Post-a-card-or-letter contest

When was the last time you received or sent a card or letter by post? I bet most of you can’t remember. Neither can I.

What we get in the postbox are the usual statements, invoices and junk mail. Pretty unexciting stuff. You can always tell which are the bank statements, which are the club invoices and which are the junk mail by their envelope. If you see a plain handwritten envelope, don’t you feel a flutter of excitement as you rip it open to see who it is from? In this day of instant messages via mobile phones, emails, Facebook and a host of other social media, it is a rarity to receive a handwritten note from a friend or a loved one. It used to be that I get two birthday cards in the mail box every year : one from the chairman of our church, the other from my insurance agent. Now that chairman has been transferred to another congregation and my agent has branched off into other areas, I don’t get any cards in the post box. I do get cards which are hand-delivered but they don’t give that stir of anticipation.

I have just written a card to a friend and I’m going to mail it to her. Would you join me in this send-a-handwritten-note movement and light up someone’s day? It could be an old friend whom you haven’t seen for some time, a relative who is recovering from an illness or someone whom you want to patch up with after a spat.

As it has been quite a while since I’ve run a contest here, I’ll organize one now. It just came to me as I was writing this entry.

What you have to do : Send a handwritten note to someone and leave a comment here that you’ve done so. I won’t ask for proof of sending, your word is good enough.

Prize : I will mail a copy of one of my books to two winners (any title including the upcoming Fun for Kids in Malaysia.) I will choose the most interesting comment or if all the entries are equally blah or good, I’ll choose randomly.

Closing date : 31 August 2010

Note : I forgot that Malaysian postal rates have gone up since 1 July 2010 and I sent off two letters with 30 cents stamps.  The rate for letters up to 20 g is 60 cents (up from 30 cents) and 21-50 g is 70 cents. For postcards, the rate is 30 cents.

Name your toes

Q: What is the name of the finger between the thumb and middle finger?

A: Telunjuk.

That was the answer given by a radio contestant to Lite Fm’s Cash Climb trivia quiz. Of course it is the wrong answer since this is an English station, not Malay.

In case you don’t know, the five fingers of our hands are called : thumb, index finger (sometimes called pointer or forefinger), middle finger, ring finger and little finger or pinky.

What about your toes. Do they have names? They are called big toe, second toe, middle toe, fourth toe and small toe. Unless you want them to be called Market piggy, Stay-home piggy, Roast-beef piggy, No-beef piggy and Crying piggy after the nursery rhyme.

Free to vote

This year Popular and The Star are making it easier for readers to vote, unlike in previous years. This time you can vote for your favourite books in three ways:

1. Cut out and send in the original entry form from The Star. Cost: RM0.30 stamp per envelope.

2. Text in your votes. RM0.30 per sms.

3. Vote online at The Star’s contest website. No need to cut out the form, lick the stamp and drive to the post box. No need to text till your fingers drop. All you have to do is click! Best of all, it’s free!

Now that it’s so easy to vote, what’s to stop authors from voting for themselves a hundred times or more using relatives’ names? Authors can vote for themselves, can’t they. Think of elections -of course candidates would tick themselves on the ballot slip. Singing competitions – contestants are bound to send in scores if not hundreds of smses to increase their chances of winning.

When Honk! If You’re Malaysian was nominated for the 2008 The Star-Popular Readers’ Choice Awards, I did send in a couple of entries using my kids’ names.  Only original forms from The Star were allowed then. I may send in a couple of entries this year too.  But I will not drown the organizers with my own votes though it would be too easy to do so with the online voting where more than one entry per voter is allowed. It’s one thing to ask others to vote for you, another to vote for yourself hundreds of times.

Thanks to readers who took the trouble to vote for Honk!, it won the 2008 RCA.  Would readers do the same for Do You Wear Suspenders?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Lydia for President

Vote for me please. No, I don’t aspire to be president of anything… the title is just to grab your attention. But you could vote for my book, DO YOU WEAR SUSPENDERS – The wordy tales of Eh Poh Nim so that it could win the Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards 2010.

Eh Poh Nim fans, please cast a vote (or more) for your favourite wordsmith. If you have not read the book, fear not. This bookertisement will give you an idea of what it is all about.

Some of you may think it’s a hassle to cut out the entry form from The Star newspaper (forms are printed on Fridays and Sundays till 31 July), fill it up and mail it in. The organizers have made it easy for you to vote via sms. It only costs  RM0.30, the price of a stamp. You could also stand a chance to win RM50 voucher from Popular and a one-year membership card. I know the prizes aren’t great, but you’ll be doing your bit to support local authors.If the response for this contest is overwhelming, I dare say Popular will increase the bounty for voters next year.

This is how you sms your vote:

If you are voting for Non-Fiction, key in: RCAN<space>NRIC<space> CODE<space> SLOGAN (not more than 120 characters) and send to 36600.

The slogan to be completed:

I like Readers’ Choice Awards because……………………………………. (not more than 15 words if you’re mailing in The Star entry form).

Eg.

RCAN 123456102345 DEF It gives well-deserved recognition to my favourite local books.

If you’re voting for Fiction, you have to key in: RCAF<space>NRIC<space> CODE<space> SLOGAN (not more than 120 characters) and send to 36600.

Closing date is Saturday, 31 July 2010.

So remember to vote Lydia for President Do You Wear Suspenders for Readers’ Choice Awards.

Cheap Western Dinner

This morning I caught a bit of Rachel Ray on TV. The dishes she prepares are easier than Martha Stewart’s. The recipe was fish fillet fried with bread crumbs with a side dish of pasta.

That reminded me that I haven’t fried pasta for a long time. I had two pieces of red snapper in the freezer, so I decided to cook pasta with fish. I fried the fish with olive oil, then tore them into flakes. Next the onions were sauted, then drained pasta added into the pan. Then I stirred in a cup of mushroom soup made from one sachet of Campbell’s and some tomatoes. Done!

For dinner, we had roast chicken. If we eat out at a Western restaurant, the damage would be about RM100 to RM120  for six of us, depending on what we order. Eating in is of course cheaper.

This home-cooked meal costs about RM30.

Chicken + carrots + onions : RM16

Pasta (leftover from lunch) : RM1

Mashed potatoes + gravy : RM7 (the pre-pack gravy itself is RM4+)

Salad : RM2

Garlic bread : RM4

For more ideas on how to save money, get my book Stretching your Dollar$ and $ense.

The Awards are Back

They’re Back!

The Star, Friday 9 July 2010

The only local book awards that give you, the reader, a chance to reward your favourite authors and win prizes yourself.

THE third time’s the charm, they say. That is certainly the case with this third instalment of the Popular-The Star Readers Choice Awards: the quality of the books and authors vying for your votes this year is the best yet.

Before we get into the books, though, for those who aren’t familiar with these awards, here’s a brief introduction: First organised by Popular Book Co (M) Sdn Bhd and Star Publications (M) Bhd in 2008, the Readers’ Choice Awards are one of the few Malaysian awards that honour local (Malaysia-born or -based) authors writing in the English language.

They are also the only local book awards that are completely interactive because you, the reader – rather than an unknown panel of judges – get to vote for the winners. Even the shortlisted 20 titles you will choose from were picked by a “people’s vote”, as they comprise the books that sold the most in Popular and Harris bookstore outlets nationwide last year.

Among the books that did well last year was Little Hut Of Leaping Fishes by Chiew-Siah Tei, which was critically very well-received when it came out in hardback in 2008 (the paperback was released last year); and there was Ioannis Gatsiounis’s fiction debut early in 2009, Velvet & Cinder Blocks – the Kuala Lumpur-based American freelance reporter has written articles about Malaysia for publications like Newsweek, The Washington Times and Asia Times.

On the non-fiction list, the name Mahathir figures for the third time – a perennial favourite, it seems! – with Marina doing the honours this year with a book she had not expected to publish, 50 Days: Rantings By MM. The always entertaining Amir Muhammad is on the list again, with two very different books: an informative, retrospective look at the legacy of the late Yasmin Ahmad in Yasmin Ahmad’s Films and the irreverently hilarious Malaysian Politicians Say The Darndest Things Vol.2.

If you haven’t read all 20 shortlisted books and still want to take part, keep an eye on the Reads pages in Sunday Star’s magazine, StarMag, over the next few weeks for an introduction to all the books.

The Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards 2010 invites you to submit your selection of the top three fiction and top three non-fiction titles based on the lists below. If you are one of 100 readers whose ranking matches the overall vote, you will receive a RM50 Popular gift voucher as well as a one-year-free-membership Popular card.

Just as importantly, we will also reward the authors of your choice: the top three in each category will each receive cash, trophies and certificates of recognition.

To vote for your favourite authors, fill in the entry form in The Star print edition (detailed instructions are on the form); look out for more forms in The Star over the next few weeks as we introduce all the titles.

You may send as many entries as you like but each entry has to be on an original form, no photocopies are allowed. You have until July 31 to submit your vote (or votes, if you want to make sure your voice is heard!).

The Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards 2010 are a precursor to Malaysia’s largest book exhibition, BookFest@Malaysia 2010, which will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from Sept 4-12. – Malini Dias

Fiction

1.       Velvet & Cinder Blocks by Ioannis Gatsiounis

2.       Map Of The Invisible World by Tash Aw

3.       Scary Ever After by John Ho

4.       Or Rau by Kuan Guat Choo

5.       Kirby: The Life And The Loves by Dr Shaari Isa

6.       Never Been Better by O Thiam Chin

7.        Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint

8.        Little Hut Of Leaping Fishes by Chiew-Siah Tei

9.       Chinese Stories In Times Of Change by David T.K. Wong

10. Match Fixer by Neil Humphreys

Non-fiction

1.       50 Days: Rantings By MM by Marina Mahathir

2.       I, Too, Am Malay by Zaid Ibrahim

3.       Taxi Tales by Charlene Rajendran

4.       Yasmin Ahmad’s Films by Amir Muhammad

5.       Malaysian Politicians Say The Darndest Things Vol.2 by Amir Muhammad

6.       Tropical Affairs: Episodes From An Expat’s Life In Malaysia by Robert Raymer

7.       Even Madder About Malaysians by Dean Johns

8.       Do You Wear Suspenders? by Lydia Teh

9.       Ceritalah 3: Malaysia, A Dream Deferred by Karim Raslan

10.       Life, The Malaysian Style by Peggy Tan Pek Tao

Source: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/7/9/lifebookshelf/6628097&sec=lifebookshelf

Look at the list of prominent writers and titles.  Mati-lah! Where got chance. If you have enjoyed Do You Wear Suspenders? then please get your copy of The Star and cast your vote for it. Ask and it shall be given, so I’m asking nice and polite. Please vote for Eh Poh Nim. Thank you.