Story of Eva

Brayden 8Y0M15D

Bevlynn 3Y9M11D

Bro Gene stayed in Singapore for a few days. He was applying for visa to go to Taiwan to work. 

There are several things happening concurrently this week; Eva's (my current helper) work permit was not allowed to be renewed by Ministry of Manpower, I needed to work on selecting the interior design for my mini project in KL, and I am travelling to S.Korea for work this week. On top of that, I was super busy at work from the piled up work during my off-days. I had 2 weeks to clear all the details and have everything sort out. 

I was overly overwhelmed in these few days. I took small breaths and kept telling myself "one small step forward at a time". However, occasionally I lose my head and cried, especially feeling sad and do not know how to break the news to Eva yet. Also, I felt Hubs has not supported me enough through all these happenings and transitions. Of course, he was busy too working over the weekends. 

This week, I went through several profiles for a new helper. Unlike my first time hiring, I only went through less than 10 profiles. In 2021, I went through 200+ profiles before selecting THE ONE. Also this time, I am going for a not very experience helper. I am worried, she might not adapt to the new environment. But I guess I am willing to give her a try and opportunity. I can see from the interview that she was sincere and just trying hard to provide for her family. I remember the time I first started out at interviews and how I had wished for a company to give me an opportunity. 

I was also emotional whenever I mentioned of Eva and her story. She's been a big help during my toughest time (starting from 2021 when Covid lockdown was still a common thing, I gave birthed to Bevlynn and Eva joined me 2 weeks after) She was there for me to care for the children when Hubs had to return to KL for a month for Mom-In-Law's funeral. Whenever I travel for work, I am reassured my children were in good hands. Because of her, Hubs and I had some "we" time without the children. She was such a good help. 

But on her second year working with me, she made a mistake. She borrowed money from loan shark who was whatsapp-ing her randomly. She was baited. For ~sgd500, she had even paid back the principal amount loaned (albeit slightly late by 2 weeks or so), the interest had gone up so much and she could not pay back. I only found out when the loan shark started harassing her. 

She did not loaned from me because she said I was too nice to her (I had loaned her several times prior, so she was embarrassed to ask from me). The money she loaned was also to help her ailing family member. She had a tough life. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and this is one example of it. 

I guess after this, she would not have the opportunity to come here to work again. This made me really sad because for such a small amount, a mistake was made, and there's no turning back for her. I don't think she realised the severity of her actions back then that would affect her future. 

I still wish her the best in everything life has to offer. T.T

Brayden Birthday | Bevlynn Morning Crying Episodes | Music Revolution

Brayden 8Y0M6D
Bevlynn 3Y9M2D

On Bray's 8th Birthday, I came home early wanting to celebrate his birthday with a cake. But I started feeling unwell, feverish and vomited immediately right after dinner. Hub was sick too. We could only sing a birthday song for him. We suspected it was stomach flu. More than 10 of us caught it from last weekend. 

Gene is staying with us for a week. He was intending to change to another company. All went well and he's leaving for Taiwan in 2 more weeks. Such a rush but it was expected.

Bev had been crying every morning. She did not want to go to school. She'd held onto me tight and said "I love you mama, can you please no go work?" "Please come fetch me early". I love you Baby but work is tough. I've been having so much to juggle and had so little time. On another day, she said "I want to go gor gor's school" and plead with us to bring her out to breakfast. She loves to break the eggs during breakfast. 

Brayden said he is not like that at all. But I recalled, the same drama coming from him for more than 2 years when he went to childcare. The separation anxiety was the same. 

We were talking about music revolution in the past and got reminded of how we played with cassettes (reading the lyrics of the small prints on a piece of paper that came in a plastic see-through box), whenever we love a song - we'll "rewind" it using a pencil. Or push it in the cassette player in the opposite direction for one song and turn it again back. I always played the Westlife, Backstreet Boys, Nsync, Spice Girls, 911, M2M. Those were quite popular boy and girl bands. 

We also had CD's and DVD's with the Walkman. That's when everything got easier. Then there was Ipod. The first one that Hub got for me from his first few salary in Singapore. It was an apple green one. I loved to play my songs on it while I was at university. 

After that, came Youtube and Spotify. Everything got so much more convenient. 

 

Max and Melissa's Wedding | Suffolk House

Brayden 7Y11M29D

Bevlynn 3Y8M22D

It was on 22.2.2025 at Suffolk House Penang. An early start to the day. 

All of us woke up early to prepare our make-up and dressed up. Bev and Bray were the Flower Girl and Ring Boy. It was a nice garden wedding. Everyone dressed up to match the day. It was a long-awaited day. Max and Melissa are getting married on the year they both turned 30. 

The weather was sunny; good for an outdoor wedding. 

Suffolk House is a nice location. There is a colonial white building surrounded by greeneries. There is a river beside it.  

When the wedding marching song started, Bev and Bray first walked down the aisle. Both were very good with pacing their walk and throwing the white petals. Then came the bridesmaids; beautifully dressed in different designs of light pastel green dresses. As Melissa walked down the aisle with her father towards Bro Max, I could feel the rush of happiness for him. A flash of memories came over me, how I used to carry him when he was a baby, playing in the old house in Bukit Dumbar, him running to my school class to ask for Jie Jie, to now..... he's taking a big step forward; marrying a beautiful humble woman. I held back my tears. 

They said their vows and prayers, and said "I do". 

We had the tea ceremony and funnily, the necklace I bought for him could not fit through his head. He was slightly in pain as the necklace got caught in his hair. 

Finally, the buffet lunch started. The food spread was good; especially the fish. Most importantly, we got to gather as an extended family and spoke of the good ol' days. 

When I got home, I just realized the meaning of the theme they have printed on their handmade keychains: Khaixintothemax (Being Happy to the Max) - Khai Xin is Melissa's Name. Such good combination. I wish them both the most blissful marriage life. 

Temple | Jurong Lake Garden | Valentine's Day

Brayden 7Y11M22D

Bevlynn 3Y8M15D

We went to the Sattha Puchaniyaram Buddhist Temple on Sunday. Coincidently, it was the birthday of the young month there, so they had arranged a buffet to celebrate. 

We took a drone to try out at an open badminton court; which Bray claimed from his speech academy. It crashed multiple times, it's not so easy because it flew by very quickly (not in the direction you want). 

We went to the Jurong Lake Garden in the afternoon. But it was quite late. We took the bus from our home and arrived at the small entrance at the Jurong Town Hall Road. We had to walk pass the big field, Japanese Garden before we arrived to the Play Pavilion for the children. 

The children find it hard to walk on their slippers; with the long grass. It was itchy but fun. We walked passed the Eden Cafe and Canopy Restaurant in the Japanese Garden. This is the first time we came to Japanese Garden after the revamped. It was beautiful and picturesque, when we walked passed the pagoda, a large lily pond, bridge and latterns hanging at the entrance (I wonder if it is because of CNY). It was almost close to sunset, the strong wind had brought together with it some dark clouds. We were starting to feel some drizzle as soon as we arrived the play area. The children wanted to continue playing, it was empty with no children for the first time. We told them to stay beneath the canopy to avoid the raindrops. 

After a while, when the night set in, the children showered at the water tap near the toilet. We walked over to Fusion Spoon for dinner. The path was pitch black. My thoughts "What if the monitor lizard we saw the other day walked passed us?" we quickly walked with just a spotlight from our phone. 

After dinner, we played with our shadows and the children laughed so much. We found an unwanted styrofoam airplane in the pool and brought it home. 

On 15th day of CNY, we wanted to buy some tong yuan but it was not available in the store. So we ate it the next day instead. 

On Valentine's Day, I had a date with Hub at Westgate for lunch. I was late because my meeting at work lasted longer than it should be. I told Hub to wait at Coffee Smith. As I arrived, huffing and puffing from the running, I saw him at a corner with a bouquet of beautiful pink roses. He had not bought me flowers for ages.... We giggled as we could imagine him walking about with the flowers with strangers' eyes looking at him. I brought the flowers back to office, I loved it. It accompanied me as I rushed my work until late night by myself in the office. I felt very inspired, motivated - knowing someone is always there. 

To Hub: 

You are my love, my safety net. I don't know how I got so lucky with you. When times are tough and challenging, when I felt like giving up (everything), you stand by me. With all my imperfections, you accept me for who I am. My heart still beats quickly for you, like a young lover with a crush, even after all these years. (It's true) I love it most when we giggle and laugh at most random things. And when we are holding hands, walking behind our children (to their school or playground every day) watching them grow, as we grow old together. It felt like we are leaving a trail behind with lots of memories; the ones we will look back to one day and make us giggle with our wrinkly faces. Love you Bey💕

Penang Miao Hui - Temple Festival

Brayden 7Y11M5D

Bevlynn 3Y7M29D

Day 4 CNY, we went to Paragon Gurney to buy some nice dresses from Bebe Butterfly for Bro Max's upcoming wedding. The front overlooking the beach is gone, now there is a park. After the children had some Pokemon catching with bro Max, we headed to the city for the Penang Miao Hui (Penang Temple Festival). 

It was packed with people. The first spot we came to had a taichi performance. One of the boothes gave away paper caps in the shape of a dragon or snake for the children. Many people are dressed in beautiful colourful traditional clothes. Another stage has an opera singing performance. We went into several temples for the clans. There were antiques on display. There were young story-tellers sharing about stories from the past. There was one which I found fascinating in particular. In the past, when the folks from the town did not have enough money, they would go to the pawn shop "kedai pajak" to trade off their gold or personal belongings of value for some cash. Also, there is another practice, when the children were naughty, the parents would "trade" their children at the pawn shop for RM1. Alternatively, the parents would also give their children as "godchildren" to Gods. This they believe would turn the children good. I remember when Bro Gene was young and naughty, my mother did bring him to the temple to be a "godchild".

Hub was carrying Bevlynn on his shoulders, while Max was piggy-backing Brayden. I love it when they are at this age when they are following us in every moment. 

Another lane had all the CNY chops for completing tasks related to CNY. We continued for awhile more and there were Lion Dance performance and Violin performance. 

There is another lane which is displaying all the different instruments from different cultures and races; Malaysia, Indian. We played the galeman with the Chinese song "tian mi mi". It was fun. It definitely felt different from the time we came many many years ago. 

As soon as we were about to leave the place, Bevlynn started nodding off. She's too tired but kept awake for the excitement. 

Due to traffic, we were late for a dinner with family at Sungai Nibong. 

On the day we were leaving, Bro Max shared that he will be moving out from the family home after his wedding. Mom was upset. I can understand how a Mom would feel when her children decided to leave, but I am happy for my brother for his big step forward in life. Wishing him all the happiness! He will be registered a day after Hub's birthday.   

Happy Birthday Hub!