BILINGUAL – BILINGUE

In coastal and swampy areas of Sarawak grows the very versatile Nypa fruticans Wurmb or Aracacea. In Malay and in Iban language, it is called Apong. Its leaves are used for roofing and fencing; its flowers produce sweet juice for making nipah sugar. Its fruit is edible (eaten like sea-coconut) and the heart of the trunk is cooked “lemak”with coconut milk.

Le Aracacea ou Nypa fruticans Wurmb (Apong en langues malaise et iban) est un palmier très  versatile à troncs multiples qui pousse dans les régions côtières et marécageuses du Sarawak. Les feuilles servent de toitures et de clôtures ; les fleurs produisent du sirop. Les fruits, dont l’intérieur rappelle la noix de coco sont délicieux une fois bouillis et sucrés et le cœur du palmier se cuisine « lemak », avec du lait de coco.

Aracacea ou Nypa fruticans Wurmb

Composition per 100g fresh edible portion*

Apong heart

Energy (kcal)                                          14

Moisture (g)                                           94.1

Protein (g)                                                0.7

Fat (g)                                                        0.1

Carbohydrate (g)                                     2.5

Crude fibre (g)                                          0.7

Ash (g)                                                       1.9

Vitamin C (mg)                                         0

Phosphorus (mg)                                     0

Calcium (mg)                                            50

Magnesium (mg)                                     97

Iron (mg)                                                     0.6

Manganese (mg)                                        8.2

Copper (mg)                                                0.02

Zinc (mg)                                                      0.45

* Collected from Wild Fruits & Vegetable in Sarawak - Research Division Department of Agriculture Sarawak

BILINGUAL – BILINGUE

Ils étaient venus de la Grande Chine pour établir leurs ports de commerce sur la péninsule malaise et à Singapour. Cela se passait il y a plus de deux siècles, lorsque ces marchants chinois choisirent de rester et de fonder des familles en épousant des femmes malaises. Ainsi naquit la civilisation perenakan et, avec elle, un nouveau dialecte, mélange de chinois hokkien et de malais: le baba.

On doit aux peranakans une toute nouvelle culture artistique du même nom qui dépeint des motifs floraux, des papillons et des phénix qui naissent dans le vif des jaunes, des roses, vert de jade et bleus. Ces tableaux raffinés étaient aussi bien brodés sur les kebaya, les tenues traditionnelles des femmes, que peints sur des objets en porcelaine, désormais des pièces de collections.

Lors d’un voyage à Singapour, j’ai trouvé un set de cartes représentant l’art des peranakans. Ces cartes ont été peintes par Maureen Foo Bong Soon.

Sur l’enveloppe, un commentaire de Maureen qui “espère que ses motifs très détaillés aux couleurs vives et audacieuses réussiront à évoquer tout à la fois la délicatesse, la beauté, la clarté et  la joie » En ce qui me concerne, elle a certainement réussi !

THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB
” A true meditator on what books can do”

Will writes:

“One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality. Electronic books live out of sight and out of mind. But printed books have body, presence. Sure, sometimes they’ll elude you by hiding in improbable places: in a box full of old picture frames, say, or in the laundry basket, wrapped in a sweatshirt. But at other times they’ll confront you, and you’ll literally stumble over some tomes you hadn’t thought about in weeks or years. I often seek electronic books, but they never come after me. They may make me feel, but I can’t feel them. They are all soul with no flesh, no texture, and no weight. They can get in your head but can’t whack you upside it.”

Tambang Crossing Back to the Square Tower and the Court House on the Waterfront

I love crossing the Sarawak River on tambangs from south to north and back. After all, it only costs 40 cents one way!
The old downtown Kuching is on the south side, the Main Bazaar, the Old Court House (1874), Brooke Dockyard (1912) and the Old State Mosque…

The Old State Mosque

The first White Rajah, James Brooke, built his bungalow (1870) on the north bank . It’s still there and is now referred to as the Astana (the palace) and serves as the Governor’s official residence. While in Kuching, the Rajah was accessible in his house to anyone who wished to see him. It contained one large room, which was his audience-chamber and his dining hall, several small rooms for staff and guests, his own suite of rooms at the side, a bedroom, sitting-room and library, with bathroom underneath.
On the north bank too, there’s Fort Margharita, built in 1879 and named after Ranee Margaret, wife of Charles Brooke, the second Rajah of Sarawak. A definitely more modern addition on that side of the river is the State Assembly Complex which opened in July 2009.

The State Assembly Complex

These are but only few of the quaint and charming reminders of Kuching’s past. I reckon the tambangs have been crossing the Sarawak river since the early days of James Brooke, or earlier? They may be now equipped with engines, their roof tops may be bill-board for hire, but their charm remains untouched. Board a tambang from the beautiful Kuching Waterfront; not only will you meet friendly commuters, the old folks in baju-Kurong* or Baju Malayu*, the young and trendy in jeans or the office clerck wearing white shirt and tie. Most importantly, you’ll meet the boatman on his vessel; and if you care to be a little observant, you’ll be amazed to find out that his tambang is really his second home.

The Tambang as Second Home

Sources:
THE WHITE RAJAHS – A HISTORY OF SARAWAK FROM 1841 TO 1946 by Steven Runciman. Cambridge at the University Press 1960

Baju Kurong: Malay women’s dress consisting of a long tunic over a long straight skirt.

Baju Melayu ; Worn by Malay men, consisting of a tunic worn over starigh long pants. The hat is called songkok.

FOOD HERITAGE OF SARAWAK

A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

By Deputy Chief Minister YB Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Anak Numpang

on Monday 11th of March 2013 at the Tun Abdul Razak Museum in Kuching.

All the best to you Heidi of Crafthub Kuching

It  was my friend and Kuching Crafthub Director Heidi Munan’s brain child: “Let’s all get together to knit a hat for the Padungan cat”.

Now I have to explain that the said Padungan cat is about 3 m tall, with a 1.98m head diameter. The cat is a statue, the icon of our city of Kuching.

The council men fitting the hat over a wire-meshed cover.

Fast forward a few months to March 2013… here we were, ladies of the “Knitting Brigade” busy fitting The Cat with a gigantic knitted hat and it’s matching scarf, embellished with pompoms made out of recycled plastic bottles.

Kuching City South Mayor Dato James Chan came to inaugurate on Friday 8th of March and was happily surprised to receive a hand knitted hat (by Heidi) with the colours of the City Council: white, blue and red. I gather that Mr.Mayor will have no fear of going skiing on his next holiday!

Mayor Dato James Chan couldn’t wait to wear his knitted hat.

Since then, lots of pictures have been taken both by locals and tourists; a film crew was caught interviewing the big cat (true story). We have received an amazing amount of praise on Facebook and, too, a few negative feed-backs of the unhelpful type; some folks simply cannot look at the bright side of life and frankly, only a show of indifference to our group effort would be a sad outcome. Why?

I will answer with a question: What if tomorrow, you were told that you have cancer? Sadly some of you, too many of you have had to live through this ordeal. Now I want you to imagine for just a second, that you are still a child, a one year old, a two, eight or fourteen year old… can you feel the fear of being diagnosed with cancer? Can you see your mum going through the same agony of chemo treatment? I can, and this is why I contributed to knitting a hat for the cat statue, with the hope that it will bring awareness on cancer stricken children at our Kuching General Hospital and that more people will join our group either to knit, or donate wool, or acrylic wool, or stuffing for soft toys that we make together to bring colour and cheers to sad and fearful children and their mums.

Annette is holding one of the blankets we knit for sick children.

So yes, and to quote Eleanor Roosevelt we “do what [we] feel in our heart to be right – for [we]’ll be criticized anyway.”

Our group meets every Wednesday morning at the Sarawak Museum Shop and Cafe at the Tun Abdul Razak Museum.

We share our knowledge and stories of Sarawak with tourists and new comers to Kuching which, by the way, translates “cat”; which explains the cat statue could not be a leopard, even the rare Sarawak Clouded leopard.

We welcome helping hands, wool (acrylic OK) and synthetic filling for soft toys. All our hand-made products will be given to the Kuching General Hospital Children Cancer ward.

Some of the soft toys we make.

Thanks to all the fantastic and productive ladies of the group (I love you all!), the gigantic hat was made out of generously donated remnants of knitting yarn.

The recycled plastic pompoms on the Big Cat were made by Jenny Chan of Heart Treasures.

from left to right: Heidi, Annie and Rosemary who was responsible for the Big Kuching to have a scarf.

Fitting on the hat. In the background the beautiiful Chinese gate to Padungan Road.

I had to catch the clowns.

From all over the world, they were gathering for their conference in Kuching where, I would wager, most children have never seen a clown.

Of course there’s television; but it is not the same, is it?

There’s also been the (extremely) occasional small circus visiting the state, or even the yearly Kuching Day parade where yours truly (yeap!) used to perform fully dressed, made-up and wigged as a clown, and even managed to spray a can of serpentines to the mayor’s face – a pure accident.

Yes, that’s me with a blue wig!

So here I was, on a Friday afternoon at Plaza Merdeka, taking candid shots of my friend Jerneh who quickly got into the spirit of hugging quite a number of more than obliging clowns and, had she had her way with him, would have gladly taken one home. I am thinking of the “lost traveller” with his suitcase!

As the crowd fast filled the hall, things were happening on stage as well as around it; jokes fused out of loud speakers, fighting to keep above the back-ground music, the voice of the crowd, the laughers and often screams of delights.

There were costumed characters everywhere among us, curious spectators. A gentleman wearing a shimmering blue suit with white poke dots and a magnificent jester hat was busy chasing after a gigantic orange balloon. Perched on stilts he kept camouflaged inside his trousers legs, he easily towered above everyone else.

I wanted portraits and pictures of awesome super-sized funky shoes. I got them, even though I remember getting rather confused, having to juggle with 3 or was it 4 cameras and mobile phones entrusted to me by total strangers who wanted their picture taken with the friendly and obliging clowns. Clearly I was on a mission.

This was a festival of colours and bling. I remember watching the blue giant on stilts step over one tiny little pink marquise, and bumping into a tall white rabbit, a fat chef, a radiant black clown, a unicyclist, a funny bloke who offered to fix my new hand-phone with a hammer; Betty Boops and even Elvis happened to be in the building!

With all this happening, we all seemed to be as one and only kind of people, filled with joy and that was pure clown’s magic.

The Lost Traveler; Jerneh almost took him home.

The blue clown on stilts

Betty Boops

Second from left,dressed in black, Elvis attended the conference

The Unicyclist

Le Petite Marquise

The Big White Rabbit

That’s all folks!

XXX

All dogs go to heaven… unless they have unfinished business here on Earth.

Birthdays are a wonderful time to appreciate how precious a close friend really is: not only does she/he remember your Big Day, she/he knows you deep enough underneath the surface to pick just the right gift for you.

Rosemary hasn’t known me very long, yet long enough to recognise in me both an avid reader and a soul that connects with animals in general and loves dogs unconditionally.

Have you ever sat in a French café or a bistro? If you have, although perhaps not in one of those touristic ones in the centre of Paris, but more likely anywhere else in France, you will be likely to have noticed, if not actually met with “le chien de bistro”, the bistro dog.

Invariably, when I sit at a café, it will only take a few minutes before a canine head comes to rest on my lap or a small paw starts scratching my thigh: “Hey dog lover!” They just know me.

To be entirely honest, the reviews for “A Dog’s Purpose” did alarm me a little, with everyone recommending to “make a major Kleenex run…” (Cesar’s Way magazine (Cesar Millan, The Dog Wisperer).

I do not like sad stories!

Yet, I ventured to try this one out and lucky me for daring! A Dog’s Purpose happens to be the most enjoyable, refreshing novel I have read in a long time.

The story of the multiple lives of a dog is a literary delight, a wonderfully imagined tale which is at once funny, touching and inspirational while avoiding to get trapped into mushy sensibility.

If you’re a human, read this book; if you’re a dog, paws up to W.Bruce Cameron for having written it!

Je l’ai trouvée dans le jardin, au pied du cocotier. Je l’ai rapportée sur la terrasse et l’idée m’est venue en la regardant, de la pyrograver de façon amusante. Voila !

BILINGUAL POST – BILLET BILINGUE

Took this picture on the waterfront. It was a pleasant night when the moon played tricks behind scattered clouds.
Drink merchants sell local popular drinks such as chocolaty Milo, hot or cold; juices made from green-skin oranges, limes and even - my favourite – sugar cane.

J’ai pris cette photo sur le Waterfront du fleuve Sarawak à Kuching. La nuit était déjà tombée, la température était bien agréable tandis que la lune jouait à cache-cache derrière les gros nuages de saison.
Les vendeurs de boissons vendent du Milo chaud ou froid ; des jus d’oranges locales qui ont la peau verte, des citrons verts et même… mon choix préféré… du jus de canne à sucre.