Memory Lane

When we went up to Penang, one of my goals was to go to my grandfather's house in Balik Pulau and take some pictures. Driving to Balik Pulau wasn't so difficult, it was finding the place that proved to be a challenge! We did eventually find the house. There was no roads leading up to the house. In fact the track was so overgrown that we parked the car in the house before my grandfather's house. The house still look almost the same. It's not in the original state as a few years ago, the whole of the ground floor was

renovated. The kitchen is now completely different then from what I remembered it when I was younger. I can still remember my grandmother, cooking on a wood stove with the big kuali (wok) on stone slabs. This kitchen had no gas stove. The stove was made out of stone slab with holes in between. I remember my grandmother fanning the wood and feeding newspapers to the stove in order to start a fire. Those were the days. There were no showers in the house either nor were there modern toilets. The 'showers' consisted of a square stone filled with water that came from the mountain (this changed years later and piped water was supplied to the bathroom). How we bathed was with a bucket. I always had quick baths then as the water was pretty cold! There was no central heating. In fact there was no heating at all! So it was one to wet the body, soap and two more splashes to wash off the soap. Then it was out of the bathroom! The toilets was a squatting toilet with no flushes. My grandfather would clear the toilet every so often when the bucket was filled up. I never saw him do this dirty job nor did he ever complain. You see he was one person who said very little to me but I always remember him as a small man but strong. How did I go to the toilet? 5 second rule....in and out and holding my breath!

The hallway upstairs where we used to sleep

See that partition, behind it used to be a potty

Every night the whole family would gather and say the rosary. My mother's family consisted of 8 including her in the family so, it was a rather large gathering at the family area and altar. There was always a certain time we would say the prayers. After that, sometimes the younger ones will be sent off to let the adults talk, I remember my cousin and I running upstairs to peep down at the dining area to listen in to the conversation. The upstairs were all wood so it was easy to peer down. It was also this area that we used to lay mattresses on the wooden floors to sleep. There was a huge hall upstairs and there were three rooms partitioned by wooden boards. The rooms were either my uncles and one was my grandparents.

Grandparent's room

The upstairs had no toilets so if anyone who woke up in the middle of the night and had to go, there was a potty just behind the partition of the wall. We couldn't go downstairs to the toilet as granny had locked the grill downstairs. It was for security reasons that the kitchen was locked up. The main door had a huge wooden  plank that goes across the door at the end of the night. A plank is not the right description, it needed 2 people to lift the wood to put it across the door. Besides, it was so dark downstairs, I was too frightened to go down!  You see, when the lights go off, it was pitch black! There were no street lights outside, so there were no lights to filter into the house. I couldn't turn on the lights for fear of waking up the cousins, uncles, grandfather, etc. So there was only a torch light to find our way in order to use the potty. It was a potty made out of metal too.
Chinese New year was one of the noisiest year in the house. Everyone of the relatives would go back and the red packets would be given to the children.Then the real fun would begin. The gambling. Ahh the noise of winning, losing and the memory of my uncle always winning the games and collecting the most money!

that was so long ago. It's been years since I've been back or the family gathering in the house. Since my grandfather past on and years later my grandmother, I stopped going back to Balik Pulau. Slowly, the gatherings stopped, the house has become quiet and only my third uncle stays there taking care of the estate. He calls himself the lone ranger. It is rather melancholic where once this house held so many laughters to being a quiet and lonely house. Now it holds the memories of my childhood where I was laughed and played. The trip to the house was a trip of nostalgia. Where I went with my mother and my siblings to celebrate Christmas and Chinese New Year. The last trip with my mother was for my Grandfather's funeral. I remember seeing him lying in the coffin. I was 12 years old. They said that the roses on his tomb stone lasted a week in the hot sun. I didn't wilt nor die immediately. I miss those times, I miss my grandfather even though I was never close to him. Perhaps I miss the gatherings the most. I could go on and on but it will take too long to write. 

One of the rooms