The Entrance & memancing

IMG_2520
Originally uploaded by wazdie

Pada hari Ahad yang lepas, kami berkonvoi 6 buah kereta ke The Entrance. Perjalanan mengambil masa hampir 2 jam dari Sydney. Ia merupakan sebuah pekan kecil yang menjadi tempat kunjungan pelancong sama ada untuk lari dari kesibukan kota bersama keluarga, bermandi-manda di pantai, berkelah, serta menjadi tempat kaki pancing melepaskan gian mereka.

Kawan-kawan saya sekarang ramai yang dah terkena demam memancing. Pantang ada masa terluang, pasti mereka memancing. Keterujaan untuk memancing jelas tergambar apabila masing-asing membeli batang pancing serta kelengkapan lain dan juga mengambil lesen untuk memancing memandangkan ianya kegiatan yang dikawal di NSW, Australia.

Saya juga ditanya, "tak mahu 'join' sekali ke?". Buat masa ini, tidak. Tak tahu kenapa, tapi bagi saya memancing bukanlah antara aktiviti yang saya ingin cuba.

Kalau di zaman dahulu, memancing merupakan suatu aktiviti yang penting, di mana ikan yang dipancing akan menjadi makanan ahli keluarga. Bagi keluarga yang kais pagi makan pagi, tiada hasil tangkapan bermakna mungkin akan makan nasi berlaukkan garam sahaja. Orang zaman dahulu perlu kreatif untuk mencari makanan menyara keluarga.

Di zaman ini, memancing lebih merupakan hobi. Kepuasan ketika mendapat habuan menyebabkan kaki pancing seolah-olah ketagih untuk memancing lagi. Bermula dengan set memancing yang murah dan pendek, di'upgrade' kepada yang lebih mahal dan panjang. Yang lebih berkemampuan pula, lengkap dengan bot laut dalam serta 'sensor' untuk mengesan lokasi yang banyak ikan. Kalau hendak dikira, ikan di pasar pelbagai jenis boleh dibeli. Kecil besar, murah dan mahal semua ada.

Di NSW ini, terdapat undang-undang yang membatasi kegiatan memancing. Umpamanya, ikan yang ditangkap mesti dilepaskan semula jika tidak mencapai saiz yang dibenarkan. Ada juga ikan yang dilindungi yang tidak boleh dibawa pulang, mesti dilepaskan. Ini antara sebab mengapa saya agak 'kurang' dengan aktiviti ini. Ikan yang ditangkap kerana 'hobi', sumbing mulutnya, kalau dijadikan makanan alhamdulillah, rezeki. Kalau tidak mencapai saiz yang dibenarkan, terpaksa dilepaskan semula dalam keadaan 'sumbing', mungkin sepanjang hayat.

Barangkali saya silap, mungkin teknologi mata kail terkini tidak 'mencacatkan' langsung ikan-ikan ini, itu saya kurang periksa. Melihat ikan-ikan kecil saya yang di dalam akuarium, beserta dengan anak-anaknya yang sedang membesar, hati saya mungkin tak akan terbuka untuk cuba memancing. Tapi siapa tahu, suatu hari nanti saya akan memegang juga batang pancing.

Sydney Market - Flemington

Yesterday we went to Sydney Market. It has been a long time since the last we went there. When Aiman was still somewhere else, we used to go there more often. Easy to move with no stroller, it's always very crowded in the market.

Its summer, so the fruits were very cheap. Cherries were $5 for 10 kg, but you need to 'pilih' and sort out yourself. Furthermore, people were shoppingfor christmas i supposed, so there were extra traffic that police were called to handle the traffic. Mama and Aiman just waited outside while I went in for the seafood. It was packed. I bought sardines, calamari, banana prawns, and crabs. Got out and looked for mama and aiman.


Then we just walked along the outside stalls, bought some greens and fruits. Went through the swap & sell market. Up to the carpark and time to go home. We stopped at Centro for lunch and met ibu-ibu from Eastlakes who came to Centro for window shopping.

Australian Museum

Australian Museum
Originally uploaded by wazdie

Last weekend the three of us went to the Australian Museum. It is not as big as the British Museum, but it is interesting enough to spend almost 2 hours inside a museum. That does not include the children sections and the resource centre that we did not get into. If we went to the children's activities area we could end up spending 1 hour just there to let Aiman play until he satisfied.

The old Sydney Grammar School...

From Australia Museum

tinggal tulang daa...

From Australia Museum

interesting!

From Australia Museum

Actually there are a lot of places around Sydney that we have not explored yet. We just been to the Mrs Macquarie Chair and the Royal Botanical Garden, after more than 3 years here in Sydney. I guess it happened to lots of us, we never get to the places close to us, but we've been to other places far away from home. So, I've decided that every week or so we will find a place to visit, be it a tourist spot, sight seeing, nature, or even shopping complex (this last one is my wife's favourite I can say).

Today is Friday, and tomorrow's plan is to the Sydney Marker in Flemington. Not that we have not been there, but it has been so long since the last time we went there. I bet there will be cheap fruits and vegies, they go by boxes. Come afternoon, they can sell as low as $5 a box of oranges. $8 mangoes (10-15 mangoes), and lots more like strawberries, blackberries, honey dew, all sorts of apples, and cherries. Not to mention tomatoes, bak choy, cauliflower, broccoli and list goes on. There are also seafood sections, selling quite cheap compared to other places.

Then, later in the afternoon, I plan to go to the Botany Bay national park, to walk through the pathway up to the headland facing the open seas. I hope it is accessible by wheelchair, so we can push Aiman in his stroller.

I'll snap pictures and will update soon. Actually I am doing this thru flickr, trying to figure out how it works. Have a nice weekend everybody!

10 Zulhijjah 1429H

Hari Raya Haji or Eid al-Adha. As usual we went to Malaysia Hall for the Eid prayer. We started from home nearly 6.30am. The traffic was not too bad at that time. We arrived at MyHall around 7.15am. Just nice. Ustaz Zuhir was already there. The saf was not full still. Aiman and I sat in front, close to the opening between males and females, easier to pass Aiman to mama in case he wants her.

The takbir raya went on until 7.45am. People kept on coming until then. The prayer started, continued with the khutbah. Aiman was with mama since before the prayer started. After the khutbah, everyone lined up and shaked hands with each other while praising Prophet Muhammad. Lots of new faces, I don't recognized them.

A small 'jamuan' was held outside the hall. There were nasi minyak, fruits and more. After taking some pictures, we went to Eastlakes and spend time until evening. On the way back, we stopped at Pak Yaman's house, as we have promised Tante Elli to come and visit them. We were served with lontong (nasi impit) and satay padang. The difference with satay padang is it has tongue (lidah). The gravy was also different. Elyn's face changed when Ririn told her that she might have eaten the tongue, but she swallowed it though. As for me, I enjoyed every new food I tried.

Well, that's a day in our calender...

Selamat datang ke dunia...

Hari Rabu, 3hb Disember 2008, merupakan hari bersejarah buatku. Setelah lebih seminggu aku keluar masuk wad bersalin, masanya telahpun tiba.

Semenjak awal pagi, perutku yang mengembang beberapa kali ganda terasa semakin sarat. Kelihatan luar biasa bulatnya perutku. Sekitar jam 9 pagi, akhirnya kelahiran yang pertama di dalam wad bersalin yang masih baru ini disambut dengan kesyukuran dan kegembiraan. Namun begitu, perutku masih membuyung, dan aku masih resah, gelisah, seolah-olah masih ada yang belum selesai.

Rupanya ramalanku benar, aku melahirkan anak yang kedua selang beberapa minit kemudian. Alhamdulillah, bulat dan sihat. Comel sekali kedua-dua anakku ini, dengan mata yang bulat dan hitam sekali. Tetapi, perasaanku tetap tidak berubah. Perutku masih sengal-sengal. Selang beberapa minit, anak ketiga ku dilahirkan. "Wah, dah tiga! Ada lagi kah?" fikirku.

Ditakdirkan Tuhan, aku terus melahirkan anak demi anak, sehinggalah anak yang ke tiga belas, sekitar jam 4 petang. Pada waktu ini, perutku kelihatan amat berbeza berbanding pagi, dan aku semakin selesa. Selera makanku bertambah, berapa banyak makanan yang disediakan, aku jamah sampai licin. Mungkin untuk mengisi ruang abdomenku yang telah dikosongkan oleh anak-anakku yang 13 ini. Aku semakin kuat, maka pada malam itu aku dikeluarkan dari wad bersalin. Akan tetapi, anak-anakku ditahan buat sementara waktu untuk pengawasan dan pemastian yang mereka benar-benar sihat dan selamat, sebelum dibenarkan keluar.

Aku seekor ibu gapi, dan ini anak-anakku yang comel...
Mengintai dari luar wad...
Aku (bawah), pasanganku (hitam menawan) dan maduku (kecik aje dariku)...

things to ponder

It was my turn to present to the group in our Journal Club meeting today. The last one for this year.

I talked about the relationship between marital status & gender and food insecurity. We always thought that women are more likely to report food insecurity after a divorce, but this article proves otherwise. Divorced men are more likely to have food insecurity.

While mounting evidence is available on food insecurity is related to obesity, especially among women, looking at the marital status is an interestingly new area. Evidence shows that in men, the worse food insecurity gets in a household, their body weight tend to decrease compared to fully food secure men. As oppose, in women, they tend to become overweight and obese as the food insecurity level getting worse. We always thought that women-headed household or single parent might likely to have food security problems. Nevertheless this is not always the case.

Another interesting point to note is that men will get heavier after marriage. This is because their eating habits have been influenced by their partners'. Another theory is most married people tend to eat more with families around, and they are happy and well taken care of. Some papers said that getting married will make you heavier and getting divorce will make you loose weight. For me this might be transitional, while they try to cope with the changes of the situation. But it might be right for most men, as they do not normally cook or do the food shopping.

All in all, targeting obesity problems has become more complicated. While the epidemics has become major problem, the caused and factors contributing to overweight and obesity discovered has also varied. It used to be a disease of the wealthy, but now it spread among the poor. We thought people with full access to food will become fat easier, but now people with not enough food to eat are fatter. What's next?