Happy Chinese New Year of the Rooster dear friends~! :)
Good ol Ipoh is the hometown where I belong. :) Canning Gardens to be specific. :) Driving back is always such a joy~! Eventhough the journey is long, it's not at all boring~ infact it's enjoyable! Why? It's what I'd call as 'spending quality time with your family'. :) We're all stuck together in the same car, driving to one location and chatting with one another to keep my dear dad awake for all our safety's sake. ;) Lots of stories come up... including a confession from my dad. :) Hehe... they told us last time how they were robbed when dating (ages ago!) and it was such a tv-show-drama whereby the guy is held with a knife at his throat, and he screams to his gf to run and RUN~ but the gal on seeing him at cut-throat just can't run and instead comes back! hehe... I've heard all the saga before... and how when my mom ran back the two robbers got a little distracted and my dad fought with them and in the end my parents were safe... though quite badly slashed with the knives. But thankfully safe.
What I did not hear was that my dad went back on his own the next day with a spear and a knife... looking for the robbers to 'get back' at them! Whoa! Even my mom didn't know. I always thought my dad was such a patient and easy-going guy... so I just can't imagine him walking around with weapons, with the intention to kill!!! :P What happened? My dad actually came across those two robbers again and they were robbing a malay couple. From a distance, my dad threw the knife at the robbers and they ran away. I had to bring an anticlimax to the story by asking a seemingly innocent question, "dad, did you get them?" and my dad replies, "err... no... i missed." :) *grins* My bro just started laughing as if I asked the silliest question ever. :)
There's this happy feeling when you're almost there.
Clues along the way...
1) many mountains along the highway~ i think they look like broccoli~!
2) sighting tesco (it's new!) and jusco. :)
3) this little playground with about 6 swings painted in multi-colours.
4) bulatan canning. this is the round-a-bout of canning gardens. :)
It's great that Chinese New Year is a time when families all get together as one big family to celebrate the new year. To me it signifies togetherness... and family unity. It's so easy to lose contact with your relatives as each has their own family and lifestyle... but it's also important to maintain the family ties and strong caring and loving relationships. :)
My heart sank today when I saw my grandpa seeing us off, peering over the garden wall at us and waving to us as we pulled out of the driveway, and even as we drove off on the road. He was there to see is all the way off, and continued to wave until he couldn't see us anymore. I could sense that he didn't want us to go off so soon. It made me think, how often do we go back to visit those that we love? Do we ever show that we care? If we do, do we care enough? love enough? Are we there? My grandpa requested that I call him on the first day of chinese new year next year, when I'm in london. I said, "ofcourse!". Thinking over it, is that all I'm going to do? Just because I'm far away, is that an excuse not to care? I don't think so... distance should not be an excuse. I'm going send him a postcard or write a letter every month... maybe that's not much... but it's a little way to send some love across the miles and show that i do care. :)
