Aunties, haircuts and stiff upper lips

Today is a rather strange day.

For a start, I'm doing a class which is normally a Monday to Friday thing, so I'm feeling a bit lost - it's either Friday again or it's Monday...

Secondly, it's my new daughter's one month Chinese big do.  This is a big deal to the Chinese, and I'm not entirely sure why as no one has given me an explanation that satisfies me other than her hair just has to be all shaved off because 'that's her birth hair and we want new hair to grow through'.  This is weird to me.  Have any of you seen a baby with all it's hair shaved off?  Especially after you've got used to your little baby looking a particular way?  My daughter looks like a girl now - but after she's bald?


Frankly, and I don't mean this in a nasty way, I just don't get all the little things the Chinese just have to do.  Every little event becomes a major cultural tradition and just has to be maintained to preserve Chinese culture and ways.  As if Chinese culture is under threat!  Last time I checked, there are quite a few Chinese around and I didn't see any danger of their culture disappearing.  But hey, my wife's Chinese and so I go along with some of these things.  I just can't explain them to my parents who are even more mystified about the importance of old traditions than I am.

I will be there with smiles on today without a doubt, but I must admit I do get annoyed when some 'Auntie' believes so incredibly strongly that if we don't follow her instructions on things all hell will break loose.  The amount of energy spent trying to generate 'good luck' and 'prosperity' is substantial.  I find it all rather unnecessary, and I suspect my wife does too but we just grin and bear it to keep the boat on an even keel because these 'Aunties' are a rather unstable lot as a group and are liable to break down into screaming fits if we don't do something on an auspicious day or at the right time or without an '8' in it...

I guess I'll just have to indulge in a beer or two and keep out of their way to make sure I don't get a good ear-bashing from the harried wife later.  Stiff upper lip and all that soldier.

Off with a bang! (or a whimper, that depends on you)

I've had a blog before.

It went ok, but I got bored after a while. So why am I doing it again? A need to express myself? Could be. Then again, it's probably due to more than a dozen reasons, ranging from writing practice to venting some fury!

Whatever it happens to be, this blog is about my life in Malaysia, a country not of my birth and certainly not of my culture. Yet what a place it is.

I need to talk about their 'ways', their peculiarities, their foibles, not to mention mine! I also feel a need to put up posts for some of my students, of whom I have many. I may touch on grammar or vocabulary, I might rant about the need for travel, or I could just be putting myself out there for the whole wide world to examine - or not.

About me there is much, but I begin with this.

Married, 33 going on 34, 4 children (shock, horror!), a teacher of English, a pilot by passion, a rugby player in my dreams, a wity but slightly acerbic type of personage, a wannabe traveller, a motorbike-rider-has-been-and-wanna-be-again, a postulator and a sage.

Other than that, a normal kinda guy. Just don't get me drunk.