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My annual pilgrimage
Post Date : 2019-07-19
Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
May 8 - Jul. 9, 2019
Epic was the word that my buddy would use to describe my trip back to visit my family, and one person in particular is my mother. It has become an annual pilgrimage as my way of coping with her aging self. Some 22 hours of flight in total with transit in three different cities, enduring delays (if any) and jetlag. My circadian rhythm gets adjusted every 10 months. Upon my arrival on the 8th of May, I was preparing to get some shuteye when there was a panic knock on the door and it was my sister-in-law shouting that mom had fallen. When I got to the living room, she was lying on the floor with droplets of blood. She had hit her head on the sink and required stitches. We rushed her to a local private hospital (Putra Medical Center), not worrying about the cost and tears were streaming down my eyes when I heard her moaning when they stitched her without any painkillers. Our new Indonesian maid was with her and in fact, what happened after we all went upstairs was that the maid had walked away to turn off the lights leaving mom on a walker. Complaining of leg pain on the right, we didn’t foresee that she wouldn't be able to stand upright and that was when she lost her balance and fell. The MRI showed that she had a minor haemorrhage on the right and she was hospitalized. Due to the intake of anti-coagulant medication, there was a much bigger haemorrhage on the left and it was something we notice when she faded in and out of consciousness after she was discharged. This time, we decided to take her to the general hospital. To make a long story short, I had been spending many visitation hours and by the time we were ready to take her home, the bill we were responsible for was only RM123 (US$30), reduced from over RM4000 (US$1,000). It was a scary moment for us. During one of the visits, my brother and I both cried while we held her tight in our arms and the feeling of losing her was too much to bear.
A more positive moment from the trip was when my brother was finally able to move to the house that he had purchased four years ago. A string of thieving activities from manhole cover to electrical wires being stolen by drug addicts and shoddily but foundation which required the house to be retrofitted before it was safe for habitation were some of the reasons for the delay. I donated some cash to make the move possible and he used the money to purchase six air-conditioning units. The whole country is a semi-dessert in terms of the temperature and those are necessary things to have in a house. Prior to my trip, he had been making some progress in tiling the kitchen, bathroom, and pretty much the entire floor, new windows with aluminium frames, and a stainless steel backyard gate, which further facilitated the move.
We both felt that the house would be a good move for everyone for two reasons: to facilitate mom’s health condition as it was free from differing floor levels, a levelled bathroom so that her wheelchair could ingress and egress without any difficulties. Another reason was a more superstitious one: to help improve mom's health and to help with brother's business. However, my brother didn’t believe in any of those superstition so the ceremony to move in was simplified to just installing two red lanterns. My sister-in-law made sure that the house was stocked with rice, sugar, salt, and other necessities before we could move in as a sign of auspiciousness. On the big day of the official move after a good day was picked, she rolled some oranges on the floor before we officially walked through the front door on June 28th. Because of my trip to Greece, my brother moved in much earlier alone because he was worried that some unwarranted activities may take place if the house was left vacant. If I hadn't pushed for the move, it would probably drag on for who knows how long. I joined them on various trips to purchase items like the fridge, stove, curtains, lanterns, and other ceremonially necessary items such as red lanterns and it could have been more. We ordered a custom made table which was 102" in length and we also installed a 84" fan in the living room. At the Ikea store in Butterworth, we spent hundreds of Ringgit on DIY curtain rails. I personally helped to lengthen all the premade curtains purchased at Kaison, a local home decoration store at the Alor Setar Mall. The single-storied semi-detached house is much smaller in comparison to the old residence which made it that much easier to clean and maintain. I love its tall ceiling and the brightness afforded by the clearstory. The plan was to rent it out to secure some income but we ran into trouble—not expecting mom not wanting to live in the new house because in her heart, she felt that the new old didn’t belong to her and she would have to put up with her daughter-in-law. Sigh!
My friend, Lim Sow Seik and her Dutch husband were in Penang for her late elder sister's funeral and we had arranged to meet in Penang right after my plan touched down from Athens. It wasn't part of the plan and I had to give up the opportunity to join my brother's friend who wanted to treat me for some durians but Sow Seik and her husband decided in the last minute to follow me back to my hometown where I showed them the new house as well as other touristy venues such as the Alor Setar communication tower, the State Mosque, State Museum, Chinatown where we had dinner. The last stop was at the new train station where they hopped on the commuter train to go home. It was a short and productive trip for them and in general, I was glad that my brother finally moved into his dream house and mom was recovering from her incident, albeit she now has a new problem… being hard at breathing. When I left on July 4, which coincidentally was America's 243rd birthday, I yearn to see her in 10 months for my next visit.
Souvlakis, chicken pita, and gyros
Post Date : 2019-07-19
Athens, Greece
June 15 - 18 and June 22 - 23, 2019
The flight for Athens required flying to multiple cities, starting with Penang, Malaysia, then Singapore for a direct flight to Athens. Patras where I was scheduled to present a research paper on the 19th of June is another 2.5 hours away by road. Things got complicated upon landing at Changi, Singapore. I was told to check directly with Scoot airlines instead of Singapore Airlines, where I had purchased my ticket online from the latter. I was told that they couldn't find my reservation and as a result, unable to issue any boarding passes. I kept pointing to the confirmation number and the apathetic Indian lady waited for me to search high and low before telling me the solution: to clear the Singapore customs so that I could go upstairs to the departure hall to check with their staff. Technically, I visited Singapore for about 15 minutes. The found the culprit--the salutation of 'Prof' which I had entered online when I booked. I told them that it was an option in the website and the guy jokingly remarked that they were not as detailed as Singapore airlines. This seemed like an internal issue that should have been worked out. The horror hadn't finished as I found that there were no entertainment screens equipped for everyone in the economy section. I wasn't even sure if there was a business section. I must have done something right when I booked the fare because they asked the type of food and drinks I'd like to have. For the rest, there was an option to purchase. They even gave me a blanket which was shrink-wrapped. This would definitely be a memorable trip!
The 12-hour trip arrived on June 15 and I figured, with three days to recuperate and adjust to local time, I also had the luxury to discover the city of Athens with the world-famous Acropolis, which is all the city has to offer in terms of attractions. I had a great time as this was my first visit and a great time buying souvenirs, eating souvlakis, chicken pita, gyros. With an assortment of monuments and ruins built between 510 and 400 B.C., including the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion, my wish to finally see what was deemed as the seminal point of western civilization was realized. The Parthenon is under construction, but the view from up there was amazing and the Acropolis Museum is a modern archaeological museum that gives its visitors a complete story of life on the Athenian acropolis and its surroundings. From history, we learned that the Christians and Muslims conquered Greece and the Turks used it for target practice; and the British stole a lot of the sculptures which are now stored in the British Museum, which I had seen when I visited London in 2008. The Acropolis Museum houses a restaurant on the second floor, with panoramic views of the Acropolis and a public terrace commanding a breath-taking view of the historic hills of Athens. Admittedly, I was attracted to the fancy uniform that the guards wore at the parliament and I learned that the 'skirt' that they wear has 400 pleats, to remind them of each year of the Turk occupation of Greece. Now, that's neat. A memorable incident was when I caught what looked like a wrongly used Chinese character in the archeological museum where they had tried to define a section of books about Greece in Chinese. I told them that they had wrongly translated it to mean "China's." I also visited what looked like a Chinatown area and the neighborhood looked rough. More about Chinatown here: https://greece.greekreporter.com/2017/03/18/athens-chinatown-meet-the-chinese-community-of-greece-full-documentary/
Unfortunately, this history city was also known for pick-pockets. Luckily, I had anticipated for that to happen and the trick was not to leave a lot of cash in the wallet as well as other important documents. Unfortunately, because both of my credit cards were in there, it was a rude awakening on the 17th of June when I discovered that upon leaving the metro station of Omnia. I had just purchased a souvenir of the Acropolis and the plan was to exit at the Syntagma station for some last minute shopping but I had to change my plan. Immediately, I contacted both credit card companies. Poor internet connection made my attempts to contact the banks via Skype a moot exercise so I had no choice but to turn on my international phone plan. This event happened on the day before I left for Patras so an attempt was made to contact my brother so that he could use western union to wire some money to me. I also had to cancel my car reservation in Athens and to switch to taking a bus instead. I was thankful for a longtime friend that I befriended while presenting in Cyprus in 2010, Thanasis who now lives in Rhodes, gave me the suggestion which ended up saving me a lot of money and hassle, especially, having to deal with toll, traffic jams, local driving habits, etc. There were still nice and decent people as I discovered when the car driver returned to the bus station to look for me as I had given him 5 Euros more for the fare. Bless his heart (and his action)!
More souvlakis, chicken pita, and gyros
Post Date : 2019-07-19
Patras, Greece
June 18 - 22, 2019
The opportunity to present at a 3-year once conference called the International Conference of Typography and Visual Communication (ICTVC) at Patras, Greece from June 19-21, was something of a chance. When I initially saw the opportunity before leaving for the summer to Malaysia, they seemed to have lined up the speakers. Since I hadn't been active in my research activities since the last presentation at Auckland, New Zealand, I thought that I'd take a chance and wrote the organizer, Dr. Klimis Mastoridis, a professor at the University of Nicosia whom I met back in 2010, when I first presented at the conference when it was held in Nicosia, Cyprus. To my surprise, he replied and within two days, he had added my name and as a presenter, I need not pay any registration fees. Sweet!
In anticipating the opportunity, I had packed some materials with me but I soon realized that I didn't have enough images but I was able to salvage them from the paper that I had written a short while back. A rejected journal article was repackaged into a research presentation. Sweet (again!). With ample time prior to the trip, I was able to whip my PowerPoint into shape. My presentation took place at the University of Patras’s Conference and Cultural Center. It helped that I was the first to present on the first day of the conference on the 19th, right after their keynote speaker. I was able to command some captive audience.
It was an opportunity to network not just for me but also an opportunistic doctoral student who was interested in my research method. Some attendees lamented that this time, the participation was lower probably because of the location. Patras is not exactly accessible by the means of an international airport. Patras is 211 kilometres (131 miles) west-northwest of Athens and there were two ways to get there: rent a car or take a bus. I opted for the latter after I was being pickpocketed in Athens. Galaxy Hotel where I stayed was a modern building within steps from the scenic port. There was a ship from Green Peace that was docked at one of the ports and it was unfortunate that I had to give it a miss due to the conference. After the conference ended on the 21st, I spent the remaining time looking for a souvenir but instead, I resided to just relaxing and taking pictures. The tradition called for me to mail a postcard from the city and since I couldn't find any, I decided that some gifts for my two nieces would definitely put a smile on their faces. Prior to the trip, we had been busily preparing my brother's new house to move in and the glow in the dark stars and miniaturized universe were perfect. I took the bus, joined by a few other attendees from the conference on June 22 and arrived in Athens on the same day, some 2.5 hours later. After checking into my one-star hotel where its elevator is only built for luggage, I was able to do some last minute shopping at Athens before flying off the next day. It was another 12 hours of entertainment-less environment. I managed to sketch and idea for a few hours before the tiredness and insomnia set in.
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YEOH'S JOURNAL
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