Another Passing

My uncle, the second son of my grandfather, (my dad was the third) passed away last week on Wed. I was away on an overseas work trip and managed to rush back in time for his funeral. It was a simple one, as any funerals should be, but I am just hoping that my cousin will now find the strength to fill his dad's shoes and to bring the whole family through this time and to the future. I say this because it is not a joke to be handed such responsibility and to have many dispute it. The mother will of course say that now she is the eldest and the most senior and therefore should be the leader and the other sibblings may not want to listen. Leadership is not a power invested in someone, but is gained by someone. I am using my own example because I faced the same problems when my own dad passed. I did not want a power struggle and am glad that it was avoided. Now I can safely assume my postion without much hassle from anyone as all the relatives now can see that through the last few years, I have grown into the role. My mom is now getting more senile and unfortunately she is proving it to all. She was calling Nick, my cousin Mark. She kept telling his mother "where is Nic?? Mark is here"? Man... sometimes it does feel like it is an uphill climb and the one without the stamina will ultimately be lost.

Death is not a problem, it is being alive that really does make things hard for all of us. In Dying, we go into another plane of existence. Though I do not really believe in an afterlife or what, or even heaven and hell, I do believe that we will exist in another environment and in another way.... It is the same with the universe... It started with a bang, will die and will restart again... In all its vastness...

I do wish my uncle peace and do hope that now he is happy. I am glad that we did have our chance in Lunar New Year to show him my daughter and family and for him to put his seal of approval on the way my life had become. I live by the tenets of my own beliefs, but I also apply a lot of beliefs and principals my dad has taught me and I guess that this is what I will pass down to my own children.

The Bane of old age....

What is the worst thing about growing old? Growing old of course... It may sound like a joke, but a joke it is not. You get old, the things you could as a strapping young man gets less. You get more serious and chronic sickness and yet your responsiblities get more. What is so good about growing old? I have no idea my friends.... Especially in our little red dot, where we only have at most 2 children, imagine the strain we have on them as we grow old and are unable to look after ourselves. In the years gone past, we had 5 or 6 children... Even if some died due to not being cared for properly, there will at least be a few... Now our little precious ones... we have no spare tires and therefore we over protect our little ones... Now that will not and does not equate to our little ones protecting us ok?

Further to this, imagine, now each side of the coin, (our little ones) the husband and the wife have to take care of both side's parents... Dat means 2 children looking after 4 parents... if they are only children... My GOD!!! How can we afford??? If you take the example of my Energizer Rabbit... you will understand.... If she goes for 10k trips every year, imagine if you have 2 sets of parents??? You cannot favour one or the other.... And if they are divorced and take seperate trips... you are really well and trully screwed... You can say good bye to any life or leaving anything for your kids because you have to look after your parents... And then you will see that the children will also have to fight... Over assets??? No sir!!! Over who can claim tax relief for looking after the parents....

Wake up people... we are well and truly being screwed here!! Nothing against old people... I love them and do my bit for charity every few months or so... But hey.... that is because I can afford it.... (but not for long man)... I wonder if giving to the energizer doing my bit for the old... At the rate she is burning money... she is doing enough for at least 4 people.... Haizzzzz....

But a bit of good news... My little monster seems to be able to say "Daddy". Well it would have been much simpler to teach her how to say "papa" but seems like stupid wife thinks that it is cooler for a half japanese to be able to say "Daddy" instead of papa and she also thinks it is easier... But stupid monster, as always, fails to respond according to demand... Not like pay TV... she will say "mama or daddy" only when she feels like it or when she is in one of her booms... Booms as in when she is in a mood to do something and keeps on doing it... Just like when she waved goodbye... she was in that bloody mood for a few days and kept waving to everyone... but when we asked to wave to her grandma or aunt, monster will not do so... Humph.... Gotta sell her on ebay soon man.....