Dance into the new year!

Our Qigong session ends at 8am every morning and the younger ones (= those below 70s) will proceed to line dancing at the club house, including me. On one particular morning, we're busy working on a special project...

Our instructor, who's also our neighbor, taught us a few Chinese New Year dances. I'm very glad I got the chance to learn to make the new year "flower ball" 新年绣球.

It's not that difficult to make but requires a lot of patience.

Making the flower ball while listening to chinese new year songs... A lot of us brought our "homework" home. The next day, many were complaining that those flower balls were really testing their patience. However, all of us did agree that it's still worth doing as it's less than RM10 to make a pair!

"Gong Xi Gong XI Gong Xi Ni......" it's fun to dance with those flower balls in hands. We're also practicing hard for our new year "dinner & dance" .

I'm holding a flower ball in hand. That bangle was a gift from my beloved dad when I was in standard 2. I've been wearing it for years.

We booked 4 tables and occupied the whole floor in a small chinese restaurant for our first ever CNY "dinner & dance".

Our team were all in red and black while the other group (from another housing area, also under the same instructor) were in black. All the mothers/grandmothers had a great time dancing away...

Our beautiful dance instructor in her silver bling costume. She looked stunning and all of us enjoyed watching her dance.

It was a night to remember.

Who's Helping Who?

My hubby was approached by a stranger when he passed by a mini market near our office. Speaking in cantonese, that old lady with 2 heavy grocery bags in hands asked for my hubby's help to drive her home. She said her legs were painful.

My hubby did not manage to offer his help as we need to rush to pack some food for our kids. He later told me he could recognize that poor lady as there're a few times he saw her walking along the roadside with grocery bags in hand. We later felt sorry for not helping her and decided to drive around to look for her.

It did not take us long to spot her walking slowly down the road. I wound down the car window to offer help. I could see she's in pain, yet she managed to squeeze a smile on her tired and wrinkled face (which looked more like crying) and telling us she had backache. Her long white hair was messy and she had only a few teeth left. Life must not be easy on her...

Inside the car, we asked for her address and I was surprised that she's staying in a quite an affluent area. She told us she's a teacher back in 1950s. She then started to speak in good mandarin. She said her eldest son had his own small business but not doing well, her daughter is married and staying in Singapore now and she also did talk about her youngest son.

I was curious and asked her why not she took a cab home?

"坐的士很贵，要十多快。我好过把那些钱省下来买食物给我的猫和狗。”

She said taking cab was expensive and she'd rather keep the money to buy food for her cats and dogs...

“那些路边别人不要的猫狗很可怜，我都把他们带回家养。”

She pitied those strayed dogs and cats, and brought them home.

When we reached her double-storey house, we saw her being welcomed by her dogs and cats. I wanted to take a photo of her going inside her house, but couldn't do so because she was standing in front of the gate and kept smiling and waving good bye to us.

"谢谢你们，你们真好人，上帝保佑你们！“

She thanked us and said we are good people and God will bless us.

I think God should bless her more. She gives unselfishly, and even as to sacrifice her own comfort for the sake of those strayed animals on the street.

Back to school...in the kampung

During our recent trip to Muar, my family dropped by my hubby's primary school and spent a great evening with his siblings, nieces & nephews.

The school bell is the sweetest sound to a child's ear, especially the one for "recess" & "going home".

A humble classroom that has nurtured many kampung kids with big dreams. My hubby and his youngest brother are two of them who'd graduated with engineering degrees from the National University of Singapore, and 2 of my sister-in-laws are teachers and one is a pharmacist!

The number of student is dwindling as many young families have moved out of the rural area. The whole school is left with less than 60 students now.

One of the problems faced by many rural schools is the lack of English speaking environment. My hubby told me he's without any English teacher for a whole year when he's in the secondary school. "So we just go and play basketball lah...," He said.

Brothers playing basketball together...

My hubby "proudly" told the kids that he used to climb over the fence to play basketball here.

Zi had fun playing with her new toy

My kids had a good time playing with their cousins

A relaxed and beautiful evening spent with the family members.

What a wonderful kampung life!