Today's menu for the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, and any disadvantaged person in need of a free meal, and also my humble lunch pack for the day.
Simple food consisting of cooked white rice and three types of vegetables ie long bean, canned red bean and radish packed in a plastic lunch box and one bottle of drinking water. Though the unappetizing food tastes bland, for this disadvantaged group of people it is their day's nourishment and sustainment. It fills their stomachs, enables them to stay out of hunger and help them get through the day.
When I think of TV images of hungry, skin and bones refugee children in war-torn and drought-hit countries eg Africa I realise that the free food that this NGO is offering is a incomparable luxury compared to what the refugees are getting in their countries.
With this realisation in mind I ate the humble vegetarian lunch pack filled with enormous gratitude and happiness.
Tue 31/12/2013 New Year Eve
The stunning night time view of a suburb of Kuala Lumpur seen from the balcony of Chin's apartment.
The two fingers of white light rising from the hills in the distance are the twin towers of KLCC. The glob of light on the right hand side of the twin towers is exploding fireworks display illuminating the skyline.
According to Chin this year's fireworks show is less spectacular and more subdued than previous years, a reflection of the bad time that this nation and its citizens are enduring.
The months of speculating whether the old family house has been abandoned by the new owners have finally come to a happy ending.
We are glad that the new owners have finally taken possession of what used to be the family's abode for 30 years in Kajang.
Although this 14 ft x 53 ft freehold property is a small house, it has provided the necessary shelter and security for me and my wife to raise our small family of 4 through the years. For this we are forever grateful to our former house.
Some minor renovation work is being carried out to transform the house to suit the new owners' preference. Note the little pile of sand on the floor in the car porch. The absence of construction debris indicates that the new owners are interested to do only the minimal remodeling work to the existing house.
Part of what used to be the main entrance has been bricked up leaving a small opening for a window. The main door has been relocated to the right, in line with the brick fencing wall. The window and door frames have been given a new coat of green paint, as if to match the green colour theme of the house next door.
With the view to the road being blocked by the brick fencing wall I believe the new owners relocated the main entrance door to afford some privacy. Where previously anyone can view the living road from the road now the view of the entrance is a little bit more discrete.
I wonder why the minimalist transformation to the property and the green painting to the window and door frame? Knowing that the new owners are a Chinese couple, green themed paintwork is generally not the preferred colour choice for the Chinese community.
Maybe the new owners are not the ones that are going to live in the house. Perhaps the owners are renting out the house to some tenants and the renovation work is carried at the tenant's request. This could explain the most basic of alteration to the existing design of the house and the green colour painting of the metal window and door frames.
The view of the sky above in TPJ
Clusters of white fluffy clouds floating in a blue sky.
What a magnificent sight after living with depressive days
Caused by the haze turning the sky into a canvas of grey.
Alice Herz Sommer, the world's oldest survival of the Nazi Holocaust and author of the book "A Garden of Eden in Hell" says " I know about the bad, but I look for good things."
She wrote "A garden of Eden in Hell" when she was 104 years old. Through the horrors she has witnessed and the mental and emotional anguish that she has experienced during her internment in a Nazi concentration camp she attributes her love for music that saves her life.
“When you are optimistic, when you are not complaining, when you look at the good side of your life, everybody loves you.”
Today at age 110 Alice lives quietly in England. An accomplished musician she continues to play on her piano three hours a day.
My wife is never a coffee connoisseur. She has no preference for any particular type of coffee. Most of the time she drinks the regular 3 in 1 types that you can buy off the shelf in any store.
However today while sitting down in the air-conditioned comfort of the Inhouse Cafe in Sunway Giza Kota Damansara she surprised me by ordering iced vanilla flavoured coffee. She seldom take cold drinks because iced beverages don't go well with her stomach.
Perhaps the hot and hazy weather had affected her mood. Or perhaps she wanted to try something adventurous for a change.
As I don't like iced beverage I ran my fingers down the colourful menu to look for something that suited my taste amidst the bewildering range of coffee drinks.
One item caught my eye: caramel coffee. I have never tasted caramel coffee before and I thought why not?
As we sat down to sip coffee and enjoyed the ambiance, all around us we noticed a lot of shoppers hanging out around the mall's concourse. Even the Inhouse Cafe was half full of patrons.
At 3pm on a Fri afternoon we wondered why there were so many visitors there. Shouldn't most people be at home or working in their offices?
As for both of us we have retired from full time work and therefore have plenty of spare time to occasionally indulge ourselves when the opportunity arises.
Today was such an opportunity. We didn't drive so far all the way from our home in TPJ just to taste the coffee. Anna had to go to a bridal shop in Sunway Giza for a fitting out of her gown for our daughter's wedding dinner do. After we were done at the bridal shop we found ourselves some spare time to chill out.
With about one hour to spare before the parking ticket ran out of credit time we savoured every moment of our time to enjoy each others coffee and company. It was a most pleasant experience as both of us had never tasted vanilla and caramel flavoured coffee before.
The scene at a public toilet in a park.
"Tidak perlu bayar! Gunakan tandas sekarang dan boleh bayar besok." ("No need to pay! Use the toilet now and can pay tomorrow") the affable Indian doorman told me and my wife as we approached the counter to pay the 20 sen entrance fee.
"Mengapa?"("Why?") I asked him.
Another surprise awaited me. Flashing what appeared to be a perpetual smile he told me that the toilet has no running water because the contractor has not completed repairing the defective pumps, all the time speaking in very fluent Chinese mandarin. He told me that he has not had a Chinese schooling before but picked up the language when he was living among the Chinese community in Cheras.
I thanked him for his kindness with profuse gratitude. You see at that time I had only RM10 and RM5 notes in my wallet and no small change. I was expecting the doorman to turn me and my wife away as he might not have collected enough coins and RM1 bills so early in the morning to exchange for RM5, the smallest denomination note that I had to pay for the entrance fee. Besides there was only a handful of visitors in the park at that time.
