Ouch..!

.................................



Aduh laa... Kenapalah jadi macam ni. Terhenjut-henjut kaki Mak Lijah dibuatnya.





Punyalah dramatik kejadiannya. Haritu we all saja ja nak bawa Mak Tok and Pak Tok melihat rumah yang kami baru beli nun di sana tu dengan perancangan untuk terus saja lunch satay di K@j@ng. So kami bertolak dari Selayang pada kira-kira pukul 11.30 pagi dan menyusur lebuhraya yang jam-less haritu . Alangkah bestnya kalau tiap-tiap hari bekerja pun macam tu.





Kami sampai kat kawasan 'rumah baru' kami pada kira-kira pukul 12.10 pm dalam cuaca yang agak mendung. Waaahh... banyak kedai dah dibuka rupanya. Ada 3-4 buah restoran, kedai dobi, kedai tayar, mini market dan yang paling best... ada KLINIK KUCING..! So sweet.... Selalunya hanya klinik haiwan where we have to be extra careful when dogs were brought in (am still confused over dog-touching after Yasmin's movie).





Dah banyak progress dibuat over the house and dah dikunci pun oleh developer. So we couldn't get into our own house. Tapi ada satu rumah lain yang designnya exactly macam rumah Mak Lijah yang tak dikunci sebab ada sorang pekerja Bangla tengah mengecat rumah tu. So dapatlah kami masuk dan buat tour untuk Mak Tok and Pak Tok.





Kakak and Danisy sangat excited sebab playground hanyalah five metres away from our front gate. Dan otak Mak Lijah pun berligar-ligar mencari idea nak buat kitchen, garden, wardrobe dan macam-macam lagilah. Cuma kurang puas hati sikit pasal our bathroom is a bit too small for a master bedroom. Bilik Abang kat 'penthouse' di tingkat paling atas pulak ada bigger bathroom than ours.





Dah puas pusing-pusing kat situ perutpun mula terasa lapar dan Danisy pulak dah mengadu dahaga. Lalu Mak Tok, Pak Tok and the children pun got on to the MPV and proceedlah to the famous satay which is like only 15 minutes drive away from the house.





Sampai saja kat kawasan parking tu, ada la this grey Pr@t@n aeroback yang park betul-betul kat corner nak masuk ke kawasan letak kereta. Apa punya driver lah.. Tak pikir langsung pasal orang lain. So Mak Lijahpun voluteered lah untuk jadi parking attendant sekejap sebab tak nak kereta kami kemek/bercalar dek kejahilan manusia tak bertimbang rasa tu. Alang-alang dah keluar kereta tu, Mak Lijah pun suruhlah Pak Lijah terus ke lot parking yang terletak betul-betul di hadapan restoran tu while I just walked there.





Ramai betul orang harini. Maklumlah hari minggu dan Mak Lijah tengok macam ada family day jer kat situ sebab ada beberapa kereta company sebuah syarikat media tabloid yang femes parked kat situ. Sambil dok cat walk menuju ke restoran tu, Mak Lijah tengok-tengok juga meja mana bakal dituju sebab rasa macam penuh sesak jer. Makin ramai pulak orang yang masuk at about the same time.





Tiba-tiba...













Adoilaa.... Adoi..... !!!






Eh.. kenapa aku terduduk ni.... Eh... Sakitnya kaki .... Ya Allah.... Kaki aku termasuk lobang rupanya... Adoi... !!!





Adoi....!!! Sakit lagi hati Mak Lijah sebab terjatuh betol-betol depan restoran tu dengan bersaksikan mereka semua tu.... Arrrggghhh.... glamer nyer... !!!




Nak bangun tak boleh sebab sakit sangat....Adoilaaa... Macamana boleh terjadi kejadian tu...? By then, Pak Lijah arrived dengan kereta and diapun turunkan cermin. Dari jauh dia tanya kenapa Mak Lijah duduk. Tak terkeluar dah suara ni, hanya mulut jer yang terkumat-kamit menyebut "jatuh" dengan lemah-gemalai dan muka yang herot petot menahan sakit....













"Oh... ingatkan letih tunggu kami, sampai kena duduk..."

No. 1

Big Baby Danish presented us with a wonderful surprise this week. The second good news in two weeks. Lucky number two.

A lot of good things are falling on to us lately, actually. Alhamdulillah...

Danish announced on Wednesday that dia dapat nombor satu di tadikanya, on the same day I was informed of my promotion. Wah.. not bad, eh, Danish? Dengan mulutnya tak henti-henti pot-pet pot-pet bercerita gitu gini dan tak sudah-sudah asyik mengunyah makanan jer, sambil jari-jemarinya menekan-nekan button PS2 lah, PS3 lah... berjaya juga dia dalam pelajaran. Berbaloi juga Mak Lijah pot-pet kan dia setiap malam masa minggu exam haritu.

Bukanlah Mak Lijah desperate sangat nakkan Danish ni jadi super duper brillant student whatsoever, memadailah dia tidak gagal dalam matapelajaran. Tak sangka pula dia terus dapat cemerlang. Tahniah, Danish.. semoga boleh maintain di alam sebenar persekolahan yang lebih mencabar di tahun 2009 nanti.

Good luck to you (and to me too...!!!!)

Moving on

Sometimes women are discriminated against in workplace. Is that still true in Malaysia?




One of the primary rights of every employee is the right to be treated fairly, and women are not exception of this one. This discrimination has various forms such as wage-gap and preventing to gain key position.

Another aspect of discriminating is preventing women from further job promotion, for many instances, the governmental Assistant Director, Director etc. Is this true?

But I think employees are highly discriminated based on the "I-know-you" factor while the gender issue is only relevant to male-chauvinistic bosses who to me remain a minor in our society.

Where I work, the "I-know-you" factor prevails above and over any so-called merit policy. Don't talk about the quality of work, the sacrifices or the commitments. If they don't know you because you don't 'see' them or they don't 'hear' you, then that's it! They don't see your work or see you working, so you are being discriminated whether you like it or not. So strategy is an important tool here.

People like me would have to work triple hard because the "I-know-you" factor just do not work with me. The formula is way out of my principle, so I deserved this treatment.

Nevertheless, after having to suffer one miserable year with one moronic person, I have to say congratulations to myself and syukur Alhamdulillah for all the good things bestowed onto me, recently. I am now moving on to another quite-familiar field within a very welcoming environment.

As Pak Lijah had said, there would always be good things waiting for you after whatever bad things that you have gone through. Thank you Pak Lijah for all your support and kind words.

Again, I thank Allah for all this. Semua yang baik hanyalah dari Dia.

Dah lama rupanya tak update. Tak payahlah nak bagi alasan, kan? Sebab alasan tu boleh di copy paste jer dari postings yang lalu. Standard je alasan tu.


Selepas "dilepaskan" untuk pergi berkursus di Langkawi, Mak Lijah pergi pulak ke Pulau Temasik seisi keluarga. Tak sangka boleh "island hop" within seven days. Seronok juga.


Flying back to KL from Langkawi was calmer sebab tak hujan. Kalau tak... nak minum pun susah. Alhamdulillah... Dengan cuaca yang tak menentu, hujan lebat dan ribut petir hari-hari, gusar juga setiap kali nak take-off, akhirnya selamat juga landing...


Sampai-sampai saja di KLIA, ada kezutan. Jeng...jeng..jeng... I don't know whether I liked it or not but it actually spoilt my anxiety.


Sampai kat rumah, mandi, solat, dinner, terus jer packing baju anak-anak.


Tidur dalam keletihan dan rasa kurang sedap badan.


Esoknya, tepat pukul 7.30 pagi.. berderumlah MPV kami menuju ke PLUS. Trafik tak sibuk. Perjalanan atas highway sangat lancar. Budak-budak sempat jugalah breakfast sikit-sikit tadi tapi by 9.00, diorang dah complain lapar. He..he..he...


So we stopped at one of the R&Rs (tak ingat kat mana). Puuu...nyalah ramai orang.. sampai tak ada tempat duduk. So we decided to go to one of the cafes yang hanya ada sandwiches saja. Tak apalah, asalkan perut beralas.


By 11.20, kami dah sampai tol Sedenak. Budak-budak dah excited sebab nak tinggalkan Malaysia, macamlah nak pergi to another planet. We had a wonderful lunch kat one Indonesian restaurant in JB before we went off accross the tambak. Proses imigresen pun tak lama and the journey took only about 40 minutes, all in, from JB to the hotel. Not bad, eh? Sebenarnya masa orang imigresen to nak check kami tadi tu, Mak Lijah tertidur with the sunglasses on. And this guy didnt know that. He thought I was being stubborn or something. Mak Lijah sedar bila Kakak kejutkan, "Mama, buka spek lah.." Oh, termalu sekejap.

By 2.00 pm we checked in-to Hyatt Singapore kat Scotts Road. Letaknya 20 meter dari Stamford Road. Hmm... Ring a bell, anyone?


Walaupun it looked cloudy dan ada potensi untuk hujan, Mak Lijah ajak juga budak-budak tu pergi ke Zoo sebab it would not be too hot since it was a bit cloudy that day. Sampai jer di Zoo, bought the tickets dan bermulalah our adventure. It was really interesting. Malas nak buat comparison. Rasa sangat tidak adil. The white 'cats' looked so healthy unlike...aahh.. malas nak cakap.


We hopped-onto the zoo car and moved around very comfortably. Seronok tengok budak-budak tu seronok. Kebetulan masa tu, ada marine show pulak. Walaupun we considered ourselves sampai early kat amphiteater tu, orang dah penuh yang amat. We had to actually sit kat tangga je but we had a nice view. Danisy was extremely excited watching the sea lion putting up the show.


Aduh laaa... Letih sungguh.


So the outdoor activity of the day habis di situ. We went back to the hotel, showered and had this marvellous dinner kat restaurant dia. FYI, Hyatt Singapore has a majority shareholder of one rich Islamic country in ASEAN, so the food is halal. Mak Lijah makan mee udang, nasi ayam, pohpiah while kakak had tandoori, Danisy had roti canai and Abang had almost everything, including satay. They even have teh-tarik. Pak Lijah pula 'attacked' the seafood. Risaulah pulak kut-kut kena attack dengan gout. Habislah program kita..


End of day one and here are some of the pics:

Abang and the white 'cat'




Senyum...senyum...




Kakak and Carlos





Everyone of us was impressed with the healthy-looking white cat

Bad days aint good...

...................
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

These past few days have not treated me well. I have been and is still going through a series of tremendously bad mood days complimented by unwise decisions and unrespectful individuals.


It started with the end of a bad, stressful, dissapointing and frustrating Wednesday at the office. Walaupun it may sound like it's just a small thing to others, it is a big matter to me as I have been deprived of this particular opportunity (and missed other opportunities as well) for the past two years while watching other people enjoying what they do not deserve.


Having no mood to work, I brought back some reading materials home, hoping I could recuperate by then. I had to read some documents for me to prepare a paper, as directed, to which I am so not sure of the content. Knowing me, I would be reading the document letter by letter and digesting the meaning until I could really understand the whole thing for me to formulate my own understanding. By then it was already 11.30 pm and Kakak and Danisy were already asleep. Desperate Housewives pun dah habis.



My mind was so fresh and alert and yet it was already 1.00 am. Dah puas tukar channel nak cari cerita menarik but unfortunately semuanya amat membosankan and yet tak cukup untuk membuatkan Mak Lijah mengantuk. Then I started communicating accross the globe, still hoping I would get bored and sleepy eventually. But nooo...


I finished my paper, finally, at 4.30 am, stil feeling fresh. But by then, I decided that I have to stop my brain from overworking or there'll be a short circuit somewhere, soon. As soon I closed my eyes, I had a dream which I could not remember now and at 5.45 am sharp, I just woke up even before the alarm clock started to scream. And I was still fresh!


The next few days were not any better. Felt like kicking people.


And today just topped it all because Abang broke his promise. He promised that he would be back early at 7.30 pm in return for my consent to allow him to go to his friend's open house. I must have been insane to allow him to spend this evening away from home when he would be sitting for his PMR tomorrow morning.


It is five to ten pm now and he is still not back at home. Every other night, he would have been in his room either playing on his PC or the least, studying (much to my yelling). How can I trust him anymore? I have given my all to see that he would get the best education, the best of his time, and what not just to get worries in return. What kind of a mother am I to allow him enjoy his life?


All the best to you, Abang. I cannot possibly talk to you now without feeling the anger brewing in me, much to my dislike. This is not what I have in my mind on the eve of his PMR. I would have thought it would have been a peaceful, calm eve with words of wisdom to wish him the best. Good luck to you.

Datuk Shah??

Oh puhleeeezzzz.....!!!!

Malacca State would be more 'famous' now than the receiver for obvious reason!

Lagu dan Kisah Raya

Walau dah banyak lagu Raya versi baru sekarang ni, Mak Lijah masih lagi prefer lagu lama-lama zaman 60-an dan 70-an dolu-dolu. Tak kiralah kalau dibuat remix dan dinyanyikan semula oleh penyanyi-penyanyi millenium ni, telinga ni lebih serasi dengan suara Ahmad Jais, Saloma dan Sanisah Huri jer. Tak lupa yang kemudian sedikit macam lagu oleh DJ Dave, Sharifah Aini, Hail Amir dan Uji Rashid. Pehtu ada plak lagu Anuar dan Elina. (Mak Lijah tak reti nak letak lagu-lagu tu kat sini.  Ada tak sesiapa bole ajar Mak Lijah macamana nak pasang lagu kat sini?)

Pun begitu, Mak Lijah menghargai gubahan era 90-an dan awal 2000 yang juga sedap dan tak sakit telinga mendengarnya macam lagu Suatu Hari Di Hari Raya oleh M. Nasir, dan Pulanglah oleh Aishah.

Cerita Raya pulak.

Tahun ni, buat kali pertamanya sejak 15 tahun lalu, Mak Lijah tak berada di atas PLUS pada Hari Raya ke dua. Tahun ni, buat pertama kalinya Hari Raya ke dua, ke tiga dan ke empat kami sekeluarga berada di Santan, Perlis. Aduh.. best nyer... Terima kasih Pak Lijah...

Tahun ni, hanya keluarga Mak Lijah dan keluarga Abang Adik sahaja yang beraya pertama di Santan, while Abang Jam and Teh sekeluarga beraya pertama di rumah mertua masing-masing di Perak dan Kelantan.

Sehari sebelum Raya tu, Mak Lijah dah terpacak di pasar Kangar beratur kerana nak beli santan. Masa tu kira-kira pukul 6.55 pagi. Walaupun ada tiga tempat yang menjual santan, queue tetap juga berlapis-lapis. Betapa pentingnya santan dalam menu Raya... Akhirnya, dari masih gelap, sehinggalah cerah, Mak Lijah pun dapatlah santan 3 kilo untuk buat rendang ayam, rendang daging dan gulai daging. Kuah laksa dah siap malam tadi lagi.

Pagi-pagi Raya tu, selepas sembahyang subuh, bergegas Mak Lijah ke dapur untuk "memproses" segala bagai. Nak siap cepat sebab kejap lagi nak ke masjid. Sampai je di mesjid Santan, jumpalah sanak-saudara dan sahabat-handai yang hanya kami jumpa setahun sekali. Lepas sembahyang, Mak Lijah dan Kakak berjalan balik sebab saja nak menyesakkan Jalan Santan yang dah tak berapa sempit tu.

Pada Hari Raya ke dua, finally, everybody was back in the small, newly renovated house filled with new furnitures. And now the photo shoot ...

SELAMAT HARI RAYA SEMUA...!

Gambar Raya

Lengkap semua...

macam-macam hal...

Tadi Mak Lijah nyaris kena saman. Chiss... Tak pernah-pernah Mak Lijah kena tahan polis. Tapi, nak dijadikan cerita, mujur pulak ditahan polis sebab kalau tidak, Mak Lijah tak akan sedar yang lesen memandu Mak Lijah dah mati tiga haribulan hari tu..

Macam-macam hal berlaku lately ni kat negara kita. What a state we are in, now. Tolonglah... nak Raya ni. Just stop the whole comical act, puhleeeezzz...!!!! Let's live in peace... and have a wonderful Raya this year like every other year.

And talk about Raya.. Mak Lijah dah siap dua jenis kuih. Cuma yang satu tu, macam kuih trial jer sebab RUPA TIADA, RASA ADA. He..he..he.. Cobaan yang ke entah berapa kalinya nak wat kuih semperit. Nampak gayanya jadi hidangan berbuka je lah. Mau tak nya, jenuh dok bersilat dengan Kakak dan Danisy yang tompang sama nak buat kuih. Itupun Kakak komplen sebab buat waktu siang, dia tak boleh nak rasa. Sebenarnya memang strategi Mak Lijah buat siang supaya kuih tu boleh tahan sampai ke rumah Mak Tok Raya nanti.

Been quite busy since early this month. Jumpa the Kiwis (again) at the request of a colleague who had to take over the role for a while. Masa ni lah news bertalu-talu keluar pasal ISA lah.. pasal kickdefellalah.. Aduiii... apa nak jadi ni? I happen to know this guy. Tak sangka dia active (too) in this way.

And now I am confused with this film Gubra. Dalam satu babak tu, ustad tu mengusap kepala anjing yang dok melepak tengah jalan. Will somebody please enlighten me of this thing? Kita orang Islam tak haram ke pegang anjing? Bukan ke kita kena samak? Does that mean that ustad tu akan samak tangan dia selepas itu when he could have just avoided touching the dog? Confused...confused...

Tahun ni Raya turn balik kampung Mak Lijah di Santan, Perlis... yahooo.... !!!

Diari Ramadhan

Dah masuk tujuh hari kita berpuasa. Semalam Mak Lijah berjaya buat agar-agar laici. Yummy.. Puas hati sebab sedap juga jadinya. Resepi pun mudah sangat. Dah lama nak buat tapi tak pernah ada masa. Dulu pun pernah juga try test buat, tapi tak menjadi. Kurang rasa laicinya.

Semalam juga Mak Lijah berjaya membuat ayam percik. Rancangan nak buat home made ayam percik dah ada sejak hari Selasa lagi, tapi tak dapat juga nak buatnya. Tapi jangan haraplah ayam percik tu dipercik di atas arang, yer? Ayam percik berjumpa dengan Cik Oven jer.

Pendek kata, semalam Mak Lijah dapat masak 90% hidangan berbuka. Puas hati. Tapi oleh kerana dah memang tebiat suka membeli, ada juga lauk paru dan kepak ayam bermadu yang dibeli di Pasar Ramadhan dekat dengan Stadium Selayang tu. Penuh meja dengan lauk pauk dan kuih-muih.

Hari ni? Kami berkunjung ke rumah Kak Mah, biras Mak Lijah yang tinggal di Semenyih, sempena lawatan kami ke Bangi. Kak Mah berniaga juadah berbuka manakala pada hari-hari lain bukan bulan Ramadhan, Kak Mah berniaga lauk-pauk di hadapan rumah dia. Lauk-pauk dia memang lazat-lazat belaka. Kiranya Mak Lijah "memasak" di Semenyih lah hari ni. Dapat ler ayam masak merah, gulai ayam, keli berlada, pajeri nenas, gulai nangka.. nyam..nyam...sedapnya. Masa kami baru sampai, Kak Mah sedang menggentel tepung untuk dibuat buah melaka. Budak-budak tu pun apa lagi, terus jer bersila sebelah Mak Long diorang sebab diorang memang suka sungguh melihat orang masak. Buah melaka tu pun jadi mangsa tapau juga.

On the way balik ke rumah, singgah di Hyper Bintang untuk membeli kerang dan koay teow untuk meneruskan plan nak buat char koay teow. Oleh kerana Kakak sibuk nak tolong, Mak Lijah pun suruh dia bersihkan koay teow, kupas kulit udang dll. Bila nak menumis bawang, diapun sibuk juga nak kacau. Akhirnya, dengan rasa kurang pasti, siap juga lah char koay teow ala Mak Lijah... Jangan tak tau.. Mak Lijah buat juga buah melaka walaupun dah ada. Saja suka-suka sebab Kakak nak menolong.

And again meja penuh dengan lauk-pauk...

Diari 10 Hari - Chapter 2

Burrpp... Alhamdulillahh... Sedapnya makan kat Sri Pumpong. Lauk semua habis licin di"selesai"kan oleh anak-anak Mak Lijah. Lagipun diorang memang tengah lapar. Tapi... nak dapat menikmati hidangan tu bukannya mudah.. Mula-mula tak ada meja kosong sebab ramai sangat orang, lepas tu, queuenya bukan main panjang lagi.. Tak sempat nak betol-betol tengok semua hidangan. Apa-apapun, janji dapat ikan keli dan sayur cendawan. Yummy...

Dah selesai makan dan semua bagai ular sawa tersadai, kami sambung balik perjalanan dan Danisy pun rewind balik soklan dia:

Sekarang pukul berapa?

Nak sampai pukul berapa?

Lagi berapa kilometer?


Akhirnya, selepas membeli pisang goreng RM5 (dapat satu beg plastik penuh), 2 kilo buah dokong dan 10 tongkol jagung di simpang Gunung Keriang, kami pun sampai di Kampung Santan pada kira-kira pukul 3.30 petang dalam gerimis. By then, Teh and family dah pun sampai (they flew in the day before). Danisy sangat excited tengok "rumah baru" Mak Tok sambil terlompat-lompat dan berlari-lari exploring the renovated part of the house. Mak Lijah pun excited juga sebab I got the color I wanted for our new, large bedroom (walaupun Pak Lijah kata warnanya suram. Hey, it's lilac, you know.. warna romantik!) and we had a much bigger family area. Problem is.. filling them up!

Abang Jam and Abang Adik arrived later with their family dan rumahpun jadi riuh-rendah.

And so everybody got themselves busy catching up with each other. Macam tak jumpa lima tahun. Bila dikira-kira, ada 20 manusia dalam rumah kecil itu. Yang absent hanyalah Feera, my anak sedara yang ada kelas on Monday, so tak dapat nak join us in Santan. Malam tu dinner macam kenduri, padahal bukanlah ramai sangat pun. Obviously we now need a much bigger dining table.

Yang peningnya, although we have more rooms now, budak-budak tu (all six of them) still insisted that they want to sleep depan tv kat family area tu beramai-ramai. Adoilaa.. bukannya apa, Mak Lijah juga lah yang kena angkat tilam nanti....

Finally the house was quiet at about midnite... Fuuuhh... lega...

Diari 10 Hari

Wah...wah...wah... Cuti sakan Mak Lijah kali ni. Padan muka depa. Ingat Mak Lijah ni robot ka? He..he...he... Dah balik dari cuti ni, rasa berat betol kaki ni nak menekan minyak dan brek dalam traffic jam pepagi buta tadi. Itupun mujur masih ingat lagi cara-cara nak start enjen dan memandu.

Mak Lijah applied and diapproved cuti selama lima hari minggu lepas. Pecah rekod tahun ni. Nak Raya nanti, tak taulah pulak, kan? Pagi-pagi Sabtu tu, kami started off dari Selayang pada kira-kira pukul 9.00 am to the over-excitement of the children. Dah lebih sebulan Danisy dok sebut pasal nak balik rumah Mak Tok dia sebab dia excited nak tengok "rumah baru" Mak Tok (read : renovated).

Sampai saja kat tol Rawang, Danisy pun tanya :

"Sekarang pukul berapa?"

Jawab : Sembilan setengah

"Pukul berapa nak sampai?"

(Errk...)

Dan Danisy pun akhirnya tertidur sebab bosan sangat duduk sorang-sorang kat seat belakang sekali. Tak ada siapa untuk bergaduh sebab Kakak dan Abang sat in the middle row.

Kami tak singgah mana-mana R&R (yang ternyata sesak) untuk makan but we only stopped untuk meluruskan urat sebentar dan menyahut panggilan nature.

Tol di Jelapang dah ada new structure. Dah lebih besar, tapi jalan masih lagi dua lorong while they were still working on the third and fourth lane. Hopefully by end of Ramadhan, all three or four lanes would be ready. Pray hard.

By the time we reached Bukit Merah, biola rosak pun mulalah berbunyi. Dan Pak Lijah pun buat announcement that we were going to lunch at Pumpong. Yeay....!!! My favourite eating place...! Macam tau-tau je Mak Lijah teringin nak makan kat situ.

Haa... Tau tak kat mana restoran Pumpong yang menghidangkan menu yang lazat tu?

Menu :

Kari kepala ikan
Ikan keli panggang
Ayam masak lemak
Sayur cendawan
Sambal tumis udang
Ulam dan sambal

(Kalau ikutkan hati, nak juga sup tulang, sotong, telur ikan dll)

Tu dia...

(Note : Ini baru diari hari pertama cuti)

WFV3184

To the driver of this vehicle:



YOU should die alone. Do not kill other people at the cost of your dangerous driving. YOU do not deserve to live to take other people's life.

Dia datang lagi

Dia akan datang juga, setiap tahun. Tak perlulah Mak Lijah bersusah-payah. Tak perlulah Mak Lijah berfikir panjang. Tak perlulah Mak Lijah risau. Kerana dia tetap akan datang juga.

Sorrylah.. tapi Mak Lijah memang crazy over this crazy, smelly, thorny fruit. Cuma kena berhati-hati sikit pasal intake sejak akhir-akhir ni. Maklumlah, level of tolerance dah semakin merosot.

Mak Lijah teringat suatu kisah yang berlaku kira-kira dua tahun lalu. Masa tu Malaysia menjadi tuan rumah kepada suatu mesyuarat antarabangsa. Semasa majlis perasmian, VVIP telah mempelawa para tetamu untuk menikmati the thorny fruit memandangkan ianya in season pada ketika itu. Mak Lijah mendengar saja ucapan tersebut sambil tersenyum sinis dan berkata to myself, "yeah... right.."

And so majlis perasmian pun tamat dan mesyuarat pun bermula. Sedang Mak Lijah sibuk ke hulu ke hilir mengendalikan segala bagai, tiba-tiba Mak Lijah mendapat sms ni:

Please get the best durian in town..bla...bla...bla...

WHAT...? You've got to be kidding me... !!
Oh my...oh my...

And so off I went to this Authority in Selayang with Zukri and lots of money to buy the best durian. Ha...ha...ha... Padan muka Mak Lijah. Jadi kerja pulak membeli dua bakul besar durian. Kami diberitahu, that the two "species" they are giving us are D24 and 101. We were given the privilege to taste the fruit and they were just gorgeous...!!! Superb giler.. Sayangnya 101 agak susah untuk diperolehi di sini kerana ianya untuk dieksport sahaja.

So that was one fruity story that remained fresh in my memory every time dia datang lagi.