As of today we have made the house at 2164, Taman Samudera Timur our permanent resident for 1 year 7 months.
Since then too we have brought back life to the house since it was left vacant as soon as it was completed.
It is true with what they say - a house will age faster if not lived in. Human dwellers somehow give life to any house.
I remember how neighbours referred to our house as lifeless, unkempt and uncared for. Well, that was when it was just a rest house for us - that only during school holidays and Eids.
Can't blame them for that really. Our house then would always be overgrown with Imperata cylinderica (lalang).
Everytime we came back and inhabit the house, there would be 3-4 feet of lalang in the compound! Once or twice we even saw snake's shed skin along the fence.
But now, anyone who had seen the house before, would for sure be taken aback. It is so green and alive that neighbours passing it would stop and peek in to see the bio-transformation.
From afar they could see that green grass covered the entire compound. It is no more that pesty lalang, but it is now made up of Paspalum conjugatum and Axonopus compressus.
The resident dual-variety mango tree is busy fruiting - in fact I could not remember it being fruitless for long. Its neighbour, the jambu madu tree strangely flowerless after I over-trimmed it.
If you examine closer, you will see that the soil is alive with activities. Earthworm digested soil is everywhere. They also say that their presence signifies life!
Grasshoppers, crickets and butterflies are many too in the natural garden.
Moringa trees stand tall as they provide me with instant vitamin-rich shoots and the earth with the essential nitrogen. I am still waiting for them to bear pods though.
Yam (keladi) grow well in the shade provided by the mango tree. Those under direct sunlight seem to be suffering (they used to flourish when they were first grown during the monsoon).
The two Rambutan trees given by a colleague from DOA have different fate - one is growing fast (helped by Stocking's natural fertilizer) while the other is struggling.
The durian tree is also struggling in between the moringa and the bread fruit tree.
However, the most interesting things happening in our compound are the roosting of yellow-vented bulbuls in our mango tree, the gregarious Phillipines glossy starling chasing after grubs in the mango tree, the forever serenading black and white magpie robins and the fiercely protective swallow and her family (she keeps on attacking our Stocking).
Lastly, our Stocking is pining for Syafiq. He seems lost and sulking most of the time. He misses our Syafiq a lot - can't blame it as he has been living and sleeping together, they two for almost three months! And now Syafiq is well again after that terrible neck injury that he suffered and has now gone back to KL.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
BRISK WALKING IN TAMAN MPK
It pleases me very much to see people of Chukai becoming more conscious of exercising. People of all ages come to the park to jog, brisk walk or do exercises on the open-air gymnasium.
My wife and I usually visit the park on Saturdays and Sundays for only on these two days that I am, sometimes, free.
We usually do brisk-walking - no more jogging for us two. I cannot jog because of my old knee injury. Alos, jogging is not good for my age, so they say.
We will normally brisk walk for 5-6 rounds (I am not sure exactly the distance, but I guess it suffice our exercise requirement).
I have made friends and rekindle old-friendship along the way. I have met Cikgu Aziz and Sergeant (retired) Ismail, both are in their seventies but they are still in good shape. Cikgu Azziz has a bad leg due to a fall, but Sgt Ismail, my father's colleague, looks as young if not younger than me.
Yesterday I met Hj Mohd, a distant relative of mine. He is my mother's nephew, twice removed (anak dua pupu). Actually his sister, a nurse, used to help me a lot when I was hospitalised for appendicitis in HKL way back in 1978. Sadly I did not know that she was a relative.
Zawiah, my cousin is also another frequent visitor of the park.
The brisk walking has done a lot as far as my physical fitness is concerned. I feel well afterwards.
What saddends me is to see couples walking leisurely in an attire unsuitable for exercise. The food stalls there also need some improvement, at least from the hygiene point of view. Bad odour emanating from clogged drains give a negative impression of the park.
I do hope MPK will do more to improve the scenario of the park. The jogging trail need improvement...there is still uneven surfaces that may hurt users.
Why not organise a free mass exercise programs like Tai Chee for pensioners and pensioner-to-be!
My wife and I usually visit the park on Saturdays and Sundays for only on these two days that I am, sometimes, free.
We usually do brisk-walking - no more jogging for us two. I cannot jog because of my old knee injury. Alos, jogging is not good for my age, so they say.
We will normally brisk walk for 5-6 rounds (I am not sure exactly the distance, but I guess it suffice our exercise requirement).
I have made friends and rekindle old-friendship along the way. I have met Cikgu Aziz and Sergeant (retired) Ismail, both are in their seventies but they are still in good shape. Cikgu Azziz has a bad leg due to a fall, but Sgt Ismail, my father's colleague, looks as young if not younger than me.
Yesterday I met Hj Mohd, a distant relative of mine. He is my mother's nephew, twice removed (anak dua pupu). Actually his sister, a nurse, used to help me a lot when I was hospitalised for appendicitis in HKL way back in 1978. Sadly I did not know that she was a relative.
Zawiah, my cousin is also another frequent visitor of the park.
The brisk walking has done a lot as far as my physical fitness is concerned. I feel well afterwards.
What saddends me is to see couples walking leisurely in an attire unsuitable for exercise. The food stalls there also need some improvement, at least from the hygiene point of view. Bad odour emanating from clogged drains give a negative impression of the park.
I do hope MPK will do more to improve the scenario of the park. The jogging trail need improvement...there is still uneven surfaces that may hurt users.
Why not organise a free mass exercise programs like Tai Chee for pensioners and pensioner-to-be!
Friday, March 27, 2009
HOW BAD PEOPLE COULD BE
Hating other people's success and wanting to see him/her destroyed is the attitude owned by some of us. To these people, it is better that no one else gains as long as their target of seeing somebody else failed or destroyed.
There is no such thing as win-win situation for these people. Let others lose, that's their goal. It is ok if they gain nothing from it.
Examples are many, nut here are some of my personal experience for us to share:
'A' is an excellent cook. He rented a shop and opened up a restaurant. In no time his restaurant was always full of clients wanting to taste his delicious tom-yam.
Suddenly, without warning the land-owner changed his mind. He wanted to use the land. 'A' has to stop operation and went searching for another location. 'A' did not find another spot as good as his last restaurant.
Months has passed, but the land remained vacant. All the land-owner wanted was to see 'A' failed. That he was successful.
Second case:
A piece of grazing reserve remained as it had been for years - not optimally utilized (a diplomatic way of saying secondary bushes have overtaken whatever remained of the animal rearing activities).
When an entrepreneur (especially from outside) was allowed to develop that piece of land with a viable livestock project, suddenly, out of the blues there will be protests from all quarters. Suddenly there are so many livestock farmers springing from no where!
The poor entrepreneur then gave up his idea and the land returned to the protesters....years passed but the land remained as it was...overgrown with bushes!
Third example:
The worst case: 'A' likes 'B' but 'B' rejected A's proposal of marriage as she had another man in mind. 'A' in great frustration vowed that if he could not get 'B' then nobody else could get her.
'A' then used black magic to make 'B' looked unattractive or prevent her from being asked for by no one else. Sadly, 'B' remained single till now.
Fourth example: (strange but true)
A shop next door was making more business and money than theirs. Instead of improving their services and quality of products to remain competitive, they used a bomoh to do something to their neighbour.
Normally clients would stop going to their neighbour's shop because they could not see the shop (invisible to the clients)!
Or I have seen cases where very bad odour emanating from the neighbour's shop and the odour is detectable only to the clients.
There is no such thing as win-win situation for these people. Let others lose, that's their goal. It is ok if they gain nothing from it.
Examples are many, nut here are some of my personal experience for us to share:
'A' is an excellent cook. He rented a shop and opened up a restaurant. In no time his restaurant was always full of clients wanting to taste his delicious tom-yam.
Suddenly, without warning the land-owner changed his mind. He wanted to use the land. 'A' has to stop operation and went searching for another location. 'A' did not find another spot as good as his last restaurant.
Months has passed, but the land remained vacant. All the land-owner wanted was to see 'A' failed. That he was successful.
Second case:
A piece of grazing reserve remained as it had been for years - not optimally utilized (a diplomatic way of saying secondary bushes have overtaken whatever remained of the animal rearing activities).
When an entrepreneur (especially from outside) was allowed to develop that piece of land with a viable livestock project, suddenly, out of the blues there will be protests from all quarters. Suddenly there are so many livestock farmers springing from no where!
The poor entrepreneur then gave up his idea and the land returned to the protesters....years passed but the land remained as it was...overgrown with bushes!
Third example:
The worst case: 'A' likes 'B' but 'B' rejected A's proposal of marriage as she had another man in mind. 'A' in great frustration vowed that if he could not get 'B' then nobody else could get her.
'A' then used black magic to make 'B' looked unattractive or prevent her from being asked for by no one else. Sadly, 'B' remained single till now.
Fourth example: (strange but true)
A shop next door was making more business and money than theirs. Instead of improving their services and quality of products to remain competitive, they used a bomoh to do something to their neighbour.
Normally clients would stop going to their neighbour's shop because they could not see the shop (invisible to the clients)!
Or I have seen cases where very bad odour emanating from the neighbour's shop and the odour is detectable only to the clients.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
OF GHOSTS & DJINNS
It's strange and mind-boggling how suddenly, in this new millenium, ghosts, djinns, susuk, hantu pocong, mass hysteria and what-nots become the talk of town - a hot topic indeed.
I thought in this new era of ICT and globalization people move away from superstitions and creatures of the dark.
Come on man, we are no more in the sixties, where those things are a part of life.
I had a personal experience in this matter where my brother was possessed by not one but three pelesit or hantu raya when he was still a toddler. He was inflicted with a disease (or was it a disease really?) that defied logic. His head could turn backwards and was in comatose state most of the time. The symptoms strangely disappeared when he was in the hospital. But medical tests prove nothing.
It took Pok We, the late bomoh, a few years to bring him back to normal. In between, I saw many episodes of people going into trance and telling why he was sick. Pok We told us that there were three outsiders in my brother's body.
But that was in 1965! Bukit Kuang was still without electricity.
Now in the new millenium, we hear of students experiencing mass hysteria in a school in Tg Lumpur, Pahang. Why? It was said that the piling works had killed a resident djinn! Hard to believe right, but ask those students, they willl tell you their experience.
A highway near Gua Tempurung - there were far too many road accidents there. A group of djinns had to be relocated from there by, believe it or not, bus to Lumut. The driver narrated to me how he felt the invisible passengers boarding and disembarking the bus!
Five hantu pocong like figures floating in the river caused TV3 to produce a special report on that.
There are teams investigating the ghosts featured on tv.
Tales of ladies facing the wrath of their susuk when they get old and tries to remove it, but difficult as their bomoh is already dead.
Then there was this story of people coughing blood and dying after consuming santau-contaminated food in Perak. Many restaurants had to be closed because of that. Strangely KFC joints were spared!
Stop fooling around. Start believing in God and do what He ask us to do and refrain from doing what he forbid us to do...then things will be ok.
I thought in this new era of ICT and globalization people move away from superstitions and creatures of the dark.
Come on man, we are no more in the sixties, where those things are a part of life.
I had a personal experience in this matter where my brother was possessed by not one but three pelesit or hantu raya when he was still a toddler. He was inflicted with a disease (or was it a disease really?) that defied logic. His head could turn backwards and was in comatose state most of the time. The symptoms strangely disappeared when he was in the hospital. But medical tests prove nothing.
It took Pok We, the late bomoh, a few years to bring him back to normal. In between, I saw many episodes of people going into trance and telling why he was sick. Pok We told us that there were three outsiders in my brother's body.
But that was in 1965! Bukit Kuang was still without electricity.
Now in the new millenium, we hear of students experiencing mass hysteria in a school in Tg Lumpur, Pahang. Why? It was said that the piling works had killed a resident djinn! Hard to believe right, but ask those students, they willl tell you their experience.
A highway near Gua Tempurung - there were far too many road accidents there. A group of djinns had to be relocated from there by, believe it or not, bus to Lumut. The driver narrated to me how he felt the invisible passengers boarding and disembarking the bus!
Five hantu pocong like figures floating in the river caused TV3 to produce a special report on that.
There are teams investigating the ghosts featured on tv.
Tales of ladies facing the wrath of their susuk when they get old and tries to remove it, but difficult as their bomoh is already dead.
Then there was this story of people coughing blood and dying after consuming santau-contaminated food in Perak. Many restaurants had to be closed because of that. Strangely KFC joints were spared!
Stop fooling around. Start believing in God and do what He ask us to do and refrain from doing what he forbid us to do...then things will be ok.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
LET US GREEN THE IDLE LAND
I want to be like Johnny appleseed. Remember him? Most probably those below 50 may not know him, unless you're a great reader.
Johnny appleseed was a famous character in US. He was the one who is responsible for introducing apples to US. He used to bring apple seeds wherever he went, spreading the seeds all over US.
He was also known for his bravery. One night before going to sleep, a group of Red Indians surrounded him with the intention of killing him for intruding into their territory. They waited it out till he fell asleep. They then saw him pulled out his knife, heat it in the burning campfire and then began searing it to blisters and wounds on his feet. He 'disinfect' his feet without even a word of pain thought the act itself was a painful one. Seeing his extra-ordinary bravery they left him alone and never again disturb him.
Why not we follow him? Let us plant fodder trees on our idle land. We have plenty of idle land around. Forget about economic size. Just plant something.
For fodder, anything edible to ruminants is fine with me. But, plant it seriously and in an amount sufficient for animal feed.
What I suggest is to plant them in hedges. That way it will be easy for users to harvest or animals to browse.
Trees that we could plant include (not exhaustive) : Hibiscus, Leucaena (petai belalang), Glyricidia, Moringa, Calliandra, Mulberry, Tembusu, Mengkudu, Tamarind, Acacia, etc etc
Let us green our countryside with fodder trees for our animals...
Let us reduce the number of stray animals criss-crossing our road system....
Johnny appleseed was a famous character in US. He was the one who is responsible for introducing apples to US. He used to bring apple seeds wherever he went, spreading the seeds all over US.
He was also known for his bravery. One night before going to sleep, a group of Red Indians surrounded him with the intention of killing him for intruding into their territory. They waited it out till he fell asleep. They then saw him pulled out his knife, heat it in the burning campfire and then began searing it to blisters and wounds on his feet. He 'disinfect' his feet without even a word of pain thought the act itself was a painful one. Seeing his extra-ordinary bravery they left him alone and never again disturb him.
Why not we follow him? Let us plant fodder trees on our idle land. We have plenty of idle land around. Forget about economic size. Just plant something.
For fodder, anything edible to ruminants is fine with me. But, plant it seriously and in an amount sufficient for animal feed.
What I suggest is to plant them in hedges. That way it will be easy for users to harvest or animals to browse.
Trees that we could plant include (not exhaustive) : Hibiscus, Leucaena (petai belalang), Glyricidia, Moringa, Calliandra, Mulberry, Tembusu, Mengkudu, Tamarind, Acacia, etc etc
Let us green our countryside with fodder trees for our animals...
Let us reduce the number of stray animals criss-crossing our road system....
10 things that I hate most today
Below are things, or human actions or inactions that I meet daily , that I hate most (not necessarily in order of importance):
1. Drivers that never put on on their headlights when it is still / already dark - I wonder why, may be they think that they will save power by doing that!
2. People who take too long a time at ATM doing whatever they are doing, oblivious to the long line of people waiting behind them.
3. Drivers who flash their high beam whenever they want to overtake other car. I'll normally voluntarily go to the left whenever I saw a high-powered cars looming behind me (out of respect perhaps), but will stay on the right if the car behind me is flashing!
4. Drivers who drive ever so slowly as if they have all the time in this world for himself and no one else is driving on the road or makan angin. I would not mind if the car is twenty years old...but a brand new Volvo 240S or other cars in the same class or better doing just that ?????
5. Smokers who proudly and arrogantly puffing away in public places blowing away polluting-smoke into my face and messing up places with cigarette butts and ashes!
6. Public outcry when price of chicken goes up by 50 sen a kilo, but silent as a graveyard when fish prices go up by leaps and bound.
7. Looking at people wrongly-dressed or overly-dressed, like wearing revealing dresses in religious occassions or wearing T-shirts in formal meetings or worst still wearing fancy dresses to night markets!
8. Being overly-charged for food that is under par in taste, presentation and slow in preparing.
9. Visitors who come visiting unannounced at very odd hours such as very late at nights, when I just arrived home from work.
10. Drivers or passengers wantonly throwing rubbish out of their cars onto the highways!
1. Drivers that never put on on their headlights when it is still / already dark - I wonder why, may be they think that they will save power by doing that!
2. People who take too long a time at ATM doing whatever they are doing, oblivious to the long line of people waiting behind them.
3. Drivers who flash their high beam whenever they want to overtake other car. I'll normally voluntarily go to the left whenever I saw a high-powered cars looming behind me (out of respect perhaps), but will stay on the right if the car behind me is flashing!
4. Drivers who drive ever so slowly as if they have all the time in this world for himself and no one else is driving on the road or makan angin. I would not mind if the car is twenty years old...but a brand new Volvo 240S or other cars in the same class or better doing just that ?????
5. Smokers who proudly and arrogantly puffing away in public places blowing away polluting-smoke into my face and messing up places with cigarette butts and ashes!
6. Public outcry when price of chicken goes up by 50 sen a kilo, but silent as a graveyard when fish prices go up by leaps and bound.
7. Looking at people wrongly-dressed or overly-dressed, like wearing revealing dresses in religious occassions or wearing T-shirts in formal meetings or worst still wearing fancy dresses to night markets!
8. Being overly-charged for food that is under par in taste, presentation and slow in preparing.
9. Visitors who come visiting unannounced at very odd hours such as very late at nights, when I just arrived home from work.
10. Drivers or passengers wantonly throwing rubbish out of their cars onto the highways!
Monday, March 23, 2009
COUNTING DAYS....
In a few months time I'll be 55. By then I 'll only have another year to go before calling it a day in DVS.
The question is (as asked and speculated by many) am I really going to retire after getting my DIMP. A few has simply told people that I'm going to change my mind.
For me, I'm sticking to my plan. I'm going to retire from my present career on July 22 2010 at the age of 56. Getting the DIMP is a bonus for me...well at least I have fulfilled one of the top level of Maslow's Theory of Needs...
My exit plan? Well I still have a year over to plan what to do.
Actually I've been contacted by a University...they want me to start now as a temporary lecturer and not to wait till I retire...I've told them I agree to do it. I'll do it initially on Sundays...
Am I doing the right thing in this global economic turmoil? Well, I'm retiring from my present work in DVS, but I won't retire from doing what I like best...
May be, I'll try get a contract work with DVS as a veterinary pathologist - developing histologic slide reading to all budding pathologist in DVS labs...
What is important is to take a break, escape the routine non-productive but mentally-tiring non-veterinary works...
I'll continue working at my own pace, no pressure of meeting deadlines, KPIs, etc...doing whatever interest me...
Well, I would like very much to complete my novels...who knows may be I'll be good at it...and become a rich novelist before I close my eyes...
The first is my autobiography...the second will be a fiction-plus-real story...and the third is a real-life drama that I happen to be part of...
I also would like it very much to transfer all I have as far as skills and knowledge to others...hate to think that all that I was blessed with are allowed to rot away just like that...
Getting ready for the ultimate destination...still feel very inadequate for the long journey...Too much time spent on something very insignificant (the world) and Too little time spent on the real world (the hereafter)...
Please Allah lead me to your right path and bless me with the energy and mental facility to continue serving you and filling the seemingly unsurmountable gap...
The question is (as asked and speculated by many) am I really going to retire after getting my DIMP. A few has simply told people that I'm going to change my mind.
For me, I'm sticking to my plan. I'm going to retire from my present career on July 22 2010 at the age of 56. Getting the DIMP is a bonus for me...well at least I have fulfilled one of the top level of Maslow's Theory of Needs...
My exit plan? Well I still have a year over to plan what to do.
Actually I've been contacted by a University...they want me to start now as a temporary lecturer and not to wait till I retire...I've told them I agree to do it. I'll do it initially on Sundays...
Am I doing the right thing in this global economic turmoil? Well, I'm retiring from my present work in DVS, but I won't retire from doing what I like best...
May be, I'll try get a contract work with DVS as a veterinary pathologist - developing histologic slide reading to all budding pathologist in DVS labs...
What is important is to take a break, escape the routine non-productive but mentally-tiring non-veterinary works...
I'll continue working at my own pace, no pressure of meeting deadlines, KPIs, etc...doing whatever interest me...
Well, I would like very much to complete my novels...who knows may be I'll be good at it...and become a rich novelist before I close my eyes...
The first is my autobiography...the second will be a fiction-plus-real story...and the third is a real-life drama that I happen to be part of...
I also would like it very much to transfer all I have as far as skills and knowledge to others...hate to think that all that I was blessed with are allowed to rot away just like that...
Getting ready for the ultimate destination...still feel very inadequate for the long journey...Too much time spent on something very insignificant (the world) and Too little time spent on the real world (the hereafter)...
Please Allah lead me to your right path and bless me with the energy and mental facility to continue serving you and filling the seemingly unsurmountable gap...
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