Basah and the Bird Flu

There seems to be a B motif running through my recent posts.

Basah = wet. As in the wet, wet, wet (not the singing group from the 80's) rainy season that is upon us here in KL. And in the case of the orang putih motorcycle driver, the wet season is LITERALLY, upon me lately. Two nights ago, I dashed out to go the to gym, with just enough time to get in a workout before closing time. As I was leaving, the guard sort of raised his eyebrows at me, which I generally interpret to mean: you're going out in this? OR isn't it a little late to be out on your bike? *sighs* you just can't escape the paternal instinct in this part of the world, boyfriend or not. Anyway, as soon as I pulled out I realized it was indeed a bit basah... raining, but not pouring. SO I went on, it is only a 15 minute drive afterall. About 5 minutes down the road, BAM, the sky opened up, and I was drenched. For some reason, rather than feeling annoyed, I kind of enjoyed it. But, of course, it got old as it got more and more difficult to control the speed of the bike, because I was unable to get a solid grip on the accelerator, and it got difficult to see, since I have no windshield wipers on the visor of my helmet. So, begrugingly, I pulled over under the next bridge, in the heart of Chinatown, and sat with the other bikers, waiting for the downpour to pass. As I stood there, I was looking up at the rainpouring down in front of the street lights. It reminded me of a dim winter evening, watching the snow falling in a city somewhere. In my little nostalgic dream I enjoyed this memory... although I know full well that the reality is me standing in a puddle of slush, usually in heels, while trying to get the ice and snow off the windshield of the car, generally only looking up to curse the *&#$% snow! :-) But still, what an oddity to have this memory in the middle of Chinatown, in the middle of Malaysia, 3 degrees north of the equator, where I will NEVER even have to think about scraping snow and ice off of my windows! Afterall that, I ran out of time to go to the gym, so settled for a jog around the parking garage when I returned to my apartment building (Mr.Raised Eyebrows now laughing and shaking his head).

And here is a strange little factoid. Security guards in Malaysia, are overwhelmingly former Gurkhas. No, that is NOT a type of pickle. These guys are ex-Nepalese military, who are coming to more stable, more economically viable Malaysia to earn a better living. I found this out by having a couple of conversations with the guys in my building. It would start with me trying to use my Bahasa, only to get the blank stare back. After which they told me, I'm from Nepal, I don't speak Malay. SO no chance of practicing my language skills on them. But overwhelmingly nice and respectful guys in all of the encounters I've had with them.

And then there is the bird flu. Suddenly it's the next big emergency. Since it showed up a few years ago, 60 or less people have actually died from it. Yes, I understand what could happen, but there could also be another tsunami tomorrow. Yes, I think we should be prepared if something like this DOES happen, so public awareness is good. However, scaring the bejeezus out of the public for no good reason is just plain silly. TO borrow a little factoid from a friend, consider this:

In the USA in 2002, 1433 people were killed in accidents involving bed, bedding, and nightwear...

So, let the WHO worry about the bird flu... On the other hand, someone shoudl definitely get on the horn with CNN and let them know about how dangerous our bed dressing have become!