Tuesday 31 July 2007

31st July

31st of July is almost over here. In Malaysia its already over. A few weeks ago in my blog, I mentioned about a blog i came across where the writer wanted to kill herself on 31st July. Today was the day. There were no new postings for the past 3-4 days so I cant be sure of here status whether she is dead or alive.

Her last few postings did show some improvement in her behavior but she still wanted to kill herself. She thinks she will go to heaven after she kills herself and be in a better place. Well, if that were true, why not all the hungry and oppressed people in Africa, middle east and North Korea and all over the world just go kill themselves? At least they will be in a better place........

Sadly I don't believe so. I believe that take your own life is the biggest sin one could make. Live is a gift from God that nobody else in the world can give...not your mother, your doctor or not even Jesus himself. By killing yourself it is as if one is not greatful. Sure life can be hard and cruel to some people, but if you don't ask for help from God, how is He supposed to help?

But what can I do its all up to her now. At least the past few days she was happier than normal, so there is a slight chance that she has changed her mind. Hopefully she has. If she has killed herself, what can i say, she's a stupid girl. With all the support she has got, she still wants to kill herself. And i hope she is happy with her after life, however it turns out...

....sayonara...

Blogger - Dalam Bahasa Indonesia

I just noticed that blogger can be set to Bahasa Indonesia, so, being curious, i changed my blogger profile to be displayed in Bahasa Indonesia and i noticed 2 interesting things apart from the translation that is quite funny (if it was in Bahasa Malaysia, it would be funny too).

The first thing was in my profile, "gender" is translated "jenis kelamin". Well, i dont know about you, but i find it mildly, vulgarly funny. If translated back to English it would sound something like "type of genitals". Imagine somebody asking you "what type of genitals do u have".... :-P Well, Each language has a cultural component in it, so its quite inappropriate to directly translate it.

another thing is I found out from one of the title bars of blogger that "Gratis" (Bahasa indonesia) means "free of charge", which has the same meaning in German. In German, Gratis is always used in advertisements that means "free of charge". Because Dutch language is very similar to German, I assume the Indonesians got the word from the Dutch.

Its interesting to now how all the countries in the world are related to each other. Its really an eye opener :-)

Thats all for now...tchuss

Monday 30 July 2007

Flight back to Malaysia

Lately i have been hearing about the declining quality of service of MAS on the e-newspapers. There are an average 30 flight delays in a day. It is said that the MAS employees are on a "strike" because of the management that does not appreciate the employees by not giving any benefit to them. Instead the people in higher positions that have only been employed for a mere 1 or 2 years have been given bonuses like theres no tomorrow instead of the employees that have been working of 15 to 20 years in MAS. I think thats really f*%ked up.

I guess that's the difference between an multinational company and a local company. Multinational companies realize that the main asset of the company is not billion dollars worth of machines, but its the employees. A company may have the best equipment in the world, but without good employees, they are worthless. Thats why multinational companies really take care of their employees. They know how to spot potential and wiling to pay more for better quality employees. I think in Malaysia there is this obsession of Management and sales people are "better" than technical employees thus they deserve better than their technical counterparts. Everybody wants to be in sales. But i think it is true in a way. No matter how smart you are, if u cant talk and sell your stuff, you'll be a "kuli" for the rest of your life.

I think the best would be a technical person that has a sense of entrepreneurship because he knows his stuff and he knows how to sell it, and because he knows his stuff, nobody can cheat him. Compared to pure sales people. They know how to sell, but when it comes to expanding their product potential, its a bit hard. Reminds me of a person i know. He is the TMNet regional manager in Johor. A UTM Graduate. He graduated in electrical engineering but now works for sales. because of his technical background, he really knows his stuff and what chance to take and the potential of each product. Form his appearance alone he sends out a signal that he is no ordinary man. Knowing him for half a year, i think he is one of the most resourceful and intelligent entrepreneur i have met so far (not that i have met many).

OK...I going so far out of topic...Actually what i wanted to say in this entry is I'm feeling a bit worried about my flight back to Malaysia. I'm worried if the flight is delayed too long, i might have a problem with a visa. My visa is valid till 30th September. Which happens to be the day of my flight. If i overstay in Germany, i might be in trouble...I hope nothing goes wrong...

tchuss

Sunday 29 July 2007

Arena of Pop

Yesterday (Saturday) there was a big concert cum party at the Schloss aka University. It was the biggest party ever that was held in Mannheim, as far as i have been here. They had closed 2 rather important main roads for the concert cum party. It was totally free and payed for by the state government. Well, i don't have the words to describe the concert cum party, so i just let the pictures and videos do the talking.

This is the view from "Parade Platz" where we can see the Schloss. Usually this place will be busy with trams at this time, but as it has been closed down by the police, it's pretty much every bodies street. Notice in the distance is the concert stage inside the University.



The music was quite loud, feels like the resonance could stop my heart from beating

The stage that can transform according to the band playing



This particular song was quite good despite of it being so loud and in German language.



There were also other stages around the area with different bands playing.

The whole street, which would be packed with cars, was full of food stalls and booths.

There was also futsal compatitions

Dining-in

I think i have take the DIY cooking the wrong way. I just realized dat its kindda silly to cook Asian when I'm not in an Asian country. It's rather expensive to be eating Asian food as its considered something exotic. I also think its a bit too kiasu to eat Malaysian food when there is a cheaper alternative. A visit to the Asian store drains my money like how American cars drain petrol. I said to myself "i have to find an alternative". The other day one of my floor mates baked some bread in the kitchen. The smell of the bread really got to my stomach. Its smelled so nice, even though it was only bread. So I thought i wanna give it a try.

You can by unbaked bread at the supermarket for around 3 cents for 6 pieces. each piece is about the size of your fist, so about 3 is enough to get you full. So i tried it for breakfast where i cooked some scrambled eggs and cut up some tomatoes and pepper aka paprika to be eaten with the bread and its really not bad at all!! it was great actually plus it was relatively cheaper and healthier than a typical Malaysian dish that i cook, with the limited ingredients. I think it makes practical sense to adapt to the local food.

So,I got a bit more adventurous and decided to make some pasta with spaghetti sauce. A packet of the cheapest pasta is 29cents for 500 grams compared to rice which is 1euro per kilo of non-lousy rice. and 500 grams of pasta can last for 3 meals, which was great! So i got 2 packets of pasta, some tomatos, paprika, a pack of tomato puree, a pack of halal sausages, garlic and some oregano, all costing around 6 euros. I looked up the simplest spaghetti sauce on the Internet and started cooking. The pasta was not a problem to cook, in fact if you don't know how to cook the pasta, you shouldn't have been cooking in the first place. Its just a matter of boiling some water with raw pasta in it for 12 minutes. The recipe that i got from the internet was quite simple. Simpler than i expected once you have all the ingredients with you. At first I was just blindly following the recipe but as soon as i put in the tomato puree and left it to boil for a few minutes, that familiar smell you get from a italian restaurant quickly reassured me that i was in the right track. It took about 20-30 minutes for the sauce to be ready but it was worth the wait as it turned out really well. Surprisingly well. It tasted like what u would taste in the Italian restaurant. All thanks to the simple recipe that i downloaded from the internet.

So from now on i'll be searching for regional recipes that i can try cooking to save more and more $$$. I think the question of getting used to it does not really matter since this is not the first time i lived abroad. So, bread and pasta is acceptable to me as much as rice and curry puffs are.
So see how it goes...

Tchuss

Saturday 28 July 2007

Looks like no coup afterall

Just when i thought Malaysian politics were entertaining, it just got even more exciting. Seems like there wont be a coup in Malaysia anyway. It was said that Pak lah went to Australia because the CIA people wanted to ask him about the involvement of a company that was allegedly owned by one of his family members in the transportation of sensitive American military technology to potentially rouge states. This is even worse than a coup...these guys are risking the national security to make a quick buck...i don't know what is the future of Malaysia...

But Its just a rumor...so it's not necessarily true...but we will see...

Friday 27 July 2007

Coup in Malaysia?

I can't deny that im a quite loyal reader of Malaysia Today (the site owned by Raja Petra Kamaruddin). I read his recent posts and it seems like he is trying to imply that there is a possiblity that The Agong will sack PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi because of his incompetence in governing the country. Pak Lah quietly sneeked out of the country a week ago, if im not mistaken, and its not sure when he will be back, but it is said that he knows that the Agong want to sack him so he fled the country. Wow, hows that for thrilling politics? Sounds like a scene from a movie.

however these are all roumors. But it would be interesting if what is said is true and i will be looking forward to a new government when i get back to Malaysia. Interesting. Besides the current goverments sucks big time anyway...

Tchuss

Thursday 26 July 2007

Recent updates

"Semak". Thats how I can describe my mind now. Feels like my mind has been congested by all this programming work....some that i can't find solutions to. Plus the kick-ass coffee machine is not helping. I just noticed that i have become a caffeine addict. The other day i didn't have coffee for one day it was like crazy. My mind cant focus and i feel very sleepy. I better switch to tea pretty soon or else i'll permanently be dependent on coffee.

A few weeks ago my friend told me something very funny i can't help laughing. My friend has a friend that had his driving license revoked because he was caught drunk riding on a bicycle!! Like what the..... ??? Getting his driving license revoked because of drunk cycling is not something u see everyday. What will happen next? You will get your walking license revoked and you would have to use a wheelchair?

Because all the TV channels here are in German...or French, Youtube has been a main source of understandable shows. Recently i came across some very interesting video clips :


A really interesting video with a deep message - probobly one of the best short movie in Europe! Notice that the camera never cuts out in the Sarajevo scene.


I think this is a bit stupid, but its damn funny. Their German is quite good too. "Sprechen sie Deustch?" haha.




This might need a little more attention to understand how stupidly funny the joke is because they all act very seriously as if they mean what they say. Although i don't understand the ending joke.

Tuesday 24 July 2007

The vice pyramid

Let's face it, nobody in this world is perfect. Nobody has lived his life without making a mistake once in a while and fallen pray to his own lust. Its just part of being a human to make mistakes.

Throughout my stays in a few foreign countries, I have always been faced with challenges related to things that are considered a norm to locals but its a vice to me. These vices, if i may, vary from one culture to another. Of course there are many vices one could choose from but i rather focus on a few common ones, Vices that don't require one to be a mafia member to commit, namely Alcohol, Seduction (polite word for premarital sex) and Smoking. Each group of culture view these vices in different ways, thus impacting the numbers of people committing these vices within that particular culture. Towards that i have come up with "The Vice Pyramid" that I use to roughly define the perception of a certain culture or group of people towards these 3 vices.
The Vice Pyramid : every culture has a different vice heirerki

The vice pyramid has 3 layers. Layer 1 represents the vice least or least likely to be committed by the members of that culture and 3 represents the vice most likely to be committed by the members of a culture . As an example , according my personal perception , for Malays, alcohol will be at the top of the pyramid, the second would be seduction and the lower part would be smoking, since its quite likely for a Malay to be smoking. Although smoking is somewhat accepted by the people, but alcohol and seduction remain a serious offense and frowned upon by the Malays.

The first foreign country i have stayed was Turkey. This was the first taste of an open minded culture that considered all 3 vices as an everyday thing. Despite that I would say the vice pyramid for Turkey(western turkey) would be 1. seduction 2. smoking 3.
alcohol ... This was not good for a person that do not practice either one of those vices. I was always the odd one out among the people my age. Seduction wasn't a big issue but usually, they will be a bit surprised that i don't smoke, since almost everybody there smokes. Its hard to find someone who doesn't smoke. Although a bit surprised, they could accept the fact that i don't smoke, its acceptable not to smoke. But their biggest surprise was when i said i didn't drink any alcohol. For them it was the shock of the century!! they totally freaked out. Alcohol has become one of the traditions of Turkey and a symbol of its' secularism. In fact, they even have their own traditional liquor "Raki". It even came to the point that i was considered "less manly" because of not doing any of the vices. Since it was my first time in that situation, i was quite depressed but they say, "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger". It was a real test of my principals and I'm quite glad that i managed to pull through. Since then it hasn't been too hard for me to decline an offer to drink alcohol. Guess it did make me stronger.

Sometimes it may seem like you are "less manly" by not doing those vices, but if you show your confidence and belief in what you are doing, you will be respected. You'll not just be more manly but also a gentleman. the most important thing is to know the reason why you don't do this and that. After all, knowledge is power.

So, I end this article with a saying : "Your principals are just mere words unless put to the test" - Muhaimin

Tchuss

Sunday 22 July 2007

The Inconvenient Situation

Ever since i came to Mannheim, i was always offered beer or alcohol where ever i went. The comes to no surprise as Germany is famous for their beer. Beer is much cheaper than soft drinks in most restaurants. They have this festival called "Oktoberfest", which for some reason is held in september, where it will be a week of beer drinking to the max. I wouldn't want to get into a sticky situation like that. But despite the "conflict of interest", i have never turned down an offer to go drinking and "talk kok". Well, maybe people might expect me to step away from a meeting where alcohol is present, but why should I?

If we analyze the situation carefully, the main objective of the meeting is to chat, and although others might tend to drink beer, it doesn't mean i have to. I can always have a coke or fruit juice. It only comes down to whether i submit to my friends offer to have a beer. Well, to tell you the truth its not the first time i have been offered alcohol, in fact i have been offered many times before. Because of that its not to hard to reject the offer. I just maintain my cool and decline the offer. If you decline in a polite and civilized manner, people will respect your stance. Although they might insist sometimes, you must know and believe in the reason why you don't drink alcohol in the first place. Well for me, besides being an Islamic rule, i have also secular reasons why i don't drink alcohol, no matter how "cool" drinking alcohol might seem. For all the people that died due to drunk driving, to all the women and children getting beaten up by their drunken husband or fathers and for standing against the people that make money out of the selling, serving, investing, brewing, bottling, transporting and shipping.... I do not want anything to do with alcohol. However, I won't neither encourage nor stop you from drinking because that is your belief. I respect that. I believe we must first respect, in order to be respected.

I think for me its easier to decline, because being a Muslim it's self is an excuse to decline the beer offer. If people offer me beer, i just say that I'm a (practicing) Muslim, they will understand
. But i think it might be harder if your a non-muslim that doesn't really like to drink to decline, unless u have a specific medical condition that disallows you from drinking. What do you think about it? There was one trainee from Estonia that didn't like drinking beer, but because she didn't really have a particular reason not to drink, in time, she began to drink. But I guess its OK. as long as she doesn't go overboard.

I guess the trick here is just don't make a big deal out of it. And its always good to inform people about what you can or cannot eat to increase the understanding among us. Take an example last week i went for a BBQ with the AIESECers . This is a situation where food is a major concern, there are bound to be "conflicts of interests". Instead of avoiding the "conflicts of interest" i decided to face it head on and i think it has payed off. One of them made a salad. As they have been informed by me that i couldn't eat pork, they have thoughtfully separated the meat from the vegetables. That was, to my opinion, one step towards mutual understanding. I think i was the first practicing Muslim they have ever had with them. As for the BBQ meat, as usual i will use a aluminum foil to wrap my (halal) chicken and thus separating it from the other meets that were usually pork. So my BBQ chicken was isolated from the others. In that way i can still join them for a good time rather than just avoid the situation altogether.

Well in these situations one has to think out of the box while maintaining ones boundaries. It takes practice but in the end it will be OK...

in the next edition, I will be talking about a sensitive issue that i call "the vice pyramid"...so stay tuned,,,

Tchuss

Monday 16 July 2007

Top 10 list - Ep. 6

Top 10 cases of mistaken identity.

Throughout my traveling experience, I have been mistaken as :
1. A Chinese
2. A Japanese
3. A Eurasian
4. A Turkish
5. A Tartar (a race that looks like Russian + Chinese)
6. A South American
7. An Arab
8. A mixed Chinese + Caucasian
9. A mixed Chinese + Malay
10. An Indonesian

.:: Top 10 list - Out every now and then ::.




Sunday 15 July 2007

Cars

In the beginning of my internship in Germany i remember my friend giving a comment on my friendster profile that sound something like this : "Berbahagialah kamu bersama beribu-ribu Mercedes" meaning "May you be happy with thousands of Mercedes". Well its true that there are thousands of Mercedes here, but in Germany, people dont only have many Mercedes. Almost everyday you will bump into a Porsche or a Ferrari. for example, see what i saw parked along the road in front of my student hostel :

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

Ferrari F430

From the Number plates, we can know a few things, both are registered in Mannheim, they are most possibly owned by the same person or the owners come from the same family and the cars are registered only a short time from each other. But of all places, why did they choose to park near in front of a hair saloon in a student area? I bet they are the owners of that hair saloon

Seems that there are quite a number of wealthy people in Germany. It's not quite surprising because a big part of Germans don't really like to have children. And when they have no children, they have no "liabilities". It is also a issue that a lot of women are working and they don't want to have children because they have chose their carrier above a family. This is causing the birth rate in Germany for the past decade to fall dramatically. It is now a enormous problem for the German nation because currently the number of retired people out number the working class people almost twice. How is it a problem to the German nation future?

The German Pension Scheme

Well in Germany, the pension system is quite different, different from KWSP. Instead of everyone having an individual KWSP account of themselves, each month a sum of money is deducted from the salary of a working citizen and put together into one big fund that is used to pay the pension of the retirees.

Because the number of people working are declining as a result of less people want to have children for the past decade or two, the retirement fund is shrinking while the number of people depending on it is growing (there are more old people than working people). So, in the near future, the fund will be completely depleted and the retirees have to support themselves.

A short term solution is to increase the deduction from the working class. But currently almost half of a workers salary is deducted to pay for pensions and insurance and health care. This is the money that will be used to pay pensions and for the workers personal health insurance which is compulsory for every one that stays in Germany. So if u have a gross salary of 3000 euros, u will only get a net salary of around 1600 euros. But if the government decides to do that, imagine whats left of a workers salary. The current deduction is high enough, deduction it further will only worsen things.

A better solution is to restructure the pension system so that everyone is responsible for their own pension, like KWSP. But that is not something you can do overnight. it is impossible to directly change the system when there are more old people relying on the fund than the people supporting the fund. Somebody would have to add in extra money to the fund so that each old person will get enough money to support his everyday life. Apart from that, the government should come up of better ways to encourage people to get married and have children. one way is to improve the kindergarten system so that working mothers have not to worry much about their children when their work, thus encourage working families to have children.

Currently, similar to the Singapore government, the German government have introduced incentives for families with children wheres the government will give about 150 euros per child per month to the family until the child is finishes school or University. This incentive has been made full use mostly by the Turkish community where they have many children, sometimes 8 children at a time. So 8 x 150 = 1200 euros of extra income for that family per month apart from they normal income that normally is around 2000-3000 euros per month. Its no surprise that some Turkish families in Germany are able to afford Mercedes or BMWs which are quite expensive in spite being built in Germany. And its good to point out 150 euros is quite a lot of money, 150 euros is RM712.42 (on 15/7/2007) and dont be mistaken, but the value is also about the same as what its worth in Malaysia. in other words 150 euros is enough to support the particular child for a month. However its not enough for luxury. But with a large number of children, this will account for something, because it is cheaper for some things when bought in large quantities, such as food. In that respect, a big family would be an advantage. Talk about "cheaper by the dozen"....

Its also good to point out that if this trend of childless families continue, in a few year, Germans population will go down by a few millions, yes, a few millions. Also, with declining working people, shortages of man power are expected in a decade or so.

So in case you are wondering how a country gets into big trouble, the topic discussed above might be one of the answers.....

Tchuss

Wednesday 11 July 2007

Top 10 list - Ep. 5

Top 10 things I think will be a problem for me when I get back to Malaysia

  1. Looking towards the "right" direction before crossing the road. Here in Germany, the "right" direction will get you killed because cars come from the left.
  2. Crossing the road itself will be a bit challenging in Malaysia. Here, pedestrians have the highest priority on the road, so if there are people crossing the road, drivers must stop and let the person cross.
  3. Drinking plane water from a cup. I have a habit of drinking water straight from the bottle.
  4. Driving. I'm so used to walking, cycling and taking public transport. Plus, my driving license has expired and maybe I'm blacklisted for not paying summons.
  5. Manglish. Manglish is almost deleted from my vocabulary.
  6. Long Khutbah during Friday prayers.
  7. Re-adjusting my open-mindedness to reintegrate with Malaysian society, including my new habit of planing way in advance and perfectionism that i pick up here.
  8. New Phone number. My previous phone number has been terminated.
  9. Someone packing my groceries for me when i shop in the super market. We pack stuff ourselves here....they don't even give plastic bags, if you want, bring it yourself from home or buy one at the counter, but pack your stuff yourself. Cashier says, "I'm not paid to do that for you"
  10. Punctuality of public transport. As you know our public transport timing is very "flexible"
.:: Top 10 List - Out every now and then ::.

Tuesday 10 July 2007

デス ノット

It's kindda scary when you think of what people are willing to do for love... Some people will cross a sea of flames just for love and some people will rather die than see his/her love being hurt. Well I guess the following case that Im going to talk about is also rather typical....

A few days ago i came across a blog of a Malaysian girl thats is planing to kill herself on 31st of July. The blog was her preparations and things she is doing before she kills herself on 31st of July. From what she told about herself, she was "cheated" by her bf and all her money has gone. typical case. Later her bf broke up with her and obviously she is very upset about it. She plans to die, become a ghost and haunt his ex-bf...Like in the Korean horror movies.

Her blog was quite interesting. She talked about her best friend and how she had supported her all this while. She also talked about various ways to commit suicide from hanging to drinking weedkiller and also talked about her saying her last words to the people close to her and stuff...

The thing is she was so calm about all of this as if she was a terminally ill cancer patient waiting for her time. As if she already excepted the fate that she will die, but in reality she can choose not to kill herself.

But despite all of her blog entries that sometimes sounds scary when u read them I think she is just one of those mentally unstable girls seeking attention. she just wants everybody to console her and make herself seem wanted, since she did admit being a loner. But in case she is serious i have said what i can to her. Other than that i cant do anything else.

But i don't seriously think she will kill herself...Even if she really meant it, i think she will chicken out. At leasat i hope she will. I dont wish for the suicide statistics to go up. Besides, she has a loving family and best friend...she has everything a person could have wanted. but her parents obviously don't know about all of this.

But i basically don't know if she really means it or not....i guess we'll just have to see on 31st July. Im expecting a message from her that sounds like "Due to the moral support shown by everyone, i wont kill myself" by that time i know she wasn't even serious from the begining...

anyways, we'll just see...

Saturday 7 July 2007

Time shift

One thing I really noticed since i first came here is how time moves slowly when I sleeping. What I mean is, usually back home in Malaysia when we sleep 8 hours always feels like 10 minutes. There is always not enough sleep time and its always hard to wake up. But the strange thing here is no matter what time i sleep here its always not a big problem to wake up at 7.30am or 8am and on weekends, no matter how late i sleep i always automatically wake up around 9am. For example this morning i slept at 3.20am and when i slept it felt like forever. Each time i wake up i usually guess what time is it, so this time i guessed the time was 10.30 or 11am. to my surprise it was only 8.50am, and i felt i had overslept. So, having known the time, i force myself back to sleep and woke up at 10.30am, just in time to go for a hair cut. However during work, time moves normally. it's just when i sleep the time slows down. Strange huh?

This was the first time i went for a hair cut in Germany since 3 months ago. It took some time to find a shop that was cheap and had a short queue, but soon we found a shop with a balance between both. It was funny since my friend and I don't speak good Deutsch. I could understand a little but my friend even refused to learn :P but basically i knew what they were asking and i tried to answer accordingly. You see, when u live in a non english speaking country u get better in reading body language to understand what people are trying to say to you. Of course the important everyday used words are important, but since german classes are way beyond our budget and there where no courses in the university since it was the end of the semester, I tried to make good use of what i have....the internet. However, its really hard to get myself disciplined to spend a few hours in front of the computer to study German on the internet. Its just that i dont really like studying indoors... Im a bit claustrophobic. also there are many distractions such as MSN and youtube. So....again i resort to giving excuses...hehe..this is not good...Das ist nicht gud..

Tchuss

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Release of Alan Johnstan, BBC journalist

If you guys often listen to the BBC channel, whether from the radio, TV or internet, you might know Alan Johnstan, BBCs middle east correspondent. Alan Johnstan was kidnapped by a group of Islamic extremists in Gaza 114 days ago. During captivity, he was threatened and forced to make videos to serve the interest of the group that kidnapped him. More news :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6270020.stm

I have been following his stories from time to time and I'm relieved that he was finally released. I wish him all the best in his future undertakings....

Tuesday 3 July 2007

Random MyXP video


DB(Die Bahn) Regional Express train (double decker) heading to Stuttgart.

The interior

S-Bahn (Schnell Bahn) to Heidelberg. Not 300 km/h but quite fast. Schnell = Fast

Olivers Twist (?)

Do you guys remember the first month i was here where i had just enough money to survive? At that time I resorted to fasting, and even going vegetarian for half a month (which was not too bad). However now that i get a full paycheck (minus 119 euros for KWSP an insurance) i can now be more creative in what i cook.

Last month my breakthrough was Original nasi goreng after almost a month of seri aji. Not that seri aji was bad, but even if u eat strawberry ice cream everyday, you will bound to get sick of it. Its a natural human need, the need for variety.

However, with the discovery of the asian market, more possibilities started to come to light. Although it does not have everything, but the essential ingredient's to create a very decent meal was there. Spices like curry powder, ginger, cardamoms and star aniseeds (i think its bunga lawang in malay) are very useful in creating a variety of gravy or "lauk-pauk". The past few weeks saw many successes in reproducing the Mamak stall and Restoran Noor. I have successfully cooked chicken curry, kuah kicap ayam and today, i successfully cooked kuah lemak cili api. Believe it or not i just found the recipe on the internet yesterday and decided to cook it today and i cant believe that it was so easy, i bet anybody can cook it. But it did turn out a bit too spicy since i put about 15 chillies in it. But as my mom would say, "lagi pedas, lagi bagus. baru ada kick!". haha. So the experiment to cook lemak cili api proved successful.

Talking about the asian market. Sometimes the products there quite strange in nature. for example, the star aniseeds (bunga lawang) has a packaging with an Indian woman on it. Thats totally normal since these spices usually come from India. A closer look shows that it is a product of China! It seems that the term "everything is made in China" has some basis. And to top that up, the importer is a British company, TRS Wholesales Co. Ltd. Im not surprised if this company turned out to be a subsidiary of the British East India Trading Company (the multinational company that used to set a regional office in Melaka some hundrad years ago) because most of the spices here are imported by this company. And the prices for these stuff are quite unbelievable. the cardimums costs 2.1euros (about RM10) for 50g wheres in Malaysia it would cost at most RM1 for the same amount. No wonder the europeans killed to get hands on the spice producing nations back in the good old days. Speaking of which, i think i can do business selling spice here. I mean, if it costs RM 10 here and RM1 in Malaysia, I can DHL a whole box here and can still make profit i guess. To save costs, maybe we shouldn't use DHL, maybe just by normal mail, or just "kirim" to anybody who is coming to Germany. Haha. Just a thought.

The past few days has been a bit quiet here in my hostel since most of the dwellers have gone for their summer vacation. That means i have a bigger dominance of the shared kitchen. FYI, I utilize the kitchen the most in my floor. 2nd is the Brazillian girl and her gang. They usually bake cakes and cook some western food.

I kindda like cooking. And being in the situation that i have to cook gives me extra motivation to try out different recipes to keep myself from eating the same thing everyday. I have also gained some unprecedented attention form my floor mates, and they have been somewhat acquainted with Malaysian food. Thats good. But im not implying that im an excellent cook. Let's just say its good enough to eat........twice.

To you guys/girls that claim that they cant cook, please get urself to learn to cook. Believe me its not hard. U just need the will power and some kiasu-ness. If i can do it u can too. Its not like i was born a chef. I started somewhere. Good luck!

Tchuss

Monday 2 July 2007

Thank god for the vegetarians

Unlike some other parts of the world, vegetarianism is a widely acknowledged group of herbivors that have consideral impact on the way businesses run. For example, in restraunts it's an unspoken rule that there must be a vegetarian menu. Without one, the restraunt might as well be loosing a big number of their vegetarian customers to other restraunts. Even in food products in supermarkets manufacturers will normaly use plant based ingredients unless nessesaray. This is to ensure that the products are suitable for the vegetarian community that is rapidly growing. The number of vegetarians in Germany, Italy and the UK alone already amounts to almost 18 million people, equal to the population of Australia. This means if a company decides to "un-vegetrainize" their products, they would have to consider the risk of loosing 18 million customers or a situation that as if Australia has totaly band their products.

However this was not the case for Masterfoods, the producer of famus chocolate products such as Mars, Snickers and Twix. In a BBC report on 14th May 2007 said, Masterfoods have anounced that their products have started to use an animal based ingredient, "rennet". This caused rage among members of the vegetarian society which refered to the act as "incomprehensible" and it was a step backwards.

"Rennet" is a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs, is used in the production of whey.

This will mean any of their products that has a expiry date after 1st of october will not be suitable for vegeterians.

However, Masterfoods did not consider the 53 million muslims living in Europe that up till now has been consumers of their products. The step to use "rennet" in the products means that they are loosing 53 million of their potential customers, unless the "Rennet" is acquired through a halal process.

So what does this mean to me? Well, its true that muslims and vegetarians have different views and opinion in terms of what to eat and what not to eat. Vegetarians are usualy vegetarians because(among other things) they are against cruelty to animals that is always related to commercial meat production but for me as a non-vegetarian, i believe that our body was naturaly created by god to consume meat and resorting to the total rejection of the consumption of meat for the reason stated above is and easy way out. Instead we should fight for a laws and systems that treats animals in a more humaine way. We can debate all day long about this topic but i choose not to because in the end, nobody wins.

What ever the believes of people, i dont think it's an excuse for us to deny the rights of other parties. I believe that there should be a sence of mutual respect, especialy among minority (such as in this case) vegetarians in Europe. Because believe it or not without the vegetarians(which has a stronger voice in europe), it would also be a big problem for the muslims to consume most of the products in the european market now. Thank god for the vegetarians.

I believe there is no such thing as a race or a certian group of people in this world that is better than the other. We all complement the other. Just like a girl is the other half of the man, a race is a part of the other races and only by working together we can achieve a (close to) perfect world. Towards that, we should be focusing more on the mutual interest of everybody instead of focusing on the differences and believe me, its is way more beneficial that you can imagine.

Sunday 1 July 2007

Shit happens

Even though you be careful as you normally would, from time to time you would be caught off guard when executing your plans. This was the case yesterday when I went to "visit" Ulm, the place where my friend, ex UTM incoming trainee, was staying. Ulm is a small town with the tallest church steeple in the world at 161.53m. So big, i struggled to fit it in my cameras view finder. It was the birthplace of Albert Einstein, which is a big pride for ULMers. Anyway, I already emailed Mustafa on my trip to Ulm. He gave me his phone number. So the night before i came, i sms-ed him about where and when to meet. But for some reason he did not replied me. the next morning before i went i was thinking of rechecking the phone number he gave to me but in the rush to catch the train, i forgot. so it was a 4 hour journey with 2 changes of trains 1st in Heidelberg and 2nd in Stuttgart. actually i think the total journey was only a bit more than 2 hours but the stops were quite long.

so when i arrived at Ulm station, i tried to cal Mustafa a few times but to no avail. That was when i really thought that i entered the wrong number in phone. I tried to find an internet cafe but i couldn't. My only hope was for Mustafa to noticed that i have my mobile number in my email sign off. But i couldnt count on that, so i decided to go around Ulm by myself. With free maps at my disposal and a state transport ticket, this was more than possible.

So, armed with the map, i went around Ulm by myself. Ulm is a small city and the places of attractions were very close to each other so i just walked from each of the places. Its quite a nice place with a number of historical places. Too bad i didnt have a tour guide so i didn't get to know about the history of the places. But i was really astonished by the effort taken to conserve the environment. The rivers were so clean that u could take a swim in it and the streats were clean and its very hard to find any rubbish anywhere. I spent about 4 hours there before i finished my trip and decided that Mustafa was not going to call me. So, i embarked on my 4 hour journey back to Mannheim. Remember that i wanted to buy insoles for my shoes during the "shopping day"? Well i finally bought a pair of "gel" insoles that claim to be extra comfortable bla bla bla. what a bunch of bull droppings. half an hour through the journey it was already flat and was as comfortable as walking on pins and needles. What a waste of 15 euros.

Well my mistake this time was not preparing the necessary travel information and based my whole journey on the assumption that i will meet Mustafa, So i didn't have a backup plan. But its good thing that i could improvise and come up with my own travel plan, so the trip was not a lost cause. But it was a shame that i couldn't meet Mustafa.

But like what Mustafa said when he called me later that night... "shit happens"... and i would say, "shit happens, don't keep sniffing it"...

Ulm Münster

Ulm Münster is currently undergoing reconstruction