Sunday, June 18, 2006

70 is a big number

One of my grandmothers celebrates her 70th birthday tonight.
Mama Mary.
Watching her blow out her 7 sticks of candles
(Each to represent a decade)
surrounded by all her grandchildren,
she looked grrreat in her sarong kebaya.

I used to spend a lot of time with my grandmother when i was very young.
She had to babysit me cuz my parents were both busy working.
That was when i was the only grandchild on my mother's side of the family and because i went to kindergarten at Bethesda Kindergarten (Katong) which is near my grandmother's house at Telok Kurau.

My grandma is from Sabah
And she's Cantonese.
She can speak quite a few Chinese dialects including English, Chinese and Malay.
Her most favourite programme in the world when i was younger was 'Wheel of Fortune'
The one which was hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White.
Best part was that she picked up English watching that show while cooking for the family.

The fondest memories that i have of my grandmother are the times where she used to bring me to Parkway Parade.
I used to love those scooter rides where they allow you to zip around in your own little car or motorcycle.
My grandmother would sit on a stone bench to have a smoke and watch me go round and round on those rides.
After that, we would go to the food court or some hawker centre for Yong Tau Foo.
That's my grandma's favourite
She can eat up to 8 bucks worth of Yong Tau Foo and bee hoon.
That's like a hell lot for one person to eat.
But a lot of it ends up in my mouth.
Haha!

Fast forward to present.
My grandma now has 7 grandchildren from her 3 children.
And cuz most of them are quite grown up, she doesn't have to babysit anymore.
So, she zips around in her old manual nissan march to her mahjong games everyday
But the funny thing about her is that although she's been driving for so long,
she has a phobia of shopping centre multi-storey carparks because she's scared that her call will roll down the slope and crash.
This from someone who's been driving even waaay before I was born.

Mama Mary,
She who:-
Can't hear her handphone ringing even when its on the loudest volume
But complains that her phone is too old and wants a new colour phone with a camera.
She who:-
Wants a new auto car so that she can drive up slopes without fear of rolling down and crashing.

My grandma, the hippiest, trendy and most modern woman at her age.

Posted by Cheryl at 12:11 AM