Thursday, September 28, 2017

House of Museums Malacca 老行业博物馆

When I was writing my books especially those with a Historical theme, I remember a Chinese Proverb my Dad and I shared.

"The past remembered is a good guide for the future."
Today, 29th September happens to be two years anniversary of my World War Two book.

I told my new Facebook friend that I will write something for him. David Tih Seong Pin is the curator and the story teller. I had been to Melaka (The new name for Malacca) many times and like how they have preserved History.


House of Museums Malacca 老行业博物馆

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+60 19-269 9569
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History Museum

photo from HOM.

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Sunday, September 24, 2017

Loyang or or Sayong"

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Tom Balan 'In Saban, it is called "LAYONG or a or Sayong" - traditional Orang Ulu warrior's gear'
This is Tom Balan, I asked if I could share his LAYONG. Tom is a Saban and is related to my cousin's wife. That makes us distantly related via marriage.

The Sabans are a hill tribe in the mountains of Sarawak in Borneo.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Mum's duster.

Mother's duster.





Mother was a very creative and hands-on person. When the synthetic raffia string came to the market, she got me to crochet a tube. Then she encased it in a long bamboo pole.  I hooked on lengths of raffia string. When I hooked on about 18 inches, she hammered nails into a  small piece of plank  and the end result was a metal brush. Together we brushed the strings and the end result was a brush like the photo. Nobody taught her how to do it, she just did it.

She used it to sweep spider cobs on the ceiling. We had moved into our brand new house. She didn't want us to dirty or ruin it. This brush was only for the ceiling. It was made or particle board and she was worried we would poke a hole in it.

40 years on, Mum had died 25 years. I saw this brush at the resource room at school. I remember the brush mum and I made. I had a warm feeling, I wonder if anyone else made such a brush.

Kate Sheppard

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/time-reflect-anniversary-womens-suffrage-in-nz-today

It was 124 years ago today that NZ became the first self-governing country in the world to give women the vote. Remember to exercise that right this election!

"Kate Sheppard and the other suffragists fought for years to give women this right and did this country proud." Since New Zealand was the first country to introduce universal suffrage in 1893,[4] Sheppard's work has had a considerable impact on women's suffrage movements in several other countries. She also appears on the New Zealand ten-dollar note.

My friend was there and her eyewitness account was Kate led the women to lie down on the road, and the police couldn't do anything.



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http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.co.nz/

Our World Tuesday Graphic

Monday, September 18, 2017

is copying a great form of flattery or cheap cheat?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11911196

is copying a great form of flattery or cheap cheat?

Northland artist sues campervan company


26 Aug, 2017 5:00am

Mr Hansen, who lives in Tutukaka, filed a claim against Escape Rentals Limited, a New Zealand campervan hire company, alleging it copied five of his artworks and spray painted them on rental vans.
The claim alleges this is copyright infringement, a breach of Mr Hansen's moral rights and a breach of the Fair Trading Act.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

cymbidium

cymbidium


Cymbidium /sɪmˈbɪdiəm/,[1] or boat orchid, is a genus of 52 evergreen species in the orchid family Orchidaceae. The new Latin genus name is derived from the Latin cymba meaning boat. Its first known use was in 1815.
Had a fleeting visitor from Singapore. Came on Sat evening and left on Sunday night. Gave me this orchid. was worried her plane didn't have fuel to fly back.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Sibu Hindu Temple

Kids and childhood shenanigans.
In 1960s, we moved to the Government Quarters at Padang Road near to the Sibu Prison.
We were a bunch of boys and girls. There was a Indian Temple, and had an eerie feeling. It was little, and there were no windows except sticks at the top of the wall. We climbed up to look at the figurines. The girls supported by the boys standing on their shoulders. Sometimes to our horror, the priest was inside. We scrambled down and dashed away. The boys were each for oneself. Leaving me go as fast as my little legs could carry me.

Whew! the priest never complained to our parents.

Outside there was a murky uncovered well. The silliness in  us spread rumours that someone had drowned there. Worse still, it was haunted and bidding us to look down and fall into the well. Childishness made us scared, yet not scared enough to climb up their tall spiky calamansi/lime fruits and their gardenia flowers. As we approach home, we threw away the flowers fearing mum might tell us off for going to the forbidden place.
I went back in 2013, my reporter took me there. The old temple was gone. In it's place was this school lookalike building.
Next to it used to be the Girl guide hut which I didn't see.




Ann Chin Kong Tong Kiong Hindu temple in situated at orchid road on the right side of girl guide building while Sikh building on the right side of race course road and prison is just nearby. Can see cow grazing in the compound of the Sikh building

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Thursday, September 14, 2017

Racism?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/96900793/police-trespass-group-of-chinese-women-from-sylvia-parkhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/96900793/police-trespass-group-of-chinese-women-from-sylvia-park

YoYo/Suffolk quilting

My secondary school teachers, Mr. Johnson and Miss Mamora. At the right is me, you see my very beautiful Sarawak beads. (Photo taken in Dec 1999)

Making rosettes or “Yo-Yo” or Suffolk puffs. A pair of very sharp scissors, a round shape like a can or CD disc to make your template. Trace out circles on fabric. Fold over/hem at the edge and make neat tiny running stitch to the entire edge. Gentle pull the thread to form gathers. You should get a round rosette. To the Chinese, you will think they look like Cha Siew Bao or Chinese roast buns.

When you have enough discs, join them side by side to get strips and lastly join the strips so each disc is attached at four ends.


I added a pair of reading glasses. When you reach half a century, you need glasses to make neat dainty stitches.



make tiny running stitch round the fabric before you pull the thread to make gathers.
Cut disc left, rosette right, the rosette is less than half the diameter.
Choose a not too stiff material. My friend's top was made with silk cotton. If you look at the red discs, the hole in the centre is too big. No good for quilts, but ok for making toys. The lime green and purple material is soft, so the gathering is done beautifully and the hole is very small. For the bigger disc, I made lace disc to cover the big hole. You can also make lace discs and use them to make hair accessories. These ones are experimental ones, it was more than 25 years ago when I last made them to make a clown.

  I have been wanting to make these discs since Christmas. My colleague wore this top to our Christmas function. At the collar of her top, were these disc. It brought me back to my childhood. Known in USA as yo-yo quilting or Japanese Fabric embroidery.


I dedicate this post to my domestic Science teacher Miss Ada Mamora.( The woman in the photo, taken with my British teacher Mr. Johnson during my 28th reunion of our fifth formers in 1999. )It was 26 year since I saw my teachers as I finished my form 6 in Methodist school in Sibu.

Miss Mamora taught me domestic science when I was 13. She taught me to make things made by hand.  We did fabric dying, cross stitch and others I couldn't name or forgotten. She didn't teach me the above Japanese fabric embroidery. She taught my older sister, and I learn it from her. My sister made a clown in school. In 1985 I made one for my first baby who is now my 27th year old daughter.  It was one of it's kind and I was very proud of it. I had friends from all over the world and they had never seen something like that.

Going back to my colleague's top, I told her, I know how to make the discs. She was surprised because she had never heard anyone making them. Earlier this year, a student was wearing a dress with a few of these on the front of her dress. I was more determined to make it as I couldn't explain to my friends from Germany, England and Fiji. 



I asked my second daughter if she like a quilt made with these discs, since I had made a quilt for big daughter, and a cross stitch picture for my son.  It doesn't take a lot of time to make one disc, but it takes very meticulous and nimble fingers to make them, I will let you know if I do finish the quilt. You need to make thousands and thousands of these discs. So I am not very hopeful. Yo-yo quilts were very popular in the 1930′s and 1940′s.

Black-Eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia Alata)

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

The Black-Eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia Alata) is a tropical plant that originally came from parts of Africa, Asia and Madagascar. The only real similarity between the two is that both bear flowers with dark centers surrounded by bright yellow or orange petals.



 

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Extraordinary People

a man born with cerebral palsy and whose parents have disabilities, but who is making the best of his challenging circumstances.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/extraordinary-people-in-a-life-of-limitations-frustration-slowly-9151198


When I watch this, my tears wet my eyes. If I thought my life is hard, these people have it worst. The boy have Cerebral Palsy. I had students who have CP. Seeing their struggle in walking, sometimes I wish I can just scoop them up and carry them.





Monday, September 11, 2017

Sarawak Liberation day

Today is Sarawak's LIBERATION DAY.....The Japanese surrendered at Pending at about 5p.m. September 11, 1945

The Japanese Occupation had particular significance to my family.

From the onset of the occupation, the Japanese had chosen my dad to be a civilian worker, a dangerous and hated job. He was only seventeen. Mum was twelve when they came, her parents hid her from forcefully taken to be a Japanese sex slave., when she was fifteen, they reckoned it was too dangerous to hide her anymore. They sought a complete stranger to be married. They married in March 1945, and the war finished in September.

That was the way the world turned, and there won't be me.

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Sunday, September 10, 2017

Thursday Challenge: Remembrances

Chinese rice flower (Aglaia Odorata)

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

my flower friend Francis Phang posted his rice flower. My Chinese rice flower (Aglaia Odorata)- My Grand pa/Ah Kung planted a bush when we moved to Dad's new house. All of my siblings no longer live in our home town, and we often wonder what had happened to Ah Kung's plants.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Taiwan Day 2017

http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/events/2017/09/taiwan-day-2017/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ourakl_edm&utm_content=Taiwan%20Day%202017%20%7C%20OurAuckland



Taiwan Day 2017

09 Sep 2017 - 10 Sep 2017


  • Taiwan Day 2017
    Taiwanese folk dance on Taiwan Day
  • Taiwan Day 2017 (1)
    The Acrobatics Troupe of National Taiwan College of Performing Arts will be on the stage of Taiwan Day 2017
  • Taiwan Day 2017 (2)
    Multicultural performances
  • Taiwan Day 2017
    Taiwanese folk dance on Taiwan Day
  • Taiwan Day 2017 (1)
    The Acrobatics Troupe of National Taiwan College of Performing Arts will be on the stage of Taiwan Day 2017
  • Taiwan Day 2017 (2)
    Multicultural performances
  • Taiwan Day 2017
    Taiwanese folk dance on Taiwan Day
  • Taiwan Day 2017 (1)
    The Acrobatics Troupe of National Taiwan College of Performing Arts will be on the stage of Taiwan Day 2017
  • Taiwan Day 2017 (2)
    Multicultural performances
When
 Saturday 9 September 2017, 10.00am - Saturday 9 September 2017, 6.00pm
 Sunday 10 September 2017, 10.00am - Sunday 10 September 2017, 6.00pm
Where
Aotea Square & Aotea Centre (Limelight 1 & 2 and BNZ Foyer), 50 Mayoral Drive, Auckland CBD
Cost
Free admission
Contact
Stella Lu
021 255 8606
Website

Taiwan Day 2017 is a two-day event designed to celebrate and publicise Taiwanese culture to our Auckland communities.
As one of the major cultural festivals in Auckland, it provides opportunities for the public to experience Taiwanese culture and arts.
Activities include multicultural performances, music, crafts, indigenous culture, an indoor art and photography exhibition and, of course, wonderful Taiwanese cuisine.
This year, a special Acrobatics Troupe from National Taiwan College of Performing Arts will be performing on Taiwan Day. They are proficient and skillful in a spectrum of acrobatic techniques and assemblies. Their performances are fun to watch for whole family.
Most importantly, this event provides the opportunity for our communities to come together to experience fun, cultural flavors and friendship.
There's also a lottery raffle with hundreds of great prizes to be won, including air travel for four.