Posted in Write On, tagged Yasmin Ahmad on July 25, 2009| 4 Comments »
And there she was, telling us the very stories we had been scared to tell ourselves. She was one of them and yet to us she belonged, and among us she stayed… to touch only the touchable souls.
The Storyteller is no more. Only her stories now. Rest well then, my Storyteller. While we tell your stories as well as ours, the way you have taught us to. True only to our touchable souls.
Posted in Write On, tagged Yasmin Ahmad on July 23, 2009| 1 Comment »
I am frantically clicking on the F5 (Refresh) button on my lappy every two minutes here to see more updates on Yasmin Ahmad’s condition. As frantic as I am, praying for the best of what life and Yasmin Ahmad both have for each other to offer. To have and to hold. Hang in there Kak Yasmin. The way life has… to your beautiful soul.
The Star Online Updates on Yasmin Ahmad
Posted in Write On, tagged è, Readers on July 22, 2009| 6 Comments »
This entry today is dedicated to that special someone in or near Sri Kembangan or Cheras Selatan who has been reading my blog for many moons. Thank you. I know on weekdays around 0800 or 0830hrs, your eyes would be on my silent words. And to you, another special someone in Johor Bahru who would do the same… I’m glad to be read by you. This morning, like yesterday morning. And many mornings sudah. And of course you too, my special someone in Auckland. (Dee! I know lah it’s you.)
But who’s there in Wellington eh?
And who is in Pasig, Rizal (The Philipines)?
Now who is it there in Bandar Penggaram, Johor?
Would you – the one in Puchong, Selangor, leave me a comment someday?
The thing that makes it a challenge to kind of guess who and where you are, my special readers, is the FeedJit locator who insists that Sri Kembangan is in Negeri Sembilan. Kajang too is in Negeri Sembilan. Bangi has also been attacked, conquered by Negeri Sembilan and is no longer in Selangor. Kota Bharu has been moved to Perak. And I have been worried if Johor Bahru would soon be moved to Singapore… near Signature Park, Toh Tuck Road maybe! FeedJit is, with it’s ralat sifar and all, not overly accurate.
But you know who you are, and you know where you are.
To my dear readers in Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan – wherever in Kuala Lumpur you are: Titiwangsa, Bangsar Puteri, TTDI, Wangsamaju, Bandar Pusat Damansara, Bukit Gasing, Istana Budaya, Pesiaran U-Thant, Jalan Binjai, Ampang Hilir, Lorong Chong Khoon Lin, Jalan Watan 1, Gleneagles Intan, or Bandar Manjalara… I send you some Moscow cool morning breeze this morning. And tomorrow morning. And all the mornings, noons and evenings when you come and sit by me at Questa è Enida.
Spasiba bolshoi.
Posted in Write On on July 21, 2009| 2 Comments »
I have learned that…
If you can’t beat them with your wisdom,
destroy them with your kindness.
Enida
July 20, 2009
Posted in Write On, tagged Art, Numbness on July 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
To know the artist of the painting above is a privilege for me. At one time in the year 2000, when we were talking about numbness, as artists usually do… he said very little. The next time I saw him, he just handed me this piece – a simple blue-black Hero ink on paper done in half an hour. I asked him if he had given it a title, he said he was still talking about numbness in his head when he painted it. Thus the spilled ink was his thoughts. I am now reading it everyday in Moscow. Every drop. I have persuaded him to keep on painting the way he has persuaded me to keep on writing. Let me know if I should reveal his real name in my next post, will ya?
Postlude:
You already know his brother.
Posted in Service, Write On, tagged Makan-Makan on July 15, 2009| 5 Comments »
My Lil Sis and I ordered:
1. Steamed Siakap Cheng Ho Style
2. Crab Salted Eggs
3. Tofu in Sizzling Plate
4. Kailan Belacan
Let’s just say all the positively good things first aye? The verdict:
The best dish was Crab Salted Eggs! It is worth going back to Cheng Ho for, I must vote. With its rich sauce coating the fresh and sweet crabs, it was very different from what I have had. I am not sure if the original Chinese version would use karipulai the way many restaurants in this country would prepare Butter Prawns. But I am in the acceptance of Malaysianized Chinese dishes here. I’ll order this when I am in Beijing next.
The other three dishes were so-so. The Steamed Siakap was nothing more than a steamed fish with some poured-on asam pedas-like sauce. We didn’t enjoy bites of under-cooked chili sauce or gravy with the chili seeds still crunchy. There wasn’t any taste to begin with, let alone to finish with. Maybe we should’ve gone for fried Siakap instead of steamed. But it was supposed to be a matter of sauce, of course.
The Tofu in Sizzling Plate was nothing to brag about – a bit too runny for us, and we did not fancy the frozen vegetables (diced carrots, corns and green peas) in it! I usually associate those frozen bagged vegies with cheap fried rice at cheap restaurants. And oh, was the sizzling plate supposed to be sizzling when it got to our table? If it was, it uh… didn’t.
For the Kailan Belacan, I think the most polite way for me to put it is that it was not as memorable as the same plate you can get at Bangi Golf Resort, Bandar Baru Bangi. Perhaps it wasn’t Chinese enough for a comparison, but not many Kailan Belacans can go wrong. While this one at Cheng Ho did not go wrong, it didn’t go home with me for its taste either. I wouldn’t shout about how ordinary it was, nor was it something to shout about.
When we got the bill of RM122.22, Lil Sis and I were more excited about the nice number 12222 it amounted to than the big tapau bag Lil Sis was taking home. Uh, naaa… none for me thanks. I was by then very very excited about a phone call from my bestfriend, Chin, dinner with another bestfriend, Lish (at a restaurant in front of Mrs. X’s house) and breakfast at the Lawn with another bestfriend, Tuan Nor, the next morning. Told ya I was fully booked!
Posted in Service, Write On, tagged First Impression, Makan-Makan on July 12, 2009| 1 Comment »
This is not intended as a free publicity for Amy Search’s restaurant – negative or otherwise. As personal as this blog is, this post is my way of documenting my own view. And since my comment on Facebook: “Enida is disappointed with Cheng Ho Restaurant” triggered quite a few curious responses, I thought I should write the whole story. The whole true story. My truth. Nothing but the truth – Enida’s version.
Wednesday July 8th, I called the restaurant at 03-4149 6094 to make a reservation for five people for lunch on Friday July 10th at 1230hrs. Not only that I had to repeat myself four times with the date, the day and time we were coming, I had to state the date, the day and the time and the number of people the reservation was for. There! I even repeated myself here! That’s how annoyed I still am with the whole experience. But behold! They do NOT take reservation for less than 8 pax. Thank you very much!
Yes, you heard me right. If you are heading to the restaurant, located at the commercial area right behind Wangsamaju Carrefour, you either walk in or gather 7 other people who coincidentally feel like eating Islamic Seafood at the same time as you do. Otherwise, try to guess when they are not busy. Also, yes… you can walk in without any drop of sweat under you arms if you can find parking around the area. The best is to just park at Carrefour and walk down – if it is not raining.
But again, behold! I am not writing this just because I had an annoying conversation with the doorknob Amy Search hired to take calls at his restaurant. I don’t give up that easily. So I gathered two sisters, two kids, a husband and a maid to Cheng Ho Restaurant on Friday July 10th at 1215hrs even though we were short of one person to make the quorum. And guess what? The restaurant was CLOSED! Imagine if I had gathered 8 people and the reservation was made.
What Mr. Doorknob did not tell me on the phone – after repeatingly asking me the day, the date and the time I was coming – was that Cheng Ho Restaurant only opens between 1700-2300hrs on Fridays! (That is 5pm-11pm ladies and gentlemen! Where got lunch?) But why oh why did Mr. Doorknob say nothing when I said I would have liked to come for lunch on a Friday? Hello? Anybody there?
I can rationalize that he might have forgotten that they don’t open for lunch on Fridays. Yeah right! It is, after all, a Chinese Islamic Seafood restaurant. The Seafood might want to do their last Friday prayers in China before being grilled and end up on my plate. Completely understandable! Or maybe, just maybe, Mr. Doorknob just got hired by Amy Search on the very day I happened to be calling. He hadn’t worked long enough to know Friday lunch is non-existent. And I can give this Mr. Doorknob, Mr. Amy Search and the restaurant all the benefit of the doubt I want, to soften the impact of my own disappointment. Yes, I can. But hey, you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression you know.
So there I was, standing in front of Cheng Ho Chinese Islamic Seafood Restaurant at 1215hrs on Friday having gathered two sisters, two kids, a husband and a maid… praying that maybe, just maybe someday I would gather enough interest in Cheng Ho Restaurant again. Or maybe, just maybe… I should do that before I leave for Moscow this Wednesday – just to prove to myself that Cheng Ho is after all… ’em ho’.
Posted in Write On, tagged Books on July 9, 2009| 9 Comments »
When it comes to books, I am GPS. I’m greedy, I’m possessive and I’m super-generous.
Greedy as in, I have to get a copy of books I like, though I know I won’t have time to read. Well, after a few pages when they prove to be good books, I usually discover that I can make time to read. And when I do make time to read, there is this ineffable greed to know the ending (fiction) or to grab all the knowledge offered in the book (non-fiction).
And then there is this possessiveness towards books, the trait I learned from my KaCher. She once got hold of an old book that the school library was giving away to reward librarians – the book was none other than Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster. As soon as I saw her reading it day in day out amidst chores and school hours, I knew it was a great book and I had to read it too. But we were too much of two-of-a-kind then; she would not let me borrow it even after she finished reading the book. She even hid it from me! I stayed up really late one night, ransacked our room, found it and stayed up ALL night reading it! What happened in the morning when she saw the book on my sleeping face was a World Wide War story greater than Saving Private Lion Ryan.
Super-generosity, the trait that I have towards books, has got me into a mess more than anything. As it is the bloody twin sister to my greed, I have to have books that I have to have! There’s no stopping me. Just like the greed, possessiveness and super-generosity that I have towards souvenirs I buy for other people that I end up keeping. You’re looking at the same gal here! I buy and buy and buy books – reading comes later. I have even made a schedule of what books to read when I am in my 60’s – another 20 something years.
And just in case my memory does not stay as long as my greed, my possessiveness and my super-generosity, I started a habit quite a few years back. That is, for every book I purchase I make a point to write down the when and the where I found the book. And the most important thing, how the book found me. For I believe they may have just one story written, but every book has more than just a story to tell. Someday the story a book tells might write me off, but with what I wrote, I can tell why I read it.
Posted in Sense, Write On, tagged Body Language, Men on July 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Pretty nostalgic it was the other day listening very clearly to an old Iklim’s song. That engkau bagai air yang jernih di dalam bekas yang berdebu song. I could vividly imagine a badly scratched and dusty glass with Evian stall-temperature water in it, on a hot day at a roadside warung (stall) on the way to Dungung. Of course there are rose syrup, jambu juice, young wangi coconuts, cans of Red Bull, Coke, Sprite and Soy Milk drinks soaked in crushed ice in a polystyrene carton on the side. But all my heart desires would be the un-chilled bottled water. And of course, since it is improper for a lady to drink from a bottle, they pour the water into a glass. That badly scratched dusty glass.
What I meant to write actually was about the other side of Enida. The in side. The side that cannot be seen no matter how many times you orbit around me. I am likening myself to the Evian water here. You can have me cold, you can have me boiled. But I am, supposedly, transparent. As clear as water. I don’t blame the scratched dusty glass either. You can have your views and perceptions clouded with what you think you see and what you want to see. After all, blame is not my game. But before I digress another 350km east on this post, let me start with revealing what has never been revealed before.
Since I use this Bernard Pivot Questionnaire in training sessions that I conduct, it’s my time to strip myself quarter naked now.
- What is your favorite word?
Perché? (Italian: Why?)- What is your least favorite word?
Whatever- What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Orderliness and kindness- What turns you off?
Negative thinking- What is your favorite curse word?
Gawwwdddddd!- What sound or noise do you love?
Edrick humming- What sound or noise do you hate?
Noisy chewing- What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Hotelier- What profession would you not like to do?
Running a daycare- If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
“There you are, luv!”
I have to add some here. I just have to. Especially the ‘turning me on’ question, Question #3. If one ever wonders what turns Enida on in a man – before I reveal my answer, I think it is pretty important for me to stress that this ‘turn-on’ has nothing to do with ‘hard-on’. Okay? Please? Well, here goes… I am always attracted to men with a ‘clean’ aura. And that is physically and mentally. Of course the latter takes a little longer to reveal. But one with genuine ‘cleanliness’, would have it radiating all over his language. Verbal and non. His words and his move.
Physically, however, if you really want to know how clean a man can be… look at his hands. His fingers can do the talking.
Posted in Nostalgia, Write On, tagged Junk Food on July 5, 2009| 5 Comments »
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Questa è Enida 