Blog — PROJECT 851

Celebration and food? But of course Dinka is there!! haha

This year we watched a Zoom talk from the Chinatown Storytelling Centre that shared the celebration of Gung Hay Fat Choy. The New Lunar Year dinner is an important beginning to a new animal and element that is also a symbol of wishing others great happiness and prosperity. Did you know there are foods that represent good luck? Well here they are:

You can imagine the good fortune we felt when our neighbours texted us and said “hey heads up DON’T cook on Monday”. Hmmmm, was the look Mom and I gave each other and to our delight NYE dinner arrived at our door by 6 pm!! This week she got hearing aids, that she calls “earings” and a special Lunar New Year’s eve dinner delivery.

As Mom said “this is the best delivery ever!!” Thank you neighbours.

There are 3 things that Mom loves; eating, counting and talking on the phone. Eating is never a problem, in fact, pairing back; portion control; intermittent fasting; healthy choices… are all a regular part of our conversations. However, wonderful company and joyous memories of taste and celebration usually win out over the sensible conversations of moderation. It’s all about the Bass!

Counting presents itself in many forms. When Mama spontaneously does a percentage calculation to tell you exactly what dollar figure was earned based on the observation of people in the audience at the theatre, including the alcohol and coffee consumption at intermission, hmmmmmm you just gotta love her perspective on life. Then the next day she’s counting stitches and making god knows how many hats to give away. During Covid we would drive up and down Hastings St for a sad but true outing and she couldn’t help but count how many people were on the streets living in squalor …(don’t think that didn’t lead to many a conversation. The game of numbers classified as counting have been an ongoing dialogue for many years and hopefully many to come. It’s all one version or another.

Talking on the phone, omg where to start on that one… This is where comedy comes in. Yes, all is kind of okay when she’s connected to the landline, yes a landline, as buttons that you push NOT sensitive to touch, work just fine. Years ago we brought Mom into the “present” with a cel phone, little did we realize it would be 1) only for her to call us and 2) for our amusement. The panic of a cel phone ringing and knowing you have a limited time to touch the phone in a manner that allows you to answer it was something we did not account for.

As a “non-tech” senior, one who fought getting a microwave for years as it was too difficult to operate, the cel phone has a whole set of new challenges. One of those basic issues being simply answering it. Who’d have thought? Also watching Mom try to bring up photos, applying aps, looking for phone numbers … is an amazing adventure in comedy land. No one thought of the generation of people who just survived! Survived tough times and became pretty body unaware of things as the focus was on survival. Ya well take those people and try to get them to be “intuitive” with the cel phone!! hahahahaha.

Try saying to an octogenarian “just touch the phone and answer the call”. Go ahead I dare ya. Sensory skills can be different when your fine motor skills didn’t flow in a tapping light movement or learn the dexterity of a blackjack dealer. You were lucky you had books to read and learned to turn the pages for god sake. The upside of this generation is their ability to observe, to wonder, to day dream. These are the things that make it fun when Mom says things like “this phone is everything but a phone”! She’s 100% right. So the fact that she uses it as it works for her and doesn’t care if you’re calling her or she can’t take a photo makes it a joy. The adaptability to be part of the modern age but not care if it’s what everyone else is using it for is exquisite.

Moving through the world in a time of the Technological Revolution and using the advancements to enhance your already rich life of community is where it’s at!