30.3.26 - 92 - Mama's Dapur

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Going to fix windchime


Ma in the park, watching the small French enclave that has developed here...
Maids were having the day off so parents had to show up at the park.
God knows when they went home... I believe drink was involved.


Completed my Olive-backed sunbird

Well, it was the weekend. It has only been a week since the funeral, two since Pa passed on. It will be exactly an hour to his passing. He has been visiting Ma in adventurous dreams. Involving competitions. They sound quite hectic. It's so lovely. When he visits he is in his 30s or 40s and Ma is young as well. 

Project Mama's Dapur is going great. Or maybe it should be Dapur Cowdray. We made Kiam Chye Soup and Ox-tail Soup. Both bone based soups and therefore very strengthening. I have made a list of foods we can cook and the next on the list is Babi Assam. A true nonya dish.

The dapur luar is almost cleaned and it is almost over the sorting of things. I think it will be done by Tuesday. It has been so satisfying to do this. Next will be the cupboards in the kitchen. 

Ironically, life has been better since I've been back. The house is opened everyday - every door is opened and aired. Ma is eating well. She's exercising. She isn't watching tv all the time. She's going out and doing things. This is what would have happened if I came back this summer. Who knows why this didn't take place with Pa here and with a managed transition, but it is happening now and that's what counts. 

I miss Pa so much. I really don't think about it, or my heart will break. Ma was laughing at the amount if things which are now filling the table. I said, it's ok. There's load more space. It's fine.

I continue to run and swim everyday. It's only been a week, but like everything else, it has felt like forever. Every day is the same and yet when the sun goes down, I can't believe how quickly it has gone. So I fill the time with looking after Ma, drawing and exercising - and tidying up. I should start thinking about other things as well. Like elements. 

Like all those other things. I now have a bit more space to think. I am wading through time and space, literally now. Time I tame using routine, space I tame as I tidy. I tidy and discover all these wonderful things.

Memories come back - and sometimes it is like a totally new memory. A new discovery. Like yesterday I found the book which Ma has when she went for sewing classes. They were so beautiful. Her meticulous drawings. 

Today's bird is the Yellow-vented Bulbul. Bulbuls are the thrushes of this part of the world. The sunbirds are like our tits. Flowerpeckers as well. 

It hasn't rained since - well the first Sunday I was here - which is a very long time indeed. Afternoons are cloudy now, but nothing happens. I continue to water the garden.

Well, here we are. Almost time for Pa to leave. I'm glad he is coming to see Ma. She has missed him so much. I still really do feel him here all the time. Oh, I've also started doing Ma's feet - pedicuring them. Filing her nails down. It's going good. I said we'd do a little everyday to make sure her nails don't split.

I have discovered the sheer volume of French people who now live in Gardens. At the park yesterday, a whole load of them turned up and were having a picnic. I said, this must be because it was the maids' day off and they probably didn't belong to the club - or maybe they did. But if you did live in Gardens, why wouldn't you be at the club on a Sunday evening you know? It was then I said to Ma, Gardens is now not like any other place in the entirety of Singapore. It is a different timeline, a different reality. Something completely apart from the way other people live here.

I'll start changing for the run.

Mass            Blog
Rosary         Run
Exercise
                    POA
Sleep?          Draw
Lunch          Lunch
Sleep           Sleep
                    Swim
      Tidy kitchen
Exercise
Park             Park
        Dinner
        Plan tomorrow
                    Duolingo
                    Organise things for work, etc

Well that's us for today. And so the world revolves and time passes. It seems so weird that while the world goes into a tail spin, we are just having a very peaceful time of it here.

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