4 + 1

Last night while i was sleeping, it suddenly dawn to me that now we have an additional member to our "what we do every friday" thing. Her presence and fellowship is throughly enjoyed by the existing fems and we have gone for some impromptu outings, dinners, lunches, karaokes and of course "what we do every friday" thing lah. !! Her initial is P for P........... So how to arrange P into fems ? Can it be FEMSP or PSMEF or ...... ( lets play scramble hehehe)... anyway, thanks to E that we have another kaki that shares almost the same interest like the rest of the fems and also "gila-gila".....

I would like to officially nominate P into "gang" and also invite P to participate in our blog as well. What say the rest of FEMS ?

Anyway, to P, if you are reading this blog..... welcome....!!

S

1 is good, 2 even better ....

Me seated, flanked by my 2 doting 'daughters' ...

I reckon I should be feeling on top of the world.

My eldest ‘daughter’, Abby, recently purchased 2 shops-lots in Bayu Perdana. She has done some renovations, taking the top 2 floors as offices for the businesses she is running, and is expecting to move into her new building within this month. My 2nd ‘daughter’ , Percy will be getting married next month. Its ‘s a dual celebration for my ‘family’, sort of double happiness!

I would be in euphoria land i.e. if I were truly their mother but as it is, sigh, …I am only their kaimah. (godmother). I suppose that’s better than no relationship at all. Both are good girls and I would be truly blessed if indeed they were the daughters I would never have. (come on, face it, even if I do get married tomorrow, at my age would I take the risk of having children? But let you in on a secret, I always pictured myself having sons, rather than daughters and had in fact decided on names for my boys, Damien, Ethan and Fabian.. D, E and F. And if got more, carry on from there … Gavin, Hayden, Ivan…., eh .. maximum 6 okay! Carry on dreaming…)

I don’t remember how it happened or when it happened but overnight, lo and behold, I became a godmother! I know for a fact though that they ‘adopted’ me rather than the other way around. What! You all think I pointed a knife at them and said “call me kaimah or you die?”

Both of them couldn’t be more different and yet both have their own virtues. (and faults, but who doesn’t?)

Abby’s the noisy one blessed with the gift of the gab. Like the Chinese saying, something about ‘bird also can be conned to come down from the tree’, that she can do. People are generally drawn to her as she has a ‘presence’ and it’s not just because of her height. She is strong in character and I know I need not worry about her because she’s quite capable of taking care of herself. Better than I can take care of myself even!

Percy’s much more reticent, a typical ‘goat.’ But she can be chatty when she’s with people she’s familiar with. She’s more sensitive and hurt more easily. I admit I don’t quite ‘approve’ of my future godson-in-law (shhhush…) and have for ages, been skeptical about his ability to take care of a wife the way a man should. Maybe I am being over-protective. I really hope my perception of him is wrong though and that my feelings for him stem from a personality clash rather than that he is ‘bad’.

Funny how I always figured that I was just a kaimah in name only. We did not go through any ceremony whereby I was expected to give them big angpows when they kneel to serve me tea. Wahhh .. picture that … “Yum char, Kaimah … ” Gaya…

They do in public, call me kaimah and I suppose many people wonder “apa sal ini kaimah so young?” (ahem!) Abby is 12 yrs my junior and Percy, 17. Most kaimahs I know are rich older ladies, or if they aren’t rich, maybe they are rich in wisdom, both of which I tak ada. I have told them from early on that upon my death, their total inheritance will amount to RM3200.00 each. That’s all, whoa!

In recent days, 2 separate incidents pointed out me that these ‘adoptions’ was less than a farce than I thought.

About a week ago, Abby took me to dinner. Her mother (i.e. her biological mother –la) happened to call and I overheard Abby telling her mum that she was dining with kaimah. That really stunned me as all along I thought I was 'kaimah' only within our group of friends. Abby nonchalantly told me her mum was aware she had a kaimah and I thought to myself “wow.! I didn’t know that.”

Last Saturday, Percy gave me a box of wedding cake (part of the dowry given by the groom). She told me last night that the cakes were only given to relatives and her sister had advised her that it was only right she gave me a box since I was 'part of the family’.

Both of these incidents touched me more than I would imagine. From here on, I better take my role of kaimah seriously. So help me God to be the kind of kaimah that my 2 girls deserve …

F

Mamma Mia Mania

Its seems like Mamma Mia Mania is hitting our shores! Both the movie and the musical seems to be the talk of the town this past month. I do like Abba songs when i was a teenager but i don't think that much about them now. That was why i wasn't willing to fork out a few hundred RM to buy the tickets for the Musical ,unlike some people ...wink wink!
And even when the movie hit the cinemas i still didn't feel the need to come out with the few Rm to buy the tickets!!! I didn't see the hype in it but it kept resounding in every conversation with every single group of my friends! Every where i turned , there was someone asking me if i saw that movie.
So finally i had the DVD in hand ,courtesy of Fong but even then i kept for almost a month before i stuck it into the player! I only did that cuz i thought it was way over due and i had better return that disc to her . I know its a popular one and everyone is probably asking for it.
So this Sunday afternoon i lay on the sofa , with legs propped up and a pillow or 2 as cushions for my head and opened a whole new Abba mania.
It is an entertaining movie, with a simple story line. Of course the songs are the best part of the movie. I had forgotten how catchy they are and how everyone can sing along and dance to them! there were a couple of songs that i don't even know ..... but i love the majority of them if not all!
I can understand now how some of my friends are ooooo-ing and ahhh-ing over this movie and some even watched it more than once!
I love the mum and daughter relationship in the movie ~ which brought tears to my eyes. If u know me and what i went thru this past month , u will understand. Out of the 3 men i like Pierce Brosnan the best.... of course , lah! As for the bride and groom , i didn't think they were all that good looking but towards the end i did like the groom better.
My fave songs for the show.... i think its Mamma Mia and Winner takes it all...... or maybe, Dancing Queen and Honey Honey...... but then again i like Super Trouper and Thank You for the Music......oh i forgot about SOS and Money ,Money ,Money!!! ..... heck, i think i like them ALL!!!!

E-bba!!!!

Upon this rock I will build my Church ...

It irks me sometimes when people ask if I am a Catholic or a Protestant.

Thinking it over I suppose they don’t know better. By ‘Catholic’, they are referring specifically to Roman Catholicism as opposed to “Protestant”, which is too ambiguous an expression; like asking if someone is a Malaysian or a creature of the earth.. (which covers both human and animals! Something like that-la.)

Do you know, we do not call ourselves Protestants? To me, I am just a ‘Christian.’ (of the Pentecostal denomination). Only those of the Roman Catholic Churches has a tendency to call Christians of other denominations Protestants. In other words, Protestantism is often a general term merely to signify that one is not a Catholic.

Now, this seems too good a topic not to blog about. Don’t worry, I am not going to touch on sensitive issues but it is my intention to give you all a brief lesson in the history of the Church. Hah… that’ll teach you not to call me a “Protestant.”

Catholic comes from the Greek word, KATHOLIKOS which means “throughout the whole, or universal” and was used as a general reference to the ENTIRE Christian church until the reformation period. (which I will touch on later.)

Prior to 313 A.D. Christians in the Roman Empire were often brutally prosecuted and given opportunities to avoid further punishment by publicly offering sacrifices or burning incense to Roman gods. Refusal was punishable by arrest, imprisonment, torture and executions.

Constantine I ‘legalised’ Christianity when he became the Emperor in 313 A.D. and Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The next 400 years saw many new beliefs added to the Roman Church. In 1054, a break in the church occurred and the western (Roman Catholic) and the eastern (Greek Orthodox) churches developed separately. It must be pointed out that Roman Catholics cannot claim exclusive right to the term “Catholic” as even today, some of the orthodox churches are also Catholics!

Fast forward to the year 1517 (though its roots lie further back in time) when Martin Luther (not to be confused with Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist famous for his “I have a dream” speech. Again not to be confused with the song “I have a dream” by ABBA) started the Reformation movement.

Luther was convinced that within the Church were malpractises and the movement began as an attempt to reform the Church. In 1529, the Emperor Charles V attempted to smother Luther’s movement by banning Luther’s documents but some of the German state princes stood up in protest. Thus, because of their protest, the movement began to be known as the “Protestants.” (The word “Protestant” is derived from the Latin “protestari” meaning publicly declare which refers to the letter of protestation issued by these princes against this decision.) What had originally been intended to reform Catholicism from within was now a split from the original body. Despite Luther’s attempt to present his views and beliefs, the division between Catholic and Protestants remain even up to this day.

In the wake of the reformation movement, Martin Luther started the first “Protestant” or “Evangelical” church but before long, different opinions in the interpretations of the Scripture and the split along doctrinal lines caused a rift. This led to a division in the reformed church and the emergence of several rival ‘Protestant/Evangelical’ churches or denominations e.g. Lutherans, Calvinists, Presbyterians.

Today, the Christian World database records about 9,000 denominations throughout the world. When you ask “ are you a Catholic or a protestant ?” you could very well be referring to any of the 8,999 denominations….

F

11 years

just yesterday, Nov 6, my babies celebrated their 11th birthday !! (I thought they were 10 cos i asked for 10 candles for their birthday cake). I could still remember vividly when I was preparing to go into the operating theater for the C. Now both my twins are 11.. my oh my how time flies. I was just going through some photos when they were babies, 1 year old, two, 1st day in kindergarden and those cheeky smiles with their new school uniforms and water tumbler swing across their shoulders.

Now, my son is standing tall - he is taller than me. (sigh..) My daughter is almost catching up with me, too. Do we actually "shrink" as we grow older but wiser ?? Those were the days when we celebrate our birthdays with our friends at home and giggle ourselves silly and playing indoor games under the watchful eyes of our parents. Nowadays, children celebrate their birthday with friends at shopping malls, playing games, watching movies or karaoking....... Parents are not "invited" but please be the paymaster.......

Very soon they will be in secondary and then hopefully college or uni.

S......

P/s Happy birthday to M, too. She shares the same birthdate with my twins. :-)