The Difference Between England and Malaysia pt2 - Exclamations!

Mr Kong met up with KTKK, the newlyweds Mr & Mrs Hove aka Simon & Wayar and their friend from Hong Kong - Chi Sing in London yesterday.

It was great to see all of them and fantastic that we could all meet up in London. Had a great time with a good lunch, mini pub crawl & dinner, but that's for another post.

In one of the pubs, Mr Kong & Wayar started talking about Malaysian style exclamations (i.e. expressions of shock, surprise, dismay, disgust etc) & how only Malaysians or someone who has spent time with Malaysians would understand them.

We laughed ourselves silly thinking of them & explaining them to Mr Ho(ve) and even KTKK hadn't heard of some of them.

This morning Mr Kong thought about the diffences in Malaysian exclamations vs British exclamations as they are quite different. Here are some that he'd thought of:

British

Oh! (generic surprise & alarm - can be expanded to Oh I Say!)
Gosh! (ditto)
Blimey! (ditto)
Crikey! (ditto)
What what! (ditto)
Damn! (anger or slap head d'oh situations)
Brilliant! (pleasent surprise)
Lovely! (ditto)
Super! (ditto)
Purrfecck! (ditto)
Blooody 'ell! (surprise mixed with mild alarm or disgust)

Everybody in England uses these & speaks exactly like this "Cor blimey guvnor, that was bloody purrrfecck, what what, Oh I say!"

Malaysian

Aiyo! Fuiyo! or Haiyo! (or the Hindi movie inspired full length version - aiyoyo A Ma! - all signify surprise with shock, evoking your mother is optional)
Aiyer! (subtly different to aiyo etc in that it denotes a bit of disgust)
Alamak! (slap head d'oh situations)
Cheh! (condescending remark, not worthy of attention)
Fulemak! (like alamak but with added 'fu' - greater surprise, admiration, shock etc)
Fualauweh! (ditto)
So terror! (used for admiration, or in sarcasm)

Some can be used in combination e.g. "Fulemak! So terror one you!"

Any that were left out? Suggestions welcome!

Mind your head

You'd think that people here in UK are quite tall but actually Mr Kong is taller than most people here.

The government here are pretty anal about Health & Safety so they're quite good about putting signs out to warn you of dangers though like 'Mind the gap', 'Mind your head' etc.

You should still watch where you're going though...

Note: No Kong's were injured in the making of this blog entry

2nd Anniversary Celebration - London

The second part of Mr & Mrs Kong's 2nd anniversary celebration was spent with KTKK in London.

We'd said we would visit KTKK for some time since his move to London so last weekend we finally did!

KTKK making Madeleines - out of the oven, into the mouth...

We went first to KTKK's flat near Old Street Tube station in Hackney to drop our things, rest & have some food. The area is a little run down (maybe it should be described as 'ripe for regeneration') but his flat is very cosy & spacious inside.

KTKK kindly made us some Madeleines to stave off our hunger.

Then it was off to Borough Market.

It was the 250th Anniversary celebration (coincidence?!) of the opening of Borough Market and there were people dressed in 18th century costumes among the crowd.

Musicians dressed in 18th century costume

Lovely autumn produce

Mr & Mrs Kong have mixed emotions about Borough Market. On the one hand it really is a fantastic place, full of history and interesting stalls of food & produce from all over the world.

On the other hand, the crowds are just ridiculous. There are masses of people crushed into a small space and queues everywhere for everything. It gets a little tiring after a while. If 3/4 of them disappeared, it would be a great place to visit.

Then it was back to KTKK's place to get ready for dinner.

Japanese food is calling...

For dinner, went to Edokko Restaurant near Holborn (as recommended by Mr Loke! - ok Mr Loke, happy now? Credit where its due... actually wasn't it your friend who recommended it...?)

2 years!

KTKK: "House of Flying Daggers gets all the details absolutely correct!"
Mr Kong: "But in its style over substance, its the death of narrative cinema!"
Mrs Kong: "Yawn! Boringgg..."

It was a superb, slap up Japanese meal. Very authentic (it wasn't run by Malaysians!) and all the food was excellent.

Edamame, Sashimi, fried tofu, tempura, sushi - we had it all! That was the first time Mr Kong can remember being full to bursting from eating Japanese food.

After dinner, we wandered over to a old pub called the Princess Louise

This pub has to be one of the best preserved and most attractive pubs in London.

Cheers!

KTKK with Sam Smith's Wheat Beer

Just another evening down the pub

Another fantastic anniversary celebration...

2nd Anniversary Celebration - Northampton

Mrs Kong before dinner date

Last week was Mr & Mrs Kong's 2nd wedding anniversary and we had a double celebration. Once on the actual day (17th October - get those cards & presents now!) in Northampton and again with KTKK in London.

We had a simple Italian dinner at a place called Papa Chino's in Northampton town centre. The decor was very cheap & cheerful but it served good hearty food that definitely filled us up. A nice place for some no frills Italian.

Somethings that made us both laugh was the way in which the kitchen let the waitresses know that an order had to be picked up. A bright orange light went on outside the door to the kitchen & because the dining area wasn't very large, it lit up the whole place. So you could always tell when someone's food was ready!

Midget & Giant playing at the Fish pub, Northampton

Fully concentrated on the music

After that, while walking home some folksy music drew Mr & Mrs Kong into a pub where a duo called Midget & Giant were playing. It really was one taaallll woman & a shooooort guy on guitars. They were good so stayed for a while.

All in all, a good evening - Happy Anniversay Mr & Mrs Kong!

Its Autumn in Northampton!

And Chesnut season! We saw Mr Kong in action collecting chestnuts. We forgot a plastic bag and could only collect as much as 4 hands and pockets could carry!!

Have YOU been to Northampton?

If you are either a member of Mr and Mrs Kong's family, or a friend who has had the opportunity to visit UK in the last 18 months, AND you have NOT visited Northampton by now, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED of yourself.

What IS in Northampton is the warm and cosy home of Mr and Mrs Kong; The hospitality (we hope); our willingness to show you a snap shot of our daily life. Also the fact that if YOU were living in Northampton, and we came to visit England, we would come and visit you without doubt. What you have missed out on is an overall great time!!

Here is a list of Friends and Family who have managed a visit to Northampton since our arrival in April 2005:

(in the order of appearance)

1) Yee Fun, Mrs Kong's ex colleague from Leeds who came over for lunch!

2) Hsiu Pin who drove all the way from Egham to (a) drive us to Milton Keynes in search of a chinese supermarket and (b) drive us to Comet (UK electrical chain store) to buy our first kettle. We discovered Taipan on this trip, whilst being mistaken as Chinese students/ immigrants by a chinese shop cashier.

Hsiu Pin, we still have that kettle and will be bringing it back to Malaysia with us!!

3) Susan and Jeremy, Mr Kong's friends from Oxford, who managed a quick stop on their way home to Reading. Susan and Jeremy were in the midst of errands in preparation for their move to St Kitt's. but managed to make it anyway!!

4) Ling, Mike and Harry who dropped us home, on their way to Manchester. Harry loved running up and down our house, and also managed to call Mr Kong "Uncle Kit"! Harry was not talking much then.

5) Lisa and Kok Loon, who visited us in Sept 2005. It was the first week we had our new car and we went to Stoke Bruene Canal for the first time with Lisa and Kok Loon. No visit was complete without a trip to our "favourite" chinese restaurant in Milton Keynes.

6) Dennis and Wai Wai, who came to visit in November 2005 - Dennis having to drive all the way from Cardiff after work on a Friday and Wai Wai who had to endure a three hour bus ride from Heathrow while being jet lagged after a long haul flight from Hong Kong (not as a passenger but a flight attendant!!) And Wai Wai who went home ill from quite possibly too much fun at our place!

We had a humongous cook out!! and exchanged x mas presents of course. Wai Wai's first words when she came through the door if I remember correctly were "I am ok, I am ok... lets cook ..!"

7) Eugene, who came not knowing anything about Northampton except for the fact that Alan Moore, whose comics he reads, lives in Northampton! Eugene got the opportunity to savour the gastronomic delights in Mr and Mrs Kong's home cooking plus a little sight seeing and more than paid his dues by fixing Mr Kong's wireless connection (and set theft safe password!)

Thank you Eugene!!

8) Papa and Mummy Kong who came in May 2006, to see us, and to check out our place. Mummy complained that she struggled to fit into her trousers after the trip - the food must have been too good!!

Fantastic memories!!

The Difference Between England and Malaysia pt1- Queuing

A few weekends ago, Mr & Mrs Kong went for a mini shopping trip to get some things in town and ended up at a sports shop looking for swimming goggles for Mr Kong as his were leaking like a sieve.

There was a long queue for the cashier as there was only 1 cashier open but the staff finally twigged that more customers should = more cashiers open.
Mr Kong arrived with his goggles in hand as the new cashier opened so in that situation, what would any rational person with half a brain do –

1. Join the looooong queue of people
2. Join the newly opened cashier
   

B of course!!! And that’s what Mr Kong did but suddenly there was a shout & looking up he saw a red faced guy shouting “No, no, no – you cannot jump the queue like that!” and dragging not HIMSELF but the person in front of him to the new cashier.

This dude was quite bewildered by it all but happily went in front. At this point, Mr Kong was too shocked to protest but after a couple of seconds, fired back with the logical point that it was not ‘jumping’ the queue as it was a totally new queue.

Unable to calmly & logically challenge this statement, the man just went “Aahh, forget it” and went back to his own queue where his by now embarrassed wife was waiting.

Mrs Kong also made the good point that if the guy was that anxious to save himself 5 minutes by barging into the new line, he could but I think by that time he had given up.

The moral of the story and a lesson for visitors to England is:

Don’t mess with the English and their queues and their unknown, illogical ‘Rules of Queuing’.

To be fair though, the Malaysian style ‘queue’ which in other parts of the world might be called a free for all / mad rush / riot is not the ideal either…

The Devil Wears Prada

Well, Mr & Mrs Kong went to see the adaptation of 'The Devil Wears Prada' 2 Fridays ago. According to Mrs Kong its not true to the book at all. Mr Kong will have to trust her on that as he's not read it.

Anyway, on to the movie:

Anne Hathaway plays a supposedly geeky, unfashionable graduate desperate for a step on the ladder to a journalism career. Miraculously, she gets a job at a fashion mag run by 'Cruella de Ville'/Meryl Streep, a dragon lady editor.

Cue 'fish out of water' scenes and "I can't believe how vain they all are..." remarks to hip, cool, down to earth friends.

Then for some reason, the Anne Hathaway character decides to sell out & goes through the obligatory Cinderella/My Fair Lady/Pretty Woman makeover done in double time & poof she's a wearing a new designer outfit everyday. You could see the envious gleam in the eyes of all the female audience. And they were all thinking the same thing "Where did she get the money to buy all those outfits?"

From there it shows her (supposedly) struggling with whether to take the 'evil' fashionista route & sell out or be true to herself. No guesses what she chooses.

All in all, its an ok Friday night light comedy entertainment. There are a few laughs but nothing that really stands out, except for the clothes and Meryl Streep's caricature dragon-lady.

The biggest problem with the film is that it doesn't really know whether its for or against the whole fashion industry and the fact that many women are slaves to it.

On the one hand it suggests that its evil, then the next minute its showing Anne Hathaway looking gorgeous in amazing clothes. A bit muddled really.

But you'll leave the cinema thinking you've just watched some fashion porn.

What's for tea Mr Kong?

1) Haddock fillet with crispy bacon
2) Roasted butter nut squash
3) Water Cress, pear and fennel salad
4) 1 pint of Tetley's smooth flow bitter

Perfect!!

Nuts!

Hazelnuts - from the tree outside our building

Autumn has arrived in the UK and one of the fascinating things for a Malaysian are the nuts that you find strewn on the ground here.

For us, nuts are things you find in packets or in your Cadbury's Fruit & Nut bar (tm), not laying on the pavement or in the grass.

Mr Kong went a bit nuts (puntastic isn't it? - Brits love their puns BTW) when he saw the amount and variety around Northampton and started a bit of a collection.

l-r: chestnut, hazelnut, walnut, acorn

But he wasn't the only one as we've often passed an old Chinese lady under the walnut tree collecting the walnuts in a plastic bag.

A little hard to see but that's a Chinese auntie in red whacking the poor walnut tree in the background - the Chinese auntie in the foreground is Mrs Kong

Embarassingly, she not only picks them from the ground but she's whacking the branches to dislodge them, all in plain view of the passing motorists. Typically Asian/Chinese eh?

Luckily Mr Kong is more socially responsible (only just) and picks them from the ground... we look forward to having a walnut feast!

Bowl of nuts anyone?

Clare and Paul's wedding!

On the 23rd of September 2006, Clare and Paul exchanged marriage vows at the St Werburgh's Church in Chester. St Werburgh's is a Catholic Church, but Paul coped quite well. We were at the church to see them get married, and to hear the jokes by the priest. Clare was in a beautiful white dress and Paul in his kilt.

It was a lovely church and lovely wedding. And now they are in in the Maldives enjoying their first weeks as Mr and Mrs Stevenson!!

Congratulations Clare and Paul!