everywhere i go, you are with me too

has it been a good 3 months or 4, that i have not seen my mammy?

i am not too sure. but the time seems slow, when i count the days till we meet again.

but nevertheless, where ever i go, whatever that i am doing, there must be those some little things that will find its way to slip into my daily doings, just to give me a little reminder of my mammy.

my mammy, she is a durianophile, if there were such a word in the dictionary, the immediate meaning will be: REd's mammy. she loves durian. the smell of it makes her tremble and palpitate in anticipation to get those soft fleshy little darlings into her mouth to excite her tastebuds.

i can't stand durian. even the sight of it makes me heat up.

i used to hate it when she'd buy them by the baskets and bring them home. the whole house will be making me feel faint. i will pull a long face, just because i can't stand the whiff that haunts every little space in the house.

it is durian season now. it is everywhere, by the roadside, on the trees, in TESCO, on lorries, EVERYWHERE. what i would give to bear that spiky parcel of joy for my mammy, so that she'd come back for a short trip here.


my mammy, eventhough she trots the globe, used to live in major hotels because of her work, and is the king of BEJEWELED, her modern lifestyle will never take her fancy away from the simple "dapur arang". she loves cooking on this dapur instead of the modern hotplate or gas stove that is readily available.

don't ask me why, i have no idea.

even in our old house, we have 2 kitchens: the modern, and then the traditional, where she installed the dapur arang kitchen top, just so she can satisfy her cooking dreams. she will huff and puff and cook using the dapur arang only. with her sweat dripping, her clothes smelling of smoke, there was always a smile on her face. the sign of satisfaction. her happiness fulfilled, just by using the dapur arang.

my neighbour's mother was around for the weekend. she brought the dapur arang to cook meals for him since he does not even have a functioning kitchen to begin with. as soon as i saw the mother starting the fire, my mammy stood there beside me. not literally though. i could feel her. the smell of smoke reminds me of how she will be smelling like as soon as the meal was done and we were seated at the table to enjoy her cooking.


and yesterday, while i was in Sultanah Bahiyah, at the hydrotherapy room, there she was again, not her exactly, but that tiny duckling, that reminds me of her.

why the duck, you ask?

well, mammy's hubby calls her that. her "nama manja" that he coined for her. everyone, even her friends and my aunts know that she is the duckling. most of her gifts are with somekind of duckling motif.

and there it was, a duckling, singled out from the other water toys that i was looking at at the hydrotheraphy room.

really mammy, everywhere i go, there you are too, in my heart.