Still around.....

9 Days to go and it feels like endless waiting..the chances is only 10% that this baby will arrived on the 1st of February..it's Hari Wilayah and Thaipusam.. for the last 3 weeks I've been wishing for certain date..maybe during Qurban, before 2007...no sign, no pain at all..

then I thought maybe on the 20th, during Awal Muharam..still the same, looks like the baby is enjoying every moment inside me.

Don't know what to expect but I just hope that everything gonna be fine, Insyaallah.

Thank you everybody for your concern and pray.... :-)

Seberang Perak, Alor Setar,Kedah...

Tracing back the history is not a simple task especially when you were left with inadequate information, evidence and documentation. Things that I've gained so far were based on personal experience and observation as well as 'cakap-cakap mulut', 've been surfing the net and could only found few that relate to the history of this place : Seberang Perak. Most of the site are repetitive and mostly centred on Dr.M's house and history, this could only help maybe 5 percent of the entire picture.

Time is running out as it wait for no man...old building were replaced with a new one, people are leaving, the eldest has moved out or could only met them but not really seeing them.

This is an ambitious project but with no discipline and dedication it will be left in the computer for another year..so this could be my new year resolution : to finish up this mini research before end of Dec 07.

So far I have no problem getting information on the general history of Alor Setar as it is interconnected but when I narrow down to this particular area what I found was a blur imagery. The evidence are still there, but of coz not 100%, and no pictures to proof the activities and history. I could only traced back to maybe 30 or 40 years back, and in history that is nothing..it should be at least 100 years...I wish I have a time capsule or something...or a magic mirror.

As for now there are few building that have been identified its history significants: Sekolah Seberang Perak, Sekolah Seberang Perak (L),rice factory (only remnants of it), JKR quarters, flat, two old madrasah, Masjid Al-Ihsan, Pagoda, IKM, Dr.M's house, Kilang Ais, Market Lama, the place itself and the most important is the Kedah River.

Some of the houses are proof to the existence of mixed architecture where traditional Kedah house were combined with concrete stairs similar to Malacca house, same goes with the madrasah. Based on my family background, my ancestor (my mom side) were from Malacca and from Bugis descent, he was known as Pak Man Melaka..so I am trying to relate this two together. But why is this place called Seberang Perak? Does someone from Perak opened this village or there were some kind of activites that connected to 'perak'.
One of the interesting features is the composition of people here, we have Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indian Muslim (from India) and also a small community of Muslim from Pakistan (Kg Bibi).

From grandmothers story Seberang Perak were also affected during Japanese occupation, her house were visited by Japanese soldier who tought that one of her nephew as Chinese, and there were also Japanese soldier who during British occupation ran for their life and jump into the river at the back of the house..the river were lined with nipah tree and the water level is higher than now.

It seems like this journey of tracing back the history is still a long way to go...

When I was about 12 or 13, it wasn't hard to just scratch and digged the soil and found old coins around the house..and at one time I was so obsessed with this till I didn't realised what I found was actually not an ancient bowl but a praying bowl that some Chinese left on the ground at a big fragrance tree in front of my house, they came and pray to get this 4D ..... :-( aku tertipu!!!

So, lets play Indiana Jones...

p/s : its supposed to be my due date today, since doc has given me REDD this 1st Feb, I still have enough time surfing and bloghopping, I want this baby to be away from architecture, maybe I'll persuade him or her to continued digging the past...

Old news paper....

"old news paper...surat khabar lama..."complete with background music, the tune is of coz Chinese song but compared to the previous style this one is better..no more irritating "surat khabar lama!!" from their van..or knock on the door on lazy Saturday afternoon.
When the government first started of this recycling campaign, there were ad on tv and my sister who was still in school then used to sing along to the tune..."oli paper....." instead of old news paper.

During art class old new paper was one of the most important material, where we will mixed it with glu / kanji to make a plate, fruit or animal...it was messy with sticky kanji and wet newspaper everywhere but of coz that is the best thing coz we could used both of our hand compared to just normal drawing and sketching.
In the olden days news paper were multipurpose, people back then were creative enough to cover their timber wall, instead of expensive wall paper they used old news paper..with roman or jawi paper. I remember laying on the wooden floor staring at the circular solid timber column with reports on jawi and the paper has turn yellow...it shows the age of the material.

I like old news paper, not because I'm an environmentalist..but simply becoz of the smell and colour of the paper...especially 15 or 20 years dusty old paper from any old house...maybe it does not worth as high as King Tut's treasure or any precious manuscript from an ancient valley...but the sight of yellowish newspaper makes me lost in my own world...amazed by content, the layout and an old version font...and of coz newspaper is also a form of documentation of our civilization...31st August 1957 newspaper is the most precious edition and May 69 must be the most sensetive.........

Maybe I should keep every 7th April edition of newspaper....or every significant day of my life

This is actually from my previous entry last year, found this December 1976 Majalah Wanita at Tok's house in Kuala Sala.

Aidil Adha 2006

This year Aidiladha were different, first time in Putrajaya and no iddiapum / putu mayam for hubby that morning.

We went for solat Aidiladha at Masjid Putra and surprised that there were so many people until some of them had to used the overflow area. The ambience are similar except for people start taking photograph after the prayer unlike in Tg Tokong or Alor Setar where people will directly went home. The sight of people coming out from the main entrance of the mosque was something to behold. We just stood still infront of the square looking at people....the sight that you won't see everyday....

...Happy New Year..welcome 2007