A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME ... tuberose

 Salam and good day. 

It's the end of July/ early August, and my tuberose is blooming. Go figure. Despite its name, tuberose is not actually a rose. I just felt like quoting Shakespeare, that's all.

I'm a tiny bit confused with the flowering season of this flower. Last year, it bloomed sometime in November/ December, this year, it's July/ August. Next year... March/April?

Regardless of when they decide to show up, I'm glad they did at all. I simply love the smell ... so soft and slightly musky, a bit similar to Jasmine and the Bakawali / Queen of the Night

And, like the Bakawali, The scent of the tuberose is also often associated with the presence of spirits and ghosts... yea... I don't know about that. However, if you suddenly get a whiff of a tuberose scent while walking in a dark deserted alley, in the middle of the night ... you should run, love... even if you don't believe in ghosts ... just run.

IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS ... there is peace and serenity

 Salam and good day,

Here I am again, ready to begin another semester. Seems like just yesterday I finished teaching the third semester. 

This semester, instead of online teaching, (which I have sort of gotten used to by now), the university wants us to do hybrid lesson. Hybrid, meaning, a combination of online and face to face lesson., ie: 50% of each. Sounds simple enough. Well, it is anything but simple. 

The 50% face to face and online only applies to students' learning time, 

For the lecturers, its actually 100% face to face, but in the face to face class, only 50% of the students will be physically present and the remaining will have it as an online lesson. That's one scenario. I know. It's complicated.

Anyway, the hybrid lesson consists of six different scenarios based to the actual number of students who are physically on campus and those who are not. Therefore, if I have six sections to teach, and unluckily, have six different scenarios, well... chaos would be an understatement. I'm literally heading into a storm. 

The bright side is this coming semester would be my second last before I'm off to my retirement. Sooo looking forward to it. I'm  just too old for this mode of teaching.

Speaking of storm, it's October now, and we can expect a visit from our dear friend, the North East monsoon in a few weeks. Yes, Mr Monsoon will come with abundance of rain, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. That gives me an idea for a November poem. Hopefully, I will have the time to think about it, you know, with all the chaos.

But, for now, I need something soothing... here it is...

Despite, the title, My Melancholy Blues, This song is not at all depressing. It is the most peaceful and serene song ever.

related post : death-on-two-legs-dedicated-to.

I'M HANGING ONTO THE CLOUDS .... by my fingertips

 

 I'm hanging onto the clouds 

by my fingertips

  I curse the wind

 I curse the sea

I curse the moonlight

wishing they would stop mocking 

and just let me be

                              I'm hanging onto the clouds

by my fingertips

way beneath I could see

a sea of smiling faces

thousands of helping hands 

beckoning me

to come down

                              Still I hung onto the clouds

by the very end of my fingertips

and

When my strength grudgingly hands me over 

 to the grasping arms of gravity

and  the earth gets to lay its hands on me

dare they be my safety net

                                          or

would they

with a smile plastered on their faces

mutter...poor thing

and go on to talk about politics

so

I shall keep hanging onto the clouds 

by the strength of my fingertips....

QUEEN OF THE NIGHT ... bakawali

 Salam and good day,

I walked into my yard early one morning, around 6.30 am and I was greeted by a glorious sight. Glorious because it was such a rare sight to behold. 

Yes. I was greeted by the still blooming Bakawali flower or its not so exotic scientific name Epiphyllum Oxytpetallum.  Mind you, I was lucky to be able to catch it still blooming as it was already daylight and the flower was already wilting, never to bloom again. 

also known as Queen of the night

, Gul-e-Bakavali, Kadupul, Brahma Kamalam, Beauty below the moon

Blooming only once a year, the blooming period is said to be from the end of June till early July, which was around the time I took these pictures. Being a night blooming cactus, they start to open after dusk, around 8 or nine pm and start to fade after dawn. hence the name Queen of the night. Not only that, each flower will only bloom once and only for a few hours. 

That is why we will never see this flower being sold in flower shops and florist or blooming in the nursery. They could never make it to the shops. so, they can never be bought in all their entirety, which renders them priceless, ergo, the most expensive flower in the world.

Luckily, there were a few more buds that hasn't bloomed. I waited 2 days for them to bloom.

so here it is, the Queen of the night in all its glory, captured on 21.06.2021 at 11.35 pm

Oh, did I tell you about the scent? How would I describe the scent. It is soft, warm and sweet, and it perfumed my whole yard. Heavenly. 

However, if you are an avid believer of the paranormal, smelling the Bakawali scent in the middle of the night would definitely make the hair on your arm stand up and send you scrambling indoor. Incidentally,  just a few moments ago, a booming thunder cracked the sky. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Well, I guess that's my cue to stop.  

REFERENCES:

https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokok_Bakawali

http://ipgmktar.edu.my/etnobotani/2018/10/22/bunga-bakawali/

https://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/moonlight-beauty

http://pplh.ulm.ac.id/id/2020/02/28/15-bunga-terlangka-di-dunia/

CORONAVIRUS RHAPSODY ... stress buster

 Here we are , bracing the third wave of Coronavirus. still WFH. 

Anyway, I found this while browsing for Queen videos, and I just have to post it. Lyrics by comedian Dana Jay Bein, performed by Adrian Grimes, music by Queen obviously. Just a bit of fun to see us through these gloomy times. Enjoy.

ON A RAINY JANUARY MORNING

 

IN THE LAP OF THE GODS REVISITED ... only Queen fans...

 Only Queen fans would know this date.

In the lap of the gods revisited

RIP Mr Mercury

NO ONE BUT YOU...the patung says

WHY DO I STILL CRY WHEN I WATCH THIS VIDEO?

Queen - No One But You

WE ADAPT, WE COMPROMISE ... covid19, online teaching

salam and good day,

It's a beautiful day. A day for spending at the beach or a park or taking my grandchildren to the swimming pool, before covid19 that is. 

Right now, its best to follow the government's order and stay at home. To quote Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge: 'we adapt, we compromise'. Right on mr Eastwood. 

Speaking of adapting and compromising, how do you feel about online teaching?

Me? I'm so not into online teaching. Maybe it's because i was born in the 60s and grew up in the 70s and 80s, way before the age of IT, or, may be i'm just old fashion. 

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against technology or online teaching for that matter. Technology is great, just not my cup of tea. It is certainly useful, and some people might be really good at online teaching. It's a matter of personal preference, I guess. 

i remember a scene from the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic where they went to a farm to record their album 'A night at the opera'. At one point, after Brian did his solo part for BoRap, he asked what Freddie thought of it, and Freddie said, 'almost perfect'. 

Brian: Almost perfect?
Freddie: Now play it like you actually wrote it.
Brian: i did. I wrote that part.
Freddie: put your body into it. 

And he went on to say, put your heart into it. 

That is exactly how i feel about online teaching. Making a video of my lecture or lesson is not a big problem, but putting my heart into the video is not easy. Some might say, just post the video. After that, it's all up to the students. Who cares whether the understand it or not. Well, I care.

Anyway, there was a forum (online, of course) with my vice chansellor this morning,  on the new norm for us in UMP. Nèedless to say, online teaching and learning is going to become a normal thing, post MCO.

So, there is no escape for me. Heart or no heart, I'll have to get used to it. All I can do is to give it my best... find ways to put some rock n roll into my online teaching materials...LOL

Just like with the movement control order, we adapt, we compromise, the same goes for online teaching. In the meantime, i will do some gardening, helps me think.

Salam Ramadhan to all muslims. 

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ... ini bukan review

Salam and good day.

Been a while, but here I am again. Two weeks ago, I finally got to watch 'Bohemian Rhapsody', two years after it was released. Sad, but it's been ages since I've set foot in a cinema. Thanks to Astro, I finally got to see it. 

I recorded the movie and I watched it over and over, and it breaks my heart every time. All their songs came back to me one by one, songs that I grew up with. Memories of my late brother, who introduced me to Queen when I was 10 or 11, singing along to 'another one bites the dust', 'Fat Bottomed Girls' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. My brother was a big fan of 70s and 80s rock, and, needless to say,so am I, and I am still Queen's number 1 fan.

 Memories of my days studying in the UK in the 80s, scrambling to the common room to watch 'Top of the Pops', going into record shops to buy their 'A kind of Magic' album and watching 'The Highlanders' a few times because of Queen, and also because of Christopher Lambert, in that order. The movie brought them all back to me.

I love the movie, mainly because I love Queen and I adore Freddie Mercury. Rami Malek, did a great job of playing Freddie. The movie doesn't have any hi-tech special effects or any great fighting scenes in it. It's just a simple story, with great acting and awesome music. What else do you need? 

I was in England in 1985, so, I know about the live aid concert, and I can relate to the excitement of that time.I breaks my heart, every time I get to the 'live aid concert' scene at the end, seeing them perform the best live rock concert ever, knowing, six years after that, Freddy Mercury would die. 

I guess I'm still mourning for the loss of someone so beautiful and so talented. 

RIP. Love you always, Freddie Mercury..

here is the video of what is still known as the best live rock concert ever, from youtube.

SHARPER THAN KNIVES - update 4 minit

TO SEE A WORLD ...

27.07.2019 - Kuantan, 9am, Saturday, Teluk Tongkang beach

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro’ the World we safely go.

Every Night and every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night. 

William Blake  

TAIPING ... have you ever seen the rain?

Salam and good day,

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain, coming down on a sunny day? Love that tune. 

Well, if you live in Taiping, you probably would, quite often too. and no, I have never been to Taiping. Apparently, it has the greatest volume of rainfall in Malaysia, averaging from 2 to 3 weeks of rain every month, which gives it the enchanting name: rain town.

Now, a bit of historical background. Bear with me.

One of the first town developed due to the discovery of tin. Formerly known as Larut, hence the name  Bukit Larut. At that time, the town was controlled by two opposing Chinese societies ie: Gee Hin and Hai San. Needless to say, these two societies did not get along well, just like the family rival between the Corleone and Tattaglia in The Godfather. Whaaatttt! You've never seen that movie? Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro... err ... nevermind. 

Anyway, Larut was conflict ridden, until the British arrived and ended it with the Pangkor Treaty in 1874.

Hard to believe that this sleepy town used to be the capital administrative of Perak isn't it?. Not just that, it was also the capital of the Federated Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. However, the federal capital was later changed to Kuala Lumpur due to its strategic location between Penang and Singapore. Logical... but sad.

And when the tin supply started dwindling in 1937, the administrative capital of Perak was later  moved to Ipoh. Again, logical but still sad. 

So, being among the first mining towns in Malaysia, Taiping also has a lot of other firsts. To date, there are 33 listed firsts out of which, 7 has been gazzetted as  heritage. Those are:
1. All Saint's Church 1883
2. Museum 1886
3. Prison 1879
4. Public Office 1881
5. Public Library 1882
6. Ngah Ibrahim's Fort 1870s
7. King Edward VII school 1882

26 more sites will hopefully be gazzetted as heritage in the near future. I will not list them down, but you can read about them 

here and here

This is the Antong Cafe, the oldest coffee mill in Malaysia - more than 100 years old , and the biggest functioning coffee mill in the world that actually roasts their own coffee there, using the traditional charcoal roasting process.

I can smell the heavenly aroma of coffee bean in err...my imagination.

 This is definately my first stop, if i ever get to Taiping,


photos courtesy of Mr Ghassan Maan

 

 Because I'm such a sucker for clock towers, here;s an extra large photo of the first clock tower in Malaysia.


Affectionately known as the 'old Clock Tower'.


The clock tower was originally built as the town police station, and if you look closely, you can see the structure of the police station behind it..

photos courtesy of Mr Ghassan Maan

 










 The entrance of the clock tower is planked by an antique trishaw and a very old school phone booth... superman would love that...LOL Oh...and ignore the individual in the photo ok, focus on the structure, please.


Looks like Taiping is all set to woo tourists... so, what are you waiting for... visit Taiping now.

Have a nice day.

References:

http://www.ipohecho.com.my/v4/article/2015/09/01/heritage-taiping
https://cultureguru.my/en/2016/11/30/taiping-story-rain-town-heard-rain-betting/
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/community/2013/03/07/the-many-firsts-of-taiping/
http://taipingheritagecult.blogspot.com/2008/07/firsts-in-taiping.html
http://raintowntaiping.blogspot.com/2011/05/33-first-in-taiping.html
https://peraktoday.com.my/2016/04/taiping-33-first-perlu-diwartakan-sebagai-warisan-negara/

 

the patung says... BRING IT ON

Salam and good day,

We are fast approaching the end of June,  which means we are now halfway into 2019. In 6 months, it will be 2020, a whole new decade.

So far, 2019 has been an eventful and challenging year for me, physically, mentally and emotionally. How so? Well, that's for me to know, but not for you to find out...lol

Here's a quote for motivation:

So true, Mr Gibran.

I have 3 things to say before venturing into the last 6 months of this decade

If I made you happy ... I'm glad 
If I made you cry ... so sorry
If I made no difference to you ... tough luck

and for the rest of this decade... 3 words... BRING  IT  ON!!!!!!!

there's just too much that time cannot erase
ps: still feeling crappy

Have a nice day.

BUSKING BY THE BEACH ... 4 minute update

Salam and good day...
went to Teluk Cempedak beach to pick my grandson from his  school outing.
Got a chance to listen to our local buskers.

preety good...
click here for the video. enjoy...

TUESDAY MORNING IN KUANTAN

Salam and good day.

Tuesday - 25.12.2018
Took my grandchildren to Sungai Pandan waterfall, aka Panching waterfall.

The last time I came was more than 20 years ago. Situated less than 20km from Kuantan, it is practically right at our doorstep... still, not many Kuantan citizen has ever set foot here.

it is pretty much the most beautiful and clean waterfall I have ever been to. Great for relaxing with family and friends. 

For more photos and videos, click here

DREAMING...tell me

Salam and good day, 

Here is my all time favourite song, First heard it when I was at university, ages and ages ago. Heard it again this morning. Brings back so many memories. Anyway, enjoy!

Dreaming... tell me - Yngwie Malmsteen

Shades of night, fall upon my eyes 

lonely world fades away

Misty light, shadows start to rise 

lonely world fades away 

In my dreams your face is all I see 

Through the night you share your love with me 

Dreaming visions of you 

Feeling all the love I never knew 

Here we are on the crossroads of forever 

Shining star lites the way 

Walk with me on the winds of time 

Love's mystery is for us to find 

Dreaming visions of you 

Feeling all the love I never knew 

Until that day 

Until the day I find you 

I won't rest, 

I won't let go 

Somehow Someway 

I know I'll be beside you 

To warm my heart 

and fill my soul

EARLY MORNING MIST

disappearing trees

where is the playground, he asked?

early morning mist

THREE LETTERS FROM TEDDY

Salam and good day,

This story was introduced to me by my friend who was the Assistant Principal way back when I was still teaching in secondary school. It is an inspiring and heart-warming tale of teacher and student. It teaches me of the true meaning of teaching. Since yesterday was Teachers' Day, I am compelled to share this with you. enjoy!

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY 

TO ALL TEACHERS 

FROM PRE-SCHOOLS TO HIGH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ... do not go gentle

Well, here we are again, at the beginning of yet another year. I have to say though, 2017 has been sheer hell ...so i guess this year would be... oh, i dont know... plain hell maybe. These last few months  I've been juggling between trying to stay sane and trying to sustain  my  willpower to keep going. With the amount of juggling I'm doing, I might as well be in a circus, maybe i could meet pennywise...beep, beep, hey... you wanna balloon? oh yeah, while you're at it... please eat me.  

Then i heard the soothing voice of Dylan Thomas saying DO NOT GO GENTLE... yeah... and sometimes Mr Thomas would do an Elvis impersonation .... DO NOT GO GENTLE  INTO THE GOOD NIGHT BAYBEH... haha... that always makes me laugh.

Right now, though, I feel as if I'm falling from a high building, hoping there's a safety net somewhere below...preferably being held by spongebob... errr... i mean friendly faces. But, if it turns out I have to hit the ground, then I would... but not without a fight...nope...I WILL NOT GO GENTLE  INTO THE GOOD NIGHT!!!  Thank you Dylan Thomas and Elvis.

And now, I shall embrace 2018, and whatever shit it has to offer. If I have to fall, I'll make bloody sure I'll land on a bloody safety net...or I wouldn't let myself fall in the first place. Winston Churchill once said... "If you're going through hell, keep going" 
and i will... with these two blokes behind me.... hehehe

The superheroes remind me of something. I will tell you about it sometime in the near future. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. 
may 2018 be a great year for all.