Manggis Came to Town

I am trying to remain as calm as possible as everything that could possibly go wrong with a computer went fantastically wrong with almost all the computerized gizmo and gadgetry that I have in my house. You know I have been trying to resuscitate my studio back to life for nearly a month in vain. It's a bit like CA's futile attempt to get marine fishkeeping right. The moment I thought I was home free, something goes wrong. Sheesh.

I really felt incapacitated without my Thinkpad perpetually stuck between my double-double cheeseburger (read: multi-tiered tummy) and turkey drumsticks (read: supersized thunders). The Asus merajuk on me, and won't give me WiFi reception. The PC has a large poster saying "SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION",my tech support has to sleep too you know. I was not to touch anything. The HP is broken because I had smashed it some time ago. Nevertheless, I had a good 30 minute chat with Kakteh, Ely and Anedra with only 50% battery before the Thinkpad blacked out. *winks*

To soothe the chronic withdrawal symptoms, I had a marathon tango with the mop today. Been a while since I attacked the floor with such virtuoso (angkat bakul sikit). I cleared under the bed and found hair. Lots and lots of hair. If the CSI team were here, imagine the mountains of dead skin cells and dustmites that they might have to bag. Prior to this, thanks to blogging, I have sped up cleaning time by deliberately skipping the dark recesses, dusty nooks and crannies and just mop the common traffic areas. Heh heh. Might as well clean up lah! After all, Raya is just around the corner.

Figured that I should go without wireless(double negation?) for a while until CA manages to rectify the series of hardware problems we are facing. So here I am, hooked directly to the cable connection 1 foot away from the wall griping my misfortune.

Time off from blogging gave me some time to meet real people for a change. Incidently, my former colleague and an old friend was in town. So we arranged to meet at Salero Bundo for Iftar. I was really looking forward to dinner under the stars Melayu-style until we got there only to find the place jam-packed with huge parties of hungry and loud people whose idea of buffet is to stock up on plates and plates of food makan hidang style, rather than piling up everything one one single dish.

It's been nearly 5 years since I last saw Pojee. He's my former colleague, whose office used to be a few doors away from mine. Back then I really liked what I was doing, my office was as good a working place as it was a great living quarters for me. I had everything except the kitchen sink. People in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia Building seldom go home anyway. Come to think of it, we did not get much sleep either.

While my office was like a mini museum of Budaya Benda, Pojee's office was like a psychadelic space centre. I especially remember his lava lamp, his super computers that looked like mini fridges. I remember distinctively something called Octane that could do cools real time animation. And he could really kemas. If you think Adrian Monk is kemas, wait till you check out Pojee's office. There were great many others that worked around graveyard hours like us. Nazura "Fishie" Rahime , his best friend back then, is now Pojee's wife. She just gave birth to a cute little cherub, Ilham Fannani 3 weeks ago. Congratulations!!!

My constant companion those days were Nad, oh she blogs too, and Nana. They were like sisters to me. Everytime I think about Nana, I am reminded of Dome's brownies, yang ada gold leaf tu...Yumm! I will blog about them in another entry.

So Pojee is in town to take that professional certification from from the good people at Apple. He was sweet enough to let me know he was here, it was only natural that we hooked up for makan. He was with a friend, Fikri. Both of them passed with flying colors!!! Woo hoo!

CA and I got to Salero Bundo earlier. They could not make it just in time for Iftar so we picked them up at Zam Zam Murtabak and adjourned to Sofra, a Turkish restaurant down the road.

It was great catching up with old friends. Although I must admit there were some awkward moments here and there because I was feeling a little self-conscious. You know, the bujang Nazrah and the Mak Dara are quite different from each other. It used to be very easy for me to strike up a conversation but last night my brain was mush. But I was thrilled nevertheless to see him again. Brings back memories of Bukit Bintang Nasi Ayam suppers with Nad and Wan.

Tauke Manggis

Aishah played photographer last night. She seemed pretty animated. If her parents weren't so uptight about her behaving at the dinner table, she might have enjoyed the evening even better. She kept insisting that she wanted Auntie Noreez and Kak Rocks. And Aunty Ayu, Aishah wants to play with you. She's been asking for you for days.

Anyways, the evening went by too quickly. Pojee and Fikri had the whole evening lined up for them. Almaklumlah Mafioso Dons datang Singapore.Maybe next time when they come with their families and we could spend time shopping rather than makan sakan saja.So rugi come all the way down here for one week, no time to shop.

Mafia Fikri Corleone

We dropped them off at Borders and it was adios, amigos! Until we meet again. And to Pojee's friend who reads this. HALLO, YOU!!!

P.S. : Pojee is a specialist in video productions and other high end media productions. He's done a few tv ads and music videos(Anuar Zain anyone?). He's done pretty cool upscale wedding videography too. Check them out at Manggis.

Malaysia Mourns

24 December 1940-20 October 2005

Yang Amat Berbahagia Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood, the wife of the Yang Amat Berhormat Dato' Seri Abdullah Hj. Ahmad Badawi, the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia has left us at about 7.55 am this morning, after a long and hard battle against the big C. She was 64.

One of the identical twins born to Yang Berbahagia Dato' Mahmood Ambak and Yang Berbahagia Datin Mariam Abdullah, she is survived by two children, Kamaludin and Nori, and 4 grandchildren. She remains in our memories as a great woman who was HUGELY generous and loving. A motherly character who was in touch with her culture and traditional values, she will be greatly missed. May she now rest in peace. Al Fatihah.

Hole in My Pocket

Ramadhan can be a breeze for some while it can be trying for a huge lot of us mere mortals. With the right upbringing and conscience, one would have no complaints about going without food and drink while keeping oneself morally and religiously in check. This communal obligation normally provides a greater motivation for some of us to increase one's level of adherence to religious responsibilities, InsyaAllah, while for some, it is just another regular month getting closer to Allah as we readily should every conscious minute of our lives.

Ramadhan may also be the time when the men, women and children get excited over the forthcoming Eid. Customarily, the ladies would get into a mad, mad shopping binge for all things serba baru, while the children pray hard that they may not be forced to wear scratchy traditional clothes and opt for stretch Levi's over muslin top from The Island Shop, to match the new Rastafarian beeswaxed dreads and the newly pierced tongue post-Phuket trip.*winks at somebody*

It is also a time when the Fathers, Brothers, Fiances, Husbands, Boyfriends, Sugar Daddies et al develop permanent frowns thinking about the impending fate of the soon to be maxed out credit cards, a fast-dwindling savings and mana lagi lobang aku nak korek duit seh... There is the big issue of ang pows or duit raya, packets of money given as celebratory token if not as charitable/filial gifts.

CA and I keep several spreadsheets of how much we would likely spend in RM and SGD for Hari Raya and try not to exceed our budget. This year, for the first time, I am taking care of the Malaysian side of things. Only now I realize how much money has to be set aside for duit raya, for salam berlapik and for general stocking up of kampung goodies like serunding, dodol, lemang, belacan and cencalok. Can't complain because I volunteered, and I have to be ikhlas. Susah juga mencari ikhlas.

I have also realized when one tries to be prudent,(read:frugal), things fall apart. My mini studio has been offline for nearly two weeks because of an inevitable power surge caused by the langsuirs and the penanggals of adapters and cables that were not equipped with a power regulator. I have set aside some money for a new set up. CA got started with a buffed up CPU( u da man, B) but not 24 hours after reviving my studio, the PC gave me a blue screen curse due to some device failure. The VGA card conked out on me. I told you I am no electrician or some tech support personnel. I was chatting with Anedra last night when the power cable of my trusty Thinkpad PUTUS?!!!! I can only conclude one thing, I am jinxed when it comes to anything electronic. Good thing, the cute little EZBuddy still works and I have hijacked the Asus for my blogging pleasure.

Sheesh. Kopak la lagi pas ni..Must forget about floorboards and soundproofing the room. Nak beli pintu pun dua puluh juta kali pikir...Scrap the idea of calling the spring cleaning team to wash my windows and sental my lantai. Overlook the fact that we need fresh paints on the walls. Third year with the same curtains is okay too.

Now I know how CA feels about Hari Raya. Why can't raya be simple and pain-free? Something tells me that this is what I get for not giving enough sedeqah. Duit habis macam air.

Wal-Asr.Innal insaana la fil khusrin.

Bendulful Meme Again

7 things to do before I die:

*Settle all debts and grievances
*Visit Capri again, wakeful and sober.
*Meet Makcik Rose
*Build a mosque in Mak’s name
*Secure trust fund for Aishah
*Bring family to my birthplace Scotland
*Perform Hajj and stay there

7 things I cannot do:

*Bake. I can cook to survive, but not bake. Call 911 if you see me making an attempt.
*Sew with the machine. Sembat, jelujur, tulang belud, InsyaAllah masih boleh.
*Be in two places at the same time and remain filial.
*Keep a straight face when someone is down right rude
*Electrical wiring.Plumbing masih ok. Wayar-wayar, sorry!
*Wear the same pair of specs for more than 6 months
*Forget sordid past

7 things that attract me to CA who happens to be the opposite sex relative to my current state of being:

*Guitar skills
*His height
*Serious humour
*Genuine smile
*The fact that he won’t let me get away with unreasonable behavior
*He takes my bad dreams seriously enough to comfort me
*He feeds me well

7 things I say most often:

*Oh mak engkau!
*Siot ahh!
*Uhuh
*Omaaaaaaaak!
*Ya Rabbi, Ya Tuhan , Ya Kareem ( sebelum mula berleter...)
*Alaaaaaaa...
*Hmm..entahlah. Tapikan...

7 celebrity crushes:

*Will Smith
*Chris Rock
*Arsenio Hall (Eh sampai tiga pak itam ni)
*Ted Danson as Dr Becker
*Slash
*Nuno

7 people I want to do this:

*Nefertiti
*Nadya
*Ely
*Mak Nenek
*Uja (kau dah buat belum?)
*Noreez
*Red

I am reduced to this

Warning : The UN Convention Against Torture signatories could not protect me from the peine forte et dure that Uja is capable of if I didn't write about this. So consider yourselves forewarned that this update contains explicit details about food items. Sorry I had to break my promise.

Baya, my younger sister and I used to share a room back in Subang Jaya. Hence the constant bickering and a tarik rambut relationship between us when we were younger. I used to terrorize her so much so that she has grown up a little traumatized, if I dare say so myself. But we are both much older now, she turned out to be such a sweet lady that if you have any goodness in you even if you are in your baddest, meanest moods, you can't help but be nice to her. She had better not know I said this.

Anyway, one night some 15 years ago, I was woken up by her screams, saying that a cockroach had entered one of her ears. Panicking, I quickly ran to our parents' room and knocked frantically to alert them. I remember Mak asking me if I'd like to come along to the doctor's. I would normally jump at any opportunity to get out of the house in the middle of the night. While the rest of my younger siblings were in deep slumber, under Makcik Rose's guard, the four of us drove into the night, looking for a 24 hr clinic. We found one, so Mak and Baya went inside. Ayah and I were left alone with nothing much to say to each other, so he brought me to a roadside stall where he ordered what soon became my most favourite pre-dawn meal and one of the nicest memories I have of my Ayah. A hot bowl of spicy sup kambing, or mutton soup.

I remember the yellowish broth, fragrant with the smell of some exotic spices, and that almost creamy texture of the soup sliding down my throat like a warm blanket enveloping my easophagus and settling the Symphony No 5 in my stomach like gripe water to a colicky baby , sipped in between dunks of toasted bread, under the stars while the rest of the neighbourhood slept. Soon the little squirt joined us with Mak, explaining that it was not a cockroach that had got stuck in her ear but a large boil. The throbbing made it feel like something was gnawing the insides of her ear. She was somewhat pacified, the good doc must have given her a shot. Mak ordered something other than mutton soup, she's health conscious even then. After cleaning bowlfuls of soup, as I was the designated tong sampah who finished up what others could not, we went home, back to bed happily counting kambing to sleep.

I rekindled with childhood memories of mutton soup, at Upper Boon Keng some 30 minutes from where I live. M.Razack's plays host to large cauldrons of boiling meat, innards and genitalia, also where old goats and mangkuks savour mangkuk after mangkuk of goats' coo coo birds thinking their own coo coo birds would soar to heavens above or at least rise to the occassion for the minimum required time after chewing muddled fat and protein in the soup. It must have done them a lot of good as not very many ladies stand in queue to buy this soup in fear of the gawking, hawking eyes of revitalised coo coo birds at the tables in front of this famous offal galore stall.

So in between running errands all over the city from one end to the other yesterday, I squeezed in a pitstop at Upper Boon Keng to drop off some Kopi Kacip Fatimah for Noreez and to grab a couple of packets of soup for Iftar at the inlaws'. In the span of a few weeks, this is the second time I found my way there. First to meet my long lost friend from MRSM, Mrs Omaq a few days before Ramadhan.And last night sinking my teeth into succulent meat and spicy broth was a welcomed treat for supper after a dinner of dhal lemak and sambal sotong.

So sentimental I got that I gave my Ayah a call. He sounded chirpier than his usual patriarchal, "Apa hal?". He is Bugis after all. That, my friend, was the bawang goreng and daun sup on my bowlful of heaven.

Okay, Uja. You can loosen the strappado. Medieval Inquisition style does not become you. All you needed to do was ask.

Heh. Heh.

My apologies my friends. Mohon ampun Mak Nenek Rupawan...

Of course you know I am kidding about Uja.