Life After

It was like any other weekend. We went back to home town only to find out from my in-law that my brother was warded. What disgraced. From my in-law. Not my family. I know I am the youngest and with a BIG gap. That does not mean that I need not to be informed. I am well into my thirties now!!! HELLOWWWWW!

Anyway, after settling Jien, me and hubby went to GH to pay him a visit. He was quite weak but he speaks fine. He was warded due to severe constipation. But he mentioned that I need to take care of Jien. Take care of father and my bisnes (goodness! My biz is more like a hobby only to me...okok, back to the story..) I told him everything is going to be alright. With the drips and doc's care, he should be heading home real soon- at least, this is what we thought. But he told me, it is enough. It is time for him to go. He said enough is enough with all the spending on him all these while.. But eventually, we sort of calm him down, changed subjects and he then went to sleep.

The very next day, we went again. But this time, the doctor wanted to speak to me. Asking if we did neglect him at home. Whether he is all this while - like this..I thought what like this?? Apparently, he shouted a lot and talked 'to himself' a lot last night. He even used his 'tongkat' to try hitting the doctor in the morning. He was OUT OF HIS MIND! I then said firmly - 'NO'. Yes, he could be old (not really, but pass 50), he did not speak clearly (he was born like this), he could not walk properly (he underwent a surgery before, since then, he can't really walk straight and quit his job). But he is definitely somebody with a straight mind.

BUT, I had to admit, something was amiss. We all agreed he was not in his right mind that very day. We steadfastly told the doctor that he was certainly unlike this normally. I knew him for 30 odd years!! Yes he could be a bit hot tempered but not to strangers! Only at home. He is pretty much a shy person. But that day he acted real weird, he said he wanted to get married. He asked me to quit my job so that I can stay at home to take care of him. He said xxx also can. Then he went to a female doctor and hugged her! Goodness! He said 'I want to marry you!' 'I love you' etc etc and he even said he wanna have 'sxx' !!! That was truely something really NOT my brother! We were so worried. What happened? He was fine yesterday and was resting calmly before we left. Could it be that he really suffered some mild mental illness and now it sort of,er.. exploded?

Then aunts and my cousin came for a visit. Him with a smile asked our cousin to sit beside him. Then of all sudden, he hugged her and said 'I love U!!' Aunts panicked and cried. I consoled them that things will turn out fine. Just give him some time.

I knew. I knew both my aunts were closed to my brother(they are almost same age). Aunts then suggested to call for a 'medium' to check on him. We called another brother of mine. Ok, to cut short the story - we did find a 'sifu' to solve this. He said the 'ceremony' will start only at night 11pm and somebody at home will have to lit up the big joss sticks continuously for 3 days - day and night or else... Nope, he did not say 'or else' but WHO dares stop??!! Ok. Note taken. Being a Christian myself, all I could do was pray and pray more...

THAT was one the most difficult afternoon to pass. I had to rush back to settle Jien and rush back to hospital again to fetch hubby. No one would believe it. Just yesterday, he was weak and shy. But that afternoon, he shouted, chanted, moved swiftly, talked non-stop, chant non-stop, sweat non-stop! He did not appeared sick. Occasionally he would say 'Don't catch me!' 'Come, chant with me! Everybody, come - louder! louder!' This happened on and on till we had no choice but wait for the doctor to jab with tranquilizer.

That was not an easy night for us ALL...

The next day, I was told this (from the sifu): That day was actually his 'day' to leave this world. The 'niu tou ma lien' (note: the Taoism belief that when one is leaving this earthy world, the assistants of 'Yu Wang Da Di' -King of Hell, from the other world with ox-like and horse-like face will come to the person to bring him/her to Yu Wang for judgement) were there to take him. The prayer that was held was with assistance of a god (in Taoism, there were many gods FYI) and my mom, pleading them to leave him this time. Yes. It worked. They do left him. But he is now with another name. And his life here, extended.

We visited him that afternoon again. He was back to the normal him. Back to the shy him. He requested to take his own shower. He took his porridge. The doctor questioned no more about his mental health and finally believed what we said (about him being normal) and talked to us with respect now (maybe because we dressed better - Monday ma!).

Whatever his name, he is still my brother. A brother whom I respect.

Life after death is full of unknown stuff. Me and hubby had a long discussion on that.

If you believed in X - you will be taken to X-world.
If you believed in y - y world
If one believe nothing - which world?
OR if one believe in both X and Y world, will one be taken by both and cause a big STIR? Hmmmm.....

I choose to believe in HIM, the Christ. STILL.

Perth and Me

I guess my previous post sounds as if I don't quite like Perth. Nuh...not at all. There are things which I admire.

- Town planning. Very neat. The best is they weaved in landscape - hard and soft in a very subtle manner. The park is not deserted. Parks could be found with lots of birds and the trees are certainly not 'dying'.



- They take care of pedestrians. All pedestrians walkway is 'linked'. No pot-holes. No sudden step of like a foot deep like what we have here. If there is big split in levels, they plunked in lift for pedestrians. So no problem with stroller ALL THE WAY! (But I have problem lifting the stroller into our apartment though. There are some steps leading to the main entrance. So I had trained up my muscles there and I am SURE that my arms get BIGGER with all the carrying, walking etc! ;) )

- They take care of fine details. Yes, very fine details like road curb is done in a proper manner. No mess up job.

- They love cycling. :) This makes the city very 'in-scale'.

- Public Transport(Bus- which they call Cats in colours: Red, Blue, Green) within the city if FREE. :) And we can even know what time the next bust will arrive and almost all times, they are pretty much punctual.

- I don't think anyone wants to snatch my hand bag there. I felt safe even walking in the park alone with Jien. :) This is perhaps the most important point. SECURITY.

I have not ventured into their housing areas and the famous outback. I guess I will scream for love of the beauty of the almost untouched beauty if I were to visit the outback ... Hmmm. There will be ONE FINE DAY, I would say: Perth here I come again. HA HA.

Breakaway in Perth

I know, I know. It has been a while since I last blogged. Ahhh...there are just too many things to cope.

First, it was my brother. He was hospitalized for a couple of days. Some spooky things happened and I will go into that in my next blog, to keep the suspense.

Next, it was my baby. His fever was not the normal flu-cough fever. It was a real heart-aching and tears drenching episode. I will go into that next too. Suspense.

Next next pulak was our trip to Perth. I needed the break after all the above plus the overwhelming loads of work. So off we went, together with Jien. We just tagged along with papa who is there on work assignment. Yes, the accommodation was fully paid off. The food was partly paid off too. So it was just the flight tickets. YEAH! Papa ROCKS!

Ever since Jien was born, we brought him around jalan-jalan every so often. But on board an airplane for 5 long hours, that was truly his very first. But he was ok. Smiling to the stewardess and people sitting behind and beside us. I think I have a friendly baby. Pretty sanguine like me.

This was my first time being so many days (12 to be exact) with my son without any help from my good maid or his aunt or my ever helpful MIL. It was quite fun but quite hectic too!

The unit we stayed in was a studio unit complete with stove, microwave, dish washer, oven, washing machine, dryer and iron. We normally woke up after papa was just about to leave for work. ( My son could smell me, if I woke up, he would too!! So I ended up sleeping a full 10 HOURS! ) Then, it would be the routine of preparing breakfast, persuading him to finish his breakfast, watching Einstein VCD (oh yes, I brought along my lap top, thinking that I could work a bit. Yeah, big fat hope! It was more like a VCD player I thought..), bathing him and putting him to sleep.

Normal working days would be spent like that plus walking him to the town for grocery shopping (just about 20 mins walk) or to the park. I guess my neck grew longer awaiting the weekend to arrive! Haha...

On Saturday, we went to the zoo. No outback adventures for me, sure??!! What to do, we are with a baby ma..! Anyway, I would say that we had made a right choice of visiting King's Park on Sunday. We scrapped off the idea of going to the Aqua Aquarium after seeing our son's reaction after visiting the Zoo - He was either sleeping or watching the green and flowers. But I guess he did saw the giraffe, elephant and lion...hehe

It was really the highlight of our visit - King's Park. It was just 10 mins walk from our apartment. But to reach there, we need to climb a staircase of like 200 over steps. I carried Jien whilst papa with the stroller. We made it to the top and the view was simply BREATHTAKING! When I say view, I don't mean the Swan River and the town scenic view. I mean the GREEN. The grass was neatly laid out and manicured like rolls upon rolls of fine carpet. The trees and flowers were all well taken care of; blooming and waving to throngs of visitors. I have never fell so much in love with a park before! We had a good stroll, we sat on the grass (can't roll, did not bring a mat! Alas). It was mid day but the weather was superb! Something like putting a huge air-con in the park! Hahaha. We loved it. Jien too cause he was snoring away with the gentle breeze! Hehehe...

There were so many people-young-old, visitors, some picnic, some 'pak-toh', some playing. I LOVE IT!

Well, I don't think I want to move here and stay in Perth as one of our previous plan:
- weather is too dry for us. I could see 'scales' on my legs and that really freaks me out! Jien too with his cheeks!
- things are simply too expensive!!!
- I think it is too quiet for me. Shopping is constraint to day time or Friday only. Huh? For a KL people like me? Huh?
- Offer to papa is not as good.
- Away from our beloved family members? Nuh...

So, bye bye Perth.

Jien stealing my bread from my plate...





To keep him down while shopping, I passed him an apple for him to 'play' and for all I know, he gave out a few chunky bites!!! I wonder what can he do when he has four teeth later....kekeke.....