Anak Sudah Kembali

I have officially used up my "sit next to a pretty girl on the plane" points. If I behave myself for the next five years, I might chalk up enough points to sit two seats away from one. Haha!

It was an uneventful flight back home, spent alternating between deep slumber and airplane meals. I got to watch "Wanted" on the Entertainment system, and I must say that I was suitably impressed by the special effects in this over-the-top movie. But my sister made a really interesting point later - Morgan Freeman has starred in one too many films where he is the good-guy-who-turns-out-to-be-the-bad-guy-who-is-actually-the-good-guy-why-oh-why-are-your-roles-so-complicated-Mr.-Freeman.

I got off the plane and waited for my luggage. Mum had insisted that I bring home cherries and mangoes from Australia. The mangoes were mostly intact, but Doreen, could you please inform Li that he was right. We shall enjoy cherry sauce instead. Haha!

Twenty eight minutes on the ERL and a warm feeling rose up in my heart again as I saw my homeland rouse from its sleep. The morning sun was just warming up, unable to muster enough energy to drive away the mist that hung around lazily along the meticulously arranged palm trees and the haphazard undergrowth. The ERL took me past condominiums and little makeshift squatter homes, giving way to the city. I sighed with recognition when it sped past Mid Valley Megamall, all its cracks evident in the light of day, yet still the shopping mall of choice.

I feel loved by my family most when...

I half expected to take the taxi home from KL Sentral, and I was not relishing the prospect, what with my box of mangoes in tow. However, as I was crossing the ticketing machines in the exit lanes, a familiar complaining voice rang from the front "Hoi, never see us ah?". My little sister and Mum were walking towards me, and if it were not for the box of mangoes in one hand and my suitcase in the other, I would have ran towards them and squeezed the life out of them!

A quick deposit of the suitcases at home, and then it was off to church.

Of (Almost) Newlyweds and Newborns

It was a good time in church, and I got to catch up with most of my Sunday School friends here. I have specifically come back to visit one couple who were getting married, both of them in my Bukit Bintang Sunday School class since I was a little boy of seven.

But what really made me feel my age was when another friend from Sunday School, who married just last year, was celebrating the birth of his firstborn son some four days ago. You could hear the joy in his voice of this new experience as a first time father, describing the messy birthing experience at the Assunta Hospital, and also how the wife was going through a period of confinement right now.

In Malaysia, in the Chinese community, there are confinement ladies who look after the mother for a period of time after delivery. These ladies are paid handsomely for their experience in looking after both mother and child, brewing herbal remedies and dealing with the aches and pains of the recovery process.

It was wonderful hearing him describe all these things, as both Western medicine brought his baby to the world and Eastern traditions cared for mother and child after the birthing process. This magical swirl of science and mysticism, of best practise and traditional values, firmly reminded me once more that I was home.