My three friends

Among my classmates from secondary school, three persons in particular had been constantly in touch with me, in the span of about 50 years! Now that we are retired and have more free time, we meet occasionally for lunch and kind of paint the town red. I dare say our friendship had stood the test of time!

On the extreme left is yours truly, with (from right to left), Norhayati, Kum Sim and Siah Luang.

They are now all proud grandmas and coincidentally each of them had recently WhatsApp me pictures of their grand children, which I am publishing in my blog as a way to honour their friendship over the years.

 

Norhayati's 2 grandchildren who are attending an international school in Petaling Jaya

Kum Sim's two grandchildren who live in Canada

Siah Luang's three grandchildren who live in Malaysia and Singapore

Some of my plants 2013

Since it is only 3 days to the end of 2013, I decided to take pictures of some of the plants that I currently have. Maybe by end of next year I would be growing other plants.

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How lucky country children are in these natural delights that lie ready to their hand! Every season
and every plant offers changing joys ― Miss Read, Village Diary    

 

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”

— Aristotle

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.”

— Charles Dickens

I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.
David Hobson
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/plants.html#Ic4gmCIkIiT2SiWL.99

I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow - David Hobson

nmmm

“The fairest thing in nature, a flower, still has its roots in earth and manure.”

— D. H. Lawrence

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. Walt Whitman

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/n/nature_quotes.html#7mDtw72XEs4HTPL1.99

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/n/nature_quotes.html#7mDtw72XEs4HTPL1.99

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/n/nature_quotes.html#7mDtw72XEs4HTPL1.99

Family trip

Thanks to my second son who proposed a family trip to Malacca.  Although it was just a short journey and only a 2- night stay, it was enjoyable and significant to me as it was my first trip to a local destination with my 3 children and daughter-in-law. 

Some funny old age cartoons!

source:  .pmcaregivers.com/Cartoons, photobucket.com, lilesnet.com

A story (Part 4 )- the Truth

Continued from,
a-story-part-3-tall-and-white-apparition 5 November 2013 

a-story-part-2-the forgiveness.5 October 2013

 a-story-part-1- the Shock 5 September 2013

She followed the light downstairs.  The light shone directly on his leather briefcase which was standing upright but was slightly ajar.  She put her hand into the opening and pulled out a thick envelop.  The contents of the envelope were what the Apparition wanted to show her!

 The envelope contained a thick letter from a woman signed J… It also contained a photograph of him and a woman whom she recognized as a Dr. J who was working with him in the same location up north.  She had met this woman Dr J when she visited him at his work station several months before. 

The letter was long.  In the letter Dr. J confessed her love for him.  The letter at the same time reminded him that he was the one who wanted to write the 10-page letter to his wife.  The letter stressed that writing the letter was not her idea and that she should not be blamed if his marriage falls apart as a consequence of the 10 page letter he sent to his wife.  

 She was reading Dr. J’s letter sitting on a dining chair.  The light was not on but she could read clearly.  She was terribly confused.  His 10-page letter to her had asked for her forgiveness for his old affair with his former lover, N, and written purportedly to ask for her forgiveness over the affair.  His 10-page letter had not mentioned anything about this current love affair with Dr. J.

Being the straight forward woman she was, it took her sometime to take it all in.   After several hours, it finally dawned on her!  He had written the 10 page letter confessing to his past love affair with N, just to provoke her to agree to a divorce, not to ask for her forgiveness!   How gullible she was!  That was why he had insisted on a divorce even after she said she had forgiven him! 

Let's wait and see how A story (Part 5) goes...when I get the inspiration again…

Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?

People displaced by fighting between rival militias seeking shelter under an old broken airplane at the airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, on Saturday. French soldiers were cheered by residents as they began patrolling densely populated neighbourhoods of Bangui, which has been rocked by waves of killings between Muslim and Christian communities. – Reuters pic, December 9, 2013.

Syrian people flee from Syria after clashes between Syrian rebels and government soldiers in Rasulayn region Photo: EPA 09 December 2013.  More than 2.5 million people have been internally displaced in Syria as a result of the civil war.  As the fighting in Syria spreads, leaving almost no city unscathed, millions of people have snatched what possessions they can carry and fled their homes in search of a safer hideout inside the country. A spokesperson of the UNHCR said that 2.5 million is only a conservative estimate!

Internally displaced Sri Lankan people wait behind barbed wire at Menik Farm refugee camp in Cheddikulam Photo: AFP/GETTY 17 May 2009

One of the many displacement camps in Mogadishu.  Somalia 2011 © Yann Libessart / MSF.  Ravaged by 20 years of civil war, Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, experienced an influx of displaced persons . Providing aid to people who have fled hunger and fighting is a constant challenge in this chaotic urban setting. More than 150,000 Somalis have left the provinces of the country's central region—Bay, Bakool, Hiran, Lower and Middle Shabelle—to seek refuge in Mogadishu.

"We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?"  (J. Ramsay MacDonald)

Our skill sets remain with us

Today I was invited by a committee member of our Services Alumni to provide input for a publication the Alumni is preparing.  Yes, even though long retired, our skill sets remain with us.