Odds and ends

I haven't been home in Melaka for some time and I do miss being home - just lying down in bed or sitting in the little swing outside on the verandah and just look at my plants. I love getting my hands all dirty and earthy, doing the gardening, pruning trees, my few roses and my numerous green plants. We drove down today - Yatie and I, just for a night. I spent the afternoon adding fertiliser to my pot plants, repotting some of the greenies and all in all cleaning up the little bit of wilderness I call home. The tilapiah in the pond is bigger - soon some lucky neighbours will be getting fish for steaming or frying. I myself just cannot bear to cut them up but since they are getting too big for the pond we have to give them up. After this I think I will only rear the koi and the two kaloi. The Kaloi are actually very big now but I will never give them away - they are simply too beautiful to be eaten!

We are here for such a short time - tomorrow I'm driving back to Kuala Lumpur as we have three weddings to attend. LIfe is no longer simple these days - I thought after retirement I'd have the time to stay home here and relax but it looks like the opposite. No time to relax even! But I guess I'm used to being busy - even Repin. When he comes down here in Malacca he'll sleep the time away. Once he retires I wonder what he'll do. Somehow I can't see him retiring, though he may complain about having too much work, he still loves working.

The three felines that live outside our garden came by today - univited or not I still feed them. Actually I'd love to adopt them, which in a way we are since we feed them while we are here. I guess somebody feeds them when we are not around. There's one particular six month old which I like - a ginger male. He's cute and friendly unlike his sister the black one, which is very whiny. I don't particularly like the mum which doesn't really know how to look after her babies. Now she has another litter - 3 originally, but one died I think while we were away. They are cute but a bit wild I think since they've been out of touch of humans. The moment they see me they run and hide under one of the bushes or go next door to the neighbour's garden. I wish we can adopt them but there's no place in the apartment in KL, what with 5 cats already there! And also Karupin and Momo out two male Persians wouldn't like them I think. Once Karupin almost mauled Ginger, the one I adopted in Desa View. She was so tiny then, and so skinny and dirty. To look at her now you wouldn't believe she was that scrawny kitten we took in.  And she is also just as possessive with her territory - even Black cannot enter our room! She 's our room cat - as she stays inside at all times since her fight with Karupin. We dare not let her out unless Karupin is locked inside one of the rooms. But of all of them she is my favourite - she actually has a great personality and she talks back to you if you ask her a question! Believe it or not.

Heroes and heroines

Sometimes a character stays in our our minds long after we have finished reading the book. We think and rethink of  his or her exploits, wonder why he did or didn't do certain things and all in all treat them as if they really lived, which they did actually - in the writer's imaginations and also in their readers'. Who are your favourite heroes and heroines? I certainly have a number - but I think number one among them is Mr Darcy, of Pride and Prejudice, although when I think of Darcy, its the movie version of Darcy that comes to mind - the one who acted with Kiera Knightley.

Then there's Ashton from The Far Pavillions - one of the most romantic novels of all time, on par with Gone With the Wind and Dr Zhivago as well as All this and Heaven too.  I first read The Far Pavillions  by M.M. Kaye way back in the 70s and fell in love with the handsome, brave, loyal Ash. Set in India in the 19th Century against a background of war and splendid Indian palaces, it is a long saga of the life of an orphaned boy Ashton Pelham- Martyn who was brought up as an Indian - Ashok - up till the age of 12.  In fact he never knew his parents who were both killed during the Indian Mutiny and he was rescued by his Indian nurse who to save his life, brought him up as her own. When he was discovered by British troops and they realised that he was actually an English boy - he was taken away from all that he loved in India and sent to England to be "educated" and "civilised". Because of his fluent Hindi and his knowledge of India he was sent back to India after he graduated from university to act as interpreter in the British army. This is a richly woven tale of intrigue, love, betrayal, friendship and loyalty. I find Ashton one of the greatest heroes ever found in writing. A truly great read which I have read over and over again over the years.

There are so many more favourite characters - many from Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series, some from Georgette Heyer's novels and a few from Nora Roberts.My love has always been for historical novels and I find that heroes from these books are normally very dashing and I love them not only for their looks but for their sense of humour, bravery and intelligence. One such is Eugenides, from Megan Whalen Turner's series - The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and the King of Attolia and last in the series - A Conspiracy of Kings.

Women characters who act as the main protagonists too are many - and like Darcy in Austen's beloved novel, Elizabeth is a wondefully lively character. She reminds me a bit of Jo in Little Women. Or Rosalind from Shakespeare's As you like it. I never really liked the bossy Emma or the quiet Fanny from Mansfield Park, though I enjoyed the books nevertheless. And way back in my childhood days - I still remember Julian from Enid Blyton's Famous Five series, as well as George who was actually Georgina. I'm sure everyone has her/ his own favourite characters -  in fact, when I was growing up Julian was my hero - at laest until I met other heroes in my teens.

English class

Actually its been some time since I wrote about my English class. THis time I've got a bunch of kids from China, mainly. What can I say about them? They're fairly hardworking, even the boys (unlike our Malaysian boys I'd say). Some of the girls are quite passive - quiet, with few ideas and fewer words. One or two are quite loud and always ready to give their views. But my favourite is Zhang. She's quiet but is actually one of the better ones - fairly good English, clear pronunciation and always comes on time. Her partner Li Yu is the same, though Li Yu can be talkative at times. I had Zhang last semester too and she was the same - does her work and hands them on time, sometimes quite brilliant ideas but fairly quiet, as if she'd rather hide her light under a bushel.

When we started early last month, most of them had never read a full novel and all of them had never heard of any of the old classics. We didn't have time to do a whole novel but I did a number of excerpts and entry points with a few really good novels - Steinbeck, Dickens and Hemmingway. I hope that they can get on from there. If only we had more time... there's so much I want to do but we have only 7 weeks since its a special semester. That's the best I can hope for. However they really loved the poetry class and when I asked them to write their own poem, at first they all said - How can we... but after I showed them that they could write a poem, they were surprised to find that they  really could. It's so satisfying when they get excited about their own work and we even managed to build a folio so that they could have a collection of  all the poems written by their class.

THis is the last week of class - next week is the exam and after that they start their holidays. But since this is the special semester, they get only one week break before class begins for the next semester. I loved the previous group - Simulated Teaching. That was a lively bunch of girls. The only boy in the class was Kudret from Turkey. And the girls loved to bully him but I think he kind of enjoyed it too. I do hope I get to teach the Simulated Teaching again - really enjoyed the experience of training young teachers.