Long Overdue

It has been more than two months since my last posting. Much have happened since. Ram and I have been spending time away from home more than being at home and mostly in the east coast of the peninsular. I have alot of commitments to attend to, mostly facilitating the technical training of new employees and the training scheme is for one year. So, it looks like Ram and I will be commuting to the east coast more often now and for about one year. This may be extended if there ius an extension of the scheme beyond the initial one year plan. Ah well, it keeps us occupied though.

This commitment takes us away from the regular activities we were used to, like attending to the community services near our home, attending to the activities and classes at our favourite charitable foundation, attending to the Retirees Fraternity for which I am the secretary and others. We manage time, however, to visit mum in the south and to attend to weddings and major family gatherings. This is essential and is one way of maintaining and preserving family and social contacts and camaraderie.

My brother's mother-in-law, staying with him and family in Melaka, passed away while we were in the east coast. She was 80 years old and had been quite sickly at the time. We could not attend her funeral, but we had the opportunity of meeting her a few months ago. She was very frail and had then asked us to offer special prayers for her. Now that she is already gone then only we realised that she was indeed asking us to pray for her. We made an effort to visit my brother and family as soon as we could get away from the east coast.

We also held a simple gathering of nephews and nieces, Ram's sdie, in our house recently, to offer special 'thanksgiving' for various happenings amongst family members and to seek the Almighty's blessings for our well being. There was a good turnout of Ram's family members including her two sisters who came up from JB to be with us for the occassion. A birthday of one of Ram's grand-nieces was also celebrated that night, complete with cake-cutting. There was alot of family banter and I think everyone had fun. Too bad Shaffik and Sita could not join us for the occassion, being too far away.

My family grouping, TCC, held a meeting recently to plan activities for the upcoming annual gathering of family members. Although I am the Chairman, my schedule was too tight that I could not attend. It is quite a distance to travel from the east coast to the south and it is a one day travel one way!! Instead of postponing the meet everyone agreed that the meeting should go on without me and another senior family member took the chair for that meeting. Praised be to the Almighty that the meeting went well and that specific action plans were set in place and in motion.

I hope I can still find time to post here as regularly as possible. I will try ... I will try.... with the blessing of the Almighty....

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya

Roman Bath Near The Circus!

After visiting the Stone and Wood ceremonial structures, and after a short picnic in a park nearby, we went on to Bath, another city in the Southwest, about almost an hour away to the east, from where we were. The city was very hilly and the buildings mostly old and typical of English designs. We started off with visiting a park and observed several hot air balloons taking off nearby. It was exciting for Najla especially to see the balloons from up close. She commented that the balloons got fire burning and asked why. I think she could not comprehend why fire was needed for the balloon to fly. She nodded and said ‘yeah’ when I explained but she had that blank look! The park must be close to the University as we noticed many students ‘doing their own thing’ in the park.

A short distance away from the park was the Circus. No no! not the animals and trapeze type, but the housing and living quarters’ type. Yes, it was the typically English four storied apartments (including basement), in three blocks built in a circle, hence the name ‘the circus’, surrounding a small park in the centre with large trees in a circle as well. A road runs around the circus, in front of the apartments, with three entry and exit points, one of them leading to the city centre about half a mile away. Najla was running around the little park and played with the kiddy stuff there. She was enjoying herself. It was then almost 8.00pm but it was still light and bright as sunset nowadays is about 9.30pm.

We walked about the town area, quite busy with people out partying and enjoying the good weather, most in restaurants and cafes sitting outside in the open. We went looking for the historical, public ‘Roman Bath’ but found it closed. So we had no chance to see the exhibits in the building but went around the outside of the main building and the pump house nearby. According to the brochures the bath is not in use now and is only displayed as a tourist attraction. It would have been interesting to see the exhibits…. If one need to take a bath? There is a bath and spa outlet close by that charges £25/- for the full works, whatever that was……

We later asked around and located the town mosque, performed our obligations and then had dinner that we bought from a suitable fast food outlet in the town centre in one of the parks close by. People were walking through the small park with some walking their dogs. There was one particular man who walked along close to where we were sitting with his dog unleashed. Najla was especially nervous and apprehensive seeing the dog coming by. But when the dog just passed by she commented, “luckily I have cut my finger nails”. Apparently Sita had coaxed her to cut her long finger nails by ‘conning her’ that long finger nails invite worms to live underneath the nails and that dogs like to lick little childrens’ fingers that have worms in their finger nails. Phew! What a relief it was for Najla heh heh!

It was close to midnight by the time we were ready to leave for home in Tenby. We noticed several people staggering along drunk and one particular girl being helped along, hardly able to walk on her own, obviously very drunk. She was whisked away in a car by her friends who were themselves in some level of intoxication. I wondered if the driver was capable enough to drive! We arrived home at close to 3.00am and ever ready for bed. It has been a pleasant outing, something old, something not so old, and something new along the way. What next? We only have a few days left in Tenby and we have no specific plans of how to spend it. For me, I will continue my daily walk as the weather forecast said the sun will be up and the temperatures anywhere between 15 to 22 degrees centrigrade, nice and cool for walks in the country side……




MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Tenby, Pembrokeshire,
Wales

About Stones and Wood In Heritage

A fine Saturday, the sun was up and temperatures hovering around 18 degrees centigrade with a cool breeze. This was expected as confirmed by the weather forecast. We went Southwest to Salisbury and Amesbury of the Wiltshire area and then on to Bath. We started off at about noon and headed off to visit the historical site of Stonehenge, the stone structure believed to be from the Neolithic period and used for ceremonial purposes. We have heard of it, read about it and understood that there had been various theories on the existence of the circular stone structure. Whether the stones were constructed for ceremonial purposes or whether they were markers for some religious functions are still debated by historians and there has been no conclusion as to its purpose. It was believed that the stones were brought to the site and constructed in the indicated formation. The origins of the stones were believed to be from Wales and if that were true then a great effort would have been taken to transfer the stones from Wales. Were they brought by sea or were they by land? Why specifically stones from Wales? What was their significance?

It was a three and a half hours drive from Tenby to reach Stonehenge. We went directly to the site passing through small towns in the suburbs of Wiltshire; the towns appeared to be very old with some houses looking very ancient and some appeared to have been built of mud and thatched straw roofs even. The roads we passed through were small, winding two way country roads where extra caution was required and where passing space was limited. This slowed us down somewhat but we carried on anyway. The Stonehenge stone structure was located in an open field and on high ground and was visible from a distance. We noticed it from the distance, an arranged cluster of stones, and the stone structure slowly got clearer and clearer as we got nearer. On arrival we noticed quite a large crowd of visitors, some having arrived in several tourist buses or coaches and the parking lot set aside for visitors and provided by the English Heritage society were quite full. The whole stone structure area was fenced up by a six feet high chain fencing. There was an entrance fee to enter within the fenced enclosure of the Stonehenge but visitors were not allowed to get near the stone structures as they were roped off. So there was not much difference if one had gone into the enclosure or stayed outside of it.

There was nothing much else to see or do at this location. We stayed for about an hour, took some pictures like the tourist we were, before moving on. We checked out one large stone piece close to the fence that looked similar to the ones in the cluster of stones in the main structure. There’s moss growing on it. The stone looked quite ordinary. No way of telling where it came from. Perhaps Archaeologists would be able to tell. I wondered why this sole piece was left there and not brought or placed together with the others in the cluster. There was only about 20 meters left to transport it to the cluster, after having brought it from Wales, if indeed the stones were brought from Wales as claimed by historians.

We moved on from there to another location about 15 minutes drive away where there was another historical, heritage thing that was named, by no coincidence I believe, ‘Woodhenge’. I learned of this when browsing the ‘net’ and since we were in the vicinity and we had the time, it was only natural to check it out. Woodhenge was called such as archaeological excavations done many years ago found wood stumps arranged in several concentric circular formation that was believed to have been used for some ceremonial purpose, much like the intent of Stonehenge. I thought there must have been more than a coincidence that Woodhenge was found not too far away from Stonehenge and whether there had been any relationship intent between the two. The weathered wooden stump had since been replaced by concrete. Looking at the size and shape of the concrete stumps I believe the original wooden stumps were tree trunks cut into pieces of two or three feet height and placed in a circular formation, and maybe used as stools for people to sit on in some ceremonial function. Perhaps they were used for funeral or burial ceremony during the Neolithic period. There was no indication what period they were from and it was just left to our imagination. I could only imagine that it was pre-historic and used as non-religious, ceremonial and cultural function. There was no indication of any religious connection there, so also at Stonehenge. But then again, I may be wrong…….

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Tenby, Pembrokeshire,
Wales

Change Of Guards

Our first day in London after returning from Spain was intentionally spent to observe the changing of guards at Buckingham Palace. We were reminded, before leaving home in Mid-May that if ever we were in London we should visit Buckingham Palace, especially during the changing of guards’ ceremony. We left the hotel at 10.00am and took the bus from the front of our hotel to go to St James Park. The guards on duty at the palace were mounted by the army from my country, a special arrangement and honor given to members of the Commonwealth Countries. We went specifically to observe this.

There was already a large crowd in front of the palace. There were people everywhere and all foreigners. Yes, the guards in front of the guard boxes at the palace were in the familiar ceremonial uniform of our army. There were, of course, policemen on foot and mounted on horses on the streets around and along the streets at the front of the palace grounds, and outside of the palace fence, controlling the crowd and also traffic. It was still early then for the changing of guards’ ceremony and we joined the crowd in posing and taking pictures to live up to the name of ‘tourists’ heh heh.


Signs that the ceremony was about to start came at about 11.00am when the first batch of horse riders and foot soldiers in full regalia accompanied by a band marching out from the side entrance of the palace, followed by a second batch a little while later, moving away to some distance from the palace area. Soon after that they marched back into the palace grounds and the change of guards’ ceremony started then. The band meanwhile played several contemporary songs and at the point just before the guards changed the British National anthem was played. The whole ceremony actually took about one hour and the crowd stayed on throughout the ceremony. Some of them commented that the guards do not look Caucasians and Sita proudly mentioned that they were from our country in the East!! I could not clearly see what went on as the crowd was really large and the ceremony took place over the wide area in front of the palace. I did not want to jostle for space amongst the crowd and stood some distance away. I had to strain and try to see through the crowd. Sita and Fahrul however did not move away from their position and managed to inch their way closer and closer to the fence. They managed to get some good pictures. Ram had found herself at the fence and stayed there all through out the ceremony.

Once the ceremony was over Fahrul and I had to rush to Kensington Park where the main mosque is located for us to perform our Friday obligations. Ram and Sita decided to go to Knightsbridge meanwhile, and pay a ‘courtesy call’ at Harrods ha ha!! Harrods is another tourist ‘must visit’ destination in London. We met them at Harrods later in the afternoon and then went to Queensway for a late lunch, or were it early dinner? at a ‘Nandos’ outlet which, we were assured, was suitable for us. The patrons here appear to be the younger crowd, a little noisy and some boisterous even. We had a seat at one corner, hence not bothered by the boisterous groups.

After dinner we decided to take a leisurely walk, as it was still light then, around the area and also find the apartment I used to live in some 25 years ago, located on Devonshire Terrace, close to Paddington Station. It was a pleasant walk as traffic was very low in that area then and it was also slowly getting dark. It was past 9.00pm then and time to return to our hotel. Najla was also getting restless and a little cranky.

The Devonshire Terrace Apartment



We checked out of our hotel on Saturday and returned to Tenby. There are no specific plans for the next two weeks we have left in UK but one thing for sure, we will want to see the countryside of Wales. Najla has to go back to her playschool in the mornings, having been away for more than a week. She even said that she wanted to go back to school. I think she missed her school friends already………

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Tenby, Pembrokeshire,
Wales

One More Day In Barcelona, Final Day In España

It was another fine day, sunny and cool in Barcelona. We packed our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and headed for the Olympic Park not too far away from the hotel. The complex is in a large area that included an old fort upon a hill. The main stadium stood at midway up the hill, and there were also other buildings within the complex that were used for various games for the Olympics, I presume. As usual there were tourists all over the place. The open top bus also goes through the complex. There were ample space for parking and Fahrul parked close to the cable car bottom station.


We took the cable car to go up the hill, to the old fort and the garden surrounding it, covered by tall walls at the edge of the hill around the top. All along the walls and at the corners were spaces for guards and lookouts. The guns were mostly trained towards the sea. I guess in the old days this fort was the bastion of the city of Barcelona. From this vantage point we could see the whole of Barcelona, the port area and the sea beyond, the whole city and the surrounding countryside. There was a war or army museum within the building on top of this hill and there were also several old canons, German made Guns and Howitzers, displayed at vantage points around the walls. Why German made I wonder. I am not familiar with the history of the place but I guess the Germans had some role to play in the protection of the city at some point.

Najla apparently was having fun running around and playing. She kept saying she wants to play in the playground. We were not sure if there were any up here and true enough there was none after going around all the corners of the garden. She insisted on playing in the playground all the same while we tried to convince her that there was no children playground anywhere around. Anyway we continued viewing the site and later took the cable car back to the bottom. While in the cable car Najla pointed to a children playground below us but luckily there were no one anywhere around the playground. Even the roads nearby appeared deserted. We convinced her that the playground was closed and she reluctantly relented. Saved some time there!!

From the Olympic Complex we moved on to another part of the city, the Catalonia Plaza and stopped for a while to take more pictures. From here we went on our way back to Madrid as we have to catch a plane back to London the next morning. We took a route through the city of Zarragoza to Madrid, total traveling journey of five hours. As we have plenty of time we decided to stop over in Zarragoza which was about three hours away from barcelona, to perform our obligations to the Almighty and also for dinner.

The city of Zarragoza is not as big as Barcelona and not as busy and the buildings appear modern and comparatively new. The shape and structure of the main building in the city however appear to follow the traditional shapes and designs of old buildings in Spain, with domes and minarets typically adorned with the cross at the top. It does not look like a church and I suspect it is not meant to be one but could possibly be an administrative centre or for some official purpose. The other buildings within the city centre all appear to be modern.

Fahrul parked the car in an open parking lot and we walked around for a while before stopping at a suitable restaurant not too far away from the local mosque/religious centre. It rained for a while that evening while we were having dinner. When the rain stopped we proceeded to perform our obligations to the Almighty at the religious centre. It was then almost 11.00pm and almost time fro us to leave for Madrid and the airport.

We arrived at the airport at about 3.00am. Our flight to London was at 7.30 am and we had some time yet before checking in for our flight. We just rested and caught some sleep in the car, parked at the rental car return plaza, while waiting for time to check in. There was already a long queue when we went into the terminal building to check in at about 5.30am. After checking in we had a simple breakfast of bread and other food stuff we had brought along while on the road, did the necessary freshening up and went into the departure lounge. There was no hassle going through Immigration and security. Our flight was delayed by about half an hour but that was no big deal really. Farewell Madrid and good bye Spain…..

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
London, England, UK

A Sunny Day And An Outing In Barcelona.

With a map of Barcelona city obtained from the hotel we took a bus to downtown in the late morning. Our hotel apparently was in the industrial area on the outskirts of the city. We had to change bus to go to the city but it was not a hassle at all as the bus was frequent enough. We spent sometime in Catalonia, in the city centre, which was overcrowded with people, majority tourists. The tourist bus, the open topped ones were also crowded. There was a long queue of people to board the buses. Fahrul went to get information from the tourist information centre, where there was also a long queue, and off we went to see some of the sites using the metro.

The park in the centre of Catalonia Plaza was full of people and so also the pedestrian mall leading from this plaza to the next main plaza. It was just like any other touristy city, with its grand hotels, designer shops and outlets, various kinds of restaurants including Mc Donalds, Pizza, Burger King and other fast food outlets.

At another location where the old temple stood, there were similar types of crowd. Groups led by a guide with a flag or number plate raised guiding the tourists on. The temple itself was being maintained and some refurbishment work going on. There were tower cranes and scaffoldings erected to facilitate work making the sight unsightly!! However that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the tourists present, clicking away on their cameras and videos.

We went to a mosque in the city, a building that was part of a terraced type of building block, performed our obligations to the Almighty, and then looked for a suitable restaurant nearby. One vegetarian outlet we found served some very interesting vegetarian food and sandwiches. One that attracted Ram and I was a combined platter of couscous (I stand corrected for spelling!!), rolled crepe with vegetable fillings, various beans, dhal and several types of dressings with various salad toppings. The platter was very nice and I liked the couscous especially and the rolled crepe with fillings had a unique after taste. For drinks we had a combined fresh juice of carrot, apple, ginger and milk that was truly refreshing. Ram and I thought of just sharing one tall glass but ended ordering another one not because we were still thirsty but for the unique taste the concoction gave to the palate. The concoction was called ‘orgasmic’ and it was that alright, ha ha.


We continued walking around the area after dinner and stopped at the Hard Rock Café where Sita bought some stuff one of her friends requested for. I took the opportunity to rest my leg at the front plaza (I do not have my walking stick with me remember?) after all the walking. We finally headed back to our hotel at about 11.00pm. We lost track of time as it was still light at 9.00pm!!

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Barcelona, Catalunya,
España

Last Day In Spain Yes? No?

Sunday and we were due to leave for Marrakech on an Easyjet flight scheduled at 6.30 pm. We decided to check out of the Apartment early, bought the day pass of €4.00 which was good for any of the metro or bus trips around the city, for the day, including to and fro the airport, went to the airport to store our luggage and returned to the city. Storage bins at the airport were only €7.00 each for the largest sized ones and we only needed two of them.


In the city we decided to check out areas we have not visited, bought lunch, took more pictures, and returned to the airport by ~ 4.00pm. On checking-in at the Easyjet counter we discovered that we needed a visa to go to Morocco. Jeezzz…., what a disappointment. It takes at least one day to get a visa and if we were to arrange for it we have to wait until Monday. One day gone and with travel day etc. left us with too short a time to spend in Marrakech. So we sat and reviewed our options. We have until early Thursday morning for our return flight to London from Madrid.

We considered various options and decided to rent a car and drive out of Madrid to other cities of Spain. We chose to go to Valencia, a 3 hours drive out of Madrid. We tried to get into the internet at the airport to try and find hotels in Valencia but could not find an internet outlet in the general public areas of the airport. The ones available were in the departure lounges after the security check-in. So we took the gamble and just drove to Valencia and try our luck at a hotel in Valencia or anywhere in the rest areas along the way. The highways we passed through appear to be a little narrow compared to other highways we go through in other countries. When overtaking heavy trucks and other wide vehicles the space for us seemed rather limited. There was not much side table to the highways too. They do have a lot of land and I wondered why they limit the size of their highways. There were no hotels en-route to Valencia but the first one we checked on arrival in Valencia had vacant rooms. It was then 2.00am and we just checked in as we needed the rest.

The next day was spent going around Valencia, but not before assuring a hotel room in Barcelona, our next destination. Fahrul went into one internet café and booked a hotel in Barcelona on-line. Apartment hotels apparently were more expensive in comparison.


The internet cafe was close to the town mosque, where we went to perform our daily obligations to the Almighty, and in the same location were a number of suitable restaurants for us. We had lunch in one of them, a Turkish restaurant with typical Turkish food that proved to be quite a change from the usual kebab and pizzas we were used to during our travels in Spain. The operator was a young Turk who could not speak English but understood what we wanted and was very accomodating. He described how he was going to prepare and serve us and we were happy to agree. It turned out to be a good lunch.


We went to Valencia beach area and then took the tram to the centre of the city. The original walled-city has turned modern but they have preserved some of the old buildings as heritage. New roads built are large three or four lanes ones but the city streets are very narrow with buildings very close to each other. The walled part was actually walls built on the river sides but the river had a long time dried up and parks and playground have taken over. Several bridges, built across the river for easy communications, were dedicated for pedestrians as well as motorized traffic. The main entrance to the city, a gate tower, looked very old. The metallic bars, bolts and nuts, holding the thick wooden bars and thick planks together on the gate, and the wood, still very strong, have wilted at the edges. A bell had also seen better days. This side of the ‘old’ river, beyond the main entrance gate must have been the original old part of the city, and the other side being the new and modernly designed part of the city.




We took the tram back to where we started earlier, close to the beach and where we had parked the car. It was 10pm then and time for us to leave for Barcelona, a 3 hours drive. There were at least seven tolls along the highway to Barcelona and we went through at least a dozen tunnels. Perhaps that was why there were so many tolls, to recoup investments in building the highway through the hills and mountains. It was raining heavily when we arrived in Barcelona and to locate the hotel took some time as the road system around the area were undergoing realignment with several new roads being built that the GPS guiding us was itself confused!! We found the hotel in the end and welcomed the opportunity to properly rest…..

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Barcelona, Catalunya,
España