War and peace

bits and pieces

Comparatively the lives of the Chinese writer Xiao Hong and American poetSylvia Plath draw a parallel resemblance in that both women came from a time when women were repressed and their voices echo across the chasm of space and time to show an outpouring of their inner demons,the struggle to get their literary effort recognised.Xiao Hong is more detached in her writings on the mundane lives of rural folks whilst Sylvia Plath is more of personal intensity.Time to dig out my novel Tales from the Hulan river for a rereading but as people age,I guess the interpretation would be different from what I found as a slow and dreary account in my younger days.

design for clumsy,absent minded folks like me

I just found out that our Art and Design department has a 3D printer-wow'how cool to design and make prototypes of a person's own creations or customise designs that are not mass produced.



With the frozen shoulder and increasing stiffness of arthritic joints,why doesn't someone redesign the bra so that pain in shoulders can be spared turning and twisting to hook up the bra.Why can't the hooks be located in front or better still dispense with the hook and eye system and instead use those peel off plastic strips that are used for fastening school shoes.


The other dreadful inventions are the child proof twist tops that have a vacumn that you have to press on and twist at the same time.When you want to get the darn sauce and the lid doesn't budge ,you wonder which genius thought up such unuser friendly lids.

why call it middle age?

Aha! Middle age is when you have gained a lot not at the top (oops where did I leave the  keys?)but at the middle.

When your sweetie calls you " The apple of his eye"",you can figure out  it's your figure

What type of food represents the diverse cultures of Malaysia?

Jun brought some of his ASEAN friends home for an overnite stay.Great to be near young adults with boundless energy and curiosity except that I was a tad overanxious that the gals should go home with nothing but good memories (what lately with rampant snatch thefts on women ,our neighbourhood roads barricaded with road blocks and high fences and the petty crimes increasing).Luckily,they got to see what they wanted to see without any mishaps.I cooked a lunch of Nonya pie tee,ayam pong teh and assam prawns with pineapple cubes,bought some nyonya kuih and made cendol for them.Not surprisingly,the condiment they enjoyed the most was the sambal belacan with pounded dried shrimps.ASEAN cuisine shares a lot in common with fermented food like tempe,fish sauce,budu and fermented shrimp or fresh herbs like thai basil,daun kesum,lemongrass etc and spices like pepper,clove,star anise etc.Some curries are coconut milk based,some tamarind based and some tomato based.


What typical street food represent my country?

I would choose grilled satay with the piquant peanut sauce,curry laksa with prawns,chicken,cockles,brinjals and long beans and banana roti canai, nasi kerabu/ulam,pasembor,penang loh bak,and ais kacang.


Since the only thing I can cook at home is the curry laksa,I would need to look for a good food court that serves all of the above except that nowadays,half of the local hawker stalls are not manned by locals and the quality of food prepared nothing like what the old sifu prepared so I would need to master the art of cooking street food. There is a skill in control of the flames,the timing and the meticulous attention to cooking which is not found in foreign cooks.Aiya!Noone cooks like those old timers.I miss the food of the good old days.

tiger of malaya

Tiger,tiger forever burning bright

RIP Karpal Singh

drink more coconut