Outing with the boys

We all know who the girls are.  Today its 'the boys'.

'The boys' are the orphans or under privileged children I used to teach at Rumah Aman a few years back.

I have not written about them, I don't know why, but its not easy to write about them, eventhough they are close to my heart.  Its one of those things, maybe a painful nerve that stops me.

I taught English for over a year or so  to 30 small boys at that time, aged 5 to 9.  Its one of the more significant phase of my life.  But I had to stop to be at home for my family.  They have been in my heart eversince.

Yesterday I took the ones that the parent or guardian does not take home during the holidays. The ones the family is too poor to make the journey or no guardian at all.

They have grown much.  Taller and bigger. Amirul 12, Fadzil 13,Izul 11 and twins Ilyas and Ilyasak 8.

The plan was to see the movie from one of my favourite novels, Life of Pi.  Since the movie at Mid Valley was fully booked, we went to Mines Wonderland, a place I rarely go.  I heard there was a book fare at The Big Bad Wolf, (such a cute name for a book shop). But the fare had ended the day before, and the show stars at 6.45pm, we had alot of time to kill.

We hung around the Mall, went to the surau to pray zohor,  walked around, had tea at the 'Toast Box', went to surau for asar, walked some more.  Got everyone a Cool Blog, walked to see  huge cat fishes in the man-made river that passes through The Mines.  We had early dinner at Chicken Rice Shop then headed for the surau again  for magrib.  I specifically ordered them to take their wudu', prepare and get ready for prayers and as soon as magrib starts, pray quickly so that we can catch the beginning of the movie.

Alas, I was the only one who followed my orders, when I came out (the first) the boys were playing outside the surau.  By the time we got to our seats , a quarter of the movie was over.  Luckily we did not miss the highlights of Pi at the ocean with the Richard Parker the Tiger.

In the car on the way back I asked them what they learnt from the movie.  Amirul said, 'jangan putus asa'.  Izul said, 'berusaha' and Fadzil said, 'buat baik pada binatang'.  I asked them a tougher question.  Apa sifat yang ada pada Pi?  Amirul said,' tak putus asa', Izul said 'berusaha' and to my surprise Little Ilyas said, 'berani'.  Then I asked  'soalan cepumas'.  Apa dalam hidup kita yang kita rasa susah sangat tapi kalau kita buat sungguh-sungguh macam Pi, kita mesti berjaya macam Pi.  Izul said 'naik tempat tinggi'.  Little Ilyas got it right again by answering, 'periksa'.

If the movie had given the boys an example of  human courage, it was indeed a day well spent.

I do not know if the boys enjoyed themselves but I certainly did.  It put a smile in my heart.  The camaraderie between us was of genuine fondness without any divides. The boys like me and I like the boys.  I had the twins holding on to both my hands all the way when they were not scampering about or scaling the escalators.  The boys did not have to be 100 percent on guard and could be their ownselves with me.  Which, is not always a good thing.

I was not a good teacher in a sense that sometimes another teacher need to stand at the door to keep my class quiet.  I used to feel disappointed with myself for not being able to keep the class in order like the other teachers.  But they are instances that make me feel good like when the boys come back from school and pop their head into my class and ask 'bila teacher ajar saya?'  And by some luck, they usually do well for my subject.

It takes alot, a whole lot, to educate and discipline the orphans.  It takes someone made of steel.  And I think, I am more of a  emm.... cotton candy.

Lion city, here we come

I received an invitation from my cousin-aunty to her daughter's wedding in Singapore.  Since no one else is going from my family, and Aunty Naemah came to Picipu's wedding, I had to reciprocate.  And for the first time in her adult life, my sister Idah wanted to follow  with her three children.  So did our Aunt Chor. All the 6 of us found ourselves waiting for the delayed train outbound South.

It finally arrrived and we settled into our bunks. The train speeds, bumps, jolts and swayed like mad, I could not sleep. Alhamdulillah we made it to Woodlands safely for the wedding.

Arriving very early in the morning, we took a taxi to Abang Amin's house at Pasir Ris and after a hearty breakfast and happy-to-see-you-again banter, we got ready for the wedding and took the very efficient public transport to the Community Hall at Hougang,

More happy-to-see-you-again encounters, I met many other relatives whom, like me, has changed somewhat due to age and lack of exercise.  The younger generation  has grown  that I could not recognise them, including Suzie, the bride if she was not the bride on that auspicious day.

The food was great. Beautiful buffet and food arrangement with many varieties of delicious  food. And of course, there was sambal goreng!

Since so many guest kept coming to the staggered invite, we decided to make room and left the ceremony with a heartfelt 'nanti-jumpa-lagi,'  and went shopping to Geyland Serai taking along the wedding favours, goody bags and packed 'Nasi Beryani'.

Then Idah said, 'tak best sangat lah Singapore ni'. She had summed up that she had seen all of the country, and  to do justice to our Dad's kampung, I took them to Orchard Road, where the shopping splendour is and left her speechless. Everything was expensive. All that I could buy at CK Tang was the plastic jelly moulds.

Day 1 over.

2nd day was kid's day.  Universal Studio. Awesome and  worth the price of the ticket.  If I were to write what we did there, it would be one long post, so you have to go and see for yourself.

 Knowing that l do not like rollercoasters, Idah tricked me on getting on one, I nearly died and as soon as I got off, l had to recollect myself under the dinasour and its watering egg.

So much to do and try out at the theme park, it even 'snowed' that night. From 10 am till the Universal Studio staff lined up to wave the visitors goodnight at the entrace, everyone still had something they did not try out.

Very tiring 2nd day over. We took the MRT from Vivocity to East Harbour, (or is it West Harbour??) to Koven station, then a bus to Pasir Ris, one long public transporting.

Day 3 was Aunt Chor's day to Mustafa Shopping Mall, a much bigger version of our Mydin. Many floors of many merchandise.

Before Mustafa Mall, we went to Arab Street which have had a massive facelift  and had been conferred the title ' heritage village,'  bringing us back to way back when when Kak Limah's family used to live there with the other merchant families.

Near Arab Street there is the Haji Lane, two rows of shops interfacing, had turned into boutique style, smallish, chic and extremely charming shopping arcade.

That night, still not familiar with the city, we were late to the train station, and ran while waving for the train to wait. Unfortunately I could not take a shot in that state of activity.But we did look comical as we ran 'pontang panting' with our bags and goods.

Johor Deli

Today I ate these for lunch! Johor food made by Johorians.
It reminded me of my childhood, the old days when I used to eat my grandmother's delicious food in Muar.

:D