Piano exam

This is it.....the finale.

The boy will be taking his Grade 8 music exam today. He has been religiously & conscientiously practising for weeks now, esp the last few days (& nites).

May he play not for himself, not for us his parents, not for his music teacher but for the glory of God.

Amen.

My father's son

I had a bit of a rollercoaster growing up.

My father used to work with the British army in Singapore. We were quite financially well off. Staying in the clan's home, we had 2 rooms & we were the 1st family with a TV. We eventually moved out to our own home.

When the Brits withdrew, he was laid off. We tightened our belts during this difficult period. He then worked for a while with a timber company in Temerloh (Pahang) & then Paka (Trengganu), which means he was away from home a lot. When the company closed down, he came back & became a driving instructor. I still mention with much pride that I was taught by him.

He's always been thrifty in his spending. In fact, when we go to the supermarket, he'll just wait outside because he said he has nothing to buy while we filled our trolley with groceries.

I still retained that DNA. Which is why I was ecstatic when I found this ......

After all, I AM my father's son. I think I'll wear this to church tomorrow.

ambition

my son says he wants to be a pilot. either that, or play for Manchester United.

my daughter says she wants to do internal medicine. either that, or cancer research.

i feel it's good to have an ambition. at least, there's something to look forward, and work towards, to. an objective to focus & channel one's energy & time.

but the wise man has this to say....

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. (prov 19:21)

i should know. after all i wanted to be a bus conductor, and then an aviation engineer.

see how i turned out.

:P

Am I losing him ?

I've always thought that I have fostered a blood-is-thicker-than-water bond with both my kids.

It's our (the boy's & mine) ritual to have breakfast on Saturdays when we have no commitments - he, to the school and extra-curricular activities, & I, to the hospital. Usually we'd have either the chicken briyani or tosai/canai.  Yes, we're that set in our ways. So when I asked him today if we are OK for breakfast at 9.30am tomorrow, he said it depends if he could wake up on time.

His response rankled me a bit; if he really enjoy having breakfast with me, he'd make every attempt to get up by that time, as I would. Besides, 9.30am is not that early by any measure.

I know when kids grow up, they often have their own circle of friends which they would want to hang out & chill out with, at the expense of the family

But I'd rather hope he'd choose dad over sleep. We'll see.....