Along Came Polly, Penang and Rain

Along Came Polly

"Reuben Feffer thinks he's found the love of his life but on his honeymoon he discovers her cheating on him with a scuba instructor. Reuben travels back home to get his life on track. On a night out with best pal, Sandy Lyle, Reuben discovers an old school friend, Polly Prince. Reuben feels a connection straight away, and tries constantly to get her to like her. But it's not going to be easy for Reuben, especially when he spends his days calculating risks, and when someone unexpected turns up - Written by FilmFanUK "

Heck no, I didn't watch that movie today. A kitten of 3-4 months old paid a visit to this house. After a quick check, it's a she - "Along Came Polly" sprang to my mind. So, I'd call her Polly if I obtained my parents' approval (plus Mulan's) to keep her around the house in due course (please, please, pleaseeee).

Penang Came to Me

Then, Chu, Pak Busu and Lisa drove down from PG to fetch Nadhirah, who just started her 2-week semester break from college. Along came Penang, when Chu brought over "Penang" (berbakul-bakul) in the form of varieties of food for breakfast (nasi lemak, crab and tuna spicy fiery, cheesy sandwiches plus roti kahwin with our kuih bakar and cucur udang) to lunch (rojak buah, kari kepala ikan, 3 types of lauk nasi kandar with big tumbler of papadum).

So, I was not up to 'Cinderella Slavery' standard today (only heavy-duty dishwashing and cleaning up). A trip up to PG is highly recommended by Pak Busu within the next 2 weeks for Balik Pulau durians, which are declared as prohibited items in Pak Busu's car (hence, we didn't get doubly intoxicated with the absence of the durians. Still, we had it in the form of my sis' serawa durian).

I must mention here that people could get very enterprising nowadays. In PG, you could even buy sambal belacan in a small plastic container. Chu had brought along our second serving today. I wonder if we are so damn busy, even sambal belacan must be bought instead of pounded in our own kitchen. As for my family, it only makes cameo apperance for laksa johore and occasions like these, while some of us have to take the likes of Clarityne/Zyrtec/Simtec before enjoying it. Chu even told me that we must go to Balik Pulau market on our next trip - this simple old town with its friendly people, selling all kinds of food and not forgetting the already-fried keropok in bigggg packets and fresh jeruk limau.

So, do you have any ideas on what our small traders could sell to us, city people? Let's bring back the heavenly, simplistic products that remind us of the good ol' times. What would be yours?

Raindrops Came Falling Down on My Head

Along came the rain, after a very long spell of 'drought' (shish..i must get them to change name of this place from PA to Lembah A, it is surrounded by hills, the clouds couldn't get through them) and it was even better when we were having our vanilla ice cream topped with loads of fresh cherry - Yummy.

Alhamdulillah for the rain - while my garden is well watered (some are even over ..ops :), many more trees out there have been water-less for weeks. It must be so refreshing for them today.

The pleasure of thinking (or knowing) too much

It makes me think awhile. While we are being reminded to help to cut down our water consumption (err, in my house will be quite a challenge as we do have (too) many greens to 'hydrate'), would we neglect the needs of these plants? Would we let them die? Would we even stop planting them? I always believe having more greens will put our Mother Nature in better position to curb the ever-increasing threats of global warming.

I even wonder why we need to pay a significant amount of money for clean water and electricity? Is it because our operators are technically- challenged (they can't turn the polluted water sources into crystal, clear water or they simply can't think out of the box, relying much on coals and petro-products to keep their generators going), or they have cut down their R&D, QA/QC and Maintenance & Replacmement budget to reward their shareholders?

Come to think again, i feel sorry, maybe more towards cheated by these operators - Malaysia has all it takes to provide cheap clean water and electricity - thanks to our climate, location and topography - but why can't we?

My hands are tied - more water for the plants, more energy to produce more water, more pollution in the process - I might end up bringing our Mother Nature to premature death.

Anyway, along came Polly, Penang and Rain - that make my day!

p.s. No, no, no..i shall look into the matter of providing cheap water and electricity in due course. For instance, look at what happened to Sultan Mizan's Stadium - for all the great architects and engineers we have in Malaysia - what went wrong? So, for all the technologies and expertise available, what went wrong with these operators?

Updated 17 June 2009

Retrospective approval from my parents was denied, hence, Polly has found a new 'home' at nearby shoplots. I feel so sad because being alone, she needs someone to look after her but it is unfair to expect my parents to 'train' her while i'm at work. Yes, they did that years ago but at their age now, this is the best decision for them. I have seen stray cats here and there wherever i go, so my mom, always an angel, made a good suggestion a few weeks back that we should keep a bag of cat food in the car so we could feed the hungry ones out there...