Hills

Like many people, I try to make plans. In my case as I am retired, this often involves great ideas (in my opinion) that may or may not require preparation before the big event whatever it is takes place.

A few weeks ago after a tough day of playing in a tennis tournament, I was chatting with one of the players, the club pro, bemoaning the fact that I wasn't able to hit the tennis ball as hard as the young lads who'd thumped us all over the court all day. He put an arm round my shoulders in an amicable fashion, patted my stomach with the other and kept on saying what sounded like "20 pounds" over and over. Being rather a literal person I hadn't a clue what he meant but assumed that he meant that I should start pumping iron to build up some more muscle. He is as skinny as a rake so I thought this was a bit rich coming from him. In any event he kept droning on about '20 pounds, 20 pounds' and drumming my tummy so I said something along the lines of 'OK, you're right maybe I could do something about my puny arms...' but he said "No, no. Lose 20 pounds. Here".... with 'here' being you guessed it, my stomach. Bloody cheek. I've been trying to lose 20 pounds for the last 20+ years, mate!

In my defense, the food in Penang really doesn't help. So good but very heavy on the carbs: rice, noodles, beer. I know I could be a little more iron willed but that really hasn't worked out that well. Clearly.

The most recent fiesta and the scene of my most recent fall from grace

So plan B.

Penang Island is a really interesting place. Topographically speaking. This is what Wikipedia says:

As for the terrain, much of the centre of Penang Island consists of granitic hills covered by rainforest jungles. The central hills of Penang Island, including Penang Hill, serve as a giant green lung for the entire island and an important forested catchment area.[15]

Generally speaking, the island can be distinguished into five areas:

• The northeastern plains form a triangular promontory where George Town is centred. This densely populated city centre is the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of Penang.
• The southeast, where Bayan Lepas is located, was once an agricultural area consisting of rice fields and mangroves. Due to the massive industrialisation of the 1970s, this area has been developed into new townships and industrial areas.
• The north, including Batu Ferringhi, Tanjung Bungah and Tanjung Tokong, consists of narrow sandy beaches lined with resort hotels and residences that form the northwestern edge of George Town.
• The southwest (Balik Pulau) contains the only large pockets of scenic countryside with fishing villages, fruit orchards, and mangroves.

The giant green lung

We live in the north of the island which is well populated but in the middle and south, the hills go straight up making construction difficult. So much so that the authorities are reclaiming ever greater chunks out to the north and east which constitutes the Malacca Straits, which are actually quite shallow and very tidal.

The British in colonial days built stations in the hills where you can escape the relentless heat of the lowlands. They also built reservoirs and dams in the hills to provide a guaranteed water source for the island. Accessing each of these meant trails, roads and paths which today make great hiking trails. This was my plan B.

I found a group of hardy hikers who weren't so serious that a newbie like me would suffer and off we went. The first week's walk was to the Batu Ferringhi aqueduct. A light, gently upward stroll past the remnants of colonial engineering which still works just fine. My fellow walkers were a bunch of similarly shaped and aged people to me, so I felt right at home. 

It was all rather pleasant. People chatted, stopped every 20 minutes or so for a rest and drink, that sort of thing. And right at the end we met that charming monkey. The white eyed ones are quite affable unlike the grey macaques that predominate, which travel in large groups and which are aggressive. This is why most walkers go on hikes with sticks.

It was therefore with quiet confidence that I approached the next week's walk. One of the guys that also plays tennis told me that this wasn't a really heavy walk in terms of difficulty, maybe 7 out of ten, so I was felt pretty good about things as I drove down to the southern part of the island; a village called Balik Pulau. The plan was to start in the village, walk through some of the farms and then take to the hills. The hills are all interconnected so a really long, tough one would head all the way north towards Penang Hill. We wouldn't be doing that although we would be going up through the durian farms.

I was in bits at the end.

Scenery was lovely and what I clearly missed were the breaks for chats and drinks. None of the more social walkers had chosen to do this walk this time, I had missed that! The hardy bunch that did make it were all lithe and athletic looking and obviously used to this kind of thing.

Lovely scenery though!

Charlie

I hadn't realized so much time has passed since we first met Charlie. I've always liked the name but for some reason I've never known any Charlies. I know a Charles, just the one, but nobody could ever suggest that he'd want to use the more familiar form.

It wasn't going to be Charlie. I'd suggested Mark Joseph II as a strong contender but Indy seemed solid on Daniel. But definitely not Charlie.

He wasn't punctual either. Big yes, but on time no. Mind you he wasn't that late, I suppose. Just a couple of days. But I suppose that even with the advances that have been made these days, getting the precise time of delivery is still tricky.

Meet Charlie!!

Very excited of course. Our first grandchild and very lovable he is too. Happy Christmas!!

The Big Apple in 24 hours

A short while ago, I was in New York and my youngest Ali flew in to join me. It was meant to be a weekend but life intervened so it turned out to be only a little over 24 hours of father son togetherness and I meant to make the most of it.

Ali lives and works in Cayman but on occasion goes to Bermuda for work as well so it was fairly simple for him to jump on a plane for the 1 1/2 hour hop to JFK. I'd suggested he take the subway and I'd meet him and walk him around for the next 24 hours.

First thing was a late breakfast and I chose Sarge's Deli which I knew made the best all around corned beef hash in the world. Topped with 3 fried eggs and home fries, this is a real breakfast!

We ached as we came out but with the weather an unseasonal and balmy 23 degrees with bright sunshine, I proposed to walk Ali all over town. With New York set out in a classic grid pattern, all you needed to know are cross streets and you can find anywhere.

Ali needed some shopping, personal items, so we hit the stores. Midtown Mall is right next to Macy's so after blanking there, this was our target for Ali was on a budget. This all made me realise just how much US retail is suffering. There's so much of it, so many people looking to buy too, but with incomes not really rising and Amazon crowding out many retailers, those that remain have a tough time surviving.

We found a fairly ratty JC Penney as it happened with the men's department hosted by an attractive young lady who found a very special deal for Ali. I would have been absolutely mortified to be served in this fashion when I was younger and actually let an attractive young lady know what undies I wore, but then again being from the old school of Speedo's and tighty whiteys, perhaps that would be the case now too. Ali being from the new generation of board shorts and boxers held no such feeling.

As we had a subway card, we hopped on the subway for positively 4th Street (a nod to Bob Dylan who used to live there). This is Greenwich Village and home to our evening's entertainment. I wanted to show Ali the clubs and of course actually confirm that something would be on tonight. Cafe Wha was still there with the House Band due to start up around 5 pm, and around the corner Bleecker Street was also there and ..... had become almost gentrified. Possibly a Starbucks even.

When I first went to NYC back in the 1980's, it was dirty, edgy and a bit grungy. Some nice parts too of course but it had a definite Noo Yawk edge. That was one of the things that made it attractive. Perhaps it was the crack cocaine epidemic which hit the big apple in the mid-eighties? I never saw that in person but do remember walking up 5th Avenue at night near Grand Central Station with a work colleague and a couple of big black guys wearing reddish blazers came up behind us and said 'keep walking'. I hadn't a clue what was going on but my colleague said 'don't worry, they are the Angels'.... it may have been a different name but these were guys that roamed the street at nighttime to prevent people from being mugged.

There you go, the Guardian Angels.

It was Rudy Giuliani who was responsible for cleaning up NYC sometime later with his no nonsense policing tactics and I think he did a great job at that. New York is unquestionably a cleaner and safer city than it was but as we strolled along Bleecker Street, I did get the feeling that it had been tidied up a little too much. Gone were lots of the old grungy bars and eating places, gone were a number of places that showcased music like the Blues and Jazz. However Terra Blues still remains and we were able to confirm that there would be music later on.

We turned left up Broadway and because it was so lovely a day kept on walking. And walking. So much life to be seen in a city when you walk around it. New York is so fascinating too. You may think that being a huge city it has no distinctive bits and pieces but that is totally untrue. Korea Town, Japan Town, Chinatown, Little Italy, Hell's Kitchen... some great names too! Sarge's Diner was in a section called Murray Hill (2nd and 30-something). There were actually a few hills too, but not too drastic. Because big retail is suffering so much, mum and pop shops proliferate which I think is great as the independents reflect the community to a large extent and add great feel to the place. OK, I am a fan of the big apple. It's a real pleasure to visit.

Of course I wanted to eat at a venerable NY steakhouse but first choice Keens was full and Del Monico's could only manage a ridiculous time so we settled for Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse on W 37th street. It was great... of course. Steaks were huge and done beautifully. Martinis sang to us. Just a perfect preamble to the rest of the evening.

Cheers!

After this we soldiered back down to Greenwich Village for the Terra Blues experience and after some bar hopping, we finally arrived. I am pleased to say it was just how I remembered it. Small, low ceiling, little tables with chairs dotted around the club and some terrific blues. We stayed for 3 sets and made it back to our hotel about 3.30 am.

The following day was a Sunday so we wanted brunch which we found to be what almost every other New Yorker was doing as well. The myriad eateries that offered it were packed solid ... it was another lovely day so this is not surprising, however I remembered a Greek place on 1st Avenue and we wandered down there and were richly rewarded with piles of pancakes, French Toast and other goodies that you associate with brunch.

As we left JFK to our different destinations, we both agreed that we'd probably skip the next couple of meals.

Some Early Mosques and some bloody pigeons

We'd felt for some time that we hadn't done enough 'culture' or 'heritage' here in Penang since we arrived, actually nearly 2 years ago now.... doesn't time fly? So we planned to do some more and earlier this week we went on one of Michelle's Spiral Synergy tours which would include the 3 oldest mosques in Georgetown. Well attended and very interesting indeed. The tour guide, Teresa, was fun which made for a good time all round.

The mosques are all within a few hundred yards of one another but if you wander round and round in circles enough and stop for some interesting tea and cakes at a Jawi cafe, the time passes most agreeably without too many gaps where you wonder what else? What was interesting about each mosque is the demographic that attends them as all date back to the early 1800's, just after the British arrived, and were built on land which even then was in the middle of what was then downtown Georgetown. The city/town back then was essentially 6 blocks back from the water (Beach Street or Jalan Pantai today) and no more than a dozen streets going left to right in a grid pattern. So that means there used to be 72 (or so) blocks where all commerce and in general all life took place for there were no other settlements on the island back then.

The British set aside what they thought as the best bits for them of course but also for the Indians they'd brought with them (mostly Tamils from south India who turned out to be muslims in the main), the Chinese who rushed in as soon as they saw what was happening (mainly Hokkien people from Fujian province) and also the local Malays who came over from the mainland too.... except that in the main they were not Malays, rather Indonesians trying to get away from the protestant Dutch who were forever fighting a rebellion in Aceh, a town in Indonesia only a very short boat ride away (less than 1/2 hour by plane these days). So, multiple demographics with obviously multiple requirements for their holy houses. Even today, the demographic separation remains broadly intact so Indian muslims rarely go to an Indonesian mosque (and of course vice versa) and neither attend other than rarely the newer Malay mosques.

I'd always wondered about what the colour scheme of old Penang was for today so many buildings look dilapidated in the World Heritage part of Georgetown. Apparently there were 3 colours, sky blue (with the colour coming from a local tree's berries that grow everywhere), yellow like in the photo (derived from cow's urine mixed with the white wash that is also prevalent. Local cows eat local mangoes and the result is very yellow apparently) and green which is a combination of the other two. Must have been very colourful. Makes me happy coming from Bermuda where houses are all lovely different pastel colours to think that something similar was happening here too. All old photos are black and white so of course impossible to know how colourful or not things really were. I like the colourful thought.

The big mosque on what used to be called Pitt Street was where we had the big talk from a local learned man. A very lively and jovial Indian who said his name was Dong and that if we wanted to remember him, we could always think of a bell and go Ding.... I believe he could make a living selling ice to the eskimos.

Someone had told me the mosque had been named after a pre-Colonial era ships captain of great renown but Dong told us that 'Kapitan' simply means leader and 'Keling' means Indian people. Another myth squashed!

Dong (or was it Ding?) took us on a whirlwind trip around the big mosque describing the pre-service washing requirements, why you kneeled on lines of carpet (hurts the knees otherwise apparently!), how you prayed, when you prayed, what the calling on words actually meant (pretty much 'time for prayer, get out of bed' for the morning session, similar thereafter), the fact that the Imams were not religious people just normal people who had something to say... and a whole lot of other stuff. He gave out free pamphlets on topics like 'Science in Islam', 'The Truth about Jesus', 'The position of Women in Islam' and other topics too. So easy for me to be cynical and describe it all as being a sell of the religion, but I'd like to think it was someone reaching out trying to dispel some myths. The fact that he used to be a Christian and converted (apparently he and Teresa were long time friends so both laughed about it) came up and I immediately thought about Saul becoming St. Paul and how he basically created the Christian faith out of a mish mash of ideas, facts and fiction. Not so different really.

A question on terrorism and radical Islam came up (it may have even been Ding (or Dong) who raised it unasked, come to think of it). Also the different sects; sunni, shi-ite, wahabbi (sp?). He brushed across the top of it. 'If someone kills or harms another person, he is not a muslim. He is a killer.' As for the sects... 'there are no sects in the muslim faith. All those others aren't Islam.'

Lots to digest then as we continued our stroll across the street in fact to the next mosque, which was actually not a real mosque but a shrine, called the Nagore Shrine. It was in crossing the road that I was attacked.

I'd like to know who ever came up with the notion that being pooped upon by pigeons is good luck .... OK I know, my mum did. But who else? Total crackpots (Mum excluded of course), that's who. It is nasty, smelly and really downright unpleasant. Of course Google has a myriad of links to totally gormless websites that devote column inches to this topic. Here's one:

I’m sure we can all agree that we’ve had our fair share of annoyance with bird defecation – it leaves a nasty stain on our cars and clothing, and any time birds are around, we’re instantly aware of their presence and hope that they don’t decide to use our clothes (or skin) as a toilet. It’s simply become a random, everyday occurrence and constant annoyance. How could anyone ever like it?

If you agreed with any of the statements I’ve said above, then it’ll come as just as much of a surprise to you when I say bird poop is actually a symbol of good luck. Believe it or not, there’s an entire mythical world behind the existence of and the importance of when a bird sh*ts on your car. If you’re a bit skeptical, keep reading.

For centuries, birds have always been, to a degree, mythical creatures; the Phoenix is an example of this in many cultures. Imagine, an animal able to simply spread their wings and glide across the sky with no issue keeping in sync formation with the birds around them.

Unfortunately, the price of being an airborne member of the animal kingdom is never knowing or having the appropriate means of defecation. Where would their waste go if they have no time to reach the ground to release it? Good enough for birds though, they’ve figured out the answer to that question long before humanity could even form adequate societies: give the humans good karma if they ever had a direct encounter with their droppings.

The main reason why we get mad at seeing bird poop “fly-by’s” is because of its unexpectedness and the annoyance brought on by the thought of cleaning it up. That doesn’t stop the Karma Gods from working, which in turn will bring you good luck and good fortune. With that being said, the next time you see bird poop in someone’s (or your own) hair, clothing, or windshield, don’t get mad – take a sigh of relief!

Numbskulls! I really don't need any self help dummy to tell me in 5 repetitive paragraphs of inanity that being pooped on is nasty. Really. As for the Phoenix... who cares about the bloody phoenix? It's a mythical bird. Not real. Getting pooped on by a bloody pigeon though, that is real life mate.

So it was with a less generous demeanour that I crossed the street into the shrine. It is both old and a bit ragged to tell the truth. But it is what it appears to be. A living, working place of worship not a gilded palace. I instantly felt the people here would understand my pigeon issues.

RTW sort of by Accident

Last week we returned from quite a long trip as it turned out. We hadn't meant it to be like this, witness the number of times we had cause to change airline reservations, but it sort of just happened.  The plan, if you can call it that, was to be in Zurich when our first grandchild would be born.... yes, I just slipped that in. Quietly. And yes, both Viv and I are very excited indeed! Around the same time however were a different couple of dates that we would not be able to change but which had to be included: namely a board meeting for me in New York as well as a 90th birthday party for Aunty Blanche in Bermuda.

Due date for the big day was 1st October for the longest time then all of a sudden it was pushed back, then not again. Not something that could be set in stone, that's for sure. Our grandchild would come when he/she was ready and not before. This didn't help much in our planning for, as everyone knows, those paragons of customer care, let's just call them 'airlines', do not take kindly to last minute booking and changes despite what all those "I traveled the world on $100" smart Alecs say. The later it became, the more painful it was.... for us needless to say. And as I said earlier, we had to make changes seemingly every week all of which increased the pain threshold. Fair to say I am heartily sick of aeroplanes, airports, airlines, mindless bloody stupidity at the airports, endless security lines, aeroplane food (big time), not being able to sleep, immigration procedures that change seemingly change all the time yet when you comment 'this is new', the official gives you a blank stare so you try to remember not to comment on anything but smile in a sort of glassy and fixed way every time someone asks something arcane like 'what brings you to...' -- I mean, I just landed on a plane for goodness sake, what do you think I am here for? To visit.... derr!

Anyway rather than go through a blow by blow for each stage, I'll do it by photos:

1. England

The land of Brexit and Boris Johnson! It seems to have become the only topic of conversation. Will we exit on October 31st in Boris's words 'do or die' or was it he'd rather be 'dead in a ditch'? Doesn't matter, everyone was speaking in ridiculous hyperbole like this all the time. 'End of the world', 'total disaster', 'catastrophic'.... you name it, these are the words of the time. Made me glad that we wouldn't be spending a lot of time here, just a few days with Viv's mum Anna.

Reculver Castle on the Thames Estuary is an old Roman Fort, church, you name it what else. The twin spires seen here are only kept as markers for shipping otherwise they'd be allowed to fall down.

Just had to eat the best fish n' chips in the country! Still great.

That other institution, the Sunday roast. Random country pub and it was fantastic.

Visiting the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham. Really interesting yet sad to me for it is now a tourist attraction seeing as there is very little Royal Navy left to service.

The Turner Modern museum in Margate I thought would have paintings of said Turner, a local lad who painted mid 19th century industrial type paintings, particularly steam ships, but it had the annual competition going on with artists like this doing modern stuff. The interpretation I found a little less than helpful.

2. Switzerland

Indy and Cat live in Zurich so it was there that we flew next. We stayed in an AirBNB in the centre of Zurich and found that the public transport was cheap, really efficient and on time. Trams, buses, trains... all really clean and a pleasure to use. We also found it was Oktoberfest time! So we had some fun before the big day arrived.

Quite a raucous affair it was too!

Taking our new grandchild for a walk. Felt like a supermarket trolley but of course just like everything Swiss, it really does work!

3. New York

After only a few days I flew through London again (ugh... horrible airport) to New York for my board meeting. Happily Dee Dee came to join me for a couple of days so we were able to hang out and go crazy. I dragged him all around Greenwich Village into bars and blues clubs.... great time!

Found time for the big steak too!

4. Switzerland (again)

Viv had stayed on in Zurich whilst I traveled alone to the Big Apple and I was looking forward to going back to join her, Indy, Cat and our beautiful grandchild for a few more days.

5. England (again)

One thing we have never managed is the knack of traveling light. I am always totally impressed by people that travel only with a carry on even when they are traveling for weeks or months. I imagine their choice of wardrobe is therefore limited but even with umpteen bags I find myself wearing the same trousers and shirt all the time. However this time we'd smartened up a little and actually managed the side trip to Zurich with just the one big bag... each, and had left the other two big bags in England. Hence England for a couple of days.

We took in a visit to a winery nearby which courtesy of global warming is now a producer of very decent bubbles, Balfour Estate. The tour guide explained that the owner had sort of bought the grape producing fields 'by accident' a few years ago and set to wondering what to do with just another 150 acres of decent arable land. He is very wealthy.

6. Bermuda

Thankfully we flew out through Gatwick, not Heathrow but I do have to comment on car rental firms. First time was Avis, second time Hertz. I go by price not loyalty so the companies change all the time for us. We get to see a variety of operators as a result. For some reason, this week no company had any cars to rent! This is Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports. I'd booked ages in advance so was OK but people who rolled up on the off chance were totally out of luck. At Hertz, it was a pick a number and wait your turn thing! Unbelievable. 

It wasn't until our last day at Gatwick that we managed a full English breakfast! Very nice.

Great time of year to visit Bermuda by the way. Sunny and warm, yet no humidity. We stayed with Charmaine and David again and it was just lovely to catch up with friends. Dee Dee was working there too so we were able to  hang out with him as well.

Aunty Blanche's 90th birthday party was lovely. She got to sit next to her favourite person, Dee Dee, so was very happy. Very pleased to be there with her. Happy Birthday Aunt Blanche!

It was also lobster season so we just had to...

A week or so before we arrived, this hurricane came to visit. It was a bad one causing plenty of damage. Very unusual for Bermuda. No loss of life thankfully.

7. Toronto

We've a condo in downtown Toronto which is a lovely place to stay, however we have also found that the best long distance routing from Penang is first via Hong Kong and then onto wherever via Cathay Pacific. Direct to London and Zurich going west, and direct to New York and Toronto heading east. All are very long of course but the Toronto routing really works out best for us. Only for a few days this time.

8. Hong Kong/Penang

Transiting through HK still hasn't been impacted by the troubles going on there ... yet. 

Life and Death in Penang, well mostly Death really

We just came back for a trek that took us round the world, rather to our surprise. It just happened that way. We wanted to be with Indy and Cat when their new baby was born (our first grandchild!!) and then we sort of just carried on. I will write about that in a separate post but during our trek we for some reason realised that we have just done maybe two things as a tourist/visitor in the near two years since we arrived in Penang. OK we had sort of planned it this way thinking that we'd go with visitors, but when that happened we .... well didn't. Whoops and all that. So we decided we'd do something about it when we got back.

There's a monthly newsletter sent around by mailing list by a long time resident English lady named Michelle who just loves this place and just loves organising things, or so it seems to me. Anyway first up was a tour of the old graveyards in Georgetown narrated by a guy we'd run into one of our other tours, Clement. Very informative it was too. Particularly as Georgetown has magnificent colonial heritage dating back to first inhabitation in 1786 under the purview of one Francis Light and his employers, the East India Company.

Francis Light only lasted 5 years in Georgetown before he succumbed. He didn't want a fancy gravestone so was originally buried very simply but about 100 years later in full Victorian vanity, the local burghers upgraded him to this one.

Back then of course the population was tiny and the first settlers started in the area of the harbour from where the town expanded outwards. However small the population was did not deter the onset of death for this is the tropics, aka the white man's grave. So graveyards were needed and needed fast. Immediately however rose a problem... what to do about the catholics.

The Jackson family was particularly unfortunate

Sounds ridiculous today, but really does it? Back in the late 18th century, church was much stronger than today and from Great Britain it was solidly protestant, and in the early days solidly Church of England (CofE). The laws of the land (now including Penang) discriminated actively against catholics primarily via the Act of Settlement which prevent catholics from holding any high office (still do as this Act has never been repealed). The law itself is a hangover from the end of the Stuart era and start of the Hannoverians, which in itself is a longer hangover from the Civil War, and was aimed at securing royal succession in Protestant hands as both the last Stuart Queens (Mary and Anne) could not keep any of their children alive whilst Dad (the ousted James II) and his catholic heirs had no such problem (remember Bonny Prince Charlie?). Check it out on Wikipedia here for the fuller story. Anyway when the couple of hundred first colonists/settlers arrived, they included both protestants and catholics and the local bacteria and other bugs had no problem getting stuck into the pair of them irrespective of religion. So graveyards.

First, there was a sort of NIMBY thing regarding graveyards so they were set aside well out of town (then anyway, not so now) and on land that was rather low lying that nobody really wanted to build upon anyway. A wall was built delineating the protestant side from the catholic side with the lower land (and hence far more prone to flooding) given over to the catholics. Typical.

The very ornate gravestones apparently are all Scottish families, but you can see the wall in the background

Second, what to do about all those others who also showed up? In addition to the original settlers came traders from other nations as well as people from the mainland and elsewhere seeking work in the new bustling trading entrepôt (which immediately shut down Malacca as a place of importance). The Dutch retreated (actually they were ejected) to Java, their possession. Nearly forgot and backing up a bit, when the Dutch originally arrived in the early 16th century, they kicked out the incumbent Portuguese who were/are catholics. In the 150 years or so that the Portuguese had been in Malacca and elsewhere they had intermarried so virtually everyone was Eurasian by now and with the Dutch persecuting catholics, they simply left with many going to Phuket where by coincidence they met with the same but younger Francis Light who later founded Penang. He took up with a Eurasian girl (probably married her but this would have been a social gaffe of the first order back then, so he said nothing about it to his employers) and when he came to Penang and saw how many new settlers were catching everything going and dying in droves, invited the Phuket Portuguese to come along and pad out the numbers again.

Aaaagh! What a palaver. All these catholics but at least this lot were almost European. Can't have any of the new locals in the graveyards too.

Third, some of the locals (Chinese, Indians, Armenians, etc.) turned out to be terrific businessmen and did really well becoming extremely wealthy in the process. It also transpired that they were prone to dying too (although not so young as the newbies).

The upshot to all this was the typical British muddle/compromise. If you had the wherewithal, you were in.... except the catholics who went the other side of the wall.

However the Japanese were no respecters of well, pretty much everything if you read about their actions in WWII and simply bombed the place to bits.  Part of it anyway. The Catholic side was locked up so we couldn't go inside but looked pretty much empty of gravestones. If it wasn't the bombing, it was the flooding most like. No, most likely the protestants!

Spare a thought for the Jews though. They had been in Penang since the start but in far smaller numbers. Clement said the Jews that came to Penang were from the Middle East not Europe. Turkey, Persia, Mesopotamia. They were/are a different tribe to the Europeans and had their own ceremonies and ways. Francis Light when he set to creating Georgetown created enclaves for the various races and sects. The Jews had their own together with one synagogue and one graveyard.

The different Jewish tribes have different burial traditions. Some of the gravestones are triangular, some rounded. All are supposed to point towards Jerusalem.

All gone now. The Jews left after the Seven Day War in 1967 for Israel, the synagogue closed but the graveyard which was slated for redevelopment was saved by private donations (as it is to this day). It is maintained by an Indian family and remains beautifully cared for. This ensures that people don't break in and desecrate the gravestones (which did happen in the past).

These days the main Christian graveyard is on Western Road and is pretty huge. Again the theme throughout is that they are beautifully maintained. Clement tried to raise some enthusiasm for this graveyard but in reality it was far less interesting than the older ones. Exception being the mausoleum remembering the crew of a Russian warship which had the misfortune to be visiting Penang at the outbreak of WWI. A German raider, the Emden, snuck in at dusk one day and sunk the Russian vessel with heavy loss of life. Thankfully not the captain... he was tucked up in bed at the E&O Hotel with his mistress. History relates that he was recalled and court martialled. Every year the Russian ambassador visits the site where a remembrance ceremony is held on the anniversary of the action. Clement said this happened even during the Soviet era. Nice.

By now, all were going through graveyard fatigue so clearly this was the time for the visit to the new catholic cemetery. Typical protestant bias! I've driven past the graveyard a hundred times, its on a main road, but had never seen it before so this was nice.

The names were mainly Chinese with a few Portuguese names like De Silva and Perreira thrown in for good measure along with some Indian and western names. But really... no trees! In every other cemetery there were lovely trees giving pleasant shade but here... nothing! Hope some get planted soon.

Perspective

The world or at least the western world seems to be having a mass frenzy of self examination about the environment. The young girl that seems so angry about everything and is blaming big business (or so it seems to me, but it could as well be grown ups generally) for ruining her future is embarrassing large global enterprises into having a more eco-friendly corporate policy. It seems to be working (the embarrassing bit, not sadly the actual impact on anything bit) at least in the UK where all political parties are promising zero carbon this and that by what seems like the middle of next week if the electorate just vote for them at the 12th December general election. This is all just fine as I believe that the world is in an environmentally sticky position and something needs to be done. It's just that perspective is massively missing and the action is being focussed on in all the wrong places.

Now I don't want to sermonize, rant or moralise about things, particularly the rights and wrongs of the whole environmental question, but it does seem to me that turning off lights or no longer using single use plastic bags doesn't really help much despite what the media and environmental activists may say. This isn't a popular position to have but I recently found someone that agrees with me. Here's an excerpt (read the whole thing here):

But we aren’t very good at thinking about scales and proportions. In general, I think, we assign things a value of ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and bracket them all together in those two categories. For instance, we feel good when we take a bag-for-life to reduce plastic bag use. But you can make 1,000 bags for 6kWh, while boiling a kettle takes about 0.1kWh, so you could make 16 plastic bags for the energy cost of just one round of tea.

From a purely climate point of view, your plastic bags are largely irrelevant. Reducing plastic waste is also good, of course, although again, Western countries account for a tiny fraction of the ocean pollution we worry about — almost all of it comes from Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, in fact.

This last comment caught my eye for as someone spending a lot of time in Penang, Malaysia, I see the evidence of this every day. The above article redirected me to the underlying statistics (see here) from the Our World in Data website from which I found a whole raft of data supporting this position. Basically, if nothing changes to the way in which pollution of all sorts is made, anything done by virtually anybody in the West is simply a rounding error.

Now...

... and projected

What a dismal prospect and I will leave you with this additional factoid:

None of this is meant to make you stop taking care over the small things: look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves, as they say. There’s nothing wrong with stopping using plastic bags, although you need to be very careful that you don’t lose your cotton bags-for-life, since they use about 100 times as much energy to make.

Keep your perspective.