Of Excess and Habits

My father thought it was a good idea to let me and my brother keep a goldfish as pet. I was 6 at that time and my brother, Man was 4. So satu petang bapak aku bawa pulang ikan emas kecik untuk dipelihara, siap dengan mini aquariumnya.

We were so excited the morning after- did nothing else but watched and fed the fish with breadcrumbs. Like, half an hour later, we started to get impatient. The breadcrumbs we should be making turned into large chunks of bread. Later that evening, aku dan Man dah pergi main kat luar, and my dad came home. He found out that the fish was dead. Mati kelemasan dalam roti.

Niat tu baik nak kasik makan ikan, tapi it was the case (very common) of doing something in excess. The reason I told this story is that I just went out for a haircut. I did notice this ‘in excess’ habit in every barber I went.

Rambut aku dah panjang dan bila dah panjang, it is abnormally tebal. Dengan panjang -rambut tepi tutup separuh telinga dan bahagian depan sampai ke mata- aku rasa ok jer except it needed a minor trim pasal dah serabai sikit. Before he took the scissors and comb, I told the barber,thrice, aku taknak potong pendek, cuma adjust sikit-sikit je bahagian tepi dan belakang. Pakcik tu kata, ‘ok’.

True, the first trim was ok. But he thought he had to make second adjustment, agaknya tak balance sangat kot kiri kanan. So the adjustment went on. Quite alright this time, I saw.

Problem is, there were third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, 31^st adjustment. Sampai rambut aku dah takde dah baru berhenti. For some reasons I couldn’t decipher, macamana pakcik tu boleh potong sampai pendek tanpa aku perasan sehingga saat-saat terakhir potongan.

At that point aku cuma mampu bersyukur aku tak tertidur masa dia potong rambut aku, otherwise I may need a micrometer to measure my hair. Rambut sure jadi kecik habis. Terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak potong rambut kena tunggu dua tiga bulan lagi nak mengundur ke default setting.

Excess #2:

Every food being cooked and baked has its own distinctive taste. Some are meant to be eaten only a bit at a time, ‘untuk lidah merasa je’ bak kata orang. Things like kek lapis (mahal pun yer jugak), maruku (untuk buat mengunyah sikit-sikit masa berborak), goreng pisang (minyak tak hingat banyak tapi buat jamah minum petang sikit tu acceptable la).

I do realize that. Tapi aku ada this bad habit yang selain daripada enjoy kesedapan satu makanan, aku mesti nak perut rasa kenyang gak. You know this is quite alright bila makan nasi campur waktu tengahari or nasi lemak untuk breakfast, tapi bila makan choc cookies-aku nak belasah sampai kenyang, bila makan kuih koci-belasah makan sampai tak payah dinner, bila hirup kopi-mesti belasah sampai darah dalam badan dah ganti dengan kopi. Pendek kata semua makanan yang aku suka akan aku buat sebegitu rupa.

By far, I still do not find any measure to help me think, ‘makanan sedap ni hanya untuk dirasa, bukan dibaham’. Any suggestion?