The New Year has come, but under clouds of gloom. The economy has threatened to worsen. The barometer of international relations – the middle- east – has exploded, with Israel now in full frontal assault on Hamas within the Gaza strip itself. There is even allegations of unlawful means – that of using white phosphorous.

 

We seem relatively insulated here in Melbourne. I suppose the threat of bad economic times is very real but the expectation is that it would only be a tightening of the belt without any threat of real physical harm. White phosphorous is said to burn beyond the flesh and would cut through to the bones. The only thing that would cut through our bones here in Melbourne is maybe a lack of quality alcohol. Relatively speaking, we are still in heaven.

 

Last Saturday, some of our friends drove to Venus Bay, which is a couple of hours east of where we are. They went to catch pipis. We didn’t join them because kiddo didn’t like the idea of sand and seawater on a hot day. I was impartial and wouldn’t have minded either way. I ended up doing my usual Saturday morning thing – vacuumed the house, mowed the lawn, trimmed some hedges, blown some leaves and garden debris and generally kept the home and garden tidy. When that is all done, it was just around noon.

 

We decided to just do something different so we went to the Prahran market. We had some coffee and a bit to eat, then walked up and down Chapel street for a bit. When we tired of that, we drove down Chapel Street and headed towards St Kilda Beach, and when we got there, continued driving towards Port Melbourne. We stopped at the Pier Restaurant, had some fish and chips and pizza and continued driving around. We went back to St Kilda beach, then off to Brighton and down to Moorabbin. When we got back it was close to 6pm and it was still bright.

 

After a day like that, I can only be grateful, especially when I sit back to watch the news on tv and faced the doom and gloom of the new year in other parts of the world.

Happy and Blessed New Year.

My uncle Stephen froom Sydney visited us on Boxing Day and stayed with us for a few days. They left and on the morning of the 31st, heading to Canberra for a night with my cousin Ruth before heading back to Sydney.

While they were here, we had lots of meals, conversations and reminiscing together. It was great fun. On Sunday 28th, we went to David and Charmayne’s in Camberwell after church. So there were my uncle Stephen, auntie Paddy and Caleb from Sydney, an auntie (Swee Har), uncle (Shu), David and Charmayne, and Tress, Kiddo and I. We had a barbie there and the food and drinks flowed all day, and we only left a bit after 9pm. It was fantastic. We talked about my father, my grandma, my grandfather, my great grandmother, and almost everyone else in the family.

We continued doing this the night before they left Melbourne. After a dinner at All People’s they came to our home and over coffee we chatted some more.

New Year’s Eve was at Jason and Mel’s – yet another late night. There were about 30 people there and we didnt leave till almost 2am.

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This morning as I attempted to do some work, the slow connection with the office network drive meant I surfed the web a bit. Malaysiakini is of course my favourite haunt.

I just picked up this story about the Malaysian police dousing boiling water on a detainee. The story is reproduced below. What rubbish from the Malaysian police. They are a cowardly and stupid bunch. I dont know what can be done to stem this source of grief for all Malaysians. The Malaysian police is one of the worst source of pains for Malaysians. If only they (the police) would wise up and realise they cannot go on this way.

Malaysians have voiced loud and clear on what they thought of the ruling BN government, in March 2008. Perhaps it is time they did the same against the police. They are a disgrace.

The Malaysiakini story is as follows: