Bike ride; Section 11,12 - 29.07.08.

Section 12 is just across the road from Filem Negara, and the houses are usually big, with a spacious lawn to roll about with dogs. Like how it was at PJ Old Town, guards dogs bark at me almost wherever I go.

Usually when you see signs telling you not to throw rubbish on that spot, there will be a heap of rotten eggs, mattresses, Styrofoam TV packaging and others. But not on this spot.

"Don't throw rubbish here"

Up the little slope leading to Section 11, is the house of... JUST. There are many other houses in this area which have been converted into offices and senior citizens' home.

International Movement For A Just World.

After a soy bean drink break, I continued exploring the roads behind the shoplots where Sri Paandi is, whirring past this abandoned house with a weathered plywood panel [?].

Plywood's a-peeling.

Then, I heard a very disturbing noise. Sounds like... engines. Ah, it's the Federal Highway!

Traffic.

Here are some flowers for you, with a telco tower in the background.

Smell me.

I quite like the lighting and the leafless tree in this picture. The billboard is showing its back, and so, you don't know what it is promoting. Mysterious!

One-way communication = fail.

Another home-made notice, this time nailed on a tree bark. The road was a dead-end, and narrow. The house behind this notice board had a BMW sedan and a VOLVO SUV. The house at the end of the road is an old folks home.

One-way communication = success.

Next bike ride, I hope to tour the Universiti Malaya campus [I tried before, but was sent off for driving suspiciously slow].

"Bukan Mee Hoon, Mee Siam"

There was a kenduri doa selamat at my grandmother's last Saturday [my dengue fever adventure has something to do with it]. I followed my mother's brother's family back to Johore Bahru on Friday afternoon. The four-hour journey had an interval at Pagoh R&R, where the five of us had tasty Mee Bandung. The weather that day was... like how forecasts would describe as 'overcast'. By sundown, we reached the familiar Larkin Garden.

Several hours into the night and the kitchen was getting choppy and slicey. What's going on? Laksa Johor's what's going on.

Stumps of cucumber.

Making 'chaps'.

Another interesting sight was a heap of rambutans in the garage, plucked off the tree at the back of the house. They were very delicious, but not for me, because I don't like the lengkang / wood thing that sticks to the flesh.

Furry balls.

Bedtime only came at around 3 in the morning. I thought it was impossible for me to be up by 7 a.m. for the famed Pasar Tani at the stadium, but I thought wrong! I was happily skipping away to the market by 7.30 a.m. I am typically a pasar malam person because I can never wake up so early on a weekend so on that morning, I was fascinated by the crowd with their basket trolleys, buying live seafood, breakfast and second-hand quilts. Have a look:

Caged plastics.

Burnt cake.

Not eels.

I recommend the nasi lemak stall on the highest tier of the parking lot, next to the roti naik stall; the spices used in the sambal in quite different from the rest.

Also, when in Johore Bahru, remember to stop by the Kacang Pool / Fool / Foul stall by the fire station. This stall even has its own website!

Don't be fooled, it's Kacang Pool.

Now that I've done the market and breakfast, time to get ready for the kenduri. I was initially freaked out by the amount of ladies who were there to recite some prayers... and then came the lead 'imam', Datin Leha [Tun Musa Hitam's sister]. I stayed outdoors while observing my relatives pack goodie bags for the guests. I was quite sleepy so I took a half-hour nap at the porch. After the prayers were done, everyone swarmed the buffet table of Mee Siam, Roti Naik, Nasi Ambeng and of course, Laksa Johor. For some unknown reason, I underindulge by eating just one chap of laksa and a piece of layer cake. After everyone has left, I headed in to have a proper nap. Sleeping on the floor was never this comfortable.

Two hours later, I had an idea of visiting the city. With my cousin, we went to the area known as City Square. I was a little self-conscious, knowing that it's a Saturday and there will be numerous little crowds of teenagers who will stare at my hair, so we moved away from the mall and walked into the area of old-school shophouses. Many shops were closed and the ones that are open are lottery agents, kopitiams, sundry shops and Tamil music shops [which inspired me to want to buy a Sivaji The Boss DVD]. If you have read one of my recent entries for I Got Shot, you should be familiar with Bee, who runs a shop on 9, Jalan Dhoby. It's called 'the girl next door', and apparently it's the only shop of its kind in JB. So, if you're stuck in JB without a passport and miss the shops at the Jalan Telawi area in Bangsar, this should do the trick.

Beside the bar next door.

Mmm clothes.

From the land of Cyrillic alphabets.

This little boutique neighbours a bar, equally intriguing with its vintage furnishings. Bee was telling me about an olympic-themed party happening on that night with Twilight Actiongirl on the decks, where she will be dressed as a boxer. Hmm, it should be a little interesting to check out how Johorean hipsters get it on...

Have a seat.

Here are some sights of abandoned shophouses that are up for rent. Will someone turn this into a Haji Lane or something?!

Back alley arch.

That's opening soon.

Successful Father restaurant.

Another closed shop.

The next day, before returning to KL, I walked around the neighbourhood to look at the windows and gates of the small bungalows.

White and green.

A repetition of tall rectangles.

Houses back then did not have driveways.

It's time to head back to KL.

Bike ride; PJ Old Town - 20.07.08.

I had PJ Old Town in mind, since my last post where I said that cycling in Pulau Ketam is way more exciting than PJ Old Town. The Sunday was boring so before the sun goes off, I drove to PJ Old Town and parked the car behind the very filthy-looking Pasar Besar Jalan Othman.

I went by some houses, but I am not uploading its pictures because it's for the Residential Architecture post [which has been delayed for a year]. One thing unique about this neighbourhood is that it has a paved.... pavement which runs behind houses and act as a short cut to different streets.

Paved pavement.

There is also a pretty monsoon drain than somehow works to control floods.

With Bukit Gasing in the background.

A mailbox sits by the street where collections are made every Monday. I've never posted a letter through a free-standing mailbox. When people want to buy stamps, they don't go to the sundry shop or 'drugstores'; it's all there at the post office. So who uses these mailboxes today?

Next collection Monday.

There were many derelict houses [this area dates back to the 1950s], and this one had a cylindrical post box.

An abandoned house with a little garage.

The land was quite flat so it was easy to cycle around. Many houses had guard dogs, which make too much noise.

The town centre was quite busy because everyone's having their open-air dinner of duck rice and pork noodle soup. I didn't expect to see a massive flock of immigrants but I guess it happens almost everywhere on Sundays. A stall was selling some durian and but it peculiarly had no strong smell. The last time I ate durian right off the rind was... in the last millennium. Hm, wonder how it tastes like now.

Prickly rind.

And it is back to the car, after this quartet of phone booths stuck by the food court.

Four times.

Have a nice day.

Oh, crab!

Right. Late last week, an idea of visiting the car-less fishing village of Pulau Ketam [Crab Island] came to me almost suddenly. After reading about it online and in the papers, I was determine not to waste the weekend living the suburban life. My mother agreed to it and on the morning of Saturday the 12th, after having breakfast at a Nasi Tumpang joint, we took on the NKVE and reached Port Klang [South Port]. My mother had earlier announce that it's just going to be a 'survey day' and I didn't know we were actually going to reach the island. But we did, using a tiny, air-conditioned longboat-looking thing.

RM 7 per adult.

Unused life jackets.

The journey took about 40 minutes, through some channels of mangrove swamps. Upon reaching Pulau Ketam, there would be fishing villages with trawlers parked in front of the fisherman's house on stilts [like everything else on the island].

Through the tinted window.

At the jetty, there were many bicycles parked, mostly unlocked. I immediately got excited finding out that there's a Groningen in this country of single drivers.

Junior.

To enhance your coolness, an 'I [heart] KL' t-shirt won't do. Get one of these:

I [heart] Pulau Ketam.

Further down the road was the island centre. I could buy salted fish, crackers, dried seafood and candies with excessive additives, but I didn't. There was a restaurant calling us to occupy one of the tables, so we had a typical lunch of assam prawns, chilli crabs, oyster omelette and Teo Chew fish. And as usual, we had to doggie bag the leftovers.

In flames.

Twelfth, not eleventh.

After lunch, I went off by myself to lurk about the island to see all the bicycles, gaudily-painted houses and men pushing generator-powered carts full of supplies from the docks to their homes, under the blazingly-hot sun. Let these pictures speak for themselves.

Nice weave.

"Your bike got number plate one ah, Uncle?"

More juniors.

Light load.

Didn't know you can get Astro reception here.

Salon, not saloon.

I love symmetry.

Two-way.

Blinds half rolled.

Elaborate door detail.

Paired peaches.

I'll name this cat 'Xerox'.

Loading bay.

Will be dinner soon.

That's pretty much everything that makes up Pulau Ketam. But there's one more thing - trash. It's almost everywhere, sadly. On an island where everyone cycles, no pollution-churning lorries and factories, the best way to get rid of your ice cream wrapper is to let it fly off to the seabed. Well, it's not entirely Pulau Ketam-ians' fault. There's no rubbish bin to be found. Makes me wonder how they get rid of their garbage. And maybe calling it the country's own Groningen is a bit too much.

Everyone's doing their own thing, cooking their catch, relaxing on their balconies, chatting under the shade of a faded banner [there are no trees here] and working on their boats. I bet no one, no one, has heard of Kasimir Malevich.

I rejoined my mother who was chilling out near the police station by 3 p.m. We were ready to return to the mainland. But before that, a picture by the letterbox.

Gambar kenangan.

I will never ever wear a black outfit with a necktie the next time I travel to a non-air conditioned place.

I slept for awhile during the journey back to the port. Then, I saw an open-air boat taking in passengers. This should be the way to cruise! Nevermind, the next time I go to Pulau Ketam, I'll take this. I won't be bringing my bicycle, too, because Pulau Ketam rents them for RM 5 per day.

Old-school ferry.

Don't travel by car to Port Klang because the highway tolls charge too much and it's way cheaper to take the Komuter. I think I'll be back again within this year, because cycling through Pulau Ketam's neighbourhood is way more fascinating than, say, PJ Old Town [in some ways].

Oh! How could I forget the ending typographic shot? Here's a typical sign you can find hung above shops.

Today, we use eight-digit telephone numbers.

Bookshelf in review - Part 1.

There was one night when I was drinking chrysanthemum tea, and the idea of documenting my bookshelf came back to me. I put down my drink and photographed sections of my ENETRI, which was excessively dusty. Then I thought, "No, this shouldn't be the way. If I want to write on something I own, better make it look neat and organised,". So I spent one whole night de-dusting and rearranging my books, magazines, files and ornaments.

This documentary is divided into four posts; each post containing description of a single row of shelf. Part 2 comes after the end of this post, up to Part 4. Now, let's start with the top shelf.

Section 1.

The magazine files contain not so important items, like half-used notebooks, several local magazines and folders used to store magazine and newspaper cuttings, posters, packaging and other trash dating back to 2002-2004. Then there are several booklets on Swedish culture which I obtained from a Swedish design fair last year. The books we have here, they aren't particularly noteworthy [except the title by M Sasek; I had to put it up there because it wouldn't fit into the lower shelves]. Two of them are heavily Scandinavia-related. The ones with the red spine were bought as a bundle [Haruki Murakami and Lewis Carroll titles at an offer price], with short story guru Dave Eggers and a rather cumbersome DIY book; very useful to be stacked with other hardcovers to serve as a makeshift bedside table.

Section 2.

Entering the design-centric section where I place mostly-hardcover titles on industrial design, art history, architecture and interiors, and magazines. The one with a binder's spine is a photocopy of a book on Iakov Chernikhov's Constructivist illustrations and philosophy. I haven't open Francis D K Ching's book for years. The Bauhaus book is probably my most-treasured Taschen title [this reminds me of someone telling me that the reason why Taschen books are cheap, compared to other books of the same category, is because they are secretly funded by a worldwide pornography trade]. The book with a grey spine was a gift from Teknion, a Canadian furniture company. Several years back, my schoolmates and I were invited to tour their ultra-elite manufacturing plant in Klang. The book next to it is about Stefan Sagmeister's works until 2001. I have to admit that the post I wrote about me meeting him is one of the most badly-written post I've ever published on VOX [teenybopper tendencies and all, and no, I'm not going to hyperlink it].

Section 3.

One of the notable titles in this section are by Charles Wallschlaeger and Cynthia Busic-Snyder. I got this book, Basic Visual Concepts and Principles from one of my Switzerland-educated lecturers back when I first stepped into design school. I think all [or at least, majority] of designers, perhaps mostly those old-timers, have this book in a tattered, 'post-it notes sticking out', weathered condition since it provides very basic yet vital understanding of design, whether it's 2-D or 3-D. Plus, its images were all from the age of Letrasets, airbrushing, keeping your proportions in check through grids instead of 'holding the shift key', sequential image transformation and all those good manual work, with very little display of computer-generated graphics. So, in a nutshell, if there is one designer who hasn't come across this book [let alone gain knowledge from it], they might be [just might be] one of those 'pretenders' who sit on Quark Express / InDesign all day, tightening the kerns in their Helvetica Neue-dominated corporate identity [a new practice known as 'keming'], because it's so trendy to use Helvetica for everything ever since the namesake movie came out two years ago.

I don't mean to write so much on this designer's handbook but compared to other books in the picture, this one has the most valuable content. Those books by Benrik are perfect examples of kitschy trash. I bought ABZ for a real bargain at Popular, less than half the price of the ones sold at Times. A good compilation of World War era posters, mainly from Europe. The rest are a number of stock image catalogues by Corbis, Photodisc, Ericksonstock and a couple of Lürzer's Int'l Archive, all taken from my father's office. The spine that reads 'KUALA LUMPUR' is a city guidebook published in the year 1986, written and photographed by a San Francisco native. It's very good at giving the reader an idea of how KL was truly like [and not just from a tourist's point-of-view] in the 1980s . It mentions Le Coq D'or restaurant, authentic Chettis on Petaling Street, outdated views of the city skyline during the construction of the Maybank Tower and many other eccentricities of KL that no longer exist today. I recall seeing this guidebook still on sale at Times, Sunway Pyramid, half a decade ago. Somewhere within are two presentations of the disappointing high end-hopeful mall, Avenue K.

Section 4.

More books which I have nicked from my father's office; two books showcasing works by advertising company Minale Tattersfield [I recently did an online research for the company and found out that Marcello Minale was shot dead while kayaking back in 2001, or something], both ten years apart. And then there's two more bulky books - a compilation of advertisements across all media, and another stock image book. And having written the last sentence, I shook my head over the number of books occupying my bookshelf that... should just be sent off to where it came from because what I do right now is not related to stock images at all.

Ah, those days of language-learning, aiming for a dream life in Berlin... is now under the list of 'projek-projek tergendala' [shelved projects]. The book next to 'beginner's german', however, was a gift from my former tutor. She thought a self-help book should do the trick in helping me cope with my 15-year-old blues. I ended up looking at the illustrations instead of reading it. The rest are encyclopaedias from my nerd period. I should highlight the book titled 'Malaysia Dalam Sejarah 3' which is a secondary school textbook from the year 1979, bought from a local bookstore that was having a clearance sale. I find it way more informative and old-school, compared to the textbook I used back in Form 4. Of course, it doesn't include much information on the leftist figures, since that almost everything printed in this country are edited by the government. Another special book in this section are the UNICEF-supported Children Just Like Me and Celebration! They were my most-viewed books during my primary school years. The writers travel around the world to show the kind of life kids were living, with their own distinctive cultures, practices, hobbies, beliefs and dreams. When I was given the first book back in 1995, it immediately sparked my interest in travelling the world. I kind of have a wish now, that maybe when I have the support and experience, I'd like to write a similar book, documenting people in general and not just kids.

Oh! That was only one shelf, and I've got three more to go. The post ends here; too much text can really drain your consciousness away. The second shelf will be documented in the next post.

Bookshelf in review - Part 2.

Section 5.

On the second level we have a collection of mastika magazines, which I never fail to buy every month since two years ago [but I start reading mastika in 1998]. I guess they can be considered as one of my guilty pleasures? The articles on supernatural practices, weird people, social dilemmas and cerita-cerita pedoman are very amusing. Though, it's a typical Malay read, like 'news' you read in Harian Metro. In the magazine files: a mix of photocopied stories used in Mr Barrett's Literature & Composition class [probably the most interesting semester in my life], more half-used notebooks, four copies of Wallpaper* magazine, an issue of TransWorld Skateboarding going back to October 1999 [loads of photographs before the age of DSLRs] and other unnotables. However, the magazine SLEAZENATION was really something when it was still around.

Section 6.

This section is all encyclopaedias. This was a gift from my parents when I was 9, but I wasn't told that it's something really expensive, so in some volumes you can find little scribbles on the pages. The content is quite outdated when you read it today [like how the writers didn't expect digital cameras to be used with computers and Malaysia being the world's number one rubber exporter] but sometimes reading it beats the unreliable Wikipedia.

Section 7.

The science encyclopaedias are still relevant; it gives concise information on stuff like the elements, scientists, experiments and other reasons behind life. I've almost never read the medical encyclopaedias... except looking at illustrations of skeletons, internal organs and a curious article on adolescence.

Section 8.

This section is fit to be in the room of a 10-year-old boy, though, Waiting For Godot and Nancy Drew books are a little off. The magazine file is occupied by Tintin. A brief history lesson : first I saw the animated series when I was about 12 [but didn't really notice Tintin's incredibleness]. A few years later, I began reading my brother's books, and learned that Tintin is better than everyone else [an expression]. It has words, it has pictures, they are all in colour and the stories took place all over the world. I am still short of maybe 4 books before completing my collection. Moving on with the Hardy Boys... a series that gave me an insight on mid-century America, back when the whole town knows your last name, boating as a popular pastime, soda shops and two brothers with a penchant for playing detective and solving crimes. Does this happen in real life?! No, I don't think it does, because it's way more fun to visualise the part when Frank Hardy had to unclothe himself before diving into the sea to save his meatloaf-loving best friend [er.....]. The other blue-spined book was the result of getting too influenced by kids-who-bust-out-criminals books. I thought of wanting to be a detective for awhile... but then, it only looks and sounds good in books and movies. I bought Waiting For Godot just to find out what my mother read for literature class back in secondary school. I think I've written about Stephen Law's books in one of my earliest posts on VOX.

Part 3 appears right beneath this post.

Bookshelf in review - Part 3.

Section 9.

We are now on the third shelf, the empty-looking Section 9. The old-school 1960s cookbook is from Pay Less Books, with impeccable food photography and simple workout diagrams. I used to rave about Monocle when it came out last year, but now I am sick of its favoritism towards Scandinavia, like Norway's new underground system or the best chemist in Copenhagen or something. The Manga series was exciting for the first few editions but I started to hate the nature of the conceited crossbred main character, Niels Watanabe [again, pro-Scandinaviaism] and his first class cabin life. One of the writers should come to Malaysia and write about Nasi Lemak, for a change. The Scientist [once owned by Jack Young] and The Mind were a part of LIFE Science Library, published in the early 1960s [thanks to Pay Less Books for letting me revisit the past]. Just like LIFE magazine itself, looking at the pictures is half the fun of reading the book. And it makes me wonder, "What happened to this man known as Tom Wonnacott and the Didak machine".

Section 10.

More magazines purchased from the back-issues store. More than half of the magazines in the two left files, I haven't seen them sold in large bookstores. Carl's Cars is Norwegian, and it explores the relationship between man and automobiles, with some fashion spreads. ROJO [blue spine] magazine is very good for those who don't read; there are nothing but full-page photography, paintings, collages, graffiti, very intriguing art, all very graphical. In the two right files, there are some architectural, art and fashion culture magazines but I don't read them much because I'm just keeping them for the nice pictures.

Section 11.

There is a semi-broken radio hiding at the back but it's skilfully obscured by the quintessential artist's dummy from IKEA, a money bank in a shape of a local skyscraper and some dictionaries. The blue book on the extreme left is probably the most out-of-place item on my bookshelf. I grabbed it at Pay Less Books when I saw the cover saying something about 'evolution or creation'. When I had the time to read it, I found out that it's one of those Jehovah's Witness books [oh!]. According to their directory, they have offices all over the world and the local one is located in Meru. I don't know if they're still active because the book came out in the 1980s.

Section 12.

Another section of [mostly] kiddie books. Reading Roundup was once owned by "Carol Cook 808 Elm Drive, Petaluma 762-6422" back in 1955. It's sort of like a middle school textbook, with delightful chalk drawings and all those mid-century goodness. My favourite story is Mr. Wilmer's Discovery by Robert Lawson, about a man who discovers that he can talk to animals on his twenty-ninth birthday. Edward Lear needs no introduction for limerick lovers; I wrote about his book here. I once had an amount of Russell Lee books back in 1997 when my friends would lend their books to the whole class. But I don't know what happened to all of it during The Big Move of 2002. Same goes to many of my RM 2.5 mystery and detective books. After the Penguin pocket books are a couple of artists directories which also belong to my father's office.

Now, wait for Part 4.

Bookshelf in review - Part 4.

There is no Part 4.

There was; the last shelf is occupied by boxes and containers of many kind, which don't need to be showed off.

And also, my old magazine collection has been on sale at the Ricecooker shop for about half a year.

And and also, if you have 'accidentally' borrowed my Index-A book by Charles Wilkin, please return it to me.

A miracle happened!!!

So I was busy writing a new post for the Notebook, photographing subjects under the light of my decorative table lamp, and the moment it was switched off, I thought I had a headache. No, what really happened was the much-feared 'vertical striping LED backlight' phenomenon on my MBP's display!!!

OH CRAP I NEVER THOUGHT I'D GET THIS!!!

Apple-related forums and message boards all over the www have reported this sighting, and apparently it's only applicable for MacBook Pros manufactured before October 2007, or something? But I just got mine three months ago! I felt partially excited [since that I thought it would only happen to other people and not me], partially scared [what if I have to send the MBP for repair, and have to wait for a month?]. Even worse, if those Apple people decide to replace my MBP completely! I'm way too attached to it!

BRING ON THE AppleCare!!!

Hm, so what should I do about this?