Pointless Post #91 - Pop Culture with Grandparents Edition

Back in June 2009 when I was visiting family in Malaysia with my sister, we were at my great-aunt's home and she semi-randomly suggested, "Hey, let's call your grandmother in Australia! We're from the same village you know. I haven't talked to her in ages."  My sister and I agreed. We hadn't talked to our grandmother in a long time too.  And for the record, I'm doing this from memory so most of this is paraphrased and translated from hokkien, the regional Chinese dialect.

[dialing phone and ringing on the other end]

"Hello?"

"Hello? ...um, hey, hi Ah Ma! How are you? This is your grandson, Timothy.  I think Dad already told you, but Older Sister and I are in Penang right now.  We're at Great-Aunt's house. I didn't know you two were from the same village!"

"...ehhh? Aaah, Timothy? Did you hear? Michael Jackson just died today!"

I was completely caught off guard.  And then, I burst out laughing, not at the fact that a great musician died, but at the fact that this was the first thing my grandmother decided to say to me after not having talked to her for a few months.

[covering the phone]  "Ah Ma just informed me that Michael Jackson died!"

[family also laughs at the absurdity of the way the conversation just turned]

"Hahaha...um, I'm doing fine, thanks Ah Ma!"

[turning to my sister]  "Here, she wants to talk to you now."

I doubled over laughing.  I did end up speaking to her a bit more after that, but man oh man, for some reason I never ever thought that my at the time 81(?) year old grandmother would ever give me current news like that.

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Gas has gone down to 125ish and I even saw it for 123.9¢/litre tonight.