The end of the line...

I guess this is it. This 15-year-old blog shall come to a close. There are a number of reasons why I have decided to stop posting any more entries here. It is obvious that I have not updated since September of last year. This first post of 2023 shall be the last of Just observations...

The opening entry was done on Tuesday, 8 April 2008. I had initial plans of writing an anniversary post for this year but then I simply did not have the drive. Ideas for an anniversary post quickly shifted to one of closure.

Over the next few months, I would be progressively deleting all posts except for the token opening and closing entries. In other words, the blog itself would not disappear because I value the oldstock.blogspot trademark too much. Hopefully, Blogger would allow me to hold on to that unique account name as long as possible.

I may return to blogging someday but most likely on a different platform and covering a different subject matter.

Goodbye. Thank you for the wonderful experience.

A teacher who is close to his students' hearts

 

It is normal to hear of students who visit their former teachers after they have long left school. It is quite rare to hear of the reverse - teachers who make the effort to visit their former students. My former secondary school teacher at MRSM Kuantan is one such rare breed.

Cikgu Zamri Mohamed Isa taught me Chemistry when I was in Form Four. When our Pioneer batch held their annual reunion in Johor Bahru three years ago, I volunteered to help by picking up Cikgu Zamri and his wife when they arrived at Senai Airport. Last Saturday morning, I received a call from him saying that he is in Kluang at his daughter's house and was wondering if I was at home in Johor Bahru. Of course, I was honoured that he would like to come over and visit. I shared the location of my house and a few hours later, Cikgu Zamri and his family arrived at our humble abode in Kampung Melayu Majidee.

A convenient coincidence in that my better half had cooked Laksa Johor that very morning, which made it a special serving for our guests from Kuantan.

Cikgu Zamri is well-liked by hundreds of his former students from his teaching career spanning three decades at a number of MRSMs. The oft-spoken trait of his, as mentioned by many former students is his remarkable memory of the full name of his students.

Mothers and daughters-in-law

 

Three generations of ladies in our family

Four mothers and three daughters-in-law in the same pic. A rare photo indeed. Only possible because international borders have re-opened and Aidilfitri celebrations can return back to normal. This photograph would have been perfect if our three granddaughters were in it. It would then show 4 generations of ladies in our family. But the eldest granddaughter was in a reticent mood while the twins were already asleep.

Praise be to The Almighty... "Which then of the bounties of your Lord will you deny?"

The twins first time visit to their father's hometown

Our 2nd son and his family came down to JB for a visit. So we took the opportunity to do some raya shopping for the twins. Sogo department store at Mid Valley Southkey was the destination.

Both girls were still recovering from slight flu and it was quite a challenge to cater to their occasional grumpy mood. When all the coaxing and cajoling do not seem to work, this grandfather suggests that we all take a drive and explore the various places in Johor Bahru that they have not been to before. Apparently, the smooth ride and cool interior of Tok Abah's car were quite relaxing and put them at ease.

Humaira (the elder twin) holding the hand of her mother and grandmother.
Haura is in her father's arms hidden in the back

When I grow up, I want to be an engineer

If I were to look back to the days when I was in primary school, I do not think the profession of engineer had been in any of my answers when the teacher announces to the class, the oft-asked question, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' If I recall correctly, my frequent reply was being a detective or police officer, obviously being influenced by the many mystery books that I had read and the detective shows on TV.

When I was in secondary school, my ambitions changed a bit. Although being an investigator was still in the picture, the top choice was to be a journalist. Being offered a scholarship to study at university changed all that.

This time last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to have lunch with two of my friends from a long, long time ago. They are my friends from different times of my growing-up years but their paths crossed, and now they have become mutual friends. Both are lecturers of engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, here in Skudai, Johor Bahru. Although in reality, neither handle classes that much anymore as they are retiring pretty soon. Prof Noordin (on the left in the pic) is a Mechanical Engineer, while Prof Shahrin (on the right) is a Civil & Structural Engineer.

Noordin was my classmate in primary school while Shahrin was my classmate in secondary school. In all probability, Noordin or Shahrin may not have answered 'engineer' as their ambition of choice those many years ago.

Three senior engineers meet up for lunch

Heart and Mind

For someone who claims that he is retired, I somehow find myself being busy since the start of the new year. Which is a good thing, I guess.

To keep this blog ticking its slow and steady existence, I'm copying an article I received from former blogger friend Ahan via email, way back in December 2008. I'm trying to do some spring cleaning to my email storage, that's how I came across this interesting article. (Note : The former in the earlier sentence refer to the blogging part, i.e. Ahan no longer blogs, I think. But she is still my friend.)

How to make your heart and your mind work together

The same voice in your mind that told you to act is the same voice that ridicules you later for making that choice.

Am I the only one that thinks this is ridiculous?

I want to show you how I’ve learned to make my heart and mind get along.

Because unfortunately…

It’s typical in our society to feel a conflict between what we want to do (our heart) and what we feel is practical (our mind).

We end up living 1/3 of our lives in a cubicle for the “benefits.” We stay friends with people we only kind of like. We do and say things to fit in and seem cool that really go against what we feel is right in our hearts. Because it’s caused so much heartache in my life, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to diagnose the source of this problem.

Is my heart at fault? Are my feelings just silly and frivolous? Or maybe it’s my mind that’s to blame. It seems like it’s always coming up with conflicting messages anyway.

And on it goes and we never really seem to get to it. There’s a lot of social conditioning that covers up and obscures things too. Even if you really feel like that’s the right choice, how do you know for sure? How do you know it’s not just what you think you should do?

All of this might sound a little over the top, but it’s a real problem. It ruins lives because people can’t make up their minds about whether or not the path of their heart is valid or not. They end up living a shadow of the possibility that they could. All because they couldn’t make up their mind.

There’s a simple answer to this problem. It might seem even a little too simple. But most things are. Bruce Lee once said, “The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” I believe this.

First… let’s take a look at where this problem starts.

Confusing the purpose of the heart and mind

The main reason we suffer from this illness of indecision is that we’ve mistaken the purpose of heart and mind. The heart is like a compass, its purpose is to guide the direction our lives should take. Our heart takes a birds-eye view of our life and says “this is where you’re at and this is the direction you need to go.”

Our mind on the other hand isn’t made for making purpose-driven decisions. The nature of the mind is that it conceptualizes, organizes and compares information. It does this as best it can and says “here are the facts, here are both sides of the story.”

If we compare our mind and heart to a courtroom, our mind would be the defendant and the plaintiff (both stories) and our heart would be justice or the judge (the right direction).

The reason we’re so troubled by this conflict of head vs heart is that the mind is not only playing the prosecutor and the defence, but has taken over the role of the judge as well.

The mind should never be the judge. The mind's job is to compare and contrast. To sort things out and say “this is what I’ve got, do what you want with it.”

But more often than not, our mind isn’t doing that. Our mind is making our choices. What’s worse, is even when we don’t need our mind to be at work, it’s still going. Comparing and contrasting everything. Brooding, mostly.

Have you ever noticed that even when it’s completely unnecessary to think about anything, your mind is still going? Have noticed that when this is happening, your mind is getting in the way of your experience? Just a few examples of this that come to mind for me are; sex, watching a sunset or taking a shower. My mind really doesn’t need to be thinking while doing these things.

There’s no point. At all.

Taming the mind

Before we can get the mind to take a break when we don’t need to be incessantly thinking, we have to make friends with it first. If we try to tell our mind to go away, or that we don’t need it, we’ll just encourage it all the more. Instead of a retreat, we’ll get a resurgence. We don’t want that. So if we want to end the conflict of head and heart, we’ve got to figure out a way to marry this disparate pair.

Remember when I told you the answer to this problem is simple? Well, it is. But it won’t be easy at first, because we’ve been doing it all wrong for so long.

What we have to do is only use our mind to go with ourselves. The Latin root for sin means “to go against.” So we have to learn to be without sin.

We have to learn to constantly realign our decisions to be “with ourselves.”

Have you ever wondered how to tell whether a decision is right? It seems so difficult, doesn’t it? But it becomes so easy when you think “Is this choice going with me, or against me?” You’ll find that the right choice is immediately evident.

If you can learn to practice this every time you make a choice, you’ll start to regain your personal power. You’ll create a marriage of your heart and mind. Maybe then their child (you) won’t have permanent emotional damage from the divorce it’s been suffering from for so long.

Make the choice today. Just try it out. I think you’ll like it.

Go with yourself!

Close and casual

Last week I received an sms from the government's Covid-19 health portal, saying that I have been classified as a casual contact with a person or persons who are infected with the disease. The message further told me to remain calm and perform home monitoring assessment using the MySejahtera app installed on my phone. My better half received a similar message.

I duly checked the app and saw that my C-19 risk status has now turned yellow - Casual Contact No Symptoms. The system has identified me as such, based on my check-in history to the various places that I've been to. The app also provides me with directives and advice on what to do next. This includes answering three questions relating to my current health status, every day for the next few days or so. Presumably, until the app is satisfied that I'm full okay and can be re-classified.

It is now two years that the MySejahtera app has been in use. Despite various updates in that time, I do still feel that the app has so much room for improvement. This latest information about me being a casual contact is an example. Why can't the developers include the source or location where the close contact happened? When my wife and I received the notification, we spent the whole afternoon wondering where we could have gotten the contact or perhaps we had been slack in practising the required SOPs. If this information had been provided, we could at least know where the contact occurred and be more cautious when we visit the same place in future.

But I guess user convenience and satisfaction is not on top of the list of the app developers.

Current status. Have tried setting up the MySJ Trace but had trouble loading the page

Booster dose

The first month of the new year has zoomed past so quickly that I realise we are on the brink of another new year tomorrow. The Chinese Lunar New Year will happen on 1st February 2022. It will be the year of the Tiger, of which I am one.

So what has happened in the month of January 2022? Nothing much really. I had my third so-called booster vaccine earlier this month. The booster dose was the Astra Zeneca type compared to the two Pfizer shots I had earlier. It was also done at a different vaccination centre but the process was not less efficient.

Some minor side effects were felt in the evening after the shot. The next day my left arm and shoulder felt a bit sore so the whole day was spent resting at home.

I do hope that no further vaccination would be necessary. Getting tired of being pricked.

Booster dose done at Persada International Convention Centre

Events to close out the year...

 Park this space. Write up to follow.

1. Floods in Selangor

2. Family BBQ at Huda's Haven Resort

3. Letting go of the Harrier

It's all in the genes...

A few days ago, our second son messaged me for help in getting some of his boyhood photographs to be scanned and converted to digital format. He asked me to select a few photos from when he was a baby and into the time he was at kindergarten and primary school. For some throwback project, he said.

I am a photographer and for sure I have tons of pictures of my family using the various types of cameras that I owned. Of course, the photos of my children in their younger days are in the old school printed format. Buy the roll of film from a photo store (usually a Kodak or Fujifilm, ASA100 with 36 exposures), load the film into the camera (be careful to ensure the leading edge of the film roll is engaged to the sprocket of the frame advance lever), close the camera caseback and advance the film (either by the manual lever or, for motorised cameras, by pressing the shutter release), proceed to take photos while bearing in mind to check for exposure and composition because you wouldn't want to waste the film by taking poor shots, roll back the exposed film into its cartridge after you have used up all the exposures (manual or auto rewinding, depending on the camera), open the caseback and take out the roll, send the roll to a photo processing outlet to be developed, come back in a few days (or a few hours if you are willing to pay extra for express processing), get the full set of 3R sized prints either in matt or glossy paper, plus the negatives of the roll. You then get to see the results of your photo-taking skills. How many of your shots turn out to be under-exposed or over-exposed, or out of focus, or blurred, or skewed, or colourless, or bland, or just simply lousy. But the few prints that turn out sharp, colourful and well-composed give you that strong sense of satisfaction.

Gone are the days of such excitement in non-digital photography.

Anyway, as I was sifting through the old photo albums, I came across a photo of our youngest son taken in September 1997 when he was about 2 and-a-half years old. I realised that I have a recent digital photo of our 1st granddaughter in a strikingly similar post. So I searched for it in my mobile phone's memory and made a collage of both photographs side by side. The similarities are obvious. Definitely in the genes.

The uncle and his niece, 24 years on

Thirty-three and hopefully more...

17 November 1988 : We started life as husband and wife

17 November 2021 : Thirty-three years on, we are blessed with relatively good health and a happy family.

When we started life as a young family all those years ago, Allah swt blessed us with 3 boys. We are now further blessed with 3 lovely girls as our granddaughters. Looking forward to growing old together.

Just so happen that this restaurant has a suitable backdrop

A good time to try the Meat Cartel restaurant at Bandar Dato Onn, JB

Double dose of joy in being a grandfather

We made the trip to Selangor last weekend. The four-day itinerary was jam-packed with visits and stopovers. Truth be told, 4 days is never enough to cover all the things that we wished to do but we have to manage it somehow.

This trip is the one we had been waiting for for quite a while, having been prevented from inter-state travel for a number of months due to the pandemic situation. We visited the graves of three siblings on my better half's side, dropped by the houses of some nieces and also managed to squeeze in a visit to the new gallery of illustrator friend, Emila Yusof. The highlight of the trip was meeting our twin granddaughters only for the second time.

Afra Humaira and Afra Haura are now 10-months old. We look forward to more joyful occasions with them in the near future.

We are now blessed with 3 granddaughters. Praise to the Almighty for granting us these jewels.

Double trouble or twice the joy, it's a matter of choice

You can do it...

The wonderful thing about being semi-retired is the opportunity to spend the free time doing things at a leisurely pace. No time constraints, no pressure and for sure, no high expectations. Doing things just because you want to try and that it doesn't matter if it doesn't work out.

I consider myself a DIY enthusiast. Not really a skilled craftsman but an amateur handyman who can tackle the minor repairs that often need to be taken care of at home. Basic stuff such as plumbing works, install light fittings, replace faulty locksets and the like. The extent of what I am able to do is limited by the tools that I have, which, while not much, is more than sufficient to cover the routine maintenance work. Until recently, the only power tools that I own are a used corded drill and a jigsaw. The drill was given to me by my late brother many years ago. Also included were a few of the most common and necessary drill bits. I've used it many times for drilling into brickwork walls or timber posts. Works fine and there have been no problems so far.

But such a tool is not suitable for screw fixing work such as in the assembly of flat-packed furniture. Not really a necessity because a manual screwdriver does the job just fine but then, where's the fun? Any serious DIYer worth his salt should have a few power tools in his arsenal. The first tool that most skilled woodworkers or handymen suggest getting is the cordless drill driver. I had been longing to buy such a tool for quite some time. There are so many in the market and the cheap no-brand ones from China can be got for less than RM200. Many times I have been tempted to buy such an unbranded drill, the reason being that I'm only to use it occasionally, hence an inexpensive one would do just fine. However, after watching some Youtube videos by seasoned DIYers, I followed their advice and opted for the established makes. 

And so, two weeks ago I took the plunge and placed an order for a Black + Decker 18V cordless drill driver from a dealer on Shopee. I chose the most basic package available; single battery plus charger (don't see the need for spare batteries as I won't be doing continuous drill driving work), no drill bits (I already have some) and without dedicated casing (an old toolbox I have would do fine for now). I went for the B+D brand because the corded drill that I have is a B+D and that has been very reliable so far. Black + Decker is an American brand but like most other manufacturers nowadays, assemble their products in China.

Delivery from the dealer was quite fast. The package arrived within 5 days of ordering.

The first task I put the drill to use was in the repair work to an old folding banquet table that I bought in 2011. I use the table for my bonsai gardening hobby (pruning and re-potting). The original tabletop made out of fibreboard has rotted and I replaced it with 12mm thick plywood which was also bought online. The plywood board is sold pre-cut to the dimensions of 600mm wide by 1200mm long (or 2ft x 4ft in old-school terms) and this is exactly the size of the existing tabletop. No further cutting is required except that I rounded off the four corners for a neater look. For this, my jigsaw came in handy.

Other additional works that I did was to cover the plywood top with wallpaper (which was already on hand from a botched attempt to re-coat an old refrigerator) and to spray paint the table legs (also from cans already on hand). All in all, I like the look of the finished product. Not sure how long this plywood top will last but hey, I now have the tools and experience to make another one if so required. No satisfaction like do-it-yourself.

Have gun, will DIY

Old banquet table set to be given a new life

The blue table legs because that's the leftover paint
my son used to spray his bicycle

Spread your wings...

 

Maisarah at AEON Mall Bandar Dato' Onn, Johor Bahru

Work hard and aim high,
You'll never know if you don't try,
The only limit is the sky,
So spread your wings, my dear and fly...

Lunch and a day out at the shopping mall with my eldest son and his family yesterday. The first time we took our granddaughter to the AEON Mall at Bandar Dato' Onn was in January 2019 when she was still a babe-in-arms. At that time, her parents were on assignment and we gladly agreed to babysit her for a few days.

This time around, Maisarah is a 3-year old toddler. Highly observant and very talkative. Her parents wanted to buy new sandals for her and the children's shoe section at AEON has enough variety on sale to allow the young lady to pick out the pair that she likes.

After choosing her shoes, it was just a short skip to the adjacent section which all kids would not want to miss, the toys department. While her parents were at the cashier, I took the young lady to browse the toys.

"Tengok saja tau, take beli ya," I told her. Ok, she agreed, although I had doubts if she would actually keep to this arrangement upon seeing the huge range of toys on display. We had recently bought her a toy for her birthday last month, so I didn't think it is time yet to get her another one.

True enough, the moment she laid eyes on a particular doll, she told me she wanted it. So I said, you can hold it for a while but we are not buying it. A few minutes later, she walked to the stuffed toys area and picked up a unicorn. She hugged the toy and told me she wanted it. Again I gave the same response. I was pleased that she was quite obedient although there's a visible look of disappointment. The important thing was that she did not create a tantrum. I could have easily agreed to buy the toy because it wasn't terribly expensive. But I was hoping to teach her something and I do believe there is no better time to start than at an age when she is already aware of things that have value.

After a few more minutes of browsing, I told my granddaughter that it is time to move on because we had other places to go to. As we passed the stationery section, I spotted a sticker pack of the cartoon characters from Didi & Friends (a local animated series). I pointed it out to Maisarah who immediately became excited and picked it up from the display stand. She looked at me imploringly and said that she wanted it. I finally relented and said okay, I'll buy it for you. The look of delight on her face was precious. Those stickers would probably not last the week when she gets to play with them but her happy smile I will remember for a long time.

Maisarah kept her hold on the sticker pack as we made our way to the cashier counter. I told her to place the pack on the counter for the cashier to scan. After making payment, I told the cashier to hand over the sticker straight to my granddaughter. Without prompting, Maisarah said, "Thank you, Achik."

The young cashier was pleasantly surprised, smiled back and replied, "Sama-sama."

That's another person that Maisarah has caused to smile that day. Lovely.

Bonsai gardening... an update (4)

It has been a while since I last posted about my bonsai hobby. The last post on this topic was almost a year ago when I wrote about the pair of ficus religiosa plants that I re-potted. Those plants have since grown new leaves quite vigorously to the extent that I had to prune them again a few months ago.

In this post, I'm sharing the update on a ficus retusa plant that I am styling to have an umbrella-shaped canopy with some exposed roots. I believe I've had this tree from the very start of my bonsai hobby (about 3 years now) and it has been re-potted once. It has grown quite healthily and is slowly approaching the design that I have in mind. I did some minor leaf pruning a few days ago and I'm happy to say that it is one of the better-looking bonsai plants in my collection, not that I have that many.

I am now planning to buy a more suitable bonsai pot, one that is slightly larger but shallower, with the intention of re-potting it again in a year or so from now.

Row of bonsai plants in training. Two ficus religiosa on the left, guava in the middle,
ficus retusa and bougainvillea

The ficus retusa before leaf pruning

After some minor pruning

A time to watch

Over the past year, with the enforced lockdowns and restricted travel, I have indulged in a new hobby. Collecting wristwatches. Perhaps not quite a new pastime because I have been buying new wristwatches every few years or so but I had not paid much attention to the details of the watches that I bought. Neither did I make any proper attempt to take care of them or store them in a neat way. I had mostly bought them based on looks and of course, price. All my watches are cheap, or to use a more polite term, in the budget range.

With the extra free time because of MCO restrictions, I began to read up additional information about wristwatches and viewed many Youtube videos on watch reviews. I learned many new things which I had previously not cared about. I began to understand the significance between quartz and automatic (mechanical) movements, the important case dimensions to take note of and many other aspects of a wristwatch such as dials, hands and lume. To a wristwatch enthusiast, the term 'complication' does not mean a problem. And jewels are actually bearings and not precious stones. I noted that watches can be classified into a number of types : divers, field watches, dress watches, chronographs and pilot watches, just to name the most common categories. Looking at my personal collection, I mostly have quartz dress watches and chronographs. My next target would be an automatic field watch. I already have one in mind (launched a few months ago) but am holding out until the price drops to a more affordable level.

As a first step towards organizing my collection, I bought a watch storage box made of wood with a glass top. It has 12 slots, each with a small black velvet pillow or cushion to enable the watches to be nicely displayed. Initially, the box held six of my watches and six belonging to my better half. When I bought a few more of my own, I decided that another storage box is needed. The next box that I ordered has 6 slots and is made out of PU leather. Not as classy looking as the wooden box but not too shabby either. This smaller storage now holds all of the lady watches in the house.

As of today, I have six (6) watches that are in working order and wear on a rotation basis. I have a few which are not working, either the batteries have run out or the movements are totally gone. In my younger days, I would simply throw these faulty ones away but now, with this new hobby, I will attempt to check first by replacing the batteries myself. The watch repair toolkit I ordered via Shopee arrived yesterday. I am now able to open the caseback of the non-working watches without the need to send them to a watch shop.

In this post, I do not wish to give a full list of the watches in my collection but rather, introduce the latest acquisition which I ordered online and arrived earlier this month. It is the Timex Expedition Metal Combo Black Dial TW4B17200 analog/digital quartz movement. I bought it from the Timex Official Store on Shopee because it had a huge discount during the 9/9 sales. I ended up paying less than RM300 for something that was normally sold at RM480.

To me, this watch looks great. Very suitable for day-to-day wear. It is 40mm in diameter with a lug-to-lug length of 46mm, a lug width of 20mm and a thickness of 12mm. It fits nicely on my thin wrist. The caseback is made of steel but the material of the watch casing itself is not indicated. A youtube reviewer has mentioned the case is made of brass, which gives the case a seasoned and tarnished look. It is a look that I actually like. There is a rotating black plastic bezel but since all the bezel markings are also in black, I fail to see how it can be useful. No matter, I prefer the black look anyway. But the feature that I like the most is the digital display window at the bottom. The digital component of this watch is in effect, a separate counter. We can use it to mark a second time zone, set an alarm, use it as a day-date display or utilise the stopwatch function.

Prior to buying it, I had searched Youtube for reviews of this watch. Not many of these reviews are positive but I went ahead and bought it because the discount was too good to ignore. Furthermore, this is the second Timex Expedition that I'm buying. The first Timex I own is also an analog/digital combo that has served me well for more than 15 years and still works.

Timex is an American watch company with some history. Nowadays, most of its watches are assembled outside of the USA. This particular model I believe is made in the Philippines. 

The watch originally came with a tan leather strap but I swapped it with a black nylon one. I think it looks even cooler. I am extremely happy I bought this one.

As is, out of the box

On wrist photo shot

My 1st Timex. Has undergone a few battery and strap replacements. Still reliable.

The joy of being a grandfather

Two days ago the 10th of September, was the birthday of our eldest granddaughter. Maisarah, the daughter of our eldest son, turned 3-years old.

We get to see her quite often because my son and his family live in the Johor Bahru area too. It is either our son comes by our home to visit or, if we feel we miss her, then I'd just drive over to their place. It's only about half an hour away.

Maisarah is a very bright girl. With each visit, there is always something new I find out that she has learned or is able to do. She was able to stand and walk even before her first year. By two years old, she has an understanding of basic words and I could communicate with her in a simple way. Then she learned about colours and shapes. At one visit, I found out that she knows how to count from one to ten. When we next meet her, she could count to twenty. Subsequently, she shows us her ability to sing the ABC Alphabet song. The amazement never seems to cease.

A fortnight ago, we were at our son's home. I showed Maisarah a small cut on the pinkie finger of my left hand which I sustained while doing some gardening the day before. Of course, it no longer bleeds but the cut on the skin can be clearly seen. She had a worried look on her face when she asked, `Tok Abah sakit? Ada darah?'

'Sakit sikit je. Mula-mula ada darah tapi sekarang dah kering,' I replied.

Her next question surprised me. 'Tok Abah pergi doktor?' It was her look of real concern that really warmed my heart. She was able to associate the injury with the need to seek treatment. I laughingly answered that it is only a small cut and no doctor necessary.

We met up again two days ago to celebrate her birthday. After the initial hugs and kisses, she quickly took hold of my left hand and asked, 'Tok Abah sakit?' She remembered the cut on my finger!

I showed her the healed finger with the cut no longer visible. She smiled.

As always, I would try to take selfies with Maisarah each time we meet. At a suitable time later, I plan to create a collage of the photographs, to show the progression as she grows up. I have previously done one such edition last year. This time around, I brought a camera tripod because Maisarah already understands the concept of posing for a photoshoot.

After I finished taking a number of shots using the delayed timer on the mobile's camera, I was about to pack up the tripod when Maisarah said it was her turn. She wanted to set up her phone (her mummy's old faulty I-phone which now has become her toy) on the tripod. I clipped the I-phone to the holder and was about to place the tripod when she stopped me to say, 'Maisarah buat', meaning that she wants to set up the shoot herself. She then fiddled with the tilt lever of the tripod, angled the phone to face where I sat, and then, in English, remarked, 'Perfect'. Whoa... where did she learned that expression!

She then came over and sat on my lap, and we both faced the phone in make-believe that an actual selfie is being taken. Complete with the imaginary countdown and the 'Cheese!' at the end.

Three years old and I love her to bits.

We have two other granddaughters (daughters of our second son) whom we've only managed to see once. They live in Selangor and thus we are eagerly waiting for the MCO travel restrictions to end so that we can visit them too.

Grandpa's jewel

Completion of vaccination with 2nd dose

This is a delayed post. I had my 2nd dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on 11 August 2021, which was exactly three weeks from the first shot. Apparently, the interval between injections for the Pfizer vaccine is rigidly observed and of shorter duration compared to the other types.

The overall process for this second dose is very much faster than the first. I arrived at the PPV well before the allotted time. There were not that many persons lining up for the 2nd dose and I was given a queue number without the need to wait for the actual time slot. The process was even quicker since I opted to go straight to the jabbing booth without the need for another doctor's interview since I had not encountered any major side effects from the 1st dose.

All said and done, it took just around thirty minutes for the whole process. A testament to the efficient work done by all the frontliners involved. Your hard work and sacrifice are fully appreciated.

Did not have that much time to read the book that I brought

Had a volunteer snap this final pic

1st dose of Covid19 vaccine

Around this time last week, I received a notification on my mobile phone that I have been given an appointment for the 1st dose of the Covid19 vaccine to be administered at a vaccination centre set up at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai. It was a piece of welcome news after a wait of a few months although I was not duly apprehensive because I was pretty sure my turn would come. I believe the authorities have been working very hard to roll out the vaccination programme nationwide.

Yesterday 21 July 2021, I had my first dose. Pfizer.

The vaccination centre was at the Raja Zarith Sofiah Library of UTM, located about half-an-hour's drive from where I stay. Having been to the venue once before, I was not worried about how to get there. Nonetheless, I do feel for the common folk who do not possess their own means of transport. The university has a huge campus and the library is not serviced by a public bus route. This is where assistance from NGOs or community leaders would come in handy.

Reading the experiences of friends who already had gone through the process, I was expecting a smooth and quick process, around 30 to 45 minutes from arrival to exit. However, it took me significantly longer than that. But I am not complaining because I understand the tough situation the doctors, nurses and volunteers have to go through. The initial checks, screening and the actual jab were quite efficient. What took too long, for me at least, was the final waiting period while setting the appointment date for the 2nd dose. A few elderly gentlemen around where I sat were already complaining to the volunteer in charge that they had been waiting for more than an hour. I can understand their restlessness. I had come prepared with a novel to read.

It has now been about 18 hours since the dose was injected into my left arm. So far, things are looking good healthwise. I am feeling a bit of pain in the upper arm but nothing too serious, Alhamdulillah. The rest of the day shall involve taking things easy like continue reading the novel, updating a blog post and other online stuff.

Thank you to the authorities and all frontliners for doing a great job. I look forward to the 2nd dose.

At the first checking station

The 1,938th recipient for the day at 3.30pm

Accessibility to this blog (unsecure site)

I had not realised that this blog's URL is considered unsecured when it is accessed by others. I only knew about it when I tried to visit the site via links that I had placed in my Facebook and Instagram profiles. Clicking on the links would show a warning or simply do nothing.

I have checked my blogspot settings and chose the automatic https redirection option but still, there are errors. A fellow blogger has advised that individual links that I inserted in the blog may also be the cause of errors.

So, for the next few weeks, I'll try tweaking this blog's layout in search of the offending codes or links. I apologise if you see different or simplified layouts that change periodically.

Thank you.

Update 26.06.2021 : This is looking like a labouriously long process. I've run the 'Why No Padlock' online checking tool. The results say my SSL certificate is valid.

I've removed all my sidebar gadgets which are not original Blogger gadgets and may contain unauthorised javascripts. Still no luck.

Another suggested process is to look at each individual post and remove any missing or expired links. Now this is going to take some time... sigh...

Update 23.07.2021 : I have just finished reviewing the 11 blog posts in the month of April 2008 which was when I started blogging. The very first post contained a link to George Carlin's website which no longer exists. I have removed the link. Other posts have photographs that are apparently linked to bp3.blogger pages which are not secure. This is a bit strange because all those pics are my originals (i.e. not copied from others). I have removed the said pics but re-inserted them directly from my PC. Let's see if this resolves the issue. Tough days ahead to review all the other pics in this 12-year old blog.