teaching by example
27 01 2005last tuesday went to get kya’s stock of soy formula. she goes through 1 kg worth of formula in an average of 5 days. since i didn’t want to make a stop at the atm, bought only 4 of these (which translates to 20 days worth of formula).
the story i wanted to tell is more on what happened when we left our driveway to head to the singseh’s (chinese traditional medicine man).
the residents on my row normally have a minimum of two cars per household. now if you are familiar with malaysian residential areas, especially those built 10 yrs ago, they only provide a porch that can fit one car. so for those with 2 or more cars would either have to park on the roadside or would renovate their compound into an additional car porch.
but even with that, the road is filled with cars parked left and right and at its tightest spot, there would only be enough space for one car - there’s a lot of give and take that has to happen when two cars from opposite directions are trying to pass through.
so that night was one of those nights where there were more than 1 car plying the road. we were about to drive off when a car came from the opposite direction. i stopped my car to allow the driver through ( near where i was waiting there was enough space for 2 cars to squeeze through if driven with caution whilst over where the other driver was only fit for 1 1/2 car)
and we waited. and s/he waited. and we waited. and s/he waited.
obviously there was no way i can drive through this and it’s also obvious this bugger ain’t budging. if s/he really wanted to allow me to pass through, surely s/he could see that there ain’t enough space and would reverse the car a bit. since i was in a hurry, decided that i would have to make MORE space so i reversed back into my parking spot and only then did the other driver made his/her move. d’uh!
as i was already slightly pissed by then, i muttered a ‘bodoh nye driver‘ (translated: stupid driver) without thinking. to which a tiny voice chirped and repeated bodoh!!!
OUCHHHH!! i totally forgot that kya was in the car with me.
i quickly told her ‘takde kya.. pandaiii… ‘ (no kya!.. smart driver!)
and she happily repeated ‘pandaiiiii‘
phew.. that was close…
but then on the road, i accidently let loose more ‘bodoh’s on the road and would have to quickly cover it up with another pandai (used to say f**k a lot but then i had kya so i toned it down, that’s a relief)
couldn’t help but relate this to a scene in ‘meet the fockers’ where jake jr said ‘asssss-hoooolllleeee’ after hearing greg accidently saying it while babysitting for his future in-laws.
recited this incident to mama. she just shook her head and solemnly said ‘it’s time you start teaching her muqaddam and a bit of english/malay words’
which i was planning to do anyways, if only i could get hold of the right books. 
update:
found a photo of my street during hari raya exodus. this is definitely not how it looks like on normal days
what they said