After all the hard work, Hana decided to take a short break and ate up half of the provision she brought with her. The bananas were a no brainer; she just chomped on one of them like a hungry ghost. However, she agonized on choosing between the Tausa biscuit (1) and the Twiggies (2).
[Should I go for the Tausa or the Twiggies?] She seriously pondered in her mind. Previous experience on eating the sweet Twiggies made Hana's opinion swayed towards the Tausa biscuit. However, her habit to save the one she likes most for last made her seriously contemplated.
At that moment, she heard faint rustlings of leaves quiet near to her.
Hana hold her breath as she subconsciously turned around and saw the same colored song bird she encountered on the first day of her arrival.
[Aiyoo! Make my heart jump-lah! There it is, my lucky angel.]
She smiled lightly and whispered to herself, "Tausa it is then."
Last time, the bird seemed to like the biscuit a lot. She would peel more flakes for it this time.
She sighed rather emotionally while looking at her Tausa biscuit. A Tausa eaten meant a Tausa less.
Right now, there's only five left of this delicious Teluk Intan's (3) morsel. She wouldn't know when she could have another chance to eat a Tausa biscuit ever again when this batch in her belonging finishes.
She pulled apart the pink wrapper and bit into the soft yet flaky bun-like shaped biscuit. It didn't taste like a bun or bread, nor like a biscuit; it was more like a crumbly layered croissant, except that the texture was not the same at all.
The top was glazed with egg white and sprinkled with sesame seeds. This one was her favorite, filled with melted caramelized sugar. Another one would be the mungbean grainy filling and the dried red bean filling.
Actually, Tausa referred to the standardized flaky biscuit with mungbean filling, but Hana just don't care and generalized all with the same name. It's real name was supposed to be Heong Peah (4).
[If only I could just microwave it, it would've tasted much better.] Hana lamented while closing her eyes and savored the taste.
Hana intentionally left large pieces of biscuit flakes and collected them inside the wrapper while she was eating. She could feel the little intelligent bird watching her every action with curiosity.
After she finished her humble lunch, she drank half of the water she brought along to push down all the sweetness and crumbs sticking in between her teeth. She casually broke a small dried branch a few meters away and immediately started picking her teeth like a hobo while sitting cross-legged. No need to pretend to be delicate. Nobody to show one! (5)
Hana poured the contents from the leftover wrapper beside her. She intentionally spread it a little wide, so that it could compel the little bird to summon its courage to come down from the trees like last time and eat. She had a really good feeling towards this little bird. It was pretty magnanimous to her before, so she will return the favor when she can.
The little bird seemed to understand Hana's intention; she hopped down gingerly and started pecking on the crumbs.
Hana smiled and left the little bird alone. She needed to double up her effort as there were still lots of things to do.
After lightly stretching her aching waist, she moved to a big cluster of bamboo trees and ambitiously choose a thick one this time. The bamboo canisters she made yesterday were unsatisfactory; their diameter was too small. Even for cooking, they were not suitable.
It's time to make the base of a water filter!
Her eyes shone with determination!
....
Scoreeee… scoreee... scoree...
Faint scoring sounds were immersed in the distant animals' cawing and yowling.
She went to the left, she went to the right, she went all around the bamboo. She tried hacking with all the strength she could muster when she saw a small tear appearing on the scored surface. She was sweating all over.
It took Hana two whole hours to bring down this one bamboo tree. It was so big with a height of about 15 meters! When the bamboo finally fell, it was as if there was a big earthquake as she ran away for safety. It was not funny to be buried underneath a tree you worked so hard to cut down.
The bamboo tree looked like one of the most senior bamboo as compared to the rest. Hence, the diameter was quite large as well, about the size of a regular medium sized bowl.
[Maybe I could even find a baby inside?(6)] She laughed it off with a twinge of trepidation in her heart, as she remembered the folklore she heard when she was small. In that awful story, the baby grew into a rapist and killed off his adopted parents before seizing their kingdom! So scary TT__TT
She peeked through the bamboo opening and patted her heart. [Good thing! No treacherous baby inside!]
The ones that she cut yesterday were just the size of a small cup opening. She counted the number of segments on this bamboo and was pleased to find that she managed to earn herself with 32 segments of bamboo. Each segment was about 45 cm or 1.5 feet long. It could last her a while.
Hana felt a sense of accomplishment.
If in her previous daily life, there's no way she could do this. At worst, she will give up and pass the baton to her hubby to continue. She needed to brag this to her hubby in message later lol.
Hana sat down and started to calculate the volume of each segment of bamboo to determine how long her filter should be.
She decided to make three filters with two segments each. The filter particles will fill up two third of the filter, and another one third was for filling up the stream water. All three-volume added up together will equate to 3 liters, an extra liter more than the total of water a human need daily.
Hana diligently scored the bamboo into three bamboo canisters, with the length of two segments and used a sturdy tree branch to break the segments apart. The rest was left to the side for the time being.
She didn't dare to use her homemade spear since it was a tad bit skinny to her liking. She was quite suspicious with its durability and its ability to protect her in times of emergency. Since her mind was flying around thinking about nonsense stuff, she broke the segments consecutively without even thinking.
"Thuck!" She accidentally broke the last segment!
[OMG..what am I doing?! Aiyooooo!]
Her plan was not to break the last segment barrier and only poke a hole at the bottom but due to her carelessness it happened.
Tears started gathering in Hana's eyes.
A moment of carelessness ruined all her hard work of the day. She felt like punching herself.
She put a stop on what she was doing and started to contemplate to salvage the situation while rubbing off her teary eyes. She went through all her things and observed for a solution. Her sight fell on the clingwrap in her shopping bag.
[Hmm... Is this considered heaven defying luck?] Hana pondered while grinning.
[A few layers of clingwrap will do the trick! It's even easier to poke small holes later.]
In a way, she made things easier for herself. Hana brought along the clingwrap as a backup to be used as a replacement for ropes when she needed. She could gently cut them into two long strips and twisted the plastic into strong pliable rope. That was her original intention.
Since everything was quite alright, she finished up puncturing all the segments swiftly.
Hana found a shallow location inside the stream and placed all three soon-to-be filter base following the stream's current. She searched for suitable rocks and placed them on top of the bamboos to prevent the bamboos from being washed away by the stream's current although it was quite unlikely since the flow was quite gentle. However, it's better be safe than sorry!
As the stream automatically washed away any residues or sap from the bamboo segments, Hana went on a mission to collect different sizes of pebbles, gravels, and sand to make her filter.
Hana selected pebbles the size of an adult's thumb as the largest particle. The next ones were as large as a pinky nail. Another level was course sand, and lastly very fine sand akin to the clay sand she used before. While sorting the pebbles, a light 'twinkle twinkle little star' tune was hummed unconsciously by Hana. This tune was her daughters' favorite song when they went to sleep. She missed them so much, she sighed sadly.
It took a while for Hana to fill up four bamboo canisters with the different filter particle to the brim. These were the original bamboo canisters she made yesterday. She needed to ferry all these things into her cave dwelling and construct the water filter in-house.
She was afraid that she could not bring in the bamboo filter in a vertical manner through the humble cave 'door'. It was truly a tad bit too little. It was more appropriate to call it the cave window than a door actually.
She lamented on when she can find a way to broaden her cave door for a short second.
If she tilted the bamboo filter, the filter particles could mix up or even worse, all would come out littering the floor. At that time, it would just be like crying over spilled milk, as she won't be able to do anything about it except for waiting for a new day and find a new batch of filter particles.
The layering of the pebbles according to the size was important in achieving the gradual filtering effect. Proper water filtration was serious business! If she did it half-heartedly like she did on other jobs, she will get sick very fast. In this wilderness, getting sick was akin to putting one foot into your grave.
Hana's loyal smartphone buzzed, indicating that it was already 4 pm. She needed to wrap up fast so that she could get back in time before the surrounding got too dark. She will think the methods later as the most important thing right now was to go back.
She started to pack up the bamboo canisters filled with sand and gravel into her good old shopping bag. Then, she filled up the empty water bottle with water from the stream.
[Too many things to carry. Pity this old bone.] Hana decided to prioritize on the things to bring home. The rest would be left to be fetched on other subsequent trips or the next day
The fire was nearly extinguished, yet Hana did not continue to feed it. Earlier, she wanted to fire her potteries before going back, but she changed her mind now. It was safer to do it at her own dwelling.
Hana had learnt her lesson. It's better to settle things outside when it was still bright. If not, she might experience an encounter with another 'Kuro'. And this time, it might not be a naive sweet little clingy snake, but a real, vicious one.
....
Hana packed up really fast this time. After she filled up the remaining spaces in both shopping bags with some empty extra bamboo canisters, she carefully picked up her dried censer-like cooking pot. Unfired pots (7) were very fragile since they did not bond well yet. She left all her sticks; as she has no more extra hand to carry the rest.
Just like that, she brisk-walked sluggishly towards her cave dwelling, using the exact same steps she used before. This time she was desperate to reach early since she needed to make at least three trips to carry everything over.
Author's note:
(1) tausa biscuit = mungbean filled biscuits. Also known as dragon balls. It was said to originate from Penang, a state in Malaysia. This link got very detail info on the kinds of biscuits (https://www.malaymail.com/s/1332741/penangs-iconic-dragon-balls-and-other-biscuit-treats)
(2) twiggies = the sweet sponge cakes kids love from previous chapters
(3) Teluk Intan = a location specific to the pink-wrapped biscuit Hana is eating (it was written on the packaging haha). Heong peah biscuit bakers were generally spread around Ipoh (Teluk Intan is near Ipoh)
(4) heong peah = directly translated as 'fragrant biscuit'. Our fave. Haha. Interested to know more, you can check out this link. It's not ours, but very informative. (http://thinkfoodthoughts.com/how-to-eat/battle-of-the-fragrant-biscuit/)
(5) Nobody to show one! = The "...one" is a local slang Malaysians love to add to their English sentences just for the sake of sound. It doesn't really means number one haha.
(6) Maybe I could even find a baby inside? = It's a Malaysian folklore about a baby found inside a bamboo by a king that turned invincible and tyrannical when he grew up, "Anak Buluh Betong". Google this if you want to know (https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anak_Buloh_Betong). Its in Bahasa Malaysia though 😊
(7) Unfired pots = clay potteries that has not been fired, known as greenware or raw-ware