Hello Kitty

After my pasar tani routine this morning, and after cooking for lunch (malas nak fikir apa lauk nak masak, so masak laksa je lah…) off I went to visit Zainab’s family.

Zainab had sent me a text message earlier this week to inform me that she had some more receipts with her to claim for her children’s education. The last time I brought them shopping, it was to buy their uniforms etc, this time the receipts were for the workbooks, fees and whatever other nonsense charged. I don’t know, ever since “school fees” were supposedly abolished back in 2007 (I think), these kids seem to have to pay even more fees! Yuran PIBG, yuran komputer, yuran tambahan and whatever other yuran (pronounced: YOU RUN).

Anyway, after confirming with Zainab that it’s her off day today, I told her I’d visit, get the receipts from her and reimburse her for the payments she had made to her daughter’s school.

As I got to the house I used to frequent, it looked as though nobody was home. In fact, there was a sign saying, “Untuk Disewa”. AIYAH!! Then I remembered Zainab telling me in December that they’d be moving to another house by year end. The landlord purportedly wanted to sell the house, but the sign I saw indicated otherwise. For whatever reason, the landlord just wanted new tenants. Maybe he wanted to increase the rental to a much higher rate.

Despite telling me that they’d be moving to another house, Zainab never gave me the address. So I had to call her to get the address. “Akak masuk aje belakang ******, jalan teruuuus aje sampai hujung.” I still insisted on the address. At least I can update their contact report in the files.

The place was not that far from the old house, so it didn’t take me long to find their newly rented place. Zainab’s 2 daughters waited outside so I could see them without having to go through the trouble of looking for the house number. The new place is slightly bigger than the old place, and looked more comfortable too. But according to them, there are lots of mosquitoes at their new place.

Kakak and adik (Zainab’s 2 daughters) were playing with a little black kitten whom they had “adopted”. Oh, the 2 girls simply love cats. They’d adopt any stray cats/kittens dropping by their house.

The moment I sat on the couch, the little black kitten got away from the 2 girls and jumped onto the couch, and selamba-ly sat on my lap. Ah, a laptop kitten! Adik took the kitten from my lap and put the kitty on the floor. Again, little black kitty jumped onto the couch, looked at me and put up a “muka kesian”. Only after a few minutes did he jump back down to play with the girls.

After getting the receipts from Zainab, and reimbursing her with the exact amount, I decided to make a move. As I was walking towards my car, I heard adik shouting, “Hey, nak ke mana tu?!”

No, she wasn’t shouting to me. Adik was shouting to the kitten. Little black kitty actually wanted to follow me home!

Oh no, little kitty, you go back to your kakak-kakak okay? I’ve got enough uninvited stray cats around my house…

On another note, I think I’m almost done with all the back-to-school expenses for my many children. I’d better submit my claims before the next Board meeting.