Extended Family

See the photo? Yes, I have a pretty large extended family, and those in the photo are only from my mom's side of the family! Other than the locals, many flew in from Singapore, Auckland, London and Nam Tong in China to witness my cousin Lye Keat's wedding yesterday.

Some of my friends can't stand the idea of having too large an extended family. I have no such problem. It's probably because I've been brought up in such an environment, and for as long as I can remember, we've always come together for festivities and celebrations all the time. There is an imminent sense of excitement as such gatherings approach every time.

What so great about my relatives is the comradeship and our solidarity as a family. We keep in touch often, even when we are in different corners of the globe. Such is the advantage of modern technology that we are never too far away for a chat. English-proficient cousins of mine get updated on the happenings in my life via email or social networking sites, whereas I just pick up the phone when I want to catch up with those in China, 'broken Cantonese' being the communication medium of mine. Many ask me how I keep up with such correspondence. It's only a little bit of effort really, how difficult is it to pick up the phone?

Photo of Lye Keat and Mei Li's wedding at the Holy Rosary Church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.