blondefish.blogspot.com: January 2011

Thailand

I've just arrived in Thailand at the start of 3 months of fieldwork. While this may sound like a bit of a sweet deal to some of you, in actual fact preparing my stay there has been a lot more stressful than it was for Bangladesh, where I had a particularly supportive team. For one thing, the fieldsites are spread quite far apart. So I will be spending a significant amount of time on shrimp farms in the southwest in Surat Thani (Number 62), and may be expecred to fly up to Number 25 in the northeast. Most of the other sites are situated within a 2-3 hour drive of Bangkok, but it's been a bit difficult to establish more than that due to the reticence of the Thai team.

Well, we'll just have to see how it goes. At least if all else fails I can get a foot massage.

Kickapoo Joy Juice

And it's back to the supermarket, this time for some happy juice. No, not beer, but Kickapoo Joy Juice

The Journal of Deviant Behaviour...

Seriously! I don't make this stuff up!

Actually, it provides some of the more amusing articles I've read recently, such as the lesser known academic exploration of 'erotic capital' (Hakim, 2010) or the theory that long-term development workers are 'mercenaries, missionaries and misfits' (Stirrat, 2008).

Lily

Malaysia....Truly [Green] Asia

Malaysia Airlines sometimes advertises its services on British TV and always ends with a catchy little tune using the words "Malaysia, truly Asia".

Last night in the supermarket I spotted this sign:

Looks like Malaysia may already be outpacing Europe in some elements of 'green' credentials.

Rabbie Burns

In Dhaka of all places I managed to get to a Caledonian Ball celebrating Scotland's National Day on the 30th of November. Even back then they were talking about Burns Nicht, a far larger and more whisky-imbibed occasion in general which takes place today.

A Burns Supper normally celebrates the life and poetry of Robert Burns (1759-1796), our Scottish National poet. I've had some memorable Burns Suppers in my time, like this one when I was in Mrs Gordon's Primary 6 class (aged 10) and Christopher Scott Toasted the Lassies (ladies):

There there was the infamous one at the European Parliament, where Tam O'Shanter was recited with the aid of a bottle of whisky and the witches from the poem reeled and whirled ever more exuberantly as the whisky went down. As they say, above all, the Burns Supper should be entertaining.

This year there will be no 'sonsie face' apart from mine and no 'immortal memories' save my own. Although there is one of Burns' poems that has survived to the modern era....so as I eat tonight I will say The Selkirk Grace to my own 'Burns Supper':

Some hae meat and cannae eat,

And some wad eat that want it;

But we hae meat and we can eat,

And sae the Lord be thankit.

Research Is Taking Over My Life!

Argh! Even on my days off and I can't help 'researching'. It must be pretty dire if the subject of my fascination is a tin of baked beans.

It really is interesting...honestly!

So, first off, we've got the humble Heinz baked-bean tin. This one sells at just over £1 a tin (5.99 RM), which is pretty pricey, but probably worth it for that Saturday brunch when, simply, nothing else will do.

But there's always the organic option if you prefer, but at 8.90 a tin, it is pretty much beyond any non-hungover person's cost-benefit ratio.

But hang on a tic. How about the 'salt-reduced' version? Only 3.99 RM a tin? HOW much salt are they putting in a regular tin if they can reduce the price by 30% just by reducing the salt content?

And then what's this about an 'English Recipe'? I thought Heinz WAS English? Well, apparently it's not worth anymore to have English Recipe emblazoned across the pack: still the same price at 3.99 RM a tin.

No wonder it takes me so long to do my shopping...

Saturday Shenanigans

The Year of the Baby

Hello Magazine has dubbed 2011 The Year of the Baby (now why would I know that? ahem) as so many celebrities are due to pop a sprog this year.

I remember 2003 as The Year of the Wedding. I think I went to 13 and missed two as dates clashed. Although the pace has slackened, I know of three this year - one which I will unfortuantely miss due to fieldwork commitments.

But this year definitely seems to be The Year of the Baby. As I welcome the second arrival of 2011 (already!) and wait with excitement for the other 6 (that I know of so far...but there's still time to get a 2011 baby in), here's a massive CONGRATULATIONS to you all!

Thaipusam: 2 years on

Two years ago I was also living in Penang, and crushed my way through my first Thaipusam Saturday and Sunday, avoiding piercings and coconuts as best I could.

This year I was grateful for the excuse to visit friends from Paris who are in Melaka/Melacca. Getting there and back did involve an overnight bus journey, which in Malaysia is a rather more luxurious mode of travel than in some other places with almost-fully reclining armchair-type seats.

I visited Melaka for the first time when I was 19 and on my way to New Zealand for a year. I don't remember much of that first trip but I do know that Melaka feels a lot cleaner and more developed than the bits of memories that remain. The waterfront area has undergone some tourist-friendly reconstruction, providing easy access to some of the local housing built in the traditional style (but shown-off by the very on-traditional flood-lit method and excessive use of neon).

We also went out for the day to Seri Menanti Old Palace ('Istana Lama'), the seat of the state's Royal Family. The timber palace was built resting on 99 pillars between 1902 and 1908 and is now a museum while the family live in a more modern construction next door. The four-storey structure is particularly impressive as it was built without nails; instead, hardwood rods piece the timber together.

But best of all was the the touch of a light friendship from those I have known for over 5 years and a different place. Thanks for the invite! xx

The Facts of Life

"So, when is your baby due?" said I.

I see the receptionist at the gym almost every day but have never gone further in conversation than 'hi' and 'how are you?', and obligatory comments on the weather. But she had been moved to the desk near the mats where I was stretching, and so for the first time I saw her baby-bump.

When she replied that she was due in May I breathed a sigh of relief...guessing a baby bump rather than a big lunch is often a bit of a risk. Our conversation continued and eventually got round to the usual topics: where I'm from, why I'm here and whether I'm married. On the marraige question I answered 'yes' automatically...then hesitated, aware of my fib but wondering whether it was worth correcting. But before I could, she had already asked me my age...

As is customary, I asked her first what she thought, and as is also customary, she answered 25. Sometimes I think the Asians I meet just choose 25 for safety's sake. Anyway, I told her 31 and she said 'no way!' which was sweet...but then she asked me hers. Hmmm, I thought through all the Asians I knew. There's the 37 year old mother of 3 who looks about 25, and the 23 year old student who looks about 30.... Bascially, I didn't have a clue, but I now knew she was pregnant with her second baby, and she was working so perhaps didn't come from a conservative family and therefore wouldn't have married too young, and so I chose 28.

"19" she said.

Although I spent the next few minutes trying to explain away my '28', what I was really thinking was, 'what?!' and 'wow!'.

My continued yoga stretches gave us a few more minutes to explore our enormous age difference (and pre-conceptions), but even if I'd had more information, I would never have guessed 19. It turns out that she finished her education at 15 and was married at the age of 16, already pregnant, to a 25-year old Muslim man who had just divorced his 24-year old wife and left their baby son. Apparently her parents 'were not very happy' when the scandal broke; the truth betrayed by a growing belly. So you see, I would never have really stood a chance at guessing accurately.

Gym staff seem to be about as diverse as it gets here. Today, the promotion specialist bounced over to me, grabbed my arm and was just about to liberally start spraying my arm when I demanded to know what it was.

"A spray to burn the fat under your skin".

That one can follow the Chai Green Tea Latte.

Tsunami Village

I went for a run at the gym today, and cleverly the designers stuck the 20 treadmills in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over Gurney Drive. There are YouTube videos of the 2004 tsunami hitting this coast. The entire headland that you can see in the photo was totally wiped out. The are was mainly occupied by fisher families. The families have now been moved into appartment blocks inland and the land has been sold and redeveloped by the latest luxury developer to arrive in Penang.

This is the same area but this time taken from our appartment balcony, which gives a better sense of the development of the headland. Two new malls have been built on the land as well as a few hundred luxury homes. Of course they are still in the line of fire should there be another tsunami, but in the meantime, someone is making their money...

And up close:

Dredging the marina:

Wedding photography:

View from the German bar/beer:

The Year of the Rabbit

The rabbit is the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese Zodiac. Births that take place in the following cycles can be said to have been born in The Year of the Rabbit:

11 February 1975 - 30 January 1976

29 January 1987 - 16 February 1988

16 February 1999 - 4 February 2000

3 February 2011 - 22 January 2012

The characteristics of 'rabbits' are:

Gracious, good friend, kind, sensitive, soft-spoken, amiable, reserved, elegant, cautious, artistic, thorough, tender, self-assured, shy, asstute, compassionate, lucky, flexible. Can be moody, detached, superficial, self-indulgent, opportunistic, stubborn.

Well, it's all very complicated when you start to look into it, and even more so if you believe it, but what it meant for us here in Penang are the start of preparations for the Chinese New Year Festival, the oldest and most important festival in the Chinese lunar calendar. Chinese New Year falls on February 3rd this year and Penang has one of the largest celebrations outisde of China.

Here, the preparations involve competitions in lion-dancing outside the malls. They are performed by local children's lion-dancing clubs, which makes the dancing generally shorter and more interesting...and enables us to stand in air-conditioning while we watch it.

Less of a tea conundrum

Seriously, would YOU drink Starbucks' Green Tea Latte? *

*ignoring personal values on frequenting Starbucks at all

Moneybags

One is worth about a tenner:

One about 20p:

But in a purse they look remarkably similar.

Rats.

4Food

For all UK-based readers, Channel 4 is currently running a Fish Season and alongside that a Fish Fight campaign against discards.

Even if you can't watch the programmes, the site offers information on what fish to buy, how to diversify your fish choices, sustainable fish recipes and further information on campaigns, such as preventing discards (discards are the portion of a catch of fish which is not retained on board during commerical fishing operations are is returned, often dead or dying, to the sea).

The Tea Conundrum

The supermarket Tesco has a strong presence in Malaysia, but local outlets also host a number of foreign imports.

But brands here do not necessarily have the same values attached to them as in the UK and consequently, prices differ.

For example, good ol' Tetley decaf comes in at 0.26 RM per tea bag...

...but surprisingly less than the disgusting made-for-tepid-water Lipton tea at 0.29 RM per bag.

You'd expect organic tea to cost a little extra and sure enough, St Dalfour will set you back 0.36 RM per tea bag.

But I can't quite fathom why it's cheaper than a local non-organic brand at 0.41 RM per bag.

While the most expensive of all is poor (but delicious) Twinings Earl Grey coming in at a whopping 0.52 RM per tea bag.

And the cheapest? Believe it or not, the UK upmarket retailer Waitrose-brand sells at only 0.18 RM per bag.

...which make me cheap but posh ;-)

Next Stop: Easter

Christmas is o-o-ver, so that makes the next stop Easter, as every good retailer knows.

Not that these little gifts from those who know my chocolatey-egg tastes will make it that long.