Parasol and motor bike

I’m afraid that dinners, visitors have made me ignore the garden, The Penang File and this blog. But I have at last managed to publish The Penang File and now turn my attention to the blog and jot down what’s been going on in my head since the last issue.

Yes this photo of a woman with a parasol on a motor bike in Betong has been waiting to be publicised. It was the same in Lao. I wondered how they kept their balance and why they were not swept away by the wind while holding the parasol in one hand.

Thinking that STRADA meant an Italian restaurant we went there to find that it is Canadian owned (two flags inside betrayed its origins). It’s been operating in Burma Road for a year and we failed to notice it. The man inside explained they had good business lunch time with Malay women customers - that explained why they served no pork. I liked the New York cheese cake which the manager, who looked as if he were the cook, said was made by the boss’s wife. The braised lamb shank was good too and the coffee was American. So now we have a Canadian place in addition to a Bulgarian restaurant, German pub and a Serb pub.

The censors are still at it. This time the victim is Durga, the Hindu goddess. In Off the Edge she suffered the indignity of her breasts being blacked out. Imagine how much it cost us to maintain hundreds of government staff with their brushes ready when the magazines are opened and scrutinised.