Reminiscing Some Old Rhymes

ah cheong suk is a cut-throat hawker
chee cheong fun, eh!, chee cheong fun
he marries a wife, who is a soh lou guai
whose father's name is dai tau guai
they all live in yat pun gai
chee cheong fun, eh!, chee cheong fun

Yesterday I woke up especially early to call Li Ling, haven't spoken to her for a long time. But I guess I was too late, so I thought I might as well try calling home. Dad picked up the phone, and we talked for a good 15 minutes. 'twas the usual questions from him: how's brother doing, how is the internship search going, how's this how's that. My turn: how are things back home, how's mom coping with lil brother gone overseas and so much free time to spare, bla bla bla.

My dad. So strict, especially when I was a little girl. He refused to buy me Tic-Tac even after me begging him for the whole day! And I'm not exaggerating!! It was literally the whole day, when we were in Spore visiting some relatives. Same was the day when I was 'forgotten' at the foot of the escalator - they forgot to hold my hand while stepping on to the moving stairs and I was too afraid to do it alone and I panicked and started crying. What's worse was that it wasn't until then that they noticed they left me there alone. tsk tsk, terrible! What a scare!! I thought I was a goner! And you'd thought after such a horrible incident, he'd buy me something to cheer me up. But nooo!!! No such thing for my dad. I was only 4 okayyyy at that time. :(

He never bought ice-cream for us, said it's bad for teeth. He never allowed us to watch tv when he's around, said it's bad for eyes and it'll make us fail in class. He always said no to our requests for fast food, said it's bad for health. But then it got better as he grew older and became more mellow. I still remembered the 1st time I saw him picking up a box of ice-cream in Yu Hong, this supermarket next to the place I went for piano lessons. I was shocked! Dumbstruck!!! haha funny.

But apart from all his strict ways of teaching kids, he has his own sense of humor lah, I'll give him that. He taught us that old song above, I think he mentioned he learned it when he was a boy scout or something. I thought the lyrics was really really funny when I first heard it, and I still think so. :) And there's another song about calamine lotion which I forgot how it goes. Gotta ask him. Which reminds me of another old tune about all the Japanese brand names, sung by an oji-san we once knew. It goes like "Aijinomoto~~ Kawasaki! Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki! National, EverReady, Sanyo~~ Hitachi...." Haaha definitely one of the uncanny yet comical tunes I know of. :)

Anyways. Despite everything, he's still a pretty great dad, he really is. Hmmm... why is this sounding so much like a father's day's post?! A bit too mushy for a winter day. Okay stopping here. Ciao!