The Handy Man

Dad, the handy man.

We took advantage of the Hari Raya break and took a long drive down South to see the old folks in Muar and to find them hale and hearty. Kong Kong was his old jovial self and Por seemed to be in real high spirits. It is good to be old and yet able to earn a living for yourself cos it makes one useful and meaningful. Kong Kong laughed at himself being so old and lamented that all his old clients are long dead and gone and he finds it hard to understand the needs of the present cohort of clients. Told him to take it easy at his own pace and not to be overstressed about making money. He cheekily bursted out that his is an 'old man business' and that it is also not meant for making big money.

I happened to meet a teacher from Seri Kembangan who came down to Muar to visit relatives and I could not help laughing when she said " Nyonya , Ah Pek, masih ada? Salam..." She later related that her mum who used to be a client of Kong's was long gone and she took an old bracelet belonging to her mum -in -law for repair. She was amazed at Kong.

After an evening with them, we made our way further South to Singapore to see Grace on Tuesday morning to find her on call which meant we could not see her till the next day.

"Mum, I couldn't get to change the dates cos I am on call on Friday and Sunday too." But her kind MO let her out for an hour to see us and she brought us to her apartment.

The 2 ladies at the counter smiled as they saw mother and child hugged and were sorry that Grace was on call for the day. Well, we had no choice but to wait till the next day arrived.



Dad picked her up from the hospital the following day to her delight...otherwise it was the MRT...and to find her labelled as the property of NUH...hahaha.

A property of NUH ? She seemed to have lost some weight and had to remove the contact lens as it was a great stress on the eyes throughout the night. She had dark rings under her eyes and it was heart breaking to see her virtually working day and night. Her Hokkien has improved though and she jokingly said that the first question she would ask was " Auntie, wu chuan bo?" (Madam...are you short of breath?) ...In Singapore you'd better learn to speak dialects...

The only consolation is she is still young and need to "piah" ( stress out) for life.

Dad with eyes for essentials for decent living could not stand the arrangement of her bedroom and decided to shift the furniture around. That was precisely what Grace was waiting for.

We were kept busy the whole afternoon with me mopping the floor and dad repairing and shifting furniture. See the whole family making sure things were set right before we could go out.

Later Grace drove us to VIVO and found our very own boy...Giant...the name synonymous with affordable things and got somemore stuff to make up for everything that was missing. We later found that we had to make our way to IKEA to get things not found in Giant.


Father and daughter fixed up a cabinet for storage purposes till late in the night. Dad would not leave the place until it was comfortable enough for the daughter. All parents go out to do their bit to make life happy for their children...don't they ? Dad did that too in Brisbane to make life easier for her the last time.

After putting the place spick and span , Grace said it was time for some fun despite a night of no sleep. She insisted we went out against my wish. We wanted to try the famous Singapore chicken rice and she took us to Boon Tong Kee...the place you wanna be for chicken rice !

Chicken rice scoop shaped in the form of a pyramid...first time I witnessed chicken rice served in this fashion...chicken rice balls is a common sight in Muar but in pyramid form...never.



Well, the chicken rice is better than that of Nam Heong of Subang Jaya but dad commented that it was of the same standard as the ones found in Jalan Imbi in town.

Besides chicken rice, we were treated to a dish of spinach cooked in the accompaniment of 3 types of eggs...and it is gaining great popularity here.

Yes, salted egg, century egg and the ordinary egg. The dish tastes quite ordinary but nice and I could see chunks of unchopped garlic. Try cooking the dish...coincidentally this dish was picked the previous night when we had dinner with dad's brother.

Next, we had deep fried toufu dipped in special sauce. This dish is not to be done in the home. Seldom can we purchase toufu of this texture. So what you can't cook , just buy la.

After a sumptuous meal, we took a shopping spree down town and it was indeed pleasurable when your child foot the bill...hehehe...a good feeling that she is independent financially and I kept reminding her to save...not how much you earn but how much you save...Kong's wise words. Dad felt bad that she was treating us and lamented that we had caused her to spend so much to which I replied " It's ok dear...a treat for all our hard work and energy on her..."

All good things must come to an end...before long we had to rest and the next day dad sent her to work which allowed her another 30 minutes of precious sleep...grateful to God.