We CAN have peaceful demonstrations

A group of protestors in Surabaya carrying out a peaceful marching demonstration escorted by police outriders.  Perhaps the authorities in Malaysia could take a lesson from Surabaya?  

A gift from the Creator

Your life is a gift from the Creator. Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life. - Billy Mills

Dinner at Castell to celebrate the boys' birthdays

Robbed off their childhood!

I secretly recorded these pictures at a car wash at the back of a restaurant. Shall I make a report? Although the children were not being bullied, they did looked unhappy. Also we have laws against child labour! They were washing the plates,pots and pans non-stop. Both were not wearing gloves. The elder one was wearing a pair of rubber boots, the younger one was barefooted!

Some years ago (20)

Date of entry 9 March 1949

Daughter Kim was teaching her younger sister the Malay language. Kim said : " 'Saya' is 'ME'. Her younger sister said: "Okay. So 'saya' is YOU!"

By Joon/Woon SC

Note: The younger sister was actually me, hee..hee..

Some years ago (19)

Date of entry: 14.8.1948 (Saturday)

Today is the first day of the Perak Turf Club Autumn Meeting. Mr. Wong and I went to Ipoh at 2 pm and reached the race course at 3pm. It was the starting of the 5th race. We then bought a cash sweep each and subsequently for each of the succeeding races. The nearest number we got was in the 8th race. Our number was 1991 and the number of the first prize was 1985.

We drank beer and whisky, half peg, after every race. Each of us lost about $10.

I then went to my cousin's place, Rex Hotel, and the whisky in me began to work. I felt giddy and vomitted in the wash basin in Room 7. I could not control myself and slept on the canvas bed till the next morning.

Now, remember again..never over drink!

By Joon/Woon SC

Mr. "What's left"

A person cannot be judged by his appearance

人不可貌相，海水不可斗量

A person cannot be judged by his appearance in the same token as the sea cannot be measured with a bucket.

Maid, 13, left starving...

Indian police rescued a 13-year-old maid who was locked up by her employers in their apartment with little food and water while they vacationed in Thailand.

The girl was rescued after spending 6 days locked up in the apartment, in an upper-middle class New Delhi neighbourhood.

News reports say her employers were doctors. The neighbours heard her crying for help and called police.

A child welfare official said the girl ran out of food after two days and was weak with hunger.

India's child labour laws make it illegal to employ children under 14, but the law is rampantly flouted.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au

Aging gracefully!

ON TURNING 70
'I still chase women, but only downhill'.

ON TURNING 80
'That's the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing.'

ON TURNING 90
'You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.'

ON TURNING 100
'I don't feel old. In fact, I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.'

Quote - Bob Hope

Clip art credited to www.picturesof.net

Our broadest smiles

I met this Hokkien speaking woman (about 60+) several days ago. She does not speak English, just only the Chinese dialect Hokkien. Here goes a translation of our conversation:

Hokkien woman: Hey... you look familiar...I think I have seen you before. Are you from Parit Buntar?

Me: I lived in Parit Buntar for 10 years. Maybe we went to the same school?

Hokkien woman: School? Cannnot be. I have never been to school.

Me: Were you in the Chinese primary school near the river?

Hokkien woman: Yes, I know about the Chinese primary school near the river. But I had never been to school. When I was small I used to help my father sell "tit-bits" outside that school. I used to envy the girls who go to school and always stared at them.

Well, talk about a small world. Although I do not remember her, possibly she remembers me

because she had wished she was like me, able to go to school?

Me: Where did you used to stay in Parit Buntar?

Hokkien woman: Actually along the river, 2 miles away from the Chinese primary school

Me: You are now staying in this condo?

Hokkien woman: Yes, I am staying with my daughter, looking after her 2 children.

Hokkien woman: You know, I brought up my 2 children all on my own. When my son, the second child was only 1 month old, my husband left me for another woman and never came back. I had to do all sorts of odd jobs to buy milk for the 2 children. I carried my son on my back and washed clothes for people. I also washed houses and offices, sold curry puffs and "kuehs". I put my son on my father's bicycle and cycled into the villages to prick the ears of little girls for 50 sen per child. I also used to sew and would sew until 2 or 3 am in order to earn some money to pay their school fees. You know, I worked and toiled for 25 years. Now they are big.

When she was telling me her life story, she was smiling all the time. I think she was not complaining, she was just so proud of her own ability to overcome life's harsh challenges.

I brought up my 3 kids singlehandedly too. But compared to her, my experience may have been a walk in the park, maybe along a tough mudder course, slippery at times but generally okay.

At the end of the day both she and me can put on our broadest smiles.