REMEMBRANCE 28: YODELLING

Pleasing to the eyes and peace to the mind

Since I am not in the best of health to travel down to Kuala Lumpur for the past three years, the ever caring Nana made sure that would come back to Alor Setar with her family during the school holidays. Apart from providing me and Zam the opportunity to get a more closer acquaintance with our four grand children, it would also provide our grand children with the breathing space to appreciate the kampong life of their grand father.

As the tradition of Haji Yaacob, two weeks before the arrival of her grand children, Zam was already busy with her proposed local travel schedules for the grand children. Her holistic intention was to ascertain her grand children’s stay in Alor Setar was not a bored affair but instead it would be more memorable for them as they would be involved in a string of activities.

It was in fact an investment on Zam's part to make her grand children cherish their stay in Alor Setar. Consequently it would result in the grand children pestering their mother to come back more often to Alor Setar. It would be quiet a constrain on Zam's part as she would be only assisted by only her two sisters. The children would only be entertained by the oldies i.e their grand aunties as Mak Amalina and Mak Lin has gone to pursue their tertiary education in Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur.

For scribbling purposes, I bought one set of coloured pens together with two rims of scribbling papers. With these writing materials in abundance, I was definitely certain they would not disturb my writing pens and other untensils. My prophesy was proven to be correct as they did not touch them as they were very busy on the papers that I have provided to them.

Nur A'liah concentrating on her scribbling

Nur Aisyah and her bundles of rubber bands

Nana came back on Sunday, 07.06.2009 and that very evening, all of us attended a wedding feast at my second cousin, Ku Hamzah at Bukit Kayu Hitam. On the way back to Alor Setar, we stopped by at Hosba to enjoy the famous Hosba cendol pulut.

On Monday, 08.06.2009, Zam and Nana’s family attended another wedding feast of my second cousin, Syed Idrus at Jitra. In the evening, Zam and Ezman went to the day market at Jalan Putra to look for durians and glutinous rice. Since I have already phoned to Idrus’s brother, Roslan (019-5611563), so Zam was very lucky that Roslan has earmarked good quality durians for her. Aisyah really enjoyed the red prawn durians that Zam has bought.

On Tuesday, 09.06.2009 my son, Ezwar entertained my grand children with a remote control helicopter display at the Rumah Tok Su’s compound. children. As usual, the crafty Nur A’liah tricked her uncle in buying them root beers and they ended their morning on the play ground at Taman Rimba. In the afternoon, they went to the Montana Bicycle Outlet to buy another two set of bicycles for Nur Aisyah and her cousin, Amir respectively.

The four grand children with their Montana bikes

On Wednesday, 10.06.2009 all of us including Noraini went to Padang Besar. On the way to Padang Besar we stopped by at Yong’s close friend, Ustazah Fauziah at Kampong Santan, Perlis to deliver a book, auspicious of Yong to Ustazah Fauziah. We started our day at Padang Besar with a sumptuous lunch at Alamanda Crystal Seafood, No: 8 Lorong 4, Gapura Square (Tel: 04-9493494). After lunch, the flood gate was opened for shopping. We were all worried about Noraini’s health condition but the spirit of shopping enabled her to shop until they were exhausted of their energy and money.

In the evening we have another food galore at my house. Rohani Jasmani brought laksa, laksam and satay from Laksa Pak Ya Telok Chengai. Wan Mansor bought popiah Jamal while I myself bought Cucur Udang Pak Mat White Palace and pulut udang Warisan. It was a very hilarious evening when Rohani tried to rekindle her memory of bygone days by riding Nur Aisyah’s bicycle. As she was having some initial difficulties in riding the bicycle, the joker Nur A’liah chided her auntie’s ability to cycle by showing off her riding skills without holding her bicycle’s handles. We were laughing our hearts out when we realized that Nur A’liah’s bicycle has four wheels.

The Padang Besar bounty

Afiq with his harimau jersey and Adli with his Manchester United
Adli sharing similar hair top with me

Aisyah with her Padang Besar blouse and her MU fans

Manchester Unit pair of die hard fans

rekindling her bygone years on the bicycle

Nur A'liah letting go both her hands on her four wheel bicycle

Plentiful of foods on the table for obesity

On Thursday, 11.06.2009, the grand children started their morning by enjoying their cycling at the Golden Jubilee Park at Suka Menanti. Then at 11.00 a.m., we proceeded to Kak Nab’s house at Tambun Tulang, Perlis. The grand children really enjoyed their lunch on the wakaf beside the padi field. Aisyah consumed her lunch to the brim as she could not take another durian offered by Kak Nab. From my observation, it was the only occasion that Aisyah refuse any food that was offered to her.

The three elder grand children really enjoyed thier short stay at Kak Nab's house as they were free to roam about in the compound plucking fruits such as raspberries, mangosteen and rambutans. Then they quenched their thirst by drinking fresh young coconuts plucked by Kak Nab. Afiq was thrilled when he could manage to yodel which were echoed by the roosters. I guided Afiq to yodel properly by yodelling the words 'quacker oats' which was similar to the roosters's cry.

Three legged Adli



All in the family enjoying the fresh young coconuts on the wakaf



Nur Aisyah enjoying the serenity of the padi field from the wakaf

A'liah playing on the wakaf

Kak Nab plucking fresh young coconuts


Zam and Nana plucking raspberries

Zam and her grand children plucking raspberries

Aisyah using the bamboo pole to pluck the mangosteens



Afiq jealously guarding his rambutans

The roosters echoing Afiq's yodelling

From Tambun Tulang we proceeded to another destination that was Hindon’s house at Simpang Empat. The grand children were very keen to go there as they would be able to enjoy the play station of Fareez. They were so attached to the power station games to the extend that among my nephews, my grand children could only recognized Fareez by his name because of his play station.

Jim was also searching high and low in Perlis for Harum Manis mangoes which his father has requested from him. It was very unfortunate for Jim as Harum Manis mangoes season for the year in Perlis has ended a week before. With the grace of Allah, Jim was very lucky as he would not be facing his father empty handed in Ipoh. Marini could manage to buy a box of six Harum Manis mangoes at the Sultan Abdul Halim Airport. The mangoes were from Tobiar, in the Pendang District whose fruiting season was different from Perlis.

On Friday, 12.06.2009, we visited my sister, Norin at her house in Kampung Hutan Setali. There, we were served with the delicious dodol of Mardi brand which were supplied to the Raja of Perlis. We quenched our with fresh young coconuts plucked by Shahir, Norin’s fourth son.

On the final day, Saturday 13.06.2009, in tandem with the tradition of Alun, at 7.00 a.m. Nana droved me to Nasi Lemak Royale outlet at Jalan Ibrahim. So, nasi lemak Royale was the final send off for our grand children. Zam and I sincerely hoped that our grand children has enjoyed tremendously their stay in Alor Setar and we do wish that they would be very eager and anxiously waiting for the chances to come back to Alor Setar in the future. Insya Allah.

Blackie relaxing on the lap of A'liah

Nana is allergic to cats but her children are very fond of cats. We were not fond of domesticating cats which like to stay in the house during the night and loitering the house with their wastes. It was a very tall order for Zam to fulfill her grand children's wishes for a domesticated cat in the house. The three of them consistently requesting their grand mother to domesticate a cat for them during their conversations with her through the phone. With Allah's grace, two months ago a black stray cat made a permanent stay in our home. Zam managed to discipline the cat to the standard of Haji Yaacob's quality. The cat we named as Blackie was Allah's blessing to us whereby the children really enjoyed their associationship with Blackie during their six days stay in Alor Setar.