My mother's not-so-fat Chinese funeral

Seen the movie 'My big fat Greek wedding?'

It's pretty hilarious, good stuff... hence the title of this post as my tribute...

My mum was an 'eater'... Yet, in her heydays, I'd say that although she was a little on the plump side, she was not exactly 'fat'...

Once, she visited Thailand with some of my siblings.

When they returned home with the goodies, my father wondered why they were such lousy shoppers.

These longans, so tiny! my father exclaimed.

The reality was, during the drive back home, mother had selectively wolloped the big ones.

I often bring mother out for a short walk in her wheelchair whenever I visited her at the nursing home.

The home was situated in a housing estate and the neighbors were always willing to exchange a word or two as we walked by.

Sayonara... dearest Mother...

Am now back at my village in the middle of nowhere in Kedah, again...

It is late now at night, and I briefly stopped writing this blog to go to the toilet at the kitchen area...

Compared to the noisy previous nights with lots of people movements, tonight is extremely quiet and peaceful...

There are just seven people tonight, compared to perhaps a hundred or so (?) the last few nights... and they are all sleeping in their rooms now...

As I walked into the inner kitchen, suddenly, 'klingg'... 'klannngg'... came the sounds of crockery and cutlery when handled...

Immediately, goose pimples sprang up all over my body...

Cybercafe-ing in KL Chinatown...

Am facing this major problem whenever I return to Malaysia...
I am simply unable to communicate... in Mandarin...
The noodle hawker charges me in Mandarin...
The taxi man asks me where I am going, in Mandarin...
The bank teller asks me how much I want to withdraw, in Mandarin...
The little ones, particularly the nieces and nephews, and their even-littler ones...
They speak to me in Mandarin...
And I go blurrr... errr... errr...
My youngert brother talks to his wife in Hokkien...
She talks to their kids in Mandarin...
Their dad talks to the kids in our funny-funny dialect...
They respond in Mandarin... oh my...
Ahh, as I have reminded myself a million times before, I have to master this language...
Soon... or else...
Am now in Chow Kit, just a stone's throw from Legend Hotel, where we are putting up for the night...
Shall be returning to Japan tomorrow... whoopeee...
When you are away from your sweet-sweet home for two weeks, you long to return...
Even though the temperatures there continue to ossillate around 35 degrees...

Cyber space invades heart of village in Kedah

This post could as well be titled 'Bike riding and eating too much in Alor Star'...
Am now vacationing in my 'ancestoral' village in Kedah...
The paddy harvesting has begun some days ago, and today being Hari Raya, work has stopped for the time being... and ah, the fragrance emitting from the fermenting soil in the fields...
Yes, being the perenial hungry ghost, I am doing what I did in Chiang Mai: bike riding and eating too much, that is...