Changing family values

This year’s Petronas advert on tv seems to play on today’s reality against good old-fashioned family values.

I was brought up in a big family with extended families living under one roof, for most of my growing up impressionable years. I am second youngest, but felt and treated like the youngest. My baby sister died when she was only 4 years old because of kidney failure. My oldest nephew is only 5 years younger than me and his eldest son is only a month younger than my eldest! His second son married two years ago and he is a grandfather now!

Anyway, in those days, our house was a hive of activities. I can still picture my mother with endless household chores, helped by my second sister and my sisters-in-law. When my nephews and nieces were small, baby cries were common. It is a wonder how our selective memory can remember certain events that happened many years ago yet be absent-minded like forgetting a few things which we are supposed to bring.

Now, baby cries, cock crows and certain classical Chinese tunes (heard from Redifusion days) always bring back memories of my teenage days. Each time I mentioned about a certain baby cry which reminded me of a certain nephew or niece, my wife complained that I did not mention about my own children’s! The big difference or reason was nostalgia.

When traveling at night, passing by dimly lit lone village houses amid trees, reminds me of our house on a two-acre land with some rubber and fruit trees before sheds were erected for workshops. Middle of the night, wherever and whenever I could hear the hum of Land Rover vehicle passing by, it reminds me of those army vehicles passing our compound to and from Batu Cantonment, in KL.

Whenever I watched Hong Kong tv serials, which usually have many family members interacting, I am reminded of my growing up years. I am one of those so-called “dying breed” who values family relationships more than anything else. Yet, I am a failure because I find I was unable to please everybody! Every action or inaction could cause problems and elicit criticisms. I have come to the conclusion that I might as well please myself!

Many people, especially those who are so busy with their work or business, may not realise our different roles as a son, husband, father, brother and so on. To further complicate matters, we have in-laws too, which creates problem of which side to spend the Chinese New Year reunion, for instance. The choice of location of work or business and home is another point of contention.

The Petronas advert (in Hokien for a change and therefore more endearing to me) shows a group of old ladies in an old folks' home. One of them said her son is a doctor in London, a cardiologist (had difficulty pronouncing the word) who can earn 20,000 pounds sterling for one operation. Sometimes, he could manage 2 operations a day!

Old lady B was seen using her fingers to work out the amount, probably in terms of ringgit, with an impressed expression

Old lady C did not want to lose out, said her son is a lawyer in a very big firm earning lots of money.

Old lady D was quick to point out that her daughter works in a very big accounting firm, but could not remember the name. Nevertheless, she earns 450,000 ringgit a year!

Then one of them turned to old lady B and asked, “what about your son?”

She replied, “my son is coming to pick me” and continued, “quite troublesome actually, every time he wants to go sight-seeing somewhere, he will come and take me along”. Just then, a Proton Iswara Aeroback draws near and one of them asked, “who is that?”

While getting ready to go, Lady B replied, “that’s my son, he is here to pick me.”

“Where are we going today?” Lady B asked her son who is with his wife and 2 children, and he replied, “Cameron”. The other ladies were silent with envy.

So who is the lucky one then?

A visit to the brothel

3 ex-band members and an ex-bank manager had an educational tour of sorts.

3 Malaysians recently entertained a visiting Australian (banana) and had to take him to a brothel in Brickfields in KL.

The Australian was curious because he had not been to one. His specific request was just to see a naked body of a particular race, in the presence of his local friends.

So the most savvy of the 3, started to ask a couple of the pimps who were in charge. Initially, the first pimp thought they just wanted to know the price and he explained, “Yat mei, sum sap; leong mei, ng sap and so on.” The Australian found he could not understand what he meant and was told that it means “one method” or “two methods” in terms of sex. I leave it to reader’s imagination.

When he mentioned to another pimp his specific request, the latter shouted to his counterparts, “dia mahu tengok sahaja!” (translated: they wanted to see only!) and all of them started laughing at the unusual request!

Twilight years, twilight zone, weird request.

Every cloud has a silver lining

Before Christmas, my car airconditioner could not be switched on and I took it to my local repairer. He spent more than an hour in trying to find out what was wrong with it. He could test that there was no current at certain point of the wire leading to the switch but could not understand why. Very reluctantly he had to give up. When I asked him how much, he replied, "up to you". I gave him Rm10 for the trouble.

I had to put up without aircond and it seemed alright when I was alone. I had to be apologetic when there were passengers.

One day, while driving out, the aircond suddenly turned on by itself as it was at the switched-on position. But, somehow, it could blow only hot air. Just as suddenly, it would switch off by itself. I procrastinated for a few weeks.

Today, I happened to be at a shop next to the aircond-man's. He said he was free to have a look at it even though I was just interested in gas refill. He went about dismantling covers and checking the wirings like before. Without saying anything, he went about doing it. When asked, he said it is ok now. I asked, "what about the gas?" No need, it is working now. It seems the thermostat was switched off or disconnected which accounted for the hot air. I was so surprised that I could get cold air now.

Again, I asked "how much?" and he replied, "up to you". I gave him Rm20 and he seemed happy about it, but knowing repairmen, main part of his satisfaction was being able to find the fault to an earlier problem which he had given up on.

So I am glad something positive happened to me today. I have even considered replacing the whole system which would cost a bomb. I am sure it was worth 10 times more than what I gave him. Again, something to do with living in small town, that we are able to get something for less Ringgit!

It never rains but pours

When things go wrong for me, it really goes all the way. Murphy’s Law comes to mind.

Couple of months ago, my wife suggested that she takes our spare 14” tv and cheap vcd player to the factory for the foreign workers. She promised to replace them. She has yet to.

Couple of weeks before Christmas, she decided to go ahead with some renovations to 2 toilets, one involving an extension of about 2 feet. Imagine the noise during demolition of the wall and other structures. The dust was unbearable and all my earlier cleaning of the antiques and collectibles had to be done again.

While a workman was at it using a power drill to break the wall, lightning struck and all our sensitve fuseboards in both houses tripped. Little did I realize that for the first time, our main TV and my fairly new dvd player were zapped. Took the tv for repairs and was advised that it has been repaired partially - only good for receiving vcd/dvd and not tv transmissions. For the latter repair, it would cost an additional Rm200 or so and requires waiting for the order to arrive. For several weeks, we were without television service and I was quite surprised that I could wean myself off the news (read propaganda) and some serials. I still wonder why my spare tv was taken away just before I needed one! Murphy again?

It would have been nice to have everything ready before our two daughters and foreign guests arrived. But instead of a clean house with new bathroom fittings, they had to put up with old toilet systems and a half bath lying around the house like “Roman ruins” to quote Cheng. The 2 vintage cars which I had earlier cleaned was still covered with dust from the demolition work. Because we had to be in KL for more than a week for the grand wedding and taking the foreigners around, I just did not have the time to clean up. In fact, I was in the middle of repainting some sections of the house and fencing walls.

It took one week for me to get back to normal routine.

But disaster struck my computer. Because of unknown reasons, maybe viruses, some of my files were multiplied many times. I used anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to check. While doing so, I had difficulty running my usual scanning program. It was reported that some of my programs were interlinked with each other. I must have deleted vital parts of those programs. Now my Outlook Express cannot be opened which means all my addresses and folders cannot be opened too. Even my Words program had problems for a while. My A drive cannot read my diskettes. My Winamp does not work too.

I have to use TM webmail to receive my emails and all attachments cannot be opened. I had to rely on receiving others’ mail before I know their addresses. Maybe it is time to get a notebook for a change. But first, show me the money!

Jam session

On Tuesday, got a call from Joe telling me Joseph suggested that we jam at my place. Joseph who? It was funny because I have yet to meet him and Joe said he suggested it! Told him I was about to call him for one as I have just bought a new powered mixer. He had just bought a new keyboard which uses diskette. So it was fixed for Thursday evening.

About 6 pm, got a message from Po Kuan informing me of a forum at 7.30pm. Had to decline and sent a message to her, not knowing that while the phone was in my pocket, the same message was sent 27 times. Good job PK informed me, otherwise Maxis will be making money at my expense. I always wonder what actually happened as the keypad was supposed to lock after a few seconds.

I only got to know what time to expect my guests when at 8.00pm, Joe called. When they arrived just after 9.00 pm, I had to admit that Joseph and I have not met each other before! Just realized that Joe is also short for Joseph. I seem to be dealing with many Joes which may explain the use of “Joe Public” or “Joe Blogg” as a common example of a name.

Joseph started with a few bangs on the drums and I was impressed. Later I was to discover that he plays keyboard and guitar too! So good was he in all three that we had trouble deciding which instrument he was supposed to play! Being a jack of all trade and master of none, they had no choice but to use me as drummer.

We tried out Apache and then The Young Ones. For the latter song, I played drums first, then rhythm, interchanging with Joseph. With Joe as bassist cum singer, it was a joy as in KL, we did not have a bassist and without proper PA system, we lacked the singer’s voice too!

Somehow, we still lack a rhythm guitarist. Dr. Lim was expected at 9.30pm but it was already past 10.00 pm. I called and was told he had to attend a neighbour’s funeral wake before he could come over.

With a rhythmist added on, the jam session sounded more complete and professional. We had our usual difficulty in deciding on songs suitable for everyone. My suggestions for Smoke on the water and Proud Mary were not taken because of the lack of fuzzbox and lead guitarist. Actually, Joseph wished to opt as lead guitarist but I was short of one guitar. What was also lacking were proper stands for song sheets. Even the keyboard sat on a make-do Singer sewing machine stand! Joseph complained later that it was too low and I found that my old ironing board stand could have been better for height! All these problems arose because of my low budget. It was a case of deciding whether to use the money for additional music equipment or accessories. To me, the latter is not important because we are not going for performance where equipment helps in projecting a certain image as first impression counts.

I soon realized that Joseph used to be Joe’s band member before. Their repertoire went way back to Rose, Rose, I love you and Happy Happy birthday baby by Naomi and the Boys! It was before Dr. Lim’s time but he could manage the chords easily. Dr. sang a few of his favourites like What a wonderful world and Let it be me. When I suggested Black Magic Woman, Joe came out with his diskette with pre-recorded “minus one” and it was wonderful. We ended with Joe singing with all his vocal might, House of the Rising Sun and Joseph in his elements with the keyboards. Both Dr. Lim and myself were like bystanders with our rhythm and drum beats drowned by the voice and organ music. We finished at 11.30pm and I could only imagine, much to the annoyance of my immediate neighbour! I found out the next day from Dr. Lim, who lives behind my house separated by a row of semi-dees, that his wife told him that it was louder (in my front room) than before (in my back room)! The doors and windows were opened and sound travels in a straight line. When I asked my wife who was in the house next door, she said, could hear but not loud, which proved that our double-brick wall serves well as sound-proofing material. Also, that the powered mixer was loud enough.

After the session, we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby to have a drink and supper. Joseph asked where I bought the mixer.He thought that the price was very reasonable indeed and appeared to be interested in buying one for himself. With that, it was a good buy for me and goodbyes for the night.