.p.rae.lu.dium.

everything is so simple and warm here. the people, the houses, the kids and their smiles. 45 minutes drive from sungai buloh, we've reached kuala selangor, a small fishing village amidst sea and greenery. this small community consist mostly chinese with a minority of malays and indians. villagers here normally perform the same routine everyday. they set off to sea around 5am, bringing back netful of various types of fishes, prawns, and squids.

during weekdends, people from the city like us, would come and purchase seafoods as they are really fresh from the sea. and i guaranty you 99% the seafood here are definitely fresh that you cannot resist buying them. dry products were made from their catchings too, namely ikan masin, sotong kering, fishballs, prawn crackers and much more.









ikan masin anyone?
















aunties making 4000 fishballs EVERYDAY!













real or not?!









we had lunch at this i forgot what name restaurant situated by the sea. um... in terms of view, not very fascinating though. but who cares, what matters the most is that the food served is SO DAMN GOOD!





the very fresh sotong makes every bite worth 45 minutes of drive









super fresh promfet , oh.. just beyond words..







the shops mostly situated by the sea all have their own dock as platform to receive fishermen coming back from sea. most of the catchings go to the middle man before being sold at the market, whereas some are selling to the people coming into their shop personally. i would not say that the price they are selling for is very cheap but it is worth buying from them for the freshness *that is if you do not mind the journey lah*






waiting, waiting and still waiting... when is the boat coming?

AH! finally....

life seems so simple that money is no big issue for the people here. it is the togetherness and the strength of the community, the warmth of their smiles, the breeze from the sea, the tranquility of the surroundings and most important the simplicity you can never find in the concrete jungle that makes this place a perfect escapade from the hectic and complex lifestyle of the city.

i was flipping through the pages of Sin Chew newspaper dated 11th July 2007. then i came a cross the 副刊 section. i gasp in astonishment and was driven to frenzy. there it is! there it is!

my work was published in the paper! so happy was i that i didn't realise i was in the kopitiam. then i saw this man dressed up smartly sitting right in front of me looking at what he thought was happening to this maniac. i didn't care much and continue bragging about it to my father who is equally bewildered as the man.

though the RM50 cash prize winner wasn't me, i was still so glad that it was published. my photo was published!!!! YEA!!!

dated back around a month ago when i came across the same section of the paper and saw that they were vying for photos of specific theme. one of the category was 'old shops'. immediately i thought back of the photo i took at melaka about 2 years ago and decided to give it a try. i tried submmiting the photo online but had problems with sending it through yahoo and hotmail as both do not read chinese 'properly'. you know la.. then all the funny funny-you-know-me-i-dunno-you letters came popping out. being discouraged by the lousy mail system they had, i did not put high hopes on my sendings.

i was looking back at the same section every wednesday to look at the 'masterpieces' that were successfully published. some were really damn good, whereas some....

i don't know why but i was extremely happy seeing my photo there. might be because i thought the sending was a failure but it turned out that it was received and on top of that, PUBLISHED! at first i thought that they would reject my work for i took it in sepia. and it was in one of the conditions that the photo must not have undergone any touch up and must be in the original colour. who knows lah... it was still choosen.. hehe..

i hesitated between submitting this photo and the other initially, but i still resort to this one for i think it has more substance. dunno leh.. i'm not professional.

(i) my published photo

which one would you go for?

the winning photo










the judge's comment on my photo




and they even help changed my name. from pei ying to 'xuan' ying. cool name rite? haha.. must be the fault of those illegible letters. haha.. their system can't read my "pei". the judge, by the name of voonchong, who is a pro, commented that my photo was not really into the theme but has a thick nostalgic feel. *woiseh*
the bare white sky kind of spoilt the visual effect though. :(

sure lah not into the theme, i didn't take the photo for this publishing purpose leh. it was dated back to 2 years ago during a trip to malacca. just took it by coincidence. hehe.. *coincidence also so pro, memang lee pei ying!* wakaka!!!

it's a real good motivation after gaining recognition of my photography skills by a pro, which means that i'll now have stronger desire to buy an SLR that would cause a big hole in my pocket. SHIT! have to fork out a few more thousands liao.

the themes for this round are: transportation (trishaw), our country's unique chinese culture, Taiping Lake, and fruits or seeds floating on water (stagnant objects). those who are interested can submit your photos to cyberworld@sinchew.com.my. please also include your name, the venue of photo taken, model of camera, and elaboration of your photo (everything in chinese lah).

shui, i know you are interested one.

there's no doubt that the language most widely spoken and internationally understood around the world would be English,
there's also no doubt that the most difficult well-known language to learn would be French,
and also doubtless that the language that comprise most letters would be Chinese,
the most 笔画 of all would also be Chinese,
the most way to read a language would also be Chinese,
you can either read it from left to right, from right to left, and even up to down,

but..... i must say that no language beats Cantonese when it comes to sarcasm.

let me pick up some popular sarcastic phrase spoken most often in the Cantonese culture.
1. 拜神唔见鸡 (bai san ngm gin gai)
2. 等到蚊都睧 (dang dou man dou fan)
3. 问和尚借梳 (man wo xiong je soh)
4. 吓到鼻哥咙都没肉 (hak dou bei gor long dou mou yuk)
5. 和尚洗头水 (wo xiong sai tao sui)
etc..etc...

you'll have to really understand the meaning behind these pharses to get the humour.
at first when you heard these phrases, they don't really captivate you that much, but after thinking about the sarcasm they convey, it's rather amusing how people can come out with such literally-no-class-cum-funny phrase.

apparently the one that amuse me most is the 4th phrase. i never manage to capture what it meant though hearing it for years. then after questioning my mom (who is so terror in all sarcastic cantonese phrases), i began to comprehend the 过中奥妙.

and believe me, so funny was it that the minute i underdstand it, i cannot stop laughing.
for those who understand those phrases above, give it a second thought. and then you'll be laughing at how humourous and creative your ancestors were. *and also how limited their vocabs were*

i'm very proud of myself for being brought up in a cantonese speaking family for i could understand and speak well in this apparent sarcastic language that no other language could imitate nor can it be translated to the other to obtain the equal effect of sarcasm. seriously, no other language can outstand Cantonese in anyway when it comes to sarcasm. and only then i realised that i've used the word sarcasm to describe Cantonese over and over again. but truth is...

IT REALLY IS VERY SARCASTIC! HAHA!!

hence, i sometimes do sympathise those who do not understand the language for they'll miss out all these burlesque. and if you ever realise that jokes spoken in Cantonese is in fact, the funniest when compared to other languages of similar meaning.

the 奥妙-ness behind Cantonese is something that resembles the little humour we need in our lives. a little joke once in a while is indeed what we need to ease the stress we faced everyday.

learn the language. trust me, it really is very SARCASTIC.