It is that time of the year!

Holdovers (2023)
Director: Alexander Payne

This one comes close to being a feel-good Christmas spirit movie in the vein of 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946), 'Miracle at 34th Street' (1947), and 'Diehard!' (1988). Maybe not 'Diehard' for its destruction and violence that happens around X'Mas.

When everything looks hopeless, and there is no reason to be merry, one can be a Scrooge, making life a living hell for people or, alternatively, try to at least a little bit better for others. After all, that is how life has been for aeons. Life, with its ups and downs throughout our civilisation, only makes one's life more colourful. Despite all the maladies and tragedy, we still come out unscathed, dusting the dirt off our backs and moving forward to face another challenge. That that does not kill us makes us stronger.

The sombre settings around Christmas make the soul go pensive. Tradition has made one long for lost relatives and reminisce about a carefree childhood. The colours of Yuletide bring out the best of human qualities and only go to square one after one usher in the new year. Is it any surprise that the days following the Christmas-New Year are hailed as the busiest days for divorce lawyers. Maybe the long soul-searching triggered them to seek out new partners.

The film revolves around three characters in an elite boarding school. An uninspiring teacher who is not everyone's idea of a favourite teacher, Mr Hunham, is forced by the headmaster to care for students who cannot return home for Christmas. A parent arrived on a helicopter to take all students off for skiing, except for Tully, whose money had gone off on a honeymoon trip with her new husband. Tully is actually quite disturbed that his biological father is institutionalised for a severe psychiatric illness. Staying back also is the grieving canteen manager, Mary Lamb, who had recently lost her 19-year-old son in the Vietnam War. This movie was set in 1971.

Together, through the holiday period, the three of them found friendship, which did not magically change their past sadness, but it did help them mend their broken hearts and strengthen them to endure the rest of the days ahead. 4/5

(P.S. 'Holdovers' are people surviving a previous administration or such.)

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Jalan-jalan cari makan! *

Spoilt for choice!

We say so many things about food. That we eat to live, not live to eat. That food be treated just as we treat medicine; not to overconsume, over-indulge or abuse. Like the Tamil proverb says, in excess, even honey turns poison. When we have the stomach to taste, we don't have the means; when there are the means, we don't have the stomach for it!

Some would insist that eating to satisfy the senses is a sin. It is viewed as disrespecting Mother Nature, who provides and protects. Why go far? Gluttony is listed as one of seven deadly sins that Man should not commit. Various food abstinence regimes are considered highly by many religious beliefs. Fasting during Lent and Ramadan is recommended. So do Hindus during their multiple prayers. Then there are the Jains and Pythogorians with their dos and don'ts about eating and the types of foods that can be consumed. Tubers and root vegetables are avoided by Puritan Jains as ingestion of these foodstuffs kills underground organisms or deprives them of their food.

Yet some believe we are given one life, and our chance to be born as a human is our reward for enduring whatever lowlife and insignificant births before this. To be immersed in bliss is, therefore, our right. Who knows what we will be later. We are here right now and probably never again, so indulge in satisfying all our worldly senses to our soul's content. 

What better way to stimulate our gastronomic senses after tickling the olfactory bulb and arousing the gustatory juices than to go on a foodie trail on the sideline whilst attending a secondary school get-together. And which better place to reminisce the nostalgic taste of the yesteryears than in the hometown that we grew up in. If, in those days, the economy was the stumbling block to giving a go at various foods all at once, now it is the guilt of going against medical advice. But what the heck, we told ourselves, we only live once. But again, we only die once but a happier person.

  

From top to bottom:

Mee Rebus & Ice Kacang

Potpourri of Penang Street Food - Ice Kacang & Rojak

Char Koay Teow & Hokkein Mee

Cendol of Penang Road

Various Pohpiahs

Wan Tan Mee & Toast

Popiah & Grilled Stingray

P.S. Thanks to Yew Teik Hock for the photos. When others say grace before a meal, he religiously snaps a picture on his mobile. Also, to George Ho for choosing the various outlets for each particular dish.

* In the Malay language, the literal translation is going on a stroll, looking for something to eat. Equivalent to going on a food trail. A 'tongue-in-cheek' meaning would be sneaking around to sow your wild oats. Or like ‘Have Gun Will Travel’, how a fornicator scavenges for free meat. Go figure!

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Always a nice guy?

(Just a figment of imagination) 

Nature's Pallette product

 There used to be a God-forsaken piece of land kept away from people of the civilised world. It was too harsh and too hostile to human habitation. The climate was intense, and the terrain was unyielding. So it became a haven for people who wanted peace and to be left again. 

With trust in God and faith in their physical and mental strength, they labour, innovate and improve. When chocolate gained popularity around Europe, the Swiss became creative in churning milk in steam-powered mixers to rebrand the drink of the Mayan Gods to the civilised world. 

Unlike their neighbours, who were actively hunting each other, the Swiss were not powerful enough to resist. So, they claim neutrality. Promoting peace and non-partisanship, they showed their mantle during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 when the 80,000 over-defeated French soldiers and refugees were nursed to health. They remained neutral in the First and Second World Wars. 

Left to their own devices, they focused their effort on precise machinery. They became master clockmakers and marvellous engineers building funicular trains and hydroelectric dams. 

The injured and refugees of the 1870 war
Seen in Bourbaki Panorama

When the challenge against the orthodoxy of the Church by believers who wanted to understand their religion in their mother tongue became vogue, the Swiss became the nice guy supporting the underdogs. The Swiss took the image of going with the oppressed and clamoured themselves as working for Reformation. 

Their selling of impartially went overdrive with the introduction of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations (UN). The idea of having the main office of FIFA is to highlight that this soccer body is fair and unbiased. We all know how it went. 

The Reformation Wall

The ICRC paints an altruistic image of itself. It sells itself as a purveyor of humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters, wars and other tragedies. Again, you know that hidden hands control their budget and activities. It is common knowledge that financiers from the West siphoned off money to the Bolshevik revolutionaries to establish a communist regime under the pretext of sensing humanitarian aid.

UN also has lost its lustre. Perhaps it was a facade for the powerful nations to appear to be just to appease the not-so-economically vibrant ones of the world. The UN is often threatened with non-payment by its mighty members, especially the veto-wielding superpowers. Someone aptly referred to the UN as a toothless tiger, a talking shop in the daytime, and a pub at night. It has become a social platform for self-aggrandisement and to stay in the limelight. 

Nevertheless, Switzerland shines to the world by exhibiting its natural beauty, the comfort of Swiss hospitality and its clockwork precision of public amenities and engineering. They remember to remind the world of their neutrality in dealing with world conflicts. 

The coveted FIFA World Cup, despite its tainted governing body.

The endowment of clean water and a powerful supply of Alps
glaciers provided energy and milk.

Rights for non-human beings too?

Nature's playground - Geneva

 

Isolation, introversion and introspection have
their advantages. Seen in CERN, Geneva.

A problem then, a problem now!
It is ironic that Freud at one time advocated cocaine for alcoholism.

United Nations - still relevant?

Matterhorn (14,692 ft)

Chur Alstadt, Switzerland

Serene countryside

After losing their mojo, they chose neutrality.

Even a non-believer becomes a believer.

The question is of what - one bearded man who keeps

a tab of your follies and brownies OR an undefined 

force that maintains the balance of the orbit, gravity 

and the secrets behind figure 108.

 

P.S. A line from the film 'The Third Man' comes to mind about Switzerland. Orson Welles’ character Harry Lime says, “In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

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Something to talk about when I am old and grey.

Time is cruel! © DKLA

At the pinnacle of their career, the Beatles must have had an existential crisis. McCartney and Lennon must have wondered how they would be at 64. Their vision of a 64-year old man, from the lenses of a person in the 1960s, must have been quite depressing. With bad teeth, bad eyesight and bald, it must be a picture of melancholy.
 Luckily, growing old in the 21st century is bearable. The 60s is the new 40s. One can still lead a productive life in the senior citizen / geriatric age group provided the bus does not come to pick you up prematurely.

After completing 633 km of cycling from Seoul to Pusan in 5 days, we had a couple days to unwind in Pusan. Immersed in the euphoria of completing our gargantuan task, we thought that our feat must be something that we, the seven of us, would be talking for a long time including reminiscing about it in our twilight years. We would probably be savouring each photo that we took along the way, trying to remember each story attached with it; trying to tell it to anyone who would listen.

At the end of their voyage, if life had been kind, people would have many accomplishments to ponder as their moments in time.

I know a few who talk about a time when they were stoned drunk as their memorable bits to justify their existence. They would brag about their inborn ability to hold their drink and drive home safely with their alcohol levels hitting the ceiling many times over. Or perhaps boast in the glee of a lost weekend of intoxication.
There was once a lady's man who had the charm that would put James Bond to shame. He allegedly had bedded so many women in the prime of his youth. This, he told me unashamedly with pride with a gusto of a record-breaking marathon runner. He even boasted of having two dates on a single night in the same town. Living in the fast lane, walking on eggshells, he ended his night bedding both of them, separately. That must be the zenith of his raison d'être.

Others may find pride in satisfying their gustatory cravings. They claim pride in knowing the tastiest of dishes and culinary servings. They may narrate with passion, their food trails, their exotic spread of palatal teasers and perhaps some unusual delicacies. Well, whatever makes them happy.

I bet these photos may one day carve a smile at the angle of my mouth if ever I were comatose or unarousable.

Serenity max ©FG

Another bridge ©FG

Nature's palette ©FG

Peaceful easy feeling ©FG

Misty taste of Korea ©FG

Shades of blue ©FG

Sunset in Korea ©FG

Picture perfect ©FG

A bike motel ©FG

Busan finishing line ©FG

Our hideout in Busan ©FG

I see you ©FG

Korean garden ©FG

Atop Busan Tower ©FG

Jagalchi Fish Market - can see the original features of the Koreans.©FG

Songdo Beach ©FG

Sunset over at Sangdo ©FG

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