Family reunion at wedding of grand nephew

My eldest brother’s eldest son’s eldest son had his wedding reception last night, which we attended as a day trip. We did not attend their buffet last Friday.

Though my nephew is five years younger, his eldest is of same age as my son. A few years ago, his second son already had the honour of being the first of our grand nephews to get married. Then my eldest sister’s eldest daughter’s son got married and they are expecting a baby due in June, who will be our first great grand nephew or niece!

Because of our infrequent get-togethers, most of us do not know who is doing what and so on. Even the number of children and their names are not remembered. Cheng commented before that we should have a family tree compiled and last night, I gave my email address to three different families to gather information like names and dates of birth of members of their own families, to start the ball rolling. I have a niece married to a Kelantanese Malay and they have five adorable children - four boys and a girl - the last two (boy and girl) are twins! So, do you think I can be anti-Malay? My eldest brother used to be really good at 'ronggeng' during the days of BB Park! While myself used to play football with a group of Malays behind a sawmill on soft sawdust next to a smoking charcoal-making mound and drink from the tap when thirsty. We were lucky to have had a player from 'Sunrise Club' I think, to teach us some finer points which I used to surprise some classmates in school because of my nerdy personality. I still remember a few Malays known as 'din' for Baharuddin, Kamaruddin and so on.

Age is catching up. I thought I would have no problem driving after the dinner at Flower Drum in Jalan Bukit Bintang, which started really late, (9.00pm!), because of the traffic jams all over KL and PJ. Anyway, they managed to squeeze in an impromptu tea ceremony to get to know the elders like myself. One of the unexpected entertainment was the lady mc singing the well known 'Rose Chan's striptease' song... 'apple blossom...' offhand cannot recall the full name. (Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White)

It is a pity I did not take a picture of my fourth nephew because many of us agreed that he looks like Najib! Can probably stand in for him while he is away overseas!

Anyway, SP was well in dreamland before I even got out of KL and I got sleepy even before Tg. Malim. I carried on until Slim River and stopped along the entry road leading to the expressway. I got out to exchange seats with SP. She is one for fresh air and decided to open some windows. I was worried about her driving as I felt the car veering now and again and it was impossible for me to really sleep. Just before reaching Gopeng toll, I looked for the ticket and panic (heard about the penalty before) – no sign of it at first glance and everywhere that I looked at. Immediately I realised that it must have fell from the usual place (visor) on to my lap and dropped when I got out of the car! What to do but to pay the penalty for it – you are presumed to have travelled from Johor Baru! Rm68 instead of the Rm23.50 and it really put me off the rest of the journey. Though we are given a grace of 3 days to find the ticket, I searched all over a few times last night as well as this morning without success.

This morning, while at breakfast, my brother-in-law phoned me to ask what time we reached home. When told about our unlucky incident, he said he got a police summon yesterday morning! Immediately, I told him that both of us were born in the year of the Tiger, he is older by 12 years, if there is any explanation for them.

Last night (actually early morning), when we reached home, SP opened the gate for me to drive the car in and she let the two dogs out for a run. This morning, I was told one of them did not come back. His name is Lucky and I am not sure if he is lucky to be free or me. Though I have tried to get SP to transfer him to the factory before this, I feel sad he is actually missing. Though he is spayed, we are hoping he is temporary being attracted by a bitch in heat or something and will be back in a couple of days.

Though I cannot explain the strange happenings, to make me feel better, I would think of it as a 'blessing in disguise'. Instead of fretting over 'losing Rm44.50' when we switched drivers, maybe we had avoided an accident had I decided to continue driving while feeling sleepy. But losing another dog by letting him out and expecting him to come back, seems like a lesson not learned by my dear wife. How am I going to explain to Nee?