Our Guardian Angel - My Neighbour's Cat

That's Aminah wanting me to stroke her. She loves being rubbed at her tummy

She meowed incessantly when I went outdoor as if to tell me "I killed a snake". I have reprimanded her before for killing a frog and a mouse. Hehe

Aminah puked - the foamy thing with some blood

Aminah (that's what I call her since she is our Malay neighbour's cat) is a frequent visitor or rather a permanent fixture to our home for as long as I can remember. She parks herself at our front door, on top of our two cars from sunrise to sunset. Whenever she goes back next door and when Mak Cik feeds her - bless her, do not let her hear me opening the door, she will run back to our side as swift as lightning. During months that I am overseas and according to my daughter she only comes by occasionally. On my return from a day's outing or a few months disappearance, it is really warm to see her running out from Mak Cik's house to our home.

She is no real beauty compared to our Persians but she is really adorable. Even little Ryan takes on to her and gets pretty excited when he sees her having her feed or just lazing around on the gate pillars.

This afternoon there was a lot of rattling at the front glass sliding door. I drew back the curtains to see the adorable one having a snake in her mouth. I later went out to take a shot at the gruesome find. I believe this is not the first time she has done this as we have seen dead snakes in our garden or driveway before.

She is our guardian angel, our watch cat, our companion, friend. She is more than a cat.

13 - A Special Number

Whoever says number 13 is an unlucky number. Today is 13 August and it brought me good news. Goods news are hard to come by these days as most days come and go uneventfully. If at any day no adverse news come about, I guess I can consider it a good day.

During the past few weeks I was trying to get out of 'retirement' by creating business opportunities for myself. In the pipeline was publishing a magazine which would zap the life out of me if I ever embark on it. The online store is just about ready for business. I was also getting into doing R&D in preparation to come out with a book which will hit the bookstores by early next year. With the good news today all my plans will be temporary shelved. I shall remain in 'retirement' for an indefinite period of time.

All I can describe how I feel right now is - I am over the Rainbows!!!!

The CARDBOARD Black Cat

We owned 3 lovely cats. Piper passed on in March this year leaving Prue and Phoebe. In addition to these 2 lovely babies (Prue is about 6 years old and Phoebe is 5) we also have visitors of the 4 legged kind. My neighbour's cats will hop over (literally hop over from the retaining wall) or just stroll pass or go under our gate for their meals, to do their pooh-pooh job or to just simply relax and 'sun tan' (the cats love it when the engine is warm) on the "beach" (we own a blue car). To give the cats the experience of 2 seasons (winter and summer) we acquired a snowy white car last month. You bet! They loved the 'snow' too. To deter them from jumping onto the car and in the process leaving all their scratch marks on a brand new white car, an idea was formulated. See pictures below

Initally it really worked. The real cats hissed at the Cardboard cat and even 'gostan' (reversed) with their backs hunched as though ready to pounce. It was really a funny sight. I could not reach for the camera in time so that moment is lost. It's more than a month passed and sigh sigh sigh - they are best of pals now. They realised Mr Cardboard is such a tame and friendly mate who does nothing even when his territory is invaded. They even sleep side by side. The only thing they dont do together is eat and pooh pooh.

The Awakened Tree

As I sat at Lotus Restaurant, Damansara Jaya branch, this morning with a friend having breakfast I noticed the row of some 15 to 20 trees along the main road. It was around 8.00am and ALL the trees except for one were still 'asleep' with their leaves drooping downwards. At 8.00am one would expect the hustle and bustle of things and that even the trees were awake to a new morn.

What stood out most was that one tree that seemed to be awake with the branches reaching out and the green sparkling leaves with dew drops ready for the day. But why that just one tree, one would ask?

This tree happens to be sitting where a little shrine (La Tok Kong) has been erected. Many an evening I have seen people along that row of shophouses offering joss sticks and sometimes even flowers and fruits (maybe kena Magnum or Toto already). Does this come back to what energy works is all about? I suppose so.

Go take a look for yourself. All these are present in the midst of our lives and many a time we have all missed them out because we never took time to look around us.

Welcome On Board, Daughter

My daughter returned from Muar this evening and as usual, mother and daughter had their usual chats. She told me that she brought home a kampong chicken from the kampong to boil porridge for baby Ryan. One chicken only. Period!!!

It was simply because she did not want to go to the market to order the lives of the chickens for her son. Hmmm, one may think that all the small Dharma talks I had with her would have fallen on deaf ears but certainly not. She has a heart of gold and I am proud to be her mum ):

A Sunday Mangosteen Afternoon

The mangosteens are back in season. It was a sunday afternoon mangosteen get-together with no mangosteen fruits. It was a sharing session attended by some 50 people sharing the goodness of the juice. It was supposedly to be a mandarin session but you could see a mix of malays, indians and chinese.

Testimonials for the juice were aplenty and you cannot be more convinced on the benefits of the juice after hearing them out. There was so much oomph from the participants ranging from around 15 to 82 years of age.

What a healthy and fruitful way to spend a sunday afternoon.

From A Babe To A Fine Lady

It was not her birthday but she gave no hoots about it. She blew off the candles with saliva and all. That must have been some 13 years or so and today is her 15 years of giving so much joy and love to her parents and to all around her.

I have watched the little one grow from mummy's rounded belly to the fine lady she is today. A perfectionist by kiasu instincts, a thoughtful and considerate babe by nature, a 'fighter' in her gentle ways and always generous in every way.

We celebrated Shawn's birthday at Pizza Uno. It had been years that we celebrated her birthday together. This again goes back to the 'stop and smell the roses'. It's all about finding time to do things with people you love and care about. I dont know how many more times I can do this with the children but if I can do it one more time each time, then its one more time to those times.

Happy Birthday Shawn!!!! You have allowed Kai Mah to add that one more time.

Born Again Driver

After having not driven for more than one and a half decade I wanted to take the car for a spin this afternoon. First thing first, unlock the car and open up all the doors to allow the heat to escape. Start the engine and on the air con. Wow! I could still remember these basics. After a minute or two, I got into the driver's seat, adjusted the seat and mirrors and .... and .... was in the process of engaging the gear when i looked right and left at the side mirrors. Oh NO!!! I dont think I can get out of the tight spot. Sigh! I slowly got out of the car smiling to myself. I am going to sms my daughter to tell her of my achievement for the day and to request that she reparks the car tonight with the front of the car facing out at the porch and not by the side of the garden so that I dont have to reverse and at the same time looking at side mirrors and .... too many things to concentrate on for a 'born again' driver.

So here I am at my computer since my driving spin is aborted.

A Tribute To All Mums & Grand Mums

This year we celebrated Mothers Day with two mums in the house. It never really got into my head that I am not the only mum in the house this year. I only realised this when my 3 god children came over on Mothers Day eve with presents for me and my once little daughter. My daughter is also a mum now so that makes me a grand mum. Why do kids have to call their granny 'grandma'?Huh!

Eve's dinner was in Paris (aiyoh not in France lah - this one in SS2 only lah) and this evening we will be going to Pantai Seafood. If you have not made a reservation at this restaurant, dont even bother to try your luck unless you are prepared to have a late dinner. The reservation was made a week ago and they even called up this morning to reconfirm if the reservation is still on.

Grand mum is getting off her comp to get ready for this evening's do.

Happy Mother's Day To All

A mum is a rose whose petals are soft ...
A mum is a lily whose stem is tall and strong ....
A mum is a person who is never wrong .... (sometimes maybe)
A mum is a person you should love forever ....
Trust her, believe her and never doubt her ....

Pangea Day 10 May 2008

Dear Friends of TED,

Wherever you will be on Saturday May 10, Pangea Day, you are warmly invited to join me and countless others around the world for a powerful, first-of-its kind experience.Gathered in homes, movie theaters and larger venues, we will participate in a remarkable program of films and talks -- a kind of super-charged, marathon TED session -- celebrating our common humanity. If you think of yourself as something of a global soul, it could be one of the year's highlights. And in fact you could play an invaluable role in helping it realize its full potential... If you don't have time to read this now, please just calendar Pangea Day for Saturday, May 10th (11am-3pm US West Coast, 2-6pm US East Coast, 7-11pm in UK, 8pm-midnight in Europe and much of Africa, 9pm-1am in the Mideast, 11.30pm-3.30am India, etc.).On that day, we invite you to gather around a screen with your family, friends and neighbors, preferably from more than one country. Pangea Day will be available on TV in many areas of the world. In the US, the full four-hour program is being carried live on Current TV, available in 41 million homes on the major cable and satellite systems. Current TV pioneered the vision of citizen-empowered media, and we're delighted to be partnering with them. We have similar agreements with the massive satellite network Star TV in China/India/Asia, with MGM Networksin Latin America, with Sky in the UK, several partners in the Mid-East, not to mention Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand and many more. Full details will be posted on our website next week.
And thanks to partnerships with Akamai and MSN, we will also be available on a live, full-screen web-stream everywhere with a broadband Internet connection.The best way to watch Pangea Day is not just as a normal TV show or web-stream. It should be watched as a community event. We want the sense of the great global village gathering around a campfire. We already know of more than a thousand self-organized screenings taking place in homes, clubs, and movie theaters. We expect thousands more come May 10.As many of you know, the day is the result of the combined efforts of countless TED supporters around the world, inspired by the TED Prize wish of film-maker Jehane Noujaim. She dreamed of a day when people around the world could share the the same film experience at the same time. The idea has grown into a giant global project... thanks to you. To get a sense of the scale of ambition, please take a minute to watch this beautiful trailer.Here's the state of play: - Out of thousands of submissions, we have assembled a fantastic line-up of films. There are about 20 in total, ranging in length from 2 to 15 minutes (most of them around 5). They all tell powerful stories, often without language, of what it is to be human. They are, by turns, funny, touching, dramatic, inspiring. - But you won't just be watching films. You'll be watching the world watching. We're bringing in live audience images from around the world. Watching a film about reconciliation is one thing. Watching it while simultaneously witnessing the reactions of people who are supposed to hate each other will be something else altogether. - The day also features a dozen powerful three-minute talks from scientists, film-makers, story-tellers and global visionaries. Just as a session at TED takes us on a journey stimulating every part of our brains, so will Pangea Day. Don't dismiss it as a warm & fuzzy peace-fest. The project builds on the latest ideas in anthropology, psychology and technology. We'll be revealing how.- The whole program is being broadcast in front of a live audience of 1,000 (from more than 50 countries) at a spectacular set being built at a Sony Studios soundstage in Los Angeles. - It will look and feel like nothing you've seen before. If any of this excites you, please would you consider doing something to help the day realize its full potential. There are three specific things you can do.1) Make firm plans to participate on May 10th. As a friend of TED, you can apply for free tickets to our main satellite-connected locations in LA, London, Rio de Janeiro, Kigali, Cairo or Mumbai. If you know you can bring a group of at least six people who will commit to being there for the full program, please write to http://us.mc573.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=pangeadaytickets@gmail.com.Or, attend one of the other screenings listed in your area here. (If you happen to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can join a screening being organized there by a great group of TEDsters. Please write to Taylor Milsal, http://us.mc573.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=milsal@gmail.com)
2) Host a screening. It could be in your home with a few friends and family. Or you could book a larger venue in your neighborhood and open it for others to come join. You'll just need a large TV screen, the right channel access (or a good Internet connection) and willingness to spend four hours as a global soul. The Pangea Day website has the details you need here. Make sure to add your screening to our fast-expanding global map.3) Most important of all. Please help us spread awareness of Pangea Day. There are numerous ways to do this:
- Forward this email to your friends and colleagues... and invite them nicely to do the same!
- Post a story on your website or blog
- Point people to some or all of the following high-impact films:
The Pangea Day website and trailer.
The series of anthems sung by one country for another that I sent you earlier this week, e.g.
France sings for USA
Kenya sings for India
A viral Pangea Day film that debuted at TED this year.
- Make use of these ads on your website. We'd love to see millions of banners out there promoting the day. - Use any contacts you have to get media coverage for Pangea Day. There are a lot of great angles to this story! - You could even offer to take out paid advertising in your local media. We have terrific material for print, web and TV. - Become a fan on Facebook by clicking hereDo please write and tell us what you've done (you can write to my colleague, TED Scribe Jane Wulf,http://us.mc573.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jane@ted.com). We want to recognize and celebrate those who make inspired contributions to the day.OK, that's the practical stuff. Do you have one more minute? I'd like to just say something more about why Pangea Day is worth your time and effort.I think we can agree our world is becoming ever smaller/flatter/more inter-connected. An important consequence of this is that all of the issues that matter -- war, terrorism, poverty, disease, human rights, environment, climate change -- can only be tackled now from a global perspective. And yet the people supposedly trying to solve them are almost all serving narrow mandates on behalf of their nation, religion or tribe. There's a terrifying mismatch here between the nature of the problems and the means the world is deploying to tackle them. "The world" itself doesn't even seem to have a seat at the table. But there's no reason this should be so. It is absolutely possible in the 21st century for us to begin a truly global conversation; to start nurturing that identity we share: one humanity. Some use the language of promoting global citizenship, or reducing cross-cultural suspicion, or expanding our circle of empathy, or eliminating the "us/them" mode of thinking. These goals are all linked, and any progress toward them is, I think, a very big deal.I was brought up in an international boarding school in India with kids from more than 30 countries. We had a shared experience of each others' lives. Differences in color and race gradually faded.I'm convinced today's media have the power to humanize "the other". To help people make the mental switch from "them" to "us". Telling stories through film is especially powerful in this regard. At the start of a film, you see someone strange-looking. At the end you feel kinship. There's no moral effort involved here. It's just a natural mental repositioning. Call me idealistic, but I really believe that that mental shift holds the key to our shared future. Of course, May 10th won't lead to an outbreak of world peace. But I do think it will reveal a sense of possibility: the possibility that there are incredible new ways of using technology as a force for good; that peoples' minds are not locked in a dark place forever; that our global village can start the long journey from "us/them" to "we".As the Pangea Day website says: Films can't change the world. But the people who watch them can.Huge thanks from me, Jehane and Pangea Day's executive director Delia Cohen to all who have helped make this project possible, including scores of TEDsters, the amazing Pangea Day and TED teams, TED patrons Shawn and Brook Byers, website-creators Avenue A/Razorfish and our visionary sponsor Nokia. Please join us for this final, crucial chapter.
Sincerely,

Chris AndersonTED Curator

Nature's Beauty

Sudoku

Any sudoku freaks?? Yes I am one and I got so addicted that I scheme how to complete my online submission when I go on holiday. When I was in India for 22 days end of last year I was not able to compete for those 3 weeks and since then I have not done any submission but that did not stop me from keeping my brain active everyday.

I started with the plain old sudoku and very slowly advanced to jigsaw to killer to extreme jigsaw, extreme killer then on to samurai and what next. Today I started with Hanidoku. Oh please don't start on that because I promise you that you get so addicted that you don't even want to go to the loo.

Impermanence

Over the last few days the impermanence of life reflected itself in many ways. First it was Piper. She had been with us for 5 years but last week she left us. Over the last two days I have not been on my computer. I had a bout of unwellness and it also reflected on the impermanence of our well being. I was full of zest even on Sunday but came Monday I was incapacitated and could not even take phone calls. Today I found some energies back to get online.

The message is clear. Time waits for no one. I never knew I could get so unwelll but I did.

Buddha says :

Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle,
A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualitites that can be seen.

Know all things to be like this :
As the moon in the bright sky
In some clear lake reflected,
Though to that lake the moon has never moved.

Know all things to be like this :
As an echo that derives
From music, sounds, and weeping,
Yet in that echo is no melody.

Know all things to be like this :
As a magician makes illusions
Of horses, oxen, carts and other things,
Nothing as it appears

Charity Sales

Happy 2008.

Crystal Charity Sales at a condo in Bangsar. Turn out good. Sales fantastic. There were about 10 stalls ranging from angel card reading to will writing, tattoo, massage and feng shui too. All doing it for the same cause

The Reflex/Massage booth worked non stop. The Crystal stall saw a never ending stream of customers and by 3.00pm I was ready to pack up to go.

I am considering doing something similar in the near future with all my crystals, knick-knacks, booooooooooks etc. Any volunteers for this project???

Clearing Out

The year ended with lots of clearing of stuff. Angels, fairies, gnomes all found new homes. Crystals were sold for a song and many great pieces were given to keepers of the mineral kingdom. Anyone out there looking for a special piece? I may have it just for you. Healing practitioners, new agey people or just lovers of crystals - give me a tinkle. I am clearing out, going into hibernation till the next cycle hahahaha.

With this comes the next phase. Coming soon ......