Mother's Day 2008 - Out with the Siahs (not as in "out with you!" kind of out)

We had a Mother's Day dinner for Ah Mah (mum's mum) last Sunday. So my Johorean cousins (aunt and uncle too, of course) came up to Malacca! As is the usual practice, they came to church on Sunday morning, cabut for Kevin's mi rebus after lingering awhile (-_-), and then met up with us again for MGC's badminton thingy at MAKSAT.

Football was off that day cuz Mum told us not to be back late for the dinner at 7pm. Football usually lasts till 6.30++pm and then it's a 40-min drive home. For a Malaccan, that's a really long drive.

So I went for badminton cuz I er made an appointment with Mel.

"Your badminton good wan ar?"

*shakes head forlornly*
"Eh then same la."
"Izit? You don't play badminton wan ar?"
"No, I'm just there as a decoration. Mostly in the canteen only wan."
"Really??"
"Yeah. You going anot? You go I go la. Then we lepak in the canteen."

She obviously didn't think I was taking things quite literally.

Melissa Siah . 16 . Putting on the shoes she asked me to lend her.

So Mel ended up playing (i salute your courage, girl!). Me?

this is the life~

correction. this is my life. canteen's closed. *hungry*

Anyway, let me introduce my relatives from DGC.

Mel has a self-fixed diamond-studded phone with a really cool mirror in front:

i can do this with her mirror

...called me "ah fei" (si gemuk) when we were younger cuz she couldn't pronounce my name, has a gazillion little doll statues and posters in her room, has a really sweet-looking face, dresses well like her mum, and currently dislikes Science.

kevin siah . 20 . studying in singapore .

I remember him best as the guy I could never beat in height. Ish. He takes after his dad's badminton prowess, has a speaker and microphone in his car which he is very tempted to use to pretend to be a policeman so he can zoom his way through traffic, has a CD stuck to his room fan, looks nice in well-ironed clothes (lol), and had a really bad History teacher who managed to let him grow up thinking Singapore never left Malaysia.

So, why don't want to study local?
Singapore is local wat.

Yeah, well. I hope his Engineering is better than his History. Haha~

siah tuck bin . my crazy uncle .
showing off his sweat-infested shirt

It seems to be the case that all my uncles are crazy. Hmm. Aside from that, his prowess on the badminton court is undeniable, he goes crazy over soccer and cars (and Stargate...), is really, really hospitable and welcoming, makes jokes that are sometimes lame but always funny, and is always asking me and the other Lims to go on a vacation with him to some random place like a boat in the middle of some watery place. ^_^"

No pic of Ah Yi! (Auntie Yardley) =( But she's a really pretty lady who talks exactly like Mum, has extremely great taste in shoes and clothes, can tahan walking around a shopping mall non-stop for at least 4 hours, introduces great apple juice, and is totally hospitable too.

Done!

Later that night, we had dinner with ah mah and the Siahs. They were late, and so Mum asked to call Kevin. I called halfway and hung up, since Mum already got Ah Yi on the phone. Kevin sms-ed back:

?

Takper d. I'm hwei, btw. (save my number! ^_^")

Haha..lol! u guys there ade?

Of course! Haha. Later force shaun to let you hear the recording of his date with 'michelle' on his hp. XD

And after we finished some of the peanuts, they turned up. Looking zombified, I must say. (proof that badminton is hazardous to one's health!)

Since we taught them all sorts of cool stuff the last time we had dinner, they requested for somemore to bring back home to JB (to share with them DGC folks? haha.) We taught them the one about the cows, grandma's likes and dislikes, and Black Magic already, so...

here's the Finger Game! always a hit at the dinner table! =D

Kevin got it after 2 tries though. Cis! (maybe his Engineering is better than his History)

We also taught them how to tell if an RM note is fake money, and they in turn, enlightened us and showed us that the Malaysian government predicted the making of our very first astronaut a long time ago and stamped it on our RM5 note. Get me to show it to you la. It's real enlightening.

Yep, we had fun that night. Especially after letting them hear the recording of Shaun's date with Michelle. =D ...And also after watching Kevin painfully eat the pig's butt. Eee.

There was a time when we were very close - almost as close as we are with our other cousins that we grew up with in Malacca. When I was dunno how old, Uncle Tuck Bin even asked me to stay with them in JB for a week. And I did! =D We spent literally the entire week having fun pretending we were the Power Rangers on skates and roller-blades, having pillow fights, having late night chats, going shopping (though the real shopping was torture at the time. wait. it still is.) and watching Karate Kid at home.

Being young kiddos though, we had our squabbles. Ah Yi would always tell me to not force myself if I couldn't finish a meal, but I always tried to (not that i had to try hard. the food was always delicious. =D). But there was once I really couldn't finish the porridge we had for lunch. So I decided to not finish it and leave it at the sink. And Kevin straightway yelled, "Ma! Ah Hwei's wasting!"

-_-

Ah Yi ignored him. =P

As for me and Mel, we were at the prime of our girlishness and would talk about all sorts of things in the room at night. And of course... we did the turn-on-flashlights-secretly thing under the blankets. Ah haha~

It was seriously hard to leave when Saturday came round.

Anyway, whenever we went over to ah mah's place after church, we'd be rolling each other up in the billions of mattresses ah mah had stashed in the rooms. Then we'd make mattress-tunnels and take turns crawling in and out of them. And how can I forget the game with the rings? The one with the earth, heart, wind, water and fire elements thing wan. We all had different powers, and everyone would always race to get the one with the heart. Then if someone turned off the glowing spotlighty light in the room, everyone had to freeze cuz we tetiba no power or something. ^_^"

Kiddish games, but they were fun. They still are. And I would play them with my cousins if someone would suggest them again (unlikely though).

Then there was a period of time when we became total strangers to each other. After-church visits to ah mah's place were pure torture, especially during CNY, and the Lims would always try to secure a place upstairs, far far away from the other relatives so we wouldn't have to talk to anybody. Especially the cousins that were "way too cool" for us. Shaun would ask me what happened to us. And I would say:

We grew up.

That was the only explanation I could rack up. Why else did we grow distant? I couldn't think of any other reason. We weren't just distant, we were quietly hostile towards each other. Awful moments. I don't ever want to go back to those times.

Thank God we finally warmed back up to each other one CNY. Can't remember which, but it was only a few years ago. We started with having no place to sit upstairs, so we had to lodge ourselves at the dining table near the living room. Not wanting to have to sit with the adults, the Siahs came over and sat there too, along with Collin (our older cousin - another crazy nut. working in s'pore. i think it's the s'pore air that affects ppl.). We had a nice, long time of conversation, and ended it by each deciding that the other wasn't so bad after all. CNY's became better, and we actually look for them every year we go over.

Somewhere along the way, Shaun asked me again: What happened to us ar? And I said:

We grew up.

But this time, I said it without hesitation. And it was a happier line than the first.

And so... I learned that it is the same for all relationships.

Being born with the same blood doesn't mean there is an automatic immunity to the relationship.

We still need to work hard to maintain the relationship.

It's not about how hard it is. Rather, it's about how much we want it.

I'm glad both sides wanted it bad enough. =)



p/s: Ken stole my handphone, so I didn't take any pictures except the one with Shaun doing the finger game. He took lots of pictures of the ceiling, flora, lights... but didn't take any of my grandma. -_-