Something Sweet..

Childhood is full of innocence. Every year, something funny come along in our terrestrial television.

This one I saw in one of the blog who paid tribute to the director, Yasmin Ahmad who just passed away recently. Didn't know that she did so many of this feel good adverts.



Here is another one, I am not sure it's from the same director but this should be shown to the bigots 24/7 until they see, think, feel nothing except this clips.

Truth or Warped Truth?

Quote from the Malaysian Insider, "But Mahathir argued in his latest blog post that 39 years after the NEP was introduced, the Bumiputera share of the corporate pie remained at just 20 per cent while the Chinese share stood at 50 per cent even though they consisted of just 26 per cent of the population."

After 22 years of being the Prime Minister of Malaysia, after he lorded over hordes of arse kisser and stepping over many unfortunate souls, in his single minded quest to uplift the Malays, with some success, here and there, here he is, at the twilight of his years and still he begrudged Malaysians of Chinese descents? Should there be no NEP, the chances are, Malaysia would have been propelled into the First World category, long time ago, instead of treading backwards into becoming a Banana Republic sometime in the future.

But that's not the point. As someone who has grown up, practically under his Prime Ministership, what I can't fanthomed is his overt zealousness in racism. How can he bedgrudged the Chinese at large? He might have the privileged to rub shoulders with the rich and well heeled. But how many percent of the Chinese are of that category, is it all? How dare he begrudged people like my mother, who have to wake up about 4.00 a.m., to do laundry, which she collected from other people, for a meagre RM 10.00, to wash for a household of 7 people? After finishing with that laundry, she had to do ours? And by 7.00 a.m., have to walk to another house about 1 km away, to do their laundry and housekeeping? Mind you, it was manual labour, NOT washing machine! And she will continue with her work to clean for the household, cook for them, iron for them and her work only finishes by 6.oo p.m. Day in day out, 7 days a week, all in all, for RM 110.00 per month. We were renting a small house from a Malays landlord for RM 25.00 a month. Granted, that was like 35 years ago but still, she was a Chinese and where was the assistance?

Generally, that was the general livelihood of the masses of Chinese during those days. Life was tough but no one complained that the Government didn't help them. None of my siblings got any assistance from the government, no food programme, scholarship and my mom almost cried when one year, due to some unknown reason, my school said I was not entitled to government textbook (most likely, because it was assumed that Chinese can afford to buy their own - I was in a Malays (national) school and there were about 3 - 4 Chinese only in the class) and have to purchase them! Luckily, the headmaster and the class teacher managed to settle it for me, I think they found some very old textbooks and let me borrowed them.

At that time, there were also food programme for the so-called poor students, food would be ready for them in the canteen at recess time and all of the recipients were Malays. Not even Indians. We were young, we don't know why is that but we didn't begrudge them, we only admired them. Me? I had 5 cent as pocket money, per day, which entitled me to a cup of sweet drink, as the solid food were going at 10 cents onwards. So, I saved the 5 cent and drink gallons of plain water instead, and used that saved money to pay for whatever exam fee, school fee, whenever the school asked for it. Which was like, the beginning of the term or year, I can't really recall. Only that I remember that I was so worried I would not be able to take my standard 5 examinations if I didn't have enough money. For that, Mahathir wants to begrudge the Chinese?

To be fair, there were other races that faces hardships too, even at this day and age. But why single out a race, who happened to scrimp and saved every penny so they can give a better future to their children? And why begrudge these children when later on in life, they were more resilient and thus successful, due to the good habit instilled earlier on, by necessity initially and by choice later on?

When I were in secondary school, I admired my friends who had more pocket money than me, only to find out that they woke up before sunrise to help their parents to tap rubber trees and thus earning a bit extra pocket money and I wished to myself that I had rubber trees to tap too at that time. We were transplanted from other region, thus do not own any smallholdings, not that their life were much better than mine, but they took care of me, mostly and understands not to pressure me to join them for any activity that requires any spending of money. At the same time, in secondary school, we didn't begrudge our Malays classmates, whom, all of them received scholarship from the government, in one form or another, some government agency or MARA, some of whom were teachers' children and shopkeepers' children. Despite all that, the top 5 students were still those without the scholarship (read, Chinese). We didn't begrudge our Malays brethren that despite our better results, when we ought to be entitled to scholarship, we weren't given any. We just be. And to think that our Prime Minister for 22 years still begrudged the Chinese, people like us who would have gone to greater heights if not for the limitation placed upon us? Who should begrudge who?

Gathering In Memory Of A Son Of Malaysia

I have not been to any political or public gathering before. Today marked the first. I went there as a Malaysian. I believed that as Malaysian, we must show support for demand of justice for any injustice, blatant injustice done.

I liked the speech by the Speaker of Selangor State Assembly the best. He articulated well. He relate to the audience. I am very surprised actually. The rest of the speakers were good too but everyone have their personal favourites, my new political idol has to be Mr Teng Chang Kim. I have never heard him but I am a fan now for sure.

I like the part where he said, "Some people goes to police custody, they ended up dead. Some people goes to MACC custody, they ended dead. I fear that people who goes to JPJ, will also dies!!" Sarcastic, but very well put!

Another part is about the former Menteri Besar of Selangor, Khir Toyo whom he said was not investigated by MACC despite numerous evidence to the contrary. He said he can't arrest him because he is not empowered to but it is within his power to chase him out of the Assembly and that just what he did! To the rousing claps of the spectators. Even I can't resist to give him a hurrah for that! Though we all know that that wasn't the reason Khir Toyo was chased out but the word "Chased Out" really strike a chord and carry a very deep meaning in the context of his speech, I would say bravo!!

Listen to the speech (part of it anyway) as I forgot, in the excitement of the moment to press the record button for a good portion of it.

Flowers In The Garden

Some photos of the flowers in the garden, taken with handphone only.

Girls And Make Ups .... And Other Matters

What is it between girls and make ups? A dear friend's blog talks only about make ups and such and the readers would go ga ga over this and that. Sales I can understand, but after sales, if it still costs like hundreds, I better ensure that my credit cards are safely locked!

Oh by the way, I treated myself to two new pairs on New Balance shoes, one running shoes, one all terrain shoes. Costed me about 400 ringgit, AFTER discount. I must be pretty stressed to spend like that huh? Hahaha, no lah, actually, I find shopping to be quite therapeutic.

Did I mentioned about my trip to Betong, Thailand? It was a DRINK, EAT, PLAY, ENJOY hunt (Chi He Wan Le, in Mandarin) - yeah, you read that right, it was a MANDARIN hunt and out of the four in our team (Tiffany - my sister, Seng Fook - my sister's husband, Penny - my wife and myself), only Tiffany can read some Chinese while the rest of us are pretty much "ILLITERATE".

The fun of it was, my sister read out the question in Chinese and we try to find the answer by using "Hanyu Pinyin", ie, the ROMANIZED Chinese. Of course it will be very difficult because the Chinese writing system is totally different but should we have not wasted time, as we didn't give ourselves any chance to win, should we have proceeded and make sure we reach the finishing point on time, we would have made it to the top 3 team! Imagine, a bunch of blind mice leading the pack!! Such would be the fun of it.

But alas, it was not to be. Fear not, at least we know that we are not THAT hopeless where Hunting in Mandarin is concerned, we might give ourselves some opportunity to join in more often, hahaha.

The whole pack stayed at a hilltop resort, owned by former Communists Army of Malaya, or their forebears. They have given up arms and have settled down to idyllic life of farmers. Life was hard, according to them, until recently, when they started out some tourism venture, building chalets et al. The story they told, about the past, was quite different from what you learned in history. I guessed, the adage that HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTOR is very much true then.

The weather there is SO cold, I had to practically jumped to keep myself warm, it was much much colder than Genting and Cameron. I guess, deforestation of our two hill resorts did play a role and if our side still don't wake up to this environmental damage, pretty soon, we will not have any cool lands to retreat to in the near future.

The place offered some interesting experience, to say the least. We had water heater that was heated up by GAS. We took electricitiy for granted that when we saw GAS, we found it interesting and amusing. You know, real fire boiling the water in the small water heater before passing to the shower. You can actually see the fire. Go figure...

The people's life over there is really simple. The workers doubled up everything. They works in the flower farm. They take care of the chalets. They run the restaurant. Basically, it is what you will see in the "owner operator" establishment, which is good. Come to think of it, it sounded a bit like Socialist lifestyle, where everyone chips in. Hmmm....

Both my brother in law and I had lots and lots of Thailand durians during our two nights stay there. And on our way back to Klang, we stopped along the way and bought some more durians. I think I had the most durian this year. Probably, equal to what I have eaten for the past few years!!! Pretty soon, the scale will break under my weight as durian is known to be very high calories, thus fattening. I hope the durian season will be over soon before I reached the point of no return....

Oh, another add on. Went to the dentist today. Only today she said she will try to straighten my wisdom tooth! After 8 months!! Now only she "REMEMBER" to do it. I thought she was going to remove it and now she said, we can try to straightened it first before deciding on next course of action. Of course I am please with the opportunity to avoid another tooth extraction but my grouse is, why can't it be done 8 months ago? I probably would have straight wisdom by now!!! Grrrh...

Anyway, each time after some adjustment, I have to endure certain discomfort, not pain per se, but discomfort nevertheless. But I am really looking forward to the day the braces would be removed. With today's add on, I wonder if it would be delayed by another 8 months. Grrrhh....

Lastly, I just read about the death of the political secretary of the Exco Member of Selangor State after interrogation by the MACC. Honestly, I don't know what our country is turning into. MACC denies any knowledge of the matter but would the public buy that? Honestly, would you? We have blatant corruption with hardware like palaces to proof but no even a question mark and yet, someone's assistant, whom I doubt even hold any purse string, could be hauled up to be questioned and end up dead? Where is justice? How can we as the rakyat not question the honesty of our government? Do all the people who opposes the establishment has to die? And die innocently at that? Can all these bully actually sleeps at night? Can they honestly pray to their God, five times a day and right after leaving the House of God, go on to do the very things that their God forbid?

I am not particularly religious but I believe in God. That is for sure. I also believes in Karma. What goes around, comes around. There will be debt to be paid, if not now, sometime in the future, otherwise, until the next life, or thereafter for the Abrahamic believers. Still, even those without religion or God would not stoop so low as to cause another to lose their life, immaterial whether directly or indirectly. The fact remained that someone is dead after being interrogated. Questions remain unanswered. No one will be held accountable, usually. Sincerely, I hope this time, someone does.

Well, I have vented more than I have intended to. I hope above are not too sensitive. I am just a layman, curious and irritated at the injustice and pretty much, can't do much about it except for ranting about it, like this. And advising my friends and acquaiantance to choose wisely during each elections, stuffs like that. Nothing seditious I hope. I am no Raja Petra Kamarrudin.....

Bombastic Words

I learned quite a lot of words from reading extensively.

I am planning the write something that call for the word "Rambunctious". Wait for it!!

The word just appeared and I checked out the meaning. There are many nice words, seemed big, bombastic but actually, should be the correct ones to be used in certain situation.

Let's see if inspiration strike to avail me the opportunity to use some really heavy duty words....

Unscripted Script But Edited (Part 1)

Instant messaging exchange, when you read back, at times, reveal a number of things. Let's read the exchanges below.

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me : i have the habit of putting things according to "seniority"
me : i can not see figure jump here jump there
friend : perfectionist
me : no lah, just one of life weird habit
friend : i know, you have plenty of those
me : yeah, eccentries is my middle name
me : eccentricities
me : how ever you spelt that word!!
friend : i know, known it for years already, so its nothing new
me : heck, sometimes, my finger just forgot their spelling
friend : as long as the reader understand, its ok. most people dont care about spelling errors these days, no thanks to sms
me : hahaha, that is another one of my quirk, i can't stand wrong spellling
me : notice how i very rarely use short form when chatting or sms-ing?
friend : see how well i know you
me : no lah, i don't know why but i find joy in seeing words, you know i am an avid reader
me : imagine having to go through books with short forms
me : yukks
friend : its the way of the new generation
me : well, just limit it to sms
me : i can understand for sms, i don't embrace it, but i will use it every now and then when the situation demand so
friend : good for you, keep up the tradition
me : it's not tradition, it's just that the beauty of strung words to convey a message always fascinate me
me : yeah
me : i also needed a break every now and then
me : i am getting lethargic
me : i have not been sleeping well past few weeks
me : i needed to take a break soon before i break down, totally
friend : thats why i come here for a few weeks eventhough there is not really so much to do
friend : and thats why i ask you to come along cos i'm not really that busy always
me : that's why i have always envy you
friend : i actually do quite a lot of m'sia matters while i'm here
me : hahaha
me : probably being far can afford you macro view
me : or bird's eye view
friend : in a way, yes
friend : and also more time to look at the market
friend : stock market, that is
me : screw the market
friend : its not really that bad, its quite stable
me : stability equals less opportunity

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Found In The Internet

This a gem found in the wilderness of internet. I read it somewhere before, sharing it here with all.

Quote

all i know..
when i came to this world...
i'm the one that crying and others around me laughing...
and...
when i leave this world...
i want to be the one that laughing and others around me crying...

Unquote

Idiotics And Idioms

People used to say that don't cry over spilt milk. Well, the choice is either don't ever spill the milk or don't drink milk.

Another is forgive and forget. Actually, to many people, it is a very easy thing. In fact, in life, to err is human and the err itself will become part of the fabric of your life. The thing is, to forgive is one thing, to forget is another thing. It just doesn't gel, does it? Just like a wound, if it is only a surface wound, soon enough, it will heal and all the pain forgotten.

What of those with the elephant's memory? They have strong and long memory. To make matter worse, what if the wound was not attended to? Especially, if it is a very deep wound, it will take longer time to heal and at the same time, upon healing, there will be scar and it serves as the trophy to your follies, doesn't it no? And I am speaking metaphorically. Some might get the gist of it, many won't, as well, because after saying my peace, I might just decided to move on and scar or not scar to tackle the bull by it's horns?

I have decided long ago that those thing I can live without, I will not emphasise on it. The lesser your interaction, the lesser your chances of being inflicted with wounds, right? Again, it is metaphorically speaking. I am rambling no ends, am I? I better stop until I am more focussed. It must be the weather.

End Of The Road Season??

I guessed I probably am getting old!!!

Recently, it seemed that people that I know of are meeting their maker in succession.

1) There was one which I blogged about earlier, a dear friend who died young.

2) A few days earlier, an acquaintance, cousin of my god-sister passed away at, I think 41. I knew him from my pre-teen age even, as my mother used to work for my god-sister mother and that, my god-sister will occasionally give us a joyride and visit her aunties and relatives. And also at times, they come a visiting and that's how we get to know each other. Not extremely close but still, the history goes back a long way.

3) Then, yesterday, my sister-in-law's brother passed away at age 49. She just informed me today. I don't know him that well but then, he being my sister-in-law's brother, he was sort of like a relative, he was after all my nieces' and nephews' uncle.

4) Today, another friend passed away, I think he was 53. He was a friend, not extremely close but I have looked up to him like my very own elder brother until circumstances changed. After that, due to irreconcilable differences, we drifted apart, or rather, our path don't cross anymore. No hard feeling though. It is just that, I am a person who can be as passionate and as indifference as the situation dictates. I know he will be missed by many, he was after all, a very nice man but I have said once and again, life goes on. Whatever it is, I hope he finally found his peace and meet his Maker in peace. He was a staunch Christian and I hope he will have his place amongst his Maker's subject. Amen. (Though I am not Christian, it doesn't mean I can't pray for him, can I?)

I talked to my best friend just now, who is a mutual friend of the deceased number 4, and jokingly told him that, there are so many people moving on that don't be surprised that when he came back from Shanghai (he is leaving tomorrow morning) that his own close friend (that is me) suddenly is no more in this world too. I know it sounded morbid but let's face it, nothing is more certain than death, like one of my favourite tagline in my Facebook :- "mors certa, hora incerta" - "death is certain, its hour is uncertain"

And who is to say that I will not be recalled tomorrow? Most of us are on borrowed time anyway. To the ones who have left as mentioned above, may peace be with them. R.I.P.

House chores

Our cleaner left to follow her boss to another place.

Someone recommended a new cleaner. He said she is not so experienced. My wife has her scepticism. I am more "forgiving" and believe in giving people a chance. So, I told her to try out this new fellow and make a decision later whether to engage her for long term or not.

For years, I have pondered over whether to get a maid or not. It is much convenient to have one but at the same time, the inconvenience of it deters me too. I am a free spirit. I don't like to be bogged down. Having a maid means you will have make arrangement for her when you are not around, like, travelling, holidaying and all the other -ing. Beside, I like to move around my house, with a maid, it will feel that a certain areas is like off-limit. People keeps on telling me how convenient and relaxing to have maid, I am much tempted but I am still weighing the pros and cons. Watch this space.

Being Ridiculous

Not that ridiculous sort like being unreasonable, just ridiculous for still doing gardening while feeding mosquitoes, despite lighting some mozzies coils, at almost midnight!! The neighbours would have thought I am crazy of sort, only if they are awake, that is. Whereas most people are asleep, I was still doing some gardening!! Must have short circuited some wires somewhere.

But at least I get the things I wanted to do done. I can at least sleep more soundly, knowing the nagging "things to be done" list has been shortened. Now is the time to care for the plants and hope that they grow beautifully.

Another thing, I don't know what is happening to my fruit trees. My passion fruit is growing beautifully but there is no fruit! Papaya is growing well and there are some fruit but fell off when is reaches my thumb's size! The rest of the fruits and vegetables are simply on strike! I wonder why? As far as I can remember, all of them received the same amount of attention and to be frank, they got more attention that some of the neighbour's!!! Probably, like my neighbours said, you gotta talk to them. Me? Talking to plant? As if doing gardening when everyone else is with the sandman is not crazy enough!

Probably it is due to the soil's condition, underneath, basically are sands and river bed, sort of reclaim land. But then, some of the neighbour's trees are fruiting famously. What shall I do? What should I do?

My wife said, probably I am better in planting flowers than fruits. I don't know, probably desperate situation calls for desperate measures, even if it means talking to the plants....no way....hahaha

Rambling About Gambling

Recently, I was having my bout of insomnia.....I have them almost on yearly basis.

To pass time, I ended up playing poker in Facebook, which actually makes the insomnia worse, because gambling is one sure fire way of keeping yourself awake!!

So, anyway, I noticed that gambling can be quite addictive, in the sense that the suspense pending either your win or loss spikes your adrenaline rush a bit.

Another thing that I noticed is that, gambling, for sure is a frustrating game, to say the least. On occasions that you are very sure you will win, what with good hands etc, you ended up losing more. Whereas, on the time your cards are like #$%^, you folded and realised that should you persevered, you would have won!! Oxymoronic, ironic and frustrating. And we keep on going back for more.

For sure, if it has been real money, I would not have touched it with ten foot pole. Still, the sense of winning and losing at times really strike at your very core.

The moral of the post is, "Stay away from gambling for your own health, mentally and physically!!!"

Chapters Of Life

I have a dear friend who missed her dearly beloved.

Much as I feel for her, the practical me will insist that life must still go on and that is exactly the message that I have given her, time and again, the latest as follows :-

"Life goes on ler my dear. Keep the sweet memories but don't ever wonder "what if" - that chapter of your life is the end, try to flip to a new chapter and write a new story.

Besides, you still have many moons ahead of you. The human heart is strange in its capacity to love. Keep the love but don't shut the window to your heart."

If she is reading this, I want to expand it further in that, there are many kind of loves. The love of our life is one of the. There are loves like those between parents and children, siblings, friends and even innate objects, like the loves of clothes (is that me?), the loves of cosmetics (someone who is linked to this blog) and many other.

I know it sounded easy for we won't know how it felt, though at times we felt we might know. You know how people always consol others by stating "I understand how you feel.." but honestly, that is never the case. Noone can understand how another human being felt. When my mother passed away, I felt as if the world crumbled. I can not imagine how it will be to have someone you have called as mum for the last 30 years to suddenly not answering you. But as time passed, the hurt healed. Time, they say is the best cure of all. The scar infinitely will be there, but at least it doesn't hurt that much anymore.

So, to my friend, if you are reading this, trust me, the love of you life might have moved on to another plane of life, but don't anguish over it too much that you forsake those who are still around you and still love you unconditionally. Sometimes, we are so obsessed with what we have lost that we didn't realise that we are shutting out the ones that we have. That is the danger of latching on to the past. I am not saying to forget, I am saying, there are always tomorrow and as someone who believes in afterlife, who is to say that we will not see them again?

Life really is like a book, chapter by chapter, it depends on how we really want to write it and whether we want to stay in the same chapter, same page for the rest of it? Don't we want to find out how the story ends? How the characters develops? What the authors have in store for its dear readers? So, go on, flip the chapter and savour every words, every sentence, every paragraph and every chapter. Once you have reached to the end of the book, you can always look back and say, I have finally finished reading the book! Don't get stuck on the same page no matter how interesting that page is.

This sounds deep. I might be drunk. But then, I don't take alcohol. Probably the drug's reaction, I don't take that either. I know, I am purely sleepy, this is sleep talking. But whatever it is, life really goes on and the earth don't just stop turning for us.