Adam Lambert performing Mad World at the season finaleMy parents went on a trip on my dad’s birthday and came back from on Friday afternoon to find the house had been burgled in their absence. The burglars ransacked two rooms and my dad’s book cabinet. So I had to go back on Saturday to help out (despite being notified on Friday, the police only came at 1 pm on Saturday and you cannot touch anything until they have come and looked at the crime scene). I got so angry just looking at the trail of destruction they left. Luckily my sister and family were home to help too.
What they took from my room: all the fragrances (EDP, EDT and EDC); Mummy’s brooches and jade bangle (that she bought when we went to Korea and Shanghai respectively) and the pearl necklace that I gave her (they didn’t take the pearl earrings though). I lost some money (a few hundred Ringgit and some foreign currencies) and a special edition coin, Christian Dior fashion jewelleries which I bought in London, an Anne Klein brooch and my old Olympus camera. Stupidly enough, they didn’t take the British pound coins that I stored in two film containers.
And thankfully they didn’t enter my parents’ bedroom or my handbags would probably be gone too.
It has always been a Mad World, exacerbated further by the financial crisis.
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Before Akak left later that Saturday afternoon, I found out that Big Brother does indeed have the dreaded C-disease.
Stage 4 C-disease, mind you, Stage 4.
He’s refusing surgery because that would subject him to post-surgery chemotherapy.
When I heard it, I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream and howl out my denial - surely it can’t be that bad, surely the disease is not that advanced, surely the doctors have made some mistake. I wanted to march over to him and shake him by the shoulders and scold him for his fatal addiction. But I didn’t. I wanted to turn back the years and undo everything. But I couldn’t.
I did cry myself to sleep later that night and on Sunday night. And I remembered the past. ‘I’m going to chase him around the housing area!’ I declared to my sister when she told me she heard that he had taken up smoking. I didn’t of course. He never smoked around us so we never knew if it was true.
And I remembered our past conversations way back when, after we knew for sure that he really had taken up smoking.
‘I’m going to quit smoking,’ he told me.
A few days later, I caught him smoking.
‘I thought you already quit smoking?’ I asked.
‘Yes, I stopped,’ he replied.
‘You stopped?’ I was confused.
‘Yes, I stopped the quitting,’ he said and gave me a wide grin intended to silence me.
Funny how I can still remember that conversation word-by-word today.
How I wish I had thrown up a tantrum then, to demand that he stopped there and then, to choose between his kid sister and the stupid stick. But would he have listened to a kid sister’s plea anyway?
And I remembered other bits of the past. He would call out only to me to open the door for him when he came back from anywhere. He would lie down and ask me to step on his body as a form of massage. I would look forward to him coming home during the summer holidays. (My brother was hardly at home as he went to boarding school at 13 - I was really small then - and flew directly to the UK after sitting for his O-Level-equivalent exams).
And I remember asking my parents when they took me aside one morning and told me I could not share a bedroom with him anymore. ‘Why?’ I asked confused. I didn’t know then.
Oh if only I could turn back the clock on that.
He’s refused chemotherapy. And what now?
What would you do if you know your days are numbered?
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Roger Federer finally won his first ever French Open at Roland Garros to become only the sixth man to win all four Grand Slams and equalling Pete Sampras’ total of 14 Grand Slams. Congratulations FedEx for delivering!
To me, he’s just the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Even on his knees, he’s just the bee’s knees.
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