Swedish wash bag

Self-service laundry in Malaysia has been in the news for the past few weeks. A laundry operator in Muar decided to cater his business to Muslim customers only. Somebody picked this piece of news and decided it is worth spreading, or to use the latest cliche, to viral it. It became a source of debate between Muslims and caused some degree of animosity. Which sadly to me, is a bit of pity.

Anyway, this post is not about that issue although I admit that it's worth an in-depth discussion at another time. I'm posting a simple observation of a laundry I frequent when I stay at my brother-in-law's house in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam.

What I've seen is that the majority of customers bring their dirty laundry in those unmistakable blue over-sized Ikea shopping bags. I'm guessing that this observation would hold true at other self-service wash stations in Klang Valley. You can't fault the Swedish furniture maker for producing a truly versatile bag.

Such a scene is not yet evident in laundromats in Johor Bahru. But with Ikea opening a new store in Tebrau sometime next month, it wouldn't be surprising to see more JB folks using those familiar blue bags to haul their laundry.

Swedish laundry bags in blue

Tie the bag handles to the washer door

The last race has been run...

The final race for the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit was run last Sunday. The race was won by Dutch driver Max Verstappen for the Red Bull Racing team.

I watched the full race on television, which was something I have not done for a few years now because my interest in F1 racing has waned. However, I thought that it would be nice to view this so-called finale just for the memory. As it turned out, Max won his second victory in F1 on the day after his 20th birthday. That was something of a feat. At that age, I still had not possessed a driving license. Of course, that's not a reasonable comparison. Max comes from a racing family. He started driving go-karts when he was just four and a half years old.

Max is trained by his father, Jos Verstappen who was a Formula One driver himself. Jos was relatively unsuccessful in the sport, having achieved only two podium finishes (3rd place in the Hungarian and Belgian GPs in 1994) in a total of 107 races. His drive for success did not diminish and he turned to mentoring his son to achieve what he had not managed to do. That takes some dedication.

I have not actually watched a live GP race at Sepang before. The tickets are too expensive for me. Furthermore, I think there is more knowledge to be gained by watching the race on TV where the informative commentaries tell you plenty more than you get by sitting in the grandstand and looking at speeding cars running around in circles. But that's just me.

Nonetheless, I can tell you that I have been to the Sepang Circuit once. It was at the official opening ceremony of the race track on 9 March 1999. A friend of mine who worked with Malaysia Airlines had managed to get some free passes from his friend at Malaysia Airports Berhad (who at that time, was the owner of the project). The ceremony was held in the evening, around 9pm if memory serves me right. Having said that, I can't remember much else of the event except for the final fireworks at the end. It was quite an impressive display, as fireworks shows are meant to be. I was seated in a reserved area of the grandstand together with some employees of MAB.

As the fireworks sputtered the final flashes of lights, I overheard an MAB staff next to me wistfully mutter, 'There goes our bonus for this year. Up in smoke..."

With the final F1 race run after 18 years, let's see what becomes of the Sepang Circuit from now on. Let's hope that the whole investment does not go up in smoke.

The sticker pass that's still stuck to my car's windshield to this day

Whisper to the sky

"Kata orang tua-tua, jaga lembu sekandang lebih mudah dari jaga anak perempuan seorang."

The literal translation of this Malay idiom is that taking care of a herd of cows is much easier than taking care of one daughter. I personally wouldn't know about that because I have three sons and no daughters. But I guess there could be a grain of truth in it, otherwise our wise old folks would not have mentioned it.

It has been a few years since I last watched a Malay movie at the cinema. There are not many locally-made films that spur my interest. In a way, I'm not an ardent supporter of the local movie industry, which is actually a sad thing. I hope to put things right in this respect from now on but at the same time, I really wish Malay filmmakers would correspondingly improve their product too.

Bisik Pada Langit is a beautifully touching movie. It tells the story of a father's unconditional love for his only daughter, perhaps at the expense of the other male offspring. The plot is simple, the dialogue uncomplicated and the scenes are short and crisp. The efficient use of flashbacks to tell the background events help sustain interest.

The lead role as patriarch of the family is played by Jalil Hamid. While more well-known as a comedian, I truly like to watch Jalil's skillful acting in dramatic roles. In this movie, he shows his ability through a whole range of emotions : joy, affection, impatience, anger, despair and sorrow.

Go watch this film at the cinema and support our local films. Be prepared to shed a tear or two...