Life Events

Early 6:30am in the morning, whole family and relatives prepared to leave house. It’s Ancestor Day, also known as QingMing Festival. On this particular day, Chinese usually has to tend to the graves of departed ones.

This is my first time cleaning graves of my great-grandparents. Heaps of hell notes were prepared.

At first, I thought the whole process will be serious and (a bit) scary. It turns out to be a relaxing and wonderful experience. Family and relatives gather to clean on grave, everyone has a task to do. My task is to take photos – easy.

I was told that this statue is 大伯公. One of the Gods who look after the whole graveyard. Rotan the naughty spirits and bless the ones with good behaviors

Joss sticks caught on fire. This happens all the time when there’s too much joss sticks together. On the floor are feasts for afterlife.

The whole family or the whole clan would feast on the food and drink they brought for the worship, signifying family reunion with the ancestors.

On a random note: This photo is unedited (so are the rest of the photos). I decided to post this up cause it’s too wonderful. I randomly picked this one up cause couldn’t decide which one is good.

Serenity and peace

The Qingming Festival is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honour their ancestors at grave sites. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories, and/or libations to the ancestors.

We were asked to put joss sticks and some hell notes directly on top of the grave. I have no idea why, do you know why?

One of the joss paper stacks. Took us few nights to fold the papers. Reason for folding? It burns quickly and won’t fly around when wind blows. You do not want your stuff to fly around the graveyard, some graves are grown with dried grass. You gonna have fun putting out those fires, heh.

Whole graveyard become a spot for family gathering. You can only see these scene once a year. And what you don’t see is, many ghosts sit/walk around you. But that’s okay, they are very friendly.

If anything disturbs you, you burn hell notes to make them happy happy, then they will walk away.

I personally think the fluctuation is very serious in afterlife, I wonder what is the currency rate down there.

My great-grandparents got a lot of money down there. My dad even bought them some new cloths and shoes. Got branded one some more, very nice.

I blogged about this in another blog of mine: Manyholes.com – 新穎紙扎祭品

Another common practice is to carry flowers instead of burning paper, incense or firecrackers

After 3 hours, we finally can have a good plate of 干捞面. It’s not good, but damn satisfying.

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We have entered March 2010. 60 days since New Year and still counting… it’s too fast. I am only half way consuming the Chivas bottle, I am not done with my celebrations yet.

But in reality, I had to face the truth. Holidays are over. I had to focus on my plan and put some serious effort. If not, I never get enough money to buy handbag(s) for my girlfriend(s)

As you can see, I am not active in personal blogging anymore. I got more exciting projects to do – that is why I devote much of my time on those projects.

I would like to update ahbing.com at least 3 times a week, but my time is really limited. I still have 20+ pending Australia posts to blog… /sigh, that’s unlikely to happen. Unless I run out of topic to blog, then I’ll dig back the old posts to write.

Hah! I got sooooo many posts to write and I am not sure whether I should do it. Don’t care la… I just post whatever I can.

This is few posts combined into one, a summary of upcoming blog posts.

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I am back

Settling back at my hometown, Kota Kinabalu, is not easy. To make myself feel like a “brand new start”, I made a few changes to my surroundings.

Namely,

1. Donate unused cloths (honest – I’m too big size now)
2. Change wall colour
3. Move my workspace into my room instead of living room
4. Removed old stuffs from cupboard (love letters, high school notes and books)
5. Removed like 10 pairs of my dad’s shoe
6. Removed my mum’s cloths in my cupboard (it’s my personal cupboard now, /pfft!)
7. Removed threadmill, cycle machine and massage chair. All not working.

Here’s my next plan

• Install new cupboard in my room, built in ones
• New cupboard in kitchen (mum wait hit 4D first)
• Remove even more things from my room!
• and the rest are tiny details which I’m too lazy to mention

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My room + work space

..with lights turned on (afternoon)

My room is painted dark blue. To make it even darker, I installed a thick plastic curtain that blocks out 90% of sunlight and heat.

without lights (afternoon)

Dark colour room is awesome, I love it. Especially if you are night owl that stays up late and always sleep til afternoon.

I had to change the colour because this room is going to be my workspace and I need to have a brighter working area. Thus I repainted it into sky blue.

This is my current working area, same exact place where I’m typing this entry right now. Now the table is filled with notes, tidbits and gadgets.

I think it will be awesome if I remove the metal cupboard and replace with cupboard (with decks) to put the extra stuffs there. Such as wallets, watch, gadgets, nude women photos..

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Temporary escape from reality

The first few days of my arrival, I cannot settle my emotions yet. “Is this the end of fun? I haven’t done anything yet! not even serious in study”.

Another thing that makes me reluctant to return to Malaysia is my family problem, which has negative impact on me. 每家都有難念的經 and I rate the seriousness of my family problem at 9/10 – taking risk tolls at emotions and family relationship. One of the reasons I need to come back.

The most important things that makes me feel uneasy is the sudden surge of illegal immigrants.

“Damn, what happened to my lovely town? Where’s are all the locals? Chinese? Malay? Ethnics? Feels like I am at Philippine instead of Malaysia” This is sad.

On the same weekend of my arrival, I told Chris the Sarawakian Samseng, “hey nga lin chai, I am going to explore Kuching tomorrow. Don’t feel like staying at home.. wanna go together?”

“I dare you”

“ngai diao, I buy tickets now!”

“buy laaaaaa”

Then half day later, I am at Kuching already. This is my itinerary

• Kuching – 2 days 2 nights
• Sarikei – 1 day 1 night
• Sibu – 1 day

Wished I could continue the trip longer, but Chinese New Year is coming soon. I need to help mum do lots of CNY errands. Chris need to balik kampung also so our trip ended up only a few days. Made this decision over in few hours only.. nothing much we can do.

Here are some of my short trip photos (summary):

What I personally think of Kuching

1. Food are ridiculously cheap – only realised Sabah’s food are 200% overpriced due to rise in tourism
2. All pretty ladies are hiding at somewhere else. I don’t see any attractive ladies at all.
3. Major Chinese, no illegal immigrants!

I’ll blog about my trip in details next time. Many funny shits to share with you.

I definitely felt a lot better after coming back from the trip. Maybe I need to travel more… who want to join me to Taiwan and Japan? only girls allowed – please send in your application form, interviews depending on the quality of your photo – thank you.

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Chinese New Year Eve

Every year, I am obligated to return to my grandparent’s kampung to celebrate CNY, is the tradition for Chinese to return to 祖屋 to celebrate with elder relatives. This is my first time celebrating in KK in 25 years due to my family problem /sigh.

That doesn’t discourage me, this is a perfect chance to celebrate in KK for the first time in my life! I never thought this city can be so damnnnnnnnn lively! Fireworks everywhere, crowds flood the night markets and free-food everywhere haha.

Growing up, I always celebrated CNY in kampung. I spend most of the time watching Astro and eating prawn crackers. Time past 12 midnight and I get angpao! That’s how I thought CNY is supposed to be. But man, never thought CNY can really be THIS fun ^^;

Here’s some photos on CNY eve.

大龍香

玅灋壇聖旗

供品

八隻舞獅

老母和老妹

點（假）砲

CNY eve is already this fun, can’t wait to show you the rest of the CNY celebration. Way more activities and more fun!

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Tambunan with relatives

I have soooooooooo many cousins.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO many of them, until I can’t remember their name. Which is ridiculous.

You know why? My mum has 19 siblings. If each of them only had one child.. maybe the number is still normal. But try to multiply the number as time goes by. Especially after my oversea studies for 5 years…

“Whose son is this ah?” I keep asking. Hahahha.

So many cousins… impossible we watch same channel on Astro. Thus, open a table, take out a deck of cards – FULL TIME GAMBLE.

Even 14 years old also started to drink chivas. Life is good. Life is awesome.

Left hand hold cards, right hand hold cold beer. Gamble until morning. Continue gamble again when wake up with slight hangover. It’s like the biggest party in Sabah, once a year.

My uncle-in-law is teaching cousins how to tackle opponents in rugby. He is National Rugby coach and we got free lessons!

Come tackle me anytime, let me practice. I can’t tackle my cousins because difference in size. But I don’t want to tackle my uncle also.. I want to maintain my perfect bone-structure.

我的美人 eating competition. Winner gets ang pao. Once again, I cannot join the competition because of difference in size also /sigh.

That’s 5 posts in one single entry. Hope you enjoy reading this entry as much as I enjoy writing it ^^

If you are looking forward to receive more updates, make sure to join my Twitter and RSS for ahbing.com

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These photos were taken at 11:10am at Toowong, Brisbane. The dust storm started to look visible around 10:55am.

According to News.com.au, “A DUST storm that left Sydney a bright orange and caused misery for airline passengers has settled on Brisbane and is spreading across the state.”

“Passengers wishing to cancel their domestic flights today will be offered a refund or the opportunity to change their booking without penalty,’’ a spoke person said.

“the dust haze probably wouldn’t clear in Brisbane until this evening, after it had blown off the coast. ”

I submitted my photo to editor of News.com.au.

It’s yellow, so visible.. even inside my room. I never seen anything like this, definitely one cool experience! A bit eerie, though.. ok I declare a holiday for myself today. Hahahaha.

Update #1: 12pm

I am going out for a quick jog, anyone wanna join me?

Update #2: I think I saw something

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My parents were suppose to arrive on morning, 13th August. Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances. That trip had been called off. Why? I am infected with swine flu.

Yep that’s right. I am infected. Signs include: fever, cough, flu, sore-throat, diarrhea and sore muscle.  Bingo! I have everything.

First symptom (Monday 03/08)

I’ve been feeling a bit headache and dizzy since the Gold Coast Casino trip. However, H1N1 never cross my mind. Hey, I am healthy person. I eat 2 pieces of fruits and handful of vegetables everyday. How can I fall sick? I refuse to oblige admit sick. I AM STRONG.

Starting to realise (Tuesday 04/08)

Uh oh. Jimmy is sick too. He has been sick since past week. Could it be infections? Yes it could be. But, my health is in excellent shape. No way in hell I’ll be the first person to fall sick. I started to consume more multivitamins than usual. I requested the rest of housemates to consume my vitamins too.

It kicked in (Wednesday 05/08)

My stomach starts to feel funny. My back muscles and arms starts to sore. Maybe I overworked yesterday (lift some weights). Ignore the symptoms. Argh. Not feeling good. I feel dizzy. Ahhh wait… swine flu… H1N1… I better get online and check what are the symptoms… oh no.. exactly the same…

/MSN

“Hey Sha. I think I got H1N1.. but not so sure leh..”

“Uh ohh.. go see doctor.”

I had runny nose for next few days too.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep (Thursday 06/08)

Chuan wakes me up. “Bing, go to doctor now” he said. “Ugh.. okay..” I replied. Then I collapse back to bed. When I wake up, it’s already 4:30pm, I missed my appointment with doctor. I slept 15 hours.

The system here in Australia is different than Malaysia. You NEED to make appointment with the doctor before going clinic unless it is emergency (you chopped off your finger or your brain suddenly fell out).  If you have fever leh? Sorry la.. please come again tomorrow!!

Positive H1N1 (Friday 07/08)

I dragged myself out of bed and walk to closest clinic. I was isolated from other patients. Met the doctor. Doctor said “Congratulations! you are pregnant!”

Ehhhhhhhhhhh sorry sorry. wrong script hehehehehe.

Well, the doctor did a funny check up on me. Ask me few silly questions and poked his fingers on my cheek and forehead, “is it painful?”

Result?

“Yes, you are infected with H1N1. But you are already recovering. No big deal, big guy!” he said. “I’ll give you a few flu medicines and you’re good to go”

“One question, doctor. My parents and grandparents are coming over for my graduation ceremoney next week. What are the possibilities for them to get infected with my virus?”

“Hmm, it’s hard to say. But definitely possible.”

“Should I postpone my ceremony? Because I worry about the elderly’s health. Their antibody is not that good anymore.”

“Yes. You have a good point. Please discuss this with your parents. Ultimate decision is up to you”

He SHOOK hand with me before I go. I asked him “by the way, why aren’t you wearing any mask?”

“H1N1 has become too common. You can’t avoid it. It’s just a normal flu anyway.”

I looked at him, amazed. “oohhh…..”

That few lines of conversation costs me almost RM200. I am considering switching course to doctor..

Mum gone crazy (Saturday 08/08)

“AH ZAI!!! DADDY SAID YOU GOT H1N1!!! OMG!!!! I COME FIND YOU NOW!!!!”

“Whoa relax, mum! I am feeling okay. Seriously! It’s like normal fever only. Plus, the worse period had just past. I am recovering now. Doctor gave me medicines too. Don’t too panic bah.”

“Are you going to die?“

“NO!!“

Friend came over that night and we played some drinking game. Sha says I am irresponsible, which is true. /shoot myself. I take extra precautious through out the night, though. I use seperate dining utensils for myself, no sneezing in front of them, and wash my hand every 30 minutes or so. Stick to doctor’s advice at 100% rate.

Best Weekend Ever (Sunday 09/08)

Chuan cleaned the whole house. I sit in front computer play World of Warcraft. Friends didn’t ask me out because I bring disease. Even if they did, I have good reason to refuse them. Brilliant! Eat two brocolli and fruits only though.. ughh.. but I am definitely feeling better.

My mum still panic though. She called more than 20 times. “ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?”

Road to recovery (Monday 10/08)

I am definitely feeling alot better compare to past few days. I had to call up hotels and car rentals to cancel off my reservations. Lost AUD$210. Pfft. The saddest part is, I am unable to meet my parents and grandparents and I missed them so much =\ I planned up a 10 days trip around Gold Coast and Brisbane for the elderly, too bad I had to call it off. I don’t want the worst case scenario to happen. I had to make this decision.

Uni gave me permission to postpone my graduation to December.

Almost there (Tuesday 11/08)

Some friends heard that I was sick, and they called.

“Helloh.. handsome speaking!!”

“Ui. I thought you were sick. How come you sounds so healthy?”

“Doctor says I got big balls wa.. so I recover quickly loh..”

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I even went to play golf in the evening. Full swing bebeh! Can challenge Tiger Woods anytime.

Fully healed! (Wednesday 12/08)

I’ve been jumping around since I wake up. Now Chuan shows sign of getting the virus.. hmm… my turn to look after him. Pity boy.

Ok boys and girls. My phone is ready for your call, anytime

Update 18 August 2009:
I am fully recovered. You won’t get H1N1 from me even if you slept with me (I would love girls to experiment with me, though). I’ve been celebrating with beers since last week.

H1N1 is only a normal flu with exaggeration name.

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