Rain Songs

The rainy season has started at the end of October (it helped to clear the haze away, Alhamdulillah) and after yesterday’s post on Haze Songs, I thought it’d be appropriate to post Rain Songs today.

Rain

Umbrella

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Why Does It Always Rain On Me

November Rain

Singin’ In The Rain

Come In Out Of The Rain

Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall

Raining In My Heart

Come Rain Or Come Shine

A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall

Crying In The Rain

A Little Bit Of Rain

I Think It’s Going To Rain Today

The Rain Song

Sunshine After The Rain

Here Come The Rain

Purple Rain

It’s Raining Men

Rainy Days And Mondays

Haze Songs

Thank God the haze has been over for a few weeks now and I pray that it will never ever return - fat chance when it’s becoming an annual occurrence eh. Well, I can still pray and hope, right? Here are some songs that I think aptly describe the haze situation with amendments to some song titles.

Breathless

Breathe Again

Take My Breath Away

Toxic

Killing Me Softly With This Haze

Beat It

Haze Is All Around Us

I Can’t See Clearly Now

Smoke Gets In Our Eyes

(I Can’t Get No) Ventilation

Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of

Another Day

Bad

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Dirty Day

A Million Haze Songs

Some Days Are Better Than Others

Staring At The (Non-Existent) Sun

Hazard

Linger

Pray For Peace And Love

We will never know why Friday night was chosen to launch the attacks in Paris. It could be because it was the start to the weekend hence ensuring maximum damage, it could be to take advantage of the crowds dining out or meeting up to enjoy some music or watching football, it could be because it was Friday the 13^th. But what we do know is that it doesn’t make sense. Violence and atrocity never make sense no matter how you try to twist it and if someone resorts to violence because he himself was a victim of it, well, I’ll say that two wrongs do not make a right. But I cannot judge because I was never subjected to something so evil or violent to make me react in such a drastic way. And before you accuse me of condoning such an act, stop right there. I’m not and will never condone such a violent senseless act. But I do think that the attackers may have their own crazy twisted logic or reason or agenda for it.

And so it leaves a scar on the rest of us, on the human race. We may think in our safe cocoon or plain ignorance or lazy observance of the world that what didn’t happen to us wouldn’t hurt or affect us. But it does. The 11 September attacks may not have affected the majority of is directly but it does affect all travellers to this day and well into the foreseeable future as we have to declare our liquid, aerosol or gel (LAGs) if we plan to carry them on board. The recent attacks at the end of last week mean that some of us will always be bit hesitant about stepping out, a bit reluctant about enjoying ourselves, and a tad worried because we never know if we might be targeted next. I say attacks because there is violence almost everywhere these days on an almost daily basis. There was an attack in Beirut just a day before the attacks in Paris but it didn’t get coverage. Why? The people in Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the Rohingyas, they all face violence, hardship and indignity almost every day and yet their plight don’t get as much coverage if at all.

What is also disturbing it that one of the perpetrators had a ticket to the France-Germany match and attempted to enter the stadium. I don’t know about you but whenever I went to the Grove to watch a match on my rare visits there. I never thought there could be someone in the crowd who had plans to hurt or kill others. This would never ever cross my mind. I’m not trying to trivialise the attacks in other parts of Paris or anywhere else for that matter but as a football fan who occasionally goes to watch a live match, I can’t help but think of the effects on the sport (yes, we football fans are guilty of making football more important than what it actually is in the grand scheme of things because it gives us escapism from real life but the hype and whatnot are what makes us the fans we are. And France will be the host country for Euro 2016 in seven months’ time.

Events like this leave us shaken and stirred and instil fear in us. We become a bit more wary and suspicious of others. But we must not let them win. Terrorism has no faith or face and knows no boundaries. It is thus even more imperative for us not to lose our humanity and tolerance just because others are keen to spread hate. We should not let these minority who do not represent the majority of us intimidate us. So how can we respond? We can be braver, by being kinder and more compassionate and understanding of the life we still have to live and as such try to be a better person, sibling, child, parent, member of community and servant of God. We can love and spread love beyond our family and friends to include strangers because clearly love is in short supply otherwise why else would one want to kill others? We can take better care of ourselves by living a healthier lifestyle. Our short fragile life is what we have left so surely it makes sense to love it with an open mind and heart, tolerance, optimism, faith and trust.

Saigon 2015

I bought a ticket to Saigon way back in January. There was an offer in May and I decided to invite my aunt along. Her ticket turned out to cost less than what I paid for mine @&$()!*U(

Saturday, 7 November 2015

I met up with aunt at KLIA and we went to drop off our bags. We decided to go in to the boarding gate immediately and waved her family farewell. The flight was pretty full. There was a slight delay in taking off but we landed on time. I had told aunt that we would be taking the bus to the city.

From the bus station near Chợ Bến Thành, we walked to our hotel. I usually stay in Pham Ngũ Lão but decided to book a hotel closer to Chợ Bến Thành this time as I had aunt to consider. We checked in at 1645 and rested before venturing out to dinner. There are too many Malaysians descending upon the city now which means you won’t have problems finding halal food. We had beef pho at one of the halal restaurants before exploring the night market (I wouldn’t recommend buying anything at the night market as they’re mainly expensive and hardly offer any value for money but it was still fun to just soak in the atmosphere). We then returned to Nguyen An Ninh where better shopping was offered. We spent some time walking up and down the street, browsing stalls, choosing stuff and bargaining. We returned to the hotel quite late tonight.

Sunday, 8 November 2015

I slept poorly the night before and must have lain awake longer than I was asleep. Aunt was happily snoring away beside me argghhhhhh...!!! Managed a brief kip after Suboh and finally got up at 0835 to shower. We had agreed to have a late breakfast today as I wanted to check in for the flight back after breakfast.

We left at 1115 and went to the shops along Le Loi before turning back. We then entered Chợ Bến Thành and I don’t know which is worse: being out in the hot sun or inside the market and suffocating. We headed for the stall selling cotton material (I had Googled it earlier) and found it easily. Unfortunately, there were already about a dozen Malaysians swarming the stall (OK, it was less but it felt like dozens the way they wouldn’t let us near the stall at all). I took some pictures to show Akak (yup, she was the one who wanted those cotton materials) and left.

We then walked to Calmette for lunch at the vegetarian restaurant which I discovered on my last trip in March 2014. It rained while we were having lunch so we waited out the rain before hurrying back to the hotel to rest. I decided an hour-long siesta was in order after the sleepless night.

I left the hotel and explored the area surrounding Chợ Bến Thành at 1545 before entering it. I returned empty-handed however as I wanted to check further with Akak. Rain was imminent and true enough, I was just a block away from the hotel when it rained heavily again. I waited out the rain before hurrying back to the hotel again.

We ventured out for dinner. I decided to buy some spring rolls from a Muslim seller and as she only had that and a pack of doughnuts left, she gave me the doughnuts for free. Thank you, kind lady. I had a couple each of spring rolls and doughnuts for dinner and that was it. More shopping was done after dinner.

Monday, 9 November 2015

I had another poor night. Hardly slept a wink. Bloody hell. Had breakfast before 0900 and went out to the market alone. I already had what I wanted to buy in mind. First stop was the cotton material stall. I managed to buy 4 out 5 material that Akak wanted. I threw in another one of my own choosing. Next stop was at a stall selling drawstring pouches and the next stop was another stall selling medium-sized satin drawstring pouches. After getting those bought and out of the way, I went to find souvenir for myself: buffalo-horn necklaces. I found what I wanted quickly enough but had to change money into Dong as the stall only accepted either VND or USD. It was then when I discovered that there’s a bank/moneychanger in the market! I’d never come across it before. After that, I walked around the area of the market selling food and of all the stalls there, found one selling dates (Egyptian ones). Dad wanted me to buy some should I come across one such stall.

I returned to the hotel laden with the purchases and finished packing.

We ventured out for lunch at almost 2 pm and had Thai vermicelli soup at a vegetarian restaurant.

We stayed in the rest of the evening. I caught up on my sleep. Aunt reminisced on the old days (she and Mummy and two other aunts were adopted by one kind highly respected Domestic Science teacher) and I shed tears as I listened. Mummy may be gone but her memory lives on.

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

I showered before performing Suboh prayers. We went down for breakfast at 0745 and checked out an hour later. I had insisted that we take the bus back to the airport so I helped to steer my aunt’s new suitcase and dragged my suitcase behind. The duffel I placed on my suitcase fell and I tripped over my suitcase and fell down like a sack of potatoes just before we crossed over to the bus station. So near and yet so far, eh. At least I didn’t fall down in the middle of the road. We had help from kind locals who helped us haul our suitcases up and down the bus at the bus station and airport respectively.

We reached the airport at 0940 and dropped off our heavy bags. Then we went in for immigration and security clearance. The flight was quite full. There was a bit of turbulence and we were due to land at 1350 when we felt the plane lift up again and ascend instead. The pilot then announced that the bad weather at KLIA didn’t allow us to land so we had to circle overhead for 20 minutes before getting the go ahead from the control tower. Alhamdulillah.

I will definitely visit Saigon again if I have the rezeki, insyaAllah. But I doubt it will be anytime soon.