My first time on Pixelpipe and not sure what I'm doing. Can't find profile page. Just upload video or what? Dearie me! Oh..oh..oh
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Goodbye Uncle Cheng Guan
This afternoon I received a phone call from my sister that our last surviving uncle, my dad's youngest brother, had passed on earlier this morning.
I last saw him a year ago, when we went to pay our respects during the Lunar Year celebrations.
The older generation is now history. Our paternal family is a huge one. My grandfather came from China at the tender age of 12, to seek a living in Malaya (as it was called then). He started off as a cook, according to my dad. He worked very hard and whatever he saved, he bought land and planted them with rubber, coconut and coffee.
He became a wealthy man and as all wealthy men did in those days, he returned to China to get himself a wife. He had in total 5 wives, my dad's mother being number 3. A man's standing in those days was reflected in the number of wives he had and of course his household. My father had many siblings from his other mothers too. There were more than twenty of them.
Unfortunately I didn't get to know all of them even though we stayed in the same compound. I don't know who or where my cousins are too, as we moved after my grandmother passed away. We had to sell the house we were living in to pay off funeral expenses.
It was not easy to be part of a large family and whose grandfather was an eminent person in the community. "Face" was most important and the funeral was a grand one with two brass bands and stilt walkers dressed in ancient costumes accompanying the hearse.Traditions and rituals had to be observed strictly under the eagle eyes of the surviving grandmothers.
I asked my sister to help me pass on "white gold", a sum of money to help with funeral expenses when she attends the wake tonight.This is usually enclosed in a white envelope and is the custom among the Chinese who attend wakes.
My late uncle was a simple and very kind man who lived on the estate where he cultivated rubber, coconut and an orchard with durians,rambutans and mangosteens. He also reared pigs and chickens and ducks. I remember staying with him and my grandma during my school holidays. Our water came from a well and my younger brother and I had to look after the young chicks as there were always hawks swooping down on them. We also helped him to chop up banana stems to make swill for the pigs.
Goodbye Uncle Cheng Guan. You have gone to a better place. Thank you for all the wonderful memories of childhood.
I last saw him a year ago, when we went to pay our respects during the Lunar Year celebrations.
The older generation is now history. Our paternal family is a huge one. My grandfather came from China at the tender age of 12, to seek a living in Malaya (as it was called then). He started off as a cook, according to my dad. He worked very hard and whatever he saved, he bought land and planted them with rubber, coconut and coffee.
He became a wealthy man and as all wealthy men did in those days, he returned to China to get himself a wife. He had in total 5 wives, my dad's mother being number 3. A man's standing in those days was reflected in the number of wives he had and of course his household. My father had many siblings from his other mothers too. There were more than twenty of them.
Unfortunately I didn't get to know all of them even though we stayed in the same compound. I don't know who or where my cousins are too, as we moved after my grandmother passed away. We had to sell the house we were living in to pay off funeral expenses.
It was not easy to be part of a large family and whose grandfather was an eminent person in the community. "Face" was most important and the funeral was a grand one with two brass bands and stilt walkers dressed in ancient costumes accompanying the hearse.Traditions and rituals had to be observed strictly under the eagle eyes of the surviving grandmothers.
I asked my sister to help me pass on "white gold", a sum of money to help with funeral expenses when she attends the wake tonight.This is usually enclosed in a white envelope and is the custom among the Chinese who attend wakes.
My late uncle was a simple and very kind man who lived on the estate where he cultivated rubber, coconut and an orchard with durians,rambutans and mangosteens. He also reared pigs and chickens and ducks. I remember staying with him and my grandma during my school holidays. Our water came from a well and my younger brother and I had to look after the young chicks as there were always hawks swooping down on them. We also helped him to chop up banana stems to make swill for the pigs.
Goodbye Uncle Cheng Guan. You have gone to a better place. Thank you for all the wonderful memories of childhood.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
We Are More Alike Than We Realise
I’ve been away for a while during which time I attended an internet bootcamp which saw participants from several countries as far away as New Zealand and the UK.
It was a very intensive and high energy week with lots of hands on learning. During this time new friendships were made and group participation enhanced rapport building and team work. My group comprised 15 members hailing from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.
One of our projects was to make sure that each member of the group was able to market his offer to the online community outside the walls of that camp. We had to record a video interview as well on our offer and why we were doing it. This project would run for 48 hours only.
We were selling our reports ( all individual reports ) for the princely sum of USD1.00 ( just testing the market ) and our group decided that the proceeds of all sales would be donated to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fund to help the Japanese in their hour of need.
Out went emails to friends and relatives. Our trainer said that this exercise will also reveal who your staunch friends and relatives are, who will support you no matter what, without questions asked.
It was most interesting to note there was an element of truth in this as some of us found that our emails had been fruitless while others had their friends calling up and asking whether this was spam! We also realized that the lack of interest could have been due to the fact that some folks hardly open their emails. It makes one wonder why they bother to have an email address then, if they do not open their inbox.
Our group managed to raise USD113.00 and our leader, a lovely lady from Thailand, forwarded the money to the Singapore Red Cross which would send it on to their counterpart in Japan.
One of the highlights of the week was the “Breakthrough” where our negative issues were brought out into the open in our small groups of five, within our larger group. Emotions ran high and the compassion that flowed through each group helped the healing process. I believe this exercise brought members closer to one another.
It was an exhausting week with late nights but we parted ways with a lot more than when we first stepped into that large hall. No matter which country we come from, we are more alike and have more in common, as human beings, than we realize.Do you agree?
Please click on the title to see one of the activities in the boot camp. Thanks.
It was a very intensive and high energy week with lots of hands on learning. During this time new friendships were made and group participation enhanced rapport building and team work. My group comprised 15 members hailing from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.
One of our projects was to make sure that each member of the group was able to market his offer to the online community outside the walls of that camp. We had to record a video interview as well on our offer and why we were doing it. This project would run for 48 hours only.
We were selling our reports ( all individual reports ) for the princely sum of USD1.00 ( just testing the market ) and our group decided that the proceeds of all sales would be donated to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fund to help the Japanese in their hour of need.
Out went emails to friends and relatives. Our trainer said that this exercise will also reveal who your staunch friends and relatives are, who will support you no matter what, without questions asked.
It was most interesting to note there was an element of truth in this as some of us found that our emails had been fruitless while others had their friends calling up and asking whether this was spam! We also realized that the lack of interest could have been due to the fact that some folks hardly open their emails. It makes one wonder why they bother to have an email address then, if they do not open their inbox.
Our group managed to raise USD113.00 and our leader, a lovely lady from Thailand, forwarded the money to the Singapore Red Cross which would send it on to their counterpart in Japan.
One of the highlights of the week was the “Breakthrough” where our negative issues were brought out into the open in our small groups of five, within our larger group. Emotions ran high and the compassion that flowed through each group helped the healing process. I believe this exercise brought members closer to one another.
It was an exhausting week with late nights but we parted ways with a lot more than when we first stepped into that large hall. No matter which country we come from, we are more alike and have more in common, as human beings, than we realize.Do you agree?
Please click on the title to see one of the activities in the boot camp. Thanks.
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