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In Cinta

September 11, 2004 by Enida

Incinta, pregnant in Italian…is the state my lil sister’s in right now. Pehh! Fourth month’s month-iversary and the good news! Pretty ‘express-ive’ eh? Congratulations to Lil Sis and her Lo Kong. Soon Kitreena will have a baby cousin! I am so excited to hand down all my ilmu to Lil Sis now. Since I had to brave it all by myself during my time, I guess I learned a little more by trial-and-error. Not to mention my excitement to menurunkan all the bajus Kitreena got as presents. Can’t wait!

Now, wait a minute! How do I know I can turunkan the bajus? What if it is a boy? Alah, a baby is a baby. There’s no harm for a boy to wear pink, is there? Eh, jangan kau…I know some people who would freak out to see their son wearing fuscia pool diaper when the blue is not available (and that fuscia diaper is worn on the INSIDE of the swimming trunk, mind you! This is not superman or superbaby we’re talking about, wearing his underwear as an upperwear, you tupperware – read:mangkuk!)

So what’s the fuss about colors ni? Would your baby boy turn out to be a “trans-v” just because you put a pink diaper once or twice before his second birthday? Or would your baby girl grow up to be the next Ellen deGeneres because you put on blue pair of shoes on her for a few months? Hello, come on lah kan. To put things in Malaysian context, do you really think those Kelantanese men wearing colorful bunga-bunga batik sarong are sissy?

Think again.
(Opocot! I sound like Datin pulak!)

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Ada

September 8, 2004 by Enida

I got caught up counting my sheep blessings and couldn’t go to sleep tonight. So I came downstairs to get a glass of Ribena and to turn the computer off. Well, the computer is still lah so on nyer because I got caught up reading some blogs. (So easy to get caught up and get distracted these days.) Nevertheless, I must admit, I am amazed with the number of really good Malaysian bloggers now. Well-written English, fantastically engaging style, interestingly and sometimes questionably fascinating honesty within.

As a frequent reader of this Datin’s blog, I can’t help but admiring her writing. Flawless, and more importantly (to me) grammatically accurate. Logical? I mean…do I question whether she is a fact or a fake? Nope. I don’t question. She writes her truth, like I do mine. Plus, she doesn’t need anybody’s validation or verification to her stories, does she? In some ways, I can even relate to her life. Not her lifestyle per se, but the life and its luxury.

I am not in the kaya category. Far from! But I am humbled to say that I definitely belong to the berada species. Berada as in…I do ada almost everything I want. No doubt I ada all that I need. In fact, there are so many bembarang in my house that I should tiada-lized very soon. That’s what the patio sale is all about. That’s how blessed I am, to have what I want and to want to have even more when what I have is not wanted anymore. Greedy me!

Datuk, Datin or not…trust me, there are just so many Malaysians now who CAN afford to buy cars and houses in cash term. Irrespective of race, that is. Chinese, Indians and Malays. There’s just so much money going around back home. Before I was exposed to this expats life, I didn’t know that one could ever buy a car cash. Uh, there was just enough for me to put Tom Yam Sayur on the table every night with a tutor’s stipendio in KL. Only after I left Malaysia that I started to see that there were greener pastures elsewhere. I grazed on Dandelions like a cow when I was in Perth. Mooo!

And now the middle-east. The last time I was back in Malaysia, I tried my best to promote these tax-free countries to my ex-colleagues. I wasn’t in the force yet at that time, I wasn’t sure of the exact amount of beans you can collect. But now I know better. And it is a whole load more than I thought! So just imagine, ya saiyidati wa saiyidatina sekelian…how else could you afford a half-million RM property, a 4WD and a Honda Jazz; all paid in cash in no time? Brag or no brag, it is a good place to make money.

But then again, if money is your goal…chances are, you will get it. Oh yes you will. And that’s about all you get. Loads of it. Though I have seen more countries in the world than even many datuks have seen, and I make manifolds more than many ministers do…there’s always the ‘lonely’ factor. It really is lonely at the top. How long can you live surrounded by money? And how far can you stretch making nothing but money? At some point, sedangkan hujan lagi kan berhenti. Ye dak?

Well, I still strongly think that you guys should come and work here in the middle-east. Come be the eagles. Live and play with me. It’d be nice to be surrounded by friends, for a change. Maybe we could go get the Lasic done together-gether. Or perhaps we could laze around at the boat club or at The Chedi. The top guy is our close friend. And we might want to do part-time at that international language center by my place…alah just to feel good about ourselves. To put our degree to a good purpose. To keep our minds sharp. However humble your own career is…bak kata Desiderata.

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Mari Kita Ke Ladang, Hoi!

September 4, 2004 by Enida

Green is the color.
It is cooling off quite a bit now. The hottest part of summer is over. I guess we could call it Omani Autumn, but really…it’s no cooler or less humid than Malaysia at the moment. Green is not the usual color you see around yet. Well, it never is the usual color you see around here. Nevertheless, it is a good time to do some gardening, if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty.

Remember the kangkong that was cilok-ed by Bibik a couple of weeks ago? While most of the leaves and stems have gone back to the soil in the loji tapisan somewhere I don’t even want to care to know, some are now growing in our kebun! Yes sireee, Bibik planted some stems leaveless right on the day I made the Kangkong Belacan. Yeah, leaveless!

With our konon scientific knowledge, my hubby and I thought that the kangkong should have been planted with at least some leaves on. They are the ones who ‘make’ the food for the plant, are they not? That chlorophyll thingy, ya know? So we waited and watched with little faith that there ever will be any more fresh Kangkong Belacan, i.e. not kangkong from Carrefour.

It hasn’t even been two weeks, but the kangkong is growing like a weed. By the way, is kangkong a weed? Dandelion is, but people eat it like cows grazing on grass. Uh, what is it with me and cows these days kan? I was chatting with Cik Nan the other day about cow’s meat (beef lah tu) in the middle east tasting not as ‘meaty’ as beef in Malaysia. I swear. Beef here tastes like wet hardtack. Or if you could imagine chewing on that eggs-holder cardboard material (sarang telur ke haper ke dipanggil that thing).

Back to my kangkong…I mean, Bibik’s kebun kangkong. We caught ourselves berangan the other day. Bibik and I. That maybe by the time we have our patio sale next month, we could open a stall selling some fresh kangkong. Or better yet, have some kangkong-picking sale. Ya know, like those strawberry or apple-picking farms in Canada. Oh yeah, berangan taik kucing me and my maid, we can!

I’d better get ready to go to work. Not that I need the money. (Isyy belagaknya akuu!) But I can’t imagine myself being a kangkong farmer and making one-tenth a month against what I am making in less than an hour. Nothing against any kangkong farmers out there. Tak per lah, call me belacan all you want. But it’s nice to get that Lasik done with only two weeks of il mio stipendio. And that is only 10 hours per week.

Seven hundred twenty trillion, five hundred thirty three thousand, eight hundred eleven hippopotamus…seven hundred twenty trillion, five hundred thirty three thousand, eight hundred twelve hippopo…. Sorry, I am busy counting my blessings again. Chi vediamo, farfalla.

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Chain of Fools

September 3, 2004 by Enida

I instigated, participated and attended a school reunion a couple of years back. We were fifteen, and that was fifteen years ago. I thought it would be pretty neat to see how much we had changed. Physically especially, and socially hopefully. Of course I didn’t expect the guys to be teasing the girls like old times. We were all in our 30’s, for crying out loud. So I saw people whom I had not seen for fifteen years. Some for even twenty! It was nice.

The reunion made me think of Desiderata, especially the part:

  • If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

So I enjoyed the reunion, sharing some old jokes, recalling some old flames, seeing old friends…some looking ‘older’ than others, and some looking exactly like they did fifteen years earlier. And some behaving more childishly than some fifteen months old kids! So I told myself that that was okay too. Some people grow up, and many just grow old.

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Prove Me Wrong

September 2, 2004 by Enida

Ka Cher [ga-jeh] called yesterday, pissed off, pms-ed and all. She was supposed to get her Getz on Wednesday, but she didn’t. Her second car this one. So she’s had it all with salesmen. And Ka Cher is the “hope-for-the-best-but-be-prepared-for-the-worst” kind of person. She’d ask questions. Tonnes of questions. And oh has she ever learned from her experience! But after a while, even the most skeptical Tom Dick and Harry too would like to give some salesmen the benefit of the doubts ya know. The positive thinking stuff.

And it was then that she was proven right. Again. Human err. So do salesmen. Only salesmen err by choice. This Getz salesman promised, I mean promised her that she would get her Getz on Wednesday. Not a day early, and not a day late. But came Wednesday, he turned his cellphone off, and his office phone disconnected. Thursday he picked up his cellphone and said nothing. Late Thursday, Ka Cher went to the showroom to find him with his stinky kambing smile trying to explain the situation.

By then, there was just a huge flock of flies swarming around the cow’s tail…you could not see Mr. Moo no more. Or in short, he already buat taik lah. That was a big mistake. You don’t fool around with my Ka Cher. She takes no taik from no salesman. I mean, come on lah kan…if you don’t have the answer or explanation now, how could you come up with a promise a week ago? This salesman never mentioned anything about Puspakom check, or custom verification at all when Ka Cher ordered her Getz.

Ka Cher asked questions. Tonnes of questions. Like what’s next, and what happens after that, and how long of a wait for this, or that. Did she ever. But then, I guess it all comes down to sales…eh? As long as a salesman gets to sell whatever it is he is selling, khalass! Say all the true right things, get the customers convinced to buy, they buy, and that’s it. The right things remained right at the time they were spoken. Nothing beyond. Prove me wrong. Not all salesmen/women – but most of them – are nothing better than a flock of flies. Shoooh!

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Freedom to Think

August 31, 2004 by Enida

An old friend asked me one time if I was a free-thinker. Being the Enida that I am, I answered his question with a question. Asked him to give his own definition of free-thinker. His idea of a free-thinker by the way was…a person who is free from believing in any Super Power, who has his/her own measure of right and wrong, does not have to conform to real-time societies, yada yada yada.

But I said YES anyway, except that I had my own definition of what a free-thinker should be. “Because I am a free-thinker, I am free to think that the Super Power does exist, no matter what name anybody else calls Him by; that being kind to others is about the only religion that binds me from doing the wrong things; and as much as I would like to belong to the real-time societies…I am free to think that I am raceless.”

My friend then called me an apostate.

Oh don’t worry, feel free to have your Merdeka Day your way.

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Where The Eagles Live and Play

August 30, 2004 by Enida

This is the view of The PDO Club where I take the anak itik berenang-renang ke tepian every other day or so. Well, I have been busy and lazy this past week. Plus I couldn’t find the pool diapers anywhere now. They are not available at Al Fair (fair enough, they don’t seem to have half of the things other places do anyway). Sultan Center didn’t have those fuscia diapers the last time I checked. Carrefour, of all places…pun tak ada!

Bibik offered me her theory the other day, “Kali pabriknya udah bungkus ya buk?” Isyyy pepandai je lah Bibik ni, I hushed her. Kitreena can’t go into the pool without those special diapers. It’s the pool regulation. Not that she would potty in her pants out of excitement anyway. Rules are rules, though they’re meant to be broken.

The island you can see a little far out is Mina Al Fahal. There is an annual swimming competition here in May where the participants swim from the club, around the island and make a loop back. I must admit, it’s the club that gives us the ‘Club Med’ lifestyle in Muscat. Being that it is a private beach club and all, it sure is one of the most beautiful beaches around.

I hope you didn’t mind the heading. Even the eagles have to put food on the table, you know. We don’t fly. And when we do, we don’t normally fly first class either. My life might be a little tat more comfortable than others, and for that I count my blessings. Five thousand billion, and three hundred twenty six hippopotamus…five thousand billion, and three hundred twenty seven hippopotamus…five thousand billion….

I am gone, counting.

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Ready Maid

August 28, 2004 by Enida

I have mentioned Bibik in quite a few entries so far. But really, she is not just a Bibik. She’s a family. We’re neither related by any marriage or divorce, nor are we via blood relation, donation, transfusion or confusion. But we are sisters in all sense of sisterhood. She believes in God. So that makes us sisters. Simply put.

We were having our supposedly holiday in Malaysia April this year, when Bibik joined us there from Indramayu. It’s a long story of frustration and a series of heartaches before fate decided to cross our paths. Bibik actually spent about four months with my best friend Cik Nan before she was sent home from Sharjah. She, notty notty…went kabur (escaped) from her previous employer – the one prior to Cik Nan. Well, if I were her, not only would I have cabut lari…I would have also cabut the nyawa of the employer already what! Dare he even try to touch me!

I remember picking her up at the JB Airport that day. It was April 28th and it was one helluva rainy afternoon. To cut the long story short, after all the silly threats from some JB custom officers, Bibik was allowed to come with me, Be and Kitty. Well, it is never a cerpen if you are a Malaysian who does not reside in Malaysia, hauls an uomo bianco and a mochalatte baby around, and bears an Omani, Canadian, Italian and Australian residency visas all at once. Now, if that’s not a novel, it must be an excyclopaedia lah gamaknya.


The Bibik and The BabyK

Kitty bonded with Bibik instantly. They were purely and genuinely serasi right at their first sight of each other. And as a mom, I just knew it. I mean, moms just know. You don’t second guess your baby’s liking towards another woman, ya know. If you are a mom yourself, you would nod to this in agreement. What more can you tell of your maid if within two hours of knowing your child, your child muntah belilah all over her, and she didn’t even cringe?

Today, Bibik has been with us for four months right on the dot. Like I said earlier, she is not just a Bibik as in bibik (aunt) to Kitreena. She has been my closest friend these past few months especially when all I could turn to were the walls, the ceiling and this quiet house. She’s been there when I felt like cookin’ a storm, and when all the dishes stormed the sinks. Through thick, thin, stuffed and crusty.

Last Tuesday, I came home from work to find a stroller-basket full of kangkong. (Bibik takes Kitreena for a walk everyday if we are not at the pool to let the anak itik berenang-renang ke tepian.) So that one fine hari-ini-dalam-sejarah kinda Tuesday, Bibik could not help herself from petiking the kangkong growing so wild and free by our neighbor’s yard. Our grass-widower neighbor has been away for almost a month now, so Bibik petiked the kangkong without his permission! Amboi syerrr Bibik!

I plan to put a note on my neighbor’s door once he returns. But if you ever wonder about the kangkong…uh, all I dare say is that some belacan already kidnapped them loh! Amboi syerrr Enida! “Siakap senohong gelama ikan duri, bercakap bohong lama-lama mencuri.”

I am so gone…repenting.

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Clueless Kelu

August 26, 2004 by Enida

My sekelumit of hope officially turned into a sekelumat one this morning. We’re definitely staying home this weekend. Sharjah will have to wait another month. IKEA will have to wait ’til another time. And my bergebang session with my best friend sambil bertempik-tempik in excitement, too, will have to wait until next time. Disappointment is an understatement, but hey…Be is feeling much better than he has been the last four days or so. What could be more important than your beloved’s well-being eh?

On another note…
I used the word sekelumit yesterday and today I got thinking of the word gerumit pulak for some reason. Have you ever heard of it? It goes way way back when I was in elementary school. Well, really…a gerumit is a pencil sharpener. I used to use the word sharpener, but when everybody else was using gerumit, I guess I had to blend in. And I used it so blindly that I never thought of the origin of the lexis. Of course! A word was a word, and if it did you good, for goodness’ sake, you’d use it…right?

It took me decades before I finally realized that the word gerumit might have come from “groom it”. Yeah, not overly accurate grammatically or lexically, I know. Like, you don’t groom a pencil. You sharpen it. But hey, the logic is there. The interesting point is that, gerumit was used as a noun. Not a verb. (I have to say WAS used here, because I have no clue if gerumit is still widely used today or not.)

Example:
Could I borrow your gerumit please?
Pinjam gerumit hang kejap, boleh?

You’d never hear this:
I’d like to gerumit my pencil now.
Kami nak gerumit pensil kami lah kejap.

Funnier thing now though, is…being away from my homeland, I often think of those words those kids and I used back then. And then my mind would go jalan-jalan wondering where all those kids have gone and what they have become. I am sure some have traveled the world like I have. Some have probably written books on grammar – the nouns, the verbs, the tenses and the whole Itinerario on how to find yourself speaking a foreign language in your own country sort. And some of those kids I knew back then, I know now…are lost.

I, too, have found myself lost in words lately.

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To Love Some Bunny

August 25, 2004 by Enida

My Bunny Is Over The Ocean

I know I should just believe my eyes and believe that time flies. As much as I hate to admit it, Kitreena has grown like a weed. Look at her. This picture was taken on Haloween 2003. She was a Bunny Wabbit last year. I am still scratching my groin head here, thinkin’ of what to dress her up in…this year. We’re in Oman. Should she be a camel this year? Well, yeah right. Like I could just go to Al Fair or Sultan Center and find a camel costume. Right? Ekkkk! Hope floats, and so does that thing the doctors call faeces. Duh! I’ll potong the leher of the unta buat korban if I EVER could find camel costume, I tell ya.

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