It has been a wet week. Everytime I open my closet door, I look at my half dozen of batik wrap skirts hanging in my closet and wondering when will I be able to wear these damn beautiful thangs??
I look out the window to see if it is still raining........Yep, it is.
When I was a kid, walking in a pouring rain never bothered me. I was nine years old when my parents moved again for hundredth time. This time we lived in an army base in Sungai Besi, Selangor. Our house was number four on the tenth row. Along the rows of these families quarters there was a large green field. Two soccer fields were put together and there was more space left. That was how big it was. At the end of the field a row of swings, cement slide and two sets of see-saws. Sometimes, during a rainy season, if there was no lightning, my mother would let me and my two little brothers to play in the rain with other kids from our block.
We ran, slid and threw ourselves on the wet grass. We kicked the puddles at each other. We didn't paly any particular game. Our mission was to get wet as much as possible. After an hour my mother would come out and stood at the edge of the field to call us in. We groaned and begged her to let us stay outside for a little longer. No, she said. "I don't want you to a catch cold".
We trodded back into the house, straight into the bathroom. She let me took a bath and then came my little brothers turn.
We changed into dry clean clothes, usually a pajama because we were not allowed to go out again for the rest of the evening. Playing for the children is like working for grown-ups. All those kicking, running and screaming left us hungry. The best part was, when we came out of the bathroom, we were going to sit down at the kitchen table, all five of us.
At the kitchen table, my father was sitting there sipping his 'teh tarik'. Three cups of hot steamy tea with milk and a big platter of 'goreng pisang' - still warm, waiting for us. My mother prepared the bananas earlier while we were out getting wet. The bananas were cut lenghtwise, dipped into rice flour batter. and deepfried in corn oil. They were golden and crispy on the outside and tender inside.
Boy...........I miss that.
Comments