Eartha Kitt

Noted with sadness, the passing of "I want to be evil" Eartha Kitt who was 81 years old. The great jazz singer aroused the anger of the American jingos when she cried out as a mother against the war of aggression waged against Vietnam. You can see and hear her in "Santa Baby" if you go to today's Observer newspaper

Installation art

Went to an exhibition by Mexican artist Ricardo Tovar. I photographed one of the exhibits to remember 'installation art"

Feats

JQ dropped in the other day to say that he has a friend who at 70 consumes half a bottle of whiskey a day and holds his urine for 48 hours. This reminds me of Tat Thong who at 10 pm after dinner and lots of whisky could do 50 pumps hands balanced on two chairs - and he was 55 years old!

Xmas

Black out again! Same thing last year. Groped in the dark to get ready for Cecil's Xmas party where we waited till 2 am for Sinha and wife from KL. At 2 they rang to say just arrived, traffic jams, too tired to come.

The Salvation Army appeared as usual, at midnight. When the band master asked me I said his band was not as good as it was 3 or 4 yrs ago. He said he had two new players and hey would take time to learn.

Ranko Kurano, a Japanese visiting soprano, was a guest and she sang with the band and was good company.

AN old Japanese couple told me they were coming to Penang on the Malaya my second Home programme. Japan was now not a pleasant place to live in and they have fallen in love with Penang.

Beethoven's 9th

Tonight the state orchestra and chorus will perform Beethoven's 9th with guest singers from abroad It is being done at the request of a Japanese millionaire living here and who is paying all the expenses It is a by invitation only concert and I have two tickets.

Very busy month. Am striving to get The Penang File ready for publication and will have to leave this blog alone for some time

Netrebko

I was delightfully astonished when Adeline brought a La Boheme cd which she said her sister gave her. Thrilled beyond words because the soprano was Netrebko on whom Peter Conrad poured extravagant praise and also Villazon the Mexican star tenor whose interview with Peter Conrad showed that he was a force of nature. Of course I played it straightaway!

Competition, Bulgarian

Went to the 38th panMalaysian singing competition and was glad the judges' choice was the same as mine - a tenor who sang Cilea's E la solita storia del pastore most movingly

Last night tried the new Bulgarian bar restaurant newly opened next to Ingoff. Nicely laid out but a lot of banging when stools are moved at the Bar upstairs. Excellent pork ribs and just as excellent spaghetti carbonara. This is not a pork free place. A woman outside asked me, HOW? I told her and she said the cook had won an italian prize A partner? Boss?

ferns and moon

Last night after a disapointing "Bottom Up" by Actors Studio at Greenhall (Faridah Merican it was that made a full house) we went to Northam Beach cafe (garden of what was Ng Swee Kam's house) where I had German sausage and KH, omlette made by a new stall, cook French, amd admired the huge round moon that loomed overhead moon. I saw from today's Bangkok Post that it was a night when themoon wqas neaest to our earth.

I was thrilled to see that the fern I found on Penang Hill 20 years ago (photo 1) had offsprings seeded in a neughbouring pot and now threatening the original humble common fern tenant (photo2). So spores float in the air and sometimes commit aggression.