If All Summers Were Like This…

Yeah, if only. Unfortunately for us, we’re gonna be stuck, baking in Dubai, for this entire summer. So here’s something from our holidays last year – a hot summer’s day in Europe, the day we arrived in Munich, Germany from Dubai.


Kids frolicking in the fountain at Frauenplatz, Munich, Germany


Street café, Frauenplatz – no, I’m not posting pictures of Munich’s famous twin tower church, Frauenkirche which overlooks this square. What, with all that scaffolding covering one of the towers?!?


The fountain at Karlsplatz, Munich


The Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) at Munich’s main square, Marienplatz – the green balconies in the middle of the tower is the famous Glockenspiel, something like a musical clock with animated figurines that played at certain hours – no, didn’t watch it, don’t even know when it’ll play…


Café inside the Neues Rathaus, München




Views of Marienplatz, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Munich (or München in German) is quite a nice city. I remember it from my backpacking trip in 1994 in my student days. (It was like my second favourite city of our 1 month long Europe trip then, after Prague). And I remember how spell-bound I was with Neuschwanstein Castle in nearby Füssen. So, here I come again, Bavaria, with the wife and kids in tow this time.

I was pretty sure it’d be nice, IF …the darn European weather was kind to us. No, don’t get me wrong. The day we arrived in Munich, the weather was beautiful. It was hot and sunny, and our hotel room which was right on the top floor, had no air-con, nor fans (air-cons and fans don’t exist in this part of Europe, they’re for the people in the tropics, OK?) The hotel manager said that Munich gets only about a week of hot summer weather in a year, (…maybe she hadn’t heard of global warming), and asked us to open the windows to sleep. (Imagine going to Germany to experience Malaysia!)

So there we were, in the room with this amazing window. After twisting and turning it a bit, we managed to open it, …one corner of it anyway (and I thought I friggin broke it! What lousy windows they make in Europe I was wondering then, and I thought the Germans were technologically superior… This one must be made in China). One corner was better than nothing anyway, and we slept in our sweat, listening to a group of drunk boys outside, in the park beside our hotel, challenging each other to fights, in English of various European accents, till the friggin sun rose! I made sure we closed the window nicely before leaving the room (hell, made in China or not, this is Germany, …how much do you think they’d charge us if they found out that we’d broken their lousy window??) I found out not too long after that (in another hotel) that windows like these are the norm in Europe (the German parts which we visited anyway), and they’re not friggin broken. They’re made to open horizontally, like a door, and also if you choose, to open vertically, like an air vent - what a marvel! Don’t remember coming across these in 1994! (They’re called Tilt & Turn Windows by the way). …This brush with technology early in our trip was a blessing looking back, because all the other places we visited later had the same window or glass balcony door design like this, and by then it was a piece of cake for yours truly, ahem.

We left Munich after one day. Why? Because when I planned the hotel bookings, the weather forecast said that Germany and the entire friggin area around this part of the world would be blanketed with clouds and thunderstorms. That was to include the first day of our arrival in Munich, which turned out to be quite the opposite. The last day of our trip which we would also be spending in Munich, was forecasted to be beautiful, and it turned out to be a brilliant day, of heavy rain and clouds! See what we did then here.

Anyway, we spent about 5 days of our trip in Germany and we had ONE beautiful hot summer’s day, and FOUR miserable wet and gloomy days! So, thank you very much, oh great weather of Europe, for making our trip such a memorable affair. I officially hate you now. I hope you’ll be better the next time we visit… Can’t wait for that to happen actually.

Here’re more photos of Munich till that happens.


Munich International Airport


A street musician playing a beautiful tune on a cimbalom (I googled it, OK? Thought it was a harpsichord, but harpsichords have keyboards, this one doesn’t)


The streets of Munich – Sendlinger Strasse (Street)


Anu at the Sendlinger Tor, Munich


Asamkirche (Asam Church) – no it’s got nothing to do with the Assam State of India, Asam is actually the family name of the owners / builders of this private church. It’s small, but the details are simply astounding


The exterior of the Asamkirche, on Sendlinger Street


The Neues Rathaus at dusk, with the Frauenkirche (the twin-towered church) in the background, Munich


The Hofbräuhaus – How can a visit to Munich not include a beer hall? The Hofbräuhaus is I think, the most famous of the lot, but nope, we didn’t try the beer here (too darn crowded). We skipped over to the place below to try out Bavaria’s famous beer and pork knuckle, hehe


Pork knuckle (Schweinshaxn) at Haxnbauer, Munich – eating with the kids was near impossible. First, there was the jet lag, and Justin and Jayden were both sleepy. Second, the place was crowded and service wasn’t what you’d get in Asia (this is Europe, OK? Live with it). Third, the place was stifling hot and stuffy – these Germans, despite being so technologically advanced, dunno nuts about the trusty air-con and the humble fan. Pity them. And us. Gotta take turns carrying the little one, so that we could eat. And Justin ended up eating only a few mouthfuls before he fell sound asleep in the noisy, stuffy restaurant. Well done, Justin!

And here’re more pork knuckle adventures in Munich, if you’ve not had enough.

Friends in the Past, Dubai

Hmm… still reminiscing about the past, and about friends long unseen, so here’s more of the people in our lives back when Justin was a wee baby, and before. Another tribute to the people in our lives.


Manjeet, wife of my Malaysian work colleague Ajit, and their 3 children, plus Aunt Helen and little new born Justin. Manjeet used to visit us and give little Justin baby massages, Indian-style. Wanna see how their youngest daughter Ravneet, has changed thru the years? Check out this post


Manjeet and Ajit, at the Mercato Mall, Dubai


Connie, wife of Bill Wong, another of my Malaysian colleague. Connie was a god-sent during the first month after Justin’s birth. She visited almost daily, gave us herbs and ginger wine, made Chinese herbal tea for Anu, helped prepare confinement meals and generally helped Aunt Helen out. What? You think Auntie Helen could do so much by herself, after err izit…10+ years of not looking after new born babies and their moms?!? Connie even called up her own mom in Malaysia for advice on confinement practices! What a friend!


Helen and Connie, at the Carrefour Hypermarket, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai

More work colleagues…


Ramasamy Kailasan, another Malaysian colleague in Dubai, at Dubai Festival City, 2008


With Indian colleague, Navab and Chinese colleague, Han Guang, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dubai during our Company’s Annual Dinner in 2010 – Notice the mark that bloody shingles left on my forehead? Just recovered from it.


With Pakistani colleague and friend, Rana Sharafat Ali, who would occasionally call me up just to find out how I was, even when I was working in India!


Anu with some Chinese colleagues at the Al Mamzar Beach Park, 2008 – Hu Yiming is the one on the right, and umm… I forgot the one on the left, sorry


Project Manager aka Boss aka Papaji, Donald Wong, the maverick Malaysian Senior Project Manager of the project I was working in Dubai (…but I think this photo was from an earlier time, during our short working stint together in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, 2007)


Livia (left), Ching (middle) and Anu at the Creek, Bur Dubai, on a really dusty day, 2008 – Livia and Ching were my Malaysian colleagues in Mumbai in 2007

Mosque of the Indian Captain

Masjid Kapitan Keling, Penang, Malaysia

Here’s a short post for Raya. Wishing all my Muslim friends a Happy Aidilfitri! Selamat Hari Raya! Eid Mubarak!

Unlike Malaysia, here in the UAE, we’re still waiting for the experts to try to see the moon tonight to decide whether Eid Al-Fitr will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Our company has already, in advance, decided it’ll be on Wed, 6 July, and if it falls tomorrow, …well hard luck company, we get an extra day off! Don’t blame us, blame the moon!

OK, I’m gonna put some photos of a mosque here to match my Raya posting. Here’s the Masjid Kapitan Keling, of Penang. In English, it’ll literally be the Mosque of the Indian Captain, since Kapitan means Captain, and Malaysians have been calling Indians ‘Keling’ for ages. I think it’s from the ancient name of India, Kalinga. Malaya (or Malacca) used to be a bustling maritime trade centre in the past due to it being located halfway between China and India, and used to have people from India, China, Arabia, etc stopping by for trading. The Indian leaders were called Kapitan Keling, while the Chinese leaders were known as Kapitan Cina.


Another view of the Masjid Kapitan Keling, Penang


OK, here’s a nicer photo of the mosque taken from the web (this marks a first for me, first time I’ve ‘borrowed’ a photo from the internet) – compliments of virginmojito.wordpress.com. I hope the photographer doesn’t mind

Our Circle of Friends 2015

Chinese Hotpot Lunch in Dubai (JBR) with Malaysian friends Kok Wah, Kathy and their family. Kok Wah and Kathy were my UK university mates in 1995. Kok Wah was also working in Dubai during my first stint here, in 2008 – 2010. They came for a short family tour of Dubai! …And I thought the UAE isn’t really on the tourist list of Malaysians, what do I know?!

People are important in our lives. When I first started blogging, I seldom blogged about people, seldom posted pictures of people. The posts then were mostly about the places I visited, and about the strange and interesting things I saw.

As time progressed, I realized that, ‘Hey, things actually last a lot longer than people!’ (…Except when ISIS is involved. With ISIS, nothing lasts, not buildings, not people). The people in your life changes, you move away, they move away, they go to the world beyond, etc and we don’t get to see them ever again. So I started capturing the photos of the people in our lives. Or at least I tried to. (It can be awkward, OK? ...How do you go from say, discussing politics, to suddenly ask, ‘hey, can I take a photo?’ Won’t the person you’re talking to think you’re some kind of a pervert, or something?? Maybe they’d understand if you’re a selfie-junkie, but I’m not! And besides, when you’re busy catching up with friends or family, would you like think of pulling out the friggin camera or phone?) Luckily, there’s Facebook, and social media nowadays, or we’d probably not have known where many of our past school friends have gone!

Anyway, here’re some moments we had with friends and acquaintances in Dubai in 2015. We don’t really have friends here in Dubai. Heck, we don’t really have friends anymore period. Somehow or other, our friends evaporated (or it’s more like WE evaporated from the friend scene after having our own family!) Now, our whole time is dedicated to our lovely family, not that I have any complaints with that. Worse, I’m actually happy! But I have to admit, once in a while, some friend comes along and makes the world such a nice place to be in. What’s life without the special people in it? And therefore, here’s a toast to the people in our lives in 2015! (The ones I managed to photograph, anyway.) And 2016? Oh, that’d have to wait, …till 2017 I guess. I’ve not sorted out the friggin photos, OK?

Our friends nowadays seem to revolve around our kids’ activities, school functions, birthday parties, etc. Yup, that’s life, I guess, after you start a family, especially if you’re friggin working overseas, by yourself…


Justin’s kindergarten (FS2) classmate Miriam with her parents, on her 5th birthday, at Uptown Mirdif Park. Talk about a small world – Miriam’s father turned out to be the owner of the apartment we finally bought, after looking at err… ten, maybe more apartments. The strange thing is that I found out only when we started chatting at the land office, while waiting to sign the transfer of ownership papers! And this was after we met at Miriam’s birthday party. No wonder I found him to be kinda familiar looking! Miriam’s father is Iranian with a Person of Indian Origin card, while her mother is Kenyan, of Yemeni Arab descent. Miriam's Kenyan. That’s what you call the Dubai-mix.


The kids at Miriam’s birthday party – there’re a few Justin’s classmates here, but I only know Pyper (the little blond girl on the left in the Eiffel Tower T-shirt, she's American), Sunichi (the little boy in green beside Justin, then Justin’s best friend, he's Japanese) and Nidhi (I think! …the little girl in black on the extreme right, from India)


Lamiha’s birthday party, another of Justin’s kindergarten classmate, who is British of Pakistani or Indian descent, at Mirdif City Centre


Justin’s FS2 (kindergarten) End of Year Concert at the Royal Dubai School


A farewell to Amy (left), Justin’s kindergarten school mate, and daughter of Dong Weihong my work colleague. She was to continue her studies in China, staying with her grandparents, while her parents would stay put in Dubai. The girl on the right is Mifi, daughter of another of my work colleagues, Song Lichun. She’s now also going to the same school as Justin, and taking the same school bus. She’s one year Justin’s junior


Halloween Party at Emma’s house – Emma (little girl in the middle) is Justin’s Year 1 classmate. She’s also of mixed descent, father’s Scottish (or is it English??) and mother’s Lebanese. Unfortunately, this is the only close-to-decent photo I have of the party …hey, you think it’s easy to take photos of constantly moving 5 year olds with a compact camera??! The little devil on the right is Varshana, Justin’s fellow Malaysian classmate, while Justin’s the scary spectre on the left.


Justin and Emma on UAE’s National Day celebrations 2015 at his school – photo compliments of Justin’s school class blog


Justin’s Year 1 Teacher, Ms Vanessa Gray, dressed as a Victorian school marm, in line with the Now & Then Topic that was being taught at that time – another photo taken from Justin’s school class blog


Justin and Juju (I think), his classmate from the UAE, at the start of Year 1, compliments of the school class blog


Aria’s birthday party, one of Justin’s Year 1 classmate, from India


Justin and Leah, an Ethiopian classmate at Magic Planet, Mirdif City Centre


Celebrating Justin’s 6th birthday at home with our Chinese friends / colleagues. From left, Dong Weihong, Li Lei (Dong Weihong’s wife), Jia Weimin’s wife (honestly, I dunno her name!), and their son, who is about 4 months older than Jayden


The Pink Sikhs – our neighbour for a month. Our next door apartment is something like a holiday apartment. The husband who has been working in Dubai for err… more than 10 years finally decided to bring his wife over from India for a one month visit. The wife, being lonely started talking with Anu, and that’s how we ended up with this photo


Finally, church friends – a photo with a Filipino family. Their younger daughter is about the same age as Jayden, she’s a few months younger, I think

Goodbye Mom

Leaving a small tribute here in the memory of my step-mom, my Ah Ee, my mother for 28 years of my life, who went back to be with the Lord on the 9th of June…

You came, you left, you leave behind a sea of sadness, but so much memories of hope & joy.
As sudden as you came into our lives, more sudden it was when you went away.
You are now with the Lord. May you now have the peace that you desired & so deserve.
Your world now is the world of eternal comfort and peace and everything nice.
RIP Mom, till we meet again someday…

Mom left us suddenly on the night of the 9th of June, 2016. She had Stage-4 lung cancer, but it wasn’t exactly cancer that took her away from us. I don’t know the exact cause, but I suspect it to be a combination of diabetes and the potent side effects of the cancer drug that she was taking.

On Thursday, 9th June, morning I received a whatsapp message from Dad saying that they had admitted mom into the ICU of the local specialist centre in Butterworth. She was breathless, and her blood pressure had risen to 214. Her blood sugar was also high.

By the afternoon, everything had stabilized, and her chest x-ray actually showed that the cancer in her lungs had abated!! Ultrasound results were also good! A while later, another message came saying that mom’s kidneys aren’t working and that a dialysis would have to be done. About an hour later, I saw a lot of missed calls on my phone (was charging the phone on the laptop), and finally the whatsapp message bearing the bad news.

Only the doctors were with her at that time. Dad, sis Hazel and Su the maid had momentarily left the hospital, having been told to return in 4 hours’ time as dialysis would have taken that much time. They went for dinner, and had just reached home when they received a call from the hospital. This was after only about an hour from when they left the hospital. By the time they got back to the hospital, mom was gone. Doctor said her heart failed. It was that sudden. Nothing of what anyone expected. Only 2 months back, mom was looking fine. We watched a movie together (Zootopia) and even had dinner in Penang. Still can’t believe that she’s gone, so soon.


Our last outing with mom, Penang, April 2016

Thanks Mom, for coming into our lives. For accepting us as your children. For accepting our family as your family, our children as your grandchildren. Thank you for accepting our father, a widower with 3 children as your husband. For loving him, helping him, and taking care of him so thoroughly. Thank you for giving us a sister, and nurturing her to be the wonderful person she is now. Thank you for the discreet acts of love that you showered onto us, never talking about it nor asking even once for recognition. Without you we would not have done many things, might never have had the chance to further our studies overseas. You gave us that valuable gift.

I’m sorry not to have known you better. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to return the kindness you’d given us. You are a deeply misunderstood person. To some, you are proud and unfriendly, unsmiling and insensitive. But they’ve not seen your jovial side, nor your kind side. They’ve not known the things you’ve done, always done subtly, without fanfare. To me, your actions speak louder than words, and I thank you for everything that you’ve done for us.

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, maybe God did answer our prayers and took you home, without letting you suffer the deadly effects of cancer. One last time, Mom, goodbye.

Here are some photos of the wake and funeral for remembrance's sake…






Mom’s last time in her beloved Butterworth House


Makeshift kitchen & tents – One good thing about Malaysia, you can close up the road and use part of the park for a function like this, without needing a permit. Just an understanding from the neighbours is all that’s needed. (We blocked 5 houses’ entrances for 3 days). Thank God for giving us such understanding and accommodating neighbours. If all Malaysians can be like this, it’d be paradise


The church service at our home…


Bidding our last farewell to Mom




At the crematorium, with Pastor Bernard on the right

Family and friends have been a pillar of strength for us throughout the few days of mourning. Thanks everyone for your kind wishes and support… Here’re some photos of family we seldom see.


Family of my cousin sister, Ah Yee (she’s my natural mother’s brother’s daughter), taking a photo with Stacey, Jason’s daughter (left)


Tua-Kor (Big Aunt), with cousin brother Kok Seng, and wife


Tua-Kor’s other son, Kok Leong, and family


Dad’s younger brother, Seihan-Chik and Seihan-Chim from Singapore


Mom’s elder brother (right), and elder sister and her husband (left)


In laughter and in tears – mom’s former long-time maid, Nanik (left), and Sukate (Su), her current temporary maid


In happier times – a family picture outside our Butterworth House, Jan 2015