Kluang

I am currently spending a 3-day-long weekend in Kluang. Yay for the numerous holidays Negeri Sembilan takes. Haha.

It's been at least 3.5 years since I last visited Kluang, mainly because whenever there's a holiday, I seize the opportunity to go back to Kuching, instead of Kluang. Kluang is dad's hometown and growing up, we kids never saw its appeal. A town so small, so scorchingly hot, and so boring (back in those days, Kluang Mall and Kluang Parade didn't exist)...kids will be kids.

I'm back because this might be the last time I see my grandma. It just so happened to be a long weekend, and my aunt proposed this trip down, so I decided to pay a visit. Grandma's condition has deteriorated a lot since last year when she was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She can't recognize me anymore. I spend most of the time hiding away from her if I'm alone, because she thinks I'm a stranger and will start scolding me.

Alzheimer's is a terrible disease. It turns adults into kids, and soft-spoken people hostile.

And it probably will run in my family. =/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Everyone who Speaks the Language can Teach It

One of my latest undertakings is signing up for an online TESOL certificate by Arizona State University through Coursera. The course started this week, but it's a pretty laid-back course since it only demands about 2-4 hours of study each week. The downside is that it would take perhaps a year or more to get my certificate since it's going at such a leisurely pace. What I do have is time, however, so I'm not too concerned about that. Anyway, I completed my first assignment two days ago, and felt like posting it up here. The assignment was to state my opinion in 1-4 paragraphs on the statement "Anyone who speaks the language can teach the language". Since many believe just about anybody can teach and that teachers aren't really professionals, here's my two cents about it. Not Everyone who Speaks the Language can Teach It My name is May, and I strongly disagree with the assumption that “Anyone who speaks the language can teach the language.” My reason...
Read more

Library membership woots!

Bright, cheery sunshine certainly makes everything else in the world seem brighter and cheerier. On that note, it's mid December and the weather has been surprisingly pleasant - think 24 degrees Celsius last week, and right now it's still pretty warm (for December, that is). Checked the weather forecast for Christmas, and it's going to be 21 degrees Celsius! Every Malaysian's dream come true! =D And to think that just a month ago, it hit -1 degree Celsius. Uncanny, eh? Apparently the South fluctuates pretty unpredictably when it comes to the weather. Warm winters aren't all that uncommon, and I'm hoping this one stays warm for a longer time. It'd be a wonderful Christmas gift to have Malaysian-like weather instead of the bitter, dry cold. =D On another note, Jia Wern and I finally went to the library to get our library cards made! I wonder why I never thought of this earlier. Perhaps it's because e-books are cheap here and can be auto-delivered in...
Read more

Malaysia

I've been asked to present about Malaysia to the international spouses at the IHouse on November 6th. For the past month or so, I've been piecing together my presentation and doing lots of research on Malaysia for this purpose. If I were back in Malaysia, this would have been unthinkable. Among Malaysians, I'm the last person you want to ask about Malaysian culture, seeing as I'm not very culturally knowledgeable about the gazillion ethnicities and hybrids that Malaysia boasts. I am Chinese, but I hardly know any Chinese traditions because I was brought up practically anglicized. Being Christians, my parents didn't subscribe to superstitions and old wives' tales, and neither did we. Being mostly introverts, we didn't celebrate festivals on a large scale, much less know about the background of these festivals. Granted, I did pick up some Chinese history and mythology from the Chinese primary school I attended, but knowledge doesn't stick when it isn'...
Read more