Days in recovery



It's Saturday today! I'm still on medical leave due to the surgery I undergone 3 weeks ago. Feeling so much better, I am now able to walk faster even though not to the pace I usually do and at least able to do light house chores.

 

Few days back, I walked up the stairs to the first floor of our home after not going up for close to three weeks. Rasa macam nak pengsan! Not because of the stairs .... but chaos of all. The unfolded clothes, mess in Nada's closet, habuk yang tak boleh nak cerita, stacks and stacks of nick-nack here and there.. I don't know where to start.



 

I decided to let them just be and walked down.

 

Got hold of my phone.. texted Nada's Nanny : "Ani, hujung minggu ni boleh datang tolong saya kemas rumah"

She replied : "Boleh ma Nada..."

 

Forget about cleaning, I made beef fried rice with bak choy.



Always like fried rice with lots of vege and I prefer the vege to be crunchy. Yums! Nada makan bertambah.

 

Today's breakfast, bread with cheese and half boil ayam kampong eggs from my FIL breeds.

Don't tell my Mami about the soya sauce, she keeps saying it's not good to take after surgery.. Nanti kesan jahit jadi hitam. But I'm stubborn like that.

BRITAIN AND CURTAIN, is it a rhyme?

(L-R - Me, Aida & Lin)

Wohoooo… a sneak peak.
Yeh, two of my good ol’ girl friends along with Lin’s two nephew and I just came back from Britain. Hmm... Aida & I spend 10 days of Britain, i.e England and Wales where as Lin detour to Paris on the last 3 days. Cold..it was C.O.L.D for my tropical skin, heh.

During our trip to Japan last year, I bought these :

of course sans the girl in pix.

cute craft supplies...

This time around, trip to the UK, I bought these :

It’s Cath Kidston, y’all…. I'm a happy girl.

Aren’t we crafters love her?

Anyway, enough about Britain. Hopefully I’ll get down about it some how.

Let's go to curtain, My actual entry :

It’s been close to five months that we moved to our current pad. Many times when I walked across from our living to the backyard, I can’t resist but to thank Allah.s.w.t of what we have.

Alhamdulillah, I recite the phrase quietly over and over again.
I thank Allah s.w.t for the Rezeki that we managed to procure the home.
I thank Allah s.w.t for allowing us to get a small renovation work done. (for the moment)
I thank Allah s.w.t for the space we have and when our big family come over.. it feels a lot more comfortable than before.

I really love our space despite it is practically bare at the moment. In-fact, we don’t even have enough sofa or chair for our guests to sit on. I’ll work on it slow and steady….

I’m pretty sure there’ll be quite a sewing for this place too. The first handmade was – to dress up this folding doors opening widely to our backyard.

(Note : Should you ever wonder what was Nada doing in this photo… the answer is the last photo of this entry)

I for one, preferred non-curtain. However, without the curtain it would be ‘a show’ when night comes!

I never thought sewing curtains would be tough. What I pictured was, just straight cut of fabrics to required length, straight sew curtain tape, straight sew the seams… wallah my curtain done.

No! it was not that easy. The difficult part about curtain is they have to be STRAIGHT. Cut straight, sew straight! My hands are not straight after all! Somehow, after all the scolding and cursing to Lady Gaga (she’s getting old and not so efficient anymore), I managed to get it done.

My first handmade for our home. I’m so satisfied.  

 

Last photo : Mommy scarecrow and baby scarecrow by Nada, yeah ~ that’s what she was doing…..

Make over

I have a special attachment to this modest house. It is a home that I frequent ever since I was a child until now. We had Nada's cukur jambul ceremony here too.

It is my cousin's, Mentibang Paku's pad.  

For the last five months or so, it had gone through huge transformation and I have been.... none other than a busy-body. Saturday mornings after breakfast, it became a routine for us to visit the house under renovation. Many times, I made way alone after having a meeting nearby I am scheduled to have fortnightly. 

I'd like to thank Mentibang's family for bearing with me. There were occasions that I found out the contractor didn't really built according to the way I pictured it was supposed to be. I quickly drove over to my cousin's house and made such big complaint to her.

~ "Why there's a column there? It isn't supposed to be there....." bla-bla-bla

~"Why is the ledge like that? It's not supposed to continue all the way at front......" bla-bla-bla

As always, Mentibang is a very patient person and I guess  my complaint reached the pay master. Somehow or rather, things were fixed !

I am not sure if both of them agreed with me because I did make noise or they just don't want any hustle from me.

But I really hope, they trust me that I want their house nice.

Mr Mentibang is accommodating. When asked by the contractor if he wanted the roof as designed. His reply was "Just follow..."

When the contractor informed they already went to 10 building material shops to look for the item that I suggested to be incorporated into the design and they still couldn't find it, he himself made the effort to scout for it.    

~ yeah, the railings aren't there yet....

Congratulation Mentibang for the make-over. It may be different, but the soul and spirit of the home that I've known for 20++++ years is still the same. 

This used to be my playground

Every year on the first of May, my alma mater would conduct a reunion for the former students we call it,  the Old Girls Day. It is organized by Tunku Kurshiah College Old Girls Association, abbrev. TKCOGA. Many would trail back to Bukit Merbah for a get together no matter in what batch you were.

Ms Dew insisted to write her name..

I have never join any TKCOGA events but decided to do so this year for few reasons.

After school in 1992, I did went back there twice. First was to collect SPM results and the necessary certificates, second was after I got married and staying in Seremban. It was just a brief drive through with only Harris on one Saturday morning.

The recent visit was indeed a bittersweet come back. It would be the final year Tunku Kurshiah College to reside Bukit Merbah before the commencement of 2013 education term in Nilai – the new ground for TKC.

There’s so much memory I had in TKC, it’s definitely a favourite playground after the best ‘playground’ I had underneath my Pale Green Home. A lot had changed, but the same passion could still be felt.

We didn't have those exercise equipments back then.

Plastic plate now, no longer the metal tray for dines

My room in '92, now has grille for safety reason.

 Quotes everywhere.. desk, notice board. Still being practiced. I only to realize that these two that attracted me to snap photo came from one same person after gotten home. She's sure doing well.

It was joyful to meet up old girl friends that many of them I haven’t seen for more than 20 years. We’ve long made a conclusion and agreed that TKC was the place that we found the best of friendship. What can you expect of five solid years growing up together during the tender years of our age, sharing tears and laughter…, Quarrel and Hugs! We’ll have Good Friends! that most probably think alike.

There is something about TKC that we kinda have the intuition when we meet a KURSHIAN though our path had never crossed in the home ground.

Almost everyone had such encounter of after talking to one, we could guess that she’s a TKCian, and we’re right. Somehow….. I also don’t know how.

A gorgeous friend of mine.... her physics looks like she never left school. *I'm depressed*

 With our Biology teacher whom just retired and was surprised with a full sponsored vacation to Turkey by TKCOGA.

As much as I savour the joy with my friends, the best part to me was still being able to share the happiness of going back to school with my very own favourite girl – Nada. Showing her what has been part of me, what has made me that actually never leave me.

Managed to mend her dress strap & button. It's red covered button replacing tiny flowers 

Though, I couldn’t say I manage to impart to her my appreciation of my years in TKC, I’m already grateful that by end of our tour that day.. she told me : “Mommy, I like your school. It is big and clean....”

...IT'S A PALE GREEN HOME by YantiMahamud

Chapter 4 - Five Rooms of The Home

~~~~~~ Coming soon to your screen sometime in February (hopefully) ~~~~~~

**** Ini adalah iklan

..IT'S A PALE GREEN HOME by YantiMahamud

Chapter 3 – Ibu Rumah

A typical Malay traditional house that I learned during my architectural study must always have the poise and grandeur of ‘Ibu Rumah’. This significant element was also reflected to my home.
The Ibu Rumah of my home began right from the front main entrance door with the size, I estimate, was 15ft x 12ft almost a square shape. This part, it actually contradicted with the theory that I learned, of which it is supposed to be an ‘anjung’ or a semi private area for any traditional house acts as a transition area before entering the Ibu Rumah.
We don’t have any ‘anjung’.

The space then lead to a bigger main area of approximately 27ft x 30ft. Big, huh? And believe it or not, there was only one ceiling fan at the center of this huge space back then. I remember, I used to directly headed to the area upon a tired long walk in the afternoon hot sun for returning home from school and reciting Quran, took my afternoon nap under the fan with just my undies.
One rule by Mok, all of her grandchildren under her care must take afternoon nap on daily basis! It’s for resting according to her. So it was not only me… there were few nos of us … “selonggok bawah kipas!”. Sometimes, with one’s head at somebody’s foot.
One cousin whom always had the longest sleep was Rafiyuddin.
After our nap, we love so much if Mok fed all of us under the fan if not at the legendary bright orange concrete staircase. Our favorite was rice mixed with tomato ketchup and soya sauce coupled with soya sauce scrambled egg. My cousin Safrul, would not trade with anything else for this simple gourmet. Don’t know if he still have the love for soya sauce scramble egg now…

Both of these squares spaces of Ibu Rumah were linked and divided into 5 areas with designated function. There were a formal living area, formal dining area, family / tv area, multipurpose area and also an area separated from the multipurpose area by a checkered wooden divider fronting the formal living with the most frequently changed look almost like a chameleon making it as my favorite area of all.

Sometimes, Mok placed two of one seater sofa guarding a huge flower bouquet there. At another time, Mok would convert it to an ‘audio’ area by putting a radio. Also it could be a display area for her shining antique copper gadgets such as big pots, small pots, iron, trays, candle holder and whatnot. If Mok feels to just dress it up with only a nice carpet and few cushions, it then would look that way.
Whatever way Mok did it, it was always looked good with the checkered wooden divider as the backdrop full of Mok’s little display items, example from the many types are China-Japan ceramic saucers and glasses, copper mascara container from Mecca and souvenirs from weddings.

What makes this chameleon like area more makes sense was it’s strategic location. It was at the heart of the home and being a focal point for anyone entering the home from it’s main entrance, as they walked pass through the formal living area.

The formal living area on the other hand, I consider it as Mok’s show-off show room. Well, her showing off was not to other people but her own-self for satisfaction. It’s the area where Mok would place the best furniture set with the finest upholstery cover usually matched the curtains complete with knitted or embroidered chair-back and small cushions. The coffee table must always be complemented with a pretty cover and changed of flower bouquets. So were the corners of living area, must always be beautify with flower bouquets or any displays. Ash-trays must always be emptied and cleaned up. It was really a nice-neat space, well lit-up and airy caused by the crossed ventilation.
The only thing…, we can’t really spend our time at the formal living. It was supposed to be Mok’s ‘show room’!… not a play area for a mess by her many grandchildren…. But we don’t really care, there were plenty of other spaces in the home. If not, the home compound is big enough for our runs!

Mok serves the multipurpose area as an ironing space and for telephone. The telephone was so logical that Mok locate it so near to her bedroom so that she was able to monitor who used the phone even if when she was sleeping. Oh dear, Mok has beautiful daughters – my aunties and also growing up grandchildren who just love to hang on the phone!
I don’t really know why the ironing table was placed there though. I guess… because there was a socket at that spot?
But somehow, it worked well. It was not far from my mami’s sewing area that she had to commute from her sewing machine to press the cloth during her sewing. And at night, despite the ironing table was placed at the multipurpose area, there was no need to switch light on for ironing. The light from family or tv area where we usually spend awake time at night the most would be enough.
Mok usually did the ironing at nights. Again, Mok was the one ironing the school uniforms for her grandchildren staying with her, under her care. Mok would neatly placed all the ironed uniforms including our socks and handkerchief according to each of the grandchildren for the ease of us in the morning! Very particular and I really thank Mok, not only for all her does for me but the great example she had portrayed. I must have got the gene from her when it comes to being neat and proper.
We were considered as best dressed kids to school in our kampong with cleaned, ironed uniforms every day. Wonderful.

My home, seemed so modest……… but was a very practical and so beautiful in it’s own way. The home itself, the events that took placed in it be a sweet or a sour one, the way things were done in it… had been a canvas to my childhood life. It was painted so well that I now develop to be the person whom loves herself so much.

.It's A Pale Green Home by YantiMahamud

Chapter 2 – Beautiful home with that legendary bright orange concrete stairs

I don’t think many of my cousins or even aunties and uncles remember the address and phone no of our home which had been dismantled 14 years ago. But me…. I do!
It was 5319-H Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 15150, Kota Bharu, Kelantan and the phone no was… from 5 digits 09-25548 change to 6 digits 09-785548. At the time that I write this entry, I have no reference to anything at all…… but just the sharp memory of mine granted by Allah swt towards this place which my childhood life evolved around it.

Having the address for a house is essential, but my home was more likely to be known with it’s description for the location. It was the first house on the right fronting a road which run along CEB pylon (CEB…..that was TNB…. donkey years ago) in Kampung Lundang with bright orange concrete entrance staircase. Usually, people don’t miss it even for their first time.

My home… was only a humble major-on-stilt, ‘tindih kasih’ mode wooden house painted in pale green color with shingle roofing, but by comparison with it’s flock, I would say my home was the most beautiful home around. Our immediate neighbors would be 2 rows of rented 1 bedroom ‘link-houses’ with detached water-closets on the right (I remember, my mami once ran into one of it when she tried to learn to ride motorbike…that scared her like anything!) and on the left was a single storey on-ground brick house resided by an Arab-Chinese family. (well, this house was rather ‘multi-national’… apparently according to my mami it was previously owned by a Japanese-Malay family… not bad, huh!)

Mok cik Dah whom lived at the behind right corner which then shifted for about 300m parallel away south has quite big houses, but my home can beat her houses anytime. The Tok Bomoh’s house… God! don’t even mention. It was a scary house. My cousins and I used to utilize the house compound for a short path to Mok’s sister’s (Chik-Allahyarhamah) house. Every time we wanted to cross the house compound… we would start with………. Bismillahirrahmanirahim… at the gate……… and RUUUUUNNNNNNN as fast as lightning! While running, we recited out loud… ALHAMDULLILAH HI RABBIL ALAMIN……………….. and finished the whole Mother of Surrah by the time we crossed it. He he…. It gave us the courage we need.
Across the road in-front of my home was another single storey on-ground part brick and part wooden house. It was a nice house, but not a match to compare. Hello! It was a house erected by an ADUN before, of course it’s nice. The house even had a game room full of toys for the grandsons – Azu-Allahyarham, Cici and Jaja.
I would say, the closest rival was Mok cik Nab’s house. As far as I can remember, she wiped the balcony balusters everyday…. its EVERY.. day, ok. That takes a lot of effort and passion in cleaning and for that I salute her, further more… she is such a kind-hearted woman. But still, my beautiful home beats hers by….., I guess…. 2 %. It’s because Mok has better taste than hers in decorating!

Mok loves beautiful things. Plants with flowers delight her very much! We had cannas to fence our front right boundary, ‘bunga cina’ tree which bloomed almost through out the year, seasonal shrubs like ‘bunga tahi ayam’, ‘balung ayam’ and balsams. Big purple bougainvillea sometimes crawled right up to the roof and gave Busu a hard time chopping it down. Mok loves them all…. but, her pride would be all the potted plants stacked on tiers at both right and left corners of the home. They complemented well with the bright orange stairs of which it was a place for all of us to hang out in late afternoons. We love the stairs so much… Kakak and I in our teen age used to sit there just to observe the goers passing our home and looked out for cute-good-looking boys. There was a guy living next to Tok Bomoh’s house… that I no longer recall his name…. ya.. we always tried stalking him from our stairs. But hey, of course we did it intelligently and pride-fully.
So convenient that stairs was, sometimes guesses who came to our home just wanted to ‘lepak’ right there even with our utmost pleasure welcoming them for seats in the living room. ‘Nescafe’ or tea with delicacies then would be served at the ‘bendul’.
The stairs was also where Mok would stand eyeing and waiting for Kakak going to sundry shop located by the main road at nights with lights on, if she…. at a very rare occasion desperately needed to go. She’s afraid of darkness.

My beautiful home with that legendary bright orange concrete entrance staircase… how I much miss it!

It's A Pale-Green Home by YantiMahamud

Chapter 1 – The Love

When I was a child, I don’t really know what were my ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ ….
Clothing – not like kids nowadays whom are so good in choosing what to wear… I just wore what my grandmother told me so. After taking bath…. It was always “Mok, pakai baju mana?” … and she would usually replied with a teasing tone, half shouting… “Pakailah kain songket pun!” But still, it was her picked then that I had to follow.

Food – never have any favorite restaurant. There was hardly an eat-out those days. It was already considered a big event if my aunties brought me to buy fried mee-hoon at nearby restaurants within the vicinity of where we lived. The few were, Sarina Reastaurant … Mirana Restaurant… even so, it was ‘tapau’ and eat it home.
Once in a blue moon I dined at a steam-boat restaurant called Sun-Too in town and that was really a HUGE-EXTRA-ORDINARY thing. There was a time Busu brought me to accompany her for dinner with her soon to be husband at Seri Restaurant. I needed to behave and of cause was trying hard to do so. Busu ordered for me float drink and I was so excited about it. Instead of slurping the drink, I blew it through the straw! It was a disaster….. the float spilled all over the big glass!

Books? – no way… Kampong girl like me…. I’d rather play “bola kaki-tiga” or follow my brother to climb trees rather than reading books. Somehow, I had a good discipline though, never go out playing unless I finished my home works.

Cartoon character – there were only RTM 1 & 2 back then. TV3 only reached my home town, I guess when I was in Std 4 or 5, or may be later. Don’t really remember. So, leaving for KL during school holidays was a big thing… that I could watch TV3 programs and boasted to my kampong friends. With limited tv programs, what cartoon character can be a favorite or a like?

Toys – Dream on! I don’t have favorite toy because I don’t have many toys. The toy that I remember playing if it can even be considered as a toy, was the lady figure print paper doll with outfits also out of printed paper-cutting that may be changed by hanging on it’s shoulder. Walllaweh… those were like Barbie dolls by current measure.
Should I want to play with toys… I’d hang-out at my Ayah Long’s (Allahyarham) house. Hmmmm… my cousin, Safrul had the most toys compared to any of us. He had this white ‘Transformer’ robot that amused us all….. Lego which he regarded as one new toy each day….. his Papa also bought him boxing gloves!.. but I think, he hardly used the gloves. He was an ever first-rate umi’s boy.

Not really having the likes, loves or certainties…. BY SOME MEANS…. there were 4 things that I was so certain about even as a child.
One – My ambition, I never change…. I wanted to be a teacher as I ever can remember. Should there be anyone that asked me… What I were gonna be when I grew up or needed me to fill in the ambition column in school particulars card, I had no hesitation. TEACHER… that was what I wanted to be. Somehow I ended up now being an Architect. (Thank God!…. can’t imagine myself teaching.)
A cousin of mine, she used to have this hesitation either wanted to be an air stewardess or a farmer! … Alamak!
Two – Once I started schooling in standard One (whoops! Never go to kindergarten….) I knew exactly I wanted to go to boarding school for secondary. The school, must be Tunku Kurshiah College because I heard it is a good school and only best students are permitted.
Three – I like the color green…. And still love it until today. All tones and hues of green. That was why I chose green color for my wedding color theme.

Four – I love my House. I love it so much that I always tried to draw for primary school art classes.

And This… This is a story of one of my four early LIKES / LOVES / CERTAINTIES.
A place where I grew up and spent the best ever first 19 years of my life right from an infant to a teenager. 5 years out of that 19, was complemented with another wonderful place .......... Tunku Kurshiah College.

It was a place that is very close to my heart that I call HOME. And a story of this place will never be a story if it is without the main spine……. My grandmother, ESHAH BT ABD. RAHMAN whom her 9 children call her ‘Ming’ (short of umi), her 32 grandchildren call her ‘Mok’ and her 11 (+ another 2 on the way) great-grandchildren call her ‘Tok’…………………………..