(1011) Called in Sabah

June said I wanted to come to Sabah. Actually that is not true. Since my father returned from a stint of working in Tawau, I had the impression that northern Borneo was the end of modern civilization.

One Christmas John went to an end-of-year dinner of some club and bid for a hotel stay in Sandakan. He spent many weeks talking me into flying into the town. Finally it was because I wanted to see Lilian's baby that I reluctantly came.

While here, I caught a beautiful view of the bay from a look-out point near Agnes Keith House. No, that peek was not why I am here now. After all, I've seen much more beautiful sea views near San Francisco.

The second night I was in Sandakan, I woke up between two to three am. I thought I heard someone call me. No, it was not my husband; he was snoring. Being Asian, I did not reply. I remembered one of the childhood stories my grandmother used to tell me: the old folks say one should not answer to calls of one's name if one could not see the caller, hence my silence. I puzzled for a moment then went back to sleep.

It was on the plane that I suddenly wondered if God had called me. And I beat myself for not answering, “Yes Lord, speak, for your servant is listening.”

(1010) Windfall of Coconuts

As I was sitting in my backyard yesterday, three contract sanitation workers came to cut the grass and clear the big drain. One of them wielded a lightweight cutter, the other cleared the drain behind the first, and the third one chopped the brambles ahead of his colleagues.

On their way back, the one with the cutter asked if the coconut trees behind my property were mine. “No,” I said as I pointed to the big house three hundred feet across the hill. He smiled and told his colleagues something before he climbed up the shorter tree. He was graceful. There was a certain cadence in the way he swung himself up the narrow trunk progressively using both arms and legs.

Once he reached the cluster of brown coconuts, he twisted and sent about ten, one after another, down into the waiting hands below. Looking at them, they were definitely used to handling coconuts. The climber hugged three to his chest. The drain-clearer held two, one in each hand. The bush-clearer managed to take one while his other hand held the machete.

An hour later, an old man walked past. He saw the coconuts on the wayside and picked up two to take home. I wonder if they are going to use the white flesh to make dessert or squeeze the milk out to cook curry?

(1009) Merely Owner in Name

I have neighbours who are a newly-wed couple. The young wife is the legal owner of the house. However, it was her mother who brought a maid to clean that house successive afternoons before her wedding. When the house was physically clean, the man's family came in. It took quite a few people to chop down and burn five feet tall lalang (prairie grass) in the backyard.

This couple either travels frequently or their work takes them out of town often. When the wife works outstation, we see the man living alone. When the husband leaves town, the wife presumably goes back to her parents' house. Infrequently we see the husband hang out his clothes. In about three months though, I noticed her clothes only twice.

It is quite interesting that a house fully furnished with a fridge, stove, hot water heater, TV, air-conditioners, kitchen cabinets and more could not keep the young wife there. She kept spending time and staying overnight in her parents' house. Could it be that she misses the maid's service so much that she treats her own abode like a hotel?

If the legal owner of the house does not keep it clean, would her husband bother to mop and sweep? How long will the mother of this young lady bear the responsibility of ferrying a maid to and fro to clean house for her daughter?

(1008) The Theory of Cleaning

My cousin's parents helped him purchase a house. A double-storey terrace house in any city of note costs about 700 to 800 thousand dollars. That price tag is well beyond the means of most young men in my country. Hence Kong's parents came up with half of the price in cash. The house was put in Kong's and his mother's names.

Kong's grandma was a little miffed at this arrangement. Well, I gently reminded her that Kong's mum bought a new car for the exclusive use of his sister. Through the months though, we noticed the young lady did not wash the car at all. It was the poor mum who cleaned it weekly despite her hectic schedule.

I asked Kong once why he washed his car but his sister didn't wash hers. His answer was illuminating. Kong has a confirmed job and used his name to borrow money for the car purchase. It is normal for the named owner to clean his car. His sister, however, was driving her mum's car. In that case, the actual owner is responsible for cleaning her car.

Therefore, I propounded my theory that Kong's dad is wise. The owners of the newly-bought house, his son and his wife, would then be responsible to clean or to pay someone to clean that house.

(1007) Beaked and Feathered Grass Cutters

My three egg lay-ers are in one cage. Last week they roamed free in the backyard. One after the other they flew over to my neighbour's and scratched their sink, stove and washing machine top. Granted, they were wired to look for the best nesting site, but it was still a nuisance to risk chicken droppings on a cooking surface.

And so, while all other chickens roam free during daylight hours, those three poor sods are now confined in one rabbit cage. My son and I keep fourteen chickens in our 20x80 feet backyard. We keep them for eggs. A by-product is having a grass-cutting service. We figure it would at least cost $60 monthly to bring in a grass cutter. What really makes it not probable is that there is no back gate. An alien grass cutter would have to traipse past my living area from the front to access the grassy area. Since I don't like the idea of a stranger traversing my living room and kitchen, I resort to dealing with the grass myself.

These chickens are Asian in food preference. They prefer cooked rice to bread. They would eat soaked beans of all sorts early in the morning. Vegetables that are cut, whether cooked or raw, are eaten with gusto with rice and gravy. Yes! They like sweet or salty gravy. They love papaya seeds and skin too. In fact, they eat grains, vegetables, fruits and whatever else we give them. Their all-time favourite is fatty pork. Perhaps it is preferred because of its scarcity. When we eat pork, we save the fatty parts and cut them into small bits to make sure each chicken gets at least a few bites.

(1006) Behind Time No Longer

When I first came to northern Borneo, I was surprised that it became completely dark at 6:15pm. Of course it could not be compared to a dark, cold, windy twilight at 3:30pm in Washington DC in winter!

Then it came to me that during my few rail journeys from Penang to Bangkok and then Chiangmai, sunrise and sunset were around 6am or 6pm by Thai time. So that is what it would be like if the time zone is smack on an area as it should be.

In Kuala Lumpur, the sun does not rise until about 7am in January. Correspondingly, it does not set until about 8pm. Of course, Peninsular adopted that time zone to be in sync with Sabah and Sarawak. Therefore in Peninsular, people would have to live with a late sunrise and therefore a late sunset; after all, that is the most accurate time zone for western Sabah.

Anyway, I am reaping the benefits now. I sleep earlier and awake earlier. That would be one of the criteria of a healthy life.

(1005) Malaysian 'San Diego'

It was high noon. I stood in the shadow cast by my neighbour's extension. The sky was as blue as any seen in any tourist postcard. There were white clouds that look like cotton candy fluff.

The wind – O beautiful cooling wind – blew the coconut and banana leaves. It made a sound that can put a person to sleep. It was so peaceful and relaxing. The only time I experienced stronger wind was in the Appalachians (USA) in winter. This state (Sabah, north east on Borneo) is called the land below the wind. Although the hurricanes that slashed through the Philippines usually bypass here, we do have strong wind often.

I don't know if it is due to the monsoons (or could it be the cool wind from the sea?) but it is cool. If I stay in the shade, I could be wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and not feel hot. Yet this area is hardly one hundred feet above sea level. And we are definitely within the tropics. I thank God that in this season, I can enjoy cool wind while being under the hot sun.

This wonderful feeling of being cooled by the breeze brings to mind San Diego in summer. No matter how high the temperature was, once I stepped into any shade I would feel cooled by the cold wind.

Anyway, I am thankful that I needn't drive up to Kundasan (a highland) to experience cool wind.

(1004) Tales of Monitor Lizards

I was standing at my sink washing dishes. Suddenly the chickens were squawking loudly! I looked up and saw a small green monitor lizard (about a foot and a half long) trying to get into my egg lay-er's cage. He could not, of course! The wires are too close together to even allow a three-inch-in-diameter body through.

By the time I was out with a broom, the lizard was high-tailing it out of the fence to the underdeveloped hill slope beyond.

That image brought back the memory of the monitor lizard we saw in Ipoh many years ago. I was driving my children back from afternoon activities in school. It was probably about four-thirty. A huge brown monitor lizard (probably three to four feet long) was meandering along the paved road intersecting the road in front of my house. It was huge. Its body at the widest point was bigger than that of my ten-year-old daughter (granted, she was a little on the skinny side).

I banked my car as a group of Indonesian cooks (there was a catering service in a nearby shop) crossed the road, chasing the monitor lizard. Later we heard yells of victory—they must have cornered and caught the lizard. It was considered a rare delicacy.

(1003) Fears of Unemployability

My husband's cousin used to study geography in uni. Everyone who heard about it at that time said she would have problems finding a job.

But upon graduation she migrated to Australia. There she picked up a Master's in Town Planning and thereafter became a city employee of Melbourne.

My best friend's brother was in geology way before petroleum was discovered in my country. Wonder of wonders! When he graduated he had three job offers: Shell, BP and Petronas. By now he has been to the far corners of four continents prospecting for oil.

My youngest is graduating with an English Literature degree soon. I wonder if God will be kind to her and throw her a hot job despite the so-called 'cold' field she is in.

(1002) No Grandchildren in Sight

When my schoolmates gathered at age fifty-two, one of the ladies talked about her anguish at having an only son and having to put up with his idiosyncrasies:-

1. To buy cars with part-time job earnings then fixing one before wrecking it while speeding;
2. To have moods and bouts of depression at late teens. Her husband had put in an attached bathroom for every bedroom and installed bedroom door locks. So she spent weeks unable to sleep, wondering if her son would commit suicide inside his domain;
3. To refuse higher education for one year after high school graduation;
4. To contemplate moving to Sydney with his girlfriend, leaving his parents behind in Perth; and
5. To keep talking about quitting his stable government job and coming out to freelance in fashion designing.

The one sore point then was that the son had a live-in girlfriend whom she approved, yet both had no desire to get married. She said she was old-fashioned and would like to have grandchildren.

This is the year of the goat by Chinese calendar. That means my youngest will hit 24 soon. I don't see any sign of a boyfriend or girlfriend for any of my children. Marriage? Not in the picture. Grandchildren? None yet in the foreseeable future.

(1001) Golden Leaves of Nature

We live in a terraced, double-storey house with a long backyard. Our left-hand neighbour built an extension right up to ten feet before the back boundary. As a result of that, we enjoy the shadow cast by the extension from 12:01pm onwards. By 4pm our entire backyard is in shadow.

Beyond our back boundary is a deep drain. There is an overgrown path that grass cutters and drain-clearers use. Then there is a bluff of perhaps thirty feet. Wild chickens travel down the bluff easily on trails they create daily. On top of the bluff is a strip of land, perhaps 1,000 yards. This land is filled with coconut, mango and other fruit trees. Next to the drain two houses away, we have a thick bamboo grove.

Across the vacant land there is a big house with a few outbuildings. We heard that it is empty and strangers would rent it at $400 a night. Well, at that steep price, it is more often empty.

I grew up in the city. It is here that I realise that poets are right in writing about the sound made by bamboo, coconut and banana trees. These sounds are different, one from another. They are restful and bring peace to our souls.

There are at least two hours from sunrise till the time sunlight finally hits my backyard. In fact the contrast between the green grass in shadow and the leaves of the tall trees on the bluff bathed in early sunlight is exceptionally beautiful. Now I see why light green bathed in early morning sunshine can be described as golden. We live in a beautiful world.

(1000) Going Green with Rainwater

It seems that Boston received more than 100cm of snow in the first week of February 2015. At the same time, here I am in Sabah experiencing the lack of rainwater in the backyard tank.

Living in a tropical climate, it is common to have close to 100 inches of rainfall per year. Yet nobody collects rainwater in the mass-produced housing in Selangor or Federal Territory in Peninsular.

Still, I find it handy to have rainwater to use for hand-washing my clothes daily. I also use the same supply for cleaning chicken droppings off my cemented back portion.

Officially, we should be having the North-East Monsoon from September until March. Yet practically, this is the first time in eight months that the water level of my 10-band tank is at band 3.

In the past months, I generally pay the minimum water charge of $5 per month. At the same time, by conserving electricity – using measures such as no air-conditioning unless absolutely necessary, cold-water baths, every appliance plug taken out when not in use, rice cooker used only 4 times per month – I managed to keep the electric bill to $16-19. For any amount less than $20, there is no need to pay. I suppose I belong to the poor category when it comes to electrical use. It fits in with my conviction of reducing my carbon footprint and recycling every bit of resource that passes through my hands.

(268) Catching more of USA

This afternoon I have been fortunate in catching a program: 'The World From Above” on Channel 571, Astro. It showcased parts of North Dakota: beginning with the north-west corner, followed by a few towns then ending on Mount Rushmore.

If there is anything I missed the most these eight months, it is this program. I used to catch it now and then while visiting my mum twice a week. My elder brother subscribes to Astro in Peninsular.

One of my neighbours went back to Peninsular during CNY the past week. During my daily 2-5pm viewing, this is the first time I managed to catch this program. I am most grateful to my neighbours as well as their maid for this privilege.

During my undergraduate years in the US as a scholarship student, I visited fourteen states. Now with NASA's satellite technology, I am slowly viewing more parts of USA remotely via Astro. Of course, I have also viewed South Africa as well as parts of Europe through this program. While it is interesting to see other continents, mainly it is helping me fulfil my desire to visit more states of USA by catching more segments on TV.