13th General Elections - 5 May 2013

2013 is a special year.

It was the year that 2 of our children voted for the first time in the country's national elections.

With much debating and talking and arguing politics in the home (and many heated discussions) our 2 oldest children went to the ballot box for the first time. Even Amanda was involved in feeding us the latest news on Facebook on who said what, who did what even though she was the only member in the family who could not vote as yet. She was like a commentary on the latest news and updates that her friends posted on Facebook!

This was also the year that we decided to do something more than just pray. We have been praying for the past 5 years for this long-awaited event on May 5 2013. Now we wanted to get involved to be part of this historic occasion.

We signed up for Pemantau duties. Pemantau is an NGO comprising of Komas, Bersih and Mafrel. It is a citizen's initiative with the aim of mobilizing citizens to observe the elections process.

Among our duties were to be stationed at a particular school to observe and report on breaches of election rules such as phantom voters (before the elections all kinds of reports abounded of Bangladeshis going to vote), campaigning within a certain parameters of the polling stations, vote buying etc.

We had to attend a few briefings at the KLCAH on the duties of a Pemantau. We also had to sign a pledge of neutrality. There were a few hot seats to observe in KL - Cheras, Lembah Pantai, Titwangsa, Wangsa Maju among others.

We opted for the parliamentary hot seat of Titiwangsa to observe as they were short of people. Our coordinator was Dian who subsequently resigned. Alicia took over and we wholeheartedly communicated with her via whatsapp on where to go, what to do, getting our Pemantau kit, what to observe and report etc.

We were given a Pemantau vest, clipboard, several reports and questionnaire to complete. The reports were for nomination day, campaigning period and election day itself.

Alicia assigned us to be the team leader for Sek Desa Pandan. We had Fauzah, Fauziah, Affendy and Yuet Ching with us in the team. To ensure that we all had time to vote, we broke our team in 3 groups taking 2 hourly shift from 8 am till 5 pm. Affendy took the earliest shift, the 2 Malay ladies the second shift and Yuet Ching and ourselves took the last shift from 2 pm to 5 pm.

It was interesting to visit the BN operations room and the PAS operations room to pantau ("Pantau" is the BM word for observe). 

Note: The PAS candidate Zambry refused to shake my hand when he turned up at the school on election day....(I later learnt that PAS people do not shake ladies' hands....LOL...)

Tim and I did not have time to observe the campaigning/ceramahs but we made sure that we attended all the training sessions and also kept in touch with our team members who took time and effort to attend the various ceramahs. The 2 Malay ladies later filed reports of the various ceramahs they attended in Putrajaya.

May 5 2013 will be remembered as a wonderful day for our family. 

Early in the morning we ferried Adeline to her polling station at a community hall in Taman Muda. She took about 2 hours to finish her voting as they were many people lining up to vote.

We then drove to Section 17 to vote. Since our Uni days we had been registered voters in PJS and we opted not to change our polling stations. Again another hour or so of queuing. Finally we finished and took Adeline for breakfast at the best nasi lemak in town.

Then we drove back to Pandan Indah to take over the afternoon duties from Fauzah and Fauziah at the school in Desa Pandah. 

After a long day, we collected the reports from all our team members and made our last stop at KLCAH to deliver all the reports to Simon, our leader for the whole Pemantau Project.

It will certainly be a day to remember for us. Hopefully this entry in our blog will enable our children and grandchildren to always appreciate the democracy in our country and the peace that we enjoy.

May our children and grandchildren continue to exercise this precious right to vote and may they vote wisely for the candidates that will bring the most transformation and improvement to the various parliamentary and state constituencies.

Cuddingh @ Asian Heritage Row

Perhaps the only thing Asian about the Asian Heritage Row has to be Cuddingh the iconic Vietnamese restaurant with a Vietnamese waitress and a Vietnamese cook. In the midst of several watering holes in this drinking spot of KL, this restaurant really stood out with its traditional Vietnamese decor.

We had the Groupon voucher for a meal a 6-course authentic Vietnamese meal for 5 people.

The meal was the closest thing to Vietnam in KL! The verdict: truly authentic!

Firstly we were served fried spring rolls on a bed of salad and mint. The spring rolls dipped in honey chilli sauce was delicious. Then came steam egg-plants that were spliced open. They looked like fish fillet at first glance but were actually mini egg-plants steamed in a lovely sweet fish sauce with sprinkled chilli and basil.

Next came shredded chicken meat with glass noodles and more salad. The barbecue chicken pieces were really good too. We also oohed and aahed at the satay prawns on sticks that we ate heads, bodies, tails and shells all in. A tad salty the prawns were nonetheless delicious!

Finally the piece de resistance must be the beef with onions cooked slowly in a porcelain pot nestled on a bed of dry ice. The dry ice had flickering flames of fire that took about 15 minutes to cook the beef. One can hardly see the flames of fire except for occasional wisp of blue and yellow. As a result the minced beef was tender and well marinated. The onions were simply scrumptious.

I hope Groupon will feature more Vietnamese restaurant especially a fine cuisine restaurant like Cuddingh!

To more wonderful family times together with Groupon!

Mother's Day Message

MOTHER'S DAY MESSAGE - May 30 2013

M= Many roles, many responsibilities.

A mother is a cleaner, laundry-worker, cook, driver, friend, and counselor. She has many responsibilities in the family. How busy is a mother! From morning till late night, she is very busy around the house. Imagine if your mother was not around to the things she usually do for you. What your clothes be washed? Would your shirt be ironed? Would your meals be ready on the table? Imagine also if she is a working mother. She would have to do all the housework after work and go to bed after 12 am every day. What must you do to make your mother’s job easier? Help her!

She is also holding many roles, wearing many hats. She is your father’s wife, your grandmother’s daughter, your uncle’s sister, your auntie’s sister. She is to you your mother too! Some mothers are also somebody’s employee or somebody’s boss. Wow…she is really very busy! Take time to say thank you to her. Buy her a gift for Mother's Day. Take her out for a meal. Offer to help out in the housework. What do you think your mother would really like for Mother's Day?

O = One and only

We only have one mother in our lifetime. We can have god-mothers, mothers-in-law, adopted mothers and step-mothers but we can only have one mother who gave birth to us. So treat her well while she is alive.

I use to see children crying at the funeral of their mother. Will their mother see their tears now that she is gone? What do you think matters most to her? Your love and obedience while she was alive or your tears when she is gone? I always tell my brother, give money to mother when she is in need of it for when she is dead no amount of money in the world will bring her back to you.

T  = Tender

When your father is shouting and scolding and maybe threatening to hit you or asking you to get out of the house, your mother’s heart is always tender towards you.

The story is told in the Bible about King Solomon, the wisest man on earth. There is no such man as wise as Solomon since his time because one night in a dream God appeared to him and asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted wisdom to rule his country because he was young and he had a great nation of people to take care. God gave him his wish. Not only that because he asked for wisdom to rule a nation and not riches for himself, God decided to give him great wealth too!

One day 2 woman came to him with their babies. One mother held a dead baby and the other a live one. Both were prostitutes. Both were fighting over the baby that was alive.

The mothers told the king that the night before they had given birth to babies at the same time but one of them rolled over her baby and the baby died. So to which mother belongs the baby that was alive? Both were fighting to claim the baby. Suddenly the wise king asked to bring a sword. He said “Cut the baby into 2 and gave one half to each of the mothers!”

Immediately the real mother cried “No O king! give him to the other woman. Don’t let him die” At the moment King Solomon knew who the real mother was. How wise was the wisest king on earth!

What can we learn from this story? Truly the heart of a mother  is one that is absolutely tender, true and sacrificial.

H = Heart

Have you heard about the mother who protected her daughter from robbers so that she could run away to save herself? The mother who asked her daughter to run while fighting off the robbers was herself stabbed to death. How can we describe a mother’s heart? She will give all of herself, even her own life, to save her family members. 

Have you heard of Angelina Jolie who decided to have her breasts removed due to an 80% chance of getting breast cancer when she did not have it yet? Angelina said that she did it so that she could live longer to see her children grow up and to see her grandchildren.

Another touching story is about a mother who protected her son during the Japan earthquake. Rescuers found a woman in a kneeling position, her hands supporting the beams of the collapsed building. Beneath her they found a basket and in the basket a 3 month old baby boy. Beside the baby a cell phone with the words "If you survive, you must know that I love you" The mother gave her life so that her baby boy would live instead of her!

How should we treat and honor such a woman? If you had kidney failure who do you think would offer her kidney to you? If you had leukemia, who do you think will donate her bone marrow to you? Even if you were in jail, who do you think would visit you? Who would raise funds to pay your bail? If you had done some bad things, who do you think will continue to pray for you and hope the best for you?

What about children who go missing from schools and homes? What do you think is the state of mind of a mother who had lost a child?

E = Eveready

Like the battery called Eveready, a mother is ever ready with all kinds of things to help you. Do you need a button sewed? Call your mother.

Except maybe you have to thread the needle for her. Do you need some medicine for your burns? Call your mother. She will know how to treat the wounds. Do you have questions requiring tough answers? Do you want to know about the birds and the bees? Ask your mother!

Your father will tell you when you have tough questions to ask him “Go and ask your mother”! Do you need help with homework? Ask mother. 

Now that my daughter is working she still calls me when she is facing problems in her work. I thank God that I can help her as both of us are in the same profession.

She is like a walking encyclopedia, a dictionary. Mothers of children with autism or hyperactivity or downs syndrome or speech problems will search everywhere to get the answers to her child’s problem. Some fathers walk away when a handicapped child is born but a mother stays to nourish and take care of her child. A mother will never forget her children.

 R = Role model and real

A mother is like a role model in her family. How many times do you realize that as you grow older you begin to talk like your mother, scold like your mother and nag like your mother? Unconsciously your behavior and how you treat people will be influenced by your mother.

 If your mother constantly do charitable works and give to others of her money and her resources, you will grow up to be giving like her. If your mother loves animals and treat them well, you will most likely keep pets in your home. If your mother is a high flyer, you will most likely follow in her footsteps. If your mother is hospitable and welcome people into the home, you will also do likewise.

If your mother is very clean, chances are you will also be very clean. If your mother likes to eat vegetables or is a vegetarian you will also like to eat vegetables.

No matter what you say now “I will not become like my mother” you will be surprised that one day you will do exactly like your mother and behave exactly like your mother! It is happening to me!

A mother is the only one person in the world you can be real with. Being real means being you without being somebody else. You may think that it is your friends, your boyfriend or your girlfriend but let me tell you there is no one who will accept you as you are but a mother. 


She gave birth to you, nursed you and brought you up. Cleaned your poop, shower you, gave you her breast-milk, spent sleepless nights taking care of you , accompanied you in hospitals, cried over you when you broke your leg or your arm, went with you on your first day in school, put cold towels on your head when you had raging fever…a mother truly cannot be replaced. 

She is as real as can be to you. Your boyfriends, girlfriends, teachers, relatives will never be able to do all the things your mother did for you. Believe me they will never replace your mother!

Treat her well, cherish her, love her, accompany her, befriend her, give her money, buy her gifts, treat her like a queen, honor her, bless her and obey her!

Mother's Day celebration at Royal Chulan and elsewhere

We had a lovely buffet at Royal Chulan on Mother's Day. Picture taken by Amanda. 

Not very sure where we took this....must ask the children....

Tim's birthday at Istana Hotel

Family photo taken at Istana Hotel celebrating Tim's birthday. All of us enjoyed the meal. Joseph was with us but he did not eat much. He loved the ice-cream and chocolate fountain.  Joseph is Amanda's handsome beau and doctor to be.

From left to right:

Amanda (tall, slim and stunning with model-like looks. She says that she does not look like any of her parents. However I beg to differ. She looks like me when I was young (yours truly lah....who else!)  Born in Sept, she is like God's perfect gift for us as she was born a week after our wedding anniversary.

Adeline (she is the eldest but the smallest. I mean who wears size 4 for her shoes?) When shopping in England, we have to ask for child-size shoes! She has jet black ebony hair and lovely creamy porcelain skin. Surely the smartest of all our children being a straight A-student in all her major public exams. Adeline says she looks like her mummy. I think so too. However her big eyes surely did not come from me. Most likely her dad. Born in April which is the same month as her father, the belief is that she is God's gift to her dad who loves children so much.

Samuel (handsome, fair and unattached). Quiet and shy, he loves small animals like hamsters. He also loves little children or rather children has a natural affinity with him. He seems to be weakest of all our children in his studies. Praying hard for him to prosper in this area. Currently unattached, we are praying for a godly girlfriend for him. Born in August, mummy strongly believes that he is God's gift to her as she prayed hard for a son. Thus she named him Samuel meaning "Ask of God"