I need theatre in the taste, not so much the presentation

Sis and I were viewing a Master Chef episode. You know, the one where they are down to four and Justine was knocked out with that chocolate mousse. There was good ol’ Mr. Cravat. Matt Preston. I wonder what he would say about my favourite fruits.

Every time I come to Malaysia, I hope to have a mouthful of Bee Cheiu – that’s a small banana with thin, easily bruised skin. The taste is superb. It doesn’t have the coarse “I am carbohydrate startch"” blandness of Aussie bananas – it’s a very delicate sweetness that leaves a gentle end of taste in your mouth.

Because it is easily bruised, it may not stand the rigours of transportation to supermarkets and so on. But it is heavenly.

As heavenly as chiku. I mean real Malaysian chiku.

The Tropical Greens

I like the temperature climate of Melbourne and the plants and flowers. But tropical Malaysia with the benefits of constant rain, sun grows anything you like to grow with less effort.

The oleander bonsai style (if this is indeed an oleander) is a current favourite amongst the residents.

Small bright flowers on small ground cover bushes with waxed leaves are flora du jour as well.

This one’s a firm favourite for the small crumpled trumpets. Sis says they smell lovely.

I recognise the shape of these trumpets – our neighbour in Melbourne has the larger variety, red that bursts into a Rosseau like profusion. This one is smaller, yellow.

Red Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. Now there are so many different varieties.

Ah Hun Ee has this gorgeous green coloured spiky grass shrub.

Ladies Fingers (Okra) is nice to eat as well as decorative.

Daun Kadok has so many lovely green colours and textures. It adds a special taste to our nonya steamed Otak Otak.

I love my four angled bean, the Kachang Botol. We can get some variety from the Springvale Vietnamese shops but they’re lighter green and the flavour isn’t as intense. I can eat them raw just like one would munch fresh snow peas off the vine. As a child, I used to grow them at every house we stayed in. The nurturing time was mainly over the seedling phase, once they grabbed root, maintenance free of pesticides, fertilisers – just sun, rain, nearly any soil.

I’m unfamiliar with these variegations. They are nice, anyway.

Keeping the light burning

Why do we leave the light on in the front? Is it to give us working illumination when we wake up earlier than sunrise? Is it because we forget to switch off the night before? Or is it to be a beacon to lost souls?

What people do…

Sometimes, it takes a visitor to see aspects of what one takes as normal and the way living. I’m been away from the Malaysian way of looking at things, so it’s both interesting and absorbing to see the sights with blended native and visiting eyes.

This scene typifies the Malaysia (and South East Asia) that is so vitally intense, engrossing and interesting. As Malaysians obsessively watch Astro (and in this case, Taiwanese Hokkien soaps), they escape (or they see virtualised, abstracted, emphasised versions of their lives and living).

The scene above shows the huge umbrella. It belongs to a street vendor, probably selling food. Obviously, the vendor comes regularly to this spot, so X marks the spot. In the background are double storey shophouses, retailing a melange of goods and services. Not the clean, synthetic, uniformised chain stores that so disenfranchise themselves from being nostalgic tags in the timeline. No doubt, the middle class will remember the good times at KMart in Australia, with a passing parade of staff that service the outlet.

But here, in the Taman Desa suburb of Kuala Lumpur, you can eyeball and see the small business owner. And his wife (maybe) because she runs the non related business upstairs. And their children as they come back from school.

Here, someone’s taking Kodak to the Laundry.

In some capitalist Western societies, being a businessman seems to attract and undesirable trail of ethics, motivational queries. In Malaysia, a fair number of people are in civil service or work as nine to five office workers. But being a business person, particularly a small business person is not a withdrawal from society.

It’s just a place where you can hang your hat.

Play Misty for Me

There was hesitancy about KLIA, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport when it was first opened. Worries about the volume of baggage traffic, people getting lost and things like that. Now, this hub has settled in to normal operations, it’s a wonder that people were initially concerned. At one terminal, KLIA has an indoor treery. I have not walked into it – I was not aware it was something you did. But this time, the doors are open. The airport is cool and air conditioned – you don’t realise that this is a synthetic environ until you walk into the tree-ry and your lenses fog up. Alejandro (one of my Facebook friends) reckons RainX should work – but I am a bit hesistant on subjecting my 7-14 front element to that – maybe I’ll try it one day one a less expensive lens.

Anyway, you don’t realise how much mass the 7-14 holds in terms of temperature inertia until you wipe it, wait, wipe it, wait, wipe it…..

They’ve even managed to get some weaver birds in (or were they recorded bird calls?)

The Head of Kodak Kuala Lumpur Advertising Department

I was on the DPR Kodak forum (where we have a nice social camraderie) and posted a photo of the first advertisement I had ever seen (in Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur) extolling the features of Kodak Smart Capture in their cameras. Kodak has been through a tough financial year (well, several) and their camera business is sadly in some disarray. Lots of what looks like oem models (i.e. somebody makes them, maybe somebody designs them, proposes them, makes them – an Original Equipment Manufacturer with a name beginning with F… with factories in South East Asia and elsewhere). Kodak diehards were horrified to hear that one of the new gen 9xx series ceased production just before 2009 Christmas and New Year holiday sales season, goss being that they had contracted the oem for a fixed number of units, contract satisfied earlier than expected (hey something went right, sales were good) but the manufacturing and distribution dried up at such a crucial time. This is goss, we won’t know the truth.

Anyway, we love our Kodaks, old and new and I was thrilled to see scooter rider (in sandals, teeshirt) flying the flag at an intersection. Chiue reckons he’s the head of Kodak Kuala Lumpur Advertising Department. Maybe they’re starting a viral ad campaign at the grass roots? Maybe…..

del.icio.us Tags: Kodak,V705,Malaysia,Advertising

The Return of the Native

This isn’t a reference to the Lord of The Rings trilogy, which is something that is more modern, considering the movies. I have in my mind, more the Thomas Hardy novels that I read when I was much younger.

I’m visiting Mum – the past few years has been a new deal for me with respect to perspectives of Malaysia. There’s a whole jumble of sentiments, perspectives, detractions yet positives, nostalgia, relationships – the lot. Does having a landmark birthday bring upon such ruminations of lost opportunities and what to do for now and for the future?

As I encounter a flood of regrets (it gets tough as the emotional and psychological baggage increases) as well as a sense of helplessness of how to handle the future, Malaysia is one place where ruminations don’t become abstract without interruption. There’s so much going on as life keeps living and moves on, whether you’re debris in the flotsam or steering a purposeful boat, there’s more to come and coming now.

Took a walk with Mum – she only does a short circuit, so I went out for a slightly longer one (the urgency to lose the tum is quite an imperative, although a feeble one).

I was kinda looking for the “golden light” of the morning – it comes at a different time of the morning in Malaysia and at a different angle.

It’s a new day of course. What’s surprising for me, is that the sky is blue and the clouds are white and fleecy. The V705 can even be convinced render the scene. The past few times, Kuala Lumpur has had a thin grey, polluted gauze of a sky.

This is a middle class suburb, with a whole range of residents. My sis is into greenery regardless of the size of her garden area – she works really hard at it, it’s a hobby and a passion for her, like photography is for me. It liberates the inner soul.

Signs on lamp posts have been around for a while. They seem to be breeding. Someone wants to sell a fridge, a washing machine and the ubiquitous Astro equipment. Maybe they want to rent out a lorry (truck) as well….

When I was a child, we used to look at birds on the wires between lamp posts. There are still lamp posts, but lately, a Kagi antenna sees to be a preferred choice.

I think this photo above is just gorgeous. It’s with the Kodak V705. I could have rushed back to get the Oly DSLR or I could have carried the DSLR with me in my shorts, old tee shirt and open sandals. Nah. It was comfortable and more convenient with the V705.

The tropical climate – sunshine, heat, rain brings easy growth. Residents love to have something to please the eye – the plant on the left has hairy leaves and spikes. On the right, there seems to be some umpela dwarf variant

These yellow flowers are distinctive.

Nice and peaceful huh?

What do we know about human nature? Peace and a comfortable existence is fragile. Seems this part of the housing estate (that’s what they call a block of houses in Malaysia), there’s a war broken out. This family who’ve been residents for more than 30 years are neighbours to a tuition school.

After school tuition has been popular and commonplace in Malaysia since my primary school days. Tuition classes are held in linked shop houses (commercial establishments) as well as homes of teachers – it’s a small overheads, fair revenue stream. Parents and kids identify good places and come to learn.

Unfortunately the neighbour seems to be very popular and traffic and parking in conveying students has become such a nuisance that a local war has broken out. This resident has taken to blocking off the road and various parties have taken to scratching the car paintwork as well as other misdemeanours.

And so, the day passes.

del.icio.us Tags: Malaysia,Photography,Kodak,V705,KualaLumpur

Photo Tagging and Metadata

Good list of metadata formats.

in reference to: http://www.photometadata.org/META-101-metadata-types (view on Google Sidewiki)