Want Not, Lose Not

Alfred is a computer genius.  He can write marvellous programs especially the ones on games, and recently there is one so crazy that the players get hooked on to it and have nightmares about it.  It is a complicated game of serial murders, clue finding and solving, containing many elements of the CIA style of investigation.  Points are awarded as the player ventures to track down each clue, each suspect or each crime scene . Higher points being  given to the more correct of the multiple answers to be chosen.  He is not going to get it patented as he is not sure whether any part is plagiarized and he hasn't the time to check on the details.  He has his studies and course work to think of.  However, he made his friends swear that it is supposed for 'internal circulation' only, meaning only among trusted friends. 

In return his friends will have to pay a price.  It is a simple barter trade, though sometimes not so simple after all.  Some friends offered little in exchange , so Alfred will refuse the supply.  So you think writing these programs is an easy thing, not worth this whole month of sending my clothes to the laundry and paying for the services, and the cleaning of my bathroom.  Very well, deal off.  You don't want and I don't lose.  You keep your money and I give my time and ingenuity to someone else more willing to pay.  Never mind if I don't have my laundry paid for, because it means I will just have a few dollars less in my pocket.  Never mind if I will have to wash my own bathroom: it will be a good form of exercise for me after sitting at the table for hours.  And you...you will be better off too because you can keep your money for something that is more important like investing in some good books or just save it up.  I do not get very rich and you do not get poor. 

The Weeping Wife

The hymns were playing in the car as John set to wash it . He wanted to listen to them as he washed the car. It would give him a good feeling.

His wife was looking on as she washed the laundry. She had noticed that while he remembered to wash his old car every weekend, he had not done anything to hers which was left parked outside the house under a tree.

All that he was interested was to sell it off as soon as possible, irregardless to whom or what better bargain he could get. Perhaps, he was lazy to take care of it.

Later, he felt guilty about not helping with the housework. He wanted to vacuum the house. He looked for the vacuum cleaner but could not find it. He started to complain about his wife keeping it away. Why complain about a tidy wife, you might wonder. It was just that he preferred things to be put where he could see them, which meant that he could not care less having the whole house cluttered. His wife had tripped over the long hose of the vacuum cleaner and nearly fell the other day. It had made walking in the small kitchen hard. There was not a storeroom to put all his gadgets and tools, so he used part of the kitchen to put his things.

After all the complains, he got tired and went to sleep. The house remained un-vacuumed. Who wanted him to do the job anyway, better to get it done myself, thought the wife. After all these years, she had learnt to be self-reliant. There was not much to be communicated between them now. Each had their own thoughts and the wife had given up hope of ever coming to any agreement with him. She had learnt to plan and take care of her own affairs. It had been made clear to her quite some time ago that that was what he intended to do, but she always seemed to forget about it. He had always wanted to drop his responsibility but could not because of his parents. He was afraid of his parents.

The wife, on the other hand, was getting herself mentally prepared for his abandonment. She had to stay on until the children were old enough. It was not a matter of forgiving him or not. It was letting her husband free because he had revealed he was tired of the relationship.  He was tired of keeping up to her standards, of which she regarded the lowest among all good people. He wanted to go back to his old lifestyle. However, it was going to be unfair to the wife. What would others have thought, she questioned herself. Others would have thought she could not forgive him for his vain self, his failures, and his bad habits. Yes, she found him hypocritical but she could forgive him for that too. Now, it is him who wants out. However, he is not telling that to his friends. How am I going to tolerate this anymore, she wondered.

The Very Mercenary Dentist

Dental care nowadays is extremely expensive if you go to the private clinic.  Most of us prefer private dental care because of the shorter queue and flexibility of time.  Government dental clinics have fixed days for extractions and for filling or scaling. Some of us find it hard to accomodate for those times, so instead we prefer to spend money on our most treasured asset-a fine set of natural teeth.  However, that is not always guaranteed by the amount of money we are willing to put in. Dentists are such an arrogant lot!

A tooth extraction normally costs about fifty ringgit , scaling costs eighty ringgit whereas filling costs fifty to eighty depending on the size of the cavity.  However, I have a feeling this kind of money is not satisfying some dentists.  Some prefer to earn from the 'higher end' kind of jobs namely crowning, bridges and the like, which at the minimum, costs about eight hundred ringgit for one crowning.


One thing about the dentists is we have to trust our teeth to them.  We won't be sure how many holes we have in our set of teeth or how bad they are except to trust them.  Besides, we are not too sure the work they have done is good enough for us to pay that much.  There is no guarantee although we may have paid hundreds to the thousands of ringgit. Though some dentist will advise to have an X-ray done to show how the cavities are before doing, many will just proceed without having it done at all, because the X-rays are going to mean extra costs to be paid.


At the end of the day, there is no proof of how your teeth are before the job is done. Once, I was having my teeth done and the dentist was in a hurry to go somewhere.  He kept on asking the nurse beside him if he had missed out any procedures.  Poor me , because I was thinking that the 'fate' of my teeth was going to be in his hands! I did not want a shoddy job done to my teeth and I wanted my natural teeth to last longer!  Most of all, I cannot afford  to 'throw away my money' for the crowning and root treatments and whatnots if I can avoid them!

Houses that Look Like Offices

During these couple of years, the design of new houses and recently renovated ones have taken on a new look.  Most of them have taken on a more contemporary design where there are more rectangular and square shapes. Somehow, it reminded me of how offices should look , more than how homes should look. Excuse me whoever out there who think otherwise!

I would prefer houses that have designs that blend with the neighbourhood.  To me, it is an odd picture to see a completely different contemporary designed house jutting out from the classic looking ones. Recently I noticed a greyish newly renovated house with a glass facade amidst a row of brownish , woody looking houses.  The house by itself looks beautiful but it looks odd among the other similar or almost similar looking ones.


Though I don't think the new designs are ugly, I do not understand why some people bother to tear down their already nice looking houses to adopt the 'new' look. Moreover, the building materials nowadays are more expensive and somewhat of more inferior quality.


I thought people should be more conservative in their usage of the Earth's resources and I don't see how this is going to be if they keep on 'chasing after' trends of all sorts.


Even if they are so wealthy, I think there are better ways of spending their 'excesses'.  Just in a matter of a decade or two, these designs will soon be a thing of the past and what is 'beautiful and modern' will be 'ugly and outdated'.  Humans can be very fickle.  The availability of money to be extravagant is the main cause of this fickle-mindedness.

What's Wrong With the Young Married Couples Nowadays!

I have recently heard of many stories about young people getting married with no intention of having children in their lives. It's just the woman and the man , and the dog named Boo.


There is an apparent fear of bringing up children properly in this ever fast changing world where good moral values have becoming 'archaic'.  It seemed that these people are preferring to achieve their ambitions and dreams instead of spending their time in making a family.  They fancy travelling to all the places they want while they are young.


Meanwhile, they shirk their responsibilities as children to their parents.  They tell their parents to carry on working lest they get Alzhiemer easily if they don't.  They do not give money to their parents because they are still earning. If and when their parents are too old and sickly, they put them in the homes and they just pay
for the expenses.  They do not have time to visit them often because they are too busy making money to upkeep their lifestyles. Anyway, they will say, what is wrong with their parents staying in the homes, because when they themselves are old, they are also going to do that as they will have no children to take care of them. At least, their parents still have someone close to come and visit them, whereas they are not going to have anybody at all!


How sad that these young and married couples decide to spend their lives this way! What a sad choice!

Your Money Or His Life

There's a game that I used to play with my playmates when I was about primary school age.  It was "Robbers and Cops'.


The group of us was divided into three categories, namely the victims, the robbers and the cops.


The game would start off with someone getting robbed.  The usual dialogue that they had to engage together with some acting out of the scene was as follows:




Robber/s  :  Stop!  Don't move!  I have got a gun.


Victim/s(usually girls)  :  (Screaming and struggling as the non pistol wielding one tries to take away any priced possession)


Victim/s  :  No, I don't have any money!   or  Please don't take my money!


Robber/s  : Your money or your life?!


Victim/s  : DON'T KILL ME!  Take all you want.....


At this point, let us put ourselves in the shoes of the robbers who are making away with our money or any priced possession after they had inflicted some form of injury on their victims.


How would they have felt if their victims opted for the following actions? (It is regrettable that these robbers never think like this)


The victims chase after them and take vengeance? Putting up a good fight , kicking and clubbing them real hard.


 Yes, this is the most natural thing to do but only if you have the muscle to do it. Or when you are properly armed.


Are you going to give an 'eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' kind of vengeance?


Or just let the law take over the matters?  Report the matter and hope they get caught and put in jail soon.


Or are you going to give double or triple or many more times worse than what they had done to you?  Like causing fatality, just like what a woman in Ampang Jaya did.  Ramming her car into the robber's bike and ripping his private parts apart. Oooh...that was horrible !


Perhaps, the next time when you are being robbed, you can even challenge the robber by asking "Do you want MY money or YOUR life?"  Of course, only when you have the upper hand!


It would be better than causing grievous injury or death.


The other day, as reported by the Star papers, a lady rammed her car into the robbers as they were trying to escape on their motorbike after taking away her handbag from her car. Consequently, one of them was killed instantly and the other badly injured.


I have great sympathy for both parties, the robbers and the victim.
Needless to say, it was the most horrendous mistake by both.  God knows what they are going to go through in the next half of their pitiful lives!  

No Good In Mankind

Many people still cling to the notion that man is naturally good.  We did not get this from the Greeks.  Aristotle said, There is no good in mankind."  We did not get this in Judaism.  Jeremiah said,  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"(Jeremiah17:9)


We did not get it from Christian teachings.  The Apostle Paul said, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory
of God" (Romans3:23)


We got this illusion, I believe,  from the philosophers and psychologists of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries who taught the false doctrine that man is a helpless victim of his environment.  The Bible says that man is not naturally good.  All human experiences confirm it.  Man is rebellious by nature.The first rebellion in history happened in the Garden of Eden, where the environment was perfect and there was no heredity on which to blame it on.




Billy Graham




Each time I become obsessed by the idea that my deeds are so noble, let me remember the magnanimity of your perfect life.  

Good Salt is Worthless if it Loses its Saltiness

Columbus was called mad because he decided to sail the uncharted ocean....Martin Luther was called mad because he presumed to defy the entrenched religious hierarchy of his time.  Patrick Henry was considered mad when he cried, "Give me liberty or give me death!"  George Washington was thought to be mad when he decided to continue the war after the winter at Valley Forge, when thousands of his men died and other thousands had deserted, leaving him only a handful of men.  


We have become too sophisticated and respectable to be called mad in our generation.


In the midst of materialism and secularism, thank God there are those who sacrifice time, talents, social positions , and lucrative posts, and who fling aside every advantage in order to serve God.


"Salt that loses its saltiness can't season anything.  So don't lose your flavour!............"

A Time of Peace

Increasing numbers of people, of all ages and types, get away from it all by 'going into retreat' in monasteries, convents and other religious houses.


This is not a religious revival; not all are of the religion of the place to which they go, and a number have no religious belief at all,.  But all discover the therapeutic value of complete isolation from the tensions of ordinary life, the welcome silence from chatter, reasonable comfort, good food and the freedom to join in(or not, as they like) an ordered, peaceful, pattern of life, with access to a good library and, usually a pleasant garden.


Many people emerge from these retreats refreshed, sorted out and relaxed, and appreciate the silence that is kept, especially during organised retreats.  For those who are entirely new to the experience, there may be apprehension as to what they will find on arrival.  But the feeling of strangeness is soon dispelled.

Whatever Happened to my Youthful Zing?

'What you need,' says my ex-Naval husband, 'is a course of leg-chest-supple-bend-twist-arm.  Never fails. 


 Might even try it myself', he adds, looking at himself sideways in the mirror, and secretly holding himself  in.


 'Leg-chest-supple-bend-twist-arm', for the benefit of the uninitiated, is a series of exercises designed to keep sailors fit while serving in confined ships' quarters. 


 'Just the thing for our bedroom,' I pant, as we stand eyeball to eyeball between the bed and the chest of drawers, flinging our arms backwards as far as they will go.  'But are you absolutely sure they are suitable for girls, too? 


 This one is giving me shoulders like an ox.  Come to think of it, I can't help wondering what our neighbours are making of all this running on the spot!'

Whatever Happened to my Youthful Zing?

Unperturbed, I start reading keeping fit articles in magazines. 


 "While you are reading this, " I read, 'rotate both feet from the ankles.'  So I sit there waggling and ignoring the funny looks I am getting from the family. 


 However, I'm not so happy about the instructions that follow;  'When sitting on the bus or train, roll your eyes from side to side, clench and unclench the buttocks, stretch and purse the lips.' 


 I just know this wouldn't go down well around our way, however, furtively one did it.

Whatever Happened to my Youthful Zing?

Thinking back, I'm amazed at all the activities I went in for in my youth: Not, to be strictly honest, through any great inner desire to hike, cycle, sail, climb or jog, but brought about more by desires for various chaps who went in for these things.  So, perhaps the time has come to recapture at least some of that youthful zing.


Friends do not help much, but I ignore remarks like:  'I get all the exercise I need polishing floors', 'You're bound to do yourself mischief', 'You've to expect a few twinges now and then", 'You look fine to me' and even 'Well, my friend took up water-skiing and before he even got out of the sports shop, he tripped over his new skis and broke a leg!'

Whatever Happened to my Youthful Zing? asks Betty Bendell

Anna asks:  'What's my skipping rope doing out on the terrace, Mum?'
'I've just been seeing if I can still do it,' I reply.
'Why?' she asks.
'Go and tidy your room, ' I say.

The fact is, I've been getting increasing signs that I'm not as agile these days as I thought I was.  I quite accept that by the time I'm 80 or 90, I may have to curb any sudden desire to paint ceilings, take up rugger or toss my husband into the air.  But I'm not nearly old enough yet for twinges and funny turns.  I've been telling myself this quite often lately, as I totter clammily home from shopping, or seize up in an unusual position while cleaning the bath.


  Only yesterday, I swooped on a piece of bindweed in the garden and had to spend the rest of the day in a deckchair, resting.




'Could be just sloth, you know!' says a friend.  Or perhaps you ought to see a doctor,' says another. 


 But doctors tend to smile sceptically when I pluck up the courage to stagger into their surgeries, and imply I'm one of the healthiest sights they've seen the whole day. 


 'Here, try these,' they say, tossing me a prescription for something so nasty and so strong that when I take it, I really am ill for weeks.  So, on the whole, I think I'd rather make do with fresh air and exercise, plus the occasional shot of brandy as a last resort.  Anyway, at the moment, I don't think I am ill exactly.  I just think that, without realising it,  I've gradually been letting myself get out of condition.