An angel in Chow Kit

Scratching Post, Weekender, 28 March 2009

For the full text, please click here

Cartoon credits: a certain Ms Charmaine Hon, brilliant writer and artist friend :)

A friend summed it up best: "There are Alberts in many parts of the world whose work go unnoticed and unrecognized all the time."

How does this sound (as a book title): "To all the Angels I've met before"

or

"To all the unsung Alberts in the world..."

Okok, no more cheese for the benefit of the lactose intolerant :)

This morning, I called Albert to apprise him of his 15 minutes of fairly anonymous fame. He didn't know I was going to do it of course.

I didn't either, up until last week, when I felt the story had matured sufficiently. A lot of encounters reside and percolate indefinitely - sometimes for too long - in my mind as half-baked stories, before they're eventually fleshed out and published. Anymore dithering and this one would probably gotten buried under other abandoned because yours truly got her knickers in a bunch over yet another fresh encounter ...

Albert, on the off chance that you're reading this, I hope this made your day.

Candy colours galore

I can't draw, paint, or design to save my life, but I love eye candy as much as any other girl.

I generally don't use this space to plug anybody - more so if they're unsolicited - but I really want to share these dangerously addictive sites that I recently got introduced to.

http://diaryofane-shopaholic.blogspot.com/

I probably can't fit into 90% of the stuff that's reviewed in here, but the gratuitous eye candy and the slick copywriting is really something. The writer, whoever she is, can match any professional copywriter, IMHO. Good thing that she updates every day too. Now I'm a hopeless e-shopaholic-holic (Comprehende? :))

Viv, it's all your fault! :D

http://dianarikasari.blogspot.com/

Flicked this off Tongue-in-chic (great name, by the way) I am a sucker for short punchy names.

Through which, I found this. http://poop-art.deviantart.com

I know what my friends will say. Eh, aren't you a little over-the-hill to be ogling at such sites?

Like ingenuity, works of art are works of art, right - age has nothing to do with it.

Now excuse me while I go back and ogle some more. The girl deserves a break after a titanic assignment.

Railway Junket

Going Places, March 2009

So so so ... did the highly anticipated jungle train ride live up to our sky-high expectations?

You bet!



















Don't underestimate this gingerly old girl, she goes so fast, it's like surfing on rails! Now if only all assignments were this fun :D




















There's a chicken in that basket, if you didn't know that already. The Gua Musang platform turns into a makeshift market when the passengers from up north disembark. Read the full story when you get your copy of GP on Malaysia Airlines lah :D

I actually had a ton of photos from my own collection - but ... I lost all my photos when my hard disk crashed recently ... *dabs eyes tearfully*

I know! I'll just have to go there again!

Train ride, anyone? :)

Triple whammy!

Lesson from the Children
Trivial Pursuits, Weekender, The Star
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Woot!
Positive responses to my last story Of Trains & New Friends

And ....

Let them Eat Bread ...or Cream Puffs or Egg Tarts

I'm a happy bunny today :)

Your Guide to Malaysian Festivals

I love this month's Going Places (MAS' inflight magazine). Stunning photographs, absorbing articles, and ... I got a whole 9 pages! :D

Interestingly, it was GP which actually sparked my interest in my cultural roots. While doing research for a Chinese New Year article last year, I discovered just how deeply steeped in fascinating folklore and customs the Chinese culture is. Now I know why the Chinese elders always harp on their 5000 years of ancient history - it's bragging rights well deserved!

Dang. Now I wish I'd paid more attention in POL class - then I wouldn't be going "huh?" when my dad, mum, Sam and Chang start inserting perplexing Chinese idioms into our conversation!

Try this on for size. Do you know that "pat yuet sap mmm"(literally 15th of the 8th Chinese calendar month) is a genteel euphemism for your derriere???

Racing Aces swoon over their Mean Machines

(L-R) Lars Erik Nielsen, Mokhzani Mahathir, Sven Herberger

MillionaireAsia, Nov-Dec 2008

We all like fantasy. Everybody wants to read about the powerful, the rich, the glamorous. Even if we can't all imbibe champagne on a yacht or zip around in maseratis all the time, at the very least, we can live the good life vicariously.

Thus, as writers, sometimes our JD includes trafficking fantasy.

Though I've met my fair share of datuks and tan sri's who think they're God's answers to mankind's prayers, these guys defied the usual stereotypes.

They were charming, professional, and always gracious. Lars Erik-Nielsen, the silver-haired one on the left, even obliged to playing photographer, while this giddy journo posed disbelievingly in the cockpit of their Porsche!

You can buy fame, but admiration has to be earned.

Of trains and making friends

Out and About, Weekender, The Star
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For the background of this article, please click here

Insider Food Corner

I've recently started contributing food articles to The Malaysian Insider

Pork knuckle at Ming Chun Kee Seafood, Petaling Jaya

Chee cheong fun at Kedai Kopi Yei Lock, Ipoh (pic above)

Hearty kopitiam fare at Joy Cafe, Happy Garden, Off Jalan Klang Lama

Slurp away :)

Perak Good Food Guide

Not a word whatsoever of sar kok liew?

What a travesty.

Many a balmy morning, my homies and I would be sitting in a coffee shop and munching on our umpteenth piece of sar kok liew and tearing our hair out in frustration. Why, in the name of the Kitchen God, hasn't this delicious snack been recognized, nay, celebrated in any food tome of note?




















That oversight has been corrected - FINALLY - in this shiny new food guide by Flavours, which yours truly had a part to play in :)

So go on, hotfoot it to the nearest good bookstore and find out how something so simple as flour, water and yambean, can taste oh-so-divinely sublime (ok, ok, cliche overload)

I'd like to say that the most rewarding part about doing this book is rectifying this oversight, but but that is only the tip of the iceberg of satisfaction I felt, when I ran my fingers through the leaves of the finished product for the first time.

I hope this book will do fabulously well :)

Not just because I had a part to play in it, and it leads you to over 180 hugely satisfying eats, from the famous Ipoh white coffee and sar hor fun to the yummy, but little known sar kok liew, but more importantly, the Perak Good Food Guide has tried to give a face and recognition to the people who contribute to the vibrancy and diversity of the Ipoh culinary scene.

Eat your heart out :)

Hug those you love

Scratching Post, Weekender, The Star
For the full article, please click on this link
To read some readers' responses, please click here

This was such a difficult article to write: could you tell?

I still keep Pakcik Norhuda's last sms to me.