Mommy's favourite satay joint .......

There is this unassuming satay stall in Keramat which Dadi introduced to Mommy before they got married and Mommy got hooked on it ever since. I used to remember when they brought me there when I was younger ..like everytime they went there (duhhhh!!!!) .. I couldn't appreciate anything that they tried to feed me ..not the rice cubish thing, nor the cucumber ..but now, I absolutely love the chicken satay. I am able to finish one or two or three sticks ..depending on how hungry I am.

So the story goes ..some five or six years later ... Mommy and Dadi went back to one of Tok Wan's (Mommy's Daddy) hometown in Bandar Bahru, Kedah and meet a whole load of relatives that nobody had ever met before. Someone asked Dadi where he stayed and he told them that Opah stays in Keramat and the person said ..."Ohhhhhhh ...dulu Pak something (Njang kut) Ismail dok berniaga satay dekat Keramat. La ni anak menantu dia dok jaga ..." ..Wala wehhhhh ... another relative in the food business .... and to think that my parents eat satay only at that stall !!!!!!
The stall is located next to the Esso petrol station and uncompleted market in Datuk Keramat. The satay is excellent and juicy unlike the dry, tasteless satay of that particular franchise that dominates every R&R. Can say like that, meh?

Achik Zainah is in the foreground ... her daughter is in the pink T-shirt

The Pak Cik in the striped T-shirt is her hubby

This is Mommy and Dadi's standard order

The price .. as most other places ..has increased over the years ..... the taste, size and quality remains ..............


Last week, after visiting Antana who just gave birth at GH to my upteenth cuzzin who weighed a whoppin' 4.2 kg, Mommy made Dadi visit Achik Zainah at Keramat. There was this girl, whom I thot was soooo pretty and I begged Mommy to ask her name and asked if I could take a photograph with her. Her name is Sabrina ... 7 years old. I thot her face looked like Cinta Rasya from the sinetron Cinderella ..hmmmm

Trip to Penaga........

Mommy and Dadi brought us (Aunty Tok Ngah, Aunty Tok Su, Fuan, Ina and I) to visit some relatives in Penaga. Tok Man and his family takes care of the land belonging to arwah Tok Wan Saad. Right behind his house is a huge and beautiful paddy field. It goes on as far as my eyes could see .. very very far .... It must be very tiring to work on the field.
They also rear chicken .......
.... and goats. We had fun feeding the goats and running after the chicks. It was a good thing that the mommy hen was kept in the cage or else we would have been pecked at and chased after by her for disturbing her babies ......

Before continuing our journey, we got a whole load of fish and crabs that just jumped out from the sea...very very very fresh indeed.
The fish were fried immediately upon reaching home and was made into a masak asam dish which everybody seemed to enjoy except ME!!! ..and this is what happened to the crabs ........

and other accompanying dishes which I had absolutely no desire for ....... As I would always say to Mommy.. which Mommy would relate to others ...'ba wau sin wau qaf' .......

Homework anyone ????

We had just got back from visiting Dadi's other long lost Uncle in Permatang Buluh when Aunty Tok Su reminded Ina that she had to complete her homework. Ina was soooo soooo tired . Aunty Tok Ngah decided to help Ina but Ina was too tired even to keep her eyes open.

I immediately seized the opportunity and asked Aunty Tok Ngah whether I could complete the work for Ina and she said I could.Yipeeee...!!!

Aunty Tok Ngah taught me what to do ... Easy peasy lemon squeezy ... nothing that I couldn't do ...

A little colour here ..
Ooppppssssss ... erase erase erase .....


One line there ...

DONE ............

..... and Ina could happily submit her homework to her teacher the next morning ..... and the next time she gets to get on stage again to receive her best student award for Year One at SK Jawi ....she better drag me along ..........

Kaypel Song aka Caplesong aka Cap Lesong ....... Dadi's Long Lost Uncle ....

The adults were having coffee in Tok Ngah Man's house in Penaga and Aunty Tok Su was commenting on the coffee that she was drinking. "Nice coffee! What brand?". Tok Ngah Nah (the wife) said, "Kopi Cap Cawan". Hassan, her son said "Dok aihhhh ..Kopi Cap Lesonglah makkkkk". ""Dok aaaiiiiiiihhhh", said his mom...and the argument went on...and it was left at that.

Next stop, Jarak Tengah, Mommy's relatives. Apparently, Dadi also had some close relatives in Jarak which he has no knowledge of and Mommy being the kaypochi that she is asked Dadi to find out from his only and I emphasize "ONLY" remaining relative on Dadi's Dadi's side that he knows of .. She told Dadi, " Hang pi caghi Man Kopi - you go and find Man Kopi" ...

Dadi asked Uncle Haris Chu On (pronounced as Own) and true enough ..everybody there knew him. Before we even knew the brand of the coffee that Tok Njang Man produced, Uncle Haris asked Mommy to read the URL on the van parked outside the house. Feeling very unsure of herself coz it made very little sense ..she said very softly and slowly ..knowing she was going to get laughed at .. "Kaaayyy pellllll Songgggggg" .. "Hahahahahaha ...", went Uncle Haris and Mommy was really amused when she found out what is really was. Mommy then asked Dadi to read it .....and he said the same thing as Mommy did. Dadi got double laughed at .......

Then a sense of dejavu enveloped Mommy as just a couple of hours ago, the Penaga people were debating whether the coffee that they bought were Cap Cawan or Cap Lesong. Take a look at the packaging ......

Cap Lesong with a picture of a Cawan .....chehhhhhhh .......


Tok Njang Man relating to Dadi how they are related. Tok Njang man is Dadi's father's first cousin. Very very close indeed and I know dadi is very proud of him.

Mommy as usual became very sentimental. When Tok Njang Man's daughter in law asked who we were ... she got all teary-eyed and choked up and couldn't speak and had like 2 seconds to compose herself ... hoping that the person who was looking at her straight in the face would not notice .......Terrible ......

Tok Njang Man told Mommy how he started the business some many many decades ago. When he got married, his wife would not drink anything else except for the coffee she ground on her own. She would first roast the coffee, with margarine and sugar and whatnots and the aroma would travel many many miles. Neighbours and friends would stop by and ask to buy some of the coffee but he used to give it for free. Then he said, in true Penangspeak "Beghapo lamo laghat nak dok bagi saja " .. so they decided to sell and for the last twenty years or so ..they did it on a big scale with APs and all. Mommy thot APs were for cars only ...duhhhh!!!!

Btw .... Dadi also realised that he had got his lineage all wrong ....hahaha ...donno where he got all the names from ..but he stood corrected when they discussed who his father grandfathers grandfather grandfather were ...haihhhhhhh!!!!!

Before going back ..Tok Njang Man told Dadi that if he wanted to know more ..he should go and see Ya Nasi Daging which then would lead Dadi to find Ishak Manik Koran Juai Periuk Belanga .......

Last train home .....

Horrors of all horrors ....

Two incidents ....

First incident happened a few days ago ...

Me : Mommy ..... you donno I eat whaaaaattttttttt ....

Mommy : What??????

Me : Secrettttttttt .......

Mommy : Open your mouth ..lemme see

Me : Dadi punya WHITE RABBIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!

Mommy : NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Take it out! Spit it out!

She scared the daylights out of me. I wonder why she reacted as such.

Mommy : Miya .... it's 'basi' ... buang Miya ....

I tried to spit it out but the silly thing got stuck between my teeth ..so I tried to dig it out with my fingers and it finally came loose. Of course, I was terribly upset.

Me : Mommy, next time Mommy beli lagi tau ....

Tok said to Dadi that maybe if the Doctors had to operate on Dadi ... they will find a melamine plate or two on Dadi's kidney ...

Mommy then threw away the whole container of White Rabbit ... Dadi's favourite ..... so sad .......

The 'horrorest' incident happened last night ...

We were Raya shopping at Ju*sco with Mak Ngah and my cousins from PD when I felt I had to go and pass urine. Off I went with Mommy.

Mommy brought me to the huge toilet which was specially designed for the handicapped, pregnant mommies, children and babies. I did my thing and then felt that I had to do something 'bigger'. A couple of minutes later, I was done ....

Mommy proceeded to flush the toilet ... and then it happened ....

The water level rised and ......rised .....and ...rised ...and Mommy was like ...."Oh noooooooooo ..." then ... "Run Miya .....runnnnnnnnn ....." the water actually spilled over the toilet seat .. wetting the floor ..and it seemed like it would never stop .....like in a very very very bad dream ...with my earlier 'contents' and all on the floor...... sheeeessssshhhhhh ...

Out side the toilet, the was an uncle in light green who told Mommy ..."Kak, itu toilet sudah rosak!!!!" ...."Thank you ...." and Mommy made me run with her again to find Dadi ... "Cepat Miya ....cepattttttttt" .....

The loooooong trip to Changkat ........

This trip would usually take Dadi 3 1/2 hours .... 3 hours on a good day ...and 2 1/2 hours if all is exceptionally well ...... This time, Dadi decided to be adventurous so the journey was through Kuala Selangor, don't-know -where, don't-know-where (coz Mommy and I had fallen asleep), Teluk Intan (coz when we woke up, Dadi was fumbling with his GPS thingy, not knowing whether he was supposed to go North or South ..hahahahaha) ... stopped to ask for confirmation of direction at a Toyot*a showroom to get to Bota Kiri.

As we approached Dadi's kampung, Mommy made Dadi stop at a stall selling vegetable and fruits.

While Mommy was busy sorting out what she wanted, Dadi, as usual, asked me to follow him to the huge durian across the road ...

and then back to the stall ..... where an uncle was busy sorting out the pineapples.

I saw a whole load of bananas ...

After, filling the car boot, Dadi continued the journey to Kg Teluk Kepayang.

First stop, Opah Something's (Nabsiah) 'bakery'.

Opah has been making bahulu and kuah bakar for a very long time, all year round. She used to have more people to help her compared to what I saw in my last visit. There were only two people helping her ...maybe the rest had gone home or she really did not have anybody else to help her.

Opah Nabsiah is the one wearing the white serkup.

The faithful mixer mixer which had obviously seen better days

Now this Opah is really cute. She is a customer, who, due to shortage of helpers, had to count her own cookies. In this picture, she was counting, or attempting to count for 1000 kuih bakar. She was going ..in true sing song Bota-speak " Lapan puluh satu ..lapan puluh duweeee ..lapan puluh tigeee ... lapan pulh limeeeee ..eh ...beghape dah??" .."Betullah tu", says her husband ... "Lapan puluh lime ...". Then again ..." Sembilan puluh duweee, sembilan puluh limeeeeee ...ehhhh ..beghape dahhhh????" .....

Before, we continued our journey to Changkat, Mommy (again!!!!:P) ..asked Dadi if he could make a stop at Lumut to get her occasional supply of ikan bilis and the works ....

I was getting slightly impatient as I wanted to reach Penang as soon as possible, before Farah Ayna and Safuan went to bed. I kept on begging and pleading Mommy to hurry up.

Dadi at it again!!!

We finally reached Changkat a good two hours after iftar.......

It wasn't easy .....

Last Thursday, Dadi picked me up from school but Mommy was no where to be seen. That was a bit strange coz Mommy told me that she did not have to go to The C*urve as she was fasting. Hmmm ...???

Dadi drove straight to office and then I saw her .... I used to visit this place frequently before I started going to school but not anymore, so, I was pleasantly surprised when Mommy told me to sit on 'my' chair ..which was unlike all the other chairs in the place .....

This was what had happened ..

Then, Dadi drove us to Ikano but strangely enough He only parked by the side of the road and I was told to stay in the car with Dadi coz Mommy said she had to run inside very quickly to get something and when she came back, she had this cute hairband for me .... hmmmmm????

Dadi drove to BK DriveThru and bought me my lunch ... I was asked to eat in the car .... hmmmmm??? ..

Dadi drove back to office and Mommy made me change to my favourite PPG dress ... and she put on my hairband and powdered my face ...(the whole works actually ... foundation, powder, blusher, gloss and all ...)

I kept on asking her what was actually happening and she said "Auntie Shasha is coming to see you." Who is this Auntie Shasha?", I wondered.

Soon after, Auntie Shasha came with Auntie Nisa ..and this was what happened ...

It wasn't so easy at first as I did not know them and they were asking me to do funny funny things .. smile, hold the computer, lift my chin etc etc ..and I couldn't take it anymore so, I bawled my eyes out ..not easy at all .....

I was better a bit later on .... and this was the result

My dear Uncles and Aunties ..you can have a peep here if you want to .....

Sing away ....

Once in a very very blue moon ..Mommy and Dadi would bring us, the cousins ..the only cousins on my Mommy's side, for a singing session ...

Me, Kakak Iman and Haykal

We treasure these sessions a lot. I love singing. When I was in Mommy's tummy, the final 8 weeks or so, Mommy used to let me listen to KRU and songs by Queen and some other singer whose words I can barely make out (courtesy of Anty Shamsilly ;P). I also used to listen to certain verses from the Al-Quran.

Mommy sings to me at every opportunity. She will make up songs to suit the occasion like when I have breakfast, she will sing

Roti canai, roti canai; Mira suka, Mira suka; Makan dengan gula; Makan dengan gula; Yum yum yum; Yum yum yum (to the tune of Are You Sleeping)

and many more.

Now, I can make up my own songs and pantuns .. whether they make sense or not ..who cares as long as it sounds good ... sometimes they will laugh at me ...sometimes they will say I am clever ..sometimes they will be totally clueless ...

My current favourite song is Ku Tahu by Mila and Mesera (ie. Seloka Hari Raya) by Hail Amir and Uji Rashid ..... percaya, tak???

That special trip to Klang .....

Two days ago, Mommy and Dadi waited for Uncle Danny to send me home (Auntie Annie's house actually) from school and they told me that they wanted to bring me to somewhere special ..somewhere I had never been before .. somewhere that did not sell shoes ..:P ...

Mommy said she wanted to deliver the stuff she bought from T*sco the other day together with the donations from other Uncle's and Auntie's from ANSARA Jasin ..Mommy's secondary school alumni.

Half an hour later, we reached our destination ... it was formerly known as Rumah Anak-anak Yatim dan Miskin Al-Khairiyah, but just recently, it is known as the signage says below.

There are about 45 abangs and kakaks who stay here ..ranging from 7 to 17 years old. The orphanage is currently run by Tuan Hj. Tolos (74 yo) and his wife, whom the children fondly call Bapak and Mak.

Tuan Hj Tolos

Abg Aiman looking at some of the stuff that Mommy brought. Abg Aiman hardly smiled. I don't know why.

When we went shopping at T*sco, Mommmy told me tht she was buying some sports equipment for anak-anak yatim. SO, I asked her what that meant and she said.."abang-abang and kakak-kakak yang tak ada Mommy and Dadi dia". All I could reply was.."kesiankan Mommy ...dia tidur dengan siapa? ... to which Mommy replied .... "dengan kawan dia ...ramai-ramai ...." . I am so grateful that I have my Mommy and Dadi to hug and kiss me all the time.

When we arrived, it was time for Zuhur prayers. There was hardly anybody around except for Abang Aiman and another kakak. They all then, went to pray in the surau.

I overheard Mommy saying to Dadi that they really need help in terms of actually running the orphanage itself. Donations are one thing ... managing the place is another. The orphanage is actually single-handedly managed by Tn Hj Tolos with a few staff helping him. Mommy says that she feels they need at least a warden for both girls and boys, a counsellor and security guard to ensure the kakaks and abangs are well taken care of.

Abang Aiman, walking around with an 'ikan keli' during Mommy's previous visit before going to school.

Boys's hostel
(They used to have beds but they got broken on the next day)

However, maybe there would be an overhead issue. But still .......... the gardener looks after the boys and an Indonesian lady looks after the girls ...

Mommy also said that donations are given to orphanages in thousands or tens of thousands which is all well and good (Med*ia Pri*a donated some RM10,000 during a berbuka puasa session this Ramadhan) which is sure to be put to good use .. but the fact still remains that apart from providing food and shelter .. a lot more can and should be done ... maybe it is easier said than done .... at least Mommy wishes that ANSARA Jasin could do a lot more ... God willing ....

Mommy and Dadi, then brought me to see where the children slept, ate and played. At the end of my visit, I hugged and kissed both Mommy and Dadi furiously and hoped that they would be with me forever ..................