(1284)Herbal Mixtures

I have a cousin who grew up in her paternal grandparents' household. Her dad passed away in a car accident. Her mum went to work in the Middle East as a nurse and remarried to a Filipino man there.

During the final illness of our grandfather, he seemed to be delirious and repeatedly told me that his wife was involved in witchcraft. I was a little surprised to hear him talk so insistently as normally he was a man of few words. Well, one should not encourage a patient in his delirium. Neither did I take what he said seriously. It could have just been a fancybecause his mind was wondering.

A few years later, our grandmother passed on also. My youngest aunt, who was unmarried, was cleaning the old house and throwing away the grandparents' effects with my cousin mentioned above. I happened to be visiting that part of the country and went to take a last look at the old house before it was to be sold.

My aunt showed me old photo albums and allowed me to choose a few as keepsakes. In the course of the conversation, she told me she threw a fair amount of herbal preparation. There were packets of powders with Thai scripts and quite a few were made in Indonesia.

Shortly after that I visited an old friend in Silver City had long chats with her long-serving maid. Apparently, married Indon maids would buy herbal preparation, usually in a pair. Before leaving home, they would swallow the first portion to stop their period. Keeping the second pack, they would then take when returning home for good. According this maid from a hilly part of Jawa, she believes that one could purchase similar products of different brands in most of the islands of Indonesia. As far as she knows, her relatives and friends have used such products and no one had any undesirable side effects.

After listening to what one person said, I dutifully went for a second opinion. When I had a chance, I asked my neighbour's maid who hailed from Sulawesi and had been woriking in Sabah for the past thirty years. She told me more or less the same thing and even offered to buy me a pair. She said it was available in Indon shops in town.

It is commonly known in the extended family that my cousin had never menstruated before. She is almost forty years old now. My grandma was adamant that her granddaughter was born defective and resolutely refused to let anyone take her to the hospital. Since she had no father and her mum was away, there was no one willing to go against the fierce old lady. Who knows? Maybe my grandfather was trying to tell me something in a rather indirect way which I did not undeerstand until it was too late.

Linking all the invisible threads above, I wonder if my aunt and cousin had unwittingly thrown away the second half of the herbal preparation. Anyway, it probably does not matter anyway. My cousin has decided not to marry and is earning a stable income looking after children others entrusted her with.

(1283)Ayam Wild

Opposite to my current place of abode we find a green belt of perhaps 80 hectars. It is rather low lying land that turns swampy in the rainy season.

Quite a few years ago, I happened to over hear a little girl ,who was the daughter of a nearby coffee shop owner, telling a server that wild chickens were found opposite the shop among the trees. Being curious, I asked if they had seen them. Both of them nodded their heads. When asked if it was male or female, the little girl said she saw a mother hen.

Lately I have been spending a lot of day light hours on my balcony. Apart from driving the car once in every two days, going to buy food for cooking; I read and write while enjoying the barmy breezes on the front broad balcony. After all, one could not go out at will, noone could eat out. How often could a person eat take out food that turns cold and soggy. If I managed to write a few pages, I am a happy woman. One could only read so many hours a day. In between, I saw two black feathered chickens walked out from the shadows of big trees, pecked at comething and retreated into the greenery.

Much of my free time in between cooking and cleaning I spent watching the endless line of cars queueing to purchase fast food. I also notice the trend of Food Panda and Grab Food delivery men. Sunday morning at 10:30am is the absolute peek, I counted five green Grab Food guys and nine pink Food Panda guys. Dinner rush starts at 4:30pm or so as the last order by car owners might end as early as 5:20 pm or as late as 5:50pm if stock holds.The takeaway guys work until seven something, everyone would be expected to go home by eight.

It is inyeresting that the normal household could only eat so much home cooked healthy food for so long. One yearns for fried chicken and deep fried fries for a change. Whatever business seafood, Western, Japanese, Korean... restaurants lose out of, Western fast food take away joints are reaping a lion share of the disposable income because consumers feel safe in the contactless drive through way of collecting yummy food.

(1282)CMCO

This is the second day of CMCO in this town. CMCO probably stands for Conditional Movement Control Order. Sanitation workers came yesterday to dig and suck out of the sewerage channel. That happened at least twice a year.

My son said the only oxidation plant he had seen in town is near our landlord's expensive condominium a mile or so away. It seems that Indah Water (semi government body taking care of waste water) does not exist here. Human waste simply flows out of the sewer through river to the sea. What people take for granted in the Peninsular are not found here.

It is also part of life to put up with patchy handphone reception in certain part of the residential area here. The first house I rented was within walking distance from the only golf course. My neighbour, a young man about to be married, could be found standing in the middle of the deserted road in front of our houses chatting with his fiancee around midnight the few nights before his wedding day. That was the only spot he could find uninterrupted signal to carry on a telephone conversation with his beloved.

What I described above was superceded by a native student who had to build a simple shelter on top of a tall tree which grew atop a hill so she could take her semester exam using an old laptop catching barely sufficient signal. That happened when all college students had to return home and made do with online lessons because of COVID-19.

On the other hand I am most grateful for uninterrupted water and electrical supply. Folks in my old neighbourhood in Selangor were having no water supply because of unlicensed business people dumping chemical waste on the water catchment area. Instead of suffering the preannual haze, I am enjoying clean air with daily sea breeze.

While the population in Malaysia is not alarmingly high, already the water and air pollution levels reached dangerous levels. For a country densely polulated like Indonesia, COVID-19 spread like wild fire. It does not help when certain people groups threatened medical people with deadly weapons insisting on taking dead bodies which had been disinfected and sealed back to their homes so that loved ones could see, touch, clean and kiss the dead. Even though doctors and health officials knew the consequences of that, they had no choice but to give in to the armed and crazed groups.

It does seem like the worst enemy of human beings are themselves. When population becomes too high, things would happen to cut the numbers down. Perhaps that was how the past civilizations ended abruptly.

(1281)Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

This is the very first time I found Reader's Digest condensed books in a Sabah State Library. It is a wonderful treat.

It is interesting to read about how combinations of foods and herbs affect us positively and negatively. It is really no surprise as we are what we eat. Years ago I was sitting at my grandma's knees listening to her woes of taboo food. Eating certain vegetables caused back aches. Of course that was really nonsense to me then. As a child I could eat that and not suffer any pain. Not long ago I heard my mum had to avoid some food, not necessarily the same list as my grandma. Ancient Chinese medicine texts claimed those food and vegetables as "cooling". Sadly after my battle with carcinoma, I too had to be careful with what I eat.

My grandma's reserves of calcium was possibly low. She was poor for most part of her life. She was loving towards her children and grand children. She kept the best part of the meal for me and my brothers. I suspect that her aches and pain was due to low calcium level in the blood when she hit her mid-fifties. My mum has had adequate nutrition since her early thirties after dad's promotion. She began suffering aches and pains in her seventies. She has had arthritis and high blood pressure since her early fifties.

Lately I realised I have to stay off certain grains apart from rice and wheat. I suspect those alternate source of carbohydrates used up my precious source of B complex. I have a functional deficiency of Vitamin B. That means that while I do have sufficient supply of Vitamin B in my body (according to the need of a normal person), my body might burn off most of it under stress. By consuming Marmite (brewer's yeast) takes care of the lack and eliminate the pain. Marmite is equivalent to Borvil and Vegemite, I think.

(1280)Orbit by John Nance

Imagine you are trapped in a space craft doomed in all practical purposes, all the thoughts that run through your head are read in real time by those who cared to on earth, that was this tale.

As far back as I could remember, writing was easy for me. By age nine, I was earning a dollar here and two dollars there submitting articles to Children's Sections in Chinese Dailies. At thirteen I was an up and coming writer in a teen literary Chinese magazine. In 1981 I chose to attend a women's college well known for creative writing. I took exactly two courses in the English Department. In expository writing, a second level course, I wrote a term paper featuring the life of my maternal grandmother. The following year, I took an Independent Study which is a third year course and produced eight Chinese folktales.

Over the years, I taught English, brought up children and dabbled in special education. On the side, I continued to write. Once my children are grown, I started blogging. Over 36 years, I decided not to publish. That was until I faced death in the hospital. Once I recovered, I overcome the fear of revealing myself through my writing. Of course I still use a pen name and avoided using a current photo in my books.

Why? It just seemed a waste that if I had died, no one would bother about publishing whatever I have written and left behind. At that point of time, I no longer fear publicity. I no longer am bothered by the fear of not being accepted or liked. In fact, the feared attack did come. I was chastised for publishing folk tales written before I became a Christian. Nothing can take away my ethnic heritage. After I chose Jesus, does it make me less of a Chinese? I don't think so. Thank God I could just skip town and change church. Here in my second lease of life, I am an old woman minding my own business, living quietly and still writing.

(1279)No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Imagine a teenage girl woke up one day and lost her parents and an only brother. That was the plot of this story.

Years later, she was married with an eight-year-old daughter. Her mum and brother were found at the bottom of a quarry lake in the former's car.

In the best tradition of a thriller, a few more people died before the mystery was unravelled. An interview with the author revealed that this novel started as an idea taken from a news article of one person who disappeared, leaving behind three other family members.

In Peninsular Malaysia, it was rather common to hear of voluntary disappearance of gamblers who incurred in astronomical debts with loan sharks who were ready to torture or shoot them. I have heard of one case where the debtor was sighted in a border town in Thailand. I suppose the remaining family members might migrate to another nation or at least relocate to a town far away leaving no forwarding address.

Sadly, my own cousin decided to stay put in the same house after her husband hanged himself to escape from astronomical debts. She is a Ph.D. candidate and a high level government servant in a small town in the East Coast. It is fortunate that the deceased left behind much money in the Employee Provident Fund (pension fund) and a good sum of life insurance pay-out. Even then, it would probably take a thick skin and stiff upper lip to face down the tittle-tattle of a small town.

(1278)Scared to Live by Stephen Booth

The interesting story is made from many intertwining strands. I am picking up one theme: the desperate desire to have a daughter.

Recently I met a friend's cousin from the countryside. She is in her early thirties with three sons: 9, 6, and 1 year old. She works in the management office of a medium-priced apartment complex. Her husband works as a security guard in a factory nearby.

I have four former classmates: A, B, C, and D. A and B each have one son only. C has 2 sons but no daughter. D has three sons only. A chose to have one son and stopped there. B paid a 5-figure sum to the fertility clinic and was happy with one son. C could not have more children because her husband was adamant they have enough children. D cried at the birth of the third son because she wanted a girl badly.

It is intriguing that A, B, C, and D have been financially stable and could have more children, biological or adoptive. Therefore I was somewhat surprised that my new friend would attempt a fourth pregnancy hoping for a daughter. Economically, having a fourth child may well push her family below the poverty line.

Then I read Scared to Live, it is obviously fiction. In the story, the adoptive mother and two biological sons died in arson. The bereaved husband promptly disappeared even though he was not the arsonist. The grandfather was charged with murder originated from an illegal adoption which led to attempted blackmail.

Perhaps fictions may explain what happens in real life more logically.

(1277)From Cradle to Grave by Patricia MacDonald

I read this book in the Reader's Digest condensed version. The house shown on the original book jacket was like the one I visited on Blenheim Avenue in a small town in Virginia.

Yet the illustration on the condensed book was like the house Jennifer's mum, Mrs N lived in Vermont. It is interesting that architecture brought back fond memories. The family in the Blenheim Avenue house actually turned up for my college graduation. Mrs N's husband actually spent a third of his life tramping in Peninsular Malaysia and Northern Borneo selling explosives and fertilisers to miners and farmers. That was way before the independence of my nation.

This book celebrates friendship and loyalty. I doubt I have the guts to put my life on the line for a friend like Morgan who stuck to Claire through thick and thin. Co-incidentally I went through post-natal blues after the birth of my first child. To a certain extent I could relate to what Claire went through.

This book revealed little about Claire's husband. We know that he was seduced by his step-mother and carried on with her for years. His first wife was actually killed by the step-mother. Claire was very fortunate that Morgan investigated enough to clear her of the double murder charges. I suppose "old sin casts long shadows" summarised this story aptly.

(1276)Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

This true story of Lily Casey Smith beat my grandma's life experience flat. Yet, my grandma was no shrinking violet.

While I self published a small booklet of "Stories My Grandma Told Me" which included a 7-page biography of the old lady I wrote in college as a term paper, Jeannette did a wonderful job with her book.

Ladies who struck out on their own in the bygone years were people with true grit. Nothing would beat them down. Lily spent her early life ranching and breaking carriage horses in USA, my grandma was a peasant planting rice paddy in Southern China.

Lily's first husband two-timed her. My grandpa died probably of a stroke in his late forties. Lily chose a good man and married for a second time. My grandma single-handedly brought up five children, four biological and one adopted.

Lily left home at fifteen and rode her pony 500 miles to her first job in a frontier town. My grandma left China at age 20 to sail to the then Malaya as a mail order bride. Both women were courageous and go-getters. Lily was born in 1901 in West Texas while grandma was born in 1903 in Canton, South China.

It is amazing to me that women in the east and the west of around the same era could possess the same spirit in striking out into the unknown to lead lives they desired.

(1275)Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer

Table Mountain, South Africa is as exotic a place as I could imagine.

This is the very first book I read that was written in Africa and placed in Cape Town. Reading in between the lines, I noticed tension among the three groups: the whites, the blacks and the coloureds.

While the world is ravaged with COVID-19, it is most unlikely I would ever find the money or courage to visit Cape Town. It is such a blessing that authors like Deon Meyer brought his city to me in a book.

I have enjoyed this book as much as books on murder written by Swedish authors. Apart from TV documentaries, such books allow me to armchair travel.

(1274)Gweilo by Martin Booth

It is a bitter sweet tale of childhood in Hong Kong. "Gweilo" is a term of the Cantonese for white men. An equivalent in Malaysia is "Mat Salleh", and in Thailand it is "Farang".

There is something about Hong Kong that draws me. If I have lots of money, I would probably visit Hong Kong yearly in December around Christmas time. Of course that is not practical right now with COVID and the political instability with China clamping down on the activists in the former crown colony.

My friend Mei argued with me that Singapore is just as safe as Hong Kong, so why do I dread going to Singapore as a vacation spot? Well, Hong Kong has character but Singapore is kind of boring. Even watching women's fashion could be fun in Hong Kong but I hardly look at clothes women wear in Singapore twice. Melbourne and Sydney are as cold as Hong Kong certain months, but I doubt I would visit those cities again.

I may not have travelled to as many countries as my contemporaries, but Hong Kong is definitely my #1 destination if I want to burn a few thousand dollars and there is not protest there.

(1273) Sweet drinks

I grew up in a household where there were usually 12 cases of gassy drinks in the store room from age 9 onwards. When I hit age 21, I stopped taking soft drinks with no prompting from my parents.

My husband came from a home that he only got to drink soft drinks during Chinese New Year or during wedding dinners in restaurants. He seemed to have an unlimited capacity for drinking soft drinks. It is amazing that his blood sugar reading is fairly normal now.

His youngest brother turned diabetic at age 40. His eldest brother still allowed himself unlimited refills on Sunday. On week days he does not allow himself sugary drinks.

Where should a parent draw the line with coke or Fanta? I don't encourage daily drinking, but I think it is destructive to deprive a child totally. Father and mother have to come to an agreement somehow, or else juniors would divide and conquer.

(1272)Regrets

Recently a girl friend asked me if I ever regretted having children. The answer is yes, many a time, when the children were young. Children chopped up a mother's sleep for months or years. One could be exhausted looking after two children under the ages of four. When a mother has a third child and has no helper, she often could be sleep deprived and depressed.

My way to overcome that was to work part time but send my children to a full time babysitter. That way at least I get to catch up with my sleep and perhaps could go out to do something for myself one afternoon a week.

After talking to me, my friend sends her baby to child care 5 days a week. She works from home now and looks after her 8 year old by herself.

(1271)Keeping workers

Six years ago I found a temporary job in Sabah. My son and I would eat lunch in a Chinese coffee shop on Saturdays. For five Malaysian Dollars, we get two meat dishes and one vegetable in single portion on a plate of white rice. Ice Chinese tea and a small bowl of hot soup would come along with the plate. We call it economy or mix rice, a common offering for the poor in this part of the world.

There were three native servers in this shop, two boys and one girl. Today, only two boys remain. The more skilled boy makes and serves drinks; the other collects used crockery, wipes the tables and generally helps the customers.

One morning, a man asked where the girl went. It was about 6:15am. The sun rises early in Sabah as we follow Kuala Lumpur time which is closer to Thai time zone. At that time of the morning, the shop was more or less empty. The lady boss said that it was just too bad that a well trained worker could not in real life be kept too long. Apparently two weeks ago during one lunch time, the rush was just about over. The lady boss was busy collecting money from a table of four. The well trained boy was engaged making drinks. The other boy was in the kitchen assisting the cook. Two customers walked in and stood in front of the food waiting to be served. The girl was holding a drink she made for herself, seated down behind the counter. She was not willing to stand up, put down the cold drink to serve. In the end the lady boss quickly detached herself from answering the customers, passed the change over and hurried to pack lunches. So did the drinks boy, he quickly served the last drink ordered and hurried to pack for the second customer.

After the episode was over, the lady boss chided the girl server. She said next time do put down the drink and serve the waiting customers because everyone at the shop front was busy. The girl kept quiet but did not look happy. The next day she didn't turn up for work. As the girl was monthly paid, she called up at nine am to say she was sick. Then she absented herself for three more days with no further call. By then the male boss took her off the employment list, assuming she left without resigning.

A week later the drinks person asked if the lady boss would take the girl back. The answer was the earlier work contract was broken, should the applicant want the job back, she need to turn up in person to apply. At this point, boss lady sighed. When the girl was in her teens, the boss' family used to house her until she was of age and found friends to rent a house with. The boss' mother used to cook dinners and treat the girl as a family member. That meant free lodging, free transport and free dinners. It seemed that as it goes, the girl has forgotten and was no longer grateful for past deeds and the on going relationship for more than ten years.

(1270) Voice recognition

A friend adopted a child and is home-schooling him. I have met the child six years ago. He is almost 8 now but is reading on the level of a 5-year-old. He is bright and quick but displaced quite a few inversions of the letters.

The child is quite a whiz in getting the maximum use of a smart phone. By using voice recognition, he probably thinks that he could get away with not reading much. After all, with the advance features of an android, one need not write or spell to communicate.

Perhaps in the west he could get away without reading fluently. Here in Asia, I think one has to be able to read to get a job that pays well. The child's adoptive dad is a Canadian citizen. His adoptive mom was born in Sabah. I wonder where he would choose to reside when he grows up.

(1269)Being cheated

Instead of placing a standing order for coffee, I have chosen to collect it from a bus depot.

Normally, my supplier would send it by bus, it costs $7 per parcel. This time she was busy and her friend did her a favour by dropping it at the parcel desk in the bus company, that friend paid $17 instead of $7.

Questioning the receiving clerk, she said the delivery charge was $7 as usual. The sender probably was not watchful, the despatch clerk altered a copy of the invoice stealthily and pocketed the $10. I suppose one should watch counter staff with eagle eyes especially if not familiar with the sending process.

It gives a bad taste in the mouth to be cheated like that. It is a good thing my supplier was fair and she did not load that $10 on me.

(1268) Buying eggs

Recently I bought 10 eggs that were supposed to come from free range chickens. They were good, the egg yolks were more orange in colour than normal commercial eggs.

A week later, I bought 10 for myself and 10 for my good friend. For two months or so, the price was maintained. I paid $4 for 10 small eggs. A few weeks later, my friend caught on and asked me to buy 30 such eggs for her. When I finally went to purchase for her, there was no package of 10, so I bought 30 for her and 30 for myself. This time I paid $15 for 30 eggs, they were a bit bigger. Well, I suppose I am willing to pay more money for good eggs.

That was until I found 2 spoilt eggs in the middle of the tray. I mean, really black and stinky old eggs. It was dinner time, a little too dark to drive to the shop to complain. So I took the easy way out and threw away the bad eggs. Much later I met my friend and she told me there were 3 bad eggs in the middle of her tray. That sounded like the supplier or seller purposely put bad eggs to cheat the consumers.

I complained to the cashier and she said to bring the bad eggs and she would replace. But, really, who would put stinky eggs in plastic bag and keep it until marketing day since I do not shop daily. I simply stopped buying eggs in that shop. That day I saw they have stacks of eggs unsold. I was not the only one who boycotted those eggs. After all I could buy eggs in a dozen places in town or near where I live.

(1267)A collection of books

When I was in Secondary school my library consisted of two classrooms and offered 6500 books. It was considered an average library in a small school.

My cousin Jess owns 7000 to 8000 books. All of them are new, and lovingly handled and stored in boxes with naphthalene balls. When I was visiting her family regularly in the 1990s, we have talked loosely about endowing a foundation to care for the collection. I told her that she needed a premise that is air-conditioned at least 8 hours a day. She needs a librarian or curator full time, that won't come cheap.

When another relative went into will and trust writing, we explored that avenue of leaving the collection to a trust company. Jess said she did not own enough cash for the initial outlay right at her projected death.

She did ask my youngest once if she could leave her substantial collection to be cared for in the future. As my daughter did not own a house, she declined the kind offer as she would have no premise to house the books. In fact, we had a good laugh together when my daughter commented that I would be a better person to care for the books since I was a school librarian for six years. Well, the fact is I am older than Jess 9 years, I may not outlive her that long.

Now my brother's son is 14 years old. He will co-own a three storey dwelling with his brother in the future. Ted loves books, he probably would be a good candidate to be considered by Jess to inherit her books. It is just as well I never have the funds to become a serious collector, else I would have a similar problem.

(1266)Injustice

The great injustice of my life is the fact that both my brothers were sent to English primary school but I was to go to a Chinese school at age 7.

Throughout the six years of torture I had like at least 4 times the amount of homework daily compared to them. You see, pages and pages of Chinese writing and copying had to be done every school day to place the memory into the brain via the muscular-neurological route in order for the child to recognise a character by sight and to recall how to write the character from memory.

So when my brothers went out to play, I stewed at home to complete the regular load of copying and exercises. At the same time, they would laughed at me the slow coach before walking out to have fun. Many years later, after I returned from tertiary education abroad, I found that on my first birthday, my dad told my mum that he believed that I have inherited most of his talents. That sounded most unbelievable, how could any parent know that much at such an early stage? Yet my dad was confident that I could juggle three languages simultaneously.

It was no mean feat to spend six years mastering Chinese (a very difficult language to learn). Then for the next six years to pick up enough Malay and English. One must pass Malay to clear GCE O-level. I am very fortunate that I saw the beauty of all three languages. After O-level, one has two years to improve in English to go abroad. So it seems that my father was correct in estimating my ability to adapt and qualify somehow in all three languages over the years.

Looking back, it would have been a lot easier to obey and follow the path mapped out by my dad and teachers. At birth, my brain was wired to learn Chinese. It was seemingly effortless. Why, I do not know, perhaps the brain was designed to memorise pictorial characters. Of course it helped that I have perfect recall in hearing. Yet it was extremely difficult for me to learn any language that involved the alphabet and phonetic blending. I failed English in Year Five and Malay in Year Six. I even failed the important Malay Trial Exam for GCE O-level. Thank Goodness I miraculously passed Malay in the real exam - that was another story in itself.

Now that I am writing in English, it is of course quite difficult for anyone to believe that I was quite hopeless in English in 1973. In fact I could hardly speak nor write an acceptable sentence in English when I entered Remove, a preparatory year for switching the medium of instruction. Should I decide to obey my dad, I would probably have attended a private Chinese High School on scholarship (offered to me at age 12). After the 13th year of education move onto Taiwan to study Journalism. At the tender age of 12, two of my Chinese language teachers thought I would make a creditable editor in any Chinese newspaper some day. Since I told them my family was not wealthy enough to be able to pay the high fee for private education, probably my kind Headmistress convinced a few rich and influential women to create a special scholarship for me. I declined it in politeness and set my heart to conquer English. Much later I did miraculously won enough aid and a memorial scholarship to attend a college in USA. Looking back, it was sheer stubbornness in being adamant to reinvent the wheel, after all, what is the difference between the first and the second hard fought for scholarships? Either leads to a Bachelor's degree, although in different languages in different countries.

I did not tell my dad the once-in-a-life-time generous offer. He signed my school selection form after extracting a solemn promise from me that I would score a credit in GCE O-level Chinese even though I abruptly switched the medium of instruction to Malay at age 12. That I did. I was fortunate to obtain a Credit 6 at first try. 1 and 2 are distinctions, 3,4,5 and 6 are credits. Being lazy, I just worked hard enough to fulfil my promise to my father. I was cutting things very narrow. If I had hit a 7 then it would mean retaking the single paper until I get a credit. Most of my classmates found it hard to believe that one often knows how much effort and time to put in for a certain grade.

(1265) The Last Testament by Sam Bourne

This name reminded me of The Testament by John Grisham.

Of course if such a will is found, the testament of Abraham of Genesis would be supremely important historically and politically. Yet it is not uncommon to have wills ignored. A family friend passed on and his wife was mum on the location of his will. She thought it was with the 85 year old family lawyer. She did not try to get in touch with him. Neither did she check the safe deposit box jointly owned by her husband and her. Since their only child is half the world away, she did not attempt to help her mom in any way as the death occurred during the lock down period of COVID. It looks like nothing will be done until mom's death. Even then, will the daughter be able to return from USA to claim the inheritance? With COVID and the instability in the US, would a mere PR (permanent resident) dare to leave US soil amidst all manner of executive orders banning folks from returning to US.

Another family with children scattered among a few time zones faced the parent's will which is not practical to execute. They bypassed it and used the LA (Letter of Administration) to access the inheritance. That would be very time consuming because of the red tape as well as delays caused by the COVID shut down. Nevertheless it could be done, after some time.

(1264) The Overlook by Michael Connelly

Books are like old friends. The first time I read The Overlook was when my neighbour loaned me about ten Michael Connelly books.

The second time I saw it and had access, it was in my host family's library. Since Dr Loo had like twenty five Readers Digest condensed books, I did not choose to reread it.

This is my third time meeting this book, I borrowed it from the Sabah library. Flipping through this story which I still remember brought to mind my good friend's ordeal.

While many people chose to marry others of different nationalities, my friend chose to marry someone from a northern country. When the marriage broke down, she not only lost her marital home and the joint account, but also the custody of her children whom she loved dearly. You see, she is a simple honest woman who happened to be naïve, he is a crafty lawyer. While she got on well with him, it never occurred to her to apply for citizenship. After her divorce, she lost her permanent residency because she could not find a good job there.

In one sense, I could say that he would be kinder to have killed her physically. In real life he turned his children against her, almost framed her for child abuse. To escape from a fate of living in prison, she run. After two years of living from hand to mouth teaching English and subsisting in a dingy rented room, she swallowed her pride and returned to her home town.

Now with the COVID pandemic raging, effectively she has no access to her grown children except through whatsap and email. Now I see the wisdom of my mother, "Do not marry a person from another country unless you are willing to live there until you die." she said prior to my boarding a Pan Am flight to New York city in 1981.

(1263) Dangerous legacy

While it is a crime killing individuals in one's way, I think sometimes it could be more than a crime to deter progress in one's family.

My father's cousin owned a shop lot in the centre business district in a mining town. The town centre has been dying for years. The cousin refused to sell in the boom years. Once a consortium offered $3,000,000 to buy the pre-war double-storey 30x105 square feet concrete structure. He, the owner, simply believed the maxim that one buys property to keep. Now that he has passed on, his 78 year old widow and his 50 year old daughter existed in the decaying building. That neighbourhood boasted of boarded up buildings, multi-storey business structure with underground car parks. It is also unsafe and full of unsavoury elements after dark. Both ladies sleep with one eye open as well as a base ball bat next to the bed.

Much as I do not understand why two women of average intelligence need to "defend" their property. It is the fact that they have been staying there for more than forty years. It may just be the great unknown that frightened them. It is seemingly safe to stick to what one is used to than to consider something new. Should one day those two become statistics of robbery turned into murders, I wonder if we may say that the proud former owner of that building left behind a legacy that led to the demise of his family?

(1262) Under Orders by Dick Francis

This is an excellent crime novel set in the racing world. Every Francis book I have read turned out to be gem.

The theme that struck me was the father and son angst between Lord Enstone and Peter. I was living on the periphery of something like that in Silver City about 18 years ago.

That year, I had an autistic high-functioning student. His parents were highly paid lawyers. The child's elder brother was like Peter, a much tormented young man. He was in pre-university then. I had little contact with this brother except when he came to pick my student up. Living in a friendly neighbourhood, my student struck up friendship with my neighbours' children.

My neighbour, a very perceptive and lonely woman, told me that alcohol was a problem in that household. When dad had a glass too many, poor elder son suffered emotionally from father's outbursts. However, my student was much loved and spoiled by his father. The mother was sensible and logical, she could neither influence her husband nor help the elder son.

Thank goodness the wealth in this family saved the elder son. He flew to UK to continue his tertiary studies. Should he graduate, then he had the choice of not returning to his hometown. He could craft his own niche instead of fighting an influential and rich father as Peter in the story did.

(1261) Black Wind by Cussler

In this book, the toxic brew was small pox and HIV organisms.

Now, we are facing the pandemic of COVID-19. In a way, the coronavirus acted as a game changer. What appeared to be a scourge for a limited time, may turn out to be a long-term curse bringing in what some call 'the new normal', permanently.

Some say it was the once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic. Others suspected human intervention. Fingers pointed to China, USA, and elsewhere. But whatever it is, the virus is here to stay. We humans have no option but to find a way to function and live with the spreading, or retreating of the virus in our midst.

I feel for those who laboured for the past thirty years, scrimping and saving all they could, for travelling in their golden years. It does look like the travel industry would not return to normal within the next two to five years.

God help those whose children are scattered all over the world in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, UK and everywhere else!

Visiting one's children who has adopted those nations as their forever home, becomes enormously complicated, as countries have shut down their borders to all except their own citizens.

To walk out of my door, I need to wear a face mask. To walk into any public premises, involves compulsory recording of my full name, my phone number, current body temperature, date and time. Hand sanitizer becomes a constant fact of life. I know it is a small price to pay for the ability to walk out of my front door.

(1260)Pain

My son met up with his favourite cousin. After a nourishing meal that comforted their souls, they went shopping. They bought sausages, bread, tarts and last of all, six big tubes of Counterpain.

Now, that is a little out of the ordinary. A few questions later, it was revealed that my aunt by marriage used one tube (family size) every two weeks to dull her pain in her lower limbs beneath the knees.

While I have always known her unhappiness, I never realised the amount and the degree of pain she had to endure. Sure, she lost her dad before school age during the Japanese occupation of peninsular Malaysia. Instead of going to school until age 17, she gave up early at 12 to look after her four brothers and to run the home. Her widow mum used to hold two jobs to make ends meet.

My uncle could have been the best looking man in his neck of town, but he was not an easy husband. My grandmother definitely would not have been termed a good mother-in-law. But both my grandma and uncle had passed on. The former departed 44 years ago while the latter died 2 years ago. If it was those two were the source of her pain emotionally, then she should be better now. What she should do is to let go, forgive and enter a new phase of a better life.

Now I thought of the maid mentioned in blog 1258. After three husbands and five sons. She still work hard at age 62. Her husband divorced her and she lost two sons to him. The second husband was murdered by his brother-in-law over a few acres of rubber land. She managed to keep the two sons with this husband. The third husband disappeared while her youngest was a toddler. Yet she said God was good to her. A friend introduced her to her present employer 23 years ago and she never look back to those tearful days with three young children.

Comparing the lives of my aunt and this friend, I conclude that it is not what happened, it is how one reacts that determines one's life. Most Indonesians I met are Moslems, they have a certain way of attributing happenings to the will of God. It may sound fatalistic, yet the ready acceptance of bad fortune and the reaction of working hard to overcome it seemed to work for this friend.

(1259) Confucious saying

Yesterday I was talking about the roles of man and woman. Please don't get me wrong, I am educated and I did work outside the home many years. What I am talking about is taking over the role of one's husband in bringing home the bacon for a sustain period of time.

Many years ago as a young woman I used to think that Confucius is a die hard sexist. After all, he said that a woman without any money or money making talents is virtuous. In my modern mind, I thought it was alright either to have wealth or abilities that can make money. Surely that would be good assets for any person, man or woman.

Thirty years on, my view on such a matter changed. First, my best friend in pre-university became the CEO of a bank in one of the Middle-Eastern countries. Of course I was happy for her. Interestingly her husband went into semi-retirement to ferry their two children.

Next, my best friend after college became one of the premier lawyers in town. Her husband happened to be like 12 years older than her. After he was retrenched from a multinational firm, he also took things easy to become the three children's transporter. Shortly after that, they migrated to Canada.

The third case was my neighbour in Sabah, she worked long and hard in a Chinese regional company to put her three children through higher studies while her husband took it easy losing like two hundred thousand ringgit in an ill fated retail and wholesale business. There are men who are fantastic managers but hopeless businessmen.

Fourthly, a friend in Thailand rushed out to teach in both a government school and a private tutoring centre to make ends meet when her husband lost his high paying job. Her marriage crumbled and her ex managed to turn both her darlings against her. She lost custody of both off springs.

Last of all, a woman doctor wanted to get her child bearing years over in as short time as possible. She had two biological children within 18 months and adopted a third child whose age was in between the former two. There was a time period that she had three children under the age of 4. It was tough. Her husband had to give up his career to help the maid and his mother in child care. As a result they become a single income family. It does seem that while it is wonderful the wife helps supplement the family income, it actually is not a good idea that the wife takes over the task of bringing home the bacon. Surely not many men are good at nurturing, cooking, cleaning and all that a homemaker does to run the home.

(1258) His mysterious way

The first stint of my stay in Sabah lasted two and a half years. When landlord no 1 wanted to increase rental from $550 to $700, I gave notice.

One of my son's student's parents offered him a suite of two connected rooms on top of their restaurant. It took me a week to shrink from a double storey three room three baths to two small rooms.

My neighbour's maid agreed to take anything I decided could not fit into the said two rooms. Every morning for that week I waited to see my neighbours (a couple with grown children away) left for work before moving things to the maid. When she could, she came over to make multiple trips of moving small items in baskets and boxes.

Much later she told me her mistress had had no idea I gave her loads of things. I was very surprised! I know the master would not mind . But to maintain the peace of this neighbour's household I was discreet. There were shelves in the maid's room. She cleverly covered them with old discarded sheets fixed with clothes clips. When her mistress pointed to the sheets, the maid explained that climbing up chairs to wipe the shelves daily caused knee pain. After all, she was sixty two years old although she was fit and spry.

During that week, three times friends and relatives came in vehicles to move things to her son's house in the plantation. The plantation house is rather big with many rooms. When the son borrowed his father-in-law's double cab truck to transport things to the mother's house, they timed the arrival to after dark. The son would back the truck close to the main door of the wooden house before unloading. None of her neighbours even saw what she had acquired. Through the years, another son's father-in-law built recycled cupboards for her. Of course she paid him whatever she could afford out of her meagre pay. When she first started to work for the present couple twenty three years ago, her monthly pay was $230. At the time I was living next to her master she was earning $600. On such low pay she could not have savings. But she remembered how her master and mistress allowed her three boys to spend their holidays in their house. They also undertook to pay for the boys' education, the first boy actually completed his pre-university. As foreigners, education is not free. She was mindful of kind deeds and was not calculating about pay.

As far as she was concerned, it was God who ordained me staying a few doors away. In her wildest dream she never imagine she would be given such a range of household items. Most of them I have freighted them over in boxes paying Air Asia $20 for 25 kilograms. During the many trips, each member of my family would bring them as luggage. I am also touched that she cried with joy. My loss of a low price rental house resulted in a great blessing in her old age. We parted with a tight hug, knowing that nothing happened by chance. It is the mysterious hand of God.

(1257) A stubborn daughter

When I first met my present landlady, she was selling economy rice as lunch. My son and I often turned up lunch time hoping to see shell fish fried in eggs. After two months, she sent her daughter to learn English from my son. At that point of time the girl was twelve years old. As the mother confessed that she married a stubborn man, it was therefore not unusual that she begot a stubborn child. While exasperated with the difficult daughter, she said once that it (all the effort, money, time ...) could all be in vain that the girl may not make it through university. I begged to differ at that point of time, saying that things often were better than they seemed to a parent in distress.

Now is exactly five years later. Her girl just restarted school after three and a half months of enforced holidays due to COVID-19 shut down. Her class of 38 was split into three portions to comply with the rule of social distancing. Lower Forms were pushed to the afternoon to make room for smaller classes. Prior to the social lock down, the girl's last monthly test of Accounting was 38%. In November and December 2019 she opted to spend 8 hours a day co-writing a novel to win a prize instead of getting help in learning Accounting. (She did win tablets with four other friends.) SPM, GCE O-Level equivalent, was to be held in March 2021 thanks to COVID-19. She talks about going into Business Studies majoring in Finance. While one does not need to keep Accounts for that line, the understanding, the ability to grasp at the figures in general are essential. The girl could consistently score A or A+ in Mathematics, why is it that she could fail Accounts? One reason could be she refused to memorise terms and concepts.

The problem then is attitude and not aptitude. Plus lately she turned up one morning to wake my son and me at 5:30 am to ask for four colour photos to attach to her Moral Folio. A month ago she came to print pages of text for her Accounts Folio, at that time my son said why not print what she needed for the Moral Folio. Her reply was that it was quite a long while to the dead line. Interestingly she was sure she said am and not pm. Still, for 5:30 it would only be logical to say pm. It is customary not to inconvenience those who do one a favour.

Looking into the future, I wonder if her dad would blow a couple of hundred thousand ringgit over her pre-university in Finance and later fork out more to change her major once she found out that Accounts is part of business studies. Suppose if he refuses to waste money over a change in major, would she make it through the degree?

I am finally forced to agree with her parents that an education degree would make more sense to this girl. I think of my youngest child's good friend Sharon who holds an educational diploma but is doing very well in telemarketing.

(1256)Closing a business after Covid-19 shut down

The seafood restaurant behind where my son and I live closed down. It seemed a hasty decision to me. Due to Covid 19 all businesses were forced to close down for two weeks. The first places to be allowed to open were supermarkets. Then mini markets, grocery stores and wet markets. Restaurants one by one reopened, most are for take out only initially. By the time businesses were returning to normal, the seafood restaurant opened for take out, in less than a week, it decided to close for good.

My landlady said it was not hasty decision, rental was $1800. Workers, even at half pay, probably cost at least $3500. Then water bills and electricity bills run on and had to be paid. Even little or no usage meant minimum payment. She said the boss has been losing at least $15,000 for that three months of closure. The boss decided to give up the shop and go on to selling seafood wholesale operating from his home.

(1255)Ideas on eternity

During my uncle's last visit to Kuala Lumpur, he stayed in my elder brother's house. One morning, I had a chance alone with him and I grabbed it and told him of my dad's death bed scene. While he does not believe in demi-gods or ghosts, he as a trained doctor who could not deny the idea of an all knowing creator of the universe. His idea is that if there is such a God, God is simply too busy to care about one out of 7 billion souls on earth. After I related all the details and the subsequent dream, he promised me that if he has a chance to call out "Jesus, save me!" with his last breath, he would do so like my dad. I hope he did not promise just to get rid of me. Well, I have done all I could. At every opportunity I've shared what I could.

I am also grateful that the talk I gave in Johor allowed me to be accompanied by my cousin Bee Leng to visit fifth uncle in Desa Bayu. We drove on the new high way (open since Chinese New Year 2020) to go to the housing area before Desaru. Staying in my uncle's 5 room house for 2 nights gave me a chance to talk to him about my dad's last hour. He listened attentively as he saw my dad for about 30 minutes in Tung Shin Hospital before rushing off to catch a 6-hour bus ride to Johor about 4 days before the latter's passing. Like my uncle on my mum's side, fifth uncle on my dad's side did not comment on my dream. I find older Chinese are not flippant about dreams, there is a place for dream language in the Chinese culture. He too promised me that he would do the needful at the last moment because he wanted to meet my dad again. 

(1254) Working in China

At one point of my life I was contemplating a year of teaching English in Kwangchow or Chung San. I sounded out my uncle and he told me that it is best overseas Chinese do not return to work in China, unless it is with an International Corporation with contractual, enforceable letters of appointment running to 18 pages. As he himself was born overseas and did return to China in his youth, he must know what he is talking about. I have since thought of China with lots of reservation unless it is bringing money there to spend as tourists.

To tour China is hardly something of interest to me. Meeting kin is another matter. Now that main land Chinese could move around freely, every few years I see my elder cousin and his wife. My second brother visits China often, a habit he started when he studied and worked in Hong Kong. My eldest brother and wife visited Chung San  recently and invited my second cousin and wife to visit us in Kuala Lumpur.
Now that there are female infants in both cousins' families, it will be three years before they would venture to visit a place five hours by flight away. The Heng family seemed to multiply very slowly. From Generation 1 of 2, G2 of 4, G3 of 9 and G4 of 14. There is no G5 yet. Though two G4  have been married for 4 and 3 years respectively, both couples are childless. Both G4 carry other surnames and are descended from daughters. There are only six descendants from G4 with the surname of Heng.
My elder uncle had the Heng family records. According to my elder cousin who heard from her dad, the Hengs (Chinese character bear) came from Hubei. Before the dynasty ended, the ancestor used to work in Peking as a government scholarly servant. Now that elder uncle had passed on, no one knows where the document is. It could have been thrown away after the flood at the back of his shop lot. A business man valued profit, why did he care about family history? 

(1253)Medical profession, all in the family

There is a family in Silver City  of seven members, all seven are medical doctors. Father is a gynaecologist while mother is a paediatrician. All five children are doctors of one kind or another.
Keziah has a classmate whose parents are both medical doctors too. Over the years the first daughter became a haematologist. The second son became a physician who sings in his leisure time. The third son wanted to become a film director when he was 16. Both father and mother objected. They must have gone on their knees to pray for him to change his mind. Over a two year period his interest moved onto economy and he chose to go to a country other than where his siblings went for further studies.

Recently I wonder if his outrageous first choice was a means to deflect away medicine? His eldest sister did want to be a doctor. But his elder brother did not want to be a doctor initially. Yet his suggestion of music as a major was not practical. His father countered with an offer of spending the million prepared into purchasing a shop lot and equipping it into a music instrument shop for him to run. He thought about it and retreated to medicine.

While the third one was growing up, he must have been looking at the first one undergoing a most demanding course. Then she saw how the second one reluctantly persevered through two degrees to qualify. I actually think being a very smart person, he thought of a way to counter the father's one-track mind. 

(1252) The Chinese mania of forcing children to become medical doctors

When Keziah was a 2 year old, there is a girl in church who used to carry her all around the church grounds on Sunday. Our church in Silver City was made up of five buildings spread over three acres or more. We have a main sanctuary, a kindergarten, chapel for the secondary school next door, a gymnasium and a long educational block.

Kelly is a bright , personable, sensitive and caring tween then. It is hard to remember how old she was when Keziah first appeared in church way back in 1994.But I remembered being quite worried whether she could handle Keziah who was rather plump then. A Sunday school teacher, I think it was Amy, reassured me that Kelly is strong, responsible and had her head screw on right. So from initially  running after Kelly, I merely told her to return the toddler to me, not to pass her to any one else. That Kelly was good about obeying. She did not disappoint me, not even once.

Over the years I saw her struggle. Given a free choice, she would have made an excellent early educational specialist, whether in running a kindergarten or becoming a specialist like educational psychologist working with special children... She would be such a potential blessing to a whole generation  of 0-5 children either in KL or Silver City.

The last I heard, she became something link with children, whether paediatrician or child psychologist, I could not recall. Maybe you would say that is fitting, right inside her area of interest too. But sad to say, she was working in a Singapore hospital the last time my daughter located her on face book. Great loss to our nation!

(1251)Alcoholic genes

I remember my first host family whom I spent the first Christmas holidays and part of the first summer with. Papa Ellison was adopted. There was no details of his forebear's medical background. The second generation were five girls, all of them happily married. My friend from college is the elder daughter with one brother from the youngest girl. Like her grandma and mum, she married young. After her marriage to her high school sweetheart, she transferred to a state university.

Years later I visited her and her husband in Raleigh. She has adopted a Korean boy, a biracial boy and then a Korean girl. Catching up with the post college years, she related how her brother drank to excess and dropped out of college. He drifted from one job to the next, finally settled in selling cars and made Florida his home. By that time it was widely known that there was a set of genes that are prone to alcoholism. People could go for generations without suffering from alcoholism provided they abstain. Nobody else in the entire clan drink to excess. Strictly speaking, most of them don't drink, period. Maybe it is upbringing, perhaps you call it family culture or it is Christian abstinence. All six families are church going right up to that time, somewhat like what most people call the American dream.

In my own family, I have a cousin on my mother side who drinks. We heard about his Saturday late night vomiting. Yet it was totally incongruent with the fact that he is an official quite high up in the district hospital. His first marriage failed.The first wife did not remarry after more than 10 years. His second wife just delivered a baby girl a few months back after about four years of marriage.
I guess comparing my cousin to Steven there is a difference. My cousin could function and keep to his profession. Steven crashed a few times before he joined the AA and stayed sober, counting the days, months and hopefully years. As a clan, most of us hardly drink. every one of my maternal grandma's four biological children and one adopted girl did not drink. From my eldest aunt, her elder girl may take half a glass of wine. Her younger brother may take a can of beer. Both my second uncle's children are strict Christian non-drinkers. None of my mum's three children take to drinking. It is only from small uncle that his younger son picked up the drinking habit as a college student. The family history closely mirrored the Ellisons. After all, my grandma was adopted, she hardly knew her siblings, let alone relatives or family medical history. 

(1250)Freshman Fall

A good friend in college gave me an autumn picture her brother took of the woods while driving her to college. He aptly named it Freshman Fall. I took the picture back from North America and deposited it with an artistic friend who treasured it and displayed it in her dining area which is predominantly brown in colour. A touch of gold in foliage added aesthetics to her nook.

During my freshman first semester, I had a tough time with my roommate. She was a bright spark, who at age 16 won a merit scholarship to my college. Although I was a mature student at 21, my short stature and baby face made me look younger than her. Despite her combative attitude, I tolerated it with a shrug. At the end of the semester, the aggressor went to complain about my daylight absences from a shared room. She was distraught that I brought the wind, the chill and the snow into our shared warm room late at night. The Housing Director called me and heard my side of the story. Well! I said my dear roommate was spoiled and arrogant. But as an adult five years her senior, I think she has great potential if she could stick to our college and hack it socially. The Housing Director laughed and asked if I want another roommate. I said no thank you. It was arranged that I was given a single right at the end of another wing. Right before leaving her office, I asked if it was a joke that I was assigned with this particular girl. Her eyes twinkled and said I was yet another outstanding girl from Malaysia who did well academically and socially in spite of any adverse circumstances. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Sharing the interview with my pals at the international table, I had a good chuckle with them. In a way it could be a high compliment to my compatriots. A Science Professor who was there counted on his fingers, there were no less than four Malaysian girls who won high honours (Phi Beta Kappa or Sigma Xi) at graduation during the past fifteen years or so. The college generally take in one Malaysian student every two or three years.

A year later, I heard that my ex-roommate was sent to Coventry for attempting to break up friendship of her close associates. She could not take the silent treatment and transferred to a community college near her home town. It was such a waste! Her biological father abandoned her and her mum. A full scholarship obtained was such a blessing to a deserving student with limited financial means. It was a pity that she did not lie low and persevered through the four years of college. All she needed to do was to apologise and eat humble pie to stay on. In spite of everything she did to me, I bore her no malice. Why should any American girl be nice to me just because I was a foreign student? Though some are, few and far in between. I find the children of diplomats, corporate leaders posted overseas, and military offspring are the most friendly to non-Americans in general.

(1249)Meant not to be

There is a saying, marriages are made in heaven.

I have a childhood friend who fell in love with her business partner. They bought a condo to live in and built the business. Thus they were happy for many years. When he wanted to get married, she was too involved in her projects. The date was postponed. When she asked about it, it was a bad recession. Money was scarce. It is traditional to have a lavish reception, especially for an only son who would be the groom.

Then she had a life threatening condition that led to a hysterectomy. She barely escaped with her life. Since the partner's parents expected grandchildren, the entire line depends on her partner. My friend parted from the love of her life. She took the condo while he carried on with the business. She went to Australia for further studies.

Recalling this reminded me of another love story. Another friend of mine took off and visited US with the help of a few close friends. One gave her frequent flyer miles. Another gave her a cheque. Yet others gave her practical things like winter garments. She met her internet friend finally and stayed in his vicinity for almost a year. She came back a changed person. Travelling and staying abroad does broaden one's horizon. It was quite a few weeks upon her return that I heard the sad story. While she was awaiting his marriage proposal, he was undecided. After she purchased her return ticket, he cried and begged her to marry him. It was too late.
She got over him quite easily, but it took him years before he gave up. There are two points that I can't quite figure out:
1. Why wasn't it possible for her to delay the flight? After all, visa was not up and most airlines allowed a change of date 48 hours before flight time.
2. If the relationship meant that much to him, why couldn't he fly over and pursue her when his financial circumstances improved?
Of course in affairs of the heart, there are no easy answers.

(1248) Message from departed pet

In the process of arranging the chapters of my second book, I played with the order until I could reasonably end with the last sentence. Both my editors suggested better or more logical arrangement. However, I refused because my mind was made up. Writing cat stories is one thing, being cast as a cat lover or owner is quite another. Two years later, looking back now, what does it matter? Should I finish my collection of chicken tales someday, would it matter if I am known as a chicken lover?

My husband and I turned up to show Prince's owner the cat book. She was the one who ignited my desire to publish a book containing Prince's stories. She asked a most innocuous question, "On what page is the first Prince story?" I glanced at the table of content and answered evenly,"55." She burst out in tears and explained that 5 was Prince's favourite number. It has been almost a year since the beloved cat passed on to the happy hunting ground. Whenever she looked at the tree at the corner of her garden, she still find tears in her eyes. It was, in her words, like "Prince came back in the book to tell me it is quite OK."

Immediately I thought of other writer's series of piled up co-incidences in their process of writing. At the next opportunity, I will borrow from my niece and read again Tan's "The Opposite of Fate".

(1247)temporary work while waiting for result

There are sixth formers in my church in Sabah. STPM (formerly HSC, equivalent to GCE A-level) results come out in a much shorter time than 40 years previously.

While I waited for my HSC result, I worked as a temporary teacher in a Chinese Primary School in KL for a term. Similarly, my youngest worked at a law firm doing conveyance clerical work for 4 months. From that experience, she decided law is the last profession she wanted in town.
Joanna, who is a happy-go-lucky person in the Sabah church, could not find a job and seemed to cheerfully doodle at home. Yvonne is a little more assertive, she grabbed a tutoring job and has been almost tearing out her hair in struggling to teach since. In teaching, I started the ball rolling a few years before Form 6. In Form One I had a student who came to my house three times a week for English tutoring for a few months. His English did not improve much but his mum was quite pleased to see him lose a few pounds during those months. For whatever homework he did not do, he cheerfully skipped rope as punishment. The dad stopped sending him when he sensed the boy was not interested in improving his English. After LCE (now called PT3) I taught a few children in the neighbourhood for a few months. That was a learning experience for me. As the parents and the housekeeper were supportive, the children did improve  much in English and Malay during that period.

Therefore I could see why Yvonne has such difficulties. Firstly most parents in Sabah just forked out money and left things pretty much to the tutor. Next thing to note is that the children could actually do substantial work during the school holidays if the parents and the nannies are supportive. Let's say the children come for one hour of tutoring three times per week, and they consistently do one hour of home exercise every week day, that would be 8 hours of work done per week. Assuming 6 weeks of work, it adds up to 48 hours of work done. We can see that judicially planned exercises done conscientiously work wonders with some explanation during lesson time.

By the time I was working as a temporary teacher, I realised that 9 years old are not the right age group for me. After strict streaming, 3E as a class is difficult to teach. I used to mark sentence making twice a week and journal writing weekly. The first was tough enough, it is the second that killed a novice teacher. It is funny that I did spend most of my adult life teaching remedial English to either college age classes or one-to-one tutoring to young children. At least it is much easier than attempting to teach a class of 48 children whom each required special attention.

(1246)Triple C

There are three men in my church, all transplants from out of town. One of their wives called them Triple C because all their family names begin with C.

Senior C1 hailed from the Capital city. C2 comes from Sarawak and C3 was born in Perlis. C1 accepted the Lord recently and was baptised. C2 has been a faithful servant of God for many years. It was he who brought C1 and C3 to his adopted church. I met up with C1's wife briefly right before I returned to the peninsular. She related the long story of how her husband ended up working in a plantation about an hour by car from where I live. I must say that it is rather unusual that a transplanted manager from hundreds of miles away would bump into two others to form a tightly knitted little care group for all practical purposes.

When one of the Cs was hospitalised, the second C took care of transportation and registration while the third C cooked for him and sent the food to the hospital. Then when the patient was discharged, he was taken back to the bigger apartment and the other two Cs cared for him until he could return to his working place.

For the current academic term, 3 teenagers from my church are going over to Perak to attend an English intensive course. One of the three Mrs C assumed the role of the guide to help them look for rooms and settle down. This is cultural exchange at its best in a country of two geographical portions separated by the South China Sea.  

(1245)Student housing

My thoughts turned to a young friend from Borneo who is currently studying on the island of Penang.
She paid more than a fair price for her room on the third floor. Since she needed air-conditioning, she puts up with $500 advance payment  for electrical usage. Once the balance dips below $50, she has to top up with another $500. All the electricity used in her room was metered.

The unbelievable part is that while she has no water heater in an attached bathroom yet she is not allowed to use any kettle in her room. For drinking hot water, she has to collect it from downstairs from a dispenser. There are dogs downstairs within the premise and these dogs are bathed in the downstairs bathroom. Since she is not fond of dogs, she is therefore reluctant to be downstairs more than a few minutes at a time. She thinks that the downstairs bathroom is too dirty for human use. Yet that is the only source of hot water available to her. For someone who is thin and with low immune system, she regularly catches colds or flus in Penang. She chose this house to stay in because she doesn't have a car as well as she is nervous about driving on Penang island. Some of the roads in the city centre are rather narrow. From her present abode, she could walk to college within five minutes.
The thing that she mentioned that brought goose bumps along my spine is: there are at least two rats in her building. One fat one that she regularly saw behind the water dispenser. On the very next day after she first sighted the fat rat, she saw a thin, small one staring at her from her air-conditioning unit above her bed. Imagine the first thing one looks at in the morning is a rodent, what a "charming" place to reside in!

There were quite a few of us at the gathering when she related her harrowing experience. Each one came up with one suggestion or another. None could work out for her as she placed quite a number of limitations on her daily life. So it does look like she will have to rough it for all three long years. And this is where a foreign missionary couple could rent a sea-facing condo for $1,200 monthly with four rooms and three baths in relatively good condition in Tanjung Bungah, quite a good neighbourhood to me. Half the condos in that compound were empty, crying for tenants, just one year ago.

(1244) Visiting wet market

Believe it or not, it has been three years since I visited a wet market. Where my permanent home is, the only wet market is miles away and parking is hard to get. For two and a half years I did my marketing in nearby supermarkets.

For the previous two days, I bought stuff from a very small but clean wet market. On the first day, I chose to buy vegetables from the first right hand stall, as I had to break a $100 bill. On the second day, I patronised the third left hand stall. Prices were indeed a little steep in this second stall. I paid 70 cents for each medium size onion. However I found service quick and pleasant. Those who served me were from a country far away. Language had to be hand signals to simple, easy to understand Malay words. There after, for speed I chose the more pricey stall. The first right hand stall also served restaurants and cafes who phoned in orders. Patrons who come in person have to queue for payment. On that first day I moved over to buy eggs and fish from other stalls after choosing and placing my vegetables in a colander provided. By the time I returned to the first stop, all the patrons were gone. Prices were good, I could see.

On subsequent days, I walked out very early, by hurrying with my few purchases, I managed to walk back home way before sunlight hit the streets. Sometimes a few dollars could be spent to buy a little time so that one need not sweat excessively nor even be sun burnt. 

(1243)Tibet's Secret Mountain by Chris Bonington; Charles Clark

It is amazing that the mountaineering bug would bite a person until he would climb mountains into his sixties.

To me, it is like the bug for reading. Once a person loves to read, he or she may read until well into old age. It is eye-opening to read about an outsider's view of China throughout the years of travel and climbing mountains. Tibet, to many of us armchair persons, is a cold and quaint land. It is fascinating to read about it, but I seriously doubt if I would ever travel there even if I have both the budget and the leisure.

(1242) Professional chief tenant

Very often we cannot get something for nothing. For example, I get  a new life in Borneo by adapting to life in two little rooms in commercial quarters with very few amenities in the building.

I look at someone else's life with a nice big house, pleasant and conveniently located. Yet it is at the cost of putting up with six girls young enough to be her daughters. After all, they are like the daughters that she never had. So it is a part of the circle of life nevertheless.

After all, as a main tenant, the stay is free. One has to look after the cleanliness and enforce the rules for the common good. Should all six rooms be let, there is a surplus sum to pay a cleaner weekly, should the purse holder so desires. As she improves the house, she raises the rental accordingly. For two years she had had full house. The task of chief enforcer actually pays a generous food budget monthly.

One room is available for $450 a month in two months' time. Although there is no window facing outside. Guess one could not ask for everything. Getting eight out of ten points usually is sufficient. If the perspective tenant is smart, she should ask for an exhaust fan to be installed.

(1241)Ambience

I am sitting in a harmoniously arranged living-dining area. The three main pieces of furnishing are a glass top long wooden table, six rattan chairs and two long sofas of off-white fabric and beige leather.
On one side, there was a square, good quality mirror with a line of knick-knacks along the lower edge. A vase of bare branch hung with Chinese New Year paper decorations on the left of the mirror. Next to the vase are two metallic shelves of plants in interesting receptacles. On the right of the mirror is a Yamaha piano and right in the corner of a two level stairs is a triangular old wooden whatnot displaying photos and sparking glasses. On blank pieces of walls we see an abstract picture and an old black and white framed travel itinerary in French.

I can't even begin to describe the restfulness of this 17x25 feet high ceiling room. Yet I know  for a fact that most of these items came from various friends and acquaintances as well as sourced from discarded furniture from ex-pats moving out of their apartments. My hostess was a real estate agent before she returned to tertiary education in her early fifties. As a foreign student I have visited 14 families in the United States ranging from graduate students struggling to make ends meet  to very wealthy families. Yet I must say that not in old money nor new wealth have I seen a place so well appointed yet it is homey and comfortable. Of course I have been to my boss' parents home in Houston which would have netted a 4-star rating. And I have been to two rustic country homes in Texas of millionaires, one from oil and the other from beer. Although those two places were something to talk about and admire, compared to the room I just described, they paled in terms of the sense of ease, peace and ambience.

(1240) A thing of beauty

Looking at me, no one would suspect that I love beauty in odd things. The only item in my home that I want to transfer to Borneo someday is a round slab of black marble. Talking about marble, most marble tables are white and green where I come from. We do see black marble with glittering bits in major banks and exclusive hotels. Once my husband and I admired yellow marble in Danang, Vietnam on a flying visit.

Many years ago, an old friend bought the present marble slab for five thousand ringgit. I used to frequent her house to talk, to eat and to hang out as fellow homemakers. When she needed cash, one of her brothers offered $200 for the table. Another sibling offered to take it off her hands for free as the former figured she had to pay for transportation to haul the slab and the heavy stand from one house to the other. There I was, day in and day out I walked past it, touched it with wonder and looked at it with admiration. I actually thought black marble is much more beautiful than the traditionally white marble table tops. When the owner of the marble table finally moved out to one room, she gave the table to me because I love and thought it exotic.

I keep it because I like to look at it and touch its cool surface. Nature produced such pleasant looking things that the best inventors could not counterfeit in completeness. Of course I am aware of its financial value as a second hand item. I would have treasured such a thing of beauty even if it is not worth a cent on e-bay.

(1239)When god doesn't answer your prayer by Jerry Sittser

I am surprised that I finished reading this book in my friend's house. Normally I would grab every opportunity to read and blog on Reader's Digest Condensed Books and most fictions. However, all the books I saw in this friend's house previously belonged to a daughter who has since married and moved away. Thus apart from writing and typing from written manuscripts, I started reading what caught my eyes.

For one who has sat in church long enough, the common answer is that God could say yes, no, or wait to any prayer. The single prayer I have prayed over the years regarding my father's salvation took 26 years to come to pass. I am thankful that after waiting a long time, God did say yes so graciously.

But of course for anyone who prays earnestly through the years over many matters, some prayers were not answered. In this book I learned that prayers were not centred on the answers, it is centred on our relationships with God. For a person who faithfully prays, it is he who was changed in a manner that enables him to help change the world in his corner. In other words prayer is a "dangerous" thing, it changes us, takes us out of our comfort zones to work out the matter we pray about.

(1238)Shaking hands with death by terry pratchett

As part of the Baby Boomers generation, I am seeing more and more cases of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia, ... in folks mainly older than I. But sometimes in a few who are younger than 60.

A family friend, Fillip, recently died from some urinary ailment. His main complaint was he could no longer chew solid food. A soft diet of porridge and milk simply could not deliver enough nutrients to keep his body functioning. But what could a 91 year old man expect? Many parts of his aging body were almost worn out. He was getting increasingly forgetful, when he could no longer sign a legible signature to cash a cheque, he had to resort to transferring all his funds to his wife's account. His daughter and nephew would prefer to send him to a nursing home, he objected. His wife valiantly soldiered on...

My uncle was 89, suffering from Alzheimer's, when he fell and injured his head. He did not wake up from surgery. His brain was sufficiently affected by the disorder that his wife had to whisper to my mum and I not to believe what he claimed. The last two times we talked to him, facts essentially changed enough in his memory that we had to listen to things that were not true and we tried hard not to argue with him.  

His elder sister of 92 was hospitalised last December. Her muscular-skeletal system was good, but sad that the part of the brain that help her balance malfunctioned. She would wake up and struggled to stand up, yet failed to do so and fell. Her short term memory was reduced to a few minutes at best, thus the constant struggling and falling repeated itself.

My sympathies go to the overworked caregivers. A person who has lost his or her mind is no longer the person we knew them as. The third person mentioned above recognises no one. She is blissfully happy living in her own made up world. The second person was a little paranoid  about others poaching on his property or his cash, one had to humour him to get along with him.

I have a lot of respect for Pratchett to bring up the no win topic of a good, dignified death. It is much needed in every country where the life expectancy of people crosses 72.

(1237)Playing for pizza

After living a few years in America, I fully appreciate the place American football occupies there. For secondary school children in Sabah, it is Rugby. In Peninsular Malaysia, it is soccer.

It is therefore interesting to find that folks actually play football in Italy. The idea that they have a Superbowl there boggles my mind. Lately Italy is one of the countries where Corona virus seemed to pass from village to village killing many people. Perhaps one of the Chinese Medical Team's observation of Italians wearing their outdoor shoes indoor giving the virus unbridle means of infecting more and more persons is the crucial difference between European and Asian culture. It has been said that the mountainous terrain of Italy tends to make one area isolated from another. Then the longevity of the aging population possibly make the country a prime target for the relentless attack by the fast mutating virus. The western concept of personal freedom being supreme made it difficult for public order to be enforced. All these factors are contributing causes to the rapid spread of disease in that country.

Would Italy be the same joyous place I read about in this book after this pandemic ends? 

(1236)George Muller by Janet & Geoff Benge

This is the second biography of Muller I have read. The first one I borrowed from a church library probably 20 years ago, that dealt with his life work of opening orphanages and bringing up orphans in a big way.

This book, however, uses 5 chapters to show us the earlier life of Muller. Apparently, he was quite a scoundrel before he followed Christ in Theological Seminary. It was in Herr Kayser's Bible Meeting that he met God. He went there to get ideas on how to preach, after all, he was being educated to become a pastor. Apart from bible reading, hymn singing, it was the sermon reading that brought about his abrupt change of heart. After that conviction of heart, he became a new person mightily used by God to improve the lives of thousands of orphans. Amazing achievement for someone who depends only on prayers.

(1235)contrasting living conditions

As I walked from the kitchen to the dining and the sitting room in the mornings, I get glimpses of the individual rooms of tenants as they move in or out. Since the chief tenant and I would use the public space at will, I wonder what it felt like to be confined to a 10x12 feet room outside of class or work time? Most of them, I notice, eat their meals in their individual rooms.

In comparison, I am fortunate to have the space of 30x65 feet in Sabah even though the work and bed rooms cover perhaps one third of that area. In spite of the fact that the landlady's miscellaneous equipment for a defunct restaurant and a thriving catering business is scattered outside of the two little rooms, it is still wonderful to have the run of the entire first floor except for the daily visit of the landlady in adding or retrieving ingredients from the deep chest freezers for her business. She cooks either in her apartment or her sister's big wooden house in the outskirts of the city. The same sister rears 200 chickens for sale all around the spacious house. Their 82 year old mother, still plants and harvests vegetables for sale, lives next door to the said sister. Talk about the long and active  lives of the seniors living in the land below the wind.