Banana money

I have some pictures taken yesterday during my few hours in Seria & Kuala Belait, which I want to upload but I can't seem to find that stretch of icons ( tool bar?) on top of this page.It was okay yesterday.
4 of us went to Seria yesterday morning because my mum wanted to buy Clorox for her to cuci the parit( bleach to wash the drains)and since her legs are not very strong or good for long distance travelling, Kuala Belait & Seria are good enough destination for her apart from Nanga Gremai,Kanowit.Endu & Margaret came along as well and we had a great time 'calculating'& 'converting' the things we put into the shopping cart.Each time we picked an item, we would start multiplying it by RM2.50 for easy calculation.($B 1 = RM2.32)No wonder the Awang Damit standing behind me at the money changer,Boulevard smiled,probably thinking what a fool I was to go to Seria to shop while the Serians/KBelaitians come to Miri to shop for their groceries.
As usual after the 'ngirup kopi ba kedai kopi' at Seria,we jalai-jalai for a little while in Seria,then headed to Supa Save supermarket.There's plenty of turkeys there but they are quite expensive. One bird costs about B$40+. Nay...at this price, go for the big chicken or manok sabung,munyi ko Janet.After the shopping,as we were coming out through the exit, we smelled the famous Sri Kandi kebabs cooking and ordered some. eeehhmm...nice tender succulent grilled slices of beef cooked with tomato & cucumber and mayo put into the pocket of a pita bread. I had 3. After that, we went to the Seaview Supermarket to get the clorox and checked out the salmon fish as suggested by Angking E,"Murah ikan salmon dia..ti bisi pala ikan salmon,nyamai ti di curry." We saw & bought the salmon but didn't see the head.Oh ya..the salmon's cheap there compared to Boulevard's.Then duduk baru ba kedai kopi di KB sebedau pulai ke Miri.(Then sat down at the coffee shop before going back to Miri.) I bought B$10 only of petrol( as allowed) at the Sg Teraban,petrol station. Ilaaa ka aku nguji meli B$10 dulu sebedau ke raun di Seria dah nya meli baru sebedau pulai ke Miri.The weather's sunny in Seria/KB but as soon as we reached Kuala Baram,we saw the 'sky was about to fall.'It started raining when we dropped Endu off at Lutong Baru & it rained even heavily when we reached Pujut 4. Nya meh cerita aku ke beganjuh.

Gammon Ham

"Ni, aku udah meli gammon ham ba kedai Kim Joo. Agi bisi 1/2 tinggal..1/2 nya dibeli Ta & Rosalind,"ko Endu. "Pia Endu..berapa rega ham nuan?,ko aku. "Around RM200+ siti pah" ko iya. Aiyoo.aiyoo..Makai tunu jani tiga layer ajalah.

Roast Leg of lamb

Again, this is another favourite dish that often crops up when Xmas is around the corner. D & I do not fancy lamb/mutton dishes but the children adore it. For those of you who are staying in Miri, the place where one can get reasonably priced leg of lamb would be at CCK Cold Storage at Krokop.Any other place would be expensive. Now, CCK also sells lamb shanks.

Turkeys out of stock in Miri

Ho..ho..ho.. I met Endu this afternoon and the first thing she said to me just now was that she went to a few places in town looking for turkeys to roast come Xmas...& found none. Apparently whatever available turkeys there were in town last week were 'snapped' up by some early birds( of the human kind). Wonder if Cecilia got hers already because she wanted to get one and a leg of lamb before the prices for these luxuries go up. As for me, I am not that into turkey & neither are the rest of my family. Maybe we ate too many 'kulok' in our younger days when my maternal grandfather reared 'kulok'. Of course,during those days,we never heard anything about 'roast turkey' until some mat salleh men doing the seismic jobs (kerja jerman,as the Ibans called) with my dad, asked him whether he knew anybody could roast the turkeys that they bought from my grandfather. My mum immediately thought of Atak's parents because they were very good with the char siew. So, Atak's father roasted the turkeys in the big tong drum and when the turkeys came out,they turned up brownish red/reddish brown (whichever) because I think now, he rubbed the red food colouring onto the skin of the turkeys like what was done to the char siew/pork. They must had tasted delicious because Atak's father was given the task again to roast the turkeys the following Xmas. I thought that was quite funny because the only popular way of cooking kulok/turkey we knew then was to cook like we normally cook the chicken..goreng with kicap/soya sauce. Ha..ha.. only when I spent my first Xmas in a boarding school in England,then I knew there's such a dish. Ha..ha..kasih..kasih. So I suggested to Endu, get a big chicken & pretend it's a turkey & Janet said," Gigo manok sabung..iya ke besai,baka gamal turkey." Amat nuan,Net? Enda liat isi manok sabong..Ha..ha.. (Janet suggested 'a fighting cock, the big one,looks like a turkey.'...Serious,Net? Wouldn't the meat be tough? Ha..ha..)

Sinu Ngenang ( As Time Goes By) Part 9

During one summer holidays,a few of us decided not to go back to Malaysia but to stay put in Oxford to look for a job while waiting for our results. About 5 of us got a job at Berni's,which was a restaurant. I forgot how much the pay was for an hour but I remember I was able to pay for my weekly rental & food. I even bought myself a diamond ring & gave it to my mum when I came back the following summer. I was doing wine waitressing i.e. when the customers wanted a bottle of Chianti to go with their steaks, Iuncorked a bottle of wine, poured a little bit into the glass for them to taste it (most customers pretended they knew about wine tasting but the truth was that nobody actually knew the art of wine tasting.) After they nodded their head, then I started to pour the wine. I got generous tips from customers when I did wine-waitressing. Oh by the way, I can make good Irish coffee or any liqueur coffee using double to single cream. Not the cream that you spray from a can..that's cheating.

L - R: Lyn Loh,Mr. Macdonald ( our supervisor) & Christine Wong

Me,with the empty bottles of Chianti as the background.

Another supervisor,forgot his name. Apu..bujang sigat.

Jane & I working behind the bar serving drinks. 'Can I help you,ma'am? What would you like to have?" "A glass of port,please." "And how about you,sir?" " Half a pint of Bitter,please."

Sinu Ngenang (As Time Goes By) Part 8

Memories of my college days in Oxford with my course mates. The photos were taken after our final exams in June 1978. When in Oxford during summer,the favourite pastime is to go punting along the river.
L - R : Patrick ( French) Andre (Indon) Tony (M'sian)
L - R: Patrick,Karen,Peter,Jenni,Christopher & Andre

Tony,Christopher,Jenni & Peter deciding who should punt.

Christopher doing the punting while Donna Evans & I enjoy the ride.

Lunch at an Italian restaurant with Donna & Patrick

Inside the cafeteria, at Oxford College of Further Education,Oxford.

Patrick,minus his head punting for Donna & I

Christopher,Peter & Andrew

Course mates outside the college before we say Goodbye to the college.

Getting ready to punt

Be thankful in all circumstances.....

....while your parents,loved ones,children,brothers or sisters or spouse are still around,meaning,you are surrounded by them,even though they can be 'a pain in the neck',LOVE them as they are. Afterall, I believe God has a purpose in creating all kinds of people with their different characters to make the world go round. We have to learn to accept people even though there are some that we wish would disappear from the face of the earth. It is no use regretting how badly we have treated our loved ones once they are gone. Do not wait for a death or sickness in a family to realise that you love your parents,your spouse,your children & relatives. If your mum /dad/ or spouse's the nagging type,an embarassment at times,saying things that should not be said,do not hold a grudge against her or him. They are after all your parents/spouse. The same thing applies to siblings...their problems though no fault of yours could end up being shared by you. I know it's easier said then done but I think 'trouble,pain,sorrow & all things unpleasant' go hand in hand as we live our lives here on earth.Life is short..learn to forgive and forget. Do not wait for sickness or death to knock on our door to make us realise we love our parents,spouse,siblings..in short our family & also our friends. Value them as they are...afterall nobody's perfect.