The phrase 'Lenggang kangkung' has also the meaning of being 
leisurely and being idle or walking in a slow and peaceful gait."

I asked Sammy if the phrase, "Lenggang Lenggang Kangkung"
 is describing a person strolling along or is it describing the water 
spinach plant swaying.

 He wrote, "It is describing both, and if you want to be exact, 
you must mention the way the Kangkung, or water spinach
 with its long floating stem swaying gently and in a leisurely 
way on the rivers or lakes, gently swaying 
s they are blown by the wind or moved by the 
current underneath.

The word 'lenggang kangkung' literally refers to a person
 who strolls leisurely and without a single care, as if he or 
she owns eternity. This is a description of the peaceful 
and serene life in the beautiful life in the villages of Indonesia."

*****

People dance while swaying their hips to this song. 

Lenggang Lenggang Kangkung

1. Lenggang lenggang kangkung, Kangkung di tepi kali 2x
Begitulah kalau punya kekasih yang cantik sekali. 2x

2. Lenggang lenggang kangkung. Kangkung membawa untung. 2x
Beginilah nasib kalau punya kekasih yang jauh dimata. 2x

3. Lenggang lenggang kangkung. Kangkung di rawa-rawa 2x
Begitulah kalau punya kekasih yang suka cemburu. 2x

4. Lenggang lenggang kangkung. Kangkung membawa untung. 2x
Begini nasib kalau punya kekasih jauh dimata. 2x

Folk Song  (English) Carefree Kangkung

1. Carefree in a leisurely way, kangkung* by the river side. 2x
That's just my real fate for having a sweetheart who is very pretty. 2x

2. Carefree in a leisurely way, kangkung which brings me luck, 2x
That's my real fate for having a lover so far away. 2x

3. Carefree in a leisurely way, kangkung on the paddy fields, 2x
That's just my real fate, for having a lover that is so jealous. 2x

4. Carefree in a leisurely way, kangkung growing in the swamps, 2x
That's just my real fate, for having a lover that's so far away. 2x

http://www.mamalisa.com/?lang=Bahasa_Indonesia&t=es&p=2830

http://youtu.be/DAWacIw2JEw

http://youtu.be/BZFwIv3ZqIo

LENGGANG KANGKUNG (The Quests' version) 

Live performance instrumental by The Quests, 
at downtown Kota Kinabalu on City's Day on 11th Feb., 2012.

This is an Indonesian folk song popularized by a Singaporean band, The Quests as an instrumental hits in the 60's.The Quests, a very popular band from Singapore in the 60's.

• 
  

Kiwi Kids Lacking in Basic Life Skills

Kiwi Kids Lacking in Basic Life Skills - Weet-Bix Better-Brekkie Survey

By Fleur Revell
26 January 2017

How good are your children at using their mobile device, accessing an online movie clip or posting cute selfies on Snapchat? What about making their own beds, or creating a wholesome breakfast for a great start to the day, or packing themselves a lunchbox that contains all the nutrition they need for a busy day at school? A recent survey by Weet-Bix Better Brekkie revealed eight in ten (78%) children aged 5-7 years could operate a cell phone and a further nine in ten (89%) have mastered a TV remote, but less than a third (29%) of this age group make their own lunch. Less than half (49%) of young Kiwi children usually eat a nutritious breakfast seven days a week; however as children grow older, the figures get worse. Just one-third of children between the ages of 13 year and 15 years are eating breakfast in the mornings every day, and half of this age group skip breakfast altogether once a week. The figures are a wake-up call for parents and professionals alike. Sanitarium has developed the Weet-Bix Better Brekkie initiative www.betterbrekkie.co.nz, in which popular Kiwi chef Michael Van de Elzen creates easy, delicious and nutritious breakfasts designed to inspire adults and children alike to pile into a breakfast with a punch, and prep a lunch like a pro. “It’s not that hard to create a really awesome and filling breakfast in minutes that the kids will love,” says Michael, who, as a dad to two young girls, understands all too well how hard it can be to juggle the balance of feeding children well with a busy schedule. “A good breakfast doesn't need to take ages to prepare, or create stress in the mornings. Getting the children involved and teaching them to do simple tasks like packing a good lunchbox doesn't just take the pressure off parents - it teaches the kids basic skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives.” The results of the Sanitarium Better Brekkie survey have caused concern, not just among parents who want their children to learn about healthy eating, but by health professionals who believe teaching kids household tasks like getting involved with simple chores like cooking and meal preparation is essential to children's development. “Children these days are so invested in social media and the advances of technology, they`ve forgotten how to do the simple things,” says mum of four and psychologist Sara Chatwin. “By allowing children to take part and get involved with simple household chores and prepping easy meals, you’re ensuring your children have some of the basic skills. It`s all very well taking over [as a parent] to get the job done quickly and well, but this detracts from children`s simple skill knowledge and learning.” Despite a whopping 99% of parents believing that learning to make your own meals is a vital life skill, the Sanitarium Better Brekkie survey results highlighted parents’ reluctance to allow their children to make their own breakfast, either because they didn't have time to clean up the mess, or because the morning rush is simply too stressful to include watching over the children in the kitchen or teaching them how to cook in such a time-pressured environment. A third (30%) of parents said they were concerned if they didn’t take matters into their own hands, the children would skip breakfast altogether, or choose an unhealthy option. The survey was carried out by Sanitarium in conjunction with the company’s Better Brekkie programme and was designed to investigate Kiwi attitudes to breakfast, according to the company’s marketing manager, Jessica Manihera. “I know in my own household that it's always a bit of a rush in the morning, but I also know it's important to prioritise a good breakfast for the kids as it sets them up for the day. I’m also mindful of how important it is for us as parents to encourage our children to make their own breakfasts and create good habits around food which will last them a lifetime,” says Manihera. For more information see www.betterbrekkie.co.nz

Written on behalf of Sanitarium by Impact PR

ABC letter C for curry

A pot of Curry Chicken with Saffron Rice cooked  for charity.
For 4 adults


My curry leaf tree produced fragrant leaves. Curry leaves are ingredients for cooking curry and other South East Asian food. Friends came from far and near. It became a communal tree. When I left Singapore for NZ, my downstairs neighbour wanted to own it. I said yes, but my friends should be allowed to pluck from it. 6 years later, I went back to visit. It was a sorry sight. The tree missed his mummy (me) and her green thumb. The neighbour was sheepish when she told me the tree went downhill shortly after I left.

https://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

 

Australia day

I was in a park in Brisbane, heard some birds sing and, looked up the tree, and saw the Kookaburras.

Happy Australia to my family in Australia.



Marion Sinclair wrote this Australian Icon and classic song, Kookaburra sits in the old Gum tree. She wrote it in 1934 for a girl guide music competition. Half a century ago, my teacher taught me to sing this song in Methodist school, Sibu. I was singing in rounds and had no idea why the king was singing in the tree, or up the tree.

Back then, there were no copyright infringement, and the song was sung by the girl guides and some schools like mine in Borneo to the mountains of America. I, LOL, when I heard about the legal spat that The Down Under men at work were sued by Larrikin that they stole their song.

I took these photos when I was in Brisbane, Australia. I was attracted by the laughing of the bird. I looked up the gum tree and saw the two kookaburras.

http://youtu.be/F1fO1je3Oxg

When I was in Primary 1, my teacher taught me this song.
Kookaburra sits in the old Gum tree.
Some of my siblings have chosen to live in Australia. 
Australia is bitter sweet to me,
She claimed my mother's life while she was 60.


Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Eating all the gum drops he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
Leave some there for me

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
That's not a monkey that's me

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail
Gets a boo-boo in his tail
Cry, Kookaburra! Cry, kookaburra!
Oh how life can be

ABC Wed Letter B

http://www.stardome.org.nz/
We have our sweet story about the Stardome. Back almost forty years ago shortly after we were married. We didn't have children or nappies to worry about. We used to go around Auckland driving our Ford Escort. We were at the Stardome one evening, and we met this Japanese lady with her two pre-teen kids.
We said hi, and she thought we were Japanese.  My grand dad would have been proud of my hospitality and we struck up a conversation. They were very trusting when we offered to take them round Auckland. She was a plastic surgeon and was holidaying with her kids. We took them places that the tour  guides would not normally take tourists to.
The next evening, I cooked her dinner of pan fried mullet, steamed rice and veg. She was so pleased as they were tired of Kiwi food. When we took them back to their hotel, she told us to wait at the lobby
She came down with two beautiful dresses, a Japanese silk make-up bag, and two bangles. The dresses are long gone, but I can still remember them and the remarks of my Japanese dresses. One of the bangle was very unusual, it had some twenty "bangs" join together at the ends. The gold colouring had gone, and I asked a jeweller in Malaysia if he could coat it in gold for it. It proved too expensive, and he said, he won't recommend it.
I still keep them, as a token of our friendship. I have forgotten her face, but I guess she would remember the time when she met this couple who she said," very handsome couple who have no need of her professional services as a plastic surgeon." May be her son and daughter might come back to visit the Stardome and recollect the time they had pan fried mullet in our little apartment.

The other day, my daughter rummaged through my trinkets and found a neck version of the bracelet. I told her this story, and how I replaced the original bracelets had the plating gone.

I rummage for the Oroton bag I had and remembered this bag which in fact is a birthday cake my sister Grace made.



I have an anecdote of a metallic clutch bag. In 1990, my husband got a job lecturing in the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Before we left New Zealand, my girl friend B. said, "Ann, you will be an important wife of a professorie. You will be going to dinner parties, so let's go and buy you a good Oroton bag."

So off we went, I bought a silver metallic bag. In the sixteen years I was there, I have never been invited to an important dinner party, even though he became an associate professor. In reality, they didn't invite wives.

When I came back to New Zealand, I gave the bag to Deborah. Hopefully she will get to attend important dinner parties. LOL

https://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

pigs and the family

As Chinese New Year approaches, I think of my parents and grand parents. I think of how the pig had played such an important part in the Chans and Kongs.

Last year, I spent time in Sibu, sharing a bed with mum's sister, my aunty Ngui /Kong. I learned something interesting from my Aunty Ngui-Kong. My grandmother kong aka bodai reared pigs during the war. Just before my mother went to her match making session, she played with the newly born piglets, and the sow bit her heel. That heel was very painful and mum walked with a limp.

The Kongs explained that Mum was gardening and while digging with a changko, she hurt herself. When she wore her wedding gown, she still had a limp and the Chans said she was a cripple.

On the other side of the coin, it was the pig that attracted my Ah Tai, mum's grandmother to the Chans. The first time, Ah Tai landed at the Chan's jetty she exclaimed,"Wah, during the war, you have pork." Ah Kung was washing his pickle jar where he had kept his pickled pork.

It was a source of contention leading to a family feud. I wrote this n my From China to Borneo to Beyond and World War 2 in Borneo.

old Chinese Grave in Borneo

From what I know from my grand dad, at least the Quang Liang people, there is a communal altar, where generally every family would bring extra food. These are the family less souls, or those who died without burial who have become Kuai Zais aka homeless ghosts. (Guess who ends up eating them? The grave construction workers.) 

My Ah Kung was baptised, we went to visit the grave with white candles and flowers, but we also bought some oranges for us while we were there. Ah Kung told us eat throw some peels and orange segments around the tomb. This is done in the hope that the Kuai Zai won't come inside the tomb area and snatch the food. 

For many years before my Ah Kung died, the clan had bought a hill for their cemetery, and we had Ah Kung's tomb prepared. Every Ching Ming aka grave visiting day, he took us there. He told us, when I am alive, if you guys don't go, needless to say, after I had died.

ABC Wed, Letter A for arugula

 Arugula rocket salad.  These are Chinese ones given by my student. Frisee is also marketed under the name Curly endive and in France as chicorée Frisée.



 



https://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

Auckland's little crooked road.

Once, when my friend A. came to visit me, I drove her to Auckland university and by accident, we drove to a very crooked road. This is unknown because it is a small one way road through the middle of the park, the Feijoa forest near the Justice building, and it didn't count because they blocked off the end of it. It required great skill to drive down the slope.

We felt sheepish when we came home.

Years later, the water engineer and I walked there and I told him about the road. The crooked road was in the patch of forest by the Alten Road. Zoom in the map and you can see it.

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Alten+Rd,+Auckland,+1010/@-36.8506984,174.7728504,206m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x6d0d47e2a0fee95b:0x862e12887f26079a!8m2!3d-36.8516615!4d174.7733525

Loom bands

I recalled, these were called loom bands. my students making them. I did not show my students' face.

Recently I saw children making them.

Parents are being warned of a cancer-scare involving fake accessories for loom bands after tests revealed some imported batches were laced with deadly levels of chemicals.

Safety officials have issued the stark message after intercepting rogue consignments of the bands and plastic trinkets sold with them which were headed for British shelves from the Far East.

Scientists carried out rigorous tests on several loom band 'charms', accessories attached to necklaces and bracelets made from the colourful elastic bands, and each one was found to have dangerous levels of phthalates in them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2723726/Loom-band-cancer-warning-rogue-consignments-charms-contain-massive-levels-deadly-chemicals.html#ixzz4UZQqcFeJ
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Fruit waste garbage

I am rather a laggard in experimenting in this exercise of turning garbage into Enzyme.

In 2009, I visited Malaysia and Singapore and I was introduced to making a multi purpose cleanser. A friend whose husband is a university professor gave me some leaflets of information of how a Thai inventor had started this. I was naturally sceptical. What good can come out of a third world country like Thailand.

Recently, I was talking to my sister E who had just retired as a school principal. I was telling her about my over abundance of plums from my plum trees. We talked about Enzyme, and she was very happy with hers. She said her floor was very clean after using it. I felt convinced to give it a try.










Here it is.

The proportion is 1 part brown sugar, 3 parts fruit and/or vegetable waste, 10 parts of water.



Steps:

1: Mix sugar with water, add the fruit/veg, orange/lemon peels will give a nice citrus smell.

2: Fill in air tight plastic containers/bottles, leaving about 2 inches for fermentation.













Steps:

1: Mix sugar with water, add the fruit/veg, orange/lemon peels will give a nice citrus smell.

2: Fill in air tight plastic containers/bottles, leaving about 2 inches for fermentation.

3: Store in a cool, dry and well ventilated area.

4: Do not put it where there is direct sunlight.

5: After the first week, slowly open the cap to release gas, be sure not to shake the bottle.

6: Push the floating veg downward every once in a while.

7: Ferment for at least 3 months.

8: Filter and it is ready for use. You get a brownish fluid.

9: The solids can be put in the garden as fertiliser. Some people recycle this to restart a new batch.

10: Add about 1 tablespoon to your normal washing solution.

****************
Sometimes you get a  jelly like layer is a scoby……see youtube..pa Cheng…Aunt Cheng…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZgT7Io2-Gw in this you see the jelly like layer..this is also used as a mother to make kombucha tea…

*************************************

The dishes are less oily, but it could be psychological.

I asked my friends in Malaysia, one told me an interesting use, her husband sprays it in her bird cage, and gives the cage a good smell.

Some people make a lot of claims about being environmentally friendly and saving money. I don't know about saving money, because you spent quite a bit on the brown sugar. Environmentally friendly, perhaps, since you reduce the use of detergent. I am still experimenting, I have started a batch with my apples.

Please give me your opinion.

Remember: The proportion is 1 part brown sugar, 3 parts fruit and/or vegetable waste, 10 parts of water.

Iban Methodist Church in Borneo