Interloper View

The following are the balance of the photos:

One of the benefits of staying in a multi-cultural country is getting to see and enjoy different festivals. It has been several years since I went to see the Thaipusam possession but I managed to do that this year. Here are some of the pictures I took (I split into two entries to ensure the performance):

Welcome the year of the Brown Earth Ox. The end of the Earth Rat brought a lot of chaos worldwide. With the strength of the Ox and its ability to work the earth, here is hoping to a more productive and prosperous 2009. The following are some photos of a lion dance and dragon dance I took with my hand phone. Unfortunately, the phone was not able to take the action sequence clearly. The dragon: The Lions: Anyway, my daughter enjoyed the whole thing even though it was very noisy. She has grown since her first encounter (she was terrified then).

Christmas is celebrated by christians world over on Dec 25. It is a time of great rejoicing to remember to coming of Jesus Christ and to celebrate good will among all people. As a Chinese descend, we celebrate Christmas twice. A few days prior to the Dec 25 - around Dec 21, we also celebrate Chinese Christmas (also known as Winter Solstice ). To celebrate this festival, we typically will make Tangyuan . However, it has been several years since we actually made it ourselves. The preparation is very tedious since we have to grind the rice etc. Nowadays we will buy the dough from the market, we just make it into circle and cook it in sugar syrup. In Hockien language, we call it Ee (or circle - literal translation). It usually comes in multicolor. This year, we bought ones with crushed peanuts and sugar in them. My children call them " Ta Bah Kuih " which is another type of pastry that they are used to eat.

I received the following stories from two colleagues and thought I would share it here: First story Once upon a time, an old man lost his horse, his neighbor consoled him. The old man said : Good or bad, hard to say. After a while, the male horse bring back a group of horses from the jungle. His neighbor congratulate him. Old man said : Good or bad, hard to say. The old man's son upon getting so many horses, rode on the wild horse and fell down, with a broken leg. His neighbor consoled him. Old man said : Good or bad, hard to say. Then comes the recruitment for rookie/soldiers as it was war against the neighboring country, the old man's son was not called upon due to his broken legs, so the old man can have his son live together with him, while his neighbors' sons, most of them died in the battle. Second Story Once upon a time, there was a king. The king liked one of his followers very much because he was very wise and always gave very useful advice. Therefore the king to...

At certain times of the year, Buddhist will put offering for either the Gods or their ancestors. Typically, the will place food and burn incense. Here is a photo of such an offering table at a market in Penang: In the picture above, you have a roasted pig. The roasted pig is a delicacy that which is very delicious and normally sold in pieces as you would for any type of meat. If prepared right, it is crispy and succulent. Sometimes to celebrate birthday, piglets are used instead but preparation is the same. Here you see Rambutan - a local fruit (Rambut is Malay word for hair) - you will notice the skin is very hairy: Here another fruit favorite is Durian. This is the type of fruit that you either love or hate. There are many variations which is best illustrated here .