The Life with Mask

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The cases of Influenza A (H1N1) are on the rise in Malaysia. Recently, when I went to the city by train (LRT), I decided to wear a surgical mask.

I did so for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to protect myself. Secondly, I wanted to tell others, “No, it is not weird to wear a mask.”

Not surprisingly, I was the only passenger with a mask in the train. Malaysians are always complacent. We tend to think that bad things don’t fall on us.

I have to admit that it is no fun wearing a surgical mask. I could barely breathe! Soon after I reached destination, I took it off. Somehow, eventually we may be forced to live with masks. Until the vaccination is out, I doubt we can contain the spread of this highly contagious flu.

Are you ready?

Random Shots

(1) Interesting Logo


I came across this interesting logo of a restaurant. Note that the “face” is actually a bowl. A good logo is good for marketing purposes.

I haven’t tried the food served here, though…

(2) Inconsiderate Malaysian Driver

This fellow is taking up 3 parking bays...

(3) Door for Suicide???

马来西亚中文地名

记得许多年前，在报上阅读过一篇文章，说霹雳州的中文地名，是全国最好的。

以我的家乡为例：她的马来文名是Kuala Kangsar，中文译作江沙。江里之沙，多么有诗意。。。

离江沙不远是太平。太平，取得是天下太平的意思。它的马来文名Taiping其实是源自中文，这在大马算是异数。

霹雳州另外一个城市是安顺。英殖民时代它是Teluk Anson，现已改为Teluk Intan，但中文名保持不变。毕竟大家都祈求平安顺利。

Kampar，中文译为金宝。有点俗气，但无可否认，华人喜欢金银财宝。

以上所提到的都是霹雳州城镇，但其实在雪兰莪州，也有一个小镇的中文名是我很喜欢的，那就是我最近去过的Sekinchan。其中文名是适耕庄，而她也恰好以稻田著称，确实是个适合耕种的地方。

江沙 Kuala Kangsar

Down the Memory Lane (2)

Part 1 is here. All photos were shot with film camera.

This is me at the Grand Canyon…

The picture was taken by Wilson, my co-worker who originated from Dalian, China.

Another picture of the Grand Canyon…

Most visitors to the Grand Canyon go to the south rim. Wilson and I decided to go to north rim instead. North rim was cooler in summer. The downside was, we couldn’t see the river.

We actually traveled to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. Here is a picture taken at the Sin City…

I took this picture when we were driving from California to Las Vegas. As you can see, the land is semi arid, with very thin vegetation. In fact, Las Vegas is in the middle of a desert…

When we were driving along the freeway, we saw a mini tornado measuring just a few feet tall. Vehicles stopped to wait for it crossing. No photo for the mini tornado, though…

CD in the Age of Digital Music

Following the sudden death of superstar Michael Jackson, his albums were sold out in many music stores across Malaysia. Considering the omnipresence of MP3 music, this is pretty interesting.

MP3 music is convenient and customizable. We can download MP3 songs from the Web, whether legally of illegally. We can download individual titles instead of the whole album. Why, then, do we still buy CD/DVD?

One possible explanation is that MJ’s fans are Gen-X or pre-Gen-X, who are not as tech-savvy as the Gen-Y. They still prefer CD to MP3.

Another explanation is: we can’t display MP3 music on our shelves. It is not physical. In other words, it can’t be a collector’s item. Here is where CD/DVD still excels.

I plan to buy one or two Michael Jackson’s albums too – for collection purpose. The other albums I am eying are those of Celion Dion and Kitaro…

Flavor of My Hometown

Blogger and photographer Neo was in my hometown, Kuala Kangsar, last March to attend a wedding. He complained that the food in the wedding dinner was ‘mediocre’. I recommended him curry noodle a.k.a. curry mee, should he go to KK again.

The picture above shows a dish of dried curry mee of my hometown. It is different from the curry soup noodle common in Klang Valley in the sense that it is not served in curry soup. Instead, it is dried noodle with curry added. The curry may or may not be made of coconut milk, depending on the individual stores. Even if you don’t eat spicy food, the dried noodle minus the curry is yummy too.

Curry mee may also come in soup, but again this is prepared in a way not common in Klang Valley. Often, the soup is ikan bilis soup, with curry added.

Another hometown food which I like is beef ball noodle. I will blog about it when I have the photos.

Related post:
Images of My Hometown

Tips for fighting H1N1

Influenza A (H1N1) spreads like wild fire across the globe. Health experts advise us to avoid hand-shaking and hugging. What can we do when we meet someone?

Perhaps we can wai like the Thais do…

Alternatively, we can also bow like the Japanese do…

Chinese Maids, anyone?

Following the news of several high profile cases in which Indonesian maids were abused by their Malaysian employers, Jakarta threatens to prohibit its women from working as domestic servants in this country. Since then, there have been proposals by Malaysian officers to import maids from China as replacement.

Maids from China? Are you kidding!?? How can the women from the world’s new super power work as domestic servants in a third world country? This is utterly ridiculous!

Imagine what will happen if Chinese maids are abused in Malaysia:

The angry Chinese netizens would call for boycott of the department stores run by Malaysia-based Parkson Group, just as they did against French Carrefour last year. Chinese tourists would stop coming to this country. Our economy would suffer

Seriously, I am not in favor of the plan to hire Chinese maids. We must be careful to avoid angering the Dragon.

P/S I prefer Japanese maids How about you?

A waitress in Japan’s “maid café”

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