Grandpa's pineapple

At my grandparents' place.

Got off from Singapore a bit late last night to avoid the jam.

It was not too bad though.

Slept on the mattresses grandma laid down on the floor with my cousins.

It was fun. A bit like camping.

Same like whenever I went balik kampung to my dad's place during Hari Raya.

Everyone sleeping on the floor of the packed kampung house.

By the way, as usual my dad doesn't spend the CNY holidays with us here in Kluang. He's somewhere in the East Coast.

It's a family thing.

The house is a buzz of activities now.

My grandparents were obviously busy the past few days decorating the place.

One look at this and I knew that it's grandpa's handiwork,

That's his usual CNY pineapple decoration.

It's for prosperity, good fortune and good luck....well, in grandpa's case, it's good luck at the mahjong table for himself :)

That corner of the house where he put the pineapple is near where we usually set up the mahjong table.

Grandpa is a bit of a gambler and he sure knows how to get as much advantage as he can to win.

Everyone in the family plays mahjong and gamble a bit.

It's a family tradition.

Just for fun, okay.

My mother for instance is quite hopeless at it.

I can't remember even once that she won at the mahjong table during CNY.

But she still plays every time because that's the way of the family.

She considers the few hundred ringgit she lost as angpow to the family.

By the way, I'm even worse at it than my mom :)

Eh, I better get up and help in the kitchen or something.

Maybe later drive grandma to town to buy some stuff.

I will try to write again if free.

Have a good day.

Ciao.

Love is better than hate, always

Must it always be us versus them?

Malays versus Chinese?

After the Chinese tsunami of GE13, I thought it should be that way.

But that's only for a while.

Once the anger subsided, I came to my senses and realised that Malaysia will never survive as it is if we are to be totally racially polarised.

That's why we fought so hard for 1Malaysia before the general election in the first place.

We can't afford to give in to hate.

Somehow I woke up just now with these thoughts  in my head.

Love is always better than hate.

Told myself that.

Found a nice video to go with it,

Honestly, I'm not really sure who is the Chinese and who is the Malay between the bridegroom and bride.

Still, nice song and photos.

I'll be fetching my aunts and cousins from Singapore later today.

My mom and others driving down from KL.

Hope it's not going to be too jammed along the highways.

Kluang, here we come :)

By the way, passed by JB Sentral early this morning about 2am.

Took this picture,

Happy CNY holidays everyone.

Ahsovaganza and why read Annie's blog

I'm not feeling very well today.

Told a friend about it and he said I'm probably suffering from "Ahsovaganza".

I googled the word but can't find it.

It turned out that my friend was referring to the attacks I'm enduring as a blogger of late.

Then I got it.

It's a combination of the words "Ahso" and "vaganza".

"Ahso" means aunty or elderly lady in Chinese while "vaganza"....errr, you all google that one yourself lah to find the meaning, okay.

That friend of mine is a terrible fellow.

Anyway, since I'm not well, I don't feel like writing anything serious today.

Just that I noticed this blog had passed the three million page views mark yesterday.

I think it's not so bad for an insignificant anonymous Malaysian English sopo blog just short of three years old.

After all, I'm not even a very intelligent blogger.

I can't write long postings like all those prominent bloggers or even use beautiful English to impress readers.

In fact, my English is quite atrocious.

My blog also don't have fancy charts which must be convincing for so many people.

It makes me wonder why you all bother to read this blog.

After giving it some thoughts just now, I could only think of four possible reasons.

But I'm not really sure which of them is the real reason why you all are reading my blog.

So, I'm conducting a week-long poll to find out.

You all can cast your single vote at the column on the top right of this webpage.

Your participation is really appreciated.

Thank you.

Okay, I need to rest now.

Here is a very cute song (with great subtitles) for you all dear readers,

Umno's new hope...I think

So, it is all over.

DS Mukhriz Mahathir is no longer the Kedah MB.

He is being replaced by DS Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.

I'm not going to comment on it.

It's over and done with, okay.

Just putting those facts here for the records.

If you all want to read more about Mukhriz, I suggest you read this posting I did just after he was appointed as MB and a few days before he announced his candidacy as an Umno vice-president (which he failed to win) back in September 2013.

• An interview with Mukhriz

Maybe it could be something we would remember about what Mukhriz stands for as an Umno guy.

Bear in mind that posting was way back before the Umno civil war broke out last year.

So, I think I have been quite consistent about the man.

Now, that Mukhriz is more or less gone, I think the next best bet for Umno's rejuvenation will rests on the shoulders of this handsome guy,

If you disagree, please give another name and how.

Okay, that's all for today.

Note: Just a bit of politics so that no one can accuse me of being banished, banned from writing politics or merajuk for not being paid as a pre-paid blogger...among other things.

Maybe people are indeed tired of repetitive political bullshit

I believed blogs such as mine were getting out of fashion among social media users after the last general election as Facebook, Twitter and others took over as favourite mediums of getting news.

That was until the Umno civil war started in the first half of last year.

This blog which was recording an average of just 80,000 page views per month after the general election, experienced a surge in the number of viewers when the civil war broke out in April.

It peaked in July at about 160,000 page views.

Guess, there are people who still prefer to read a pro-establishment blog which took a neutral stance in the conflict, which this blog tried to be.

My position was to be a voice for the Umno's middle ground.

Of course it didn't go down well with both warring sides.

As I had previously wrote, I got whacked from all directions...some more vicious than another.

The funny thing, however, was that I was accused of the same things by both sides.

Some of the worst attacks came from fellow bloggers whom I used to consider as friends.

They simply can't take it that I'm of a different opinion from them.

For me, Umno should try to find peace among themselves and pull itself together to end the civil war so that it can put up a united front for the next general election which is just slightly over two years from now.

The other bloggers who attacked me simply can't agree with that or even tolerate my opinion.

Honestly, I'm tired of the whole thing because of that.

Furthermore, I have discovered that Umno itself seems to prefer for its members to tear each other apart so that only one faction would emerge as the winner and rule over everyone else.

That's why I decided not to have any part of it.

Unfortunately, those who attacked me continued to come up with new accusations such as that I have been banished, banned from writing politics and even described as a "pre-paid blogger". There were also other more ridiculous accusations against me.

Some people have fantastic imaginations.

Surprisingly though, despite all those accusations, and me slowing down to the minimum when it comes to writing about politics, there are still those who continue to read this blog.

The stats counter of this blog had went down to its normal of about 80,000 page views by November as the Umno civil war cooled off.

But it went up again these past two months. In December it was 93,380 and last month 107, 274.

Maybe some people started reading this blog again after I reduced its political contents.

Maybe people are tired of the repetitive political bullshit.

I hope that's true.

I'm tired of it too.

Guess it's better to write about normal everyday things which are really beneficial to the life of ordinary people.

As former Johor MB Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman once said at a Johor Umno convention many years ago,

"Kalau lah kita semua buat kerja yang sepatutnya kita buat, kita tidak akan ada masa untuk berpolitik sepanjang masa (If only we work the way we were supposed to do, we would not have the time to play politics without end)."

Mount Lambak

Nothing much to do in the office now, so I think I write a bit.

I'm actually already in holiday mood.

Looking forward to going back to Kluang again this weekend for CNY.

I always enjoy staying at my grandparents' house.

Back when I was a kid, the best time of the year was when my mom took me back to our hometown.

I actually spent a lot of time as a kid at my grandparents' place.

I did a posting on that quite a while back.

Till today, I always enjoy meeting up with cousins and other relatives there.

I tried to go back to Kluang every festive season or if there was a family gathering.

Family is very important.

It's something that my mother inculcates in me since young.

Most of my mother's family live in the same neighbourhood, so we are all very close with each other.

My cousins are practically like brothers and sisters.

Some of them were also back in Kluang for the weekend of cleaning up our home for CNY.

Yesterday morning, a few of us went to 

Gunung Lambak

It's just about 15 minutes drive from our neighbourhood.

Just wanted to take a hike for an exercise.

It was fun.

Here are some pictures which I took while I was there,

A peaceful pathway

Walking on this suspension bridge is a lot of fun.

A little stream. It's bigger during rainy season, I was told.

People doing Falun Dafa exercise.

In case you all ever got to Kluang, do try to find some time to visit this place.

It makes you feel very much at peace.

Honestly, I'm happier writing this kind of postings nowadays.

Can promote my hometown a bit.

Better than writing about political garbage all the time.

Only people with no life do that... or got paid to do it.

Well, never mind.

I will do another posting later in the day if I have the time.

Cheers.

A farewell note

Driving down to Singapore in a short while.

Grandma is staying here in Kluang till CNY but I need to send little aunt back.

She's working tomorrow.

I also need to get back to my work in JB until end of the week.

My mother went off to KL earlier after lunch.

Grandma will be okay because my grandfather will be back home the day after tomorrow.

He's working on a project somewhere in Perak and it's almost completed.

The old man is past 70 years old but still working.

Chinese guys normally work until they die.

My grandma said it's good that her husband is seldom at home as otherwise he would nag her to death.

Nowadays, it's my grandpa who is clingy to her. When they were  young, it used to be the other way around.

My mom and dad are also like that.

Sometimes I pity my dad, always bullied by my mom.

Eh, really can't write too long now.

If you all have the time, read this farewell note from my friend 書 政 shuzheng

Ultra Confessions

Hope he's okay and will one day blog again.

The guy, despite his sometimes nasty blogging style is actually a good person.

Thanks my friend.

Okay, really need to go now.

Peace.