Picatho's causeries

Oh, $#@%! Sitting with my shoulders shrugged up

I think most seniors love Gurney Plaza and Queensbay Mall in Penang, even with its cold air conditioning inside. Maybe it's because nowadays the sun is too shining out at our clime and people are dreading stepping outside. Mall walking, or ambling around a shopping center for exercise, has become an option other than the fitness club.

Mall walking began when the first fully enclosed U.S. mall, the Stockdale, opened in Minnesota in 1956 and local doctors counseled patients recovering from heart attacks to exercise there, away from the snow and ice of Minnesota's harsh winters.

Since I've had given up badminton 2 years ago, exercise to me has become less and irregular. Sometimes it's just hard to summon up the enthusiasm to make it happen, sometimes it's a lost track of time, or perhaps the love of home exercise has faded year by year and gradually letting my treadmill be laid for dust.

So walk the mall or ambling around a shopping center has become my main exercise, and as usual, I went for shopping for exercise at Queensbay day before yesterday with my old partner as well as my youngest granddaughter. I walked tier by tier for several km from the south end to the north end. Not only she, my active two-year-old had given me a chance of non-stop chasing around exercise, her occasional annoying preferences to be carried up with demanding directions had also worked up my old bones.

As I think, by walking the mall and at the same time pointing out the things around her, such as the guard wearing uniform or the shop painted in red color, is grateful!

I was recently introduced into Facebook by friends for networking and friendship purposes. Naturally first and foremost the friends finding is a very encouraging thing to do.

Luckily I'm befriended in this circle and most of my invitations were courteously welcome excepted there is one political figure in Penang, a blogger who then turned MP, had given me a cold shoulder. Doesn't he know that I'm not going to rub shoulders with him but merely to hear his political views of which I've had admired to long ago. That's why I contributed few sums as a political donation to him during the 308.

Now it seems that my donation is not even worth a single sen. I do acknowledged my friends' saying that all political people are (my notation: not all) non fuck-able!

Venue: Penang Corner Club
Highlight: Periodic number-check on some of the Chung Ling (Pri) High School 1970's old boys.

Sixth is a significant number to this group of my friends who have known each other since our secondary school. Some of them are already 60, or will be 60 next year. We are no doubt be categorized into "one could pass away any time within another 10 years" category, and unique concerns regarding health & retirement loom in our horizon.

We met together cheerfully on the last Sunday just to show our respective "LP" faces, to twitter on about health and most importantly to exchange greetings. I boosted that now we basically need more shakes of cock for the last drop of urine when doing a piss. Experiences have shown that how you "use" you "brother" in mid-life does contribute to your health status when you are older.

Nevertheless, though wrinkles were significant not only on our faces but certain part of our bodies, yet we all looked positive while associating. This includes our common instinct that we still can't keep our eyes off a pair of big ones of beautiful animals on the street. Don't blame us since British Medical Journal found that men are more than twice as likely as women to be sexually active in old age but good health is the key for both to feeling naughty.

We all knew that to maintain our health, we need to strike a balance in our life, to control stress, to eat and play well, of which are easy to prescribe but hard to do in this chemical world we live in. "So don't take whatever "LP" foods to eat with binge" I suggested. We all laughed and blithely moving on with other issues until we had cleared the table.

As Chinese New Year is around the corner and you can see that all eatable and uneatable new-year-goods, especially pork price, have been viciously spiraled. "Every year is like that lah!" said my wife after she has had bought a dried-duck with 30 percent of price increment over the prior year's pricing. I said to my wife that we should be supposed not to play ducks and drakes with money this Chinese New Year. Eating a kilo of big prawn during this festival for Rm80 is not a valued treat.

Since October, the price of pork had risen from Rm14/kg to Rm22/kg. Breeders claimed for price hike owing to diseases and high cost of pig feeds. Pork sellers and abattoirs claimed for high rental and operation costs. And they are refusing to reduce their profit margin irrespective of social market behavior. They are in other words, real pigs in the majority than good eggs.

As in many economies around the world, rising costs for consumable and food have damaged confidence and made consumers reluctant to spend, particularly on pork meat of which is having more harm than good for health.

Kudos to the government's imposition for the import of pork and pork-based products to relax the pork-price spiral. And at this time they, pork breeders and sellers are seemed to be individually chocked with big sausage in his mouth!

Staggeringly three Churches in Kuala Lumpur are set on fire today in the wee hours. The gossip casted a cloud on who was doing it became the top of the list (the list of disgraceful things recently reported in mass media) and is rife in most kopitiams.

You talked, he talked and I talked but the one is quite sure that these arson attacks with venom are done by those savages who have had their stomachs full with supply but nothing had needed to do.

Politicians can't seem to tell the difference between racialism and harmony. Any talk of "allah" is considered blasphemous, but there is a constant bark of empty yapping around.

This is a society in deep, deep trouble and the fixes are mush more encouraging in put off the fire of hate-begets-hate.

When most of the people are celebrating to welcome 2010 with great joy, I'm starting the new year with the sinking feeling that's dampened with a first degree of melancholia persecution alike. Days before, My son-in-law's car which was parked in front of my house had it's front passenger's window being smashed and his wallet and some valuables were all stolen in broad day light. This was the third break-in happened within my dwelling just in a year!

One could imagine the high frequency of crime in Kulim, especially my area, Taman Senangin, where the public order is terrible, uncontrolled densities of floating aliens, red-light district, mushroom of illegal Malay-operating stores, privileged preaching house, mat-rempits' play ground, crooks hide-out area, full of litterlouts, open burnings & etc. Almost every day we read of innocent losses in this black-district as a result of the rampage of these detestable groups of people who prey on others who work hard for their money and belongings especially Chinese are of lucrative targets.

Kulim is sickening yet we can't do anything accept to trying to leave the bad (people, disorders, negative environment) behind and take very protective concern to our life and property. Perhaps we should take some preventive measures, such as keeping weapon for self-defense and urging for broad-gauze right of self-defense. For examples, one would be praised instead of be charged if one can kill a robber; we were issued with firearms to keep in practice of shooting-the-black-sheep just like what we've had seen in the oldish cowboy films and let public order to be ordered by conscience and not by law. O! That are all my conservative imaginations.