Tag Archives: Jocelyn Lau

A pink form appears in my visual periphery. I’m deep in proofreading a two-thousand-word magazine essay, so I don’t look up straightaway. At my age it is effortful to read small print properly, particularly at this early hour and in … Continue reading →

An old man sits quietly in his heavy geriatric chair, his head bent low over a borrowed book from the Toa Payoh Public Library. A woman, also elderly, but ten years younger, nudges a younger girl, hey look, the old … Continue reading →

“Mummy, I don’t want to go to school,” the toddler whines. Inwardly, I sigh. It’s become a daily chore to send the toddler to nursery school. “Okay, dear, I’ll drive slowly,” I tell the boy in the back seat. Distraction … Continue reading →

It’s not yet two in the morning when we step out of the Airbnb luxury apartment in Ginza, Tokyo, where we are staying two nights. We get into brisk momentum, mindful that it’s a fifteen-minute walk and visitor queues for … Continue reading →

We’re celebrating Pinky’s birthday. The preschooler and I have chosen a one-kilogramme rainforest cake – as pink as can be – with a picture of Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony on it. We think the character best resembles our … Continue reading →

“Did you really, really, really write so many stories about me?” Pinky whispers loudly into my ear. She is feeling terribly elated and flattered. I had not told her I have been writing short stories celebrating her adventures with the … Continue reading →

(For all parents of graduating kindergartners) It’s nearly the end of the year. Soon, the kindergartner will leave the preschool he’s attended since he was two, and go to primary school. At home, we have been poring over old photographs … Continue reading →

“You take more photos of Minnie Mouse than you ever do of me,” a small voice by my ear says. “Or of the kindergartner,” another voice adds in a low tone. In surprise, I turn towards the dining table, my … Continue reading →

I’m seated on a piano bench at the back of the music studio, watching the kindergartner at his lesson with his new violin teacher, Mrs Chan. The children are young, and the parents’ participation as active observers helps in guiding … Continue reading →

“Pinky, do you want to go to the pool?” our kindergartner yells from his playroom. “Let’s pretend to be Joseph Schooling!” It was the day after the Singapore swimming champion had stunned the world by beating Michael Phelps in the … Continue reading →

“Mummy?” our kindergartner says, without looking up. It’s bedtime and he is reading a big new book, The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Dogs. Inexplicably, the child is, unlike ourselves, a ‘dog person’, and the different canine breeds are his current topic … Continue reading →

“Mummy, where do babies come from?” the kindergartner asks. We are sitting in our home balcony doing a little gardening. He has been learning about family and siblings at school, and suddenly realised that, unlike some of his classmates, he … Continue reading →

One evening, I returned home to find the preschooler looking slightly despondent. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Where’s Pinky?” he said. I remembered an exchange that had taken place earlier in the day. “I think she’s gone out, remember?” I … Continue reading →

It is now late in the afternoon. The kindergartner and I get onto the boardwalk at Lower Peirce Reservoir, treading gingerly, the raindrops still dripping heavily from the branches of the tall, skinny trees. I have Ninja in a flimsy … Continue reading →

“Fingers relaxed? Check your thumb, is it bent?” Miss Yap chirps. “Check your pinky, is it standing on top of the bow? Now let’s sing: Stir the big soup pot…“ The usual reminders at the weekly Baby Violin group class … Continue reading →

“I’m going to have my own room!” Pinky is chattering to the toddler, prancing over a few taped-up boxes of belongings stacked in the bedroom, occasionally galloping along the walls around the room. She’s excited because we are moving to … Continue reading →

“Mummy, why did Bing Bong disappear?” It’s not a new question. We had watched the movie Inside Out over Christmas – for the third time – and our kindergartner still loves it. He asks the same questions repeatedly when he … Continue reading →

“Happy birthday,” he said gently over breakfast. She was 35 today – and in a very bad mood. “I didn’t have the time to buy you a present,” he had said at dinner the previous night, as if preempting disappointment … Continue reading →

“It’s kuning,” he said later, “the kind you eat in nasi lemak.” We had been diving the waters off Pulau Redang. I was taking my NAUI Advanced Open Water Diver Course over five consecutive days with a Malaysian trainer who … Continue reading →

“How come you don’t ever feed me?” she suddenly said. “Huh?” I paused my halved pappadum midway to my mouth and looked over at her. She was a little strange these past two days, but she had been unwilling to … Continue reading →

“This reminds me of Hannibal,” she said, wrinkling her nose in a mixture of disgust and fascination at the dish before them. He looked up briefly but continued to bump the bone fragment rhythmically against the flimsy styrofoam plate. Bits … Continue reading →

She was old enough that summer to be reserved about revealing her age, the way we are reserved about speaking aloud, even in Cantonese, in Hong Kong. The way we can tell Chinese parents their baby looks ‘cute’, but never … Continue reading →

It was the real reason he eventually broke up with her. She didn’t like bread, not even for breakfast. He couldn’t wrap his mind around that. Bread was so much a part of everyday life; people ate it in the … Continue reading →

(For a little girl named Mira) “Why can’t I fly?” We were back at the Horsecity on the weekend, and we overheard Pinky asking Brownie, the gentle retired pony, the question. Since she had seen the photograph of a child’s … Continue reading →