...and " By George! We have Georgetown!"

…and it has been a while. It has been 6 weeks since my last post.

Today is the last day of 2010. The 12 hour countdown to 2011 has begun. I have had a wonderful blogging experience since April 2010, and it has been so encouraging for me to get readers and followers from all over the world, some of whom have become my new-found friends. Thank you guys so much.

…and as we move on to another new year, the City of Georgetown, Penang (where I was born and raised) will be celebrating the City Day Anniversary on 1.1.11, an auspicious date with lots of events including fireworks at the Esplanade at the stroke of mid-night.

…and gosh, it sure has been quite a while since those bygone days of kite-flying, top- spinning, fish-fighting, marble-playing. I treasure those days of yore, those games I played as a kid are almost a non-activity today. But I’m very happy that the history, culture and “treasures” of the City of Georgetown, Penang still remains etched to Penangites.

On August 1786, Captain Francis Light, a trader who worked for the East India Company planted a British flag and renamed the once Pulau Kasatu and later on, Pulo Pinang, Penang, Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne.

In 1826, Penang, along with Malacca and Singapore, became part of the Straits Settlements under the British administration in India, moving to direct British colonial rule in 1867 in Penang history.

Georgetown, Penang was named after King George III, and Georgetown was accorded city status by Queen Elizabeth II on the 1st of January 1957, making it the first town in the Federation of Malaya – after Singapore – to carry the city status.

So yeah, it’s been quite a long while….54 years to be exact!

Penang’s capital city, Georgetown, is one of the most interesting and colourful cities in Malaysia. Featuring an eclectic mix of old and new, walking down the streets of Georgetown is like walking through history.

As acknowledgment of its well-preserved cultural and historical heritage, the City of Georgetown, Penang was listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the 7th of July 2008.

Instead of writing up on Georgetown, Penang, in my blog for your reading, I searched and visited many sites on Penang; and may I recommend this lovely site:

http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MI_penang.htm

which in my opinion, is among the best written and illustrated with the appropriate photos.

Enjoy the reading (in either English or Chinese), and you’ll understand why I love Penang so much!  Actually, why Penangites love Penang so, so, very much! …and why so, so, so many tourists who have visited Penang yearn to return time and time again!

I wish everyone a very happy, healthy & prosperous 2011!

....and a mangrove pitta came calling

Pumpkin, my pet Labrador sprang a very pleasant surprise in the morning of November 11. Perhaps, I should rather say a “traveller” from afar sprang the surprise. 

 As I sat down to get started on a short research article, I heard strange sounds of “woh...arrr!” “woh...arr!” from the garden. Wifey rushed in with a very colourful bird in hand and said, “Pumpkin has been playing with this poor bird on the ground!” I took a look at the bird and I was amazed, immediately taken in, fascinated! “Wow!... I’ve never seen a bird like this all my life, have you?” There was silence, so Wifey has apparently not.

 

 

 

 

....and it looked like this bird has forgotten how to fly; for she was too stunned by Pumpkin, an adult labrador’s cheeky moves – pawing a bit here and there with her ever so playfully. I noticed a slight bruise on her belly; or maybe that was the reason why she didn’t took flight. We put the bird in Pumpkin’s wire-meshed dog-house and stocked it up with a dish-full of water.

It was fun for Pumpkin to toy around with Pitty-Pitty locked inside the makeshift bird-cage, his erstwhile home. Pumpkin was strutting proud, feeling and looking smug, the whole day over his "prized catch".

I quickly began my observation on this bird.

 

She has a black eye-band like what the Spanish hero Zorro wears. She is remarkably distinct. The black design on top of her head makes her look like she’s wearing a rabbi’s skull cap; and she’s a kaleidoscope of colours, so to speak.

 

But the calls, “Woh...arr, woh...arr, woh...arr!” they were very LOUD calls; to me, quite discordant and rather unpleasant to the ears. She sounded like a terrible singer hogging the microphone in a karaoke bar. Ugh!!!

Her wailing calls (not singing) continued as she showed off her colours and “colour”. She clearly displayed signs of stress, confusion and anger with her “don’t-you-dare-touch-me” stare through her mean eyes, pupils dilated.

Nice plumes, wonderful mix of colours... brilliant blue wings on the outside, a medium olive green back, a light ochre coloured chest and yes....  she wears a red-colour “undie” at you know where, starting from between her legs! She knows how to wear it, and hide it for that matter, and I could only see it when she bends to take a sip of the water, or while trying to break through the wire-meshed enclosure.

 

 

 

Oh well, voyeurism is the art of bird-watching – we hear that time and again, don't we?

She measures a good 7.5 inches from “bill-to-behind”, pardon my pun, I am no ornithologist.

 

 

And she is a real beauty, very leggy, but too twiggy I think. A 4-inch leg length, and three long and strong pinkish android-like claws on each leg. Her bill, (or beak?) is rather short and blackish, not the type of Angelina Jolie’s that every sane man would want to peck.

 

And when she spread her wings, wow! More colours are revealed – white wing bars under the brilliant blue wing, bordered by solid black feathers; the contrast is so definitive. The wings become extended as it opened up; it created some kind of size illusion but in reality only exposing her actual wing-span. Apparently she has what I see as some kind of “natural mechanical wing extensions"! The 5-inch long wings on the outside becomes easily 8~9 inches on each fully opened wing.

I began to understand that her wings are not only for flight but also for fight when threatened and acutely stressed! “Fight or flight”, “fright-freeze-fight or flight” were also probably inspirations by birds, their contribution to this common hackneyed english expression.

Damn! I thought I knew a lot about birds. I know nothing.

So, with a nerve-wrecking, curious urge to find out more about this bird, I dashed back to my study room, my SOHO, to quickly bing, google, yahoo and wiki for images of “rare Malaysian birds”, “endangered Malaysian birds” - chucking aside the on-going research article that I was compiling on Malaysian SMEs.

After a 20-minute search, I found her. And there she is, in an artist’s painting that looked like this bird. And there is a German ornithologist, Hermann Schlegel credited for his studies (1863) on this bird, a Pitta Megarhyncha.

Yes, that’s her scientific name. And “mangrove pitta”, that’s her binomial name. At last, I know something about this bird. Her scientific name is beautiful, a name even fit for a glamorous Hollywood personality. ...and she’s mine, finder’s keepers. I decided to give her a cute sounding pet name, Pitty-Pitty; just to make it up, to cover her singing flaws - and as a reflection of what she was going through.

Hmm, now I sound like a real bird-person, don’t I?

I did more than a hundred SLR shots from different angles on the EOS-550 and made 12 video clips of Pitty-Pitty. It is now taking up 5.9 gig space on my hard-disk, but no complaints; I am now in possession of nice, high density visuals in a folder on the taxon that is in the NT (Near-Threatened IUCN 3.1) and is red-flagged; to show my friends, associates and share it with interested parties!

More read-ups, and I get to know from avian writer Daisy O’Neil (2009 June) article in the Bird Ecology Study Group.....
“With only five species represented in Peninsular Malaysia, each with low count population, fewer still their known habitats, these colourful, ground dwelling creatures are much besotted by birders and photographers for looks and keep sake”.

Keep sake? Oh no, not me. I’m going to set Pitty-Pitty free....in due time. ...and hah!... I can now safely guess that Pitty-Pitty must have flown from the mangrove swamps of the Perai River; and home in Palm Villas Butterworth is just about a mile or two away, depending on which part of the Perai River’s mangrove swamp Pitty-Pitty flew from.

 

 

 

 

 

Another check with Wikipedia, and it became clear why Pitty-Pitty landed on our garden “for some fun with Pumpkin and me....”

“Pittas are medium-sized by passerine standards, at 15 to 25 centimetres in length, and stocky, with longish strong legs, very short tails and stout bills. Many, but not all, are brightly coloured. The name is derived from the word pitta in the Telugu language of Andhra Pradesh in India and is a generic local name used for all small birds.

These are fairly terrestrial birds of wet forest floors. They eat snails, insects and similar invertebrate prey. Pittas are mostly solitary and lay up to six eggs in a large spherical nest in a tree or shrub, or sometimes on the ground. Both parents care for the young.

Many species of pittas are migratory, and they often end up in unexpected places like house-gardens during migration.”

And BirdLife International listed this bird - “ Pitta megarhyncha 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

After more than 8 hours of “home-stay” at Pumpkin’s home, including hours of quarrelling with “house owner” Pumpkin, showing off her colours in a couple of hours of photography and video shoots, frequent dips into the water dish, and several futile attempts to fly out of the cage; Pitty-Pitty was set for freedom.

With Pumpkin on a leash and ready for his evening walk, Wifey opened the cage to release Pitty-Pitty. Time to go.

 

I expected her to be really confused and wearily stressed out upon release. She might even do a “kamikaze”, or some kind of “hara-kiri” - like a crash landing, and kill herself.

I felt so sorry for her condition, her sacrifice; just to let a dog and his master learn, and hopefully get me entwined in activities not to hurt their habitat and ecology. Yes, she did.

What a noble bird.

Unwittingly, she just took the small step to be in a stranger’s garden, but she made a big mental impact to create a heightened environmental awareness in me.

What I did in return for Pitty-Pitty’s sacrifice was to blog on this adventurous and brave bird; and I showed her to my equally astonished and bewildered neighbours, who were mesmerised by her colours. I also wasted no time to quickly post this encounter on my facebook’s wall - hopefully, to let my friends be conscious about the negative environmental impact that is depriving them the right to survive on earth.

 After fluttering about in the opened cage, Pitty-Pitty flew out of it -  and what a beautiful sight that was, but not until she “crashed-boomed-banged” into the mirrored sliding door of a neighbour’s house – and landed on a garden yet again.

What a pitty, and do pity Pitty-Pitty.

That neighbour has been away for a few days already, and I could not make any access to his garden for any rescue operations. Pitty-Pitty stood still for 10 minutes, dazed, but was still on her feet. Pumpkin and I watched. Fine, she’s fine, just dazed. I just let it be, heaven help us all.

Pumpkin and I went for our 30-minute walk. When we returned, Pitty-Pitty was still standing there at the same spot, and would not fly no matter how I shoo-ed her to do so.

What a sad and pitiful sight.

 

 Pitty-Pitty was only air-borne again only after some 100 minutes upon release from 8 hours of a “home-stay” in a doggie-house. Finally, the bird has flown. It must have been a frightening experience for her, but with all having said and done, that experience for Pitty-Pitty, Wifey, Pumpkin and I, was not in vain.

Again, Pumpkin and I stood and watched her in her farewell flight. And we say in our hearts, “Bye-bye, come visit us again some time.”

 

I had fun and wonderful journey of discovery, learning about this colourful taxon from the world-wide-web and the live sample in Pitty-Pitty herself. It was an exhilarating experience of course, complete satisfaction to the bone. After more than three days, I still feel this exhilaration!

What an experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a fact-file on Mangrove Pittas, click to http://www.birdlife.org and search Pitta Megarhyncha

....and do not be afraid to retire, just don't re-tyre.

When I finish reading a book, I start on a new book.

Taken metaphorically, my life is like that.

It is a big waste of time to read, over and over again, the same book. Every chapter of our life is uniquely distinct in itself, and we ought to move on to the next chapter, the next book and the next; until we can read no more.

Every event, association, relationship cannot be permanent until eternity. Nothing is fixed for life.  

And if life is temporary, everything else is. You can easily imagine how mundane, insipid and flavourless life is if one does the same routine day after day, year after year until he drops dead – stricken by disease or sheer exhaustion. My life is not worth this end. I will continue to keep my mental, physical and emotional state in top condition, and I am absolutely glad that I am in a much better state of mind and body when I was ten years ago.

Everyone embarks on his life journeys; different chapters, like in a book. And strangely today, all life journeys can be started and assisted by search engines. We get ideas, know-how, learning experiences from others; in other words new found knowledge to kick start a new journey. This was unthinkable fifteen years ago.

Fifteen years ago, advice about what and how to do always come free, unsolicited, but they are mostly bad advice sub-consciously designed to confuse you more. The more friends you have, the more advice you get, and the more confused you become. By a recent research I did, I discovered that there are those who, with a plan, look forward to retirement; and those who, even with a plan, do not.

There is also another retiring category comprising the ones who never got started as far as honest work is concerned; and I have seen quite a number in my 37 years of industrial experience, interacting, mingling and rubbing shoulders with a wide network of government officials, bosses, peers, subordinates and acquaintances with varied expertise, personality, attitude, motives and behaviour.

To this category of people, retirement makes no difference; and retiring at 40 or 50 or 55 without a plan, with nothing to do, and having not much money in the pocket is no big deal. So they just continue with dishonest work, get their pay, short-changing their employers; but then rant, whine and whimper when they are shown the door.

I started gainful employment when I was nearing 20, back when the oil-shock retarded the industrial world’s growth that was so dependent on oil. Everybody was so casual, taking oil for granted like it will always be available in abundant quantity and at a low cost. Then the sky fell down! Everybody suddenly became fatalistic.

During the onslaught of this oil shock that comprised many short sky-rocketing periods of rapid oil price increases, I had the opportunity of coming to grips with industrial life, of getting a first-hand experience seeing working adults cry, like babies, not at funeral parlours, but at the factory gates. With tiffin-carriers and home-cooked meals for their new working day in hand, the workers were utterly stunned at their factories’ sudden closure. The only option for them was to cry. Oh well, there is another option -- rant! That was the scenario in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong 1974. As a trainee technician with just a HK$10 daily allowance, I began to understand what having a job means to people, especially when he is eking it out just for the survival of his family. It was my first major brush with the reality of working life.

I was indeed lucky to be selected among thousands of applicants (the unemployment rate in Penang then was a double digit figure), but a naive I had actually taken the job just to enjoy the travel overseas --- a three-month training stint in Hong Kong. That unforgettable experience of watching mid-life workers actually losing their jobs in an unscheduled manner suddenly made me appreciate the employment I have in hand -- even for that mere pittance. Along the way, I learned to manage the little income that I have, to save, to be thrifty, and go for value-buys; without being a scrooge and to always be prepared for any eventuality. Not to sob, rant, whine and whimper later.

Yes, I started young, and for the next 15 years, I remain employed in the Japanese MNC and I quickly moved up the corporate ladder. I urged my peers to go for night classes and higher education. There were few takers for company since they have to dig deep into their own pockets. They just had not saved enough. So I went ahead. I did not want to miss the opportunity. I had missed higher education due to the rigid racial quota (university) entry rules of the NEP and I did not want to miss it again. Now the chance has come; I qualify and I have enough cash on stand-by for the studies, and enough to sustain the small little family that I have already started.

My decision and action brought mixed reactions. I was praised by my bosses, envied by those who could not afford it, and ridiculed by those who wanted everybody to remain just like them; to just earn your wage and then go home to your family. It did not matter to me. I was hell-bent to get what I was looking for –- and I succeeded after three years. Right after, my employer was working on product diversification and I was appointed the leader to transfer and transplant the whole project to a new factory to be built.

And soon I was again away from home for 6 months, this time undergoing intensive training in Japan. We worked hard, I worked exceptionally hard. I went for post-graduate studies three years later, spending weekends in lecture halls and libraries; spending time networking and meeting up with mentors, professional managers and local entrepreneurs in the weekends. I graduated with distinction. I hardly had time for my family then and I was working really hard, never mind those who hardly worked.

I got myself moving up to the Board of Directors (the youngest and only local member on the BOD) in this Japanese MNC. Unwittingly, I became a local career man’s benchmark.

Those were the first few general chapters of my working life. It wasn’t easy, it was tough! Especially so when after 16 years in this new joint, the HQ in Japan decided to relocate to China in 2005. It was the twilight time of an organisation, but a dawning of a new chapter in my life.

Memories of the Hong Kong workers locked out of factory because of closure came running back to my mind. I felt a very heavy burden on my shoulders as I tried to prevent our workers from suffering the same fate – an unscheduled retirement for those who were neither here nor there – those in their 40’s and early 50’s. Eventually I realised that there was nothing much I could do as the power to continue or relocate depended on HQ. This is globalisation, globalising for profit maximisation, using just the simple economic theory.

I decided to end this chapter of my working life, and to start writing a new one. I thought of retiring for good, I was approaching 51. It sort of coincided with my original plan to retire at 50. I already had a plan and well, I think enough resources. But on second thought, I was simply and mentally not ready for a life on the beach.

I started a manufacturing consultancy right after, and I focused on local companies. It was a success and soon I had directorship offers from different clients. After much consideration, I decided to join one to help propel it to become a world class organisation. It lasted 4 years.

Decision time came again after the goal is accomplished. I decided to start another new chapter of my life.... to be fair to my wife, to be by her side as I had been “away”, "married to employment" for almost 37 years – and to pursue my dream of getting my PhD and starting an enterprise with my son at the same time. If time permits, I will write a few books.

So have I retired this time? If we are talking about previous employments, then yes.

What if it is about my life? ....absolutely not!

I do not think that those who cannot or do not look forward to read a new book, that is, to retire, as being one-dimensional or tunnel-visioned. Some have to work out of ego, or mental or financial necessity, while some out of inability to let go; inability to take the challenge of opening up the first chapter in his new book of life. It is funny though that many who will not want to retire think of retirees as soft, insipid, wasteful and brain-dead.

For the sinister that never got started as far as honest work is concerned, they do not see any real change between work and retirement. They have never actually worked in the first place, only being masters of work politics. Put them in the real political world and they will shoot their own feet, or become political dinosaurs within a week. They do not have the guts to be in the real political world, really, so they remain contented by being dishonest with themselves in their salary man’s world, and in cognizance of the "fact" that their employer "owe them a living".

Retirement is inevitable, just like life. Nothing goes on forever. The day will come. All things must change and pass; and the day will come for each person to read a new book in his life, to retire; lest they want to be eliminated by “karoshi” (Japanese terminology for working to death, which can be at any age!).  But for most people, retirement happens predictably and they react like ducks taking to water, especially when the mandatory retirement age has been written into the terms of employment; that your shelf life has expired so to speak. This is scheduled retirement.

When one is scheduled to retire, everybody tries to be ceremoniously nice to you on your last day at work in the office. There will surely be some who have been really bad to you but still don’t feel guilty about it. They will be conspicuously absent – ironically confirming their guilt, but there is nothing you can do now. There is afternoon hi-tea topped with untruthful flattery and unusually pleasant speeches, you get a few nice souvenirs and farewell cards to take home. They expect you to leave early, they accompany you to the door, and they also expect you to go straight home and never come back. Ha,ha,ha, ...sad, but that is the fact.

For some others like me, the decision to retire from employment was not a scheduled event. It came unscheduled but designed to be most suddenly. I talk to the big boss, I tell him the reasons and then I do it. As a top executive, I make decisions. I don’t let things be decided for me, even about my retirement. Well, it was a shock to the organisation, but what I did was just exactly what top executives are cut out to be – shockers who make things happen! When I have done enough, I have done enough. It was time to move on, and I did. No regrets.

For many others, however, unscheduled retirement is, strangely, scheduled for them by the top management, and is very painful. Like those workmen crying at the gates of a factory closed abruptly. And if scheduled retirement is the trigger point that may make you confused with your life three months after retiring, imagine the dangers posed by this kind of unscheduled retirement.

Organisations going “kaput”, rationalisation by manpower cuts, relocations and job obsolescence that leaves you out in the cold, at age 48 or so – neither here nor there!

So my friends, you must prepare for retirement as you would for anything major. Retirement is a major. You must have a plan. If indeed you look forward to retirement, it is important to have your daily routine and your big events all planned out in detail.

Remember you cannot spend 24 hours, 7 days a week on the internet, drink chinese tea or beers in your own garden, talk to your plants, or listen to your favourite CDs on your brand new state of the art hi-fi. You will start to vegetate. You will become soft, insipid, wasteful and brain-dead. You may develop sleep apnea or worse, become suicidal.

So the more hobbies and interest areas you have, the better. Have many. Many, many, many! Because it is amazing how quickly a retiree gets bored, disenchanted and lose interest with a new interest!

If indeed you miss your working life, always consider that retirement is the dawn of a new and better day in a new chapter of your life. It is your new book, where you write, not read, all your new chapters. You are ready for re-birth and to embark on new stuff, like, a new life.

You will know when to retire, do not be retired. Do not stay on simply to re-tyre yourself to go a few more miles (years). No need to re-invent the wheel. Logically, you can decide by the signs. Like why you, as an eagle born to soar, is working for or is working with a bunch of turkeys. There are many tell-tale signs. You must pay attention to them. When you have done enough, you have done enough. Enough is enough, never stay on for sake of the pay and the perks.

Like when you “don’t like your job no more” –- retire. Staying on makes one a prostitute. Hating the job but loving the money. Forget the gold watch and the golden handshake, they are golden handcuffs anyway. The opportunity cost you lose by staying on is much more than you think you know. Progress to other more worthwhile life projects of yours.

When I retired a good seven months ago, I go. And I did not just go, I completely let go. I left and I never looked back. I know my job is no longer my business. I am no longer obligated to offer any advice, and to be fair, neither my ex-boss or successor is obligated to listen to any of my views.

I have no regrets. Absolutely none. 

Just like what Frank Sinatra crooned, I did what I had to do - and it was the most memorable and meaningful decision I have ever made to date. To retire from 37 years of employment, after all has been said and done. I have never been happier; writing and reading this new dawning, this new chapter in my new book of life.

I blog, I have started on a book, I play the guitar better and better each day, I am starting a new enterprise, I am a PhD candidate in good progress, and I go so close to nature when everybody else is so stressed out at work.

I work out at the gym every day for an hour and I am in a better physical and mental state than I was ten years ago. I get to talk to the gardeners, security guards, people who serve me food, and I have time for some social work. I have come to understand people much better than I thought I did.

I do photography, I travel “inwards”, I discover “new” stuff by observations, I still provide management coaching to local manufacturers, and I “let my hair down” during the weekends.

But most importantly, I have quality time with my wife, two wonderful adult children, an emphatic and helpful son-in-law, and a wonderfully cheeky grand-kid like when I was a kid. Well, I may not be that wonderful, but life is now indeed wonderful as I weave the bricolage of my old and new life experiences with my family and the few true friends, and 2 god-children. So yes, I'm now a full time Godfather as well, kekeke....

There is so much that anyone can do after retiring from employment. The scope for adventure, discovery and fun is absolutely, immensely, and expansively fabulous.

How I wish I had retired from employment according to my initial plans 5 years ago, and to have a great life on the beach that was not to be. But, no regrets -- it is always better to retire than never. I for one, however, will simply never  re-tyre myself for a few more miles; I just simply retire from full time employment to enjoy all the years I missed with the people I love and the dreams I have.