My 𝘊𝘰𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘪

I began cultivating some interest in orchids sometime in the early part of the last decade when I stopped writing my chess articles for The Star newspaper temporarily. Along the way, I picked up an orchid plant from, if I'm not mistaken, a nursery somewhere in Sungai Petani. This Coelogyne rochussenii took pride of place in my front patio but for about four or five years, it grew but never flowered. In exasperation, I almost threw it away. Then I decided to tie it around the tree outside the house. The plant didn't die but continued growing and attaching itself to the trunk permanently with its new roots. But it still didn't flower. Recently for weeks, there was a prolonged cool and rainy spell in Penang. Suddenly, I noticed that the orchid plant had thrown out two(!) short flowering stalks. So finally, after more than 10 years, the plant has flowered. I'm happy enough to see the flowers but boy, it needs patience. A great deal of patience. More than 10 years of patience. I would have grown several feet of beard already, if I had not cut it off regularly....

US Potatoes cooking demo

The promoters from US Potatoes were back in Penang last week and in a jam-packed afternoon session at 218 Macalister, they brought along a dietician-nutritionist to bolster their mandatory and ever popular cooking demonstration. 

Georgen Thye was the dietician with more than 10 years of experience in nutrition and dietetics. He founded Georgen Cooking, a platform that aims to make healthy eating and cooking easy and fun. He sits in the editorial advisory board of Health Today magazine and is a council member of the Malaysian Dietitians' Association. He is featured regularly in the local media, including on TV and radio. 

Georgen kicked off the session with a fascinating talk on nutrition (what else?) and brought home the point that the potato is a healthy food. For example, the potassium content in potatoes is three times more than that in bananas. And I was surprised to learn that the potato can provide 38.5% of our daily requirement of Vitamin C. Of course, all these numbers do not tell you the whole story because at the end of the day. it also depends on how much potato you need to consume to achieve these figures. 

Although Georgen didn't term himself as a celebrity chef, there was no doubt that he could show his familiarity with the kitchen by whipping up some simple but interesting snacks that used potatoes, in particular, US Potatoes, as a main ingredient. His main demonstration was to make crispy US Potato snowflakes.

The appearance of Chef Federico Michieletto was the obvious highlight of the session. I must say that this Italian chef was not unfamiliar to me. In a previous US Potatoes cooking demonstration here, he had been one of the featured chefs. Last week though, he was the ONLY chef. Thus, all eyes and ears were trained on him. Chef Federico has lived in Malaysia for 15 years or so, and well settled down as the Executive Chef of Equatorial Kuala Lumpur. For his cooking demo in Penang, he had devised two recipes. The first was a Homemade US Potatoes Russet Gnocchi while the second was a US Potato Frittata.

By the way, I bumped into a number of friends at the cooking demo. It so happened that there was quite a number of ladies around. Actually, they quite filled up the room at the 218 Macalister. I found out later that they were from the Rose Charity, Penang Women Chamber of Commerce, the Joyluck club and the Penang State Chinese Association, the last mentioned now serving as the de facto baba-nyonya organisation in the state.

Corner kick

So much have happened to my wife and I in the last two and a half weeks or so. I'm actually having some difficulty deciding how to begin this narrative. But I think the best is to start from the very beginning. 

Anyway, in the morning of the 29th of November, my wife stubbed her little right toe against the corner of our bed. It was quite loud, or at least, I thought that it was quite loud. She was in the bedroom and I was outside at my computer when I heard a loud crack from the room. Rushed in to find my wife clutching at her little toe. We had stubbed our feet many times against the bed and we thought this time would not be any different. But it was not. 

By the afternoon, she complained of a nagging pain that wouldn't go away. The doctor's X-ray confirmed that there was indeed a hairline fracture. The following day, we consulted an orthopaedic surgeon at the private hospital and her toes were immediately bandaged up. It would take about six weeks for the fracture to heal partially, the specialist said, and three months for it to heal totally. Our hearts sank. We had planned for an overseas holiday and now, it was completely shattered by this little bad luck of a freak accident. Worse was that we had already paid for the holidays and it was impossible for us to get all of our money back. The stumbling block were the airline tickets. Cancelling the tickets would come with a hefty loss as obviously, the full amount won't be reimbursed. We made a frantic search for our replacements and luckily, we did find two persons to go in our place. Still, it was a monetary loss to us.

My wife had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon two days ago and luckily, the good news was that her toe was healing well. The bandages have come off and she can now put her weight on the whole foot. There'll still be a final check-up in another three weeks' time.

PCA 50th anniversary

It's not mentioned in the above image, but the celebration of the Penang Chess Association's golden anniversary will be held this Monday, 19 December 2022, at the school hall of the St Xavier's Institution at 2.30pm, where this year's Penang heritage city chess open tournament will take place daily until Christmas Eve. 

Why use the SXI as the tournament venue? It's because after the pandemic lockdown of the past two years, the Penang Chess Association is forced to cut down on expenses when carrying out their activities. Previous editions of this annual event were played at the Red Rock Hotel and I understand that the fees of using their old cinema hall were very expensive. Thus, the need to seek an alternative venue. The school hall here fitted the association's needs as it is cheap and centrally located. 

Occulted Mars

The night sky was heavily covered by clouds last night and I was unable to sight the moon. However, i was awakened this morning at about five o'clock by moonlight streaming into the bedroom. So, I went to the window and was met with a bright round moon, 99.9 percent illuminated, shining in a cloudless sky. I grabbed the camera and went outside to take a better look:

That tiny dot of light at the top of the picture is Mars, still bright enough to be noticed with our eyes in spite of the moon's brightness. According to astronomers, the sun, Earth, moon and Mars are roughly aligned today in an approximate straight line. The bonus today is the moon occulting Mars on 08 Dec 2022 but unfortunately, this can't be observed from Penang as it happens around noon here. But yah, people of the other side of the world will witness the event.

This is how the moon looked like when I underexposed the shot.

Seventh student leadership workshop

The last time that the PFS student leadership workshop was held was some two years and 10 months ago. Even then, it was only half a workshop. Because of the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19, my friends and I never got to continue with the second half of the four-day workshop. Since that 2020 workshop, Penang Free School had even undergone two significant changes: Omar bin Abdul Rashid had retired as the headmaster at the of 2020 and his replacement, Shamsul Fairuz bin Mohd Nor, lasted only a year before he was eventually transferred elsewhere. 

The new headmaster is Syed Sultan bin Oothuman; he's not an Old Free per se as he had never studied in Penang Free School. But Syed Sultan had taught at the Free School from 1992 until perhaps three years ago when he was transferred out. When we learnt that he was to be transferred back to Penang Free School as the new headmaster in January this year, we welcomed it because we knew that we could depend on him to uphold the many traditions of this Grand Old Lady. He would have been very familiar with them already.

When I had met Syed Sultan some three or four months into his new role, one of the first things he expressed was a desire that the PFS student leadership workshop be continued. I told him that he should also speak with Lean Kang since he was one of the main initiators of the workshop in 2017. I wasn't; I was only roped in to help in the workshops later. 

After many months of discussions with the school, the 2022 edition of the workshop was finally realised. The first two days of the workshop was held over the last weekend with 25 participants comprising the pupils from Form Four and Lower Six. Lean Kang did most of the talking in this workshop as coaching isn't my forte. I chose to be in the background most of the time to provide the necessary back-up. But on Sunday afternoon, I stepped forward to take charge of the history section and I must say that I enjoyed the interaction with the participants very much. 

Both Lean Kang and I missed the presence of Siang Jin and Soo Choon. The latter, as many people already knew, had shocked us with his passing in March 2020, barely a month after the end of that year's workshop. And Siang Jin is now basking in the warmth of his revived interest in art, so much so, I'm afraid, the leadership workshops have temporarily taken a backseat for him! 

All said and done, Lean Kang and I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions over the weekend. It says much that we could still interact with today's youths. In our own ways, we were still able to mold their minds and their thoughts. We were assisted during the two days by some alumni from the previous workshops, namely, Farhana, Afiq, Michael, Kar Yang and Norman.  We shall be meeting up with the participants again at the end of January next year to conclude the workshop.

ADDENDUM: For the record, I had made this posting in the facebook page of The Old Frees' Association:

After a lapse of two years and 10 months, we resumed the PFS student leadership workshop last weekend with 25 participants from Form Four and Lower Six. Skeptics may ask why we continue to run this four-day workshop year after year, giving our time without personal financial reward (we stopped only during the pandemic lockdown), but let me say that having gone through the first weekend with them, there are still a lot of bright sparks among the present batch of students! My friends and I shall continue to help the school as long as we are able to. I hope others will too.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/ofapg/permalink/2888696967931834/?mibextid=Nif5oz

 

Clear night

So glad to see a clear night sky at 10.52pm tonight. Moon had just attained its first quarter not more than 16 minutes earlier. And directly above it, a brilliant Jupiter. Here's how the moon and Jupiter look like through my camera.

Campaign observations

If not for the occasional party flags fluttering by the roadside, I would be hard put to remember that there is a nationwide general election (GE15 or PRU15) going on right now. I mean, the campaigning is so lowkey, not only in Bukit Mertajam where I stay but my friends tell me that it is generally the same in other parts of Penang. There's really no excitement here. Everybody already expects the Pakatan Harapan party to sweep 11 of the 13 parliamentary seats at stake in Penang. And it's not like they will be winning these seats for the first time. No, they are simply defending their tenure although there may be some different faces in some of the seats. 

I see a lot of Barisan Nasional flags and banners in Bukit Mertajam and a reasonable number of Perikanan Perikatan Nasional flags too. But Pakatan Harapan flags? Only a handful, as far as I could see. Possibly outnumbered 50-1 by the other two parties combined. But it should be a foregone conclusion. Steven Sim, the incumbent Parliamentarian, should win hands down come polling day this Saturday. From his facebook page comes this explanation (the translation is mine, but not totally):

From the first day of PRU I've committed not to spend big money. This was my promise to the people. The money donated for the PRU campaign, I use as minimally as possible, the rest I make a fund to help the people 🤝🏻.

Every day I'm with the photocopying volunteer team to fold leaflets at the office. Yes, they're not printed in colour at any printing shop. We photocopy them in black and white, make as many as we use so that there is no wastage. It's JIT, just-in-time. The photocopier is efficient, economical and saves cost by more than 90% 👍🏻.

Our crooked T-shirts have become a hot item. We print them ourselves at the office and at home. These few days, friends everywhere had called to buy these T-shirts 😁. When I tell them the website jalanteruih.com they thought that they could buy it there, but we don't sell there either. Instead, we teach how to print the T-shirts ourselves 😅. Print for yourself, print with the kids at home, make it a family activity; we struggle for their generation. If you can still afford it, print the T-shirts for distribution to your friends 👍🏻. Two pieces or 10 pieces, it doesn't matter. We make them together and tomorrow we can proudly tell our grandchildren that this crooked T-shirt was a sign of the struggle of Malaysians during PRU15.

Politics is not the game of the rich. Politics is the struggle of the common people. This is our battlefield, let us make it happen. The most important thing is to walk first 🚶🏻.

By the way, I was contacted by a DAP representative to enquire whether I could help out as a volunteer during polling day as I had done so during the last two general elections. But alas, I told her that although the spirit was still willing, the flesh was not. I'm recovering from an injury to my leg and would like to recuperate as much as I can without reaggravating the pain in the joint again.

 

Ghulam Sarwar Yousof, RIP

I am utterly devastated to learn of the death yesterday of Prof Dr Ghulam Sarwar Yousof, a respected figure in academia, a literary giant and a cultural behemoth. The world's foremost authority on the makyong. Describing his life's work here would demand thousands upon thousands of words beyond my abilities. I shall confine myself to saying only what I know best. 

It is very little known, but Ghulam Sarwar was the founding secretary of Penang Chess Association. It seemed like only yesterday but it had been 50 years since I first met him at the Penang Public Library in Farquhar Street where he was expounding to a group of chess enthusiasts why the Penang Chess Association should be formed. That was in March 1972. In the months that followed the founding, we exchanged heated letters in public through the Straits Echo newspaper; we were in disagreement how student chess in Penang should be progressing. Later in the year, he left for Hawai'i to pursue his Doctorate. After an illustrious career which took him around the world, he based himself in Kuala Lumpur but last month, he returned to stay in Penang. "For good," he said. 

I was in communication with him again about 10 years ago, this time privately and in silent awe of his stature, and more lately, two months back. I was in the midst of preparing him an invitation to the Association's 50th anniversary next month when news came of his demise. I was so looking forward to meeting him again in December....

Rest in peace, Ghulam Sarwar. Without a doubt, the Penang chess community owes you its present success.

 

The eclipsed moon

After weeks of not seeing the moon due to immensely cloudy skies and rainy evenings, yesterday proved to be different. At about midnight, the clouds cleared up enough around the moon to allow me to take some quick snapshots of its fullness on my camera. But it was just too bad that I wasn't able to see the moon much earlier in the evening. It would have been a wonder to see the totally eclipsed moon rise in the eastern sky. But I was lucky to have caught the event streamed live through YouTube by the people in Semporna, East Malaysia. I managed to tune into their livestream minutes before the moon moved totally into the Earth's shadow.

The 99.9-percent full moon photographed from my house at 12.10am

The totally eclipsed full moon at 6.20pm as seen from Semporna in East Malaysia. The dark streaks were light wisps of clouds moving in Earth's atmosphere 

History of Penang, part four

From the Straits Echo of 27 August 1903, here is the fourth instalment of the newspaper's History of Penang. The first three parts of this story are available here: Part One | Part Two | Part Three.

HISTORY OF PENANG.
(Specially written for the Straits Echo.)

CONTINUED FROM LAST TUESDAY)

Arabs, and descendants of Arabs, form another part of the community. There are but few families; they have a great number of dependents, they are strict Mahomedans, proud and unwilling to yield to any au­thority, they trade with all countries, and among the Malays with particular privileges. They are good friends and dangerous enemies.

The Buggesses, though few, inhabit here at present, yet as they come annually to trade and remain two or three months on shore to the number of one or two thousand, they are, during their residence, a part of our society. They are Mahomedans, a proud, warlike, independent people, easily irritated, and prone to revenge. Their vessels are always well provided with arms, which they use with dexterity and vigor. They are the best merchants among the Eastern Islands. They are better governed by patient and mild exhortation than by force. If they commit a trespass they are easily made sensible, and may be persuaded to render satisfaction; but they reluctantly yield to stern authority. They require to be carefully watched, and cautiously ruled. The great value of their cargoes, either in bullion or goods, with quantities of opium and piece goods they export, make their arrival much wished for by all mercantile people.

The Malays, comprehending a great variety of people from Queda, through the Malay Peninsula, the Islands, Sumatra and Java, form another considerable part of our inhabitants. They are for the most part indigent, ignorant of arts, manufactures, or trade: they are employed in cutting down woods, at which they are both expert and laborious, and in cultivating paddy. They may be divided into two orders, the one of husbandmen, who are quiet and inoffensive, and easily ruled. They are capable of no great exertions, but content themselves with planting paddy, sugarcane and a few fruit trees, the cultivation of which does not require much labour. The other order is employed in navigating prows. They are, in general, almost without exception, a bad description of people, addicted to smoking opium, gaming, and other vices; to rob and assassinate is only shameful when they fail of success. Ten or fifteen men will live in a small prow (to all appearance not large enough for six men). For months they will skulk in bays and rivers, where there are no inhabitants, watching for the unwary traders; they spend their whole time in sloth, and indolence, subsisting upon roots, wild yams and fish, and are only roused by the appearance of plunder, which, when they have obtained it, they return home, or to some other port, to spend it. Here they are obliged to part with a share of their plunder to some chief, under whose protection they squander the remainder, and again proceed in quest of new adventure. The feudal government of the Malays encourage these pirates. Every chief is desirous of procuring many desperate fellows to bring him in plunder and execute his revengeful purposes.

The remainder of our people are composed of the Honorable Company's Servants, and their servants, with a few European settlers, which, with the people from the shipping, constitutes an assembly of about twenty-five thousand souls who are always here. 

To keep these several tribes in peace, settle their disputes, and prevent their destroying each other, it is necessary that a person should attend daily to receive and adjust their several complaints, which, if of a serious nature, or such as will admit of immediate relief, may be referred as follows:--

If of mercantile disputers, to a Court of Arbitration, composed of one of the Honorable Company's servants and four inhabi­tants.

If of territorial controversies, to the Board of Plantations. 

If of wilful trespass, breach of peace, or personal injury, to the General Court.

Where the parties are strangers, and on the point of leaving the island, a General Court, of any three of the officers, may be summoned to decide upon the complaint.

A regular form of administering Justice, is necessary, for the peace and welfare of the Society, and for the honour of the nation who granted them protection. It is likewise improper that the Superintendent should have it in his power to exercise an arbitrary judgment upon persons and things; whether this judgment is iniquitous or not the mode is still arbitrary and disagreeable to Society.

Begging that the subject of this letter may be taken into early consideration,

I have etc.,

(Sd.) Francis Light.

Fort Cornwallis, 25th January, 1794. 

The above is the last document in the records bearing the honoured signature of Francis Light. 

In response to this letter the Governor-General, Sir John Shore, (afterwards Lord Teignmouth) transmitted certain regulations some years later. 

When the settlement was founded, the Colonists were surprised at the general absence of fever, but in the year following the superintendent was struck down with a malarial attack, which never appears to have left him, for his correspondence shows that he was subject to these attacks, the last of which terminated fatally at one o'clock in the morning of the 21st October 1794, to the great grief of the whole Island. There is no record of the event to be found, nor do the records, as they now exist, offer any testimony to the energy and ability with which he grappled with all the difficulties attendant on the formation of a settlement on an almost uninhabited Island, overrun with thick jungly vegetation. 

In the middle of the Protestant Cemetery, Northam Road, may be seen a plain plastered brick tomb, into the top of which is let a cracked marble slab on which is the following weather-worn and almost illegible inscription:—

The word "British” appears to have been put in place of another, probably “English," which is the word used in the tablet in the memorial tablet let into the wall of the canopy in St. George's Church-yard erected many years later by Robert Grieve Scott, descendant of the first settler.

His loss was keenly felt by the native population, whom his well-known name and great popularity had attracted round him; and how well he knew the native character is shown in the foregoing letter wherein he describes that of each class of native soil the Island. It may have been that when writing this letter Capt. Light was sensible that his life was drawing to a close, as he was urgent for the  appointment of some individual qualified to succeed him by a knowledge of the people, their language, and their customs, and insists on the necessity of training up a few officers to the local duties of the island, and it cannot be doubted that had his suggestions been carried out his successors would not have had trouble in governing the island.

There were simplicity, efficiency, and economy in the plan briefly yet ably sketched by him in his memorable letter, but neither simplicity nor economy were much studied in subsequent years either by the ruling powers in India or by the local authorities, and the simple Superintendent and his two or three assistants became a Governor-in-Council, with a large Civil Establishment and a Recorder with a costly Judicial Establishment.

Captain Light left two sons and three daughters and a wife to mourn his loss. His will is interesting as showing the care he took to arrange his affairs. To his relict, Martina Rozells, he left in life-rent "the paddy fields situated in Nibbon plain and  containing one hundred orlongs of land or thereabouts, together with the houses, plantations, implements of husbandry and forty buffaloes ***** the pepper gardens with my garden house, plantations, and all the land by me cleared in that part of the  island called Suffolk, as also the pepper garden and plantation forming by Chee Hong in Orange valley **** I give and bequeath unto the said Martina Rozells my Bungalow in George Town, with remainder to the children." His Malay bonds he willed to be delivered to his executors “to be by them recovered, and the money given to Martina, but I request the debtors may not be distressed for payment if their circumstances below." He gave his Batta slaves the choice of freedom, on payment of fifty dollars: gave liberty to several, but “not Esan she remains with Martina,” and remembered his English friends and executors, William Fairlie, of Calcutta, the "Prince of Indian Merchants," who acted as guardian to his children at Calcutta: James Scott and Thomas Pegou, with a “gold gurglet and bason." a "silver gurglet and bason" and a "watch, "respectively.

His eldest son, William Light, was sent to England at an early age, to the care of George Doughty Esq., High Sheriff of Suffolk, and became afterwards Colonel Light, having distinguished himself greatly in the Peninsular War, where he was present in forty-three actions of the Campaign and ending in becoming Aide-de-Camp to Lord Wellington “the Great Duke." He was the first Surveyor-General of South Australia and founder of the City of Adelaide where a monument of freestone, at a cost of £466, was erected over his tomb by his grateful fellow-pioneer colo­nists. and in 1876 the following inscription was placed on it:

His memory, however, is not forgotten, for a picturesque ceremony takes place on the election of each Mayor of Adelaide when the "Memory of Colonel Light” is solemnly pledged in Colonial wine in a silver cup.

His second son Francis Lanoon Light afterwards became Resident of Muntok in Banka when the British held that Island, with Java and Sumatra. He married a Javanese lady Charlotte Arboni, and had two sons (1) William Light, and (2) Robert Rollo Light— a godson of Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie, one of the conquerors of Java.

The latter was father of Francis Light, now of Ayer Kuning, Perak, and of several daughters. Lanoon Light died at Penang October 5th 1823, and had a daughter, Sarah Martinah, who married at Penang June 29th 1835, to George Matthew Koenitz of Ceylon, with issue. 

Captain Light’s eldest daughter Sarah Light married at Calcutta December 28th 1794 General James Welsh of the Madras Army, a distinguished officer who died on January 24th 1861, having published his “Military Reminiscences” (2 vols.) 1830. She died at Waltair July 24th 1839, being described as “still lovely to the end.” They had one son (who died unmarried) and six daughters.

Mary Light, the second daughter of Francis Light, married at Calcutta, March the 9th 1805, George Boyd Esq., of Katulee and Pulma, Bengal, at one timea very wealthy indigo-planter, who died on May 15th, 1856, leaving issue (with two sons who died unmarried) and six daughters.

Anne (Lukey) Light, married on October, 1809, Charles Hunter, Esq., M.D., Hon. East India Co.’s service, who died, a member of the Calcutta Medical Board May 6th, 1831. He was a son of David Hunter, of Burnside N.B.

(To be continued) 

Soapbox derby in the 70s

I came across these old pictures from a contact print. Obviously taken in the late 1970s. I was at Gurney Drive with two of my ex-colleagues from Ban Hin Lee Bank and we were taking pictures of a Scout soapbox derby. Many schools were involved and the organisers managed to close off a portion of Gurney Drive for the races. It will be almost impossible to pull this off now. At that time, I was using a Canon A1 film camera with a f1.4 50mm standard lens, not one of the multitudes of digital cameras we see now. Anyway, I noticed now that the PFS Scouts were also participating. I wonder whether they do such activities nowadays.