SOUL SCRIBBLES

I have fond memories of covering MAS when I was a reporter with Business Times. I go for each and every MAS assignment – big or small, with or without a business angle to the story – and is seen at the MAS Building at Jalan Sultan Ismail almost every other day that the then MD Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman asked, “Don’t you have your own office?” He was the most accessible MD. Phone calls to his office never go unanswered. His secretary vetted all calls but I have never had my phone calls to him barred. Also, she’ll call back if he was busy to take the call or if he was in a meeting. I had many exclusives on MAS – some came from the airline itself, others were sources from within the airline and the aviation industry. I can remember two. The first was about Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli seeking RM8 per share, or RM1.67 billion, for Naluri Bhd's 29.9 per cent stake in the airline. When I received word of it, I sent in some questions to my well-placed contact in the Finance Mini...

I don’t remember the last time I went out on a CSR programme with the company’s Volunteers’ Brigade. I know for sure I haven’t gone out to any since June last year when I fractured the humerus bone of my right arm (where I had to eventually go for a surgery in July to insert a six-inch plate with six screws replace the grafted bone). There were several CSR programmes that I could have gone for sometime late last year and early this year but the brigade chief di dn’t think I was ready for it. “ Eh, dah boleh angkat barang2 berat dah ?” he said when he saw me carrying a box to my office recently. He asked if I could participate in the coming CSR programme. I said yes immediately. Some 40 of us went to Kampung Gintong in Jerantut last Saturday for the gotong royong Suara Komuniti BH. Kampung Gintong was one of the villages affected by the floods late last year. I remembered reading an article about livestock being swept away during the floods there. It was a two hours’ drive fr...

It was a Friday like today 34 years ago when I received news that my eldest brother had passed away. He was in Ipoh, a final year land survey student at Politeknik Ungku Omar. I was in Muar doing my Form Six. My parents and my youngest brother were at home in Johor Bahru. The brother-in-law of my aunt’s husband, who lived in Muar, came by the hostel to break the news. There was kuliah at the college in the morning but I stayed in instead. I woke up feeling extremely cold – chilling to the bones – although the weather was warm that morning. He said my parents would be picking me up later to go to Kuala Lumpur to bring the body home. My parents had received a telegram from the polytechnic informing them of his death. My father called the polytechnic to confirm the news and got in touch with other family members. In the car to Kuala Lumpur, they discussed funeral arrangements. They decided not to bring the body home but to bury him in Kuala Lumpur instead. A cousin, whose husba...

School holidays are right around the corner but we haven’t made any plans. In fact, we’re not going anywhere this mid-year school holidays (or else, we would have made bookings for transport, accommodation and whatever else that needed to be done to ensure a vacation to be enjoyed by all especially my 75-year old mother). My niece, Mysara, who will be sitting for the STPM at the end of the year while her brother, Danial, will do the PT3, will have extra classes during the two-week break. I would have signed him up for a PT3 workshop if he hasn’t any extra classes.   " Duduk rumah, baca buku, kan nak periksa ni ..." would be my mother's reply if the grandchildren asked her where they can take her for a short break outside Kuala Lumpur. So, we're not going anywhere. Furthermore, I’m saving up for our winter holiday in Korea at the end of the year. They were pretty disappointed when we were in London and Paris during the Christmas/New Year break last year. They w...

I wear an XXL T-shirt (American size). Add another X to that if the T-shirt is in the Malaysian size. Using the UK chart, I vary between sizes 18 and 20, depending on the cutting of the clothes. Yes, I’m a plus size woman. I have been one all my life. Even if I drop one X from the local size of XXXL, I am still considered a plus size. (In the fashion industry, a plus size is identified as sizes 12-24, super size as sizes 4X-6X and extended size as 7X and above. In Britain, the term used is “outsize”.) Some 20 years ago, a plus size woman would find difficulty buying clothes off the rack. The largest size would be XL. Only certain labels carry XXL or XXXL. Either you send fabric for tailoring or you shop for your plus size clothing overseas. Now, you can find several labels carrying plus size clothes here such as Marks and Spencer (up to size 24), Ms Read (sizes 12-24) and Total Women (T1 to T4). Price-wise, items from these labels can be a little bit on the high side (although...

I haven’t been cooking much the past year or so. It’s not that I don’t have the time for it but it’s cheaper for me to eat outside. Cooking for one can be an expensive affair. It can lead to wastage too. Nevertheless, when I do cook, normally weekends when I’m too lazy to go out, it would be simple dishes like the kerabu ikan bilis I read on LoubiLou .  Only, I called mine ikan bilis goreng bawang dan cili api (tak creative langsung kan ?) and I add a squeeze of tamarind juice in it, thus creating some gravy. I swear I can live on this alone; eating it with piping hot rice, with kicap manis cap Kipas (somehow I like this brand the best!) and telur dadar (fried egg pancake with sliced onions and red or green chillies). Or, sardines in tomato sauce (saute onions in some oil, add chillies, pour in the sardine with the tomato sauce and add a little water to thin the gravy), also to be eaten with rice and telur dadar. Or just hot rice with a dab of butter, kicap manis and ...

Have you heard of this term before? I can bet you have not. It’s my mother’s favourite line on her squabbling grandchildren. Well, they don’t squabble all the time. You know how teenage siblings are; they can be best buddies one minute and get on each others’ nerves the next. One word, one sentence or an action can trigger an outburst. And it can happen anywhere; hence, “ dari rumah ” (from home) and “ ke tanah ” (to mean outside the house). And it can be irritating to the grandmother because she’s with them in Putrajaya. Whenever they start quarrelling, the nenek will go, “ dari rumah ke tanah …” and starts her rant. Mysara and Danial will start blaming each other on who started the quarrel first.   And because the nenek uses it often enough, they will, in the midst of their squabbling, say “ dari rumah ke tanah ” before she can say it herself. And they will burst out laughing. And nenek will be annoyed. “ Tengok tu, dia main-mainkan kita ,” she would say. I don’...

Remember the encyclopedia? I had an uncle who kept volumes (from A to Z) of the Encyclopedia Britannica in a cupboard. No one could touch it. It was as if these books were put in there as a display. At the school library, I use the encyclopedia as my reference books. Just like the dictionary, only the encyclopedia had a lot more information than just on words alone. It was my teacher. I refer to it mostly when teachers can’t give me a satisfactory answer to my questions. These days, kids (and adults, included) have Google and the many search engines available. All they need to do is type in what they want to know and voila … the answer is there for the taking! But it is YouTube that has replaced the encyclopedia as my teacher. Some of the things I’ve learned and become good at are because of the videos on YouTube. Baking is one of them. Decourage is another. The third will, insya’Allah, be playing the guitar. When I was in school, I used to follow my mother to her bakin...

Six letters, Two words, Easy to say, Hard to explain, Harder to do: MOVE ON.

Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living, But the child who is born on the Sabbath day Is fair and wise and good in every way. -           A. E. Bray's Traditions of Devonshire (Volume II, pp. 287–288) This is a new blog. Does this mean a new life? Well, maybe. This is my third blog, to be exact. I don’t remember the first blog. I accidentally deleted the account when I wanted to change the blog name. Lucky for me, there weren’t that many postings yet. The second blog was initially called Latte @ Chinoz on the Park as I used to hang out there quite a lot with my good friend Helen, who has now moved to Kuching, Sarawak. We had a good time watching people from all walks of life there. I started it on a Wednesday, on 26 July 2006 to be exact. I ...