This is a scheduled post. Teddy is currently on vacation and will have limited access to the Internet. You might want to check out his Twitter feed though – he’s still tweeting through phone.
I’ve typed around 500+ words before this paragraph but it all got wiped out by dear Firefox who conveniently chose to abort abruptly a dozen of seconds before the first scheduled autosave takes place. Did some anger management on Twitter before I start all over again. I swear I’m going to start saving drafts in a paranoid manner from now one.
It’s Friday again! This is a scheduled post though – at the moment being I’m away from home and is vacationing at Genting Highlands1 again. At this hour today, I will most probably fulfill the responsibility of a shutter bug and snap madly away at virtually almost everything in the outdoor amusement park, if the weather permits. If Lady Luck decides to give me a cold shoulder and bless me with lots of fog, mist or rain, you will find me happily cooped up in the comfy sheets on the hotel bed or sucking on a honey stick at Coffee Bean downstairs.
I haven’t been updating my blog with photos lately – partly because I was stuck at home and not going anywhere else (and working on Claudia’s project), and also because there’s nothing much to shoot in my house . My grandparents came down last Sunday to stay with us for a week or so, my brother and I temporarily relinquished our occupancy of our royal beds to them, and slept on mattresses next door. We’re sleeping in a computer room, which didn’t turn out to be a bad thing because both of us get to use our computers and sleep a little later than usual. And ‘a little’ is a rather subjective term – to my parent it means… let’s skip that part.
I’m spending most of the gorgeous afternoons in the nearby pool working out (I prefer pools to gyms. The unavoidable, dreadful gun shows belittles me, or at least, makes me feel belittled). Not totally hardcore about the tan and I still swim when it’s cloudy – I would rather take it as a ‘training’ for my oncoming trip to a tropical island, where snorkeling and swimming in the sea will be rather physically demanding.
Back to my grandparents’ visit, mom was busy making sure that they eat and sleep well, that they’re entertained (with daily 2-million-decibels karaoke sessions) and happy. On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, we packed lunched and visited my grandaunt (grandma’s sister) – I would say that she’s a wonderful, strong, humourous, caring and kind lady, a little mysterious at the same time. She has been through a lot in life, and despite all those hurdles in life, she is still very generous when it comes to smiles and acts of kindness and graciousness. I simply love her!
Old family photos
After lunch, grandaunt made tea for all of us and on a lazy Wednesday afternoon (I swear at that moment it felt like it’s Sunday!). We sipped on tea, browsed through old family photos that grandaunt brought us, watched some TV, took a short nap, chit-chatted before it’s dinner time and we had to leave. The photos above were taken decades ago – the kids in the photos are now all adults. In the middle photo, the cute, tall girl in blue blouse and who placed her hands on her hips was my aunt, and the ones next to her is my aunt, who appears in the photo right below, taken many years ater.
Mom and the POÄNG armchair
Here’s a photo of my mom on Ikea’s famous POÄNG armchair, reminiscing the good old times ingrained in photos. She called me over and pointed a picture – look, how much I wish I’m that slim now! She was referring to a photo of her younger self. Being very close to my two aunts and my grandaunt, she’d get invited to go on vacations with them, acting as a part-time babysitter during the many trips she’ve embarked on.
Credenza at the corridor - a HDRi
My aunt has a great taste of interior design and art – she handpicks everything when it came to furnishing this home. Recently, they’ve just completed renovating the dry and wet kitchen area at the lowest level, and I absolutely adore the tiles she used. From the photo of the credenza2 you can see how much effort she has invested in making her house looking like a showhome – when the students she tutor came to her house, they’d exclaim, complete with oooohs and aaaahs, about the beautiful, intricatly decorated interior. I guess her worst dream is to have a bull rummaging through her house!
For some reason, I totally dig the lamp she picked for the credenza. Cute with a whiff of childhood feel, the stylish support separates it from other normal, bland and ubiqituos table lamp. She picked a shallow dish to keep her keys – an excellent idea not to use a bulky key storage and yet keeping things organized.
My late uncle. I really miss him a lot.
On the ivory-white bookshelf, there’s a compartment where they placed a photo of my late uncle and his then girlfriend, and a small statue of Buddha. Everytime when I see his photos in albums and in their home, a tingling feeling rises up my heart. I still miss him, afterall. Although he has left us many years ago, memories of him playing and singing to the tune of his guitar and him tickling me with his long fingernails remains etched in my mind. When I talked to my brother about him, it’s surprising that both of us have the same impressions and memories of him – the guitar-player and tickler :) I feel so sad and sorry about his loss. Okay, my eyes are getting a little teary now.
The living area
This is the living area of my aunt’s home – gorgeous, isn’t it? She bought the complete set of ivory-white display cupbarods from Ikea, which complements the yellow-brown paint she used for the walls. On the shelves there were more photos, vases of flowers, nifty handicrafts and storage boxes. I like the way she organizes the thing! p/s: That’s my brother Adrian on the left, lounging on the sofa feeding contents off a comic book.
Fonty Friday!
Being on vacation doesn’t give me the excuse of halting the Fonty Friday feature. For this week, I’m featuring Colaborate, a fantastic slab serif3 typface designed by Ralph Oliver du Carrois. I’ve used it as the logo font in my theme’s (teddy-risation™ Theta) logo.
Have a great weekend, folks!
- Genting Highlands is a mountain peak within the Titiwangsa Mountains on the border between the states of Pahang and Selangor of Malaysia and is home to a famous mountain resort by the same name which can be reached by car from Kuala Lumpur in one hour – Wikipedia. ↩
- A credenza is a piece of furniture that became very fashionable during the second half of the 19th century. Often made of a burnished and polished wood decorated with marquetry a central cupboard would be flanked by symmetrical quadrant glass display cabinets. The top would often be made of marble or other decorative stone or inlaid wood – Wikipedia. ↩
- In typography, a slab serif (also called mechanistic, square serif or Egyptian) typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular (Rockwell), or rounded (Courier). Slab serif typefaces generally have no bracket (feature connecting the strokes to the serifs – Wikipedia. ↩
早知你要来拍我的家，我就先打理一下，哈哈～说实话，如果有一头疯牛冲过来我家，我大概会挡在大门外，哼哼不是你死就是我亡～
玄关那张我太喜欢啦，我可从来没觉得那角落有什么漂亮。不过照相机居然可以拍到墙壁的质感，感觉旧旧的。赞！
假期愉快！我等不及要去停泊岛了～
No, you don’t need to cleanup your house. I love it in its most natural form – everything has a human touch to it. For the same reason, I dislike when my parents force me to clean up my room and make it look like a freaking showroom when people come over to my house to stay. We live in a house, not a showhouse, haha!
A bull running into your home will leave an aftermath of one running into a chinashop – you’ve got so much precious things in there, and I knew it – you would by hook or by crook, stop it in its tracks. Moral of the story: Don’t mess with Aunt Yong, and her house.
The photo of the credenza is actually a pseudo HDR – the lighting is somewhat artificial (as far as I remember, it’s not so bright over there) as I tweaked the camera RAW file for the effect. Nonetheless, it’s one of the favourite corner of your house. Another favourite corner is Aunt Tang’s washroom – I remembered going in there a few times and the tiles are too lovely!
p/s: I can’t wait for our roadtrip to the Perhentian Islands too!
enjoy your holiday ;) zzzz
Uhh, I hate it when your work gets erased. I’m glad you started over though! I very much enjoyed this entry. Your family get-together sounds a lot like mine. Reminiscing over family photos, lots of eating, and chatting! I adore going through photo albums. The ones of your aunts are so adorable! Btw, your mother looks so young! She’s very beautiful. Actually, your entire family is so lovely. How did y’all manage that!? :P
My heart aches when you mention your uncle. I’m so terribly sorry, Teddy. It’s special that you and your brother have such fond memories of him though. Those will forever be with you. :) I lost my uncle last year and I sometimes forget he’s even gone. Okay, let me explain. For the past couple of years, he has lived an hour or so away and we have not seen him much. (He called all the time though) He was a horrible alcoholic but such a sweet and funny human being. Very handy as well! I would forget that he was no longer with us a lot.. as if he’s still at home hours away. I do miss him. He was such a goofy guy, lol.
I also lost my uncle & grandfather when I was a baby. I hate that I don’t have many memories of them. Even though I don’t remember them, I still miss them. It’s weird having some one be a part of who you are, yet never really got the chance to meet them.
Memories of our loved ones are so important! I’m really glad you guys keep your uncle in your hearts as well as your conversations. :)
As for your aunt’s home: I LOVE IT! Such a beautiful place. I am in love with her bookshelf, hehe. I have always wanted something like that. And it’s all organized! I love your family, lol. Is she the aunt you hang out with a lot? You need to tell me their names, I get so confused! I only have one aunt, so. :P
Have fun vacationing, Teddy! Be safe.
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Looks like both of us have a fair share of bad luck when it comes to leaving comments or typing posts :P I hate to hear that you accidentally erased your comments, all thanks to the unfocused textarea and the hitting of the evil Backspace key. I figured out the problem behind my Firefox crash – looks like Google Gears isn’t in really good terms with the SWFupload in the WP installation, so I disabled gears while I try to figure out what’s wrong with it.
It’s actually not a really big get-together – my grandparents, grandaunt, mom, my brother and yours truly. It was a really lovely afternoon though – I love reminiscing over family photos, looking at how people change over the years. My mom would be too thrilled to hear that, hah! I guess that’s because she spends quite a lot on cosmetics… and I’m trying to tell her in a soft, indirect way that I’d love moms who age gracefully. Well, I hope she’s getting my hint. Oh, don’t get me wrong – it’s not as if she’s the hardcore kind of plastic-surgery fanatic, teehee.
It’s okay. We’ve all come to terms with his passing, I don’t feel particularly sad that he’s no longer around, because I know deep inside that he’s in a lovely place playing his beloved guitar :) I’m sorry to hear about your loss of your uncles and grandparents – it’s not easy to cope with deaths, especially those that are particularly close to you. Everytime when I hear of your mom, I cringe deep inside. Yea, my uncle is the kind of goofy guy too! He got really funny jokes to share during our weekly (or fortnightly) family gatherings, it’s super nice to have him around.
My paternal grandparents are no longer with me too – they passed away before I was born, and both lost their lives to cancer. Speaking of which, my dad and my paternal side uncles and aunts are getting healthchecks frequently because there’s this genetic predeposition to cancer running in my family. So far so good though, and the survival rate of cancer is well above 50% (except for a few nasties like pancreatic cancer). My greatgrandpa was still around when I was born, and my mom would always tell me that I enjoyed caressing his shaved head. The prickling sensation of the stubble on his head made me laugh – I don’t remember any of those because he passed away before I turned three, but whenever my mom tells me that the imaginary scene would flash across my mind.
My aunt lives in a split-level home, and her house has two parts – the front and the back. Both parts are half a floor apart, with connecting stairs in between – so that’s lots of climbing if you would want to move between the kitchen and the bedroom, but it’s just too fun! I love houses like hers.
Yeap, that’s the aunt I hang out with all the time. I haven’t even introduced you to each other! Trina, meet Aunt Yong (she goes by the nickname Nann). Aunt Yong, meet Trina :) I have quite a lot of aunts! My grandma has three sisters and four brothers, and we’re all one close knit family. I think I have a dozen of aunts and uncles!
Thanks for the best wishes, I will take care of myself, no worries. I hope you’re enjoying your job at BAM – nothing beats being able to read during work hours, right? Heh. Take care!
I think even the smaller family get-togethers are just as lovely. If not more! With smaller gathers, you have more time to talk and hang out with each other. Reminiscing through old photographs is one of my favorite things as well! Memories are such a huge part of my life. I love chatting with family about our pasts.. like “Hey! Do you remember when–?” or “Omg, I can’t believe it when–” Every now and again, my siblings will I crowd the top of my bed and share stories from our childhood. I just love it!
It makes me smile so much when I read about your uncle. Just knowing that he is so very much loved and well remembered is so wonderful. I am so glad that you have accepted what happened and found ways to see the positive out of it. So very few people are able to do this! It’s something I have always wanted to help people with. Because sometimes deaths can do tolls on people, especially family.. and it just shouldn’t be like that, y’know. We have to celebrate their lives, the person they were! And when we don’t do that, it’s their deaths that continue to haunt it. It’s just so sad. :(
That’s terrible about cancer running in your family. :| I’m glad to hear that they are all getting frequent health checks! That would worry me so much knowing that someday I may get it.. geez. But I guess knowing about it and getting check-ups would increase the chances of finding it sooner.
That’s so cool that even though you were so young when your greatgrandpa passed, that you are still able to get that flash of a memory. Those are so special! Even if it may be more or less and imaginative scene, like you said. It’s still so wonderful, I’m sure, to be able to picture you two together. :)
My very first memory that I can remember is a dream, I think. I’m not sure when I had this dream but I know I was about three in the dream. We were in our old trailer, I was running around playing while my grandpa and his buddies played cards. I went to the bathroom for just a moment and when I came back.. my grandpa was up from the table, every one else was gone, and he was standing at the front door. I remember in my dream that this amazing yellow-golden light surrounded him and I was asking him where he was going. He told me he had to leave and I remember watching him float away towards the sky.
I have shared that memory with very very few people. I don’t think I even told my family about it. I guess I was always afraid of their reaction. I did, however, ask my grandma if my grandpa ever played cards. And she said yes, often with his friends. Which I never knew, besides in my dream!
I always thought, being so young at the time and losing two family members back to back, I’m sure I was confused. But I do think that my grandpa’s spirit came to be in a dream to reassure and comfort me. And ever since then.. whenever I think about that dream, it does just that.. it comforts me.
Ohh, your aunt’s (Sorry Nann’s!) house sounds so lovely and unique! Not to mention gorgeous. (I seriously love her style!) That is so wonderful how many aunts and uncles you have! Wow. And even more cool that you guys are so close. I think it’s my cousins that make my family so large, lol. I have tons of them!
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I really adore family gatherings. I find smaller ones more enjoyable too – when there’s too many people, the noise level tends to go out of control and booze starts to flow (thanks to the testosterone-driven suggestions of my other male relatives), something that irritates me a little. And then they’ll start dragging we teenage guys over and brag about how drinking beer makes a man man. I forgive them for the drunken words, but not something that I imagine to be a peaceful get together like you’ve described.
I read that you’re a nostalgic person… me too! Photos just bring back so much good memories that replay right before my eyes as I briefly steal a look from them. I also adore viewing photos of my mom when she was young and energetic, when she was babysitting for my aunts (so they kind of reciprocated her care for them to their care for my mom’s kids, teehee). My mom will also start sharing stories, of joy and of sadness, of excitement and of disappointments to us. It’s surprising that there is so much history in my extended family, how one family slumped into backruptcy and rebounded again, how they cope with rebellious daughters, how mother-in-laws deal with marriages and etc. Funny, and yet very uplifting tales.
Death is something I’m morbidly afraid of when I was young. I kind of surprised my parents (not a good thing) when I locked myself in the toilet and starting crying that I don’t want to face death… and I was only four or five at that time, still seven decades (or more) away from my last breath. It’s funny that I worry so much about death when I’m not even 2000-days old, haha!
Many people couldn’t cope with death, especially the passing of close ones because so many aspects of their lives depended and revolved around those that has been gone. I think the best we can do is to occupy their minds on other things so that they won’t be remidned too much – I won’t want to coax them out of the whole mourning thing, because I know how hard is it to wean a person off the memory in a short while. After time, they’ll be able to cope with death.
Cancer runs in my dad’s family… kind of scary, but makes us more health conscious as well. Having knowledge of a highly probably chance of genetic predeposition to cancer, we learned how to eat and live healthily (of course, one McD meal a week won’t kill). At least we’re well aware that early detection of cancer leads to a very high survival rate, around 60~70%.
I’m honoured to be one of those very few people who you shared your first memories with. I’m sorry that you lost your grandpa at a young age, but it’s comforting that he visited you. Sometimes, dreams are so eerily true! Time to share my first memory – it wasn’t a dream though. I was crying in the backseat of the car and I remembered biting on one of my ulcers when I was rushed to gulp down my lunch when we’re late for kindergarten. I was wailing and still looking at my bloodied mouth in the car rearview mirror while mom frantically backs out from the porch and slams on the accelerator. Haha, what a memory!
It’s nice that you have a lot of cousins that are close-knitted too :) in this era, it’s really hard to find huge families that are still close together – the culture encourages the formation of nuclear families, typically a couple and a few kids, with little interaction with other extended family members. That’s kind of sad, and I feel sorry for so many kids deprived of such interaction and love.
Wow I am awed by your aunt’s house interior. It looks really cozy, it must be nice living in there. =D
And you’re right, the living room area is so gorgeous!
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@med: I will, no worries! So have you got your diver’s license?
@Oridusartic: Yea, me too! Her house never failed to mesmerize me every single time I visit, and I’ve been there many times!
terry: is that you on the couch o.O? lol
No, that’s not me! I won’t let just anybody manhandle my camera, haha. That’s my brother. Do we look *that* alike?
looks very comfy.. nice fotos too
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yo coussie…not yet..going next friday ;)