Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Playing tourist...

Last Sunday we went to Malacca to attend the AGM of our holiday resort...The Merak Malacca Beach Resort...The owner's association...So after the meeting we went to play tourist at the old city of Malacca...As usual the old city fascinate Me and I believe any visitors would...The city of the past and the present, that saw the blend of the culture of the west and east, the influences of the old Chinese maritime power as well as that of the colonial era ..The river in the picture saw history and now it is a great sight for the tourists...I mingle with the tourist and enjoy playing one, there are so many things to browse over and after a while decide to go for a refreshments at a unique shop that is managed by some young Malaysian, who seem to love what they are doing...I love the way this small coffee shop were done, making it a great place to take a rest and enjoy the refreshments...We select a high table and order refreshments and sat there to enjoy just like the many tourists did...Enjoying life as it goes...Friends that is life...Enjoy...

Enjoying the refreshments.... Posted by Picasa


The Malacca river... Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 22, 2005

The plant....

Bought this plant at Ikea. It was just a small plant then and it has since grows to a really beautiful plant...I really did not know the name of this plant, well it does not matter, it is really a unique plant and its has since enhanced my small garden..Where birds and insects have made its their homes of a sort...Me.. Enjoying seeing it grows..Treat it with care and love and it would grows well in return...That is the nature way of giving back...To our species...To enjoy...Making life wonderful always... Posted by Picasa
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Twin...

Twin in our garden... Posted by Picasa

Monday, July 18, 2005

The Frenchman...

Yesterday was indeed a beautiful Sunday morning with bright sun and a gorgeous skyline, blue sky with patches of white clouds...Illuminating view, as a backdrop of my small garden...It is indeed a picturesque sight to wonder and enjoy...I sat at the kopitiam table hacking this and at the same time enjoying the ever changing scene right in front of me...The sound of dripping water from the small waterfall at the fish pond add to the colorful atmosphere of the day.. I just came back from a short errant and on the way back stop at the Bakery nearby that is run by a young French man...I love this Bakery..It is unique with its own culture, fine pastry, breads, cakes and also a great place to have breakfast on a sunny Sunday morning....I took the Volvo classic this morning and park it right in front of the Bakery...As usual this classic Volvo create attention, and this time from among the many people that are enjoying their breakfast in the open, the whole area were crowded...I got out of my car and a gentlemen approach me and soon we got to talking about my Classic Volvo...He seem interested in the classic cars and say that a friend have one...It has always been like this with my classic Volvo..It gets attention and its mystic create communication between total strangers, like this morning...We got into talking and I believe it is a start of a new friendship...As we talk I found that He is the owner of this home like bakery, where I often buy the home baked breads for breakfast or tea time snacks...We exchange notes and He say that He would communicate with me through the net....I bought a loaf of bread and then left the place happy that I had just make a new friend.. A Frenchman....While a child I study French from a French teacher attached to the St.Thomas School in Kuantan...And today I met a Frenchman with a name Thomas...Was it a pure coincident...Or what is it....Never mind...Life is full of surprises and things happen, making the journey of life as colorful as ever...His other name is Francois..Truly French, saying that name sound French indeed....I knew a little French and probably could use it from time to time with this new found friend of mine...Like saying How are you in French... Comment allez vous

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Coffee...My way...


A steamy hot black coffee start my day...To get it perfect to my taste I did it myself and it has been like that all along and actually I really enjoy the ritual of preparing my own breakfast every morning.... A glass of lukewarm Ensure...a complete liquid food, two eggs half boiled..I get it done in just thirty seven seconds using the microwave oven.... And of course My cup of steamy black coffee.. That my friends is my great breakfast of the day...Never I go without this breakfast...My own, did it my way and then enjoy it my way...To me we must enjoy every meals, especially the breakfast, the most important meal of the day, a starter of a sorts...I agreed...Coffee refreshes me and the smell Wow!!...The aroma is beyond description...The aroma of steamy hot black coffee!!!...When at the KLCC Me and my spouse would enjoy coffee at Strudle, a fine dine coffee house and the cake is simply delicious...It has been our stopover place to sit down and enjoy the coffee, while taking the time to watch Malaysian's young criss cross this pathway to the LRT or from the LRT into KLCC proper...This stretch is always busy, throng with people all in a rush to get to somewhere...Where!! I just do not know.. Shopping..What else city folks like us do...Shop and enjoy living... What you get in New York, Boston, Singapore or London you get it here...I love this shopping Mall, it is user friendly and I find it a fascinating place to be no matter at what time of the day or night...On one occasion, Me, My spouse and another couple of our age, after a dinner at the Lake Club decided that we should spend the evening at the KLCC coffee places with the front of the lake...The whole place were throng with the young yuppies enjoying themselves in a world of their own...We seem out of place but then we have been like them before, so why not joins in the crowd and enjoy...The life of city folks, at this enchanting city within the city...The KLCC...

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Where..Dimana...

I seem to have lost contact with a friend of mine who live in London...He may be in hospital, a sorts of a ritual that he get to do from time to time at this age or he is traveling somewhere in the old countries in Europe and maybe at this moment in time enjoying himself in a Pub somewhere, yarning about old times among his buddy,perhaps some old mates that served with him fighting the terrorist communist in Malaya during the colonial era...Or His humble Computer did it again, it broke down or attacked by virus....Maybe just Maybe that is what happen, hence no way to communicate via the internet...He seem to love Malaysia and off and on He would pop up in Kuala Lumpur and call me saying that he is coming over and we would meet and talk about old time...But now despite my many emails He has not replied...So where is he... Recently I send him the movie sepet , it was a surprise...He replied thanking me for the surprise gift...Saying that He enjoyed the movie, asking me how is that Malaysian are daring enough to make such movie.. I told Him we have grown up and moving on...With the London Bombing still fresh in my mind, I am concerned and hope that he is well and kicking and at present in the best of health...I have always treasured my friendship and getting in touch from time makes live so wonderful. When you are young and busy with making a living you take friendship just like that and as we journey on in life we lost contact...I found out that true friends are always in contact, wherever we are, for that is what true friendship is all about...I met this English gentleman, a stranger at that time when I was traveling on Ferry Malaysia that ply the state of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia...It was years ago and after that we have been in contact all along and became close friend...So when I seem not to be able to made contact with him...I am wondering as to what has happen...But then as the saying goes 'No News is Good News" so I take that everything is OK with him...I hope that He is in the best of health and would laugh on reading this...Paken...That is life...Enjoy and take care... One thing more...He could speak and write Bahasa Melayu...Apa khabar Paken...Bagaimana dengan Komputer anda...

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to Tony Blair....

The London attack....This is the letter send by the Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to The Honourable Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,.....image as it appear in the New Straits Times [Malaysia][July 9, 2005...

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

An open mind..

I read with interest the discussion on many blogs, on the recent subject of great interest to all of us...And read those comments made by various bloggers around the world...Various point of views were posted and as a great believer of the freedom of speech,I respect all those thoughts and take it those that post their comments, thoughts at length of what their posting meant....To me a good posting need deep thought, taking all point of views in mind for we all are different, we do not come from one cultural group...For in cyberspace we interact with people we hardly know and for that we had to be sensitive to what others say...That I believe is the smart and civilized way of interacting in cyberspace...Everyone who give thoughts should do so with an open mind, for any thoughts put in cyberspace with a closed mind and with rage would not do any good to everyone including the writer [s]...We all want a better world to live and enjoy life and therefore we are all concern with what happen on this planet of ours..Our world is getting smaller day by day and our reach are getting further day by day as well,and in cyberspace in mere second, unlike in the past...When I was a child, living in a village on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, My world was just about ten kilometer radius...It was the only world I know then...There were war fought in other parts of the world but we did not know until later on in life when we read in school book or told so by friends who travel afar and return...Like a sailor friend that live near our house, when He came back from his journey to land afar..He would tell stories of his adventure and through him we get news of what happen beyond our boarder...When I grew up in the forties, the Japanese overrun our country and atrocity was their game...The rape of Malaya someone say later...I was a boy just growing up and heard stories and when I could remember at the age of six years old...I remember that I saw the remain of the Japanese rules and heard stories of horror..We were just kids then and were not afraid of nothing..So we played in the ruin of buildings and around burnout tanks and saw Japanese airplanes with the remain of dead pilots still in the cockpits...We latter heard about the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima..But we did not see any things unlike now, we have the CNN,BBC and other networks that give us live coverage of the happening..Like on Sept Eleven in New York and now at London...I am angry of what happen for I knew the meaning of war..I was there when the country was fighting the terrorist communist from nineteen forty eight till nineteen sixty one...The killing was an everyday events..Horror and chaos was the rule of the days...We were a British colony then.. The British brought many soldiers from other countries to help us fight this terrorists and in the process many good man and woman lost their lives...So that we Malayan could continue to live in an independent country later on...I shall not forget the contributions of the commonwealth soldiers that gave their lives and services to this country for without them, who knows.. Malaya would have become a communist country and there would be no peace and there surely would not be an independent Malaysia, that we have now.....The happening in London or any other place should be the concern to all of us.. And we should look at these happening with great understand that it could also happen to us..If we are not careful...God forbid, for since we gain independence in nineteen fifty seven, except the nineteen sixty nine incident, we had not see war but peace all through...There are Evil everywhere...We must understand that it has been that way throughout the history of our world and since history is the product of the victor,We actually do not really know what is the truth of history...So in giving comment on any subjects please do give serious thoughts to the subjects, for we all are subject to bias opinion because of our culture, religion and race...That is why I have taken to accept others point of view in good faith and with due respect, for we are all different...But our goal are the same,.. Peace and prosperity for all mankind...Take care.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

It rain...

Images of the rain taken from the patio...Refreshing...I love the rain, it smell of freshness... Posted by Picasa
Posted by Picasa
Posted by Picasa
The rain drops as seen on the translucent roof....It look and feel cool...What a day to enjoy the rain...

Monday, July 11, 2005

Just angry..

I did not really blog for the last few days, it is because I am angry at the London Bombing where many love one were lost, maimed and the life of many disrupted... The works of Evil, whoever they are... That was in faraway land.. London and now back home an elevated highway under construction crash and many worker hurts..It was just lucky that no one lost their life...But then too many of such thing happen in the construction industry, abandon housing projects, which includes housing for the police and other public buildings, which according to the Prime minister this morning..Cost the government three billion Ringgit to get the projects right again...Too many of such incident happen for us just to forget that it just happen...Why must it happened in the first place...It show the incompetence of the relevant authorities... Where are the supervisor who are supposed to supervise those projects and why is that when thing happen like the bridge that just collapse, the people from the authority came running after the damage has been done...Where were all these people who are suppose to supervised....Unlike before when all construction works were supervised by the Public Works Department...All government projects got completed...Now it seem the PWD is no long in charge of such development projects...Or are they still in charge...I am not that sure...As to the recent collapsed project, most people who frequent the highway have voiced their concerned about this project, where there seem to be no safety precaution taken...Look at this picture and one would understand....Too many projects have fail to complete and too many accident happen...Where are we heading...Must we wait for a great disaster to happen before we act....I am furious at what happen in London...And furious to all those happening in my country....Wake up...We need the authority to act, not just to give warning....

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The TT...

I just got myself a new toy today.., so what else do we boys do, play with toys as always, we never really grew up.... A new Nokia cell phone. And for a start took this picture at a Mamak shop were I had a TT...The Teh Tarik and Roti Canai, a famous Malaysian breakfast do...The image turn out to be alright...what an advance of technology.....What would they think of next...Continuing to makes our life so wonderful and more colorful days by days... Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Time passes...

It is already the third of July, the year two zero zero five....We are already on the second half of this year...To me personally since I retired from working I find that time passes very fast indeed...Einstein is right when he say that time is relative...The theory of relativity...The other day at the PPS bash an elder blogger ask the group we were in to explain what does Einstein meant when he say Time is Relative....I offer an explanation and for a second was lost as to how to describe it and then I remember sometime ago someone make a simple explanation as to how this theory works....So I did just repeat the story and told the group about the story of the twin sister, that are at a different spot on the globe on their birth day, let say one of the twin is in Kuala Lumpur and the other is in New York...They are actually twelve hours difference from each other....That is the time difference between New York and Kuala Lumpur..So on their birthday which is the same day and time in Kuala Lumpur would surely be different at this point in time....In this case one of the twin who is in Kuala Lumpur would be celebrating her birthday twelve hours earlier then the other twin who is at the point in time is in New York, who could only celebrate her birthday twelve hours latter then her twin who is in Kuala Lumpur...The twin in New York could phone back and say 'Happy Birthday' sis but the one in Kuala Lumpur could not say the same wish to the one living in New York, who still have to wait another twelve hours to celebrate her birthday....So in this case the time is relative to the place, Kuala Lumpur and New York.... I am not sure whether my answer did the job or have complicate the matter...Anyway a young blogger did a follow up and start to explain that his explanation might be just as difficult to understand...According to Him, time is a concept in our mind, an imaginary one, thus it has a different meaning and understanding, say in Space...Well after explaining at length...He smile and say that He hope He has not confused the matter....Well, I understood it and perhaps the others too, anyway I agree with Einstein for when I retired, I found that time passes by just like that...The reason being that I did not relate the time to anything, say at what time of the day I do have to go somewhere...I just ignore time and there you are, it passes fast...Once in a plane flying from New York to Kuala Lumpur...Looking at my watch the time seem not to move at all...But had I slept all the way, the time would means nothing to me...Just the other day our daughter return to Kuala Lumpur from Boston...The flight was via London..The London-Kuala Lumpur sector is a twelve hours flight...She say that She slept about ten hours in the plane and upon waking up, Kuala Lumpur is just two hours away..So how do we explain that. I guess when man travel in space in the near future...To avoid getting bored they have to sleep or hibernate most of the way...Well I hope some one out there could give a better and clear explanation of this theory....Folks..Excuse us for we in the golden age could be as confused... What with the aging process going on now....Take care.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Blogging and responsibility...

How I wish more and more people of my generation get to know cyberspace and the wonder of been in cyberspere, a new world altogether..The internet make this possible. According to recent estimate there are about ten million bloggers around the world today and in Malaysia there are about ten thousand, mostly young bloggers...Folks of my generation should take to blogging and put their thoughts for the world to read... We are a generation that start lives in a sorts of a dark age...Where the tools of communication are non existence...I told the bloggers at the PPS bash the other day that I grew up in the forties in a world that is only about ten kilometer radius, there were no telephone, no electricity, no running water and the only way to communicate is by word of mouth and by writing letter but then at that period of our history most of the adult are illiterate...To get message across one had to walk for kilometers, miles then or through the community centre such as the mosque, Surau, church or other religion centers...The authority then had their means, that is by using the Mobil unit of the information Department, that would use loud speaker to inform people of certain news from time to time and when the authority need to do a mass information do, they would organized an open air film show at the local common or Padang...Movie would be screen and there would be crowd watching...It is during the intermission that whatever message are disseminate to the people in one go.....It is a very effective method indeed...It works well then but I doubt that it would works now... In the past it is not possible for the thoughts of the ordinary people be disseminated to the public at large...Especially in countries where there are control free press and to a certain extend there are no real freedom of speech...So in a way blogging is a sort of an opportunity for the ordinary folks to put their thoughts in writing and then exposed it to the whole wide world for others to read...In a way it is a sort of a silent revolution in the freedom of speech...For Malaysian who are used to a guided free press of a sorts, blogging became a tool for the expression of free speech....Remember since time immemorial man have always wanted to have the right to their own thoughts and today with the internet , blogging has became one of the tool for doing so...Like any tools, in the right hand it would be good but in the wrong hand it would be otherwise...But then it is always difficult to say which is right and which is wrong, so in order to contribute well, like having and using any tools, whoever blog had to be responsible for what they write, for in whatever endeavors it came with a cost, in this case being responsible for what you write...For in any social engineering venture, the human cost is greater if the project create more damage then good...So to all blogger my advise is that be responsible in blogging and do as much good as possible so that the future of the society and mankind are assured and we may continue to live in peace, harmony and a prosperous life...Especially so in our country Malaysia...So here where the elder bloggers or the Pak Blogger could play an effective role in the ever changing social environment...We are a generation who have seen the good and bad of information and the result of the freedom of speech...The thirteen may incident in nineteen sixty nine is a very good example...The country was almost destroyed but then because of the great leadership we have had then, the country was saved and today we prosper because of the action taken by these early leaders, who introduce new regulations that somewhat seen as curtailing our freedom of speech..All these should be seen as a step forward on a difficult journey of nationhood, in a country that is multi racial, multi religious, multi languages, where culture at time seem to clash...We Malaysian must try to understand that it took those countries in the first world thousand of years to be what they are now, lest we forget that we are just but only forty seven years... A young nation indeed...But then we, on the other side should not be complacent or contented for what we have achieved, especially in the freedom of speech....We need more and for that we must try to take one small step a time and move forward but with caution, for to succeed in whatever venture in social engineering, one had to act smart...And blogging smart and with responsibility is the way to go... So to all the Pak Bloggers [term introduce by Derumo] do continue to blog and introduce our peer to blogging...The thoughts of people of our generation would surely make a difference in the blogging world and the freedom of speech in our country....To all those young bloggers in Malaysia, carry on, blog with love and care, for your thoughts would in some small way would help to shape the future of Malaysia...To lc teh, welcome to the blogging world... Have a nice day....