Mummy's Story

Mummy was born on New Year's eve in 1939.

She was born to a Chinese Teochew family at Jansen Road. Being superstitious, her birth parents had consulted a geomancer who foretold that her birth was not auspicious. They had actually wanted a baby boy. So a few days after she was born, her birth mother appeared at the doorstep of the Fernandos with the newborn baby in her arms. Her birth mother asked Mama if she would like a baby.

Bapa (our grandpa) was a compassionate man and despite objections initially from Mama (our grandma)  as they already had 2 children, decided they would adopt her. They named her Mayawathi Matinwala Fernando Radage.

Mummy was truly blessed as it turned out that they loved her so much. In fact, Mummy was Bapa's favourite and he pampered her all the time. She was the boss at home! She never had to lift a finger, not even to clear her plate after eating. She had a good life.

Mummy as a little girl

A family gathering to celebrate possibly Mama and Bapa's anniversary. Mummy, Daddy, my brother and I are in the photo. Daddy is next to Uncle Lloyd, Patricia Brampy's father, Mummy's brother-in-law.

A large family gathering

She had a very close relationship with her adopted family and to her, they were her real family. Many years later, when her birth mother wanted to meet her, Mummy refused. 

When we were young, Mummy regularly brought us to visit Bapa and Mama. Chi Chi (Mummy's sister Vimila) was always there and she made the best milk tea! Their house in Selatar Hills at 12 Jalan Ketumbit was a single storey terrace house. We would take bus 103 and I remember it being a long bus ride to get there. Bapa was often seen sitting at the front of the house in his favourite chair.

Aunty Vimala

Mummy with her brother, Uncle Pema

Bapa used to sit in one of these chairs in his front yard. My aunt Vimala had them all these years and recently gave them to my brother who had them restored.

This was a pair of pedastals given to Mama and Bapa when they got married. I have one which had been damaged during the war. It has since been repaired. My sister now has the other one. 

Uncle Pema was still studying then when we used to visit. He would be in his white school uniform as he studied at Raffles Institution. In fact, Daddy also studied there, although he had to skip a few years because of the war.

Mummy was fifteen when she met Daddy. Daddy used to go to Uncle George and Auntie Marian's house to play mahjong and Mummy lived close by (just across the field from their house) and was friends with them as well. 

As Bapa worked for the Harbour Board, the family used to live around the Keppel area. Daddy lived in Radin Mas then and he used to cycle to her house to see her. Another place they frequently met was Tanjong Pagar railway station.

Their engagement photo

When Daddy wanted to marry Mummy, he went to her parents' home at 39 Breeze Road (*) to ask for their permission. It's not very clear if it was Daddy's first or second brother who accompanied him. Most probably it was Ji Pek who went with him.

Apart from Jansen Road, Mummy also lived in 19A Pillai Road along Paya Lebar Rd.Perhaps from there, they moved to Seletar Hills, still staying around the Northeastern part of Singapore.

In those days, marriage announcements had to be gazetted and made a public record. Mummy and Daddy were married on 27 Apr 1957. Mummy was 17 and Daddy 22. (Daddy passed away on 26 Apr 2015, just a day shy of their 58th anniversary). The marriage was witnessed by Tua Pek (Lim Boon Hong) and Uncle George (Goh Kim Teck), his best friend. Unfortunately, Uncle George passed away at age 39 from brain cancer. During that time, we lived in the same block at Mei Ling Street. Uncle George came over to our flat quite often.

Mummy and Daddy's marriage cert that Daddy had kept till the day he died

Mummy used to have long hair which she cut short when she got married.

Sometime in 1996, just before Jun Wen was born, Wing brought Mummy to Ceylon to visit her father's grave. It had always been Mummy's wish to go there as her father's ashes were buried in his family's land there. They visited Bapa's brother who still lived there.

This photo was taken at our flat at Bukit Merah. Bapa's brother visited Singapore and came to visit us.

Mama is wearing a white sari. After Bapa passed away, she only wore white.

Mummy's adopted family was all she cared about. We were always accepted and loved and neither she nor we ever questioned her past. Because it did not matter. They were family. 

She was Mayawathi M.R. Fernando and I am Isabella Mayawathi Fernando Lim, my mother's daughter. Her history lives on.

* Breeze Road was in Kampong Bahru and the area there has since been demolished and redeveloped.

Kong Kong's Quilts

Daddy loved batik shirts. So over the years, I had bought him quite a few, especially for Chinese New Year.

It's almost 2 years since he passed away. As always, I try to find ways to keep his (and mummy's) memory alive. And then I had the idea that we should make his old shirts into a quilt. This idea came about from his love of children. When he had dreams, it would sometimes be about children and blankets.

He loved his grandchildren so it was a no-brainer that the quilts should be made for them, hopefully for them to use when they have their own children. To me, that would be the perfect way for the future generations to have something of his, and to feel his warmth which he had given to his grandchildren.

The idea of a small quilt also came about because when my boys were babies, I had bought a couple of small quilts which I used to lay on the floor so they could play on them. As a first-time mum, I was very particular about hygiene and carried the quilt when we went out visiting. They came in very handy when travelling on planes too. And I still have the blue one today.

Whilst I had wanted to add a personal touch and sew the quilts for Daddy myself, unfortunately, I doubted my sewing skills. I had not sewn for years. The last time I used a sewing machine was probably in school! I searched for and watched online videos on how to make quilts. I looked at patterns and thought about the tools I needed. In my mind, his shirts would be cut into small hexagonal pieces and stitched together, like our old neighbour at Bukit Merah did. But that would have taken me years....

Then my siblings and I went to Guangzhou last November (read my previous post). We thought it would be a good idea to try to get the quilts made there. So we took his batik shirts with us during the trip. We found a shop that could sew the quilts but they could not be made in time for us to bring them back. A good friend offered to bring them back when she visited Guangzhou the next time around.

I had been waiting anxiously for months ... and the quilts finally arrived!

I put them on my boys' beds and they look simply beautiful...

May we have our own grandchildren too and bestow on them the same warmth that their parents received from their grandfather.

Of Sunsets And Flowers

I had never realised that the sun could shift so much and that the effect would be so dramatic.

When we moved into our new place about 8 months ago, we did not get any sun in the balcony, nor in the boys' rooms. However, over a period of 8 months, the sun has shifted and our boys' room and the balcony are now very hot - we get both the morning and afternoon sun.

In the beginning, I used to get to see beautiful sunsets from the back of the apartment where my back yard was. I was so in awe of the breathtaking sunsets in the evening which I could see from my back yard.

The sun has now shifted so much that the sunset is now seen from my balcony in front of my apartment instead.

Isn't that amazing? The good thing is that we can now enjoy the sunset while having our dinner in our balcony.

I was never one with green fingers. And this proved all too true with a flowering plant we bought when we moved to our new place. All was fine in the beginning and the plant kept blooming and we had a rather long period when there were bright pink flowers.

However, a few months later, the leaves started dropping, flowers stopped blooming and the plant was practically bald. I noticed a lot of white powdery substance all around the leaves, the branches and even the flower pot. I consulted the nursery where I bought the plant and was told that it was fungus - very difficult to get rid of.

It was a rather expensive plant and I did not want to let it just wither away. So every morning, I would use a toothbrush and brush away the white fungus. I had to do this every morning for quite a while as the fungus was very stubborn and would keep coming back.

The other thing was that I had to move the plant so that it got direct sunlight.

With Chinese New Year round the corner, the plant was still rather bald. There was no red colour for good luck so I tied tiny red ribbons.

I am happy to report that now my plant is flowering again!

So perhaps I have green fingers after all.  Or was it the red ribbons I had tied that brought good luck?

Guangzhou Once More

The first time I visited Guangzhou must have been in the early 1990's, before I got married. Back then, I had to lead a global project team from the US and Brazil on a field trip so we were on the road a lot, visiting customers' homes.

Now after more than 20 years, I got to visit Guangzhou again. This time around, I travelled with my siblings and a couple friend of theirs. We were lucky enough to have Jean with us. Having lived in Guangzhou for 5 years, she was familiar with the area. She had everything planned for us. So there was no need to worry about transport or where to eat and shop. We went to places that only the locals would know, and that was really nice.

One of the things that struck me this trip was how clean Guangzhou was. When I first visited, we arrived at the airport and once outside, it was a sea of red dust. The moment we got outside, there were people surrounding us, offering to take us to our destination. I was in a group of about 8 pax so I happily accepted this guy who had a van. With my limited Cantonese, all I could say after the price had been agreed was "Hou la, hou la". My American colleague heard that and thought it was very funny, repeating "Hola, Hola!"

Guangzhou today is so modern, with all its impressive buildings. I was truly impressed with how the buildings in the business district were lit up at night.

 

    

Pollution, not surprisingly, was bad and from the hotel room, you couldn't see very far. So here's some photos of the view from my room. The first photo contrasts with the rest as it was taken off the internet, without the smog.

The other thing that struck me was the lack of the army of bicycles. Back then, bicycles was the most popular mode of transport and everywhere we went, the streets were filled with bicycles, especially during the rush hours.

I remember shopping at the Guangzhou Friendship store. It was the closest thing to a department store and there used to be lots of Chinese arts and crafts. Today, the Friendship store bears no resemblance to the store I first went to. Next to the Four Seasons Hotel, it's all swanky now. 

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One thing that has not changed and which I love is the tree lined streets. For a city that has grown so fast, with so many tall buildings everywhere, it was such a treat to still see so much green. And I just love how the old parts of the city are still intact, where the locals shop and eat.

And I just love looking at all the old buildings in the more residential areas. There's also the electric bus.

Guangzhou is so organised that there is a specific area for everything...pets, dried goods, antiques...For leather goods, it's like a whole city for it!

  

 

 

As mentioned, Guangzhou is now so clean, it's hard to believe you are in China. The market (atas one, of course) was so clean, even cleaner than the ones in Singapore.

Guangzhou is the food capital of China. Over our 5 days there, we ate non-stop, from simple congee and freshly made cheong fun to exotic village food to high tea at the Four Seasons Hotel. Price-wise, we paid anything from 90 yuan for breakfast for 6 pax to 1050 yuan for dim sum breakfast at White Swan Hotel. Can you imagine having steamed fish for 30 yuan? At the same time, we had high tea at the Four Seasons Hotel at about 52 yuan per pax. Eating as a local is extremely affordable but if you choose to live like an expat, be prepared to pay close to Singapore prices.

 

 

An interesting dinner we had was at a village restaurant. Tucked deep inside and with no signages to guide us, it was a secret that only locals know about. The food was simple but so good - very different from what we you'd normally get in restaurants. 

 

 

 

  

 

While walking along a small street, we saw a dessert shop where the owner ground the sesame seeds by hand. Something we had never seen before. And of course we had to try it out!

 

I had never known that there were little islands in Guangzhou. So it was a pleasant surprise that we went to the White Swan Hotel which was located on Shamian Island, overlooking the Pearl River and facing the White Swan Pool. The hotel is reached by its own private 635-meter causeway. The Hotel had been closed for 3 years for renovation and reopened in July 2015. Going to the island was like going back in time, with the majestic colonial buildings.

We had a lovely dim sum breakfast at the newly renovated luxurious hotel.  It was a pity that the pollution was so bad or we would have had a beautiful view of the Pearl River. 

 

 

Apart from all the eating, we did our usual shopping. Guangzhou is a good place to get curtains made as it's a fraction of the cost in Singapore. So that's what we did. We had brought my dad's shirts to be made into patchwork quilts for the grandchildren as a remembrance and I really hope they turn out well. Waiting anxiously for the finished product ...

We went with 3 luggage and returned with 9. Successful trip? You bet! Will I go back again? Very likely. Next time I know what to look for.  And we will need more than 5 days :) 

Oh and one last thing - must remember to bring toilet paper as not all toilets have toilet paper :( And not all have doors (still)!