let lemons be angry

Happy birthday Daddy. He has been genuinely delighted throughout his birthday celebrations, simply because he's outliving his parents with this birthday. I made him guess what dvd i bought him, and he frowned and thought hard before saying, "ACROSS the universe!" with a finger swooping up into the air and the most self-satisfied beam. Luckily it was really across the universe.

Tonight was the jalan tuakong celebration. Every year we celebrate the august babies' birthdays together, while the rest of the seven siblings don't get their birthdays celebrated. Our family is so large that we could play the bombing game, except it was modified to swinging ("chempadak chempadak chempadak swing to bochiku!" referencing the fruit trees my grandfather planted in the garden) We always have planned games and songsheets and someone in charge of each program item. There was also a "game" of the birthday babies sharing words and visions for each other, that looked like a talkshow to the rest of the family watching on the side.

And tonight auntie angelia ran through our family trivia for the sake of the younger generation and our visitors. I learnt that some of the dogs my grandfather kept were named Nelson, Janet, Wendy, Winnie, Jessie, and Tommy. My uncles and aunties all have retro names as well. Together they are Joyce, Jerry, Roland, Brady, Florence, Angelia and Maureen.

People in my church think my dad is strange. But he isn't strange, not when he blends in with the rest of my strange family. I don't think it's merely Peranakan, it's Tan, and it's to do with that house with its tiled veranda and many many fruit trees and animals.