A spare and a carer

In the 60s, a young woman got married and soon after that, she was happy to learn that she was expecting a child for she would be looked down upon if she was barren. After 9 months, she was disappointed when she gave birth to a baby girl for as a Chinese, she was expected to bear a son to carry on the family's name. Never mind, she told herself, I will have another child and she did, the very next year.

She was fortunate that her next child was a son, the much needed child. With her main responsibility fulfilled, she concentrated fully on her job as a clerk, letting her mother-in-law take care of both her children. She was satisfied with her life.

After 6 years, her mother-in-law took her aside and told her sternly to have another child. One boy was not enough. There must be a spare. And being the dutiful daughter-in-law that she was, she conceived again and was lucky to give birth to a baby boy. Now my family is complete, she thought and she turned her attention back to her job, now as the chief clerk in the same company that she has worked for since she left school.

Another 9 years went by and this time it was her own mother who asked her to have another child. It had to be a girl, to take care of her during her old age for daughters take better care of mothers than sons, she was told. Being an obedient daughter, she conceived again and her prayers were answered, a baby girl was born and she resumed working, still as a chief clerk.

The day finally came when she retired as chief clerk after working in the same company for 35 years. For a few years after that she enjoyed herself by travelling around the world a bit.

Then her body failed her and she took to her bed. Her first child has her own family and children so she was too busy to take care of her. Her second child gave her two grandsons to carry on the family name but only visits once a year.

Lucky for her that she listened to her elders because although her two younger children were married but they chose to remain child free so the youngest daughter cooked for her and visited her as much as she could and her younger "spare" son moved back to live with her to look after her full time.

Now who would have thought that having a spare and a designated-to-be-her-old-age-carer baby girl would work out so well. Neither did she. She just had them to keep the two old ladies from pestering her. But in the end, it really did work out well. She was really pleased.

Finally!

A big thank you to all of you who left comments with well wishes because with your encouragement, I managed to pass level 500 today and caught up with the game developer's release schedule. Now will wait for new levels to be released.

For the record, I did not use any real money to get special items and extra moves. Not that it matters anyway although it is better for the game developer if I did that. But I must confess I did use 20 virtual gold bars out of the foc 30 virtual gold bars that were given by the game developer to get extra moves to pass level 419 on 25 Sept 2013 (Wed).

The longest time that I was stuck on a level is for about 1 and a half months (from end July to early Sept) on level 410. That was the toughest level for me. I thought I would never pass it.

As to why I play this game: I find it very relaxing to play this game after a long day at the office. The candies are so colourful and pretty.

Once again, thank you all for your support! :D

Candy

One more episode to go - another 15 levels. The final level now is 500, can I catch up?

Farewell

Around the last few weeks of the year 1999, you wandered into our garden and adopted us as your family. You were a lovely kitten then and over the years you grew into a gentle cat and secured a place in our hearts. After leaving us on 11 Sep this year, we miss you very much but we know that you are in a better place now. May you rest in peace.

Stylish

I would like to thank Claire (www dot reanaclaire dot com) for the lovely key chain she sent me. Thanks, Claire. I like your handwriting - very stylish - just look at the capital H and M.

I would also like to thank Wenn (wenn-experiences dot blogspot dot com ) for the microfiber cloth (about 10" x 11") she sent me for leaving comments on her blog daily. The colour of the cloth is very nice. I am still keeping it nicely and have not used it yet.

You are both very nice ladies and I just love reading your blogs because they are updated very frequently. Happy blogging! :)

Result

A very big thank you to:

wenn
Somewhere in Singapore
reana claire
myweddingbells
Sue Ann
ykristen
Small Kucing
Willie a.k.a Reptoz
Agnes
Amy
cquek
What I Did Today

for leaving a comment in my previous post so please email me your postal address so that I can send you a small token of appreciation apart from wenn, somewhere in singapore and ykristen because I already have the postal address of the 3 of you. :)
As the two mini jigsaw puzzles are still available, please email me if you would like to have them or know someone who would like to have them. The pieces are quite small so it will only be suitable for children or adults who are very, very patient and love jigsaw puzzles.

For those who have indicated that they would prefer the toy building bricks, I have used the random-picker from www dot miniwebtool dot com to do the selection and the result is as shown below - Sue Ann! Congrats!

Hope to hear from all of you soon!

Giveaways

Thank you to everyone who answered my previous post.

The photograph in my previous post was taken at the intersection of Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, opposite the shopping center named Lot 10. Jalan means Road or Street in the Malay language.

This area is located within the Golden Triangle which is the main shopping district in Kuala Lumpur. Some of the shopping malls around here are Pavilion KL, Starhill Gallery, Lot 10 and Sungai Wang Plaza. The thing I like about the photo is that I managed to capture the monorail train in it. Now moving on to the topic of this post.

I am having a giveaway as it is the anniversary of my blog in a few days time. Everyone is a winner here as everyone who participates will get a small gift of appreciation.

As all of you know, I love mini jigsaw puzzles so I am giving away two packs of them to share this joy of playing mini puzzles with you all. Also I would like children to have fun too so I am giving away a small box of toy building bricks as shown in the photo below.

To participate, all you need to do is to leave me a comment before 11am 18 September 2013 (Wednesday) and indicate which game you would like to get:

a) mini puzzle of Donald Duck and Chip and Dale
b) mini puzzle of Donald Duck and Daisy Duck or
c) 3 in 1 toy building bricks (for this category, please let me know who this is for - your children or your friends' children).

Since everyone who participates will be getting a small token of appreciation, please also send me your postal address via email to zhengmun2 at gmail dot com. Please be assured that I will not disclose your details to anyone else, the postal address will solely be used to send you your gift.

For the winners, when you have completed the jigsaw puzzle or your children have completed putting together the toy building bricks, please take a photo of it, blog about it and let me know. You will then receive another small gift.

Have fun!