It’s the after-exams/holidays-and-before-starting-a-job period now. There’s been a lot of freedom and learning even without school around. But there won’t be “freedom” for much longer, so will treasure it before we all get caught up with busy-ness again. The guys have already gone to serve the nation already, SO FAST.
Anyway, these few months I’ve taken a liking to watch Channel U’s show,《爸爸秘笈》which aired its last episode on Monday. (Yes, it’s a local show again haha! It’s variety, though.) That show changed my perspective of some of the actors for the better and I respect them a lot. The show never fails to make me smile/laugh, because it’s full of love. And through watching this show, plus going on the Melbourne trip and through the whole studying period of last year while I was at home more frequently than usual, I think I gained a better glimpse of what it’s like to be parents, and hopefully managed to put myself more in my parents’ shoes and consider their feelings before doing or saying anything.
I learnt a lot about parenting, actually. It might be odd to be thinking about being a parent now (is it??) seeing how I’m not even a legal adult yet, but thinking about it I’m just really grateful for my parents and how they’ve brought my sibs and I up. Every activity with us was carefully considered, and since children spend most of their younger days at home, almost every decision parents make would shape what their children go through or how they would grow up. And to me now it seems like every parenting style has its pros and cons and there isn’t really a best way of bringing kids up. Anyway, whatever I gained from the show is probably a tiny fraction of what the parenting experience really is about. After all, the results of parents’ hard work can only really be seen years later when the children grow up and have kids. May the four dads featured in the show continue to have a fulfilling and joyous experience as their kids grow up!
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This year’s CNY was surprisingly very enjoyable. Two things that resonated with me most during CNY:
1. Enjoying the company of my cousins
I rarely do see some of my cousins, the paternal ones, and every year when we meet they never fail to ask, “So you are Sec __ this year?” This year for me it became, “You’re in JC right? Whoa, going Uni already, so fast?!” Yeah it kind of becomes the usual greeting. But it’s not anyone’s fault because I don’t really remember my older cousins' specific ages either so yep guilty as well.
They’ve all grown so… I won’t say old, they’re still so youthful! They’ve grown so much, and some of them have their little bundles of joy too, and sometimes it’s quite sad that we get to see each other so rarely throughout the year that we can’t really keep track of how everyone is doing. That aside, something that I cherish is the togetherness.
One of my 表姐s has lived overseas for the past couple of years and has only recently moved back to Singapore, with a non-Chinese husband plus an exotic-looking baby (ahhhhh handsome little boy. He’s of mixed race!!!). It’s really nice that they’re back, and they joined us in house hopping. Didn’t manage to talk to them a lot but just being with the whole family was good enough.
While asking other cousins about any advice for university education, they shared so honestly and it was quite funny too. I realised I do miss them and feel quite sad that we didn’t get the chance to talk more. If only there was more TIMEEE.
2. Reminders not to take things for granted
During one of the house visits, there was a special encounter that reminded me again not to take whatever I had for granted. Yep, don’t take things for granted!!
Apart from the above two points, CNY preparation was also fun. It’s mostly the preparation process that constituted 70% of the CNY experience for my family. Oh it was my sis and I’s maiden pineapple tart-making experience. The first attempt at the tarts was quite horrible but that’s how we learn don’t we haha. The crust tasted like hard biscuits but we both strangely liked it. The following tries produced more pineapple tart-like tarts, and they are so ordinary but we love them still the same. I think we both feel more confident in our cooking skills after this experience haha :D
A photo to end off – the end result of our tarts:
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