Prison (Holiday) Break!

Normally when someone mentions to you 'prison' or 'jail' what comes to your mind? A dark, dirty and undesirable place that no one in their right mind will ever want to go is what came to mine (we have stories from the oh so feh-mes Kamunting). Rightly so! These places serve as a deterrent.

Apparently some folks in Norway thought otherwise. So they built Halden - the World's most humane high-security prison.

Unbelievably, they've spent around $1 million on paintings, photography and light installations! Rooms are fitted with en-suite bathrooms with ceramic tiles, mini-fridges and flat screen tvs. And according to them, 'Officials say sleeker televisions afford inmates less space to hide drugs and other contraband.' Rrrrright...

This looks better than some of the hotels I've stayed in

The windows have no bars - though anyone trying to escape is probably stupid

This is the scariest picture so far - a dental chair! *gasps* The sound of drills...

And if you do get bored of your stay, you can choose to do some workout, rock-climbing or take up a course (where they'll refer to you as a student and never an inmate). They go to great lengths to do this because they reason that criminals will have to rejoin society sooner or later and they try to make this phase of transition as similar as they can to the real world experience. While this is a very noble idea with lots of merits, it will never work in Malaysia. There will be a sudden surge in crimes as people jostle for places in these so called prisons (yours truly included).

So Not Haute!

I have this black singlet that I have been wearing as a pajamas for about a year or so.

Recently within the space of 2 weeks, I've spotted 5 different individuals that wear the exact same garment (with the Red Edwin words at the back) - 2 at the gym and 3 at my work place. I have such a generic taste in clothing? Or maybe Edwin was having a huge sale. Yea that must be it.

There is a logical explanation to all this. Lets say you're in a department store. Out of the whole floor selling men's clothing, the store will designate a small area to selling underwear (This Edwin garment was bought in the underwear section of a department store by the way...I bet those 5 other guys bought them at more or less the same place too). So thats like what? 10% of all the clothing on that floor? This is not including the independent/chain retail clothing outlets that are also in the mall. So on the whole, lets say Mid Valley, I can safely say that 5-10% of all the clothing sold there are undergarments.

So lets say all the PJ residents shop exclusively at Mid Valley and so the 2 million or so residents get their fresh supply of underwear from more or less the same place. Therefore - if you were to randomly approach people and start pulling down their pants...

TOFWPATA being 'The Other Fella With Pants Around The Ankles'...

Do you see what I'm saying here? Normally I should not be bothered by this, but 5 different people in 2 weeks is a bit too much. I can't sleep well at night knowing that I'm wearing the same thing as the balding uncle with a huge potbelly. Maybe its time to shop at a more exclusive place. Victoria's Secret maybe...and I don't care that they don't cater to men.

Out With The Old

I have always believed that plants were immortal. That given the right conditions and absence of disease, they will live forever. A few months back, someone expressed amazement at the fact that our tomato plant has survived for so long. Since the seeds were the type you can get commercially for under RM2, it is believed that they have a limited life span.

Initially I found it hard to believe. Then suddenly one by one the branches started drying up for no apparent reason. Adding more organic soil or fertilizers did not help at all. Eventually it was no more. So I guess there may be some truth to it (either that or I messed up somewhere... its easier to blame plant genetics in this case).

Immortal or not, there's one thing that I'm pretty sure is finite - real estate. So the tomato is gone and another plant has been groomed to take its place.

I don't exactly know what plant this is yet. My wife brought back some seeds one day and we just planted it. It is definitely a fruit bearing plant, that much I am sure. Oh we'll find out in a couple of years...