Kampung Wandin Valley - part 1.

Here it comes....
The feeling was like enrolling into a new school. A swirl of emotions came crashing inside your stomach when you first step into the classroom. Your brain start firing those inevitable questions when you are confronted with unfamiliarities. How would i blend in with the guys? Could i blend in? Will they be friendly to me or totally ignore me? Is the homeroom teacher friendly or fierce? Can i be happy in this new place? Say, can i not change school?

Of course this is all just me imagining things as i started my second season at wandin valley farms cherry factory, where Victoria's finest cherries are sorted and packed. I am not entirely unfamiliar with the place, in fact i knew all the staffs from last year. However i do know that i will have almost entirely new coworkers. Which would reflect exactly the feelings they had. It is not so different than getting into a new class albeit with the same backdrop. It was exciting as it is worrisome. Though i know best not to let the as-yet-proved thought get to me. Last year's experience taught me a few things i know i should do or shouldn't.

Keeping up with the supervisors was as tricky as getting the latest Apple gadgets without being 'outdated' a few months after with a 'newer' version of it. Worrying how in god's name the person next to you is so freakishly fast and awesome with his sorting skills that you thought you are worthless-money-sucking-zombie-sorter. Constantly thinking when is the next break time and cursing each time the so-short-why-the-hell-even-they-are-giving-breaks-at-the-first-place Sandy calling up with her usual "the bird is singiiiiing, radeo!!!, chop, chop!!".

Happy faces soaking the sun during 10 mins break. Coffes and teas provided with the occasional bread from mr. zlatko. Of course, the picture was taken during the first morning break, when people still managed to have smiley faces.

Then, when you are just a bit better in sorting you started to hate the person next to you/in your lane by being unbelievably slow. Like hey, am i the only one properly sorting in this lane?!! Using each and every available chance to air your grouses to your neighbours, whom with a good chance was also hating you for being a slowpoke. Or cursing you irritations audibly slow to the point of mumbling constantly. Those who might know better would say you looked like a grouchy old nanny.

This pic is a good example of the situation explained above. The guy might not be satisfied with the girl next  to him while the girl might be thinking the same of the guy. p.s - the dedicated look combined with the right sorting skills shown, tells me they are excellent sorters.

Of course it didn't help having a foreign coworkers in the same lane with you, given if you were irritated with them. Given the chance, which is every chance you got, you would curse loudly and with full confidence knowing that they wouldn't understand anything you said. Only to get red-faced later when you realized that person knew your language (believe me, happens all the time).

That not saying the cherries are all good news either. Of course if the cherries were perfect they wouldn't need any sorter would they? Having basically three or four sorters in each lane would normally finish the job picking out 'seconds' and 'wastes' out from the end box. Then came the cherry 'tsunami'. That would still be fine if  not because of the 'shite' (ramona's term) cherries that came with it. Even with seven or eight person in the lane wouldn't do much help. And you thought you are better than the rest just now. Thus, the emergency stop button that would be constantly abused to save the bad cherries from getting into the end box. The box would then be triple checked by first the end box person, then the box packer, finally at the cold room at the back before they are packed into a stack of pallet ready for export.

Cherries at the end of lane, ready to be checked and packed. Please ignore the smiling faces.

 It is here that you would harness the neck-breaking sorting skills any better-than-average cherry sorters would possess. The moment when you didn't realized how many curses you just sputtered whilst keeping your hand constantly rolling and picking and looking and turning and holding the cherries. And then came Sandy. "there are heaps of split bottoms/bad cherries in the box!" then destroying your what-is-left confidence in cherry sorting. If you could walk out and never come back you would do it but the lure of wealth never lose to keep your feet planted on the floor or sometimes on the stool.

The typical look during peak cherry season. Everything's fast and furious. Don't mind the guy at the far right trying to woo the girl at the end (cherry romance is a usual occurance)

But enough of the cheery stories told, what i really want to tell is the cherry friends that i got to know, whom are all the most friendly and awesome people i've know in a while (in the next post) :D

Awesome, awesome people! - daniel mcqueen

Strawberry for break-fasting

We were out of dates the other day, so we decided to break our fast with some sumptuously sweet strawberry

Recipe: Tom Yam Chiang Mai Marinara

Here is the recipe for Tom Yam Chiang Mai Marinara. The recipe is composed from several recipes i got from the net and made into one. It's not an original recipe whatsoever. According to those who tasted my tomyam said it's pretty darn tasty and spicy. So as not to lose and have to again and again look for the recipes on the net i'm putting it into my blog for those who are interested and for my future reference :)

We'll start with ingredients first.

 These ingredients are prepared for a feast of 25 people. However, since we mostly don't cook for many often, i'll list down the recipe for a 5 person meal.

Ingredients

1/2 kilo prawn
1/2 kilo squid
100 g button mushroom
2 tomatoes
2 onions
2 bunch of coriander with its root
2 lemongrass
10 kaffir lime leaves100 g bird's eye chili or more

100 g dried chill 

50 ml fish sauce50 g ginger

5 cups of washed grain water (air basuhan beras)

Galangal (optional)

Tom Yam paste

Sugar and salt

Lemon juice

 Method

1. Pour the washed grain water into the pot and turn heat to medium-high. Put in coriander's root, lemongrass, onions, tomatoes, ginger, galangal and a few kaffir lime leaves.

2. Wait until it starts to boil and put in the tom yam paste and blended chillies (bird's eye chili and dried chili). Wait until boiling again.

3. Put in prawn and squid. Add fish sauce.

4. Wait until squid and prawn's cooked (usually only a few minutes) and add some sugar and salt.

5. Turn off the heat and pour in some lemon juice.

6. Serve with hot plain rice.

The marinara for the tom yam. I remove the fish cutlets from the mix because fish tend to cook faster and might disintegrate if put too long along with prawn, squid and mussels.

From left: Coriander, bird's eye chili, kaffir lime leaves.

The coriander. Note how i chopped the root from the bunches and string them into one.

The Tom Yam paste that i use. There are many varieties out there. Choose any of your liking.

The chilies after i blended them. To the spice connoisseur , the more the better.

Step 1. Pour the specified ingredients into the boiling pot. Basically you already got your tom yum at this stage.

The finished product. The orange and red hue come from the paste and chilies. You can add some coconut milk or creamy carnation milk to add some mild flavour and texture.

That's all for the tom yam recipe. It's really easy to make and tastes great. If you happen to try the recipe please share your experience here. Thanks :)

Salam Ramadhan al Mubarak 1432H 2011

I never thought i'd be seeing you again so fast. What have i been doing since last year? There are a lot of things to ponder and reflect about. Let us take this time of the year to make up for all we have missed. Whatever it is, keep our faith strong and firm and let us be kind and generous towards others. May this month showers His blessings upon us.

5 Centimeters per second

Found another gem, this time it's an anime. The title's a bit odd for an anime though. 5 centimeters per second. The only way the title could be explained is by reading this excerpt here,

"The title 5 Centimeters Per Second comes from the speed at which cherry blossoms petals fall, petals being a metaphorical representation of humans, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but slowly drift into their separate ways"


The movie is simplistic in its way of portraying the life of a young boy who meets a girl and got separated, as he grows older, the memories remains, and could remain forever, as suggested in the anime. The same goes for the girl, though she accepted the fact that she now just a piece of memory of him, nonetheless she still acts like the boy, always thinking about him, not  a day passes by that i don't think about you, even just for a while. The way the anime portrays the feeling and expression of the characters are priceless, intentionally keeping the characters from revealing their true feelings but we still feel as if we can read and understand them. I'm a fan of happy endings which is not usually realistic in real life, so it's heartbreaking when in the end they didn't get together again after all those while (especially the last scene when the passed each other at the train line) T.T 


However, he smiled at the end, finally letting go of his past. Life must go on.


The anime is as detailed and expressive as it can be, leaving few to the imagination of the director, Makoto Shinkai who mostly did sci-fi/fantasy anime. The soundtrack was awesome too especially the ending theme, i love it. 

My Mother's Day

There are many ways people would ask how much do you love your mom, what's your most memorable thing with you and her, what do you miss most of her.

When someone asked me to list 5 of your happiest moments with your mom i was dumbfounded. i couldn't possibly spits out 5 not even 1. it must be awkward when it's supposed to be really easy. just name any, like when she cooks your favorite meal or something, anything? How can it be? what, you don't really love your mom or something?

I sat there in silence...trying my hardest when it struck me. How could i list FIVE things of happy moments with her when all my life it was nothing but only happiness (with her)? I couldn't recall any specific moments because i regard each and every moment with her is special. I love her too much that i just can't choose without feeling disturbed that there are some special moments with her that are, not special.

All my life, this person guided me, teaches me, loves me, scolds me, reminds me, more than anyone ever did. I would recall (from many other) the time when she encourages me to be 'observant'. I was around 8 or 9 at that time. It was when we were driving back home to Terengganu, as she tells her childhood story (that are so fascinating by the way) that she would intermittently add some moral values in her stories. This time it is about to be 'observant'. To really open your eyes and see the world in another perspective. I took it by heart and started to be 'observant' (tried to, at least) from that day on. Obviously, there are so many values, stories, knowledges, etc that she taught that i would say that i am not what i am today without her, i wouldnt' even be close to what i am today without her. She's is the single most biggest influence in my life.

I was around 13 or 14 at that time (adolescent years, which im not fond of) when i vehemently abjects to her holding my hand in public or whenever when we're trying to cross the road. it wouldn't be seen as 'macho' or 'cool' for your mom to still holding your hand (who's watching anyway?). Or when we went to 'the Store' or 'Pantai Timur' supermarket to buy some shirts or pants. How she happily picks up any shirts (which is ugly from my view, at that time) and tries it on me and told me to put it on and then picks up another (horrible) pant to go with it. How 'uncool' is that? You are a big boy ( big lah sangat) now and still shops with your mom? Pergh, if my friends saw me i wouldn't know what to say. Eventually i never met or stumbled upon anyone in my years of 'mummy shopping' with her.

I miss that time, i miss it when she's busy looking for the best shirt for me, looking for the right sizes, usually meaning the worker to get into the store looking for the exact size. I miss her terribly when she would ask me to accompany her throughout the bazar or pasar malam, looking and most usually never buy anything other than tempering with my mood. Then she would laugh and mention how i'm always like that....

But i would remember many wrongs that i did to her. How i wish that i would never make her disappointed in me. But as life makes it way, there are some disappointments and sad moments along the way. I just hope that  i could make up for it somehow, someday.

One thing i'm sure of, she would never stop loving me. She would call us siblings almost every 3 or 4 days (at least twice) a week. Just to share some stories of her work or about my brother and all. No, her call wasn't not short in any way, most likely it will be around half an hour. Whenever my phone rings around 7 or 8 pm, my friends would yell for me, saying, "Syauqee, your mother's calling!!". Then i would hurry to pick up the phone and if someone doesn't know better it looks like i'm talking to a girlfriend.

I know she won't read this. Heck, i don't care. Because i know whatever happens, we will always be in her prayers everytime, everyday. Her love would not increase by reading this because it's always full, regardless. For all you have done, and so much more, i just want to say I love you mom, and may Allah grant you eternal happiness here until the hereafter.

p.s. just had to wait on the cherry story. this one goes first because i'm in the mood :)

7 months ago...

My last post was on October 11 2010. That'll be around 7 MONTHS since I last post anything here.

LOTS had happened in those 7 months. LOTS of thing i want to share but didn't. Anyway, i am looking forward to restart my writing. Hopefully, i can cover those missing months XD

Starting with my first full time working experience here in Australia as a cherry sorter for the next post.