The holiday draws to a close.
I told my father the exact date the new term is going to start shortly after this holiday began, which is now a long time ago. I did so in hopes he would get me a flight back to school earlier on, and at a cheaper price, too.
Naturally, he forgot. I would have kept pestering him about it if only I hadn't failed those two subjects.
So now my flight to KL is on 8th September, and then I'll be going to Kuantan on a separate flight the day after. I just hope the Mahallah Office will be open. Oh, and I guess I'm spending one night at my brother's. This is how it has to go down because the two flights are the cheapest right now. Fufu...
Shouldn't have failed those two subjects, then I could have better made sure my father got me better tickets at better prices earlier on. Why I don't get my own tickets? Because my father has a platinum card, that's why. He's a VIP to the Malaysian Airline muahahaha... So I mooch off of him.
I suck.
Now then. Eid came and went. We celebrated Eid at our hometown, Semporna as usual. And as expected, it was less fun than last year's. Eid is bound to be less fun with every passing year. 'Older kids' get less duit raya and all that. I used to collect, without fail, about RM500 over Eid holidays in the past. Last year I got RM200. This year, a little less than that.
We didn't get to visit any Sempornean island this time around either. Oh, the epic bank of sand of dear Mataking... You see, during our last visit there, my father accidentally soaked his then-new camera in the waters. And I became as red as a cooked lobster. I say cooked lobster, because the only red ones I ever saw were cooked. The spitting, hissing ones were green and blue. Okay, I haven't seen that many lobsters in my life... But once, we got sent an ice-case of fresh lobsters (it was a small one, there were only two albeit quite huge lobsters in it), and when my mother tried to cook one, it jumped out of the pot. We couldn't believe that it was still alive!
The computer in the family room broke down, so I get to play even less sims. It depresses me. I kind of decided to get one for my own this coming term, just so I could play The Sims 2. This thought depresses me as well.
My oldest brother and his wife and children are staying with us for the holidays. I wouldn't have had any problems at all with that if they could not make a mess of everything. I know it's natural for kids to be that way, but
Oh wow just remembering right now is making it all kind of okay and the slightest bit adorable.
No. It is not. Let's see.
There was chewing gum on the obscenely expensive new carpet. Mere seconds after I mopped the floors, there were already food crumbs of mysterious origin all over the place. I woke up one morning from ant bites all over my feet because someone had been snacking on my bed; I've moved to the guest room downstairs since. Even the neighbour's cat, Luki, who had picked up the habit of letting himself into the house every morning to sleep on my bed doesn't go anywhere near the bed any more. Random stuff that aren't toys are just scattered everywhere. No one part of our expansive bungalow can stay clean for long. Or at all. And that's just one kid.
I have a niece and a nephew, but I say one kid.
My nephew is four years old. I think he has ADHD, but here in Malaysia it's not quite recognised as a disorder of any kind. Here, it is thought of as perfectly normal. He has this horrible scar on his forearm where he once tore it open by accident while playing. I wasn't there to witness it, but the scar is there to stay. The night before last, he gave himself another scar, this time just above his eyebrows, and I was again not there to witness it. Apparently he was doing jumps in the shower even as his father was there telling him off. Then his head had an accident with a water-tap. My parents then took him to the clinic, and then he went on to make a mess of the TV area the minute they got back.
My niece is the older one of the two. She's in kindergarten. Now I don't know a lot of children, but I think my niece is awesome. The kid learned to feed herself at the age of four. Now you can even get her to feed her impossible little brother. At least, I think you can. She likes to watch adults go about their work. When I'm cooking, she's there, on the stool, just watching. And, I suppose, from her observations, she has learned where we keep stuff in the kitchen. Sometimes, her mother would ask her to "go and get me a bowl", or a spoon, or a glass. And my little niece would go to the kitchen, open a cupboard or a drawer, take one out, and bring it to her mother.
But it's not always good news. This one time, I caught her rummaging through the highest drawer where we keep the sharp stuff. I did not stop her. I wanted her to cut herself. So I can point and laugh at the genius for once.
But she didn't cut herself. She found the scissors she was looking for, and used it to cut off the top of a bag of chips I didn't think her mother approved of. I left her to it because it was so fascinating to watch, a little brat with a huge scissors and a huge bag of chips, and I was also still counting on her cutting herself. But she still didn't, and she put the scissors back inside the drawer, climb onto a stool, and began ruining her lunch by eating the bag of chips.
Try telling me you wouldn't have let her have those chips.
Okay, so maybe you wouldn't. But heck, my niece got her bag of chips.
Being a kid, she naturally still makes a mess every now and then. But I see it like a systematic kind of mess. For instance, she would have the coloured pencils in one mess of, well, coloured pencils, and the pens in, well, another mess of pens, the markers in another, and finally, and I don't know what they're for, a pile of disassembled something. Might have been decorations. And she insists on having pieces of paper to draw on, rather than any random surface, for which we are all most grateful.
Evidently, she has picked up the annoying accent of her Peninsula classmates. Now she would say "tak nak" instead of "nda mau" ("don't want"), and I would 'parrot' her, "nda mau? Okay." in false hopes that she will be rid of it soon. It was already perfect when she had her mother's Sempornean accent, why couldn't it have stayed that way?
Now then, back to Eid. Pictures! And for the first time here, videos!
The above video was recorded with a camera which is better-suited for taking pictures. It was the only camera I had with me at the time. My other cousin's daughters are performing the traditional Sama dance, the Igal, in the video. The singing is called "kallang", and the singer is required to make up the lyrics as they sing. The dance is modernised here; traditionally, the dancers don't try to synchronise their performance. Also, the Igal is originally our (Sama people) version of exorcism. Nowadays, we do it to celebrate at weddings.
Here's another one, wherein the bride does the Igal along with her sisters, acompanied by the groom's "kallang":
I don't know how it went in the long lost past, but by the time I began teaching myself to do the Igal, another change was made to the Igal tradition. Or rather, an addition of sorts. During their performance, members of the audience would randomly come up 'the stage' and put money in between the dancer's fingers. This was how I collect RM500 every Eid holiday in the past. There was always a wedding, so there was always a chance to make easy money. But then I grew older and became afraid of everything. Also, I don't think it is Islamic to do the Igal for people to watch. Especially with an ass as big as mine.
Alright. I think that's all for Eid. Oh, I totally gained 2kg over the holidays. Now my mum keep bugging me about my non-existent need to lose weight. I mean, I don't even care if I die in the next minute, whatever makes her think I care how fat I get?
I'm fat and I don't care. I love food.
Naturally, he forgot. I would have kept pestering him about it if only I hadn't failed those two subjects.
So now my flight to KL is on 8th September, and then I'll be going to Kuantan on a separate flight the day after. I just hope the Mahallah Office will be open. Oh, and I guess I'm spending one night at my brother's. This is how it has to go down because the two flights are the cheapest right now. Fufu...
Shouldn't have failed those two subjects, then I could have better made sure my father got me better tickets at better prices earlier on. Why I don't get my own tickets? Because my father has a platinum card, that's why. He's a VIP to the Malaysian Airline muahahaha... So I mooch off of him.
I suck.
Now then. Eid came and went. We celebrated Eid at our hometown, Semporna as usual. And as expected, it was less fun than last year's. Eid is bound to be less fun with every passing year. 'Older kids' get less duit raya and all that. I used to collect, without fail, about RM500 over Eid holidays in the past. Last year I got RM200. This year, a little less than that.
We didn't get to visit any Sempornean island this time around either. Oh, the epic bank of sand of dear Mataking... You see, during our last visit there, my father accidentally soaked his then-new camera in the waters. And I became as red as a cooked lobster. I say cooked lobster, because the only red ones I ever saw were cooked. The spitting, hissing ones were green and blue. Okay, I haven't seen that many lobsters in my life... But once, we got sent an ice-case of fresh lobsters (it was a small one, there were only two albeit quite huge lobsters in it), and when my mother tried to cook one, it jumped out of the pot. We couldn't believe that it was still alive!
The computer in the family room broke down, so I get to play even less sims. It depresses me. I kind of decided to get one for my own this coming term, just so I could play The Sims 2. This thought depresses me as well.
My oldest brother and his wife and children are staying with us for the holidays. I wouldn't have had any problems at all with that if they could not make a mess of everything. I know it's natural for kids to be that way, but
Oh wow just remembering right now is making it all kind of okay and the slightest bit adorable.
No. It is not. Let's see.
There was chewing gum on the obscenely expensive new carpet. Mere seconds after I mopped the floors, there were already food crumbs of mysterious origin all over the place. I woke up one morning from ant bites all over my feet because someone had been snacking on my bed; I've moved to the guest room downstairs since. Even the neighbour's cat, Luki, who had picked up the habit of letting himself into the house every morning to sleep on my bed doesn't go anywhere near the bed any more. Random stuff that aren't toys are just scattered everywhere. No one part of our expansive bungalow can stay clean for long. Or at all. And that's just one kid.
I have a niece and a nephew, but I say one kid.
My nephew is four years old. I think he has ADHD, but here in Malaysia it's not quite recognised as a disorder of any kind. Here, it is thought of as perfectly normal. He has this horrible scar on his forearm where he once tore it open by accident while playing. I wasn't there to witness it, but the scar is there to stay. The night before last, he gave himself another scar, this time just above his eyebrows, and I was again not there to witness it. Apparently he was doing jumps in the shower even as his father was there telling him off. Then his head had an accident with a water-tap. My parents then took him to the clinic, and then he went on to make a mess of the TV area the minute they got back.
My niece is the older one of the two. She's in kindergarten. Now I don't know a lot of children, but I think my niece is awesome. The kid learned to feed herself at the age of four. Now you can even get her to feed her impossible little brother. At least, I think you can. She likes to watch adults go about their work. When I'm cooking, she's there, on the stool, just watching. And, I suppose, from her observations, she has learned where we keep stuff in the kitchen. Sometimes, her mother would ask her to "go and get me a bowl", or a spoon, or a glass. And my little niece would go to the kitchen, open a cupboard or a drawer, take one out, and bring it to her mother.
But it's not always good news. This one time, I caught her rummaging through the highest drawer where we keep the sharp stuff. I did not stop her. I wanted her to cut herself. So I can point and laugh at the genius for once.
But she didn't cut herself. She found the scissors she was looking for, and used it to cut off the top of a bag of chips I didn't think her mother approved of. I left her to it because it was so fascinating to watch, a little brat with a huge scissors and a huge bag of chips, and I was also still counting on her cutting herself. But she still didn't, and she put the scissors back inside the drawer, climb onto a stool, and began ruining her lunch by eating the bag of chips.
Try telling me you wouldn't have let her have those chips.
Okay, so maybe you wouldn't. But heck, my niece got her bag of chips.
Being a kid, she naturally still makes a mess every now and then. But I see it like a systematic kind of mess. For instance, she would have the coloured pencils in one mess of, well, coloured pencils, and the pens in, well, another mess of pens, the markers in another, and finally, and I don't know what they're for, a pile of disassembled something. Might have been decorations. And she insists on having pieces of paper to draw on, rather than any random surface, for which we are all most grateful.
Evidently, she has picked up the annoying accent of her Peninsula classmates. Now she would say "tak nak" instead of "nda mau" ("don't want"), and I would 'parrot' her, "nda mau? Okay." in false hopes that she will be rid of it soon. It was already perfect when she had her mother's Sempornean accent, why couldn't it have stayed that way?
Now then, back to Eid. Pictures! And for the first time here, videos!
 |
| Went to our orchard again. Didn't think to take a picture of the orchard itself though. |
 |
| It was also my grandmother's birthday. I think it was her 76th or something. Cake by my lovely aunt who recently graduated from IIUM! Whose picture I don't have. |
 |
| My niece (the underfed-looking one) and her cousin from her mother's side (the tasty-looking one). |
 |
| And then my cousin's 24-year-old daughter (I guess that means she's my niece who's two years older) got married! I'm wearing red in this picture. |
The above video was recorded with a camera which is better-suited for taking pictures. It was the only camera I had with me at the time. My other cousin's daughters are performing the traditional Sama dance, the Igal, in the video. The singing is called "kallang", and the singer is required to make up the lyrics as they sing. The dance is modernised here; traditionally, the dancers don't try to synchronise their performance. Also, the Igal is originally our (Sama people) version of exorcism. Nowadays, we do it to celebrate at weddings.
Here's another one, wherein the bride does the Igal along with her sisters, acompanied by the groom's "kallang":
I don't know how it went in the long lost past, but by the time I began teaching myself to do the Igal, another change was made to the Igal tradition. Or rather, an addition of sorts. During their performance, members of the audience would randomly come up 'the stage' and put money in between the dancer's fingers. This was how I collect RM500 every Eid holiday in the past. There was always a wedding, so there was always a chance to make easy money. But then I grew older and became afraid of everything. Also, I don't think it is Islamic to do the Igal for people to watch. Especially with an ass as big as mine.
 |
| Money for the bride and groom! |
Alright. I think that's all for Eid. Oh, I totally gained 2kg over the holidays. Now my mum keep bugging me about my non-existent need to lose weight. I mean, I don't even care if I die in the next minute, whatever makes her think I care how fat I get?
I'm fat and I don't care. I love food.
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