My space.

My Hair Dream

2009-09-23T03:35:00.000-07:00

My Dream. Is to have hair. That looks like this.

No split ends. No frizzy locks. No dead curls.

I will no longer make that drastic decision to relax it. Youtube has inspired me.

I will now lovingly care for and give my hair all that it needs. I will acheive my goal one day!

Go Natural Hair!!

Eid Mubarak!!

2009-09-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Eid day..........What a wonderfully (tiring) day! So tiring that I had all of my energy sapped out of me and today there is not a shred of energy left, except for what it takes to loll about and roll around and tickle my cat and check for tidbits from the fridge (sounds like alot of energy eh? well it's not).

So anyway my sleepy and drugged brain frinally sent a message to the body that, hey, it's boring! Get something on mon!........so I decided to turn to my laptop. I mean, it's something that I can still do whilst lying down :-p. And when I turn on my laptop I see pictures from yesterdays Eid which means that now I have to blog them.

To cut a lot story short, I tooooooooootally didn't expect Eid to happen when it did. I mean..I really thought that it would be on Monday not on Sunday, which was why when the announcement came over the radio everyone was like HWAATT??!! I mean, we had barely started cooking yet!!! and that really jeapordized alot of our (especially my) cooking plans!! Here's what was the planned menu :

Chicken Souse

Maccaroni and Cheese (Bahamian Mummy style mmmm)

Jerk Chicken

Baked Chicken

Nasi impit

Kuah Kacang

Rendang

Baklava

Danish Pastries

Apple Pie/ Apple Crumble

Chocolate Pineapple Upsidedown cake

Macadamia chocolate chip cookies

Lemon Pound cake

WELL!! that menu had to be severely shortened and we ended up only making those ones in red. And that even kept us up until midnight. Initially we were going to stay up until 3am but ooooooh Ya Allah no ones eyes could take it! so we took some shuteye until 4am then got back up to continue. Really tiring, but it was worth it later on to see people enjoy it. Usually on other years I would have taken a weeks start to bake sweets and all but since I'm in KL now I dont have the chance :(. I was contemplating buying some of the gazillions of cookies and sweets everyone sells all over the place come Eid, but after a few horrible tasting sessions I decided NO WAY!! How can people even SELL that stuff and call it food??? most of the 'cookies' tasted like cat food and was like grit in my mouth!!...Home baked stuff any time man..

So come 7:30am everyone is scrambling to get ready. And that's when everyone found they coudln't find at least the one important item of clothing. Bey talk about chaos! the house just erupted lololol...and it wasn't even funny at the time, especially because I couldn't even find the khimar that was supposed to go with my outfit *sniff*. Abu and Mummy left us kids behind because we were taking so long haha.

But in the end Mummy and Abu went to a different masjid and we kids went to the PAS place for salaat. Not that we're politically inclined to them or anything no, but because the rest of my family is (haha) and so that's where they would go and we just wanted to be around the family.

So we went to the Musalla...........Not such a big turnout this year though, maybe some of them went over to UMNO? *snigger*

My cousin Masyitah during the Khutbah. How do kids get that bored to death expression? So funny.

Sweet Ain! A girl who I used to hang around with.

On the way back home after Eid Prayers.....that's the road to my house, we're now approaching the little Masjid I mentioned in one of my earlier posts. The one my great grandad helped build.

A close up of the masjid. It's just called Masjid Lama now. Everyone in Jasin knows it.....when i'm giving directions to my house I use it as a landmark :-D

Still on the way home..........some more kampung road....

Up the hill..........and now we reach home!! another thing I always include in directions " just keep going until you see the green wall..." :-)

Enter house. We had carefully cleaned it the night before and made it presentable. Should've seen it before! But the whole family was stopping by our house first since my mom is the eldest of the 9 siblings living in Melaka....so everyone must come to Mak langs house first lah.......Sisters were going to be in the dining area...

And men were going to be in the living room area. The house was jam packed with people and their kids and I will not bother to post the 'after' pictures. It was total CARNAGE!! so amazing what damage a few kids can do!!

Check out that Mac 'n Cheeeeeeeeeseeee!!! Everyone LOVED it!! I didn't even get any myself :'(

And lookit that crispy Jerk Chicken...people was linin' up to get a bite of the stuff man!....and I didn't get any either boo hoo.....

It was so funny though, not one of the guests wanted to eat the traditional Malaysian raya food!! They was just killin the Bahamian stuff and asking for the recipe lol. My mum was like "you're not going to eat my rendang??" and they were like "aaaaaah....why'd you even bother with that?? everyone does that! it's boring!"

Where's all the other food? Well I couldn't get around to taking pics. So many people were there and it was like total confusion...alhamdulillah my mom thought of styrofoam plates this year! that saved alot of backbreaking dishwashing which otherwise we 'anak dara' would have had to do LOL.

So alhamdulillah t hings went well, then we went for jalan raya...the part of raya which causes me to weep all the time..visiting house after house..Ya Allah..at first I set out on my heels, but then I quit and just changed to flip flops. By the time I crawled home I could barely gather the strength to take a shower wallahi. But I took it! and then...SLEPT.

Until the next morning.

That was my Eid.

The end.

And I lift my fingers..

2009-09-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

heavy and full of reluctance (or pure laziness) to type out a meager blog post on this page. I claim to love writing and being able to express myself more thru writing than speaking, but why is it that it's so hard for me to get a start on something I love? It's just SO hard for me to sit down and begin to write. Anyway, putting that aside for now.

I am back in Kampung! and that means that I can hear all the crickets singing their love songs in the grass, see my dads beloved lawn (grown with grass roots brought all the way from the Bahamas in a ziplock bag), See my beautiful and lazy cat Baby who has grown into SUCH a prince (I just adore him), and walk into my wonderful bathroom only to find out that......the lightbulbs blown out. AAAHHH. And my good mood vanishes. It is just SO like my brothers to leave the lightbulbs blown out and suffice with candles!! They just have to wait for me to come home and begin to carry on before they even BEGIN move their behinds! Maybe I will reduce their duit raya for that *cackles*.

I see that there are some changes in the blogger settings. There's a tab here that says Monetize. Hmm...makes me remember the days when I thought I would try to make a buck out of blogging. Bleh. Not worth it methinks.

SO I dont have anything much to blog about, just wanted to pop in and say hello. It's been March since I last wrote on this forsaken territory of mine...so much has happened in that time! a rollercoaster of emotions and activities, confrontations with realities of life, which, alhamdulillah, was balanced by blissful respites from realities of life. Can't do without the other you know. Would have a mental overload.

Someone suggested I do a photo essay. I am seriously considering that. But of what? Maybe I will do some things around this kampung of mine.........

Well, till then insha'allah!!

Night of Horror

2009-03-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of the most totally harrowing nights in my life.

Totally.

Because guess what happened. I got lost!! *draws shivery breath*

It all happened at the beginning of a bright sunny day, full with a hearty breakfast consisting of Luqaimaat, Bihun, Banana cake, Tea and Watermelon slices, Us girls (four of us) were ready to hit the road and just conquer the U.I.A. swimming pool! But as they say, Never get your hopes too high because then you're bound to be dissapointed, and need I say? We were dissapointed.
"Where're your bathing suits?" the catty lady at the pool said. "You have to wear bathing suits you know, like that one, see?" And she pointed to a picture of the latest Muslimah fashion bathing suits. "And anyway, you can't swim now, we're having lessons, visitors can only come between 5pm-7pm"

HWAAATTTT!!! Talk about being dissapointed!! frantically opening back up the sms that Adila sent me the other night I saw that she did mention the pool being open at just 5-7pm....boy was I gobsmacked!! were WE gobsmacked!!

Anyway long story cut short, we spent the day in various places in KL, after having parked my car at Sogo. Now here comes the good part where we finally get ....dun dun dun....lost

Driving out of the Sogo parking lot I had not the faintest idea where to turn, thus following my 'instincts' I just followed the road twisting here and there and not really feeling scared (yet) because it was just 8:00pm, I mean....it's just 8:00!! what's there to be scared about right!

Two hours later and I am driving on the highway without an idea of where we are; all of the signs pointing to Petaling Jaya have mysteriously dissappeared and I'm entertaining crazy ideas of doing a fast reverse in the emergency lane until I see one again and to make it worse, my gas tak was empty! Only Allah knows how I kept my hands straight on that steering wheel....

blink blink blink A red light is blinking showing that my gas is just about kaput. I felt like screaming
I KNOW OKAY!! My sis and the girls and the girls in the back were keeping up some type of laughing/screeching/howling chorus, trying in vain to keep down the panic by laughing like werewolves at everything they saw.

Alhamdulillah we saw a gas station Alllllllllhamdulillah!!! Finally I can ask someone for directions!! I think to myself, But..(there's always the but) when I ran into the station I had to stop short in dismay...everyone at the counter were Bangladeshis who could barely speak Malay!! "Calm down" I tell myself "Just fill up first".....man...I was shivering so bad...when ALHAMDULILLAH some kind hearted Malay soul walked into the gas station and straight away offered to show me the way If I would just follow behind his car.But whats with women and directions? We followed him (going at 130km per hour by the way..this guy was driving mad fast) We got lost againnnnnnnn!!!

The clock is showing 9:45 and we're getting sooooo nervous. finally we spot some guys selling burgers on the side of the road and I didn't even think twice man, I just swerved in next to them and Hafsah just about fell out of the car in her rush and panic to ask the man for the way!! It was hilarious!! the guy came running out and was like Calm down lady! calm down! hahaha................But him and his friends were sooooooooo nice masha'allah....and one of them got on his motorbike and led us all the way back to Kota Damansara..alhamdulillah! It was bedlam in the car man with all of us whooping and hollering and screaming and practically crying with joy that we were HOME!!.....

Now that I think of it..and recall back their appearances...They are NOT the kind of guys I would normally approach to ask something on a regular day. I mean with their piercings and wild hairstyles and dropping jeans, smoking, totally scary faces....but now I know; Dont just a book by its cover! :) :) Everyone has a drop of good in them somewhere..........and they sure did, because without them I dont know if we would have even gotten home!

Phew!

Breathe in, Breathe out

2009-03-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

It's been so long! I've actually totally forgotten about this blog. Shame on me actually. Once upon like a hundred years ago I made a firm resolve (which, obviously, wasn't firm enough) to blog something at least once a day, but man! I am just sooo....................Okay lemme stop. I was just going to tell a lie there. I'm not SOO busy, but I'm just plain unmotivated is all.

Since moving out of my Aunts place there hasn't been any internet in our little burrow of an apartment and it's just painful to use the internet at school. I mean talk about slow!

But today...ah today. Out of all the days I decided to walk to school. "A sunny day!" I thought " Might as well just walk to school and burn some of this thigh flab, and then when I go to gym after school I will have had a head start at the excercise!" And I walked to school fantasising and thinking happily of all the nasty bits of fat that I was burning.

Ah well....that's why fantasies are called fantasies.

Everyone sing along : It's Raining...It's pouring...the old man is snoring...( eh? Is that how it goes? sheesh who cares)

IT'S RAINING BEBEH AND WE'RE GROUNDED HERE.

But it's all good, I can finally update this poor forsaken blog of mine. Hang out with the other slightly mentally damaged teachers as myself (haha) and eat burnt fritters thrown together by one of the slightly mentally damaged teachers and sip on almost-sugarless tea. Ah...the beauty of rainy days. It just turns barely edible food into a feast! lurvely.

I've an interview next weed with the School head..urgh...I am SO not on the same side of the river as that lady...what to do what to do? I just HATE people observing my teacher also (which is what she's going to do) because that is the time when all the kids act like goats possessed! But I love my kids. And (hopefully) they love me too....I mean...that's what they tell me all the time in their upside down and lopsided writing " i Luvv u tEahcehr" awwwwww wubbies.

But I can hate them at times. Oh Allah. But I heard (somehwere) that that's what makes a relationship beautiful. A little bit of hate. MUAHAHAHA.

Anyway, I wish I could have added some pictures but this school computer is SO slow i'm afraid that i'll be waiting till tomorrow and God! I can't do that, I got work ta do mon!

Ciao ;-)

Oh La La, I've been caught on camera!

2008-12-12T03:32:00.000-08:00

So I'm just randomly browsing the internet and I decide to type in the name of the preschool at where I teach. Search results pop up. A PA system service website? what's that got to do with my preschool? Click. Click. Surprise! It seems that there was some hidden cameraman around whilst we were doing the rehearsals for the preschool graduation day back in November and I was caught in a picture! Good thing it's only from the back though. And Seeing as they just so nicely took my picture without me knowing, I think they wouldn't mind if I took it and put it up here so here goes :), Moi and me class of preschoolers.

Peek-a-boo blog

2008-10-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

It's been so long! Since moving to Kota Damansara I've had barely any time to use the Internet, and that's because my aunt and uncle have six kids and one computer...haha..do the math.

But so far life as a kindergarten teacher has been...well...nothing short of hectic. Even tho the hours are relatively short being only from 9:30am to 2:00pm, by the time I get home I'm so drained it's all I can do to take a bath and drop into bed. And I would gladly fore go the bath if I didn't have this annoyingly sensitive skin which screams to be watered with a shower every 3 hours!

But it also has it's rewards, mainly seeing these too-sweet-to-be-real kids smiling at you in delight as they realize that they have just achieved something...be it just reading a simple sentence, it really feels wonderful masha'allah.

Today I and two other teachers took class K-2 to the Planetarium so that they can pretend to be astronauts for a day. Ha-ha. We teachers were the ones feeling like astronauts by the end of that horrendous trip because our heads were spinning and aching and we were feeling nauseous and all, thanks to that ridiculous dome-shaped theater screen in the centre! I mean really! Did they really think that people are capable of craning their necks up for 1/2 an hour straight to watch some movie on the rainforest!! Even the kids were smart. They didn't even try. Instead they decided to add onto we teachers misery by playing who-can-jump-out-of-the-chair-the-fastest and watching the seats slam back into place; screaming the place down.
If I had my way I for sure wouldn't have been watching that movie either! but then the principal insisted that we teachers watch and explain it all out to the students so... -sob-.

After tomorrow tho insha'allah, we're taking the playgroup kids out for an excursion to some place called FRIM, a forest reserve with rivers and waterfalls; for a hike. Ya Allah I dont even want to think of it. Can you imagine trekking in a mosquitoe infested forest with a group of 20 kids all below 4? I cannot......

But anyway! Life is all about experience is it not?

Last week two of my cousins, Akmal and Irsyad took off for Egypt for studies at Al-Azhar University. I felt kinda weird seeing them go, even a twist of sadness in my chest which kind of surprised me seeing that we were'nt all that close now since we've grown up. Whilst kids we were best of pals, and I was especially close with Akmal since we loved that he was only 9 days younger than me, but later on we just drifted apart. But I got to talk to them for a bit alhamdulilah, got to tell them to take care of themselves, got to tell them to keep in touch.....speaking about keeping in touch, I gotta sms them after this. All the best insha'allah and may Allah keep them safe! Ameen

Irsyad (glasses) and Akmal at the airport

Taking a picture with sister (glasses) aunt, brother, and cousins

2008-10-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling quite silly right now, sitting here with my nose gelled up in a green blackhead remover peel-off-mask, contemplating whether or not I should feel weepy over the dramatic farewell which was given to me 15 minutes earlier.

Actually I did fell weepy whilst the farewell was in process, but now I'm wondering whether I should have felt that way? hahaha.

Since i'm making a move to K.L. today with my sis, my cousins who usually drop by with their mom every morning to pick up my brothers for school came to tell me goodbye. I was on my laptop just browsing when I hear an unusually hoarse voice for a little girl call me from outside my window " Umi said to salam you before you go!!" It was my 12 year old cousin and she just about burst into tears as she kissed my hand. Ooo-kayyy I think. And then next came my 10 year old cousin. And then the 14 year old. And then I was getting a bit weepy myself looking at their tear filled eyes so I locked myself into the bathroom (shame man! dont want anyone catching you all red-eyed LOL) and 2 minutes later my sis is banging on the door "get out Mak Uda wants to see you" she hollered.
Oh dear. I splashed my face quick with water and went to see her. Boy I wasn't prepared for her grabbing me that way! she just about shoved her hand to my mouth for me to kiss, and then kissed me on the cheeks and whispered ferociously "Take care of yourself now girl!" before she too turned on her heels with a swipe at her eyes and ran -yes ran- back to the car.

I was quite speechless. I didn't expect that because i had already called her for a chat last night.

Now about 20 minutes later I'm thinking : Wasn't it touching! and also : Wasn't that funny! I will come back on the weekends, and I usually only see them on the weekends anyway!! what with their school schedule and work schedule and all.

Ah well, I'm not complaining, a little extra love is always welcome, whether unnecessary or not, I'm guessing though that this was done on the spur of the moment, and most probably halfway on the drive to school those weeping relatives in the car will say "But wont they be here on the weekends anyway?" and feel silly themselves.

LOL

Come Tuesday and Bye-bye Melaka....

2008-10-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Because I'll be moving out that day. Leaving Melaka, and my nice comfy home.

I've got a job now see, and it starts on Wednesday Insha'allah. A sweet job, I've already spent a day with the kids at the school and they are all lovelies. What's more better is that it's an all English speaking school so I dont have to fumble around with my Malay.

I'll be staying over at my aunts whilst looking around for an apartment to rent. To be honest I wish we had an apartment to move into right away. Living with someone for any period of time over three days becomes a bit tense for me, and the lack of privacy and space really gets to me ........ but then my aunt is a great sport, and her kids are awesome, and then, who am I to have any say in the matter? at least I have a place to stay.

I'm a bit worried about leaving home though. My mother seems really sad about it and that really weighs down on me. And then i'm worried about my father. He's depressed enough as it is, and I know that with me and my sis out of the house he will get even more cantankerous and miserable....*sigh* even though sometimes I think that it probably wouldn't make much of a difference since he's the same even though we're around,, but you know that feeling..

Actually i'm not even excited about the job. After the initial surge at having found a job, I felt...nothing. It's kind of weird since ever since we set foot in Malaysia I have been planning on moving out and living on my own..you know, shifting for myself, staying in KL away from the family and getting some 'breathing space'. But now that it's all happened I couldn't care less about it, and I actually even find thoughts creeping into my mind to just dont show up on Wednesday afterall....

Tension in the family really addles out the brain I guess. Makes you undecided and guilty about things you dont usually feel that way about.

Anyway.

On a side note, isn't it just LUNACY the way the Sultan of Melaka awarded Shah Rukh Khan with the Datuk title????

Shame.

I'm Dying of embarrassment.

2008-10-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this!!

On the ONE DAY that I decide not to cook my family a full meal (I was angry) and instead decide to punish them by making beans and bread...

GUESTS COME OVER FOR DINNER!!

I am soooo appalled! what to do!

Ya Allah get me thru this alive...

An Eid Experience

2008-10-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

The reason I'm saying An Eid experience and not The Eid Experience is because it would make 'eid experience' sound gorgeous and out of this world and phenomenal etc. etc. which it was not. And I also wont say My eid experience because in all fairness I think that so many aspects of this Eid was shared by so many other fellow Malaysians that it would not be fair to them if I said that...haha...

Rewind up to 2 days before Eid

I was in Kota Damansara at my aunt Acik's place. "Make me cookies!!" My aunts says "Pleaaaasseee laaahhh make me chocolate chip cookiesssssss"

"But why!?" I ask in amazement. Her house was absolutely brimming with all sorts of eid sweets and kerepek and all of that.

"Because everything is bought from the store! " she says "I need some homemade cookies with love in it" and makes big puppy eyes at me.
Case settled. My aunts argument was absolutely valid - in my eyes at least. Why do people even bother to buy those monstrosities called eid cookies from the stores? They are nasty!! and who knows how many boogers landed in them? *shudder* yes, I know that in small amounts boogers cannot kill you, but that's only if you have a few pieces, Imagine eating a whole carton.......And so I made the cookies. It is amazing how making cookies with two little girls in the house can turn from a slap-it-all-together-and-bake 20 minute deal to an excruciating, flour-in-the-sky, slippery,scummy - to cut it short, absolutely torturing experience!

Halfway thru the ordeal by other Aunt, Makngah, declared " I am going to balik kampung now! Anyone coming with me be in the car in 20 minutes!" Hence my being saved by further hairpulling and risk of an early death at the hands of overhyper toddlers who insist on sitting in the oven with the cookies so that 'they can see how they get cooked'.....

Boy was I happy! the first time in my life that I am experiencing the rush and excitement shared by Malaysians all over Malaysia when it's time to BALIK KAMPUNG!!

(brother Imraan high on something...Eid Day)

Leaving Kota Damansara at 5:30pm we zoomed along the highway feeling all happy and silly and hyper. Time to balik kampung! time to visit our family again! (yes, I was even prepared to pretend like I hadn't seen my mummy and Abu for ages....all for the sake of the 'real feeling' of balik kampung...) At Iftaar time we stopped at Seremban highway resthouse for a bite. It was here that I finally saw the masses of people heading back for their respective villages. And they only represented a small percentage I am sure, but The place was packed!! and i'm not even just talking, it was literally smashed sardines in the place.

Uh-oh, I think to myself. How'm I gonna get my cuppa? I WANT MY CAPPUCINO FOR IFTAAR!! glancing at my watch at panic I see that there's only 15 minutes left!! whattodowhattodowhattodo?

After 10 seconds of agonizing I told my sis to queue up for the coffee whilst I would try to go and grab some food. My aunt, of course, was not with us, as she had so wisely foreseen this and offered to stay in the car and guard it from hooligans *rollseyes* whilst we youngsters faced the gore and muck of the crowd.

At first I turned to the KFC. I thought that maybe I would just get some sandwiches. But when I went there I found that the line of people reached all the way out the door and down the stairs! Okay next option. Food court. I cringed. Foodcourts on highway restplaces are not exactly the best place to eat...

Pattering down the steps I was confronted by another wave of humanity. It was all a-jostle down there. Timidly I lined up with all the other hungry fasting people...Standing there and watching the spectacle before me, a saying idly flitted thru my mind.."A hungry man makes an angry man". I think that for that moment all fasting Muslims in that place shed their good manners just for the sake of grabbing the next plate of rice before the next person. I personally abhor any type of pushing and shoving whilst standing in line, and I absolutely HATE any sort of uncivilized and wild behaviour when it comes to food!! It really puts a person down. Anyway, I finally got mines - slapped down in front of me with my money snatched from my hand and the change flung to me across the counter.

"Where's my chicken sandweeeessshhhh" My sister whined. "I want one!!"

And so I went to stand in line at KFC...at this time I wasn't even hoping to get anything into my gut by iftaar time lol.....after half an hour of standing in line I finallyyy reach the front. I think it was a shock to my brain to be suddenly confronted with the option of getting my food after standing in a food scented restaurant and going weak in the knees for over half an hour! But whatever it was, my previous decision of 'just getting a sandwich' flew out of my mind and 5 minutes later I walked out with potato wedges,fries,three soft drinks,three sandwiches and RM40 poorer.

(cousin Zahirah on Eid Day)

But I have to say it was nice eating out there in the carpark. Everyone around was breaking their fast also and I suddenly felt a surge of happiness at not being the only fasting human being around for as far as my eyes could see. Other muslims were breaking their fast also!! I am not the only one! It was a blissful moment...

Back on the highway the soda and food got to our brains and we began acting wacky. Singing 'baaaalikkk kampuunnggg' in tuneless voices we laughed and giggled and cracked silly jokes. At one point there was a bus next to us and the driver was staring down at us. By now my sister was obviously high on coke and she gave the driver a HUGE smile before we zoomed off. Not five minutes later the bus came back alongside our car and the driver gave a friendly two blows on his horn whilst waving at us before zooming off. Well!! that certainly set us off!! That simple happiness of sharing a smile with a stranger on the road is just exhilarating!

(cousin maisarah on Eid Day)

On the morning of Eid My family bundled themselves into the car to go to the Musalla and I almost broke my neck in the process........thanks to the stiletto heels I had just bought. I have to say that the Eid Khutbah bored me to tears.....sad right? But who can blame me!! we went to make salaat at one of those PAS places (to be with the other relatives) and I was left speechless when the Khateeb decided to talk about his politics on the minbar!! ya Allah drop it off will you!! for anyones information I am sick and tired of hearing about Malaysian politics!!! and especially from the PAS point of view, which, unfortunately is what I hear most of the time since most of my relatives are affiliated with them, it's agonizing!!

After exchanging a few hugs and half hearted 'Selamat Hari Raya's ' (I was really put off by the khutbah) we came home with my 101 relatives to partake in breakfast....and for me to turn hundreds of ringgit even MORE poorer with my little cousins asking for duit raya. 'Not fair!' I told my aunt ' How comes I dont get duit raya? never mind if I am grown up already, what about all those kiddy years that I missed having eid in Malaysia?' ( I was joking of course, but hey, no harm in trying lol) But I only got a neat pinch for all my efforts haha...

And then afterwards came the most BORING and repetitive part of the eid. VISITING! Ya Allah, not that I dont like visiting all these unknown and unheard off relatives, but just dont give me an overdose of it...dont stuff it all down my throat in the tiny timespan of just one day!! We were out from 10 in the morning up to 10 at night visiting and visiting...and eating and eating....and supressing belly aches...and having eardrums popped with the whining and exploding of fireworks...and developing cricks in my neck from the constant bending to kiss hands...by 5 o'clock that evening I had developed an allergy to hands but what to do? I must be polite and kiss more..and more..and more...at one point I tried to do what I saw my cousins do, sniff the hand instead (I hear this is a malay way of kissing lolololol) but after one whiff of a hand I threw that method out the window..

By the time I got back home that night I made up my mind :

NEXT YEAR I WILL GO TO SOME GOD FORSAKEN PLACE AND HAVE A PICNIC ON EID. ON MY OWN!!

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the cutest one of all?

2008-09-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

Last week we invited all of our relatives over for Iftaar. Anyone who knows how many family members I have will know that it was one painfulllllllll day preparing the food! And Ya Allah it was, me and my mom and sister were cooking from 9 in the morning until just before Iftaar and after everyone left (around 11pm) we just collapsed in bed and didn't wake up (from after sahuur next day of course) until 12'oclock midday!

But anyway this post is (mostly) dedicated to my youngest and newest cousin Irfaan Haarith who was here also with his mama and Ya Allah! I hadn't seen him in just a month and the boy has grown gorgeous *swoons* Masha'allah!! I barely paid any attention to the other kiddos running around when I was snapping pictures, lol, I was just too taken by this young man....unfair or what :p

So here he is!!

Let's sing the alphabet!!

2008-09-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

I received a call today from a school in Kota Damansara. It turned out that I was being offered a job as a kindergarten teacher! They wanted me to teach Arabic and Islamic studies to the kids. Well! I was really happy at it, and after a little while had passed I decided to go and look up some nursery rhymes and Arabic and I came across this version of the Arabic Alphabet. It's so nice! I absolutely looooooooove it. Interview is on Monday, Insha'allah all goes well :)

Bad Day!

2008-09-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

Today did NOT start off well, in fact it was just plain harrowing! and it's only 8 o'clock in the morning!

I had to drop the kids off to school today since my aunts car suddenly got a flat. No problem. I zoom on the way to their school all happy since I had the windows down and the cold cold air from the surrounding plantations was swishing in and it was SO refreshing.
Come to the turn to their school and I slowed down since the roads to their school are just narrow tiny village roads, and to make it even worse, there are open drains on both sides, and here was the first bad event of the day: I was almost pushed off the road and into one of those drains because this dumb school van just insisted on coming from the opposite direction without even letting me thru first!! And what makes me mad is I WAS THERE FIRST NOT YOU, BIG GREY VAN!!

After I got out of that my heart was hammering so fast that I didn't even see the speedbump ahead and I just flewwwwwww over it and those poor children in the backseat almost hit the roof. And then what do you know!! a second car comes barreling at me and tries to push me off the road too!! My Goodness!! are they the only ones in a rush to send children to school?? The road is not yours you know!!

Second Incident.

Coming back from dropping the children I had to swing around by my aunt to send her to work since she lent her car to my uncle. Reversing out of her driveway I mistakenly (and I emphasise again , Mistakenly) press the gas instead of the brakes and BOOM I knock into her wooden shed causing my sideview mirror to swing all the way back (Alhamdulillah it's the swingable kind!! otherwise it would've broken for sure) and whats worse, knocking down the pole of the shed and bringing half of it down!!

Not amusing at all.

Lastly, on the way back home, I stopped by the gas station to fill up and as I was walking towards the cashier to pay, POP and my sandle strap snaps, sending my sandle swiveling across the cement and leaving me standing there in total shock. In the open! with the gas station full of cars filling up! Aaaaaaah the embarrassment!!

What else can go wrong today? This has put me into a bad dangerous mood!

My warming bowl of soup for the soul...

2008-09-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

(Lil sis Zahira and big sis Zahida)

Sometimes comes in the form of childrens innocent and delightfully refreshing comments/remarks. Sometimes if I am in a in-the-pitts mood and feeling like I want to pull-your-hair-out, it only takes a few hours of sitting with my little cousins before I feel happy and energetic all over again. (adorable cousin Zahira)

More than just a few times though, they can be just plain annoying or they can say stuff that just knocks the wind out of me and leaves me scrambling for words, most of the times they're just plain funny!

(She so loves the camera!)

- Sitting with my 10 year old cousin on the doorstoop last week she asked me :

"How old are you Kak Nafeesah?"
" I'm 21 this year!" I tell her proudly (Yes, it still thrills me to be one year older....)
*Open mouthed expression*
"Are you engaged then?"
"No I'm not, why?"
"But you have to get engaged soon! and married too!"
(All of this is said with a facial expression of dire urgency)
"WHY do I have to do that? what if I dont want to?"
"Then that means you're an old maid!"

I almost fell backwards into the open longkang from laughing. What historical novels has she been reading?

Eid Clothes

2008-09-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

Just a short rant.

It looks like I wont be buying any nice pretty bling-bling abaya/jilbaab this Eid :(

And Guess why? It's the most silliest unthinkable reason too.

Because there's no Jilbabs or Abayas my size in the stores!! And dont even tell me to check KL because I already did, and the response I got was the same as in Melaka "But you are too tall!! Sorry we dont have your size"

*sigh*....... Now is the wrong time to wish that I had polished up on my sewing skills..

But seriously, too tall? I am NOT too tall!! I mean I know i'm taller than lots of Malay girls but still...?

Is 5'7" too tall?

Family History Part 2

2008-09-20T02:35:00.000-07:00

In my first entry about my family background, I had mentioned that the reason for my GreatGrandfather (from now on referred to as Tok Odang) coming to Malaysia was unknown. Well during my visit at my aunts place in K.L. last week, she informed me that he was actually a very well off businessman! He used to go off for long trips on business, and in her words "So that's why he married three wives, one in each place"

"Three?" I echoed " I thought it was only two?"

But my aunt revealed to me that, no, actually there were three wives, besides Greatgrandmother (Moyang), and the lady in India, he had married again whilst on 3 year trip to Sarawak, and from that marriage there was a daughter! this information left me stunned, and for a split second I felt grateful that I wasn't living back in those days.......*cough*

But he was a rich businessman my Tok Odang, and together with other wealthy inhabitants of Kampung Ayer Barok, the village in which the story of my family unfolds, and the village in which I now live; They erected the very first Masjid in the area. The year was 1911 and it was a grant little masjid for the padi field village at that time. The marble pillars with floral designs were brought over all the way from Indonesia, and the roof is of traditional Betawi style, three triangular layers, one atop the other and each one smaller than the next, with the edges finishing off in an elegant curl. Tok Odang was made the Imaam of the Masjid, and after him my Grandfather (Atuk). The little Masjid is still standing to this day, a pretty little building at the end of the village road. In the mornings the villagers gather there to make Fajr Prayer, and in the evenings little children from the Islamic school next door tumble around on it's floors and play hide and seek behind the pillars. And in the middle of the courtway stands a sign proclaiming "This Masjid was built in the year 1911......." (I must take a picture of it one day)

Now back to where I left off : The marriage of my Grandmother (now on referred to as Nenek) and Grandfather (Atuk).

Atuk was a poor man of Javanese descent. His family owned next to nothing except for the rice fields in which they worked. Their meals were sparse, and their clothes threadbare. Here is the story of the engagement of Atuk and Nenek as told by my aunt, who in turn tells it like how Atuk did :

" They went to masuk meminang (go in proposal for marriage) to your mothers family, asking for your mothers hand. Afterwards my mother came back and told me that it was all done and I was now engaged for marriage. But I had never even seen your mother before! One day I decided that I must go and see this lady whom I was marrying by all means, so I went over to her house and climbed a coconut tree which was growing near the house. Your Ayah (father) can climb like a monkey you know! so I sat there and waited for your mother to come out. I waited so long that my foot even cramped and went to sleep, But then your mother finally came out , she was so beautiful, She was like a puteri raja (princess),she sat on the verandah of her house and began reading the Qur'aan...such a beautiful voice too. I forgot all about my cramped foot and just sat there up in the coconut tree watching your mother read Qur'aan."

" Soon afterwards your mothers family invited me over to their house for a meal. I got so afraid when I saw their table! Do you know why? Because there was so much food on it! I had never seen that much food in my life.......and I became afraid of my mother in law at that time. They served me a whole fresh fish! and it was huge, when in my house all we ate was ikan kering (dried salted fish). We were so poor. And my mother used to tell me ' If you want to become rich, you must not eat, and if you want to eat fish, then catch a fish, but dont eat it straight away! instead hang it up by it's tail and wait for it's juices to drip. Then use the drippings to flavor your food with. That way your fish will last longer and you will spend less money!'. My mother in law did not like me, and she told your mother 'Hah! this poor man! it's better if you dont marry him, if you do you will live like a beggar!' But your mother and I still got married....see?"

(To be Continued......Iftaar is nearly here :) )

Long time no type

2008-09-20T01:59:00.000-07:00

It has been long hasn't it? have you missed me blog? No? Well I didn't expect you too. Actually, and I'm sorry to break your chips-y heart; I haven't missed you either.

It's been just too painfully hot to blog! The heat is driving me insane, it's beating down in waves and sucking out all the moisture which I so carefully packed into my body at sahuur, so that by the time Iftaar time comes I gulp down my glasses of iced drink so fast I can't even taste them. It's all silence at the time at iftaar time, save for the glugging sound of throats which can't swallow the ice cold drinks fast enough.

I've just come in from watering the worms btw. Watering the what? you screech. The worms darling, the worms. You know? the wiggly ones that live in apple houses like in the story books? yes those ones, except that these ones are living in a bunch of straw and dirt and dried up goat poop spread out in wooden boxes in my porch. They are so exciting! I bought them last week, 2 kilos for me, and 2 kilos for Hafsah and all that time they've been doing nothing but wiggling around happily in the straw-y,poop-y dirt, making worm tea and vermicompost for my nice and lush garden-to-be (Insha'allah).

Worm tea. Yes the word makes me nauseous also.

But it gives me such happiness for some reason whenever I stare at their dirt haven and imagine them wiggling around underneath (I can't see them, they're 'underground') and as I sprinkle the thinly sliced watermelon skins over the dirt for them to eat I sing to them " Eat up wormy mormy eat uppp and get FAT" except that when I say it, it sounds like FUT.

So what else happened whilst I was away from blog-world?

Oh yes, I went to KL with my sis and bro to look around for an apartment and my sis went for a job interview,HAHA it gives me the stitches just to think about that interview!! I can still see the shock on her face as she reached the address and saw that it was a Modeling agency. Tut Tut, next time ask before you make a move little sis!

But that is all, Ramadhaan is drawing to an end and I dont even feel a prick of joy at Eid finally coming around. Everyone is asking me ' so what cookies are you making this year?' and I tell me "MALAS LARR" (I'm too lazy monnn) which is very bad of me, but who wants to bake cookies in this heat?

Oh yes, I also got some more old time tales out of my Aunt whilst I was in KL, some more interesting info about my long gone ancestors, and so I will write about that in another post Insha'allah :) :)

Family history

2008-09-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's because I've finally become old enough to understand and take an interest in my family's history, or maybe it's because my family has only begun to talk to me about the past and ancestors of this family, but recently, since coming back to Malaysia i've been finding out some really interesting - and at times downright horrifying - details of my family, dating back to the time of my greatgrandfather,and there it all stops because he migrated here and nothing much is known about his life before he came to Malaysia. Other things that I've found out about my family is not amazing, it may not even be interesting to other people, but as I sit down in a circle with my aunt, and listen to her tell tales of her childhood I just drink them in and still feel thirsty for more and more. At times it's nothing more than basic details of daily life, but it still amazes me at times when I compare how different life was then and now.

The same house that I am living in now was at one time nothing more than a two room shack, with the wooden walls just barely reaching the roof, leaving open a gap thru which moths and mosquitoes could lazily flap and buzz in at ease. The land on which it stood was low, and so everytime it rained, the water would come washing thru the house, and after residing, everything would be covered in silt and mud. There was no running water, not even a well outside the home, and the water had to be fetched from the bottom of the hill in two buckets on either side of a long bamboo pole which was balanced on the shoulders my then scrawny little uncles. At night one kerosene lamp would be lit, and around this the children of the family would gather to do their homework.

This was my mothers house in which she lived with her family ever sinced she turned fourteen.

Before this time tho, she had lived with her Grandparents with her other 4 siblings, whilst her mother and father and the other 2 siblings were in Singapore, where her father worked as a policeman. At that time there was only 6 children. Over time there would be nine.

My mothers grandfather was from Hyderabad, India, and he migrated here to Malaysia for reasons unknown except for what my mother said that he once told her "In India I couldn't even eat a cow in peace! The neighbours tried to kill me when I wanted to eat my own cow, here in Malaysia it's no problem" But I'm sure that that was just another story , the type that grandfathers like to tell their wide-eyed, all-believing grandchildern. He had most probably come as a migrant during the British occupation of Malaysia looking for work, as did other thousands of Indians. I have no memory of him, as he died even before my mother was married, May Allah have mercy on him Ameen.

His wife, my mothers grandmother, was from the second generation of a Yemeni family who had moved to Malaysia; also for reasons unknown except that they felt like it I suppose.They were from Hadhramaut.She was an extremely small lady, with striking features, A woman of great beauty at one time, and what I remember most was her eyes. She lived to the age of 95 and until the day she died she had jet black hair, and she had all of her teeth and her eyesight was marvellous sharp. May Allah have mercy on her too Ameen.

They had two children together this couple, My grandmother and her sister, and my greatgrandmother also had a daughter from a previous marriage; a daughter who was to bring great grief to my mother and her siblings in their young days, as the ages long war of step-daughter rivalry was waged between the siblings, with the Grandfather showing favor to his children and their kids, and the Grandmother on the other hand showing fierce contempt to my mother and her siblings whilst being all in the favor of the daughter from the former marriage.

My Grandmother. She died whilst I was only a year old. May Allah have mercy on her. She died only a year after my Grandfather, and it was from heartbreak they say, because she loved my grandfather so much, and found life to be empty without him. May Allah have mercy on them both Ameen..

She was schooled during the Japanese occupation, my grandmother, and she experienced many of the hardships which come along with war and occupation. The Japanese were a hard and cruel people she told my mother, at school everyday they were made to face the rising sun and sing praises to it. During school hours, instead of studying, the Japanese soldiers would stand guard over the school children as they weeded and tended to their school yard - now turned vegetable garden. Those Japanese sure know how to make use of things, she would tell my mother. They used to speak Japanese at school too, and no other language was permitted.

Speaking of the Japanese occupation, there was an old man across the road from me who was very much involved with them. When I was 16 he would tell me and my brother about them. "So cruel!" He spat "They used to make us chop off the heads of our own people!" I was looking forward to coming home this time so that I could hear more of his stories, but to my great disappointment, he passed away just 1 week before I reached Malaysia...May Allah grant him peace Ameen..

One time there was an air raid, and as my grandmother ran screaming thru the streets, a bomb exploded in front of her and with her own eyes she saw her uncle blown apart to pieces. Sometimes at night she and her sister would have to seek refuge in the nearby rubber plantations from the soldiers who would come and ransack their house.

But despite the war, my grandmother and her family were considered to be well off at a time when most people went hungry and had nothing more to eat than cassava leaves and roots. 'They still drank Milo' my mother told me 'They drank milk and they had butter on their bread'. It was mainly because my greatgrandmother had a little family wealth, so she was able to keep her family healthy despite the war.

During this time my Greatgrandfather had disappeared. Leaving for India a little while before the Japanese occupation he told his family that he would be back soon. More than ten years passed and he never did come back and not a word was heard from him. His wife and children took him to be dead, But one day he suddenly showed back up again. War had held him back he said. The passage was blocked. And along with his shocking appearance came the revelation that he had married again in India, and now had two more children, left behind in India.

Life continued for my grandmother with her father now home again. She had to leave school at the age of fifteen in order to work so that she could help pay for her younger sisters education. She did menial jobs such as backbreaking jobs of planting rice, picking wild herbs from the forest and selling them, and making 'kuih' small sweets for sale. Life was beginning to get tough. But despite her little education, my mother always tells me proudly that she was 100 times smarter than her sister whom she put thru college, but she was also smarter than all of the people in the village!

Soon my grandmother was to marry my grandfather at the age of 19. They had been betrothed before my grandfather left on duty. It was war, and he was a naval officer. Time passed and it was feared that he was lost also, but in time he also came back. It turned out that he was marooned on an island with his other mates and so escaped alot of the war 'excitement'.

After the marriage 'of the beautiful lady to the un-handsome man' as my aunt loves to say, my grandmother went to live in Singapore, and there she had 4 children, living in a 2 room house and one of her children was born on the stairs.

*yawn* I will continue later, my eyes are so sleepy...such an unceremonious ending to a great story no? but sleep is a-calling...

Iftaar Ramadhaan day 6

2008-09-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Todays Iftaar was just simple alhamdulillah, I tried to take some pictures but for some reason they just looked ugly :-/ so I searched on the web for the dishes, except for the pie, that's my pic :)

Pisang Goreng / Fried Bananas

Lodeh which is vegetables and tofu and beancurd cooked in coconut milk and eaten with shrimp sambal and nasi impit (rice cakes)

And for sweets after the meal I made a Lemon Meringue pie (^_^) My fathers favorite!!

Alhamdulillah illadhi at'ama wa saqaa wa sawwaghahu wa ja'ala lahu Makhrajaa

Gorgeous!

2008-09-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

I found this set on http://www.polyvore.com/ and isn't it just gorgeous?

Iftaar Ramadhan day 5

2008-09-05T03:53:00.000-07:00

Insha'allah todays Iftaar will consist of :

Bhajias

Apple Bread

And Biryani (^_^)

However all of these are first tried recipes so I dont know how any of them are going to taste, but the Biryani was so much fun to make! we sealed the pot with dough, hence the messy sides..

13 more minutes to Iftaar!

Ramadhaan so far

2008-09-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

The first thing I felt when Ramadhaan was officially announced was "If only I were in the Bahamas right now!" Weird...but at the same time not . Weird because at this same time last Ramadhaan I was talking to my aunts and cousins and wishing I could be in Malaysia for Ramadhaan, and not, because...well...to put it simply - Ramadhaan in the Bahamas is wonderful.

I miss the get togethers at the masjid with everyone coming together for iftaar to eat the yummy-for-the-tummy foods. Brother Faisals Punch!! Yumm. The queing up with paper plates in hand (haha) whilst peeping over the other sisters shoulder hoping there's enough left for you. Hanging out afterwards with our little group just doing nothing but eating and chilling and exchanging the latest news (which was usually no news lol), and if there was funny news Adila would squeal with laughter and roll over like she does whilst Amina let out her 'screams' of laughter, her hand slapping on anyone unfortunate enough to be too near. I miss making Taraaweeh with all the other sisters and trying hard to concentrate whilst listening to Nabeel and Maryam, Tashas girl, acting all sassy with each other. Most of all I miss the smallness of the community, and actually that was what made Ramadhaan even more special because then it was like a family get-together affair (okay maybe not exactly that, but I'm just feeling nostalgic right now so everything seems pretty)

Ramadhaan in Malaysia is a whole different affair, it's a large-scale event of course with all the Muslims in Malaysia fasting, the Muslim restaurants all closed, the huge Ramadhaan Bazaars selling all sorts of mouthwatering dishes for Iftaar, the TV commercials advertising the best energy drink for iftaar *rollseyes*, the free meals provided by the masjid for those who stop there for Maghrib prayer. But put all these aside and Ramadhaan in Malaysia is mostly a family affair. There are no community Iftaars or gatherings and I do miss that alot. But hey, it's wonderful not to be the only one hungry! It gives one a sense of comfort to see hundreds and thousands of other faces with those same hungry eyes.......... LOL.

But alhamdulillah, at least it's Ramadhaan and we have to make the best of it no matter where we are! So far alhamdulillah Ramadhaan has been okay, my family is finally adjusting to the fasting, with my father taking longer than the rest. On the first day, everyone (not counting me, I was fine as I had to fast 3 days prior to Ramadhaan so I was used to it already) was already in their death throes by 4 o'clock and by the time Maghrib time came around at 7:15pm it was all they could do to drag themselves to the table. Afterwards Haneef and Imraan had a vomiting marathon in the bathroom and my father declared himself to be "Really burned out man!" before flopping down on his bed and passing dead out. Well, he had an excuse I guess. He had spent his day chopping down a tree *smile*

It's only just 2:54 and i'm feeling whipped already today, not that I did that many things.

- I spent 1 1/2 hours just looking for a nice layout for my blog, I tried out about 15, getting angrier and angrier with each one. They just look so different in the samples but after I download the file and upload it onto my blog it looks completely different! I'm just settling for this one for now...what are those animals anyway? Llamas?

- I taught my cousins Syafiqah (pic)

and Maisarah, (pic)

whom I babysit, how to draw boxes and tulips in vases and together we drew pages and pages of them until they got fed up with it, and then I made some bead bracelets with them. It was so much fun! I never realized how fun it was to do art with children until now. The looks of concentration on their faces as they hold the bead between their pudgy clumsy fingers and try to thread it with the yarn is just priceless. And the delight that they showed in their completed projects was so heartwarming :) Whats even funnier is the way they hold their hand after putting on their bracelets! LOL it's like all of a sudden that hand becomes so limp and fragile and they hold it away from their body ever so carefully and walk around like that for the longest, just enjoying the feeling of having something pretty on.I need to buy more crafty things so I can do other projects with them *makes note in mind*

- Afterwards I began to feel feverish so I tried to get a nap, but was unsuccesful in doing so

- Cleaned out the fridge and washed the dishes and then pored thru recipe books trying to look for something good to make tonite. Settled on Riceflour Bhaijas and Biryani.

- Sat down to write a blog entry.

I am quite pooped now, I need to go and make my Salaat. My head is killing me and this fever is really getting the best of me. I should really try to get some sleep.

Iftaar Ramadhaan day 4

2008-09-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

Alhamdulillah just finished Iftaar and today we had (minus the dates which are always there and unnecessary to photograph):

Cucur Pisang/Banana Fritters (pic is upside down lol)

Kuih Bakar

Some of my sisters deformed Currypuffs

Meat soup with potato balls and ricecakes and bean sprouts and extra hot chilli sauce (black stuff) and fried shallots and crispy fried rice vermicelli and chopped parsley all put together in a beautifully tasting dish called SOTO

Yummy! :) Alhamdulillah

Dreams sometimes = weirdness

2008-09-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Night before last I was having a very reg'lar dream. You know, the type of dreams in which you're walking around the house, cutting onions, opening up the fridge looking for the snack that's never there and doing dishes. I dont know if that's the reg'lar type of dream for other people, but it is for me. I guess because my mother drums housechores and housechore-essentials into my head day and night.

In my regular dream I am doing just those things in total silence and all around me there is like a baby blue haze and it's very calm and sleepy, when all of a sudden someone begins knocking - no, hammering on the door. *Shizzle-Bang* and Mummy all of a sudden appeared from no where and flung open the door in a fury to see a late forty-ish looking lady standing on the doorstep. Very stylish the lady was, quite the hijabi magazine model. For some reason I didn't pay any attention to her and just went on doing what I was doing (I think it was washing the dishes). Oh yes and the setting of the dream was in Malaysia. Fully in Malaysia. Not the frontyard is Malaysia and the backyard is the Bahamas as my warped up dream machine usually makes them.

Here's the funny part.

She was Zinedane Zidanes Mom!

Here's the even funnier part.

She wanted me to marry her son!

*hears peals of laughter all over her head*

At first (in the dream) this didn't seem so funny or incredible. I didn't even know who the guy was. I guess that's why I just went on doing my dishes. But then my mother got all up in a heat and began making a fuss, to which the lady reacted by making an even bigger fuss, and insisting that I marry her son.

They were on the verge of having a woman style 'fist-fight' which we all know means tearing at each others hair and clothes when I woke up and began wondering; who is this guy with the Z-full name? He actually sounded familiar.....5 minutes later the internet showed me who he was, and I fell over in hysterics. What a dream!

Just now Hafsah walked into the room still half asleep and mumbling "Cendol shop? Where is King Abdullah making the cendol shop? and is Abu selling shingles? I thought you'll said the King is making a cendol shop"

Is it surprising that I'm still laughing?? Kings and Cendol shops indeed LOL.

Iftaar Ramadhaan day 3

2008-09-03T03:59:00.000-07:00

Iftaar Ramadhaan day 2

2008-09-02T04:13:00.001-07:00

Oh Allah for you we have fasted and in you we believe and it is on your sustainence that we break our fast!
Ameen

How should I feel?

2008-09-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to the grocery store to pick up some last minute items needed to prepare the Break Fast with. Boy was the place packed! everyone was buying groceries like there was a war coming tomorrow or something! Ramadhan does that to people.

After gathering the Cincau (seaweed jelly) yogurt, coriander and tapioca flour I stood in the checkout lane with my little brother Imraan. Just then I saw my Aunt come up with her two little boys and we hailed each other and I kissed her hand as per tradition. We began talking and in no time it was my turn to pay.

"Okay Mak Su, I'm going now!" I turned around to wave and when I turned back my Hijaab caught on a box standing on the counter and everything in it came tumbling onto the floor. Of course, I began apologizing to the cashier girl and I dropped down to pick everything back up.......A whole lot of tiny little white packets had dropped out of the box and they were everywhere on the floor.

So I grab a handful, and two handfuls, and then my eyes finally take in the picture which was printed on the little packets. A man and a woman hugging. Nothing registered to my mind as yet, and I turned over one of the packets to read it. Lol...when I did read it I felt like my brain was jarred with some sharp object. CONDOMS!!!

Ooooh My Allah, at that moment I was in a shock, I didn't know what to do! there I was kneeling on the floor with my white hijaab touching the ground and getting soiled ...surrounded by condom packets! and with a whole crowd of people just standing there watching me. I looked up and saw the look on my aunts face, her mouth was hanging open ... just a little.

I think I froze for a minute.

The cashier lady must have seen my look of shock because she rushed from behind the counter and began sweeping them up with her hands and telling me "it's okay sister, let me do it, it's okay"

Well!! I should have just taken her at her word and make a run for it right? But no, instead I told her " no no, let me help you pick them up, I made them fall" And so I just steeled myself and ignored the stares from the other customers and threw them higgledy-piggledy back into the box.

Driving back home I was a bit unsure about how I should feel. Embarrassed? Mortified? after all, what could be more embarrassing? People must have thought that I made the box fall over as I was buying a condom or something haha....But after thinking about it for a while I came to the conclusion - Just forget about it. Who cares.

Ahahaha...

Iftaar on Ramadhaan day 1

2008-09-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

Just 25 more minutes before we can tuck in!!

Oh Allah for you we have fasted and in you we believe and it is on your sustainence that we break our fast!

Ameen

2008-08-31T03:32:00.000-07:00

I made these cupcakes a few weeks ago. They were quite nice. Vanilla cake topped with some fluffy meringue-ish like frosting that I pulled off some place on the net...actually I think it was from Yahoo Answers.

My fathers first reaction was : *smack lips* "Hmmmmm....these taste like cornbread"
My little heart was quite offended at that. My Vanilla cupcakes taste like cornbread? I am very sensitive to criticisms about my cooking, so after being miffed by that embarrassing comment I decided that I wouldn't make it again.

Five minutes ago my father goes "Why dont you make some more of those vanilla cupcakes? They were quite good you know"

Some people just can't make up their mind about things!

Nasheed

2008-08-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

This is by far my favorite Nasheed. The first time I came across it was whilst I was searching the internet for some Khaleeji wedding songs and it moved me to tears. Death.....who wouldn't be moved?

I had actually forgotten about it, but coming back from Melaka today after a very long and tiring shopping trip I turned on the radio looking for some Qur'anic recitation and this nasheed was playing, Wow wasn't I happy!

I haven't updated my blog in so long because I was busy trying to make up all of the fasts that I missed in last years Ramadhaan because this years Ramadhan comes around...I just can't beleive that it's in the next couple of days! Subhanallah...

Allahumma Ballighna Ramadhaan!

Of Burritos and Co-workers

2008-08-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a story about why you should not make slick nicknames for people you dont like behind their back. It doesn't matter how much you can't stand them either, because it's bound to get you in some sticky mess sooner or later.

So once upon a time, back in the day, well, not too long ago actually, there was a girl and her sister and 'the lady'.

She was an accountant that lady, and boy was she a character! (in the odd and extremely annoying sense).

The girl and her sister had heard about her coming to take the job thru 'sources' and they were not that all eager to meet her I can assure you. So the first day that she came into work, the girl and her sister pretended not to know that she was there........not a very hard task to do, but it did wear down a bit on the conscience as the day grew late.

Come the second day and they decided ' Okay lets just go and see her for a minute and get over with it' So see her they did. But was it for a minute? Oh no! it was more like 75 minutes..... a 75 minutes spent in total bewilderment (only by the girl and the sister of course) as they could barely understand two words of what the lady said as she rattled off her heavily accented words like a train in a hurry, and some beautiful acting ensued on part of the girl and her sister as they had not the heart to show the lady that they could not make head or tail of what she was saying. Had to put on an act right? Couldn't hurt her feelings.....

As time wore on it was more than once that the girls wished that they had not acted so smiley-laughy with her on that doomed day because from every (working) day forth she immediately latched herself onto the girl and her sister, reluctant though they were, and for some weird reason considered them her 'close friends', so close to the extent that she would come in every morning (beleive me, much to the girl and her sisters chagrin) and rattle on for on and on and on.....I think it would be easier to say forever, about husbands and enemies and 'kwork' and 'estoooopid peeepul' and other similarly enchanting topics.

"When I come to this place!! all I see is blaaaaaaaaaaaack black black an' I say Oh! Oh! it gimme headache!Big one! all deze black peeepuullss! I only know my Hasband black face but not too much black face!!"

Just to give you a gist of it. A tiny gist.

I dont believe that at that time and moment there could have been another soul as patient in undergoing suffering as those two were. In silence they listened with smiles plastered on their faces, interjecting at the right moments the compulsory "oh really?" "yes yes I understand" and at times breaking out into laughter - totally fake of course, just to humor the lady.

So they put up with it, and endured it, and brought her cheesecake and muffins because didn't I mention? they were oh such nice girls.

But not nice enough I suppose. No one can be nice enough. Soon the ladys ridiculous stories and behavious got to them and they maliciously named her after a ______ (refer to topic) as it suited her very well both in physique and in name.

It went on like that.

After a while the lady got into the habit of asking the girls to do things for her, like call the cleaner lady and make her appointments for her. It was on one of these occasions that the horrifying slip of tongue happened.

She stood over the girl at her desk as she picked up the phone to make the doctors appointed as was 'requested' by the lady.

"May I know the name of the patient please?"

The girls mind was numb. And numbingly she said "Mrs. Burrito Roll"

Pause.

"Can you repeat that please?"

For some reason the sister from across the table was making frantic facial movements involving big eyes and a squished up mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"It's a Mrs. Burrito Roll"

Pause again. The girl was getting quite annoyed at this lady, was her hearing impaired?

"Spell that out for me please"

"It's B-U-R-R-I........................................" and the girls voice trailed off in horror as she realized what she had just SAID and in the presence of the so nick-named also!!

It is amazing what shock can do to you, it like immobilizes the brain and causes blood to drain from your heart so quickly that you can actually feel your toes swell with the displaced blood.

" Yes?" came the far away voice on the phone. "How do you spell it?"

Snapping back into the present the girl said " I said it's ........." and proceeded to spell it correctly "Thank you very much and have a nice day" and slammed down the phone.

Of course, the room was very silent. What do you say after you've just done the stupidest thing in the world? Except to do the next stupidest thing :

"Boy! I must be really craving some burrito rolls!"

The End.

Shoe horror

2008-08-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

Most people dont know, but I have always hated shopping for shoes. Whilst I dont mind and tolerate and at times even love shopping for other things (such as pretty dresses and bags, lol), when it comes to shoes my face turns sour.

It's always been a bad and embarrassing experience for me when i'm looking for shoes. Whilst living in Yemen I was okay for a while. I got there when I was 10 and was already wearing my mothers shoes. No problem. I still had a big choice when it came to shoes.My mother is a size 7 and there are lots of size 7's out there.

Four years later that fun disappeared. Shoes were now a big problem. Stuck in that remote village with not a shopping mall within 500 miles, there was no way I could find shoes to fit my large and, what more, still growing feet.

My dad used to ask his friends going down to the city (6 hours away) to buy them for me. At one time we even asked my Aunt Tina to send some down...and then Aunt Tina said that she had such a hard time finding my size. Oh the shame.

When time came to move to the Bahamas I thought that, finally! I will not have problems finding my size shoes anymore, but Oh boy was I wrong! I cannot understand why the stores hardly carry large sizes! Are their people not big ? Or maybe they are big but with Cinderella feet? But I guess I could ask the same question about the clothes! Why do the stores in the Bahamas carry such small sized clothes? Anyone living there will know what i'm talking about and why i'm asking such a question lol.

Anyway, I'm back in Malaysia and suffering from the same story. Though before coming here me and my dad had put aside 2 days whilst still in the Bahamas just for the sake of shopping for my shoes, and we had bought four pairs. But I do so much walking, and now those pairs are worn out too :(

So long story cut short, I decided to just quit looking for shoes in Malaysia, because who am I kidding? They only carry barbie doll shoe sizes, and I know that I dont have barbie doll sized feet. So I tried to go on eBay instead.

We all know you can find anything on eBay! and happily I did find a few pairs, amongst them these sandals :

(When my aunt saw them she was like 'WHY do you keep on wearing all these high shoes? aren't you tall ENOUGH?' which is true by Malaysian standards, but I like being taller than everyone around me. Last week at the Body Shop I was wearing flats and the sales girl was wearing five inch heels and was much taller than me. It made me feel very annoyed to have to look up to her. I won't do that again.I like to look down on people when I talk to them haha)

So here the horror story begins. The shoes arrived 3 days ago and today I took my brothers to the library and wearing my brand new shoes. They went to the kids section and I went to the adults section and browsed for a while. Soon all the rowdy school kids left, leaving only adults, and the library fell quiet... deathly quiet. Having browsed enough I picked out three books to borrow and began walking briskly over to the kids section when suddenly :

Squeak squeak squeaaaak squeak,

I stopped short.What in the world was that? I wondered.

I took a step.

Squeak!

I stood there horrified. Was that noise coming from me? How?? I looked down. And realization hit me. It was those rubber soles. Arrghhhh!. My first instinct was to walk as fast as possible out of the library but then I realized that with my fast walking the squeaks would probably be even louder. What to dooooooooooo.By now the library staff and the other readers were already giving me weird looks since i'd been standing still in the middle of nowhere for a good five minutes. Slowly I lifted one foot and put it down flat. Then took another step in this fashion, and another. Good. No squeaks. But now I look like a robot. Sooo embarrassing. Trying not to look at the librarians at the counter, I robot-walked over to my brothers. "We have to go now" I hissed, I was so worked up I just pulled one of them up by the collar and led him, protesting in loud whispers, until we reached the door and I ran out.

"What is WRONG WITH YOU MAN!!" Imraan looked like he wanted to eat me, but I didn't pay attention. His loud whisperings were what I needed to drown out the sound of the squeaking and now he had completed his task and I was done with him lol.

Is there any way to stop rubber soles from squeaking?

The worst thing about driving..

2008-08-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

...In Malaysia is that you have to deal with hordes of senseless, want-to-die, foolhardy imps on motorbikes. And this is only in my opinion because just about everyone living in Malaysia has their own personal gripes about driving in this country.
For me its having to deal with all those 'peeps' on motorbikes. When I first got behind the wheel on my own and drove out on the highway I was terrorized by them. Zooming past me left and right and cutting in front off me at unpredictable moments and for all the world acting as if them and their puny bikes owned the world. And what gets my hackles up the most is that they ride their bikes in the MIDDLE of the road. Don't you have any sense? Or is that heavy helmet on your head damaging your brain cells in some way so that you are momentarily stupid whilst on the road?

This morning whilst driving my brothers and cousins to school I was doing a 100 when coming around the corner I had to come to a fast stop because there were three, yes THREE of these motorcyclists riding abreast on the road. I thought that, okay, they thought the road was empty so they'll move to the side since i'm here now, but haha, so much for wishful thinking, these impertinent people just went on tut-tut-tut-ing in the middle of the road and didn't pay me any mind. I'm fresh out of driving school so I still had my instructors warnings to 'NEVER blow your horn at motorcyclists (*rollseyes*) because it can make them fall or swerve (with shock)'

I regret following those instructions.I should've just blasted them with my horn and maybe shouted out something shocking at them when I was passing by too, but I need a bit more Bahamian in me I guess, because I could never bring myself to do that lol.

And so no wonder all these motorcyclists end up dead every year, isn't that right? Every single relative of mine who rides or used to ride a motorbike has ended up in an accident one way or another....and how many relatives is that? lemme count ....see? Ten. All Ten of them either knocked into a cow, or fell into one of those massive drains, Got pushed off the road into a lamp pole or got knocked over by another car resulting in broken limbs and fractured skulls, and one of them after three years is still undergoing surgery to correct the damages, which may never be fully cured.

It's been 2 months now driving on the road in the company of these corpses-to-be and my patience with them is growing thin and I'm growing murderous in my thoughts towards them. I fear that soon I may be driven to just knock one down when he swerves in front of me instead of putting on my brakes. And even worse, I fear that I may have less conscience about knocking him down then I have when I squash a fly.

Blog Carnival - Muslimas Speak up!

2008-08-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

Walls and Hurts.

2008-08-11T03:53:00.000-07:00

The girl sat at the table, silently kneading the dough which was to be made into bread for the morning meal. Not far away was her parents bedroom, and thru the closed doors she could faintly make out the sounds of arguing. As usual.Nothing new. Nothing interesting in that. Absentmindedly she continued kneading the dough.
A few minutes later she heard heard the door to her parents bedroom open and her fathers voice shout out to her brother.
"Yes Daddy"
"Did you start your work in the yard yet?"
" I thought we were going to do it after breakfast"
"What? why do you want to wait after breakfast? didn't you get enough rest last night that you can't start your work straight away?"

Her fathers loud voice continued but the girl just tuned it out. Her dough was divided into portions by now. Setting out the rolling board she began oiling them and preparing them to fry.

Absentmindedly she flicked away an ant which was crawling on the table. As she watched it run about dazedly in circles she slowly stretched out her foot and squished it with her slipper, a little at a time. A soft Cruunnchh reached her ears and she shuddered. Not that she enjoyed killing bugs. She just felt like it at that moment.

She was so tired of everything. Tired of all the bickering. Tired of all the tension.

Soon breakfast would be ready and the family of four would sit down to the meal. No conversation would be exchanged. No one was in the mood to make conversation anyway with Father sitting there scowling.

Father was a strange man. He was always scowling at home. Rare was the occassion when he would share in a conversation with the family. Usually he just sat there and listened with either a totally disinterested look or a look of discontent.

"Isn't that right Abu? I remember when that happened, dont you?"

The youngest child, a mere 6 years old eagerly tried to include his father in the conversation.

An incredulous stare was all that met the childs gaze.

There was, for some unknown reason, a wall between the father and his family. A wall which he himself set up. A wall which he refused to break down.

Daily life was usually like that. No conversation would pass between them unless necessary. The house was painted bright and gay colors with beautiful furniture and decorations; a totally cheery scene to the outsider, but one only need to be in that house for a few hours before the tension and the chill pierced the skin.

One could say that the family was used to this, but in reality they were not. A heavy burden was in the chest of each of them, unrealized except for those moments when a pang shot thru the heart with the witnessing of something that should have been theirs to enjoy too.

Like what the youngest son felt when he saw his cousin play with his father and get a piggyback ride.
Like what the Eldest daughter felt when she saw her neighbour laughing with his daughter and pinching his cheek.
Like what the wife felt when she saw how cordial and open and loving her brothers were towards there families.

Oh yes it hurt.

But the cause of all of this hurt was oblivious to it; trapped in his own bubble, and turning a blind eye to those who stretched their arms towards him.

Let's just skip Ramadhan and jump straight to Eid, shall we?

2008-08-08T17:53:00.001-07:00

Seriously.
That's what alot of ads and commercials seem to be conveying these days. It's absolutely shocking!
The first shocker came about a month ago, during a commercial break whilst watching the news, this commercial comes on :

"Come with all of your friends and family to (something) Plaza!! Wear your new Eid clothes and be entertained by our local artists in the spirit of Eid!!"

What??

Two months before Ramadhan you're already talking about Eid? and that's only one example out of many. It shows us that, sadly, to many many muslims Ramadhan has lost it's significance and is only looked at as the thresshold which must be crossed before arriving at Eid celebrations.A bothersome doorstep. And obstacle in the road before arriving to the real stuff; the festivities of Eid.

What happened? Dont Muslims look forward to the blessings of Ramadhan, the benefits, the great bounties to be acheived?
Dont let us be sidetracked by such callousness and commercialism based only on the Dunya dunya and more Dunya.

May Allah grant us the ability to perform our Ibaadah this Ramadhan to the fullest. And may Allah grant us rewards for our Ibaadah many times over Ameen...

Ready for Ramadhan everyone?

The Birth of a.....

2008-08-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

I am reporting live from the scene.

Screams of "Push Push!" rattle my eardrums whilst squeaky screams of pain rent the air. "Almost there, almost there! just push a little harder! I can see the head now!!" more grunts and groans ensue.

'Oh' you think to yourself ' She's at the hospital '

Wrong.

I'm at home in my room typing away and behind me my two little cousins aged 3 and 5 are playing out a very realistic show of the process of giving birth.
See, they got a new doll and that doll is the love of their lives right now. All they've been playing all day every day for the past 2 weeks is .....what else? Mama and Papa.

"Oh no!!" the 5 year old screams " Your bellybutton is too small!! the babys head can't fit thru!"
"Aaaaaaaahhhh........" wails the 3 year old.

*ehem**cough*

In the end, I beheld the birth of a......

Pillow. (but dont tell them I said that, it really truly is their newborn baby,their dollies little brother)
All of a sudden now the 'nurse' becomes 'papa' and together with 'mama' they hold their 'baby' gently and coo with delight.

"Let's ask Kakak (me) to sew some hair on our baby okay?" says Papa.
"Okay" agrees the Mama, quite happily.

Childhood innocence. It's really something to behold eh?

The story of my very first pet.

2008-08-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have had a long and complex history with pets, of various kinds.
Like lots of people, my first pet was a cat. Following the cat came more cats in a steady flow, at times punctuated by the arrival of the odd hawk, hamster, guinea pig, goat, sheep, chicken, fish and rabbit.

I got the incentive to write a story about my (long deceased) pets this morning whilst washing the dishes. Most of you probably dont know, but my imagination is about as dry as the crust of a pie dish. Absolutely dry.Dead. It takes me forever just to think of something to write about.
So anyway, suddenly it hits me : Write about your pets! Yea yea, I know, that topic is only used by the grade one teacher for her students "Class, tomorrow I want you to write me a nice little story about your pet at home " But hey, who cares?

So I will write about the first pet I ever had : A cat.

There comes an image in my mind of the time when I was still in grade one. I rushed into class late that day, only to find all my fellow classmates handing in their homework to the teacher; Ms. Flowers.
"what homework did we have to do? huh? hey misty, what homework?"
"we had to write about our pets at home, dont you remember?"

I looked at my teacher and back to my classmate in horror, I didn't remember at all! Frantically I whipped out a sheet of paper and spilled all of my color pencils onto my desk and scribbled a picture of a cat , you know how they used to show the kids how to draw a cat in school? a big number eight with an oversized belly and two triangles for the ears. Add in an oversized W for the mouth and a long sausage tail...yeah..
Under the picture I wrote " This is my cat snowy. I just found her last week with my cousins Bettina and Christopher. She is still not that pretty yet, but we will give her alot of milk to make her fat "

Snowy. My first pet. Not exactly mine though because my cousins and other siblings all had tabs on her. And not exactly a pet either because she lived outside and didn't let us touch her and ran away when we came too close.

I dont know where she came from only that we came across her one day whilst playing Here comes the Bride and throwing up a bunch of confetti (actually flowers ripped from the neighbours bushes) when we saw her feeding her litter of kittens. How delighted we were!! Immediately we left our game and went over to analyze her. She hissed at us but we were deaf to it. "This is our cat!" I declared " we found her first, the girl next door can't have her!!". Mention of the girl next door was absolutely necessary as we were currently at war. Just the other day to get revenge at her we had climbed up her seagrape tree when no one was looking and wrote hate messages all over the leaves hoping that she would see them the next time she climbed the tree.

From then on our play hours were devoted solely to our cat.We ran into the kitchen to get bowls of milk for her everyday, risking our mothers wrath.At times We used to get caught resulting in a sore earpulling for me and my siblings and a fearful telling off for my cousins. We worried over her at night hoping that the neighbourhood dogs wouldn't eat up her little kittens. We always made plans to sneak out at night and sleep under the cherry tree so that we would be able to protect Snowy from the dogs, but of course, that plan never worked out. We lovingly made little cardboard houses with little cut out windows and doors for her which she promptly scratched down. We used to save all of our leftovers from our meals to give to our sweet little snowy, and at times nicked some nice meaty bones from our mothers pots. And we fought over who would have the kittens when they grew big. It was a very devoted period of our little lives.

One day as I was rollerblading in the kitchen and driving my mother mad ( She kept saying "you'll burn yourself on the stove!" so many times she began to sound like a recorder) I heard my cousin Bettina give a huge scream (the girl had a monster loud voice) then she began hollering " I gonna kill ya'll dogs!!I gonna beat ya'll upppppppppppp!!!!" Before bursting into loud wails.

When my short legs finally took me to the scene I looked in horror at the remains of our cute little kitties whom we had just argued over not too long ago. Their heads were severed from the bodies and the entrails were dragged over the grass, and not far away the culprit was slyly slinking away.
"Bettina!! get that dooooogggggg!!" I howled and as one we ran over to gather the little stones which were scattered all over and began pelting that dog. Ya Allah did we pelt that dog! We were furious and we were determined to pay him back. My poor kitty!! the poor kittens!! We sure gave that dog a run for his life that day and screamed the whole neighbourhood down.

Snowy left soon after. I think she was saddened by the death of her kittens. But us being imaginative and very active children soon came across another pet of sorts.

It was a tiny little bird. We were delighted. And we determined to take care of it. We dreamed that when it grew big it would love us so much that it would walk around with us perched on our shoulders.

That night we accidentally burnt it to death.

My first Mosaic

2008-08-07T17:05:00.001-07:00

I signed up for flickr.com and made my very first mosaic. Some pictures didn't show up, but it's still pwetty...flickr has some amazing photos.

The Boy

2008-08-07T04:43:00.000-07:00

He sat in a puddle of mud in front of his mud house. He was about 4 years old, Perhaps 5, it was hard to tell . His face was wizened and tired;The eyes empty.The movements he made were without life. He was a sad child.

'plop' 'splash' went the mud puddle as he silently threw some small stones into it. As they sank he stretched out his feet idly to feel about the bottom of the puddle, toes outstretched, feeling for the stones he just threw in.

Mud, Dirt, and litter all over the place. That was all his tired eyes could see. There was the random sheep snuffling like a dog here and there looking for something else to munch on besides the dry thorny bushes which grew in abundance.Sometimes the sheep would come across a crust of bread lying in the street and then it would let out a bleat - probably of happiness.

Whilst staring listlessly at all of this, he suddenly needed to pee. Hurriedly he pushed himself up with his hands and ran stumbling and crying into the house "Mama, Mama! I need to pee ...I need to pee bad!". He ran thru the walled courtyard, into the open kitchen with the mud oven and bread crusts still scattered on the floor until he came across his Mama breastfeeding his baby sister in the sitting room. It was poorly lit and smelt of dust and inscense and his sisters pee.
"What!" exclaimed his mama when she saw him, " What do you want?" Simpering, the boy replied " I need to pee mama, take me please, I am all dirty" At that the mother glanced sharply at him and with a cry exclaimed "What is this mud all over you!" her face distorted in anger and she advanced towards him as he fell to the floor grovelling and crying "Mama...take me to the bathroom...I need to pee...."

She fell onto him with gusto " You dog! You son of a donkey! Do you think I am a maid to wash up when you get muddy like this!" Each word of hers was punctuated by the sound of the stick whistling thru the air before landing on the boys feet,hands,head,back...
"Mama...mama...it hurts..mama...I need to pee.." the boys simperings went unheeded.

Suddenly the boy fell quiet and his sobs gradually subsided. Confused, his mother looked down and she saw a puddle slowly forming around him.
"Oooh you useless vagrant!!" she wailed " Get out of here! get out of here now!" and saying so she picked him up and flung him into the porch.

The boy sat there for a moment. He no longer needed to pee. He had already went just now whilst his mother was beating him. With a little sigh he picked himself up and stood there; a pitiful picture wearing a soiled muddy grey thowb and nothing else. His hair hadn't been washed for days and it was a faded brown color from spending all of his days in the sun. His nose was crusted with dry snot and the flies buzzed around him happily, some landing at his eyes to feed on the mucus gathered there.

He just stood there. These flies didn't bother him. After all, weren't they the only things who stayed around him constantly ever since he was born? every since he was born they were always there......crawling on his face....at the sides of his mouth.....getting stuck in the snot that dripped slowly from his nose and was never wiped off.

After a while passed he shifted himself and plodded wearily back outside. He sat down on his haunches by the edge of his puddle again. He was hungry but there was nothing to eat.He sat some more. Soon he saw a figure of a person slowly coming up the hill. As the person came closer he recognized him and his breathing got shallow. He didn't like the man. But he wasn't sure why he didn't like him. Didn't he give him nice things all the time? And he was always smiling at him. But he didn't like him. He took him to his house and did strange things with him. And sometimes it hurt. It hurt bad.

The boy decided to run inside to his Mama, but as he got up his feet failed him as he remembered the beating he had just received. As he was agonizing over it he suddenly felt a soft touch on his shoulder. Turning around he saw the man standing above him and smiling that smile.

"My poor little lamb....you are so dirty...lets go and get you clean okay? I will give you a bath..." The mans smile widened as he spoke and the boy shrank under his touch.
"Here...look what I have.." the boys eyes widened as he saw the man pull out some chicken and bread from the bag with him. His stomach growled...He so wanted to eat....he reached out his hand to take it, and smilingly the man led him away..
" I will tell my Mama next time" the boy thought " I will tell my mama next time.....when she isn't so angry with me...."

And he followed the man.

Crazy Soldier girl

2008-08-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

This video left me speechless (just for two seconds though, then I was rolling on the floor in laughter haha). Perfect example of what happens to people when they eat too much takeout and fastfood - it addles the brain.

I pity that grandma, she must have been terrified, but I pity the girl even more, poor thing needs help.

Baking release..

2008-08-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

I have this sudden urge to bake something . I guess it's because the weather outside is dreary and wet, with rain pouring down in buckets. Add on top of that the fact that I just came off a website showing the most delicious mouthwatering cakes.

But I dont think I want to bake a cake. I think I will bake a traditional Malaysian Kuih instead! Yes...in fact, I think I will make Bingka Ubi.

Funny, but during these months which I spent in Malaysia, I haven't yet tasted a satisfying Bingka Ubi. Not like the one my mother showed me how to make in the Bahamas. Even the Guyanese who claimed to be masters at making it (they called it 'pone') loved it.

So I'm going to use : Cassava. According to my mother, during the Japanese occupation of Malaysia, sometimes it was the only thing that her mother had to eat. And she also said that it was from those hard times that the creativeness of the people were forced to surface, resulting in alot of the delicious dishes which Malaysians enjoy today manying consist of the most humble ingredients.

Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar) This is a must for almost every Malay dessert:

Eggs :

And Coconut :

I'm going to grate it and squeeze out the milk, and I'm also going to use coconut flakes to give the Bingka more texture.

It's been ages since I've made it, I wonder how it'll turn out?

Lunch

2008-08-05T00:04:00.001-07:00

Nothing better than a steaming bowl of meat and vegetable soup with lots of pumpkin in it! Moroccan style...

The thing with handbags...

2008-08-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

....Is that they make you prime target for a snatch thief.

A few weeks back I was reading an article in 'The Star' newspaper, which I forget the title, but it was about snatch theives and how to curb the thefts and put a stop to them. It didn't take me 2 minutes of reading to realize that the writer was not at all for the woman who was the poor victim of the snatch theif, and what more, he was blaming them also!

The gist of the article was :

' Okay so what do you expect? you carry a handbag, stuff all your stuff in it, and strut around with it just barely hooked over your shoulder, and then you scream and cry when your bag is snatched when obviously you were the one who invited the thief to come along anyway! Women just care about making a fashion statement more than being practical, Away with the bags!! '

Well.

My first thought after I read this piece was " For sure my dad called him before and dictated to him what to say, because his words are exactly my dads, he took them right out of his mouth! "

And my second thought was, and I even surprised myself, "He's right!"

Even though I hate to admit it, he was right.

Ever since the theft of my mothers handbag which brought so many complications because it held his passports, over $8,000 dollars, birth certificates etc.etc. (you get the idea) my father has become enemies with all handbags.

It has come to the point that whenever I buy a new bag, I have to hide it and sneak it into the house when he is not looking.

It's so bad that he absolutely refuses to give me anything whatsoever of his possessions to put into my bag, because, as he says " What, so someone can come along and snatch your bag with my things in it? I dont think so " (and then I roll my eyes behind his back).

And of course, my father had gave us women of the house 101 lectures on the topic of the bag, which all boiled down to one thing : Ditch the bag.

What! ditch my bag!! You have to be joking. What would I do without my bag! I need to put all my stuff in it! My outfit is not complete without my bag. And anyway, which woman walks around without her bag?

So of course, I ignored my father and still toted my bag everywhere (and still do actually lol). But the difference between now and before is that now after reading that guys article, I finally admit to the truth in my fathers words. Weird isn't it? How you refuse to listen to something coming from one person, but when it comes from another, you have no problem taking it.

So yes, Handbags are more than likely an unnecessary thing which is more of a 'liability' than a benefit and more of a fashion 'must' than a necessity. I'm not saying this is the case of all, but it's the case more often than not.

But still.............how to live without the handbag? People just never learn until something bad happens to them ( quoting my dad....)

The cool of a midsummer morning

2008-08-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

I dont know exactly how to define the seasons in Malaysia. Do they fall into the same categories of Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, Autumn (not in that order) ? for now I guess i'll just call the present season midsummer.

But to be sure, since coming here 8 months ago, the difference in seasons have been few, if any.All around it maintains that stifling hot and humid temperature and if there weren't those few little changes, I think it would be fair to say that the seasons in Malaysia never change.

I think, to people living here, it would be easier to define the Malaysian seasons as :

Fruit Season

Rainy Season

Hot Season

Because that is all that it seems there is.

Presently it is the fruit season. Trees all around are laden with fruit, and the markets overflow with all types of fruits at ridiculously cheap prices.

As I sit here, I listen to the chirp of birds up in the rambutan tree, and the crowing of a rooster announcing to the world that he has attained yet another wife (did anyone know that in the Arab world a rooster is most known for his mating abilities? I found out in Yemen,how tasteless), and the chattering of squirrels who insist on arguing over that particular fruit, even though the trees are laden with them. Something like quarrelsome siblings I suppose, they just love to fight for no apparent reason but for the fun of it.

From time to time I hear the goats from next door make conversation, it makes my skin crawl at times to hear them cry out in almost humanlike voices. A few years ago the lowing of cows would have been included in all this background noise, but ever since the new road down the hill was built and the padi fields destroyed to make way for it, the cows pass thru here no more.

And as the sun rises higher, along comes with it the heat. Oh, the heat.

It has come to the point that I can no longer rest comfortable if I have less than 3 baths a day. And with cold water, no more of those water heaters for me! but I guess it's all good anyway, since bathing regularly in cold water is supposed to keep you looking younger (?) anyway.

But overall it is good, no use complaining is there? Allah made it this way, and anyway, humans just love to complain about everything, just to hear the bleat of their voices.

But before the fruit season is over; Rambutan anyone?