My ramblings

28.2.2021

 

28.2.2021

My first grandson is almost a teenager now

 

Just 3 days back my first grandson celebrated his 11^th birthday. A day before his big day, he was busy trumpeting the event on our family chatroom, sending reminders about the day to come. Now this is somewhat unusual because , for the past few years ( taking away his baby years) it was an event that we the elders would be trumpeting to him on his actual day, which is the 25^th February. 

 

Normally we family do not put too much emphasis on it, like having a party or family dinners, or a birthday cake.  Just a simple burst of birthday song on the facetime. 

 

I remember one year his mother, my daughter decided to go a bit over the top. She decided on a ninja warrior theme. Being an avid sewing lady, she made the costume for her son. That was in 2016. So, all his cousins were  invited and they had a memorable event . 

 

So after that early trumpeting, both my husband and I decided to send a birthday cake

(restricted inter district movement still on)  Initially we decided to order online from the cake shop. But I thought of my younger sister. She makes delicious cakes and pastries. It was a last minute order, the afternoon of the 24^th. My sister was sweet enough to agree to bake one for him. She asked what cartoon character should she iced on the cake. I never have no idea! I think he has moved from that phase to games online.

 

So I was pleasantly surprised when she baked him a cake with the PS4 gaming remote theme. And of course when it was delivered to him he was over the moon! 

 

I notice from the video that my daughter send to our chatroom, the looks on the younger siblings and perhaps their thoughts that were running through their mind. “ So, what kind of cake will I be getting from Tok Sam and Tok Wan Zek ? Can’t wait!”

 

So, here’s to another 6 cakes to go before the year 2021 ends. Sis Wan Fatimah @ Wan’s Dapur , stand by for the orders! This time around, I will try to remember to give you many days a head’s  notice ya. 

The Best thing about memories is making them!

Because every picture has a story to tell .

So, let us collect memories and not things because the greatest legacy we can leave our children is  happy memories!

My ramblings

27.02.2021

The Family Trunk 

 

The things one can do with so much time to kill. 

 

Just a week ago my topic on my Instagram was on the trees that we planted  many years ago. Their history. The Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) seedling which my husband brought home from the Gua Musang jungle during one his field trips.  Now it is as tall as the street lamp post. The Noni tree(Morinda spp), the Jambu mawar ( Syzgium jambos) , the curry leaves tree( Murraya koenigii), the sireh plants( Piper betel)   all have  a story behind their existence in our space,  on our timeline since 1984 , the year we bought and moved into this present house. They were gifts from loved ones, my mother in law in Lenga, Muar, my uncle in Alor Setar Kedah, my brother in law in Kuantan, to name a few.

 

Now I am looking at the trunk chest that my late gave to me, about a few weeks before he moved back to his home in Alor Setar. That trunk has travelled the country. From Alor Setar in the early 1960s to Kuala Lumpur ( about 2 years) then to Kuala Terengganu (almost 10 years), then to Johor Baharu ( 3 months) , back to Kuala Lumpur, then to Ipoh (about a year ) and finally Kuala Lumpur once again . Until 1998, when he decided to move back for good to his own home in Alor Setar, Kedah.  

 

Since it came into our household, the trunk  serves as a storage for my blankets and curtains. One of the handle is broken. I am not too sure of the original colour of the trunk.  If I am not mistaken , it was dark green.. My father had it repainted in gold. The inside of the trunk is still in its original maroon colour. The paper label is half  torn, so I am not able to determine the manufacturer. But the metal emblem is still intact. The writing says “Warranted  Best Steel Trunks”

 

The wonders of modern technology! Initially I  typed  metal trunk. It then took me to steamer trunk. So I narrow the search to  just that.  After a few failed attempts I stumbled upon  a website that had the same emblem staring at me! Eureka!

 

The website indicated that this trunk  was made in the early 1900. Manufactured by Alfred Hughes of Herrick Works in Wolverhampton, England. This trunk was made of steel and served as a travel bag. During those days global travelling  was done by the sail ship. Thus the term steamer trunk.

 

So it got me thinking. How on earth did it come into my late father’s possession? Were they selling such trunks in Malaya in those days?  Is this the trunk that my great grandfather used or brought home when he travelled with the Sultan of Kedah’s entourage to England . My late  great grandfather ( paternal) was Wan Ahmad Kulim bin Wan Awang ( 1860-1940) Wan Awang  great great grandfather was the Shahbandar of Kuala Kedah.

 

It is not known on what capacity Wan Ahmad Kulim bin Wan Awang was entitled to be part of the Sultan’s entourage. There is no written record to indicate his post in the Kedah’s  Sultanate Administration. But records written on paper by my late father indicated that he accompanied the Sultan of Kedah  Sultan  DYMM Almarhum Tuanku Sultan Abdul Hamid  Halim Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Mukarram Shah ( 26^th Sultan of Kedah ) on 14 th May 1911.  The entourage sailed to England on board the Sultan’s ship named ‘Good Luck’ to  attend the coronation of King George V in 1911.

 

Sultan Abdul Hamid ruled Kedah from 21^st January 1882  till 1943. 

 

If traced from the history of its manufacture and date,  this trunk is now about 120 years old! How or when this trunk was passed to my late father is unknown. I can only speculate that upon his death in 1940, the trunk was passed to his son, my grandfather Wan Abdul Hamid bin Wan Ahmad. And later it was passed down to my late father Wan Omar. I wished I had asked about its history when my father was around. 

 

There are a few more items passed down to me. My late grand aunt gave me a brass bed. It must be quite old too. But I did not take it back with me. I am not too sure whether it is still in Alor Setar, in Lorong Menteri. Maybe not. Because it was given to me in the late 1980s. 

 

Anyway, to my children and grandchildren and maybe my big family the Omarian, this is one of   our  family’s heritage . Should anyone wish to have it after I am gone, please discuss amongst yourselves. If possible, don’t discard the trunk. Now that you know the history of this trunk, perhaps one day you may want to relate it your next generation of grandchildren about the history of this trunk. 

 

The most treasured heirlooms are the sweet memories of our family that we pass down to our children.

 

I wished I had realised that family history is a perishable commodity. It disappears with time, as memories fade and as loved ones passed on. I wish I had known that the important aspect of family history is preserving a record of the present for the future. 

 

And this is my plan , while I am still capable in my mental and physical faculty.

19.2.2021

 

Thank you and Goodbye My Friend.

 

She was one of those seniors who had a gift of the gab. Very articulate with her words, was able to say things very professionally. . Was seen to be a professional. . We who were not familiar found her most unapproachable. To be truthful I was quite wary of her. May be we heard lot of stories about seniors  who were not too happy with our presence. . She looked too knowlegable for us. To approach her for advice or help would be the last thing for me to do. I didn’t want to be seen as incompetent and shallow in my knowledge.  But in later years there a few occasions when we attended in house training and she complimented on my presentation. I remember one of the last in house training for the department’s  training module  kits.  I was assigned to present the module on tracking students’s progress with emphasis on the Headcount method.  She was very impressed with my content knowledge and as soon as my session was over  she congratulated me.  It felt good to at last have such an acknowledgement from one of the most seniors in the department and of course in the institute. I considered her as one of the old guards.She was everyone’s source of reference. Her opinions mattered.  

 

And soon after that session, we became  quite close. She would stop by my room, ,we would sit and talk about a lot of things. General stuff. At one time I was sharing with about my mother’s dementia and how we were coping .Then her  mother became ill and she seeked my advice about day care nurse.  she wanted someone to share the problems with her mother who was then staying at her home, her frustataions and all. I was perhaps a good listener. I only give advice when asked.

 

I think she was a very private person. And she has a few friends who were  close to her.  We knew very little of her background,her family . I think she was still married . I heard rumours that there were several issues but none of these was ever discussed beween us. 

 

I got to know her better when two of her very close friends left the institute, one to the main HQ and the other who was promoted to a higher post in the Education Ministry. 

My last department was at the department of  management of  Curriculum and Cocuricullum, a department  that I was most  at ease. We were a 6 member  team. We became close. We shared a lot of inputs. Soon I was helping her . She would get calls from her daughter . And I would be helping out. And at one at time she was in dire straits. I  didn’t think twice . I thought I had to help her and I think she was most grateful  that I lend her a hand without much thought. 

 

I was due for retirement in April 2017.  I came on board on November 2009. So it was  almost close to 10 years of service . I had about 29 years of service at school. Knowledge wise I would consider myself already at par with many of the seniors.Here there is an evaluation system where one get evaluated by the clients after every session. My scores were always high for almost every session that I had with my participants. 

 

At the same time, there is  a kind of ranking system within the institute. I suppose it’s related to a quality control to ensure that the staff are highly competent in their job training and are constantly seeking to upgrade their competencies. When  one first step in into the Institute it is to the  post of  a  senior lecturer. Once in, there is a panel that evaluates your ‘performance’in terms of knowledge content, skills etc. So from being a senior lecture , you  climb up the ladder to be acknowledged as a master trainer, then as a coach and the highest rank would be as a specialist coach. 

 

But to be moved up the rank, one need to put in a request. You need to put in  a formal application. Then there will  one of the senior lecturer who is aready ranked to come and evaluate your  class. But having heard all those scary episodes of  the evaluation process and the feedback obtained from the evaluation team,I didn’t think I would want to go through that episode.So I never once did I ever put in an application . As long I have participants who benefited from my sessions with positive feedback, I am fine.

 

So , before my term was up she felt that I ought to be acknowleged for my contribution to the institute. She wanted the institute to grade me perhaps to the rank of a master trainer. But  it was against the policy of the institute to simply rank a lecturer without having to go through the panel of evaluation. I learned of the fact that she talked to the director and the request was turned down. It was okay for me. She had tried and from the beginning when she discussed this matter with me I was not putting in too much hope..  

 

And so we lost touch after my retirement. She retired in 2018. I heard she went for her umrah in 2019.  I was still in touch with her by following her on her instagram. She would post beautiful photos of food that either she had prepared,  or by  her son or daughter. And those photos were beautifully set up . Very colorful. But never once had she posted a photo of herself or her two children.

 

So yesterday I received news that she died of pneumonia at 5.45 am after about 3 days of being hospitalised.I was lost for words. I didn’t think of the worst but I  did wonder why she had not being posting any photos on her ig. The last last posting coincided with the CNY festivities.

 

I am so sorry that I didn’t get to and pay my last respect dear friend. The restricted movement  prohibits inter district, interstate movement . But I know for sure your loved ones and family were all there to say their final goodbye. 

 

I feel the loss. I really do. You were a good person. You have a good heart. Every time you went to the canteen you lighted that little’s  girl eyes. I could see you had a special bond with her. I see the real person not as what I had perceived in my early days. Thank you dear friend for giving me the opportunity to see the real you. 

 

"O God, forgive our living and our dead, those who are present among us and those who are absent, our young and our old, our males and our females. O God, whoever You keep alive, keep him alive in Islam, and whoever You cause to die, cause him to die with faith. O God, do not deprive us of the reward and do not cause us to go astray after this. O God, forgive him and have mercy on him, keep him safe and sound and forgive him, honour his rest and ease his entrance; wash him with water and snow and hail, and cleanse him of sin as a white garment is cleansed of dirt. O God, give him a home better than his home and a family better than his family. O God, admit him to Paradise and protect him from the torment of the grave and the torment of Hell-fire; make his grave spacious and fill it with light."

 

 

O Allah, if she was a doer of good, then increase her good deeds, and if she was a wrongdoer, then overlook her bad deeds. O God, forgive her and give her the steadiness to say the right thing.

 

Aamiin ya rabbal 'alamin:

My ramblings

15.2.2021

 

For the  past few postings  on my ig, I  have been reminiscing on past events. I focused on the plants around the house. Their history . I think I have covered most of them, the Tongkat Ali tree(Eurycoma longifolia) The Jambu Mawar tree (Syzygium jambos) , the Curry leaves tree  (Murraya koenigii) and the Pokok Mengkudu tree (morinda citrifolia)

There were a few other trees that my husband planted when we first moved into the house back in 1984, but they were cleared when we did major renovations on the house. The mango tree , the spot is now taken over by the Jambu Mawar tree. Well it had the same history as the jambu mawar tree. No fruiting but plenty of leaves! We tried to apply some of the tips given to us by the experts in gardening but the tree stood on its own ground, ie. no fruiting none so ever! When the Jambu mawar tree was acting up,my BIL recommended using leftovers of rice from the cooking pot. Everytime we cooked rice, there will be crust of rice at the bottom of the pot. To clean the pot, we would soak the rice pot in water to soften the crust. And we would then pour that remaining bits of rice  on the soils around the tree. And yes, the trees started to grow , new branches started to sprout, plenty of green leaves then covered those branches. The curry plant next to the jambu mawar tree also flourish! And soon my curry plant became the target of this one particular person who would come  to literally snap a few fresh branches! He would do this everytime there were fresh branches to replace the lost ones. 

 

But soon another hazard came into place. The rice scattered on the grounds invited rodents ! They came in droves. There was plenty of  rice to feed a whole army of them! And utimately they not only came for the rice offerings but soon to venture into the house! And before we knew it, we were faced with a problem on how to eliminate this pests! Ultimately my husband thought the best solution was to stop feeding them and the plants with the leftovers. And that affected the plants especially the curry leaves plants.The leaves are not so ‘healthy’ as before. Currently, we are back to using organic manure which my BIL (lots of positive testimonials on this manure). So we will take it from there.

 

I am still waiting for the day that the jambu mawar tree will start serious fruiting. The tree has started to flower in abundance, but once the fruits started to form, the fruiting  process stopped halfway, stunted and soon the small green fruits fall off! To be honest, I was not too concerned back then, those working days. I was too busy concentrating on my career! But now that I am a pensioner and with the current restricted movement, I am more focused on things around the house. And lol and behold! Gardening is now my new favourite pastime , a husband and wife favorite pastime actually!  Gotta keep the  body and mind healthy. With the partial lockdown this the best option and routine to keep the body and mind healthy. 

 

I am trying my best to create healthy habits and not restrictions. To try to reach that balance and harmory between body, mind and spirit. In short, wellness.

When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you. They’re sent to promote,increase and strenghten you. 

Insha Allah, we will get through this together.

 

                                                                 Pokok daun curry( Murraya koenigii)

Pokok Jambu Mawar( Syzgium jambos)

My Ramblings

 7.2.2021

A promise broken.

 

I made a promise myself not to do it again. Just when I thought I was doing fine, my restless mind and my itchy fingers decided to press on the remote keys to the Netflix and without much thought decided to click on a drama show. 50 episodes! Couldn’t stop once I started. And about episode 20 or so, yours truly also joined on board. I had to give him a quick synopsis of the previous happenings. Initially it was an on off thing to him. But not for long. So , there were 2 of us, after lunch, before bed we both would be glued to watch maybe about 2 hours i.e an hour an episode. I was  literally crying buckets during those tearjerking moments. Soon, I started to hear sniffles and wiping off the eyes. Yes! My suspicions were confirmed. He was on board , fully on board.

 

On the last episode we were both high on the adrenalin. It took a few days after that for emotions to come down  to normal. The reviewing of the whole show continued for many days after that. 

 

Go check out ‘Once Again’ on your Netflix . I promise you , it will be most difficult to keep your emotions at a normal level. A word of caution though. Its 50 episodes. So expect some that  for certain episodes you may just want to fast forward.

‘We all have our own story in life.’

 

 

My Ramblings

 3.2.2021

 

Trying out new things.. doing  something new that has never been done before. The lockdown has been further extended to the 18^th of this month! 24/7 need to be well managed with useful activities ya.

 

Yesterday evening my husband came back home with 8 freshly plucked mangoes from the tree in front of the house.And just this morning while browsing the internet for interesting recipes to try out, I stumbled upon a page that prescribed a very simplified version /process of making pickled mangoes. Hardly 15 minutes was spent trying out the recipe! All done and put away in the fridge for the prepared liquid to blend into the mangoes . Will have to wait out until tomorrow to taste its outcome. Can’t wait !!

My Ramblings

2.2.2021

Its never too late

For the past few days I have been doing alot of decluttering. And I discovered an album of greeting cards that my late father had collected over the years from his children , grandchildren as well as his  relatives. So I thought to myself why not digitise them and share with my siblings since there is only a copy. After all  the technology is there. I used a few apps that I purchased online from the apps store. Downloaded an instrumental music played on the piano and after lots of trials and errors I managed to produce a 3:34 minutes video. Alas, I could not upload it via the WA chatroom because of limited MB allowed by the apps . So managed to send to 4 of my siblings who have a telegram account. The telegram apps is more accomodating.Easily that video was  downloaded straight away. Time to permanently switch chatroom apps I’d reckon? That was on the first of Febuary.

Yesterday , I got a little wiser. I discovered that there was such an apps as a video compressor ( no excuse for new learning even at this late stage in age😁)  I downloaded the apps and wallah! Problem solved!  

Looking forward to more video production after this! Done by  amateur videograher, that is.

Its never too late.