Yang best dan yang klasik

Dua minggu lalu ketika lawatan bulanan kami ke MPH, kami bawa pulang Pecah karya Khairulnizam Bakeri dan karya klasik To Kill a Mockingbird oleh Harper Lee. Macam bagus sahaja padahal di rumah sana masih bersusun buku yang belum dibaca. Tapi sudah memang dasar semulajadi… beli jangan tak beli.

 

Lagipun Asma sudah lama kepingin mahu membaca How To Kill A Mockingbird setelah lewat setahun lalu dia dapat membaca To Catch a Rye oleh J.D Salinger  (yang tak ada apa-apa cerita pun tapi entah kenapa tetap menarik, katanya ketawa).

Oh satu perkara, malangnya MPH Subang Parade tiada kedapatan Kerana Terpaksa oleh Ilham Kalsom aka Elviza Michelle (rakan blogger saya yang sekarang belum ada kesempatan berjumpa). Dengar khabar, cerita yang itu amat menarik….. mesti cari.

Tetapi sekarang saya sedang membaca The Throne of Fire (beli last week di Popular Sunway), buku kedua dalam siri Kane Chronicles hasil penulis kegemaran saya masa kini Rick Riordan. Ketika ke situ, juga masih tak ketemu Kerana Terpaksa… wah payah sungguh mahu membeli.

Apapun, entri kali ini saya mahu bercerita pendek mengenai Pecah (nak reviu panjang-panjang pun sudah ramai yang berbuat demikian). Saya baru tamat khatam buku itu dan saya amat menyukainya. Seperti biasa Asma sudah membacanya terlebih dahulu dan dua perkataan yang keluar dari mulutnya ialah: “Best Giler!”

Kini saya sudah pun membacanya (walaupun terhegeh-hegeh cuba membaca pantas sebelum rasa ngantuk menguasai diri) dan saya amat bersetuju --- Pecah Memang Best Giler.

Garapannya amat bijak dan saya kini berangan mahu jadi sebijak Khairulnizam Bakeri dan menulis novel sebaik itu. Bilalah agaknya tu?

Sebelum itu saya mahu baca lain-lain novel terbitan Fixi jugak yang rata-rata menerima ulasan baik. Hmm, tunggu gaji hujung bulanlah.

Mainstream ke Mior?

Ceh! Rupa paras pon tak mainstream !

As we race towards the second half of 2100, it just dawned on me how mainstream I'm not.

Okay, I admit that I am a rather prolific FB user (you can’t get more mainstream than that, can you?) but I am such a klutz in so many other popular areas.

Like, I don’t do BPL so I could not hold any decent conversation whenever the mere mention of Manchester United or Chelsea or Arsenal pops up. Attended a dinner once and suddenly everybody at the table started spewing English football data and facts, left and right. And, of course, I just sat there like a total miserable loser.

I used to like watching endless reality shows on TV but not anymore … not even my favoured The Amazing Race and Top Chef. And I stopped watching American Idol two seasons ago.

The thing is that I now find it funny that Malaysians are generally crazy about football in England and a singing contest in America. This is 1Malaysia, right?

Speaking of 1Malaysia, or Malaysia as many of us know it, I also steer away from sharing my opinion on the many political related issues. Although I do have a strong opinion about certain stuff, I’ve decided that I’ll keep it to myself. It’s just that I’m too old with a heart not nearly strong enough to be arguing about those issues. Lagipun, I do have hypertension and it certainly doesn’t do me any good to have me agitated about why certain leader is doing what to another leader. After all, harga gula tetap naik jugak kan?

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against English football and US reality show – I used to like it too at one time. But I grew old.. so I guess my interest .. err.. sort of evolved.

Today, I still read fiction a lot but have expanded (kunun2nya) my reading to authors like Jiro Akagawa, Ilham Kalsom and Khairulnizam Bakeri, among others. Real brilliant stuff, there.

And as for TV programmes, my current favourite shows include Criminal Minds, Law and Order SVU, White Collar, NCIS and Hawaii Five-O. Rather nostalgic, actually as I grew up with detective series like the older Hawaii Five-O, Mannix and Policewoman. But no, I don’t do Glee much.

I love Tanyalah Ustaz over TV9 too and find TV9’s weekend morning talk shows Nasi Lemak Kopi O quite interesting.

That’s pretty much it. And I’m enjoying it.

(Nampak sangat entry kali ini tiada arah tuju.. oh! Well)

A Note to my Princesses!

Dearest Alia, Asma and Arissa

I am writing this to you because some words are better said early.  I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will. Remember the following as you go through life.............

1. Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don't hastily regard him as a real friend.  

2. No one is indispensable and nothing in the world is important enough that you must possess.  Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/who you love most.

3. Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life.

4.  Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love.  

5. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags!  

6. Check your temper always. Better still, leave you anger (which most probably are unwarranted anyway) at home. Nobody likes foul-tempered person. You don't like those person and don't ever be one. If you meet someone who is one, be the classy one - be gracious and stay calm!

7. You honour your words, but don't expect others to do so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles.

8.  If you want to be successful, you have to work hard and smart and pray a lot! There is no free lunch!  

9. No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. 

Love,

Bapak

p.s: Now girls, go find yourselves kind hearted, Allah fearing princes to be your soul mate. Start looking!!!

(As much as I wanted to claim that I wrote this letter myself but the truth is that this is actually an edited version of a letter from a renown Hong Kong TV broadcaster cum Child Psychologist to his son. It came into my inbox and of course I've edited and added some points .. you know to correspond with my relationships with my daughters... but the words are actually applicable to all of us, young or old, children or parents.!)

English - Confusing Language

The following came into my inbox a couple of days ago... courtesy of my cousin Kak Mah.... enjoy!(especially to those who have mastered this rather "unruly" language)

AN ODE OF ENGLISH PLURALS

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and
Get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You
have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,  and
In which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?  

I must admit that after more than 20 years of writing, mostly in English, I've yet to master the language. More often than not I still find myself  at loss and still got it all wrong, gramatically that is.
But that's English language for you and that's why I have my utmost respect to those who are able to pen and write beautiful words and sentences in English --- you know people like JK Rowlings and Rick Riordan and Meg Cabot (yes I read Princess Diaries series, sue me!).
Then there're bloggers who write not only in good perfect English but at the same time also funny and intelligently too. I aspire to become one.
However, I cannot stomach atrocious English (and BM too, for that matter) and you can find these kind of writings mostly in blogs. Although I applaud their effort to write in English, I simply can't tolerate repetitive errors which are mostly pretty basic (certain blogs spring to my mind as I write this .....teeeheeee) and even more unbearable is the fact that they think (the bloggers, I mean) they are so good already - its all over in their entries (them being so cool and all). I tell you if you want to raise your blood pressure fast, just read a couple of their entries .... its that bad.

And, tell me, why am I rambling on about this????????

Kita Makan Lagi!!!

Dinner Malam Ini

1. Its been a while .... but life has been good. Alhamdulillah.

2. It has been rather hectic these past two weekends ...

3. Two weeks ago we found ourselves making a trip back kampung for my aunt's (mom's cousin) funeral. We also visited my cousin who lost his son, daughter in law and grandson in a car crash. Al-Fatihah.

4. And in between, we got to spend some time at my grandmother's place in Pengkalan where the uncles and aunties and my brother's family also converged (after the funeral). Food, as usual, was the main topic of conversation and that petang we pekena kuah durian. That's nice. Really really nice.

5. The night before, my cousin Meor came visiting with wife Rina and son Adi. They stayed for dinner consisting of Tomato Soup (prepared by Asma), Spaghetti Olio Aglio, Shepherd Pie and Banana Caramel Ice Cream. Read Here

6. Last weekend, the Kuala Dipang family came down with my deligfhtful mak mertua. And we had makan-makan on Sunday with almost the entire Cheras clan and one couple from the Sungai Buloh gang.

• Occasion: Birthday Perempuan Comel No1. 
• Menu? Awesome nasi minyak and the lauk-pauk. 
• The Chef? errrr..... the birthday girl herself... (sorry but we need delicious food). 

Another round of fun sudah semestinya. See The Photos 


7. And this weekend has been pretty quiet.. so far. But of course, we decided to do makan-makan jugak.
So the menu tonight are Focacia Bread (resipi Chef Wan kata Perempuan Comel No 1), our signature (cheh!) Spaghetti Bologanise (resipi Noq) and for dessert... Agar-Agar Banana (resipi Mak Su, my aunt!!)

Jemput Makan! :-)