Sketches of Life

By noon we will have one roasted pig at my mom’s, dowry money, 2 bottles of liquor, huge candles, a pair of chicken, fruits and other goodies. Today is the day where my sister will be “bought” by the groom’s parent or what we call here, Hari Hantar Belanja. Not so sure what the Chinese calls it.

My mom is busy preparing lunch for the groom’s family and relatives that will be coming. Lots and lots of Nyonya food to be savoured. And she also made some Nyonya Pineapple Tarts; that will be the main attraction when they reach the dining table!

Today is also my sister’s birthday! I wonder whether she will have any birthday party at her home tonight. If I were her, I might just skip celebrating my birthday on big scale unless I know a good and least to prepare party ideas. Preparing for the wedding is already a headache unless you can afford to hire a wedding planner. This weekend is the dinner for the bride’s side and next weekend will be the big day.

When others meet me, they said, “You must be busy preparing for your sister’s wedding.” Huh? What is there for me to be busy? Oh ya! Busy earning money to prepare for her big Angpow on the tea-ceremony session!

Removing of the Appendix surgery is no longer done in open surgery; only laparoscopy with only 3 holes. Less pain for the patient, pain pump is not require and faster recovery.

However my brother who just underwent Appendix removal surgery had 4 holes because he bled. The moment the doctor grabbed hold of the appendix, it detached before the doctor cut it! Thank God my brother admitted himself fast, if not, I won’t have anymore brother!

He was in ICU for 2 days for monitoring due to his bleeding and total stay in the hospital is 5 days which cost him RM11,400. He can actually be discharged on Saturday but the doctor kept him till Monday, just because he is covered by insurance!

I was just talking with my mom the other day about me being the most educated in the family and yet the poorest among my siblings. I don’t own big houses and big cars like both my younger sisters. Still living in MIL’s house and driving old junks. Anyway, I told my mom that I am happy with my life because I don’t have to worry about paying loans every month like them; except when my apartments are without tenant.

My mom does not have the same thinking as me; she said that at the end of the day, they have the property. Well, that is true but anything can happen. We might loose our job and business with a blink of an eye. So my mom still wanna win, she said “Well, if the spouse die, the home insurance will cover for the loan repayment, no need to pay anything and the house is yours for free.” Yes, it is true, if the house is under the spouse name; if the house is under your name, pray hard that he/she bought a huge amount of life insurance!

I wrote this a few months ago…

What I want to do right now is going away, somewhere, anywhere all by myself. If I am in NYC then I would have gone on the New York Bus Charter, sitting comfortably all by myself just looking past the high rise building in the city.

I still feel the same now but I have to be realistic and admit that we don’t have extra to spend. Really! I kid you not. With the US recession, I don’t get as many assignments that pay me in USD like before. This month income is so far the worst in which it is not enough to pay my bills. I hope it won’t get any lesser next month if not, I don’t know what to do.

Anyway, I praise God that one of our apartment is rented and another one to go. I hope it will be very soon. Once that is rented, our financial burden will be slightly lifted up. Maybe we could bring our children for a 2D1N holiday in Port Dickson or Genting Highland.

You know what? I am so tempted to go back to work. If I am not pregnant, I think I would do so! I am not use to depending on hubby’s income which is very uncertain and sometimes not enough too.

Sometimes it is good not to get upset over certain issue too fast. I always do actually but recently, I controlled my tempered and the result turns out good.

If you read my children’s blog then you will that my maid lied about giving an unwashed fruit to my 2nd girl which I thought gave her the stomachache and diarrhea. Surprisingly, I did not scold my maid but my eldest did that for me! I wonder if she would hire Waco Personal Injury Attorney to sue the maid if she is much older!

Anyway, yesterday my 2nd girl asked permission from me whether she can eat the fruit and I got it for her. Picked a perfect one with no insects bite, washed and cut for her. In less than half an hour after eating them, she complaint of stomachache and later she vomited the fruits out and purged too.

Well, it seems that she just can’t eat this fruit, whether washed or not wash.

The phone rang this morning, MIL picked up. Overhead her conversation.

Her eldest sister that recently got her arm amputated has passed away last night due to old age.

I heard that she is 91yo already!

I guess the funeral will be this Saturday. They will normally “keep” the old for a minimum of 5 days especially when they die of old age.

She is a very nice lady. One thing I remember about her is during CNY she will give angpow to everyone; not only the children but the adults too. No more angpow from her next year onwards.

Look what she got for me. Young/Unripe manggos for me to make mango pickles. And this is only 1/4 of what she got for me.

And I did not asked her to look for it. I was just walking around the house looking at the manggo trees, hoping to spot some young manggo, saw 2 of it but it was too high for me to pluck.

The next day, I saw the big plastic bag filled with manggo. She got my sister to get her kindergarten’s maid to pluck from the kindy compound.

Isn’t she the best?

Unfortunately the mango pickles is not helping much in reducing the nausea.

My youngest sister and her husband-to-be spend money like they grow on tree. I really wonder where their money came from. They just bought a brand new double storey terrace house. They are going to have their wedding ceremony end of this year. A few months ago they bought a new MPV; all on loans of course. On top of that, my youngest sister just applied for personal loan to renovate their kitchen! Despite having this financial burden (that’s how I see it) they spend like money grows on tree especially on food, clothing and holidays (local and overseas).

They really make hubby and I look so poor because we are still living in hubby’s family house, we still drive old junks, we hardly travel out from Malacca; let alone going for holidays and we don’t indulge ourselves in expensive dining.

Last night he accidentally revealed to me that all their spending is on the credit cards. He told me that the late payment charges have doubled now (so I assume he did not pay on time). All this while he only pays the minimum amount due. However, he did tell me that he is planning to settle all his outstanding soon. I think he said this just to please me because he knows that I do not like this kind of spending habit.

I think I should print out the credit card articles for them to read so that they won’t get into credit trouble that would jeopardize their credit report.

For a second, I would like to be like them. Swipe first, enjoy a luxury lifestyle then slowly pay the minimum amount due every month but when thinking about the interest charges, I’d rather live a simple lifestyle and have financial freedom.

Many times I had the thoughts of moving out and stay at our own house. Yes, the thought did cross my mind. It is not that I do not like to stay in this current house, the house built by hubby’s father and is now owned and shared by hubby’s mother and brothers. I do love the house and the big compound. It is just that I do have the idea of staying in our own house, as a family, just like the other families.

It would be nice to have a place where I can call my very own and I can use any rooms in whatever ways I wish. With the current house, we only have a room to ourselves. We let our children sleep in one of the rooms which is owned by one of my BILs. I know he does not mind our children sleeping in that room and I am very grateful for that.

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If you have not know already, let me announce it here too. I AM PREGNANT! As much as I want to delay my 4th pregnancy, God has better plan for us. Since we have a good maid now, at least I know I can trust her to take care of my other 3 when I have an infant to care for.

As for my planned to take up a degree online, I have to put that on hold for a lil while. How to study with 4 demanding children aged 5 to 0? I think the only time I would have is when they nap. I want to nap too!

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I reminded them not to start the water balloons game without me. I need to take a nap first. Only start playing at 6pm when it is no longer hot.

I woke up at 6pm, saw my daughter and son has changed into another pair of clothes and their hair are wet.

They can’t wait for me and started the game while I was snoozing away with my 2nd girl. They left some balloons for my 2nd girl to play.

No fun lar liddat! :p

Everyone is coming back today for the “Hunger Ghost Prayer.” I am a Christian but MIL isn’t and so does a few of my in-laws. The house will be packed and noisy too. I doubt I can write a good post.

I will take this time to take a break updating my old blogs and concentrates on the new ones. It is easy to start many but it is a challenge to update them or even start writing in them.

I’ll be back on Monday (if I am not busy helping hubby at his shop) or Tuesday.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

I am amazed at how people changed after they experience live and death situation. One of them is my aunt who just recovered from colon cancer. When she was well and healthy; she used to ask my dad why am I not changing to a new car. Well, she must think that I am very stingy. I am not, it just that I don’t like to go into debt; no financial freedom.

Recently, she is back for visitation and told my dad that it was a good decision of me maintaining the old car because new car cannot be reliable. You see, her value in life changed. Earthly possession is no longer important. The money is better used to keep our body healthy.

If ever my old junk gave way, I will not chuck it one side. I can always get it fixed, re-paint it and get a used engine midwest auto recycling. It will be up and running in no time!

We just celebrated our father’s 63rd birthday 2 days ago. It was just a simple dinner at an open air restaurant in town; Handsome Seafood Restaurant. The dinner consist of just us, the siblings and our parent. Even that it was so difficult to get him to agree to go for the dinner. At first we wanted to go to Amigo that serves Western food; father disagrees because it was too expensive. Anyway, my father don’t really favor Western food, he prefers rice and dishes so, to a Chinese restaurant we went. My mom just informed me just now that he really enjoyed the food that was served. It was much better than the food at Portuguese Settlement which we went to celebrate my mom’s 53rd birthday on the same date 2 months ago.

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Today is really a fruitful Sunday. We had fruit feast and some work are done around the house.

The men cut down a coconut tree because it was too near to the durian tree; a bridge for the squirrel to cross over. Then they made a bench using the coconut trunk. Now we have a bench under a rambutan tree for us to sit to enjoy our rambutans in a month time.

The fruit feast started with Watermelon while the men were busy making the bench. Then we had some fresh young coconut from the tree that has just been chopped down.

After some hard labor, their stomach started to growl and we had our durian right under the rambutan tree. While enjoying our durians, one durian dropped. Yay! Fresh from the tree!!! No pix though coz I was busy eating durians too!

In the kitchen, the maid was busy cooking Pengat Durian; durian cooked in coconut milk and gula melaka. We are too full to eat that. We shall savor it before dinner.

The children was not left out…they had so much fun playing with the sawdust!

If you are looking for jobs in Boston, be ready to bid farewell to this kinda life.