Uncle's funeral

My second uncle (mother's side) passed away last Saturday. I accompanied my mother to Malaysia to attend his funeral and to bid him the last farewell. Actually Er Jiu is my Godfather too, just that I never address him as one, I have no idea why. I only called my Godmother Mama and she too, had gone to Heavens many years ago.
The ironical thing is, I had planned to accompany my mother to visit her hometown and also my relatives this coming Saturday. We were all looking forward to this family-get-together. The last time I went back to Malaysia was 14 years ago??! I couldn't remember anymore. It turned out that Er Jiu's funeral become a family gathering for us! Funny isn't it? We, the Chinese, says family only gets together during weddings and funerals. How ironically true this saying can be.
Anyway, it is cool to meet up with my cousins, nephews and nieces from Malaysia. Everyone has grown up. Because of studies and then work, I could not accompany my mother to go visiting for hte past so many years till I felt that I am such an unfillial daughter. Her sisters have their children to accompany her to come Singapore to visit her but this daughter always give school as an excuse..

Anyway, the rural towns of Malaysia is just so relaxing. Food is good and cheap! If I had stayed longer, I would have really put on weight. The people are friendly and extremely accomodating too. Why? Cos my uncle's funeral wake was spread on the road between two rows of houses. The wake spanned over a length of 4 houses, I think. If this happened in Singapore, I have no idea how our friendly Singaporeans would have reacted. I mean, who likes to have a funeral wake just outside the gate. Plus, with all the gongs, drums and singing of rites, which started at 5pm till around 12midnight, how many times would Mr Policeman come to visit? 'Please, it is after 11pm. Lower your volume.'

And, the best part is this one!

On the way back, my mother and I thought, 'WOW! We are travelling on FIRST CLASS MASSAGE COACH ah!' It is like so cool, and we were experimenting with our massaging seat. Not to forget the TV showing Mr Bean's Holiday, which is actually quite new. Plus, we were on the upper deck of the coach. Excellent! For RM40+, I was travelling on a first class coach, makes me feel so excited.

I had dozed off watching Bean, cos he was really dumb and boring. Lame. I woke up when the coach suddenly came to a surprise brake. I was like, "What is that burning smell of rubber?" We were in the middle of the North-South Expressway lor! Damn it. Cars, oil-trucks and lorries zoomed past. I wondered why is it that everyone around me doesn't seemed to be bothered with the coach stopping in the middle of NOWHERE!! Even my mother went back to slumberland. Then someone came upstairs to tell us that the tyre was punctured.

Tell me what kind of luck do I have? Fancy a coach's tyre to be punctured in the middle of a pitch-dark expressway. I started to panick and recalled my Malaysia cousin saying that there are approximately 60 people who died in accidents in the N-S expressway everyday.. Then there were frequent reports of sleepy drivers who slammed into vehicles which stopped at road shoulders.

How can they sleep so soundly and take for granted that we are safe? The TV started to show a second movie by The Rock and the repair work took almost 2 hours to be done. I was wide awake for that entire period. The only one I talked to is my bf via sms..

Then the 'first class' coach drove off. It was then that I take out all my Physics knowledge. What the hell? The stupid class was bumping violently, like some mini roller coaster ride. The coach was definitely in an unstable equilibrium state. The centre of gravity was so high! There were easily 20 adults on the upper deck with only like less than 10 pple on the lower one. Wa!

Who is the stupid ass who designed this coach? The travel agency boss needs to attend Physics lesson lor!!

Never mind about the tyre. I was praying to all Gods to bring us safely to the first stop-over. At the first stop-over, the coach driver couldn't start the engine when we were all ready to go. What is this??!??! I was so full of helplessness and anger and I have no idea what else. The coach struggled another 1+hour or so this time. But at least, this time, we weren't on the road, we were still within the stop-over shelter and there were other coaches and most importantly, there were lamp-posts around.

By some twist of fate, the coach driver managed to ask another coach driver who was on the return back to Singapore to fetch some of us. I was like, "Mia tu liao, change bus!" That coach was from Grassland, the one that Kym Ng and Christopher Lee starred in. I felt so much safer on that one cos it simpler felt much more stable.

So, what is the lesson learnt here?

NEVER believe in FIRST CLASS coach. Nonsense. Massage coach? Nonsense. The bumping of the coach along the uneven roads had the same massaging effect. Don't be stupid enough to request for the upper deck for long journey coach. Why? Go ask your Physics teacher.