An email letter sent to a friend from Lima , Peru on 21 July 2001
"Early Saturday morning and for a change it's not so cold but grey all the same. I will go to the Banos Turcos later to get rid of all those grimy deposits on my skin due to Bolivia's hard water and cold weather. On my stereo Al Bano is singing lyrical songs made up from some of the classic world's most famous melodies (like Jose Carreras did with his very successful CD PASSION and later MORE PASSION ). I found the CD in LA Paz. Some are most unlikely but of the 14 tracks he did best with Puccini's Hum Chorus from Madame Butterfly, and worst with the Triumphant March from Verdi's Aida. All a bit kitch but entertaining. Al Bano is actually a spent Italian pop idol of the early 80's. Imagine what his name sounds like in the Spanish world as N is actually NYE so BANO is actually pronounced BANYO. So Al Bano in Spanish means TO THE TOILET! (Just like at the 1974 Miss World Pageant in London Royal Albert Hall where the host announced - Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Malaysia Maggie LOO!! Or the 70s popular black American singer LOU RAWLS (pronounced loo (toilet) rolls!!). Victor my driver went into a fit of giggle on Al Bano !!
On Thursday evening I attended a concert at The Lima University after a lovely reception at the Russians where I ate quite a bit but couldn't get any drinks. The University has it's own symphonic orchestra and the evening's guest was a South Korean violinist, a Kwung Wa Chung in the making! Anyway some drama unfolded during the concert. In the middle of a Wagner prelude the conductor's score stand tumbled off the stage and while the conductor clumsily fumbled to restore things the orchestra gallantly played on! And in the middle of Mozart's beautiful second movement of the Violin Concerto no. 5 a young boy thumped, thumped down the wooden isle of the side platform seats making such a noise and soliciting loud hissings! Mendelssohn's Symphony was the best executed piece of the evening. I had a chat with the solo violinist after the concert and warned her about he altitude of Cusco and Machu Picchu which she was visiting the next day as a tourist, and especially about La Paz where she would perform in the coming days !
Last night a very grand garden reception (under a superb Arabian Night sort of tent complete with life orchestra and a voluptuous bolero singer ala Sharifah Aini and a fresh oysters stand to boot ) by my Colombian lady counterpart and one and half hour into it a four-wheel arrived in the garden right in front of the tent and out stepped AlejendroToledo! The two posh ladies I was talking to then, no doubt Lima's upper crusts, weren't the least bit amused and said he should get out at the front gate and walked in like everyone else! President-elect what! Give some due lah.
Busy days ahead, at least one reception or a dinner every evening for the next three weeks. Eight farewells for departing Ambassadors, and one after another national days receptions. And tonight a reception for Belgium's take-over of the EU Presidency. Our Deputy Minister arrives 26 July and has a two days solid programme and I can only manage to have him over for breakfast at the Residence on Friday. Have to be sensitive lah for Friday prayers, if he does not wish to go I will invite him to lunch at a restaurant, I have a couple of Peruvian officials on standby for this .
Did I tell you I ate so much red trout from Lake Titicaca in La Paz and Santa Cruz. Lovely thing, almost like salmon which I don't usually like. That strawberry and milk drink consumed by my assistant in Santa Cruz was really bad, he hasn't fully recovered from that food poisoning till yesterday and still refused to see a doctor . And I am back with my bloated tummy feeling again, damn whatever it is here in Lima that causes that. I feel fine the moment I step out Lima .
Got a slight cold since my returns, how not too with all those ladies I had to exchange kisses with at the receptions, some of whom had the flu and should have stayed home !!
I have a lunch invitation tomorrow at Maria Musa's brother's house in sunny Cineguilla. At least some sunshine. Toby is such a darling but my allergy to him really bothered me. What to do!
I hope you will not be disappointed with the rock I sent you. I can get you bigger ones now that I know where they can be found. My clock from La Paz set in the rock is just beautiful.
Got to go now for the real bano! Look forward to your news. Have a nice weekend.
Big hugs,
Roem "
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The unloved (2nd installment)
Some time ago I wrote about the same subject and got quite a reaction!
How does one really reconcile being unloved. Love comes in many forms and the need to be loved is quite overwhelming, probably more than the need to love. It's a sense of security to know that you are loved. Each person will have his/her priority whose love is most important to him/her. We can choose who we want to love but we cannot demand any particular person to love us. Love must come naturally, and sometimes love grows from knowing a person (love at first sight? Mmmm, am not so sure about that!).
Someone very close to me is still sometimes struggling with the knowledge that he was not loved as a child, and now as an adult, his mother at a ripe old age still openly shows preference to his other siblings. Coming from a big family, at a early age he was packed off to live with an elder brother, whose wife became a surrogate mother of sort. But when his father was old and sick, it was he who took care of him until the old man died - the very person who frequently proclaimed that he could not stand the sight of this son!
My young friend has now a family of his own, a beautiful wife and three lovely daughters. The way he and his daughters interact is "love personified". His children must at all time feel and have the love he never had as a child. He still tries to get close to his elderly mother but all efforts are rather in vain. He feels odd and disheartened when he calls her on the phone and and the response is akin to "what do you want?".
His mother has never been to his house and recently, knowing she was in town he organized a family gathering in her honour only to be shattered by the fact that his mother chose to visit another brother who had not made any arrangement at all. And when it comes to property matters, his siblings had been designated their share while he has not been given anything so far.
I kept advising my young friend to be patient, life is sometimes unfair and patience has its rewards. Just count other blessings. His love for his family and their love for him in return are already a reward. Parental love is something one can never demand. And I know of a few people who just do not have it from their parents, and it's hard and painful. But in Islam, filial piety is total, especially to a mother even if she is the most difficult mother you can possibly have. "Syurga di bawah tapak kaki ibu - the door to paradise depends on your relationship with your mother" - no two way about it!
Which made me forever grateful that my parents, in their lifetime had showered me with all the love and support a son could possible want. Though in my younger days I was perhaps sometimes naive, stubborn or rebellious to know or accept it, though to other it was so obvious how much they loved me. Alhamdullilah, I was able to reciprocate their love in their lifetime. May Allah always bless their souls, amin.
'Kurniakan lah rahmat, bahagia ibu bapa ku,
Berikan hidayah pada hati yang tertutup...'
See video : http://youtu.be/e_soESI12Dg
How does one really reconcile being unloved. Love comes in many forms and the need to be loved is quite overwhelming, probably more than the need to love. It's a sense of security to know that you are loved. Each person will have his/her priority whose love is most important to him/her. We can choose who we want to love but we cannot demand any particular person to love us. Love must come naturally, and sometimes love grows from knowing a person (love at first sight? Mmmm, am not so sure about that!).
Someone very close to me is still sometimes struggling with the knowledge that he was not loved as a child, and now as an adult, his mother at a ripe old age still openly shows preference to his other siblings. Coming from a big family, at a early age he was packed off to live with an elder brother, whose wife became a surrogate mother of sort. But when his father was old and sick, it was he who took care of him until the old man died - the very person who frequently proclaimed that he could not stand the sight of this son!
My young friend has now a family of his own, a beautiful wife and three lovely daughters. The way he and his daughters interact is "love personified". His children must at all time feel and have the love he never had as a child. He still tries to get close to his elderly mother but all efforts are rather in vain. He feels odd and disheartened when he calls her on the phone and and the response is akin to "what do you want?".
His mother has never been to his house and recently, knowing she was in town he organized a family gathering in her honour only to be shattered by the fact that his mother chose to visit another brother who had not made any arrangement at all. And when it comes to property matters, his siblings had been designated their share while he has not been given anything so far.
I kept advising my young friend to be patient, life is sometimes unfair and patience has its rewards. Just count other blessings. His love for his family and their love for him in return are already a reward. Parental love is something one can never demand. And I know of a few people who just do not have it from their parents, and it's hard and painful. But in Islam, filial piety is total, especially to a mother even if she is the most difficult mother you can possibly have. "Syurga di bawah tapak kaki ibu - the door to paradise depends on your relationship with your mother" - no two way about it!
Which made me forever grateful that my parents, in their lifetime had showered me with all the love and support a son could possible want. Though in my younger days I was perhaps sometimes naive, stubborn or rebellious to know or accept it, though to other it was so obvious how much they loved me. Alhamdullilah, I was able to reciprocate their love in their lifetime. May Allah always bless their souls, amin.
'Kurniakan lah rahmat, bahagia ibu bapa ku,
Berikan hidayah pada hati yang tertutup...'
See video : http://youtu.be/e_soESI12Dg
Sunday, January 1, 2012
1st January 2012 - post Canberra sojourn
Good morning world! And a happy new year 2012!May the new year bring lots of good tidings to all of us, and the world at large.
I was up early this morning, having gone to bed at 11pm and awakened at midnight with all the loud fireworks announcing the start of 2012. I was supposed to be at an official event ushering the new year but opted out at the 11th hour. I was just too tired and didn't think I could cope with the crowd and NOISE at the event. Just as well, and it was not the first time I spent new year eve alone and in bed!
I came home late Wednesday night after a 10-day most pleasant, quiet and food-laden holiday in Canberra, Australia. The quiet holiday was indeed a balm for my rather frenzied working life. I left Canberra 15 years ago after a two and half year posting and clearly it had not changed that much today. Excellent quality of life and services still prevailed and you get value-for-money on whatever you spent. Outsiders may find Canberra deathly boring but at this stage of my life I could live in Canberra if I had all the necessary personal infrastructures.Glad to catch up with friends Willie, Don, Mac, Tony, Nora and Halim, Zuraidah, Salman, Molly and Richard, etc. Regretfully, many had also gone away for Christmas and New Year holiday. Thanks Willie (my dear old schoolmate from English College Johor Bahru who has lived in Canberra for 40 years) for your generous hospitality.
My rather fast-paced life started again upon my return home and I am glad I won't have to go to work until Tuesday 3rd January ( followed immediately by a working visit to Jogjakarta 5-8 January). Thursday was spent in my Putrajaya house which I had not gone to for nearly a month! I had phoned up Mehboob to clean up the garden and it was nice when I got there. The rainy season had ensured the plants were doing well. I had ordered a bedroom set which was delivered in my absence and having looked at it I realised I could have spent a little more for quality! Cest la vie!
Leisurely morning on Friday followed by some site visits with my charge and then Friday prayers. Late afternoon my brother Long and wife from JB arrived to spend the night at my house. Later brother Wes and wife too arrived and after Maghrib prayers we all trooped down to SUBAK Restaurant at Sungai Pencala for our niece Nur Annanina's (brother Ngah's daughter) wedding reception. She married American Michael (?) in the US last year and they have now settled down in Las Vegas. It was a most pleasant evening with good company, nice food and music. The best comment heard was the warm reunion of the four brothers. Alhamdullilah!
Long and Sis left at noon next day for their much-needed private holiday (destination Ipoh and Pangkor) amidst a hive of activity in my house with Ayu doing the internal cleaning and Irfan doing up the garden. I took Anna and Michael, and nephew Andreas for a Japanese lunch and they came home with me for coffee. Ayu and Irfan only left after five and I was really tired by then and still had to go to that new year event. Well that didn't happen thankfully.
2011 was a wonderful and great year for me though there were times when I felt so stressed out and pressured with my work responsibilities. They are all just memories now and in fact were the essential spices for my life. The private travels I undertook, though I would always include some official element in them (Jogjakarta, Perth, Surabaya, Bandung, New Delhi and Canberra), in between these busy schedules, were the balm for my frenzied working life.
I am looking forward to a great 2012. Once again, happy new year everyone and God bless.
I was up early this morning, having gone to bed at 11pm and awakened at midnight with all the loud fireworks announcing the start of 2012. I was supposed to be at an official event ushering the new year but opted out at the 11th hour. I was just too tired and didn't think I could cope with the crowd and NOISE at the event. Just as well, and it was not the first time I spent new year eve alone and in bed!
I came home late Wednesday night after a 10-day most pleasant, quiet and food-laden holiday in Canberra, Australia. The quiet holiday was indeed a balm for my rather frenzied working life. I left Canberra 15 years ago after a two and half year posting and clearly it had not changed that much today. Excellent quality of life and services still prevailed and you get value-for-money on whatever you spent. Outsiders may find Canberra deathly boring but at this stage of my life I could live in Canberra if I had all the necessary personal infrastructures.Glad to catch up with friends Willie, Don, Mac, Tony, Nora and Halim, Zuraidah, Salman, Molly and Richard, etc. Regretfully, many had also gone away for Christmas and New Year holiday. Thanks Willie (my dear old schoolmate from English College Johor Bahru who has lived in Canberra for 40 years) for your generous hospitality.
My rather fast-paced life started again upon my return home and I am glad I won't have to go to work until Tuesday 3rd January ( followed immediately by a working visit to Jogjakarta 5-8 January). Thursday was spent in my Putrajaya house which I had not gone to for nearly a month! I had phoned up Mehboob to clean up the garden and it was nice when I got there. The rainy season had ensured the plants were doing well. I had ordered a bedroom set which was delivered in my absence and having looked at it I realised I could have spent a little more for quality! Cest la vie!
Leisurely morning on Friday followed by some site visits with my charge and then Friday prayers. Late afternoon my brother Long and wife from JB arrived to spend the night at my house. Later brother Wes and wife too arrived and after Maghrib prayers we all trooped down to SUBAK Restaurant at Sungai Pencala for our niece Nur Annanina's (brother Ngah's daughter) wedding reception. She married American Michael (?) in the US last year and they have now settled down in Las Vegas. It was a most pleasant evening with good company, nice food and music. The best comment heard was the warm reunion of the four brothers. Alhamdullilah!
Long and Sis left at noon next day for their much-needed private holiday (destination Ipoh and Pangkor) amidst a hive of activity in my house with Ayu doing the internal cleaning and Irfan doing up the garden. I took Anna and Michael, and nephew Andreas for a Japanese lunch and they came home with me for coffee. Ayu and Irfan only left after five and I was really tired by then and still had to go to that new year event. Well that didn't happen thankfully.
2011 was a wonderful and great year for me though there were times when I felt so stressed out and pressured with my work responsibilities. They are all just memories now and in fact were the essential spices for my life. The private travels I undertook, though I would always include some official element in them (Jogjakarta, Perth, Surabaya, Bandung, New Delhi and Canberra), in between these busy schedules, were the balm for my frenzied working life.
I am looking forward to a great 2012. Once again, happy new year everyone and God bless.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Happy New Year 2012
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Penang-Johor Bahru-Singapore whirlwind
Whirlwind of a week! Early Wednesday morning flew to Penang for a meeting with the 'maestro'. Was home at 8.30pm!
Next day after breakfast, was driven to Singapore, my very first entry into Singapore via the new CIQ (haven't entered Singapore by the Causeway in years - I simply dread it). Not all that efficient I must say and on the Singapore side the queue was long and very slow and tedious. And the young Malay woman at the immigration booth took like 20 minutes to clear some 7 passports of the car in front of mine and when it was our turn clearly showed she was trying to be overly-efficient and not in the least bit friendly (worst still the Malay women at the Changi airport immigration who cleared my passport and was totally impersonal and indifferent as she could possibly be- what's wrong with all the Singaporean Malays!!! Superiority complex or what? Big deal being immigration officers!). It took me 40 minutes to get through the Singapore immigration and customs! Talk about being welcomed and efficiency!!
Next day in the afternoon flew to JB and had a couple of hours walk in the old town, plus of course the compulsory visit to my tailor Mun Onn where I had another order of six batiks shirts to be made. Evening dinner and a meeting with the MB in 'Saujana' where I snapped the photos of our four past Sultans posted here. The MB was most cordial and pleasant, made me feel good to be a Johorean.
Next day after breakfast, was driven to Singapore, my very first entry into Singapore via the new CIQ (haven't entered Singapore by the Causeway in years - I simply dread it). Not all that efficient I must say and on the Singapore side the queue was long and very slow and tedious. And the young Malay woman at the immigration booth took like 20 minutes to clear some 7 passports of the car in front of mine and when it was our turn clearly showed she was trying to be overly-efficient and not in the least bit friendly (worst still the Malay women at the Changi airport immigration who cleared my passport and was totally impersonal and indifferent as she could possibly be- what's wrong with all the Singaporean Malays!!! Superiority complex or what? Big deal being immigration officers!). It took me 40 minutes to get through the Singapore immigration and customs! Talk about being welcomed and efficiency!! A two-hour visit to the Singapore National Museum to see the "Dreams and Reality" exhibition brought all the way from Musee D'Orsay Paris (and a thorough briefing by American volunteer Helen who really knew her stuff). Then a rushed visit to our High Comm to say hello to my friend and colleague Hussein and I was off in a heavy downpour to the airport. Again home at 8.30 pm.
At last a free day to do my packing for my travel tomorrow night for 10-day holiday(finally) to Australia. Canberra here I come!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Nostalgia Johor Bahru
I have just returned from a 24-hour visit to my old hometown Johor Bahru (JB) where I was born and bred. I left for University in KL in 1971 and had since never actually lived in JB again except the trips home during term breaks and the regular visits to my parents after I started working. Mother passed away in September 2006 and after my return to Malaysia in January last, I made one trip to JB for the annual family reunion and had never again ventured there till yesterday.
Short, very short as it was the visit was full of nostalgia. JB had grown so much but the old town still retains its charm, messy as it still is today! But it seems more compact and somewhat tidier. Lots of development going on, hopefully things will get better.
I visited my parent's graves. Regretfully they are quite far apart and I had to drive from one to another. My father's grave had undergone a make-over and was newer and neater (he died in 1996). One of the marble tombstones of mother's grave (she passed on 1n 2006) was uprooted and I could not do much but leaned it against the box. I wish the Religious Department would do more for the upkeep of the cemetery. It is always terribly overgrown with weeds and the soil erosion is bad, and there was always heaps of rubbish here and there around the cemetery. Shame with all the financial resources they have they could not even make the effort to look after the place and upheld the dignity of the departeds' resting place. I drove around to the neighbourhood where I lived with my parents in two different houses (Nong Chik government quarters) from the age of 6 to 20. They have all been razed to the ground to make way for newer development. And the family land in Air Molek is now used as a paid parking lot and some food stalls and gradually being squeezed by other development. My eldest brother Long is adamant about not selling it and making some arrangement for a joint-venture development. Well I hope the day will not come when the government will just make a compulsory acquisition of the land and we will all be under compensated of the land's actual value.
I also stopped briefly at my 'almer mather' Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar (English College) where I studied from 1965-68 and took some photos and spoke to one of the teachers who promised to invite me to give a "motivational talk" to the students one day. Then there was the compulsory visit to my tailor "Mun On" at Jalan Trus. I had been patronizing that tailor since 1967 and nothing had changed about it, except those days I would pay RM3.50 to have a shirt made with my own material and today it is RM70! I still could not find another tailor who will do my short-sleeved batik shirt according to my liking as they do, that's why I kept going back to them all these forty years plus!!! Amazing isn't it! Anyway this time I deposited four batiks materials to be tailored and as a goodwill gesture they charged me only RM 60 per shirt! Hoong Po or Wan J will have to collect them and bring to KL once ready.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Goin' Back
I think I'm goin' back
To the things I learned so well
In my youth
I think I'm returning to
Now there are no games
No Christmas bells to chime
But thinking young
And growing older is no sin
And I can play
The game of life to win
To reach out to a friend
And now I think I've got
A lot more than a skipping rope to lend
Now there's more to do
Than watch my sailboat glide
And everyday can be
And I can play hide and seek with my fears
And live my days
Instead of counting my years
Let everyone debate the true reality
I'd rather see the world
The way it used to be
So catch me if you can
See video : http://youtu.be/gV1bnDqhMws
http://youtu.be/gvE2mppEDfg
I first heard this song in 1967 sung by Dusty Springfield. I was all of 16 years old then and the song touched me so profoundly with its beautiful lyrics by Gerry Goffin (melody by Carole King) about the loss of innocence that comes with adulthood along with an attempt, on the part of the singer to recapture that youthful innocence. Since then the song has always remained one of my eternal favourites and it has been recorded by scores of other singers over the years, the latest being by Paul McGrath, ex-Ireland football legend. And now 45 years since I first heard that iconic Dusty Springfield version I heard a new version which touches me even so much more. A month ago, my friend Hoong Po gave me a new compilation CD of Diana Ross, and surprise, surprise track 21 was "Goin' Back" and it was such a beautiful rendition. I even found a video of Miss Ross's version on YouTube. Surprising, the recording was made in 2001 and I had not heard of it. Thanks dear HP, Miss Ross, Carole King and Gerry Goffin. "Goin' Back" is forever....
To the things I learned so well
In my youth
I think I'm returning to
Those days when I was young enough
To know the truthNow there are no games
To only pass the time
No more colouring booksNo Christmas bells to chime
But thinking young
And growing older is no sin
And I can play
The game of life to win
I can recall the time
When I wasn't ashamedTo reach out to a friend
And now I think I've got
A lot more than a skipping rope to lend
Now there's more to do
Than watch my sailboat glide
And everyday can be
My magic carpet ride
And I can play hide and seek with my fears
And live my days
Instead of counting my years
I'd rather see the world
The way it used to be
A little bit of freedom
Is all we lack
So catch me if you canI'm goin' back.....
See video : http://youtu.be/gV1bnDqhMws
http://youtu.be/gvE2mppEDfg
I first heard this song in 1967 sung by Dusty Springfield. I was all of 16 years old then and the song touched me so profoundly with its beautiful lyrics by Gerry Goffin (melody by Carole King) about the loss of innocence that comes with adulthood along with an attempt, on the part of the singer to recapture that youthful innocence. Since then the song has always remained one of my eternal favourites and it has been recorded by scores of other singers over the years, the latest being by Paul McGrath, ex-Ireland football legend. And now 45 years since I first heard that iconic Dusty Springfield version I heard a new version which touches me even so much more. A month ago, my friend Hoong Po gave me a new compilation CD of Diana Ross, and surprise, surprise track 21 was "Goin' Back" and it was such a beautiful rendition. I even found a video of Miss Ross's version on YouTube. Surprising, the recording was made in 2001 and I had not heard of it. Thanks dear HP, Miss Ross, Carole King and Gerry Goffin. "Goin' Back" is forever....
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