Death and Taxes

Finally filled up my TAX return, borang BE today. Oh No! i still owe my goverment money....



"When I die I want to be cremated and for my ashes to be scattered into the sea. There will be no sign that I ever existed or a ‘monument’ that I had lived. I shall revert to dust from where I had come. This is my last will and testament." Raja Petra



What a day... reading raja petra post today brings me to think of these 2 surety in life,and yes, i do share his view on mortality! When we talked about death, we are actually talking about life. Why are we here? How do we want to live our current life? What is this living and breathing and occupying this space actually means?



Life is short, so why do ppl bothers to fight so much? why are some ppl always so angry? and why do some ppl wants so much?



Questions, questions, questions...

Moody economy, moody ping

Of late, have been more bad tempered than usual. Even my dreams are all quite stressful!Friends around me seem stressed out too... One is worried about VSS, another is worried about no work, another one has too much work, another one is complaining about no money.



At times like this, i just realised that simple things in life can really put the smile/shine back! I have noticed that Penang is getting more and more beautiful with the amazing flowering " Sakura" Check out http://cuttlefishhand.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html



Food, good food and good company brings laughter. Had been going out to play games and K-session with TT and Botak. We played this new game called MammaMia. It's about Pizzas. TT was the first one to excel in the game where she completed all the orders! Bravo, clap clap... But then Botak boh kam buan! Make us keep playing till he win also. :P Went out for a sunset outing and seafood at Teluk Kumbar with Ivan, YF, PM and Tie. Had a good laugh and some great shots as well. With lots of tips from my sifu as usual. This shot has Mr. Tie in the pic. He always complain that the 3 of us take the same shot. Haha.. i am sure, this one will be unique!





Today was again a Blood Donation Sunday! All the regular volunteers show up, hence i was VSS-ed today. Hence contributed in another way, i donated another pint of blood. Yeah Yeah! Hehe... :) Also donated blood to 10 mossies today! Maybe moody ping has sweet blood! Wei.. smile

Keep playing politics and leave the economy alone!

This is the first aniversary since our political tsunami last year! Well, from the results, it was already expected that there will be endless entertainment for all of us Rakyat. And of course, there's no free lunch, rakyat always pay!

And i am tired of paying.. especially when my pay is cut by 10% already, and am also tired of watching all the clowns (either from BN and PKR).
If they are as good looking as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, i would complain less.
If i have lots of money, i wouldn't mind so much.

Anyway, what do i expect from the politicians? To be honest, nothing really... So far, i have not seen yet a single move so far that have benefitted the Rakyat. Err. I have no idea where the first 7 billion and recently the 10 Billion Ringgit goes to. Well, maybe some, 70k was found in a suitcase in someone's car :O

Since the politicians will not do anything to help put money in my pocket, they might as well keep acting as clowns, my only request is just make this a low cost and peaceful production! (FYI: A low cost production like Slumdog Millionaire can win the Oscars, if this is any motivation to all the actors/actresses out there!)

How about the economy then, let ???? worry about it. As for normal folks like you and me, we got to depend on ourselves. Emm..On a practical note, maybe i should open a stall by the factories and sell toasted bread and half boil eggs to increase my income.

I am not getting retrenched. FULL STOP

Arrggghhh... i am really tired of the question that require the answer "I am not getting retrenched. FULL STOP"

But then you get some persistent folks that really won't give up, how about 6 months down the road, if the ecomony keeps tumbling down at this rate!"

Arrggghhh.. My answer:"HOW WOULD I KNOW, WHY WOULD I HAVE CARED! FOR ALL YOU MAY KNOW, I MAY BE DEAD BY THEN AND I WOULD NOT HAVE A CARE ABOUT THE ECONOMY OF THIS WORLD BY THEN!"

yeah yeah yeah, these days i am a short fuse and i am impatient... So please stop asking me all these stupid questions. I mean, what is the purpose of you asking me all this? It's not as if you care about me, or are going to give me money or that i am gonna be a parasit to you! So quit aggravating me! You have been warned! SCRAM!

Sunrise at Penang Hill

Took the first train up at 6:30am yesterday morning to go on my first visit up Penang Hill since i think my pcghs days where i used to hike up with the girl guides!

Anyway, I got all my gear ready and Ivan gave me a morning call at 5:30am. We were at the foot of the staion by 6am, bought the tickets and stick on our mozzie patch!

We boarded the first tram up at 6:30am, just the 3 of us in the first car! In the other car was just another pakcik and makcik (carrying their groceries up). All the way till the middle station, Ivan was looking out of the window and giving us running commentary telling at what height we were at! After the middle station, we change into the 2nd tram, which was completely dark! i just stole some time to catch 20 winks, Ivan got bored and keep wanting to drive, as maybe we were getting impatient as the sky starts to lighten up! After this seemingly long 10-15 mins, we finally reach the top. Yeah...

It's was really freezing cold...Very breezy and nice! Haha.. good thing i bought along a hooded jumper! And we happily set up our gear and all ready to shoot!

After snapping to our heart contents, we had breakfast at the hawker stall up there! As we were eating, suddenly Ivan Jumped! A huge dun know what insect landed on Ivan! err.. lots of trouble trying to get it off! Yee Fan helped him. Haha... Luckily it landed on him, if it was on me, i think i would have screamed till the cows come home. After filling up our stomach, we were hunting for more things to shoot. Came across some really gigantic spiders and huge webs! Another finding, insects are huge up there!

All in all, a really good outing!

2 canons vs 1 nikon

A huge spidey - size of my palm

Why we need Rulers?

From RPK: "No, we need the Rulers. I don’t trust politicians, in particular Malay Nationalist politicians like Umno. With the Rulers removed, the Umno politicians will now control the army. And I would hate to be an opposition supporter or non-Malay when that happens. Then Malaysia Boleh would transform into Malaysia Beirut. And I will move back to England where I was born. Good luck to those born in Malaysia and have nowhere to go. You better learn how to shoot."


From Wikipedia " A ruler, or rule, is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing and engineering/building to measure distances and/or to rule straight lines. Strictly speaking, the ruler is essentially a straightedge used to rule lines and the calibrated instrument used for determining measurement is called a "measure". However, common usage is that a ruler is a calibrated straightedge that can be used for making measurements"



I got a chill down to the spine reading this latest article by RPK! So, what did i do, i went on to read Wikipedia on something totally irrelevant to warm my spine up! Now i doubt whether i have a spine that goes from cold to hot to cold to hot? If you have no idea what am i blabbering about, no worries, i have none either! I am usually not like this, usually i have a clear idea on what i want and how i want to do it. For this week, i feel zombie-like, trying to finish whatever needs to be done on autopilot, getting frus at everything and everyone! If you are one of those at the receiving end, i really appologise for my erratic behaviour. I need to get out of this rut!



As my idol RPK said, you better learn how to shoot! Haha.. i will...since i am always the peace loving one, i will learn how to shoot some Good Sunrise pictures! Had some good tips from Sifu Ivan, which hopefully i can put them to good use.



bah.. humbak...

Can a frog turn into a prince?

The recent spate of events of jumping frogs in Perak reminded me of the fairy tale of the Frog Prince. Of course the only link in the two stories is that frogs are involved! Haha...

And yes, i disgaree with the way the frogs are jumping about and BN taking over.

I also do not agree with the stand Pakatan Rakyat is taking now. Earlier, you have said everything depended on the Sultan. Well, DYMM has decided and you dun like his decision and then you start to cry and wail. Come on, grow up! Think how you can turn this event into a winner for the next election and dun repeat the mistakes made. Yes, i disagree with his decision too. I agree that you need to say your piece. Say it peacefully, Protest peacefully like the Anti- ISA virgils. There, i state my stand!

Not that i hope anything will come out of this. Maybe i have given up on this Bolehland.

9th Day of CNY

The 9th Day of Chinese New Year is a major day for the Hokkiens and we anticipated lots of fireworks in Penang. (Yes, i know, it is banned, but...)

Well, me, Ivan and CC planned a day out to Evian's house. I rushed home after work and got my camera gear ready for a night of photoshooting. There's a nice spot up at the back of the hill at Evian's house. Evian's house is up on a very steep slope where i really dun dare to drive up. Ivan bravely took up the challenge and as he was manuvering a steep corner, we got stuck! As in the bottom of the car hit the ground and we can't move. I was so scared that i screamed my lungs out. My heart already popped out and ran away. Luckily Ivan was calm enough amidst my hysterical scream and managed to manuverve his car up the slope and reach Evian's house safely. All of us had a good laugh after that as ST and Evian was also watching us getting off this tight spot!

Whew, what a relief that i am still alive, i had a rest and calm my nerves and then started a short climb to set up our camera to capture Kek Lok Si at dusk! It was well worth the climb and drive up to enjoy this magnificient view. On top of this was that this place was breezy with no mossies.


The 3 of us getting ready our gear! Evian snapped this shot of us while ST snapped a shot of her snapping us. :)

Ivan was still snapping away as i got abit bored. So i started looking around for some other subjects to shoot. Saw the half Moon, due to the wrong/exposure settings on my camera, i was alarmed to capture a full moon picture! Again, my friends laughed their heads off and used this opportunity to condemm my Canon. Yeah, they are from the Dark Side (Nikon).

After that we proceeded to get our dinner and Botak joined us then. We were chor tai ti-ing our time away as we were waiting for the clock to struck Midnight for the fireworks gala to begin and to begin our 2nd round of shooting. All in all, an amazing night!

Hectic Chinese Niu Year!

Wow.. I didn't expect this CNY to be so busy. Well, as usual, i was banking on a quiet/hibernating CNY hols.

Had more gatherings and parties than i expected! :) Catch up with old and old new friends (well, sort of new again as i have lost touch with them for more than 10 years!) Hmmm... Funny, two of them who i dun even recognised says i look the same. Err... Err...Anyway,here's a pic of my primary school mates.



Today, i went for a walking tour/documentary with the PHT along Beach street under the hot sorching sun. The only reason why i dragged myself there is so that next time i can blabber lots of info to my tourist about our rich rich historical penang! Hmmm... and also i was on my way to the 2009 miao hui anyway. This was indeed interesting and i leant a lot! Well worth the 2 hours spent along this maybe 200m street. I have never walked along this street this slowly before and i am now seeing this street in a completely different light. Learn a new achitecture word "rustication" today, and am able to imagine what Beach Street was like when Francis Light first set foot!

After 2 hours,I think i was too tired baking myself along beach street that i kinda lost interest in taking photos of 槟城《己丑旺牛迎新春。街头庙会大团拜 2009》. My shoulders were aching by the time i reach the Miao Hui Venue. Some pics here from a very tired photograher.

CNY eve

Clean clean clean, dust dust dust and jam jam jam!

Well, finally all done and ready for the "Niu" Year!

Well, had our family reunion dinner at 6pm and i even have to time to go up to Kek Lok Si to snap a few quick shots. Waiting for Ivan they all for the 2nd round then i can really take my time to compose and shoot!
I know all the shots are kinda slanted. I was kinda dizzy.. well, it is caused by my bro's infamous driving and also the heavy dinner.:P

新年快乐！

Merry Xmas!

Ching Gay in Georgetown Penang - 21st Dec 2008

Watched the Ching Gay Parade this year with Botak and Ivan in front of Gama. It's being years since i last watched this parade, usually i am just too plain lazy. Went as this was something new for the 2 guys (i grew up assuming everyone has seen Chingay and also Thaipusam) hmm... anyway, me and both my tourist ( both were tying to accuse each other of looking like Japanese Uncle!) Haha... Go check our facebook photos and let me know!

Anyway, for this year parade, they started off at Datuk Keramat Padang and make their way to Penang Road and then later all the way to the Esplanade. I watched the amazing agilty of some the participants in balancing those towering flagpoles, considering the strong wind that night, it was no easy feat! What strike me most from these parade is that this parade is indeed a showcase of the multi-race, culturalisms of Malaysian. You see chingayrians of every race! Well, there was Lions, Dragons (some of the dances were performed by non-chinese), Santa, snowman. I mean where in the whole can you get Santa, Snowman, Lions and Dragons all at 1 go! In penang, you can.

We saw this rocket, it was quiet cute, but why is a rocket in this parade? maybe someone trying to please our current state government? Anyway, it was still cute and it was also moving.. so i ain't complaining. At the finale of the parade was this dragon, that was quite an angry dragon, it kept blowing of fire! As it was at the end of the parade, i was trying to run infront of him to capture some shots, and somehow i lost Ivan along the way. He called and Botak told him to chase the dragon. He tot that botak must be high on drugs... why chase what dragon. Anyway, he managed to catch up with us in the end! Haha.. All in all, the 3 of us enjoyed ourself and managed to capture a couple of nice pics. :)

Trip to Jitra

Jitra is CC's hometown, well, we had nothing better to do... so off we went to Jitra! CC wanted to take us to Duty Free shopping, Lai Huat Garden, Boating and lastly a nice yummy Thai Dinner!!!

ST and Evian picked me and TT up. TT was all dressed up to play at the waterfall, all of us were wondering where she got that idea of "waterfall" from...

Anyway, we reached Jitra about 11.30am and then CC took us to teh Bukit Kayu Itam Duty free. There's a long queue for cars, so CC suggested we walked. Errr... as it has been drizzling, there were puddles of water everywhere! TT has dirt all over her legs.. Poor girl, as she was the only one with jap slippers and shorts! We bought lots of keropok back! And i do mean Lots here, till the makcik that sells us stuff got confused!

After buying all the keropoks, we were hungry. CC didn't know where to take us to eat in Changloon.. Err.. we went to this restaurant in a shopping complex.. and err.. CC ordered Fried Rice, that was edible, i ordered Fried Udon, edible too, ST order fish and chips, you can't go wrong with that i suppose and TT ordered special HK noodle.. err, which taste horrible. Everyone tried 1 noodle, and that's about what everyone could stomached! Yup, it was that horrible!

On the way, we went to buy pomelos... It's is somthing like Ipoh ones in the old days.. Only difference is that for the Ipoh ones, you get Leng Lui lining the road, Errr.. In kedah, all the Makciks and Pakciks manned the shop... Of course, we bargained again till the Makcik was also confused.

Err, We went to Lai Huat Garden after taht, as it was raining, all of us didn't want to pay RM10 entrance fee! So, we wandered off, hopping to do some boating. We soon arrive to the lake (man made???) err... but eveything was close! No boating can be done so we just took some pics and left...



As TT was hungry, we then went to Ah John Kopitiam (Quite similar to Old Town Kopitiam), we ordered kopi and different types of bread while we played Big Two and deciding where to go next! Botak keeps suggesting Lai Huat Garden.. It will go like this" where you guys want to go next?, Option A: Lai Huat, Option B Lai Huat, Option C: Lai Huat!" Haha...
Anyway, since non of us wnated to move, and then finally ST suggested to see some Siamese Temple, he agreed. We went to one river ( apparently is it not a river, but a manmade irrigation Channel) by the river. Quite an impressive temple actually... Next we went off to see the famous keday paddy fields. Oh ya, on way, we met lots of Lembu's, Goats and even sheeps... No wonder we call Kedah drivers -Kedah-Gu!


Well, our last stop was of course our dinner! It was yummy! Botak was right... The Dinner was indeed splendid!

Our Dinner

Sleeping Country..zzz...zzz...

I haven't blog for a month! Time flies.. time to wake up!

well, i did, but my country is still sleeping...

Najib: Malaysia on track for 5% growth this year Najib said the target of 3.5% growth next year could still be maintained.
Pretty optomistics... Our economy is OK.. our fundamentals is still strong.... Blah blah blah...


In this same article: “The statistics released by the police show that the crime rate is actually lower than Hong Kong or Japan and only slightly higher than Singapore,” he said.
Wow... Mr. DPM, what statistics you are refering to? i knew i felt safer walking down the streets in Japan and HK at night, but i dun dare to do that in JB and most places in Penang!

My country is still dreamland, well i suppose reality sucks! better off in Dreamland aka Bolehland I suppose!

Much Ado about Road Names

I used to think a rose by any name smelt just as sweet....Until these recent spate of events...

On Jalan Alor/Kejora
Extracted from The Star (18/10/08)...
"Jalan Alor’s name was changed at the request of the National Economic Action Council following decisions made in its exco meeting.
With regard to that, DBKL’s Road Naming Committee concluded in its meeting that the name of Jalan Alor be changed to Jalan Kejora to go with other roads in the vicinity named after the stars.
The change is also to meet requirements under the road naming guidelines."
So surprise to see that we have a road naming committee to do things in accordance with requirements under road naming guidelines! Dun play play....

On Chinese/Jawi/English/Malay name of Penang street
Extracted from The Star (28/10/08)...
"Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said that multi-language road signs would disunite the people."
Err... How??? You mean the ppl will beat each other up if someone name a certain road Jalan Keldai or Donkey's Road??? Scared lor...

Extracted from New Strait Times (28/10/08)
Shafie, who was urged to streamline the use of the national language in road signs by the ministry’s former minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, said the issue would be endless if Penang decided to use the three languages.“We live in a multiracial society and I’m sure other races will question their rights.
Err... What rights is that, and why would any race protest? Who will protest, questions against Jalan Keldai aka Donkey's Road aka Ass Road?

Btw, since we are in the topic of names, how about our Capital City, Kuala Lumpur ( the Muddy river mouth if you dun know) Err.... How does it reflect on our country??? We are muddy and murky? Hahaha

On Penang road names, by the way, there's 3 Jalan Zoo in the Air Itam (Black Water) area... 2 of them is seperated by Sungai Air Itam and the other one is in Farlim (Bandar Baru Air Itam)! You know how confusing it is for us Penangites trying to tell our non-penangites friends ask for directions to "Jalan Zoo, Air Itam" Anyone from any road naming committee can help to answer this question?

Bai bai to my little friends!

Just received this email...

Dear Brothers & Sisters in the Dhamma,

First of all I would like to say Maha Sadhu to all of you who have contributed and help make it possible to the purchase of new clothes for the Myanmar cyclone affected children. Those children will be receiving your dana through a group of devotees leaving on 8 Nov 2008.

Also I would like to say Maha Sadhu to those who have contributed and also helped in the collection for the Khatina at Ariyamaggin Monastery, Yangon, Burma. This is however still open if anyone of you wish to contribute as they are still short of funds for the Khatina. Last date for this collection is on 2 Nov 2008.

I am now assisting them to look for any used unwanted soft toys to be given to those ophans in Myanmar. It has to be soft toys only as these will be hand carried by the devotees for the children. Please call me at 012-4278088 or email me at ritateoh@hotmail.com to arrange for collection of your toys.They can only carry about 4 cartons - medium size. Last date for this collection is also on 2 Nov 2008.

Please pass this message to your friends or relatives who can contribute in one way or another . May you "see" the serene joy that lingers throughout your breathe in all your Metta givings.May you "touch" the essence of freedom in your actions of parting all your goodness unto others who are less fortunate. Maha Sadhu to all of you !!!

Metta

Rita

This is the happy family group of soft toys i have collected over the years and am parting with them this time. Well, this group of little friends have acompanied me through thick and thin during my UK days and hopefully they will now bring more cheers to the Burmese kids who will receive them! I will definitely missed my Tiger, 2 Pickachus (bigP and fatP), Pingu, 3 Looney Toons, Goofy, Mr. Sneeze, Me2You Ping, Purple Sharkey, and Tweety Fairy!

Tiger always light up my days and Mr. Sneeze always bring a smile to me whenever he falls off and hit me and ai aichu aiiiichhhuuu. Big P is the oldest among all, he is the Tai Ko as he has been with me since my Sheffield days. A couple of them like Mr. Sneeze and the 3 Looney Toons was always sitting in my office watching over my simulations and electrons! As i was taking them out from their boxes, memories kept flooding back. Hence this little tribute to them! I will missed them but i am sure they will bring more happiness to more children like they have brought me!

A good deed today by the TAO-ians

KY started the ball rolling by forwarding the email out from Silver Jubilee Old folks home that they needed some essentials urgently. Then, she also took the effort of passing the hat about and collected a total of RM 410+ something. Clap clap clap! Kudos to her and to all the ppl (including some non-TAO ppl)! Clap Clap Clap...

So today during lunch, we (Kim Yen, Ivan, Theng Theng, Yee Lin, Boon Khim, Kai Nian, Chia Sing) proceeded to Tesco Extra to get the items, 2 trolley full of diapers, Milos, oats, and soap powders! BK, Ivan and KY was busying zig-zaging to look for all the items, YL was holding the money, TT was our financial controller..Of course Kai Nian and Chia Sing are the expert in choosing the items and which one is the one more economical. Lazy me was just watching. Haha..After shopping, of course we delivered all the goods to the home. We took a picture, with 2 persons ( guess which 2 thin persons) hiding behind 1 person (guess 1 not-thin person). Answer is in the picture loaded in my facebook! Haha...

Before we went back to work, we detoured abit, to buy Toto, as Ivan dreamt of collecting toto money last night! and all of us dreamt all the way back to work with our soon to get 28 millions! Haha... What a happy bunch of lunchmates today!

Oh ya, if you want to know more and want to help, here's the link http://silverjubileehome.org/
Which reminds me of 1 girl guide song, "if you are happy and you know it, clap your hands! Clap clap!"

Pain Pain Pain

Ouch Ouch Ouch!
3 weeks ago, before the raya long hols, i slipped and fell down the stairs at work. Well, the good thing was that my laptop hit the step first and thus saved me from rolling all the way down. i was lucky to escape with a badly hit right foot at the ankle area! No broken bones, no sprained mussles or tendon! Just some ice and rest on the foot and i was up and about almost the next hour!!! Though i suffered the pain for a week.. kinda minor pain, as i didn't rest my poor foot enough, was running about all over the place, weddings etc etc etc...

Finally when i tot my suffering is over, last night, i managed to whack my right elbow into the pillar at home! Ooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuchhh!
Yup.. it's that painful! With a drop of tear appearing at the corner of my eye! Was too tired.. went to sleep instead. Should have put some ice last night!
And now i am in severe pain... Ouchhhhhhhh!

THis post is getting painful even for me to read... with lots yells and moans and "ouch"es!!!
But i am really in pain. The lucky thing is that it doesn't hamper my normal activity like typing, carrying stuff etc! i also managed to play ping pong tonight! A couple of things i can't do are to brush teeth and pull the safety belts in my car! oh, btw, just in case you are wondering, i do brush my teeth, with my left hand! but i think i sprained my left wrist just now brushing my teeth! OUCH!

pain in right elbow, pain in left wrist.... How how how! Any sifu to recommend me? Any quick remedy?

Pain oh pain, when are you going away?