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Di Bawoh Rang Ikang Kering
Random Ramblings of A Retired Retainer

KELENDAR

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Just as our watches and clocks help us keep track of time of the day/night, calendars let us keep track of the days in the year just like it was done by ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Mayans and the Greeks.

Calendars come in many forms. There are calendars that are just one page affair with all the months in the year on them. They can be as big as poster size or as small as credit cards depending on the budget and objectives of the advertiser/sponsor. I am sure you have seen those. Then there are those that have 3 months on a page. Some calendars, like those from ship agents have the current month and smaller boxes for the previous and the next month. I guess it is more convenient that way to track the arrival of ships. Calendars with one month on a page are quite rare nowadays unless they are calendars that are sold or calendars that have horses on them (especially on the Saturday & Sunday columns). Punters like to get this type of calendars. Of course there are the daily calendars, favoured by coffee shop and sundry shop owners. These calendars come in two parts. The pad with 365 dates of the year (one extra for leap years) and the holder (usually a cardboard) where there are two holes. You affix the pad by pushing the two ends of the wire that go through the pad and twist the wire to fasten the pad to its holder. Sometimes, the holder is made from metal.

Calendars can be collected like you collect stamps or match boxes. And there are calendars that are worth collecting like the Pirelli Calendars which even got exhibited in museums. I read about the 2005 calendar from Shell that had reproductions of paintings of corals. That should be worth collecting. I am sure readers who work in Ad Agencies can tell you about other collectible calendars too.

I know of one man in Terengganu who collected calendars. He is the late Awang Itang, husband of Mok Nik. Mok Nik fried the best kerepok lekor in town and made the best sauce for them. Her shop was just across the road from Paya Tok Ber. Awang Itang, a rotund big jovial man used to sit on the floor of their shop and when not admiring Mok Nik frying the kerepok lekor, he admired the numerous calendars hung all over the 3 walls of the shop. There were calendars of the current year as well calendars of the years gone by. He kept them all. Sometimes he showed us small boys the glossy calendars from watch companies. They usually have beautiful pictures of Swiss landscapes or lakes. There were calendars of women in swimsuits too. Awang Itang didn't show us those, either in deference to our age or to Mok Nik or maybe both.

Since I have retired, there are no more people with calendars that want to "bodek" me. This year I only got one wall calendar. It is from Daihatsu Diesel DHN Corp. of Japan. It has pictures of Japanese ladies in kimonos. Awang Itang would have approved.

On another note, on New Year's eve I got an SMS from my good friend Razak. I will share the Curse with you:
"May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the ass of the person who messes up your year and may his arms grow too short to scratch his ass!"

Read about the 2005 Pirelli Calendar
If you want to make your own calendar, go here, here, here or here.

| 1:41 AM :: ::
18 CommentsOldStyle:

  • We are no punters but my siblings love to get those calenders with horses on them because the dates are big enough for the ageing eyes to read.

    May I wish you very Happy New Year Pok Ku! And congratulations on the Best Msian Blog thing. :)

    By Blogger Honeytar, at 3:28 AM  

  • Pok Ku,

    I am not retired and nobody wants to give me calendar either. Must be a gap somewhere. My home used to have tons of those japanese calendars which my sister usually makes it her wall decor.

    The Pirelli calendar, to die for

    By Blogger BJ, at 3:40 AM  

  • Happy New Year to you Pok Ku. May you're blessed with all the greatness that the world could offer.

    ... and may the art of frying keropok lekor and the wonderful sauce be passed on to generation to come.

    By Blogger Amiruddin Karim, at 5:48 AM  

  • Selamat New Tahun! May this year the Nasi Dagang Partaaay will materialize. Last time I checked it was 300++ compelling reason it will.

    Ambo doh lamo dok makang Nasi Dagang org Ganu! Jangan lupe ye!

    May this year the blessings of Allah is bestowed upon you Pok Ku and your family.

    Oh yeah, gotta share this Japanese Vocab with you(found through Joi Itoh Blog)

    Gokurousama Pokku-sama!

    roughly translated.

    Mekacih bebanyak-banyak Pok Ku for a wonderful 2004 stories and more for 2005.

    Kalendar-saya macam terdengar cerita kalender on ERAFM pepagi semalam. Initiated bu a Ganuians too! :)

    By Blogger Sham, at 7:56 AM  

  • i woke up suboh gajoh and spoil the first day of the new year, and missed your post as soon as it was posted. happy new year. this site has the calendars full of demotivational phrases >> http://www.despair.com . happy new year !!

    -riza

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:03 PM  

  • lolx.. looks like the Curse was circulated throughout M'sia..

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:19 PM  

  • Honeytar:
    Thanks for the wishes. Same to you!
    A bit earlt for teh congrats on the Awards since voting is extended to Jan.4th.

    grease-bar:
    I wonder if Pirelli calendars are brought in here.

    Amir Etcetera:
    Thank you and the same to you too. The sauce remains unduplicated.

    sham:
    Arigato! We have to wait. Voting extended to the 4th.
    I don't listen to ERA. They might read my blog though. Heheh.

    riza:
    Awww..Thanks for the link.

    Anon@1.19pm:
    Heheh! Good stuff should be shared.

    By Blogger Bustaman, at 4:33 PM  

  • Selamak Tahong Banghu 2005 Pok Ku. Ambo tok ghajeng beli klenda, dok ambik hok free jah sokmo nyo.

    - atok -

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:15 PM  

  • i'm not retired but nobody wants to bodek me with calenders, 'bos kecil' like thislah.
    Happy New Year !

    By Blogger Chief, at 6:44 PM  

  • Happy New Year, Pok Ku. May 2005 herald in happier and safer times for all of us. :)

    P.S - Fatty Crab at Taman Megah, PJ. Hubadubs and I heralded in 2005 with 2kgs of steamed crab, 1.5kgs of chilli crab, and fried rice. *Talk about feeling guilty* :p

    By Blogger Blabarella, at 7:15 PM  

  • i like the punter's calendar but no... goodness, not because i'm a gambling person, please. it is because the punter's calendar is er... quad-lingual? is that how you said it - 4 languages calendar all in. the main one is of course english, then you'll see the malay calendar, chinese calendar and tamil calendar all in too.

    daily calendar are usually favoured by chinese people, esp. those er... in their golden years. many of these daily calendars have zodiac readings or predictions of the day, that's why they love it. i don't like daily calendar though as lazy to tear it off everyday lah.

    talking about the holder for the daily calendar, some of the metal holder double up as food tray!

    one month a page calendar rare? er... but not those desk calendar type though. they are usually one page a month.

    i only collect pocket calendars. they are easier to keep anyway being so small.

    By Blogger lucia, at 12:38 AM  

  • Of all the calndars, I notice that the date in kalendar kuda is more accurate. You can trust them if you want to plan for this year raya's holiday :)

    I remember, competing with my lil sister who will be the first to tear the daily calendars...

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:20 PM  

  • Selamat Tahun Baru!

    There's another type of calender, for the strap of one's watch. Came with 12 aluminium plates that you can bend and secure them to the wrist strap of your watch. One plate each month.

    By Blogger Jamiee, at 8:13 PM  

  • Cuka krepok Mok Nik sedap sungguh ke Pok Ku? Ada lagi dok la ni? Nok tra tengok...

    BTw, I got the same 'Happy New Year' msg from my friend...

    Happy New Year Uncle Ku!

    By Blogger ビビ, at 8:43 AM  

  • PokKu- kelendar is an interesting topik. When I was small, I confused the word with kelendanglori prebet sapu /lori hantu. I like the single leaf calender since I can tear it off everyday. It is shown in old Malay film as the days gone by . The monthly sheets showed as the years gone by. The calender girl was an attraction when we went to upper secondary school. But at lower primary we were interested in the horses shown in the calender. We are thrilled to get those calender when we followed or ayoh to keda keling bila barang. Those with beautiful scenery will be cut of to be pasted on the new calendar with calendar girls showing too much of herself - some sort of censorship without destroying the whole calendar set. Calendar became a frightening thing when you'were taking the LCE or SC the monthly sheets can torned out too fast and the daily calender sheet get thin too fast.I remember my elder sister calendar having red circles every months ( diary was rare then and too expensive to buy) which I did know the meaning then but I know it now thats when the japanese flag is up and now I marked it inmy dairy fore warning of the ceasefire period!Q I remember the daily sheet has the picture of the chinese god of prosperity with the pok dogo stomach and red in colour. Those were the days and how we wish PokKu that we can patch back the previous sheetsa o f the calendar and reverse the time to re live those days.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:38 AM  

  • selamat tahun baru Pok Ku

    - joe -

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:36 PM  

  • Normally Johore Tenggara Oil Palm Bhd (JTop)/Tradewind published some good calendars on Islamic Arts.

    By Blogger atiza, at 9:40 AM  

  • Nice post and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:58 AM  
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