Ling

Yesterday was really eventful. It was firstly, my last day doing volunteer work at Sunlove, and secondly, I managed to meet Lih Ling after all. That was rather miraculous, since the events that transpired had not even been planned 24 hours earlier. She had not been online at all since coming back and hadn’t been able to read my emails…. So when Yee Pei confirmed that she had gone back to China, I thought that I wouldn’t see her for at least another year, which would make it 2 years on the trot... some misunderstanding I guess, cos Ling only went back for a tour of Northeastern China, so it came as a surprise when I spoke to her online 2 nights ago and found out that she was in Malaysia! But she’d be leaving for Manipal the following Tuesday. So she came along to the Centre the next day and helped out too. What a nice turn of events. And coming full circle too, as I had thought she’d go to Manipal last year, but she changed her mind last-minute in favour of Fudan, and now a surprising switch back to Manipal.

And I had a fruitful day at the Centre too. The staff gave me some items that the mental patients produce at the Centre, and I also received a treat of “D24” durian puffs from Pat, a small teddy bear from Donna, a certificate, 2 cards, and a haircut from Jhonalyn! Haha! When it was time for us to tumpang the ambulance out of Sunlove, I realised that I still had to clear my mini-locker. Luckily there wasn’t much in there and I only held up the van for a while. And in the end I didn’t manage to finish reading the other LAT comicbook*. I bet Ling had an interesting time there as well talking to Mary Lee, Valli and Yah Huey, among others. Heh.**

We then went for a drink in Ang Mo Kio where she showed me some of her most recent pics. Next was dinner at Swensen’s and I chose a burger and has US fries. Arrgh I’d rather be eating French fries since I dislike the US! But isn’t it plain stupid that they even renamed their fries as “freedom fries”?? Infantile…

Last stop was my house, where I showed her my photos of the last 4 years, including the Washington DC, NJC Dance Night , and Scotland photos. And Ling gave me a picture-book (sounds like for small kids) by Taiwanese artist/storyteller Jimmy(几米)!! Till the next year.

* LAT: a Malaysian comic creator whose comics retain a strongly Malaysian flavour and are actually very funny. Written in English and/or Malay.

** they are some of our more “naughty” clients… sometimes we will make fun of them too.. like in the case of Yah Huey, who always wants to go to the toilet. On Wednesday we had a reminiscence session and Donna was going to discuss the topic of policemen. So we had Alom wearing the police beret and the belt etc (with his blue attendant uniform he really looked quite like a policeman) who came over to Yah Huey and we “explained” to her that he was taking issue with her constant toilet trips. So she was apologetic and said that she would go to toilet less often. Haha. DISCLAIMER: No elderly, demented people were harmed during the session. And the “policeman” tactic does not work on everyone. With Valli who was dozing off it made her stay awake, but with my “mother” Auntie Hoon it backfired and she even challenged our “policeman”! “等下警察来抓你...” “抓就抓啰!”