2013 |
Jul-Dec |
Sekelip Mata |
Ramadan - The Month of Saving | Dated 2013 Jul 19 Fri 10 Ramadan 1434H |
Ramadan 1434H started on Jul 10 Wed, while en route to KUL home with CB. I used to read an article written by a prolific writer about ramadan many many years ago, published in a local newspaper. She said fasting in ramadan is just like any other month, only that, we would take early breakfast, skips lunch, and dinner on time at sun-set. She thus contemplated that we would save a lot in ramadan. Would we?
Dated 2013 Aug 8 Thu 1 Shawal 1434H |
Shawal 1434H was on Aug 8 Thu, the fourth Shawal Alya, CB, SB and Asri were without their mother. Without, we were better of in our own home. The first one in 2010 was an unforgetable lesson from which we made up during the following two, and the three Aidil Adha after which.
A View for a Routine | Dated 2013 Sep 23 Mon 17 Z-Kaedah 1434H. |
FDS 3013, FIRST LECTURE IN TEMBILA CAMPUS 830-1030. Collecting the milestones for future references. The campus was unofficially opened for the new session 2013/14 in early Sep. Faculty of Information and Computation moved in toto, CB thus resumed his 3rd sem in Tembila. FPBSM moved in stages. At the moment Food Program moved only the 1st and 3rd sem student, while other two programs moved only the 1st sem students. FDS 3013 thus is in Tembila, but unfortunately their practical class is still in KOTA.
 627, from HOME. |
 708, W-Tengah. |
 713, Padang Polis. |
 726, Merang. |
 732, Telaga Papan. |
 740, Penarik. |
 A ten min b-fast. |
 758, Nyatoh. |
 759, Beris. |
 805, Fikri. |
 814, Beting Lintang. |
 818, Pengkalan Kubor. |
 820, Tembila campus. |
 F, D Blocks, monsoon arrives. |
 F Block, still under heavy finishing construction. |
Dated 2013 Oct 12 Sat 7 Z-Hijjah 1434H |
The local said this place was used to be called Little Hong Kong. But it wasn't like Tao Yuan, or even Petaling Street. It was more like any south-SEA town, even like my home town KTGG. Much of the town is still in 'pingitan', minding much of their everyday life of dawn to dusk. Especialy with the sun-set at 'early' hr, and sun-rise at 'late' hr, non-seasonal.
It is a sea-side settlement, but more of the Strait of Melaka type, not the type of east of peninsular. Very wide beach on low tide, but very muddy, it doesn't attract anybody other than a number of hardworking fishermen. In the deeper area, where the harbour is developed, it is rocky. Thus beach-leisuring is not an attraction, even to the locals.
Visibly, fishing is not being under a strong potential, it needed to be applied for the industry, possibly because of its location of rather remote access to the open sea, or logistically under-infra for the produce, but the locals still enjoy available good supply of exotic fish for every apetite.
A Catalogue of Nasi Lemak | Dated 2013 Oct 26 Sat 21 Z-Hijjah 1434H |
A prelude to 2013 Oct 25 Fri 20 Z-Hijjah 1434H. In Terengganu nasi lemak was not a traditional breakfast menu. It was prepared by pious mothers for their children as an emergency measure when proper meals were not ready in time - fragrance-smelled boiled rice from the stock freshly hand-milled from a very recent harvest, and steamy aromatically-spiced fish in a rich coconut-milk-gravy or soup, plus equally alluaring cooked mixed-vegetable that the mother gathered from around the house, and tatalising fries of dried fish or river-prawn, and a catalytic budu or belacan. Traditional nasi lemak was also for the poor who could not afford the proper meal twice a day. It started with the father climbing one of the coconut trees behind his house for a fresh ripen fruit. He then de-skins, and splits open the nut. He gave to the mother who would grate the whole piece, and then squeeze out the milk. She had before hand washed a sufficient rice from the stock. She adds the coconut milk, and a pinch of salt, and boils to cook on a wood-fired stove usually for half an hour. The children would eat the nasi lemak. Just nasi lemak alone with nothing else. That was the traditional nasi lemak in Terengganu.
Current nasi lemak has been cross-cultured from those in the west coast. It started perhaps from 1970's when interstate marriage became a norm, but it was 'tsunami-ed', when Terengganu was influxed, after the massive development era - post 1980's. People from all over the country came to free-Terengganu to try their life. But for the locals the native taste is preserved - the ikan aya, like in nasi dagang and nasi kunyit. The sambal bilis et al are for the foreign taste.
 D Hanna RM3, 2013 Aug 27 |
 Jentayu RM3, 2013 Aug 28 |
 Dek RM1, 2013 Aug 29 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Sep 3 |
 Kubang Badak RM2.50, 2013 Sep 3 |
 GambangRR RM3, 2013 Sep 5 |
 TGG airport RM3.50, 2013 Sep 16 |
 Kubang Badak RM2, 2013 Sep 17 |
 Jentayu RM2, 2013 Sep 18 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Sep 19 |
 Sg Merab RM1.20, 2013 Sep 21 |
 GambangRR RM2.50, 2013 Sep 21 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Sep 22 |
 Penarik RM3, 2013 Sep 23 |
 D Hanna RM3, 2013 Sep 25 |
 Jentayu RM2, 2013 Sep 25 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Sep 26 |
 D Hanna RM3, 2013 Sep 30 |
 Aina-2 RM2, 2013 Oct 4 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Oct 6 |
 Dek RM1, 2013 Oct 7 |
 MH KUL-SDK RM-NA, 2013 Oct 8 |
 J Walk RM16, 2013 Jun 4 |
 KLIA FG RM4, 2013 Oct 18 |
 KLIA FG RM3, 2013 Oct 18 |
 Sg Merab RM1.20, 2013 Oct 19 |
 POSMEN RM2, 2013 Oct 20 |
 Terakit RM3, 2013 Oct 21 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Oct 23 |
 Blok-G RM2, 2013 Oct 24 |
 Golflights RM1.30, 2011 Mar 17 |
 Jentayu RM1, 2013 Oct 22 |
Other Menu - Nasi Dagang & Nasi Kunyit
 K Ibai RM2.50, 2013 Mar 27 |
 Dek RM2.50, 2013 Aug 29 |
 Jentayu RM2.50, 2013 Sep 4 |
 KTGG Airport RM4.60, 2013 Sep 14 |
 Dek RM4.00, 2013 Sep 15 |
 Jentayu RM1.00, 2013 Nov 21 |
 KTGG Airport RM4.70, 2013 Sep 15 |
 Terakit RM3.00, 2013 Sep 29 |
 Dek RM2.50, 2010 Apr 24 |
 Dek RM2.50, 2010 Apr 24 |
 KKK RM3.00, 2008 Aug 17 |
 Aina-2 RM2.50, 2013 Oct 4 |
My Favourites - Laksam, Rojak Betik and Rojak 'Kita'
The first was my mother's specialty that had kept us ticking and kicking in late 1970's when I was still in the university. The second was the one my mother bought for me - 5 sen, every time I accompanied her to the market, in the evening, when I was a little boy. Currently it cost 1.50 rm. And the third was a luxurious item only in certain coffee shop, we could afford only a few times a year - it cost 10 sen. Currently, 1.50 rm.
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A Picture with Thousand Words Un-Said | Dated 2013 Nov 23 Sat 19 Muharram 1435H |
Undoubtedly, the event of the year that marked the on going 'recovery' was Alya's Degree Conferement 2013 Oct 28 in UPM. It was followed by an outing, 2013 Nov 3, organised by her brothers and sisters, to celebrate her end of the toughest task since 2010 Jun. It was in one of the remote, deep in nature homestay in Janda Baik. Unseen signs in the destiny, that soon I would take over Alya's task to free her into her own destiny.
I wanted it very much, when it was on sale, to keep it for future nostalgia which I knew it would. But then I could not afford it, I didn't have the fund for it, so small, but so much. I cooled myself by saying, it would be in the school megazine. I deliberately missed this one, and opted just the one, saying to myself that the one has everyone. She knew it because she took the order for the class. And she kept the words.
She was informed that I would be there, and that was the sole reason I accepted the invitation, not for the invitation itself. And eventually I was there. I was to search for her, but she found me before I found her. She re-introduced herself which she needed not. And missing no second, she gave the picture to me. She had reproduced it for me to keep. She then eluded herself, bee-ing among the invitees at peak attendence.
I finally got the picture. Exactly forty seven years later, photographically verbatim. One thousand words were kept before the pic. And many thousands more about it, and thousands more after it. A few of them were that of I really wanted the pic, but I could not afford it. And the words are to be kept as they were.
A Company on New Year Eve | Dated 2013 Dec 31 Tue 28 Safar 1435H |
I had a company on the new year eve. A juvenile raccoon. When I arrived home, it was scaling the underside of the roof gutter, perhaps had been scanning my house for sometimes already before I arrived. I knew where it descended from, and where to it was going. It didn't bother at all of my return, even to the noise of pushing-opened the monsoon-swollen door leaves. It kept minding its own matter of coming from and going to. I guessed it had been visiting me many times already at night when I was in deep sleep, knew me and my smell, and thus unbothered by my return. I wished that one of its delicacy is the white ants which had infested my house, already climbing on the columns to the roof.
Unsure whether this was the baby which welcomed me home in May 2012 while being introduced as a family. For sure not this one in Nov the same year which invited me to have a frolic while I was lying on bed waiting to fall to sleep.
It was great to have a company on the eve of new year. It was a luxury these days to have a company in a dark and lonely night.
2013 |
Jul-Dec |
Sekelip Mata |