.:Tak bestnya hidup di KL part one:.

I must admit that I'm not a 100% kampung gal, but I'm so used to kampung area, if Kg. Sg Penchala can be defined as kampung now...

Well, you see nearly 3 decades ago, Kg. Sg. Penchala was surrounded by palm oil and rubber trees. Along the narrow road leading to nenek's, the trees shaded us, mostly pedestarians and basikal tua peddlers. I remember being an active *kampong* gal who used to held a marathon among my cousins to *cross-country* in the kampong. Such fun! I also remember *collecting* tolls tru a high densed rubber trees behind my kampong house in Hilir. We played house, we catched fish in the stream, we played congkak by creating holes in the dirt. We played all sorts of kampong games and I still remember being stung by a bee while climbing up a mangosteen tree...waiting for durians to fall (already pre-booked big ones among my cousins) and still remember having Supermax and Brownie as my pets (owh! there were cats anyway).

Those were the days where it was carefree and we won't bother to watch TV, play PS2 or PC...those were the days where we really played physically, the kampong way. The only peer pressure that we had (or imposed ahahha) was how our mechanical pencils looked like, whether we've read the latest Enid Blyton books, whether you have LEGO, how fancy your pencil case or stationeries looked like. At school during break, we ate a 50 sen nasi lemak or mee and played galah panjang afterwards.

Now...
they were just sweet memories to me. Something that I treasured and a story to tell my children and great granchildren later (insyaAllah, one day). It pains me to see my 15-year-old sis struggling with her peers at the new metropolitan school. Compared to KK where it's more peaceful and laid back, KL is a hectic, chaotic and a restless city. My sis have to endure how selfish her so-called rich and famous peers, not wanting to befriend her just because mom insisted to put nenek's add as her correspondence address. meaning to say, sis is a mere *kampong* gal. What's wrong with living in a kampong?

I said, "Piko, just befriends anyone who can accept you as who you are, but you have to accept them as what they are too, i know you can make better friends..."

Piko are not like the rest of my other siblings. She was born 5 years after Taro. She lived in KK for 5 years and is so used to KK people (and how famous she was in her former school). She had to sacrifice her Head of Prefect title, and loads of responsibilities there. Things changed and she's in KL now where they (the snobbish peers) wants to be your friend if your father has (at least) that Datuk title. What car your parents drive, which housing area you live bladibla...

The only thing I can help to boost my sis' spirit is in her education. From there, she can build her own confidence. That's what I'm trying to do now. Help her to excel, make her *see* her future and help her to think independently (and hopefully be independent).

In KL, mom looked tired, she said her thighs are in pain (due to driving manually, before her car arrives from KK) and she lost her KK luxuries (time, friends, women society, religious class, sports, spa, manicure, pedicure and facial treatment, and not forgetting cheap local helper like Kak Piah for RM20 per week).

In KL, dad already developed a series of backaches, lethargy and mental tiredness. I'm not happy with this kind of condition. I'm happy that at last my empty bachelor's pad is filled with my own family. But deep down, I don't want my family to lose all those happy traits in their smiles. It looks dry now....and I will miss KK home a lot!