Grandpa's Little Classroom
Click-clack beads and brushes of ink,
Grandpa taught me how to think.
But little Aunty, full of tricks,
Left Grandpa with a mess to fix!
Grandpa's Click-Clack Orchestra
Little Aunty: “Grandpa, are you playing the guzheng?”
Grandpa: “No lah! I'm doing my accounts. Want to learn?”
Little Aunty: “This one up, that one down… huh? Grandpa, can start again?”
Grandpa often sat with his trusty abacus, busy doing his accounts. Little Aunty loved standing beside him, listening to the familiar click-clack of the beads. To her, Grandpa's fingers moving so quickly across the abacus looked almost like someone playing the guzheng!
Grandpa patiently tried to teach her, but with beads going up, beads coming down, poor little Aunty soon had question marks dancing all over her head.
And after all these years? Aunty still hasn't caught head or tail of it! Hahahaha!
Grandpa's Botak Calligraphy Brush!
Grandpa: “Come, I'll teach you how to write calligraphy.”
Little Aunty: “Okay, Grandpa!”
The next day…
Grandpa: “Eh?! Where are my brushes?”
Little Aunty: “Err… one broke into half…”
Grandpa: “And the other one? Where's the hair?!”
Little Aunty: “How I know your brush wore a wig?!”
Grandpa enjoyed writing Chinese calligraphy and often wrote couplets for Chinese New Year. One day, he decided to pass his skills on to little Aunty.
Unfortunately, his precious brushes didn't survive the experience. One snapped in half, while another mysteriously lost its bristles!
From that day onwards, little Aunty was strictly forbidden from going within six feet of Grandpa's desk.
Then Grandma delivered the final blow.
Grandma: “You want to teach her calligraphy? Better teach a chicken to sing!”
Little Aunty: “HMPH! One day I'll sing better than a chicken!”
Ouch! That remark really hurt little Aunty's feelings.
She never did take singing lessons, but singing came naturally to her.
Grandpa lost his brushes, little Aunty lost her calligraphy lessons, and Grandma unknowingly inspired a new ambition!
As for the chicken? Well, nobody ever arranged that singing competition!
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