Random Thoughts for Tonight

A potent mix of alcohol and teh ais has got me wide eyed at this ungodly hour. So here is a list of random thoughts for the night (morning).

National Day:
Tomorrow will be Independence Day for Malaysia. I’m absolutely indifferent about it. I’ve never felt so unpatriotic in a long time. Boy, have things changed. I recently received a comment that I was the most unpatriotic person the commenter has ever seen. But honestly, I’m beginning to find it harder and harder to identify with our country.

Driving around town earlier tonight I was “treated” to the usual way a number of Malaysians show their patriotism. That involves riding around in their flag bearing EX5’s honking their horns and screaming like animals. Sure, our country is proud of you. Now pay attention to the road before you make the local police work for their monthly government allowance.

Maybe it’s time for another brainwashing session by my prospective employers. They sent us off with a warning along these lines. I guess they knew what they were talking about.

Girlfriends:
It seems to be an extremely common phenomenon when really good looking girls have absolutely hideous best friends. A common theory as to why this happens is the good looking one likes having her beauty accentuated when contrasted with her best friend (accessory). What attention hogs they are.

Talking to a friend revealed another interesting theory. He said that having a girlfriend with such contrasting looks helps when the good looking one has a boyfriend. There is no competition or risk of the boyfriend jumping ship, so the good looking one has that assurance. As he said “One mountain cannot have two tigers”. I love that phrase. But what about when the hideous one (magically) finds a boyfriend of her own? I’m stumped on this one.

Homophobia:
I wonder why the kids that grew up around me seem to have some fascination with homosexuality. No, they’re not swimming upstream, but more like they having tendencies to make a lot of stereotypical gay jokes. Is it some behavior they devise to assure themselves that they are “normal”? Disturbingly enough, this behavior has not been left behind with the high school textbooks as it should have.

Tree hugger:
Being someone who’s relatively knowledgeable about nature, I’ve been the butt of a lot of jokes. Especially recently as I’ve picked up bird-watching as a hobby. I really think the youth of today should learn to appreciate nature and the environment more since the depletion of our natural resources and the extinction of our flora and fauna is becoming an even more pressing issue by the day. Wake up, smell the roses and stop looking at me as if I am some hippie from the 70’s.

Being Broke:
I haven’t worked for two months now. My resources are depleting ever so rapidly. I really have to cut down on expensive pastimes like watching movies, indulging in food, buying toys and indoor soccer. Waking up at 11am helps save a little by consolidating breakfast and lunch into one meal. Sadly my habit of hanging out with friends over supper negates it. I need to earn some cash….fast.

Camerons Cruisers

Staying at home when your current status is still "unemployed" is really depressing, so a bunch of friends of mine who are in the same boat and I decided to take a trip to Cameron Highlands. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to sub-25 degree temperatures within the next 10 years or so.

So off we went in Jit's humble little Kelisa after lunch. The poor little car was so stuffed (4 guys and 4 bags only) that we had to put one of the bags in the backseat. I could only imagine how it would be like if one of our travelling companions was female. (cowers in fear). But still if it werent for that little tyke of a car we would not have made it out there.

The initial plan was to spend the night at the Malaysian Nature Society chalets which were located in the BOH Tea Plantation. But upon arrival, my friends shook their head in disapproval. They didnt like the fact that the car had to be parked at the side of the narrow road. But really I think that they didnt like how spartan the place was. Curses.... for RM35 per night? What did u expect?


Photographer's curse :(


Dinner was at a steamboat place in Brinchang. The dinner was good because nothing better to warm you up than a steaming bowl of tomyam soup mixed with condiments from a crash and grab job at the market.

After dinner, we set out to look for a "better" place to lay our heads. After dropping by some places we found this nice little place called Twin Pine Lodge and decided that it was ok for everyone. Hot water and a clean bed was my main requirement and it was met very nicely. Always good to be the first one to take a bath. You never know when the hot water's gonna run out. :p


I just wanna be like Grandma when I grow up!


The rest of the night was spent playing our new favorite pasttime, which is MAHJONG! Of all the games, I least expected to get myself hooked on it. It's really a lot more than just luck that you need. Of course I dont play for money because that's against my principles. A tad limiting since you can only play with 4 people, but we did so that was a non-issue.

The next day, we decided to visit some of the strawberry farms, gardens and fruit markets along the way out of the highlands. The guys managed to get tons of stuff like strawberries, biscuits and tea. But me being me, ended up with only one box of strawberries. I'm really not the type to buy and transport foodstuff. Take note, yea?


Tree that wards off mosquitoes. It's the citronella plant I believe.

Then we headed down to Ipoh to visit Yew San's grandparents. Sounds as if we care, right? But in actual fact we just blew off our budget by staying in that other place that we needed to find free accomodation. No one said a word about that, but I could tell.

Nothing notable happened in Ipoh apart from getting owned by Grandma the Grandmaster of Mah Jong. Still, it was a good trip overall and now I'm moping at home once again waiting for a phone call from the minions of the Jolly Green Giant.



Yellow Cherry Tomatoes anyone?

OFMA, WTH?

Driving past Penang Free School last week, I noticed a banner placed just outside the main gate. It read Mesyuarat Agung Pertama OFMA (First General Assembly of the OFMA). Curious about what OFMA meant I further scrutinized the banner and discovered to my utmost horror that it actually stood for Old Frees Muslim Association.

Why would Penang Free School, with and existing old boy’s establishment in Old Frees Association (OFA) need another one which is apparently exclusively for Muslims?

I’ve written a gripe before in my “other” blog regarding the current state of my Alma Mater. One of the complaints I got was that the Old Frees Association at one point in time had cut funding to the school after seeing how it was being run to the ground after the local Ministry of Education had intervened in the school’s administration. A lot of what had happened had to do with racial issues which I really hope I do not have to mention here.

But in a nutshell, grossly imbalanced racial quotas on admissions imposed over the past few years and extremely poor handling of school property and finances have led to the deplorable state of what was once the premier school of Penang.

So why create an OFMA? What seems apparent to me is that there is a need to branch off the current OFA because the minority race in the association is the majority race in the school. Thus getting the OFA to cooperate with the school is a task that the school’s current administration is having a hard time dealing with.

But why should you create an OFMA when given another 10-20 years, the OFA will inevitably be flooded with members of the OFMA? It’s pure stupidity to me; a blatant attempt to further segregate the school and create disunity amongst what used to be a very diverse population of students.

Why should I care. I’m already out of school. Now every time someone asks which school I came from, I’ve got to say “Penang Free School” and add “Class of 2000” just to avoid embarrassment.

Now Everyone Can Fly

When I saw that tagline it sent a small chill down my spine and rightfully so too as I discovered.

I have to hand it to Air Asia. Out of nothing, they’ve become extremely stiff competition to Malaysia Airlines that monopolized our local skies for God knows how many years. They used to buy retired planes from MAS and now they’re leading an ad war, literally biting the hand that fed them.

They’ve made flying accessible to almost anyone right now with their ridiculously low rates. Doing so, they’ve made Malaysia so much smaller and brought our two farthest states so much closer. They’ve even successfully become the official (budget) airline of the (used to be) distinguished Manchester United Football Club. What an achievement for such a young airline.

Unfortunately like many things you see in print, services are always better presented on paper. And as all things in life you get what you pay for.

There are some things about Air Asia that just don’t sit right with me…

1) Malaysians need to learn air etiquette:
Because “Now Everyone Can Fly” every Tom, Dick and Harry could be sharing a row with you. A lot of Air Asia’s passengers are first time fliers, thus do not understand how things work when flying. There are certain codes of conduct that one must adhere to in order to ensure a pleasant flying experience for everyone.

a) Use the paper napkin provided to you on your dinner tray!
I was on the plane with some really unruly army men. One of them got some liquid from his food on his hands and just wiped it onto the back of the headrest of the seat in front of him!

b) Mind the Seatbelt Sign!
It appears to most first time fliers that the fasten seatbelt sign must be nothing else but some additional form of in-cabin illumination. Rather than wait for the light to go off, the gentle bump of the plane as it lands seems to have replaced the signal for them to unbuckle their seatbelts.

c) No cellphone use until you get into the terminal!
It’s safe to say that all passengers on the plane between the ages of 12 and 55 years have cellphones. Doesn’t that scare you?

d) Wait your turn before exiting!
We all know the typical mentality of Malaysians in general on busses. It’s the law of the jungle out there with every man for himself. Same goes for getting off a plane. Why cant you just wait your turn?

e) What part of passengers with small children don’t you understand?!
Air Asia has this policy of allowing passengers with young children or the elderly to get on the plane before everyone else. But sadly a lot of passengers take advantage of this privilege to get on the plane ahead of everyone else even though they don’t meet the criteria.

2) Air Asia has to work on some things:
a) FLYing with FLIES!
Yes, I had the unpleasant experience of having flies sharing the cabin with me. I bet no insect has ever been that high up in the air. The LCCT is a nice terminal, but unfortunately it suffers the same problem too. I couldn’t even sit for 20 minutes without having a fly buzzing at my ears.

b) Policy on soldiers:
Sure you honor them by giving them box lunches at no extra charge. But why the heck do you allow them to board ahead of everyone else along with the elderly and passengers with young children? They’re soldiers for heaven’s sake. They can wait in line like everyone else.

c) Clean your toilets!
I had no doubt that I was the first one to use the toilet on my flight from KL to Penang. But to my horror, I had found remnants of somebody’s number 2 hanging on for dear life along the walls of the bowl.

d) For Heaven’s sake, clean your seats too!
It’s humanly impossible to be able to clean all the seats in a 737 at the rate Air Asia works their planes. I found traces of rice on my seat which wasn’t pleasant at all. Also, they don’t have those replaceable headrest covers. So I really cringe at the thought of how many bottoms and backs of heads have shared spots after a long day’s run of flights. I guess that's why leather seats were introduced.

Conclusion:
But at the end of the day, Air Asia, being an Asian Airline knows that we do not need 25 reasons to convince us to choose another carrier. All we care about is that it’s C.H.E.A.P.