ONE DOWN 3 TO GO

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I attended the wedding of a Muslim colleague which was last Saturday at a leading hotel. What was unique about the wedding was the mixture of many things. The setting of the hall especially the bridal couch or pelamin was very traditional Malay.

As the groom and bride entered the hall accompanied by traditional dancers, traditional music was played and later entertained to the tune of traditional dancers as they were seated on the pelamin. There was also gong beating and there was a Sumazau dance performed by the dancers.

The food served were Chinese type dishes and of course halal.

The invited guest was of different races. The groom and bride had worn the traditional dress

earlier and later to an English suit and gown. That was what we called a mixture of many cultures that they tried to portray during their wedding which was very commendable. Congratulation the bride and groom for the invitation of such a unique wedding.

My invitation to other wedding is still on my list for these coming weekends. One down 3 to go ….

TAKE 5

I heard this question on the airwave by a DJ and would like to share with you. This question if we think negatively, it sounds dirty but let's leave at it and see whether you can answer the question. Post your answer by clicking comments and write your answer and if you're not signed to either google or blogger then just select anonymous and click publish your comment. If you like you can leave your nick. Here it goes ....

'Jilat-jilat dulu bila sudah basah cucuk lubang.

Apa kah jawapan anda?

Invitation

I received four wedding invitation cards for this weekend and next weekend, two receptions at a leading hotel in the city and the other two at their respective residence. One reception to be held out of my district and coincide with my nephew’s wedding so will miss this reception.

Two of the reception in the hotel, luckily one week apart so will surely attend it both. All reception cannot be missed due to my close relation with the celebrant, a relatives wedding and a colleague’s wedding.

I am lucky that I only received few invitations compared to other families, example my married family siblings and friends because at one time they will receive many invitations. I think we should set aside a column for miscellaneous in our budget organizer for each month for every reception we attended as we present ‘Ang Pow’ to the host of the reception. In my opinion the minimum ‘ang pow’ should be in the region of RM100 for hotel reception, RM50 for residence reception but again it depended entirely on us. Usually, family members should be given more as a contribution and to lighten their burden as having a reception has high cost depending where the reception is held.

I remembered I argued with my mother regarding the ‘ang pow’. She had insisted that when someone presented you with a bowl of rice, you should return the same amount when that person invited you for a reception. The notion expressed by some that you should give back what has been given to you is not right. What happens when some rich person presented you with 100 bowls of rice but when that rich person invited you for a reception, does that means you have to return 100 bowls of rice? As for me, I only return two bowls of rice as that was what I can affords to give back. When I presented 'Ang pow ', I don't expect to received the same amount that I had given.

What happens when we revert to give rice instead of cash during any reception as what was the practice before?

UNKNOWN KADAZAN WORD

Have you come across a word that you don’t know especially your mother tongue language? I was reading through a fortnightly newspaper when I stumbled through a column written by a very knowledgeable individual by the name of Mr. Peter Lidadun. He mentioned a Kadazan word which I do not know which was BONTUTAN. He explained what the word means. It is a bunch of selected big fruits for example Durian, and amongst the big durians there's one the biggest durian of which is called BONTUTAN. Usually when there were a couple of fruits and you were told to pick one, surely you would pick the largest fruit and that largest fruit is called BONTUTAN in the Kadazan language. I don’t know whether other languages have the name for the largest fruit amongst the biggest fruits. There are many Kadazans out there who does know this word including me and with this word it will add to our depleting Kadazan vocabulary.




Speaking about Durian, I went to Sipitang last week for some outstation work with my boss. Sipitang district is popular with its Durian and near proximity to Lawas of Sarawak of which have many types of Durian. There weren’t a single Durian sold and we were informed the durian season was already over. Although I am not a big fan of durian, I was a bit disappointed for not able to bring home at least one durian.

On the way back, I was told by my boss to look for stall by the roadside selling anchovies. I thought Tawau and Sandakan the only district that sell dried ikan bilis, how wrong I was. The stall that sells dried anchovies was a simple stall by the roadside around Kimanis area. The dried anchovies sold there was fresh and not smelly. Next time you want to taste Kimanis ikan bilis, slow down near a stall by the roadside and buy a packet of anchovies for RM10.

NOT WELCOME

I was travelling to work to beat the traffic jam and while driving I was thinking of a nasi lemak for my breakfast on a beautiful Friday morning. There's a restaurant, a bumiputra restaurant opposite Queen Elizabeth Hospital of which I’ve visited once, that served fairly good Nasi lemak.

There were already a couple sitting in the restaurant waiting to be served when I entered. Not long, another two came and seated opposite my table and I didn’t mind a few minutes delay as they were arranging the food. We were waiting and waiting and not even one of the workers there asked us for our drinks. I was boiling inside but I controlled my anger. The other person who had waited stand up and left followed by me because at that time many people came to the restaurant. How can we support the bumiputra if even their public relation and services are really bad. The Chinese restaurant that I usually take my breakfast will greet me every morning and I feel great when at least your presence are being acknowledge. We should at least has the courtesy to acknowledge our presence. I will think twice before entering any bumiputra restaurant in the future. I guess not all are like that but hopefully it's an isolated case.

@@@@@

Have you experience being dumped? Yeah … everybody experienced it at least once in their lifetime.

How often you ignore you handphone calls, knowing very well that was your friend calling you.

Have you experience when you go online and noticed your friend log off. The message is clear, so if you did not notice then you are dumb.

SIARAN RADIO ALA SLANG SABAHAN

Pagi ini seperti biasa sia sudah sampai di Ofis awal. Memang sia tidak suka trafik jam itulah sebab kena awal mau pergi kerja. Kalau orang lain mungkin masih tidur, sia pula sudah dalam perjalanan pergi kerja.

Bah ..... bukan apa sia mau cerita ini bah tapi pasal siaran radio. Bila sia masuk ofis kawan sekerja sudah ada dalam ofis dengan bawa anak darjah dua dia. Dia buka radio kuat-kuat lagi itu tapi bila dengar radio macam lain pula bunyinya sebab terbiasa dengar slang ala-ala semenanjung. Cuba kamu buka radio RTM Sabah FM dan dengar DJ nya bercakap … alala macam slang kawan kita di Semenanjung …. BIKIN PANAS (ini sia pinjam dari seorang blogger). Tapi radio yang sia dengar gunakan bahasa Malazu dan slang Sabahan dengan ‘BAH’ gitu. Memang kelakar tapi seronok pula bercakap tanpa gunakan slang seperti ‘sayo’, ‘kenapo’ etc.

Kalau tidak silap siaran tersebut keudara setiap jam 6.00 pagi hingga jam 10.00 pagi. Waktu sia mendengar, DJ mengelarkannya sebagai ‘OTTO’ . Sia rasa dia ini stok dari Kadazandusun punya sebab ada juga terselit bahasa Dusun waktu dia bercakap. Bah apalagi cubalah kamu tuned pada frequency yang digunakan iaitu 105.9 Mhz (Suria fm). Tagline pula siaran ini adalah 'Hidup Pasti Rancak' .... mungkin ajak kita merancakan lagi hidup ini ... tau lah kalau kita tidak berlumba lumba dalam apa saja kita buat pasti kita ketinggalan. Ini bukan promote ini station tapi tambahan stesen radio yang kamu mau dengar. Siaran ini boleh dengar di kawasan Kota Kinabalu sahaja. Sorry saja kepada kawan-kawan yang berada diluar Kota Kinabalu dan Malaysia sebab bila saya masuk dalam website suria fm online, siaran dalam web tersebut adalah versi semenanjung. Sorry guys nanti balik Sabah atau datang KK baru boleh dengar kio. Dengar siaran RTM saja kamu disana … hahaha.

Selamat Mendengar.

My Sunday Diary

As usual I was wide awake before 6.00 am although it’s Sunday and since I already had attended sunset mass, I was in town by 7.00 am. I was at the Sunday market (Tamu) by 7.15 am looking at the many kampung vegetables, fruits and kampung fresh water fish. There were many kampung foods that can be selected to suit our individual taste.

There were rows of food and kuih to pick from, be it fried noodles, nasi lemak, kuih cincin or tau fu fa. I let myself missed my usual breakfast of fish noodle soup and opted for a simple Hinompuka. There were 2 version of the Hinompuka, the usual glutinous rice flour and the other one mixed with banana, a very delicious cake to be taken with a cup of steaming Kopi O or Tea O or with milk.

I decided to pick a very appetizing vegetable, when fried with dried shrimp and Belacan (I use Maggie belacan granules) it’s really yummy. I don’t really know what they call the vegetable but it was a mixture of daun bawang kampung, yellow chili and some pungent flower (maybe bunga kantan).

To make my complete Sunday lunch, I bought ready to cook winter Melon and decided to cook it with chicken. Although the soup was simple, it really tasted delicious for a kampung chef like me.

There were many fresh water fish to choose from and it has been a long time that I didn’t eat this type of fish which was what we call ‘TUONGOU’. The fish was already cleaned and ready to be cook. It can be cook simply by adding dried takob-akob (lime), turmeric root or powder and salt. To put more aromatic flavour and taste, I added turmeric leaves which has a nice smell.

For my 3.00 pm tea time, I found two types of corn, the Taiwan type and the other one was the kampung types which have a very aromatic smell. It was really simple to cook the corn, just put in the microwave oven for over 7 to 9 minutes and it's ready to be eaten.

That was a very healthy and traditional kampong food that I selected this Sunday which was really delicious. We should go for a simple and healthy kampung food for a change.

Completed Sigah (Headgear)

As promised before, I post the completed picture of the controversial headgear. Last time I tend to be not favoring any view regarding the headgear but I changed my mind. Every time I drove towards Donggongon town, it seems that I was always at the back of somebody. The Headgear should face towards Kota Kinabalu as if welcoming guest visiting the district. That should be the correct orientation of the Sigah. Since the headgear was already completed, then we have to live with it.

Short Essay Title

A primary four student was asked to give a title of a short essay by their teacher to know whether they understood what was taught to them. The sentences given to them were as follows;

Sam is a good boy who listens to his parent. Sam will do all his homework without being told by his parent. He likes to help his mother to pick up rubbish and put it in the rubbish bin. Sam never argues with his brothers or sisters. He is not a selfish boy. He always helps his friends when they ask for help.

The teacher received one title given by one student; I HATE SAM.

9 YEARS OLD HEROES

I was just sitting down for my breakfast early Saturday morning when I open my folded newspaper and saw the headline of nine years old boy braved a fire to save his brother. I was appalled by the news as I thought that I had a dream about that incident. Then I remembered that I was reading the Reader Digest’s December 2007 edition last Friday’s night. It was on page 25 of the magazine. It was also a nine years old boy who saved his disorientated and confused younger brother crying in the corner of a room. He was scared of the fire but when he heard his brother crying, he rushed in and brought him out of the house. The story about the fire was from the city in the Philippines.



In the Saturday report it was reported that a nine years old from Keningau braved flames to save his two years old brother. He woke up his sleeping little brother and brought him out through the window of the burning house. Though the house was on fire, the only thing he thought then was to save his brother. It was heartening to know that children as young as nine years old was calm under pressure and acted quickly.