Holla..hello..or whatever

It has been some time since i blogged. Nope...not having a so called writers' block. It's just that i have been really busy with work on one end plus the recent conclusion of deepavali on the other not withstanding the fact that i've also been busy taking care of my son plus managing the house. You guys must be wondering if i'm whining or just stating the facts. Let me explain.

Some time ago i was employed (co-boss so to say) and i had a good monthly stipend that takes care of all my bills. The scenario on end monthly basis was to go to the nearest ATM, press your six digit pin "number" (redundant as "pin" literally means personal identification number, but we all say it anyway) and wallah, out comes the crisp notes ready to be used in the open market. Situation is not such now. I've taken over the company plus the management and what do we have....no sales no profit...no profit means no salary. Welcome to the real world Mr. Prem Anand Mathavan. And hence i've been real busy running around all corners of Klang Valley to ensure sales stays afloat for the month and months to come by. That was one reason me being extremely busy.

I sincerely hope everyone celebrating Deepavali had a gala time. I did. All the shopping for parents, siblings and children. By the way, for those not married and intending to do so, you might want to stick to India's famous quote. At one juncture it was "We two, ours two". But what i noticed during my last trip was it has been reduced to "We two, ours one". I'm actually talking about the prices of children clothing. Niamah damn kow expensive. That was exactly the words that came from a friend of mine. Shall not mention names here.

I was back in Johor Baru with all my siblings celebrating Deepavali with my parents. Sunday morning, dad had asked me to accompany him to Sungai Tiram. Dad had ordered a whole goat. Holy goat. Pun intended. As i was making the trip there, the road leading to the slaughter house seemed familiar. I remember many donkey years ago i had taken the similar silk route for a toddy session. And to my surprise the slaughter house is at the toddy bar. The aroma of freshly collected toddy filled the air and freshly collected toddy is quite sweet. It was 10am,i looked at dad, he in turn looked at me. I said what the heck, lets have 2 kole (mugs) and true to expectation it was sweet and refreshing. And the price of one kole is RM 3.00. It used to be RM 1.00 when i had mentioned earlier the donkey years ago. Since my younger brother also likes toddy, we decided to pack 5 koles back plus the goat and its head in tow.

One minute question to english teacher sis of mine or whoever is accustomed to using the right term. The term mutton is used after the goat is slaughtered or when it is cooked? Anyway i shall term it as mutton henceforth.

This year it was my turn to chop down the mutton into pieces. It came in large chunks. It took me an hour and a half to finish chopping all of it with the exception of the head. You guys must be wondering what was i doing with the head. No, i don't have a collection of skulls. For those who watch tamil movies will understand why. Goat's head curry is a delicacy and since it was mentioned on a regular basis in tamil movies and as a person who will try anything under the sun, i requested mummy dearest to cook taalai (head) curry for me. I battled it out for 45 minutes to chop the head into pieces. That was how hard the head was. Reminded me of my elder brother's favourite quote to his legal firm staff "how do i put it into your thick skulls" aiyooooo. That is how he literally says it and means it i suppose. While all these chopping was going on which effectively gave me blisters on my hand, i was constantly thirsty. And now you guys will understand what happenned to the 4 koles of kallu(toddy). After about 2 hours, normally the toddy starts to ferment and i quietly finished packing the mutton into various packets and headed to the shower and had a short but good afternoon siesta.

Deepavali eve started with offering of food to the ones gone far and away before we proceed to have dinner and exchange of gifts and angpows. Five new shirts and i remember there are at least 2 other shirts from previous deepavali that i have not worn. Enough already about deepavali as everyone would have done the same thing on deepavali day like cooking, filling up jars with cookies, observing guests and occasionally running to the refrigerator to quench the thirst if you guys know what i mean.

I enjoy tremendously looking after my son but sometimes it can be tiring. As most of you if not all would have known by now that my wife dearest is pregnant with our second child going into the 5th month and hence she gets tired easily. I help around the house as much as i can and while doing all these i will be thanking god and counting the days. As of today i will thank god and say 24 days left my dear god. Yes, i'm counting the days when finally my maid will be arriving. It took 8 maid agencies before we could get one. And pricey pricey. She cost me RM 8k and hopefully she'll last the whole 2 years duration. She better.

I actually have something to talk about on UMNO elections which i will do soon. Buhbye