Sunday, December 5, 2010

Life's Throwing Lemons

Life's really unpredictable. A month ago, we were joyfully celebrating big bro's wedding and I thought I would have ample time to work on my blog after the wedding coz I was quite free. However, something totally unexpected and unfortunate happened and I was busy in and out of the hospital for the last 2 weeks. I still remember we were having a great time celebrating mom's birthday but 2 days after that, dad had a stroke. =( Everything came so sudden and fast...never  would I have imagined that this would happen so soon...haiz! 

Mom woke me up about 4.30am that morning saying that dad's leg was numb and she was gonna send him to the hospital. Good thing was that I was home so was able to help drive and rush to the hospital. Went to the Lam Wah Ee hospital first but the A&E officer said there's not neurologist there so asked us to go to another hospital. At that time, dad's situation was still not that bad coz he was still able to move his hands. Then we quickly rushed to Island hospital, the neurologist was there early but couldn't do much coz he said that 'golden hour' was over so had to do MRI scan. Quite unlucky coz dad was asleep before feeling the numbness, so it was hard to determine what time exactly the stroke started. If it was within 2 hours, the doc could have done something to prevent the situation from worsening. =.=

According to the doc, what happened was dad's right brain was bleeding and formed a blood clot...affecting the entire left part of his body...so they had to inject some med to dissolve the blood clot and put dad in the ICU...sucks. If you want me to describe how serious dad's condition was...all I could say is it's serious enough to be in the ICU for 3 days. :( No one wants all these to happen but there's no point guessing why and how this happened to someone healthy like dad. Things are gonna be different from now on but I'm sure our family will stay strong together and help dad go through this tough time. It's gonna be a long recovery road but I have faith in dad that dad will be able to stand up again. 

This was the 'cold camping place' that I was talking about in my earlier post. This ICU waiting room sort of became our room coz we were sleeping, eating, watching TV, hanging out there for almost 3 days when dad was in the ICU. We were really making ourselves at home. :p

Took care of dad in the hospital after he was transferred out to normal ward. Sometimes, it feels like god has planned all these in advanced...at least all these happened after bro's wedding was over and I am still free while waiting to start work in Jan. I'm the free-iest person in the family so spent the most time in the hospital accompanying dad. :p Haha...see how I make myself comfortable in the hospital with my netbook, deck chair, hoodie, etc.

Bro also came back during the weekends to help out. It's always good to see dad smiling. :) Dad had some physiotherapy session in the hospital...I'm the unqualified assistant trainer...hehe!! :p

Sincere thanks to all friends and relatives who dropped by to visit dad in the hospital and brought lotsa laughters.

At first, dad had 2 doctors...one neurologist and another neuro surgeon. Then after bros spent one night in the hospital...one more doc was added...this time is for the heart coz dad's stomach was aching the night before. Dad's definitely topping the list with the most doctors. :p Dad had 4 different neighbors throughout his stay...2 changed room coz we were too noisy...especially when there were visitors around...haha!! Another angmoh was discharged before we could chase him out. :p 

Flowers and gifts from dad's colleagues and some relatives.

Just like the title of this post...life is giving us lemons right now and this hardship is definitely a challenge for all of us in the family. It's difficult for us to understand what dad's going through right now...what we need to give him is patience and motivation. What happened has happened and there's no point making ourselves miserable over something that we cannot change. Everything's gonna change from now on...but I'm hoping that it'll change for the better. Looking on the bright side, at least this illness is not terminal and there are still chances of recovery. This has also brought our family closer together as we got to spend more time doing things together. =) It's also a good reminder for us to cherish everything that we have now especially our family and be contented. Never ever take things for granted. 

Quote to share: "Life is not about how hard you can hit. Life is about how much you can get hit and keep moving forward!"

Friday, December 3, 2010

Happy Birthday Mommy!!

Nov 17 (Wed): Mom's Birthday at Tao's
Big bro wanted to celebrate mom's birthday and all he could think of was eat, and only eat so 5 of us went for buffet dinner at Tao's. How I wished good times with family could last longer.

I'm still unemployed & poor so could only afford to give mom a tulip that I bought from Amsterdam. :p 

Love these pics. :)

Yummy!! The kiasu way of eating...haha!! I always rugi when it comes to buffet coz my stomach is too small for all these food!

Cherating Weekend

Nov 13-14 (Sat & Sun): Alumni Community Weekend at Legend Hotel, Cherating
Actually, it was our college's convocation that weekend but I didn't plan to attend so was quite free especially since bro's wedding was over. So made this last minute decision to attend this event organized by the Malaysian-American Alumni Partnership. Basically, I was just busy traveling and tumpang-ing others' car everywhere all weekend. :p Rae was scolding me for not attending the convo with her so I decided to make a detour to KL to meet up with the gang and also drop by for a convo pic. =) Btw, I almost lost all these pics coz my netbook's hard disc decided to die before I managed to backup...luckily bro helped me to recover...phew!

Reunion of the 'Super' gang. =)

Glad that I made it there early to take this pic with the 3 of them before the ceremony  then quickly rushed all the way to Taman Bahagia to tumpang Alan's car to Cherating. =) 

Finally arrived Legend Hotel together with the UGRADers after 4 hours journey.

The event was a good opportunity to meet up and network with alumni from other exchange programs.

Time for alumni to meet the Click Camp participants. Had a good chat with Jim and some Fulbrighters during tea break...Jim's 'monkey vs laser' story was hilarious!

Cherating is famous for its beach and we were supposed to have an activity on the beach...but look at the weather...you could see the rain coming. =.=

Thanks to the rain...all the alumni met up with our community activities group in the ballroom instead.

Networking session and dinner for the alumni. US Ambassador Jones was also there for the event.

All the students and alumni members were split to several groups to go for different community activities. I chose to teach English at a nearby pre-school...ooo...it wasn't an easy task. These kids come from kampungs so didn't really get much chance to learn English...plus I had one hearing and speech impaired girl in my group so it was quite a good learning experience for me. Another good reminder of how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to learn so many things since young. 'Appreciate what you have coz there are people out there without it.' 

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Big Bro's Wedding Day

Nov 7 (Sun): Khai Nien & Eileen's Big Day
Finally, after months of preparation and anticipation...the big day was here!!! =) Even though I wasn't the main character, my schedule on that day was jam-packed...hardly any time to rest at all. Woke up at 6.30am and was busy non-stop till 12am. Didn't even had time to transfer the morning photos so took very few pics only during the dinner coz my camera ran outta memory. =.= Bro hired a professional photographer and videoman to capture every moment of their big day but I was the kaypo-unprofessional-camera-girl who was also busy snapping photos all the time. :p We've got the nice photos from the photographer but I still prefer to use mine...hehe! :)

Early early followed bro to his make-up session.

Relatives helped out with the ceremony as well.

Getting ready to go to the bride's house.

Cousin was the 'driver' for the 2nd car.

Pit-stop at Autocity to meet up with all the 'brothers' and some photoshoot.

Behind-the-scenes of what you see on the video.

The 'bo-kiasi' videoman...look pro huh! 

Arrival at the bride's house.

The 'heng dai' entourage. 

'Ji Mui's all prepared to kenakan the guys.

HengDai vs JiMui

First challenge...limbo rock!

Next...wasabi bun.

This was upon request...Nobody by 'Wonder Boys'. :p

The crazy bunch.

Posers...lol!

Told ya bro was super excited bout getting married!

The excited bridegroom finally gets to see his wife...hahaha!

Traditional ceremonies...walking around the car for 3 rounds was kinda funny though. :p

After all the ceremonies in the bride's house...it was time for bro to bring his wife back to our house. :)

Left to right: Bridesmaid & best man, the newly-wed couple, 2 pairs of twins.

Another round of worshiping ceremony.

Then the time-consuming 敬茶仪式 begins. :p

Paternal relatives.

Maternal relatives.

Time for the younger ones to receive the angpow.

Good timing for group photos since so many relatives were here.

Final photoshoot at the garden.

As I mentioned earlier, my camera ran outta memory so only took few pics at the wedding dinner.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Bro's Wedding Eve Dinner

Unexpected event happened in our family. :( Was supposed to continue blogging bout bro's wedding but haven't been able to online much coz been 'camping' somewhere since last Friday. That place was so cold that I finally get to wear my hoodie. =.= By the way, what happened was shocking and saddening...especially looking at all these pictures...haiz! The month of November started really well with bro's wedding but is ending pretty badly...gosh...tough luck! Life is definitely giving us lemons right now...hopefully we can get some lemonade soon. :( It's tough blogging this right now but I need a place to vent and keep myself going. 

Nov 6 (Sat): Bro's 'Lao Tiah Meh'
Mom and Dad invited all their friends and relatives to our house for buffet dinner the night before bro's wedding day. We estimated about 80 people to come but I guess more than 100 turned up...so it was a lil' chaotic. Was busy moving chairs and tables from the house coz there weren't enough place to sit...then moved everything back in again coz it was drizzling. =.= Mom and dad were also busy entertaining all the guests...it was pretty overwhelming but I enjoyed the 'merry merry' atmosphere. :)

Didn't managed to take pics of everyone who came...these are just some that I took.

'Merry merry' atmosphere inside the house as well. Bro's 'brothers' were busy discussing about their plans for the next morning...some guests were looking at wedding album...some sang karaoke...and some just watched the 'karaoke show'. :p

The party ended at about 10pm. Bro 'eat full too free' wanted to clean the floor so dad helped him.

Grandma busy getting ready for the 'bai ti gong' ceremony at midnight. She's the expert. :p

The ceremony started with mom & dad 'escorting' bro from his room...and he must wear his pyjamas...hahaha!

Then grandma led the worshiping ceremony

Mom and dad's turn. Bro was the videoman and I was the camera girl. :p

Feed 汤圆...bro has to swallow without chewing...me not understand why though. :p 'Siao kia' too excited about getting married.

敬茶 to parent.

End of the ceremony was to go to bed...hahaha!! Of course he didn't sleep right away lar. :p