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!