31 May2025 – Condolences to cousin Susannah&family and to cousin Edith for the loss their brother,bro-in-law,uncle, Klaus(1961-2025). He will be missed and may he now RIP.
Fond&good memories of cousin KlausLAM (1961-2025) vivid memory when we first met Christmas/1969. He was proudly pulling at his elastic bow-tie showing me how it worked! He was 8 and I 19 – father to Klaus, 15Uncle&family were packing to move from London/UK to Canada then.
Apr2008: Klaus being a hiker too and a delightful company to be with much to catch up&chat about. Appreciate his wake-up morning coffees, good company at PortMoodyBC/Canada, drive to HorseshoeBay, car-ferry to VancouverIsland landing on Nanaimo & drive to CampbellRiver. The journey from PortMoody-CampbellRiver is ~5hrs including the ferry ride. Feeling so blessed&grateful to have had that time with him.
The last note from him was CNY2024 when he told me that he was in no condition to hike and to acknowledge CNY-cookies.
Wed: May off to work early morning and I got admitted to RafflesHospital by ambulance in the afternoon. Last here was Jun2020 for cholecystitis/infected gallbladder – this time acute asthma attack triggered off by some infection.
Enjoyed the room with a view despite
being hooked with intravenous antibiotics&steroid drips on one side and Nebulizer&oxygen on the other side.
Typical hospital food, decent&nourishing – fills you up when you have to be there for 3nights.
The hospital is a place where we go when we are sick, but it is the doctors&nurses who bring healing and hope.
Sat: back to the 4-walls and hopefully with some rest+sleep will be better. Hospitals take care of the diagnoses,operations,medications,etc to get you on your feet, but not a very restful place! Happy Tuen Ng/Cantonese 端午節 also known as Dragon Boat Festival. Enjoy your zongzi 粽子 (China) bak-zhang (SIN).
The festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar and this year it is on 31May. The focus of the celebrations includes eating the rice dumpling zongzi and racing dragon boats.
Commemorates the life and death of the famous Chinese scholar QuYuan who was a loyal minister serving the King of Chu during the Warring States Period in the third century BCE. His wisdom antagonized other court officials resulting to his accusation of charges of conspiracy, During his exile, QuYuan composed many poems to express his anger and sorrow. At age 37 he drowned himself in the Milo River. Knowing that QuYuan was a righteous man, the people of Chu rushed to the river to try to save him but were unsuccessful. Every year the DragonBoatFestival is celebrated to commemorate this attempt at rescuing QuYuan.
The people began the tradition of throwing sacrificial cooked rice into the river for their lost hero. However, a local fisherman had a dream that QuYuan did not get any of the cooked rice that was thrown into the river in his honour. Instead the fish in the river were eating the rice. Thus, the locals decided to make zongzi to sink into the river in the hopes that it would reach QuYuan’s body. The following year, the tradition of wrapping the rice in bamboo leaves to make zongzi began.
