90 years old!

It was my paternal grandfather's 90th birthday last weekend. So we went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Booked 3 tables earlier and invited a few closed relatives.


The first table was for the first generation of the family, consisting of my grandfather, grand-uncles and grand-aunties.

The second table was for the second generation consisting of my parents, aunties and uncles.

The second generation. That's the 'birthday boy', standing in the middle in white. That's my mom standing at the back in pink and my father behind her, almost hidden.

And of course the third table was occupied by the third generation, namely me and my cousins.

The third generation wishing the birthday boy....

Since we're Hokkien, we tried to wish him in Hokkien for fun. But none of us in the third generation speaks the language! So we had to ask our grand-uncle to translate for us before passing the message to my grandfather. Don't ask me how to say 'Happy Birthday' in Hokkien. I forgot the moment the words came out of my mouth :p

Singing the birthday song......

We were seated on the first floor of the restaurant. At first there were other families having dinner on the same floor. But after some time, they left so we had the whole floor to ourselves! My uncles started singing karaoke. Soon everyone joined in. I was shy at first. But after some persuasion, I joined in :p

Things got real crazy when my aunties started dancing! I was again shy at first. I was never really closed to relatives in my father's side. But it's such a happy occassion, my grandfather was really happy and even my grand-uncles and grand-aunties (who have always looked strict I was sometimes scared of them :p) started dancing! So again I joined in the fun. They even partnered me up with my father for cha-cha hehehe....

Anyway, they were really surprised to see me dance. Guess to them, I have always been this shy and quiet bookworm cousin of theirs :p

So I told them about my dancing lessons :p

My grandfather was dancing on the little stage with my aunties by his side. Look how happy he was.

Posing with my beautiful cousins. I was the most casual in jeans.

Took a picture with my grandfather and an auntie.

We left the restaurant around 11 pm and gathered at my grandfather's place. Naturally, two mahjong tables were set up :p

While the first and second generations were busy playing mahjong, we proceeded to a story-telling session! With my grandfather as the story-teller, surrounded by his grandchildren as the audience. Stories travelled back to his childhood in China (he's born in Malaysia but moved back to China with his mom who was ill, and later brought back to Malaysia by his father). After the story-telling session, we played a simple game of message delivery. My grandfather would whisper some Hokkien phrases to the person next to him, and the message would be delivered until it reached the last person. I was unlucky to be the last person, where some 2-syllable phrases could end up sounding like 3-syllable vulgar words! And I had to shout those words out!

Overall, it was a happy occasion. After all, it's not everyday that we get to celebrate 90th birthday. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from my grandfather's lifestyle. I remember he used to jog every morning in a white singlet, short pants and a small towel hung around his neck. After that, he'd cycled to town. When he's not moving around, he'd be watching TV, ranging from TVB drama series, Taiwanese Hokkien drama series, Hollywood movies to Bollywood movies. No kidding! He likes Bollywood movies! I enjoy discussing storyline and drama plots with him hehee...
And during the weekend, my father and uncles will go over to play mahjong with him.

By the way, I'm the eldest of the third generation who carries the family name! I'm not my grandfather's eldest grandchild, but those who are elder are my aunties' children, and my grand-uncles' grandchildren (who carry the family name) are all very young. That makes me the eldest! I wonder if this means I'm the 长子的孙 (eldest grandchild)... or does the term only apply to grandson?

Anyway, it's not as if my grandfather owns a large estate or a hotel empire to be passed down to me :p

Else, I would not be sitting here blogging. Maybe I'd still blog. But I would blog about the limited edition milk bowl I bought for my chi hua hua :p

Or I would be off sun-basking in some islands or sandy beaches. Or busy cutting my new self-sponsored album or movie. Or just busy with manicure, pedicure, shopping in New York, Paris, Milan, London... see? I would be so busy I'd never have heard of England :p

Ok, back to reality.