Goodbye House Number Twenty Nine...

"House Number Twenty Nine" - was what we'd affectionately call our house of over twenty years whenever we sat around the table together as a family during the evening and dream of schemes together. Though we never felt it was 'our own' because we could be asked to move at any time, it was the house where my siblings and I grew up in.

I remember the excitement when we first moved in - I was seven years old and mum made it seem fun to clean the house and scrub the floors together. Things had been tough for her and my father and she tells us that God had let us to this house to be a family together. I remember the 'Chee Cheong Fun' man stopping by the corner and playing his little ditty to indicate that he was ready to sell food from his motorcycle. We'd take a break from the scrubbing to enjoy the Chee Cheong Fun he sold - I'd enjoy the fishball especially. :)

It was in this house that I grew up living with my beloved great-grandmother until the day she passed away. Countless others have stayed over at our house through the years as my parents have always opened our home to full time workers, friends and family members. Just as I hope that they've been blessed by our hospitality, I've been blessed and inspired by their presence in our lives as they shared their life stories and broke bread together with my family. Some have remained good friends over the years- even though they were just passing by at that point of time.

There has been many parties - Christmases where we'd gather children around the neighbourhood to go carolling. I remember especially the one where Tim was playing the trumpet and we came up with a little presentation and walked around the neighbourhood. It has usually been a tradition of mum to invite ppl who were alone during Christmas or who had no where to go and we'd celebrate it together with them - with turkey and roast lamb - as well as with a spot of carolling together with all who attended. Many who came would be come back the following year. I also remember celebrating my 16th birthday party and many people came. It was one of the most memorable occasion for me. I think more than 50 ppl came on that day - both friends and family.

I also remember how mum would let us play with candles during mooncake festivals and let us walk around with our favourite lanterns on the verandah. We would also play out in the rain when mum permitted us to and we'd have fun squirting water at one another as well as cleaning the drains or washing our car together. When the rain stopped, we'd dash into the house and shower while mum prepared hot drinks for us and some snacks. We had many dogs (Snoopy, Mozart, Milo, Tom), rabbits, chickens, hamsters, turtles, live prawns, fish, etc...

We'd spend our evenings after dinner playing word games (scrabble, boggle, grabble), board games, as well as poring over maps, reading books or mum would just read to us interesting articles before we headed back to our studies for the evening.

The house has seen both the ups and downs of our family - both our joys and our struggles for more than twenty years. We never expected to stay so long and now it's time to move on. So goodbye house number twenty nine!! You've been a blessing from God to us. :)