One Moment in Time

Found: Karen Armstrong's Battle For God

2007-11-26T21:04:00.000+08:00

Finally found this book after looking for it for some time. Of all places at Dubai Airport too. Cost me some 63 dirhams. Karen's books are so readable; well researched and well written. She certainly is an expert on the subject.

The Hand That Throws The Stone...

2007-11-26T18:49:00.000+08:00

It is very interesting to see the reaction I got from my earlier entry.

The persons commenting were so enraged and embittered with emotion that they exposed themselves to be exactly what they had accused me of.

Firstly, no where in my entry did I mention any races.

My entry was never an ‘us’, as in malay (as insinuated) against them (indian/chinese); it was ‘us’, level headed law abiding citizen of the country against the emotional mob.

So consumed with rage were the commenters about what I wrote, that they did not stop to ask. All they did is just generalize and assume that everyone had racial prejudices in mind…as they had exposed theirs.

So consumed were they in rage that instead of engaging in getting to the truth behind the entry, they’ve exposed the slum that is their mind. How else do you describe the non-related reference to a business trip to a sexual sojourn? Perhaps, to them, a business trip is a free ticket to sexual buffets- how else would one even think of a business trip as anything more than just a business trip. tsk! tsk! Siapa makan cili, dia terasa pedas! (Those whom eat chilies will feel the heat!)

Well, newsflash. To many, a business trip remains just that. And to many I am sure, a healthy relationship at home is enough. There is no need to expose oneself to the potential threat of virus and what naught for cheap thrill.

Also, they have failed to address the difficulties caused by these unthinking mobs; such as the loss of businesses, missing of one’s flight, the inconvenience of people getting caught in the traffic congestions, the shame brought to the nation, the potential loss of confidence in the country by foreign investors, etc. etc. I can go on, but these people should think hard about the difficulties caused by the event in the bigger picture. They have forgotten, Malaysia being a multi-racial nation with the majority of the business owners being Chinese; are the ones being highly affected by loss of business due to the mobs.

Call to punish the mobs was across the board; if anyone where to read without prejudice one would note an absence of reference to any race. Who ever causes the disturbance should be punished. It is in the very fertile imagination of my commenters that the call is for a call of one race to behave badly.

Instead of addressing these, they had found it proper to insult a faith. Insults to faith do not deteriorate it; it just exposes the naivety and the smallness of the person’s view of life. They have highlighted how the malays owed much to India…the language et al. If one is to think that way, then the commenter should think that India too was not one of the earlier civilization…India’s civilization was found only in 2000 BC…think Sumeria, that’s about 4000 BC…. Or if we really want to stretch out far, then we ALL owe it to the Africans. If we really want to nitt pick, without the Islamic scientist/astronomers/philosophers which all came before the western scientist/thinkers (the Europeans were in dark ages then); the world might not have known the world as we know it today. The point I am making here is that, knowledge is not exclusive to any single nation. Knowledge comes from God for the good of all peoples for all time. So consumed the commenters were with rage they grab at straws to make a point.

Reference to India as a dump is not an insult. It is a statement of fact.
Go to India and you will see; nevertheless, it is an interesting country and any opportunity to visit it should be taken.

It is also interesting to note when all else fails, name calling is something comforting to resort to.

Finally, the very thing that all my commenters are fighting for, i.e. freedom of speech (though the HINDRAF people didn’t exactly want that from Queen E), is exactly what they are trying to snuff out with their comments.

People are strange that way....

Civil Disobedience Is Still Disobedience!!!

2007-11-25T20:11:00.000+08:00

My Thoughts On These So called Protests:

1) All true rakyat Malaysia should get together and put all these protesters on a one way ticket (break bulk shipping preferred) to India since they are so insulted about being dragged to Malaysia/Malaya (they might think differently when the curbs becomes their homes ala the 'homeless of India';

2) The authority should take one of those protesters and beat the shit out of him,with cameras rolling please..(this will act as a deterant as most people having dwelled in a comfy country like Malaysia are very pain aversed. Screw the human rights people. This is OUR country. You dont like it..leave! But you will not shit in public and make a mess of everyone's life);

3) All those businesses (hotels, restaurants, miscellaneous businesses) affected by the road closure et.al. Get together and sue these bloody people for loss of business, loss of goodwill, mental anguish...and anything else y'all could use to squeeze money out of this SOBs, preferably totalling up to US$4 trillion... well...if they can do it onto others...others should be given the same equal chance..eh? or doesnt it work that way?;
This shoud include all those tourist, visitors and everyone whom missed their flights because of the disturbance.

4) Take their Malaysian ID and burn them and then deport them. Screw the human rights people;

5) Allow the police to use their batons/truncheon on these poeple..water canons are for ninnies;

6) I've never believed in total democracy especially when a good number of the people does not have the faculties to think maturely. I think India as the biggest democracy is a failure. What is the use of democracy when people have the freedom to do almmost anything ..without regard for anyone else. And people can get really selfish. This is why India is such a dump; because it is the people's democratic rights to throw rubbish right where they are standing. We dont need these sort of thing even if the rest of the world thinks we dont rate too highly on the human rights issues. Heck, this is our country and we have the right to comfort, to peace. If that means people have to be a bit more diplomatic, so be it. No freedom of speech? So be it!

7) To those Hindraf members,..go to school get some education, and make an honest decent living of your life. There is no such thing as fast cash. There is no such thing instant wealth. Get off your bloody lazy asses and go tap some rubber!!!

8) Yes, I am pissed!
*************************************************************

Nation
Sunday November 25, 2007
MYT 8:01:13 PM

Hindraf gathering proceeds (update 3)

The Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) gathering

KUALA LUMPUR: Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has indefinitely called off the handing over of its petition to the British High Commission.

A. Sivanesan, one of the lawyers representing the three Hindraf members who were charged with sedition at the Klang Sessions Court on Friday, said the handing over was called off as the group could not get to the High Commission after gathering for about seven hours.

Large groups were seen gathering at Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak from as early as 6am Sunday.

Police and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel began dispersing the crowds using water cannons and teargas at the Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak intersection by about 7.20am, after giving them warnings to disperse.

The gathering, organised by Hindraf, had hoped to hand over the petition to the British High Commission.

The police had not given the group a permit to hold the gathering on Sunday.

The petition to the British Commission asks for Queen Elizabeth II to appoint a Queen's counsel to represent the Indian community in a class action suit against the British Government for bringing Indians as indentured labourers to then Malaya and exploiting them.

The group has filed a US$4 trillion (RM13.5 trillion) suit at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in August claiming that the British were to blame for the marginalisation of Indians in Malaysia.

The suit is equivalent to US$1mil (RM3.4mil) for every Indian in Malaysia.

The police had on Friday served a court order on five members of Hindraf and its supporters restraining them from organising or participating in the planned rally.

Jalan Ampang, which had been closed from 3am because of the gathering, was reopened at 1pm Sunday.

The Avenue K and City Square shopping complexes and the restaurants along Jalan Ampang were closed Sunday morning, while various hotels and Suria KLCC had strict security enforced at their entrances.

The KLCC and Ampang Park LRT stations, which were closed from 6am, were reopened at 3.13pm.

Night Mare in Dubai - Part VII

2007-11-25T20:00:00.000+08:00

I kept my last day in Dubai free of any appointments. The morning was mine to do as I please, be it a run on the threadmill, soaking myself in the teencie weencie pool, do my last minute shopping or just sleeping in till it is time to go.

I choose to wander around in the souq and do some shopping. I have had to be careful with my cash stash as taxi fares had taken me by surprise. A short half hour ride can set me back some 40 dirhams and I had not expected that. My cash stash was designed for tipping and the occasional snacking. Auditing my purse, I discovered I had some money to play with. So after my breakfast, I set off to the Spice souq.

My ride to the Burdubai souq was nice and quick despite it being a half day weekend/work day. Dubai is a work in progress causing what would have been a mere 10 minutes ride became a 20 minutes ride, much of the time getting stuck in the bumper to bumper especially in between construction sites and around the Dubai Museum.

I finally got to the water bus station and boarded one of the dhows. We all paid the driver 1 dirhams each and then we were off. The ride was just about 5 minutes and soon we arrived at the old souq water bus station.

I crossed the street via the underpass to get to the spice souq.

The first shop fronting the street had a lot of gift type of items for sale; stuff like miniature oil light ala alladin, a small shisha bottle and pipe, that sort. The shop next to that is Iranian; offering frankincense, the holder, hair oils, some spices, most from Iran. As I walked down the path, I noted that everything in the souq is imported. Nothing actually made in the UAE. I can forget about looking for anything from the UAE because it doesn’t exist.

I turned the corner and came to another Iranian store. The owner lured me in to the store with saffron. A big container of Iranian saffron costs just 15 dirhams. One third of that cost me 12 ringgit back home. So I made mental notes to get it for my mother.

Night Mare in Dubai - Part VI

2007-11-25T19:55:00.000+08:00

We managed to get loss.

Yes, what would have been a 10 minutes walk towards a brown building across the road turned out to be a half an hour ride in the creek side of Abu Dhabi; all the while going further and further away from the brown ZADCO building.

…(sigh)….Lets not even go there….

We were late; but the people we were supposed to meet were caught in a meeting. So we ended up waiting for another half an hour. This is all and fine with us.

They apologized too, considering they had made someone whom had come all the way from Malaysia wait for so long. We were wise enough to shut up about us being late..haha.

The meeting was soon over and we scooted over to the Sheraton to continue with Sean.

He, Sean was still draped over the luxurious sofa…looking very laid back and relaxed (how the hell does this man makes his money..surely not being draped on to a sofa like that). I swear, in another setting, he’d have a sisha pipe in one hand, all dressed up like Lawrence of Arabia and belly dancers jiggling to his command..(I don’t know where THAT came from!!...duuhh..)

“He probably took out a 99 years lease on that sofa..” I hissed to Gilbert.

Sean greeted us with a big smile and I repeated my ‘lease’ statement to him.

“Oh I was at the pub having a go at the Whisky earlier..” Sean grinned.

Yes he looked suitably mollified and undisturbed about having to wait for us.

“Where did you get the ‘Roche’ family name from?” Sean started.

Gilbert immediately dove into his family history and pretty much set the tone for the meeting.

“I believe your people saved my father from being killed..” Sean said soon as Gilbert was done with his story.

“How so?” I chirped.

Sean lazily smiled and lighted a Lucky Strike.

“I used to feed my father whisky and put on the tape recorder and let him tell his story. He was in the British military around the late 30s you see. He was stationed in Penang at the time..”

“Oh Oh..I think I’ve seen this story in a malay movie somewhere..” I laughed “Don’t tell me he had his evil ways with a malay girl..” I quipped.

“He might have, the rascal..” Sean said while pulling a long one on his Lucky Strike,

Sean Senior was a engineer with the British army it seems and was stationed in Penang for a good while. He did have his evil ways it seems and his officers in command had seen it suitable to ship him out to Singapore to keep him out of trouble. In Singapore he was in charge of gen sets and worked with the big guns. I guess he was stationed at Fort Suloso in Sentosa Island and the guns there were really really huge.

Apparently, one fine day, one of the officers from the british Indian army battalion had wanted him to put on the gen-sets, perhaps to run their pankas (I assume his panka-walla may have gone astray). Sean Sr. refused…whether because he refused to take instructions from an Indian…or he just refused because he knows its not being used for the specified purpose, we will never know. The Indian sepoys in the fort were insulted about how the young Sean had treated their officer and planned to take revenge by threatening to kill him. Sean Sr.’s officers got wind of this plan and for his safety; they sent him back to England. Two months later the Japanese attacked from the south and the fort was taken. Everyone was caught and torture or killed.

A fine story…makes a nice period movie.

“What a story” I said. “I am sure there is more from where that came from”.

“Yes..”

“I’d like to feed you Whisky and sit next to you with a pen and paper myself..” I smiled.

“I’d be careful with you, you minx..” he said lighting up another Lucky Strike.

We discussed a little bit more on business and then had to run as Gilbert had made another appointment elsewhere.

We said our goodbyes and he wished us luck. I watched him walk away to no where in particular.

Night Mare in Dubai - V

2007-11-22T17:01:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I met with Somerset Maugham in ABu Dhabi. Or at least, his incarnation.

No Kidding.

Lets start from the beginning.

After the rough and tumble evening of the desert safari, I had to drag myself out of bed. Who wouldnt? After a one day break of nothing to do, the prospect of having to drive 2 hours to Abu Dhabi and 2 hours back just to talk to strangers is not very attractive, I assure yah.

So, there I was, still very much asleep and preparing breakfast and at the same time getting ready for my appointments. After half an hour of rushing to get ready, my driver called to say "madam! I will be late, the road is fully (yes this is his favourite word) because of accidents!".

"Thats OK Nadir," I assured him quietly fuming at the loss of my additional sleep time.

After spending what felt like eternity flipping thru brainless women magazine on the couch, my ride finally came and we were off!

We had to swing by the Jumeirah Beach Residence to pick up Gilbert and then we were really on the way to Abu Dhabi.

It was my first visit to Abu Dhabi. From what I heard, its more laid back and 'nicer' than Dubai. It can only be true. Anything is 'nicer' than Dubai.

Granted, its all nice and clean and modern. But Dubai, is a cold cold place. I thought so the first time I visited a couple of years back and I still think so now. Dubai in my eyes; is simply souless. Thats what money does to people. And there is a lot of money in Dubai.

Anyway, it was a long drive to Abu Dhabi. Gilbert and I bitched all ride long. About the good old days. Off and on Nadir my cabbie interrupted to inform us "Madam, Sir, that area...is fully palace of ruler..the khalifah..."or " Madam, Sir, that area is fully beautiful...all fully green only.." etc etc

And all the while the fare machine goes "piiiing..." making me flinch as that means the fare is clicking. Sometimes the machine goes "You are driving too fast, please slow down.." Apparently the legal speed limit of the dubai-abu dhabi highway (4-6 lanes)is only 120km/hour. My lil cabbie was itching to play catch up with the big boy toys which whizzed passed him at at least 200 km/hour.

We finally arrived in Abu Dhabi; having run out of bosses (past and present) to bitch about.

My first impression of Abu Dhabi was.."RETRO..!!"

The facades of the buildings lined up on the main thorough fare as we drove into AD reminds me of KL in the 70s,(yes, thats so telling). Of curse the buildings are taller and bigger. KL of the 70s only had buildings as high as 10 floors or so, at most. And that was the Federal Hotel near BB Park.

Abu Dhabi is as different from Dubai as chalk and cheese.

Our first destination was the Sheraton.

We had a meeting with Sean Going, a consultant to the royale family; compliments from John Taskinen.

"You really must meet with Sean for a chat. He is a typical English Gentlemen. You should be able to recognise him easily. He'll be dressed in a white shirt and a dark blue trousers." John had emailed.

Of course, John had just profiled half the male population employed in KL with that sort of description!

To John's credit, we did instantly recognised Sean. He was draped over the very luxurious Sheraton sofa smoking a Lucky Strike (quite american there innit?). Then again I was wearing my work uniform of a black and red shirt and I had described this to Sean earlier on the phone, and no one in Abu Dhabi could have missed me!! Not a woman in men's shirt with such colour too!

The meeting started off officially enough. I let Gilbert do his thing of introducing the company. Hes so good at it. I used to do this; but today I cant even recognise the people working one floor above mine, such has the compay expanded. To be fair, I am more focused on my business unit now and dont care much for the others.

I quickly briefed Sean what my business is all about and what I was doing in the UAE and he made some suggestions to the effect.

While he was quickly running though his life history in the business, I gave him the once over.

John had described Sean as an English gentlemen...hence, how i managed to get all clouded with the romantic ideas of Somerset Maugham (though, for the life of me, I really have no idea how this Somerset looks like).

He did carry himself as one; if the meeting was at some colonial inspired hotel such as the E&O in Penang or the The Majestic in KL (before it was demolished) I swear he could be the incarnation of Somerset. Only his blue jeans, although a proper one and not one torn at the knees or faded, stole the magic away. He was dressed as John had described, in white shirt, blue pants (or dark blue jeans in this case), a dark blue jacket and a pair of polished black leather shoes.

Inspite of the 'english gentleman' title, and I had expected someone quite boring and having a stiff upper lip; Sean made us feel at ease, very interesting too.

45 minutes was soon up and we had so much more to talk about still. We had another appointment at ZADCO then; which Sean pointed to us, was just across the street.

We said goodbye and promised to be back in a short while. He waved us off and said he'll be waiting for us at the Pub.

Night Mare in Dubai - Part IV

2007-11-21T01:53:00.000+08:00

I went dune bashing today...and it was quite interesting.

The day started harmelessly enough.

At the peak of dawn, the boss called instructing me to write a letter to PCSB. Yes, me. All the way from Dubai. No there is no one else to do it at the office. So at O dark ugly, I got up and started breakfast all the while tapping away on my laptop.

I had to hurry as I had made arrangements to go jalan-jalan in town.
Needless to say, even with all the rushing around I was late in joining the tour bus, so they left without me.

After emailing the letter, I quickly caught a taxi to join the tour bus at the Jumeirah beach.

The half day Dubai City Tour was a quick way to see all those touristy places, all in on go.

The tour took us around the city with a stop at the Jumeirah beach for some picture session of the Burj Al Arab (YES, AGAIN!!!), and then we went to the Miraj Islamic Art Centre, The Jumeirah Mosque, before passing by the Sheikh Rashid's Al Zabeel palace (very humble looking), the present royale family oppoulent palace, muzeum and then boarded the Abra to the spice souq and the trip ended with the Gold Souq.

It was all whirl wind like. I only got to buy some garlic chips for my beloved. He'd love these for snacks. I havent gotten my mom or my staff anything at all.

We got back to the hotel at 2pm during which I had to check my mails, makes some business calls, have lunch, shower and be ready for the arabian desert safari tour.

My Toyota Landcruiser came right on time at 3. The car was already occupied by an indian family. I had to sit way at the back, where the add on chairs are. Thats the bumpiest seat in the house as far as I was concerned. But its OK. I look like I am the youngest and the toughest compared to the bunch. So, yeah, OK, I'll rough it out.5 minutes into the ride we swung by another hotel. To pick up the last passenger. It was strange as the philipino girl at the tour office said that there would only be 6 of us in the car including the driver.

To cut a long story short, the guy is from MALAYSIA...of all places to meet a comrade..and of all things...works with PETRONAS....

BAH...will i ever rid myself of things familiar....

GREAT. A client and his contractor pretty much locked in side by side for the next 6hours together.

We were chatty at the beginning comparing notes about people we knew..from this team and that.

The drive towards Oman was quite long; especially so because there was nothing to occupy ourselves. It was just sand dunes all around. The plus is, the condition of the road was good. They reserve the bumpy rides specially for the safari I suppose.

Before we entered the sand dunes we made a quick pit stop to rest, pee and refresh.
And then we were OFF!

Wooohooo..it was great. It felt like being in a ferry during the monsoon season. The plus with sand dune is that, if anything were to happen, you dont have far to fall nor will you get wet...AND....the risk of drowning is practically non existant!

I must say, this is the first time I've been on a 4WD with the machine doing exactly what it was designed and built for. Yessirrreee..none of that pretentious rich people driving the 4WD to buy groceries around the corner.

We went on for half an hour before stopping in the middle of a sand dune to catch our breath. After about 15 minutes break we went on again pounding into the dune and sliding on the sides of an ever shifting hill. It was great fun. I only wished that it was I doing the driving. It sucks being a passive audience.

Anyway we went on for another 20 minutes only to stop again. This time the convoy stopped in its tracks. To witness the setting sun. It was simply beautiful.

The sky quickly darkened after the sun had gone behind the sand dunes and our drivers sped to our final destination. The desert camp. For dinner, relax and some belly dancing.

We were given much time to relax, too long infact. Some people had gone restless. The time allocated for dinner and relax is good if one is in a group and gettign drunk. For a lone traveller, it could get quite boring.

Suhaila our belly dancer finally made an appearance and we were reliefed that she was indeed a woman...with rolls of fat around her belly and all. Nice to jiggle around with.

I gleefully gloated that she had more rolls than yours truly..hahah.

Suhaila did her thing and the ight came to an end too early as far as belly dancing was concerned.

We were then given 10 minutes of total darkness. To appreciate the bedoein way of life or so they say.

After that we all wobbled back to our 4WD, some happy some indifferent .

We had another 10 minutes of roughing it out before we got to tarmac road and all the way back to gliterring Dubai I napped.

The driver sent the India groupie to their hotel first and then me. We all said goodbye and wished each other a pleasant trip ahead.

Just before turning in, I checked my mails, showered and prepared my work clothes for the next day.

It was an interesting day. I've pretty much covered all there is in Dubai and just before i fell asleep, I wondered if I will be meeting Somerset Maugham tomorrow.

We'll see.

Night Mare in Dubai - Part III

2007-11-19T19:03:00.000+08:00

Breakfast was great. In the comfort of my own room.

The faux chicken vindaloo had set nicely and the overly sour flavour had stablised.
My scrambled eggs were heavily laden with the chicken vindaloo and served with a side of salad (left overs) and garlic bread; washed down with coffee and mango juice.

Very nice.

It was just as well, after having wiped clean my plate with the garlic baguette, I had to rush in the shower and get kicking.

I had turned in early last night...at 7pm Dubai time, can you beat that! Well I did get all fo 2 hours of sleep only previous night. The 7 hours flight did nothing in terms of sleep time. I had a melody of arab men doing accapella with their snores and the cad whom illegally stowed away to the empty seat next to me (i got the emergency exit seats you see, much leg rooms) joined in to the melody making sleep quite impossible. And the morgue like coldness of MAS cabins is something else. Think..: Dressed for the tropics in New England Winter (not that the traveller knows how cold the winters of New Englands are like!.

I woke up at a decent hour considering that I slept really early. Thing is, I had made arrangements with my taxi driver to come pick me up at 0915 to go to JAFZA to meet some people. Apparent and unfortunately, the text message did not quite get to him.

I am still not too sure about the Dubai phone area code numbering system and it seems that the text message I sent the night before had reached some one else....to some one's husband, I might add. I found this out when i tried calling my cabbie and found a displeased voice of a woman! She must have thought it a weird place to have a rende-vous, her husband and this asian sounding woman. As would I, as Jebel Ali Free Trade Area is not what would come to one's mind for any sort of romantic liaison!

Anyway I digressed.

To cut a long story short, instead of lounging around letting my breakfast settle while i checked my emails, I had to rush out the door to catch up with an appointment. So that was the end to my leisurely breakfast session.

Night Mare in Dubai - Part II

2007-11-19T18:56:00.000+08:00

I had home made dinner tonight.

Well, partial home made.

Driving me back to my hotel in BurDubai, John pointed out Spinney’s to me.

“That’s a pretty decent place to get some supplies, since your rooms all decked up with a kitchenette. I bit pricey, but that’s OK” John had advised.

“I might do just that. I thought of crawling to Burjuman later but I am just too sleepy! Arriving at the hotel at 5 this morning and then getting up at 7 was no fun. I just cant sleep as its already mid noon”

“I know what you mean” John drawled, stifling a yawn.

We soon found my service apartment and after making plans to meet at the office tomorrow, I waved John off and went up to drop off my bags.

Ten minutes later I was on the way to Spinney’s to get my stuff.

Its really a smaller version of Carrefour/Tesco in KL with small video, book stores, barber and fast food store lined up adjacent to the main anchor; Spinney’s, a super market.

It felt almost like home, doing the weekend grocery shopping with the beloved. The only difference is he is not with me exploring all the fun produces.

Earlier this morning I had to pay 26 Emirates Dirham for breakfast. If that’s the way things are to keep up, I will spend at least 100 dirhams for food alone in a day. Not good. 100 dirhams is almost 100 ringgits and to spend that much money on food is crazy.

I had decided earlier that with the kitchenette I could go get some supplies and whip up something quick and easy. No feast planned; just as long as I can have something quick in the morning and at night. Lunch will have to be outside.

The bill came to about 60 dirhams some 50 ringgit. Not bad for a week of supplies. What was expansive was the vindaloo paste. I just had to have it. It was English vindaloo and my beloved is simply in love with English vindaloo. We had gone around India to look for that special vindaloo he craves but without joy. So I simply must get it although it set me back some 22 dirhams.

Other than that I got some margarine, eggs, mango juice, bottled water, whole roast chicken, boiled rice, garlic bread, salad dresing and salad. I had wanted to buy vegetables and make my own salads but the vegetables were just too expansive. If I do stay in Dubai for a long duration I think I would get constipated due to lack of roughage.

With my purchases all packed into little yellow bags, I walked back to my room to prepare dinner.

This was the fastest dinner preparation, ever.

I emptied half of my vindaloo sauce into a pot and my boiled rice into a saucepan. I added some water and when the sauce had boiled gently I tore out the tender roast chicken and add to the sauce. 3 minutes later I ladle the sauce and chicken onto the rice. I tossed the salads with the dressing and walla, dinner is ready, madam.

Now with dinner over and done with and dishes put aside to dry I am contemplating tomorrow’s breakfast. Scrambled eggs chicken vindaloo with garlic bread and washed down with coffee and juice. Yummy. It would be so good. I can’t wait for breakfast.

Night Mare in Dubai - Part I

2007-11-19T18:55:00.000+08:00

The traveler is back in Dubai. This time for a week, a bit longer than the first time, some 3 years back.

The trip did not start off on the right foot though. For he first time in 2 years the traveler actually missed her flight! What is worst is that, the flight was missed without the traveler even trying. Not trying to miss the flight but without even trying to get ON the flight.

Yes. I was blissfully walking around town when suddenly WHAAM!! It struck on me that the flight time 1245 means 45 minutes in the afternoon and not after mid night. This fact dawned on me at 11.45 am a sudden flash of the number 1245 before my eyes. Bags unpacked, cargo blissfully sitting in the car boot and a prior engagement with the beloved for lunch at BV. No ticket, no passport. No go!

With shaking hands, I reached for my mobile and stabbed the beloved’s number. 3 minutes later, the beloved confirmed that the flight time was indeed at 1245 and not 0045.

“What were you thinking????” he exclaimed.

“Obviously, I wasn’t” I answered back exasperated.

NOW, I had to think quickly. The cargo in my car boot would potentially cost my employer millions, just sitting there. This is not good. Though, for some strange and twisted reasons I believe all these are the handy work of my subconscious.

“Come down to Sentral and bring my ticket and passport please. I'll meet you at the departure area” I said to the beloved before hanging up and immediately scrolled down my address book to get the ticket agent number.

Of all days, my ticket agent had to take THIS particular saturday to have their annual family day weekend.

Sometimes life really feels like its conspiring against you, doesn’t it?

And when you feel all hope is gone, you’d get that flash of flight at the end of the tunnel.

“…for emergency calls please contact our staff at our mobile number 012…”

“SNAPP!!”

“I missed my flight!!” I wailed as soon as my ticket agent picked up the emergency line.

“…and who is this?”

I remembered my manners and gave her all my details as I should have.

“Any seat, I don’t care. MAS, Emirates, Qatar….Thai too if you have to..” I instructed.

“How about Singapore Airlines..”

“That too…” I answered sheepishly oblivious to any attempts to get me to lighten up.

As far as I was concerned at that point, even if I have to take the TWA through Japan, into London via Toronto and then straight into Dubai….I’d DO IT!

I suppose my creator didn’t feel the need to be hanging me on my legs. My pain was soon cut short.

The agent called back with good news.

I was set. My new tickets to Dubai would be at 11.50PM. For the change of ticket MAS will kick my ass with a penalty of RM300. RM300 poorer but I will get the documents to the pre-determined location at the appointed hour.

“PHEW!!!” That was one close shave.

When One Finger Points Out In Accusation...

2007-11-10T11:04:00.003+08:00

...Three other fingers points back at self.

The local papers today carried a report about the bitching of some women politician from the morality police state of Kelantan. Apparently they do not like the short and red uniforms of Air Asia flight attendants.

"Dont fly on air asia then" said my beloved.

Well thats going to be difficult for air asia dear, i said.

Kelantan may be a poor like crap state, but heck their people are rich. I dare say a good bunch of the rich and some what famous of Malaysian, or simply rich for that matter hails from Kelantan. Malay they are by political definition, but some what different in the way they live.

For one, a large chunk of Kelantanese believe in being self sufficient. Going into trade for livelihood instead of depending on the government and GLC for employment.
Which is all and well. There is much to be admired by this bunch. Well. to me there is...

However, to pull the 'holier than thou' attitude dont go down too well with me.

I dont wish to pull out a myriad of dirty laundries on the Kelantanese...because dirty laundry is aplenty, their large houses on huge lands is deceptive to those not in the know. Until you walk in...dirty laundries abound!

Anyways, we are not bitching about dirty laundries this mornign.

For Zaleha (Kubang Kerian delegate, read article appended below) to bitch about air asia, she should look at the women folks of her own state.

About 10 years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Kelantan with some of my Kelantanese friends. It was one of our adventure dive trips...diving where no normal sport diver had gone before sort of situation. Diving off Bachok! tsk ! tsk!

Anyways; a bunch of us were cruising in our car; seeing the country, so to speak. On the way to Pantai Cinta Berahi (The Beach of Passionate Love, now renamed to Pantai Cahaya Bulan or Beach of the Light of The Moon)we had to drive on a small road with crooked wooden houses along the way.

I flipped the first time I saw it.

A woman, nonchalantly walking on the side of the street wearing a sarong tied across her breast!

I flipped I tell yah!

Why did I flip? Well, a half naked woman like that is not what one expects to see on the streets of Islamic Kelantan huh?

OK guys, before you all go rush for that air asia flight ticket....we are talking about an old woman here, with so many folds of skin so dry she look like a dead tree...I KID YOU NOT!

But dont fret there is hope yet..as we drove further towards the beach, we noted women just hanging themselves at their front doors, in sarongs tied across their chest and the more modests ones had towels wrapped around their shoulders. Young and old women... its like these people have no....shame? To be wearing what should remain in your bedroom; for all the world to see.

No wonder the men in their local government have to dictate a dress code for the women. Perhaps they fear if no such order is decreed, these women will wonder into town wearing nothing but their most shredded and skimpy towels....

My only regret with what I saw is that I was too...shocked ..to snap a photo. I am willing to bet though, i can still do this if I were to wonder into one of those villages.

So Zaleha, get your house in order first before you go around telling other people what to do. And yes, please get those old women to put something on...those dry folds are not too nice to look at... Air Asia's thighs and buttocks..anytime!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

AirAsia uniform ‘too revealing’

KUALA LUMPUR: A Wanita Umno delegate from Kelantan said the uniforms of the female cabin crew of budget airline AirAsia are too short and “show too much skin.”

Kubang Kerian delegate Datuk Zaleha Hussin said the uniform was an embarrassment to women.

She called on the Government to compel the carrier to change the uniform of the stewardesses, which she felt was too revealing.

“Tell AirAsia to change their stewardess' uniform. We don’t want to see too much of their buttocks, thighs and legs,” she said, when debating the motion on religion and social issues yesterday.

Zaleha suggested that the uniform be changed to reflect Eastern and Islamic values.

At this juncture, Umno deputy permanent chairman Badruddin Amiruldin, who was presiding over the session, interjected:

“I think they don’t have enough cloth.”

To this Zaleha replied: “Cloth can be bought.”

The Hungry Traveller in France

2007-11-04T10:28:00.000+08:00

I found this book on amazon....

Hungry Traveller in France, The (Paperback)
by Norman Davey (Author)

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Paperback: 300 pages
Publisher: Unknown (1 Jan 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1846646529
ISBN-13: 978-1846646522
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Synopsis
The Hungry Traveller in France By Norman Davey. Originally published in 1931. A humorous, but detailed, gastronomic journey through pre-war France. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. 296 pages. Contents include : First Part: Gastrography- First journey - Down: Channel ports - Beauvais - Within the island of France - Through the Orleanais - The Nivernais and Lower Burgundy - The Lower Rhone - Provence - Tom Tiddler's ground - Second journey - Up: The winter route - The all gold road - Through the war zone - Third journey -Across: The Var - From sea to sea. Fourth journey - Across: From Guyenne to Normandy - Three capitals in Gastronomy: Lyon - Marseille - Bordeaux. Second part- Wine List:- Claret - Burgundy - French wines other than clarets and burgundies. Third part- Squatting: The English Colony - Domestic economy - Admonition - Appendices

Music

2007-11-03T18:47:00.000+08:00

I have made several entries about music in this blog but all were cut and paste youtube videos of what i used to listen to.I bought 2 cds today.

I dragged the beloved to The Gardens for jalan-jalan. Hes not much of a jalan jalan animal and window shopping simply kills the man. But I thought since The Gardens is some 5 minutes drive from home AND from work, it is kind of silly of me not to at least take a look at what it has got to offer. At the very least I should be able to say that I've been there.

Anyway, The Gardens is set to be another crowd puller, extending the sucess of its evil twin, not 5 minutes walk away. However, unlike its evil twin that attracts all and sundry, TG seems to exudes a touch of class' read that as 'expansive'.

Banana Republic, Adidas, Rolex, Robinson, Isetan and a host of other apparel related business; which was all well and good, but not really up my alley.

The toilet was still nice and clean..haha. Fixtures are automated dispensers and faucets, i can see problems down the road when the great unwashed masses starts to make a beeline..

Anyway, the beloved and I finally found some attraction at Rock Records. He found CD storage envelops that goes at 12 Malaysia sen each envelop which was a steal. He had budgeted it for 15 sen each. It came in a very nice casing too. So the beloved bought 2 of those to store his 500 pieces of DVD.

I got caught up in the jazz section. I found Astrud Gilberto sitting on the rack; so tempting as I have never seen this CD anywhere..not even at Towers Record (I only have Bebel Gilberto so far and that is in an audiophile CD). Then again, I have never tried hard at looking... I went on a test drive and fell in love. The AG cd cost soome RM42 and change. And then i thought of John Coltrane. Always read about it (Harry Bosch; Michael Connelly's hero listens to Coltrane) in the Harry Bosch series; listened to it on youtube but first time seeing the CD. I test drove the Coltrane/Stan Getz cd, but thought i needed a pure Coltrane to start off. So I got Coltrane's My Favourite Things.

All the purchases (2 CDs and 2 CD storage) set me back some RM150 and change, and judging from the sounds from my player now..it is well worth it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Coltrane was born and raised a Christian, and was in touch with religion and spirituality from childhood. As a youth, he practiced music in a southern African-American church. In A Night in Tunisia: Imaginings of Africa in Jazz, Norman Weinstein notes the parallel between Coltrane's music and his experience in the southern church.

In 1957 Coltrane began to shift spiritual directions. Two years earlier, he had married Juanita Naima Grubb, a Muslim convert, (for whom he later wrote the piece Naima), and came into contact with Islam, an experience that may have led him to overcome his addictions to alcohol and heroin; it was a period of "spiritual awakening" that helped him return to the Jazz scene and eventually produce his greatest work. The journey took him through Islam. Bassist Donald Garrett told Coltrane, "You've got to go to the source to learn anything, and Sufism is one of the best sources there is."

Beet Root (edited)

2007-10-31T17:57:00.000+08:00

I had my first ever taste of beetroot (canned version) last night for dinner. This might be strange to some but I am willing to bet that a majority of Malaysian have no experience with this little root vegetable. Beetroots are not commonly found on local dining tables as it is not naturally found in our environment. Infact, our can of DelMonte was purchased at a whitey supermarket; as opposed to Carrefour, Tesco, Giant or the friendly neighbourhood mom and pops sundry shops which normally caters to the needs of the locals.

Prior to this, I had a taste of beetroot juice during one of my hotel stays.

I noted a distinct difference in experience; whereas the boiled root tasted sweet and i can best describe it as tasting similar to the sweet corn (without the hassle of little kernel pieces getting stuck between my teeth), the juice as I remember it was totally bland. And the only thrill is in downing a glass when it dribbles down the side of the lips (obviously playing with my food there) and I looks like a glutton vampire.(I've wrongly used the word necrophilia earlier and my beloved pointed it out and I blame the cad brian lumley for even dabbling with the word)

Judging on my experience last night, I can see more beetroots in my future diet for the sheer pleasure of the taste but I can give the juice a pass unless I feel a dire need for help with my early morning regime. Also, contrary to Mr. Montgomery's exhortation, there was no urgent need to 'take favours from the beetroot fields', either by yours truly or by the beloved after the dinner last night.

National Geographic: Almanac of World History

2007-10-31T15:22:00.000+08:00

I had to see a client over lunch today...yes..HAD is the operative word. Never mind if it was I who asked him out as I needed some information; still, lunch doesnt have that same lure for me these days. Dont know why. I just seem to miss my thread mill a lot when i skip the gym.

Anyway, being the book glutton that I am, I managed to duck into Kinokuniya after waving my boss back to the office...

I found this gem, the Almanac of World History by National Geographic. Needless to say (and yet I insist on saying it) the book is chock full of great pictures and information. I am in heaven... I guess it doesnt take much to make me happy.

Product Details as follows:

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: National Geographic (August 15, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0792259114
ISBN-13: 978-0792259114
Price RM100.95 (I got a 20% discount with puchase of a normal priced item)

(Yes, dear...yet another book for the night stand...)

My Book review :Once Removed

2007-10-30T11:20:00.001+08:00

WIP- Just a couple of pages to go...unfortunately, work is getting in the way of my finishing this book. That said, i am on the page where Graham Wallace is being a pratt...thats what Pete Wallace (his dad) calls him...

Open House - A Culture For Unity or Uninhibited Hedonism

2007-10-29T09:56:00.000+08:00

I think there is something sad about the malays.

We profess to be devout muslims but our actions indicates the opposite.
Long before the ramadhan is over ...ermm..long before ramadhan even started (for that matter), we were already preparing for Hari Raya.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating our success of over coming an extremely difficult test; that is the 30 days fast during Eid, or Hari Raya. But one day is enough laaaaa....

“Allah said, ‘All the deeds of the son of Adam are for him: the good deeds will be multiplied ten times to seven hundred time, except fasting, which is for Me and I will reward for it accordingly. He abandons his (sexual) desire, food and drink for Me.’ Verily, there are two joyous and pleasurable moments for the fasting person: one at the time of breaking his fast, and the other is when he will meet his Lord (in the Hereafter). Verily, the unpleasant odor emanating from the mouth of the fasting person is better in the sight of Allah than the scent of musk.”
[Al-Bukhari & Muslim].

One have to admit that fasting is not easy. And there is really no point prolonging the pain if one is not sincere. Whereas all the other acts of worship can be under false pretenses and the need to show off one's devoutness (is there such a word?), fasting is something else. Without sincerity it is not something you can successfully complete over such a prolonged period.

Unlike all the other fasts, the Ramadhan fast is total abstinence from food, drinks and sex in the day time. And that can be a tall order, believe you me.

Also as stated in the above quoted hadith, the joy is two fold. One is the happiness one feels at the break of fast;(read: when one gorges oneself silly after 14 hours of hunger), the other is when he meets his Lord.

And I have to add another; when we celebrate the Eid. Obviously from the Hadith, we can see that Allah had not put much emphasise on the Eid celebration. But why oh why, do we malays?

In the malay world 30 days of fasting should be rewarded with 30 days of gorging oneself to death; or so we behave.

In my eyes, it just makes a mockery of the ramadhan fasting (feels like deja vu, like I've used this line before in this blog).

For the malays the preparation for Eid surpasses any other; short of a wedding. Women would deprive themselves of sleep just to get the goodies ready for Raya.(one will have no idea how painful it is to be deprived of sleep, first when for a during the month one will be up and about at O dark ugly hours and then towards the end of ramadhan when the women folks especially will be putting in the extra hours to make kueh raya and to make preparation to celebrate Raya) Months before Raya, one would already make bee lines to the tailor to make sure that the baju raya will be ready in time. Just for that one day of Raya...

Thus why I suppose the ends justifies the means. After all the effort, why celebrate for one day only ...make it 30 days of celebration for 30 days of pain. That would be more worth the while. In the words of the malays, baru lah berbaloi!

Personally I am not too keen about open houses - going to or giving one. In the olden days (this makes me feel ancient) the malays would visit one another as a way to maintain cordial relationships among brethens (all muslims are brethens to begin with, you see). You do not need to wait for an 'open house' invitation to visit one another. Just go. We never expect a feast from the host and if food is offered, well and good; otherwise we are here to enquire on the health and to catch up with news on the host and their family members. All in the name of continued relationship and goodwill.

If i feel so inclined to feed my friends, I would prefer to invite a few close ones or old ones; cook up a storm and then settle down for at least 12 hours catching up with one another. Real solid relationship building.

There is no real reason to be inviting half the region, half of which are total strangers and when you do see a friend in the crowd, they will be so far away in the crowd that all you can do is wave and silently mouth "i'll be with you in a mo .." and that 'Mo' will be 3 years later when you bump into them at Tesco while selecting vegetables at the market section. Really, there is no serious relationship building during mass open houses. All one will manage to achieve is to feed a bunch of ungrateful greedy SOBs; who have no qualms about bad mouthing your do, if they find something lacking....and believe me, much could be lacking in a catered event.

That said, on the flip side; I suppose open houses are great events to be held by ministers and the governments as it does foster unity amongst the great unwashed masses. If we have little else in common, at worst we can do is we have that common greed and the kiasu-ness to grab what ever food on the buffet so that the cat in the line behind us will not get any. And then, that cat will rally up with the other cats behind him, regardless of race; 'tut tut' at how uncivilised and greedy the cat infront is being and that is how you foster unity. It cost the government next to nothing. How much can food cost anyways, as long it is not catered by MAS...

But I digress...

A Friend In Need..?

2007-10-26T17:20:00.000+08:00

"We need to rescue Apek..!!" was JB's message to me typed on Skype last thursday.

"Why so..?" I typed back.

"Have you seen chewette's blog?" he pushed.

"No.."

JB then cut and paste a blog address of the afore referred to person.

I was busy at the time and upset to boot; but I was curious enough to click on the link and go where my eyes should not venture.

The blog located on space.live.com was by far more interesting then yours truly's; with lots of pictures of the owner and her current beau i.e. Apek. And from what little I read, a life like day time soap.

Yours truly on the other hand is a closet voyeur; sometimes revealing but most time guarding her personal life jealously. The only thing yours truly can and will dish out in generous portions are her opinion. By gosh...you can have a basketful of opinion and there will be more to come!!! Lend me thy ears and thy will not get it back!

Chewette on the other hand pours her heart out on her blog and some pretty damaging pictures too. She 'speaks' to her psychotic Ex on the pages just as easily as she 'converses' with her girlfriends.

In other words she bares all for the world to see.

Now JB is a pal of ours besides being quite the wizard in IT related stuff also has all the time in the world to troll the cyber underworld; and this he does with relish.

For some reason unknown to yours truly, he had found the need to track Chewette.

What he read had set his internal male alarm bell running havoc, thus the rally for all of Apek's friends (known to JB, and that reads : yours truly) to save him.

"Aren't you reading too finely between the line and seeing something thats not there" I typed and puctuated with an irritated emoticon.

"Hallo.... look at what she wrote" JB cut and pasted the offending line for my benefit or incase just reading off the page didnt seem threatening enough.

The same is appended herewith:
By the way, he is no datuk, tan sri, tengku. But he is my prince and that's all that matters

"I can read-lah..." I typed back.

After a few more banters, I got back to being pissed about something else and JB was summoned away from his computer to earn his keep.

That night I mentioned the exchange with JB to my beloved.

Before I even finished explaining what datuk, tan sri and tengku translated to in the malay world, my beloved too jumped at that supposed threat.

Strangely enough, my beloved echoed the exact same sentiments as JB had earlier in the day.

"WHAT the..."I thought.

Two men, two very different men...echoeing the same thoughts about this girl.

"Surely shes just being young.." I defended when my beloved had finished explaining why the line is threatening to ALL man kind.

Apparently, according to my beloved, when a woman thinks in that sort of way, subconsciously she wants to live the high life vicariously through her man. And if this man dont live up to that expectation, he will have trouble coming.

I am so glad to note that I do not fall into this 'despicable' category as my man is retired. Period. There is no more up. I get what I see, vice versa. And I am happy to report that I am happy with what I get.

As JB said "you be so lucky you dont need the little blue pill to help you along..."

Of course ...JB can be an idiot that way.

++++++++++++++++++++

The Hungry Traveller wonders if any more men around the world echos the opinion that women wants to live the high life vicariously through their men...Tell me what you think. And women, do you agree with the men?

Are Those Who Have Knowledge And Those Who Don't, Alike?

2007-10-23T10:39:00.000+08:00

I found this gem of an ayat in the sunday papers yesterday. It is an excerpt from Surah Al-Zumar 39:9, which was quoted in the sunday column which exhorts malays and muslims alike to seek knowledge because long before Islam evolved into a constricting religion it was a way of life for those who sought freedom and understanding.

There is indeed a difference... like chalk and cheese...apples and oranges.

I cannot help but connect this findings with my recent observations.

"How the fork did they become GMs?" I said to Arvi last thursday.

Based on my past experience with Sr. Management here, I do not, in principal have much admiration for Senior Management of the company I work with. To me they just do not have the skill nor know how on how to lead and manage the businesses they head.

I am sure, once upon a time they were really good engineers and from there climbed the corporate ladder until now where they are numero uno of their respective SBUs. But their inept ways in making decisions and managing their staff leaves much to be desired.

A good number of people thinks getting promoted is their God given rights and since they are brilliant engineers/accountants/lawyers they would automatically be good managers and heaven forbids, some even think they have leadership qualities.

One can't help with the leadership part as that is partly talent, but anyone can be elevated to managerial position. Heck, one can even get up there if one is willing to kiss ass all day.

To be a manager is more than just being good at what you do. Managers need people skill, motivational skill, foresight and some learning on decision making. I see many of my GMs here dont have the aforementioned to save their lives.

Strategising is a requirement. It is not as described by one GM, 'Bullshit' or a time waster. One do not just forge into new territory or a battle field without prior understanding or knowledge of the battle field.

Culture, though sounds like nothing too important is absolutely critical for success. Not respecting other people's culture and ways of doing things is asking to be kicked in the ass. And yet, the management here kept resisting to acknowledge that different society have a right to doing things differently. Comparing the way we do things here in Malaysia or even anywhere in and around south east asia with India or anywhere else around the world is down right stupid.

Insisting that Mumbai Port have no rights to charge us 3 times the price that Port Klang does is an example of this stupidity. Insisting that the customs department of India have no rights to detain our gen-set when just a couple of days ago the DGH approved the equipment and previously there were no such rules on gen-sets and no where else around the world anyone can compare the roadside gen-set to our class 1 zone 2 gen-set is; you got it, pure stupidity.

To insist that everyone is corrupt and can be bought...more stupidity. Especially so when your case has become high profile. Who on earth would take a mere 30,000 rupees in bribery when the whole customs department is the centre of attention in the light of previously mentioned gen-set fiasco. Just because you would bribe the traffic police RM50 when caught speeding, doesnt mean everyone is equally corrupt as and when you want them to be.

To insist that most oil companies does things a certain way thus all oil companies should behave and act in the same way is more pure stupidity.

Assume is making an ass out of u and me. Whereas assumptions are fine when drawing up business plans, its a no no when you are in real time situations. You dont assume you find out the facts and act on it.

There are many blatant mistakes made by this GM but the one that takes the cake involved what he said to one of the managers.

This manager had so far been a rank and file, having 30 years operational experience and the company had offered him a scholarship to further his education by enrolling him in an executive diploma course. The old man was excited. He finally has a chance to study, to rise above from the basal needs of food and sex. And what did the GM say to him, in his face infront of us other managers?

"You so old why you want to study?"

In my books that was the ultimate insult and the epitome of stupidity.

We all shook our heads at such an uncalled for comment.

Thus how i came to reflect upon the abovementioned ayat from the Quran and realise how true it rings.

One Golden Celebration - VMY 2007

2007-10-09T20:30:00.000+08:00

Yes yes...still too busy to write..but not too busy to share this gem of a song. Love it. Makes me proud to be Malaysian.

Back For Awhile, And Terminally In Love

2007-10-05T12:36:00.000+08:00

Yes, I am back for a while.

These days when I check into Mumbai Hotel, the reception greets me with a 'welcome back, maam' and the way things are going, it would not be long before it becomes 'welcome home, maam'.

Thats a scary thought!

The one good thing I got from my latest sojourn is I found a new bookshop. Yummy.

Its the Strand Book Stall just 2 minutes away from the Bombay Store on PM road.

Check them out at www.strandbookstall.com
Address :15 C, Dhannur, Sir PM Road,
Mumbai, MH 400 001 India
+91 22 2266 1994

They are located on the lane adjacent to the Bombay Store. SO if you can find the Bombay Store, just look out for the lane which branches out away from the PM road infront of the Bombay Store. (Check them out http://www.bombaystore.com/static.php?File=Product1.html)

I got a couple of gems while browsing and one of the best was a book titled Ideas: A History From Fire To Freud By Peter Watson. It is a 820 plus pages books on the history of ideas and the list price is 30 Pound Sterling. I got it for a steal...700 rupees only which in all boils down to RM58 or..US$16 bucks and change!

Another book shop find, Nalanda Book Shop, was hidden in the back of the Taj Palace. Its located within the hotel itself nestled in between high fashion and accesories. It is not as rustic as The Strand, but I did pick up 'In Search of Zarasthustra' by Peter Kriwaczek...so thats a bonus.

Between the two, my personal favourite is The Strand, simply because the man at the counter, I am guessing one of the owners or is THE owner or, a very dedicated employee knew much about books and the guy at Nalanda's was not so informative.

I tested them with an enquiry about books on Gilgamesh... old man at The Strand could immediately give instructions to the shop assistants while the cat at Nalanda's was not so keen to assist.

The Strand was OUT of the Gilgamesh epic, though I dont really think they had dozens ordered in one go to begin with; but did promise to get it for me within the day.

"Come back tomorrow afternoon and we'll have the book for you" said the old man.

I did go back the next day although somewhat later than the afternoon, just to see if old man is good with his promise.

True enough, he had it waiting for me.

Thats dedication, if I've ever seen dedication.

Yes, I get that sort of service with Kinokuniya in KL, but, I'd have to do my research first and give the store the ISBN number. With old man, I just spew out a subject and he recommended a book and he got a beautiful hard cover version to boot....lets not discuss the price because it makes me feel like a cheat.

So, there you go. India just gives me the shivers when it comes to its bookshops.

Shahrukh Khan, Sarees, Big B, does nothing for me.

I fell terminally in love with the book shops of India.

I'm Back But Not For Long

2007-09-15T12:38:00.000+08:00

Its been awhile....

The usual excuse applies.

Too busy to write.

Just got back from a gruelling one week sojourn in Mumbai and Baroda and I have another ticket on MAS...destination: BOM.

Never mind if it is Ramadhan Al-Mubarak. This is the second time I will be in India during Ramadhan. I like to think that I am a strong traveller but the dust, heat and congestion had been too much to me the last time. That said, I did not drop a single day of fast except the day I got back to KL. The stress of fasting during travel and in India had manisfested itself via a painful and uncomfortable gastric. My foolishness and the need to be a macho gal resulted me in missing more fasts days than necessary.

We are now into the third day of fasting and my schedule doesnt seem to be getting any better. We were given flexy working hours and the group opted for 8am-5pm with onnly half hour lunch break. Me, I get to work at 7.15am and leave at 5.30pm...only because my beloved reprimands me when he sees me online past said schedule. When he leaves next week I know I will drive myself into the ground. Arrive at work at 7am and leave at 7pm no lunch break. Sick!

Sunday Night Dinner Mee Siam

2007-08-12T21:26:00.000+08:00

Yet another weekend is almost over. How time flies when one is having fun.
Unlike last week, I did get to goof off quite a bit, as can be witnessed from the previous entries involving blast to the past videos.

Dinner was simple. I made Mee Siam, a type of chilli hot vermicelli. Mostly enjoyed by southerners here although one can be forgiven if one were to guess that the recipe hails from Thailand. One will be hard pressed to find this vermicelli served there.

The recipe as follows:

1/2 bag of vermicelli, soaked till eldante
Garlic, blended till fine or chopped
Chili paste
Light soy sauce
Taucho -fermented soy bean
Tamarind juice
Bean sprouts
Chinese chives cut into 1 inch length
Prawns, shelled
Hard tofu, cut into small cubes
Brown sugar

Method

1) Fry cubed tofu till golden and set aside
2) Fry garlic till fragrant, add chilli and let simmer till the oil seperates
3) Add taucho, brown sugar, light soy sauce and tamarind juice
4) Add in the prawns and stir
5) Finally add the vermicelli, chinese chives,sprouts and tofu and stir till mix well and vermicelli is tender.
6) Garnish with fried shallots and serve.

Serves: 4 pax

The taucho and soy sauce is salty enough thus salt is not necessary. I had some tauhu pok and fishball lying around in the fridge so i threw those in as well, just to clear the fridge and add adventure to the recipe.

After cleaning up, I quickly folded and put away the tonnes worth of laundry and put in the soiled ones in the washing machine on an 8 hours soak setting, to be ready in the morning. The plants watered, the kitchen floor mopped it was time to iron my work clothes, shower and finally it is time to lay back with a good book until bed time.

Yes, this had been a good weekend though saturday was quite busy. If only monday is the 3rd day off, it would be just perfect. Going to work on tuesday would be a breeze.

Bohemian Rhapsody

2007-08-12T17:04:00.000+08:00

++++++++++++++++

The Hungry Traveller's all time favourite song.Yeah!!

Solid Gold: Another Blast from the Past

2007-08-12T16:43:00.000+08:00

+++++++++++++

The Hungry Traveller remembered the hooo and the haaaaass..the solid gold dancers got when they were aired on Malaysian TV....

Sunny 1976-Boney M

2007-08-12T16:35:00.000+08:00

+++++++++++++++++++++

Its so telling. The Hungry Traveller remembers listening to this while growing up. Found it while looking for James Brown.

Delhi Book Fair: 1-9 September 2007

2007-08-12T13:16:00.000+08:00

Arrghhhh...they are holding the Delhi book fair on the first week of September this year and I will be too bogged down (its annual budget time) at work to go gallivanting in New Delhi.

Sigh....

Info to the above fair as follows:

Delhi Book Fair***
When:1 - 9 Sep 2007 (annual)
Where:Pragati Maidan

Books galore!The Delhi Book Fair brings together high-profile works and new editions recently published in India. Proceedings take place at the vast Pragati Maidan.
As well as books, magazines, maps, teaching aids and computer software are also on display.

The fair is organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation, known as ITPO, which organises the majority of high-profile fairs for the international audience in India, doing its best to reflect advances in industry across the spectrum of interest. The focus of energies is in New Delhi, but fairs also take place in Calcutta and Chennai (Madras). The India International Trade Fair is their biggest annual effort, attracting over a million national and international visitors.
Related Information
Website:Delhi Book Fair
Website:India Trade Promotion Organization

Contact Details
Name:India Trade Promotion Organisation
Email:itpo@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
Fax:+91 (0) 11 337 1869Phone:+91 (0) 11 337 1582 / 331 5277 / 337 1814
Phone:+91 (0) 11 332 2819Address:Pragati Maidan, New Delhi-110 001Venue Information: Pragati Maidan
Full Name:Pragati Maidan, Delhi, IndiaA vast complex of over 20 exhibition halls.
Address
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi 110001 110001
Directions
Conveniently located approximately three miles from New Delhi Airport.
Contact Details: Pragati Maidan
Email:itpo@giasdl01.vsnl.net.inPhone:+91 (0) 11 337 1582

Saturday Night Dinner

2007-08-11T23:17:00.001+08:00

Tonight was supposed to be vindaloo night. The plan was vindaloo, eggplant burtha and white rice. Somehow the vindaloo was not to be...yet again.

We went out to MV today and as is normal with shopping at MV, we got caught in the crowd and instead of the normal 2 hours, we were out for at least 6 hours. Of course I took the opportunity to check out prices at Carrefour and compared them to our BV.

Also, since I was already there, it was a ood time to pick up some track bottom pants for the gym. I bought the last ones some 8 years ago and I suppose it is time to put them to rest. I got 2 Forrest pants for myself, one for my beloved and two more from Ogilvy for me.

I must say after a good 6 months of not shopping at Carreforu, I pretty much lost my way there. The fact that they have moved things around did not help much either.

The one thing I really appreciate about BV is the sheer amount of choice on offer. I mean, when it comes to capsicum, we get the local ones, the imported ones and the organic ones ,all at different prices and depending on your motivations and budget.

But at Carrefour you only get one type. Granted the capsicum was cheaper than those at BV, it doesnt look all too inviting. There is something to be said about how the products are presented, even if they will cost a couple of sens more.

Comparisons of the dry goods were neither here nor there. Some items BV came out the winner and somethings Carrefour. However, in terms of the wet market products, I note Carrefour's price is pretty hard to beat. A whole bird chicken, pre-packed and air chilled is usually about RM12-RM13 at BV and at Carrefour we picked up the bird at RM9. Now you can't beat that.

The prawn was also going for cheap. A kilo was going for about RM9 granted it is a little bit smaller than the ones at the sunday market which goes for RM16 per kilo and at BV at RM19.90. But prawns will be prawns, if it is smaller buy more. The whole bag cost some RM5.00 which is CHEAP!

I am not going to sing praises for Carrefour. Although the meats and seafoods section wins hand down compared to BV, the begetables leaves a lot to be desired.

So in conclusion, although the wet market products are cheaper at Carrefour, the experience of weekend shopping for me is more satisfying at BV.

After the adventure of comparing prices today we came home famished. And my beloved discovered he forgot to get the potatoes for the vindaloo. SO he put together the same old same old chicken thigh roast and I made my eggplant burtha. We had these with the left over fried rice to clear up the fridge.

The Burtha was apparently a winner with my beloved. It is simple to make and cheap too. My recipe is as follows:

Eggplant cut and roasted in over (I fried mine in vege oil to quickly cook it. Be warned, the dish will be a tad bit oily if you choose to fry the eggplants)
Sliced onion
Chopped Tomato
Slided Chilli
Ginger paste
2 tsp cumin
Curry Powder
Vegetable oil
Coriander leaves, chopped
Yogurt (I used coconut milk)
Salt and pepper to taste
(A dash of Tomato sauce- optional)
Method
1) Roast or fry eggplant and put aside
2) Saute onion and add cumin, chopped tomato, ginger paste, chilli and cook till fragrant.
3) Add Curry powder and stir
4) Add the roasted/fried eggplant into the concoction and mix well
5) Add yogurt (or coconut milk as I did because I forgot to buy yogurt. Of course the coconut milk is known as the malay women's poison for her husband! can't do without it!) and chopped up coriander leaves. Add in the washed roots too. This makes it really fragrant.
6) Season to taste and serve. I also added a dssh of tomato ketchup but this is optional.

This dish tastes great with rice or bread.

And the Weekend Begins

2007-08-11T10:14:00.001+08:00

The weekend officially began when i got home from work around 7:15pm last night. I caught the aroma of dinner wafting through the lobby the moment I stepped out of the lift. I had missed lunch as there were Board Papers to be submitted to level 18 at 5pm...of course we missed it, by 45 minutes too. Still, no harm done. The old coots will only get their grubby hands on them on monday.

My beloved had prepared beef steaks, portabello with garlic and a side of home fries. For a total of RM50, it was a feast. That is at least a quarter fo what we would fork out at Maredo's, our favourite steak joint in KL.

There are others. We've tried the Outback Steakhouse, the OZ franchise located at BV. I loved the mushrooms appetizers but that is about it. The steak was at best..OK. My beloved didn't think too highly of it because he had to explain 'Blue'. And after that the bill came to about what we would pay at Maredo's, around RM200. So, no brownie points there.

And then there is The Ship, which is pretty much a write-off. The steaks are small, the sitting cramped (I could hear the next table's conversation, not that I particularly care for) the staff uniform cheesy and the experience on the whole..simply blahhh... And the bill came to about RM150 which is just shy of Maredo's.

As you can see, Maredo's had become our benchmark fo steaks in KL.

My previous experience at Victoria Station too didn't conjure impressive pictures of the meal and then there was the Road House Grill franchise. The only memorable event at the RoadHouse was a guy, 2 tables away from me, falling off his chair and causing panic amongst the staff. None of them knew what to do, until my friend, quick on his feet tried to do a heimlich...

Apparently, the guy was allergic to preservatives... so, there....

Finally there is Jakes. Even Francis Yeoh sings praises for this place. The one time I was there was by invitation from the Public Affairs people of TV3. There were many people in addition to the place being quite cramped but i remembered it was supposed to be a western grill setting. I felt out of place without my cowboy boots on. Still, aside from the corn on cob, I might have liked what was served, especially so because it was paid by someone else. I dont know how to explain not ever going back there for more steaks though. Truly, I cant remember what I thought of it. Perhaps, it is time to go back to Jakes.

This morning started slow, as saturdays always do. For breakfast, i had the leftover fried rice microwaved and a mug of steaming black coffee. I noticed the yam is sprouting another new leaves and thats cool. The flowers season is out, but the leaves are definitely sprouting now.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Hungry TRaveller had been thinking about checking out Goucho's Grill at Chulan. This is the sister establishment of Maredo's. However the location is not exactly convenient for us as it involves wadding through the motorcade that is the Bukit Bintang area. brrrr.... horror...

The Tiny Pianist

2007-08-10T12:47:00.000+08:00

A man walks into a bar with a paper bag. He sits down and places the
bag on the counter. The bartender walks up and asks what's in the bag.

The man reaches into the bag and pulls out a little man, about one
foot high and sets him on the counter. He reaches back into the bag and
pulls out a small piano, setting it on the counter as well. He reaches

into the bag once again and pulls out a tiny piano bench, which he
places in front of the piano.

The little man sits down at the piano and starts playing a beautiful
piece by Mozart! "Where on earth did you get that?" says the bartender.

The man responds by reaching into the paper bag. This time he pulls out
a shiny brass lamp.

So the bartender rubs the lamp, and suddenly there's a gust of smoke
and a beautiful genie is standing before him. "I will grant you one

wish. Just one wish each person is only allowed one!"

The bartender gets real excited. Without hesitating he says, "I want a
million bucks!" A few moments later, a duck walks into the bar. It is

soon followed by another duck, then another. pretty soon, the entire bar
is filled with ducks and they keep coming!

The bartender turns to the man and says, "Y'know, I think your genie's

a little deaf. I asked for a million bucks, not a million ducks."

"Tell me about it!!" says the man, "do you really think I asked for a
12 inch pianist!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Hungry Traveller haven't received that many email jokes of late. This is one of those rare few ones that came in today.

Why Does It Have to be Either Islamic State or Secular?

2007-08-10T09:06:00.000+08:00

Al-Jazeera: One on One With Riz Khan - Islam In Malaysia (August 2007)

********************

That was exactly what the Hungry Traveller said when discussing the same issues with her beloved over dinner before watching the show last night.

Islamic values are universal values and assimilation of islamic values in the way the nation is being run will be easily accepted by all.

Now, when the Hungry TRaveller said Islamic values, she do not mean PURDAH! What women wear should be the least of our immediate concern. There are so many critical issues to address, such as injustice, corruption, poverty etc. in the world, that the personal choice in terms of dressing in comparison is such a petty issue. Of course, men in general would just love to be seen to say or do things...to be championing something,,,, and if by doing that something, would make him heard...the more power to him. rightly or wrongly. While the so called islamic leaders are busy harassing women and their choice of clothes, the corrupt remains corrupted and injustice remains rampant and people remain under educated and hungry. Why aren't they addressing these issues???

The answer...because these are difficult issues to address...takes up too much thinking and I tell you, a large chunk of islamic teachers are teachers because they are not smart enough to be doctors, lawyers, accountants..etc. Most of those who cannot pursue higher education ends up in religious department or teaching the quran to children at home.

Also, those whom where leaders in their little boroughs rise up the ranks, due to their ability for public oratory but whilst they are more knowledgeable than the peasants back home, their very limited wisdom had proven to be disastorous for the world community!

Note how people get riled up in fiery surmons, when they should actually have calm intellectual discourses when discussing issues as close to the heart as ones faith!

The Hungry Traveller thinks there needs a complete overhaul on the way the so called leaders think. In the mean time, people themselves should put on their thinking caps (and not be so kancheong with the french caps) to differentiate between the diamond and the glass.

Infringed Liberties in a So Called Civilised Society

2007-08-08T09:20:00.000+08:00

LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly asked Prince William's girlfriend Kate Middleton to pull out of a sailing team which is poised to be the first all-female crew to cross the English Channel in a traditional Chinese boat later this month.

Kate pulled out of the cross-Channel rowing team after she was told by the Queen as well as Prince William that the fuss surrounding her early morning training sessions on the river Thames was getting out of hand, the Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old sent an e-mail to the team leader of the 21-woman 'Sisterhood' crew, Emma Sayle, saying she had no choice but to quit.

"With regret, I have to pull out because my presence has become a distraction from the charity issue," she wrote to her close friend.

Queen asks Prince William's girlfriend to quit rowing team
"The whole team are pretty gutted. Kate's really upset too," Sayle was quoted by the British tabloid as saying.

"It wasn't the sort you would get from a friend. It didn't look like Kate had written it... Kate's devastated. She had really been looking forward to being part of the team. There had been nothing negative in the coverage at all. It had all been positive," said a source close to the team.

In fact, Prince William is believed to have tried to thrash out a deal that would have let her take part. But under pressure from the Queen, who felt the spectacle was getting out of hand, the Prince is thought to have realised the only option was for Kate to pull out, according to the tabloid.

However, the team still plans to row across the English Channel in their dragon boat on August 25.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Hungry Traveller thinks it is pretty silly for Kate to hang up her oars just because the boyfriend's MOTHER thinks she should.

She is not even his wife and yet she is giving up all her liberties for this man.

Man,... this is worst than the Talibans and their paternalistic society. At least in that society you already know the deal.

If you have to give up your liberties for a man, he is not worthy of you. Also, if at the end you find that he is not to be.... you will regret not having lived the life the way you wanted it to be.

Where Did My Weekend Go????

2007-08-05T20:39:00.000+08:00

It is almost 21:00 on a sunday. Where did my weekend go????? I haven't rested enough, I haven't read enough, I haven't goofed off enough. Two days are just not enough!!

I woke up later than normal last saturday and that was because I got hungry. Wobbling out of bed, I made my way to the kitchen, flipped the hot water kettle and surveyed the fridge for left overs. Not three minutes later the water was boiling and I made coffee. My preference, steaming hot black coffee...and some sugar.

I am a habitual breakfaster. I believe in breakfasts and I want my breakfasts.

I spied some roast chicken and left over fries in one of my many (too many laments my beloved) lock & lock containers. I had a good base for a yummy scrambled eggs.

After filling the wok with some olive oil I cut up some holland onion. When the oil is hot enough I threw the onion in and sweated them for a while. Once the onions have softened I added the shredded roast chicken and left over fries. At that point I wished I had coriander leaves as it would have made a heavenly fragrant addition to the concoction. The chicken and onion was then seasoned with chili flakes, hot cayenne pepper, LP sauce, some black pepper sauce and finally I added the eggs and lifted the wok off the fire before the eggs goes all rubbery.

That and the steaming mug-o-coffee kicked started my lazy saturday.

After breakfast, I pottered around my plants, pruning dry dead leaves, fertilizing and watering them. Flowering seasons is gone it seems.

Later I went through the bunch of TIME magazines stashed haphazardly on my night stand. Off and on I would just drift into a short nap. Yes, it was a lazy lazy weekend.

Dinner was early. My beloved had made quiche for dinner. It was supposed to be a quiche lorraine, but for the life of me, I have no idea what the lorraine is all about. So, the quiche ended up as spinach and prawn quiche.

After cleaning up we settled down in front of the tv to watch 'Supersize Me' while tucking into a large platter (the nerve of some people!ha ha) of Kiwi Fruits Pavlova. The lazy day sfinally got to me. We called it a night pretty early considering it was the weekend.

This morning I woke up early. Mom had called to enquire if I had bought the spade for my aunty. I had not and promised to have it sent to her tomorrow night.

After another lazy morning, my beloved and I finally got out of the house for the weekly shopping.

I had a simple sandwhich for breakfast and no lunch. As always my beloved did not breakfast nor lunch short of a single pear. So dinner tonight was early.

I had some egg tofu in the fridge. So coupled with some minced beef and mushroom I made some fried egg tofu served with braised beef; stir fried sweat peas and celery, served with rice.

All too quickly after putting out the laundry, cleaning the kitchen and reading the weekend paper it is time to call it a day.

aahhhhhh...Where..ooh where did my weekend go...

Fancy A Movie?

2007-08-04T14:51:00.000+08:00

Columnists > Not Today
Friday July 13, 2007

Big screen memories

Not Today
By SUJESH PAVITHRAN

What are your fondest memories of a movie theatre – orderly queues or a frantic stampede for tickets?

MY regular dose of Indian movies is derived from TV and DVD/VCD. But last month, the missus wanted to know what the fuss was over Sivaji – The Boss, and she couldn’t wait. My last visit to a theatre for a Tamil movie had been about 25 years ago.

I was curious, too – when was the last you heard of fans creating a ruckus in Malaysian cinemas because they couldn’t get tickets, or the movie didn’t start on time, or of tickets being scalped?

These added to the hype preceding the movie, the latest outing of South Indian megastar Rajinikanth. Sivaji was reportedly the costliest Indian movie ever made, earning its star the biggest pay-cheque ever by an Indian actor. Plus, the technical wizardry and audio were supposed to be cutting edge.

The hard sell and manic fan behaviour evoked memories of my formative years in South India, during the 1970s and the early 80s.

Local movies – Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam – often drew bigger crowds than Hollywood offerings. During the murky, pre-Internet days, we had only press and word of mouth reviews to go by, and for avid movie fans, the goal was to catch the movie at its premiere screening in the town where they lived.

Why? Word was, theatre operators would show an “uncensored” version of the movie at the first screening, and then revert to the passed version subsequently. Back then, my friends and I were impressionable. We lapped up the hype, and rumour was fact unless proven otherwise.

We would queue up hours ahead for tickets. The cheaper seats at the front were all we could afford. Sometimes we got seats too close to the screen but on the upside, it was a larger-than-life movie experience!

Getting tickets for the opening show was a harrowing experience. We had to queue up in front of the gates, which led to a narrow and claustrophobic passage. The moment the doorman unlocked the gates, it was a manic rush for the ticket counters through this passage.

A mass of humanity would be bunched tightly around the constricted entrance to the passageway; there was a good chance of being almost crushed to death or suffocating. If we stood still, the forward momentum of the crowd, like a powerful ocean undercurrent, would thrust us into the passageway. Unfortunately, there was also a reverse thrust that sometimes ejected one of us from the tightly packed entrance!

If we did get in and managed to buy a ticket, we would be somewhat bruised, sometimes bleeding a little from brushes with the harsh, concrete walls of the passage, and our clothes would be crumpled ... but it was a triumphant and exuberant entry into the theatre, nevertheless.

It didn’t matter if the movie wasn’t up to expectations. More importantly, we had caught the first public screening. Ah, the magic of those moments. My formative years are dotted with such memories.

A quarter of a century later, I envisioned similar scenes but we went to see Sivaji a couple of weeks after it had opened and the theatre was only about a third full.

So did I enjoy movie? It was excruciatingly noisy, too thin on the storyline (albeit quite funny in parts) and just too long. Local theatre operators should consider a five-minute intermission when screening movies that run over 120 minutes. I had to miss parts when nature called, but the numerous song-and-dance sequences were a good time to take five.

I’ve made a resolution not to go to a theatre again to watch a Tamil movie. I’ll stick to the TV or DVD, thank you. Now, my wife owes me...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Hungry Traveller do not have much fond memories of going to the movies. Perhaps because she doesn't do enough of it. The few that she does have were not first hand experience but one related by big daddy.

Hungry Traveller's Big Daddy used to be a movie fan. He was partial to James Bond movies. But what the Hungry Traveller could remember was how big daddy had related scenes at ticket counter.

To set the scene big daddy had described how ticket counters used to look like. Unlike the glass partition and pc-printer wide open spaces that is tickets counters these days, the counters of old are narrow and the tickets were dispense by fierce chinese ladies with big hair and cat-eyed frames from behind steel bars and a small narrow opening large enough for a one to pass out the ticket and money to be passed in.

Apparently during one particular rush for tickets, people just shoved their hands into the narrow outlet and in the intensity of the situation someone had his wrist broken.

A too high price to pay just to watch a movie!

In another situation, big daddy and his sidekicks had wanted to catch james bonds (what else) at the movies. But the group did not have much spare change in their pockets. Being observant bunch of kids, they all went to the entrance and just stood in the middle of the crowd. When the door to the theather was finally open the rushing crowd pushed everyone in and thus, how they got to watch the movie for free. Apparently in those days, there were no seperate chairs and only long benches were provided. So everyone whom cared to sit on the benches got to sit.

In the mean time after years of going to the movies with girlfriend shida, the Hungry Traveller now have her beloved for her movie needs...though the need don't come often enough for the beloved.

Sivaji The Boss - The best bloopers are a click away

Moroccan Feast @ Mat'am Tajine

2007-08-04T09:33:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was 'Lancome' day and since I was already out and about, the beloved and I decided to have dinner outside.

The two of us had become rather 'lazy' of late, confining our shopping and jalan jalan to around Bangsar. Anything out of, especially on a work night is a no no.

So, it was with anticipation that I looked forward to having midlle eastern/north african cuisine again. We have not found any in Bangsar and the one place that my beloved googled had shut down; Sabeel...in its place is Touches D Siam; my massage parlour.

So round about 8pm, after having secured my next Lancome appointment, we made our way to Ain Arabia, located within walking distance to the bright lights of Bukit Bintang shopping area.

I usually cringe at the idea of BB traffic. But we figured, since it was quite late i.e. around 8.30pm, the drive time traffic would have already lighten. Ho! was I ever wrong. On top of it being a friday night traffic, it was also a friday night traffic after an evening shower....

So, we crawled along, my tum tum growling; not forgetting that it had been a really long week for me.

The gridlock at the Jalan Sultan Ismail/Jalan Bukit Bintang was a nightmare. And we eventually found out why. They were having street concert,just at that junction. A full fledged concert called the Arabian Nights...apparently to entertain hordes and hordes of what the locals here call the black ninjas; thats middle eastern women to you and me (and if you see 3 or 4 of those ninjas, be prepared to find upfront, leading the flock, a hairy legged male in shorts and t-shirt).

Yes, its vacation time and the tourism ministry is doing their mighty best to make Malaysia a destination of choice for the middle eastern, even going so far as to provide mid east music to the mid eastern people right smack in humid KL!

After inching along for what felt like forever, we finally got to where we turn left to Fortuna Hotel to park.

Now, usually Fortuna Hotel is where we would settle for dinner; our usual watering hole when it came to Arabic food is The Sahara Tent, located at the ground floor of said hotel. The food is good and my beloved gets to relax with his strawberry shisha after meals.

However last night was different. I wanted to check out the new (not so new actually, we stumbled upon it some 6 months ago) Moroccan mat'am/restaurant on the first floor of the shop lots facing aforementioned hell junction. This place is just a couple of shops away from McDonalds.

Watching Tyler Florence, Barry Vera, Ian Wright and Megan McCormick ooohing and aaahing about Moroccan food had taken a toll on me. Since I cannot drop everything and just fly to Morocco, the next best thing was, I suppose, go to a Moroccan restaurant.

When we got to the entrance, the door man totally ignored us as he concerntrated on the street concert.

Knowing that Arabic...northern african with mid east influence cuisine are pretty much the same, i.e. mixed grill, lamb, couscous, fatoush, bread et al. we went on up and found ourselves at the door of a nice little enclave.

The restaurant was busy. It figures as it was late and the sort of time most mid east people would be having dinner...read:9:00pm.

The waitress (which neither looked nor is dressed like a moroccan) found places for 2 pax and we made our way to the table next to the window. Busy as she was, she found time to drop off two menus while serving another bunch of (rowdy)people at the next table.

The menu looked pretty much like those found in any other middle eastern establishment we've set foot upon. The appertizers are the usual pickled olives, mixed salad, humous eatern with bread and then there is the grill section and baklava or ice cream as the desert. The only difference is the moroccan menu has a Tajine section. A tajine, is a conical shaped earthernware pot used for cooking. Apparently this implement functions like a pressure/slow cooker and thus meats cooked in them simply 'falls off' the bones.

Coming back to our dinner, my beloved and I finally made our minds up; and on my part, not too well thought of as I was too hungry to care.

We ordered the mixed salad platter, couscous casablanca for me, mixed grill for him, a pot of morocaan tea, a large bottle of water.

While waiting for the food we looked at the going-ons down on the street and listened to the the music from the street blending with elevator music from the restaurant, producing a confused mix of somewhat irritating sounds.

My beloved then remembered that he had forgotten to order olives and so we hailed the waitress, whom inspite of being really busy was quite easy to summon. The maitre'd then came by and recommended their very high quality Harira soup to start off the dinner. Not knowing how long our dinner will take, we said yes.

Now, soup is not normally high on our order list because of the water factor. My beloved don't particularly favour getting filled up by water when there are so much good stuff to eat. But last night was no ordinary night; we were famished and it was late.

Not too long after we agreed to the soup, out came 2 bowls of steaming hot Harira soup. Maybe we were really really hungry. We dug into the soup like there was no tomorrow. Even my beloved oozed praises over the soup. It was good. I could see chickpeas and although it did not have meats floating around, I could taste that the soup is more than what meets the eye. I am pretty sure they had boiled bones in it to give it that meaty texture and the chickpeas gave it that thick body. Thinking about it now I am sure they had tomato thrown into the soup concoction somewhere. The soup tasted great but I personally would not elevate it to be being the one and only soup king of the world. I do think our asian oxtail soup pack a wicked punch on its own.

Not long after the soup our orders started to come in and we came to a point where we could see that the tables were not meant for feasting. But we got creative and used the window ledge in supporting roles.

The mixed salad platter looked good. I havent had tahini and humous for a long time and it was heavenly to taste. My only disappointment with the serving is that it came with a microwaved arabic bread; not one that came from an earthern pot. So instead of having that aromatic dry crunchy texture, the bread was moist. I do understand being on the first floor of a shop lot pretty much confines any desires of placing a wood fire baking oven.

Next came my couscous casablanca which was couscous and lamb followed by my beloved's mixed grill.

Before even ripping into my meal, I stole my beloved's lamb kabob. The kabob was yummy, moist, succulent, tasty. I loved it.

My couscous casablanca did not look as dramatic as my beloved's mixed grill. Infact the lump of lamb on a bed of couscous and four pieces of vegetable looked a tad bit under dressed in comprisons.

I poured the lamb 'juices' on to the meat and when i teased the meat out, it just melted off the bones....yesssss....thats what I wanted.

The lamb was tasty. Cooked with the fat, it was heavenly. The couscous provided me the adventure different from the tried and tested rice or bread.

I dont often have couscous and it seems that unlike rice, it is not something I care to dabble with in my kitchen.

We both were silent as we tore into the meats and breads; and washed down the food with the very lovely mint tea.

On the whole, I was happy with my Moroccan adventure and was pleasantly surprised that we remain true to our normal eating out budget. The bill before the tax came to about RM83, which is our usual bill and we were stuffed. The maitre'd was also friendly and attentive with the welcomes.

My only regret is that in my rush to order, I forgot that I had wanted to have meat cooked in a Tajine and eaten with bread. But never mind, I made mental notes to myself that once the middle eastern onslaught of KL is over, we could then have a peaceful dinner at mat'am Tajine again.

Our bill came as follows:

Mixed appertizer RM25.00
Mixed grill RM25.00
Couscous Casablanca Lamb RM18.00
Moroccn Mint Tea (pot) RM6.00
Mineral Water (Big) RM5.00
Olives RM4.00

Total RM83.00

Mat'am Tajine
114 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603-2142 1214

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The Hungry Traveller refrained from whipping out the camera for pictures as there were too many tourists around and did not want to be seen to behave like one.

The Hungry Traveller dreams of visiting Morocco some day.

Self Censorhip

2007-08-01T08:40:00.000+08:00

Self-censor, Fu tells bloggers

KUALA LUMPUR: Bloggers should exercise self-censorship over sensitive issues and not sensationalise issues just for the sake of gaining readers, Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said.

He said bloggers should be careful not to cause offence to any particular group or cause disharmony.

“Those who are irresponsible will have to face the consequences,” he said at the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia’s national flag-hoisting ceremony here yesterday.

He said the Government did not wish to restrict freedom on the Internet. “But this does not mean that there is no limit. Bloggers who are irresponsible will have to face the consequences.”

On the coming Merdeka celebrations, he urged Malaysians to show their patriotism by flying the Malaysian flag.

“The gesture of displaying the flags is a show of love for the country,” Fu said.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ha ha, self censorship! The Hungry Traveller had just touched on the topic in her last blog. Although The Hungry Traveller herself tries to practice this for reasons only known to her (perhaps it is an inherent characteristics of being a malay, which reads: diplomatic), she is of opinion that no such rule shall be enforced. People have the right to say as they think, though in many instances, what comes forth shows a lack thereof. Sure some opinion upsets people, but instead of trying to enforce control over others via censorship, how about exercising some control over self. i.e. control your own emotion. An opinion only becomes a reality when you give it life through your reaction. Don't like the hungry travellers opinion here? Well, chuck it then.

My New Thingamajig

2007-07-28T22:06:00.000+08:00

I bought new hair holders with plastic orchid decorations at BV today. They look so real I just could not resist. I had previously bought something similar but instead of orchids it was frangipani. The orchids hair holders were going for RM12 or RM18 a piece depending on the size.

Now I can have my hair done differently from the usual bun stabbed with a steel rod like I always do.

Eating Out This Week

2007-07-28T19:00:00.000+08:00

It had been a busy week.

And I have nothing much to say either...well that is not true. As always, I have things to say (I had opinions about the 4 bookshops protesting the hypermarket cheap sale on HP7, about the HP saga and how even adults had gone wibble over it, censorship for Malaysian blogers, so on and so forth); just no time to say it. And sometimes, self censorships caps it all in.

So, after all the self censorship what is left to write?

Food. Thats always a good topic to write about. I am sure (or should I HOPE instead), I would not get hauled in by the authority for blogging my thoughts about restaurants I've patronise (unless said authority have stake in said restaurant and my reviews are not all that flattering?)

Anyway, this week we tried out the relatively new Indian restaurant on Jalan Telawi , Palace d India and D'Lish in BV.

Palace d' India

Our hunt for Vindaloo started because my beloved had complained that there was a lack of Vindaloo on the menus during our recent visit tour of India.

Even Ludhiana Station, the Punjabi restaurant we dined at last week did not offer this south India delicacy.

I had stumbled upon Palace d India after my time out session at Touches Of Siam a couple of weeks back. On googling the joint, I noted that they offer Vindaloo. Finally, the hunt for the elusive Vindaloo is over. After all the galivanting around India, looking out for the Big V, I finally found it in our own backyard.

I had abstained from succumbing to another time out session last week. Thus I had a savings of RM100 plus of which my beloved had gently reminded should be lavished on him. 'Why dont you take me out to dinner instead of going for that massage..' he had said.

So last thursday, I had shut down my lappie at 5.35pm and made my way to BV waaaayyy earlier than usual.

At 6pm we were at the junction of Telawi 5 infront of BV II, when my beloved started to walk uphill towards Maredos. I pulled him away and insisted that we go directly towards Jalan Telawi instead. 'I dont want to get reeled in by Cherie at Maredos' I said. My beloved had grinned his agreement.

Finally, we were standing infront of Palace d' India. It was empty. Then again, it was only 6.15pm and not the normal dinner time for a large number of Malaysians.

There were no maitre'd with peacock feather hats, normal to this kind of restaurants.
We cautiously stepped into the restaurant, greeted by a man. I didn't think he was the waiter simply because he was not dressed as one. Even the 'simple home cook meal Ludhiana Station' had put their waiters in uniforms.

'Are you open yet' my beloved had enquired.

'Yes, yes' the man responded and ushered us to a table.

The first thing I noticed about the decor is that the walls are filled with artworks from the Man Singh era as opposed to the Mughlai Sultans. I looked harder just in case they have the Kama Sutra artworks amongst the artworks.

I finally chose to sit underneath a picture of 3 dancing women, sparsely dressed in choli and split skirts.

The waiter, still dressed simply, gave us the menu and filled our glasses with cold water.

Unlike Ludhiana Station, which had quite a simple list, the Palace had a long list of dishes on the oft. They had not confined themselves to northern cuisine and instead included Chettiar food (south Indian cuisine), Mughlai food, Gujarat, Kerala and even Jain food.

Everything sounded delicious and it was especially so as I was famished. And memory of feasting in India came gushing back.

My beloved was in Vindaloo heaven, I supposed. They had vindaloo everything. He ordered a mutton vindaloo, palak paneer (of course), onion naan while I supplimented the order with chicken chetinad, bagara baingan (eggplant/brinjal) and plain bryani. I also ordered the mango lassi to go with the meal.

After taking the orders, we were served with papadam and mint sauce. The mint sauce was yummy, smooth and cool. It went nicely with the papadam. Not to long after that my mango lassi came. And it was delicious. Thumbs up for the mango lassi.

The food started to arrive after about 15 minutes of waiting, which was not all that bad as we had the papadam to snack on. Any longer than that I would have filled myself up with the lassi. Of course, we were the only diners there.

The naans, vindaloo, chicken chetinad and palak paneer came in first, followed by the eggplant and lastly the bryani. We both tucked in like there was no tomorrow. Rargh, ragh,rargh we went, until it was time to come up for air.

'Good..'... 'oohh..this is good..'

That sort of sums up the meals. 'Good, good , good'.

The ONLY shortfall was the vindaloo.

It appears that he was in love with a vindaloo he had in ENGLAND!

BAh!....thats not right!

I decided to ignore that complain.

The chicken chetinad was really aromatic, thick and spicy, cooked with 16 spices; and the chilli powder had enough zing to set my tongue on fire; or was that the vindaloo? The vindaloo mutton was chilli hot and yummy.

The first time ever I had palak paneer was at Bombay Palace, I fell in love with it and thise palak paneer is exactly as I wanted it to be. The spinach ground until smooth; though I wish the paneer potion to be bigger.

I have always loved eggplants. It doesnt take much for me to sing praises for eggplants and i sing praises for this bagara baingan. The eggplants were cubed and cooked in spices. Yummmyy. Highly recommended.

The garlic and onion naan were tasty but a tad bit smaller than the usual naans you'd get from the mamak stall. As we had 2 naans, a bryani and the 4 dishes, the small naan was not much of a problem. But, should one choose to have naan only, please note that the naan, instead of being as big as a dinner plate, i.e. 10"-12" the serving in Palace d India, is only as big as a desert plate, 6".

And finally when we called for the bill, I was pleasantly surprise that we did not break the bank account and it was certainly cheaper than a massage session.

1 chicken chetinad RM14.00
1 mutton vondaloo RM20.00
1 bagara baingan RM9.00
1 palak paneer RM10.00
1 plain bryani RM5.00
1 garlic naan RM3.50
1 onion naan RM3.00
1 mango lassi RM7.00 (this was more $$ than i expected it to be)

Conclusion: It was certainly a good dining experience for me inspite of the waiter not dressing up like a waiter. Additionally, something funny happened before our food arrived. I was looking around at their decor and was attracted to an 'award' on the wall. It appeared that the restaurant was awarded one of the best restaurants by Malaysian Tatler. After i looked at the award the man whom was not dressed as a waiter took it down and put it away. I thought that was mighty strange. Other than that, the food was good, the prices were reasonable. And I would definitely go to Palace d India again.

PALACE D'INDIA,
No 6, Jalan Telawi Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-2287 7735/36)
Business Hours: Daily, 12 noon - 3pm, 6pm - midnight.

D'Lish

Contrary to most week, I decided that we should shop for groceries early today. Its payday weekend and I expect a crowd if we delay. Additionally, we really needed to pick up the rugs thats been lying around at Dobhi Walla and Lucky Laundry for the past 7 months! Bless their souls, they have not discarded our stuff, inspite of their disclaimer about discarding laundry not picked up after 2 months.

As the beloved had slept in, we did not have time to make up the list at home. After finally getting a spot to park at BV, we made our way to a place where we could get some coffee and not be disturbed while we make up our shopping list. I had suggested that we go check out D'lish beside the Village Grocers. The outlet used to house the bigger store 'Delicious' which had now moved to BV II and in its place now is D'lish a cafe owmed by the same person, Ms Read.

To be perfectly honest, I have never bee attracted to dine at chinese owned restaurants/cafe selling traditionally malay dishes such as rendang and nasi lemak at sky high prices. Notable establishments includes Madam Kwan, Delicious, Sakura, etc. Not only do I think that the prices are blasphemous, the decibel levels that comes with these places are also major turn offs for me. I simply dont understand the talk outloud while you dine sort of culture.

However, out of curiosity I suggested coffee while drawing up the shopping list at D'lish just for the heck of it.

We arrived at 12.30 pm and the place was relatively empty save for a few diners. As we stepped in via VG, I noticed the rather 'swedish-ikea' style decor. Which was OK with me. Cool factor number 1 was the fact they had about 4-5 wide screen tvs on one of the walls. All with different satelite tv channels. I saw a women sitting at the high table at the corner on a laptop. I assume the place is wired. So, thats the cool factor number 2.

We found a place at one of the corners to sit and observed that orders are to be made at the counter and the food will be sent by the waitresses when ready. So my beloved hauled me over to the counter for a look-see. Cool factor number 3, my beloved loved the chalk board. The menu was written on a chalk board placed strategically on one of the walls near to the payment counter. I personally did not care for the chalk board due to my bad eye sight. Give me a bound menu anytime.

We then surveyed the food display showcases to see the offerings. They had a variety of pre-made sandwhiches such as tuna in focaccia, salami, stuff like that. In the next cabinet were pastry stuff. And in the last showcase they had local dishes such as nasi lemak and rice with rendang all packed in food containers ready to go.

I was immediately turned off.

Pre-packed nasi lemak was going for RM15.00! Who were they kidding?? That is just too much. And it did not look all that great either.

I doubt my beloved would be duped into paying that much for a nasi lemak, but then again he is more concerned about taste than being fashionable. And if he could get authentic nasi lemak for RM1 per pack from the stall at the bottom of the hill why should he pay RM15.00?

The fact is, there are people who will pay this amount. It is stylish to be dining or to be seen at D'lish / Delicious. Never mind if the prices you pay for the normal street food served there is insanely spiked!

I was silently screaming PRETENCIOUS!!!!! and wanted to leave. But we still needed to sit down to draw up our shopping list. So we ordered two long black coffees (RM11.60 for 2), a bottle of mineral water (RM1.80) and a plain croissant (RM3.80); quickly did our list and left.

Suffice to say, aside from coffee, that would be the last time I'd go to D'lish for a meal.

And yes, I spooked the girl waitress (she looks new). She wanted to take away my tray and I told her that I was not done with it; dramatic eye contact and all that. She almost cried and ran away!

My advice to the proprietor of D'lish is this. If you are going to charge so much for your meals, at least have your waitresses properly trained first!

A Quiet Weekend

2007-07-22T21:33:00.000+08:00

Its 3 hours till the weekend is over.

I had planned for a quiet one. Just at home with the beloved tending to the plants and some weekend reading. The pereskia that was about to bloom yesterday got blown away by the strong winds last night. It was replaced by another bloom. This one managed to get a day of glory.

It was downcast and raining quite heavily for the most parts; though i managed to get the weekend papers and a new jungle orchid earlier in the morning. Set me back RM10, the orchid did.

So we stayed in and whiled away the afternoon watching an Irish movie about The Commitments.

Dinner was early and simple; just fried yellow noodle with everything I can get my hands on thrown in. In this case we had potato, hard tofu Pre-fried), tau pok, tomatoes, sawi, bean sprouts, minced beef on a base of garlic, shallot and chilli, all blended fine. All held together with oysters, soy, chili sauces and ketchup (catsup) and lastly 2 eggs broken into the concoction and mixed in, well. And yes, with a side dish of fish crackers compliments of mom and dad.

Last night we went to Ludhiana Station at Telawi 2 for Punjabi food. It was light and not at all grand as most indian food usually is. We ordered the Palak Paneer, Pudina rice, garlic naan, bhatia brinjals and murgh mutton. I had chai masala for drinks and the beloved had his usual. It all came to RM81.00 As I said, not as grand as Indian food usually gets.No guys with peacock hats holding the door open for you and addressing you as ma'am. It was just simple honest home cooked food; very light, delightful. But, all the humbleness threatens to put this place behind the usual heavyweights i.e. Basil, et al.

We swung by Maredo's for their to die for desert. They were filled to the brim. We even saw potential customers turned away from the joint because Cherrie failed to reel them in.

After a whirlwind weekend shopping, we made our way home.

Orchid: The Minang Orchid

2007-07-21T17:57:00.000+08:00

This is my Minang orchid bought in Sg Buloh a couple of weeks back for RM25. I had left it at moms back then as she wanted to split the plant. Now she has half of the original bush in her garden

And this white orchid is still going strong. It has been more than a month and yet the flowers are still blooming and no sign of wilting.

The Unconstant Gardener

2007-07-21T15:41:00.000+08:00

Yes, its that time again.

The unconstant gardener is back. It is saturday and I was just rarring to play in the dirt. It had been awhile since I really spent time in my little oasis in the sky and today was just perfect.

The day had been overcast since morning, not that it matters all that much. So, after breakfast I set out my toys in the back and immediately dove into the dirt.

The project today is re-potting.

(And in the background my beloved would say, reporting what, my sweet!)

Some of my plants had outgrown their pots and is very much due for re-potting. Now, I am not all that expert in gardening but I have gone through a couple rounds of re-potting with some of the plants and thus would consider myself an old hand in this.

I had started out with plans to re-pot my yard long beans which was planted last saturday. They are now more than 6 inches long. I had doubts that the verandah pot had adequate depths for the beans to grow. As I have never worked with yard long beans I wanted to extra careful; so prior to getting down and dirty I had crawled the internet for some pointers.

It turn out to be rather disappointing and no one, absolutely no one had anything to say about pot sizes or how big the root system of a long bean can get.

Fed up with not turning up with any answers, i abandoned the web search and just pushed ahead with what I know.

A couple of months back a collegue gave me a cutting of a bunga china (cape jasmine) from her mother's garden. I had planted it in a 6 inch pot and it had slowly but surely grow from a little cutting. The bunga china is due for re-potting.

The chilli padi (birds eye) is also long over due for re-potting. I had this planted a while back and I think my delay in transfering them to a bigger pot is an impedance to their growth. So instead of enjoying a harvest of birds eye chilli now, I am still nursing a relatively small plant.

So, the morning's project kicked off with the bunga china.

I put together all the tools I need for this task.

The plant in its old pot, the new pot, a small hand trowel and a three pronged hand cultivator (my beloved googled this for me); for simplicity I'll just call them all spades!

I began by stuffing the holes at the bottom of the pots with pebble or charcoal and filling the new pot up to the half way mark with some 3 in 1 soil and black soil and agitating them with my cultivator.

Then I tapped the old pot gently with the butt of my cultivator to loosen the soil to facilitate removal of ball of the roots from the pot. Oh yeah, I had also watered the plants last night so that the soil is damp and removal would be easier.

Before I turn the plant upside down, I placed the plant in between my fingers and tipping them upside down, the soil surrounding the plant rests in my palms.

For the bunga china, it was obvious that re-potting was due. The root system had practically filled the pot and had nowhere else to go.

I then gently place the plant into the new pot. Happy that it was properly and centrally placed, I added on more soil filling the sides of the pot. I firmly pushed the plant into the soil but being careful not to ram it.

Finally I put a little bit of organic fertilizer away from the roots and watered the plant.

I repeated the above processes for the 5 bird eyes chilli, the misai kucing herb (Orthosiphon Stamineus), the rose and the temulawak (Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb.

Finally it was time for the yardlong beans.

The yardlong beans had previously been cultivated in a verandah planter, a 2" by 12" container. I had sowed 5 beans but only 3 had sprouted. It is now over 6" tall.

I read somewhere that eventually I will have to replant my yard long beans at least 40cm apart. That is going to be difficult with the existing pot as the pot doesnt have the space to put 3 yardlong beans 40 cm apart in one go. I will think further as to how I will proceed with my yardlong beans. In the mean time, I'll just leave them as it is.

My beloved had pierced a hole on the brim of the pot so I could attach a string at the side as the support for the long beans. Traditionally, a stick is used for this purpose but when one lives high up in the sky, one would have to be a little bit more creative. Lets see if it works.

After most of the re-potting was done, I cleaned up the work area and go on to fertilize and water the rest of the plants. Ideally, fertilizing is done every fortnightly; and i think I am quite constant with this.

I also sprayed the orchids which had all but four is done with flowering. I spotted some new shoots growing on a couple of the orchids meaning I could look forward to new orchids to sprout soon.

My Kasturi lime is doing nicely. After the shock of re-potting, it is now progressing well budding new fruits and new leaves too.

As for my Kaffir lime, it is still in shock and it is wise for me to leave it alone a little longer. However, I will be on a lookout for a new clay pot for the transplant. I dont think it will do well in plastic pots. Plastic pots are great (I use Baba's Plastic Pots; being light and trendily decorated but certain plants just wants earthernware. Rather than risk with the Kaffir, I'll just spend that extra RM2 for the clay pot. A bit inconvenient as it is heavy and all.

Now an update on the pereskia. Both the pereskia, the one in the large and the smaller pot had bloomed. The pereskia is a potent plant. I have not paid much attention to them and yet they grow and grow. The pots now look way too small but re-potting will be a hassle as they have really really sharp thorns.

And finally, a nice surprise. My aglaonema had budded. I can't wait to see the flower. Watch these space for progress update.

A Day Away From The Office

2007-07-19T21:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, today I spent the day away from the office.

And the company paid for me to be away too.

Today I attended a seminar organised by CIMA Malaysia titled Financial Evaluation on Investment Project and Structuring Joint Venture. Sounds boring? To the contrary, my dear.

When I received the email from CIMA last week, it immediately occured to me that I had NEVER; NEVER attended any courses or seminars or any classes to enhance or keep myself up to date with new trends and standards endorsed by the professional body I qualify from and am registered to.

Infact, I like to think that I don't look anything like an the 'A' at the end of the CIMA acronym and the fact that I stay away from fraternising with the 'A's seems to point to me that I am subconsciously do not desire to be recognised as one.

But we shall call a spade a spade; and a rose, called by any other name, will smell as sweet.

Yes, I am an accountant.... and if I insist on splitting hairs; I am a Management Accountant. There I said it. And it is not the end of the world...as I know it.

From the very beginning I had hated the idea of the nerdy looking accountant. If it is a guy, he'd have the thick rimmed glasses ala Clark Kent, the hair combed back and parted in the middle; and if it is a woman; well, an out of date looking spinster perhaps with teeth braces, et al.

And always, always I tell you, the description of an accountant is one who is square and devoid of any social skills. Additionally here in Malaysia, the accountant has this image of being a really stingy old china man whom spend his life counting beans.

Aside from these unappealing stereotypes of accountants, they are notorious for being tight fisted with money.

Our own accountant at work is case in point. And he is an Indian boy, for goodness sakes. He gets shouted at and abused verbally because he simply drags his feet when the time comes to pay up; never mind if it is to creditors or for our claims. It is like, that one extra day in the bank will make all the difference for our 'other income' or interest from fixed deposits. While the deposits matures, the creditors and staff are financing the company! interest free too! So, it is not a surprise that our accountant is one unpopular bastard!

On top of that regardless of our 'team policy' he always sees the group CFO as his boss and not the subsidiary that he is attached to!

Anyway, the above is why I dont fret too much about not handing out my call cards with 'Accountant' emblazoned across it.

I am happy with just having 'Business Development Manager' or within some fraternity, known as the 'good times people' or 'the people whom do all that does not fall under any other areas'; and in my case now, aside from project planning & evaluation, business development and marketing, my scope also includes HR, Contracts, business support and misc.

My department is the only department that has 'Ad hoc projects' stated as a scope of work and this can be a myriad of tasks.

I am happy doing all these different things rather than getting holed in my room churning out historical figures and preparing checks for people.

I certainly get to travel more than I could dream had I remained a mere accountant.

Coming back to my seminar this morning.

The first half of the day had been more than just a 'halal'/kosher (sanctioned) skiving off from work. I had actually paid attention on how to calculate WACC and was a refrehers session as to how to calculate NPV, et al. I had always resorted to the china man way of 'Payback Method' and the BOD had been happy with it. This facilitator was way clearer than any of my lecturers had ever been. Or perhaps, the 10 years post graduation experience had wisen me up? I actually enjoyed the session.

The second half was play time for me.

We had moved away from churning spreadsheets and dived into the human and real world factors of doing busienss. And I was in my element. Especially so, as the topic had surrounded going into a partnership with a foreign company...specifically Vietnamese. Yes, I was in my element. I had the 'on the ground' and indepth understanding of how to do business with those people.

During lunch and tea breaks I was holding court about the various countries I had been to in the course of business. Additionally, I had hands on experience in the local auto and oil and gas industry, two of the more critical industry in Malaysia.

At the end of the seminar I had come to the conclusion that I had chosen well when I chose to depart from accounting and instead moved into business. I realised that I have a much bigger perspective about businesses in terms on the legal aspect, social, political and economics. Had I remained a mere accountant, my perspective would very much be limited to accounts and finance; churning out 10 years forecasts from my desktop, never to live and breath the experiences by getting involved in actual running of the businesses.

While walking out of the class, I resolved to be more involved with CIMA in the future. Perhaps, attending these seminars or evening talks at CIMA HQ more frequrently; and then to volunteer for committees and perhaps in 10 years time, to elevate from an Associate to a fullfledged FELLOW.

What a goal.

In the meantime, I just got to learn some hypnotism.

I will need to hypnotise myself into thinking that the gridlock thats is driving from KL to Bandar Utama is like a heavenly walk in the park.

Caught Off Guard: Mars is NOT Coming Closer!

2007-07-18T22:09:00.000+08:00

I was caught offguard yesterday.

T, a good friend from the US of A sent me an email yesterday. Well actually she FORWARDED an email. I should have seen it coming for miles.

The title of the email was "Watch the Sky!"

I, loving most things astronomy got excited and forwarded to my beloved. The last time there was an eclipse, we woke up in the wee hours of the morning, open our bedroom windows, wide; and watched the eclipsing moon from our bed! So that was cool. As always I had wanted to share this event with my beloved. I forwarded the email to him.

My beloved, having all the time in the world in his hands had bells ringing the moment he opened it. According to him, he would know should such an occurance is scheduled to happen and I can't remember what the other reason was. After doing a little bit of investigative work, the mail was proven to be a hoax. He naturally broke the news to me by forwarding the link to a page which states the hoax.

I was quite...pissed with myself as I am always so sceptical about these forwaded mails. But I was caught in this one. I tried to put a reason such as being too busy to think straight and every other excuses that could momentarily make me feel good for being caught in a hoax. Of course, at the end of the day, I know I was caught. No excuses needed.

Anyway, to make me feel better, when I got home, i saw that my long beans had started to sprout. So thats one good news. There was also a beautiful star and moon in the sky.

The leaves of my kaffir lime had fallen; as a result of my forgetting to water it on monday, i hope he wont die. And most of the orchids are getting into hibernation mode, having flowered itself for the past few weeks. My rose had grown 2 additional buds and my pereskia had bloomed. So, all is well I suppose.

I append below the excerpt of the hoax email. So be warned:

Watch The Sky

Never again in your lifetime will the Red Planet be so spectacular! This month and next month the Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years but it may be as long as 60,000 years.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot.

At the beginning of August, Mars will rise in the east at 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. That's pretty convenient when it comes to seeing something that no human has seen in recorded history. So mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grows progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share with your children and grandchildren. No one alive today will ever see this again.

Comments: Roughly accurate -- in 2003, at any rate, which is when the above message was first composed by person(s) unknown and launched into circulation online.

It was not true, however, when the identical text circulated again in 2005, nor when it reappeared for another go-around in 2006, and once more in 2007.

The "Close Encounter with Mars" described in the email came and went in 2003.

On August 27 of that year, the orbital paths of Earth and Mars brought the two planets to within 34.65 million miles of one another -- closer than at any other time in the past 50,000 years. Though Mars never actually appeared "as large as the full moon to the naked eye" (as claimed in the email), the red planet did vividly dominate the night sky for a time, making 2003's close encounter a once-in-a-lifetime event indeed for astronomers, space enthusiasts, and ordinary observers alike.

Nothing so spectacular is predicted for 2007.

Pereskia Sacharosa Update

2007-07-14T22:37:00.000+08:00

New buds (orange flowers) as at Saturday 14th July 2007.

And other plants:

The aglaonema

Pereskia Purple Flower

The yellow flower bought recently at Sg Buloh

Purple Flowers bought in Sg Buloh

The Rose

What A Week That Was!

2007-07-14T20:39:00.000+08:00

I am exhausted. I am feeling all of my 37-7/12 years of life on my shoulders.

For me, the week did not really start, it was a spill over from the previous 3 weeks. The consistent push finally peaking on Tuesday July 10th 2007.

My team had been working on a tender proposal that will determine if the next four years will be easy or difficult. The previous four had been difficult and I just hope the strategy this time was right, so that the next four years would be somewhat easier.

Inspite of the last 3 weeks being critical to our future comfort, the boss had to be away on a 3 weeks vacation, coming back to the office in time to just glance thru and make the ever critical decision.

We had put together a decent proposal; all he needed to do was just go, enee meeny miny moe.

Well, he made his choice and I hope it is the right one.

The night before the submission, we all stayed back in the office till really late. I mossied out at 2am while the executives having stayed back much longer to scan the documents left at around 4am; and all of us were back in the office on tuesday at 7.30 am; having more or less three hours of shut eye only.

On the word 'go' on tuesday, we were pushing and pushing. To be able to get the packages to Level 9 TT1 by 1200 noon we needed to leave the office by 11am, just incase traffics decides to be bitchy. Meaning we had to start wrapping up the packages by 10; meaning we had to finish everything, from double checking to double scanning from 7.30 to 10am.

Of course, plans are such lovely things; we were still scanning AND AMENDING at 11am! By 11.05 I was already instructing my colleague, the equipment manager to go get the car (we called it the get-away car) and wait down stairs while we wrapped and unwrapped the packages. Guys are such useless things with packing. I would expect if a US$10 million contract is at stake, one would be more careful with wrapping and not just 'stick the tapes together'. BAH!

Anyway, I was really looking forward to kicking back a bit at the office, but alas; free time at the office is but a fantasy as far as I am concerned.

Of course, turd will always be there to mess up plans of nirvana. And what's worst than turd made by the HSE cad! He should just drown at sea. Yes, you read that right.

On the bright side, my beloved had been cooking up a storm. We had missed dinner together on monday as I had been stuck chomping on Domino's Pizza with the boys. Tuesday night we had dinner at Sakae Sushi because I was so mentally exhausted and need to just go wondering around aimlessly, looking at things, preferably books.

Wednesday night my beloved made enchiladas. It was yummy; a bit high on the calories but definitely yummy. Also I have been skipping the work outs for a week due to work. So that made me feel even more guilty. Thursday, he made fish; the other half of the huge red snapper I bought on sunday. What would have otherwise been nice and light was foiled by huge potatoes wedges. And friday..yes..friday was lovely. My beloved made lamb meatloaf served with salad.

So, this week had been; toil, toil, toil (just the hands though) and chomp, chomp, chomp. I almost worry about my heart and blood pressure.

Today, i just whipped together all the left overs in a wok of vermicelli. I must say, after a couple of days of heavy carbo shots with tonnes of cheese, the vermicelli was a wonderful change. And earlier this afternoon, my beloved had made a strawberry pavlova for desert. Yummy. I think I should fast next week!

After weeks of none stop working; aside from the grueling pushing at the office, I also had travelled to the east coast 2 days within the 3 weeks. This really help bring down the energy level. So yes, I was really really exhausted. I can't even see clearly, let alone write for this blog. My mind was just too tired to think. I was functioning on auto.

So, just to relax, yesterday after work (actually I skived at 4pm- having stayed in the office during lunch) I went for a facial session at the new Lancome Beauty Institute at BVII.

It had been at least 3 years since I last had this sort of pampering. I used to visit Clarins Institute at KLCC once every 3 weeks; yes, luxurious I must admit and I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences. Alice, my therapist was a good sales person aside from being good at providing those Clarins quality services. Needless to say, I never was never caught running out of moisturiser, EVER.

I also love those heated flexible beds they have in the center. While the A/C are pretty much centralized, the heated beds keep my body warm. So even if I just lie there for an hour plus, I would not freeze. They also have yummy showers with all the lovely toileteries to play with. The towels were also thick, white and simply luxurious. In other words, the RM160 per session I had to pay back then was totally worth it!

The Lancome institute come across as bit pretencious in my opinion. Firstly, all of the ladies there greet you with a re-sounding BONJOUR; the moment you step into the beauty centre. I really did not know how to properly respond to BONJOUR! So that left me somewhat flustered.

After filling up a form, Jane, the beauty advisor lead me to the skin test area. There she prodded some metal tube on my face. The tube goes 'beep' and Jane reads the little wee monitor. It seems that after all these years, my skin is still very much oily-combination. I am now convinced that the state of ones skin is genetic and will never ever be NORMAL (if it is not). Thus the very idea of categorising NORMAL as NORMAL is unacceptable. It should perhaps be 'equilibrium'. Skin care industry should think about this. Other categories shall remain the same i.e. oily or dry. And beauty advisor should stop trying to sell oily skins with products that will make it normal, because there is no such thing. I am betting there are 33.33% people with oily skin, 33.33% people will dry skin and 33.34 % people with equilibrium skin. And at any one point, one will have a combination of one or the other.

Anyways, Jane had read out my results and it seems that my face is still firm (approaching high on the scale)..not bad for one whom is approaching 40. However, the hydration level is quite average. And it seems I should be careful or it will drop below average and become dry; thus opening up concerns for fine lines and wrinkles. We can't have that, can we? Not even at 60.

After the test she gave me a cuppa and a chance to relief myself before the treatment. Finally she introduced me ti Lyn, my therapist. Lyn led me to my room which looked like a curtain shop.

he he Ok not a curtain shop. But there were many layers of white curtains and the lighting was something else. Prior to the treatment the lights were pink and through out the treatment the lights were blue.

Where Clarin's background music was something french with some old frenchman singing I dont know what, Lancome background music was not something I'd consider soothing. In this area, both french establishments loses out to Martha Tilaar with the soothing gamelan music in the background. Maybe I prefer this because I am from the east?

As lyn went on to scrub and massage my face, i began to really feel the cold. This is where clarins wins hands down. I really love their heated bed. Whereas at Lancome it was so cold, I was trembling inside. Not really ideal for relaxation, huh.

And yes, the treatment reminded me of Alice. She was really good at what she did. I miss her. Where Lyn was trying to be good, she was not as strong as Alice with the shoulder massages. Or perhaps it was just the regime at Lancome, but i think Clarins has a better facial regime. Clarin's face and shoulder massage routine were simply more enjoyable.

Regardless, it was a nice experience and something I'd look forward to. The Lancome beauty centre at BVII was having a really good promotion of 67% discount for week days treatment. For RM900 you get 10 treatments. Which was a good deal. On top of that, they allow part payments. Pay half first and the second payment after the second treatment. At an average of 3 weeks once, one would only have to pay the second half after six weeks.

With such an offer, how can I say no.

I had been peeking at Sothys 128 Faubourg also in BVII earlier. But with me already locked in at Lancome, it would take over a year before I can try the treatment at 128.

Bottomline, a woman and her money are soon parted. And parting, is such a sweet sorrow.

My Thoughts on Datuk Hamid's Confession

2007-07-08T22:17:00.000+08:00

Coming Up!

Sunday Night Dinner @ Home

2007-07-08T21:47:00.000+08:00

Tonight's dinner was yet again something that came out from "At Home With Amy Beh-3". However, this time we opted for fish. The fish was supplimented with our usual stir fried long beans and carrots. Both these dishes were eaten with steamed white rice.

Although, the fish needed to be deep fried, meaning, thats two nights in a row we've had deep fried meal; the result was really tasty. The fish just needed to be deep fried for one minute. I had drained the excess oil in kitchen paper. So at the end, the dish was not as oily as one expects it to be. My beloved liked the recipe and I think it could be one of the mainstay recipes in our house hold.

Heres the recipe:

Stir Fried Herbal Black Pepper Fish

350g fish filler (garoupa or red snapper )
10 g ginger sliced
Onion cut into wedges
2 stalks spring onion
Oil for deep frying
1 tbsp oil for stir frying
1 tbsp sesame oil

Seasoning
5 g tong kwai ground into fine powder
1 tp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp oil added just before cooking

Sauce
2 tbsp black pepper sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp potato flour
4 tbsp water

Method
1) Marinate fish with seasoning at least 30 mintes before cooking.

2) Fry fish, remove and drain.

3) Heat wok and add clean oil and sesame oil. Fry ginger till fragrant. Add sauces and onion. Return fish into wok and stir fry over high heat for 20-30 seconds. Add spring onions and serve.

I had gotten a huge red snapper at the farmers market. It was going for RM14 per kilo. I had the 2 kilo fish filleted but cooked only half. The other half will be used later in the week for yet another recipe from Amy Beh's book. I had left out the tong kwai and spring onions. Tong kwai, the real ones, are not all that easy to get and I simply forgot about the spring onion in the fridge.

For vegetables, I had stir fried long beans and carrot; and since I had some fish balls and tofu, I had that thrown in as well. I threw all these into the wok after the garlic had turn golden and fragrant. I added some water for the long beans and carrot will soften. Lastly I add 1 tsp of brown sugar and a dash of salt.

Seven Wonders of The World

2007-07-08T15:46:00.000+08:00

The world has a new 7 wonders of the world list. While it was fun to have the world participate in the polls, I would have to say, the result would have been something to be ignored at best.

True, even the original list was something to be taken with a mountain of salt. After all, the original list was so Greek-centric that one tend to wonder if no one else on earth had done anything at all to be honored as such. However, the creator of th original was entitled to his opinion. Blame others for imposing it to the rest of the world.

Though I tend to have a soft spot for the ancient wonders, one can't help acknowledge that the new wonders has more rights to having the "..of the world" added on to the 'wonders'. As it is the new wonders are spread across the world as opposed to the ancients which was more Greek centric.

But when one gives the power of voting to lay people, one tends to get a skewed result. The new seven wonders of the world as announced in Lisbon yesterday are as follows:

1)The Great Wall of China (yaaayy!)
2)Petra,
3)Chichén Itzá ,
4)the Statue of Christ Redeemer (what????why??)
5)the Colosseum,
6)Machu Picchu and
7)Taj Mahal (yaay!)

I agree to most of the seven wonders but one.

What is so wonder-ous about the statue of christ the redeemer? Heck they even have a copy of this in Vung Tau, Vietnam. I have nothing against Jesus, heck, I behave more in his footsteps than most 'christ'-ians (I say 'peace be upon you' as greetings, as is expected of most muslims). But to actually put the statue as one of the wonders, NOPE! I'd think, why not the statue of liberty or chryselephantine statue of Athena in Acropolis? or why not the Pathenon. Paganistic? Well, the idea of a statues are paganistic to begin with anyways, so why the double standards.

Anyways, this is yet another example as to why pure democracy don't really 'work'. It only serves to put forth popular concepts or ideas of the time; not necessarily a good thing.

I can imagine the people of Brazil putting in their votes like crazy; being reliant on the voting power of the people had resulted in the forth wonder to become the 'I wonder' of the world.

That said, thankfully the Awful Tower in Paris and The Sydney Opera House did not get on that list. Otherwise, it would have really been the seven 'I wonder how the heck that got there' of the world list.

Note:
As it stands, the Hungry Traveller had been to 2 of the wonders, The Great Wall of China and The Taj Mahal, while the beloved had been to the Taj Mahal,Chichen Itza and practically lived next door to the Colosseum. It is the Hungry Traveller's plan to go to Petra in Jordan sometime in the near future. That said, The Hungry Traveller gives more serious attention to the UNESCO World Heritages than the Seven Wonders List.

Ms Traveller, How Does Your Garden Grow?

2007-07-08T15:13:00.000+08:00

Today is sunday and as usual I will mossy down to the farmer's market to get fish and other seafood for dinner. Also, it is a good opportunity to take a peep at the gardening stall. Today I heard the kaffir lime (limau purut) and the local rose calling out to me. I couldn't resist not peeking, of course. I bought a kaffir lime tree for mom 3 weeks ago and after looking at it as it sat on our back balcony for a week or so, I felt that i NEEDED one too; who knows when we will need it for that occasional tom yum dinner, whenever we don't head down to Basil for our shots- after all before we discovered Basil, tom yum dinner was always at home.

I already have the limau kasturi plant on the back balcony, so now the kaffir will keep the limau kasturi company. If I could get a kalamansi (limau nipis), that would complete my collection of local limes.

As for the local rose, I bought him to keep the limau purut company while riding in the passenger seat of my car. Lets see how long that guy will last.

In all, I was set back RM5 for the limau purut and RM6 for the rose.

As mom and dad had gone south to re-stock the crackers inventory, I was left with much time on my hands, aside from cleaning, mopping and wiping.

So, before sett;ing into a nice relaxing time reading the sunday papers in my little oasis, I set about to do some gardening of pruning, fertilizing and watering the plants.

Incidentally, the cili padi seems to have progressed nicely lately. The stalk is getting stronger. I am planning to transfer this guy into a bigger pot, maybe next weekend or next week after tuesday, when I can get home from work while the sun is still up.

The orchids seems to be getting out of their blooming stage. One by one the beautiful blooms are fading and wilting. Soon I will have to prune the branch to encourage the next wave of blooms. Last night I gave them some of those gel enhancer, 1 tsp in I litre of water, misted over the leaves and flowers; I can't wait to see how effective the enhancers are.

I also look forward to seeing those taiwanese orchid seedlings I bought in Sungei Buloh at RM10 for 3 pots, all blooming. It will sure be a sight to behold.

Saturday Night Dinner @ Home

2007-07-07T20:54:00.001+08:00

It has been awhile we stayed home and cooked dinner on saturday night. Te routine had been got out just before six and arrive at BV for dinner around six pm. A perfect time for us as the restaurants will already be open for dinner and the dinner crowd would not have come in yet, thus giving us a choice of where to sit and short waiting time for the food to be served.

Today, I wanted to be different. Firstly, I felt like getting the shopping out of the way early; and I wanted to cook dinner at home. Additionally, I bought a new recipe book titled "At Home With Amy Beh-3" after my time out at Touches de Siam last week. It seems a good time to be trying out the recipes.

So, this morning while relaxing I made up the shopping list. This week's list includes ingredients for enchiladas, lamb meatloaf, two recipes from the new recipe book and a miscellaneous of other stuff.

For dinner today I had opted to try two recipes from AB3; sugar snap peas with scallop and black fungus and Stir Fried Chicken And Beancurd with Crispy Ginger Shreds. These were served with steamed rice.

Both these dishes are not new to us. It is something we would order in a restaurant but seems too much work to cook at home. For example the Stir fried chicken had called for chicken thighs to be de-boned. That in it self took me some 30 minutes or so. Then the cooking of the chicken bits, portion by portion was another twenty minutes or so; 3 cycles to be exact. Of course it would have been faster had I used the fryer, but I totally forgot about that. The fryer would have cut down the cooking time to about half. With pre-cooking the chicken out of the way, there is cutting, chopping, deseeding, de-skinning, soaking, whacking, washing and whatever one needs to do to prepare ingredients. The parts we NEVER see on tv, especially not by celebrities.

Anyway, after two hours of slaving away in the kitchen, we got to sit down and savour the results. On the whole the recipes made for good meals. It was satisfying. I had used alternatives for some of the required ingredients; for example I did not use chicken granules to season the de-boned chicken and instead used chicken cubes. I did not see the point of purchasing a whole bottle of granules for this one recipe. It would have passed off nicely had I massaged it thoroughly into the chicken. My failure resulted with some random saltiness. I also did not see the point of paying RM11.00 for 5 pieces of scallop. I used white fish, fishballs instead; not exactly a fair exchange, but hey, it worked. There was still that fishy flavour.

As I said, the dishes came out nicely. Recipes are as follows:

Stir Fried Chicken AND Beancurd with Crispy Ginger Shreds

200 g deboned chicken thighs, cubed
2 pieces smi-soft beancurd, cubed
140g ginger, shredded
2 sprigs basil leaves
2 red chillies, sliced diagonally
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
salt
Oil for deep frying

Chicken Seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chicken granules
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg white
2 tbsp corn flour, for dusting

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
3/4 sugar
1 tsp pepper
1tsp chicken granule
1 tsp minced birds eye chilli (cili padi)
100 ml water

Thickening
1 tsp potato flour
2 tbsp water

Method
1) Marinate chicken in seasoning for 10 minutes. SPrinkle salt on bean curd
2) Deep fru bean cud till golden, dish out and set aside. Fry half portion of shredded ginger until crispy. Deep fry basil for 10-20 seconds. remove and drain.
3) Fry chicken till golden brown, drain and set aside.
4) Heat oil and sesame oil. Saute ginger and chilli. Combine sauces, pre-fried chicken and beancurd. Simmer for 1-2 minutes. Thicken with potato flour misxture. Dish out and garnish with crispy ginger and basil leaves.

Sugar Snap Peas wit Dried Scallop and Black Fungus

150g sugar snap peas
40 g carrots, cut into desired shapes
4 dried chillies soaked and sectioned
10 g balck fungus soaked and sliced
2 dried scallops
100 ml scallop juice (from steamed scallops)
8 slices young ginger
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

Seasoning
1/4 tsp sl
1/4 tsp sugar
2-3 tbsp water

Thickening
1 tbsp corn flour with 3 tbsp water

Method

1) Soak dry scallop and steam over low heat until softened. Remove and tear into shreds. Retain juice.

2) Heat oil and sesame oil, fry chopped garlic, dried chillies until fragrant. Add snap peas, carrots and black fungus.

3) Pour scallop juice and seasoning and bring to boil. Add scallop schreds and toss. Thicken sauce with corn flour mix. Dish out and serve hot.

At home With Amy Beh 3 is available at any good book shop in Malaysia. Recommended selling price is RM38 and MPH is offering a 15% discount for purchase of this book for a limited time only.

The Indian Odyssey: Part III-Taj Mahal!

2007-07-05T22:03:00.000+08:00

There is no denying that I was impressed. Some four centuries later the symbol of loved built by Shah Jahan for Mumtaz still stands proudly. It made me misty in the eye that anyone can love another enough to put in all that effort, literally moving mountains.

If Shah Jahan had just built the tomb; the famous domed structure with the 4 minarets on the 4 corners (apparently Shah Jahan had the minarets built leaning outwards a little in case of earthquake, the minarets would fall outwards and not on to his beloved Mumtaz’s tomb…the man thinks of everything doesn’t he?), I would not have given it a second glance. After all, it looks pretty much like any other mosque, granted it was built in the 1600s but it was not a unique design even at its time. In fact it was a copy of Humayun’s tomb. More on this one later.

The moment I walk through the gate, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the overall design. The Taj in the middle of it all. A water feature lined up in the middle leading to the main building. There were two outlaying buildings, flanked on the left and right side of the Taj; the buildings was built in mirror image. The buildings were made of red bricks in contrast to the Taj Mahal, which was built with white marble. The one on the left is still being used as a mosque. Thus why the Taj is closed to visitors on Friday as the area is used for Friday prayers for the muslim community in the vicinity.

What impressed me about the Taj Mahal was the exquisite details. Shah Jahan had instructed for every inch of the internal walls to be lined with designs or Quranic verses. The designs were mostly flower motifs, gems stones embedded in marble. Geometric designs carved out of the marble.

I later found out that the Quranic verses lining the walls were selected with purpose. The verse on the south entrance is from the 89th verse- The Dawn (Al-Fajr).

[89:27] As for you, O content soul.

{89:28] Return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing.

[89:29] Welcome into My servants.

[89:30] Welcome into My Paradise.

A verse that brings relief to the tortured soul, in my opinion. And this, Amanat Khan, the Shah’s appointed calligrapher had hand picked for Mumtaz.

My beloved and I spent more than an hour exploring the Taj and the grounds around it. In the middle of the Taj we saw Mumtaz’s and Shah Jahan’s tomb. It is ironic that The Shah ended up next to Mumtaz in the Taj, when he had planned to have an equally grand black Taj Mahal, a mirror image (hes a stickler for mirror images, I noticed) of the one he built for Mumtaz, right across the Yamuna river.

It was quite dark in the Taj as preservation efforts means no harsh lighting in the tomb chambers. As it was, the Taj had gone all yellow after years of suffering due to the pollutions and acid rains. The government of India had since closed down the factories in the vicinity. A small lose, if you asked me.

Leaving the main building we walked toward the outlaying building which houses a museum. The museum had in its show cases some of the parchments of decrees issued by Shah Jahan for the construction of the Taj Mahal. I can’t remember the exact details, but the parchments had information as to where each type of gemstone was sourced from. Apparently, old man Shah Jahan had the whipping boy, Jai Singh (of the Hawa Mahal fame, I am guessing) do the dirty work. The white marble that made up the main structure was hauled from Rajasthan, jade and crystal from china, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, turquoise from Tibet, Sapphire from Ceylon and carnelian from Arabia.

Ironically, the building that brought fame the Shah Jahan, was also the triggering factor for his pain. On the completion of the Taj Mahal, Aurangzeb, one of his sons, ceased power, killed his brothers and Shah Jahan himself was put under house arrest in the Red Fort, not far away from the Taj Mahal. There Shah Jahan spent the rest of his life gazing out at the Mumtaz’s Taj Mahal.

After the museum my beloved and I lingered around the grounds a little; taking pictures, well, I was. It was too bad that the water features were under maintenance. It would have made a wonderful picture.

I felt a surge of emotion at the end of our tour of the Taj; I’ve done it. I’ve been to the Taj Mahal. I had missed visiting the Taj during my previous visits to India. Now, the image of Taj Mahal is up there with the images of The Great Wall of China and The Pyramids of Giza – never to be erased from my mind.

The Taj Mahal is a UNESCO world heritage site. Visiting hours are Saturdays to Thursdays from sunrise to 7.30pm. If you happen to travel to India around a full moon, you could catch the Taj Mahal tour by the moonlight. Apparently, the Taj glows under the light of the moon. I can only imagine how that would look like.

Entry for foreigners cost INR 200 while for locals INR50. Alternatively, you could pay one time the amount for INR500 to Agra Development Authority and you get a couple of sites. We didn’t know about this and thus paid more than we could have had we known about this package deal.

Time Out: Touches de Siam

2007-07-04T08:41:00.000+08:00

Yes, I had indeed needed, not desired, a good strong massage.

The long work week which spilt over into saturday and the 14 plus hours road trip on monday had taken a toll on me. If I wished to remain standing for the rest of this work week, I will have to be kneaded and elbowed into submission.

Thus how I found myself at the massage parlour last night. {This sentence could SO be misunderstood if I were a malay man!}

My beloved had suggested I take a time out. Due to the work load, the idea of indulging as such had not even occured to me. He suggested I go to the spa at the gym, but i felt, spa was kind of luxurious. A spa in the middle of a work day. tsk!
After leaving the idea to cook a little i began to see sense in his suggestion, but time out at the Clark Hatch Life Spa is just too much. I thought about driving over to Puri Ayu in Ampang, but concluded that the drive back will just put me back to my original state of stress.

I figured, if the idea of a massage were to even be considered it has got to be one located in or around Bangsar.

I did a quick research of the Jentayu Spa website(http://www.jentayuspa.com.my/) Looks good, not too expensive and located in Jalan Gelanggang near pusat bandar Damansara, some 20 minutes drive from home. Keeping that in view, I googled further for massage centres around Bangsar Baru i.e. located on one of the Telawis.

Going through the google result I found Touches de Siam which looked interesting. The prices are not too expensive either, considering, it is located in Bangsar Baru where rentals can kill any business if income is not consistant.

After making the appointment for 6.30pm, I made dinner arrangement with beloved and then went back to the business of working.

At 5.28 my beloved yahooed me to remind me of the appointment. Not half hour later I found myself walking up the staircase leading to Touches de Siam. Infront of the entrance were the 2 doll carvings of the thai women in the 'wai' stance. Along the staircase were candles and even before I walked into the centre I could smell the oils.

At the top of the staircase was the reception. I was immediately greeted by a chinese girl whom requested that I took a sit while I decide which treatment to go for.

I had in mind a full body massage with oil; where there is a full hand to body contact. I noticed that she tried hard pushing for the 2 hours thai massage which was cheaper but in my opinion did not have that firm palms on the skin effect and did not really let me doze while the massaeuse work on the back. The thai massage was going for RM98 for 2 hours while the thai aromatherapy was RM118 for 1.5 hours.

After I made up my mind for the aromatherapy,I got stuck as to the oils to opt for; relax vs sports & muscular. For some sadistic reason only my subconscious mind would know, i found myself telling sharon at the reception to go on and prepare the sports and muscular oils. Only to regret the decision, 3 minutes later. But it was a no turn back decision. Sharon was that quick. By the time I turn around, Wai my massaeuse was already taking off my shoes and leading me to the foot sink. Sharon then peaked in to double confirm the sports and muscular oil order-smiling gleefully as I sheepishly nodded. I knew then that I was in for a hard time ahead.

Wai was a small girl. But I have learnt not to under estimate small girls working professionally in the massage industry. I could see from her hands that she meant business. No hanky panky happy ending massage with this girl. She could probably belt out a kungfu chop if one is not careful.

So, after taking off my clothes she gave me a cup of water to drink. And then we were off.

As I mentioned before in these pages, I love massages. But I am a pussy cat when it comes to leg massages. For some strange reason, my legs can't take as much abuse as my back. But I just laid there taking the beatings quietly all the while thinking of the pleasures when she gets to work on my back and shoulder.

Wai was good at what she does. She has very strong arms and she made sure that my muscles submits to her beatings. But as strong as she is, my muscles were more stubborn. Her elbow showed no mercy for my trapezius, latissimus Dorsi nor my erector spinae. While flipping around after she was done on my back she said to me 'back stip!'. Yes and don't I know it!

I always feel disappointed when I know the back and shoulder massages were to come to an end. But come to an end it must. Wai went on to massage the anterior without much fanfare and after she was done with my abdomen she left the room. After about 5 minutes lying there in the dark I thought we had come to the end of the session. So I got up to put on my clothes when she came in and said 'No, not finis, head massage. sorry no tell you not finis!'

So, on again we went with the head massage. Wai worked very hard on my shoulder and neck muscles. She even asked me 'pain?' to which I answered 'little bit but good.'

We finally ended the session and Wai gave me another cup of water.

At that point I felt so light, it was ashamed I had to put stress back on by driving home. Perhaps massage parlours should offer pick up services within a certain radius. If pizzas could do it...

In conclusion, I had a good time out at Touches de Siam. It was a fortunate discovery as the prices for the services offered are not too prohibitively expensive and it is located close to home. Of course as far as the massage rooms are concerned, it is not luxurious as those in spas and the oils are not as fluid as those of Martha Tilaar (we could do without the elevator music too) but if all you need a good strong massage, this place will serve you well.

http://www.touchesdesiam.com.my/

note: The Hungry Traveller has plans to go try the Thai Massage sometime soon. Although the 2 hours massage is at almost twice the price of the massages at Wat Po, The Hungry Traveller considers it as still worth it.

The Indian Odyssey: Part II

2007-07-01T22:11:00.000+08:00

The Train Ride

My beloved arrived from KL on that Saturday night. But it was to be a short night as we were to check out at 6 am to catch the 7am train to Agra. I would have loved to just revel in the luxury of the room, but we were pressed for time and the faster we get to Agra the better.

So, thus we found ourselves on the way to the Delhi train station. Even at 6.30 the station was already packed with people. Everyone with their destinations in mind, My beloved left me in the taxi to take care of our luggage while he check on the tickets. Unfortunately being foreign and white, he was taken on a merry go round by the touts.

We had missed the fast train to Agra and rushed to try our luck at the Nizamuddin trains station. The Delhi Express to Janshi goes via Agra from the Nizamuddin station and we managed to get tickets for the one leaving at 8am. Tickets without dedicated seat numbers in a general coach, I might add.

We got the tickets at 7.30am and since the train leaves at 8, we rushed to platform 5. Getting left by the train is not what we want and perchance, being ‘early’ we might get a seat. It was after all was to be a 3 hours ride.

The thing about rushing around with luggage and bags fit for a business trip is that, it doesn’t quite make for a convenient cheap travel plan.

Ideally when traveling cheap, one should travel with back packs. Not wheel around a cute red bag (which is quite at home in airports but seems to look quite out of place in the crowd station) and lug around two lap tops. Yes, that is correct. TWO. Not one cute palm, not even one that is half an A4 paper Fujitsu. That’s two HP laptops, one a pavilion and one an NC4400; thank goodness one was without the full accessories.

After asking around, we found our carriage at the end of the line. It was already filled to the brim and the only way in is to push in. I found myself a little spot to lean on and my beloved parked himself in front of the toilet.

The train moved out of Delhi right on time though. The train was surprisingly fast and soon we were traveling through acres and acres of farm land. I was quite intrigued by the sight of wild boards trotting across one field; and all around the field were farm houses and vehicles for transporting of the farm produces. The boars didn’t appear to me all that wild.

Even with the very interesting sights, it started to get tiresome standing on my feet for 3 hours; always having to be on guard and ensure I do not loose anything; especially my laptop bag. Later, to my moan about having to stand, my beloved said that he had to bear with the stink from the toilet and having to make way for people coming and out of the toilet. Half way on the ride, kind Samaritans made way for me and shared their little bench. It was not much. I had half of my ass cheek on the bench and half, off. But it was better than standing all the way.

Every time the train pulls into a station, passengers are barraged with sales of samosas, bottled water, chai and a colourful variety of yummy looking goodies. While they look good, I did not want to risk getting kicked in the gut, that being the first day of the vacation too. After all, I had controlled my desires in the face of all the yummy food during the visit to Mumbai last ramadhan, surely I can say no to the samosas now.

Just before we pulled into Agra, we made conversations with a local Delhiite, actually a medical student whom hailed from Agra. We chatted about India, Bollywood, Big B and India’s politics. I could see that he was quite disenchanted with his country; but then again aren’t we all?

Finally we got off the train and made for the Indian tourism board counter. We made enquiries about tours to Taj Mahal. As we both had not really decided as to what we wanted to do, my beloved bought tickets for the taxi to go to the Howard Park Plaza Hotel in town.

The Pizza Hut Agra

Its crazy but lunch on our first day in Agra was at The Pizza Hut! To go all the way to the land of curries and to dine at a fast food was completely insane.

I have to admit, it was a different experience. I loved the lemonade and I swear they don’t make the lemonade like that in Pizza Hut KL. The Lemonade masala was nothing to shout about, it was just lemonade and masala powder, but it was different.

The tandoori chicken pizza was wonderful; juicy chunky tandoori chicken on crispy dough. That was one pizza which we cleared out even the ‘bones’.

We rested much of the day and by 8, my beloved was completely knocked out. And being hungry and not able to wait till 9 (it was after all midnight in KL) I called for room service before calling it a night.

The Pre Adventure, Adventure

After breakfast the next day, we grabbed a tuk tuk to the Tourism of India office just 5 minutes down the road from our hotel. The guide books said that the offices will open at 9 and we reached there on time. But India being India, no one was there. We were serviced by the tea maker whom could not understand us and we in turn could not understand him. All we got out of him was the officer will not be in until 10.30 am….thats an hour and a half of waiting!

We hung around the offices while my beloved contemplated going down to the tourism office at the train station.

At 9.30, the officer finally made her grand entrance and quickly kicked into action. Herein lies our preference for the Government of India Tourism Offices. The office tied us up to an agent for our first day tour to the Taj Mahal. We had opted to rent a car and hire a guide for a half day tour around Agra.

However, before we proceeded with the itinerary, the driver swung by his office for the non obligatory look at the Mughlai Emperor’s private collection of precious stones and everything else in the store. One will quickly learn that in Agra, everyone is related to the Shah and would have a private collection of the jewels. So, if you missed one collection, don’t fret; there is a bunch all over town and you would not be left wanting.

After about half an hour of being wooed and saying, thank you but no, we are just looking, the driver and guide finally took us on our way to the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal
The driver dropped us off at the north gate and we had to walk for 10 minutes to the main gate. Along the way there were tombs of unknown people, perhaps fort keepers; children trying to sell you all sorts of stuff, camels rides and people selling peeled cucumber. The gardens outside the fort look ill kept and it’s a shame, considering it was in the vicinity of THE Taj Mahal,

After buying the tickets, we had to go through a sentry to ensure that we do not have explosives and other contraband items on our person which might in some way harm the world heritage site. We also learn through out our odyssey later that there are sentries located at the entrance of almost every major tourist attraction we visited.

Even before the Taj itself, on entering the premises one would already be in awe. The inner gates were also built to impress as was the guest quarters outside the tomb vicinity. So, it was with great expectations I entered the gates. And in all the splendor of the greatest symbol of love; there it was ..the Taj Mahal.

The Banquet: Now Open At BV II

2007-07-01T21:37:00.000+08:00

Last night we had dinner at the newly opened 'The Banquet' on the third floor of BV II.

The beloved and I had difficulty in deciding where to have dinner because we did not feel like having sushi nor thai.

As it was his turn to decide as I had opted for pizza friday night. He finally decided to try out the new place, The Banquet just to see what the place had to offer.

When we got there the maitre'd, a little chap whom we felt was too eager to serve came to our service.

On surveying the menu, the beloved had felt that it was tad bit pretentious. Regardless, we went on to order our drinks; I had the chamomile tea and the beloved had a stella.

After going through the menu long enough, we finally ordered.

I had portabello and garlic while the beloved had escagot for starters. And then I went on to order the cury noodles (RM17) and beloved had fettucini. While waiting for the food we apparaised the set up of the place. The Banquet is located on the third floor of BV II and the seating area includes a sizeable area in the middle of the common walk way. One cannot really miss the place. It is charmingly decorated with marble top table and white whicker chair, the floor were simply 2x6 planks painted white and 2 large chandeliars graced the entrance and the back area.

We did not have to wait too long for our meals to come. There were a couple of groups but it was not as busy as we expect it to be at dinner time. The crowd we saw, came in later.

My curry noodle was good but RM17 was a little steep regardless of the add ons. My beloved thoroughly enjoyed his fettucini but had to supplement his main course with an order of sun dried tomatoes as the portion of his fettucini was just too small.

For desert I had the creme brule which was yummy and beloved had irish coffee with mango crepe with vanilla ice cream.

In conclusion, The Banquet is a place we might go to if we both are not all that hungry. The prices are a little steep for the portions served, though tasty enough to be in the running in the future. However, we would give points for the attentive services; they're not up there with Cherie yet but these people are young and perhaps new to the job too. Speaking slower would also help.

My beloved was somewhat impressed with the chopsticks incident. He had called for a pair of chopstick and the waiters had it delivered to him. On pointing out that it was for the lady (read: ME), the waiters actually took the trouble to take the chopsticks to me, serving from my right instead to just reach out to me from across the table. Yeah, so beloved was impressed there.

The dinner set us back some RM250, RM80 was on 2 stellas and the irish coffee. A bit expensive but a nice place to have a chat and a pot of tea after the afternoon shopping spree or a spa sessions with the girls.

The Star: Try gardening, advises PM

2007-07-01T21:35:00.000+08:00

Nation
Sunday July 1, 2007

Try gardening, advises PM

By MARSHA TAN and STEVEN DANIEL

MALACCA: The public have been urged by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to decorate their homes with flowers and plants not only to beautify their houses but also for consumption.

Abdullah said if a home was decorated beautifully with colourful and fragrant flowers, one would return home to see them blooming and feel calmer and happier.

Nature lovers: Abdullah and his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah and Ali Rustam and his wife Datin Seri Asmah Abdul Rahman admiring a bloom at Taman Seribu Bungah in Ayer Keroh, Malacca, yesterday.
“Grow plants which not only flower but also bear fruits or vegetables that can be eaten, such as lady’s finger plant.

“The lady’s finger plant has a really beautiful yellow flower with a reddish centre, similar to a hibiscus. When it bears fruit, we can eat the fruit, which is the lady’s finger,” said Abdullah after launching the RM8.1mil Taman Seribu Bunga (Thousand Flower Park) in Ayer Keroh here yesterday.

Besides lady’s fingers, he added, other flowering vegetables, which could be planted, were the bunga kantan and red chilli .

“This is, as (Agriculture and Agro- Based Industries Minister) Tan Sri Muhyiddin (Yassin) had called, an edible garden, so there are two benefits of doing this. For beautification and also for consumption,” he said.

It was to the public’s advantage, he added, that Malaysia’s climate enabled flowers to bloom all year round, compared to other countries, where the flowers only bloom in certain seasons.

On the newly-launched park, which is expected to open to the public by the end of August, Abdullah said it could be a venue for visitors to spend their leisure hours.

When humans want to relax, there were many methods, including watching movies, spending time with children and another method, Abdullah added, was to take a stroll in a park to appreciate the beautiful flowers.

“It would also be good for other states to have such parks because we want to beautify (the country),” said Abdullah.

Earlier Abdullah and his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah visited the 5.26ha park where Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and the Prime Minister planted the Pokok Melaka and Pokok Raja Kayu.

Ali Rustam also announced that the park's 1,000th flower species – a white hybrid orchid doritieanopsis was named Datuk Seri Utama Jeanne Abdullah after Abdullah’s wife.

Ali Rustam said the orchid, which was cultivated three years ago, bloomed after Abdullah announced his marriage to Jeanne.

The couple also cut two cakes – one to launch the park and another as a gift to Jeanne, who received the Darjah Utama Negeri Melaka (DUNM), the highest honour in the state from Malacca Governor Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob at Seri Negeri which carries the title Datuk Seri Utama.

Orchids: Let The Madness Begins

2007-07-01T20:12:00.000+08:00

Today, I went to the Sg. Buloh nurseries with mom and dad.

For some strange reason dad had wanted to Sg. Buloh nurseries along with us girls. Strange indeed.

Ever since my discovery of 'gardening', trips to Sg. Buloh nurseries had been viewed as a treat instead of a hot and tedious chore that it used to be.

Sg. Buloh is known amongst us KL people these days as THE place to shop for all your gardening needs. It used to be a leper colony due to the leprosy hospital located in the vicinity but now Sg. Buloh is a gardening and landscaping heaven.

Mom had been bugging me to go to Sg. Buloh to get black soil and some plants for a couple of weeks now. For one reason or another it had not been convenient for me. Additionally, trips to the nurseries needs to be made on the largest vehicle one could get ones hands on as no one leaves empty handed. Exaggerate, I do not.

Anyway, I had in my mind to procure some orchids. As had been journalised herein, I had recently been bitten by the orchid bug.

On arriving we headed towards the hindu temple; our usual parking spot and walked to the nurseries lined all the way down the road.

Mom had quickly gone for the bourganvilla. I had once wanted to have the bourganvilla but as these plants needs a lot of water and my lifestyle simply cannot afford to be there all the time to ensure it gets its daily water supply, my interest in them waned pretty quickly.

I went to the nurseries I usually go to and was quickly taken by some herbaceous flowery shrub. These were pretty little yellow and purple plants that would last some 6 months max and will then have to be replanted. At RM2.50 each it was a steal. I did not need much convincing. I ordered 3 of the yellow ones and 3 of the purple ones and instructed the sales assistant to put it in a long pot. Together with these, i purchased the brackets so i could hang the pot on grill at the balcony.

While the girl worked on my plants I explored further in search for orchids. The first shop with orchids I stopped at had offered the Taiwan Orchid at RM38; I remembered the sames one were going for RM88 at BV (the shop beside Basil). At RM38 it was, yet again, a steal.

Somehow, I did not want to invest in RM38 for something I am not sure of. I mean, aside from misting the orchids 3 days once and fertilize every fortnightly, I know nothing about caring for orchids. The few I already had were cheap and I could afford to have them die on me (RM6 each I am willing to part with, but RM38? No way!) I shall start with my training wheels and as I have more understanding of orchids, I might consider investing in the expansive ones.

The shop also had various other plants and mom bought a lime plant from the owner.

As we went down the path, I discovered more and more orchid shops. At the end of the road there was an orchid shop manned by 2 girls and they were pretty enthusiastic about selling their orchids. In short, they successfully sold to me a yellow orchid, minang orchids and the seedlings of the Taiwan Orchids. At RM10 for 3 pots of the small ones and RM20 for the big blooms ones, it was again a steal. Of course, it will be a long time coming for the flowers to bloom but I suppose if i could do this, I'll consider myself a successful orchid breeder.

Happy with my purchases, we went back to the first shop to pick up my herbaceous plants. By now, the three of us have had our hands full. Leaving dad to wait at the herbaceous plant shop, mom went to pick up her pots and I went to pick up the car. Mom had purchased those 20" diameter opening earthen pot at RM5 each, she bought 3 of those, some 10 bags of soil, 5 bags of humous, a bourgainvilla and 2 decorative pots (so she can split one of my minang orchids and share in my purchase). On loading the purchases we drove about 500 meters down the road to pick up my herbaceous plants and orchids ..and of course, my father (dad had sulked because mom refused to buy the herbaceous plant for his terraced garden saying that planting and replanting them will be a back breaking task. Mom prefers the perennial plants which do not bloom as much as those herbaceous plants but needs only be planted once and lives forever.)

I found out something interesting while paying for my herbaceous. A lady came by to look at my yellow orchids and asked how much i paid for it. As it was much bigger than my earlier purchases naturally I had to pay more for the new orchids. i told the lady I paid RM12 for it. She then said that she saw someone buying beautiful orchids at the lake gardens for RM10 for 2. That was something I needed to check out as the lake gardens is just 10 minutes away from my office and 20 minutes from home.

Anyway, on route home the 3 of us had lunch at Chitralada Palace at the Great Eastern Mall before going home. I took the opportunity to treat mom and dad; mom for her birthday and dad, for father's day. Lunch quick and tasty and at RM113 for 3 pax, it was a steal. Too bad I do not have EON CC as that would give me a 15% discount from the total bill.

After dropping off mom's purchases and loading the car with dinner, I went home. But not before swinging by the lake gardens. I had to pay RM1 entrance fees to enter the orchid gardens, but it was worth it. True to what the lady said, the pots of orchids were going for 2 pots for RM10 or 2 pots for RM20 or RM5 per pot, etc which are great bargains. There was one variety which was going for 3 for RM20. One of the shops at the kiosk sells herbal plants too.

I finally bought 3 more orchids setting myself back by RM25; and promised myself to come back to look at the herbals plants. I would have stayed had it been early as the opening hours of the garden is from 9am to 6pm.

In all it had been a wonderful day and I am deeply satisfied with my purchases.
And no, I did not exactly buy a planet today, but in my beloved's eyes, it is as good as one.

The Indian Odyssey: Part I

2007-06-29T23:28:00.000+08:00

THE SPOILT PLAN

The plan was to journalize the trip to India on daily. But that had remained a plan. I had written a lengthy account of the shopping spree in Delhi on our second day there. I now admit to the stupidity of writing online and not as I always do, on ms word and then cut and paste to Blogger. I suppose I had asked for it, writing online, I mean. It was Murphy Law in action; what could go wrong, did.

What was to have been an almost minute by minute account of the adventure is now ‘a couple weeks later’ account; the grizzly details lost, none of that ‘in your face’ honest emotion of the moment. Most of the account hereon had been glazed upon, carefully thought about, somewhat true account of the journey.

Never mind the regrets.

The adventure begins right here.

THE ORIGINAL PLAN

This trip to India was supposed to cover the ‘Triangle’: Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi.

But as the business part of it progressed, it became clear that the triangle was not to be. Everyday, on conclusion of the business day, I wobble back to the hotel for rest and some tv. Dinner is a late affair in India and there was nothing much to be done from 5pm, the time we all call it a day, until 9pm. So tv it was and off and on some reading.

Everyday from May 30th onwards, the CNN-IBN focused on the race riots that broke out in Rajasthan. Apparently, the Gujjars, one of the minority groups in Rajastan has had enough and wants the government to recognize and include them in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list which benefits include having more representation in government and increased quotas in jobs. Currently the Meenas are majority and enjoys most of the benefits for ST.

Every night I watched in horror as my traveling plans unravel. Roads were blocked, people killed and the Gujjars were not kidding when they threaten more lives will be lost if the government do not give in to their demand.

Much of the carnage committed affected Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan and a major tourist attraction; tourism, a much needed source of the revenue considering Rajasthan do/did not have much natural resources or agriculture to speak off and what ever little wealth they had were blown off by past Maharajas and his posse. Tourists had their bookings cancelled in the face of the riots.

LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN

Arriving in Delhi from Baroda, my colleagues and I headed to the Maidens hotel in a Toyota Innova. After an hour of driving, we arrived at a very charming colonial hotel and after a very pleasant check in, retired to our rooms for an hour.

I had planned to see the sights with my beloved, so sight seeing was not in my agenda that afternoon. I had my sights set for an afternoon of book shop hopping. I had read on the net that Delhi houses some of the most interesting book stores in India with offerings of hard to find books at very reasonable prices. This, to me was a no brainer. I just HAVE to look at the book shops.

Our driver Sham (a tuk tuk driver we met earlier) took about 20 minutes to arrive at our hotel from his port near Connaught Place and we instructed him to take us to the Oxford Book shop at the Statesman building. After fumbling at the back of the building, we finally found the entrance to the store. The statesman building is a building that attracts attention; well, it attracted mine. The building looks like a tube that had its insides cored out.

I come from a country where the shops usually have a shop-front. So, it was quite perplexing to find a store tucked away from the crowd, in an office building. I know in Malaysia, should a shop be similarly tucked away, said shop will find its doors closing pretty quickly…for good! So, after putting away our bags at the security corner, we entered a very modern and crowded store. On our left was a trendy café offering chai masala and samosa and wifi internet facilities and to our right were shelves and shelves of books. The 3 of us; Apek, Pendin and I soon parted company as we got absorbed in our own little fascinations; Pendin in his green tea at the café, no doubt checking out the girls with bollywood career potential, apek in his OSHO books and I, anything and everything in thick leather bound covers…. I was in heaven!

We went away after half an hour at Oxfords; having in tow, plastic bags laden with purchases. I had found a Mahabrata book at a ‘to die for’ price and needless to say grabbed it without second thoughts.

We then made our way to Connaught Place, specifically to Bookworm, the second bookshop on my list but by then my colleagues had complained of hunger and thirst. So, I instructed Sham to take us to Nizam’s, which was conveniently located some 3 2 minutes walk from Bookworm.

A GASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE

Nizam’s had been perpetually full of people, which was a good sign. But being foreign we were left to wonder how the ordering system works as there appears to be none. A good Samaritan finally got us out of our misery and directed us to the counter where the guy at the till took our orders and billed us. After paying we were to wait until our number was called, somewhat akin to the numbering system usually found in a bank. As, there were two orders of bryani, our order took a little bit longer than had it been a simple rolls/kebabs. That said, the dispensing counter serviced the customers according to the numbers and so, it was all fair and good.

The food was good and cheap and after washing down all that food with a litre of bottled water, we made our way to Bookworms.

MY IDEA OF HEAVEN

Bookworm is my idea of a dream business.

It may not comparable to Borders, Kinokuniya or even MPH in KL but it was simply heavenly to me. The shop was like a cool little oasis offering book lovers a respite from the blazing sun outside. The owner sitting at the end of the shelves with cool jazz piped from his little CD player and his little calculator working in overdrive. There were 2 floors of worth of books; books everywhere. The area on the second floor stores many rare books; one in particular that attracted my attention was simply titled ‘Akhbar’. It was a thin book with red hard covers. And it was about Akhbar the Great, the grandson of Babur and the grandfather of Shah Jahan; The great builder of the Mughlai Empire. Regretfully, I did not buy said book. Instead, after over an hour in the store, I went away with books written by William Dalrymple, the Vedas and a book titled Jesus Lived in India.

Again, we went away like Afghans having looted Shah Jahan’s Red Fort, but it felt like we could buy more and it still would not have been enough.

The damage of the day for the books came to about INR1,800 which I gather comes to about RM150, which is NOTHING when it comes to books. In KL, RM150 would have bought me 4 paperbacks or a hardcover.

Somehow, I just needed to go back.

Orchids : 6 Days Later

2007-06-29T22:37:00.000+08:00

The white-purple (dendrobium?)orchids I bought at the farmers market last sunday has bloomed pretty nicely. This one sits out on the back balcony together with the other herby plants.

And this purple (orchis mascula?)one sits in the living room by the sliding door.

Pizza Tonight! 2 4 1

2007-06-29T21:36:00.000+08:00

I have mixed feelings about pizza. Sometime over the 37 years of living I must have had too much of it, so much so, that I have come to the point of saturation.

I can only honestly say I desire pizza for my meal if there is absolutely nothing else in the world to eat.

So, it was without a sense of celebration that I had dinner tonight. Yes yes, always be thankful for what we have to eat; plentiful too.

It was sometime between 2003 and 2006. I could clearly remember nights and nights of staying back at the office to finish up tender proposals. And as is the normal practice at work, staying back to put together the proposals equals to fast food on the go.

Here in KL we get a variety of fast food outlets with delivery services. The most popular being pizza and burgers. In other words pizza hut, dominos or mc donalds. KFC dont do delieveries; and since the working team cant spare anyone to go out to get food, we have no choice but end up with one of the three. After awhile, we became wiser to the 'quality' of the delivered food and dropped mcdonalds from our speed dial option. So, everytime we have a proposal/s to work on, our definition of dinner is pizza!

Yes, we still have our speed dial on dominos and pizza hut but staying back at work to the wee hours had become far and fewer in between. Its good to note that our contracts had been extended continuously and we have no requirements working on tenders.

But the damage was done. I have had it to my ears in pizza. Which is a shame because my beloved just loves his pizza.

On the nights when i agree to pizza, it is Canadian Pizza for dinner. CP is pretty new in town having commenced business for less than 2 years. They are not as high profile as D or PH, but their 241 promotion had enabled them to garner an impressive chunk of the pizza market in and around selected areas of KL; such as Bangsar, Subang and Hartamas.

Tonight we had the Hot N Spicy pizza-generously topped with minced beef, onion, jalapeno peppers, pepperonies and red chillies. My verdict: Not Bad. I would have preferred to have the dough a little more crispy but the toppings was satisfactory in itself. I figured that with CP; forget about ordering the chicken toppings and just go for the beef toppings. The beef lover (had this a long time ago)and mexican fiesta (my beloved ordered this last week and I had a pinch) were also good. The CP chicken tandoori pizza was not as good as the ones we had at Pizza Hut in Agra (their lemonade was yummy too!) but then again, we were having tandoori pizza in the land of tandoori. But for RM36.90 (+5+3 in taxes)for two extra large pizzas, one can't really complain.

http://www.canadianpizza.com.my/index.swf

World Heritage: Red Fort

2007-06-29T16:48:00.000+08:00

Hungry Traveller's Comment:

Yes, it was an impressive fort by any standard.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

28 Jun, 2007 l 1319 hrs ISTlPTI
NEW DELHI: Red Fort, the 17th century Mughal marvel, has been given the world heritage status by UNESCO on Thursday.

Pitted against 45 other sites from across the globe, the Red Fort is among the four cultural sites that were selected by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, which is currently meeting in New Zealand to choose the next heritage sites.

Japan's Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, Turkmenistan's Parthian Fortresses of Nisa and Australia's Sydney Opera are the other sites that will now be inscribed in the UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Red Fort is considered to represent the zenith of Mughal creativity, which under emperor Shah Jahan was brought to a new level of refinement.

The planning of the palace is based on Islamic prototypes, but each pavilion reveals architectural elements typical of Mughal building, reflecting a fusion of Persian, Timurid and Hindu traditions, UNESCO said in a statement.

The palace was designed as an imitation of paradise as described in the Koran; a couplet inscribed in the palace reads "if there be a paradise on earth, it is here, it is here."

The Red Fort's innovative planning and architectural style, including its garden design, strongly influenced later buildings and garden in Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra and further afield.

Through, its fabric, the complex reflects all phases of Indian history from the Mughal period to independence, the UNESCO statement said.

One Cafe Coming Up

2007-06-29T14:47:00.000+08:00

One cafe coming up!

It is finally open. The coffee place at the lobby is finaly up and running. And not too long after commencing business, coffee lovers (and then some) are already lining up in front of the baristas for their caffeine fix.

Except for the weekends, I can see the potential of this cafe. I am not a big fan of Gloria Jeans, but I can see the outlet offers a variety of excuses to office workers in the 4 blocks that makes up this plaza.

Already the temperature of the office suites makes it feels like we live in perpetual winter.... OK, late autumn. thus 'lets go downstairs to get something warm to drink' is up there on the top ten list of popular phrases for office workers here. And then theres the 'I am hungry, lets grab a bite', when all they should think of is grabbing a byte!

And then there is the tailor made for us BD people "come around; I'll buy you coffee while we talk business.."...righttt......

There are of course a variety of extenuation that one can use to justify ones disappearance from ones contracted place of work in the event the boss swings by (in what appears to anyone watching, to grab that cuppa before the long tedious meeting).

But for whatever justification one can muster, it is clear that starbucks (located in the station, some 10 minutes walk one way)had just lost a chunk of its business to this joint. And thats a lot.

The new office blocks in the plaza are heavily tenanted by western companies, with more than a sprinkling of westerners whom prefer their coffees, barista dispensed (as opposed to the locals whom are more into the local favourite, teh tarik-which can be enjoyed in the canteen on the lower ground floor). Previously, these westerners would walk 20 minutes to and from Starbucks with cups of coffees neatly lined on those cute starbucks disposable coffee trays. I doubt, with this new joint around, they would go so far just for that cuppa.

As for me, I love my coffee black with sugar and if I can get them right here in my office, why should I walk that extra mile. However, the perpetual windy autumn day weather in the office makes the idea of working from (read: hanging out) the cafe very hard to resist, indeed.

I'll be looking out for the WIFI equipment that will enable me to be at work without being in the office the next time I find myself at the lobby. Surely, the coffee and fresh air will only enhance my productivity...as I am sure, the nice views of those jeans clad tight buns lining up at the barista's for their mid day coffees.

Life's Great Mystery

2007-06-28T14:56:00.000+08:00

I normally try to fit a 45 minutes work out session during lunch.

I do this at a local gym which is about 10 minutes walk from my office.
As with most modern gyms, mine is opulently fitted with all the creature comforts likely to be found in a gym. Foremost on the list to haves in gyms these days are the wide screen tvs, which is most often than not, permanently tuned in to MTV, Asia or otherwise.

In addition to the aforementioned wide screens,my very opulent gym also indulges its members with personal tv screens on each equipment.

While I usually focus attention on my little tv set, tuned to the Discovery Travel and Living channel, constant focus on the small screen could be quite tedious. Also, the advertisements tat comes on every 10 minutes or so can get quite tiresome; leading attentions astray.

Sometimes, when there are people around, I would indulge in people observing sessions for when the adverts comes on. But when the gym is devoid of members, the eyes can't help but stray to the wide screens.

Yesterday, I experienced such an unfortunate moment.

Floyd had gone off the screen to make way for five strangers dining together in a culinary cook off and I had wanted to 'watch' something. No fat malay ladies around, no beefy whiteys pumping iron, nada..nothing. Even the lady instructor whom sometimes hang around the gym was not aruond to chat with.

So, it was thus how i found myself starring at the wide screen with the channel permanently tuned in to MTV.

For a good five minutes all I had to watch was women swinging or pumping around men, suggestively, i should add, in barely there clothes and all look to me like they are trying too hard to look like a whore.

After 5 minutes, thankfully, the 5 strangers were ready to have dinner together so i trained my sight back to my little screen on the threadmill.

Astro being Astro, not 10 minutes later, another commercial break. BAH!

So, back to the wide screen to see if something more decent were on offer.

Unfortunately, I was out of luck.

More women taking off their clothes and swinging their legs around suggestively. All these when the men themselves are impeccably suited up in 3 pieces and looking nonchalant, indeed. And oh, the men looked like they have money and that the women are just throwing themselves at the feet.

Trying too hard to get laid, is all I can say.

I dont't know at what point music videos these days stops being porn and starts being entertainment and vice versa. And it is alarming that MTVs target market are the young impressionable youngsters. True that young people are not as dumb as to swallow all that is flashed to them on tv, but it is also true, the more an image is exposed to an individual, the more this individual is apt to believe in the suttle messages behind the images.

And from the few videos that I saw, the messages I see are:
1) It is OK to use your body to get what you want, i.e. the man
2) It is OK to be enslaved by men to win his attention
3) Being almost naked is an acceptable form of dressing these days
4) Getting laid is the ultimate goal
5) Materialistic and worldly pleasure is the name of the game

So exposed are we to all these that we don't even flinch at the images anymore. What was shameful last decade is now an acceptable norm. I just wonder how much lower we humans can go..

Dinner @ Maredo's And Happy Belated Birthday, My Dear

2007-06-26T10:49:00.000+08:00

Last night’s dinner was at Maredo’s Steakhouse. It is not often that we go out for dinner on a work night but last night was to celebrate the long postponed celebration of my beloved’s 39th birthday.

So, unlike most evenings where I would still be chugging away at the office at half past six or even seven; even more so right now, because my department is in the middle of preparing the all important tender proposal to Petronas Carigali, I had on the quiet put away my things right on the dot at 5.30. Of course, anything that is open for a curve ball will receive that curve ball; so as I shooed my executives home (not much effort needed as they seem to have something to rush home to as well), the boss had to call.

My mobile had vibrated and seeing that it was CCT calling… I can’t really pretend not to see it. My hellos, we not received on the other side. So after going ‘hello..Hello…Hsello..HELLO!...” a couple of time, I hung up and called the boss back. He denied calling and gleefully told me that he was in Amsterdam...hmmm

I almost regretted encouraging him to go for this vacation. He really couldn’t care less as to what happened in the office. Then again, neither was I when I was gallivanting all around India.

Anyways, as he was already on the phone, I updated him as to status of various projects. Yes, as the second in line for the throne I have kept the office in a tip top order. The first in line had to fly back to Jakarta as his wife had suddenly needed some emergency medical attention.

By the time I was done on the phone, my department was devoid of all life. A good thing, as I wont be seen as skiving off as well.

Last nights was a special dinner outing. I had put on a long flowing skirt and a black wool pullover. I had also spent time to paint my not normally painted face. After securing my long hair into a tight bun with a chain link chopstick, I was ready to go. My beloved wore a matching casual black top and tanned trouser.

The dinner at Maredo’s was our second time there. The first time we dined at Maredo’s was by pure chance. My beloved had wanted to have some Mexican food and so I suggested we check out Canteena’s on Telawi 5. On studying the menu placed outside the establishment, we concluded that Canteena is not what I thought it was supposed to be. What sort of a joint would go with a name like Canteena’s if it was not to be Mexican? The very fact that they have been in the same location for the past 20 years, gives me the confidence with the quality of the food served; at least it must be good enough to survive that long in Bangsar. My beloved had not been stoked enough to give Canteena’s a chance so, with our little black umbrella, we scampered across the street to an interesting looking restaurant, that is the Maredo’s Steak House.

If nothing at all, the uniform of the waitresses/waiters are interesting enough to be a topic of conversation. While I fidgeted in my shoes, my beloved surveyed the length of the menu. He finally decided that we give Maredo’s a try.

On being seated we were greeted by a very stylish lady, the maitre’d, I had guessed, whose name, I found out later is Cherie Al-Jufferey.

Cherie of course knew her stuff and as soon as we were comfortable, got the waitress to take our drink orders before going into the options for our main course.

As Cherie knew her stuff, so do I. I know I love a good meal of barbequed ribs and their ribs did look good. Additionally, orders under meat products come with a free first plate from the salad bar. My beloved had ordered a steak which also came with the free first plate from the salad bar.

In short, the first dining experience had been good. My short ribs had mostly melted off the bones and the gravy was just heavenly. The Cajun pepper sauce was to die for (all the while I am aware of the red meat killing me, if health journals are to be believed). The serving of thick, chunky fries was heavenly but I passed on the corn on the cob. For the side of salad, I had lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and French bean to provide the roughage and a dollop of potato salad, just because I could.

My beloved on the other hand had sang praises for Maredo’s as it was the first time in his dining experiences in Malaysia, where he did not have to convince the waiter that he prefers his steaks – blue. Most Malaysian waiters/waitresses would cringe at the request and some would even try to talk him out of it.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience and the bill did not set us back much with all the food and drink.

Remembering that we had enjoyed the food and of course the great services rendered to us the first time, I had proposed Maredo’s or the Oysters Bar at Micasa (beloved had feasted on oysters there) when we were discussing my beloved’s birthday celebration recently.

Maybe it was location or the mood, we found ourselves making our way to Maredo’s last night for dinner. Driving to Micasa would have been sheer hell.

The last time we were at Maredo’s, we had enjoyed the food. The services, lead by the maitre’d were impeccable. Maredo’s was set to really impress me when on walking into the restaurant; Cherie greeted us as if we only had our first dinner there last night! I was not convinced when she greeted us as if she knew us. Perhaps this is her ‘put on’ for every dining guests. But to each one of my protests, she had given us the right answers and correctly identified us; even as to where we had seated.

So, to Madam Cherie, I take my hat off to you. You had impressed me. Malaysia should have more people like you especially in services oriented establishments. Your memory of us shows me that you take your profession very seriously and you are an asset to your company.

For last night’s dinner, I, being a creature of habit had the short ribs, of course and my beloved had his steak; additionally my side plate of salad was a meal of its own, my beloved had commented. We started with appetizers of mussels and bruchetta.

While my barbequed short ribs had not melted off the bones as it had the first time, the whole dining experience at Maredo’s last night had been great; definitely an above average dining experience. Cherie had out done herself by recommending the chocolate fudge and ice cream dessert which was ‘oh so heavenly’. I could go to Maredo’s just for the dessert! And at RM12, the chocolate fudge and ice cream beats Starbucks rocky road (RM8) by miles.

I had even more reasons to celebrate when the bill came. With all the food and drinks, the bill came to just about RM349 and from that RM100 was just the drinks.

While for health reasons, Maredo’s will take a back seat as a dining destination of choice for us, it sure is up there along with Basil’s and Sakae Sushi as our favorite places for makan in Kuala Lumpur. On a scale of 1 to 5, Maredo’s gets 5 stars from me for great food and great experiences.

Come early and you will have no problems with seats at Maredo’s alternatively if your wish to come in late do call for reservations.
MAREDO'S STEAKHOUSE
1 Jalan Telawi 5
Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2282 0314

Picture shamelessly scooped from emedia.com.my. Thanks folks!

Orchid: A New Beginning

2007-06-24T21:25:00.000+08:00

I got 3 pots of orchids today. A purple one, already in full bloom for RM7 and 2 small ones at RM6 each. The white one is just starting to bloom and the third promises to be white with a tinge of green. I dont know what my chances with the orchids are going to be like. I know next to nothing about orchids. I just know, a collegue, a man of 50 seems to have really great orchid collections on his balocny. And hes out of town much of the time too. SO with that, I am thinking, orchids gets on pretty well being left on its own, with occasional spray of water and fertilizzer.

So it is with great anticipation that i await the blooming of the third orchid, sprouting of new leaves for the one in full bloom soon as it finishes this bloom cycle. If this works out, I shall add to my collection with more orchids, preferably ones in yellow or pink.

In the mean time, my orange flower pereskia bloomed again and as always, the flower fell off before reaching its full potential.

And finally, it was a week of local dinners except the meat loaf. After two weeks of indian food, I am ready to take a rest from spicy recipes. Which reminds me, accounts of my adventures in India is still in progress and should be out before end of the month. The working vocab here of course is SHOULD..sigh.

The Speaking Tree : Discipline

2007-06-22T10:30:00.000+08:00

During the various trips to India, I had taken to reading a column in The Times Of India (TOI) called The Speaking Tree. So, keen am I on the articles, that I bought the 3 series already published by TOI.

TOI publishes the articles on a daily basis and copies of the articles can be accessed on the TOI website as follows:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
****************************************************************************

Discipline Opens Up A Whole New World
22 Jun, 2007 l 0029 hrs

How can the mind learn to perceive its own source, the light of Consciousness or Chitprakasa? By learning to keep its energies centred. This is possible with discipline.

Krishna describes the necessity of discipline when he says to Arjuna: "The yogi should constantly discipline himself,/ remaining in solitude, alone,/ with mind and body well restrained,/ having no desires, and without avarice".

In yoga, the word discipline has nothing to do with the rigours of boarding school or military life; it means to purify thought, speech and action.

Baba Muktananda placed great importance on spending time alone: "One should abandon all thoughts and practise watching what is happening within".

This is not just a matter of distancing yourself from people, buildings and professional obligations. You must make space in the region of the mind. The mind consists of four psychic instruments: the intellect, subconscious mind, ego, and conscious mind. When you make space beyond all your mental activity, you discover the company of a deeper silence within.

Krishna began with discipline; then he asked Arjuna to remain in solitude. He added the word 'alone'. Being alone means separating yourself from the things that keep you from being with God. In this aloneness, kaivalya, there is no loneliness.

'Having no desires' is the next teaching in this verse — becoming free from the clutches of sense objects, from the desires of the senses. When desires are not under your control, they drive you into a ditch. A yogi, therefore, must develop the power to say 'no' to unwanted desires. A yogi is free from avarice. When you look at history, it is clear that greed is the cause of downfall of empires. Avarice is like a disease invading the body. For the fulfilment of yoga, to become free from desires, one-pointedness is vital, ekagra manas. A stable mind is a tranquil mind. A scattered mind can never gather enough momentum to progress on the path of discipline. When you focus the mind on something, whatever it may be, you absorb its qualities. In a very real way, you take it into yourself.

At the same time, you infuse it with your own bhav. Devotion to God is much more than a feeling. Through your devotion, God comes alive for you. Through your devotion, you also invite the one you worship into your body and mind, into your life. The formless takes on a form that you can relate to.

Krishna says: "Whenever the unsteady mind,/ moving to and from, wanders away,/ the yogi should restrain it/ and control it in the Self/ with niyama, regularity." In the Yogasutras, Patanjali lists the niyamas as cleanliness, contentment, austerity, regular recitation of scriptural texts, and the surrender of one's limited will to God.

Contentment, austerity, chanting mantras, and samarpana or surrender to God, help liberate the mind and receive God's grace. Constantly remember how much grace there is in your sadhana. It's like going for a walk and having the wind at your back. When that happens, it's as though when you are walking, the wind is behind you, supporting you.

Who Loves Yah, Babeh!

2007-06-22T09:07:00.000+08:00

MY Comment

Once upon a time, I had aspired to go see the land where my beloved was born (unless he was trafficked to the US from some nordic glacial village in northern europe somewhere). It would have been nice to see the beautiful lakes as he'd describe them. But with all the difficulty in getting into the country, I think I'd pass. There are so many other places in the world that would receive us with open arms that it is just stupid to be paying so much money only to be insulted at the door as the journalist in the following article was; and as I have heard many, many stories from my americans and non americans friends.

################################################################################

Tough to get in and out of the US

WHY NOT?
By WONG SAI WAN

After 9/11, the US decided to play the role of a global policeman and the world is now paying the price.

EVEN George Washington – “I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet” – would find it difficult to get into the US today, if truth be the yardstick.

The quote comes from a popular legend about the first US president (1789-97), who as a six-year-old confessed to cutting down an English cherry tree of which his father was particularly fond.

Speaking the truth not only spared him punishment but also won him praise and a subsequent place in the annals of American folklore.

But, in my case, telling the truth soon after touching down at Los Angeles international airport cost me, US$265 (RM915.445) to be exact.

As you read this, I am in Russia covering our Prime Minister’s visit. I have been to over 50 countries and never have I been treated as shabbily as I was in Los Angeles two weeks ago.

I hold a valid US visa for working journalists (commonly called the I visa) and was on the way to Vancouver. But I had to spend a night in LA to catch a morning flight. This was the what I truthfully told the Immigration officer (a white chap by the name of Delaney) at the airport when he asked my reason for entering the US.

However, he gathered all the documents that I had shown him and took me to a holding room for a secondary inspection. There a woman officer (they are all called inspectors in the US) with a Thai sounding name started to give me the works.

I had just got off a 20-hour flight and was really tired. I was in no mood to be witty or snaky. I repeated my reason for landing in the US.

She then told me that I had the wrong visa and should have had a C1 transit visa. When I replied that I was advised by the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur that all journalists travelling to the US should have an I visa, she cut me off in mid-sentence and said that since I was not there to work, I had no reason to enter.

I tried to show her documents that I was to have dinner with MAS officials, including its managing director Datuk Idris Jala (who unfortunately missed his flight), but she insisted that my documents did not say that.

She then told me to take a seat. After an hour, she informed me that her supervisor had decided to issue me a C1 visa on the spot and let me in, but I had to pay a fine of US$265.

By then I was so fed up and tired, I was grateful for any small mercy shown.

I had my statement taken down as though I was a criminal and had my palm print, thumbprint and fingerprints taken as well. The officer who handled that was a nice fellow originally from Pakistan.

As I was chatting with him, a Hispanic officer walked up to me and said: “Do you know what your problem is? You talk too much. I thought of giving you a break but you talked too much.”

It was this statement that really riled me. Here in the land of the free, one is being punished for arguing one’s case and telling the truth. I have never been so exasperated before.

A fellow Malaysian journalist travelling with me also had to undergo a secondary inspection. He said he was there to interview Idris and they let him in.

He, of course, knew better – he had worked five years in the US.

As for me, I can only draw the conclusion that I should have LIED and said I was there to interview Paris Hilton (as it was the day before she first went to jail) and they would have let me in without any problem.

I was seething the whole night as I lay on my hotel bed, but the next morning I found some redemption when reading the Los Angeles Times.

On the front page was a report on the severe backlog of applications by Americans for a passport. It seems that it will take between three and six months to get one, and many holidaymakers have had to cancel their planned summer holidays.

So, if you find yourself sitting at a Malaysian Immigration office for three hours to get a passport, relax and think about what the Americans have to go through.

As I sat on the plane headed for Vancouver, I realised that it is not only difficult to get into the US in the post 9/11 era but also just as tough to get out.

I left Vancouver for home via Hong Kong, and I doubt if I will be US-bound any time soon.

The truth, or facts, may be something the US is not very good at discerning today. Otherwise the State Department would not have included Malaysia in its Human Trafficking bad boy list.

This is not because Malaysia has done horrible things and deserves to be in Tier 3 of its 2006 report, but because of the ignorance of someone who wants to play the world’s policeman.

In its introduction, the report (read it at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tip-rpt/2007/index.htm) states:

“The Department of State is required by law to submit a report each year to the US Congress on foreign governments’ efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. This is the seventh annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report.

“It is intended to raise global awareness, to highlight efforts of the international community, and to encourage foreign governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of trafficking in persons.”

What are the consequences for Malaysia?

Again, according to the report: “A country that fails to make significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons, as outlined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), receives a Tier 3 assessment in this report.

“Consistent with the TVPA, governments subject to sanctions would also face US opposition to assistance (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related assistance) from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Sanctions, if imposed, will take effect (from) Oct 1, 2007.”

This report is quite damning of Malaysia. In its 992-word narration of our country, the report accuses our country of failing “to show satisfactory progress in combating trafficking in persons, particularly in the areas of punishing acts of trafficking, providing adequate shelters and social services to victims, protecting its migrant workers from involuntary servitude, and for not prosecuting traffickers who were arrested and detained under preventive laws.”

The State Department is particularly upset with the way we treat foreign workers and the women who “are tricked” into the sex trade here.

For the most part, however, I think we can safely say that we treat most of the foreign workers pretty well. As for those in the sex trade, I feel that the US State Department is pretty naive to think that most of these women are tricked into becoming prostitutes.

Foreign illegal labour is another question. By entering the country illegally, they open themselves to exploitation by unscrupulous employers. The illegal workers have nowhere to turn to because the authorities are after them.

The same goes for women who voluntarily come into the country to sell their bodies. The authorities treat them as offenders and they are left to fend for themselves or otherwise depend on the local pimps and syndicates that brought them in.

These are two situations that occur all around the world where foreign labour and sex workers are in demand, not only in Malaysia.

It is also occurring in the US, and on a larger scale. Ask the illegal economic migrants who cross the Mexico-US border daily. Their US employers exploit them because the workers have no legal standing.

What is the US solution to this problem? A fence that stretch hundreds of miles on its border with Mexico.

And, foreign prostitutes who ply their trade in the US are hounded by both the US police as well as their pimps.

In today's globalised world the movement of people in search of economic and political refuge occurs everywhere and every day. It is not exclusive to the US, and certainly not to Malaysia.

To judge and condemn us for something that occurs everywhere is hypocritical.

Our senior news editor Wong Sai Wan is probably now a Persona Non-Grata to the US and has decided that the kids’ Disney trip to Orlando is now off.

The US - A Hypocrate

2007-06-22T08:58:00.000+08:00

Hypocrisy amidst human trafficking

ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
By M. VEERA PANDIYAN

It is ridiculous of the United States to censure countries for contributing to modern day slavery, as its record is no better.

THE windows are broken and shards are strewn all over the yard, yet Uncle Sam still lives in the same glasshouse and continues to throw stones.

His words sound increasingly hollow and his acts more farcical. Like his role as the paladin of modern day slavery in the latest hypocritical drama.

How else can one typecast the United States, especially after its latest Trafficking in Persons Report, which has bundled Malaysia with the worst offenders of the world’s third largest illegal industry after arms and drug smuggling?

The 236-page document that covers 164 countries says some 800,000 people have been trafficked across the world, 80% of them women and girls, half of them minors, who are eventually trapped into prostitution.

And we are now on the US' slime de la slime “Tier 3” list, along with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.

But it is not just the crying shame of being yoked with the worst of the lot. A glowering Uncle Sam has also warned: “Git your act together within 90 days or I’ll whup ya ass!”

Malaysia now faces sanctions. We may not give two hoots about the denial of non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign aid. But the United States can effectively bar us from international conferences and educational and cultural programmes on the basis of “Tier 3” ignominy.

Ironically, the blacklisting was made after the new Anti-Trafficking in Persons Bill 2007 was finally drafted and tabled in Parliament. It is a tough law by all accounts. Those who profit from the scourge as well as abet the traffickers can now be jailed up to 20 years, fined heavily and also whipped for good measure.

Critics abroad and at home have lauded the Bill. Even Tenaganita’s Irene Fernandez, who has tenaciously championed the cause of migrant workers and human trafficking victims for decades, has described it as a “success story.”

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who declared that the law would “send a signal to the human trafficking syndicates that we mean business,” must be as puzzled as Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar by the censure.

Malaysia has been blamed for “failure to show satisfactory progress” in punishing acts of trafficking, providing shelters and social services to victims and protecting migrant workers from involuntary servitude – all of which are covered by the new law.

But then again, the report’s credibility is questionable, given its mysterious method of ranking. According to Mark Lagon, the US State Department’s senior adviser on Trafficking in Persons, “variables” were used to determine listings in “Tier 1” (countries that meet the requirements), “Tier 2” (countries that had made changes to improve), “Tier 2 Watchlist” (countries given warning of demotion) and “Tier 3” (blacklist).

For example, India, which has the severest case of human trafficking and has been on the “Tier 2 Watchlist” for the fourth year running, was again only given another slap on the wrist. One cannot help but wonder if preferential treatment comes with being a new US nuclear buddy.

One also wonders why two of our close neighbours, where human trafficking is obviously more rampant, were also spared reproach.

Lagon said the report was not an assessment or judgment on nations but a blueprint about the things the United States could help other countries with. If so, can other nations also help the United States resolve its trafficking in persons problem, which by the way happens to be just one sphere of its numerous human rights violations?

He also estimated the number of such cases in the United States at between 14,500 and 17,500 per year, adding that he wished there were better statistics. Can we offer some help in that direction, sir?

Let’s start with your “guest worker” programme for unskilled labourers. The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a civil rights organisation based in Alabama, published a report about it earlier this year. It was titled Close to Slavery.

Under the system, called the H-2 programme, some 121,000 guest workers were brought in from Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru and other South American countries to the United States two years ago. About 32,000 ended up in the agricultural sector and 89,000 went into jobs in forestry, seafood processing, landscaping, construction and shipyards.

The report says these workers are systematically exploited and abused. If they complain, they face deportation or other retaliation. Their few rights exist only on paper. Government enforcement is almost non-existent and lawyers typically will not take up their cause.

Bonded to bosses who hire them and having no access to legal redress, they are routinely cheated out of their already low wages, held virtually captive by employers or agents who keep their passports, made to live in squalid quarters and denied medical benefits for injuries.

To use the words of US Congress Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, it’s the “closest thing to slavery.”

Like elsewhere in the world, these workers were recruited by unscrupulous people who make hefty profits at the expense of their blood, sweat and tears. These workers might have been flown in legally, but morally, its human trafficking just the same.

In the “Tier 3” blacklist, there are six Middle East nations – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Qatar. A notable absentee is Jordan, a country with which the United States has a Free Trade Agreement.

Tens of thousands of “guest workers” from Bangladesh, China, India and Sri Lanka are now in the country trapped in forced labour, sewing clothing for Wal-Mart, Gloria Vanderbilt, Target, Kohl's, Thalia Sodi for Kmart, Victoria's Secret, L.L. Bean and other big brand names, according to a report in the Bilaterals.org website.

In one of the factories, managers raped three women and a 16-year-old girl last year. Despite being forced to work 109 hours a week, including 20-hour shifts, the workers received no wages for six months. Those who fell asleep from exhaustion were woken up with whacks from rulers.

The report stated that another factory was run on 24-, 38- and even 72-hour shifts. Workers were paid an average wage of two US cents an hour. They were also slapped, kicked, punched and hit with sticks and belts.

For the record, Jordan's garment exports to the United States rose by 2,000% between 2000 and 2005, amounting to US$1.1bil (RM3.7bil). And, guess what? These fancy togs enter the United States duty-free.

Widespread human trafficking and sexual slavery is also rife in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 14 isles in the Pacific Ocean, no thanks to lax laws and corruption.

Victims from The Philippines, China and elsewhere from Asia told their horror stories of kidnappings, rapes and forced labour to visiting Washington officials earlier this month.

And let’s also not forget Iraq, where millions of victims of an illegally waged war have fled, becoming fodder for human trafficking syndicates. Within the occupied country, slave-like labour is a new reality.

Last October, the Chicago Tribune exposed links between US military contracting firm Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) and human trafficking. Support operations were given to KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, at a cost of more than US$12bil (RM41bil), and the firm outsourced most of the work to 200 subcontractors based in the Middle East.

These subcontractors brought in between 35,000 and 48, 000 foreign workers to do the dirty, menial work. Tribune’s “Pipeline to Peril” story detailed abuses committed against the workers, highlighting the horrific deaths of 12 Nepali workers who were abducted and killed by insurgents.

So, it is just not enough to just “mention” your own human trafficking problems in the report and declare your deep commitment to confronting it. Or that you are working as a partner with other countries with “substantial and compassionate funding” even if it has been more than US$448mil (RM1.5bil) so far.

All these mean nothing if you do not have the decency to put yourself on “Tier 3” where you rightfully belong, Uncle Sam.

The UN Economic and Social Council has stated that globalisation has led to widening disparity in job opportunities, income and living standards across the world. Globalisation’s failure to create new jobs where people live is a prime factor in increasing migration pressures.

Human trafficking is a heinous, complex criminal activity connected to the supply and demand of cheap labour. Greedy corporations in the United States and other rich countries are very much a part of its root cause. As such, the continuous shrill-voiced avuncular advice can get rather tiresome.

Deputy News Editor M. Veera Pandiyan has some experience in earning pittance for tough menial labour. He has worked as a construction labourer, lorry attendant and factory hand

For Every Finger

2007-06-15T08:24:00.000+08:00

There was an article in the local papers today that referred to a US based report on human trafficking problem in Malaysia.

Whereas human trafficking is not an issue commonly discussed amongst us Malaysians over a cup of teh tarik and a fattening piece of roti canai, I do not deny that there could possibly be some credibility to the said report. After all unless proven otherwise, there might be a chance of this going on under our own nose. As the malay proverbs goes 'pokok takkan bergoyang kalau tak ada angin' meaning the tree would not sway if there is no breeze.

So perhaps, there is some dirt beneath the clean veneer that is, Malaysia. But before we all react, let us remind each other to be rational.

The first and most important factor in my eyes and one that should stop us all from 'demanding to be heard (read:flag burning and all, though we dont do this all that often)is credibility of the source.

Let us be frank; the US is NOT by far a model nation when it comes to its immigrants. Ask the Mexicans. So, with every finger that points out in accusation; remember, three more points back at yourself.

So, instead of taking the moral high ground, the US should first do something about their own household.

Granted, there would be individuals at every corner of the world with evil intentions and Malaysia is not immune to this. Most of us citizens of the world would love to just wish away all these evil deeds, especially one in our backyard that would tarnish our image the eyes of others. Despite good intentions there will always be evil. It is the way of the world. We should all work together to fight this evil where possible. And standing by the side on a perceived higher moral ground do not help the situation.

Instead, if the US is truly genuine to help eradicate the situation, they should offer to help manage the problem. And be genuine about it, no strings attached, no telling others to do it as you see it or else...and oh yes, we can also do without preaching.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

No need to get worked up over US report

COMMENT BY MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR

NEARLY two years ago, several European diplomats walked out of the conference hall when former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad criticised US and British policies on Iraq.

The British High Commissioner then, Bruce Cleghorn, one of the diplomats who staged the walkout, issued a statement later saying he did it because he found himself listening to “abuse and misrepresentation” about his country.

The event where Dr Mahathir spoke was Suhakam’s conference on human rights.

It can be hurtful for any citizen when their country is criticised, whether wrongly or correctly.

Malaysia has somehow always been in the radar of Western countries, and the United States in particular, when it comes to human rights vis-à-vis the Internal Security Act, the death sentence and even over the treatment of illegal immigrants.

Malaysian missions, especially those in Europe, frequently receive letters from locals questioning the Government’s policies, when they watch documentaries or read the news on alleged mistreatment of foreign workers.

So Malaysia has officially made it to the blacklist of the US government’s worst offenders for human trafficking, or what the Americans call Tier 3 ranking.

No surprises there since the country has consistently been in the list and was put on Tier 2 special watch list last year, just one step away from Tier 3.

One of the reasons why Malaysia was relegated to Tier 3 was because of a promise that the Government would build shelter houses for victims of human trafficking. Somehow, the US State Department felt that the promise did not materialise.

The report also said the Government needed to demonstrate stronger political will to tackle Malaysia’s significant forced labour and sex trafficking problems. Read that as Malaysia failing to deal with its two million migrant workers, legal and illegal, mostly Indonesians.

Should Malaysia take the report seriously? No, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, because he said it would give credence to the report.

So what should Malaysia do? Nothing, said Syed Hamid, since Malaysia has taken a lot of efforts to protect the interests of migrant workers.

“We are not reacting to a report that is made at random.”

The United States felt that Malaysia basically did not take the warning signs seriously. Some countries like Indonesia did win praise.

Indonesia, a source country for women, children and men trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labour, got “a promotion” to Tier 2 for its efforts to combat human trafficking.

Zimbabwe, which has been criticised by the Americans practically every day over its human rights record, is in Tier 2.

Don’t question the rationale because to the Americans, this is one way to show that no politics is at play when it comes to the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP).

Malaysia has every right to reject the report, which some have described as an example of the West trying to create hegemony over Muslim countries.

More than half of the 16 countries listed in Tier 3 are Islamic countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.

Although no country likes to be judged by another, the Government can’t simply dismiss the report. It is understood that Wisma Putra will submit a report to the Cabinet based on the State Department's report.

It is good that Malaysia has shown maturity by taking the stinging report calmly but it must address the problems of human trafficking rather than go on the blaming game.

Malaysia has adequate laws to deal with the problem, including the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Bill, tabled in April and passed by Parliament in May, which severely punishes those convicted for human trafficking.

The Government is showing the political will to deal with the problem, but will there be sufficient enforcement of the law? Will Malaysia see a change in the TIP ranking next year?

AlJazeera : 101 East

2007-06-14T14:29:00.000+08:00

Fist India? Part Two

2007-06-01T17:15:00.000+08:00

Fist India? Part One

2007-06-01T15:43:00.000+08:00

It has been four days since i arrived in India with my big plans.

It was to be a one week business trip and topped off with a one week vacation. The last visit to India some six months ago didnt quite leave fond memories. Work wise, well...work is work. No complaints there. The vacation part could have been better.

Tourism Of India
However, one could not really control one's condition when in a new environment. Perhaps the combination of weather and diet did me and my beloved in. We had a good tour of Mumbai, visiting places that is off the beaten track. I was happy with Mumbai and I think the decision to hire the tourism of india personal guide was good. Thank you to Mr. Romeo whom manned the tourism counter at the Mumbai domestic airport for his wise advice.

Go Go-a
Unfortunately, after having spent a bit of money for the KingFisher flight to Goa, all we did was sleep. Beloved had caught something nasty and the idea of trawling Cangalute alone for a spot of old churches didnt quite entice me. So, all we did was explore the beach a little and the little roads around our area.

Some Shared History
(I had heard that Goa has one of the best beaches in India and that was what had put the idea in my head; that and the historical values of the place. Goa had shared the same fate with melaka back in 1400s when the Portuguese had rudely strong armed their way in just to control the spice trade).

IMHO
Under the circumstance, I might be biased in my opinion about Goa. But, I have seen many beaches and I just dont see it half as beautiful as what we have here in Malaysia, both in Terenganu and Sabah. The sand on these beaches are powdery white as opposed to those on Goa which are rough brown pebbles. Yes, they look good on pictures with swinging coconut trees, but hey, any advertising company can make any palce look good. Also, the hotels are just old and expensive to boot.

So, there you are, while I had enjoyed the tour of Mumbai, I was quite disenchanted with Goa. Hotels at both places were prohibitivey expensive (still is, I just checked). For the prices we paid in India we get old dilapidated unmaintained hotels and at the same price in Malaysia, you get a 4-5 star establishment usually one that comes with a decent swimming pool.

You dont have to believe me; a newspaper journalist, Mdm Leher Kala wrote about the same things in the Indian Express today.

That said, I havent given up on India.

THERE IS HOPE, YET
With the advent of the contract this September, I found myself clutching yet another ticket to India earlier this week.

I had pestered my beloved to make plans, a proper plan this time for our vacation in India.

MORE HISTORY LESSON-TAMERLANE THE GREAT
A couple of months back I had read the biography of Tamerlane. In the process had developed a curiosity of things, central asian and the spin-offs.

The Mughal, it appears had roots in central asia; from the general areas of Uzbekistan or thereabouts.

Tamerlane had conquered all the way to the edge of asia minor in the west and was shy of a battle in his quest for the east border with the Mongols. Prior to his death, he had pushed south, scalling the ranges of the Himalayas with armoury and all, only to successfully defeat the then Sultans of the northern states. His grandson, Babur, had then established an empire which is now known as the Mughals.

Now, it was recorded that Babur had created a beautiful garden in Kabul, Afghanistan. Due to the political situation, I would say, Kabul will just have to remain on the list of things to do for awhile. Naturally, Rajastan or the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur triangle comes into the picture when we talk about the Mughals.

Now, I am all geared and excited about finally going to the Taj Mahal. After all, I have been to India 2 times now and its kinda silly not to make my way there this time. I hit the Great Wall the first time I went to China, so why not the Taj on the 3rd try (of course, the Taj Palace don't count in the scheme of things).

So, with hope in my heart and ticket in my hands, I made for India.

THE GRAND PLAN
The plan was for my beloved to fly in on saturday and join me in Delhi and from there will will begin our triangle tour; begin with a leisurely stay in Agra for the Taj Mahal, Fatepuhsikir and the Diwan. From Agra, we would make a day trip of Jaipur for the Hawa Mahal and the fortress visit.

But noooooooooooo...India had to give me yet another curve ball.

FOILED BY A CURVE BALL..AGAIN!
The news channels had been abuzzed with the racial riots in Rajastan for the past couple of days. People were stranded in Agra ( i read this as tourist stranded in Agra and missed their flights) and some locals had died in rioting. All because the Gujjars have had enough and now wants to be on the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list. Being on the list means more government jobs and a host of 'benefits'. And it seems the Gujjars wont stop until they get what they want.

In the mean time, tourist are caught off guard, months of savings down the drain and one gets a spoilt holiday.

All these, on top of expensive but mediocre hotels, a promise of something but not fulfilled (my first hotel in Delhi, Hans Plaza Hotel had promised me wifi services for an extra US$5. On checking in, the reception told me " sorry maam, the extra US$5 is for a wifi-ready room. You still have to pay for the air time!-of course, in most marketing brochures this was never clearly stated. So beware!) (Here is the picture of my room at Hans Plaza Hotel. It is close to Connaught Place and was over all a decent place. If not for the wifi and the pick up saga, I would return to this hotel in the future).
(My hotel in Baroda-Welcom Hotel at RC Dutt road. Great service and good place. I will come back to this hotel again and again.)
I still carry some hope that by next week, all the tensions had lifted and people will start to behave civilised again and let the tourists get on with their business of touristing! In the mean time, I'll just kick back and enjoy all the fawning bestowed to the guests of Welcom Hotel here in Baroda.Afternoon in WelcomHotel means earls grey tea and cookies.

Incredible !ndia

2007-05-30T03:03:00.000+08:00

I am back, after 7 years. And Delhi has not changed. It is still as chaotic as I remembered it to be.

Gone are the days of my lounging on the club floor in Taj Palace. Yet this joint, Hans Hotel is much better than the little Highway Hotel tucked away behind a cigarette factory in the outskirts of Mumbai.

I intend to make this the best trip by far and I have been in India twice before; roving in Delhi, Mumbai, Baroda, Kolkatta and Goa. By the end of this two weeks sojourne, I would add Agra and Jaipur in my little adventures to India.

As for now, good night Delhi. I'll see you in the morning.

Just Enough Time For Snippets

2007-05-28T17:39:00.000+08:00

It had been really hectic here.

After moving in, the tasks of getting the stuff out of the box and making the room looking somewhat civilised is yet another.

To top it all, I'll be flying to India tomorrow and will be away for 2 weeks.

So, yes, hectic is an understated description of the status here.

I just got the bills paid, except the water and condo management fees.
Hotels in Delhi and Baroda booked. Tickets, check. Visa, check.

Whats outstanding?
1) Analysis of shipping issues
2) Analysis of insurance issues
3) Our scope of work at fingertips - not
4) Our list of things to do- not
6) Rupees currency - not done
7) Additional batteries for camera - not
8) Paracetamol and vitamin C - not
9) Gifts - not

Am I ready for my trip to India?

You bet I am....at the end of the week long business trip; I'd be roving around Jaipur, Agra and Delhi...woohooo

India...here I come!!!

And the Unpacking Begins

2007-05-27T19:53:00.000+08:00

We've been instructed to come back to the office today; yes, on a sunday. The senior management insists that we hit the ground runnning on monday.

Well no problem as far as our personal boxes are concerned. My concern is the network and system.

As far as emails ...as at 5pm today it was still questionable. No network had been set up on our computers, meaning no printing. So much for hitting the ground running on monday.

Just another case of concerned with the issues at the surface, but no serious thinking into the whole thingamajig.

Ah Well, too bad the new coffee place downstairs hadn't opened. You would find me there reading my mails, otherwise.

All Boxed In

2007-05-26T22:57:00.000+08:00

These above are boxes of my stuff accumulated over the past five years.

Actually, only 5 of those are mine. Not too bad really, as far as 'rubbish collection' is concerned. On average, I accumulated only 1 box of crap for every year I was in the old office.

Situation Vacant For Spider Man 4 Leading Actor

2007-05-26T22:49:00.001+08:00

Apply within.
I didnt know they are holding a casting calls for the new spidey movie in KL...

I caught these building cleaning contractors outside my office today. Unfortunately, unlike spidey, they are not all that adept at defying gravity and ended up spilling buckets of water during the time I was there observing the cleaning process.

The Move

2007-05-26T22:02:00.000+08:00

I haven't written for a week now.

My beloved had been down with flu of the nasty kind; the kind that had been going around, the sort that puts you down at least 2 days and when your GP only give you on day medical leave.

So the week was mostly spent just going to work and come home to dinner alone and then an early night. Every so often looking into my sleeping beloved and making sure hes getting enough liquid, garlic pills and vitamin C.

Towards the end of the week, work as I know it had wound down and we had gotten down and dirty into the business of packing our rubbish into boxes for the move to the next block.

We first moved into block 3A in 2002. Just a handful of us all spread out over 8,000 ft worth of space. It felt cold, literally and lonely.
(The old office lift lobby)
And as we progressed, new people came and went.

And not two years later, the management decided to expand; taking over the unit in block 3B.

I hate to say it, we spent way too much on renovation works of these office spaces. One might get the idea, the renovation works are meant to line some pockets.

Then not to years later, the management acquired 3 levels on block 2B, which adjoins the block 3A offices. And now, we have been given the instruction to move to the back while the present 8,000ft will be converted into corporate meetign rooms and a lounge. All these 'renovations' cost money and I wonder ...(The new office lift lobby in the next block).

It gets demotivating when one knows the 'on the side benefits' some people enjoys from these renovation works.

Anyway, this is the weekend we are supposed to come in to unpack our boxes and make sure that it will be 'busines as usual' comes monday.

I visited the new place today and by the looks, it seems that the workers are way behind time. I told the project manager that I dont care how it is done but come 2pm tomorrow, all the furniture better be up.

Then there is the background drama.

People will be evil when fame, power and money come into a mix.

A cad in the office had recently found favour with the management; whom I will say without hesitation is quite an idiot. But he is da boss, thus, might makes him right.
Anyway when cad came in some 2 years ago, he had some good ideas - all to be executed in an ethical manner.

Needless to say, when things are ethical and above board, there would be no...ermm...spin-off, so to speak.

Projects without a spin off that would benefit the management, will be viewed as a mere inconvenience to be swatted early in its life.

So, cad was put in cold storage. and he was at the verge of throwing in the towel.

Desperate people takes desperate actions. And power can makes people evil.

So, from the dumps, cad raised himself up to the position of number one ass kisser to da boss. Nothing wrong with that as long as he keeps away from me.

What upsets me is when he kept taking advantage of our management laizzre fair attitude to grab a bigger piece of the pie.

And this pie is the new office space. Not only did cad grabbed all the offices with windows he also wants to use our furniture for free.

Hes got a new project company that cannot afford to show expenditure until they turn in a revenue...so to hide all these expenses he hides all his cost to the mother company or, to us.

Yes yes, some of the other management are saying, we are sister companies.

Yeah so....sisters can afford to be nice to one another huh? Maybe stop being such an opportunistic pig??!! The whole calculative business had boiled down to a feud about who get what cabinets.

As a company that had been around for the past 9 years, we certainly need more space. Statutory wise we need space to store 5 years worth of documents. Hes just been at it for a mere 6 months. No prizes for guessing who is entitled to the bigger space.

Cads like these are abound.

I just wish they wont come into my range of view. I hate them. I work to earn my keep and i do it honestly. I wish this guy will just go poof! and disappear for good. I really do. Or just die. Just drop dead and get swallowed by the earth. Because people like this are just not worth the crap they carry.

Of course, where drama is concerned, my fingers are crossed for the day he falls from grace. It happens to all who are corrupt and all whom spread corruption. That day will sure come. I want to be there when that happens.

In the mean time, I am going to miss going to the 18th floor. It had been a good five years. But things will change. I suppose I will need to get used to the new normal, comes monday.

Time Out At Puri Ayu

2007-05-21T20:21:00.000+08:00

It was pure indulgence, I tell yah.

I gave myself a treat yesterday. Three hours of pure indulgence with massage and facial.

It has been awhile now since I last gave myself a treat. Well actually, this time it was out of pure necessity. I mean, how would you like having your other half poke your aching shoulders with the remote control? Well, to be truthful, even that felt good for awhile.

But, push had come to shove… I needed to be kneaded.

So, right after my usual lunch with mom and dad, I made my way to my little sanctuary, the Puri Ayu near Ampang Point.

Well, this is my first visit to this little salon in Ampang. I used to patronize the franchise located on the lower ground of Crown Princess. This was when I had my money all to myself. This was the time when I had more cash in my pocket than I care to invest. So, what is a girl to do with the extra dough? Treat herself, of course.

The Puri Ayu group also have a ‘mother’ spa on the 18th floor of Crown Princess Hotel in Kuala Lumpur; the Martha Tilaar Spa (another sister company is Dewi Sri Spa), exquisitely decorated with teak furniture and is always heady with flowery fragrances. The difference between the 3 franchises is in the decoration and offerings. Being the flagship spa, Martha Tilaar spa offers the most authentic spa experience, if ambiance is what you look for in a spa. Martha Tilaar spa also offers a wider range of services as each and everyone of their treatment room is fitted with a huge bath tube for that heavenly fragrant soak.

Anyways, I found myself at the Puri Ayu salon yesterday for massage and a facial. Being a 'salon' as opposed to a 'spa' the prices were much more calming. A 90 minute facial cost only RM80 and this comes with a heavenly shoulder massage. Puri Ayu offers a delicious array of massage packages. I ignored the 'aromatherapy' range and when straight for the pain relief costing RM110 for, massage that lasted, thankfully, longer than the promised 90 minutes (normal javanese massage goes for only RM90). Below is the waiting area at my Puri Ayu in Ampang.

I consider myself a massage connoiseur. I love receiving and am able to give massages. So I consider myself one level higher than the usual massage addicts. In the sense that I know what I should get from the massages. I have also tested a number of different spas around here. And I am glad to report that the Martha Tilaar group dispenses some of the best massages around here. The massaeus are not only very capable; in my book this means she has strong hands, they are also very attentive.

Perhaps some massaeus are not aware that keeping by the book, i.e. giving the client just enough, can come across as unsatisfactory.

A couple of years back I had the opportunity to spa at a well known spa franchise, The Mandara at the Sutera Harbour Hotel in Kota Kinabalu. The place was nice and the ambiance, very relaxing.

However, it was not the best massage I have ever received, though it was one of the more expensive packages I've ever paid for. I could 'feel' that the massaeus was counting the number of strokes per area to be given. Although I was facing down and the massaeus was working my back, I knew she was just giving enough. There was no bonding, as is the case when you get a real good massaeus. She would know where the problems parts are and work extra diligent there. This is the case with the ladies at the Martha Tilaar group. For this, I would usually give my massaeus something extra, a nice tip or some tit bits, like a bag of fruits or chocolates. And the oils at Mandara is just not 'there' It doesnt have that yummy fluid texture of the oils at Martha Tilaar. The whiff of fragrances I get passing outside the spa is just not what you get when you are on your back, being worked on.

Mandara is also expensive. I didnt get value for MY money at Mandara. I wouldnt mind the money if the service was satisfying.

On the other hand, I strongly recommend the Martha Tilaar spa at Crown Princess.
They are closed on sunday, heavens knows why; and their website dont work. But should you need some pampering or need some TLC, head over to the ladies floor at Crown Princess Hotel, Level 18, Jalan Ampang. Their telephone number s +603-2775 3868/3268

My Puri Ayu salon is more of a necessity. Its when you NEED a treatment that dont need the exotic ambiance. That urgent massage or facial or if you need to give your hair a nice cream bath or want shoulder massage. They are located at 48A (1st Floor) Jalan Mamanda 9, Ampang Point.(same block with Coffee Beans and facing the Ampang Puteri Medical Centre). Call them for an appointment at +603-4252 5511 or their franchise in Subang Jaya at +603-8023 0884.

Go on..give yourself a treat!

Introducing..Mr. and Ms. Crabbie

2007-05-21T19:56:00.001+08:00

I have a crab...actually two.

Yes, two crabs; two hermit crabs. Given to me almost a year ago by apek, my colleague and I suppose, my friend. ha ha..(drag that out of me). While his has long gone to the great big palace in the sky, mine is still going strong. I don't know why though. They are pretty much ignored. Oh, they get the required sustenance they need; more often than not too much. As I tend to over eat, so do I tend to over feed. And no, contrary to the directions you get in the books about care for hermit crabs, I dont wash their tank all that often. Yes, they are quite used to having lichens in their humble abode. Not really humble.

If the tank is my apartment and there are two of them in there, just like beloved and I; I'd be living in a huge home. The home gets occasional re-decoration once a while; lichen not withstanding.

Today, one of the crabs changed his shell; well actually, yet again for this dude. He had been busy changing and changing. Trying on all sorts of fashion. The last time he changed was 2 days ago. I found it fit to hide his old shell to see what he would do. ANd today, around 3 pm, my beloved reported that the dude was caught with pants down..again!

I got beloved to remove the shell to see which other shell he would pick. The picture below is the collection of shells hes been through.

During my previous visit to Langkawi, I bought several different designs of shells for the guys. The other dude had pretty much ignored the shells and remained loyal to his old suit. But the one that kept changing; hes on a roll. Previously, he got a shell which in my opinion is a bit too small for him; and he got his claws protruding from the shell. Today, he has out done himself.

He got himself a prime property. I think his new shell is way too big and a bit too heavy for him. It is also oddly shaped. Looks like hes got a 'balcony' from this new conquest. But after a trial run on the dinner table, he seems to have gotten the hang of the new shell.

Tex Mex Dinner and Spider Man 3

2007-05-19T00:41:00.000+08:00

This week seems to have been a western week. Dinner wise.

We've had burgers, taco, pasta - and tonight, we had dinner at Chilli's, with more or less the same offerings on the menu, burgers,pasta and nachos/tacos etc. I never was a fajitas sorta person, so that was never an option as far as dinners at home are concerned.

We met at Finnegans as we often do whenever we find ourselves in Mid-Valleys and as I was fainting with hunger, the closest place that would have satisfied my greed was Chilli's. Well the truth be told, I had dreamt about Vietnamese; I love the Hue spicy beef noodle, but my beloved specifically singled out Viet as a no no. He said Vietnamese food is too much liquid and not much of real food. Alrighty, i didn't want to argue and yes, my greed was more interested in fatty oily food with generous helpings of fatty cheesy, molten stuff that ....ah never mind that.
So, Chilli's it was.

The thing about ordering food when hungry is that, I am always convinced I could finish the whole plate of whatever... I forget that I have a small asian sized cavity that is my stomach which could possibly fit only a fist full of something and nothing more. The thing with western food, especially something that comes out of the Tex-Mex joints around here is that the servings are more often than not, at least five fists full! And that means, I'd be eating five times of my inherent capacity!

Never mind that the holy prophet says to 'eat one third of the space of your tummy, drink one third and leave one third for air'; a sound advice, nevertheless not usually heeded, until one feels like bursting at the seams!

Which is usually the case one third of the way through the servings.

Anyways, back to dinner.

We ordered the triple something as starters, which was chicken wings, refried beans spring rolls and deep fried chicken in batter served with ranch dressing, thousand island and blue cheese. and yes, the three came with a small serving of celery-thats fibre for you. Heavenly.

At this point, I was somewhat satisfied, having chowed down the starters and washing it down with tea.

Next was the main course. I ordered grilled shoulder lamb, medium and beloved had the same, but served rare.

Typical of Chilli's, the lamb came with a very generous servings of mashed potatoes, garlic toast, sauteed brocolli and cauliflower.

It was good of course, but 3 helpings of the lamb and I was up to my neck. From there, it was downhill all the way for me.

I was just shoving it in at that point. Beloved, in the mean time was shovelling it all in..no, not shovel, he practically breathed the food in. Yes, the man was indeed hungry.

Finish the meat, eat the good parts and leave the potatoes, my beloved urged me; when he sees me huffing and puffing and basically playing with my food. I meekly complied cutting out the meat from the bones to facilitate breathing in the food leaving the mashed tatas...

Don't stuff yourself, leave some space for dessert.... urghhhh

Ah yes, dessert for me was chocolate cake with hot fudge and vanilla ice cream...

Puff!

All that has got to go somewhere.... and I am not...entertaining those thoughts!

Anyway, the idea of going out tonight for dinner was because we wanted to go catch Spider Man 3 at the cinemas. Also, beloved needed to pick up the free movie tickets her extorted from GSC.. well... convinced GSC...

SO, we saw spidey tonight. It was fun. A little bit melo-dramatic in my opinion. I dont know if super heroes can do without women though. Without the femme, there is really no one to save. Its always the women that are in need of saving! Somehow, women seems to be pretty good with getting themselves weaved into webs, suspended some 72 floors above ground.
I was quite irritated that the baddies always takes the women hostage just to get to the hero..i.e. a man. BAH! And the women characters are potrayed as a weak, only good for screaming object on the screen. The women, regardless of MJ or the blonde girl was just there as a trap for Spidey. Its upsetting. Its unfair. Its Hollywood.

The alternative to that concept will be quite strange though. Spidey saves a man...

Hmm.... probably would not be popular....

So to sell movies, the womenfolk are sacrificed and; The women depicted by the heroin is potrayed as a weakling..

And the hero saves the world...yet again.
Yaaay...

At the end of the day, the idea of women being the weak, needy sex and in constant need of saving is pepertuated- yet again....

What a chauvinistic world we live in. BAH!!

BAH!!!!! BAH!!!!

Dinner Dinner

2007-05-17T20:01:00.000+08:00

Dinner tonight was taco. We had a lot of help from Old El Paso for the taco shells AND sauce-extra hot,of course- don't want to be slaving over the fire to make the shells, that is if i even have a recipe for the shells. Our taco was rounded up with minced beef seasoned with, yet again Old El Paso, Bulla sour cream, tomatoes, and cheese. And oh yes, not to forget; a side dish of refried beans.

Dinner yesterday was lamb burger with a side of potatoes wedges. The lamb burger was a quite a mouthful, what with a very meaty lamb patties, cheese,porcini mushroom, onion and salad. Yummy. Beats McDonalds hands down anytime. Though for some reason i prefer the burger with button mushrooms sauteed with the onion like we usually have. Porcini mushrooms are yummy on their own, but lost to the chaotic burger in this case.

Check out Old El Paso products at Betty Crockers site as follows:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/old-el-paso/old-el-paso

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/old-el-paso/old-el-paso

Poor Little Prince

2007-05-17T08:43:00.000+08:00

If I were the little prince, I'd dig deep into a burrow and bury myself there. Here is the chance to actually do something with myself-aside from just have fun and party with other rich kids at the expenses of my subjects; and my babysitters says NO! To pacify me, I'd probably receive a bunch of medals anyway, a lot of it. It will be like Bond playing with his casino chips in Casino Royale. And I can get to decorate myself in my finest regalia during whatever fun parties my babysitters have planned for me.

It is sad really. Here we have a kid who wants to be heroic and he can't because the blood running in his veins is coloured blue and is considered precious. Never mind if he will never make good of his position; he is after all number 3 in the line to the throne and at best, he'd make number 2. I bet the powers that be will do everything in their power to make sure big brother remains alive for the years to come.

Imagine if you have to be number 2 for the rest of your life and the one chance at glory is taken away from you, just because the mission is too dangerous. Sucks doesn't it.

Where are the courages men of old.

Where are the Tamerlanes, Napoleon, Alexander, Saladin; although they are the most precious asset to the nation they lead, they are out there in the battle fields-out there with the men shoulder to shoulder with the very men whom had vowed allegiance to them. Not shut away in the towers of their citadels. Running away and hiding behind their seas of consorts whenever the enemies get beyond the gates.

The chance of the little prince to be recognised as someone having made something of himself in history books in the years to come has been snatched away, just because the babysitters are afraid he will be targetted upon.

Denied of his fame, the little prince will forever be known as the second or third as it were, in line to the throne.

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Britain's Prince Harry won't go to Iraq

By Luke Baker
LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, will not be sent to serve in Iraq after military commanders decided it was too dangerous.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said specific threats made by insurgent groups against Harry, including listing him as a kidnap target, had made any deployment far too risky.

Britain's Prince Harry crouches during an exercise in Britain in this file photo taken in November 2005. Harry will not be sent to serve in Iraq after military commanders decided it would be too dangerous, Britain's Ministry of Defence said May 16, 2007. (REUTERS/Crown Copyright/Pool/Files)
"I've decided the risk to Prince Harry is too great," Richard Dannatt, the head of the British army, told reporters.

"I've also decided that the risk he brings to his troop and his squadron ... is also too great."

The decision underlines just how dangerous Iraq has become in the four years since U.S. and British troops invaded to overthrow Saddam Hussein. More than 3,400 U.S. troops and 148 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.

The decision over Harry sparked furious debate on radio and television, with many callers saying it was shameful for Harry's life to be protected above and beyond other soldiers'.

Harry, 22, who graduated as a junior army officer a year ago, had been due to be deployed in Basra, in southern Iraq, with his Blues and Royals regiment in the coming weeks as part of the latest British troop rotation.

Harry has repeatedly said he wants to be deployed with his men, but Ministry of Defence officials were fearful that he could become a target for Iraqi insurgents, endangering himself and those serving under him.

Dannatt said he knew that Harry, as a dedicated professional soldier, would be greatly disappointed by the news, but said the risks outweighed those considerations.

"There have been a number of specific threats, some reported some not reported, which relate directly to Prince Harry as an individual," Dannatt said.

"These threats expose not only him but also those around him to a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable."

"VERY DISAPPOINTED"

In a statement released on behalf of Prince Harry, the prince said he was "very disappointed" but would not quit the army as a result. He said he fully understood the decision.

Cornet Wales, as Harry is referred to in the army, has long said he enrolled at Sandhurst military academy where officers are trained because he wanted to serve on the front line.

As a junior commander in the Blues and Royals "A" Squadron Harry would have patrolled Basra and the deserts north and west of the city in a Scimitar light reconnaissance tank.

Scimitar squadrons operating in and around Basra have repeatedly come under attack in recent weeks -- among the dozen British soldiers killed in Iraq in April, two were blown up when a Scimitar vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.

April was the deadliest month for British troops in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Many in Basra fear the city could descend into all-out civil war between rival Shi'ite groups as British troops begin to withdraw from the oil-exporting region.

Dannatt said the widespread knowledge about Harry's impending deployment had contributed to his decision.

"It is a fact that this close scrutiny has exacerbated the situation and this is something that I wish to avoid in the future," he said.

The British royal family has a long tradition of deployment in the armed forces. Harry's uncle Prince Andrew saw frontline duty as a helicopter pilot in the 1982 Falklands War and his brother William has also been commissioned as an army officer.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters

Its A Picnik!

2007-05-15T10:22:00.000+08:00

I found an interesting photo editing website this morning. What draws me to the site is the fact that it is FREE!

I am an off again and on again photo enthusiast and baulk at the idea of investing in a Photoshop - an original one at that too. The last time I invested in big money was on a Nikon SLR. Now its sitting at mom's house gathering dust.

I am happy with a cheap digital camera which allows me to play with pictures whenever I go for vacation or whenever the mood strikes me.

And the discovery of this free web based photo editing website should keep me thrilled for the next couple of minutes.

This is my take away from the site:

1) The site will upload the photo to their server. This takes a couple of clicks. Impatient people will moan at the time it takes to upload; but I can sure find a more creative use of the wait time than moan;

2) Uploading done, you have the option of EDIT, CREATIVE TOOLS and SAVE & SHARE. The EDIT function is pretty much what you can get from MS Office Picture Manager. But I like picnik's interface better than MS.

3) The CREATIVE Tools gives you about 17 options to play with. Some of which is sepia, b&w, boost, softer, frame, vignette, etc. Some of these fuction could be found on a decent digicam but if you are like me; I prefer puttering around on my laptop as i get a bigger picture to play with and not squint myself blind on a 2.5" screen.

4) Finally, you can save and share with friends and family as it allows you to email or send it to Flikr. On saving your work, the website will download it back to your machine.

This site is really easy to navigate around. You only need to register by giving your email address and passwords. My cup of tea as I hate having to fill up those 20 questions forms.

The picture of this Ixora flower at moms was edited using picnik. I had it cropped, sharpen and edited with the vignette tool. The same picture in my previous entry was edited using MS Picture Manager.

Check out picnik at the following website:

www.picnik.com

Its Monday Again

2007-05-14T19:54:00.000+08:00

The day started rather slowly today. I am after all the empress of the office while the boss is away to check out some triplex pump in Shanghai.

Also, I forgot to bring my gym card which gave me all the excuses in the world to be feeding my face. And today, I chose to lunch with Arvi.

I mentioned Arvi before in my previous entries. And during lunch today, we pick up from where we left off the last time we had a long talk.

We are back to Arvi wanting to migrate to Australia.

The last time we talked about this, I tried to get him out of the crazy idea of leaving the confort of home for a situation that offers no guarantee of happily ever after.

He wanted to get uprooted, for the chance of a better life for his children.

The first time he confided this in me, I thought he was just stark raving mad.

Not only will his daughter be an indian girl in a white country; she has her skin colour and tradition as baggage following her everywhere. With a very traditional mother (Arvi's wife from an arranged marriage), I can see the girl facing all sorts of growing pains in the years to come.

But something changed my mind today.

The way he had everything planned... it just shows sheer determination. With that kind of determination, he only deserves a cheering team behind his back and not a bunch of nay sayers monkey-ing on his back. He especially don't need a friend like me to add weight to that monkey.

Arvi is a smart guy; hard working to boot. Loyal and trustworthy.
He graduated from University of Malaya and then pursued Masters in Business Administration.

Now, if you pick up guy from the streets having an engineering degree and MBA under his sleeve and offer him a migration ticket to Australia for the promise of a better life for his children would he do it? Sure, sounds good right.

Now the catch. This MBA engineer will have to give up the comforts of home and work his ass off washing dishes in Melbourne because the OZs do not recognise his degree. Would this guy still do it? For the 'promise' of a better life for his daughter? A promise. Key words to live by.

Arvi is willing to do this. He thinks his daughters will get the best education money can buy in Australia. He is doing it for his daughters. Just like when his granddad packed up and left India and came to Malaya for a promise of a better life for his children.

Its noble. I can't argue with that. And who is to know if he will or will not make it.

Bottom line, i think he has what it takes to make it. And I salute him for having the strength and courage.

We finished our banana leaf rice lunch and walked back to the office. Walking back, I kept thinking about this. I still wonder how hard it will be for him when the time comes to pack up and go.

**********************************************************************

For dinner tonight, we went Italian. We had tagatelli with cheese and spinach in red sauce and greek salad. Yumm. Absolutely delicious but not something I'd want every night. A nice change from the tried and tested dishes though. The cost of putting tonight's dinner together is about half of what we would have paid if we had dinner at Picolo Mondo in the MidValleys. Pasta, sauce and salad with feta cheese, all in came to about RM50, just a little over US$15 for 2 pax. A bargain!

However, my beloved's effort on doughnut went bust. It started out pretty nicely but all went awry when he burnt it all in the pan. So, I get to smell doughnuts but still no taste of doughnuts tonight...sigh... Looks like I am going to have to pick up some from Dunkin Donuts after gym tomorrow... ha ha

Pasir Belanda Resort & Travel In Kota Bahru

2007-05-14T11:43:00.000+08:00

I found a very interesting website/vacation spot while reading the papers today. The resort located near Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB) in Kelantan is owned and runned by a dutch couple. The resort offers visitors an authentic malay kampung (village) experiences at very reasonable prices.

Check them out here:

www.kampungstay.com

Doughnut

2007-05-13T21:45:00.000+08:00

It is 15 minutes to 10 on a sunday evening; and my beloved craves for a doughnut!

Its a Mother's Day Weekend

2007-05-13T20:18:00.000+08:00

Today is mother's day weekend..or so I was told. It doesn't really matter, if it is or is not. I spend every weekend or every other weekend with my parents. Sundays to me means, lunch with my parents. Usually spent engaged in lively and entertaining conversations about happenings of the week. After lunch, we'd say our prayers and then take a rest in the family room; more lively conversations ensues. Usually around four, we'd take tea and some light refreshments with more chit chats and the visit will end around five, when the visit of the week will end. Mom usually insist that I take home some goodies home; snacks in amounts to last a week and dinner too.

My visits are usually events, when gifts are received and given. I will usually bring fun stuff for mom and dad; chiller bags and shopping bags, fertilizer, plants, books and mom always reciprocates with gifts of food; home made frozen curry puffs, frozen roti chanai. frozen spring rolls. It has always been a tradition in our family. When we visit with grandmother, mom and dad will stuff the family car full, bearing gifts for grandmaw. Mom and dad always pack things that one would not consider as a 'gift' material. My personal favourite was the bottles of soy sauce.
Yes, you read right, dark soy sauce. Its not that Muar, where grandmaw was living do not have soy sauces, its just that mom and dad happens to think that their particular brand is superior. I still remember the bottles and the brand. Kicap Cap Belon, Balloon brand dark soy sauce. However, the kicap manufacturer failed to keep up the quality of the sauces. So these days, mom and dad brings orange and mango drinks; absolutely yummy.

So, after growing up with this gift bearing culture, it is natural that I would myself visit my parents, bearing gifts. And the gifts are not in the nature of glittering swarovski crystal, but something my parents could always use. Something they would appreciate. Not something they will put on the mantel and forget at the end of the month.
This gift bearing from a child to her parents and vice versa;there is no need to wait for Mothers, Fathers or for that matter any commercialised special days. To me, everyday is a day of love for my parents.

Happy Mothers' Day to All Mothers.

p/s: If you are wondering what the picture of the cats and the flowers got to do with the Mother's Day post, well these cats are strays that usually come by moms place and gets fed by dad and the flowers are from mom's garden.

Dinner @ Basil

2007-05-12T22:55:00.000+08:00

Saturdays, are days we'd dine outside for dinner. Being the creature of habits that we are, we'd go back to a place we like, over and over again. Saturday is also a day we'd go out and buy our weekly supplies. And we both love shopping at Bangsar Village; relatively well priced products and an a wide array of choices available to shoppers. Bangsar Village started out as a small neighourhood super market with a couple of stores; a book store, a video store, music, sports, within one building. It has now expanded to include another building with boutiques and salons and an even bigger book store, not to forget more choices of restaurants.

That said we would often go back to our favourite resturants. At the moment high on our list are Basil Nudle House and Sakae Sushi. So loyal are we to both these establishments that we now have loyalty cards which enables us to enjoy discounts on our bills.
This weekend, dinner is at Basil's. Basil is part of a thai restaurant chain in KL, the Sea Cuisine. The Sea Cuisine owns a chain of restaurants strategically located all around KL. We've been to Basil, Siam Square and Amarin Heavenly Thai; located in Bangsar Village, Berjaya Times Square and Mega Mall Mid Valley respectively. And we 'd have to say, the food is good. Good enough for us to come back again and again.

Most of the dishes offered are good. But we have our favourites. The Tomyum is a mainstay in our dietary preference when it comes to dining at Basil. It is prepared just the way I love it; with strong and overwhelming galangal and coriander flavour in thick, full of body soup. Just great. None of that weak and thin version popular in the east coast of the peninsula Malaysia; the southern thai version I am guessing. The soup is always chockful of seafood and straw mushroom. Good to the very last drop.
When having dinner at Basil my beloved will have his tried and tested chicken or beef stir fried with basil - with extra portion of chili padi,..of course. I usually flit around with the single plate/bowl dishes; needless to say, with all that visits to Basil, I've pretty much sampled all their single dishes.
So today I chose to dine on rice and the green curry. I was quite disappointed that they did not have the green curry beef; they ran out of it after lunch. So, that just goes to show how popular this restaurant is around here.
My green curry was a bit high on the scoville heat scale today; perhaps because I am still recovering from a flu. I usually enjoy a lot of heat in my dishes. I had also snacked on a grilled cheese sandwhich not one hour before dinner. Both these factors goes a long way in my perception on how good the food was. So, if normally I would sing praises for dinner at Basil's, today I'd be happy to just say, I had a good dinner. I know my beloved loved his chicken basil. And yes, he polished off the glass noodle salad.

Overall, yet another satisfying dinner at Basil's. They certainly get two thumbs up from me.

Check them out at :
http://www.seacuisine.com.my

Progress of My Heliconia

2007-05-12T13:45:00.000+08:00

On April 29th, I took a photo of my bangun bangun plant which I had previously chucked into the Heliconia pot. The idea of the picture was to record the progress of the bangun bangun.

I had a nice surprise this morning when i noted that the little horn of a heliconia which was captured in that picture taken on April the 29th have now sprouted leaf and grown some 3 times the size it was almost 2 weeks ago.

Bromeliad May 12th 2007

2007-05-12T13:26:00.000+08:00

My bromeliad as at Saturday May 12th.

Saturday Again!

2007-05-12T13:06:00.000+08:00

Its saturday again, brilliantly kicked off with a mug of steaming hot black coffee and breakfast; and then a second breakfast of pancakes, butter and syrup. Rounded off with a cuddle with Harry Bosch.
My beloved makes a brilliantly simple but delicious pancakes. He tops it up with a chunk of unsalted butter (we use Lurpak unsalted butter) and a generous drizzle of syrup. We use Country Kitchen syrup for our pancakes. His recipe is simple. Try it.

My Beloved's Saturday Morning Pancakes Recipe
All purpose Floor
Egg
Milk
Baking Powder
Salt
Syrup and butter for serving

1) Sift flour, baking powder and salt together
2) Combine egg and milk in seperate bowl
3) Add mixture of egg and milk into flour mix and stir to smooth out the lumps
4) Cook on non stick pan, slightly buttered
5) Serve with butter and syrup.