FUN at Press Conference

Fun for Kids in Malaysia is out in bookstores now.  ParenThots, the parenting portal of The Star is running a contest on Facebook. You can win a copy of the book for yourself.  But if you don’t like entering contests and would rather just buy the book, you can cut out a 20% discount coupon from tomorrow’s Star.  You can check out the review of the book at ParenThots.

This book is my 6th but for the first time in my writing career*, my publisher is organising a press conference for the book. This is a joint PC with Yvonne Lee whose third book, Madness Aboard has just been released.  It’s a sequel to the popular The Sky is Crazy airline book. Yvonne and I are rather paranoid about nobody turning up for the PC but our publisher, Marshall Cavendish, has assured us that at least one person has confirmed attendance.

Having a press conference for one’s book sounds rather posh, doesn’t it. It balloons up the ego a little.  Well, we shall know how keen the media’s interest is after tomorrow and whether the balloon will become a little rounder or fizzle out in a loud ffffftttt.

*Postscript

MPH did organize a launch for Honk! If You’re Malaysian. Though it piggy-backed on the Share-A-Gift charity carnival, it was rather grand and was quite a success. Honk! is my best-selling book to-date having sold a 5-figure number.

Powder or CO2?

I need to have the fire extinguishers in the office serviced. At the moment, we have the powder type.  Someone suggested that it may be good to change to CO2 as the powder extinguisher leaves behind a messy residue.  Price factor aside (CO2 is more expensive than powder form), what are the advantages of using one over the other? This is what I found out :

1. There are different classes of fire.

• Class A fires involve ordinary combustible materials such as paper, wood, cardboard, and most plastics.
• Class B fires involve flammable or combustible liquids such as gasoline, kerosene, grease and oil.
• Class C fires involve electrical equipment, such as appliances, wiring, circuit breakers and outlets. Never use water to extinguish class C fires – the risk of electrical shock is far too great!
• Class D fires involve combustible metals, such as magnesium, titanium, potassium, sodium etc found in chemical labs.

Source : http://www.fire-extinguisher101.com

2. Powder (ammonium phosphate) is more versatile as it is suitable for Class A, B and C fires.

3. CO2  is more suitable for use in computer rooms and kitchens as fires at these places would involve flammable liquids (grease, oil, kerosene) and extensive electrical equipment i.e. Class B and C (D too?) fires.

So which fire extinguisher you choose is highly dependent on where you are going to use it. If you have no fire extinguisher in the house and a fire has started up on your stove, DO NOT DOUSE IT WITH WATER or you’ll be in trouble.  Have a look at this video.

This site offers a good write-up on the various types of fire-extinguishers.

Of cords and corn

The fabric cord with a name tag attached to it that you wear around your neck – we always refer to it as a name tag, don’t we? Actually the name tag only refers to the tag. What is the name of the cord? Bet you don’t know it’s called a lanyard (pronounced lan-yerd). Besides name tags, you can also hang keys, pen-drives, whistles and anything you want to keep track of. Of course it’s only for small items, you can’t very well hang your kid from there.

How do you remove corn kernels from an ear of corn? If you were to look up the internet, you will only find this method. (Picture from http://www.shirinbalal.com).

There is wastage and it’s rather messy too as the juice oozes out from the kernels when you cut them. I learned of another method from my sister. Cut the corn into three or four stubs. Then half them lengthwise.  Peel off the kernels starting from the row of corns closest to the cut edge. You can do this easily as the flat surface of the halved corn gives you sufficient grip. The kernels will come off whole. The diagram below shows a stub with the left side of the corn already removed. My sister gets her boys to help remove the kernels and they get it done in a jiffy.

Winners!

Winners: Post-a-card-or-letter contest

This contest was waaay too hard : there is a grand total of 4 participants. Only four people who read this blog has snail mailed a card or a letter to someone in August. Speaks volume of the high-tech and instantaneous communication we are used to. Anyway, drum roll for the winners :

1. WP

2. Nylusmilk

Please let me know which of my books you’ll like to have and email me your address (tehlydia at yahoo dot com) so I can mail the book to you. Congratulations, WP and Nylusmilk!

Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards 2010

If you’ve been reading The Star, you would have known that Do You Wear Suspenders? The Wordy Tales of Eh Poh Nim didn’t win a prize. Ah well, you can’t always win, right? Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. It’s part of life. Ask Michael Schumacher or Nicol David or Lin Dan and they’ll tell you the same (though I wish Lin Dan will lose more often to Lee Chong Wei). So congratulations to the following winners :

Non-fiction

1st prize : Life: The Malaysian Style by Peggy Tan

2nd prize : Even Madder about Malaysia by Dean Johns

3rd prize : Yasmin Ahmad’s Films by Amir Muhammad

Fiction

1st prize : Little Hut of Leaping Fishes by Tei Chiew Siah

2nd prize : Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw

3rd prize : Kirkby : the Life and the Loves by Shaari Isa

Robert Raymer has a write-up at his blog about the event, so you can hop over there to have a look. Here’s a picture taken during the awards presentation on 6 September 2010 at KLCC.

(L to R) : me, Robert who was nominated for Tropical Affairs, Kuan Guat Choo for Or Rau and Peggy Tan, the author of the winning title of Life, The Malaysian Style.

Getting kids to read & play

That’s the title of my talk at the Bookfest tomorrow.  If you’re there, please drop by for a listen or just to say hi.

Date : Sunday, 5 September 2010

Time : 6.00 to 6.45 pm

Place: KLCC convention centre, Secret Garden @ Hall 5 (near children’s section)

Then on Monday, 6 September at 11.00 am, I will be at KLCC again for the Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards Presentation. I will know for sure then if Eh Poh Nim’s fans are able to knock down the heavy-weights on the non-fiction list. As of now, my expectation is at ground level. Still, the ceremony will be a good chance to catch up with the other authors, especially Robert Raymer (who co-wrote The Merdeka Miracle short story with me and Tunku Halim) and Yvonne Lee, my good writing buddy who has a new book out very soon.  Madness Aboard is the sequel to the popular The Sky is Crazy.

Cheers.

Memories

You think you’ve gotten over someone’s death, that you’ve come to terms with your loss. That you’re done with your grieving. That you have moved on.

Then, one fine day, you see reminders of your beloved and tears flow again. It has been more than seven months since my mother passed away. These past few days, I have been getting fresh reminders of her. During Sunday worship for example, I can’t remember what it was that triggered my memory of mum but it was painful enough to bring tears to my eyes.

For dinner yesterday, I cooked black pomfret in tomato sauce just like how mum used to cook it. Later that evening, I went to Aeon with the kids and saw a middle-aged woman who walked like mum and again I thought of her. On Monday evening, we had pot-luck with my siblings and their families at mum’s house. It was just like old times, except that mum wasn’t there.

I have friends who lost their sons even before they reach the prime of life. Ben was 15, Wei Xiang was 8 when they were called home by the Lord. My heart goes out to their families who are still struggling to cope with their grief. When death comes unexpectedly and before its perceived time, we are caught by surprise. It may take a long time to recover from the pain of the loss especially when you are constantly inundated by reminders of them everywhere.

When you eat chicken rice, you remember that it’s his favourite food. When you walk past the computer where he’s spent hours playing, you see his lingering shadow. When you walk past his room, you remember how he used to snuggle down to sleep. When you see Pokemon at the toy shop, you remember that it was his favourite toy. When the Harry Potter movie comes to town, it tears your heart to pieces because if he were alive, he would badger you to take him to the cinema. When someone of the same age as him celebrates his birthday, you think of how tall your boy would’ve grown had he lived.

Memories… they can cause so much pain but when the ache subsides, we can smile at how our lives have been enriched by our beloved when they were alive.