The story of a not-so-important person continued...

As my command of Chinese language is not so well and limited, I have to switch back to English language in order to continue my story. I think I had left out some details in the previous post. Suddenly, memories begin to flush out.

I was a mischievous child since I was born. My parents told me that I loved to travel. I would cry on that night if I did not get the chance to have a ride. My father could not afford to buy a car at that time. He had to borrow my uncle’s car at night to take me to have some fresh air around the town. My mother had to carry and comfort me while we were taking the ride. After some time, I would sleep soundly in my mother’s arms. They should have a hard time then. Now, I wonder that whether I can treat them as good as they treat me or not. My parents also told me that I fell from a motorcycle when I was two or three years old. They said I climbed onto a motorcycle parked out my grandparents’ house and then I fell down. I could not recall whether the motorcycle was belonged to any of my relatives. I had a scar on the right side of my forehead. I do not have a motorcycle license now. My parents said that riding a motorcycle on the road would be dangerous. After I recalled this incident, it might be one of the reasons my parents did not allow me to take the motorcycle license. From this incident, it showed that I really loved to travel. It was funny.

I forgot to mention my relatives as well. Some of them loved to have me around also. My eldest uncle would bring me to have a one day trip with his family occasionally when he came back to visit his mother, who was my mother’s mother also. I still remembered that my aunt, who only could speak in Chinese and Hokkien, loved to tease me in Chinese. I could hardly understand her at that time. It was funny when she spoke in Cantonese. She would speak with me in Chinese every time she saw me and would ask whether I had learned to speak in Chinese. As for my second uncle, I could not recall any memories with him. He passed away when I was studying in university because of lung cancer. He had followed his father’s footstep. My grandfather passed away because of lung cancer also while I was studying in secondary school. It is the reason why I hate smoking so much. I tried to smoke before while I was studying in primary school. I lighted back the cigarette left over that was thrown by my grandfather. I tried to smoke when no one noticed. It was the only time that I took a puff. I still remembered the taste.

My third uncle has two daughters when I was staying with my grandparents. The elder daughter is older than me by one year and the younger daughter is younger than me by one year. We used to play together. We played “Hide-and-Seek”, “Chase-and-Run”, “Masak-masak (Cooking)”, “Eagle-and-chicks” and so on. We used the Milo container and candle to play “Masak-masak”. We cooked the leaves that we picked from the trees in my grandparents’ house compound. When some wax was put onto the leaves and with a candle lighted inside the container, it was similar to real cooking. One of the amazing things that my cousins could do was to go through a window frame. My grandparents’ house was an old wooden house. Thus, the window used was not same as the modern one. It was separated by a few steel rods. The gap between two rods was narrow. However, both of them could go from this side of the window to the other side of the window.

My youngest uncle was the one who loved me the most. He had not married yet at that time. He had a girlfriend then. They were both working in Genting Highlands casino as a croupier. He treated me just like his son. He had a video game. He let me to play it when he came back to visit my grandparents. The brand of the video game was Micro Genius. I think it is still exist currently. It was the first time that I played games, which did not require me to move around. I found that it was very enjoyable and was excited while playing it. It was the earliest stage that I was addicted to games. It became my second entertainment apart from watching Hong Kong drama with my grandmother. He also gave me an old walkman (For those who had never heard of this term before; it was the precedent of Discman and mp3). I still remembered that “草蜢(Grasshopper )” was quite famous at that time. I loved their songs also. It was relaxing and could make you dance at the same time.

Once a while, he would bring me to Genting Highlands. Thus, Genting Highlands is not an alien place to me. I would be staying with him in his staff quarter. The area prohibited the outsiders from entering but somehow he was able to “smuggle” me. The food there was very expensive except those in the staff canteen. A croupier was provided with free accommodation and the wages was quite attractive then. I still could recall a funny incident. I told my uncle that a friend of him had the pieces that he wanted while he was playing mahjong with his friends. I was exposed to mahjong when I was in kindergarten. My grandparents’ neighbour son, who was one of my friends, taught me how to play a game using mahjong. If I was not wrong, it was called Gin Rummy. I loved to Genting Highlands very much. I loved the fresh air there. I could also go to the outdoor and indoor theme park. There are rumours that Genting Highlands was haunted. There were so many ghost stories related to this famous tourist spot. However, I was not afraid and went there for countless of time.

My mother has a sister. She is the eldest among my grandparents’ children. She has a daughter and three sons. I could get along with her youngest son. We used to go to Genting Highlands. Sometimes my family would visit them in Sungai Siput, Perak.
Do you realize that I have been talking about only the relatives from my mother side? What about the relatives from my father side?

To be continued. . . stay tuned!