Mr Imelda

Yusof has finally decided to save up his pocket money but for all the wrong reasons - to spend on things that he loves! His penchant for shoes is definitely driving him to earn the title "Mr Imelda"!

He has been sharing with me of his newfound love "Macbeth" the past few months - not of the Shakespearean kind though, which I secretly hoped it was (err...I mean love for literature and not modelling after Macbeth)! So this Macbeth is actually a brand for , among others, shoes!

So Pavilion was our destination last Sunday as this was one of the few places he could make his Macbeth footwear purchase after he barely saved enough money for a pair. His last straw to make up his insufficient savings was to wash all three of our toilets at home for RM20 that Sunday morning!

So, armed with his pad of notes (a lot of them were in RM1 and RM5 - so imagine the thick pad carried in his pocket!) he strode confidently into the store and asked for the one which he liked. Alas, there was no size for him; which is UK size 9 (may be it was the cutting; his normal size would be 7.5 - 8)! He had to then pick a pair which was RM20 short of his savings which I paid the shortfall! Well, mind you, it was not without quid pro quo! Suffice to say that the maid does not have to scrub the toilets this weekend!

Have a good weekend! Looking forward to T2 on Sunday!

That time again!

It's that time of the year again (......so soon?) when wifey will be terribly busy with hamper orders....(started as passion but has been taking orders for the last four years). This is the other side of her which not many people know - and of course smocking dresses (sample work here) is another hobby - but she's been doing charity work all this while....Not anymore though because she has absoultely no time for it!

Anyway, she received a phone call this morning placing 260 mini hampers to be delivered in two weeks' time....Knowing her she will meet the deadline by hook or by crook...In the mean time, yours truly will be driving around to be her beck and call to get stuff! LOL!

And the answer is.......

Well yes...., the painting depicts a ceremonial procession which takes place between paddy fields.(Please refer to this posting). So who guessed it right?

Smitten by Sukarsa

I am not an art collector nor am I an art connoisseur and I don't profess to be knowledgeable in this realm! But I do admire and appreciate them in a novice-kind-of-way. In other words, what pleases my eyes R O C K S!

So don't ask me about paint strokes, the elements, etc...! Maybe, I can identify some of the styles like impressionist, abstract, realist, surrealist, art deco or pop art.That's about it really! Beyond that...I'm hopeless.

The ones which I normally like and pick here in Kuala Lumpur are way too expensive for my pocket like Latiff Mohideen's work! I love Eng Tay's work too...(Met him once personally a couple of years back and that was a dream come true for me - a very down to earth and soft spoken bloke! Excuse me for name-dropping! LOL) - can only afford his prints though!

Last March, I attended a good friend's wedding in Bali and went on an art gallery hopping in Seminyak and Ubud after learning from friends that Bali has a thriving art scene! Traipsing through half a dozen of galleries in Ubud, due to time constraint, I was attracted to the works of an up-and-coming artist, Wayan Sukarsa - read his biography here [BTW for the uninitiated all Balinese are either Wayan/Gede/Putu (1st born) or Made/Kadek (2nd born) or Nyoman/Komang/Koming (3rd born) or Ketut (4th born)] who paints Balinese culture and the ones I saw was a series of the above painting which I acquired at a very affordable price! So now it sits pretty on my living room wall.

My preferred style has to be abstract as I enjoy interpreting them (like the one done by Sukarsa)! With his work, I was spot on in interpreting what he paints which was one of the reasons I had to buy his work. Click the picture to enlarge and have a guess what it depicts. You'd be surprised.....

The answer will be in another posting ...soon!

The wedding setting

Daughter's Point of View

I was pleasantly surprised when I was downloading pictures from my friend's camera which he left under my charge. I found the pictures which I've posted in this entry composed by my daughter. She was having a gala time in all sorts of yoga positions capturing what were pleasing to her eyes. She's a self-starter in photgraphy but all this while she's been using a point-and-shoot and this time a dSLR!

I have chosen some pictures which sort of explain two of my passions; old stuff and gardening!

Out of all the pictures photographed by my daughter, I like the above most. The lock featured in this piccie was handed down by my dad (not sure about this - he got it from my late grandad)and it used to be the lock to our front gate of our house in Batu Pahat - 32 Jalan Durian, Taman Ampuan, Batu Pahat, Johor. It now rests and guards our main entrance to my current house as part of a more than 100 year old Javanese door ensemble I purchased some 7 years ago from Aishah (an Italian lady married to a local whose interest is anything old from Indonesia. They used to have a guest house in Jogja).

I bought the door to remind me part of my roots. My maternal grandad hailed from East Java (I'm 1/4 Javanese, as my dad is a mix of Arab and Bugis and my maternal grandmom was a mix of Chinese from Yunan and Javanese).

This carving is part of the door too! The original door is quite colourful, typical and trademark of Javanese houses doors but I have left it un-restored to show the quaintness of it!

Part of my old tiffin collection. The white and blue one is new though - a housewarming gift from my partner

I've chosen this picture because of the congkak (a traditional Malay game) board. It was made out of old chengal wood by my late maternal grandmom from the remains of an old police station barrack up north. My late grandad was a policeman. My maternal grandmom singlehandedly carved out holes from the heavy chengal wood. I used to play with my kids quite a fair bit but not anymore. May be I should teach my younger ones how to play the game!

This congkak board has also doubled up as tea candle holders for those nights which I feel like having only candle lights light up our living room!

My yet to bloom stephanotis flowers aka Madagascan Jasmine (a native of Madagascar). They're sweet smelling when they bloom and I love it when I do my work at my home-office at night when the scent waft through my window!

My costus - Dwarf Orange Ginger . As my garden is not so big, I only have three species of Costus.

Wifey's work in progress

R*-A**e's yet to finish smocked dress

Last Saturday our good friend, Ch** Y*n and her daughter dropped by to return the whole set of Sunshine books which we purchased for Missy K when she was about three (translated - 10 years ago when I was 29.5 years old).

Every time we meet Ch** Y*n, wifey will feel a bit guilty because she was to present to her two daughters, J*-A**e and R*-A**e, with a smocked dress (english roses printed on American Cotton) each for last year's Chinese New Year and she has only finished smocking for one of them. She decided to put the rubber to the road and went on a marathon of smocking last Sunday (this explained her disappearance some time on Saturday last, to purchase what's required for her to complete her project). All the pressies Ch** Y*n and hubby, C*ris have been giving us like the berlian (a hard wood indigenous to Sarawak) fruit platter they lugged from Kuching, the brass wall bell from Portobello Market and the list goes on and on give her the drive to finish them before this coming New Year! Good on ya, wifey!

Yes smocking is now one of wifey's passions of what initially was to save the dosh we had to spend on Missy K's dresses (way too expensive when you only don your child in dresses only) when she was the cute little one with Goldilock-curly-locks others envied.

Yup yours truly paractically threw her in to the deep end by registering her for a short smocking course at Cottage Patch in Ampang [Some trivia about Cottage Patch - belongs to a husband and wife team, Mr & Mrs Chan. Mr Chan was either an Architect/draughtsman (cant remember now) before whose passion is quilting. He teaches quilting now and his fave past time is breeding fighting fish] which was about RM150 then and invested in a Janome sewing machine (RM1,500) and an Amanda Jane pleater (RM500) - I think I broke even within two years!

What a fine investment I made and now she enjoys pleating and thinks it's therapeutic although she does not have the luxury of time to do it which explains why she has two boxful of American and Japanese cotton materials stashed some where in the house worth a couple of grand.

Wifey's first project - a bishop smocked dress

A yoke smocked dress (Missy K's as well)





Another bishop (from Missy K's wardrobe)