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Buk Bik

September 7, 2009 by Enida

Teman bernyanyi Suriram...When I  first heard  her voice saying “Buk?” and she did mine saying “Bik?”, we just couldn’t say another word. We just cried on the phone thanking God for another chance to say hello to each other. It meant the world to me to just know she is safe from the earthquake in Tasikmalaya. And it meant the same to her to know I just called to see if she, Rakiman, Dewi, Ita and her coming baby were okay.

 

 

Yes, Bibik is going to be a Mommy again when March comes marching in! I am looking forward to 2010 already!

 

Posted in Write On | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Soy What?

September 7, 2009 by Enida

I strictly believe that the adjective stupid is never meant for a person. It is to describe an action taken by a person. Or in the case I am about to ramble on about – hopefully not so much in a desultory manner – stupid is probably to describe a statement she made. Yes, it is a she. Her name is Billy Jean. But then again, I don’t particularly favor the word stupid. There is always a smarter way of saying it.

 

You see, Billy Jean is a very smart person, supposedly. Well, for a young engineer to be recruited by an international company without any cable pulled… is pretty darn impressive. Don’t you think? She might have said that her father’s lordship should not have been made known, so as to avoid ‘influence’, but she made a mistake by making her name-stamp with Daddy’s medal-title on! Oops!

 

Not only that Billy Jean is smart, she is also ambitious. She wants to get up the corporate ladder as fast as she can, doing whatever she can. And she sure can leave her husband, to be with other fellow senior male engineers, whomever she can get her hands on. But hey, I won’t call that ambition stupid. I’d call it smartassertive! Billy Jean knows what she needs to support her expensive taste, her expensive lifestyle. She knows her limit, I am sure. And that is… uh, none.

 

And so, when Billy Jean cheated on her husband, had an affair with a couple of men from the west, got pregnant, went back to the husband when none of the men from the west wanted her or her kid, and gave birth to a baby who is whiter than her husband and herself… Billy Jean made a brilliant statement: “Oh my baby has fair skin. It must have been the soy milk I consumed the whole nine months of my pregnancy.”Drink soy milk to whiten your skin. Recommended by duh engineers.

 

Now, what adjective would you use to describe that statement? 

 

 

 

 

 

Postlude:
I don’t think she meant to be funny when she made the statement about her baby’s skin color. It sure was a laughable one, nonetheless – coming from an educated internationally exposed professional. I just hope that that wasn’t the state of her mind.

 

On that note, I should call Bunsong and order a truckload of tofu, soy milk, beancurd skin and taufu fah. I need enough soy to camouflage myself in the snow when I come tumbling down the ski hill this winter.

 

 

Posted in Sense, Write On | Tagged | 6 Comments »

Heckle

September 7, 2009 by Enida

It’s funny how a written statement can ‘sound’ offensive. It is challenging enough to  make verbal statements without offending others. Writing them doubles the challenge. And of course I am not talking about funny as in the ha-ha-ha kind of funny. One is entitled to his view, yes. One even has the rights to express his view. But it is in expressing one’s views that one either earns or burns respect.

 

There is always a polite way in speaking our mind. And it is a matter of choice. Always. At the end of the day, smart people are those who pay attention to not only what they say, but how they say it.

 

Posted in Sense | Tagged | 4 Comments »

Balleting

September 3, 2009 by Enida

Russian Ballerina

 

I am off taking Ekaterina Supianovski Johnsonovlova to her ballet class.

 

 

Postlude:
Kitreena’s first ballet session at the Anglo-American School went really well. It makes a whole world of difference this time around attending ballet class. For the first time she said she truly enjoyed it. She had a lot of fun, and I could see it right through.

 

She did start ballet when she was a lot younger. Three and a little wee bit, back at Kelab Darul Ehsan in Ampang. It was a brilliant idea, and at a brilliant location – just 2 minutes down from our Chong Khoon Lin place. And while waiting for her there, Be and I had our Saturday morning coffee at the club. Yeah, could not have been more perfect than that, you’d think and envy. Yeah, right!

 

Well, apart from the instant Indocafe coffee served at the club and breakfast available only at the golfers’ little cafe (cold roti canai, and no bacon and eggs?), Kitreena had a tough time understanding her ballet teacher’s instructions! I didn’t believe it at first until I sat in one of the classes and thought… “Oiii! Cannot lah like dat aaaa. How waaaa dis chooldren can run run and hop hop on-nee. Sum more aaaa, fourteen chooldren on-nee got one teacher meh? And fordy-fi minit I oso have to pay RM75. Kam kwai loh miss! Cannot loh like dat one.”

 

Not only there was an issue with the instructor and her instructions, but for a few weeks she was the only ‘odd’ kid around. The local girls either couldn’t and didn’t speak English, or they just didn’t know how to respond to Kitreena’s friendliness! They would not say hi back to her! I was amazed, to put it in a polite way. The fifth week, a new girl (ang-moh) joined the class. And they hit it off right away and they were okay. But the ang-moh girl disappeared two weeks after. I found out later that she could not understand the instructor either. Aiyah!

 

Kitreena came home on the verge of being depressed and it was just not worth it.  

Posted in Monchies | Tagged | 9 Comments »

Rice Breaking

September 2, 2009 by Enida

Krazy Lazy Pizza

Quickly made this Krazy Lazy Pizza on slices of wholemeal bread for me Monchies’ supper tonight. I was just too lazy to thaw out the boughten pizza crust – let alone making my own crust (even with the help from the breadmaking machine!) Even!

Me Monchies were happy, I was happier.

As for myself, I broke the fast with a breakfast menu: cold cereal. Cold rice milk + my newfound favorite Vitalis roasted muesli mixed with almond and honeyed rice flakes + my all-time favorite plain Fitnesse rice flakes. So I can actually say I had Nasi Tiga Rasa for breaking the fast. And I must actually admit, it was the most satisfying meal I have ever had for berbuka.

Ever!

Glossary for Neil:
nasi= rice
tiga= three
rasa= taste
Nasi Tiga Rasa= a popular fried rice dish with three ‘tastes’ (spicy, sour and salty/savory)
berbuka= breaking fast
krazy lazy= Enida   😉

Posted in Krazy Lazy Recipes | Tagged | 4 Comments »

Facelessbook

September 2, 2009 by Enida

Go book a face if you don't have one yet, will ya?Which  part of  the words friend and face that these people need translation with again? It is a disappointing disparity from flattering and it can be downright scary when a stranger comes to you on the street, shakes your hand and requests that you be his friend. Don’t you think?

 

Now imagine this stranger comes to you, shakes your hand, asks you to be his friend and when you look at the face, it’s just… uh, not there! I think it is brilliant if you’re looking for an idea for what’s coming end of October. Or if you have a TV show playing pranks on people.

 

But I mean, really! Why do these people think it is called FACEbook?

 

If you don’t want to face the reality that people need a face to put the name on, or a name for them to put the face on, why Facebook? And why sending Friend Requests to strangers if you don’t mean to make friends? Yeah, so you’ve got a name. But you don’t even have the courtesy to introduce yourself? Let’s face it, you think everybody wants to be your friend, you think everybody knows you, knows your name and you’re unforgettable. Huh, yeah right!

 

Of course I remember a lot of names. I remember Aida Mustafa – as I recall her taking me to PKNS Complex Shah Alam to play my very first bowling in 1990. I remember Ahmad Ridzwan Basri – as I recall getting my first writing job because of his contacts and his kindness. (I still owe him a Thank You!) And I cannot forget Baihaqie Razak – my ex-student who, in his desperate attempt to make me remember his name, joked: “My name is Bai (Bye). You will never say bye-bye to me, Ms. Enida. Just say my name once, not twice.”

 

But if you introduce yourself as Usop Sontorian, Hubba Hubba, Spacecop Gaban, David Copperfield, Vladimir Puting (yes, PUTING!), Cop Coppermanne or Hayata Becomes Ultraman… uh, excuse me? And on top of it you don’t even want to face me. Why bother Facebooking me then? You’re not my friend. I don’t know you.

 

So, okay… maybe your name is Cop Coppermanne,  and you are a male – the only information I can find on your profile. Yeah, okay, great. You have a picture too of, whom I assume, your handsome self, looking so handsome wearing those handsome RayBan sunglasses. Excellent! Well, guess what? I don’t want to be rude, but really… who are you?

 

Posted in Sense, Write On | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Franklin Speaking

September 1, 2009 by Enida

Learning it the Grade One way!I am now  getting  longer responses from Kitreena to my “What did you learn at school today?” question everyday when she comes home. Last school year in Kindy (at AAS) and Year 1 (at AISM), she almost always gave me the dismissive answer, “I can’t remember everything I learn at school, Mom!” or “I forgot.” I sighed, I rolled my eyes, I even got upset sometimes. But so far I have not missed asking. God bless my stubborn soul!

 

Yesterday though, Kitreena was kind enough to bring home the lesson she learned at school. From what I understand, Mrs. Franklin gave each of the children a turn to squeeze some toothpaste out of its tube. Yes, toothpaste. Then the kids had to put it back into the tube using a stick. Well, can you imagine kids squeezing toothpaste tube with permission? Oh, I got headache just thinking about the mess! Those little hands are not designed for squeezing big tubes of toothpaste – or any big tubes of anything, for whatever reason, for whatever matter. But hey, they need to learn some time. And I need to learn to hold my judgement.

 

Kitreena then went on to explain that Mrs. Franklin said, the squeezed-out toothpaste is like bad words. Once you have said bad words, you can’t swallow them back in. So, you have to think about what you are going to say before you squeeze them out. Bad words hurt people’s feelings. Just like toothpaste, if squeezed out too hard, too much and land not on a toothbrush, will get dirty and messy. You can’t squeeze it back into the tube.

 

I went speechless for a few seconds and went, “Wow! That’s a very good analogy, isn’t it, Monch? It’s very true. I like that analogy!” Kitreena agreed with me totally and said, “It’s okay to feel angry, Mom. But it’s not okay to say bad words to other people. You can’t put them back into your mouth.” That was when I took a very deep breath, thinking… hey, how come my Grade 1 teacher never let me squeeze any toothpaste out of its tube? How come I had to learn it the hard way that when bad words are exchanged in anger, people will remember those bad words – not the issues at hand, not the message meant to be sent across. To be angry is fine, we’re human. But to say bad words is not okay. Yes! Exactly my principle in life. Spot on!

 

I like this Mrs. Franklin already!

 

Posted in Monchies, Sense | Tagged | 15 Comments »

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 »

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