plastisin

after failing to fall asleep, at 2 30 am, even though i had only around 2 hours of sleep the night before, and a 1 hour nap, i decided to update my blog. even though it has not been a month yet. hopefully the writing will make me sleepy enough.

when you were a kid, did you go for kindergarten? there, surely you played around with plastercine (plastisin)? the modelling clay? play doh? know what i mean? sure you do. i mean, its like common knowledge what that thing is. its the sticky clay like thing that you play around with and make dinosaurs, pizzas, donuts or whatever your imagination wants it to be.

apart from a simple toy, its also useful for covering up simple leaks and cracks in pipes, tanks etc. long story short, i have a leaking pipe, and i wanted to buy plastercine. so while waiting for my dinner to be ready, i went to the 'grocery shop', or whatever it is you call kedai koop in english. (cooperation shop? lol).

"erm bang, ada jual plastisin tak?"

"er plastisin tu apa eh?"

"erm plastisin tu macam... (sambil menggayakan bentuk kotak plastisin yang sangat tak membantu).. camne nak describe eh plastisin... haha"

"haha erm tak tau lah takde kot"

weird. how does one not know what plastisin is? oh, i might need to mention, i just woke up from my nap, therefore my brain is not functioning at its usual efficiency, so apart from it having a rectangle box, i cant think of any other way to describe plastisin. haha.

nevermind i thought, this shop is a bit small anyways, maybe they have it at the bigger shop at the other village (hostel in UTP). and so i went to the other shop.

Me : "ada jual plastisin tak"

Cashier boy 1 : "plastisin? apa tu eh?"

Me : "....(still thinking how to describe plastisin apart from rectangular box)"

Cashier boy 2 : "oh tau, yang tampal2 tu kan?"

Me : "HAA!"

Cashier boy 2 : "tak ada lah..."

Me : "...."

unsatisfied, i searched the shop myself, in case this fella mistook plastercine for a bandage or sticky tape or post-it-note or sumthing.

nope, no plastisin.

grabbing a Cornetto Royale Strawberry Kisses, i exited the shop (after paying of course) and while walking to fetch my dinner, pondered what kind of kindergartens this people went to, or if they even went to kindergarten. surely they played with plastisin before. can't be that their kindergarten, in an effort to cut down costs, gave them tanah liat sungai to play with instead, can it? nah, improbable.

sticky! yes, thats one way to describe plastisin.. bit late, but better late than never they say.

upon returning to my beloved room, i asked my roomate whether he knew what plastisin was. sort of a weird question to ask out of the blue, but i am a bit weird, so thats normal. and yes, he knew what they were.

fuh! was beginning to think i was a spoiled brat playing with plastisin when other people were playing with tanah liat sungai.

then, after a short chat with the roommate, (coz the brain still wasn't warmed up by then), it dawned on me, i may be from a different generation than these shopkeepers. the older shopkeeper, being older than me, may very well did play with tanah liat sungai during his kindergarten days, who knows when the plastisin was invented. but he couldn't be THAT older than me, he looks 20 - 30ish, i can't really tell, i come from a family of awet muda people. (eternally youthful? sigh, very limited vocab).

no joke, i once thought my maths teacher in Form 4 was as old as my grandmother, when thats not logical at all coz my grandmother was 76 at the time. turns out she wasn't even 40 yet, which makes her even younger than my mother, let alone my grandmother. yikes. (note to self : never guess people's age)

and for the younger shopkeeper, my guess is that kindergartens during his time was no longer going for 'fun and creativity' in their activities, maybe more towards 'logical thinking and intelligence', so he probably didn't get the chance to play with the plastisin.

who knows what these kids played with in their kindergarten? for all i know, he probably played with the rubiks cube before nap time and after nap time, solved some sudoku puzzles before playing a game of chess.

sigh, how things have changed. i feel slightly old.

slightly.

i feel that i am blessed in this department. i was one of the lucky few that got to skip standard 4 in primary school, meaning im one year younger than most of my peers. i am born in december, so you can add in another year there (i don't care what year it is, as long as its not my birthday yet, im still not 22! haha). top that off with the eternally youthful complexion i inherited from my parents and voila! 3 years younger me. haha.

okay2, the awet muda thing may not show that much NOW, but come see me in 40 years, and i'll show you!

but really, young, old, not of that matters when you're eating delicious ice cream.

yum yum.

haha. i think its something i just dont grow out of. ice cream. i still like ice cream now. still like it as much as i did 10 years ago. my parents aren't exactly helping either. kat Mekah dulu makan ice cream tiap2 hari sampai batuk2. haha. guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

wonder if kindergartens nowadays serve ice cream. or maybe they substituted it with supplement pills and Brands Chicken Essence. who knows.. (btw, brands commercial with dafi, arguably one of the stupidest commercials ive seen, which is ironic since its trying to promote that you'll be more intelligent by drinking the thing. "How come you're so smart?" "OH, BRANDS!" are-tard. sorry. so much for being less mean.)

although Westerners prefer to take appetizers first, main course second, desserts last (assuming its a 3-course meal, if there's even such a thing), i prefer to take the desserts first. we should really try to invent our own ways of doing things, instead of just following Westerners blindly for no particular reason.

plus, if i keep the ice cream in the fridge while i eat dinner, it might 'evaporate into thin air', but still, don't follow people blindly. We're better than that. and stealing other people's food. We're better than that as well. Blasted beruang. Maybe I'll write about him someday. or maybe i already have. can't recall tho.

take care. peace!