Surviving.

Dear Sufi,


Our age difference is 28 years.
At your age, I was playing the conventional toys and watched any TV1, TV2 and TV3 shows.
Here you are playing with all sorts of educational games on the Ipad, watching your favourite shows on youtube on your demand!
Haish seronoknye budak2 zaman sekarang!

So today, I'm going to share with you one of my favourite activities when I was a kid, besides main jual sayur. This activity has become a hobby that later become an addiction!

Being normal, I will get very excited everytime the school holiday started ! Pak Long and Mak Ngah were not around. Pak Long was in Brentwood Shool of London and Mak Ngan was in Queens's College of Cardiff, both doing their A-Levels. My life revolves around Nenek. Just the two of us. Since I dont go to a school nearby, all of my friends were just scattered around KL. Ampang, Bangsar, Cheras, Keramat and etc. So I need to survive school holidays on my own.

Tapping fingers on the table. Apa mau buat sorang-sorang nih?
So when other young kids like me were so engrossed with rollerblading, I developed my very own school holiday activity.


Catching butterflies!

Sufi, butterflies are delicate and colourful insects with a short life span. Butterflies are sensitive to movement and have blurry vision. It took me sometime to learn about butterflies. Different butterflies come out at different time. You can find very vibrant colours of butterflies when the sun is just above your head. It taught me how to be patient and not to give up! Nak kena tunggu butterfly keluar.. cara nak tangkap..it needs a lot of patience and strategies!


So how do I catch butterflies? Guna Pak Long punye net tangkap ikan la.. Kena la creative kan. Below was the net that I used to catch the flying insects.

Tadaa..net yang banyak berjasa..This pic was taken at Pulau Santap - Atuk's fav picnic spot.

Meh sini Sufi. I'm going to tell you my strategies to catch butterflies:

1. Wait for the butterfly to land. Then slowly and quietly creep closer and once you are close enough, try a horizontol side swipe with the net. It reduces the chances of failure.
2. Do not swing the net around crazily. Do swing the net down. The butterflies will be frightened and make them fly faster. 
3. When you become more skillful, perghh skali hayun aje..walllahhhh..muahahaha.
4. Oh I just remember one thing! Sometimes if the butterfly is nectaring the flower, contoh atas bunga siantan arwah Atuk (your Great Granny), I will slowly swing down the net and quickly take my hand and ..alamak how to describe..quickly simpul net tu dengan tangan. Sebab tangkap butterflies on the ground are much easier instead of when the butterfly is on trees/plants. Nanti butterfly tu boleh escape celah2 daun2. There are times rosak jugak la pokok tu dibuatnye! Uish..just telling you all of these brought back sweet memories and the adrenaline rush masa menangkap. *Smiles*

Anyway, I've caught various colours and shapes of butterflies. Bila dah makin terer tangkap butterfly yang cantik2 and bentuk pelik2..tengok Dog's face depan mata pun tak heran. Dog's face was one of my earliest catch. It's easy to spot because its yellow in colour. I learnt from Pak Long's encyclopedia (take the B book) that the wing pattern resembles a dog's face which only can be found on the male of the species. You can observe this usually when the wings are clipped. Wonder how a Dog's face look like? Here it is..pic taken from google images.

Let me just find you some other butterfly images that I've caught..I clearly remembered when I took out the B encyclopedia and showed the pictures of the species that I caught to Pak Long. Pak Long pun tak percaya such species can be found at halaman rumah Nenek. I remembered his impressed smiles. Like I said, it took me a while to observe. Sometimes they will fly around the bushes to find nectars. Sometimes they are just passing through.

Now let's indulge to some of the species that I've caught. Ya Allah, betul Sufi...takkan Mama nak tipu. Haa terer tak Mama? Yes, I'm boasting my hobby! I've told this story to Papa. Papa pun macam tak percaya jek! Papa sebenarnye jeles tu Sufi. Sebab masa Papa kecik Papa kena jaga adik2. Jangan marah, Yang! :p

Caught this species several times.

My 1st time caught this species memang tak kelip mata! I've caught these a few of times. Unique kan..This one always fly low. So senang tangkap.

 

Caught this twice. They also come in purple. I've caught that too.



Caught this several times. Ada lagi satu lagi species macam ni but it's white and have some vibrant orange/red. Mama selalu tangkap yang tu.



Yes! My eyes were big when I saw this flying. A few times jugak tangkap yang ni. But I remembered it was a tough catch. Unique sebab macam ada ekor kat bawah. Yang ni always fly high. Kadang2 kena lompat nak tangkap.

Oh i still remember this species! Cantik kan. Yang ni pun Mama tangkap several times. I've also caught similar but its all orange.

Cantik kan? Mana tak you jadi addicted when you can catch all these beautiful species! Yang ni selalu pegi kat celah2 pagar pastu terus escape to our jiran's house.

Kepuasan seorang penangkap rama-rama yang tegar.

Yang ni pulak Mama pernah tangkap species yang kaler orange tapi takde those black lines. Its plain faded orange.

My usual catch

Sufi, I do remember when I saw this flying. Macam x percaya Rajah Brooke ni ada kat halaman rumah nenek! Sekali je Mama dapat tangkap ni. Tapi sebab it was very tough to catch, masa Mama dapat dah cedera skit wings dia. Hehe tension bila terlepas kat celah-celah net.

Yang ni Mama jarang tangkap except bila dah takde sangat rama-rama lain.

Okay, what's next when I've sucessfully caught it?

Beforehand, I've already asked Nenek for a bottle. Nenek will usually prepare me the big Horlicks see through bottle and a piece of clear plastick. I will poke the plastic and use rubber band to tie around the bottle neck. This is to give air to the butterflies. Then I will get some of Atuk's (again your great granny) bunga Siantan and put them into the bottle. When the catch for the day is done, I will sit and look at the butterlies admiring them. Such a bliss!

Kalau dah tak ada sangat butterfly, pepatung pun mama tangkap! Hehehe.

So not having my siblings around during school holidays were not bad at all. I survived. I just need to be independent and as time goes by, I just learned how to occupy my time alone or with Nenek :)

I'm still smiling at my own childhood and I hope you are too :)

I simply love my childhood. Alhamdulillah I have no regrets.

I LOVE YOU SAYANG.

Mama.

Ps: This entry was inspired when one fine evening - after you just got back from tadika and we were resting at Nenek's garden when you called upon me and said, "Mama, butterfly".

It was the same small butterfly that i used to catch.