Selamat Ciidwayneey

Aku balik kampung lagi. Rasanya macam baru je bulan lepas aku balik untuk raya puasa. Anyway, since banyak jalan tak boleh lalu (banjir dan landslide), aku tak drive. Bukan lah nak cakap aku selalunya drive pun bila balik kampung (it's more than 6 hours' drive for crying out loud!). Tapi saja nak jadikan alasan. Ahhhh.

Mak aku, seperti biasa bila anak-anak dia balik kampung, akan berkampung di dapur dari pagi lepas bangun tidur, sampai lah ke malam, with only occasional short breaks for solat. Kenapa? Sebab dia nak jamu anak-anak dia.

Makcik-pakcik dan cousin-cousin aku gelarkan kami 9 beradik ni "flower horn".

(Nota kaki: untuk yang buta ikan, flower horn ialah sejenis ikan hiasan yang pernah terkenal satu masa dulu. Cara pemakanan - ganas!! Tangan aku pernah luka disondol masa cuba menyuap flower horn kami)

Apa yang mak aku jamu kitorang banyak-banyak tu? Tak perlulah sebut kot. Korang bukan boleh imagine pun masakan-masakan pelik negeri ni.

***

Bila balik kampung, aku tahu ada satu topik yang mak ayah aku teringin sangat nak utarakan. Isu biasa. Dulu lebih vokal, tapi sekarang rasanya semua orang lebih berhati-hati.

Entahlah, it's a delicate matter. Am a very sceptical person. It's an innate thing for one. But I guess it was further aggravated by my 3 years in a department whose work is mainly to investigate corporate wrongdoings. Despite seorang kawan sentap aku selalu cakap "Kau kan risk taker" sambil tergelak kecil, I am not. Apatah lagi dalam decision that's gonna affect the rest of life sebegini.

***

Kakak aku baru dapat gaji tunggakan. Dah 17 bulan dia lulus KPLI, tapi baru sekarang dia dapat gaji sebagai guru ijazah. "Habis tu, selama ni?" Dia dapat gaji guru taraf lepasan SPM. Aku rasa government agency kita lebih tak efisien berbanding Somalia.

Tapi in a way, bagus juga. It's like a forced saving. Cuma, without interest. Macam kita simpan duit di BSN masa zaman sekolah dulu tu.

Oh, dan dia nak jamu the whole family di restoran, ambil kesempatan celebrate birthday 3 tahun anak bongsu dia. Courteous as I am, hari terakhir di kantor (err... office) semalam, aku berniat nak singgah belikan hadiah on the way home. "Hang singgah la Marks & Spencer, kan tengah sale sekarang" kata Perempuan di sebelah meja aku.

Aku berada dalam M&S tidak lebih dari 1 minit. Maaf. Masa aku terlalu berharga untuk dihabiskan dengan melihat-lihat baju bayi yang harganya lebih mahal dari kemeja kerja yang sedang aku pakai.

Walaupun selepas less discount.

End up aku settle down dengan Poney dari Isetan.

***

Ada pautan ke pojok ni dari SDN. Aku berasa terharu. Walaupun Mikon mungkin menyenaraikan semua blog-blog yang membuat pautan ke SDN, I choose to believe otherwise. "Yelah, Mikon kan famous. Aku bayangkan mesti banyak blog-blog yang ada link ke SDN. Takkanlah sesikit yang tersenarai kat SDN tu je" Haha. Satu percubaan justifikasi poyo.

Thanks bro. Whoever you are. Kalaulah hidup ini macam Friendster (yer, aku belum naiktaraf ke Facebook), aku boleh bayangkan diagram kaitan aku dengan kau. We are linked by 2 mutual friends. One is a writer like you, another is studying film.

Ada kawan-kawan aku (terutamanya perempuan) tanya "Siapa SDN tu? Pelik lah blog dia". Obviously, aku tak kenal pun siapa Mikon tu. Aku cuma kenal dia melalui tulisan-tulisan dia. Tapi aku suka dengan cara penulisan dia. Dan aku suka dengan cara dia berfikir.

Tapi itu tak bermakna aku bersetuju dengan semua idea-idea dia.

Everyone is entitled to his or her views, believes... whatever.

Bak kata Ambiga Sreenevasan kepada Nazri Aziz “We believe in the freedom of speech and although we do not agree with the minister, we would be the first to defend his right to give his views” semasa Nazri Aziz memberi kritikan pedas terhadap "People's Freedom Walk". Sangat ironik. Dan apa-apa sahaja yang ironik tu, aku rasa, melucukan.

***

Ohhhh, aku beli baju raya. Cap Delsey. Nak tengok? Hehe >:)


Dan, selamat ciidwayneey maksudnya selamat aidil adha dalam bahasa Somalia. Tak percaya? Err...... pernah dengar wikipedia?

L'amour

I have a new love. A new passion. And that is my shiny brand new HTC TyTN II. Check it out, yo!
http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_tytn_II.htm

Newly launched just less than a month ago, it is currently the best in the market - with 3.5G HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, 3MP camera and the TouchFLO technology, it kicks the hell out of O2, HP, ASUS and the likes. Woohoo!!

Killer abs

It was Saturday. 3rd week of November. I was bored to death. I suddenly realized, 2007 has only 6 more weeks to go.

For four consecutive years, one of my new year resolutions (and a rather significant one indeed) has always been to gain a killer abs by the end of the year. For the last 3 years, admittedly, I failed. And I guess only the biggest miracle can make this year a different one than the past 3.

Nevertheless, I packed up my gym stuff, ready to go. "Semangat, semangat!!"

I was stopped at the door by my sister. She seems to be frying fishes and preparing ayam cili or sthg like that. I must admit, they smell deliciously tempting.

"Nok gi mano?"
"Gym"
"KLCC?"
"Ho"
"Pah balik la make dumoh deh, ore masok pelebih nih"
"Err.... ok"

Ahh my dear sister.

To view it positively, I am spared of one resolution to think about come 2008.

..........

Kau peluk aku sebelum membunuhku
Tersenyum melihatku merenung melihatmu
Kau menungguku menunggu ku terjatuh
Setiap langkah tertuju setia dalam menunggu

Aku menunggumu menunggumu menunggumu mati
Didepanku didepanku didepanku

Kau peluk aku sebelum membunuhku
Tersenyum melihatku merenung melihatmu

Aku menunggumu menunggumu menunggumu mati
Didepanku didepanku didepanku

Apa yang kau lakukan dibelakangku
Mengapa tak kau tunjukkan dihadapanku
Apa yang kau lakukan dibelakangku
Dibelakangku dibelakangku dibelakangku?.
Dibelakangku

Aku menunggumu menunggumu menunggumu mati
Didepanku didepanku didepanku

The best nasi goreng ikan

Driving to office this morning, I suddenly thought of the good old days of my final year in uni - when the four of us in Biro KM, a subcommittee of a planned trip to Middle East, were struggling making preps for the trip and series of meetings beforehand. We would stay up till wee hours refining the itinerary, accommodating to the interests of two conflicting parties. Most of the time, we would have our sahur together, and sometimes, one of us who's obviously a better cook than the others will wake up very early to prepare nasi goreng ikan, in a very humble rice cooker in our Bilik Gerakan. And I must say, she makes the best nasi goreng ikan.

To Aina - I hope you still remember how to prepare the lovely meal :)

Relief

I remember once not long ago I thought to myself, "not knowing is my biggest fear".

And indeed it is true. Today I discovered a little something that relieves me of all the grave uneasiness that have shrouded my days in the last week. Well, the truth may not be the happiest thing that I hoped for, but at least I can shape my future moves in the direction of reality.

Knowledge Wish Way (my ol' school anthem).

Satu pagi di hari-belum-raya

It was in the early week of Ramadhan when I was on this shuttle bus from my hometown going back to KL. And as usual, I will sleep throughout the journey.

Bukak2 je mata, nampak jam pukul 5.00am. "Ahh nasib baik, sempat lagi nak sahur ni".

Tapi tengok2 keliling, all the seats were empty except the ones around driver's seat. Tengok luar bas, I saw some factory-like buildings. "Ahh sudah, takkan kat Kepong pula ni?"

Aku pun berjalan ke depan, jumpa driver tu:
"Kita kat mana ni bang?"
"Awak nak turun Hentian Putra ke?"
"Ha'ah"
"Laaa kita dah nak sampai Port Klang ni, dik"

Damn!

Aku berjanji akan set alarm clock next time aku naik bas dari kampung ke KL, especially bas yg final stop dia bukan Hentian Putra.

So long as you harm none, do what you will

do unto others as you would have them do unto you

this is not your local food guide

My family has a weird tradition. Whoever that is going to migrate from KL to somewhere else (in most cases, back to our hometown up north), he/she needs to pass down a will to whomsoever that stays. The will basically contains all the places in KL that he/she thinks are nice to dine & feast.

Funny to think how important good food is to my family :) I guess that's how I got my crave for nice (albeit not necessarily expensive) meals.

And, no, I am definitely not turning this blog into your local internet-based food guide.

selamat pagi dunia

There were times when i felt like mumbling stuffs - not to make an impact, but just for the sake of letting it out aloud, however unimportant that might be.

And that is the very reason why I created this pojok - going along with hundreds of millions of other bloggers out there who have co-existed and populated this new universe within planet earth - the blogosphere.

All hail the newly-born si foodie the fishish!