Housework cuts breast cancer risk

Recent research shows that women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer.

I'm somewhat ambivalent about this. Don't get me wrong, it's great that they've proven an activity to reduct breast cancer risk, but why couldn't it have been something like, say, shopping?

Home again

To people like us, 'home' is a nebulous concept. It's never absolute, always relative to where we are and the context of reference. Home can refer to any of :our current abode in the Netherlands, our parents' homes in Penang or Jakarta, our former homes in Waterloo or Cedar Rapids or even our hotel-of-the-moment.

I can only conclude that we lead peripatetic lives... where the simple question 'where do you come from?' can have almost a dozen answers, all of them true, depending on the context of the question. This makes for some confused listeners and may indicate confusion on our part.

But over time, I've learned that though we roll like stones, we have gathered some moss from all our various destinations and all together they make us who we currently are.

As for home, it may be a cliche, but the easiest answer is 'where the heart is'. And sometimes that heart belongs to various places. It doesn't make for easy living.

Home

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Babe I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
'Cause I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
That this is not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

by Michael Buble

Most of the time, I hate the Netherlands - it's old-fashioned, inconvenient, rainy, flat and soul-destroying. And I could go on. Half the time we're there is spent thinking of our next trip away. But in some sense I'm looking forward to going back there. Like IT said, it's not great, but it's home. At least for now.

I've been away for almost five months and I'm coming back home.


NB - Michael Buble plays an awesome live show. He can sing live, of course, but he's also got lots of showmanship. Within a few minutes he's got the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. Great fun.

Chasing cars by Snow Patrol

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's burstin’ into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
It’s here in your perfect eyes
They're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things
Will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

This one's for you, love.

Scatology

sca.to.lo.gy
noun
an interest in or preoccupation with excretion or excrement

Ever since J was born, I've been preoccupied with the contents of her diapers. Are her movements frequent enough? What texture are they? Colour? Consistency?

That was one of the surprises of motherhood - that I'd develop scatology, specifically with regards to my baby.

But it paid off yesterday when my eagle-eyes spotted a miniscule drop off blood in her stool. After a slightly panicked trip to the paediatrician, we found out that she has a small fissure in the anus which is easily treated with an antibiotic-cortisone ointment.

Three cheers for scatology and anxious new mothers!

Christmas has come and gone

We had Christmas lunch with family. IT couldn't be there, but he'll be with us soon. Can't wait.

Christmas was fine but I miss our white Canadian Christmases.

Harry Potter 7

The title has been revealed: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hallow is an archaic noun for a saint or holy person. At this point the title doesn't really make sense but perhaps it will in the context of the actual book. I'm not sure if I like the title or not. But really, it's irrelevant. It's the content that counts and I can't wait for it to be published... write, JK Rowling, write!

Insurance

I work in insurance, always have. I know my way around most insurance products, I can price them, value them, hedge them and take them apart if I need to. But I've never marketed or sold an insurance policy.

I spent an hour this afternoon with an insurance agent who showed me how it should be done.

It was enlightening.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

The third verse always brings a lump to my throat.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

It's particularly applicable as our mini-reunion continues. We're missing one or two of our gang, but they're here in spirit.

More old friends

I spent an hour this morning on the phone to a good friend in Canada. She just had her second child two weeks before J was born. So we spent the entire conversation talking about our babies, our friends' babies and our friends who have yet to have babies.

Some of it was mild complaining but on the whole we're both really happy. Strangely enough it beats complaining about exams, work or chicken-headed bosses.

I never thought I'd have a conversation like that. And I definitely never thought I'd enjoy it even if I did.

But I did.

Old friends

I've been spending the last few days with some old friends... and we're 'old' friends in more ways than one. We've been hanging out together since our days in primary school and now we're in our very early 30s. We try to see each other as often as we can which sometimes isn't very often at all. But when we get together it's like we've never been apart.

We often say things like, 'You haven't changed at all', which is always true at some level. At these times all the heavy layers of cynicism, sophistication and occasional wisdom that we've accumulated over the years peel off slowly and we talk and act like the giddy schoolgirls we are inside.

And we also say, 'You look exactly the same as before', and we actually believe it. Perhaps we're delusional.

Camming it up

Due to differing timezones, it's difficult for IT to see J on the webcam. But we managed it this weekend. IT got an eyeful of J bathing, playing, sleeping, etc. Technology rocks!

Parallels

The previous posts about similarities between Eragon-Star Wars and Chronicles of Ancient Darkness - Harry Potter got me thinking about other parallels in the fantasy genre. Some of these are really stretching it though.

Harry Potter vs Chronicles of Ancient Darkness
Besides the parallels already mentioned, there aren't any other obvious ones. However if you wanted to see parallels where there aren't any you might view Torak's friend Renn as an amalgam of Hermione and Ron - she's very clever and red-haired. Thankfully the third major protagonist is a wolf (and this is a young adult series) so there aren't any relationship complications like the Harry/Hermione, Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny relationships that have the Harry Potter shippers (short for relationshippers) so inflamed.

Harry Potter - Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series
Both set in boarding schools. Enough said.

Harry Potter - Star Wars
Did anyone else notice that Dobby the house elf in Harry Potter uses Yoda-style grammar? And in the movies he also looks like Yoda's malnourished weakling cousin?

OK, I've got Harry Potter on my mind today, I'm not sure why. Will have to continue this topic later.

Murder!

A murder occurred in our area. The entire village is talking about it.

This morning my mother locked all the doors and windows even though we were all at home. The proximity is unnerving.

Food, glorious food, glorious food

(Musing - Is it possible for a Malaysian based abroad to have a blog that doesn't mention food at all? Probably yes, but I'm not going to test it.)

One of my best friends is arriving in Penang tonight. This will be the first time in ages that we'll be in Malaysia at the same time. And I know that our conversation and activities will revolve around friends and food. That's because we're very special Malaysians (ie - we're from Penang, which we like to think is the food capital of Malaysia) and are thus obsessed about food, and not just Malaysian food. We're the type of people who have long conversations over lunch about dinner, or who stop somewhere for a snack while we're on our way out to dinner. We were foodies before there were foodies. You can ask us about the best patisseries in Paris , or where exactly to park in Brussels for a convenient run to their best chocolatier or how to get to the best restaurants in Edinburgh. And of course we're constantly updated by friends and family on the best hawker food in Penang. The food scene in Penang is so dynamic and competitive, and the patrons so demanding that no restaurateur can rest on his laurels. And Penang is all the better for it.

It's a miracle we're not morbidly obese.

She'll have eight days in Penang this visit. Or as I like to see it, forty (8 x 5) meal opportunities if she works hard - breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and supper every day.

It's not easy being a foodie.

Traditional folk songs

Again revisiting my childhood to dredge memories of songs to sing to J. Today was traditional folk song day:

Chan Mali Chan
Di mana dia, anak kambing saya
Anak kambing saya main di tepi bendang
Di mana dia, cinta hati saya
Cinta hati saya yang berjalan lenggang

Chan mali chan, chan mali chan,
Chan mali chan, ketipung payung.

Geylang sipaku geylang

Geylang, sipaku geylang,
Geylang, si rama rama.

Pulang, marilah pulang, marilah pulang,
Pulang bersama-sama.

Burung kakak tua

Burung kakak tua,
mencok di jendela.
Nenek sudah tua,
giginya tinggal dua.

Letrum, letrum, letrum ooh la la,
Letrum, letrum, letrum ooh la la,
Letrum, letrum, letrum ooh la la,
Burung kakak tua.

Rasa sayang

Rasa sayang, eh rasa sayang, sayang eh,
Hei lihat Nona jauh rasa sayang, sayang eh.

Dua tiga kucing berlari,
Mana sama si kucing belang.
Dua tiga boleh dicari,
Mana sama adik seorang

Trek tek tek

Kalau tidak kerana bintang, trek-tek-tek,
Takkan bulan terbit tinggi, trek-tek-tek,
Kalau tidak kerana abang,
Takkan saya datang kemari, trek-tek-tek.

Many happy memories here. Do Malaysian kids still sing these songs?

月亮代表我的心 (The moon represents my heart)

月亮代表我的心 (yue4 liang4 dai4 biao3 wo de4 xin) is the title of a karaoke-staple Mandarin song first sung by Teresa Teng. It also happens to be fairly easy to learn phonetically and as such is popular among non-Mandarin speakers trying to sing in Mandarin, eg someone like me. I sang this to J this morning. It's one of the few Mandarin songs in my repertoire. I know snatches of a few other songs but never the full versions, but sometimes I feel like singing to her in languages other than English. Mum will sing her Cantonese nursery rhymes and I may also sing Malay songs and Italian arias ... all in the effort to inculcate an ear for different languages.

About this song... I had a dream once when I was sitting for the SPM exams in Form Five - I dreamt that the biology paper's essay question was to draw and describe the human heart. In my dream I drew a big round circle and under it I wrote 月亮代表我的心.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I did ultimately get an A1 in Biology.

你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
我的情也真
我的爱也真
月亮代表我的心
你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
我的情不移
我的爱不变
月亮代表我的心
轻轻的一个吻
已经打动我的心
深深的一段情
教我思念到如今
你问我爱你有多深
我爱你有几分
你去想一想
你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

Soul Eater

Orphan boy with special powers fights evil mages called Soul Eaters, with assistance of clever girl friend, over the course of six books. No, we're not talking about Mr Potter here - besides, Harry and Hermione fight Death Eaters over seven books.

I started thinking about Soul Eater and some small similarities between its series and Harry Potter after I wrote the post about Eragon-Star Wars. I suppose there are recurrent themes in any particular literary genre. And the best writers make you forget that you've ever encountered anything similar before.

Anyway, about Soul Eater:
Soul Eater is the third book of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver. (The first two books are Wolf Brother and Spirit Walker.) This series is absolutely brilliant. The writing transports the reader to a vividly-imagined prehistoric world, full of spirits and mysticism, peopled by hunter-gatherer tribes. I particularly like the descriptions from Wolf's point of view - I always imagined my beloved pet dogs had such thoughts running through their brains.

Except, of course, they wouldn't have had to worry about expelling demons and suchlike.

I finished the book in one uninterrupted afternoon reading session. I'm going to go read it again right now. Ok, maybe not right now, but definitely tomorrow.

NB - the text illustrations for the Ancient Darkness series are by Geoff Taylor, a very accomplished fantasy illustrator who did the covers for the David Eddings series, The Belgariad and The Mallorean, which I used to enjoy when I was too young to know any better. The illustrations wear well and still look very impressive. One can't say the same for the writing.

Another location-related nursery rhyme

IT is in Spain today, Madrid to be exact. A lovely city, despite the pickpockets. You've got to love a place that believes in afternoon siestas and partying into the wee hours of the morning.

I had a little nut tree,
Nothing would it bear
But a silver nutmeg,
And a golden pear;
The King of Spain's daughter
Came to visit me,
And all for the sake
Of my little nut tree.

Movies

I glanced at the movie page in The Star this morning. Two movies caught my eye.

1. Eragon - being a sucker for book-hype, I must admit I've read the book. It's ok, but that's about it. However being a complusive book-series-finisher (aka someone-who-still-reads-Robert-Jordan-out-of-sheer-stubbornness) I will probably read the rest of the trilogy. But that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it!

I don't have a huge problem with the way it's written but the plot, omg, the plot! 'Young farm boy lives with uncle's family. Discovers amazing powers but discovery is tempered by sorrow as uncle et al are killed by Evil Empire. Boy is trained by wise elder in the ways of the legendary Jedi, oops, Dragon Riders, as he prepares to join the rebels and take on the Evil Empire.' Can you say Star Wars (Ep Iv), with dragons and elves? Or perhaps imagine film from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings being spliced together... and you'd get this odd hybrid.

Anyway, on to the movie. The special effects were created by none other than Industrial Light and Magic, ie the Star Wars guys. Can you say coincidence?

Admittedly Star Wars was hardly breaking new ground with its storyline. The theme of the orphan coming into his rightful inheritance and freeing his people from evil can be found in many fantasy/ science fiction epics. But Eragon's homage of Star Wars is really blatant.

But I'll probably watch the movie anyway. Someday.

2. Colic - a Thai horror movie. Apparently this is a movie about a baby that cries incessantly. Now that to me, being a new parent, is really frightening.

It's tagline is :
co.lic [kol-ik] n. Severe abdominal pain marked by chronic irritability and crying caused by overfeeding, "wind" in the stomach or disturbance by a vengeful spirit.

I never read that description in any of the baby books. Funny that.

I will probably never watch this movie. But with my luck it'll be the only movie that KLM will show on our flight back to Amsterdam. Business class? Yeah right. But that's another story.

Sp*m?

I mistakenly opened a sp*m email this morning. The message said:

A proverbial parking lot teaches a radioactive cab driver, and the
steam engine bestows great honor upon a chestnut.
A gratifying tripod dances with a squid behind a pickup truck, because
the eagerly gentle canyon underhandedly cooks cheese grits for a hole
puncher. The psychotic rattlesnake is barely gratifying.

Fascinating. I read and reread it several times to see if it would make sense, I'm not sure why. Perhaps I was fooled by the correct grammar and sentence structure. It reads like a clue in a mystery novel... or perhaps like poetry, the kind no one understands.

More shopping

... in the future.

I finally ventured into Queensbay Mall which opened two weeks ago. It is huge. And only half the stores are open. They have a Borders bookstore with Starbucks attached, and a GAP is opening soon. IT and I have a theory that the degree of modernity a country possesses is directly proportional to the number of Starbucks and big bookstores (eg Borders, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble, Chapters, Indigo) it has. You will note that the Netherlands boasts neither Starbucks nor big bookstores.

As I am getting into shopping confessions - I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I miss the rampant consumerism that characterises the run-up to Christmas in Canada and the US. If I were there at this time of year I would be knee-deep in shopping, fighting the crowds in the malls at the weekend, just for fun. And best of all I would be curled up in bed with hot chocolate at night while thumbing through the dog-eared catalogues on my bedside table - glossy, succulent, seductive material from the likes of Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and Eddie Bauer. No wonder they call them p0rn for girls.

Tonight the Neiman Marcus website had to take the place of those beloved catalogues. But it's not quite the same. You could perhaps conclude that I'm not a fan of internet p0rn.

You'll never walk alone

This is another favourite song to sing to J - the tune flows naturally from 'You raise me up' to make up an 'inspirational' medley. Yet somehow I never can get the beginning of the second verse in tune.

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

(by Rodgers, Hammerstein)

This song is also the anthem of the Liverpool Football Club, which happens to be my brother's favourite club. When I was very small I had the impression that Liverpool was a swimming pool that was full of barnacles. If that isn't odd enough, it appears that my brother's daughter, who is almost 3, also thinks along the same lines. Her favourite club is 'swimming pool'.

Shallow?

I know, I know. I'm 31. I have a new baby and real responsibilities now. It's time to grow up - no more frivolous shopping...

But I regressed badly today. Credit cards and online shopping. It was such guilty pleasure. I fell in love with ... a gorgeous handbag. But I denied myself that and felt a little more virtuous. But not virtuous enough to refrain from buying those new tops.

I blame some of it on IT who shopped in London over the weekend, making me extremely envious. After all, I consider Harrods to be my spiritual home.

Pussycat where have you been?

Having a child means I've rediscovered nursery rhymes from my own childhood. Stuff that I'd forgotten long ago. Here's one:

Pussycat, pussycat where have you been?
I've been to London to see the Queen
Pussycat, pussycat what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse under her chair.

I sang that to J today. Her father is in London this weekend. And I wanted to incorporate a reference to her father's whereabouts in today's songs. I suppose I could've used 'London Bridge is falling down' but the imagery is too disturbing.

IT will be visiting several other cities over the next few weeks. Some of them may be easy to incorporate, and some not. We'll see.

I glimpse eternity

And I sing to Baby J. I sing nursery rhymes and nonsense songs. I sing snatches of pop songs, Italian arias, musical medleys, you name it. But I have one particular favourite. I like it because it's got a simple, traditional tune and it's easy to sing. But most of all I like it because when I look at J, the lyrics have meaning for me. I am filled with wonder, and I think I glimpse eternity.

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.

There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

Copyright Lovland, Graham.

Talk and sing

All the baby books say to talk and sing to your baby. Fine. I can talk. I can't really sing, at least not in tune, but I'll try.

What do you say to a 2-month old baby? I describe the toys she's looking at, what's around her, the room she's in, the trees, the grass, the sky... I read to her from her books, my books, even the newspaper.

And I tell her that I love her.

I don't know if she understands, but I know she will someday.

Introduction

So, can a rabbit write? This one's not sure. But she'd like to try.