Ginormous Little Things

The other day, I was eating.

It was in the central market foodcourt – I had in front of my a plate of Mee Hun from a little thai stand, and plate of Mango Rice from a Malaccan place. In terms of cutlery, the norm here is Fork and Spoon. Now, initially this just struck me as odd, being so used to the Fork and Knife entanglement of everyday western life. Nevertheless, it took no time to get over it, and I soon felt like a “pro” eating cutting meals with a spoon like it was nobody’s business. However, as I ate my Mango rice in the Central Market foodcourt, I had a huge paradigm shift (okay, maybe a little exaggerated? I can’t tell). As I used my spoon in my right hand to push the rice onto the fork in my left, somewhere in my head, I presupposed that fork and spoon technique was so limited in its possibilities that I just had to be doing the right thing. But alas! Something was wrong. Dead wrong. As I ate, I could feel a perplexed and curious stare from the other side of the table. Apsara, who has lived her whole life in Malaysia, was watching me eat the rice with an amused look. I asked what was so funny, and she explained that I was using my fork and spoon the complete opposite of everyone else. i.e. Its only common sense to hold your fork in your right hand (or left, if you are right handed) and use it to push rice onto your spoon in your other hand . For some reason this just seemed wrong, but I realized that it did make perfect sense – spoons are much more efficient for that kind of thing. Needless to say I quickly and shiftily glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and switched my fork and spoon. A disaster was averted, and a life changed forever.

(Totally not the food I'm referring to but the picture has a fork and a spoon in it! Unnecessary? Perhaps...)

I Almost Forgot... Part Three

Okay, so I bought this rad watch on the observation deck of Menara Kl last week.
I think of all the giant towers I've been too (just this one and the CN tower?), Menara KL has been the least insanely commercial. It was quite cheap to go up (less than the equivalent of $7 CDN), the telescope/viewers were free, and I was able to get a bottle of watter for 2 Ringget. Most importantly, I bought a 1995 Power Rangers digital watch that has the Green Ranger as a cover. Not only that, but the strap has "Tommy" written all over it. I know, it's really cool. I tried to bargain with the lady, noting that it has clearly been sitting there for 13 years, but she wouldn't have it. So I bought the watch for 20 Ringett. It was worth it, I think.

Only Lame Excuses?

"No List of MP names but only lame excuses"
Justification for CIJs existence?

Update: The politics in Malaysiatown are proving to be as interesting as ever. The government did not fall on September 16th, as some thought it would -- but today, opposition leader Anwar sent a letter to the Prime Minister calling for an emergency parliament session before next Tuesday to "deliberate on a vote of no-confidence against the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Administration" (Jeffooi.com). According to The Star, Badawi responded that an emergency session would not be necessarry.

Annexe Update

Okay, so I've been eating a lot of food lately. Like lots of it. But its really good and everywhere, and cheap. Who wouldn't! Today I had a Tootsie Pop for breakfast (chocolate flavour), Thai Glass Noodles, a Banana Milkshake and water for lunch, and Rice and Coconut Curry Beef for dinner. Hmm looking at it written out like this doesn't seem very healthy. Pshh, there's a gym in the apartment -- I'm sure tomorrow-andrew will work it off.

The Annexe exhibit is going really well. While it seemed that we really didn't have much work left at all, we ended up working until 9:30 tonight, and still have just a little left. Hah who knew that carefully taping posters could take 10 hours?? Not I. But nevertheless, I'm really happy with the way it has shaped up. The Black & White show (comprising three exhibits) opens up tomorrow night at 8 (I think its 8 at least...), giving us plenty of time to finish up, and add finishing touches.

Important update! Jose and I saw a really big snail on the way back to the apartment. See picture below.

eeee

Things I Learnt Today

1. IT seems that I have arrived in KL at quite a crucial moment in time. To put it more tv/metaphorically, I have come in to the final five minutes of a 24 episode. It's approaching 7:59:55, 7:59:56, 7:59:57 ... etc. For reasons I don't fully fully understand yet, tomorrow is set to be an interesting day. It has in part to do with a feud between the dates August 31st and September 16th... Specific days have always been trouble.

On August 31st 1957, the Malaysian Peninsula gained independence from Britain, but Sabah and Sarawak, they were still under British rule until September 16th 1963. So some Malaysian's feel that tomorrow is National Day. However, I'm thinking this is a touchy subject -- I was reading a random blog entry I came across, where one blogger commented :
"hmmmm… it is not wise to argue on this la…".

Anyways, over the weekend, a number of controversial things happened. Things that are best summed up by a screenshot from Jeff Oois blog, Screenshots.A few notes of explanation: Raja Petra is the editor of the website/blog MalaysiaToday, known for being very critical of the government. According to a little wikipedia mission, RPKs stated goal for the blog has been to "test how far Malaysia under its new Prime Minister can honour, respect and tolerate free speech." The site was blocked in Malaysia for several weeks, before being unblocked a couple days ago, after which the editor was detained under ISA;
Tan Hoon Cheng is a journalist for Sin Chew Daily who reported racist remarks made by a politician; and the Show cause letters are for reporting the story.

As for exactly what all this is leading up to tomorrow? I'm not sure all of the details, but apparently former Deputy Primier turned Oppoisition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has been making threats about staging some sort of coup?
In any case, this little Aweir is totally safe in this 24 scenerio, but it should be quite the interesting development!

2. Apparently bribing is necessary if you are a teen doing your driver's test here.

3. One can buy Pocket Sandwiches



4. I can make friends with creepy plastic guys that are just slightly reminiscent of the Great Gazoo

5. You can see our apartment from the KL Tower.

Anyways, thats about it. Sweet post eh? ehn? -- Tomorrow, it's off to the Annexe to help set up this "Make Amends" exhibit. I hope the posters turned out well!

Some KL Photos

These are a few of my "fav" shots from the past few days. They're all from around KL and are really just things I've seen in my wonderings.

A toystore in Times Square

At "No Black Tie" (It turned out to be much fancier than the name implied)

Patronas Towers

Freedom Film Fest Awards

The Centre For Independent Journalism