A Walk in the Rain

Sometimes you’ve just got to go out and do stuff.

You’ve got to appreciate what there is out there, and go beyond the day to day.

I read somewhere that the Dalai Lama said that you should, at least once a year, visit a place you haven’t been before.

So we took a few days off and went to Cradle Mountain in the north of Tasmania. We had been here on our honeymoon many years before, but this was the first time with our two children. Although I had been there on two other occasions without the family, it was my first walk around Lake Dove.

Despite the rain, and it poured and poured all day, we still bravely headed off on our hike. The signboard said that it was a 2 hour walk but it took us 3 hours. It didn’t help that a good part of the track had turned into a stream!

We could have taken the easy way out though and not gone … after all it was raining heavily. But I remembered from my daughter’s Montessori days that the teacher said that there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. We had all our wet weather gear with us, so there was no excuses!

At Lake Dove with wet weather gear

I really enjoyed our walk in the rain. The air was fresh. The views stunning. And the rain gave everything a different feel. And the waterfalls and streams were just gushing away.

Being out in the rain reminded me of when I was a boy in St John’s in KL. Once, during a torrential rain, a few of us 7-year-olds rushed out into the football field, just to play out there and get soaking wet! I think we got into a lot of trouble … but it was fun!

Sometimes you’ve just got to get out there and do stuff.

Meme: A Hari Raya thought for Yvonne

I was tagged by Andrea Whatever to do a post for Yvonne Foong. So I thought I’d do it this Hari Raya Adil Fitri when thoughts are more spiritual and less rooted in our day to day.

Yvonne Foong, 22, has neurofibromatosis type II, which has severely affected her sight and hearing due to tumours in the brain and spine. She is scheduled for an operation between 1 and 4 December 2009 in the US. The cost of surgery is RM154,770, and the cost of staying in hospital for two weeks is RM3219.

She has raised about RM74,000 of this and is hoping to raise the rest (another RM75,000) by republishing her book I’m Not Sick; I’m Just a Bit Unwell in English and Chinese. The books are now available in Malaysian bookshops and from her web store. She is also selling T-shirts at bazaars and via her web store. You can read about her surgery and donate to her fund here.

You can also help by sending on this meme.

If you do, please follow these meme rules:

1. Create a blog entry titled “Meme: Save Yvonne’s Sight”

2. List three things you love to see. Add in the picture of Yvonne’s book cover. The URL is http://www.yvonnefoong.com/images/banner/my-story.jpg

3. End with the line, “Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com/.

4. Tag 5 blog friends. Be sure to copy the rules, OK?

[It is here that I have to apologise as I've broken this rule. I've not had time to obtain consent from 5 blog friends a the moment, but hopefully I will do so in time. To compensate, I took a photo yesterday which I'm dedicating to her.]

5. If you have a Facebook account, please check out Ellen’s new invention, a “feme” pronounced FEEM, a meme designed for Facebook here. And if you want to blog about NF, that would be great too!

Three things I love to see :

1. The Mona Lisa (again!)

2. Family and Friends (again and again!)

3. The World … at peace!

Photo for Yvonne

Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at THIS LINK

She accepts donations via PayPal and credit card. There is even a trust fund involved and a receipt can be issued for all funds donated.

It’s a good time to donate this Hari Raya!

New Map of Malaysia

“What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural.”
- Joseph Heller Catch 22

So much for the recent spat between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Some would say that all the spitting was coming across from the south rather than the north of the Melaka Straits. But that depends on your point of view.

The Indonesians have accused Malaysia of nicking much of Indonesian culture and calling it Malaysian, including a song which later became Malaysia’s national anthem “Negara Ku”. Flags have been burnt. There are shades of the Confrontation which we know happened in 19 …..

… of course, 1963, but you already knew that, didn’t you? (By the way, what was the Confrontation about again?)

Much has been written on the Malaysian / Indonesian issue and I don’t intend to stoke the flames. Not much anyway.

Malaysia and Indonesia have so much shared history and culture. Actually, that’s not so correct. It is peninsula Malaysia and Sumatra that share much common history and culture.

If the British and the Dutch did not divide the two countries between themselves in 1824, the map of modern Malaysia and Indonesia would be very different. What happened back then was a straight swap. Britain exchanged its settlement in Bencoolen, Sumatra for the Dutch’s settlement in Melaka on the peninsula. The cultural and historic links between the Malay peninsula and Sumatra was severed. The Dutch united the rest of the Malay archipelago into what it called the Dutch East Indies, which effectively drew the borders of Malaysia and Indonesia.

I wonder what would have happened if that Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 was never signed.

Would our modern map of the region look like this:

Just looking at the map sends a shiver up my spine. I wonder if I’ve broken any laws just by drawing it!

It is merely for the sake of hypothesis, that of alternate history. So please don’t arrest me!

As I’ve said before, isn’t our history interesting?

(You can find out more about the issue in an excellent article in The Sun)

A Curry that Prevents Swine Flu?

You might have read my previous post about the magic ingredient that prevents swine flu.

I’ve been asked: How can this magic ingredient be used?

That’s a good question. There’s no point knowing what the magic ingredient is, when you don’t know how to use it!

I find that the best way to deploy it is in a curry as I’m sure the slow cooking involved will release the star anise’s special properties.

In case you haven’t seen this recipe before, here it is. It’ll make a great Buka Puasa dish too!

Minang Fish Curry

1. Mix 1 heaped teaspoon tumeric powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons water and mix into a runny paste.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in saucepan. Add 1 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves and 1 STAR ANISE and let whole spices flavour oil for a minute or so (this is an essential step that releases the properties of Star Anise, the other spices merely add flavour but my also be beneficial).

Unleash the healing properties of Star Anise!

3. Add paste and fry for a minute making sure paste doesn’t burn or get stuck to saucepan. If needed, add a tablespoon of water.

4. Add garlic (3 cloves), ginger (1/2 an inch) and about 2 chilies, all finely sliced. (Hotness from chilies can be quite variable, so how hot the dish is going to end up is always a mystery!) Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Fry for 1 minute.

5. Add 1 onion, sliced up. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Fry mixture of paste, garlic, ginger, chilies and onion until onions are caramalised. This is a very important step that brings all the flavours out and should take at least 20 minutes.

6. Add 1 tin of coconut milk and 1/2 to 3/4 cup water depending on thickness of coconut milk used. Add 1 stalk lemon grass (sliced into 2 or 3 pieces). Add 1-2 whole chilies (optional – for presentation purposes to garnish but delicious too)

7. Simmer for 40 – 50 minutes.

8. Bring to medium heat and add fish (about 3 fish fillets depending on size, each fillet sliced into 3). Will take about 5 to 10 minutes to cook. Test occasionally with fork. Instead of using just fish, you could include prawns, baby octopus etc to create a seafood curry (as per the photo below)

Ready to eat?

9. Remove lemon grass before serving. If sauce is too spicy for younger children, remove children’s portion of fish and, in a bowl, rinse a couple of times in boiling water from kettle.

Enjoy!

And, of course, stay healthy!

BTW I had an article in The Star on merdeka day. It’s called A HISTORY THAT BELONGS TO ALL.

History of Malaysia: A Children’s Encyclopedia is also now available on Amazon!