Money or passion …

December 15, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

Money or passion? Interests or needs? A few weeks ago, my husband and I had a good morning at an exhibition by students from a local art college. They were from the illustration department, and they put on an enthusiastic ‘show and tell.’ From the exhibits, we saw that much thought, effort, and time had […]

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 […]

Online, they or them

November 24, 2025.Reading time 7 minutes.

Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s not. And, I’ve wondered if it was/is I or me or ‘they’ or ‘them’ that make it not easy. To start with, it’s not easy to buy presents. For siblings. As they get older, they don’t want/need too many things. And, I don’t want to add to their clutter […]

Happy events

November 17, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

My husband and I were invited to two graduation ceremonies. The graduates were my nieces, number 4 and 5, brother number 2’s daughters. Coincidentally both sisters had their graduation in early November. One on the 1st, the other on the 13th. 1st November was niece number 5’s big day. She got a First in Mechanical […]

Vehicle spotting

November 3, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I am not the most observant person going. I remember my mum asking me if I had seen this or that person wearing this or that, usually jewellery or something fancy or new, and nine out of ten times, I wouldn’t have/didn’t. She was flabbergasted at my ‘ability’ to not notice people and/or what was […]

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. […]

My mum’s celebration

October 20, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

It’s Deepavali today. I’ve been thinking about my mum for a while now. How excited she got at every Deepavali. It was her celebration. She said and reiterated how Deepavali was the main event in her life. Not Ponggal, Thaipusam or even her birthday. Nope, it was Deepavali. From childhood, all through her married life […]

Conversations

October 13, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

I’m not a talker or so I tell myself. I considered if that was true. I do talk. I ask questions. I engage in conversations. At work or rather when I used to work, I was vocal and I was heard. As a journalist, I asked or shouted out questions, depending on the situation. One-on-one […]

‘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 […]

Smelly smells

September 29, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

My husband and I now have clean, running water. We even joked that the water from the kitchen tap is too fast. The water from the rain shower head is not as gushing as we expected. The pancake shower head, as we call it, was the contraption that we both had wanted for a long […]