26 Feb 2010

just thinking aloud

Today I discovered a number of things - first of all there are blogs about simple living. I really like that and I found one called Down-to-earth by a lady called Rhonda from Australia. I love her blog and she gave a tutorial on how to make soap and also how to make bread from scratch. I know - many of you out there probably can already bake like a dream  but I've tried so many times and my bread has ended up flat or hard. This time I am going to try again following Rhonda's recipe. It doesn't seem hard. Her soap making tutorial is also great. I love women like her - they seem so capable and clever. I wish I can do things like that but I guess some people are meant to do certain things and others other things, if you know what I mean. My mum used to be like her - she was so capable. She cooked and sewed and baked cookies for sale and even took in some simple catering for parties. I can cook but only for my own family and I guess that's good enough!

20 Feb 2010

some people do the darnedest things

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to write about it at all - all and any kind of harassment by the authorities, whether its against people, traders or the latest fad - books. Yes we all know that even the most innocent looking book, as long as there is anything the slightest bit against the present government, gets banned. My daughter who works in one of the biggest bookstores in KL says that lately Amir Mohamad's book - "Politicians say the darnedest things" was taken away by the police. I wonder whether these people have any sense of humour at all.... can't they laugh at themselves once in a while? And why the police? Don't they have anything better to do - like get rid of snatch thieves, people smugglers, robbers and murderers or generally keep the city crime free and make it safe for us citizens. Do they bother to read at all or do they grab the book just because of the title? I wonder if the PM knows about this latest act? Knowing him I'm sure he would have laughed it off. Reminds me of that book by Ray Bradbury - Farenheit 480 where books are burned.

Our politicians always want people to think they are cool. But to be cool you have to act cool - either laugh at yourself or ignore criticism. Better still, never take yourself to seriously!


19 Feb 2010

global warming?

I'm not sure whether its global warming or just another heat wave, but it's been really hot these past few weeks. My mother in law says that its always hot this time of year, especially near Chinese New Year but its been weeks now. Yesterday we had some heavy rain but it lasted only about half an hour and all it did was to make the weather more humid.

And in the northern hemisphere the snow storms are really bad - Even Spain and Portugal which seldom see snow during winter has been getting really heavy snow falls, and in Rome last week traffic was halted because of an unusually heavy snow storm, which residents said they hadn't had for decades. I saw Al Gore's film last year about global warming - An Inconvenient Truth  and agree that everyone, including us uminportant citizens - should do sometghing about it. Its a scary thing, just thinking about it. I know that many of us prefer to hide our heads under the sand and pretend that the problem doesn't exist but I believe that global warming is here with us, not just something scary far away in the horizon  or something in the distant future that we don't have to think about. Just think about all those hurricanes and typhoons that have been causing terrible disasters - in the USA, in Bangladesh, in the Philippines and many other places too.

This is only February. I remember last year it rained during this time and even though Malaysia has always been hot, the temperatures were always fairly stable and around 30 degrees. Today the temperature is about 36 degrees, very hot in fact for February. I wonder about my poor fish back home in Melaka - the water in the pond usually lose to evaporation by at least six inches a week. If I don't go home, the water level will be drastically reduced. Here in KL the water level in the reservoirs too are going down. Soon we'll hear announcements about saving water.

16 Feb 2010

abandoned values

Today's papers were full of  the newest scandal of the day - abandoned babies. In fact some babies are so unwanted they are not just abandoned but burnt to death. This is the first time I've heard of this - before it was just throwing away unwanted babies in the trash can or in front of mosques and sometimes near a rubbish dump. Yesterday something new and even more evil occurred - a baby was thrown into a dumpster and then the dumpster set a fire - as if throwing away an innocent victim of its mother's sexual decadence was not enough - whoever it was had to burn her own child. And of course this had to happen - where - you guessed it  - that supposedly "corridor of Mecca", that supposedly " holy/ country" in Malaysia, Kelantan, with its two faced politicians and hypocritical attitudes. It makes me mad, really and truly mad to think that any body, could throw away her own child and kill him just to  hide their own perfidy.

At least such things no longer occur over here on the West coast - maybe its because we "liberal outsiders" are more civilised, more westernised to do such wanton killings? It has often been noted that the more you try to control the young, the more they rebel. In Kelantan, all Muslims are forced to wear the hijab and to cover up their bodies to "protect "them from the stares of male counterparts. The Kelantan Mentri Besar, Tok Guru himself commented that one of the results of permissiveness is more rape cases and more abandoned babies. Is Kelantan very permissive then? Because many of last year's rape cases occured in Kelantan and this year's worst case of abandoned babies is also from Kuala Krai. So much then for covering your anatomy. And for all that spouting of the holy Quran , what kind of a Muslim are you if you could kill your own child? Even animals have an instinct to protect their young. Not so humans today. 

1 Feb 2010

Osibisa

I found this group on utube - it used to be one of my favourite groups in the 70s. I think its still great and would like to share it with anybody else who care to listen. The group is called Osibisa.


There are other really fantastic songs too, one of them is called Welcome Home. Its a great song for coming home in the evening for.