The Lull Before The Storm.

Before the storm begin in earnest (which will be by tomorrow)...

The Hunt for the Red October, is one of the best thriller books I have ever read. It was a gripping drama about the latest (then) Soviet missile submarine and was masterfully written by Tom Clancy, that there were strong rumours that such an event did take place secretly. But when they turned the book into a movie, it was a major disappointment not only for many of the book's fans, but also for the producers of the film.

For the fans of the book, the film failed to live up to the excitement in the book. For the producers though, they fail to make it into a box office movie. This was perhaps due to the film was released soon after the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union came to an end. Thus, most people just could not be bothered about watching it. But as I mentioned, perhaps.

Thus I thought of doing a spoof here. But since I am having trouble keeping my eyes opened now, I shall make it brief so that you too will not have the same problem as I am.

It began early Saturday morning when Makcik Yam and her family coming to the house. And from there, we convoyed in 2 cars and headed to one of the many places I dread to go under normal circumstances. But since many people were still on Chinese New Year mood and mode, I guess it does fall into the abnormal circumstances category. And alhamdulillah, so it was as parking was ample, and the place almost deserted of shoppers.

So, while my Emak, Makcik Yam, Midah (MY's D-I-L), went off for their hunt, Azman and I went browsing at the bookstores along with his kids. Whilst there, I managed to get a pretty decent book as a present for a dear friend. I mean, I could not help it at all - just one look at the book and I was reminded of the friend! Then again, anywhere I look, I am always reminded of the dear friend too! Hmm...scary!

Anway, after some very long agonising wait afterwards, did the 2 beautiful sisters meet us back at the prearranged spot. And soon, we were off for lunch and a funny thing happened. While we had lunch at a shop somewhere near my friend's house, my friend was having lunch in a mall near my house! Well, it was funny to me then...can't say the same for you.

Anyway, since I have been mentioning her quite a bit, I just thought of putting my Makwa's picture up.

So now, the secret is out. On the left up there, is my beautiful 76year young Makwa with her sweet 72year young sister. Amongst her former primary school students as well friend's children, my emak is known as Makwa or Cikgu Hawa. For reasons unknown to me, Azman decided to bring his camera along and just started clicking away.


And that up there, is a corner of my Makwa's garden which she likes to work on. She does have a helper, mind you. There's a Wak Kromo aka Wak Supirman who comes around every morning to the garden to water them, besides being what I jokingly term as 'kuli-paksaan', as a reminder to those Japanese Forced Labour during World War II. And oh, that Wak Kromo aka Wak Supirman also goes by the name of cakapaje.

Back to the hunt. Just like the elusive Red October before it surrendered, the Red Tudung was never found. End of story.