Merepek

The 2 boys will sleep in on weekends, public holidays and during their breaks and the earliest that they will lift their sleepy heads off the pillows will be way past noon. When they do get up early as like at 7.30am or so on a Saturday, it's usually that they have arranged to shoot some hoops with their buddies at some nearby courts or at a clubhouse.

So if and when they do wake up unusually early or they wake up in the middle of the night, more often than not, something ails them. The younger one had a slight fever a few days back and some paracetamol took care of that. Then an irritating cough came on. The next day, as we were walking past a stall selling Chinese herbal drinks, he asked for a bowl of 'wong lou kat' with extra ground-herbs which managed to give relief to the throat. Two nights later, I bought home another packet of 'wong lou kat' and poured out half a cupful for the elder boy. Then on Friday morning, it was the elder boy's turn with a slight temperature; took 2 paracetamol before he went for classes. The next morning, he was up at 10.00am and that's not normal. I looked at him and he croaked, "Arrgghhhh...Got verrryy ...baaddd... thrroooat. Got anymore Dequadin lozenges ah?"

Any sympathy from me? Nah! In fact I went ballastic, "Everytime eat all the heaty foods - banana leaf rice la, nasi kandar la, nasi lemak la, roti banana la, nasi goreng....and summore lazy to drink plain water. Tehpeng, pak kopipeng, nescafepeng and what-have-you pengs. Padan muka la now, bla...bla...bla..."

Then he answered, "It's not that la, Mama. It must be the 'wong lou kat'. I only got the fever after drinking that poison."

I countered, "Don't blame that drink. Look at your lips; red like cherry only. Your body very heaty now la. Wanna go see doctor or not?"

"No need lah. No fever liao. I'll just gargle with salt water and drink some warm honey can ledi." he shot back and he quickly scooted back to his den before I can start my Rappin' & Naggin'.