Joke

Email from my dad. HIGHlarious!

A little humor with a good moral.

The Pastor's Ass

The pastor entered his donkey in a race and,
it won.

The pastor was so pleased with the donkey
that he entered it in the race again,

and it won again.

The local paper read:

PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of
publicity that he ordered the
Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local paper headline read:

BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the bishop, so he
ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey.

The pastor decided to give it to a nun

in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted
The following headline the next day:

NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The bishop fainted.

He informed the nun that she would have to
get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read:

NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the bishop, so he
ordered the nun to buy back the
donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read:

NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The bishop was buried the next day.


The moral of the story is . . .

Being concerned about public opinion can bring you

much grief and misery, & even shorten your Life.

So be yourself and enjoy life.


Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and
you'll be a lot happier and live longer!

Update

[source: the Star online]

* * * *
Wednesday Sept 23, 2009

No intention to patent local food, Dr Ng says

by FLORENCE A. SAMY

Malaysia does not intend to patent local food but wants its citizens to know their origins, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said.

She expressed surprise over responses on her statement on local food and Malaysia’s intention to lay claim to several dishes, which were synonymous with the country’s identity and ideal as a tourism product.

“Neither did I say that no other countries can cook such food. We are not trying to compare with other countries,” she told a press conference on Wednesday.

“Malaysians must know about the origin of their food. We want them to start thinking about their food when they eat them. We also want them to improve on their dishes and be more creative.”

Dr Ng’s recent statement that nasi lemak, laksa, bak kut teh, chilli crab and Hainanese chicken rice are Malaysian dishes had sparked off a "food fight" on the Internet, including from some unhappy Singaporeans who insisted that chilli crab and the chicken rice were theirs.

Dr Ng said a study on the origins of foods in the country would be conducted and an apology conveyed if it was wrongly claimed.

“At the end of the day, tourists will go to where the food is tastiest,” she added.

The National Heritage website, www.warisan.gov.my has 100 types of food and drinks listed under its food heritage list.

These include nasi lemak, laksa, chilli crab and Penang char kuay teow.

Citing an example, Dr Ng said bak kut teh -- which is Hokkien for meat bone tea -- originated from Klang in the 1930s by a Chinese sinseh.

“Ba kut teh can be chicken or any meat because it is meat bone,” she said.

Local dishes, she said, could be part of the Malaysian tourism product branding as many were already in the heritage food list.

* * * *

Singapore attained independence some years later than us so isn't it possible that we might have the upper hand here? And what happens if a dish was created by a (now) Singaporean who was Malaysian in 1957 but then jumped ship and took up Singaporean citizenship in 1965?

Whose food is it anyway?

[source: the Star online]

* * * *
Thursday Sept 17, 2009

Laksa and nasi lemak among our pride, says Yen Yen

by TEH ENG HOCK

KUALA LUMPUR: Laksa, nasi lemak and bak kut teh — these are some of the food Malaysia will lay claim to.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said there were many dishes synonymous with Malaysia’s identity but they had been “hijacked” by other countries.

“We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food. Chilli crab is Malaysian. Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian. We have to lay claim to our food,” she told reporters after launching the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival yesterday.

The festival, which runs throughout October, is part of the Fabulous Food 1Malaysia campaign. November’s part of the campaign will centre around shopping mall food, while street and heritage food will be the highlight in December.

“In the three months, we will identify certain key dishes (to declare as Malaysian). We have identified laksa ... all types of laksa, nasi lemak and bak kut teh,” she said.

When asked how the ministry would go about labelling the dishes Malaysian after identifying them, Dr Ng said she would reveal her strategy at a later stage.

“That is Part Two. We cannot reveal it yet, but we will let you know soon,” she said.

* * * *

It's bad enough that the Indonesians don't like us, now the government wants to pick a fight with Singapore too? I may not love everything that is "Uniquely Singapore" but staking claims on food is downright ridiculous. We're happy to share our history with Singapee, Indon, Brunei and everyone else in the good ol' South of the E to the A for Asia (it's all about the gangsta yuuhhh!!!), so what's wrong with extending it to cuisine? You know what else, the Malay Mail asked a couple of people what they thought about Datuk Ng Yen Yen's suggestion and 80% of them were like HELL YEAH we should protect our food!!!!!!! Seriously, I just cannot see the point in giving certain dishes a Malaysian stamp of authenticity. It's not like it's going to boost tourism or improve the living standards of the community or reduce crime or extinguish political corruption. Besides, Hainanese chicken rice was brought in by the (China) Chinese so how can we call it our own? In any case the government had better not declare chicken rice to be a national dish. That would just put us to shame cos I can guaran-damn-tee you that Singapore has the best chicken rice this side of the South China Sea.

B is for Bak kut teh [image source: wikipedia]

Thank you my forefathers for bringing this humble dish to our shores. I am eternally grateful.

A prayer by Thomas Merton

I first saw this in a booklet celebrating the ordination of a priest in Eugene's church. It was really beautiful. So heartfelt. It truly encompasses the feelings I hold about this great journey called life.

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this,
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always,
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

-- Thomas Merton (1915-1968), "Thoughts in Solitude"

Ambitious?

Behold my most recent purchase


*beams proudly

When I showed my mum, she sniffed and gave me this scornful look like I was some pathetic twit that ought to be squashed. She said, "HAAA??? LEARNING FROM BOOKS???" and then proceeded to launch into a lecture in Mandarin, only bits of which I was able to comprehend, "... you should be learning by speaking!... yakyakyakyak... come on I can speak to you in Mandarin!... yakyakyakyak... haiyo... yakyakyakyak". Isn't it funny how haiyo is still haiyo even in a foreign language?

From Mon to Tues I was in Taiping with MF and JG. I haven't been to Taiping in ages, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing's changed (save for a new hotel or two, and a Tesco). The journey there was traffic free *ahem thanks to my great idea to leave the Merdeka crowd in KL behind to eat our dust. Before reaching Taiping, we made a pitstop in Ipoh to grab lunch. Had an assortment of foodstuff, including curry mee, fuchuk+meat/fishball soup and chee cheong fun. The chee cheong fun tasted a little different from what I'm used to... it was slimier and was mixed with minced meat. It had an interesting taste, edible nonetheless.

Our accommodation of choice in Taiping was the newly opened Flemington Hotel, just overlooking the Lake Gardens. It's bright and clean, and the interior decor is simple and modern. Our room was a little small though, with no proper cupboard. There was only a tiny, as-tall-as-my-knees cabinet on the floor and you can't exactly hang clothes in there can you. Behind our hotel is the infamous Taman Elia Thamby, a hotspot for ah kua watching. The Lake Gardens is beautiful during the day, but at night it doubles as a place for maksiat activities. Hahaha! We saw so many couples out to berpaktoh when we were on our way to the Night Safari. Speaking of which, the Night Safari is not fantastic. When I was in Singapee last month, I went to the Night Safari there and it was amazing! There was a guided tour, and the tram would stop at certain locations for you to get down and walk. Sometimes the tram would drive right through a bunch of animals feeding so that if you stretched your hand out you could actually touch them (although nobody did that la, but I'm just explaining how close we were). The tour guide would also point out where the animals were in their enclosures so that everyone could get a good look. Whereas in Taiping, it was kinda like "if you see then your luck la, if you don't see then too bad." The pathways were also really dark, although maybe it's better for the animals that way? There are, however, alot of animals in the Taiping Zoo, and it looked like a generally well-planned place. I just think I'd have enjoyed it far more if I went there during the day rather than at night.

Taiping is actually a great place to retire. Good (AND BLINKING CHEAP) food, nice weather, peaceful (don't have to worry about snatch thieves) and lots of retiree-type activities eg. pa san-ing up Maxwell Hill, taking leisurely walks around the Lake Gardens, watching the sunset from Flemington Hotel. Coincidentally, the town is also filled with "mature" people. It's kinda like the Cambridge of Malaysia. All in all, it was a very relaxed and relaxing trip. We didn't have to use our brains much except for when we were hunting for food. The highlight of the trip for me was probably the thor tau th'ng, a groundnut soup dessert. Took us awhile to figure out how to get there but we made it eventually, thanks to MF and JG's friend Michelle, who is from Taiping. It's reaaaaaaalllyyyyy good!!!!!!!!! I think it's just groundnuts boiled for a long time in soyabean water... the texture is akin to red bean soup and the taste is exquisiteeee. Ugh I can't even find a nice picture of it on Google. Just thinking about it makes me salivate, but it's gonna be awhile till I get my hands on some again :(

P/S No pictures cos I didn't bring my camera with me but I think MF will prob post some on her blog.