Good friends and earrings
Today I manage to catch a good friend at lunch. Since secondary school, we have been close as sisters and would acknowledge each other as such. She told me she has been supporting my blog and reading it every now and then! I was so touched and surprised by it. Thank you Er-jie! (BTW, she’s demure, sweet, homely and
unattached, any suitable nice gentleman, please apply with me)
Talking about good friends, my best friend’s mother once stopped her from giving me a pair of ear rings as a gift. She says that the giver of this gift will give away their wealth to the recipient. My best friends was in short need of fund and she can’t afford to give away any more of her “wealth”. It was then decided that she would keep the earring and get me something else instead. We actually had a sensible discussion over this and we both agreed that we should follow this superstition to save guard her wealth. We also recalled that some years ago, she gave me another pair of ear-rings as birthday gift, that might explain why she hasn’t been having enough to spend for the past few years. I am so grateful to her for my wealth now. She is indeed my best of friends.
Just a small footnote to other supportive friends reading this blog now. I am in need of money, is there anyone who is willing to give me a pair of earrings? I will thank you from the tiny hole of my ear lobe. :D
Sales person beware!
Have you ever been a sales person before? Did you notice the coins paste on their calculators or cash registers? Attaching those coins on them can attract more of their buddies into the cash register or create more numbers into your “calculations”. Amazing.
My friends also mention that it is Pantang to count your earning before you close your business for the day. The moment you counted your earnings, it is as good as the end of your sales volume for that day. So when I was roped into helping out at the charity stall for an animal shelter, I didn’t dare to touch or count our donations and sales proceeds until we finish packing up the stall. However silly the actions, we'll try it if it means one more sales that will benefit the animals. ;)
If you are thinking of a nice Christmas gift for your animal-loving friends, do consider this calendar from
Animal Lovers League. The calendar can be use as season cards as well. All sales proceeds will go to the shelter animals. Email me if you are interested. Thank you.
Taboos for risk-takers
Last Sunday, my friend has this overwhelming urge to buy 4D. While she was queuing up, the piece of lucky number on hand. I have this overwhelming urge to pat her on the shoulder for the fun of it. The 2 of us are always fooling around like this.
So, what’s with the shoulder pat? (note: not shoulder PAD!).
If you are a vivid risk-taker of 4D, mahjong, toto etc, you would have known that a pat on the shoulder translate into bad gambling luck. An elderly family member once told me a living being has 3 invisible flames burning on 3 points of our body. 2 of them are on the shoulders, and 1 of them on the forehead. When a person is running a series of good luck, their flames are especially bright and they will look radiant. This is why supernatural beings will not be able to go near them. On the other hand, bad lucks and weak health are a result of extinguished or weaken flame.
When we pat a person on the shoulder, his flames get weaken or extinguished, and he will be less likely to strike his pot of gold. How will you feel if I keep patting you on the shoulder during a company Dinner & Dance lucky draw? How? How? Ya, I know sometimes the prizes sucks but it feels good to win something, right?
Anyway, taboos for “risk-taker”.
1. No patting on the shoulder.
2. Do not take children to the library "图书馆" on gambling days.
3. In fact, do not have anything to do with the word "书" or anything that rhymes with it. "书" sounds like “lose” in mandarin.
4. Keep forehead clear of hair fringe. Don’t block the flame on the forehead.
5. Keep track of the lucky clothes you wore when you last had a windfall. Wear it each time!
6. Do not wash your hands unnecessary when winning. You might wash away some luck.
7. Do not change seats or facing directions when you are winning. In fact, when winning, do not do anything, resume as before and milk it for all it’s worth!
If you made a windfall by following my silly advise on this blog. I will appreciate if you can make a generous donation to either an animal or children charity. Thank you.
Of tattoos, makeup and mirrors
Ok, this is something that may need verification from our Malay friends.
I was told that Malay isn’t allow to tattoo their body in case their souls won’t recognize the body when they die.
Wow, is there such thing? Isn’t it interesting?
Chinese also worried about the soul and such. Do you know that it’s ill advise to wear your makeup to bed in case the soul couldn’t recognize the body and is unable to find it and return before the sun raise. The person will wake up feeling lethargic if such thing were to happen. (Then again, if a girl was too tired to remove her makeup that night, it probably means she won’t have enough rest anyway. Common sense states she will wake up feeling lethargic. Hee…)
Another way to prevent our soul from losing their way is to avoid having a mirror or reflective surface faced a sleeping body. I guess the poor soul keeps hitting itself against the mirror by mistake and when it finally find its way back to the real body, it was probably all bruised and exhausted. This is the reason for waking up with an aching body and a tired mind.
So my friends, in order to have a good night sleep, please remember to clean your face, and cover all mirrors! Oh, and brush your teeth too. (I just had 2 wisdom tooth extracted, it not something I would like to go through again.) Sweet dreams!
*I found my tooth still stuck under the pillow this morning, maybe the tooth fairy couldn’t find it. Will hide it in some place more obvious. I wonder what is the market rate for wisdom teeth nowadays*
I'll die on July 2059.
I did an interesting test to see when I will die using this website below.
http://www.okcupid.com/death
According to my stats, i will live till July 2059 at the age of 82. Right now i have only 19680 days left on this earth and it means I’ve already lived out 34% of my life. What a wake up call! This reminds me that no matter how long our life is, it will definitely comes to an end. High time to make sure I won’t have anything to regret upon my last breath.
From this as you can see, I am not so Pantang about discussing death, what will come will come, we only didn’t know when. Just make sure at your last breath, you leave this world in peace with yourself. I aim to achieve that; I want to die looking peaceful, or with a wink. ;) So now I celebrate life, not just my own but every living creature’s. May all be well and happy.
Attending a wake
I went to a wake recently. It’s for a Grandmother of a friend. She passed away at a ripe old age, peacefully in her sleep. I guess this will be a good time to discuss some interesting taboos in a traditional Chinese wake.
1. Try not to wear bright colors to a wake. Bright colors are reserve for happy occasions. However, a friend explained that some family are different, the death of a really old person is consider a celebration instead of a sorrowful event. After all, it is consider a blessing to be able to live out a long life. However, to play it safe, choose only dull color or black clothing when attending a wake.
2. No saying Good bye when we leave the wake. In mandarin, the word “Good bye” (“再见”) literality translates into “see you again”. Since a wake is definitely not an ideal reason to meet up again, we refine from saying “再见”. Either leave quietly, or simply inform them we are leaving and just go. Generally, the family will thank us for coming, just nodded, ask them to take care of themselves and go.
3. Remember to tie a piece of red string to your hand, and “accidentally” lose it after leaving the wake. Do not bring the string home. It’s supposed to help ward off any negativity from attending a wake. Chinese lar, when someone dies and they feel that there are a lot of negative energy at work. Bad luck and all sorts of negativity are associated with these. If you are Pantang, remember the red string. It can be found along side with the snacks and drinks provided. Don’t get caught for littering though. ;)
Not easy to kill photographs.
The photos are not "dead" yet. The image is still visible although it's nearly 50% dissolved. I guess we need something stronger than just plain water.
The right way to kill photographs
Oh well, I never realize my husband has his own set of pantang rules too but today, I had a glimpse of it. I found some photo of ours that were damaged. The developing center circle out the problem areas in blue ink and that totally render the picture useless. Anyway, I was trying to find a way to get rid of it. I debated if I should just dump them into the bin but he stopped me. He said that all rubbish will be burn in the incinerator and that is as good as burning “us”. I ask him why? He said our souls are in the photo lar!!!
Wow, I didn’t expect him to be so pantang! Anyway, older folks (
I really mean OLDER-than-our-grannies folks, and my modern husband ) believe that's how the camera capture our image onto a piece of paper. If we were to damage it in anyway, we damage the “souls” in the picture. Therefore, no cutting, no burning and no moustache drawing on the face. So, how do we get rid of unwanted photos without harming our “soul-image”?
His remedy is to soak them in water and wait till the pictures fade away. Only then will I be allow to cut, burn or whatever I wanted with that blank photo. Right now the photos are having a final dip in our Singapore-made
“NEWater”, I wonder how long will it take for the photo to fade…
White hair
2 days ago, I went to get a hair cut, literally a REAL cut because I am letting go of my long, unruly, wild hair of the past few years and opting for a short, sporty cut. My stylist loves the idea, she snip off a big chunk and immediately I felt light headed!
SHIOK!
But after a while, I notice she keep brushing the same spot at the top of my head and inevitably brought my attention to a single white strand gleaming on the top of my head. I closed my eyes and pretend I didn’t see it, after all, I am doing some coloring soon, maybe that white hair will be colored and I won’t need to do anything about it. But after the coloring, I notice that white strand continues to mock me from the top of my head. It must have escape somehow! This, I will not tolerate. Knowing my stylist’s considerate nature, I guess she must have been trying to subtlety seek my consent to get rid of that strand.
Now, I am not too sure how many of you heard about the taboos or pulling out white hair. Each white hair strand pulled will result in a 3 new white strand grown to spite us. I didn’t want to ask my stylist to do anything about it simply because I didn’t want 3 more strands to deal with. But enough was enough, I consent to having that offending strand removed, but guess what, instead of pulling out the strand, my wonderful stylist took a scissors to it! I am so grateful to her! I should have known that she would know about the taboos.
I love my hair stylist for her sensitivity and wonderful skills. And I am really pleased with my new cut.
(Before & the last few years)
(After!) It's refreshing!
3 is a crowd
Do you know it's unlucky to take photo with 3 people in the shot? The one in the middle will be hit with bad luck. If you must take a three-some shot, stand next to another object to add to the count, example a pillar, a giant potted plant or a pet. I am not too sure if the remedy is of any use but it has been suggested as a way to counter the effect.
“What’s the rationale?” you might ask.
Sadly, I don’t know why. Maybe someone thinks it’s funny to embrace such taboos and make things difficult for a photographer.
Anyway, I’ve been photographed a number of times and had gallantly volunteered to stand in the middle each time. The worst that happens so far was that I have yet to strike any 4D for a long, long time. What a price to pay...
Mother-in-law "up" the months
My mother-in-law told me today that we cannot have our customary wedding within 4 months of another family member. "Crashing" luck ("冲喜")... *glup* ... Oh well, for the harmony of the family, will follow. ;)
