Fasting Month-Bamboo cannon

Bamboo cannon
Meriam buluh or bamboo cannon is a type of home-made firecracker which is popular during the Hari Raya festive season in Malaysia, and during the New Year's day celebration in the Philippines. Like other fireworks, bamboo cannons are illegal as stated in Malaysian Explosive Act 1957; ironically, more Malay children turn to the more dangerous bamboo cannon as an alternative to commercial firecrackers which were made illegal by the government.

How it works
A typical bamboo cannon consists of a large bamboo and a mixture of calcium carbide and water. The chemical reaction formed as a result of mixing calcium carbide with water inside the bamboo produces acetylene, an explosive gas. The acetylene explodes when a flame is introduced to the mixture. The explosion may cause severe injury if not handled carefully.
Kerosene is also used as a fuel. Less than a cup (about 200ml) of hot kerosene is poured into a small hole near the breach of the cannon. A lighting stick is used to ignite the fumes and fire the cannon. Then fresh air is blown into the small hole and the cannon is fired again. It takes some practice to make the loudest bang. The bamboo is usually around 4 to 6 inches in diameter and 4 to 5 feet long.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is not us, just a picture to show how one play with meriam buluh.

I promise in my previous post to write a story about meriam buluh. For us in the kampung, our fasting month won't be complete without meriam buluh. How we to know that playing meriam buluh was against the law(according to the above statement). We just wanted to have fun. We couldn't afford to buy the fire cracker as we only got money to buy food only. We used kerosine as the fuel to ignite our meriam buluh. But the sound was not so fantastic. Some of us came out with a lot of ideas on how to outdo our friends one. Whoever had the loudest sound was consider like champion. I played meriam buluh with my friends too. Don't be suprise that I also helped my brother in making our meriam buluh the loudest.

This incident happenned when I was still very young. If I am not mistaken, I was about 6, as my brother was 5 years older than me. My brother decided to play meriam buluh with his friend. When I wanted to tag along, he said no. They played the meriam buluh near the surau, about 200m from our house. We heard a very loud bang came from their meriam buluh. It was not a usual bang. The villagers ran the surau to see what happen. We saw blood was everywhere. One of my brother's friend was covered with blood. My brother got a slight injury as he only watched the friend playing. The friend lost two fingers. After further investigation, we found out that they did not use the kerosene, as we always did. This time they use carbide to make the sound louder. And carbide can explode easily and the meriam buluh also can break quite easily too.

Do you think we learned our lesson? The answer is yes. At least for that year only. When Ramadan came again the following year, we went back to our ways, have fun with meriam buluh.

Fasting Month.........so fast

We have been fasting over one week alredy. How the time flies.

This year we are training Naqib to fast.

Suprisingly, he is very enthusiatic about fasting. He had been watching the animate 'Upin and Ipin' alot. I gues he got the spirit from that.

When I woke him up about 5 am for 'sahur', he woke up almost immediately.

Sometimes I had to feed him rice just to make sure he really eat. I don't want him to go on empty stomach one whole day.

So far, Naqib has not been fasting everyday. Alhamdulillah

As for Nazmi, he never gave me any problem since he was in my womb. He actually started fasting when he was 5 years old. This year I see him quite energetic. He always go for second, sometimes third helping when he bteak his fast, some goes for sahur as well.

When we started fasting, Naqib would start asking about 'bunga api'. So I asked around for the place where I can purchase some bunga api for him. Yesterday, I found one store in Seksyen 7 which sold the thing bunga api. I want my kids to have fun as we did when I was small. I still remember playing with fire crackers and 'meriam buluh' when I was small. That time, we can still purchase those things legally. [I will write another story about 'meriam buluh' in my next post]

These are some picture that I manage to take but the pictures are a little bit blur because it was very dark.

Naqib is playing with bunga api. I make sure he wore the mask since he had been coughing quite bad lately.

I took the shot too late, the bunga api finished already.

Nazmi with the bunga api.

Nazmi and Naqib enjoying themselves.

Look at the smoke........Luckily they are wearing the mask.

PMS (Version 2)

This story happened long time ago when I was studying in the United States(Rockland Community College, Suffern New York). It was summer 1982.

Imagine how we fast during summer because the day was longer than night. We started fasting about 4 am and only can break our fast about 8.30 pm. The temperature (it was about 100degrees F) also didn't contribute to our comfort. Some of us took summer courses and some of us just lazying around. Many of us who didn't have class went sight seeing in New York City or some other cool places like Niagara Falls.

It happened during the month of Ramadan. The Malay community there was small. There were about 30 of us. Once a week, we girls cooked something special and we broke our fast together. As for me, I was just helping only since I was not that good in the kitchen.(Learned to cook only after I got married)

The next day, I didn't fast because it was that 'time of the month'. I was cooking something (only goreng telur) in the kitchen for breakfast. At the same time my roommate was talking on the phone to her boyfriend(now her husband). And the phone happened to be in the kitchen. He heard the noise of my cooking and asked what was that noise. My friend said "Biah tengah basuh pinggan yang lepas makan semalam". Takkan nak cakap I was cooking when everybody suppose to fast. Her boyfriend told the boys about me washing the dishes, and they felt bad since the dishes was used by them the previous day. He didn't know it was a lie to cover me eating in the day time of Ramadan.

The moral of the story is, after that incident, the boys would wash the dishes after each gathering. And the girls didn't need to clean up the dishes after each gathering. At least they can rest after they were quite tired cooking the food for them.

REVISION

I finish my syllabus with U6 Yakin, U6 Gigih and U6 Azam already.

I use my class with them to do revision.

Everyday I brought STPM model paper and ask them to do.

I told them they have to do at least one set of questions per week.

Here are some of the shots I took with U6 Yakin today when they suppose to be doing revision.

Weng Yee trying to solve the question.

Chee Hong and Alwin- so busy doing 'IQ game'

Hong Yee watching Alwin and Chee Hong Playing the 'IQ' game.

Chester- so busy doing his work and didn't notice I took a pic of him

Sherlyn-starting to do revision on Function after I told them there will be a test on function after the holiday.

Sherlyn-look fresh even after she recharged her battery for 1 bar only

PMS

What is PMS?

'Pak Mail Sayang?'

Right.

Because my husband's name is Mail

And of course I love him.

But this is about woman's problem

'Pre Menstrual syndrome'

I want to tell a story which happen long time ago(30 years ago), whe I was in form 4.

I still remember one day, it was that time of the month. My ustazah asked me to recite Quraan, but you are not allow to recite Quraan or solat during that time. So I told ustazah that I couldn't recite. One of my class mates(quite naughty) named Madi heard me and marked the date on his calender.

When I was young, I always got PMS. One of them was stomach cramp. My form teacher named Pn Tan showed me a tablet and told me to take it if I didn't feel comfortable. But Madi overheard her and he made a lot of noise. He said that he was going to tell everybody that I took contraceptive pill if I didn't tell him the truth. To stop him, I tolh him that the tablet was actually for a 'PERIOD' pain. Actually he didn't know what PERIOD was, and he knew the truth only after a bit of explaining from me.

Then he used that as a weapon to atck me and other girls. From that day, when that time of the month came, Madi made some remark like 'eh, nanti PERIOD ke 3 ada apa?', 'PERIOD ke 8, perlu ke pergi makmal' and a lot more 'PERIOD', PERIOD' AND PERIOD'. Are you guys these days as naughty as him?

After all these years, I thought I am over PMS already. But this month I felt so moody and my back really ache. Forunately, this only happen for 2 days only.

When women got PMS, they are not themselves. It is the hormon that derive the women crazy and acted wierder than usual. So, men please get prepare to deal with women in your lives having PMS.

Thursday Outing with Nadia

Morning:
I messaged Pn Saejah, told her that I won't be in school today because I had a doctor appointment. I went to the clinic about 9 am. When the doctor checked, it seemed that my blood pressure was on the high side, 150/100. I got MC today.

Afternoon:
I went back home and took a long nap and woke up when Nadia got home about 2 pm after her bowling practice. We went through internet to see what time the movie 'Proposal' will be screened. But the time is not suitable at all. Finally we decided to watch the malay movie, 'SETEM' (I seldom watch malay movie). The casts included Rashidi Ishak and Afdlin Shauki(Should take Kelvin to watch this movie since his twin is the actor.....hahaha......refer to his pic wearing the keeper attire in FB). And I had a good time. We laughed a lot.
This movie is about a stamp supposed to be worth USD4 mil. So, many 'penyangak' wanted to get their hand on the stamp. They went through some kind of adventure to steal the stamp but when they finally got the stamp, it happened to be a fake one.

Some lines that really tickled me:
Rashidi: Kenapa kau pakai baju macam Justine Timberlake?
Afdlin : Tadi kau call aku suruh pakai macam Justin Timberlake'
Rashidi: Aku call kau kata 'just don't be late' bukan Justin Timberlake.
Hahaha........ we laughed

Another line:
' dia pulang paku buah keras'
'Hah, apa? Buah dia kena paku?
Hahaha..........more laugh

Well, over all I would say the movie was really good.
I really recommend you guys to watch this movie SETEM.

It happenned that Jusco got a day sale today.
So after the movie we went shopping which we didn't plan. We ended buying things worth about RM400. Well if we got the money from selling the 'setem' we could buy more. Hahahaha..........

Outings

Friday:

Went to Bukit Raja with Nadia to watch 'The taking of Pelham 123'

It was a good movie.

I rate 4.5 out of 5

Leave 0.5 for human error.

After the movie, Nadia wanted ice cream. So see what happen.

I didn't have any because I am not that crazy about ice cream.

A whole pint for her

Baskin Robbin: Chocolate triology n praililenes & ceam

She finish the pint by herself

The upside down ice-cream(see the ice cream doesn't fall.......hahaha)

Saturday

Kelvin's mom invited me to have dinner with her and Kelvin. Since I don't like to go out at night alone I asked Nadia to follow me. We went 'Restaurant GI Joe'. (Is it coincident? Since the movie GI Joe will be on screen next week). Well, we ordered alot of food.(Kangkung goreng belacan, telor bungkus, ikan masak 3 rasa, daging masak merah, and last but not least is tomyam).

We had a nice dinner and I got to know Kak Cheng better.

Ian Siakap masak 3 rasa

' Abang' Kelvin and Nadia

Nadia and Untie Cheng

Kelvin and Me

Nadia, Kak Cheng and Me

P/S:Next Thursday, I promise Nadia to watch 'The Proposal'.