Tuesday morning Tok Irfan took us all to Teluk Batik, my old beach stomping ground, for a picnic. Naturally like all my old stomping grounds it doesn’t look a bit like what it used to when the old crew combed the beach for nothing in particular, swimming among the jellyfish spawn and getting painfully sunburned. No more easy access with the car to the edge of the sand. No more wide grassy area just short of the beach. No more walks through the wilderness to the neighbouring Teluk Rubiah (now a golf course instead of a desolate beach). Upon holing up, Irfan immediately went for the water with me in tow, although he was reluctant to jump in immediately. But I held his hand and he waded in cautiously, giggling each time the waves hit him. He didn’t complain at all when I took him out where his legs couldn’t […]

Another Gregorian year is over. There were numerous message replies to it over text messaging, such as the fairly regular “Yep! Happy New Year!” to “I propose a moratorium on New Years for another 50 years”, and the reply to my paraphrasing Agnes Skinner‘s “My bones are half dust” over how the years are treating us all, “You’re lucky. Mine’s part of someone’s grandma’s favourite Sunday dinner china…” You know who you are, regular blog readers. Because of the unsynchronised lunar and solar calendar, this time around Aidiladha was within a day of the New Year. Which usually cause our brood to form up and take group photos in front of Tok & Opah Irfan’s house right by the koi pond. This year’s photo, I wore a songkok on my head about two thousand sizes too small for no particular reason. Irfan fidgeted a lot for the pull of his […]