinese, we were taught from young to 'call' an older person (ie : grandparents or aunties, uncles) when we see them.

"Call' here is to acknowledge and greet the presence of a person of higher status.

For example, when we go to my grandma's house, the young children have to be first to greet the older folks : "Por-Por", "Kung-Kung", "Ah-Yi" etc. Woe to the child who forgot to call, or if the greeting was not heard!

Our parents will get "How come your girl don't know how to call ah? You never teach ah?" (There are many variation to the admonishment!) I used to feel very angry, especially when I did call/greet/acknowledge the elders, but they didn't hear me because they were playing mahjong or chit-chatting. And when we were kids, "Children are to be seen, and not heard" was still the norm.

Now that we are parents ourselves, we passed on this practice to our children. History does repeat itself. Now it's us who gets the "You young generation don't know how to teach your children to call."

I'll always remind my kids: "Hey, call Por-por ah"
Or when an aunt walks: in "Kids, call Ah-Yi"

Today, my uncle said to Jeremy "Hey boy, you  didn't call me ah?"

Jeremy ignored him, and of course I tried to 'teach him his manners' :
"Jeremy, you didn't call Kau-Kung? You must call you know."

Jeremy sulkily replied "I got call! He is the one who didn't call me back!"

Yee Sang and Wikipedia

One of my constant readers wants me to set the record straight. She cannot believe that the Chinese New Year 'Yee Sang' originates from Singapore as reported in : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng.

She went on to further inform me not to believe everything I read in wikipedia!

It did occur to me before that since anyone can contribute and edit anything on wikipedia, some jokers could have purposely mislead those seeking information on the WWW. (err.... my own son depended heavily on Wikipedia for his researches!!)

So... coming back to Yee Sang. According to many people this practice of tossing of the Yee Sang is relatively new and is a KL-Cantonese invention/practice. Which could be true, for I certainly can't remember having yee-sang when I was a kid [and I was a kid not too long ago! :-D ]

I tried searching the web about it. Can't find much relevant info. Most mentioned something about how raw fish was usually served on the 7th day of CNY to commemorate the goddess Nu Wa created humankind on the 7th day (RenRi) I didn't know that!

 

So... did the modern Yee Sang originates from Singapore as claimed by Wikipedia? Or the person who wrote that had no idea that this Yee Sang has long been enjoyed here in KL.

 

Anyway ... whoever created the Yee Sang  thank you!! I really love this dish, especially the one served at Aoyama Restaurant in Sri Hartamas. My Sis took us there several years ago, and since thn, it's been our yearly ritual to gather around the plate of delicious sashimi - Yee Sang style. Y-U-M-M-Y !!!!!

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