Thursday, 19th June 2008: Visiting the Klang White House
The Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery
I visited the Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery in Klang after attending mentions in the Klang lower courts on Thursday, 19th June. Locally known as the “Klang White House”, the building was constructed in 1909 and once housed the British administrators during the colonial period, the Japanese Armed Forces during the Japanese Occupation of the then Malaya and the Klang District Office, Royal Malaysian Police Force and Klang Municipal Council post-independence.
The 8th Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Alhaj, had the building reclaimed and converted into the Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery to house and display royal paraphernalia, artifacts and memorabilia. The building was incredibly well-kept and exuded an old world charm, and I spent a highly enjoyable hour going through all the exhibits and learning more about the Selangor Royal Family.
Although I was, as always, fascinated by the military paraphernalia, I had greatest context for the Selangor Silver Jubilee (1985) memorabilia collection. Schoolchildren in the state of Selangor each received a commemorative exercise book and a pewter pin. Being all of 6 years old in 1985, I was thrilled and believed that we would get presents from our kind Sultan every year. I learned with disappointment when I reached home that Silver Jubilee meant it was the 25th anniversary of an occurrence - in our case, the installation of the Sultan. It was impossible that there would ever be a silver jubilee again in my schooling years.
Strangely enough, although the exercise book was displayed, the pewter pin wasn’t. Perhaps the curator did not know of it, or did not have a sample of the pin. I believe I have 2 at home (mine and the Twin’s), and if I manage to find them, I might want to donate one to the Gallery to complete their collection.
21st -22nd June 2008: Monsoon Melancholy
It’s been a rainy week. The landlord has come to check on the leaking roof at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters and the contractor will soon start work on it, for which I am grateful.
My cousin, Boy Scout, came over and bunked at our Bachelor Officers’ Quarters for 3 days as he had to sort out some matters pertaining to his college registration. The rowdies behaved commendably and did not try to assert their claim over the spare room, although I suspect that Daisy and Chloe slept in his bed while he was out.
My mother had intuited that I’ve been going through a rough patch, and decided that a break from all my care provider duties is in order. We had talked about going on another mother-daughter mall-crawl, and it was decided that she would take the rail transit over to my place on Saturday morning, and I would pick her up at the station and we will then spend the day at Sunway Pyramid.
And so we arrived at Sunway Pyramid around 1100h on Saturday morning, happy to be in each other’s company and looking forward to spending 2 weeks’ worth of transport allowance that I had saved for this occasion. Mum was hungry and so we made Subway our first stop. After a midmorning snack of sandwich and coffee, we proceeded to go through all the shops and laugh at things we would never wear. I encouraged Mum to try on some shoes that we both liked. I was in the process of deciding on a pretty pair of Scholls that we both fancied (yes, Mum and I can and do share clothes) when two belly dancers in full dance regalia walked into the shoe store. I nudged Mum and she pulled me to the seat next to hers, both of us under the assumption that the belly dancers were about to start performing right there in the shop. How we laughed at our own silliness when we realized that they were also there to try on shoes! I paid for the shoes and we went to look at bags.
Boy Scout turned up at the mall to meet his favourite aunt. I asked him to join us at Pancake House for lunch and he was happy to be given a treat. He had the roast chicken set meal while Mum and I indulged our sweet tooth with mango crepe with ice cream and ice cream waffle foldover.
Our mall-crawl resumed after lunch. Upon Mum’s persuasion, I finally bought a handbag that really looked good on me:
PUMA “DAZZLE GIRL”
This sets a dangerous precedent. I hardly ever spend money on myself and here’s Mum telling me “to buy yourself something nice when you really deserve it”. We bought some snacks for Dad and treats for the dogs and called it a day at 1730h.
Went back to the parental home, had tea, took Amber and Cody (also known as: Buster/Cody/Little Big Dog) out for walks and mopped the floor. Mum was too tired to go out for dinner and so I brought our food containers to the food court and had our food packed to go. Cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, tidied the parental home and retired to my room with the newspapers and the latest copy of the Malaysian Naturalist.
Woke up early on Sunday morning. Cleaned up after the dogs and gave Amber a bath. Cleaned the living and dining rooms and polished the furniture, and then I took the recyclables out. Had a quick lunch, gave Amber and Cody their lunches and waved goodbye to the parents.
Arrived at the SPCA in the early afternoon to see Rose still there and hard at work. Halle had been duly neutered and Dr. Pushpa reported that 3 of her kittens had been adopted, which is excellent news, although I am still sad over Little Chip. Rose and the other volunteers had bathed and tick-washed most of the dogs, and so there were only a few new arrivals left to do. We bathed and tick-washed the dogs and I took them out for a run to dry off. After returning to the shelter and letting the dogs into their enclosures, I started soaping and disinfecting the shelter. I scrubbed the Maternity Kennels, Puppery, Hospital, Food Preparation Area and let Linda hose it down. Then I cleaned the Cattery, Reception/Admin areas and Front Kennels while the dogs were out playing in the compound. I soaped and cleaned out a stack of litter trays and water bowls, put away the donated newspapers and took out the trash. Finally, I rinsed off the shelter floor, cleaned myself up, transferred Halle into her carrier and then into the Battletank and drove on home.
Swung by the night market to pick up fresh vegetables, fruit and sandwich bread for the coming week. I’ve managed to save a lot of money over the years by bringing my own lunch to work. Cleaned up the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters, fed and cleaned up after the cats and watched an hour of popular culture bullshit on the telly with the housemates. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I don’t have to be a douchebag to be able to sit through “Psych”, “Eureka” or “Ghost Whisperer”.
Tuesday, 1st July 2008: Brand new month
I had the Battletank’s exhaust header, expander and silencer replaced last week. Sold the old parts to a scrap metal dealer to recover some money for food. I have to save and scrimp more so as not to have to dig into my savings, which I plan to invest on land and stocks with.
Woke up on Saturday morning to a text message from R.R. inviting me to a threesome. My first thought was where was it going to be, and how many fuel miles would I have to travel to get there? You know you’re on the wrong side of thirty when you could actually turn down an invitation to a wild party.
Left the ‘Quarters for the SPCA after feeding and cleaning up after the cats. Jake had left for Korea the night before, so things were pretty quiet. I didn’t even feel like watching football on Friday. Arrived at the SPCA and got to work immediately with the kennel dogs. There were a few new admissions to Kennels G and H, and I’m afraid they’ve spread ticks to the others. I made a tub of Tactick solution and shampooed, rinsed and tickwashed each dog. Then I soaped and disinfected the kennels to get rid of any remaining parasites.
A kind man came in with 4 feral puppies he had been feeding and had managed to capture, and he even paid for their vaccination and neutering fees. 2 of the puppies escaped and cowered in a corner, snapping at anyone who tried to pick them up. I went behind the cages and picked them up. They were so terrified that they eliminated waste all over my crocs. Ah well. They are puppies, after all. Great distract-and-flee tactic, though. I cleaned my clothes up and resumed bathing and tick-washing dogs.
There was to be a Vintage Clothes Sale at the shelter on Sunday, 30th June, to sell off as much as the Jumble Sale ware as possible, and so I cleaned up the front Reception/Admin area where the sale was to be held. I soaped and scrubbed the table, benches, sink, floor and gutters and put away the old cages, mops, pails and other junk that didn’t belong there. In the evening, the evening staff let the dogs out to play in the compound so we could clean the shelter. I cleaned the Cattery, cages, puppy area, maternity kennels and central area and we collected rainwater in barrels and pails for washing and rinsing. The monsoon season may be a killer, but it does provide us with a steady supply of freshwater.
Finished cleaning up and bade goodbye to Reve, Linda and Muniandy. On my way home, I purchased a copy of the upcoming week’s ‘The Edge’, as I had been interviewed for their special Green Pullout. Went back to the ‘Quarters, fed and cleaned up after the cats, tidied the place up and drove on back to the parental home. Spent Sunday giving Amber a warm bath, cleaning the parental home, spring cleaning the spare rooms and washing the driveway with, yep, you guessed it: more rainwater. Took Amber and Cody out for a short car ride in the Battletank, followed by longer walks around the neighbourhood.
Went back to the ‘Quarters after dinner. Did the laundry, mopped the floor, and did some research work on the rights of directors and shareholders. This is about as exciting as my Sunday nights get. Now that Mizan has stopped singing at Online, I don’t even go to the pubs anymore. I currently have the social life of Napoleon Dynamite. I really need to get outdoors and do some camping and offroading again soon.
Bowling with the workmates again on Monday night, which was an excruciating waste of time. At 2100 hours, the alley management turned out the lights and switched the ultraviolet lights on for glow-in-the-dark bowling. I couldn’t think of anything more ridiculous. It felt like being on Space Mountain, which I found dreadful and didn’t enjoy at all.
Was relieved to be out of the bowling alley and shopping mall and downed a cheap daiquiri before boarding my train home. It had been raining again and I squelched my way back to the ‘Quarters.
More than half of 2008 has come and gone. I wonder if the ensuing months will bring my country more political and economic stability. I wonder if as a direct consequence of the rising fuel prices, we could make significant cuts (10%? 15%?) in per capita carbon emissions by Christmas. I wonder if, out of boredom, I might want to go for the threesome after all.
Semper Fi,
Covert Operations.
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