88 today

September 27, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

It’s my mum’s 88th birthday today. It’s a super special birthday on many levels. My mum is super-duper special to me. 88 is a grand old age to get to. 88 is an auspicious number. In Chinese it means fortune and luck. As my mum is a quarter Chinese, she will receive abundant blessings of […]

Confusion

September 20, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how I was forgetting stuff more than usual. It was just after my mum started exhibiting some worrying symptoms of memory loss and confusion. She has forgotten this and that, like me, and like most of us, now and again. A birthday or anniversary. A scheduled […]

Mums

September 13, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

I sent my husband to the airport last Saturday. The first time since January 2020 that we’ve both been to the airport. Also, the first time that he has flown to England minus me since we’ve been married. It feels quite sad and disconcertingly quiet to be home on my own. My husband is not […]

Not remembering

September 6, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

I used to have a photographic memory. I could remember contents of pages and even page numbers where the contents could be found in books I’ve read. Now, I’d be lucky if I remember the title of a book, any book. My fading or loss of memory worries me. It frustrates me more. I was […]

Job-free

July 26, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

I’m not work-free. I’m job-free. I no longer take on any fee-earning projects or commissions. No more meetings. No more crazy deadlines. No more writing to suit clients’ requirements. No more commuting. I never was caught in rush-hour traffic as I worked mostly from home – one of the early adopters of the current Work-From-Home […]

Good books

July 19, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

A good book is a delightful companion. An entertaining experience. I like how a good book makes me feel. Happy, sad, involved, questioning, curious, enlightened, helpless, angry and vindicated. A gamut of thoughts, feelings and emotions. Sometimes, I even speak to the characters. That’s how interactive I get. Thanks to the host of brilliant writers […]

OMGs

July 12, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

I pray. I’ve prayed all my life. Prayers. Gods. Temples. They are staples of my life. Growing up in Alor Setar, I remember my dad prayed a lot. There was always an altar in the house. He rose early every morning. Prayed and headed off to his workplace. Let himself in as he had the […]

Corona

June 28, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

I didn’t want to write another post on Covid-19. But here I am doing just that. The fact is it’s a little difficult to ignore or delete all things Covid-19 related. It’s everywhere. In my daily, personal, physical, mental and virtual life. I wake up to it and go to sleep with it. I can’t […]

Mirror, mirror…

June 21, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

What is beauty? Who is beautiful? Is there a beauty standard? If yes, who decides and who qualifies? These questions came coursing through my head. While and after I had watched a cooking show with an international model, yes, a model as one of three guest judges. She was tall and thin. Light skinned with […]

Rain

June 7, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

Rain is not a topic that’s top of my mind. Except, when there’s too much or too little of it. There’s been a lot of rain in KL over the last few months. Like clockwork. This almost daily occurrence made me think about rain. Do I like rain? I do. Late in the night or […]