When Men Were Real Men

Do you remember a time when men were real men? Not "soft and sensitive" new age guys or "in touch with their feminine side" metro-sexuals? It was a time when men bravely took charge of the family and led it with a firm and sure hand. A time when they went out into the harsh world and brought back the bacon. A time when they knew how to take care of their women. Today, many men could do with role models on how to be real men in their marraiges....... real men to their wives.

The Lone Grey Squirrel has resorted to scouring the internet and theft (in the tradition of Sneaky) to bring you the best examples of the strong, caring and take charge husband. Please vote for your favorite for the "Husband of the Year" award. (see poll on the sidebar; results will be tabulated after a week).

Here are your "Husband of the Year" Nominees from.......

Albania

England

Poland

USA

Ireland

Sneaky the Burglar

It has been awhile since I posted on my extended squirrel family from Ottawa, so here is a quick re-cap. My guide to the squirrel mob is Spikey. His love interest is Loonie while his nemesis is Speedy. Spikey and Loonie came up with their own little mob with daughters, Goldie and Blondie.

Today, I want to introduce you to a squirrel which I named Sneaky on account of his slightly longer snout and beady eyes which makes him look ......well, sneaky. I cannot, of course, be sure but I think Sneaky is related to Spikey in some way; perhaps a younger sibling. I first saw him one early spring day tagging along with Spikey as he came by my little garden. While Spikey came near to do his regular routine of dance and begging for a handout of peanuts from me, Sneaky positioned himself some distance away and seemed to take in Spikey's smooching routine but showing no inclination to follow suit. Despite seeing Spikey's success at getting peanuts, Sneaky soon lost interest and wandered off to a nearby bird feeder which he proceeded to raid.

Sneaky never ever came by for a handout. I got the impression that begging and handouts was just not his scene. He would only do what respectable squirrels have done for generations ......steal from bird feeders.

One spring morning, I observed as Sneaky came by with the two young girls, Goldie and Loonie. The girls were born that spring and were still finding there way around the outside world. Just a couple of weeks earlier, the girls came across the wooden deck where I would place some nuts for the squirrels. This was their first exposure to the wooden deck and they treated it with suspicion. They would dig their feet into the dirt at the edge of the deck and arch their bodies over to take the nuts, taking great care to ensure their bodies do not touch the unfamiliar wooden surface.

Anyway, it was clear that Sneaky seemed to be on baby-sitting duty with the girls and had taken it on himself to introduce them to the bird feeder. Initially, the girls followed him closely until they reached a small bush adjacent to where the bird feeder hung on a long chain from the roof of the house. All three squirrels climbed into the bush.

Sneaky started to cause the bush to sway. As the bush swayed to and fro, the branch on which Sneaky was on was inching closer to the bird feeder. The girls appeared dutifully attentive. With one final effort, Sneaky sprung his coiled body when the branch was close to the feeder and was able to grab hold of it. There he was, holding on to the feeder with his front paws while his feet remained gripping the branch of the bush. While holding this position, he started to chitter at the girls. It seemed clear to me that he wanted the girls to cross over to the feeder while he held it in place for them.

Unfortunately, when Sneaky grabbed the feeder, he inadvertently knocked off some seeds on to the ground below. Instead of crossing on to the feeder, the two girls clambered down the bush and started feasting on the seeds on the ground. Sneaky chittered some more but the girls ignored him.

So for several precious moments, I had a view of this increasingly agitated squirrel stretched between the bush and the feeder chittering at the two younger squirrels who were feeding on the seeds on the ground. After the girls had finished eating their fallen bounty, they just lopped off and disappeared into the distance. All this while, Sneaky was still holding on and chittering but when the girls disappeared from sight, he became silence.

He hung on for a few seconds more. He blinked his beady eyes a couple of times and then must have realised his peculiar position and after awhile, he released his hold on the bush and swung on to the bird feeder. He appeared a little disconcerted that the girls showed little regard to the art of bird feeder raiding. He paused for a moment and seemed to fluff up his fur as he sat there in the warm spring sun. Then with a shake of the head, he dismissed the girls and proceeded to eat his stolen bounty at the bird feeder.

I never again saw him try to teach the girls how to raid the feeder. Nor did I see him ever take any of my handouts. Sneaky had no problems with the other squirrels taking the handouts but it was not for him. He prefered the honor and excitement of stealing for a living.

Jo Wants to Know

Josie had a great post in which she was interviewed. She seemed to have so much fun answering the questions. Just as we had a great time reading her replies and learning more about her. Anyway, a bunch of masochistic exhibitionists (myself included) excitedly lined up to be interviewed in turn by Josie. So here are her Questions and my answers.

1. Have you ever been influenced by a work of art – music, painting, book – and if so, how?
Music has been very influential in my life but it has always been different songs at different parts of my life. I have posted on this before ( theme songs I and theme songs II). The painting that has had the biggest impact on me is probably Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. This picture gives a great sense of the challenge of life played in context against the wide canvas of space. It contrasts both the importance and insignificance of human existance. It has helped influence the way I think. As far as the printed word, I would say that apart from the Bible, it would have to be the short story by Maxim Gorky entitled "One Autumn Night" which again reminds us that our fates are not really in our control but we all need the chance encounters with other humans and that we all need acts of kindness and love.

2. If you were a chocolate bar, what type would you be?
I imagine myself to be a pretty straight forward guy; what you see is what you get. No surprises. Perhaps a little understated. I suppose that makes me a plain and perhaps boring milk chocolate bar.

3. What is your secret weapon to lure the opposite sex?
Hmm. I don't really know. Nothing obvious. I have always found it easy to make friends with the opposite sex. Perhaps they find me comforting......like a "milk chocolate bar"?

4. What, in your opinion, is your greatest accomplishment?
I was once involved in getting some young people out of the clutches of a brain-washing cult and stopping their activities in my area. The cult was eventually disbanded a year later when the leaders were arrested after they caused the death of some of their followers' children by refusing them medical treatment. I am glad that God gave me the opportunity and the strength to get those young people out of that potentially dangerous situation.

Doing independent traveling through Europe for a month would be my next choice as it helped build up my self-confidence and strengthen my character. It is an accomplishment that I am proud of and which brings me much satisfaction.

5. How many friends do you have on your Facebook account?
Well, I had about 12 friends on my Facebook account before I pulled the plug because I found that Facebook was taking up too much of my time.

Fuzzy and the Poet Scientist

It is sometimes said that scientists lack the heart of a poet and because of that they end up inventing the atomic bomb. Being cold and clinical is just that; cold and clinical. Scientists can excel in the service of mankind only if they retain their contact with humanity and possess the heart of a poet.

Well, if that is true, then I am a very well trained scientist. This is because my mentor and my very first Professor of Biochemistry was indeed a scientist and a poet. Well, more of a songwriter or perhaps a jingle maker. I refer to no less than the highly esteemed Prof. Harold Baum, previously of Chelsea College and now of King's College, University of London.

Every Christmas, Prof. Baum undertakes to write a song which explains an entire complex biochemical pathway in the time it takes him to sit on a bus from his office to his home. This musical treat would then be premiered during the Department Christmas Dinner. As a result, he has actually published a songbook of chemical reactions called The Biochemist's Songbook.



At any rate, the real story for this post starts here. I got an SMS text out of the blue from my good friend, Fuzzy, of whom I have posted about before. Seems he is holidaying in Egypt. Anyway, because of that SMS, I got thinking about another post in the Fuzzy series and decided to focus on Fuzzy and his poetic skills.

Fuzzy is incredibly talented as a poet. It seems to just flow effortlessly from him. When he puts his mind to it, he can really write top notch stuff. Unfortunately, being the eccentric that he is, he often puts his talent to less socially acceptable and productive uses such as writing poems or rhymes on ransom notes for kidnapped stuff toys. Yes, there was a time in our student residences when hard working students were busy kidnapping and holding stuffed toys for ransom to the tune of several Mars Bars or other equivalent snacks, instead of studying hard. Fuzzy's humorous rhymes were often found circulating on these notes.

This was in fact the reason that Fuzzy got his name. During one such teddy bear kidnapping, the owner did not cough up the required sweet ransom but instead left a threatening note outside Fuzzy's door which read;

Fuzzy Wuzzy stole a bear
Then Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
That meant he wasn't Fuzzy, was he?

This was a thinly veiled threat that Fuzzy's bushy hair might be removed while he slept if said bear was not returned. Tut. Tut. Such a violent threat and from such an otherwise sweet girl. So the name Fuzzy came from this incident.

Finally, let's get back to the beginning of this post about Prof. Baum and his Christmas Party. Well, one of the things the students tried to do every year was to come up with a less scholastic song in reply to Prof. Baum's newly unveiled chemical tune. Unfortunately, none of us Biochemistry undergrads were good songsmiths and so we had to make Fuzzy (who was actually a rival Immunologist) an honorary biochemist for the purpose of writing these songs. Ah, what fun we had in the rarified air of academia!

Sadly, I cannot remember most of what was written but let me end with just a short sample that I can vaguely recall. This is to be sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, of course.

Jingle Bells, Sulphide Smells,
Azides on the floor,
The Student swallowed cyanide
And he won't work anymore

The cells they came out whole,
The glass was to powder ground,
The centrifuge took off
And hovered six feet off the ground.

Oh, jingle bells...........

If any of you thought that I was a mad scientist, you now know I had a good teacher and super accomplices.

50,000 Nutters Have Come This Way

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the new look "Realm of the Lone Grey Squirrel". I took your advice (Geewits and Molly) about not using dark backgrounds but went for a template that I had not shown you guys earlier. I hope you like it. I struggled to get this new template done and I appreciated the advice from Janice and Jessica which were helpful. In the end, I gave up trying to transport all my widgets directly but re-built them after the transfer.

Anyway, here we are with the new look and just in time to commemorate the visitors' counter pass the 50,000 mark. I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on what has been of interest to the visitors to this humble blog and also what I have enjoyed posting during this period.

TOP 5 (Comments)
Here are the 5 most popular posts of all time as determined by amount of comments solicited.

1. Half Mast, Half Post, Full Life (post about my dad after his passing away)
2. Bears Just Want to Have Fun ( one of a series of posts about animals but has an amazing video about polar bears and dogs)
3. Born Buddhist (my story about why I became a Christian)
4. Squirrel's Secret Spot 12: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (one of my Secret Spot series)
5. 300th Post (strangely, it was the post celebrating my 300th post milestone)


TOP 5 (Popular)
Here are the 5 most popular posts as determined by number of visits by the last 500 visitors.

1. Singapore Girl in Blue (ah, my ever popular photos of these popular girls)
2. Tag 5 ( a meme but they come to see my celebrity crushes)
3. My Ass Hurts (seems people like to read about my misfortunes or is it that they like my chocolate bunnies)
4. World Food Spot 8: Belgian Beer (ah, glad to share with fellow beer lovers)
5. Crucifixion I ( a post on Easter and the passion of Christ)

This blog is quite eclectic and represents a very chaotic and wandering mind. However, the top 5 topics or themes are humor, about people, about self, Malaysia and culture. Here just to highlight some of the posts from these themes, are either the most popular posts or my favorite post from within these themes.

HUMOR
1. Working, Working, Working
2. Advice From Dr. Love

PEOPLE
1. Odd One Out
2. Fathers and Daughters

SELF
1. Hippy Sick
2. Theme Songs II: From My Middle Ages

MALAYSIA
1. Have Gourd Will Travel
2. Field Report on Manglish

CULTURE
1. Theory of Relativity ......Explained
2. Secret Squirrel Spot No: 6 (Canals of England and Wales)

Thank you for joining my celebration of the 50,000th visitor. Just for fun, here is my own all time favorite video that I have posted so far.



Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Something about that name

Pure and holy Son of God
Taking on the form of man
Left the glory of His throne
Came to bring salvation plan

Righteous Father, Holy One
Looking down on us in love
Gave to us His only Son
Sent with blessings from above

But we took Him and we nail Him
To a cross made of wood
And we raised it high and dropped it
In the ground where it stood
And the blood that flowed to the earth below
Bought forgiveness for the world
That had treated Him so

Peace on earth, good will to men
At His birth the angels sang
Love and mercy from the throne
Through the earth His message rang

He came in love to bring us light in our darkness
He came in peace to bring release from our pain
He came in joy to bring us rest in our weariness
He came in love to bring us beauty again

(by Jimmy Owens)


Easter almost crept up on me this year. I have been busy at work and hadn't paid attention to the date coming closer. Probably the two most important Christian celebrations are Christmas and Easter. The world in general have made Christmas a big and unfortunately commercialized event but Easter is mostly ignored (although I hear that Americans might hide chocolate eggs in the garden and invoke the Easter Bunny).

Christmas celebrates the birth of a baby, Jesus. Easter remembers the completion of that life and his life's mission which was to die for the sins of all men and to defeat death by rising from the dead after three days. The symbol of Jesus love and suffering would be the cross and the vision of his victory over death would be the empty tomb.

If you know all about Christmas but know little about Easter, I hope you will take the opportunity to go to an Easter service, concert or play and learn more about the ending of the story that began with Christmas. But it is an ending that is really about a new beginning.

I have posted two old favorites of mine from the 1970's. The first song is about the crucifixion of Jesus and the second which is on youtube is about what Jesus wants to do for all of us. Have a blessed Easter.

Shedding Fur

Hi there,

I have been busy making a mess of my blog. I have had this same blog design and template since I started blogging over two years ago and like a squirrel shedding its winter fur, I thought it would be nice to have a new look.

You would think that Blogger would have come out with some nice eye-candy templates to supplement their original 16 but ....oh no, they have not. Don't they understand that the world is in need of constantly changing visual stimuli. Just look at all those "skin" covers they have for handphones these days. Blogger should get the hint.

Anyway, I am sure many of you out there are wizards at HTML and such. For you creating your own Blog template is probably a breeze. I however belong to a generation that still remembers a time when computers used punch cards (that was just after the age of the dinosaurs). As such I am desperately inept at all things HTML.

So instead, I spend a great deal of my weekend scouring the internet for a solution and I find a very good site called BTemplates. It has all these templates created by HTML literate show-offs who decided to throw some crumbs to the HTML-challenged. Okay, okay, I must admit I was grateful for these handouts. So thank you all you HTML geeks.

At last, I picked out a few templates which I thought would be suitable and proceeded to try to dress this blog in new clothes, so to speak. I thought I would be dazzling you with my new livery but instead, I ran into a host of troubles.

First one I tried had all the titles and labels in some obscure language. Next I found a nice one but I could not edit it in any way nor could I make a new post as those buttons were missing. Then I tried another but it had only a small fixed space for the titles of the post and many of my long-winded titles of the post just did not fit. My final attempt also looked very pretty but it wiped out all my widgets, blogroll and even my profile.

Hence I spent the rest of my weekend trying to recover my original template and widgets. What a waste of time it has been! I have decided that the only way that I will get a nice new snazzy blog template is for one of you kind HTML wizards to help me. Any applicants for the job?

In the meantime, here were some of my too good to be true templates. These could have been the new look for the Realm of the Lone Grey Squirrel....instead of this current coat of paint. Which one would you have liked?

GREEN LIGHT


GREEN MAGIC


PARK

Penguin Surprise

Regular readers may know that from time to time, I will post about some of the weird and wonderful creatures of this world. It is estimated that there could be still up to one hundred thousand species of plants and animals yet to be discovered on our amazing planet. However, some exciting discoveries are not always about new species but about unusual facts about familiar animals.

Perhaps we have been taught that penguins are flightless birds. Well, forget that! Some penguins can fly, as seen in this recent BBC footage.



For me, this amazing discovery is the greatest zoological feat since the discovery of the fabled Lirpa Loof, the strange lavender eating primate from Tibet by the famous scientist, David Bellamy back in the 1980's.

Unburied Nuts from 17th November 2006: Goodnight, Mrs. Legatt

The "Unburied Nuts" series is an unashamed effort to recycle some of my earlier postings when I am too stressed out to create something new to post. This offering is certainly from the earliest period when the Lone Grey Squirrel was not so grey but going through a mid-life crisis anyway. I hope you like it.

As we travel through life, we pick up a lot of junk. Not surprising, I am a bit of a pack rat and will not allow things I collect to be put out for a yard sale without a fight. For me, these are more than just items, they are symbols of my life journey. More than things though, we each meet a whole host of people. Some have been a big influence on our lives while others less so but they all touched our lives and were part of the shaping of who we are and what we believe. Some of them taught us great life truths and yet others got us wondering about life.

Tonight, I find my mind traveling through time and space until I find myself sitting by the bedside of Ms. Legatt. My younger self was a thin insecure teenager who found himself thousands of kilometers away from home in a strange and cold place called Brighton, United Kingdom, so as to have the opportunity to study. Once a week, I took part as a volunteer in a community out reach project. My assignment was to visit shut-ins. These are elderly people who are pretty much bed-ridden or house bound. Food is sent to them by Meals-on-Wheels which are run by other volunteers and they get a visit from the community nurse a few times a week. Very often their only other visitors and social contact was with volunteers like myself.

Brighton Pavillion

The truth was that for many of the community volunteers, visiting shut-ins were the least desirable of assignments. There was always the smell of urine or worse. The rooms or apartments were generally unkept and you might be asked to clean mouldy dishes or throw out the rotting garbage. Many felt that the hour spent there was the most boring way to spend 60 minutes.

Not for me. I was able to ignore the lack of hygiene and cleanliness and perhaps I was also alone in a strange land, I was genuinely able to enjoy the fellowship and because of that I was able to learn quite a lot. So I spent many hours visiting and sharing a cup of tea and a cookie with Ms. Legatt at her bedside. Ms. Legatt was pretty much alone in the world. She had no close family. She was diabetic and bedridden with an amputated leg.

However, we made a connection and in her tales and stories, she was a young girl with the world at her feet. She was thrilled to learn that I was Malaysian. It seemed that she spent the best part of her life traveling in the Far East. She was adventurous for her time. She took on a job with the British Foreign Service and left the dreary British shores soon after the end of the Second World War aboard a warship. Her first port of call was in Singapore where she served in the British Administration and took part in the post war rebuilding. I know many British, like Ms. Legatt, were really carrying out their imperial and colonialist duties. Yet, I believe Malaysians inherited a relatively prosperous and peaceful country at independence and in part it was because of the services and sometimes sacrifice of these servants of the setting Empire. So in all sincerity, I wish to say thank you to all of them.

Ms. Legatt spoke of some girlfriends of like mind and spirit. They made Singapore their playground. They partied and attended all the social events. They rubbed shoulders with high society and my eyes opened wide at some of the adventures and hi-jinks that she related that she sweared involved the crown prince, heir to the Sultanate of Johor.

It was a colorful and exciting life. Ms. Legatt was one of the flowers that shone brightly at the twilight of the Empire in one of the most exotic parts of the world at that time. Somehow she never married, eventually came back to Britain and grew old alone. Somehow she was forgotten.

I remember Ms. Legatt tonight and wonder about my own life. How would I be remembered? All my memories, the victories I celebrate, my loves, my friends, my struggles, my fights, what would they mean when I am old. Who would remember? Who would care? What would my life really count for? Why am I pondering these things? Well, I am about the age where I am due to have a mid-life crisis and as one of my friends is prone to say, “it’s right on time.”

Seriously, I think it is good to take stock of our lives from time to time to see if the things that occupy us, whether it is our work, careers, hobbies, friends, dreams, problems really remain as important against the test of time. As for me, I think you lived a full life, Ms. Legatt and you contributed to shaping a great country. Many may have forgotten but I remember and I enjoyed tea, cookie and friendship. Good night, Ms. Legatt, wherever you are.

Fuzzy and the Travelers' Divorce

Who is your archetypal Englishman? Who best represents that icon that is the representative of all things English? I refer to that stereotype of that gentleman's gentleman who is impeccably dressed in pinstripes or suit and is complimented with a bowler hat; who is unflappable, honest to a fault; has that queer sense of fair play; has a dry sarcastic understated sense of humor; is so patriotic that he wears the Union Jack as his undies; speaks the Queen's English better than the Queen; defender of tradition and fine etiquette and stoically holding up the stiff upper lip, eh what! Oh yes, and always has time for a civilized cup of tea.

For many, it is Sir John Steed of the Avengers. Sir John Steed was played by Patrick MacNee for many years on the British television series and more recently by Ralph Fiennes in the 1998 movie version.

For me, the archetypal Englishman is represented best by my friend Fuzzy (name changed to protect the guilty). Apart from all the characteristics mentioned above, he is also smart, charming and chivalrous in the ancient sense of the word. Well, alright, I'll admit that I have never seen him in Union Jack undies but it wouldn't surprise me if he had them. Fuzzy is so English, the big surprise is that he is not Anglo-Saxon. Nor is he Norman, Welsh, Irish, Scot, Celt or any tribe of the British Isles. In fact, although he was born in England, his roots is actually Egyptian Coptic. He does not look English but Egyptian. Nevertheless, Fuzzy could out Steed Steed, if you know what I mean.

To prove this, I shall relate a little tale from our travels backpacking and train tramping through Europe. I call this story "Fuzzy and the Travelers' Divorce".

My big European adventure started out with Fuzzy and I traveling together. I was prepared to rough it out. As we had both bought train passes for the whole month, we planned to save money by traveling and sleeping on the trains as much as possible. We expected most of our meals to consist of bread and cheese or pate and supplemented with an apple or banana . For eating utensils, I had packed one plastic knife in my backpack.

To my surprise, when we arrived in Belgium at the start of our adventure, Fuzzy calmly walked into a train station cafeteria and emerged with a full set of plastic cutlery and I do mean a full set of cutlery. Subsequently, whenever we stopped to have a meal, whether on the train or under the open sky, he would spread a napkin between us where we would place our bread and cheese. He would then ceremoniously lay out his cutlery. There were forks, spoons and knives for both of us. There were even dessert spoons and teaspoons. All were neatly arranged as if in a restaurant. He did this even if all we had was stale bread. "There's no need to eat like savages" he'd say.

Now, we had intended to travel together for the entire trip but we had very opposite goals. I wanted to go to Norway and he wanted to go to Greece. After much discussion, we agreed to go to Norway first and then to go together to Greece. What can I say? I defaulted. After going to Norway, we were traveling through Austria on the way to Greece when I just made up my mind that I did not want to go to Greece. I reasoned that at that point, I had only about 10 days left in my holidays and did not want to spend half of that time just sitting on the train to and from Greece. I broke this news to Fuzzy and he was not happy but reacted in his typical stoic stiff upper lip form.

As we were about to part ways, we took stock of what we had to divvy up. We had been sharing a single travel guide book that I had bought so I took it on myself to tear the book so as to give Fuzzy all the sections on Greece and other places that he needed. Fuzzy received those pages with appreciation.

Fuzzy then ceremoniously took out his cutlery and started to divide the cutlery. I kept telling him that I really only needed a knife and maybe one spoon but he would not have it. He insisted that each of us should have a full set of cutlery and he divided between us what he had and raided the train restaurant car to make up what was missing. And so when we finally parted ways, we were both fully equipped and "There was no need for either of us to eat like savages".

Fuzzy is the ultimate English gentleman, don't you think? I will relate more Fuzzy stories in the future, including why I call him Fuzzy.

Faces and Places

Norwegian Guide, Bergen

I just got back from a week in Indonesia. Although I enjoyed the experience and meeting up with both new and old colleagues on this trip, I missed my family badly and couldn't wait to be back home. This wasn't always the case, of course. In my younger days, before I got married, I was quite excited about traveling.

In fact, when I turned 21, I went backpacking through Europe for a month and never felt anything but the thrill of the open road. That trip was and will forever be a defining moment in my life. In a way, it was an important rite of passage to adulthood and a declaration that I could go out into the wide world and take care of myself. In those few, precious, glorious autumn days of my youth, I left the coast of England and made my landfall in Belgium; crossed through the Ardennes into Luxembourg; went through Germany on the way to Denmark; took a long train and ferry ride to Norway; retraced my path and went to Austria; thought of heading to Greece but bailed out into the then Republic of Yugoslavia; finally returning to Belgium.

The earth has circled the sun many times since then but as I reflect on that trip, I realise as much as I had enjoyed the scenery, the architecture, history and culture, the fondest of memories are the people I met along the way.

1. Belgium. There was an English father with his teenage son who were spending two weeks cycling through Europe. We met quite a few times as we chose a similar travel route. It culminated with a quiet but beautiful evening on the verandah of a small Youth Hostel in the Ardennes sharing stories and several rounds of beer with other fellow travelers. It was great. There was also that Youth Hostel in Namur with its hippie American staff and their wonderfully bohemian barbeque party.
   
2. Luxembourg. I met up with the son of a famous cartoonist. Together we had some wild adventures in this ancient kingdom which would have made the authorities frown with disapproval but which make the memories all the more precious. You can read more about it here.
3. Germany. It was a long train ride so my traveling companion and I decided to practice a few choice phrases in Hebrew on a couple of unsuspecting Isreali youths. In fact, we only knew about three phrases but it was enough to have one of them enquire if there was a large Chinese Jewish community. We enjoyed playing with their minds!
   
4. Norway. I will always remember that very sweet and friendly guide at the cultural village in Bergen. It was pouring with rain and the two of us were the only ones mad enough to show up but she still graciously took us around. A fun interaction and a very fond memory.
   
5. Germany. The visit to Herrenchiemsee was interesting but spending a rainy afternoon doing laundry with two Southern Belles from America was special. One was a nurse and the other a student of politics. Somehow, we got talking about the Kennedy era and the American Camelot.
   
6. Austria. Arriving late in Salzburg, I teamed up with an American student to find a beer garden for food and drinks. We had a wonderful time under the stars talking about politics and life in general. We also had a great meal and liberal amounts of beer which resulted in a mad adventure trying to find our way through the maze of streets to our Hostel. It did not help that neither of us could walk straight but bouncing off the walls of the narrow cobvled streets was fun in its own way.
7. Yugoslavia. This was a nation of colourful characters. Starting with the bus conductor that insisted in speaking to me even though I did not understand a word he was saying. At Plitvice Lakes, I enjoyed the company and the stories of my B&B host who was an elderly Dutch lady who had lived in Indonesia and had now found her heaven in Yugoslavia ( I often what happened to her during the war). Then I actually ran into a group of dissidents that printed an underground newspaper. They actually kept me company for a couple of hours while I waited for a train. On the train, I then met an attractive and vivacious Aussie girl (Kate) and the Yugoslavian soldier who commandeered my phrase book so that he could hit on the former.
8. Austria. Back in Vienna, I spent my time in the company of two Aussie girls, Kate and Gai. We made a good team. One girl could be counted on to find great shopping, the other was an expert at finding coffee and cakes and I was the one who could actually read a map and navigate. We all had a very interesting but scary encounter with an elderly man with wild eyes who kept prodding us with his walking stick while asking, "Hitler gud, ya?" We did the culture vulture thing for a few days and promised to keep in touch, buddies for life and look each other up.......but never did.
   
9. Belgium. My second time back in Belgium and I was caught by a nationwide transport strike. I celebrated my 21st birthday with a Canadian student, a Welsh Parole officer and an Irish Artist. I wandered the streets of Brussels with a Moroccan student even though we communicated only by sign language. Finally, I made a run for the ports and back to U.K. by hitching a ride with an American pastor (the driver), an American couple and a British student.

Finally though, I should not forget my friend, partner in crime and occasional travel companion (although we started the trip together, we split up a couple of times before finally separating as he went on into Greece and I stopped at Yugoslavia). Now he, is a great character indeed but I think I will elaborate in my next post.

Big News

I SHALL BE MAKING A NUISANCE OF MYSELF IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY FOR THE COMING WEEK!

I don't know if I will be able to blog in between all my re-decoration work while evading missiles and fighter planes. So the Realm of the Lone Grey Squirrel will regretably be entering a communication dark zone. See you at the other end of the dark zone at the coming weekend.

In the meantime, stay well and .......stay away from giant squirrels.

Ciao baby.

Suffer Little Children

I spent this weekend attending a workshop on Christian Counseling. It was a mixture of learning about counseling as well as receiving some counseling as part of the process. A great portion of the weekend focused on our responses to events in the early part of our lives which resulted in us adopting inappropriate defence mechanisms which in turn cause us to develop self-destructive behavior. For many of the participants, bad reactions to certain actions of our parents was a very common factor.

The workshop is not blaming parents for what happened because being parents are a tough job and yet a single slip at the wrong time can have a major negative result in the child's life. For example, in one case, the child was anxious after seeing something spooky on television and goes to the father for reassurance but the father teases the child by pretending to be scared himself and said "Scared, scared". A seemingly innocent incident but the child becomes easily spooked by almost anything because she does not feel secure.

Another example is when a harassed mother promises a young child to get her a long desired toy but fails to do so due to the rush and busyness of the day. Again something that can easily happen but the child could develop an unwillingness to trust people as a result.

And so many of the participants had such experiences with their parents which have led to some hangup or another.

Later though, I had the opportunity to take part in an informal conversation with some of the participants and one of them was a full time Christian worker with abused and abandoned children. He shared this story about a eleven year old girl. Her mother brought her one morning outside a Christian Shelter for Children and told her that she would be back to pick her up that evening.

Two and a half years later, this quiet and shy girl finally opened up to a student volunteer and told her that she still hoped each day that her mother would come for her one evening. Then after a short silence, she asked the volunteer, " What do I have to do to survive the reality of my situation?" It was as if she was finally coming to terms that her mother may never return. The volunteer was herself from a broken home and was able to share her own experiences. The little girl thanked her for not avoiding the question.

Needless to say, I was greatly touched by the story and it put all of our gripes about our parents in context. Not that some of the problems arising from actions of our parents were not serious but clearly, we were all reminded that having caring but imperfect parents is so much better than being left behind by your parents or having no parents at all.

I think I will do something for the kids in the shelter.

An Introduction to Bollywood Movies

I understand that a certain movie filmed in Mumbai, India has made it big time in Hollywood and is really making waves. I refer of course to the Oscar winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire. Now I have not seen this movie yet but I am not unfamiliar with Indian movies. In fact, I understand that Hollywood and Bollywood plan to increase collaborating on more movies.

So on the verge of a Bollywood invasion of Hollywood, I have decided to provide a public service by preparing the world for this up-coming cultural treat. Don't worry if you are unfamiliar with Indian culture or the Hindi language. I have selected two videos of Indian movies' famous dance sequences. With the help of subtitles prepared by Bufflax, you will find that these movies are really quite
attainable and enjoyable.

Just in case, you will find the first video a little too much of a culture shock and unfamiliar, I have included the second video which is an Indian adaptation of the musicvideo "Thriller". So at least that will be somewhat familiar.

This is a public service for world peace and understanding. No thanks needed. Enjoy.

Weird And Wonderful

Regular readers will know that I have an unhealthy fascination on the strange things that go bump in the dark, murky waters. If you missed them, then follow these links and find out why I am "Still not going swimming soon" or why I have "More reasons for not going swimming soon". I haven't quite decided if I found myself swimming next to the Pacific Barreleye fish (above) whether I would be enthralled and fascinated or if I would jump out of the water screaming.

However, since I am safely in my dry bed as I write this post, I do find this animal really weird but wonderful.



To read more about this and other recently found species, visit "Free Your Imagination" which most appropriately invites us to see that nature does exceed the limits of our imagination.

The Lady in the Cafe

The Automat (by Edward Hopper)

The Lady in the Cafe (by LGS)

I saw her again today,

As she took her regular seat,

In the corner of the café,

Her early morning retreat.

She’s always so neatly dressed,

As if every fold was in its place,

And every crease perfectly pressed,

A picture of quiet, elegant grace.

With her soft and gentle voice,

She places her breakfast order;

It’s almost always the same choice,

A couple of eggs easy over.

Though for a drink, she orders coffee,

Her eyes are not dreary from slumber;

Rather, they seem bright and perky,

Lying about the emptiness within her.

While she waits, she sits proper and prim,

Her hands resting upon the table,

Her painted smile begins to pull thin,

As her façade begins to crumble.

She sits there, hoping no one sees her,

Yet really wishing someone does;

Her heart sorely longs for adventure,

But cannot bear to face her fears.

She hopes that no one pities her,

For she has loved and been loved;

When she closes her eyes and remember,

She can feel the touch of her beloved.

And so she is there every morning,

Sitting in the corner of the café,

Never letting others come in,

Lest she allows him to fade away.

I am Squirrel; Hear Me Roar

C'mon! I dare you to try this extreme sport!

On a Wing and a Prayer

Eastcoastdweller posted a few weeks ago about the plane that crashed into the icy Hudson River in USA but in which miraculously all passengers and crew survived. In his post, he responded to the outpouring of opinion in the media that the hands of God was protecting that plane and its occupants. He was uncomfortable with that notion and asked, "Why would an impartial God save one plane and allow another to crash?"

It is a very good question because clearly planes crash (although the airplane industry keeps reminding us that we are more likely to die in a car crash going to the airport than in a plane crash). Do we accept that God intervened to save those in the Hudson River crash? Then, what do we tell the relatives of a more recent crash that killed 50 people; that God did not find their loved ones worth saving?

I have pondered about this question before in a different context. I have seen friends whose recovery from terminal cancer baffle doctors and who give thanks to God for the miracle. However, I have also witnessed friends die painfully with their prayers for healing apparently unheeded.

I may not have the answer but here are some of my thoughts;

1. Death and taxes.
We all die eventually. Only Jesus makes the claim of having risen from the dead. No one else in history makes that claim. The reality is that humans all die. If we recognise that, then we recognise that God will not always intervene. If He always intervened, we would never, never die as long as we keep asking for His help. That would be a strange world. One could do every dangerous thing like base jumping or juggling chain-saws and know if we got into a life-threatening situation, God would intervene. Then we would live in a world free from consequences of our actions.

2. Not because they were better or worse.
If we accept that God does not always intervene, then we will realise that the passengers of the plane that perished may not be better or worse than those in the plane that survived. When applied to terminally ill patients it can be so cruel. Imagine being told that God has not answered your prayers for healing because you are not good enough or you do not have enough faith. Instead, God intervenes only when He wants and according to His plan.

3. Jesus' example.
In the Gospels, we read of Jesus performing many miracles and healings but an important point to note is that he did not heal all. Sometimes, even when there were still more to be healed, he retreats from the crowd and goes away. The bible makes it clear that our time on earth is temporary and after that our soul faces eternity. Jesus (and therefore God) is more interested in saving our eternal soul than saving our temporal bodies.

4. Example of the Apostles.
In the Book of Acts, we read how God again and again rescued apostles from prison and execution. Yet eventually most of them would be killed for their faith and they expected it. So God can act miraculously at one point in our lives and not deliver us at another. Stephen was killed early on while others were being saved but God was pleased with Stephen. It was not because Stephen had annoyed God that God let him die. Rather Stephen prays for God to receive his spirit.

5. Earth versus Heaven
Christians believe that Heaven is a far better place than Earth. If we truly believe this, we would desire to be in heaven with God. If God intervenes and delays our death, we might even ask, why aren't you allowing me to enter heaven yet?

6. God's sovereign and mysterious will.
In the end, why does God chose to save one and not the other or why He saves at one instant and not another? Who are we to ask God to explain Himself? Surely, His ways are higher than ours and we would not understand. But I believe, God does spare some people because they are to do something important or have a role to play that will bring benefit to others and glory to God in accordance with His plan. God even allowed Jesus to die painfully and in humiliation because He had an important and wonderful plan of salvation to accomplish.

Those are just some thoughts. Have you asked the same question? What answers did you consider?

Interesting......Very Interesting

Hi guys,

My intentions was to post my second installment on Barcelona, Spain but the masterly crafted MTV style video featuring scantily clad squirrels dancing around on the old cobbled streets of Barcelona will have to wait at least another week before it can be unleashed to the unsuspecting public. Unfortunately the computer in the laboratory from which I plot world conquest has been infected!!!! (and I wonder if I picked it up from any of you????)

Yes, now whenever I switch it on and attempt to retrieve said video, something strange happens which I can only describe as "groovy"; i.e. it looks like Windows that is tripping on LSD. I fear that I may have to send said computer to rehabilitation and who knows how long that will take.

So here I was, with no means to plot world domination when suddenly, sweet Marja of Dutchcorner, gives me this wonderful award for "Interesting Blog 2009" which originated from BlueDreamer . Thank you Marja. Without knowing it, you have given me much appreciated encouragement and have averted world conquest.........if only the free world knew how much it owed you.

As always, it now falls on me to spread the good mojo. It goes without saying that I like all the blogs on my blogroll and invite you to visit all of them but I would like to highlight the following with this "Interesting Blog 2009" award (in no particular order);

1. Guilty with an Explanation - What isn't interesting about the way Hearts sees life in San Francisco. Why even the title is interesting, don't cha tink?

2. The Unmitigated Word - I generally do not dally long on blogs that pontificate on politics and other heavy issues. So the fact that Andre's blog talks politics and deals with some deep social issues and I find it so interesting, makes this blog real special in my books. Andre covers the issue with real passion and with a great deal of thought and does it very objectively. Two thumbs up, bro.

3. For the Love of Women - This is a work of love by Eastcoastdweller and a small team that he has cobbled together (of which LGS is fortunate to be part of). This is a tribute to women. And aren't women interesting? If you want to learn more about women and their contributions to life on this world then do visit FLOW as we affectionately call it.

4. Gledwood Vol 2 Main Blog - Gledwood's blog has great recipes (for batchlors), has lots of cool videos, has wonderful posts about his Roborovski hamsters and he writes with frankness about his struggles with addiction. In his own words, his blog is about, "HAMSTERS & HEROIN: Not all junkies are purse-snatching grandmother-killing psychos. I'm keeping this blog to bear witness to that fact." Interesting, no?

5. The Molly Bawn Chronicles - Hmmm. So similar to the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". Coincidence? I think not! I am sure Molly Bawn is equally unsinkable! From the very first time I visited her blog, I have enjoyed her stories and her reflections. She's Irish which explains a lot. She does quilting and blogs about it too. Once I made a derogatory remark about quilting and Molly saved me from the lynch mob of her other readers by making me plead insanity so I am indebtted to her. But seriously, her tales of here and now and of yesteryear and of the Ol' Sod are very interesting.

Thanks again Marja and I hope all of you will visit the awardees.

Valentine Love Clinic

How are you all? It's hard to believe that it has been one year since the squirrel asked me, Aikenvoodoo-U Cassanova Lovelace the Great Witch Doctor, to give advice to lovers. Valentine's Day has come round again and some of you may do something foolishly romantic and one thing leads to another and before long, marriage is being considered. This is not good. Too many marriages fail today because people are not ready for it or have unrealistic expectations. To help you decide whether you are ready for even a serious relationship, I have prepared a few questions. I hope it will be helpful.

QUESTIONS FOR MEN

Are you a man?

If your answer was “No” or “Not sure”, there really isn’t much point in discussing this further. If your answer was “Yes”, I would ask to see proof. You see, you are not a man unless you have gone through a rite of passage into manhood. For example, in my village, a young boy would be expected to go out into the wilderness for one week by himself, find a lion to fight with and bring back a handful of hair from the lion’s mane. That handful of lion’s hair woven into a bracelet was proof of our manhood; our certificate and license to marry.

What is your proof of manhood? Of course, I understand that you wimpy city dwellers do not have access to many lions but there must be something that you can do to prove your bravery and strength. Canadians do it by playing ice hockey and their toothless grin is their proof of manhood. If sports is not your thing, going on a holiday with your future mother-in-law is quite close to tangling with lions.

Do you own livestock?

Women like to know that their man can provide financial security. If your answer is “No” then you are not ready for marriage. If you have not even prepared ahead for your dowry, you clearly have not planned for your financial future. My last wife’s dowry cost me 6 cows, 2 goats and 8 chickens which is pretty much the going rate these days. Livestock remains important even in the Western world except that it is represented slightly differently. Believe me, women are more likely to say “yes” to you if you own a 600 horsepower Ferrari rather than a 200 horsepower family van.

What is eix = cos x + i sin x?

If you can’t even understand this simple equation how are you going to understand women. They are far more complex. You are not ready for a relationship with a woman.

QUESTIONS FOR WOMEN

Have you ever had a pet?

If you have never taken care of a pet, then you are not yet ready for marriage. Having a pet (preferably a dog) prepares you to cope with a demanding, whiny and dependent individual. You do know that majority of the bachelors out there are not even house trained, don’t you?

Do you believe that you can change your man into Prince Charming?

If you said “No”, you are entering into marriage with your eyes open. You are a realist and know what you are getting into. If you said “Yes”, then you are about to learn that the frog that you kissed and turned into Prince Charming will soon turn back to a toad after marriage. Men are animals. Get used to it.

What is eix = cos x + i sin x?

If you understand this, you are way too intelligent. Men will feel threatened. You can continue your career as a rocket scientist but at home with your husband you need to speak like Jessica Simpson’s Daisy Duke in the Duke of Hazzard. It’s not difficult; just practice.