Sunday, December 7, 2008

Vertically up

I had a dream last night.
Alice told me to change my point of view and to look at thing in a different angle.
So, I decided to look at things differently. I saw my world vertically up.

Before I start, let me clarify myself.
You know it is Sunday today.
I should be very free to sit in front of my notebook, spending the whole day reading and writing, of course, drinking Chinese tea as well.
But, since I needed to lie down, bent my neck, squeezed and sticked my body to the walls, it was hard for me to adjust myself towards my notebook.
That's why, only by now, I am writing.

When I was on my weekly hiking trail, there was not much surprise.

The ascending trail always guides me to look somehow vertically up.

I can easily identify which trees are busy at mingling with others.

The relationship between them looks very complicated and messy.




I saw a tree which we call "pokok Asam" (pokok is in local language, it means tree) .

Even though with broken arms and shedding skins, it continues to grow taller and tougher.

It must be able to provide me with a big enough shed at the time I asked for it.

Yes, this is what friends are for.

When I was back home, my vertically up type of world continued.
My papaya tree was not as usual as it used to be.
It made me lying down on the floor in order to appreciate it fully.

Its leaves grow so thick. I was almost not able to see the sky.

I have almost forgotten the reason why my kitchen is not hot during daylight. Everything seems to come natarul to me.

Only thing I am sure is that a few papayas have made themselves ready for me.

The view from the bottom, how can I phrase it......can I say sexy?
Then came the difficult time.
I had to squeezed myself underneath my pot of bonsai.
And I managed to, finally.

Bonsai is a small plant, a small creature.
When I went for macro view, it seemed to be so gigantic.

Remembered what I had said before? Illusion, life is full of illusion.
We could be fooled by our eyes, although they supposed to be our closest comrade.

And the story continued.


I sticked myself almost flat onto the walls in order to understand their world.

To my relief, they were breathing in the blue blue sky.
They were heard talking to my lamp,

"Boy, thumbs up. We are still able to have a piece of clean land with blue sky.

Man must continue to save the Earth."

This come to the end of my one day long vertically up journey and experience.

Yet, my mind has not back to sea level.

When I shall return to work, can I tell my MD to have mind-set change? Think out of box. Look at thing differently. Start to see vertically up. Or, more technically, to practice bottom-up rather than top-down.

Will he? Alice should know.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Mengkuang Dam in the morning


Life is full of surprise; you will continuously receive one surprise after another.
When I climbed up onto the side of Mengkuang dam, morning sunlight scattered behind the clouds and imaged itself on the mirror-flat dam surface.
I could not resist the early gift, then I kept it in my hand phone camera. And it was part of me.

I could not let my jogging shoes felt like they had been left alone, so I started my an-hour jogging with the accompany of happiness and satisfaction.

At the moment of feeling exhausted, there came the second gift.

I saw a paint brush was drawing a line of signal on the sky, quietly.
Nobody was disturbed.
Someone would have his own reading and understanding.

Alice kept it in her eyes.

I kept it, again, in my hand phone camera.

The children who were watching kept it within their breath.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Ferry in Penang


The ferry, in its original orange colour


Though the ferry service began operation in 1920, it started to be most helpful to me only when I were a secondary school boy.

Ferry service was the only method to connect people from mainland to Penang Island.

I had to travel from Butterworth to high school at Penang Island everyday at dawn. It was 1974. Penang Island was still enjoying its free port status.
We had to go through custom check each time before we embarked for mainland. Sometimes we ran fast before the gate to ferry was closed, left the custom official with a few seconds to check on our school bag.

By that time, Penang Bridge was still a dream. One of the leaders from opposition party ever challenged to jump from the bridge if it came to a reality.
Today, we are having a routine jammed Penang Bridge. Second bridge, according to plan, is going to be ready by 2011, yet, no one offers to jump until now.

Penang Port Authority will scrap this vehicular ferry service once the expansion of the first bridge is completed in September, 2009.
By then, the story of ferry will be another line in the history book, may be, it will lie beside Captain Francis Light, the founder of Penang.

The next journey- will the ferry have value added after its retirement? It is not self-decisive.

Similarly, what will our value be when we get old?

What will be yours?



Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A glimpse at Flowery and Colourful Cameron Highlands

What can we do at 1500m above sea level and at temperature
16 deg C?

Cool, cool, cool!!
So good to enjoy steamboat at this temperature.

I travelled to Cameron Highlands with 6 families in 3 sedans and 1 MPV.
I mean, it is so wonderful to have all the families members got
together and had a jolly time.

How to have a "free and easy" style of steamboat up at the highland?

There are many varieties of fresh vegetable at Cameron Highlands.
So they are not necessary to be brought along.
We only prepared some meats and fishes. The gist was we got the
soup for steamboat ready at home, freezed it overnight for the next
early morning journey.

A 2 days and 1 night stay is always good for any weekend. But
pre-booking is advisable. There are expensive and cheap hotels or
apartments available.

What else we can do besides steamboat? My favorite strawberry
flavour ice-cream is a must to take.

Cameron Highlands is a paradise for photo-shooting.



Greenish tea plantation

Cameron Highlands is famous for its tea. The first ever tea plantation
was started in 1929 by the son of a British administrative officer.

Also, Cameron Highlands is a leading producer of flowers in Malaysia.













If you love cactus, the varieties of cactus at Cameron Highlands will be an eye opener.


Cameron Highlands is the only place we are able to grow
strawberry in Malaysia

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Life Illusion

I was on my way from downtown, via Jelutong Highway,
to Penang Bridge, heading towards my home yesterday.
I saw :
A smooth traffic on the middle span. It was suppose to be, on Saturday

A simple life

Cloudy, but mother nature gave us the coolness

I mean, there was a presentation of peacefulness,
harmony and relaxation.

All these are views on my left hand side.
Actually, right in front of me, there was a long queue.
A very heavy traffic jam which took me one and half hours
to travel through 2km.
Drove and braked continously
We always tell one side of paper is black in colour,
but actually people on the other side see white.
We always present good results and achievement in our
report, and camouflage the failure.
The stories may go on and on.
Is this an "illusion of life"?