I need the correct signs

As I was riding my bike to KL today, somewhere in Sungai Besi, I saw this signboard saying: -

“KLIA Transit Bandar Tasik Selatan. 500 meters”

That was not the first time I saw the sign board but it caught me today and I did bother to look where the station was. I tried to map the station in my head and I found out that the station was not even near the signboard as stated on the signboard. It was like another 3 kilometres away.

So, what would a person from Johor do if he sees the signboard for the first time? Say his instruction says the junction is about 300 meters from the station and then turn left. He would spend his time trying to find that “bloody” station. Well the sign says another 500 meters. So, obviously he will turn at the wrong place and he will be lost.

Don’t we know that signage is important? If you tell a person to go somewhere, and you tell him to go by the road signs, well if the road signs are not “reliable”, then the results are expected. Like orang utara like to say “pi mai pi mai tang tu” jugak. P Ramlee likes to say, “Masuk Angin Keluar Asap”. Both means you will not get anywhere and you will not get anything.

I am staying in Putrajaya. It is the Federal Government’s Administrative capital but if one goes there, one will find that the signage is insufficient. One will only know where to go if he is the regular visitor at Putrajaya or if he stays there. I live there and so far there is no problem for me to go where I wanted to go. But what if the person is the first time visitor and he wants to go to the ministry of finance (MOF) for example? He asked the staff at the MOF and the staff at the MOF tells him the way. It will go usually like this: -

“if you are coming from the main entrance (how the heck I am supposed to know which is the main entrance or which is the “jalan belakang”. Okay the main entrance is the one where you will see the word “Putrajaya” once you reach the traffic light entering Putrajaya) from the traffic light you will see parcel E on your left (that’s among others the ministry of education). After parcel E you will find parcel D and then C. right after parcel c there is a left turning. That will lead you to precinct 16, the deputy prime minister’s residence complex, Wisma Putra (that’s the ministry of foreign relation (is that what they call it now because I always know it as Wisma Putra)) and also precinct 3 where the other ministry and government department are situated. After turning left go straight until you get to a t junction (it is a t junction and to be a cross junction once the Chief Justice’s house complex is ready). Go straight again until you get to another cross junction (to be also). Turn right and go pass 3 traffic lights. At the last traffic light turn right and follow the road. The MOF is the brown building on your left (or was it the building on your right?)”

There, that’s the instruction and try going there using my instruction and tell me whether you get there or not. If you in any way “sesat”, hey! Don’t blame me for that. It’s the Putrajaya Holding people who are supposed to put up the signage (sufficient signage).

Putrajaya Holdings also have “rules” to prevent the building from being covered by signage. So no signs on the building but banners are allowed. So you will see banners saying “Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara”, “Jabatan Immigresen” and some other Jabatan as well. Of course the banners are not cheap but the only thought which comes to your mind is: -

“ish…tak elok lah lagu tu….awat tak buat papan tanda hat elok”

Translation: What an eye sore. Why can’t you make a nice sign board.

But these banners are the only sign showing you where to go and whether you are at the right place or not. So the banners stay and signage out. How “convenient” to those who are going there.

Well hopefully there will be sufficient signage when the whole project is completed and no more wondering where to go.
it

Little Red Riding Hood (my version)

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lives with her mother in a small hut near the edge of the forest. On one fine day her mother asked her to deliver a basket of goodies to her grandmother who lives on the other side of the forest. She called the Fed Ex representatives and shipped the basket of goodies to her grandmother.

That save her from the wolf and the wood cutter does not have to save her from the wolf….

The End


Isn’t that simple rather than scaring young kids with stories like the Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf? Or better still… start a story and let your kids finish it… it will be more fun and everyday you will have different kind of bedtime story. It will bring out the creativity in your children at the same time…

J just a thought…

When East Meet West

In the modern world today, we celebrate the advantage of free information. We were introduced to various cultures, civilization and way of life. We see the cultures of the people in Africa. We read about the Egyptian civilization and we learn about how European, American, British and Chinese live. I am not going to talk about any civilization or cultures but I am looking into the most favorite topic of all discussions. Everywhere we go, at any time (may be not when we are vast asleep but sometimes we dreamt about it), at any place we will not fail to talk about food.

I grew up in many places in Malaysia because my father was an air force personnel. Thus, I was exposed to thousand (okay, I might exaggerate there a little…okay, a lot) kind of Malaysian cuisine. I tasted food cooked by the Kelantanese, Johorean, the Baba and Nyonya Food and of course food cooked by the people from the North (not North Pole but a little bit down to the south. Yes, I am talking about food prepared by the people from Kedah, Penang and Perlis)

There are kind of food prepared by these people but let me narrow it down further. Let me tell you about the dessert. Well, I never want anything else everytime I go back to my hometown in Sungai Petani (it is approximately 370 km from the Kuala Lumpur City Centre and about 4 hours drive) but to indulge myself with the food especially dessert. They have “seghawa”, lepat” (pisang, liat, labu, ubi etc.), “tepung talam”, “seri muka”, “tapai” (fermented rice but it is sure nice), “beka”, “gedung chak”, “lompang”, “halua kundork”, “halua maskat”, “pulut kacau” (it is known as wajik by Malaysian) and not forgetting all the buburk (buburk kacang, buburk pulut hitam, buburk cha cha (yes its cha cha) and buburk gandum to name a few).

I had this idea to write this topic when I was treating myself with the good old buburk pulut hitam. My grandmother made the best buburk pulut hitam. It is a sweet porridge made from the red/black glutinous rice (in Malaysia, you can get it easily from the store but the quality differs from one place to another. I like the one from Pekan Rabu) with cane sugar or palm sugar and rich thick coconut milk.

First of all you have to wash the red/black glutinous rice (let’s call it pulut hitam after this) and boil it until it is soft. Then you add in sugar (for those who want it a little less sweet, you can reduce the amount of sugar but never replace sugar with any kind of sweetener because it is not nice. Believe me I have tried). Let it simmer for a while. When the sugar has dissolved and mixed well with the pulut hitam, add in the thick rich coconut milk. Let it cook until the pulut hitam porridge is thickened. Then viola, you got yourself your own buburk pulut hitam and that how my grandmother used to make her version of buburk pulut hitam. It tastes “wonderfool” (yeah it is so nice you can go out of your mind).

But when I started working, I went to a lot of functions where they serve buburk pulut hitam and some other stuff. I started mixing the traditional recipe with my own taste. Let me tell you what to do. First you have your own buburk pulut hitam, right. Chill it in the refrigerator for a while. After a while, add in two scoop of vanilla ice cream (I prefer the French Vanilla Flavor) and garnish with some sweet biscuit (those who have diabetes are not encourage to try this recipe and I will not take any kind of responsibility if anything (whether foreseeable or not) ever happens to diabetes patient when any of you were to try this recipe). To me it is the best dessert and that’s what I meant earlier by saying When East Meet West. I don’t think Marco Polo ever tried this kind of food before and of course the traditional recipe will be the best.

Good ol' days...

I grew up in kampong and at that time there was only 1 public phone in the area and the villagers will come and line up at night (because the call rate is cheaper than daytime) to make calls and talk to their relatives in town or city. There were no Nintendo or Gameboy, PS or PS 2. Those are the toys which are beyond our reach and imagination. But we have our own games. Among the games which are familiar to us were “congkak”, “guli” (marbles), “gasing”, “jengket-jengket” (I think there is an English version to this as well) and “main kotak rokok”.

We usually play congkak (I don’t really play because I think it is for girls only) under the house (most of the kampong houses were built on stilts. So, there is a “bawah rumah”). Let me recall how it was played again. Dig 6 holes on each side on the ground and one last hole for your points and fill each hole with seven either “biji getah” or “guli” except for the last hole at each end of the row. Start by transferring the “biji getah” in each hole until you finished it all and collect them in the hole at the end. The person with the most “biji getah” wins. Now, congkak is not played under the house anymore and parents would rather buy the “papan congkak” at the Central Market (if you are in KL) and the papan congkak is displayed among other items in our house. Some of the recent generation don’t even know how to play congkak.

Then there was the “permainan kotak rokok”. We will collect the cigarette boxes arrange them together. Bear in mind the cigarette boxes have different values. The expensive cigarette will have 10 points (I think) and the cheap cigarette box will have 1 point. But for certain cases, some cheap cigarette box (like the ace of spade cigarette box) will have 10 points because it is rare (that was from my father’s time. During my time we stick to Dunhill, Camel, Materhorn, White Horse and Benson’s boxes) (my grandma smokes Salem menthol thus the box carry 6 points). So, if you strike the expensive cigarette box you will get more points so on and so forth. It is something like betting to get points but it is sure fun. It is a little bit different with “main guli”.

One way to play guli is to place several of your gulis in a circle you made on the ground. The more gulis the merrier. Then you will draw a line about 5 feet from the circle where you will stand behind the line and take turns trying to hit the “gulis” in the circle with another guli you called “ibu”. The ibu is usually your “lucky marble” and a big one too. If the guli inside the circle are thrown out of the circle, it is considered your. I used to own about two “tin susu besar” of guli. Yeah, I am the champion in the kampong and one day my friends decided that I was too good as a player and told me that I shouldn’t play (kesian *sob-sob*). Thus, I was a spectator after that (yeah, friends can be cruel. If that happens today Schumacher will not win the F1 for seven times).

My other toys were the therbe’ or lastik (catapult), “senapang kayu” (wooden gun), caplong (another gun made from bamboo and you fill it with either paper soaked in water or buah ceneghai (I don’t know what its called in English but it looks like a small cherry) and buah ceneghai will hurt if it “kena” you). The catapult will be my best weapon next to the wooden gun. The bamboo will not last long since it is made from bamboo and it will break once it dried up unless you put it in the water to retain the moist in the bamboo. So, everyday after school I will patrol the kampong with the catapult around my neck and any moving object in the bushes will be my target from birds to a poor chicken (I was quite naughty when I was small and my father will get his daily report from the villagers. Something must be dead or something must be broken). For the wooden gun, I usually use ‘batang bemban” (it is a bamboo like plant but a little softer inside) and the target is human being usually kids who are going to their daily kelas fardhu ain. I go too to the fardhu ain classes but I got a green pass because the ustaz is my uncle (al fatihah to him).

But all of the above are not as fun as “mandi ban” (ban is an irrigation canal for the padi fields) especially in the afternoon after school. We would swim butt naked (yes put your school uniform aside and jump into the canal) and no matter what was done to deter me from “mandi ban”, nothing can stop me. So my father gave up on that. Then I compare my life then with the life of kids now and I felt they need to go out more often. There is nothing more fun than playing those games and doing what I did when I was a young delinquent.

But now I revert to more decent games such as scrabble and chess (dam aji too) since it will be a scene if I were to play guli or kotak rokok again.

Happy Birthday Angah

I almost forgot and i hope it is not too late... today at 8.20 a.m. 25 years ago... Angah my brother was born... we came a long way together and one day insyallah, there will be a post about him...

Again, Angah Happy Birthday. May Allah bless you always...

The Legend

I was first introduced to P. Ramlee’s films some 27 years ago and I couldn’t grasp much (as I was still in my nappy) from the films except other people were laughing at the scenes in the square box they were watching. So, I laughed with the crowd following what they were doing. Last night one of the TV channel aired Pendekar Bujang Lapok and I watched the film again for the gazillion times. I can even memorize the lines from the movie (as many of us would) but surprisingly I was never bored watching the film. It was like watching “Pendekar Bujang Lapok” for the first time all over again.

I didn’t watch much of his film and I can only remember films like the Bujang Lapok series, Sarjan Hassan, Penarek Becha (was this the right spelling), Ibu Mertuaku (I almost cried watching this movie but “tahan macho beb”), Antara Dua Darjat, the Do Re Mi series to name a few but putting the knot at the end of all, I realized what a talent he was. After his demise in early 1973 (if I am not mistaken), I can say that none of the artists after him really filled the spot he left. He was a writer, composer, actor and a director (to name a few of his capabilities). But none of that can be compared to his contribution to the Malaysian entertainment industry. He won the Asia Pacific Film Award for the film “Nujum Pa’ Belalang” in the Comedy Category. He composed hundreds of songs and directed hundred of films. He was a Legend. There is a song lyric which sing “Patah tumbuh hilang berganti” but to me, he was never replaced.

If you asked me who is my idol in the Malaysian entertainment industry? My answer will be P. Ramlee. The way he touched our hearts in Ibu Mertuaku and Antara Dua Darjat and the laugh he created in our living room in Seniman Bujang Lapok was never forgotten. We watched his films over and over again but we will never say no when his films were aired. We will always watch his films.

Born as Nyak Ramlee Bin Nyak Puteh in Penang, he started his colorful career in the entertainment industry mostly in Singapore. His name is imprinted in our hearts and to the Legend….. Al-Fatihah…

Colour

I was having this discussion with the ladies in my office the other day and I was wondering. How many colours do we see? There are black and white. There’s always red, yellow, green and blue. Other than that are not colours. Peach is a fruit. Lavender is a flower. Pumpkin is a type of vegetable (or was it fruit). Orange is also a fruit. What else? And if you have gone shopping lips stick with your wife, you’ll know the colour they have for the lips stick.

I mean, most men only see at least the basic colour. So, if the wife go and ask the man to buy say a peach dress, if the man gets it wrong, don’t scold him. It’s not his fault when he only knows the basic colour. I wonder how women can see so many colours. The list of colours goes on and on. The following will be some of the colours (I can remember) women see: -

1) Rose;
2) Pink;
3) Pink Rose (combination between pink and rose);
4) Wine (it’s a kind of drink);
5) Peach;
6) Beige (what is the difference between beige and cream?);
7) Cream (is eatable);
8) Lavender (like I say it’s a flower);
9) Turquoise (I don’t know whether I spelled it properly or not);
10) Charcoal (it’s a form of fuel);
11) Blueberry;
12) White;
13) Off white (I mean how off can it be? It is still white);
14) Sand white;
15) Sunflower (isn’t that yellow?);
16) Pearl (it’s a kind of jewellery);
17) Cherry; and

So many more colours invented for the ladies. I know some men do keep track of the colours but I have lost count and we are not counting the shades yet. If not red will have 100 colour shades. Blue will have another 100 colour shades. Green will have 200 colour shades and so on and so forth.

Disclaimer:
This post is just the thought of the writer and is not intended to defamed or insult any woman or any woman institution whether had previously subsisted, currently subsisting or going to subsist in the future.

Let go... you're not going to loose anything...

I was reading this and that and I wonder how people are offended easily… take for example…you are reading other people’s writing and another person wrote something sarcastic or something that you don’t like and suddenly wham…you lash at that person…

I like to look at matters differently. If people challenge you… or anything like that…don’t take it. Running away doesn’t mean you have fewer balls. Refuse to fight does not mean you are afraid. Loosing does not mean you loose forever and winning does not mean you win. Giving in doesn’t mean you loose…

So, for some of us, taking the challenge is everything. We must fight for our “freedom” (oh that was from “Braveheart”). But why respond to a person who you don’t know and why put yourself as low as that person. A smart person will not respond to a challenge. At least we will not do that over a tiny matter.

May be some of us have come across an incident where smart people choose to fight in the news paper and then it lead to a court case. How humiliating. We know them as a scholar. One so called “pendakwah” and the other is a “counsellor”. I mean both of them are respected people and I happen to know both of them because they are in the same institution as I am when I was in the Uni. I mean is it worth it? Fight and humiliate yourself.

Then, when people say something which is “menyakitkan hati”, would you rather stand up and say…”dude, I hate you and you shouldn’t have said that and let’s fight” or would you rather look at it on the other side. I mean the good way (how, just think well this person is loony, then it will keep you laughing non stop). There’s only two ways to look at things. Good or bad. But I think at all times, it is better for you to look at the good ones. If not, sakit hati tak pasal-pasal. What do you get…? Extra sakit hati. So be smart… keep your cool and let the idiot be an idiot. He’s not going to change anyway, not for you.

Furthermore, if people say something to us or give us advice, don’t say well I think I am right in this matter. It will cause friction. Be an adult, think and take it if you think the advice is good and just let go if you think it is useless. Don’t have to stand up and say well I think I am right in this matter. The person has no say at all. Avoid that situation as much as you can. We only fight for self defence, other than that, forget it. Just forget it. We are better human being. Believe me. I used to be on the other side.