Star of Bethlehem and Mdm Fate

Okay, so I was sick. So sick I wasn't even able to get out of bed on Tuesday. Its the flu again and when it hits me, I get muscle cramps. Of the chronic kind. My doctor tells me its just my body telling me I'm healthy. I told him he needs to opt for a carrier change.

Worse, I get brain dead and bereft of all ideas when this happens to me. Hence the hiatus. I should have deserved at least two days off but one of my bosses from Malaya had to schedule a surprise visit to conduct an audit in my department this week. As I had expected, it didn't go too well but fuck all that. He tells me that the company is monitoring me very closely. The normal reaction that would have been expected of me was to sweat and piss in my pants. But if the company is monitoring me...closely...then that means....I'm famous now. Oh, well. Fuck that.

Heck, the whole week didn't go so well except for that trip I made to Sibu last weekend (I was still nursing a slight temperature after my trip to KK) where I was invited to a longhouse when something caught my discerning eye. A 1965 National vinyl turntable record player!!! Tucked in the corner of the bilik, it was covered with cobwebs and dusty. I unleashed my negotiation skills and charm and got into Denzel Washington mode in 'The Siege'. I enquired if it still worked and the owner said he didn't know and immediately asked if I wanted it. He wasn't selling and laughed insisting he was a man of good standing in the community and wouldn't dream of selling something broken to a nice person like me. I nodded and agreed and told him likewise, I was a person of good repute and insisted for a price. He relented for a while but later accepted a hundred. For good measure, he even threw in a few records. He said I needed it more then he did which was so very true. Some were broken at the edges. All classics and before my time - The Stylers, Titik Sandora, Agnes Chan. Once back home, I got it cleaned and polished, sourced the all important needle from an antique shop, hooked it up and it sprang to fucking life!!!

I also got myself a classic lapung gis or if you may, a Butterfly 828R pressure lantern from Lachau. When it comes to a classic, its got to be a Butterfly and nothing else. I remember as a little boy watching my grand dad lighting the thing back then. It was the highlight of my every evening. I'm still polishing my skills at doing it right.

This morning when I was just about to ride good 'ol Becca, I noticed a white star shaped flower growing from a crevice in one corner of the concrete fence. It was beautiful and I've never seen anything like it before so I took a photo of it. I then e-mailed it to a good botanist friend of mine who called to tell me what I have was a Star of Bethlehem or sometimes known as Madam Fate. And that she said there was no intrinsic beauty more profoundly evident compared to it. And ironically this beauty can only be found in cracks and crevices where nothing of beauty can survive. It survives in the most terrible conditions and as such has made the plant a symbol of strength and faith. Or so I was told today. I tell you, the petals are soooo white, its whiter than snow. Its just beautiful. One warning though, the sap is poisonous and if it gets into your eyes, you'll go blind.

That, I think is so cool.