Home sweet home...

Finally, home sweet home. And that means I'm back in my sweet little hometown where I've been living for the past 20 years. It's situated in the middle of mainland part of Penang known as Province Wellesley. No, it's not in Butterworth but that's what I usually tell people because whenever I mentioned Bukit Mertajam, there will be a large question mark above their heads and the way their eyebrows arched shows that they have not even HEARD of the place before.

Anyway, I reached BM (short for Bkt Mertajam) in the wee hours this morning. The reason? My bf and I drove back all the way from KL from midnight onwards and only reached BM around 4-5 in the morning. The initially plan was for us to go back to his hometown in Alor Setar and come back to BM this afternoon after lunch with his family. But the moment we passed the Juru toll, he decided that he was just too dead tired to drive on any longer and since the journey back to my house from the toll takes less than 15 minutes, he decided that we should stop at my house instead of going all the way back to Alor Setar, which was going to take another hour or so. Well, he did not really decide himself that we should go back to my house in the wee morning, he actually asked me what we should do before making the final decision. And I respect him for that. The ability to ask for my opinion before making decisions. He had always asked for my opinions before doing anything and that includes his career. But I'll get back to this some other time. And so, back to my house we did and I had to wake my Mum up at nearly 5am. Thank goodness I do not need to call the housephone to wake either her or Granny up cause Mum's been sleeping in my room all the while that I was in KL. She claims that my room is much cooler in the evenings and nights, which she didn't believe when I first told her that. Hehe..finally she believes me and decided to take over my room whenever I'm back in KL studying. But this room will always be mine cause whenever I came back for holidays, for instance this time around, the room will be returned to me without question. After all, I'm the Queen of my own room. Kekeke....oh well. Anyway, my bf and I hooked up in my room while my Mum promptly made her way back to her room and within minutes, all of us were asleep like pigs. I cannot be excuse for it cause after all, when one is born in the year of pigs, one have to act like a pig in someway or other. =D

My bf and I slept through the whole morning and only woke up around 1 something in the afternoon. Yet, I'm still feeling sleepy and tired and all I want to do is just to continue snoozing away. Unfortunately, I had to wake up and see what my Mum and Granny is up to. Both of them were busy preparing a Chinese delicacy known as 'Chong' (in Cantonese). It's rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and then boiled in hot boiling water. There are 2 types of 'chong'; the sweet type and the salty type. The sweet type is yellow in colour and to eat it, you either dip it in sugar or melted 'gula Melaka'. 'Gula Melaka' is actually hard coconut sugar that are in pieces as hard as bricks. The taste is heavenly especially to young kids and I used to love eating them. But as I grew up, I became more health conscious and stop eating too many sweet things. Thus, the low liking for it anymore. The salty type of 'chong' is wrapped in bamboo leaves too but are considerably 2-3 times bigger than the sweet type. THe rice is fried til fragrant with dark soya sauce. While the sweet type does not have any filling, the salty type had meat, mushrooms, beans and egg yolk in it. My Granny usually wraps a special bunch for me cause she knows I'm not too fond of eating 'chong' with egg yolk. I hope she does the same this year too. As for other people, some will add in some dried shrimps but I do not really like the taste of it. Maybe cause I've grown up eating my Granny's version of 'chong'.

Speaking of Granny, she's definitely grown much weaker since the last time I saw her, which was somewhere in April. Mum had been calling me practically every week since then cause I was in KL studying. Each time we talked, she'll tell me how Granny fared for the past week and without fail, there will always be accounts on Granny getting dizzy and falling down in the process. 7 times out of the 10 times she falls down, she'll definitely hit her head on a table, or maybe a chair or something. I'm really, really worried about her. She's 79 years old this year. 80 if you want to follow the Chinese calendar. And all the while, she's been doing fine. She's healthy as can be and she can even go shopping for hours with Mum and I. But now, looking at her health deteoriating before my very eyes, I'm suddenly overcome with fear. Fear of losing her to the Grim Reaper. I know people die every day because of old age. But frankly, I do not want to go to another funeral this year. I'll get to this next time round. My very wish is for Granny to witness my graduation for my degree and to still be around when I get married. She's the next best thing in my family after my Mum. I hope against hope that she'll be ok and that her health will not continue to deteoriate. Cause if her health continues to deteoriate in such a short period of time, I fear that she will not be around for long. But before the worst happened, I'll make sure that I enjoy her company and show her my love as much as possible, nevermind her sharp tongue that loves to scold and nag. I'll just ignore that and take life with her once again one day at a time.

[Edit] As for my diarrhoea, it's still there but it's definitely getting better. I am not confined to eating broth and bread anymore. Yippee! But I still do not want to experience excruciating pain in my stomach and the high frequency of visiting the toilet any sooner.