A year on & a fish funeral

It's been more than a year since I've updated this blog. Been busy, very busy ... Now, I've just claimed my blog through my Gmail account and I thought I might continue to write. Why not?

Between the last time (this blog was alive) and now: Yi Wen is now a sophomore at NTU (Nanyang Technological University); Yi Wei will be joining University of New Castle; and Kean Wah had celebrated his 11th birthday (with Uncle Kwong Teck) and his 12th birthday (where I made an ice-cream cake at home & we had Wagyu beef at Angus Steakhouse)...; I taught two semesters at the SIM University here in Singapore; we kept some tropical fish and even had a fish funeral a month ago...

Rudolf was our favourite ram in our tank and when he died, we made him a nice coffin and placed some flowers in it. The tank is never the same again, but that's life...

Oh, I almost forgot to mention -- Yi Wei's school (UNSW Asia) closed down and I wrote a letter to Sydney Morning Herald. I reproduce this letter here for those of you who missed it:

You must be joking, Professor Hilmer.

If the intent is to shock, Hilmer has definitely succeeded beyond anyone's imagination. The way the closure of UNSW Asia was announced was, to say the least, a public relations nightmare ("Red faces, millions lost as uni closes campus", May 24). While students were still having their examinations, Hilmer dropped the bombshell - UNSW Asia shall cease to exist in a month. The numbers aren't right, he claimed. But never mind those who have placed their trust in a reputed university and paid three to four times the fee charged by other local universities (in Singapore) in the hope of getting a UNSW education.

While efforts have been made to assist UNSW Asia students studying in the university, the second batch of students due to join in July were forgotten. Students studying the Foundation Year program at Temasek Polytechnic (including my daughter) were told of the shocking news on the last day of their final exams. (Many were affected when they heard the horrifying news in the media the day before.)

But never mind, the students shall be offered a place in the Sydney campus. Their parents can pay the extra $80,000 or so in living expenses (estimate $20,000 - $22,000 a year for the next four years); but the university will subsidise by paying a return air ticket to Australia (less than $2000).

The Foundation Year program costs $S20,000 ($16,000) and students were given a provisional offer to study either in UNSW Asia or its Sydney campus. The program is run by UNSW Asia. Does the university not have moral obligations to take care of the needs of these students? Is a return air ticket to Australia fair? Parents will need to fork out much more money and many have not budgeted for it. What can students under such circumstances do?

While Hilmer is already back in Sydney, the mess he left behind shall leave an indelible bitter aftertaste. So is this a joke, Professor Hilmer? Would you be writing another book, The UNSW Experience: What the Management Texts didn't Teach Me?

Chai Lee Fung Singapore

The Cycle of Life

A friend of mine is dying! I don't seem to be able to shake off this growing melancholic feeling since I visited him in hospital a week ago. He is only 43, and at the peak of his career. A tumour in his brain suddenly brought this to an untimely end.

Two weeks ago, he could still speak with me. Hearing his frail voice over the phone, he seemed like a total stranger to me. I have always known him to be so full of life, even a little brash at times. The small voice at the other end of the line sounded so hopeless and depressing. I felt so sorry for him and his family but at the same time, awkward, for I was at a loss for words to express my sympathy. What do you say to someone who knows that he is dying?

At the hospital a week ago, he could not even speak. Seeing him grab his wife's hand attempting to bite it, out of frustration and total desperation; is heart-rending. It makes me wonder what goes through a person's mind during these dark moments. Does one reflect on one's life anymore or does one struggle with the immediate need to stay alive for as long as one can? The escalating sense of foreboding must surely drive a person crazy. Or is it fear that one feels. After all death is unknown and anything that is unknown will surely bring about uncertainty and fear...

Another friend of mine who was with me at the time asked this friend to meditate in order to remain calm. He (my sick friend)closed his eyes and remained silent for some moments. He seemed unhappy with this piece of well-meaning advice.

"How do you know what I am really going through?," he seemed to be saying.

At that moment, I wish I knew how best to communicate to bring him calm and solace. At the end, I just reminded him that I have always known him to be a strong and wonderful person and that he should remain strong. He nodded as though in agreement, then mumbled something that I could not comprehend.

Today, I hear that his condition has turned for the worst. His organs are failing him and he is in a very critical condition.

Life and death cycle is part of all of us. This I know, but when it happens to someone you know or is close to you, the reality just seems cruel and harsh.

When Heaven's a blanket!

I was angry with my daughter, Yi Wen, the other day. Her A-Levels was approaching and I see her playing Sims on her computer for days! And I did not know if she had already started on her university applications; or at got in touch with her teachers who are suppose to write her evaluation reports for the Universities she intends to apply for. And the list goes on....

When I was her age, I was very eager to secure a place in the university and I would make doubly sure I make the deadlines. But of course, I did not apply for universities out of the country.

I must say, applying to the Ivy-league Us in the States is rather daunting. She has done wonderfully well so far: got perfect scores for her SAT Reasoning & Verbal; as well as for her subject SAT (Physics 800/800; Chemistry 790/800; and Maths II 800/800). There are loads of forms to fill in; evaluator reports to obtain; and of course essays to write. Most of these universities have deadlines like Dec 1; meaning she needs to start her application process now. We would be overseas from 25 Nov - mid Dec; making it almost impossible to do much those few weeks...

So, I was nagging her for her apparent inaction. I told her that I did not procrastinate when I was young on major issues such as this.

The only things I do procrastinate are household chores that I hate like: collecting the clothes from the clothesline; ironing; washing my school shoes, etc. And for these, Ma would censure me with her favourite scolding: "When the Heavens should fall on your head; you would look up and wrap it around you as if it's your blanket!"

Yi Wen looked up at me and said; " That's cool!".

So, what can I say, huh?

Hand-cut Noodles & Chilli Padi

Yesterday, I ordered a plate of hand-cut noodles fried with pepper beef at a Chinese restaurant. When the plate of noodles arrive, I recognise it instantly as a dish we used to eat when we were children--remember DaoMaQie (literally means Cut-with- Knife, in Hakka). The closest equivalent of this dish is perhaps the Shanxi DaoXiaoMian.

I think I have not been fair to Ah Po as I've not said much about some of the things she did well. While Ah Po did not really have much culinary skills to boast of, she did make good DaoMaQie.

Ah Po used flour, water, salt and egg perhaps to make a sizable chunk of well-kneaded dough. She then rolled the dough into a flat rectangular shape with a bottle (no rolling pins those days); then cut ot into strips of noodles. Isn't that how pasta is made as well?

To cook the noodles, Ah Po threw them into a vat of boiling water and quickly take them out to cool. The result is chewy, chunky pieces of noodles. Our home version of DaoMaQie is eaten with a soup made out of fried enchovies (ikan bilis)and a kind of basil-like leaves (don't remember the name of this vegetable, but we used to grow them in our garden. The leaves are plucked from their thorny stems to be eaten). While we don't eat DaoMaQie much, it was like a treat for us when Ah Po made them each time.

I remember my first introduction to chilli padi. Chilli Padi is a small and very hot chilli, probably of the species called african birdseye or African devil. The hotness is about 100,000 - 200,000 Scoville heat units. The ordinary Jalapeño chilli that we used for everyday cooking is 2,500 - 8,000 on the scoville scale. So chilli padi is about 50 times hotter!

We were eating DaoMaQie in Ah Po's vegetable farm house in the village. Ah Po brought out a bottle of pickled chillis.

"It's very hot! Be careful," she cautioned.

I took one look at the bottle and muttered to myself, " How can it be so hot? It's so tiny!".

The next moment, I took a whole chilli and put it in my mouth, defying Ah po's well-intentioned advice.

I felt fire in my mouth; my eyes smart and tears started to roll down involuntarily. I thought smoke came out of my ears as well. Ah Po and aunt Yoke Foong laughed out loud.

I spat the chilli padi out and quickly washed my mouth with gulps of cold water. Then I continued to eat DaoMaQie quietly. It was delicious as always!

Whoever heard of Turducken?

It's the first time I come across this dish from a book titled " It must've been something that I ate" by food critic Jeffrey Steingarten. A Tur-duck-en takes a chicken, duck and a turkey; debone them and stuff a chicken into the duck and then the duck into the turkey. Neat, eh?

You see, I've just read about the dish; not tasted it. And I think I probably won't ever. Can't fancy myself deboning a chicken; much less a duck and a TURKEY! And then to stuff them one inside the other. It'd probably take me 3 days.

But this dish reminded me of a song I have often sang to my kids. It goes like this:

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly;
She swallowed a fly, She swallowed a fly;
I think she'd die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a spider;
She followed a spider to catch the fly;
She swallowed a fly, She swallowed a fly;
I think she'd die.

Then repeat the song with : swallowed a cat to catch the spider; swallowed a dog to catch the cat; ending ridiculously with swallowed a horse to swallow the dog....and Of course she's dead.

Always makes my kids laugh and to stop them from opening their mouths for a while...

And the TURKEY always reminds me of Pa slaughtering the turkey we reared in Jalan Siputeh. Pa sat on the turkey to kill it. The bird is so large and I can't figure out how pa had the courage to do that.

But of course, we had a nice turkey dish after that. Ma cooked it chinese style with golden needles, red dates, cinamon, five-spiced powder, etc. The bird was stewed to perfection and that lasted us for lunch and dinner as well.

Ah...those wonderful days when meals are prepared for me.

Legend of Chang'e aka Lady on the Moon

The Mid-Autumn Festival, as its name implies, is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many simply referred to it as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon".

In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurs sometime between the second week of September and the second week of October.

In 2005, the festival falls on 18th September.

The most famous legend of the Mid-Autumn festival tells of how a godess Chang'e ascended to the moon. Here, I shall relate it Kean Wah's style.

A long, long time ago, a terrible drought plagued the earth. Ten suns burned fiercely in the sky like smoldering volcanoes.

KW: Argh...the heat is killing all of us. Where's the 7 Up, Sprite, Coca-Cola? OMG, look! Ten huge balls of fire in the sky? We need ice...

The trees and grass were scorched. The land was cracked and parched, and rivers ran dry. Many people died of hunger and thirst.

KW: Urgh..No plants, No photosynthesis, No food, No CHICKEN? Are we going to explode?

The King of Heaven sent Hou Yi down to the earth to help. When Hou Yi arrived, he took out his red bow and white arrows and shot down nine suns one after another.

KW: Ten minus nine equals...(counting fingers)... one. That's Good.

The weather immediately turned cooler. Heavy rains filled the rivers with fresh water and the grass and trees turned green. Life had been restored and humanity was saved.

KW: Hurray! Good for you Hou Yi or you'll definitely lose your head!

One day, a charming young woman, Chang'e makes her way home from a stream, holding a bamboo container. A young man comes forward, asking for a drink. Chang'e realizes that he is Hou Yi and invites him to drink.

KW: I bet it is not iced water.

Chang'e plucks a beautiful flower and gives it to Hou Yi. Hou Yi, in turn, selects a beautiful silver fox fur as his gift for her. They fell in love and soon got married.

KW: Boring!

As mortals, our lives will end one day. So there is no chance of living happily ever after. Hou Yi decides to look for an elixir of life that would make Chang'e and him live forever. He goes to the Kunlun Mountains where the Western Queen Mother lives.

KW: What? Live forever? Don't lie.....

The Western Queen Mother rewards Hou Yi with the elixir, a fine powder made from kernels of fruit from the tree of eternity.

"If you and your wife share the elixir, you will both enjoy eternal life. But if only one of you takes it, then only one of you will ascend to Heaven and become immortal," the Queen Mother warns Hou Yi.

KW: Huh, I know there must always be a catch! The Queen Mother, is she some kind of witch?

Hou Yi returns home and tells his wife all that has happened and they decide to drink the elixir together on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month when the moon is full and bright.

KW: Why wait? Are they out of their mind?

A wicked and merciless man named Feng Meng hears about their plan. He wishes to kill Hou Yi so that he can drink the elixir himeslf and become immortal.

KW: Of course, there must be a villain. I wonder if he's as cool as Dr No?

One day,when Hou Yi was on his way home from hunting, Feng Meng kills him. He then ran to Hou Yi's home and forced Chang'e to give him the elixir.

KW: Hou Yi is a fool. Maybe, he deserves to die.

Without hesitating, Chang'e picks up the elixir and drinks it all.

KW: Wow, brave lady. What if it's poison?

Soon the elixir begins to take effect and Chang'e feels herself being lifted towards Heaven. Chang'e decides to live on the moon because it is nearest to the earth.

There she lives a simple and contented life.

KW: Distance of Earth from moon is 384403 km. That's going from KL to Singapore and back about 650 times. Is that right , mum?

Mum: Er.... Check with Dad!

Mid-Autumn Festival is here again

Last weekend, I bought some mooncakes home. Other than my son, none of my other kids were enthused by my acquisition of these traditional goodies. And these were not just ordinary mooncakes--they are modern-day mooncakes that I bought them from Raffles Hotel. These were snow-skinned (ping pei) with fanciful and special filling like Cognac or Mocca. They taste really good!

I have fond memories of the mooncake festival. When we were kids, eating mooncakes was a treat we all looked forward to. Dad used to buy these from the sundry shop and the mooncakes were wrapped simply in pink glazed paper. No fanciful fillings either--just the basic traditional lotus seeds (lin yong), red bean (tau sa), or lotus seeds with duck egg yolks.

I remember dad coming home, beaming a very broad smile, proud of being able to give us a special treat. And we stood in awe and excitement as he revealed the mooncakes and our lanterns (tung long). Ours were simple paper japanese lanterns; but during my brothers' (Tzong Ying and Tzong Meng) time; they had more fanciful ones. Theirs were made of bamboo frames wrapped in colourful transparent paper; and came in fanciful shapes such as butterflies, rabbits, aeroplanes, etc.

With lanterns and candles in hand, we eagerly awaited nightfall so we could wander around the compound around the teachers' quarters with our friends and neighbours. Carrying lit lanterns, we would shout in a chorus: "Tung Long, Tung Long...". It was fun! The full moon looked so round and beautiful.

Today, I wonder how many children know the legends behind the mooncake festival. For my kids, nephews and nieces, I would venture to tell the stories here.