The second Eid of the year has come and gone. For Hari Raya Haji, we took the bus back to Pasir Mas. But for this Aidiladha post, we focus on games played by Irfan, Aiman and Zara when the cousins rendezvous at their grandparents house in Pondok Lubok Tapah. The bus arrived two hours late at the new Pasir Mas bus terminal as the Eid played havoc with the traffic from Kota Bharu. We arrived home late, but in one piece.
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On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese
A list of our family’s adventures through this simulated universe. Strangely, this is represented by several methods. Firstly, my thoughts in words and then a host of two-dimensional images configured for the human visible spectrum. Finally the blog itself as a medium of information. Also, sometimes there is cake.
A Coup Then Hari Raya
On the day of our arrival in Sitiawan, we played some Coup. By the end of the session, we were quite evenly matched. It’s Tyrion. The ambassador is Tyrion. The morning of Aidilfitri, Ain had her galaxy-famous nasi dagang prepared for eating and stuff. Yada, yada, yada… Maaf Zahir Batin. Atok and Opah pose for a photograph with their plants. As usual, photographs such as this need more Adik, Yaya, Sila and Vin to make it complete.
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Misty Drives To and From Pasir Mas
Early Saturday morning we got into the car and headed out into the darkness towards Kelantan to avoid the festive season interstate traffic jam. As usual when even when the sun began to rise we were thick in the middle of mountain mist. The roads after Baling had pockets of very thick water particles which we had to dive into. Meanwhile, Rania and her parents got in front of us and reached Pasir Mas first. For two days, we played with her. She liked to hold conversations with us. I even babysat a couple of times her parents had to go downtown. Early Monday morning, we headed for Sitiawan. After sahur at Ayer Lanas, we stopped for Subuh at the last village after Jeli before the road went up the mountains again. The surau and its adjoining public rest-rooms seemed to be uninhabited and no other travellers stopped while we […]
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Finally, Furniture and then Ice Cream
After eighteen months of sitting on the floor watching television, we finally got enough cash this month to purchase a sofa set! Atok and Opah were visiting, so we thought it was great that they could have something soft to sit on in the living room. There’s also a bookshelf. As you can see the Star Wars RPG books have made themselves comfortable on the new bookshelf. To celebrate, we headed for Changlun where there was an excellent coconut ice cream stall. It was made of vanilla ice cream scoops in a coconut husk with coconut flesh, nuts, crouton, pulut and some other stuff.
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Nasi Kerabu: A Bus Ride Follow Up
During our bus trip over the mountains the other week, Ain made friends with a fellow traveller, a Kelantanese who lived in Perlis. She had a nasi kerabu restaurant in Kangar. That only meant one thing: we had to check it out. They only open in the mornings. When we were in Kelantan we were disappointed were unable to visit our favourite nasi kerabu restaurant there. It was a stroke of luck that we discovered one here in Perlis that sells delicious nasi kerabu comparable to the restaurant in Kelantan! We foresee many weekend breakfasts at this place.
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The New Cousin Celebration
I haven’t met Baby Rania since she was born, so after that bus trip over the spine of Malaysia we finally arrived in Pasir Mas for her aqiqah ceremony where I finally got to meet her. She is quite a photogenic lady, she is. See, she did not mind me telling her about Yog-Sothoth at all. Her cousins were all over her as she liked to babble to them in baby talk. During aqiqah day, all the cousins of the house were lined up for a photograph. As usual the older three cousins were together up to something. Mostly, playing games on the tablet… … or the phone. Irfan also fed Rania milk in a bottle. Rania glances at cousin Aiman, probably thinking why Aiman is not looking and talking to her. Irfan also meets his second cousin (of the same age) during tahlil ceremony for the late Pak Su. […]
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Bus Ride to Pasir Mas
We had an inaugural journey from here to Pasir Mas by bus. This meant I did not have to focus on driving over a long distance for the first time in a thousand years. This also meant I was free to take photos out the window as we trundled along the roads. It was a great experience. I have never taken an interstate bus since the nineties, in the days when I travelled from Terengganu to Sitiawan (or Kuala Lumpur) by bus every five or six days. As the vehicle barrelled southward from the bus station, I was amazed by the amenities available in the double decked transport vehicle. The seats were much more comfortable compared to the bus seats of old. Leg room were aplenty. And even better, we could recharge our phones at the power sockets. But enough about the bus, on to the pictures. There were numerous […]
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Splitting the Party
The evening after the Spell-It-Right competition, we travelled to Alor Setar where Ain and Cik Su who came visiting would be heading to Kuala Lumpur to reunite with Tok Bah and Tok Ma, and also to see little Rania. It was sad when Irfan and I were the only two occupants in the car heading home. Perhaps I thought we would continue the adventures of Jax Hunt when Ain was away. But in the meantime there were places to go. For example the Perlis Book Carnival was taking place at the Kangar Public Library. Irfan and I just had to go visit despite the abnormal midday heat. There were food stalls and even an inflatable pool for children. Irfan was much too big for it. We bought a couple of books. Irfan bought Darkmouth, a YA fantasy novel by Shane Hegarty which he digested quickly over the coming days. I […]
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Boy Spells More Words
It has been more than a month since it last rained. The skies have been blue all day for weeks. I would gladly enjoy the view of the blue sky if it were not for the soaring heat. And it came to pass Irfan was selected to attend another Spell-It-Right competition in Kangar. He was apprehensive in joining company of English spellers for his school, but in the end he decided to jump in feet first. We braved the searing solar radiation to drive toward the hotel where the event was being held. And sear us it did. We thought we could take refuge in the hotel lobby, but for some reason it was still stifling hot within. Either the air conditioning was unable to overcome the heat radiating from hundreds of schoolchildren or the air conditioning was borked. There were three sessions: one for the primary students and the […]
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Like Flying Polyps But Not Really
THEN It was back in early October after Raya Haji vacation when I began to fall ill with fever, coughs and sniffles. I blew my nose at work and sprayed the toilet at the office with a bowl full of blood. That never happened before. I thought that such amount of blood should not be outside of any human body. The pain was strong and constant. It speared up into the right eye and down into the right side of the mouth. The smell of blood from my nose and mouth was incessant. (My review of Andy Weir’s novel The Martian might have been written when I was right in the middle of it as evident from the last paragraph.) One quick visit to a clinic near home, and a doctor diagnosed just a nosebleed perhaps because of my vigorous nose blowing over the days. A second visit later in […]
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Rainy Dinner by the Sea
We cannot afford a lot. Most of our resources are currently being used to our debts collected while living in Kuala Lumpur below the poverty line. I even think twice refuelling the car. But one of my responsibilities is to ensure the family have fun. For many years, even when we were living back at the Tenth Floor, we all take pleasure in a good drive. We tell jokes, chide each other, sing along with the radio, make funny observations and try our best to make each other laugh. And we do. Laugh that is. It seems as if we laugh more here than we did back there. Weekends are when we take a drive somewhere. Sometimes when we drive somewhere, the time is just right for a meal. So we found ourselves by the sea in Kuala Perlis one dark, cloudy Friday afternoon after work as light began to […]
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Another New Year Reunion
This year we returned to Sitiawan for Chinese New Year because Teik Sing and family are back home from abroad! The last time we met was over two years ago when they visited us at the Tenth Floor, when Ezra was still a baby! We met at the biggest shopping mall in Sitiawan, which in itself still causes cognitive dissonance with me because Sitiawan had no malls when I lived here and we had to travel far and away for me to reach any mall. In any case, full complement of our families including Ivy met up in the afternoon. We occupied two tables at Secret Recipe to talk and stuff! Teik Sing and Michelle gave us a really well-sculpted NCC-1701-D USS Enterprise as a gift. I also received a drawing of BB-8 by Ashley, who is turning out to be an excellent artist! We gave Lat’s Kampung Boy and […]
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Celebrating One Anniversary and One Birthday
The twenty-ninth of each year brings about both the birthday of Sila and the anniversary of our parents. She has always quipped that she was Atok and Opah’s third anniversary present. Atok and Opah were on site in Perlis on this day, so we thought we would go celebrate at the restaurant where we celebrated Ain’s birthday not two weeks earlier. This time I took a photo of Ain’s burger, which was enormous. Atok ordered a burger too while Opah had a chicken chop. I wish Sila, Vin, Yaya and Rafiq were here to celebrate with us. I really miss them, having last seen them recede into the distance at the airport almost six years ago on a very dark day. Happy anniversary Atok and Opah and happy birthday to Sila, Adik the Elder! May all of you be blessed with laughter and contentment.
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A KL Incursion into the Caves
Then all too suddenly, we were visited upon by relatives from back in the Klang Valley, specifically Irfan’s cousins Aiman and Zara and their family. It was the first time they visited Perlis. As per the standard operating procedure, we took them around the state – the smallest in the country – starting with the bustling, tourist-filled bazaars of Padang Besar. Zara bought new a toy there. Ain brought them to her vendors of choice. The duty-free store at the Thai border is also a tourist favourite. Just as it was 25 years ago, I still wished Padang Besar had a decent book store, but I guess visitors here are more concerned with getting a good deal for wares rather than books. In any case, Zara got to ride in a duty-free shopping cart. The standard operating procedure ensured that we next visited Gua Kelam, where they appeared to have […]
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A Birthday Dinner Appeared Out of Nowhere
What words can I write that would do justice in wishing a happy birthday to a woman who has always been on my side through it all and still can smile and laugh with me? Probably nothing, except Happy Birthday. And sorry I forgot to take a photo of your burger. LOL! It’s as yummy as Irfan’s chicken chop up there.
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Lighting the Bike
Once upon a time, I marvelled at Irfan’s then-newfound abilities to reach a light switch. These days he’s repairing the bicycle Atok bought for him last year all on his own. Here we see him attempting to remove his bike’s forward and rear lights which he had purchased and installed himself during the weekend. He even bought and installed the batteries for his lights himself. He even went to the bike shop alone to replace his seat, as 14-year-olds normally do. Maybe someday he’ll even repair communication satellites! I think he’s getting older by the second. Snif.
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