Port Klang Wet Market

Yesterday I went to the wet market in my town. Actually I needed some cash and I went to the Maybank cash machine. Since I was already there and the kids' fish ration is finished I might as well go to the wet market. Usually I buy their fish at the grocery stores near my home. The market is about five-minutes walk from the bank. Port Klang has the small town feel, even though actually it is just 38 km from the capital city.

The market (Pasar Awam Pelabuhan Kelang) is situated in a dilapidated building along Jalan Sungai Aur. Just like Port Klang town itself, the market has that disreputable, derelict air about it. Of something old and decrepit that has not been well taken care off. Something struggling to survive, like an old frail person battling chronic inflammation all over his body. There are a lot of empty lots especially at the fish stalls. The food court next to it is almost deserted. There are signs everywhere that it is a hard time and many people are struggling, the traders themselves, as well as the people who come to shop there. I think my hometown Kuala Kangsar has a much more bustling wet market.

Old town like Port Klang has its own charm, despite its untidiness and its broken-down bits here and there. I have been staying in Bandar Sultan Suleiman, which is about 7 km away for the past 20 years. Port Klang is my town now, it is where my home is and will be, god willing,  for a long time. Even though my siblings and my nephew and nieces have been urging me time and time again to move back to KK, to be near them, I am still reluctant. My heart is just not into it.

Stopping By Rebecca Once Again

One the many covers

My very beloved dog-eared copy of the
simplified Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is one of my evergreen favourite book. First read it when I was in my early teens back in JB. Of course in its simplified version. I was at that time a gawky, shy, rather impressionable teenager, struggling to master the English language. The protagonist of that novel is a shy, naive, self-conscious 21-year-old bride of the wealthy Maxim de Winter who owns one of the stately home in England called Manderley. Her timidity and shyness strike a chord with the awkward introverted teenager in me at that time. Have read the novel for the umpteenth time.

To me, Rebecca is about the coming of age, becoming your own person, strong as well as timid female characters, the psychopath and narcissistic personality traits, unquestioned acceptance of murder, a selfish husband, dishonest love, life of the English upper class and the grandeur of a much-loved stately home.

I bought my own copy of the simplified Rebecca somewhere in mid-1990 in a bookshop in Pasar Seni in KL. The copy is the same with the one I first read when I was 13 or 14. It cost me RM6.90 then.The publisher Heinemann had reproduced the book in its simplified version for the upper level in which the simplification takes about 2200 words in 126 pages.


Plot Summary of Rebecca

Rebecca's narrative takes the form of a flashback. The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband, Maxim de Winter, travelling from hotel to hotel, harbouring memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which, we learn, has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before.and In her flashback, the heroine is working as the young travelling companion to a wealthy American named Mrs. Van Hopper. In her flashback, Maxim is staying at the same hotel as the heroine and her employer, and after knowing the heroine for only a few weeks, he proposes marriage. She accepts, and he marries her and takes her back to his ancestral estate of Manderley. But a dark cloud hangs over their marriage: Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, drowned in a cove near Manderley the previous year, and her ghost haunts the newlyweds' home. Rebecca's devoted housekeeper, the sinister Mrs. Danvers, is still in charge of Manderley, and she frightens and intimidates her new mistress. Despite the encouragement of the house overseer, Frank Crawley, and Maxim's sister, Beatrice, the heroine struggles in her new life at Manderley. She feels that she can never compare favourably to Rebecca, who was beautiful, talented, and brilliant--or so everyone says--and soon she feels that Maxim is still in love with his dead wife.

Manderley traditionally hosts a costume ball each year, and it is soon time for the gala to take place. Swept up in the preparations, the heroine's spirits begin to revive. But the ball ends in disaster: on Mrs. Danvers' suggestion she wears a costume that, it turns out, is the same dress that Rebecca wore at the last ball. Upon seeing the heroine, Maxim is horrified, and the heroine becomes convinced that he will never love her, that he is still devoted to Rebecca. The following day, Mrs. Danvers almost convinces her to kill herself, and she only breaks away from the old woman's spell when rockets go off over the cove, signalling that a ship has run aground. When divers swim near the grounded ship, they find the wreckage of Rebecca's sailboat, with Rebecca's dead body in the hold. This discovery prompts Maxim to tell the heroine the truth: Rebecca was a malevolent, wicked woman, who lived a secret life and carried on multiple affairs, including one with her cousin, Jack Favell. On the night of her death, Maxim had demanded a divorce, and she had refused, and told him that she was pregnant with Favell's child. Furious, he seized a gun and shot her, and then sailed out to the harbour in Rebecca's boat and sank it, with the body stowed safely inside.

This revelation restores the heroine's marriage, and enables her to finally shake off the burden of Rebecca's ghost. Meanwhile, however, the noose of justice tightens around Maxim: first, it is found that holes have been drilled in the bottom of Rebecca's boat; luckily the coroner delivers a report of suicide, rather than murder. But soon Rebecca's cousin Favell, certain that Rebecca did not kill herself, accuses Maxim of the crime. The local magistrate, Colonel Julyan, investigates, and finds that on the day of her death, Rebecca went up to London to see a Doctor Baker. Favell, Maxim, and the heroine accompany Julyan to London; the heroine is certain that Baker will reveal that Rebecca was pregnant, thus revealing Maxim's vengeful motive for murder. But instead, it turns out that Rebecca was dying of cancer, and that furthermore she was infertile; she had lied to Maxim about her pregnancy. Her terminal illness now supplies a motive for Rebecca's supposed suicide, and Maxim is saved. He and the heroine drive all night back to Manderley, stopping only once, when Maxim calls home and learns that Mrs. Danvers has disappeared. As they crest the ridge near the mansion, they look down and find it in flames.

The Bookshelf

All my adult life, I have always wanted a proper bookshelf for all my books. As I grow older and reading becomes more and more an integral part of my daily life, my wanting a proper bookshelf becomes more ardent. I would be dreaming about them after leafing through interior decoration magazines. Of course the bookshelves in the interior magazines come together with a proper study or reading room.

So, what took me so long to get a proper bookshelf and some sort of a reading room? Until late 2017 that is. I was always thinking, never mind, maybe later, there would be time. Many other more important things to focus on. When I was young, I was renting and sharing accommodation with others. Did not have many books at that time. Did not have much possessions either actually. I was just a humble civil servant. Life was about settling down as an individual, being independent, earning my own income, contributing some money to my family, filling up my time with useful activities. Also trying to find my identity in the workplace too. Bought a house in my early-thirties but I never really got down to properly furnishing it. There were just other more important things to look into. So I bought ready-made bookcases for my books. When I began to have more and more books, I resorted to keeping them in plastic boxes, placing them under the staircase, under the bed and even out on the porch beside where I park my car. Time passes and soon I found I was near retiring. Thought of building the bookshelf but then the house was already in a state of disrepair. How can I just build the bookshelf without repairing the house first. Just wait lah.

The house by that time was needing major repairs. I must admit I am quite a procrastinator in some areas of my life. I kept postponing the repair works because, honestly, I found it very stressful. Even the action of calling a contractor and asking for a quotation was quite tiring for me. With the Ringgit being badly depreciated everything becomes very expensive. I began to have very bad headaches during the negotiations. But, like it or not, I had no choice but to proceed with the chosen contractor to repair the house and at the same time build a small extension at the back, meant to be the reading room. It is just a tiny room about 11' x 16' in size.

So in mid-August 2017 the repair works and the constructing of the small back extension began. My house is a low-cost house and is actually very small. I, on the other hand, tend to have a lot of things. Books, collectibles, knick-knacks, souvenirs etc. In other words, a bit of a hoarder. So the house became a very very cluttered, untidy, dusty place on earth while the works were going on. The construction took about 25 days. Those were 25 very very stressful days for me and for my cats too. Mickey Benjamin simply refused to go to the kitchen area and I had to put the feeding bowl in the porch area for him to eat. He was indeed very anxious and stressed. What more with all the banging, hammering and knocking going round throughout the day. My cats disappeared during the day, only coming back to the house in the evening when the workmen were gone. Even then they were edgy, they kept inspecting and sniffing all corners of the house, trying to make sure that it was really their home. Well, Wan Nyah was there all the while, so it must be their home. But to them, the house must looked very strange and it smelled funny too with all that paint all over the walls.
My weight went down to 55 kg as I began to lose appetite during that period. It became more stressful as during that 25 days I couldn't go out anywhere. Even on Sundays when the workmen were off, for safety reasons I couldn't leave the house unattended. I hesitated to ask assistance from my nephews who live around Klang Valley as I felt they have their own commitments. I like to be independent whenever and wherever I can.

My 25 days of stress

The 25 days felt like forever but in the end the works did get completed. Thank you my Lord. I promise that from now on, I will pay greater attention to the house and maintain it from time to time and not procrastinate over time until everything needs major repair. I do not want to go through another 25 days like in mid-August 2017.

The repairs and the small extension were completed. Now back to the bookshelf. I really like a bookshelf  that is built-in high and totally covers one wall of the room with a movable ladder for easy access to the top part. But alas, I have space constraint. My wall is only about 9' tall and about 11' long. The other thing, I wanted the shelves to be cat-friendly. Therefore it cannot stretch up to the ceiling and on one side the shelf has to have steps that my furry kids can jump up to. I also need the bottom part of the shelves to be covered for files, papers, stationery and odds-and-ends.

So, in the end, with the space constraint and of course the money constraint too, I ended up with the bookshelf that is about 7' tall and 10' long. There's a space at the top for my kids to climb. Tam Benjamin adores the top of the shelves especially on rainy days. Actually the whole shelf is rather small and it cannot accommodate all my books. I still need to use the upstairs ready-made shelf. But at least none of my books are in plastic boxes anymore.

My dream bookshelf ha ha ha 

What I ended up with. My humble bookshelf. At long last!

Tam Benjamin, the guardian of the bookshelf

Testing the comfort of the other end of the bookshelf

The guardian, on top of the other 20-year old bookshelf

My three kids love the room

The trio relaxing in the evening

Sunlight filtering through lace curtain into the room. I
really adore the morning sunlight. It's motivating and
uplifting the spirit!

A flap-door for my kids. The guardian observing other
felines passing by.

Thank you my Lord for everything in my life. I live one day at a time. My life is very humble, very mediocre and yet I still find little pockets of joy here and there. I got this very humble and small reading room with the equally humble bookshelf when I am 63+. Most people would be puzzled why I sound happy but I am. I am very grateful. I'm also grateful that I am healthy, I feel good and I still enjoy the pleasure of reading. Books are always my companions.