My merajuk story...

Don’t know why I suddenly remember satu incident aku merajuk. Punya teruk aku punya merajuk tu, 2 tahun kot baru aku terpujuk.

Merajuk ngan Jacket Potato kat Beeston, Nottingham.

He he…

Kat England, gerai-gerai juai makanan tak banyak.

Sometimes you could see the odd burger van, or vendors selling hot dogs or hot chestnuts and my favourite, caramelized peanuts. But those vendors are only special to London. Tak dak pulak aku jumpak kat Nottingham or Leicester. Or kalau pi car boots sales there will be vans selling hot sugared doughnuts, or coffee or ice-cream. Tapi kat tepi-tepi jalan tak dak. Tapi yang selalu ada is jacket potato stands like below.

These jacket potatoes memang wonderful. Hot, baked potatoes in aluminum wrapper taken out fresh from the portable oven. Especially in cold winter months, it will fill your belly AND warm your hands. Amazing kan ?

Kebanyakkan Brits suka makan ngan beans....

Mula-mula kita beratuq, pastu when it comes to our turn, kita habaq berapa kita mau. Pastu nanti makcik tu (well, masa kat Nottingham our local is this makcik and 2 assistants kat tengah-tengah Beeston Market Square) akan tanya, “Butter ?” (kalau ikut slang Nottingham, butter disebut sebagai boot-ter) and kalau aku jawapannya sudah tentu, “Yes, please.” She will cut the butter from a huge block (Farmcows yang 500 gm punya size...), put it on the potato that was cut in the middle and lenyek-lenyek a bit. I love watching the butter melted from the heat. She will then close the box.

Pastu kita habaq lah filling apa kita nak. Kalau aku, my favourite is cheese and corn (aku akan tunggu lama sket sebelum I open the Styrofoam box bagi cheese tu melt sungguh-sungguh. Kat Leicester pulak macam style sikit so depa ada garlic mushrooms. I will eat it with corn, too of course.. (and minus the cheese kay, melampau lah tu kalau tambah cheese lagi…), Dan, Tasren, Ishraf and Zul selalunya corn and coleslaw, pun yummy gak.

Pastu bawak balik rumah makan or belasah kat situ gak or makan sambil jalan-jalan like most people do.

Anyway, one day while we were still in Nottingham, hubby said dia teringin nak makan jacket potato. I wasn’t that hungry so I asked can we share ? Sebabnya hubby ni jenis tak nak makan sorang. If I tell him I wasn’t hungry, sure dia pun tak nak makan punya. Tak sampai hati, kan.

However he replied, “I nak makan sorang… I lapar…”

Okeh, no problem as I wasn’t that hungry anyway. So I said, never mind lah, I will just go without. For some reason he took it as I merajuk when honestly, I wasn’t. I wasn’t hungry, kalau share okaylah. But tak nak share pun tak pe because aku tak lapar. Paham ?

But apparently he didn’t understand. He made such a fuss during the 10 minute walk to Beeston town, pestering me with, “Makan lah…” and “You mesti nak punya…” over and over again. I refused all the way because aku tak nak makan lah ! But dia ni tak reti-reti.

I thought he would stop after he bought it but he didn’t. In fact while queuing up he was literally begging me to get one for myself too. By that time I was darn tired and rimas and annoyed but aku sabar je lah kan.

He resumed his entreaties when we retraced our steps back to the house. This time, he had wanted to share. Ya Allah, I was out of ideas to make him understand without being rude and seriously the energy to keep up and then the inevitable happened. I just couldn’t take it anymore ! So I snapped, “I tak nak makan lah ! I tak lapar, faham tak ?” And I started crying. Aku rasa masa tu I really resisted because I had wanted to make a point. Jangan paksa ! Haa.....

Only then he became quiet. I looked at him and said, “I don’t want to eat jacket potatoes ever again !” and stomped my feet the rest of the way, hiding my now very cold face because of the wet tears behind my scarf and shoving my hand in the deepest recess of my lovely red coat… he he… sempat tuh.

Anyway I didn’t eat anymore jacket potatoes after that. Not from that makcik anyway as setiap kali aku tengok jacket potatoes and makcik tu, I got all rimas and annoyed. It was like my own time machine that transported me back to that very minute, to that very incident.

As time goes, my anger gone, and my resolves faltered a bit. Truthfully I just plain missed it. But pride… ahh….the root of most heart breaks (and war) did not allow it. I tak pernah curi-curi beli and makan sorang-sorang pun even.

Hubby of course tried to entice me many, many times. He went for jacket potatoes a lot after that, trying to break me but no can do. A few times he threatened me with, “If you love me, you will eat it…” but no way Jose… no can do. This is super merajuk, mother of all merajuks, okay ?

Until I got pregnant with Abang, that is and cannot tahan anymore. Out of habit he offered to buy me one eventhough for the past 2 years I politely (or impolitely) declined. I finally said yes. I remember that day so well. We were at the Leicester City Park, the sun was up and the day was cool. Winter was approaching fast and the day was dim and short and the night was.. well even dimmer lah I suppose, kah kah… and definitely longer. So the sun brought the population out, including us.

So there we were, Hubby and I. Me very much embarrassed, blushing unnecessarily and him with widen eyes. But he quickly schooled his face to normality and asked me cautiously if I wanted the usual. It was the best day of my life. Actually when I said yes, it felt like saying yes to him on bended knee. Malu-malu bagai. My ego was of epic proportion, kay.

With flared nostrils sebab segan kan, bodoh kan merajuk lama-lama sebab aku yang rugikan, I quickly explained only because sebab pembawakan budak. Abang yang nak… not me. Kalau tak bagi karang, meleleh je air liur dia nanti…

Hubby sengih and decided to believe me.

Ha ha…

Damn it, I cannot write short ones. Sorry…