Kai Fong hosted a party on Saturday evening to celebrate the 85th birthday of his mother and the birthday of one of his three boys. Kok Mun and I had been specifically invited on Friday evening when we met to drink tea in our usual place.
You know how Kok Mun and I dislike such function when you know the host's family too well. Surely, we would bump into his 6 older sisters, his brothers in-law, his mums, his wife's family members, all the 姨妈姑姐 etc, etc. I mean we know his family members since young and you surely have to join them for some chit-chat when you meet them. Moreover, there would be many children running around.
The party started at 7pm, so I decided to turn up at 10:45pm hoping that his relatives and the children would have left. To my horror, everybody was still around when I arrived at 10:45pm. I hesitated to get into his house and decided to give Kok Mun a call first. Kok Mun said he saw me outside the house and asked me to get in. They were waiting for me to start eating.
I sneaked in quietly, turned left and headed straight towards the bench where Kok Mun and Kai Fong were sitting. The first person who greeted me loudly was Catherine, Boon Kang's wife. Catherine said she has not seen me for many years and told me that I still look handsome as before. Well! Thank you very much, Catherine, for announcing my arrival!
I felt a bit unease and asked Kok Mun whether he has spoken to Kai Fong's eldest sister and brother in law. When we were studying in NUS last time, we used to stay in her house whenever we went to JB to spend the weekend. Kok Mun said he has not spoken to her and her husband yet. I said isn't it rude not to greet people who have taken care of you one way or another. Kok Mun said if you are rich and you ignore people, people would say you are arrogant. Since both of us are not rich, it is okay to ignore people. Nobody would said we are arrogant. But In fact, Kok Mun said if you are poor and you ignore people, the most that people can say is that you are lofty (清高) and Kok Mun said he is now a lofty (清高) person. I kept quiet and continued eating.
I am not sure whether Kai Fong had hired an Indian caterer. We had nasi bryani, curry chicken, asam fish, rendang daging, etc for dinner in the party. I wonder how the children can love such food.
Well! It turned out that the rendang daging was the best dish. I almost finished the whole plate. It was made by his wife. The cake was nice too. It was a Japanese green tea cake with cream and red bean. The green tea was just nice. Not bitter at all. The icing and cream with red bean was wonderful. It was bought from a nearby cake shop. We got the whole cake to ourselves because a lot of aunties and uncles in the party are diabetic.
I couldn't helped being amazed by this boy. He is the exact carbon copy of his daddy. He made me remember the old days in school when his father was my classmate. Can you guess who is the father of this boy?
Well! Cheese! One get-together photo for old time sake.
If you look around, a lot of flower trees are in full bloom along the road in Singapore and Malaysia recently. There are pink flower trees and white flower trees. The flower petals that have fallen cover the ground with a carpet of pink or white. The forest of tropical countries are rich with many different species of plants and animals. Unlike people in temperature countries who can pinpoint to you which is a pine and which is a poplar, many of us are tongue tight when asked about the name of certain plant. I found myself in this situation when my Japanese friends came to visit. They always like to ask, "What is that plant with all spiky red leaves?", "What is that plant full of small yellow flowers?".
The Japanese are well known for their craze for the cherry blossom. They would plant cherry trees all over the place and wait the entire year for the 2 to 3 weeks of cheery blossom. During cherry blossom, all major newspapers and television channels will update the cherry tree flowering information daily. Which place the cherry tree are still in green leaves, which place the cherry trees are budding, which place the cherry trees are in full bloom. On top of that, the so called "Cherry Blossom Front Line" are daily reported.
Whether intentional or by their nature, the Japanese are extremely sensitive to seasonal changes. They call this sensitivity "Jun". The sensitivity to seasonal changes is reflected in their cuisine, arts and culture. During cherry blossom, Japanese will organize picnic parties under the cherry blossom to drink sake, sing song, dance, etc. I always tell my Japanese friends that we are living in a place whereby there is only summer throughout the year. We wear the same style of clothing throughout the year. Some of our plants flower throughout the year. No big deal. And the seasonial flowering plants flower in different time throughout the year. So, we are not so sentimental when it comes to blossoming of flowers.
The extent in which the Japanese worship the cherry blossom can be said to be a national craze. Not only do their worship the cherry blossom during day time, they also put up special lighting on each cherry tree to enjoy the cherry blossom at night.
The blossoming of this unknown flower has happened for almost 3 weeks. If you know the name of the flower, kindly let me know. Perhaps, I should invite my Japanese friends to come here to sing song and drink sake under the blossoming trees.
