Happy boxing day!!

It's been about three weeks since I last blogged. What was I busy with? I guess I was busy packing my room. Guess what, holidays is coming to an end, and I've yet to watch any DVDs that I had bought from Batam... :(

I started watching 9pm show, 破天网, 11pm 台湾龙卷风 and 12 midnight 包青天... Thus, every night I will sleep at 1am or even later. Usually I would not be able to sleep. Just like now, so I would be playing with my iPhone games. I'm pretty sure first week of school will be terrible for me. I will definitely knock out by 9pm everyday or have naps in the afternoon.

Anyway, it's boxing day today!!! But my best friends and I have no habits of buying gifts for one another. So well, only got one gift from my sis-in-law. :) But it's totally fine for me. As I grow older, I realized I was never really quite fascinated with Christmas and definitely not gift giving and receiving. Maybe it was because I used to be very poor. It is a very stressful thing to go for gifts exchange. And why was I poor? I never received anymore allowance since I was 19 yrs old because I was paid by MOE in my nie days. But life was really tough then trying to keep myself alive. Even when I started teaching at 21, there were still times that I did not have enough to get a meal. God blessed me with wonderful friends that provided food and transport for me when I had nothing in my pockets. So gift giving was never my forte. To me, food and transport are more practical. I would rather spend my money to give my friends a treat. Christmas to me, is just a day that my Jesus was born 2010 yrs ago.. I celebrate this day knowing that the Messiah came to set us free and that He is the One who has been blessing me all this while.

On this boxing day, I unwrapped the box of gratitude to thank all my dearest friends for your love, warmth and care all these while. Some of my closest friends had grown distant, but I will never forget how each one of them had blessed me at different points in my life. Lastly, I thank God for all these wonderful ones that He had placed in my life. Thank You, Jesus!

In loving memory of my grandma

After the demise of my grandma, I had lots of thoughts from what I observed these few days. Finally, I mustered all my courage and asked my mum about my family history and realized it wasn't as simple as I thought.

I always thought my grandma had 8 children. In actual fact, it was my grandfather who had 8 children. His first wife had 4 and she passed away in World War 2. Then he remarried my grandma and had 4 more children. The aunt who lends me car is the firstborn and my dad is ranked second of my grandma's own children.

The first uncle and first aunt that I always called are my grandfather's first wife's children. It was no wonder my first uncle didn't want to come down on the first day initially. :( But his son, my cousin, is such a filial person. He's the most caring and most giving. In the end he did and did his part as the eldest son. I guess I know now why there were "strife" in the family previously.

Anyway, I also realized that my grandma was a good cook. She used to sell bee hoon, coffee and tea. With my youngest aunt and another aunt (don't know from where), my grandma would carry the big pot of bee hoon and go to construction sites to sell. My mum mentioned that her cooking was excellent. I don't remember much except her ngoh hiam which she would make every new year. Everyone looks forward to eating that every new year.

I also realized my grandma was born in 1920. We collected her ashes yesterday and saw that her bones were not brittle like my Dad's and there was not much traces of black. According to the person helping us with the collection, traces of black means too much medicine in the body. Holes in the bones means the person was suffering from osteoporosis. My Dad's bones were like that. My grandma was such a fit person because her bones had little traces of black and her bones were whole though broken up into smaller pieces!!! She had only been to the doctor once (2008) in her entire life. I feel ashamed of myself. :(

I'm guilty of not visiting her often enough. I will miss her. She was really loving towards my brother and I. Even though she had lost much memory due to old age, she still remembered my mum, bro, dad and I occasionally. She always thought I'm still studying and wants me to study hard and be filial to my mum and dad. I will never forget her words.

I've never said this to her before:

I love you, ah ma! Rest in peace.

What a year...

The year is coming to an end soon... But I've not really rested since the last day of school. But I guess God has His perfect plans for me.

First week of hols, I was in school for meeting and P1 registration on Sat.

Second week, I went for a two and a half days Handball Course at ITE EAST. Everyday after the course, I would join the P6 leader's retreat at Aloha Loyang. I had fun playing with them. Got to know some of them better through this short time spent with them. If only this kind of interaction was done in the beginning of the year. Anyway, I will miss them.

Just when I thought I could rest after the handball course and retreat, my grandma passed away. I rushed back after my course on Wed and saw her "sleeping soundly". She lived to an old ripe age of 91 and I'm glad that she went away peacefully without sufferings and pain.

So since holiday started, I've been sleeping late and waking up very early. For a sleeping monster like me, this is really a torture. The funeral is going to last till Sun and we will collect the ashes on Mon. So I really have to hang on till Mon is over. After which will be time to do work again. :( What a holiday!!!!

I pray for strength and comfort for my whole family and hopefully the family doesn't fall apart after the eldest in the family is gone.