(NOT a sponsored post!) I reckon every home in Malaysian has one of those old round, blue coloured [tag]Kjeldsens[/tag] tins lying around. My mom used to put all her sewing stuff in it, I think when i was small we had another one or my Lego pieces (yes, I played with Lego!). They’re extremely useful, don’t rust easily, and when they finally rust, some of my neighbours used them as flowerpots… The tin definitely outlive the [tag]butter cookies[/tag] by many years, people re-use the container to store all sorts of stuff. But speaking of the actual [tag]cookies[/tag], they’re definitely one of the best tasting ones around – always soft and…

I didn’t know anything about the movie “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”, expecting it to be Adam Sandler making jokes about hairdressers and their queer lifestyle, but i usually watch any Sandler movie anyway. Fifteen minutes into the movie, I was like “wow, they showed this movie HERE?” but it was damn funny… Hilarious scene: Zohan: Come on, come on. You guys get along here, huh? Stop this. Palestinian immigrant #1: Yeah, here… here it’s okay, uh? Its just THERE, the war is never going to end, huh? Israelis and Palestinians together: (shaking heads) No… Israeli immigrant #1: You know, we were so close to peace before that a**hole…

My last trip back home, i raided my parents’ old vinyl records, including the vintage ABBA ones. Since then, I’ve been kinda revisiting their music these last few days, reminding myself of their great melodies and the memories they brought back. As kids, we also had cassette tapes of their albums, and i remembered we played them until the sound quality became bad. Looking back, ABBA embodied the better side of 70’s pop music, holding out far better than cheesy disco music that we used to watch on TV… Years later, we grew up, my brother went on to idolize Dire Straits, Clapton and The Police, and me, I grew…

Before that, way to go, Lee Chong Wei. All the nation’s hopes on our mercurial boy, hopes he doesn’t wilt in the pressure at the finals. Anyways, i’ll be watching the final on Sunday in Cameron Highlands, going there for a long weekend. KL is so hot and hazy these fews, one or two degrees of cooler weather will help a bit, seeing that the hilltop will probably be suffering from this heat wave. Haven’t been there for like 5 years, so it’ll be the usual round of cactus farms, rose gardens, honeybee farms, drive up Gunong Brinchang, visit some tea plantations, etc. The usual gawking touristy stuff ler, cuti-cuti…

The [tag]Seoul Olympics[/tag] in the summer of 1988 will mostly be remember for one person – [tag]Ben Johnson[/tag]. Yes, the man who won the gold medal in the 100 metre dash finals, broke the [tag]Olympic[/tag] record, beat his bitter rival [tag]Carl Lewis[/tag], and later was tested positive for drugs, and three days later stripped of his medal and record. Most of us don’t follow athletics these days, I doubt many would even know who holds the current world record, but in 1988, everyone knew. We were in school, and with nothing else to do except watch the one decent TV channel, we followed the Olympics daily. Ben Johnson had earlier…

I sprained my forearm muscle just below my left wrist on Monday at the gym. It’s a little better today but i still can’t supinate it both ways, looks like i’ll laying off dumbbells for sometime. Darn. Usually i don’t treat bruises and sores, but i had a bad feeling about this one, so my wife whipped out this for me… You’ve heard of Kung Fu Mee, Kung Fu Fighting, Kung Fu Hustle, and even Kung Fu Panda, but you’ve probably not seen… KUNG FU OIL!!! Nope, I’ve never heard of it, either. My mother-in-law bought it when she went to Australia. Just in case you missed the name of…

One day in college circa mid-90’s, i turned on the radio and this evocative song by a strangely lilting (yet familiar) voice sang the words: Are you goin’ to scarborough fair? parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine i was really into this heavy metal and progressive rock thing back then (still am) and was surprised to hear that it was by Queensryche and the DJ mentioned that it was a cover of an old Simon & Garfunkel song (me and my pal Ray became fans of the band Queensryche after that, we even named our assignment…

Let’s go back a few years. I became a dad at quite a young age, younger than most of my friends and peers. I pretty much learnt about the job on my own, my own dad was never around for most of my growing up years and when he was around in my teen years, i had already grown distant from my family. But young as i was, i think was pretty prepared, i had always known what kind of dad i would be, even before i had gotten married. Digressing. First kid came some years back, she was a mature looking baby, but very sweet, everyone said she will…

Went to my first Bon Odori Festival on Saturday. I’ve reading it for years, mainly through Silencer‘s blog, so when i heard about it on the radio on Friday, i made sure i didn’t miss it this time round. Bon Odori is actually the Japanese Hungry Ghost Festival, but here in Malaysia it’s more of a cultural festival to expose all thing Japanese to Malaysians. This is the 32nd Bon Odori held in KL. We reached Matsushita Stadium quite early but already we had to park far away. The crowd there was still in but streaming in at about 4.30pm. Everyone gets a plastic fan, sponsored by various Japanese corporations.…

Studying Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (some time back) reminded me of this song which i absolutely loved some years back. Say what you want about post 70’s Elton John, but he writes great songs. Oh, it’s carnival night And they’re stringing the lights around you Hanging paper angels Painting little devils on the roof Oh the furnace wind Is a flickering of wings about your face In a cloud of incense Yea, it smells like Heaven in this place That’s not-quite-popular pop princess Mandy Moore in the vid, also featuring Elizabeth Taylor. Was never much a fan of Elton when i was growing up in the 80’s, coinciding with the…