My Dad & Mum - random thoughts

My Mum is working in a kindergarten teaching cute little kiddies. I never knew my Mum was so great with kids. On Saturday mornings she gives small group private tuition to three of the kids in her class. Can you believe that kindergarten aged kids in Malaysia need tuition? That's how early Asians instill the "workaholic" mindset into their children. And by kindergarten I mean 2 to 4 year olds!

According to my Dad, within weeks of my Mum tutoring these three girls, their performance in school improved dramatically. So much so that there are other kindergarten parents who want my Mum to tutor their kids! However she wants to maintain a high level of service to her students so she refuses to take more than the three she currently has. My Mum, in high demand! Wow - I'm so proud of her.

***

Every time we go back to Malaysia there is always that inevitable list of items we are requested to bring over from Australia. Things that either cannot be purchased in Malaysia or are of a much better quality in Australia. Without fail, on that list is a 500g bag of jelly beans - the kind that can only be found at your local Amcal pharmacy. My Mum uses these to "bribe" some of her children to behave. I shudder to think that one day my children's grandmother could be bribing them with jelly beans... or that they would prefer to stay at my parents' house because they get access to junk food there that their Mum wouldn't allow them to have at home. Haha. Perhaps that will be a funny story for a day in the future.

***

For the last 4 years or so, my Dad has put his heart and soul into working to turn around the family business in Malaysia. Just like any other type of change, it has involved a lot of negotiating, conflict, and heartache. All this time, I thought my Dad was doing it mainly as a service to my grandmother. As a part-owner, it forms a large part of her livelihood and therefore essential to a comfortable living particularly as she gets older.

It never occurred to me that the business also employs dozens of locals, therefore in turning the business around my Dad is not only trying to do what he considers his duty as the oldest son to look after my grandma, he also recognizes that if the business closes down, literally hundreds - all the employees plus their families - could be left with nowhere to turn. Some of the employees have worked for the business for 25-30 years, ever since their teenage hood. They would definitely have nowhere else to go for employment! This has given me an even more profound respect for my Dad.

My Dad hopes that when the employees realize how much he cares for them and how willing he is to be loyal to them, this will generate loyalty amongst them. He's the sort of person, however, who will never tell them that a large part of the reason he's making some of the changes is to keep the business going and therefore to benefit them in proving them jobs. I hope, for his sake, and for theirs, that they do find out one day. If I could speak the language, I'd tell them myself.

***

No one is perfect. Sure, I have my disagreements with my parents. But my love, admiration and respect for them reaches far beyond any irks I might have with them. Compared to how much they have given and sacrificed for me, my brother and my sister, compared to how much they clearly love me, compared to what a wonderful example they have set for me with their lives... the rest is most definitely inconsequential. I hope one days my kids will say the same things about James and me.

Wongs Have a Wright to Have Fun

Looking back over my collection of 2006 photos, I have come to the realisation that one thing my brother and I have in common is that we both have this love for taking silly photos of ourselves:

Jan/Feb 2006
Brian: in Kota Kinabalu ~ stuffing around with the straws from our drinks
Me: at a friend's wedding ~ I felt the need to make our photo more interesting

Dec 2006
Brian: fooling around at his birthday dinner
Me: after taking my hair out of a hairdo

I am proud to say that James has truly become a part of the Wong family.
He is not simply a recruit to this essential family practise, he is a willing participant!
The second of the following two photos is a particular favourite of mine - James' expression makes me laugh. He's so into it!

Edit: I found a couple more photos that I just had to share. These also include my sister Stephanie, proving that all three of us gladly participate in this essential Wong practise. I have a really old sticker photo somewhere too of my mum, me and Steph with matching silly faces... if I ever find it, I'll scan it and post it if you like!

A Very Snarey Christmas Lunch

The Snare family doesn't busy themselves with silly debates about whether an Aussie Christmas lunch should involve cold seafood platters or hot roasted meats... we have a simple solution that does away with any form of argument ~ we serve it all!

James waiting ever-so-patiently for his lunch ;-)

By "we", I mean James' mum Kerry and his aunt Evelyn of course!

The cold seafood platters featured Prawns, Crayfish and Oysters topped with yummy Seafood Dressing ~ I need to get that recipe from Kerry!

The hot dishes featured freshly carved Ham and Roast Turkey, accompanied by Gravy, homemade Cranberry Sauce (containing home grown cranberries!) and lots of yummy Roasted Veggies.

And I forgot to take pictures of dessert! Silly me. Who could forget the individual Plum Puddings (Aunt Evelyn, you outdid yourself this year!) , Contreau Ice-Cream, Brandied Butter, Fruit Salad Cheesecake and Champagne-soaked Berries?

Lunch was fabulous. Apart from the cole seafood, which I rarely get to eat and therefore helped myself to plenty, I was pretty good about watching my portion sizes. Even James, who was sitting next to me, didn't think I ate very much - and yet my stomach told me a completely different story ~ by the end of the day I had eaten so much that my stomach hurt and sitting in the car to go home was decidedly uncomfortable.

However, based on my observations around the lunch table, at least one or two people ate more than double what I ate... what baffles me is how on earth did they fit it all into their stomachs? Even people who are double my size surely don't necessarily have double the stomach capacity! What a marvelous skill to possess.

A special note...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!!

Happy birthday also to Shayne, Ken, Kundai and Eden.
I love you all too, but Brian is my brother so he gets the extra special wish ;)

Blue Fire Restaurant

Tuesday is date night. Last night we went a restaurant at Melbourne Central called Blue Fire.

Blue Fire's feature dinner is the Churrascaria ~ 7 different kinds of meat are grilled on massive skewers. Waiters than bring these skewers to your table and carved you a serving of meat. And it's all-you-can-eat. However, I don't think too many people would be able to get through more than one round of each kind of meat. But if you should choose to rise to that challenged and succeed please let me know!

Blue Fire offers a great deal on Tuesdays ~ if you order the Churrascaria plus either an entree or a dessert item, you food bill is halved. So James and I ate lots of meat, dessert and also enjoyed a drink each for only $70 (note: the Churrascaria usually costs $49 per person). We were also provided bread with dips, vegetables and potatoes, so there was plenty of food.

The service was fantastic ~ all the waiters were very friendly an attentive. I highly recommend a visit!

Thanks Tatenda for telling us about this, and I still definitely want to go with you sometime!



Enjoying our pre-dinner breads with dips.

If I go back again I'll probably skip this portion because after all that meat plus the required dessert, I was so full my stomach hurt.

However the capsicum and cream cheese dip was really good!







Olives... yum!













My dessert ~ lemon meringue tart accompanied by homemade ice cream and a berry compote.
Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a photo of this wonderful dish until I'd already eaten half of it!






I wore this skirt that night.

Okay so the photo is quite irrelevant, it was just a great excuse to show it off because I'd recently bought it and I love it a lot.

The photo doesn't do it justice.