Saturday, October 09, 2004

Afterthoughts

Some afterthoughts after my grandfather's funeral today.

Ironically, I spent the most time alone with him in recent years, burning incense paper by his coffin. The other times were perhaps when I was still a toddler. I really have no idea at all.

On the brighter side, I'm now closer to my younger cousins. Jolene, who used to hide behind her mother every time she saw us, the older cousins, is now a bubbly young little girl who talks a lot! The only difference now is that she clings to her sister instead of her mother. But still, she has grown a lot from the shy little girl I used to know.

Her elder sister, Julie is now in secondary school and is singing in the school choir. Thus, we have a more common point of interest to talk about. I don't seem to have any cousin who plays any instrument. Guess my brother and I are the only ones!

My youngest cousin, Weiqiang is now in Primary 1. He's just so cute can! The other day, I was upstairs in the house when I saw him wake up from his nap. I just causally said: "Oh, wake up never brush your teeth ah?" The next thing I know, he was asking his mother where the toothpaste is because he wanted to brush his teeth. Cute right?

I also got to carry my younger nephew for the first time. So great, I'm an uncle now! A sign that one is getting old. Oh wait! That makes all my little cousins uncles and aunts too! I always think that it's so cute when a supposingly senior generation is younger than the junior one. My dad's uncle, for example, is more than 10 years younger than him! Not everyone gets to carry your uncle as a baby ya? But calling a baby uncle? -_-"

Somehow kids have this amazing ability to make us smile no matter what silly or smart things they do. Why is that so? I had a little debate over MSN over the usage of tian zhen for kids just now with my friends. Tian zhen in Chinese means naive. It can also mean childlike innocence. Yongxiang the jian huo said that kids are by default tian zhen, so you can't use that term on them. What say you?

My little cousins brought smiles to my uncles and aunts during the wake. My grandfather's death wasn't really a sudden one as he was sick for a very long time, so it wasn't exactly a very sad wake.

To digress a bit, he was in and out of hospital so often that all the nurses in the unit knew him. They even called him David Quek. Why? He didn't like it in hospital and on a few occasions somehow managed to disappear from his bed. The first couple of time was all right as he made his way home safely. The nurses had no choice but to tie him up subsequently. It seems that the tying had no effect at all because he still managed to untie himself and "escaped". Hence, they named him David after David Copperfield.

I saw how my uncle smiled while talking to my cousin. Maybe this is why shows like "Kids say the darnest things!" are ever so popular. I have no idea why the Singapore version hosted by Gurmit Singh flopped though! Perhaps we are all seeing too much of him anyway!

I shall post some photos of the little ones here soon!

The new Mandai Crematorium looks very nice. The downside is that it's quite secluded and inaccessible. My cousin commented that the architecture reminds him of the Esplanade to which I quite agree. The architecture was pretty calm and Zen-like. Solemn colours were used, the furnishing were keep to a minimum. Zen-like minimalism.

I don't think it's a place that anyone wants to go to at all but still, I thought it was quite well designed. It's different from Mount Vernon where you have the service hall and cremator in the same space. At Mandai, there's a service hall which reminds you of a church and after which you precede to a separate viewing hall. My dad said that it was a "departure hall" and I couldn't agree more. The downside is, you can only purchase one way ticket for this departure hall.

Reader might be wondering why I noticed all these in the midst of a funeral. I look around at more things to take my mind off things that I prefer not to be thinking of. It's also a habit that I've cultivated since my poly architecture days to look at the architecture of a building the first time I step into it. My lecturer once said this: "One day, you'll be so touched by architecture that you will just step into a magnificent building, be so touched and just kneel down and start crying!"

Perhaps, I think it would be better if I don't achieve this level of appreciation. People won't be surprised to see someone kneeling and crying at a crematorium but at an office building?

I'm glad to see that my grandfather's final resting place is so serene and beautiful. He won't be far from me; my camp is directly besides the columbium. Ok, I take back the serene part. The blasted shooting range is within hearing range. Sigh. Someone write a petition and get it shut down! It irritates me sometimes to hear the non-stop firing while at work. For Reader's info, the shooting range is smack in between the columbium and my working block, otherwise known as the White House.

Thank you all my friends who have sent me messages of condolences. This chapter is closed, time to move on!
fjozn at 10:46 PM