Some words about my dad and some words from him...

Dad was missed by his friends too....

(Click to zoom in)

He was missed by so so many people of who he was and what he had done for others...

There weren't much writings that he has lefted behind, I found this from one of the magazines in his room.

(Click to zoom in)

Finally, a moment alone...

It has been one month since Dad passed away.

The whole of October has been a busy and drastic month to me:

6th Oct - Dad passed away
16th-26th Oct - I went to China (as Dad wished, I 'brought' him to the Expo)
28th-30th Oct - Back to Sibu to discuss with family on Dad's tomb design and his other matters
1st Nov - Back to my ex-company and started working (as Dad wished)
3rd-7th Nov - Mum and bro were in town

Now finally, I get some time to settle down, sitting in front of my computer, looking back at what happened, working on what still need to be done, and thinking of what to do next.

From time to time, dad will appear in my mind, my heart will start to hurt again, eyes become wet, nose turns red.  I know time will heal this deep deep hole in my heart.  For the time being, I just wanna keep myself extremely busy and occupied, so that I don't get too much time missing him...

...BUT I REALLY MISS HIM SO SO MUCH................

God, why do you have to take him away from me and my family???... You should know how important he is to me in this world.....................

Good Bye, Dad...

I am in Sibu now.  My dad passed away on 6th Oct.  Today is the 6th day since he left us.

I wish I have called him the day before he left.  I have so many thing I want to tell him.

I am very proud to have a dad like him, who is generous, kind, courageous, visionary, wise.  He spent his life taking care of his family, siblings and many others.  His leaving is a great loss to many.

Dad, I miss you, so so much... You are always in my heart.

Christchurch Earthquake

Dom called me early last Saturday morning to inform me that a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit my 2nd home Christchurh (at 4:30 a.m. NZ time).  I was shocked by the news and quickly called up my brother in Christchurh.  Luckily he was fine.  Not only him, there was no death reported, only 2 person injured.  I guess Christchurch must be blessed by Christ.

Today I chatted with my brother on MSN.  He told me that there were still constant aftershocks occurred almost every hour, and some still have quite high magnitude.  Electricity and water supply were back but it was advised that the water should be boiled before drinking (usually it can be drunk straight from the tap).

The last time I experienced an earthquake was in Christchurch too, almost 15 years ago.  I was sleeping and suddenly I felt like someone was kicking my bed really hard till I got angry and jumped up from my bed.  Only then I realized it was an earthquake.  I can see things shaking, especially the mirror hanging on the wall.  I quickly woke my brothers up and we ran out from the house.  The magnitude was around 6.x that time.  Another time was when I was doing experiment at the engineering lab, suddenly things started shaking, so everyone quickly evacuated from the building.

Even though NZ is such a nice place to live, it does suffer from earthquakes from time to time.  However, as compared to China, the building construction and infrastructure in NZ are much better builded against earthquakes.  If this kind of magnitude happened in China, sure a lot more buildings will collapse and more casualties suffer.

Anyway, thank God!! And please, please don't make all these natural disasters happen so often.

A complete life cycle

I am currently at the age where I see a lot of friends having babies.  On the other hand, I'm also dealing with my dad's health issues due to old age.  It's a time that makes me think more about what defines a complete life cycle of a typical human being.

Many get married at young age, have babies, have many worries about making enough money to pay for mortgages, kid's expenses & education, daily living etc.  This goes on for 20+ years till the kids finally grow up and leave home.  After few years, the kids get married, have their own kids etc. Then it's time for retirement and then comes health issues and eventually death.

By taking my dad's example, I think the 'happiness vs. worries' level is more or less as below:

Hmm... seems like happiness is up and down, but worries just keep increasing...

Just thinking, if skipping all the 'get married, have kids, kids grow up, kids get married, have grand kids' process and just keep it simple by having 'finish school, start working, retire, health issues', will the 'happiness vs. worries' level be more predictable and smooth??

(Hahahaha don't let my dad see this, he will kill me for having such thought.)

Retirement

My dad and I talked about blogging tonight.  I asked him to start writing and faxing to me so that I can help him set up a blog and post articles on daily basis.  I do this out of the intention to keep him busy, as he seems so bored with his retirement life.

I wonder what I'll be doing during my retirement years... mostly likely I'll be traveling around with my retired friends, playing mahjong, reading & writing, chatting online, monitoring stock market...

Hmm... seems like I'm actually living it now. 

Kuching->Sibu->Kuching->Sibu

I'm now in Sibu again, 29th Aug-1st Sep.  My dad has a minor operation.

Tomorrow I'll be back in Kuching again. 

I guess if I keep flying Kuching-Sibu every week, my pocket will soon have a hole...

Childhood pix

My childhood pic vs. my niece's recent pic...

Omg, I look so stupid, and she looks so smart and adorable!!  Hahaha... I should call my mum and complain! 

Goodbye my dear uncle...

Something drastic happened last weekend after I came back from my home town. My only uncle staying in Kuching passed away last Saturday. I rushed to the hospital in early Sat morning after his family called me. I stayed around and watched every second went by till my uncle breathed his last breath.

This is the first time I saw the loss of a life in front of me. A lot of mixed emotion indeed.  I was sad to say goodbye to him as he has always been a nice uncle to me, always smiling and liked to talk to me when I went to his house.  At the same time, I felt relief that he left in peace.

My parents flew from my hometown to attend the funeral these two days. I was very sad to see my dad crying, losing his only brother left in this world (his other 3 brothers have passed away). Anyway, today the funeral has ended and my parents have gone back to my home town.

Nowadays, my parents are forced to accept the loss of their friends and siblings almost every few months, due to old age. They often checked the newspaper to find out who has just passed away. 

Sad but that's life.

The 'Bean' is back in town

I'm back to Kuching. 

I always have mixed feelings going back to my home town.  Well, I do miss my parents and the kids, but I can't stay there for long.  I am a person who needs a lot of personal space.  At my home town, everyone  expects me to talk to them, the kids expect me to play with them everyday.  It's good to feel needed, but on the other hand, I miss my own home, where it is quiet and I get to do the things I like. 

I think after staying away from my family all these years, I am used to the current life style.  To many that live with family, they may think I am lonely but in fact I prefer to live this way. 

Well, guess that's the way Jo Jo Bean (as what Derbe called me) is.

Playing games with auntie Jo

This was what I did everyday at my hometown...

Played 'Scientist & her assistants' game with my niece and nephews.

Before the space-ship departed, the captain (the scientist, auntie Jo) will instruct for all her assistants to line up, reporting their number and name.

Have them marched around, on the surface of another planet...

Then lined them up again...

Instructed them to explore around for new plant species, insects and misc...

Rested inside a cave at night time.  Instructed Assistant No.1 who held the map and the compass to check around, while Assistant No.2 and No.3 set up the fire inside the cave.  Have No.2 plucked some dried leaves and No.3 set up the fire with the matches she brought.

Then we waited for No.1 to come back, while warming our hands around the fire.

Then everyone called it a day and went to sleep.

The 2nd morning, Assistant No.3 did the 'Ko Ko Ko' to wake everyone up.

After packing everything, the team departed to explore another planet, and the story continued the next day...

Night time, auntie Jo set up a 'mega car park' and play car parking and traffic game with them.

They had lots of fun, and so did auntie Jo.

Cheeky kids

Time flies, they have grown up so much...

My little niece, after crying...

The wet pillow case after she cried hiding her face into the pillow (she was horrified by her auntie, me, for playing a bad bear attacking her and her bros... she said 'I don't want auntie to be bad guy~~~...').

My 2nd nephew, a cheeky boy.

Pretending like his auntie, working in front of the computer, wearing grandpa's glasses...

Pretending like his grandpa reading book...

My youngest bro...

3rd May is the birthday of my eldest and youngest brothers.  Just now I went into Facebook and saw a lot of birthday wishes from many many people on my youngest brother's Wall.  I realized that I have not been a good sister all these years.  I seldom called this brother of mine who is in NZ, even on his birthday this year I only sent him an sms in the morning, then went on to get busy with other things and forgot to call him up. 

Just now, when I scrolled down his Wall to read the messages from his friends, I found that he was so loved by so many people for the many many sweet things he did for them all these years. 

I remember when he was still a little kid, he liked to follow me everywhere.  We were very very close.  He was a very cute kid with round round face and has super duper good imagination.  Even till now, his character is still very kiddy-like, funny, humorous, creative and loving.  In fact, there is this side of me who secretly seeks for kiddy friends like him, as life as an adult is often very boring, and there are less and less fun people around.

Everytime when we get together, the jokes he told me would make me laughed non-stop.  Even though he usually appears shy in front of strangers, if you know him well, he would be a great friend to have, a good listener and someone who is always there when people need him.

I am so proud of this brother of mine, and of course the other younger brother too.  Two of them often make me felt so loved.  I am just so blessed to have them in my life.  * omg, i feel like crying suddenly... *

Reminder to Jo:  Please be a good sister and don't ever forget to call your bro on his birthday again!

TVB drama continues this year...

Chinese New Year suppose to be fun and happy for many.  However in my memory, I can hardly remember one cheerishable year with my family, except for the years I chose not to go back home for reunion.  It  is really sad for me.  It is almost certain that everytime the family gets together, there will be something unwanted happening, causing stress and worries, then some of the family members will start to get irrational and emotional etc. 

To be honest, I really don't know how to handle people who have bad temper and are overly self-centered or emotional.  When bad things happened, it happened, I will just focus on accepting the fact and thinking of solutions.  I really don't understand why some people always chose to make things worse by being self-centered, bad temper, dumping bad emotion on others etc... most ironically is when eventually the problem was solved, I ended up getting the blames not appreciation, it's that unfair!! 

My youngest brother humorously described this situation as 'TVB drama', where the stories always have to have lots of up and down, with scenes and characters that make people mad.  I told him that I don't want to play any role in the drama, I just wish to have peace, stay quiet and be the 'ke le fe'.  Somehow it is just so hard to be let alone, the bad guy will just drag me in...

Anyway, I have finally decided to distance myself from these people, even the close one.  Sorry, it was just so far so disappointing...

Well, I had another unpleasant Chinese New Year... very sad indeed...

CNY eve all by myself...

In fact I don't really celebrate CNY, I have more feel towards the 1 Jan new year. This year, I stay back in Kuching, not going back to my hometown. Mainly b'cos I want a good rest - quiet and peaceful by myself. My house in Sibu is just far too happening, with bunch of people visiting us... so dun think I can have any rest there.

Yesterday was CNY eve, my mum called to check on how I have been. 10 minutes later my dad called. He heard from my youngest brother that I will be spending the CNY eve alone by myself as Pig Pig has gone back to HK. Somehow I guess he felt sorry for me. So when he called, he cried. He told me: "妹妹， 你要开心一点哦。。。"

Out of a sudden, I felt terribly sorry that I didn't make an effort to fly back to Sibu to be with them. Actually I miss them, especially yesterday when I was alone at home, and Kuching was raining non-stop the whole day. After hanging up the phone, I was very emotional, so I cried too.
Yeah, I had a moody CNY eve...

Jayden Wong

Meet Jayden Wong - our new family member. He was borned on 31 August 2008 in Sydney and has just turned 3 months old. He is the first baby of my 2nd brother in Sydney.

Jayden with mum and dad...


Jayden taking his bath... which he hates it and always cried, and his mum and dad have to sing songs and play tricks to stop his tears from rolling down...



Jayden playing with his baby gym every morning after waking up... which he hates it too but has no choice but to do it 'cos his mum and dad are busy with making breakfast and getting ready for the day...

Jayden taking a walk at Bicentennial Park... this 'walking' routine is what he really likes...

Jayden with grandpa and grandma...

Jayden with auntie Jo... Jayden is very friendly with people so far and he likes people to carry him and walk around. If you stop, he will start to kick his legs, so you need to continue carrying this 6kg little boy around non-stop... haha, a good exercise for the arms...



Well, little Jayden, this world may be very new to you and you may not be so used to it yet but no worry, you are so much loved by everyone. Hello and welcome!

Amos, Boaz & Cheryl (03 August 08)

Time flies, and they have grown up so much...

They are simply adorable, especially my little niece. Mum said she resembles me very much. She has got my eye brows, and my character. Amos has become quite a cheeky kid. Boaz is a friendly boy and he is very camera friendly too. 'Mei Mei'... she has got character. She really knows what she wants and don't want, no negotiation. She only smiles to you if she decided she likes you, otherwise she doesn't want to look at you at all... very cool girl, I like her.












































This was what I got when she decided she really likes me...







and they do like their aunt (me) very much... hohoho.