# Merry Christmas!

Ah... It's the time of the year again! It has been kind of a "tradition" thing for me to do a pre-christmas post about the christmas decor around London. As my old posts have some problems of loading the photos, I will just give the source of my pictures here: 2005, 2004

Let's start off with a dream-like picture with people standing right beside some penguins, dancing lights and another person holding an orb... Any idea where they are?

No, it's not some dreamland far far away, but these people are taking pictures in a GIANT glass ball! The snow effect is created by small paper pieces being swirled around by a strong blower. Tempted as I was, I didn't go into the giant glass ball anyway because the queue is long and they charged 5 pounds per person! And people just took picture in the glass ball, and left. No chance of having some fun inside. Commercialized christmas...

Let's go somewhere else and have a look at the decor around London, shall we?

We passed by some Santa Grotto... I wonder whether I have been nice or naughty? Hmm... I can't help recommending this site for us to have some laughs on the photos of little children being scared of Santa, the one who write our behaviour report each year and decided our rewards...

And of course, I made a wish at the wishing well. The wish? Secret... ;-)

One of the place I like to go during christmas season is the Covent Garden, no, not the crowdy part, but the less crowdy part with little shops selling all sorts of christmas items. Here is a view of the Apple Market.

And actually, one of the main reason I like going to Covent Garden is because there are always some music school students playing instruments at one of the corners there. (the corner is the left hand bottom corner in the picture below) I like the string quartet particularly... I like to listen to them and wait hopefully for them to play my favourite song - Pachelbel Canon in D.

(smile sheepishly... Yea I know it's kind of lame but I just can't help LOVING Pachelbel Canon in D! Don't care if the cello part is lousy or if the song haunts Rob Paravonian!)

There will be also lots of fun fair being set up around London, the most prominent places are of course in Leicester Square and Covent Garden. I think (I don't quite remember) I have put up some post about the funfair last year, so I will save the space for this year. Here is one of the pictures - the merry-go-round!

Shopping for christmas presents are never easy, but the effort is worthwhile when you see the person smile!

Ooops, I think Santa left his sleigh unattended. Mountains of presents!!! Hope he didn't get a parking ticket for that.

Ok, let's stop by to have some mulled wine. After all, christmas is not complete without any wine, rite?

And christmas is definitely not complete without a TREE!

But for many children, christmas would not be complete without DISNEY!

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR folks!

(I will be gone for a few days for christmas till new year in friend's house. So I will be temporarily away from the blogsphere... So here's wishing my dear friends here a very happy christmas!)

# Pachelbel Rant

Came across this video on YouTube. I just keep laughing. He's so right about the chord progression. So many songs across the globe, not only English, in fact MOST of the chinese songs follow this progression...

"Punk rock is a joke, it's really just Baroque"

"D... A... B... F#... G... D... G... A..."

# Cold night, hot food

Sometimes life can feels so sweet with such simple things...

It was just another misty, cold London night and we decided to have some hot food in China Town. As usual, almost all the restaurants were packed full with people, even the ever-famous Wong Kei which attracts many customers to its no-frills super rude service.

We nearly gave up until we saw "1997", which surprisingly does not have too many customers inside. At first we were a bit hesitant, but the warmth of the waiter in welcoming us made us decide to give it a try.

It was pleasant to see the surrounding was clean enough, and I was more pleasantly surprised to find the old style marble top table with patterns adorning its wooden edge. Ah, such a sweet old memories of childhood...


Despite the ongoing swearing and gossiping among the workers, they were very friendly towards customers. Service was fast and we were immediately served with hot chinese tea. I particularly like the typical chinese tea cup, which was spot white clean.


I like the kettle even more! It was the typical old-style kettle we used at home, large and bullky and easy to get burned with the hot metal surface. Yup, this IS the kettle where our tea is put. A more common ettique was to provide customers with the smaller and more decorated teapot, but I just love the old-fashioned style of presentation.


The cutleries were standard too. Ancient wooden chopsticks in bamboo container. Red-colour menu with best dishes of the day. And of course, the essential soya sauce and toothpick in traditional chinese restaurant!


I just love the setting of the restaurant - the old-style furniture and cutleries and the simple yet clean environment. It brought back so much childhood memories of the older times when everything was so simple. Life was thrifty and simple. Household equipments were old but durable. People were friendly...

I was already starting to fall in love with this cute little restaurant.

Despite the name of the restaurant being very Hong-Kong-ish, ("1997"), the cooks and many of the staffs were from Malaysia. So they do a lot of Malaysian dish. We all decided to go for the curry mee to cure homesickness... Wow, the portion was huge, and they sure put a lot of ingredients in it! Though it does not taste authentic enough, I am satisfied with the compensation by lots of ingredients in it. However, it's still a bit expensive for a bowl of curry mee.


Hot tea poured from the traditional kettle = 0 pound
Unauthentic curry mee but with lots of "liao" = 7 pounds per bowl
Wonderful dining experience at a cold night in London = PRICELESS

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Update:
Oh ya, I forgot to mentioned one important feature. The bowl which they put our curry mee in, was not the conventional bowl too. They just put it in the metal pot (the shape is similar to those clay pots) which they used to heat up the food with. Here's a picture which shows my bowl, erm, pot, more clearly.

# Phang Jie!

Dearest Phang Jie and Shou Feng,

This is it! This is the time you guys are reunited, to begin a new life together.


It's a pity we can't make it to Taipei to attend your blissful wedding, but we will make it for the "red-egg" ceremony! I send you my best wishes for a happy, long-lasting marriage. May you stay together happilly ever after!

Shou feng, you better take good care of our Phang Jie, cuz ALL of us scattered all over the world will be watching! ^_^

Phang jie, despite you becoming Mrs Xu and soon becoming a mummy, you will still be our beloved, bulliable, kacau-able, super Phang Jie in our hearts!


Love,
Doink

# Pigloo

Not long ago, Panda recommended a cute video about a crocodile Schnappi, and recently Happy also recommended another cute flash of Last Christmas. There's a string of attack of cutie cutie stuff, and I just remembered I have something that I like very much and would like to share with you guys too. Let the cuteness drown you~~!

Introducing.... PIGLOO!!!

It's a french-speaking penguin in North Pole. It has a daddy who has always longed to go to the beach (which they finally did in the 2nd album), and a cute girlfriend who can be flirty a bit sometimes (but still very sweet and cute nonetheless), and a bunch of friends who either play in a band or do street dance...

The Penguin dance has got so popular that now it has become a social group dance for some fans. And it released albums too and sometimes they do top the charts!

1) Le Papa Pingouin

2) Le Ragga des Pingouins

3) Le Nouveau "Ca plane pour moi" (Le Twist)

# Lovely couple

Just thought this picture is one of the sweetest I have seen.

Our former PM and his wife during the Hari Raya Open house.

Source from www.generasi-m.com

# A "freaky" game

I received a forwarded mail from my friend which goes like this...

"This is strange...can you figure it out?
Are you the 2% or 98% of the population?
Follow the instructions! NO PEEKING AHEAD!
There's no trick or surprise.

1) Think of a number from 1 to 10

2) Multiply that number by 9

3) If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits together

4) Now subtract 5

5) Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with
(example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)

6) Think of a country that starts with that letter.

7) Remember the last letter of the name of that country.

8) Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter. Remember the last letter in the name of that animal.

9) Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter.

10) Are you thinking of a Kangaroo in Denmark eating an Orange?


I told you this was FREAKY!! If not, you're among the 2% of the population whose minds are different enough to think of something else. 98% of people will answer with kangaroos in Denmark when given this exercise. Keep this message going. This one is actually worth sending on to others. Forward it to people you know so they can find out if they are usual or unusual."

================================================

Okay... I don't find it THAT freaky. In fact, it is just a mind game that make use of people's general common knowledge and common vocabulary.

Mathematical Part
Step 1 to 4 are basically designed to make us come up with the number "4".
By multiplying any number with 9, and adding the digits together, we will get "9".
Look at the pattern of the multiplication table of 9 (from 1 to 10)
9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90.
Notice that all of them have digits added up together as 9.

In fact, this does not only apply to number 1 - 10. It applies for any number as long as it is multiplied by 9.
For example, take 564 x 9 = 5076.
Adding the digits together gives 18.
Adding the digits again gives 9.

General Knowledge Part
As restricted by the first part, we will always start our country's name with "D"
Let's check the list of the countries of the whole world, starting with "D".
We have "Denmark", "Djibouti", "Dominica", Dominican Republic".

Now WHO would actually think of a country other than DENMARK? (except those who actually knows the other three very well or are residents in them)

So we are somewhat restricted to animal starting with "K" in our next question.
Now let's see what we have got here...
"Kangaroo", "Koala", "Kingfisher", "Kinkajou", "Kodiak Bear", "King vulture", "Killer whale", "Kirk's dik dik" (whatever this is), "Komodo dragon", "Kori bastard" (sorry, i mean Kori Bustard)...

People who are not zoologist would be only familiar with the more common "K" animal. On top of that, most people are taught during their primary education that "K for Kangaroo". I don't know about the statistics, but according to the person who started this forwarded mail, there should be 98% of the people taught this way. ;-P

Assuming we are the 98% which get "Kangaroo", we now need to find a fruit starting with "O". What we have here are:
"Orange", "Oregon grape", "Olive" (well now I just knew that olive is counted as food), "Osage orange" (still orange), "Oncoba", "Opuntia", "Osmanthus"...

Okay, now who would have thought of those fruits with exotic names instead of the simple orange? Especially we are bombarded with loads of information in our daily life such as "Orange is rich with Vitamin C", or the Sainsbury's "Buy 1 get 1 free Oranges", etc.

Conclusion
This mind game is not as freaky as claimed by the writer. He/she just apply certain restrictions to guide the readers towards the way he/she wants them to think. And he/she made use of the general knowledge of the public about names of places, animals and fruits, which is subject to the way education has shaped us.

Though the game is not freaky, it is scary to think about how big the impact of education have on human, especially the earlier education when we are young. That leads me to think of how some countries brainwash their citizens via education since young and shape the generation of today. Scaryyy...

# Blame the victim, not the predator

I am getting more and more aghast at the level of intelligence and concern for human rights in our beloved country. Not too long ago, there were arguments about whether some races were being marginalized, then the shocking news of murder of a mongolian model by our police forces, for god's sake!

Now there is this Penang Municipal Council saga - some pervert technician abuse the CCTV in the City Hall zooming on the thighs of women journalists during a council proceedings. As if this is not shameful enough, the Municipal Council President blamed the WOMEN for wearing "sexy" clothes that attract unwanted attention. Fucking hell, the women are wearing normal office attire. And so they change their wordings, saying their office attire is not LONG enough to cover their body parts below the knee.

It's the Skirt
Government Dress Code

50 years into independence and development, and our people seem to have not grasped the simple notion of human rights or justice. The principle seem to be "Blame the victim, protect the predator". Blame the women for wearing sexy clothes if they are raped. Blame the women if some sex perverts stalks on them. Blame the snatch thief victimes if they are carrying handbags. Blame the households who get robbed because they live lavishly.

This is the country I am going to serve in the future. This was the country I have had dreams to develop. This was the country I love and feel proud of so much. Where is the basic human values, where is the basic equality?

We need some changes in the country.

# Jamie "Kulum"?

What kind of CD cover is this?!

I saw this advertisement of Jamie Cullum's album on the front page of some newspaper in London.

I seriously think there will be some controversy if this is sold in Malaysia.

(For those who don't speak Malay, "Cullum" can be read in Malay as "Kulum", and the meaning of kulum is not too nice, especially paired with the illustration on the album cover.)

=_=!!!

# Two events at Friends House

It was my second time to Friend's House in London.

I remembered the first time we were helping out at the talk by Rajmohan Gandhi, "Responding to Today's World - the relevance of Gandhian ethics", on 23 November 2005. It was organized by the Initiatives of Change.


Rajmohan spoke about the life of his grandfather, the late Mahatma Gandhi, and shared stories and quotes relevant to today's society. His main theme revolves around "How by God's grace can we create a blending, not a clash of civilisations?"

With Britain just facing the 7/7 bombings that time (this talk was in Nov 2005), Rajmohan looked at this issue in depth and urged Britain to think about its role in the world. He commented that the triumph of terrorists is that fear is so long-lasting. He stressed that terrorism is a terrible problem but it is not the world's only problem. He pleaded to the people to Britain to engage in world's issues more actively - disease, poverty in third-world country, and threats to the encironment, etc.

A part of his speech reveberated in my mind for a long time. "The real clash is not between East and West, Muslim and Christian. It is between faith and fear, rejection and acceptance. Fear is natural; to be guided by fear is not necessary."


The session drew active discussion from the audience. Many young people raised questions with great variety and depth. People were moved when a young muslim spoke out the difficulty that people of her religion faced: fear of terrorism topped up with fear of being the object of suspicion and fear. On the other hand, white people raised the concern of how to communicate with the people behind the veils.

Here is a text of Rajmohan's speech for those who are interested.

It was a mind-provoking session and it set many of us thinking deeply about the world issues today. I scribbled down some thoughts at that time, and while writing the post about Trust and Fear, I remembered his speech about clash between faith and fear, and decided to put up this post again.

=============================================

Fast forward to this year, my second time to Friends House. A nostalgic feeling dawned on me as I re-entered the old building of Friends House. The same old hall, the wooden doors and seats... This time, the organizer and audience were from a different niche of society, but yet the theme and issues still revolves about humanity and peace, "Buddha's Teaching - From Inner Peace to World Peace", by Venerable Master Bikkhu Ching Kung. The talk was jointly organized by Buddhist Education Foundation, Amitabha Buddhist Society, University of London Union Buddhist Association (Yeah! our society!) and Imperieal College Buddhist Society.

A lot of the buddhist believers seemed very excited about the chance to have a look at Master Ching Kung. While we were ushering the crowd to their seats, there were booths outside the hall which give out free-distribution books and CD's. It was a flurry of activities and it was heart-warming to see so many happy faces around coming to learn from the discourse.


Master Ching Kung gave his discourse in Mandarin, and a translator did the translation on the spot. He spoke about the relevance of Buddhist practice in older times to our modern time, and stressed about the importance of "Practice" of buddhism in life, instead of just belief and learning in theory. He drew laughter from the crowd as he recollected his youth during which he used to question about the buddhist practice too, like many other young people.

He spoke about the source of unhappiness and fear in our life - attachment and differentiation, and also suggested methods of overcoming sufferings through the eightfold noble path - right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. He linked the relevance of buddhism teachings to application in today's world to solve the problems. From normal life to world issues, the teachings are relevant.

He also reminded us the importance of cultural ethics/ education that interwines with religion/philosophy. He brought out the example of how Confusianism and the traditional teachings of ethics in ancient China fused with Buddhism which encourage the practice of an ethical life.

He stressed that world peace can only be achieved if we started from inner peace. We tend to look at world problems as external problems, but in reality, most of the problems arise internally. To achieve world peace, we must start from ourselves. He reminded us that each of us have a Buddha within. In many times, our Buddha nature are blinded by our greed, cravings and lots of other distraction in life. It is up to us to reawaken the Buddha within and do good, to create wholesomeness not only in our life, but in the world as a whole.

The Gui-Yi ceremony

After his speech, a "Gui-Yi" ceremony was also held. "Gui-Yi" is somewhat similar to the baptism ceremony in christian. The buddhists proclaim taking refugee in the Triple Gems of Buddhism - the Buddha, the Sutra, and the Sangha. Master Ching Kung explained the common misconception of public about "Gui-Yi". Many tend to refer Gui-Yi as a ceremony which we pledge ourselves as disciples of a certain Masters, this is a mistake as we are showing attachment by doing this. The real meaning of Gui-Yi is to pledge ourselves as Buddhism practitioner and apply Buddha's teachings in our life to bring wholesomeness to all. It is a commitment to ourselves according to Buddhist way. The monastic people are just a "witness" to our proclaimation.

I haven't managed to find the text version of his speech. I will put it up here once I get the copy of it. Meanwhile, more information can be found on the Amitabha Buddhist Society website.

Both talks are from different groups of society, yet share so much similarity in the themes, the aims to do good and promote peace in the world. I learned immensely from both lectures, and I believe the audience did too. The core of all religions and philosophy is humanity, and in the crazy world today, humanity is direly needed.

# Trust and Fear

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

North Korea has revealed that it has nuclear weapons. Terrorists are planning attacks at random places, random time. Natural disasters like hurricane/ earthquake are claiming thousands of lives. Even in micro scale, streets are no longer safe - snatch thiefs and rapists and killers are roaming in the streets...

A few weeks into lectures and studies in school, we learn, and re-learn about the basis of actuarial field - managing risk. We tried to identify risks, tried to understand people's fear, and tried to manage it. Uncertainty is the key word. Since older times, human has been fascinated by this nature of world - the only certain thing is that everything is always uncertain. Human has relentlessly tried to avoid uncertainty and reduce risks. Because we have FEAR.

Alongside with fear, we have TRUST. Trust is a wonderful nature of human being. By having trust, or in a higher extent, faith, human help one another. We build hopes and feel safe. Yet trust is such a fragile structure, hard to build and easy to destroy. In people's relation, we trust our family and friends. In financial world, we trust the insurance companies to manage our risks, or our banks to manage our finances. In socio-economic context, we trust (to some extent) our government, NGO, institutions and social bodies to provide stability and safety, and hopefully, equality.

Trust and Fear forms such a complex relationship. Balancing the two components are not easy. Reith Lectures series have delved deeply to try to understsand the interaction between these two natures - Onora O'neill (2002) with her lectures "A Question of Trust", Wole Soyinka (2004) with his lectures "Climates of Fear" have explored the effects of these emotions to human, and to a wider context, the society and world.

In older times, fear is easier to identify. It takes more tangible forms like natural disasters, wars, political problems, etc. The sources of fear stood broadly in public - we know who/what are the threats. That implies we have a chance to try to manage or do something about it. Also, we have a clearer concept of what is trustable/ reliable. We have clear definition of what is good and what is bad. And trust is a virtue which brings us forward in life.

Lately, various threats have taken into a more tacit form. Terrorist threats, for example, is so evasive, and yet so threatening. While last time people fear government/dictator who controlled the society/economy/politics, now we fear enemies who are underground, who might be anywhere, who might target anyone. It is not the states or institutions who are in charge, it seems like evil is on the loose. Remember the beheading of foreign soldiers in Iraq? How it casted a terror that the bigger ones are not always the one controlling the game. Within the same issue, look at how the campaign of anti-terrorism has eroded the trust in governments, or in the superpowers in the world.

In financial world, scandals after scandals are revealed. Companies were once in the talent race - recruiting the brightest and best. Yet Enron, Arthur Anderson and many other cases showed that talents alone could not guarantee success of companies. Trust is crucial, yet the strings of events have just done more harm than good to build people's trust in companies.

Also, old threats are resurging. Last time we feared the atomic bomb threat, we were worried about the arm races. Hence, human seek cooperative efforts via diplomatic agreements to keep them under control. In recent decades, the public perceptioin of fear moves to economical/ social threats more than these destructive threats. Somebody even forecasted that the future wars would be waged in terms of economics/ trades/ Internet/ etc. Yet, with North Korea's revelation about its nuclear power, suddenly we were back to the older times. The scary message conveyed, "You get bullied if you don't have WMD, you don't if you have."

Climates of fear is indeed encompassing us. With trust eroding in most aspects, human huddle in fear for the many risks and threats which seem to come from all directions. We really need to recognize that we have a crisis now - our fundamental values of goodness are being taken over by various threats.

By thrashing out fear after fear, I do not mean to say we are doomed. What I want to say is we still have hope, if we work for it. Until now, I still believe of purity and goodness as the fundamental state of human nature. It is just that human values have been polluted, and we need to clean them up. We need hope, we need faith, we need prayer, we need trust in each other. And we need each other. I hope the readers of this post could have a moment to ponder about the many issues that surround us today, and have a prayer for a better tomorrow. Have faith.

# Health is wealth

Almost everyday I reached Old Street tube station about 9.55am, about time to start my classes. And almost everyday, as I came down from the tube, I would see a familiar silhouette. A crooked back, a deformed spine. It's a middle-aged man who happens to go to work about the same time as I do. A few times I happened to walk just behind him, and the figure haunted me for a long time.

I have to admit that I feel scared. I am scared of my future. Like him, I have scoliosis, and have been feeling quite inferior about this fact of my body. Some friends noticed it, and whenever they commented about it, with politeness and good intention, somehow there's a slight pain and sort-of-shameness in my heart. I think, human tends to feels like escaping whenever being confronted an uncomfortable, yet starkingly true fact.

When I was small, we were not that well exposed to medical knowledge to diagnose the symptoms. Only when I finished my high school, got a scholarship and was required to do a medical checkup, the doctor told me that my X-ray shows a "deformed spine" - "S-shape scoliosis with dorsal left concavity apex at T7 with 22 degrees and right lumbar concavity with 35 degree. Acquired compression to the left side of T8."


What a shock! Went through a flurry of activities, going to specialists and checkups. Some doctor suggested physiotheraphy, some suggested chiropractic, some said surgery could readjust the spine, but with high risk. Tried out a bit of physiotheraphy and chiropractic, but stopped after some time due to the expensive costs.

Have been having neck pains and backache more often these days, and I am worried about it. As usual, it's right shoulder, right scapula region and left lower back. Same old areas. I do yoga stretches to alleviate it, and pray very hard the scoliosis will not further affect the internal organs. It is a scary thought to know that a human's body is such a fragile framework, and suddenly life appear to be so precious.

This morning I bumped into the man again. I prayed for him silently, or was I praying for myself at the same time? Perhaps. I know when I get old, my back would look like his. Yet, somehow, somewhere in my heart, I think I haven't been able to fully accept it. Living in denial? Perhaps.

I think, a better way face it would be to take care of my body now and live happily. Afterall, worrying about future does not help much. What matters most is neither past or future, but present. Treasure every moment, treasure the people that I care about.

# 每逢佳节倍思亲

It's mooncake festival today. Inadvertently, I felt the feeling of homesickness sinking in.

"独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲" is a quotation from a poem of a Wang Wei (王维《九月九日忆山东兄弟》). I found an English translation from internet, it says: "A lonely stranger in a strange land I am cast, I miss my family all the more on every festive day..."

I miss home, I miss everything back there. Unlike the previous years, somehow starting a new semester this year felt heavier than usual. I think that I have really started to feel the longing to go back to my own country.

I decided to do some baby-ish wallowing in self pity now. Bah, humbug! Please feel free not to read on so as not to spoil the joyful atmosphere of mooncake festival.

My stupid neckache is hurting like hell, what a way to spend my mooncake festival... Barely recovering from cold sores, the neckache/shoulder ache decided to pay me a visit. Felt like a robot a whole day - a simple action of glancing over my shoulders became an awkward manouevur of rotating my whole body to face the direction I wanted to see.

Cancelled an appointment with friends due to the constant stinging feeling on the shoulders. It's Friday night and I couldn't go anywhere with this mind-numbing, body-stiffing pain. Having to get in bed early on mooncake festival is no fun...

I know I need rest, but I couldn't help being 无聊 a bit before settling myself on bed. Decided to take a few pics to commemorate my lousy mooncake festival on 2006.

My best mates during mooncake festival = cold sore relief cream, Sloan's muscle pain rub, Vicks Vapourub.

My lanterns on the wall, brought from Malaysia. I miss playing with lanterns and walking around neighbourhood with my little yellow lantern...

My faithful "Lil' one", birthday gift from KK and Ray. Temporarily forgot about my neck pain when I looked at its cute little innocent face with toothy grin.

I like its sleeping position.

Another thing I like about Lil' one, it's tail which looks like a piece of grilled steak. Hungry...

HAPPY LANTERN FESTIVAL!!!

# Time flies

... and I am back in London. Another year of study to go.  :-(((

Wasted 2 hours in the airport immigration control. Strict security has slowed down clearance. I envy those who can go straight to the line of "UK Passport Holders". After waiting for ages, I finally got to get to the passport control desk. But the officer told me I NEED a medical checkup! Bloody hell. He thought I was a first-year student.

After explaining to him and showing him documents that I have had my records with the NHS and he can go check on my health condition if he likes, he let me through. With my stomach growling (I haven't had my dinner), I took the tube home, arriving around 10.30pm.

Took me a few days to clean up my new room and unpack everything from boxes. Now my little room looks more inviting... Here is a 360 degree tour of my little square room. (photos are of not such good quality, I only have my T610 with me so that will have to do)

Here is my work station, with my laptop and board and photos and everything in place, before I make a mess again soon.

Beside my desk is my cabinet which I stuffed everything in there. Next to it - my personal TV in the room! (With the license too! Landlord pays, yea yea)

Next to the TV are the fridge and the little tea corner of mine, with teabags and mugs... Check out the two fish lanterns on the wall, gifts from James, made in Malaysia! Now I miss the Lantern Festival/ Mooncake Festival back there... Anyone doing Lantern post soon?

Last but not least, my sleeping corner. Cosy little bed... Thanks KK for the warm duvet!

Now it's really time for bed.

# Would all the cat-lovers please stand up?

During the SARS period, some people have the mistaken identity to think the ordinary stray cats are civet (thanks Mickell) cats (which is actually from the Rats family) and said that they spread SARS. A massive search and kill was launched in Singapore during that time and as many as 200 cats were terminated per day.

A blog friend of mine, Robin, a good-hearted animal lover, has teamed up with wish friends to provide temporary shelter for stray and abandoned cats, and making efforts either to track down their owners or find homes for them. Their work are time, energy and money-consuming, and needs support from all of us.

So if you know of anyone who wish to adopt a cat, a kitten, or who is willing to support such a cause in animal welfare and protection, please let Robin know.

No cash donations please. Food, kitty litter, toys, shampoo, cat adoption (subject to terms and conditions) and medicines are welcome. Please email Robin.

TO HELP, PLEASE GO TO THIS LINK

Thanks very much!

Paris (Day Two) + Passports Mania

After a long disappearance, built not only on love with Malaysia, but also snowballed on guilt of having not been keeping touch, YD timidly peered out to the windows of blogspere, awaiting angry blows, or worse, disappointed sighs. Have I gone overboard in MIA this time?

Some of you have guessed correctly. Yes I am in love - in love with Malaysia, its food, family and friends, and erm... with somebody. (*blush*) I must admit that I am bad at balancing the time of going out and going online...

Anyway, that's another story. In this post, I have to finish my uncompleted story, which also leads to a worrisome experience in Malaysia.

********************************************

On the second day of Paris, we woke up early to visit the Eiffel Tower. Bustling along with the Parisians on the Metro was an eye-opening experience for me. The people were rougher than those in London, and politeness was certainly not the way to go around in the subway.

After the long ride, we arrived at the Trocadero station, saw the magnificent tower, and proceeded to line up to buy the tickets. It was then we realized the horrible truth - our passports were gone!

The passports, alongside with 100 Euros and 100 Swiss Francs, were kept in our travel pouch, which dad kept in his trousers. Yet it disappeared mysteriously during our morning journey with Parisians in the packed Metro train. Fast like a flash of lightning.

Our schedule was ruined. We rushed back to hotel to double check, just in case we left them in our room, but alas, we didn't. Luckily I brought along the contacts of Malaysian Embassy and made photocopies of passports and travel documents. We called the Malaysian Embassy and was told that we need a valid police report and photos before we can report this case to the embassy.

Well, we went to a local police station, and found out that none of the policemen speak English, and there was no translation service available in the station. We ended up in reporting our case in gestures and drawings, until now I am doubtful that the policewoman who attended to us really understood all our body languages. We spent more than an hour there, with most of the time wasted on trying to understand one another.

The helpful police officer.

After getting our police reports and photos done, we rushed to the Malaysian Embassy, as the time was running out and the office would be closing soon. After a journey which seemed like forever, we reached the station, and literally ran all the way to the embassy.

The office hour of the embassy has ended (3pm), and the staffs were actually having a farewell party for an ambassador. We begged the clerk and explained our situation to her (we have to depart for Switzerland tomorrow), and she, being such an angel, decided to help us out. Thank god!

The clerk (a.k.a. the angel) gave us many forms to fill in, including the one to report loss of passport, one to apply for emergency certificates and one for records. While we were filling in forms, the angel went to persuade the officer who had initially declined our case since it was past office hour. Thanks to her help, the officer nodded ok.

The long wait in the embassy.

We were very lucky to have such great help in foreign country. We were luckier to have an emergency certificate processed immediately and given to us by the end of the day. We settled everything at around 6pm, thanked our angel and the officer again and left the embassy.

The rest of the trip was brief. Our original plans of spending a day in the Lourve was cancelled. We persisted in going up the Eiffel Tower, but when we came down, there was a downpour, which lasted for about half an hour. Luckily the day was longer during summer, so we had more time to spend outdoors before bedtime. We spent a short time OUTSIDE the Lourve (it was already closed), where dad did his Tai-Chi routine and drew attention of many other tourists. hehe...

While dad was doing Tai-Chi, I decided to have some fun with the Lourve.

We spent the evening in a quiet little restaurant and enjoyed the Poisson soup, then we strolled along the Seine, onto the island, passing the Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter. It was a tiring day for us, but yet we relaxed as we walked along the river, in the romantic atmosphere.

Our saviour of the day - our emergency lunch which lasted us the whole day

This is indeed a memorable trip to Paris. Dad, who already disliked the haphazard traffic and the rude culture, and now coupled with this misfortune, decided that this might be his last visit to Paris. The silver lining of the cloud, is the warmth and the helpfulness of the many angels we have met in the city - the hotel staffs, the police officer and the embassy workers. Thank you very much for your kindness.

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Update:
The passport problem dragged on until we were back to Malaysia. To reapply for new passports, we were told to refill the same forms we filled in while in Paris, due to the lack of coordination of the local imigration offices with overseas embassies. The local imigration officers told us that the process of reapplying new passports could stretch more than one month, and we needed to translate the police report into B.Malaysia, take oath in court, and wait for the HQ to assess our application. Worse, we would be black-listed for loss of passports. But the most frightening prospect was that I might not be able to get my UK Visa in time to go back to London, with this hullabaloo stretching on...

Update 2:
We were lucky again! Someone found our passports (without the money of course) and handed back to the embassy. And thanks to the angel (the clerk) again, she managed to arrange a fast delivery of our passports to us. After the many visits to the imigration office, and the visa centre, I finally got my new passport done, and my UK visa renewed just in time! Phew!

I must really thank all the angels who helped us out. Without them, we would still be stuck in dealing with the immigration office now. In our life, there are so many people who have crossed paths with us with just brief encounters, yet, their impact in our lives are profound. Their kindness touches our heart, their helpfulness makes the world a better place.

It brings me to think about the many friends who have always been there, who care, who watch out for me. It brings me to think about you guys who are reading right now. I am very lucky to have met you in this path of life, and I thank you for your friendship, your care, your kindness. Thank you so much for being there.

# Paris (Day One)

(Note: I won’t put up the a lot of the photos of the famous tourist attractions, I believe we have seen them too many times on TV/ Internet/ Magazines. Hence lots of the photos would be from some small things observed in the trip)

Arriving at the ever busy Gare du Nord made us realize how foreign we are. Everything is in French! We got our Carnet and headed for our Hotel.

At the moment we stepped into the Metro subway, we noticed the mass of people, from all backgrounds, all classes. Unlike what is normally portrayed in advertisements, Paris is not as romantic as the public think. There are beggars, street people, gangsters and lots of dodgy-looking people – certainly didn’t paint a very good picture for Paris

Unlike what is said by friends (“Nowadays all French speak English!” They assured me before I went), most of the people we encountered, except for the well-known tourists attraction sites, speak French and no English. There were some unpleasant encounters where some people are very unfriendly knowing we do not speak French, but overall, the people are still ok.

The traffic/ driving in Paris certainly terrified me. I mean, having got used to the polite driving in UK, where pedestrians rank first, I am quite amazed seeing cars zooming past us while the pedestrians’ light is green; or cars cornering and nearly hit down a bunch of people by roadside, then hooted as loud as they could; or cars bumping other cars many times before parking into a parking bay (Now I knew why it’s called a car BUMPER!)… Priceless experience.

The streets are not clean either, except, again, for the main tourists attraction sites. But looking on the bright side, it’s much better than our own country. Our spirits died a little after looking at the dirty streets/ crazy traffic/ suspicious-looking people/ etc… but we reminded ourselves that French cars are one of the upper range cars in the world market. Dad likes French cars a lot…

Off we went to our first stop – Sacre Coeur, a neo-Byzantine Basilica famous with the beautifully adorned dome. It represents the national reconciliation of and hope after the defeat of France in 1870 War against Prussia. The basilica took 45 years to build, and its interior is decorated painstakingly with a myriad of mosaics. Inside Sacre Coeur, religious believers were praying silently, while the painting of Jesus on the ceiling glowed in soft golden light. We took our time to savour the beauty and calm our minds.


A path by the side of Sacre-Coeur brought us to the Montmarte area. We arrived at the place Emile-Gourdeau, the authentic art square flocked by artists.


No, we didn’t manage to get our portraits done, but we did have some French crepe for tea, and got “robbed” for ordering a €3.00 500ml mineral water! One thing that fascinated me a lot is the culture of Parisian to sit by the sidewalk, under the sunshine and watch the world goes by. Reminds me so much of our “mamak stall” culture. But more interesting in a sense that they all faced to only one direction – OUTWARDS – looking into the streets. We followed their gaze to see what they are looking at, only to find another stretch of cafés opposite, full with people gazing towards this direction!


We found Moulin-Rouge later after getting lost in the small winding streets in Montmarte. The time as well as the price of the cabaret shows put us off, since our hotel is at a more quiet (and far) part of Paris, and dad has seen cabaret show in L.A. before anyway.

We got to Concorde to admire the impressive square with its obelisk and two fountains, which are gifts from Egypt in 1836. Jardin de Tuileries is lovely, but we were a bit surprised to find walking path covered in sand (quite messy to walk in). Only later we found out that ALL the pavements in the parks in Paris are covered in sand. How interesting. I guessed I have got too used to the tar/cement walkway in London parks. Reading the signboard enlightened me that Jardin de Tuileries is in fact one of the UNESCO World Heritage List for its cultural/ natural value.

We walked along Les Champs-Elysees, which as usual, was full of crowd, and lots of cafés, banks, cinemas, car showrooms, branded stores, etc. Apparently this street is the favourite hangout place for Parisians, but I lost interest after a few minutes. Just like any other shopping streets in the world – crowd, shops, sales, sales, sales. I quickened my pace to reach the end of the walk.

(One of the few things that managed to catch my attention while walking along Les Champs Elysees - the little girl admiring herself in the mirror in some branded shop... I forgot which)

At last, we got to the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the street. We passed through an underground tunnel to get there – it stinks so badly of urine! Commissioned by Napolean, the monument was dedicated to the memory of an unknown soldier who died in WW1. The Arc is certainly magnificent, though I am still haunted by the fragrance in the tunnel.

(Dad and I! Tadaa!)

(Some antics we saw at Arc de Triomphe)

So far, our meals have been mostly baguettes, baguettes and more baguettes… I wonder how people bite into the rock-hard bread and still manage to keep their teeth. I would prefer to soak them in hot soup and have it soggy. ;-P

At night, we fell asleep exhaustedly, accompanied by the cacophony of noise outside our hotel, by construction work, by lorry passing by, by people shouting, by baby wailing…
(Our window view - houses with traditional french windows, plus lots of unwelcomed activities at night)