Home sweet home.

Penang Bridge

"Pi Nan Su" (Penang in Hokkien)

Ma, Pa "Wa Tui Lai Liao" ( Mum and Dad, I am back home). These were the words that we would tell my Mum and Dad whenever we came back from somewhere during younger days. Before I departed from Singapore, my wife has made a trip back to Penang by train with all the books and stuffs. I once heard my mum commenting those words, how did she manage it, so many boxes. Well, on the final flight to Penang, our luggage were also overweight and one of the passenger was kind enough to let me check him in as our group so that his allowable 20kg could be added to us. Very lucky indeed. On arrival, we managed to find our
transport home.
Home sweet home. The first thing I did was to plan for my wedding room. Now I have to spend my money on bed ,wardrobe etc. If I could recalled the total cost was RM 2,500.
When everything has been done, my mum and dad told me one night that they were going to visit his eldest brother in China and the duration would take a month. What they did was to take a tour trip of China in Beijing and once completed they would go on their own way to Xiamen. I asked them who will be fetching them at the airport and they mentioned that the eldest son of his brother will be there and his name is Kim Hooi. Can he be trusted? Well, my father answered was "Yes". I remembered asking my eldest sister once on this person, Kim Hooi, and my sister said that most of the money that were send back to China were sent to him and he, Kim Hooi has distributed all of them as per instruction in my father letter. That including an old lady that once ask my father for help. She did not reply my father after receiving the money but when we were back to China on the my 1st trip( my father 2nd trip),we met her and my father asked her whether she was okay and also about the money that he has sent to her. She said sorry for not replying and she did receive the money. My dad told her not to return them and ask her if she required some money at that time. (I remembered that my dad gave her some too on that day).
Kim Hooi, is the most trusted nephew of my father.
My parent went to China for 1 month and when they returned, we told them that we were also going for our honeymoon, East Asia tour , 21 days,comprises of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We did not stop over at Philippine for there was a Civil war in that country. During that time my Eldest brother was there with the whole family, sent by Citibank, and he told us to avoid Philippine at that time.
I did not spend on my wedding dinner but on the trip, RM3,500/pax. Just to mention the cost of modern marriage (year 2004) by a colleague. Photo Shot: RM 2,800;Wedding dinner( collectable from Ang Pow given during the dinner): RM12,000 (RM 290/table). Furniture for wedding room RM 1,700. Wedding eve RM 1000.
Well, from now onwards the cost will be higher. If my sons are to get marriage, my recommendation for them are to travel with the money, hopefully the cost of travelling will not be too expensive then.

I started to search for my job after my trip and manage to get one through my Elder sister.
Went for the interview and was very surprised when the boss called me up from Sarawak in the early morning asking me to meet him at 9.00am in the office for the job. Well, got the job as a Site engineer for the construction of Hotel Equatorial, Penang. Malaysia. Another job which I have to start learning again. Why was this so? Well, if you have read through all the jobs that I have done under Jurong Engineering Private Limited (JEL)in Singapore, they were classified as Heavy Industries jobs and for Hotel Equatorial, it will be a high rise building job. The best benefit of this new company, Lim Kah Ngam, was the boss encouraged me to go over to learn the exisiting project, 65 storey Komtar, that was under construction during that time. "Sin Me Kia, O bei liao" ( More new things to learn)