This and That

American Idol

Melinda and Jordan gave the best performances tonight. I also liked Phil's rendition of a Garth Brooks number. Lakisha did not receive a very positive feedback from the judges for her performance of Fantasia's hit song. I thought she did well though.

Sanjaya, as all of you who follow the show know, was booted out last week. He appeared on The Late Night Show with David Letterman last night and read the Top Ten Things I Learned from American Idol. I heard that at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Sanjaya was a guest, and there was a long line for his autograph.


Arkansas Trip

We spent a week in Arkansas, two weeks ago. We were in Little Rock, Russelville and Dardanelle. There wasn't that much to see in these places. William Jefferson Clinton's Presidential Library was the main attraction in Little Rock. However, I did get to taste a lot of their catfish menu. We ate at a place called The Flying Fish in Little Rock, and the food was excellent.

Esther, my good friend visiting from Malaysia, and I wanted to look for a mall in Little Rock but we did not know where the mall was. However, we found a bead store and spent quite a bit of money there. We went there two days in a row. Doug and Duncan visited a submarine right there at the waterfront, close to the bead store.


Sick kids

After church on Sunday, the kids developed a fever. They stayed home yesterday and today. I couldn't go to the flea market today as a result. I wanted to look for more beads as most of the bead vendors only sell on Tuesday. I am happy that they are much better today; their fever is gone and they should be able to go back to school tomorrow.


Beading Frenzy

I bought a Wigjig and am having a lot of fun learning wire jewelry. I bought several books on wire jewelry and learnt to make my own ear ring hooks and clasps. I have also placed all kinds of orders for wire jewelry and beads from Fusion Beads and Artbeads. I like these stores because shipping is free and there is no minimum order.

I have made several ear rings and about four necklaces. You can see three of them on Puteri's Hobbies.


Old Pen-pal

The internet is a wonderful thing. I was able to re-connect with a Swedish pen-pal that I corresponded with in the late 70s and early 80s. A few years ago I saw a book that he had written at a bookshop at KLIA. I wondered about him and recently a name of a place in Sweden made me think about him again. I googled his name and found all kinds of informationa about him and even wrote a web site that publishes his article asking them how I could get in touch with him. I received a reply to the query and it was Bertil himself who wrote back. My name on the email address did not trigger his memory but when I wrote and told him who I was, he remembered! That was indeed wonderful.

Yesterday I received an autographed copy of the book that I saw at the bookshop at KLIA. Back when we were pen-pals, he was a free-lanced journalist. Now he writes books, reviews books, writes articles, and is a well-known authority on Burma. He still lives in Thailand, married to a Burmese, and has a grown daughter.