My initial post was obviously done in anger - as foul-mouthed as I am in real I tend to keep sourrain.com as family friendly as I can, god knows why. I really don’t understand. I really really don’t. As a traveller, this means more to me than the keris brandishing and having separate queues for male and female. It is no one’s business WHAT I do or WHERE I go. So what if I choose to be a drug mule? Surely it is my own idiocy therefore my own downfall and I should bite the bullet and languish in jail?

Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim ,

Malaysia is known for its strict laws against drugs - if those choosing to be drug mules do it in Malaysia, would there be even the slightest iota of concern to rescue them from the gaols??

Drug mules are from all over the world, not only restricted to stupid Malaysian women. Mostly these women (or men) do it for the money and glamour of being a world traveller. And honestly, if you are greedy enough to be a drug mule, then you should be ballsy enough to do the time that comes with it.

Why is the 100 or so females dragging the whole country (and about 10mil women) two centuries back? Or rather, I see that the government is again using something insignificant as an excuse to control its citizens. This time it’s the females of the country.

From nst.com.my:

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said she would have to study the matter further.

“I will have to speak to him (Rais) and also get feedback from the NGOs,” she said.

Dr Ng added that from a personal viewpoint, she agreed that it was an infringement on women’s rights, but added that there were always two sides to a coin and one needed to look at the bigger picture.

WHAT?? Two sides of the story??This is not the time to sit on the fence. Surely as the figurehead Minister of Women she should realize that this infringes all the rights that women around the world have strived to achieve in the past century? Does she not realize that she would be unable to travel to even Singapore without her PARENTS or the bloody Prime Minister (her boss) signing an approval letter and certifying that she is there to shop?

What is the bigger picture? I really wish she would elaborate at what picture is she looking at, because we sure ain’t looking at the same one, and the view from our end ain’t pretty at all. In fact it is pretty much chains and shackles.

MIC Puteri chief Usha Nanthini said the proposal was too vague, adding that there was a need for finer details and practicality to be looked into.

She said, however, that the proposal was generally good as it took into account the safety of Malaysian women.

And this brainless TwaT.GENERALLY GOOD????I guess if you REALLY want the women of Malaysia to be safe then it is just easier to cage them up, and release them just for reproductive purposes. And whilst you are there, why not do some snipping down below just so that they don’t enjoy sex as well?

I have never said this before, but if this does by some crazy reason (I don’t actually think it will happen) get passed as the law, I will actually go back on my words and tear my Malaysian passport into half. There is no point being the citizen of a country that believes that women should be treated like dogs, quarantined until proven innocent.

I am so angry I can’t sleep!!!!!!! F**king hell…

A very good take here by the daughter of Malaysia’s former premier and an accomplished journalist amongst other things.

And apparently Malaysia is a free country - unlike some middle eastern countries where their ‘womenfolk’ needs to be either accompanied by a male escort or have written consent from their husbands before travelling abroad.

Ministry wants women going abroad alone to get family consent

KUALA KLAWANG: Local women intending to travel abroad alone may need family consent in a bid to prevent them from being used as “drug mules” by international syndicates. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said a proposal to this effect would be made soon to the Cabinet, following several incidents where women were used to smuggle drugs overseas.

Out of 119 cases of Malaysian women hauled up before foreign courts, 90% were linked to drugs, he said. “Last night, my ministry, together with the Home Ministry, have jointly forwarded a report to the Cabinet on the matter.

“Both ministries agreed that factors like family, religion, immigration laws and preventive measures need to be considered before a Malaysian woman goes abroad alone,” Rais told reporters after officiating at the Malaysian Silambam Association’s Jelebu branch here yesterday.

On the proposed requirement for family consent, he said it would enable the woman’s family to monitor her departure and serve as a preventive measure against her being duped by international drug syndicates. – Bernama

What do I say to that? F**K OFF.

Having worked in the energy industry, I am always wary of the tree-hugging greenies who insist on exhorbitant flights taxes, renewable energy for all and no packaging for any food. And of course, all for a very cheap price. I do not believe in extremism (unless the word chocolate is in there somewhere) yet I always think that one should do as much as they can. There is no point staying under your shell and never leaving your country of residence due to CO2 emmissions - what sort of ignorant children will you breed then? And as an acciddental migrant, the fact that my instant noodles were flown across the world or my salted duck eggs sailed seas to get to me is really irrelevant to my inevitable homesickness.

But it definately does not mean that I am just out there with my light-saber preparing to slaughter the world. And unlike many people I know of who is all talk about saving the world but no action, I am in the progress of changing my habits whenever I can.

Today is Earth Day. What have YOU done for your planet?

I have:

Converted most of my lightbulbs to energy saving sort
Walk around the house turning lights off that bacon had left in his blazing trail
Lowered my heating to 16 degrees
Restrict heating to 3 hours at night and 2 hours in the morning.
Iron really quickly (thus the burn!)
Try extra hard to remember to use my own bags for grocery shopping
Do not use separate plastic bags designed for grouping loose fruits & vegs.
Request for no bags for items small enough to fit into my handbag (creams, hairbands ect)
Try extra hard to recycle, even though it means glass bottles collecting dust in my kitchen before my next trip to the bottle bank
Recycle magazines, plastic containers & newspapers

Happy earth day!

I first heard of this name back in the early 90s, this apparent child genius who is of malay-pakistani parentage who is born and bred in the UK essentially. At that time her mother (who was in born Johor - no idea if she even still holds a Malaysian passport) was apparently trying to get the Malaysian government to fund Sufiah’s foray into the Oxbridge route. She must be around 12 or something, as she was accepted into Oxford at age 15. The Malaysian government apparently offered assistance to her instead of many other brillant Malaysians - hell, she (Sufiah) does no even hold a Malaysian passport! I doubt that she had spent any long amount of time in Malaysia as well…why should the Boleh Government sponsor her?

But as always, the Malaysian governemnt always ‘adopts’ random people of dubious superstar status and making them their own. Tumpang glamer, like they say in Malay = borrowed fame

With news breaking in the UK over the weekend about Sufiah’s apparent foray into prostitution, the Malaysian Government has apparently decided to come to her rescue instead (even though she had never been a Malaysian) -

The Prime Minister’s Department and the Malaysian Missionary Foundation (Yadim) will try to assist former child mathematics genius Sufiah Yusof, now aged 23 and fending for herself as a prostitute in Salford, Manchester.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Zahid Hamidi said they would help the gifted girl return to the right path through the “Save Sufiah Programme”.

“The first thing we should try to do is to contact her mother or arrange a meeting with Sufiah to find out the reason she turned to prostitution, offering her services through the Internet, using the name ‘Shilpa Lee’,” he said.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Khaled Nordin said Sufiah was also of legal age and could do as she liked with her life.”We just can’t bring her back. She is big now and can decide for herself. She has the right to do as she pleases, ” he said yesterday, adding that the Malaysian Students Department in Britain had been asked to look into Sufiah’s case.

Seriously, it is NONE of the Prime Minister’s problem if she had decided to turn to prostitution. And a Save Sufiah Program?? OMG WTF IS THAT?? If they are so concerned about prostitutions ect then maybe the first step would to look in their own backgarden and eradicate the problem, instead of saving someone who has never made Malaysia her home.And what do you mean bring her back? Malaysia was never her home, she had never been a Malaysian student abroad, so why is the Malaysian Student Association been requested to help her??

This coming from the Boleh government who never, ever answers their phone in the Embassy - thus I have been unable to register my existance or indeed my marriage until today. I am apparently still living in Malaysia and single. And now they are sending the dogs out to help someone who have dubious claims of being a rakyat, who had not even requested for help.

Should we not be saving our own souls before trying to save others?

And I loved it how the Malaysian papers lapped the news up (as I knew they would) ; but omitting the topless pictures that were splashed across the actual papers . Click here for the actual article, including NSFW pictures

However, seeing that bacon’s off to the Big City today and will only be home around 9, we’ll probably make do with traditional chinese takeaway later tonight. Hopefully he will bring me some Krispy Kreme to make up for it. …yumm.I wonder whether they have a thanksgiving edition made out of pumpkin. I believe they did, but that was in my other life.

In other news, the dream is over for England. Outrageously they have not qualified for the Euro 2008, and neither have any of the other countries that makes up Great Britian. As bacon was in one of his stiff upper lip business dinners in the Big City yesterday, I got smses every 5 minutes asking for update, thus ruining my Ugly Betty night - the one where Posh is featured and Betty gets the sack. I actually had to bear watching England basically shooting themselves in the foot by playing outrageously shit - good thing is Steve McLaren their shit manager is now sacked and I don’t need to pen Euro 2008 in my diary next year.

Yesterday was rather exciting for some working in the Leeds city centre. Around lunch time, we were actually not allowed to leave our office, and all we could see from the windows were that the roads were cordorned off empty of pedestrians and vehicles. As there is an overhead bridge right next to where I work, I initially thought that someone had jumped off the bridge; there are bouquets of dried dead flowers by the sides of the bridge presumably for previous victims. This quarantine lasted a good couple of hours.Apparently around 10.40am, an unattended package was found in the Merrion Centre, which is a shopping centre that I walk past everyday on my way to work. A robot was sent in for a ‘controlled explosion’ - and I think the result was this was a false alarm

Do you remember the time before 9-11, where unattended packages were disposed off instead of blown off? This reminds me of Manila, the hotbed of explosions and bomb scares, where armed guards check your bags when you leave or enter any shops, even a 7-11 had armed guards. And as bacon was living literally opposite Glorietta (where a bomb, incidentally, went off a few weeks ago), this was becoming quite concerning. I remmeber the second week he was there, and around 8pm (he was still at work) his friends from the UK and me in KL started ringing him asking if he was ok. A bomb had just gone off in a bus not a mile from where his hotel was. And apparently news like this are not groundbreaking enough for everyone to stop working and head home. He did not even realized it had happened, and actually went to the window and hey presto, he could actually see the remainder of the bus , smoke and all. That was how close it was.

People get used to things happening around them, and over time, fear turns into complacency. I, for one, live about 2-3 miles away from the infamous area in Leeds where most of the London bombers were born and bred, and their family and friends still lives here. I go pass it everyday on my way to work. On my first trip to Leeds, I actually requested bacon that we do NOT go past that area - this was two weeks after the London bombings. Now, not only it does no bother me, I actually find that area fascinating for its blend of middle eastern, polish & asian groceries and takeaways. People always say its shit around here and its dangerous bla bla bla, but honestly, it never bothered me after my first couple of months here.

Does routine really breeds complacency, or does it actually cancels out irrational fear ?

Walking into Subway at 8.40am. Half asleep, hoping to be waken up by the lovely smells

Requested for a Breakfast sub, to be greeted by a a really old piece of sub roll, two miserly strip of bacon and something round that looks like it couldve come from an egg in another life.

Splash of ketchup, shoved into the oven.Weird

Coffee.

Little bugger asked for £3.78. Advertised price was £2.78. Prick

Got to desk, sandwich is so throughly toasted it was blackened. Filling completely tasteless. I see bacon, but it sure taste like rubberband.

Coffee? What coffee? That little prick gave me HOT MILK.

Who the F has HOT MILK for breakfast?!?!?!?!

I knew I shouldve stuck to Sausage & Egg McMuffin for breakky. Serves me right for trying to be healthy.

Loads happening over the weekend…but no photographical proof uploaded yet - sorry. I do have a few important questions though (elving might be able to answer):

What is ‘yellow croaker’ fish in cantonese?
What is pomfret in Cantonese?
What is eel in Cantonese?
Does turbot = turbot in cantonese?

Does this give it away that I have been trying to order fish over the weekend? I realized that my fish knowledge is straddled between a few worlds…hokkien/english/cantonese/malay and I cannot really relate them to one another!

I also realized that I missed dai pai dong/ tai chau styled dishes miserably. We’ve spent weekends on dimsum, siu yuk farn & other misc. food and now I’m seeking for what I classify as ‘normal’ food for me; fish+meat+veg+rice. I still have rice & dongpo yuk (5 spice claypot pork?) ta-paued for lunch today. And ham choy kai thong (salted vegetable & chicken soup) for dinner. Yummm..my time with salads is over!

Its 8.40am and I am already yearning for lunch.

arteries of the heart

It rains again, she moaned. How am I ever going to get home?

The perpetual need for an umbrella to protect her from the elements. Splashing your best pair of heels into puddles is not fun when you are actually old enough to wear heels. Dancing in the rain is an illusion created by songs of dreamers not yet hardened by heartache. The drenched-wet look had never completely caught on with the fashionista faction, preferring the blow dried pneumonia-free style.

The pitter patter of the rain resonated with the conversations in her head.It drips,it plops in an awfully slow way, contently awaiting for the big storm. The whisperings in her head persuading her to stay and go at the same time, with equally baffling arguments from the devil perching on her right shoulder and the angel on the left. Go home,you know you want to, whispered angel. But you will get wet and probably sick from walking in the rain.Stay here where its dry and comforting,argued the little devil.

The deceptive sunshine that peeks through the clouds presents a hope that the rain will be stopping soon somewhere over the horizons.Somehow she is jaded by the knowledge and experience that a deception is what it is,nothing else. The sun should just completely dissapear, bringing the world with it,she secretly complained.What is the use of the sun if it continues drowning in the overwhemingly grey rain-producing cumulus?

When will this ever stop, when will summer ever grace us with its glorious beams? Her head continues to spin at a dizzying speed, as the rain picks up outside the stained glass looking down on the little-travelled highway. She wants to hitch a ride, steal a car,ride a bicycle, anything to get on the road. A tuk-tuk with an umbrella,maybe, she ponders.Or a superman in a red cape, with the distinguishing outer-innerwear to set it apart from little red riding hood.But where would the road ahead lead?

Or does it matter?