No more padi field.

Just at the end of our street there are 2 rice fields.  Its used to be a pretty nice view (you can click here to see the padi)but these padis are gone now.   The developer's bought the land and they are buiding a 3 storey building on the empty fields.

They actually started to pile sand ontop of the padis since last December and they just started piling the structural beams into the ground.  The sudden change in environment could be told by the amount of rats that started to invade our neighbourhood.  These are, I beleived, rats on the padi fields which lost their homes.  I already caught 6 to 7 of them in my house.  Pretty bad for them and us as I had to trap them with glue pads and sent them off to somewhere else.

So in the name of progress, we do harm to the environment.  The real irony of life.

Hailed!

I was planning to write about another article on the "inconvenient truth" under a more local context but I was quite sick yesterday. Wife and I was having dinner and it was pouring outside. Then suddenly it started. At first, it sounds like heavy rain falling onto our roof but something is hitting on our window panes. My wife went out to have a closer look and it was ICE!. The small amounts looks interesting but a few minutes later, the sound of rushing hail on our roof seems defeaning. Going ratatatat like a machine gun. REAALLY hope my roof will hold at that amount of ice.

The hail continued for about 5 to 10 minutes. The rain actually stopped too after that. We went out to inspect and see ice everywhere. I grabbed my camera and took a few snaps. Some caught in our bike helemet and cover (see photos). Wife was happily collecting the ice(so are our neighbours) saying that the ice is a curative for eyes and ears. (err... superstitious)
Anyway we cleared up a bit and I was sick, so we slept early last night.

Next morning, we went out to inspect the damage. My tree got blown sideway while most of my leaves were on the ground. My neighbour's tree lagi worst (see in photo). The worst damage to my plant is the one nearest to the house actually.

According to my wife, hails are acutally occurs quite common in Maesai but not at this period of the time, normally should be in the autumn to winter season (around sept to oct). Its wierd to have a hail storm at this period of time.... We are really screwing up our planet..

An Inconvenient Truth

There's actually 2 issues regarding the title of this post. Totally not related at all, but I am going to the original and more important (global) of the 2 issue.

I heard about this film last year and didn't managed to catch it. Finally managed to get hold of a DVD copy from my Ang Mo friend here in Maesai. ITs so damn good that I highly recommend this to all my friends.

Its a pity Al Gore got cheated out of the US presidency. The world might be a different place if he was to be in charge. The documentary basically is like a lecture on Global Warming. Its very real as in the documentary, there are proofs and horrifying pictures of disappearing glaciers and changes to the climate since the last 10 years. Within the span of 10 years, some rivers have dried out and part of Greenland and Antarctica got melted off. If the rate continues, in our lifespan (another 10 to 30 years) the sea level will rise 20 feet if we continue to pollute our planet.

Please if you could, get a copy and watch it and recommend it to others. We did this to the planet, all of us and Al Gore said if all of us just do our part, we still could reverse the situation.

If you really do not have time even for a movie, go here and read up about it. Its that REAL and URGENT. 2012 Mayan doomsday might be true if we continue to abuse our Mother Earth.