いろいろなもの。

Prologue: ゆっくり、のんびり、平和な生活がほしい。

First and foremost, a few grateful words:

Mementos from blue yonder: two postcards of two different corners of the globe (for the same purpose though: souvenirs from travelling!) from two different personas that left lasting impressions, memories, emotions in different stages in my life so far. One depicting the glowing fire of Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火) in Kyoto, another a portrait of Benjamin Franklin who is one of the Founding Fathers of United States of America that signed the Declaration of Independence in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Both of them made their bold choice and great efforts in furthering their studies in a whole new environment. Thank both of you for the postcard, Owen and ShuLi. Godspeed in both of your future endeavours! As for me, I will try my best. Probably. In one way or the other.

It has been more than a month or so since I am back home. What I have been up to anyway?

Being back in home sweet home of Kuching, I must make up for all the local foods I missed for months and best of all, I even got to try a few "Best in Kuchings" featured on the top row. From left to right, three layered teh-c-peng (stirred up in this picture of course to drink) from Fresh Food Court (鲜鲜), 7th Mile/Kota Sentosa which is basically 20m from behind my house, Bintawa Kueh Chap (branch at Tabuan Jaya) (delish but a bit expensive) and Swee Kang Ais Kacang near Chung Hua No. 4 Secondary School featuring Matterhorn (foreground) and White Lady (background) with Sotong Kangkung as sides. Not to be missed out (even though they're not from the Best of Kuching places) at the bottom row (from left to right), Tomato Mee, KongPiah, Kolo Mee (from Fatt Fatt 发发, the kopitiam that I ate since I was tiny), Laksa and Kueh Chap from 7th Mile Market Foodcourt, also the one I ate since I was tiny. 

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I've missed out most of Hari Raya Aidilfitri Celebration during my university time and it's great that I finally got to celebrate Hari Raya at home where I belong instead of being marooned in Pearl Island. Besides the usual following my parents Raya visits to their colleague open houses (which in fact gone down a little simply because the traffic in Petrajaya is horrendous), I got to try a whole new Raya visit experience of my own (dragging along my younger bro in the process): Governor of Sarawak's Official Public Open House at Astana on the 2nd day of Raya. My first in stepping into the compound of Astana. The journey over to the Astana is a new twist itself because instead of driving all the way across the river through Satok Bridge while enduring the horrendous traffic at Petrajaya, we decide to gone to the city center instead and take a Tambang boat ride from Waterfront across the river to Astana. In fact, taking a Tambang boat is how people between two banks travels in the olden days before there's even a proper bridge between two banks. The White Rajah, the former rulers of Sarawak also took boat across the river to tend to his royal and governmental duties at the Courthouse. Anyway typical of VVIP's open house, it will be filled with people though it's not too overwhelming for me. Me and my bro didn't line up for the meet and greet and green packets but instead we head directly to the food tents in which caterers are tending to the crowds. For crowd control, they issue coupon to ensure everyone can only take their food once (though they can beat the system if they just go around the Astana a few more times...). After I had my meal and leaving, I bumped into my former coursemates, Fuzah who's in Kuching for Raya as well. I think both of us were taken by surprise of our appearance that I forgot to wish her Selamat Hari Raya. *head desk* Anyway, retracing the foot step of our Rajah, we took the sampan ride back as well. RM1.00 (50 cents per crossing) for a decent meal and brand new experience of entering Astana during festive season? Worth it.

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Of course the one month of Ramadhan/fasting leading up to Eid has something else to look forward too as well which is the Ramadhan Market, providing quick and easy dinner for weary Muslims after fasting for the whole day and for glutton like me, extra feasts. Enough of Nasi Kerabu and Kebab with pita bread (not that I don't like them but it has been way too long since the last time I visited my own local Ramadhan Market) and here comes kebab in long bun, coconut juice and greasy and oily bishop's nose!

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The food trails doesn't end here of course because August is also the month of Kuching Festival, a month long trade, fun, garden and FOOD fair celebrating Kuching as a city! For this year, the organizers decide to start Kuching Festival early in mid-July because of Ramadhan in July and Eid in August, probably want to catch as much customers as possible. As usual, the food fair is the main visitor magnet as they will be a lot of novelty food stall setting up for fellow gastronomes. I got to try Taiwenese Hot Dog sausage (大肠包小肠) (top row right) which is basically Taiwanese sausage rested on a bun/bed of glutinous rice. The one at lower row left is dragon thread sweet (龙须糖) which is peanut flakes wrapped in threads of sugar which can be sticky and/or messy to eat if not carefully. There's no doubt this year's crowd puller is the stinky tofu (臭豆腐) (lower row center) but I didn't got to try it because the line is horrendous. There are few others items that I tried (but didn't took pictures of for some reason) such as the deep-fried milk which is basically the same concept as deep-fried icecream and Australian meat pie while one another day, my parent got themselves Thai food in which one of them is cold shredded sweet and sour chicken feet. A kaleidoscope of choice ranging from top-end restaurant catering company to self-own stall, everything has a place at Kuching Festival Foodfair!

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Fast forward back to the present however and it's inevitable that all good things has to come to an end. It's about three more days before I will be heading back to Penang and there's one thing that I didn't achieve despite how important it is. I have sort of clear up that matter in Kelantan but that's about it unfortunately. Perhaps I should refrain from using "hopefully" but instead start taking some measures to overcome. My trip back this time will definitely be different because my younger brother (Tate) successfully appealed to USM! Lines of USM graduates created! This incoming semester will be an interesting one...

If there's any other thing that I missed Kuching the most besides my family and local food is definitely the weather.  Definitely going to miss the torrential downpour that last at least an hour each time which will cool down the air and clear the sky of any trace of impurities...

...leading to clear, azure blue, boundless sky as far as eye can see and crisp, fresh air. I am going to miss home more than ever. *sigh*

Epilogue: Oh dear. August is ending. So many backlog of stuffs that I have not done. Do something or I am going to be screwed. But how?