回老家
made a short trip to panyu, china over the weekend to visit a grandaunt (grandaunt L) whom i've not seen for the past 15 years. she used to work as a mah-jie in a rich household in singapore, but moved back to china 15 years ago to spend her twilight years with her relatives there.
i made the trip with my brother, who's here for the Standard Chartered Marathon, together with another distant grandaunt (let's call her grandaunt Y) & her daughter-in-law. i am so glad that i made this trip with my brother-- i don't think i would have been able to stand the barbed remarks and bossy attitude of the overbearing grandaunt Y.
it was a good trip on the whole-- grandaunt L is healthy & strong for her age (she's 91), except that she can't see very well due to cataracts. she was overjoyed to see us, and we were told that she couldn't sleep for the past few nights as she was too excited over the prospect of seeing me & my brother again.
we visited our ancestral hall (on my mom's side), a scenic park-garden (宝墨园), had yummylicious cantonese cuisine, and played with firecrackers!!! the firecrackers must surely be the highlight of our trip there... i was trying to capture the scene with my digicam, and my squeals of delight, excitement & terror were recorded as well!
it was a great weekend, albeit very tiring-- i had difficulty sleeping as (1) grandaunt Y was incessantly nagging grandaunt L the whole night in the next room, (2) i had to share a bed with grandaunt Y's daughter-in-law, and i was afraid that if i turned or tossed, i'll wake her; so in the end i had to concentrate on keeping really still, (3) sounds from the street flitted in through the open windows-- sounds of neighbours shouting out to one another in the morning as they started their day, sounds of tooting horns from motorcycles passing through the backlanes, sounds of chirping birds...
i enjoyed the time i spent with my brother-- he's so caught up in his own life and his own social circle that we hardly spend much time together anymore. so this was indeed a precious precious weekend.
i made the trip with my brother, who's here for the Standard Chartered Marathon, together with another distant grandaunt (let's call her grandaunt Y) & her daughter-in-law. i am so glad that i made this trip with my brother-- i don't think i would have been able to stand the barbed remarks and bossy attitude of the overbearing grandaunt Y.
it was a good trip on the whole-- grandaunt L is healthy & strong for her age (she's 91), except that she can't see very well due to cataracts. she was overjoyed to see us, and we were told that she couldn't sleep for the past few nights as she was too excited over the prospect of seeing me & my brother again.
we visited our ancestral hall (on my mom's side), a scenic park-garden (宝墨园), had yummylicious cantonese cuisine, and played with firecrackers!!! the firecrackers must surely be the highlight of our trip there... i was trying to capture the scene with my digicam, and my squeals of delight, excitement & terror were recorded as well!
it was a great weekend, albeit very tiring-- i had difficulty sleeping as (1) grandaunt Y was incessantly nagging grandaunt L the whole night in the next room, (2) i had to share a bed with grandaunt Y's daughter-in-law, and i was afraid that if i turned or tossed, i'll wake her; so in the end i had to concentrate on keeping really still, (3) sounds from the street flitted in through the open windows-- sounds of neighbours shouting out to one another in the morning as they started their day, sounds of tooting horns from motorcycles passing through the backlanes, sounds of chirping birds...
i enjoyed the time i spent with my brother-- he's so caught up in his own life and his own social circle that we hardly spend much time together anymore. so this was indeed a precious precious weekend.
posted by insomnious at 5:33 PM
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