DanielYKL

Over the weekend my friend and his family from KL came down to Penang for a short vacation. He sent a text to me and told me to meet at Lorong Selamat for Char Koay Teow. This has been his ritual every time he visits Penang. By the way, what is so good about the Char Koay Teow there? It’s so expensive, like RM6 per plate with 3 medium size prawns. That’s it! I never think that the Char Koay Teow there is any good, at least for us Penangites. People who goes there are usually the tourists from the mainland. To the locals, this is a tourist trap. I can easily recommend you better Char Koay Teow here in Penang and much, much cheaper. Anyway, this is not what I wanted to write.

While waiting for my friend, I saw the news on the TV about a woman wanting to jump down from a 10-storey building. I am not too sure where this was, as I was not paying attention to the reader. I was concentrating on the image on the TV.  Anyway, the thing that caught my attention was this. I saw some firemen, policemen and civilians piling up some mattresses below where the woman was. I find it ironic. I mean the woman is like 10-story above and these people are piling mattresses below hoping that if she jumps she would land on it and maybe she will be saved.

Can you imagine, if she jumps. And even if she lands on the mattresses do you think she would survive that fall? A 10-storey high drop! They have good intention, no doubt about it! But!!!

While still waiting for my friend to arrive, I noticed an old lady sweeping the front of her house and the road in front and the neighbor’s side of the road too. Wow, I was thinking what a civic minded lady. But that’s it. To my horror, I saw that she swept all the rubbish and dried leaves into a container and just damped it all into the drain in front of her house! After all the sweeping, she just dumped it all into the drain, like the drain is the rubbish dump! Good neighbor? Errr!!! Civic minded?

Anyway, after the so-so-only-Char Koay Teow, we went to the Prangin Mall as his wife wanted to get her hair cut. So while waiting for her wife, we decided to go for a foot massage (foot reflexology). We had two elderly men doing that for us. And while massaging our dirty feet, the masseurs  started talking about politics! And man, these people can talk. I was so surprise by their political knowledge. For one hour they talked about, fuel prices, inflation, corruptions, etc. They even talked about Abdul Razak Baginda, Najib, Altantuya, Bala, - you name it and they can talk about it. So both of us were enlightened by their coffee shop politics while getting our feet massaged.  Isn’t that what politic is all about? The mind of the everyday people on the street.

So what is the moral of these stories and why I’m writing all these? No idea. Just thought it might be interesting. Maybe you can tell me.