Hari Malaysia

I almost forgot that today is Hari Malaysia. With 1001 things on my mind, it is not easy to remember, even important dates like this Hari Malaysia. What's Hari Malaysia? What about Hari Malaysia? What's the fuss about Hari Malaysia?

Will & Kate visited Malaysia; QEII is still alive in her palace in London; Queen Mother? I have not seen the 2 of them for quite some time now. I remember Diana and also Princess Anne. Nobody sings 'London Bridge is Falling Down' nowadays. Why not? Of course London Bridge does not fall apart. It opens up and comes back down, that's all. I loved London bridge when I first saw it in 1980. It was huge and light blue, and the brickwork was so massive. (The San Francisco bridge is red).

Back to Hari Malaysia. Since I forgot today's date and therefore did not know it is Hari Malaysia, I got up to have leftover nasi tomato from yesterday's lunch. I made some gravy to go with the rice. That was breakfast. Then I went shopping at TESCO, to the tune of RM731. Why so much? Cos I bought stuff for the kids and the house for a month. My husband & #2 son will be away in Perth, so I have to stock up and feed the rest. Also because the monsoon rain has arrived. So a food stockpile is worth the effort. October, November, December and January maybe holiday months for most people, but not for me. These are my busy months and I really get too busy with work at USM, not so much at home.

I have pushed a lot of my teaching for year 2 medicine to March 2013 because I just won't have time for everything. I presently have a PhD thesis of a Chinese girl, in Industrial Food Technology (it arrived in my pigeonhole on 13 September 2012). She's written on probiotics in tofu and tofufa. Not had time to examine it yet. Will do when I can find a sharp pencil. Went to TESCO to buy a pack of neon colour page marker. Expect a lot of pasting and writing little notes, as I usually do when I examine any document, including books.

Back to the question of Hari Malaysia. What is it? It was the day Malaysia was formed, on 16 September 1963. Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya (FoM) to form Malaysia. Singapore left in August 1965, and became Republic of Singapore on 9 August 1965. I was in Standard 1 at Sultanah Asma Primary School in Alor Star, Kedah. Sultan Abdul Hamid College and the Day Training College were farther up the same road, Jalan Langgar. (Tun) Dr Mahathir operated MAHA Klinik at Kg Cina/Kg Melayu in Alor Star. This clinic was near the bridge. My late mother also went to his clinic although I don't know for what, maybe for family planning. That was how my parents new the Tuns then. I remember my mother was thin but she became ill at some point. And when she came through, she was double her size. She was in baju kebaya pendek before she was taken ill and after that she switched to baju kurung for life. Of course when I was a student in primary school in Alor Star, I did not know (Tun) Dr Mahathir. I only became aware he was a minister when I was at Tunku Kurshiah College (TKC) in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. At the time, Tun Abdul Razak was still the prime minister - he had the Buku Hijau on. We had to plant kacang panjang at college for a house project. We also had to ferilize the soil by mixing it with dried cow dung. I can still recall the pong from the cow dung. Stinking or not, the kacang panjang grew very well and were harvested and sent to the mak cik and pak cik at the hostel kitchen to make our vegetables.

So how should I remember Hari Malaysia in the future and not miss it? Last year (2011) I cooked trigone pasta to remember Hari Malaysia. This year (2012) because I forgot, I went out to TESCO to 'enjoy' laksa Penang and nasi goreng Pattaya with air bandung milkshake for under RM15. I used to enjoy laksa Penang when I got married in Penang but nowadays the laska Penang tastes different from 30 years ago. Nasi goreng Pattaya didn't look too enticing today. That was lunch outside, and of all days, Hari Malaysia. I should have stayed home and cooked a new pasta recipe if I had remembered it is Hari Malaysia today. That can't be undone now. Wait for Hari Malaysia 2013 in the next 365 days.

It rained today so I could not take photographs except for a few shots from my car window. I also got out of my car to get 2 photos of the newly constructed flyover, probably Kota Bharu's first. I would say it was a dull day in Kota Bharu and Kubang Kerian because I didn't get much done today.