Please order some tulips on the internet for me.

When I woke up this morning, I heard ”little darling” singing in her room.

As I approached her room, I heard yet another new song, coined by her. The lyrics went: ”hooray, hooray, my mommy is coming home today”.

Upon seeing me, she stopped her melodious (not everyone concur with this opinion) little song.

After our exchange of “good morning, por-por” and “good morning, darling” she said: “Por-por, please order some tulips on the internet for me. Mommy is coming home today”.

I can’t stop to marvel at the evolution of the humankind’s reaction and acceptance of information technology.

One day, perhaps twenty years ago, I went shopping (one of Singaporean’s fav pas-time) with my late mother. She noticed a queue at an ATM, observed that some people, after pressing a few times on the machine, moved away with cash in hand. In answer to her questions, I briefly explained what the ATM was about. Followed by my demonstration on how to withdraw some money.

Mother was thoroughly amazed; but concluded that she would rather deal directly with the bank cashier.

The next day, I shared the experience with my lunch-time “kakis”.**

Devi and Cheong, shared my mother’s mistrust and suspicion of the ATM. Devi voiced her fear that the ATM may issue lesser cash than recorded ………. etc. Her parting shot was, “I would rather go to the bank too”. Devi took many years to accept the use of ATM, on an URGENT basis only.

Those were the days when computers and such, were viewed with awe (by a good number of people besides Devi and I).

We were aware that the computers could do many things, besides saving a lot of time — when used by those who had the “know how”. Whereas Devi, many of my friends and I stood in awe of computers PLUS feared that a computer may blow up in our face at any time.

Over the years, more and more people accept the use of computers in their office and home.

Simultaneously, a whole generation of our children grew up, learning to use computers in schools. They use the word processors and spread sheets with ease. They refer to the ”Yellow Pages” on the internet when they need to check a phone number. They play games and make new friends via the net, on the computers. The list goes on.

Our grandchildren are growing up in an enviroment filled with computers and the constant mention of “the internet”.

Although I marvelled, I wasn’t very surprised when my little grand-daughter requested “please order some flowers on the internet for me”.

PS ”kakis” is Singlish. Translation: companions, friends, supporters. Originated from Malay where “kaki” means “leg”.

Ay, what happened to my page?

Was collected but still very excited yesterday.

Am a lot more settled today n viewing the 2 entries in my blog with pride.

Then noted that the banner, which I yesterday thought was an advertisement, was appearing on top of my blog again. It made a beautiful header for my page. I wondered; “Ay, how did this happened?”

“Ling, look, ’WordPress’ has put in a beautiful header for me!”

“My blog appears more attractive”.

“Mom, that was NOT done by ‘WordPress’; I did it for you”.

“You did.?”

“When?”

“How?”

“Must be a lot of work? How long did it take to do something like this?” were the questions that I shot at Ling.

“Mum, slow down. I made your blog ‘more attractive’, soon after you completed ’New start’ “.

“I wanted to give you a pleasant surprise as I’m quite sure you would like it. Knowing you n all your excitement, I figured you would ask me about it, when you are collected enough to notice the change”.

“Hey, darling, I’m really not that blur lah**. I saw the header yesterday, but thought it was some form of internet advertisement. Didn’t pay much attention to it then. When I saw it again today, I had a closer look n realised that it is a header for my page.” I said in defence.

“How to do it? How much time did you spend on doing it?” I continued to ask.

“I didn’t do it from scratch, but used the templates provided by ‘WordPress”. It took a couple of minutes only. It is easy to learn too. So try it mum. Besides this, there are a lot of other stuff that you could use to enhance your page. Explore on your own and have fun”.

“You bet I would”

PS **”Hey, darling, I’m really not that blur lah” is “Singlish“ (Translation: “Hey, darling, I’m not that unobservant”)