From "Sister" to "Aunty"

I know I'm getting older when people start introducing me to kids as "Aunty Julie" and not "Sister Julie" anymore.

The Inspiration Behind Tolkien's Gates of Moria

I received a comment from a reader pointing out that the tree trunks at St Edward's looked more like the Gates of Moria instead of the Gates of Mordor.

When I compared Tolkien's drawings of the Gates of Moria with the tree trunks, it looked like she was right.

Well, maybe the tour guide made a mistake or I heard wrongly. Anyway, here's an updated version of the entry. Sorry for the mistake, folks!

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Do you want to know what inspired JRR Tolkien's Gates of Mordor Moria in the Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Apparently Tolkien conceived the idea for those famous gates from a pair of tree trunks in the Church of St Edward in Stow-on-the-Wold.

Church of St Edward

Stow-on-the-Wold is a little town situated in the Cotswolds, a range of hills in west-central England famous for its gentle hillsides, sleepy villages and for being so 'typically English'.

Wanna see how the tree trunks look like? Scroll downwards ...

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Here they are ... the trees that inspired Tolkien's Gates of Mordor Moria

And here is an artist impression a drawing by Tolkien himself of the gates:

Similar, right?

Malaysians Who Know Nothing About Malaysia

Chris was down in KL for a holiday and I brought him to Little Penang Cafe in KLCC for some Malaysian food.

After that we headed to Hard Rock Cafe to meet up with my friend Sue. When we got there Sue was sitting with two other girls whom I've never seen before.

The two girls started asking about Chris - who is he, what's he doing in KL, what he does for a living, etc. I've never seen these pussies before, but at the rate they were interrogating us, I thought they were going to ask how many times I fark Chris in a day.

Then one of the girls who was heavily made up, dressed sexily and looked high maintenance asked where did we go before landing in Hard Rock Cafe.

When I told her I brought Chris to Little Penang Cafe because I wanted him to try some Malaysian food, Ms High Maintenance confidently said I should have brought him to try Nasi Padang cause it's a Malaysian dish.

I couldn't believe my ears!

Looks like under all that exterior, Ms High Maintenance ain't that bright after all. I thought she was a complete bimbo for not knowing her own kind of food. And I hate it when people think they are smart when they are actually airheads.

So I said, "Nasi Padang is from Indonesia lah ..."

And she said, "Oh yeah ..." and then became silent for awhile. Soon she moved towards the bar to rub herself against some guy.

Nasi Padang is authentically Indonesian, bimbo!

After that incident it occured to me that there may be tourists coming to Malaysia and meeting up with their Malaysian friends hoping to learn about the country. But what if their Malaysian friends know next to nuts about the country and provide wrong information to their foreign friends, like that bimbo I met in Hard Rock Cafe.

If Chris had been her friend, he would have gone back to Austria thinking that Nasi Padang is a Malaysian dish!

I have also personally witnessed a tourist asking a Malaysian girl on the Putra LRT which station should he get off if he wants to get to Chinatown. The stupid girl just shrugged her shoulders and the tourist turned away in frustration.

As a person who loves knowledge, I cringe thinking about the blatant ignorance of Malaysians about their own country, and not to mention, at the growing number of bimbos.

Down with Twitter

I was reading a lot about Twitter and Facebook and how these tools have changed the way we communicate and how businesses can market themselves through these two social marketing tools.

I opened a Twitter account out of curiosity and update it regularly - average of one Tweet a day. After 577 Tweets, I've come to a fundamental conclusion that all these hype about Twitter are a whole lot of BS.

Because unless and until you have many followers who are active Twitterers, don't bother to open a Twitter account.

About 2 weeks ago I was working on a corporate gift for a regional meeting that we're hosting. My boss wanted the gift to incorporate the national heritage of all the participating countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Malaysia and Singapore were easy - Petronas Twin Towers and Merlion respectively. Thailand was a headache but after much thought I figured the Thai cultural dance would be good. And then came Indonesia which I haven't the faintest clue what to feature.

So I Twittered:

"What would be the best thing to represent Indonesia - Pura Besakih? Tanah Lot? Indonesian cultural dance? What ???"

Till today I've yet to receive any reply. So what's with all the hype about posting a question and you'll get an answer on Twitter? All utter BS.

To me, Twitter only works if you have a few hundred active followers. Only then will you have the volume of connections to help reply to your questions or whatever. But then, how do you get people to follow you in the first place if you're not a celebrity or someone important?

So if you need advice, help or whatever, you would be better off posting your questions on Facebook where you're guaranteed to receive comments and replies from your friends.

And I know I'm not alone in being stupified by Twitter after reading this entry from The Drayton Bird Blog.

Losing and Finding My Car Keys in A Week

Not long ago, Angie, Esther and I went hiking in Bukit Gasing, our usual hiking venue.

Halfway through the hike I reached into my pockets to feel for my car key. It's a habit to assure myself that everything is where it's supposed to be.

My heart almost stopped when I could not find the key. After rummaging around, I discovered that my pocket had a hole in it. Fark! I swore to burn the pants when I reached home!

After completing the trail, the three of us took the path that led us back to where we came from so that we can find my key. What angelic friends I have!

Unfortunately 3 pairs of eyes could not locate it. Angie then offered to send me back to my mum's place in Port Klang to get the spare and collect my car back from Bukit Gasing.

Whilst in Port Klang, I treated Angie to bak kut teh (herbal pork soup) for lunch. Whenever I have guests coming from outstation, I'll definitely bring them to try this Klang-mari delicacy.

The next Saturday, I didn't join the gals hiking cause I had something to do.

Mid-morning I received an sms from Angie saying that she had found my key! To make sure, she asked me to describe it. And confirm it was my key!

Apparently someone found it and hung it at the entrance of Bukit Gasing like this:

She also met the guy who found it. He's a regular there and must have super sharp eyes to have seen my key amongst the greenery. My appreciation to him!

My Travel Bookshelf

As an avid reader I have 2 bookcase in my apartment to house half of the 250 odd books in my collection. The other half is at my mum's place.

I've arranged the books on my bookcase according the topics like Autobiography, Classics, Relationships, Self-Help and my fav - Travel.

In fact, I've got so many books on travel that they take up an entire shelf like this:

My travel bookshelf

I've also placed travel souvenirs on my travel shelf to give it that "travel" feel. I've got an Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa and combination of a few of Europe's famous landmarks - all given by my friends from their travels overseas.

Whenever I need to do research for my travels, I just go to my travel shelf and everything's there. There's no need to look high and low for something. I like to be organised!

I wonder whether there'll come a time when I have enough travel books to fill up an entire bookcase.