Yourself?

I never went anywhere in my childhood. The furthest I've been is my grandma's kampong, in Malacca. I miss it, but only after they sold it. I never liked the cold baths with kettle-heated stone-well water, and the drinking water from that very same well tasted worse than Newater. But I miss it. Fruits fresh off the trees, durian season, secretly feeding on herbal seeds from my grandfather's patch, mosquito-frag competitions, hairy caterpillars, moth swarms... Incidentally, I hated durians right after they sold the kampong. The car trip was at best unbearable (until I fell asleep). 5 kids + 1 maid + 2 parents in an old Hyundai doesn't make for a very comfortable 4+++-hour trip. Now it's just the 5 kids without the maid, and my youngest sis sits in front. I miss the squeeze.

I never got to know my relatives well. couldn't relate. Maybe it's just me. And yeah, my family tree is really extensive on my father's side. Have nephews and grand-nephews and great-grand-nephews that I never even got to visit. My father's parents died before I was born (my father's about 60 now), and my mother's parents aren't gone yet.

the one vivid memory I still have is my grandfather in the field, trouser legs rolled up, looking for monitor lizards. And he caught one, and slapped it against the ground viciously, grabbign it by the tail, until it was still and lifeless. And he hung it up by the roof in the wing beside the garage, adn skinned it. and we all had monitor lizard meat, cooked by my grandmother, using one of those coal-stoves. We didn't need rubbish bins then, we just threw everything inside.

posted by k @ 9:58 pm