Quiet Start

January 29

I began work in office whilst Adrian was still on leave to finish up the painting job. The wet afternoons do not make it easy for the paint to dry.

Traffic in the morning whilst I was travelling to work was,needless to say, real smooth. If only it was so everyday. It was real bliss in office as it was less than 20% of the total workforce were present and I enjoyed the quiet and peace.

As years passed, I enjoy peace and quiet more and this is no exception for the environment at work. In reality, there's hardly any peace and quiet in office, especially in one that adopts the open concept. This is extremely challenging for a melancholic person as me. Since I am not at the level that I am entitled to have my own room in office, I usually stuff my ears with the earphones, even though I have no songs / music playing on my WMP. If I did, it'd be the six balinese tracks from album Bali Midori that I find soothing to my ears and mind. Sound of birds chirping, water running, and the alluring, celestial soothing scores of bamboo flute accompanied by soft rhythmic beats of the gong, and string instruments. These six tracks would be on repeat mode until I am done at work.

Dance and Crackers

January 27

Adrian continued with the rest of the walls and beams whilst I painted the other side of our gate and the grill of main entrance. After lunch when we resumed our task, we heard drumbeats and clanging cymbals. Lion dance performance at one of the houses further down the road. Needless to say, the performance would not be complete without the crackling of firecrackers. The dance ended as there was silence. Just as we thought we'd have some peace, the whole routine started again, and this time two houses away from the one earlier, and there was a third. It was more than 30 minutes when silence returned for good.

We stay in a quiet neighbourhood, and after a while, we (at least for me) grew to appreciate the peacefulness, and though sometimes could do with some liveliness, such loud chords could be, let's just say, a test to one's patience and tolerance. The again, it was CNY, and there were reasons for such boisterousness. What is CNY without lion dance and firecrackers?

Turning to Olive

January 26

I woke my hubby up for a quick breakfast. First day of CNY and we were to do what most (almost all actually) Chinese would think as taboo - painting! Out came the paint pan, brushes and rollers. We decided to go with olive green for outer walls of our house. Our rationale was simple, it'd help to camouflage the mildew that kept growing on them :)

We started work, and soon were getting the healthy morning sun in our face. The rays turned scorching hot when it was close to noon. Out came the straw hat and face towel. Whilst I was painting one side of the gate, an ice-cream seller came by and Adrian, being Adrian had to have ice cream. He hailed the ice-cream seller, and stood next to him like a school kid waiting for the two cones he ordered. "Tahun Baru you cat rumah ah?". Even the ice cream seller could not believe his eyes and just had to ask. "Kami tak pantang," was my reply.

By the time I finished one side of the gate, I got a wonderful tan :P and my husband had turned lobster red, so totally burnt. We moved to paint the parts of walls that were under shade. During the whole painting process, Adrian and I debated on the direction the rollers should go, and how the sides and corners should be done. Adrian being Adrian again just left the parts that needed more precise and careful strokes to his naggy wife. That was what he termed as preserving marital harmony :D and I agreed.

Familial Ties

January 25

This year we had a simple Chinese new Year reunion dinner with tai yee and family as she was not up to travelling back to Taiping to join the rest of family since she started on chemotherapy for breast cancer. Her next and third treatment was scheduled for the ninth day of Chinese New Year, and she would have another three more to go.

Adrian and I drove over with the three dishes I prepared. She insisted on preparing the soup and stewed mushrooms. We had a quiet dinner, during which she thanked us for spending the time with her and family, and for supporting her in various ways. We assured her that we would try out best to be as supportive as we could in any possible ways.

Privately as I ate my dinner, I replayed the words of my grandma who told me that my tai yee, when she was single and staying with my grandparents, had took care of me when I was a baby. Each morning she made sure diapers were laundered before she went to work. She helped to feed and care for me.

She took care of me when I first came to KL to work after my sixth form before I went on to pursue my tertiary studies. She took care of me when I was recuperating in her home from a surgery more than three years ago. She is more than an aunt. She is half mum to me. Her fight against breast cancer gave me heartache although I never expressed it much, well, perhaps my exasperation when she made excuses not to undergo the chemotherapy treatments.

But what made it worse is the fact that I am unable to prevent anxiety and depression spells that would ravage her mind, and the fear in her heart. I am unable to give her much in return for her generosity and kindness over the years except words, visits and buying her meal replacement supplies. Hard and mixed feelings that are difficult to be described; helplessness, exasperation, anger as to why she, with little education she received, having slogged her whole life for her family and children is inflicted with such dreaded disease. Yes, her golden years may have been prolonged thanks to early detection and treatments, but she should be enjoying herself, doing the things that she likes, spending time with her husband and friends.

Nowadays most of us are so caught up with our busy lifestyle and daily routines that most of us (or maybe it is just me) take family for granted. It only when we are about to loose them (or one of them) that we become more conscious how distance the relationships are, and we have taken for granted that they would always be with us.

Life is short, and everyday with family should be like the CNY reunion dinner, a time to come together for quality fellowship. It is heartwarming to see some families so closely knitted and spend every weekend together in some family activities. Some of us do not have the opportunity to have such closeness and warm relationships but that should not stop us from seeking and building one for ourselves, with future generations. It has to start somewhere.

Skin Off

January 24

We decided to give the exterior walls of our house a new coat of paint, and had decided to do the painting on the two days of CNY since we were hardly able to take long leave together to do something like that. We got the paints the weekend before, and decided to clean the mildew on the exterior walls, allowing time to dry before we paint them.

Adrian got himself up on the top of our house porch to clean off the mildew on the front outer upper walls of our two-storey house. After about an hour of cleaning, having moved in and out through our bedroom window few rounds, he was about done when the most unfortunate thing happened. The translucent PVC roofing sheet could hot hold the weight placed on the balancing foot and broke through. His right leg went down, up to his crotch.

I was in the kitchen preparing for our CNY dinner (we were having a reunion dinner with Dad a day earlier since we had planned to have a reunion dinner the next day with my tai yee and family at her place) when he came hobbling in. I thought he wanted to ask me something when he showed the bad scrap he got from his fall. Over four inches of skin on his shin was scrapped off, and there was a 's' shaped, couple of mm broad cut on his thigh.

My first reaction was to wash off the dirts on the raw wounds, and my poor hero grimaced in pain as the water ran down his leg. I felt my own face contorted as I felt a sharpness in my heart. I could not bear to see him in pain. Having seated him on the dining chair, I got our first aid kit. As I tore open a pack of alcohol swab, I told him it would hurt bad. I ran it gently over a smaller wound so that he was able to feel, and brace for the pain intensity. It ended up with him cleaning the wounds himself as it was easier for him to take his time to build his tolerance for pain. The next half hour was a session of flowery words as he cursed his pain away.

When his wounds were dressed, he continued with the cleaning downstairs with the electrical water jet. When I was done in the kitchen and had set the soup boiling on the stove, I joined him at the front of our house and took over the cleaning.

When we were done, I looked up the part of the PVC roofing sheet that Adrian broke through, and realised the cuts he got could have been far worse judging from the sharp edges of the hole. Indeed God is kind and we thank God that it was just skin that got scrapped off.

Filling Your Jar

January 15

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions - and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life."

''If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse or partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

"Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked. The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend."

Lure of the Fist

January 10

Being a great fan of chinese martial art, I have watched old martial art movies by Jet Li many times over, and follow movies starring Donnie Yen. Only these movies are able to make me step into the cinema, and the last I was in cinema was for the movie Fearless (Fok Yun Kap) by Jet Li, on the life of the kung-fu master who taught at the famously known, Cheng Mo-Mun. That was more than two years ago.

When the trailer of the much-talked-and-reviewed-about movie Ip Man was available, and billboard posters started mushrooming in the Klang Valley, I was still unsure if I would catch the movie on screen. I read reviews on the movie, which came with high ratings and recommendations to watch. Adrian, being a real movie buff, talked about it earlier and I asked if he would like to catch it in cinema. Afraid of the coldness in the cinema, I asked which was the least cold - in KLCC, Pavillion or 1 Utama Shopping Centre. GSC 1 Utama was his recommendation.

We made reservations for two seats and I was all set, with my long denim jeans, and two extra jackets - one denim and one wool. The movie was to start at 12.20pm, and it was almost 12.50pm when the movie actually begun. Within the good whole 30 minutes of waiting and commercials I was getting cold, and I already had my denim jacket on. i covered my front and hid my hands under the wool jacket.

Ip Man was an engaging movie with few real good scenes in slo-mo, though I noticed some abruptness and missing links between few other scenes. When it ended, I glanced at my watch at and it was ten past two in the afternoon. I thought it was rather short for a martial art movie. Definitely some missing scenes.

Adrian asked what I thought of the movie since it was his second time watching it. He had caught it after work three days back. I had expected it to be more impressive given all the reviews I read. I thought the last fight scene with General Miura was too short, and angles were a little disappointing. They could have been a lot better. I also thought the ending could have been been done differently, unless the producer plan to have sequels later (that would be good for business).

Indeed there were missing scenes - four to be exact, as I discovered when I watched Ip Man all over again on DVD. Overall, casting was good. Simon Yum, versatile and talented actor, played his supporting role very well. Donnie Yen, who portrayed Ip Man, gave the late Wing Chun grandmaster his due, in character, and fighting style and prowness. That, I thought was admirable. I must admit, one does feel quite motivated to learn Wing Chun martial art after watching the movie. Well done, Donnie!