This is from an email forward which I sent out to all my friends today. I decided to put it here on my blog because it riles me a lot that we still hear of these incidents happening in Malaysia.
“Dear all
Am forwarding an article which appeared on malaysiakini to you. I think medical care is a basic human right, no matter if you are a Penan in the Sarawak jungle or not.
I’ve always wondered why there hasn’t been a major highway link-up over in Borneo like what we have here in Semenanjung (our PLUS highway).
But highways aside, development is not something you get if you vote for the ‘right’ party or allow the ‘right’ timber company to come into your land.
If we’re talking about Merdeka, let’s talk about Merdeka of these people. Aren’t they the real bumiputera, the sons of the land? Why are they often neglected if they don’t throw a fuss?
Even if they do throw a fuss (mild by our city standards) they still don’t get the right help or
attention.
I get very pissed at this for many reasons.
If you have been to Sarawak, you will note that these people are kind and easygoing. Perhaps these traits are the cause of their downfall. They’ve been too kind and easygoing, so trusting that outside people exploit them! (In the case of timber companies, it is also their own people who exploit them!)
And talk to any Sarawakian and the vocal ones (my husband included) will tell you that the oil money is theirs YET it is used for development projects here in the Semenanjung. None or very little for their own home state.
No wonder the Sarawakians call the Semenanjung people ‘leper’, a derogative term for cockroach!
Anyway, do read this letter and if possible, tell others this story.
The story of a Penan woman who died of post natal bleeding in today’s day and age!” (You need to be a Malaysiakini subscriber to read the full story).
Or you can read a response to the story. This one fills you in on what happened to the poor Penan woman.
As it was first published in The Nutgraph before it got into Malaysiakini, I will re-route you to read the Nutgraph (original) version as you won’t get the full Malaysiakini story if you aren’t a subscriber.
Read and contemplate….I did and it made me so angry I had to blog about it!
Musings
SPCA Garage Sale This 29 November
I got this email from a friend who helps out at the Penang SPCA.
The SPCA will be having a garage sale this 29 November (Saturday) from 10am to 2pm at its Jalan Jelutong premises. Get the map from here: http://www.spca-penang.net/Document/locationinfo.htm
I heard that there’ll be lots of kitchenware, books, 2009 calendars, notebooks, household stuff and more for sale, from as low as 50 sen per item.
It’s also a good time to stop by and sponsor or adopt a cat or dog from them. 😉
My Margaret was neutered with help from these good people from the SPCA.
If you bring a stray to neuter, the SPCA partially subsidizes the vet fees (we went to GS Gill’s on Gottlieb Road for Margaret’s quick and easy surgery). As we didn’t have an animal carrier, the SPCA also loaned us a carrier to bring our cat from home to the vet’s.
I believe if you have a cat or dog, it’s best to spay or neuter them. For their own good and yours too.
Find out more from http://www.spca-penang.net
Don't Get Scammed with this SMS from SHELL!
I got this SMS this morning.
Something tells me it’s downright fishy.
It’s probably a scam for a few reasons.
I don’t buy petrol from Shell.
I don’t join SMS contests.
I am very skeptical of forwarded emails (especially those that begin with: Send this to 10 people and I get 3 cents for my daughter who is dying of leukemia, you get my point. It started with Bill Gates and we all wanted to fleece that poor nerd-CEO).
I am very skeptical of everything. Maybe it’s because I am a woman or that I am too bloody jaded for my own good. Women are tough when it comes to negotiating money and nitpicking (or what’s called looking at super tiny details). Please correct me if I am wrong.
OK, this SMS comes from this number: 014 374 9309. So beware.
“Shell Promosi”. Anda di Pilih dari Office SHELL tlh Berjaya Meraih Cabutan Hadiah “RM 17,000.00”. Sila dail di Talian 017 837 2718 Terima kasih.
First, let me nitpick.
The Bahasa is like crap.
If you want to scam someone, make sure you can type an SMS properly.
Don’t do it like you’re an illiterate. Unless you bloody well are. (Methinks the scammer is illiterate. Look at how he/she spells ‘di Pilih’ and suddenly it’s a truncated version of ‘telah’ with ‘tlh’).
The modus operandi is probably like this: If I were sillier (and didn’t use my brains), I would happily call the number.
Once I do that, the scammer knows I am hooked. I am a greedy pig. I want to know what I won. Maybe it’s RM17K.
So he/she will get me to deposit some money so I can claim my prize.
It’s not just this SMS.
Once I got a call from a Chinese-speaking woman. Thick accented Mandarin. Probably from China. I knew it was a scam the moment she asks, “Ni hui chiang huayi mah?” (Can you speak Mandarin?) If I were ruder, I’d say something crude in Mandarin that begins with “mah”.
The other type of scam is the credit card/call centre scam. Nic got a call which actually (audaciously) said that this was a bank call centre and wanted to verify his credit card details. Could he verify by saying his credit card number with CVC over the phone?!
Now, it’s normal to get calls from your bank. But one that asks for your credit card number and CVC? First time I ever heard of it.
Luckily Nic wasn’t that stupid. Something didn’t sound right. The guy on the other end sounded too slick, too polished. As if he did this every day. Which he probably does. Call and scam people easily because sometimes you just might forget and think it’s your bank calling up for verification purposes.
The other type of scams is the shopping mall-scam-old-uncles-and-aunties.
My Dad and Mom experienced this once when they were at a shopping mall a few years ago. It was the thing then to catch senior citizens and give them these scratch and win cards. Of course, once you scratch the card, you get this prize.
You are then dragged to the shop (usually electrical item shop selling vacuum cleaner, washing machine, etc) and then there’s this ‘drama’ where the shop employees start this song-and-dance and gush “Oh uncle, how lucky! You won this RM2000 voucher! Can get so many things in this shop for free.”
The problem is, most of the items in the shop are priced OVER RM2K. Either you fork out more money to buy some cheap China-made vacuum cleaner (which breaks down in 2 weeks) or you forfeit the voucher. Most uncles and aunties get pressured at the shop employees can be quite persuasive!
The thing is, many young people also get scammed, if the news reports in the papers are anything to go by. Executives in their 20s and 30s get scammed the hi-tech way – through phone and Internet.
I guess the only way to prevent this happening to you is this: keep Greed away.
If you’re not greedy, don’t care for such freebies, you’re safe.
You know what I am going to do? I am going to email Shell Malaysia and get them to look into this SMS scam. After all the scammers are using Shell to scam people!
UPDATE: I emailed the Shell Malaysia people after I wrote this post. They wrote back. This is what they said:
Thank you for your feedback. With regards to your enquiry below, the SMS received is not from Shell. That is a SCAM SMS going around saying that it is from Shell.
If you were to be a winner from Shell, we shall notify you through phone call and will not send any sms.
Hence, kindly ignore the sms and do not reply to them on any details. For further clarification, kindly call us at 1300 88 1808. Thank you.
Regards,
Shafeela
Shell Customer Service Centre
Mentioned in The Malay Mail, Thanks to Robert
Anyone who reads this blog knows that Robert Raymer used to be my Creative Writing teacher when I was an undergrad in USM about 10 years ago.
Fate made us meet again some 3 years ago when we were both speakers at an event that KDU Penang was organizing then. We met up, exchanged news and thought that was it. He was moving to Sarawak anyway as he had taken up a new teaching position at UNIMAS.
Yet, as always, as Paul gleefully reminds me, there are no coincidences in life. We meet for a reason. And that reason may not be clear to us in the beginning but soon makes sense.
In the end, Robert became our client because as a writer, one needs to get the word out there. What better way to show it than through a website that collects all the awards and stories/books in one place for editors and book publishers to find him? It’s a one-stop website for all you ever need to know about Robert Raymer, the author, the teacher, the self-confessed fan of The Secret.
But it went a step further with a blog. I knew instinctively that a blog was the best thing for Robert because he writes and writes and has so many ideas. He needed to share them online.
And so he has. For the past 2 years, he has been blogging in between writing his novels, signing books at MPH, promoting his newest book, Lovers & Strangers Revisited and juggling teaching at UNIMAS. And in addition to raising a young family – he has 2 young boys!
Anyway, go read the interview in the Malay Mail where Robert gets to talk about blogging, what he has gotten out of it and yippee, even I get a lovely mention and blog link! (Thanks Robert!)
What a way to start one’s Thursday huh!
Networking, Anyone?
I’m organising a networking lunch for ladies next Friday, 14 November, at Edelweiss (on Armenian St) as part of our WomenBizSense activities.
While most activities are limited to ladies who are members of our group (our Lunch Bunches and Quarterly Meets), this time we’re opening up to other ladies – if you’re a homemaker or working gal and want to make some new friends, join us for lunch at Edelweiss from 1pm onwards.
But if you want to join us earlier (do we have a surprise for women who love bling bling), meet us at Campbell Street at 12 noon sharp. At Nam Loong Jewellers specifically.
Ya, I know WomenBizSense is for entrepreneurial women but once in a while, we would love to enlarge our circle and meet others too.
Actually we’ve got many requests from ladies who don’t own businesses wanting to join us in the past. So this Networking Lunch is the best way to come to meet fabulous women in business.
OK, so details, yes. Find the details over at our official WomenBizSense website: http://www.womenbizsense.com/pages/events-activities.php
A Tale of 3 Eurasian Sisters
You know, I never miss a play by Mark if I can help it.
Urmm…A Case of Mark Boleh
For one, he’s a good friend and two, if we don’t support Malaysian theatre, where will it be? It’s not that we are major theatre goers lah, I mean, look at the pathetic theatre scene in Penang.
Actually I shouldn’t say it’s pathetic because it is much better now. A friend from PJ came up in July and we caught a pretty good acapella rendition of Celine Dion’s hits and she gushed, oh I wished I could have these in PJ. Which meant that for the measly price of RM20 apiece, we in Penang can attend any theatre production we liked. In KL, she pouts, such prices aren’t available. Anyone can vouch for this?
Also come to think of it, while we do not have the Philharmonic Orchestra that KL people have, we do have our Penang Symphony Orchestra and visiting orchestras which are actually quite lovely to attend.
Culturally I suppose we aren’t left wanting in Penang. Perhaps we tend to be picky but I always think, if it is a toss-up between a play and paying the cover charge for some night hangout, I’d go for a play. And if people can pay cover charges, it’s not about the money then. It’s probably more of interest.
Secrets of 3 Daughters Undone
I caught Mark’s Mama’s Wedding on Friday night at The Actors’ Studio Greenhall, arriving at 8.29pm (plays usually start at 8.30pm). I had earlier SMSed him to see if he’d be around but he couldn’t come up to Penang for this. He’s actually one of the three directors-in-residence at KLPAC so he must be dead busy.
I liked Mark’s style because he writes about what he knows intimately.
Like about Kulim.
Like about growing up Eurasian.
Like growing up with hang-ups (hey, who doesn’t have hang ups!) about love and relationships.
Like about being Catholic.
Like about speaking Hokkien with English and campur with some Bahasa (that’s how real Malaysians speak, not those put on accents you hear on TV. Thank God someone realised that!)
But I’m biased. I’ve been a Mark Beau fan since his Stories for Amah days. Since his Cheet Chat days with my best pal. Since his Ah Steve days.
(He’s also one of the humblest people I know, despite his fame and success. Mark has twice been nominated for a BOH Cameronian Arts Award in the Best Original Script category against Jit Murad and Ann Lee.)
And of course, he was still in Penang then.
He took off for KL because let’s face it, if you’re in theatre and you want to really make it big, anyone in their right mind would relocate to KL. That’s really a no brainer.
So, how did I like this tale of 3 Eurasian sisters? (A sidenote: It premiered in Singapore before it came back to Penang and KL.)
It struck a chord with me because I happen to grow up knowing 2 Eurasians and yes, they do act all uppity and strange, neither here nor there. I can’t say they were silly; it’s how they were brought up to shop in Marks & Spencers, wear flowery hats at church weddings and bested each other with family gossip and acar recipes.
Oh and let’s not forget those incredibly English accents.
The Dresser Envy & Sugar Daddy Goss
This girl I used to know, well, she was beautiful at 16 and everyone loved her gregariousness.
Me, I loved and envied her bedroom because it was all hers (I had to share my cramped space with 2 sisters) and she had a full dressing table (which was one of those crazy things I hankered for when I was a teen!) and she had all these lovely English-y stuff that no one my age knew where it all came from (later I found out those lavender soaps, rose soaps, embroidered handkerchiefs, lacy undies and all came from Marks & Spencers and they still cost a bomb so I really didn’t know if I were to believe the sugar daddy stories).
The other Eurasian was a boy. He was an absolute maddie. Their family were so open that his mom showed us girls her G-string when we visited his home in the middle of a tea plantation (his father was an estate manager).
I formed early opinions of this group of folks whom I found exciting and different from my typical middle-class Chinese upbringing.
Anyway, Mama’s Wedding is about 3 sisters who each have their memories and angst about each other. The dialogue is quite Malaysian and though at times the jokes kind of hang precariously in the air , Mark’s play is always a continuation of family relationships, of how we really do hurt the people we love most and why in the end, everyone’s still family because we’re bonded by the blood that runs in us. We can fight, scream, bitch and groan about each other but we’re still deep inside, of the same kind. Different outside but same same inside.
It’s now playing in KL’s The Actors Studio @ BSC (running till 6 November).
So catch it and tell me what you think of Mama’s Wedding.
What I Learnt from an Indian Memory Champion
Update: I put my photos on Facebook so they’re here if you want to take a look at brainy stuff.
I got the flu bug and now I am feeling completely buggered! I don’t know if going for my Thai massage on Monday had anything to do with this but it seems all toxins have escaped and making my life (and nose) hell.
I’m big on diagnosing my health and at this point, I’m most likely to suffer from Wind Cold. I start coughing if I am near cool air! It sucks of course. And I detest coughing! It makes me very annoyed and disrupts my work.
Having the flu is a trinity of sore throat, running nose and cough – well that’s what a flu does to me. I am not the best of company when I get sick. I am extremely grouchy and sensitive. I start withdrawing into myself.
But I shan’t wallow in such pitiful episodes.
A Day at Forever 21
Wait a minute, it could also be due to my hectic weekend. Lisa came up from KL for a weekend. While we actually spent almost the whole of Friday shopping at Forever21 @ Queensbay Mall like some datin without work to do, I don’t think it was the trying on/changing clothes that created this episode though we were caught in a drizzle as we left the mall in the evening.
The Brainy Stuff at TAR
It could have been the next two days where I attended the Festival of the Mind at TAR College. I helped out at the Mensa Penang booth a bit though I am not a Mensa member but chewahhh….I could explain it all. (My memory since my thesis days are still good!)
An Ant/Anant Taught Us How to Remember
The talks were exciting though. I sat in during Anant Kashibatla’s session on improving memory. Now I can say my memory is like an elephant’s. But still, I’d love to hear what this Indian national memory record holder has to say about memory. He was a cute Telegu fellow with a bit of baby fat and a full head of curly hair, speaking with a dash of Indian accent.
He astounded us all when he memorized a series of 30 random digits in less than 2 minutes (earlier called out by the audience). Ya I know he is a record holder for memorizing numbers but to have seen him in action was another thing. Anant could even recite the 30 digits backwards.
Our jaws hit the lecture hall floor.
Then we were asked to remember 20 items from a slide he showed. “No…” came the long gasps from us scaredy-cat folks.
But he did it. He taught us a storytelling-visualisation technique, linking each item together in a fantastical story. That done, one Chinese lady literally jumped up to volunteer to recall the 20 items. Then came a teenager who also did it correctly. After that we were like jubilant school kids, suddenly excited and totally proud of our memory! We could all recall the 20 items, as amazing as it sounded. Corny as it sounds, we recited the 20 items for him!
Tip to Remember Forever
The key here is to turn the item you want to remember into a picture. Then link the items together with a story that sounds crazy but we’re not looking for logic now.
So to remember items like Twin Towers, hot air balloon, elephant, flowers, tent, rocket, go kart, Jackie Chan, etc. we were asked to close our eyes and imagine “The Twin Towers, where suddenly a hot air balloon comes up, in it is an elephant and it is throwing flowers down to a tent. From the tent comes a rocket which hits a go kart driven by Jackie Chan……”
Good stuff, right? The idea is to recall the story and you would have recalled the random items in proper order! You can even recall the items starting from the last item.
Use Alpha to Get What You Want
The other talk I liked was Mr Sukh Dev’s You Can Program Your Success. He was an energetic speaker with enough actions and energy to rev us all up that mid morning. Some actions were a bit too strange for me – hey, I don’t go around hugging everyone ok? He spoke of getting into alpha brain wave to gain more for our lives, be it love, money or whatever we wish. Alpha brain waves was the core topic for the 2 days (yes, I know, it was all about the brain and mind).
Read 25K words Per Minute Too
Sussanne Lee’s PhotoReading session was rewarding in that she introduced a concept (new to me at least) about how to read, absorb and understand books using your alpha! It’s not speedreading because in this new concept, you read lots more – about 25,000 words per minute. No, that’s not a typo. It’s 25K words per minute.
She didn’t go through everything in a detailed manner (eh, she’s a trainer and trains people to do photoreading so I didn’t think she’d give away her trade secrets!) as it was just an hour of time but apparently it helps you grasp information faster.
Sussanne smartly answered our skeptical questions with a prepared FAQ. Does it reduce the enjoyment of reading novels? It doesn’t. Who can do this? She works with anyone 15 years and above (especially if you’re cramming for exams like PMR, SPM etc). You can audit the course anytime once you’re done with it…it means you can sit in any time for a refresher if you forgot. (Clever comeback – if you tend to forget, the first course you should take is Anant’s improve your memory course before you take this course!)
It was totally mind-bending stuff at the 2-day festival. No wonder I ended up with the flu! I overworked and overfocused my brain!
Finally, My Brain is Old in an Awful Way
Did I tell you that I sat for this quick computer game which analysed my brain age? The 10 questions were simple enough but tested you on the speed of your response and memory. The first time, my brain age was 33 (yucks, close to my real age of 34) and me being me, I played the game again and got a brain age of 28. I asked the crew what is the lowest brain age one could be. He said 20. My friend Cecilia got 20 and she’s a mom to 3 kids (but my consolation is, she is a Mensa member so no fight lah).
Anyway, perhaps too much of brain stimulation that did me in!
My photos are in the other laptop so I will put them up asap once I get home! 😉 This post has cheered me up considerably and brought me out of my snivelling doldrums…. blogging is good for health!
One Girl's Dream…
Woke up to an excited SMS this morning.
Jana’s SMS read told me to read The Star, particularly Anthony Thanasayan’s Wheel Power column (he’s her friend and like her, he is also a local councillor but for a different district in Selangor).
I called her the minute I finished reading “Abby’s Dream” (which you can find at: http://tinyurl.com/6936z3).
Jana promised to email me some photos of Abby and said that the Rotary Club will be giving away wheelchairs to Abby and her siblings this coming Sunday, one day before Deepavali, at the Dewan Sri Jugra in Kuala Langat.
One anonymous person even SMS-ed Jana this morning, asking for Abby’s bank account number so he/she could make a donation to this girl.
Abby is one spirited 24-year old who works for the Jabatan Pengairan & Saliran in Sungai Sedu, Kuala Langat despite her muscular dystrophy. However, there are no disabled facilities at this government department so poor Abby has to ‘tahan’ and wait till she gets home to use the bathroom!
That’s terrible, I wailed to Jana.
Anyway, Abby has got one fantastic thing going for her – she has been nominated Most Outstanding Youth of the Year Award 2008 by the Asian Youth Ambassadors (AYA) based in Subang Jaya, Selangor. You can vote for her and I hope she wins. She’s a brilliant example to everyone because she doesn’t let bad circumstances get her down.
Abby has a few wishes of her own. She wants to get suitable wheelchairs and medical cushions for herself and her siblings (the Rotary Club is helping with this), to get a scholarship to study and of course, if you can, vote for her before the award deadline on Nov 2nd.
If you can help Abby in any way, call Jana at 016-436 2301.
My little community message to help Jana spread the news far and wide!
Unleashing the Mind at the Festival
I will be attending, no, helping out during this weekend’s Festival of the Mind at TAR College as a result of my usual busybodying. (This is what happens when you are the unofficial committee member of Mensa Penang by virtue of your husband being a committee member!)
But lest you think that I’m being dragged there, no lah, I am quite happy really to join in these social events.
This weekend is one of those exciting events – I missed the Tony Buzan mindmapping workshop sometime ago because Nic forgot to tell me about it.
In our relationship, I am the timekeeper, the walking rolodex, the appointment manager so if he tells me there’s something going on somewhere, I make a note and decide if we want to go or not. Apparently it slipped his mind the last round.
This round though I will be going for the Festival of Mind, partly to help out at the Mensa Penang booth and partly to listen to the talks. Which you probably are going to ask me, if I adore these brain games stuff and IQ stuff, why am I not in Mensa?
Good question but I’m not mad. I enjoy sudoku, rubik cube, treasure hunts, vocab games and all those intellectual quests but I am not interested to know if I belong to the top 2 per cent of the population – the high IQ population that is. I might realize I am not in that exclusive population and then, what do I do?
Anyway, if you have some time this weekend and want to learn speed reading, mindmapping, how to increase your brain power, how to be essentially smarter, how to make yourself seem smarter than you already are, then attend any of the talks and demos at TAR College.
Date: 25 – 26 October 2008
Time: 9:30am – 4:30pm
Venue: Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman
(Penang Branch Campus)
77, Lorong Lembah Permai Tiga,
Tanjong Bungah, 11200 Pulau Pinang
Full details of talks and everything else over at http://tinyurl.com/5b3qkc
Tickets (though free), on a first-come, first served basis, will be issued 30 minutes before each talk. Each participant is entitled to collect a maximum of 4 tickets at one time. So get yours fast. I am sure the tickets will be going like hot cup cakes.
Oh beware of clicking the links at the UTAR website – they are PDFs and open without warning once you click it.
Is it just me or do I hate surprises like PDFs suddenly popping open? Why can’t they just list them down in a table instead of having me open 6 PDFs just to find out what’s what? It’s plain annoying! (I don’t mind if they warn me first that it’s a PDF. They don’t. They expect everyone to have a PDF reader in their PC. Ugh.)
So, see you there then.
I’m going because I want to see what parts of my brain I haven’t enhanced yet!
Tell Me, Is A Good Man That Hard to Find?
My question again: Is a good man/guy that hard to find?
No, I’m not going to have a mid-life crisis.
I am asking because it seems that a number of women and gals I know (and who are perfectly OK in every sense) cannot seem to find the right guys to date or settle down with!
Over apple-flavoured tea and chocolate-covered-melt-in-your-mouth fluffy donuts a few days ago, my cousin and I were talking about how her colleagues, well meaning as they were, tried to pair her off with some guys.
Of course, this cousin of mine is not old at all…she’s only 26. But she doesn’t seem to be making any leeway in terms of the dating game. She’d rather hang out with her gal pals.
She’s a girl with brains so maybe, just maybe, guys are afraid of girls who can speak their minds. So I ask her, well, what do you want in a boyfriend?
She doesn’t hesitate at all.
“He must speak English. Otherwise he won’t get the punchline!”
I know that her work as a graphic designer brings her in contact with lots of guys but they’re Chinese-educated guys. Which for her, an MGS gal, is like total opposites.
Can try but can break a vein trying!
For one, have I not told you that the English speaking among us can try to be friends with the Mandarin speaking among us but it’s like Martians and Venusians trying to get along?
It’s not very pleasant – maybe it’s the sort of thinking that English speaking Malaysians have. The Mandarin speakers think we are the actsy sort just because we speak English! Bah. They think we’re snotty.
So I tell her, go where the English speaking sorts are… how about the British Council. Try hanging about where your prospects are (that’s Marketing 101 for you). Sign up for a class at the British Council and see if you don’t meet likeminded men who speak English and can get jokes without going ‘huh’?
I told her she ought to get out of the house more. This anime-loving, Korean drama fan and PC nerd of my cousin loves nothing better than lounging about at home in front of her PC when she’s not working. She loves playing online games and getting her laughs from Korean comedies. She’s also a big fan of Terry Pratchett and would rather spend her money buying books than buying this season’s clothes.
So I start thinking, is a good guy that hard to find? She tells me that every other guy she knows is either gay or totally not her cup of Starbucks. I find that guys these days are so androgenous that gals are a lot more ‘tough’ by comparison.
Where are the guys of my time? Guys who looked like guys? Guys who didn’t swipe their girl friends’ lip balm? Guys whom you didn’t have to play the guessing game if they’re gay or straight.
It’s not my dear cousin’s dilemma either. Her sister’s friend, who was paired up with a guy, didn’t make it past 2 months of dating. They split after 60 days!
Another friend of mine who is pretty and independent cannot find a man. There’s nothing wrong with her at all. Another friend of mine who is in politics tell me that she also cannot find the right guy despite always being in touch with the local community with her work.
“How about the men in your political meetings? Don’t you all go out for drinks or makan?” I ask. You see, I’m curious.
Really, where have all the good men gone?
“Ya, when we go out for teh tarik, we still talk politics! Where got time to talk about other stuff?” Plus she says they’re all old and grumpy.
More and more, I am hearing the same stories.
Cannot meet the right men but they keep meeting the wrong ones, gays, men not interested in women, men interested in politics but not women or meeting men who just want to shag!
Yes, darlings, there are crappy men like that. They want you to get into the sack with them and then, so long ma’am. It’s just fun baby. Don’t take it too seriously ya.
So I am left wondering – are the right men all married? Are the right men in the places where women aren’t looking (under a rock perhaps)?
I also ask myself this: if I weren’t married, would I have a hard time finding the right man? In my time, it was easier to find men. They actually looked like men! These days, just because you think it walks like a man and shaped like a man may NOT be a man at all!
Like my cousin says, she doesn’t need to go hang about clubs and pubs to reel in a man. That’s not her style and she’s right.
I told her to go hang around Borders (especially the shelves with Terry Pratchett books!) and see if she can’t find a guy who loves to read like her.
Many years ago, a guy infiltrated our group of women bookworms and got himself a wife! I am not joking. He came to our book meets and fell in love with one of my friends. Everyone got invited for their wedding a few years back but we couldn’t help but think, wow, the audacity yet it worked. It was like a movie plot but it was real. They’re still happily married to each other so yes, finding a partner who loves the stuff you love can be a turn-on and attractor factor.
So tell me, I have no answers why a good man is that hard to find. I have on the other hand a few eligible men friends who seem to have it tough finding the women they want to marry! A friend of mine is wealthy and good-looking but no one wants to be his girl friend! So maybe it’s not the looks or the money then.
Another guy I know is sweet and thoughtful yet he can’t seem to find the right women to date!
Tell me, is a good man/ woman that hard to find?
How did you find your husband/boyfriend/wife/girlfriend?
Mine was easy. I found him when I was studying in USM, in my first year. He was introduced to me by a good friend and we’ve been dating since 1994 and married since 2001. I guess I got lucky!
I wonder if I would be lucky if I were single again in today’s relationship market?