When I exclaim holy mackerel, Excuse me, I am not picking a quarrel, Holy mackerel is not a culinary dish, Mackerel is one of the smellier fish, A fish that spoils quickly, And nothing about it is holy.   When I shout holy smoke, I am not talking about the haze that chokes, Holy smoke may refer to the puffs ...

The Grand Old Lady lives alone, High on Canada Hill, You may think she must be forlorn, But that is not how she feels.   Towering thirty metres above ground, Famous landmark she has become, Malaysia’s first cable-tool oil well is her crown, Also known as Miri Well Number One to some.   At over one hundred and five years ...

Unique and mesmeric, Tasty and aromatic, Sublime and creamy, Tantalising and spicy.   That’s Sarawak laksa, Crème de la crème of all laksa, A reddish-brown concoction of hot soupy goodness, So tempting with its tint of sourness.   A favourite of Anthony Bourdain, Breakfast of the Gods he ordained, Took to it like a rhino to a mud bath, Inducing ...

Clouds grey and white, What a beautiful sight, Clouds soft and fluffy, Don’t they look puffy, Clouds lofty and wispy, Water droplets so misty, Clouds billows upon billows, Comfortably soft as pillows. Like sails in the sky, As the wind blows them by, Floating in the atmosphere, So far and yet so near, The sky is nature’s canvas, Capturing clouds ...

Apples in the Garden of Eden, Too tempting for Eve even, When the serpent tempted Eve, Mankind came to grief, The apple that Adam ate, Forever sealed mankind’s fate. Newton sat under an apple tree, An apple from the tree dropped free, On Newton’s head it hit, Discovery of gravity arose from it, Millions had seen apples fall, But none ...

Imagine a bowl of kolomee, Maybe you prefer kampua mee, Where the noodle represents proper English, Add in seasonings of Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Tamil to get Manglish.   Manglish is a Malaysian English-based creole, Linguists have studied it with much allure, It’s like an official declaration of Malaysian identity, The way we express ourselves with spontaneity.   The ...

Stairway to heaven, Led Zeppelin’s iconic anthem, Hailed as one of the greatest rock songs of all time, Showcasing the band at its prime, An epic at eight minutes long, The pinnacle of a hard rocking song, Crystallising the band’s essence, It is the One, the quintessence. Beginning in a slow acoustic fingerpicking tempo, In an arrangement never heard before, ...

Every morning when I awake, A prayer is all it takes, Miracles are born from faith, That’s an undeniable fact. Miracles grow out of difficulties, Life is full of adversities, About which I should not complain, And treat not with disdain. Miracles happen every day, Simple things like the sun’s ray, Birds flying in the air, Butterfies mating in pair. ...

  Shadow always owes its birth to light, Without light shadow is snubbed outright, That’s why we should never fear shadows, Banish your fears out of the windows. Light gives of itself very freely, Light can be stark and can dance wildly, Whenever light shines shadows follow, Our fears of shadows become hollow. We have within us our special light, ...

Streaming brightly through gaps in the clouds, The shafts of light leave me without doubts, Beautiful sun rays showing their might, Before the sun retires for the night.   Like furrows of a freshly ploughed field, These God rays are a wonder to view, Sunbeams shining from the dusky sky, Like ladder to heaven up so high.   Enamoured by ...