My Longkang

The theme this week is pink. I raided the house and garden and the following are the only pinks I could find.

My bourgainvillea
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Hello Beng Nini, Beng Hean,and all the readers.

I went on a 10 days Europe spotlight tour. It covers Germany, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Belgium and England. Bengbeng asked me for some snapshots to post on his blog. To decorate it was what he said.

On day 1, we departed from KL to Frankfurt. On the second day we began our tour. We drove to the fairy tale Black Forest.

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Sister bengsim has just come back from her European tour. She also gave me some souvenirs and asked me to blog about the places she visited so she can show her friends her holiday pics through my blog.

Eiffel Tower
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Character : female, 19 years old. height 1.59m, 50kg.

Suzie: I don’t know what is wrong with Alan. Ever since I had my hair treated, he has been like a pig with a tooth-ache. He is always calling me when he has nothing to say. He is just checking out my movements.
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A middle-aged female hawker, Ling, was approached by an 8 month pregnant woman, Tiong, to help adopt her child on Sept 19. She was asked to pay Rm1000.00 to help pay for Tiong’s expenses. Apparently she had five children already and was unable to feed another mouth. The lady hawker in her 50s initially refused but changed her mind out of sympathy. She visited the lady and saw 5 children aged between 3 and 8, pale and hungry sleeping on the floor. There was no furniture be it chairs or a table in the house.

The hawker, surnamed Ling then signed an agreement with the couple on the matter. Periodically she went to check on the mother and child. One day, she received a call from the woman’s husband asking for another Rm700.00 for medical expenses and for flight tickets back to Sibu. She was told the woman had delivered in Kuching.

She paid and that is the last she heard from them. No RM1700.00 and no baby.

She has reported the matter to the police. The police are investigating the case under section 402 of the Penal Code. The identities of the couple are believed to be known to the police. The woman had been arrested in 2005 for abducting a baby boy.

We had a gathering today. Mostly men and a single woman. The topic went to men and their role in a modern home. The question was: Is the man still the king of his castle?
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character: 28 year old male, single. Height : 1.77. Weight: 115kg last weigh in

Ben : I am fed up. Fed up with the way people look at me. Fed up with people giving me advice on how to lose weight. You think I don’t know?

I eat minimum. I get so hungry that my tummy makes noise. I can’t exercise much so I go swimming. Movement in the pool is easier for me. When I enter the pool deck, people stare. I want to shout at them, “I am not naked. Why are you staring?”

I suppose some mean well. The only ones who get on well with me are the overweight ones. We gather to eat occasionally. I wish I could buy a motorcar. I look awful on my small bike.

I was at a gym and on a treadmill. The boss came over and suggested I try other equipment. He said so politely my weight might spoil his treadmill and exercycle. Doesn’t he know I pay him every month to be a member?

I am practically on a diet of vegetables and fruits. To get the necessary nutrients, I use a juicer and drink a lot of fruit and vegetable juices. I spend time in the sauna. I take long walks whenever I can.

But this tummy in front of me is an insult to me. People judge me by my appearance. As if I have no mental discipline. As if I am not educated. As if I am a subspecies- inferior to them.

Social-life is non existent where girls are concerned. I have been active on the internet chatting and making friends. Girls seem to like me. But when they ask for my statistics, the relationship ends.

I believe it affects my career too.

I used to care what others think. Now, I couldn’t care less!!!

Few Nights before Raya
By Hawksmoor

To skeptics of the supernatural, what I am about to recount may seem nonsensical – something perhaps attributable to tiredness or hallucination. But I am not one for seeing things, and despite being educated in Western ideas and disciplined in rationalism, I have a healthy respect for the otherworldly (interestingly, my work is tangentially related too). Also, this “encounter” is not my first, having had a few episodes when studying in one of the most haunted campuses in this country – University Malaya! But that is another story.

The one I am about to recount took place a week before the Raya celebration. It was early morning (say around 3ish a.m.) when I woke up to perform my in-between sleep ablution. I normally have my window curtains drawn, except for a small gap to let win in (I live on the top floor of a five-story apartment, situated on top of a hill). As I was about to climb into bed, something caught my eye from the interstices; edging my head a little to see more directly, I saw, to my horror, two human-like figures sitting on the roof on the apartment block just across from mine (about 200 meters). Now, my rational friends, before you say that they may be a couple of kids just up to their tricks, let me stress the point that the two figures were glowing – a kind of soft green light emanated from them. One of them was sitting, and another was standing with its hands outstretched – and both were absolutely STILL. Of course I freaked out, and was momentarily petrified. One small blessing in all this is that I cannot really see clearly because I wear glasses, and although my glasses were right next to me, I did not dare put them on precisely because I did not want to see clearly. But I am not blind nor highly short-sighted: I know/saw what I saw.

Anyway, as the fright subsided, I crept back into bed, praying to God that they did not see me, and tried to go back to sleep (needless to say, I wasn’t very successful, and for the rest of the night, was plagued with frightening dreams). The next day, I told my mom about it, and she advised me, as any sensible woman would, to sleep thenceforth with the curtains completely drawn – which I heeded.

Until Hari Raya that is.

Visiting a student of mine, I recounted the story to her, which she related to her mom – a highly respected artist in this country. She later told me that what I experienced had to do with the fact that it was twenty-seventh night of Ramadhan, and according to her, at a particular point in time during this night (which no one knows exactly), the world enters a “silent” phase and the natural and supernatural worlds open up to each other. She also told me – and this is the happy news – that what I witnessed were not, as I thought, ghosts, but angels, judging from their green glow. Having heard this now and in retrospect, the outstretched hands may have been wings all along – but of course I view this in light of popular imagination on what angels look like, and hence may be totally off the mark! And now that I have seen them, I am blessed for life!!

Now I am not claiming any authority on what I saw. All I know is that I saw something which frightened me at that point, and days after. I’d love to hear from those of you who are reading this what your opinions are, but please save your skepticism, not because I think you are wrong (because you may be right), but because I have already heard them. Cheers.

( Hawksmoor is a guest writer on mylongkang. This is his first post. )

I was on msn last night. Someone introduced himself?herself? to me. I was asked the reasons why I blog. ” Talk about the truth. Talk about what we the citizens of Malaysia do not like. Talk about what the newspapers do not dare to publish. ”

My answer is simple or maybe not so simple. Maybe I do crap some in my posts, but basically my blog is middle-of-the-road. I do see what I don’t like. But I do see things which I like too. The world isn’t totally bleak.

If everybody craps about negative stuff, then the world will become more negative. I am also responsible for what I blog on my website which incidentally is a family-values based type of blog.

On the political front, I do not mind posting what I know to be true and posted on a reliable site but I cannot post accusations, innuendos on individuals which ‘everybody’ thinks is true or wants to believe is true.

Maybe the reason I am ‘luke warm’ is because I have been through some episodes. As a very young boy, I attended a rally where the opposition slammed the state government for wanting to build Komtar and the Penang bridge. A waste of government funds we were told. What bridge can withstand the salt of the sea?

Now the second bridge is deemed a necessity because the first one cannot cope with the traffic. We were told Komtar would be like a vulgar phallic symbol which would destroy the skyline of the island. It didn’t.

Notice I didn’t bring in any controversial stuff. The point I want to make is that there are always two sides of a coin. Both the government and the people have to see that. And after all has been said and done: it is up to ourselves to judge and evaluate a situation based on its own merits and demerits.

I am not pro or anti government or opposition. I am saying that I possess an open mind.

I took this pic early this morning.

As part of my diet, I stopped having rice for lunch but replace with pastries like these. The eclair was an absolute delight.

We received these from some neighbours. ( free )

I met a beautiful lady today. Look at her handbag. You can guess then she is a very syt sweet young thing. 18 years old, 1.73 and a knock-out. I greeted her and she smiled, “How’s Mrs Bengbeng?”Guess it is the price to pay for being married …..sigh sigh

Character : John, 60s, dominant personality, tired looking

I was startled when my name was called as I was sheltering from the rain in front of a coffee shop.

John: Oh, I am just back on holiday here for a few days. I look tired? I am just back from China. I attended a trade exhibition there. No, I am not retired. You know I am a poor man. Is there anyone too rich for this world? Look at our millionaires? Look at our politicians and laughs at his own joke.
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