It is the last day of February two zero zero five..It is a Monday...A beautiful day..With some five hours of rain early Sunday morning the haze has gone, making the skyline better then yesterday, blue sky and patch of snow white clouds..Just a day ago I could not see the twin tower of the KLCC as clear from my patio, but today it is like the postcard view, panoramic and great to look at again, but then this haze would surely be around from time to time during the period of the year...Well we all have to live with it since we are the one who created the haze in the first place..When I was growing up on the East Coast in the forties, when the weather look hazy, it is mist and it is cool an welcoming. We would sometime have to wear warm clothing in the morning or the evening but now the mist is missing except near the highland and instead we have haze which consist of dirt particles and not drop of water or dew which makes the mist....

It is forty seven minutes after one in the morning and I am typing this...I just could not sleep...For some reason I just could not sleep..So I wake up and watch the TV and then had a snack and still could not sleep, so I decided to blog and here I am writing this....My other half is sound asleep like she always did and she would wake up before me in the morning and would be at the kitchen doing her favorite ritual...Whatever it is....I would get up later then her, do the bed and then proceed to get the patio clean and the deco rearranged for the day..It has being my daily ritual at the patio, for some items had to be taken into the house when I close the front door at night, so that it is not dirty by cats, who sometime wonder along on the patio...So every morning I would do the cleaning of the patio and reset the deco of the patio, an interesting ritual, to make it presentable...At least to me...For I hate things disorganized, that are not in harmony with the surrounding..It has to schemed, a sort of interior decoration that I Love to see and enjoy or just show off to others to enjoy as well..... As usual this evening I wonder in cyberspace and read a few interesting blogs..Makes some comments and back to the real world..Sometime I wonder which is the real world...Cyberspace is as real as the other space, so what is real...I wonder...Matrix again...What is reality.....It is just becoming difficult to understand the real meaning of reality....Some people just could sleep easily but not me..My mind often wonder, thinking of the happening of the day or just flirting with ideas or something...Always wondering and only after a while that I could really get a good night sleep, at time had dream, which often makes no sense at all..Forgotten after a while after I woke up, making me wonder why we dream at all......Good thing that I had this Laptop computer to do the writing, putting my thoughts in writing, in the past I would just write my thought in a book that is always at my bedside...And because I just write, sometime I personally could not read what I had written, at least with the computer..All the type words are clear and could be corrected and makes some sense... My friend that live in the UK, think that I am crazy to write my thoughts and post it for the world to read...He say that I am exposing myself...I told him it does not matter, there are nothing to hide as far as the story of my life is concerned....Anyway what I have written are the real episode of the happening, while I am on my journey as I proceed on with my life...Like now in the early morning of the twenty seven of February two zero zero five...In a day's time we would be in March... I thought we just enter the new year of zero zero five and now it going to be March...See how time passes adding another year to our life...As I write this I am wondering as to what my friend Ken is doing in the UK now, perhaps in a pub somewhere having his usual drink of Malt...How I wish I am there now, enjoying a few drinks with him and yarn along with stories of pass era...And drinking would add to the color and excitement of telling story in the pub....Well life is like that and I believe we should enjoy as we go along....Ken must be smiling when He read this...Another Beer? For the road....Friends..Have a nice day...Take care....

This white orchid had bloom for months already, the setting is at my patio...On this hazy day, hope that this fusion of nature help to brighten our day...Picture taken this morning...Enjoy...

The haze is back, the whole city of Kuala Lumpur is blanket with this dust, where it come from I just do not know, but it is there, making the skyline look gray and unhealthy for out door activities and for those that have respiratory problem, they have to stay indoor, it is really bad...This afternoon I went to the KLCC and all the way there were haze with bad visibility...It has not really rain for sometime already and the weather is getting hot, so it look like we all had to be careful when using water, do not waste for without sufficient rain the reservoir would be partly filled and then it would create shortage of water for the city...Friends do be careful when using water, do not waste....

From time to time my friend Mohd and Me would go for a tea break chat at one of the Mamak restaurant...We call it...Go for a Teh Tarik... For today we met just after ten in the morning, it was a hot and humid day...I took the Volvo classic today and drove early so that I may park the car with ease at the parking lot at Ampang Point, this place, a sort of a shopping mall for those that live in Ampang Jaya is always crowded with people that go about to do their daily business....The classic Volvo is an old car with an old technology, so it does not have powered steering, the luxury in today's driving that we take for granted now...And without the power steering it is just difficult to park at the normal parking space provided for modern cars....Well this morning normally before ten in the morning, it would be just easy to find parking lots and in no time I got one and park the green classic Volvo and then walk to do an errant before my friend Mohd arrive...Just as I was about to get to the BSN bank, where I was to makes some payment...I got a call on my cell phone and it was from my friend Mohd, He enquire as to my where about... I told him I am just at the Corner of the street, at the Habib building. Soon we met and decide where to have our Teh Tarik, and since he wanted to go to the bank first, we decided to just have the Teh Tarik at the restaurant near the Bank....We got to the restaurant a while later and set for our usual....And chat along on various subjects, being interrupted from time to time by friends that came along and saying hello to a couple who went to find a table to have their T.T [Teh Tarik][Malaysian tea with milk] Well as usual we chat along while enjoying our teh tarik and roti canai.... After a while we decided to leave the place and visit the BSN Bank to settle our bills there, it is a one spot payment centre...As usual before leaving the restaurant we approach the counter at the restaurant and wanted to pay the bill of our T.T, but this time was told that it has been paid by a friend of mine, who just left....Well thanks friend for paying the bill, it happen quite often, sometime I do pay bill of friends or strangers that happen to be eating at the other table...I love doing this from time to time.....Friends it is time to give and it makes me happy always and today someone else pay our bill, well life is like that, it goes in a circle of a sorts...Making the giver and the receiver happy....That's is life in this golden age.....There is an old saying that sound like this about giving, "just give with the right hand without the left hand knowing about it".... Well have a nice day...We did today....

I was at the Ampang Point shopping mall a few days ago and took this image of the Lion dance, a familiar sight during the Chinese New Year season in colorful Malaysia..The melting pot of Asian culture....Enjoy...

It is one of those day that one is nostalgic of some great time that one have had as one journey on one's live...And at this period time I am thinking of Boston,.where I once live, a great city indeed...I had always dream of living in the States and like most of my dreams it came true.... When our eldest daughter invited us to follow them and live for a year in Boston, while they do some research works at the famous Harvard University....We accepted the invitation and stayed there for a year, a wonderful year of our life...I have visited the USA many time before and have live for a short period at Ithaca, NY, when our youngest daughter was doing her first degree at Cornell U...And later did stay a while at New Haven when she did her Master at Yale, It is while living at New Haven that I frequent the Big Apple with students, taking the hourly commuter from New Haven to New York or by car, which take just one and half our....Visiting New York was always exciting to me, who had read so much about this melting pots of culture and the rich life style of New Yorker...So when the twin towers was attack on the now historical date of September eleven, I was shock and sad indeed of the happening for I was there just a month before it happen...It is history now and the event change the history of the world...It no more the same... Coming back to the story of our living in America...It was when our oldest daughter decided to live in Boston that give us the opportunity to live for a year in this beautiful New England's states..America have always been a dream of people in this part of the world.. The TV and the other news exposes the life style in the states and I had always wanted to experience living there, not just visiting, that I had done a few time before as a tourist...It was indeed a dream came through, living in America..This time we, my spouse and me, together with our daughter, her husband and their children, had the opportunity to live in the States... So in a way our whole family were living in Boston for a year...We just live like the American..., makes me wish that all countries, politic aside are like America, so free and the people are friendly ...We actually integrated easily with the society and we never once felt unwelcome.... How we wish every countries have the same freedom of speech as did the American, where one are able to discuss openly any subject without getting into trouble...We discuss various subjects among friends on the University campus and no one would question us as to the right or wrong of our thoughts....Because we could discuss freely on subjects that are in a way sensitive or taboo in our country, we had managed to ease our mental faculty, thus making us felt more human with brain rather then robot that had to just accept the teaching just like ...Well at least in America we are not branded this or that for speaking our thoughts.... I hope that thing would eventually change for good in our own country, so that people could be more open in their thinking...Regulating the life of its citizen with all sorts of Law would retard the process of thinking, thus would not be good for the society as well as the country itself..For democracy to work well and continue to improve the quality of life of all, radical thinking on all subjects should be encourage, except of course those sensitive issue that are embedded in the constitution...It is only with radical thinking and thinking outside the box that could lead to inventions and other success in any human endeavors...I am in my golden age and have seen the country progress from the day of independence in ninety fifty seven and I believe that the country could go further and faster if we are free to discuss all issue that effect all society...It is my hope that things would change eventually for the common good of the society and the country in the spirit of " Malaysia Boleh " Malaysia can do it.....

For today lets us ponder at this wise words " Freedom is Human Right ", for those countries that have total freedom, do appreciate what you have got and treasured it. For us who still do not have complete freedom of speech, thought and other are still working very hard to get what you all have got, do not take it for granted.. Human right is for all and not for those selected countries only....Being Human is Human Right...Take care...

Well today I download another browser as an alternative to the usual IE by Microsoft, it is call the Mozilla Firefox...Tried it and found that it is a good alternative to the original IE...Well at least now we have another alternative, if one is tired of using IE, then one could just switch to the Firefox...Thanks to those great guy at Mozilla who created this new tool for all to use.... Have a nice day.

Another beautiful Sunday morning...Relax and lets enjoy the day....This delicious green apple brand 'granny smith' on my dining table came all the way from the USA....The success of trade and globalization, making life more beautiful and fascinating all the way....More pictures of the dining table setting are in my picture blog... Mystique Malaysia...Enjoy...

A very good morning to all that visit my site..It is another Saturday, a beautiful morning, with clear blue sky..Oh! What a gorgeous day, another God given day to live and enjoy life...I believe those friend wherever they are, having a beer in a London Pub or checking a marine establishment at some distance seaport or just beside the blue sea somewhere, or that lady in St Petersburg, Russia that enjoying the snow in her historical Russian city, or the Lady that still live in the California desert or the so many of others that visit my site from time to time, like of recent, a young Malaysia who were enlighten with my article on Islam and want to get more answer to this ancient religion that is so misunderstood now, especially after the happening of Sept.Eleven... Well with all the happening and discussion everywhere on blogs, blogging are getting more interesting....The latest statistics shows that there are not less the six million bloggers now and the number are increasing everyday, in fact every hours of the days...So it look like blogging is here to stay, making a mark in the mean of dissemination of information and a challenge to the other news media...As for me I would continue to contribute my thoughts to make life more productive and useful to all..Every days and hours we are being bombarded with negative news on our TV and other mass media, give us a rather bleak picture of our world..Why can't the media start to give more news of the positive aspect of life, in the new Iraq, surely there are positive development that need to be given prominent time on the world TV, for that matter I think the news media should rethink the meaning of news..Less of the killing, murder, assassination, bomb or other tragedy of the human species, instead they should give more coverage of the positive happening in these places...Iraq, Afghanistan and the other countries that have became headline on our mass media...Surely there are positive development in these countries, they had suffered enough and I believe there are news worthy events that should be highlighted in the media...Come on surely things are not that bad as being portrayed by some media from time to time....So what is news, is it like we use to say " if a dog bite a man it is not news but if a man bite a dog", it became news...Are we still following this line of thinking now, in this millennium, the twenty first century....Man.. We are in a new world now, where news travel with the speed of light...And we are in a sorts of a global culture now.. I think we should rethink of what we call news, is bomb, death and other misery the only news, are not those human achievement, success and the like news worthy...I think it is, we should try to present more and more positive development as news so that we may divert all the news of evil and bad things to the background...I do not believe showing terrorist with their victims a good news,it may be news but to me it surely not a good news... To me in the first instant no one should ever entertain any 'news' from the evil doer..By doing so it deprived the evil doer of showing off their evil doing...Of course we just could not get rid of the evil doer, it is part of the behavior of our species, but we can always reduce it by means at our disposal, like the tools of the mass media...Just a few day ago a great leader from Lebanon was assassinated and we saw the news on the TV and I believe it would do more justice to this great leader of our time, if the media could continue to show his achievement as well, as a follow up of the tragedy..I believe it would do more good for all the good people of the world and especially the great people of Lebanon.....Let us take a pause and think hard of this subject matter, of what we call "news"... I would just leave this just like that for all to ponder...

It is late evening that I start to blog today....Visit a number of other blogs, to wonder of other's thoughts...The blog makes it possible for us now to exchange thoughts or to put our thoughts for others to view and read with a hope that in some way it would help to improve the quality of our lives...Before Blogging there are not other ways of expressing thoughts as free as now..The space available in the local Newspaper are limited and writing books take more work and times...Anyway blogging have been a great way to release myself of thoughts that would otherwise jammed my mind, getting it out in writing like l am doing now makes me feel good and more relax...My mind is always occupied with this and that ideas of thoughts and never a moment that it is left blank... so for now let ponder at this image and enjoy the day......
This yellow flower in front of our house brighten up the scene...

Another assassination, this time is in the Middle East, it is the assassination of the former Prime Minister of Lebanon,Rafik Hariri...Rafik is a friend of Malaysia and had visit this country many time and has since became a close friend of the Malaysian Former Prime Minister Dr.Mahathir Mohammad...It is indeed a bleak day for Lebanon, who was for sometime in a bloody civil war...The civil war has ended and then the country was progressing well under the able leadership of Rafik Hariri...Due to some disagreement with the present government he left the government and was leading an opposition..On the way to work yesterday his convoy was attack by a large bomb and He and a number of his body guard was killed...A large funeral in Beirut was seen on the TV screen, the people crowded the funeral in a show of support for the beloved leader...Condolence to the family of Rafik and those others that perished in this incident and hope that the Lebanese people would stand strong at this juncture of it history and move forward to develop the country as had been dream by the reformer Rafik..May his soul and those that parted lay in peace and find a place in heaven...Incidentally the word assassin originated from the Middle East according to the Webster Dictionary......

Well, well.. Yesterday I posted a note on my blog, enquiring as to what happen to my friend in the UK and guess what ?, today I received his email...It look like while I was writing my blog, this friend of mind was writing his email to me, probably both of us were on line, not in cyberspace but in another dimension, 'telepathy' I supposed...Anyway it was indeed great to hear that he is kicking and enjoying life..., the last time He told me that he is in hospital been poke around, aching his body all round...Well friend, it is like that at this age...Anyway I am happy that he is now his usual self, that what I 'read' in his mail, telepathy again I believe....On another subject of communication...I was wondering what has happen to the young couple that stayed with us for a while in December two zero zero four while on holiday in this country, after Malaysia they went to New Zealand and then I supposed back to their home in Europe...They must be having a long holiday indeed for up till yesterday I have yet to get news from them of their arrival back home, friends...This is already the middle of February two zero zero five and they are not yet back home!!...I wonder....Anyway after reading the mail from my friend in the UK, I received a note saying that there is a ecard waiting for me...So I pick the ecard and sure enough it is from this couple that had returned home, saying thanks to us....Well at least this put a closure of this 'missing' couple, there are back safely in their own environment....Friends that is live, things like this what's make life interesting.....Take care...

I have not been getting any news from my friend in the UK, hope that he is well and kicking...Enjoying his daily dose of the Malt...I send him a few mail but most are returned with a note saying that a virus has affect the receiver mail....What can I do except try to ask him what has actually happen, His reply that he has received some of my mail....But other then that I did not get any other news of his activities in London...They say that "No News is Good News" and I hope is it so...On other front, I am indeed glad that the Election in Iraq has gone well despite the fact that the country is still not stable...The result has been encouraging for a people that went to the poll for the first time in their live...The Iraqi now have a taste of Democracy and knew how nice it taste...I am sure that they would not want to go back to the former system of government where the people did not have any say...There is some similarity in the way the Election in Iraq and in Malaya [now Malaysia] was first introduce...Like Iraq, Malaya went to the poll for the first time when the country was occupied by the colonialist.. The first Election in Malaya was held in nineteen fifty five, two years before independence in nineteen fifty seven...And because it had given us a good system of government, we never look back but proceed and today we are a democratic country, that went to Election to elect our leaders every five years...With good governance, Malaysia have progress beyond the dream of its founding father....And I believe that Iraq would eventually succeed in introducing a democratic way of life for its people....This changes in Iraq could be the catalyst for a greater events in the Middle East in not too distance future...For Democracy is contagious...

We live in ever changing world..Day by day it is getting smaller, the internet have change the way we communicate across the globe...The cell phone makes it so easy to communicate with one another and distance cease to exist anymore, it does not matter where you are on this planet, we could communicate via the cell phone and view each other via the phone monitor...The only thing that has yet to happen is for us to be transported physically but I believe once our scientist master the way to transfer atom like they do with bits, than the day would come when tansportation would be a reality. It is not an impossible thing and with great mind that our species have and would have, we would surely succeed in moving atom like we do with bits now...Just a hour ago I was reading this article in the.....newscientist.com Alive!The race to create life from scratch - What are the ingredients needed to create life? Meet the people who claim they are about to find out. And are they playing God, or just being the ultimate entrepreneurs?.. Well with the great mind that we have now, anything are possible....

A group was discussing the paper by Professor Ziauddin Sardar over the internet..The title of the paper is ' Rethinking Islam' and I was approach to get in the discussion group and since they are already on a discussion level, I took the time to look for the original paper on the internet...Found it and printed a copy to start reading...I found that this paper contain material that is worth discussing and I felt that others should get to this paper and read it, so that subject of such important be exposed to as many people as possible...Professor Ziauddin Sardar is a well know person in the Moslem world and one of the great thinker of Islam in our time ....After listening to his talk on our local TV some years ago and read his book, I found that his thoughts are a great contributions not only to the Islamic world, but to the world at large as well...As such I would like to urge others to read this paper of his.....Rethinking Islam

Green fusion - nature at its best, for us to enjoy..part of my garden... 

Well I found a tool for translating my blog to other languages, thanks to AltaVista - Bibel Fish translation AltaVista I now have the link at my site and I hope those that are not well verse with English find this site useful to read my blog...This is what I love about blogging and cyberspace...There are always new technology to improve blogging or for that matter to communicate...In this case AltaVista makes it possible to read blog in other languages that one do not know, just translate it and voila you could read the message, it may not be perfect but at least it helps to understand...That my friends is communication..As we proceed these tools would get smarter, thus making our life better. Have a nice day....

Well, we met, stranger no more and now friends. It started in cyberspace and now it is for real....Welcome.. My friends to beautiful Malaysia.....[ in picture taken in front of the KLCC..Jacques, Helene and Me the blogger]


My friend Jacques & Helene at the foot of the KLCC, the Petronas Twin Tower

Kong Xi Fat Chai to all my Chinese friends, today billion of Chinese all over the world celebrate the New year, the year of the Rooster....To all a happy and Prosperous New Year, may we all share the joy and happiness of the New Year, making this world of ours a better place to live and enjoy life....Kong Xi Fat Chai once again..... Have a nice day.....

On the third of February, as planned I waited for my guest, the stranger from Brittany, France at the destined location at the KLCC, a shopping mall crowded with people...I selected the Delifrance for our meeting places and I hope that we,both stranger would recognized each other and meet...He had earlier send me his latest photo via the internet, so I guess it would be easy since he would be accompanied by a lady friend....Well I arrived early and sat to enjoy a cool drink at one of the deli nearby...Reading the morning paper and I watch the crowd that passes by, for this part of the alley is throng by people that use the LRT to get to the KLCC, so it is always crowded... It is interesting to see those people walking by, some in their best dress and some so casual, in their jean and t shirt, Malaysian and other nationalities, mingling together making it a colorful scene indeed...I love this place, it is one of the shopping mall that my wife and me frequent for tea sometime...And of course to shop, for my dear wife love to shop....And enjoy shopping. After a while I left the cafe to take some photo snap of scenes to add to my collection of images for my photo blog...As it is lunch time, the crowd get bigger and soon the deli and coffee shop were full of people enjoying their lunch break...What a colorful scene of Malaysian enjoying their break from the monotony of their daily work...I have retired so I am more free with time and spending it to my our pleasure, enjoying every minutes of my own times...That is life my friends, the golden age is great and never a day is dull,so I continue to wait for the couple to arrive...Just as I was about to approach the Delifrance, I saw a couple walking fast town me and in an instance I knew they were the couple from France...I wave at them and they respond, Jack I said and then we meet and He introduce his friend Helen, a charming lady indeed, all smile...Since it is already past lunch time, I enquire whether they would just have coffee or lunch and they choose lunch, and request a Malaysian lunch...We headed for the Food court and had lunch there among the crowd of Malaysian....What a day a stranger has just became friends...The internet made it happen...It is indeed great for our species for we now could made contact in cyberspace and then eventually meet in person...We chat a little while having lunch and then proceed to see the twin tower, one of the wonder of world today.....A visitor's dream and to these couple it is going to be a reality today....There... In person at the Twin tower or the Petronas Twin Tower...

It was a beautiful day and I sat at the patio with my laptop trying to blog and at the same time whiling the day with day dreams and enjoying it like I always do...It is one of the pleasure of dreams, one could dreams of anything and live those beautiful moment while it last...For it is just a dream and dreams never lasted....After blogging a while, I decided to do a little errant and took my Classic Volvo for a drive to the shopping mall.....On the way back the cell phone rang and since I was driving I just let it ring...It stop a while and then it rang again...Well I thought it must be important...So I stopped the car and attend to the phone....It was a call form an outstation number, the caller a lady said that it is from Langkawi and that a Mr Jack wanted to speak to me...I accept the call and then drove slowly to my home and parted the car and what a surprise it was, the French man that send me an email some time ago is on the line and that he is now in Langkawi on holiday as planned....I am indeed glad that he decided to makes the trip to Langkawi for a holiday in the sun, while his hometown is still in the cold weather of winter..We talk a little and he say that he would meet me on his return journey, there is a transit hours of almost twelve hours...That he would arrive at Kuala Lumpur airport at just after eleven on the morning....So I told him that he and his friend have ample time to spend a short tour of Kuala Lumpur and I would gladly take them around for a quick spin of the city... Well I am indeed happy that at last they had decided to proceed with the holiday in Langkawi after all...Glad that the information that I gave them was of some use in their decision making...Thanks to the internet, this was made possible making the live of everyone involved beautiful and as for me I am indeed happy that my small contribution help them in making their dream holiday in Langkawi a reality.......I ended our telephone conversation with " see you in Kuala Lumpur and take care "...

A picturesque scene of Brittany France, a stranger who is now a friend send me when we first made contact...It all start because of his plan for a holiday in sunny Langkawi and the Tsunami happening....

Sometime ago, after the Tsunami happening I received an email from a stranger who had visited my Blog, enquiring as to the real situation of the resort of Langkawi north of Penang and south of Phuket, Thailand... As usual I replied giving this person all the information so that he may be able to decide as to whether to proceed with his holiday in Langkawi.. The Tsunami happening jolted us all as to whether it is wise to go for a holiday to such places..., who would not be worried, I would..So I guess this French gentlemen were too, so to get a non bias information he decided to write to me and thanks to the Internet and cyberspace we made contact.. It was fortunate that we, my wife and a daughter had holiday in Langkawi last year and knew about the resort well, so it was easy for me to give information that are relevant to holiday maker, like this French gentlemen. I gave him many sites that are related to this country and the happening of the tsunami, so that he may be able to make a decision as to proceed with his holiday in Langkawi or not...As for me I wish he would proceed to Langkawi, the enchanting island in the sun for a great holiday.... I told him to visit Kuala Lumpur as well, either on the way to Langkawi or on the way back to Paris...And that we could meet in person, now that we have met in cyberspace...With that I wish him well and hope to meet.... As I had always said before, a stranger is a friend yet to meet.....