Rest in Peace

Kelvyn's grangma just passed away, went down to the wake together with goldie, shengrong, anan, ripple and js. first time at a roman catholic wake. the mood is slightly different from toaist wakes. there isn't long and elaborated processions, no fanciful decor, very simply. and.. no curry chicken. but the usual peanuts, melon seeds, sweets and drinks are still available.Did anyone of you realise that you only see this drink during wakes and funerals? i have never seen it at any other occasions. and this is my favourite candy, fruit plus. and the melon seeds here are very different, it's much nicer than usual, very crunchy, and very addictive. this session seems more like a gathering for us, since we haven't met kel for some time, and he just had a surgery on his hand, the hand is still quite swollen.
Some nice photos from the evening..Really love this candid shot, this should be my fave shot of goldie so far
... anyway, we proceeded to hong kong cafe for supper after that, and found more nice food there.. check out the link above for details on the food. and ripple showed me something shengrong can do!!

he can stretch his tongue to touch his chin!!! .. but he cannot do it the other way, he cannout tough his nose with his tongue.. unbelievable

More Curry Chicken

Add (7 March 2007 1am): created quite a few posts in the weeekends, cos this is going to be a busy week and dad has brought the camera overseas, so can expect no photos and no time (super busy at work) this week. will be releasing the posts slowly .. cos i realise that by posting a lot at the same time, there's a tendency of having less comments ... but from the past few days .. i realise that comments are really gettng rare nowdays.. ok back to the actual posting

Joey's grandma passed away on friday and me lawrence and lengleng went to the wake on sat night. wow! it's a big place, didn't really count the number of tables but it's somewhere between 20 to 30, and from one glance, there were around 40 family members around. after asking, we realised that her grandma has got 12 children!!! This is like the nth time i'm attending a wake since my ah gong passed away. what's wrong with this period of time huh?

Anyway, we all had dinner just before going there and when we reached there, joey and family were eating and they offered for us to join them for the food.

Joey: want to eat together?
Us: no lah, we are very full, just had dinner..
(they started eating the beehoon, and the po piah, and they finished it, and it wasn't enough, they brought out more)
Joey: really don't want ar? very nice leh?
Us: No need, we are really very full
(they continue to eat, and finished everything up again)
Leng: Eh, the beehoon looks good hor? wanna try a bit?
Lawrence: yar lor, they eat until like that, i also want to try.
Us: joey, can we have some bee hoon?
Joey: haha.. ok i go get for you
Us: a little bit can liao, just want to try.

We ended up finishing a whole big plate of bee hoon and almost all the popiah!! .. so much for "we are quite full". this time also no curry chicken but the beehoon is really good.

Supper at Void Deck Again

As i was about to leave home, i was quite affected or rathered disturbed by some personal issues that i actually forgotten to bring my camera out! i wonder when was the last time my camera wasn't by my side. so photos for this posting was taken from the mediocre camera on my handphone.

Anyway, condolences to risa kaiming weiyang joe trina and eileen for the loss of their grandpa, got the news this afternoon. Many of our grandparents couldn't pull through this new year. this is like the 3rd wake i attended since 2007 started. oh and again we had supper at the wake, this time round it was the ever famous macdonalds.
It's quite rare that i actually know so many of the family members at any wake, it's usually the case of knowing 1 person of the family, but i guess their family is so close that by knowing one of them, you'll soon get to know the rest of the cousins..

It's valentine's day, and friendship day... so here's wishing everyone out that a wonderful day ahead....

Another Wake

At ting's grandma's wake, i received news that hansen's grandma passed away too, so the next day, i went for another wake, had supper there too, this time, no chicken curry. Haven't seen kaisi for so long, she hasn't changed much, but i think she became fairer since she joined sia.. first time she's appearing on my blog too. she saw the peanuts and wanted to relive her childhood days where she "kiap" the peanuts on her face. what an unglam photo for an sq girl.

Curry Chicken for Supper

Tingting's grandma just passed away and we went for the wake. What's so special about this wake is that, although we always say that you will eat curry chicken at a wake, it's actually the first time many of us are eating curry chicken at a wake, cos at most wakes, they decided to not serve curry chicken anymore. Anyway, why eat curry chicken at wakes? nuanda and riendel bought a new car.. and we get to see it for the first time! weekend car for the 2 busy lawyers who will not get to drive to work because of the exorbitant carpark charges in town. new car, remember to buy 4d!!

Last Day

Too busy today for any photos, today is the burial ceremony, ah gong is now resting peacefully at choa chu kang chinese cemetery blk 19 no. 595. a very tiring day.... what i hope for now is a good sleep....

Third Night at the Wake

Finally, it's the last night. everyone was busy folding paper because they have to be used for the rutial at night. all sorts of incense paper, all the different ways of folding.
The ritual started as early as 7pm and this time round its the long one ... we had a few breaks in between and it ended at about 11pm when we had to burn up the paper house, cars, incense paper etc etc...
Not forgetting about friends who came, henry, chiver, yutong, ripple, xintian, bangjie, bangzhi's parents, lawrence, regina, lengleng, joey.thank you so much... esp ripple and xintian, for coming down again and helped me with the folding of incense paper.

Going to bathe and take a short nap before going back to prepare for the actual procession and ceremony for the burial.

Second Night at the Wake

Second night's turnout was more than expected, luckily the area we have was quite big, and we gotta increase the amount for food to prepare. a group of buddist devotees were invited to provide a prayer session for ah gong for this night.

Many friends turned up today, really appreciate it, nancy, james, xiequn, bangjun, xintian, alfred, merwin, leon, yvonne, eddie, yanping, bingwei, meili, jiehong, tingting, mingbao, jingpei, hansen, kaisi, terry, kelly, sumitra, kianhong, yihan, marianne, caiyun, jensen, weiyang, roger. without you people, i think the time i spend at the funeral will seem so much longer... have also received lots of condolences messages from all of you, dun worry, i'm alright, thank you for the concern.

One last night to go, and i guess this will be a long night, there should be a taoist ritual going on and it will end with the burning of the paper house, car, and the incense papers that we have been folding for the past few days.

First Night at the Wake

The venue for the wake was set to be at block 3 queen's road (farrer road) at the end of the sheltered car park. we will be there till wed noon where the burial ceremony will be carried out at choa chu kang cemetry.

Quite a number of people turned up on the first night. saw many familiar faces among the relatives that came. the weather was good, everyone was chatting at their tables, the mood was good,

Deepest (is this the reght word to use?) appreciation to my friends who came down to visit my ah gong last night. hansen kaisi ripple cruz xuliang kerwin lawrence lengleng regina joey kaiming goldie kelvyn and and also qianhao frederick jason borong who were unable to make it due to different reasons. i hope the mahjong and texas poker session was good, sorry that i'm unable to attend to all of you all the time during the night.

2 more nights to go, gotta go back to office to settle some stuffs this morning, i wish everyone a happy and enjoyable week, and i wish ah gong is leaving us with no regrets and all the best to him in the life he will lead after death...

it's time for some sleep........

Rest in Peace... Ah Gong

I was at home at 10 plus at night waiting for a phone call for terry, because we intended to go clubbing. before i received this call, my auntie called up and told my dad that ah gong is not in good condition. rushed down to his place and before we could reach there, he has already passed away.......

11.11.2006 11pm .... It was more or less an expected thing, but we were caught by a bit of shock, becuase these few days he could still walk around. I think he had gone through a wonderful life journey many dun have the chance to, cos he walked this road for 92 years...

Everyone was sad at ah gong's place when i reached there, but after a while, we got settled down and started to plan for the upcoming few days... i think it's going to be a busy week for all of us.
This photo was taken about 5 years ago, ah gong just went to the studio and got his own photo taken and he told us that it's to be kept for ..... today. you can see the time on the clock too, my aunt stopped the clock when ah gong's pulse stopped..

i really thing the date and time was really very zhun... 11/11 11pm ... and when we were thinking back, we realised that my ah ma passed away on 1.1.1985 1am... hhmmm.. 1/1 1am ..... is that coincidental? ..

I'm back home to take a rest before going down again while ah gong is still lying on his bed peacefully, undertaker will only come down in the morning, details of the wake is not available yet, cos we dunno which block is available, but it'll definitely be at farrer road... till wed..

I still have some unposted items... will put them on hold till the funeral is over

Goodbye to Bangzhi's Ah Ma

Went to bangzhi's grandma's wake on monday night, his grandma has peacefully passed on after a long fight with mr cancer. I was at the wake on sunday too but didn't bring along my camera cos i tot there won't be anything interesting to shoot at a wake. But i was wrong... Firstly, bangzhi has got 2 very cute cousins who are hyperactive, even though a wake is a solemn event, the 2 innocent kids just ran around with their own self-made props and created quite a scene at singapore casket.

When they see me with a camera, they are totally not camera shy, they will start to pose and smile, here they are in their own self-made "cars", there's even a headlight... haha

Throughout my whole stay, they were constantly active and enjoying each other's company, playing with the flowers from the wreaths and anything they can find lying aroundAnd finally, he got tired.....

There was this shot that i took that i like very much. When darren was holding a signboard from one of the wreath and playing with it, i caught this shot, which i think really shows the innocence of a kid. Do you think that he actually knows that his grandma has just passed away? what do you think kids understand about death? Ripple actually told me that he will walk to the coffin and try to talk to his Ah Ma at times.

All the girls went crazy with they are allowed to keep that flowers from the wreaths because that was the last night and the wreaths will be thrown away anyway, so ripple took this chance to pick as many nice fresh flowers as she could