Remember to stop and smell the roses

While I was walking the streets of George Town on Saturday evening, I got a call on my mobile asking if I could help a friend's niece who had been offered a place in USM but had difficulty logging on to the web to confirm acceptance. I told him to ask the niece to go straight to Unit Kemasukan (Adminission) on Monday morning to sort it out in personal. "Will they entertain her?", he asked. I said, "you tell her to go and demand to be entertained". "I will be on leave on monday, but she can call me if she has problems with the officers". Then the next day sitting down for dinner at Queensbay, my wife was on the free WiFI and top of the news was the havoc created by the so-called "technical error" in the offer of places for the new batch of students under the APEX programme. Apparently some idiot uploaded the entire shortlist of applicants (>8,000) instead of the actual successful list of candidates (numbering only 3,500). This morning the newspapers had a field day. The Chinese newspapers were especially sarcastic and vicious ("What APEX University?"). The parents and candidates are all angry as hell. USM offerred "unreserved apology" but I think an apology is not good enough. When we insist on moving too fast, we don't allow things to settle, we don't get enough time to learn, mistakes get amplified and can't be corrected satisfactorily. These poor kids were only given two (2) days to confirm acceptance. In my view, it was a total systems breakdown. And incompetence by those handling the system. The saving grace is that USM has told everyone in the University not to be defensive and to stay cool and calm. But I think the official response from the University is too dry in the mouth. We just can't blame it on a technical error. Why has university admissions come to be associated with so much stress for students and parents?

So, as the say, more haste, less speed. Slow down. Remember to smell the roses.

We were up early and was at the Mengkuang Dam again before 7 am this morning. These two ladies are in training for their August tour of Europe (well parts of it). The Mengkuang Dam is calm and placid with beautiful rolling hills and greenery. You can see ripples in the water as lots of water monitor (biawak) slither effortlessly in the water. We took the jungle path (actually old rubber plantation) to the other end. It took only about 20 minutes.

Yesterday I stopped to check a cobweb to look for spiders. Today my SIL found this giant spider. These are also in USM Durian Valley. The trick is to look for giant spiderwebs. This one was about 10 feet in the air.

This plant looks deceptively like one single species but is actually one tree (with small yellow flowers) and a creeper with red fruits. The yellow flower is very fragrant and if you pay attention you will be rewarded with free perfume.

This was from yesterday. The sign says no swimming, no fishing, no littering. The sign should also tell people to leave nature alone. When you feed the fish you are disturbing the balance of nature. Some species will become dominant and wipe out the other species. In this case, the fish won't even eat the bread.

After Mengkuang we dropped by the Bagan Ajam wet market to pick up some stuff. This is our favourite breakfast on Saturday mornings when we do our marketing. Char Koay Kak is made of rice (not rice flour) and steamed into a thick cake. Then it is cut into strips and fried with preserved radish (chai por), chilly, dark soya sauce, taugeh, koo chai and eggs. This is what hawking is all about - the father is in blue stripe shirt, now watching, having passed over the family business. When the son takes a break (too tired) the master takes over for the day. You won't find this in KL or elsewhere. The guy is filling up our tiffin.

This is the best char koey teow in Butterworth. Available only occasionally - when my wife decides to give us a home-cooked treat.

Evening, we are heading for the Botanical Gardens to see the Floral Fest and then for dinner at Gurney Drive, but not at the hawkers centre. They are all fakes. And they all use polystyrene foam plates and bowls.

Remember, stop and smell the roses.

Fresh Chicken Street

The Famous Teo Chew Chendol

What do you do when relatives come to visit? Become a tourist guide of course. Now where to take them? Batu Ferringhi? Penang Hill? Snake Temple? Kek Lok Si? Balik Pulau, Botanical Garden, Gurney Drive? Yah, done all and more. Now we take them on a walk through nostalgic George Town. My wife did it with my sisters, eldest brother and his family when I was in Ahmedabad in November last year. Now my sister-in-law and son are visiting. So we took them on a 2-hour walking tour yesterday. Parked the cars at Prangin Mall (per entry is RM3 on weekend). Then started walking to our favourite Famous Penang Road Teo Chew Chendol. Actually, it's on a side street named Keng Kwee Street (yes, after one of Penang's famous gangster sons). People are really strange. There are two stalls directly opposite each other on the narrow street but one gets most of the customers and both claim to be THE famous Penang Road Chendol. Cost RM1.70 a bowl and really sweet. Yah, sometimes I have to prioritise - cut the sugar or support the local culture and small business? If you are lazy, you can also get the same thing at the ground floor of Prangin mall (near Secret Recipe).

Then we walked along Penang Road to Campbell Street, passing Chowrasta Market. Saw a chendol stall using polystyrene foam bowls. My wife reminisced that her mom would bring them all to Chowrasta by bus for pre-Chinese New Year shopping a long time ago.

Interesting sign. Campbell Street is known to the locals as "Sin Kay" which means "New Street". But "Kay" in Chinese also means "chicken". And chicken is also a euphemism for prostitutes. So the sign said that "Sin Kay" also meant "fresh chicken", i.e. prostitutes fresh from the boats.

Along the way we visited a famous dumping (Bak Chang) shop along Cintra Street but just missed the business hour by 15 minutes. My SIL learned on TV about this famous shop along "Jepun Kay" (Japan Street) - I said, huh, what japan street? Lot's of streets in George Town have local versions. Then we went looking for the Hum Chin Peng stall (Chinese pan cakes or pizza). When we were students, my wife and I used to go there on a motorbike to grab some at night. They would do the frying at their apartment and bring it on their bikes to sell at the stall along Cintra Street. There was no stall but I spotted them frying outside their apartments along a side alley so we ventured to take a look. Bought some for supper. My daugther said it's too salty - the one from Raja Uda in Butterworth is better. Hhhm, I kinda a agree.

Another old trade slowly dying out? Ah, but these two young people seems keen to continue the tradition.

As we walked along Campbell Street, we saw these "abandoned" shophouses razed by fire. The residents are moving out; businesses are losing the fight with the supermarkets. We need to bring people back or the town will die.

Majlis Agama Negeri (the State Religious Council) is a big property owner in George Town. The Majlis had wanted to demolish these shophouses for redevelopment but had a change of heart (perhaps because of the public outcry). Externally, it looks refreshed but they could have down a better job with the the "shopfront" on the ground floor. They have replaced the entire front with rolling metal shutters. I think it was a missed opportunity to bring back the nostalgia of our urban heritage. Notice the line of the first floor moving up? It's not an optical illusion. There seemed to have been some sinking over time.

Time to catch our breadth, just outside the beautiful Kapitan Kling Mosque. The building in the background is gorgeous. If you look at the first and second floor, you will notice holes below and above the windows for ventilation. I told my daughter that this is call "the street of harmony". Really? Yah, see the church at the end of the street? Then there's the Goddess of Mercy, the Indian temple, the Mosques and the various clans associations.

We walked to the High Court, St Xavier and then headed for the E&O Hotel to admire the history. They have this pictures in a cabinet which says the hotel hosted people like Rudyard Kipling and Rita Hayworth, Nobel Lauretes and many famous people. I wonder why they do not display it on wall instead of a cabinet; you have to walk behind it to see the pictures? Man, for a pricey place there were many diners enjoying their evening. I had dinner there once but didn't think the food was that good. My colleagues said it depends on how much you are willing to pay (it was USM function) so I guess we must have paid peanuts.

Had dinner at the May Garden restaurant next to Cititel. Not bad. Used to be very crowded but still enjoying a steady stream of customers.

When we reached Prangin Mall again, my son headed for McD - apparently we didn't order quite enough for 6 people.

Waking up early for Mengkuang Dam tomorrow. Was there this morning and we were quite disgusted by people feeding bread to the fish which didn't want the food so it was all floating on the water.

Crepes

When I got back from my meeting in the morning, a staff brought me a plastic container and said Michael brought it for me. Which Michael? Michael Peter Foo. I opened it up and looked inside. What is it? Looks like pancakes. But its got a reused metal container with some vegetables in it. And a metal spoon. And a note which said "how to eat it? You figure it out". It's Michael, alright.

As I was driving home to share with my daughter it struck me that it was crepes!! I remember a few years back when I visited my niece in Warwick and she and her chum (Stella, I think) cooked up a feast of various types of crepes at their hostel kitchenette. Specially for me! A few years later the subject of about her making crepes came up and she reminded me that I didn't like her crepes. Huh? Did I say I didn't like it? No. But I didn't say I liked it either!

So I rolled up the vegetables in the crepes skin. There was one extra skin which I spread peanut butter on. And then I nuked it (microwave, lah). My daughter tasted half a roll with the vegetables but found it too strong (the koo chai and dried prawns). Then she tried the one with the soft dripping peanut butter in it. Ehhhmmm, very good. So I emptied a few more halves and made some more with peanut butter for her.

Thanks Michael. Wonder who made them. Girl friend? Mom? Himself?