Restored faith in humanity, a little.

During a marketing campaign for a luxury toiletery, my wife had to outsource
making of promotional brochures and flyers, meant for public distribution
at shopping malls. By chance, the work was given out to a charity called
St George Foundation, sponsored by a local bank,  St George.
The work given out was to pack up the materials into the plastic bags,
a tedious task for most, but people would do for money.

When we went to collect the stuff after being informed that work
had been completed, we drove up to their locaiton in Arncliffe, in Eastern Sydney.
To our surprise, we were met by a group of intellectually challenged staffs who
actually complete the work. It was them who carried out the work! They helped us
carry the boxes to the car and load them, yelling out to each other to stack it
properly. The work was of high quality and customer service awesome, we were
really impressed.

What a work of humanity, giving pride to these otherwise marginalized group of
people in our society, sure does restore faith in humanity.

Asian kids are brighter: true myth. But what after?

Tithering on the brink of racism is a debate why the Asian kids do well in schools, compared to the 'natives'. Normal cliches associated with this would be the Tiger moms, the disciplines and so forth, the values that are thought to be 'ingrained' in Asian culture. Statistics prove it beyond doubt.

Top students tend to be of Asian backgrounds, so do the high school mathematics olympians,  college graduates and so forth. But the buck seems to stop there. How many of these kids grow up to be the innovators? Or creators or leaders? The answer would be pretty dismal.

So what's going on? Do the asian kids get surpassed by the others as they grow older? I think the answer is yes. Anwers can be found in every Asian household raising their children. With their Tiger moms and Tiger dads dictating every aspect of their lives and every breathing moment - from what they eat, do, where they go, who they are friends with, when they sleep and wake up, at micro level, little wonder the kids' brains have to do little cognitive thinking. With their parents, grand parents, relatives at standby and disposal for service every second like housemaids, there is no learning of how to be responsible, negotiate, take risks, socialize or show gratitude or make an effort to form good relations. All these courses of social and natural learning abilities are being completely shut up.
Because they are provided whatever they want, more and whatever the parents would have wanted at their own childhood, at very early age, there is virtually no appreciation of how lucky they are compared to the have nots of the society.

Another little wonder the children are in their own space and are growing up as aliens in the household. Glued to their social media, games, and other forms of mild addictions, they might  fulfill their parents' obligations by acquiring good grades at schools, but they are growing up to be isolated from inside, as they have so little experience of how to interact with the world. Tiger parents might be living their lives through their children, but they are rasing self centered, indifferent, socially inept aliens, with little creativity, social skills or empathy for others. Its not surprising to imagine these young people grow up to be the cold blooded and disillusioned individuals. On one hand they are given all the luxury and exemption from having to be responsible for anything since the day of birth, on the other, they are under the piles of expectation from the Tiger parents who are trying to fulfil their own dreams from their offsprings. The affect of these extreme pressure and unnatural up bringing can start to manifest from early teenage, to later where the suppressed volcano starts to erupt.

My observation of the 'native' kids is completely different. They are taught to be responsible, caring, logical and fair. Because less emphasis is put on the academic achievement at school, they are not under the immense unnatural pressure as their Asian counterparts. This can be very visible physically, where these kids seem natural, smiling, open, considerate, whereas the Asian ones are reserved, un caring and socially inept outside their own circle. The values taught early on and consolidated over the years make what they are as adults, no doubt.

You can take the Asians out of Asia, but cannot take Asia out of the Asians. These princes and princesses are raised as if there is no end to the lap of luxury provided by their parents and relatives. The outside world is for the others, the unpreviliged. As these kids grow older, and have to increasingly face and deal with the outside world, something they are rarely taught at home, along with the hindsight to 'think outside the box' they start to falter. So they are good at following orders and doing what they are told, but not able to think, take initiative or lead on their own.  The technical skills they possess, of being able to memorize, will no longer be an advantage as it used to be in the confined walls of schools and colleges.

The end results are open for all to see, in any workplace, organisations, Universities, research labs in the Western world, although the Asian kids appear bright and high achieving they end up not achieving full potential at later life as adults.

How I let go of religion and found..God.

Couple of weeks ago returning from the City and getting out of the train station near home, I got followed by two young Asian looking boys. I was surprised when they asked how I was doing and where I was headed, out of blues. I did not find their approach threatening or unfriendly, just peculier. It turns out these teenagers in school uniforms were from Taiwan! They were here to preach about their 'holy ghost'. I was kinda stunned. After talking to them who sent them here, they talked about their 'mission' which at the rock bottom is to convert people to their religion. I was talking to young recruets of religious evangelists sent from oceans away. All I could tell them was go back to school and spend time learning something useful.

The incident made me think, and reflect. I have seen young boys addicted to stuffs but this seemed bizarre, I was shaking my head. Young evangelists, mercenaries. Their beliefs in Holy ghost appeared so profound they appeared almost hypnotized.

These boys seemed to think that they have somehow found a 'direct line' to hear back from God. That they receive some special broadcasts that are not available to others. Feeling of being a spcial one, a chosen one?? Made me wonder, observing these 'God' crazies. I know its not simple but making it complicated and mysterious not necessarily is a proof of truth.


Evil thrives when good people do not speak up.

Digging a bit deeper reveals a troubling truth.
Inreasing number of the ones who seem to have a 'direct line' to the creator are being discovered as unholy as worstly imaginable as possible in the forms of paedophiles, abusers of all types? Misery.
Are you free of worries to leave your young children around these 'holy' men? Can you trust any one of them personally? If you cannot, how can you trust the institute itself? How can you trust and condone the whole conglomerate which has been hiding the crimes for centuries?
I might be naive, but questions ring on my head. What point am I missing?
How is it not a collaboration when you endorse them and devote a part of your life to them? I am talking about the holiest of the holies - the priests, the monks, the fathers and so forth whose masks are being taken off.  I am talking about those who flock to their 'Gods' to cleanse themselves and feel secured, while living a banal and self centred life with no care for anyone else except themselves. Except for sharing feel good quotes on social media, these metro socials have no touch whatsover with the needy and the poor as seen on the pictures and videos they themselves post or Jesus for that matter.

Notions.

I gather atheists say there is no God. Only the science can provide answer to notion of 'God' and soul. To them there are explanations provided by researchers that show the chemicals on brain being responsible for creating these illusions of God, good and bad. They believe the only answer to moral high grounds can be provided by science and facts of nature, the natural justice, and that we do not need religion or God to have moral standards.

Then I am startled by these cunning souls that flock to religious groups, churches and temples for ulterior purposes, to find a spouse, to market their products, to 'network', to make business deals or assimilate wealth, to find opportunites and spread their 'ideas' or even to 'belong', to assimilate in what they think is a higher culture or race and even find an illusionary status symbol, a fashion of some sort. And there are I feel total maniacs who flock there just to be part of the group, the daily or weekly routine,  a blind sense of 'religious' duty, a church in Sunday morning keeps a devil away type of devotees, those who fast and starve to show their devotion and sacrifice. I wonder how is there any sense of God in all those rituals which are nothing except self fulfillment. How far away they are, I feel, from the higher being, a God, or any higher meaning in life.

Mine.

The morning I let of of all my shackles of religion, I kept remembering incidents of how an unseen force unfailingly presented itself to me in the form of voice, deeds or from within myself, which had nothing to do with the prayers or any rituals. All my 'religious' activity played no role in his decisions. Actually all those prayers have resulted in complete opposite results in most cases. However, somehow when it mattered, when I was all by myself in a moment of despair, a hidden force most definitely came for rescue. I can call that 'God', it exists, shows itself in  most unexpected of times, an unmistakable proof of presence, of a higher power, it comes looking for you, not the other way round. 

Goodbye Summer, welcome Autumn!

Summer went out with a bang today, in came Autumn with roaring cloud and winds and pouring rain. Royal National park was filled with families milking the last few days of balmy weather to grace Sydney, giving it a distinct South East Asian atmosphere.

When we left home bit after mid day, mercury rose up to 38 degrees celsius, our car air conditioner going overdrive. But before the sun even went down, the whole city is engulfed in a massive cloud coming from across the Tasman sea, and temperature dropped to 22 degrees, making it chilly all of a sudden. This is Sydney weather. Currently it feels like being inside a baby hurricane with trees waving wildly.


Royal National park is a great drive and sanctuary for Sydney residents to get up close to nature, without it, Sydney would be a barren town with no escape. An hour's drive from home, it has been hour favorite gateway, leading up to the beautiful beaches along the way, views, and Stanwell park beach.

I used to highly prefer Winter over summer, but since travelling in SE Asia, and constant fights with runny nose, freezing all nighters for work, I have changed camps and become a Summer  lover.  The most damaging complaint about summer is now the insects that come out to bug you when you are trying enjoy an 'outage' at the balcony. Air con takes care of the once in a while  mid forties heat. Other than few nuisances, I am already missing summer..

Year of the sheep..or goat..or Ram..for Chinese new year 2015

If one ethnic group truly dominates Australia culturally, politically and economically, in a positive way, that is Chinese. Surprisingly though, China as a country does not dominate directly, like the US, the big brother does. It is the Chinese people that have been influencing Australian landscape for a century, from the days of gold mining to now where the Chinese new year is a mainstay of events in big cities here. I wonder if the Americans can say the same about Australia or anywhere else for that matter, apart from the flimsy world of Hollywood or heart attack food companies or politics and force.

Being married to a Chinese family brings a massive influence in yourself, mainly food, as it is so rich, diverse, and of such wide varieties, it is almost an spiritual experience and at the core of Chinese culture and the driver for Chinese influence around the world. Food for Chinese is not just something to fill your tummy with, it is completely inter-twined with geography, culture, climate, language and heritage of different parts in China and where the Chinese live - all around the globe.Chinese from where they live now, for example Indonesia or Vietnam, add more variety to their core Chinese main items. Every dish is a representative of that part and contains portions

of spirit from there. My in-laws, are no exception. Every Chinese new year's day is a family get together that is expressed in the form of lavish dinner that needs three large dining tables just to park the dishes that my mother in law cooks herself. This year was no exception either. Getting around the table talking to family members from different walks of life, the family politics as usual, the good and the bad ones, the favorable ones and the not so likeable ones, its all part of the occasion. At the centre of this is an engine, the culinary, packaged in the
form of

new year,
and the Chinese new year wish - gong xi fa cai. This year's annual new year's parade at George street was also a flamboyant event with us becoming part of the thousands that lined up to cheer and welcome the year of the Sheep..or goat..or Ram.

Organic food buzz at Marrickville

Organic food has been an emerging buzz in the 'food scene' for newly enlightened health food junkies in Sydney, I guess same goes at other rich countries where quantity alone does not satisfy any more. And there is more to it, people being aware of what goes on during the food production - pesticides, animal treatment, ethics and so forth. Some say, organic is for soul, probably they equate this to food being free of synthetic hormones, chemicals and other bio hazard, that billions put into their mouth everyday. There must be a link, 'cleaner' food - vegetables grown using only natural fertilizers and chicken fed with earthworms alone - and better soul? Emm..I am sratching my head, organic food..soul food..is it serious and here to stay, obviously it has a place in the food chain, but can it be real rather than a hippie sounding fad?

To find out, we went to an upmarket weekly organic food market in Marrickville last sunday to have a taste and fist glance. It has a seventies hippie buzz to it and the first thing that hits you in the entrance is a large poster welcoming the refugees, then the portraits of mostly African immigrants and refugees lined up in the walkway that leads to the actual market. I could not but wonder what's organic food got to do with that?? Is it a leftist, socialist hippie camp? Inside, a nice lineup of stalls selling 'organic' vegetable, meat, fruits produced with natural ingredients alone, so they claim. It reminded me of real markets in Kathmandu, back in the days when the food tasted real - a strong flavor of spinach when cooked, just the right toughness of savoury chicken, unforgettable taste of red onions. Steroid chicken of the developed world is not a match. Vegetable here are bigger in size, but milder taste. You can hardly tell eggplant from potato.

Marrickville
organic
food market is a good weekend getaway, kinda rebellious against the mass markets dominated by Coles and Woolworths. It seemed to have a steady flow of devoted fans clamoring for organic food stalls, restaurants and meats. Mixing the old book shops, discarded furniture shops and similar antique finish off the picture, it kinda felt like visiting an antique store, although we got more than what we went there for - organic food - but could not tell what was the main theme of the market - socio-cultural issues, refugees, organic food, hippies, rubbish..its a convoluted mixture of cultures.

Soggy Australia day 2015 - its Black and White

In a complete turnaround from a beautiful day yesterday, Australia had a very wet day to 'celebrate' its day. We wanted to check the 'Australia day' celebrations at both sides, the victors that celebrate this day, the Anglo occupiers, and the 'vanquished', the natives who call this a 'Survival day' instead. Its truly a black and white affair, literally. White Anglo Saxon prisoners condemed to die in an isolated island sailed sails to the shores here and virtually wiped off the 'black' culture of the native Aboriginies who called this place home from thosands of years before. There is no grey to the truth.

However, would you rather the British took over, or say, Indonesians, Chinese or Japanese colonized this vast land? Emm..not a very hard choice to make.

First stop the Yabun festival at Camberdown park near the University of Sydney. In a slightly less than colorful affair (I mean bells and whistles) that is usually visible at the similar events in Sydney, the aboriginies arts, culture, traditions and history was at display, mostly arts in the form of handmade goods, the infamous boomrang, T-shirts and slogans of freedom. Freedom?? makes you wonder, isn't this land already free?? Well, not for everyone obviously. It really appeared going around, Australia is a land of oppression. You could clearly see the aboriginies' sad and angry faces during the event. Its clear they are 'marking' the event rather than 'celebrating'.

We enjoyed a nice rap/reggae music open concert, which had some angry rappers sing about the oppression. A moderate sized crowd of mostly indigineous were braving the constant drizzle.
We had our big broken umbrella up most of the time, taking care not to poke others in the eyes.

With a cautious exit, not to appear too enthusiastic, we exited in the drizzle and headed for the White party at the CBD. After parking near the always neglected Australian museum, we crossed over to the Hyde park, and it was a Nirvana, compared to the Black party. There was a long stretch of vintage cars being displayed, with people enjoying the cordoned off street for the 'Australia day' celebration the way it is meant to be. The whole Hyde park in the middle of the city was reserved for the victors, there was a kid party going on full blast from Nickelodeon, kids jumping in joy. Nearby, the Sydney harbor was having its own chapter with the ships and boats on full glory.

Like I said, it was quite a black and white day. To top it all, Bony Tabbot has given Prince Phillip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, the highest honor of Australia. What a joke made out of the Australia day. Anybody want Republic of Australia, Bill Shorten can't wait, so can't a large majority.

Apple crash and Apple care

It was probably too much to expect from my Mac, for it to be able to stand up to the fury of mother nature. One thunderousnight when we were away from home, my beloved laptop was badly injured. None of the ports were working and kernel panics started to appear as randomly as a fit hits a sick randomly  .

So went my motivation to be writing and spending hours poring bright ideas off the window. 2014 left its last legacy in Dec Christmas holidays, to both the laptop owner and his electronics. The thunder took down the laptop, TV, Apple TV, Routers and some other..

Attempts to revive the laptop with Apple support on phone - repair, safe mode, hardware diagnosis, all fruited to nothing. I am taking it to the 'Genius bar', its ultimate emergency later today, hopefully
its something they can fix. Good that I bought Apple care, when your apple gets sick its the last resort.

I am writing about a Mac using a Windows machine, that gotta say something.

Garrie beach bluebottle sting..ouch!!

To make the most of final couple days of the new year holiday,
we went for a picnic at Garrie beach in Royal National park.
The lookout leading to the beach has a perfect view of the ocean and the surrounding hills, perfect for a lunch stopover.

Down the winding road with a great drive, we reach a hidden, beautiful stretch of sand, typical Aussie coastline, leaving no doubt this is such a lucky country. But you may not be very lucky if you
get stung by something lurking in the beach, Bluebottle jellyfish. You will find this jellyfish species scattered around most of the Australian beaches, they seem placid and actually look beautiful with trademark deep blue color, bottle like body and tentacles. Do not go near!

After spending an hour in the waves and sun bathing, we were going for a stroll. That is when I felt a sudden pang of pain around both my lower legs. I knew straight away that something from the sea had bitten me, just didn't know what it was. My first thought was it could be a Stingray or something. Whatever it was, it was excruciatingly stingy and painful. I looked down to find a blue jellyfish and its beady tentacles wrapped around my legs! I removed those with my bare fingers and walked up to a nearby life saver tent. The life guard had a look at my legs and was about to offer an ointment, but decided to drive me to a nearby shower in his life saver vehicle. Apparently I needed a 'shower' .

There was a young girl also with the same incident. For her, it was on her hands. We were handed over to an elderly life guard who took us upstairs and opened up the shower and let us run hot water on the bites, turns out hot water is the best remedy for Bluebottle stings. The pain got worse in the legs and started to radiate, specially in the groin area. Worried, we tried to find a nearby hospital. It was at Sutherland, about 35 km away. With my wife navigating the high volume traffic in the bushy road and  slow driving, traffic holding drivers, we finally managed to reach the hospital in about half an hour. Luckily the medical centre was virtually empty when we arrived and I only had to wait barely five minutes before being attended by a doctor, who had a look at my groin and said it was no problem. I was given a prescription of pain killer, Panadene Forte, that was it.

It hurt badly for few hours, morning after, today I feel its fairly gone except for a light remainder pain that is not too bad. Google search shows hot water is the best treatment for bluebottle stings, scientific reason for this being hot water actually cooks the poison so that the body can break it down better and it becomes less lethal.

I am looking at the incident now and feel it is in a way is a gift, a learning by God. A first hand experience of pain and a minute glimpse of lurking dangers in the beach, ocean. Now I have earned a right to talk about the sting of a Bluebottle.

So much for the country living inspiration that I have been feeling for a while, mainly due to visits to Hunter valley. I imagine what if you have more serious medicals? Broke your limbs, snake bites, heart attacks..nearby medical facility might be hours drive. Again, knowing what can happen can make you prepare for it, to still be inspired by the beauty of remote country living, put up with it. Or get scared and do not attempt. Choice is yours, you have been warned

Roberts Circa 1876 Restaurant - Hunter Valley

Vin yard at Roberts Circa 1876

For the new year's eve 2014 we wanted to go for a long drive and decided to go to the Hunter valley as my wife had been wanting to visit the vin-yards for a long time.

Hunter valley drive

Our last visit there was during winter, and had been barren in terms of grapes.This time, we went for a trip to Pokolbin and decided to try out Roberts Circa 1876. 

The restaurant premises were fantastic, with vinyard, open green space, nice quaint buildings with lush green atmosphere makes it a dream location.

Sadly for us, the great pretty much ended there.

We found the food was above average and tastes nice, but nothing sort of extra ordinary. price however, bites, and your wallet will feel it badly. The service seemed bit disjointed with customers waiting without response from the staff for long time and hurried waitresses, who seemed to be in a state of 'rush' all the time. I felt like we were being given a favour to have a table.

Shell crab

We were wine novices and were in the Hunter for the experience. So it wasn't very pleasant when we asked for a recommendation and got a terse response from a waitress 'Well..we have 300 different types of wines..so I don't know what you are looking for..' , well I was about to explain what we were looking for, you could have been a bit more patient I guess?

We drove 140 km for this restaurant in particular, that response alone half killed our day.

Chicken

Duck

Overall, it has a hallmarks of a classic, world class eatery, but overcharging and impatient staffs let it down badly.


Food: 7/10

Service: 5/10

Ambience: 8/10

Value for money: 4/10

Overall: 6/10

Recommend: No