SOUL SCRIBBLES

I was in cab on the way home from terawih on the eve of Ramadan when I saw fireworks lighting up the sky near the apartments where I live. They do start early this year, I told my usual cab driver. “ Tak lama lagi nanti kita baca berita ada yang accident main mercun ni ,” Hasanudin said. He was not far from wrong. Today, a day short of a week into the fasting month, I read that a four-year-old kid lost his fingers when the “A-Boom” fireworks he was playing with exploded in his left hand. No one really knew what happened. Only the boy can tell. He may have thrown the lighted fireworks too late or he may have tampered with the fireworks and it blew up on him. The irony is we only read about these mishaps during the fasting month and well into Syawal too. Yes, only during these times; hardly ever during Chinese New Year although fireworks are big during their celebrations. I played with fireworks when I was growing up and I have had a few mishaps myself. The first incident was...

Esok, kita akan mula berpuasa. Saya ingin mengambil kesempatan ini untuk memohon keampunan di atas segala perbuatan dan percakapan saya samada di dalam keadaan sedar atau tidak. Jua, di halalkan segala makan dan minum. Sesungguhnya, yang baik itu datangnya dari Allah SWT dan segala keburukan, kesalahan dan kesilapan itu datangnya dari diri saya sendiri.  Semoga Allah SWT menerima amalan dan ibadah kita sepanjang bulan Ramadhan ini. Mohon kita semua perkukuhkan ikatan silaratul rahim yang sedia ada, insya’Allah.

It was a missed opportunity. I should have taken out my phone, put the camera setting on and take her photograph. Oh, I would probably ask her permission first before I snap her photograph or maybe not because I would want a candid shot. She was a rare specie in this day of modern technology. She was reading a book while waiting for her order to arrive. Yes, you read it right the first time. She was reading a book when I saw her. This was at Ben’s KLCC two weekends ago. Everyone around us was looking at the mobile phone screens. You know some were scrolling because they were using the index finger in an upward or downward motion on the mobile phone screen. I saw others furiously typing notes, SMSes or messages on Whatsapp, Telegram or whatever message applications they have on their mobile phones. I didn’t see anyone actually talking on the mobile phone. I am guilty of doing the same thing – checking my messages, checking Facebook or reading the links send to by my frien...

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 ...