Luncheon Farewell, 23/1

Menu: Flavoured Rice, Beef Rendang, Chili Fish Fillet, Curried Almond Chicken, Mamak Fried Noodles, Braised Broccoli in Oyster-Soya Sauce, Spicy Bean Sprouts and Dried Prawns Salad, Potato and Meat Patties, Sweet Wheat Porriage, Bread & Butter Pudding with Vanilla Sauce, Spanish Clementines, Coffe & Tea .

Guests: Marion, Fini, Stephane, Peter & Aggi, Peter & Susham, Peter & Christine, Claude & Caroline, Heinz & Olga, Jorg & Petra, Marin & Nawena, Urs & Anne, Karl & Nawena, Reto, Guna & Ursi, Petr, Rod, Patrick & Anne, Mr & Mrs Diem, Rus, Fadz, Marina, Marisa, Maria & Nawena.

A lovely farewell luncheon with my Swiss friends. Nice food, warm and intimate atmosphere, and touching tributes all around. A nice feeling throughout.

Prelude to a farewell....genau!

One of the first Swiss-German words I registered and thereafter frequently heard expressed by the Swiss is 'genau'. Not knowing what it meant I was sometimes amused to hear it being expressed at every turn of a conversation. Actually it is an expression of agreement - exactly, true, correct, of course etc etc. I am still somewhat tickled by the word, or probably the way and frequency it is said. Ja genau! Genau, genau!!

Well I won't be hearing much of 'genau' after a week's time. At 1.30 pm today my houseful of belongings left in a container for home, after two days of super-efficient and hassle-free packing. Again Swiss efficiency at its best! A team made up of a Swiss, a Czech, a Bosnian and a Lebanese worked from 9 am to 2.30 pm with half hour lunch break on the first day and packed over 80% of my things. Yesterday they finished the rest from 9 to 11.30 am and today they loaded the 398 items into the container from 11 am to 1 pm! Tomorrow my car goes into another container and both are expected to arrive in Malaysia on 25 Feb, Insha Allah.

In a week I will leave this almost perfect country for good. Still some farewell obligations to fulfill but I am glad somehow that I was given short notice for my departure. The perfect excuse to regret the out pour of invitations to farewell lunches and dinners. On Saturday I will host a luncheon for 30 of my close Swiss friends, and Tuesday another luncheon for my staff and closer members of the Malaysian community.

The two boys, my domestic pillars, will go their separate ways thereafter. Meor will remain in Switzerland and get married to his fiancee this Summer. Hafiz has thankfully secured a job at our UN office in Geneva. He will accompany me home first and sort out his papers for his new now Swiss job. I am very happy for him, a most deserving 'reward' after his four years of diligent service to me.

The remaining days will no doubt breeze by. It snowed again early this evening. From my now empty bedroom I see my garden in pristine whiteness. God, how am I going to drive my car to the container station with all that snow on the road! Well, that's Yocki's (my most cool and efficient transport pillar) job. Meor will have to first clear the path for the car to even get out of the garage.

While having lunch I saw my garden's lone black squirrel fleeting about on the snow covered lawn and hopping on trees, probably looking for food (I wrote about it in my 14 Nov 2008 entry entitled 'My Ginkgo Tree'). I had been watching this very squirrel in my garden from the day I moved into this house four years ago.

What a marvellous, happy, independent creature! May you always remain happy and content in this beautiful garden that had also given me so much joy at every seasons - GENAU!

Yemen oh Yemen!

My recent holiday in Yemen was indeed timely. Yemen is now constantly in the news for all the wrong reasons! I my 8 days there I came across less than 10 foreign tourists. Now probably no one will go there! It is really a pity for a country so hospitable, beautiful and natural and with the friendliest, generous people you will ever meet.

I can now fully understand why I was constantly being escorted by 5 fully armed policemen/soldiers though my hosts never requested for them. It was annoying during the first few days as more than anything our presence anywhere became so conspicuous. Apparently it was the standard practice to provide foreign visitors protection. On one occasion the hotel in which we were staying at would not even open the gate of the hotel's parking lot to let our vehicle leave until the police escorts arrived! In the end we got used it.

I am grateful I had the opportunity to visit this fascinating country and I pray it will come out of its troubles and let the world see all the beauty and charm it has to offer.

Happy New Year 2010

I have just returned from a two night's stay at Eastbourne, England to visit a very ailing friend. During my one and half hours drive home from Geneva airport I saw the most incredible sight of an almost full moon, so huge, bright and orange like another planet hovering just above us!

The picture below is of the moon this morning at around 8.00 am which I captured from my cozy hotel bedroom in Eastbourne.

I was glad to have spent some time with my friend. His health had deteriorated at an incredibly fast pace in the last few months. I especially wanted to see him before I leave this country for good, which is now certain and at a rather inconsiderate short notice (but I am not complaining, it had been four wonderful and rewarding years and I want to leave with grace and no sour notes whatsoever)!

Whether I'll ever see my friend again in the future is difficult to tell, with his condition going from one extreme to another in between easier/calmer periods. I am quite certain that once I go home to Malaysia, it is most unlikely I will travel so far to England or Europe ever again. So meeting him this time was a rather poignant occasion. I can, however, look back fondly with happy memories of a friendship that had spanned over 35 years, during which time I received endless generous hospitality from him especially as his houseguest everytime I come home for holidays from my many years of overseas assignment. Other friends and I were surprised and disappointed that he chose to return to England after his retirement, after having lived in Malaysia some 40 years! Perhaps realising things would have been better in Malaysia after four years back in England he made plans to return to Malaysia in October and had secured an apartment in Penang. Sadly, that is now not to be! May you be as comfortable as you possibly can my dear friend.

And so we enter a new year, and for me especially a fresh new beginning as I soon will start a new life back home. I am not sorry to leave Switzerland; I have a huge reservoir of very pleasant and happy memories to avail to from these fours years here. And I am confident a new door to other good things is about to open for me. Insha Allah!

Happy New Year all, God bless!

Mythical magical Yemen

There is so much I could write about my recent 8-day holiday in Yemen. But I think the article below described it best!
Thank you Samad, Zaiton, Hisham, Humaid, Yahia, Omar, Sheikh Abdullah, Hamoud and Nasser (and the five omnipresent armed police/soldier escorts!) for making my visit to Yemen a most memorable and happy experience.

"There can’t be many places left in the world that could make God smile, but Yemen is one of them. Inhabited almost forever Yemen is, in many ways, the birthplace of all our lives. In days past, the sons of Noah knew it as the land of milk and honey, Gilgamesh came here to search for the secret of eternal life, wise men gathered frankincense and myrrh from its mountains and, most famously, a woman known simply as Sheba said Yemen was her home.

Yet since the book of mythology was closed, Yemen has remained largely locked away in a forgotten corner, oblivious to the world that was oblivious to it. Today, like a spring tortoise emerging from hibernation, Yemen is awaking from its slumber and slowly revealing its face. And what a face it is. Sitting at the crossroads of two continents, this country has a little of everything.

Its capital, San'a, is not only incredibly romantic and intriguing, but holds the distinction of being the world's oldest city. Meanwhile, the extraordinary island of Suqutra (off the coast of Eastern Yemen) is reputed to hold the secret of eternal life somewhere amongst its unique flora and fauna. The fortified mountain village of Shaharah is tough to get to (probably why it remained unconquered for centuries) but worth making the effort for; if you prefer your travel safer and easier - but equally rewarding - try the lush region of Southern Yemen. Then there's the Wadi Hadramawt oasis where you can't help but get caught up in the mythical magic of it all, and Zabid - Unesco World Heritage site andthe hottest city on earth. Need we go on?

With its shades of Afghanistan, reflections of Morocco, flavours of Africa and reminders of Arabia, Yemen is utterly unique and deeply romantic. To travel in this most traditional of Islamic countries, surrounded by a people whom the Prophet once described as ‘the most gentle-hearted of men’, is a privilege you will not quickly forget. But never mind what we have to say about it, let’s leave the last word to the man who made it.

Legend tells how one day God decided to check out how his creation was fairing: London, he decided, had changed a lot, Egypt was nothing like he remembered it, but Yemen, ‘Well’, he smiled, ‘that hasn’t changed since the day I created it’.

The Faces of Yemen

I just spent eight most interesting and fascinating days in Yemen. The country is mostly poor and besieged by security problems but its people are big-and-warm-hearted, friendly, generous and hospitable. It has the most spectacularly stunning landscape and scenery and unique villages and settlement, and of course a very long history. I was advised against going to some parts of the country but what I had covered will leave a lasting impression, especially the Wadi Do'an in Hadramawt. I took 500 photos but the most interesting ones were the faces of people I took (only men - women strictly a no-no and they were veiled in any case). Here are a few from the dozens I took of all the eager and willing subject!

Christmassy...