SUNDAY THE 13TH

what a great relief...

The plane landed safely and smoothly at the (HRH) Sultan Mahmud International Airport in Kuala Terengganu at 4:00p.m.  There was no incidence of “my normal embarrassing moments” this time on the flight. The weather was fine, there was no mid air turbulence and the “inside” of me had behaved so well.   I must say,  Alhamdulillah syukur, Thank God.

Before leaving KL, I called an old friend who worked as the aircraft engineer that I was on this flight home.  He confirmed that he was working.  So I thought, okay I could meet him since it was ages ago that we meet up in KL.

As I went down the escalator, I received his call.  He was checking if I had picked my luggage.  Guess what?  He was sending me home.  Ha ha, very funny!

“What?” I retorted.

“Yes, I am already at the waiting area on level one and you have to come up here.”  He ordered.

“What? Was there an arrangement that you were sending me home?”  I asked bewildered.

“Oh I thought I could send you  home?” He continued.

“No, my sister is waiting out there.”  I went on.

“Oh I see.  You did not tell me she was fetching you?”.  He firmly said.

“And you did not tell me you were going to fetch me earlier when I called you”. I was almost amused.  Anyway, we did not meet.

AND this was the person whom I met on the plane 8 years ago, seating next to me, and  had successfully started a conversation over the STAR newspaper.  From then on, we became friends and once when I was short of cash for my project, he had helped me.  It was a hefty sum.

“ We have just met and you already trusted me?  You are so noble.” I remarked thankfully.

“You asked from Allah and Allah sent through me” he continued.

I was … full of emotions at such rare remarks.  He must be a pious man indeed.  The project completed within a couple of weeks but the payment from the government sector was held up.  There were two   international events in early 2003, namely NAM and OIC.  It was attended by distinguished world leaders including the HRH Queen of England and some  Kings from other countries.  One of my chatter friends who represented New York was amongst the dignitaries.  All the funds were channeled to manage these huge events.  We then knew it.  Surely our payments would have been delayed.  True enough, it was not until June the following year that we, all the contractors, received our payments.  I was fortunate.  My supplier was very kind and was willing to wait for the balance due.

  

Monday 14th ...Day Two. a test of my patience began...

After dawn I tried the internet, using wireless connection.  It responded well.  But sad to say… not for long.  Apparently, the latest wireless   internet is fairly new.  I presumed, it is far from stable and worse still, I had to wait for ages to get connected.

Tuesday 15th Day Three.

Tonight, the 15th of September, I was lucky to get it for slightly over 15 minutes.  Sufficient enough to read one email from our Old Girls Assoc. group email and then it went off.  Leaving me patiently clicking “Try Again” numerous times.

When I opened my blog, it was kind enough to let me view it.  Had a peek at my blog to check on the visitors counter, it touched 12, 035 …thanks for coming by.

Then it went blinking red!  Okay fine.  I am not giving up but I let you dwell on the new set up in KT, let you settle, let you stabilize with your server and system.

I took the whole set downstairs and started writing this little post not hoping to post it tonight… perhaps some other time.

Anyway, today… as I retracted the event of the day…  early in the morning I went to a nearby wet market to obtain some spices, chicken, prawns and squids. The last two items were not originally planned from home but once I was in the market, I suddenly feel like cooking “Sea Food Tom Yam”.  Then I went round to get some shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, kafir leaves, young sweet corns, cauliflower coriander leaves ,celery and oyster mushrooms.  There were coconuts in two shops but the sellers told me, there were all fully booked.  What?  For the festive season, is it?  It’s another five days to the Eidul Fitri.  I went to a smaller shop quite near to my house and managed to obtain some.

Once home, I changed my attire and went into the kitchen to get the chicken prawn and squids cleaned.  Put the water on the stove to boil together with the prawn shells for the tom yam for dinner.  All the ingredients were later prepared and cooked.  

Meanwhile, I shelled the shallots, lemon grass, ginger and galangal and get prepared for chicken rendang, a Malay delicacy which has many ways to prepare.  By the time it was half cooked,  I believed even the neighbors’ houses were full of its aromatic smell.

It took almost the whole day to cook this dish... have to let it simmer and thickened and dried up.  By night time when it was cold, I packed and arranged them in the freezer.  I shall see them again early Sunday morning, the Eid morning ...  in the microwave.  There were lots of preparations going on the house, so I decided to get this dish ready and put away until required.

By the time I completed writing this post, it’s 23.54p.m.

Wednesday 16th: Day Four.

Enjoying going to the market and helping around.  Oh yes!!!

See you in my next post.

I might not get anymore connections after this post no matter how much patience I could load.....  it's unbearable!!!