Teaching a bird flying skills

My son, Don, spent the day at our place yesterday. After lunch, we went out to view a property at one of the nearby condos and took some pics. I was a great way for me to practice taking pics on my Nikon D40X camera.
When we arrived back at our apartment, we found a little bird on the ground slowly being attacked by ants. We all had to save the bird and my wife had to pour water on it to disperse the ants. After sweeping away the ants from the bird, Don took it in his hands to see if it was still alive and thankfully, it was except it could not fly. We all love animals, in fact, all living things (except creepy crawlies) Urghh!!! Don tried to get the bird to fly as you can see from the pics. At first it did flap its wings in an attempt to fly but being weak, I guess it could not take off to the sky. After a few attempts, we decided to take it back to our apartment and try to nurse it until it is strong again and this time, hopefully it will be able to take off and be free.

Long Lost Friends

It was back in the early sixties when we knew each other. I was living in Greentown and was playing music during those carefree days. Sunny, who was from Teluk Intan studied in the same school with me at St. Michael's Institution and could play the trumpet very well. He was also a close friend of my former bandmates in the Fabulous Falcons. His wife was from Fair Park just near my house and we knew each other very well too. I still remember the days when Sunny was courting Choy Leng in Fair Park and now after all these years, we get to meet again.

Sunny Wong now known as Samuel Wong having become a Christian owns a music studio at The Summit, in Subang Jaya. Its called Gospel Keyboard Music Studio. He married his long time girlfriend Choy Leng (Joyce) and together they run the studio where Sunny teaches the 'Fast and Easy' way to play the keyboards for Gospel songs. We have not met up for decades and it was a time for catching up when we met at his studio and reminiscing about the old days when we were young. We will be meeting up again soon and hopefully get to be in touch with some of the other old friends of our time.

Our meeting was all thanks to Eugene (Wong Fee Khim) another old friend who is residing in Sabah. He is also learning to play the keyboards under the guidance of Samuel. Thanks Eugene.

Goodbye to the old Hugh Low Street Bridge of Ipoh

On my last trip back to my hometown of Ipoh, I went to Hugh Low Street, one of the main roads of Ipoh City, to have a look at some of the old shops situated there. Among those still doing business there were some goldsmith shops, textile and a few coffeeshops. It was a weekday but business was slow.

I had my camera with me and took a few pics of the area when I saw the Hugh Low Street Bridge being demolished. Traffic was diverted to a temporary bridge spanning across the Kinta River. There were plans to replace the old bridge as it was more than 100 years old and unsafe. I stood at the riverbank to take a few pics of whats left of the old bridge. For the senior citizens of Ipoh, this old bridge brings back fond memories. There was a huge raintree beside the bridge where some Nepalese used to ply their trade selling gemstones in the shade just at the bridge and some used this bridge to get to 'Old Town' on the other side for their sundries or to the morning market. For some homeless people, the banks of the river under the bridge provided shelter for their tired bodies. We don't see that anymore as many have been placed in homes now.

I hope that the new bridge, when completed, will bring more activity in the area and perhaps spruce up the businesses in the vicinity. Maybe the river could be deepened to provide boat rides for tourists as Ipoh still has beautiful scenery.

Red Fm - Shake our Hand to Win 10 Grand

Red Fm Breakfast Show hosts JD and Dilly have been up and about the the Shake our Hand to Win 10 Grand and have travelled from north to south of the country to meet up with fans and to give them a chance to register and stand a chance to win 10 Grand. Listeners who are there to shake their hand and register with Red Fm also get to win special prizes of the day too.

I was at a few of the locations to watch them and it was very entertaining especially when JD and Dilly urged the people to participate in their games and win prizes of the day. Some lucky listeners who did register at their various locations were randomly picked to win extra prizes when Red Fm called them on their h/phones and some other lucky ones were chosen to attend the Finale on July 5 where they will pick the lucky winner of 10 Grand. Wow! Those will be the real lucky ones and I wonder who it will be to win the Grand Prize.

Listeners in the Klang valley can tune to 104.9 to listen to JD and Dilly from 6.00am to 10.00am for the Red Fm Breakfast Show and btw, JD is my son.

'Poppy' my playmate

It was a couple of years ago when my son moved into his new apartment. My wife Liz and I would spend a few days there on our regular visits. It is a nice quaint place with lots of trees and I would take regular walks in the vicinity of the apartment.

One day, I found a young puppy(female) there and was told by some residents that she was left there by someone and has since remained there. Thankfully, some kind residents used to feed her. I love dogs and made friends with this puppy quickly. Whenever I'm there, I would also feed and play with her and she became very attached to me. The guards at the apartment used to call her 'Poppy' and hence her name. She has since grown into a nice beautiful dog. Whenever the guards go on their rounds in the apartment area, she would accompany them as if it was her duty.

There were a couple of times when a stray dog mated with her and eventually she gave birth to some pups. When the pups were about a couple of months old, some residents took them to the SPCA animal shelter. This left poor 'Poppy' very depressed and she refused to eat anything. I tried to feed her but she just wouldn't eat. One day, I decided to pat and talk to her in a consoling way and it seemed to work as she came close to me and seemed to listen when I was talking. I also tried to cheer her up by playing with her and gaining her confidence. After a few days, she began to eat again and I was happy to bring her out of her depression. I know dogs have feelings too and they need to be loved and reassured.

Whenever I come to see her, even after an absence of a week or two, she would be very happy and run over to greet me. After feeding her, she would play with me and urge me to 'Play Catching'. Seeing her this way really makes my day. I do hope that some kind souls would also give some stray dogs a home if you have the space at home. Dogs need love too.

An old friend named TA

I went for a leisurely drive with my wife to Taiping yesterday. I have not been to Taiping for quite a while so it was a welcome change of scene for us.
It was a cool day and the first place we went to was the Tai Chen restaurant which served some nice hawker food. It brought back memories of the time I spent in Taiping back in the 60s when we stayed at the late Rocky Teoh's place just above Tai Chen when we had to rehearse and do a gig in Taiping.
After lunch, I decided to hop over to the next road where the Chin Kong Optical was. This was where my old friend TA whose real name is See Kok Choo was working. His late uncle owned the shop and now he has taken over the running of the business. I walked into the shop and there he was, very surprised to see me after a few decades. The last I met up with him was way back in 1968. He still looked the same except for the balding. I used to remember him back then whenever he played the guitar, he would have a cigarette in his mouth or would stick it to the guitar head below the strings when he wanted to adlib the lead chorus. He told me that he had stopped playing the guitar and was living a very quiet life now. We had a good time reminicing about the old days, exchanged our contact numbers, and then I went on my way as I had some catching up to do visiting some places around Taiping which as usual had started to rain.
I hope to be able to meet up with him more often from now.

Eve of price hike of petrol

It was the day the government announced a price hike on petrol effective 12.00 midnight. I was in Kuala Lumpur on that day and I had already filled my tank full earlier. Anyway, it was evening when my wife and I decided to head to Shah Alam after the heavy rain stopped. Everything seemed normal as I drove on until we exited the Subang Jaya toll heading for the Federal Highway. Traffic was at a standstill heading towards Shah Alam as the underpass was waterlogged and impassable to traffic so we decided to stop for dinner in Sunway Mas. After dinner, we went on the LDP and it turned out to be a nightmare as the traffic jam was the worst I've ever seen on this road. The vehicles were hardly moving and after being in the jam for about an hour, my sparkplugs gave way due to overheating and I had to pull over to the side. We had to wait out the jam as every road out of this highway was just as jammed with people rushing to fill up their tanks with petrol which was the main cause of the crazy jam. We found that we were not the only ones with engine problem as there many others parked by the roadside and each one of them singing their woes and cursing. Thanks to a few kind souls, we were allowed to use their toilets facilities. We spent about three to four hours just parked there. Finally around midnight, the traffic began to ease and we decided to drive on running with three plugs and not using the air-conditioner. We arrived in Shah Alam past midnight. That ordeal was one hell of an experience and I hope the government will think of the consequences of the announcement of the price hike which caused most people throughout the country to panic buying of petrol and causing chaos. I am sure everyone in the country has a story to tell about this.