Burnt Ashes and Burnt Rice...anything in common?

kinda.

Both occurred on the same day to be exact.

I headed out on Sunday to pick up my aunt and uncle from their house to meet up with my family at the Lim Chu Kang cemetery to pay respects to my Grandparents.
I figured since I had my new camera with me, I brought it along to play with it. Of course I had to check with my uncle first to see if it was disrespectful to take pictures of the dead...his reply was simple. "Do you see such pictures in news articles".

"Yup"

"There yo go"
So this is where my Grandmother finally laid to rest. I never really got to know her, she passed before I was born, at least I think.
My two younger brothers (Yuh Y? Y? Y? I know what you're thinking and yes, I am small in size) decorated the grave with colored paper while I casually stepped at one side and took pictures.
The two mums stood at one side chatting away while the two dads did most of the harder work.
Grandpa didn't have a burial like Grandma had though, like many others, he had a spot in one of the stone compartments at the building across from where my Grandma's grave was at.
To be honest, I'm clueless about the whole Chinese traditions and rituals thing. I think my two brothers are just as clueless...how did my parents learned these stuff when they were our age? Does it pass on when the day of reckoning comes?

Such are the things in life I seldom bother to ponder, why think so much about death eh?

But enough about death...when it comes, it'll come.

For now, the other thing burning today was this pot of rice.
Yums eh? =) After we were done, my uncle suggested Claypot rice at this place in Clementi Ave 2, so we headed there to give it a try.
Apparently you had to mix it urself, so they provided us with oil and claypot sauce, which was kinda like a special recipe mixture of dark soy sauce and many other ingredients.
I'm not a big fan of Claypot rice, and normally eat it only when served to me, but I thought this one was pretty good, especially after Sandra mentioned going to it the other day. lol. Maybe the bunch of us should try this one out some time.
The best part, of course, was this! Which my uncle kept asking me to try, but i mean, yeah la, I've always known, dear has been raving about this for the longest time too. =) I happily munched on it like rice crispies...cause that's exactly what they are anyway. lol

Anyway for $60 plus bucks, we had two pots, 2 soups and 2 veg, enough for 7 people, sounds reasonably price...like Mel's birthday dinner, it goes to show you don't need to go to fancy places to enjoy fancy foods. =)

By the way...I'm seriously starting to love my camera. =)

Andrew