Move aside iPad, here comes the Sanitary Pad!

Sanitary pads have always been a big issue when I was in STF. It’s always highlighted by the HEM and Puan Pengetua during our weekly assembly in the big hall. One can never guess how much trouble sanitary pads can bring. We women (young girls back then) understood that it’s one of our basic necessities but it never occurred to some of us how the mis-management could be disastrous.

It was 1988 when Rentokil first came to the school to brief us all on how to properly dispose our ‘bloody’ sanitary pads. At the beginning of the session, the representative from Rentokil showed us a tiny tampon. Well, I think about 80% of us didn’t even recognize that thing until one of the juniors asked her friend and a few seniors overheard her. The senior answered loudly, ‘Itu tampon la dik, function dia sama macam pad.’

Then the Rentokil representative showed us how the tampon expanded 20 times over after it’s soaked in tap water for more than half an hour. Our usual wide smiles transformed into big 'O's when we saw that. For the next 10 minutes or so we were lectured on how that tiny tampon can cause blockage in the drainage system… yadda… yadda… yadda… I think she didn’t demonstrate how big a normal (or winged) sanitary pad would expand if it’s soaked in tap water, perhaps she didn’t have a big enough container for that experiment.

So, after everyone understood the importance of managing and disposing our sanitary pads properly, the next weekend every toilet in the school was equipped with Rentokil feminine hygiene unit (that’s the pad disposer lah). The dorm prefects were very happy as their headache will be lesser once the girls started to use the thing.

Prior to having Rentokil in our hostel life, I couldn’t really remember how we disposed our pads. I remember having to wash and wrap them nicely with the newspapers we hang nicely in every toilet. The dorm on duty to wash toilet for the week will have to prepare the newspapers for this purpose. I couldn’t remember whether there was a dedicated waste basket for the nicely wrapped pads. But the washing and wrapping issue was raised many times during block meetings especially when some girls were unbelievably forgetful that they left their pads in the toilets and didn’t go through the boring ritual. It was not an easy thing to tackle; educating the new girls were challenging enough and when we found out even some of the seniors did that too, we were left speechless, didn’t know what to do.

Okay, now fast forward to 2010, to the recent UMNO general assembly to be specific. Why did so many people criticized and ridiculed Azura Mohd Afandi, the JB Puteri UMNO chief when she raised the issue of sanitary pad adverts? It’s a huge thing people!!! The disasters sanitary pads could bring can be bigger than KL flash flood or food poisoning cases in hostels.

For open-minded-modern-urban people (guys included), sanitary pad adverts are just adverts – a way to promote a product. You watch it on TV, you know about the product, you’ll buy it if you’re interested and that’s it. It’s not a big deal. Some of the adverts didn’t even register in your head – which brand was that? What’s the pad that features 2 big melons in the advert? Or what’s that pad advert that has people snapping photos of their butt? Well, I couldn’t remember their brands either.

However, we can’t discount the fact that there exist perverts, shallow Hals, people who lacks sex education (hey, most of us are – it’s not part of our school curriculum), sex maniacs and even those with unbelievably advance imaginations. I was told by my primary school friends that some of their uncles could smell women’s period and it turned them on. Wah, I was so scared when I heard about it. How could the smell of blood turn men on? The scariest part was I knew their uncles, and they looked like really nice adults.

During high school, some of our female teachers also reminded us to keep a certain distance from the male teachers when we’re having our period due to the same reason. So, it must be true if that came from our teachers, right? So, everytime we had our period, we had to be extra careful. Don’t stand too close to the male teachers. Don’t walk pass by the male teachers. Don’t give them any clue that you’re having your period. If you buy pads from the co-op, make sure it’s wrapped with dark papers before putting them in the plastic. And when we were younger (form one and form two) we were told not to mention that we’ve already reached puberty. During that innocent age, we just obliged. Being the good girls we were, we never questioned the instructions given by our female teachers – Ustazahs especially.

However, when I grew up and thought about that, hey something must be very wrong with our society. What is the problem with women having our regular menses? It’s fitrah what? Why can’t men deal with it and accept it as just another normal thing like feeling hungry or sleepy. Those are also fitrah manusia.

Whether we like it or not, discussions on puberty, menstruation period, sanitary pads and anything related to women reproduction system is still very much a sensitive thing in our society. Some mothers and grandmothers still consider them as taboo. Actually I’d love to see reactions from very traditional men who live in the remotest kampong in this country when they watch the sanitary pad advert that features the two melons. They might be disgusted, tickled to their bones or suddenly turned on. I don’t know. More experiments need to be done.

In the meantime (while waiting for some NGO that are interested to organize the experiment), I just want to say that there’s nothing wrong with Azura’s speech and the issue she raised. We all came from different upbringing; we look at things differently. The saddest thing is, most of the scenes you watch in the Cerekarama or Telefilm shown in our local TV stations happen in real life. We never know if incest cases or gang rapes were caused by sanitary pad adverts, but perverts and people with uncontrollable raging hormones exist everywhere.

To Azura, we know you meant well but it’s always wiser to support a concern or theory with survey results and analysis, statistics and recognized studies. 

2 down, 3 more to go

Pregger engineer number 2 had safely delivered a darling baby girl on Monday night. Next in the queue is me. The C-section is scheduled on Tuesday morning, 25th August. The boss has started showing signs of ‘meroyan’ after pregger engineer number 2 was admitted to hospital.

During my last check-up with the gynae, she advised me to take one week rest before the op. That means I’ll need to close shop by this Friday and rest at home starting next Monday. My BP was a bit higher than usual during the check-up. Not sure what’s the cause. Could be work pressure. Ya lah, everybody’s expecting me to complete/conclude EVERYTHING before I go for maternity leave.

Some of the requests are quite ridiculous especially for problematic projects. It’s impossible I could close everything within a week’s time. And furthermore, I’m only overseeing the project, not the one implementing the solutions. Being pushed and pressured for such an impossible thing can really make one’s blood goes upstairs, I tell you.

Post natal arrangement is also troubling me. I’m only getting 14 days of confinement lady services as she’s already booked starting middle of September. There’s still no news on the maid I ordered about 4 months ago. I knew I should have booked the maid a lot earlier. Never expected the Indon Government would want to impose new regulations in order to protect their human resource. Now that there’s no news regarding the MOU between the 2 governments, the maid agency is also giving thousands of excuses not to confirm my maid’s status.

If only the local women are interested to work as helpers. We’re not calling these maids ‘orang gaji’ anymore; we always refer to them as HELPERS. I don’t see any reason why our local women are not attracted to the job. With RM550 as basic salary, it’s a lot higher than working as restaurant helpers or jadi Minah Kilang. Furthermore, they’ll get their own rooms, beds; can watch ASTRO when employers go out to work, free phone calls and a lot more benefits that are currently being enjoyed by Minah-minah Seberang.

The only minus point is that they’ll have to stay at employers’ houses and outings are limited. Well, that’s not as bad as staying in sekolah berasrama penuh or prisons, right?

I don’t know, perhaps majority of them sees working as helper is not glamorous. Their better choices are working at fast food restaurants, manufacturing industry, entertainment industry and later many become Tipah Tertipu and have to work as GRO and forced to live in a smelly, tiny, dingy flat shared with 10 other GROs.

Oh man, I am so bitter today. If I continue on writing about local women’s choice of occupation I’m afraid I’ll end up writing about prostitution problem in the country.

Or perhaps I should be writing about 1Malaysia? Somehow I still don’t really get it. There’s only one Malaysia, no doubt about it. But as I have mentioned in one of my friends’ comment box long-long time ago, we Malaysians are just like multicolored Play Doh kneaded together. You’ll get a bigger piece, but each color can still be seen clearly separated apart. They just don’t mix that well. Not like adding blue to red paint and you’ll see purple on your canvas. We can never be really truly one, but we need to continue on tolerating each other and working together. The individual colors should remain and don’t overdo the Play Doh kneading as it will only produce a duller piece. I hope the politicians get this metaphor.

Demi Allah aku tidak bersalah - Mahsuri

This is my review on Mahsuri, as promised earlier last week. I haven't watched any Malay play for the past 15 years or so. I planned to watch PGL so many times but never managed to get the tickets. I watched Alang Rentak Seribu on TV, so that didn't count. The last play I remember was the one where I was one of the casts. Hehehehe. It was staged during Pekan Teater Selangor; we didn't win so I won't bother elaborating here.

The line-up of the ever so hardworking people. Who ever has had a taste getting involved in any kind of play or production understands that you have to be hardworking, down to earth and disciplined in order to produce a play.

The title, before we got to see the map of South East Asia, Malaysia, Kedah and Langkawi Island.

What I think of the play.

1. It was short and sweet.
There's no way anybody can lengthen the story without adding more fiction to it. Let's face the fact, our ancestors didn't really put a lot of time and effort to document so many things: history, influential people, tragedies, war, climate changes, economic situation during their time etc. We have to be thankful with the few sources we have. Some say Mahsuri is a legend and many still can't forget the movie of the same title made half a century ago. So, kudos to Fauziah Nawi for sticking to the storyline acceptable/understandable by the majority of Malaysians.

2. The main characters didn't shine
Don't blame me for sitting at the back, but seriously there was no chemistry between Mahsuri and Wan Darus. Emotions should reach everyone, regardless of where they're seated. Perhaps this was also caused by having so many strong supporting actors. The audience sometimes forgot about the 2 main characters.

3. Pronunciation.... pronunciation
Again, don't blame me for sitting at the back but a few actors need to improve their pronunciation - especially Wan Mahura. A strong voice won't guarantee a good delivery. Although her portrayal of a jealous woman was good and the audience started to hate her the moment she entered the stage, many of her words didn't reach me. I kept on wondering.... 'What is this woman complaining about?'
However, I found Mahsuri's mom, Vee, Azizah Mahzan and Farah Ahmad delivered the best - loud and clear.

4. The white blood remained as a symbol, not necessarily flowing out of Mahsuri's body.
The last scene didn't meet many viewers' expectation as there was no white blood flowing out of Mahsuri. I have always thought of it just as a symbol. The Legend of Mahsuri might have became a famous Malay folklore long ago and many of the story tellers have added details to make the story more interesting.
But then again, even if it's not just a symbol, the execution method will not produce a lot of blood because the keris went straight to the heart and Mahsuri died instantaneously. If you've watched a fight scene in the movie Troy, you'd understand. In the scene Brad Pitt was fighting another warrior who was a lot bigger and taller than he. With just one thrust of his sword the big warrior was dead. No blood splattering - nothing like what was portrayed in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

5. Interesting silat and dance scenes.
My kids loved these. For them there were a lot of actions. Nothing resembles the boring Drama Swasta they watched on Malaysian TV. Wazif's favorite scenes werethe Bangsal Sila t and the Langkawi Fiesta. Shawqi's favorite moment was when he was first seated (sebab dia tak pernah masuk Istana Budaya, maka sangat le jakun jadinya...)

6. What happened to Wan Darus and Wan Hakim?
There should have been a final scene. Everybody wanted to know what happened to the hubby and the baby. It was mentioned in one of the newspapers that the production team was researching on this but I wonder why the anticipated scenes didn't make it to the stage. Could it be caused by lack of reference?

7. Kalau nak berlakon teater purbawara, janganle color rambut kau blonde, dey!
I couldn't help but noticed some of the village girls were blondes. Wey, Malay girls with blond hair - during Mahsuri time some more. Adakah logik? Maybe they were not that blonde. Maybe it was the lightings. Tapi dari seat aku tu, tetap nampak blonde nya cik kak oi!

All in all, it was a good play. Entertaining and mempamerkan nilai-nilai dan budaya Melayu. Can be improved further. Yang penting, Wazif and Shawqi loved it.

Some hapdets

Just had rice with masak lemak nenas and ikan masin for lunch and now feeling really not up to anything. Can I just curl up here at my cubicle, on my chair (that suddenly feels extra comfy today) and listen to Mariah Carey on iTunes.... and then silently fall asleep without anyone noticing? Wah, bertuah kalau dapat buat camtu.
I'm supposed to have a meeting right after lunch but only received a noticed that it was canceled a few minutes ago. Damn, if only they informed me earlier .....

So, have you gone to the Book Fair at PWTC? I went on Sunday and it was packed - looked a lot like PC fair. However, at a closer look the jam packed area was only around the booths of publishers of Buku Kerja, Buku Latihan and buku Ulangkaji Peperiksaan. The booths which sold technical books and tertiary education reference books semuanya lengang-lengang aje. So, tell me again are all the parents still obsessed with their kids' exams? The answer is obviously 'YES'. Even I tried to persuade the kids to choose some exercise books for Primary 1 and 2 but both of them refused (sebab diorang tau nanti balik-balik diorang yang banyak kena buat keje, pastu tak boleh tengok Cartoon Network).

In the end, we only bought a Sahibba set and a construction book set (it's a book filled with pieces of a windmill and a park which you have to construct, lah). Obviously, the latter was Shawqi's choice.

Now I am not sure whether I should follow the footsteps of the other Kiasu parents to start registering my kids for tuitions. After 4 months of schooling this year I realized that Wazif is not getting on very well with his Maths while Shawqi is still very poor in spelling (both Malay and English). It would be good if I have the extra time to drill them with Maths and spelling exercises tapi, sebab akupun malas maka semua itu hanya tinggal plan sajalah. Aku bukan setakat malas, aku sebenarnya menyampah tengok buku sekolah akibat selalu sangat dipaksa pegi Prep masa kat STF dulu. Hehehe... Let's hope both my kids would never find this blog entry, ok.

Oh, I just found out that neither of them are learning History at school. Wazif knew about the Mahsuri legend from his Bahasa Malaysia teacher who just happened to be in the mood to tell the story to his class last week. In that case I'll just use Tunku Halim's encyclopedia to teach them about Malaysia history. By the way, Tunku Halim's encyclopedia is written in English, so I'll still need to find the time to read and discuss with the kids. That means I'll need to sacrifice either Merlin or CSI NY or Knight Rider show in order to free up my time slot. My TV time is important but so does the kids' education .... hehehe.

To all mothers, check your kids' school bag today. It might surprise you to learn so many new things (contohnya, ada chewing gum yang kawan dia kasi, ada toy yang you tak beli, their incomplete exercises, homework yang dia pura-pura tak ingat etc).

Borak-borak pasal PPSMI

Semasa ucaptama DS Najib di PWTC beberapa hari yang lepas, beliau telah menekankan untuk kesekian kalinya agar isu PPSMI ini tidak dipersoalkan atau didebatkan lagi. Dasar tersebut perlu diteruskan untuk kepentingan negara di masa hadapan dan bakal menentukan keupayaan warga Malaysia untuk berkembang dengan lebih maju dan mampu bersaing di dalam bidang sains dan teknologi.

Saya adalah antara blogger yang terkemudian memaparkan isu ini. Ketika ia hangat diperkatakan saya hanya buat-buat tuli sahaja kerana kebanyakan hujah yang diutarakan sangat keluar tajuk dan menyimpang dari kebenaran.

Selepas ucaptama DS Najib tersebut, isu tersebut masih diperkatakan di media cetak. Ada yang menyarankan salah satu cara untuk meningkatkan penguatkuasaan Bahasa Inggeris di kalangan pelajar Malaysia ialah dengan memperkenalkan subjek Kesusasteraan Inggeris. Subjek ini memang asing bagi kebanyakan pelajar kita. Ketika saya di sekolah menengah dahulu, subjek ini adalah elektif. Hanya pelajar yang betul-betul minat dan 'mampu' sahaja yang mengambil subjek tersebut. 'Mampu' di sini bukan bermaksud mereka anak orang berada, tetapi mereka adalah pelajar yang memang sudah memiliki penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris yang bagus dan berupaya menghabiskan pembacaan dan memahami karya-karya klasik seperti Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice dan lain-lain di dalam jangkamasa yang pendek.

Saya tidak mengambil subjek tersebut kerana saya tidak 'mampu'. Sedangkan Wind In The Willows pun saya tidak mampu fahami, inikan pula karya Jane Austen dan Shakespeare.

Jadi, mengapa kementerian tidak mewajibkan Kesusasteraan Inggeris; sebaliknya menetapkan polisi PPSMI?

Jawapannya mudah. Jika kita lihat kembali objektif dasar itu sendiri, ia adalah untuk mengukuhkan penguasaan warga Malaysia di dalam bidang Sains dan Teknologi. Bahan-bahan rujukan untuk subjek-subjek kejuruteraan, perubatan, komputer dan sebagainya tidak menggunakan bahasa sastera, sebaliknya menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris mudah yang boleh difahami oleh orang kebanyakan.

Kalau begitu, mengapa PPSMI dimulakan dari peringkat pelajar tahap 1 Sekolah Kebangsaan?

Jawapannya ialah untuk memulakan proses 'pembiasaan' atau 'familiarization' di peringkat awal. Sungguhpun bahan-bahan rujukan di dalam bidang sains dan teknologi menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris mudah, banyak istilahnya perlu dibiasakan kepada pemikiran anak-anak kita. Contoh paling mudah ialah Matematik. Generasi saya belajar Matematik 'Lima tolak empat' tetapi generasi PPSMI belajar 'Four substracted from Five'.

Apabila generasi 'Lima tolak empat' melangkah ke alam Universiti tempatan (kes Universiti luar negara adalah agak berbeza) di mana hampir kesemua bahan rujukan adalah di dalam Bahasa Inggeris, kami terpaksa melalui proses 'pembiasaan' di kala usia sudah menjangkau 18 atau 20 tahun. Pada ketika ini, kami terpaksa 'masuk gear turbo' sewaktu kuliah dan ulangkaji bagi memastikan kami mampu menguasai setiap subjek yang diajar. Ada yang mampu bertahan, ada yang berjaya dan tidak kurang juga yang terus meletup enjinnya.

Generasi 'Lima tolak empat' juga ramai yang telah menjadi cerdik pandai dan berjaya tetapi masalah yang paling ketara ialah kami kurang berkemampuan untuk menyampaikan ilmu kerana kebanyakan dari minda kami masih bertutur dalam Bahasa Melayu. Ekspresi diri juga menjadi satu masalah besar. Tidak perlu pergi jauh, para pelajar di IPTA kita sendiri mampu membezakan kualiti pembelajaran yang didapati dari kelas yang ditangani oleh pensyarah yang berbeza latar belakang pendidikan. Biasanya pensyarah dari luar yang telah mendapat pendidikan awal dalam Bahasa Inggeris mampu menyampaikan ilmu dengan lebih berkesan.

Akhirkata, berilah peluang kepada PSSMI kerana ia patut diteruskan. Buat masa ini kebanyakan tenaga pengajar kita masih bertatih untuk menguasai Bahasa Inggeris kerana dasar ini pun baru 6 tahun usianya. Kita patut beri peluang sehingga tahun ke 20 kerana di waktu itu, generasi 'Four Substracted From Five' sudah pun menjadi sebahagian dari tenaga pengajar di negara ini.

Mudah dan Murah?

Do you know what the 2 most important words in Malay are? They’re ‘MUDAH’ and ‘MURAH’. These words have BIG pulling factors, perhaps it’s one of the secrets to the success of mudah.com.my website. Those in Advertisement industry must know about this already.
An alternative Malay tagline for Air Asia can always be changed to ‘Kini, mudahnya nak terbang….’ Instead of ‘Now, everyone can fly’ because everyone knows literally people can’t fly.

Try flipping through any Women Magazine and you’ll surely find ‘Cara mudah untuk menanam pokok, menggilap tembaga, menghias rumah, mencangkul laman etc etc’ The truth is, those tasks are not that easy, but when the word MUDAH is used, psychologically readers will be attracted to the article and some are even brave enough to attempt them. You can try ‘Resepi Mudah membuat tepung pelita’ – it’s not easy at all. Tepung pelita is one of the Malay kueh that requires years of practice. Looking at the ingredients, they don’t look challenging at all. But based on my years of experience buying this kueh at Pasar Ramadhan, only a few stalls made it to my list.

Another trick is ‘Mudah menang’ or ‘Menang Mudah’ contest that usually leads people to Scratching and Winning while not realizing that they’ve been conned a few thousand ringgit. See, it’s that easy to trick Malaysians’ minds just by having the word ‘MUDAH’. Have you ever come across motivational books entitled ‘Laluan sukar menuju kejayaan’ or ‘Challenges to break the glass ceiling’? I don’t think so. However, you can easily find ‘Melabur cara mudah’, ‘Permudahkan pembiayaan biasiswa anak anda’ (eh, motivational book ke ni?)

Besides that, if you ever attended or participated in any of the local universities’ ‘Minggu Orientasi’, you’ll at least get to know a few ‘Pemudahcara’ who actually did not make your orientation week any easier. Most of them voluntarily took the opportunity to get short cuts to tackle freshies. CHEAP!

While ‘MURAH’ is self explanatory in the retail business, it is also a very important word in the entertainment business. ‘Perempuan murah’, ‘artis murah’, ‘jual murah’, ‘hati murah’ are commonly found in the local gossip magazines. Just add ‘MURAH’ to any noun and you’ll get a sensational story. A unique thing about the entertainment industry here is that the word ‘MAHAL’ has almost the same impact on the mass too.

The only thing about ‘murah’ that‘s confusing to many Malaysians is ‘Jualan Murah’. Not only you’ll find that the prices are not reduced that much, they’re always wrongly translated as ‘Cheap Sale’. Well, my fellow Malaysians it should be just ‘Sale’ or if the towkeys want to make it more attractive, can always call it ‘End of season sale’, ‘Musim tengkujuh sale’ and like there’s one furniture shop near my house, they’ve been having ‘Closing down sale’ ever since 4 years ago. Damn, it’s taking them that long to complete the close down.

By the way, I’ve just completed my entire team member’s appraisal and now my brain has gone haywire. Have a good week people!

A breezy CNY

I am spending CNY break in Kuantan. It's just after monsoon season; it's breezy and beautiful waves are gracing the beaches here. This is the first time I'm watching people surfing in Malaysia. Never knew this could be done here. I heard people also go to some of the beaches in Cherating to surf.

CNY in Malaysia is celebrated just like Hari Raya Puasa hols. Everybody will try to find a reason to leave KL for a few days. In a way this will give the city an opportunity to detox, I guess. Less people, less pollution, less crime and less damage done on wallets and credit cards.

At the hotel I'm staying, about 80% of the cars here bear Wilayah plate numbers. The rest are Singaporeans. Most schools in Selangor are going for 1 week leave. More reasons to travel around the country this festive season. But we're only spending the holidays in Kuantan and my hometown. My pockets already have so many holes. LOL.

Happy CNY to all my Chinese friends! Be strong as an ox this year as we all know that global economy recession is not going away so soon - not even by some magical announcements from Obama.

I support Majlis Fatwa

Spit on me, beat me, sue me for I have to support Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan. This entry has been in draft mode for several days and I think the issues are rather 'basi' by now. At first, I thought maybe I should write something about Abby's and Norman's marriage but decided not to as I have my own marriage to look after. According to my mom, 'sila jaga kelambu sendiri'. We don't know what happened inside their 'kelambu', so let's not comment much. I read somewhere that the fatwa on Yoga will be announced by the end of this week, so I thought, let me just publish this draft.

I'll not write about Yoga, I don't have enough reference and haven't done enough research. My principle is simple, if you don't have in depth knowledge about something, don't bother to participate in the arguments related to the subject. Just sit down quietly in front of the PC and click on other blog links.

However, an author published this writing tip at her website some time ago: Write about things that you know or something that you'd like to know more. So, I decided maybe I should write about the dress code for female Muslims. Not sure whether the fatwa is out but I feel a fatwa will be redundant as the 'aurat' guideline is clearly stated in the Quran itself.

If additional guidelines are to be handed out to every female Muslim in this country they might come complete with illustrations with detail measurements.

We are one jumpy society. When the news was first published in local papers, almost everyone jumped and I think we jumped too quickly; many people questioned it too. Many got the impression it's going to be unfair to many women. But many of us forgot that we were judging the whole thing based on a few paragraphs of news. Did we know the whole idea Majlis Fatwa was coming up with? Maybe not. Did we get to read the complete proposal? No, I didn't get to read it.

IMHO, the 'dressing like a male' Majlis Fatwa was referring to might be similar to the following picture (yes, Majlis Fatwa... a few images or illustrations might come in handy if new guidelines are to be produced):


Is that a girl?
Is that a boy?
Is that a girlboy?
Rather confusing, isn't it?

Human being human, at times we do have a certain funny feeling towards another person of a similar gender (but we don't necessarily have to act on it).

But, if the girl in the picture above started acting like a dude, moves like a dude and could charm the girls better than any other dude, some girl might end up acting on her funny feelings.



But you can't tell a lesbo only by judging her physical appearance, because I've met girls who are pretty and dress like the girl in the following picture who are lesbos. And their partners are as pretty.



Whatever it is, dudes... it's your loss.

Of Dolls Dominating, friends popping and what is it with all these irresponsible parents?

Obviously heavily airbrushed poster of the Dolls. Don't tell me they don't have any cellulite at all....

The Dolls are back. Just when we thought they’re splitting up after Nicole’s solo hits like Baby Love doing so well in the charts. I didn’t buy the Malaysia Edition of the CD because usually this edition disappoints me as there are just way too much sensored words, as if all listeners are primary three children. 

So,  I bought the special edition with bonus tracks CD consisting of songs by the rest of the Dolls.

Aaaah….  finally these Dolls enrolled themselves in vocal classes. Each Doll was given the chance to record one song. However, IMHO they’re a bunch of disappointment. Jessica’s voice sounded so artificial; heavily computer enhanced while Kimberly’s made me wish that she never sang. There’s this annoying, screeching pitch she has that my ears just don’t approve. The song is forgettable too.

The biggest disappointment was Melody. Despite her being the cutest, sexiest and most loved by men, I hated her voice and singing so much I only listened to her song half way through. The only promising one is Ashley; easy on the ears and she sounds so professional. Her number is a slow one, entitled Played which sounds damn familiar but I couldn’t be sure whether it was a remake.

As for the songs in CD1, they’re really great, especially the Dolls’ collaboration with big names such as Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott and R. Kelly. I don’t know whether it’s me or Missy but I think all her songs are just brilliant. Her collaboration with Janet in her Discipline album is also a great one. Whatcha Think About That is my choice for the best track in this Doll Domination Album.

 

All in all, I’m giving 3 out of 5 stars. Why I bought the album in the first place? I needed fresh songs for my cardio sessions at the gym, otherwise I won’t be parting with my precious 58 ringgit  that easily.

 

 

I couldn’t remember anything weird or special happening to the universe in January 2008; I don’t think there was any prominent comet passing by our atmosphere, but one thing for sure 9 months later many of my friends found themselves in the delivery rooms.

One of them is Alien, who gave birth to a healthy and very active 3.8kg baby boy on Tuesday through C-sect.

Alien, Guess, Queen and me at Alien's open house on Sunday. 

On Thursday morning, another friend, Zue gave birth to a baby girl also through C-sect at the same hospital and placed in a room near Alien’s. How funny, we used to be lunch buddies back during the PKNS days and this week they’re next door neighbors in that hospital.

 

Next week will be Mrs. B’s turn to go under the knives for another C-sect. We went for very long lunch at Shogun on Tuesday to celebrate her last week as a free human being - before going into confinement next Friday. Well, the truth is, I started realizing how valuable my freedom was when I had to go through my first confinement after Wazif’s birth.

Mrs S (left) and Mrs B (right) enjoying piles of Japanese and Western food at Shogun, Sunway Pyramid. 

My heavenly tempura. Crunchy but not oily. Loved them. 

 

There are 2 more friends due to deliver their babies before end of October. Definitely something must have happened in January this year to cause all this sudden growth of world population this month.

 

 

On Wednesday afternoon I went to visit Alien and her baby at the hospital and drove back to the office with baby scents still vivid in my mind. There’s this thing with babies, once you’ve touched and held them it’s very difficult to wipe their faces and sweet smell off your memories. I felt good the whole afternoon, went to gym with a new spirit and later rushed home to fetch the boys.

 

It was drizzling when I arrived at the day care some time around 7.15pm. The boys were already bathed and changed into fresh cloths. Both were happily chanting what they wanted to eat for dinner while I was busy texting one of my staffs who was admitted to hospital. As I made a turning heading towards my house I saw a police and a reporter’s car parked at the T-junction I was approaching. I am usually not that ‘cakna’ towards the happenings around me even in our own neighborhood.  

However, that evening my heart told me that something bad must have happened. If the police was only making their usual rounds, then why did they need to have reporters accompanying them? I stopped my car, wound down the passenger side window and asked one of the reporters what was going on.

 

The young female reporter from a surat khabar yang sangat ‘cakna’ told me that a baby was found abandoned on the hills in front of our house. Without blinking and thinking I asked whether the baby was found alive. She told me the baby was dead. By then both Wazif and Shawqi started asking in a chorus, ‘Where’s the baby? Where’s the baby?’

Afraid that both of them would jump out of the car to join the police and reporters, I quickly thanked the ‘cakna’  lady and drove straight home.

 

On Thursday morning, after dropping the boys at the day care I made a stop at the nearest 7-eleven to get a copy of the ‘cakna’ newspaper. I flipped through the pages in search of the only news I wanted to read that day and when I finally found it, I felt my heart was ripped and torn into pieces. The poor baby was found by one of the Indonesian living in a nearby kongsi who used the hilly path as a short cut to the grocery store. His wife was the only women living in the kongsi and I doubt the baby is theirs if he’s so willingly answered the police’s and reporters’ questions.

 

The baby was buried in very shallow grave that the Indonesian man could recognize the head and hair even in the late afternoon light, when he first noticed it. The news also reported that blood spots were visible on the poor baby’s stomach but didn’t confirm whether they’re caused by physical injuries.

I kept on asking myself; how we dare calling ourselves a developing nation if some of us don’t even appreciate life. If only the baby girl was given a chance to live in 7 years’ time she might be happily board the school bus with her friends and later in the evening comes home with her joyful laughs, telling the parents funny riddles or even sick jokes about Posh Spice. Or maybe in 15 years’ time she’ll be the one pushing the father’s wheelchair if he’s too sick to walk. Or maybe in 55 years’ time she’s the Prime Minister that all Malaysians have been waiting and praying for. Just maybe…. Maybe…. If only she was given the chance to live. 

Now we can only pray that she’ll be greeting us with her bright eyes and wide smile in heaven. 

Yeay yeay! Nak Raya!

Yoohooo! I’m still in the office while most of you are already masuk hutan mencari buluh lemang. Since we’re celebrating raya in Melaka and only going there after the Raya prayers, I don’t take extra leave before Raya. Instead, I will be taking extra days off next week.
So, this year’s puasa has been the most sempoi yet still meaningful. Puasa is when we will be doing some soul searching and count our blessings. Learn a new thing or two (like how to prepare sambal goring Jawa style!)
This year’s preparation for raya doesn’t involve much shopping as we’ve done a lot of it during the holidays. I also didn’t buy any raya cookies except for Kuih Lapis Sarawak from Kak Ieka. Well, actually I missed the deadline to order cookies from my regular bakers this year. How stupid. I actually went for their cookies tasting, but forgot to place the orders. So, I decided to bake a few simple recipes that I was so sure won’t go wrong.

Oatmeal raisins cookies. I found the recipe somewhere in the net. My SILs love this one. They called it The Healthy Cookie.

The superheroes were down with fever on Monday, so I had to take the day off to look after them. But they were sleeping most of the days.


So I baked these cashew nut cookies. The recipe is from DSUS recipe book with a little tweaking here and there (to match with what I have my pantry). Well, the pantry is just 2 shelves of the kitchen cabinet which I used to store plates previously. Now there are stacks of MFM flours, choc chips, cocoa powder, castor sugar, nuts etc. I have been dreaming to have a pantry like the one in Chef At Home. Hmmmmm… plus the huge refrigerators too.

Besides that, we tried not to spend too much for buka puasa this year. Everybody is saying that the political climate is one of the reasons why this year’s puasa and raya are not as meriah as usual. Although the fuel price has been reduced further but people could feel the world economic is not doing any better especially with the current condition with US – those bail out and everything. 

So, we only went for Ramadhan Buffet at Kelantan Delight, which was among the cheapest in KL. This restaurant used to be in KLCC, they've moved to Sooka Central. I sooka sangat because of this strategic location, only 20 minutes from Puchong.


Mr. Hubby also sooka coz we got to makan bersila in the middle of the restaurant. And we met Fa.rah.Fau.zana there too.



The weekend before that we went for buka puasa at Bubba Gump at the Curve. Well, actually there's nothing to shout about. Beverages were quite pricy, but I love the Clam Chowder because they served it with the packed chowder biscuit. It tasted just like the one I had in Boston.



Went out for buka puasa with Queen, Alien (plus family) and Jade at Restoran Salero Negori, Kelana Jaya too. However, I totally forgotten to take any pictures because I was so busy doing parenting. The kids were running around buat macam rumah sendiri.

The only Hotel Ramadhan Buffet I attended this year was at Grand Blue Wave, JB. I planned to go to LC catering, but we didn't have much time that day as it was just a short trip to JB. It was also one of the cheapest (kalau compare dengan KL memang lah murah gile). Anyway, my friends and I succeeded in our effort to boikot all Hotel Ramadhan Buffet in KL due to the price. Ya lah kan, we all know that harga ayam naik, minyak naik.... but RM95++ for buka puasa is just 'tak masuk akal'. How much food will I actually eat? Just a plate of beriyani, small pieces of murtabak, fruits, 5 kuih, keropok and a few glasses of drinks. All those for Sembilan puluh lima hinggit? Pembaziran di tahap BFF with syaitan, ok!

So, tonight and tomorrow I'll be busy hunting for daging lembu, ayam, serai, santan, lengkuas, halia, kerisik and what nots at Carrefour, Giant, Pasar Borong etc. Just wanna wish you Selamat Berhari Raya sakan, bersedekahlah kepada saudara mara dan rakan taulan yang sangat-sangat memerlukan dengan ikhlas. Maaf Zahir Batin.

Lastly, Jangan Emosi Di Jalan Raya!

... and the decisions are.......

Well, I've spent over a week doing all the necessary thinking. At an average, I spent about 15 minutes per day thinking about them. As you can see, I am THAT calculative these days, after the petrol price hike. Now that Credit Card companies are going to charge 18% financial charges monthly, I am even more 'tangkai jering' than before.

Considering the rising inflation rate, I decided 'YES' I will move to JB if Mr Hubby allow me to become a full time housewife.

On the new MPV, 'YES' I just confirmed with the salesman that I'll be coming to the dealer's office to sign the official documents and trade in my Cinonit. Well, actually the decision to move to JB will be a 100% 'YES' if Mr Hubby agrees to pay for the new MPV's monthly installment, insurance and road tax. Hahahahaha.

Meanwhile, I'll be spending the next few months' salary clearing my credit card debt. So far, I managed to refrain myself from swiping the plastics for 2 months. TWO MONTHS you all! What an achievement. I am so proud of myself. Hii hii hiii!

Another even bigger decision I just made is to (finally) learn how to swim. Yeah, I told Sarcy to start swimming in order to lose her flab, but I also don't know how to. He he :)

I am still looking for a female swimming instructor who could come and teach at my office's pool. (YEAH, we have a 5 lanes swimming pool in the office, jangan jelesssss!!) It's near the cafeteria. Whenever we surfaced from the water, we could smell kaya toast and teh tarik!! Yummmmm! So, if you know any qualified female swimming instructor, please give me a ring/ SMS/ leave comment/ send msg at FB/ YM etc, okay?

Tapi, kalau dapat instructor macho macam dalam gambar ni, mesti lagi cepat aku pandai berenang, kan? Hehehe...!

Between Go-Blog and Goblok

First and foremost, the link to WarkahBuatPM is:

http://warkahuntukpm.com.my/

By right, you should be directed to the following website:



In case you're getting a site with pictures of chimpanzee superimposed on Pamela Anderson's body, that means the website has been hacked. I bet a few thousand hackers have been trying their luck ever since this website's URL shown on RTM.

If you have a lot of time and tired of writing endless complaints as well as constructive ideas on your blog, you can submit a posting on this website. Let's hope Pak Lah has already owned a PDA phone so that he could check and read each post carefully wherever he is. (No excuse to sleep during meetings anymore, okay. Got a lot of postings to read now!)

Perenggan seterusnya akan ditulis menggunakan Bahasa Melayu kerana saya ingin memperkasakan lagi penguasaan Bahasa Melayu saya sebagai persediaan untuk mengirimkan Warkah Buat PM ini. Walaubagaimanapun, apa yang saya ingin perkatakan ini tiada kaitan dengan PM mahupun menantunya yang terkenal itu.

Saya cuma ingin menulis berkenaan perkhidmatan menadah telinga yang kadang-kadang terpaksa saya sediakan kepada beberapa orang kawan, samada rapat ataupun tidak. Adakalanya saya memang dengan rela hati menadahkan telinga untuk mereka meluahkan rasa tidak puas hati ataupun masalah peribadi masing-masing. Tetapi, makin lama saya merasa semakin tidak berkemampuan untuk memuaskan hati mereka. Sungguhpun pada mulanya mereka akan meminta saya untuk sekadar mendengar masalah mereka, tetapi ada juga kalanya mereka mengharapkan saya mampu memberikan penyelesaian kepada masalah mereka.

Oleh kerana saya tidak pernah mengikuti sebarang kursus Psikology, maka ilham saya semakin tandus untuk menyajikan penyelesaian ataupun cadangan yang sepatutnya membuat mereka ini lebih bersemangat untuk meneruskan kehidupan. Malangnya, kadang-kadang cadangan saya membuatkan mereka ini berkecil hati dan menarik muka serta muncung yang panjang mengharapkan saya menyuarakan sesuatu yang lebih menyedapkan hati mereka. Dalam erti kata lain, mereka hanya ingin mendengar apa yang mereka harapkan. Jika cadangan itu tidak menyebelahi mereka, mereka akan menunjukkan rasa hampa yang selalunya akan membuatkan saya pula sakit jiwa.

Jadi, kepada mereka yang sering memerlukan perkhidmatan tadahan telinga ini saya ingin memberikan dua cadangan kepada mereka:

1. I have better things to do, why don't you just go and blog about it?

2. Mamat tu memang dah tak hingin kat kau, apahal lah kau ni goblok sangat?

Pheewwwwww..... I'm about to lose more friends, I know....!

Pilihanraya: Corat-coret Makcik Blogger

Bahagian 1
========

Syabas saya ucapkan kepada sekalian blogger yang telah keluar mengundi pada hari Sabtu lepas. Walaupun ada juga beberapa orang yang mengaku bahawa mereka masih belum mendaftar dan ada juga yang sudah mendaftar beberapa tahun lalu tetapi data mereka tidak dijumpai di dalam senarai daftar pemilih. Tetapi, anda tidak perlu khuatir tentang data Datuk Siti yang tidak dijumpai di laman SPR, kerana beliau memang belum mendaftar dan kenyataan beliau telah dibacakan oleh penyampai radio nombor satu Malaysia beberapa hari sebelum PRU12. Alasan yang diberikan adalah kerana kesibukan kerja maka beliau tidak berkesempatan untuk mendaftar. Saya akan mencadangkan beberapa usul bagi mengelakkan dan mengatasi masalah sebegini. Cadangan tersebut akan saya bentangkan di dalam Facebook di masa yang terdekat.

Saya dan suami telah membuang undi di dua buah kawasan berbeza; suami di Parlimen Gombak manakala saya di Parlimen Bera. Ketika menunggu suami membuang undi, anak-anak saya bertanya,

‘Ayah nak pergi mana tu?’

Sayapun menjawab, ‘Pergi mengundi.’

Anak-anak saya menunjukkan wajah kehairanan kerana tidak mengerti apa itu ‘mengundi’.

‘Mengundi tu buat apa Mak?’ tanya yang sulung.

‘Hmmmm... mengundi tu nak pilih YB dan menteri-menteri,’ saya merasakan itulah jawaban yang paling ringkas yang mungkin paling mudah untuk difahami mereka. Tetapi dia bertanya lagi,

‘Kenapa nak kena pilih menteri?’

Sayapun agak bingung cuba mencari cara penerangan yang paling sesuai tetapi tidak berhasil. Saya Cuma memberitahu,

‘Kita kena pilih YB dan menteri yang nak bekerja di Malaysia,’ memang sukar rupanya hendak menerangkan pilihanraya kepada kanak seusia 6 dan 7 tahun. Mendengar penerangan saya, mereka Cuma berdiam diri, mungkin kehilangan minat ataupun makin kebingungan.

Selepas beberapa jam memecut di Lebuhraya Karak, kami sampai di pusat pembuangan undi di kawasan saya di Pahang. Sekali lagi anak saya bertanya,

‘Mak, orang perempuan pun kena mengundi?’

Sayapun menjawab,

‘Iya, semua orang kena mengundi nak pilih menteri.’

Keesokan harinya, kami kembali ke Puchong melalui jalan Kuala Kelawang dan singgah makan di Putrajaya. Kebetulan kami melalui kompleks kerajaan yang amat besar ini, dan sayapun menerangkan kepada anak-anak saya,

‘Menteri-menteri yang mak dan ayah undi semalam, nanti kerja di sini.’



Mereka berdua berkata serentak,

‘Ooooooo.... ‘ mungkin mereka sedikit sebanyak dapat membayangkan keperluan adanya pilihanraya. Saya dan suami perlu mempelajari semula apa itu demokrasi berparlimen, proses pembentukan kerajaan dan kembali menghafal pengertian Rukunegara sebelum kami boleh menerangkan secara terperinci apa itu pilihanraya kepada mereka – mungkin 5 tahun lagi.

Bahagian 2
==========

Saya tidaklah begitu terkejut dengan keputusan pilihanraya baru-baru ini kerana saya sendiri sudah berasa amat penat menanggung bebanan kewangan sebagai seorang rakyat jelata. Lebih jelak lagi apabila membaca berita-berita tentang pertumbuhan ekonomi negara yang amat memberangsangkan tetapi setitik pun hasilnya tidak tempias kepada saya, keluarga saya, mahupun orang-orang kampung saya.

Bukan itu sahaja, isu ‘bocor’ yang heboh diperkatakan tidak lama dahulu sudah cukup untuk membuatkan saya rasa meloya dan kecewa dengan cara pemikiran dan tindak-tanduk mereka yang langsung tidak profesional itu. Pada ketika itu saya meletakkan tahap kepimpinan mereka di bawah tapak kaki saya, oh tidak... sebenarnya di bawah tapak selipar jamban saya kerana tapak kaki saya lebih mulia dari mulut celupar mereka. Rakyat Malaysia, khususnya wanita tidak sepatutnya dihina dan diperlekehkan sedemikian rupa kerana bukan hanya lelaki-lelaki gagah sahaja yang layak mengundi di negara ini. Kalau tidak, masakan isteri-isteri calon terpaksa bertungkus lumus meminta belas dan merayu undi wanita di seluruh pelusuk kawasan mereka.

Saya pasti laporan bedah siasat BN kali ini berkajang-kajang panjangnya. Saya harap mereka tidak lupa untuk menyelitkan kebencian rakyat terhadap si kaduk yang naik junjung itu yang sedikit sebanyak telah mempengaruhi keputusan pilihanraya kali ini. Si kaduk itu wajar diberikan penghormatan PHD paling tinggi di negara ini. Sila layari laman web calon lawan beliau untuk kisah yang lebih terperinci.

Kepada mereka yang sudah menang, saya ucapkan selamat bekerja dan janganlah lupa diri. Rakyat memilih anda dan rakyat juga yang akan membuang anda seandainya anda tidak mengotakan janji.

Untuk hiburan hari ini, sila semak sisipan khas akhbar New Straits Time bertarikh 10 Mac dan lihatlah keputusan untuk Negeri Terengganu di halaman 11. Adakah itu satu kesilapan atau keputusan sebelum kiraan semula? Ataupun ada yang sengaja cuba menambahkan luka. Tunggukan pengumuman Ralat di dalam NST esok.

Pilihanraya: Cetusan rasa seorang Makcik Blogger

Hari ini aku benar-benar Melayu dan ingin menunjukkan kepada dunia bahawasanya aku sememangnya Melayu yang sangat arif berbahasa Melayu. Walaupun kali terakhir aku menulis karangan di dalam bahasa ibundaku ini adalah kira-kira 17 tahun yang lampau.

Semasa aku menghidupkan computer riba berjenama Lenovo ku ini tadi, aku teringin sekali hendak menulis sesuatu tentang suasana kempen pilihanraya di negaraku ini. Lebih-lebih lagi, apabila ibuku memberitahu sebentar tadi bahawa rumahnya di kampung sudah menjadi bagaikan bilik gerakan parti BN. Isteri calon BN pun tidur baring di rumah ibuku. Rumah ibuku tidaklah besar dan cantik, hanyalah rumah kampung biasa, separuh diperbuat daripada kayu; separuh lagi simen dan batu-bata. Kemungkinan besar isteri calon BN itu sudah tidak sanggup tidur di hotel di hujung kampung itu, maka dia lebih rela tidur di atas tilam murahan bertemankan bantal-bantal kekabu yang dibuat oleh arwah nenekku ketika aku masih di sekolah rendah dahulu.

Menurut ibuku lagi, abang-abangku sudah tidak lekat di rumah kerana masing-masing menjadi tulang belakang dan tulang belikat untuk kempen pilihanraya kali ini. Maka aku tiba-tiba terbayangkan tajuk-tajuk utama akhbar kebelakangan ini. Hampir setiap sudut di dada akhbar kini memaparkan kempen parti pemerintah. Tiba-tiba sahaja muncul nama-nama projek mega yang tidak pernah kusangka termasuk di dalam Rancangan Malaysia ke 9. Apa lagi bila tiba-tiba ada pengumuman tentang penambahan jawatan-jawatan pertengahan dan tinggi di dalam angkatan tentera. Macam-macam benda boleh berlaku bila tiba musim pilihanraya!

Kempen parti-parti pembangkang juga tidak kurang hebatnya. Manifesto parti terpampang di poster-poster, sepanduk, kain rentang dan dinding-dinding rumah orang.

Namun, suasana kempen yang kulihat di bandaraya ini bagaikan agak hambar dan tawar. Perhimpunan dan ceramah yang dianjurkan di kawasan kejirananku tidaklah semeriah yang aku jangkakan. Berita tentang kehadiran calon-calon di pasar-pasar besar dan pasar basah cuma sempat kubaca di media cetak. Sepanjang 2 minggu ini, aku begitu kerap mengunjungi pasar untuk mengumpul kelengkapan barang dapur memandangkan cuti persekolahan yang kian hampir, tetapi tidak sekalipun aku terserempak dengan calon-calon kawasanku. Mungkin aku yang kurang bernasib baik, agaknya.

Sebaliknya pula suasana di kampung-kampung. Kalimah-kalimah yang tertulis di kain-kain rentang lebih berbisa dan menikam jiwa. Ceramah demi ceramah diadakan saban siang dan malam. Bekalan minuman, makanan dan pastinya Kopi Tongkat Ali di hantar ke setiap pelusuk negara berkontena-kontena jumlahnya. Ini semata-mata untuk memastikan jentera pilihanraya mampu bekerja dengan lebih jayanya. Tidak perlu pergi jauh, jenguklah sahaja ke kawasan Kampung Baru. Bilik gerakan parti-parti bertanding begitu hidup dan meriah. Aku tidak sempat menjenguk ke Kampung Pandan, Kampung Tunku dan Kampung Jawa. Mungkin suasananya juga tidak jauh berbeza.

Kesimpulannya, marilah kita beramai-ramai memeriahkan bilik-bilik gerakan parti-parti yang bertanding, walaupun kita sendiri belum mendaftar dengan SPR kerana pilihanraya bukannya hari-hari. Lagipun inilah peluang hendak meluaskan rangkaian dan meramaikan kenalan. Sambil-sambil itu, bolehlah merasa naik sky-lift untuk menggantung kain rentang. Akhir sekali, jangan lupa pergi keluar membuang undi pada hari Sabtu nanti. Jangan hanya berdegar-degar mengkritik kerajaan di dalam blog sahaja, gunakanlah hak anda dan pilihlah pemerintah dan pemimpin yang berkenan di hati.

Acara balik kampung koi

It has been about 3 months since we last balik kampung. I blamed it on weekend project tasks. Too bad I can't claim double when it comes to working on weekends. Cheh.
Kebetulan, it was my eldest anak sedara punya birthday that weekend. He just turned 18 and enjoying his freedom and young life like nobody's business. Look at his hair! My god, this is the first time I have an anak sedara berambut karat, okeh. I couldn't guess whether he bleached or colored it.


His name is Anik and we are certainly confused with his chosen hairstyle this New Year. Is it supposed to be punkish or 'Ah Beng'ish? Anyway, he's enjoying his honeymoon period - just finished SPM. Come March he'll be getting really serious thinking about his future, I guess.


Since Maklang Dayang was so pokai to buy him any iPod Nano or new handphone, Anik was only getting these cuppies, lah. He took a few spoonfuls of his cakes, then vanished into the night to join his nocturnal friends. Guys.... teenage guys... At times I felt so tempted to tell Anik and his friends that one day they'll be the ones paying the bills. But, then again, I'm not the parent.... so takkan nak lebih-lebih pulak, kan?


The rest of the cuppies were put in another box. This pic was taken before the journey. When we arrived at my mom's place all the cuppies were senget benget because of all the konar baring along the Kuala Kelawang road.


The best thing about balik kampung (from Wazif and Shawqi's perspectives) is getting the chance to ride in this jeep with the uncles and cousins - dan tak payah pakai seat belt pulak tu. Will never get the chance to do this in KL. By the way, the jeep was from WW2 period. It has been with the family ever since I could remember. My brother (seen driving the jeep in this pic) took all the trouble to re-register the vehicle in Negeri Sembilan. All the engine, tyres and accessories are new. The original paint was greenish like army jeeps jaman dolu-dolu lah. This is the most successful pimp-my-ride in our family history so far. Wait till I pimp-my-jazz pulak. Hehe.

The day I had to stand by the roadside

I was waiting for cab at Glenmarie, by the roadside this morning for almost half an hour. My ‘Cinoni’ was sent for tyre change and today I have to take public transport. Previously, whenever I had to send Cinoni for service, I’d get one my team mates to pick me up at the service center. Now that they no longer work here, I had to either call for a cab or wait by the roadside.

Okay, the last time I had to do this (standing alone clutching a bag by the roadside – not taxi stand or bus stop) was in 1986. I was in standard 6 then, have to take public bus to go to school and there’s no bus stop in my kampong. Road users were much nicer back then. If they happen to be my close relatives or my friends’ parents, they’d stop and offer me a ride.

It’s not that people who drive in Glenmarie area are bad; I think I was not really lucky this morning. There were many cabs passing by, but they already have passengers. Some were not occupied, but they’re on the fast lane, and since Glenmarie roads are busy in the morning, it’s not possible for the drivers to swerve to the left. Nak mampus kena langgar dengan lori?

Dahlah tak dapat cab, the motorcyclist and lorry drivers keep on honking me and sengih-sengih macam kerang busuk. I checked my blouse, skirt and scarf many times. Who knows, maybe they’re honking me because I’ve worn my blouse ‘Pak Uda’ style (to the uninitiated, Pak Uda is Zami ismail in Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu tv Sitcom. His shirt is always buttoned ‘senget’ly.) But when I think again, maybe they’re warning me not to stand too close to the road because it’s dangerous. Memang dangerous pun, but if I stand too far, I wouldn’t see the cab coming.

After standing there for 20 minutes, I started getting feet cramps. I was baking cookies yesterday and had to stand in the kitchen for quite long. Maybe my feet expected to get some rest today, but had to stand firmly by the roadside, pulak. That was when I started feeling rather desperate. Suddenly I remembered a few comic strips from magazines in the late 70s.

I used to read the magazines over and over again at my late grandmother’s place, so the image sticks in my head until now. There were two friends waiting for taxi, but none would stop and pick them up. So, friend No. 1 asked friend No. 2 to lift her skirt to expose her legs so that it would attract the attention of the taxi drivers. Friend No. 2 did what she’s told to but all drivers started speeding their vehicle once they saw her. As you might have guessed, it was not a beautiful sight, lah that has scared all the taxi drivers away. I was smiling to myself visualizing the comic strip. Friend No. 2’s leg was really hairy; it’s difficult for me to describe it here. He he he he.

That’s not the only that keep on sticking in my head all these years. There’s a jingle I first heard in 1982 that follows me wherever I go, especially to the mall. If you are from the same generation as me, you might recognize this:

Yang mana satu, idaman kalbu,
Tak mau yang ini, bukan yang itu,
Nissan March baru, model seribu,
Satu liter, berbatu-batu.

The Nissan March commercial starred the then-so-sexy Noreen Noor with oh-so-eighties hairstyle. I found the jingles funny because of mix usage of ‘liter’ and ‘batu (mile)’. Malaysia has just standardized to use the metric system for trading in 1981. I think maybe some people were still quite confused with the usage in 1982, hence the mixed jingle lyrics. But until today, I still wonder what is model seribu?

Well, the jingle started haunting me again because I saw this new Nissan March last week. What is this? Model tiga ribu? Quite cute, huh? Hehehehehe…



For the sake of finishing my story, well, I finally managed to hail a cab after 25 minutes standing by the roadside. Luckily, he only charged me RM5.

Orang Kita

Today was another shopping day for me during lunch hours. Went to a nearby supermarket to find a cake tin (yeah, please note that I’ve already bought an oven and a mixer, y’all!) Hehehe, you’re not the only one surprised by this milestone. I, myself was pinching my arm a few times when I swiped my CC at Jusco yesterday. It’s been a while. Hell no, it’s been 16 years since the last cake I baked. So, there’s a huge entry in my mental diary yesterday – the day I decided to bake again.
There was also a huge graffiti in my FaceBook superwall dedicated to the beginning of my baking journey.

At the supermarket this afternoon I found the cake tin with the right diameter and also spotted a TEFAL skillet I’ve been searching for all these years. After comparing the price with another similar skillet from MAXIM, I decided to have it.

The supermarket is adjacent to Parks0n (but it’s not Parks0n Supermarket). On week days they usually open 2 cashier counters. The queues were not long. I was greeted by two smiling girls whom I thought must have been aged 18 or younger. The first girl scanned the items while the second girl did the packing. I’ve given my green shopping bag to my mom, so today I had to carry those plastic bags. Please forgive me mother earth for not trying to save you today.

The cashier girls where chatting with each other while punching in my transactions. Then, when it came to the TEFAL skillet, the first girl asked me,

‘Akak nak beli terus ke nak fikir dulu ni?’ I spent a good 5 seconds trying to comprehend.

‘Akak nak beli yang ni ke, atau akak nak tengok-tengok yang kat Parks0n dulu?’

Aaaaah… her motive suddenly became clear to me. I turned to my right and saw that the same brand was available at Parks0n. Compulsive buyers like me don’t usually spend a lot of time surveying many shops. We see what we like, and then we bring it to the cashier.

‘Jadi, akak nak fikir dulu?’ she asked me again, maybe I looked lost and indecisive. It didn’t took me long to decide after I saw the discounts for TEFAL products offered by Parks0n from there.

‘Okay, cancel this. I pegi tengok kat Parks0n dulu,’ she placed the skillet on the next counter which was closed.

While waiting for her to retrieve the change from her till, I overheard the other girl whispering to her.

‘Isy kau ni, apasal promote Parks0n pulak….’

The first cashier girl handed me my change and turned to her friend,

‘Takpe lah….. orang kita.’

Heh… I was smiling all the way back to my car. Maybe, for my next visit I should buy the cashier girl some flowers. That was the first time a cashier advised me to make a wiser decision. She’s definitely not on commission. Her act was commendable. If I were in her shoes, I’m not sure if I’ll have the guts to do so.

So, who says Malaysians ‘tak peduli’?

Mencari sesuap nasi

On Monday afternoon, I had to bring Waz1f’s bicycle for repair at Centerpoint, Bandar Utama. The bike had been in my car since Sunday. Luckily the car’s heavily tinted, none of my officemates noticed I brought a bike to work.

The sun was scorching hot when I set out that afternoon. When I reached Centerpoint, there was no available parking space near the bike shop, so I had to drive down to the basement and found an available spot that, to my opinion was rather ‘challenging’. For those who know me pretty well, I’m famous for my 16 points turn. Yeah, I like fast cars, but I suck big time at parking.

Then I saw an Indian man with a wet cloth in his hands approaching my car. He helped me park in the difficult space with hand gestures and of course, his confusing head-shakes. When I got out of the car, I saw that he also had a pail of water and other car wash equipment on his bicycle that was parked near my car.

Then I had to get Waz1f’s bike out of my tiny Jazz. I struggled with the handles that were suddenly stuck with the head rest. The Indian Man offered to help and managed to get the bike out of the car safely, no scratch on my Jazz (that’s very important!). Having a closer look at him, I noticed his under nourished look and the very old pair of slippers he had on.

He offered me to ‘walk’ the bike to the shop that was one floor above. First, I declined and tried to ‘walk’ the bike on the ramp, but when you’re in your 3” heels and have a tight skirt on, it’s quite impossible. So, the Indian Man helped to carry the bike.

At the bike shop I thanked him profusely and that’s when he asked,

‘Mau basuh kereta?’ from the accent I knew he’s not a local Indian. I knew my car was rather dirty, but I was skeptical to let him touch it.

‘Kakak mau basuh tak?’ he asked again. Thinking of his assistance, I felt indebted, so I said ‘yes’.

‘Kalau mau, bayar sekarang.’ He held out his bony right hand.

‘Berapa?’ I asked while taking out my purse.

‘Berapa-berapa kakak biasa,’ he shook his head.

I took out a RM10 note and gave it to him.

‘Dekat rumah saya selalu lapan ringgit,’ I waited for the RM2 change, but he continued shaking his head.

‘Dua belas la kakak,’ he showed the RM10 note plus his two fingers.

‘Cinabeng, tadi cakap berapa-berapa. Ni nak demand pulak,’ I swore silently. Isy, bulan-bulan puasa pun nak kena menyumpah jugak.

‘Okaylah, nah lagi dua ringgit,’ I decided not to bargain. He helped me with parking and the bike; maybe those were chargeable, too.

‘Terima kasih.’ He smiled widely, showing a line of his yellowish teeth. Then he quickly left, I thought he was going to wash my car straight away. To my surprise he ran towards a ‘nasi campur’ stall nearest to the bike shop. I watched him buying his lunch and he paid using the money I just gave.

That was when it struck me that he could be one of the people who ‘kais pagi makan pagi’. That could be his first meal for the day, or worse, could be the first after a few days of starvation. I’ll never know.

Some 30 minutes later, when the Ah Pek was done with Waz1f’s bike, I brought it down the ramp (with great difficulty, I tell you….) I half expected to see the Indian Man washing my car. He could have fled, who knows. He was polishing the rims when I unlocked the car and opened one of the passengers’ doors to put the bike in. The Indian Man signaled me to step aside and he placed the bike properly on the folded seats.

Noticing his packed lunch on his bicycle, I asked:
‘Dah makan?’ he shook his head again.
‘Belum …. Belum….’

Before long, I was already speeding along Sprint Highway heading to Jalan Semantan. Frankly speaking, I was not satisfied with his workmanship. The car was far from clean when I inspected it. Many spots were missed. He didn’t even wipe the number plate and some parts of the skirting. Maybe it’s because of Ramadhan, or maybe I was so in touch with my softer side that day, I was not feeling angry at all. Maybe that afternoon I realized that I helped to save another human being from hunger. We, Muslims are fasting for about 13 hours daily this month, but there are people who are fasting until they get their next food.