BIRTHDAY WISHES

Friday will be our nation's birthday and I pray that all my 12 grandchildren (so far) will grow up in a Malaysia led by leaders who are fair, honest, brave, God-Fearing and will not hesitate to do the right thing for the good of the nation and the rakyat. Amin!

Labels: Grandchildren, Merdeka

SINGING FROGS

Hours before I turned 63, I had a great time tapping my toes and laughing, sometimes both at the same time. I am talking about the opening night of "Frogway-The Groovy Musical". The music was great and so was the cast. Mimi thought Harith is too big to play Slimey er Smiley The Snake but I reminded her that there are big snakes like anacondas and ulo sawa. Whatever snake Harith was supposed to be, he played it with obvious enjoyment and polished smoothness. Anyway we both concurred that Shirley the Frogette stole the show.

I must thank TV Smith for inviting us and to Suanie, Kimberley and Su Ann (The Japan GT Girl?) for the lovely company and lively discussion after the show. Like Mimi said, I must go out more often.

Click on pic above to go to Frogway's website and make your booking. If before this you only laugh at karaoke-singing relatives, laugh at superbly singing frogs (and fish and snake and stork).

Labels: Frogway The Musical

HONESTLY

With the attention given to integrity and honesty lately, I thought of the ancient Greek who lived in a tub and who, one day, went around Athen with a lamp looking for an honest man. I had a severe brain fart and could not remember his name. I seem to have that kind of problem more often now. I could not recall, in an instant Whoopie Goldberg's name or sometimes my sons-in-law full name until I spend some considerable time in the bathroom where recalls (Total or Partials) seem to be easier. My daughter (not the one having a birthday today) diagnosed it as the onset of senility. I think I inherited it from her.

Anyway, just to scratch the itching nag (not my daughter but the question) I Googled for "The Greek with the lamp" and found out about Diogenes of Sinope. Very interesting reading. Go Google, now that you get the name.

In the process, I stumbled upon this article about a far, far away country. Read it. Replace the name of the country with another that you know and it could still be true. Read it again. You may find some uncanny resemblances. Don't you think so?

Labels: Diogenes, integrity

SU..SU...SUSU

When I read about the tummy-ache (and worse) of the students in Kelantan and Kedah, I hummed the late Zainal Alam's song "SUSU". It is a mystery to me (and to the Educational Ministry people) how the tetra-packed UHT (Ultra Heat Treated) milk can be contaminated in those unfortunate schools. I hope this second time around, some answers will be found and some lessons will be learnt.

Meanwhile, I am facing a milk crisis of my own. I have discovered that sweetened condensed milk is being elbowed off the shelf by Sweetened Creamer. My neighbourhood mini-markets tried to palm me creamers instead of condensed milk, twice. Creamers are not milk. They are made from soya bean and other stuff. I have never liked creamers, sweetened or otherwise. I grew up on condensed milk - Susu Chap Junjung, Frisian Flag, Dutch Baby, Gold Coins, Teapot, Blue Cross and lately F&N. Now I can only get my condensed milk from a shop in Jalan Gasing and not at the usual places. Even TMC doesn't stock them. Why? Cows dried up?

If it is a question of price ( it has gone up by 20 cents actually), condensed milk addicts like me would not mind the hike, justified or not. Cigarettes shot up too but I did not see many people giving up cigarettes. Neither do I see shopkeepers trying to pass off ersatz cigarettes as the real McCoy. The existence of ersatz cigarettes is not the question here.

So there I was this morning at DSH Cafeteria, suspecting my Nescafe. Remind me to ask Jiwa Lara whether they used creamer instead of condensed milk.

Labels: Condensed Milk, Milk Scheme

LET US ALL HELP

A young man is missing.
Details here.
When you are out, keep a look out.
Thank you.

Labels: appeal, Missing person, Salhi

ONE MORNING IN CHATUCHAK MARKET

I hate travelling when I do not have enough money with me. It affects my mood and my snapshots. The free tickets and free hotel room should not be wasted though and I have not been to Bangkok since the 80s. Thus, immediatley after making sure that Persatuan Veteran RTM's AGM went smoothly, I flew to Bangkok.

The ladies wanted to visit Chatuchak Market on Sunday and I tagged along. Chatuchak Weekend Market or JJ as it is known to the locals is a recent tourism product. It is huge - 35 acres and more than 15,000 stalls and shops selling myriads of things. There is even a stall selling teh tarik (with the tea puller wearing songkok). Note the Thai spelling of teh tarik.
There are plenty of buskers. I saw (and heard) an old man with a violin, a very young boy on the Thai wooden xylophone and a very small girl crooning Thai numbers on a small toy microphone.
This busker in front of the freshly squeezed orange juice stall plays the guitar and sings. He has a harmonica attached to his face. I heard his guitar and his voice. I also heard a saxophone but I could not find the saxophone anywhere. No box of synthesizer, no minus one player. Where did the saxophone come from?
I found the answer a few steps away. Across the road was this young boy in a school uniform blowing the very same song that the guy with the guitar was belting out. Talk about synergy and good business sense.
The ladies got fed up of seeing me sitting down on every vacant stool available (One stall even offered me a reclining chair). After lunch at the MBK Food Court,they asked Wann, our kind Thai friend to send me back to the hotel via the Skytrain. The ladies went back to Chatuchark on their own in the afternoon.

Labels: Chatuchark Market, Thai buskers