...... [This imposing State Secretariat Building was built during the colonial era.... to house the office of the British Resident, today this building is the District Office.... the administrative centre of the District of Lipis] .....

We have been planning to visit some of the remote towns in the states of Pahang, like Raub and Kuala Lipis, Kuala Lipis is significant for it was once the capital of the state of Pahang and during the colonial era, it was the seat of power of the British Administrator. It was at that time known as the British Resident.... the de facto Governor of the state of Pahang....He advise the Sultan on the administration of the State.... the Local had no political power at that time.... the white were supreme at that time of our history..... Kuala Lipis was chosen by the British to set the Resident Office because it is far away from the place where the Malay Ruler, the Sultan live.... the Royal palace have been all the time in the small town of Pekan on the east coast... During the British Era.... For purpose of communication a railway link was established between Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Lipis, so that the white could travel in comfort whenever they like to get to the federal capital.... the train were also use to transport goods for export to their motherland England..... So this Sunday... We, my wife and I decided to make a visit to this part of the country, that we had not visited for some times already..... Actually we plan to visit this interior town about a few years ago with a couple from the south.... We would love to have them with us on this visit.... where my friend Jer use to work in the early sixties... We thought that it would be a visit on memory lane.... But they kept postponing and years passed and they still could not make it.... Well we though that we should proceed to visit all these towns on our own..... That is how we started to do it this Sunday.....make a trip to Raub and Kuala Lipis......

Weekend come fast nowadays.... It was different when you are working..., time passes very slowly... the weekend would seem rather far away..... I guess when you are looking for the days and time, it take it sweet time to move.... For time is relative... If you relate time to an event or a particular hours, then you relate time.... thus time seem to move slowly.... but now after retirement and you control time and time is always at you command.... When You just do not care about time, that is when it passes by fast..... Like this morning I had a meeting with a friend for breakfast of the usual teh tarik and tosei..... while having the breakfast or rather a sort of a tea break drink and snack..... We chat and time seem to pass fast...... We finished having the snack and went for a drive to another part of the city to meet another friend.... And then back to where I park my car at Ampang Point and then we went to have another drinks and to continue our chat again.... the subjects ranging from blogging, a little of politic and other things that come to our mind at that time..... in that moment a young lady.... Smile and say that she knew me somewhere and could not place it..., It was the same with me.... At this age it takes time to recollect.... We chat and slowly the memory began to filter back in small pieces..... It is like that when one's ages, one thence to forget the most recent events but would remember very clearly of past events, especially those that happen during your childhood days...... Well I tried hard to recollect but the recollection was rather slow unlike her, being young her memory was surely more sharper then me and perhaps could recollect faster, otherwise she would not have greet me.... I thanks her for remembering me and we chat and she gave me her card, and scribble her cell phone number on it and I told her that we would communicate by the email..... She smile and we parted..... Soon we, lyas and Me, realized that it is already two in the afternoon.... What a day..... I went out meeting my friend at nine thirty in the morning and now it is already afternoon..... Time just passed fast when we do not take notice of it.... Lyas, my friend that I met this morning had other things to do.... so we parted and promise to meet some other time.... Saturday.. Ampang Point, our shopping Mall were full of people.... It is like that on weekend.... and car parks was full.....The weather was fine with the usual blue sky.... It surely would be a great weekend for those people that had to work all days of the week.... the weekend is the days that most people waited for..... to be with their families and love one, to go on a picnic or just to lays around to while the freedom of the weekend.... As for me weekend and weekdays remain the same, it is all my days of 'rest'.... Well that is retirement.... Days and Time are at our command to enjoy......

...... I love those birds in front of our house, they chirp and sing beautiful melody and it lighten up the atmosphere and make our live more beautiful and interesting... There are a few families of squirrel too that live in the crevice of the drain nearby.... the would come out off and on to play on our little garden...... This small garden on our patio consist of a fishing pond, a few waterfall of a sort in large bowls where water plants grows lushly... the trickle of water that fall from the small fountain makes noise which would otherwise would not be the sound of our garden.... This tripping of water... the bird chirping and singing, bring back nostalgic past of my childhood days where birds and insects noise was a normal thing and would be just taken for granted... Now living in the city where the the atmosphere is polluted with noise made by machines, cars and the like.... the sound of small birds chirping indeed a welcome relief and soothing to hear.... We have learn to block those sounds of machine, cars and the like in our modern world.... So the sound of birds, the patting of rain water always bring great relief to the monotony of daily life in city.... We live not that far away from the centre of the city.... but like any suburban area.... the atmosphere is not as good as those that are in the rural area, where greens are abundant and the air is always fresh....From time to time I would feed those birds that frequent the lawn in front of our house with leftover bread.... Cuts into small pieces I would throw it on the grass and let the bird to enjoy their meals of the day.... Sometime birds from afar away, like the crows would arrived in numbers to feed on those leftover bread..... It is interesting to see how the smaller birds would fly away when this big black crows take over to feeds and they would soon return to feed when the crows left..... I guess that this small birds are afraid to be eaten by those big crows, for I know for certain that crows eats anything when they are hungry and small birds like the house robin would be an easy pray to the crows..... This Friday morning the sky is blue with patch of rain clouds and the sun is bright as usual.... making those creature and birds that live among the bushes happy and lively.... So I believe they are going to be happy eating those leftover bread on such a beautiful day..... Seeing those birds, the other insects in a merry mood really makes my day... I love to have them around and it create a really beautiful feeling that could not be replace with any other means.... Nature provides all those for us to enjoy.... so to harvest these benefit we all have to be sensitive to the environment as well as all those creature that makes the outdoor their home.... Those insects, the birds, the bees, the floral and fauna and us human are part of the eco system, so to enjoy living on this blue planet of ours, we must learn to respect and share with every inhabitants that share this planet with us..... For without those great creations, life would be dull indeed.... So let gives our love and compassion to all living things on this planet.... for they all are part of us...... There are more to gain in sharing.... Let all makes life beautiful.....And enjoy..........

As usual I was surfing the net.... Last night while doing just that and at the same time thinking of our foster daughter in Italy, up pop the window with a message that there is a greeting card from our foster daughter.... What a coincident.... Or was it just a coincident or something more then that..... Remember we are human and that we human are a spiritual being.... Could it be that we somehow unconsciously send message to someone when we think of them and they in turn are also doing the same thing at the same time or in the case of the ecard that I received last night was it just pure coincident!!!!.... Any way it click very well in the way I think at that moment in time.... Surely we could transmit our thought through cyberspace in our own way.. unlike now where we use the internet technology to communicate in cyberspace...... In the Asian traditions of the old.... our ancestor could communicate with spirit and send messages from one place to another with ease without the tools we use today..... I use to hear from my grandparent that they have ways to communicate to people in another villages using their 'knowledge' of communication..... Today we might laugh at this, thinking that it is impossible to communicate long distance without the telecommunication technology.... But our ancestor were able to do just that with ease using the 'knowledge' they possess at that time.... But unfortunately with the coming of the western ideas to this regions d our old ways were ridicules and challenges by the western way.... in the process we lost all those old knowledge..... But now slowly and surely with the help of modern knowledge we would be able to do research and find out the truth of those 'knowledge' that our forefather possess.... There are sign that our forefather did possess incredible knowledge like mysticism and the like..... It is rather difficult for me to explain this belief.... Once my brother in law go sick and at that time I was just a child.... I was ask by my mother to call the 'bomoh' Medicine Man as he is know in the western world.... I rush to his house and He came over and with chant and prayers he did cure my brother in law.... How He did is not easy to explain.... We had no western trained Doctor then.... but our race manage to overcome sickness and survived throughout the generations because of this Bomoh.... How do we explain that..... If they are not that good as more often explain by modern science, the sickness could not be cured and our race would not have survived till this days...... Well I would leaves it at that.... For to argue on this subject ... there would be no end... Even if the cows really come home!!! We would not be able to get the real answer to all this old ways...... Today universities all over the world are studying what we call today as Paranormal..... I hope that soon we would be able to get to the bottom of all these mysteries of the old and new science would emerge for us mankind to progress further.... Remember we have ambition to reach for the stars and our present human physical body would not last the journey.... but our spiritual part could, for it is made of pure energy and energy could travel more efficiently without the container [our body].... It happen during the period of our forefather.... But we lost the knowledge in the process of westernisation...... To succeed we have to go back and search for those lost knowledge... what we today call as Paranormal or the unexplained...... We Asian still do believe in this.... for somewhere in us Asian.... We are superstitious....... Let leave it at that.... And continue with life..... So Joan.... Thanks for the ecard.... You really make my day!!! We cross the cybersphere and got connected...... Thanks to modern technology......

It rain on and off today and the city is covered with haze.... I hope the rain would clear away the haze.... It makes the city look gray and dull.... I guess this is the after effect of industrialization.... Factories churn out polluted waste and together with that are produce by cars and other vehicles it has somehow became part of the haze we see today... And every year this haze keep coming back.... Some say that it is because of the forest fire in the Sumatra island of Indonesia, where open burning for agriculture is a yearly ritual.... This type of cross boarder pollution are very difficult to get rid of, for it involved international relation.... At time it became a diplomatic nightmare..... Not that easy to solved..... Well it is like that with countries that had to live side by side and remain sane..... Let the diplomats find a solution to this thorny issue..... In the mean time we all could do our part to keep the air fresh, like not to throw waste everywhere and if we could, to plants more trees and other greens around the home so as to nurture the eco system, thus making the atmospheres much better for all to enjoy......

........After the meal we proceed on our tour of the island, our driver talk as he drive providing us valuable informations of the sight that we see on the round, we stop at many places of interest and among the many, the former Dutch Fort is an interesting place to visit.... Nearby is a huge rock carved with inscription in Dutch and the year seventeen forty three .... the Dutch fort consist of an imposing brick building, well built and not far from the sea front... It is at the beach side that this huge rock is sited, probably this rock was there and they just decided to carved some message for others to see..... It is indeed great that those Dutch sailors did carved year on this rock, had it not, then it would be difficult for us to know the year this Dutch adventurer visit this island and decided to build such a magnificent fort..... for such a building to be build in this isolated island.... far from their homeland.... this piece of territory must be of great significant to them..... It look like that the building material must have been brought from other places, for at that time brick making was yet to be introduce to the Malay society at that time.. Most probably it came from India for India in the eighteen century was already a well develop country with many buildings in brick and mortar...... Being interest in History, a favorite subject of mine.... I browse along those building and happy that the local administration had decided to preserved this site as an historical site.... It has added a sort of garden around this ruin and a shop that sell souvenir nearby..... It is not only good for the tourist industry but it is indeed something for the future generation to see for themselves, a part of the history of the country in bygone era...... From the quick tour I found that the tourist industry here is indeed very well organized.... It not only provide employments to the local but its as well benefit the tourist like us,making our tour productive and kept us informed all the time..... I never knew that the Dutch had been here at that time, until I visit this island on this trip.... This Pangkor island actually act as a breakwater for the port of Lumut.... I guess it is for this reason that the Dutch decided to build the fort to safeguard their ships that ply this route in that century..... It look like the Malaysian Navy had the same reason for choosing Lumut as it base..... What a coincident... Or was it!!!!... Today Lumut is on the Map of the world as it host the armada of the Malaysian Navy.....It look like History do repeat itself..... Part of the coast were doted with fishing villages with large seafaring boats and ships for deep sea fishing.... And on the shore there are many factories that churn out seafood products for the local as well as the international markets..... On one side of the islands many international standard hotels were set up to lure tourist to this tropical paradise, whose beaches is golden in color and great for swimming and sunbathing, as well for scuba diving.... What a destination this Pangkor island is.... To me it is a must place to visit if one wanted to sample the luxury of the tropical paradise..... the mountain range is still blanket by virgin forest and the beaches is still not commercialised as yet.... It it not only for the Rich and Famous but for those budget travelers as well.... My friends.... It is worth a visit and stay at this Pangkor Island... It is a place where one could while away with peace of mind, for the whole island is still in its natural form and untouch by modernization... like that continue to happen to tourist destinations elsewhere...... Our driver and tourist guide actually made our days and thanks to him we all had a wonderful tour of this Island in the sun...... Pangkor Island..... We returned back to the mainland just before two in the afternoon, pack our luggage and after a brief lunch at the resort, head for home, well satisfied with this weekend trip to this part of the country.... A joyful and a day to remember.... The visit to Lumut and Pangkor Island....

Early on Sunday morning, we, three couples decided to go on a trip to Pulau Pangkor, a small island off the coast of Lumut town. We left the resort just after eight in the morning, the weather was good... we head for the Jetty, park our cars at the roadside and went to get tickets for the boat ride to and fro the island..... We missed the first boat and had to wait for the next boat..... We while the time away, taking picture and watching the picturesque scene.... on one Conner is the war ships of the Malaysian Navy, right in the middle of the channel anchored a larger ocean going liner, must be, belong to some rich guy.... It has a local name.... It might be own by some local with plenty of money to throw around.... Well that is life.... Right across is the Pangkor island..., the town and other dwelling and resort are on the other sides facing the Sumatra island of Indonesia...... Our boat arrived and we boarded it and soon it was on it way to the island.... It was airconditoned so the ride was pleasant and enjoyable....It just took about twenty five minutes to arrived at our destination at the island..... We alight and arrange to get transport for our tour of the island....There were many vans, gorgeous pink in color waiting to take tourists for a spin of the island and there are also motorcycles for those adventurous one, to be on their own riding those bike as they like everywhere around the island..... I would do just that if I am still young, it would be nice to bike along on your own, with someone you love piggyback..... Roam all over the island and perhaps camp near those beaches and enjoy the fun of open fire cooking and lays along to while the days with dreams.... It would be real fun.... But I am no longer that young to venture into this kind of holiday.... Those days are gone... Now with friends of my age.... Our kind of holiday are different..... We book a Van and the driver, a friendly Malay youth took us to our first stop.... A restaurant..... We did not have our breakfast this morning..... Rushing to get on the first boat..... we miss the first boat and the breakfast as well.... so we set down and order whatever they still have for breakfast..... we settled for nasi lemak and nasi campur.... It was freshly cook and it taste great..... We enjoy the late breakfast or the early lunch and wait for our driver to return...... He return on the dot as promised.....And took us for the trip....

............. Took a quick shower and then we drove out to see the happening at the Balik Pulau Square.....could not find a good place to get a snack and good coffee, I drove to the town of Lumut and there had a great roti canai and teh tarik, the town seem to be more crowded this time... it was difficult to find a parking space...anyhow after looking around I found one at the shop that we had our the snack...... It was a great snack.... Happy we head back to the resort to meet the rest of the gang at a meeting planned to be at just after seven in the evening...... We arrived to find a few of the gang are already there, chatting away and are having a great time.... Just like us, probably they too had roti canai and teh tarik too and not really hungry at this time to go straight for dinner..... We continue to chat and wait for Alex to arrived.... Time pass and still no sign of Alex.....Some began to wonder what has happen to our great Alex... It seem that he has gone to his wife's Kampong [village] at Air Tawar .... Anyway someone got him on his Cell phone and He say that He is on his way... We waited and true enough...... Alex arrived with his wife.... Looking fresh and all smile..... Not to waste any time, we all decided to head to the nearest restaurant for dinner..... We found one just near the roadside, a sea food restaurant facing the sea.... A great place to have dinner....Under the moonlight and the open sky.... the place was well lighted, a few coconut tree's trunk were lighted with spiral color light from the bottom of the tree right to the top, just below the palm leaves, making it look like an artificial deco plants, in fact it is a real coconut palms..... We ordered a Chinese dinner and chat throughout the dinner..... Jokes and simple chat..... Everyone seem to enjoy the dinner......... It is getting late so we adjourned to the coffee house at our resorts and continue to chat, as usual it was about local politic and other subjects of interest..... Malaysian seem to be very concern with the development of the country and this actually augur well for the future of the country....... At the table are Malaysian of various races, talking in harmony with the country's interest at their hearts.... the subjects at time are racial and sensitive.... But as matured adult and understood the sensitivity of each others, such discussion went very well indeed..... Alex was a very articulate person....driving his point very well.... was real concern with the welfare of the country and the need to have a good governance..... One of those thing that He was really angry was a topic that might look simple.... But if one look at it in depth... one would realized that He is indeed right for being angry at the local government for planting Plastic or artificial Palm tree in and around some towns.... It is a rather ridiculous and almost come to the point of stupidity to do just that.... Planting artificial Palm in the tropic!!, where trees of various shape and greens are aplenty....... We all agree with his concern.... but then this sort of stupid planning happen and being concerned citizen we all should exposed this unwise doing..... Why plant artificial palm or trees when there are plenty of the real one around and easily available....... Alex is damn right here, something is definitely not right... And had to be put right.... Perhaps we should write to the paper to expose this stupidity...... Why was the public fund used for such act.... Well we continue to chat on other topic until the coffee house close for the night..... To me it was a great night out.... Well spend with intelligent discussion of subjects close to our heart.... Good governance our beloved country..... Malaysia.

Early on Saturday, just after seven in the morning we left home heading for the R & R at Sungei Buloh on the Highway north.... It is going to be our rendezvous, to meet those other gang members for this trip to the tourist destination in the northern state of Perak....The morning was cool and the sky was clear, so it would be great day to drive on the Highway and then by the country roads to Lumut, our destination today..... We would stay a night at a holiday resort at Teluk Batik and then would cross over by boat to visit the Pangkor Island, an Island resort that is a must for those that want a different kind of holiday, away from the hassle of the city life. To my surprise, the traffic was light and we arrived early at the R & R, I park my car and got a place to rest and wait for the others to arrive, and soon I saw Alex and his wife arrived, we join him and eventually saw the others began to drive in one by one.... It was nice to meet the old gang again, most of them were driving the classic Volvo 122, some of which are almost forty years old...... It is vintage now and not many are seen on the roads today..... The R & R soon was filled with more cars which I found later that it belong to another group that are going north a well, the are from the Oil giant of Malaysia, the Petronas... The organisation is organizing their yearly family gathering at the Bukit Merah Resort in Perak... Met a couple with the kids, all exited with the trip, chat a while with them and off We went to meet the rest of our group..... After a briefing, we convoy along to the north, with a brief stop and eventually arrived at the Simpang Pulai toll plaza, where we made connection with the country road that would lead us to the town of Lumut..... I had not been on this part of the road for quite sometime, I think it has been almost twenty years or so, I was surprise to see that all those areas along the roads have been developed with residential buildings as well as industrial building of all kinds.... It is indeed pleasing to see the progress of the rural part of the country so far.... I guess that is why we are now having full employment....the success story of a developing country, making it good in peace time.... The weather was on our side and the journey was rather pleasant all the way to Lumut.... We arrived at Lumut just around two in the afternoon and it really great to see that this once quiet fishing village is now a thriving town, that host the base of the Malaysian Royal Navy .... the town itself is rather big and full of tourist.... We park our cars and head for the nearest restaurant. And since we were all hungry, we decided to have lunch at the first restaurant and it happen to be a Nasi Kandar Restaurant [Nasi Kandar-special curry rice with various spicy dishes, a specialty of the Indian Moslem].... Everyone seem to enjoyed their food... I supposed they must be really hungry or they really love this kind of food.... As for me I am truly hungry and enjoy this food more because of the hunger rather then the quality of the food itself....Anyway satisfied and happy that we all have arrived at our destination in time....we head to our resort at Telok Batik, a ten minutes drive form the town of Lumut.... It is a sprawling complex,a sort of a condo like hotel....New and have great swimming pool and coffee house..... The beach is just a walking distance away, buffer by a sort of a trading square, where the local traders set up stalls to sell tourist goods, as well as foods and refreshments.... The square itself is beautifully plan and from the look of it, it is new or a just completed project...... We check in to our domain which happen to be on the fifth floor and took a brief and a well need rest........I dose off for an hour or so and wake up to find that it is already five in the evening......

Friday.... Usually I do not go out but just be at home to do the daily ritual of like cleaning the potted flowers, rakes the small patch of lawn of dried dead leaves and tend to those plants, so as to look more presentable, otherwise it would be an eyesore to look at... It has to be kept as a landscape not just a bunch of potted plants growing wild, as it like.... would takes some doing to keep this small patch of landscape garden in a proper order and nice to look at.... in the tropic plants and grasses grows fast, hardly you knew it, it is already grown into a small forest and the the greens would run wild, so to keep it in a proper growth pace, these plants and the grasses had to be taken care of regularly..... Well... at least there are something to do and it keep me busy and at time I would while my imagination and enjoy the day dreams while doing my little garden.... It is fantastic how our brain works, we could be doing one thing and another part of our brain would function in a different way, like day dream or just thinking of other thoughts, perhaps another subject to blog with.... That is live.... Well tomorrow we would be driving north with a gang old crazy man and woman to visit a tourist spot in the state of Perak.....

..... Well it is another busy day.... Went out to the bank and then browse over some of the shops that sell electronic goods..... the array of digital camera look great.... I am as yet to get a proper digital camera.... I had one as a birthday gift, given by our daughter sometime ago.... It is a simple one for take snap for use with the computer....It has a fixed memory and as such could only be downloaded into the computer only... If a hard copy of the picture are needed it has to printed direct from computer.... unlike the more sophisticated one, where the memory chip could be taken out and view either using a picture card reader or direct from camera using the USB port and it picture could also be view on the TV screen..... I browse along and eventually found one that is on a Special Offer, a good price, a package that comes with an additional memory stick, a tripod, a picture reader... It is a Olympus C150... For the price it look like a good buy for my first Digital Camera.... the salesman was real good at his job, a young chap who took the time to explain with patience on the model that I ask.... and that eventually make me want to buy it.... so I did bought it..... A new toy to play around.... What else we adult do, when we seem to have a little extra of the M.... Like little boys and girls we look for toys to play.... We actually never grew up.... the kids in us is still there.... This is fun.... So another new toy for me..... A new digital camera.... to toy around and enjoy to immortalized those events and scene for the future..... How else can we immortalized events and scene other then by using the camera.... I believe it is the only tool that we could freeze time and kept it forever..... Immortalized it...... I grew up during an era where picture taking was something special, only for special occasion like a family photo and this can only be done at the Photo Studio.... There was not many hand held camera then....may be there are a few, but people like us would not be able to buy one.... anyway at that period of our history, the luxury of owning a camera was never in our mind.... so whenever we need to take picture, we would call the photographer, a professional to come over and take those photo.... And that was that.... And as we progress, some of my friend began to own a camera and this makes it easy for us to take photo, I guess that was how I had my collection of photos of my childhood, the boyscout days and the like......I still keep those black and white picture and it is nice to look at it from time to time,... It bring back great memories of those great days in our youth.... There were no color picture then so most of my teenage photo were in black and white.... Now it is the digital age and new tools for imaging are digital... so to keep up with progress we have to arm ourselves with all these too.... It is interesting that my generation have the opportunity to go through the progress of this imaging technology from a simple crude made camera, huge mechanized set and only could be operated in a studio.... To what we see today....tiny camera in all shapes began to appear in the market for all to own one.... So we are in the digital age in a very short space of time..... barely fifty years.....It is indeed a quantum leap in the technology of imaging.... A great achievement in science and technology and a great strike for mankind.... the progress of the imaging technology.... the Camera..... the Digital Camera.... My new toy.... I would be rather busy for a least a few days... to learn the art of using this new toy of mine... At this age it would take sometime for me to learn all the trick of playing with this toy.... So we never do grow up... do we!!!... and really never stop playing with toys... I thought only my grandchildren play with toys now...... Grandpa do too..... Playing with his New toy...... The Digital Camera..... What a life.......

That Lunch, Yes! It was indeed great.... A sumptuous one and we did enjoy it..... Well after those great chat at the resort, we drove to his house which is not that far away from the Resort..... It is a beautiful house about two hundred meter away from the beach, the house does not face the beach but instead face northwest, thus avoid being gush by the strong wind that is associated with the sea front..... On arrival we met his charming wife, who did all those cooking for our great lunch..... He then took us on a quick tour of the house, full of antique collections of various categories..... And then we were introduce to his fish pond, where the Koi fish are really big, swimming happily in and around the long pond, which has been made to blend with the surrounding landscape, a lot of works has been put up to create this artificial pond to look like a real and a natural one..... Since my wife love to keep fish as well...It was indeed a hay day for her..... She love to see those beautiful colorful Koi in such lush surrounding......To add to this already picturesque scene of fishes plying up and down the length of the pond, perch on a rock nearby is a shiny black tortoise, which my friend Al has named 'Rock'...., thus turning this fish pond and its landscape a real natural scene, that blend well with the surrounding...... We sat for the lunch..., one of the dishes were of fish that He caught himself the previous day.... A red snapper, cook in a traditional way, we call as 'masak asam pedas' sweet sour and spicy hot sort of stew' a dish that is commonly cook in Malay houses.... She did it real well, and it taste superb, the other dish were fried chill prawns, hot and spicy,....a local salad.... We call it 'pecai', great taste, a vegetable mixed eaten with peanut sauce, probably of a Javanese origin, not many people could prepared a really good 'pecai'.... She did it real well.... I know.. for my dear wife is a expert of preparing this 'pecai'..... Another dish that is new to us is the fried bitter gourd, fried grips.... It really taste great.... I never knew that bitter gourd done this way would taste this good..... So we talk about this new item on the menu and soon exchange the know how of cooking this bitter gourd.... We shall try the next time, thanks to this lady.... We now have one more way of cooking this bitter vegetable.... Our friend Al throw a joke from time to time and it is real funny.... so it was a hearty laugh every times, over lunch we talk on many subjects from local politic to other subjects of common interest and in the chat, out pop the subject of my neighbor, a retired general, who gardens behind our house.... And it turn out that this guy we call Sam is his foster nephew of a sort.... What a small world we live in... And it look like He know most of the who and who that I knew.... With such info it makes our chat more and more interesting..... We finished lunch and we continue to chat, the coffee came and gone.... Time flies and soon it was four in the afternoon.... She decided to served tea 'teh tarik' and in the instance prepared a traditional delicacies the 'buah Melaka'.... a sort of flour ball with coconut sugar inside, boiled and covered with freshly scrap coconut.... Translated into English it the fruit of Malacca..... It taste great for a tea time tit bit.... I love this buah melaka... My wife have taught our granddaughter to it and she is now real good at making this traditional cake..... We continue to chat and hardly we realized, it is almost six in the evening.... We adjourn to the fish pool and continue to talk about other thing and at the same time admiring those beautiful landscape garden on his backyard..... Late.. With many thanks we left the house, happy that our visit have really being one of a kind.... Great lunch, great tea and what else... Great Friends....Our host Mr.Al and his charming wife Mrs.Hafsah....... Thanks again my friends for making our live so wonderful.... Indeed it makes our days.. We enjoyed every minutes of it...... Great friends we have..... Indeed a Godsend couple..........

While in Malacca.... We were invited by a friend to lunch to his home... It was indeed a surprise invitation, but then in our culture... Inviting friends to lunch is a tradition that have continue throughout the generations, where.. whenever possible we would always like friends to come over for lunch.... But in this case it is a friend that I made some years ago by pure coincident... not much that I know about him except that whenever we met, when they came to shop at a nearby retail shop, near a place that I live and often visit to get the housewhole needs. Meeting this man with his charming wife always by his side, was always interesting, as though we have been close friends for a long long time.....On one occation I invited them to our Aidil Fitri Open House and they did came.... Other then that and meeting them from time to time, I know very little of this friendly couple..... I knew that they live in Malacca but had not been to their house before.... So how did I get to know this friends.... Al is his name ..... Well it is actually by a sort of a chance meeting,... It all start when my car broke down and since it is a car with an automatic transmission... Its engine could not be start by pushing like we normally do with a manual gear transmission car..... It need a jumper to start the dead engine..... So I decided to park the car and think of going home to get a jumper to do the job..... At this very moment a Stranger with his wife in the car.... Alighted from His car and offer to help and say he had a jumper..... Before I could say a word He had already took the jumper from the boot of his car and in a matter of minute got my engine running again.... Thanks to this generous man... A stranger.... That just happen to be there... At the right time... At the right place.... in the passing of my life..... He is the Mr.Al, now a close friend.... It is indeed a Godsend friendship that I treasured.... Today out of the blue He invited us to lunch to his home.... the invitation was an SMS message that I got early in the morning..... the beep on my cell phone wake me up... and on looking...., I look at the SMS and there is this message [ idrus, will u have lunch w us? i will fetch u ] inviting us for lunch at his house today, request a reply of Yes or No..... My wife was still sleeping then..... And when she woke up, I told her of the invitation. We decided to accept the invitation... He say he would pick us up at one pm, so I decided to carry on with my ritual, like cleaning up and plan to go out to get today's newspaper.... It was still early then and at about noon, I decided to go out to get the Newspaper.... As I was about to drive.... My friend drove in on the opposite side, so I horned and we made contact..... I decided not to got out then but instead to meet him and take him around to meet my new found friends that managed this Resort..... The introduction to the people that manage the Hotel soon became more of a just introduction.... It soon became another of those chat and joke get together, like old friends meeting each other after a lapse of some times..... So He got to know those people at the Resort and I am indeed happy that there were great chemistry all along and that's what makes this kind of meeting interesting and strangers became friends in mere minutes and it last for ever.....That's what I call real friendship.... That would color your life all through.... in the journey of life.....

It has been another exciting weedend..... Was in Malacca for the weekend.... to do some house cleaning of our condo there.... The resort is getting better day by day..., it was really a happy feeling for us to see that our retreat resort is on its way to it former glory.... It was then the Mutiara Malacca Beach Resort, now it is under a new management and it has change its name to Merak Malacca Beach Resort...... Met a few more of the family of the management team.... They were great people to meet.... indeed full of ideas and the zeal to makes the places works again.... Everyone that I met so far of the Management teams, gave me a great feeling and it has been a very pleasant meeting.... The real people that run the show... the smiling Aniza, the Resident Manager, Roger, the tough looking guy that takes care of the overall planning of the resort.... are two personalities that I met on this visit.... They are full of zest and with personalities that are made for this kind of Hospitality industries.... the Resort Hotel.... Of course I met the others, they all look cheerful and this includes the team that came to repair one of my air condition unit, they came and did their job with joy and happy that they leave us with the unit in good working condition, I thanks them for the quick job... It is indeed well done... Of course my thanks goes to non other then Mr.Sani... the man in charge, it was him that I call to inform of my need to get the aircon services.... A flash back.... When I was still working, I always tell my people to enjoy working.... For the working life is a very important part of our daily ritual that we human do for life.... We should always enjoy whatever we do, and try to do a good job of it.... it is the satisfaction of getting the job done well that should be the goal of one's profession.....For satisfaction could not be bought... It could only be gain... By the feeling... Even if one does not get any thanks for the job done.... It is the feeling of satisfaction that really count.. Do it well and the reward would last a life time.... I have been there before and I know..... Reward came in many forms.... That is the way life is..... It passes by only once and do not miss that opportunity....... And be happy about it.... Enjoy doing whatever you do.... You are an important part of the chain in the circle of the working system .... A weak part of the chain would be a liability but a good part would certainly be a great asset..... So do your work diligently and you would surely get a reward, sooner or later...... Look not for the reward for the Reward would be looking for you.... Believe me.... As I have been there and are harvesting the rewards now and enjoying life....... Remember that money is not everything in life.... Other things are equally important.... So get on and do a good job of whatever you are doing...... And enjoy....

It is hot, real hot today, it is thirty five degree Celsius... It has been like that all day long, the sky are almost blue.... I guess we are going to have this kind of weather for a some day ahead.... Anyway it is not that bad if one have aircondition in the house and since our home is aircondition it would be just cool to stay indoor.... Since most Malaysian cars, buses and train are aircondition, it would be as usual if you travel in this hot weather.... but it would be different if you get into the open and even us who have live all those years in the tropic, still feel the heat.... so drink plenty of water to keep healthy... because of the humidity one do not get dehydrated fast in the tropic unlike in the desert.... the air is always damp, that you sweat a lot and this is good for the body.... but water lost by sweating must be replace by drinking more water.... if not you would loose lots of energy and would be rather unproductive in work places.... but if you work indoor, it does not matter since all the office building in this country are aircondition......Actuall I am not in a mood to write today.... I guess it is the weather.... I felt tired and I may as well take a rest and do more blogging the next day.....

It is not that many years ago but then it is like another world or another century... What I am talking about is that of the way life was then.... In the early forties, a period when I grew up.... In a small village on the fringe of the east coat town of Kuantan.... Kuantan then was just a small town on the bank of the Kuantan river, a great river the winder like snake into the interior with it tributary goes as far as the mining town of Sungei Lembing, where the British have the monopoly of mining Tin, a metal at that time was as precious a commodity as gold.... for here lies the biggest load tin mine in the world.... for this commodity to get to the UK and the world, a train link was built and of course a port for ocean liner was set up at the mouth of the Kuantan river.... It is from this port that goods such as tin ore and other jungle products were exported to the world..... The exploitation of the country natural resources by the colonial power then was immense, with the local population gain very little benefit except for employment in the mine and other related services... The bulk of the benefit goes to the coffer of the British in the UK.... Well that is what all colonies are.... just a place to be exploited by the Master for their own benefit...... Our small village was not that far to the center of the town and our house, a typical Malay house raised above ground, situated at one corner of our rubber plantation, a small holding mosly planted with rubber, one of the main commodity that Malaya export to the world.... There was no running water and electricity then, our water source were from a well dug near the house.... It provide us with clear fresh water for all our use, including drinking and cooking and for fuel we use those dried woods that we collected in the rubber plantation.... Actually collecting firewood is a daily ritual for us children and at time it was also fun to wonder in the among the rubber trees and the wild trees and the green shrubs which grows lushly in between those rubber trees.... We would collect insect like spiders to play with and kept as pets...... The floral and fauna is still in it natural form and sometime we would takes some home just for the fun of it all.... Like the monkey pots.... The rough leaves of the Palas plants, for use as a sandpaper for polishing woods..... We would use this shady places as our playground to play hide and seek among friends and relatives.... It was indeed fun.... As there were no means of communication other then word of mouth.... the only way to communicate was by walking and passing messages from one person to another or to write it on paper.... At that time not many people could read and write... so talking was the only means to communicate..... There was no telephone, radio then, the only way of sending messages to long distances is by telegram and this cost money and could only be made at the post offices in town.... For us village folks the world is small indeed..., our village and the area around with a radius of about ten kilometers was our world.... That is how small our world was then... The rest of the country and the world was dark to us and it does not matter to us kids at that time... It is our world and we enjoy living in this kind of world.... No radio, no television, no telehone, no running water or electricity and no means of transport expect by walking..... It is a normal way of life to us all.... Actually it was a different world then Now... Then we could hear the birds chirping and singing, we could all hear those sound that nature makes, for there was not such sound or noise like we have today...The cars, the engine, the buses and the like that makes noise..., then all these machines were non existence.... So just imagine a world where there are no pollution of the sound and the air....The water in the creeks is crystal clear...The air we breath fresh and the dew on the leaves of shrub and on grasses in the early morning are clean and cool, unlike today. The morning are normally cool and the air fresh....We would bathe at the well and spend our time helping our parent or just play with friends at the compound of our houses.... The game are usually very simple, like playing marble, or hide and seek and other traditional games..... Then the war came and the country was occupied by the Japanese.... I was then just about five years old when the Japanese occupied the country.... As our parent relate to us later, it was madness during the Japanese occupation....Foods were scared...So many people died and live was miserable with the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers.. But since my father had a shop selling food, we were not that badly affected by the shortage of foods, at least we had rice on our table everyday unlike the others who had to relied on other foods like tapioca and go on for days without rice.... It is indeed sad to know of the situation then.... Anyway we managed to survived the Japanese occupation and after the war end in nineteen forty five, the British came back and occupied the country and once again Malaya became a British colony... but the situation was better then during the Japanese occupation.... Soon the school was open I got admitted to a Malay school., so every morning without fail I walk to the school which is about five kilometers away..... even when it rain I would still go to school using a large ham leaves for cover.... for at that time we had no umbrella or raincoat..... Life was simple then.... going to school, back home and playing with friends and once the sun set we had to get into the house and had our dinner and off to bed.... There was hardly any night life then since there are no electricity... We use lamp fueled by coconut oil to light the house at night.... Hardly light up... unlike now the house at night is lighted up like daylight.... so we went to bed early and once again up very early in the morning when the cock crows..... It is a ritual of our life circle then and it goes on until electricity came to town sometime in the early fifty........ Well that is life then and as kids we did enjoy our childhood and never really think of the world outside.... Our world was then our village... A small world indeed but then we were contented and did enjoyed live...... Friends... Take a pause .... Just imaging life without the telephone, radio, TV, cars, airplanes...House without running water and electricity..... That was the situation just about fifty years ago... It was a silence world then and life goes on.... In a simple way.......Could you just imaging living in an environment like that.... I guessed non of the present generation could visualized that..... My generation was there and I guess we were lucky to be there and then quantum leap to Now.... where everything are there to makes living much easier... I am not that sure life have became easier now..... It is rather a relative thing... Let leave it at that.... and continue to progress... and be happy for what we have .... Life goes on.......

..... This bright morning. The sky was clear blue with patches of the cirrus clouds, here and there and no sight at all of the cumulus or the rain clouds, so it is going to be a fine day but hot and dry..... Well.. I learn about clouds during my Boy Scout's days and that is how I came to know of those names of the clouds and it still makes me happy to see all those clouds changes its shapes and move slowly, as they like... below the blue sky... Hovering over tall buildings and among the dense green tropical forest... When we are traveling on airplanes, the patches of white spongy clouds, the cumulus limbos woud lay majestically just below us, like a carpet of white fluffy cotton..., a sight that I love to see when traveling and about would be the other clouds which includes the cirrus clouds, always high above, breaking the monotony of those clear blue sky.... harmonising itself into a beautiful works of arts. In the tropic we seldom see a really blue sky.... like in those desert area of the Middle East.... It is somehow always with patches of this and that clouds... That's what makes the sky in the tropic interesting to watch as it changes its patterns into all sorts of shapes and sizes..... Sometime in our childhood.... We would imaging the shapes of things, in those white clouds.... some look like the shapes of animals, it all how you look at those white clouds....... It wild one's imaginations... And that's what makes clouds watching interesting... For the young are always full of imaginations and seeing those clouds changes it shapes in front of your eyes, make us wonder and appreciate more and more of the wonders of nature.....

...... On returning back from Kuantan, our daughter call and say that they have bought a vintage car.... A Morris Oxford..The classic version.... A dream of her husband.... So they got one that was manufactured in nineteen fifty nine..... Years before both of them were born.... So they really got a real vintage!!!.... A car which is older then both of them!.... We were exited as well.... Though I am tired after that long drive from Kuantan..... I drove to their house and have a look at their new Toy.... Wow.... My first impression of this Black Beauty is that they really made a good buy... One of a kind and indeed in a really good condition..... Someone brought this car from the UK in the year two thousand and registered it with a new number plate..... And it look as good as new.... During my youth we would admire every new cars that were brought by the British Officers and paraded on the roads to their offices and residences.... Very few Malaysian had cars in nineteen fifty nine...... In the early part of our independence most of the cars are own by the Malaysian senior government officers..... We would rush to the roadside to watch eagerly those big black car.... that non of us local could afford to buy one at that time... It was a luxury for the privileged few only, especially the senior government officers... At that time only cars imported from the UK are allowed into the country, so one only seen British cars of all made in small numbers imported into the country.... Japanese cars has yet to made its present at that period in our history...... As a fomer British colony... that just got its independence.... Malaya then had still to import British goods and this includes cars.... Only after independence were cars from other countries were imported...... I am indeed happy that our children got one of this British classic car.... A car that we only could admire from afar and never in our wildest dream that we would one day be able to touch, let alone drive in one of this big car.... Now...There... park at the porch of our daughter's house is that black Morris Oxford classic.... It is just like a dream come true to me especially.... For I had always love cars from the moment I first saw cars on our roads in the little town of Kuantan in the forties..... At that time there are really few cars on the road... and whatever cars on the road are own by the government officers especially the British District Officer..... As youth we all dream of owning a car some day..... And after independence more and more made cars from Europe began to be seen on the country's road... but then non of us could afford to own one.... It is not only expensive but it is still a luxury that non of us could afford to indulge in.... So we just dream of having one and as for me the time came when I got a job as a senior government officer.... With the loan provided I bought my first car an Italian Fiat Six hundred.... A great small car at that time and a dream come true for me and my family..... No way could we afford to buy those Morris Oxford classic.... And now our children has got one.... It is as though our dream of having one came true..... Sometime in life thing like this happen.... That bring back great memories of the past...... We may dream and hope and may be.... our dream would come true... In another way.... In another time... Like this great Black Beauty at the porch of our daughter's house...The classic Morris Oxford....... What's a life..... Part of our history is preserved in time and it is as though we have travel in time to be back to the future.....

I am back to normal life again after that visit to Kuantan...., first I had to attend to a family matter and then decided to do some upgrading of our holiday home in Kuantan.... As usual call a few friend on the cell phone and then make a visit to some relative.... Meeting friends and relative are indeed interesting and sometime it bring back past memories of good times..... Well as usual with me we just take it easy and on Saturday went for a drive to the nearest town in the state of Terengganu, it is on the map as Cukai....but is well known as Kemaman.... I just do not understand why they still call this town Cukai when everyone knows it as Kemaman.... Anyway it was a pleasant drive to this town.....We took the bypass road to Kemaman and in just an hour we were there..... My wife and our nephew suggest we visit the nearby seaside village, just outside the town and try the local delicacies.... The Otak Otak and the Satar... , both these traditional delicacies are made of fish and it is indeed delicious.... The Otak Otak is fish flesh in freshly scrap coconut with some herb wrap in coconut leaves whereas the Satar is made of fish ball of a sort and wrap with banana leaves and then roasted over open charcoal fire....Just like they did with Satay..... So we set and enjoy those sea foods delicacies and then had more for a take away..... We circle around this small town and then head home to Kuantan via the coastal road and enjoy the drive... On both side of this coastal roads are traditional Malay villages that have remain the same for years, with dilapidated houses showing its ages and some have even being left without their occupants.... And in between we saw new modern housing scheme emerged.... The sign of new prosperity in this once neglected part of the fishing community.... The coastal road was narrow.... but there are many cars using this roads, so one had to be real careful driving on this road.... Anyway it was interesting to see some new development on the seaside.... New stopover R & R had been set up.... Giving comfort to those weary travelers... We stop at one, a place call Batu Hitam [Black stone]...... It is has a long stretch of sandy beach punctuate with black rock, thus it got it names as Batu Hitam..... In those day I would camp at this beach on weekend with my scout mates and now I still could see some youth did just that..... Well that is youth.... Enjoying the outdoor.... The adventure is still the same and I guess they enjoy sleeping in those tents and under the evening sky.... with the sea breeze blowing at time hard and strong... making the tents to move and sway..... it was like those good old days again.... camping in the open and enjoying the weekend with friends...... We decided to get some refreshment at one of the seaside stall.... Me... I order a black coffee...My usual, my wife and our nephew had a local sort of drink call ABC [Air Batu Campur]... It is a mix goodies of brown beans, jelly in scrap ice and top up with milk and red color syrup, it real look tempting and taste great.... and it quench the thirst as well.... If you are ever at such a stall... do ask for the ABC and I am sure you would love this local iced delicacy..... It is something Malaysian.... Cool and refreshing.... These ABC.......

I was away for a few day.... Being to east coast for some family business, left Kuala Lumpur on the fifth and just returned to Kuala Lumpur this afternoon and arrived at past four in the afternoon..... The trip to Kuantan was indeed fruit full and return home well satisfied that things turn out alright in Kuantan.

It is another great day, the sun was shining with clear blue sky.... The street are beginning to get crowded again after the long holiday of the Aidil Adha and the Federal territory holiday.... Kuala Lumpur the capital city of Malaysia is a Federal territory...It is like Washington D.C..... Kuala Lumpur use to be in the state of Selangor...but was made a Federal territory some years ago, and since that another city has been made a federal territory as well... It is the Labuan off shore financial centre.... A small island just off the coast of the state of Sabah..... With such a nice day I decided to drive to the shopping Mall and at the same time went to pay my monthly utilities bills..... As usual with me I would do window shopping and then have a snack at a stall there, I had a hot dog at a American franchised stall...It was great and I enjoy it.... One of those day when you really enjoy a Hot Dog.... I linger on and eventually decided to visit the Cash Converter shop an Australian franchise that is like the bargain center of used goods..... This place always interest me, whenever I am at Ampang Point, I would just walk across and browse through the shop and look at some old things that are works of arts or secondhand goods that are still in good conditions, I have bought a few items of interest and unique before and I hope this time I would find something interesting..... At present there are many secondhand DVD, VCD and CD disk of good qualities and I have bought a few of CD's for my CD player in the car..... This type of shop that sell old things and secondhand good has always fascinate me and I love to visit and look at all those things that are being sold... When I was living in Boston, there was a huge store run by the American War veteran and I always visit this store whenever I am in downtown.... I have bought many items of interest including a black and white TV that cost me just five US dollars..... It is the same concept here with this Cash Converter shop.... They sell almost everything that is secondhand.... And sometime you find things that are new or not use at all.... Well that is me, I love to browse along and sometime chat with the sale personal when it is not that busy..... Today I saw a diamond ring, with a big diamond and it cost a lot..... The person in charged of this section that sell those expensive secondhand goods is a friend of mine.... I came to know him before he start working in this store.... Indeed I am surprise to see him working here now... A pleasant young man always with a happy smile..... I pop in at his counter and he show me the ring..... As usual I do not buy secondhand jewelry, that is my wife's department and she would take care of buying new jewelry which includes the items for my use.... I guess women are a better buyer of jewelry then man....So this department goes to her.... I often just tag along and makes small comment and suggestion when she browse jewelry items in her favorite shop that is not far from this particular shop....... Jewelry I guess is one of the favorite of women... They seem to be fascinated with those glittering works of arts that we man just often glance through only.... Women are not like us..... They would patiently looks at those items with great pain and would spend a considerable hours with the sales people before making a decision to purchase or not...... Me whenever I need anything fancy as an accessory to my traditional dress, I would get my wife to help me in deciding what to purchase..... It look like all the time it works perfectly... I believe that God has made women a species that is perfect for this kind of adventure in a Jewelry store..... We men are not made for this job...... So the best thing our species could do and remain sane, is that we should just tag along and be patience as possible.... And let her create as much damage as possible.... Or as little damage as possible..... So what is money if you do not spend it.... And again what is money if you do not have it.... Well women... We men could not live without one and neither could we live with one.... So I have chosen to live with one.... To be sane on this planet...... And enjoy life.....

I am not sure of what to write today...Well let it be at that....So I surf the net and read the website of a friend...... In its he gave some detail of his family, in that he has two daughters, a son and two grandchildren.... He never talk about his grandchildren before and that he is already a grandfather.... Once he told me that he had a daughter and a son and never mentioned of any of his kids that got married, not that I know of... Anyway I did not ask him, although I knew that he had a wife before his present wife and the first wife a 'white' had a daughter when she left him at the early part of their marriage.... Recently I was at a friend's house and over lunch I told this friend, of a friend that I know and that he is so and so.... On hearing the name....This friend of mine gave an instant remark... An un call for remark...Oh!!!! That person who had married before.... I was taken aback and just kept quiet, although I knew that the friend of mine once had a wife which he married when he was in the UK and then on his return to Malaysia brought her back... It seem that they had a baby girl.... Their marriage did not turn out alright and she return to the UK with the baby.... This is the version that I am told.... To me it is not a strange story.... I have many friends that married foreigner and a few of the marriages works well and now some have grown up children with them living in harmony in this country and some even have grandchildren... And there are some that did not makes its.... One of those thing that happen in life..... As to this friend of mine.... Someone told me of his failed first marriage and I just kept quiet about it and just stored it in my memory bank and then forget about it... I thought not many people knew of this episode of my friend's life story.... Until that lunch at a friend's house in Kuantan... even that I just kept quiet and soon forget about it until today when I read this friend's Homepage.... Now that I knew it officially, I would like thanks him for completing the picture and making its clear..., for I understood his dilemma .... I am sure that he is happy now that I knew all along of that episode of his life..... My friend... That is life.... and now that he... officially have grandchildren .... I believe he would not mind that I call him Atuk [grand's], the next time I see him.... Thanks again my friend.... Let get on with life....I would love to meet his eldest daughter and his grandchildren..... Some day perhaps..... Another mix up Malaysian family.... We call it here pan Malaysian nationality.... That is Malaysia, a country where mix marriage is not that uncommon.... Malaysian a new nationality in this part of the world.......

...... It rain this morning, it really pour, I love the rain, it smell fresh when it rain.... Sometime it remind me of my past, in my youth, when I was growing up in a village in Kuantan, we live in a typical Malay house... it is a wooden house raised up about four feet above ground and have thatch roof made of the palm leaves woven together to make it waterproof... when newly laid it is dark green in color and it would eventually turn brown... In the tropic it is a very ideal material for making roof.... it keep the house cool all throughout the years... as there was no electricity then... there was no such thing as fan to cool the interior of the house.... these thatch roof just did that... and surprisingly it last for quite sometime and when it leak, one has only to patch it up with other leaves and it would be as good as new.... When the rain pours we could hear the noise made by the rain drops on the thatch roof... and the water that fall down would be a little bid brownish in color... the color of the palm leaves.... Nostalgic of the good time I guess... I could still visualized the roof which are no longer seen nowadays and sometime could even imagine the smell of those wet leaves.... It is indeed a great memories of my past... When the rain pour.... We would strip and only with our pant, would play in the rain for hours.... until our hands became numb and our little fingers began to shrink because of the cold or...... Of course when our mother would shout for us to stop playing in the rain... It was indeed fun to play in the rain.... We would stop when we are really satisfied, shivering with the cold we would ran to the well nearby to take a bath from the cool fresh water drawn from the bottom of the well... It is indeed refreshing.... But now all these are gone forever.. No more well water.... No more playing in the rain for those kids... For now even the rain drops are polluted and most parent do not allowed their children to play in the rain.... Oh what they missed!!!! ....... Sometime when it rain.... I would carry our grandchild to touch the rain drop and would tell them stories of my past..... That we would bathe in the rain..... Grandpa could we play in the rain???? They would ask.... But then their parent would not want to allowed their children to do just that..... Well parent now are too protective with their children...... Anyhow I guess when they are big enough they would surely find a way to play in the rain..... It is in their genes..... They would drench their school uniform in the rain just for the fun of it all..... They are kids after all and like any other kids they would surely venture into the unknown and try to break the rules...... Sometimes... The rain would be there as always and surely there would time when they would have fun in the rain.... Like their grandparent do..... One of the best thing being in the tropic is that there are always rain, even sometime when it sunshine... but then in our culture....we do not allowed our children to play in the rain when it rain during sunshine. 'Hujan Panas' [Hujan = rain and Panas = Hot] we call it and in those days old folks would say that there are death by killing and blood spilled if it rain during sunshine... The 'Hujan Panas', perhaps it is true, for in those day seldom one hear of people die because of being kill and blood spilled.... Death in those day are usually at old age....... I am not sure whether all this are true.... but then to me who have been brought up in the old ways.... This believe does not go away easily... I guess it is in the gene..... and now if it rain during sunshine I would not allow our grandchildren to play in the rain.... Superstitious you say..... May be..... Well... I guess in any culture we thence to believe in the unknown... like touch wood..... the black cat... the number thirteen.... etc.... This is the twenty first century and some of us till believe in all those things.... That's us human....What can we say....After all we are a spiritual being......... Today it just rain and no sunshine at all..... so it is alright to play in the rain.... and enjoy.........

Happy Aidil Adha or Selamat Hari Raya to all my friends. This festival is celebrated after that performance of the Hajj... Today after the congregation prayer at the mosques Moslem would performance the sacrifice of animals in the step of the prophet Abraham as depicted in the Quran.