Today is my birthday. It is the Batik Influencer’s, Joey’s, Chen Yao’s, Joanne’s, Sarah’s, Kenny’s, Hannah’s, Michelle’s, Ray’s… birthday, too.
Happy Birthday, everyone!
The seventh day of Chinese New Year is also known as 人日 (renri), or “yan yat” in Cantonese (literally translates to “human day“) or “ren qi” in Mandarin. It is supposed to be everyone’s birthday today, so everyone grows one year older and wiser on this day.
Have fun!
Being 67 years old is amazing. I’m speaking with 7 days (1 week) of experience.
The prelude to being 67 years old started 2 days before my birthday when my childhood and schoolmate friend, Charles “Bijou” Rozario sent me birthday wishes with beautiful blessings. Charles himself, has a story to tell. Me telling his story will not do enough justice to it. He has to tell it himself.
This followed an awesome fellowship of a pre-birthday lunch. A phone call led to showing up 45 minutes later to pick me up. Patrick & Hazel Archibald – some of the dearest people to my wife – Jeannie, and I. Lunch was simple, yet delicious, relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable. Hazel’s father joined us for lunch. The impromptu-ness made it all the more a nice time to remember.
With Charles being the first to send me birthday greetings, I have received countless birthday greetings either in person or through the many communication avenues, mainly social media. I have read all the wonderful messages from all you wonderful people – what a way for me to give thanks for the 67 years of living experience and to usher in my 68th year.
I don’t know where to begin with thanking all you wonderful people – social media can be a boon as well as a bane. A boon where everyone connects with me and sends greetings. A bane when it becomes quite tricky in trying to trace back all those who sent birthday greetings for me to thank each and everyone of them personally. Haha. The many groups’ and threads’ feeds seem to get entangled with each other and with other posts’ feeds that I may miss out on thanking some people.
Thank you, each and everyone, family and friends; for the wonderful birthday wishes and messages. These wishes and messages have given an extra oomph to the beginning of my 68th year of life.
On my birthday itself, Leslie Quak, my classmate from school and close friend, treated me for lunch at a restaurant called CapoDelCarne in USJ Heights – a quiet place, where we could talk at a leisurely volumed voice. The meal was good – we both had pasta, Leslie’s a different variant from mine. It was nice to be in the present.
Jeannie and I made it a point to go for mass in the evening at St. Thomas More Church. There, we were met by Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Perera, regulars of evening mass at this parish. They acquired a copy of my book, SPARKS OF JOY – SEIZE THE MOMENT. We also met my cousins, Dato’ Ronald Gomes and his wife, Datin Debbie Gomes, and; Christopher Nalliah and his wife, Evalina Nalliah.
The cousins and wives and us adjourned to Big Daddy’s for dinner. Big Daddy’s is a little restaurant & pub in Taipan, USJ. Serving mainly western cuisine; many of their patrons were there for the pub. It had a nice atmosphere.
The food was decently good. After dinner, we had what is known locally as “the cake cutting ceremony”. Candles were lit, all 67 of them, or at least it looked like there were 67 (when lit – had to qualify myself).
I cutted what looked like a fruit – inspired cake. Lots of fruit decorated the top of the cake. The cake was good. The cake should have been bigger to accommodate more candles.😁🤣
What a day July 10th was, and the days leading up to it. The highlight of the day was when I received a telephone call from my mum and dad with a help of their caregiver, to wish me for my birthday. Mum who is 88 years young and dad who is 93 years spritely, chatted with me for a while. This telephone call was a gift from my parents – a gift that a value cannot be placed. Grateful!
I had to make a statement for the next 66 years – I got tattooed with a tattoo (Stronger Than The Storm) which was partly designed by me. It means that I am the first one with this design. Soon was the tattooist. As usual, he did a great job.
OK. My report card for the first week of me being 67 years, going on 68 is done. In an article to come, I will discuss of what it feels like to be 67 years old. I am already quite qualified, and now, having just completed the first week of my 68th year. I have to admit, it is not like what I had envisioned, so you have hope, too.
I am not too sure whether it is age or whether it is because I am a writer, I tend to look at things differently. One thing is for sure.. call it stubboness…I refuse to give up my rights to think. A vast number of people today are giving away their rights without even as much of a flinch. It’s probably because…er…they don’t think.
One more thing…The next book title… coming.
Today is my birthday. It is the Batik Influencer’s, Joanne’s, Sarah’s, Kenny’s, Michelle’s, Ray’s… birthday, too.
Happy Birthday, everyone!
The seventh day of Chinese New Year is also known as 人日 (renri), or “yan yat” in Cantonese (literally translates to “human day“) or “ren qi” in Mandarin. It is supposed to be everyone’s birthday today, so everyone grows one year older on this day.
Have fun!
Just as when I was beginning to enjoy the slowness of time…when 1 minute seemed like 3 minutes, an hour seemed more than an hour or two… or three; it had to revert back to rush time.
For a while, time seemed like the Matrix or a Bollywood movie, where each frame of time (which could have been each momento), stuttered in movement. Not that it was spoilt or anything like that. It moved slowly, slow enough to capture every aspect and corner of each moment of time.
Why oh why is it back to 180 frames per second? Where speed is everything.
I won’t really know if time did slow down… perhaps for a short period… everybody was busy with their own thing or things that they were unaware of this phenomena. It sure felt good.
We, the Batik Influencer – Jeannie, my wife; Laura, our daughter; and I; treated Jeannie’s mother, who is Laura’s grandmother, who is mother-in-law to me; for a pre-birthday lunch. Mum Ong loves plants and almost everything to do with them – she spends much of her time tending to her multitudes of plants in her home. We planned to take her to Foliage Coffee – a restaurant built within a nursery.
Foilage Coffee used to be located next to the owner’s other business, RAP (“Rent-A-Pot”), in Taman Desa, a suburb, towards the southern part of K.L. (1) According to the staff here, Foilage Coffee shifted to its present location a few months back, after the town council acquired the land that the restaurant was originally on, back.
Undoubtedly, the current restaurant is a far cry from the original restaurant. Being able to sit outside, amongst the lush green surroundings of foliage, with a roof overhead. It may be raining quite heavily, but you don’t get wet; while you enjoy your meals with friends and family, getting the freshness and aroma of the greens, as raindrops bounce off each leaf, no matter its size, big or small. The freshness the rain brings. The way the tables were arranged, spaced out from one and another. This uniqueness is not found in its new location. It did have some semblance of the original restaurant.
We proceeded with out meal orders. Mum and Jeannie both ordered chicken chop. Laura was having brunch, so she went for the big breakfast meal. I ordered something simple – a beef burger and an iced americano. The others went for sky juice.
No, Laura did not eat the big breakfast set all by herself. She started distributing portions of her food under the “try this” guise. She was left with probably a quarter of what she started out with. Jeannie and mum both enjoyed their chicken chop meals. It must have been good because before I knew it, they had finished with their meals.
I’m flaunting the “fuchsia” word. 👆 It is not “deep or dark pink” colour; it is fuchsia.
My burger meal was so-so. The overly sesame-ed seed burger bun top was a nice top, not so that it was crumpled, sort of. I am not sure if it is usually served that way. The beef in the burger was ok – I would give it a “6” out of 10. The chili sauce and mayonnaise was already on the burger. I think it may have been Lingam’s chili sauce. The chili sauce improved the overall burger experience.
The sad news is that Foliage Coffee is set to close at the end of this month (August). The cafe has been at this location since April. Ever since the shift, business has been slow during weekdays. The location is in a quiet part of the commercial district. And, it does not have the charm that it used to have in the previous location, that draws customers in at all times of the week. They are selling all their wall signs and posters. I picked up one. Pay them a visit before they close. They may have some decor or accessories that may catch your eye, tug your purse strings and say to you, “This was meant for you. You’ve gotta have it”.
We wish the management and staff of Foliage Coffee all the best in their future endeavours.
After lunch, We took mum to this place in Bangsar called “Floristika” where Jeannie and she bought some (actually [there that word comes in again. It means: no, “not really”] they bought quite a lot of) flowers and orchids. They were both smiling from ear-to-ear when they came out of the florist. Laura and I waited for them, in the car.
It was close to 3.00pm in the afternoon by the time we got back to Subang Jaya. Good time for me to go for my 10km walk.
It was a good start for mum in her new birthday year. The orchids and flowers will be a reminder that she had a good start to her birthday new year.
NOTES:
1. K.L. or Kuala Lumpur, is the capital of Malaysia. A large metropolitan city, it is 243km³, with a population of 1.77 million. ESCAP
It has been a long time since I’ve been to a birthday party in the garden.
In the late 1960s to around the mid 1970s, going for our cousins Richard’s, Neil’s or Judy-Ann’s birthdays meant going to the fairy playground. There were slides, merry-go-rounds, see-saw (who can forget the see-saw); which we played (some fought [yes, I’m talking about the adults] to skip queue for their turn) on, the whole evening. A wide spread of delicious food including Aunty Maureen’s home-made mini sausage rolls, cookies and cakes filled our stomachs. Uncle Alex would take charge of giving out ice-cream on wafer cones after our meal.
All this had a price: Uncle Alex without fail would start one of his party songs like:
“Green Grass Grew All Around”
There was a hole in the middle of the ground
The biggest hole
That you ever did see
And the hole was in the ground
And the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around.
And in that hole
There was a tree
The prettiest tree
That you ever did see
And the tree was in the hole
And the hole was in the ground
And the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around.
“There was a hole,
a pretty little hole,
a pretty little hole did you ever did see,
The green grass grows all round all round, the green grass grows all round”.
(This was a long song, at least for us at the young ages we were😀)
or
“Frère Jacques“
Frère Jacques
Frère Jacques
Dormez-vous?
Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines
Sonnez les matines
Ding-ding-dong
Ding-ding-dong
Are you sleeping?
Are you sleeping?
Brother John?
Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing
Morning bells are ringing
Ding-ding-dong
Ding-ding-dong
Today (July 8th) was a special birthday party for Aunty Maureen (my dad’s elder of two sisters) to celebrate her 85th birthday. An early birthday party as her actual birthday is on July 10th (yes, same as mine). The party was put together by her children and grandchildren. They were there in full force. Location: Francis’ (Aunty Maureen’s youngest son, my cousin), his wife, Stephanie and their daughter, Emilia’s home and home to Aunty Maureen. It is a beautiful home, great place for parties…
Almost the whole Malaysian chapter of the Atkinson clan were there. She had many dear friends come celebrate with her, as well; this amazing achievement of 85.
She was seated at the main table; all dressed up elegantly, prim and proper with a light pink hat; just right for a garden tea party. She greeted everyone with her famous warm and loving smile. When she spoke, she spoke with gentleness.
As time went by, everyone came to pay her “homage”. She was always smiling. I spent some time with her, finding out how she was keeping. I told her that I thought she would do the Charleston of the roaring ’20s (1920s, that is), as it is one of her favourites. She’s game for anything, almost.
Continuous music (songs that Aunty Maureen likes) in the background, came from a Marshall speaker. Rebecca prepared the list of songs that were aired.
The evening was light and brightly happy. What a nice tribute for Aunty Maureen. The Hardings pulled off another great episode of “SUCCESS”.
Here’s wishing Aunty Maureen a very Happy and Blessed 85th birthday.
Going to Mid-Valley at around mid-day, was a good choice. Lunch, some shopping and then watch a movie – that was the game plan.
I had the opportunity to spend time with my two favourite women in my life; Jeannie, my wife; and Laura, our daughter. The both of them had taken leave from work today. It was Laura’s birthday.
The Oriental restaurant at Mid-Valley, was like all their other restaurants – crowded. We got to the restaurant just after mid-day, at slightly after a quarter past twelve. Though they have a large seating capacity, they had a long queue waiting to be seated.
The restaurant has a good queue control system, ensuring we did not have to wait too long. As we got nearer to the end of the queue in front, one of the waiters gave us the menu to browse through and make our orders through them. So, by the time we got to our table; our food order arrived shortly after that.
To me, one of the best things about this restaurant is that it is brightly lit. I mean talk about bright; this is the leader. I like to see what I am eating.😁😎
We did not have to wait too long before our food arrived. Everything looked good and tasted as good as it looked. We left soon after we finished our meal. Jeannie and Laura went to the stores they liked while I went to the ones I liked (generally). I walked quite briskly to cover more ground and to make up for my usual 10km walk that I missed out today.
I met with them about an hour later, after having covered several stores. I did more of a window-shop looksie walk. I found a couple of things that was of interest to me, including a pair of Teva sandals that has all its straps padded for a more comfortable wear experience.
Laura and Jeannie did some shopping. Laura was happy that she got some things with a good discount.
It was mid-afternoon, when we headed back to Subang Jaya. It was a hot afternoon. I suggested that we swing by at Good Ground Bakery for a thirst quencher and some of its delightful pastries. The ladies agreed.
Laura had a iced chocolate drink, while Jeannie and I both had Calamansi Coolers; prepared by the up and coming renowned barista in the making, Joanne. We had a slice of dark chocolate, cut into 3 equal slices by GGB’s Public Relations Specialist, Monique. Sarah, GGB’s owner; was busy in the back, working on their delightful pastries.
This afternoon break was so refreshing, sort of having given us a renewed energy for the rest of day’s plans. We enjoyed being in the “present”. Highly recommended.😁
We take birthdays seriously, enjoying the gift from God that has brought us to this point; and look forward to the future, from this moment onwards. Living life to the fullest!
Where have the 23 years gone? I ponder on this question as I sit here, in the car, thumb typing this essay out on my Samsung Galaxy Fold 5, while in the mood of pondering or is it wondering? I will have to go with “pondering”.
I am sitting here in the car, waiting for Jeannie and Laura, while they shop for groceries at Aeon in Subang Jaya (1). We had just come from Mid-Valley Shopping Mall (2) after having lunch at Oriental restaurant and then doing a bit of shopping. Oriental was crowded, with a long queue as usual. While Jeannie and Laura waited in queue and made the orders at the same time; I made a bee line to Harvey Norman. It was quite a nice afternoon at Mid-Valley. As I wait for Jeannie and Laura; I tap, scribble, write and gesture-make commands on the Fold 5 with the S-Pen (besides the thumb-typing, coming up with this article; they, the two ladies; are getting groceries to stock up for the weekend.
I made a quick round to the usual favourite shops while we were at Mid-Valley, to check out special offer deals, if they had anything new. I stopped in at Planet Traveller, Crumpler, Samsung, Flash Gadget, Hat Attack, Teva, Harvey Norman, Timberland and the Nescafe booth where they sell the capsule coffee machines. It was more of a browse through. I was done in about an hour. So was Jeannie and Laura. I caught up with them at Bath & Body Work.
As we headed back to Subang Jaya, I suggested we stop by at Good Ground Bakery on our way in. (Story for another day). We had a nice, late afternoon slice of dark chocolate cake, a big pastry puff for eats. Laura had a chocolate drink while Jeannie and I both had a calamansi cooler each. The drinks were real thirst quenchers on such a hot Thursday afternoon.
Laura did the two pieces of art above 👆 on my Samsung Note 2 (at that time in 2012), using the S-Pen. Notice her eye for details. Amazing! Laura was nearly 12 years old when she put the Note 2 through its paces.
At Universal Studios, Singapore.👆
A couple of recent pictures 👆taken at Starbucks, Empire Gallery Shopping Centre..
Much of our get togetherness was always at the dining table, be it at breakfast, lunch, coffee / tea afternoon or dinner. These were the times when we all needed to do the same thing – eat / have our meals. And, many times when we were with family.
HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAURA!
MAY GOD SHOWER HIS CHOICEST BLESSINGS IN ABUNDANCE ON YOU.
LOVE YOU MUCH MORE THAN FOREVER!
NOTES:
1. Subang Jaya is an urban city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
2. Situated in K. L.. Kuala Lumpur or K.L. as it is commonly known in these parts, is a bustling metropolitan city. It is the capital of Malaysia.
I have been 65 for 6 days and I am already an expert? One of the first things I realized is I won’t be listening to The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four” sung by the MonaLisa Twins, at least not as often as before. The MonaLisa Twins are a great singing duo – follow them on their YouTube Channel
Yeah, yeah… I know many of you are dying to get here. However (instead of “but”), the preferred mode of getting here (65) is by living it through. Shortcuts not necessary.
July 10th…seems so long ago.😂 My morning began with me writing and publishing the article “64 GOING ON 65”. I started working on it on Sunday night, minutes before midnight.
Once that was done, we did a couple of quick errands in Taipan(USJ 10). Jeannie and Laura took the day off from work, to spend it with me. My choice of bag accompaniment for the day why of course, was the “Crumpler Day-To-Day”. Splendid choice!
Jeannie suggested we go to MyBurgerLab for lunch. They are well known for their out of the ordinary yet tasty, burgers. I wanted to go to the restaurant in Seapark. I thought we’d go for dessert to The Ice Cream Bar which was a couple of doors away.
True to their name, MyBurgerLab did serve up some great burgers:
Laura had the Cheesy Chicken with Awesome Fries.
Jeannie had the Ayam Kau Hijau (O?) with Salsa Nachos; and,
I had the B. Blazing Hula (P?) with Awesome Fries. I thought I was going to hear some Hawaiian noise with Dire Straits kicking in with “Money For Nothing)…no such thing. Can’t blame a 65 year old for hoping for the out of the ordinary.
The food was scrumptious. The spicy dip they served with the Awesome fries was….”Awesome!”. Mukesh, the Store Manager, and his team provided great service. Anytime you are looking for a great meal, nice ambience and around the area or are in Seapark, Petaling Jaya; look up Mukesh and his team at MyBurgerLab.
We moseyed along to The Ice Cream Bar once we were done with MyBurgerLab. Jeannie had the Baileys Brownies; while I had the Crunchy Coffee Whiskey. Laura gave it a miss this time. Both the alcoholic tainted ice-creams were top notch. And both of them have excellent reviews. Now, they can add our reviews to their collection of more than satisfied reviews.
After lunch, when I was asked what I wanted to do next; I suggested we go on a tour to some of the houses I (including the rest of my family) lived in my early childhood years. We visited four houses, not in the time order we stayed in but according to the route from where we were at The Ice Cream Bar.
However, for the purpose of this essay, I will place them in the order according to my age I remembered growing up in.
Our first stop was our home in Jalan Cantek (pronounced as “Chantek” as in chocolate). This was the time when I was about 3 – 5 years old. Looking at this house, everything remains almost the same, as though time stood still over the last 60 over years. The same curved wall of the living room, the same dark green window glass, the brick flower bed that lined the outside of the curved wall, the same gate.
Our next stop, was Uncle Anton’s house. My dad rented this house from a man we kids use to refer to as “Uncle Anton”. I remember this house because it had one big room upstairs and the rest of the house was downstairs. It was a large, steep wedge-shaped house with a very big garden.
A few memories of this house: on one Christmas season (which I take to be in 1964); dad and a few others went out and came back with a huge life size Christmas tree. I am not sure of the name of the tree. It was the one with needle-type leaves. It comes off in segments when you pull these “leaves”
Here, again; we used to dress up every evening. I remember Uncle Ronnie Weller, wife and 4 children, stayed with us for a while. He took us, older children; for evening walks. I remember there was a park / playground nearby, too.
The Section 12 house was our next stop. It looked pretty much stock standard now as it was back then in the mid-1960s.
One of my most vivid memories of this house was when Mrs. Lee, my Standard One (Year One) school teacher; came to our house to complain to mum that I was slow in school. I remember her in her traditional Nyonya Kebaya, looking fierce with her spectacles on ( even when they were off). She looked prehistoric. Haha. Bless her soul.
Another memory was one day, I somehow managed to get hold of a box of matches. In my bedroom, next to the window; I lighted a match and put it against one of my toy soldiers. The toy melted, with the melted drop falling on my right thigh. I assure you it was more than painful, leaving a permanent scar, right up to today on my thigh.
One other memory was that Dad and mum, together with some friends, had formed a singing group (they were excellent singers) called “Focus 5”. They were backed by the sensational band from Klang, “The Yellow Jackets”. I remember them practicing in this house for their television performance.
Our last house visit was in 71C, Jalan Carey. I did not take any pictures as this house was renovated until it was beyond recognition from the original.
I have a picture of me, taken in this house garden, just after my First Holy Communion in 1966.
This was a sightseeing tour of sorts, for Jeannie and Laura. It was going down memory lane for me. We made our way home, getting back by about 3.30pm.
Laura wanted to work out at the gym for a while. This saw us going to Empire Gallery Shopping Mall. We had a quick simple dinner at the mall after her workout as we had to rush home. We were having guests come over for some coffee and pastries.
My youngest brother, Malcolm and his wife, Uma; our close and dear friends Patrick and Hazel Archibald, Richard Kok, Sharon Ehler and her sister, Loraine Waterson come over.
It was a very warm and pleasant evening filled with loads of stories and laughter.
Now looking forward to the next 65 years.
Laura just celebrated her 22nd birthday, her first celebration back in Malaysia since 2019. It was a “big thing”.
Birthdays have always been a “big thing” in our family as an acknowledgement that we have been blessed with a year gone by and blessed with great health and many, many more great years ahead. So, yeah, birthdays are an important feature on our family calendar.
I decided that I wanted to put up an essay that would show some photographs of her and us, her parents; Jeannie and myself 😉 during her 22 years. Some pictures you may have seen before, some you may have not. It was quite a feat. Admittedly, our hard copy or physical photographs are not meticulously catalogued according to date or events. Ours are catalogued in an order only meant to confuse. Sort of a jigsaw puzzle that keeps the interest high. Haha.
When the treasure hunt began, I did not realize that we had these many photographs, perhaps in the thousands, gathered over the years. These photos include our growing up years, at our workplace with colleagues, our many travels, both local and abroad. As I was going through them; they brought many wonderful memories back. Then, I sidetracked many times looking for photos of an event or a trip we went on. A thought just crossed my mind to set up a photo gallery event, showcasing the thousands of photographs. That would be fun.
“LITTLE GIRL” is one of the pictures I have kept as important. This picture was drawn using my Samsung Note 2 (phablet). At age 10, she showed how easy it was to use the “S-Pen”. This picture was done in a short time.
Attention to detail:
Face: the thick black eyebrows, eyelashes, reflection on the square spectacles.
Hair: the reflection of light creating highlights and different shades of color. There is a hairclip in front, on her left.
Dress: Simple
Sign-off: Title of this art, signature and date.
Laura had the day off from work. Jeannie took a day off from work so that we could celebrate Laura’s birthday with her. Laura did some shopping with Jeannie. We had lunch and then, dinner later on. It was great to have been able to spend some quality time with her on her 22nd birthday.
Looking ahead, my birthday is fast approaching, just around a couple of corners. Already bought myself a birthday present – the bass bumpers😁😂. Superb sound, these earbuds seem to make all music sound good.
As I end this essay, Christopher Cross singing “All Right” is playing over the Google home mini.
Photographs and pictures seem to rarely last three generations before they are forgotten. While they are with us, take a moment or two or more to enjoy. Good memories.
NOTE:
1. “Big thing” : something that is prominent, important, or in wide use.
/ a future trend.
What is the greatest number of all the digits in the numerical range? Let’s rephrase that question: What is your favourite number? To many Chinese, this could be 8, 18 ,188, 888. The digit, “8” symbolizes luck and good fortune. We will not go into the meaning behind various numbers as that is a whole topic in itself.
For an aunt of mine, it is 37. She has been 37 years of age for the past 43 years and has begun her 44th. Yes, you – Aunty Val. It goes without saying that things are the same old, same old; back here in Petaling Jaya – Subang Jaya – Klang.
I think the greatest number of all numbers is the number: “1“, One, Numero Uno (Italian), Yat (Cantonese), Satu (Bahasa Malaysia, Onnu (Tamil). Why I say this is because it represents, or seem to represent all numbers.
One of the occasions you see the number “1” as a representation is “birthdays”. On birthday cakes, regardless of age; a lone birthday cake candle is lighted, to symbolize the person’s age. I think, in that regards; the number “1” is timeless.
My mum just turned 86 years of age three days ago (June 14th). On top of her birthday cake, there was a single birthday candle, lighted to symbolize life. We don’t need big numbers to do that. The lighted candle, providing light on her journey which she has experienced throughout her life. …The same lighted candle becomes “a beacon of light”, lighting up her pathway towards the many more wonderful years ahead.
Resilient, strong character, yet gentle; the 4th youngest of 17 children (including 3 from her father’s first wife); a Convent Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur student. Barely out of school when she married an army officer.
This young army officer, used to visit his parents and siblings, who so happened to live next door to the family of this Convent Bukit Nanas student in Lorong Hicks, Kuala Lumpur. The army officer and family were originally from Ipoh, Perak.
As the story goes, this Convent Bukit Nanas student came from the locally well-known Gomes family, well known as musicians, music teachers and singers. Her father (my grandfather), was said to be amongst the first to bring and start up an orchestra in then Malaya (now Malaysia). Amongst the singers in this family, this 4th youngest child of the family, the Convent Bukit Nanas student, Philomena Clara Gomes; could sing; too.
The army officer, Eustace Anthony Atkinson sings bass; and Philomena sings contralto. So, you add 2 + 3 together and you get wedding bells on June 16, 1956.
Then, we, their children; came along…
Yesterday was their 67th wedding anniversary. They have taken the less travelled road, the roller coaster ride with the ups and downs, sharp left and right turns causing “G” force pulls. Mum still bakes the best butter cakes and dad, at 91; still drives out for groceries.
Here’s wishing mum many, many more great birthdays.
Here’s wishing mum and dad many, many more wedding anniversaries. Together, they are the power of “1”.