Kuantan Happenings

Since I've taken so many photos and the neighbour's left the modem on for some reasons, I thought another post would only be all too appropriate.

Coming back here with a P license this time around, I suddenly found myself at the receiving end of the car keys to my grandfather's Grandpa-mobile, which is ironically a Red Proton Saga Aeroback too! A bit newer than my (my dad's) Red Proton Saga Aeroback, having done less than 100,000 kilometers compared to almost 300,000 on mine (my dad's) car.



I think grandfathers are the best person to spoil you, if anyone is. My granpa is err..pretty old this year already, and had gone through the usual sickness routines, having just had a major surgery not too long ago. He smokes like any good cigarette-toting veteran, but he's the only one that I'll never mind to see him smoking. Most other people who light up in front of me would get two immediate headshakes and a flurry of sighs...he used to be a mechanic, and his auto skills were somehow good enough to feed the huge family of twelve healthy kids. And yes, he's hard-of-hearing, just like how they portray old folks in cartoon strips.

When he found out that I could drive, he suggested that I should use the car whenever needed. He went out and got me the customary pair of P stickers to put up after I agreed, then took me to a stretch of quiet road and asked me to try driving the car. Sort of like taking driving lessons all over again..I got in, and after taking my time to get used to the clutch and steering, drove all the way back home. He just kept praising me all the way in his characteristic "No problem lah!" mannerisms and seemed pretty happy to report to my mum that I 'passed'. Few things can come close to having your driving skills validated by your ageing grandfather, and I was truly blessed, I thought, to have him around still. I mean, who else would come up to you and say things like "hey, I've already bought the morning papers for you; hey, take the car keys and go for breakfast; hey, I'll fill up the tank so that you can use it to go wherever you want." *grandfathers rock!*

Happenings today were basically breakfast (very important over here), doing some hectic Chinese New Year grocery shopping at Tunas Manja, the local supermaket and hopping over to the beach to get some breeze and sand. Don't know if I'm just ulu, but there's always a bunch of interesting people who ply their trade along the walkway at the beach.

Nasi Lemak and Teh-C Ping again!

Ox plush toys anyone?

One of the few reasons behind our inability to boycott US products xD

Another one of those roadside artists, but he's amazing. And only ten bucks!

Fancy some sand-art from Jordan?

Weapons store selling pretty good-looking err...weapons. Which happen to light cigarettes.

Not too bad a day I suppose ;)

Back In Time

It's only Friday, still a good several days away from Chinese New Year but already I've hot-footed it back to my hometown in Kuantan, Pahang. Fearing that I'd be too darned bored with only Mandarin-speaking relatives to keep me company, I did what I could and brought back my Battle-Station :D

Times like this I'm pretty glad I didn't buy a desktop instead.

But that aside, coming back all the way here has always been a relaxing retreat of sorts for me. The pace of life here is starkly different from that of Subang's. Slow isn't the word though, it's somewhat more like..steady. After two weeks of early-morning drives to college, it's pretty nice to not have to rush to avoid those Doomsday hours of morningtime, lunchtime and after-work-everyone-is-in-a-terrible-mood-time.

The best of course, is the food. Who doesn't like to rave about all the different kinds of awesome food found only in specific enclaves in their birthplace? :D For me though, it's the nostalgia that makes the food all the more tasty and uber-delicious. Breakfast has been, and always will be, a bomb!

Nasi lemak with Teh-C Ping as can only be found here ;D

This is where we used to eat years ago...a piece
of memory that's still intact.

The most surprising this time around though, is the fact that my grandparents' jiran decided to provide free unsecured wireless Internet access! (^.^) Doesn't get any better than coming back here and still remain connected, heheh. This means that I'll get to do some research for my assignments even at 400 kilometers away from home...uh, regardless of whether I actually get around to doing any lah :)


Happy Chinese New Year people!

Where we're at as a society

I've always had the impression that Singapore was a country that prided itself on its human capital. The education system and universities there are often much talked-about and garner considerable degrees of respect from around the world with respect to their quality.

And I still have that impression. I certainly wouldn't mind at all being associated with a classy college or university like the Raffles Junior College and the NTU. Just saying that you belong to NUS for example, already puts you on a higher social standing than your peers who might be studying in any of our local universities. I'm not saying that local graduates are inferior in any way of course since I'm studying here myself, but the general consensus seems to be that Singapore has a pretty solid education backbone propping up the country's main resource: its people.

Or do they?

In today's Star paper page N50, the columnist for INSIGHT DOWN SOUTH who writes about the goings-on in Singapore mentioned the inevitable skew in the mindset of Singaporean youths whose minds have been so deeply ingrained with the competitive nature of the Singaporean society that places too much emphasis on success and leaves too little room for failure.

Where are we now as a society and where are we headed? Why is it that we are so focused on churning out world-class academic wonderkids akin to a factory producing designer sports shoes? In terms of science the global society as a whole is making wave after waves of breakthroughs and discoveries and everyday we hear people telling us that our "quality of life" is getting better. But at what cost? I feel that people have become robots in how they are being pushed to fit a mould to serve in a particular manner. Never mind if you are a unique human individual with your own set of skills, talents and abilities. All that matters is success, and whether you make it big in life. The individual is overtaking the group in importance, and our society now is more accurately just an assembly of 'individual individuals who happen to share the same living place and happen to have to interact with one another but otherwise pursue only individual goals individually'. And here I am talking about all these things because...I too, am a part of this degenerate change in our societal values.

If you didn't have the time to read the article that I was talking about to the end, then here's something that I wish I would never say, whether out loud or in my heart:

A reporter recounted how her friend was shaken when her young daughter came home one day and mentioned in passing that poor people were "stupid, obviously."