No Speak English, Zana?

When I was manning the front office of a local private college as a Course Counselor last year, I was very impressed by a particular girl who came in to register for the new semester. I was stunned by this vivacious young lady because she spoke to me in plain unhalting English! And she was the only one among scores of school leavers who spoke to me in that language.

But sadly that was the only time, too. She probably succumbed to peer pressure and resorted the local vernacular to express herself in our subsequent conversations. Caught up with her again in the lab yesterday and tried to bring up the issue. Apparently, she only speaks English to her Dad as there is no one else that she can have a decent conversation with, in English. She can say that again. Same problem everywhere in this country. Even I have to speak to myself in the mirror so as not to get rusty.

So, if you're reading this, Zana Merican, do something before you get rusty. Talk into the mirror or better still, start a blog... 

 

Home Alone

I've always looked forward to this moment. It's already happening now. The thought of the kids leaving home has always made me so alive. It gave me the energy to carry on. One of these days they are going away and I'd be alone at last. Hold on to that thought, yeah.

So, all the kids are now distributed all over the country -- Sabah, Johor, Kelantan and the youngest one about half-an-hour's drive away -- I'm at last reduced to being a part-time dad. They come back only during the holidays and call me once or twice in between if they run out of money.

Next, my Mom, the only other person in the house, had also decided to move out. She has gone to stay at a "pondok" to devote the rest of her life to religion.

Now I really am alone! And I don't like it one bit. 

Lethal Waiters (or Dining Dangerously)

A group of Thai nationals working as waiters in KL were hauled up last week for beating up a customer to death. The poor guy who was having dinner with his gf probably went overboard with his public show of affection. THAT irritated those stupid waiters and they used him as a punching bag to practice their Muay Thai skills on. Half a dozen guys against one defenceless, lovestruck student? Those guys should deserve whatever the court is going to give them. Put them away for good -- we don't need waiters who deliver punches with the order.

Frankly, I feel all these Thai workers-on-social-visits should be sent home. We have been very gracious hosts but they certainly had overstayed their welcome -- not to mention their social visit passes, too. Most of them have little respect for the locals and give poor grudging service in their Thai foodstalls. Despite the fact that they may be our 'distant cousins' in faith or race, I'd rather spend my money on my local cousins. At least they smile while serving the lousy food!   

Murder in My Eyes

I'm screaming bloody murder today. It's in my mind and it shows in my eyes. See? For two days on end, I went on a killing spree that'll even make my friend Jack (the Ripper, remember?) shiver in fear! Here's what I did:

1. Caught a tiny little mouse yesterday.  A gang of mice have been terrorising my house for months causing a lot of damage to the household. They gnawed through electrical wires, the pantry cupboard netting; they turned over bottles and smashed them on the floor; they made funny cut-out designs on my daughter's jeans and t-shirts, etc. etc. And here was this tiny little mouse caught in the trap -- somebody or something needs to be made an example to show that I'm not taking all this nonsense lying down!

So, I threw the tiny little mouse into a tub of water, trap and all.

2. Last night, my Mom mixed some left over food with rat poison -- no, it wasn't for me as I wasn't home until after midnight -- and put the lethal mixture at some strategic places all over the house. Strategic, so as to prevent me from stepping all over them. Woke up this morning and another four mice, big ones, with their bellies up in the air. Four down and counting...
So I gave them all a decent burial, no tell-tale trace that will implicate yours truly in this "counter measures" !

3. Caught another biggie, it's the monitor lizard that has been taking advantage of unsuspecting cute young chicks (of the feathered kind) in the neighbourhood. Most of my Mom's chicken never survived their, well, chickhood. One or two of them would be missing each day and this big guy was the culprit responsible. He was always too fast for me but today he got himself stuck in some netting while trying to get away. What got me all worked up was he was still sticking out his tongue at me. Sheesh! With a heavy piece of wood, I gave the metre-long lizard two hard blows (the second one just to make sure) on the head and he was history.  Well, another burial was in order.

So, lizards and mice of the world: Don't mess with me! Boy, was I mean or what?

My New Blog in Bahasa

I've started another blog, this time it is in Bahasa. No, it isn't a translation of this blog as I'd be writing about different things. Most of the time, at least. But, occassionally you're going to find similar topics every now and then if I think they're worth reading in both languages. Or, if I run out of things to write.

So, if you can read Bahasa, click here (or the "Kata Mereka..." link on the right) to read the same poem in a different language. Why? Because I don't have any other poem to show you. Actually I do, but never mind.

Short and Sweet

I have changed the address from "rapidbiz" to something more appropriate. This blog is now at http://krisez.blogspot.com . Short, sweet and much easier to remember, don't you think? Now I'm thinking of starting another one in Bahasa, to be entitled "Bicara sepi" or "Suara blog di tepi kali" or something like that. Any suggestions? 

SINGKIR WHERE?

You'd probably be thinking "where in the world is that?" as you read my profile on the right. Even if you're from Malaysia, maybe you've never even heard of the place until now. Can't blame you though as nothing much ever happens around this sleepy village. Not until three weeks ago when we made it to primetime TV!

A company, most probably with connections in high places, has been given the permission to carry out quarrying activities on the hills bordering our village. I always thought the hills have been gazetted as national heritage -- no logging, no rock blasting.

It has always been a sore point with the villagers as our once crystal clear river has been flowing muddy water ever since they cut down the trees. The logging and land cutting activities have caused a lot of damage to adjoining properties. Children can't swim in the river anymore and smaller fishes were found floating belly up down the river. So, some concerned soul called the TV3 crew to show them what's hapenning to the river that runs through the village.

As fate would have it, it rained heavily when the TV crew arrived and continued on and on the whole day. The river swelled before the very eyes of the TV crew and subsequently overflowed its banks with thick muddy water. The flood water was so thick that even those tall dual-purpose motorcycles stalled their engines in it. Many houses along the river as well as the village school were affected. After the flood subsided, it left a crust of mud two inches thick in the affected houses.

The TV crew got their news material, more than they ever hoped for and the village found its fame, at last.

Tongues wagged and fingers were pointed in all directions in higher places after it was aired. The company was given a "stern warning" by the authorities and were asked to strictly comply with all the terms of approval. So, it dug up a deeper drain and a small pool to trap the mud, something they should have done in the very beginning.

And of course, thay also promised to compensate the villagers for the damage incurred. Yeah, a lot of good that will do...

SUCCESS!

Found a way to do it, and you won't find it in the FAQ pages. What I did was to open the entry, click "Edit HTML" and copy the URL. Then I went back to the Dashboard, click "Edit Profile" and paste the URL in the text box provided. Neat, huh? Now you'll get me to stare at you everytime you visit this blog.

IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE HERE, REALLY!

The picture of the grumpy old man you see below** isn't supposed to be there. I have just downloaded Hello! so that I can put the ugly pix in my profile. Somehow it ended here. So, just ignore it please until I find a way to move it to the profile section.
 
** not anymore. found a way to move it already. as if you didn't know :-)

FRESH NEW LOOK!

This certainly looks better that the previous layout. Just realised that all my previous entries were untitled. No wonder the system is repeating all my opening sentences. Just installed the Tag Board too. It was okat when I first installed it but now it has dropped to the bottom. Well, back to the drawing board...

LINKS DON'T WORK

Hi everyone! Now that I've revived this blog, you're going to see my ramblings on quite a regular basis. But, I've been checking around: some of the links on the right don't quite work because I've removed the target pages along time ago. So, you cannot "Adopt Me" yet (anymore?) Neither can you "Join Me" or "Fly with Me" at this moment. Bear with me while I go around the bloghouse fixing this and that...

COMMENTS, ANYONE?

Just enabled the comments funtionality so that you people can post in your comments. Be nice, please.
 
p/s: I've also added the TagBoard, so fire away already!

A dead cat in a dead town

Ahh! They have changed things around here. Nice. Very nice.

Saw something inspiring last week. I saw a young teenager get off from his bicycle at a road junction to remove a dead cat from the middle of the road. Obviously the poor cat got in the way of a speeding car and had his face flattened. It wasn't a pretty sight but nobody cared except for that gallant boy. I had wanted to get off and shake his hand or pat his back or something if it wasn't for the pesky guy who kept on blaring his horns.

Rest in peace, Kitty. Good work, young man, whoever you are.