My Fluffy Life~

As I child, I remembered my parents only bought the basic shampoo to wash our hair. I have soft, shiny, long hair which was de envy of my bestie and her mother!

During one trip of my paternal grandmother from

Singapore, she brought some items for us when I was secondary school, as she always did. One of the items was hair conditioner! We never knew what it was and have never use it. She just explained that it was to soften the hair.

It was one of the luxury stuff that we couldn’t afford back then and rather unfamiliar to us. I remembered learning how to apply it to my hair after shampooing.The memory just appeared in my mind when I was washing my hair just now. The introduction of hair conditioner by my modern grandmother from Singapore. She passed away when I was in Secondary Three.

One of the advice that I always remembered from her is “Don’t mind too much of other’s business, just take care of your own”.

I read in the magazine on how to strengthen your memory by running through the house that you have been living on previously. And I did. I haven’t had much thought about the house that I stayed till I was about 13 years old.

It was a rented wooden house with two rooms in a small malay village. But it has a large porch, fit enough to put my father’s car and bike as well as two little gardens that I love to water my plant. I slept in a room with my mother and siblings and my father slept in another room.

It has narrow living room with beautiful aquarium near the entrance. I loved looking at the many types of fishes my father kept. It was a wonderful memory.The TV was in my father room but we normally push it out to watch from living room in the afternoon.

Every now and then we get to watch it in the comfort of my father’s room which I made me happy. I remember the bathroom too, the only place build on brick which we once sat there when there was a heavy thunderstorm, in the middle of the night. The only toilet was outside of the house, but still in the house compound. And there was a little place for my mum to sun the clothes.

It was a small house, but the first house I came to know. =)  It was memory of my childhood.

This morning as I was thinking of what to write for my blog post, I suddenly remembered my late paternal grandmother. She had been practically missing from our lives for my first decade and after that she started to come frequently from Singapore and bought a house nearby.

It was then I started to get acquainted with my grandmother and well, a child and an old lady, it wasn’t too hard to become closer.

I remembered when I was around 13 or 14 years, after school, instead of cycled home, I went to visit my grandmother. My mother was worried about my whereabouts and finally called my grandmother and she was glad to know that I was there. 

“Yes, you can visit her. But do let us know so we know you are safe,” my mother told me. 

That was around 14 years ago. She passed away when I was 15 years old. Yeah, I do miss her every now and then. =)

I know my maternal grandmother since I was a little child. We visited her frequently during my childhood. During the first day of Chinese New Year, we would visit her with all other relatives. A happy occasion for a child.She got diabetic and soon was unable to move much herself. She couldn’t talk properly and we have hard time understanding her. Sometimes my mum would bring her to our home when no one was free to take care of her.I remembered when she was healthier; she would give us RM1 which was a lot to us back then. We were so happy and probably the reason my brother and I visited her frequently on Saturday on our own. 
She passed away when I was 12 years old, 31^st August, if I am not mistaken. I remembered her as fragile old lady but generous.I miss her too.

When I was in the office today, I suddenly remembered the time I was being asked my previous employer to help out at headquarter in Singapore for a couple of days or weeks at times. I was there mostly for customer support as well as training.

Thinking back, I think I was rather bold and committed with my job. Most of the time I have to travel on my own to the customer site to give them training or for support job, like implementation or fixing the software that run into some issues.

When I was there, I would be given a list of customers that faced any issues and I listed it in my folder. Then I would call them and tackle one by one, solving as many as I could before I went back. There were many times I took the MRT train alone to the customer site. I have to find out how to get there as I wasn’t familiar with the places. 

There was even once my stingy lady boss wanted to save on the cost and taught me how to take the bus to a customer condominium to fix the printer services. It was a long bus journey and I was worried to get lost. Upon reaching there, I was impressed by the security of the condominium and went to the customer’s place to help her with the printer. 

I was so familiar and know well about our software to be confident enough to visit them. And to do the training as well. There was many ups and downs in the job as there were different types of customers, some were sweet while others were monster! And I remembered the office was very cold that many of us wear our Berghaus Jackets to keep warm!

But anyhow, I really missed the old time and the job! 

When I was young, we were quite poor and couldn’t afford many things. I didn’t have as much stuffs as the other kid in school. I remembered always borrowing my friend’s color pencil for coloring.

Once, I wanted to borrow color pencil from a friend when I was 8 years old and another kid told her not to borrow me. She said I should ask my father to buy for me and I knew my father didn’t have much money. I just kept quiet.

One day I was sulking (I don’t remember why) but I remembered sitting in the living room doing my homework. My father just came back from the shop and put a box of new pencil color right in front of me. I was very happy as I wanted it much.

I always remembered that scene in my mind. I was touched that although he was financial tight, he always try to give me whatever I want, even though it was just a box of color pencil.

I hope I can give him whatever he wants now. I just want him to be happy. =)

In my early days in the kindergarten, I was seated with two girls at a table. Being a quiet one, I hardly have any friend. 

One day, one of the girl came earlier than me and sat at my place. I didn’t know what to do and the other girl told me, ‘never mind, you sit at her place’, she said, defending me. And so, I made friends with them. 

When I got home, I was so happy and was skipping around, telling my father “Pa, I made two girl friends today.“ 

My father laughed at me and asked “Do you want me to help you find two boy friends?” 

A sweet memory, happy to make friends.

It was in the kindergarten, I was about 5 years old. I have to take school bus home everyday. My father couldn’t pick me up. 

And so, after class, many kids were running to the orange school bus and so I boarded with them. The bus journey was a different one. There was many paddy fields on the way home and different scenery, quite unfamiliar with me. 

Soon, all the kids have went down and reached their home. The driver turned and looked at me.  

“Where do you stay?” he asked. “I don’t know“, I said. 

And so he drove me back to the kindergarten. Lucky thing the headmaster was still there. I think he must have looked up from my record for my address. 

He then sent me home in his big car. I sat at the back of the car, feeling like a little princess.  

Finally when we were about to reach my home, I saw my father at the street and told the headmaster. 

I think after the incident, we have to line up everyday while waiting for the bus so that we didn’t get into the wrong bus again. It was an experience that I never forget although it was more than 20 years ago.