Seni Mutiara Art gallery - 2nd , Exhibit of the evening.

On the same evening Lee and i headed for a second Art exhibition which was held at the Seni Mutiara Art gallery on Armenian Street. This area is unique in itself as it is one of the oldest  settlement of the Georgetown City area. area. Here the Achehnese  community settled long before the coming of the Migrants to the island.  

The Seni Mutiara gallery is run by an old timer Artist and Art teacher Mr. Su kaw and it is one of the oldest gallery so far that still runs and has a good turnout of art lovers to every opening.

The Solo exhibition are works by an Art professor from USM by the name of  Mr. Izmer Ahmad and it was officiated by  my good friend Mr. Brian Koomber.

It has been a long time since i have attended any of these Art openings and it was a pleasant surprise to see familiar faces of friends and Art lovers who in the past has been regulars to these shows.  

It has become a gathering of friends who has similar taste in art and wine at the Seni Mutiara and over the years those who frequent these openings have come to know one another almost intimately. There are expatriates and those who have made Penang their second home and they help to give the openings a sense of the international.

A fellow artist and dear friend who I have not seen for quite awhile, Dr.Iskandar

Familiar faces of those who have been regular patrons of the Arts in Penang. 

With my friend and one time colleague Mr. Moses or better known as Momo Man and his students from KDU?

Lee contemplating on what to buy while the artist stand with crutches having suffered from ghaut. 

Penang Artist Corner Group Show.-An Afternoon with my Brother

Penang Art scene like everything else here is primarily dominated by the Chine Artists and this is saying not in any negative way but just  the plain truth. You can count on your fingers the number of Malay Artists here and those that have survived over the years have made it through mostly the support given to them by the Chinese Artists and Art lovers, and collectors.

The Chinese Artists are very competitive in their approach to art especially in terms of marketing their works and this as a result partly makes their works less appealing in depth of perception; their works become repetitively shallow or more in quantity less in quality. The above work by Jean Khoo seems likely to break away from this finding a niche in the market syndrome typical of Chinese.

Lee is one of those characters that you rarely come by in life who transcends the norm in his tastes and depth of perception when it comes to art and people. Don't let his laid back demeanor fool you, ha has th ability to read you inside out while smiling at you with that innocent smile. 

He is well respected by his peers and feared by his opponents as a lawyer, he seems to have found peace within despite the turmoils he has to deal with on a daily basis in being a lawyer and a good father and husband. He also is a key f figure in the community especially among the Christian in his parish.

I find that good artists are those who does art because it is what they love and enjoy doing and those who do otherwise tends to push too hard to be ahead of peers and their styles and techniques usually become a very well guarded secret like a family recipe .

This gentleman I met many years ago when we both had a booth at the Little Penang Street Market still makes model paper planes and he is one of those who i have great respect for as he seems unassuming in character, a very humble man and a very creative spirit.

In officiating the launch of the Show lee insisted that he does not speak in Mandarin although 99.9%  of his audience were Chinese and iw as the only Malay present. Kudos!  He also asked that a minute of silence be observed in  memory of those missing with the MAS Flight 307 as there were many artist from China on board the flight on their way home.

To become a good collector of Art one has to be extra sensitive towards every piece you see no mater the style or technique. To pick out the best among the best of the art works demands that the collector is not easily swayed by  what he sees but rather moved by what he feels.

Among all the young man's works lee got what he thought was the best as a token of  appreciation for his officiating the show. And the young man has himself a potential collector of his future works. This is how connections are made, mostly through the act of giving and sharing; something the Malays has yet to discover if they ever will.

The Muda Dam during this Drought Season

Imagine what ti was like three months earlier!

It was an eye opener to see the water level so low at the Muda dam after having seen how it looked like when the water was over flowing the top of the Dam. The las time i saw the water level was where the shadow of the tree is in the picture, now they park their cars down there.

Perhaps the drought is dong the Dam a favor by making sure that the water is recycled and the dam remains clean, or that the fishes gets to take a break from having to swim around too much. 

Yes it is pretty here even if the temperature is at a scorcher level and every step you take causes you to sweat your bodily fluid out and leaving you unnaturally tired. Taking a snooze is about the best thing you can do at times like these, learn it from the Mexicans, it is 'Siesta time!

I had pitched my tent on my first night camping by the Dam right inside of the hut overlooking the lake. The water level back then in late December and early January was right below the hut.

It is good for fishing they say as the ater level is low and fishes has lesse place to run off to. But the heat can be too much for even the most avert fishing buff.

Nature's Installation Art sometimes can be captivating , there is design in all that chaos.

Yes there was a time when the water was right up to where the edge of the restaurant is.

i HOPE THE DROUGHT WILL ABATE SOON OR THERE WILL BE  HELL TO PAY.

The Fieldwork - You just got to have style.

"I want to see the report on my table first thing in the morning, like how many different kinds of bugs and insects hang around here to help pollinate or destroy the crop and what kind of hanky- panky goes on between them and other creatures like the birds and the worms and so forth. We got to monitor this plot as closely as we can in order to verify why this organic rice gets the gold medal for being the best!"

 "It is my finger nails, I just got it done before I left  Kl, now look at them filled with the black stuff! What am I to do?"
" Well, maybe change your course from bio to chemo?"
" I love your hat, where did you find it?"
" You know, purple is a good color for you, it matches your hair. By the way what kind of shampoo do you use? Your hair looks great!"

"Masha'Allah! do we have to step into that stuff? I cannot remember when the last time was that i waded in mud. Maybe it was when I went camping with my parents when i was a little girl!"
"Do you think there are leeches and things like that, God i hate it when they crawl up my legs!"
 

"Look, we will give you a tootsie roll if you get in there and bring us some insects and bugs! Now be a good boy and jump in there! Don't worry we will not tell your father that you helped us, it will be our secret, ok?"

"Yes all good things must come to and end, and now it is time to say Adios to this little corner of the planet where we hope never to be sent to again to do our research project! We love farming and so on but only if someone else is out there getting mud in their hairs! We are just here to observe and record. "

"Well I know I left my ring on when i started messing around with this stuff and now I cannot find it, please help sort out and look for it!"
"Aiyo! Why you wear rings and all that stuff when you know you are going to get down and dirty. la ?"
"" thought there might be a boy or two here who might be a catch, you know la, the rough and tough farm hand with a few acres to his name." 

"Oh my God! What am I doing here? It is so hot and I am turning into a Hindu. I cannot wait to return to the lab and the air conditioned classroom. What i would give for an ice cold limau sirap!"

Of Filial Piety..- Quotes by Richard Bach.

Just arrived from 'The Farm' after a two hours drive early this morning. I am hoping to see my daughter who is back here in Georgetown for a short break but she is staying with her friend and foster mother's place as where I am at it is not good enough for her, messy and no air conditioning and she has a hard time handling her relatives. I hope We can get to meet up before she leaves otherwise it was a waste of time and money for me to be back here. I was just settling down into the routine at  The farm when I got a message on FB that she is returning to Penang yesterday. What my friend Ah Huat, the auto air condition man said at one time rings true,'All it takes is one phone call ans your whole life can change, your life is not yours as far as your children are concern. You are no more as important as you used to be to them as they get older and much preoccupied with their own life. Can't say that i blame them as i was no different when I was at their age. We reap what we sow, as the Bible, the Koran, the Gita and anything worth quoting says it.

Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof.

Richard Bach

I feel deep within that i am drifting apart from my children and in a way it is meant to be just as most parents faces the same prospect as they get closer to the grave, however some are a little more fortunate when their children remains closer to them out of a sense of filial piety. The truth is i have little confidence that any of my children will come through for me in my old age. me eldest has written me off after he got married and settled down so much so that i have no knowledge of what his in laws names are! More power to you my son, but i still maintain that you beware of the ground that you walk on especially when your head is among the clouds. It would be a lie for mew to say that it does not affect me one way or another and i do feel sad about it. It feels like I am being judged, jurried and executed if not insulted, for failure as a father. Oh well maybe it is for the best, I can stop hoping and counting on him to carry out the Bahari legacy as he has decided that they will have no children; perhaps too much work.. I hope that I have not committed such a heinous crime that my son finds no room for forgiveness, then again this is the difference in being raised as a Muslim and being raised in the Western tradition.

Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.

Richard Bach

All that is happening and that will go on to happen are the fruits of my own doings and this I have no doubt and to undo what has been done is not possible but i can learn from what errors i have made as in my mind I am still the experimenter of life itself, how do I relate to others and how others relate to me. Sometimes i push the experiment a little too hard or too far and the consequences are what i am ;looking at now. You can learn about someone better if the person reflects your own weaknesses and confronts you with it. Those who remain passive and dull seldom have much to teach you about human nature; love your enemy.
The Media is filled with the tragedy of the missing MAS Flight bound for Beijing from KLIA. On board there was 232 passengers and the plane is yet to be recovered. The media is also rife with the jail sentence of the former Deputy Primeminister who was accused of sodomy. The water shortage and the relentless heat wave of the drought that hits country and the haze that comes to blanket most of the west coast regions are among the latest grieve this country is facing, and the Malays have time to fight against the rights of others using the word'Allah' in their texts. We are  juggling rotten eggs while the good ones are being shipped off to China.

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.

Richard Bach

If by chance today I am called back to my Maker it would be the greatest gift He can bestow on me for I really have very desire in prolonging my existence given all the scenarios that my mind is being challenged with and for what? How soon they forget, who tasted the salt first or who extended the first gift or help, thinking that life is in making it big time and making it big time means giving up those that at one time would have died for them if the need had arise. But this is It, this is the way the story has come to end, this stage is where all things crumbles as nothing is permanent save who you are. You came ito this world alone screaming like you are on fire and causing so much pain to your mother and your father and they raised you to the best of their ability till you are what you are and in return you have the audacity to judge them and humiliate them in the eys of strangers whom you call in laws. If i am a father in law to someone I would demand to meet his or her parents as a token of respect, bu t then that is just me, I have been raised as a Muslim and now i can comprehend the wisdom in it. Lest your own child becomes just as you are be mindful of how you walk upon the ground that had raised you. You can learn from your parents of the truth about life or you can experiment about it till it explodes in your face; do not think that you have it all figured out simply because....

If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were.

Richard Bach

I love all my children but as it is I am stepping away from being attached to them as i have stepped away from my own parents, family and friends in the past, present and the future; I am one of those who will live on the fringe of their lives looking into from outside involved but detached. I will carry my own ;loneliness to the grave with me and to those who think they have me all figured out more power to you, I say; at least you took the time to. As a father I may have failed but as a man I have walked this life where not many can say the same and I will continue to dive as deep as I can to unravel the mysteries it has to offer and in turn offer it to the world at large, to those who have the time and inclination to read what I write. Life is too short to be wasted and it is in this lifetime that i intend to find my own salvation from this illusion that is called life

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.

Richard Bach

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First day back in Lintang.

Some likes to do it in style all dressed up to kill.

'Your dad was a farmer son, do you remember one day at Lintang?

Never put a school teacher behind the tractor's wheel.

They will run it into the ground!

I told you, I had my doubts.

Thank you Lord for the Backhoe!

What is going on at MGTF lately?

Hanging out with the boys, catching up with the latest. 

'Freddie" busy as always making plans for upcoming events.

Well , flirting with Shikin is a routine even at my age.

Azlan is looking as confused as he has always been.

Izrol, laid back as always when things are just not happening like it used to.

The ladies who still runs the place.

Zam ala Kazam, working on his animation sketches.

Shamsul Ikhmal, his desk is looking like he is very busy.