ONE DAY @ THE ALOR STAR GENERAL HOSPITAL

Am now in a cyber kafe... real krepek one and still using Windows 98...

The last time we came here, my wife got a shock upon seeing a real sickening pornographic picture popping up the screen...

And the kids... soooo noisy playing the computer games...

Took my mum to the Alor Star General Hospital this morning...

Was overwhelmed by the big crowds of people waiting for the doctors...

Took about two hours to finally see the doctor...

Got me wondering why Malaysia is not putting more efforts and funds into building more hospitals for the citizens...

And also on why the Alor Star General Hospital is not being moved to the outskirts...

The young doctor recommended her to go for some blood infusion.

She would need to be hospitalized for about two or three nights...

Accompanied her to the ward...

There were about 30 beds almost all filled up... no partition, just curtains in between beds of two each...

Mother had been through this a few times before, so she had actually prepared herself for the nightstop at the hospital... clothes, plates, cups, spoon, hot flask, etc...

I asked her about the schedule and meals...

They apparently 'feed' the patients four times per day...

Just then, a nurse came by announcing the arrival of afternoon refreshments...

Immediately, mother asked me to dish out a plate and ask for a kind of sweet porridge and tea...

Was quite embarassed as mother just checked in...

Wouldn't it seem obvious that she knew the schedule?

I asked her how it tasted...

'Good', she said...

First time for me to experience taking mother to the hospital...

Am planning to leave Alor Star in two days, so hope she will be ok...

NOBODY WOULD HAVE BELIEVED THE POLICE?

Encouraging... simply encouraging...

For all the mess and mistrust that the police have been stirring up ever since, the mother of all comments that put another big fat nail on the coffin comes from none other than the mouth of the prime minister...

Nobody would’ve believed police then... he says...

I say...

He is right on the spot, man...

Now my question is... and please correct me if I am wrong here...

How in the world can a man who is in charge of the police force say such a thing?

Are citizens to interpret this as, 'he is doing such a lousy job that we cannot even believe the police?'

How about issuing some regrets on that matter, followed by a sincere promise to buck things up?

Mr. Prime Minister?

MY MUM'S SON...

Wooh... this weather suddenly 'decided to punish me' by getting colder...

The temperature's been zooming into the single-digit lows, although not quite reaching zero as yet...

There was even a tinge of snow falling this morning...

Been driving to work for the last few days due to not so much the cold...

It's more of the winds that gush in from the sea front...

While cycling, I sometimes felt like I was going to lift-off and fly away...

Will be having a party hosted by the University President tonight...

It is exciting for me because I get to meet most of the foreign students in the university...

The other notable development is that yours truly is set to head back to Bolehland for a short break...

It will be a combination of 'business and pleasure'... so to say...

Shall be shooting back on 22nd December, returning to Japan on 4th January...

This is the first time ever, for me to return home in the year-end, year-beginning period...

Been avoiding this period because the airports are usually super-crowded with Japanese tourists heading to places like Hawaii and Guam...

But what to do...

In my present capacity, I can no longer do my usual 'escape' during the spring holidays of February and March...

I now need to be around to handle things; otherwise, I shall be putting too much burden on my colleagues...

Anyway, one main purpose of my balik-kampong is to see my mum...

She is about 83 and weakening... no energy to cook anymore...

Mum was however, never known to be a good cook although she is a nyonya from Pulau Pinang...

Still, it seems that I have reached the point of having the privilege to enjoy mum's home cooked food taken away...

Kind of sad...

About 10 years ago, I was out on an Aichi-Foreign-Student-Association-organized ski-trip to Shin-hodaka Mountains in Gifu prefecture...

There, my friends enjoyed skiing, as I repeatedly fell over and over again...

I was utterly hopeless in skiing...

It was then that my dad had passed away while I bled in my nose from those clumsy falls...

Till today, I cursed myself to no end for not being able to be by his side...

Apparently, Chinese 'tradition' deemed that we had to crawl on fours around my dad's coffin a few times, asking for forgiveness...

As for my mum, I am more mentally prepared...

She has asked me to be by her side when we return this time...

But here I am, still dreaming of hitting the blue ocean when we return...

SHIBUYA... CENTRAL STREET

Shibuya... the part of Tokyo I am most familiar with...

Here, I stood at one corner... gazing at the river of people flowing...

The street on the right side is called 'Senta-gai'...

Literally, Central Street...

It is a street infested with the youth of Tokyo...

It is also known as the place where many fashions are born...

That huge poster of a good looking lady...

I think she is a singer who just cut an album...

I had a bowl of ramen (noodles) there...

At a neat, no-smoking place...

The taste? so-so...

OOH, MY STOOOOMACK...

Somewhat out of the blue, Lilian threw me a line…

Grinning widely, she said,

‘Lrong - Here is something frivolous for you to ponder. Childhood food.

No obligation, ok? *Lilian holding Lrong’s neck at knife point…*

The way it works - write about 5 foods from your childhood that you missed.

Pass the baton to another three person after that.’

Ok lah.. here are the last five terror hungry ghosts…

1. Masak-Masak
2. Babe in the City
3. Samm
4. JoeC
5. Malaysia best

And, haaaa… now, what did I miss during my childhood days?

Maybe, mee goreng sold by the Indian man on the roadside outside my primary school, Sultan Abdul Halim Primary School? My family was not rich; I did not have much pocket money. So, while waiting for my father to pick me up after school in his 50cc Honda motorbike, I starred at the people chomping on the mee… saliva dripping... stoomack drumming... can you imagine it was sold in portions of 5 cents and 10 cents?

And second… kon loh mee… as sold by a vendor on tricycle with the tok-tok-tok sound… usually this guy came in the afternoon at about 4:00 pm, just when my stooomack was growling… but sadly again, no money to buy…

Third, grass jelly or chin chow? Funny, the seller also came in a bicycle… he sold the grass jelly in blocks of four or five inches in breath and about three inches in width… very cheap... me and my brothers would slice them up… and put lots of sugar… and ice… and we would be slurping the concoction for the rest of the day… haaaa…

The fourth food item might be the soup made from wild birds that we caught from the rice fields… don’t know their names but they are a little bigger than pigeons and they have very little fat… we boiled them with Chinese herbs for hours, so the meat and bones were soft and sweet…their taste was out of this world… these days, no more wild birds in the rice fields because no more karibaus there…

And tada !!! durians… bought in gunny sacks… don’t know why but my dad used to buy them in mountains… and we would just eat them with coconut-milk-treated glutinous rice… woooohh... my youngest brother ate a little too much… since then, he finds durians repelling… but KMiJ is still gorging at them after all these years… heheheee… paradise...

Sorry lah, Lilian… no fotos to show…

And the next three hungry ghosts are… tada !!!

1. keatix… a high-flying architect of a man… let’s see what his taste buds were like…
2. mmulibra… super researcher in search of an advance degree in Japan… can he recall the ‘lost’ foods?
3. dracolshian…artist extraordinaire in pursuit of a fine arts degree… now, what ‘tongue’ did she have?

CHOTTO MATTE KUDASAI

Just returned from a five-day Tokyo trip...

Man, to me, that place is fit for rats...

Many thanks for the comments left by you guys...

Am quite amused at some though...

But, will have to read through them again before I can respond...

For the time being, the symposium at Waseda University was most educational and inspirational...

Am 'fully charged' now to engage in research on international education...

Was really lucky to meet with several distinguished individuals...

Most prominent among them was of course, Dr. Mahathir, who graciously accepted my request for a two-shot photo...

Stay tuned for the photo upload and related story...

Meanwhile, let me crawl through this mountain of work...

Heeeeeeeeaaaaiiiiiiii...

Adddoooiiii...