Merdeka!

Tanggal 31

Bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh

Merdeka ! Merdeka !

Tetaplah merdeka

Ia pasti menjadi sejarah

Tanggal 31

Bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh

Hari yang mulia

Hari bahagia

Sambut dengan jiwa yang merdeka

Mari kita seluruh warga negara

Ramai-ramai menyambut hari merdeka

Merdeka !

Tiga puluh satu bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh

Hari mulia negaraku merdeka

A monkey's tale

A long time ago, there used to be a bunch of wild monkeys hanging around in the seemingly quiet neighbourhood. They would roam aimlessly around the area, scavenging for any leftover food. Sometimes, they walk from one rooftop to another and when that happens, I will quickly rush upstairs to close all windows. The children will get overly excited whenever they spot a monkey or two. Although they looked fierce, they were never a nuisance.

After some time, it was normal to bump into these elusive creatures once in a while. We know they came from a nearby jungle. A jungle of palm oil trees that were once stood proudly in this vast land, also was their natural habitat. Little by little, mass deforestation of these trees to make way for development had driven away these beautiful animals into deeper jungle.

The monkeys weren't the only ones who stroll in the neighbourhood. Once, a baby wild boar was seen running on the road. I saw a few men (Indonesians I presume from language spoken) were trying their might to capture the little beast with a rope. It was like watching a tribal hunting game for in the end, the little beast was caught and on my mind at the time, I knew it was going to be their feast or else why would they took the trouble to catch it. As for me, it was the first time seeing a wild boar up close.

Somehow, I kinda missed their presence. Having them around also makes me feel that I was living in a serene kampung atmosphere, an environment that is free from the hustle and bustle of city life. There used to be heavy mist here every morning especially if it rains the night before and it was pretty cold outside.

Pictures below were taken some two years ago on a neighbour's balcony. That was the last time I ever saw them again.

sedang melontar pandangan jauh sambil menjamu selera

hensem tak aku? aku tahu aku hensem sebab tu ko ambik gambar kan...

sedang kopek apa tu bang?

why are you looking so forlorn my simian friend..

*above picture as usual was cilok-ed from google on SU

Of rambutan and pulasan

Kak Ngah has a delightful sense of humour. She never fails to crack us up with her sharp one liner answer. Funny but logical in a sense.

I bought a few kilos of buah pulasan recently. As usual, when I buy fruits, I would normally peel the skin off and keep them refrigerated in a bowl. They like to eat them cold. Manyak syiokk lah!

As always, during dig in time, we would have light banters anak beranak.

"Sedapnyer rambutan ni kan ibu" (this rambutan is so yummy, ibu), Kak Ngah said.

"Itu bukan rambutan. Itu buah pulasan" (that's not rambutan, that's pulasan), I explained.

"Heh, tipu lah. Ini rambutan lah. Rupa macam rambutan.." (really? they looked like rambutan to me), Kak Ngah not satisfied.

"Betul, itu buah pulasan. Cuba tengok kulit dia. kan tak sama? Buah pulasan kulitnya keras macam ada duri kontot, buah rambutan ada rambut macam janggut ayah tak cukur" (it is pulasan dear. look at the skin. it's rough with shorty thorn and rambutan has hairy skin just like your dad's unshaven beard) , I retorted

"Tapi rasa dia sama jer..." (but it still taste the same), Kak Ngah still not satisfied.

"Lain walaupun rupa hampir sama. Cuba teka macamana buah ni dapat nama dia?" (it tastes different even though they look almost the same. Can you guess how it gets its name?, I asked.

Seriously dude, is there any difference in taste between these two fruits? *that's me thinking out loud*

"Entah tak tahu" (I don't know), shrugged Kak Long who suddenly decides to butt in. Kak Long really enjoys the fruits and couldn't care less of what was going on. She must be thinking, to hell with names.

"Haa, kita tahu kenapa. Sebab nak makan buah pulasan kena pulas kuat-kuat baru nampak isi dia sebab itu kita panggil buah pulasan pastu buah rambutan lak ada rambut sebab itu kita panggil dia buah rambutan. Betul tak ibu?" (i think i know why. you need to twist hard the skin then only you can see the flesh hence its name. as for rambutan, it is named so because of its hairy like appearance. am I right ibu?), Kak Ngah said confidently with a tinge of wickedness in her face.

Bingo!

*Believe me, when the dialogues are translated to english it doesn't sound funny though...

Makan bersuap

Little B's high chair where he used to sit at lunch and dinner time

Salah satu sebab kenapa aku leceh bebenor nak bagi si kecik ni makan ialah sebab dia tak boleh duduk diam barang seminit pun bila disuap makan. Mesti dia nak turun berlari merata-rata tempat main kejar-kejar ngan mak dia. Kenkadang aku heran camna baby omputeh boleh duduk diam-diam kat kerusi pastu boleh suap sendiri?

Memang kita biasa lihat ibu-ibu menyuapkan nasi ke mulut anak samada dengan tangan atau sudu. Aku lebih suka pakai sudu. Orang tua-tua selalu sebut bila suap nasi kat mulut anak dengan tangan, dorang akan lebih sayang kat kita. Patutlah mak mentua aku suka sangat suap nasi ngan tangan kat Kak Long dan Kak Ngah masa depa kecik-kecik dulu. Patutlah depa melompat kegumbiraan bila terdengar aje plan nak pi jenguk opah kat kampung. Tapi sekarang depa semua dah besar, dah boleh suap sendiri.

Sungguhpun menyuapkan nasi ke mulut anak adalah salah satu sikap penyayang seorang ibu terhadap anaknya tapi kalau selalu sangat sampai dah besar gajah pun masih nak merengek kena suap, sorilah! Sekali sekala bolehlah kalau nak bermanja, jangankan si anak, si ayah pun boleh disuap makan kalau nak. Alahai cayang busyuk manja gitu. He he he he...

Pernah tak korang kena suap makan ngan suami masing-masing? Eleh, masa korang kawen dolu-dolu time bersanding tu bukan ke kena suap? Tapi aku tak merasa lah semua itu sebab aku tak bersanding pun ngan husband. Kami sama-sama gadis dan jejaka pemalu.

Awwww!

another reason why you need to spoonfeed your children...

Ini minggu tarak posting...

Sebab apa?

Sebab aku puasa.

Puasa apa?

Puasa ganti daa. Biasalah. Dah nak dekat puasa ramadhan baru nak tergodek-godek ganti puasa. Eleh, korang pun sama gak kan. Macam lah aku tak tau.

Dah lah, aku tak larat nak ketuk keyboard ni ok. Chow chin chau...

Weathering the storm

The husband had good news to share last week. He had been confirmed in his job in an O & G company since joining December last year. We are ever so grateful and humbled by this expected piece of information.

There's a good reason why.

It has been more than 6 months since we were hit with adversity. The hardest kind.

Before his present job, he had worked with a company for more than 10 years. He worked his way up to his last post. In the course of his work, he was never disloyal, always reliable, been through thick and thin despite some problematic staffs, crazy workloads and even partial management. Certain individuals were given preferential treatment despite zero productivitiy.

It was in late 2006 when the company started to face problems. Future projects were scraped thus making the company fundless. Whatever on-going projects had to be done with very limited resources hence the management and employees had to suffer massive paycuts. It was a matter of time before they had to downsize. In the end, only a handful of people stayed on. Since the husband was one of the major shareholders, he had to bear the burden. For a year, he had no salary. Whatever monies that they get would be channeled to pay existing contractors, employees, office rents and bills.

So how did we get by during which hubby had no salary for a year? With personal loans and whatever savings that was left in his bank account.

With personal loans, we use them sparingly for our household expenses and other miscellaneous. The credit cards (to fill up petrol and other necessities) were used to the max. Life was very hard for us then. But we persevered.

The first practical thing we did to ease the burden was to let go our first car, the proton perdana but we maintained our second car for him to go to work. We cut down on a lot of things considered extravagant drastically. We don't go on Cuti-Cuti Malaysia holidays anymore. School holidays means the kids were going to stay with their grandparents. We stopped eating out, stopped weekend outings and shoppings were done strictly for groceries. We even stopped buying clothes during that frugal period.

During Hari Raya, we wore our previous Hari Raya clothes and amazingly, the kids were cool about it. I remembered the girls said, "Tak pe ibu. Baju kita pun masih cantik lagi tak koyak pun. Kasut raya lama pun elok lagi..." Sayu gile aku masa tu.

During these trying time, hubby applied all kinds of job that suit his qualification. Many times he was politely turned down because they (the advertisers) thought he was too qualified for a mere managerial post. Sometimes I would ask him, "Tak pe ke turun pangkat from COO jadi manager biasa je?" To which he replied "At times like this, choosing job is not an option for me. I'll take whatever that is offered (reasonably) to me".

After unsuccessful attempts in getting suitable job, he received an impressive offer and he accepted it immediately. Macam tau-tau aje. The job couldn't have come at a better time when our savings was about to dry up. Most importantly, its a steady job with perks lining up for him if he works smart and hard as he is.

For what is worth, it makes me think that life is indeed a circle. Hari ini kita di atas, esok kita di bawah. We'll never know what's going to happen in the future. For me, this invaluable experience has taught us to be prudent in our expenses, to be grateful and count our blessings for whatever Allah has bestowed us upon and to appreciate all the little things that we took for granted before.

If its not too late to say this, congratulations Abang on your job confirmation. Alhamdulillah syukur! We made it.

Scary movie

do you know who this girl is? no prize for guessing...

A couple of weeks back, I was watching a horror-slasher movie about a bunch of people get killed one by one by a vicious ghost in a playstation game. Supposedly, when they died in the game, they will die in real life. Wanna know what's so scary about the movie?

Frankie Muniz (of Malcom in the Middle sitcom fame) was in it. And he doesn't cut out to play a side-kick. Apart from that, nothing else is so scary.

I'm a big fan of horror movies. However, I don't fancy slasher flicks. Seeing people get cut up in half or several pieces, decapitated heads or severed limbs aren't exactly my kind of horror movie. Its just too gross. Plain old-fashioned scary movie is what I savor.

Horror movies today are such a bore and lack genuine thrills. Even the storylines are weak. Most of them rely heavily on special effects. Too much CGIs (computer graphic image) had somewhat killjoyed the movie. They don't look real or frightening enough to jolt you from your chair or make your heart pumping.

When I was in standard 4 in the mid seventies, I witnessed a real life exorcism. There was this local maid who worked in one of the neighbour's just two doors away from my house, had been possessed by the devil in a form of pelesit.

Every night, we would hear her shrill of laughters and cries and it was so creepy. Being a nervously curious kid despite strong objections from my parents, I sneaked inside the house and saw a lot of people were reciting the Surah Yaasin. I saw the bomoh lifted a stick and started to beat up the floor but not so hard. It was as if he was trying to chase away the devil. I couldn't see the girl's face properly as she was lying on a thin mattress facing up the ceiling. When I heard sounds coming from the girl's mouth, I began to shiver. I had goosebumps all over my body. She spoke in foreign language that didn't make sense and her voice was so hoarse and fierce. She would then break into eerie laughter and then cry. This would go on repetitively while she's being cured.

Someone once said that a devil can sense your fear. While I stood there frozen from watching all those mumbo jumbo, she then turned her pop-eyed and ghastly face (mak oii, it was so horrible OK) to me and yelled, "Hey, apa kamu pandang-pandang hah!" (What are you looking at?). I almost fell off from the staircase. I will never forget that look from her face. Like the face of the devil itself.

True enough, I developed high fever that lasted a week.

With all that once-in-a-lifetime experience, I still love watching scary movies. I don't mind seeing Linda Blair spin her head and spit green vomit over and over again. Now that is one helluva scary movie.

*My top 10 scary movies (in no particular order)

1. The Exorcist - nothing beats the crap out of you than watching this movie. After 35 years, still is the best scary movie of all time. best scenes - the head spinning and vomit spitting and of course the voice.


2. The Omen I (1976) - Just one stare from that son of satan, all hell breaks loose (the zoo scene) and people die from freak accidents. The kid, Damien remains to be the creepiest kid in scary movie history


3. The Amityville Horror (1979) - a family is terrorized by a demonic house. even the facade of the house is so creepy.


4. The Blair Witch Project - this successful indie movie proved that eerie sounds, home video style camerawork and adhering to less is more principle (we never get to see the witch till the end) make for one hell of harrowing flick


5. The Ring - I can never look at TV the same way again...


6. The Sixth Sense - despite its surprise twist in the ending, this movie did have some scary moments like when Haley Joel Osment had a leak at night or when he felt that someone was following him in broad daylight and its none other than Bruce Willis himself...


7. Dark Water (original Japanese version) - I had a hard time going into dim-litted elevators, alone and I've never been so scared of damp ceiling or sudden over-flowing water....after watching it of course


8. Seven - the most disturbing serial killer of all time.


9. The Eye (original chinese version) - the scariest scene had to be the elevator (again?) scene...totally freaked out!


10. The Descent - imagine this. trapped in a claustrophobic area like a cave for example and there's something menacing lurking around you in total darkness

True Grit

For many of us in the blogosphere, we might come across this blog - onebreastbouncing. It chronicles the life of a courageous cancer survivor named Raden Galoh. However, her latest posting had made my heart weep silently. I admire her for putting up a brave front despite the sad news.

To Raden, there's no better words to say than this. May Allah ease your pain, be strong ahead and for bloggers and readers alike to offer prayers to her. Its the least we could all do.

*picture taken from her blog

While I wasn't looking...

bertuah punya anak...!

It took him less than a minute to create this. It took me at least 30 minutes to clean up the whole mess - the little rascal included!

Enter frame sekejap...

With TNB's new tariff coming into effect this July, I'm bracing myself to minimise the usage of electricity in my household with no holds-barred solutions.

• No switching on lights after dark. Candlelight dinner sounds romantic.
• Do laundry manually except for bed sheets, pillow covers, towels, blankets and stubborn stained fabrics.
• Cook rice on stove. Same applies for re-heating leftovers instead of microwave
• Watch tv for an hour a day and pick only favorites. When bored stiff, find other means of entertainment. Read a book, do crossword puzzles or scrabble, play masak-masak and so on. The best way to enjoy hide and seek game is to play it in the dark
• Use manual fans. Better still, wear only undergarments if the weather becomes too hot to handle. Less clothes wear, less laundry
• Use a broom to sweep dirt
• To iron wrinkle clothes, put them underneath thick mattress overnight or purchase that charcoal iron from antique store. Buy non-iron clothes from now on
• Switch to mini-bar fridge from conventional fridge
• Terminate broadband connection thus stop blogging for good

Frugality has never been this cool. Ok, am back on hiatus mode *yawn* again. See ya.

Thousand apologies

Gidday,

I won't be able to update for the time being. If you kinda miss me while I'm gone *wink wink*, feel free to browse old issues of SOTS.

I'll be back sooner than you expect. Meanwhile, have some blonde jokes.

Cheers mate!

**********************************

Dumb Wish

Three blondes were walking through the desert when they found a magic genie's lamp. After rubbing the lamp to make the genie appear, he said, "I will grant three wishes, one for each of you".

The first blonde said, "I wish I were smarter". So, she became a redhead.

The second blonde said, "I wish I were smarter than she is". She became a brunette.

The third blonde ordered, "I wish I were smarter than both of them!" She became a man.

What's the time please?

BLONDE: "Excuse me, what time is it right now?"

WOMAN: "It's 11:25PM."

BLONDE: (confused look on face) "You know, it's the weirdest thing, I've asked that question thirty times today, and every time someone gives me a different answer."

Medical Terminology for the Blondes

Artery -- Study of paintings

Bacteria -- Back door of cafeteria

Barium -- What doctors do when treatment fails

Bowel -- Letter like A.E.I.O.U

Caesarean section -- District in Rome

Cat scan -- Searching for kitty

Cauterize -- Made eye contact with her

Colic -- Sheep dog

Coma -- A punctuation mark

Congenital -- Friendly

D&C -- Where Washington is

Diarrhea -- Journal of daily events

Dilate -- To live long

Enema -- Not a friend

Fester -- Quicker

Fibula -- A small lie

G.I. Series -- Soldiers' ball game

Grippe -- Suitcase

Hangnail -- Coathook

Impotent -- Distinguished, well known

Intense pain -- Torture in a teepee

Labor pain -- Got hurt at work

Medical staff -- Doctor's cane

Morbid -- Higher offer

Nitrate -- Cheaper than day rate

Node -- Was aware of

Outpatient -- Person who had fainted

Pelvis -- Cousin of Elvis

Post operative -- Letter carrier

Protein -- Favoring young people

Rectum -- It almost killed him

Recovery room -- Place to do upholstery

Rheumatic -- Amorous

Scar -- Rolled tobacco leaf

Secretion -- Hiding anything

Seizure -- Roman emperor

Serology -- Study of knighthood

Tablet -- Small table

Terminal illness -- Sickness at airport

Tibia -- Country in North Africa

Tumor -- An extra pair

Urine -- Opposite of you're out

Varicose -- Located nearby

Vein -- Conceited

You've got mail!

A blonde quickly went out to her mail box, looked in it, closed the door of the box, and went back in the house. A few minutes later she repeated this process by checking her mail again. She did this five more times and her neighbor that was watching her commented: "You must be expecting a very important letter today the way you keep looking into that mail box."

The blonde answered, "No, I am working on my computer, and it keeps telling me that I have mail."

Hannah Montana and her 2 wild fans

Hookay, the daughters are officially hooked on the uber popular Hannah Montana. Almost all the underage girls in the neighbourhood seems to be head over heels "in love" with her. One close neighbour had her girl requested fervently for a pin-up poster of Miley Cyrus.

Everytime HM's video clip is aired on TV, they will drop everything they were doing and gaze open-mouthed at her. Wish they could do the same when I instruct them to do their school home work or house chore.

Sheesh.

The last time they behaved this way was when High School Musical was aired on TV exactly two years ago. Oh my, they even memorised the dance steps and heck, even Little B who's barely one year old then would eagerly jump up and down.

Kinda remind me of my own school girl's crush on Donny Osmond back in the seventies. Donny Osmond was super-hot in those days. And ABBA's kind of music was and still is cool up to this day. Who can ever forget the classic Dancing Queen. Some of ABBA's songs had been remixed and sung by different singers of many genres but nothing beats the original version.

Well whatever it is, I'm pretty sure this whole Hannah Montana craze will die down eventually before another teenage singer or pop group takes over Miley Cyrus's popularity. That happens to Hilary Duff of Lizzie McGuire fame after she became a full grown woman.

In the meantime, I'm just letting the girls enjoy it while it lasts.

5 things I discovered while on short hiatus (from blogging)

That;

1. My IQ dropped significantly by 10 points each time after watching sappy malay dramas or serials and that astro ria scores the highest point for having too many no-brainer tv shows. Their latest indulgence is Jangan Lupa Lirik hosted by none other, the narcissist Aznil Nawawi. Yikes!
2. My neighbour's cat got pregnant (again!) and that its female offspring just got laid some 2 days ago. ARGHHHHHH!
3. Eating half plate of rice did not make me any slimmer. What a complete waste, I mean the other half of portion I didn't get to eat
4. I had fun watching my neighbours looked totally clueless when another friend mentioned my nickname and not my real name when we blabbed about someone that day and they had no f***ing idea it was me all the while....hahaha!
5. I don't look nice on a mountain bike (picture someone with very fat ass riding it...totally gruesome OK)