Rantings

This week passed at unusually fast pace.

After rise, I would go to classes which ends at half past 1 and when I think I've only covered 20% of what should have been done that day (minus class), it's time for bed.

I don't really think that my life this week has been that hectic but oh well.

I'll just hope that next week would creep.

I really need to feel like that.

Anyway, the moon felt unusually close today.

It's a bright full moon and the stars seem rather dim today.

The weather has been such a darling, until last 4 days and yesterday evening, we even had snowfall.

And to day it was freezing cold even though the thermometer said that it's 9 degrees.

I need to dig for those layers again.

This winter has been cold but we were snowed in for the whole December, only.

Which is quite unusual due to the facts ~ snow usually come starting january and would stay in as long as 3 months or so, where there would be piles of them continously. And snow means messy affair. This year, messy affair almost wasn't there.

I had many wrapped things this week.

And it's not even my birthday!

I guess that heals my heart.

Handling unreasonable attitudes, feeling rather unproductive and delayed workloads.

Maybe sometime you are bound to encounter this simultaneously.

The housemates have been really helpful too.

Things like eating dinner together and scrubbing the kitchen while talking about stuff really are good therapies.

I'll miss this in the future.

=)

Old Time

The Workloads

Finally, I am done with Microbiology exam.

After the longest revision I've had and after the first time re-revising all the exam questions.

It was an interesting subject, minus the re-revising part.

Alhamdulillah.

Just as I stepped out of the department, I mentally list down things that need my further attention.

I have to get some new books, order the printer inks

And study loads of topics from 4 of big trophies of theoretical medicines pathological anatomy, pathological physiology, internal medicina andddd pharmacology.

Though the first three are somewhat correlate to each other, it somewhat can be tricky, not at times, but all the times.

Yet the abnormal trait in me come out again and I know, as long as it doesn't concern the final exams, I am very much loving what are in store for me.

I personally think to have many things to tend on is a rezeki.(well, in my case, I do love what are on my plates)

Of course it would be tiring but hey, you are going to gain knowledge, experience and more . You re going to enrich yourself.

Those are rezeki aren't them?

So cheer up and get going!

=)

PLKN : The Food

So, we'll talk about yummy things.

I didn't even think about food until I was at camp.

All in my head were those adrenaline pumping activities that I would be having in camp.

Imagine kayaking, high ropes, abseilling and all things outdoor, they are yummier than food (now, this is quite a statement because I am a person who love her food, very much)

Anyway, food was generous and very well prepared.

No need to pack a baggage full of provision.

And the perk of being in Alpha company ~ U get to go first for breakfast.

And everybody suddenly was not sleepy anymore and hasten to the dining hall from the small hill.

Never, ever run!

The hill is steep and u don't want to go rolling down, believe me.

Every morning, without fail, I would have boiled egg.

Breakfast consists of main menu, white bread with spread and boiled egg.

The heaviest breakfast I had at 7 in the morning before PLKN was nasi lemak.

PLKN beated that record.

I had complete set of curry noodles and porridge with salted egg to name a few in the camp.

We had class in the morning and we would go straight downhill for pre-noon snack in our postman attire.

Downhill again and problem is, girls had these sparkly black and an inch thick heels.

Now, U don't want to scratch them nor u would want to chase your cup that rolls downhill.

U don't want either of that under the scorching sun, and so, u would walk downhill nicely (read : slowly)

I thought SOKSEK lunch throughout the week mostly were horrible.

Anyway, PLKN or to be exact, Kem PLKN Bukit Besar really is a five star camp.

Lunch was always good, nothing that I don't fancy.

Even their shrimp was fresh and guess what? when we said farewell to our commandant that'll leave for Nepal, we had ikan bakar.

Yes, the whole camp had ikan bakar cicah air asam.

Now, that really beats SOKSEK to pulp doesn't it?

The trainers would always patron lunch and asked us if the lunch was to our liking and to tell him if we have any problem.

I cheekily said it's okay to have leaf worm, after all it tells us the vege grew up healthily and the smart-looking trainers said, ok, he'll ask for them to not wash the vege after that. *stick out tongue*

Oh yes, we were even allowed second helping if I'm not mistaken.

We also had tea, only thing was, wira and particularly wirawati, don't really care about it.

Tea consists of some kuih muih and hot teh tarik.

Now, that's not really comforting when u r drenched in the ever so revealing blue shirt and padded tracksuit that have cuff on the ankle (yuckish attire, that one was), or when U r in the combat suit looking like KFC fried chicken.

Anyway, it was good when it's weekend.

I remember being so happy that they would serve bubur chacha on one weekend.

I asked the whole dorm for someone to accompany me downhill for tea but well, the sight of it was scary enough, everybody was in their own world during weekend, because weekend is the only time when we were allowed mobiles and for that, nobody's coming down for tea with me.

But I insisted on having the bubur chacha and went down alone.

Just to be dissappointed because they serve bubur kacang instead (for unkown reason, I never have a liking for bubur kacang. But I really like ais krim kacang)

After all the useless effort to get the girls have tea with me.

After braving myself to go down alone.

Holy molly bubur kacang.

Why oh why??

But in one of our first few days in camp, we didn't really have much to do.

Only we have to work on KKJ which needs us to come out with cheers, flag and name for our company all the while waiting for our turns to get our logistic supplies (survival kits, poncho, boots and such).

And guess what's for tea?

Laksa!!!!

My eternal love.

I just couldn't believe it, laksa for tea!

And so, meehoon sup and bubur gandum for supper were not a surprise anymore.

6 meals a day, so I shall thanks our government and the taxpayer.

That was really, the best thing to do after SPM.

I was a wirawati that's well fed and when I am well fed, I am a happy girl.

And to be well fed, I kept my tray, cup and cutleries on my hand, not rolling down the hill. =)

Food Memories

I feel like reminiscing my food memories with the people from my childhood.

So, I shall start with one of the man that I love and am very thankful for.

This man, was my saviour when I passed out ascaris lumbricoidales and the one whom I spent my days with before I started schooling. He is my Tok Tam.

He is the one who taught me different ways to enjoy my roti canai.

I always had my roti canai damp with the dhal gravy until one day he decided that I should try dipping my roti canai in the gravy instead of having my plate flooded. And he also taught me that I can also have my roti canai with condensed milk instead.

In our days together, we frequented these 2 particular coffee shops in Batu Feringghi. They were those typical Chinese coffe shops in the 90's.

U know, the kind of coffee shop that serves your coffee in the cream coloured cups with mossy green floral prints along the matching saucer.

I wasn't allowed coffe but I had tea. And sometimes, when Tok Tam feel like it, I would have half boiled egg mixed into my tea.

He would pour the hot drink on the saucer, shaking it gently in a circular motion and feed me my drink from that very saucer.

It was very nice that I am thankful that I had that moment to reminisce upon.

I knew those coffe shops that we went to had been stripped down to make way for what they call development but here I am, typing my memories down, so that it won't be stripped away from me too.

I would always tag Tok Tam to the morning market.

For breakfast we sometimes had roti canai at the shop and sometimes, we would pick something up from the breakfast van.

They had this spread of kuih muih and dishes.

Only thing is that I hated all those except for kuih lapis, karipap and nasi lemak.

I always sulk when I had pulut inti.

Glutinous rice is never my favourite, except when you make it yellow and accompanied with generous chicken or beef curry.

And this pulut inti, not only it is plain glutinous rice, it even has this sweet shaved coconut to go with.

Thanks Allah, it dissappeared from my life long ago. =p

We all know there are kids that when we tell them not to do something, they will run towards it instead.

Well, I was one of them.

It was our typical morning.

My paralysed great grandmother was in bed, and I was in the kitchen with my Tok Tam.

I had nasi lemak on banana leaf that morning when my Tok Tam was washing the fishes (he's the housekeeper. Tok Ndak, Tok Cik and Tok Teh were the ones who worked)

He clearly told me not to eat the shrimps' heads.

Instead of asking why not, I decided to find the reason by myself and stuff them into my mouth

Chewing them for a brief second, I found the answer.

I spat out whatever in my mouth and in my stomach and was sporting tears in my eyes, and my Tok Tam left the fishes to attend to the over smart grandniece.

I promised myself I'll never chew shrimp head again.

One day, I was having so much fun at school when dad came fetching me out.

I was jovial and all hyped out to go home.

At home, my parents put me into kurung and they broke the news on the way to Batu Feringghi.

The man that I love, the man that ran away from me in my dream few weeks ago, was indeed, has been taken away from me.

It was the second funeral in half than a year and I was taking it so hard. I was totally not ready for it.

The house again smelt of lime leaves and incense sticks.

They were returning from the shop (they went to buy drinks for the workers), my two brothers and Tok Tam, when he collapsed in the middle of the road.

Nazri was clueless and very small Nazir was calling "Tok Tam?" all the while, giving the lifeless man the spilled teh tarik with the straw.

Our Indian neighbour was the one who found them a few minutes after when she was out to get something.

After the funeral, my parents gave each of us orange vitagen, the last momento from our beloved Tok Tam.

That man, he never allowed me yogurt and always substituted it with vitagen and at his very last moment he bought us vitagen, now, as the substitution to himself.

I grew up embracing the fact that our time is over and at last have the yogurt that I was so keen to try and I still love my vitagen.

One and half years later, I was attending tuiton at Rama's Guest House.

Kala was a lioness and that day I was left to do some exercises in the book.

I learned the lesson not to write "I don't know" to the question that I don't know for the second time.

There was a plate of nuggets in front of me.

I didn't really fancy nugget that much nor do I hate it.

I was racking my brain to solve the questions when a hand with two fingers came running on the table towards those golden nuggets.

That hand came running thrice and was knocked away thrice before it got the nugget.

That hand then came my way with a Hi.

There were wau bulan of various sizes suspended above us and I decided to forget my exercise for a while and shaked that friendly hand.

"Hi, I am Stevey. S.T.E.V.E.Y"

And so, our brief story begins.

Whenever he came visiting with his father, I would be delighted.

He loved the racing bike so much, it has black handles with white stars.

And he got himself injured somewhere near the Chinese school with that bicycle.

I didn't really have a clear memory of what happened next.

I found him on my way to fetch my brother from preschool and we got him home (I forgot how did we actually get him out of the mess).

Anyway, few days later, the nugget boy was all happy out of the shower showing me (who, again with the difficult exercises to tend to) the yellow plastic covering the wound on his leg.

And then it came to an end too.

It was our last evening together.

Small Nazir tagged along, and we went to the beach and crossed the small estuary.

Uncle Peter heaved Nazir and we had paddle pop ice creams on our way home.

We promised to see each other again and I would have camera or watch or whatever the next time we meet.

Only thing is that, now after 10 years, the promise is still yet to be realised.

My family moved away and along the way, we somehow lost contact.

I would love to really know what was it that uncle Peter said to me many many years ago, but I guess nobody remember what was it, or were it now.

I still hope we can see each other and know it.

And I am yet to go to Switzerland.

The promise, even though I don't really remember the faces and don't know the exact names, still, I hope it can be realised.

Our partings were and still are bitter facts.

On the contrary to the yummy things that coloured our days together, and for that I smile and feel glad to have such moments =)

A Handsome Young Man

wasted.

We already started our internal medicine practical and I got the same group with the same doctor.

The patient that we reviewed on Thursday is a young 23 year old and he got the look.

And multiple problems.

He got infective endocarditis where the bacterial overgrowth on the heart vessel is clearly visible on the echocardiogram

The skin is dotted with multiple flat, red lesion and splinters under the nail~typical signs of infective endocarditis.

He took intrevenous drug and that costs him his liver and his current condition.

I learned from before not to make assumptions and think good of others.

This young man must have his own reasons, for what that led him to be on that particular bed.

His pain teaches me to be grateful of my health.

His delusion teaches me to take care of my sanity.

I went to hospital with intention to learn internal medicine, I came out with more than that.

I came out feeling grateful that whatever that happened these past 21+ years, I am what I am now.

Better off than many other people and I have healthy circles of individuals around me who are not doing alright, instead they prosper and so I say, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.

PLKN : The People

Ok, we had commandant, vice commandant, nurses and doctor and part-time-pain-on-the-ass trainers (some of them, luckily!).

My company trainers were Cikgu Nora, Cikgu Awie, and Cikgu Cilabai Laut (I forgot this man name already)

Cikgu Nora was a sweet one ~ because she didn't yell and she was like a sister.

I can even laugh out when doing out my punishment (10 times star jump) for leaving my laundry more than a day out under the sun.

Cikgu Awie was a man with few words and thick moustache.

Why Awie? because he was always on the Harley Davidson like bike.

Cikgu Cilabai Laut, because he used this phrase a lot, there another Cilabai phrase of which the next word I already forgot.

edit another cilabai is cilabai ma'arib (read with idgham sil-vous-plait)

This one is a funny one.

He was strict but the Alpha company just couldn't put straight faces when he was in charge.

He would ask the whole company to lie down on the tarmac at the break of dawn and stare at the beautiful morning sky and cycle you legs off.

He makes us do things that we wouldn't do.

Before obstacles competition, we were made to drink some water, that he poured it down our throat himself, each one of us but we pulled the mark so that we were placed bottom in obstacles competition.

It was not us, it was the water!

Really.hehehehe.

Ya, and the chief trainer of Alpha company, already forgot his name but he was close to Jalaludin Hassan, a father figure himself.

I remember his last words to a fellow trainer on my final bus ride home from camp.

He told the teacher to get married early and get babies because when u will be 40, late night with babies crying is not that nice.

There are some trainers that trained my batch in this video.

So about the trainees.

We had Malays, Indians, Chinese and even Siamese.

PLKN is supposed to be an integration platform but throughout the 3 months, the divisions are clear.

Chinese would hang out and sit with their fellow Chinese friends, same goes for Malay and Indians.

Our company was somewhat special, the girls, regardless races blend together.

Seeing how we embrace each other differences was awesome.

And seeing our similarities is more than awesome.

There's an Indian girl who was sent to dancing classes.

She had these ankle band made off bells and they ring with every step she took and she danced very beautifully that tells me, there are some people who still embrace their culture and it makes me feel at ease.

There were Chinese girls who wore some sort of amulet to ward the evil off. You could see they were really terrified about these unseen things.

And I thought Chinese don't believe in Malay gory beings. Wrong!

They were dead scared of it.

The Kelantaneses were the one who introduced me to radio IKIM and budu.

I was excited to try budu, and I brought a spoon to have it.

"Mu ingak budu ni madu ko?" (do u think budu is honey?)

And the epic sentence when I was trying to pull off Kelantan dialect

"Mu kecek mace sie" (to my understanding ~ U speak like %#%^#%&. The real deal was ~ U speak like a Siamese)

Sie is sial in Northern dialect and it was very inappropriate word to say that someone is sial and I was furious to receive such remark and next second I realised she meant Siam not sial.

Talking about language diversity.

Chillies are cabai for us and are lada for Kelantanese.

One day, a Kelantanese for the umpteenth time ask, what is chilli called again in Northern dialect and she got a spectacular answer, cibai, and not knowing the vulgarity of the word, she innocently used it around.

One thing that boys like to teach their fellow friends that speak different language or dialect is vulgar words.

One day, in character building class, the teacher asked for a list of bad deed.

A Kelantan boy casually shout out "pelaq cikgu, pelaq".

It means penis and the teacher played deaf and the boy then found out about the truth of the word.

A boy from Bravo was keen on learning Northern dialect and went around for a few days saying "Ulaq melingkaq ataih pagaq.Ulaq melingkaq ataih pagaq."

The whole camp loved to sing, and they sang the 90s ~ rock kapak.

Whenever there's free time, someone would go out to the front, took the mike and sang.

There were four things that we can do when we were called onto the stage (they picked out randomly every evening) ~ crying, talking, dancing or singing.

I mean, my circles from high school do love music but this new society that I was in after high school don't love music, they are obsessed with music.

After 3 months, I don't fancy rock kapak anymore. I had had enough.

There were cheeky and hurtful remarks from boys too.

The anti smoking camping that was going on in Malaysia during that time adopted a picture of broke-into-two unused cigaretta.

And what did a boy say?

"Ala cikgu, boleh hisap separuh-separuh tu"

Being teenagers, it's unavoidable that teenagers send hormones flying around.

Cinta PLKN or as I prefer to call it, 3 months contract love was a nauseated sight to behold.

The girls were dumb and the boys were too disrespectful.

On the second last day of camp, I was talking around with a trainer and a famous couple was having their emotional goodbye.

The girl left with her parents sporting teary eyes and after sending the girl off, the boy came and join us.

The trainer asked how long would he keep the girl.

"It would be over when camp is over, it's a 3 month contract anyway teacher"

I restrained my hand from slapping him.

And the last group that I remember was latah group.

When I came into camp, there were only less than 5 girls who had this peculiar behaviour.

When I left there would be quadruple number of girls with latah.

The latah that was going around camp was the extreme one.

Girls like to poke these kind of girls all the time it's not funny anymore.

They sent book flying round and smashed on other full on the face, they spat dirty words and the most extreme one, when we were out for Eksesais Wira Jaya (survival camp), a girl went out of the tent to a baby cobra, and was shocked (latah) and cut the snake into 5 pieces.

And yes, I spent almost 3 months with these people.

My first step into the real world.