My Grandson

Years ago, grandparents loved to tell stories to their grandchildren. I remember my grandmother used to tell me stories about her life and sometimes her love story with grandfather. Nowadays, the world is rapidly changing. Very few grandparents have the inclination or motivation to spend time sharing their stories with their grandchildren these days. This may due to the younger generation  having more avenues and electronic devices e.g. computers, iPads, hand phones etc to keep themselves entertained. I think it is sad that many grandparents these days have less opportunities to spend uninterrupted times with their grandchildren. My aunt once told me how her grandchildren showed her no respect and another friend of mine told me how her grandchildren talked down to her. It is upsetting and sad to see this happening. I wonder if this is a result of not spending enough time in each other's company for bonding to occur.

My parents were from Singapore and were transferred to North Borneo for work in the 1950's. Every year, when my parents were on leave, we would all go back to Singapore to see our grandparents. There were no planes in those days, so we travelled by ship called "Kimanis", "Kunak" or "Double". I remembered it would would take about a week to reach Singapore from Kota Kinabalu ( or Jesselton as it was known at that time). When the ship docked at Singapore's port, we had to transfer to smaller boats known as "Bumboats" to be ferried to the land. It was exciting even as it was bumpy.😂These boats are now used for river rides for the tourists at the Singapore River. Even though my time with my grandmother was short ( the longest I can remember was a month), I managed to enjoy my time with my grandmother because she liked to tell us stories including about the "moon"😂! I remember all the visits and stories very fondly.

Photo of me, standing in the middle, at Singapore port in the early 60's 😁

Since I am unable to tell stories to my grandson, like my grandmother did to me, I decided to write a book dedicated to him. I hope that in writing my stories for him to read, he will understand the reason why I did not spend enough time with him as his grandma because I was working abroad most of the time. Hopefully he will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them for him and something he can pass on from generation to generation

Teamwork of a grandmother and her grandson 

The above simple art was my grandson's imaginary "sea world" trip with me on the 10th April 2010. It all began when I asked my grandson, what his dream was. As a young boy of almost 6 years old, he was already very imaginative like me. He said, he wished to go under the sea to see all kinds of sea creatures especially the whales. He must be watching the Disney cartoon  "the Mermaid" at that time! So, I bought him a packet of stickers with different kinds of sea creature which cost less than Rm2. With a drawing paper, I painted a few sea weeds with water colour and added some light blue colour to the painting to make it look like in the sea. Then I asked him to put his imaginary visit to this sea world with me. We pasted our favourite sea creatures on the drawing. His was mostly the whales and mine were sea horses. We both pasted the stickers until there were none left. When we finished, I asked him to write down his name, the date, and helped him spelled out the title of his imaginary trip😂😂.

We totally enjoyed the "imaginary trip" together and it remains a meaningful moment for me. We used unwanted boxes to make the picture frame and hung it up on the wall and I am so proud to say it has lasted the rest of time as it is still intact in my home till now😄. It is indeed a lovely memento of an afternoon with my grandson.

There were 2 scuba divers sticker. He pasted one and I, the other. Then we added our signatures😂

Helping him to spell out the title of his trip

Our 1st trip to Brunei by road together. 
Early March 2009, my daughter was sent outstation for work in Brunei for a week. As a mother myself, I felt her pain and decided to do what most mothers would do- Interfere🤭.
I  decided to take her son (my grandson) to unite with his mother and an added benefit , mother to unite with her daughter.😂 You can read the full story of it if you are interested. just click to this link, Borneo by road.

Our first road trip to Brunei together in 2009. 

Crossing Sarawak and Brunei river on a ferry.

Our first movie show together in the cinema in  March 2009.

The show was an animated features movie "Dragon Ball".

A six year old excitement versus his grandma.😅 But it was a joy to see the excitement on his face and knowing I had a hand in it.😁

Our first oversea trip together to Hong Kong in 2009

Brendan enjoying his ice cream after a hot day at the harbour.

Trip to Hong Kong Disneyland together

Hong Kong Disneyland version 2009

Anaheim Disneyland, America where his mother had been before when she was 6yrs old!

He did what his mother did, took a ride on "Dumbo" but he was braver, He rode alone happily😂

Like mother like son😂

His mom who was 6yrs old that time, riding "Dumbo" at Anaheim Disneyland, America.

His favourite: Mickey and Mimi mouse

Entrance ticket to Hongkong space museum

Posing with the astronaut's spacesuit.

Exhausted but he still wants to continue😂😂

How time flies. He used to be so cute like this😁 

He can't act cute any more but, he is now my handsome grandson. He is very caring  and stays close to me especially when we are out walking incase I trip. Oh...how sweet.. At the moment I am still capable  and independent but it feels good to have a strong young man showing care and concern for his grandma 💓.

Updated photo-13.6 2023

It was Brendan's 19th birthday and so I decided to give him a surprise. I made this special cake for him. It is a great change from the usual store bought cake. 

His favourite fruits are apples and mangoes and so the fruit balls were apple and mangoes.

I saw this kind of cake made by Boone Bake in Utube. 

I only change the fruits to mangoes and apple. 

On my 60's birthday, he bought me a cute little granite egg pan with his own pocket money. 

It looks like a small gift but the choice of the gift reflects how well he knows his grandmother.

 Every time I fry an egg using this pan, I would think of him 😂.TQ Brendan ❤️. 

On my 65th birthday when I was having breakfast at my favourite coffee shop with a friend, he suddenly appeared right in front of me, just to say, "Happy birthday, grandma!" with a small simple cake and it was my favourite little cheese cake! That was double happiness for me. It was so good to see him again as I had not seen him a while after he had left for college and shared the cake with everyone in the family for breakfast at the coffee shop. It was one of the best birthdays I ever had.😁 

Brendan driving us out for shopping. 😂

I am grateful to our Good Lord🙏 for allowing us to survive to this age to enjoy the company of our grown up grandson to drive us around for shopping and so willingly carrying heavy shopping bags. It is indeed a great help as with age, we struggle to carry items such as cartons of milk, cooking oil, rice etc.
Brendan makes growing old easy.💓😘