happy birthday eenasan.

Happy bday to you
happy bday to you   
happy bday to you dear eena
happy bday to you

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cute kan

Darling daughter turned …… today. Being unable to wish her personally ,I rang her up a little  past midnight. She seemed  chirpy as ever.
Dearest daughter had a charming personality ,witty and we had beautiful memories of her when she was small. Schooled in her hometown during the primary years, she was however bundled off to a prestigious all girl boarding school in the capital . Her tertiary education was completed at UPM later on.
Eenasan ,
On your bday today mama wishes you prosperous years ahead.You have stood the test more than others had and I salute you for the grit and determination . Indeed you won the award ‘Rising Star’ not without reason.
On another note, still couldnt get over those cute photos of yours especially during your baby and younger days.You still are cute – truly.
Happy birthday darling ina.Love you through thicks and thins .Love you too thru ups n downs.

The asam pedas experience 1

Did I ever mention that the work in the kitchen was relegated to me since I could remember.Being the 2nd in the family,I would take charge of the family daily dinner or lunch on weekends.I might be as young as 12 when I started being the kitchen apprentice.

From the simple frying of the fish I graduated to making curry. Mind you,back in those days there were no commercial and ready made curry powder. You have to sweat at the heavy stone grinder or batu giling.

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Starting from grinding the ingredients prepared by mak ,I progressed to concocting my own.Home grind curry paste make such a wonderful curry and last till the last drop.
To supplement the curry,I would add slices of papaya. The papaya tree seems to know our hardship .Since money is tight,we have the papaya tree as our source of vitamin C.So we had papaya + ikan kembung curry, sambal belacan with papaya and sayur campur papaya spread on the mengkuang mat for lunch and  dinner.
In fact the queer papaya tree bearing red mouth watering fruits was our life savior.Maybe without the constant supply of vitamin C our skins would be riddled with scabies scars.
Cooking and its perfection does not come easy. How could I forget the first trial at making asam pedas. I had added asam keping to the gravy. One .No taste.Two – still the taste of asam keeping could not be felt.
I think I have added the 7th or 8th piece when I thought I have a nicely cooked asam pedas. ( ingat Aziz Satar dalam Bujang Lapuk). It must be nice to serve my first pot of asam pedas!
Everybody was seated on the mat anticipating a nice meal.Father took a mouthful,threw up and rushed to the kitchen.He took the earthen pot of asam pedas and hurled it to the ground.
I could only looked in fright and bewilderment . I didnt know that asam keping with its potent sourness is time released. So a handful of asam keping is equalled to a bottle of vinegar.Imagine the sourness! So hell hath no fury as a father’s scorn. Lunch is dismissed.

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not that asam pedas la
There were more experiences ,some funny,some silly that I will relate them later. So keep reading. Bye.

Travelling Home and Abroad –2

Before the advent of the Highways, journey was usually done during the night as it was cooler and comfortable, reaching KL at dawn. Food has to be prepared as there was no R&R then.Our favorite takeaway being nasi minyak + sambal+kangkung+eggs+fried chicken+ boiled potatoes. Yummy!

The common room were at the filthy gas stations or eating places / restaurants along the route.During the festive seasons the journey could take up nearly a day.Along the way you would come across accidents with the injured and fatalities still waiting for the ambulance. Once, the road was too congested that from Perlis to KL we only managed to find a spot to eat our food at Slim River.Some 400 km away!

 Unforgetable Moments 

I still remember one frightening experience when we were  travelling cross country to the east coast.The children were still very young. By then we had a Nissan C20 when we decided to return to Perlis from KL by that route.

our second van..

 

It was exciting to see the different scenery along the east coast of Malaysia.After having a fine time frolicking on the beach of PCB and shopping in the bazaar we head towards the west coast. We made our way across the mountain range.

We had been travelling quite a while when we suddenly noticed that there was no more traffic passing by .The further we drove., the road was becoming harder. The smooth tarmac road that we used to have turned bumpy and coarser.Stones and gravels surfaced the road instead of tar.

Things turned critical when we  came to a junction and could not make  out which way to turn to. I came down the car, pushed the dust aside and with a doa made a choice.

We trudged on until we saw a road marking indicating a few miles to Pengkalan Hulu.Our ordeal on this dirt road is over.So we said. More was in store for us after Pengkalan Hulu for the road was even worser than before.

Not once were we not traumatized to notice the barren hill slopes with logs dangling precariously.What if the logs would suddenly make a mind to roll down the hill. God forbids.

I must be reciting my thousandth doa when we arrived dead tired,dust covered in the notorious town of Baling. Only then when we noticed a sign screaming for our attention.

JALAN BALING –GRIK DI TUTUP KEPADA  SEMUA KENDERAAN.SILA GUNA……..

 So a lesson learnt the hard way.Luckily we managed to pull through.What if……….. touch wood.

The next time you travel on an unfamiliar route, be wary of your surrounding and dont take road signs and warnings lightly. I tell you!

this is not on the highwy... its in front of our house.

Bye. Till then...

kindness of strangers

 

This a real experience of mine  .I would like to recall them after reading an article in Reader Digest .

I had played driver to my in laws and children that morning.We went shopping at Bukit Kayu Hitam.. It was the first time I plucked courage to drive that far.

 After shopping and stopping at Han’s house we made our way home.Suddenly came the cluck,cluck sound from nowhere.

 

                       seakan cerek yg dibeli mertua

Cerek mak kut,’ said my mum in law.She had bought a few utensils …a pot,frying pan and a kettle. But the clucking had grown to clunking. I immediately stop by the roadside.It couldnt be the kettle! The engine was roaring like a motorboat

Dear Pak Saad and I got down to check .To our horror ,the exhaust pipe was halfway on the ground.Thus the clucking and the clanking.

We tried to find something to remedy the situation.Our predicament caught the attention of a few soldiers manning the roadblock nearby.Few came to ask and suggest some solutions.But a man in uniform,threw a piece of plastic/raincoat ,crawled under the car and tied a piece of wire to secure the broken exhaust temporarily in place.

I glanced at his name tag. He was Mr. Goh!There were many Malay soldiers there – but the man who came to our rescue was a Chinese. Thank you Mr, Goh.

 With the exhaust in place we made our way slowly to Changlun. Alas ! all the workshops were closed. It was a Friday! As an alternative we bought a few rolls of tape and a young gentleman was kind enough to fix for us. I came to know that he was a student at the local uni. Kudos to you young man.

 We made our home safely. The 40 or so kilometres ride was not a quiet one.We announced our arrival with the loudest of fanfare.

Prom prom promp  pomp pomp pom !!!!!!!!!!.

charade putih penuh kenangan

 

 . Yang buat hal ni is my 2nd car – Daihatsu Charade.The first being a Fiat, yang gear nya sangatlah liat. Manual pulak tu.Macam macam halnya. Nak gelak ada, seram pun ada.

Thats all folks. Bye