balik kampung

~~whenever people ask me this question,"kampung kat mana?" (where is your hometown?), my answer will be,"China". they will give me this look. yeah, true lah. my dad is born in china. so, if i want to balik kampung, i will balik china. my dad's two sisters still reside in china. the eldest in putian, and the second sister in foochow. those days, my grandpa only brought his two sons to malaysia. the daughters were left in china. dad was only 7 when he came to malaysia. he went back once 6 or 7 years ago with his eldest brother.
~~two years ago, we balik kampung. dad's kampung is in putian, xiamen in china. we went back to celebrate 'chap goh meh', the 15th day of chinese new year (the last day too), and also to "bring" the ancestors from the "chi thong" (where all families placed their ancestors under one roof) back to my aunt house. we reached home at 3am. by 9am, the neighbourhood knew the entourage from malaysia has arrived. news travel FAST in this village.

#1 : the offerings during chap goh meh
~~cny celebration in china is totally different from malaysia. red firecrackers everywhere! even the way they pray is different. during our 15 days stay, we didnt do much. we ate, we slept, we ate, we slept and we ate. haha. we were not allowed to do anything because we were "guest".

#2 : what we did during free time. and it was so cold!!

#3 : offerings during the "bring back ancestor to house" ceremony
~~all the offerings that you see on the table, 95% 0f them were made by our family members from scratch. 3 days before the ceremony, everyone was busy cooking, decorating the house for the day. neighbours from around the village came over to help. gotong royong gitu!

#4 : home made tofu
~~the trip back to kampung was really really fun. we got to know our cousins, nephews & nieces.

#5 : eldest aunt's family (aunt seated next to mum)

#6 : second aunt's family (aunt seated on pink chair)

#7 : us in front of aunt's house. we spent most of time outside, enjoying the cold breeze.

#8 : my aunt's house.

#9 : the kitchen is separated from the house
#10 : dad with his sister
~~last tuesday, mum & dad went back to china to visit my aunt. she fell and knocked her head. she is partially paralysed after the fall. we could not go back together because it would be very costly for the whole family to travel together. perhaps in 2 years time, we will go back again together to visit them.
~~wishing aunt, speedy recovery and be blessed with good health.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My mid life crisis in Y2016

Y2016, I have decided to resign. After 14 years, I needed a break. It's not that I didn't like what I was doing, just that I would like to take a break. And just do nothing. Or maybe something... As I handed my resignation letter to my 2 bosses (ex now), both accepted it quite calmly. Only one was more surprised. But nevertheless, she accepted my reason for leaving. So, what reason did I give them? I told them my sisters & I were discussing of opening a yoga centre on our own. Since it's own business, there is no reason for them holding me back. My sisters and I were not the aggressive type. We took our own sweet time in making plan. Where should we open? Kajang? KL? Near home? Far from home? What type of classes? etc.. We even consulted a friend (a fengshui master) about our plan. He said, "Just do it! What are you girls waiting for??" He even advised us to open in KL area as the return will be higher and we would have different exposure with different ...
Read more

orientation day

today is orientation day. we met up with lance shuler and claire pristley from inspya yoga . lance is the principal and claire will assist him. the orientation was scheduled at 5pm today. we left house at 4pm, an hour earlier. but we were caught in the jam along sg besi highway. 1 minor accident on the way to kl, and another accident at the opposite side of the highway. and that has held us back for 20min. we reached there just in time. phew.... tomorrow is my first day of my ttc course. i am nervous. butterflies in the stomach. can i do it?? wish me luck...
Read more

borak borak

Image
how was your long weekend? mine.... ok ler. on haji eve, i left office around 8pm. due to the holiday on friday, we have to make sure all things were settled before the long weekend. normally, if it's already dark outside, i will not walk to klcc. instead, it would be monorail, star lrt, then ktm for home. and i'm usually in my own world when i'm inside the train. cucuk mp3, listening to my favourite playlist , and also dont want "stranger" to talk to me. but a stranger did talk to me on haji eve. i was standing beside this uncle. and i smelled something fishy. no, the smell was not from the uncle. he was a clean uncle. he was holding a plastic bag. i was guessing what's inside the bag. we acknowledged each other by nodding. then i continued to stare at the window, looking at my own reflection :) then i noticed he kept looking down at the plastic bag he was holding. i also looked down. i was like, " why ah? the bag dripping meh? i didnt feel anything on m...
Read more