Good bye Ah Mah

Last Tuesday morning at about 1.07am when I was about to doze off, I received a call from my sis that Ah Mah has passed away. This was not totally unexpected as earlier in the day, my mom told me that Ah Mah has refused to drink milo nor water for the whole day and she was already unable to speak or moved even her head. But yet I was stunned and shocked, my mind immediately woke up and drifted back to the past.

I stayed with my Ah Mah and Ah Kong when I was a toddler and I stayed with them until I went to kindi. I was very close with them even though i was caned many many times for all the chicky things that I hv done. They were poor but yet the unconditional love that they showered was unmatched. I remembered a few things that were out of norm that she did for me.

I once had sore eyes and she uses my pee to wash over them and she said that this would heal my eyes. I couldn't really remember whether it worked but I remembered this till now.

My Ah Mah was a caretaker of an association hall where wedding dinners, celebration dinners and exhibitions were held. And after each events, she would have to clean the floors and keep all the chairs and stacks all the tables. During weekend, I would usually help her and I really enjoyed myself most of the time as I would be playing with water.

Until about 5 years, her physical health deteriorate rapidly and she was unable to walk and bedridden. But she was still able to talk and recognise people.

Over the next few years, her memory eluded her and she couldn't really recognised people anymore. My Ah Kong, my aunties and my mom took turns in taking care of her, cleaning her, feeding her and just be there with her.

Now she is gone and almost all the members of her children, grandchildren and great grand children were there to send her off.

Good bye Ah Mah...

@ the beach

the weather was perfect, the breeze washes our face gently, the bright blue sky encompass the background and the ray reflected the not so clear, not so blue water. the setting was set for the first beach trip for Gabby.

well, a story indeed well written for Gabby's beach trip. you see, i love the sea, a lot...i love to just gaze into the horizon. i love the sound of the sea water crashing into the rocks. so i think its just natural that Gabby should love the sea too.

but to our surprise, on her maiden visit to the beach she just totally enjoyed it. She loves the wave, she loves the sands and she loves the sun too. No fear or whatsoever when she first set foot on the wet sand.

Think about it....

When you bring your child to the park, do you worry about the hygiene of the equipments, that is like do you wipe every equipments that they going to touch? I can be sure that the answer would be a NO. Why is that? When we go to outside food stall to eat, we wipe their utensils before giving to our children, we wipe the high chair and everything right? Needlessly ironic and hypocrite right? I'm not pointing fingers to anyone else though. I am what I hv said.

So, the question is that, are the park's equipment clean?

I brought my Gabby to Youth Park a couple of times in the past 3 weeks and i didn't remember that I ever clean or wipe the things that she gonna touch. Think about it. In the meantime, I include a video on my Gabby's last trip to the park where she took a ride down on her own.

a milestone achieved....

The first few days...


1 and 1/2 years later

One Saturday morning back in April 2007, I was awaken by mewife. With tears running down her cheek and one hand holding the test stripe, she told me that its "POSITIVE". I was like still in dreamland, just too shock to say anything.a moment of true blurness.

Then in the evening of 17 Dec 2007, my girl saw the light of the world. It was the beginning of new phase in our lives and also the screeching halt to late nite movies at the cinema, supper beside the road and road trips with frens to the end of the world.

Moving forward to present days, this little baby grew to become the cutest and most adorable girl in the family. Likable and found favour in the eyes of many, strangers and frens alike. Much love has been poured to this girl.

This month marks a milestone for her,she is one and a half years old on 17th Jun. A milestone achieved with great joy. We are looking forward to see her grow and learn...

prosperity.. or not?

The chinese will always have anecdote for every situation..some are spot on and some are really ridiculous.

It has been a couple of times when it rained heavily, my workstation was flooded...ok.ok..not exactly flooded but the ceiling above it just opened up. and a pool of water sprung up on my desk. When my colleagues know about it, guess what was their comment? "Prosperity is coming", they said.

When people talk about big belly and round face, what do the chinese says? They say its a sign of Prosperity.

For me big belly and round face means closer to the grave. Come on and stone me for saying that but I think it's the truth and nothing but the truth. The photo below was taken back in Feb'07. And the most recent photo taken with my baby girl was just last mth. Can you see the difference in just 2 years of continuous food intake and without even exercising. Scary right? Do you call that prosperity? I called it incidental suicide.

Last weekend during a visit to Youth Park while bringing my Gabby out to play, I met my frens, This couple with 2 children just came down from hiking up the hill. When I look at them, both of them look so energized. They do exercise on very regular basis. This fren of mine is preparing for his triathlon next year. This guy has 2 kids and still able to do it. I'm like, what the heck? what was i doing for the past 2 years?

So after a knock to the head last week, I realize that this got to stop and i got to start somewhere. So I decided to skip my usual heavy lunch of Banana Leaf Rice, "kay Pui" and the "not so" economy rice.

I thought of having breakfast and then some biscuits in between. The funny thing is that for the days that I was seating in my workstation during lunch time, colleagues were asking, "you on diet ah?", "you not eating ah, thats not you lah" and so on and so on.

I'm like look here, can't you guys at least support me here. I'm trying to stay healthy here..duh!!

Anyway, my point is I got to start somewhere and from here i will move on to like start exercising. Hopefully with my new gained determination, I'll be living a much healtier life..

Taken in Feb'07


Taken in May'09 with Gabby

a weekend with Gabby..

Nothing beats the spending of quality time with my family and this Saturday, I spent my entire day with Gabby as mommy got to work. When you are looking after a toddler, its really important to give him/her the fullest attention. Thus a day filled with activities just for her. Fed her, bath her, entertain her and basically everything was all for her.

I sometimes amazed at myself on what I could do. Like today, I dressed her up and bring her to Gurney Plaza and had my lunch. Then we just walked around the mall for about an hour before we went back. And I did that all by myself.



A time of milk milk in the afternoon before her evening nap. But today she just wouldn't sleep. And all 3 hrs she was whining and laughing but didn't want to sleep.



After 3 hrs of trying to "dodo" her without any success, I decied that enough is enough and I took her to "pomp pomp".



The below photo is her playing area which is the living room after a full day. It was like a war zone out there. But at the end of the day, its all worth it just to be with her spending quality time with her. And I'm looking forward for it again and of course together with mommy.

Teach the right things to your children...

When you have a child on your own,you will know the importance of teaching the right things to them. Children these days are really smart. If you teach them a new word or get them to remember objects, they will be able to remember it after only a couple of times teaching them. They will also able to pickup and follow you by just observing your actions without even you realize it.

From the time Gabby was about 6 mths old, Mel and I are really careful in our actions and the words that we speak. Gabby is very fast in learning words and objects nowadays. About a week back, her EeEe taught her to pronounce my name. In normal circumstances, this should be a good thing, EeEe teached her niece how to pronounce her papa's name. Unfortunately, this EeEe taught her to call me in my "so called" nickname which was given by her, "Ah Seng". Now even my parents don't really fond of that nick name which this EeEe accidentally called in front of my parents.

So, MahMah also told EeEe not to teach Gabby that. Mel also told EeEe last Friday not to teach wrong things to GabGab. But she still repeateadly asked Gabby, What is Papa's name? and EeEe will then tell Gabby that its Ah Seng.

The problem starts when we went home and asked GabGab what's her Papa's name, she mentioned Ah Seng. When I tried to correct her and told her that my name is Ah Kar, she got confused and don't know what to say.

So I told Mel that this is wrong and we would rebuke EeEe if she tried to teach Gabby that again.

Then on Monday night, we came to Kong Kong and Mah Mah's hse earlier than EeEe. We were having our "chang" when she arrived and before she step in the hse, she already asked Gabby what is Papa's name and we knew that EeEe would say "Ah Seng". So as soon as Eeee asked the question, Mel immediately told off EeEe not to teach the wrong things to gabby. Then came the silence from EeEe and then she just walked inside the hse and ate the dinner without saying anything. we knew that she was unhappy and probably offended.

But we also knew that, adults have to learn that teaching the right things to children are important. And especially so when you have your own child.

America has spoken!

This morning, Americans voted Kris Allen as Season 8's American Idol. He was voted ahead of his fellow finalist, Adam Lambert. Now Adam was perceived as the American Idol elect since the Top 13 finalist were announced. For the next 12 weeks, he performed like a pro. His out of the world vocal range, his over the top wardrobe, his nail polish and support from Katy Perry reaffirmed his position as an American Idol winner. And coupled with consistent praise from the judges, he's a sure winner according to many.

But the result this morning or last evening in America shocked everyone, even the judges were stunned. What is wrong with Americans? Are they deaf or what? How can they vote Kris Allen as the new Idol, people might ask.

Kris is a wholesome, cute, devout Christian, All-American guy. Consistently, he vowed America with his solid music arrangement.Most comfortable when performing with a guitar and equally versatile in playing the piano. He managed to evade the radar during the Hollywood Week but still make it to the Top 13. His performance improved by leaps and bounds ever since. Nothing can stop this guy from crashing the final party which everyone has predicted a Lambert vs Gokey showdown. But again, America has spoken. Booting out Gokey in favor of Kris.

Why then everyone surprised that Kris won? I too was surprised when the result was announced but I then know that America chose a clean-cut, sweet guy over the screeching voice, mascara eyed and leather clothed guy.

Americans chose a wholesome guy to be their idol rather than a rocker as the winner .

I'm a no brainer in music nor a judge in singing competition but as a layman and a music fan I said that Kris Allen deserved to be the American Idol and I'm looking forward to his first album. Go go Kris!

Bro's Wedding

Last weekend was my bro's wedding in Alor Star. As usual,I'm the designated free of charge photographer. I was having a great time though. Also it was a good time for the family members, near and far to congregate and comment on each others look and so and so on.

My Gabby was also having fun there. She worked her charms on the family members and they loved her so much.


Firecrackers greet the newlyweds


MeWife and Me "lim teh"...very sweet....


My Gabby receiving angpow


Family Photos


My fellow bros and sisters


Mewife and Gabby at pre-wedding dinner.

Gabby's first highland holiday

Gabby really did enjoyed herself as the cold weather makes here really comfortable. Also because the whole family were there as well.Her best fren, Kong Kong was constantly there with her. Also MaMa Jules was there to play with her and not to mentioned Buck Buck as well. Overall, we had a great time there with some additional incidents that spiced up our holiday.















Two days after we came back to Penang, her rosy cheeks still there.

Snatch thieves dealt major blows to 2 families in 2 days

Tragedy struck 2 families within 2 days when snatch thieves killed 2 pregnant women in attempts to snatch handbags while the victims were riding motorbikes. In 2 days, 2 unborn babies lives were taken away cruely. What has become of Malaysia? Is Malaysia now a land roamed by Mat Rempits and snatch thieves?

If I ever met the thieves, I would asked them, what would it be like if the same tragedy falls on their mothers or sisters?

Gabby's first evening walk at Botanical Garden

Gabby has started walking in early April. Wobbly and unstable she might be but persistent she is. After a couple of weeks, she's already roaming mah mah's house. Walking to the front and then walking to the back and repeats that. Now she's going for obstacle training where she would just walk over everything that's in her path.



Last week, we took her to Botanical Garden for a walk. This is also the first time she's walking on dirt and grass. She's quite reluctant at first to walk on the grass but after a while she was having a blast in the park. A good experience for her. To get the sweat out and gives her more space to play and run and roam.



This is definitely the first of many more trips to the park. Our first goal is to be able to bring her along in hiking up to No. 3.