Okay, yesterday was Squirrel Appreciation Day! Did you know that? If you did, then where are all my prezzies?
Squirrel Appreciation Day, huh? I guess it’s a start but really, squirrels should be appreciated every single day of the year.
So start laying out the nuts, the presents and the tributes. Chop. Chop. We, squirrels, better start feeling mighty appreciated ………. or else, we might have to take action. We are already assembling our air power. Be afraid……be very afraid.
Dear readers, what do you want for Christmas? What is your Christmas wish? I mean, really. In all honesty, what is your heart’s greatest desire this season?
You can tell your Uncle Squirrel. No need to be politically correct. No judgment here. Just watch the following video first ……….. and I hope it will inspire you to tell it like it really is.
With Christmas just round the corner and I reflect on Christ’s birth, I often think of the words of my favorite carol,
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth
And so, I was blessed to have just returned from a visit to the Holy Land and I got to go to Bethlehem. And just in time too, as with President Trump’s announcement of the USA recognising Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, things there are likely to become a whole lot more complicated and unsafe.
I have to say that Bethlehem was not at all what I expected. As per the carol above, I would always imagine Bethlehem as a quiet, sleepy little village. The reality is that Bethlehem is a noisy, bustling, dusty town. The streets are filled with traffic and there is a busy bus terminal a short distance from the Church of the Nativity (the supposed birthplace of Christ). I don’t think these days there is any “how still we see thee lie” or “Silent Night” in Bethlehem.
The other thing that I witnessed in my short visit was the animosity and fear. Bethlehem is under Palestinian Authority and Israel has built a very, very tall wall separating it from Jerusalem and Jewish settlements (part of a 708 km long barrier which the Israelis call a security barrier, the Palestinians call an apartheid wall and the International Court of Justice called illegal). In Bethlehem, the wall is up to 8 m high.
As a result of the barrier, Palestinians cannot easily travel around to Israeli controlled areas without permits and having to undergo security searches at the few gates in the barrier. I know of one former colleague whose 5 minute walk to work was transformed to a one hour commute due to the barrier. Similarly, Israelis cannot venture into Palestinian controlled areas with out due cause and permits and if they do, personal safety is always a worry. These difficulties have also reduced tourism, business and jobs in Palestinian areas.
I also witnessed the tension within the community. On the streets and in the shops, suspicion and wariness of each other was occasionally evident between the different communities. I also saw some Islamic extremist hate literature plastered on some walls and heard the duel between the Muslim call for azan and the pealing of church bells.
There is no peace and there is no quiet on the streets of Bethlehem today. What would Jesus think?
I think, Jesus would not be surprised. Man will be selfish, jealous, covetous and contentious. It is the nature of man, our sinful nature and this is why he came to be born; to give us a better way which is beyond our own means to attain. This is the hope that he brings. Peace and hope.
And if the world seems, for the most part at the moment, to be ignoring his message, perhaps it is no surprise either. The King of Heaven was born in Bethlehem but the world mostly ignored him then too. In fact, as we are told, there was no room for him at the inn.
On that note, I want to end this reflection with sharing about an inn or rather a hotel that I saw in Bethlehem. It gave me a chuckle amidst all the gloom. The hotel is right by the wall. It faces the wall. The management admits that it has “the worst view of any hotel in the world” and its rooms only get about 28 minutes of direct sunlight a day. This is Bethlehem’s answer to the famous Waldorf Hotel. It is the Walled Off Hotel.
I later learned that this hotel was set up by the famous artist, Banksy, to help create job opportunities for the Palestinians, support Palestinian artists (the hotel also functions as an art gallery) and make a statement about the political situation and the wall.
Ladies and gents ……….. I give you the Walled Off Hotel.
The Guinness Book of World Records holds a lot of fascinating information like the fastest car, longest bridge, the deepest free dive or the world’s oldest living human. But some, in my opinion, are just stupid like the “world’s largest Cantonese Fried Rice” or the “most number of apples cut by a chainsaw in one minute while holding the apples in the mouth” or the “most naked riders on a theme park ride”. I mean, why?
Well, anyway, I think I would qualify to be in that esteemed publication too under the category of the longest time someone has had an earworm without hearing the song again or knowing what that tune was. Yes, I think I have a good shot. My record stands at 43 years.
43 years ago, when I was but a wee lad, I heard a recording of a tune and I liked it. I played it a few times that day but never heard it again. Yet for 43 years, you could catch me often just start humming or whistling the tune. And I never knew what the song was and never encountered it again……..until last year.
Last year, I discovered Spotify, and while looking at suggestions of songs I might like based on my selection of songs, I finally rediscovered the song after 43 years.
I always thought it was some kind of New Age song and for some reason I always had a picture of water from melting snow dripping off the leaves of an evergreen. The truth is that it is a jazz tune and has nothing to do with melting snow.
The tune is “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Any theories, dear amateur detectives, as to why a young kid would remember this one tune for almost his entire life from just listening to it for one day?
I recently made a trip to Amsterdam and Lisbon via London. Only after the fact, I came to realise that I had just visited the capitol cities of the three European powers that once had colonies in Malaysia (the Portuguese came in 1511, the Dutch in 1641 and the British in 1786). A fortuitous synchronicity that enabled me to learn more about my country’s own past.
I was particularly excited about visiting Portugal because Portuguese influence on Malay history, culture and language was quite significant. There is still a Portuguese settlement in Melaka today and many Malaysians have some Portuguese ancestry. Many words in our national language come from the Portuguese.
As I was preparing for this trip, I got fascinated by fado; the music genre that is part of Portuguese national psyche. Originating in the 1820’s in Lisbon, the music could be said to be a type of lament. For example, it is suggested that, with reference to Portugal’s seafaring, exploration and global trade history, it may have been started by wives lamenting their husbands being away from them for many months and even years and sometimes never returning.
Said to be extremely expressive and profoundly melancholic, the fado songs speak of the hardships of daily life and a kind of resignation to that fate (which is the meaning of the word ‘fado’ – ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’. Someone wrote that fado has the emotional power to wring tears from your eyes.
Wow, I thought to myself, I have just got to go and see a fado performance while I am there. I am all into laments, melancholy and resignation to one’s fate. Not kidding. I have always liked to wallow in self pity and say “woe is me”.
So, I sought advice from a blogger friend, Ana Bica ( a fellow microbiologist and more importantly, a hometown girl of Lisbon). “Ana”, I asked, “where can I go to listen to some great fado in Lisbon?”
Ana suggested Clube de Fado. A very good recommendation; one that was also top of many lists on various internet forums on the topic. Now, in most fado establishments, the package includes both the fado performance and a fairly pricey meal. The consensus also seems to be that while the music is excellent, the food is pretty mediocre at these places.
Unfortunately, my traveling companions were definitely foodies first above all things and were somewhat skeptical of spending 3 hours listening to melancholic music and having their emotions ripped apart. They opted for fine dining instead……the Philistines!
So I was not able to actually go to a live performance (drats) but I did listen to some fado music and purchased a couple of CDs. One CD was in the more traditional style of the 1960’s and I must say, as much as I like the music, I too doubt if I could have listened to 3 hours of suffering. The second CD is by Ana Moura and represents a more contemporary style of fado; why the music was even occasionally upbeat even if the words were still melancholic!
Anyway, I have been listening to Ana Moura more or less continuously since then and wanted to share some of this music here with you. For you musically inclined readers, fado is usually done with a female singer (the fadista) accompanied by a Portuguese 12 string guitar(which is supposed to be very hard to play), guitar, viola and bass.
This song is ‘Amor Afoito’ or “Reckless Love’ which seems to be about a woman’s love for a man even when he has not proven he is deserving of her love.
I am sure that most of you have by now heard of the song Despacito by Luis Fonsi and featuring Justin Beiber. This month it became the world’s most streamed song of all time with over 4.6 billion streams. In fact, you have probably seen the video and heard the song so many times that you are beginning to lose your grip on sanity. Everywhere you turn, the song or the video is playing for the umpteenth time.
Well, not in Malaysia. If you need relief, come to Malaysia. It is a Despacito free zone; at least you will not hear it on any government run radio station or see it on any government run or government related TV channels. The Malaysian government, at the behest of self appointed religious police, has declared the song lyrics obscene and banned the song.
These are the same people who recently tried to ban the use of names like hot dogs, pretzel dogs, Coney dogs etc because it was offensive to those who considered dogs to be unclean.
Anyway, being a passive aggressive squirrel, I have decided to do an act of civil disobedience by posting this cover version of the song that is being played using the traditional Malay “gamelan” instruments – although it is by a group from our neighbor, Indonesia.
………..because you just can’t stop the squirrel! Hope you like it.
I guess it goes without saying that squirrels and cats have a bit of a strained relationship; like Tom and Jerry, or Frodo and goblins, or Harry and “He who must not be named”. So when you say “rare cat”, I would usually say “not rare enough!”.
But being a liberal minded squirrel, I have to say in all fairness that some…..just a few….cats may not be all bad. Putting away my own horrific experiences with the cat version of Cujo; I have to grudgingly admit that the Bornean Bay Cat or B.B.C. is kinda cool looking.
Little is known about this shy elusive creature except that it is only found on the island of Borneo (part Malaysian and part Indonesian with a tiny little bit of it belonging to Brunei) and that it is very rare and rarely seen. In fact, it was only rediscovered by science in 1992 and the first photo of a live specimen taken in 1998 (photo above). It is about the size of a large domestic cat (head and body about 53 cm long and the tail about 39 cm long).
The reason I am posting about this rare kitty, apart that it is found in my neck of the woods, is that the very first video footage of it was captured just last year and here it is…….the B.B.C. – cool cat. So whaddya think?
Hi everyone. I’m back.
I hid in my secret underground hideout, hibernating for the last four months, just so as to give you some time to sort things out but now that I have popped my head out, what do I see? I see that the Twitter-in-chief is still President of the USA.
But it wasn’t just fear that had made me keep a low profile. To be honest, I was feeling a bit dry; like I was running out of things I wanted to say. But I decided to give it a try again. I hope you will be patient with me cause I’m not sure where I’ll be heading with this. Baby steps. One post at a time.
To celebrate my coming back to the blogosphere, – like a bad penny that keeps turning up or a Hollywood sequel or reboot that we didn’t need like “The Mummy”, and also to belatedly salute my favorite country’s 150th Birthday, please enjoy this Canadian award winning gem.
(squirrel tattoo image from tattooimages.biz)
‘Tis the season to remember the gift of God to all mankind.
For unto us a child is born, a son is given….. (Isaiah 9:6)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)
May you and your loved ones experience the joy and love of God this Christmas – a love that compelled God to send Jesus from the glories of heaven to be born in a lowly manger, to live faultless amongst ordinary men and women, and finally to lay down his life for our sake on the cross of Calvary.
It is reason indeed to rejoice and praise God. This following video is of Kaylee Rodgers, a 10 year old from Nothern Ireland who has autism and ADHD. She began singing as a way to build her confidence. Together with the Killard House School choir of special needs children, she sings a Christmas worship version of ‘Hallelujah’. Jesus would be pleased.
Lyrics for “Hallelujah Christmas” by Cloverton
I’ve heard about this baby boy
Who’s come to earth to bring us joy
And I just want to sing this song to you
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
With every breath I’m singing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
A couple came to Bethlehem
Expecting child, they searched the inn
To find a place for You were coming soon
There was no room for them to stay
So in a manger filled with hay
God’s only Son was born, oh Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
The shepherds left their flocks by night
To see this baby wrapped in light
A host of angels led them all to You
It was just as the angels said
You’ll find Him in a manger bed
Immanuel and Savior, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
A star shown bright up in the east
To Bethlehem, the wisemen three
Came many miles and journeyed long for You
And to the place at which You were
Their frankincense and gold and myrrh
They gave to You and cried out Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I know You came to rescue me
This baby boy would grow to be
A man and one day die for me and you
My sins would drive the nails in You
That rugged cross was my cross, too
Still every breath You drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
A friend of mine in Singapore has been involved in an initiative to reach out to senior citizens and improve their quality of life by educating them to the joys of computing and the internet. This helps to keep them alert and engaged and some even go on to help charities and social programs using their newly learned skills. A worthy effort.
One obstacle amongst the seniors is an inherent fear of technology and bewilderment brought on by unfamiliarity with the rapidly changing technology and technological jargon.
I confess that I too feel that I am falling behind the technological curve and in the danger of being left behind. So as a public service, the Lone Grey Squirrel, wishes to share this informative video designed to be able to communicate at the level of senior citizens.
Realm of the Lone Grey Squirrel 