All hail Chief Haka Luku
Ghin wrapped my sarong around himself at the swimming pool - he looked so regal in the get up. all hail the chief!!!
Ma prepares the boot for soup that we take to Jacq's house.
Flowers in my mom's garden.
Hibiscus - Malaysia's national flower. This is found in a bewildering number of varieties around this part of the world. Pink, orange, red, purple in double and single tiers.
The bougainvilla is a native of South America but has taken up residence very nicely. I don't know what creatures lodge themselves in it, but you get some really old species around.
The pinwheel jasmine, found everywhere, especially used for offerings at the hindu altar.
My parents have taken to reading this blog and looking at the pictures, even if they live with me. I don't know how you'd explain that, except that human beings are inherently social and nosy creatures. Today Anne had a cooking lesson with Auntie Jo. They made rebung lemak and pengat. True to form, my mom found the rebung didn't have enough salt and the pengat was too rich. I couldn't eat the pengat because it had durian in it and tasted too much of durian cake for me. Also it had one whole packet of santan and half a tub oc ream. Ohmegod! It felt like heartattack city when i put it in my mouth. Rebung lemak is a unique Singaporean dish. It's typically Straits Born Chinese and is made of pork bones - of course - and bamboo shoots. Then is has every spice growing in the region known to woman chucked into the pot. It's lovely and it was a taste of nostalgia. Also because we had the cookout at Mama's house, it was doubly poignant. Rohani saw a large owl in the rambutan tree this morning, a sign that someone was going to passaway. So straightaway, Mama called Father Veracoon who listened to her confession and blessed her. She's already had extreme unction, so he couldn't give it to her again. I did think when i heard that he had heard her confession that she may have been prepared to go, but then my mother reminded me that it wasn't the first time he had heard her last confession, and i became a bit more circumspect about the visit by the bird. It may have been a bird after all, and not Auntie Addie/Uncle Tony/Kong Kong, etc...
After that we all went to Sheng Shiong, this mega supermarket that has dispensed with presentation and packaging. It's like LIDL on steroids. It has three levels and a food court that i'm sure whole novels could be written about. Had i but known that we were going there i would have politely declined the offer and gone home. First it is located in Serangoon Road, secondly, we had to take the CTE to get there, thirdly - well, there is no thirdly. Both are reason enough for not going. But it certainly was an anthropological experience. There were THINGS which i hadn't seen for many a year. These sweets, kannas, keropoks which i had thought were no longer manufactured were still found in Sheng Shiong. The last time i saw any of them was in a relative's house for Chinese New Year - which was like 25 years ago. Clearly there must be a market for these things, which is heartwarming given today's globalisation and the cocacolaisation of life. I had never seen so many varieties of sotong. It was incredible. Then, most incredible, were four books on the mushrooms, trees, butterflies and wildflowers of GB and Europe and how to ID them - for children. Of course i bought them straightaway. Oisin, Ghin and i are going to have the best time with them.
Conservation was at its best Anne and i compared notes about Singapore and we agreed it was the education system and materialism that got to us the most. I learnt a new acronym - OCBC - Orang China, Bukan China. Meaning a Chinese person who isn't a Chinese person. I guess that could be us. We were talking about the way Singapore was now so Chinese and i said that it was an irony i stood a better chance of being understood or understanding someone in Northern Ireland than i did here. I suppose i was hoping, i remember this hope as being quite fervent when i was younger, that someday all Singaporeans would be able to communicate with each other. That is not occurring. We also talked about the education system's efficient making widgetry and how we were so miserable under it. That was them, said Auntie Gerry - yes indeed, and how miserable were we. Singapore is great for those who want what it has to offer, but for those who don't - it's so difficult to escape the pressure, the race - a race that sometimes feel fairly pointless and leads to nowhere.
Anyhow, life HAS to be more than just putting food on the table, right? It's about dignity in work. It's about respect from those you are close to. It's about love. About stillness and silences. More than it is about making money, surely... it has to be. And when it's all said and done, it's about looking back with no regrets and leaving with grace and dignity.
