8.9

This will be a day that will be remembered forever in my memory and to think that at the hour when it struck Japan, I was about to have my regular lunch.

So when the news of the quake reach me, my first thought was Japan is more than capable of handling such crisis as they experience seismic activities throughout the year.

It was only later through internet and tv that I begin to comprehend the extent of damage. The next day I was again bombarded by these shocking images in the newspaper.

Being worried for the safety of my friends in Japan, I managed to contact them through emails. One of them mentioned that there is a circular going out advising all to conserve electricity as they need to send power to Sendai. So seeing that she is fine in Osaka I never reply.

The saddest news was from a friend currently in Tokyo who was formerly from Miyagi as she couldnt contact any of her former neighbours and friends.

This seismic activity is not isolated to Japan as on the next day, on Saturday I notice my office computer monitor being distorted the whole day, like a tv with bad reception or interference.

So let's pray for Japan as even a superpower nation needs God's power to overcome this challenging turn of event.

The difference between a Malaysian and non-Malaysians

I use Jalan Raja Laut to get to work everyday. So seeing busloads of tourists taking photos of Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad and hanging around Dataran Merdeka is a daily fare.

By now I can even tell if it's peak holiday season or not by the number of tour buses parked at the side. I can even differentiate the nationalities of the tourists. Currently I see a lot of Chinese nationals by the number of "touts" or beggars holding chinese placards asking for donations.

As for the “mat salleh” (as we call Caucasians in Malaysia), they normally do not follow the tour buses but walk in on their own. Occasionally I see a few of them on the Hop On Hop Off buses and would shake my head in disbelief as they love to sit on the open air deck under hot afternoon sun.

I also find a flaw in the design of the bus as the open roof thing, in my humble opinion should be in the front where the view is 360. Instead the front is covered until halfway and the rear is open. So imagine if you are a tourist on top, you cannot see what’s the attraction until you are beside it and then turn around and take a picture of it from behind.

In Hong Kong, the tourists double decks are without roof. In Singapore it is fully covered. In Malaysia, we like to have the best of both worlds. I supposed they feel that people sitting in front prefer air con and people at the back like the exhaust. I don’t know.

Anyhow I digressed. From my observation, I find that the one stark difference between Malaysians and non-Malaysians is non-Malaysians tend to observe traffic light. They will wait for the pedestrian light to turn green even though there are no vehicles approaching or all the vehicles have stopped at the traffic light.

 For Malaysians we will immediately cross the road without a second of hesitation. It is not so for foreigners. They will wait.

There is this particular light at the junction right between Dataran Merdeka and DBKL which is not very pedestrian friendly (possibly because the timing is off) as when vehicles stop, it still show Red for the pedestrian and before long it’s green for the vehicles and the poor tourists are still standing there waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green for them.

I know of a tourist who had similar experience a few years back at the Concorde Hotel junction wanting to get to Dang Wangi LRT station. She stood there for a good 5 minutes before she realized something is wrong and decided to cross when the pedestrian crossing light is Red but all vehicles have stopped.

Later walking past Wariseni before AIA building, again she needed to cross the road to get to the LRT station (at that time, there were still no pedestrian bridge) without the aid of any traffic light. This time she stood longer not knowing how to cross the road as most cars cruise at high speed on this road. She stood there until finally a Malaysian sensing her despair came and helped her cross.

So if you are a foreigner, when in Malaysia do as Malaysians do. Use your common sense at crossroads. Remember there is strength in numbers. If you see other people cross, follow suit. Don't just stand there and wait. Goodness knows how long you have to wait.

But if you are Malaysians in overseas, do as the native do and adhere to pedestrians rules. Pedestrians are not king where there are traffic lights. Just have to be patient and wait for the lights to change. After all, we don’t want to be labeled as uncivilized.

Malaysia - for the uninitiated

For those not from Malaysia, here are a few ways to describe Malaysia:

Malaysia is the country north of Singapore, south of Thailand. Many times I have to do this but thanks to Dr M foresight in building the Twin Tower, F1 Circuit and KLIA I have since encounter no such problem. Everyone seems to know or pretend to know where Malaysia is now.

Malaysia is a tropical country near the Equator and hence we have summer all year round except for the annual monsoon season every end of the year but this only affects those staying near the east coast.

Malaysia has 3 major races - Chinese Indian and Malay (alphabetically listed in no order of priority) as well as indigenous tribes or we called them “orang asli”.

With 3 races we have 3 different languages, 3 different radio channel, 3 different newspapers, 3 different schools, 3 different political parties and the list goes on.

We are a naturally safe country with no natural calamities save for the human induced ones like Highlands Tower. There are no earthquake, volcano nor typhoon.

We are world famous for our beaches like Sipadan, Sabah and is a haven for leatherback turtles who come here to lay their eggs annually though the number is decreasing drastically but our government is making conservation effort. Nonetheless during my recent trip to Kota Bahru in 2010, we were served turtle eggs for lunch. Ahem…

Malaysia have the largest cave in Sarawak. It is so big that you can even launch a hot air balloon in the cave.

We have the tallest mountain in South East Asia though many who have climbed it dubbed it one of the easier mountain to climb.

But to me Malaysia is famous for the most number of public holidays! It is inevitable since there are 3 major races and each demand their holidays to be accorded the same respect so it is no wonder that we have been having one holiday after another for the past 2 months or so.

It has been said that many expatriates loved Malaysia for this same reason. Not only were there local customs and festivities, we recently also had a Friday declared a public holiday because our football team won a match with Indonesia on Indonesian soil. Since it had been more than 20 years I reckon since we last won any major match, the government felt that this was worth celebrating.

So thank you for the off day but pity those who needed to do banking or worst still those who had to renew their passports as financial institutions and government offices were closed on that day.

I had the privilege of going to Jakarta in January 2011 and during one of those cab rides, a friendly driver was pointing out places of interests to me. Then he pointed out the huge Jakarta football stadium. This he said was the stadium which Malaysia won the match in. I candidly asked if there were any commotion after the match especially if there are any ill-willed against Malaysians but good thing for us there were none.

Malaysia is not always on good terms with its neighbour Indonesia especially when cases of Indonesians maid abuses hit the front page. The most recent and gory case was the one in Penang who endured countless physical and sexual abuses. When her injuries rendered her incapacitated, the employer then had the gall to dump her far far away from the house hoping she cannot find the house.

During the hype of this media frenzy, again I had to go Indonesia. I was quite reluctant to go as at the same time a major Malaysian singer called off her concert in Jakarta for fear that the Indonesians might boycott or worse still create chaos as there was a “Hate Malaysians and all things Malaysia” sentiments then. So once there whenever asked where I was from, I answered Singapore.

But after a while being there, I realized the majority of the people are just normal people. Not extremists as I fear.

To sum it up, Malaysia is famous for being very friendly. Being taught English since elementary school has made it easy for us to communicate with foreigners. So To Know Malaysia is To Love Malaysia, the good and bad included.

No Pain no Gain? No Pain no Lose is more like it!!

Malaysia recently made it to the top of the list of most number of obese people in Asia. Malaysia ranked 6th after Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Meaning we are No.1 most obese nation amongst ASEAN countries.

That’s not very flattering but those who is try to lose that 3kilos would know that it is very painful and hard work.

Somehow everyone knows of someone who is trying to lose weight or am personally trying to lose that extra weight. It is so difficult to do so in Malaysia with all the cheap and readily available food.

The number of holidays and festivities does not help either. There are just too many weddings, new year (4 official new years as we have one for Malay, Chinese and Indians on top the annual new year on 1 Jan) and the usual litter of birthdays.

So there are plenty of excuses to eat eat and eat. The sad part is according to a show on Discovery Channel, obesity is a vicious cycle. The more you try to lose, the most likely you will gain it back and maybe even more.

So starvation is out of the question. So how do you do it? Apart from those who are blessed with the ability of eat without gaining a single kilo, most of us struggle with this issue.

Currently I am trying this method which I HOPE will not take me into a roller coaster cos I am just changing my lifestyle.

I used to skip breakfast and have heavy dinner cos I just cannot resist my mom’s cooking during dinners. I also believe that mom’s cooking are more nutritious so I will save my stomach for it.

Now I reverse it by taking heavy breakfast/ lunch and having little or no dinner at all (sigh… goodbye to my favorite mom’s specialty). Even if I do eat dinner I am eating the vegetables and not the meat or drink the soup without tasting the chicken. And who is enjoying all these meat? Well none other than my pets at home. Haha...

So far I have manage to lose like 2-3 kilos. Hopefully I will continue to see further reduction and this weight loss is here to stay.

Will update the blog on the progress of the weight loss in the future. So fellow victims of low metabolism, do not lose heart - just lose weight. I know that tagline sounded super cheesy but patience is the key ingredient to losing weight. Set realistic goals where you expect results in months time and not days / weeks like in The Biggest Loser.

I believe that it is when you slowly lose the weight that is when you can keep the weight off for good. Another one of my favourite tagline is “Hunger is your Friend”. Sleep hungry and you will wake up to a smaller stomach.

It not easy but who say weight lost is easy. Remember No Pain No Lose!

Sounds which we can live without

List of sounds we can live without

1) baby crying - but then again we need to populate the earth

2) dogs barking / cats meowing / crickets criketing - but animals are created by God, so we need to respect God’s creation

3) cars / buses / ambulance siren - again… can we live without these?

4) vacuum / washing machine / hairdryers - we are just plain lazy to clean things the old fashion way…

BUT seriously there is ONE SOUND we can live without, and that is the sound of phone tapping (with those annoying tone) while traveling in a train!!

Do you not agree that it is the most annoying sound in the whole world cos it is definitely a sound which we can live without!

It is just basic courtesy to fellow commuters - as we will never know if the person beside you might just have a stressful day at work / migraine and having “tit tit tit” sound reverberating on a inconsistent manner is not really very relaxing. Before long their eyebrow may be twitching, eyeballs rolled up and for more serious case, foaming in their mouth.

Ok I may have exaggerated a fair bit but recently I had the experience of sitting beside a lady whom I believe is quite popular going by the amount of SMS she was sending and receiving. So there I was sitting beside her chanting “inner peace, inner peace” and trying very hard at deep breathe in and breathe out technique.

But with each incoming sms, followed by the “tit tit tit tit tit tit tit tit tit tit tit, I was hopelessly on the verge of banging my head on the LRT.

So next time you are on the train or any public transportation, please put your phone on silent mode and let us all appreciate the sound of silence.

This is a community message brought to you by RAPID KL ;)

2011 - double 1

Everyone loves a winner

It feels great to win something. Am sure you can remember the feeling of winning a competition, a hamper/ prize or just being very happy for having done something really well.

I remember taking part in a talent show - 30 seconds to fame (no not the US one but a local community one). Our group was up against some really raw talent including dancers who can pop, hip hop, do hand stand. There's even a gymnast as well as voice  talent and musicians playing instruments like violin.

Everyone was declaring themselves as winner before the start of the competition and nobody thought that our group which consisted of 2 mother and daughter team (and all 4 of us cant really dance very well) can win.

But guess what? The old but experienced group won!!

So if you have been unfortunate in not won anything before or have forgotten the feeling, why not make it a point to make 2011 a double 1... mind you not a single 1 but double 1. Just to double the fun!!

Have a great and happy 20-double 1!

Wisdom tooth - do you need them

My other experiences with dentist concerns all 4 of my wisdom tooth. Well 3 of them were uneventful save for one as I need to go for surgery instead of normal extraction.

It was really disheartening as I was hoping that given time, the tooth will come out normal but lo and behold, not only did it not come out, it even pushes the rest of the tooth into misalignment.

So finally after getting into college, I mustered enough courage to seek help from the dentist.

To cut the long story short, the stuffs which I have learned from this experience are:-

1) if you have small jaw and the wisdom tooth is coming out, it's best to remove it asap before it affects the alignment of other tooth.

2) Why did God create us with wisdom tooth when we end up removing them anyway. Well that was cos when human were first created, they were created to eat meat (some may debate on this) so human need all the tooth that they can get to bite, chew, crush - basically perform the function of a food processor.

But since now, most of the food we consume come processed (think McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut) we dont need all these extra teeth.

3) If you thought since it's not giving me any trouble why bother to remove them, well think again. Cos wisdom tooth are located way at the back of the jaw, most likely it will be neglected in terms of maintenance and hygiene are concerned. So you'll most likely to have tooth decay and cavities there.

If left unattended for a long time, when you finally decide to extract them, the tooth might be structurally weak that the moment the dentist apply force to it, it'll just snapped and leave the root in your jaw.

So now you'll have to go for surgery to remove the root. What if you do not remove the root you say - well then the root will continue to decay until one day you'll experience the problem that have tormented our ancestors - toothache - so much pain that you feel like slamming your face to the wall so that the new pain will act as a distraction to the one in your tooth.

4) when looking for a dentist to do this surgery, pick a male dentist! Why? Cos mine was a lady and she didnt have enough strength to forcefully pull it out. So she kept drilling and drilling so I ended up have no pain during the surgery but suffered with pain and swollen cheek for 1 week.

My sister on the other chose a male dentist and she had pain during the surgery but no pain after that cos the dentist made it painful but short. So take your pick - suffer during or after the surgery.

5) Ultimately what I learn - when dealing with tooth decay - time really does matter cos tooth problem can only get bigger, which translate to more expensive procedure.

This was the case for me when I have one cavity which the dentist deemed to be to big for normal filling. So I had to do crowning. Being just a student at that time, I just didnt want to burden my family with this extra expense so I just lived with the temporary filling.

After time, this temporary filling gave way and this time, instead of going for just crowning the dentist said I need to go for root canal as well cos the nerve in the tooth had died... If I proceed with crowning without root canal, these nerve even though dead might inflamed and create problem for me in the future.

At that moment, I seriously considered just extracting this tooth instead of spending twice the amount of money on it but after much deliberation, I guess even one tooth is worth saving as extracting it without using dentures will affect the alignment of the other tooth (it's going to move and shift whether you like it or not).

Wearing dentures is also a lifetime hassle cos you need to keep it clean and all. There are also 2 types of dentures - metal and ceramic both with its pros and cons.

Having learned all these lessons, I still dread going to the dentist. Alright alright, I ring Dr Wong tomorrow and make an appointment for my dental checkup. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that I will be given a clean bill of oral health.