Nostalgic Penang

December 30, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Penang evokes nostalgia, memories and emotions. I remember travelling with my parents and siblings from Alor Setar on single lane roads. Past kampung houses, paddy fields, Sungai Petani, Pantai Merdeka, and arriving at the ferry terminal in Butterworth. The excitement and sometimes discomfort of waiting in long queues under the sun to get on the […]

Earlier Christmas

December 23, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Christmas came early this year. As early as Deepavali, which was on the 31st of October. Yes, that early. Christmas decorations were put up in parallel, whilst Deepavali was still being celebrated, and far from over. I kid you not. Shopping malls like ‘Avenue K’ could not and did not wait for Deepavali to be […]

Fair premium

December 16, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

After the three strikes, I decided to invest a bit more time and attention to my medical insurance policy. My new policy, as expected, is wordy. And, this time with annexures. Yes, annexures. Like an annex, an additional or supplementary document. With more words to read and digest. I made sense of most of it. […]

Space Hopper

December 2, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

She had me at the opening paragraph. ‘The loss of my mother is like missing a tooth: an absence I can feel at all times, but one I can hide as long I keep my mouth shut. And, so I rarely talk about her.’ Helen Fisher’s Space Hopper resonated with me. The book is about […]

Keeping in touch

November 11, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I met up with seven school mates a fortnight ago. One of them lives in England, and it was her ‘Balik Kampung,’ the reason for the get together. Our collective home town/kampung is Alor Setar, Kedah. We went to the same primary and secondary school until form five – St. Nicholas Convent (as did sisters’ […]

London

October 28, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Sister number 3 and I did a two-night stay in London. The idea was to spend ‘we’ time together. Leisurely do or don’t do stuff. Maybe, revisit places that we visited when I first came to London over 40 years ago. That long ago, yes. Hmm. This was after a day trip to sister number […]

Still in England

October 21, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I didn’t know what a trolleybus was. A tram yes, but not a trolleybus. The Trolleybus Weekend was brother-in-law number 3’s suggestion, an avid steam engine enthusiast. A good suggestion, it was. More so as it was conveniently held in Carlton Corville, a town south of Great Yarmouth – the seaside resort where my mum-in-law, […]

Back in England

October 14, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I enjoyed my first greyhound race at Caister-on-Sea. A village south of Great Yarmouth, the seaside resort that my mum-in-law, my husband, and I visited about two weeks ago in England. Yes, we were back in England. One of my favourite places, and my husband’s home or ‘kampung.’ His ‘kampung’ is not Great Yarmouth but Kent. […]

England

October 7, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

England has always been and still is a special place/destination for me. Weirdly, when I was growing up in Alor Setar, I used to either dream or imagine about sycamore trees in England. Yes, weird. Why? Because I didn’t know what a sycamore tree was or looked like. And, I didn’t know what England was […]

Not enthused

September 30, 2024.Reading time 7 minutes.

I’m not as excited as I used to be. Mustering enthusiasm seems to require more effort and imagination. There is less get up and go. A bit of done that, seen that and been there. I guess my husband and I have done a fair bit of travelling, uprooting, and trying different things in our lifetime. […]