I had eyes, but I could not see....

 This is a backdated post.

The incident happened about 4 months ago when I was still in Perth. I love to read, so visiting the Willetton Public Library every 2 weeks is a must. The library opens everyday except for Wednesdays and Sundays. There are quite a variety of reading materials for seniors, adults, teenagers, school children and even toddlers. No doubt, I enjoyed books by my favourite authors.

I was busy browsing through the shelves, looking for books that might interest me when I stumbled upon this handicapped lady. She had no hands and was manoeuvring around with her motorised wheelchair. A book in one of the upper shelf caught her attention and she asked me to take it down for her. I willingly obliged and tried to pass it to her. She asked me to put the book on her lap. At the moment, I felt foolish as I knew that she had no hands to receive it and yet I could not see pass her handicap. Somewhat, it did not register in my mind to be more sensitive and discerning to her "problem". It was a real eye-opener. From that moment, I resolved that I would be more sensitive should I encounter a similar situation in the future. A lesson learned.

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Yesterday Once More

Just 2 days ago, I was helping mum sort through the boxes of old textbooks, exercise books, novels, magazines and periodicals that she had been hoarding eversince we finished our primary, secondary and tertiary education. Mum had a habit of hoarding and almost every corner of our family house is full of old stuff and things that she had been "keeping" for the past 40 years. 

As we went through the boxes of books, old memories started coming back. There were textbooks, workbooks and even testpapers from my primary and secondary school days. These books reminded me of my childhood and teenage years, when I did my homework with the help of dad, as tuition were unheard of during those days. Memories of my classmates and teachers, many whom I have not seen or heard from for ages. I remember vividly, when I was in form one, we had a very unpopular integrated science teacher, an Indian known as Mr. V. Mathew. He had a reputation of being very bad and quick tempered and struck terror in our hearts in the science laboratory. When his tempers flared, he resorted to tearing our science worksheets and yelling at us at the top of his voice. Whenever any one of us failed in his test, he would punished us by forcing us to rewrite the questions and answers all over again, sometimes 50, 100 or 200  times. There was one occasion, when a classmate failed her test on the chapter of reproduction in humans, and she had to write the word "penis" 100 times! Just imagine that! Fortunately, he was transferred to another school the following year and thereafter, a more mild mannered teacher took over.

I also came across my report cards and looking at those marks I scored, it is a wonder that I managed to do that " well" without the tuition, internet, reference and assessment books. Well, as the saying goes, life is alot "simpler" those days. We did not have internet or facebook, MSN so we improvised our own games, played with marbles, swam in drains and rivers, climbed the trees and so on. We can say that we are also a resilient, knowledgeble and capable lot.

Sadly, the books had to be dispose off as both Ruth and her cousin Jane would no longer be using them.  Most of information are outdated and no longer relevant to the current school curriculum. So, there were 10 boxes of the books and other odds and ends to be picked up by mum's scrap collector. .

Just remembering..

It's almost 2 months since I left Perth, Western Australia. It has been home for the last two and half years (on and off) and I must stay that I am beginning to miss the place, food and the friends there. I enjoyed the quiet and laidback lifestyle, food and the company of my church friends. When I first arrive there in early 2010, I was quite concern as most of the residential houses there do not have any perimeter fencing or gates. Back home in Malaysia, almost, if not all, residential properties are fortified with brick or metal grilles fencing, often times additionally installed with electronic survelliance cameras and equipment to keep out any intruders. One could not avoid observing in the passing that some of the fencing walls are constructed at such a height that the occupants seems to be living behind "prison walls". Of course, some of the wealthier malaysians could also employ security guards to man their premises. Thus, the phrase " gated and guarded" communities are the catchword of most developers nowadays, especially those in bigger cities like Kuala Lumpur, etc.

As such, when we first moved into our rented property without the fencing and gates, Ruth and I had a few sleepless nights as any slight noise outside the house will keep us on alert. It took a while for us to get use to the situation until I heard from one of my friends that some families do not even lock up their houses when they go out! Some of homes do not have any garage, so the cars are just parked in the open carport.

Needless to say, the issue of security and incidences of house break-in in Perth depends very much on the suburb one is staying. There are comparatively less of such incidents in the better suburbs compared with the others. I must say, that comparatively, I felt safer living in Perth than in Malaysia.