Mountains & Me

I how is it so?
How it comes to be,
that everytime I see the clouds hugging the mountains’ bodies,
I also feel them hugging me.

-Tiffany Teoh

Love for Rumi’s Book on Love.

When I first read Rumi I had to admit I didn’t quite like his poetry. I thought it was too much about God and I’m not one of believing in a deity or a higher faith.

It took a second read about a year apart for me to truly appreciate the beauty and the satisfaction that glows inside a reader when they read his poems.

I just needed to replace the word God with another word that brings to mine some sort of serenity. The word does not exists, so I continue to read his poems with the word God as a lack for a better word. After all, even atheists need something flawless to believe in.

“grow instead in universal light” –  Rumi

All Art is Useless

When I was a young girl, I used to love art, I was always excited to start a drawing, colour it in with my Faber-Castell colour pencils, you know the basic set we always get as kids. I used to attentively colour in the lines and in one direction so it looked as perfect as possible. I would then run to my mums’ room and quietly stick the finished pieces on her cupboard. I was so excited to see her reaction,  anticipating a “wow that’s really good!” heck I thought I was an artist.

Instead she came in and took them down, and told me not to stick anymore on her wooden cupboard as it would spoil the finishing on the wood.

I took it to mean, my art was not good enough.

My memory in relation to art in my pubescent years were quite fuzzy.

When I was in high school I found myself using art class to just chit chat with friends and play boardgames in class. I had never finished a piece of art unless it was graded. Even then I never finished it in class. I wasn’t lazy. I was just too ashamed.

I didn’t understand art. I didn’t understand how to draw a sunrise over rolling hills and colour them in. My I always tear a hole in the paper from erasing the same area too often because I couldn’t get  the sketch right, my water colours were a mess and it always soaked the paper, I couldn’t comprehend colours. Oil pastels and crayons were my best friends as they were solid and not susceptible to water.

I was sent to art classes outside of school. What would art class teach me anyways? I didn’t understand what perspective was, aside from someone’s opinion on my work which was always disheartening. All it made me realise was even in a group of kids outside of my  school, I was definitely the worse at it.

And though I always took my art page home and worked for hours on it, when I took it to class I always received a fail or just a scraping pass. That Red pen mark over my Blue sky, reflecting a 4/10 was enough to make me never touch the paint brush again.

My mother said it was my hands, I didn’t  have the slender fingers of an artist. Back then I hated art, and my hands.

In my most recent years, it took going to dozens of art exhibitions and seeing thousands of products that were regarded as “valuable artwork”. It took meeting lots of artists and speaking to lots of art enthusiasts. It took reading up on so many “art techniques” that preschoolers could realise themselves. It took trying again to create something that one person would regard as art for me to realise, that all art is quite subjective. And in the words of Oscar Wilde, “All art is quite useless.”

And I love art!

Lola the lionfish by Clément and I.

Despite Our Age

Like a slow burning log,
or a healing wound,
our time started slowly,
but it will end soon.

But like a seed that’s sown,
or a fresh, new page,
there are still new beginnings,
despite our age.

-Tiffany Teoh

Journey to France: Day 102

Hi all, in the past week, Clément and I have been volunteering at Jeffrey’s Animal Retreat,  here in Langkawi. Here,  Jeffrey single handedly or with fellow volunteers, manages the day to day activities of caring for, rescuing, homing and rehabilitating traumatised or disabled animals. Not only that, he also cares for additional stray dogs housed by Hindu and Buddhist temples. He manages this out of his own pocket and with the help of some of his friends.

In a week we rescued 3 pups, all are healthy and active babies! This morning we allowed them to interact with the other dogs for the first time.

Cuteness ensued.

If anyone is coming  to Langkawi and is interested to volunteer (there’s no cost) at this shelter and accommodation is provided. You will learn so much on animal behaviour and training. You will feel more connected with animals than you ever had and these skills are transferable outside of the shelter.

Dear readers, I know most of you are animal lovers, I know there are some of you who would cry just hearing of an animal being in pain. I know there are those of you who want to do good by the helpless and will support those that share your love and passion. Jeff looks after these darlings from his own pocket (from his savings during the time he used to work in USA. The care he provides is a 24 hour commitment hence he’s very limited time to gain more income to keep his care going.

I know there are those of you who are truly love dogs. I’ve seen your posts of Facebook and your anger when dogs get hurt. $3 AUD is the cost of a shot of antibiotics for a week here. That’s less than a cup of coffee. Help keep this care going on for longer. Any little amount helps.

If you’re willing to sacrifice a cup of coffee for the life of a puppy you can donate it here : Let’s Help Some Pups!

Journey to France: Day 102

Hi all, in the past week, Clément and I have been volunteering at Jeffrey’s Animal Retreat,  here in Langkawi. Here,  Jeffrey single handedly or with fellow volunteers, manages the day to day activities of caring for, rescuing, homing and rehabilitating traumatised or disabled animals. Not only that, he also cares for additional stray dogs housed by Hindu and Buddhist temples. He manages this out of his own pocket and with the help of some of his friends.

In a week we rescued 3 pups, all are healthy and active babies! This morning we allowed them to interact with the other dogs for the first time.

Cuteness ensued.

If anyone is coming  to Langkawi and is interested to volunteer (there’s no cost) at this shelter and accommodation is provided. You will learn so much on animal behaviour and training. You will feel more connected with animals than you ever had and these skills are transferable outside of the shelter.

Dear readers, I know most of you are animal lovers, I know there are some of you who would cry just hearing of an animal being in pain. I know there are those of you who want to do good by the helpless and will support those that share your love and passion. Jeff looks after these darlings from his own pocket (from his savings during the time he used to work in USA. The care he provides is a 24 hour commitment hence he’s very limited time to gain more income to keep his care going.

I know there are those of you who are truly love dogs. I’ve seen your posts of Facebook and your anger when dogs get hurt. $3 AUD is the cost of a shot of antibiotics for a week here. That’s less than a cup of coffee. Help keep this care going on for longer. Any little amount helps.

If you’re willing to sacrifice a cup of coffee for the life of a puppy you can donate it here : Let’s Help Some Pups!

Fairytale

He was everything
I imagined fairytales to be

He was young and dashing,
Handsome and charming,
A gentleman loyal to chivalry.

But he can never be with me
Because he was everything that
fairytales were meant to be
But alas, not for me.

-Tiffany Teoh

Lost World

He yelled at me again
I receded unto my own world
It was slightly bigger than a corner.

He yelled at me again,
Rumbling the walls in my world
Threatening to smash them down
So I no longer feel safe there.

He wanted me in his world
Which is too foreign for me to comprehend
He wanted me in his world
Yet he does not speak to me
Or connect me to his earth
As how I was connected with mine.

I tried to build my own little world in his,
A shelter from the outside
As I was no longer free roaming.

He tried to coax me out,
To get me to join him
In sketching a world I didn’t understand,
I stepped out
but I didn’t know how to sketch.

And for sure I didn’t know anymore
when was the last time
I went a day without crying
Or feeling lonely.

All I know is
I can’t be with him.
But he won’t let me out.

Journey to France: Day 97

Our 2 weeks in Ipoh turned to 3 weeks. Not because we needed 3 weeks to see everything.

Our initial 2 weeks were prearranged as it was the preferred length of stay for our Helpx host at Bed and Bike Studio in Ipoh, Malaysia. It’s a cosy snug 12 bed dormitory in an office suit that pretty much resembles a cosy large studio style apartment.

As they had bicycles we could borrow for free we spent alternate days going in and out in the morning as the afternoons were much too hot it kills me.

On one of our ventures out,  we were meant to go to a river and we took the local bus at a cost of probably Rm2.70 each to Gopeng bus station. From there we were to find another way there, probably through hitchhiking.

We got off the bus stop and had not even walked 2 metres when Clément spotted something that stopped him in his tracks. I asked him what was the matter and followed his gesture and eyes to a dark, little figure under a the bus station seat.

It was a puppy!

It was barely moving except for when it opened and closed its eyes slowly. Someone had placed a few pieces of dry dog food in front of him, but he wasn’t eating even when we brought the pieces to his lips.

We picked him up to have a better look at him, though we could already see he was covered in fleas. When we have a closer look he also had a large tick on his side and red ants were nibbling away at him. His skin was flaky, dry and discoloured, he had bare skin in areas where there should be fur. To top it off he was also extremely weak.

We took a look around, it didn’t seem as if this puppy had an owner. Or a mother and father around for that matter.  I went to the small sundry store in front of us to ask for a box and they gave the perfect sized box for the puppy. We caught the next bus back into Ipoh.

We got back to the hostel, and right away took down the bicycles, tied the box with the puppy to the back and peddled to the vet in the noon sun.

The vet assessed the puppy to be not more than 6 weeks old. He was severely dehydrated, infested with worms and covered in lice on top of the fleas, ticks and ants.

The vet dewormed him, sprayed him for the bugs and gave him a shot of antibiotics for his mange,  a kind of mite that infects dogs’ skin.

We had decided to extend our stay in Ipoh another week to ensure puppy could have all he needed from the vet before we continued our travels.

The next couple of weeks turned to parent duty for us.  On our first night with Puppy he was already eating within the next few hours we took him in, and when it was time for bed he refused to sleep in his box and climbed out to wedge between Clément and I to fall asleep.

Toilet training was a constant hit and miss especially living in a property with stairs to go outside. We had to constantly carry him downstairs if we had an inkling that he wanted to urinate or defecate. Walking him was a joy from the start. He was always walking with us and if he stopped, it was because the were steps in front of him and he needed help getting up or down. Otherwise he would start running to us right away when I said “come baby come” or when Clément whistles.

We take him everywhere with us. We took him to Gua Tempurung where he wandered around the caves with us. We took him to Taiping with us and Kuala Sepetang. He was on the buses with us,  in the cars we hitchhiked, on the boat we cruised the rivers on and on the ferry to Langkawi. He mostly sleeps in his tote bag and when we are out of a vehicle he eats with us at the places we stop at and walks with us to the next place we start to hitchhike. He’s an incredibly clever puppy, he adapts so well, he insists on cuddling with us in bed every night, he’s out little bundle of sweet bread,  and already the best thing in our lives.

Dear readers, we are now a family. Let me introduce you to our incredible, little Puppy.