Pan Leaf (Daun Sirih)

Do you know what is pan leaf or daun sirih? Pan leaf is a significant plan and closely related to Indian culture. It was believed to be brought by the Indian immigrants by the British Goverment to the Peninsular of the Malay Land or was recognised as Tanah Melayu. The name 'Pan' is an Indian word. Whether from hindi, tamil, telegu, karalla etc , they share a common name. That is my assumption. But I dont know what is the name in English. Perhaps my visitors can assist me to find the right name. That was little bit of history.

If you are in India, selling pan leaves must cost you a fortune. Majority of the people like to chew pan leaves. Similarly if you are in Bangladesh. If you walk in the village or on the small lane, you could see patches of red saliva spitted by people who like to eat pan. The taste is bitter and could cause a burning sensation in the mouth and end up with red colour. Those who are addicted to eating pan, you can detect the trace of red marking surrounded the teeth. People claimed that by eating pun would make your teeth became stronger. There is no medical proof for such claim. As for me it would make your teeth turns ugly. I never agree to it. It just a cultural behaviour and not more than that.

When I was small I try to eat pan as well. My mum wont allow me to eat. She said pan only meant for old folks. They liked to eat pan among themselves in front of the verandah and started to gossip about many topic and could end up back bitting about somebody. Hehehehe.......am I making wild accusation? Obviously not. Gossiping is becoming part of the culture of human being.

I grow pan leaves. The leaves are waxy and beautiful. I put the pot in the ground and let they climb to the wall and hopefully they would cover the entire walls. U said to my wife, if people come over and ask for the leaves, they are not free. One leaf may cost for 10¢. Dont bother if they say you are calculative or stingy. The fact is we have put out time and sweat to grow the plant and we just could not destroy its beuty for free.

One thing I would like to tell you that it is difficult to find daun sirih nowadays. They would pay for it during the wedding ceremony because it is the culture of the Malays to have a sirih junjung during the wedding solemnise. So you better grow the daun sirih now......

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Lets Go To The Zoo

Yesterday we drove two cars to KL. Ubai drove little Honda to service centre. There was few services to fine tuning to be done. I drove another car and picked up Ubai at the service centre and continue to the Zoo. Only Yusuff and Adah accompany us. The last visit was tree years ago when Yusuff was two years old.

We arrived at the Zoo quite early and there were not many cars. The parking spaces still provide many vacant lots and we finally parked at the shady area. Considering the sun rising gradually and might shift the shady area, we need to make the right choice of parking.

For four of us the entrance fee was rm52. And no fee for a camera. But if you bring a video camera, you have to add another rm15. Not much difference I supposed. If new ideas were to exercise it would be better to attract more people. Now is school holidays and many parents bring along their children.

I bought the layout of the zoo for convenient and donation. First we went to the animal teatre. There were shows of a seal lion and few birds. I could see Yusuff was laughing and gigling with Adah went the seal lion presented the acrobatic show and clapped its hands. If you want to donate some money a cacatoo would fly and pearch at your arm and collect the money. It was a wonderful even.

Then we moved on to other places for a drink and snack. What I wondered was there were not many animals left. Few areas were cordoned for rehibilitation and renovation. Where are those animals? Hhmmmm.....it is not easy to run a zoo. The most critical part is how to maintain the zoo.

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Papparich

Here I come again. Today, after sending my daughters for their piano class, I took a short break, having a splendid iced coffee at Papparich. The drinks are just awesome. The ambient surrounding and the smoothness of sentimental songs blended well and produce a gorgeous feeling. Now I am enjoying the iced coffee....wow it is so good! This is my relax station while waiting for my daughters to complete their lessons.

I like the interior very much. It is a simple romantic yellow lighting combines with the set of kopitiam furniture that look vintage and rustic. Now the rendering of Chicago's song Hard to Say I am Sorry. Can you imagine that? Those are songs from the 80's and 90's. You can never find those kind of songs and melodies nowadays. It is so retro......

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I Am Growing Old

I can see many people would like to put their old photos in the Facebook. Amazingly they still have their photos when they were young. Some people still have their photos when they were babies. It was their retro-period that they had cherished with their loved one.

I enjoy the photography session. Those are memories that you can instantly keep and share with others. But where are my old photos? As far as I could remember, I have no photos of my childhood. What a pity! I feel envy when I saw my friend's old photos with their siblings and friends. What to do, but if I could rewind the history I would snap plenty of precious moments and build up my collection of memory trove.

I would like to thank my friend Mohamad that willing to make every efford to upload old photos in the facebook. He volunteerily allow his friends to share the pictures and reminisce the best old moment together. What a feeling.......

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Who Is Taking Care Of You

When we were born our parents were the one who took care of us. Rain or shine dad will spare his time to carry out some works and bring back some money for mom to save and spent for food and clothing. I remembered when a pay day arrived, dad will surrender all his salary for mom to manage. During that period life was simple and the demand was less. I used to go down the stream to catch fish with my brother. Sometimes we went to the bushes to find little birds. Mom has no worries at all where we were going. Because she knew that we will return home when we were hungry. Life was so beautiful and pleasant during that time. Even we have no internet, playstations and other electronic devices, we were happy to play and minggle around with our local friends. We use our creativity to creat toys and games. Everybody will take care of each other. We have the concept of my mom is your mom and your mom is my mom.

The only house that have a TV was my house. During the night time, my house will be a cinema. Many neighbours would come and enjoy the movies. All the time, the crowd will spread over the living area up and some have to squater on the stairs. My house was not big but just a rented small house but we were managed to accommodate the demand of the welcomers. During the weekend the house will be fulled of people because of the Malay movie. We never charged anybody for the TV. It was a 24 inches black and white TV.

Life is not simple now. Everything you have to pay. There are no such things for free. We are dragged into a capitalist system that only take care of their unlimited profits. And life is not save either. Lately kidnapping is a usual crime. You just cannot let you kids wander around without paying attention. Everything is so demanding and selfish. How could we mend this world back as before? No, you cannot! You have to live as it is.

When we grew up and having a family, we are responsible to take care of our wife and children. Nobody will do that for you. Even when you reach at the cross roads you are the one who have to make the decisions wisely. People around you only could advise and express their opinions.

But sometimes we missed out that there is a person who takes care of you. Who is he? He is your god, Allah. When you are going astray seek forgiveness and direction and for sure He will definitely helps you. He is the one who will take care of you...

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My Morning Grumbling

Yesterday, a school teacher called my house. She asked my wife to pay for my daughter school fees. Special fee cost for RM200. PIBG fee is for RM550 and payment for food is RM750. Altogether the amount is RM 1500. When I visited my daughter last week, she told me about the fees but never for special fee. When my wife asked the teacher what is special fee, she said everything was explain in the letter. My daughter will bring the letter when Iam going to pick her up this weekend. Hhhmmmmm........these are the fees for one child. How about for many children like mine. I feel the pinch now. Wow....Now I need to create my book keeping account for each penny to be spent. Should I????? Oh no..no...I might be calculative if I were to start having the book keeping. Forget about it for a moment and just relax. By the way I already told myself that what I have spent is mine and whatever in the back is below to Allah. I just a custodian of the money or properties. Once I die, everything will be transfered to another custodian. This is the facts of life!

Ok lets forget about it. Dont let this monetary things start to entangle our mind. For the past few days I have been following my friend updating his FB about his travels around Balkan states. How fortunate he is to travel alone. I better check with him how he managed his travels. I also have a plan to travel around the globe insyaallah. While I was driving a car yesterday, I started to count how many countries I have visited so far. Started with Thailand , and it grew to another 29 countries, and my recent visit was Vietnam. Now Winter Sonata adventure has been locked in my year planning schedule.

Recently my American friend asked me whether I have been to US. I politely answer no. But the intention to visit US is still burning but not in near time. Perhaps I should wait until MOUNTAIN VIEW gives me an official invitation. ........

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Sugar Glider

When talk about pets it just not Ubai. He dislike cats, hamsters and other pets. He has no interest to talk about it nor to own it. But I realise that he likes to talk about sugar glider very much. He would tell me how tame suggies could be. How to take care of it and how many of his friends keep it as a pet. And many more virtues he told me by having the suggies. I know his intention very well but he just too shy to confess that he needs a pair. I would listen to him and pretend not to comprehend.

I seen the advertisement at Mudah and some other sources. It is not cheap to keep suggies. The price range from RM250 to RM350 depends on the size, colour and origin. The breed from Australia is the most expensive. But how do we know they are from Australia origin? Only jauhari mengenal manikam.

I dont want to get involve in keeping pets. I just too busy and have no time to take care of them. My 9 children have taken up enough time from my leisures. Having pets just like having new babies. You have to feed them. Bath them and clean them. What happen to Yoko and Kenzo? Finally I got to scream to Hadi for food and clean up. Finally my wife have to settle and manage them. What happen to the hamsters. All were dead.

I am very supportive for my children having pets. It would train them to love animals and to be responsible and I personally love pet. Since Ubai has shown his interest (which I feel so weird) for suggies, yesterday I bought a pair for him together with a cage and accessories. They aint cheap. Altogether I paid for Rm670. This is a rich kid's hobby. I wont describe in detail about the break down cost. But they are very expensive....hhhhhmmmmm. I asked Ubai this moning whether he has given the names? He would think about it today. Welcome to our home suggies!

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Shirts For Me, Hadi and Wan

went to Ikano Power. Our intention was to redeem my points as I mentioned earlier. My weakness is, I easily got attracted to things, and I mean so many things and end up I love to buy it. People say love at the first sight. I am not only buy for myself but for others as well.

Yesterday we

When we were about to leave the Travel Inn shop and carry our claimed bag packs, I refused myself to enter IKEA. I knew once I was in, there would be more money to be spent. Unfortunately we didnt move to the car park, instead walking straight to the Branded Shop. The first intention was to buy few T-shirts.

There were signs for SALE in the Padini shop. I asked my son to walk around to find trousers. Then I saw those shirts with 70% discount. Wow....it would be nice! Price cut from RM100 to RM30. Just select and pay at the cashier. Two for me and one for Hadi and Wan. And later we went to the next shop for Tshirt. Two for me and one for Ubai. Taraaa......how to make saving....

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Redeem My Points

While waiting for Adah to finish her piano lesson, I asked Ubai to have a drink at Papa Rich. Actually we just had our breakfast at home. To wait Adah for one hour is considered too long. Let relax and have a nice drink and I can complete my reading from The Star and what are the news that really inspired me. Yeah .....news about Chelsea winning the Champion League and Kelantan championed the FA Cup. Others merely extreme politics accusing this guy and that guy. I could dsy dirty politics.

Once Adah had finished her drink, we went to the Travel Inn to redeem my points and claim for bag packs. I knew that Ikhlas needed a new bag to school. Ubai said he also needed one for himself. After calculating with nearly 120k point that I entitled, I took 4 bag packs. When I reached home, Hadi asked for one. The other one left, let my wife to decide who should own the last bag pack.

I thought to have the Pierre Cardin but it would be better for them to own it.

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Wall Clock

Everytime when my mom comes to my house she would express her beautiful quote to me,'Hang ni Raja Palembang boleh beli tapi jam tak mampu nak beli'. Do you know what she actually meant? She said that, I can affort to buy expensive items but the cheap clock I refuse to buy. Everytime whenever she try to find time, she has to ask around. Especially to find out time for prayers.

I can understand her predicament. Even I myseft too have to ask my wife and children for time. Luckily, I would have my smart phone around lately. I have bought few wall clocks from IKEA but never last long because they are cheap. After a month the clock tend to spoil again due to its minute engine got problem or the cardboard inside got twisted.

I take note of my mom's complaint. I have the intention to buy new wall clocks.There are many places that I need to hang. But being so choosy to select things, it end up I have to wait until I find the right on. Please bear patience with me please. I just cannot simply buying them from the shop without considering my interior isn't it?

I already got the idea what type of wall clock that I prefer. Initially I would like to buy a grandfather clock that I can put at the corner of my leaving area. But it would look too'Datin' which I detest. Finally I got the idea to find something simple and vintage like in the picture. HAHAHA......Hopefully I could get them before my mom's next visit. Hopefully there will be no more complaint.

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To Study In London

Yesterday I messaged Wanaina to his FB inbox about the rental cost for a single room in outskirt London. Today I received a reply from him informing me that a single room cost around £70 to £100 pounds. Oh my god! I cannt believe the price has increased that much. When I was there the weekly rental for a single room was only £28 the most. Hhhmmm....it was 25 years ago. If a student is to study there, he may need pocket money minimum of RM 3000 per month. When I was there I was supported with £240 per month which include everything.

Ubai is going to finish his diploma March next year. And I intend to send him to UK to pursue his degree for a year. There are few universities that accepted a diploma direct to final year degree. If he is going to continue in the local university, he needs 3 to 4 year to complete his degree. When I calculated and sum up everything it is more economical for me to send him abroad. Not only the economic point of view that I considered, but many other reasons I have viewed and thoughts.

I have not decided or finalised the selection of the university because there are many other matters to weigh and consider. At this point of time, I only asked him to focus and concentrate on his study and obtain a good result in his diploma. To find money and manage the plan let me think about it.

That what people said, 'To sacrify for children is beyond limit'.

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