Adorable rascal

Let me introduce you to my 11-month-old nephew, Wen Shern.


His family came a-calling at my home yesterday and he was the natural centre of attention. Here are four more faces of the rascal:

Mini-Avanza

Somebody once told me that the Viva is a miniature Avanza. Looks like it's true.

I had the chance to snap this photo of the two cars parked side-by-side at the Bukit Mertajam Specialist Hospital. And why shouldn't they look the same? Toyota holds some interests in Perodua, Malaysia's second national car manufacturer and if Toyota allows Perodua to copy the design, why not? Anyway, Perodua has the sole rights to assemble Toyota's Avanza here in Malaysia and Perodua's MyVi uses the same 1.3-litre engine as the 1.3-litre Avanza. So be it!

Burma bleeds

The crackdown continues in Burma as the tyranical military government shuts down the Internet access in the country before going after the monks and civilians.

The horror of the crackdown is well documented in this Daily Mail story which shows Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai's final moments as he was gunned down by a Burmese soldier.

Before people forget what Buddhism is all about, here is a viewpoint from the BBC.

And this is one of many posters, exhorting peace and loving kindness, carried by the monks in Rangoon during their marches through the city.

Ronaldo's romp

News of the World:
A sleazy report by Jane Atkinson & Rav Singh

TWO of the five escort girls who romped with Cristiano Ronaldo and his Man Utd pals last night ripped the pants off what REALLY happens when a team of £150-an-hour hookers tackles a multi-million pound midfield.

Tyese Cunningham and Gemma Storey revealed how they teased £120,000-a-week Ronaldo and fellow stars £14m Nani and £17m Anderson with Tesco's finest sexy knickers.

Read the rest of the stuff here or if the link disappears, then read it here.

Similarities

Here I am, sitting at home and surfing the Internet for more news about what went on at Putrajaya yesterday and what's still going on in Rangoon, and I'm dumbstruck by the visual similarities. The photos from Rangoon were taken from Ko Htike's blog but the ones from Putrajaya were copied from various sources and I'm sorry to say that I forgot where I saw them originally...

I believe in the long term, nothing we experience here will ever compare with the bravery of the Burmese monks and people in facing up with the military tyranny in their land. They may still not win this round but they have my deepest respect. After all, when soldiers have no qualms about shooting live bullets into crowds, you simply have to respect the people's desire for freedom.

Hard heads guarding the Sule Pagoda in Rangoon (left)

and the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya (right).

Running scared?

Okay, let's return briefly to the March For Justice leisurely walk at Putrajaya yesterday.

First, here is a picture that I've taken from Raja Petra kamaludin's Malaysia Today (there are more photos there):


Now, to put you in the right context, some excerpts from Patrick Teoh's blog, Niamah!!!:

Soon after I arrived I saw a squad of Federal Reserve Unit men, all dressed up in full riot gear, march up the steps of the POL and position themselves across the main doors. As if to prevent anybody from entering the building at all. Across the road I could see what would have looked like SWAT snipers on the roof of the buildings. A noisy police helicopter buzzed the area. The red FRU water cannon trucks rumbled by and parked within sight of all concerned. And on the perimeter of the Palace Of Justice steps policemen, uniformed and plain-clothed walked about busily speaking unsmilingly into squawking walkie-talkies. I looked around. With everybody smiling, laughing, talking loudly, slapping backs it all looked like we were on a Hollywood film set. All that hullabaloo for what was simply a group of peaceful, concerned Malaysians who wanted to tell their elected government, "Dei! Something is very wrong here la. So right the wrongs."

Jeez...in the first place, the government cannot even differentiate what's peaceful and what's not. If a group of lawyers and their friends want to go see the Prime Minister to present a memorandum to him, why make it so difficult? If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of.

Marching in unison

I would have thought that these pictures below, reproduced from Jeff Ooi's Screenshots, were from Rangoon in Burma where the Burmese army had taken up positions to prevent thousands of angry monks from marching and protesting against their government but no, this happened yesterday morning right at our own doorstep.



The Federal Reserve Unit was out in force to block off bus loads of lawyers and their supporters who were travelling into Putrajaya to begin their March For Justice to the Prime Minister's Office.

The Bar Council had organised this walk (it was more of a walk than a march) to show their protest at the begrudging action by the government after the infamous video of lawyer VK Lingam was posted on YouTube, which showed him in a one-sided conversation with someone who many suspected was possibly a senior judge.

It is a sad day indeed that our lawyers had to resort to this type of action in order to be heard by the government. But when you have a government that seems frozen with inaction, a government that seems to promote and condone corruption and injustice, a government that seems in deep denial over almost everything that strikes a cord in society, this March For Justice may be just the catalyst to jolt public consciousness and awareness. To have an idea how deep the government is in denial, the pompous idiot declared again to The New Straits Times yesterday: "There is no crisis in our judiciary. No crisis. No problems. I don't see any scandal." I think this picture here sums him up perfectly.

At least, the FRU practised restraint and did not resort to physical action to end the march. Not so in Burma where yesterday, the Burmese army fired tear gas and shot live bullets into the air. (UPDATE: It was reported that at least three people were killed.) It looks very much that the government there had begun their crackdown against the monks.

These are just two pictures from Ko Htike's blog. Please visit it for more photos and the latest news from Rangoon. It's the least we can do to support their predicament.

Traffic dummies

I'm sure you'll find this traffic dummy all over the highways where construction takes place. On the Penang Bridge, there are two of them, on opposite sides of the mid-span, where they flag the motorists to slow down. Rain or shine, they work unerringly and tirelessly.

I've been noticing these dummies for some time now but for a long while, I was unable to finger where I could have seen them earlier. They look so familiar, so feminine, so ... androgynous.

Then, suddenly, bingo! I realised what had been at the back of my mind all the time. Take a look at this, make your own comparison and come to your own conclusion:

Penang heritage: Kee Huat Fantastic Facts and Fancies

This is one of those newly restored buildings along Beach Street in Penang. It now looks very nice and bright, but it has a very long history.

I believe it would have been the 1950s or 1960s that Kee Huat Radio began operating from here until, I think, the late 1990s. Kee Huat Radio wasn't a radio station but a shop that was selling electrical appliances like refrigerators, washing machines (Zanussi, of course), and yes, radio and television sets.

But the real claim to fame for Kee Huat Radio was that in the 1970s, it sponsored a series of fun radio programmes at 10am on Sunday mornings called Kee Huat Fantastic Facts and Fancies. The programme featured a countdown of the most popular songs of the week and had a contest for listeners.

The ever-popular DJ and host of the show was Patrick Teoh. And most Sundays, my radio would be switched on to the English Service (later known as the Blue Network) to listen to this bright and breezy guy. Wahh, his England was so powderful, speaking like an American. Patrick really knew how to spin those vinyl discs. Ah, those were the days.

An orchidometer is not about orchids!

It is a good thing that I have not embarrassed myself by asking whether an orchidometer has anything to do with growing orchids.

Dr Teoh Eng Soon, one of Singapore's foremost experts on orchids and a gynaecologist - incidentally, he's from Penang - would have been so alarmed and chided me with a "No, no, no, no .... an orchidometer has nothing to do with orchids!"

So what is an orchidometer? According to Wikipedia, it's an instrument used to measure the volume of your balls. Not the ones that get kicked about in the football stadia but the ones hanging down between your legs. Yes, I mean your testicles.

I came across this word from a Bernama story which quoted Andrology Australia director Prof Rob McLachlan as saying that most men are unaware that testicle size is a measure of a man's bill of health. (But really ... I don't need him to tell me that testicle size is related to the ability to produce children. I knew that a long time ago. If you have no balls, how are you ever to have children, unless you are a woman?? Even then, unless you believe in virgin birth, you'll still need someone to assist you with that!)

Anyway, the good professor added that men don't know how big their testicles should be. They don't know what's normal or what's abnormal.

Right... as if we men go around to ask and compare with our fellow neighbours: "Hey, you got big balls, ah? Show me yours and I'll show you mine."

So, Prof Rob weighs in again. Small testicles can indicate a testosterone deficiency and that's no good. If you feel tired, lose muscle, gain fat or lose the sex drive, it may be due to that. And testosterone deficiency can also lead to osteoporosis.

Now comes the real serious part. Testosterone deficiency can also be a sign of infertility, with a higher risk of developing testicular cancer. But the bright side is, genital examinations by an endocrinologist are easy. And fast. It takes only about 30 seconds. (Basically, you'll have to show him yours, not the other way around.)

That's where the orchidometer comes into play (pun intended). This medical instrument consists of a string of 12 numbered wooden or plastic beads of increasing size from about 1 to 25 millilitres. Testicles measuring between 15ml and 35ml are in the normal range.

But how do you know that your testicles are within this range? Is there any rule-of-thumb method of determining this without going to the doctor in case you are the shy type? Easy again, according to the professor. "If a man's testicles are the size of a sultana (seedless raisin, he should see his doctor immediately. I've seen men coming in with the size of a sultana and they haven't realised it's a problem. It happens all the time," McLachlan said.

Okay, enough. I'm going to show you now what an orchidometer looks like. And don't ever tell me that it looks like a string of prayer beads....

The law is still the law

It is kind of sick that the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Mohamed Nazri Aziz, would echo Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan in saying that the parents of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin may be charged with negligence for failing to take adequate care of their daughter.

"The law is still the law. We have to act. No one can be exempted," the pompous idiot said. He went on to say that the police were only abiding by the principles of the Rukun Negara which require the citizens of the country to uphold the rules of law.

Come again? Am I reading it correctly? The police want to charge the grieving parents? Do they have their priorities right? Shouldn't the police be going after the killers of the parents' eight-year-old daughter?

Oh wait, I forgot. They are going after the killers but then, the killers are moving targets. Shadowy figures captured on the CCTV. No Candid Camera shots. Not so easy to track and trace. Meanwhile, we know where the grieving parents are staying, don't we? Wangsa Maju. They can be picked up at a moment's notice. Sorry, I didn't realise that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It's easier to pick on the parents instead of the killers.

Oh, but wait again. Maybe the police have a point, you know. Charge the parents for negligence. They should know better than to allow their children loose in the streets. How many times have we seen parents letting their children play in the streets with little or no supervision, with disregard to the traffic? How many times have we seen little boys and girls separated from their parents in shopping malls? These are incidents that contribute to accidents affecting children and crime against them.

So the police may be right, you know. Make the parents pay for negligence so that they'll know better. Let little Nurin's parents pay for their negligence so that their other three children will be safe, so that the people in Wangsa Maju will take greater heed of their children's whereabouts. Let them be an example so that others won't make the same mistake as them.

As if, in Nurin's parents case, as well as at least half a dozen more cases, the parents have not suffered enough. Yes, the parents may have been negligent to have let their child wander off by himself but the ordeal of having to deal with children that never come home is enough punishment for them, for their neighbours, for the community.

What's in a name?

I had hurriedly snapped this banner while on my way to work recently. I'm confused. Honestly, I don't know what to make of the name. Can anyone tell me?

My vanda orchid's spiking! (2)

It was only a few days ago that the spike on my vanda orchid was starting to bloom but yesterday and today, the flowers began opening. It's really exciting to see them open one by one. The flowers aren't exactly blue but more on the purple side. I've been told this is the Vanda Pachera's Delight, a vanda hybrid, but I'm not totally sure. But I don't care. The orchid is having its maiden spike in my house and all I can be bothered about right now is to admire it.


Below is another view of the same orchid blooms. It's closer to the actual colour than the picture above.


To top up a fascinating weekend, my oncidium is also blooming. It's quite a hardy plant as it can grow without much fuss. And the flowers look like little dancing damsels.


The first bloom on my white cattleya after I had cut it into two. This is the original plant left behind in the pot. The flower started opening up last night at about 9pm and it was too late for me to take any picture of it. This morning, it had already reached this state. This morning too, I noticed that the cattleya orchid that I had repotted three months ago has just started to push out a new pseudobulb. Yayy!


And this is my other cattleya plant. Nice, red colours but it doesn't allow for a good definition in this picture. I'll try again later...

Sunset over Penang

I just want to share with you one of my favourite sunsets. The photograph was taken from a Penang ferry travelling from the island to the mainland.

Rubik's cube

Fancy taking part in a Rubik's Cube contest? If your fingers are nimble enough, you may just want to do that!

The fastest I've ever seen anyone unravel the Rubik's Cube was about 30 seconds and I was thinking to myself: "Wow, that's fast!" When the Rubik's Cube storm hit Malaysia in 1982, being able to solve it was already an achievement in itself, let alone solving the puzzle with one hand or even blindfolded. Yes, there are people doing just that.

But if you think that 30 seconds was fast, there are people who are even faster. In May this year, Thibaut Jacquinot of France set a world record of 9.86 seconds at the Rubik's Spanish Open. And next month, more than 300 people from 32 nations are expected at the fourth Rubik's Speedcubing Championship in Budapest, Hungary.

Want to see how the Rubik's Cube is solved? Here it is, in s-l-o-w motion. Watch closely and don't blink!

Sacked or resigned?

It doesn't matter. The reality is that The Special One has left the Bridge ... giving up on Red Rom and running away from his players and the Blues fans. I'm not one, so this is about the only tribute I can offer him.

Buddy, can you spare a dime? I'm now jobless and still have a family to feed, including my beloved Yorkshire terrier in Portugal.

My vanda orchid's spiking! (1)

Watching my orchid grow a spike is an interesting learning curve because I've never ever seen it before. Of course, partly to blame is the fact that I've never taken any interest in orchid cultivation before. I'm very much a novice and needs the advice of the experienced orchid enthusiasts. And being a novice means I'm at the mercy of unscrupulous orchid growers like this chap from Perlis who sold me an orchid with a fungus growth and not telling me about it, and then leaving the fungus to spread on my plant.

Anyway, watching the spike grow day by day is a joy. I first notice the tip of the bud appearing on the plant on 23 Aug but it became much clearer by 25 Aug. Then gradually, the spike grew longer and longer and I could see the flower buds appear. Ah...let the pictures speak for themselves, okay? There'll be more photos posted as the plant begins to flower.

Ban Hin Lee Bank would be 72 years old today

UPDATE: I've noticed a lot of traffic coming to this post. You can also click here later to read Ban Hin Lee Bank (BHL Bank) 73rd anniversary


Today is 17 Sep 2007. If Ban Hin Lee Bank were still in existence, this remarkable bank would be observing the 72nd anniversary of its founding.

The story of Ban Hin Lee Bank is the story of Yeap Chor Ee. In case you don't know who he was, Yeap Chor Ee came from China in the 1890s and settled in Penang when he was 17 years old. He started a trading firm called Ban Hin Lee which evolved into Ban Hin Lee Bank in 1935. As a result of his hard work he rose to become one of the richest men in Penang. The above picture shows the bank's landmark building. On the right is the bank's logo. It has all the right fengshui signs. You would have to be sitting on the mountain to look over the sea. An unsubstantiated story has it that the five coconut trees represented his five sons and the two sailing ships, his daughters.

In this picture, Yeap Chor Ee is seen donating money towards a good cause. Receiving the money was Aw Boon Hor of the Tiger Balm Village fame in Singapore.

Yeap Chor Ee died in 1952 and control of the bank passed first to his widow, Lee Cheng Kin, who died in 1977 and later to his son, Yeap Hock Hoe, until his death in 1980. The chairmanship of the bank then went to Yeap Teik Leong, the eldest of Yeap Chor Ee's grandsons who stays in Singapore, until 1986 when Goh Eng Toon, another of Yeap Chor Ee's grandsons, took over the position.

In the late 1990s, the Federal Government placed pressure on the local banks to merge. Ban Hin Lee Bank was in negotiation with Southern Bank to merge as equal partners in 1999 but suddenly, Bank Negara made Southern Bank the anchor bank in the merger process. What was first supposed to be a merger on equal footing now became heavily weighted in Southern Bank's favour. However, there could not be any turning back and the buy-out was formalised in 2001. Five years later, Southern Bank was in turn swallowed up by CIMB Bank. Today, the building still stands proud along Beach Street in Penang but it no longer sports the name of Penang's most famous local bank.

A whopper of (two) grandmother stories

Stephen Ireland plays football. He plays for Manchester City. He's also an international, donning the green jersey for Ireland.

Boy, is he in deep embarrassing shit! Recently, he told his national team manager that he really needed to skip a European Championship qualifying game against the Czech Republic because his grandmother had died and he needed to go home.

The concerned Football Association of Ireland (FAI) chartered a private jet to fly the player home from Slovakia but the FAI discovered Monday that his maternal grandmother in Cork, southwest Ireland, was very much alive. Ireland then claimed it was in fact his other grandmother in London who had passed away. But now, it was Manchester City's turn to discover that this was false too.

So what happened exactly? Ireland came clean soon afterwards. The 21-year-old midfielder said he fabricated the story to cover up the real reason: his girlfriend had just suffered a miscarriage.

"Jessica said she was very lonely and wanted me to come home. She said she thought they might let me home quicker if they thought my grandmother had died. I realize now that it was a massive mistake on my part to tell the FAI and Manchester City that my grandmothers had died, and I deeply regret it. The miscarriage that Jessica suffered last Saturday has caused both of us a lot of heartache and had caused us both to panic."

The player has since apologized to his family, particularly his grandmothers, and to officials of both teams. I'm sure his grannies have forgiven him for wanting them dead. One thing is for sure .... he can't use that excuse again.

There's only one Rolf Harris

Rolf Harris. What a great, all-round entertainer: he's a composer, performer, television host, painter and a friend of furry animals everywhere.

Who can forget the Rolf Harris Show on local television in the 1960s? He showed us how great an artist he can be. With just a dab of his brush here and there, he brought his paintings to life. He taught people to actually like art!

His ultimate artistic creation came in 2005 when he was commissioned to paint an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in celebration of her 80th birthday.

As a performer, he sang memorable songs like Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Waltzin' Mathilda, Two Little Boys and .... Jake The Peg, the nonsense song about the adventures of a three-legged man.

I discovered a new live version of this song on YouTube but obviously, it wasn't like the first time I saw it on TV. But it doesn't matter. I'm sure many people don't know the talent of Rolf Harris, so here is Jake The Peg. Just enjoy it:

Penang bridge

Nowadays, I dread having to use the Penang Bridge. Everytime I approach the bridge from either the mainland or the island end, it is just like taking a gamble. You'd never know the traffic condition until it is almost too late.

I can safely say that in a typical week - Monday to Friday - I'd face a huge jam along the approach roads. It's especially bad on Friday evenings. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.....

You know what? The culprits that contribute to all the traffic jams on the bridge are the inconsiderate drivers. Tail-gaters. Common! You know that the bridge is not a place to speed. Why do you have to tail-gate? Who are affected whenever there is an accident? And who are the parties that are inconvenienced the most? As responsible citizens, each and everyone of us has a part to play to ensure that traffic flows smoothly on the bridge at all times.

Also partly to blame are those truck and bus drivers. I've seen one lorry trying to overtake another lorry on the bridge and they were travelling at 70kph, just short of the 80kph speed limit. And...they were so close together, side by side, that I positively thought an accident would be inevitable. The driver of the overtaken lorry was so alarmed himself that he gave a loud tootle on his horn and pulled back. As for me travelling directly behind them but a very safe distance behind, I was praying very hard that there'd be no accident.

Also mainly to blame is the Public Works minister. You know who I mean, lah. The one with the hair-transplant surgery decades ago to have that ridiculous hair-piece cover his balding pate. At one time not so long ago, I think it was as recent as 2005, he actually said that Penang had no need for a second bridge. Go fuck yourself, hear?

Also partly to blame is Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd. Why is the project to widen the bridge taking such a long time? I've only been seeing piling works. Can you please hasten the project for everyone's good? I don't want to see the bridge finally widened at the same time that the second bridge is completed. And can you please ensure that accidents on the bridge are cleared as soon as they happen?

Yesterday morning, a bus broke down at the 2.6km stage of the Penang Bridge. I think it must have occurred between 9am and 9.30am, because when my wife tried to drive to the island at 9.45am, traffic was already at a standstill. Luckily, she had the presence of mind to divert out to the industrial estate and use the ferry services - also full of cars but at least, moving. She arrived at her destination at 11.45am, about 15 minutes late for her appointment, but at least she was there. When I drove out of my office for lunch at about 12.45pm, I heard on the radio that the jam had still not been cleared. What kind of breakdown was that, that it could snarl up the traffic for long hours? What sort of breakdown service is being provided by the Penang Bridge concessionaire? We, the long-time, suffering commuters of the Penang Bridge, demand answers and immediate solutions.

Of earthquakes and sinkholes

About two weeks ago during the much publicised lunar eclipse which we failed to see from Penang because of the cloud cover, I asked whether we would witness a natural disaster within hours of the eclipse.

I was rather relieved when nothing really significant happened around the neighbourhood of this South-East Asian region. We should never forget that we are living in close proximity to the countries around the earth's ring of fire.

However, we tend to forget that the two weeks before and after a lunar or solar eclipse can be equally critical too, if the earthquake theorists are to be believed.

It is at these two periods - at the full moon or the new moon - that the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon on the earth are still at the strongest because the three heavenly bodies remain more or less in syzygy although the linear alignment will be slightly out of whack.

So it did not exactly come as a big surprise to me that a huge earthquake of an 8.4 magnitude struck Indonesia on Wednesday around 7.10pm. It was just a day after the lunar new moon and two weeks after the lunar eclipse.

The earthquake off Sumatra's west coast affected Bengkulu which was a mere 80km away but it was felt in Singapore and further north in Kuala Lumpur and even parts of Penang. The earthquake also triggered a tsunami warning for Perlis, Kedah, Penang and northern Perak because it was feared that the displaced waves could travel north from the quake's epicentre and curve around Sumatra's northern tip and strike here, like in Dec 2004.

Nothing like that happened partly because we were further away from Bengkulu than from Banda Acheh. Still, there's nothing like a tsunami alert to keep us on our toes.

But one aftershock after another are continuing to rock Sumatra and affecting the region.

On Thursday morning at about 7.50am, my colleague Ted said he felt some slight tremors in the office at the Hotel Equatorial. People in Kuala Lumpur and downtown in George Town ran out from their buildings. This was a second quake of 7.9 magnitude. At 11.40am, a 7.0 magnitude aftershock; and at 5.50pm, a 6.3-magnitude aftershock.

Today, a 6.0-magnitude aftershock was recorded soon after midnight and at 2pm, another aftershock of 6.2 strength. All off the south-western coast of Sumatra.

We should be taking the tsunami warnings seriously but oddly enough, many people aren't. As this picture from The Star showed, it was as if they were not concerned with their own safety. Imagine ... on Wednesday night when tsunami warnings were flashed over radio and television, throngs of people actually crowded Gurney Drive despite pleadings from the Police to disperse and go to somewhere safe. The people were hoping to see the Big Wave coming in. See? There was even this chap with a camera in his hands - he's seated on the far left - all ready to snap the photo that would hopefully win him a million bucks. Were they disappointed? You bet. Were they irresponsible? You bet, too!

It's not only tsunamis and trembling buildings that we in Malaysia should be fearful of. In Ipoh and Batu Gajah, sinkholes have been appearing again and they are swallowing up residential houses. One even appeared in the car park of a hotel. Are they connected to the Sumatran earthquakes? Maybe, because in Jan 2005, there were also sinkholes in Perak following the Banda Acheh quake.

All these natural phenomena may lead us to believe that there may be some truth, after all, to connect earthquakes and syzygies. It's a theory that's bound to be more closely scrutnised now, more than ever.

Weather Report's Joe Zawinul

When I was listening to Weather Report's Birdland a few days ago, I never thought it would come to this.

But yesterday morning, I learnt that Joe Zawinul - he was one of the two co-founders of this fusion jazz group, Weather Report - had died in Vienna reportedly of skin cancer.

Actually, I never knew much about Zawinul but I knew that he co-founded Weather Report with Wayne Shorter. I also knew he played with Miles Davis and he was a co-composer with Cannonball Adderley of Mercy, Mercy, Mercy that was recorded by The Buckinghams way back in the 1960s.

I had always enjoyed Birdland whether it was playing on my hifi system or on my car stereo. Birdland also had the brilliant bassist, Jaco Pastorius, but alas, he's also dead.

Weather Report only featured in two of my music collection: Heavy Weather on vinyl and of course, This Is Jazz #10 on CD.