STOP THE ROT!

I have read almost at a glance of the Auditor General Report  on our government departments and at the stage where I am, I can safely say that I find it utterly  disgracefully disgusting plus revolting to have come to know of so much wastage/leakages, corrupt practises and total lack of responsibilities of these so-called people governing our country. I say it before and I will say it again - if the report remains only a report and no further actions are taken against these dastardly daring criminals, all these exercises of audits are a waste of time & resources while the country is being drained and bled left, right and centre to ultimate bankruptcy! Where is the accountability and integrity part of the enforcement? Why are the "big fishes" still swimming their ways into the government departments and getting these contracts? Have they not learn from the previous years or are they intentionally allowed to do so because of the " you scratch my back and I scratch your back" kickback concept?

What I cannot stand is that these unscrupulous people steal and short-changed the very food that nourishes the children too. Imagine, even children are being made to suffer for such devilish and inhumane act! I really can't imagine blundering and blowing RM 270 million on tourism and we still get one thousand and one excuses when this department had been caught virtually with their pants down! What about paying RM 170 per kg for sugar and the paper trail went through so many hands, internal audit and payment made to contractor without raising any body's eyebrow or suspicion? What about paying of RM 21,000 plus per month to a pensioner who actually should be getting RM 214.00 plus every month? They have the cheek to explain this as a "decimal point error".  Gosh! This is really ridiculous! What about excuses like drums and fish traps were being swept away by floods when the money had been pocketed? What about sub-standard building projects and water pumps? What about agricultural leaders who pocketed money for the projects which supposed to help them to rise up the poor status in their people? What about "supposedly poor people" who got these project are actually quite rich especially by their houses standards and their possessions? What about paying RM 5,000 plus as transport charges for Tupperware products costing RM 4,000 plus? Gosh! The transport charges is higher than the actual Tupperware products itself! Now, that's mind-boggling and I would like to quote, with permission, from Mr. Patrick Teoh's  favourite tag line here!

Sub-standard schools, sub-standard tools and equipment ( Marine Dept would have a field day explaining their over-charged outboard motor engines , binoculars and so on! ), below standard food stuff, GLCs "generous" 2 to 3 months bonus to staff even when the GLCs are not making money or even the ones who are making money are not paying a sen to the government! What type of business/accounting practises and even accountability are we running in this country when you import cows for breeding programs ; only to sell the same breeding cows and have no off-springs? We call that successful national entity? 

The public is virtually fed-up with such blatant corruption and this is seen in many electronic media responses. The question is this: Where is the enforcement part? This has been a yearly affair and yet nothing is being done to curb such blatant abuses and corruption. This is the time where the MACC should come into fore play ( sound cooky and kinky but that's the word! ) and get those corrupt people to the books or are they too "chicken" to get these people and rather be in the throwing of  people off buildings business which would be more lucrative! Are they just too chicken/afraid to touch any of these "business Napoleons" and "unseen Invincible hands of dirty politicians and their cronies? I can safely say that if this continues to persists with the turning of blind eyes to such practises and getting free passes out of jail, this country is going down to the dumps faster than anyone can imagine. Let's not kid ourselves and say that we are getting some growth in our economy that year or this year. I believe this is an eye-shadow trick to fool us in believing this will be happening. Just take your money and buy your groceries and tell me  that our economy is getting better. That's a whole load of  bullshit of the highest level! Food essentials/foodstuff are on the rise all the time and just asks parents who has babies. Ask them how much do they spent on milk powder and ask them what is the price for babies milk powder today. Some would probably jump off high rise building or "voluntarily" jump of building or even strangled themselves to death when the next round of milk powder increase comes. So now, we better get another new government entity with some fancy name running just to raise cows for their milk and processed them into milk powder to help our milk powder increase! Let's get/import another 8000 cows from overseas as starters for our project, shall we? Tsk!Tsk!Tsk!

I believe the people should voice their discontent to the government and be united in getting these crooks and their crook masters to prison for what they have done. To me , that tantamount to cheating and a real breach of trust. We must ensure that all levels of our society fight vehemently against this disease of feeding these barbaric economic robbers and thieves! If we do nothing, we are just gonna fatten these "cows" and robbers and allow this norm to its full vicious cycle again. Let's be united and make a change in our ballot papers. Let's not allow these people a free hand at looting our already depleted National Treasury. Already our monetary spending power and quality had been cut down sizably while inflation rate is on the rise. It doesn't matter if you are supporting BN or PR, for as long as corruption is the name to combat, let's make our vote known that we are supporting the team which is out to combat corruption of such kind indefinitely. The people has enough of such nonsense. Let's make them known by petitoning our parlimentarians and the people to support any move to stop all these nonsense. 

To our government of leaders, government department heads/servants and enforcement departments today, STOP these abuses! STOP these wastage! STOP building little Napoleons! STOP feeding the devils! CHANGES will come if the levels of lackadaisical attitude, arrogance, denials and wastage continues.

Afterall, the ballot papers and the people are the determiner. I appeal to the people of our beloved nation, rise up and let's make a change to our country. Let us allow our ballot paper to speak!!

I appeal to our nation leaders and people who genuinely care for this nation - STOP THE ROT and STOP IT NOW!

Banting delight....always!

Deepavali has always been a very special occasion for me and my family. Together with good family friends and family, we would always ensure that we make our much-awaited food galore pilgrimage to Banting to visit Sathy's family. This year was no different and as we gathered in the morning near the toll house in Ayer Keroh, we know that we would have a really good time together. To be honest, it wasn't so much for the food but the opportunity to travel with good friends, fellowship and honest discussion helped a lot in a long way. We started out our journey at about 10.00am and by the time we reached Sg.Raba, Banting, it was hitting 12noon. We were happy to meet up with Vive, Vive's mom, Sathy and her family and my son, JWee . There were hugs and handshakes all around and it was like a big happy family reunion on a very special occasion.

As usual, Sathy's mom had prepared a real feast for us. She is such a wonderful Indian food cook and her dishes are ALWAYS finger-licking good, I tell you!  Chicken curry, chicken varuval, mutton parietal, sweet acar, vegetables, briyani rice, putu mayam and fish cutlets were the sumptuous spread of food laid out on the table. Finally, some good home cook Indian food to wet one's culinary palate and taste!

The fish cutlet was easily THE dish for the day and Auntie Ellama's speciality while the mutton was succulently tender, nicely marinated and infused with all the spices and herbs. We had a great time downing the food in record time though I have to watch the diet a bit because there were just so many nice dishes. Half an hour after our arrival at Sathy's home in Banting, Eddy and Alicia together with their cute daughters, Tiffany and Symphony arrived at the home. Eddy & Alicia are our friends and the friendship we have is simply marvelous. Two of the most genuinely good people you can find and that's my compliment to them. Again, we greeted each other with warmth pleasantries and we had a great time of fellowship and playing with the girls. By this time, Steven, Errol and myself gathered around the newly erected roofed extension at the back section of the house and took a swig at the local nice brew called the toddy! As it was a fresh and came only from one tree source, the taste was sweet and nice. Yes, there may seemed to have a tinge of sourness due to the fast fermentation basis but it tasted really good. The chilled toddy made it extra special nice-lar. It seemed to cooled off my body after the blistering sun started it's human melting rays that morning. By mid-afternoon, the rain started to fall insanely at the vicinity area followed by a blitzkrieg of lightning and booming thunder! Ginger tea made by Sathy's mum made a whole lot of difference to a gloomy cold weather.

We were thinking, " There goes of Tg.Sepat pau and fishball escapade!" Anyway, the weather ruckus stopped and it was time to go. We were dragging our feet from leaving our Deepavali sanctuary but after some effort to lift our butts off the sofa and comfort of the cool tarmac of tiles, it was time to seek out the pau. Oh Yeah! The pau we got indeed but just the vegetarian ones and the meat pau were all sold out. We shared two packs of fishball and decided against getting fish ball to our home but will get the pau for breakfast tomorrow. After some deft moves by our cars in small and narrow roads of the track to the pau rendezvous point and exits, we were off to Teong Ji Restoran in Lukut for some seafood fare. Kum Heong lala, Assam Jenak fish ( the assam is quite 'kao' in taste and nice ) , paku vegetables cooked with sambal (over-burnt a bit but a delicately nice vege! ) , herb wrapped chicken, egg oyster omelette, house speciality seafood tofu ( this is really nice! ), yam with slices of pork and another vegetable dish fed 15 of us that night. 

Honestly, that's what happens when you travelled with a bunch of fun and peace-loving friends on a day out for a festival celebrations. It was unpretentious, it was fun and most important of all, it was a day for friends. Thank you , friends for a really good time. It was nice to be able to reminiscent on some golden years of my kampung life too. Something we all should do from time to time as I reflected on what Sathy's dad said to me ( some very meaningful aspects and reflections of life ) that moment we were drinking our toddy at the back extension!  

Deepavali Greetings

To all my Indian friends, familiy and the Indian community,

My family & I wishes you

A VERY HAPPY DEEPAVALI CELEBRATIONS

God bless each and everyone of you 

Drive safe , be good and our thoughts are with you always!



RR Melaka # 1 - 19th Council of Achievement 2011

The recently concluded RR Melaka # 1- 19th Council of Achievement 2011 signalled the end of another wondrous, dynamic and fun-filled year in God's ministry of shaping and moulding lives of young children. This year, I am particularly overwhelmed with joy and admiration for my young leaders for taking the initiative to lead the Royal Rangers Ministry to a whole new level of serving and working along side our Maker in Heaven. I must say without doubt that these leaders had proven time and time again that youthfulness and being young at age is not a matter when it comes to serving the Lord in ministries today. In fact, they have shown us, the "not-so-young leaders" that they are respectful, understanding, capable and hardworking in every aspect of leadership. I am so proud of them and they are Bryan Lee, Stefanie Sim, Stephen Raj, John Ng, Josephine Gan, Bryan Chiew, Foo Shwu Yuen, Paul Raj, Lewis Raj, Mathew Chiam, Malcom Chiam, Jenny Liong and Jocelyn Gan. It really fills my heart with joy and admiration to them for doing a great job in organising the Council of Achievement. I could write pages and pages about these young ones but I just wanted them to know that my heart is so ever thankful to them for really taking a deep interest and care for this ministry. It made me very happy knowing that this ministry would be in good hands of these young leaders. 

The RR emblem in koolam design was actually a wonderful combined effort of so many of these young leaders and it was such a delight to the eyes. It takes creativity, effort and most important of all, patience to get the koolam done in the right RR spirit - Ready for Anything! That started off our Bollywood Night theme on the right track. As preparations were meticulously carried out at the best of our resources and ability, everything seemed to come into place. As parents trickled in at our function as the clock struck 7.00pm, you could sensed a time of great fellowship and a great night in store. We were pleasantly surprised by the presence of our former commanders and friends who are really great supporters of this ministry, Vive, Sathy & Lih Gin. It was a real pleasant surprise for me and our team - thanks to the effort of Comdr. Bryan Lee! I was also very glad and happy to see my son, Joa Wee in his light brown jippa outfit looking dashing and handsome too! (Ah! Like father like son -lar!hahahahaaaa..... ). Their presence really cheered up many of us and we exchanged warm hugs. The opening skit  was then carried out by Discovery & Adventure Rangers with the main lead roles being held by DR Ashley Chia and AR Dave N.Louis. It was their wonderfully choreographed entertaining "Jai Ho" song to accompany the lighting up of the electrically controlled flickering flames. Never mind if there were mis-stepped dance moves or non-uniformity of movements, it was a great effort by these young ones that matters! The night was about honoring the children for their achievement for the year and I could see proud and beaming faces of parents as their children are called up to receive their advancement patches and merits. That's what it is all about -honoring the children and their parents for their commitment, hardwork and passion for the ministry.

We also honored two important recipients in Josephine Gan and Jocelyn Gan in completing their requirements for Silver Medal of Achievement Award and Bronze Medal of Achievement Award. Two fine young leaders in progress. They most certainly deserve their accolades and honor for their completion of advancement merits and trail. 

The closing skit to the tune of " Kuch Kuch Kotahey" was one hilarious and joyful ending to a great night. Again, the fun and innocence of the children are brightly portrayed and the dance moves were hilarious - thanks to the ideas & dance moves of Bollywood debutant directorial brilliance/genius of Comdr. Stefanie Sim! ( clap!clap!clap! Incidentally, she is also in-charge of the opening skit too!  ) It was fun and that's all that matters. As food and drinks ensued at the end of the function, fellowship was the order of the day. Parents, adults, friends and children mingled together in a fun-filled night of laughter, light conversation and bonding.

The clearing up after the function really surprised me. The young leaders and children in their own initiative took responsibility and cleared up the place after the event. It was a real delight seeing them work - systematically! Within minutes, everything was cleared, put back at their respective places, cleaned, stocked up and stashed away in the storeroom. That was really a delightful touch by the children and leaders. 

As the crowd thinned further, the young leaders ( Comdr. Bryan, Comdr. Stefanie, Comdr. Stephen and Comdr. John )  organising team and the older leaders gathered in the room for a short discussion on the event. There were cheers and rounds of applause everywhere for a great job done on the event. A few pointers were forwarded but overall, it was a great effort and truly one successful night. My heart goes out to these young leaders because they are so talented and they are such a delight to work with. Nurtured with care, concern, gentle love and hard facts reality have been impactful to these young lives. I believe with all my heart that all the investment of time, love, concern, hard discipline at times and a lot of caring heart showered by the commanders ( Comdr.Steven, Comdr. Errol, Comdr. Jessica, Comdr. Jason and myself ) had helped a long way.

I must say, THANK YOU to all the young commanders for you people truly deserve all the  glory and honor from the Lord for your wonderful efforts. From the bottom of my heart , THANK YOU SO MUCH for making me so proud of your people. I really felt very blessed by your efforts! Onwards march to another wonderful year in 2012, shall we?

A plea....

Early of the week, I watched a short movie clip on the capture of the estrangled Libyan dethroned President, Muammar Gaddafi and I must say it was a ghastly sight. Moments later, I clicked on to the next clip, it showed this man lying on the ground in a pool of blood and his upper body was naked and rolled on the ground many times by his captors as if inspecting a body of carcass. I fell back on my chair , stunned and disgusted, thinking to myself how could a leader of a country ends his life in an ignominious and tragic end. How could a leader die in the hands of his captors in such a bloodied fashion? 40 years of the reign of terror and fear, some people say, make his captors do the things they do. Retribution was another view given as a simplistic explanation. To me, a dictator or not, one surely doesn't need to end up dying in such a gruesome way. Someone reminded me the same treatment was being given to Saddam Hussein - almost identical fate end for both these leaders. Both of them were viewed as dictators by the fellow countrymen while one was hung for his crimes ; the other had a bullet hole in his head.

How could someone rule the country for 40 years and not make enemies and the countrymen to grieve at every turn of the country decision making? Well, I guess, the people of the country got fed-up with his ruling government tricks, I guess. Yunno, it shows me the vulnerability and fragile society we live in today who would just turn in a matter of a split second if bad governance and tirade of corruption practises are not checked or rectified. I guess, when society is backed to the wall by such oppression and daily sufferance, eventually, they would rise up and change the course of history of that land. No country in this world can ever claim that there has been no bloodshed in their struggle to gain independence and achieving peace & order. I am just saddened by the fact that aggressors and irresponsible people we have in our land are stirring such a sentiment. I guess, when the resentment is at hilt and at boiling point, the people loses as we lose our rationality and our minds to "herd mentality" and racial/religious hatred stokers. Chaos , resentment and evilness will reign but who will gain and what is gained and at what price? Are we prepared to sacrifice the blood of our teenage sons and daughters for the cause? Are we prepare to sacrifice our wife and family members only to be slained by an unjustifiable cause of mistrust and misinterpretation of our living lives? What is there except the mere ignorance , inflated egos and racial/religious hatred stokers that are taking advantage of the already fragile society we live in?  Why can't we all live in peace & harmony in this nation of ours? Where have our conscience go? Where have our responsibility towards lives go? Aren't our hands stained enough with blood of the innocents that screams from the land below towards our Maker in Heaven? 

Do we need another bloodshed to stain our already bloodied and bruised nation of ours? Have anyone in our leadership of the nation today ever wake up and realised that we have built our nation through the same hands that toiled the land and which also will be the very hands that pulls the triggers to riddle the bodies of innocent lives all in one go? Where are rationale and calm leaders? Where are the "good men and women" in our country? Where are those who hates corruption and malpractices? Where? Would you stand up and be counted as credible today?
I shuddered at the fate of our nation today. If we fail to check the evil man-made conflicts and concoctions of twisted plans to further divide the society in our nation, we are no better than the perpetrators that carried out the self-righteous executions that I have witnessed over the tube over the years. I say it again and I will say it a zillion times, common sense must prevail. Understanding must prevail. The love from the heart for every person from every race or creed must prevail. Prayers for the nation; no matter what religion you embrace, must prevail and supercede all selfish, arrogant and mindless ways of the men/women. Corrupt, thieves and mindless leaders must go if we are to make a difference in our country and lives today.  I pray for hope for our nation. I pray for God's mercy upon our lives, our family and our nation today.  Would you do so in your own special way too? I asked this of you as/and from the point of view of a simple citizen of this country of ours.
God bless each and every one of you.

Traffic blues...

This morning I was cruising along road reaching the cross junction road along Jalan Bachang and Lebuh AMJ when suddenly I really had to slam hard on the brakes together with a few other cars which were moving nicely along the road. This hard-braking slamming and a few curses ( I've gotta be honest, right?  Now, don't look so angelic, ok? ) occurred because of this moronic white monkey motorcycle fella called the traffic policeman came along, stopped in the middle of the road when the traffic light is DEFINITELY GREEN and pointed his pointer finger to every vehicle at the cross section to stop or come to a halt instaneously. 

I believe, I wasn't the only vehicle owner who  felt very disturbed to the hilt of hysterical anger over this matter. By the love of God, it is done during traffic rush hour as one is going towards work in town. To rub salt to the already wounded and bleeding injury, the grinding stoppage of vehicles on a traffic rush hour was for 2 bloody Jabatan Pertanian buses and 4 cars plus 3 police traffic outriders to go along the road! "Buoy loh maik" ( Excuse me!Hainanese glossary! ) This one is really too much-lar. If VVIP, ambulance or some dignitaries or even some big shot clown, I think, the public can accept-lar but two bloody Jabatan Pertanian buses. What? The buses are carrying gold or what? Even if the buses crashed, I don't think the nation is EVER gonna have a brain -drain in this sector at all, man! Even the driver of the vehicle in front of my car, a Malay man came out from his car and shouted some Malay mild obscenities while the traffic policeman just pointed to him. The Chinese lady at the back of my carry was waving her hands about and honking her horn twice! That's how disgusted the people get this morning. It was really hard to slam on the brakes suddenly and to grind your vehicle to a stop just for these clowns to pass by! It is pure rubbish and abuse of power here! It's totally crap as far as I am concerned. Why can't these people in the so-called themselves " important people" follow traffic rules just like everyone else? By right, even politicians, assemblymen and even elected representatives should adhere to traffic rules just like everyone else and set a better example to the people than making the popular proverb " Cakap tak serupa bikin" a confirmed reality. I remembered an overseas friend of mine told me  that this special "traffic rules breaking" escort thing only occurs in Malaysia as in other European countries, they would have to obey traffic rules as usual except the President, PM , King or even the Head of the country! Other than this, all are to follow traffic rules as usual!  Think about it. Afterall, we all pay our road tax and have every right to use the roads and to obey the traffic rules and regulations. I am pretty damn sure that the traffic light on the road the buses are travelling is RED in colour. So, my question is simply this : Why aren't they getting the summon ticket like any other motorist in this country of ours?  Why do we need to pay summons when traffic offenders like this gets off scott-free for what they did? If just because they have written to the police to get their escort for their journey is the ticket for breaking all traffic rules , then each and everyone of us should also get police escort when our child goes to school ( Crime is on the rise and fearful for our  children! ) or when our grandmothers ( hey, there are some young and "able" grandmas out there ,ok? ) want to give birth or even  when our grandfather is going for vasectomy! Let's get the escort services ( sounds corny, right? Hahahahaaa.....) and break all the traffic rules, shall we? 

Look , this is my point. If you are in a chartered bus attending a government function then plan the journey ahead especially the timing.  If you plan properly and go early to your function, that's not a shameful thing-lar. It is in fact a noble thing because being earlier means you are ready for the function. Here's the bloody problem with Malaysian - we are always the latecomers, dilly-dally habitual latecomers! That's why our bus drivers have to break all known land travelling speed records with the aided help of the equally hellish outriders as partners in crime at times! Get my drift! Go early for your function and adhere to traffic rules-lar! Let's be responsible road users!

Ah! To my friends in the blue uniform, I am sorry, guys. I know, you're doing your duties and you get crap from the upper dongs just like every one else but it is frustrating for members of the public like me who are using the roads to earn a living each day. It is not easy to stop your vehicle while travelling just because you raise your finger to ask us to stop,ok? Afterall, you don't want the traffic accident records to hit the roof , right?

"Pandu cermat, Jiwa selamat" is the slogan I used to know. Still applicable-kah?

Medical Day!

Recently, I had my medical follow-up with my attending physician and I tell you, it was a roller-coaster of feeling as far as I am concerned. Everything is okay except the sugar level and the weight. Mind you, this is a passionate man who is genuinely concerned for my health and I must admit that I had been "reckless" a bit lately. Nope! Let me re-phrase that: reckless for the past 3 months! ( They say confession is good for the soul! ). Anyway,  I could not get away from getting an earful of advice from this physician of mine and at times, I felt ashamed of myself. Anyway, I am more determined to take better care of myself and to respond adequately. Eventhough he had a string of patients at his clinic, he really took the time to explain to me the need to trim the fats ( Ouch! It hurts! ) and to get ample rest or else I'll be meeting my Maker faster than he can dispense medicine to his patients! I took that in seriously because I could see his piercing eyes and thick eyebrows eyeballing me every second I blinked. It is a daunting and intimidating sight to behold! His bottomline is this : Eat wisely, exercise or you'll die! Short, sweet and simple - advice noted!

Armed with this , I took the decision to get some attention for my toothache that had been bugging me for about a month or two now. Yup! I can withstand the pain that I am going through. I guess, I am immune to pain unless I couldn't sleep or stand the pain anymore. If I think, I could swallow the pain, I would just endure it. Anyway, I decided against it and I drove to the nearest govt. dental clinic to get my pain resolved once and for all. I am really glad I did that and I am really impressed with the services rendered. There is indeed a vast improvement in attitude and services from the front counter to the doctors. It was a pleasant experience, I would say. Though I still have to wait for about an hour before I get to meet the dental doctor, I was very glad for his explanation and his professionalism in handling my dental conditions. He took a note of the medication I am taking and explained in detail before asking me to decided what I wanted to do with my tooth. I had only one word in my mind - EXTRACT the pain out of me, buddy! That was exactly what he did. He gave me two shots of nerve numbing fluid shots and 15 -20 minutes later, he was extracting the source of my nightmare for the past 2 months. Phew! What a relief but then my nightmare continues-lar the following morning as the tooth was quite a big one, blood still oozed out from the vacated area. Gotta be patient and let it heal naturally - that's what the doctor said. So, that means, popping the painkillers and hoping for the best.  So, even if I woke up about 4 times to spit out the coagulated blood and ease myself, it was still worth it or is it? I dunno but I do feel relief from the excruciating prior to pulling out of the tooth but at the same time, tired due to the lack of sleep and rest.

Yunno, the pain was mainly due to the bad tooth being broken into half and the sharp edge had cut into the underside and sides of the tongue. That caused an inflammation and swollen a bit while the bad tooth doesn't help one bit. The pain was so bad that for about a week , I had difficulties in swallowing solids without having to feel the sensational pain of the highest level. I understood now what it means by pain that Job and C.S.Lewis described when drinking water would also have the same effects of pain. It was excruciating but I guess, I had endured it and learned from it. So, I learned something new again and I am thankful for that. Afterall, life is not always a bed of roses but it is also a bed of thorns and pain, right? We learn and we all learn from experience, right?

Books, books, books.....

If you want to know what makes me happy, the answer would be spending time in a book store, reading and browsing through books. I must confessed that this is one part of my life that is seldom seen by friends except for my close friends and family. I just love to read and I love books a lot. I am not picky when it comes to book but I really enjoy topics that comes from the heart. So, yesterday is a fine example of how excited and how happy I am to be able to spend almost a day at the bookstores; not just bookstores but extra ordinary book stores.

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go on board the largest floating book store in the vessel MV Logos Hope together with my family and my friends, Errol & Jessica plus their two daughters, Josephine and Jocelyn. The vessel is truly in remarkable shape while the spread of books on various titles were great. The currency for trading were in Logos unit namely 100 unit is equivalent to RM 8.00. The crowd was like never ending and the queue was hopelessly long at times. Thank God that we were able set off early from Melaka and headed towards Port Klang Cruise Centre to board the vessel and get our book stuff. I am generally happy with my purchases and the fun I had. It was a blast indeed especially books with so many titles. The vessel was squeeky clean while the crew of volunteers and young people were remarkably courteous and smiling all the time. People of every shape and size plus every race, color and creed were there. I guess, that's Christian service at the best. There were just so many nationalities on board the vessel. I was very impressed with the experience. It was a great experience. Anyway, the biggest surprise came later in the day as we were travelling back from Port Klang heading towards Kajang for satay- Kajang style.

It was totally surprising that during our journey towards satay Kajang, we saw some road banners which read " Big Bad Wolf Book Sale ". SLing then alerted me about what my sis-in-law, Jade had told us about this book sales. It was simply too hard to resist and a quick check with Errol, our driver for the day, we were off to MAEPS, Bangi for the book sales. Somehow Satay Kajang got lost in translation and we landed up at a huge car park and we boarded this beautifully painted shuttle services to get to the Exhibition Centre Hall A. So, we trudged along with anticipation and excitement of the prospect of reviewing  tons of books and titles. The only problem was if our wallets could handled the tons of books. Then came our moment of truth as we walked into the hall. I don't know about the rest but my jaw dropped and eyes almost popped out of it's sockets when I saw the sea of human beings browsing a hall full of books. It is like one Boeing 747 hanger filled with books. Gosh! I was deliriously dumbstrucked by the mountainous volumes of books and magazines. I didn't even know where to begin and for a moment I was in cloud nine. I went for the Cooking section - I didn't even flinched one bit and I never looked back! I looked at the prices and I almost fainted. They are so wonderfully priced. The cheapest being RM 3.00 while the highest I saw was RM 25.00 - hard cover, okay! For me, I got those books within the range of  RM 5-RM 12 while my highest was at RM 25.00 ( That's for Jamie Oliver cookbook - Jamie's Kitchen - hard cover , mind you! I was thrilled to bits, I tell you! ) As I browsed  books after books after books, I bumped into many people ( hands, legs, shoulder, bum, front, back, side, heads -you name it ; every part was bumped into! ) and I am so glad that there are so many book lovers. Even SLing managed to get a book or two to read and sauntered down at one spot after being tired of walking around the convention hall. The books range from Children, Coffee Table, National Geographic hard covers, Cooking Books, Computers, Religion, Professional, Business, Management, Biographies and many more sections. WOW is the word I would use! For a book lover like me, this is PARADISE, I tell you! I truly enjoyed the time I spent reading and browsing through the books. It was like those younger days where I would spent a lot of time running to the libraries, just to read something. It was really amazing experience for me.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to Errol, Jessica, Josephine and Jocelyn for taking us and joining us on this trip fun. It was really a great time of fun, fellowship and bookship! Did we get our Hj.Samuri Sate Kajang? Oh Yes, we most certainly did and they tasted fantastic after some hardwork of browsing and straining our eyes on tons of books on Logos Hope and Big Bad Wolf Book Sales!

A big THANK YOU to BOOKXCESS for bringing us the tons of books for our enrichment and enjoyment. It is really a real pleasure and satisfaction in having to own books of interest though our wallets do get lighter after the experience but it is a good investment for our wallets - as far as I am concerned! After all, knowledge is wealth, right?

A day..

Early yesterday morning, I was on my way back from an assignment when I decided to have a stop at my favourite duck mee stall to have my food. Seemed like a typical day for me as I ordered my duck mee and a platter of fish ball & prawn crackers. Even before my food arrived at my table, I could hear a ruckus of laughter and chatter coming from my next table. Seated on my right hand side of the table were 7 ladies cum "aunties" cum "mosquitoes" from the land of unbelievable lungs power and thunderous voice. Every now and then, shrieks of laughter and unbelievable power of hand and leg movements were noted. It was at this time that I realised that the day is not going to be the same anymore. Somehow, I braved the occassional slap sounds, voluminous voices of chatter and mixture of some rather "flowery" words here and there. Then, my food arrived. The duck mee was tasteless while the fish ball and prawn crackers were flat like a gassed-out balloon on a circus stand. I had a tough time swallowing the food and to top off the already miserable day, the barley drink was equally flat and tasteless. Well, I chugged down the meal as I had paid for them while putting up with the 7 "aunties". Hey, I've gotta spruce my day with some positiveness, right? So, I did the next best thing - I sized up the aunties one by one at my adjacent table. They are roughly in their early 40's though they try to look younger in their "tight" fitting, body hugging attires and bling-bling were every where and any where available. Seriously, I don't know if they are real or plated, real rock or glass. I guess, in some parts of their attire, certain body parts such as the blubber and spare tyres cannot be hidden but they flaunt it anyway!  Hooray for women's power-lar! In the midst of the ruckus of laughter and the drama, I heard "The Voice". I dubbed this one as the loudest, graftiest, roughest voice ever. Incidentally , she is the roundest too. I sometimes wonder when the plastic chair is gonna give way! I guess, big ones had tremendous staying lung power and butt power too-lar! Then there is The Expressionist. Always doing something with her hands or her feet when she's talking. So full of expression, exasperation and perspiration too! Next comes, The Hawker. She shocked me to my hide when speaking in her group, she raised one of her feet to the seat and hanker there.  The only items missing are the spit bowl and the toothpick! The worst part, she was wearing short pants and there were lots of the five sen, ten sen decorative marks on her feet but she chatters the world away. Then I saw The Glutton. Every now and then as the rest are talking, this one would just continue to stuff her mouth with something to eat as though there would be no more food tomorrow or the world is comingto an end! The best part is that she is simply the slimmest of them all. They say in Hokkien - "chiak liao bee"! Then comes The Hair. This one keeps flinging her hair back as though she had the Sunsilk hair thingy or some supermodel from third world country. I wonder if she has neck problems or it is just a habitual thing. Then comes The Seller/Introducer who sits nearer to my table is next. She is the one that continues to take things out of her huge handbag and showing everyone what she has and how much is the price of this item or that items. Lipsticks to eye shadow to skin care products were pulled out of the bag like a magician whose tricks had gone horribly wrong. I swear, I didn't see any flawless skin nor smooth face surface here! Of course, the last is The Mortician. If you are guessing that this is the nice looking one, you've got it wrong! Yes, she may have the bread and butter as the men folks may say it but sorry to say that the weight and application of her make-up would make plastering concrete walls such a joy and I would have to recommend Dynamo to remove the face plastering off this woman. No cleanser is gonna do the job, I tell you!
It is horribly wrong to eavesdrop but if you are sitting an earshot from these ladies' conversation, you can't help but hear what had transpired. Topics are always centred on their family, husbands and other people's gossip. It really intrigues me what women folks will talk about when they are so free. The Voice even remarked that though they meet everyday, they stilll have so much to talk about and no need to work some more. That made me choked on my coffee but I was civil enough not to spray my mouthful of black coffee away. I was thinking aloud, " Aunty, so free ah! Please go to work and earn some hard earned money-lar like everyone else! At least , be productive for your own family and  the country rather than non-productive chatters!"  
The Expressionist then said, " Hey, no good-meh! We are already working what! Who is going to spend our husbands money if not us, right? We also work very hard  day and night-mah." ( stressing the night part ! Sheesh! ). Another round of loud laughter was heard. When it came to the topics of "working hard at night" and so on, I felt it was time for me to get back to work after filling my stomach with some food. In many ways , I am envious of these ladies for having so much time in their hands. Well, life has to go on, right? Still, it is a good experience for me. Never knew, sitting around a coffeeshop can bring so much joy! Afterall, every day is a learning day, right? You will never know what will happen or what lies at the next corner. So, live your days to the fullest and learn to laugh at life! Cheers!