This is a quick post – just got news that you can win yourself this hot collection of short stories “Lovers & Strangers Revisited” written by my ex-USM lecturer and creative writing teacher, Robert Raymer by going to http://www.georgettetan.com/2007/05/20/contest-win-robert-raymers-lovers-and-strangers-revisited/
Robert is a client of mine (haha, these days must add disclaimer! I don’t blog for money but I must reveal what’s the relationship when I endorse or sing some praises) and before he became a client of ours, he was my creative writing lecturer when I was an undergrad in USM about a decade ago.
Krista Goon
Marketing to Women
I’m always thinking about marketing and business (yes, that’s because I’m running a business) and I’ve been thinking that if more marketers focused on women and marketing to their interests and needs, whoa, there’s really a lot of moolah to be made.
The Places I Will Go
Friendships are different in this millennium.
In those days, I used to buy Galaxie and scour the penpal column and pick up a pen to write a letter off to someone. I had 2 good penpals then – Phyllis who used to live in PJ and send me posters of Madonna and Diana of Kuching who used to write in lovely longhand and share with me tales of her awful Chemistry teacher.
Dear old Phyllis is now a medical doctor, somewhere. Last I heard she was specialising in eye care and surgery. Diana? Haven’t heard from that woman in decades eversince I left school.
These days, friendships are different. I read someone’s blog, get to know all the juicy details of their lives, their peeves, their passions, their dogs and cats, and then I get to meet them.
And that’s so odd!
I met a fellow blogger on Monday and had a good two hours of nonstop conversation over a Nyonya dinner. In fact, I had read and heard so much about her that it was hard to believe I was actually going out to meet someone I’ve never met – and I was going to have dinner with her!
On a Ducky Trail
When I get totally bushed, as I sometimes do (while working on clients’ projects simultaneously), I crave for some out of routine thing to do.
It could be just getting out and wandering aimlessly. It could be suddenly developing a craving for nasi kandar.
Which reminds me, I met up with two lovely people two weeks back – Ling Suan and her husband, Dr Leong who had driven up to Penang for a short break.
For many of you, does the name Tan Ling Suan ring a bell? She used to write regularly for The Star and she still writes, but she now spends most time writing children’s books. (You can find these phonics books and more in most bookstores, published by Arowana Publishing House.)
I’ve known her for years now – maybe 5 or 6 years – and she used to live in Sungai Petani when her husband was working at the Strand Hospital. One of the best things about Ling Suan is that she’s always cheerful and optimistic, and possesses a young heart despite having children and grandchildren!
Often curious, open-minded and tranquil, Ling Suan is someone I aspire to be like when I get to her age. Dr Leong is very kind – he’s probably the kind of doctor you’d want to visit if you are sick. His friendly demeanour makes you feel better right away.
We agreed to meet up for some supper at Kassim Mustafa, Penang Street. Ling Suan has a good memory – she reminded me that Nic raved about some 2am duck curry in Georgetown many years ago. Could we meet and try the duck curry together?
So we decided to meet up at Kassim Mustafa at 1am, because the duck curry only makes its appearance at 2am (for the late, late night crowd’s supper). I’m not a late night person and staying beyond 1am is not my kind of thing.
But never mind, it’s for Ling Suan and Dr Leong.
When we arrived at 1am, the corner shop was packed. People were lining up for the curries. We asked for the duck curry but the waiter told us apologetically that it was all sold out. So we settled for some chicken curry and naan. And we had a good night, talking and catching up so much so that we left Kassim Mustafa’s around 3am!
We found out from the waiter that the duck curry now appears earlier – from 9pm onwards. But on Saturday nights only.
I kept asking why it makes a once-a-week appearance because it was a highly popular dish (going by the lines of people and the takeaways, or tar pau). Why not make it more often? Again I asked. I was not satisfied that I did not get my duck curry despite staying up late.
“Oh, the curry is very expensive to cook… must do the rempah and all,” the waiter said, complete with shaking head and hand gestures.
And two days ago, I finally managed to get my duck curry. Aaah, my ducky trail has ended. I finally got to taste it. Make no mistake, this dish is well-known among regular patrons. You won’t even find it on their menu! It’s THAT top secret. It sells out very fast too.
We arrived about 10pm and already packets of nasi minyak and duck curry were being tar-paued quickly.
We ordered the duck curry (a huge slab of duck thigh swimming in the most yummy curry gravy – RM6), some turmeric-infused stirfried cabbage (almost wilted, that’s the only thing I dislike about these nasi kandar places – RM1) and some beef curry (not bad but had a bit of a beefy smell, RM2) to go with our fragrant nasi minyak (RM1 x 2). And of course, don’t forget the scoops of spicy, sourish kerisik which really goes well with the duck and the nasi minyak.
This place sells a mean Ayam Negreo too or what I call ayam diesel… the chicken pieces sit in sauce so black it could only be diesel! LOL. Joke aside, it’s not too bad but take the duck. Nic has eaten here years ago and he says the duck back then was more tender. The huge pots and pots of curries come out of the kitchen all night. Imagine how many people eat in and take away, if going by the size of the pots.
Kassim Mustafa’s is a warm nasi kandar joint; either that, or the curries were hot. We both started sweating profusely as we gobbled our rice. Some half an hour later, we were absolutely sated, stuffed with duck and beef, and sat sipping our teas with relish.
Here’s a bit of history about this duck curry – a must-try if you are in Penang – the first generation owner of Kassim Mustafa’s started selling his duck curry from a small, nondescript shop opposite its current premises. Over the years, he grew wealthier and expanded business into the current shop lots. I suppose for nostalgia’s sake they still sell the duck curry, although now only once a week, on a Saturday night. I’m not sure if they have it in their other branches of Kassim Mustafa (there’s a branch at Bayan Baru).
But good marketing too – make something so good and so scarce that people from far and wide just have to have a taste of this dish!
When Things Get Busy…
Welcome to a new look for Mayakirana’s blog….actually I’m totally so not techie. This is the work of Nic, of course.
I’ve been bugging him to change the theme for my blog for the absolutest longest time but you see, work and business get in the way.
And this past few weeks have been totally busy. So much so I think my friends are sick and tired of me saying, yes, yes, I can chat but for a while only. Got piles of stuff to do. And some of them can’t even sniff me out online because I’ve been out and about!
So when things get truly zombie-crazy busy, it’s nice to fiddle with themes for a bit. And have you noticed that this theme is rather cool? You can move the elements around if you like. Ajax and web 2.0 combination – and a resemblance to Mac. Apple Mac, that is.
The creative director (my husband lah) decided it was time for Maya’s blog to be moving with the millennium. Toss out the old theme and be as geeky as I can be. I’m not sure if I am geeky enough to qualify for geekdom but sometimes I do get pretty excited over widgets and what-nots I find online.
I’ve got a bunch of stuff to share too, and all these ideas are fermenting in my cranium.
Went for a Buddhist talk for the past two nights at Caring Society Complex, and enjoyed myself thoroughly listening to Phakchok Rinpoche who’s a terribly good storyteller.
Never mind that he stopped at times to ask his secretary how a certain word was said in English, never mind that the translator got mixed up when she was speaking in Mandarin.
His Dhamma talks were hilarious. But the best part has got to be the Q&A session at the end of the talks…. these are the times when people try to ask intellectual questions and stump many a listener. But the young Rinpoche answered them affably, with a twinkle in his eye and a cheeky smile. I will post up his photo once I re-size it properly. (He’s young too… he’s only 26.)
Actually I never knew much at Vajrana Buddhism until a friend told me about Rinpoche coming to Penang (I consider myself much more Theravadin than anything but then again, these are just labels….I’m learning about Pureland from Nic and reading up on it too but I grew up with Theravadin ways ie suttas, Dhamma camps/retreats etc).
Anyway, Rinpochoe visits Malaysia every 6 months I believe and gives talks and does puja with the laypeople. You can find out more about him and his monastery in Nepal from http://www.gomde.org.il/eng/pr.htm
Anyway, I’ll write more later. Now I’ve got to dash out for a while and run some errands.
Cheers!
Poslaju Joy
Nic had gone to the office for a bit and when he came home, he dug into his bag and handed me a Poslaju envelope.
“For you,” he said.
Was I surprised! A present? For me? But from whom?
One look at the address on the top left corner of the envelope and my heart did cartwheels.
Of course! I knew who the sender was.
And immediately felt guilty as hell.
Dotty, you shouldn’t have but you did. Dotty is one of my earliest friends from the early days of my blogging life. She loves stalking around my blog but she won’t start her own blog.
But Dotty has ALWAYS remembered my birthday and that’s both sweet and thoughtful. Yet it makes me feel so damn guilty all the time because I always forget hers! Oh dear. What an awful, awful friend I am.
And here she was, as timely as she always is – with her Poslaju packages. Each year. Without fail. Gosh, that woman must have a memory like an elephant. While mine is like a snail’s probably!
We both share a maddening interest in books and tea. All types of tea.
So this sweet woman had gone to Tokyo on a holiday with her husband and bought me Fukujuen green tea in gorgeous little packs!
I’ve got 4 types of green tea – Sencha, Hoji-cha, Gyokuro and Genmai-cha. I was prancing around like a little girl with my gift! It must have cost quite a bit, what with the yen rates these days.
But what I love most are Dotty’s beautifully handwritten notes and birthday card. She always outdoes herself, each year.
Each card is crazier than the one before, in true Dotty style. Her cards always make me laugh out loud.
And her notes. Telling me stories of her life in the past year. Those snippets of her life will remain a true secret between me and Dotty. Because you see, that’s what friends are for – they keep you in their thoughts despite the long silence. They tell you about big things and little things and yes, many things, despite the curve balls Life sometimes throw our way.
Dotty, thank you for remembering this silly friend of yours. I hope you will enjoy your surprise, just as you have surprised me countless times. And beyond that, stay strong and stay confident that life will always turn out right. And you’ve got friends – yes, even a highly forgetful friend like yours truly.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the friendship we share.
Arigato gozaimas! Even without drinking the Fukujuen tea, I already know it’s going to be good coz it’s full of love!
Here are more Dotty memories!
The year when Austen ruled and when velvet became me.
Making Them Able
I got this in my inbox just now and I know I won’t be able to physically support this charitable cause (as I am not in KL or Selangor) but I know I can rely on the goodwill of those of you who regularly read my blog to help spread the word. Plus, many of you are in KL and Selangor and if you are around the Mines Shopping Mall area, do drop by and check it out.
It came from this 31-year old guy called Tan Chuan Yen who suffers from cerebral palsy. He’s a student at the Mines ICT Able Training Institute and his institute is having a charity sale of branded t-shirts to raise funds.
Here’s what his email read:
Our institute is having MINES ICT Charity Sale Campaign at 1st Floor, Mines Shopping Fair (beside of the McDonald’s Restaurant) everyday from 11:00am to 10:00pm starting from 18th April 2007. We are selling branded clothing there at RM10 each.
The fund will be donated to our institute. Hope you can kindly support our institute and/or forward this news to your family, relatives & friends. Hope they can kindly support our institute too.
For further requires, please kindly contact Alison Wong at: 03-8948 8981.
Knowing me, I am rather skeptical these days (what with bogus Buddhist monks and fake non-profits and fake charity tickets!) so I decided to poke around their website at http://www.minesict.com
Datuk Fong Chan Onn is their president and you can find out more about the committee and team members.
What resonates with me is that this institute is helping the disabled using ICT, which is basically my field and industry! Their website says that their aim is to “equip the disabled with the skills and alternative options to pursue a fuller and more meaningful life.”
ICT is a fantastic way to equip the disabled because they can work from home and they can do something truly empowering for themselves and their community. All they need is an Internet-enabled PC and they can do wonders, without having to contend with unfriendly public transport such as buses (which is a big issue in Penang right now because the new batch of buses will not cater for the disabled first… reason being, the bus system needs to be tested before they can buy the more expensive, disabled-friendly type of bus.)
Anyway, Nic and I always believe that it’s often good to not only give fish but to teach those in need how to fish. That’s why one of our favourite charities is The Montfort Boys Town in Shah Alam. Teaching skills to those in need will last them a lifetime; the boys and girls (yes, Montfort now accepts girls) will have skill sets and knowledge which nothing can take away.
So if you are in KL or live near Mines, or just want to buy some t-shirts as gifts, do go and check it out.
And please help spread the word too!
Dedicated to Adrieanna Vinnie
I did this on a whim today, just for fun!
This is a slide show on my very adorable niece, Vinnie. Photos were taken in many stages from one month old onwards. She will be one year old in August.
You can easily make slide shows on your own theme and based on your own photos. It’s very easy and uber cool. And you can even download it to your PC as a regular screensaver (yes, for all you proud parents out there).
As you can see, even as an aunt, I am so pleased with the slide show!
Living and Dying
This won’t be morbid and I won’t make it depressing.
I was home in Banting early this month – it was an early morning phone call which woke me up and I knew it wasn’t good news. No one calls at 7am on a Saturday.
It was my Sis.
She couldn’t reach me via my mobile (I switch it off each night because there are crackpots who think nothing of dialling a wrong number at 3am and I do so value my beauty sleep) and called my landline.
“Mom wants us back home. Grandma’s is the hospital. Mom thinks she may go any moment….”
I never think of death and dying much although as a Buddhist, I am constantly reminded of it. Dying is inevitable.
Yet, we always think Dying (with a capital D) happens to other people. And like most Chinese, talking about Death warrants a loud, unbemused “choi”! Particularly if I am speaking to my aunts who get highly superstitious at any mention of unmentionables.
Yet, Grandma was 88 years old. She had lived a long life. Was it a good life? I hoped so. I hoped she enjoyed the last few decades – despite the hardships and difficulties early in her life.
What I remember most about her was her constant struggle with pain and aches though. Mom used to repeat the story of why Grandma had such a pronounced limp.
Grandma was a working woman back in the 1960s. She used to wash and clean huge ships which moored off the port in Penang. She took on this job as my Grandfather who was a goldsmith, had been laid off from work.
One day, as she was getting ready to go home after a particularly tiring night of cleaning and mopping, she mistook a step while she was getting into the boat. The boat ferried these working women from the port to the ship in the middle of the straits. The next thing she knew, she slipped and fell and fractured her hip!
She never quite recovered despite the hospitalisation and subsequent check-ups and she often walked with a limp. In her later years, she used a walking stick because her legs were not strong enough to hold her body weight.
As such, she lived on medicine. She was at her happiest when she had her store of Panadol and rheumatism pills. Her other vice was buying numbers from the “kedai nombor empat ekor”. And like a true blue Cantonese, she enjoyed mahjong too. She would usually be more alert if she is sitting and watching a boisterous mahjong game.
As sickly as Grandma was, ironically it was Grandfather who passed away first. I will forever remember that time as it was during the finals of the 2002 World Cup. Not that I am a football fan. Sometimes things like that stick in one’s mind.
Grandfather, the hale and healthy one, the one who never had a single white hair on his head, even though he was in his 90s, just passed away suddenly without any sickness or long-suffering pain.
But it’s not easy to watch your loved one go before you do.
At that time, Grandma was quite composed when she pressed the button and stared unflinchingly as the coffin with her husband’s body disappeared into the cremator. Grandfather had firm instructions that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes strewn into the sea.
And this time, in similar fashion, Mom would press the button.
We saw the coffin moving into the inner hall, where two crematorium staff then loaded the entire coffin into the cremator which had its door open and ready. The cremator is a large furnace which burns the body to ashes. Grandma’s ashes would be collected a day later and strewn into the sea. Just like her husband’s.
It was very poignant – those few solemn moments when the cremator door shut and the sounds of the furnace being started were heard – that signalled the last time we would ever see Grandma again.
Mental note to self: Let us appreciate what we have right here, right now so that when we go (yes, we all go some day) we go with a peaceful heart and no regrets or fears. And of course, appreciate and treat well those around us so that we know we’ve been the best we could be, to them.
This One First…
I’m back! Thanks for everyone’s kind thoughts and comments when I was away for my Porpor’s funeral. I am so blessed to have friends online and offline!
Anyway, I’ve much to do now that I am back. Lots of stories to tell, lots of photos too as I had come back from Langkawi (yes, again! It’s probably Langkawi My Second Home!) a day before I got news that my Porpor had passed away.
But this one first…
Remember the last time I wrote about Island Glades’ curry mee? (If you can’t remember, then backtrack and read this post.)Well, apparently, you guys were not satisfied that the blog post DID NOT come with photos. Or at least, clearer photos.
Well, I was at Auntie’s a couple of weeks back. I had a tremendously satisfying bowl of superlicious Penang curry mee and I brought along my camera. Yeah, yeah, I won’t be bad and use my mobile phone camera. It’s too blur to see the real thing.
So I brought along a real camera this time and we sort of took pictures of Auntie when she was preparing the curry mee. She was shy! We told her we were going to write about her and put it online. Hard to explain what a blog was!
And yes, for the first time ever in blogosphere, MayaKirana decides to reveal herself tucking into an unhealthy bowl of Penang curry mee.
And on a Sunday morning! With clothes which look like ‘kiam chye’ (by that I mean, my tatty t-shirt looks like something Margaret would turn up her snotty feline nose at!). But hey, this is who I am. On (ahem) regular workdays, I look better-lah!
And if you are ever around Island Glades on a sunny morning, go look for Auntie. Her house is easy to spot. You will see an umbrella open, as well as two Malaysian flags on her roof – one a Penang flag and the other, a Malaysia flag.
