Courses Options

Sometimes I felt empty inside. I have been churning up designs after designs; taking care of the kids day in day out. I felt that I needed a change. Maybe I should take up some courses. For a start, cullinary class maybe? Or fashion design/sewing class ? Or maybe joining .....? Hmmmm...still seeking.

Yeah...maybe I should start doing something different before I feel stale, useless and lifeless!

House

House is so important.

Especially for me, house needs to be cozy, comfortable and also be quite tastefully done...at least to my eyes. :)

So as I mention, the house is almost almost there. I am pretty excited over the look. Of course, any house will look so much better without grilles and so is ours... ahhhh...those nasty looking grilles. Well, apa boleh buat...

The other day, I brought a new friend of mine (a client of mine actually) who happened to be in Interior business doing built-ins. He was all too excited when he sees the house. He wanted to do the built-ins, no sharing with others........as he wanted it to be his and his profile only. He adores the concept and all......bla bla bla.

Deep inside, I know he won't be my contractor and so it is true. The cost is almost 3 folds of my the other contractor. Wah!! 3 BIG FOLDS!! But I am really happy and proud that him, being an ID, loves the house! ;)

So be it, I know the house will still look good with my the other contractor..

I don't need 6 figures ID job to make my house look EXTRA good. Architecturally it is already nice and all I need is some very basic built-ins to store things, that's all.

Can't wait to move in! About a month more to go!! Yippie!

Should I stop??

It was a girl-night-out again with my buddies. As usual, great conversations, good food and great fun.

This time we happened to mention about blogging again. And the girls were a bit worry on security that one may 'mark' you and hence had pulled out all her pictures in the blogs. Wow. Serious. And the other would not even think of starting a blog for the same reason.

Hmmmm.......I felt threaten and being watched and my hands were sweating liao!!!

Hang on la...look at the few little 'cats' that pop into my website, hardly reach 10!! Marked? Popular blogger maybe la!! I don't blog hop and I never did. So people like Karen, Lydia, Mott, Clair, Pu1Pu3 were all blogs that I HAPPEN to read and some have become friends of mine now. Fated? Maybe...;P

Then again, some of the blogs that I read started to 'close shop' or inactive in other words. Maybe blogging is indeed a waste of time?

Well, as for now, I still write. I treat it as a channel to vent my views, my love, my happiness, my mood and to share it with the one I love(hubby of course) and friends who care to read and share some views with me.

I wish that this could be a gift to my sons when they grow up too. They will then probably know more about themselves when they are tiny and of course hopefully, they will learn more about their mother too. As simple as that.

Maybe one day, I will stop posting pictures of mine and both the boys. Y'know, for privacy of us all or perhaps poof........I will disappear without any notice but for now, I enjoy blogging and blog I will.

History

Somebody said this ' We want to let them know that it is UMNO that is the one who fight for independence in the country'....bla bla bla

This guy is quite young. Maybe 10 years my senior. So now he wants to change the entire Malaysian history by saying that, look, what the previous text book taught your mom and dad was WRONG! When we are all talking about unity, somebody still want to claim more of the piece of cake by saying something that might hurt the rest of the community.

Why now? Oh very simple...because now is the critical period. Some by-elections are heating up at 3 corners in the country.

Why now? Because those who ACTUALLY fight for the country independence all 'selling preserved eggs at ShuZhou' already (dead). (or the Hokkien said kong ka kiau!!)

Can some historians actually SAY something? Or we simply don't have any creditable historians now? Everything is governed and decided by our super-all-rounded politicians? Eh!

Maybe in the next 10 years, somebody will come up with something else about the history of Malaysia, in the name of politics...sigh...pathetic bunch...

Rubbish Views

I have tried my very best to contain my views on the current issues, especially on the politics as it always turned out ugly, sourish and with lots of bursting fury and anger..and I so much want to make this blog space a happy one but hey, we are living in a real world, eh?

There have been much rubbish flying around lately.

Some of the rubbish that I could recall lately are:

*** 1 DPM commented and said : Those living in multilevel residences will no longer be allowed to dry their clothes in the open “where the whole world can see,” effective next year.' Next year is less than a month from NOW and when exactly no one knows and he was quoted as saying there would be guidelines and also mentioning about moral switch. When he said multilevel residences, these includes flats (low cost), medium and high cost apartment to the super duper expensive condominium. I read as :

- I think yes, it is an eye sore, BUT it takes time to do this. Not next year.

- What guidelines? If you don't have one now, don't say next year.

- This comes from a DPM, so free ah? I thought he is also our Finance Minister? Now economy crisis already, he is thinking of laundry problems?

- Everybody knows we are living in the tropics, sun shines almost the whole year through and it is FREE and HYGENIC, it kills germs. So? What is wrong with drying it in open spaces? As long as we do not stick out outside the boundary, say 'within the constraint' of the balcony, I think it is fine. Electricity bills are soaring high, even with my dryer, I still do some drying at the balcony like for floor mats, pillow cases etc. Well, I suppose people staying in a bungalow like him would not understand this problem la....right or not?

- His statements is a blanket statement. Very 'odd' in a way. What about the old flats? Don't tell me the government will sponsor a dryer each for these homes? They are not HDB housing like S'pore where the govt can step in and do something about it drastically (with a budget discussed years ago, not in-promtu like this one lor...). Most of these units have about 750sq ft area with a very small yard at the tiny court yard where the sun hardly penetrate thru. It is a design, budget, built-up constraint problem. Unless the govt works together with the developer and designer to come up with a guideline (takes time for discussion right or not?), otherwise, just providing enough low cost units alone in the country is already a headache, not to mention the eye sore problem!!

***2 PM said : Stop all new projects on the slope...

- Another very blanket statement and blunt a bit lor...Not all developments on the slope are dangerous and not all the ones on flat land is safe either. Even flat land can have bad soils and can have sink holes and cause instability for the houses. Sigh........what a statement..

***3 Can't remember who said this, 'We will investigate the cause of it'

- Always the case lor, will investigate.. Halo!! Who investigate? Your mah chai ah? Sure cover here cover there and takes a LONG time to do la. Should state clearly ma, XXX as an independant party will investigate. Take this : the local authority cannot be sued. Oh well, in that case, BLAME GOD ah?

wait...

*** 4 Our Information Minister Mr.S said : Blame the developers and buyers too!!

- He blamed the buyers for seeking for good views. Yeah, maybe he prefers staying next to an industrial area? This is called REAL ESTATE la brother!! I think given a choice, anybody also prefers to have scenic view, mountains, greenery oso la!! Never play MONOPOLY before ah?? Aiyoyo!!

- He also blamed the developers for being greedy. I want to laugh when I see this. It is just like saying, a devil is naughty!! Aiyo, if developer not greedy, they won't become a developer la. But they are taking risk too. So to keep the balance, we have the LOCAL AUTHORITIES (LA) to counter check everything ma!! Othewise waffor have LA?? Just to collect fees for lisence meh??

- See, just by blaming the developers as a whole is very unfair. Say Developer A build on slope A, he won't know that 5 years down the road, the LA would approved Developer B or C somewhere down hill or uphill. He won't know the density blah blah blah, but the LA, right or not?

- See, nobody knows 5 years down the road, God decided to bring more rain. But the LA can surely set up a body to check on the hill side developments, all the built ones, under construction ones and the one to be approved. Conditions changed every year and designers/developers come and go, but the LA is and should always be there to check for the safety.

***5 A house owner actually managed to take pictures of uniformed Helpers (RELA? Army?Police - not mentioned) helping himself eating and drinking (alcohol) in the house of the victim.........Some also claimed that their jewelleries and important documents are gone (ie stollen)...

- What rubbish is this?? Looting at this very moment?? Malaysia boleh la!! I just hope that the owner can safely publish the photos without him being threatened and that certain body would not say that the photos are montage..as always the case be..Hmmmm...

I AM CONFUSED NOW. What rubbish I blurted just now?

Adoption

It was a 24 weeks-check up. Everything went on so smoothly and I told the doctor about my mistake in telling the wrong date for my last period and he just merely smile and nodded, 'Oh well, now everything is now more like it and I am not so confused by the scan and the date you had given me...' Silly me..

The scan SHOWS so clearly with the jiao jiao sticking out this time. No mistake. It IS a boy. No surprise anyway. Less shopping only. Good la, economy downturn ma!!

As we made our payment at the counter, I apologized for not bringing my appointment card. The 'nurse' attending me reminded me to bring the next time as it will be part of the record to be shown for obtaining the birth certificate later for the baby. We were rather puzzled. An appointment card? Birth cert? Oh well, is that supposed to prevent adoption or shall I say is adoption so rampant here in Malaysia?

Cakes

How lovely is this? Nope, not LV bag per se but a cake!! How cute! I received a forwarded mail from a lovely friend today sending me all these beautiful cute looking cakes. OH, how adorable!! But then again, it beats me (an after-effect of reading Karen Cheng's blogs) of how much food colouring is POURED into making one? Ooooo......... See, I was not THAT particular about food colouring until I read that certain food colouring is indeed 'poisonous' and 'cancerous' to a certain degree. I know the amount is so tiny everytime we consume, but then again, how many birthday cakes we eat a year? Maybe around 12 (or more if your kids started schooling..;P) ?

Maybe food just need to be simple and basic after all....

But still.........HOW CUTE!!

Milk for Sale

We went out last Wednesday. A group of well - mothers.

The dinner was supposed to be at 7.30pm but thanks to the Guiness Record of queue at the petrol stations on last Wednesday, my poor friends were stuck badly in the traffic for more than an hour. Nonetheless, we made it for the night and we had wonderful Japanese food at Hartamas Shopping Centre ( strongly recommended - Rakuzen ).

We were, well chatting about our kids mainly and then we proceeded to nursing and milking the child. Then one of the girls mentioning that her gynae was telling her that there is 'mother's milk' for sale in the market. She was all offended by the gynae. We all feel a bit odd and yucky too when she mentioned that. Yeah, having your child drinking another woman's milk?

But after a deep thought of that, ...actually, if we can take cow's milk (imagine putting your child to milk together with the baby cows, yucky enough right?), why not human's milk? We all know that mother's milk is the best.

I had come to know of a few friends who kept saying that

'I don't have a drop!'
'I tried, but only so little, my child does not have enough!'
'I don't have the time and energy to pump, I am so tired. I need to work ler!'

Also, what about those that suffer serious post-natal depression?

So, I thought, if the source is trustworthy (non alcoholic, non smoker etc) and they have abundant to give away or share...for the sake of the baby, I would say YES! I am a breastfeeding mother, I know the great benefit of breast milk to the new born.

Recently, I read about a Chinese woman in Sichuan, China who actually breast fed(yes, she was shown carrying 2 babies to her breasts and a few more waiting to be fed!) a few babies. These babies might have lost their mothers during the earthquake. She left her baby at home for her parents to take care while she breast fed the hungry ones with the best food - mother's milk. I absolutely admire her decision and determination. She is a true mother for her love and grace shine!!

So, no more 'yucks' and 'disgust', right?! So to mothers that kept complaining that their milk factory is not working, check out for the sale of 'Breast milk' for a change! A good change, in fact.

La--Ta--Li--Lat--Tam--Pom!!!

I read the news with such frustration.

They are so frequent minded. And I hate that. Yes, I hate people who say A but then act B and this happen in less than 24 hours! I would 'divorce' the relationship if government is like say 'my husband'!! Gosh!

The reasons given are SO not reasonable. Raising 40% and ask us normal rakyat to change lifestyle again! Rebate? How? Have they studied the actual lost and earn? Why change their mind over night? Punch the wrong figure in the calculator izit? If I could recall, they say no price hike for 2008 but they do it again. Then they say no change of price until August then boom! 40% rise! They pledged to better the public transport system but 6 long years, nothing has improved. And for the last 6 years, prices had been steadily increasing and this is the ultimate - 41% to be exact!

So they said want to ban the car from pumping petrol at the border, then they say 'Oops! Wrong calculation, can lah can lah! Singapore dat side can but Thai one cannot la! Sorry huh' then 'All can la!' Sure la, pass the problem to rakyat, now price are almost same same liao, so pump here or there make no difference already! Good mathematics.

They say they want to help the poor. Ya lor, so kind. They say want to help to get the saved money to subsidize other thing like rice. But everything will go up 40% if not more leh, dear frens in Cabinet! You all got car and travel allowance, we don't have! Can that 40% raise cover EVERYTHING that raise up 40% ah? No money to put in the 'CORRIDORS' izit? So want us to subsidize la? Got money left for your astronaut or not? Not enough next month raise 10% again lor...No money to renovate Parliamentary House? Raise again 1% next next month lor....so easy!

When people voted other party, they say 'We will change, we will listen to the rakyat...'
When some poor rakyat go on a peaceful demonstration, they say 'Don't disrupt the peacefulness of the country' 'Bad image for the country!'
When people blog and commented, they say 'Don't simply write, put you to ISA!'

I am sure these bunch of people are
. selectively deaf
. selectively blind
. selectively forgetful

From their 'lat-ta-li-lat-tam-pom' policy, no wonder they say inflation rate will raise by 1% ONLY! OMG! Simply pluck figure again and want to tipu us la?!

Better safe my electricity and blog less! Chiao!

Grieving Mothers

Aside from suffering from the ever soaring inflation and escalating price for commodities, we are indeed a bunch of blessed mothers who can STILL happily celebrate mother's day.

For some, they are not as lucky. They could be having nightmares and sleepless night after losing their loved ones in the disaster in Myanmar and yesterday, China - one of the worst earth quake in the last 3 decades for the nation.

As a mother now, I can't help but have teary eyes and felt the grieving pain of the victims. They lost their loved ones, lost their house and even have to leave their homeland to get to a safer and alien place to start all over. It is a disaster. I could not imagine if that were to happen to me.

I picked up my cheque book and signed for the donation fund in Sin Chew Daily. I hope those who has not done so, find a good channel to extend your help.

Our mother earth is angry, furious and seriously ill. She needs our immediate attention and care. This is an alarming call. What have I done so far and how much more can I help the earth?

080308

Remember this date 8th March 2008 as it marks a new chapter for all Malaysians.

Yes, it was our voting day yesterday, coincides with the International Women's Day. I vote, of course and it was my 3rd. And like usual, I went with my brother. I love the atmosphere of the voting day. It is a day that I felt so strongly that I AM A MALASYSIAN and I am PART of it. The feeling is stronger than the National Day for sure. I love the fact that everyone eligible is there and we all have one vote in hand to cast - for the betterment of the nation.

This time, the feeling is ALL so strong.

The whole night, we stayed up with FIL, MIL, SIL to check online and on TV for the latest result. (See, we love the country so much actually). I could not hold it anymore after 11pm but hubby stayed on for the result. We knew something is unusual here. The counting of votes had already been done in most schools and voting centers by 7pm. And with the system now, all news should be out by latest 9pm or 11pm. We knew that it would be a close fight and in me, I just hope that it would be a fair fight.

And so by now, we all knew the result.

I am relieved. It seems that a majority of city folks shared the sentiment - to see a change of blood in the system. It is a big win for the oppositions for Penang, Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan and Perak.

I am glad. Thanks to the people who supported the oppositions and give the country a new breath and chance.

I am glad. Thanks to the people who take their time out to vote.

Thanks to internet, You-tube, Malaysiakini-Raja Petra and other opposition leaders, supporters and volunteers.

Ah..what a day!

Same old same old

That was the headline from the Straits Time, now kena taruh liao for being too harsh and not just that, they had printed the FAM logo with R.I.P (rest in peace). I am no football fan but I thought that the press and the editor must have really felt the shame, the lost and the disappointment with the football team-the players and the management gang, that is why they had printed as such. Of course, they knew they would offend some people, but they just want to express their anger and grieve! They are serious with football. They love football. To love is NOT just to pamper and to offer protection ALL the time. BUT, to some people - offended and boh song...(hokkien - don't feel good!) Well, termakan cili padi kut..

Then, there was these group of people. They claimed they love this country so much. They teach us how to love- Put up lots of banners and bill boards of their pictures and asking us to start flying the flags in the country to celebrate the country's birthday - to SHOW our love. So some starts to show la, with their super bikes or kap chai and every year without fail, will honk, race and shout and leave the Merdeka Square with heaps of rubbish the next day- Is that our culture, our love to this country? This year, 50 years old, BIG event. So these people said MUST celebrate at KL on that special day only. Like dat one meh? Love is defined and confined to time and location. Ooooo....

Then again, every about 5 years, our road will be tarred. Some road side-walk will be paved, some trees and flowers planted nicely and well taken care of for a couple of months - at least. Then hor, some people faces will be featured with disasters-strike areas/people/etc so so so often, then, *blink-blink*, election is coming lor...

Same old, same old...

Green Day

It was a beautiful morning. We did not balik kampung this week. MIL and the rest went to Singapore for a short break and since Jien is still very much needing his nap in the morning and afternoon, we have to stay back and not joining the family trip this year...arghhh...

Nevertheless, we spent the day off at FRIM, Kepong, with our little one. We love nature, and we want him to start loving it too! Haha, just joking but anyway, it hold some truth too. I would bring him for scuba diving if he loves too one day. :) Just a short stroll in the 'jungle', but our boy as usual kept his eyes open all the while to see and observe the surrounding.

Talking about scuba diving, oh I sure miss the old days when I could go back packing for weeks and take leaves to go scuba diving. I miss trekking mountains in Nepal, miss the crisp air in NZ, miss the busy Bangkok and the culture-rich Beijing. I wish I could start traveling again real soon. I mean, serious traveling. Hmmm...sounds really like a fantasy now.

Anyway, it is World Environment Day on Tuesday, so what have we done as a citizen of the world? Let's see..
. I pledge to bring my own shopping bag to the mall
. I already started segregating all the glass containers from the my garbage bag. I washed them, and grouped them before disposing them. Papers also are separated.
. I pledge to car pool if possible.
. I do not smoke!!
. I will leave one container in my car from now on. Just in case I need to 'ta pao' food.
. I don't let water running while I brush my teeth or doing any washing (sorry to say, but I hate to see people doing that!)
. I try not to turn on the A/C if possible.
. I buy energy saving bulbs even for my client (which means eating into my profit, haha!)

I hope I can contribute more. It hurts to see all the effects of mankind polluting the environment in a non-reversible state, in the name of development and convenient. I think for now, we could not stop it, but at least, we could slow it down, in a dramatic way, if all of us do it together.

We do not inherit the world from our ancestor; we just borrow it from our children.

Retire

I received an e-mail from a friend (Dennis, M'sian) who have been staying in Hong Kong for yeeearrs now. He had posted some questions for me and I thought maybe I should just post it here for him and the rest to read. Maybe in years to come, I may look back and change my answers again. Well, then again, I have to state it clear that these are my opinions and I am considering ALL these in MY perspectives and not trying to see things in YOUR side ok?? :)

~If you consider a place for retirement, will you retire in Malaysia ? If yes, which part of Malaysia will you choose (East Malaysia or West Malaysia) ?
I have not been to Sabah (the only state in M'sia which I have not stepped my feet on!) though I have heard lots of good things about her. I will not consider staying or retiring at a place which I have not been to or just have a short trip for leisure. Living and travelling are 2 VERY different things. So, for now, my answer is NO. I will still choose to stay here, West M'sia.

~Well, which province will you choose (Sabah, Sarawak, Johor, KL, PJ, Penang) ?
Here, Klang Valley but not Puchong, not Cheras, not Kepong! As for now, I still love the easy access to the latest informations around me by staying here. I would love to watch more theatres and play, listen to live orchestra performances, do shopping at the hottest shopping complex (during off-peak hour, please). Hopefully by then, I would be staying in my dream home, outskirt of KL.

I would like to listen to your views over Malaysia in following aspects:

~Expenses for Basic Needs: Housing, Cars, Fuel, Public Transport, Food, Electricity, Phone Services, Fresh Water, etc.
On average, Malaysian still have to work VERY hard to save. There are too MUCH expenses and they are ever increasing. The recent huge increment for government servant is a good thing but the question is : Is it enough? Does the government take into account of all the increment of basic living expenditure from MERDEKA till now? Do we even have enough in years to come to sustain these increment when the oil well runs dry by 2010? Do we have any buck up our exports? Our country is still owing money, FIY, lots of it. Bottom line for you maybe, is: Earn as much money as you can there, spend it here. :)

Availability and Expenses of Medical Services and Medicine Supply. How about availability of other social welfare, provided by Malaysian Government ?
Availability : Ok if you are in Klang Valley and big towns.
Social welfare ....well, I think I would still prefer to rely on myself than relying on government or the little saving in EPF.

Government Indirect Taxes, such as sales taxes for goods and services
hm..no comment.

Hazards to Environment, any factors causing deterioration of air, water and food quality
I guess this is a global problem, not restricting only to M'sia. But the point is, I do not sense any sincere effort (govt) to eliminate or slow down the effect. P/S Let's just hope that the 'smoky monsoon' from our neighbour will not be around this year. Main factor? political issue again..

Cultural differences between Malaysians and Hong Kong Chinese
Anybody can live here ok, Malaysians are talented lot for languages. With a bit of Bahasa which is rather easy to learn, anyone can live with the differences. Cultural differences? No culture shock. Lately, the government has promote 'Malaysia-Your 2nd Home' programme which of course is yet to be drafted in detail. There are too many grey areas for these investors and the parties (bank, developers etc ) involved do not have the expertise in this area and do not know what to react and how to react. Let's just hope that this is not hangat-hangat tahi ayam, again.

Freedom of Money Movement in and out of Malaysia. Any restrictions imposed ?
Yes.

Protection of Reasonable Interests of Investors in Malaysia ( such as Freedom of Money Movement in and out of Malaysia. Any restrictions imposed ?)
I am not so certain on this but they do have measures to attract investors.

I tried my best. I hope I had answered your questions well. :P

The M'sian Top Civil Servant

The TV is so filled with elimination game programmes that it spills over to comic strips now - the beautiful Brenda Starr and her colleagues are now being watched and voted out 1 by 1.

She said : I am goin' to win by pure hard work.

That strikes me ..since the government has come up with loads of ideas and SPENT SO MUCH on funny 'Senyum' campaign, kursus after kursus, advise after advise, pay raises, bonuses, extra off-days until our PM himself has to do 'spot-check' at offices, what a waste of government fund and resources and with not much of results.

Why can't we turn this around and make it someting that can kill 2 birds at one go?? Have a live TV programme similar to the concept, let's start by bringing the local councils staffs to live and earn money via votes ie sms-la. Somemore ah, we will get to know these staffs better. Having them being watched by the whole nations, I am sure they have to be extra hard-working, be it 'pura-pura' (pretentious) also nevermind la. This will definitely be something very entertaining too. Wah, killing so many birds with 1 stone now. Ah, also hor, we have so many town councils, so this show can go on and on for so many seasons!!

I am Brilliant. :)

21st Century in Kelantan

Sometimes I wonder why some councils are so free, they can always come up with surprises, without fail to knock us all from our seats, from laughing of course to their new rules and implementation. I can't help but wonder what are their weekly or biweekly meeting agendas ...

Hmmm, so this time around, not Klang (phew! lucky me), it is in Kelantan. Councils can now fine up to RM500 if any women working in retail shops and restaurants were found indecently dressed, in their eyes. And this rules apply to both Islam and non-Islam women. There are a lot of negative views on this rule today in the paper, all complaints are from WOMEN and WOMEN only. The male chose to keep silence about this, for now. I wonder if they secretly are cursing the ideas...dah, tak dapat cuci mata kan?

It is a very funny phenomenon back here recently. It seems that our leaders are leading us backwards. Example :
If somebody had purposely took a peep at your thighs, it is because you dress sexily and seductively (to that particuliar idiot of course). Normal office attire is what you are wearing actually. In most rape cases, the female who were the victims, will be blamed for being unreasonably SEXY. What about cases which fathers are the one raping their daughters, not once but repeatedly? What about those poor girls below 7 years old and barely know anything about desire and they have not yet reached pubity, so what sexiness are we talking about? Oh, not many of our nenek here can do plastic surgery and look like Sharon Stones, yet they are not spare either.

This is all crap! Show us no more chauvanism please. We are already in the 21st century for goodness sake. Don't use religion as an excuse. It is the suppressed desire and crooked mind that lead to all these. They certainly need proper counselling and consultation from psychologists. And talking about fines, should we women fine you men for 'scanning' us from head to toe or what? And for repeat rapers - why can't they consider the big 'CUT' to solve the problem? Why are some rules pass so fast without us noticing but for cases like raping - so many type back here, they have yet to come up with revised stringent fines and jail terms up till now? NO TIME AH?

And today our politician also talked about imposing more stringent fines for prostitutes. Eh, what about those who seek for prostitutes? If you can stop prostitutions here in Malaysia, can you fine those that go all the way up north and seek for prostitutes and bring back tonnes of germs? Chicken and egg situation....

And they are talking about bringing back the glory and salvaging RTM channel. Try putting some sexy women in there, sure up up all the way!!! :)

Klang - I love U?

I remember fairly well in the old days I used to roam around with Pru, Ah-Ann, Ah-Wee etc in the neighbourhood without fear of being kidnapped. I remember not much of traffic jam in my hometown except during Raya or other festives. I remember we used to have rukun tetangga in the community. I remember I started cycling to school since primary 4. I remember we used to stay back and have other activities like school band, choir etc and then we will gather under the big trees ordering sugar cane juice and keropok from stalls outside the school fence. I remember ...I remember...

NOW,
- I see parents have to queue up to pick up their kids, fearing the worst - kidnapping might happen.
- I see trucks and BIG containers speeding and maneuvering the 50' or 40' branch road at housing area; imagine you have lorries driving pass right in front of your beloved terrace house.
- I see traffic jam worse than Kuala Lumpur (unless flooding in KL~la) on normal days.
- I see so many housing projects mushrooming here and there, with no proper extension of road leading to them.
- I see loads of development, but I don't see any expansion and extension of new bridge leading to Port Klang.
- I see new development in town, but the road seems to remain, like some 10 years back?
- I see new decorative lamp posts, new plants (mainly royal palms --$) being planted but after 3 years, they are gone...tata
- I see a row of shop apartment being erected with at least 30 apartments with 6 shops on the ground floor, but err...I only see less than 10 or less parking space alloted. The rest, guna basikal lah...atau bas?
- I see (lately) the old Great Wall had turned into a new bus station. Still jam. The bus servicing this area must be the special type - short type with less than 10 passangers as I see only a row of the normal bus stop seats available for each of this super modern aviation-looking shelter. Maybe the weather in Klang is not entirely tropical, I don't know, but the shelters are built so tall and I wonder it could shelter us from the 2 main weather killer- sun and driving rain. I see breakage of links of shelter for pedestrians at this area. Of course, Klang people can sprint fast when the rain comes. And the city is certainly planning to have air-conditioned this whole part of town central in the future, I think, and I pray for this to happen.
- I see a special planning phenomena and pattern which is very very interesting. Your house could be directly next to Giant supermarket, a furniture mall, a temple, a restaurant or sometimes a factory. I admire this for I can throw whatever I had learnt in uni about planning. Things can go so spontaneous and random. Of course, as I said, the best is to see your house fronting road become the parking or roaming space for trucks or kontena.
- I see this in papers (luckily, I don't want to see this with my own eyes) that Klang is famous for notorious for gangsters activities. Parang might be a sellable item in Klang.
- I see Klang people are quite kesian actually as unless we want to keep staying in Klang, if we would like to venture out to Shah Alam or further, toll-paying is inevitable. Name the alternatives available - NKVE, Kesas, Shahpadu, Federal Highway - all made available and waiting for u to pay, pay and pay.

A lot of people tell me that they are not familiar with Klang and don't know how to reach Klang. Well, simple. Take any roads that say Klang, for example the NKVE or Federal Highway, when you suddenly come to an unmistakable bottle neck with at least 15 minutes if not more before you can move a foot, you are in Klang town already.

Of course now, we are not only famous for ALL the above and also our Bak Kut Teh and burung gagak, now we have also nurtured a few rich councillors that the newspapers have to keep on mentioning this special Royal Township. How proud we are.

Oh, Klang, I love U, I love U not...I love U, I love U not....I love U, I love U not...

A letter to MPK

Dear Pengarah MPK,

Extension Work To Our Existing Corner Lot 2-Storey Unit to a 2 1/2 Storey Link House at xxxxxx

Matters above referred. I,Blinka.li would like to bring to your attention the above matter at No.xxx, Jln.xxx off Jln.xxx, Kampung xxx, Port Klang. We had received few notices for the above extension. For your information, we did hire an architect after our first notice, and our architect had informed us that the plan had already been submitted. We are just normal citizen and we do not know anything about the in and out of the submission prosedures. We later found out that the architect did not do his work and we are currently seeking advise from another professional.

As I am writing this letter to you, I have to admit that I am writing with a heavy heart as you mentioned that MPK is going to tear down the extended portion without further consideration. I have to state that I am building this for the sake of my family. There are 11 brothers and sisters in the family and we are very closely knit. We still stay together in our double storey 5 rooms link house. As you can see, there are not enough rooms for the entire family. Few of my brothers are already married with their kids staying in with us and we have to give in the rooms for them and we sometimes take turns sleeping in the hall. We do not intend to move out from this house as we have been staying in this kampung for more than 20 years now and we love our neighbours dearly.

I am writing this not to imply that I am not wrong in my doing so. I am just seeking for MPK's kindness as to just fine me with 10x the submission plan fees which I shall pay accordingly. Meanwhile, all the 10 years' due Cukai Pintu, we had just cleared the payment last week for your information. There must be some miscommunication or procrastination on my brother side to cause such a trivial matter to arise.

We do not intend to bring the law to our hand. We are just naive citizen and we hope that the MPK will continue to guide and lead us.

Malaysia dan Klang BOLEH!

just me