Blogs and babbles
I have been writting my blogs for over six months now. I really wonder how I have lasted that long putting ideas for other people to read (if anyone reads at all). But I am happy that most of my ideas have come out of my head and transferred to other medium. And I can retrieve and read them as well, without having to keep so much physical space. Its a wonder of the modern world. And I have remodeled my templates many times as well.
Its a tedious job though and the blog being a public document the article must not be insulting, politically correct and usage of words not to include sexual intonations. Those are made more difficult as in different parts of the world different conditions/belief prevailed. And I must not be anti anybody especially not to touch on religion, race and as I mentioned above, politic. Otherwise I will be receiving tons of bricks. I am warned that one has to be careful not to insult ones employer or even ex-employers as there are very many ex-employees of your ex-employers who are very loyal to your ex-employers. As some one put it the other day, they have self-appointed themselves as the guardian of the "religion", if you know what I mean.
I go to the Chemist often, as I am under treatment, and in some countries they called Chemist as Apotek, in some South East Asian countries and in some part of Europe. I have my discount card, a 10% discount on all purchases for a Senior Citizen like I am. I used to ask, "Do you give discount to an old man?". But now I need not ask anymore, most of them are now familiar with me. Of course sometimes some sweet young thing behind the counter tries to goad me to buy Viagra or Cialis or Levitra with a warning, "Bring along your Doctors subscription and we will sell one of 'them' to you" I just smile (avoiding giggles). And sometimes she adding, "You are not that old, are you?" But really, how many of us would admit that we are old? That sweet young thing, (she looked sweet to me), she was probably above 30ish, sweet to an old man of above 55. .
Talking about discount, there are places that give discount to those what they termed as Senior Citizens and in some cases to Pensioners as well. But I am not a Pensioner, I retired with no pension. I got my gratuity though, quite a tidy sum. But money in hand is like grasping water, they just slip between the fingers. Before you know it, you only have with you wet hands, nothing much to speak of. But whether they use Senior Citizens or Pensioners, they are just polite terms for 'old men' really. In all cases proofs are needed, as men tend to pretend that they are old when they want a discount or young when they want to attract that sweet young thing. In my younger days they called these sweet young things/females as 'birds'. I remember the words in this song, "There is one thing that I loike, its a bird up on my boike, a bird up on my boike is what I loike". Those were the days. Some friends of mine told me off for reminiscence about the old days, but to me those were the best days, how can you beat that when there were birds you could catch, and tame and then let them go. Now back to discount, I understand that the Malayan Railways give good discount to Pensioners. I am not a Pensioner, so I suppose I do not get that discount. And MASS also give a good discount to those above 55 years in age, but one must book at least 1 week in advance, buy the ticket then and there and if one cannot travel on the day of the booking then one will not get a refund. That sucks.
What is it of age that we are so concerned about. When I was a small boy, I wanted to grow up fast. I could not wait to be circumcised. And circumcision is a ceremony, the put you in cold water for hours to make you go numb (at that spot), put you to sit on a banana stem and then cut your 'end' with a sharpknife (I am not sure then if the knife was disinfected or not or heated to kill all the germs). After that you are to lie on your back with a suspended tent above you wee thing as the wound is still raw, the wound being medicated with safron plus somethingwhich made your wound very painful. It took about 2 weeks before you are reasonably healed. But come to think of it, the two weeks torture and all the pain is worth the world when you use your wee thing later on in life.
After the circumcision I grew and grew, in age but not in size, physically I mean. And the adolescence period were the worst period, you got pain in your groin and in your breast. I suppose girls get worse pain than that. Then things began to grow, size increased and hair sprouting. Well to cut the story short, we learned a few tricks from the older boys on how to seek pleasure as you were growing up. They were innocent enough pleasures, and with the help of "Weekender" magazine which were sold quite freely in those days. Was it the middle page or page 3 that had the best photo, I cannot remember. But that was all, most of us did not go further than that. We did not go to Kampong Pisang. But the rugger team went to Bangkok to play rugby and they had more scrums that we could ever imagine. And the stories they brought back, unbelievable.
Now that I have retired, I find that time moves so fast. When I was working, even to wait for 5 o'clock to clock out was ages. What more to wait for the weekends. But now I sense that Fridays seems to arrive every other day. And I cannot stop it arriving, time flies as they say. It really flies.
They say that age is just a number. But I always get that from young people, old people are always reserved from making such remarks. I do not know why. But I know that when you are young you wish you are older so that you can earn more money but when you are old you wish that you are younger, for reasons only known to old men (and women). So Tongkat Ali (and Kacip Fatima) sells very well in the market places which are visited by old men (and women)., Why? They want to feel young, not that they are any younger. And if you visit one of these corners where many old men gather, what do the vendors sell? Medicine and devices that tries to make them feel young. And honestly, what they sell in these places sometimes embarrasses you if you have your young grandchildren walking with you. And the pictures they show, they are so explicit. And the Govt. is very tolerant with these people knowing that they are quite 'useless' now. They are 'harmless'.
And of course when you get to a certain age you die (if you do not die earlier) or you become babies again. But these 'old' babies are more difficult to look after, for one they are big and for another they are stubborn. Remember in the 60s there was this TV show called "Steptoe and Son" Just like the father, Steptoe Sr, in the show, old men tends to behave that, stubborn. Now imagine if they are older. But when they get helpless, then it is more difficult, and I suppose many are left to waste and die. We never really know. They say that a mother can look after 7 or 8 children but a son or a daughter cannot even look after a father or a mother. That is the truth.
Whatever the future is, I always have the philosophy that you must grow old gracefully. Keep active, be participative and get involved. Though I hate to use as an example but M whom I really hate as a leader kept himself active, live 'clean' (as far as I know) and has not yet become a 'baby' even when he is past 76. He is now retired. So is LKY, who is also supposed to be retired. But of course we can use a better example like Ungku Aziz You can see Ungku Aziz's photo in my blog mblog.com/picturememories.
I will continue writing my blogs. And to keep myself busy and sane and to write on diversed subjects I have created other blogs as well.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
Its a tedious job though and the blog being a public document the article must not be insulting, politically correct and usage of words not to include sexual intonations. Those are made more difficult as in different parts of the world different conditions/belief prevailed. And I must not be anti anybody especially not to touch on religion, race and as I mentioned above, politic. Otherwise I will be receiving tons of bricks. I am warned that one has to be careful not to insult ones employer or even ex-employers as there are very many ex-employees of your ex-employers who are very loyal to your ex-employers. As some one put it the other day, they have self-appointed themselves as the guardian of the "religion", if you know what I mean.
I go to the Chemist often, as I am under treatment, and in some countries they called Chemist as Apotek, in some South East Asian countries and in some part of Europe. I have my discount card, a 10% discount on all purchases for a Senior Citizen like I am. I used to ask, "Do you give discount to an old man?". But now I need not ask anymore, most of them are now familiar with me. Of course sometimes some sweet young thing behind the counter tries to goad me to buy Viagra or Cialis or Levitra with a warning, "Bring along your Doctors subscription and we will sell one of 'them' to you" I just smile (avoiding giggles). And sometimes she adding, "You are not that old, are you?" But really, how many of us would admit that we are old? That sweet young thing, (she looked sweet to me), she was probably above 30ish, sweet to an old man of above 55. .
Talking about discount, there are places that give discount to those what they termed as Senior Citizens and in some cases to Pensioners as well. But I am not a Pensioner, I retired with no pension. I got my gratuity though, quite a tidy sum. But money in hand is like grasping water, they just slip between the fingers. Before you know it, you only have with you wet hands, nothing much to speak of. But whether they use Senior Citizens or Pensioners, they are just polite terms for 'old men' really. In all cases proofs are needed, as men tend to pretend that they are old when they want a discount or young when they want to attract that sweet young thing. In my younger days they called these sweet young things/females as 'birds'. I remember the words in this song, "There is one thing that I loike, its a bird up on my boike, a bird up on my boike is what I loike". Those were the days. Some friends of mine told me off for reminiscence about the old days, but to me those were the best days, how can you beat that when there were birds you could catch, and tame and then let them go. Now back to discount, I understand that the Malayan Railways give good discount to Pensioners. I am not a Pensioner, so I suppose I do not get that discount. And MASS also give a good discount to those above 55 years in age, but one must book at least 1 week in advance, buy the ticket then and there and if one cannot travel on the day of the booking then one will not get a refund. That sucks.
What is it of age that we are so concerned about. When I was a small boy, I wanted to grow up fast. I could not wait to be circumcised. And circumcision is a ceremony, the put you in cold water for hours to make you go numb (at that spot), put you to sit on a banana stem and then cut your 'end' with a sharpknife (I am not sure then if the knife was disinfected or not or heated to kill all the germs). After that you are to lie on your back with a suspended tent above you wee thing as the wound is still raw, the wound being medicated with safron plus somethingwhich made your wound very painful. It took about 2 weeks before you are reasonably healed. But come to think of it, the two weeks torture and all the pain is worth the world when you use your wee thing later on in life.
After the circumcision I grew and grew, in age but not in size, physically I mean. And the adolescence period were the worst period, you got pain in your groin and in your breast. I suppose girls get worse pain than that. Then things began to grow, size increased and hair sprouting. Well to cut the story short, we learned a few tricks from the older boys on how to seek pleasure as you were growing up. They were innocent enough pleasures, and with the help of "Weekender" magazine which were sold quite freely in those days. Was it the middle page or page 3 that had the best photo, I cannot remember. But that was all, most of us did not go further than that. We did not go to Kampong Pisang. But the rugger team went to Bangkok to play rugby and they had more scrums that we could ever imagine. And the stories they brought back, unbelievable.
Now that I have retired, I find that time moves so fast. When I was working, even to wait for 5 o'clock to clock out was ages. What more to wait for the weekends. But now I sense that Fridays seems to arrive every other day. And I cannot stop it arriving, time flies as they say. It really flies.
They say that age is just a number. But I always get that from young people, old people are always reserved from making such remarks. I do not know why. But I know that when you are young you wish you are older so that you can earn more money but when you are old you wish that you are younger, for reasons only known to old men (and women). So Tongkat Ali (and Kacip Fatima) sells very well in the market places which are visited by old men (and women)., Why? They want to feel young, not that they are any younger. And if you visit one of these corners where many old men gather, what do the vendors sell? Medicine and devices that tries to make them feel young. And honestly, what they sell in these places sometimes embarrasses you if you have your young grandchildren walking with you. And the pictures they show, they are so explicit. And the Govt. is very tolerant with these people knowing that they are quite 'useless' now. They are 'harmless'.
And of course when you get to a certain age you die (if you do not die earlier) or you become babies again. But these 'old' babies are more difficult to look after, for one they are big and for another they are stubborn. Remember in the 60s there was this TV show called "Steptoe and Son" Just like the father, Steptoe Sr, in the show, old men tends to behave that, stubborn. Now imagine if they are older. But when they get helpless, then it is more difficult, and I suppose many are left to waste and die. We never really know. They say that a mother can look after 7 or 8 children but a son or a daughter cannot even look after a father or a mother. That is the truth.
Whatever the future is, I always have the philosophy that you must grow old gracefully. Keep active, be participative and get involved. Though I hate to use as an example but M whom I really hate as a leader kept himself active, live 'clean' (as far as I know) and has not yet become a 'baby' even when he is past 76. He is now retired. So is LKY, who is also supposed to be retired. But of course we can use a better example like Ungku Aziz You can see Ungku Aziz's photo in my blog mblog.com/picturememories.
I will continue writing my blogs. And to keep myself busy and sane and to write on diversed subjects I have created other blogs as well.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
To Shout Back
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