With a little bit of luck…

Well, with a little bit of luck, I could have recouped all the money I had spent on my car these past few weeks but sadly, that was not meant to be…

I had a flat tyre one evening for no obvious reason – they could not find a puncture in it, but I decided to get the tyre changed anyway. I wouldn’t want the risk of getting stuck somewhere…and that cost over RM100. That same morning, I decided to get my car air-conditioner serviced as it was not cold enough for me – and that took away another RM100 plus. Then, the other day, I discovered a leakage in my car and had to get the radiator pump – the main source of the problem as well as the radiator changed, plus a whole lot of other things and the bill came up to a whooping RM667.00. All in all, that totalled around RM1K! Sigh!!!

Then on Wednesday, my car number came out 2nd prize – RM1K! But unfortunately, I didn’t buy…

My missus bought a few ringgit, so she was of course, jumping for joy. It seemed that she told my outlaws…I mean, my in-laws about my car dripping and they said that they should go and buy my number. Yeah…they struck it rich too…but not me! Sulk! Sulk! I should have seen the signs too. The puncture and the aircon = wind (fong) and the leaking radiator = water (shui), and putting that together = “fong shui”…

Ah well…I guess it is just not meant to be and I would just have to go on working hard for the money to pay the bills and put food on the table and hopefully, manage to make ends meet somehow. But as Tevye (Topol) says in the following clip, “O dear Lord, You made many, many poor people. I realise, of course, it’s no shame to be poor, but it’s no great honour either. So what would have been so terrible…if I had a small fortune?“

“…You decreed I should be what I am. Would it spoil some vast eternal plan, if I were a wealthy man!!!” LOL!!!

Hope you all enjoyed the clips/songs and do have a lovely weekend, everybody!

Eat at home (2)…

My friend, Jimmy, is in town from Bintulu…and I thought, for a change, we could have dinner at home instead of going to eat at the usual places in town. I did not have time to cook myself, so I just headed to my favourite Bandong stall and go a few dishes for four of us.

This was the ayam berlada (pepper chicken)…

RM25.00 for one large Pyrex bowl of it! Actually, it did not look that much in the covered plastic container at the stall, so I just sapu habis (swept it clean). In the end, we hardly ate half of it even though it was very nice! Next time, I think I should estimate by counting the number of pieces – 2 or 3 each, that’s all!

I also bought RM5.00 of this young jackfruit cooked in santan/coconut milk (buah nangka muda masak lemak)…

…and then I spotted these…

Braised chicken claws in soy sauce! Jimmy loves chicken claws – not me! I do not touch the stuff! Hahahahaha!!! And guess what? They were selling them at 4 for RM1.00!!! I bought RM2.00 of that just for him! At the Chinese food stall at Taman Selera Muhibbah, they were selling them at 60 sen each at one time (Dunno now!) and people were ordering them like they were free of charge.

I was positive that Jimmy had told me once that he loved brinjal, so I also bought RM3.00 of terung masak sambal (brinjal cooked in sambal)

He said that he never did but coincidentally, somehow this year, he had developed a love for the veg! Gee! Must be my sixth sense! LOL!!!…And then I saw their pucuk kelapa sawit muda masak lemak (young oil palm shoots cooked in santan/coconut milk)…

…and it looked so enticing that I just had to have RM3.00 of that as well.

We had a delightful dinner…or at least, to me, it was. We ate till we were so full and yet, we had so much leftover – and all that for only RM38.00!If we were to eat at one of those restaurants outside that we used to frequent, for 4 persons, it would cost not less than RM60.00, I’m sure…

What will I write…

I wonder if you all remember the English textbooks you all used in school and how boring they were. Remember D.H. Howe’s “The Crows of Klang”? Good grief! Who would want to read anything like that?

Another problem is one textbook is supposed to be in use for 10 years but I noticed that they would drag on till some 15-20 years even. I guess now that students are getting the textbooks free, it is not easy to get rid of the old books and supply brand new ones. For one thing, they’re VERY expensive – RM12 or more (and I will not delve into the reasons why). Of course, if you use a textbook for so long, things get outdated. Take, for instance, one passage from the set of textbooks at the time on the Penang Ferry Tragedy. The students today, who were probably not born yet when that happened, would know nothing of it and I do not think they would be interested unless perhaps they’re from Penang or around those parts.

But what actually drove me to writing workbooks for students was the fact that textbooks cater for the general standard of the students – too easy for the good ones and too difficult for those less proficient and the latter, of course, formed the majority. In view of this, I decided to write a book that was simple enough for the weak ones to handle and this gave birth to my first book ever…

I wrote and typed everything and even designed the cover with my limited computer skills using Print Artist and I got the printer – the one who used to print my school magazines for me – to print 1,000 copies. I was planning to use whatever I needed for my students at the time and keep the rest for the subsequent years…but some teachers in the other schools heard of it and came to cart the rest away, payment in cash no less!

Then the people from the publishing companies heard of it and started coming round to persuade me to let them publish the book. After some time, I relented and gave the publishing rights to the sole Sibu firm and these two books were released the following year…

The royalty payment was extremely little though. I can’t remember exactly now but I think they deducted 40%, that being the standard discount they gave to the bookstores and paid the writer 3% of the remaining 60%. Fortunately, the books sold like hot cakes, so what I received was encouraging enough to keep me going.

Unlike many workbooks where they will reprint the same thing year in and year out, changing the name and the cover only, this publisher allowed me to revise my books. Thus, I could replace those that I found too easy or difficult, boring or perhaps I came up with something more interesting and so on. Other than revising the existing copies for the upper forms, the following year, the publisher asked me to write two more workbooks – for Form 1 and Form 2. He was able to get somebody else to write the Form 3 edition…and these were published…

This arrangement suited us real fine and we did the same for the year after that and came out with these…

I also wrote some sets of model examination papers for practice purposes for this particular publishing firm, this one…

…and this one…

The sale of the books every year was very good, to say the least, and I was extremely pleased with the money that was rolling in…until disaster struck. The publisher was very ambitious and got a whole lot of writers to write for the other subjects but I heard that they failed miserably on the market. At the same time, he opened a bookstore and there was this conflict of interests. The bookstores boycotted the books he published as he had become their rival…and the other publishers refused to supply their books to his bookstore as they felt he would be promoting the ones he published himself instead of theirs. I guess his hands were tied and since he had incurred heavy losses on the unsold books, he closed down the publishing firm.

Then I was approached to work with one in West Malaysia and while with this particular firm, I came out with these workbooks…

…and these sets of model examination papers…

It did not work out too well for various reasons which I would not bother to elaborate on, but the bottom line was I was getting paid very little. They would say that the books did not sell well (even though I heard that they had to reprint a couple of times) or they had to deduct from my royalty for the unsold copies and all that kind of crap. The worst thing was they would not even bother to pay me unless I called them again and again to pester them, not that what they paid was really worth that trouble. In the end, I decided to call it a day.

Well, all in all, it was a nice experience while it lasted and I did make quite a bit over the years out of the endeavour. After all, life is like that – full of ups and downs…and we just plod on our own way one day at a time.

Liquid dreams…

A long, long time ago, my wife and I used to spend our holidays abroad every year and when we came back, we would buy the duty-free liquor – a bottle each…and keep. After that, I stopped buying as I do not drink and there isn’t much space left in the pantry to keep my liquid assets.

I still have two bottles of XO…

…cognac or brandy. I used to have more…but mostly VSOP or Martell Cordon Bleu. An uncle of mine used to give me a bottle for Chinese New Year every year but I think we’ve used most of it for cooking or to soak the raisins for our Christmas pudding.

I also have a number of bottles of whisky…

…two Chivas Regal, one Willam Grant’s, one J & B…and as you can see, we’ve been using that bottle of Bell’s for our cooking, now that we’re out of VSOP brandy…and I have a bottle of Label 5 that my students gave me on my retirement. Frankly, I have never heard of that brand before but the last time when I was in Limbang, I overheard some of the teachers buying that – among all the bootleg whisky that they were carting home for the Gawai festival that year.

At one time, I might buy a bottle of wine or two at the KK International Airport, but they do not allow it anymore…and a brother-in-law of mine would often give me a bottle every Chinese New Year. I still have an unfinished bottle of Baileys’ Irish Cream in the fridge and these…

I am not an expert in wines, so I do not know whether these are any good or not. There should be a lot more than these but obviously, somebody in the house has been drinking… LOL!!!

There you have it, my liquid assets! Actually, I really wonder what I am keeping them for as I do not drink anymore myself. Perhaps I can take them all out for everybody to finish at one go at my 60th birthday bash. Anybody care to join the party? ROTFLMAO!!!

Running on empty…

Oh boy! What a day! And it’s only halfway through! I spotted some leakage from the engine of my car and I thought it was the engine oil…but when I checked, it turned out to be water. The mechanic said the pump was spoilt and the radiator had seen better days, so I had to leave the vehicle at his garage for all the necessary repairs to be done. Sigh!!! I can see my money sprouting wings and flying away… Bye! Bye!

In fact, this morning, I was in the vicinity where the garage is – Sungai Merah. I went back to that corner coffee shop – Choon Seng that I had a post about not too long ago – the one with the yummy meat porridge…

I have heard people singing praises of the kampua noodles at the stall but I have yet to try it. Well, I did…this morning!

It is all right, nothing to shout about. I still prefer my usual favourites and even the one at Peter’s Cafe in Sungai Antu. But the piansip (kiaw/wantan) tasted pretty good…

However, I would rather go for the meat porridge with all the minced meat, liver and intestines anytime! As a matter of fact, yesterday, I had that at Mei Le Cafe near my house at the Delta Commercial Centre, Pedada…

It is much more expensive, starting at RM3.00 up to RM6.00 a bowl. This one cost RM4.00 with the yew cha kway and century egg. I felt there was very little minced meat and there was only a thin slice of liver – that’s all. Furthermore, the egg was disintegrated and I could only see tiny bits of it swimming in the porridge, so I would not know whether they put in one whole egg or not. Tastewise, I didn’t think it was as good as the one at Choon Seng which was only RM2.50 a bowl. By the way, the kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) at Choon Seng is RM1.30 a glass, 10 sen more than elsewhere…and not necessarily better.

Incidentally, I guess some of you in the central region of the state may have seen my blog being mentioned in the local papers this morning…

kohraphael.wordpress.com is the featured blog this week and he mentioned in the post selected that if anyone wants to go out and eat, he or she should do some homework first and check out my blog to see what’s nice to eat and where to go. Gee! I think I should put up a disclaimer somewhere! One man’s meat is another man’s poison…and what I like may not be what others will enjoy. Oh dear!

Well, let’s hope that things will start looking better from now…for the rest of the day!

Terlalu istimewa…

I guess everybody would have heard by now that Yasmin Ahmad had passed away. This is an excerpt from a report in one of the national dailies:
KUALA LUMPUR: Award-winning film director Yasmin Ahmad (pic) has died from massive bleeding in the brain at the Damansara Specialist Hospital.

She died at 11.25pm yesterday. She had undergone surgery following her collapse at the TV3 headquarters Seri Pentas on Thursday.

And I guess everybody, like me, used to wait each year as a festival drew near to watch her commercials which were touching, meaningful and never failed to send a message home. She did some family-themed commercials for Singapore tv – the best known being “The Funeral”. I think I had a post on it before or perhaps I shared it on Facebook, but I have a sentimental attachment to the other one – the father and daughter and the bond of love between them. It never fails to bring a tear to my eye each time I watch it…and “The Funeral” too…and for that matter, most of her commercials. Such was her talent…and one of the comments on “The Funeral” said something like, “She’s a Malaysian? Awesome!” Yes indeed, such was her talent – simply awesome.

She made a lot of movies but so far, I have only seen “Sepet” and “Gubra”. Most of the time, they did not make it to the local cinema circuit – either they were banned by the narrow-minded individuals in the censorship board or they did not want to screen the movies here as “Malay” movies would not have that much crowd appeal. The two that I have seen are shown on and off on Astro now…but they are so badly censored that sometimes, one can hardly make head or tail out if it, for instance, in the scene in “Sepet” when Orkid said, “All Malays are…[TOOT]…!” Well, you can see that in the following clip at around 9:30…

My daughter had a post on the movie in her previous blog. She loved it too and she loved the theme song which I think is by the one-time very popular Hongkong singer, Sam Hui. I actually showed the movie to my students in school – Form 6 and Form 5 and they all loved it. Well, if you have not seen yet, you can go and get the vcd/dvd…or watch the 11 parts on youtube.

I could have had the chance to meet her in person once when she was one of the guest speakers at a Literature in English seminar in KL, but for some reason or other at the time, unfortunately, I was unable to attend.

All things considered, I think it is only right to say that the country has lost someone of immense talent and artistic creativity, someone with a mind so open and yet so sensitive unlike many in our midst, someone really special. This song by Adibah Noor (who played the family maid in “Sepet”) is indeed a fitting tribute to her…

May she rest in peace…

The love inside…

These are called serimuka or translation, radiant face. I suppose it is called thus because when it is ready after steaming, the surface is smooth and shiny. However, in my family, we call it tinggi salad. I do not know why but I have heard people calling it kuih salad. Perhaps this is due to the fact that it is served as cuci mulut (literally meaning “wash the mouth”) or dessert, not very accurately referred to, I’m afraid, as “salad”.

As they say, do not judge a book by its cover or draw conclusions based on appearance alone. If the serimuka looks pale and not very appealing, it is because they have added more santan (coconut milk) and thus, it is richer and a lot nicer. Those that are bright green may look nice but tastewise, they often leave a lot to be desired.

Besides, with a lot of santan or egg, the custard layer may be softer and this will make it more difficult to cut. Hence, when serving, the serimuka slices may not look that presentable but more often than not, they are definitely superior in taste.

I guess it is the same with people. It is always what is within the person that is of utmost importance. One may not be the best looking individual in the world but what is most important is what kind of person he or she is for deep within, you may find a heart of gold and all the love inside…

Gosh! How I loved this song once upon a time! I had not heard it for so long that I did not even remember there was such a song until I stumbled upon it yesterday on youtube! Oh…what lyrics, what memories!!! Sigh!

We are Singapore…

I don’t know if they still do it but I know that at one time, every year for its National Day on the 9th of August, they would have a special song for the occasion. One particular year, they had this one that I liked a lot…

I was in Singapore on holiday that year and they were playing it everywhere and because I liked it so much, I even went and bought the cassette tape. One of the tracks was the minus-one instrumental version which I could use for my students to sing at those annual school concerts in one of my former schools – just change the lyrics a bit! LOL!!!

Well, this post is not going to be about “We are Singapore…Singaporeans” but “We are Singapore…Singapore Chicken Rice”! Why, they even have the Merlion as their logo!!! ROTFLMAO!!!

They have just opened a new outlet at the Lot 9 commercial area – directly opposite Delta Mall or Sugar Bun in the Delta Commercial Centre along Jalan Pedada here (but because of the road divider, you will have to go all the way up to the Selemo Roundabout to get to the other side of the road). This is the 3rd one, if I’m not mistaken – other than the one in the Tunku Osman area behind HSBC and another one in the TanahMas area directly opposite Premier Hotel.

This new one looks pretty nice inside…

Image blurred in the interest of those concerned. LOL!!!

You can have their chicken rice at RM3.40, steamed…

…or roasted…

…and that comes with a plate of chicken rice and a small bowl of complimentary clear soup. There are side orders as well, such as these fried wantons (RM4.80)…

…or this plate of seafood kailan (RM4.00)…

There are other choices too, even western food such as chicken chop or fish and chips. We did not have those the other day; guess I’ll just have to go back there again another time to see if they’re any good.

All in all, inclusive of drinks, the bill came up to RM21.80 for two persons…which I would think was pretty all right, considering that the place is nice and comfortable and airconditioned. However, they got the drink orders mixed up…and the chicken rice came VERY fast, almost instantly and even before the drinks, plus it was somewhat cold…and we had almost finished that when the side orders FINALLY came. Taking that in consideration, if you are in a hurry and on a short lunch break, you should just forget about the side orders and just stick to the chicken rice.

Tastewise, everything was not bad at all. I think it is something along the same line as The Chicken Rice Shop which I’ve tried – once in KL (Berjaya Times Square) and again in Sungai Petani, Kedah (The Village Mall). Nice…but I would not say it’s sensational. Go ahead, give it a try…

Hand in hand…

Gosh! How time flies! This theme song for the Seoul Olympics 1988 by the group called Koreana is 21 years old…

I remember how I loved it then and how popular it was at the time. In fact, no school concert was complete without somebody singing it. I wonder how many still remember the song.

Anyway, this is not going to be about the Olympics, be it in Seoul or anywhere else and neither is it about the song or the singers…but a post about Korean noodles or noodle, as they call it…

This regular commentor of mine, formerly known as housefly but he has left home and no longer infests his house and so he now calls himself intechfly, was singing its praises, so I decided to give it a try.

Good grief! It cost me RM9.00 for a pack of 5 packets, so that would make it RM1.80 a packet…

Inside, you get the usual noodles with a packet of soup base and there is also a packet of some dried stuff including bits of spring onions.

There is slightly more noodles…so you may need a saucepan that is a bit bigger than the usual one you use for the local instant noodles, and you will have to cook it a little longer as it takes longer to soften…

The noodles have a nicer texture – bigger and firmer…and the soup is quite nice too, maybe a bit nicer than the rest, but I would not think it is THAT nice as to be worth RM1.80 a packet. After all, a plate of freshly-made and cooked kampua noodles without meat is only RM1.50!

All things considered, I think I will just stick to our own made-in-Sibu Mee Daddy…

…at only RM3.80 for 5 packets, just 76 sen per packet! Cheap and nice…and for one packet of the Korean noodles, I can have THREE of these! LOL!!! Yum! Yum!

Puff, the magic dragon…

Would you believe it if I tell you that this song by Peter, Paul and Mary was actually banned on national radio? To me, it sounds like some kiddie song but some smart aleck somewhere interpreted it as having some drug connotations. Well, this isn’t going to be a post about the song or the singers nor is it going to be about dragons and drugs…but about curry puffs! LOL!!!

I love the ones from the char siew pao shop at Kai Joo Lane in Kuching…and they used to sell very nice home-made ones at one of the stalls at Rejang Park. I also managed to buy some from that Chopsticks chicken rice shop that were not too bad either – they sometimes have them in the morning. These would be the baked ones with curry-flavoured meat inside.

I never liked those fried ones at the Malay stalls until I came across these…

They do not look very nice, that I would admit…but the pastry tastes good and the potatoes inside have that very nice flavour of curry. The best part, of course, is the fact that they are selling them at 4 for RM1.00 only. I got them from my regular Bandong kuih-muih stall a while back and I kept going back for more. By the way, if you’re heading there too, do not buy those that are selling at 3 for RM1.00. They say that they are more expensive because the pastry is nicer as it is layered, but it does not taste as nice and the sweet potato filling has hardly any curry taste at all.

Talking about kuih-muih, I also tried these the other day…

They’re something like serimuka with pulut (glutinous rice) on the bottom half…and the custard layer at the top is made from durian. Not bad, not bad at all…and you can get those at 3 for RM1.00.

And since we’re talking about food in the Bandong area here, the food stall that opens only around lunchtime is really doing very well these days. It is getting very crowded if you go during lunch break and should you go a little later at around 1 or a bit later, most of the things would have been sold out!

I am not surprised by the good response it is getting as the food is nice and relatively cheap, like these assam prawns that I bought from there…

Those were all they had left, so I just sapu habis (swept it clean)…for only RM14.00 – one big bowl of prawns which would cost some RM20.00 a kilo at the market – uncooked. They were very fresh, the flesh very firm and sweet…but I found it a bit too (chilli) hot, though yummy.

I bought these ladies’ fingers for only RM3.00…

…and together with the sup tulang (bone soup), also RM3.00, that would make a complete mean for 3 or 4 persons…

Not bad at all, don’t you think? Value for money…