My love

My love for noodles can be dated back in my early childhood. My father used to take me for wanton noodle soup, fish fillet rice noodle soup, Cambodian seafood noodle soup, Vietnamese crab meat noodle soup, meehoon noodle soup, steamed duck leg noodle soup, Vietnamese pho and so on. My father often offered me some treats (meehoon noodle soup or wanton noodle soup) after school when he picked us up. Every Sunday morning, he would ask us whether we wanted to have yumcha or go for noodle soup for breakfast before we enjoy our outing.

My first lover was wanton noodle soup. I remembered when I was little, my father used to take me to his friend’s noodle stall. My sister Fong and I had to order 2 serves of wanton noodle soup each. I love the bouncy texture of the noodles and the soup that had been brewed for many hours. Someone once told me the secret ingredient for the wanton soup was a dried octopus. 

As I grew older I had found my second lover – Bun Bo Hue. I love the fusion of spices in the soup base of Bun Bo Hue. I had a recipe for this soup noodle but I didn’t bother to cook it. I was quite faithful to my second lover until my son came along. I couldn’t take it any longer as every time I had it I vomited. I accused the restaurants for their unhygienic service and blamed on the spices. At the end, I had to move on and left it behind. 

I found my third lover during lunch at work – instant noodles. I can’t remember when I started falling in love with it and my love for it is strong. Although the instant noodles are so tempting, I must restrain myself. This is very hard when I am crazy about this love. My third lover has a variety of flavours – Korean hot and spicy, Taiwanese vegetarian, Malaysian, Thai and so on. I never have enough of it. 

Lately I have found my fourth lover – homemade noodle. Years ago I bought my husband a bread maker which can knead the dough. My daughter bought her dad a noodle cutter as a Christmas present a few years back. With these two tools, I can make fresh noodles within an hour. I discovered that the noodles I make is far more bouncy and tasty then the noodles from the store.

I have reviewed my love journey and have discovered one thing. No matter what soup base that I love, the main ingredient is noodles.  So I am not that fickle about my lovers. My love from the beginning till the end is still noodle.

1968

In 1968 there were two very interesting events which had happened. That Chinese New Year, we heard lots of fire crackers fired. We went outside to watch but found out they were real gunfire. We stood on the road curb and watched. My father had a telescope in his hand and watched the gunfire with dismay. An army official came and pointed a gun on my father’s head. He pushed my father low down on the ground and questioned him whether he was a Viet Cong. They took him on a police van and disappeared. My mother was worried like hell. She then used lots of money to get him out. It was a very scary event. My mother said it was lucky that Kong wanted the telescope and dad didn’t give it to him otherwise we would not see our brother Kong again.

The second interesting event happened in June 1968. It was few days after the Dragon Boat festival in the 5th month Luna calendar. My mother made lots of sticky rice dumpling wrapped with bamboo leaves. That afternoon my dad said, “Let’s evacuate the house and move to somewhere safe because the bombing and gunfire were too close.” It happened at the back of our house. We moved close to Saigon and stayed at a hotel. Our family of ten shared three rooms. One of the rooms could see the other room. It was a coincident that Kong’s Chinese teacher was at the back of our room. We peeped through the little window and found an interest in gazing at him. I was too short at that time and kept yelling at my brothers to push me up higher to see the teacher.

Staying at the hotel was fun. We had takeaway Chinese food for every single meal. My father took me down to the shop and got me some imported lollies. I love the mint flavoured cough lollies. There was one afternoon, my brother Kong stayed at the balcony from our room. He discovered something interesting. He yelled out: “Mum, come watch, there are lots of trucks full of something.” We rushed to the balcony and watched together. My mother said the trucks were full of dead bodies. Kong gave a sniff and vomited. The smell was foul and it was indescribable. We saw traces of legs tangled and lots of swollen bodies. Kong got right in side of our room and never stood by the balcony until we came back home.
We had pillow fights nearly every day. It was fun. Our neighbour also stayed at the same hotel. The hotel was just like a Disneyland for us. We ran around, yelled out loud, played chasey, hide and seek until we broke a teapot in our room. The hotel owner came and told us off. The cleaner also told us off every morning when she changed our bed linings. She commented that she had never seen anyone that dirty in her life. Just imagine there were more than 10 children running around in a four story hotel ranging from 6 to 17 year-old.

My third school Truong Phuoc Duc

Truong Phuoc Duc was a private school administered by Taiwanese teachers as well. They all spoke mandarin. It was a very strict Chinese school and it was not an easy school to get in. We were supposed to sit for tbe entrance test but my father donated a generous amount of moneys and we got accepted without any difficulty. I started my Year 1 again. Hing got into Year 3. My second sister Fong was in Year 8. I remembered there was a girl who liked to bully people. I sat next to her from Year 1 to Year 3. She drew a line on our shared desk, and if I went passed her line then she would use a sharp pencil and stab it on my arm. There was once when she held a sharp pencil and poked into my left eye. The mark still remains till this day on my left eye. The blood was smeared everywhere. My father told her off but she continued to bully me. I requested to sit with someone else but it failed. In the Vietnamese education system, students had barely any choice. I endured three years of being bullied. In Year 3, my sister was selected as a monitoring captain for Year 5. She had the power to penalise any children from Year 5 and below. She came to my class and told the bullier off and from then on she became a good friend of mine. Her name was Hua Sieu Kim. (许秀金) She was a clever, mischievous and very cunning girl. She was a group leader in the class. Her brother Hua Binh Huy (许柄辉) admired me very much but I didn’t pay too much attention on the opposite sex at that time.

My second school

My second school was Tai Ping Yang (太平洋) or Yao Han (耀漢) Chinese School. It was a private school. Most of the teachers at Yao Han was from Taiwan. My brother Sing was studying in high school at Tai Ping Yang. As Hing was two years older than me, so she was in Year 3. And I was enrolled into Year 1. It was a big school. On the first day I got allocated to sit next to my best friend Han Xiang (漢祥) who lived three houses away from mine. I remembered there was once I was sick. I coughed into a handkerchief and the teacher accused me of whispering to Han Xiang. She forced me to stand up and whacked a stick on my back. When she started her second whack, Han Xiang grasped that stick and explained to the teacher that I was sick. Unfortunately, he and I got detention after school. Han Xiang was a deeply protective towards me. I remembered there was a group of kids who often laughed at us. They made jokes about us being so close, labelling us the ‘married couple’. We ignored them until one day they cornered me and teased me about the ‘married couple’ act. I was so terrified. Han Xiang stepped in and got into a fight, whilst I was in the corner, crying like a baby. The yard teacher noticed us and got us (Han Xiang and I) detention after school again. The teacher punished us by writing ‘I-will-not-fight-with-others’ endlessly for a hundred times. We stood there laughing during our detention.

After school, my brother Sing walked us home. He often bribed us with ice blocks to walk faster to get home and carry his books for him. He kept his promised and got what we wanted.

I stayed at that school for about half of the year until my brother Sing got into a fight. The night before that fight, he met a group of boys from the same school on the street. They challenged him for a fight but somehow he got off from them. The group was a bunch of bullies from the same school that we went to. They came from wealthy families. The next day they met at the school ground and challenged Sing again, cornering him at the canteen. His two friends (Ying Kuan and Xi Lou) jumped in and helped my brother out. They got into a heavy fight. My brother got injured on one of his eyes and his friends also got injured. I saw blood everywhere. The whole group got called into the principal office. Soon after, some of the boys got expelled and my brother’s group voted to change school. So once again Hing and I moved to another school called Truong Phuoc Duc. Sing moved to another school.

Han Xiang, my childhood soul mate

As far as I remembered I knew Han Xiang (湯漢祥) since I started crawling. He was like my shadow. He was born a week after me. In the neighbourhood, people called him ‘Pig Intestine’ (豬大腸 Xiang sounds like intestine in Cantonese.) and they called me old crab shell. (老霞殼 Xia sounds like crab and I often wore a vest, so it looked like I wore a shell all the time.) We were good friends until I left Vietnam. We used to play a game – a queen and little pawn. I was the queen and he was the little pawn. He would bow to me and say: “My dear queen.” He then asked me to give him a kick. He was his guilty pleasure. We used to play husband and wife. I cooked and he ate. I had miniature cooking set which I could actually cook real food. I often pinched my mum’s food and charcoal to cook up a feast for him. It filled me with such enjoyment watching him eating my food. I was not sure if my food would cause him an upset stomach. When we played hid-and-seek with a large group of children, he never revealed where I was hiding. There was once when he found me, but he pushed my head down and walked passed to find another one. He was a very protective friend. Whenever people bullied me he would stand up for me. We spent many hours together after school playing roller skating. We played chasey on our roller skates. He often comforted me when I felt miserable. I told him almost everything, even my first love with Tran Sinh Duc. I think he got sick of me when I kept talking about Tran Sinh Duc. When there was a sunny day, we would take the long walk home. We walked passed a vegetable farm and he would pick some flowers for me. Whenever I eyed on someone’s toys, he would win them over for me. We often snuggled up in my parents’ bed and talked forever. I didn’t go to his house that much because his mother and brother often made fun of me and called me his little wife.

There was once after school, I waited outside Han Xiang’s school. (His school is about 10 metres away from mine.) There were three boys (Tong Tieng Hung, Chau Gia Cuong and Hua Binh Huy) followed me. I think they had followed me for a while to see what I was up to. When they saw me with him, they approached Han Xiang and asked about our relationship. Han Xiang replied that it was none of their business. He also told them to leave me alone otherwise he would do something. The three boys teased me next day saying he was my boyfriend. I told Han Xiang about this and he laughed without any objection.

The most priceless memory that I can never forget, was when he taught me how to whistle. He took many nights to teach me how to whistle, showing me how to form my lips and my tongue in the position to blow out a sound. I was a bit thick in this. He also taught me how to play table tennis.

When we were about 13 years old, he became very shy. He told me to walk home alone when we got close to our houses. He was conscious about what other people would say. To be honest, I think he reached puberty. I remembered one morning I noticed his voice had changed. I asked him if he had he caught a cold. His face turned as red as a tomato. Although he began to keep a distance away from me, he would let me jump in the queue whenever I had to queue up to buy food or stuff from the communist. He would pick the best piece of charcoal, fish, bread, rice or soft drink that I like for me before he could pick for himself.

On the night before my family escaped from Vietnam, my age group had a meeting in the local council. The intention of that meeting was to designate people to be watchdogs for those who wanted to sneak out of Vietnam. Han Xiang was assigned to watch our house. I was assigned to watch my next neighbour. During the meeting, I looked at him and wanted to tell him about my family’s escape plan, instead I swallowed all the words that I wanted to tell him. Next morning before I left our house, I saw him walking passed our home. I called out to him: “Hi, Pig Intestine.” “Yes?” he replied. We stood there and that moment just froze. I couldn’t speak; I was holding back my tears; I wanted to give him a hug and said goodbye but I didn’t. I put on a fake smile and said nothing. He gave me a deep worry look and walked pass me. That was it. That was my last time to see my best friend ever.

I reconnected back with him after I settled in Australia. I miss him very dearly. Whenever I walked from school back home, I missed my companion. I miss how he was so protective of me. I missed his jokes. I miss his unconditional love. I miss his warm smile. I miss my childhood soul mate.

My father

As far as I remember, my father is a very determine person. To him, nothing is impossible. He has a strong mind and body. He does not believe in fate. He believes in what you work is what you get. Another word, he believes in himself. He loves to learn and picks up new skills very quickly. He didn’t like school at all. He could understand when I’ve got zero for my Vietnamese test when I was little. I used to have red-marked in my report cards and he looked at me with great understanding. His remark was “It is ok. I don’t like school too.” In most of his life, he has been working pretty hard for his family. He is not that sort of person who only knows how to work but does not know how to enjoy life.

I remember when we were in the Bedong Island Refugee Camp. We had no money for food and medicine. He was sick and was feeling very low. That did not stop him thinking about how to make his family’s life better. He kept wanderred around the island to look for things he could use. He asked me to join him to go to all the ship wrecks sites to look for tools. There were some sites that we could get something out from them. We got quite a fair bit of nails, timbers, iron board and machinery from the boats. He used timbers to make thongs, stools and shelves. He used iron boards to build his work shop. He undid the machines from the boats and used its parts as tools. He could turn junk into useful things. He got some brilliant ideas when he saw so many empty coca cola cans lying around. He opened them up and jointed them together into a big piece of iron sheets and used them to make trays, water barrels, suitcases for his friends, boxes and ovens for the bakery shops. He used coca cola bottles to make lamps. He curled up an iron rod and burnt it under a hot oven which he used mud to build it. He then used this hot iron rod to cut the top of a coca cola bottle into half. He then cut a can into 1/3 and used it as the lamp’s base. He used the top of big round petrol tank to make woks. I helped him once to hit a flat piece of metal into a wok. My hands were full of blisters and we could only sell that wok for 10 ringgit.

At the beginning of his business, every body around him said that no body would buy his products. We as his children, asked him to save some of his energy. He never listened to us. There was one sunny afternoon, he gave me a lesson. He asked “Will you give up something which you have not tried yet?” “I don’t know? I may not give up that easy.” I said. “Good! That’s my girl. Now you are going to help me to pick up all these junk and sell them in the market. We have to try to improve our life in here, especially your mother is very sick. We need money.” He said. So I listened to him. At the beginning, I could not sell any thing at all. I felt low and did not want to continue to help him. I was not as determine as him. I told him that I could not take it any longer. He said “Nothing is easy at the beginning.”  He laughed at me and he did it all by himself. Finally he succeeded and he was well known on the Island. There was nearly every household has one of his lamp. We sold for 1 ringgit per lamp. Every body was looking for him to make them something. He said “See,I only need to try hard and I have what I want.” I truly believed in him. I have learnt from his strength, persistent, perseverance and the way he believes in himself that I should not give up easily.

When we arrived in South Australia, we were poor. We had the Government’s help, but it was just enough for food and rental. We could only buy all the essential goods. We were all complaining about the life style we’ve got except him. There was one hot summer afternoon, I saw him was working hard outside the shed. I could see his grey hair was shinning through the hot summer sun. His wrinkly face was so concentrated to what he was working. He looked at me excitedly. He said “Hi girl, I have got an order.” That moment I wanted to cry. This man has been working so hard in his life just want to make his family live comfortably. I was moved. He never gives up any chance he had in his life. He was having trouble in English and he had not had a car. He did not know any body in here other than his friend - Bac Muoi. He was working for Bac Muoi at that time just earning as low as 3 dollars per hour and it was a part time job. Bac Muoi only paid for him whenever he felt like. He did not complain at all. Bac Muoi always criticized him that now he had no workers to help him to finish his tasks. (My father employed more than 10 workers in Vietnam who could do the work for him. He was someone’s boss back home.) He kept very quiet about that. I knew that he felt very low being lost all his business back home. He adapted to the environment as quickly as he could. He made a lot of friends. There was once he asked me to help him to implement one of his projects. That was a huge advertisement board. I went with him on his small mini in an early morning around 5am to avoid traffic. He needed to hang this board about 4 metres high. I insisted to do the climbing for him. He told me that he did not gain any profit for it. I asked him why he did it. He said that he would do anything to let people know his capability. He did not mind what people offered to him. He said that one day, people will recognize his work. Not long after that, he kept having orders from restaurants. He established his business slowly in his own way. He had no machine to help him to do his work. He asked my mum and I to help him to hold onto a big sheet of steel while he curled it and turned it into a roast duck oven. He is a very skillful person. If you show him something, he can reproduce the thing for you. He has been making so many, many things for people in Adelaide. He helps neighbors to fix their lawn movers and household things for nothing. In return they gave him eggs and home grows veggies. Now he has been retired but he has built up so many machinery and tools in his shed.  He now has machine to help him to curl these steel sheet. I don’t need to help him any more.

He is so determine that he thinks nothing is impossible. He gives me so many valuable lessons in life. He teaches me how to tackle problems and do not give up when problem or criticism has arise.

I remember far, far back when I was little. He normally spent his weekend with us. He would like me to pick a place to go and he would take us there. He was a serious father before I was born. My older sisters and brothers told me that he always had a straight face when they were little. He didn’t play with them at all unlike I could crawl all over him and demanded him for the things I want. I am the lucky one in the family whom he has given me most of his love.