TAZO

The first junk food I had ever eaten was a packet of crisp with Star Wars icons as the front illustration. Inside was a Tazo – a thin, round –shaped plastic chip with certain characters of Star Wars printed on it. Its back was white in color with the famous Star Wars tag tinted neatly at the center. The round outline, in fact, has a number of small short cleavages that pinch to the centre of the tazo. In a pack would be two of them. So, every time we go to ASDA, our regular place for shopping, I must grab one.

It was a great pleasure to gain more tazos that fits onto one another by means of its cleavage. I put enough guts to collect the small tazos to a great number so I could build up a car model from them – that was too much of an imagination, but a six year old kid would never mind.

It happened to be that one day, at school, this particular guy of my age asked me to play black magic with him. I had no idea what that Black Magic game was, but it sounds kinda tempting. ‘If you win, you’ll get my tazo, he promised. I, at that time, am too keen to earn as much tazos as I can, so I agreed without any hesitation. I could never remember how the game was, but all I knew was before I could put any guts on the game, I suddenly had lost to this freaking guy. Abruptly, my tazo was already in his hand. And, all of a sudden I realized I had a hole on my tazo count. Instantaneously, I made a beeline to the classroom and lodged a report to Mr. John, one of my teachers in Standard 2. He could do nothing except shaking his old head. So, there was me pleading for justice. Yet, I had never earned back the piece of tazo I lost.

This black magic game, I discovered later on, is a type of gambling. Err…gambling – why should I cross the religion’s line? Well, what does a six year old, grown – up – in – England boy knows about? (=_=)”

Roller Skate

Later, Abu bought me a red roller skate. For sure, I had spent a long time balancing myself properly. After some time, I managed to skate on my own feet. Alas! It was really extraordinarily satisfying! Umi prohibited skating outside, so I kept practicing inside. The unforgettable moment was me having my toe damaged severely. By the end of the day, I would cry in agony. It didn’t happen once, or twice or thrice. It counts more. At that time I never knew why could it happen, but later, after I’d grown up, I learned that it was due to exerting too much force on the toe. After a number of times injuring my toe, I become traumatized and stopped.

Townley Garden

Townley Garden is a square – shaped residential area: it is just simple as four rows of houses forming a square and a bunch of houses in the middle. The only entrance was on our house’s row; ours was, if not mistaken, the seventh from the main road.

Then, there was this habit of exploring the whole residential area. Maryam, Ilyas and I would embark our ‘journey’ from the almost – flat hill in front of the house. Done with all the climbing, we reach the back alleys of our neighborhoods. There was this particular house where a dog would always bark loud whenever we pass by. It has been an intimidating ‘obstacle’ for us to continue the walk. So, what we siblings did was we dash to the other end. It was no piece of a cake since Maryam and Ilyas were always too afraid to carry on. But then, there was always me to buck them up.

At the end of the street, there was a bend to the right, and at the end of the road was an abandoned garage. An old red car laid there still. Surrounding it was plenty of small, tiny and colorful stuffs. They are kinda small toys jakun kids like us love to play with. So, we picked the assorts up, stroll down the road, make our way back to the daunting back alley and speed off through the fast barks to the hill and toddle back home. There was another similar garage at the end of our house’s row, but there wasn’t much to be picked up. Back home, we have fun with those stuffs; from sorting them and building them up to scattering everywhere. Umi might have been fed up with us. Well, we never had plenty of toys (except for the yellow slide and mundane computer games), so we have to search for them!

Farouki's

Farouki’s double story abode was a very fine one. The front garden, without any gate, was only a patch of lawn and a row of daffodils on the front. A two – line square paver lines up the doorway. A grey milk box beside the beige door becomes the first object to welcome any guest. The windowless porch area was very small, with a single pole holding the second storey roof. At the very left is a closed garage; Abu seldom use it for he always park his red Sunny by the roadside.

Entering the front entrance, the scene you’ll see is a somehow gloomy living room, with a white staircase at the right, and a fork at the front, which separates the kitchen and another living room. The front room consists of nothing but a fine shoe rack aside the entrance and a box of snow boots fronting the stairs.

The, kitchen was quite simple; viewing from the entrance, one could see a sink on the right corner, and a stove set and a washing machine, all three lining up to the backdoor. A set of small cabinets and table at the left finishes up the whole view. There was a kitchen counter which was supposed to serve as a place to place prepared food, but we siblings misused it as a path to chase after one another. Once, we used to push the sofa to the front of the counter so that when we jump through from inside the kitchen, we would land safe on the other side; the L – shaped living room.

From the landing spot, one could see an old wooden cabinet at the right and a plain white wall at the front. The floor widens to the left and forms an L – shape; to the left too. There was a row of windows on the other L side, aside the plane wall. Beneath the windows is a yellow slide we used to play on. Right beside the living room entrance is a zinc heater and straight ahead is the main door. Basically, the design of the ground floor is like a loop; from the main entrance, across the kitchen, through the arch, along the L – shaped living room, and back to the main door again.

The upper part was kind of simpler. Viewing from the stairs, the first room that catches sight was the computer room. Nothing much inside – there was just a table of a desktop set and a praying mat on the floor. On the right side of the stair top was a tall window, which later, was scattered into pieces as a result of being smashed by naughty youngsters.

My bedroom – I mean ours, since there were three of us - was beside the computer room, whilst the master bedroom room was on the left. The master bedroom has its own bathroom. Our toilet was beside the master bedroom, which is also opposite to the computer room – there was a corridor connecting the toilet and the computer room.

After all, Farouki’s dwelling would be the most wonderful place of my childhood memories.

Learning To Read The Holy Quran

Learning the Holy Quran was quiet a tough, but an enjoying moments. I was taught to recite Arabic alphabets since four. The red Muqaddam was the first step of learning. ‘Wassalamu’…this is the verse I should always pronounce each time I finish a lesson – it always leaves me in an eager next – time – want – to – read – some – more face.

One thing I felt eager for is to move from one lesson to another quickly. So, by six, I could already read the Quran well. In fact, I finished the whole tome within a year.

It is still vivid in mind that when I reached the point I don’t need my mum to correct me, I sit on my bed and recite the Quran by my own. Most of the time, Umi will teach me, but once in a while, Abu will take over. This is one of most things I fear when I was a kid – to confront my father. So, when it comes to reciting the Quran, I would quiver, and the worst, cry. I don’t know why, but it was inevitable.

Bis…millah…sob…sob…hirrahman…sob…sob…nirrahim… ‘Allah…belum sempat baca lagi dah nangis?’ My father used to exclaim whenever I rolled into tears. At the end of the day, I would be sent back to learn with Umi.

What a pity!

Potter

Before I learn to use a proper toilet, Abu once bought us a baby toilet trainer seat. We called it a potter. The potter was a transition between using pampers and a toilet. Because we were too small to use the toilet seat (Abu calls it an American toilet), we were taught to use a potter first.

a cute potter...=)

This particular potter is kinda round and bowl in shape, with two curves on its side – decent enough to sit…err…I could say squat…and piss and throw away any waste. We siblings share this white potter – and it was somehow an amusing account. We even queued and waited for one another! After wee – wee, we pour our urine into the toilet bowl. I think it is quiet cute in some ways. It happens to be that one day one of us broke it. Starting from that point, we started to learn and fix ourselves properly on the real toilet bowl by our own. Ahoy, little kids! Use the bowl wisely! Never slip inside and soak yourselves! (^_^)"