olddog-samesame

14 May 2006 Mom celebrated her 80th birthday last year. We are extremely fortunate that mom is still with us and in good health. Dad is still around too. It looks like the Ng family is blessed with the longevity gene. Mom was born in KL in 1925. She was married off at sweet 16, a hastily arranged marriage before the invading Japanese army occupied Malaya. Life in those early years were no bed of roses. Food and basic necessities were scarce. Only the big towkays could afford the luxury of domestic help. Family planning was also not in vogue. Despite the adversity, in the space of 12 years along came 6 children before she reached 30. Although her hands were full, Mom managed to enroll and graduate from a tailoring course. A vocational skill that would be extremely useful had the need arise. In their younger years, Mom and Dad had very different personalities, much like chalk from cheese. Had their data being fed into a match making computer, the result would have been a zero match. But

5 February 2006 * My daughter taught me Haiku 17 syllabus, 3 lines Beautiful Japanese poems. * Today my birthday The years fly by Feel happy and sad. * CNY 2006 Year of the Dog New tricks for old dog.

27 January 2006 This is a subjective personal review of the above task. Maybe an interim report card. Sometimes, the process of putting thoughts to paper makes it easier to rationalize. It allows us to reflect and reevaluate and hopefully some of the more muddled pictures will become clearer in perspective. Providing food, shelter and other material needs to your only child is the easy part. That is basically the job description of parenting for the first 5 years. The subsequent 20 years is the complicated part because there is no manual or text book to provide a systematic guide. Bring up a child is not like growing a plant in a green house. Too many factors come into the mix. Family, friends, school, teachers, peer groups, society, the political scenario, environment, etc. You worry how the recipe is going to turn out! The goal or ultimate product we hope to create is the same for most parents. A responsible, independent, well adjusted and educated adult that we can be proud of. So t

13 January 2006 We speak English and Mandarin at home. Occasionaly, my wife and I switch to Hokkien in the presence of our 9 year old daughter if the conversation is not meant for her ears. She will nonchalantly ignore us in her innocent way until one recent day, when she asked with a suspicious look in her face, "Why are you guys talking in a foreign language?" -_- since when Hokkien has become a foreign language? Come to think of it, dialect is indeed dying out with the new generation. It is quite rare these days to have extended family living under one roof. In our childhood days, grandparents and dialects are part and parcel of growing up. The only Hokkien phrase my daughter knows " Lim peh ka lu kong " was picked up from watching a Singapore produced movie. However, that coarse phrase is totally inappropriate to be used by a little girl! Maybe it is time to start some Hokkien lesson.

11 January 2006 Both the CD and DVD RW drive in my home PC conked out on me lately. They could neither read nor write any CDs. Made a trip to Low Yat Plaza over the long weekend and purchased a couple of new ones costing some RM250. The following night, tried to install them. Opened up the CPU and took out the defunct units. Put the new drives in, hooked up all the cables and screwed the drives in place. Closed up the CPU and restarted. A piece of cake. Computer boots up and detects new hardware - CD drive in E. Shit! What happened to my DVD drive in F? Click, click, click, nothing. Restart computer - nothing. Turn computer off completely and restart again - still nothing. OMG! Pull power off, open the CPU and recheck cables, everything in place. Maybe, I was given a faulty DVD drive. Shit, shit. OK calm down, lets test it. Unhook all cables and rewire only DVD. Power up and start. Ok, detected DVD in E drive. Turn off power and recheck instructions, an A2 size foldable sheet printed i