Rock is on an upbeat lately! Perhaps it is the after effects of the grand birthday celebration she received from the family! Today, even after her tiring Physio Session, she rode the Bicycle for 10 minutes! While on the way home she suggested to drop by the Super-mart to pick up a few things because she wanted to bake a Date-Bread! Normally we used the wheel chair whenever we go shopping since there is quite a bit of distance to cover on foot but today she walked all the way from the car-park and walking up and down the aisle in the Super-mart. Incredible! This is the first time she achieved so many firsts!

As her caregiver, I am tremendously encouraged. It made all the hard work worth it all to see her trying so hard to be her normal self! Cooking is Rock's passion. Ever since the stroke, the first time she attempted to just fry an egg was to her such an enormous task! I felt so sorry for her seeing the sweat pouring from her forehead and turning green on the face from the sheer effort! One important aspect in the Rehab of a stroke survivor is to encourage him/her to try to do what he/she used to do. It is better to start with something simple and what the person loves to do before. It is not only therapeutic in nature but also a boost to the self-confidence. It also establishes a sense of normality in the person's life again. It is about 'living' despite of set-backs in life. This is definitely a positive step forward in Rock's journey in her recovery. Today is the furthest she went and she did so much in one go! Wow! After all that, of course she was tired and so was I but the fact that she tried and complete the chores speaks volumes for her progress. Shown here is the finished product and that will be for tomorrow's breakfast and I think we need help!

Lately we celebrated Rock's Birthday at a Japanese Restuarant. The ambience was good the food great but its the people present that makes it memorable and enjoyable. It is always wonderful to have families around you in any celebrations. Here is Rock cutting her Birthday Cake from Sharlene and Chit. Too bad that our son Jay and daughter Dawn could not be there.

Rock's brothers and sisters were there to share the joy. Ruby came all the way from Germany to attend the party but her husband Hans could not make it. Sorry to have miss you Hans.

The food was great and let these two brothers show you their expressions!

We had a magic show by Jonathan the home-grown, self-taught magician. He is really good and we were all dazzled. I sincerely believe that one day he may even make it into Mondo Magic.

The kiddies shown here are our third generation mingled with the second generation.

So far are Rock's side of the family but my side of the family were present too.

Really we all thank the Lord for keeping us together as one big family.

Quite busy recently so had been 'Missing In Action' since Sunday. Rock's sister Ruby came back all the way from Germany to celebrate Rock's birthday! What a wonderful sister she is and we sent her off last night. For the last couple of days, we had been rushing around for last minute shopping for some local goodies for Ruby to bring back to Germany. I guess no matter how long you have been living in a foreign land, the call of local goodies is always strong! The night before Ruby flew off, we had a Durian party! For the benefit of those who do not know what is Durian, well it is a local fruit and many says that "It stinks like Hell but tastes like Heaven." Intend to put some photos of the great party we had for Rock but just got to wait until I have sorted out all the photos!

Recently I posted about the ABC's of Caregiving and for the alphabet 'J' for Joy, I mentioned about finding a Handicapped Parking Bay. I suppose most of you thought that perhaps there were insufficient provision of Handicapped Parking Bays. Well that is true in one sense but that was not what that irks me at all. The real problem is that our public is not sympathetic to the Handicapped and even shamelessly deprived us whatever little provision there is available.

You can see from the photos, that the Handicapped Parking Bays were taken by the Non-Handicapped just because the car park was full and the Handicapped Bays were vacant! Perhaps you may noticed that in one of the photos, the Handicapped Bays were chained-up to prevent these uncaring people from using but yet they still parked behind the chain! So what's the use to the Handicapped for we are still unable to get into the parking bay. I suppose only in my country, is there a need to chained-up Handicapped Parking Bays and that indicates the level of Civic-mindedness here isn't it? The question that begs an answer is where are the security personnels? How can they allow such things to happened? Perhaps these uncaring drivers are such nasty people that even the security guards are scared to confront them for fear of being beaten-up? Of course if that really happens they can still go to the Police! Anyway that is another story for another day. Well I am sure you may ask perhaps these cars were really belong to handicapped people but I waited for them to come out and confirmed that they were not, moreover there were no Handicapped Stickers on the cars. I too dared not take a picture of them driving off for fear of being beaten-up! Road Bullies or Car-park Bullies or perhaps one day you may find Handicapped Drivers Rage happening. So, to me and Rock, Joy is really about finding a Handicapped Parking Bay for we seldom go out due to the various challenges of 'going-out' plus getting a parking bay is already difficult without other healthy able-bodied people trying to give us a run for the money!

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