Hear Ye Hear Ye

I would just like to let it be known that Yeo's Chicken Rendang (with Chef Wan's face on the tin) is NOT good.

Actually it IS good. As an argument against eating canned meat.

Yes I suppose it is quite gross to be eating something seeping in juices that has been dead for an unknown number of months (or years).

Well, now I know for sure.

Yeo's Chicken Rendang (with Chef Wan's face on the tin) is NOT good.

Dental work is just highly skilled plumbing

After a gap of at least a year, I went to the dentist today and found a disgraceful amount of cavities.

Some filling was necessary.

But as the high-pitched drilling sound was resonating in my head, this scary thought struck me:

Dentists are basically putting mini power tools in your mouth and doing plumbing work.

How is that not scary?

I wanted to paste some picture of dental work being done with power tools.

But googling led me to find that horses' teeth are actually worked on by power tools.

Man.... sucks to be a horse.

Oh, and it just struck me it is my second horsey post in a row. Gee...

I have to share the odd coincidence that after yesterday's post, i drove by 3 trucks of polo horses on the way home.

It was funny because the horses were travelling by car.

Am I a Neighsayer of Cars? Hur hur hur I did not just make that pun...

As I drove to work today, I passed by what looked suspiciously like horse droppings on the road. This is unusual as I live in Kuala Lumpur.

There are no horses in Kuala Lumpur (save perhaps in the zoo, in horse riding centres and at the sultan's palace).

Anyway, I then started fantasizing, as I was stuck in my little metal box, about a time when equine travel was again possible. I mean, the more I thought about it, the more I could frame:

Arguments for Horsey Travel

1) Horses are environmentally-friendlier! They do not give out noxious carbon fumes, only noxious methane gases. Here I shall attempt to get sciencey, so pardon me or skip to next point if bored.

Of course someone else did the math and I just plagiarised it... but credit given where credit's due:http://ezinearticles.com/?Cows-Vs-Cars---The-Methane-Versus-Carbon-Dioxide-Battle&id=2877531

From another page, I found out that a dairy cow produces twice as much as waste as a pony and about 1/6th more than a medium horse. Taking that into account, here's how a horse squares up against your car.

A car on average produces 4100 pounds of CO2 a year

A cow on average produces 220 pounds of methane a year so a horse is at around 183 pounds

However, as a greenhouse gas, methane is 20 times as harmful as CO2! Therefore, in terms of greenhouse harm, a car = 4100 while a cow=4400 and a horse = 3660

Ha! I am still at a win for the horse! But you might want to rethink your consumption of steak for the planet's sake. (also seeing as how there are vastly more cows in the world than there are cars)

2) Fuel economy. Again, more information appropriated from this site:http://fatknowledge.blogspot.com/2005/05/horses-vs-cars.html

Math math math and what you get is that a pony can travel approximately 1.25 miles/pound of feedwhereas a car working on switchgrass fuel (sorry that dude's post was based on one where he discussed this new biofuel made from a grass so that's what he bases his calculations on) will travel 0.83 miles/pound of switchgrass.

3) It's a pony! WHICH LITTLE GIRL DOESN'T WANT A PONY!?!?

4) Horses can be your friends. Or at least that's what i learned from My Little Pony.

5) Horses produce their own substitutes. Never have to pay for a car again... EVER! You will have to have about a year of just feeding and no travel benefits though, i suppose.

6) Used horseshoes can become a fun game of horseshoe toss

7) Horses that turn out exceptionally fast can be invested into horse racing - i hear tell it is lucrative. Then they can be studs when they are older. Can your car get you money for producing fast little heirs?

8) Old horses can become satay or glue. (i did NOT say that *gasp*)

9) Horses can jump fences

10) Horses can keep the grass on your lawn short

11) Horses can snort at your enemies

12) They are just cool and you can give them names like Binky

Horse wins!

However, it would be unfair if i didn't point out that

• A horse cannot carry a family of four
• Plus luggage
• A horse can't travel for much more than 40 km a day (that's just about enough to make it to Klang from KL, for those of us numerically disadvantaged folks)
• Horses need to eat a lot. All day.
• Horses poo. And you need to clean that up.
• Horses are moody. Will your boss let you skip work cos your house was throwing a tantrum?
• Horses smell horsey. As will your clothes. And your hair. And y0u.

Ah well, perhaps someday my dream will see fruition. We will hark back to the days when men were white knights on big horses and women were swooning over their machodom. But we will be doing it while sipping espressos and talking on our iPhones of course.

Because this has already been full of horses, let me take the opportunity to throw in a fat pony.

This be my fat pony sent to me by Aaron. (he being an awesome boyfriend *mush mush*)

And this be the comic.

*the picture refuses to scale down for me so if you would be so kind to click 'open in a new page' then you will see it in all its full glory*

It was an appropriate comic, thinks I.

More wonderful fat pony goodness (as well as other great historical stuff) can be found at Kate Beaton's comic site.

You must love her, because I do.

Okay, less ponies and more work! *neigh*!

Sukan adalah Muhibah

Quickly, while Malaysia is still in the Thomas Cup, I have to share my experience of my first live badminton match. Knowing that in most of the football matches I have watched live, I've always wished there was running commentary and instant replays, I was a little unsure what a live badminton match would be like. The crowd always seems a little crazy on TV and the court might be really far away, will i lose interest halfway?

Well, mum and I thought since the Thomas Cup is in town let's go watch it. Fate would have it that I've got stuff on during the Finals and the Quarters (kiasu watch the best mah, right?) and that may have been a fortunate turn of fate because our Malaysian team looks shaky on their feet at the moment, having lost just the day before our match to Japan. (Japan? Not quite the powerhouse, you would think).

Arriving at the stadium, we passed by the stalls selling food and badminton gear and ambled our way to our seats. Oh, and they gave us a free little Malaysian flag to wave too. Yay Malaysia! Of courseon the way we stocked up on snack food! Pizza, and a hot dog and some really really tasty chips! If you spot Ireland Potatoes anymore, do try their chips with wasabi mayonnaise! Good fat chips are hard to find. It's a bonus that you have seats and are able to enjoy your meal slowly.

The match started pretty on time with Germany and Japan squaring off directly in front of me and Malaysia vs. Denmark in the court next door (which was still relatively near - arguably better to have a bit of a side view). I really pity Germany and Japan because naturally most of the stadium was shouting for Malaysia and even when Chong Wei made his entrance to "Eye of the Tiger" (hahaha we will never tire of that song), the crowd was going crazy with screams of Malaysia Boleh and the whole time the German and Japanese players had to just suck it up, deal with it and continue playing. I suppose that is home country privilege. :P

Have to say that Chong Wei and the pairing of KKK-Tan pretty much breezed through their matches. But it was when it came to our 3rd game that stuff got pretty... haha.. what shall i say, worked up?

In particular i thought this instance was damned funny and particularly 1Malaysia. Our 2nd doubles team (Abdul Malik - Hoon) was playing fairly terribly at one point and they kept dropping really easy points. I mean, against tall Danish players what does one do... feed the shuttlecock really high up, right? (-_-")
I love that the guy sitting behind me shouted 'Ah macam tu la! Mereka pendek aje! Bagi tinggi tinggi mereka tak boleh dapat lah!" hehehe... the crowd was SO agitated by how we were losing easy points!
Then at one stage, a dude sitting quite a few rows behind started shouting "Malaysia! Main la! Bodoh! OOoOoiiII!!!Kick their f*cking ass!!" I glanced behind and saw a superly red-faced Chinese man at the edge of his seat and I think if i had looked closer, I could probably have spotted some veins popping out at his temple. Lo and behold though, after that scolding they actually scored! He kept quiet for the next service and our team lost points again.

Then the guy seated behind me stood up and turned to the angry man and shouted "Bos! Marah lagi bos! Marah lagi!"hahaha.. the whole crowd laughed along and seriously, i kid you not. He shouted again and they won the next few points.

That's teamwork for you! hahaha... There were also lots of heartening Malaysia Boleh chants and I really did feel some sense of camaraderie with all the people I was sitting with. Chatting with the makcik next to me the whole way and we even jaga each other's bags when going out to toilet, etc.

I have to say I have never felt more muhibah in Malaysia than while cheering on our team. The two chubby boys in front of us were soooo involved in the match you could one of the boys' frustration when we dropped shots. He'd flick his wrist and make a loud Tsk noise. And it was quite entertaining to see him praying when our chances of staying in the cup rested on the last few shots by our third singles player Hafiz.

Kudos to him by the way, he played excellently last night and I don't blame him. I think if he had lost there would have been chances of a crowd lynching!

There was also the kompang man decked out in his Malaysia flag outfit. From the stripey pants to the knitted jalur gemilang on his hat, he was really great at encouraging the crowd and players, and i appreciated that he knew when to keep quiet as the game started again.

Anyway, this has been a long play by play, i just wanted to convey that i think sport is such a great nation-building exercise and really, that is worth so much more than all the 1Malaysia ads/songs you could ever put up.

If it worked for South Africa, it can work for us.

Oh, and although i think China will massacre us in the quarters tomorrow,

MALAYSIA BOLEH!!

A Lesson in Minding your Media

I would like to express my deepest gratitude, first of all, to Weng Lum for sharing this article with me: TNB to Sue WWF Over Earth Hour, and then to the blogger at nose4news for entertaining me so well this Friday afternoon.

My initial reaction reading the article was 'OMG. The bastards. Are you sure?' And a bit of googling helped me find out that I was not the only one outraged. Upon closer scrutiny though, the top heading of 'Asia’s Biggest Loser loses rest of body weight, disappears into thin air' did seem a little bit suspect. Haha.. a fact I proceeded to share with Weng.

After which our gaze diverted to the banner. (this is the point when you do the same for that 'Oh.. i get it' moment)

Anyway, I totally love this website now. nose4news And yes I was tempted into browsing the archives whereby i was simultaneously impressed and disgusted by the Malaysian intellect.

Totally impressed that there's a satirist sophisticated enough to come up with these news articles. Reads really well and is so DARNED funny with the visuals (haha.. Keris Kebenaran is classy) but at the same time SO DEPRESSED that even with the glaring banner, the many comments indicating that it is all a fake, there are still SO MANY IDIOTS in Malaysia.

Post in point is this one: Sabah & Sarawak to be Relocated

Here are my fave bits of the article (including the marvelously photoshopped map)

Before: Malaysia as it is

After: Malaysia post-cosmetic surgery

“It’s a big project, costing well over RM850 trillion,” said Najib. “The project would take 10 years to complete, since we’d need to move all the soil, water sources, flora, fauna, man-made structures and of course, the people. But it’ll be worth it, since we’ll truly be 1Malaysia.”

“Of course, we might ‘improve’ some things when we rebuild the states. We’re thinking, maybe Mount Kinabalu could be higher than Everest. I mean, why not? It’s not every day that you get to change what nature has given us.

“And if we take the soil from inside Gua Niah and use it to add on Mount Kinabalu’s height, we’d get both a bigger cave and taller mountain, effectively rewriting two Guinness World Records. Now that’s what I call value for money!”

On protests by the Kelantan state government, citing the ‘loss of a coastline’ and ‘off-shore petroleum’, Najib said that this is of national interest, and the opposition-held state administration should not be so selfish.

“These people simply refuse to understand the importance of 1Malaysia. They keep on looking a the small things like the death of their fishing industry or the loss of billions of ringgit of income.

“Serves the Kelantanese people right for voting in such small-minded leaders.”

Okay, so the post, we agree, is superbly well-written so you would suspect it of being genuine. What more because our ministers HAVE said some questionable things before, i.e: "We are not saying that they cannot use Facebook or Twitter but when using such facilities they must upkeep the values taught by Islam, Buddhism or Christianity to maintain our culture," but you haven't seen anything til you've read the comments.

Idris
December 14, 2009 at 11:58 pm

Better use these trillions of RM to improve the institutions of learning, give our scholarships to the poor based on merit, build more technical colleges to develop skills of students who are not so academically-inclined ie for skills upgrading so these people can find a job, build better hospitals and look at ways to improve the public healthcare systems, improve the roads and upgrade the computer systems of public offices. Basically, use the money to stimulate the econony and build it, enhance it, grow it for the properity of the Rakyat.

This moronic PM comes up with idea to siphon off the Rakyat’s money. He should do a feasibility study first. To me, this is gonna be a useless project.

Bodoh punya orang.

Bertaubatlah Najib. Insyallah.
Idris.

Okaylah Idris. You posted as soon as the post came up. Forgive your stupidity. Noone told you yet.

Brokenheart
December 15, 2009 at 12:27 am

Our PM suddenly became God when he talks like this.If God said it I beleive because God can do all the IMPOSSIBLE which humanly think is impossible,for example an earthquake or tsunami can change landscape.So I do not know what God or gods our PM pray to that made him think and want to act like God.If this idea comes then those gods can be very dangerous and we have seen that with the ** incident.We better pray hard for the mind of our PM to stay in good shape.

One day later - still got excuse?

retard
December 15, 2009 at 1:16 am

this is simply not feasible because the maintenance just to keep the two new land masses from disappearing due to poor shoddy workmanship would cost 400 quadrillion a year.

This is a classy comment though.

FUTURE PM
January 2, 2010 at 2:35 pm

wtf is this ! 850 trillion my S !
Dont talk about the money, think of the citizens condition.. Dont you ever think they will get nightmare when sleeping, been torturing for 10yrs, it is like the earth is not safer anymore !
Can you ensure that no one will die !
Can you ensure that no building will collapse!
Can you ensure that ALL THE CITIZENS want this to be happened ?
Say this is democratic country, do the people have the right to say YES / NO for this project!
Why dont you run a survey to get permission first !

MONEY !!
Our hard earn money !! 10yrs squeezing people money into your ‘pocket’
We are your citizens not your toys !

PM ! cant your just think for us, switching your position as a citizen, dont always be on top! you miss out alot of things. Whatever you think is not the ppl need ! Cmon you have to be more mature !
WHat you spoken, doesnt ever convince the people! WE ARE LIKE LIVING IN HELL SOON ! ” Peepo cross-finger ! we will be tortured soon, enjoy the best for now !

But seriously, after a month?

Anyway, my point being that the government is sometimes really stupid but erm.. when you see how people lap up anything typed in a posh enough font - then you understand why we are where we are, huh?

I for one choose to revel in the few who question and then write hilarious articles. Thanks nose4news! Will be checking back often :)

And to everyone else, check your facts before you believe everything!

(and switch off your lights 8.30pm - 9.30 pm on Saturday the 27th March. Pretty sure TNB employees won't be losing their bonuses)

India Alive!

Three months into the year and my last post was in November of last! *gasp*
Unforgiveable.
On the off chance people may still perceive this blog to be alive, i shall jot down my observations of India.
What is that? Yes.. i Did go to India (finally!) and i have to say to my former postmodernist tutor NO! I did NOT prepare myself spiritually for it and I think i came out FINE. *pooh pooh*
Anyway, the place is simultaneously frustrating, amazing, beautiful, dirty, friendly, full of con-artists and really infuriatingly a hodge podge of humanity. You get the best AND the worst, i reckon. However, i think the craziest thing of all is how in that huge mess that it is, the place just works.
How can a town full of cows and goats and shit all over, with nary a proper sewage system, zooming rickshaws everywhere and just a seething mass of people... how can it work? But it does! And that is Incredible India. Love it and hate it all at once.
Anyhoos, a little teaser to whet your appetite and hopefully I will get to uploading and blogging more in the near future :)

Yay Cookbook!

Oh, I'm so sorry i abandoned you dearest Blog o' mine.
Turkey was way too awesome though and I will WILL WILL eventually get photos up, kay?
The shitty streamyx connection isn't helping (plus a ton of work and end-of-year syndrome!)

Anyway, let me kickstart you with a gloat.

Winning is fun =)

Jeannie wins cookbook through BookXcess blog competition!

And the winning delectably deliciously devoursome entry is as follows:

The best dessert I ever ate,
Was never served upon a plate;
Isn’t classified a cake,
Not even something you can bake.

But warm and rich, straight from the pot,
Slightly cooled and not too hot;
I’d lick off from mum’s wooden spoon,
The sweetness that would make me swoon.

Chocolate icing thick and oozy,
Chocolate high feels almost boozy;
Who wants icing on the cake?
The excess bits are what I’ll take!

For licking rights I’d fight my brother,
I love you, but go find another!
Thing to satisfy your craving,
Oh man… Now I’m left salivating.


I reckon poetry gives one brownie points. Especially when it's about chocolate!
And yes, true story. I did use to fight my brother for icing licking rights. He usually won the pot by virtue of being older (or was it 'cos I was fatter?) and I'd get to lick whatever i could scrape onto the big wooden spoon. (Still fine by me!)

ps: Winning is fun!

Tardy Thoughts and Turkey

Zomg!
No updates since Tok Woot!
Well, lots has happened and also not so much.
I hang out a lot more on weekends. No big, exciting plans but enough to keep busy. And that makes me happy.
I have become a book fair hound. I think i average 3 new books a week. Such a monster. But seriously, if you also suffer cheap book fetishes, definitely go check out the Pearson/Penguin book sale at Pearson Publishing House (off Jalan Templer which is the left turn off the Federal Highway after the Naza showroom, assuming you are driving AWAY from midvalley... meh. Google it!)
I love the fact that eddie is back! He calls and I feel wanted =) and occasionally he is breakfast buddy!
I tried for, heard back from and then was ignored by Mix FM. *Big sigh* Radio deejay-dom needs more work.
I've been playing badminton semi-regularly. That's a MAJOR change for me! (And less aching now!)
Liverpool is in 'shambolic' form. *sigh* But Torres is still leng chai as ever. For a female football fan, that is of course a pretty big priority.
Oh, and biggest news of all... FAMILY HOLIDAY!
I am quite excited over the fact I don't have to slug it out in hostels and figure out where I am by myself. But coaches and zooming over sites is a bit of a sad thing. We are staying 3 extra days in Istanbul on our own so I have been reading up quite a bit for Turkey. I promise those pictures I will share, okay? (Have been lazy with Rembang but to be honest there isn't much to see there)
The itinery consists of Istanbul (Grand Bazaar! Haga Sofia! Blue Mosque! Topkapi Palace! Bosphorus River!), Troy (Eric Bana and Brad Pitt and a big wooden horse!), Cappadocia (potentially a hot air balloon ride and caves where the Catholics used to hide from the Romans i think), Ankara (the current capital of Turkey but i don't know much else) and of course, YUMMY FOOD!

Things i have learned since a week ago about Turkey:

• There is OIL WRESTLING using extra virgin olive oil (less acidity so stings less) and has been source of homoerotic inspiration
• Troy is in Turkey (=S) Honestly, had no idea.
  
• The whirling dervishes perform a few times a week in the waiting room of a train station. When not totally touristy, they are actually quite mystical, as performers go into a trance-like state to do their spinning
• Topkapi palace was main venue of a film called Topkapi that my parents watched about 40 years ago.
  
• Topkapi palace is also the old palace of the sultans before administration moved from Istanbul (not Constantinople) to Ankara
• Edirne is site of oil-wrestling festival and also closest to the Greek border
• Turkey is actually pretty darn big... it looks like the size of Spain on the map.
  

I suppose I will learn more as I go along so, for Turkish enlightenment, do drop by in about 3 weeks. Yay Kebabs and Hummus!

Tok Wook and her 22 Husbands - a Malaysian Tale

Image sourced from this Star article

This sprightly 107-year-old lady is like the Hugh Hefner of women. I say Like because although she HAS had 22 husbands, i think they were all sequential, and so all legal. The article refrained from including particulars, but apparently she's thinking of getting her 23rd husband because she is lonely while her current 37-year-old hubby is checked into rehab.

It begs the questions:
- what is her secret?
- what happened to the other 21 men?
- does this centenarian still get jiggy with it?

Apparently, Tok Wook has x number of children who are already old and dependent on their own children. Gosh.
I'd be really confused if i was invited to my great grandma's wedding.

Anyway, i'm not too certain if i'm proud or unsettled that there's at least one lady with her conquest of all these men.
What say you?
Kudos to the (great?) grandma being able to woo younger men
or
It's kinda icky please just stick to 22 and be happy?

And if you could live to 107... maybe the 22 husbands makes sense after all?

It's a Beautiful World (Now We're All Here)

I heard this song on the radio and I fell absolutely in love with it. Lyrics searches were becoming fruitless and then i thought, hey, it had a nice piano bit. Let's give this Jim Brickman video a shot. And it is amazing. With the full orchestra backing and Adam Crossley's lulling voice, this is just one of those feel-good songs that makes me feel like i'm floating in a happy sea =)

Jim Brickman feat Adam Crossley : Beautiful World (We're All Here)

I'm really grateful for BFM (89.9), making that drive home in the buka puasa jam that much better because there are great songs for me to discover. Business station? Definitely not what i'd think of as my type, but the music is awesome possum so if you're sick of the commercial mainstream crap, give it a shot.

Yay to good music! It's been a while...

Religious RandomThot - Clean or Unclean?

I know i've often spoke of how the three main monotheistic faiths are essentially the same thing evolved in different cultures. All religion ultimately just wants you to be good and do good, and that's what should matter.
It just struck me last night though, (thinking about these things as you do), that there are some pretty peculiar contrasts in religion, and the one that floated through my mind was:

Isn't it funny how Islam and Judaism tell you to refrain from eating swine, because it is a dirty meat? I've never quite understood the repulsion to pigs myself because those childhood viewings of Babe obviously affected me deep down inside. Plus they are so cute!

On the other hand, in Hinduism, beef is not eaten because cows are revered as a symbol of the sanctity of life. Givers of milk and hide, toilers in the field, and naturally... pissers.
No, really. Cow urine has been said to have untold health properties, which is why a group of people thought it was a good idea to turn it into a soft drink. Cow-ca Cola "has immense potential to cure various diseases."
Funny - i would've thought it would have the opposite effect.
It remains to be seen if the director of said cow urine venture had accurately predicted the latest in health fads:

"It will be a revolution of sorts. The acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it comes as a cold drink, its demand will definitely increase. It will prove and justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture."

Oh, it'll be a revolution alright.

I'm sure everyone was just WAITING for a cow piss soft drink before snapping it up.

Anyway, I digress. It's just funny that on the one hand you don't consume it because it's pure; and on the other you don't because it's unclean.
So i guess you should stay in the middle way... and only eat the sort-of-dirty-but-clean-enough foods in between.

I Wish I Could Be a ... TAXI DRIVER ... for a Day

Have you ever wondered... yes you, sitting behind the computer, typing inanely... if you weren't a cubicle monkey, what other jobs you could have taken? I don't know if it's just me but i'm naive enough to think that non-desk jobs have the simple appeal of being AWAY from a desk.

True. People who aren't in desk jobs are probably cursing the cushiness of those of us who are.. but i often wonder if i would have the pluck for Another Job. So, onwards a new string of RandomThots filled with naive perceptions of what another occupation would be like. I dub thee:

'What I Might've Been If I'd Grown Up...' a.k.a 'I Wish I Could Be in These Shoes for a Day'

Today's occupation is none other than the street savvy, sharp-mouthed Taxi driver. Staple of all good sitcoms (particularly, i have in mind Ranjeet from HIMYM... gah aaron, you got me addicted), a key figure in action-packed movies (Driver, follow that car!), serendipitious tool in rom coms (the same taxi driver will help you realise, as you're talking to him, how perfect that girl really was for you) and often the guy who waves his fist in the air and curses as the hero runs recklessly across the street, chasing the girl of his dreams. (I watch too many movies, huh?)

So, why a taxi driver? Not so much that I see myself as the catalyst for all great movies, but for some pretty boring reasons actually.

1. Can you imagine the navigational skills you'd have after a week behind the wheel? Owh yeah, who needs a GPS when you have shortcuts tattooed in your brain?
2. I love talking. I love pretending i know how to psychoanalyse people. Imagine just sitting on your ass all day and ferrying people around while getting to pick their brains about what they are doing and why. Here's some insight from this news article:
   "You deal with 50 to 60 people a night, from drunks to drug users to NASA people to lawyers to drunk doctors," he said. "If you drive long enough, you'll meet every kind of person there is. You get people in here who think you're lower than them because you're driving a cab. You have to get them out of here quick or put them in their place quick. You never know who you'll meet in a cab." He said though he does not plan to drive a cab for much longer, he enjoys it now because of all the people and the experience. "Cab drivers are basically counselors, mobile bartenders," he said. "If we could serve drinks in here, we'd be rich."
3. A lot of cabs smell foul and look fouler. I'd like to be the car-proud cabbie who will go the extra mile by offering a wet wipe on a hot day. Plus, i'll get to brainwash people into liking my music. Come on, you know you've heard crappy music in cabs before, right?
   
4. This would probably be a good way to find out where the best everything is. "Oh, you are going there to eat satay? It's good huh? Should try someday. What else do you recommend?" There... food makes the world go round.
5. I also like imagining things. So imagine how much fun i'd have making up the life stories of the fares that I pick up? Until the day i REALLY get a serial killer in the cab...
   
6. You get to be on a radio all the time! *static buzz* Guys, you wanna catch a movie after this shift? Yeah? Meet me at the cinema at 8 *static out* Okay.. probably not, but if you were in a really liberal taxi company?
   
7. There's something cool about being part of a gang that extends throughout the city streets and whom you can catch up with at taxi stands? Good to know they got my back, man.
   
8. Changing scenery. ALL THE TIME.

Yea yea... probably more than a week in traffic and i'll want to tear my hair out. But one has got to dream that there are other things to do in life. So, even if it doesn't make you want to quit and take a different career path, at least you might be a bit more considerate the next time you hop in that iconic yellow car (well, red and white in KL i guess) and remember to tip your driver! (if he uses the meter that is).

If you'd like more insight into the cabbie life, i stumbled upon this blog which is pretty much just cabbies ranting about their days. Interesting peek into the taxi world.

Glorious Gloria Gaynor

The song 'I will Survive' has been stuck in my head for the last 3 hours.
This is fairly excruciating in a silent office where the clickety clack of the keyboard and the mini avalanche-like rumbling of the air-conditioner are all that keep me company.

Yes, Gloria Gaynor, in all her discotheque glory, is playing on repeat in my head. Especially this bit

- music roll-
go on now go
walk out the door
Just turn around now
'cause you're not welcome anymore

Yeah, actually the part that bugs me is WHY. Why is it stuck in my head? I definitely didn't hear it on the radio this morning.
So... is my brain trying to send some not-very-subtle encouragement? Maybe it wants me to know i will survive

• this stack of 4 reports that i have to write. All of them. At once. And i'm procrastinating on my blog.
• the prospect of another 4 months of long distance. And who knows how long more after that?
• the endless stream of workdays with no trips planned in the near future. Sitting, rotting, waiting for an excuse to bolt.
• pretending i know what i'm doing at work. I still feel bad being the inexperienced 22 year old fresh grad grilling people who have worked all their lives in development. I'm sorry. It's my job. Please know you guys are infinitely more knowledgeable!
  
• the rut. I think everyone past a year of working falls into it. I'm glad i'm in an out-of-the-mainstream job. Can you imagine seeing your whole life planned in front of you? Career-wife-kids-retirement-death. Gotta shake it up a bit.

Alternately, my brain could just have a penchant for cheesy disco music with faux-violins and eighties-style melodrama. Yeah. That's probably it.

But hey,

I will survive.

India - there and back again

I'm Back! (Like, a week ago)
India was absolutely amazing. Maybe it's cos the reports left me quite anxious about what I would see. Maybe it's cos this is the first of MY PROJECT's that i've visited (the rest have sort of been carrying on stuff that's started before I joined, but this one I saw from the proposal stage so it's like my baby!) Anyway, i didn't get to fulfil my imaginings of bright spice pyramids and temples and elephants and old palaces but I'm not disappointed because Karaikal is nothing like the Mumbais and Delhis in my head. It was a lot like Aceh and Jogja in that there were small, poorer communities and they were tsunami-hit, so very much a work trip. So, India for tourism will definitely be on the cards in future.

Anyway, this was a great project to have seen. I didn't have much time to be a tourist but it was rewarding enough to keep me satisfied.

A brief summary: The project is run by a locally-based organisation that has been involved in this sort of work for 25 years. They set up child activity centres that offer supplementary education (think tuition class) for children from coastal area villages (the ones that were hit hardest by the tsunami) and also serves as a playing space and a place for them to learn about rights and for peer support.

It's amazing that in that simple building, where there is like one desk and 4 chairs (the children sit on the floor), there are these active, inquisitive, enthusiastic minds. They were asking questions, and really vocal, and just so hopeful about everything. I was really touched by some of the stories i heard. They face issues that we never had to deal with. Some kids pull out of school because they are going to get married, or they have to help their parents work, or they just feel demotivated because they were orphaned by the tsunami and don't have enough support.

The children really believed that education was important and they are all part of this children's club which is set up in the activity centre. So, when their friends cannot come to school (maybe they are made to join the work force or to get married) , they group together to approach the child's parents and tell them that their child is better off staying in school. They even collect money amongst themselves to buy school bags for those who can't afford them.

In one of the activity centres, the power kept cutting off so the children collect 2 rupees each a month to pay an electrician to make sure that the power supply stayed on.

I was just astounded to learn how progressive India is. And we like to think that we are developed and have it all figured out.

The Karaikal area was really badly hit by the tsunami five years ago as fishing villages lie all along the coastal area. Whole villages were demolished and we heard that there was one where only one concrete building remained of the 100s of houses in the village.
All the children we spoke to in the school had been hanging on for dear life or had scrambled up to higher ground.
The project also covers disaster preparedness training for 3 schools where the kids are taught basic first aid and what to do in case of disaster. Haha.. I MIGHT have learned that before in scouts, but those kids definitely would stand a better chance than i would of surviving a flood or an earthquake.

The third part of the project is a microcredit component where women are trained in alternate livelihoods and also how to manage their businesses. So, women who previously had no means of earning an income now can start their businesses on loans of 4,000 rupees (that's just under RM 300!) giving them an improved income of at least 500 Rupees. The women are taught accounting skills and cost/benefit analysis, etc... and are organised into little collectives for support and in the hopes of forming co-ops in future that are capable of taking loans from banks. From my limited experience, i really believe that microcredit is one of the best ways to get people out of poverty. In particular, microcredit targeting women.

Briefly, my other observations of India:
- food is good and cheap! I didn't get roadside stuff because Delhi belly is too notorious, but no tummy problems and lots of tasty food ala mamak.
- the driving is insane. Seriously. The car horn is a suggestion to get out of the way... But they really have a whole other type of instinct for traffic avoidance. Couldn't drive there, i think. And the honking goes on well into the night.
- Goats and cows are everywhere on the road.
- There's lots of temples everywhere too. Or maybe cos the area i was visiting is a pretty famous pilgrimage site for Christians and Hindus.
- All the ladies wear saris! They could be sitting in the dirt or straddled on motorbikes but they are wearing the most beautifully bright saris! *sigh* colourful after my own heart...

It was really a project-filled trip and no time for leisure so I am just so pumped with enthusiasm for this project.
So much so that i have a ton of reports to write up. *groan* This is the worst part of the trip. Catching up on work.
Will put up photos if and when i get to it, otherwise... they be here on my Facebook album.

Amazing India

Peruse and enjoy!