2007,a pretty year.

I had to reflect 07' before jotting down my endless list and ever so far new year's resolution. Its been all tooo dam happening for my weak heart ( i can't watch ripley's,..yea its that bad)

Before I got bitten by the reality of life in Sandakan,I was full of hopes,ideals and dreams. Every bit of my pores were oozing with WORLD DOMINATION ARRRGHH!!! I never thought of myself as a big city girl,Im not a big clubber nor do I enjoy being heavily intoxicated by mindless drinking/mindless people and I would count myself an outdoorish person,loved big trees and white beaches.Besides I was getting tired of my jet setting job.As I slurp on my ice cold starbucks latte,I soon develop a serious infatuation with the idea of living in "The Nature City",Sandakan. ...Stones stroll to virgin forests...full of beautifully simple people blah blahh blahhh.NOTT!

First of all..people here are not simple ..and miles away from being beautiful..inside/out.This town is caught with a major identity crisis.Full of migrants,mostly illegal..Filipinos,Indonesians ..every1 here is looking for a better life,a quicker way out of poverty. Scheming to get more by doing less.The middle class have gone so numb with the middle name of cheap labour that they don't seem to react much anymore...even when somebody ram their cars into our walls(My hotel Staff)With the booming palm industry Sandakan is looming with uncultured overnight rags to riches plantation owners. Corruption issues in every single turn..esp in the you know departments.Even the smallest small fry official guy tries to rape its own ppl.And I never understood how the economics works itself out when living standards are 10% higher than the peninsula,but yet wages are 40% lower than given any other states in malaysia.

Heh,i think i conveniently leave out the fact that chinese hardware store owner would'nt even blink an eye when selling super glue to 9yr olds wearing a skin tone thats anything darker than yellow.When these sniffin kids grow up with half a brain left ( im being generous here.),Chinese shop owner like these would go on and on bout how stupid their staff ( now a grown up druggie ) are. Honestly I can't decide which is worst being a total racist,unethically money face or a hypocritical dumb ass?

It was untill while working with a few different contractors,When I saw 12yr old girl in the brick kiln,9 - 11yrs old boy loading up a truck that I saw the uncanny beauty of this rough lil town.Even though, many western societies would be appalled by these working conditions. But sometimes its just a way of life..a natural process for any nations to grow. Once upon a time living conditions in America was bad too.In fact much worse..Desperately in need for a kind delivery of a brutal fact..i decided to take things as it is.And work with what i've got and what I can... Except, life just ain't the same without my nonchalantly market ted ice-cold latte from starbucks. And Moral of the story is simple...

a.) Leave the Africans alone!
b.) Do not go child shopping in Vietnam like Ms Womb Raider!
c.) Dont be ripped off by fair trade labels.

To keep my new year's resolution short - 1) WORLD DOMINATION!

LINE EM UP!

Im hitting KL on thursday...arrghhh lights! lights! civilisation!!grr i feel like a bug flying towards the lights...oooohhhh aaahhh preeeddy lighttts~

anyhow before all that,here's whats happening... I've been dealing with bad town planning and major sewerage n flash flood problems in Sandakan town, honestly I cant' seem to bitch enough about how they should just stop resurfacing the roads and move on the sewage problems!.. Jees some people's livelihood actually depends on em! And to think that I'm at the expense such dodos is really not hot ,..not hott at all!

so,back to our bunch of joy, today I'll like to exhibit what we call "A MASS ORGIE OF LINEWORK"! ahhhh what gives the eye and mind great pleasure. Everywhere I turn,I see distinctive lines/patterns/joineries (is there sucha word?) and it was a great day to take some wicked snaps,.loada sun,loada shadow,loada contrast. Considering we are in an era where Man lil pea brain conveniently roll out from their ear,hence easily lead on by the Media whom is doing a great job promoting adrogynous stick-insect woman as sexy...I guess PD is ohh soo soo sexy too..

Knitting aint' only for grannies!

That's actually Ali's son slicing the bamboo.. he doesn't look too happy bout his job! Ha,.. anyways it was really interesting watching them knitting these bamboo thatch, I can't illustrate the full process cuz i wasn't there but I can assure you its honestly 100% hardwork..never as easy as they make it seem like. Wish I had taken more pix.

These mats will be put up as walls within each duplex. We'v tried out a few,and it looks ab fab!cept for the fact that you can actually peep thru the lil gaps into the bathroom..otherwise it's good to go hehe..will upload more pics this weekend.

2008 - "YII FATT" Cantonese tongue. yii - 2, fatt - 8. In a pretty force fed and purpposeful slang it literally translates to ( easy way to prosperity) sometimes some chinese cultures are just beyong pre-historic times. People keep asking if we had delibrately delayed the launching of this project so that we hit the YII FATT year..Even though, i guess it makes perfect sense to any other chinese bussiness man.It would prolly mean a strategic move to em. Dont get me wrong,I am excited about the new year,just dread the fact that we got thrown this far off our schedule.

Dont judge a log by its bark

I must say, Uncle Jalil is like a lil Jackal sometimes..A mix of crafty fox and dorkish mongrels.This time the scavenger sniffed out a huge dead tree lying in Rudy's foster parent's home.. he's very old look almost look like Bilbo Baggins from LOTR ,whoose got a very old alchoholic wife,legend has it she's the drunken flasher in the village..haah!

Many came,and many left, most decided this was a risk not worth taking.On the outside ,The log looked thoroughly raped (yes rape not wrap!) by the the strangling fig plant,completely overwhelmed and possesed the log. There was the burnt bits all along the log hence it was priced at a very cheap price as unidentifiable timber.

But anton and his eagle eye decided to take a plunge at the irrisistable offer,We got rudy to cut it up and true enough it was a beatifull pc of Selangan Batu under the fig and burn surface..just when we thought the celebration was too soon,The owner jacked the price to twice as much. It's really annoying that we live in a integrityless world...but we had to take the price cuz he cauld easily sell it to sm1else anyways.. we even bribed the old lady some TUAK ( locally made coconut liquor - taste nothin like malibu )

We thought all will be well till Rudy got beaten up by the owner's son for introducing us..Anton had to gather the A' team to meet the "negotiate'' with the owners again,..twe they got there'.. All that old woman wanted was some Guiness ..hahhaah so anyways we got some1 else to cut the stuff up and get the hell outta there as soon as possible just incase she decides to flash.

Random Rants

I've been day dreaming a lot at work,its that wretched absolutely fuked neck i've got lah..Can't sit still for more than 10mins.Jalil has got some new chicks (the cute fuzzy 1s not booties u fools)Unknowingly it set my mind on a long patient course...a long wait till the day when dad finally makes the effort to pop by. Yeah, bloody chickadees and the bitter-sweet moments.Pfftt!

Its Showoff Sundays

My quintessential Hari Raya

Last week was the long awaited Hari Raya Puasa Holidays,Guru and Mali invited us to their Kampung (Village) for some celebration grubb. Which consist of 18 wooden houses, 1 sawmill workshop and loada chickens/cats/dogs/veg. gardens. Modern day luxuries aside,I really admire their self sufficient capabilities. It is not uncommon to find the Bugis people combining their finances to buy small plots of land and help each other build homes to kick start their little community..In the commercially tainted world we live in where we call our era "the every man for himself age" It was humbling to have experienced their generosity.

Amidst the clutter,you could really tell how each head of the family and their character reflected on the houses/the small courtyard they build.Mali's home is nice,simple,comfortable,the locals chilling pad. In stark contrast Guru's home was flashy,cloaked in pink,quirky.he even rented the ground floor to the local pimp..hence its "chick's chillin pad",Anyways after 5 meals of chicken cooked in different curries that day,My A'hemm hole reaaly took a bashing even after I down loada papayas.

TIMBERRRR

Since the last trip to the not so happy..Happy Estate ,we've been drooling over this tree and some belian pillars that were littered around the estate. Seeing there's no way we can prevent powerful ppl from raping our land,We might as well grab whatever that's left before the mob comes in. I wasn't there to catch the excitement.According to Anton, what happened was Rudy (ex Lumberjack,Uncle Jalil's ex worker,current Goat shed guard and full time drinker)had a certain highly calculated technique to falling the tree.Before you know it,a loud crack leading to flock of escaping birds.. and TIMMBURRR the 90ft giant was down.

left Anton insisted i take this pic,right villagers scanvenging for birds

Judging from Anton's pose with his prized possesion, this exhilarating operation went well except for 1 slight freakky hiccup. While they were moving the wood to the transporting truck,the chain that was holding a good bundle of wood came loose and knocked 1 of the workers off from almost 9ft high.The poor guy suffered a heavy knock on the chest. Anton sent him to the hospital immediately,luckily after a few pain killers he seemed fine. Phew! what a close call,the falling timber cauld easily squaashed him. Sigh~ brutal reminder how life is cheap here.People put their lives in danger (knowingly or not) just to make ends meet.

Malaysia Boleh!

Initially i plan to post some of the '' Visit Malaysia 2007 Ads" - (for the benefit of some friends who dunno what to expect in Borneo)..even though I'm quite sure half the world have seen it being blasted on CNN/ Travel and Living ( HA! take that! Uniquely Singapore!)

but 2 clicks away,I stumbled across what could possibly be the national jewel , the equivalent of Panda to China.. a rare species of its own..Mr Sam Triggy.He's the guy who wanks his guitar like the Piano, its like watching the shabby Malaysian MAT ROCKER possessed by Steve Vai + Joe Satriani. do check it out!,..cuz this version of Poltergeist absolutely make my hair give an involuntary standing ovation! Wahh imagine cold beer,jungle breeze and live gig with this guy.

Mr Anton, never mind if you cant find Kinder Bueno Chocalate eggs with surprise toys or Burritos stuffed with scrumptious yum yum corn beef and guacamole in Sabah..I MUST HAVE SAM TRIGGY JUMPING OUT OF MY BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! you got 3 weeks, work on it! .. fine its negotiable - u got till the wedding!

Sam Triggy

Sam Triggy

Faux wood Nuggets

OMG! I found these online,little beanie bags in wood prints. Well these cute lil buggers are 16USD each..not so cute when I'm reminded of how much MYR is worth - PEANUTS.

The 'A' Team

Guess who's the bomoh? ( witch doctor .. "the good ones" )