Wednesday, January 28, 2009 @ 10:23 AM
two days of discovery.

                I’ve been out and about these past 2 days, and it’s been an immensely feel-good kind of time. It’s comforting to visit the house you’ve last been in a year back, hear your relatives gush about how tall you’ve grown, and join them in cooing over the newest addition to the family. When you leave, you’ll promise to ‘keep in touch’ and ‘meet up one day’ – empty promises, because everyone knows the next time you’ll cross paths is in a year’s time.

                I didn’t indulge in all that many goodies this festive season, because I overstuffed myself at the first house and became so satiated I couldn’t stand the sight of another love letter or sliver of bakkwa, much to everyone’s astonishment. I almost always fall for pineapple tarts, though.

Funnily enough, Terence Cao is related to me through some obscure relationship involving godfathers and stuff – not by blood, sadly. But I did have the pleasure of meeting him on Monday, and he’s quite the nice guy, though I don’t watch TV much and thus have no idea how good he really is. But my friend was so excited that he sms-ed me: “OMG, terence cao is pretty popular even though i think hes old and his acting sucks and his mandarin is dam awful. Help me get his autograph. Pls pls.”  I didn’t, but being the trigger-happy person I am, I attempted to take photos of him. I’m not going to put them here, but feel free to ask if you want a snapshot of the back of his head.

                Through the visitings, I’ve discovered people I never knew existed, and I realized my immediate family really isn’t that close to our relatives. While all of them generally mix around and stay in each other’s houses from time to time, my family doesn’t do that sort of thing. Maybe it’s the age gap – some of my cousins are at least 5 years older than me, while the rest are in lower primary.

                My sister and I were tasked to take care of our younger cousins, which would be perfectly fine if they didn’t have the attention span of a flea. When we tried to entertain them with ghost stories and games of murderer, one would shriek and proceed to flee the room, ensuing a chain effect with the others. Then we’d sit them down again, only to see the scene replay itself. I pretty much reached my breaking point when they were shouting out games to play:

W: Why don’t we play Catching?

X: No, why not Disease?

Y: No no no, why don’t we play Bacteria? Claire’s* the bacteria, so we all run away from her and spit at her!

Me: That’s so mean...!

Z: Why don’t we play Invisible Woman? Claire’s the invisible woman and we...

*asterisked name changed to provide privacy. And also partly because I don’t know how to spell it.             

Gosh. In the end I just flopped into a chair and moaned quietly while the kids went bouncing about. (sans Claire.) Really, it makes my sister and I wonder: were we like that in the past?

But to look on the bright side of the coin, considering we see them only about once a year, they took to us pretty well, for which I was very much heartened. It was also strangely gratifying to see them frolicking around and having fun, never mind the warnings of their parents to be still and quiet. As one of them told me, ‘Sometimes we don’t care what they say; we just want to have fun. Anyway, they won’t scold us, and even when they do, we’ll just do it again the next time!’

Their energy, even if it’s only kinetic and sound, is a wonderful reminder of the joys of being truly alive and blissful, without a single worry in the world. And I quite admired them for that. There was so much to learn from them – just to cast all your worries aside, let your hair down, and have fun. Indeed, in today’s stressful society, it’s hard to truly just have fun without your mind wandering off to a distant worry or concern. But these kids – they seemed to be especially adept at having fun, and they really did seem to be enjoying themselves, even if only in their own unique way. They’ll grow up soon enough, but for now, who are we to stop them from indulging in mindless fun? It’s their childhood after all, and I admired them in a way that can’t be put into words.

                It was getting late and soon it was time to leave, and for the nth time that day, my dad promised to keep in touch and meet up again one day.

And you know, this time, I really hoped he meant it.

 -  dennis. =)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 @ 10:23 AM
two days of discovery.

                I’ve been out and about these past 2 days, and it’s been an immensely feel-good kind of time. It’s comforting to visit the house you’ve last been in a year back, hear your relatives gush about how tall you’ve grown, and join them in cooing over the newest addition to the family. When you leave, you’ll promise to ‘keep in touch’ and ‘meet up one day’ – empty promises, because everyone knows the next time you’ll cross paths is in a year’s time.

                I didn’t indulge in all that many goodies this festive season, because I overstuffed myself at the first house and became so satiated I couldn’t stand the sight of another love letter or sliver of bakkwa, much to everyone’s astonishment. I almost always fall for pineapple tarts, though.

Funnily enough, Terence Cao is related to me through some obscure relationship involving godfathers and stuff – not by blood, sadly. But I did have the pleasure of meeting him on Monday, and he’s quite the nice guy, though I don’t watch TV much and thus have no idea how good he really is. But my friend was so excited that he sms-ed me: “OMG, terence cao is pretty popular even though i think hes old and his acting sucks and his mandarin is dam awful. Help me get his autograph. Pls pls.”  I didn’t, but being the trigger-happy person I am, I attempted to take photos of him. I’m not going to put them here, but feel free to ask if you want a snapshot of the back of his head.

                Through the visitings, I’ve discovered people I never knew existed, and I realized my immediate family really isn’t that close to our relatives. While all of them generally mix around and stay in each other’s houses from time to time, my family doesn’t do that sort of thing. Maybe it’s the age gap – some of my cousins are at least 5 years older than me, while the rest are in lower primary.

                My sister and I were tasked to take care of our younger cousins, which would be perfectly fine if they didn’t have the attention span of a flea. When we tried to entertain them with ghost stories and games of murderer, one would shriek and proceed to flee the room, ensuing a chain effect with the others. Then we’d sit them down again, only to see the scene replay itself. I pretty much reached my breaking point when they were shouting out games to play:

W: Why don’t we play Catching?

X: No, why not Disease?

Y: No no no, why don’t we play Bacteria? Claire’s* the bacteria, so we all run away from her and spit at her!

Me: That’s so mean...!

Z: Why don’t we play Invisible Woman? Claire’s the invisible woman and we...

*asterisked name changed to provide privacy. And also partly because I don’t know how to spell it.             

Gosh. In the end I just flopped into a chair and moaned quietly while the kids went bouncing about. (sans Claire.) Really, it makes my sister and I wonder: were we like that in the past?

But to look on the bright side of the coin, considering we see them only about once a year, they took to us pretty well, for which I was very much heartened. It was also strangely gratifying to see them frolicking around and having fun, never mind the warnings of their parents to be still and quiet. As one of them told me, ‘Sometimes we don’t care what they say; we just want to have fun. Anyway, they won’t scold us, and even when they do, we’ll just do it again the next time!’

Their energy, even if it’s only kinetic and sound, is a wonderful reminder of the joys of being truly alive and blissful, without a single worry in the world. And I quite admired them for that. There was so much to learn from them – just to cast all your worries aside, let your hair down, and have fun. Indeed, in today’s stressful society, it’s hard to truly just have fun without your mind wandering off to a distant worry or concern. But these kids – they seemed to be especially adept at having fun, and they really did seem to be enjoying themselves, even if only in their own unique way. They’ll grow up soon enough, but for now, who are we to stop them from indulging in mindless fun? It’s their childhood after all, and I admired them in a way that can’t be put into words.

                It was getting late and soon it was time to leave, and for the nth time that day, my dad promised to keep in touch and meet up again one day.

And you know, this time, I really hoped he meant it.

 -  dennis. =)