Tempat jatuh lagi dikenang..

I spend a lot of my childhood time closed with my grandma even though my family house is just next door. Maybe becoz I was their first cucu,so dapat attention lebih sikit. I call my grandma as 'mak' because I heard my mom, aunty and uncle call her 'mak'..I was just a little girl, and call my mother, 'mama'. This is a sketch of 'mak' house in Seberang Perak, a typical Kedah house with raised floor and attap roofing. The original layout consist of one big bedroom (rumah ibu), bedroom 1&2, kitchen, hall, verandah or what we call as 'beranda'. The bathroom was at ground floor and original entrance door is facing the Kedah River. As long as I can remember, the house was made of round solid timber with timber panel for wall and partly combined with bambo weave.Most of these original structure are still there for more than 40-60years now, with newspaper and decorative paper still intact to the column.

There are split levels to differentiate the space. Family area is higher than hall, and the kitchen drop about almost 250mm from the family area. Most traditional house were designed with nature and surrounding value in mind, therefore the design could be considered as successful. There are ample lighting and fenestration, function meet aesthetic with every piece of timber will be reasonably crafted. One thing that I really like about this house is the louvered panel with vertical timber piece as a control mechanism.

This house actually has been handed over by her mother who planted jambu air tree in the middle of the compound. It was a big tree which provide not only shade but also as my favourite place to escape.I remember whenever it rain heavily that nite, the next morning we will straight go and collect those buah jambu on the ground, it was so exciting...the trees in a way has giving me a space to jump into my imaginary world, there were pokok duit-duit all around its trunk with 'lumut' everywhere. It was surreal for a little girl who likes to dive in her own ocean of fantasy. The died shortly after mak's mother died at the age of 90+. Mak told me that the tree has been planted her mother, so i guess it must be more than 30years considering it's big radius of trunk...Now..2006, the trees has gone, nipah trees has disappeared but mak's house is still there with new extension. I was so lucky to have a chance to learn how to weave attap roofing from mak...ahh...nostalgia pulak..I should call her tonite..

I've been planning to documentate the history of the house and Seberang Perak in general since there are few significant building such as the school neraby who Che Det, Daim, Awang Had used to school there. Started halfway but still searching for more info..

Anyway, home sweet home...there are lots of thing to tell about this house, maybe in next entry..for now I want to go 25 years back....pusing jam ke belakang...black and white world...