A Series of Unfortunate Events

The day after D's dad's funeral, D having taken the day off, we went to KLCC and caught the movie "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events". Certainly the right movie to lift up the spirit, we thought, as we considered our lives in comparison with those of the 3 unfortunate orphan protagonists, the Baudelaire siblings. It was quite well-made, to our pleasant surprise, with Jim Carrey playing the villain Count Olaf in his various personas or disguises to the hilt. It is based on the first 3 of Snicket's books of the same title. He's planning to write 13 in all (every book containing 13 chapters) and is up to Book the Eleventh. I had only read the first, called "The Bad Beginning". I had thought it a witty and easy read though unremittingly pessimistic, and I took the author's advice to stop reading the rest of the sad vicissitudes, the word here meaning "the sudden or unexpected changes or shifts often encountered in one's life, activities, or surroundings" in the lives of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire.

Well, the movie piqued (meaning to provoke or arouse) my curiosity, since I had only read the first book and the movie had unfortunately included events which were apparently from the later books. Fortunately for me, Ethan has the whole series in his room so I started taking Book the Second, then the Third, then the Fourth and so on, till now I'm at Book the Tenth, all in less than 2 months. As I said, they're easy reads, though unremittingly gloomy in outlook.

So what kept me going on? It's the play and fun with words, the definitions and explanations of words, phrases, expressions, which, mind you, are not always correct. Everything is tongue-in- cheek and deadpan (which means "impassively matter-of-fact, as in style, behavior, or expression).

But also, it's the fact that the writer has very cleverly and sneakily leaked clues and some answers in each book making the reader go on to the next book to find more clues and a few answers only. And I have a weakness for mysteries, especially murder mysteries. Hopefully, the whole mystery of why the children's parents and so many other people were killed, and who really are the VDF will be finally revealed, although it would be too farfetched to hope that the children and their triplet friends will live happily ever after.

Widows

My mother-in-law is 76 and can only speak in her mother tongue, the Chinese dialect of Hainanese, with a smattering of some of the other dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese. She had never gone to school in her younger days and after marriage in her early 20's, for over 50 years, she depended on her husband who was fluent in the Chinese, English and Malay languages to interpret for her: every sermon or speech in church, every movie or news on the tv, the newspapers or magazines he read. He tried to teach her some Mandarin, but she didn't seem to have the gift for languages. Or maybe she didn't try too hard. After all, he was always there, explaining things and answering questions. And she was kept busy in the kitchen cooking all his favourite dishes, besides those of her children and grandchildren.

Now that he is gone, she wants to learn to read the Bible in Chinese. And this is thanks to Aunt Mei, her younger sister who had also lost her husband to liver cancer some 10 years ago. Aunt Mei used to work in a bank and now retired with 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren, she spends her time with one or other of them or at home in Penang, but all the time, praying, praising, singing and talking about the Lord wherever she is. She is with her sister now for 2 or 3 weeks, doing all that and encouraging her to learn to read and speak Mandarin, to depend on the Lord. As she says in her broken English, "I tell my sister, I am alone but I am not alone. God is always with me."

Then there is Malliga, whose husband John died in July last year. Malliga had never worked outside the home: from her mother's house, she went to live with John and continued to cook and clean and serve her husband and then an adopted daughter. She can read and write English and Tamil, and is supported by her family and her church, the Tamil Methodist Church in Ipoh. She can cook the best dhall, chicken curry and thosai in the whole country, and whenever we visit, as we did last Thursday, we get to eat all that finger-lickin' great Indian food, followed by the best steaming hot teh tarik. She also sews and earns a little from sewing curtains and clothes.

The house is quiet without John's loud boisterous voice calling her for this and that, from the moment he wakes till he sleeps. 14 year old Nisha goes to school and then for tuition for every subject ("Tuition is my hobby, " she says), and at home, it's homework all the time. That's the life of a typical Malaysian student. Thankfully, she has her cousins and church youth fellowship to keep her weekends and holidays full. And she has a mother who, like the wife of noble character of Proverbs 31, is clothed with strength and dignity, and can laugh at the days to come, who watches over her and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

Borders in KL

Yesterday was the opening of the long awaited biggest bookstore in Malaysia, Borders in the Berjaya Times Square in KL. We went, of course, after having been told the news by a friend (also a book lover) on the phone... we don't usually buy the daily newspapers.

"Mom, can we go crazy now?," Elliot asked, as we approached the entrance with heightening anticipation and excitement. The boys and I could hardly contain ourselves: two floors of shelves and shelves of unwrapped books nicely arranged with wide aisles and occasional benches and sofas for readers. There were also sections for music and movies, CD's and DVD's, Starbucks and another cafe and decorative items and knick-knacks. The prices seem to be about the same or higher than the other bookshops, except for the bargain buys that are displayed on tables in the open areas.

David joined us later from the office and we bought 2 cookbooks and a historical novel by Umberto Eco, all from the bargain buys. After a quick dinner, I drove back to the church for my line dancing class while the guys stayed back to browse some more and then to catch the movie "Robots" at the IMAX theatre.

"Is KL joining the civilised world at last?" David asked. I hope so, I hope people take care of the books and not mistreat them. I did see one book pushed into the shelf with its cover jutting out and had to put it back properly. It's sad. Kinokuniya in KLCC started out with unwrapped books but now every book there is tightly wrapped with plastic. There may be one open for browsing or you'll have to ask the staff to unwrap one for you to check it.

History Alive

I love history and now I get to learn it all over or mostly, for the first time, with the boys. We're doing Roman history and reading the excellent Augustus Ceasar's World by Genevieve Foster as well as the Story of the Word - History for the Classical Child by Susan Wise Bauer. We read aloud Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar and it's true I enjoy it more than the boys.

Besides that, we have the historical fiction readers which make history come to life by transporting you back to long ago far away times and places, populated with real people like ourselves, young and old: books like Mara, Daughter of the Nile and The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Hittite Warrior and God King by Joanne Williamson, etc...

I just read about Cicero, Rome's foremost orator, writer and senator, who was killed by the Triumvirate who took over after the assassination of Julius Ceasar. He had once said about death, "When the time comes, I shall withdraw from life, not as one leaves home, but as from a temporary lodging place. On that brightest of all days, when I depart from the confusion of this world, I shall set out, I believe, for a far-off divine gathering of spirits...
But, if I am mistaken, in that I believe men's souls to be immortal, I am glad to be mistaken...
And all my life I shall continue to believe it..."

This was said before December 7, 43 B.C., the day of Cicero's death. B.C. - before Christ, before the Word became flesh and revealed God in full.

Number our days

So... it's been almost 6 months since I last posted. I thought I'd never write again... sigh.... Life is happening too fast for me! But... I can't just stop writing after that last entry... as if after Bush wins, everything's A-okay now.

D's dad went to be with the Lord on March 20, almost 9 months to the day after he was diagnosed with the liver cancer. By God's mercy, he had special times with family and old friends who came from far and near to visit and renew old ties, and he had time especially to encourage his faithful, constant wife, telling her that he did not want to eat anymore because he was going to have a feast in heaven. He said he saw the gates of heaven and his brother, who had passed on recently of the same disease, waiting for him. Throughout the 9 months and at the end, he did not suffer much pain, amazingly. His youngest daughter, May Lyn, was with him at his last moments, having just come back from Australia where she's doing postgraduate studies since February.

As it is written in Revelation 15: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

Hundreds of thousands upon thousands have died in the earthquake and tsunami on the day after Christmas last, and thousands more in the earthquake on the day after Easter.

Daily, more die of bomb blasts everywhere and in Malaysia, of gruesome traffic accidents and some rape-murders.

Death... we hear of it, see it happen to others, but try not to think of it happening to us, as it will one day. Yes, as it is appointed unto men once to die...

I will pray the words of Moses in Psalm 90:

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."