SMC Musical Concert August 30, 2008

Some pictures related to the musical concert on Friday night, August 29:

Practicing their hearts out!

The musicians during one of the practice session.

Rhythm guitarist

Keyboardist no. 2

Super-talented guitarist, Muang

Muang’s son, Sangsang.

The real program begins! Senior pastor (middle) giving the opening prayer.

Musical waiters and waitresses :) Black and white uniform. Ishh.

The Chariots

The Spicer Girls :)

Extremely attentive listeners (hehehe… OK this was taken sometime 9PM, program went way too long)

The stage

The participants

Pune University Hill August 23, 2008

Hellont and Jov

A road curve at the campus ground that reminds me of Kota Belud roads with those hanging tree “tentacles”

Women doing some balancing act

Father and daughter or granddaughter also on the same path with us

Well, this isn’t really the way to the Pune University Hill but at one of the parks in the huge campus

Now, this is the real walk up the PU Hill. Lovely hike! (Sorry the picture is smaller here)

Well, this picture doesn’t really do justice to the beauty and freshness you see and feel up there. Clean cool air and a 360-degree view of the area. (And here too!)

 

Time for touristy and non-touristy shots!

Squirrel Talk August 20, 2008

I’ve lived my life
Like normal squirrels do
Scampering, jumping,
But most times on a mission
To find a nut or two or simply making babies

Well, I got bored one day
And so I ventured up a height
Of neither a tree nor a pole
But a concrete wall of a building
To see a different view of the ground

So a different view I did see
The bushes looked smaller
And so do the flowers
But heck what is that down there?
There seems to be a price for being adventurous!

I Miss Blogging… August 19, 2008

but I can’t help it. I’ve been a very, very busy girl. There are plenty of thoughts, feelings and words to be vomited out between the last entry and now. And it might take several hours to write about it all. Since I’ve got less than 10 minutes I’ll just list them out briefly in no particular order.

1. I got acquainted with the term “load shedding” the last three weeks or so. In the easy term, it’s tiada karan (no electricity). However, this term is used for the scheduled daily power cut during the monsoon season in view that there is not enough power supply because of the low water level (after heavy usage during summer) in the dams to generate electricity for everyone in the nation 24 hours. I was told this happens almost annually. And so, we had to make do with three to six hours of power cut daily for at least three weeks. It seems all is back to normal for the past one week. Anyway. Just something new to note about.

2. I’ve just agreed to take up three new Korean students for private English tutoring starting this month. Teaching Mon-Thu for two hours isn’t too bad. What’s bad is I don’t have a vehicle and total rickshaw fare at the end of the week is enough to buy me a new pair of shoes. On the other side of it, at least I can keep in touch with my hate-love teaching of English.

3. Got acquainted with several talented musicians/singers on campus recently. It’s as if I’m back walking on an old, familiar pathway which hasn’t been trodden on for a long time. There’s a musical program we’re involved in this coming Friday night and I’m kinda glad that I could at least use my old, out-dated, rusty tricks on the keyboards again. Hehe.

4. Went through a period of frustrating and disappointing experiences. At the same time, the feeling of fear and change seeped in. Fear that things might never be (ever) as what I would have liked it to be no matter how positive I wish to have reacted to the situation. And the inevitable change in both thoughts and spirit is rather painful. And to think that the change is possibly irreversible sounds like a permanent head damage. Hmmm. It’s scary to think that I’m blind to tell when I should give up and and when to stay strong.

5.  The last three days I’ve been holding a non-functioning phone due to some network glitch. Not sure when this will end but the funny thing is I’m not at all bothered about it. I use to think that I cannot live with my cell phone or cannot live without receiving or sending at least one SMS a day. Come to think of it, it’s so easy to be slaves to inanimate objects. Anyway, I still hold on to my ugly handphone just to check the time. Yes, I am forever time conscious but rarely on time. Hehe.

6.  Got an SMS from my bro last week that there is a new kid in his family. Can’t wait to see how she looks like this Sarah Faith :)

7.  I heard my Ginger girl is pregnant! A little worried who will take care of her pups when they’re out.

8.  Got some kind of skin allergy and I have no clue till now as to the cause of this itching on my lower legs. Water? Air? Bugs? Spices? Hate how my legs and arms feel like now. And I hate how lazy I am to find out.

9.  Currently reading “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story is set somewhere in Carribean but strangely it reminds me a lot about the country I am in right now. Where beauty and the ugly, the magnificent and the horrible are intermingled into a colourful kaleidoscope of unending wonders.

10.  I’m thankful my parents cannot see me as I am now.

Kitna Hae? August 4, 2008

How much? This is one of the basic phrases I’ve learnt so far. Kitna hae? Well, the only risk is that the response might come in a torrent of Marathi or Hindi thinking that I know the language well. Thankfully, more often the responses are in English seeing my fairish complexion and flattish features. Nepali? Asked one bread seller the other day. Heehe.

Anyway, I find groceries shopping fun so far. At roadside markets, vegetable sellers still use scales with weighing stones. “One pound of tomatoes, please.” And they’ll put a hexagon-shaped weigh stone indicating one pound on the other side of the scale and tomatoes on the other. Kitna hae? Ten rupees, he said. I love the fact that most vegetables are cheap. For fifty rupees supplies can last us for a nearly week.

The other thing that I love here is that you don’t really need to leave the house to get vegetables. They practically come to your doorstep. I no longer panic when I hear a man’s loud voice calling out in the streets as if his pants are on fire. It’s either the vege man, the bread man, the newspaper man, the knife sharpener man, the recycling stuff man, or the blanket man. The first time I heard those shouts for attention I thought someone was starting a riot. Well, I suppose my only concern now is learning to count and say monetary values in Hindi.

Vege man, Jov and housewives just outside our apartment

A bunch of coriander for just Rs. 5 (less than 50 cents)

Medium sized cucumbers for Rs. 10.

Sixty cents only kama :)

Well, it isn’t true that everything is cheap here. Obviously, this is a toilet roll. A very precious toilet roll since it costs me Rs 42 (approximately RM4.00 for one SINGLE roll). I guess, the price for cheap consumption of foods is a slightly expensive exit somewhere :)