Comments Round Up
My posting on toilets has got Pey, Kenny and yeeton debating the merits of Asian toilets versus the ones in Europe. So far, it looks like the West is losing!
I’ve had some a new commenter, digital nomad commenting on my recent tech posts the slowness of Twitter and the disconnectedness of being connected.
We had a visit from Sara who is involved in Beaut Blokes to say that they are just trying to keep rural communities alive so us city folk have milk for their lattes!
There seem to be a lot of people trying to make malt loaf as another comment - this time from alwena - on my post about malt loaf testifies. Yeeton kindly posted up a recipe for malt loaf so check out that post again for that useful piece of information. Personally, I’m too lazy and just nip down to the shops to buy my malty supplies!
Yeeton also adds some good comments to my English Dinner Party post - he says very wisely that the best wines are not necessarily the most expensive so don’t worry about bringing the most expensive wine if you’re invited to a dinner party. His other piece of advice is that an author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children - that worries me a bit as I’m often asked about my books at dinner parties and find myself talking about them. Note to self: make sure I don’t talk too long and boringly about them next time! Kenny says rather ruefully that perhaps he needs to get out more and find some people to have dinner with - good idea, Kenny: too much time in front of LonelyGirl15 is not good for you….
I’m glad to see, however, that Kenny has not taken to Justin.tv in the same way so he will be going out a bit more - his poses the question of whether Justin.tv is voyeurism gone too far.
Meanwhile, my post on Nuns on the Run reminded digitalnomad of Knights Templars and banking cartels and jennifer picturing 80-year olds running from the law. On a darker note, does anyone remember the sinister image of God’s Banker hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in the ’80s? I think we will occasionally be amused and sometimes disturbed by stories of the Church and dark doings - but always be fascinated.
Fred Dervin, a Finnish professor in cross-cultural studies at the University of Turku in Finland has included my podcast Two Voices in a paper on Dissociation and Complex Interculturality - You can dowload* the pdf here and go to page 7. Silvia has added a comment to share her experience of being multi-lingual and confusing people who can’t place her accent - I was having coffee with her once and she took three phone calls in a row, each one in a different language, switching easily back to English in between. It was amazing to hear!
*You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the pdf file. Click “Back” on your toolbar to return to this page
- Posted on
Fri, April 13th, 2007 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 14 responses
- Leave a comment
April 13th, 2007 at 2:37 am
I traveled to Nanning China many years ago. Funny thing was, everyone was going to the bathroom on the airliner just prior to landing at the airport. I found out why, having waited until we landed. Toilets were flush with the floor and no paper in sight.
On the other hand, the hotel I stayed at in Nanning is the only Five Star Hotel I have ever visited with a bathroom made from marble. Talk about extremes.
The same was true of my stay in Beijing. Fabulous hotels and restaurants…public facilities, beware.
April 13th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Digitalnomad - I hear that some visitors to China who are in the know, carry toilet roll with them - and also umbrellas, which come in useful if they are doing out-of-city tours (eg to Yangzte delta etc) so that while using outdoor toilets that have no door, they can open the umbrellas and use them as a shield to curious eyes.
April 13th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Hi Yang-may,just to say hello and will be visiting again.
April 13th, 2007 at 10:21 am
“does anyone remember the sinister image of God’s Banker hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in the ’80s?”
IF I correctly remember, that of some Machiavellian guy with a name beginning with M with papal connections.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
O Yang-May, I have the shortest attention span of anyone I know. Already gave up watching Lonelygirl15 — was fresh at first, now just too soap opera-ish, and gosh knows I loathe soaps. Admire the concept though not the recent execution of the series.
How goes your TV script/proposal? I’ll understand if it’s still being developed and you can’t say much about it though.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
“God’s Banker hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in the ’80s?”
Further to what
I said, one Markinsas unless
contradicted.
April 13th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
YM, REST assured - IMHO - no solecism is committed in speaking freely in response to what is being asked, as opposed to blithering away in an unrestrained volunteering of unsolicited, gratuitous stuff.
BTW the palm sugar (Jaggery or Gula Melaka) that can be used for making malt loaf - obtainable at oriental grocery stores in the West (dark brown Malaysian variety is the best) - is quite the most flavourful sugar I’ve come across. Author, raconteur and TV chef Keith Floyd in a TV sketch set in Sabah of a Malaysian dish - Tamarind Chicken, if you must know - (taking a bite of palm sugar) was to enthuse about it as ” a cross between fudge, caramel and toffee, only much better”.
For a bit of indulgence when making malt loaf, add a dollop of cognac, rum, or Guinness for its distinctive flavour. Once you’ve tried the home-made stuff, you probably wouldn’t want to go back to the commercial variety like Soreen. Serve with best Normandy butter if obtainable. Consuming malt loaf using my recipe is ‘as close to getting to malt loaf heaven as you can get under the circumstances’ [with acknowledgement to Frugal Gourmet (Wolff) as to incorporation of a phrase that he had used in his TV cooking sketches, but not as to the recipe]! Freezes well, so can make in quantities at a time to save on labour.
April 14th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Yeeton - thanks for sharing your expertise re recipes and also with factual bits and bobs. Your comments are always helpful!
Kenny - re the TV script: we’re about halfway through with the treatment for submission. We need to finish doing the synopses for the last couple of episodes, do the character map and then some final polishing and we should then be ready to submit it. So few more weeks of hard work to go yet. Thanks for asking.
April 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Glad to hear about your progress with the script. Best of luck with the finishing touches! :)
April 14th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
YM, DON’T think I was advising or much on anything,
merely conveying what Benjamin Disraeli once alluded to, in respect of the practices of some authors in common with that of some mothers, an all too-common human failing, I’m afraid, that the actor may not be quite aware of.
I only have to send a one-sentence email to a certain
somebody enquiring about the siblings, in reply, a response that would make Milton’s Paradise Lost
or Mark Anthony’s funeral oration at Caesar’s seem like a very short read. Plus lots of images taking up
valuable disk space!
April 16th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Yang-May - that Disraeli quote about mother’s talking about their children is so true. There is a feeling of pride, doubt, humility, and through this the thought that one shouldn’t be bragging.
I wouldn’t consider it a human failing myself, it’s simply that it’s very difficult to talk objectively about one’s own work.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
*failing
• noun: a weakness in a person’s character
# noun: a flaw or weak point (Example: “He was quick to point out his wife’s failings” )
I SHUDDER with some embarrassment to think some of the things mum said of me to outsiders in praise when I was a kid EVEN THOUGH substantiated or justified on the facts.
Did I not read somewhere the essence of greatness is humility AND that children
may be seen but not heard, least of all praised (unless well-deserved in exceptional circumstances and then only sparingly IMO), especially by own mother? Fathers, however, are usually more circumspect in such matters, it has to be said.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:50 am
A correction
as to name,
reported in today’s Timesonline,
“Five cleared over murder of ‘God’s Banker’
In surprise verdict, Rome court acquits five of murder of Roberto Calvi, found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in 1982″
February 4th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Thanks for sharing