My Cooking and My Garden: The Grand

My Gand Father - Simbah Kakung

I did mention earlier that my husband and I joined the local sporting activity - Table Tennis or Ping Pong. We did it for health reasons. My husband knows how to play, he played when he was a young student. I did not know how to play the games even though at my grandfather's house, there was one table. He owned and lived in a large house: Rumah Joglo (the traditional Javanese house). He loved to have an open house where everyone - mainly young people - were welcome to play table tennis or Ping Pong games. I was living away from home to do further study then, and my parents also moved to live at their new home at a different place.

My grandfather always enjoyed his black tea and freshly homemade coconut sugar
(gula Jawa)

I thought of my grandfather today because this month we had been playing Competitions. To make the story short, our team - the Gold team level five won the first place, we got the premiership. We did great, I did well. If my youngest brother learnt about this, he would say, oooh that was the ERA of simbah kakung - (grandfather). It's so ridiculous to him that I play a sport!!!! That was good to be in a competition, I have learnt a lot about myself, I think I have improved. I am sure that my grandfather would have been proud of me.

Potted palms were my grandfather garden. He had beautiful clay pots!

Potted Palm

I was told: when I was only two years old my grandfather took me out to visit my other grandparents (from my mother’s side), they lived about 11 km from our town. We had to take public transport to get there. So we did, only halfway through, because my grandfather thought it would get there too soon. He wanted to spend more time with me. So we continued our journey on food, my grandfather carried me with selendang, and I was so happy to be cuddled that way. In Java, we did not have a pram, babies are taken with a cloth (selendang). I needed a change, instead to be carried all the time I wanted to walk too.

Diced Fresh Coconut Sugar was His Favourite Sweets

Diced coconut sugar (gula Jawa)

Then the story goes: Sometimes my grandfather allowed me to walk, I took my time (I was told), I walked a little, then I hopped - playing my own games, all of that apparently pleased him. Most of all, I loved to stop along the way to gather wildflowers along the street. He was so pleased to see me to have a lot of fun. We had to go through the creek or little river, and on the bank on that river were a lot of beautiful flowers that I could pick and collect. I was delighted if I could pick and have the flowers by myself. When I had enough, then I asked my grandfather to be carried again, so he did. I fell asleep while I was carried by my grandfather, peacefully, of course. It took us hours that particular journey, but we both were happy. Thanks, mother, for this lovely story. I miss you all.

When I was told this story, I felt so touched that my grandfather loved me so much, I felt so special. He is no longer with us, in 1977 to join my dear grandmother who had passed on earlier, I was only one year old, I don't remember her. I am sure she loved me too.

I do understand why I love flowers so much, and now I have a reliable company to follow me around to get flowering plants if I wish to.