the wacky wombat weblog

I like parks. It’s one of the few public spaces that aren’t crowded, unlike shopping malls.

Parks are also a nice place to just go for walk, clear out your mind. Or you could do plenty other things: jog, read a book, picnic, take photos, people-watch and secretly laugh at the weird people.

Ueno Park is one of the bigger parks in Tokyo. It isn’t very beautiful — maybe it was the wrong season when I was there. Although it is the place to avoid/go to (depending on how you look at it) during the crowded cherry blossom season, it is pretty tranquil on a summer weekday.

I finally sorted through my stash of photos, and uploaded an assortment from Ueno Park. Go to the navigation bar on top, hit <photo gallery>, or click here.

The thing I remember most about Ueno Park is the stray cats. They’re huge and fat, totally unlike the scrawny ones back home.

And they are unfriendly. They hardly mew at anyone, and they all have a haughty look on their face that says “I don’t give a shit about you” when you mew at them.

I also saw a few cats balanced at the edge of a pond with plenty of fish that were as big as the cats. But they weren’t going after the fish. They were stealing fish food.

The homeless folks would feed the fish little bread pieces, and the cats would slip their paws into the pond and grab the ones that fall at the edge of the pond. Maybe that’s why they’re so fat.

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Sometimes we also went to Yoyogi Park. On weekends, it’s filled with people. People enjoying picnics, playing frisbee. There were also jugglers, unicyclists, tap dancers and girls practicing some cheerleading/dance routine.

And musicians. OK, some of them are good, can’t deny that. But with freedom of expression, comes freedom of sohai*-ness. (*slang word in KL for “total idiot”.) There are some disillusioned people who’d go to the park, display their non-talent, and annoy the hell out of everyone.

There was one guy, braying at the top of his voice, something out of tune and horribly painful to the ears.

Another group of washed-out wannabe rockers were “dancing” to some music. Except it’s not really dancing. It’s stoned expression with arms flailing in every direction.

What they’re experiencing in their extreme disillusioned condition, can only be best described in yet another KL slang word: “shiok sendiri” (i.e.: reveling in pointless stupid fun that only they themselves can appreciate and are oblivious to the real world).

And because it was Japan, everyone is too polite. I almost wanted to look up the word “shut up” in my Japanese phrase book but I can’t be bothered. We simply moved to a quieter and less annoying section of the park.

Garrr, today’s the International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ye better be speakin’ piratey, ye scurvy dog! Now swab the deck, land lubber, or ye be walkin’ the plank and get locked up in Davy Jones’ locker!

Ok ok… I shall speak more like a real pirate….. u wan buy DVD?

Just read this article from Economist.com (that appeared in The Economist print edition) about the Belgians don’t quite care that their country’s still without a new government despite having the general election since June. The author suggested that the country be dissolved, much like the spoof news flash that was broadcasted on their TV last December.

So here’s my take - a Top Ten list of why Belgium should not be dissolved:

10. The excellent Belgian dishes

9. We’ll all miss Belgian chocolates

8. Someone out there (not me, for sure) will miss Brussels sprouts.

7. The Adventures of Tintin

6. The Belgian King will be unemployed

5. Without Belgium, the Americans will claim they invented fries/fritters

4. The Germans might want to try to invade Belgium again (third time lucky, perhaps?)

3. No Belgian Grand Prix in the Formula 1 calendar

2. Dr. Evil will be stateless

… and the number 1 reason why Belgium should not be dissolved …

1. I’ve yet to have a taste of Belgian girls
1. I’ll miss my Belgian beers

What has it come to when the government pays RM214 for a set of screwdrivers that probably cost only RM40, and doesn’t do a thing to check for possible corrupted practices?

Read this on The Star online today. It’s simply ridiculous.

The Auditor-General’s report revealed that the government has been paying insanely high prices for what seems to be very generic tools when they funded the supplies tools for the National Youth Skills Institutes in Malaysia.

Like RM10,000 for a technical tool set that costs RM 400?? And the list goes on.

Hasn’t it occured to anyone to check what was going on when the proposed budget ballooned from 400 million to 700 million? You mean nobody noticed the suspicious budget that doubled twofold?!?! 0_o Amazing. Dunno how to count izzit?

This is what truly annoys me about my home country. No proper governance, no transparency, and money squandered away for the benefits of the filthy selected rich ones.

When I first came to Singapore to study 6 years ago (gosh so long ago!), I was still optimistic, and dreaming of going back to KL to live and work there. What to do, I was 18 and I missed home.

But after all these years and witnessing what goes on in the news and among the people, all desire of returning home to ’serve my country’ has vanished.

No way I’m going back there in the near future to wallow in mediocrity and fear for my safety on the roads, and suffer through high cost of living. (Contrary to what many think, Singapore is a much more affordable city to work and live in. But that’s material for another blog post. :p)

Not to mention the rising tension of racism and religious difference. Nothing’s happened, but signs of the society being delineated along racial religious lines are just too obvious to ignore.

Once you’ve travelled abroad, seen other cities and all, then you start to see all the possibilities that could have been, but are wiped off because of greed, inefficiency, selfishness and narrow-mindedness. The future definitely doesn’t look too good.

Singapore isn’t the best city in the world to live in (I’m still trying to find out which city is), but I think I’d live better and happier here. So for now, I’ll just shelf my KL plans. For now it’ll just be my hometown, where I go back only for visits to my family and friends, and ‘real’ food.