Late night cooking with Sam Cooke

I just realised in time that the 45th anniversary of the death of Sam Cooke, one of the pioneers and founders of American soul music, fell three days ago. Born in 1931, he died on 11 Dec 1964 from gunshot fired by the manageress of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles. According to the manageress, Bertha Franklin, the singer was drunk and distressed, and she had feared for her life. She told police that she shot and killed Cooke in self-defence because he had threatened her. Police found Cooke's body in Franklin's apartment-office, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes, but no shirt, pants or underwear. The shooting was ultimately ruled a justifiable homicide.

Yesterday, in tribute to Sam Cooke, I placed this album, Night Beat, on the turntable. This album, recorded in February 1963, is considered to be one of Cooke's most intimate and soulful efforts. The songs are irresistible and should be listened to when it's late at night or very early in the morning, with the lights switched off. When the man's voice comes out at you directly from the speakers, you'll really appreciate this little gem of an album. Truly wonderful.


Side 1: Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, Lost And Lookin', Mean Old World, Please Don't Drive Me Away, I Lost Everything, Get Yourself Another Fool

Side 2: Little Red Rooster, Laughin' And Clownin', Trouble Blues, You Gotta Move, Fool's Paradise, Shake Rattle & Roll.

My Top 12 visitors

Since I included this Flag Counter on 6 Oct 2009, I've noticed an interesting trend emerging from the visitors to this blog. Yes, without a doubt, my most frequent visitors would be Malaysians themselves but coming in a surprisingly strong second position are people from the United States. Just one or two days ago, I saw that the visits from the States have crossed the one thousand mark since this counter was added to the blog.

Of course, I don't expect this small blog to generate much traffic -- in fact, it's almost miniscule compared to, say, Kenny Sia's blog -- but to have visitors from all over the world gives me some satisfaction. So, I have to say to them that I appreciate their visits .. a lot! Thank you for coming.

There's still a very long way to go before the visits from Singapore, Great Britain or Australia cross their respective one thousand mark, but I'm getting there....eventually.

Australian travelloque: Going to the races, sort of...

Did 3 Nov 2009 hold any special significance for you? No? Well, I was in a land where this date was the day that the whole nation would come to a stop. No, make that TWO nations, not ONE. At least, for about three and a half minutes. We saw it for ourselves, first-hand, when we were at Walpole in Western Australia.

If I'm still not making much sense to you, well, let me elaborate. The date, 3 Nov 2009, fell on the first Tuesday in November and everyone in Australia - and New Zealand too - knows that it's Melbourne Cup Day.

Melbourne Cup, Australia's major thoroughbred horse race. A race for three-year-olds and over, over a distance of 3,200 metres. The richest and most prestigious "two-mile" handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races in the world. The event is held at around three o'clock (Australian Eastern Time) on the first Tuesday in November by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

So there we were in Walpole, on the opposite end of the Australian continent. Though far removed from Melbourne, we were caught up just as much by the Cup fever. That was why I wanted to come back from the Valley Of The Giants before noon to a little bit of civilisation so that we could immerse ourselves in the horseracing excitement.

Back in July when I was considering Australia as a holiday destination for early November, Melbourne was still on my radar screen but then I realised that I could have some problem with staying in the Victorian capital. Therefore, I chose Perth instead. But all this while, I still had the Melbourne Cup in mind. I was telling myself that it wouldn't matter if we watched the race on television in Melbourne or Perth, as long as we could watch it live.


So there I was, holding two tickets in my hand. A small flutter on the horse, Viewed, owned by Dato Tan Chin Nam and trained by Bart Cummings. Nothing scientific about choosing Viewed to win, though, just thought that I'd want to do it and hope for the best.


When we arrived back at Walpole well before noon, the town was already deserted. Deserted of people, deserted of traffic. Some good sense made me head right up to the local watering hole at the other end of the town, located within the Walpole Hotel Motel. It was jam-packed with people who were lined up waiting to put their money down. Admittedly, we were at sea. So I asked Saw See to get a kind soul to help us place a bet.


Win, Place, Eachway, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First4, Running Double, Quadrella, Triwin, Mystery Trifecta, All-Up .... almost all of these terms made no sense to us. So we left it to this person to decide for us. That's the extent of our expertise.


I don't remember much about the start of the race except for the people yelling and screaming themselves hoarse around us, as if yelling from faraway Walpole would make any difference to the horses at Flemington. Myself? I don't yell but inwardly, I was urging Viewed on but .... Viewed was far behind in the field. So much for my brief flutter at the races. However, the satisfaction of being able to watch the Melbourne Cup on TV was worth every penny spent on coming to Australia.


Would I want to watch the Melbourne Cup again? You bet! But I'd only want to do it again IF I can do so from the Flemington grounds. Now, that would be something extra special if it can happen, right?

Next: Northcliffe and Windy Harbour
Previous: Valley Of The Giants

Malaysia comes first

For the whole of last week, I hear that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and State Executive Councillor Chow Kon Yeow had been in the United States to drop in on investors like National Instruments, Dell and AMD.

I've also been hearing that they had met students in Los Angeles. "It is an honour to be here to speak to you and I hope your presence here will inspire you to return back to your homeland. Malaysia needs you and don't forget the ones there," he was reported as saying.

I like that: Guan Eng putting nation before self and speaking to these young Malaysians abroad as a Malaysian first.

God in football's dressing room

It is headlines such as this which has kept me excited over Manchester United for a very long time.

My first exposure to Man Utd was in 1967 after they had won the European Cup (before the competition was renamed as the Champions League). I was only in lower secondary school but I remember reading in the newspapers about their match with Benfica. Since the mid-1990s, my football hero in the Manchester United team has been this man, Ryan Giggs, a real wizard with his feet and a thinking man's footballer.

Giggs made his first appearance for Man Utd in the 1990/91 season and has been a regular ever since then. He holds the club record for competitive appearances and the club record for team trophies won by any player. Since 1992, he has collected 11 Premier League winner's medals, four FA Cup winner's medals, three League Cup winner's medals and two Champions League winner's medals.

According to latest news reports, Ferguson says that Giggs will be offered a new contract that will take him to the end of the 2010/11 season: "He is an example to young people because of his humility. He is in the best form of his career right now. He is God in the dressing room. You can see the warmth he generates and young players go to him and seek his advice. We will certainly be offering him a new contract for next season, when he’ll be 37. That is what we think of him. He has been amazingly consistent."

Oh yes, Paul Scholes too, will be offered a new contract. Says Ferguson: "Scholesy seemed to be uncertain about his future. Well, we are sure and we will be offering him a contract, too, and he knows that.”

Australian travelloque: Walpole's Valley of the Giants

3 Nov 2009. We left Walpole (population, 2006 census: 321) rather early in the morning and headed back east towards the direction of the Valley Of The Giants in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park. That would be our main itinerary for the day: to go for a tree-top walk in the morning and then head back into Walpole by mid-day because I had a little rendezvous with something. More about that later.

But first, a short stop at Nornalup. This is a very small community. How small is small? Well, as far as I could see, it has only two roads and according to a 2006 census, its population stands at 279. Anyway, Nornalup is located right beside the Frankland river. Many of the houses face the river and some of the owners even have their own private jetties. Nice place for relaxation but we had to leave for the Valley.

Frankland River, as seen from Nornalup

Oops! Obviously, my timing was out of whack. We arrived at the entrance to the Valley Of The Giants Wilderness Discovery Centre much too early and the bar was across the road. We thought of waiting it out but after five minutes of doing absolutely nothing, the thought of doing a further 20 minutes of sitting still in the car wasn't going to appeal much to us.

The drive along the Valley Of The Giants Road

So we decided to drive further and ended up at Dingo Flat Road. Aha....a small farm to explore, which we did for about 10 minutes.


Anyway, we went back to the Wilderness Discovery Centre, duly paid our entrance fee to the very friendly lady manning the ticket booth (maybe we were too mesmerised by her friendliness and enthusiasm), went for the 600m-long Tree Top Walk that rose almost imperceptibly - most probably because the forest grounds fell into a valley - up to about 40m above the forest floor from where we had a magnificent 360-degree view of the tingle forest's canopy, and then proceeded along the ground-level Ancient Empire boardwalk that snaked though a grove of veteran tingle trees. All in, an entertaining experience.

The tree-top walk is disabled-friendly

Towards the Ancient Empire boardwalk

Next: Going to the races
Previous: Moon over Walpole

Australian travelloque: Moon over Walpole

2 Nov 2009. Right in the middle of nowhere but from the comfort of my hotel's room in Walpole, I could see the moon hanging low in the night sky. Braving the cold, I stepped out to snap this picture. Even though the moon was beginning to wane, on this day its fullness could still be appreciated.


Next: Valley Of The Giants
Previous: Denmark

Google Chrome for Mac

So finally, Google Chrome arrives for the Apple, although it is still a beta version. But be warned: my initial euphoria has turned to great disappointment. I've just noticed that it refuses to run on the Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). The application software will only work with 10.5 or later. Utter disappointment. In the meantime, users of Leopard or Snow Leopard can still download Google Chrome from here.

Addicted

I'm getting absurdly addicted to Brenda Starr...

Street View in Google maps Singapore

Street View is now available on Google Maps Singapore since the beginning of the month. Singapore is only the fifth country in the Asian region (including the Oceanic countries) to enjoy Street View, after Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan, and this service provides users with a 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical panoramic street-level view on the country's Google Maps.


So when is Google going to follow up and introduce Street View in Google Maps Malaysia as well?

Oh no, it's my mother-in-law!

Enough said!
(Caution: you are advised to turn up the sound on your computer!)

Australian travellogue: Denmark's park

So finally, we were on our way. But first, another detour to our favourite building in Albany. Where did we head to next? Go west, old chap, we go west. Our next stop for the night would be in Walpole, about 120 km away.

From this stage onwards, the drive would get more interesting. No more of the monotonous and never-ending Australian bushland. I was looking for tall trees and meadows, and these were exactly what I got.

We arrived at Denmark (population, 2008: 5161) at 3.50pm, after travelling about 55 km westwards. A quaint little town with a nice little park beside the Denmark River. We parked along Strickland Street to explore some of the shops in this community.


We loved the vibrant colours of the fruits and vegetables at this grocery. We wanted to buy some strawberries but told ourselves that we'd pick up a punnet when collecting the car later. However, we never did buy the strawberries; we simply forgot all about it. So here's a handy tip for travellers. If you want to buy anything on your travels, don't procrastinate. You won't have all the time to make comparisons or remember. Make up your mind fast because there's no guarantee that you'd come back the same way again.


Soon, we had to move along and we found ourselves along the river bank because that was where the town had its public toilet. I don't mean that we used the river as a public toilet but....the facility was in a building beside the river.


Oh yes, there is a war memorial in the town too. I've never shown much attention in war memorials before - there are a couple of them in Penang, the Cenotaph by the Esplanade and the obelisk next to the Ayer Itam roundabout - but it was intriguing to see Malaya mentioned on this memorial in Denmark. Imagine...in a rural little corner of Western Australia, the town folks of Denmark still remember their fallen war heroes who had given their lives in some faraway countries.

We pushed off from Denmark at almost 5pm on a rather uneventful drive except for a little incident about half an hour later. Long before we went to Australia, I had been forewarned that when driving there before dusk, one would have to be careful with wild kangaroos crossing the roads. I was told that one wouldn't want to crash into these marsupials. Not only would it leave a terrible mess, it would probably cost a lot for car repairs too.

I gave little thought to this advice but on the way to Walpole, while travelling at about 100kph, a kangaroo left the bush and slowly lumbered across the road. I couldn't even slow down in time but I managed to whizz past it as it reached the middle of the road. Close shave, indeed! I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the animal reaching the other side of the road, completely oblivious to the danger to its life that had just passed. After that, I decided to slow down to between 70kph and 80kph as a precaution, especially as the setting sun was also starting to shine directly into my eyes. I was a bit relieved to reach Walpole at six o'clock.

Next: Moon over Walpole
Previous: Natural Bridge and The Gap

Spiritual training

I saw some senior monks from an unidentified temple leading a group of young novice monks at the Kampung Baru market in Bukit Mertajam on Saturday. Personally, I feel it is good that there are families who encourage their children to become short-term novice monks during the school holidays in order to inculcate some spiritual appreciation in them.

Insect brain

Everybody (well, almost everybody) has acknowledged that the National Civics Bureau training modules, also known as BTN, has been used as a propaganda tool for ages and yet, here is an opinion from an insect-brained bugger who obviously should know better. But then, we already know that openly, he is the biggest racist alive in this country.

Kasparov on Change

Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, speaking at the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre on 17 Nov 2009:

“The consistent pressure from my great rival, Anatoly Karpov, kept me going even after I won the world championship in 1985 because we played another match in 1986, then in 1987 and then in 1990. Every time I had to face the same great opponent to retain the title. I didn’t have time to rest and I did extremely well.

“But then in the 1990s, Karpov faded away and suddenly I discovered myself facing a new generation of younger players. Yes, I won another two more matches in 1993 and 1995 but eventually, I became a little bit of a fossil and I lost in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik.

“At that time, I told myself that it was still not too late for me to change. I was 37 and I was willing to learn from the younger generation. It kept me going for another five years and when I retired in March 2005, I was still number one.”

Football front

I woke up this morning, all bleary eyes, to see these football results from the English Premier League.

Manchester United had routed West Ham, Liverpool could only draw with Blackburn Rovers and ... Chelsea fell to Manchester City. The only story missing was that of Arsenal beating Stoke City but what more could I have asked for this morning?

Australian travellogue: Albany's natural charm

2 Nov 2009. We couldn't leave without visiting one last place around Albany: the Torndirrup National Park. It was a leisurely 25-minute drive southwards along Frenchman Bay Road before turning into Gap Road which took us to our final destination, the Natural Bridge.


This was really a place to experience the power of the Southern Ocean. It was also the place to stand right at the edge of Antartica. Okay, maybe it's not exactly so now but it was quite possible about a billion years ago. Then, Australia and Antartica were joined as one and it was "only" about 45 million years ago that the Australian continent parted and started floating northwards towards a collision course with Papua New Guinea. Nothing for us to get alarmed about because it won't happen anytime soon, certainly not within our lifetime.


So there we were, admiring the dramatic and rugged coastline. Even from afar, we could feel the force of the swells and the waves as they rushed onshore. We understood how the constant and relentless pounding of waves had eroded the original softer layers of rock and left behind unique natural formations such as the Natural Bridge. In the next few million years, even more of the rocks will wear away and this huge piece of granite will collapse. It was really awesome to even think about it. Imagine if we were there to see it happen (but not, of course, while standing on the granite bridge itself).


As we turned away from the Natural Bridge and the Gap and realised the wide expanse of sky and earth before us, we suddenly felt so small and insignificant in the whole scheme of the universe. Gingerly, we traced our way across the rocks and boulders to the car park.


Next: Denmark
Previous: Albany

BM Hill: an invitation to my old friends

I received a call from a pal in Singapore this morning. "Just called to say hello," he said. "Well, hello to you too," I told Nai Kwang.

I've known Nai Kwang since school days. That's almost 40 years of friendship although I must admit that until about six or seven years ago, we had lost touch with one another. I had also lost touch with many of my other old school mates who had gone to Singapore and never returned to Penang. They always talk to me about coming back to Penang for a visit but......

You know what I mean. There's never enough time to come back to visit their old haunts. So I asked Nai Kwang: "Are you all still keen to climb the hill at Bukit Mertajam or not? And there's also old Tiger Hill on the island waiting for you."

He sounded interested, so I egged him on: "How are the hills in Singapore that you go trekking around regularly? No more challenges, right? So come on to Penang. We'll have a nice, new and tiring experience climbing them here."

I hope my "selling" technique works. While he's trying to rustle up some of the old gang, I'm posting up some recent pictures from the Bukit Mertajam hill, enough to make him salivate.....


All these photos were taken along the ever-popular hill track that starts beside the stream. For photos of an alternative track up the hill, click here.

The best of Bread

I was listening to this album recently. Absolutely loved the mellow, soft rock sound from Bread but they are capable of heavier rocking too! Anyway, the group had 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and this album contained seven of them. Songs like Aubrey, Sweet Surrender and The Guitar Man were hits after this album came out.


Side 1: Make It With You, Too Much Love, If, Let Your Love Go, Everything I Own, Been Too Long On The Road
Side 2: Baby I'm-a Want You, Down On My Knees, It Don't Matter To Me, Mother Freedom, Look What You've Done, Truckin'

Australian travellogue: Albany

1-2 Nov 2009. Albany (population, 2006 census: 25,196) has the distinction of being the oldest permanently settled town in Western Australia, predating Perth and Fremantle by some two years. It was founded in 1827 as a military outpost as part of a plan to forestall French ambition in the region. The area was initially named Frederickstown but in 1831 the settlement was renamed with the rather posh, English-sounding name of Albany. Today, the town is a tourist base to explore the south west of the state and also well regarded for its own natural beauty and preservation of heritage.

So much for this short, summarised history of Albany. Because of its long history, it has lots of old heritage buildings.


For example, we couldn't help but notice the Town Hall building (above) strategically located on the right side of York Street when we motored into the town.


Okay, so this is the Uniting Church (above), which is smack in the centre of York Street. By the way, when we were in Albany, the weather was so cold that we wrapped up in layers of clothing. At this church, we tried to sneak in basically for a look but more to find a brief respite from the cold air. However, we saw a service going on and thought it better than to interrupt the people.


So on we plodded across the road to the other church: the St Johns Church of England (above). Now, this one, we could go in and I must say that it was pretty. I loved the stained glass windows.


An historic building (above) along Stirling Terrace. However, it no longer houses the post office. Instead, on the other side of the building (below), it says the Albany regional centre for the University of Western Australia.


But among all the buildings we visited, this particular one (below) at the corner of Stirling Terrace and York Street stood out. For a moment, it reminded us of Cameron Highlands. We admired it from a distance and we admired it up close. It practically screamed at us to go inside. Where we were concerned, it was almost "home". It was our most popular destination in Albany.


We visited it several times within a short span of three hours: when we arrived in York Street in the morning, before and after we went to Mt Clarence and then, for the last time, before we finally left Albany. And this was the reason why this building was so popular with us...


Yes, it was the quaintest public toilet in Albany, so much more homely and comfortable than the other public toilet that we found behind the Town Hall building.

Next: Natural Bridge and The Gap
Previous: Mt Clarence's war memorial