Interloper View

I recently found out that there was  change in the way the credit card charges are made in Malaysia. Take the following scenario: The balance on your credit card is RM 5000.10. You make your payment in cash so you pay RM 5000/-.  The bank considers that you have not paid your card in full and will charge you.    However, note that they will not charge you based on the 10 cents you did not pay but based on RM 5000.10. That means you will have a very large service charge.  Apparently, this is done for all the banks.

With the cost of living going up, everything cost a lot more.  However, there people of go to great lengths to be come self sustaining.  I noticed this a semi detached house in Penang recently: Here you have a small farm in Penang: Here you have a house where they rear chickens, ducks, geese, and even turkeys.  (didn't get a picture of all of them).    

The average lifespan of humans is about 77 years based on Wikipedia . This may seem a lot but how much of this years are productive years. When compared to other animals and creatures, we rank one of the highest. There is an article showing the lifespan of different animals. Here is the list from it: MAMMALS YEARS Elephant 69 Horse 50 Hippopotamus 49 Chimpanzee 40 Grizzly Bear 32 Bison 30 Lion 30 Tiger 25 Elk 22 Mountain Lion 20 Beaver 19 Wolf 16 Squirrel 16 Chipmunk 12 Cottontail 10 House Mouse 4 BIRDS YEARS Turkey Buzzard 118 Swan 102 Parrot 80 Great Horned Owl 68 Eagle 55 English Sparrow 23 Canary 22 Humming Bird 8 REPTILES YEARS Giant Tortoise 152 Box Turtle 123 Alligator 68 Snapping Turtle 57 Cobra 28 Cottonmouth 21 AMPHIBIANS YEARS Giant Salamander 55 T...

As I wrote in the blog that got me my free ticket for the screening of Mama Mia - I went into the show with minimal expectation since I did not know what to expect. However, I was pleasantly surprised. This is one of the few events organized by NuffNang for Penangites. So Horray!! There are so few events for us up North. Even though the tickets was not as impressive as the one the printed for K.L. Here is how our ticket looks like: Since this was free sitting, I expected to see a lot of the ugly Malaysian Ethics but surprisingly everybody was well behaved and entered the cinema in an orderly fashion. Don't see too many of those in these kind of free functions. Next I was surprised with the number of cameras that was brought for the event and more surprisingly was the fact that they were all allowed into the cinema hall. These shows how much respect we bloggers get :-) As for the show, I enjoyed it tremendously especially with all the ABBA songs which were my favorite ...

In Malaysia, due to our multicultural heritage, you will find many different kinds of architectural design. Here are some examples: These are pre-War (World War II) houses: Notice Komtar in the back. Komtar is also starting to lose its attraction as a shopping destination but still contains government offices: Some of the newer buildings in Penang: The building in the center is the UMNO (United Malays National Organization - one of the political party) building. You will find power cables in some areas: Kuala Lumpur Times Square: Here you have Kuala Lumpur Tower in the background: This is the Penang Twin Tower. Can't see very well at this angle. Hindu temple. Most of these temples are very beautiful artwork on them. Penang Times Square. It is still under construction. Old Chinese Clan building: Look at the artwork on this Chinese temple:

Every once in a while you come across a movie with a title that makes you wonder what it is all about. The last such movie I saw was " Romancing the Stone ". Now all of the sudden, you have a movie called " Mamma Mia ". What kind of title is that? To make things worst the poster just doesn't tell you anything about the story or what to expect. Which makes me wonder if the show is worth watching or not (have some very good stars but sometimes even the best stars cannot save a bad movie). Then all of the sudden I received this email from NuffNang with an invitation to watch the show. Better yet, it provides a blog telling me more about what to expect. Now, there are a few more pluses going for the movie. It is a musical and features songs from ABBA - the group who produced some the favorite songs of my childhood. All of the sudden, I begin to think may be it is another "Romancing the Stone" where the title just doesn't do it justice. N...

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling… And even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it!!! You'll enjoy your journey only and only if you Know and Love your destination!! A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: ' I am blind, please help. ' There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, ' Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write? ' The man said, ' I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way. ' Wha...

A woman is driving in her car on a road. A man is driving in his car on the same road, but in the opposite direction. When they pass each other, the woman opens her window and shouts to the man: DONKEY! The man immediately responds: BITCH! Both continue their separate ways, the man being very satisfied with his quick and bitchy reaction. And just as he reaches the first curve in the road … Moral: “When the other person speaks, try to think of the actual message rather than just react."

Collected the following water fountain from around Malaysia. Enjoy:

Recently, I visited Sungei Wang in Kuala Lumpur. I came across this store near the entrance adjacent to Low Yat. This was a tiny store specializing in knitting supplies. I saw some people sitting near the back of the store - looks like they were teaching people to knit. What I was most impressed with was the quality of the knitting done, here see for yourself:

Banks used to give very nice piggy banks. Here is a little collection I have: