TIGER IS BACK!

“Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright…”*


  So let’s get 2010 really started.


Disclaimer: No! This has nothing to do with Tiger Wood.


No offense to the bull, but I can’t wait for the tiger. For a start, I just read that it would be a particularly good year for me in the love department and that my worth will be recognized !?

Then too, I simply love the splendid, powerful, exciting noble beast. Not surprisingly, Malaysia proudly bears the great Asian feline as its royal emblem, and is now counting on the WWF to save the Malayan Tiger from total extinction, and all the heraldic artists from being sent back to their drawing board. Yet, and since my joss is good, I’ll gladly share it with the few hundred big cats left to roam the rainforest freely; after all isn’t it a wonderful sign that the tiger should enter the new year with a loud roar on Valentine’s day, bringing fire and passion of the loving kind?

Before life would come to a stop on CNY (Chinese New Year) eve in Kuching, Hubby had us kick out the old bull and ready for the dashing tiger by eating my favorite Chinese cold dish, the one delicacy that has me longing, drooling even for CNY many weeks ahead: Yee Sang. It is served on a large dish with the ingredients each separated into small stacks, dressed with sauces and condiments, salmon cuts in the middle. Then everyone around the table gets busy at once, tossing the salad, mixing bright green and shocking pink crispy vermicelli cracker bits with everything else, wishing for prosperity and, as Hubby insists, “for good health, for without good health, there will be no prosperity”.

Yee Sang

Yee Sang this year has been yummy and fun; with it good wishes have started filling the air. Helen will be serving dinner on New Year’s Eve; who knows, she might even serve Yee Sang? At midnight we’ll burn a few illegal fire crackers and fireworks to kick in probably a whole week of eating and playing mahjong with friends, with only short breaks for naps.

Yeap, I’ve tossed Yee Sang, “Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright…” Now we’ve got the party started. 

GONG XI FAT CHAI!

Thanks to food expert Jacqueline Lum.

*The Tyger”, William Blake

DAF: A GREAT SCULPTOR IN BORNEO

If you are familiar with this blog, you will certainly know Daf as “a sculptor in Borneo” (also check out my last post on Elvis) and you may have already visited his witty blog at http://deedaf.blogspot.com . Just like me Derek Anthony Fitz Simons alias Daf is an expat who settled in Kuching for the love of his life partner Jennifer (best choice ever). Love makes you do things like that, he left Ireland and I France and we both got a great big chance to evolve.

Daf and Jennifer

When Daf came to Kuching, he left behind a well earned fame carved in granite. (For more info on DAF, check out http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/7/16/southneast/21793920 and

http://www.irishartsreview.com/html/vol21_no2/design21_02/design21_02_frame.htm)

With no good carving stone available around Kuching, one may easily guess that Daf found himself at the edge, somehow the right place to be when you need to reinvent yourself. Like the Fool in a tarot deck, a new Daf came out of the cave, stepping out to a new life, fresh and optimistic, fully confident. He had found his new media in the famous Sarawak clay, there was no stopping him to express his talent and create, more daring, more personal and always larger. We are so lucky to be able to see his extraordinary work until the 31st of March 2010, during the “Crossing Borders” art exhibition at Galleria, Wesberly House, Lot 2812, Block 195, Rubber Road West, Kuching Tel: 60 082 246197 .

The exhibition features not only Daf’s work but also paintings by local artist Melton.

Daf and Melton

Daf says of himself: '' I am a self taught Artist.... groping around the subconscious mind in the hope it all comes together...”  Daf http://www.deedaf.blogspot.com/

More pictures:

One of Milton's Paintings