I'm Not Asleep, My Eyes Are Just Closed

Music Hey Girl - Delays Long Time Coming - Delays 1. Faded Seaside Glamour (album); Lost In A Melody (single) – DELAYS . It follows that after me going crazy for Delays’ sophomore effort, You See Colours , I’d be backtracking to their debut album to get more of the good stuff. If I had discovered Delays by their first album, I’d have gone, “Jeebus! What the hell happened to Delays?” when I put on their second album because the two albums sound like two completely different animals. Where You See Colours did nearly what it said on the tin with its synths, thumping bass and beats you can wig out to, Faded Seaside Glamour is a dreamy, airy, bittersweet collection that you’d put on while you lie on the grass and look at the sheep-shaped clouds in the sky. There are jangly guitars, soaring vocals and melodies so blissed out and mellow you could take them home to meet the parents. Nearer Than Heaven, Hey Girl and Long Time Coming are some tracks that jump out but on repeated listens I ...

My friends are surprised when I say that I hate going to the doctor’s. “But you’re a doctor yourself!” they exclaim. Yes, your point being? Face it, the only reason why you would go see a doctor or some other health care professional is because you are in some form of misery; whether it’s that stinging sensation every time you pee or that odd-looking mold growing on your toe – whatever it is, it’s not pleasant. Of course, if you are in the UK, some old folks treat a visit to their general practitioner as a nice day out. You can’t blame them really, because it’s just about their only social contact in the world but in Malaysia, decent health care is you can afford to pay. So unless you’re rolling around in agony, forget about the health check ups, pap smears, breast exams and so forth. Let’s just wait till you drop dead of a heart attack aged 42. I’m one to talk of course. In the UK, it is mandatory to be registered with a GP whose practice covers the area you live in but I moved all ov...

Just as I was getting into the edge-of-the-seat splendour that is Battlestar Galactica, the writers and producers do something that got me mightily pissed off. I have just watched them kill off Billy, the president’s aide. Billy, Billy, Billy. Poor under-utilised, puppy-faced Billy. They could have made something of his character instead of always sticking him in the background with like, two lines per episode (if he was in the episode even). They could have cut down on the macho posturing of the steroid-pumped pilots and given Billy some scenes for God’s sake! Oh yeah, sure they gave him some scenes and some lines but right in the episode where he frakking dies. Why do I like Billy? I guess because I always have had a soft spot for the awkward, tragic-looking boy in the corner, the quiet one with a glint of steel in his eye who will let you showboat all you want but if you shove him he will shove right back. Billy was all those things; a young man surrounded by the military and the hi...

Today, I let rip at a stranger and my mother went, “YEAH!! You tell him, Kere!” I was third in line at the traffic lights at that mass of intersections in front of Bank Negara, pointed towards Lake Gardens. A white, four wheel drive with a JKR emblem was at the front and when the lights turned green, the fricking idiot decided to do a U-turn there. Stupid bugger did not comprehend that you cannot do a U-turn there, mainly because TRAFFIC IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION WAS ALSO GREEN AND THERE WAS NO WAY HE COULD MOVE UNTIL THE LIGHTS TURNED RED AGAIN. Meanwhile, since everyone else behind him was stacked bumper to bumper, no one could manoeuvre sideways at all. I started honking at him, not little tiny honks but really long, ear-splitting horns with my hand jammed firmly against the steering wheel. Much to my delight, every one else started honking him as well. And did that stubborn bugger give up on his ill-conceived turn and moved straight ahead like everyone else before him? Like fuck ...

Battlestar Tic-tac-tickah? Battlestar Galactica. It's the name of a ship. And a TV show . What does it do? Oh, it does battles. It's a pretty big ship . Does it do anything else? Oh yes. It can jump faster than light. But no one ever shouts, "Warp speed!" It would be so much cooler than plain old FTL jump. Start at the beginning please. In a galaxy far, far away... Wrong universe, mate. Oh, but it is in a far away galaxy... Grrrr... Okay. In the far off future, mankind has dispersed among the stars. They settled in twelve different colonies and all roads to Earth have long been forgotten. That's better. Go on. In these distant lands, Man has built machines called Cylons... To do their dirty work, no doubt. Yes, but don't interrupt. Sorry. The Cylons soon evolved and seeked to overthrow its master. Unbenknowst to them, the Cylons have built machines that look just like humans . Yowza. Indeed. They made many copies of each human model and infiltrated them into t...

There's an article in today's Star (Mum upset at award for death of son) regarding the death of Nui Jia Yuan in 2003, which concerns me because the level of aftercare provided by this particular doctor seemed wanting. I'd like to first make clear that my opinion is based solely on this particular article. I have no access to the medical or autopsy records or the original press report regarding this boy's death in 2003. If today's article was reported accurately, then there are a few things concerning this case that I felt the need to comment on. According to the facts of the case, Jia Yuan, who was four then, was taken to Klinik dan Surgeri Kuben on March 26, 2003 after the boy complained of pain during urination. Dr Kubendran examined the boy and asked Nui and Lim to bring him in again on March 28 for circumcision. The boy and his parents arrived at the clinic at about 1pm and Dr Kubendran administered injections to the boy’s arm, buttocks and private parts before ...

Nearer Than Heaven [acoustic] by Delays from the album Faded Seaside Glamour I said I didn’t miss England at all, but I think I do a little bit. I miss its sense of humour, the newspapers, the BBC and most of all, I miss the summers. What?!? But it’s ‘summer’ all year round in Malaysia. Yes, but it’s not the same summer. Visitors always make jokes about the miserableness of the weather, but I usually shrug and say that it’s not bad really. It was more of a survival mechanism perhaps, because if you live there 11 out of the 12 months of the year, moaning about the weather isn’t going to help you get through it. It was a case of putting your head down and getting on with it. Summer was always good, and the transition to summer was better. It was the way it slowly crept up on you until it tapped you on the shoulder like an unexpected friend; the days got longer, the temperature turned warmer, even the air smelled different. If the wind was right, I could smell the salt blowing in from the...