Monsoon

This is the most winter-like Terengganu can get. With the rain, muddy roads and the non-stop wipers on the screen, this is monsoon. The wind from the high-pressure air of the cold China is blowing to the low-pressure air of warm Australia down under. As the wind passes through Terengganu, it brings along the clouds. The clouds. It looks like Voldemort is coming but he never does. Bummer. 

While the kids are staying inside, the mothers have to cook lunch early as most of the kids get hungry easily in this cold season. Fats are burned. Cold. Windy. The Chinese winds. Hence, they are hungry.

The sound of the rain droplets fills your ear. The monsoon music.

In a place somewhere in the north, there will be a race. The fishermen will not go to the sea this monsoon season. The wind is their eternal enemy. Yet, a group of boat sailors are flocking to Kuala Terengganu for a monsoon cup. Ops, Monsoon Cup. Money. Champion. No benefits to me. Not interesting. Ugh.

Frankly speaking, the race is boring. Waste. Promotion? Not so much Caucasians are dropping by! Still a promotion? 

Chukai-ans do not depend on fishing industry as their source of income although there are some keropok lekor making in Kuala Kemaman, but all of the penggetel keropok lekor seem  like they are rich enough even without going to the sea to catch fish. Their bungalows are bigger than my house. Perhaps only infinitesimal amount of fisherman still exist in Kuala Kemaman. But this is the time when fish price is rocketing to the moon! At least that is what my father says. No one is going to the sea, so no fish in pasor (to orang luor, it's PASAR), more demand, less supply equal to RMsssss. Mahal! Orang puteh kabo it's bloody expensive! Mahal sampai berdarah-darah!

That is why I eat only chicken. I want to reduce the burden of my father buying expensive fish. 

Rain brings a heavy problem to the people of Chukai. Traffic. Everyone has a car. Ops, every family has almost more than one car! Some even have more cars than the number of their family members. Maybe Al-Gore can come here and lecture these people about environmentalism crap. Your visit will boost Kemaman's popularity too. At least there is one American coming to Mak Chili! 

There is a Porsche. I do not know who drives it. Oh, the black Porsche going to the not-so-Mak-Chili-anymore Kampung Mak Chili. Yes, not-so-Mak-Chili-anymore compared to 10 years ago! By the way, there are so many longkang besor (GIANT drains) in constructions. Flood prevention. Good. Our own Smart Tunnel. Mak Chili Flood Prevention System (MC-FloPS). 

I do not want a Porsche. If someone wants to give it to me, then Alhamdulillah! I might as well sell the car back, and get and i-Pad. Ops, I think I will buy more than one i-Pads so that I can give them to my siblings and friends. Oh, the dream. 

Oh the monsoon... and a little sister who is still holding the TV remote control tight in her hand. When is my turn?

Oh...hungry again. I blame the cold monsoon.-The Chukai Insider

The Chukai Insider Great Challenge 2011

OK Faidhi, let's make it official.

Challenge Accepted!

The challenge: I have to finish all the books I listed in my summer book list by the 23rd of September, 11.59pm. 

As proof, I have to write reviews of all the books on The Chukai Insider. 

If I don't finish the challenge, I get HUMILIATION! And you get to gloat.

If I win, you get HUMILIATION and as a gift, you will buy me a sofa set of MY CHOICE when (and if) I get married. 

The List:

Lord Sunday by Garth Nix
Percy Jackson & The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella
Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Solar by Ian McEwan
War of The Worlds by H.G. Wells
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Twelve by Nick Mcdonell
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Remains of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton
The Assassination of Jesse James by Ron Hansen
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy
Orchard on Fire by Shena Mackay
The Rainmaker by John Grisham
Muhammad by Karen Armstrong
The Tyrant's Novel by Thomas Keneally
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Memory of Running by Ron Mclarty
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
Skellig by David Almond
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle 

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
Staggerford by Jon Hassler
July's People by Nadine Gordimer
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf


The catch: NO CATCH

'Till the 23rd~

The Chukai Insider

Meh kite bllajo, nok?

I'm currently reading Awang Goneng's 'A Map of Trengganu' which I think will be The Chukai Insider book of the year. Hahaha bajet star!


There are two pantuns inside the book and I would like to share them. Dokleh ke? Ikut panda aku la blog aku..-The Chukai Insider


Terang bulan bintang berseri,
Ombak memukul ke pantai landai;
Rajinlah belajar setiap hari,
Supaya cepat menjadi pandai.


Terang bulan bintang berbanjar,
Kapal belayar di laut jawa;
Masa budak wajib belajar,
Bila besar tidak kecewa.


Pasa buku tu, aku brahi baca. Aku memang brahi baca mende-mende gitu sebab menarek. Aku dok penoh jupe gi penulis hok tules pasal Tranung best-best gitu. Sape-sape nok pinjang kekgo buleh la ambek. 

Makanang in Kemamang

Frankly speaking, I don't really miss my hometown but eating at the same restaurant (since there is no other halal restaurants within walking distance) and food cooked by my friends here have made me want to go back just to eat. I want to eat the 'normal' food that I always eat at home. The food that I always eat sokmo-sokmo (all the time).

Talking about makang pagi (breakfast) in Trengganu means that you are talking about eating nasik (rice). There all kinds of nasik early in the morning sold by mok-cik mok-cik (mak ciks). They are the food heroes in the morning. My mom don't usually cook in the morning during school holidays. She will go out with my father and buy all the kinds of food that we ordered the night before. Yes, we told her what to buy. It sounds that we ask the food from her, but she always insists us to tell her what do we want to eat. Otherwise, she will buy something like mee goreng and kepok goreng and honestly, we the siblings don't like them.

What I want to eat the most is the nasi minyok  with ayang goreng near the steseng bas. We call it nasi minyok Pok Mat. Yes, I want nasik kerabu too. You can find nasik kerabu anywhere in Malaysia now, but ugh, they are far to be compared from those in Trengganu and Kelantan in terms of its kelazatan. Yes, the colour is still blue, but its taste also is bluish. My nasik kerabu is not perfect without ayam paprik since I don't eat fish (normally, they serve nasi kerabu with fried fish). I tried the best ayam paprik in Kota Bharu before and no Kenny Rogers' chicken can match with that. Sorry Mr Roger, but your chickens are both dok sedap, muok and mahal!

If my Chukai friends are reading this, you must not have forgotten Sonstar. You must have serious brain problem if you forget this place since you guys go there almost every day. I am still wondering the purpose of going to the kopitiam whether it is just to drink cendol ijo-ijo or chit chat or just to become the Third Force to a lovely (?) couple (hok mane pahang tu pahang la, hahaha). 

By the way, for these few months in Miri, people keep associating my hometown (Kemamang or Chukai) with some restaurants that they went to before. This happens when they all are asking where I'm coming from la. Faham ke? The normal "Owh really? I've been to the .... before".

They remember sata Che Aziz (If the owner is reading this, I want to tell you that your sata is becoming more mahal and day by day, they are getting smaller. They are not like the French amuse bouche!). They also know Hai Peng and Tong Juan. This is the post written by someone who is hungry. -The Chukai Insider

Less Serious This Time

What career is right for you?

Faidhi got Lawyer.

You love to prove your point. It drives you crazy when people try to say you are wrong, even though sometimes you may be. But this would come in great handy in your career. You are great at arguing and you can easily manipulate others into thinking they are wrong, even if they aren't. You love to stand up for what you believe in and your morals and opinions are rarely ever challenged. You are organized, in life and in your mind. You are a people person, but sometimes people don't find you very nice.

Okay, here's something different today. I tried this quiz today and with the time that I have, I could answer the quiz carefully so not to make mistakes like I did in Paper 1 Physics, I guess! So, it turned out that being a lawyer is the right career for me according to the quiz which is based on no research at all. I don't care the lawyer thing but I am more interested with the description. 

1.You love to prove your point. It drives you crazy when people try to say you are wrong, even though sometimes you may be.

Okay, mister! Whether my friends know about this or not, I think the statement is true. I always want to prove my point. Even my mother even said 'mu ni kalu cakap betul mu sokmo, malas aku cakap ngan mu!'. Hahaha. Even among my friends, I realize that I always want to be the right one. Chukai friends are super duper good, so I guess they get used to it already. It does drive me crazy when my point is said wrong. But I do accept comment easily. When you can convince me, I'm fine. Hahaha. People, when you say my point is wrong, try looks at my eyes and ears. My eyes will be a little bit slanted showing blurriness. My eyes will say this to you " eee, geramnya aku dia ni, dohlah dok paham aku cakap mende, ngok ngeknya point dia". If you look at my ears, they will turn pinkish. I always feel like a smoke coming out of my ears when that happens. I may stay silent and say 'yeah' and stop talking. That's when I think you just can't accept things that I say anymore and it would be stupid for me to continue. Sometimes, I may be wrong, but prove it to me. Yeah, I'm stubborn, what do you care? I think for now, only two persons that can really really change my opinions on certain thing and make me to agree with them. They are both girls and both are doing the same course. Guess who you are. So, the Facebook Quiz scores 1 point!

2.You are great at arguing and you can easily manipulate others into thinking they are wrong, even if they aren't.

I'm not great in arguing, duhh. Although some may think that I am (poyo-ness at work, gentleman!), it is just you have not met someone greater than me at arguing things. Manipulative? Yes, I am. But I'm not manipulative in the wrong way, if you know what I mean. It's like I can twist your sentence a little bit and then, bang! It's not like I'm right or something but it's like a skill. I even use this during my debate years in school. When the Government side asked me to give proofs and details about what I said, I manipulated her own points. I laughed my ass off after the competition! Seriously, ask Chen Kim Soong and Syaza about this. Debating surely develop all of the skills that I have today. That's why in my previous post, I made a point by saying that if all of the national debaters get together, they will make most of our Ministers look stupid. They will surely win the debate. Seriously, our students are great in debating. 

3.You love to stand up for what you believe in and your morals and opinions are rarely ever challenged.

This blog speaks for itself. I really stand up for what I believe in. Morals and opinions are rarely ever challenged? Nup, that is not right. Having many very intelligent people surrounding me, my opinions are always being challenged. But I really enjoyed it. I missed my time with Azrul,one of my seniors in KTJ. See, I'm a little bit conservative, but he managed to make me view communism from a different perspective. I  had so many great debates when I was in KTJ. To the 'anonymous' (you know who you are!) who's reading this, you are not included because you are just plain stupid. You are not in the intelligence cycle. 

4.You are organized, in life and in your mind.

In life, I am organized! That's because my mom is! When I was in KTJ, I knew I took for granted the ironed school shirt that I wore in Sultan Ismail II. At first, I was thinking of not ironing my shirt like most KTJ-ians do (yeah, it's not disciplinary wrong!), but then I knew I couldn't stand wearing not-ironed school uniform. Then, I learnt how to iron my shirt at the age of 18! Like a kid learning how to ride a bike! Qama, my senior taught me how to iron my school uniforms. At first, I took 30 minutes to complete the shirt only! Argh! Am I organized then? If my mom is there, I'll be! Dia sangat bekeng (Trengganuites je faham kot)! 

5.You are a people person, but sometimes people don't find you very nice.

This is so true! People person? I have emotions to people who are unrelated to me, like CJ7, the beggars on streets, Bangladeshis who work in pump stations, mak cik cleaner kat KTJ, Simba when he lost his father and an auntie in Sultan Ismaill II area. I still remember that auntie; she has a daughter in Sultan Ismail Primary and she brings her to school on her bicycle everyday. I still remember her till today and where she lives but I never speak or smile to her. She doesn't know that I know her. But to people around me? I tend to get annoying and gedix and nasty! Hahaha! I always lost a sense of humane with them. I think that's why some people may find me not a very nice person. That's why I love my Kemaman friends so much, because I think they still love me! (No? Janganla macam tu, I nak kawan ngan sape? I dah break up dengan dia ni!). I love Kemaman friends. No substitutions for them. And that's why I'm a people person but tend to get nasty to people who are close to me. 

Babai! -The Chukai Insider

Ainul talks about Enigma and the stories behind it

Enigma is a novel written by two Form Two students when they were studying at Sultan Ismail II. If you were in the class, you should remember how Chen and Ainul kept arguing on how to keep the story alive. Karen was in the fight as well. For those who would like to read the novel, there is an online version of it. Click here to read the full version. 

This is my e-mail interview with one of the authors, Ainul Mardhiah. Currently, she is studying Medicine in Poland. The interview with another author, Chen Kim Soong will be on this blog soon. He is very busy now, I guess. For the Si2,the novel became part of our history. For the rest, remember the novel is Kemaman-made product!

What is Enigma about?
Supposedly,we were trying to write an adventure with a historically correct background. It's about the last direct descendant of the Tsars of Russia and how the enemies of the royal line are trying to eliminate them once and for all. So the whole story is on how they try to survive.

Why did you write Enigma?
As a challenge actually. We were really into Dan Brown books, The Da Vinci Code had just come out, and we liked the idea and concept. It was a good way to spend our carefree form 2 year.

Have you ever imagined yourself as Aurora? If yes, how? If no, why?
Never. I wrote Aurora as a pretty weak person and Chen emphasized even more on her pathetic-ness. So I never really liked her as a protagonist. I don't know how it happened and I'm really sorry for her character but throughout the development of the story she became more and more weak inside. So I put a lot more good characteristics in Dmitri.

What was your memorable experience in writing Enigma?
Chen's drilling. Every time we had extra time in between classes,he would drill me (and sometimes Karen and Ji Lee) to finish writing our chapters. He of course finished them on time always.

How do you feel working with your co-author, Mr Chen? (any crush?)

Less Serious This Time- Episode 2

It has been almost two months before I stopped writing for this blog.

Before the D-Day

I was busy doing visa with so much hype and excitement to go to Seattle. Well, everything was to be settled down; visa, passport etc. I stayed in my house in KL for a quite long time to get everything done. Staying alone in the house made me realise how calm I was.

Shahid contacted me one day and asked if I want to go to Alamanda in Putrajaya and watch Angelina Jolie’s Salt. There, Shahid told me that he wanted to go to Kemaman, my hometown to get his GCE English certificate at Rantau Petronas in Kerteh. The plan to go to my house went well. Funny, his car is probably older than me. She managed to climb Karak highway though. Shahid was reluctant at first to bring me back to Kemaman on his car just because of the condition of the car. I did. We survived!

Shahid went to his school the next day. There was a lot of “where are you studying now?” s, and I was so sick of it. Who wouldn’t? I brought Shahid to see my best friend, Amin. He knows him as well because we used to go to camps together. We went out and took lunch with Lian, another KTJ-ian. Amin is not, and he was not the normal live-out-loud Amin! We made plans to go to Cherating that evening, without Lian though.