Happy Birthday maman

Yesterday, 25 September 2005 was Maman's birthday. We had a small party at home where he invited a few of his friends. He had a birthday cake, beehoon goreng, tuna and egg sandwich, nuggets, etc. A few indoor games were also played.
Maman received a ball from ifos for his birthday. He was so excited by it that he cant wait for the day to get cooler to play. He played football at the beach at about 11.00 am in the hot sun. We dinner at Anjung Delight, with maman ordering his favourite dish that is chicken chop.

Sarah called later but maman was already asleep, tired with the day activities and too sleepy after taking anti tussif medicine for cough.

We celebrated birthdays just for fun, an oppotunity to bring families and friends together. Its just like a mini gathering where the adult talk for hours and the kids played endlessly.
Even though we enjoy ourselves but we still miss the presence of our love ones, sarah, safiyah and muhammad ibrahim.

IFOS to Volgograd

We had just got back from KLIA after sending ifos off to Volgograd. It will be another 10 months before her summer vacation.

The first time ifos had to leave home was after UPSR. she was selected to school at SMAP Kajang. a day prior to registration, we did a quick look at the school environment and we did not like it. with ifos down with fever, we decided to call it off. we had to bring back the baldi, cebuk, hanger in the kelompin etc.

after PMR results, she was not chosen to continue at MRSM where she applied. the ses is what that failed all my kids is getting the oppotunity to study at residential schools. So ifos continue with the day school, SMART Kuantan.

We managed to sent her off to matriculation college at kuala pilah where she could not adjust herself in. she did frequent home travellings, multiple visits by us made us expert travelling around kuala pilah.

today, our little-big girl is off to volgograd. we are happy but also sad as it will be months before seeing her again... we will miss her much. we pray for Allah to protect her and give he His Guidance and Blessings.

KPJ Sports Carnival

I was in KL for about 3 days attending the KPJ Sports Carnival. We camped at the Grand Continental Hotel which was located at Jalan Raja Laut, just adjacent to the famous Batu Road. The games were played at Stadium Titiwangsa which was considered adequate. I represented the East Coast Team (KSH and Perdana) in playing an indoor game and managing the volleyball team.

This year outing was disastrous. We lost most of the matches. Our team was small compairing to other regions and this end us up with a player having to play 2-4 games, exhausted and with low morale.

Two mind challenging game was introduced this year, the chess and scrabble. The 'less physical' brought the older player to participate thus bridging the gap between the old and the young, executive and non executive.

Different Generations

I was invited to a tea party today at my uncle's place. We were served with meehoon goreng, cakes, puddings and payasum (i dont really know whether the spelling was right). An initial sample of payasum eventually ended up with 4 helpings. I was told that the recipe was 'imported' from London. We also tried fresh susu kambing from the herd belonging to him.

Unfortunately, my uncle was not around at the time we arrived. He had to visit a potential grazing field. He arrived a bit late and was immediately attracted by a gadget belonging to Luqman, a gameboy. Maman had this gameboy for about 1 1/2 years but was kept away from him until he finished his UPSR.

My uncle was brought up in the 50's when there was not even a television around. The computer was introduced in the late 70's in Malaysia and i could still remember the Computer Science students had to queue up to get their computer card punched before placing it to the computer. Later came the desktop PC and then the laptop, palms etc. For games, in the 80's the Atari Spectrum was the popular choice. There was no Nintendo, Playstation, X box, gameboy etc. The screen for the PC only had 4 CGA colors; black, white, pink and blue. Later they had the 16 EGA colors and eventually the VGA 256 colors. Today we have millions of color, shading, shadow etc.

For those in the older generation, they can't see the difference between Nvidia GeForce 4 series and GeForce 7 series. For gamers, the difference is tremendous. It can determine whether a player is to live or die in a first person shooting game or flying a fighter. The advances of computer technology cost a lot in order to keep pace with it. Without a good earning, one is sure to be lagging behind with technology, using an aging tool until it goes dead, condemned.

It Rocks

Let us talk about rock or batu. Mentioning about 'batu belah batu bertangkup' and Teluk Chempedak(TC), it is something of our past. I can still remember that we used to climb the hill and boulders to get across from Taman Teruntum to TC, leaving our bicycles behind and later had to walk back to get them.

We also ventured to the other side of the rock, from TC to Teluk Pertama which is now known as Teluk Tongkang. Half buried in the sand was a wreck Vietnamese boat which dated back to the 70's. I could still recall when the armed forces had to chase off the 'boat people' off the beach, not allowing them to land. These 'smart' Vietnamese knew the rules too well. They sank their boat leaving the authorities with no choice but to allow them to land on humanitarian ground.


The 'batu belah batu bertangkup' with lots of mud skippers (ikan tembakul) jumping was an attraction. We used to lie and relax on the flat surface of the rock with no worries of being swallowed by them. We jumped and played all sort of games without hesitation. The myth said that it only consumed those who were 'kempunan' (is there an english equivalent for it?).

Speaking of 'Batu' namely batu malai and tajam batu, the latter was frightening, whereas Batu Malai, for the love of a baby, gave the adored infant a pair of beautiful mittens. As she was just a general worker, it was expensive and of high value. A word of advice for the said baby; remember your roots, 'jangan seperti kacang lupakan kulit.'

'Tajam batu' used to haunt naughty children, especially those who cried alot. This 'tajam batu' would scream aloud calling any mum or dad who needed his service to discipline their children. He moved around with a bicycle, something like 'basikal jaguar' with a back carriage.

I used to be good at playing 'guli batu' or marbles and still had friends owing me guli. How to choose a good guli? Get something bluish, because it has an aura that can easily break other guli. Other ordinary guli are just for payment if defeated.

Batu bata; when we were at primary we used to clean this batu bata so that they could be painted white for decoration. They can also be used to increase the inertia of moving bodies making it more stable such as to climb a steep hill. We did try that when travelling through the old Genting Highlands road and ended up with the batu bata and a few of us having to get out so that the car had more power to tackle the steepness. What a theory!

Lastly, remember that batu is 'alive'. When one throws a batu wrongly, it can hit back like 'batu throwing' in Mina. One was supposed to throw the batu into the pit but a few pligrim as to show their great anger to the satan, took their position then aim carefully and threw with great might at the pillar instead. there goes the rebound with the batu hitting back at him. So take care.

Reminiscence - Stories told

It was years before independence, commuting without the LRT or even cars. Only the richest can afford a car and during that time this only means the royal family and the 'orang putih'. This dated back to more than 50 years ago at Kuala Lipis. My father was a temporary teacher at Kuala Lipis and a football player in Lipis Club. He used to play football, hockey and rugby for Clifford, games introduced by the British to the English school.

One of his schoolmate when he was in Clifford was from the royal family , a football enthusiast. The photo above was taken before a match between the Lipis Club and Clifford School. The outcome of the match was as expected when one had to play against a 'royal' team. One of his stories that i remembered well was that he had to play even when he was down with fever. He could not refuse 'the summon' when 'the car' was there in the frontyard waiting.

Maybe you would like to guess who Mr A and Mr M is.

Merdeka! At Kirkby TTC 1957

This is my dad. This photo was taken in 1978, his 3rd time to UK as a student.

The first was in 1953 at Kirkby Malayan Teachers' Trainning College. He studied in Clifford School, Kuala Lipis and was offered 2 places, a varsity life in Singapore or at Kirkby. He chose the later and studied there from 1955 to 1957.

I decided to write this entry after watching on television about the first audience where the announcement of independence was made. It was at Kirkby's Hall where about 300 Malaysian students including my dad was present. He was there together with his fellow students to greet the Tunku . He graduated in September 1957 and came back as a teacher to his homeland Pahang. He never taught outside Pahang, loyal to his state, declined promotions if it involved working outside Pahang.

I'll write more about him later.