Pieces of me………

The Absurdity of English
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,

and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

but though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Let’s face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted.

But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that
quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,
grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one
of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and
play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

So if Father is Pop, how come Mother isn’t Mop

My Aunt just passed away last week. I was not that close to her but I did have some feelings for her. I mean, i was kindda sad over her passing. She was my mom’s younger sister. I did not have much to talk with her but I knew she did care for me and I cared too for her and am also grateful to her for the things she did for me especially since I was a kid.

She died of cancer. The last time I saw her was during Chinese New Year, she was very sickly already during that time. I knew her time was nearly up but i did not really take it seriously. My mom called last Monday to say that she had died…….so I drove down to ipoh, took wednesday off and attended her funeral on Thursday before driving back for the holy week tridium…….that I thought was the least I could do for her.

She was not married, so her family would be her siblings, nieces and nephews and her adopted daughter. She led a simple life, took care of my grandmother throughout her life until my grandmother died in 2001……she had no friends…..and we her relatives were her only friends….some of us might say that what a sad life she led but…..I’m not sure if she would have agreed with us.

Her funeral was grand, it was the taoist type of funeral, prayers were held every night from the day she died till her funeral, they bought her paper house with servants and all the material things in it and a paper made mercedez benz (of which the car number came out as the 3rd prize for 4D)……and she had a band that led the funeral procession.

Being a cradle Catholic, I found myself lost in most instances, to make things worst, I could not speak hakka neither could i understand fully the language. I found myself in the way most of the time….but I was happy to be there….

I’ve attended funerals of people I know…..and I cry most of the time because thoughts of these people being gone forever makes me so sad. I nearly cried again this time but I managed to control my tears….the saddest part during the funeral was when they told us to go and see her for the very last time before they sealed the coffin….it struck me that very moment that she was gone forever…..the feeling was bad, believe me…..I wondered how did my mom feel, especially since she had lost a sister.

In the Chinese custom, only people who are younger than the deceased can attend the funeral. My mom was elder to her therefore she could not attend the funeral. I’m sure it must have been awful for her  not to be able to send her sister off…….

Coming back from Ipoh, i learned that 2 close relatives of my sister’s in-laws had passed away and both the in-laws were pretty depressed. Then yesterday, I was told that a friend’s bro had died suddently while exercising….kindda sad to see how people suffer because they have lost a loved one…..but I guess death is just something we, like it or not will have to acept…..

This Easter, I decided to spend time at my sister’s house in Bukit Jelutong. It was NICE. I cooked roasted chicken and potatoes with vege salad for lunch and pasta with salad again for dinner. What made it so fun was to have my loved one cooking with me. It was not taxing at all. Instead it was relaxing and enjoyable just to be in each other’s company.

We did not do anything outstandingly special. It was just to spend time togather, doing the things that people do at home and it meant so much to me. I guess it’s because we rarely spend time togather. We always focus on our work. It’s hard for me to have weekends off since especially since everybody wants to have their activities during weekends and I got to be there. That sunday was different and It meant so much to me to be able to spend those relaxing moments with the people I love and yes I wish that every Sunday will be like how easter sunday was to me……sigh….I can find words to express my feelings…….

Happy EASTER……

What does it mean to be generous? There is this lady in my office who works as a cleaner. She earns I think around RM 600 per month. She is a widow and has a son who was sent to prison and a daughter who is married and has a family of her own. It is obvious that she is not wealthy and cannot afford a lavish lifestyle.

Since the day she worked at our office, she has never gone out for lunch because she cannot afford it. She would bring some biscuits or make some fried noodles or capati or tosai to eat for lunch. I on the other hand had always gone out for lunch because I did not bring my own food. Sometimes, I would ask her if she wanted anything and as usual her answer would be "no thank you"

A few days ago, she came to the office with a tiffin set carrier filled with nasi lemak enough for 5 people to eat. The ingredients in the nasi lemak was pretty grand. There was ikan bilis sambal, petai sambal cooked with minced meat, fried kangkong, fresh timun…….she said she wanted to give us all a treat and boy did we enjoy our meal.

I thought it was very generous of her to do so because despite the little that she had, she still wanted to share with us all. I felt kindda ashamed of myself because I felt that I was not as generous as she was.

We are sometimes so fortunate that we tend to take our own comfort for granted. We use the ASAYO premises very often but never really cared for the premises as much as Kamala does. She brings table clothes on her own initiative to decorate the place and once she even bought paint to paint some parts of the wall of which she felt it was dirty. When she makes a cup of coffee for herself, she would ask every one else in the office if they wanted 1. She might not be a priest or a nun or a CEO or a manager or even a president of a css but I think she leads the best example of what it takes to be a generous and a kind person.

Annual dinners…..haiya it has another meaning to me….HEADACHE…thats what it means. 3 reasons….

1.Money (got to pay for dinner and other stuffs for the dinner)……

2.What to wear (U know lah, me being me always confortable with jeans will have nothing much interesting in my wardrop)……

3.Not being my natural self at the dinner (especially since they like to put me at the VIP table coz I’m the Campus Minister mah…then everyone will be looking at you not because you are sooooooo attractive but more because the MC announces your arrival and acknowledges your presence every now and then)

On April Fools day, I joined the UiTM fellas for their 1st ever CSS nite. It was a nite to remember actually. It was fun to see Jo all dressed up like a ship captain, Charles as a Cowboy, and Jai as Tai Ko. It was simply relaxing and fun. Most people were very much themselves and were very casual in their behaviour. The jokes were very funny and spontanious. It really felt like it was a family event….what made me most happy was to see that everyone was happily enjoying themselves…….

…..I am still very much a stranger in that CSS whereby I guess only the excos know my identity. The rest of the members do not know who I am and think of me as one of the 1st years in campus…..well….time will tell…and hopefully I will be no more stanger to these people in time to come. I love CSS SA for the uniquesness that is within them. Truly, they are an example of a family away from home.