“The “Ops Sikap XII” road safety campaign met its objective to reduce fatal accidents during the Chinese New Year festive period, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy.

News Source

17.2 Malaysian road users die every day! That’s like over 6,000 deaths in a normal year. How gruesome is that?

The news report went on to say that 60% of the fatalities involve motorcyclists and their pillion riders. Makes one’s blood curdle to hear that. Especially those with loved ones who commute daily on bikes.

My friend, Mona is such a case. She trembles when she reads the latest escapades of the Mat Rempits in the news and prays that her motorcyclist son is not in anyway involved with them.

“I am worried for him everytime he’s on the road. I wished we could afford to get a car for him but a Modenas bike is all I could give him,” she sighs.

In her concern, she calls him every now and then to check on his whereabouts. “I told him that it’s not because I want to control his movements, but I can’t rest unless I know that he’s safe and not lying on the road somewhere helpless and bleeding.”

It was one of those rare moments where I get to see the other side of the story. You see, most of the car drivers in town can really nurse a grudge against motorcyclists in general. Ask anyone and they’ll gladly tell you many tales on how errant motorcyclists did them wrong and showed no signs of remorse for it.

“I know a lot of people curse motorcyclists in their hearts when they see them on the road,” Mona went on. “But not all motorcyclists are reckless. Not all of them are Mat Rempits.”

My heart goes out to her. Even if it’s not their fault, the chances of these vulnerable motorcyclists perishing on the roads are way higher than other road users.

A mother’s love is tireless and Mona never ceases to remind her son to practice road safety and exercise civic consciousness. And most importantly, to practice it herself. There is no doubt that this is a good way to inculcate good values in the lives of young Malaysians.

There is an radio advertisement in the airwaves recently where a young child was gently reminding her dad to obey the traffic laws.

“Don’t cut queue, daddy…”

“Don’t speed, daddy. You are supposed to go only 65 kph.”

“Daddy, did you signal before making that turn?”

“Daddy, why is the uncle on the motorbike not wearing a helmet?”

Nice ad. But I think that if the daddy keeps on disobeying the laws, he will be effectively imparting subtle but strong negative values to the girl. She may very well grow up to know the rules in her head but not practicing them. Monkey see, monkey do.

Could this possibly be one of the reasons for our shocking road death rates? Perhaps it’s time to look at our own driving behavior. I have quite a few areas to go myself. Like leaving earlier to get to my destination so that I would not be tempted to speed.

Let’s do our bit to bring down the road accident stats. May the term “Malaysian drivers” evoke a smile of fond remembrance to tourists instead of the shudder at the traumatic thoughts that normally accompanies the unfortunate term.

Malaysia boleh!

I realised something today. See, I’ve blogged on topics like being single, dating, marriage and even kids. But there’s one thing which I have never publicly blogged before. And I thought, "By jove, I’ve gotta blog about this! It’s a vital part of humanity. We would cease to exist without it. Yes, let’s talk about sex!" So here goes nothing.

I always thought that married people have more sex. I mean, that’s one of the benefits of being shackled together till death parts you, right?

Not so true, according to a friend. Apparently, sex in promiscuous settings and sex between married couples is vastly different.

It all started when he mentioned the date that his baby was made.

Surprised, I asked him this question. "How can you know that? I mean, if you have sex regularly, it’ll be quite hard to pinpoint the exact date, right?"

His shocking answer was, "Well… The thing is, we don’t have sex regularly."

I was gobsmacked. No regular sex? How can this be???

"Once you are married," my friend went on. "There are so many factors involved before you can have sex. Foreplay is extremely crucial here. The guy has to work hard to make sure his wife is happy the whole day right up till bed time to ensure that they will indeed have sex that day."

Uh oh. I just talked to his wife on the phone. And she didn’t sound too happy with how the day went.

I looked at my poor friend straight into his eyes. "Well, I guess you won’t be having sex tonight then."

He shook his head sadly. "You guessed right."

And now, my blog is wholesomely complete :)

After a whole week’s worth of Chinese New Year holidays spent mostly out in the hot sun visiting relatives, friends and the public library, you would think that I would be looking forward to go to work where there’s a perennial blast from the wonderful air conditioner.

Alas, such is not the case. Yes, it had been an awfully hot week in which I all but melted and nearly drowned in my own sweat. Yes, there were a lot of things going on that made me resemble a mad hen rushing from one end of the town to another to make it on time for many appointments.

But all the above ’sufferings’ was well worth the while. For the past week was fun. Pleasant. Meaningful.

Yesterday I did what any good patriotic Malaysian book lover would be proud of doing – I went to the National Library for the first time in my life! Together in my historic journey was Sharon, my kindred spirit.

From the Ampang Park LRT station, we took a short cab ride to the mammoth of a library located at Jalan Tun Razak. You can also go there by hopping on a Rapid KL bus from KLCC. It was directly opposite the National Heart Institute (IJN). We were suitably impressed by the big building. I promptly registered myself as a full-fledged member. The application form costs 20 sen and photocopying charges for my MyKad was 10 sen. Application processing fee is RM1. It costs a total of RM1.30 for the whole application thing. Very, very reasonable. Parking at the main building is free, too. Membership is opened to all Malaysians and foreigners. For Malaysians with MyKad, no membership card is issued. The MyKad acts as your library card. Which is way cool for my card-laden wallet.

They have a whole lot of multimedia and internet facilities there. Internet access is free of charge but patrons are only allowed 60 minutes of internet access per day. They also have a canteen there which offers Malay food to hungry library staff and patrons. There were quite a number of patrons milling about the place and reading at the ample tables and chairs provided. They were mostly students cramming for their exams. Ah, those were the days when I visited the library out of necessity and not leisure. The poor mites.

Sharon soon burrowed her nose in a non-fiction book while I roamed the whole library to my heart’s content. The borrowing section was located in another building (Wisma Sejarah) adjacent to the main one. I was rather disappointed at their meagre selection of English fiction books and their photography book section was really pathetic compared to my bookshelf at home. I was sorely tempted to be a buyer of books for the place. But upon looking at the sleepy and bored faces of the library staff, I thought twice about working there. Some of them were even dozing off at their stations. But she was really friendly and helpful when I asked for some help in using their OPAC book search system. The poor mite must have been bored stiff in her job!

There were a lot of empty book shelves in the fiction floor. Still, it took me well over an hour to peruse books on the whole floor. It was a delight to come across books that I had always wanted to read but not buy. I selected 3 books with no difficulty whatsoever. As a member, I could borrow a maximum amount of 3 books for 3 weeks. I could renew them for another 3 weeks over the phone. Renewal of books are only allowed once.

I borrowed “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” by Marina Lwycka, “Silverfish New Writing 2″ and Roald Dahl’s “Collected Short Stories”. Needless to say, my inner book person was satisfied.

I guess the distance factor and traffic conditions made me take such a long time to pay homage to the National Library. But I’m glad I did. Going there is like a pilgrimage every Malaysian book lover should make at least once in their lifetime. Muslims go to Mecca. Christians and Jews go to Jerusalem. Book lovers go to… national libraries.

Next in line would be doing what Sharon likes. It’s probably gonna be something sporty or outdoorsy. Heh.

Photo credits

So there I was this CNY in the midst of my old friends when I noticed that almost everyone brought a child along. These kids come in many shapes and sizes. One was running all over the house wreaking havoc everywhere she went. Another adorable curly haired kid was giving his best smiles to all the uncles and aunties in hopes of a fatter angpow.

It made me wish that I had ‘borrowed’ my sister’s daughter to attend this reunion. At least I’d blend in better.

For some reason, my niece adores me. And likewise, I am under her spell.

“The minute she sees you, she drops everything just to be with you. Everything’s forgotten, even her own mom,” my sister said to me in mock despair.

I say mock because when I offered to bring her out to spend time with me, her father gave me such a grateful look. “Oh, that would really take a load off our shoulders for that afternoon, thank you so much!”

The poor sods. It must be tiring to be surrounded by kids 24/7. Even if they were your own. It makes me treasure the gift of singleness all the more while I can. And I aspire to be a better aunt to my nephews and nieces and be a positive influence in their growing years. It’s easy to be positive when you don’t have to bring them back home and care for them day and night. It’s tough to be a parent and I think my sis and hubby are doing a great job with their kids.

I remembered having absolutely no interest in kids and such not too long ago. I can play with them, relate to them and connect with them but that’s about that. But it changed just a few days ago when my niece followed me to run an errand. As we walked down the street together, her small hand firmly clasped in mine, my heart felt such love and warmth having her close to me and looking up to me with those adoring and trusting eyes. I feel so protective over her safety and wanted to give her the best I can. The worse thing was, if onlookers were to mistake her for my daughter, I would have been bursting with pride and not take offence at all!

It’s such a strange feeling. Very, very odd. But very, very nice.

To all my Chinese readers and friends, my family and I wishes you a very blessed Chinese New Year filled with all the goodies, health and joy that defies all imagination :)

We are having a most wonderful time just enjoying each others’ company and being trigger happy. This is the first Chinese New Year that my baby is spending with us and my mom loves the joy that he adds to our family. With each year that passes, there is an unspoken rule to make and capture more memories together as a family. Through the rough year that we had in 2006, we have learned not to take things for granted. Every day that God has blessed us with health and togetherness, we embrace it with joy.

Thank You, Lord for this wonderful, wonderful new year of new beginnings!

One thing I loved about Lake St. Clair (no, it’s definitely NOT the 6-minute showers) is the many great short walks that they have. On the evening of Day 2, we took the Aborigine Cultural Walk. There were informational signposts along the way to educate us about the aboriginal culture and lifestyle. The remaining aboriginal tribes that lived in Tasmania were relocated to Flinders Island, giving the English free access to the rest of the state. The poor things!

As aghast as we were to the treatment dished out to the original inhabitants of Tasmania, we were impressed that the Aussies did not conceal the history of the place. Nor did they hide the fact that some parts of their country were forged from convict colonies. The background of the country may be deemed unsavoury but at least it’s not repainted.

We loved the short walks so much that we covered as much area as we could in Day 2 and the morning of Day 3. We bumped into a friendly elderly Australian called Graham who helped take a picture of us. He had quite an impressive list of achievements including being a licensed hang glider and a licensed small aircraft pilot. He was also walking in the cold weather clad in just a jumper, shorts and sandals. Very, very unlike MF and I who were clothed from head to toe in a few layers of clothes. Brrrrr!

The red line represents the trail we took

MF and I at Lake St. Clair

The weather at Lake St. Clair was so erratic that in that same morning during our walk, we saw magnificent clear blue skies alternating with dark depressing skies in a matter of minutes. This can be attested by the next two pics. Talk about weather with unpredictable mood swings!

Platypus Bay – Unfortunately, being nocturnal animals, they only come out in the evening. So we didn’t catch sight of any.

A place of quiet repose

After our invigorating walk, I sat by myself at the jetty overlooking the quiet lake and for a moment of solitute. Scribbled some stuff on my journal and said a prayer to God, thanking Him for His faithfulness and presence that transcends all distance and circumstances. After a few days of being constantly in the presence of others, I realised that I miss hanging out with one of the persons that I love most in the world – myself!

:)

Then we checked out of our Lake St. Clair cabin and headed to Cradle Mountain. We had two options – to go by a much longer route that will take us to scenic Strahan or to use a straight-forward and shorter route. The good news was, both routes will take us past the magnificent Nelson Falls, Queenstown. Travelling to Strahan will set us back at least 3 hours more, so we decided to go to Cradle Mountains via the shorter route.

We had a quick bite of sandwiches after snapping some shots of the Falls to our heart’s content and then we moved onwards in our journey.

Nelson Falls

Tasmania has dense rainforests, too – just like Malaysia!

It was a beautiful day with bright blue skies and grassy meadows. I couldn’t resist snapping photos along the way while we were journeying in the car. It was a good thing I did, for the next two days, the weather was miserably, miserably rainy and grey :(

You can see Cradle Mountain at a distance here

101 Uses of a Tripod

We did our laundry that night in our lodgings at Cosy Cabins, Cradle Mountain but we had nowhere to hang our clothes. Besides creating clothes lines with our plastic bags and belts, this is one of our ways of drying our damp cleaned clothes in the room. A brain child of HS. Ingenious, if I may say so myself. Thanks, Scott for your tripod! :P

Paulos was so excited to be reunited with his beloved lunch partners today. Imagine, the three of us have not met in months! Alas at the very last minute, I was called for a photo shoot in my co’s Japanese restaurant.

Would I stand up my lunch buddy for a delectable (and free!) Japanese lunch?

Hah, that’s like a no-brainer question, right? Of course anyone would do the same had they been in my court shoes *ahem*

So, to Paulos’ chagrin, he had to have lunch on his own. Moni G, the other lunch partner also had other last-minute lunch plans. Poor Paulos!

But honestly, how could I have resisted these delightful dishes lar?

The seafood platter – What I stood my lunch buddies up for :P

Crab dish

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This mushroom udon is the best udon I’ve tasted in my life

Tofu dish

Seafood salad

Valentine’s dish

If it helps, know that in my enthusiasm to get the right angle, I didn’t realise that the sleeve of my blouse was rubbing away nicely on a two huge slabs of raw salmon. Yeah, so now I’m wearing the ever so fishy Salmon perfume. No wonder everyone’s staying at a respectful distance from me at work. Waaaaa…

Lonely, I’m so lonely,
All because I smell so fishy,
Waaaaa!!!

New dresses for free! All the ladies in the company get to choose one or two items from a selection of nice clothings/accessories/shoes from our boutique outlet for free!!!

And we were treated to the best home-made desserts I’ve ever tasted in my life. The stuff I eat at hotels don’t even come close to this.

Creme brulee ~ the way it should be

I love coming to work on Valentine’s day! Or most of any other day for that matter. Sometimes I feel that I work for the kindest and most generous bosses ever. And sometimes, I wished that I could win a gazillian bucks so that I can shake my legs in Tahiti and not have to lift a finger for the rest of my life :P Yalar, if only…

Ah well, life’s not perfect but it certainly is peachy. And for that, I’m grateful.

Blue Dress Photo Credits