Train of thought

December 8, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

Last week, the plan was to write about trains. And, the trip my husband and I took from KL to Ipoh via the ETS or Electric Train Service. It got derailed by buses. I kid you not I had no plans to write about buses, especially as I don’t like them. The years of pent-up […]

Trains, not buses

December 1, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I like trains. Buses, not so much. I’ve taken buses most of my life. To school in Alor Setar and whilst I was in university. For four years, I did a four-state hike of Selangor-Kuala Lumpur-Penang-Kedah. I travelled every three weeks, on a Friday, from Bangi to Kajang to Pudu Raya to Butterworth to Alor […]

Sirens and security

October 27, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I live in the city centre. I hear them all the time. Night and day. I thought I’ve heard it all. Not quite. Last week, the sounds and frequency of sirens went up many notches. They intruded my airspace as if they were on a timer. I did not clock them but they screamed regularly. […]

‘What to do’

October 6, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘What to do’ is my perennial lament. I have wondered this aloud many times. Usually for matters that are outside my scope of comprehension, beyond my control or just … don’t know. And, they can be stuff that happen at the micro, personal level or the macro, national or global level. Anyway, I say this […]

Clean running water

September 15, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

My husband and I officially moved back into our condo yesterday😊. We’ve been moving in since the first week of September, when the last of our ‘replacing-our-water-pipes-cum-renovation’ was finally completed. Briefly, for most of the 18 years since we moved into our condo, we’ve had to endure rust smelling, yellowish, trickling water from our […]

England

October 7, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

England has always been and still is a special place/destination for me. Weirdly, when I was growing up in Alor Setar, I used to either dream or imagine about sycamore trees in England. Yes, weird. Why? Because I didn’t know what a sycamore tree was or looked like. And, I didn’t know what England was […]

Dogs and cats

March 4, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Niece number 3’s stories about her pet-children, Coco the dog and Zupa the cat, made me smile and go awww. My husband also smiled when I related the antics of these two animal species that are not usually friends or friendly. I especially liked the photo of Zupa waiting for Coco to return to the dog-and-cat […]

Losing my jolly

February 12, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I’ve lost my jolly, and I want it back. I know the reasons for my general melancholy. It started with Covid and the restricted movement controls in 2020. Holidays became scarce. The rigmarole involved in organising any form of travel was a deterrent, as was the infectious disease itself. I remember the arduous loops my […]

Thinking,talking,remembering

December 18, 2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

I feel unsettled. More than a week has passed. I think of Gunda, brother number 1, almost all of the time. It’s no exaggeration when I say I wake up thinking about him. Go to bed thinking about him. Remembering that he is no longer with us. This is on top of talking about brother […]

Brother number 1

December 11, 2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

I am sad and tearful when I think that my Gunda is no more. I know what has happened but my head and heart are having a hard time accepting, believing. Most of this year, brother number 1 was not in a good way. In and out of hospitals for his protracted prostate condition. And […]