I'm Going Slightly Mad...

Book of the Week: The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory

Not posted for a while though a lot has happened. It’s all been too much to take in, all at once too intense and private and emotionally draining to put into words, and I can only hope and pray, and pray. I don’t seem to be able to concentrate – not being overly dramatic here, but I feel increasingly distracted, and my mind drifts even when I try to concentrate. The last month has come with particularly heavy burdens.

Which might explain why I’m reading fluff at the moment. But right before this I completed The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, by G W Dahlquist – a rollicking, bodice-ripping, erotically charged adventure, if I remember the reviews correctly. A bit confusing at times and I found it quite hard-going at first trying to see the scenes unfolding (not for want of description – maybe I’m just not imaginative enough). And I read another book before that but I can’t remember what it is now.

Which brings me to today’s topic – mental health. I can’t remember as well as I used to, and I’m terrified I may one day be struck down by Alzheimer’s. As it is I feel I have a brain tumour at times. I used to be able to remember whole chapters verbatim (the only way I passed psychology in second year), these days I can’t even remember what I did last weekend. I seem to have aphasia on an hourly basis. It could be that the days and dates just blur into one, but maybe I have oligodendroglioma or something. So when I saw this, my heart leapt – there is hope! I still can’t do Sudoku, but at least my brain’s getting a workout with the daily occasional crossword clues.

The five tasks a day that could protect your mental wellbeing are…
Connecting with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours;
Being active – sports, hobbies, gardening, dancing or just a daily stroll;
Being curious, noting the beauty of everyday moments as well as the unusual;
Learning something – fixing a bike or playing a musical instrument;
Giving to others you meet around you.

I can do that. Here’s to my sanity. (Apparently, there’s a strong link between mental health and debt – half the people in Britain who are in debt have a mental disorder. So that’s reason to celebrate. I’m very sane by that account.)

Factoids of the Week:
More word fun. Have to learn something every day, what. Cool words, these. Today’s theme is phobias, and there are a few odd ones going around…

Allodoxaphobia – Fear of opinions.

Catagelophobia – Fear of being ridiculed.

Cenophobia or Centophobia – Fear of new things or ideas.

Cynophobia – Fear of dogs. (Now that’s just stupid. Dogs are the best!)

Eleutherophobia – Fear of freedom. (Exclusive to Malaysian government…)

Enissophobia – Fear of criticism. (Ditto.)

Epistemophobia – Fear of knowledge. (See above.)

Hypegiaphobia – Fear of responsibility. (Repeat…)

Ideophobia – Fear of ideas. (And again…)

Melophobia – Fear or hatred of music. (Now for a short intermission…)

Metathesiophobia – Fear of changes. (And we’re back to the Malaysian government!)

Methyphobia – Fear of alcohol. (Rare in Scotland.)

Metrophobia – Fear or hatred of poetry.

Neophobia – Fear of anything new. (See Malaysian government.)

Peccatophobia - Fear of sinning or imaginary crimes.

Philophobia – Fear of falling in love or being in love.

Prosophobia – Fear of progress. (Malaysian government again.)

Staurophobia – Fear of crosses or the crucifix.

Stygiophobia or stigiophobia – Fear of hell.

Theophobia – Fear of gods or religion other than your own.

Wiccaphobia – Fear of witches and witchcraft.

Summer Solstice Sentiments

Book of the Week: Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend

It has been a very eventful couple of days. Yesterday evening and this morning in particular were especially painful for both of us for extremely personal reasons, but matters were resolved before lunch today and now we look forward to what we hope is a new beginning (and possible future). We will share more of ourselves with each other (which, for me, means an opening up of a deeply private and meaningful part of my life), see how we go from there, and hope (and pray!) we work out. It IS quite scary because things could go so horribly wrong, but we both really want for this to happen and because of that are prepared to work at it – we have so much together, are so good together, want to be together, and could have the rest of our lives together. There’ll be hard choices to make along the way, but we want to give us every chance. We don’t want to lose us.

We had planned to walk the Fife Coastal Path to Aberdour today as our little celebration of the summer solstice, but had to put it aside due to the mental and emotional upheaval of the last 24 hours. It has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now and had been looking forward to the walk all week (I just feel I should be outside on the longest day of the year, or it’s just a complete waste of sun), but I can’t say that I’m completely disappointed. As Dad always said, a sign of maturity is the ability to delay gratification. (And the weather was rubbish today, anyway.) What matters is that we’ve got us sorted, and that means so much more. We can always do it another time, and I think the stress should be on “we”. Because we still have a chance to be “we”, and that means everything to me.

Factoids of the Week:
It IS possible to die of a broken heart. The less-than-romantic explanation behind it is that an increased levels of stress hormones in the blood and psychologically induced changes in behaviour brought about by grief can lead to a greater risk of dying from heart attacks, accidents, violence or alcohol-related problems.

There were 29,898 marriages in Scotland in 2006, out of a total of 275,140 in the UK. And with the average wedding now costing £20,000, it makes one wonder if it is even worth getting into all that debt given the following statistics...

Between 2005 and 2006, there were 13,014 divorces in Scotland, out of a total of 148,141 divorces granted in the UK. For all divorces granted, behaviour was the most common fact proven. (On a more positive note: the divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1984.)

In Scotland, there are five grounds upon which to base an action of divorce: adultery, desertion, unreasonable behaviour, separation for two years with the consent of both partners and separation for five years without the consent of the other party.

First Things First

Book of the Week: Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend

This is going to be a quickie because there’s quite a bit to do this weekend, and I want to get something in for May (myself and the month) – just a few hours of it left.

But suffice it to say that there have been quite a few double firsts scored. On April 5 I went for my first car boot sale, where I was also a first-time vendor. It was in the next village on, and we sold about £60 worth of stuff (mostly DVDs Gareth didn’t want any more – the Cambodian scarves and wraps and whatnots I was hoping to sell were probably just too posh for a car boot sale anyway).

On April 10, Gareth and I hosted our first dinner party. OK, so there were only two guests (Andrew and Laura from work), but it was a dinner party nevertheless. I made our favourite party piece, spag bol, the night before, and it was lovely and infused with that lovely slight sourness you get from tomatoes when the time to serve it up came around. Gareth made his gorgeous rice pudding. A good time was had by all, which only makes me think we really should have guests over for dinner more often.

Then on April 12, we dog-sat Kes while Eddie, Barry and Phil went down to Blackpool for a day trip (nearly three hours down and three hours back up again – if it were me I’d want to stay overnight, but then again it is Blackpool, I suppose). Of course, the first thing Kes did in the flat was have a pee – first time I’ve had to clean that off the carpet – and when we took her out for a walk, it was the first time I had to pick up after a dog using a council poop polybag.

But the big kahuna for me was the long-awaited trip to Cairo, from May 16 to 24. It was a first on so many levels. Egypt was probably the first country and civilisation to register on my consciousness, and to finally go there was just mind-blowing. I was having mental boings all week just thinking about it. I had to go in for a morning at work the day we were leaving, and I still have no idea how I managed to sit there and hammer out a story. I don’t even know where to begin. First trip to Egypt (there will definitely be more to come – I was already planning what to do the second time around halfway through the trip), first time in Africa, first time Gareth and I were going on an intercontinental trip together, first glimpse of the Pyramids up close, first ascent/descent into them – it was just an all-round amazing trip which made for a most memorable 36th birthday (honestly, what a way to mark my third zodiac cycle).

And now more firsts await – all the terribly domesticated, middle-class DIY around the house for starters (three blinds went up this weekend). We’re going to have two couples stay with us within the same week next month. Both my best friend and cousin (and their hubbies) will be visiting AND staying with us for the first time. For Priya, it’s an double first – it’s her maiden trip to Europe, never having been in this part of the world before. Can’t wait. It’s going to be fantastic. Bet you a few more firsts are in store.

Factoids of the Week:
The West Lake restaurant in Changsha, China is the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world. It serves 3500 ducks, three tonnes of fish and seats 5000 diners.

Fife Council runs 1800 vehicles which consume five million litres of petrol annually.

The largest residential development in Europe is Duloch Park, in Dunfermline’s Eastern Expansion. That’s right in our backyard.

Fife also has, geographically, Europe’s largest CCTV system, with 100 cameras covering 12 communities.

My Wonderful Easter Weekend

Book of the Week: Shadowlands by Peter Straub (yup, still there)

Yesterday, Number Two and I went out to the scuzziest street in town (it’s always been in the news at some point or other – but more often of late, no thanks to all the problems with asbestos). Nothing sleazy – it was work. There have been calls from a couple of local councillors to just knock the whole street down and we had to talk to people there about what life was like in the armpit of Fife.

It was a most interesting – and surprisingly, not at all intimidating – experience. I got my first whiff of pot / grass / weed (whatever it was, it was absolutely stinking) when one very stoned out resident came to the door – when he opened the door, I swear you could see the flies in the stairwell drop like… well, flies. The cloud of whatever he had been getting high on came out like a backdraft. I’m surprised he managed to answer as coherently as he did (which isn’t really saying much – and they were mostly yes / no questions anyway, not like I wanted to prolong the interview). After he shut the door, I turned around to Number Two who was at the other door and made a “smoking” gesture just to double-check if I had smelled what I thought I did.

Met people who were just desperate to get out – called the street Fife Council’s “dustbin” – and I could see why. One guy on the top floor had mushrooms growing out of the loft. Another woman related how her partner had broken into the homeless flat across from theirs at least twice, once to stop a woman from being strangled. And apparently, there are needles out back. There’s nothing wrong with the flats – it’s the street that’s the problem. Basically, the hardware’s OK, but the software’s shite. There are a lot of decent people living there who, if they could, would transport their flats somewhere else. Nobody wants to live next to druggies, serial offenders, ex-cons (whose exact crimes are unknown), teenage thugs, or deadbeat parents popping out the next generation of ASBO kids faster than a hen can lay eggs.

I came back almost three hours later feeling in need of a mental and physical soaking in Dettol. I felt dirty, but also incredibly thankful and blessed that I’m living in a clean, warm, cozy flat with decent neighbours – and in a warped kind of way, wishing we could do exercises like this more often, not sit in the office and squeeze an article out of someone who was there (as opposed to our actually being there). Really, some of the stories we heard yesterday!

Post-lunch, Gareth, Wilson (our new Couchsurfing friend from Brazil) and I went for a drive and had a lovely, slow afternoon out exploring Culross. It was quite the barrel of laughs – we made jokes about Wilson not hearing anything through his beanie, played on the teeter-totters, took photos of Gareth on his mobile phone while on an elephant (“It’s a trunk call!”) and Gareth fell off the swing and overstretched his tummy muscles. Stopped to say hi to a doggie and his little old lady owner and met Dougie Vipond. We also went to Koi for a scrummy Japanese dinner afterwards. I’ve especially enjoyed hosting Wilson – I do love spending time with Gareth, but it gives a whole new dynamic to the weekend when someone is staying over. After we got home, I got a secret and kinda special card from Gareth, which contained clues to my very own personalised Easter egg hunt. It was so great!

Today, I went for Easter service. My first church service since I moved over last May. Was never really sure which church the united congregation had chosen to worship in – thought it was St John’s, but of course, as things are wont to turn out when I think something, it was in St Peter’s. It’s really quite a beautiful church. Airy, bright, high ceilings, stained glass windows. Half the time I wasn’t paying attention to the service for gazing at the red and blue lattice pattern behind the altar. The children’s performance (two songs – and repeated!) was a bit toe-curlingly cringeworthy, in that it was obvious they hadn’t rehearsed, didn’t know the words and were obviously not interested in being there. I tuned out and flipped to “Be Thou My Vision”, just to see if I could still remember the words (I can, but just). The purple hymnal was a bit pants, I thought – only treble clef notes, and all single ones at that. It was an Easter service, but it certainly didn’t feel like the Easter services I am familiar with, and fond of. Didn’t have that joyful exuberance that is so evident back home when celebrating the risen Christ.

So, overall, a bit of a mixed bag weekend, but an extremely eye-opening and very fun one. We have a new friend. I got to do something new for work. Went to church. Looking forward to more such weekends in the spring and summer.

Factoids of the Week:
The philtrum is the two wavy lines connecting the bottom of your nose to your top lip.

Posh word for someone who constantly picks boogers: rhinotillexomaniac.

I always thought it was hypochondriac, but there’s another word for people who are extremely concerned about their health: valetudinarian.

Hypocorism is the act or use of giving a pet a name.

The adjective for something which is of or to do with the alphabet is abecedarian.

Winds Of Change?

Book of the Week: Shadowland by Peter Straub

Turned on the laptop during the Scotland-England Six Nations match yesterday, and got an even bigger shock than Scotland leading 9-3 at half-time. It was Election Day back home in Malaysia and I reckoned the eight-hour difference would mean it would be about time the results would have started coming in. It was the first time I would not be voting since I became eligible to do so, and what I saw made me wish all the more that I could have been back home to have been a part of it.

For not only had the first winners been announced, the Opposition was actually keeping pace with Barisan for the first time since 1969. It was nail-biting, and, at the same time, a little too heady to the point of disbelief. All the talk and dissatisfaction that has been brewing in Malaysia, particularly in the last 10 years, has usually amounted to naught when it comes to the ballots. But this time, it really did seem that people were going to do something about racial tensions, rising crime and illegal immigration, corruption, nepotism and Barisan arrogance.

And boy, did they do it with a vengeance. They voted the Opposition into power in five states, including the two richest and most industrialised, in Malaysia: Selangor, Penang, Perak, Kedah and Kelantan. There are more Opposition MPs and state assemblymen in power than there ever have been in the near 40 years. Best of all, Lim Guan Eng is the new Penang chief minister, a moral and political vindication if there ever was one. If you are going to stick two fingers up to the Barisan Government for incarcerating you just because you did the right and proper thing of condemning a former chief minister, and a Barisan crony to boot, for statutory rape, this is exactly how to do it in style!

Post-results, Barisan continues to stick its head in the sand. Oh, the people still love us, they just wanted to teach us a lesson. They voted according to sentiment, not according to the merits of the candidates. Yeah, right! Obviously the people forgot just how qualified Barisan candidates are for the job: remind me again, exactly how did Khairy get appointed national football manager... or get loans from ECM Libra (so where did that RM9.2million go, eh?)... or just about get his own constituency by default... oh yeah, because of his qualifications as the First Son-In-Law. And of course, Bung Mokhtar, that sexist, misogynist low-life from Sarawak is only qualified to make depreciating insinuations between leaks in the Parliament House and female anatomy. What merits? BN candidates leave a lot to be desired.

So today, Malaysia wakes up to a new political dawn. No more 91% majority for BN, despite all their dirty tactics, vote-rigging, phantom voters and character assassination. I would have loved to have seen BN just scrape through, but in the meantime a 63% majority will do very, very well. I seriously hope this is not a one-off. For all my bitching about Malaysia, it does have a special place in my heart and I want to see things right. I came here to get away from the shite, but my loved ones still live there. My hope is that there will be greater transparency and accountability in Malaysia, and above all, that we become an inclusive nation, where we are defined by who we are, not who we know or what race or religion we belong to. The people have voted for change, and I am so very proud to be Malaysian today.

Factoids of the Week:
The collecting of postcard is called deltiology.

A thimble collector is known as a digitabulist.

The fear of needles is known as belonephobia.

A gigantic frog that lived 70 million years ago in Madagascar was the size of a squashed beach ball and weighed up to 4kg. Beezelbufo (a.k.a. Frog From Hell) might even have snacked on baby dinosaurs.

Another frog factoid: the Panamanian golden frog communicates with other frogs using semaphore. It waves to signal rivals and mates above the noise of mountain streams.

We're All Going On A Winter Holiday

Book of the Week: Still not reading...

Last day of work! Whoo-hoo! Just three days more before I leave for Malaysia! Can’t wait to see the dogs and folks and family again. I’ve been thinking a lot about my parents, especially Mummy, in the last few days – just going over all my years growing up, the debt of gratitude I owe them, and how very much I love them. I’m going to make myself an early Chinese New Year (and third zodiac cycle) resolution to tell them more, show them more and just generally make sure they know it.

Also looking forward to seeing my old friends from school again – can’t believe next year I’ll have known quite a few of them for 30 years. Just wish they’d get in touch more often rather than just at Chinese New Year. Ah well. At least a handful of us have a lunch date fixed for next Saturday in Kuantan, and, fingers crossed, there’ll be a better attended high tea in the works in KL some time over the next couple of weeks. Can’t wait to do the Malaysian thing – eat lots and talk rubbish!

Factoids of the Week:
The pika looks like a hamster but is more closely related to rabbits.

Wild yaks are the only herd of grazing animals to inhabit the Tibetan plateau, the highest in the world.

The emperor penguin, the tallest and heaviest of all penguin species, has an average lifespan of about 20 years.

The Weekend

Book of the Week: Looking for something new to read after finishing The Narrows by Michael Connelly two weeks ago.

Gareth and I had a wonderful romantic weekend away from January 11-13. It had been something we’d been planning for a while, but it just always seemed to fall through. But e-mail at work, out of the blue, asking if I wanted to go away to Edinburgh for a couple of nights… because he’d checked out hotel prices and The Point were doing B&B for £144 for two nights, was I interested? After my squeals of excitement and enthusiastic yeses – and a quick explanation to colleagues that no, I very much doubted if the boyfriend was going to propose – it was quickly booked.

I couldn’t think of anything else the whole afternoon and was just counting the minutes until it was time to go home. Is there anything more exciting than packing on a Friday after work for a last-minute break? We wolfed down our fish suppers, then drove into Leith. We parked by the bins near our old place, and took the 22 up. It was absolutely freezing but – sappy though it may sound – we felt warm and fuzzy from the whole thought of “time together”. Our short walk up the icy Castle Terrace made us think of our short holiday in Florence, what with falling into our holiday routine of checking out restaurant menus to see if they were good places to eat, and my oohing and ahhing over the views of Edinburgh Castle from the side streets. If I were a tourist, I would have gone snap-happy.

Our room at The Point was cool. No 414. A bit spartan and squint (because it is a converted building), and the bathroom was starting to show signs of wear and tear, but hey – Castle, city and Forth views. Gareth nipped out to get some Coop chocolate chip biccies and hot chocolate, then we turned on the telly and watched Jamie’s Fowl Dinners. It was enough to turn you vegan, but we both like our meat too much so have decided that we are ONLY going to eat free-range chickens and eggs.

We spent the Saturday indulging ourselves. Did the tourist thing and started by walking down to the farmers’ market. It was still very cold, with iced-over puddles and even snow on Johnston Terrace. If we hadn’t already had a scrummy fry-up brunch (the crispy bacon and porridge with honey were to die for), I think I would have gone mad for the lamb burgers. It was just the sort of lazy, luxurious day for them. The smell of the lamb patties and onions on the grill always sends my salivary glands into overdrive – I can only imagine what the doggies there feel. We walked up to Castlehill and checked out the cashmere scarves and sterling silver rings on the High Street (preparation for Egypt), then spent a long, languorous afternoon in Waterstones and HMV. And a mushroom roll and a Bombay Bad Boy for tea, mmm!

For dinner that night, we went to Izzy’s on Lothian Road – our second visit and I’m pleased to say that our opinion of it has improved significantly. I took Gareth there on May 26 last year after I got my first ang moh paycheque, and, while it could be because we had had so much excellent Japanese food in New Zealand, we thought Izzy’s sushi kinda sucked. But their dinner service is simply immaculate – my bowl of fragrant steaming rice and tempura was fantastic. It was a bit of a rushed meal, though, as I wanted to get back in time for the season opener of CSI:NY. (A right cracking episode it was too – Lady Liberty splashed with blood!)

I was really sorry to leave on Sunday, but with the hotel being just across the road from Erogenous Zone, I at least got to check out a sex shop for the first time in my life. (Ann Summers doesn’t count.) Didn’t know what to make of it (perhaps because I’m a bit more grown-up now and less of a sheltered Malaysian schoolgirl), but it didn’t feel as sleazy as I thought it’d be – though I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT touch anything, you know, just in case. Didn’t want to come away with some gloop on my fingers. I suppose some of the stuff in there is, well, kinda sexy if you have certain fantasies or want some adventure-slash-excitement in bed, but for the most part I just found myself laughing. Blow-up sheep. Classic.

Then it was off to Clackmannan for yet another one of June’s always yummy dinners. A lovely weekend on all counts.

In comparison, today was crap. Up at 6.15am, a loooong train journey into Glasgow (£20.30), some last-minute shorthand practice – but I think I’m going to fail anyway. Nerves got the better of me and I struggled to take dictation at 100wpm. I hate it when this happens. I know I can do it, I’m actually quite good at shorthand. I’ve been doing 120wpm the last couple of weeks, but today my hand shook too much and I was way too nervous. Only have myself to blame. So now it’s another month of swotting away at shorthand before I have to go through the stress (and possibly FAILURE) all over again. Bah. At least I have an Indian dinner to look forward to tonight.

Factoids of the Week:
Cairo has more cops per 1000 citizens than any other capital in the world. Wonder why that is?

The Amazon has a greater volume of water than the next 10 largest rivers in the world flowing into the ocean put together.

At its widest point, the Amazon is about 11km wide during the dry season, but during the rainy season, it can be 45km wide as it floods the surrounding plains.

The Amazon river dolphin (or pink river dolphin) is the largest of the world’s five freshwater dolphins. Can you tell we’ve been watching a particular episode of Planet Earth?

We're In Denial!

Book of the Week: Making slow progress with The Narrows by Michael Connelly.

We booked our tickets to Egypt at 11.21am today. It’s absolutely, positively, undoubtedly the most exciting thing I’ve done in a long time and the anticipation is already killing me. This is certainly the most fired up I’ve been about a trip I’ve been for ages and I simply can’t wait. It would be the fulfilment of a life-long dream, the final piece to complete the archaeological jigsaw I’ve had in my head since I was six.

Athens, Rome, Istanbul and, in four months’ time, Cairo. What a 36th birthday this is going to be. I thought sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge for my 32nd would be hard to top, but I can already see the morning of May 17 2008 in my mind’s eye: sunrise over the pyramids at Giza. Sure, we’re only going to be there for a week, but this trip is going to be the Mother of all Birthday Experiences. Mental orgasms and eye candy galore time. Not an exaggeration. It’s trips like these that really give my life meaning.

The trip will involve a few ungodly hours – our flight in arrives at 2am and the flight out leaves at 3.55am – but who cares? It’s Egypt! A trip doesn’t get any more important and/or significant than this. And to psyche ourselves up even more, the both of us get to prepare with a couple of very enjoyable rituals we haven’t done for a while: 1) start a countdown to May 15 (take-off date) and 2) say CANNAE WAIT! every time we think of it (and really mean it!). Yup, I really cannae wait to toot and come in and be in denial.

Oh, and yesterday we saw The Kite Runner. It is an absolutely gorgeous movie. Made me cry. Go see it.

Factoids of the Week:
The Opera House in Cairo, which burnt down in 1971, was completed in five months in 1868 for the inaugural celebrations marking the opening of the Suez Canal. Shame nothing works as fast in Egypt these days... except maybe the touts seeking a quick buck.

Sufi comes from the word “suf”, the Arabic for wool, which is what these semi-mystical whirling dervish types originally wore. One thing that has always puzzled me about these self-denying, suffering-is-good sorts: surely meditation and union with God is easier achieved when your mind is at peace rather than thinking which part of your body you should scratch next...?

Happy Anniversary

Book of the Week: The Narrows by Michael Connelly

Time flies when you’re having fun and when you look back at the years, you can’t believe you’ve come this far, this soon.

Mum and Dad celebrate 39 years of marriage today. I love you so very much, guys. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we were marking your 25th, and before we know it, it’ll be your 40th. I’ll be home for that. It’s going to be special! Must do big do.

My blog is a year old today. Seems like just yesterday that I started it – you know you’re getting old when a year seems to go in a blink of an eye. I hope I write a lot more this year than I did last year. I certainly plan to. I must.

Factoids of the Week:
The 40th year of marriage is known as the ruby anniversary.

Anniversary comes from the Latin anniversarius, from the words for “year” and “to turn” – meaning returning yearly.

Feeling Broody

Book of the Week: The Narrows by Michael Connelly

Lovely fun half-day at work, and the best part is that I’ll get two days off in lieu of it. Dashed off a quickie on Philip Riddle getting an OBE, though after sending it in discovered that I needn’t have gone to the trouble of trying to get a quote from VisitScotland because it won’t be used in tomorrow’s paper anyway. And then it was away to Forth Park in Kirkcaldy to speak to two mums from Dunfermline about their little girls who were born yesterday. The babies looked so cute and cuddly, my biological clock almost detonated like a time bomb. Don’t know if it’s just my hormones going crazy (tail end of the wrong time of the month) or because babies are adorable and generally have that effect on people, but I just went all mumsy-like. And then I got a call from Hoon, and, after I calmed down from freaking me out (because she hardly ever calls me over here), got talking about kids. This has so far been a very pro-kid day. I need a mental contraceptive.

On a less scary note, I’ve decided that I want to go to Egypt for my anticipated mid-life crisis birthday this year. Should tick all the boxes to help me get over turning 36: it was probably the first country (civilisation?) to register on my consciousness (I knew more about ancient Egypt at five than I did of Malaysia), it’s got all the stuff I’m interested in, it’s a country I’ve never been to, and part of a continent I’ve yet to set foot on. So yeah. Definitely Egypt. Achievement of a lifelong dream and a hell of a lot more of life lived. As I can’t see myself getting too much time off, a week in Cairo will have to suffice – I’d much rather try to do one place in depth rather than run around like a headless chicken trying to see everything (don’t get me wrong though, I do WANT to see EVERYTHING in Egypt).

This must be some kind of record for me – three posts in as many days. I must be on a roll. The new year period really does fill one with renewed zeal and resolve. Watch me degenerate from this point.

Factoids of the Week:
Egypt has a literacy rate of only 58%.

Only 4% of the country is arable farmland. But the annual flooding of the Nile deposits some 40 million tons of silt, replenishing the topsoil.

Antony and Cleopatra were ugly. Researchers from the University of Newcastle examined a 2000-year-old Roman coin with the images of the famous lovers and found that Cleopatra had a pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose, whilst Antony had bulging eyes, a thick neck and a hook nose. The researchers say the ancient Roman writers back their claims: while Roman writers describe Cleopatra as intelligent and charismatic, with a seductive voice, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty.

The earliest known surgery was performed in Egypt around 2750 BC – although there are remains from the early Harappan periods which show evidence of teeth having been drilled dating back 9000 years.

Ramesses II (“the Great” – a.k.a. the Moses pharaoh) lived to the age of 90 – the oldest pharaoh in history.

Not A Good Start...

Book of the Week: Just starting on The Narrows by Michael Connelly

The first 24 hours of 2008 haven’t exactly been very good. First there was a minor spat this morning – it was assumed I was in a bad mood when I really wasn’t – which, naturally, got me pissed off AND in a bad mood, not least because I didn’t want to start the New Year on such a crap note, and having a wee argument isn’t the first thing you want to do after waking up. (I can’t help it! I have a grumpy face! Either that or I think I need to lighten up.)

And then, on the way back from Clackmannan after dinner, I realised that not only am I going to be in a new marketing questionnaire age category this year – I’ll no longer be in the target 18-35 group but be one of the 36-45s. AUUUUGH! And not just that… I’m also getting scarily close to 40. Only four more years! It’s not like it’s just dawned on me that I’ll be 40 – I’ve been aware of it even since I turned 30 – but that it’s so close now just freaks me out. Doesn’t help that the last six years have just zipped past. I foresee a mid-life crisis every birthday for the next four years.

God. I’m depressed.

Factoids of the Week:
Only 53% of the population of China speaks Mandarin (or to be precise “can effectively communicate” in the language).

The average duvet is home to 20,000 dust mites. This is turning out to be a great New Year, isn’t it? I’m going to sleep really well tonight...

Books used to be bound in human skin. And the condition of being born without an ear is called microtia.

Dogs can have two noses. Still cute and cool, though they do look a bit like the love children of Miss Piggy and something out of science fiction.

Memories of 2007

Book of the Week: Just finished The Poet by Michael Connelly. Very enjoyable.

I’m sitting here in my flumpy clothes, relaxing at home after a day that just flew by at work (six stories on West Fife recipients of New Year’s honours – barely saw the hours go by). I’ve just had a couple of lovely, warming Mathieson’s pies and a pack of chicken-and-herb Super Noodles, which had a similar effect. Gareth and I are keeping an eye on World’s Strongest Man, enjoying each other’s company but simultaneously doing other things – I’m writing this and he’s trying to finish his Wasgij puzzle.

We’re basically unwinding, but I’m aware – in the sense that you’re aware of something important that needs to be done, like packing your clothes for a last-minute trip tomorrow – that it’s New Year’s Eve (sorry, Hogmanay, as this is Scotland). Another three hours and we’re into 2008. I’ll be 36 – third cycle of the Chinese zodiac – and it’s scary how the last six years have just zipped by. It feels like not too long ago that I was 30, only halfway to the third cycle, and next year (two and a half hours now) I’ll be there. It’s true – once you hit 30, your life just slips past without you noticing it. I mean, half my life ago I was in Lower Six.

But I think I’ll leave that for my actual 36th birthday. No point getting ahead of myself and having another mid-life crisis before it’s due (it’ll only be my… umm… sixth, I think). Right now, on the threshold of a new year, I think I should be in a more contemplative mood and reflect on the year past. It’s one that’s gone by in the blink of an eye – quite possibly the fastest in my mind. And here are my memories.

January
Uncle Leong’s death and funeral dealt the family an emotional blow.
Adopted Coconut.
One of the most depressing Chinese New Years of my life – the loss of an uncle compounded by being told some very devastatingly hurtful things by someone I love very much. It made me think that moving to Scotland was a good move after all.
On the bright side, found out that the first Lee baby would be born in June.

February
After months of hassle, finally got my Fresh Talent visa – on way to becoming bona fide UK resident!

March
Gareth stopped over in Malaysia on his round-the-world trip. Had a good two weeks meeting the dogs, my relatives and seeing Kuantan.
Went to Cambodia and had that familiar “a little more of life lived” feeling. Hadn’t had that for a long time. Angkor Wat blew our minds. It was very hot and dusty, but the Coconut Dream smoothies we had at our guesthouse more than slaked our thirsts.

April
Found home for Coconut. Had fears and reservations about Minni and family initially, but I now know that it was the right choice. They’ve really spoiled him. He even has a new friend, Rocky!
Went to New Zealand. I think I left it 10 years too late to truly have that “a little more of life lived” feeling – in 1997, it would have gone into overdrive. Too many pseudo-uber-cool culture-travel wannabes (you know, the “I’m a traveller, everyone else is a tourist” types) killed it for me I think. Must go back, this time without the dizzying whizzing around.
Tidied up all my belongings in one week. My whole life, over the last 15 years, reduced to 18 boxes. Made me wonder if I had actually accumulated anything of real value.
Arrived Scotland to officially begin new life.

May
Started new job. Two weeks later, had my first experience of the self-important, pompous windbags scattered throughout West Fife.
Madeleine McCann went missing. SNP voted into power in Scotland.
Had our first archery lesson together at Cluny Clays.
Turned 35. Officially middle-aged now. Worked on my birthday for the first time in seven years. Went to Room With A View at the Forthview Hotel and tried the mind-blowing monkfish wrapped in Parma ham.

June
Went to Kelvingrove on a cold, rainy afternoon. Fabulous. Learnt so much!
Stayed in a castle! Dream come true! Didn’t feel too castle-y – more Scottish country house with lofty ambitions – but fact remains: have stayed in a castle. Enduring memory is of Gareth not telling me how spooked he was after watching Dr Who, to the point of seeing nasty thingies in the window panes. But then again, he was the one who’d read that the castle was haunted, not me.
Stopped at Pitlochry and met Jane’s daughter Amy Bo for the first time.
Procession of Inverkeithing Highland Games went past our Parisian balcony. Scooby-Doo and the Incredible Hulk stuck out amidst the tartan.
Went for our first drive together up the East Neuk and had the best fish supper in Scotland in Anstruther. Loved Crail especially and really hope we can have a getaway – or picnic – there soon.
Bruce Festival in Pittencrieff Park. Loved the jousting!
Attended the Riding as part of the opening of the third session of Parliament. Came back and saw myself on STV news. Also got the news about Glasgow Airport and Toby being born.

July
Graduated. Can now officially add the extra five letters after my name.
Stirling – my first real Highland Games!
Hosted our first Couchsurfing guest. A smoker, no less! I must be more liberal and tolerant than I give myself credit for, I think.

August
Went down to Nailsworth to visit Dina, Tim and newborn Toby. Wonder if it was even worth it…? Cirencester was great though.
Stayed the weekend at Lorna’s at St Fillans. Absolutely spiffing Enid Blyton type house with fantastic Highland village atmosphere. Had great fun at the fete. Went walking.
Chris visited. Did Loch Leven and East Neuk. His driving sets my teeth on edge! Must learn to drive before his next visit.
Went to East End Park to see my first football match in the UK. Ever. And it was a UEFA match too – Dunfermline Athletic v BK Hacken. Crap teams, yes, but still... a UEFA match...

September
Went to Stockholm and Gothenburg. Object lesson in how Ikea is not Sweden, and vice-versa. Some places looked more Glaswegian than Swedish. Rough shite Glaswegian, that is, not Kelvingrove.
The upside to the trip was that we had our first experience as Couchsurfing guests, and it was just fantastic.
Started thinking seriously about making a round-the-world trip together without flying. That would be a trip!

October
Went to Pitlochry for the Autumn Festival. One of the most romantic weekends we’d been on. The perfect getaway. Lovely autumnal weather, amusing and engaging entertainment (the sound and light show at Faskally Wood, the ghost tour) and warm, snuggly accommodation.
Also went to see Jane again on the way down. Amy can now walk!

November
Had my best lazy weekend of the year. Morning cuddles, an amazing fried breakfast, a movie, then nothing but books – travel, at Borders.
After 10 years, I finally saw the funeral of Diana in full. I always knew I was a decade behind.
Gua Ma died peacefully in her sleep. Rest in peace. We shall all miss you.

December
Christmas. We did our first “12 Days of Christmas” together – I’d done it for Mum and Dad in the past – and it was really something special. We look forward to coming home every day, but those two weeks really gave us something to look forward to. Sometimes, just to think of it at work was enough to keep me going. I got 12 lovely gifts, none of which was a book neither.
Played Mr & Mrs and discovered that we actually know each other better than we give ourselves credit for. Was a surprise how much we think alike and understand each other.
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Still remember 1988, when she was elected leader. How my political views have changed since then.
Worked my first Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve for the first time in seven years. Times like these, I really miss working in Malaysia, with all its public holidays and laid-back time off.
And now I’m celebrating my first Hogmanay as a working girl in Scotland. Not worked for the last two years!

Looking back on our big to-do list, I don’t think we managed to complete a whole lot. I didn’t read enough, for starters. I didn’t travel enough. But putting down what it is I want to do has certainly directed how I spend my time, and has made me do more of what makes me happy. And thanks to that list, I have a lot to look back on this year. I’m sure I’ve missed out a few memories, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind and which will bring many smiles to my heart in the years to come.

Here’s to making many, many more memories in 2008. Happy new year. May we continue to be blessed with love, health, happiness and each other.

Factoids of the Week:
The word Blighty comes from “biyalti”, the Urdu for homeland. From Urdu also came “kushi”, which in time became cushy – comfortable or pleasant.

The trench coat – today a fashion staple – was devised by clothing manufacturers to keep officers warm and dry, and the belt rings were a feature originally used to carry hand grenades.

There are 17 surviving versions of the Magna Carta – which is really several documents rather than just the one definitive charter. And the plural of Magna Carta is Magnae Cartae.

The whale is descended from a raccoon-like creature called the Indonyus.

The Australian town of Eucla has its own time zone – 45 minutes ahead of Western Australia and 45 minutes behind South Australia. Isn’t the maths involved fabulous?!

The Tabula Peutingeriana, a parchment scroll dating from the 12th or 13th century, is the only surviving copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire. It’s housed in the Austrian National Library. I wanna see that. Something to add to the Big To-Do List, methinks...

Goodbye, Gua Ma

It’s taken me a while to get around to this, but I didn’t really know where to start. But I knew I had to, because it’s something I want to remember – I don’t want to look back on it through a clouded glass in maybe 10 or 15 years to come. It’s a significant coincidence for me, though, that I’m finally getting round to it exactly seven weeks since it’s happened – New Year’s Eve will mark the end of the 49-day mourning period for Gua Ma.

It was about 7.30pm on November 11 that Dad called. We’d just had dinner and I was settling down for the evening, and I started off the conversation by joking if this was one of his “toilet break” calls, since it was about 3.30am back home. When he said he had some bad news, I thought perhaps a family friend had died – and my heart gave a little start just in case it was Dusty or Lucky.

But no. It was Gua Ma. I certainly didn’t expect it. I had always thought of her as a woman death would have to fight hard to take. She was always so strong, so formidable, so indomitable in both body and spirit. So to hear that she had died came as such a shock, I didn’t know how to react. And then it hit home and the dam burst.

I wept for many things.

For her, because she had lived the last two years of her life in a care home, away from the one that was familiar to her. Her mind was going – the early stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia – and couldn’t take care of herself. But she didn’t understand why she was in care and was always asking to go home. I cried because I wondered if in her reduced state, she had died feeling unloved and uncared for. She had had such a hard life, and it just felt so sad and tragic that in her last days, she had to relive it all over again – as she regressed, she would constantly worry about money.

For Mum, because I knew she would take it hard – she had taken on herself so much of the responsibility of caring for Gua Ma over the last 10 years. Because I knew how difficult it had been for her to make the decision to put her own mother into care. It was like our very own personal version of King Lear. Gua Ma never understood – she always saw it as a betrayal of filial piety, when it was exactly the opposite. Despite all the awful things Gua Ma said to her, Mum never stopped caring for her. It must be double heartbreak to know your parent is deteriorating and is not fully aware of what she is saying, and have to suffer the pain of those very cutting words.

For me, because I had just lost my grandmother, my last link with my past. I’ve only known two grandparents my whole life, and it is so strange, even now, to think that this was someone who had seen me grow up. I certainly didn’t know how long my grandmothers would live, but feel very blessed that there was one for me throughout my adult life. I felt like I had lost a piece of my history. I also wept because it was the second death in the family within a year, and I felt I was losing my loved ones faster than I was ever prepared to let them go.

I was not as close to Gua Ma as I was with Ah Mah, and it was for that that I grieved above all. As a child, I was always reluctant to go visit her, because I thought her bossy, loud and domineering. But as I began to see her with adult eyes, I found her wise, with a sly – and often crude, in the way that only Hakka women can be – sense of humour. She looked out for her family first and foremost, and when I thought of what she went through to bring them up – walking all the way from Kuala Lumpur, losing two husbands, giving up two children and losing another two – I couldn’t help but feel pride and amazement. For 10 years, I’d thought of dragging Josh back home with me on weekends, so we could both talk to Gua Ma and find out more about her, about how she came to Kuantan, about what life was like for the family. It never happened, and it’s never going to happen now. She had a remarkable life, and I just feel so sad that she never really told us about it and that she wasn’t really given the chance to do so. I just hope she knew she was loved.

I used to get really annoyed with Gua Ma at times, but I’m glad she lived as long as she did so I could get to know what she was really like. Even as we celebrated Christmas this year, I thought back to the last one – how fast a year goes by – when she was at our house and clearly enjoying being out of the care home. She was never afraid of speaking her mind, whether asked for her opinion or not – and last year she berated a few of our neighbours for just coming over for the Christmas food and not even bothering to speak to their hosts. She was inadvertently funny and if she found something funny, she’d let out a very hearty, loud guffaw. She had the crudest, most amazing vocabulary when it came to swearing or telling someone else, an attribute that never ceased to amuse and appal us in equal measure. She was incredibly independent – many people in town have an enduring memory of her cycling around well into her 70s (no mean feat given the roads in Malaysia), and after she had her kneecap replaced, she would take the bus in to visit friends. She wasn’t one for sitting around in one place.

I have too many memories of Gua Ma to list, and I think it says a lot that most of them make me laugh. I last saw her alive on April 28, a few days before I left to come here. When I saw her again last month, in the coffin, it just felt surreal. She didn’t look anything like I remembered her. To be sure, in the one year I had been here, she had lost a lot of weight and had had her hair cut short, but she still looked so different. Knowing what we did of her, I almost expected her to sit up and grumble, in the same manner she usually did over restaurant-cooked food, “You paid how much for this coffin? It’s too small! I could make a better one!”

I had done all my weeping on Gareth’s shoulders and on the flight back, and when I looked at Gua Ma, I just felt overwhelming sadness and loss, because of what she would never be able to tell us now, and of what I would never know or tell her. It was a feeling compounded at the funeral. When Ah Mah died in 1993, it was difficult seeing the coffin being put into the grave. But it was even more difficult seeing Gua Ma’s coffin being wheeled into the incinerator at the crematorium. It was a horrible place to be, so bereft of emotion, built to drive home the pain and anguish of your bereavement, it just felt so wrong that a woman who had been so full of life would have her final goodbye there.

As we drove away, the wisps of black smoke floating out the chimney, I thought, that’s my Gua Ma, and said a quiet goodbye. I did the same when we took a boat ride out into the sea to release her ashes the next day. I now understand the poignancy of the act – I found it hard to believe that all that remained of Gua Ma, who was so much larger than life in life, was in two bundles in a basket.

Chinese New Year will feel that little bit emptier when I go home in February. I don’t doubt that it is because I’m over here, away from home, that I can maintain some kind of emotional distance. If I were back home, I would feel the loss more keenly. Yet I do think about how strange it would feels that, if I am ever home again around Cheng Beng, I won’t have a grave to visit and hence, nowhere I can place a sense of Gua Ma. But perhaps that is how it should be. She never could sit still in life – always on the move. I like to think that now, she can be everywhere.

Perfect Day

Book of the Week: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Watching the Remembrance Day service just now. Very moving – can feel myself tearing up. I’m not even a citizen of this country, but I can feel that deep emotion and pride in remembering the thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. I like how instead of a sense of Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori, people just come to remember and honour their fallen comrades. It’s a national-scale event, but you can see for many, it’s a very personal affair. But this post isn’t about Remembrance Day, it’s about a day I want to remember.

We had the most perfect Saturday yesterday. The weekend really started after a magnificent Indian dinner on Friday night, after which we were supposed to have gone for Tom Stade at the Carnegie Hall, but didn’t, due to my bad sense of timing and food taking a while to arrive. (I wanted to watch the 6pm news on the Commonwealth Games going to Glasgow – yay!) We came home and after some wonderful together time (been a while), had an early night.

An early morning, a leisurely washing of laundry, then it was off to the Dunfermline’s farmers market at the Glen Gates where we had an early but most gorgeous lunch of Arbroath smokies. Absolutely delectable. Literally fresh out of the pit, with juices trickling down the paper as we walked into Pittencrieff Park to look for a seat. It’s been almost a year since we’ve had smokies and these were the very best – Iain R. Spink’s award-winning fillets. Fabulous. My salivary glands are going into overdrive just writing about them just now.

Then we went into Edinburgh to watch 30 Days of Night – not as good as the graphic novel, but still entertaining. Could have been tighter and more suspenseful. There wasn’t enough tension as I’d hoped – I do like a good scare, to the point where I can’t even watch it any more. The last two movies to have that effect on me were The Ring and Blair Witch – I actually switched off the latter about 10 minutes from the end, I was so freaked out. The vampires weren’t as pale or otherworldly or threatening either; they just looked like they had some sort of congenital defect. Gareth made a silly joke though, when Barrow was in flames: “It’s Barrow-in-Furness!”

Post-movie, had a round of rock-paper-scissors to decide whether to watch Ratatouille or go to Borders and do a bit of research for our planned big fat round-the-world trip. (Probably the next biggest step of my life after the decision to move here.) Borders won, and a very good call it was, too – we spend a fantastic two hours at Fort Kinnaird looking at atlases and travel books, and, in my case, cookbooks (I’m getting so domesticated!) and lovely, luscious history books. Found a to-die-for Eyewitness Travellers’ Atlas chocked full of dream routes and columns of sights down the side of each map featured. £70 in bookshops, £45 on Amazon, so you know where we’ll be getting it. I’d forgotten how much fun it was to browse through the travel section. Gotta save up for a very cool AA Truckers GB Road Atlas – 1½ miles to an inch!

The only downside was getting stuck on the bypass for nearly 45 minutes on the way home – went all the way to Tranent and back. When we got home, we went round to Happy Palace for a delicious takeaway – chicken and mushrooms for Gareth, Singapore fried rice (extra spicy, no char siu) for me. Saw a bit of X Factor in-house as well, and the proprietors must have heard us bitching about the lack of prawn crackers because there was a huge-ass bag of them with our order.

Came home and watched the rest of X Factor, and continued with our Still Game odyssey after our showers. I’m really enjoying Still Game. It’s very funny, very earthy and very Scottish. There have been a number of quality phrases scattered throughout the episodes – “spooky bitch” and “foosty pish”, to name but two. Like with 24 and Lost (of which we’ve watched five and two series respectively), I’ll be very sorry when we come to the last episode. Then it was aff to bed.

Am about a third through The God Delusion just now. Not really sure what to make of it – Richard Dawkins does make a very persuasive case. I don’t know if I’ll come to any sort of epiphany after reading it, though (just realised that it’s ironic how I’ve just used a word with religious connotations to describe what could possibly be a shift towards a non-religious state of mind). Could say that I’m too far brainwashed, or indoctrinated, or whatever. I don’t see why science and religion are incompatible, I do believe that God exists but at the same time I can see how evolution is a more logical process than intelligent design. Perhaps I don’t have the intellectual capacity to figure it all out, or lack conviction one way or the other. Perhaps I’m more agnostic than I think I am, I dunno.

Factoids of the Week:
The word “pepper” comes from “pippali”, the Hindi word for black peppercorns.

The oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the UK is Veeraswamy in Regent Street, London. Established in 1926, it also claims to be the oldest Indian restaurant in the world… but I’m not sure of that, coming from Malaysia…

Still more reasons dogs are better than cats (like we didn’t already know that!): dogs can have blood of any type if it’s just one transfusion, but cats need to be type-matched. And sniffer dogs can smell out a termite.

Having sex daily can improve a man’s sperm quality and increase their partner’s chances of getting pregnant. Hmmm…

At the other end of the spectrum, a bdelloid rotifer is a pond-dwelling organism that has survived 80 million years without having sex.

Go In Peace

Book of the Week: Buried by Mark Billingham

I was on the line this morning when the call came, so Ewan took it. When he passed me the note saying Helen had called, I thought it could be one of any three things:
a) Iain was going home.
b) Iain had got a Marie Curie Cancer Care nurse.
c) Iain had died.

It was c). Around 9.30pm last night, in hospital, instead of at home like he had wanted. It was just so sad, and I felt quite down the rest of the morning because he had died under circumstances quite similar to Uncle Leong’s, in that they were both terminal, given six months to live, and passed away so much quicker than expected. He was the first person I interviewed in hospital.

Probably because I was reminded how I didn’t go back the weekend before Uncle Leong died, I returned to visit him, with Gareth – and a couple of classic motorcycle magazines – in tow on Monday. It was quite surreal, how badly he’d deteriorated since I saw him on Tuesday. In hindsight, he was already on his deathbed, and it’s quite weird really how one of the first things I said to Gareth yesterday morning was death-related, when I told him that it was 17 years since Mungus died. Even weirder when you consider the title of the book I just finished reading over breakfast this morning.

I only met him twice, but Iain’s death has weighed on my mind all day. I guess I’m having the usual maudlin thoughts about how frail and fragile life is, how quickly it goes by, and how you lose the ones you love sooner than you expect – especially if you take them for granted. I’m also thinking of Helen, about how, in the space of perhaps three hours, she went from wife to widow. (They decided to get married just before Iain died.) I think that encapsulates how quickly things change, and I hope I learn from that how to cherish the people I truly treasure even more, and appreciate and remember the joy they bring, no matter how fleeting.

Factoids of the Week:
Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, affecting both sexes equally.

It’s the third most common cancer affecting both sexes in the UK.

Every year, over 35,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer – or one every 15 minutes.

Every year nearly 16,000 people in the UK die from it – one every 30 minutes.

The Ides of September

Book of the Week: Dammit already…

Today marks a celebration and a milestone.

Happy 30th birthday! (You know who you are.) I wish for you the fulfilment of all your wildest, dearest, most compelling dreams; friendships that bind hearts and minds; an abundance of love and joy all your life; and a dog to make your life complete.

It was also exactly two years ago that I arrived in Glasgow to read for a master’s degree. And today, I live and work here! (Scotland, I mean, not Glasgow.) It took a leap of faith, and I have been very blessed.

Factoids of the Day:
The building of Hadrian’s Wall began on September 13 122AD.

Michaelangelo began work on ‘David’ on September 13 1503.

Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner on September 13 1814.

Hannibal Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film on September 13 1898.

On September 13 1899, Henry Bliss had the dubious honour of being the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.

The temperature (in the shade) at Al-Aziziyah, Libya reached a world record 57.7°C (135.9°F), on September 13 1922.

Chiang Kai-shek was elected president of the Republic of China on September 13 1943.

Super Mario, the best-selling video game of all time, was released on September 13 1985.

Famous people born on September 13 include Milton S. Hershey – founder of the empire of the taste of evil (1857), J. B. Priestley (1894), Claudette Colbert (1903), Roald Dahl (1913), Maurice Jarre (1924), Richard Kiel (1939), Peter Cetera (1944), Jean Smart (1951), Michael Johnson (1967), Shane Warne (1969), Goran Ivanisevic (1971), Stella McCartney (1971), Christine Arron (1973), and Fiona Apple (1977).

And a throw-away birthday one: Ingrid Bergman, Corrie ten Boom, Betty Friedan, King Mongkut, Raphael and Pompey all died on their birthdays.

For The Sake Of Posting

Book of the Week: This is getting embarrassing... (see last post... AGAIN!)

I got my second front-page lead last Thursday. The interview with Paul Gudgin was very cool. Even better was beating the BBC to the story – their write-up only showed up on the website at 3pm the same afternoon. Apparently, the Scotsman and Herald had also been hankering after the story. So it was sweeeet.

Gareth made monkfish tails wrapped in prosciutto on Saturday. Went to see the Simpsons movie (finally!) and got caught in the stoooopid bridge tailbacks for about an hour and listened to the first half of the Scotland-Lithuania match on the car stereo. Total sports-mad weekend, with Euro qualifiers (all GB countries in action), Monza, rugby World Cup (with the USA this time, the cheek!).

Which reminds me – seems like it was just yesterday that Jonny Wilkinson drop-kicked the Aussies into rugby back of beyond. And six years to the day since Gareth called from work to tell me to turn the telly on. It’s quite odd – don’t know if it’s media overexposure or because so much has happened in my own life since then, but 2001 seems so much longer ago than, say, 1996. Maybe I’m just getting old. Getting to the stage when I can remember further back in time better than I can yesterday. (I had to think really hard what we did over the weekend.)

I really need to get a credit card. So many great deals on Ryanair! Could go to Krakow for £20 in December. Ditto Budapest. Barcelona for £30. Might go check it out on my days off this week. Have to grab all the opportunities I can in my two years here. Don’t want to go back to Malaysia and look at the Ryanair page and think, if only. The two saddest words in the English language.

Don’t know if it’s because I’m lazy or just plain fed up with working (it can be really depressing some mornings getting up to go where I do five days a week these days – Tuesdays are the worst) but I’m thinking of quitting. Yes. Chuck it all in to travel round the world. Would love to do that. Just that the logistics make my brain hurt. I love the timetables and schedules – but the money bit kills me.

I really need to win the lottery.

Factoids of the Week:
The world’s longest place-name is now the world’s longest domain name (though this is unverified). A right mouthful. http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.com/

Another stupid one... but calls itself the world’s longest alphabetical e-mail address. http://www.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com/

Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Book of the Week: Still dipping in and out of Jonathan Strange (this is taking me forever...) And Harry Potter in between.

Malaysia is 50. I still remember the year of the 25th anniversary celebrations. I was in P4, had just placed a shitty 9th place in class in mid-year exams, one of my best mates was moving to another town, had a cool teacher who didn’t always give me a row when I read other stuff / doodled rude drawings instead of paying attention to the lesson, and we had to go line the streets and wave flags. From what I’ve been gleaning from the good ol’ government-controlled dailies back home, it looks like the brain-washing and idiocy masked as patriotism is even more alive today as it was 25 years ago.

I always thought I would be around to see the 50th anniversary celebrations, but in a way, I’m glad I am not. Because it would mean that I still hadn’t got out of the country, and right now I’m not sure if I want to go back. It’s getting increasingly racially and religiously segregated, and I’ve already had more than my fair share of discrimination. I don’t miss the shitty politics, the even cruddier politicians (the keris-waving ones are the worst), and the holier-than-thou twats. But Malaysia is where I’ll always find family, friends, fantastic laid-back people and what is absolutely the best food in the world. So happy birthday, Malaysia. Long may all the good things about you prosper.

Oh, and happy 10th anniversary, Diana.

Factoids of the Week:
Malaysia is 50. That’s all you need to know (well, going by the press coverage in Malaysia, anyway). Most people don’t even know there’s a country called Malaysia!

Richard Jobson, the frontman of the Skids, and Fay Fife, a.k.a. Sheila Hynde, of the Rezillos, are both from Dunfermline, Fife. (Pretty amazing what you learn on the job, eh?)

Cover Girl

Book of the Week: Still getting through Jonathan Strange (see previous post)

Got my first lead story in the paper yesterday. Well done, me! Finally! (Though some small part of my brain keeps telling me it was probably because there was a lack of strong news stories this week. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers – and as if I was ever going to say no, don’t use it as the front page lead! It’s not good enough!)

Bomb scare at Tescos over the weekend spilled over into the paper on Monday – the bosses got an anonymous letter on Saturday asking that we do the necessary to ensure that casualties were kept to a minimum. A right comedy of errors, really, given that there was some postal strike or other and we didn’t get it until the bomb threat was over. Don’t think Da Big Mon was too pleased at having to spend three hours on Monday morning being quizzed by cops.

We also got our first Couchsurfing enquiry this week. A 36-year-old French teacher of Spanish who’s taken a year off to go around Europe on her Vespa. That sounds fantastic. Really hope she comes to stay. Thinking of going for an Edinburgh Couchsurfing event this weekend – barbecue on Salisbury Crags – but we’ll see how we feel tomorrow. Got quite a lot going on.

Today was Rob’s last day. I’ll miss him, in a way, although we only met when I started work in May. I thought perhaps he didn’t like me at first, but I think it was just me in the end. He was always very obliging – with the best computer in the newsroom, he was always being asked to check this or that (mostly by me) – and very friendly. I hope he has great fun in South America (am very jealous!). I also found out that journalists over here, even after they have passed the NCE, only earn £19k max. Hmmm. Might be time to consider a change of career.

The last Harry Potter book goes on sale at midnight (Saturday). Just a little under six hours to go here – guess kids in Malaysia have already got their noses in the book. It’s already 1am back home. Looking forward to going out in Edinburgh tonight and seeing what Potter parties are like over here.

Factoids of the Week:
Gay and lesbian youth are two to three times more likely to commit suicide than other youths and 30% of all completed youth suicides are related to the issue of sexual identity.

Before they were the Windsors (or Mountbatten-Windsors, as a few of them are called), the royal family were the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas.

Catching Up Is Hard To Do

Book of the Week: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I was going to start this post with a rant about the little things in life that have really annoyed me over the past week but I am going to be a big-picture person and look at the things which make me happy instead. And then maybe I’ll get back to being negative and bitchy.

It’s an absolutely beautiful blue-sky day out. Inverkeithing is looking positively golden from the living room window. Just looking out makes me happy. It’s been a crappy summer – rain, rain, clouds, chill, more rain – and I’m feeling a bit guilty that the first weekend it’s been sunny and summery in weeks, I’m sitting indoors catching up on the last two months. All my fault – if I’d been more diligent at posting, I wouldn’t be stuck here now, so I should just get down to it.

The Big News is that I now have an additional five letters after my name. Whoopee! Became an M. Litt on July 2. It was quite surreal sitting in the Barony Hall thinking, this is the culmination of all I have worked for over the last five years. It’s almost too good to be true. Good things come to those who wait, they say, but it’s been Christmas all at once this year. I’m in Scotland, finally, living with a totally wonderful guy, being paid to do a job I like and am not too bad at, and 10 years after I started my first master’s degree, have one at long last. In the past, I would have been over the moon to achieve any one of those objectives in any one year, and this year I got all of them in one fell swoop. It’s just too good.

Still, graduation itself was a bit of an anti-climax – don’t know if it was because my family wasn’t there, or because I’d gone through it before, or if I’m just getting old and blasé about things. We went down on Sunday morning and stayed at the Alamo Guesthouse in Glasgow (as insurance against having to brave M8 traffic on a Monday morning, given that the ceremony was at 11am), and popped into Buchanan Galleries to get a few knick-knacks (earrings, press-stud brooch – the cheongsam didn’t have buttons for graduation gown eyelets – safety pins, and MAKE-UP!!! I still can’t believe I spent £30 on girly accessories – that could have bought me at least six books!). We lunched at the Buchanan Tea Rooms, where I had a rather mild chicken jalfrezi and where Gareth had to return to after two hours in the Galleries because he’d left the mobile phone on the table.

The shopping was an experience in itself – felt kind of stupid asking the salesgirls about foundation and mascara, and was introduced to the concealer stick, which literally covers a multitude of facial sins. We were so tired after that, me from looking for stuff I only interested in because I didn’t want to look like a total twat at graduation, and Gareth from being dragged around (the rubbish weather didn’t help), we just went back to the Alamo and had a really long snooze. Ended the day at Scarlet on Sauchiehall Street, where we had a lovely Italian dinner. I must be getting set in my ways – no matter how tempting the menu at any Italian, I always feel like I want pasta. The more mushrooms and sausages, the less I am able to resist. Then went back to the Alamo, played with the obese furball named Flash, and watched some more Princess Diana memorial concert stuff. (Duran Duran have not aged well.)

Graduation day the second time around was a lot less stressful – I still remember Hoon sleeping over for the first one, to help me do my hair and make-up, and then panicking when, probably due to lack of sleep, she burnt a wee patch in my cheongsam. (Fortunately, it was small enough to be covered up by a stylised daisy brooch.) This time, it was wake-up at 7am, breakfast (no fry-ups, bleah – the owners really should have mentioned this on their website, I felt quite cheated), then it was a good hour at the bathroom mirror, trying hard not to look like the lovechild of Bozo and a raccoon, by smudging the mascara and/or applying too much blusher. A double first for me – applying make-up on my own, and for my own graduation to boot! We must have looked like a scene out of Suzie Wong when we stepped out of the guesthouse, with Gareth walking in front and me teetering in heels and all dolled up in glittery cheongsam, fighting with the luggage and trying to keep the door open simultaneously.

Glasgow at 9.15am on a Monday is hell. Bloody Weegie drivers. At a traffic light, one of them – who was already in the yellow box, no less – came out of the car to ask Gareth “what do you think you’re doing”. Mr Kiasu Weegie thought we were cutting into his place in the yellow box. The irony. Then we had to rush to the registry on George Street to collect my invitations (I got three, which meant Ken and June could have been there as well, but of course the uni doesn’t tell you these things), and then brave the one-way system to get to the Student Union to pick up the gown. I ended up swopping my £6 George at Asda heels for the Salomon trainers and sprinting uphill.

Weather was starting to get rubbishy by the time we got to the Barony Hall, so after a few more shots, we both went through separate entrances (Gareth by the front, me by the back) to be seated. I spent ages in the ladies’ sorting out my stupid bird press-stud brooch, which seemed to have an aversion to the centre of my dress. I kept getting it squint and although it probably looked all right to everyone else, I just had to adjust and readjust it until it felt absolutely right. (Otherwise I don’t think I could have sat still during the ceremony – it would have been like trying to scratch an itch at the back of my mind.) Met Sallyanne, Cat and Michael – very happy to see Sallyanne, and I like to think she felt the same.

Don’t remember much of the ceremony, probably because I was trying to not-too-subtly point to Gareth what shots to take. (It’s the control freak in me.) Disappointed to end up not having that many, given what the day meant to me, but tempered some by ordering the DVD. Remember an Indian professor being awarded an honorary PhD, and then it was time for us to wait in line for the dean to call our names (he got mine spot-on), go up on stage with our gowns over our left arms, bow in front of the principal (who said “Congratulations, very well done, very well done indeed” – he sounded like he really meant it too, because he was so smiley and enthusiastic) and then move a little further along where a couple of other uni heavies threw the gown over our shoulders and presented us with our certs (was expecting a scroll, but got a thick blue cardboard folder – looks quite smart, I must admit, and it’s certainly something different). Was supposed to have a procession to the Lord Tod afterwards for the reception, but as it had started to piss down by then, it was a no-go. Will always remember the principal’s posh-speak for the rain, though – “the weather has not been sufficiently clement”. Whoo!

Waited in the car for the rain to clear and got to the Lord Tod in time for one of the last few champagne glasses of apple juice, caught up with Sallyanne some more, and then went back to the Student Union to return the gown and get my official portrait taken. Was a nightmare walking uphill in those heels. Wondered about the gown being perfectly centre, but a spry, chirpy old man in charge told me not to worry – the scroll used for the photos had a hook at the end of it, so you hook the gown eyelets onto it. Genius. Had to queue to get photos – very different from back in Malaysia, where we can have the gown for a week and go to whichever professional studio for whatever style of photo we wanted. Over here, there are “package deals” – got a Prestige Pack for £46, on top of £32 for gown rental and only having it for a day. Typically, after I returned the gown, the sun came out. Ah well. At least lunch at The Bothy in Ruthven Lane was nice. Sausages and mash for graduation lunch, plus sticky toffee pudding with ice-cream. Felt totally bloated. Felt a bit better about lack of photos after I came home and rang Dad, he was very comforting and said as long as I had the official portrait it was all right. Think I must have sounded right upset.

A couple of days before graduation, I became an aunt. Dina’s kid Toby was delivered by C-section on June 30 at around 12.25am, nearly two days after Dina’s waters broke. (Even as I typed that I could hear the Geordie voice-over of Big Brother in my head: “Twalve twenty-faive ehh-emm: Dyena gaves birth in the hawspetal.” An indication of the kind of summer it’s been so far.) Found out from Auntie Giek all the way from Malaysia, and not the happy parents themselves, but I think the important thing is that at least I got to know on the day, and not a couple of weeks later.

But that’s it – I’m now a bonafide Lee aunt. While I look forward to meeting the new arrival, I’m also very aware of how very fast our lives and roles are changing. Feels like yesterday Dina came to sleep over, with the three of us crammed into a double bed, making stupid jokes and giggling like idiots throughout the night. It made me wonder if I was the only one not moving on – Hoon and Dina are married, with one a new mother – and I still live like I’m 25, not thinking about settling down or motherhood, or, to be really Chinese about it, my retirement fund. The birth of a new baby also drove home the point how much my generation is taking over the roles we had always ascribed to our parents. This kid is, in a way, me, the first-born Lee baby of the next generation, and I can understand all the better now why I have always held a special place in the hearts of my aunts and uncles.

I will always associate Toby’s birth with my day at the Scottish Parliament. June 30 was the opening of the Third Session, and it was special because I got to take part in the Riding down the Royal Mile (actually, it was more like half the Royal Mile – the procession only came up around New Street) along with local heroes from communities across Scotland. I got up around 7.15am, and after a hearty breakfast of oats, left to get the 8.36 train to be there for 9. But, as is usually the case whenever I have good intentions, the train didn’t show. Neither did the 8.37 and 8.41, and I ended up catching the 8.51, which meant by the time I got into Edinburgh I was almost half an hour behind my schedule.

Found Waverley Court on East Market Street easily enough, but there was a ridiculous wait – the queue wasn’t even very long – to get past security. Got a wee saltire flag at registration, which made up for the wait some. My first impression of the building was that it was the love child of KLIA and an office – the seating was very KLIA (blue, cushioned, armrest-less), there were escalators which seemed to criss-cross each other, and big pillars. Great view of the courtyard with two coos perched on the road overhead, leftovers from last year’s Cow Parade.

Met Brendan O’Brien from the parliamentary press office, whom I’d been harassing almost daily for the last one week before the Riding (“Where’s my bloody press pack?! What are the arrangements for Saturday?! How am I going to get the photos?!”) – was quite impressed that he recognised me, but then realised it was probably because I was the only non-ang moh reporter, with a name he wasn’t sure how to pronounce. Made small talk in between my flits to get taxpayer-subsidised orange juice (I also had scrambled egg and a couple of sausages – there were bacon rolls but the bacon didn’t look as crisp as I liked). Watched some of the events going on in Holyrood live on the tv, and then the start of the Riding, which was quite surreal and made me realise how close I was to the scene – the muffled sounds of the pipe bands starting up outside were amplified on tv.

(Hmmm… I may be dragging out the details here but I want to make sure I get in as many as I can because I want to try to remember as much of this day as possible. Anal-retentive trait. I’ve been a bit hysterical since I “lost” an entire weekend last month, no thanks to my crap memory. For the life of me I cannot remember what we got up to on the weekend of June 9. Gosh, this is beginning to sound like an alien abduction. But back to June 30.)

As we were ushered out I met another reporter – Catherine from the Fife Free Press (if I’d got that job last October, I guess I wouldn’t have been taking part in the Riding yesterday morning then) – and got a peek at a very smart band lounging about in the meeting rooms on our way around the corridors. I then took my place in Group 3 of the Riding procession, ogled more members of the same smart band (who knew men in skirts could look so sexy), admired a pseudo-bhangra band behind our group, and before I knew it, we were told to get ready and were off!

We moved down the Royal Mile in fits and starts – and the first one in a series came almost as soon as we had turned out of New Street. No idea why, but suppose it had to do with the procession marching past the Queen, Prince Philip and Alex Salmond in front of Holyrood. Was very excited to see the tv camera crews at the bottom of the Royal Mile – and when we finally marched past the Queen, I wondered if she didn’t feel a bit like a museum piece on display, with all the cameras going off. We’d been told not to take photos, but nobody really gave a damn.

Procession ended in Holyrood Park. I found one of my MSPs and her nominated local hero. Took photos of a Viking re-enactment group, all dressed in blue and grey, and even got to wield a sword and shield. Sometimes being a non-ang moh does get you treated better – the Vikings probably thought aww, Chinese girl, probably doesn’t see this in her village too often, and as a result they were absolutely lovely. Hung around them for a bit and didn’t see them let anyone else try on their gear. But overall the whole event felt really good, and it was meaningful for me to be part of such a historic event in a foreign country. There was so much joy, spontaneity, camaraderie and lack of stuffiness and “place” – I very much doubt if I would feel that way even if I had the opportunity to do something similar in Malaysia. It would just feel dirty, like I had sold out to the propaganda and racial superiority bullshit the Government feeds us on a daily basis. In Malaysia, I think it would smack more of showing “love and respect” for our leaders, with social status and hierarchy more clearly delineated than a Spiderman tattoo on the forehead.

The only downsides to the day were a) my lovely blue silk blouse, which Mum had taken so much trouble to send over, getting fuzzy and ruined as a result of the lanyard we had to wear for the riding; b) the weather (see what I mean about summer being ruined); and b) the crap organisation of the Parliamentary press team. My MSP is going to try to get me compensation for a), and nobody can really complain about b) seeing as this is Scotland, but c) really, really worked me up into a foul mood. It meant that I (not sure about other reporters who turned up) had to spend ages looking for my local heroes. Some press team heavy said she’d see what she could do when I approached her, but surprise, surprise, I saw her in the same spot five minutes later air-kissing God knows who and trilling some affected laugh. I really hate press officers like that – if you are not going to help, say so, don’t mouth platitudes about getting back to me when we both know you won’t. After some hawk-eyed scanning of the crowds, I finally managed to spot my other MSP (bright pink tie, rose on lapel, with wife and two little girls – man, my sleuthing skills are good!) and his nominated local hero, and after about an hour of to-ing and fro-ing and missed phone calls (Gareth had put the ringtone to “silent”, although it was on vibe-and-ring, and there was absolutely no money in it), I finally managed to locate the both of them and got my interview and photo. But typically, despite going through all that trouble, the photo wasn’t used in the paper four days later. Huh. Sometimes I really do think going the extra mile just ain’t worth it! The only thing I had to show for my efforts was appearing on STV. We were both cuddling on the sofa that evening (it had been a long day!) when we simultaneously spotted me in the coverage of the event.

I’ve also realised that my life here is beginning to be defined by how we spend our weekends. Last Saturday we went to Edinburgh to do some shopping (this could become a habit – how worrying!) – I had to get new shoes as my boots were coming apart. We first went to see Pirates of the Caribbean (overblown but lots of fun), and a lovely brunch of sausage of lamb sausages in a focaccia roll (very, very good, but would have been mind-blowing with chilli) at the farmers’ market, then ended up spending about £70 in Barratts and Debenhams. I was very aware of the date as well – 07.07.07 – Benjamin and Lilia were probably already married by the time we woke up that morning, and it was also the 12th anniversary of Mopper’s death. Said a prayer for both.

On the Sunday we went to the Stirling Highland Games, which were great fun. I had thought something like the Stirling Games would have been around forever, so it was a surprise to discover that they only started in 1985. Felt a bit bad though, because the British GP was on – Lewis Hamilton on pole – and I knew Gareth wanted to watch it. Ideally, we would have been able to do the Games and get back in time for the flag-off, but that’s not real life. I was really excited and just savoured all the sights and sounds – got to see Highland dancing (from a distance, the dancers looked like colourful epileptic spiders), cabers and weights being tossed (very impressive), super-beefy tug-of-war (some of the legs on those guys…!) and sheepdog show. Highlights of the day: the Golden Lions parachuting into the centre arena and the “quack commandos” – sheepdog herding three ducks around a course. Gareth also tried archery (he’s really getting addicted) and got three really lovely prints of Loch Lomond at sunset for the guest bedroom.

I’ve been reading a lot the last couple of weeks. In the last couple of days, I completed two Dean Koontz thrillers – Velocity and The Husband – nae bad, but could have been more taut. I remember some books I read when I was younger which just made my heart thump – Dean Koontz is good, but not exactly in that league. Also finished Gareth’s Jack Wonderful novel, which I quite enjoyed, felt it could have been better fleshed out in some parts but I liked a few of the concepts he had. It was a bit Back to the Future-ish, in terms of meeting your past selves and a thread of pre-destination came up towards the end, which could have been better explained, but it was fun. I hope he gets somewhere with the book, he certainly has been trying hard with literary agents and I hope he doesn’t give up although he keeps getting knocked back.

Before that I read Julian Barnes’ Arthur and George, which was absolutely tremendous. I’m not usually too keen on biographies – not that this was one – but this novel really brought the era (turn of the century) and someone whom I’d thought was this staid but intelligent Victorian/ Edwardian gentleman to life. I’d always intertwined Sir Arthur with his famous literary creation – a tall, thin chiselled but asexual man – so to read about his extra-marital affair with Jean Leckie was an eye-opener. As was learning that the word “cockstand” was Victorian-speak for stiffy. I’ve literally just opened the first page of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but I have no doubt it will be a cracker.

I still have to jog my memory about what happened throughout June, but at least I’ve got round to recording the two most meaningful events of the last couple of months. No insights, just memories and associations, but that’s fine by me.

Factoids of the Week:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s middle name was Ignatius. His personal investigation of the George Edalji case – which moves the plot in Arthur and George – was a catalyst for the Court of Criminal Appeal being set up.

The barnacle has the longest penis relative to size of any creature – it can extend 10 times longer than the size of its body.

The smallest and largest hummingbirds in the world are to be found in South America. The smallest species of hummingbird is the Cuban bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), which measures just 5-6cm in length and weighs 1.6-1.9g. The largest is the giant hummingbird (Paragonia gigas), which measures 22cm and weighs 20g.