Merdeka...The 48th years...

The proclamation of Independent on the thirty first of August nineteen fifty seven at the Merdeka stadium...I was than just eighteen years old and was present at the town Padang in Kuantan to see the rising of the Federation of Malaya flag on that day...At that time the country was known as Malaya and then in nineteen sixty three, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore join Malaya to form Malaysia, thus the country is now known as Malaysia...Singapore later left the federation and now the federation consist of thirteen states and two federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan... Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka [ Merdeka means Independent ]..

A great view..

Went for a short holiday with the family, and just came back...The image is that of the view in front of the bungalow that we rented..A moving postcard, a picturesque sight indeed...

The crowd...

The crowd at the KLCC last Sunday...image taken with a cell phone..

A glorious day...

I woke up to a beautiful day, with blue sky and cirrus cloud...The presence of cirrus cloud means that there would be no rain today.... It is the first day that I saw the sky so beautiful, clean without those haze that had cover and hover over our beautiful skyline for weeks already...The haze had gone and I hope that it would stay away from our parts of the country...It is bad living in those haze, actually many people including me got sick..And I recovered with the welcome of the sunshine, so gorgeous this Monday morning...I went to Ampang Point to do an errant and there I felt the air smell of freshness for the first time in so many days...It really make me happy to walk in the morning sun...Enjoying the fresh air, which I had miss for some weeks already...It is like that we us, when thing got that bad like the haze that blanketed the Klang valley last few weeks, blocking the sun and pollute the air we breath, that we realized how important is the appearance of the sun and the scene of a clear blue sky with patch of clouds to us. Today is the day of joy...To enjoy living in a clean and beautiful environment...At the Ampang Point BSN branch I queue up to pay my bills. There were many people and the queue is long..It is like this on Monday after a long weekend, since Malaysian start to work only for five days in a week..It started this July 2005, giving the work forces plenty of time to be with their loves one and or holiday outside the cities on weekend...It is supposed to increase productivity...I hope it is so...Anyway I think it is a good move to just work five days in a week, it is a change from the norms of the colonial working days...Everyone waited patiently on the queue and I just while the time by day dream...Before I proceed on, I turn around and there smiling behind me is an old friend that I had lost contact...She was the director of our Art gallery and has since retired...What a day meeting her again...I said hello and we shake hand and immediately exchange cell phone number and I also got her email address...She was as please as me to have made contact after a lapse of some times...She is much younger than me and as charming as ever...And had been in the Art gallery all her life, rising up to the top most post, as the Director, the first lady to ever held that post..She stayed there guiding the development of this national gallery from a modest building to a new imposing building of its own in Kuala Lumpur. A beautifully architect building that is now part of the landscape of Jalan Tun Razak... She is a painter of her own right and now after retirement, with all the time in the world to herself, she said that she had started to paint again...Good for her, for in our golden age, where time is on our side and at our command, it is now that we could leisurely do what we had wanted to do before, without pressure and stress..Instead enjoy doing it and out of it come satisfaction, that no amount of money could buy...Since both of us have plenty of time to waste on this beautiful Monday morning, we decided to go for a coffee at a nearby cafeteria...We sat there exchanging notes, on what ever thoughts that came to our mind...Passing the hours away, careless of the world...It was indeed a great meeting of old friends...Her cell phone beep and she got a call from a friend and I guess that they wanted to meet and as it almost lunch time we decided to call it a day and decided to part and hope that we would bump again on each other for another round of coffee...Well that had been my day, a glorious Monday indeed...

A lost boy...

We were at the KLCC mall this Sunday afternoon to window shop and enjoy the day as usual, in a first world facilities...A five minutes drive from our home...May spouse were with me and this time our daughter who had just return from Boston accompanied us, so to say it is a crowd....Adding to the already crowded scene in the mall...After the usual window shopping which end in us buying and then having our usual coffee break at the Strudal...We decided to move on as the crowd beginning to swell...People were everywhere and at this time of the year there are many tourists from the middle east and they are easily notice...They Arab woman are in their black veil with their spouse and children along...Some of the kids wear modern western dress...Just like those other kids do...Jeans and shirts...Kids are kids..We all are happy to see them around among the other tourists.. There are our guests and we are all happy that they are here in throng, enjoying our hospitality and enjoying shopping as well, that in a way boosted our economy...As usual on this Sunday, this mall is crowded with the young and old, the families with their children and of course the tourists from every parts of the world...We are indeed a very happy bunch of people...Malaysian an already mix race society, became more colorful with the addition of the tourists that look happy among us... There were seas of people, I walk pass the food court and one could hardly find an empty seats...What else Malaysian do but Makan Eat, it is part of the Malaysian culture...Even MacDonald advertise the 'M' as 'Makan' in their promotion...While browsing in a book shop, my peace was jolted with a loud cry of a kid in the midst of the crowd...I look on and kept hearing a young kid scream on the top of his voice, calling for his Mom, who does not seem to be anywhere near...He kept screaming and got the attention of everyone..He was delirious, lost and frighten...Crying and crying...The crowd began to come to his aid...I was there near him, so I thought that, young kids always love old folks like us...So I approach Him and slowly put my arm on his shoulder and try to calm him...He look at me and in my usual self with kids, talk to him slowly and manage to communicate non verbal with him....We soon got connected although it was only me that talk, he just kept mum...I told him Jangan menangis nak, Atuk ada...Mari kita cari Mak...Ikut Atuk ye ... [do not cry son, grandpa is here, let look for your mom] He responded and I was happy that he has accepted me as his friend...Friend, that's what old folks like us love...The feeling of love passes from Me to Him.. It is a mutual respond when love is transmitted....I held his little hand and slowly walk him forward while consoling him all the way...That we are looking for his Mom...People around were looking and look pleased...We continue to walk and I kept talking, he did not say a word, for he was traumatized....He just follow, holding my hand tight...I took him to the Information and Service Counter and told the young ladies mending the counter that I found this lost boy...She smiled and thanks me for bringing him over...The boy look at me and still did not talk...I told him.. Go on and sit there and wait for your mom while they make the announcement...I guessed He understood..With him in a safe hand, I move on and browse along while waiting for my spouse and our daughter do a last minutes 'damage' at the store nearby....Meeting them we decided to order a take away of KFC and before we left I went to have another look at the boy and found that he is no longer there....I believe that He has found his mom and happily united...We that I left happy and my thoughts wondering as well!!...How come that the Mom just left the kids of that age alone in the midst of the crowd...Where things like kids get kidnap are not uncommon nowadays, carelessness with kids is an unforgiving act...Kids are kids, they love to wonder on their own, especially so in a such an open space like the mall, they do not care or know of the danger and only when they stop to wonder that they began to look for their love one...Like this kid that got lost today...To parents my advice is that never, never leave you children alone, even a minute in such a crowd, anything could happen...God forbid...Do understand they are mere kids and kids need the adult to lead and take care of them, Always.....I get angry with such incident of the carelessness of parents...They have kids and they must be responsible for them, no matter where and when..... Friends that had been my day...Happy that the kid get united with his love one and yet sad with the attitude of such parents...That is our world today...Let works together with compassion, making it a wonderful place to live and enjoy life....

Blogger with Microsoft word

Well, thanks to Blogger, today it has added another tool to making blogging much easier by coordinating it with Microsoft Word.…By doing so writing offline would be easy, thus saving time online especially so when there are no ways of getting online other then using your cell phone.…I have tried using the GPRS system on my cell phone to get connected to the net, and its works perfectly well. but the cost is high,…so with this new tool by Blogger…it would makes posting a blog without resorting to the copy and paste way, ..a piece of cake. And now doing it via GPRS would be less costly.… Many thanks to those good people at Blogger for the thoughts of introducing this new tool for us bloggers….Thanks you so much for making life as blogger interesting as ever.

Birthday...What's a Gift..

Yes.. Birthday, yesterday was mine and celebrated it quietly...It does not matter...Seeing all those love one happy were good enough...A daughter send an SMS,... Saying Happy Birthday Abah [dad] [SMS is one of the means of communication in the ever changing world of ours today, it never was but it is here to stay, with a value and norm of its own, a today's culture, a universal one..Indeed a global culture..., only those that use SMS knows best],... And another daughter smile with a happy birthday wish, saying that they are planning a do later, it is always like that with the children and grandchildren...For love were everywhere, at this age that is all folks like us ask for and nothing else...Love, lots and lots of Love... Nothing in the world could substitute Love especially from the loves one...I relate in passing my birthday on my blog yesterday and many convey their best wishes and to them thank you very much, it is indeed much appreciated... Actually I was a bid down with the Flu, but with two MD specialists around, I am always well taken care of, that's the benefit of having your own, whose love alone could cure any sickness...Our eldest daughter would always say, not too worry Abah...Sickness is a way of the body telling you that you are OK...If you do not get sick from time to time, then something is surely wrong...As for me the only sickness I get from time to time is that Flu or the sorts of where the worst a set antibiotic would cure...But then I had to take a complete rest for the body system to get back to normal again...And I quietly would say to myself 'It is old age' and like anything that are old...It goes with the territories...It get broken, aged and whatever you want to call it... It had stood with times and with much use, surely it takes it tolls, after all I know I am now sixty six years old, still love to drive and love to write, meet people, talk and making a nuisance of myself around the house and travel wherever I please...With the company of a great and loving spouse, anything goes.. Sometime you forget that you are already that old...They say that the mind is willing but the body would just say 'slow down' but then it is always the mind that is in control...So here we goes again...Sometime it is the body system that try to give you a signal to slow down...Like give you that sickness...The Flu for me maybe.. As usual life is full of surprises and excitement that makes living so wonderful, like this morning...I was at our daughter's house....Met little Azib,just three years old,...As usual with his toys...All smile, jumping up and do, his usual self and before I left He said something about getting Him a new Toys...I smile...He wanted another toy...He already had plenty...So I pause and try to understand this little kids of wanting another toys...He was trying to explain and eventually got it and told me that I could get it at the 'Seven Eleven'....Well it look like He knows what He wanted...Thing like this really make grandpa happy...I told Him I shall look for the toys and left happy...Happiness that you just could not buy...But toys yes, plenty of it...And he say 'At Seven Eleven'...That makes its much easy...I know where to get it...And again last night two of the girls came over the house, one already schooling in lower secondary, wanting to get information on the internet, so she went surfing the net doing her homework and the other.. Little Adibah, all dress up, were wondering around talking on the cell phone [a toy one], in a make believe conversation...Receiving many calls and chattering away...Until her grandma kept say [hai Adidah banyaknya panggilan telephon] Hi Adibah,you are getting many call!...She just smile and continue on talking in her own imaginative world ...Talking on the cell phone with her make believe friends...At that age, children are all like that, they are all the time in the dream world of 'children theater', acting like real actors...Real creative...Watching little Adibah, I asked her how old are you, She show me her five fingers, and then in perfect English she say 'five years old'...I told her she is a big girl now with her own cell phone...She just smile and continue talking on her cell phone...Careless of our world.. For her, Her dream world were a reality and enjoying every moments of it. At that age..How wonderful to be a child...That grew up with all the loves in the world...As a grandpa I am blessed with all these and I believe these are the bonus for folks like us in the golden age as we journey on, how interesting...Life be .These living events that manifest itself today are good enough a birthday gift for grandpa... A gift that had no substitute.....A priceless one indeed....A Godsend....Have a nice day.

Roses and Me....

When I was working, I always had a single rose in a slim vase on my table, Fresh gorgeous rose all the time...In an air condition room sometime it lasted for three days and then I get it replaced...I did this with a special arrangement with the flowers seller nearby... It has been like that with me..I need the company of another life, giving me an added life environment....Most of the time when you are in an office, you are alone and the only one that breath...So I thought having the company of another 'life' would add another company to the living space in the office, as well as making its environment more colorful to live....And it indeed do...Not only the presence of a single rose enhance the living space, it at the same time makes the living scene so different and its surrounding suddenly turn and look elegant...Making life colorful as well...I love roses....They say that flowers are the keeper of our joy. Yes, indeed...We are always happy when surrounded by flowers...Its shapes and sizes, its colors, the vibrant and soothing aroma and smell plus the aura surrounding it, do makes the differences in the way we live...Without it life would be stale indeed and in a sorts of a vacuum...We live in a wonderful world of colors and flowers became a very important part of that beautiful scenario...Together with the other living species on our planet...Sharing it with the other life, such as the plants and animals and insects makes the difference...It is the sharing that harmonize the environment that we live in...The ants that goes on doing their daily chore, the cricket that makes that distinct sound, the bird that chirp and jump from trees to tree, the little squirrel that rush out wherever there are out of sight of the human present...And the colorful plants that adore our little landscape, all together its make living so wonderful...Let say that you wake up and a knock on the door brings a bouquet of flowers to you from someone you know.. A beautifully arranged one...Surely you would be delighted and happy..Its, at least makes your day...That what flowers do to us among other things...To me personally flowers give us so much, seeing it grows and the plant flowers and then would stays for days, enhanced everything and giving love all the ways.... And roses is my choice...Happy birthday to Me...For today is my birthday...And I am sixty six years old today, alive and kicking, enjoying life as usual...In those working days, at every birthday I would find a beautiful bouquet of roses on my table send in by my spouse and now the Children and grandchildren seem to do the cakes and flowers....What a great life it has been and loves that I got all throughout my life....Thanks you God for the great live that I had been given all the years...Thanks to all the loves one and the friends that gave so much to making my live so wonderful... Have a nice day....

A fusion...

Objects to ponder and enjoy...Have a nice day.

Our second home....

[Image of the lobby of our condo in Malacca].. It has been indeed a hectic weeks, full of drama of a kind or others, making living as interesting as ever..Been to historical Malacca many times this month, first to attend the AGM of the owners association of the resort..This AGM is special in that the resort which had been in a limbo for years is now getting back to business...And then I had to go again this weekend to get back my own apartment in the complex that I had rented to a young couple....The lease period is ending in a month time and they had not been paying the rent regularly, so we only want our apartment back in good faith...We got it back and told the young man that rented the place from me, just to forget about the arrears of rents and that I would just 'Halal' it ...We just want our apartment back...When we took back the apartment it was in a mess and decide to re furnish it, so we give away all those things that we do not need and start to redecorates it, to turn it into a better living space of our taste and liking... We had never rented this apartment before and these experience with the tenant make us wiser, so we decided not to lease or rent our apartment again but instead would turn it, like before as our second home and a holiday place for friends and relatives.. Gratis... Coming back from Malacca, the next day we head for Ikea and got all those things to re furnish the apartment..And this weekend went again to re furnished the condo, turning it into a fine live space as our second home....We are going to live there from time to time...It is not that far from our home in Ampang, Selangor...It is actually only a two hours drive away and we are in the comfort of our second home with the view of the open sea and a great swimming pool in the resorts complex...We would be able to live like those of the rich and famous that one see in the movie... For we are not rich and famous, we are after all an ordinary folks in our golden age, enjoying life as we journey on...A close friend has a condo on the East Coast and we have ours on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia...Friends that is the way to live and enjoy life....As we journey on, things happen, like we rented the apartment to a young couple, which we never did since we got the apartment...That was in fact a change in our thinking....But now after the mess it has done to our apartment..Our thinking changes and with that certain happening our journey of live soon took a different course, for before this happening we really never thought of having a second home in Malacca but now we decided that we might as well have a second home and enjoy living in two places from time to time and enjoy life, and with that making life as colorful as ever...Take care

Our dining table, a place to enjoy fine dining with family and friends...Both my spouse and Me love interior decoration, thus we change and keep improving the fine living scene from time to time...To continue to enjoy life.....

Conscience....

Received another mail today saying that I would soon become a millionaire and that million of dollars is waiting for me to just collect, this letter seem to come somewhere in Africa, this is not the first time... I had been getting many emails wanting to make me an instance millionaire. Sometime ago I received an email from the Hague, requesting that I reply to the mail, so that the agent could proceed with processing the money that I had won, on a sorts of random pick up of the Email addresses. It seem that I was the lucky email address and that I had to reply to confirm my authenticity and that immediately on receiving my mail, they would proceed with giving million of dollars that I had won....I guess I am just the few 'lucky' one whom those 'good' people out there are looking to share their wealth with me...Well...I am OK, I do not need the millions to go on living, so I would suggest that those that wanted to share those millions, just give it away to the needy in the Acheh region, the poor peoples in Dafur or other parts of Africa where they are really in needs of help...I do not need it at all...But I keep receiving such letters and till now did not reply, for I know for sure, I for one, do not need those money...Let others have them....I believe many of you out there, like me have received such mails and have acted smart with all the sincerity and did not want to be carried away and in the process might felt sorry or just loose money instead.... The true story of one Malaysian Lady sound interesting...Who wrote to the local Newspaper, relating her story..That she complied with all the instructions...Which request among other things to give her Bank account number and then proceed with sending some thousand of dollars to the person that wrote the email, as a processing fees of a sorts for a start....And in the end the other party just disappeared and she was left with great lost...Had been conned in broad daylight in cyberspace....She actually had been baited and got hooked, maybe for been greedy or naive enough not to spot a con...Was left high and dry...Well that is our world now, if you are not careful anything could happen...Perhaps She had been the unlucky one....I just do not know.. Another interesting story is the attempt sale of a huge holiday resort some where in the country...I heard there is a scam that someone almost sold a whole Condo Resort Complex for Millions of ringgits, and at a point in time was found out by the owners of the resort..And put the deal to a stop...And then there is this story told by a friend that one of his house in PJ was sold without his knowledge and that it has became a court case now...In both case I heard that some money did change hands...Well ,it happened, someone just make money out of thin air and almost worked perfectly....Naive real Naive....Naive is I believe the correct word to use in relating this stories of con people all over the world, that are trying to makes a fast buck and in the process succeeded....Well friends, that is the world we live in, most of us still have conscience but there are a few out there that have no conscience at all left and with some people are as greedy as ever and as usual people in these categories lost their senses of direction and humanity...Remember the recent events where a group of African did con many Malaysian on the so called 'Black Money' scandal..In this case it was pure greed and the belief in the supernatural that got them conned. Many just got conned and left mourning their lost and licking their wound alone...Succumbed to the clever tactic of the Con person[s]...In the case of the 'Black Money' scam, they got caught and are facing justice now....But then those that lost their money would never see their money again.....Well friends life is like that, remember the story of the 'dog and the bone' and the reflecting water, one never learn!!!...Trying to get rich fast....And in the process getting poorer faster then the blink of their eyes...Indeed... That had been the days....To all those that send me those Emails, Thanks and No I am not interested... Thanks, Have a nice day...Take care.

Awapuhi-ula-ula...

I posted this enchanting plants some days ago and got a few responds from visitors to my blog...It indeed makes my days...Some ask me the name of the plants which they seem to love, just like me...It is still there in my small garden, red and radiant.. Giving all the love to our species...It look like the flowers of this plant bloom well and lasted for a while, it has been there, still looking fresh for more then a month already...As for the name of this plant I wrote back saying that I just do not know as yet and would find out somehow...Well friends, luck is on my side, a close friend, a pretty and charming lady who now live in Bali, the enchanting holiday paradise island, send me an email telling me the name of the plant...So here I am sharing it with the others that enquire as to the name of this plants...Thanks Marge...For the help...Writing this makes me think of you and your other half. Jer..He must be really happy now that he is back in business in the one job that He love to do...Friends this couple who now live in Bali are close friends of mine, Her spouse and me were class mate and hail from the same town on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia...He has been in the hospitality industry all his live and love doing it.., it has I believe became his culture and that is why I believe his spouse who gave me the name of the plant, knows more about plants then me...You know how those great five or four starts hotel kept their guests happy and they keep coming back..Those colorful and enchanting plants is parts of the whole schemes of things in the hospitality business...What a hotel without the greens and those flowers....A grand bouquet is always displayed in the main lobby...What else, surely for the pleasure of the guests, personally I love those bouquet in the hotel lobby...It always brighten my days...Well friends the plants is called red ginger and its Hawaiian name is 'awapuhi-ula-ula' ...Have a nice day...