My New Digital Piano

There has been a slow down in blogging but for good reason...I've been playing with my new toy, a Kurtzweil digital piano. I've missed playing the piano for the last couple of years and thought I wanted to buy a Yamaha Clavinova but just couldn't justify the expense and weight (in case we want to bring it back to the States) for an instrument that might only be played for several years here in Malaysia. Then, I started looking at digital pianos but was afraid they would feel something like the keyboard I purchased in Turkey that never gave much enjoyment:sticky touch,  lack of octaves, no sustain pedal, electronic sound, etc.

Relunctanly, I "test drove" several digital pianos a couple of weeks ago. After only a few minutes of playing, I was pretty sure I would enjoy having one in our Lumut home. Both the Yamaha and Kurzweil had similar feels and sounds but I actually liked the touch a bit better on the Kurzweil. The deciding factor, however, was the price.  In Malaysia, the Yamahas were $300 - $600 more than the same model listed on Amazon in the US. (This makes no sense to me because the shipping from Japan (or China) would be less I would think but it might just be the Yamaha name.-I could write an entire blog about the love for brand names: Coach purses, Mercedes cars, Yamaha pianos, etc...) However, the Kurzweils were within dollars of the Amazon price so at least I knew I wasn't getting ripped off. Besides, I think it's kind of cool that the original Kurzweil pianos were inspired by a bet between Stevie Wonder and Ray Kurzweil to see if a synthesizer could be made to sound like a piano. The short answer is "yes". I love the sound of this piano.

Now...to the reasons why a post about a digital piano is on my pjinmalaysia blog...First, it's to illustrate how I entertain myself when there is both a shortage of local activities besides shopping, and an abundance of time while my husband is at work. This extra time is turning out to be a real blessing because I can spend time learning things that I never would have had the patience for before. This new piano is a perfect example. I'm learning how to be a one-man band complete with drums,a bass, saxophone interludes, vocals, and piano accompaniment all in the comfort and solitude of our little Lumut home.

Before living in Malaysia, I never would have had the patience to learn how to use all the bells and whistles on anything electronic besides the transposer or the metronome. I would have been too busy practicing for the next choir rehearsal or school music class to learn anything more than the basic piano notes. Now, I have time to listen to Avicii, try to mimic the sounds on his hit single "Wake Me Up" and pretend like I'm a rock star belting out the words on stage. I can welcome my husband home from work with my seductive (I wish) Nora Jones-like voice singing "Come Away with Me." And, I can always switch on the organ stop with full diapasons and give us an uplifting Sunday postlude experience.

In addition to the fun with the piano, here are some other new things I've learned thanks to WiFi and the digital age.

1) I can  find most sheet music at www.sheetmusic.com and download it instantly. (I can also find lots of music for free but I'm trying not to stoop to the low level of cheating/copying and blatant disregard of copyright laws that is so prevalent here. Hopefully, I'm keeping some musicians and music companies employed and keeping a clean conscience.)

2) I installed an app on my notebook that allows me to view my purchased sheet music right on notebook. (I might need to get some super magnifier cheater glasses to read it, but it's still pretty cool that all my music is in one little place...)

3) I can purchase (although I haven't yet) an electronic page turner so, with a touch of my foot, I can have my digital pages turned. This could come in really handy on the 13 page long  Beyonce's" Halo". (No, I'm too old to memorize and no, I don't play by ear.)

It's been out of necessity that I upgraded/updated/ and learned some new skills. It's been thanks to this opportunity to live in Malaysia that I've had the time. Gotta go practice.....

Cooking Lesson #2 - White Tom Yum Soup - Seafood

Saturday afternoons are turning out to be great times for cooking lessons. My husband is at work and my cooking teacher and her assistant finish their regular job at 1:15 which leaves us just enough time to shop for ingredients and make a Saturday night feast before they need to head back to their village to join their families.

Today I wanted to learn to make Tom Yum Soup - a spicy favorite of both my husband and me. I also wanted to make it with seafood- shrimp, squid, and crab - to be specific, because that seafood is plentiful here and I needed to learn how to clean a squid. Although Tom Yum Soup is a Thai dish, it is quite popular here in Malaysia. It's a nice, spicy bowl of delicious flavors.

Our first stop was the grocery store. Last cooking lesson, my teacher brought all the ingredients but today wanted to help with the shopping because many of the ingredients have English titles next to the UPC codes which helps me identify some of the ingredients.

Here are the foods that were new to me today:

Lemon tree leaves - We removed the stems and the spines of the leaves and used them for flavoring.

Lemon grass - We smashed the hard stalks with the flat edge of a meat cleaver and then sliced into 2" lengths.

Fish Balls - I don't know what these are but they are located with the fresh noodles and tofu. We washed the balls and added them to the soup.

Big, flat mushrooms - I just tried to Google them to get a name and they were kind of like a Chanterelle or a large Oyster mushroom but not exactly like either.

Baby Corn - We sliced the corn in half lengthwise and then sliced the halves diagonally including the bits of stalk.


Here's the cooking technique that was new to me... cleaning a squid.

First Rin pulled the head off. Then she pulled the black ink pouch from inside the head and discarded it. She cut off the eyeballs and snipped the head in half. She snipped the body into 1/2" wide rings. The she washed all the pieces really well.


Here are the added benefits to Saturday afternoon cooking lessons:
My house smells great. Dinner is ready. The dishes are done. I have time to blog. Life is good....

Here's the recipe

Seafood White Tom Yum Soup (By Rin)

1 packet of White Tom Yam Soup Mix

2-4 TBSP of evaporated skim milk

3 stalks of celery plus the heart - sliced

1 bunch cilantro (celery parsley) - chopped

5 or 6 lemon tree leaves - spines and stems removed

8-10 small/hot chilies - stems removed and sliced open lengthwise

2 stalks of lemon grass - smashed with a cleaver and sliced into 2" lengths

1 lemon - quartered

1 yellow onion - sliced

big flat mushrooms, torn in half or thirds

1 carrot sliced into 1/4" x 1" pieces

1/4 cauliflower - broken into small flowers

2 tomatoes - quartered

5 baby corns wit partial stalks at the bottom - slice in half and then into diagonal pieces

Assorted fish balls

Choice of seafood  ( I used shrimp, crab, and squid)

1. Prepare the seafood. Cut the tails and eyeballs off the shrimp. Pull off the heads from the squid and remove the ink packets. Cut the head in half. Cut the body into 1/2' rings. Pull the legs off the crab and cut the bodies in half. Walk all the seafood very well. Set aside.

2. Wash the fish balls. Set aside.

3. Fill a large soup pot about 3/4 full. Bring to a boil.

4. All the lemon grass. Boil for several minutes.

5. Add the crab, cauliflower, carrots, lemon tree leaves, baby corns, tomatoes, chilies, Tom Yam Soup mix, fish balls.

7. Squeeze in several quarters of lemon juice.

8. Boil the above mixture for several minutes.

9. Add mushrooms, squid and shrimp.

10. Add evaporated skim milk 1 tbsp at a time and mix in well.

12. Add onions and celery.

13. Let soup mixture cook for 10 minutes

14. Finish with cilantro on top.

Children's Day at a Malaysian School

Raven and me after her performance

Raven, one of my students,  sent me a text several nights ago...

"Teacher, can you come to my school? It's Children's Day and there will be a singing competition and I will be singing."

"I would love to!" I replied.

Several texts later Raven was able to provide an exact address so I could locate the school on Google Maps I arrived at the school at the appointed time and was grateful that Raven, the self-confident, insightful and friendly 8th grader had the foresight to tell me to call her when I arrived and so she could meet me outside. I definitely drew a lot of stares in this mostly Chinese/Malay school and it would have been very difficult for me to garner the courage to walk in alone.

The first hour or so of the assembly was awards. Most of the time I just watched the students and teachers, but I tried to pay attention to the English awards because the MC called students up with both their English classroom names and their Chinese names: Wong Fu Jack Foo, Sing Le Abigail Chin, Fang Ze Frank Fong, etc.

I really enjoyed being a "guest" as I watched the teachers trying to keep their students quiet, respectful, and paying attention all while sitting cross legged on a concrete floor for three hours. It was easy to pick out the "angels" who the teachers are eager to pass on to the next grade. Many of the teachers were wearing those final two weeks of school "tired eyes."

The students sat by grade on the hard concrete floor for the duration of the assembly.

Eventually, the singing competition began. There were about 20 contestants, a mixture of boy and girls, from ages 10 - 14.. It reminded me of any school talent show except the songs were in Chinese and the hand motions accompanying the songs were very pronounced and stylized like Chinese theater. Some of the students really could sing, some could sing but had no rhythm, and still others probably should have been pre-screened by faculty to save some embarrassment. Ah...that's just my "teacher-trying-to-keep-a fragile-child's esteem-in-tact" point of view. The reality was, the students were just as kind to the non-singers as they were to the good singers. There was no laughter at boys singing in their falsetto voices, no putting hands over ears during out of tune notes, no talking when students forgot the words. As a matter of fact, it was quite the opposite. If the singer was hesitant, the students joined in and sang along. If a student forgot the notes, the students helped out by singing. If the singer was not in time with the music, the audience gently clapped to bring the performer back on track. In other words, the students in the audience were respectful, kind, and supportive. In other words, it was a breath of fresh air.

Best of all,  mingled in among some of the rock star wanna-be's, there were several students who really could sing...Raven being one of them. She has a knack with a microphone, a stage presence that helps her connect with the audience and a voice that stopped all the quiet whispering in the room. It was beautiful and well worth the morning.

Singing competition contestants after their performances.

Although the winners of the competition will not be announced until graduation in several weeks, I'm sure that Raven will take first prize. And, I'm so glad she gave me the opportunity to be part of this school event.

Who and What You'll Meet on a Bicycle

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While cycling around Penang Island several days ago, we passed a man riding a bike with his miniature schnauzer sitting calmly on his front rack and a cat cage bungee corded to the back. While catching my breath at the top of a very steep hill, I decided to wait for the bike and dog to see if I could snap a photo. Also waiting in the shade at the top of the hill was a tandem bicycle with a young man with an older Chinese woman standing beside it and a single bicycle with a young Chinese woman holding it up. The young man and young woman were speaking French and I mentally made up the scenario that the couple were married and the older woman was the man's mother-in-law.

Several minutes later the man with the dog arrived.  I asked if I could snap his photo. He smiled and said, "Sure but why not take the whole family?" He invited the three bike riders to stand beside him. After snapping a few photos, we started the usual get-to-know-one-another questions...

The young man, Emilien, is from France and his wife, Xinhan, is from Shanghai. They are nearing the end of a two-year 38,000 kilometer (23,700 miles!) world bike tour on a tandem bicycle. The older man, Rickee, and his wife are from Penang and they had been following Emilien and Xinhan's blog/website for over a year. The four had  met the previous day and were getting to know each other with this island bicycle tour.

Meeting these amazing cyclists generated rapid-fire questions from me so Rickee suggested we get off the dangerous-shoulder-on-a-blind-curve-of-a-narrow road and meet for coconut water at the cafe half-way down the mountain.

A few minutes later while sipping coconut water(not my favorite but it sure works like Gatoraide to re-energize you)at an outdoor cafe we learned that Emilien and Xinhan plan to end their tour in 10 days in Singapore, find jobs, and settle down. I pulled up a quick mental map of Malaysia and realized we are "on the way" to Singapore. We immediately invited them to our home for a clean bed, a hot shower, and a meal.

Last night they arrived as planned. Our French/Spanish next door neighbors also joined us and we all enjoyed a meal learning about places I'd only head about and but can't even picture on a map.

I'm anxious for them to wake up because I have even more questions....

If you are interested in learning more about their trip, here's the website:

http://theglobelovers.com/worldbiketour/