RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

They're centenarians, lined up along the road, providing shade against the sweltering afternoon heat, and giving wannabe photographers the opportunity to get good photos. Back in July 2010, I saw them in person during a visit to the Taiping Lake Gardens . The other day, my mother told me that there was a big issue over some development plans for the Taiping Lake Gardens, in which these 120 year old raintrees may face a situation they have not faced in the past. The very next day, my favourite radio station interviewed a man who started a petition to stop the Taiping Municipal Council from going ahead with their plans of building kiosks at the area despite assurance that the trees will not be in immediate danger. The problem is, you can never tell with development -  what if greed gets in the way? According to the interview, the proposed kiosks will end up blocking the view of the lakes and I'm assuming that the aura of tranquillity which we get there now will be gone foreve...

The haze is back, Just our luck, Grey skies abound, All you can see is the ground, And nothing above a 12 foot rack! The forest is on fire, Definitely not burning with desire, I'm not sure about the peat But if you think about the heat It burns the quagmire A sorethroat has come knocking, I wear a striped red stocking Oh! There goes the wind The sun saying hi from behind Adieu! I'm going spelunking The haze arrived some time ago (I can't remember when exactly), but I was thinking this morning about how the blurry skyline looks like there is a mist shrouded in mystery until it assaults your nose from all directions. I wrote the 'poetry'  waaaay back in 2006. Some things are just there for rhyming purposes.

I was around twelve years old when I realised how insanely close the country I live in, Malaysia, has managed to escape the violence displayed by the Pacific Ring of Fire that plagues a few of our neighbouring countries in a lesson known as Alam & Manusia (Nature and (hu)Man, if you will). The picture here includes Malaysia in the ring for some strange reason - but that is not the case... there are no volcanoes to speak of and earthquakes are mostly aftershocks from the nearby earthquakes. Merapi in July Volcanoes have always fascinated me despite their destructive nature and the depressing stories of people having to be evacuated, and so on.. A few years ago, I saw the my very first volcano *up close in the island of Bali. And then in July this year, I saw another two volcanoes in the island of Java, Merapi and Merbabu, and also a documentary of an erupting Merapi in all it's volcanic fury. Merbabu on the other hand is a dormant volcano. Merapi, at that point was standing ...

A long time ago, I convinced myself that I loved trees by writing (I was actually coerced to take part in a district level competition by our English teacher) an essay titled "Why I love trees", inspired by the trees swaying in the wind as I sat by the window, looking out at them whilst chewing the end of my pen. It was a huge surprise when I found out some time later that I had actually won the first prize in the category I took part in, and as a result received  a gorgeous book called Tomorrow's Earth by David Bellamy. Being me, I read the book cover to cover many times over, and the trees won me over. I was 12 then. But enough about the brief history of the shady origins of my love for trees. The fact is, I just found out today from Nick at Anything Goes that you can actually name a tree after your blog, through a tree planting program called "My blog is Carbon Neutral"   and the best part is, the trees are real ones, breathing, transpiring, chlorophyll...

Picture borrowed from onemanbandwidth.wordpress.com We live right here, on a planet called Earth where forests are green, and seas are blue. We are fortunate to be teeming with life, or are we? I was driving to work today at the mind-numbing speed of 8 km/hr (there was an accident along the way that caused a jam that stretched for miles) when I observed an old dilapidated wall covered with greens. It had once had a grand looking house in the compound, which was nowhere to be seen, and the gate too had disappeared (metal thieves?) I don't know when it was abandoned, but the compound itself had grown into a massive tangle of weeds ( not weed , hahaha ) which would probably be waist high had I ventured inside, with saplings growing wildly and looked pretty much like a secondary jungle. Now, I mention this because it is after all World Earth Day on the 22 nd of April, and for me, seeing those greens fighting their way through what was once a human domain is a positive sign tha...

To get to work, I have to cross the same river in two places using an old motorboat that lost it's motor a couple of years ago. Ok, that was a joke, a bit bad in taste perhaps seeing that some people still need to cross rivers that way... Naturally, with rivers, the water occasionally decides to seek higher ground especially when their friends from the sky visit, and then there's also the fact that my glaring at people who indiscriminately throw rubbish on the roads, floor or everywhere else but the bin (and only god knows what monstrosities are thrown into the rivers... so sad!) seems to not have any effect whatsoever, which most probably leads to this crazy flooding after a few hours of rain which seems to happen oh so frequently these days. The road that I usually take was partly submerged in water in one small stretch and a double lane was reduced to a single lane. Even last Friday, I ended up staying back in work until almost 9pm because I heard about the road conditions...

It was uncomfortably warm yesterday, maybe a small unconscious reminder of the effects and impact of global warming as a result of all the development that has been going on ever since the industrial revolution. According to the radio show I was listening to in the morning, the usage of power (in the form of electricity) seems to be one of the highest contributors to global warming. So, it was only fair that yesterday people all over the world were urged to turn off the lights (and air-conditioning, or any other electrical appliance) for one hour at 8:00 pm (local time). Some countries which were actively participating even had plans on turning off decorative lights along the streets and buildings, with the hope that at least 1 hour of conserved energy would help make the world a better place. I was out at 8:00 pm yesterday, but where I was, lights were still brightly lit, and no signs of the air conditioning unit being turned off. Oh well!