It's Not Exactly Bonnie

I don't know who the baby is, nor do I know the parents. But amongst the picks available at you tube, this was the most decent and adorable. And no, this entry has nothing to do with the song, though if ever there is a bonnie, it would be nice to sing it to her. This entry is actually a short story about bones. And it has no medical reference of whatsoever.

My emak likes to tell stories of her younger days in Melaka. Sometimes it would be tales of the days whilst in Pantai Belimbing, other times it would be about Melaka Pindah. Now, I can't recall where exactly this tale took place, but its about an old man who has 2 doting sons; the younger one living with him, the other in a city.

As the tale goes, one day when the younger son was about to leave for the market, he asked the father if he needed or wanted anything. Unhesitatingly the old man said he would like to eat 'sup tulang'. Thus off went the son to the market for the day's buy, as well as some fine bones for the soup the old man wanted.

When he got back, he asked his wife to prepare the soup according to the old man's wish, with no further thoughts about it. But somehow, the old man was not thoroughly satisfied as the dish prepared was nowhere near to the recipe of his beloved wife, who passed away several years before. Thus while he was feeling sad about missing his wife, the elder son came to the house unexpectedly. Like any faithful son, the first question he would asked was whether the father has had his meal. The father, still teary eyed, replied sadly 'Adik engkau beri aku tulang je hari ni'. Enraged, the elder son confronted his younger brother who replied nonchalantly 'Dah itu yang ayah mintak!' Can't remember how the story ended, but it was quite hilarious when I heard it quite sometime back. Perhaps, the ending could have been on the same line as in an old McD TV advertisement "Where's your beef?".

Now, since we have moved on from bonnie to bones, and now beef, I don't mind telling you I'm feeling rather peckish now, even though emak and I had a meal of Otai Burger earlier; while she had a chicken, I had a double beef. Maybe after 2 days without proper meal, both our bodies are craving for some real food. Now, don't get me wrong, or confused this part with the old man earlier as emak and I are still recovering from a minor bout of food poisoning we suffered late Wednesday evening. Due to this, I was unable to assist Doc Lo'Lo' in her Parliamentary preparation. Fat good I would be there, actually, for never have I seen any parliament papers, nor have I seen any sittings. But it would have been a good experience. Talking of which...though it may not succeed, the motion to remove an old bone from the Parliament is indeed much welcome. Let's hope it goes through and with it, the removal of the entire cabinet of old bones too. With them around, life, of late, has not been exactly bonnie.