Weekend is for God and food

Yesterday, hubby and I went to the wet market in Leboh Cecil or the Hokkien call ‘chiht teow lor’ or 7th street. Over here in Penang, the roads are called ‘thau teow lor’ for the main road, jee teow lor and so on. Some of these roads were notorious for gangsterism. Since both of us are tired of the regular wet markets we normally go to, we decided to walk on the wild side a bit. After our marketing, we stopped for cendol, aiskacang and pasembor at the hawkers stall. You can find more Penang food on my other blog. I notice something. The folks at the Cecil Street are all very hard working folks. Old, frail, young, muscled, you name it, they are all there. Women wearing knee high boots selling fishes, frail old men and women selling beansprouts and etc are all there. I think many Chinese have this hardworking trait in them. They slough, work hard and are not afraid of heavy workload.

We bought some crab with roes to bake it at home. Crab with roe costs RM32/kg while the meaty ones costs RM28/kg. We have fun baking the crab with sea salt in our new oven.

Our two older sons went to some beach party so left the two of us, old people to enjoy the crabs with our 3rd son. It is fun digging in, at home. One foot on the chair, bare hands.

Today, November 1st is All Saints’ Day. I was on lector’s duty so I arrived early to get (prayerfully) composed first. They have just put up all these saints’ statues on the beams around the church. Frankly, I don’t know many saints except Saint Francis Assisi whom I am very in awe with. At the same time, I am also very amused with the wacky style of St. Francis Assisi. So, I was feeling nervous before mass and I was staring at St. Francis standing on the ceiling of the church, wondering whose idea it is to put up the statues and how much each statue costs and where did they import them from. (can’t help it, my mind works like a hyperactive child)

I suddenly recalled one of the story in the book on St. Francis Assisi where he had one brother (not blood brother but someone who is part of his mission) who stammered. So, every time this poor fella tried to preach, people will laugh at him and even throw things at him. However, St. Francis is a very firm man and very faithful to God. Finally, the stammering guy overcame his fears with St. Francis’s guidance.

So, I was comparing myself with the stammering guy, except that people dare not laugh at me or throw things at me. I always feel very nervous before my lector’s duty and I think every lector feel the same too. But recalling the sufferings of the poor stammering guy and how he rose above his weakness sort of gave me a lot of assurances. True enough, one fellow lector passed by and stopped to chat with me. She told me I have improved a lot. Hallelujah! Talk about affirmation, with a nudge of approval from heaven! You can find the homily on All Saints’ Day by Father Fabian on my faith blog.

Tomorrow is All Souls’ Day or what you can call the Christian Ching Ming. I don’t have a grave to visit as none of my parents or parents-in-law are Catholic Christians. It is unthinkable to go to their graves at this time of the year because the graves will be covered with bushes and snakes. Somemore, don’t know got stray ghosts running around or not. Moreover, my son Vincent too doesn’t have a grave. Maybe I will just go to church and remember all the deceased souls of my families, immediate families, friends and all those I know and pray for God’s mercy.

Today, I went to some workshop with so many permanent head damage folks (PhD lah) and I told them, “hah, you are all out of touch with the blogosphere, we are from two different worlds”. Heh, I am not at liberty to reveal what it is but it is some journalists meet bloggers thingie with big names. *sweats*