Category: Travels

As I travel, I come across situations and things I have never experienced before, culture, language, eating habits, beliefs, animals and creatures, flowers and plants.

Yesterday as I walked around my garden in the home in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, I came across a couple of strange looking creatures that I would not experience in the UK.

To me they were initially shocking, repulsive, frightening, as my brain searched to find previous experiences of exposure to such creatures, and that had only been in a zoo, and the creatures had been behind thick glass.

Why had they been behind thick glass?

Perhaps they are dangerous, poisonous, they bite, they will grab you by the throat and choke you to death.

No. I think it was to protect them from us, the human race, the beings that tries to eradicate or dismiss those things that it does not understand or like, and there I was standing, with these creatures all about me.

They were not about to attack me. I expect they were watching me, anticipating my next move, as I suspect they are more frighten of me, than me of them.

Think about it, we are the monsters, with big eyes, large tentacles (fingers and toes) searching the air on long extensions to the body (arms and legs), giving off strange odours, (body sweat or Chanel No. 5), with bad breath (toothpaste, cigarette smoke), making strange sounds (talking), and being covered in multi coloured objects (clothes) to camouflage the monsters body. See us from a small creators view point.

In fact they are so frighten of me, it was difficult to get photographs of them, they flew or ran off.

Our home in Malaysia, in Bukit Mertajam, can at times be a peaceful place.

That peace can be over-ridden by lorries with straight through exhaust systems, or a new mosque near our house calling for the faithful to prayers with the loudspeakers at full power at 5:30am in the morning, some of the offspring of the Ng family’s nine brothers and sisters, gathering to play and have fun, the animals and birds calling their mates, or the frogs croaking after the nearly daily deluge of rain.

Laughter of some NG family children December 2007


Opposite to the house is a small patch of what I call jungle, with tall grass, high trees, containing a wide variety of wild life I am sure, including I expect snakes. I have not seen one yet, but my eyes are always aware that there could be the hypnotic python snake Kaa from Rudyard Kipling’s book the Jungle Book, lurking just ready to get me in his gaze.

Every so often on this trip as I have been standing in my garden I would hear a crack coming from across the road. Then there would be a pinging or rushing sound as something fell to the ground or fell through the leaves.

In this patch of “jungle” are rubber trees, left over from when the land was a rubber plantation. Then, I understood what was happening.

In the rubber trees are seed pods, which at the moment are ripe and germinated, ready to be scattered and sewn.

The seed pod springs open with a crack, firing the two large and hard seeds great distances through the air like bullets.

So take care walking under a rubber tree, it might attack you.

It is a dangerous place this jungle, the world we live in.

Watch out, protect yourself, wear a hard hat, there are horrid things and people out to attack you.

To all my friends around the world, may I wish you a Happy New Year.

It is a time to reflect on all we have or have not achieved in the previous year.

It is a time to make promises and wishes to ourselves about those things we want to do in the new year.

Make the New Year resolutions, positive, beneficial to yourself and others, become motivated to do these things, and most of all, see yourself doing these things as if you are there standing in your own shoes at the time to come now.

Live your dreams now. Daydream.

When looking back, we often use the words “what if” and “if only”.

            “What if  had said this or that?”

            “What if I had done that?”
    
            “What if this had happened?”

            “If only I had said this.”

            “If only I had done that”

            “If only I could do…….”.

What has ever happened in the past has happened, it is history, let it go, but learn from it. Many people continually do the same thing, time after time, if it does not work, change what you are doing.

            “If only I had changed my job or my supplier, I would be so much better and happier off now.”

It did not happen. Get on now and make the changes.

            “If only I had not said what I said”.

It was said. If it hurt someones feelings, or was against their belief or culture, and you did not know at the time, then is it your fault, or the other person who could have been a little more tolerant towards you. Learn from your mistakes and say and do it differently next time.

            “If only I had not done that”.

As long as you did what you did with good intention at the time, then rejoice. It happened, get over it. Perhaps, you like me, walked into a lamp post, or fell into a hole injuring yourself, and you say :-

            “If only I had seen the lamp post”.

You did not see the danger. Next time you will be more aware of things that can go wrong. Learn from it, else you will get hurt again.

When we say “if”, we tend to try and place the blame on other actions, other people, other times, to take the responsibility from ourselves.

Stop it.

There is only one person in charge, and that person is you.

Live your live as you want it to be, not as if it could be, make it real.

Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR, and thank you all who I have had contact with in the past for being there, and I hope to meet with you in a new POSITIVE New year.

Want to know an NLP term, click here or visit NLP Glossary on the left.

On a short car ride from my home in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia, I came across a small biscuit shop, selling homemade biscuits.

The odd thing that caught my eye was that all the customers took their shoes off upon entering the shop.

                                                        

Taking ones shoes off is not an unusual custom in many countries, in China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey etc, it is common prior to entering a home to take your shoes off. Some people offer slippers for their guests to wear.

Temples, Hindu and Buddhist, and mosques, all require that footwear be removed. But a shop?

On removing my shoes and entering the shop, it was as if I had traveled back in time, a time when I was in Chasetown, my parents hometown in he UK, as a small boy.

Rows and rows of glass jars, each containing a different variety of biscuits of shape, colour and taste, all neatly arranged and stacked inside the jar. No self service here.

A polite notice had been placed throughout the shop in Chinese and English, saying “NO TASTE”. 


                                        
                                                                            

There was not a piece of packaging to be seen anywhere. No expensive artwork, no description of what the biscuit was, no what ingredients had been used to make them.

It is now 4am in the morning, and once again (see preivious blogs), sleep is like Santa Claus, sleep has missed me out.

Is it jet lag, is it that I have mislaid my mobile phone, that I cannot get for two days a piece of equipment to work which will boost my internet signal, is it that my mind is too active, is it those horrid mosquitoes (read about what I think about mosquitoes) or the smell of the mosquito repellent pads, is it the heat and high humidity here in Malaysia, is it that I fell asleep in the evening whilst we had family visiting, or the fact that I have a very bad cold?

I think the major factor is that it is the cold, with its’ runny nose, making me sweat, giving me aching limbs and a stuffed-up head.

I came across some interesting facts, useless information, yes I am full of useless information, but facts which I would like to share with you. Perhaps getting them out of my head by writing them down, will help me find sleep. I hope it does not have the same effect on you.

There are two types of infection, virus and bacterial for colds.

Interesting? Well we all get colds or infections, we might as well know what we have.

Apparently the easiest way to tell the difference, is that if the mucus is clear, it is a virus, if it is yellow or green it is a bacterial infection. The horrible yellow, brown, green stuff is the body getting rid of the bacteria.

“So?” I hear you say. Well it is important to know. You can have money in your pocket, and it is important to know what type of currency it is, whether it is US Dollars or UK Pounds, and which country you are in, that will help you to determine how you can spend it, or get rid of it.

What is a viral infection?

Many years ago, in the dim and distant past, I worked in Saudi Arabia as software manager for Texas Instruments computers, Saudi Computer Services. It was a place I would return to after nearly twenty years to give courses near my favourite dive site. (click to see pictures).

It was a time of discovery, of myself, my beliefs, different cultures, religions, food and people.

Saudi Arabia at the time, and to a lesser extent today, was a very restricted country. It is a Muslim country, the home of the most religious places in Islam, with Mecca and Al Madina, and the Al Ka’bah, the most holiest place in the Islamic faith, they are places no non Muslims may enter.

 الكعبة al-Kaʿbah

Al Ka’bah, or The Sacred House, is a large cubical building, which Muslims face, no matter where they are in the world, five times a day to offer prayers. This building also contains the Black Stone, dating back it is believed to the time of Adam and Eve, and is the stone believed to have been kissed by Muhammad.

All other religions were banned, as were theatres, cinemas, pubs, clubs, alcohol, pork meat, and the television was heavily censored. There was not much to do, and we tended to form groups of like minded people for support and our social life.

My group was based around British nationals and sea sports, especially scuba diving. (click to see pictures.)
The friendships became very deep, as we needed at I believe a deep psychological level, support of each other.

One of these friends was Nick Milonakis, a Greek national, working for the same company.

Like all of us I think, life was hard in Saudi Arabia, and after a number of years of hard frustrating work, Nick went on holiday to Athens to be with his family, never to return.

We kept in touch, and on my finishing my work in the Kingdom, I called in on my journey back to the UK to visit Nick in Athens, spending a number of days with his family.

It was here that my belief that language is no barrier to communicating, as I took a young lady to dinner, she speaking no English and me no Greek, yet we had a great night.

It was on this journey that I reinforced my beliefs that you do not have to conform to what is commonly thought to be the only way, as I spurned my flight ticket back to London, and instead purchased a rail ticket taking me all the way from Athens to my then home Peterborough. An epic journey, with adventures that stretched me and my beliefs in myself.

Today I received an email from Nick, who I have not heard from for twenty years, wishing me a Happy New Year. Obviously Nick must have got my contact details from the internet.

Our world is a small world, and it is getting smaller. No matter how much or little time we spend or have contact with each other, their influence and memories will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Let those memories be good ones, so that when we meet again, it will be with happiness, because I am sure, we will all meet again.

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To the British, as with other Christian societies, Christmas is a very special time. It is a time for families to get together, it is a time of remembering friends, loved ones, of giving, and eating traditional foods.

The UK will close for the 25th December, with no trains, buses running, no shops open, well perhaps one or two corner shops mostly run and owned by non believers, the whole country comes to a stop. Hospitals will try and send as many people home as possible, to empty the wards. The streets will be empty.

It is the day when Father Christmas or Santa Claus will visit during the early hours, climbing down the chimney delivering presents, filling the Christmas stocking with little gifts and oranges. It will be where the children will leave a minced pie and a glass of sherry as a gift for Santa, so that he can deliver all the presents to all the boys and girls of the world.

It is the day when we will sit down as a family to eat the traditional turkey lunch, with roast potatoes, sprouts, cranberry sauce, followed by Christmas pudding with brandy butter, minced pies, trifle, and a Christmas cake. We stuff ourselves. After the meal, it seems that the men of the family have to have a mandatory sleep, whilst the women wash-up and prepare for an equally large evening meal.

This year I find myself for Christmas in Bukit Mertajam, our home in Malaysia.

As I had been delivering courses in Turkey prior to the Christmas holiday break, there had been no build-up to the festivities, nothing. I had not sent any cards to relatives or friends, brought no presents, not even for myself.

So although the family in Malaysia will celebrate Xmas, after all the Chinese will celebrate anything, it is not the same. I had no presents to give and I received non either, it was just another day.

Mee Len’s sister Amy with her husband Yang had prepared food for a small family gathering at my brother-in-laws Thiang’s house next door. We were joined by Han and Anna with their daughter from Singapore, and my brother-in-law John’s family. Other bothers and sisters, members of the family of Mee Len, could not make it for various reasons.