I want to show you all a very typical Malaysian calendar.
It’s a day-by-day one where you tear the pages off. But it’s an almanac too. I remember my old nanny using the torn off sheets for many purposes, one of the most common being paper used for crushing junior aspirin tablets. She would put the tablet in between a folded piece of calendar paper, and crush it with the back of a spoon, then mix it in with water and us kids would have to swallow the chalky mixture. Yuck.
It’s a calendar which is heavily consulted whenever there are significant household events.
Corner of the house garden.
My family home has a pretty large garden. This little patch is towards the back of the house, and when I was little, only housed a few shrubs and a big hibiscus hedge. We used to pick the flower buds and leaves to play at “cooking”. It has undergone a few changes in the last 4 decades.
For a while it was a koi pond. My mother kept brilliantly-coloured koi fish, with flashes of deep orange and white. She would lie on her stomach and feed the fish lettuce leaves. The fish got bigger and bigger and as time went on, frogs starting making the pond their home too. Amphibian courtship calls would keep my dad awake at night, so eventually after many years, they decided to give the fish away and do away with the pond. It then became a putting green for my dad. Dad used to do short-game practice every evening, with the end result of him being superb at his golf short game. He still does well at golf because of his chipping and putting, now that his long game is no longer as powerful after 3 back surgeries, and this is at age 77.
The little putting hole is now gone. But the contours of the area remain and the pretty shrubbery planted around the area has matured.
You might ask why there is s stone statue of a bull there. It seems a geomancer once came to our home and advised my parents that that part of the garden had “unclean” spirits. The best way to get them to move on was to have a bull effigy of some sort, in representation of one of the 2 Taoist Guardian spirits of Hell.
Another snapshot of Xiaomi, lazing on the patio table. Just because. And please admire her chub chubs.
Decrepit high rises
Every time I visit my old home and see these high rise blocks on the horizon, I get so mad.
These white elephants have turned into such an eyesore.
Supposedly the Sultan of Johor encouraged mainland Chinese investors to put money into developing property in Johor. Why they chose to pour money into reclaiming land from the Straits of Johor and then building condominiums, I will never understand., as Johor is the biggest state of Peninsula Malaysia and land is plentiful. Why would one pay over a million local dollars for an apartment suspended in mid-air, when you can easily purchase a large landed piece of property for the same price? I certainly wouldn’t bother.
Eventually the Chinese government stopped their citizens from investing large sums overseas, so funds for these massive construction projects dried up. Work stopped as labourers weren’t being paid. COVID sounded the death knell.
Now these buildings are falling into ruin and disrepair. The massive projects have also disrupted local water drainage systems; as a result, flash flooding would occur every time there was a rainstorm, which is a frequent occurrence in this tropical place.
Once upon a time, you could see the Strait of Johor from our home, right across to Singapore. There were little fishing boats and old-fashioned fishing huts suspended on the surface of the sea. Fishermen would bring in catches of fish, green mussels and clams every day. We would walk down to the waterside and look into the water for sea-snakes and fish. Although the water wasn’t particularly clean, it was a lovely place for local folks to stroll along to the sounds of gently-rolling waves and the occasional motor-boat. Not anymore. All because of greed.
Household cooktop
My family home has managed with this little modest 2-gas ring cook top for the last few decades; of course, with the ubiquitous rice cooker in every Asian household. This cook top has produced countless delicious home-cooked dishes - steamed, sautéed, boiled, deep-fried. The only method of cooking uncommon to Asian households is oven-baking. A lot of traditional Malaysian cakes and puddings are made by steaming. My mum doesn’t cook, she has had a house cook all her life, and this amazing lady has been with our family for the last 4 decades. She has become a cherished family member like my old nanny. Both ladies are heavily involved in family affairs and are as loyal as the sun. Her cooking easily beats restaurant fare. In her hey day, whenever she tasted a dish at a restaurant, she would scoff, come home and promptly reproduce the same dish (but better) the next day. Sadly she is not very robust these days because of chronic health issues and age, and I continue to worry for her and my ageing parents.
Mahjong finale
On our last evening here this trip, my mum has decided she would set up the mahjong table again to see if she can take some spare change off her son-in-laws. This is a special Sabah form of mahjong where there are 4 players as usual, but 1 player gets to go “on leave”. So Anth is playing while my brother-in-law is on his scheduled break.
