Interloper View

IMG415 Originally uploaded by strovek There are various groups performing Qi Gong in various parks in Penang and around Malaysia. This is a picture of the group that does it on Sunday from 8 am to 9 am. The group is very popular and normally break into subgroups during the weekday adjourning at various spots on the island.

I thought I would share with your some beautiful bamboo trees I saw near the Botanical Garden in Penang. These are the green ones: These are the yellow ones: Bamboos are used in a lot of Chinese arts and Feng Shui to ward off evil spirits. You can get some information here .

I was thinking the other day the following sentences: A bear carrying baby. A bear-carrying baby. In the first statement, the bear is carrying the baby and in the second statement the baby is carrying the bear. However, when you say both sentences, the sound almost the same. So the question is how do you differentiate the two. Any suggestions? Or is my thinking flawed?

Back when I was studying in the U.S., the cans from our can drinks can be returned to the convenience store and the stores will pay you a nickel (5 cents) for it. I know it is not much but this encouraged people to save the cans for recycling. Even if the person actually drinking does not bother to return the can, somebody will. We can use this concept to encourage more recycling.

Imagine if you will that all the drivers were to follow the rules? Keeping to their lane, signaling when they want to turn and moving to the right lane. I often wonder, how much better our traffic situation will be if this happens. It would be a nice experiment to conduct because in reality most of the traffic jam which we encounter are due to people jumping queues, slowing down due to curiosity, jumping red lights, speeding and moving too slowly. All road users have a role to play - pedestrians, drivers (of all vehicles). Let us try to make our roads smoother and safer :)

Today I was introduced to an excellent site to help children learn. The URL is as follows: http://www.bbc.co.uk/children/ It looks like an excellent site to help learn English, Maths and Science.

This is the third year for e-Filing for Malaysia's Income Tax and I have to say that the process has improved dramatically. In the first year, it was necessary to download the PDF for each person you want to file it for. There was also problems and teething issues in submitting the form. On the second year, due to the above problem, the whole process completed ported to web based instead of dependent on Acrobat Reader. This made the filing much simpler but the printing was terrible. The pages did not align properly. Also with the electronic certificate, if you made a mistake and tried to get a new certificate, you had problem with Windows and had to create another account to redo the certificate. The other issue was since the certificate was embedded into your PC, you could not change the computer without losing the certificate (or for that matter lost it if you had to reinstall Windows). This is the third year, it looks like the certificate is now stored on the server. The...

There are a lot of carps in the Out Door Theme Park at Genting Highlands. In fact, some have witness truck loads being loaded in the pond. I took several photos here for those who have not been there to enjoy. See the waterfall just behind the fish pond: Recently, they have started selling fish food for visitors to feed them. Notice the carps are very hungry, so much so some of they will swim on top of each other to get at the food. For those who are interested in the significance of carp, more information can be found here .

Continuation from the previous post : Story 14: Wrestling a tiger to save father Story 13: More food for Mother Story 12: Lying on Frozen pond for Carps Story 11: Feeding the Mosquitoes Story 10: Breast feeding the Mother In Law

I thought I would share some of the breakfast option in Penang. This is noodle fried with gravy on top. It is called Sar Hor Fun (there are some other variations of preparation but this is my favorite) and the best part is it cost only RM3/plate (US$0.85). For those interested in knowing how to prepare it the formula can be found here . This is an Roti Chanai. You can think of it as an Indian Pancake served with curry. It cost RM0.60 per piece (US$0.17). You can learn how to make it here . However, for those who have not seen it, the preparation is rather entertaining and can be seen here .

Look at the beautiful of the tropical forest observed from the cable car going up to Genting Highland from the Genting Skyway. This happens to be longest cable car in South East Asia. Look @ the mist covering the forest: Look at the height of the pillars supporting the Cable cars: Notice this pathway that is used for some of the maintenance work

When filling up petrol for your car in Malaysia, it is possible to get some money back. The rate of return can be increased with the combination of credit card (see my previous post on getting money back from your credit card ). BHP Petrol (previously known as BP) You can accumulate points either using BHPs own card or using Genting's World Card. Swipe your Genting card after your credit card - some of the stations require you to go to the counter. If you accumulate the points using Genting's Worldcard , it is equivalent to cash Points will expire after 3 yrs. 100 points = RM 1/- Unfortunately the points can only be redeemed in Genting Highland. Return rate is 1%. Additional Note: You can accumulate more points for other participating merchants. Shell Points can be obtained using Bonuslink . Very important note that you are required to Swipe your Bonuslink card 1st before your credit card (different from all other stations). Failing which you will not accumulate any points...

This is the continuation of the filial stories from the previous post : Story 20: Spring and Fish Story 19: Cooling and Warming the Bed Story 18: Red Mulberry, Black Mulberry Story 17: Entertaining Parents as a Clown Story 16: Concern Over Father's illness Story 15: In Search of Mother