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Enida, You Need A…

August 31, 2009 by Enida

When I picked Kitreena up at school on Wednesday last week, she had a little flower in her hand. Purplish little bloom, long-stem, almost like a weed kind of flower. All she wanted to do with the poor detached blossom was to put it in a cup of water. She knew it was going to come back to life and grow a whole bush of purplish little blooms, long-stems and all. Bringing a weed back to life? Hmmm… ah well. So it’s a weed. So what. It’s still a life.

 

The truth was, not only that I had no faith that the single stem purplish flower could be revived, I also had no care for the weed. Until…

 

The weed made a comeback!

 

Kitreena proved me wrong!

 

I think Enida needs to learn a thing or two about faith from a child. She really does!

 

I now know that a weed can be as beautiful as the child that cares for it. I put my faith on the kitchen countertop now.

 

Posted in Sense | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Bunsong Ka Jintong

August 31, 2009 by Enida

Emy, my part-time helper had to move some of her stuff to our garage before transfering it to her rental apartment. Yesterday evening, Bunsong, who has his own Asian foodstuff business here in Moscow, came to help her pick it up. In his trunk, he had a 10kg bag of Super Special Jasmine Rice, a kilo-bag of mung beans, a few bottles of fish sauce and soy sauce, a few cans of sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk, and of course some dried fish. And oh, a couple bags of this too:

 

Jintong jintong dia pigi.

Perfect food to grow wings conveniently.

 

I guess we’ll be eating Jasmine rice for the next half a year. I can also see Cucur Kasturi and Bubur Kacang dessert at least once a month. So’on soup with FooChook and potatoes… mmmm slurrppp!

 

Bunsong left yesterday evening 850 Rubels richer and with his trunk 11 kilos lighter. I just have to make sure that at any price… that 11kg is not put on me. 🙂

 

 

Posted in Grammaticalizationism, Makan-Makan, Write On | Tagged | 2 Comments »

Boo-Boo Boo-Hoo

August 30, 2009 by Enida

My little big girl with a big little boo-boo.  Luka di lutut nampak berdarah... Lukanya sampai ke hati Mommy. Pediiiihhhnyaaaaa...

 

 
Daddy,

This is my ouwey from yesterday.

I wasn’t running too fast. I was just jogging.

I fell, even when I was wearing pants.

Mommy was shocked when she saw my ouwey.
 
It really hurt at first.
 
But after Mommy cleaned it with cotton and warm water,
and put pawpaw cream on it, it started feeling not too bad.
 
It was even ticklish when Mommy was cleaning it.
 
My pyjamas keeps rubbing on my knees and the ouwey feels itchy sometimes.
 
But I’m okay.
 
I cried just a little bit because I was scared to see drops of blood.
 
There was even a drop on the kitchen floor.
 
Mommy even took pictures of my ouwey so she can show you.

 

 

She tends to over-use the word even when she’s nervous. Well, no. Even when she’s not nervous, she even uses the word even too much. Is it even a phase? Ah well, even then… I could not hide my expression of shock when I saw the wound. My hands covered my mouth, my eyes were rounder than the earth and bigger than courts mammoth! All I could say was, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh Monch, oh my God, oh Monnnnchhh!”

 

I think I scared Kitreena, not the wound or the blood. 

 

Posted in Monchies | Tagged | 4 Comments »

Because That’s Why

August 27, 2009 by Enida

The Guardians 

 

Unrelated to the pictures above and below, this is the scene in the kids’ bedroom after a phone conversation that went totally wrong.

 

Edrick:
“I can get a Kleenex for you, Mom.”

 

Me:
“Oh okay. Thank you sweetie.”

 

It was then that Kitreena entered the scene. She sat beside me looking at me like a little mother that she is. With profound concern and intense gentleness, caressing my back. Just the way I picture it with her in another 10 or so years when she would first have her heart broken into little pieces. She was trying desperately to comprehend the situation.

 

Tears for years?Kitreena:
“Why are you crying, Mom?”

 

Edrick:
“She’s crying because I gave her the Kleenex, Kakaaa.”

 

Me, already chortling quietly:
“Not because, lah Monch. That’s why.”

 

I am not mothering angels here. I am mothered by two of them who are taking English grammar lessons in return. And today we learned about cause and effect.

 

Just because I had tears in my eyes.

 

Mothering angels...

 

Just because.

Posted in Hurt, Monchies | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Romancing Roma

August 27, 2009 by Enida

Rome peppered with a pinch of salt.

I’ve got Rome on my table.

When we came back to Moscow mid July, this card was waiting for us in the mailbox – a thought mailed from Rome, by KaCher. The card did not leave the dining table until a month after we arrived. It was getting a bit too much for Edrick to bear… being reminded of Aunty Mas, 7-10-20, and all the good times in Malaysia, every time at meal time.

This morning, walking back from taking Kaka to school, Edrick and I took the ‘Mailbox Route’ home to pick up the mail. I wasn’t expecting any – except for a card from Kitreena’s ex-classmate from Australian International School Malaysia. A card for Kitreena, of course. Why would her ex-classmate be writing to me?

The mailbox was empty. And that, oh-tedah-ly sent Edrick home in tears! I did not expect that he was expecting a mail going to be that disappointed. Seeing his frustration sent me home with a promise to mail us something at least once a week. Something. Even if it is a paid phone bill from last year.

Empty is not always a good thing. Kan?

 

Posted in Monchies, Travel, Write On | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

He Had Me At Hell O!

August 26, 2009 by Enida

I just removed a friend from my Facebook.

 

Burn!I have no respect, nor do I have a care for a racist. He can bleed blue blood and have a pair of wings hidden on his back. But if he thinks race is a matter of choice one makes at one’s own conception, I believe he has gladly chosen for himself to be the coal to burn the hottest hell for his ending.

 

He is definitely of a race of his own. A bangsat! I feel sorry for his parents and his children.

 

Posted in Write On | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

Her Story of History

August 26, 2009 by Enida

Just did a very quick reading here where History (as a subject in school) is discussed.

 

Independence vs. IgnoranceTo be honest, I feel like I learned nothing about OUR history in the 11 years of school. My Canadian husband can tell me better about the ‘Emergency’ in 1948, and the Portuguese encounter in 1511. But the not so funny thing is, he has a different version of many historical stories! And I just realized that I was educated with a sided history that was aiming at teaching my generation to take stand – ready to attack, and ready to defend ourselves from the enemies.

 

Little did we know that the only enemy we made was our ignorance.

 

 

Postlude:

I used to have all the important historical events and the years memorized (thanks to Cikgu Ahmad Ihsan’s stenciled notes). And during the school break, about the only text book that I would pick up was History Book. But after a while, not having the exposure and the ability to relate history to current issues or my own life… I lost interest in history and whatever lessons it could possibly teach me.

 

I mean, why take the school kids to a museum if you are going to leave them there to wander and wonder aimlessly while you go do your banking in town, history teachers? And oh, while you’re in the vicinity, getting a haircut at the barber behind the museum wouldn’t be a bad idea either, would it?

 

Seriously, do we take History – as a subject and as it is – seriously?

 

Posted in Sense | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Fun, Fire and Uh… Fluid?

August 25, 2009 by Enida

Brrrrr! And it's burning... Through the fire...

 

It was a cold, wet and cold afternoon. Did I just say cold twice? But summer rain in Moscow is sure funny. It doesn’t last longer than 5 minutes per fall. No kidding. It’s like the rain isn’t really serious about falling. That’s what it has been doing to us up on Bukit Prokrovsky anyway the last few days. Today, the rain was playing tag with us at least 7 times throughout the day and it was sure a struggle to keep warm.

 

I am not new to this sort of climate, I humbly admit. I graduated from Calgary where I earned my understanding degree to respect this almost extreme weather, extreme by a Malaysian standard that is. This is nothing to get over-excited about. But I have been excited about the fireplace! We have a real fireplace in our Mumber 9 Houth this time! Not a fake fireplace with its gas-burner and made-from-cement-firewood like what we had at Arbour Lake.

 

So when the wet and cold weather came today, I needed no excuse to play with fire. I had fun getting the fire started. I mean it! It was fun. And Edrick was on stand-by with his kipas-satay ready to fan and to keep the fire going. Boy did we ever have fun! Just as much fun as Kitreena did, playing outside… in the rain. And like always, every little thing done with the kids would send me back to my own childhood.

 

I am not superstitious. Even if I am, I am much less superstitious than my Mom. She used to scold us when we played with fire… burning dry leaves or dry grass that we raked off of our lawn, or branches pruned from our yard. She believed we would wet our bed that very night. She would scold us when we played out in the rain as well. With a similar worry, that we would wet our bed at night… that night! “Lu main api (or ujan) nanti lu shi-shi habesss basah gua punya tilam ini malam! Sudahhh!”

 

My Mom didn’t really speak like that. Nor did we wet the bed those nights either. Not the very same night, at least. But on the wet and cold day that today was, I caught myself just in time before I blurted to Edrick, “Lu main api nanti lu shi-shi habesss basah gua punya tilam ini malam! Sudahhh!”

 

 

 

Loose :)Translation:
“Lu main api nanti lu shi-shi habesss basah gua punya tilam ini malam! Sudahhh!”
=You’re going to wet the bed tonight playing with fire like that! Enough!

Posted in Monchies, Nostalgia, Pokrovsky Boulevard | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Cold Summer Afternoon

August 25, 2009 by Enida

Kelip-kelip kusangka api, kalau api mana sumbunya.

 

And so say all of us.

Posted in Pokrovsky Boulevard | 4 Comments »

Fairy Enough

August 25, 2009 by Enida

Oh warna-warna, bagai bicara. Ku terpesona, kau teristimewa.

 

I love rainy afternoons when my little fairies get stuck under my fairy roof, too worried to spread their wings outside and get ’em all wet. One fairy would spread music, and the other would spread colors instead. This is the front page of a card Kitreena the T-Scooter Fairy made for her Thinker Bell Aunty, the fairiest of all… Aunty Mas.

 

Very merry fairy ladies.

 

I actually did ask her what was with the moon’s and the sun’s thumping heart. I honestly wasn’t prepared for the artistic review she was going to give me.

 

“Those are not hearts, Mom. They are hands waving. When the sun comes in in the morning, he waves ‘Hello’ to the world. And the moon will have to wave ‘Goodbye’ for a while. Just like we waved goodbye to Aunty Mas, Mom. Just for a while.”

 

I felt for the moon.

 

Posted in Monchies | Tagged | 4 Comments »

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