AWOK ORANG PAHANG, WEII?

I consider myself a Johorean. My dad's from Muar and mom's a Batu Pahat (an). I spent my primary years in Johor Bharu but later went all over, as dad got transferred. Settling in Kuantan, Pahang, I have acquired a new native tongue. Mingling with patients and the locals here who speak malay with a strong Pahang dialect, I have picked their words, phrases and twang with ease. I could even speak them better than my husband! I am so comfortable conversing in this lingo that many thought I was a local-bred.

It's not sufficient to just utter the phrases monotonously flat. You've got to voice them out with a special lilt. The more 'kampung' you sound the better it is! For example, "Awok nak ke mana weii?" is asked with the sentence ending in a high note and not without a slight tune to it!.

iKelah's uncle Ayah Teh of Temerloh (who owns 'Gerai Ayah Teh' at the Temerloh R&R, check it out!)) was a Music teacher who took pains in documenting words/ phrases unique to the Pahang dialect. Off and on we hear him rattle off some of these phrases and we get so fascinated hearing them. At times they sounded so foreign to the point of being funny that we laughed our heads off. When iKelah lost his balance and slid down the slippery banks of Sg Rimau into the water, recently, Boogey described the incident by borrowing Ayah Teh's word 'tercelabak', meaning to slip and fall with great force. Ayah Teh had once described an incident where an army helicopter crashed into the waters of Sg Pahang, "...helikopter tu mepeh-mepeh ke bawah, langsung terus tercelabak ke dalam sungai.." (translated as: the helicopter spiraled down and crashed into the muddy waters ) . I hope Boogey, Panglima, Kenakelayan and ikelah can fill me in for more of Ayah Teh's collection of old Pahang words. Below is a glossary of some.

Another of Boogey's brush with queer Pahang words which he never tires in relating to us would be the 'kelompin' or 'jabe' incident. Once, my FIL, asked Boogey to fetch a 'jabe' from the store-room (my FIL keeps all odds and ends overhere and you can be sure almost 100% that everything that you needed for the house-hold is stored neatly here!). Now being a very young naive lad back then, he wasn't too sure what 'jabe' was. So he stared hard at every item on the shelves and used his intuition to find an object that 'looked', 'sounded', 'smelled' like a 'jabe'. Heheh. You see, FIL, was a very firm father who detest lameness, thus asking him back what 'jabe ' was, was an impossible feat . So he stood there, looking earnestly, tension building as FIL was kept waiting. " Jabe pon awok tak kenal? Ish! Hok macam kelompin tu!" Now, who would ever think that these two words share the same meaning?

Now, when I see my aged patients, I've got to accomodate a number of things. Firstly, I've to switch into the local dialect. Secondly, as most of them are hard in hearing, I've got to shout out my queries to them. "MAKCIK! KE SUNGAI, MOLEK? SUNGAI BESOR? SUNGAI KECIK?" Now, you might be thinking that I'm talking some gibberish here, but that is how the old people here address the issue pertaining to the excretion of our bodily waste-products. Perhaps, the old kampung folks are used to using the river as toilets, thus the terms sungai besor or kecik; however sungai besor does not indicate the size of the river but the size of the excreta, rather! That's why some of ikelah's aunties here do not favor the river fish like Paten and Baung, which are synonymous to Pahang rivers especially in Temerloh. Their vivid thoughts of the Patens gobbling up the floating products of 'sungai besor' must be a real great turn-off for them! 'Sungai besor' or not, do you know that the Paten of Sg Pahang can grow to up 5-6 kilos in size and can catch a whooping price of 80-90 RM per kilo?


I have long left the soils of Johor and wonder if I can speak the way Johoreans speak with ease, again. If my memory serves me right, the Johoreans love to end their sentences with the jargon 'ek'. " Apa nama awak, ek?" " Awak nak ikut jugak ek?" And there are several unique words which I believe belong to Johoreans like for instance 'gerobok' which we love to shorten to 'gobok' which means cupboard. That word is terribly foreign overhere in Pahang that I have long lost its usage as 'almari' came to replace it. Thus each time I'm back amongst my parents and siblings, these words will sound alien when they utter them to me. Another weird Johor word would be 'belengging' which carries a meaning more applicable to men rather than women. You see, when one chose to 'belengging' it would mean that the person is in a state of partial nakedness i.e. exposing his upper body, above the navel (never below, mind you!) . Thus in the Malay culture, it's only acceptable for men to adopt this sort of dressing, never the women!

Even amongst the Pahangites, the dialect changes according to geographical differences. Apparently, iKelah says (kalau dia bohong, kawe pon bohong la yek!) that certain words evolve as you go down the river! (yes, the river, again!) . For instance, the word kawe meaning I, is used at the upper end of the river. As you go down towards the river-mouth, the same word has shortened into 'koi' (not to be mistaken as ikan koi, though!). Why? Don't ask me. Perhaps the people down the river became more sophisticated and found that shortened words made business transactions faster? I really don't know, :)

So each time I'm being asked this,"Awok orang Pahang weii?" My standard answer would be this, "Tidak! Kawe orang Johor. Kawe kawen orang Pahang. Terpkasa jadi orang Pahang ler" As the good old malay saying goes: "Masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang lembu menguak" or its English equivalent: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do".


Glossary
kelompin- cheap bags, plastic or paper
cebek- to carry around things by the hand
jabe- can be used interchangebly with kelumpin
kelebek- to scrutinise with the hands? hehe (in my field of work, I do this a lot!)
condeh-to place something precariously at the edge of something
cempong-a beloved, so Bea is Pycno's cempong, so to speak
pentelun- must be copied from pantaloon, I guess
pedo'oh- to bluff
gamok-nya- maybe
ralik- absorbed in an action
komeng-?
benok- heart
bok- short form of bawak
okoit-?
gohek- cycle
menggelebeh- excess fat hang-outs
kanchuit- underwear
beser- to urinate all over
kohot- fatigue
kerabat- to climb (Panglima likes using this. I assume it's a Pahang slang too? Correct me )
semejid- Pekan's people way of saying Masjid
ke darat- away from the river (again, see how they relate their life to the river?)
wokme- awak semua= you all
deme- ditto
kome- I, we
kawan- I
kawe- I
koi- I
rodong- friends, pals. So you readers are my Blog Rodongs!

2WENTY3HREE'S 24th

MY PRECIOUS FIVE

I have five kids with completely different characters. If I were to describe each one of them in one sentence, it would be as below:

Sarah: truly hardworking and very sensitive

Sofi: happy-go-lucky and pleasure seeker

Muhammad: very determined and absolutely ambitious

Aliah: slightly extrovert and full of confidence

Luqman: Loving, caring and very thoughtful

*I know someone won't be happy with this, hehe.

A YEAR OLDER!

SCRAMBLED WHAT?

Dr NB had this particular entry in her blog regarding her menu of the day and I concocted a similar menu below. See whether you can stomach (pun intended!) it!!

Menu Of The Day!
Probably most apt for a beaten houseman who gets bullied by the specialists, MOs, nurses and even patients!! Rushing around the hospital with not enough time for respite nor proper meals, housemanship may well be the most challenging profession of all times!

Breakfast
Scrambled leg
Toasted Hepatitis
Milk Shake Effusion

Lunch
Chilli pancreatitis
Poached spider nevi
Steamed dendrites with uric acid sauce
Carbonated Serum with Iced platelets.

Dinner
Fried caseated lung,
Gluteal dumpling,
Endometriotic salad
Chocolate cyst
Tomato juice ascitis fluid

Supper
Broiled coagulated blood,
Hot cervical wart

(Burp!!! Excuse me!)

Thank you Nurul for your ever witty ideas!

FROM MY SISTER

My sister, OG, forwarded me an e mail and I felt like sharing it with you.

George Carlin's Views on Ageing (whoever this guy is! Excuse me for being ignorant!)

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions."How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead."How old are you?" "! I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21. Eventhe words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21.
YESSS S!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on thebrakes, it's all slipping away.Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80s and every day is a complete! cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there.

Into the 90s, youstart going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them".

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil'sworkshop." And! the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who iswith us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family,pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is yourrefuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9 Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the nextcounty; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares? But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its full each day!

p.s. Whatever's good is from Allah s.w.t. and the bad ones are from our weaknesses.

A BIRTHDAY AND A WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Happy 15th birthday to Aliah! May this year be an auspicious one for you to remember. Good luck in your coming PMR! But remember, glory don't come easy. With earnest effort, perseverance and most importantly Tawakal tu Alallah, insyallah, success will come your way! Ameen!

And

Happy Wedding Anniversary to Pycnogenol and Beloved! May Allah swt bestow both of you with goodness all the way through! Ameen!

Bought Aliah a cake from Secret Recipe called Chocolate Indulgence but didn't turn out that nice. It was very soft and collapsed when cut. Aliah requested a non-cheese cake this time as she feels those cakes were bit too cheesy for her 'growing-up' taste-buds. Should have settled for that strawberry or coffee cheese-cake., instead, huh? Was eyeing at the chocolate-marshmallow cake but dared not take the risk, :)). Anyway, brought it straight to school as Aliah had to stay back for her Karate lessons and we had a short cake-cutting-and-eating session.

THE WARRIORS OF THE RIVER

We are the great warriors,

From this river,

We fight asunder,

Sharing our plights together,

Full of spirit, love and matter,

Stones in hand symbolize strength we've gathered,

A generation to another,

Crystal clear water is the passage we take,

Tainted with blood, a martyr we'll make,

Of great fighting spirit,

Full of steel, with ceaseless fire,

Never surrender, never falter,

Cause the great Warrior's blood flows in us, ever,

In this river, we shall rise, together!

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*note: everyone is invited to make a caption for the above pic

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Kenakelayan has a new entry regarding the sad situation of 'cartoon portrayals' of our beloved Rasulullah s.a.w. And Bergen was very apt in answering to why we must rise up and display our anger.

OUR SECOND MEET

My youngest sister is only a year older than my eldest offspring. Last Sunday her previous college held its second convocation and she was one of its graduands. Incidentally I was in KL to send Muhammad back to his college. Mak persuaded me to accompany them to the scroll-giving ceremony. I was a bit daunted to comply due to several experiences I faced during my own convocation, decades ago. You see, at that time (due to naivety) we were told that once you were in the hall, you were not to leave it till the auspicious occasion was over. So we had the impression that we had to prepare for hours of hunger/thirst and bladder retention! It was as if you were in a temporary state of complete isolation from the outside world. And I can't imagine myself sitting in the hall from 7.30 am till 4 pm, listening to continuous barrage of chak-lempong sounds hitting my eardrums!

But Mak profusely begged me with her "mak dah banyak korban untuk awak, tak kan awak tak boleh korban satu hari untuk mak?" look. And my sister, OG, didn't help either, by reminding me, how she spent hours outside my convo hall, eons ago, looking after 2 months old Muhammad then, just to let me recieve my scroll in peace!

So, I relented. So Mak, Bapak, Subky (I leave to your imagination to guess who this guy is) and I, marched into the vast hall and chose seats as near to the exit as possible, so that Mak can access the loo easily and I can leave when I decide that I've had enough of chak-lempong music, :))

7.00am- started out from mak's place

7.30am- entered the hall after being given a small bottle of mineral H2O and 2 cupcakes to share amongst 4 people!

8.00am- no sign of the event rolling off as stated in the agenda. The gay sounds of chak-lempong playing a myriad of popular tunes, by then were filling up the sombre air.

8.30am- boredom seized me and I started texting messages to a blogger friend, telling her that I am being held prisoner and starved to death!

9.00am- marching in of the college chairman Datuk *****, YB Dr Masyitah and dignitaries.

9.20am- the chairman gave his speech

9.23am- I entered slumber zone zzzzZZZZZZ (didn't ask mak regarding my sleeping manner though. But I am sure I didn't snore nor adopt the open-mouth posture or did I??? (that would have looked very distasteful on the 2 big screens on the wall!)

9.30 am- Dr Masyitah gave her speech and I was still unconscious, occasionally aroused and heard her sweet voice reading her english text and dozed off again...

9.40 am- the graduands filed up to receive their scrolls and we had a tough time guessing which was my sis, as we were very far up. As sis is short and petite, we had mistakenly thought it was her each time someone of a similar built appear in line.

It was then that I realized that my blogger friend had tried calling me whilst I was asleep!! Her husband and her, had felt sorry that I had to endure the hours without breakfast and decided to go all the way and brought me lots of foodstuffs and drinks!

I rushed out and met them downstairs. What a great surprise. Meeting them for a second time, brought back sweet memories of our first fellow-ship meet at BTSH.

It was embarrassing indeed for I didn't think that my text: "....tak breakfast lagi. Lapar!..." had caused them to take all the trouble and brought me all the goodies! Sandwiches, cookies, chocolates, buns, pisang salai, drinks...if I had mats, I would have picnicked by the stream under the shady trees nearby!

To both of them, I can't thank enough! Jazakillah hairan kathira! Allah has blessed me with another two beautiful friends. Alhamdulillah!

*this entry is dedicated to Pycnogenol and Beloved.

HARI ASYURA

Assalamualaikum,

Sahabat blog semua. Esok dan lusa, 9 dan 10 Muharram, disunatkan kita berpuasa. Saya mengajak semua termasuklah diri saya untuk sama-sama mengambil kesempatan ini untuk mengerjakan ibadat puasa sunat yang digalakkan ini bagi mengenang segala peristiwa yang berlaku pada 10 Muharram. Sila rujuk kepada blog Keng tentang peristiwa-peristiwa tersebut.
Kepada yang memasak bubur Asyura, tolonglah hantar sedikit (walaupun semangkuk) kepada saya (note: saya suka style Kelantan yag berisi daging siat serta berempah, sedapnya!)

Wassalam.

I'M MOVING ON, BABY....TA TA

A scene in a medical consultation room.

Patient (with eyes half-closed): I'm having severe giddiness. Bad spinning sensation. Nauseus. Vomited twice already.

Doctor: How long? Is this your first time?

Patient: Few days. Yes. (looking pale and started to slump in the chair)

Doctor: Had enough sleep?

Patient: No. Can't sleep well at all.

Doctor: Since when? This sleeping problem?

Patient: Years. Only sleep for 2 hours each night.

Doctor: Hmm..insomnia....what's bugging you? Feeling depressed?

Patient: Nodded and closed eyes.

Husband: I think she is worried about something and that's the real culprit.

Doctor: I see. (not wanting to probe any further as patients 'dah berlonggok' outside and can't waste time)

After physical examination, Dr gave I/M Stemetil and prescribed some oral anti-vertigo. Patient limply stepped out. But husband stayed on.

Husband: I am her problem. I am the reason she can't sleep.

Doctor: Oh..ok.

Husband: You see. I have an affair with another woman and I want to marry her. But she would only marry me after I have divorced my wife.

Doctor: hmmm...

Husband: So now I am preparing my wife to be independent. I will divorce her but I will leave her the house, the car and a fixed monthly income. I still love her, though. She doesn't have to work. And I'll start a new life with the woman.

Doctor: (tolonglah, patient dah bising/ gelisah di luar. Dia ni tak nak keluar ke? He's taking other patient's time) But this marital situation of yours, it's nothing that I can fix. But I can help to refer your wife to a psychiatrist if her mental status gets worse (who wouldnt? can a wife stay calm when the hubby is telling her that he is about to divorce her for another women despite promising her all the worldly comforts?)

Husband: I hope you understand. I need to think of myself too. She is at that age where there's a great tendency to neglect the man's needs.

Doctor: Yeah. (whatever) (needs/ nafs). Just tell me when she needs the referal.

Husband leaves the room and Doctor presses for the next number. *sigh*

~Some of you might have missed a point here from this entry (I know some of us due to time constraint wil brush through reading an entry, only extricating the gist). You see I am not discussing poligamy here. Polygamy is not an issue. It's halal. The issue here is that he is divorcing his wife for another .Can a man divorce a wife without any valid reason but simply because he wants to take another who demands he divorced the first??? ~

NOSTALGIC SUNGAI LEMBING

Kuantan is quite a small town and many a time, we will find ourselves exhausting the list of places to visit and unwind during Sundays and public holidays. But in actual fact, there are numerous interesting sites that are available for the adventurous ones or even the not-so-adventurous but claiming to be one (like yours truly) simply because not wanting to be left behind!

Besides the popular spots like Teluk Cempedak, Pantai Cherating, Pantai Balok and Pantai Sepat, there are more secluded haunts like Sungai Bekelah, Air Terjun Pancing, Sungai Jin etc.

It has been almost two years since we last went to Sungai Lembing, an old tin-mine town which is now just an old semi deserted shire, almost ghostly if you asked me! It has the biggest underground tin-mine in the world but unfortunately due to the drastic fall in the price of tin ore, this mine was closed down in the '80s.

The entrance to the mine.

The mine is situated at the farthest end of the town and nowadays it is left to crumble in solitude. In our recent-most visit, the ruin constituted of dilapidated wooden structures with thick undergrowth surrounding it. We dare not venture in, only viewing it from afar, fearing the possiblities of unstable ground above the mine. Within the vicinity are old wooden quarters, some still occupied.

The museum

There's also a museum nearby, perched on a hill, probably displaying all the historical artifacts pertaining to the old mine. We didn't get to visit it as it was closed.

The ghostly town of Sg. Lembing

Now, the town is perculiarly unique, I daresay. The main town-square consists of two rows of mostly wooden shophouses with a giant old-tree dividing the road in the centre. Most of the shops are quaint and dark with minimal lighting which doesn't seem to daunt the shop owners nor their customers. There's this shop ( I can't bring myself to label it as a restaurant due to it sad state) called Kedai Makan Warisah which sells Mee Jawa that is so tasty that I'd crave for each time I'm there.

The town mosque. notice the water-level marks for the flood in the year 97 and 2001, I think

On the way out, you'll find the town Mosque on the left side with a tower that has markings of water level painted on its wall. You see, Sg Lembing is at risk of flood each time the monsoon comes when the river outflows its banks. Five years ago, when the monsoon poured its wrath and the road badly flooded, there was total communication breakdown. There was shortage of food supply as the town was almost submerged in water and could only be accessed by boats and helicopters.

Muhammad and Luqman having a great 'brotherly' time.

We spent some time at Sg Jin, wading and frolicking in the cool water. Beautiful rocks and pebbels of all shapes, colors and sizes fill its banks on both sides. The water was fairly clean but slightly murky compared to our previous trip. They must be logging again up in the hills, *sigh*

The hill where Gua Charas is situated.

Not forgetting, on the way to Sg Lembing, there's this chalk-hill (I assume it's chalk from the whitish hue, afar) which house a famous cave called Gua Charas (on the right side). As you ride through, you will find this rather odd shaped hill with a huge dark opening in the centre and that's the cave. If my memory serves me right, there's a Buddhist temple there, too.

So the next time, you're in the mood for the taste of old, quaint town with a mining history and not forgetting the 'bowl-licking' Mee Jawa, try Sg. Lembing.
It might just fulfil your crave for nostalgia!