Gory Gash

I have a confession to make. The sight of blood makes me go weak in the knees. I feel like passing out if I see more than say a drop of blood (my menses don't count).



Last night's incident just made me go really woozy just thinking about it. At around 10 pm as Sarah and I entered Dominos pizza in TTDI (Reza waited in the car), I saw a teenage girl and her father at the counter placing an order. However, something was wrong with the picture; the girl's right foot was bright red and for a moment I couldn't understand it. Then as her foot grew a brighter red, I told the father that his daughter's foot was bleeding and he said yeah, she got a cut on the sole on entrance steps, he said it was sharp and I turned round to look - they were smooth. He was not looking at her foot but I was and slowly more blood started to pour out of the wound. I alerted him that she has to go to emergency.



Somewhere in my panicked mind I remember that pressure must be applied to the wound and her leg must be elevated. Needless to say, with the blood slowly soaking the floor, those thoughts did not come out verbally and with that I went into panic mode. I remembered thinking, 'must get Reza, must get Reza' because he is always calm in an emergency but I didn't.



As those thoughts raced through my brain, only the her father noticed the blood and got the girl to lift her leg to show him the cut. OMG!!!, I nearly died because as she did that the blood just flowed like a tap and there were bits of flesh hanging loose and some actually fell off. I nearly shrieked 'get her to emergency, you fool!' but instead I said 'you must go - now' as calmly as I could. Offered to take him in our car but he said his car was right outside the outlet. As more and more blood gushed out of his daughter's foot, he got the message. He helped her on one side and I held her the other to get to his car. Sarah was taking all this in disbelief.



As we were halfway through the door Sarah began to cry so I left the girl, scooped Sarah up and plonked her in the car quickly telling Reza am helping a bleeding girl. By the time I got to the man's car, he was already driving off. I looked at the steps again, there was no blood but on the road just before the steps began, there were bits of broken tiles, soda can tabs and glass. That coupled with her wearing open toe slippers and a wrong footing as she was coming out of the car caused the accident. So I went back into Dominos following the blood trail and there was blood and flesh all over the floor at the counter like a Quentin Tarantino movie. One of the guys began mopping the floor. I counted to ten and breathed, then the pizza guy called my name - my triple cheese with extra mozzarella was ready. What else could I do but pick it up?



Went into the car to a still crying Sarah and narrated the incident to Reza. He asked if the blood was bright or deep red. Told him bright red at first then a deep crimson...he said most likely the her vein was gashed that's why. I was babbling non-stop because I was still in a panic and by then feeling deeply guilty. I knew what to do but I panicked because I just couldn't get over the blood. I should have made her sit on the floor, lift her leg up and put my palm on the wound to stop the bleeding then get a first aid kit, stick a thick wad of gauze on it and tie it up and only then go to emergency.



I hope she made it because Reza said after 20 minutes the body goes into shock and cardiac arrest follows due to lack of oxygen. I feel like such a failure for panicking and letting my nerves get hold of me. Reza told me I did the right thing and not to berate myself over it as I did the best I could but I still feel bad as I should have done more. Thus, the moral of the story is this...don't wear slippers and pray I am not in the vicinity when you get a bloody wound.

Salam Aidilfitri 2008

How was my raya? Sedate. This was because after all that feasting, we were all like on a high. I would be lying if I say I didn't stuff my face silly.

Yes, Eid should be about reflecting on the past month where we fasted and abstained - not just about the food. I was quite sad ramadhan was over actually because it felt as if the 'magic' went away when the takbir raya started.

Anyway, we arrived in Taiping 2 days before raya. We didn't inform Opah so she didn't cook so we buka puasa at Cashier Market where the food was good but ambiance was much to be desired.

The only exciting event was when we bought Opah a new television. Her old one went kaput the day we got there. So off we went to look for a electronics store and managed to find a 21 inch Sanyo. She was so happy and told us no need to give her duit raya (we did anyway).

After subuh on the last day of puasa, Reza went to the graves of both his grandads and grandma to read Yaasin. He specifically wanted to do it before takbir raya. He says the best time to offer Yaasin was when it was still Ramadan. This year is the first time he did this and it won't be the last.

For buka puasa that final day, we went to Cashier Market again after driving round town without much luck for a decent restaurant to break fast in. While waiting, I went to look for Sarah's baju kurung. Found one that didn't look too tacky for RM20 at the market. After buka puasa we took Sarah back to the hotel for steamed fish.

After Sarah had her dinner, we went to Opah's house. Sarah did not like being at Opah's because it is always hot even though the fan was full blast (maybe next year we'll get her an air-conditioner). However, her cousins were there so she was distracted for a while. Once the kids exhausted themselves with Pop Pop and sparklers, Sarah announced she was sleepy. Drove her back to our hotel room (Legend Inn) where she suddenly became alive again. The sleepiness was a bluff. She just wanted to be back in the air-conditioned room.

Raya morning was pretty quiet. We got up, Reza went to the mosque while I tried to get Sarah to wear her baju kurung. When he came back we went to Makcik Bedah's (Reza's auntie) who lives next door to Opah to have nasi perisa, ayam masak merah, rendang, kari daging and lemang. Once all the food was digested we went back to Opah's where we ate nasi briani, kurma chicken, daging masak hitam and more rendang. Yes, too much feasting went on. We didn't go to any other relatives' houses. Pretty much stayed put at Opah's; lazed around, ate and lepak some more.

Second day raya found us having roti canai and nasi lemak at KTM station. The nasi lemak was good and in Taiping, you eat nasi lemak with ikan goreng. Not sure what fish it was but it was fried to a crisp and went down well with the sambal and fluffy coconut-infused rice. The roti canai was crunchy yet soft and when 'banjir' with the dhal curry, fooh, the taste was out of this world. Reza had 2 while Sarah and I had one each.

Not 2 hours later we had lunch at Opah's place. Simple home-cooked food of ayam kicap, sambal udang, ikan goreng and sambal belacan. They all love my sambal belacan and it is the one 'dish' that I can do really well. Father-in-law forgot to buy the limes so made do with assam jawa juice which didn't taste quite the same. Still it was edible and I had 2 plates of rice. Oink! Oink! For dessert we had pengat pisang, my favourite and I had 3 bowls - hey, they were small ok.

Once got all that digested, we headed back to KL. Thankfully the highway was not jammed up with cars and I drove halfway coz Reza was totally out. Then, once we got home, it hit us - raya was over. Well, until raya haji that is.