Saturday, June 30, 2007

Demise of a father.

Announced this evening that one of my Ustaz's (Muslim Religion's teacher) father passed away yesterday. May Allah bless and be with his soul. Al-Faatihah.

The Ustaz is still actively giving us religious teachings, and intepretation of some verses of the Koraan despite he living in Indonesia. He come to us periodically.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Watch Him

Watch Her

Saturday, June 23, 2007

That old building

Ever since I saw this old picture of the old building some months back, I have been following its progress. I have blogged some of what I saw, my impressions and what I thought about that building.



Refer to my blogs http://why360.blogspot.com/2007/04/old-building.html

And more recently I took a closer look at the building. It became more interesting.

In my last blog on that building I was not able to see what the upstairs looked like. This time I was able to go upstairs (by the staircase, photo looking down)and to take some photographs.


The old windows fascinated me. They were old and they were most likely the original and they were made of wood and with real iron bolts.


Unlike some of the newer windows with glass panellings, either fully or semi.







And the old ceiling, I did not take a very close look at it. Most of the ceiling area is now covered with soft board (maybe asbestos board) with flourescent fittings installed. But some part of the ceiling are still not replaced and seemed dirty.


And one can see how the beams of the heavy ceilings were supported.


One can compare the older part of the building with the newer parts.

I was also interested in the old (probably original) tiles they have on the floor, as was photographed in my previous blog. This time I saw the most probably parts where they did the cooking, i.e right under where the chimney is. (Note that the chimney is not connected anymore to this part of the building).



The tiles seemed dirty. It is where the Manager of the existing establishment has his office now. One can see clearly that the tiles had been trampled on, seeing how dirty the tiles had become.

But the tiles at the main entrance seemed well kept, but used. Probably with the goings in and out then and now.


And the roof eves, probably they are original.




At the side of the building one can see where the small gate leading to the side garden was. One can still imagine those small iron cast side gate, swinging and opening into the garden (this can be seen clearly in the very old photo).


Just inside the entrance is where the present occupier has put his prayer house now, for good luck I suppose. And going inside the side garden, one can see the small house, probably servant’s quarters, if not the bathroom. Not sure really.



Most like servants quarters, but that building is too close to the bucket type toilet, in those days collected by the night soil collector, and the trap doors of the toilets opening into the back drain.








And one can still imagine the ventilation that they had for the basement area. Probably these have been modified since then, but there must have been ventilation holes or even windows.




Walking further back one can see an old house, not sure what that house was for, cannot guess really, maybe a horses stable or may even be a guest house where they had guests sleeping over or may be where they rested in the hot afternoons to catch the fresh air from the nearby Kuantan River.

And one can detect that they probably had a beautifully manicured lawn, wide and opening on to the river’s edge. Its not maintained anymore now.



There is a very tall and large (old) casuarina tree at the back of the house, close to the gazebo and about at the edge of the lawn. That tree must be nearly a hundred years old, now, all covered up by climbers. One can hardly see the tree trunk and its leaves, unless one looks up.


And by the front garden gate one can see a tree that must have been planted quite recently, probably in the last 30-40 years, with climbers climbing it. Some call that tree ‘pancut pacut’, (some time probably wrongly called ‘dedap hutan’), the technical name being "Bignoniaceae". It seems to be a part of the house scenery.


Now that the building is being usefully used, lets pray that it will not be demolished for a long time. It’s a pity that the present society do not make that building a heritage building.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Published

Check out my recently published content on AC:

Bird's Nest Soup

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

whenim64

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Limo/3518/whenim64.htm
When I'm Sixty-four

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine.
If I’d been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I’m sixty-four.
You’ll be older too,
And if you say the word,
I could stay with you.
I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday morning go for a ride.
Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I’m sixty-four.
Every summer we can rent a cottage,
In the Isle of Wright, if it’s not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera Chuck & Dave
Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyv3PJs-KBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TSv5CR6oF0



Posted by mylias at 7:16 AM 0 comments

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