Harith and Jezamine

Does age difference matter in a marriage? Well, from what I read in the papers yesterday, it certainly isn't. There was a column to announce that local comedian Harith Iskandar and model-actress Jezamine Lim are getting married. They'd already be married by the time you read this.

Harith is 44, while Jezamine is 27. That's an age gap of 17 years. It kinda reminds us of Siti Nurhaliza when she married businessman Datuk "K". What I find unique about Harith's love is that he first met Jezamine in Facebook! Did I read the papers carefully? I think so. Yes, it's the same social networking site that all of us are familiar with. So who says you cannot find love on the Internet, or online love doesn't work? Although it is quite a norm nowadays to find love online, not many are reported or known...well, there's no reason for us to know anyway.

My mom commented that Lim is a doctor, and Harith, a comedian - how could both match? I suppose laughter is the best medicine, if you know what I mean. So that matches well. I would also like to add that it all boils down to luck and fate as well. If Harith did not have a Facebook account, he might not have met his attractive bride and end his bachelorhood.

Luck and fate ... and prayer play crucial roles in our lives. True, age doesn't matter. Men can still perform at 40, 50 or even 60 ... you know what I mean; so can women. The only difference is, the older we get, the lesser chance we have of bearing a child.

A photo of the "akad nikah" (solemnisation) of the marriage is available here. Best wishes to the new couple.

Health at My Age

For breakfast today, I ate bread with home made fish floss. Since I'm still a grown-up kid, I get hungry quickly; therefore just an hour later, I went to the cafe to get some "kuih" - again, I didn't take photos of them before eating...

Anyway, then I realised (after buying) that all the three kuih that I bought were sweet ones. Well, I'm not a health freak, but I don't want to fall ill either especially when I'm alone at home. Too much sugar causes diabetes, and diabetes - depending on whether it's Type 1 or Type 2 - can cause death. My maternal grandma has diabetes, so I probably have her genes too. So, like it or not, since I've already bought the kuih, I ate them all. I'm gonna stay away from such "kuih" for the rest of this week at least.

A friend of mine just found out that he has high blood pressure, and he was so depressed that he sent an email to his friends to show how sad he was. We met up with him and cheered him up - hopefully... but knowing him, he will not change his habit. When you reach a certain age, food is a very important factor to look into in order to live healthily.

Reduce sweet stuff (diabetes), reduce meat intake (blood pressure), reduce fatty food (cholesterol).

At the Clubhouse

Today, a weekend, I met up with a few of my ex-schoolmates who are now doing rather well. Two whom I've not met for at least 20 years. We met at the Malacca Club, a place where yuppies hang out with friends to while away their time after a hard day's work. I said yuppies because it's an exclusive club which membership is possible only via introduction by an existing member. I dare not ask the membership fee, but I know it's high.

It was my first time in there since my friend is one of the major shareholders of this renown club. There were slot machines and private rooms to play one arm bandits, too. We got a room, and chatted in there, occasionally interrupted by the music from the sole slot machine in that room. We drank Shandy and beer (I didn't drink beer - not because I'm a holy person) while one drank coffee.

Generally, we had quite a good time chatting. Sorry, I didn't take any photos and I'm not what people call "camwhoring" :-) I spent about an hour in the clubhouse while the rest continued since their wives didn't bother about them, their kids are all grown, and they're really free to do whatever they want.

The First Assignment

Today is my first assignment to the Cyberjaya campus. I've been to this campus before for meetings but I've never taught there. This time around, six of us were the "Chosen Ones" to be there for 15 weeks.

The place

It is a very big campus, though not as big as public universities here. That's more than enough to give your legs and your heart a good exercise since we're required to teach 4 hours with only an hour break in between per day. Classes begin at 11:00 AM and ends at 4:00 PM for us.

The Students

I had only 8 students today. Being Week 1, many have yet to turn up, so classes are almost empty. The ones I had today were generally alright. At least they could converse quite well. I hope the rest who are coming later will be more or less just as good.

The journey

We began at 8:15 AM; we boarded the university coaster. It was helluva ride to hell most of the time. It was raining real hard midway, then there was no rain later. The driver drove at a neck-breaking 140 km per hour. I've been through this before, so I know the speed. I was seated at the back, and along some stretches of the highway, I felt like I was riding a horse! No kidding... my precious balls between my legs were slammed to the seat many times. It wouldn't be long before I lose both, or  grow another two somewhere. All the 10 of us (there were 4 additional passengers from other depts.) held on tight to our seats. We arrived safely at 9:50 AM. The trip home was just the same. This won't be the only "adventure ride" for us. We have to go through this twice a week for 14 weeks - you do the math. Our backs would hurt like mad.

Gosh, I ain't looking forward to Thursday. Pray that we all reach our destination in one piece.

Bad Gardener

I visit my parents each weekend since I became single again. Each time I pay them a visit, my house would be somewhat neglected. If my house has a life of its own, it would cry each time I leave because now there's no one left to care for the house, which was once home for two. Anyway, I'm doing my best to cope with  office work and house chores.

Look at the condition of my plants below. The potted plants merely appear to be green:

 The plants are left to wither - especially the one on the right.

You'd also notice that I've quite a moderately large lawn (in the background) to upkeep. Often, I feel like puking when I see the carpet grass growing so long - it shouldn't grow long. Maybe it's the wrong species or I didn't know how to look after it, or both. Well, there's no point crying over spilled milk now. After spending RM1,000 on the grass, I've to live with it, trim it as and when it doesn't rain, not too hot, and on any available time. Thank goodness I've a machine to cut it, so that saves a whole lot of time.

I often wonder why the heck I bought this house. I'm not able to maintain this Semi-D double storey forever, you know. One of these days, I'd just sell it off to a prospective buyer and move back to live with my aging parents. Nevertheless, it's only a plan - I can't see the future; but if the future doesn't want to reveal itself to me, then I'll just do what I believe is the right thing to do for me.

Well, I don't have green fingers... maybe just green eyes :-)

Recycling, Vegetarianism

I joined Tzu Chi approximately 3 months ago after the divorce, with the hope of getting new acquaintances and hopefully be a better person. Well, three months have passed, and I'm still the same but I've gathered enough courage to participate in a couple of their activities despite being linguistically handicapped. You see, I can't speak their lingo - Mandarin, but some are able to speak English. Ya la, I'm a "banana man" - yellow on the outside, white on the inside... in short, a Chinese who speaks only English.

Their latest activity was the recycling and vegetarianism campaign held on the eve of Wesak Day. I was stationed in one of the locations in town. I was there with my colleague at about 6 p.m. Here are some photos:

The seniors arrived early to set up the station

Briefing. The ones in grey are generally juniors.

The recycle boxes. Later more boxes were brought in.

Promoting vegetarianism

Our stuff had to be hidden from public view. 
It looks neat too.

The public buying some organic stuff

A member of the public pledging to be a vegan
for a certain duration.

A prayer before you leave

Time to clean up the mess

So, am I a vegan? The answer is NO (not yet) - it's good to be 100% vegan but I just wonder what would happen if there are just too many animals on this planet because all of us have become vegetarians? But I will definitely consume lesser meat from now on, for health reasons too.

Perhaps one day in the future, I'll not eat anymore meat.

Break? What break?

The final exam's over, and I get a two-week break. "Hooray!" - but not just yet. It is indeed a fallacy to believe that the management would allow my colleagues and I have a nice vacation in the Bahamas till the new trimester opens. Fat chance, people. If I'm lucky, I might be left alone for a day or two to do my personal stuff (in the office), but that's about it.

There are workshops, meetings and conferences to attend, researches to be done, planning for the new trimester and some other administrative duties. Don't forget that in the academic line, I've to mark my own answer scripts or help others to mark them. On top of that, break time is also the time when I've to run errands rather than sitting home watching TV with a cup of hot chocolate in hand, or just hanging out in the nearest shopping mall.

Before I could even wink, it's time to say hi to the new kids already! So, people... a break is just a break from teaching. I'm not entitled to be away from office at all unless I apply for annual, medical or emergency leave. If there's an urgent meeting, the management has the right to call me back to work. "I'm on leave today" is no excuse for not attending a meeting. My former head of department once warned us: "Your leave is only a privilege, not your right." - the message is loud and clear.

So, it's not really a clean break. I've heard with my own ears people say things like: "Teaching is good. You get a lot of holidays, very relaxed, easy - just go and teach, come home." - decades ago, they may be right, but not nowadays.

Thank goodness I still have my weekends.