First generation of my straycat went missing

      

Remember her? She is one of my stray cat who were patronizing my backlane, and she is still. We call her pirate. She is still untouchable wild stray cat. She just come for the food. Strictly business.

 

I wrote earlier, that she gave birth, for the first time and we continued giving shelter to her 1st generation, 2 cute, little black kittens.

A week later, my daughter and I went to check if they were still around. Yes, those lovely kitten were there.

Although my friend warned not to touch a kitten, as that would irritate the mother, but I could not hold myself from touching those adorable tiny dots.

They are so cute.

The next day, they were gone.!!  no where to be found. As for the mother cat, Ms.Pirate, she is still around enjoying her free food from us.

Lesson to learn…DO NOT TOUCH A KITTEN..let it grow happily and attached to it’s mom.

Some caution about sharing knowledge

 

Knowledge is something to be shared, somehow, if the individual does not value your knowledge, its better to keep them covered up, as sharing it with him/her won’t earn you any prize. It could even make him/her jealous. Distribute your knowledge to others who are willing to learn.

Its sad to know that, there are people who talked about improvement, somehow could not accept knowledge or opinion from others.

I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover'. I learned this words from a comedy movie, Back To School. And I kept them engraved in my mind.

So, whenever I find myself in that situation, I would work on getting out of the situation, for my own well-being. I wouldn't let anyone pollute my mind, or adding unnecessary stress on me. Its not worth it. I want to keep holding on 'Stress-Free-Life’ and ‘Make Others Happy’.

Having said that. I just clicked on ‘leave the group’ on the Facebook.

I found my best friend

Through Facebook, we got hold of each other.

30 years ago was our last meeting, and this evening, we met. She happened to be in Kuala Lumpur. I picked her up from where she stayed. I couldn't believe I found her again. We were together attending our beloved high school, Sabah College, one of the prestigious school in Sabah then.

‘yook’, for some reason, thats how we addressed each other during our school days, and this late evening we still used that word. How nice to hear someone special called me with that name again, after so many years without any correspondences.

We talked, we laughed, we shared stories. That was the highlight of my day. We could not stop talking until after mid-night. I reached home around 1am, when the security guard at my housing area had fallen asleep on his seat.

Goodnite Yook!

Nostalgic antiques

 

I’ve seen this a lot during my younger days. They seemed to exist in all my Chinese friends’ houses. The antique look never fade from my mind and I still love the look and feel of this almost forgotten wardrobe. If you ever find this model nowadays, check the price. I figure it would be a boom!

 

 

 

Next…..traditional light lamp. I still remember my beloved great grand mother’s voice, "light up the lamp. its time to sleep”. I lit as ordered. I then sleep with my hand smelt of gasoline.

  

 

 

Then in the morning, after shower, I waited for my maid (then) who earlier burned charcoals and placed them into the traditional iron, made of copper. She carefully, not to touch the burning hot copper, placed it on top of folds of banana leaves to smoothen the base before using it to press my school uniform.

  

 

 

For sure this model is much older than me, as I don't remember riding this bicycle or perhaps I’ve forgotten. I do remember the model ‘Chopper’ though. Anyway, I do like this nostalgic model.

  

 

Even if you ever found them being sold, those antiques for sure would be way.. too… expensive compare to the good old days.

Somehow, I can afford them though. And I have them all fit in my space limited house.

Except…they are in a smaller version.

HEHEHEeee…….

Big eyes family

 

  

She is a daughter of my nephew. Different skin tone, different look. Somehow, big eyes is a trademark of our family, and she has them.

So has Jiha, my niece.

So has my daughter and son.

 

TARAAAAA….!!!

  I have them too.

Getting poorer each day

 

My business partner and I went to Pullman Hotel, Putrajaya last Sunday. I wouldn't volunteer to go if it wasn't for my big boss, who came all the way from The States.

Putrajaya is a planned city, located south of Kuala Lumpur, that serves as the federal administrative centre of Malaysia. It took me about 45 minutes to an hour to reach the neat place, which explains why I don't favor the journey.

We had dinner. 3 of us cost almost RM400 (USD 130). It was too expensive form me, while my tummy was still complaining of ‘not-enough-food’. I could have eaten the whole plate should I knew it cost that much.

Perhaps part of the $ goes to fund, beautifying the place.

No doubts, its a perfect place to relax…….

 

 

I enjoyed the lake view. Too bad Ididnt have a good camera capture the picturesque scene.

It probably reasonable price for many people, but not for me though. (sigh…). Either the economic has gone bad or I am getting poorer. The later sounds ‘clicked’.

Its time to look for an extra income.

Whosthat..!! Phew..!

 

It was a long day for me. Driving to and needed to be in Putrajaya at 8:00am is not fun. 1 hr to get ready and another 1 hour journey makes 2 hours of buffer before the actual event.

I made it on time.

Such a neat, and non-congested area with beauty of the hotel setting added to it, I didn't appear grouchy among many participants who were some locals and some flew all the way from Fiji, USA and…. I forgot where else.

I sat next to Pam, from one of the library in Fiji. So used to conducting session instead of attending, I spent the whole day, keeping my eyes wide opened. A few times my effort to fight the sleepiness almost fail, that I could see stars * * * * * lingering above me.

WAKE UP..!!! I shouted within.

 

The beauty of the Pullman Resort and the calling for lunch break made the highlights of my day. The buffet dishes were my kind of choices…

 

At last……the conference ended, but it was late evening then.

I planned to go to bed early that night. After dinner, I checked my mail and did some work at home.

11pm, it was time to go to bed. That was still too early from my usual bed time though, but I’ve decided. I stopped by the kitchen to drink water.

As I turned back towards the kitchen window ……………….

WWWHHOOOAAA..!!! whosthat???whatdoyouwant..???

My potato couch hubby jumped to the rescue. He opened the door. There was a young boy, looking pale.

“They are chasing me..please help”, he said.

“You come over to the front” My hubby said. He obeyed. We met him at the front gate. I was holding my ‘SAMURAI’ sword (shh…its fake and made of cheap piece of wood, which didn't seem to bother him)

We asked him many questions. We did not believe his answers though, as they were not rationale. When my husband asked for his identification card, he handled over his IC. My God…He was only 18yrs and such an obedient guy.

My hubby then called the patrol car. The policemen came 15 minutes later.

“you again..???” That was the first word came out of the policeman. They then took him into the patrol car and left.

Phewww..!!!   Back to peacefulness, but it took my sleepiness and tiredness away too.

Now I could not sleep thinking…Poor guy…. He was such a young man and good looking too. At 18 years of age, he has turned to a school drop out. We figured he is also a mentally disorder boy. ..sigh..

Me?? River People?

 

For the past 2 weeks I’ve been communicating with them, a big group of ‘Orang Sungai’ (River People). That's how they were referred to by the 19th century European writers, and the name remains until now.

My non-Orang Sungai Facebook friend added me to this group, which  I thought it was a mistake.

When I first clicked to their FB wall, I was like being in another planet. I didn't know what language they were using and I was totally lost. I wanted to pull myself away from the group, somehow there was this feeling of belonging that kept me locked within this particular group.

I kept on checking and reading those comments every now and then. Little that I knew, there are so many sub-ethnics and many languages/dialects used within them. Some similar but some are totally out phonetically.

I was reading the languages foreign to my hearing, and within a couple of days, I was able to identify certain words. I started to link the phonetic rhymes to the language that I am familiar with, Idahan, which is spoken by a small community living along the Sepagaya River, Lahad Datu. Within a week I was able to catch the meaning of their sentences, although not all. The feeling of belonging grew even closer, within.

Idahan is a language used by my ancestors from my mother’s side. I’ve never spoken them, but I knew how it sounded, as I’ve been spoken to with that special language when I was a little girl, in Lahad Datu, then. That was more than 30 years ago.

30 years being apart from the Idahan speaking community didn't chunk this feeling of belonging towards them.

The big question is, am I qualified to be called an Orang Sungai? I would be happy to know if I am.

I started to have interest on the history of the River People. Last week, I made an effort to visit the library of The National Museum Malaysia, to search for some information about ‘Orang Sungai’. I found a couple of articles written by the early European writers, but still, I could not find a clear answer of the facts.

Is Idahan Orang Sungai? or are  all groups of Orang Sungai called Idahan?…still remains a question to me.

Learning Malay word

 

‘Sweet urine’ sounds eeyewww….

Who would volunteer to do the tasting?

Anyway, that's the word, a direct translation of ‘kencing manis’ (kurncheeng muh-nees)

Pengidap (purng-ee-dup) is referring to the person, the sufferer.

A short word ‘diabetic’ in Malay language is ‘Pengidap Kencing Manis’. Wooo…. yes…such a long sentence for Diabetic.

Foodlovers-inlaw

Earlier, I  posted about the beauty of nature at Medan, but it didn't take the attention of my sister-inlaw, Tuty, away from food.

(Hmmm…what are they eating over that side?)

Yes, indeed, Indonesian food are not alien dishes to both sides, my hubby’s and mine, as we grew up eating Indonesian dishes most of the time. Not that we grew up within the same compound though.

One of the reason I like about going to Indonesia, is the choices of food and the great services from the people. I loike..!

Regardless of the unreasonable hiked price for non-Indonesian, we still kept on patronizing the well-known restaurant ‘Garuda’.

Here they are sis…. But of course I focused the camera on my favorite veggies and sambal (chilly paste) and kikil (beef tendon and cow skin cooked in coconut milk). Oh ya.. in case if you’re wondering, the skin is shaved well. I’ve checked. That was among the most I looked for.

     

Bakso (meet ball soup) at Medal Mall was umphh..! if you add in the right ingredients of ABC soy sauce, vinegar, chilly paste and the tomato paste which were provided on each table.

Don't bother how the word ‘Pop’ is tied to the ‘Ayam’(chicken). ‘Ayam Pop’ is the local dish that you should not missed.(its not in the picture though). ‘Ikan pepes’ (fish wrapped in bana leaves, grilled)… ‘gulai kambing’ (mutton stew)..boiled papaya leaves and tapioca leaves to be eaten with the ‘sambel Hijo’(green chilli paste)…grilled/fried Gurami (fish)..ikan lele (cat fish)…and Talapia

 

shrimp in chilly paste and ‘petai’..perrghh…many more and more and more….3 days of journey and we never got sick of the food. But we all came back with sickness. Not due to the food, but tiredness.

There were plenty of food choices at Thamrin Plaza too. We started out food journey at the cafeteria at the top floor. Avocado, locally known as alpokat, juice was a must drink for my daughter and me throughout our stay.

On the way from Lake Toba, we stopped by at a Durian stall. yummm….

 

In my every trip to the country, I never fail to eat this unique fruit, which has a scale very similar to Cobra. Yes, I’m talking about snake. The fruit is called ‘Salak’ (Suh-luck)

This is passion fruit, another unique local fruit.

It is so tempting to see those fruit stalls at Berastagi, a small town, with nice cooling breeze, between Lake Toba and Medan. There where I learned about ‘Pepino’ , melon-like fruit, which tastes like cucumber. The stall owner claimed that it could reduce hyper-tension, diabetes and many more.

Ops..! Sorry sis, I was too busy enjoying the ‘sup kambing’(special mutton soup from Siantar town) and ‘Tomat sumbat’ (stuffed tomato soup), specially prepared by our uncles and aunties at Siantar. I forgot to take any photos for your drooling.

The beauty among Medan mess

 

Going away from the metropolitan traffic congestion, I chose Medan, Indonesia as my family’s vacation place, last week. Not that I didn't know the traffic situation is actually worse than Kuala Lumpur. I hate being stuck in a traffic jam while in KL, but not in Medan when I preferred for the red light to stay red, longer.

  

They are called ‘Pengamen’ by the locals. I guess, it means entertainer. They entertain those who are stuck at the traffic light. They are not putting any price for their service. Its up to the giver to consider. This trio were very entertaining. Their voice were superb. I could have made and album should I had those voice.

The road condition were 90% horrible, the drainage and irrigation were yet in a system plan. Many didn't think traffic lights are there for reason. The local people were openly talking about how worse the corruption were getting. But what could the government do? The country is to much congested. I could just wish for a better living for the Indonesian, soon.

Regardless of the road condition, we were willing to go through those bumpy road for the 3rd time to search for this beauty among the mess…………………….

WELCOME TO LAKE TOBA…

    

As we reached the area, we forgotten the horrible journey we had just went thru. Just look at those pictures above and thats how the place really looks like. Such a picturesque sight.

I was having a fever and stuffy nose then, the beauty of Lake Toba somehow overcame my sickness.

Dear Mr. Tony Fernandez, please get everyone to fly to Parapat, so that everyone can see what my family and I had just witnessed, Lake Toba, the great beauty of nature.

The wedding after many years

 

It didn't feel it was too long ago when I was enjoying myself bathing my youngest brother. I then dashed baby powder on him, chose the neatest clothing for him, prepared milk for him, then put him in his baby swing and sang my favorite lullaby for him.

He was such a cute toddler and very obedient and  innocent looking.

We call him Jerry.

Last weekend I looked at him sitting on that stage with mixed feelings. The wedding stage is locally known as ‘Pelamin’ (purh-lurh-meen). Its kinda standard for any Malay wedding to  build a Pelamin for the newlywed to sit and  impressed by the invitees.

Jerry is a married man now, while I still could not believe he is.The last wedding of my sibling was around 8 years ago. That's the number of years of age difference between him and his elder sister (my younger sister), Siti.

Great ‘Suluk/Tausug’ Traditional dance performance by my nephew and his schoolmates was the highlight of the night.

Jerry is the youngest in the family, but, he is not the only youngest. He has a twin sister.

Another wedding ..?? oh no.. not too soon please, sister. we need a rest.

 

My mom doesn't believe in catering. We all brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunties, uncles and many more relatives had to run around to handle what supposed to be handled throughout the preparation to the post-wedding.

I got home with heavy flu. Its time for vacation. Lake Toba..here I come….