Grandparents

Now that my university classmates are all in their sixties and have attained grandparents status, they do occasionally share thoughts and little stories about being grandparents. I find some of them amazingly true now that we are in that category. 

Some of the short write-ups by a class of 8-year old:

• When they read to us, they don't skip. They don't mind if we ask for the same  story over again.
• Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don't have television because they are the only grownups who like to spend time with us.
• They don't say, "Hurry up."
• Usually are fat but not so fat to tie your shoes.
• They know we should have snack time before bed time, and they say prayers with us and kiss us even when we've acted bad.

A 6-year old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh", he said, "She lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."

 

Remembering Old Days

I finally managed to pay a visit to the home of my ex-Art teacher, Mr. Liew Fui En who now resides in Willetton, Perth.

I vaguely remember him teaching art during my Bridge Class year in Lok Yuk in 1964. Frankly, I am no artist and Art was never my cup of tea. I cannot recall any art lesson I had from Mr. Liew nor any fond memory of him being the art teacher. There is however one incident that permanently inked into my brain. I used to sit at the last row in Bridge Class. In one of the art class lessons, I was talking to my neighboring classmate without paying attention to the teacher when suddenly I felt a thing struck my forehead. It was a chalk duster thrown by the art teacher toward my direction. Fortunately, no harm done. If it happened today, he would probably have been hauled up for questioning for a dangerous act against a student. But in those days, teachers could practically do anything to their students.

We had a great chat talking about what he has been through from being a teacher, then a manager of a finance company, then a manager of a company selling Mercedes-Benz and finally a boss of  his own company selling cars. He was so keen in chatting that he initiated a second meeting, this time for coffee in Southland Shopping Centre.

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For ex-Consulting Engineer, Lau HW, his enthusiasm to meet and talk has not diminished since we last met in September 2010 (Read here). Looking around his house's compound, it is obvious he has given up practicing engineering and devoted much of his time to gardening.

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The Goh's are new arrivals who have just left Singapore and settled down in Perth. They are still unsettled because the house they bought has yet to be handed over to them. Like Lau, they are equally keen to grab any opportunity to meet up with old friends from Malaysia.

Eating fish head mee soup in an ex-Malaysian operated food outlet is probably the most appropriate place  to reminisce old time in Malaysia and Singapore and to talk about coming days in Perth.

Australia Day 2016

The last time we were at Langley Park to celebrate Australia Day was in early 2011 shortly after Nathan's birth (Read here).

Nathan is now five and his sister Gracie is two and a half. To us, time truly moves at lightning speed!

Wedding at Lamont, Perth CBD

One of the reasons we decided to spend two weeks in Perth was to attend the wedding of my niece, Yvonne.

The wedding preparation started the night before with the hair combing ceremony for the bride, a tradition not practiced by family and which I first came to know in 2007 during Eva's wedding (Read here).

Of course, tea ceremony is now standard practice adopted by all who professed to be Chinese. It is a good time for the couple to get to know the rest of the larger family and to collect some angpow!

Hair combing ceremony

Immediately after the short ceremony was over in Lamont, the scramble for ice lolly turned out to be great fun for kids and adults.

Patiently waiting to collect ice lolly

Getting ready for the wedding banquet

York, WA

In our recent trip to Perth, we were fortunate to have a car at our disposal. With the car available for our driving pleasure and a GPS in hand, I just could not resist to explore some nearby towns not far from Perth city.

When I googled for possible sites which are within 100Km from Perth city, the name, York appeared. Further searches indicated that it is a very old town as far as WA is concerned. It was first settled in 1831.

York is recognized as the oldest inland town in WA. Many of the old buildings are now listed as heritage buildings dating back from 1850s to 1860s  reckoned as the Gold Rush Period.

With a few hours in York, we managed to see a few things: the Town Hall and the little Museum inside, St, Patrick Roman Catholic Church, the Suspension Bridge across Avon River, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church immediately after crossing the suspension bridge, the Motor Museum and the Sock Factory.

While these structures are nothing compared to those in UK, the efforts and contributions put in by convicts sent to York in the 80s to design and build some of these remarkable buildings are still commendable!

Town Hall

Town Hall and Museum

St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church

Holy Trinity Anglican Church

Suspension Bridge across Avon River

Some of the antic cars on display in York Motor Museum

For our lunch, we had earlier chose Carriage Diner, mainly because of what we saw in the Tourists' Brochure - outdoor setting overlooking Avon River. However, by the time we walked to the place, we decided against eating there because of the lack of roof covering to shade off the strong sunlight. Finally, we opted for the Jules Shoppe.