for the past 2 years… coming back was always like a vacation.. so this time when i reached this bloody island, it wasn’t any different, i still very much feel like i was about to pack my bags soon that is until..

“huan song!! (my other dialect name)” screamed my mum at 11 in a glorious lazy sunday morning, “remember to wash the toilet!!” and dutifully, i pulled, with great reluctance, away from my bed and proceeded to do as such… although i must say i did negotiated a little throwing pathetic excuses like “aiyah, no worries one, the black wormy thing crawling on the bathroom floor is only helping to eat other germs.”

but anyway, so that is it, before i left, i always clean the toilet week in, week out, like it is what i was meant to do, that toilets will be my forte..

it was only scrubbing the irritating stubborn soap sud (how is it that after 30 years of putting a man on the moon, we still cannot have some chemical to prevent soap suds?) that it finally dawn upon me that normalcy has returned.

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another tell tale sign is my dad, no matter what, no matter how healthy i am be or how radiant my face looks, he is adamant that i am heaty (such a magical word, in fact, it seems that all cures can be traced to this aliment.) and insists that i down some of his disgusting powdered kor chao (= bitter grass, in direct cantonese translation) mixed with hot water.

you see, this elixir is also like some herbs that will make you immortal, it is THE cure and it is absolutely vile. it sort of taste like a dilapidated house with grime filled windows and muddy floor. but again, like the dutiful son, i drink this greenish putty concoction like a breathe of fresh air.

oh well, it is stuff like these that make what home is, no?