Unjustified Kayu

They call themselves Restoran Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar Sdn Bhd but it seems the only thing original about them are their price hikes BEFORE the price of flour was increased. Such anticipation!

I received this forwarded email in my inbox today and if it is true, a mass boycott of the eatery is in order:

The front page of Kosmo published on Wednesday April 18th 2007 carries a column on the bottom of the page which reads "Milo RM1.30 melambung RM2.50, roti sardin RM2.50 naik RM 4.00" The report was related to the increase in price of Nasi Kandar Di Kayu Restaurant. The price increase does not include the 5% government tax.

Beginning April 1st in the Klang Valley and April 15th up north the new price tag comes into effect. Some of the price increase is 100% which is not justified and I think many customers were caught 'red handed' after they finish their meals. Even thought I do not eat Nasi Kandar
regularly, I see that the price increase is too much. Even the propreitor give an excuse of the price increase in raw product does it affect by piece.

For example a Roti Canai kosong was increased to a ringgit from 60 cents. Its an increase of 40 cent a piece. Does Kayu Nasi Kandar buy flour at 40 cents more expensive for a kilo? Sirap limau nipis was increased 100% when the price of sugar is still at RM 1.45 without any increase.

UPDATE: I'm writing this short paragraph on 17 oct 2008. It's just an update to say that I haven't been patronising Kau restaurant for more than two years. I just cannot agree with their prices. I can get better nasi kandar elsewhere at cheaper prices.

can you uesdnatnrd?

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat lttrees be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can siltl raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig, huh? Yes, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Volte-face, Part 2

There you have it: another U-turn but I'm not complaining. The FA of Malaysia has now said it will render technical assistance to ensure that Manchester United's trip to Malaysia on 27 Jul 2007 will go on and be a success.

Yesterday, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the FAM's deputy president, claimed that the FAM had caved in to mounting pressure from the Asian Football Confederation during the AFC Congress last Tuesday.

However, the stand now is that the visit is organised by a private promoter working with the Ministry of Tourism and as such, the FAM has no power to stop the tour.

Trying to explain his way out of the mess, Tengku Abdullah said: “When I said that day that the match was off, I was just echoing after FIFA president Sepp Blatter and AFC president Mohamed Hammam. I made the statement as AFC vice-president."

But then he continued: "I would like to respect the wishes of the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government that the Manchester United tour will go on in conjunction with the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Merdeka.

"My loyalty is with the Government and I want the AFC to understand that the United match is being promoted by the Ministry of Tourism, and not FAM. We will not be involved in any promotional or marketing campaigns or any other public relations aspects."

Hammam hammered

This is an excerpt from a report by Bernama yesterday:

Malaysia has never prevented the world's biggest football club Manchester United from coming to Malaysia at the end of July, but indeed welcomed them, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said.

He was commenting on foreign media reports which said that Manchester United chief executive David Gill was disappointed with news that Malaysia had cancelled their match with a Malaysian Selection scheduled for July 27 in Kuala Lumpur due to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

AFC feared that Manchester United's presence would divert the attention of fans from the Asian Cup to be held from July 7 to 29.

"The truth is we never did. How could we not allow them to come here? It is their summer holiday programme and one of the countries they will stop at is Malaysia because Tourism Malaysia and AirAsia are among the sponsors of the Manchester United games this season. I was shocked ...the AFC's view is too narrow. Mohammed Hammam said Manchester United should not come to Malaysia since the Asian Cup would be on. Manchester United's presence in Malaysia is not a problem, so the AFC should let the fans meet their favourite players as this is one way to develop Malaysian football. The AFC president (Hammam) should not be talking for Malaysia...he has no connection with Malaysia. He has no right, AFC is only concerned with the Asian Cup. Manchester United can come and if necessary, we can ask them to play in another place like Penang, Langkawi, Sabah or Johor Baharu instead of Kuala Lumpur."

Buzz

"There are certain players that have given me a new lease of life. You get a buzz from watching them play and in the past few days, I've got a real buzz from seeing the faces of Cristiano, Wayne, Darren after winning their first title. I remember when I won my first championship, it's the best feeling in the world and to get that buzz from seeing their faces has definitely been a factor in enjoying my football a little more this season."

Bag of chips

When my wife came back from Cambodia recently, she brought back the usual souvenirs. T-shirts, keychains, fridge magnets, trinkets and lots of photographs. But there was this bag of jackfruit chips that I thought was very unusual for her.


"Why this bag of chips?" I asked her.

"Don't know," she said, "I saw colleagues buying them so I bought one too, lah!"

I can't question that kind of logic.

But never mind. My wife, who always has a keen eye for industries and industrial development wherever she goes, remarked that Cambodia was almost devoid of any industry. "As far as I could see, there was no development all the way from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap," she said. Her entourage was travelling by bus on an eight-hour long journey to meet up with her other office colleagues who had travelled directly from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap. I had urged her to follow her other group of colleagues to the Cambodian capital so that she could see more of the country.

So back to the bag of jackfruit chips.

In between mouths-ful, I mentioned that despite the absence of industrial development, there must surely be some cottage industry there or else the country wouldn't have been able to produce such a nice packaging. It looked very professionally done. I turned it around. "See? There's even a bar code."

But then, after the bag had been emptied by us, I noticed this little mark at the bottom of the package:


See where it was made? Now I understand.

PM steps in

This is a report that I saw last night on Bernama:

Just when thousands of football fans here are angered or frustrated that the Manchester United match here in July would be called off, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today asked the organisers to go on with the event.

"We hope the organisers of the English team's Malaysian tour will not cancel it as it is part of the government's Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign," he told reporters here after delivering his message to Umno members in conjunction with the party's 61st anniversary celebration.

Abdullah, who is also Umno president, appeared surprised with the question on the impending cancellation of the newly crowned English Premier League champions' tour here, asking: "Why?"

"We want the Manchester United team to come here as this year is Visit Malaysia Year. If they come here, we believe that many of their fans from the region like in Singapore and Thailand will be here too for the match. We know how great the club is and they will be a big attraction to football fans here," he added.

Earlier posts:

About face, turn!

Spanner in the works?

They're coming!

Sad but glad

I was having a quick-fix dinner at one of the New Lane coffee shops last night when at the spur of the moment, I mustered the courage to talk to one of the hawker stall owners.

"Boss," I asked him, "may I ask you something? Is your surname Teh?" He looked surprised but replied that it was Goh. But, I said, I do know that there is someone here with the surname of Teh who used to work in Ban Hin Lee Bank.

"Ban Hin Lee...I've been selling here for almost 30 years and there's nobody else with that surname. But wait, let me ask the coffee shop owner here," he offered.

True enough, the son of the shop owner said the person I was looking for was his mother's brother. But if I wanted to see him, I would need to visit him at the Loh Guan Lye Hospital.

Minutes later, I was beside my old ex-colleague from my Ban Hin Lee Bank days. Teh Chew Hoe, who started his career at the bank as a messenger in the Bukit Mertajam branch and ended up as a clerk in the Batu Pahat branch, is bed-ridden suffering through the end stage of a debilitating illness that has left him looking gaunt, a pale shadow of the person I used to know.

It was stage four of lung cancer, diagnosed some three years one month ago (yes, he was still counting), which had seen him undergo chemo-therapy 27 times and radio-therapy 40 times. He said he couldn't bear more of the treatment. Painful.

He was surprised and over-joyed that I had come to see him. Not many of his former colleagues had visited him, he said plainly as a matter-of-fact without feeling bitter or disappointed. But he was so glad to see me. I was also glad to see him.

He looked comfortable in bed and would be discharged today. He had been warded four days for stomach discomfort and would be checking back into the newly opened Red Rock Hotel which was less than a kilometre away. This is the former Agora Hotel in MacAlister Road. A few days from now, he will be travelling back to Batu Pahat with his wife.

Teh was very alert and he talked about old times. I did not try to interrupt him. I let him talk. It's important to do that. So he talked about his days in the bank, how he was transferred to the Batu Pahat branch, how he suffered working under the branch manager there who likened him to a Volkswagen compared to the other staff who were all "fast cars". You can deduce what he wanted me to know.

He also talked about being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004, undergoing a biopsy in Penang which confirmed it, how he had been travelling around the peninsula with his sister to visit every sinseh they knew, how he underwent the rounds of chemo-therapy and radio-therapy treatments.

He is a staunch Christian and I was heartened to see that he still had his faith in his God. He talked a lot about his God and I told him to remain strong and keep the faith. It's good to see that his mind is still very clear.

He understood it was the final stage of this disease. That's why he wanted to come back to Penang (it was 14 April) for a last visit to his relatives and friends.

Before I left him, he told me to promise that I will always take care of my own health. Yes, I told him and then I left quietly, deep in my own thoughts. I don't know when I'll be able to see him again.....

UPDATE (13 May 2007): It was quite unfortunate that I forgot to get the mobile number from his wife. Anyone wishing to see him can go to the Red Rock Hotel in MacAlister Road and ask the Front Desk for their house guest who came in a wheel chair and was discharged recently from the Loh Guan Lye Hospital. As far as I know, Teh's room is on the 10th floor and he will be checking out on Saturday (19 May 2007).

UPDATE 2 (17 May 2007): Teh is in Room 816 of the Red Rock Hotel in MacAlister Road . Spoke to him last night after some other ex-colleagues phoned me to get his latest whereabouts.

Penang heritage: the Heritage banks

Have you ever wondered how the big bank branches in Penang seem to occupy those monstrous heritage buildings in and around the Beach Street area?

Starting from the clock tower end of the road, the first imposing building you see houses the Standard Chartered Bank.


Diagonally opposite it is the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank.


And beside it is another heritage building that once housed the Algemene Bank Nederlands. After its merger with the Amro bank, the ABN-Amro Bank was located here.


Next to it is the old premises of the Mercantile Bank. My father used to work here until the bank was bought up by the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank in the mid-1960s. What you can see now is just the shell of the building. What a pity because during its hey-days, the glass panes were a marvel to behold.


Crossing the road into Union Street, you'll come across Malayan Banking with its own heritage building.


Nearby is the Hong Leong Bank which faces the Esplanade. Before Hong Leong Bank opened here, Citibank used to be the occupant. Citibank later moved away to Northam Road.


And its neighbour is the Affin Bank which is located on the ground floor of the Mariner's Club.


The road parallel to Union Street is Bishop Street and here, you'll find Public Bank.


A few doors away is the Arab-Malaysia Bank. Okay, this isn't one of those imposing buildings but the bank nevertheless occupies three lots of post-war shophouses.


Moving back to Beach Street, you'll come across the Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation.


Next to it is the former premises of the United Malayan Banking Corporation. I don't have a photograph of the building because it was torn down in 1993 to build a new one which houses RHB Bank today. A pity...

Diagonally across the road is the equally imposing building that once belonged to Yeap Chor Ee. It was here that we find the old Ban Hin Lee Bank until it was taken over by Southern Bank. The building now belongs to CIMB.


The buildings and banks along this road will be incomplete without mention of the old premises of Southern Bank and the United Overseas Bank. I'll finish the picture guide some other time...

What a gaffe!

He did it again. Dubya embarassed himself again. Right in front of Queen Elizabeth II, he approximated her age as 231 years.


In his welcome speech on the South Lawn of the White House on 7 May 2007, he said, "The American people are proud to welcome your majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well. After all you've dined with 10 US presidents. You've helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 - in 1976."


"Wrong year," muttered the Queen. Bush looked at her sheepishly and she peered back at him from beneath her black and white hat, not sharing the general merriment. Slipping the Queen a wink and a laugh after his mistake, he then quickly ad-libbed, “She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.”

About face, turn!

Again, today, the newspapers are reporting on the Manchester United visit to Malaysia. In an about-face turn, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) caved in to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and said that United cannot come in July.

It's not only due to the AFC's own disrespectful demand for the tour to stop but also because of the unwanted comment from FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Huh! Interfering, blathering Blatter again.

And the most spineless among them all? FAM deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah who joined AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam in calling for United’s entire pre-season commercial tour to be called off.

This comes two weeks after Tengku Abdullah declared on 25 Apr 2007 that “the AFC have to understand that Malaysians aspire and wish to watch the English team here in conjunction with the 50th Merdeka celebrations.” So much for your dithering leadership.

And in the meantime, FAM general secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad said: “As a Malaysian I’m surprised. It is out of tune for people to dictate to us how we celebrate our 50 years of independence."

Spanner in the works?

Newspapers in town are all giving coverage to a strange and stinging attack by the AFC president, Mohamed Bin Hammam, on Manchester United, calling them “disrespectful” and demanding that they cancel their Asian tour.

And this is because United's tour in July will clash with the Asian Cup Finals. Claiming it to be "a message on behalf of the whole Asian football family, all our players, our coaches”, Hammam feared United will divert attention away from the Asian Cup which will played 7-29 July.

This is what he said: "It is disrespectful. This is not the solidarity we expect from the football family. We expect Manchester United to look for something more than money. Asia is giving them so much money during the on-season. One month every four years and they cannot spare it to not play in Asia? We are trying to encourage more spectators to watch Asian football but it looks like the people at Manchester want to fight this idea and corner this market. We can prevent them legally in Malaysia but I don’t want them to play in South Korea, Japan or China either.”

I'm outraged. This is what I call stupid. Luckily you are not "speaking on my behalf." I do not need you to speak on my behalf. I, for one, care nothing about the Asian Cup. Do you believe that just because United's tour is cancelled, I'll want to watch your stupid tournament, let alone read about it in the newspapers? You must be dreaming. I watch United because I want to. Nobody dictates that to me, least of all, you. And if they want to come, who are you, Hamman, to say otherwise? You are just plain petty! And your language is boorish. It shows your small-town egoistic mentality. If you dare speak more politely, I wouldn't be so upset at you. You owe us Red Devils fans an apology.

My cameras and I

People who knows me will know that one of my interests is photography.

I used to own a Canon A1 since 1981 but then it failed on me sometime in the mid-1990s. I took it for repairs but the camera shop told me that it would be very expensive to replace the parts. Also, our humid weather did not help. The camera shop showed me that my lenses were all starting to develop molds. Some were rather deep in my lenses. What a disappointment. I really loved that camera. It allowed me years of pleasure.

But what could I do but to replace it? I thought...ahh, perhaps I should go for a Nikon SLR. I really didn't need a complicated camera. Just one that could serve my basic photography needs. So, the camera shop introduced me to the F50. I liked this camera too but by comparison to the A1, it was much more simpler. But at least, I could still do a point-and-shoot and there was a macro mode. Oh well....

The Nikon also followed me everywhere and then, the inevitable happened. The zoom lens failed. Every time I turned the barrel, I could feel a grating movement that gradually became worse until one day, I couldn't use it anymore.

For a while, I did not bother to replace it because I couldn't decide on a digital camera. That dang-fangled new technology. A new model seemed to be coming out each week and I was confused. I wanted a camera but what should I get? There were no more the five famous makes out there - Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus and Pentax. Now, there were also Fuji, Panasonic, Casio, Sony, etc etc.... Every company wanted to get into the act. That really complicated matters for me.

But finally, I decided to buy a digicam and I saw this Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 going for a steal. So it has been with me the past three years, a constant companion even on my trips in and around Penang.

If you have been looking through this blog, you will already have noticed some of my photos. I must confess that not all are of good quality but it's because I have to work within the limitations of the camera. For instance, I find the wide angle is not wide enough for me. The maximum aperture is still too small for my liking. Low light photography can be miserable. But at least, I can appreciate the maximum 12X optical zoom. And of course, I have my favourite macro mode too so overall, it's still not too bad. But my wife complains that it's still bulky. She prefers one that is slimmer, like her.

He said this:

"The right team won the title. The table doesn't lie. United scored more goals and I can only say they deserved it. Congratulations to them. They have individuals who can make a difference and they were the most consistent this year. They showed no weaknesses and had that offensive efficiency other teams don't have."

On top...

"What you saw today was human courage. It wasn’t a great performance but we got through it. Coming back from Wednesday night, having to come through all that travel, the lack of rest - the players have shown fantastic courage. We've not seen the real Manchester United - there was tiredness, the pace wasn't there but we're happy with 1-0. Just towards the end there was the penalty kick (for City) which I'm not sure was or not but apart from that we were on top."

Zero at the Siro

It pains me even to write this but I have to acknowledge that it happened against AC Milan. And these are the three assassins - Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, Clarence Seedorf and Alberto Gilardino.

Go for it!

"We just did not perform on the night and Milan deserved to go through. We are greedy and we wanted to win everything this year. We are out of the Champions League but we have got two other trophies to earmark. There is still a lot to play for and that's what we have to tell ourselves. Saturday was always going to be a big game but now there's even more riding on it because we have to get a positive result to put the pressure on Chelsea."

Deity's birthday

Today is also the birthday of Tai Tay Yah, the patron deity of the Quah Kongsi here in Penang. It doesn't fall on the same 1 May every year, just so that today is the 15th day of the Chinese third lunar month.


Every year on the 15th day of the Chinese third lunar month, we roll out a celebration for Tai Tay Yah. You can see the goodies that we buy: roast chicken, fruits as well as dumplings. There's also a whole roast pig thrown into the prayer session on this special day and after it ends, we'll have a butcher come in to cleave up the pig. Oops! The head's already gone. I was a bit too late to snap it.

Advisory: The next two photographs are rather graphic. If looking at some exposed flesh may be too gruesome for you or you get offended or outraged easily, please do not read further.


The man's good. He's so deft with the blade. And below, you can see that he has already sliced the pig into two halves. Pretty soon, the meat will be in small pieces which we then distribute to the Kongsi's trustees and committee members.

Happy Wesak

Wesak is the most important date for Buddhists the world over. It signifies the birth, enlightenment and passing of my Lord Buddha into parinirvana some 2,500 years ago. It's a happy occasion celebrated by prayers, the giving of dana and a grand procession through the city.

At the first Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Sri Lanka in 1950, it was agreed that Wesak should be celebrated on the full moon day of Taurus (that is, the full moon day that occurs between 20 Apr and 20 May). That's why today, 1 May 2007 which is a full moon day, is Wesak here in Malaysia and most other countries that subscribe to the convention set by the World Fellowship of Buddhists. There are a few countries, however, like Singapore, who choose to be different by observing Wesak according to the full moon day of the fourth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This will be on 31 May 2007 which is the second full moon day in May this year.

But it doesn't really matter. At the heart of Wesak is the celebration of the life and teachings of my Lord Buddha. He wouldn't have any issue whichever day you choose. In fact, every day should be Wesak to us.

Above is a photo I took just today; it's of a resplendent white marble image of my Lord Buddha taken at the Bodhi Heart Sanctuary, Mount Erskine, Penang today. The statue was consecrated two days ago.

Reunion (Part One)

Last Tuesday, 24 Apr 2007, I received this message through email from a friend:

Kindly assist to forward the following info to anyone that is relevant: BHL Bank Recreation Club will be organizing a dinner cum reunion party at Tanjung Club, Tanjung Bungah, Penang on Saturday, 28th April, 2007 at 7.30pm. Ex-BHLB members interested to attend, please contact Zazali @ hp no: 012-4760674 or Kian Seong @ h/p no: 019-4119166. Thank you.

I thought .... mmm, should be kinda fun to attend this reunion function. I might as well ask around to see whether anybody else would be going.

On Thursday, I gave Kian Seong a call and he said well over 250 persons were expected. I was surprised. This was DEFINITELY one reunion that I wanted to attend. It has been ages since I met many of my old buddies from the Ban Hin Lee Bank days.

And on Saturday itself, this tiny notice appeared in a corner of The Star newspaper. Boy, were they serious about organising this function!