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Category Archives: family
My Niece Made Me So Happy Today
One of my nieces read my blog for the first time today. It feels momentous to me so I have to make a record of it here. To protect her privacy, I’m not mentioning her name. (Although they both have … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging & Writing, family, Joy
Tagged blog, blogging, confidence, joy, love, nieces
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Grateful for My Cousins
When I see my nieces with their cousins, it makes my heart swell. I want them to be close all their lives, like they are right now, and have beautiful memories like I do. My childhood was not easy due … Continue reading
Posted in family, Joy, Midlife Musings, My Childhood, my teenhood
Tagged childhood, cousins, family, first cousins, happiness, joy, love, nieces
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It’s So Easy to Fall Out of a Routine of Good Habits
I fell out of my routine since my last holiday. You see, my routine was very much a forced thing. I was waking up pre dawn, as early as 4.30am, even though I’m naturally a night owl, and going to … Continue reading
Posted in aging, family, Joy, Midlife Musings, Simple Joys
Tagged aging, aunty, children, habits, happiness, history, Life, routine
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Thinking of My Uncle A Today & Wishing him All the Joy in the World
He looks way younger than his years and I have always admired how he works hard at being active. He has always been adventurous in his youth so perhaps it’s no surprise that he still has the stamina. He has … Continue reading
Revelations by my Youngest Uncle
Uncle S related that it’s very hard for him to recollect a lot of the past as he has memory lapses due to the seizures he suffers from. But I appreciate that he did try very hard to share his … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, History, Singapore Living
Tagged Ceylon, family, Jaffna, Life, Living, youngest uncle
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Ceylonese Singaporean
I am so excited that a novel set in Sri Lanka has been shortlisted for the 2022 Booker prize and I’m hungry to read it. My partner was the one who alerted me to it. He knows me so well. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, Midlife Musings, My Childhood, my teenhood, Singapore Living
Tagged ceylonese, childhood ood, ethnicity, Life, Living, personal, Sri Lanka, thoughts
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5 Things I Thought I Would Have when I was a Child: Letting Go of My Expectations
This is my exercise in letting go of expectations. Sadly life never turns out the way you expect for many, but there have also been treasured joys I never expected as well. When I was a kid I always imagined … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, Midlife Musings, Singapore Living
Tagged children, culture, expectations, happiness, Life, Living, personal
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My Childhood: The Beach & What I Seek in Travel
As a child I didn’t have truly good memories of the beaches in Singapore. My sister and I often developed huge painful welts on our upper arms and always thought it was because we were allergic to sea water. We … Continue reading
Posted in family, Midlife Musings, My Childhood, Singapore Living, Travel
Tagged Beach, childhood, Life, Living, nature, travel
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My Childhood: Garden Stories & Jaffna Cousins
I miss our small tropical garden. Of course, as these things go, I didn’t appreciate it till it was reduced to just a tiny patch devoid of any fruit trees. I miss the Japanese roses my mum tended to in … Continue reading
Posted in family, History, Midlife Musings, My Childhood, Singapore Living
Tagged childhood, cousins, family, Jaffna, Life, memories, Singapore, suicide
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Uncle A: My Grandpa at Work & Other Stories
Following my last post about one of my grandma’s specialities, fried mutton with potatoes, my uncle confirmed that it was one of his favourites too. I then asked him to tell me about what family meals were like back then. … Continue reading
Fried Mutton with Potatoes
My mum learnt how to cook various ceylonese dishes, observing my grandma. Back then she mostly did the menial work like cutting up and grinding stuff. You could say, she was sous chef to the chef (grandma) and she started … Continue reading
Posted in Cooking, Culture & Society, family, Singapore Living
Tagged ceylonese, Cooking, family, fried mutton, grandma, Life, Living, mum, Singapore
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My Eldest Cousin M
Been thinking a lot about my cousin M lately. To be accurate, he’s never left my mind. After he passed away in his sleep in 1995 (he was only 37 years old and it was attributed to an epileptic fit) … Continue reading
My Blog is a Work in Progress
It’s never the finished product, but more like a dairy entry. A diary entry that I can rework easily. I keep editing as I discover embarrassing errors (mostly due to autocorrect), and new information, especially for my biographical posts. I … Continue reading
Posted in aging, Anxiety, Blogging & Writing, Culture & Society, family, Midlife Musings, Singapore Living
Tagged biography, blogging, publisher, writing
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Typical Day in the Life of My Mum in the early 1960’s
She couldn’t recall exactly what time she woke up, but it was to the crowing of the neighbourhood roosters and not an alarm clock. They were extremely loud she said. She ironed her uniform the day before. Once adorned, she … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, History, Singapore Living
Tagged 1960, 1960's, culture, family, history, Life, Living, mum, personal, Singapore
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Family Ties: Aunts, Uncles & Cousins
I recently asked my uncle how he felt when his son was just born. “Were you nervous being a father now? Nervous about having to carry a baby.” He said not really, and then I realised my baby cousin (I … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, History, Singapore Living
Tagged aunts, ceylonese, cousins, culture, family, Life, Living, personal, Singapore, uncles
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Ocean Liner Stories from the Past
Had a chat with both my Uncle A and Aunt S since they happened to be there at the same time. They are siblings 7.5 years apart, but the age gap seems to be negligible. Wanted to gain more insight … Continue reading
Posted in family, History, Singapore Living
Tagged 1960, Ceylon, history, Life, Living, ocean liner
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What I Admired Most About My Father (My Darling Papa)
I decided to pose the same question to myself and found myself floored. The word admiration seemed so distant and didn’t quite cover it. A primary school composition answer would be “He was the most handsome and intelligent person to … Continue reading
Posted in family, Grief, Midlife Musings, Singapore Living, Trauma
Tagged family, father, gratitude, grief, love, papa
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What I Admired Most about My Father (Partner Edition)
His penmanship comes to mind. It was beautifully and artistically rendered. Calligraphy in fact. I admired his cool signature. He had to stop schooling at Primary 3 because he was biologically the eldest kid and had 5 or 6 younger … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, Singapore Living
Tagged father, history, Life, Living, personal, Singapore
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What do you Admire Most about your Father? Question posed to my Uncle, Aunt & Mum
I’ve been exploring prompting questions to ask my relatives, and I thought this was a good one. It really doesn’t matter if the answer goes a bit off tangent as the key goal is to prompt memories about a loved … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Society, family, History, Midlife Musings, Singapore Living
Tagged Aunt, father, grandfather, grandparents, history, Life, uncle
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