A few days over four years ago, my dear Yeh Yeh embarked on the second (and the best) chapter of his life - to enjoy a life of eternal joy and peace in heaven. And to celebrate the great man that he was, his children, children-in-law and grandchildren got together to do what Malaysians do best at every special occassion: eat.
Since i was too busy tucking in (when you're eating with my family, you better be fast... because the slowest of em' all ends up with nothing on their plate!) after a tiring day of visiting my departed loved ones and inspecting a new house, i thought i'd hand the photographer duty over to my five-year-old cousin.
Anti-clockwise from top right: if you can't tell from the obvious hints, we went to a Chinese restaurant (that provides tissue bought from Tesco) for dinner, had steamed fish amongst other Chinese dishes and washed it all down with soft drinks and red wine. And the picture on the bottom right? A self-taken picture of the photographer. So young and already a camtoddler, oh what has the world turned into?
When a few of the teenage cousins were busy playing with their phones at the table...
Me: Look at the young ones these days, always with their phones.
Esa: When we were their age, we only had toys! And had to eat quietly.
Nick: When has our family EVER shared a meal quietly?
All three: [laugh]
Come to think of it, it's true. The rule of not talking while eating certainly doesn't apply in this clan. My family runs on chaos and noise! Some of the wacky things that have happened at dining tables across Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya include dipping lollipops into a concoction of Coke and Sprite before popping em into mouths, pants unknowingly dropping to knee level and revealing the wearer's panties, an onion slice flying from the inside of one mouth onto the plate of another, and daring each other to consume fish's eyes for RM10. Crazy? That's how we roll.
