Of Melaka Part 1

Melaka 26th - 28th December 2011

To be continued

Of Being Away

I have been away for long, everyday I manage to make up some time to read other blogs. But I was afraid to look at mine because I haven't write anything at all. I read others and wondering how they have time to write something while I don't, then I realize if I just stop being nosy about others and use that time instead to write about mine, I'll have long list of eventful days. So, I will write starting today.

To summarize things, I've started working on the 10th October 2011 only to know a week later that I have to report for work at my current's employer. I managed to at least stay an extra two weeks at that firm, making it a full month of employment, to finish things I've supposed to finish. I reported for work on the 14th of November. Yes, I haven't been here even a month but the works are compiling and it looks like it never ends.

*I really need to find more vocabularies, sigh*

But today I don't want to talk about work. 

I miss my husband. Yes, he's far away and we can only afford to meet once a week, if our wills or health permit. I hope he remembers me like I remember him. 

Okay that's all for now.

Of Late Eid

Last Eid, I had the opportunity to tag along my husband visiting his grandmother (called Pan) in northern state of Perak. We stayed a night there and it was an amazing experience to live in suburban village. His aunt, Mak Tam as we called her who lived next to Pan, showed us around the house. 

Mak Tam 

Some cows behind the house

Cocoa

Throughout my life, I have seen coffee trees, cocoa trees, Rambai tree, Kedondong tree and Sukun tree. But I have never seen Sentul tree with my own eyes. I knew the name, but I never knew how the fruit looks like. It looks like this.

Buah Sentul (Sentul fruit)

Like a bigger version of Langsat but with different flesh. Later, my MIL cut some for me. It was sour! I gave the rest of it to my husband to finish. Hehe.

The very tall Sentul tree

Labu kayu

Well, I had fun learning trees and fruits I don't regularly see. Someday, I would like my own family -my kids- to live in a place like this. See things others don't normally see. Know things others don't normally know. 

Sort of surviving, sort of knowing to live an average life.

Of Eid Mubarak

Well, well, we are about to off to our parents' houses in a few hours. My parents first for a couple of days, and then his for the last of Ramadhan and first of Syawal, my parents' on the second, then, we'll see. I've done nothing much to prepare for Eid. Last year, my flatmates and I cooked the meals all by ourselves, this year, I might just be a helping hand.

My feelings are a mix of nervous and happy. Happy because this is my first time after five years of not celebrating Eid with families! I've been celebrating with friends, assignments and presentations. This year, I have 3 families (mine, my husband, and us two) plus the whole extended, big families to see. Ahh... happy..

And nervous because I am a new member to my husband's families, so, well, nervous. I don't know how to explain! There are a lot I have to learn. Suffice to say, it every women's dream to have their parents-in-law to like them. 

Anyway, since I was off the kuih-raya radar for many years, I don't know what's the 'in' now. I heard the Belgium biscuits have surpassed the Almond London. Well, I don't know. I made just one, my favorite of all time because it's so simple, and so easy to make. Honey cornflakes.

Maybe I'll bake some chocolate chip cookies at my parents' place. 

Ahh, maybe I'll buy my other favorite - tempeyek!

Of Baituna Jannatuna

Baituna Jannatuna, as translated into Malay, Rumah kami, syurga kami, or English, "Our home, our haven".

It would be any couple's dream to start a family in their dream house. In Malaysia, to have a stand-alone house is tremendously expensive, especially in urban and even semi-urban areas. That's how we are left with link-house or more commonly known by the locals as terraced-house (even though like 98% of this house type are built on flat ground!), apartments, cluster houses, what else? Hmm.. 

Where we live now, is a moderate town. By moderate, I mean, no big hyper-supermarket (although one is underway and expected to be completed this year but we all know it will take longer than that) and cinema is two-hours drive away in either Kuala Lumpur or Kuantan. Despite all that, I was actually expecting this town to have a lot of stand-alone houses as the typical residential choices due to cheaper land. However, terraced houses are starting to rule.

I once inquired a price of one 4-bedroom bungalow (if it's a stand-alone house, then it is called bungalow, whereas, I pictured bungalow to be so much bigger, better and lavish than that!! nevermind). And to our surprise, it cost RM360K. 

Then, we thought, maybe we'll just buy some land and build the house ourselves. We don't mind something remote if that's where can afford to live, in fact we love a remote place. It gives us privacy, kampung-style. Okay, safety wise, I hope the land will have adjacent neighbours. It's creepy when it's only our family.

So, I continued my "Dream House" dream. And sketched some ideas and translated it into simple Sketchup model. We want it simple. I quite like open-space concept, and some traditional elements of the Malay house. I know my husband would like it to be minimal and small. My initial sketch was quite big, oooops. He loves secret spaces, and he prefers them underground! Well, basement does not sound bad, but with the tropical rain, flood whatsoever... I have to research on how to tackle that.

Then, I am also inspired by the modular-size space used in traditional Malay house. The Japanese also apply this method by their tatami mat. So, by having same space dimension, the construction can be simplified. Perhaps, cheaper?

I like our house to have many windows for better air-ventilation and exposure to nature. But more windows means extra cost on curtains. Another thing I learnt from the traditional Malay house is it's ability to expand concept for future modification. Like perhaps, start with one-bedroom first and add walls as the family grows or when the finance permits. This way, we can control how much space we actually need at particular time. 

There are so many possibilities. I am going to sketch more plans and find more inspiration. 

This also means, my sketchbook has been abandoned for weeks!

Being Thrifty

Many have seen Wordless Wednesday being trend among personal bloggers. To some other bloggers who focus on home-making/improvement, crafts or budgeting, Thrifty Saturday has become quite a phenomenon. I love the idea of making pretty-but-cheap purchases, but I don't want to oblige myself to make thrift purchases every Saturday. I might end up not needing the items at all in the first place, but I buy them because I have to buy something every Saturday?

Okay, maybe Thrifty Saturday does not work as 'buying something every Saturday' but 'posting cheap things we bought during the week on Saturday just to streamline the post-entry system'. Silly me.

Anyway, I want to create of series of me "Being Thrifty", just to record the things I purchased, the places which sell quality items in reasonable price, occasional SALES by big retailers, perhaps online shops. All to actually achieve our family's financial budget. Reasonable price and the purchase's objective, are of course, vary among different people. My husband for example, may find RM0.50 mug is really a good bargain, because he doesn't mind at all about color coordinating, a mug is all he needs to drink hot coffee from. 

While me on the other hand, obsessed with white dishes or porcelains, and my objective is to ONLY find white cup, mug, plates, vases, plastic containers with lowest price possible. My bigger objective is to achieve this dreamy kitchens without finding myself straying in mixed colored/patterns of plates-mugs collections. 

  

 

Photo from top left clock-wise: here, here, here and here.

I figured out I must start from the start. It is quite hard to convince my husband of this concept at first. But I am taking my time, and I do not make unnecessary purchases just because I like the pieces too much (I think, except a few purchases huhuhu). I guess he figured out my intention already. Hehe. 

Anyway, back to Being Thrifty, are these two purchases we made last Saturday (a coincidence, huh?). While looking for some fabrics to buy for my mother's baju kurung in Kamdar, I found this fabric tucked in lowest shelf with 70% off. My eyes went bling bling, I have always wanted to buy this fabric since early this year. I don't know it's type, but it feels like a soft canvas.

I have ideas running in my head what to make from this; table runners, blinds, pillow cases, baby's pants etc and I even thought of buying several meters each color since it is on ridiculous sale (to me), but I haven't got my sewing machine yet (sob sob) so I asked for only a meter each. 70% off from RM12.90 per meter = RM3.87/m. Loss: RM3.87x4 = RM15.48

Another purchase is these vases for RM2 each because I am dreaming of having white-and green garden. Or maybe as storage containers for stuffs at the moment because I can't start gardening now when both of us will be out of home for a month next month. And I will feel guilty if I have to rely too much on our neighbours to water our plants everyday, like last time. Now I know why most people with garden/orchards seldomly travel, because they don't want to leave behind their hard-worked-at greenery! Loss = RM8

Other purchase without picture is Toyogo Storage Container to keep my homemade kuih raya to be given out to my mother and mother-in-law. Because it's RM2 each, I bought five! Loss = RM10

So the total loss for my first Being Thrifty series is RM33.48. 

Hmm, this sounds not so thrifty. 

Of Postcards As Souvenirs

When I was studying, my friends and I each chose a theme of our souvenir collections. Y chose to collect spoon, M collects snow globes and fridge magnet while I chose to collect postcards and pins. Our reasons behind the theme was to be focused (and not mesmerized by everything in the souvenir shops - which of course we were, just not to buy everything that looks nice). 

The second reason is the price. For instance, Y chose spoon because generally the spoon costs her $3 - $4 each all over the country. Fridge magnets and snow globes are relatively cheap (around $2-$4) while postcards are super cheap (50cent - $1.50 according to sizes). Can you see I'm being thrifty here? With the same $3, my friend gets one spoon while I can get six 50cent postcards. 

The third reason is weight. While travelling, the luggage weight, especially our sling bag/handbag's weight is a big concern. Souvenirs should not be heavy to carry around. And fragile is a big NO to me. So, when I was considering collecting small glasses as souvenir, I always thought that it would be bulky, heavy and fragile in my luggage. Whereas, postcards are super thin and lightweight. When I had extra dollars in my purse, I sent myself a postcard from the place I traveled because I wanted to have the stamp and date-stamp. That too, sometimes solved I-don't-want-to-carry-these-around-in-my-bag-so-how problem. 

My other reason is its visual memoir of places I went. Generally, souvenirs would have something carved, written or stamped about the place, usually being the name of the town or city. To me, postcards show things I am unable to capture. For instance - during sunrise, celebration or past history. 

So, while looking around Central Market, I was stopped by the collection of postcards in Dan's Village. I bought this Traditional Malay Costume notecard (for RM1.50) because I am now obsessed with traditional Malay women. Don't you think it's a sweet coincidence because we went to KL to find myself a traditional Malay costume? 

And these small Glimpes of The Past postcards (RM0.30 each). I love this mixed media postcards for their colors and details. It is quite hard for me to continue my postcard collection during my local trips because not many places sell postcards of small hometown. So to find something less than a ringgit each made me overjoyed.  

Therefore, by being focused, I hope that my collection then can carry out a same display theme. Yes, I chose postcards because I want to do this. 

Postcard gallery in hue. Photo by Ali in A Bubble

Postcard nook. Photo from From The Right Bank

However, my five-year postcard collection up to June 2010 were only up to this, and I'd say it's not growing any larger than this. Can you see this hobby takes time - and money because to be able to collect postcard, I have to travel.

I have to start back my collection. Because I am not an avid traveler now, maybe I have to resort to an alternative option, which is either to join a postcard community, or buy bulk from e-bay and such. Hmmm