I heard…

…that they have the best nasi kerabu in town here every Ramadhan so the previous Sunday, after sending my girl back to her school, we stopped by…

…on the way back.

This is one of the army camps around the Sibu area…

…and this one’s at the 10th Mile along the Old Oya Road past the road to the Sibu Golf Club, just a short distance away, both on your left if you are going in that direction.

They have a small Ramadhan Bazaar by the roadside outside the camp every year…

…and my guess is that the stalls are run by the wives and families of the army personnel at this camp.

I spent a bit of time taking snapshots of this and that and by the time I got to the stalls, my missus had bought the nasi kerabu from one of the stalls there, pre-packed. However, when I walked around the place, I saw this one…

…that certainly seemed to be a lot more popular – everybody was buying from there…

…and they let you pick what you want and once done, they would wrap everything up in paper, which is a commendable thing. The use of styrofoam containers is banned in Sibu and I certainly would not buy anything from any place that still uses that. The flimsy cardboard ones or those using some environment-friendly plastic (that I can wash and reuse again and again) are all right. Why, this one even had a banner at the back with their handphone contact…and one look at the girl would tell you this one would be very good – as they say, “Never trust a skinny cook!”

Other than the nasi kerabu, there weren’t a lot of other things around…

…other than the usual stuff that one can get most anywhere else.

These young boys were very friendly and asked me to take their photograph…

…after which they asked me to buy their drinks but I said I should not take too much sweet stuff so they did not insist.

We had the nasi kerabu…

… that my missus bought for dinner that night and yes, it was very very nice…

– very much nicer than the very good one that we would always go for here in the town proper and this was only RM4.50 a pack plus they also gave a bit of some kind of curry gravy separately that was very nice indeed and went very well with everything else including the rice. It is RM5.00 for fish and RM5.50 for chicken at our regular place and they do not give that stuffed chili. Besides, they also marinate the fish quite differently here, not the simple deep-fried ones that we would usually get – and this one’s a whole lot nicer as well, I must say. However, be forewarned that this one is super-duper spicy hot, so very hot that I actually felt I was blowing out fire as I was eating it.

My missus also bought this traditional Malay masak lemak perut sapi dengan rebung (tripe and bamboo shoots cooked in rich and creamy coconut milk gravy) dish…

…from dunno-which-stall to try and yes, it was very very good too.

Well, we’re halfway through Ramadhan now and we only have around two weeks to go so if you would like to try the really very nice nasi kerabu and whatever they may have to offer here, you’d better make it fast…or wait till this time next year.

Wait…

Everyone can fly, the tagline says…but at times, it may be a case of everyone can wait. Of course, whenever I fly, I do not mind a little delay as long as I can get to my destination safely sooner or later.

No, I was not flying anywhere but I was at the airport here in Sibu to pick my friend, Philip, who is currently home again for the summer holidays. I must say it amazes me greatly, the wonders of the internet. These days, you can go to one of these websites and see the progress of any flight…

…and they will also tell you if the aircraft is on time…

…or delayed.

Well, Philip’s flight was on time and he even boarded the aircraft on time but when I reached the airport, I checked the website and found that it would land at past 6.45 p.m. instead of the scheduled time – 6.20 p.m. I went to check the information board inside the airport – no, it did not say the plane had been delayed but it was confirmed to arrive at 6.50 p.m.

So, I waited…and waited…and eventually, the word CONFIRMED was replaced by LANDED on the board but by 7.20 p.m., half an hour after the time it was supposed to have landed, still no one had emerged from the arrival hall. Oh yes! There were lots of people but they were on another flight, the MasWings flight from Kuching and whatever other flights from elsewhere. Maybe it was just my imagination but it sure seemed to me that when several flights landed at the same time, the budget airline would have to give way to the others. Perhaps that was why Philip said that he had to sit in the aircraft for a long time before it finally took off – maybe there were many other flights at KLIA taking off and landing at the time…so where this airline is concerned, everyone can wait!

He came out at around 7.30 p.m. and we promptly made our way back to the town…and as I had not had dinner yet, I gladly accepted his suggestion to stop by one place along the way, round the corner from where his mum lives…

…for a bite to eat. If anyone is interested, it’s at the t-junction of Jalan Teruntum and Lorong Merdeka 15 (2.305101,111.840016). You can go straight into Rejang Park, go straight ahead – past the shops and the defunct cinema in the commercial area – till you see a block of only two double-storey shops on your right at a corner of the aforementioned junction. Generally, this place is very crowded, lots of cars parked by the roadside, and is most popular for its steamboat.

I remember telling Philip that the food here would be pretty good but despite staying just around the corner, all these years, he had never got down to checking it out. I could vaguely remember that their fried kway teow with beef was good but when we were there that night, we were informed that they did not have it on the menu. Maybe they have discontinued the item as we can’t get fresh beef here and the imported ones do not come cheap…but they told us that they had fried kway teow with cockles so we decided to have that…

…instead.

Wowwwww!!!! It was so so good! If there were others elsewhere that I loved before, they would have to step aside now and make way for the one we had…

…here. There were hardly any ingredients other than the egg and a bit of taugeh (bean sprouts) and whatever – even the cockles were so few and far between, so difficult to find but the taste, the wok hei fragrance sure blew us away! Both Philip and I enjoyed it a lot and the fried cangkuk manis with egg…

…was really good too.

Philip insisted on paying and when I asked him, he said that the total came up to RM15.00 plus, less than USD4.00. He did not ask for the breakdown but my guess would be that minus the drinks, it was RM6.00 for the kway teow and RM8.00 for the cangkuk manis, the standard price for a plate of vegetables at such places around town here. No wonder there are always lots of people eating here – not only is the food good but it is cheap too…but of course, that may depend upon what you order.

Well, since I did not have dinner at home that night and I don’t think the rest ate very much either after a late lunch and a trip to the Ramadhan stalls, there was a lot of leftover rice the next morning which I fried in my simple kampung (village) style…

…and we had that for our breakfast and lunch before our special Dumpling/Dragon Boat Festival plus Father’s Day dinner that night.

It sure was nice seeing my old friend again and I really must thank him for these goodies…

…that he brought all the way from the US. Ooooo…Godiva, no less!!!

Well, in  case anyone’s wondering what the crème brûlée dessert truffles look like inside, here’s the cross-section…

Nice – lovely creamy chocolate but very sweet. Thankfully, there weren’t all that many in the pack so no, I did not over-indulge…and no prize for guessing what I used the Made-in-Canada Ma Ling luncheon meat for…

Hehehehehe!!!!

I also sliced and pan-fried the rest…

…for breakfast with my old school-style fried eggs and tomatoes by the side. Yum yummmm!!!!

Yes, my darling daughter…

Last Sunday, the 3rd Sunday in June, was Father’s Day. We had a delightful family dinner together the previous night to celebrate that simultaneously with the Dumpling or Dragon Boat Festival, with a lovely cake thrown in for good measure.

My girl did get me a present – some lovely t-shirts and believe you me, it is not easy trying to find any my size these days…and I would insist on white ones some more so that would make it even more difficult but somehow, she did manage to get me quite a few at one go. Then, she said she would want to take me out for a nice treat after the Sunday service in the morning (we could not go for the sunset one the previous evening as we were having our special dinner at my parents’ place) but I said that would not be necessary as we had celebrated the occasion altogether at one go and she had got me a present as well. However, she would not take no for an answer and in the end, I had to give in.

Most of the nicer/classier cafes and restaurants would not open till 11 or noon and that would be rather late as it being a Sunday, I would have to drive my girl back to her school for the week so in the end we decided to drop by this Chinese restaurant…

…for a dim sum breakfast.

They have some things on a trolley now – something that I did not notice on my previous visits but I did not really fancy what they had on it that morning – chicken claws (Shudders!!!), steamed pork ribs with black fermented beans and these…

…which we decided to try. They were very nice but I think these…

…that I ordered from their menu were nicer – prawns wrapped in bean curd skin or something.

I asked for these dumplings…

…for my girl – she seems to love those a lot and yes, the lightly pan-fried ones here were pretty good and very much to her liking.

We also had their very nice yam cake…

…steamed and pan-fried lightly as well. They really did it so well with the fragrance of the fried shallots and garlic and the sweetness and taste of the udang kering (dried prawns) and they had tiny chunks of yam in it – unlike most others where they would just mash the yam and add flour, lots of it, to come out with something very wobbly and not at all nice…and no, it was yam, not chai thow (Chinese white carrot/radish) – I did ask but they did not have that unlike another place here where they would serve that this same way or fry it with egg (chai thow koi/koay khak).

Other than those, we had the usual dim sum favourites – the har kao (prawn dumplings)…

…and the char siew (BBQ meat) pao…

…and we also had their Foochow-style fried noodles…

…so after that rather heavy breakfast, we could skip lunch for the day.

The bill came up to RM61.40 (exclusive of GST) for the four of us, including my girl’s colleague/housemate who was down for the weekend too and while she was paying at the counter, I walked around the place and spotted this lovely vase…

I have this soft spot for blue and white but then again, I don’t think I would want a vase – whatever would I want one for.

That certainly was a scrumptious Father’s Day treat and we all enjoyed it very much – thank you so much, my darling daughter.

At the same time…

Last Saturday was the Chinese Dumpling or Dragon Boat Festival and Sunday, being the 3rd Sunday in June, was Father’s Day so we decided to celebrate both at the same time that evening.

Well, what happened was a couple of days after the dinner we had to celebrate my father’s birthday, my bedridden mum said she wanted to have a party again. “But we just had one,” we told her. “Maybe we can have another one in September for your birthday.” She persisted for a while and then she did not say anymore but she sure did not look happy. That was why seeing that there were these two occasions that we could celebrate at one go, I decided to cook some stuff for a simple “party”, just a small family affair.

I made some more meatballs but I decided not to have them the same way as the previous time so this time around, I cooked soup with them…

…with quail eggs, thinly-sliced canned mushroom and Chinese cabbage. The soup tasted great but no, I did not like the meatballs this way – it certainly was a whole lot nicer the way we had them the previous time, deep fried and served with sweet and sour sauce.

I cannot remember if I’ve blogged about this but in my growing up years, my mum would slaughter the chickens herself and she would fry the innards with canned peas in tomato sauce…

So to replicate that dish, I went to the market to buy some chicken liver. I asked the lady at one of the stalls the price and she said it was RM8.00 for a kilo. I told her that I wanted one piece – and instantly, the smile on her face disappeared. With that very disgruntled look, she picked out a couple, weighed them and said that would be RM1.00. I could not understand why she was so unhappy about it – I only needed a piece so I would not want to buy much more than that. If she had been very sweet and friendly, the next time I needed chicken or anything, I certainly would come back to her stall…but with that kind of attitude, no prize for guessing which stall would be the last I would go to. Tsk! Tsk!

I also bought these udang galah (freshwater prawns)…

…and fried them with ginger and soy sauce plus a little bit of sugar, the way my mum used to do it. There was a little bit egg left after making the aforementioned meatballs so I poured that in as well. These prawns were a bit bigger than the medium-sized ones that we would usually buy – RM50 a kilo…and the ones that day were not really good as the meat was not all that firm and succulent. However, there was a whole lot of that reddish pinkish stuff in the heads, what we call “kor“, and that is the best (very delicious) and also the worse (high cholesterol) part of the prawn. Never mind, at the current prices, we would not be buying them so often so we will only get to eat it once in a long while.

I also bought some salmon…

…for my girl to enjoy – skin crispy and the fish nicely grilled on medium high in the pan and of course, she loved it…very very much!

I had to go out for something at around 11.00 a.m. that morning so I stopped by here to get the lovely barbecued pork ribs (RM28.00 a rack)…

…and I asked them to leave out the french fries (and the pickled cucumber) as the last time I bought this home, the fries were not nice at all by dinnertime (after reheating) but I asked them for more of their lovely potato salad…

– they usually serve the ribs on a bed of this and they did – they gave me quite a lot of it! This was only half of it – I saved the other half for my girl to bring back to her school and enjoy it there. Well, I certainly was glad that I went and bought the ribs as my dad loved it so very much and kept singing its praises!!!

 My sister also went and bought these Sibu-style sio bee and dumplings…

…and on top of all the above, my girl and the mum went to the bakery around here and bought this cute-looking Father’s Day cake…

…that we had for dessert and enjoyed very much. They said it was strawberry so I expected some reddish sponge cake inside but no, the cake was something like what one would find in blackforest cakes and they had strawberries in the cream in between the layers. It was very nice and yes, despite having had so much for dinner, I had a second helping!

Needless to say, it was a delightful gathering – the best times would be those times spent with one’s loved ones, I am sure everyone would agree with me on this.

Why can’t I…

The other day, I shared this photograph of my fried kway teow…

…in my post and no, I would not say that it was an attempt on my part to whip up some Penang char kway teow as I am sure those armchair critics would come and start slamming me, insisting that it is nowhere like the real thing. Where is the duck egg? The taugeh (bean sprouts)? You did not fry it over a charcoal fire? Did you use lard? Where are the pork fat crusts? Does it have the wok hei smell? Sometimes, I really wonder whether they can even cook themselves at all but never mind! Sticks and stone may break my bones – words never will…and I will just say that I just fried the kway teow with garlic, soy sauce, prawns, fish cake slices and chopped spring onions plus two eggs and if I choose to do it in any which way I like, why can’t I?

Well, what happened that day was I went and bought one kilo of fresh kway teow (around RM2.00, I think – did not really take note of the exact price) just because I felt like it and the next morning, I cooked around half of it for breakfast. Of course, it was nice – you can’t go wrong with prawns! I had a plate of it myself, and it sure was a generous serving, and I left the rest for my missus. Normally, with my fried rice or fried bihun, there would be some left by lunch time and I would finish everything off then but that day, there was none left! Hmmmm…that probably was an indication as to how nice it was. Wink! Wink!

A few days later, I decided to finish off what was left of the 1 kilo and got the ingredients ready…

– finely chopped garlic and cilantro (daun sup – from my garden), a few prawns and pieces of squid and some fish cake slices.

I tossed the kway teow with fish sauce and Thai chili sauce…

…and I was ready to start cooking.

I fried the garlic in a bit of oil till golden brown and then in went the prawns, squid and fish cake and cilantro…followed by the kway teow and once I had mixed everything together thoroughly and fried it all well enough, I added two eggs. When the eggs were cooked, it was done and I dished it all out…

…sprinkled some chopped spring onions (also from my garden) on top and served. There you are – another version of my fried kway teow that I am sure is not like any other sold outside – just the way I like it!

I was quite tempted to use my tom yam sauce but decided against it as I wanted to try something different to see if it…

…was any good.

It went absolutely well with my missus’ own blended chili and garlic…

…and I would say that I enjoyed it very much but come lunchtime that day, there was a little bit left – less than one serving of the whole lot that I cooked…

Maybe I did not divide the kway teow equally so there was more this time around…or maybe, the way I cooked it the previous time was nicer? Never mind! There is no law that says I must cook it in any one way or other and if I choose to cook it like this or like that, why can’t I? Too bad if you  prefer it some other way, just eat! LOL!!!

Moving away from the post proper, I really must thank my girl’s ex-coursemate who has been posted to a school here in Sibu. He made some lovely banana cake…

…for his buka puasa (breaking of fast) and the nice and thoughtful guy went through the trouble of sending some to my house to let me enjoy. Isn’t that so sweet of him?

Can’t win ’em all…

I’ve tried the chicken kapitan and it was really good and the rendang was good too even though it did not turn out quite like rendang as I know it but then again, it could be because I did not really cook it right or I did not simmer it till the gravy had dried up. I can’t remember exactly what else I have tried or what my missus had taken to cook but so far, it all had been good. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about this one…

To cook it, I had to go and buy some pineapples and that was why I was in the vicinity of this coffee shop that day. There is a stall selling fruits at a corner beside the big furniture shop in that area, durians when they are in season and presently, they are selling pineapples. I was shocked when they told me the price of ONE Sarikei pineapple, not all that big. It was 50 cents to a dollar in my younger days, colonial currency…and maybe, RM2.00 sometime ago, depending on whether it was in season and in abundance or not. The guy there told me it  was RM4.00 each (and I noticed that one was a lot bigger than the other and yet they were both going at that same price!). I asked about the “kelapa sawit ones” and he conceded that those would be sweeter but they would not be as fragrant and they were selling those at RM4.00 a kilo! In the end, I settled for the offer of 4 of the Sarikei ones for RM10.00…

…already peeled. People tell me that they are cheaper elsewhere in town but honestly, I would have thought the prices at a roadside stall like this one, dunno if it is licensed or not, would be a lot more competitive.

Anyway, I took them home and cooked two, using the instant paste following the instructions at the back…

I did add one cinnamon stick and two star anise plus a little bit of sugar to counter the sourish taste of the pineapples…but not the rest in the suggested list on the right.

The end result did look really good…

…and ah yes! I added some prawns too as my cousin, who gave this to me, said it would enhance the taste and make it a whole lot nicer. Of course, we all know that one can never go wrong with prawns, don’t we? However, an old (literally) friend commented on my photograph on Facebook and said that pajeri nenas should not have any prawns and very sarcastically asked if it was my original recipe. I just replied saying that my cousin who gave me the paste asked me to add some, period! Really!!! Is there any steadfast rule that we must follow “rules” rigidly, no bending, no doing things our own way? Personally, I do not follow recipes and I will always do things my way, never mind how others do it – as long as it is nice, that is all that matters, right?

Anyway, back to the pajeri nenas…

…I am afraid to say that it was not as great as it looked. That taste was fine but somehow the gravy had some kind of peculiar “texture” – my missus said it was kind of “powdery” but it came in paste form, not powder. Maybe it was the blended ingredients but whatever it was, we did not enjoy it as much as we would have…and for RM8.64. I would much sooner go and buy something else instead.

Well, I had two of the four pineapples left so the following day, I decided to cook them in our simple kampung (village) style. Usually, to cook what we call sayur rebus, we would just boil some belacan (dried prawn paste), ikan bilis (dried anchovies) and fresh chilies in water and simmer to get all the flavours out and then throw in whatever vegetables we may be cooking, adding salt and msg according to taste, if so desired and that is it! This time around, I decided to substitute the ikan bilis with what we call kerutuh…

*Cousin’s photo on Facebook*

…or dried smoked prawns which would give the soup the sweetness of the prawns and the special smoked fragrance. I bought something like this once at my regular Malay/kampung food stall at Bandong…

*Archive photo*

…and they used salai ikan or smoked fish instead but it was also very nice, nonetheless. As they say, “the world is your oyster,” so who’s to say that it has to be ikan bilis or salai ikan or anything for that matter. I did add one star anise and a bit off a cinnamon stick for the added fragrance…and one stalk of serai (lemon grass) as well and this was the end result…

…and yes, it was very very nice…

– a lot nicer than what we had using the somewhat pricey over RM8.00 instant paste and this is just as hassle free too…or maybe, even more so.

I’ll remember your name…

The name of this coffee shop…

…sure stands a head above the rest.

The only Bosco that I can remember would be Bosco De Cruz, the announcer on The Voice of Malaysia during my teenage years and his programme, “Old Favourites” every Thursday afternoon. I used to write letters to him via snail mail – no poslaju, no sms-es, no email, no Twitter or whatever at the time, to request for songs and dedicate them to my similarly-inclined friends and you can imagine all of us tuning in faithfully week after week for the cheap thrill of hearing our names on air…on short-wave radio some more – I am pretty sure many of you do not know what that is, nor for that matter, medium wave. The other one at that station at the time was George Abraham and his show, “It’s all yours”, on Tuesday afternoons.

With a glamorous name like that, one would expect some upscale fine dining western cafe or restaurant that would burn a hole in your pocket but no, this one’s a coffee shop right next to one with an equally unique name…

No, this is not a Malay coffee shop but a Chinese one with a kampua noodle stall that sure seemed to be enjoying bustling business that morning when I was there. Both of them are located in the block of shophouses facing the left side of Tanah Mas Hotel, in case you’re wondering where exactly they are. You can see the circular building (beside New Capitol Restaurant) that houses all the Malay food stalls in the background in the above photograph.

I heard about this one, Bosco, but when I dropped by that day, I could not remember what it was that people had there and were sharing photographs of them on Facebook or on Instagram. There were no stalls in front, only a chu-char (cook & fry) place at the back so I just ordered a plate of Foochow fried noodles, wet (with sauce/gravy) and my usual glass of kopi-o-peng – iced black coffee (RM1.70) which was all right, nothing to shout about.

The spoon and chopsticks came in the usual mug of boiling water and I must say that I liked this one…

…that they used for mine, so mushily romantic. LOL!!!

While I was waiting for my noodles, some people came and sat at the vacant table right next to mine and the waitress was telling them about the things available. From what I overheard, it seems that you can order noodles with fish or those giant freshwater prawns like what we had here at comparatively more affordable prices ranging from RM15 to RM20 to RM30.

Of course I had no intention of eating that but I would say I was kind of disappointed when mine came (RM4.00)…

…because the sauce/gravy was clear. I would prefer it dark like what I would get at some places in town.

Nonetheless, it was very nice and had that much coveted wok hei fragrance and when tossed altogether…

…it did not matter very much really whether it was black or white…ummm…I mean, clear. Besides, there were quite a lot of ingredients though I would prefer more green vegetables instead of those carrot slices. We never had carrot in our fried noodles all those years when I was a lot younger…and no black fungus either.

All in all, I would say it was good enough for anyone to stop by for a bite (especially those from elsewhere staying at hotels all over the vicinity) though I do not foresee me doing that very soon as that area is one of the most congested in the town centre and as far as parking goes, it would be much easier trying to find a needle in the haystack.

P.S.:
Thank you so much to 1sun3 for the lovely goodies…

…that I received from her via poslaju yesterday afternoon, including the very nice Cherating fridge magnet…

…that I won in her blog sometime ago. I love the guitar key chain especially and the bars of soap smell awesomely wonderful. Thank you, thank you…

Everybody loves you…

I know for a fact that many people love the kampua noodles here…

…and looking at how it has been around for a long long time and doing so very well sure is testimony to the fact though I would not say it is my favourite in town. The last time I was here was way back in 2009 and no, I/we did not quite enjoy what I/we had then. However, when I was teaching at the tuition centre upstairs a long time ago, sometimes, I would stop by for a bite to eat especially on days when I had had a late breakfast and skipped lunch because I was still feeling too full…and I would order their chin therng mee (clear soup noodles)…

…to enjoy before my lessons for the day began and what I love about the one here particularly was that it tastes exactly like those I had in my growing up years.

I may have mentioned in some earlier post that when my sister was very little, she was not all that fond of eating rice or porridge but she loved these clear soup noodles. So to get her to eat, my father would tapao (takeaway) this and bring it home for her…and while she was enjoying it, I would be sitting there, watching and drooling away and praying that she would not be able to eat it all so I would get to finish off whatever that was left. No, kids in those days did not have it so good as the ones now – we did not get to enjoy all those present-day indulgences, there were none of those fast food joints and we did not know much else other than our kampua noodles which at the time, was a weekend treat, after the Sunday service in church, that we so looked forward to and longed for so much.

Anyway, I was driving past the shop that afternoon so I decided to drop by. Yes, the same guy is still there manning the stall…

…assisted by some young/er guys, probably his sons and yes, nothing has changed – the noodles were still the same and still as nice but obviously, this is not exactly true about the prices of the kampua noodles here, RM3.00 for small (and I hear it is very small, not enough for big eaters) and RM4.00 for a bigger serving. I did not take note of how much my delightful bowl…

…cost as I paid for it together with the drink, one go.

I also ordered the deep fried kompia…

…stuffed with stewed minced meat – the ones here are the favourite of Annie-Q, my good friend residing in KL, a must-eat whenever she comes home and her mum would have to cart a lot over whenever she goes over.

This is the stall…

…the one at the corner at the front part of the shop, selling those, among some other things, at 90 sen each. I remember it started off at 50 sen and then 60…and now, it is 90 or RM2.70 for 3 which means that it is still cheaper than the ones here plus I like the filling…

…more than at that other place but of course, I have a soft spot for the pork belly ones there, going for RM4.80 for 3 the last time I was there and even if they have not jacked up the price, now we would have to fork out more now to pay the 6% GST there. Tsk! Tsk!

This was past 3.00 p.m. in the afternoon and still, as you can see in the above photograph, there were quite a lot of customers there…while most other coffee shops in town would be either closed or somewhat deserted at that time of day. I love how they have done up the place with a nice new coat of paint in that pleasant apple green colour and the Italian-tiled floor that was so clean at the time, devoid of any litter despite the fact that the shop had been open since early morning. They have changed the Romanised version of their name too, I noticed, and have added a g to the first word so now it is Sing and not Sin – Sing Ming Kee.

House in the woods…

I would love a house in the woods…or somewhere in the countryside, a small wooden house…

…surrounded by all the greenery and the delights of nature, away from the hustle and bustle in the town or city where the air is fresh, free from all the pollution and there is peace and quiet all around.

Of course, I would want the basic amenities – water and electricity and wireless internet and mobile phone connections…but no, I don’t watch television so I can do without that. A fan will do fine but of course, I wouldn’t mind an air conditioner, knowing how hot it can get sometimes in this part of  the world. Of course, it is very much cooler in the countryside especially in the early morning when it can get quite cold.

Needless to say, in our very damp and hot tropical weather, I would need to maintain the place very well as the wood would rot and decay…

…unless I use very hard wood like belian, leaving holes for rats and all kinds of pests to make their grand entrances. Yes, I would have to ensure that everything is fixed as soon as I spot anything that needs repairing…

As the saying goes, “A stitch in time saves nine,” so if I make an effort to see to everything promptly, if not quickly, then my house would be in pretty good shape no matter how long it has been there.

Maintenance is so very crucial, really! That is why I do know of people who would not rent out their houses and would rather leave them empty – we have heard of so many horror stories where some rented out theirs for a few years and when the places were vacated, the landlords had a mammoth task of renovating and repairing on their hands – the tenants never bothered to take good care of the houses and just left them to rot. Some people have this kind of bad attitude – “It’s not ours!!!” they would just say. “Why bother?”

Safety…

…of course, would have to be given top priority and if I am dependent on rain water, the gutters along the roof…

…and the pipes would be of utmost important as well as those would lead the precious water into the huge storage tanks which I would need for that purpose.

Of course, I am no handyman myself, no Home Improvement guy, so I would have to fork out some money to hire somebody to come and see to anything that needs attention. However, I am pretty sure that there would be some things that I would be able to do myself like replacing broken window panes…

…or giving the house a new coat of paint and I would spend my free time doing some cleaning around the house, keeping it spick and span at all times so that it will always look as good as new.

I do believe that anything, be it a house or a car or anything, if well-looked after and properly maintained, it would stay in pretty good shape, even after a long time. We just can’t leave these things to take care of themselves or as the Chinese expression goes, “Oo cho, boh ciak!” (literally translated as, got work, no eat)

I survived 5 years in Kanowit with just a kerosene stove but there, the town was just a stone’s throw away and every morning, I could just walk or cycle to the market to buy whatever I would want to cook for the day. I suppose I could plant my own vegetables – organic, pesticide-free but I don’t think I have green fingers so I probably would not be all that successful in doing that…and even if I could rear my own poultry, I would not be able to slaughter them for meat. Shudderssss!!!! The mere thought of it sends shivers up my spine. That is why I would like it very much if I could have a refrigerator…and a gas cooker as well so I would be able to whip up any dish that I may fancy…

…anytime, any day.

Yes, I do think I would love living in one – a house in the woods!

No time…

My dear friend, Mandy, was here from KL on a working trip but unfortunately, she was tied up with whatever she had to do the whole day through from early dawn till late at night so we had no time to meet up and go for dinner or something.

She said that she had to go to a place called Bukut, somewhere in the Selangau district, she said, where my girl’s school is. Gee! I did not know there is such a place there or anywhere, for that matter (I only know that’s the local name of a fish found in our streams long ago, dunno now) – I’m not sure but I think it is more towards the Balingian/Mukah area actually, not as near as Selangau but one thing that I am very certain of was that she had to go far inland from the main trunk road from Sibu to either Mukah or Bintulu…

*Mandy’s photo on Facebook*

…to some oil palm estate or whatever where some customer of her company’s heavy machinery is. Yes, conditions can be that bad the further you go into the interior and yes, there are inhabitants living in their longhouses and there are schools too! Thankfully, my girl’s school, though not really near to home, is not one of those and is by the main road, very easily accessible, praise the Lord for small mercies.

And yes, it is indeed very undeveloped, very very backward over here, unlike in the mainland of our country – maybe not so bad in the main towns and cities but there isn’t much really in the smaller bazaars and villages and even worse in the interior. I guess that was why a blogger-friend from Malacca, when she was sent over here to study at a university campus in Bintulu, complained a lot about that town and called it Been-to-Ulu…even though I would not say it was so bad a town – it is a whole lot better than many and it could have been a lot worse had the campus been located in the middle of the jungle like some universities, local as well as foreign, so I’ve been told. I guess it was just the unhappiness and frustration at being sent so far away from home to study – we had those same sentiments regarding where my girl was sent some years back…so far away when there is an institution of higher learning right here in Sarawak in Kuching and one that is running that same twinning programme with New Zealand (but with Dunedin, not Wellington) on the exact same scholarship that my daughter was awarded.

Anyway, back to Mandy, despite it being  a last minute thing and she was so busy and in a rush, she took the trouble to go some place and grab these goodies…

…for me. Since we did not have time to meet, she left them at the hotel counter and asked me to drop by there to collect…which I did. Of course, I could not just go empty-handed so that morning, I went to the Sibu Central Market to buy some of our very special Rajang hay bee (dried prawns) for her.

While I was there, I decided to go up to the hawker centre on the first floor to Stall No. 52…

…as I had heard that their beef noodles was much better than my favourite here. Good grief!!! It has been rated a Grade C by the municipal council which is not very good. According to this newspaper report, “Food stall operators who received Grade D would be asked to cease operations if they failed to improve during the next round of assessments,” and yes, I did see a cockroach crawling around on the floor while I was there. Other than that, the floor, even though it looked really clean, felt very slippery like it was coated with all that oil used by the hawkers in their cooking. It sure needs one really good and thorough cleaning, I must say – word has it that somebody slipped and fell twice and on one occasion, he broke something so he sued the council and was awarded some RM100,000.00…which he donated to charity.

As for the beef noodle special (RM5.00)…

…that I had, it was good and with all that beef, tendon and tripe, I would consider it very very cheap compared to the other place where a comparatively smaller serving of beef noodle soup with just beef would set one back by RM6.00 and if you ask for the special with the tendon and tripe added, be prepared to fork out a lot more (RM7.00 in 2012, probably RM8.00, at least, now)…and expect a little less as far as their portion size goes.

However, the soup in what we had here was milder – not as strong, not as fragrant…and I wished they did not add those curly vegetables…

…as that would affect the taste albeit just a little bit.

Given a choice, I would still go for my regular one…but if I happen to be around here and feel like having this, I may just stop by for it – it sure is nice enough to merit a second round or more.