Antiques in My In-Laws’ House

Happy new year again, everyone.

Well, this past one week on holiday, I basically:

• didn’t eat as much as last year, but still got a sore in my mouth.
• Watched a lot of tennis. More than the last 10 years combined i think.
• Refrained from making fun of my pudgy nephew. That kid makes Randy Jackson look slim.

But anyway. My in-laws house in Ipoh was built in the early 60’s, one of those mass single storey terrace housing schemes built across the country at that time. The cool thing about this home is that although they’ve done a bit of renovation over the years, a lot of stuff like the fittings and switches are still original. Not priceless antiques, but not something you’d see anywhere these days.

I always said i’ve take pictures of it, or i won’t be able to see them anymore except in a museum, so are a few for posterity…

That’s the fan speed regulator. Controls the speed…

… to this fan.

This is a door closer. Still working after more than 40 years of heavy usage.

This is the lock to the front wooden door. Took me a while to figure out how to unlock it the other night.

I’ll take more pics on my next trip.

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Have to put this one up. Went to Aunt Rosemary’s place on the first day of New Year, her son Dinesh was back, these are his two beautiful dogs - Spencer the Golden Retriever, and Shakespeare the Alsatian. So fluffy and adorable!

Welcoming the Spring Festival

As we the Chinese Diaspora join the great Malaysian exodus known as balik kampung, the Spring Festival always brings to mind memories of years past, on how so much has changed, and also some things that have stayed the same.

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When we were small, every Chinese New Year was spent at my grandmother’s house in Melaka. During New Year, she hung a red cloth over the top and sides of the doorway - a tradition that is peculiar only to a few clans around here. But the cloth was a bit short, it hung down only half way beside the doorway, my Grandma always told me that cloth was measured for the door of her old house, a wooden house in the shanty town beside the river, torn down before i was born.

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Exodus traffic is still the same though, even with the modern PLUS highway. Whenever we travelled from Johor to my mother’s hometown in Batu Gajah, we’d start early in the morning and only reach late in the evening. Travelling on a single lane trunk road all the way in the old days (except the short stretch of highway between Seremban and KL) was treacherous but fun.

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Those days, my mom used to make lots of cookies to sell during Chinese New Year. She’d make kuih kapit, banana chips, pineapple tarts and assorted dough cookies. Sometimes we’d be asked to help with the production line, which always inadvertently resulted in me getting shouted at.

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When we were small the going rate of angpow was about RM2 (unless you were family). But we had this really rich aunt who lived in a double storey bungalow in PJ, she’d always give RM1.20 in the angpow. Yes, coins. She put coins in the angpow

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So to all my friends, Kung Hei Fat Choy. And drive safely.

A Short Diversion

Life is full of ups and downs. Persevere thru the downs and treasure the ups.

I smile when I see something funny.

I can’t sleep when there’s something wrong at work.

I love the smell of fresh coffee in the morning.

When I can’t sleep, I sometimes go downstairs and watch the Cartoon Network.

I often dream about being in school for the first day of examinations, and panicking because i haven’t studied one bit.

I get irritated at stupid drivers.

I like the smell of first rain on a hot afternoon. And also bacon.

People often call me creative.

I wish I could retire at 40. Seriously.

The best creation in the world is the Post-It-Note.

1st 3 words that comes to my mind: caramel, louvre and burnt.

I’ve discovered that how hard you work does not correlate to how much they pay you.

When I’m in love I don’t frown so much.

A baby is born after much pain. And high costs.

Before I met my wife, I was searching very hard.

A good marriage requires love.

I dislike being late.

I say ‘I Love You’ only to my wife. And also a few times to my old Playstation.
My favourite subject in school was History.

From Ann.

Webcomics

I like reading webcomics on my feedreader, the problem is finding good ones. The two most famous ones on the Net are of course, xkcd and Cynide&Happiness (C&H). I love xkcd, the simple stick figures in a “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”. Only on occasion do i read Cynide&Happiness, their dark humor is sometimes too twisted for me. There are 4 contributing cartoonist on the site, and Kris is definitely the best.

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Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

I’ve followed quite a few other webcomics, but stopped after finding them not as funny as i thought they’d be, like Amazing Super Powers and Not From Concentrate. Some i read only if they appear on Digg.com, like The Perry Bible Fellowship (a bit surreal, but good), the long-running Joy of Tech (i love it when they poke fun at Windows!) and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (funny).

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

But there are two new ones that currently enjoy are We The Robots and Cheer Up, Emo Kid. The former is about robots working in mundane office jobs, I find it much funnier and a fresh change from Dilbert.

Cheer Up, Emo Kid is a bit like Cyanide&Happiness, but less gruesome. Plus i love the cute drawings.

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Okay, now you know why i stopped reading the newspaper comic strips (with the exception of Calvin & Hobbes reruns)…

Credit Card Story #2684

The other day I called up the credit card customer care hotline to replace my mastercard that was damaged (not from heavy usage, i assure you). After putting me on hold for five minutes, i finally get through to a human voice. Seriously, for a hotline, they are not really very hot.

Me: My card number is 4XXX, it’s damaged, can i request for a new one?

(after going through the lengthy validation processes of making sure that I am me)

Girl: Ok sir, but it will be RM5 for the replacement card and RM12 for handling and postage.

Me: What? The last time you didn’t charge me a thing. Besides, i’ve never been charged by any of my other banks.

Girl: That’s the policy.

Me: Can’t you waive it for me?

Girl: No.

Me: (looking at my damaged card) Look, i’ve got a better idea. My card is going to expire in June 2009, why i just wait until then and you guys will just send me a new one for free?

Girl: Yes, also can.

Me: But you DO realize i won’t be able to use this credit card for the next six months, so I will be using my other card from another bank?

Girl: Yes.

Me: Are you sure?

Girl: Yes.

Me: Ok bye.

Girl: Ok, have a nice day! (hangs up)

Wow, talk about encouraging people to use their cards. I wonder why these people keep pestering me to apply for new cards when they won’t even allow me to use the one I have with them… maybe i should just cancel the bloody card…