BAC revisited

It's a week since the Hari Raya break. Ruth will resume school on this coming Monday and sitting for her final exams on Friday. This round will determine whether she will be admitted into the "top class" next year. Hopefully, she will improve her grades and do better this time.

Just this afternoon I revisited my former employer. I resigned from the company some seven years ago due to health reasons. I had to source for some materials for my office and so I made this trip down memory lane. The place seemed hauntingly familiar, but of course there were some changes here and there. I met some of my ex-colleagues and took a good look around at the improvements and changes. Time really flies. Seven years had added wrinkles to our faces, additional white hairs and aged some of the original buildings, although new ones had sprung up. But the company is thriving and that's a good sign.

Hubby installed a new satellite dish complete with decoder and tracking system which will enable us to view and watch more channels. The signals were beamed from a number of broadcasting stations like Chinasat, Measat, Pas, Asiasat, etc, thus enabling us to enjoy programs from the Asia-Pacific regions. I had always enjoyed documentaries and Ruth just could not resist the cartoons. With this new dish and decoder, I must say that we are more "connected" to world events and happenings. Thank you hubby!

Of cheesecake .........

Sigh! The three days of Hari Raya break was finally over. Time really flies. It's back to the routine of work again. We managed a day trip to Miri on the second day of the holidays. It's a break from the routine of Bintulu for us and school for Ruth. She bought some reference books and we browsed through the shopping malls. We came back late in the evening tired but happy.

Ruth will be facing the final round of her second semester examinations next Friday. She's got plenty of time to revise this time round due to the long PMR and Hari Raya break. Hopefully, she will do better this time..
It's also an opportunity for her to catch up with her swimming, which had been long neglected due to school work and other activities.

After much procrastination, I finally tried my hand at making cheesecake. I bought all the ingredients, followed the recipe, and lo and behold, it was my first home-made chilled cheesecake. Ruth enjoyed the yummy cake but hubby reminded her that it is very fattening. Well, she has to diet even more!.

As I was passing......

It's already October. Time really flies and three-quarters of 2007 is over. We had the moon cake celebration and I am looking forward to the Hari Raya break. Our moon cake celebration was really low keyed this year as hubby's away on a course and Ruth had a monthly test the following day. We just had the customary moon cakes, that's all.

Just recently, I attended the memorial service of a church friend. He was striken with cancer in 2001 and for six long years, he battled against this deadly disease. There were chemo treatments, remissions and relapses. But his family rallied and supported him. His wife accompanied him for treatment in Hong Kong no less than fifty times. It must have been both painful and heart-wrenching to see a loved one wasting away to the ravages of the disease and finally succumbed. Early in his diagnosis, the doctor told him that he had only about one year to live. He reorganise his life and began to serve in many areas of the church ministry. He was even a Sunday School teacher. He was given a "gift" of another five years and I must say that my life was touched by his commitment to serve and witness.

The church was fairly crowded with family members, friends and business associates. The pastor spoke words of comfort, a sister-in-christ sang a beautiful and touching hymn, his sister-in-law gave the eulogy and his only son gave the acknowledgement. It was a very moving and solemn occasion and by the end of the service, I could not hold back my tears any longer.

As I walked round his casket and to pay my last respects, I just could not find the right words to comfort his son and widow. I could only hold her. Somehow, it struck me real hard, as this brother was only a year older than me. Indeed, this life is only temporary, we are just passing through.

Pieces

Hai! I'm back. Just returned from a weekend trip to Kuching to settle some family matters. It's a break from the daily routine of Bintulu. John managed to borrow a friend's car and we went shopping and even visited my uncle and his family. Bought some of Ruth's favourite chocolates and Amos cookies. She loves them!

Hubby and Ruth decided to adopt a new dieting regime. Both enjoy good food and had been putting on some extra pounds recently. Ruth decided to stick on to a meal of oats instead of rice for dinner. Hubby's doing double the portion, with oats for both breakfast and dinner. It must have been real boring, having plain oats for both meals. Several times, I caught him "sneaking" in the kitchen. Ha! Ha! I do not fancy oats as the taste is rather bland and boring. Maybe, I'll try to find other ways to diet!.

Mum's back from her Philippines trip. She enjoyed the sumptuous food and sight-seeing. She will be going for another trip to China at the end of the year. She invited me along, but I had to decline as I could not stand the cold weather. During our trip to Shanghai last November, I was almost frozen despite of several layers of warm clothing.

Pickles

I am so much out of touch. Been busy with work and supervising Ruth's homework and projects. Her tuition teacher had not been feeling well lately so I had to stand in for her. It's really quite exhausting after a hard day's work at the office. Hopefully, Ruth will learn to study on her own with less supervision and coaching.
She is also slowly getting use to the medium of instruction (Bahasa Malaysia) for most of the subjects, although it will take sometime for her to use the language fluently. She loves to read English but not Bahasa Malaysia or Chinese storybooks. So, her grip on the grammar, spelling and vocabulary of both languages is still lacking.

Yesterday, I had a lunch date with an old buddy. She's in her early fifties, having enjoyed "early retirement" since the MAS rationalization exercise almost two years ago. Her children are all grown up and working elsewhere. She's got plenty of time on her hands and enjoys watching TV, surfing the net and chatting with friends over the telephone and internet. How I envied her! Here I am running from work to home, exhausted at the end of each day! We "gossiped" for almost an hour and before we knew it, it's time to go back to work at the office. Back to the deary routine of work, work, work!

Of Mountain peaks and valleys

Ruth finally got back all her school examination results. She recorded a slight improvement in her grades and managed to remain as one of the three top students in her class. But alas! She only managed a pass in her Grade 5 practical piano exams to hubby's disappointment. He had been expecting her to do better considering all his investments in tuition fees, books and the piano he bought her. Well, sometimes, one cannot have the best of both worlds, so she has to work harder the next round.

Mum and John dropped by Bintulu for an overnight stay last weekend. We intended to join them on their trip back to Mukah but did not materialised as hubby had to stay back to complete some rather urgent work. Maybe... next time, hah!

During our last trip to KL, hubby bought Ruth the whole set of the Harry Potter adventure series. As she is quite busy with her school work and monthly tests, Ruth only managed to complete reading the first book. Out of curiousity and seeing the books idle, I decided to try reading about the adventures of the boy wizard and found them imaginative, spellbinding, sometimes hilarious and "almost" magical. No wonder, children, teens and
adults alike adored the stories and just could not wait in anticipation of the next books in the series. So, this is how the author, J.K. Rowling made her millions. By writing about magic!

Rainbows......

Ruth's one week mid-semester break is finally over. She had a fairly easy week, where she spent most of her time devouring her Harry Potter books, watching some cartoons and completing all the homework that her tuition teacher assigned her. She snooze late and had quite a relaxing time before hitching up her school bag to return for another term of projects, assignments and homework.

We will be visiting my brother John in Mukah during this Merdeka holidays. It's been a two-year break since we last visited this township where John and I spent our early childhood and teens. Gone were days when we felt so free and innocent, playing those noisy childhood games with our friends, going for rides along the beaches and chasing hermit crabs in the sands. Those where our nostalgic and memorable moments whenever we think of Mukah.

We also planned a birthday surprise for mum. John and I hoped that this occasion will serve to bind our family closer together, having being separated throughout the year due to work and family commiments.