I was supposed to go to Bagan for an evening of jazz music but the afternoon tea session at La Manila with two friends wore me out because of our endless chatter. Tonight, I have been reflecting on the recent events in my life for the past 15 months.
Despite the fact that it has been some time since I graduated, I can still recall one of the classes I had in Social Psychology with Mrs. Loh at USM. With much elegance, she expounded and waxed lyrical about Erikson's Development Stages. You can read more about it here, here and here.
I am now in Stage 7 and trying hard to understand how my Stages 1 to 6 made me what I am today. The last 15 months have been the MOST difficult in my life as I had to cope with the death of my father, my stepmother and a beloved aunt not forgetting my recent encounter and the aftermath. With such a roller-coaster ride of grief-recovery-grief-recovery-grief-recovery trend, it has been tough trying to cope but thank goodness, I am living again, breathing quite normally and writing again. Not forgetting the fact that more than before, I am aware of how blessed I am to have my family and friends who stood by me.
Now if I were to look back, I can safely say that the best years of my childhood were my pre-school years where children "experience a desire to copy the adults around us and take initiative in creating play situations. We make up stories with Barbie's and Ken's, toy phones and miniature cars, playing out roles in a trial universe, experimenting with the blueprint for what we believe it means to be an adult. We also begin to use that wonderful word for exploring the world—"WHY". (excerpt from here)
Looking at the current trends of toys and play patterns, I am glad I grew up as a baby boomer in the 1960s. Those days, we did not have PSP, Playstation, Nintendo Wii, laptops, Transformer toys, Lego etc. I grew up playing kites, tops, marbles, guns, trains and cars (yup I was a real tomboy hanging out with my male cousins). The first time mom gave me a soft toy was when I was three years old.
I still remember I was sitting on the stairs watching the ants crawling on the jambu tree in front of me and wondering if I could catch a spider for the next fight with my cousins (those days we had spider fights like what Lat described - we would trap the spiders and keep them in matchboxes after which we would let them battle it out in a box.)
Mom walked up the stairs with something brownish in her hand. As I turned and looked in her direction, my heart dropped when I saw what she was holding - a furry teddy bear that looked so real and could grunt grumpily like a real bear....With that, I took to my heels and hid in my room. Much later, I fell in love with Lulu (I know, corny but it coincided with To Sir With Love)and let her wear my baby underpants and singlet haha!!! Till this day, I have Lulu nicely wrapped in paper and is one of my most treasured possessions.
Despite being a real tomboy playing cops and robbers with my gun, beret and baton, I used to love to play masak-masak. I think it was about 1968 or 1969 when my cousin Hoy moved to Circular Avenue in Fettes Park. My mom and I would spend the whole Saturday or Sunday there. While the ladies chatted and cooked in the kitchen, Hoy and I were up to our tricks.
I can still remember that I had brought along my prized masak-masak set which mom had bought for me from Padang Besar. Made of real earthen clay, I had a good sized charcoal stove (like those used in the past for cooking), a few other earthern pots and metal saucepans etc. Gee...they don't make that type of toys anymore and I do not know what happened to my collection.
That afternoon, Hoy and I decided to cook lunch for ourselves. Sneaking into the kitchen, we helped ourselves to a few tablespoons of beras (rice), sugar, a few slices of chicken which we stole from the freezer and also the bottle of soya sauce and red coloring. Why you might ask?
Simple.
Menu for lunch
Steamed rice (or so we thought for in the end it turned out to be harder than sand)
Soya sauce chicken (called Tau Yew Chicken in Hokkien)
Red syrup to make our favorite ais manis
Steamed rice (or so we thought for in the end it turned out to be harder than sand)
Soya sauce chicken (called Tau Yew Chicken in Hokkien)
Red syrup to make our favorite ais manis
Most deviously, we set up our kitchen in the shadiest part of the garden near to the backyard - out of sight from the ladies. With no experience, we fumbled our way through. First we used paper to start a fire. Needless to say, we were smoked out. Next we burnt grass. Bad idea. We nearly choked to death from the horrid smell. Following that, we used twigs. Same results. Finally, I sneaked into the kitchen and pinched a few pieces of charcoal from the bag. Gloating over my brilliant idea, I smashed the charcoal to small bits with a rock and proceeded to light it the way my mother used to do...What else? By pouring kerosene on it etc. Presto! The flames licked the charcoal and the chefs were off to work. First, we immersed the rice in water and let it boil while cutting the slices of chicken into small bits. Next, we placed the chicken in another metal pot poured half a bottle of soya sauce into the chicken and loads of pepper and salt!! Finally, we boiled water, added the sugar, a few drops of coloring and a strip of pandan leaf like what our mothers used to do.
Voila! After much sweat, screams and tears, the meal was done.
Even if it did not taste good, to us, it was cordon bleu cooking, one of which we remember till this day! So dear reader, what was your childhood like? Did you play masak-masak like I did? Or were you running around playing ka-lee-tuay? Or fighting over seven stones/five stones? Do leave a comment and share your experiences. Thanks!
Voila! After much sweat, screams and tears, the meal was done.
Even if it did not taste good, to us, it was cordon bleu cooking, one of which we remember till this day! So dear reader, what was your childhood like? Did you play masak-masak like I did? Or were you running around playing ka-lee-tuay? Or fighting over seven stones/five stones? Do leave a comment and share your experiences. Thanks!
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