More old red packets

Last October, I posted a picture of old Chinese New Year red packets from Ban Hin Lee Bank, going back to a time when red packet designs were simpler and not as elaborate as the ones we see from the financial institutions presently. Well, I've now uncovered more old red packets but this time, they are from other banks and finance companies. 

Prior to Year 2000, there were still finance companies in the country, both large and small, multi-branched and single entities, but these were phased out through takeovers and amalgamations into the larger banks. Today, we do not have finance companies any more and any mention of them is bound to cause confusion in many people's minds. In fact, the banks and finance companies named below do not exist anymore, having been taken over after 2000. I'm not going to attempt to explain what these banks and finance companies were except to give some brief comments about them.

The red packets in the above two pictures were issued by MBf Finance Berhad which was later merged with Arab-Malaysian Finance.

Malayan United Finance and MUI Finance were the names of the same entity, subsequently merged into the Hong Leong Bank Group.

EON Finance was a subsidiary of the EON Bank Group, now merged into the Hong Leong Bank Group.

United Merchant Finance was a subsidiary of the United Merchant Bank Group, which was taken over by the CIMB Group.

Hock Hua Bank was based in Sarawak and a different bank from Hock Hua Bank (Sabah). This bank was merged into the Public Bank Group in the 2000s.

First Malaysia Finance was little known but it was acquired by Arab-Malaysian Finance, now part of the AmBank Group.

Kwong Yik Bank was a subsidiary of Malayan Banking and was later to become Development & Commercial Bank or D&C Bank. It is now absorbed into the RHB Bank Group.

This red packet was from Oriental Bank which was ultimately owned by the Hong Leong Bank Group.

Leong Hin Finance was another small finance company. 

Hong Leong Finance was a well established finance company which was later absorbed into Hong Leong Bank.

Red packet issued by Bank Rakyat.

Pacific Bank was bought over by Maybank subsequently.

Bank Bumiputra became Bumiputra Commerce Bank, which the CIMB Group acquired ultimately. 

A poignant comparison

I hope Global Times will not mind if I were to repeat their opinion piece here. It makes so much sense to compare the reactions between the storming of the Hongkong Legislative Council in 2019 and the storming of Capitol Hill in 2021. But with a taste of their own medicine, do you ever think the United States will have learnt a lesson and think twice before imposing their brand of democracy/justice on others again or even shooting off their mouths (sic)? Nope, I doubt it. I doubt it very much. They'll be up to the same tricks again, soon. 

(Of course, Penang people should not forget too that in 2014, a group of UMNO goons had also forced their way into a sitting session of the Penang State Assembly.) 

Chinese netizens jeer riot in US Capitol as 'Karma,' say bubbles of 'democracy and freedom' have burst

Jan 07, 2021

Words like "Karma," "retribution" and "deserving" were frequently mentioned in Chinese netizens' comments when they saw the latest episode of the US' real version of House of Cards - which saw Trump supporters storming the Capitol, messing up House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, clashing with police officers and looting items. The pictures went viral in US, Chinese and international news outlets after the riots began Thursday morning. 

Chinese web users still remember the distress and anger they felt when they saw rioters in Hong Kong storming the Legislative Council Complex, scrawling graffiti, smashing and robbing items, and, instead of condemning the violence, US politicians hailed the "courage" of these mobs, Western media praised the "restraint" of the rioters, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even called it a "beautiful sight."

Now, this "beautiful sight" is taking place in the US. A Chinese netizen commented, "Pelosi can enjoy the beautiful sight - even at her office desk! For such a long time, US politicians called rioters 'freedom fighters' in other countries. Now, they finally have retribution!" 

"It was like watching a thrilling action movie!" That was how Chinese netizens described the scenes early Thursday morning. 

When a similar scenario happened in Hong Kong's LegCo in 2019, some US politicians like Pelosi praised rioters in the city as fighters for freedom. This has inspired some talented netizens to come up with a slogan for US mobs to continue their protests. 

"Five demands, not one less. Liberate the US, the revolution of our times," they said, intimating five demands and slogans made by HK rioters to pressure the HK government.

The five demands include recognizing the Democratic Party cheated in the presidential election and denying that Biden is the new president; revoking the definition of "violence"; revoking the charges against the protesters; establishing a commission to investigate police violence and holding a second presidential election to ensure justice and fairness.  

A photo of protesters seemingly holding Pelosi's office chair has also gone viral on Sina Weibo, prompting netizens to joke that there's still a smell of "flattery" left on the chair which Pelosi would call "a beautiful sight."

As of press time, the topics "Trump said he would never concede" and "Trump supporters storm Capitol" were in the "mostly searched and seen" list on China's Twitter-like platform, Sina Weibo. 

Many Chinese netizens "confessed" in their comments that they saw the "chaos in the US" as revenge. After inciting so much chaos around the world under the pretext of "freedom and democracy," the US finally tasted the "karma" of its double standards. 

"This is the first political coup to happen in the American continent without the involvement of US embassies," mocked one netizen. 

Many Chinese netizens found it hilarious that US President Donald Trump's Twitter account had been suspended for 12 hours.

Mohamad Safa, a Lebanese diplomat and also Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made his comment on the incident on Twitter, saying that "If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States." 

His tweet has received more than 41.8K "like" as of press time on Thursday.

Different from its previous active attitudes toward similar incidents in other places across the world, the US Embassy in China's Sina Weibo account has kept silent for what was happening in the US. 

But Chinese netizens seem to "give no mercy" to unveil the Embassy's double standards and hypocrisy - they swarmed into the Embassy's account as early as 7 am, asking "Why don't you come to work on time? We are all here waiting for you to talk tall of US democracy and values." 

"For a long time, US politicians criticized China for its efforts in cleaning up online rumors and disinformation and defamed us for 'hurting freedom of speech.' What are you doing right now? President Trump enjoys his right to freedom!" a netizen commented. 

Chinese netizens also put pictures online of what is happening in the US and China at the same time - while pro-Trump rioters are climbing the walls of the Capitol, Chinese workers wearing protection suits in Dalian of Liaoning Province are pushing a trailer carrying daily supplies to fight COVID-19. "A sharp contrast! While Chinese are busy saving lives, the US is showing the world how it is collapsing!" a netizen commented.

Shen Yi, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, told the Global Times that Chinese net users' comments on the storming of the Capitol are "the plain and true and sincere feelings of the Chinese."

The storming of the US Capitol happened at a symbolic point of power transition, and was the first time it has happened in US history. Netizens commented that this symbolic moment clearly demonstrated the "falling of the beacon of democracy."

What happened in the US Capitol and the US' response to it have burst the bubbles of "democracy" and "freedom" and "universal values" that the US has long used to coax others, Shen said. 

The US National Guard moved to deal with the rioters in the Capitol, which is also a slap in the face for the US over its previous remarks on similar incidents in other countries and regions and in China's Hong Kong. "How hypocritical of it to criticize other countries for using police to deal with rioters!"

Many US allies also expressed their concerns over the protests. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the scenes as "shameful," while Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said they are "unbelievable scenes" and "totally unacceptable attack on democracy."  

Their voices also irritated many Chinese netizens, who slammed their double standards when it came to interfering in China's Hong Kong affairs.

Chinese netizens commented, "Why didn't Boris Johnson say he backs the US 'freedom fighters' for fairness, the way he said he backs Hong Kong protesters 'every inch of the way?'"

Tom Fowdy, a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities, told the Global Times, "What we see tonight is the product of an extremely polarized political environment in the US." He added that it could be described as "cracks" in US democracy, as such a system only works if it has legitimacy amongst all its stakeholders. 

Fowdy said that there is a noticeable contrast in discourse as to how the two events are portrayed in Hong Kong and in the US. When rioters stormed the HK LegCo, it was heralded as an act of brave rebellion by "pro-democracy" protesters, but when Trump supporters stormed the US capitol building it was described by the BBC as a "violent, pro-Trump mob."

"There is a clear media double standard. The United States has long held a belief that unrest in its own country is always objectively wrong, but ought to be encouraged for political purposes elsewhere," he said.

Global Times

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212074.shtml 

Boundless Prosperity

I can now reveal that for the past nine to 10 months, I've been working on a project to write a story on Ban Hin Lee Bank. 

The project is almost at an end now - for me, anyway - pending a final review of the draft by both my editor and my publisher. After all the final kinks are ironed out, the draft shall go for layout and then there will be another round of checking to ensure that the layout designer has done his job correctly. By this, I mean that the story is laid out correctly and the pictures are all in the right places. My publisher estimates that the middle of April would be about the time that the book can see print. I've got to keep my fingers crossed.

The book is divided into 10 chapters covering the bank's journey from 1935 till 2000. There are also five appendices including one in which I had attempted to reconstruct the names of the Ban Hin Lee Bank former employees. Not an easy task, especially for the period after 1995 because the intake of staff was no longer recorded in the bank newsletters.

This may sound strange but it is true. When Ban Hin Lee Bank was taken over by Southern Bank in 2000, and Southern Bank was in turn swallowed by CIMB Bank in 2006, many of the old Ban Hin Lee Bank records disappeared as if they were irrelevant and no longer important. But those were the gems of history. Once they were gone - disappeared, misplaced, destroyed, whatever - there was no way to trace them again. 

Sirius

When I stepped out of the house to take in the full moon at about 11.15pm yesterday, I couldn't help but be drawn to a brilliant whitish-blue spot directly overhead in the night sky. It must be Sirius. The Dog star. In the constellation of Canis Major. 

And this can only remind me of one thing: that Spring is just around the corner. In fact, we Chinese shall be celebrating the Coming of Spring, or Li Chun (立春) on 3 Feb 2021. That's only 34 days away. 

(Note: The picture was cropped from a digital image of Sirius that I took last night with the zoom lens set at its maximum 150mm focal length on my little Olympus E-PL7 camera. Not the best of equipment, I'm afraid, but that's all I can play with.)

Before that, I would want to wish everyone, especially my followers of this blog, a Happy New Year. But we should keep our feet firmly on the ground and not be delusional. Don't expect changes. Next year will not be any much different from this year; 2021 will only be a continuation of 2020. Therefore, please keep safe and keep healthy. Practice social distancing, sanitise your hands often and wear a mask when doing anything outdoors. Happy New Year....again.

Nicky

A heart-warming story I discovered through social media this Christmas. It is a bit long, but worth your while to read the first few paragraphs. Then I assure you that you shall continue reading till the end!

In 1979, I was managing a Wendy's in Port Richey Florida. Unlike today, staffing was never a real problem, but I was searching for a someone to work 3 hours a day only at lunch.

I went through all the applications ,and found that   most people were  looking for full time or at least 20 hours per week. I found one however, buried at the bottom of a four inch stack that was only looking for lunch part time. His name was Nicky. Hadn't met him but thought I would give him a call and see if he could stop by for an interview. When I called, he wasn't in but his mom said she would make sure he would be there.

At the appointed time, Nicky walked in. One of those moments when my heart went in my throat. Nicky suffered from Downs Syndrome. His physical appearance was a giveaway and his speech only reinforced the obvious.

I was young and very sheltered. Had never interacted on a professional level with a developmentally disabled peson. I had no clue what to do, so I went ahead and interviewed him.

He was a wonderful young man. Great outlook. Task focused. Excited to be alive. For only reasons God knew at that time, I hired him. 3 hours a day, 3 days a week to run a grill.

I let the staff know what to expect. Predictably the crew made sure I got the message, " no one wants to work with a retard."

 To this day I find that word offensive. We had a crew meeting, cleared the air, and prepared for his arrival.

Nicky showed up for work right on time. He was so excited to be working. He stood at the time clock literally shaking with anticipation.

He clocked in and started his training. Couldn't multi task, but was a machine on the grill. Now for the fascinating part.....

Back in that day, there were no computer screens to work from. Every order was called out by the cashier. It required a great deal of concentraion on the part of all production staff to get the order right. While Nicky was training during his first shift, the sandwich maker next to him asked the grillman/trainer what was on the next sandwich. Nicky replied, "single, no pickle no onion." A few minutes later it happened again. It was then that we discovered Nicky had a hidden and valuable skill.

He memorized everything he heard! Photographic hearing! WHAT A SKILL SET!!

. It took 3 days and every sandwich maker requested to work with Nicky. He immediately was accepted by the entire crew.

After his shift he would join the  rest of his crew family,  Drinking Coke like it was water!  It was then that they discovered another Rainman-esque trait.

 Nicky was a walking/talking perpetual calendar! With a perpetual calendar as a reference, they would sit for hours asking him what day of the week was December 22, 1847. He never missed. This uncanny trait mesmorized the crew.

His mom would come in at 2 to pick him up. More times than not, the crew would be back there with him hamming it up. As I went to get him from the back, his mom said something I will never forget. "Let him stay there as long as he wants. He has never been accepted anywhere like he has been here." 

I excused myself and dried my eyes, humbled and broken hearted at the lesson I just learned.

Nicky had a profound impact on that store. His presence changed a lot of people. Today I believe with every fibre of my body that Nicky's hiring was no accident. God's timing and will is perfect.

This Christmas, I hope we all understand what we are celebrating.

We are all like Nicky.

 We each have our shortcomings. We each have our strong points, but we are all of value. God made us that way and God doesn't make mistakes. Nicky certainly wasn't a mistake. He was a valuable gift that I am forever grateful for.

The great conjunction

November and December are not exactly the best months for sky gazing at night because of the weather. If it is not raining, then it would be the thick clouds that would prevent the moon, planets and stars from being seen, especially from my house. 

Since last month, I had been aware of the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the evening sky. Actually, I was looking forward to it a lot. After all, there were lots of news in social media, especially Instagram. But at the same time, I was prepared to be frustrated because of the weather. 

The earliest I got to see the two planets close together was in the evening of 9 Dec. Jupiter was still positioned well below Saturn, but they were unmistakably there in the western sky. But after that date, it was impossible to see them again. I might have seen Jupiter with the thin crescent moon on the 17th, but I am not completely certain. I had better not post the picture here since I am uncertain.

In the week before 20 Dec, it had been raining rather heavily in the late afternoons. At night, it was impossible to view anything at all. Even the quarter moon, always the brightest object in the sky, was all fuzzy and hazy. 

The 21st of December came by and I was pleasantly surprised when the day turned out dry and warm. With blue skies all around me, I was hopeful that this weather could last into the night. And I was glad that it did. 

At about 8pm, my wife and I ventured out of the house and there they were, hanging low westwards, Jupiter on the left and Saturn on the right, side-by-side and closely together. So this was the Great Conjunction on the night of the Winter Solstice. But I would also call this the Great Conjunction of Tang Chik.

Both pictures above were taken with my Olympus E-PL7 camera with my zoom lens set at the maximum 150mm focal length. The widest aperture setting was f5.6 and the shutter speed was 0.4 seconds. The camera was braced against my gate for stability. No cropping was done to the two images.

As a comparison, this is how the two planets looked to the naked eye, shown here above my neighbour's house: two tiny pinpricks of light side-by-side. How utterly small, how easily they could have been overlooked if you had not been aware of the conjunction.

By the way, despite the good weather on the 22nd and 23rd of December, I was unable to see the two planets again. It was really a chance in a lifetime.

Tang Chik 2021

I couldn't post this image in the blog yesterday, nor wish anyone Happy Tang Chik, because I had lost my Internet connection in the house since last Saturday. But thankfully, I'm back online now. And so, I take this opportunity to wish my friends and readers a belated Happy Tang Chik. Remember, you are one year older now.

 

 

Li Chun (立春), 2021

This is normally what I do every year on the third or fourth day of February: filling my rice bucket to the brim with a big packet of rice. It is a cultural tradition that has been handed down for many generations in my family. And, no doubt, in many other families also. 

My forefathers observed it during those distant days in the Ow-Quah village in Hokkien, China, more than 200 years ago. Today, so very far removed from my ancestral village, I still practice this tradition in my house in Penang, Malaysia. A brief 15 to 30 seconds to cut open the bag of rice and empty it into the rice bucket. Perhaps it takes a little bit longer to stick a new piece of red paper with the auspicious Chun character (春) on the bucket.

The whole process is simply to signify the hope that the forthcoming year will be bountiful and abundant for me and my family. After all, this is the day which, according to the Chinese luni-solar calendar, signifies the Li Chun (立春) or Coming of Spring. On this day, the sun moves across the 315° longitudinal line in the sky. The start of a new year when winter officially ends and spring takes its place.

In 2021, Li Chun falls on the third day of February at exactly 11pm in Malaysia (1500 hours UTC). And it will be at this time that I shall begin replacing that piece of Chun (春) paper and then pouring in my new packet of rice.

By the way, I've been writing diligently about Li Chun in this blog since Year 2007 and you can still read them here:

Li Chun, 2020
Li Chun, 2019
Li Chun, 2018
Li Chun, 2017
Li Chun, 2016
Li Chun, 2015
Li Chun, 2014
Li Chun, 2013
Li Chun, 2012
Li Chun, 2011
Li Chun, 2010
Li Chun, 2009
Li Chun, 2008
Li Chun, 2007

End of an era

Yes, this New Straits Times front page says it exactly. The last day that the Penang ferry service will operate will be 31 Dec 2020. After that, the sea link between the Penang island and mainland will be replaced with a fleet of passenger-only water buses and vehicle transporters. The flimsy excuse given by the federal government is that the spare parts from overseas are hard to come by. And the state government has no say in the matter because transport is under the purview of the Ministry of Transport and it is the turn of Wee Ka Siong to take his revenge on his nemesis, Lim Guan Eng, and his successor-in-government, Chow Kon Yeow.

Shame on the federal government. Why can't the present ferry service, which is an iconic heritage of Penang, be salvaged? If anything, the water buses should complement the ferries, not replace. Both can and should operate together. 

It is very strange to blame the demise on spare parts and suppliers. After all, the equally iconic Hong Kong Star Ferry, founded 1888, has remained the main means of public transportation between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The oldest vessel there was commissioned in 1965. Still running, their fleet carries some 22 million passengers a year. All our politicians and administrators ever do is quarrel among themselves, trading blames and ridiculing each other in public. The losers are the Penangites, no one else.

Incidentally, the ferry service was started by an illustrious member of Penang's society who happened to be a past president of the Swee Cheok Tong (Seh Quah Kongsi). I do not have any record to show when he was first elected as the president of the Kongsi but I do know that he was already one in the mid-1920s. He held on to this position until his death in 1952. He played an active role in founding The Old Frees' Association and was a vice-president sometime in the past. His part in the history of the Penang ferry service was documented in a separate blog post that I wrote two years ago. Click here to read.

J&T Express

If you want to torment someone you don't like, send him a package through this "excellent" delivery service from a wannabe courier company called J&T Express. You will certainly drive him up the wall. I have several unpleasant experiences with this company. In the latest one. a package which a friend (if I can still consider him a friend after this incident 😝) had sent me has been sitting in the J&T Express office in Kota Permai, Bukit Mertajam, since 1.38pm yesterday (7 Dec) without any attempt made to deliver it to me. As I said, it's not the first time I'm experiencing a fucked up service from this delivery company but this occasion takes the cake! It's anything BUT J&T Express for me! [Update: The package finally arrived on 10 Dec at about one o'clock.)

Saturn

It's not like I haven't tried to take a picture of Saturn in the night sky before. But the problem was, you see, this planet is so far away that it is just a small dim point of light. Still can be seen on a clear night but very difficult to photograph. If I were to set the shutter speed too slow, all I would get is a short streaky line. And if the shutter speed was a wee bit faster, then I won't see any point of light that's reasonably bright enough.

But tonight at about 8.40pm, I was outdoors to take a picture of Jupiter and I saw Saturn hovering above the bigger planet. Both planets could be captured inside a single frame, and I took many shots to be on the safe side to eliminate any camera shake. There was this one picture that could possibly be the best from the batch taken. Jupiter was round, which means that there was very minimal camera shake at this very instance. So theoretically, Saturn in the same frame as Jupiter would turn out reasonably well too.

I know that it is still blur, especially with the prevailing cloudy weather condition and I had to crop and enlarge the picture, but this was how my standard telephoto zoom lens picked out Saturn in the night sky tonight. The resolution is so-so only. No doubt, people with better quality lens should be able to get a clearer picture of the rings around the planet. (The picture on the right, showing a clearly defined Saturn, is not mine. It came from an Instagram post.)

I should add that as we get nearer to 21 December, the apparent positions of the two planets will be edging even closer together. It seems that the last time it happened was some 800 years ago. Maybe it also happened some 2,000 years ago too. Who knows?

Anjung Gurney hawkers

Would you support those hawkers who ripped off their clientele when times were good but are now suffering when there's no business during the pandemic and the enforcement of the various stages of the Movement Control Order? 

Yesterday, the state assemblyman for Pulau Tikus, Chris Lee,  appealed on his facebook page to "give these hawkers a chance as there are good people here trying to make a living as well." 

But as my old friend, Jim, observed, "A few years ago, as a local I paid RM5 for a piece of pineapple. The foreign worker said his boss’s policy. I stopped going there."

You can visit this particular post here and read all the comments that have been left there. Very revealing comments that expressed what many people in Penang think. What a slap in the face for the Gurney Drive hawkers! 

By the way, are the hawkers in other touristy areas facing the same difficulty? Places like the New Lane hawker centre? Or the Weld Quay food court? The New World Park food court? The Kimberley Street night hawkers? I'm sure if the hawkers are badly affected, all they have to do is learn to reinvent themselves. Bring themselves down from the pedestals that they placed themselves. If they cater more to the local people, their business will return. 

I know for sure that some hawkers in non-touristy areas have reported little difference in their earnings. Some are even experiencing roaring business. At the end of November, for example, I went to the Berapit food court beside their market to buy from this stall. It wasn't not as empty as I thought. The proprietress was enjoying roaring business every day. Even as she opened her stall at 9am that day, there was already a long queue of people placing orders. I had to wait an hour for my order to be fulfilled. Who says the CMCO is bad for the food business? You just need to go to the non-touristy food courts where food can be equally good and prices are more reasonable.

The Street of Harmony digital brochures

Today, I shall put on display the covers of the 10 digital brochures of the Street of Harmony which my friend, Siang Jin, and I had produced for the George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) in 2011. As can be seen, a lot of effort was put into the research, writing and subsequent editing and layout. While these brochures were then put up by GTWHI on their website for visitors to download, they were removed after a few months. No reason was ever given for the removal but we could sense some hidden tension. I shall leave it to people here to conclude whether that decision to remove the brochures was justified. First, here are the 10 covers.

And below are the contents of one of the brochures which I have chosen at random. I won't be reproducing the contents of the remaining nine brochures though. It will take up too much space.

Direction signages

Two days ago, I had written about the digital brochures and wall plaques which my friend, Siang Jin, and I had prepared for the George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI). I had also mentioned that we had direction signages made for display at strategic points along the Street of Harmony. These have certainly outlasted the brochures because until today, they can still be seen along Cannon Street, Pitt Street and Farquhar Street, as these pictures below show, while the digital brochures have long disappeared from the GTWHI website.

In addition to these, we had also prepared two signages with street maps of the area to assist tourists. One of them near the Armenian Street junction while the other was in the grounds of the St George's Church. Are they still there? I haven't checked for quite a while!

Penang's Street of Harmony

These 10 information wall plaques were originally devised by my good friend, Lim Siang Jin, and I in 2011. During that year, we had approached Think City and had obtained some funds to carry out a project along Pitt Street and Cannon Street. Together, they are, of course, widely known as the Street of Harmony because of the close proximity of so many houses of worship belonging to the four main communities along this stretch of road in Penang.

I spent the better part of one year visiting these institutions and talking to their representatives in order to learn more about their history. My essays were even scrutinised by the Penang Heritage Trust to ensure that my facts were correct. After Siang Jin and I revisited these places to take photographs, his graphics team designed 10 digital pamphlets and also the corresponding wall plaques. The project also included designing the direction signages to lead tourists to these 10 destinations.

Eventually, these digital pamphlets were handed to the George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) for their distribution. What GTWHI did with them, I am uncertain but for a while, the pamphlets were available from the GTWHI website for download. As for the wall plaques and direction signages, we undertook to have them fixed onto the walls of these institutions or at strategic road junctions.

We had hoped that GTWHI would ask us to undertake a second series to cover more heritage sites in George Town but it was not forthcoming. Nobody else was commissioned to continue the project but I did learn that much later, similar wall plaques were made for some other locations in the city of which I am aware of only two: at the Tan Kongsi in Beach Street and the Fooi Chew Association in Prangin Lane. Unfortunately without us being consulted, some contained factual inaccuracies. I remember being approached by someone who asked whether Siang Jin and I had prepared one of the later plaques but I had to say no, we had nothing to do with them. We do take credit for the concept but definitely not the content of the later plaques.

This wasn't exactly an institution to begin with but the Logan Memorial is located outside the new Magistrates Courthouse at the northern end of Pitt Street.

Crossing over to the other side of Light Street, the first institution we covered was the High Court Building. It is to be noted that in the past, it was known as the Supreme Court Building.

The St George's Church was the second institution along the Street of Harmony. A direction signage can also be seen in this picture, which points to other nearby places of interest. 

This plaque had to be erected onto a pole because we couldn't find a suitable spot on the wall of the Kuan Im Temple to mount it.

The entrance of the Sri Mahamariamman Temple that is seen on the Street of Harmony is actually their back door. The front is on Queen Street and the front wall there is where the plaque was fixed.

Technically too, the Han Jiang Temple is not along the Street of Harmony as it is located on Chulia Street.  

Moving back to Pitt Street, the next institution we covered was the Kapitan Keling Mosque.

The Street of Harmony not only covers Pitt Street but also Cannon Street and here is to be found the Yap Temple at the corner with Armenian Street.

Moving along Cannon Street, the Khoo Kongsi can be accessed through a long corridor and it was here that we mounted their wall plaque.

And finally at the end of the Street of Harmony can be found the Acheen Street Malay Mosque.

The beaver moon

The past few months have been particularly bad for moon photography in my part of the country and it is not because of any haze. No, the weather has been rather wet and cloudy at night. With thick clouds covering the moon there was very little to see outdoors. Tonight was a full moon and on several occasions earlier, I had tried to see whether or not I could see this bright spot in the sky. Unfortunately, no. Only a fuzzy spot. Then as I was about to give up at 11.05pm and go back in, the clouds partially cleared and allowed me a few precious seconds to ready myself with my camera. Well, at least I got this frame. It was not the best that I've ever achieved but under the challenging circumstances, I am satisfied.

Oh, by the way, there's supposed to be a lunar eclipse tomorrow but I'll be dashed if it can be seen properly from Malaysia. Even if the weather permits, the moon is at an almost impossible position for us to notice it. As the moon rises over the horizon at 7.03pm, the partial penumbral eclipse will already be reaching its maximum at 7.05pm and the moon then begins to move out from the earth's shadow. 

Blonde joke

 Read a joke today. Can't resist not repeating it here or else it will be forgotten tomorrow....

Two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble..

In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull so that they can breed their own stock.

The brunette leaves to purchase the bull from a ranch some distance away.  Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, 'When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home.'

The brunette arrives at the man's ranch, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it and buys it.  After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news..

She walks into the telegraph office, and says, 'I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch.  I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive out here so we can haul it home.'

The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, it will cost 99 cents a word.  The brunette realizes that, after paying for the bull, she'll only be able to send her sister one word. After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, 'I want you to send her the word 'Comfortable.'

The operator shakes his head. "How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable'?"

The brunette explains, 'My sister's blonde. The word is big.

She'll read it very slowly... 'com-for-da-bull.'

 

J&T Express and the grand old Duke of York

Heard this nursery rhyme before? It's called The Grand Old Duke of York, and it goes like this:

The Grand Old Duke of York,
He had 10,000 men,
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half way up,
They were neither up nor down.

The reason why I'm mentioning a nursery rhyme today is because I've just experienced a craziness that almost on par with the situation above. Yesterday, I bought something through Shopee from a seller located in Simpang Ampat. That's barely 15 kilometres from where I live. I could have gone to collect my stuff directly from him but no, Shopee requires him to send the merchandise to me by courier. In my case, it was to be J&T Express, which picked up the parcel from the seller yesterday. 

I've been tracking the merchandise the whole of today and expecting it to be delivered. To my consternation, I saw this happening on the tracking website:

From the J&T Kota Permai hub, the parcel went to the J&T Penang gateway. Then, from the J&T Penang gateway, the parcel found its way back again to the J&T Kota Permai hub. and now, it is sitting pretty in their storage there presumably waiting to be picked up for delivery tomorrow. Why did J&T Express waste a day in moving my parcel from Kota Permai to Penang and back? Why couldn't they make a simple decision to deliver today, not tomorrow, from their Kota Permai hub? The mind boggles.