Adil itu apa?

I know human will never be fair 100%. We are just incapable of that. But still, we can strive to be fair. Like the sayings that goes, Allah looks at your effort. Thus, there’s no reason for anyone for that matter, to turn a blind eye to unfairness.

In due time, I shall seek for it.

A Glimpse From The Past

They lived behind my childhood home before they relocated somewhere nearer to the beach.

I now remember that she was the one from the previous post about my mom.

i can't recall much of our time together but they had a rough time and when they were still our neighbours, I recall sharing lunch with those people.

I have forgotten the most part of our time together but I can vividly recall back that one fine sunny day.

What's nicer than a calm sea under a clear blue sky?

They already relocated to that red zinc place and since the beach is just steps away, we girls went to dig for remis and we managed to collect a bucketful under the afternoon sun.

It may sound a bit off but that's our life as girls living by the beach. I can even go to the beach at 3 pm out of boredom and make a sandcastle and collecting small seashells, just to send them back to the grainy sand.

Anyway, we handed the bucket full with remis to her older sister.

She would fry it with onions, dried chilli and lemongrass, simmered with soy sauce, fondly known as tok you.

It was taking quite some time since we have to soak the seashells in sea water for a while to get rid of sand particles and a beach boy who their family know offered us a ride in the speedboat.

The ride was great with wind smashing on your face.

An authentic ride, a free one amid the rolling hills of Teluk Bahang and the man steer the boat just like what he does when they are having a water skier tied to the boat.

Making curve here and there and inevitably, salty water sprinkled on your face.

After the ride, we got off and thanked the man and run for our steaming remis.

We pick the flesh on a pangkin under the pokok ketapang, dumping the butterfly like shell into an empty container.

With the cool breeze from the sea felt on our grinning face, and that's the vivid memory that I have of us two.

The friend greeted me on facebook jst now.

I was unsure at first. She looks very different but there's a glimpse of someone that I know, someone that has been there in one chapter of my life.

I approved right away.

Reluctant?yes.

But still proceed? I couldn't help but to be optimistic about this.

People from the past has been poping out.

We may hardly be on the same page again but we had been before.

But I just feel so good about knowing that the people that has been absent all this while can always appear back in front of you, even though it's just the photos of them.

I hear them say, hi, I have been surviving all these years and just to let you know, I'm here. Does it sound like that to you?when you find a long lost friend?or when they find you?

There's one more person from the past that is yet to do that. =)

The Lady

Now, now, we were back into the ICU again.

This week patient is a lady in her late 30's.

Roughly looking at her, her body proportion isn't right.

Not upper body lower body mind you but left side-right side.

Her right side of the body seems to be swollen and the left side is rather skinny, as in skinny.

Both her hands are dotted with fresh scabs averagely one centimetre in diameter and her right hand looks as if it's pumped like a balloon.

And her face, one look, it seems normal but if you observe, there's difference between left and right side.

Her eyeball is more protruding on the right side.

Usually you wouldn't see a full round iris, but you see that in her, circled with the white sclera.

We were left to find out her data.

She turns out the be very helpful kind lady.

Since Czech is one of world's 10 most difficult languages, we kept asking question that obviously have already been answered by her lengthy explanation before.

She was born with a congenital aplasia of lymph system on the right side of the body and the symptoms started to be noticable when she was 2 months old.

Which means she has been living in that condition for decades, from when she was a baby!

Normally, your blood is filtered at the level of capillary into the tissue to provide oxygen etc.

The filtered fluid is returned back to capillary with half of it is absorbed into the lymphatic system and returned to the circulation at the level of subclavian vein.

Since right half of her body lacks this drainage system, the fluid filtered accumulated in the tissue, which is why she has half her body swollen.

And the fluid also infiltrated her right thorax, she lost the use of her right lung.

Yes people, she is breathing with only her left lung.

With one lung left for ventilation she has respiratory acidosis which is well compensated by the increase in blood bicarbonate level and base excess in her blood.

And the fluid makes its way into her pericardial sac (a bag that contains our heart) slowly over the time, so the sac has time to expand itself.

Thus the heart ain't under so much strain compared to an acute tamponade (sudden filling of heart sac with fluid.)

The latter case develops so quickly that the sac doesn't have time to expand, thus the fluid that went into the sac will compress the heart, disturbing blood flow into the heart and subsequently death, which can be a sudden event too.

The lady only have high heart rate in regards to heart.

And since lymphatic system has some share in immune regulation, this congenital disease left the lady with immunodeficiency, which explains the scars on her hands and arms.

Immunodeficiency means there's no cleaner to eat up any threat surpassing the skin barrier and this causes her itching that leads to vigorous scratching and ultimately the scars.

To help with her immunodeficiency, she has to be infused with 20g of antibodies per month.

Let us jump into economic over here.

A dose of antibodies, which is 10g costs about 12000kc per month.

She has to take 20g per month. 20g = 2 doses.

2 x 12000kc = 24 000kc.

current exchange rate is 1 euro = 24 kc.

Then 24 000kc = 1000 Euro.

With 1000 Euro, I could book a return ticket Prague-Kuala Lumpur.

Add another 60 Euro, I can jump on a flight to Penang.

And I was complaining about the money I have to fork out to go home ~ something that I can choose to skip. It's not like I will die if I don't go home this year.

But this lady MUST have her 1000 Euro worth of antibodies EVERY MONTH, or high changes she'll die of infection.

Ok, stop complaining about money Lina!

I'm pretty sure the insurance or the government is chipping in some money for those treatments but still...

It has been a very warm conversation with this lady.

And with every time that I get into the hospital, I couldn't help but to notice, that all these patients, they have teach me so many things, allow me to see variable of people conditions ~ which mostly are on the downside and show me, that life goes on, and there's nothing that stop them from continuing to live.

I believe, in every of us, how bad the condition is, there's always the silver lining to every cloud.

At least, my patient conditions has benefited me in many ways that even I have never dream about before.

She Who Speaks The Language Of Love

And she also spoke through the belt and hanger and smoked coconut husk, once upon a time ago.

I was born when she was 22 y.o. and 3 months.

And she bore a son 2 years after.

My earliest memory of her is that one when I have to put up with a brother in a small rattan cage, watching her washing the fishes or cooking.

I was a little monkey back then, screaming to get out.

Then, there was this one time, when she rushed into the house from the market and quickly closed the door.

A cow (I saw it) followed her on her way back from the morning market.

My childhood memories with her in the picture were more on the ugly side.

I was a tough child. A very tough one.

But I remember the time when she sent me into my first schoolbus ride and the rides after that.

She would hold the newborn Nazir, under the sun or under the downpour, she would see me off.

And then when I got into Standard 1, she told me to come back home straight from school.

But this one particular day, my neighbour cum classmate decided to stop by at another friend's house and I never got back home alone so I followed her.

And she cycled all the way from home with her infamous rotan.

I was beaten to pulp and was heaved all the way to Mak Lang house.

I thought I would die...

For various misdeeds, I was always locked out.

Or smoked.

Yes, my punishment includes smoking husk as well.

To add to the extra effect, you could always put some dried chillies as well.

Among her 3 children, I was the one who get smoked the most, since I was the most stubborn.

And there's this one evening when I was smoked until I vomited.

We had a break for a while and I was to be smoked again, but brave Ezany saved me.

With his kain batik busuk, he scoop a cebok of water, splashed it on the smoking husk and ran back home.

It was hilarious.

We lived next to police barrack.

Those people would be the witness to my sufferings.

I always skip Quran classes and tuition.

Which means it's me who invited all those belting, hangers and excrucriating strokes of rotan.

I would always shield behind abah, who never did anything honestly.

There were countless of nights where I went to sleep, questioning if she is really my mother, if I am someone who she picked from the garbage.

When the granduncles and grandaunt were alive, I would retreated to Batu Feringghi.

For the most of my childhood, I hold bitter thoughts against my mom.

But then she was the one who stayed up with me and lit the candles up, so that I could finish my homework when there's electric shortage.

She was the one who went around looking for kindergarten when 2-3 dismissed my applications.

She sent me to tuition.

And she made sure I have everything for school, she even made a pot of tapioca glu for my art project which turned out a disaster (I was excellent at making mess out of my art projects)

I was always that student who came to school with complete things - cardboard, glu, pencil, color paper etc~I have them all.

Once in standard 2, the teacher asked us to bring some sticks for math to school. My mother bought a box of orange icepopsicles and distributed it to the cousins so that I would have the sticks.

When I got no 1 in school, she coaxed abah to buy me a watch - of which he did. My first watch was an ultraman watch, purchased from Rope Walk flea market.

And then, to save me the trouble, she bought me bicycle, so that I can cycle to school.

I enjoyed cycling to school, and to jetty, and to beach and to skip tuition/Quran class, and also the bicycle is something that I should have so that I could race around the market building.

And she was the one who took the bus at 9 pm so that I could see the doctor due to my painful stomachache.

When I was halfway through my final year of elementary, she decided to start working.

As a cleaner, she saved up for my entrance into boarding school.

We paid everything in one go.

Throughout my highschool, she worked various jobs from cleaner, to canteen worker to hotel housekeeping.

I went to school not having to worry about my result suspended because the fees haven't been settled.

If I need books or the sorts, I would always have it.

New uniform every school year.

Except for commuting home-school, I had to use the bus. And for games, I had to use the same scarf for school. and she couldn't visit me every weekend.

It broke my heart everytime she came to visit me.

Thinking of how they have to take various buses, plus the waiting.

But I had given my best too, since I was no longer a stubborn tough kid, I was already a tough girl with full understanding of what's going around.

To have her beside me when I hold both PMR and SPM slips boasting a perfect one alphabet lined up, I was happy I wasn't a failure anymore.

Only thing is, I am a girl who doesn't like to be tied down.

I didn't yield to her request, wanting me to study at home.

I always want to go as far as I could reach, as much as I could see and experience and I am not ready yet to be back for good.

Still, she gave in and accompanied me up and down offices, crossing busy roads, getting lost, all under the scorching Malaysian sun.

She gave me the freedom to choose what I want, that at one time I ended up confusing myself, but she helped in every way she could.

Our relationship has been a roller coaster or a bowl of lai chee kang.

It has been wonderful, fearsome and plethora of things mixed together.

I owed most of my qualities to her.

And yes, I love you tonnes, mak.

Eventhough you always say that I never love you.

But then, how could I ever stop loving you, after all this time?

SOKSEK The Warden

I know I somehow have a love-hate relationship with the warden.

I thought they could play the role better, but then when one of them asked me to get into another pant and hand her the black jeans I was wearing, I don't like that either.

A dormmate with lotsa gut broke into the warden office to seize back her confiscated stuff and ended up with my black jeans instead.

Saved me the trouble. Thanks!!!!

♫ ♪♫ ♪♫ ♪ Theme song for the post : Trouble Is A Friend ♫ ♪♫ ♪♫ ♪

Anyway, in the first 2 years, I always stay back when we were given permission to spend the weekend at home.

I told you I hate the journey home and back to school.

Anyway, there's this one particular evening.

I was maybe in form 1 or form 2 and I was having great time with Ili in my dorm, until the news broke that the warden is on her way up and is gonna punish us for not having prep.

I mean, are you kidding me?

Not spending the weekend at home is pathetic enough.

And do we still have to attend prep, on Friday night?

But, there was no time to rebuke about that.

Ili darted down to study room sans sandals and I fled with Kak Yana to another dorm that's empty and hide at the corner of the dorm.

Bunk beds are good in a way that they shield you from the torchlight shone by the warden, problem is you have to put up in such a small space for quite sometime.

It was ecstatic, we were both holding our breath and when the warden said "I know you are there" and some threatening words, we had tough time to not break into laughters.

And so it happened, I was in the cross country team, so we would occassionally had training outside school.

One day, after an ardous workout in Mengkuang area, me and Che'ah, a fellow runner syahid after shower.

To show how much we were drained off from the workout, we slept with legs dangling from the bed and with all the lamp lit - a sign that we FALL asleep. not GO to sleep.

However, I was slapped back into land of consciousness.

That warden slapped me and Che'ah.

Imagine the horror to be awaken from a deep serene sleep by a stroke of hand on your cheek.

Now, I want to bite that hand.

I mean, logically and scientifically and sunnatullahi, doing that is really dangerous.

I may be dead and she might be dead as well.

Anyway, since we were still in blurry mode we just got into our kurung and got down to study room and it was an hour later that I regained full consciousness and really realized the nightmare that has just passed.

Now those are what happened in lower secondary, getting into higher secondary means more rebellion and action.

Spidey is someone who got into the school one fine morning from nowhere and commanded all of us to call him abah.

What the ikan jacket mak cik DM right?

He pushed his rules upon us and being me, I didn't really bother to comply with ridiculous rules (well, any school rule was ridiculous to me back then)

Bumping into him, means just nodding, curtly.

There's no way for me to greet someone who looks at the student with such make believe authority that he created himself.

I believed that I am entitled to at least polite response by anyone who's eligible to cast their vote.

Well, if you want a comparison, I think Severus Snape is better than Spidey.

Anyway, one fine afternoon when in form3, in my baggy tracksuit(unlike others, I didn't have the privilege to have everything fit to me. second hand tracksuit is a bless already), black long tee and bright orange sneakers, I made my way down for afternoon prep and there he was right in front of the bilik gerakan pengawas, ready to punish.

Itulah seluar tangan kedua dan kasut oren yang kena soal dgn Spidey

I walked as if nothing happens.

Hey boy, it's 7 minutes to 3pm and prep start at 3pm.

And with his make believe authority, he reached for the loud-hailer and commanded everyone who's still in hostel to be at Dataran Kecemerlangan.

I was the first one to go since I was the only one there and then many others joined me, and among others, his treasured prefects.

All looking perplexed as to why we have to be there.

Well people, your beloved daddy said it's prep time, according to his sun watch, I think.

Because my watch worked real well ~ I never bother to switch it to earlier or later minutes.

Remember, don't play with time!Hahaha

Anyway, some of the prefect told him it's not even time yet.

But he won't give in just like that you see and he found fault with my attire.

*slap hand on forehead*

man, it's not like I'm wearing body hugging long sleeve and yeah my tracksuit is secondhand, but it's not jeans.

And I was not wearing my stinky uniform from the school that I had earlier that day.

Smells of gado-gado and kari ikan nyok2 (saya penghafal menu dewan makan di suatu ketika dahulu)

All in all, I felt triumph that afternoon.

Don't trouble the trouble!

I was not guilty, at least not that afternoon.

Since we rose later and later with every passing year, less we had breakfast at dining hall.

One day, I decided to be generous to myself and bought fried rice with sunny side up egg and a glass of yummeh teh ais.

It was 10 minutes to half past 7 in the morning. means another ten minutes before the assembly starts.

2 spoon of fried rice into the mouth and the hell presented itself uninvited.

I sucked as much teh ais as I can and scurry to assembly.

The sunny side egg was left uneaten with the other.

My fault, it was and spidey was right.

So that's about Spidey, now we move on to our PK HEM.

On a fine weekend evening at about 6 pm, my party of 5 people decided to visit the night market, which turned out to be a dissappointment.

Whoever put sausage in pasembur?I never remember having something like that,and such a dissapointment the night market was that we were back at the gate 20 minutes after.

That guard, he surely doesn't understand Malay.

We told him we are going out for night market and would leave our names as extra precaution.

And you know what happened afterwards?

As my parents got a shock of their life receiving love letter from school saying their daughter fled from hostel, I was asked to key in my demerit into the system.

Honestly, why are something like these happened when you are being honest?

And the most memorable one would be the encounter with the big boss himself, the principal.

I was avoiding morning assembly in hostel when I bumped into the principal himself on my way to class.

This time, honesty is not the policy anymore and I got away cleanly.

And so it happened, all our data regarding yearly school magazine publication was destroyed by an army of ant.

Stomp those tiny, irritating things. Stomp!stomp!stomp!

We had to stayed back in school with the final year students so that they would have a momento of their senior year and what did they do to us?

Very much!

Apart from verbally accusing us af stealing their portion of meals, they left quite a generous amount of things after they were done with SPM once and for all.

There's no way we would stay in an empty hostel, so we met for overnight work at our big operation room.

The boys heaved in packets of Milo, brand new socks, backpack and many other things left by those already school leavers.

Picture mice with the things they dig out-now you get the clear picture of the boys.

To kill the time, we did our work, read comic, and me playing artist with Microsoft paint.

The guard was on his round and we shouted to him that we were in doing works, and as we thought he came back later, but now with the principal clad in teluk belanga and kain pelikat and another guard!!

That night, we were escorted by all three men.

All of them holding the big torchlight.

Anybody who would be there would think that we have been caught *fill in the blank*

At that time, I thought nothing is wrong with staying up overnight in a brightly lit large space to finish all those editorial works, but now, I beg to differ, never try this people.

I and Aidilla went to sleep in sickbay that night, with Aidilla styling the priciple from pengetua to penyu tua.

Not that poor old man fault at all.

We were young and thoughtless.

And the next morning, all four of us found ourselves squeezed at the back of the principal's Mercedez, with him and his wife.

He took us to breakfast - roti canai.

I couldn't believe something like that would happened to me.

I was having breakfast at warung with my own principal with his wife.

Honestly saying, I tried and managed to excel in academic, participate in anything that I can, with the hope that I can be a prefect.

Prefect set aside, I was not even librarian, honestly teling you I felt like I was not noticed at all and I believe that I had all the rights to be made at least a librarian.

Anyway, with bits of luck and sponsors, and the great teamwork, the PUNCAK publication when I was the editor came out glossy and with my batch memorial elegant as wanted.

I don't know about the fellow schoolmates, but it was a personal victory for me.

Kami hanya budak biasa. Oh, yg baju merah tu luar biasa sikit, dia otai.

And alhamdulillah, my status as a student wearing the ordinary turqoise sarong and white kurung and scarf still lead me to many wonderful opportunities.

For those who were there with me during those 5 years and the most memorable final 2 years.

Thank you for everything.

For every good and bad thing, for the joy and tears and cheeky days.

It has been a wonderful journey!

Gambar dicilok dari koleksi Soksekians.

Cardioversion

It's internal medicine again!

I just love this particular subject. Mainly because close contact between student and doctor.

I bet most of the lecturers don't even know we are there.

So yeah, hands on and great doctor = fun time of internal medicine.

As usual we had brainstorming, today about pneumonia and bronchitis.

People, Salbutamol would help to bronchodilate the bronchitis.

And ampicillin would be a standard treatment for pneumonia.

And basically, most people with pneumonia come to the doctor complaining of fatigue, feverish and chill.

Since these are very general symptoms, you would suspect either urinary tract infection or respiratory tract infection.

GP will send for urine test first, because it's more affordable and simple yet very efficient.

If it comes out negative then we'll send the patient for test(s) of pneumonia and then start the antibiotic treatment.

The treatment would last 5-6 days for bronchitis and about a month for pneumonia and if the pneumonia is severe, treatment would be for about 2 months.

I'm always keen to try most of the practicals we are offered.

Being a medical student means you have the chance to make plethora of tests on your own body and other's.

So, I try to grab every chance.

ECG, bicycle glucose test, and loads more.

It's fun!

And today, since Dr Solar offer for cardioversion, I raised my hand without thinking twice.

Of course to send electric shock into someone chest to terminate the arrythmia, from a student point of view, it's really a big thing, at least it is for me.

I don't have the confidence in me but I have the confidence in Him.

Cardioversion is a big thing yes, and I am up for it because I know sooner or later I'll be doing it.

I expressed my concern about doing it to my friend, but when we are visiting the patient, he said he would prefer for the doctor or nurse to do it.

Lesson learnt!~ even me myself wouldn't give my chest for electric shock delivered by someone who ain't fluent in my language(s).

So Lina has to czech the Czech language up, no other way!

Anyway the shock was delivered twice but the arrythmia is still there.

Owing to 3 major risks, the patient would be undergoing drug treatment with amiodarone.

Those 3 risks are low but are quite significant.

Propofol, the general anesthesia can lead to low blood pressure which would be quite a hassle to manage.

Dr Solar said he's seen it and he doesn't want to see it again. Wonder how difficult the patient condition was.

About the patient, he's warm and the doctor and nurse kept telling him "don't be afraid" and when the nurse let go of his hand, he cheekily said, na shledanou, whih means goodbye.

Anyway he came around a couple of minutes after the cardioversion feeling very good.

He had nice dream but he was hungry and his wife is coming to visit.

Another patient had a massive myocardial infarction.

He is put under cool pad ~ run with cold saline solution that's kept cold by the cooler.

The aim is to have below 34 degree celcius temperature, so that the enzymes in his body particularly his brain are inactivated, simultaneously lowering the metabolism to prevent further strain on the body system.

Anyway, that's for today.

Psycho Psychology

Like many others, I don't really fancy psychology classes.

Remember, I had 2 modules of character building every weekday morning for full 2 months and also most of weekday evening watching character building video.

I have never done anything more boring than the latter, and believe me, when we have to go for psychology seminar, I know well what to expect ~ boredom and less cooperative classmates.

Not your fault really - I told you it's expected to be boring.

But like what I did back in National service, I try to participate, at least to not dissappoint the trainers/lecturers and maybe, for keberkatan ilmu itself - U don't only talk about it, u practise it people.

And as expected, there are some games that at least kill the mundane atmosphere.

In psychology, even though lame as it may sound, there's no harm in answering questions such as what is the mode of communication?

Methinks isyarat asap or snail mail or pigeon =p. How about you?

We had to go infront and play doctor patient communication and it was a disappointment that even the boys weren't up for volunteering.

I just miss the good old National service where everyone was ever so sporting.

I heart my fellow trainees. They may be blunt and hurting at times but their chivalry and sportingness get the best.

And we had this passing on information games - just like kursus kenegaraan back in camp.

The teacher wished for other people to participate but turned out I was the giddy one and along with Neo, Zikri and Patrick, we made a spectacular job.

I was told that a man has his flight on the July 12 cancelled and he is to fly Air India on 15th and transit in Bahrain and get on Gulf Air bound to Hong Kong. And he shall contact Miss Clarks for verification.

My misinformation to Zikri - the man is to phone MR. Clarks upon arriving in Hong Kong

Zikri's misinformation - flight on April from India and many others

Neo's - flight to Baghdad

OMG we laughed real hard and being the 1st person to relay the information, it's quite an eye opening to see how easy we misinformed people in a short time.

So peole, whatever that reach you, mostly it's altered 100% or contain only a tiny fraction of truth to it.

Broke the chain people!

Hilarious as it may be, disastrous as it may turns out.

Then the ultimate activity of the day.

We went out to the foyer and stand facing our partner from the same gender.

We were supposed to get closer spatially to each other.

It was hard for me.

Neo is a friend but to be within inches from each other and be comfortable with it, only my parents and bothers can create such situation.

But I know Neo enjoy hug as I do, so we locked into hug as we bumped.

Now, the most difficult part for me and the ultimately tahap moksya, nirvana difficulty to other Malaysian girls.

Same instruction but partner should be the one from the opposite sex.

My limit of comfortability would be a desk about half a meter but I manged to get closer but not face to face but nearly shoulder to shoulder, even though Hilmi is like 3 quarters of my boys closies back in high school.

The lecturers tried to get those girls moving but to no avail.

Perplexed she asked us and I just explained it's not normal to do this.

I mean to be in intimate distance with a patient is a different thing.

The one that we were doing is a make-up and it's with our classmates.

That's a big wide difference.

As we settled down in class, we were questioned about the activity.

And I didn't really have to voice out my opinion to fill out the void.

Many were ready to give their opinion and share something about our obligation.

I could clearly see that one friend is very shy and I always regard such people highly.

To have such degree of shyness is rare nowadays. It's a good thing.

For me, thanks to the activity, I realize I still have the shy feeling inside me.

Shyness fo me is a good thing and it must come in good measurement, because I also cherish my little confidence that I have in me and I like to share my opinion to anybody who is willing to listen.

And so, we conclude our psycho psychology class, this week.

Prepare for the worst next week!

The Beautiful Past... The Dear and Lamented Past....

The beautiful past... the dear and lamented past....

-Mark Twain-

In the morning, I wakes up to the cock crowing.

And before I know it, I am on my way to the market with my Tok Tam.

The sun is rising and the dew fresh on the leaves.

We bumped into a man, and he said I am like tikuih teghejun tepong (literally like a mouse that has jumped into the flour), for you see, my Tok Tam has put a handful of baby talc on my face and combed my short hair neatly.

We go for our breakfast, the usual roti canai and teh tarik.

The town is buzzing, people either busy having breakfast, waiting for the bus or buying and selling.

Batu Feringghi market in the early 90's is not a proper market.

We get our vege up there and the fishes beside the road and various kueh from the van near the mosque.

I am always mesmerised by those lions figures scattered in a corner in Yahong's Art Gallery small front compound.

My wish has always been to be in the place myself and I never did, it seems like it's just a distant dream, with the granduncles and grandaunt gone, it doesn't make sense anymore to go in there.

We would return to our two storey abode, made of woods, with a sukun tree at the front.

Tok Tam would switch on into chef mode and after he's done cooking, Mak Lang would already be there.

Together, they would bath tok nek, my great grandma, who's paralysed.

I enjoy dabbing the talcum on her face and watching gummy bears on tv.

We always use Nuri branded soap, it's green and it's smells good.

And then the talc would be the ones in the blue tin bottle, with a ski resort picture on it.

Or we would use the heaty, minty talc in the red bottle when the weather is very humid and hot.

After done grooming Tok Nek, I would always see Mak Lang home.

Mainly, it's because I am always awestrucked by how fast she dissappeared into the corner.

I am always sent to run a few errands, and always forget what should I get from Tok Wan's shop a few metres before reaching the entrance.

So, instead of sending me for a thing and have me back with nothing, we resort to go to the shop together.

Before that, Tok Tam would skin off the old coconut and break them into two hemispheres each.

Sometimes, theres some spongy ball inside and I would ask for it, it is really yummy and spongy.

And off we go to the shop with our coconut to be scraped by the machine.

And I would get a packet of sticky ballon. The ones where u put the paste at the end of the small tube and blow through the other end. You can smack the balloon so that you would get a smallpox balloon.

At home, today, Tok Tam teach me how to trap the hen and chicks.

He makes a small circle with the fishing line, fondly called tali tangsi.

Inside the circle, we put some rice and we retreated 2-3 metres away.

The hen comes pecking at the rice and Tok Tam pulls the string.

Yay!we got a hen!

I tried the same on the chicks and at last we have the hen and her babies under the rattan dumpster.

I would always go look for them, throwing some rice and giving some water in the coming days.

Now we are off for kedai apek.

Tora?Ding Dang?

Jojo? ~ in your dream!plus it's put on the topmost shelf, a sign of the exclusivity methinks.

Ok we would settle for Ding Dang then.

And fake vit C. Yay!

Tomorrow we will have sumi ok?the clear ones.

Now, to the shore we shall go to.

Many uncles under the ketapang tree.

Me loves the beach, the pine leaves and the ketapang leaves.

Also those tiny, colourful seashells and baby crabs!

Run after it and pop, there it goes, into the safety of its hole.

Dig, dig, dig.

Where's the crab? It's gone. =(

See!another one, catch it!!

And then the uncles and Tok Tam starts to take out kayu kambe and lined them.

Since busybody is my specialty, I take one and put them into the sandy beach too.

The fishermen are coming, and as usual, there are two sampan.

We or they, heave it one by one until the sampan gets into the compound.

Jetski has this more elegant carrier with tyres but sampan just need few kayu kambe and joined manforce.

I am that kid who wears a delighted face standing beside the sampan watching my own Tok Ndak untangling the fish or suid or crab from the net.

I smell sea and I smell fresh fish, the waves are splashing mildly on the beach and Pulau Asmara is visible from the spot where I stand.

We walk back home, passing my abah's disabled friend house, passing the small coffeeshop with a fashion house at the front. Everybody is home and as the sun sets, the cock will fly up onto the tree branches, and the muazzin will then be calling for prayer.

At 8, the news would start and the elderly watch only TV1, teman setia anda!!!!

As the same nostalgic man voice drones on, there's only one way to kill the boredom ~ imitiating the sign language.

Then it's time for bed.

Tok Tam sleeps on the pangkin, I sleep in the toddler hammock. My hammock is of blue and white material and it's very nice to sleep outside, the air is fresh and cool.

Good night!