Happy Nowruz

Nowruz celebration with the Farsians, London (1995)

A very happy Nowruz to all who celebrate the new year/spring equinox! Eide shoma mobarek to all Persians/Iranians, wherever you are.

Kuala Perlis Discovered

Picturesque Kuala Perlis (CNB)

Perlis, our northernmost state, is also our smallest (800 sq km), but our most delicious mangoes - Harumanis - comes from here. The little coastal town of Kuala Perlis, the second largest settlement (after its capital Kangar) can be an interesting visit. We were there a few years ago and found it quite charming, really. Our accomodation was at a hotel near the ferry jetty and we walked around the little town stopping by the shops to talk with the friendly locals. Of course it was a bonus that my schoolteacher niece WH and family lives here, so we had a 'local' to show us around then. Apart from the 'kampung air' visit where we had laksa perlis for breakfast, WH also took us around the local markets and shops, and the surrounding bright green padi fields that abound. Its great to discover and experience our own backyard 'gems' and have an interesting cuti-cuti Malaysia!

B in front of the Kuala Perlis-Pulau Langkawi Ferry
Services Jetty (CNB)

With a most friendly shopkeeper in town (BB)

Fishing boats at anchor (CNB)

The Jabatan Perikanan (Fisheries Department) had also just built a new jetty for the fishing boats to land their catch. We strolled along from the jetties to the older part of town where we traversed a wooden footbridge to what I would consider the 'kampung air' of Kuala Perlis. Although interesting here, the high tides obviously brought about a lot of flotsam (read: rubbish).

The (then) new fishermen's jetty in the background (CNB)

Fish fry - soon to be fodder. Mind the flies that swarm in
the gazillions! (CNB)

Workers manning the 'fish fry for fodder' area (CNB)

B & 'kampung air' folks, footbridge in the background, left (CNB)

Delicious laksa Perlis (CNB)

Laksa Perlis is the local speciality, and believe me the locals here have their laksa at anytime of day - for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We had our laksa for breakfast at a house in the 'kampung air' that was also a small factory making ... you guessed it right - laksa, of course! And we had our laksa complemented with spera (currypuffs) that had fillings of prawn sambal kelapa - yummy! For our lunch and dinner meals we had the freshest seafood ever. After all Kuala Perlis is a coastal town and food from the seas and oceans is the best thing to enjoy.

Enjoying our laksa perlis and spera breakfast (WH)

Hands up for the verdant jungles and luscious green
padi fields of Perlis (CNB)

The fruit section of the local pasar tani (CNB)

Mantis prawns we bought, cooked & ate (BB)

I spotted these racks of fish being dried, just behind the
 pasar tani (CNB)

B, WH & family at the Kuala Perlis seafront (CNB)

Note: Other places of interest in Perlis include Kangar (the capital), Arau (the royal town), Wang Kelian (Perlis State Park and Sunday Market), Gua Kelam at Kaki Bukit, Bukit Ayer (Rimba Herba), Bintong (Snake & Reptile Farm), and Padang Besar (if you like shopping at border towns).

2004

International Women's Day

Wishing all women all over the world, a Happy International Women's Day.

Here are some thoughts for women (and men), by women:
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit - Helen Keller, 1880-1968, Writer.

Where I was born and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest - Georgia O'Keefe, 1887-1986, Artist.

Women are the architects of society - Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896, Writer, Suffragist, Abolitionist

The secret joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it - Pearl S Buck, 1892-1973, Writer, Humanitarian.

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same - Anne Frank,1929-1945, Diarist.

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water - Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, American First Lady, Stateswoman, Humanitarian.

I note the obvious difference between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike - Maya Angelou, b.1928, Artist, Poet, Playwright, Actress.

Ref: Patricia Martin's Thoughts from Great Women, 1999. Ex Libris CNB 1044

Snapshots: Salubrious* Seafood

If you are looking for fresh seafood in Shah Alam, head for the Pasar Tani Mega every Sunday morning and you will not be disappointed. The seafood there is as fresh as fresh can be. In fact some are still alive! Ok, not all are from the seas/oceans, some are also from rivers/lakes (freshwater?).

Red snapper/Ikan merah (CNB 2011)

Softshell crabsKetam (CNB 2011)

Mantis prawns/Udang kerpan (CNB 2011)

Squid or Cuttlefish/Sotong (CNB 2011)

Catfish/Ikan keli (CNB 2011)

More red snapper/Ikan merah (CNB 2012)

Cockles/Kerang (CNB 2011)

Golden band scad/Ikan selar kuning (CNB 2011)

Prawns/Udang (CNB 2011)

*Salubrious - 'favourable to the mind and body'
Pasar Tani Mega SA

Books I Love: By Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is a favourite author of my daughters and I. We started reading his books since the late 1980s when I first gave a few titles to B for her 7th birthday. Since then we have read most of his children's books, including James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), The Magic Finger (1966), Fantastic Mr Fox (1970), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1973), Danny the Champion of the World (1975), The Enormous Crocodile (1978),  The Twits (1980), George's Marvelous Medicine (1981), The BFG (1982), The Witches (1983), The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985), Matilda (1988), Esio Trot (1989), The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1990), and The Minpins (1991). His books are always full of wit and humor, mostly gloriously illustrated by Quentin Blake. And Roald Dahl can come up with the most preposterous stories and some interesting sounding words, not found in the English dictionary. Or any other language dictionary!

And who can forget his poetry for older children - Dirty Beasts (1982), Revolting Rhymes (1982), and Rhyme Stew (1989) - full of humorous and very wickedly funny interpretations of popular nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Like this one:

                               Mary, Mary quite contrary
                               How does your garden grow?
                               'I live with my brat in a high-rise flat
                               so how in the world would I know.'           (from Rhyme Stew)

I also enjoyed reading his autobiographies Boy:Tales of Childhood (1984) and Going Solo (1986), (about his exploits in war as a Royal Air Force pilot). The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977) and The Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories (1997) are his collection of short stories for teens/young adults, while his collections of very spooky and macabre short stories for adults can be found in Over to You (1946), Someone Like You (1953), Switch Bitch (1974), and Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (1989). His short stories were initially published in newspapers and magazines, before being published in book form. They were also made into a television series. I remember watching the series Tales of the Unexpected on English television in 1979/80. Dahl wrote only two novels of which I have only read My Uncle Oswald, which the Evening Standard reviewed as 'rollicking, raunchy, outrageous'. Needless to say, I enjoy his children's books far better.

Although Dahl left the world in 1990 (at the age of 74), the world still cannot get enough of his books. They are constantly being published/republished/reprinted or even 'repackaged' and still enjoyed by many. In fact his writings have been translated into nearly 50 languages, and he is undoubtedly the best-selling children's author. Many of his books have also been made into films, some animated - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  (twice; starring Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005), The Witches (my favourite), Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The BFG, Danny the Champion of the World and James and the Giant Peach.

A parting quote from the writings of an unforgettable author and human:

                                  'We may even be lost or get frozen by frost.
                                  We may die in an earthquake or tremor.
                                  Or nastier still, we may even be tossed
                                  On the horns of a furious Dilemma.'

Our shelf of some Roald Dahl books (CNB 2012)

Pantun Melayu

                          Bunga melati di tengah padang,
                                Mari dikutip anak Cina;
                          Harimau mati meninggal belang,
                                Manusia mati meninggalkan nama.


Dipetik dari Kurik Kundi Merah Saga; Kumpulan Pantun Lisan Melayu. DBP 1990. Ex Libris CNB 0109
Gambar Bunga Melati di Taman Seri Aryan oleh CNB, 2012.

This Extra Day in 2012

A green life unfolding.... (CNB 2012)

So we have an extra day today for this year, yay! To all 'leapers' out there, a very happy birthday & many more leap days to come! Now what do we do with this extra day? For me it will be pretty usual, though in the morning I will spend more time working in the garden, and thinking how I may improve on it. It is not easy trying to grow everything on a little piece of land. But it has been rewarding nevertheless with the perennials constantly in bloom and the foliage green and abundant.

In the afternoon I will read a lot and also blog a bit, while in the evening I will watch a newly acquired DVD movie - Frida. I have not read the book but the film starring Salma Hayek, is highly recommended by A who saw it at the cinema. At the end of this extra day, I would have spent it rather leisurely, doing things I love. What a celebration of  a pretty simply normal life!

Note: The above picture is new foliage of the ZZ plant in my little garden.