Fire

My kitchen has received a new coat of paint. The wall and exhaust fans have been replaced. The only remaining jobs in the kitchen yet undone is the replacement of a few pieces of kitchen cabinet tiles and well as some cabinet doors. The reason for this spruce up? Not because of Chinese New Year next week, that's for sure, although the urgency to have all these things done quickly was a factor. Rather, these activities were a result of a gas explosion in the middle of the night on the 10th of December last year.

We were upstairs sleeping when three or four muffled explosions woke us up at about 2.30am. At first, we thought nothing of it but then, something told me to go downstairs to investigate. The first thing I saw was the curtain at the doorway between the living room and the kitchen in flames on the floor. I skipped into the kitchen and found a rattan lampshade in flames. Also on the floor, some plastic bags were burning. I rushed back into the living room, picked up the remain piece of curtain, wetted it and then doused the flames which by then were burning down. The only good sign was that there was no smell of gas. Nevertheless, I glanced at the gas cylinder tank and decided to remove the regulator cap immediately. It was warm and the hose that connected it to a standalone stove had melted in part. 

We were shaken by the event and spent the next hour outside the house. After we were sure that it was safe to go in, we tried to go back to sleep. As if sleep was still possible. The next morning, the full extent of the explosion was clear:

• Gas cylinder tank blackened by soot on one side
• Gas cylinder regulator cap damaged
• Gas hose half-melted
• Wooden chopping board placed on top of the gas cylinder burnt halfway
• Marble tiles for kitchen cabinet top and wall found sooted, cracked, loosened and/or bent out of shape
• Certain floor tiles stained with burnt marks
• Paint on frame of back door burnt black and peeled
• Exhaust fan completely destroyed
• Gas stove (one burner) completely destroyed
• Window curtain completely burnt
• Six pieces of wooden doors for kitchen cabinet damaged
• Blades of table fan melted out of shape
• Rattan lampshade completely burnt
• Wooden stool partially burnt
• Blades of wall fan melted out of shape
• Casing of ceiling fluorescent light damaged
• Plaster ceiling cracked and peeled
• Doorway curtain completely burnt
• Kitchen walls and kitchen ceiling darkened with burnt marks
• Kitchen plants destroyed
• Flower pot in kitchen found cracked and broken

I quite marveled at the relatively small extent of the explosion and fire. The damage was quite contained within the kitchen; I would suspect thanks to the curtain that separated the kitchen from the living room. If not for this curtain, the gas could have escaped into the living room and any flame could have consumed the living room too. Gas being light, the flames had scorched the upper part of the kitchen walls and the plaster ceiling.

I remembered that we had taken an insurance policy on the house. So we contacted the insurance company and was put in touch with the insurance adjuster. First thing asked was whether the fire brigade was called. No, we said, because the damage to the kitchen was not extensive and it was practically over by the time I had come downstairs. We were advised to place a Police report then, which we did on the same day. One or two days later, the adjuster came to the house to inspect the kitchen and told us that the insurance could not cover non-fixtures. Okay, far enough, because that was the policy we had bought anyway. But I need a note to remind myself hat I would have to buy a separate policy to cover the movable items in the house. In the meantime, I had to get quotations to repair the damage to the kitchen - painting the walls and ceiling, replacing the damaged kitchen cabinet doors, replacing too the cracked marble tiles of the kitchen cabinet.

And so it has been a traumatic month for us, the fire coming 12 days after my wife fractured her little toe. It's been six weeks since her accident. Her fracture is healing well according to the orthopaedic surgeon and she can go about her business without any more pain. I can only hope that there won't be any more unpleasant surprises to come.

All that remained of the curtain that separated the living room from the kitchen

Cracked flowerpot in the kitchen. All my plants destroyed.

My destroyed rattan lampshade bought from Vietnam three years earlier

Blades melted beyond redemption

The marble tile next to the gas cylinder tank was singed black with soot and cracked in separate parts

Chopping block partially destroyed

Stove top destroyed

Li Chun (立春), 2023

Li Chun (立春) or the Coming of Spring comes around but once a year and for this year, it will arrive upon our doorsteps, or rather, our rice bucket, at 10.44am on 4 February 2023. This will correspond with the 14th day of the first Chinese lunar month. The Hokkien and the Baba Nyonya communities in Penang will invariably refer to this first day of Spring as Jip Chun instead of Li Chun. 

But what's so special about Jip Chun or Li Chun? It has no religious significance but we Chinese acknowledge this date as the day when the sun crosses the 315° longitudinal line in the sky. Of course you don't see this imaginary line but it is there, all right. For astronomical and perhaps astrological purposes as well, this longitudinal line has always been there.

Right after this time on Jip Chun day, it is traditional for me to paste a new Chun (春) character on the rice bucket and then fill it up to the brim with rice to signify abundance for the coming year. 

This year, however, I had to really clean out my rice bucket to rid it of the rice weevil and its eggs. The last packet of rice must have been really infested with the eggs because although I didn't see any sign of any weevil at all when I purchased it from the supermarket. But soon enough, I noticed that the rice was gradually being attacked and the weevil came crawling to the surface whenever I opened the lid. It reached a stage where we decided to throw away the rest of the uncooked rice. To my horror, the bottom of the bucket was coated with a thick crust of rice dust. So everything went off into the washroom where I gave the bucket a good wash followed by drying it out under the sun and subjecting it to a good vacuum subsequently. Hopefully, my new stock of rice will be spared this infestation.

By the way, I've been writing diligently about Jip Chun in this blog since Year 2007 and if anyone wants to find the historical dates and time, the information is all here:

Li Chun, 2022
Li Chun, 2021
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

Audience with the Raja

Everyone looking their best with an OFA necktie. Seated to the right of the Raja of Perlis: Alex Tan and Andrew Lim. Seated to the left of the Raja Muda of Perlis: Enrique Tan and Raman. Standing, left to right: See Liang Teik, Roy Chai, Lo Liang Kheng, Ezuan, Quah Seng Sun, Barathkumar, Ivan Ooi (from OFA KL and Selangor) and Cheng Soon Keong.

At the entrance into the Royal Gallery

The Old Frees' Association is 100 years old in 2023, having been established on 17 April 1923. Last year, I was invited to join an OFA Centenary committee that was formed to look into ways of marking this once-in-a-lifetime occasion. On Monday last, a joint contingent comprising members of the OFA Centenary committee and the main OFA management committee was granted an audience with the Raja of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Jamalullail. 

Tuanku is an Old Free - I had described him as our Royal Alumnus - and has been the Royal Patron of The Old Frees' Association since 29 May 2002. His father, the previous Raja of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail, had also studied at Penang Free School and it is to be noted that so did his son,  the Raja Muda of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail. 

The purpose of the audience was to invite the Raja of Perlis to grace the OFA's Members' Night on 17 April 2023 during which time the OFA Centenary celebrations would be launched. I am happy to say that Tuanku was very happy with the invitation but as he could be recuperating from a minor surgery, he suggested that the Raja Muda would be his representative.

While waiting for the two Tuanku's to arrive

We had a very pleasant one-hour private audience with their Royal Highnesses at the Royal Gallery in Arau, Perlis. The Raja was informed about our Centenary activities and especially, about an intended golf tournament and a bicycling event around George Town. The Alma Mater was never far from his mind and he wanted to know about the school's progress.

Then came an interesting question. He asked about the sports houses we all were in at school and it turned out that Wu Lien-Teh House was in the majority. By a coincidence, both the Raja and the Raja Muda were also from this house. Myself, quiet all this time, could not resist piping up to tell him that since 2012, there exists in Penang a Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society which seeks to promote the name of this good doctor around the globe. And having already opened my mouth, I also blurted out that the PFS student leadership workshops have been conducted since 2017 and they stopped only for the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. All mentioned rather spontaneously, I must reiterate. I wouldn't have said all these if not for that Wu Lien Teh House moment!

Anyway, we were invited to join their Royal Highnesses for a royal luncheon at the Royal Gallery. Dome-style nasi hidang but there was also a plate of ikan jenahak pangang topped with a special sauce. An excellent dessert came and went, followed by coffee which proved undrinkable unless one had a very, very, very sweet tooth. As for me, one small sip was all I was brave enough to have.

After lunch, we were invited to tour the Royal Gallery which housed Tuanku's family's personal effects as well as gifts and decorations that had been presented to him. We were told that the exhibits in the gallery comprised maybe only about a fifth or sixth of what could be displayed. The impression is that only the most significant was on display here. Among them we found that the copy of Hutchings Times that was presented to Tuanku during the Penang Free School Bicentenary celebrations had been framed and mounted in the gallery. 

The Hutchings Times properly framed for display in the Royal Gallery

A framed water colour painting of the OFA building by artist Khoo Cheang Jin which was presented to the Raja of Perlis

Two views of the same moon

Last Friday was the first full moon of 2023. It was also the final full moon of the Chinese lunar calendar. Thus, there's no need to be reminded that Chinese New Year is only 16 more days away. Here, I have two views of the same full moon. I took the one on the left using an Olympus camera fitted with a basic 40-150mm zoom lens set at its maximum focal length and the resulting picture digitally enlarged and manipulated. The picture on the right was taken by someone named Andrew McCarthy from halfway round the world - he lives in the United States. As can be guessed quite correctly, astrophotography is his hobby. I am always blown away by the sharpness and quality of his pictures which he posts regularly on facebook and instagram. My amateurish efforts cannot compare with his professionalism. But what I'd like to highlight here is that the moon is not exactly grey, black or white. McCarthy's picture showed this up quite clearly. There are distinct areas of blue and also areas with reddish tinge. Although my picture was miserably blur - partly due to weather conditions over Penang - I was surprised to see faint patches of blue too. Not too bad, eh, for my little camera, I must say.

First reunion of the year

I was invited to join some friends from the PFS Class of 1971 for dinner last night on the island. Had a whale of a time renewing my acquaintance with the whole lot of them! Made some new friends too. Plus, there was the bonus of meeting up with a few former colleagues from my Straits Echo and Ban Hin Lee Bank days. Khoo Boo Teik and Balakrishnan gave interesting reminiscences about their time at Penang Free School but the spotlight belonged to Lim Guan Eng. Of course, he mentioned the recent General Election but he also talked about the setting up of the Penang Digital Library during his tenure as the Chief Minister here. To cap the occasion, I was asked by the host, Cheah Cheng Hye, to lead the Old Farts, I mean, the Old Frees through singing the School Rally. No decent Old Free would want to be seen with a copy of the lyrics and thankfully, none was required. I must have had led the singing with a lot of gusto because soon afterwards, someone suggested that I take up the microphone for a bit of karaoke session. Horrors! Not my cup-of-tea.

Incidentally during the after-dinner camaraderie session, Cheng Hye was mentioning Boo Kooi's point about we all belonging to the May 13th era. I reminded him not to forget that two years earlier in 1967, there was this hartal in Penang. He hadn't forgotten it, Cheng Hye said. In fact, he opened up to say that he was almost killed during the curfew period. At the tender age of 13, he was selling pineapples near the Sia Boey market after school hours. At the height of the hartal, he was rounded up and jailed for violating curfew. Seeing that he was a mere boy, he was released the next morning and given a curfew pass to allow him to return home. "I was terrified and kept holding up the pass above my head until I reached home," he recalled. 

In my opinion, the hartal shook Penang far greater than the May 13th incident. Initially meant to be a peaceful attempt, led by the Labour Party under Lim Kean Siew, to protest the devaluation of the old Malayan dollar and the rising inflation, thugs and gangsters emerged in great force to create havoc on the island. The City Council buses were singled out for stoning and mobs attempted to overturn them. The Police were unprepared for the violence and the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) were called in to maintain the curfew.  

Now, just a little explanation how I ended up with this bunch of fellas from the Class of 1971. Agewise, I should belong with most of them. We had started our Standard One in one of the various primary schools in 1961 - I was at Westlands Primary - but because I landed in an express class in Standard Two, meaning I jumped to Standard Four in 1963, I ended my education a year ahead of them. But as I said, we are all generally of the same age despite me being one year their senior in the Free School. The marvel of last night's dinner was that I met two persons who were with me in the same Standard 1E class and therefore they counted as among my oldest of friends. Can you imagine that?

Cheng Hye bought five copies of Let the Aisles Proclaim from me in 2016. I simply had to give him a copy of Ten Thousand Prosperities this time.

Happy New Year 2023

 

My 𝘊𝘰𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘪

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

US Potatoes cooking demo

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corner kick

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

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

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

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

PCA 50th anniversary

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

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

Occulted Mars

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

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

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

Seventh student leadership workshop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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