Childhood Memories: Japanese and Wuxia Series

The other day a FB friend posted a video clip from an old Japanese series that we used to watch when we were kids. Back then computers were still a luxury and there were not many TV programs for kids, so video rental providers were popular (along with handheld game devices). I was saturated mostly with Japanese series (anime and non-anime) and wuxia (martial arts) series ever since I was young and I still have fond memories of these even until now. I still love Japanese anime and wuxia series.

Let me share some of my memories that have recently brought up to the surface by watching that video clip. Here goes:

1. One of my most remarkable memories of a Japanese anime series was when a bad guy in the series died and the girl who loved him the most did something extraordinary. She used a machine to take over his body to get some revenge. This body switch was such an amazing concept for a young person like me and it's left such a profound mark on me. In an anime world, imagination is the key!

Side note: the thing is, I don't remember where I saw this scene, but it's been stuck on my mind for the longest time ever, so I can't find any links to this just yet. 

2. The said video showed a superhero that could produce fire from his hair (and could shoot fire from the hair). How awesome is that? :-D I don't care how the mechanics work, but the sheer possibility of making it happen on screen is super cool. 


3. In one Japanese series, there was a female robot that could shoot boob missiles. The only downside of this was that once both missiles were shot, then she was doomed. I just found some info on this robot. No wonder she wasn't built with lots of weapon. She was built for peace! Here's the link if you want to read about her: Aphrodite A.  

I couldn't find any video clip of her in action in the anime, but here's a video of her action figure (including the boob shots) in case you want to see it: 
 

4. I loved watching wuxia series when I was young because of the many female characters in the movie who could do martial arts. As a tomboy, I loved the idea of strong women he he he he...Funnily enough, though, I never questioned something that I considered an epic love story in one wuxia series until much later. You see, in one story, this "forever young" female loner took in a young boy and trained him in martial arts. As he grew older, they fell in love with each other, but many people thought it was unnatural for them to be together, so they were separated for many, many years. They went through a lot of hardships, but in the end they were reunited (the guy lost one arm at one point in his journey). Here's some info on the female character: Xiaolongnu.  

Move away, Romeo and Juliet! LOL!!! 

Here's a video clip that some scenes from the series. You can see how the guy has progressed from a young adult into a mature man in it. 

Couples Shirts

When we were in Universal Studios Singapore, I was thinking of buying the same Minions T-shirts for the both of us so we could wear them together occasionally, but unfortunately hubby thought it was a bad idea. :-( I got the idea to wear the same shirt when I saw a couple of my regular customers wearing the same shirt and I thought they looked cool together (they're not young anymore, in their 40s), so I thought we could also do the same! Especially because when we bought the tickets to Universal Studios, we were given discount vouchers as well (10%). 

In the end, I didn't buy any souvenirs from Universal Studios. However, if hubby had been willing to wear the same T-shirt, I would have definitely bought us the same ones, because I love the Minions! HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...

Writing this actually reminds me of my childhood. I was quite the jealous big sister when I was little and whenever someone gave my brother some clothes, I'd want to have the exact same kind. So my grandma learned early on that when she was going to give my brother something, she'd make sure to buy the same kind for me. In my parents' house I remember seeing a photo of me wearing similar pyjamas as my brother he he he he...

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine bought the same kind of drawstring pouch with a long strap. It was black and white polkadot and we used to go to the malls with the same kind of pouch (we put our wallets there). It felt nice to have a buddy with the same kind of pouch. 

Have you ever worn the same shirts/bought the same thing as someone else because you feel like it?

Anyway, here's the Minions Christmas song he he he...enjoy!

 

CNY Memories

Chinese New Year has come and gone. I didn't feel anything at all because I have no Chinese friends here, so it's kinda pointless to celebrate it on my own (plus it's too tough to try to make some of the lovely CNY cakes that I love). The other day I was talking about CNY with a relative of mine and it brought back my CNY childhood memories. :-D

You see, we lived with grandma (mom's mom) from the time when I was 4 years old until her death (I think I was around 17 years old at that time). Grandma was a Catholic and when we were younger, every CNY she'd prepare a big table. On the table there would be special CNY food offerings for those who had gone before us as well as an incense bowl (now I seem to recall she also put the photos of her ancestors on the table). She'd burn some incense and put the incense sticks in the bowl. As kids, we just enjoyed doing something like that because we could only do it once a year and we'd just mimic her even without understanding what it meant.

Because my grandma was a pretty prominent figure in her family, many relatives would come to visit us on CNY, including her elder sisters. Normally (as far as I know) the younger ones are supposed to be the ones visiting the elder ones. As young children, we enjoyed being able to meet our cousins and play with them. We also enjoyed meeting our aunts and uncles because usually they'd give us red enveloped filled with money HE HE HE HE HE HE...Oh, and let's not forget all the delicious CNY food that we'd be able to eat! My mom's family (grandma's big family) is famous for being wonderful cooks (including the men), because from ages ago, they had learnt to earn money by selling food. Even until today there are still many people who know my grandma's name related to her delicious food.

Because we weren't rich, mom would sometimes made us some new clothes (she always has a stack of cloth ready to be turned into new clothes) for the event so that my parents wouldn't have to buy new ones. 

Anyway, what I suddenly remembered while replying to my relative's email about CNY was one of the traditions that we did a few times when we were still young. Grandma bought some fake paper money and then she taught us how to fold them into something like this (when I googled them, I found out they were called joss paper). Click on the link to find more info about joss paper.

Here's a video clip on what we did back then:



I remember with the help of many cousins, we ended up making dozens and dozens of them. And after that, we'd burn them one by one in a huge tin. Of course as a young child, being allowed to burn stuff safely was fun ha ha ha ha ha...One thing I think I missed during our childhood was the dragon dance. My mom told me that when she was younger, the dragon dances used to be held on the streets and they were so beautiful. I think these days there are more dragon dances because the government has considered CNY as a national holiday. Still I'm glad for these lovely memories. :-)

Childhood Memories: French Baguette

One of the memorable treats that we got when we were children was the long French baguettes. At that period of life in my hometown, it was quite a rarity. At that time kids were still playing folk games with their friends and computers were unheard of. Plenty of my neighbours didn't have any fridge yet. There were no big malls, just small private owned stores selling daily needs and snacks and goodies. It was a very different period of life.
 
At that time there was this HUGE supermarket in Dago Street catering to expats and rich people in Bandung. Well, the place looked especially huge for small children with short legs, though if I compare them to the huge malls all over that city nowadays, it's not that huge after all. 

Anyway, this particular supermarket sold plenty of exquisite goods at a rather high price and at the back of it there was a bakery. The bakery sold lots of things, but we only went there to buy French baguettes and some ham or sausage. The ham and sausage were so delicious when eaten with the freshly baked baguette, but we knew they cost a lot of money, so it was a rare treat and we enjoyed every bite of it. :-D


Until now I still remember clearly coming home on a motorcycle behind Dad while holding the French baguette in my hand tightly while the neighbours' children looked at the long bread in awe, because it wasn't something that you could find everywhere. I remember feeling as though I was holding a Light Sabre in my hand HA HA HA HA...I don't know if the supermarket is still there now or not. The last time I was there years and years ago, I think the supermarket chain has changed owner or something (my memory is getting blurry), but don't know what happens to it now. 

Do you have any special childhood treat that you remember fondly? 
 

Blast from the Past: Mom's History

My mom is the youngest of six children - actually seven if you counted one elder sister who died young due to some kind of disease. People kept saying that this sister was the most beautiful one of all. After my mom was born, grandma split up with grandpa. I don't think they had an official divorce, but they lived in different houses. Being a "dragon lady" (grandma had such a strong personality), grandma started selling food in the local market and due to this fact, she couldn't take care of the kids, so the kids were sent to relatives' places. My mom was taken by one relative whose daughter was almost the same age, so this cousin's mother breastfed my mom as well. They played together a lot* and only after my mom reached a certain age did she realize that she had blood siblings spread around in different places.

Grandma split up with grandpa because she couldn't handle his jealousy. Back then birth control had just started being promoted in Indo and because grandma was fed up of being pregnant and giving birth almost every year, she wanted to use some form of birth control, but grandpa wouldn't have it. He thought that it would give grandma "access" to "do it" with other men. He also got jealous at her whenever she dressed up and put on some makeup. 

Anyway, after some time the siblings decided to go back and live with my grandma. I don't know who made the decision, but finally the siblings lived in the same house with grandma. I'm pretty sure the siblings still kept in touch with grandpa as well, because when I was really young, I also went to visit grandpa, though I don't remember anything about it because grandpa died when I was still so small. All I remember of him came from a memory of his pic - he has white hair and a long white beard. Typical old Chinese man at that time he he...like in a kungfu movie (like in the pic below, but white). :-D In fact, we always referred to him as Grandpa Beard or Engkong Jenggot in Indo (seriously! I'm not making it up!).


All I know about grandpa was that he came from mainland China and then met my grandma. Grandma was born in Indo already, so she didn't speak Chinese. And grandpa was some sort of medicine man. When his second son (my uncle) couldn't have kids for years, grandpa made him some Chinese concoction and I suppose it worked for them 'coz afterwards he and his wife did go on to have two children of their own. 

Back to my mom's story...after the siblings went to live together with grandma again, they started helping her out. My mom would tell me how she had to get up early before going to school so that she could help out prepare the food to sell at the local market. That's why all the siblings (including mom's brothers) are able to cook great food, because they were born in a family that made a living by selling food. Even until her old age, grandma kept on selling food in the local market. Only after her health declined did she finally stop doing so. 

I'm not sure my mom's other siblings got a chance to get a proper education other than elementary school, but my mom finished High School and she did go to a university, but she stopped halfway because back then there were some communist activities in Indo and so she started focusing on earning money by selling food since then. So my mom never worked in a company or any other place. She's always been her own boss. :-D She has retired when my brother's son was born 'coz she's been helping take care of him, but every now and then some people who miss her food would still call her up and order some of her specialties. :-D


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Quite a childhood, no? But my mom grew up to be such an independent, mature, and stable woman, though she's not a feminist. Next time I'll talk a bit about my dad's childhood and how my parents met. :-D

* Even until now she's still close to that cousin of hers whose mother breastfed my mom, because they feel like sisters in a way, I suppose. :-D  

P.S. Grandma loved grandsons better than granddaughters (grandma lived with us for years until the day she died, so it was easy for me to observe her). I'm really glad that my parents aren't like that and that they treat me equally with my brother.

Childhood Memory: Pupa

When we were younger, a few times we found a pupa in the garden and we shrieked in delight. Then we picked the leaf carefully and set it inside the living room in a safe place where it wouldn't be crushed by anything. Being kids, at first my brother touched the pupa to see if it would move. It wriggled to the left or to the right whenever it was touched. CUTE, we thought. LOL!!!

I think at least we kept a pupa inside the house on four different occasions. One time for some reason nothing came up and we were so sad. We waited and waited and waited but no butterfly emerged. We don't know what happened and what went wrong in the whole process. We would check on the pupa every morning and every time we got back from school to see if something had happened. Fortunately on the other three occasions it was always a lovely surprise to see a butterfly flying around in the living room for a while before we chased it away gently to make sure it could find its way out into the garden. Fly free, little butterfly! Go out into the world and enjoy the garden of life! 

While trying to find out the kind of butterfly we had seen, I found this brilliant blog with time lapse videos as well as lots of close-up pics of the caterpillar, pupa, and butterflies. I think this is similar to the butterfly we had had in the past: The Tailed Jay.

Have you ever kept a pupa inside the house, too? :-D  
 

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Childhood Memory: Glutinous Rice Balls in Ginger Soup

When we were younger, we used to help Mom prepare some glutinous rice balls. On certain days of the year, she'd try to sell lots of these at the traditional market where she made a living. Making glutinous rice balls in ginger soup itself isn't that hard, but when you're trying to sell at least dozens of bags of them (a bag would consist of 20-25 balls), it can be a tough task, especially for children.

Here's a recipe that I found online: Glutinous Rice Balls in Ginger Soup. The ones we made were without fillings, so they'd be smaller than those in this pic and my Mom would use food colouring to make different types: chocolate (using chocolate powder), white (original colour), pink, and green (using a dash of red and green food colouring). 


Anyway, one day my Mom asked for our help to make hundreds and hundreds of these balls (she never forced us to help, mind you!). Being kids, of course we were so excited to help. Who wouldn't? Even Ken, my bro's son, loves helping out. In fact, today he did make these balls as well - that was what prompted me to write this post hi hi...But now that my Mom has retired, she doesn't have to make too many balls anymore. Just enough for the family and to give out to some relatives. 

Let's zoom back to the past, shall we? Anyway, Mom had separated the four colours in different bowls and she told us to pick which colours we wanted. Being the youngest one in the family, my brother was the slowest one because his hands were smaller than ours. At first he was so excited, but after some time had passed by, after watching how fast the others (me, Dad, and esp. Mom) managed to make the balls, he started comparing how much dough we had left in our own bowls. After realizing that he had the most dough still, he got stressed out and he started crying. He bawled and said, "I'm never going to finish this!!!!!!!!!"

Poor boy...Mom finally let him stop and take a rest and she took the dough that was given to him and continued making the balls efficiently. In the future after this incident, whenever we gathered together to help Mom make more balls, we'd remember it fondly (well, except perhaps my bro who would probably wish everybody else had forgotten about it LOL!!!).

Beauty Chronicles

I've been talking to my Indo best friends about beauty and I've found something interesting. Each of us is different: different build/height, different eye shape/facial features, different skin colour, different personalities.

I asked them if they had ever felt beautiful in their own skin in Indo (esp. during teenage years) and based on their answers, it SEEMS that those who received positive feedback/validation from lots of people during childhood can still maintain that image of theirs in their minds (whether it's cute, beautiful, pretty) during their teenage years.

On the other end of the spectrum, during childhood some who received so many strong messages about outer beauty that was the opposite of what they had still remember very well that message even until now (for example: that darker skin is ugly). They were affected by this negating strong messages (that negated their own kind of beauty) at least until their teenage years.

However, in the middle of both extremes there are also those who never really received any positive nor negative feedback on their outer beauty and that led them to having mostly neutral POV on their own beauty during their teenage years.




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This is only pure observation from childhood until teenage years and I don't claim that my POV is the right one, but I'm just wondering about the effect of messages given during our childhood. I belong to the latter group in which I had never really received any positive nor negative feedback on my outer beauty during my childhood and as such, in my teenage years, I mostly felt neutral about my outer beauty - there were times I felt beautiful, there were times I felt not too lovely, but most of the time I felt okay enough.

Now in my adulthood it's a whole different case, of course, as per what I've written down here: The Thing About Beauty.

Technology: Then and Now

In this modern age where kids start using computers at such a young age, it seems that my childhood was like a "caveman period" for the new generation of kids. The other day in Facebook someone posted somebody else's picture that made me laugh so much.

It was a picture of a cassette and a pencil next to it. Below it is written: Kids These Days Wouldn't Know The Link Between These Two Objects.

It took me a split second to realize what it meant, then I started laughing. I remember the first time I had ever bought my own cassette. It was a NKOTB (New Kids on The Block) cassette which my cousin and I played over and over again on the tape recorder. One time it was jammed and the roll of tape got entangled inside the tape recorder (see the pic below). I had to stop it and take it out manually and then roll it back neatly using the help of the pencil. However, the second time it happened, I had to actually open the case of the cassette and roll it into place by hand VERY VERY slowlyyyyy so that it wouldn't slip 'coz then I'd have to do it all over again...

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Today I've also been talking to another hometown girl who's just married a Finnish guy and has just moved to Finland two months ago. They also met online, but I realized how different it was back then when I started getting to know Arttu and the time she spent online with him.

She told me that they spent a lot of time sending messages via Facebook because it was cheaper than sending SMSes. When I first got to know Arttu better in 2000, mobile phone providers had just started their SMS services. Back then I still had my 56 Kbps modem to connect to the internet (yeah, so very slow!), so for me it was much cheaper to send SMSes compared to being online all the time. These days in Indonesia there are so many internet providers with faster connections and cheaper prices, so it's natural that it's getting cheaper to connect with people via Facebook or Blackberries compared to sending SMSes.

Talking to the younger generation makes me feel like I came from a distant age and time ha ha ha ha...It doesn't necessarily mean I feel old, though, but it's such a huge contrast that happened in just a few years (I was still using the 56Kbps when I left Indo in 2007 and nowadays the internet connection can be as fast as 1Mbps or even faster than that - depending on what kind of services you subscribe to).

When I look back to my childhood, I remember so many wonderful traditional children's games that we had with my friends and neighbours. Kids these days don't know those wonderful games anymore 'coz they grow up with Wii and stuff like that. These are some of the wonderful games that we played in the olden days:

Congklak
Bola Bekel (explanation can be found in the middle of the page)
Hopscotch

There are also some running/jumping games, but I don't really remember the rules anymore nor could I find any info in English. All I knew was that we had so much fun!!! :-D

Childhood Memory: Kaleidoscope

I remembered that when I was a child, one time I was playing with this magnificent toy whose name I never knew. It was the shape of a small "telescope" and I had to peep into it to see wonderful abstract images. If I shook the "telescope tube", the abstract image changed pattern. Felt like magic at that time!!!

Ever since then, I had been wondering what it was and where I could possibly find it again. I had this nagging feeling, though, that it was from USA, so I never tried to find it in Indonesia. I don't know if I had that toy or if it was my cousin's toy or if a relative who lives in the States gave it to me, but I remember the magical feeling I had when I was playing with the toy. It was just beautiful to play with! Too beautiful to be true. Shake once, the pattern changed. Shake again, it kept on changing patterns. Amazing!

Anyhow, a few months ago when I was trying to find educational toys for Ken (after we bought the plane tickets to Indo), I went to this online store and accidentally found it!!!! Its name is Kaleidoscope. Click on the link to read the history of kaleidoscope. It's been around since 1817!!! Geeeezzz...

So you can imagine how excited I was when I found it after all these years of having this nagging feeling of wanting to find out what it was he he he he he...YIIIIHHHHAAAAA!!!!

P.S. Have to remember to ask my Mom later on to find out if I ever had it for myself or if it was someone else's toy he he...

Childhood Trauma

The other day I was talking to my closest friends via email about different topics and one topic brought up this memory somewhere in the dark corner of my brain. Being a melancholic/phlegmatic, I never craved for the spotlight. I don't like being in a spotlight. I prefer working in the background, never to be seen or heard (that doesn't mean I don't need recognition or acknowledgment for my achievements, though). That's also one reason why I doubted myself when I first started working at the store 'coz I wondered if I'd enjoy being face-to-face with customers.

When I was very young, I was so sensitive inwards and if I made the smallest mistakes ever, I would scold myself over and over and over. If the mistake was big (at least in my eyes), it could take even days before I finally let go (yep, I'm my own worst critic). Along the road, as my self-confidence grew, I learnt to be more lenient towards myself and lower my expectations, but I only started learning to laugh at my own mistakes AFTER I moved to Finland (yep, it took me 28 years!). Having R2 as a hubby and MIL helped A LOT in learning to be more lenient towards myself. They never criticize me no matter how silly my mistakes are.

Anyhow, back to the dark corner in my brain. I think when I was very young, I once performed in front of a group of people (I think it had to do with dancing) and they laughed at me. I don't remember the incident, but ever since then I've been so worried about performing in front of people and I've always admired people who can perform in front of people without looking so anxious. And ever since then I've always had this idea that I'm such a bad dancer and that my body can't correspond to music and rhythm very well.

Back in elementary school, I hated it when we had to sing in front of the classroom. If I had to sing with some other students, it felt MUCH better, but if I had to sing alone? Ugh ugh...and UGH. I remember clearly the first time at the uni (during writing lesson) when my lecturer gave us a topic to write and then she gave us a few minutes to think about what to write and all of a sudden she asked me to come forward and tell the class what I was going to write (without reading what I had jotted down on paper). I remember that I was very calm at that time, which was such a HUGE surprise to me. I think of that moment as a point of progress in my life.

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One of my closest friends, who's a natural when it comes to performing in front of people (she's even led a meeting in front of hundreds of people), was amazed when she realizes that other people may have problems in this area, 'coz she's never had the same problem her entire life.

It's interesting to me to be able to talk about this stuff with my friends 'coz then we get to know each other better - and hopefully then we get to understand other people better that way.

Childhood Revisited

Last night I started thinking about me years and years back...I wanted to remember what kind of girl I was back then. So here are some tidbits about me he he he...

1. Mom said that when I learnt how to walk (around 9 months old), I NEVER fell down. Not even once. Whenever my feet got shaky and I was about to fall, I always found something to grab or hold on to.

This is probably the earliest sign of a lifetime fault in me: that if I can, I don't want to "fall" when learning something new. I think I've managed to tone down a huge part of this fault, but it's not easy since even when I was a baby, I was THAT kind of baby.

2. In my generation, schools only started teaching English from the first grade of Junior High School (when students are around 13 years of age). Back then I started taking English lessons at a course since I was 10 years old.

I used to love pretending as an English teacher to my neighbours' kids. I only taught simple "lessons" such as the names of days, colours, and fruits or veggies in English. I remember having this small blackboard where I could use to "teach" hi hi hi hi...

Hmmm...does it mean that I have always loved teaching? HE HE HE HE HE...

3. I was a horrible toddler (esp. compared to my brother who's an angel baby). Whenever my Mom took me to take a nap and sometimes she fell asleep with me, if I woke up before her, sometimes I'd poke her eyes or nose he he he he he...Other times I just ran out of the front door, making my Mom PANICKED when she woke up and realized that I wasn't in the house!!!

She said that even though the front door was locked, for some reason I managed to climb onto a chair to open it. I sure hope when I have a kid (kids) someday, they won't be like me when I was a toddler HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

One question, though: What were you like when you were kids, my friends? Do you still remember?

Childhood Imagination

The other day I started this topic in MyLot: Childhood Imagination: How creative was your brain? Did you have any imaginary friend? Any other creative ideas that your mind created when you were a kid?

I've seen many movies where kids have imaginary friends. It makes me wonder how creative our brains were when we were kids. I never had an imaginary friend, but I used to love sitting in front of my Mom's dressing table mirror and imagined that there was my other self in the mirror world. She looked just like me but we lived in different worlds. She lived in a mirror world. I used to imagine talking to her and she'd reply to me. It was sort of like an inner conversation, but my mind turned it into a two-way conversation between me and my other self in the mirror. I never named her, though. All I knew was that I was having fun talking to her ha ha ha ha...I used to start talking by asking her about her day and her life he he he...I imagined her to have a different personality. (Almost forgot to add: I think I imagined all this when I was about 7-10 years old)

In the discussion that followed, I found some interesting things:

1. One person said that she didn't have an imaginary friend, but she had a guardian angel. And the guardian angel saved her from a lot of trouble.

2. Another person wanted to have a sister so much so that she created one. She created her to be her twin sister and they'd share everything and talk about their love life, etc.

3. Another person imagined there was another world inside his closet.

4. Another person was made to believe that there were tiny people under the house, talking to her spoons and forks, so she left some food so that she could befriend those people.

5. Another one had an imaginary younger brother. Since he is the youngest, so he always wants to have a younger brother.

6. Another person had seen a young girl talking to the walls and to everywhere, to an unseen person. At first she thought the girl was some sort of weird girl, but turned out she excelled at school.

So, 'fess up, my friends...what did you imagine when you were kids? He he he he...