Independence Day No. 66

Today is our 66th independence day from the British rule. Google gave us this doodle below.

For some, they spent their day watching the national parade. Unfortunately, we can't do that. Our youngest son Izzuddin, was having a fever and just last evening, we saw rashes on his body. Thus, last night, he went for a blood test at a nearby private hospital. It was confirmed dengue, but his blood count is still quite high but we were advised to get another blood test for him this morning. So we did.

His blood count dropped a little (though the doctor mistakenly said the opposite). We will need to monitor this and maybe go for another blood test tomorrow (they are not cheap by the way).

Also today, my right leg seems to grow weaker maybe due to me lifting something heavy. Hence, I rested most of the day and our day today is pretty uneventful. Even so, on this day, I hope Malaysia can grow stronger and more harmonious (even if there seems to be plenty of political bickering - they tend to turn me off). Our economy certainly need to recover since the Covid-19 pandemic for our better livelihood.

Gift Book of KK Tribute and Parallels

On August 14, I received a message from Dr. Nurisya that she, Faizal & her kids are around the corner and they wanted to drop off a gift that they have bought for me sometime much earlier. The gift is a tribute book to KK Phua in conjunction with his 80th birthday (see pic below).

Ever since, I have brought this book along whenever I travel so that I can read it whenever possible. The pic below is taken when I was travelling to Tambun.

Yesterday when I brought this book to the car service centre, I thought that maybe I should blog something about it, but it will not be a review or add anything to the lovely tributes found in the book. Instead I will write on how he has influenced me in many ways and make parallels (without being presumptuous) of whatever tiny fraction of what he has done with the things that we did. Note added: I did not quite dwell too much of the latter in the end.

While I have met KK Phua in conferences and have corresponded with him a few times, I do not quite know him personally. I do know that he is a gigantic and influential figure in Singapore and is well-known internationally (and because of this, I tend to shy away). He is better known as the chairman for World Scientific. I do remember when it was founded, I was excited about having a scientific publishing company just next door to us and indeed followed closely the publisher in the early years. I have bought many books from them. The ones below are the early ones that I had and was used during my undergraduate years. The one on Grand Unified Theory (I think it is out of print) was used for my final year project.

The most recent book from them is the following book of which I will use to teach at Xiamen University.

Of course, there are many more books in my collection from World Scientific such as this huge volume of reprints co-published with North-Holland (articles from Physics Reports). This is when I was thinking of doing supergravity for my research (also had the reprint volume on supersymmetry and superstrings).

They had many book series which are interesting. One series that I was hoping to follow is the Advanced Series in Mathematical Physics (see pic below - can't find my volume 1 of the series). After several volumes, I told myself to tone down my 'fantasies' and buy only what I need (in other words, it goes beyond my budget). At the time, I was already honing down my interest to more on mathematical aspects of theoretical physics. Perhaps my early years of interest on high energy physics also led to colleagues at the department identify me as high energy physicist in the beginning but really I was into the mathematical structures that underlie physics in general.

Having said this, I also did subscribe to journals published by World Scientific. Here is a picture of the first volume of International Journal of Modern Physics A. It was here that I got interested in Witten's way of looking at physics (see link here) using abstract mathematical tools. I believe a more condensed version appeared on the Argonne symposium proceedings. Note: Perhaps not noticed by many is that my own research interest for PhD was spurred by the failure of classical symmetries in quantum theory of a different kind.

Besides IJMPA, I also had subscription of Modern Physics Letters A. After awhile, I found myself not reading most of the articles (and also of because of limited budget), and hence I discontinued my subscription to these two journals. I subscribed instead Reviews of Mathematical Physics, given my refined interest then. Even this got discontinued later. Most of the subscribed issues of these journals have been donated to the theoretical physics group in UPM (hope they get to be useful).

Back to the tribute of KK Phua, the first half of the book was mainly tributes to KK by many well-known scientists. While the second half contains technical articles dedicated to KK. There are some interesting facts that was written in the book on KK's influence. One is on his generosity. Below is a snapshot of ICTP's receiving of 23,000 book donation from World Scientific.

Perhaps less visible, much of the stay in IAS for visitors like our group (see here) were made possible due to some sponsorship sought by the organizer in IAS of which he was the director (and Kwek his deputy). Kwek cleverly disguised his tribute write-up in the technical second half of the book (see footnote a in his article). Another interesting article is that of the late Lars Brink concerning KK's retirement and changes made in IAS (relatable in many ways of what I have seen locally here). This is why I hesitated to consider Prof. Twareque's suggestion in developing the idea of a Centre of Mathematical Physics as stated in this post, since I believe in first, continuing tradition set by the past director of our maths institute (a cautionary note I reiterated to the management members when our first director retired) and that we (or maybe just me) have less influence on the Malaysian theoretical and mathematical scientists on the whole (as well as decision makers). Returning to IAS, in some way, there are documents I've wished I could have saved for my own keeping or better, would still be  made available to the public. In any case, World Scientific publishing of conference proceedings and memorial volumes has surely kept these memories in circulation.

Perhaps the fondest memory I had was when KK wrote to me about a Malaysian representative for the roundtable discussion in YM60 conference. To set the record straight, I did not just volunteer myself for that and I gave a few other names (professors) to be considered. But the following pic shows the organizer's reply.

Perhaps another interesting matter mentioned in KK's tribute book was his role in establishing the Overseas Chinese Physics Association (OCPA) and their conferences/activities. I was curious if one could have done the same (despite that we had very little influence as mentioned above). Could we have something like Nusantara label for it? I'm aware that Uzbekistan has something similar drawing talents of Uzbek origin from abroad. For us, I don't think we have that many Malay talents exported abroad on the subject of physics and mathematics (I may be wrong). Thus, if it does happen, it would be regional in flavour. In any case, with the current political environment and stereotypes, it will probably draw much criticism. Just a thought and they say, dreams are free.

30th Anniversary

This post is on a happier note. Yesterday was our 30th anniversary. We did not have anything planned but like many times before, we thought that we should have a special meal outside. In the morning, we had our ordinary breakfast at Mee Jawa Mak Siti at City Park S2. Having a good breakfast in , we decided to have a slightly delayed special lunch after Dzuhr.

The place where we decided to have our special dinner is Menate in Centrio, S2. Menate is known for its good steak meals. However for both of us, we had simply pasta and our eldest and youngest sons had Hawaiian chicken burgers.

Not wanting to miss out the main dishes of Menate, we ordered a wagyu steak to be shared between the four of us. We've been wanting to taste it given the many good 'reviews' of the meat. There was one even saying that the meat 'melts' in our mouth. It was certainly not what I experienced but it is certainly softer than any of the steaks I had eaten.

It was certainly a good (heavy) lunch and we had a good time. It's a pity my other two sons could not join us.

Perhaps they can have such meal at some other time. As expected, the meal costs much more than our usual meals but this is a day of celebration. Menate also gave discounts on our dishes as part of the merdeka promotion.

Funeral of Sister-in-Law

Yesterday, we rushed ourselves to Klang to get to a funeral and spent essentially half-a-day there. The night before, I received a message from my brother Mohd Nordin, asking whether I have received any news about the wife of my brother Zaharuddin. I immediately replied no and asked what's wrong. I was told that she has passed away. I was surprised but since we rarely see each other apart from during marriage ceremonies or during Eid, I did not know if she had any health problems. I was then told that the burial will be in the morning after,

So, we took off to Klang around 7.30 am yesterday (with my other half, my eldest and youngest sons). We knew the highway that we are using is used heavily by lorries and trucks, which often caused congestion, but we have never experienced using the highway during peak hours. So our timing was off, since we got stuck for awhile nearby the Subang Jaya exit area. Knowing that we were late, we headed off straight to Surau Haji Abdullah Fakeh Sungai Pinang, where the body of my sister-in-law has been brought to. We prayed jenazah prayers for her there. Thereafter we followed the crowd to the cemetery in Bukit Batu Belah for the burial.

After the burial, we went to brother Zaharuddin's home and there we know some details of what had happened. Earlier in the surau, we were told that she had a fever in the two days before her passing away and went rather unexpectedly. Then Zaharuddin told us of her mild stroke in 2018 and had went for physical therapy. There was also muscle atrophy and had difficulty moving around.

Below are some pics I have taken from my brother Nasaruddin posting and our nephew's posting.

May Allah forgive her and she be placed among the solehah. Al-Fatihah.

We went back home around 1pm and had our brunch in Dengkil RnR. We rested for the rest of the day.

Trip to Lost World in Tambun

We have always wanted to make a holiday trip with the whole family together, but this can be difficult given that different working commitments of my sons (and soon, God willing, me too). Recently, we had one opportunity to have a family holiday together. My third son, Izhar is changing jobs from a software company to a private university and there is a one week gap after 14 August. So we plan with my son Ihsan, working in JB, to take his monthly leave within this period. At the time, we weren't sure where we would be going (various suggestions). Finally, my eldest Khair, suggested we should go to Lost World of Tambun. Googled the hotels there and they had Sunway hotel nearby. Booked ourselves a family suite and we were lucky to have discounts for the room rates, perhaps due to the off-peak period (middle of the week and not school holidays). The hotel also comes with various discounts for entering the theme parks there.

On the night before our travel, my second son travelled directly from his workplace (evening shift), reaching Seremban just after 1 am. So, for the travel day, we decided to move slightly later in the morning in order for him to get enough rest. We took off after 10am with two cars (Chevrolet Malibu and Perodua Attiva). Stopping only at Rawang, we finally arrived at Tambun just after half past two. Checked in the hotel and rested for the day. We did try to go to the theme park that night but it was raining and decided against it.

Early next morning, all of us were very excited to begin entering the theme park. We had our breakfast just nearby the entrance to the theme park.

Since the theme park opens at half past 10, we headed back to the hotel after breakfast. But before doing so, we had a group photo (thanks to the Chinese gentlemen who helped take the photo) in front of the entrance.

By 10 am, we walked ourselves back to the entrance and we saw this sign.

We had our bags checked and unfortunately, I had put a few bags of chocs and crisps, not knowing the rule of not bringing in outside food. So those snacks had to be put back in the car near the hotel (10 minute walk). Next, was buying the tickets - the 35% off given by the hotel helps reduce the expenses and I got a senior citizen discount too (the wristband given to me had the letter S instead of A for adults). We posed for awhile with the mascots before entering the park.

The first place we headed off to was the Petting Zoo as this was the main attraction for my other half.

The early sets of animals we saw were (exotic) chickens, goats and horses.

For me, the sets of animals that sort of capture my attention were capybara/pantagonian mara and raccoons (reminded me of Rocket in GOTG) since we were able to get close to them. The capybara and pantagonian mara were put together in a single place. We were told that the capybara was hurt and had some medication (and hence less active).

The pantagonian mara were more active and they came to us for feeding.

To feed the animals, one has to buy some bags of animal feed at a 'store' as we enter the petting zoo. There will always be guides to tell us which food is appropriate and how to feed the animals. The raccoons tend to stay above ground, only reaching down for the food that we gave them.

Before we enter one of the highlights of this part of the petting zoo (namely the birds section), we saw a peacock coming to us (we weren't sure what to feed it). Later, we were told that the peacock was actually from the nearby jungle and perhaps saw the good environment provided by the Lost World. Indeed there were other outside animals who came to 'stay' at the park.

We spent the most time at the bird's park feeding the colourful birds. We were told they originally are not tame as shown in the pics but gradually over time they were trained to be around people/visitors.

Here's a video.

Besides these birds, we also had parrots.

There was also this goose that got quite close to my other half, wanting to sit on her lap.

There were other animals (including reptiles) but we did not dwell too long at those places.

Before we reached the place of the reptiles, we went through the place of tarantulas (they are kept in glass cabinets) and had to climb some steep stairs.

My youngest, when he knew that we were going through the tarantula place, he was a bit reluctant to follow.

There were some scenic places where we stopped to take pics.

We went out from the petting zoo to get our lunch. The choice of food in there is quite limited, almost snack-like. Thus, it is advisable to have a good breakfast before going in. After lunch, our sons went to the water park to have fun there, while me and my other half waited somewhere nearby. At the time, I was already having some back pain after all the walking and standing. Thus, I went back to the hotel with my youngest son to get some rest while the others stayed on. There was another place where they have bigger animals, deeper within the park and they went to see it (despite it was raining a little bit).

By night time, we had a quick dinner and then we went back to the theme park to see the evening shows. For these we use the green wrist bands that were given to us by the hotel (thus, we need not pay when entering back). Before going to the show, we stopped by the foot spa to relieve some feet tireness.

The show entitled Flaming Percussion took place near the entrance of the petting zoo. Here are some pics and video.

There was another place (luminous forest) we would like to go but we were tired and it started raining. The next morning, we decided to just have our breakfast and then leave.

We went back to Seremban via the Guthrie highway. Later that evening, we heard about the aircraft disaster where a plane crashed near the Elmira exit along the Guthrie highway, just hours after we passed the place (see video here). Condolences to the families involved and may Allah protect us from such disaster.