Friday, March 25, 2011

First Ever Tomb Sweeping

Haha what a title for this post. But this whole trip to Malaysia was indeed to do some tomb sweeping for my grandma, great-grandparents and grand-uncle. First time doing such stuff. Yeah I'm a free-thinker but have no choice cos my father, being the eldest son, have to go back and perform his "duty", and so me, being the eldest grandson (the only grandson in fact), have to go back as well. Ok I guess, cos it's an eye-opener for me too.

On Saturday, 19th March, we drove all the way to KL, to my mother's younger brother's home. His wife and son went to fetch us somewhere at KL cos father did not know how to get to their place. We had lunch before going to their house, which was quite a distance up a hill of sorts. My auntie reared tortoises. All of them roaming around the house freely.

We left grandma (maternal) there to stay with them. She stayed with us for around two months already and so now she's going to stay with my auntie in KL. So poor thing being kicked around like a ball. No sons of hers wanna keep her by their side. Why have so many sons in the first place?

Well we continued our journey to Mentakab, Pahang. Took about two hours or so. Then we checked into Bukit Bendera Resort (a hotel) as usual to put our stuff. Then we reached my grandpa's house. We then had dinner with him and the uncles and aunties around at the nearby town centre, as usual.

The next morning, we woke up at 5am to get ready to go to my grandpa's house! When was the last time I woke up at 5am? We went to this graveyard with tombs all over. Visited all four graves belonging to grand-uncle, great-grandfather, great-grandmother and grandmother. Took about two hours to finish everything. Luckily the weather was great with clouds above our heads. There were plenty of other families doing the same rituals.
Taken in March 2011

Taken in January 2010

In the evening, we had dinner outside again. Then we went to the night market as usual to walk around and get some foodstuff. Next morning, we visited grandpa for the last time before we headed to Genting. Nah not really Genting, but at the midway point, at the cable car station, to meet mother's younger brother, who always provided us with honey. Yes he's a honey hunter (is that what you call them?). We had lunch at the area before bidding farewell, and after getting lotsa honey from them.
A small waterfall around the cable car station at the midpoint of Genting Highlands

Then it's a long drive back to JB. I only drove for two hours out of the five hours journey. Got stopped by the TP and pulled to one side. Several cars were told to pull to one side like us. Father got out of the car to speak to the policeman, telling him we've been going at 110 kph only. So the guy then told us to continue. Beware drivers! Don't tell them you've exceeded the speed limit even if you did. They most probably don't have evidence and merely wanted to scare you into owning up.

We reached JB at around 6pm and we had dinner there before coming back to Singapore. What a long ride it has been. Never liked going back to Malaysia lol.

TGIF! Duh...

Duh, because I'm on leave! No difference whether it's Monday or Friday. Cos for the whole of this week, including last Friday, I haven't been back to office. And all these have ended tooooo soon.

Quick recap since the last update:

24th March 2011, Thursday

Saw this ad about some free seminar on apps development for smart devices. Therefore decided to go take a look since I'm free. It's at a place called ERC at the building opposite Bugis Junction. The speaker barely touched the surface of Apps development. It's merely to introduce this Apps Millionaire programme. It's a 3-day course to learn about the business opportunities and actually doing it, to start an Apps business. Total waste of time. Luckily it lasted less than an hour. Decided to go to the Central Library just a short distance away to look for books on Apps development. Lucky! Found one which is published in 2011, therefore borrowed it straight away.


23rd March 2011, Wednesday

Went to Cap Square for the Technical Analysis and Advanced course conducted for employees. Very insightful. Should have learnt it long ago. There were only about 12 participants. It was actually in a small meeting room at Level 8 of Cap Square, the place I went to for COB previously. And Yee Wen's desk was right in front of the room. Therefore Wei Keng, Peiying and I joined her for lunch at a kopitiam nearby. After the lunch it was the Advanced course. Was pretty tired but luckily the trainer was very entertaining with his jokes and stories and anecdotes.


22nd March 2011, Tuesday

Went for medical checkup at Equity Plaza for my new job. Ok! Everything is done. Looking forward to a new beginning.

19th-21st March 2011, Saturday-Monday

Trip to Malaysia, to be updated in the next post.


18th March 2011, Friday

Was on leave. Supposed to go to Nex to see the MMK in action. In the end the weather and laziness prevented me from stepping out of my house. But still, I had to go to Sim Lim to help Boon Leong to search for a suitable desktop pc. Just nice met Li Teng there. Therefore he also helped to search around. Then BL arrived and we then decided to get the i5 system for his father. Cost around $500. Good enough to last him for at least the next 3-5 years.