The Flour Bin

Do take a look at this unrepossessing, white-painted tin with the word FLOUR printed on one side of it. Yes, it's the Abus' spanking new flour bin and it contains (surprise, surprise)...... flour!

My youngest daughter Nawwar and I went to the Amcorp Mall flea market last Sunday, supposedly for a look-see. By the time we were ready to wrap up our look-see mission, it had had turned into some heavy-duty 'look-buy'!

[By the way, the Mall trip was the real reason why I withdrew some cash last weekend].

It was the first time ever that I hauled my ample derriere to the Mall's flea market, although I had known of its existence for the longest time - from the time it first started years ago.

I had never really thought about visiting it, until Nawwar suggested we go check out the stalls for reasonably priced blouses and tudungs.

[Without a doubt, Nawwar was a regular; that girl simply loves to 'merayap' along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Petaling Street, and the flea markets of Mont Kiara, The Curve and Amcorp Mall].

Of course, in the wake of ancient irons (the kind that used embers) that can crack your skull open with just one whack, stamps and coins, second-hand books and magazines, hundreds of vinyls, and turntables and radios with compartment for cassettes, the bajus and tudungs were left trailing behind.

Then I spotted a stall selling, among other things, tin cannisters. They came in all shapes and sizes, the biggest being a bread bin that could hold a few loaves at any one time.

There is something to be said about tin cannisters, colourful or otherwise. They captivate totally, leaving me breathless. I can never seem to get enough of these containers.

I can spend hours browsing among this myriad of receptacles; jars and bottles, decanters and flagons, caddies and carafes, pitchers and gourds, barrels and bins, and naturally, tin cannisters.

So it was that I ended up owning the first proper flour bin of my life, and a few other tin cannisters besides. Initially it wasn't meant to hold anything, let alone flour. I thought it would look good on the kitchen self, that's all.

Yesterday however, I decided to rearrange my kitchen and so the flour bag somehow found itself deposited in the bin. Last night Nawwar got home, took the lid off the bin and squealed in surprise: "There's flour in the bin!"

Now, if I were her, I would be dumbfounded too. This is because I have been known to keep rubber bands in cookie jars, loose buttons in coin banks, light bulbs and adaptors in plastic tubs, soya sauce in a flagon marked 'vinegar' and washing powder in a container marked "Cat Food."

Life in this house is an endless round of surprises. You never know what you may find when you lift the lid off a tub marked 'ice cream' for it may well hold 'ikan pekasam' (it does!) given by a friend who had just returned from Sungai Petani....