Here I am,still punching my keyboard.I'm suppose to finish up my assignment but end up writing in my blog.Have u ever reminiscence the good ol' days,when you still small,nothing to worry about but your next meal,time to take your bath,sweets&chocolate and playtime?When I look at all my son,I want them to enjoy their childhood as much as I did mine.
Parents nowdays are so competitive,there's religious class for the kids to attend,tuition at night after school or KUMON,there's swimming class or music class on weekend,even slot in martial art class.Being a mother,quite frequently I would get this type of question,how many A's did you boys get?what are the marks?My daughter scored all 100% for her subjects...my standard answer would be.."oohh! my son?boys would be boys...they're lazy just like me..hahaha.."
Have it ever crossed the parents mind to let the children be a child?There should be a balance between studying,co-curriculum and time for them to play.Its not that I don't care about my kids but I want them to enjoy life.Think about it,there's tv,video games,dvd,computers and internet and if we do not encourage them to go out and play outside in the sun,the children would be stuck infront of the TV or video game or computer all day long.
I remember the days where I would follow my younger brothers to play football in the field,get soaked in the rain&running in the mud or climbing the guava or ciku trees.We would go fishing with poles made from rembia branch or bamboo sticks,tied the "tangsi" rope and fasten the fishing hook at the end of the rope.We would dug the soil for worms as bait.Back then the stream besides my mom's house is not as dried up like today,it was full of fish and flows lazily.The villagers could actually wash their clothes in the stream,the water is clean and cool but my parents never allows us to take a dip in that stream..
We already have pipe water back then but now and then we would join our neighbours to draw water from the well and take a bath at the well.The water would be so refreshing and cool for this hot tropical climate.To keep the well water clean and clear,the villagers would put "tawas" in the well.Its a type of rock I presumed...Behind my parents house,my grandparents had planted some fruit trees,there's rambutan trees,mango trees,ciku and rambai..During the fruit season,there would be mangoes hanging from the trees and the neighboring kids would come by and steal the mangoes..my brothers and me would complained to Mak but she would just dismissed us and said let them have it,we "sedekah", we wouldn't be able to eat all those fruits ourselves anyway..I love ciku,I would go to the tree every now and then to look for big ones,pluck it,clean it(Awok, my nanny taught me how to clean it) and put it in the rice bin for it to ripe.Till now,I still could finish a whole basket of ciku by myself...
I also remember, when my grandparents is still around,there would be this elderly lady,who would go around our kampung(village),carrying a basket on her head,she sell "laksam"."Cik" my maternal grandma would buy them now and then.It looks like kway teow made of flour,and rolled into a mini swiss roll,then the roll will be cut with scissors into little spirals.The gravy is made from boiled and pounded fish meat,mixed with pounded shallots, blackpepper, ginger and expressed tamarind juice and cooked in coconut milk.There's "ulam"(a mixture of raw vegetables like bean sprouts,cabbage) to accompany the dish.I often wonder,how could the lady actually balance the basket on her head...
Behind our house,there's a small hut.There's an old woman who lives on her own.I love to watch her weaves the strip of mengkuang into a mat.In her front yard,there would be strips of mengkuang which have been dyed with colours and dried up in the sun for it to be weaved into a mat at a later date.
How I wish my sons would be able to have this sort of experience but time change.There's no more elderly lady selling "laksam".If we felt like having it,we actually have to drive out to look for any stall selling "laksam" and the taste..not as delicious like the good ol' days
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