Livin’ la vida loca

I remember exactly when I asked my friends "do you like to eat durian?" some of them love it, some of them can't stand the smell, some of them just "yuck" at it. As for me, I love eating durian especially with my family. The durians come in all shapes and sizes, with different types of thorns as well. And the flesh…well, you have to taste it by yourself.

In Malaysia, durians are allowed to drop by themselves, usually in the early morning. They are then at their peak in ripeness and taste. Then they are best eaten within the day. What about the flesh? Let’s separate this question into two parts. First is the smell then comes the taste. For those of you who have never smelt a durian in your entire life, don’t attempt to imagine its smell, lest its taste. You will never get it right. Some tried to scare the daylight out of you and compared the smell with rotten rat. I wonder whether they had ever smelt a rotten rat or being a drama queen? Then what about the taste? This is a big problem. Some said the durian tasted like rotten cheese and some said it taste yummy. Well different people, different opinion, right?

The fruit’s smell is so potent that it’s banned in many hotels and public transport systems in Southeast Asia. I remember when I was in Melaka, I saw No Durian sign in front of the hotel.

Durians are rich in energy, minerals and vitamins. Sugars like fructose and sucrose give energy to the body. Although the durians have high amount of fats, they are free of cholesterol. They are rich in dietary fiber, with good source of B-complex groups of vitamins which the body cannot produce. Main minerals present are manganese, copper, iron, magnesium and potassium. And of course vitamin C is a plenty in the durians. The durian is such a unique fruit that even the flesh has so much variations. The shape, texture and color of the flesh varies with different varieties

There are many species of durians but you need not worry about the various species. The recommended (and probably the safest bet) species would be the D24. The D24 is creamy and bitter but its taste is not too strong so its good for beginners. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the durian, you can move on to other species. The durian has been used in many other culinary dishes. There’s durian flavoured ice cream, durian cake, tempoyak and others.

It was a regular Sunday, the 6th of December 2020. Had a nice meal, a wonderful nap and then sat in front of the TV to watch some movies.

Around evening, the weather was abit off. Clouds became grey and it was super windy. I didn't bothered much as I thought it was just a regular rain but to my surpr3it wasn't.

It started raining heavily but instead of just rain sounds, my mum and I heard stones dropping sound on our zinc roof. We then went out to have a look. As I was standing and wondering, something hit my face but I didn't make a big deal thinking it was just a rock.

Then my dad told me to head to the playground which was behind our house. It was still raining heavily. My dad then reached his hand out, clutched something in his hand and gave it to me... You know what... It was ICE!!!!

Literally ice rain. The ice were tiny and it only lasted for few minutes. The rain water was super cold like that of a waterfall. Of course I got super excited.

But how is it possible? I Googled on 'ice rain'. Here's what I found. Another name for it is 'sleet' which means rain that contains some ice as it falls.

Sleet is type of precipitation distinct from snow, hail, and freezing rain. It forms under certain weather conditions, when a temperature inversion causes snow to melt, then refreeze.

Sleet occurs when falling snow melts and then refreezes before it hits the ground.

To understand how sleet forms, it helps to know how snow forms.The air closest to Earth’s surface—the layer where weather happens—is called the troposphere. In general, the higher you go in the troposphere, the colder the air becomes.

During precipitation formation, if temperatures are at or below freezing, 0°C (32°F), at cloud level, water in the air freezes into ice crystals, and the crystals stick together to make snow. The snow starts to fall, and if the air column is freezing cold all the way down from the clouds to the ground, the precipitation stays frozen. It simply falls as snow.

Sometimes, however, a temperature inversion occurs. Normally, the temperature decreases with increasing altitude. A temperature inversion is when a layer of warm air intrudes between the ground and the clouds.

Under these conditions, when the falling snow reaches the layer of warm air, it melts. Then it hits the layer of cold air just above Earth’s surface and refreezes. This all happens very fast, and the result is tiny ice pellets called sleet.

It's kinda hard to understand this situation but it was one great experience and I really enjoyed it.

Video taken by myself at the playground

It all began on the 23rd of November 2020.

Since we had to stay home due to this pandemic, I was looking for jobs online. Data entry or something similar. Just then, I received a WhatsApp text from my aunt. She sent me a brochure on freelance document typing.

Apparently, she got the brochure from her brother-in-law, who's friend is handling this job.

So I texted that number and got the details required. Basically the job states that we will be given university or school books and we just have to make a softcopy of it by typing it out. One of the requirements is to pay Rm50 to book the spot and as a safety of the books since they're expensive.

So, I did the payment and the person said I would receive my first book in 4-5 working days. So I waited.

But then in between, I texted the person asking for tracking number and the postage. There was no reply, no profile picture and messages were with one tick. I assumed that the person was busy and left it.

Then again I just didn't feel right about it. So I started asking my friends about WhatsApp contact not having a profile picture and one ticks. Most of them said it was some scam.

Just to experiment a little, I texted that number from my dad's phone there was a reply: 'please give your details and we'll send the job description'. There was a profile picture and messages were seen. Just then I texted saying I've made the payment but no reply and updates. Two days later I checked that conversation, there was no reply and no profile picture.

I then asked my aunt from where she got it. As mentioned earlier it was from her brother-in-law's friend. I then told the issue but when he tried to contact his friend, there was no reply. And then he said most probably it was a scam.

I was really devastated at that moment. It was already hard to find income during this pandemic and I just lost 50 bucks in some scam. I was angry and didn't had the mood to do anything. Eventually, I stepped out of it.

Well, I hope that person who keeps cheating people like this suffers the consequences. There's a lot of ways to earn in the right way. And to you guys reading this, I hope you don't become victims in such scams.

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