Never leave home without a good knife

Sing-a-long in Javanese!



*Stolen from Facebook, hence the tiny quality.

The song is about the process of having a wedding for Javanese families. Traditionally, the family would gather for a meeting to discuss division of labour; roping in aunts, uncles, cousins, etc to help out. Either the parent(s) of the bride/groom heads the endeavour or a family elder is tasked with the coordination of the needful for the event. No need for wedding planners.

I love how well the songwriter included the various elements of the kenduri like rewang (hanging out to help cook, decorate, etc), lining the palm of the host with a money-filled envelope before taking your leave and many more. The title of the post is a reference to how many ladies like my grandmother (and yours truly included) would never depart home for a rewang without our own knife with which to work. After all, the host may run out of knives for you to use or have inferior blades of the kind of sharpness and size that you do not favour (too many people have small, blunt knives. I check out the kitchens). I remember freaking out my grandmother's neighbour as I peel onions with a six-inch (not including the handle) chef knife. But hey, my knife was beautifully sharp and of great heft that slicing and dicing was a breeze.

However, the rewang tradition is slowly being eradicated as our lifestyle change; we can no longer depend on the commitment of families and neighbours with the catering (with perhaps a souvenir from the host for their time and energy in the form of a kain batik/pelekat, etc) and prep, everyone is so busy. Unless you live in a close-knit kampung or community, you are better off engaging professional caterers to get things done. Granted, your event will look like those in the magazines (assuming you have the budget for it), but the camaraderie of showing off your skills, developing talents and just hanging out together gossiping but the uncle who was chased out by his third wife as you peel onions will no longer part of the communal memory.

Ah well. That's the price of progress, innit?

Have a good weekend!

You just can't please everyone

Yeah. That's hot. Right.

Breaking up is hard to do.

How's the scenery viewed from your padded cell?

Forever alone.

I like that word. I used it to hang my friend in Hangman.

Jurassic love.

You are ...mythical.

You are adored, Mr Cumberbatch.

You don't mess with Mr Walken.

I'm a Cumberbitch Peggster Urbabe.

Not unless I'm being chased. And maybe not even then.

No surprise but they are no longer together.

Monday, Monday ...

Let the LOLs begin!


1. Star Wars/Christmas

2. Loki/Lilo

3. Homer??!?

4. Star Wars/Tim Burton

5. Multiple Nativity

6. We are at war

7. *Shudder*

8. When male comic characters pose like female comic characters ... call the chiropractor.

9. The lost hobbit.

10. Girls do stupid things for love for millennia. 

11. Dafuq?

12. Bad ideas are bad. Really bad.

13. Self help books are helpful, yes?

14. Manly horn-eys.

15. I'll bet there are fanfics. I'm quite sure.

Have a great week anticipating the holidays! If you got some work done, good on ya!

A yellow mind is a mellow one ...

I have been horrible about posting, and I do have stuff lying around in my brain waiting to be regurgitated. But in the mean time ...

(Moar under cut ... beware of tak senonoh stuff)

Love is in the air

These love notes gave me quite the nerdgasm.

Be my Valentine?

A little belated but ...

Gong Xi Fatt Chai!

TOP 10 REASONS WHY TRICK OR TREATING IS BETTER THAN SEX

#10
 YOU'RE GUARANTEED TO GET AT LEAST A LITTLE SOMETHING IN THE SACK!

#9
IF YOU GET TIRED YOU CAN WAIT TEN MINUTES AND GO AT IT AGAIN!

#8
THE UGLIER YOU LOOK THE EASIER IT IS TO GET SOME!

#7
YOU DON'T HAVE TO COMPLIMENT THE PERSON WHO GIVES YOU SOME!

#6
FORTY YEARS FROM NOW YOU'LL STILL ENJOY CANDY!

#5
ITS O.K. WHEN THE PERSON YOU'RE WITH FANTASIZES YOU'RE SOMEONE ELSE, BECAUSE YOU ARE!

#4
IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU GET YOU CAN ALWAYS GO NEXT DOOR!

#3
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THE KIDS HEAR YOU MOANING & GROANING!

#2
LESS GUILT THE MORNING AFTER!

#1
YOU CAN DO THE WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD!

In other words, candy trumps sex any day.

comessation

(1) Feasting, banqueting, ‘riotous eating’ (Blount). (2) Eating together.

Fasting month is around the corner; let the comessation begin!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The Chinese lunar new year will be celebrated next Monday (January 26th) the world over.

I am blessed to live in a multi-cultural country where this is another new year that is a national holiday (we celebrate the secular calendar, the Chinese lunar calendar and the Islamic calendar). In my old neighbourhood, we can expect a great deal of noise in the nights preceding the Chinese new year's (CNY) eve and for up to three weeks after with the celebratory fireworks and sparklers. Fireworks and sparklers are actually banned in my country, but the police are rather tolerant of festival firecrackers as long as no one loses a finger (or an eye, or a limb or any part of their body).

With every festival season, all my countrymen look forward to the celebratory advertisement put out by Petronas. I was lucky to have caught it on screen tonight as I was chatting with my parents. All of Petronas' festival advertisement are like micro features; a superbly crafted story executed fluidly in about two minutes. Laden with meaning, beauty and emotion, these advertisements serve to remind us that the most important thing in life is love; be it family, lover or country. If I am not mistaken, all or nearly all of the ads are the handiwork of the incomparable Yasmin Ahmad. She is a film-maker of renown who often deals with subjects such as love and betrayal and compassion for fellow man so passionately and beautifully. Unfortunately, her "unconventional" expressions often lands her in hot water with the national censorship board. Thanks to their overzealousness, our neighbouring Singaporeans get to watch her films much earlier than any of her own countrymen.

This year's CNY ad reminds us how fleet time is and how sorrowful regret can be. The muted tones, the lowered voice ... tres fantastique. The actors are very fine and did a wonderful job at telling the story. The backdrop is Ipoh, with its old world charm and idiosyncratic features.

It is said that the year of the Ox will be a better one than the last. Here's to that!

Yam seng!