My Mama

Mama & Renita, who has lovingly been by Mama's side for over 10 years I reckon.

As I listened to Monday''s lecture on Aged Care on lectopia last night and heard our lecturer narrating a strong and provoking narrative/article by Emma Elliot entitled 'A Woman Today - My Name is Mrs Simon' recounting her mother and her ordeal at an American hospital during her mother's dying days, I couldn't help but be strongly moved and reminded of my own grandmother. Yes, this article was written in 1984, where awareness and treatment of aged persons was not as established and probably, seemingly inhumane to a certain degree. Despite this, it still doesn't mean that some of the misconceptions about elderly people do not float around in our minds once in a while.

Please have a read of the article here and turn to page 8 of the pdf document. I promise you won't be disappointed.

I didn't share/tell many around me, but just a mere 3 weeks ago, my grandma in KL (whom we all refer to as Mama), passed away at home while resting one morning. It was something sudden, and till now, I still sometimes am trying to accept that I won't be going to KL in the middle of the year to see her, to buy her peanut butter with rice crispies, or to listen to all the gossip she has to share after being the 'go-to' person in the family. It essentially was the first death that mattered to me and my sister, as Mama had taken care of us and been part of our entire lives.

Most of my close friends would've had met Mama at least once before as well. I know she never really could remember all your names (especially shiyun and aiping, because they're chinese names, haha), but she always did remember you guys. I know Aiping has used her 'hair-growth advice even! and I am so thankful that you guys got to meet her, talk to her and interact with her, because as a child, and up till now, I've been always very proud of my grandma.

For one, she's an English-educated lady who was a primary school teacher for many years of her life, and English educated grandparents seemed a rare find even now! Yes? I loved it when people said, wow your grandma is so eloquent! And in my mind I always felt damn proud of that. I was also proud of how even after having lost the vision in 1 eye after a botched cataract surgery, she would still finish reading all my novels in the house with a magnifying glass, slouched in the sofa like a teenager (she slouched!). I was proud that she lived healthy, alert and active till the ripe age of 94+ (I think, mum says her DOB is stated to be 1918, but that it isn't accurate because paperwork wasn't very organised during her day, and that she was actually older than that). And that she didn't ever need to go to a nursing home for that matter! (Kudos to my youngest aunt whom she lived with for many many years too).

I'm proud of my grandma for being the 'funky mama' and wearing pink shades at one stage, allowing herself to wear bright lovely jackets and not letting her age stop or restrict her, and I'm proud of how took care of all her grandchildren (all 12 of us) at one or more stages of our lives.

Little Pink Riding Mama!

She was a strong lady, who worked and took care of her 6 children while teaching and managed to produce a family of intelligent, accomplished individuals who now each have their own families to bring up.

She taught Renita, my aunt's helper for more than a decade, to cook amazing dishes like popiah - including the skin! The amount of things I learned from her is amazing. She taught me to knit, to make tang yuen, to help get rid of ringworm on heads (garlic). She taught me to carve/butcher a whole chicken (head, feet and backside included), she read to me and with me, she helped me with my art and craft SO many times when I was in primary school, she told me so much about her experience in WWII, and her life as a little girl, she taught me to cross stitch, and sewed my bolster (boo boo) whenever it had holes, giving it new casings and coverings when it wore out when I was younger, and I remember how we once embarked on a project to make my sister's teddy a new pyjama suit, which actually just ended up as her sewing and me running around watching television.

Most importantly, I learnt from her that embracing your age and your life as you get older is the most important and essential in living a life of good quality. Remaining cheerful, having a positive outlook, and not letting things get you down. Sure there were days she felt crappy I'm sure, and there were times she would grumble a little about aches in her legs, but she didn't let it get to her, and I would think that she accommodated, and managed her children well, up to the end.

Mama will definitely be missed by many, not just me and the grand kids and kids.

His amazing blabber

John Mayer is by far my favourite still, why?

It's not just about his insane ability to syncopate and play notes and add beats into bars just when you think it's humanly impossible to do so,

it's not just his dreamy, slightly perpetually stoned look as he plays(as much as that's the lady-killing look);

it's not just his quirky shoulder shrugs and spasms as he plays his guitar passionately (sometimes making seem as if he has tourette's);

it's not just his mad talent that allows him to sing and play the most complicated riffs concurrently with as much ease as  using a fork and spoon to eat,

and it's also not just because he can mash any 2 songs and make them sound SO legit (google his cover of NSync's Dirty Pop and No Such Thing)

it's also how he captures his audience with his insane blabber at times. How he goes on and on about an experience or a thought process with such vividness and truth, the things he says which make you go 'ahhh... yess..' (like how you sometimes do when you come across some of the things on 9gag).

It's how when he speaks his mind, you get that glimpse of that mad genius inside of him, that chaotic thought process that translates into his chaotic, yet somehow organised riffs and solos.

Here's what he was blabbering at the start of this video:

It's a sunday night, a night never to be trusted for emotions. So, a lot of you guys are gonna head home and either receive texts in the dead of night or actually compose them that are not going to be fully representative of how you feel for the rest of the day, for the rest of your week. Then you'll be reaching out, and if you're not reaching out you'll have someone else reaching out to you. And your friends, and your brain, and your morals, and your conscience have all trained you not to respond. But I'm gonna go against the grain and I'm going to suggest that the next time you get a message from the one you love, the only person in the world you love and can't talk to, that you respond. And you just write back when they ask you if you're up, and you're up, just write back, "Yup, come on over." Cause life is just too short to keep playing the game. Cause if you really want somebody, you'll figure it out later. Otherwise, you'll be laying in bed with a Blackberry on your chest staring at it, doing nothing for the rest of the night, hoping that it goes, "PRRR, PRRR, PRRR." If you love someone, if you love someone. If you love someone, if you love somebody. If you love someone. Don't say a word, say, "don't say a word, just come over. Just come over, just come over, don't say a word, just come over. Let me cry all over you, let me wish that you were someone different." If you love someone....

Stage 2

Ironic and timely that we went through the 5 stages of grief last Wednesday during lessons, something which many of us have heard and might possibly have gone through.

This weekend I'm still at stage 2 I reckon.

I apologise for not blogging about anything for the past 3 months, you see I appear to have a anti-magnet for technology ever since 2012 started. I dropped my camera into the ocean while we were in Phuket, in the middle of the week, I damaged my headphones at the gym by accidently rowing over them, and, to top it all off, my watch is now not functioning because I might possibly have submerged it in pool water when clamouring to get a kid out of the water.

I miss my family =( I miss being a child