Reunion of old guys

What do old guys in their 50s, 60s and 70s have in common?

They all like to eat and drink together at the slightest excuse. For this occasion of the wedding dinner of Dr Tiong and Lilian Su at Restoran Golden Court in Bentong all the brothers-in-laws sat around Table 30 for a round of endless drinks, food and small talks. Likewise while the men were busy toasting each other their wives who are sisters would occupy another table exchanging gossips with their own kind.

Of all the old men shown in the picture Mr Yip, the bald and plumb guy in white shirt is the oldest and the most gregarious of all. After a few drinks he will become the spark of the group

Reigning in the erratic behaviour of the York room air conditioner

Just disabled the timer on and timer off function buttons in the remote control of the York split air conditioner in the Master Bedroom.

I did it only after reading up the user manual in detail. However I am still not sure if I'm doing it correctly because the instructions in the manual are too brief as to be incomprehensible. I shall know after I turn on the air conditioning tonight.

The reason why I'm finally doing something about this air conditioner is that it has been behaving erratically for months. After turning it on it would sometimes shut down automatically by itself after operating for half an hour. Lately I have to switch it on more than once after it shut down by itself.

I hope that the problem is with the incorrect timer on and off functions, otherwise I will have to call in the experts to come take a look.

A new chicken rice eating experience in Banting town

While driving in Banting town with my wife looking for something to eat we stumbled upon a restaurant selling chicken rice.

Restoran Sin Loong Foong occupies a double storey corner shop lot located beside Jalan Bunga Pekan. It is also accessible from the side via a side road branching perpendicularly off the main road. With black coloured wooden tables and red plastic stools the interior decor was quite basic, otherwise it is clean and comfortable.

While chicken rice seems to be its main offering the shop also serves plain and curry noodle soup dishes. We ordered steamed chicken rice which was served in two plates, one for the rice and the other for the white steamed chicken meat.

Unlike the familiar chicken rice that I have eaten elsewhere, the chicken meat here is not flavoured with oil and light soya source. The steamed chicken meat here is seasoned with a beige colored creamy source with bits of goji berries (wolfberries) mixed into the source. Goji berries are a common ingredient used in the preparation of Chinese style herbal soups. Hence the presence of the red goji berries in the source give the chicken dish a subtle herbal flavour.

This restaurant appears to be popular with the locals. After stepping inside we found all the tables occupied except for one when the lone customer was waiting to settle the bill after finishing his meal. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the waiter to clear the table.

Since most of the people in this town are Hokkien speaking I asked the wife to do the ordering in the Hokkien dialect.

The service was prompt and efficient as we didn't have to wait long for our lunch meal to be served. The chicken rice meal was quite delicious and for RM11.50 for two persons, including a hot barley drink the price is not exorbitant.

Wet wet morning market

Due to the early morning shower shoppers had to negotiate and wade through pools of water to go about their groceries shopping chores. Apart from the water you have to be careful where you step, otherwise you might get your feet wet after stepping on a pool of water.

Even on dry days it is difficult to walk about in the market because the large crowd of shoppers and the narrow aisles hinder you from moving freely from one stall to another. And you are further restricted in your movements when you bring along a shopping cart to load and transport your purchases.

This is the Seri Petaling morning market where my wife and I go there to buy groceries. Although both of us have retired from work we go there every Saturday because it is on this day and Sunday where there are the most number of vendors operating their businesses there. And it is on these two days when the most number of working people who are off work come out to do their weekly groceries shopping as well.

The picture shown is that of a sundry stall where my wife patronises for the purchase of eggs and other dry sundry produces. My wife is waiting for the vendor to return her change after paying for the purchase of a box of eggs.

Diagonal Fly

Balcony of Parkland Apartments, Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. 

My daughter wanted to see some taiji movements up-close. So I sportingly played around with some movements randomly. 

To my surprised using the view in front of the balcony and the solitary pine tree as a focal point and superimposed against a clear blue morning sky as a back drop she captured this poignant moment in transition as I was moving into a particular posture called "Diagonal Fly"

Baby Ryan's Full Moon Celebration

Though we don't see the neighbour who live in the house across the street from ours often as they leave home for work early in the morning and only return late in the evening we were pleasant surprised to receive a full moon gift pack from the couple.

The gift pack contains some pretty impressive traditional full moon celebration items ie a 1/2 bird roasted chicken, chilli sauce, two red hard-boiled eggs, pickled ginger, a marble butter cake and an assortment of Chinese style steamed pastries, all packed in a beautifully themed paper box. In the old days when nobody was marketing such gift packs, parents who want to celebrate baby full moon would have to procure the items separately, packed and distribute them by themselves, a very labour and time intensive exercise.

What is full moon celebration? According to Chinese custom, when a baby turns one month old, a ceremony is held to celebrate her first month of life (the Chinese term translates as "full moon"). This coincides with the end of the new mum's confinement period, and both mother and baby are formally introduced to the extended family and friends for the first time.

In return for their kind gesture my family will visit the couple bearing gifts for their baby boy.
Photo: Though we don't see the neighbour who live in the house across the street from ours often as they leave home for work early in the morning and only return late in the evening we were pleasant surprised to receive a full moon gift pack from the couple. The gift pack contains some pretty impressive traditional full moon celebration items ie a 1/2 bird roasted chicken, chilli sauce, two red hard-boiled eggs, pickled ginger, a marble butter cake and an assortment of Chinese style steamed pastries, all packed in a beautifully themed paper box. In the old days when nobody was marketing such gift packs, parents who want to celebrate baby full moon would have to procure the items separately, packed and distribute them by themselves, a very labour and time intensive exercise. What is full moon celebration? According to Chinese custom, when a baby turns one month old, a ceremony is held to celebrate her first month of life (the Chinese term translates as "full moon"). This coincides with the end of the new mum's confinement period, and both mother and baby are formally introduced to the extended family and friends for the first time. In return for their kind gesture my family will visit the couple bearing gifts for their baby boy.

Practice Makes Perfect

It looked easy when the auto mechanic demonstrated to me step by step how to pry open the car floorboard carpeting to insert old newspapers underneath the fabric. In order to soak up the water collected in the wet carpet I have to do this everyday changing newspapers until all the residual water in the carpet dries out completely.

This morning when it was my turn to do the work it took me about an hour to remove plastic moldings, rubber door seal, pry open the carpet, remove the wet newspaper, insert new papers and reassemble all the components back to their previous state. I believe with more practice and experience I should be able to do the work faster and more efficiently.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

After sweeping and cleaning the floor in the car porch I will normally arrange and organise the shoes in an orderly manner based on type; sandals on one side and shoes on the opposite side of the door way. Then later if the wife happens to clean the floor a second time after me she will typically rearrange the shoes according to gender type; ladies wear on one side and men wear on the opposite side.

One time while browsing some paperbacks in a bookshop, one particular book with the catchy title "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" caught my attention although I didn't buy or read it. 

Come to think of it there must be some truth in what John Gray, the American author of this bestseller wrote about the psychological differences between the genders.

A general feeling of desolation and pessimism

Expectedly Christmas has come and gone with little or no fanfare.

I reckon it will be more or less the same pessimism for the upcoming New Year and CNY celebrations.

Bombarded on all fronts by the escalating rise in the price of essential goods and services few people save the well-offs with deep pockets are in the mood to splurge and celebrate.

Yet amid the general pessimism life has to go on and will go on.

Wishing everybody Happy New Year.

Nothing lasts forever

Time to replace the worn out solar tinted film.

Air bubbles are appearing on the surface of the 6-year old film at the front and back wind screen and also the four glass windows. As a result the air bubbles sometimes obscure my driving vision when on the road.

Three workers took about two hours to install the new tinted films after removing the old.

Paid RM380 to the shop for the service. In return I get a three year warranty against future defects. I was told to bring along the official receipt to show evidence of the date of purchase whenever I make a claim against defects in the newly installed film.

Glad to give it away

Uncle Chong,the paper lama man paid RM10.00 only for about 40 kg of used papers, plastics, cans, card boards, fliers, magazines, news papers, etc. Although it is a small amount still we are happy to be able to dispose of unwanted things from cluttering the house.

After the first call in the morning it took many calls later to reach Uncle Chong. We wanted to know when he would be coming over to the house. At first we thought that Uncle Chong was not interested because he did not respond to our many calls.

Later when he came in he explained that he did not response earlier because his hand phone battery was dead and he had to run around to get a new battery replacement.

A feline companion

It was an ordinary morning on a quiet spot along a side lane if not for the presence of a feline companion.

The black and white fur street cat perched on the top of a rubble wall watched with great interest my every move as I performed the Wu style tai chi chuan routine in slow motion. 

It made no attempt to move away probably because it instinctively sensed that this human has no ill intention towards animals. It was still there sitting smugly on the ledge and gazing in my direction after I had moved on. 

I wonder how the readers here are doing this morning?

So forgetful

I left the house about 5 hours ago forgetting to take along my hand phone.

I left the phone plugged to the live charger the whole time I was away.

Some people said that if you overcharge your phone for too long the overheated battery may lead to explosion or fire. Fortunately nothing untoward has happen to either the phone, battery, charger and the house electrical system.

Selling Memories

The main entrance archway of Memory Lane

The bold capital letters "MEMORY LANE" written in English mounted at top of the quaint archway says it all. It is a street bazaar where vendors peddle second-hand and antiquated goods to the public on Sunday mornings. I suppose long ago somebody in Ipoh City Hall decided to associate the sale of old stuffs with selling memories, hence the quaint and incongruous very English phrase of "Memory Lane" superimposed against the more contemporary "Selamat Datang ke Bandaraya Ipoh banner written in Bahasa.

All kinds of old stuffs eg magazine, CD, calendar, coins, shoes, vases, knives,
watches, containers, books etc laid out on the street

My wife and her sister told me that there was nothing worth buying except junk. I suppose to their way of thinking junk is useless stuffs. To me each item on display has an intrinsic historical value, a memory of a distance past and they are definitely not discarded junk. Many of the items on display are so absolute that they no longer exist in modern time.

There were more male than women visitors. Maybe men appreciate the value of
old stuffs more than women.

While most of the vendors were peddling old items there were also clothing, herbal medicine and some food stuffs on sale. Just as most of the visitors were men most of the vendors were also men, among them I saw many retired senior citizens.

With the scorching sun overhead the iced syrupy drink looks enticing.

The wide range of old goods on sale was so fascinating that I could easily have spent three hours just browsing and going from one vendor to another. But mindful of an appointment at 10 am and other errands to run I reluctantly made my way out of the bazaar. As I was not done yet I made a mental note to visit this morning flea market the next time I come to Ipoh.

The layback lifestyle in a quaint town that I once knew is no more

Bentong is the town that I lived in for two years a long time ago.

During that time I was working as an employee of Sato Kogyo Co Ltd, the Japanese contractor responsible for the construction of the Kuala Lumpur - Karak Highway.

Before the Karak Highway the road from KL to Bentong was a just a narrow two-lane road that twisted and turned as it climbed up and down steep hill slides, much like the steep, narrow and windy hill road to the Cameron Highlands.

Although I was just an ordinary employee I was among the many who bear witness to the construction of this important highway.

Bentong is also the birth place and home town of my wife.  I never knew nor met my wife during the two years that I was living there. By a strange twist of fate It was in Klang after my Bentong stint had ended where I met a Bentong girl who was to become my future wife.

In those days when I was working there Bentong was just a sleepy hollow of a town. Today the traffic in the town is so dense that you will consider yourself lucky to find a box to park your car without driving around the town more than a few times.

The construction of the KL-Karak Highway has brought tremendous development to the town. Along with development the highway also brought a huge surge of traffic volume bound for Gua Musang and Kota Bahru in the East Coast that passes through the the heart of the town. Hence the serous traffic congestion during weekends and public holidays.

Because I have many relatives from my wife's family who are living in Bentong I am a regular visitor to this town. Today I and my wife came here to attend the wedding dinner of the son of a brother-in-law on Sunday.

Each time I come here I get the impression that the town is suffocating from an ever increasing traffic gridlock of East Coast bound traffic. If nothing is done to construct a bypass to divert the Easr Coast bound traffic I won't be surprised that in a couple of years time one will see a complete lockdown of the town by traffic congestion.

Uncooperative car

With the air-cond system out of order the stifling heat inside the car was almost unbearable. Instead of cool air the blowers were blasting my face and body with hot air.

Suffocating from the heat I had to drive the car all the way from TPJ to Serdang Hospital with the window wind down. With the window opened the wind from outside provided some relief to the stifling heat inside the car.

After the hospital appointment I told my wife that I wanted to check out the ailing air-cond system of the Kancil in Kajang.

Then immediately after I turned on the ignition switch as if by magic the air-cond system kicked in at full blast.

How to expect the air-cond mechanic to diagnose the system's problems when the air-conditioning is operating normally. Decided to abort the trip to the air-cond mechnic's shop. For the rest of the journey back to our house the car's air-condition system was operating perfectly.

I am going to Kajang again for some errands tomorrow. Let's hope that the car behaves itself by not turning on the air-con so that I can get the foreman to fix the on and off air-conditioning system.

A nostalgic visit to the sold family property in Kajang

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.

A brief respite

Silence. Not a sound coming from the renovation work of my neighbour's house.

A brief and welcome respite.

Making friends with the pneumatic hammer

The sound of pneumatic drill and other hacking work coming from my neighbour's house that is undergoing a major renovation work is irritating to say the least. There is noise and unpleasant things happen, but if I become averse to them then I am creating hostility within myself. So the real suffering is not the noise but the stuff that I create in my mind.

The only way to stop the incessant din is to ask the neighbour to stop his renovation work, which is impossible. After all every thing is happening within is property.The other way is to adopt a realistic attitude towards the way it is.

I may not be able to stop the noise but controlling how I should feel is within my capability. When I start to accept the unpleasant situation as something temporary the noise ceases to be as disturbing to my mental state as before.

Ipoh Bean Sprout Chicken Rice

At 3.00pm in Ipoh city with my wife, son and two relatives at the famous Lou Wong Bean Sprout Chicken Rice and Kuetiau Restaurant.

As usual this local celebrity restaurant was packed with customers but our party of 5 were lucky to find a vacant table. The steamed chicken, bean sprouts (taugeh) and fish balls that we ordered came in large portions, ample enough to feed 5 adults. As we ate our meals we noticed groups of people disembarking from tour buses and streaming into the restaurant.

In the vicinity of Lou Wong other restaurants serving similar fare were also well patronised by hungry customers.

It seems to me that the success enjoyed by Lou Wong sprouted a booming bean sprout chicken rice food tourism industry all located in this small corner of the town centre.