Ah Peng

Picture of an old armchair against a newly acquired 1950s display cabinet in our Ayer Baloi house

This entry is actually inspired by my discovery of a 1970s advert below..."Puan Nora, ... anda kalah!"

It was a good weekend in Ayer Baloi, as always, last week. Kids had fun, parents had their much needed break...But most importantly had a quality time devoid of modern world entrapments which would normally distract us! Can life always be that simple?

This time I re-visited kedai Ah Peng, a grocery shop which situates two doors away. Met Ah Peng, his wife and daughter. His daughter, ironically has a Malay name! She was named after allahyarhamah Normadiah, the actress. Being in a largely Malay community, I suppose, joining the fan-club of Malay silver screen was inevitable!

Ah Peng has not changed the least bit as if he is trapped in a time warp; still donning his khaki bermuda and P-Ramlee singlet! He is still, physically, a strong man but his memory needs to be jogged at times. The Labour Weekend when we had khenduri , Ah Peng actually delivered a gas cylinder to our house single handedly! Only during this visit that I had time to actually say hello to him. Of course he couldn't recognize me a it had been umpteen years since we last met! My kids have been frequenting his shops, though, in each of our sojourn like ten thousand times a day! My introduction to him was "Ni Boboy (yes this is what I was called by my grandparents)lah Ah Peng" which was met with an overjoyed reply "Oh anak Chekgu Mat!".

We chatted on for a bit and reminisced of the good old days. He eagerly described me how I was as a toddler and relating to my kids of how I used to, like my kids now, frequent his shop for tid-bits and main tikam-tikam with my cousins Kak Lin and Sab (fondly called Chab boy).

I used to look forward to going back to my granddad's house in Ayer Baloi as he was one of the first few owners of a National colour tv! We only had a black and white tv with a roller door and we only lived about 15 km away, then.

I remember, electricity would only come on at about 7pm and national tv would also start around the same time. My granddad's house would be filled to the brim in the evenings as relatives and neighbours would flock to watch tv programmes in colour. It was like having a night fete daily! The best thing was that, we could receive SBC's (Singapore TV) transmission due to the close vicinity and their programmes were definitely ahead of our time. How time has changed....!

Enjoy this video!

Labour Day Weekend

It has been a dream of my dad to organize a gathering to reunite his immediate family - his siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings and step-mother. They had, somewhat, grown apart since the demise of my paternal grandad who passed on when I was fifteen.

The house in Ayer Baloi was inhabited by my dad step-sister and her family with my dad's blessing since Tok Ayah's passing-on. She was the caretaker of the house until her demise a few years ago. The house was then occupied by her husband until last November, when my dad decided to refurbish the house as its condition had become unfit for habitation.

Last weekend was just perfect for the reunion; the house condition is almost fully restored and furnished (except the compound), as you can tell from the pictures. My parents organized a thanksgiving and tahlil khenduri for the reunion. Guests were feasted with nasi ambeng; a javanese traditional spread prepared by my mom's siblings who are of Javanese and Yunnanese descent served to my dad's family who are of Arab, Bugis and Malay descent! We are indeed a confused lot but proud to be Malaysian!

I would say that it was a weekend full of emotions, some even had tear-jerking moments; witnessing the reunion of siblings whom have not met under one roof for the longest time was simply awesome! My step grand-mom was there with her grandchildren whom I have not met and all my dad's living siblings were there except for Mak Bal, my dad's cousin who was taken care by my grandparents. At the end of the reunion, promises were made to have such gathering again in the near future; I believe it will be during Eid! I'm looking forward to this coming Eid as we will definitely be in Ayer Baloi (3rd day possibly) to celebrate with re-kindled uncles, aunties, cousins and distant relatives.

First living room area

Second living room area
Nasi Ambeng

Last day in Ayer Baloi; dead tired, I believe

Butterfly in the garden

Some hanging plants

Hajar napping

Newly planted lemon tree

Old-school plant; Puteri Menyembah Bumi (the flowers literally droop to the ground once bloom!)

Pokok Melati

Newly planted Pokok Pulasan

Cempaka tree

The house

L-R Pak Po (half-sibling), Pak Nan (half-sibling), My dad, Pak Ngah (sibling)

Fun & Food - Pontian Kechil & Kukup

This time around, (our 3rd visit to Ayer Baloi after so long), I was determined to visit Kukup and savour Ah Lai's sweet and sour crab dipped with bread/bun. We planned to have our dinner the first day we arrived but we were too knackered to move a limb! This was all because we had to do our grocery shopping in Pontian Kechil (15 minutes' drive from Ayer Baloi) plus getting new pillows and blankets for the house as well as bicycles for the younger two, when we arrived, sans kids. The last time I went shopping in Pontian Kechil was possibly 30 years ago! Pontian Kechil used to be a cowboy town with shops lined on either side of the road. Not anymore when we went; there are shops running along at least three roads parallell to the main road (on either side)! There is also Pontian Besar which is just before Pontian Kechil. It's an irony of names....Pontian Besar being small in size and vice versa.

While exploring Pontian Kechil with wifey, we bumped into a baking supplies store which is quite a biggie for a small town like Pontian Kechil. I actually asked whetehr there were baking activities in Pointian Kechil and the owner said "you'd be surprised!"; I WAS indeed! Wifey, needless to say, went beserk! That's her craze now! She's been using the oven in the last two months more than she had used it for during the tenure of our married life! My persuasion (for her to bake) for the past umpteen years, finally showed excellent results!

Anyway, wifey bought some baking wares and ingredients (as if we could not get them in KL)! I must admit they were a lot cheaper! If you happen to be in Pontian Kechil, it's located along Jalan Taib! We had to go back the following day (after our Kukup visit) to buy some cake boxes and ramekins!

Whilst looking for pillows and blankets, we chanced upon an old wooden building with about 4 lots of shops selling stuff from China. That's where we bought kapok pillows (which cost RM6/each), white cotton pillowcases (RM9 for a twin pack), pyjamas bottoms (RM13/a pair), pagoda t-shirts etc etc! The Chinese shop owners thought we were Singaporeans! They charged us less when we said we came from Ayer Baloi!

We were introduced, after a phone call to my parents, to Waslee (a supermarket) where we bought lamb (for the barbie), fruits and such! There I was shocked to see that they sold passion fruits- one of my favourites! A tray of three passion fruits only cost, on average, RM3! I have been buying them for RM1.95/fruit from Just Life at Ikano Power Centre! A passion fruit would cost about RM4 from Hock Choon opposite my office! Unfortunate for me, there were only 3 trays left! I took them all!

Back to Ah Lai's crabs - we drove all the way to Kukup (about 15 minutes from Pontian) for lunch on the second day. The last time I ate Ah Lai's crabs was when I was 7 or 8. My parents would bring us for our monthly (? can't verify this) fixes of seafood to Kukup as then (when we lived in Benut, a pekan about 12km north of Ayer Baloi, until 1976), there was only Ah Lai's! I remember one visit in particular when my mom asked my brother what he wanted for his drink and answered without a blink of an eye - "Anchor Beer!". Everyone just broke into a frenzy of laughter, including my parents' friends who were with us. That was the exposure of Singapore TV to us - all those beer commercials! Ah..those were the days.....! Ah Lai's shop has a different name now...for the life of me it somehow has slipped my mind (a telltale of old age). Drive through the road to the jetty/immigration, it's the last restaurant on the right.

I was quite surprised that there are a lot of things to do in Kukup. For one, there is Tanjung Piai (the most southern tip of South East Asia) boasting a National Park (which we did not have time to visit), there are also boat cruises to the kelong, mangrove forest etc. And if you are adventurous enough, bring your passport and travel to nearby Pulau Karimon, which I have not visited but Khadijah and Yusof have (where we still have relatives there), where you can tailor make curtains for a few hours at ridiculously pasar malam prices. For golfers, there is a golf resort nearby! Wifey has also written about our food folly in Kukup here.

I can't seem to be bored writing about our Ayer Baloi trip. May be, one last posting after this!

The Highlight : Sweet and Sour Crab


Looking really hungry
Fried Mantou

Prawn Nestum


Baby squids doused with lemon sauce and honey

Beehoon basah

Ayer Baloi Pictorial

The House

We are back from our short balik kampung break...Too short a time, too many things to do! The kids enjoyed it albeit a brief one. They were practically 24/7 outdoor!

We spring-cleaned, ate really fresh seafood, had a barbie..., eat, eat, eat and eat...In short we had fun! More pics on the way!

Hajar at the entrance

Kebun behind the house

My parents' wedding legacy - (restored) table lamp sits on a newly acquired old table
(wifey working)
Arwah granddad's room

P Ramlee sofa set still at the upholsterer

Part of unfinished interior

Hajar asking for breakfast

Part of the kebun

Rambutan

Durian

Mangoesteen fruiting

The barbie

NBA sportsgirl

Hajar also helped clean the house compound

The House That My Tok Ayah Built

My kids just can't wait to go back to Ayer Baloi this weekend. This is their new kampung. "New" in the sense that we had just begun to visit this place regularly. My Tok Hawa passed on in Mecca when I was 9 and Tok Ayah departed when I was 15. The only person left in Ayer Baloi was my dad's sister who, sadly, left us a few years ago. That explains why my kids never had the opportunity to really explore this kampung of mine. It's a different story altogether now since my dad embarked on his refurbishment project on this house of his last December!

My father had always had this place since he was twelve (yup the property was held on trust for him) and it served as my paternal grandfather's family home while my grandad was alive. It's an acre estate with a three-bedroom-house (built in the 60s) built on it! The rest of the area is a fruit orchard planted with durian, mangoesteen, duku, bachang trees and the like! My late grandad was in the police force whose work brought him to different parts of the country mostly the northern states. This house was built after he retired from the force where he launched his business as a contractor. More on this later.....

Well, this is the place where we will temporarily make our abode this weekend...The boys are excited over this trip to meet their new-found friend, being the kids next door! One thing for sure, they will be outdoor all the time!

The House, prior to refurbishment


The kitchen in a sorry state

This is the part of the house which I love

The multipurpose semi-permanent building

(It had been used as a wet kitchen, bedroom to my uncles, store room,

you name it room!)