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.

One last fling

When I retired from work I couldn't wait to congratulate myself for getting out of the building construction and engineering industry, a love-hate relationship that spaned about 40 years of my working career.

Due to circumstances and the unseen hands of destiny I am being drawn out of retirement and back in again.

I don't know what lies ahead waiting for me in the shadows but I do know that the coming days, weeks, and months will be particularly challenging. One thing that I do know for sure is the final outcome. 

This will be my last fling at this love-hate affair as I am not getting any younger.

Using the mind and body language to control and lead the attacker

Sun 1/12/2013 Inter-campus combined training Cyberjaya dojo

Katate tori kokyu nage technique.

One girl was puzzled why when she extended her hand forward and started to initiate the tenkan movement the beginner Uke who grabbed her hand just stood there unmoving and frozen stiff. As a result Uke created so much resistance that Tori was stopped from rotating her body by the frozen Uke.

I told her that Uke had no incentive to move because Tori had allowed her partner to grab her hand before starting to tenkan. I told her that she had to provide the incentive for Uke to chase her hand by spinning her body together with her extended hand first before allowing Uke to even touch it.

Aikido is preemptive and not passively waiting for something to happen before taking action. This is what I mean by using your mind and body language to control and lead Uke.

A nifty kitchen tool

This mini manual chopper helped me to prepare one week's supply of chopped garlic safely for cooking and with little hassle.

The old way of doing the same job will require the use of a sharp knife and a chopping block and also mental alertness lest you accidentally cut your fingers with the blade.

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.

Lost and found

As it was getting late and dark and in my haste to get to my son's wedding dinner on time I didn't bother to note down the surroundings. 

So after the dinner had ended when it took me more than 20 minutes of walking around the block with my irate wife in tow to find the spot where I had earlier parked my car, I began to entertain the unpleasant thought that perhaps my car had been stolen.

The happy ending is that relying on my instinct I finally found the car in the vast open car park.

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.

Goodbye and have a safe journey Mr Bug

Iwas sitting on a toilet bowl trying to evacuate my bowels in the bathroom when I was startled by the sight of a tiny brownish object slowly inching its way across the wet floor. Instinctively I retracted my legs a bit because I didn't want the thing to crawl up my lower limbs.

The slimy object of my fascination was a 5 cm long millipede. The bug was crawling on the floor at the junction of the floor tiles and the tiled wall in the bath room.

I noted that the millipede was crawling and stopping intermittently and turning its head left and right and top and bottom as if looking for direction with its two antennae. To my relief it made no attempt to move towards the direction of the toilet bowl where I was sitting.

My wife would have freaked out if I had mentioned there was a creepy and slimy bug in the bathroom. I would imagine that the next thing she would do would be to squash the bug with a piece of toilet paper and flushed it down the toilet bowl. No, I would not tell any body about my find. I would rather honour the right of the little fellow's existence rather than to send him to bug heaven.

After finishing my business I returned to the toilet with a plastic box to look for the millipede, half hoping that it would have crawled out of the bathroom. I found it lurking behind the bathroom broom. After gently drawing him out from the sanctuary of the plastic broom with a gentle sweeping motion of the plastic lid I coaxed it to enter the box compartment.

Once inside I closed the box with the lid and headed straight to the drying yard, which is overlooking the back lane at the back of the house. Extending my hand into the air space through the metal grills I turned the box upside down and opened the lid. With a gentle tap on the box the millipede slipped off the box and descended into the air down to the back lane below.

Goodbye Mr Bug and have a safe journey. It was all I could do for you to save you from a quick extinction of being squashed into a pulp and flushed down into the toilet bowl.

Despite the sugar subsidy cut this mamak is holding fast to his old food prices, but for how long?

Waiting for the mechanic to complete the scheduled lubrication service to the MyVi the fragrant smell of curry spices and hunger pangs lured me to the mamak stall next door.

"Berapa?" I asked the stall operator after finishing my order of a piece of roti canai bread and teh o kosong. The mechanic had signaled me that he had finished the lub service job, so I had to collect my car from the workshop.

"Dua ringgit." I paid the same amount for the two items during my last lub service here about 3 months ago.

Since the government has cut sugar subsidy I wonder for how long this mamak is going to hold his price steady. Meanwhile today the Chinese vegetarian restaurant in town lost no time in charging me RM5 for a plate of mixed rice. I remember the last time I went there I paid about RM4 for similar fare.

Skinning garlic cloves

Sitting beside the dining table peeling the skin off the garlic cloves I notice that the flimsy midget kitchen knife that I am using is more suitable for cutting open envelopes rather than peeling garlic skin.

But then my family has been using this small knife with a plastic handle for peeling garlic cloves for a long time. The few rusty spots on the side of the blade are telling of a history behind this cheap knife that my family bought in a time long past.

Since I already have a knife for opening envelopes I shall continue to use this one for peeling garlic skin.

Stiff shoulder treatment

Patients waiting for their names to be called
at the registering counter

The Physiotherapy Department, Serdang Hospital.

Because I and my wife reached the hospital early at 8 am we were able to find parking inside the outdoor parking lot. On previous visits we had to park our car by the roadside and walk a distance to the entrance. Once inside the hospital we quickly made our way to the main entrance. As we are regular visitors we now know the ground floor layout of the hospital by heart.

A showcase of prosthetic limbs greet
the patient at the waiting area

The small entrance to the physiotherapy department opens up to a spacious waiting area. There are at least 6 rows of seats for patients to sit down while waiting for their names to be called. Once seated you can't help but view a glass showcase exhibiting a range of prosthetic limbs. After sitting down for about 15 minutes the nurse then called my wife to go to Room F6.

The small entrance opens up to a
spacious waiting area

There are separate rooms for different types of therapy and Room F6 is for patients with general pain ailments, considered as low frequency treatment. My wife who is suffering from pain due to a stiff shoulder probably belongs to this category of patients.


As I am not a patient I was not allowed to accompany my wife into the room. Looking in from the outside I saw some beds with curtains drawn and the inside appears to be clean and airy.

Room F6 where my wife underwent
therapy for pains in her left shoulder

After my wife was ushered into the room I took the break to walk along the aisle. I noticed many different types of rooms for different types of trauma treatment. Some rooms appear to be equipped with gymn type equipment. One room even has hydrotherapy facility.


While my wife was inside the room I chatted with a 60 year old man and later a middle aged woman.

The old man was there to seek treatment for his painful neck and shoulders. He told me that he had taken a lot of medication prescribed by doctors and consulted healers but all their treatments did not resolve his health problems except for physiotherapy which is giving him much relief. That is why he is repeating his regular visits to the clinic.

As for the middle aged woman she was here to look for relief for her painful spinal problem. However before I could find out more of her condition my wife was discharged from the room.

Asking about her treatment my wife told her a medical therapist demonstrated specific exercises to stretch and relax her shoulder and back muscles. The therapist asked her to do the specific exercises three times a day by her self and gave her a drawing illustrating the different types of exercises that she should do.

The next follow up appointment is in three weeks time.

The Gift of Time

The greatest gift that you can give someone is your TIME because when you give your time you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back.

Dear Mommy thank you for giving your TIME to the family.

On this special day the family honours you with happy birthday wishes and may you always stay happy and healthy.

Wet again

While last evening's one hour downpour caused flash floods and brought traffic to a standstill in many parts of the city the storm brought rainwater into the master bedroom.

After returning home from a shopping trip found a pool of water on the floor beside the table lamp and also signs of water mark on the ceiling of the master bedroom. Fortunately only a pool of water on the floor and not the whole room inundated with rain water. So it was quite easy to remove the water with a mop and a pail.

Apparently the gale force wind must have had forced rain water to penetrate some gaps in the roof covering or lifted the zinc flashing causing the rainwater to fall into the room. From past experience the roof only leaks if the rain is accompanied by strong winds. However, last evening's wind was exceptionally strong.

This morning at the first opportunity spoke to Pak Argus the friendly Indonesian contractor who is currently renovating my next door neighbour's house about the leaking roof. Although in his 50s and not feeling particularly well today he climbed up the roof with the aid of a ladder to inspect the roof covering. After the inspection he found the cause of the leaks ; 5 pieces of cracked tiles.

"Call me again if there are further leaks", Pak Argus said cheerfully after replacing the 5 damaged tiles and descending from the roof. I was lucky because he was using the same type of roofing tiles as my house in his renovation work and there are some spare ones lying around unused.

"How much should I pay you". I asked as I wanted to make a payment in gratitude to his service.

"Twenty Ringgit", Pak Argus flashed me his toothy smile before returning to his work.

Good customer service is a gem

Good customer service is a gem and hard to find nowadays.

The shop assistant called up to explain the delay in the delivery of the kitchen table cabinet, which was due last week. When we ordered the kitchen table cabinet the shop promised to make and deliver the item within two weeks. When the two weeks were up she called to ask us to collect the item from her shop, which had been delivered from the factory.

Then the next day after her call we received another call from Nur, her colleague apologising for not able to deliver the cabinet because the quality of the item delivered from the factory to the shop was unsatisfactory. Rejecting the item she asked the factory to make a replacement cabinet. She assured us that the replacement cabinet would arrive at her shop in a week's time and that she would notify us immediately upon its arrival at the shop.

One week passed with no calls from Nur. My agitated wife was already thinking of asking the shop for a refund of the RM50.00 deposit that was paid to the shop. Heading off a potential impending storm I was counseling her for a little bit of patience. Then when we were wondering whether to ask the shop for an explanation, the first shop assistant called. Apologising for the delay she told us the factory needed another week to complete manufacturing the new replacement cabinet.

Gratified that instead of keeping us waiting in the dark she called to explain the delay we then agreed to give the factory more time to complete making the replacement cabinet.

Good customer service means keeping the customer informed of any problem arising.

Buying frenzy

At 10.30am in the morning as I was approaching the Aeon shopping mall in Cheras Selatan I was surprised to see that the open car park of the shopping mall was full.

Today is Thursday, a working day and I would expect that most people should be working in their offices and factories. Where did so many customers come from? I could only conclude that many working people took their day off from work to come here for the Aeon members day sale.

As I drove past the toll gate into the compound, I saw a "car park full" sign and an attendance waved me in the direction of the 2nd floor indoor car park. With the open car park full I would expect that the indoor car park would also be full. In fact I remember mumbling to my wife that we were going to park our car on the open roof top car park.

However I was wrong. As I entered the building I noticed that the indoor car park was only 1/4 full. On a normal day motorists would only park their cars in the open yard when the indoor car park is full. This strange anomaly means that shoppers had already invaded the mall even before Aeon had opened its indoor car park to the public.

Once inside the Aeon store another surprise was in store for me and my wife. I saw big crowds of shoppers many with supermarket push carts snapping up merchandise at the various stations and also long lines of shoppers queuing at the cashier counters to make payment for their purchases.

I thought supermarket push carts are for customers to transport their purchases of groceries and not general merchandise. The fact that the supermarket and the trolleys are located at the opposite end of the mall did not deter shoppers from pushing the carts for the long walk from the supermarket to the department store.

Aeon members day sale is truly a phenomenal event even though it is usually held on a week day. So attractive are the discounts offered that many working people take one day off from their annual leave to attend the sale. Who could resist discounts of up to 70% of the regular price of the merchandise on this day. To entice shippers to spend Aeon even rewarded customers with cash vouchers worth RM10 for every RM100 of general merchandise purchase and RM5 vouchers for every RM100 worth of groceries purchase?

Eying the pile of ladies underwear my wife quickly snapped up 3 pieces priced less than RM12 each. Those were the last pieces of her size left in the pile of apparel. The normal retail price for these items are RM39.00. At RM12 the store is offering a hefty discount of 70% off its regular price. Few people would pass this chance to acquire quality apparel at such a discounted price.

Joining other shoppers we also grabbed a trolley from the supermarket and filled it to the brim with our purchases of clothing, bedsheets, groceries and other daily necessities. As I pushed the trolley along the crowded aisle towards the department store where my wife was shopping I passed by a few people pushing not one cart each but three carts piled end to end in a row like a train of carts.

A pleasant encounter with the bridegroom's father.

Kuan Yoow and Septa's Wedding Dinner

The Diamond Ballroom, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

6.30pm. By the time I stepped into the ballroom, there were already about 30 guests there sipping cocktails and engaging in small talks with each other within their circles of friends. As I don't know anyone in particular there, except for the bride I helped myself to a cola drink and some tit bits and then mingled anonymously in the crowd. Surveying the mixed crows of people I noted that most of the male guests there were formally dressed in suits while their female spouses were elegantly dressed in evening gowns.

Nobody seemed to be manning the long reception table and except for a plan of the table arrangement I didn't see any guest lists around. Looking at the table arrangement plan I counted 26 tables, with the VIP table in the centre and next to the stage.

Finally a distinguished looking gentlemen wearing a necktie and a black suit accompanied by a few ladies came over to the empty reception table.

"May I register my attendance?" I asked the gentleman. "Sorry I am still looking for the guest list", he replied sheepishly as if in embarrassment with a broad smile. "It's OK. I will register later", I assured him as I retreated from the table.

Then when the guest list arrived I approached the same gentleman there again because at that time he was the only person standing there at the head of the reception table. After scanning through the guest list he could not find my name. "Septa invited me to the dinner", I said trying to be helpful as he was fumbling awkwardly with the name list. Septa, the bride who invited me to the dinner was a former Aikido student when she was studying in INTi College about 10 years ago. Finally as both of us were going through the names someone handed him a sheet of paper with more names printed on it. My name was registered on that sheet of paper. "You table number is 14", he pronounced with an air of relief and triumph.

It was later when everybody was seated at their tables that I realised that the distinguished looking gentleman who registered me is none other than the bridegroom's father.

Old men chess masters

From my first floor hotel room the sound of animated chatting and laughter coming from the side lane below attracted my attention.

Two groups of old men were playing Chinese chess on makeshift tables. Surrounding the players were other men following the chess games with much interest.

Playing chess is a great way to stimulate one's mind. These senior citizens look like retirees who are still mentally active despite their advancing years.

The afternoon heat didn't seem to bother them nor affect their concentration.