With 2463 new Covid cases reported yesterday, it looks like Chinese New Year 2022 is going to be quiet one.
Like most of us, I associate Chinese New Year with family. Growing up, besides my dad, mum and brother, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother and my aunts, uncles and cousins, a number of whom I lived with, from the first home I remember - the 2nd floor of a little shophouse in Rangoon Road - to the wonder of high-rise living when we moved into what was then known as Bedok *New* Town. Visits to cousins and aunties' homes as a kid were also regular, but still adventures that were very much looked forward to.
Even after my family got our own home, the extended family continued to meet regularly, not just Chinese New Year, but also, like, generally celebrating June, because a lot of us happen to have our birthdays in that month! We'd sit and talk, share old stories and new ones. I don't know if I'm going to get to see my big extended family this year - so I thought I'd write down my favourite childhood memories (hazy as they may be) as a tribute to each of them :)
My maternal grandmother was an ever-present in my early childhood. She couldn't read or write, and she could only speak Teochew. She often joked about my rudimentary Teochew, but honestly I did understand her - well, most of the time :D I thought my grandmother looked after me like a prince. She would visit me almost everyday in primary school at recess time, chatting with the school staff and other grandparents while waiting for me. She'd usually bring a tiffin carrier of some food or other, though I remember most vividly this prawn noodle soup with small sliced prawns she used to bring, and the salty fried chicken wings she'd buy from the school tuckshop.
At home, she was a disciplinarian. She used to sleep on the floor in the hall, so there was basically no way to sneak around the flat without running into her! I have distinct memories of being locked into the storeroom, or perversely, locked *out* of the flat, desperately grabbing chair, sofa and table legs along the way, and left outside until I was really sorry for whatever it was that I'd done wrong :P She was fearless around cockroaches and lizards, and once showed me how to wrench the head off a cockroach, roast the rest of it and eat it. Apparently the head is bitter. I dunno if she was pulling my leg. I refused to eat it, but couldn't help but look on in ghastly fascination!
I can tell I'm going on too long. I've so many more memories!
So, on to my Auntie Big, my mum's eldest sibling, her husband Uncle Big, and my cousins K and K. It might sound somewhat ordinary, but, my most vivid memory of my Auntie Big was visiting her and my cousins at their home. The lift that didn't have a 13th floor, but labelled it 12N or something, because 13 is unlucky? The refrigerator that dispensed ice and cold water. WHAT? Mind. Blown. The milk. Oh, the milk. I had milk before, but it was always powdered milk, like KLIM. The first time I drank Magnolia fresh milk at their house. Oh. My. Gosh. The creaminess.
The staircase to the 2nd floor where my cousins and I would run up and slide down endlessly. My elder cousin K's Trixie Belden books in the bookcase on the staircase landing. Girls' mystery books, but who cares, I was entranced by the huge book collection. My other cousin K's Apple II!!! And waking up early to play Ultima IV while it was still dark to complete that epochal game. Then as we all grew up, Auntie Big continued to be the one who would round us all up to make sure we continued to meet as a big family. So - thanks Auntie and Uncle Big and my cousins K & K, for being our glue, and letting your house be my childhood amusement park :D
I have to get more succinct! Otherwise this blog will go on forever!
My Auntie Two and Uncle P, and my cousin P. I distinctly remember my Auntie Two always had immaculately decorated homes, seemingly perpetually in showflat condition - so definitely not for sliding up and down :D
But P would come over to my grandmother's flat quite often, and together with my younger brother, we'd play volleyballoon-ey, sort of like volleyball (except with a balloon of course), climb on the cupboards and feed the pigeons, hold ourselves up by our arms on the cabinets and see who would give up first, make up superheroes like Lightning Boy or whatever, fight a lot (of course, that's what happens when you put so many boys together) and generally break assorted stuff (ok the destruction in this picture is an exaggeration but probably not by much hahaha!), never a dull moment. I remember always feeling sad when it was time for him to go home! So, thanks Auntie Two and Uncle P for allowing cousin P to be a big part of my childhood!
My Auntie Three and Uncle T. They really spoiled us. My Uncle T had an Atari. Yep. An Atari. A kid's wildest dream. We went to their home for sleepovers, playing endless games of Missile Command, Pitfall and Pacman, with soft boiled eggs drenched with black sauce for supper and breakfast.
Once, I fell down at school and scraped my knee pretty badly. Worse, the gauze was badly applied, so when my mum tried to change the dressing, it was completely gummed up with the blood and pus, and she had to peel it off excruciating millimeter by millimeter. I remember my Auntie Three sitting next to me holding my hand with tears in her eyes. I was so exhausted when it was finally scraped off, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I saw this huge toy box next to me - it was freaking Castle Grayskull from the He-Man toy line. She'd actually gone to buy the thing to cheer me up. Sigh. Thanks Auntie Three and Uncle T for being awesome.
My Auntie Four and Auntie Small. They come together as a pair because they actually lived with my grandmother and my family in the Bedok flat when I was growing up as a kid. In my memory, my Auntie Four looked after me a lot too, and was pretty much an ever-present especially in my younger days. Some of the "locked in the storeroom" and "thrown outside the flat" episodes with my grandmother definitely involved her too hahaha! She was also the best in Chinese at home, so she was my best shot when I didn't understand my Chinese homework.
My Auntie Small spent more time at work in a law firm, and was an invaluable assistant to some of the biggest lawyers in Singapore. I guess because of her work, she was always smartly dressed! I ended up being a lawyer, and though I'll never know for sure if watching her work caused me to go down that route too, I'm pretty sure it was a significant influence. So, thanks Auntie Four and Auntie Small, for your love, and being part of the everyday fabric that made me who I am today.
My Uncle S and his wife Auntie A and cousin A, and later, Auntie W. They lived with us in that crowded flat too! But you know, looking back, I never felt that the place was crowded. It felt just right. Uncle S was the coolest person in the flat. When we played badminton in the hall and accidentally hit the shuttlecock right out of the window onto the ledge outside, he'd fearlessly climb right out through the grilles and rescue the shuttlecock. Looking back now, I can't believe we let him do that. The parapet literally had no wall, and it was a long way down!
He also had a record player table in his room, and he'd let us go in and patiently listen to crackly Anne Murray records, singing about animals in her soup over and over again. When little cousin A came along, we'd play with her, protect her when things got too boisterous, what with all of us being bigger boys, but still occasionally end up in fights over spilled Milo! Thanks Uncle S and family, for being the cool ones :)
And these were just my grandmother, aunts and uncles. As for my parents and my brother, even more memories of course, so I really have to just pick 1 or 2 each. My dad, making up hilarious and convoluted bedtime stories about Duckula as he lay on the mattress with me, when I was terrified after watching Christopher Lee in Dracula (seriously though what were you guys thinking, letting me watch that. I slept with my bolster covering my neck for months thereafter :D).
Telling me story after story of his own kampung youth, stealing sugarcane, commandeering boats for clandestine fishing trips, and even swiping door hinges (to sell the copper!). And boy did my dad make sure we ate well, whether it was birthday dinners at the Ship with my favourite spring chicken, or bags of durians (he's still showing me today how to pick and open them).
My mum, bringing me to bookshop after bookshop (especially at what was essentially Book Heaven in Centrepoint, with the huge MPH and Times opposite each other) just to let me read, and always playing the Reader's Digest Word Power Challenge with me (I just got her started on Wordle. She already beat me on her second day).
When she saw me trying to be the big boy as the older sibling, looking longingly at games and toys and holding back from fun stuff, she'd tell me - you're only a kid once, go ahead, who cares what others think. At my younger brother's birthday celebration, she told me - go sit the carousel! At Christmas, she said, ask for toys, go for it! And she'd fetch me everywhere I needed to go, from school to outings to Changi jetty to book in, no questions asked.
My brother W, with whom we'd draw comics (he was better, so mostly he came up with the ideas, and I'd read them!), cheer on Liverpool and for some reason, Sheffield Wednesday, and play endless games of Superstar Soccer, Championship Manager and Lakers v Celtics when we finally got our own computer. He got so much better than me, I used to just sit behind him and give him colour commentary as he played.
I always wanted to be the one to buy him the best Christmas present. So one Christmas, I remember I decided to shell out the money to buy him Rhino, the big transformable Mask truck. My Auntie Three (yeah it's hard to compete with her) bought him Switchblade, the big transformable Mask helicopter, and I spent half of Christmas trying to convince him (and myself) that the truck I bought him was better than the helicopter :D
So to my big and wonderful family, I don't know if I'll get to see much of you this Chinese New Year. But this is my Chinese New Year greeting to you, so full of love and warm memories and blessing, that as I try to explain to my wife what I'm blogging about this week, my voice catches with emotion, and a little tear.
You all know me, I'm still that quiet and (slightly?) weird and awkward boy inside, and I'm a little better at writing than saying stuff in person, so I hope this goes over well. God bless you with a wonderful Chinese New Year, and all our love from my family to yours :)
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-25
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