First of all I get reprint copies of book 3 of the Isles of Glory in the mail. Yup, The Tainted has gone to yet another reprint in Australia to match the earlier reprints of book 1 & 2 this year. I do love Voyager Oz; they really get behind their writers and keep books in print.
Secondly, I get an email from one of my publishers’ editors who has just read the latest effort, book 2 in the up and coming trilogy. Among some other nice things, she said “Wow”. And: “it’s a fantastic book (as I’m sure you well know!)”
Actually, I didn’t know. I always think that I have written an absolute lemon until I get an email from an editor…
Guess I am a typical insecure writer with all kinds of hang-ups.
But you know what? Today was a great day.
And as my friend had never seen dragon fruit (above on the right) plants , we stopped to show her, below.
Dragon fruit in flower above, growing in rows propped up with pieces of wood, below.
And then, because my friend and I are birders, we stopped at some rice fields to take a look.
And came away with some nice “ticks” in the notebook: flocks of bleached-white Little and Intermediate (Plumed) Egrets out of season (they should be winter migrants), the Cinnamon Bittern and the duller Yellow Bittern, the immaculate Red-wattled Lapwing, Purple Herons with their ungainly necks, and lots of other interesting stuff.
And the forested parts of the road were lovely. Much better than the endless ugliness of Kluang town… Oh, and my husband says, if you want to get lost, try to follow any Malaysian-made map. Much better to follow the signs.Was back at the immigration dept yesterday, for the third day and another 2 hour wait.
Good news: there was soap in the dispenser.
Bad news: they didn’t give me 5 years* but only one year extension. So we have to do the same thing all over again next year. My husband has to take a day off work. What a waste of everything – time and money and paper and working hours – all to keep an eye on this wife of a citizen who obviously (after 40 years here on and off) is a danger to national security. Or something. My file in the department must be a mile high. How many times have they collected a copy of our marriage certificate? How many copies do they have of a sworn statement that we make (and pay for) every year that yes, we were married? Don’t they have better things to do with their tax-payers money? I am fed up.
*They told me last year this was possible, so that is why I need got a spanking new Oz passport before it was due in order to accommodate a 5 year pass.
Over the past 2 working days I have travelled 200 kms, spent 28 ringgit on tolls and god knows how much on petrol, queued and waited for a total of 7 hours in a room that doesn’t have enough chairs for half those present, all in order to obtain permission to stay another year with my husband of 42 years. 42 married years, that is. (I might wish he was 42 years old, but…)
Welcome to the Immigration Dept in Shah Alam, Selangor. The staff are lovely and very patient – not even losing their cool when shouted at, which happened today. (No, not by me.) But, folks, the system is seriously f-…um, stressed. I STILL haven’t got that precious stamp in my passport and I have to travel another 100 kms, pay another 14 ringgit and wait another few hours to complete the process.
However, what I am really blogging about is this. They have a video screen to watch while you wait. No sound, just pictures. They show odd things like the trailer for a Harry Potter movie…and a long sequence, obviously a govt health dept production, on how to wash your hands. Presumably because of the current swine flu epidemic. You know, lots of soap, lather well, get between the fingers, etc etc.
So after a number hours of waiting (and reading Tad William’s Shadowplay – thank the lord for a good book. I was the ONLY person among the several hundred there with a book, mind you) I go to the loo. And afterwards, head for the taps like the good girl I am.
And there is no soap in the dispenser. What’s more, by the look of it, it has been empty for a long, long time.
Just loved this. Saw it first on pubrants…
A Norwegian Middle age version of the computer programme helpdesk.
Here: on amazon
They are offering a set of the 3 books of The Mirage Makers for stg 17.97 (or 5.99 each). Now that’s a bargain. If you haven’t read them, go buy. Remember the first and the third were shortlisted for the best fantasy novel of the year in Oz.
On pN32 of The Star today, there is a report of a judicial hearing on a “cleansing ritual” that went hideously wrong. Two people ended up brutally murdered – beaten to death in a “religious” ritual supposed to rid them of their demons.
On p N4 we have a report of something that is not yet violent but which is also diabolically nasty and could head down the same path, as it cons people into believing they – or members of their families/communities – are cursed, hexed by witches or possessed by demons. And this happens…where? Seventeenth century Salem? Nope. In the UK. Among gullible Malaysians who fall victim to wily Malaysian con artists.
Is it bad luck that makes you sick/stressed/fail your exams? Nope. Was it your fault, because you didn’t study hard enough, or because you have a mental illness? Nope. Is it a personality clash that makes your marriage fail? Nope.
It’s witchcraft. Or possession by evil spirits. How long before we’ll have a howling mob stoning supposed witches, one wonders, because people won’t accept they are responsible for their own lives, both successes and failures?
Beware. These two supposed exorcists clothe their nastiness under a veneer of religion and call themselves “The Professional Islamic Support and Nurture Group” or P.I.S.A.N.G (allow me to roll around the floor laughing here – pisang means banana!! These two guys are laughing at you and your gullibility!!)
If you are a Malaysian in UK, or have children studying in the UK, tell your fellow Malaysians to stand up and be adults, not superstitious idiots swayed by the clever con spiel of unscrupulous men like Hamidi and Trimizi. They are taking you for a ride, and making it seem legit by preaching their piety.
I blogged about this once before, here, but if today’s paper is to be believed, this pair of nasties are going from strength to strength. Does no one else care?
The Malaysian political party with a basically Islamic bent, PAS, has called for the National Fatwa Council to declare the Sisters in Islam (SIS) as haram (forbidden) if its activities are found to be contrary to Islamic teachings and principles. As the SIS are a group of highly educated Islamic women promoting the rights of women as based on the principles of equality, justice and freedom as stated in the Quran, it would be difficult indeed to find that they are contrary to Islamic teachings.
However, doubtless PAS will try, presumably because they don’t much like freedom, equality and justice for women. One of the things the Sisters in Islam does is offer free legal advice to women (men too actually) who deal with the Syariah and civil law courts.
Here from yesterday’s newspaper, The Star, for example, is an example of the kind of man who has been deemed fit to be an officer of the religious authorities of the PAS run northern state of Kelantan.
State CID chief Asst Comm Mazlan Lazim said that in the 2.30 p.m. incident in Pasir Mas, Kelantan on Sunday, the woman – known only as Ain – was driving when her car was rammed from behind by a Proton Wira. “The man then drove off. About five minutes later, the man was back trailing the woman’s car and he rammed her again, damaging both vehicles. He then got out of his car and threatened to kill her,” said ACP Maslan. The 22-year-old woman, who had rejected the man’s offer to make her his third wife, also received a death threat.
It was apparently the third time the man had been violent towards this woman.
No wonder PAS is unhappy with the Sisters in Islam.
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And below: more on the IAEA DG election for those interested.
Above: a grey morph Reef Egret
