Category: Friends

Life has an uncanny ability to throw unexpected curveballs our way, reminding us of its fragility and unpredictability.  Over the past month, I was confronted with this truth when I learned of the untimely passing of two friends. Their deaths served as a poignant reminder to cherish each day and embrace life with no regrets.

The first friend who passed on is the father of Sherilyn’s good friend from kindergarten and primary school. Sherilyn used to hang out at this friend’s house quite frequently when they were in primary school.  Sherilyn sometimes had dinner together with her friend and her family.  Recently Sherilyn discovered from another friend that the father of her close friend had passed away unexpectedly due to a freak accident at work. The friend’s father is about the same age as me.

The news of his passing sent shockwaves through our hearts, leaving us grappling with the fragility of life. It reminded us that life’s uncertainties can shatter our sense of security in an instant. The pain and loss experienced by the family taught us to cherish the time we have with our loved ones, as we never truly know what tomorrow holds.

The second friend who recently passed on is my neighbor. Within our condo, there was a spirited and vivacious lady who did her morning or evening walks every day, brimming with life and positive energy. Despite her age of 78, she exuded vitality and became a source of inspiration for many. During the lockdowns I often had the pleasure of joining her during our walks, engaging in cheerful conversations that brightened our days.

However, her sudden absence at the condo grounds raised concerns, leading me to inquire about her well-being. Tragically, I discovered today from her daughter that she had succumbed to cancer. It was devastating to learn that this seemingly healthy and vibrant woman had battled both colon and pancreatic cancer within a short span of time. She fought valiantly but, unfortunately, lost her life only eight days after receiving her pancreatic cancer diagnosis. She had Stage II colon cancer last year and the surgery to remove the tumor was a success. Eight months later, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and lost the battle.

Her story served as a stark reminder that life’s challenges can strike unexpectedly, regardless of our apparent health or vitality. It underscored the importance of cherishing our health, being proactive in our well-being, and never taking a single day for granted.

The loss of these two friends has left a profound impact on my perspective of life. Their passing has reinforced the fragile nature of our existence and the urgent need to seize every moment. Life’s uncertainties compel us to live each day to the fullest, nurturing relationships, pursuing our passions, and embracing opportunities with vigor and enthusiasm.

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Jenn (pic below – long blond hair in black shirt), my childhood friend from Ipoh since kindergarten came back from Seattle for a holiday and we had a short meetup over lunch on Monday.  The last time we met up was in October last year.

The four of us pictured here have been friends since primary school, except for Jenn whom I’ve know since our kindy days in the mid 1970s.  Jenn is now one of the top photographers in Seattle and I’m really proud of her achievement. Since high school, she’s been one very creative, witty, smart and fun-loving  friend to be with. We’d spent many memorable and crazy days camping and traveling together. If only I could turn back the clock, I’ll choose the years 1987 through 1990. We had the most fun, laughter and mischief during those years❤️

Our lunch at Village Duck @ Bangsar Village:

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After the fatal heart attack incident at our apartment two days ago, many residents including me, were curious to know who the deceased was.  We only knew that he was a large size Indian man with a beer belly.  All the residents whom I bumped into asked me if the deceased was my opposite neighbor, an Indian bachelor who also has a pot belly; who is also a regular gym-goer; because rumors had it that it was him!  That got me and the girls really, really itching to know if it was indeed our neighbor! We hoped that it’s not him. He’s such a sweet guy, always surprising us with cakes that he buys from his Europe holidays. The latest gift from him was two months ago, a Marks & Spencer butter cream cake from London.

Then Cass suggested that I buy some fruits for our Indian neighbor before ringing on his doorbell to check on him. But puh-lease, that’s so not me.  And what do ya know? Two days after the incident, our Indian neighbor (like he could read my mind! Talk about the Law of Attraction!) rang our doorbell at 9 p.m. and gave us a big bunch of bananas!

When I was chatting with him at the door, I almost wanted to slap him on his arm and tell him (as if we were old friends) that I thought it was him who died at the gym but am so glad to see him at the door alive 🤣  And you know what, I think he had an ulterior motive too! Before he left, he asked me if I knew who died at the gym. I was so tempted to tell him “eh, everyone at our block thought it was you who died la!”   

Hubs quipped that maybe our Indian neighbor also had the same curious thought on his mind – is that my neighbor who died (my hubby)?  Maybe that’s the reason why he came over in the pretext of giving us bananas, just to check on us (hubby). 🤣

Sweet and juicy organic bananas planted by our neighbor’s workers at his land in Rawang.

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Alan Yun, our close friend of over 2 decades finally tied the knot on 19 January 2019.  Hubs and I have been waiting for this day for so long!

The wedding was held at Zion Lutheran Church @ Brickfields. I was there with Cass and Sherilyn; Alycia had to be in school and was disappointed that she couldn’t attend Alan kor kor and Emily che che’s wedding.

Can you spot the hubs? The most ‘compact’ one haha!

When Alan Yun saw his beautiful wife Emily walking towards  him at the altar, tears swelled and he tried to control his emotion. But when he had to take the wedding vows before the pastor, he abandoned his attempts as he shed tears of joy at the vision of all the guests in the church. It was a very touching moment indeed. The hubs who was seated at the front seat along with the other ‘heng tai’ (‘brothers’) shed tears too. In fact, Alan Yun made everyone shed tears of joy and emotions. Told you he’s a very good actor!  Nah, this time it’s not crocodile tears but genuine tears.

Can you spot the hubby in the picture below?  No, not the guy wiping his tears. That’s Nelson, Direction of Pensonic, who is a good friend of both the Alans – Alan Yun the groom and Alan Yap the hubs.

A page snapped from the wedding album ~ the couple with Limapulo: Baba Can Cook executive chef John Tan.  Alan Yun and uncle John are the owners of this award-winning Baba & Nyonya restaurant. Limapulo serves one of the best curry laksa and nasi lemak in town. We all love the food there, especially the homemade sambal and curry laksa.

Article from 14 Feb 2019 Star Lifestyle papers featuring Alan Yun and Emily’s wedding:

The hubs had to bear the worst brunt of all the ‘chi mui’ (bridesmaids) during the ‘groom receives bride’ ceremony. It’s a Chinese custom where the bride’s ‘chi mui’ aka bridesmaids would set a long list of obstacles for the groom to tackle before he can lift the veil and kiss the bride.  And the groom’s ‘heng tai’ (best men) would come to the rescue by tackling the hardest obstacles.  The hubs, who was blind-folded was stripped off his shirt and had his tits zapped with masking tape by the group of pretty young things. The video of him being ‘tortured’ was uploaded on social media! 🤣

From a young teenager who worked part-time as a waiter for the hubs to a well-known model cum celebrity and now a successful entrepreneur and married man, we are so proud of Alan Yun. He will always be our good friend (the most humble and sincere one), though we are now all too busy with our lives to travel together again.

Heartiest congratulations once again Ah Lun and Emily!  Wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness. And may the love you share today grow stronger as you grow old together. We can’t wait for you and Emily to have a baby soon!!

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It’s been a while since my last meet up with my ertswhile classmates from MGS Ipoh. If not for Jennifer who is back from the US of A, I think there would not be a meet up so soon.  After I dropped off my car at the service center, I took Grab to Tasty Chapathi for lunch.

Everyone of us has been busy with our children, jobs and family respectively. It’s pretty difficult to set a date where everyone is available.  Yesterday’s lunch meet up at Tasty Chapathi @ PJ was just the six of us. And it was a great one.  Our yackety-yak was really loud (like teenagers😁 ) along with thunderous guffaw  kept making heads turn towards our direction.  🤫 🤭  We certainly didn’t appear to be a bunch of 45 year old aunties 🤣

Jennifer (on my left) and I have been friends for exactly 4 decades, since we were five! Jennifer is an accomplished photographer in Seattle. I am really proud of her achievement.

Our droolicious North Indian cuisine:

I loved all the dishes but didn’t eat much as I was too busy catching up with my classmates. Plus my throat was still a tad scratchy. There will definitely be a second time at Tasty Chapathi and this time with my family.

Love this Punjabi Chai tea so much. It’s my first time tasting it and I’m totally hooked on it now!

Tasty Chapathi
UNIT C-13A-1 & C-15-01 PHASE 3
TWO SQUARE DATARAN 3 TWO,
NO. 2, Jalan 19/1, Seksyen 19,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone: 016-330 2762

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A couple of weeks back, I received a surprise in my letter box.  It was a birthday card all the way from San Francisco, USA.  My friend of over 3 decades posted it to me.   I can’t even remember when I last received a card by snail mail from a close friend.  So this birthday card came as a big surprise to me.

Jo and I got to know each other when we were twelve. She was transferred from another school. We were besties the following year, when we were in Form 1 and remained good friends until we left school after Form 5.  We did many crazy things together, along with our other crazy classmates and laughed like crazy everyday.  We went on school trips together and cycled round our neighborhood together every evening.  We even went to school together everyday since we lived near each other.

One of my best memories with Jo was our many camping trips to Pangkor Island and Pulau Kapas in Terengganu when we were 13 and 16.  We also attended a 10-day Wilderness Adventure Camp in Lumut (similar to Outward Bound School) together when we were 16 years old.

Our friendship took a breather when we went our separate ways after we left high school.  She is now residing in the US with her hubby and baby girl.  Late last year, we met again in Ipoh and our friendship rekindled 🙂

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I had some lovely visitors over at my place last Saturday. Annie and her twin boys, Elaine Tan and her cute Amber and Barb and her bubbly Ashley popped by. Elaine and Annie were here to collect their loot from me and ordered some more 😀

It wasn’t easy getting 7 kiddos to sit still and behave themselves for the group pic… Can you recognize who is who?

Barb bought my kids these colorful santan jellies which they absolutely loved….

Elaine baked these sugar-reduced chocolate chip cookies and they are really really delicious.  I gobbled up almost the entire bottle myself sei mou!!  Elaine, you are a fantastic cook and baker!

Annie also bought some cute stickers for the girls.  It was great having them over to my place and I hope that we can do this more often, yes ladies?

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This mummy who is heavily pregnant with her 3rd baby paid me a visit on Thursday. This lady who is one helluva friend gave me a big surprise when she presented me with a huge bouquet of flowers. She said I needed someone to pamper too and boy was she right, I felt so pampered when I received the flowers!

She also gave my gals these goodies :

The pack of animal biscuit on the right was a hit with my 3 gals and they have all been snapped up now. The pack of biscuits on the left is curry-flavored biscuits, though they are not spicy.

Cute and pretty colorful animal-shaped jellies which she bought from Pavillion, which my 2 older gals went gaa gaa over.

My 2 older gals, especially Sher had a great time playing with aunty Paik Ling who was really sporting and was patient enough to listen to them talk nonsense.  Sher was playing doctor with her and she used her toy stethoscope to listen to every part of aunty Paik Ling’s body lol…

She also used her toy power saw and said she wanted to saw off aunty PL’s stomach to bring the baby out muahahaha….. and the fun thing was aunty PL played along with her.

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I had a few surprises last week and this week. Last week, a man rang the doorbell of my house and asked if I was Shireen. Then, he said his colleague has a gift for my baby. When I opened the gift, I was really surprised to see that the lovely gift was from Hui Sia and Chooi Peng. A few days later, the postman rang my doorbell and said there was a registered mail for me. This mum who is pregnant with twins sent a gift for Baby C and me. The next day, I saw a courier van outside my house. There was a parcel couriered all the way from Kuching for me. I was thinking hard if I knew of anyone from Kuching and when I ripped the box open, I was pleasantly surprise that the gift was from Elina.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Hui Sia, Chooi Peng, Chin Nee and Elina. Also thanks to Physiomom for the lovely photo album and gifts for Alycia and Sherilyn. You busy mummies are so thoughtful to have sent me these gifts.

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I’d like to say thank you to two of my great blogging buddies for helping me today. This mummy has always been a great supporter of my blog from day one and I really appreciate that support shown. You should visit her blog too, it is awesome! I love her writing – she has such flair and great talent in her writing and I just love the way she thinks and her style of writing. This other mummy has also always been a great friend to me, always going all out to help me and I can feel her genuine warmth and sincerity though we have never met before, save for talking with her over the phone a number of times. I’m really blessed to have found such wonderful friends.

No. of times viewed = 172