gambitch - now available in blue
Our constant efforts to reinvent ourselves reveal how much we fear our own images.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

This, as usual, from the BBC:

Russia's killer fake alcohol

Fortunately, the fake alcohol is only available for domestic consumption - I think. So at least all of you readers out there, as long as you live outside of Russia, don't have to eye that bottle of vodka with an extra level of suspicion.

This news item does remind me of this thing I read about some years ago, talking about the problem of alcoholism in the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia. Apparently, Malaysia has many plantations populated by poor locals who don't live in towns, and these people tend to have access to alcohol as well. Not the beers that they'd have to buy from local grocery stores, because that's too expensive. Instead, they turn to this home-made concoction they call 'samsu', which has an alcohol content averaging some 38%, an obviously high figure.

Because it's home-made, it's cheap. And it's usually sold illegally, to boot. But it's easily accessible to the poor. The natural consequence of this is that lots of poor people who don't know better drink this 'samsu' thing, which is pretty powerful stuff and keeps them hooked. In fact, according to some Malaysian academic papers, the country is among the top ten alcohol consumers of the world, and about 70% of these are 'samsu' drinkers.

Quite a stunning set of statistics, that.

In a previous life, I had travelled to South Africa and learnt of another type of home-made alcohol they call 'yakka'. It's some drink based on lemon or lime, I think, and also has a very high alcohol content, at about 36% or something like that. Yakka is a very popular South African home-made alcohol, in that they even hold yakka parties where people drink the yakka.

According to a friend who drank the stuff (I didn't), the initial taste seems just like lemon or lime juice, but the innocuous initial texture of the substance will suddenly give way to a big alcohol kick. It is known to knock people out that way. But my friend, he is a strong alcohol drinker, and he later joked that the yakka is "dodgy, deceptive and weak". In fact, he did this on a really special occasion that woke plenty of people up, and I think it got him remembered pretty well.

But then, I'm not a person for the alcohols. And there are quite a few reasons (not all of them medical) why that is the case. I suppose you can say I'm missing out on a few things.

gambitch [ 2:05 PM]

Friday, June 23, 2006

The movie was very good. Really, thanks. I know you're saying it yourself, but I should be the one saying it more.

Maybe I'll be on the lookout for something else soon...

gambitch [ 12:50 AM]

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

How many times have you told me not to worry about something, and I worry about it anyway?

And how many times have you quietly sighed knowing that's exactly what will happen?

I guess that's what makes me me...

gambitch [ 11:04 AM]

Sunday, June 18, 2006

If I could learn to play the flute, I would.
If I could learn to play the drums, I would.
If I could learn to play the violin, I would.
If I could find myself a portable keyboard to play on, I would.

But the one instrument I never got around learning, despite the opportunities, was the guitar. I don't know why.

But I really, really want to go out there and make some music, on my own or with someone else.

It's the side of me that hasn't been tested in a very long while. That, and actually doing theatre. But very much that.

I can see myself as a floating flautist, standing on the edge of a cliff or gliding by the clouds as I play, my fingers caressing the instrument with effortless grace.

And perhaps if I learnt to stop keeping my facial muscles so tense (I don't mean to, I just do), maybe I'll look the part of someone who is spirited away by the music.

I'm a music guy by nature. And I feel the pain when I can't express myself properly through music.

I really, reeeeally want to play more than just a few notes or a loose ditty. I want to play. And I want to be heard, and maybe listened to.

And I'll be glad to listen to you playing too. Especially if it's the one instrument I never got around learning to play. Despite the opportunities.

gambitch [ 11:30 PM]

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