Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
This final bit features the interiors of the house.
The typical kampung cement kitchen. It’s always so wet and messy looking. Gotta wear them heavy red wooden clogs. When grandpa was alive he used to be here most of the time cooking up a storm.
The old, dark, dusty store room downstairs which used to scare me a lot as a child. This was where they’d always store the Coke and Shandy, so I had to frequent in and out of it. Whenever I went in, I always had to keep my back to the wall, or kept looking backwards… just in case there was a monster lurking in the corner of the room, waiting to bite my ass.
The upstairs landing. Upstairs is where most of the bedrooms are. Six of them. The house is mostly made of wood. And cement. My cousins and I were always running up and down the wooden staircases making so much noise it drives our parents up the wall. But this is what CNY IS ALL ABOUT!
The dressing table of my parent’s old room. When we came back to visit we always slept in my parent’s old bedroom, that is, if we ever slept. Blasted neighbour’s freaking firecrackers at midnight always keeping us up at night. I’m aware that this is a horribly taken picture. But I didn’t give a fuck anymore as I was losing my patience and so was the cameragirl.
My grandparents’ room. That bed is my late grandpa’s. It’s really very high. When I was wheeee tinier it was great fun climbing onto it. Apparently I didn’t grow much, so it’s still fun now.
Now that I’m older, balik kampung gets a little boring. There was simply nothing to do except eat goodies, do the visiting thing and watch old CNY special reruns. And that crazy CNY balik kampung heat is just crazy. But whenever we don’t make a trip back… I kinda start missing the place. So many old, happy, childhood memories.
And I really miss my grandpa.
Shit. Nobody told me that this stupid getting old thing involves getting soppy nostalgic all the freaking time. Bleargh.
THE END! SHOO!
Camwhore! |
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
A shout out to all you Hokkien peeps, Happy Bai Tian Gong Festival! Fresh Roast pork FTW!
On with the program.
This post will feature a bit of the neighbourhood and grandpa’s external compound.
This is the bakery on the left of my grandpa’s house. It’s been around forever. My dad apparently grew up with the smell baking pastries, breads and cakes everyday which put him off bread and cakes for the rest of his life. When I was younger I got to run around and play with the owner’s children inside. I even get to flick off FRESH FROM THE OVEN goodies. Heaven should smell like this every Sunday.
Interior of the bakery. Shot with the camphone.
On the left of grandpa’s house is the coffee shop. My late grandpa used to hang out here every time we balik kampung. It’s damn old school. The classic marble tables with wooden legs. Spittoon bowls at the bottom. Glorious toasted thick white bread spread with generous heart attack inducing kaya butter. Glass bottled coke in a clear plastic bagful of gigantic ice chunks. The clickety clack sounds of the mahjong tiles in the illegal gambling den behind….. damn best!
The cement(?) chair just outside the house which has been there since…. forever.
The swing is easily one of my favourite places in grandpa’s house.
This was a vegetable patch. Grandpa used to plant all sorts of stuff here. Beans, leafy veges and little chili trees. Now it’s just lots of creepers and weed.
The backyard. Grandpa used to plant vegetables here too. That big cement drain is a new addition to backyard. Must be one of them government projects. I’ve never seen it before.
to be continued…..
Camwhore! |
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Sudirman really did a great job with that song. It’s on autoplay in my head everytime I or someone else mentions “balik kampung” (…woahhh balik kampung! hati girang!)
And how was your New Year celebrations?
Mine was pretty unproductive. Lazy. Hazy. Quiet. ODing on CNY “specials” and reruns on the local tv network.
I haven’t balik kampung in YEARS, it’s changed quite a bit. Don’t know when I’ll go back again.
So here’s a three part pictorial record of the kampung my dad grew up in…. just something for me to remember it by.
…… and also an excuse for some major camwhoring - The Balik Kampung Edition.
I don’t understand why when I resize them, the photos go blur. Can one of you geniuses please explain this stupid phenomenon. It’s really getting on my nerves. WHYYYYYYY?!?~?!?~?~?!
With my very limited photo-editing skills using some obscure photo-editing software, I modified the tone of the pictures to give an old school nostalgic effect. I know it kinda sucks, but I don’t really care what you think.
On with pictures!
Harro Batu Gajah (that’s in Perak, yo) ! On the left is a Chinese sundry store, an Indian sundry store, and an Indian family house, and my granduncle’s house respectively. On the right, it’s the old school Chinese coffeeshop, grandpa’s house… and the bakery. When I was younger firecracker residue from the first and second days of new year would cover the ENTIRE street making it look like it was paved in angpow red bricks. They don’t do that anymore. 
Here is me in the cement kitchen of grandpa’s house, pretending to stir a potful of grub, in all my Chinese New Year Angpow Ahlian Red glory because I’m quite the sucker for keeping to Chinese New Year traditions. Camwhore.
The vegetarian grub for the First Day. Ingredients include brains of dog, liver of iguana, cartilage of a hobo, skin of monkey and a headful of baby hair. No lah, siau meh. Just boring stuff like several types of mushrooms, fu chok, fatt choi, black fungus, cabbage, lotus stalk, and tau pok. Tastes better than it looks. My brother loves this stuff. Once when he was much younger, he walloped about 5 full bowls of this shit straight. Then he got sick and puked from eating too much. Until this day, eating this still reminds him of puke, but he still whacks it anyway. Sick bastard.
This is what Chinese New Year reunions gatherings are all about! Unfortunately not everybody came home this year. There are seven children on my father’s side. This year I only saw two of them while the rest are scattered around the globe. Noise is like the main element of a proper Cantonese family reunion, at least for this family. It was too quiet this year, not like I’m complaining too much, but the lack of noise somehow feels like a lack of the new year spirit. Oh well! Bring out the goodies! Makan!
to be continued….
P/s: … and for the 172th time, I’m NOT from Ipoh.
Camwhore! |
Saturday, February 17th, 2007
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Nah.
Grab all the angpows while you still can!
Have a good one!
Camwhore! |
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
Did you Google yesterday?
Did you notice that something was missing with their new Valentine’s Day Google logo?
I thought I’d write and tell them that they were missing a consonant.
They replied!
from help@google.com
to aphroditus(at)gmail.com
date Feb 15, 2007 5:26 AM
subject Re: [#113282799] Googe?
signed-by google.com
mailed-by trakken.google.com
Thank you for your feedback about our logo. As you may know, from time to time we modify the Google logo in honor of different holidays. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, our logo shows a chocolate covered strawberry. The chocolate forms the letter “G” and the stem of the strawberry forms the letter “L.”
We appreciate your taking the time to contact us about our Valentine’s Day doodle, and we’ll keep your feedback in mind for the future.
Regards,
The Google Team
LIES ALL LIES! Hehe.
That stem sure didn’t look like an “L” to me. More like the tip of a “G”. Don’t you think?
There’s even a short write up explaining the new logo design HERE.
Too lazy to click? Nah:
Strawberries are red, stems are green…
2/14/2007 09:51:00 AM
Posted by Dennis Hwang, Google Doodler
You may have noticed today’s Google Doodle on our homepage in celebration of romance and good food (something we consider extremely important).
When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that “Googe” has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you’re feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry.
A very happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!
Sure or not?
I’d prefer it if he had said something like “we took L out of it because L is the first letter of Love and Valentine’s day is clearly NOT a day of love (at least, not anymore) but a blatant blood-sucking soul-reaping over-hyped marketing gimmick, brainchild of the Let’s Just Rape The Spirit of Every Holiday and Festival By Making People Buy Over Priced Things Other People Don’t Fucking Need But Think That They Do Because Everybody Else Is Getting Them Too Association.”
But Dennis sounds ~KiUt~! Hmmm. Must find out who this fella is.
An excerpt from Wikipedia:
“…..Dennis Hwang, or Hwang Jung-mok is a graphic artist who designs the festive logos for Google on special days….
….Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he moved to Korea when he was about five years old….
….His doodles during these years were frowned upon, but are now his source of income and pleasure….
…His actual position was as Google’s international webmaster, which made him responsible for all of their international content and kept him quite busy…
Oooohhh. Theres even a mugshot of him! Me likey. Wanna take home ! Have tea and scones while we sit around the verandah making idle conversation about the weather. _Koff_
I freaking love how Google actually take the time to change the logo for every major celebration. I hope they come up with something for Chinese New Year!
Oh and by the way, from Urban Dictionary,
Googe is a sexual act originating in the Amazon rainforest. It is where the man wraps his legs around a womans face and googe’s like a bad badger. It is now used as an exclamation of hornyness or used as a term instead of fuck, or also can be used as an expression deep hatred. Eg, I fucking want to googe ya mam
LMAOROF!!11one. I wonder if the people at Google knew this. The dirty bastards.
Google and it’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button has got to be one of the best-EST thing that’s evAr happened to the internet.
Read up some trivia on the I’m Feeling Lucky button on Wikipedia right HERE, again, because Wikipedia is my best friend.
I heart Google very much! It’s so damn kiut!!!111~~
^_^ V
(P/s: Please mind the retardancy level and the excessive KAWAII-NESS of this post. It makes me feel dirty too, but for some reason beyond even my own comprehension, I completely LOST it after seeing that yummylicious chocolate strawberry on The Googe.)
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