Friday, October 31, 2008

End of Syawal

Nak tulis dalam Bahasa Malaysia lah pula hari ini.

31 hb October, menandakan berakhirnya sebulan Syawal, or was it yesterday. Tapi kan, aku masih lagi dapat undangan rumah terbuka hari raya sabtu dan ahad. Mungkin mereka sedang merayakkan Deepavali.

Setiap kali Ramadhan dan Syawal, berat badan saya semakin meningkat maju dengan JPD berlaku dengan hebat sekali. JPD untuk sesiapa yang kurang arif, bermaksud Jalan Perut Dulu. Memang satu fenomena yang tidak mampu dielakkan. Tapi konsep JPD ini nampaknya semakin menjadi-jadi bila umur semakin lanjut ini. Kejadian ini sebenarnya amat merungsingkan sekali. Tapi takpe, kita ikut je apa yang orang selalu cakap, "Raya setahun sekali"

Jadi oke lah, cuba bayangkan kalau raya setahun 12 kali. Tak ke sekarang aku ni ada kat hospital besar Klang sedang buat bypass untuk kali ke 34 agaknya, tak pun dah arwah kot.

Nope, entri ini bukan entri untuk menceritakan azam menguruskan badan. Dah malas nak azam macam tu, sebab tidak pernah nak berhasilnya. Entri ini hanya untuk menceritakan betapa gumbiranya aku raya tahun ini sebab aku ada sebab utk bergembira tahun ini.

I have a lovely family, i have a steady job, i have label my friends into 3 group and see the real colour of my friends and i have a reason to be happy.

Jugak, aku happy sebab akhir Syawal ini juga aku dah siapkan 3 kerja sekaligus, dalam masa satu hari.

Hebat tak.

Dah siap mark 2 assessment for students research proposal, 2 assessment for students final report, isi borang Sasaran Kerja tahunan (SKT) dan set the rawscore untuk continuous assessment student untuk 8 kelas.

Yes!! 8 buah kelas, sepatutnya 5 je (1 lecture, dan 4 tutorial) tapi sebab sorang dari pensyarah yang mengajar subject yang sama sudah lari tidak dapat dikesan dan meninggalkan sisa-sisa kerjanya pada aku.

Takpe, nanti kalau turn aku fly nanti, aku buat menda yang sama pada dia. Siap!!!

Anyway, esok aku akan ke Lumut, dari Kuala lumpur untuk menyertai Perodua Treasure Hunt anjuran Perodua-Catma.

Selalu pergi treasure hunt pendek-pendek je, belum lagi pernah treasure hunt long distance ni.

Wish me luck.

Adios Amigos.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Afganistan or Pakistan

I was buying lunch in the cafeteria and over heard 2 lectures talking to each others.


Lecturer A : Tengok topi budak tu, mesti dari Aghanistan
Lecturer B : Tak lah, itu macam topi orang pakistan

Student : Selamat petang Encik A.

Lecturer A : Cantik topi awak, dari mana tu?
Student : Dari uptown Shah Alam.

Lecturer A & B : Oh!!!

Lecturer A : Tapi macam topi orang Afghanistan tu. Mesti buatan sana.
Student : Oh ya ke, tak tau lah pulak. Kejab ya.


The student then took of his cap and turn in upside down and looked inside for label.

Student : Emm, made in China.


I paid my lunch and walked off smiling.

Everything now is made in China. But this one surely does not have melamine inside it.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Why we dry clothes outside the house

First of all, the achievements for these past few weeks.

I became an MC for the faculty Raya Open House, although they had meeting few week before, but only told me about it the day before the event. It was more of a bidan terjun thingy, when a senior lecturer who supposed to be the MC thought it was wiser to give the responsibility to a junior like me, a day before the event, so i would have more experience in public speaking (he may have forgotten that i maybe a junior here, but i have been teaching for like 9 years already)

Fcuk!

Well, I did it, and got a pat on the back and praises for a work done well by some of the member of the faculty.

Again in another occasion, being the junior in the department, I was asked to become the presenter of the finding, for a workshop held in the faculty, attended by the dean and faculty deans, because the seniors in my group thought it is only fair that I do it for training and learning process.

Fuck!

I was 2 hours late for the workshop seminar, and I don’t know head and tail of the seminars discussion, but I did it anyway, i presented like a true professional (i.e being a clown infront of everyone and make sick jokes) and guess what, now I am the advisor for the BACAS internalization team and I got 2 extra epjj slots next semester.

Out of the sudden, the dean came to me while we were having tea after the workshop and suggested that I lead the BACAS internalization team. Don’t ask me what internalization means, I don’t know just yet, but I dare not say NO, so I said yes. You never say no the dean, or you will be doom forever. I wasnt so sure the title actually. Was it internationalization or internalization, one of that for sure.

And also of the KPs for long distance learning, came to me and asked me if I could teach two slots for the epjj students next semester, and I agreed reluctantly and showing my sad face because I will have so many things to do next semester, but i will still do it for the sake of the faculty and the benefit of the students (but instead I was screaming and smiling like crazy inside, because I wanted it so much since the payment one epjj course (4 classes only per semester) is around RM3000 each.

EPJJ stands for e-pendidikan jarak jauh. We only met the students 4 times in one semesters, and all the teaching is done through the internet, read : paste your notes, slide, and reading material in the internet and they have to work their way themselves to pass the exam and you just goyang kaki waiting for someone to bank in the cheque. Its easy money i tell you.

Pakcik kayooooooooooooooo!!!

Yuhuuuuuu Back to the question today, why do we hang and dry our clothes outside the house?

One reason is so that the clothes will be dried faster because of the sunrays and the moving air and wind.

Secondly so that your curtain railing does not tercabut from the wall.

Oh hell, die lah i this time.

It was raining the whole day, in fact it rain inconsistently this week i am scared to hang my clothes outside. So, instead i hang it inside the house. Since i don't know where to hang it, so i used the curtain railing instead.

What happen next??? And according to the Murphy’s law, the whole railing collapsed.





This time i am really fuck.

Mother is not around. She is at my sister's house this whole month. If she sees this, she will lost her mind and hell will break loose and i am surely going to get it. I have been calling a list of friends asking if they knew anyone who can fix the railing but to no avail.

Moral of the story is, some things are invented for a single purpose only, and i cannot be innovated to multitask, such as the curtain railing (especially when you try to hang 4 oversize jeans, some trousers, t-shirts and a few shirts)

Well, what to do, accident does happen.


So anyone reading this, please please please help me!!!

Please!!!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Nasi Ulam.

Guess where i went again, last week? I was in the land of Cik Siti Wan Kembang, again for the umpteen times. I wonder why i like to go there so much. I don’t have an OCD problem, but when I like something so much, I will become very obsessive about it (having ocd and being obsessed with something does not really falls under the category isn't it).

Anyway wasting time and money some might say, but to me when you do something you like very much, you will put value to it, and the more you like it, the more value it has.

For example, 4 person might buy the same brand of clothing, let say a Levi’s jean, one is buying it because he loves levi’s so much, and have been wearing the brand from ages, and another person bought it because he think the jeans look cool and beautiful, the next person bought it because he is following a band wagon where everyone must have a levi’s jean, and the last person bought it because he need a branded jeans and he can only afford a Levi’s.

All four will have different views or perception of the usage of that jeans, and their perception will have an affect to how the value the goods. So whenever we have problem with our spending habit, we always blame it to the forces and the elements of economic ya.

In one of the activities (which includes a lot of sleeping, because of the bus ride take ages to reach there actually drain your energy) i did in kelantan is of course eating kelantanese food. There are so many Kelantanese food in KL, but the feeling of being there and experiencing the culture, mingling and socialising with the people and eat the way they eat, talk the way they talk (although, they don't really understand what you are trying to say, and you only guess what they are talking about, and ended both don't really understand each other and smile profusely as if we are engaging in a very exciting conversation, while the other person look flabbergasted because you sounded siamese instead) is somewhat very entertaining.

Enough said, lets look at some of the food I ate. Previously, I had nasi kerabu, nasi dagang, sup campur, and so on so fourth, last week I had, Nasi Ulam.

Nasi Ulam is just plain rice, which we eat with a lot of fresh ulam or uncooked herb’s vegetable, just like salad. But instead of having it with olive oil, or mayonnaise, we eat it with budu and tempoyak and what not. Accompanying the nasi ulam is other savoury dishes like chicken and fish.





tempoyak and budu, so yummy one.


The green uninteresting bunch of vegetables is the ulam. Usually it consist of the shoots of vegetable which is very fragrant, and have a distinctive taste to it, mostly minty. Then we have fried chicken, fried cat fish, salted sardine, pindang or singgang ikan patin (fresh river fish, which i don't eat, unless its fried catfish)


Then after sometime these are the only thing left, and the stem of ulam which consist of pucuk pegaga, pucuk ubi, daun selom, ulam raja, baby cucumber, fern shoots and so on and so forth. Whatever uncooked vegetables that would not kill us, or not tasteless and repugnant can be eaten as ulam.

Ulam-ulam usually have medicinal component to it. For example pucuk pegaga is said to have a compound that can kill cancer cell, and cure cancer, and petai is good for diabetic patients, while pucuk mengkudu is said to have a compound that will increase the collagen (or something that makes you look young) level to those consuming it and we will feel better, more energetic, our libido is at the high because of the clear blood flow of the body and those who ate a lot of ulam is said to have very youthful looking face.

I don't really care, i ate it because it taste nice.

You see, i like nice thing.

Because we love it so much, we went again the next day. This particular shop is around Pengkalan Chepa and very near to the airport.

This time we came early, and there are more ulam to spare.


Singgang ikan patin. I don't like the muddy taste of this fish. But the rest of the group likes it so much.


Pindang Ikan Ayer (tongkol). This one i like.

Ikan Keli Percik or BBQ catfish with sweet coconuty marinade, bbq to a perfection. I love cat fish, but i love it even better fried until its crispy and dry.

Fried chicken village (ayam kampung goreng katanya). The fried chicken is very delicious, its very crispy on the outside but very moist and tender in the inside.

pucuk pegaga, daun selom, daun apa tah.


then we have brinjol or aubergine, long beans, fern shoot, that thing which look like petola, don't know what it is called, kacang botol or something. but of course when we want to eat this, we eat it with the essential sauce, the Budu or tempoyak or sambal belacan.


Fantastically fantabulous i tell you.

And the price tag for one lunch for 4 persons, with a jug of syrup bandung is only RM28.00, you will never get that price in KL.

By the way, while i was eating there i met two of my ex students, both are doing their masters in USM Kubang Kerian. I feel so proud of them, because i finally see the result of my work. I have one who have become a lecturer, and now waiting for some of my first batch ex students which will be graduating with a MBBS from India and Indonesia soon.


I am actually very proud of myself, because i, in a way, have achieved something and have contributed to the society at large. And later, i will have more transcended success stories coming through the success of my own students.


Patting my own shoulder, good work.. good work indeed.


p/s: i will miss kelantan very much, maybe i will have to go there again next week. Because i like doing nice things.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Escargot



Escargot IPA: [ɛs.kaʁ.ɡɔ] is French for snail; it is related to Occitan escaragol[1] and Catalan cargol, which, in turn, may derive from a pre-Roman word *karakauseli[2].

Not all species of snail are edible, but many are. Even among the edible species, the palatability of the flesh varies from species to species. In France, two species native to France are normally used for preparing escargots. One of these, the "petit-gris" Helix aspersa, is common in temperate climates worldwide.



Well, basically escargot is just like our siput babi, except the shell is harder, and it look cleaner without the mucus. I remember catching siput babi while i was very little. Then when you caught one, you pick up some table salt and dashed some of it to the siput babi and watch bubbles coming out from the siput babi before it shrink and finally dies of horrific pain. I wonder if we can do the same to someone we hate so much and watch them shrink and drop dead of slow and horrific pain while we watch mucus coming out from their mouth like someone having rabbies.

Wait a minute, i wasnt very little when i did that, i remember doing it a few month ago.

The french people love to eat escargot and they have find ways to actually cook this annoying creatures that spoil your garden by eating all of the vegetation in it. They transformed it to an appetizing delicacies, usually served as an appetizer.

Anyway, the escargot the french people loves to eat very much, actually does resembles the siput babi we have in our garden but it is nothing near that species because it is cleaner and hopefully it will not discharge any mucus when we put salt on it.

That is what i was hopping for and keep telling myself, it is not siput babi, it is not siput babi, and babi is not actually related to a siput,

Because i just ate one yesterday.


No actually i ate 4 of them, because when baked with cheese and garlic is just fucking delicious (although, if you look very carefully the snout side of the escargot resemble some very black clitoris after it was baked, but you don't really mind because you don't have any experience with clitoris that black, or any clitoris for that matter)


Its finger fucking licking good.
with RM 27 for a dozen, you can now eat like the french.


p/s : While eating it, i was reminded of Gary, spongebob pet's snail.
p/s: i browsed the internet for clinton and accidentally stumbled upon a picture of clitoris (period. don't ask any further question)!!!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Am i hopeless??

In a quest to live well and more vigorously healthy lifestyles, I decided to have a new resolution, and learn from experiences of some people i read in the internet to walk the step, taking the stair instead of taking the elevator to my office which happens to be on the six floor.

Well only six floors, it cannot be that bad.

First floor, still walking fast and ever smiling to the student greetings salam.

Second floor, walked slowly but tried to look serious, so student would not greet me with their salam.

Third floor, walked even slowly and no longer smiling and legs are starting to get tired.

Fourth floor, stopped for a while for fresh air and tired legs gets a little agitated and starting to feel pain on the join.

Fifth floor sharp pain starting to effect the lung and felt like air is not moving, also starting to have tingling sensation around the chest area and sweat are starting to flow like rivers.

Six floor barely made it for the last stair, and the lung suddenly exploded and release enormous amount of toxic carbon dioxide with a slight relieve and some smile on the face because I finally made it.

Then walked fast to the room, switched on the aircond full blast, with face facing exactly at the aircond duct for extra oxygen, opened up a new pack of cigarettes and huff and puff like there is no tomorrow.

Lit another cigarette and look myself in the mirror and was amazed that my face looks a little bit paler than usual as if just got back from a 3 hours facial wash, with no dark pigmentation.

Quickly took picture of a pink of health, glowly healthy looking face (but will not share pictures here, because i look like a rape victim at the same time)

Then

Walked out the room,
took the elevator,
went to the cafeteria,
ordered a cup of ice Nescafe, and a cup of hot one
went to the elevator,
pressed no 6
went to the office,
sat on the office chair,
drank the whole cup of ice Nescafe in a single sip
lit a ciggy
looked at myself on the mirror

and quickly make changes and amended the new short term and impromptu resolution and swear to myself, I will never, ever, ever fucking walk the stair ever again.


Yes, I am hopeless. No need to answer the question.

hik

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Raya Picture

This is my raya pictures. As you can see, there are only a few of it. I gaves the camera to the kids to take the picture, and that is what happen. They only took lousy pictures, and to make matter worst, now my camera is broken. Something went wrong with the lense. Hik.

Well what to do. I'll buy new one later.

Anyway, these are some of the pictures which can be used, the rest are just lousy and useless, and pictures after the lense rosak are even worst.


The night before raya eve, we cooked lemang. A lot of it, because mom cook for her friends who ordered lemang as well.




This is my brother in law, looking at his son and nephews playing firecrackers.


This is my brother being a mandor, and abusing his nephews to cook the lemang for him. I did not help, because the last time i help i falls asleep and all rosak already.


This is my mother making sure his son and grandson do not burn the lemang, like i once did. Then when all the lemang were cooked. We went to sleep and waited for morning to come.


So in the morning we ate. You know the usual lemang, ketupat, rendang surprised, rendang ayam kampung, kuah nasik impit, kuah masak lodeh, sambal tempe and everything else you eat on hari raya. Forgotten to take any pictures.

Then we went to kubur, (they did, i did not) to visit my dearly departed father and grandmothers.





Then we take family pictures, the theme for this year is purple, but as you can see some of us never bother to follow the theme. My sister was furious when he saw my green baju melayu. hik hik

This is my brother and his family.


This is my eldest sister and her family. The one in red is my eldest nephew, and he is married with two children. But his wife and sons were in Tawau, celebrating hari raya in Sabah. My sister's other son went to his wife kampung in Perak. And the one on the centre is my mom.


This is my 3rd sister who insisted that everyone wears purple, with her husband, my mother, and his 4 four sons.

This is a picture of us waiting for another sister to come.


Yeah, my 2nd sister also wearing green. So i am not alone. Yeayy.


That is my sister and her husband and her sons and daugher all wearing green.




This is picture were all my money this month salary went too.

huhuhuh, there are actually more not in the picture. This is only half of the boys.

My other brother and my two younger sisters could not make it this year, one of them is in Spain with his family, and the other sister who is newly wed is in Brunei with her husband. Her husband could not get leave.

So that is it, my raya pictures.

dadaaaaaaaa.

p/s: All of my older sister are chubby like me, my brother and inlaws are all very skinny. one big happy family. Hik.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

1st day of Shawal

Let see what I did on the first day of syawal.


On the night before syawal, I went out with a friend to Chow Kit Road and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. The city is still red and flooded with kampungless soul searching and looking for instant solution to be merry on hari raya. Knowing Jalan Tar and Chow kit road will serve that purpose, KLites waited until the last minute to do their raya shopping, hoping to get the lowest price for all the consignments that will be obsolete in a few hours.



my and my baju ready to wear baju raya, which actually fits me,

accept for the neck area, as you can see i cannot button the bloody cloth.



Who would want to buy Baju Melayu and cookies after hari raya? So, all the small time and recreational merchants starts to lower the price of their merchandise so that more people will eventually buy it. Knowing this seasonal phenomena will happen every 30th day of Ramadhan, everyone waited for the last minute for it. The numbers of the people keeps on growing every year and the bottleneck and gridlock of human on those areas is just beyond expectation. The traffic jam was massive. Cars barely move and the congregation of human being is so pack when a bomb is release in that areas, 10 percents of KLites will cease to exist.


So this shows that more and more people are not going to their hometown and choose to celebrate hari raya in kl. Few reasons might leads to this, most probably of the high cost of petrol and toll and the ever increasing cost of living, and maybe because of the anticipated traffic jam, or they are just plain lazy, or the prefer to celebrate it in KL, or they don’t have any relatives in the kampong because everyone has drop dead.


Anyway, I only arrived home around 6 am in the morning, so there goes my Sembahyang Raya. I was almost 1 pm when I woke up, and you can imagine the look on the faces of my mother and sisters at that time. Everyone was waiting for me, especially my nieces and nephews and grand children (which I have 32 of them) waiting for the beloved uncle for duit raya.


By the time I clean myself it is already 2 and everyone left to the kubur to visit my departed father and grandmothers. I did not go, my family knows that I will not go to kubur on hari raya, because I made it very clear to them a few years ago that you do not go to kubur just on hari raya, and claimed your undying love to your departed family, and those not going is being very ungrateful. I made it very very clear last time, so nobody dares say anything. I will visit them when I feel like going, especially when I am very sad. And almost usually I am alone in the grave areas crying my lungs out until I it gets very creepy then I would run. When you are alone in the graveyard you don’t really feel you are alone really and sense like there are eyes watching you.


So I waited for them to get home, in my new raya clothes and ate some rendang, ketupat, lemang all those usual things you eat during hari raya. And when they get back I did my ritual asking for forgiveness from my mom, sisters, brothers, in laws and my nephews and nieces will do the same to me and I give them duit raya, and then I change back to my sleeping attire and I falls asleep until 8 o’clock.


Hik hik. yes, i am useless i know.



why do i feel like Sukaerno in this picture.



Then my friend and I went to the subang airport to fetch zubir who came back from terengganu after celebrating 8 hours raya with his family. Which I think is even worst than me.


And then we went out for drinks, and now I am writing this blog.



So that is my hari raya celebration. Wasn't it full of fun????



Sekian, terima kasih.