Firefly and Greta Garbo

Betong boasts an enormous statue of Buddha which was a donation from China, I am told.

At Albert’s place the other night we saw a dvd of nine year old Niu Niu playing Mozart. I liked the way he played Mozart. Unlike others who perform as if they were deep into Beethoven such as Ridi Lupu he smiled and looked around as he played, a real entertainer. I wonder why his parents call him Niu Niu (bull bull). Reminds me of the old song Abdul and Bull bull le mare (not sure of the last two words though).

I was astonished to see a bright light coming from the bathroom floor one night. As is usual when one is completely astonished it never occurred to me that what shone like a lighthouse in the darkness was but a firefly until KH came in and identified it. The creature was however dead. I havent seen any fireflies around here and indeed none since I was a kid.

I went crazy the other day at the music shop and bought dvds of Soviet and Russian ballet, of masters of the cinema like Fellini, Kurosawa, Renoir, stars like Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and a complete BBC Shakespeare. That should keep me occupied for a long time.

I’m afraid I have neglected the blog again and for the same reasons - visitors, dinners, concerts, a very good local film, “Gadoh” which I think might win first prize at this year’s Freedom Film Festival, and Marion D’Cruz’s Retrospective Dance which showed what a fine dancer she is.

However the August 5th NY Herald Tribune prompted me to make a complaint rightaway and it is this - seeing the part where the legs meet of a female ballet dancer blacked out and - surprise - the chest of her male partner !

You see here the photo of the Mango Tree eating place in Betong which is our favourite. The woman there is a very special person who can turn out an amazing variety of dishes. Food is always fresh because her assistant simply gets on her motor cycle and collects what ever the cook wants from the market just round the corner. Luckily I had some years before photographed the place, because now the landmark Tree is no more.

I forgot to mention the last blog that the rich yachtsman from Langkawi stumbled on a Tune Hotel and spent the night there. It was good value he said, and showed us photos of the MR17 a night air con room with bathroom attached, Amazing!

We had pork knuckles at Ingolf’s Kneoper the other night, our guest being lucky that there was a table available. We three shared one dish and you can imagine what big eaters the Germans must be.

Just dug up from my computer a BBC story about an African parrot called N’Kisis with a 950 word vocab.

Last night we were at the Wind Orchestra concert (Woon’s group), an impressive crisp playing demonstrating what great strides have been made in music making in Penang. Then to the North Beach Café to be greeted by a storm of rain which forced us from the sea front to the not so welcome covered space where, we saw two women eating mashed potatoes from the German sausage man. They looked like Filippinos.