Do have to admit that many times during a given day I find myself having a great deal of difficulty accenting the positive, eliminating the negative, and not messing with Mr. In Between. Sometimes the task of eliminating the negative is overwhelming, A word came to mind when considering a negative influence in my life. The word is subterfuge: deceit used in order to achieve one’s goal. The origins of the word is instructive: late 16th century: from French, or from late Latin subterfugium, from Latin subterfugere ‘escape secretly’, from subter- ‘beneath’ + fugere ‘flee.
Its antonyms is honesty and openness. One synonym:using every trick in the book. I find myself, because of my honesty and openness, constantly and continually discovering that a certain individual has used every trick in the book against me and the truth. But thinking about this, perseverating about it is getting me nowhere. I do love the verb perseverate. A word often used in my spoken English because people do not know what it means, and it makes me look smart. I cannot always be nice, it would be boring.
One does eliminate the negative by accenting the positive and by laughing. It is now the afternoon of September 3, 2025. I am earnestly looking forward to Asr prayer as I promised myself an ice cream sandwich from the newly opened shop. I photo of me at the shop filmed by Shamir. I think it is on YouTube, but for sure it is on Instagram,
This a ridiculous laughing exchange between Shamir and myself.
He: Blog posted, Chicken roasted. Glass frosted. Alexis wanted.
Me: You idiot!! The phone pinged over five times. Made me jump every time.
I knew it had to be you. You shoo. You do what you do. On you I foo, And give you goo. For your hair do. But you say boo. Scaring me ooh. I just won rhymes of the Day…and beyond.
He: Yes you did
It went on in its ridiculousness and joy.
Me: Have a happy napper scrapper.
He: Tanker Danker
Me: Danker is not a word dear. You are fanking it
He: Ooo Danke.
Me: Bitte schon
Then he sent me a totally ugly GIF
Me: Is that me or you? Must be you it has brown eyes.
He: Me
Me: no not you. You are a handsome guy
Now I do admit that this is a lot of silly nonsense, using this definition of nonsense: denoting verse or other writing intended to be amusing by virtue of its absurd or whimsical language. Amusing synonyms: hogwash, baloney, gobbledygook, hot air, eyewash, poppycock, phooey, hooey, malarkey, twaddle, dribble; flapdoodle, blathers, crapola.
Instead of dwelling on the negative Shamir and I are accenting the positive. Hahaha
I wondered, in a previous blog, whether or not there would be any benefit from the hardship of having my WhatsApp going out of commission on a temporary basis. The answer is yes. The photograph accompanying my WhatsApp is far more attractive. It used to be me in a Lexis Suites baseball cap. Now a just my white hair, beautifully coiffed. The other benefit is that I can now eliminate many whom I used to text but they were non-responsive. The blocked people totally dead and gone. I have disappeared from their firmament. Even better news. Shamir will do a backup so that nothing its lost. PHEW
September 4, 2025.
It is DEFINITELY been a day of highs and lows. Not been a great day in many ways. Here is an example of negativity. I awoke to a power outage, a common occurrence in Penang due to the total lack of infrastructure. What made it worse was my stupidity. I was fussing and fuming, no electricity for four hours. I was fit to be tied, an expression from somewhere. Looked it up, of course, it is an idiom: Very angry, as if one needs to be physically restrained.
As usual, Shamir and I wee laughing and GIFing away.
Me: I am a genius, I used the hot water from the tap to dissolve the instant coffee.
He: Oh wow, I did not know you could do that. Hahahah
Me: You are teasing me!!
He: Hahaha Gotcha
Me: It took me 2 hours to figure it out. Maybe 3. You win Gotcha of the morning. But I am in a weakened condition. So NO fair. Picking on an old lady with no electricity. Shame on you.
Then he sent me the best GIF ever. Somebody peeking out of a box of shame/
Me: That is you alright Got brown eyes and everything.
He: hahahahah
Me: I am definitely laughing.
THEN he sent another GIF of instant coffee being poured.
He: In case you forgot.
Me: You are such a great friend. So thoughtful! Hahaha Never thought loosing electricity could be so much fun.
About then, almost 11 o’clock in the morning the weirdest thing happened. There was a knock on the door. I hurriedly said wait a minute because I had to get dressed to answer the door.
It was a man coming to clean the room
Me: But there is no electricity.
He deftly turned on the light switch.
Told Shamir.
Me: Don’t tell anyone how stupid I am. Nixon said it has been on since 8 I am laughing at myself which is a sign of a great sense of humor when you can laugh at yourself.
Having electricity which enabled breakfast, wifi and other earthly delights became a benefit arising from the hardship of having none of the above. Then, during breakfast, another benefit. A telephone call from Federal Express announcing the arrival of a long anticipated and sought after package. My ‘fingerprint clearance’ from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Yes, indeedie do. One must obtain proof to the Malaysian government that you are not a criminal in order to be accorded status in the Malaysia My Second Home program. I laughingly say Malaysia has enough home grown criminals, they do not need to import them. This whole process has been endless and would have been utterly and entirely possible without Shamir. It has taken over three months, beginning with the invalidation of the first set of fingerprints due to the cleaning of my fingers with baby wipes. Hallelujah now I can begin with the submission of documents, medical reports, etc etc etc.
Met with my AI Manager for over an hour. I am an inveterate list maker – all thirteen items were checked off. Then great news from Content Manager Nesh. He is coming to Penang, a formal meeting of the Dream Team is scheduled for Tuesday, to be held in a meeting room at Lyf, where I now reside.
Now more bad news from September 4, 2025. I repaired to my room to write. Suddenly a cacophony (a harsh discordant mixture of sounds) came from an adjoining room – drilling, construction, you name it. Down to the lobby went I demanding silence. Went to Mojo to comfort myself with truffle fries, feeling happy. Returned to the room, to find the cacophony had resumed. Angrily, back to the lobby, disturbed General Manager Nixon’s meeting but was awarded with food and a promise that the drilling would be postponed for a week.
This is being written on the morning of Friday, September 5, 2025. Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday falls on Friday 5 September.
Wikipedia informs:
“The Mawlid (Arabic: مولد) is an annual festival commemorating the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad on the traditional date of 12 Rabi’ al-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar.
The history of this celebration goes back to the early days of Islam when some of the Tabiun began to hold sessions in which poetry and songs composed to honour Muhammad were recited and sung to crowds in the major cities.[1] The celebration was continued by the Abbasids and the Fatimids. The Muslim general Gökböri, a deputy of Saladin (r. 1174–1193), is believed to have been the first to publicly celebrate Mawlid, which he did in an impressive ceremony at the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. The Ottomans under Murad III (r. 1574–1595) declared it an official holiday.”
At one time in my very recent past I had elaborate plans for the celebration of the Prophet’s Birthday. I was going to in order to celebrate with a huge, extremely affluent, African family, then traveling to Morocco. Fortunately, Allah (SWT) intervened. Instead Penang, a relatively humble hotel full of life, unlike the celebrated five star Oberio (where I would have stayed). Instead a meeting with GM Nixon at 10;30. Then at 3pm my part-time Muslim driver Din shall arrive at Lyf and drive me to Paradise. No plans to return to my stay apartment at the moment but need an infusion of attire including bathing suits for my water exercises here at Lyf. Life goes on.
Photos of Mojo food – the truffle fries, my winning breakfast and mushroom toasties. Then of course, a GIF or two.
