Of markets and crabs

When I was young, my sisters and I hated to go to the big market in town because it was dark, dirty and smelly; especially the fish market.

Now, argh haha, I have no choice but to go there everyday to buy fish...

All this while the only "marketing" I do is in the airconditioned comforts of Carrefour or Giant, and the fish/pork/chicken comes in styrofoam packages.

My bargaining skills are non existant, and...haha, when I was paying for spring onions, I thought it costs Rm1 per bunch and walked away after giving a RM1 note...only to have the girl chase me to give me back my change of 50cents. Aiyo, that screams "AMATUER BLUR!" Even if I get cheated, I'd probably not realize it...

Pigs heads...I think they sell for RM12 perhead..
See, dirty floors! The black water is from the fish & squid juices...hahaha

Haha, since it was a Sunday...I decided to *cough* cook CRABS cuz my sister loves crabs and only my mum and I cook them. (ok la correction, my mum can cook crabs and I can try to cook crabs..haha). Since I'm going to KL I thought it'd be good to cook crabs once for her.

Imagine, have to get out of bed at 7, go to market, come back, wash and freeze the fish/pork..then go to church. And the crabs are ALIVE. One of the crabs actually jumped out of the basin on the table and when we got back from church it was crawling on the floor!

I see you!
The hard part about cooking crabs is killing the crabs with a huge chooper without getting clawed. You'd have to chop really hard, but also be careful to not damage the shells. Plus the crab would move around and try to claw you. And this really smart Sarah decided to buy 2.5 Kgs of crabs because she overestimated herself and wanted to cook for 4 other families who helped a lot in prayer etc. So she had to wrestle with the crabs while not chopping her own hand.

After chopping, wash the outer shells...make a crab salad with potatoes, tuna, mayo, spring onions, crab sticks and fill the shells. Then top it with cheese and bake...

Cook the crabs! This amount is good for 5 families..So far, the ppl I "distributed" the crabs to have not complained..or they are too polite to do so...hahaha.

The final product..

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Going to see my mum and taking care of her in KL is both great and scary as well. Great in the sense that I can be there personally and talk to her, be there when she goes for the doctor's report and regime planning on Sunday (pray yea, it's this coming Sunday when we'd know what course of treatment she's going to undergo & if there's lymph node involvement. We're praying for no lymph node involvement).

Yet it's scary because there's only so much emotion that can be controlled. It's easier to be positive and cheerful on the phone with her, because it's only for a short while. After you put down the phone, you can cry if you want etc. But it's really heart wrenching to be there in person to see all the changes. She's not yet taken out the bandages. She hasn't seen how her chest looks like. The last thing I want is for myself to tear up and have her comforting me instead of the other way around.

I don't want her to see me sad/anxious/tired.

But this is my mum whom I love.

I don't know. I've always been a bad actress.

Well God, take care of everything.