Monthly Bucket List May 2015

I received the keys to my apartment last month right after the inauguration of Kedai Jalanan, and have been (predictably) spending most of the last 3-4 weeks cleaning up my apartment and moving in. I could not have done it without the assistance and companionship of some very amazing friends -- Serina, Shalan, Shekin, Atan, Karen, Nicole and Joe, who all came over on different days to help me with different tasks. It has been a tremendous journey. 

1. Make a new friend 

The SPCA has hired several new Animal Welfare Officers, and I got to be friends with two of them, Rohan and Kiumars. It's interesting that after being an SPCA volunteer for 19 years, I am now seen as a source of institutional memory. Still, I am always ready to help, and it is good to get to know the youngsters and learn what motivates them to work for non-profit organisations. 

On 3.5.2015, my friends who work at the SPCA sent out an urgent appeal for volunteers to re-turf the yard of the new shelter premises. It has been paved with water-permeable paving and we need to plant grass in the bald spaces in between the paving tiles, and so I sent out a Facebook appeal for help. Shantini was one of my friends who responded, and she brought along her young couchsurfer, Ludovic, who spent many hours helping us in the sweltering heat on 4.5.2015. 

(Photos courtesy of Ludovic. He is the one in the brown polo shirt and red cap, and I am the one in the lime green shirt and camo cap)

2. Help a stranger. 

When my friend Lin Idrus invited me to help her with Kedai Jalanan, I was only too glad to. Although she and her students did most of the work, I did help to publicise the project, collect and sort through donations, transport donated items and draft the basic Curriculum Vitae form we would be using to help our homeless friends find better employment. 

One of my goals at the start of the year was to get all the Mayang Oasis food court cats spayed and neutered before I move to my new home. This was completed in May when I got the (for now) final two food court cats, Fenton (ginger) and Arwen (white), neutered and spayed respectively. They have since been ear-tipped and released and they are doing very well in the food court. They are regularly fed and treated kindly by the food court workers and customers, and I just need to drop by once or twice a week to check on my TNR cats. 

One of the first things I did when I inspected my new apartment was to make a list of things I did not want but were in good condition and to call up a charity organisation to collect the unwanted items. Persatuan Amal Seri Sinar agreed to pick up my donations, and apart from the furniture, appliances and other items I cleaned up for their removal and redistribution, I donated to their scholarship and education sponsorship fund and gave money to their truck driver and driver's assistant who came to pick up the preloved things. The driver seemed pretty blase about the tip, but his Burmese assistant was positively beaming. 

3. Eat something/at someplace new to me. 

 The Kedai Jalanan volunteers and I had tea at the Malaya Hainan Cafe after 'closing shop' for the day, as I had detailed in my last blogpost. 

I had raved about Leena's pear compote which she brought to Serina's picnic gathering at the Lake Gardens, and learned that it was basically a combination of peeled and cut Chinese pears, and red preserved fruit.

We celebrated Mother's Day by going out to dinner at Hometown Steamboat, a popular steamboat place near the parental home, which we have not previously been to. We even had a chocolate fondue for dessert. 

4. Go someplace I've never been. 

My best friend Nicole has the privilege of being born on May 1, a national public holiday, so we always get to do fun stuff until late on the eve of her birthday. This year, we had a party at Neway Karaoke in Puchong, which I have previously never been to. It was quite possibly the most Chinese thing I have ever done ;) 

We had a great time, ate way too much food and sang ourselves hoarse. 

Although I live and work mostly in KL, I don't recall ever having really spent time in the Lake Gardens as an adult. I passed through once for the Terry Fox Run but have not seen other parts of the park. And of course, like many lawyers, I can recall only drinking at the Lake Club but not walking through the park. Serina's picnic potluck gathering was a good way for most of us city dwellers to appreciate the beauty of the KL Lake Gardens. 

As previously described, I patronised Malaya Hainan Cafe in Jalan Panggung for the first time in May after the inauguration of Kedai Jalanan. 

Another place I went to that I have never previously been was, surprisingly, the dental surgery near my previous rented home. I had a horrendous toothache on a Thursday night and had to take the day off on Friday and have a broken molar remove and a frightfully expensive root canal done at Woo Dental Clinic in Mayang Plaza. The waiting room looked like someone's home. I've never been in such a home-y clinic in my life. Service was efficient and professional, though. 

5. Learn something new. 

In May, I learned: 

(i) How to plan, prepare for and set up a pop-up street store. 

(ii) How to perform the Valsalva Manoeuvre to get water out of my ear (be careful not to blow too hard or you could damage your eardrums); 

(iii) How to apply the theoretical knowledge I have on house painting and home repairs. 

6. Declutter and cull 100 items. 

In May, I removed over 40 items for recycling, approximately 70 items for donation to Kedai Jalanan, and around 10 books for The Revolving Library. 

By July 2015, I plan to change this goal to only 50 items, as I now live in my own apartment and need very few things and keep and accumulate even fewer. 

7. Give up something for a month. 

I gave up snacking in May because of my carbon guilt over consuming more food than is necessary, when I may not be necessarily hungry. So now I restrict myself to 3 square meals a day and only drinking water in between. This had the desirable side effect of bringing my weight down 3 whopping kilograms in just one month. This is definitely a habit I want to keep up -- for environmental, financial and health reasons. No doubt I may occasionally suffer lapses but good habits aren't 'all or nothing'. You fall off the wagon, you pick yourself up and you try again.

Our New Project: Kedai Jalanan Pop-Up Street Store

Kedai Jalanan is a new community project initiated by my good friend Lin Idrus, comprising a pop-up store offering pre-loved clothing and household items FOC to the homeless and urban poor, and a CV-writing service to help our clients seek better employment. It is currently being coordinated by the student volunteers of Universiti Malaya's Gender Studies Unit, led by Lin, and assisted by Lin's friends, of whom I am one, who have experience and interest in community service projects, particularly those involving the homeless and marginalised.

We collected and sorted through preloved clothes, bags, kitchenware (particularly food and beverage storage containers), mats, towels and blankets, as well as unused hotel and sample-sized toiletries. This is a good way of encouraging donors to declutter and share their resources, and of bringing the said resources directly to the beneficiaries, instead of through intermediary organisations. Most of the clothes donated to recycling centres end up in clothing recycling factories that ship the wearable clothes to impoverished countries for sale in thrift stores, and convert the rest into industrial rags, so very few of the donated clothes ever reach local beneficiaries. 

A pop-up store would also afford our street clients more dignity. The clothes are hung up and displayed neatly just like in a real store, and not left in piles and garbage bags on the ground for our street clients to rummage through. I loved this idea from the start and discussed it earnestly with Lin on Facebook prior to the launch of the project.

Lin describes us as her project advisors but really, we're pretty useless ;) She did all the hard work herself and just came to us for feedback ;) 

Students attending to our street clients who queued up for clothes and other practical items.

Lots of student volunteers helping out. They even collected lots of reusable shopping bags to use so that we didn't have to give out plastic bags.

Cutest chalkboard sign ever.

Student volunteers helping out with the CV writing service. I'm useless ;) I just prepared and printed the forms and gave the students a very dubious impromptu briefing and left the rest up to them ;)

We asked donors for unused packs of personal hygiene items that one gets from hotels and airlines to give away at our pop-up store.

Our street friends waiting for dinner to be served by Dapur Jalanan outside Kuala Lumpur's first post office in Jalan Panggung. When I attended law school in this area, this beautiful heritage building was in disrepair. I am glad they've fixed it up and converted it into a quaint little cafe now.

Student volunteers chatting with one of our street clients :)

I thought I was OCD but Serina and Shekin take the prize for sorting and rearranging the clothes hangers by colour and type.

Debriefing session by our caring and inimitable Dr. Rusaslina Idrus ;)

Group photo of Lin and her student volunteers. Good job, guys!

The five of us -- Lin, Serina, Shekin, Aravind and me -- decided to adjourn to a nearby cafe for tea after packing and tidying up. We chose the Malaya-Hainan Cafe at the corner of Jalan Panggung for several reasons. It used to be in utter ruins, and I wanted to see what it looks like after restoration. Also, it used to be the first post office in Kuala Lumpur, and we hoped the cafe had preserved at least some of the original architectural and design features. And most importantly, Lin informed us that the people who manage/operate the cafe are very supportive of Dapur Jalanan and allow the soup kitchen to connect to their water supply for their food distribution and washing up operations. 

It was the right choice. The cafe has an authentic and tranquil charm about it.

Artwork and framed articles of historical interest adorn the walls.

They have retained/restored/replicated some of the original office doors, partitions, counters and signage of the old Post Office.

The cafe serves authentic local food, and I had this yummy ice kacang, which seemed to be 80% fixings (beans, chendol, syrup etc) and 20% shaved ice. Worth every cent paid. 

Right before leaving to pick up the keys to my apartment, I snapped a photo of this shophouse in Jalan Panggung because I love the classic Art Deco facade and roof. Isn't this simply gorgeous? I wonder how many people walk past this building daily without realising its architectural, cultural and historical significance.

Just an anecdote to end this blogpost with:

One of the clients at our CV-writing booth is a young man who declared with much earnestness and sincerity that he is trying to save up enough capital to set up a small business that will employ only the homeless.

"Only when you've been down there will you realise how hard life on the streets is, how powerless you can feel sometimes, and how often you face rejection from those who have never fallen on hard times like we have."

And I am reminded once again how easy it is for the wealthy to make grand pledges and donations to charity, but how much purer and more magnanimous these acts and pledges are when they come from those who have so little themselves. Thank you, brother, for reminding me once again why I do what I do every weekend.

Picnic Brunch at the Park

One of my best friends, Serina, will be starting a new job abroad soon, so the whole gang got together for a picnic brunch at the Lake Gardens last Saturday. This isn't goodbye. There are no goodbyes between friends, because no distance can keep our hearts apart.

Great food, great company and great conversation.

Everyone turned up to spend time with Serina before her departure.

Leena​ made this yummers pear compote.

And Mohala baked this lovely moist brownie sheet cake.

I made my usual fiesta taco salad.

What a glorious morning! We really should do this more often.

Baby in arms = Happy Ee Lynn.

Azham and I keeping Baby Lulu entertained.

So many old friends from our conservation and volunteering circles.

How many PhDs can you fit on a picnic mat?

The boys play frisbee after the big meal.

I took my godson Aadhavan to the playground so that his parents could eat in peace. I don't know who had more fun -- him or me.

What a lovely gathering. We really shouldn't wait until one of us is leaving before we organise more get-togethers.