Melancholic

".......apelah guna ke bendang,
padi seberang takkan menjadi;

........apelah diharap sayang,
kasihnya orang..
orang tak sudi."


(Sudirman, Gerimis Di Lautan)

Pleasing Mom & Dad

While Nory is away...Mom & Dad is in town.

Mom & Day are not the happiest people in the world nor are they the most miserable.On normal working days, its just mom, dad and nory the maid. During the weekend, my elder sister comes home and brighten up their life a little bit (well, if she's not overworked and tired)

I will call almost every other day, abang az will call ocassionally and abang an will call once in a blue moon.

Not so long ago, Dr. Riz said dad should not be driving anymore at his age. That affected mom and dad's lives as they are not that mobile anymore.

Mom no longer goes to her "persatuan wanita" meetings, events and other dos like she used to because she feels uncomfortable leaving dad alone. Tak elok lah kan Nory tu bukan muhrim.

Mom and Dad are lonely, they have 2 sons, 2 daughters, 1 adopted daughter, 2 daughter in laws, 2 grandsons, 5 grandaughters yet they lead lonely lives.

Tonight I will fetch them from Abang Az's house and they will be with me the whole weekend. I have cleaned up my humble place, prepared their room, put on clean comforters, laid out my best towels, put 2 sejadah in the study, stocked up the fridge. I am trying to figure out plans to entertain them this weekend.

I will take good care of them. I hope they will be happy.

Nory's Security Undies

Who's Nory?

Nory is my mum's indon maid. She's been with us for close to 2 years now. About this time last year, i sent Nory to the airport to go home after all the commotion she caused. She was adamant to go on a 2 week leave although her contract says she is not to take leave prior to completion of 2 years. After all her tantrums, being rude towards mum and dad, mum just could not tolerate it anymore. So, i made the arrangements to sent her home. Me and Abang Az sent her to KLIA on her first solo flight. I think my mum took her on a flight "balik kampung" from KLA once, and that was her first flight ever.

Despite our kind advise, you insist on taking all her cash with her. After converting her hard earned salary into rupiah, she carefully placed it in her sports shoes she was wearing and off she goes. Two weeks later, mum got a phone call asking to transmit some cash for her to buy a ticket to travel back to Malaysia. She said all her money was stolen by some muggers upon her arrival at the Jakarta airport. Her shoe gimmick apparently is too common for the experienced muggers.

We didnt send her any money because we could not be sure if the story is true...But it was, and by some miracle she did come back much to the whole family's surprise. Since then she's been doing well, no more tantrums, mum has less to complain about her and her cooking gets better every day.

Today, after work, i will be picking up Nory at the Shah Alam bus station. She's arriving from my hometown, and her flight back to Indon is tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be another 2 week break. Even though her contract is over, she promised she will be back, and we are keeping our fingers crossed. From friends and family experience, majority never come back.

And how is Nory carrying her cash this time???........In her undies, yup, you read it right. Mum has got her "security undies" for her going away present. I've never seen it but according to mum its a normal ladies undy, with a zipped pouch just like a "kangaroo's baby pouch". Nory plans to wear the security undies with her cash all zipped up (in notes of RM100 - quite thick i imagine), topped by her normal undies, topped by shorts, then jeans. Nory is a small thin figure....she's gonna look like an old lady wearing incontinence diapers tomorrow...wakaka.

I hope the security undies works for her, and for mum's sake i hope she returns to us on the 5th of March.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (The New Season)

All the hype!!!





I was all hyped up about CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The New Season. After last season's dramatic finale, where Nick was buried alive, AXN has been showing all those repeat episodes. It started last night on AXN at 10p.m.

I left the office about 10 minutes to 6p.m., all eager and looking forward to watching it. (I am a self confessed TV addict) I already planned my dinner in my head - heat up the leftover rice and chicken curry from the night before, some fried ikan bilis, veg - bonapetit!!

20 minutes later the traffic was hardly moving all the way after the Damansara toll to Shah Alam exit. It was about 7 at the time. The Shah Alam exit is closed due to flooding and traffic was rerouted to the highway leading to KLIA. I took the Seafield exit to re-enter Shah Alam town road, only to be stuck at 2 (was it 3) roundabouts, and only reached home at 8.10p.m. My legs were so tired - I drive a manual car!!

I bathed, worked on dinner as planned, watched TV including the first 10 minutes of the much awaited CSI- and fell asleep....So much for all the hype. Oh well, I'll catch the repeat episode over the weekend.

Yee Sang Lunch FEAR FACTOR Style

I was on medical leave yesterday for gastric pains. My GP said there's too much acid in my system. My stomach has been feeling quesy since the department lunch last Wednesday. This is my second Yee Sang lunch since i joined this firm. It's like a tradition for them to have a Yee Sang lunch hosted by the Division's Director.......for luck i assume. Before the last 2 years, I was not exposed to a predominantly chinese environment......so some of these stuff are pretty new to me. But as usual i try to fit in and enjoy the experience.


Firstly i am never a big fan of chinese set meals........annual dinners or lunch or whatever versions. The long wait, the little portions, eating one thing at a time....i just dont have the patience. I was prepared for a not very enjoyable meal, but OMG, I was not prepared for a prequel to Fear Factor.

The ceremony began with a Yee Sang toss.........the higher the better!!!It was quite edible although i'm not crazy about the raw salmon.




Lunch started with some kind of soup called Monk Jump Over the Wall (seriously!). Its supposed to be some special delicacy. Inside the soup there are a cocktail of strange things like sharks fin, some kind of fish insang which look like tauhu, some seaweed looking things, and some part of a black chicken feet...with the skin in tact it look like a charred body part with goosebumps....disgusting. The whole bowl smell funny.


I slurped a spoonful and chew on some unknown stuff, and decided the monk can jump all he wants, but i'm gonna pass.

Next came roasted ducks sitting on a huge plate. Then the waitress put her hands in plastic gloves and start ripping the duck meat of the bones. There was nothing artistic about this culinary process, it was already putting me off. Then the "ripped-by-bare-hands" meat is rolled up in popia skin, served with cucmber and some unknown sauce. If I remember correctly, this is my first experience eating duck meat. It's tough. I had a small bite not to offend the rest of the table who seemed to enjoy it.

Then came something edible, finally - fried cod fillet with cream sauce. (I know....not chinese at all). I gobbled it down in a jiffy...thinking things can only get better from here.



Then came the chilli prawns......huge but not that fresh, ok lah.




Next came some vegetable dish that didnt look like veg at all. I recognise some mushroom , and a somekind of roll - the inside was oozing out with this whitise sauce with black and white polka dots. Ok, pass.

Then came fried "kiuh bakul", and ice cream with pomelo (durian belanda) i think.

I was so glad it was over.....note to self....i'm so not fear factor material!!!

The Longest Break

I remember how excited i was the whole of last week looking forward to the long strecth of public holidays. Since i have already taken a week off work to "balik kampung" during Eid-al-adha, i decided i'll stay home this break. I got the whole week figured out......long overdue things i need to do for my humble abode.

I even draw up an A4 size plan and sticked it on the fridge, of course carefully placing it not to hide the picture of my yet to be life partner...wakaka..(dory, in case you are smirking...cant blame a girl for dreaming big). Anyways, the mega project was doing up my little study room. After some slaving, back breaking, painful few days....its finally done. Ok or not??


Finally i can see the floor.......



Why do i need a study table???

And then there were other spring cleaning stuff i dont want to bore you bloggers about.

And i got an olive green rug for my living room after how many years....let's see 3 years plus i think.

Now the break has ended, and its back to normal at the office. Dont know when i'll get a long break again....oooh i so envy Dory's perpetual holiday!!!