Let's just take five today

My friend Eric was suggesting that perhaps I should order this item from Amazon.com...the 50th anniversary edition of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's landmark Time Out album on compact disc. This edition on two CDs and a DVD offers an unprecedented presentation of music, images, insight and history, including the chance to hear them in top form live at Newport, plus a companion DVD offering a fresh take on the making of this pioneering recording. Should I get it? It's only USD14.99, excluding shipping. Still in two minds.

Yesterday, I decided to dig out these two records from the cupboard to give them a spin.


By right, this should be called Dave Brubeck Quartet's Greatest Hits to give full recognition to the four legendary members of the group. Instead, the names of Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello are only mentioned on the back cover. Mmm.... Anyway, it contained possibly the Quartet's most famous number, Take Five, which was what I wanted to hear in the first place.

Side 1: Take Five, I'm In A Dancing Mood, In Your Own Sweet Way, Camptown Races, The Duke
Side 2: It's A Raggy Waltz, Bossa Nova USA, Trolley Song, Unsquare Dance, Blue Rondo A La Turk, Theme From Mr Broadway


This was the second album I was listening to. Incidentally, this was to be the Dave Brubeck Quartet's farewell tour and it took them all over Europe including Paris where this album was recorded for posterity.

Side 1: Swanee River, These Foolish Things, Forty Days
Side 2: One Moment Worth Years, La Paloma Azul, Three To Get Ready

Of course, I've got other Dave Brubeck stuff in the house but they are all on compact discs, like these four CDs which came from the boxed set, Time Signatures: A Career Retrospective.

Glorious morning

Good morning! Two days ago, I woke up to a wonderful display of colours outside my window. I simply thought that I should share it with you today:

Who's Karpal?

Another instance of letting kids run loose on the streets. She's a reporter and yet she doesn't know what's happening around her. Okay, granted that she was only in the job for two months but...the onus was on her to understand the big issues of the day if she wanted to be a news reporter, and nothing was bigger than the Perak constitutional crisis at the beginning of the year.

But I also really don't understand how lawyers - especially politician lawyers and the worst being wise-ass lawyers - behave in court or out of court. I know they only want to win cases at any cost but does it include having to intimidate and make other people feel small in the process? Humiliate them in the process? I think it is very much uncalled for but then, it's their nature.

Police shoot dead man

Cor....this is BIG news, man!
The Police are now adding dead men to their list of shooting targets. I suppose dead men are easier targets than live men.

Penang Bridge update

I should have known that it couldn't last. I was rather upbeat yesterday that the Penang Bridge expansion project had been completed and all six lanes had been opened for public use. Even when I drove across during rush hour yesterday afternoon, traffic was smooth.

But this morning at about 6am, I saw that the authorities had replaced the cranes and brought back the mobile containers at the mid-span. Needless to say, they have re-closed a lane each on both sides of the bridge.

What the heck. They opened all six lanes yesterday just for show only. Just to hoodwink everyone - especially those who doesn't know any better - that they could allow smooth traffic flow IF they want to. And now, they don't want to. So typically bureaucratic.

Les Paul (1915-2009)

I've just learnt that inventor and legendary guitarist Lester William Polsfuss (a.k.a. Les Paul) is dead. He will be remembered as a towering figure whose influence and legacy touched all of music. Paul died yesterday in White Plains, New York at a ripe old age of 95 from complications due to pneumonia.

It seemed that until June this year, he still played in public every Monday night. His musical influence cut across all music genres from rock to country and from jazz to pop. As an inventor, he built the first solid-body electric guitar in 1940 or 1941, and created such recording techniques as multi-track recording and tape delay.

Together with his wife, Colleen Summers, they made a name for themselves as the recording artistes Les Paul and Mary Ford. They later divorced in 1964.

An anecdote I read about a year ago: in 1948, a serious automobile accident almost destroyed his right elbow and the arm would never bend again. Paul had his doctors set the arm at an angle so he could still play the guitar.

Another anecdote: after listening to a chap playing the guitar in a pub, Paul walked up to compliment him on his playing. The guitarist asked whether he also played the guitar and Paul reportedly told him, "See, that's my name on your guitar."

Western cuisine

It's not often that I show any enthusiasm about new places to eat but yesterday, my colleagues and I chanced upon this stall at the Bayan Baru market food centre. Funny, we hadn't noticed it earlier but never mind....now that we've seen the stall, we'd give the food a try.


Turned out that the partners who set up this stall - which opened only three days ago - were former cooks at the Rasa Sayang Hotel in Batu Ferringhi. So obviously, they knew what they were cooking and they sure cooked up a storm for us. The two partners said they were also into catering for home or office functions, and claimed to be equally at home with German and Japanese cuisine. But no pork for the moment because their operating licence from the Penang Island Municipal Council forbade them from including pork into their menu. I found that rather absurd because the stalls around them were all merrily selling pork hawker fare.

Anyway, give the stall a try. We didn't regret it and it was a refreshing change from the standard, everyday fare of economy rice, hokkien mee, curry mee, tok tok mee, banana leaf rice, chicken rice, etc.

Clockwise from top left: fish and chips, grilled dory fish, barbeque chicken, chicken cordon bleu

What "ultra vires" really means....

I betcha that even Ultraman can catch the Influenza A(H1N1) "ultra vires" if he's not careful when busting infected criminals and monsters... :-)

For obvious reasons, "ultra vires" is different from "super vires", "bat vires", "spider vires" and all the other superhero "vires". All budding journalists should take note of the different strains of "vires" in case they misinterpret, misinform, misunderstand and misguide the general public unnecessarily.

Penang Bridge expansion almost done!

[UPDATED VERSION] I was almost over the mid-span of the Penang Bridge this morning when i suddenly realised that there was no queue at the usual bottleneck. Strange, I thought to myself. Then, after taking a second look through the rear view mirror, it struck me that all three lanes at the mid-span, on both sides of the bridge, were now open to traffic! The flow was so smooth that I hadn't realised it. My drive across the Penang Bridge was so automatic this morning that I didn't realise that finally, the Penang Bridge expansion project has been completed. Well, at least, 99.9 percent of it.

While crossing the Penang Bridge late yesterday afternoon - and that was only about 14 hours earlier - I still noticed that the vertical railings beside the four towers at the mid-span were slowly being dismantled. Good, I had thought then, it will only be a matter of time before all six lanes on the bridge are opened to traffic. "I'll be looking forward to the day when there is no longer a bottleneck on the bridge at the mid-span and traffic can flow smoothly from one end to the other." I had muttered to myself. Well, the day is HERE, finally!

Ultra vires

This can't be happening: the level to which journalism, as defined by Utusan Malaysia, has sank. Don't they even remind their bozos to double-check on things that they do not understand? It's all assumptions ... assume, assume, assume ... making an ASS of themselves!

Here's the quote from The Malaysian Insider:

Mohd Nizam: “Although the orders have been confirmed by the Sultan. If the decision is ultra vires then the decision can be adjudicated by the court.”

Jagdeep then asked Nizam to explain what ultra vires means to the court.

Nizam looking confused and replied: “To insult.”

Jagdeep then told Mohd Nizam that his misunderstanding of the word had caused chaos in the country because the word actually means “beyond the powers”.

Dimage Z5 extension lenses

My lens accessory kit arrived earlier this week. It's meant for my old Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 camera which, unfortunately, is already an extinct toy. Konica Minolta has closed shop and although Sony is supposed to be providing support, I doubt that I'll ever see any reasonable support here in Malaysia. Still, without going back to my SLR (or now, DSLR) experience, I'll have to continue using this camera until it breaks down and I cannot use it further. Using it means that I was looking for some accessories that would add some muscle to the existing features. So I went to ebay and plonked some money down for this kit:


I've attached a friend's wide angle extension lens to my camera before, so I knew what to expect. Here's a shot from my house at the camera's widest angle, WITHOUT the extension lens.


And here is the shot from my house WITH the 0.45x extension lens, also with the camera set to its widest angle. I don't mind the barrel effect because it gives some character to the picture. Even my camera without the extension lens still exhibits a slight barrelling at its widest, so it is nothing unusual for me.


But not so the telephoto extension lens. First, this is taken with my camera at its longest zoom range WITHOUT the extension lens.


Now, this is taken WITH the 2.0x extension lens at the camera's longest range. My first impressio was, oh my god! Awful. There wa so much loss of definition. Depth of field problem? Lens combination problem? I don't know but I'm sure it's not the fault of the make of my camera. Got to lodge a complaint with the seller but I doubt anything will arise from it.


My one consolation is that I did not have to pay for the lens kit myself. It came from funds earned from my other blog.

All tired out

Travelling takes a great strain on many people, myself included. And in the past five days, I've been moving between Penang and Kuala Lumpur. All that I can say is, I'm darn blardy tired! Last Wednesday afternoon, I flew down to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with the Malaysian Chess Federation's honorary life president. Then, it was dinner at Yut Kee Restaurant before I crossed the road to the Wilayah Complex to drop by the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre. The DATCC chess league was in session and Hamid was expecting me. But of course, most of the other players there were surprised to see me. Stayed there until 11pm or so before adjourning to Kampung Baru for a late-night nasi lemak supper and thence to the CitiTel at the MidValley. Flew back on the first available Firefly flight the next morning to resume work in the office. A full day's work. Felt rather tired because my back was giving me problems. It was either my muscles or my nerves going ... or both! I could hardly move without pain shooting through my back. Had to see the doctor and she recommended an injection in my derriere. Ouch! Now I have a pain both up and down, and it's all your fault, I told her. She simply laughed. The injection worked. By nightfall, the pain had subsided and by the next morning, it was all gone. Thank goodness for that. But I wonder what was in that injection... My wife and I left the house at about 9.30am. Took a slow, pleasant drive all the way to The Curve to meet up with Eric for lunch at Paddington's. Please remind me not to go there again, whether at The Curve or here at the Queensbay Mall. After lunch, spent time at IKEA to look at furniture and finally checked in at the Radius International Hotel at Tengkat Tong Shin. That's just a stone's throw from the Bukit Bintang area. My daughter arrived to join us at about 7.30pm. Saturday was her Big Day at the UTAR convocation ceremony. We're so happy for her. We sat through the four-hour ceremony without falling asleep and then it was all photos, photos and more photos. Also went to the photo studio for a family snapshot. Nightfall...a mini-celebration of sorts at the Ichiban Boshi Restaurant at the Pavilion. Bintang Walk. The whole place is full of blardy Arabs. Boorish Arabian tourists. Dunno why the federal government treat them like gold and are so beholden to them when it's so obvious that they look down on their fellow Muslim brothers here. They are all so full of themselves, rude and possibly the stingiest people in the world. I saw a few of them haggling over the price of goods in places where prices are fixed. And in the shopping malls, holding up the queue at the payment counter. They are all blardy nuisance, as far as I'm concerned. And only yesterday, one of my colleagues in Penang complained that she was rudely pushed into the lift by an Arab. She glared at him but he just laughed. At least she got off lightly enough with a bruised dignity. Another person I know related that his brother in Kuala Lumpur was roughed up physically after he had his mobile phone snatched by an Arab who then had the temerity to accuse his brother of being a robber. His brother protested but who would believe him? A local's word against a seemngly rich Arab tourist? Of course, in the confusion, the Arab slipped away with the mobile. Sunday rolled along and we had to leave. I dropped by Yut Kee again to pick up their kaya and a Swiss Roll. Then made a surprise visit to the chess centre. This time, nobody expected me to turn up! Not even Hamid. But there was a small surprise awaiting me too. Dato Tan Chin Nam was there concentrating on a chess game. So great was his concentration that probably, he wouldn't be aware too if a whirlwind had passed through the chess centre. That's him, Mr Concentration himself, and it's not a posed photo! Then off we went to the MidValley for a hasty lunch and some last-minute shopping. We tried the Portuguese Grill Fish at the food court. Despite all the acolades and people ehthusing about the food, I think the fare is only of average quality. Anyway, we left Kuala Lumpur at 3.30pm and reached Bukit Mertajam just in time for dinner. Five days of travel. Enough to make me all tired out. Will I declare surrender to more travel? Nahh, I don't think so. Come this end of the month, I'll be going to Kuala Lumpur again and this time, it's to witness the last few rounds of the IGB Arthur Tan Malaysia open tournament and the opening rounds of the ASTRO Merdeka rapid chess team tournament. But I've still two other invitations to consider: the Malaysia open dinner this month and the Kuala Lumpur open tournament next month. Do I want to risk walking around like a zombie because I enjoy being with my chess friends?

Of prostitutes, single mothers and spinsters

This is so hilarious but I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. There's actually a group of people practising polygamy that has invited prostitutes to join their association, claiming that they will have a blessed and blissful life if they are part of such a relationship.

According to the advisor to the Ikhwan Polygamy Club who incidentally is a female, single mothers and spinsters were welcome to join. To date, the group has 646 members – 222 husbands and 524 wives. Should you laugh or should you cry?

Michelle's convocation

My wife and I have just returned from Kuala Lumpur where we had been attending our daughter's Convocation graduation ceremony yesterday.


Unfortunately, nobody could move from their seat and we were not allowed up close to the stage. So I had no choice but to take shots from the huge screen that the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman had (thoughtfully) placed on both sides of the stage, and then cleaned them up as best as I could. This was what I got:

Kuala Lumpur's Yut Kee

Despite my busy schedule in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, I still had time to visit the Yut Kee Restaurant in Jalan Wang Dangi. My daughter said that I love this place. Quite rightly so, because Yut Kee serves old style hainanese chicken chop. But they have other delightful stuff as well. A visit there is always like a food adventure. Here are various photographs of Yut Kee's offerings, taken at various moments in the past:

My all-time favourite: the Yut Kee chicken chop. It may be a pre-cooked dish and thus mass produced but it's still good. I first experienced it in the late 1970's and had never forgotten it since.

The Yut Kee roti babi

How about some french toast? Also a favourite from the restaurant. It comes with their own homemade kaya, just the way my family used to make it

The filling for their Swiss Roll is their homemade kaya, which gives the cake a completely different but excitingly new taste

Finally, this is Yut Kee's version of the traditional English roast pork, available on Sunday mornings

Firefly is a GREAT way to fly

I still can't get over the fact that there I was, working in Penang on Wednesday morning and back at work the whole of Thursday, while my Wednesday afternoon and evening were spent in activities with friends in Kuala Lumpur! The wonders of modern-age air travel made it possible.


I am convinced that Firefly is the way for fast commute between Penang and Kuala Lumpur. The two flights I took were fully packed with like-minded travellers - tourists, professionals, politicians and senior citizens - who have given up on the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for the convenience of Subang airport. Yes, fully packed. I didn't see any empty seat on the plane.

The plane itself was comfortable. Leather seats, wide and with enough legroom. Maybe the take-off from the Bayan Lepas International Airport was a bit rough but it was the result of the weather and slight turbulence, nothing more. For most of the way, and especially all the way on my return flight, it was safe, smooth and stable. Maybe it was a tad bit noisier since this aircraft's engine was a turboprop, not jet. There was also the Malaysia Airlines in-flight magazine to read, interesting music being played on board (Santana's Samba Pa Ti, for one), and refreshments. It's been a long time since I received something to eat on board a local flight over the peninsula.

Not much of a cupcake. Certainly, it won't fill your stomach but it was a well-meant gesture.

So there you have it: Firefly, a truly enjoyable experience. I'll certainly choose Firefly again at the next convenient opportunity.

My camera was stowed away in the overhead compartment, so I had to take this photo with the mobile phone's camera. Not the greatest photo in the world, but passable

Mason William's Classical Gas

The weekend's upon us again and it's the best time to enjoy the music of Mason Williams. In 1968, Williams scored a phenomenal hit with the instrumental Classical Gas, winning a Grammy in the process. Twenth years later, he teamed up with the Mannheim Streamroller to record the above album. In the process, Classical Gas was rerecorded. Who is this Mannheim Streamroller? All I can say is that the name of Chip Davies crops up often as the leader of this group of professional musicians.

Side 1: Classical Gas, Sunflower, Samba Beach, Country Idyll, Saturday Night At The World, Shady Dell
Side 2: Katydid's Ditty, Greensleeves, Doot-Doot, La Chanson De Claudine, McCall, Vancouver Island, Baroque-A-Nova

I wonder what this sign means

Elephants not allowed?
Elephant stomping not allowed?
Lying down in front of elephants not allowed?

Untrained telephonist

What irks me is when people in the front line of the service industry do not put their heart into their work. Maybe it's due to attitude or maybe, it's due to a lack of training given to such personnel.

Take, for example, my experience when talking to the telephonist at one of the most popular hotels in Kuala Lumpur yesterday afternoon. Between 6pm and 7.30pm, I may have called them about five times to make enquiries about my room reservation.

For the first four times, the telephonist kept connecting me to either 6111 or 6112 and each time, the extension line kept ringing until I was asked to leave a voicemail. I did, on one occasion.

Now, my questions are these: (1) why wasn't the telephonist aware that there was nobody at either of the two telephone extension lines? (2) why connect me to Reservations when the Reception was perhaps better at answering my enquiry? (3) why hasn't anyone responded to my voicemail until this morning?

On my fifth try, I was so exasperated that I asked the same telephonist to connect me to someone who would answer the phone. Ta-dah .... finally, she realised it and passed the call to someone who picked up the line.

It made me wonder how many people had called up the hotel and faced the same problem with this telephonist. Maybe I should just talk to the HR manager there.

Heritage: Straits Settlements Coat of Arms

Here's a close-up shot of the Coat of Arms of the Straits Settlements, photographed from one of the old currency notes in my possession.

The Straits Settlements comprised the four trade centres of Penang, Singapore, Malacca and Labuan. The British settlement at Penang was founded by Francis Light in 1786 and Singapore by Stamford Raffles in 1819. After Malacca was transferred to the East India Company in 1824, the three territories were established as a crown colony in 1867. Later, Labuan was constituted as the fourth settlement in 1912.

The Straits colony was broken up in 1946 when Penang and Malacca were included into the Malayan Union, Singapore became a separate crown colony and Labuan was incorporated into North Borneo.
On the shield in this Coat of Arms are the emblems of Singapore (top left), Penang (top right), Labuan (bottom right) and Malacca (bottom left).