..sides to a hexagon..

,,Ziona Chana has 39 wives..94 children..33 grandchildren...and I am sure, he is still  counting....which confirms a lifelong suspicion of mine...that women, on the main, do not mind sharing husbands...but, please, before my lady friends come after me with  lynching ropes and unsheathed claws, please bear with an old man..



..it is interesting that both the clips are from Kelantan..but Kelantan leads with the highest number of polygamous marriages..and the highest number of divorces....



.Muslim males, by and large, ignore what has been decreed..'..marry two, three, or four..but if you cannot give justice, marry one...'...as pakmat himself then in his ignorance married two, not once but twice, without taking into account his ability, his strenght, his weaknesses, that he may do it with justice...for marriage is easy...having children easier still...but to do it with justice and to mete out justice with responsibility...ahh...that is another story altogether...for justice is a subjective thing..a husband's understanding of it  is totally different from the first  wife's..and apart from the second wife's...and when tempers flared, as it often does, nobody bothered about how justice is spelt out in the Book....



..whether one or several wives, it would still need efforts from everyone involved in order for it to work..looking back, would it be fair for the first wife to cooperate?..why should she?..when the husband could not even fast to curb his lusts and desires?....



..but there is always the other end of the scale....woman with two husbands...

..jogging and the missus...

..carcass of a boat, pantai irama..

..for the past one week we have been jogging together, my wife and I...everyday at about six in the evening along Pantai Irama..skirting the water edge and getting our shoes wet as it is high tide in the evenings...setting out at a little estuary behind Pak Ya Gulai Kawah and headed south towards Dato Awang Adek family home...

...in the past I jogged alone..my constant cajoling  and comments on her rotundness did not get her to hit the sand...a doctor did...she was told during a routine check that her cholesterol count is a bit on the high side..so is her blood pressure....and I scared her in a worst case scenario and she buckled....

...pitting my 66 years against her 53, I realised that I am in a better form than she is...far cry from Justiffa and Jun  Malik, of course, but she is improving...unaware, our relationship also improves..something about the sea and the sand...and the pounding waves that peters into soft foam chasing little feet...and that particular hour of the day...a setting sun and a couple in the sunset years of their life...it brought about a certain intimacy of a different kind....the sky merges with the sea and it feels good to be alive..it is good to be alive....Praise be unto Him for little mercies such as these...

..give me my flowers while I'm living...

..seeing it is such a beautiful Saturday morning with the sun shining through intermittent clouds and temperature at a cool 26'C, I thought it is a good time as any to drop a hint to my children, ex-wives, wife and friends..

..an old country song, by the aptly named 'Aching Back String Band'...

..enjoy your life while you still can..count your blessings..for not much can be done once you are dead..



..for it is in this world that we need our flowers...
..a kind word to help us get along..

..100 years..

..thank you, debest, for pointing out this song to this old coot...I must have heard it hummed by my daughter..but a dad is not one who would listen to their children humming...

...enjoy it whilst reading my blog below....cheers

..the best age to be..

..kite flying along Pantai Irama..after a long let off due to the monsoon,
Pakmat  went jogging along his favourite trail..along the water edge..

...I have been thinking a lot lately....these days that is about the only thing I can do..seeing that most pursuits are cerebral and no longer physical..but what brought it about is my impending 66th birthday...on March the 14th.....officially, that is..it should be 'on or thereabout' as my late mother could not recall herself, except that it was in the early part of 1945..what with Kelantan in a state of uncertainty..with the Japanese leaving after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the British trying to get their act together again...and she was in no position to have her third birth registered...with husband having died a few months earlier..

..I used to wish my friends happy 21st ++ birthday, thinking that 21 is the best age to be..and if due to a freak electrical storm that shifted and warped the axis of the universe and you are stuck at particular age, being 21 is a good age to be stuck with....I remember being 21..and as clueless as a door post...no, being 21 is not the best age to be...

..30 to 40 is generally a period of struggle for everyone...marriage..payment for the house, car..with children adding to the chaos...juxtaposing with careers of both the husband and wife...it is a breathless decade..

..but by the time you are 40, you reached a little plateau where you paused a little and take back that lost wind..there is shelter over your head, wheels to ferry you around, and a little extra in your wallet...the children having grown somewhat and your roles as parents, along with your careers, clearly defined...you eased a little on the throttle and relaxed...little or no wrinkles, no flabs...there is still that youthful look..and some youthful flamboyance... it is the age to be..until you are 50..

..by 50, you are in auto cruise..not fearing too much of the future and not looking back too much, either..but you do take peeks at the mirror and marveled at how good looking your are at 50...unlike those goods on the shelves, at 50 you do not have an expiry date....

..but by the time you reached 60 or way past like me, you realised it does not really matter at what age you are....for whatever the count is, it is the age to be....as long as you keep the child in you...enough to enjoy and relish those quiet moments with your love ones...be thrilled by the kites flying in the evening breeze..and just as thrilled by wet, blubbering kisses from grandchildren or that rare hot kiss from the wife...

..

...stock-taking, 2011..

with 6 cucus..taken a few days ago at my ex home..
...2nd daughter, Lina's birthday..

..now that we are all well into the new year, after the probationary month of January, its time for this coot take stock of what he's got..a profit and loss of sorts..the debits and the credits....

..now, let's see...the movables and the immovables..statics and liquid..

..3 marriages and 2 divorces..14 children, 8 girls.. a son died at infancy..6 of them gainfully employed, 2 in colleges 1 awaiting spm, and 2 still at school..and an only son from the first marriage, 30 years old, an addict, forever giving problems to his mother and grandmother, not to mention his sisters..5 son-in-laws with the resultant 8 grandchildren..all under 7..

...not too bad, if I may say so, 1 bad nut out of 13..but still a dot, nonetheless..

sibling-wise..an eldest brother fast approaching senility...alone and lonely, living in a derelict room with his 10yr old grey tomcat named Yellow..we were 3 brothers born to Aminah and Hamid, with me being the youngest..2nd elder brother, in a better economic position, approaching 70,  sickly and pale but young wife expecting her 1st child..flukes do happened.....and a half sister in KL, not too happy with 3 adopted children and children in-laws..yet not able to bear her own children...

..eldest brother, Jo with his constant companion,
 an aged, grey cat, named Yellow..

.there is a saying in Malay that goes..where ever the feet is planted,  the sky is shouldered.

...the sky is Bachok, where I had my feet planted...on a piece of land given by my wife late father..upon which I build a home..and a house..with some cats, 5 children...2 stray chickens and a monkey..the mosques are too near for me not to heed the bilals' call to prayer..and the neighbours are too nice and generous for me to be otherwise...if there is any truth into the thinking that environment maketh the man, than I am Pakmat..shaped and moulded by my environment.....approaching 66 and, hopefully,  well on the road to redemption...

2 cucus in London...

..as in everyone else's life, there are highs...and there are lows..I have taken the good along with the bad...and try to keep an equable stance, no matter the situation...even thought the horizon is getting nearer, there is no trepidation..for whatever our plans are...God disposes..

..to Tommy, Yuin Ting, Chuan, Pin, Ee Lynn, Way Fong, Way Lee, Uncle Lee, Pat and all of my friends, no matter the creed or race...Happy Chinese New Year...
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