It’s about time

I’ve not read the book but have seen trailers on this movie directed by Brad Pitt. I think it was nice, nothing awesomely fantastic but not too bad either. It did, however, make me want to read the book.

Overall, ( because I didn’t read the book ) I find the plot interesting, especially since it explores the possibility of time travelling quite craftily sans the humor that was Michael J Fox’s Back to the Future. But I like the way it explores the husband and wife relationship, the impossibility of changing any part of the past, no matter how much one tries. It’s like living a life of flashbacks, re-experiencing the past through the subconscious mind and relearning the mistakes from it but knowing it cannot be prevented or corrected because it has already happened.

Speaking of which, if given the chance, would I like to time travel? Sure. If I can change certain things when I travel back in time, that would be even better. Like perhaps, be kinder but firmer to my parents. Waste less time and learn more skills perhaps instead of being too playful and rebelling with lofty out-of-the-box ideals, pursue my path earlier instead of trying to go with the flow. I would have also left that island earlier had I known the bountiful and endless opportunities and limitless doors of experiences waiting for me in this vast, vast world minus the glass ceiling on that tiny island. Oh I think there would be a long list of things I would want to correct, but like the Henry character, I can’t. So all I can draw from my past are the lessons learnt from the mistakes made and appreciate the positive things that came out of it. Other than that, what has passed, is gone forever.

But like Claire and Henry, there are things that I would never ever want changed. Like my family. Like my buddies. Like my husband. I wouldn’t change or correct those for a million years. It’s about time they know that their presence in my life is timeless.

Oh on a different note, today 12 November is the time for 2009 European Film Festival. There are about 15 participating films these year and by the synopsis, all seems awesome. It’s time to catch some.

Before I knock off for the day, I just remember how I used to ( dramatically so I must admit ) teach my students back in school about Time. I found that Surah Al Asr’ where HE presented the concept of Time to be very precise, but I can’t be telling those to a group of primary school children. Perhaps if I did, I would be made to ’spend time’ in ISA detention for preaching in the classroom. So I thought long and hard on how to let the kids see the importance of Time in a graphic way that they will remember for life.

I will always do this near the exam period, for a more dramatic impact heh . I gave each of them a piece of pure white paper. Then I asked them to list out all the things that can be done with that white paper, which can produce a positive result/impact. So children being children, they came out with a list of so many ideas like make a card and give it to someone, turn it into paper aeroplane with kind words inside and then shoot the paper aeroplane to your best friends, draw and paint on it and hang it on the wall for soothing effect etc etc. Very good, I told them.

Then the next minute, I told all of them to tear their piece of white paper into pieces. Into tiny pieces. Basically shred and shred them until all they had were scraps of paper. They were puzzled, but the herd mentality they had, they just followed without questions. After each of them ended up with their shredded mess, I told them that I would give them 10 minutes for them to return me the original piece of white paper that I gave them because it is mine. And I DO NOT want the shredded piece, I want that original piece of white paper back in its original state.

Of course they yelped and yelled that they couldn’t. I mean I knew I am loony, but I never expect them to be able to anyway. Hence that’s when I go for the cut in. To drive that message in. I told them that piece of white paper represent TIME. There are so many things they can do with TIME for positive results just like the numerous things they can do with the piece of white paper. I showed them that when they waste time, it is like them shredding the white paper. They can never get that whole piece back. Time is like that, I told them. Once they wasted it, it will never come back and along with it, they waste the potential of doing so many good and positive things that they could have done, had they not wasted time.

Now that I look back in time, I thought, alamak…that was so drama. heh. As if I don’t waste time .  If procrastination is a thief of time, then I am a compulsive thief!

On that note, it’s past 1 am and what time is it? It’s TIME to sleep. Guten nach!

True Budo

From O-sensei Morihei Ueshiba,  founder of Aikido

A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing

Gossip Man

Move aside Gossip Girl.

At the risk of sounding like a  feminist bigot, I want to nitpick on a certain species today which goes by the name of man(kind). In particular, about men and the gossip syndrome. The husband once told me, men don’t gossip. I beg to differ as I observe otherwise.

In the mornings, I like to take a walk around the neighborhood shops. There are several coffeeshops and mamak joints. The whole scene is just there for the perfect Gossip Man setting. Just walking through and passing by and then walk alongside the tables. There are usually tables of men. Most of them with ciggies enough to make them look like chimneys, teh/kopi tarik, roticanai/nasi lemak.OR, do likewise in the late afternoons. Other than the morphing of roti canai/nasi lemak into karipap/goreng pisang, the setting AND the activities are pretty much the same.And listen to them do that very thing they darn the women best for –gossiping. Yes, they gossip!

Oh but of course, they will never ever admit to gossiping ( in female term, it’s bitching), but listen to them go on and on about this politician and that politician! Listen to them go on a detailed analysis of the latest political saga. They are more detailed, I think than the average psychologist from FBI. Listen to them and their ‘intellectual’ gestures when they opiniate, analyse, argue, name drop, boomed and exaggerate. A phenomena, no?

A girlfriend defined this observation for me today. That this IS a form of male gossip, ( which in most instances the world over, they swear upon their mother’s grave they don’t do ). Another girlfriend calls it the NATO syndrome, the No Action Talk Only–which is the basis of this post, on these men, who talk and talk and talk till the cows not only fly but they have started to form a colony in space– are all just that, political talk but no action.

In reality, most of these coffee shop political “champions” do very little or nothing at all, to get down to the ground level of improving the social situation with their ‘holier-than-those-crappy-politician-souls-whom-they-loudly-judge-and-criticize-about’ selves. Man, get off from those mamaks and look around. So many things to be done, which you have loudly chided the politicians for not doing. Like first of all, go and pick up after your own litters! And then go and learn driving properly instead of always trying to murder a pedestrian or another motorist. And then spend time with your kids by teaching them not to emulate the politicians you vehemently judge and show them by example. Or, help the mat rempit kids back to education…and..  oh the list goes on and on. And sitting around in mamak joints wasting time in political gossips won’t save our future, dudes!

And it is not only here mind you. Male friends back home, don’t snigger. This is for you too. Fancy all of you obsessing and gossiping about Malaysian politics and then whine about the lack of it in SG. There are things to do there too, which you yourselves know better since children are getting battered and killed by stressed parents, maids abused, teenage pregnancies rising…

Mahatma Gandhi puts it nicely when he said ” Be the change you want to see”

Unfortunately, our men instead of leading us towards that change, choose to gossip instead.

That (English) thing you do

I have never been a fan of floral motifs in fabrics and wallpapers. And laces. I find it so makcik ‘ropol-ropol’… But of course, if done tastefully in the English cottage kinda theme, it can look quite nice ( quite, but still not to my liking ). Hence I was never tempted to do the tea time thingy at WinterWarmers, no matter how many reviews have been said about its quaintness and delicious English inspired food especially the lovely scones, homemade jams, lavendar cheesecakes– the whole works.

But yesterday, a friend who was in a way or another responsible for my achievement in getting my license to translate, wanted to meet for tea there, at WinterWarmers. Her 8 years working in England has Anglonised her tastebuds for all things English, and yes— including the florals and ‘ropol-ropol’ laces. And since WinterWarmers is 5 min from home, I was ok with the idea.

I didn’t eat anything as I was from a lunch gathering but what I had, and the array of things found in the menu made me oblivious to its ‘mak-mak British setting’. I had Rose Ice Latte, and it was lovely. Simply lovely.

There were things on the menu like an array of scones with homemade jams/mini sandwiches served on multi-tier quaint tea set with errm yes…floral prints.

And so I have discovered that no matter how I find laces and florals ‘obit’, the food and the service at WinterWarmers will lure me back there. With girlfriends of course, for tete-a-tete while ‘berfeeling’ English tai-tai.

Still at it…

While we are still at it, found some old photos my husband took, which  to this day I still find them awesome. Unedited, unphotoshoped… just raw photography. I have a loooonnng way to go to reach his standards…

Clear blue sky with a ray of sunshine, Mexico

Sunset in Mexico

In Paris

Masjid Wilayah, KL

The big lecture hall at his current campus

Fountain at the courtyard of his current campus

The one with the biggest smile

…actually has too little.

I was, as usual being the news junkie this Saturday morning. I saw this image on JakartaPost and I cannot help but stared at it for a few moments. It hit me that I teach rich kids but they hardly have smiles as wide and purely happy like this. And they have the whole material world in their hands for children their age.

Image taken from JakartaPost

When nature calls…

Since I ran out of words ( or inspiration to write rather, with the deadline looming ) let’s take a break with some colours and patterns I took at Pangkor… still amateurish. Hope to get there when I finally have enough for THAT new toy.

Why did the chicken….

I am a bit fascinated by something recommended by the husband. Only that the garden in our house is not big enough. But I still think it is awesome, modern, clean and funky. I mean multi-colored ‘reban ayam’ ? It screams cool and organic all over! It gives pescetarianism a run for money with self-reared non gmo/hormone induced/trapped chickens. And free healthy eggs daily!

Think OMLET. Think colorful ‘reban ayam’. I want one too! In pink/purple/red please

Eglu House for Max of 10 chickens

Eglu for a couple of chickens, max 4

Oh, btw.. I learnt something today. In rearing chickens, only 1 cock is needed for 10 hens. There you go. Whoever says 1 man to 4 wives was extreme. Wait till you hear the chicken story :p

Something like the willow tree

Training ended early last Friday because a whole row of seats were booked for the whole class to watch the movie N.in.ja…which we discovered in the first 20 min that it was a B-grade movie with bad acting and very gruesome violence.

Just to make our money worth, we looked for something positive out of the movie which was as B grade as it could be or even worse. So it had to be in the first ten minutes during the scene at the dojo when the sensei in the story reminded his disciples on the concept of ‘Fudoshin‘. We have not learnt that in class yet. But we discussed it after the movie.

Fudoshin:

A spirit of unshakable calm and determination,

courage without recklessness,
rooted stability in both mental and physical realms.
Like a willow tree,
powerful roots deep in the ground
and a soft, yielding resistance against
the winds that blow through it.

Fudōshin is losely translated as the ‘unmoving heart’, the level one reaches when the focus is so strong that one becomes unperturbed by any distractions. It is a state of tranquility of the mind, heart and soul after one has achieved the ‘Masakatsu Agatsu’ ( ‘true sense of victory is the victory over oneself’ ). Once victory over oneself has been achieved, the next step is to achieve Fudōshin. It is not something easy, but the greatest samurais and warriors of the past have managed to achieve it, hence they were able to go heads on into the battle looking so tranquil that ironically, it was  their tranquility that caused the greatest fear amongst their enemy.

I find that paradox to be somewhat fascinating. Like how do people fear tranquility? But I guess, when a warrior has reached that state of tranquility, the enemy has nothing left to feel but fear, because by then, the warrior has already won the greatest victory ( i.e over himself ) so what is less than the greatest victory? Nothing. Which is what the enemy has been reduced to.

About simple guilty pleasures

This post is a pick up from Mat Bangkai which was a pick up from AndreaWhatever. About guilty pleasures which, well if they are entirely good and right, we won’t be guilty of it right? I have many guilty pleasures in which I indulge in time and again, but I think the most distinct ones will be these..

1. On a super rainy day like right now, I have maggi mee ( which is banned from my household by my mister, hence the guilt ) with lots and lots of fiery red chilli padi enough to murder the Thai prince at one sip of the soup, break an egg into it and slurp the hot, super spicy, delicious bowl of (msg) laden ( non ) goodness till ‘things’ start to flow out of my eyes and nose and sometimes even my ears. But I would continue slurping. And how did I get away with maggi mee in the house? I make a quick dash to the cafe at the library in front of the house and buy one pathetic packet from the makcik there for Rm 1.20. I would be as gleeful as a … ? ( what’s extremely gleeful ? ). But this will only work in heavy rain AND I am home alone.

2. I walk all around IKEA which is like 5 min away from home and imagine how I would want to furnish our own place. Living in a rented house I go very minimal with the decor inside as I always have the mentality of ‘it’s a rental so why bother’. The longest I’ve spent in IKEA doing that is 4 hours, with breaks in between for another guilty pleasure, that yummilicious DAIM cake. Guilty because it really wastes time to walk around IKEA aimlessly and DAIM cakes’ fat content is enough to make me float like a whale, who needs Noah’s ark.

3. I carry Tito on her two front paws and swing her around, enough to give her a heart attack before she attempts to bite my nose or my lips whichever is accessible to her first. Don’t call SPCA. She’s not that innocent either, by the amount of scratches and torn magazines and books around the house. Ok, so I am guilty of pet terrorism. But it’s payback time, no?

4.  Eat a whole block of Cadbury choc by myself. Not that small bar mind you. One whole block. Usually over a sappy chic lit or Grey’s Anatomy dvd which I bought at the Pasar Malam for Rm 10 per disc. Ok, ok… ciplak is haram. I will try not to buy anymore ( can I kirim anyone instead? I didn’t buy it, you did! I just watch.. heh ) and oh, about that block of Cadbury, guilty of inviting diabetes, but hey, I don’t smoke, I don’t do alcohol, I’m not a druggie and I am certainly not a shopaholic. So what is a Cadbury block all to myself at one go, really

5. Last but not least, I sit at the corner of the room with hot steaming tea in one hand and my thoughts halfway across the globe. I fantasize about being a master sensei of my own dojo in Sweden. Ok here’s how the fantasy works. I am a master sensei of aikido and also a master chef of my own book cafe. So during the day I bake/cook for my own book cafe and teach aikido at night. Why, why Sweden? Well if the fantasy is not fantastic anymore, I can always do the number 2 above but in the biggest IKEA in IKEA’s homeland. Fair enough?

People say in your 20s you work hard to achieve your dreams. In the 30s, my take would be, just dream lah. No harm right

So what’s YOUR guilty pleasure?