D....e......l.....a.......y

Almost two months has passed since I posted my last article. No good excuse for the delay. It is some sort of 'back to basics'....something I started more than two dozen of years ago, before we even know of the Internet, what more to say about email, blog, facebook, etc. Actually it is more appropriate to call it 'back to garden'. Having started gardening and followed by rearing of koi, I find that 24 hours a day is hardly enough for me. So, something got to go (for the time being) and it is blogging that has to give way to gardening. Don't get me wrong. It is only temporary as it is proven by this posting.

In fact gardening does not take up much of my time. It is the koi, or, to be more precise, the koi pond and its accessories that has been keeping me outdoor, sometimes till late at night. Believe me, tending the pond has helped to sharpen my observational and problem-solving skills that can help me in my work in school. Actually when I wanted to rear koi, I did not expect to face so many challenges. (You call these trivial things as challenges when the country is facing with many big issues and problems? Never mind-lah!!!)

I do not want to bore you with details except for some interesting instances I like to share here.

1. I realised my filter tank was full of larva. Luckily I discovered that before the 'who-you-know-I-mean' finds out. I rushed to a nearby shop to buy a piece net and pieces of wood to make a cover for the tank. Having done that, I happily assumed the problem was solved until I took out the cover to clean the filter one day. What a shock when a dark cloud emerged from the surface of the tank. Actually it was such a huge quantity of mosquitoes that together they looked like a dark cloud. Lesson number 1 : Do not think a problem is solved just by implementing untested procedures and leave it aside without further observations and supervisions.
2. Thinking hard how to solve that problem. A finer net? Using chemicals? Making the water fast-flowing? Finally, a friend suggested to put some fish in the filter tank to eat the larva-simple as that and the problem was solved by a packet of fish costing only RM2. Lesson number 2 : Do not be trapped by too complicated methods so much so that we ignore the simple, obvious though not so glamorous but effective solutions.
3. I bought five floating water plants, each having roots of about 20 cm long. Hardly two hours after I floated them on the surface of my koi pond, the roots were detached from the plants. I do not have any proofs but I guess it must be the work of those 'naughty' koi in the pond. Anyway, I do not intent to punish them for their mischief even if I have concrete evidences. (Don't equate me to 'some-people-you-often-hear-about' for letting go culprits unpunished because fish are not human beings.) I thought of a solution to salvage the five plants before they succumb to further injuries. I took a plastic pot, tied it with a rope, attached to a plastic-coated iron wire and hung it by the side of the pond so that the pot would not sink. I then placed the five plants in the pot so that it was still floating but safe from their 'enemies' outside. Somehow or rather, the pot was detached from the rope but to my pleasant surprise the pot was still floating. Apparently, even when filled with water its density was still lower than that of the water in the pond. I felt like a fool doing all those stunts with rope, wires, shaping and adjusting to make sure the pot stayed on the surface of the water when in actual case it would float anyway by itself. Lesson number three : Don't try to be too smart with technology and forget about the basic sciences. (Technology-all those works with rope, wire and pliers. Basic science-relative density.)
4. Just as I thought I have saved those plants from the treat of my koi, I was challenged(sorry again with this big word) with a new mystery. For a few morning when I routinely fed my koi before going to work, I was surprised to see the plants turned upside down. Did any of the koi jumped into the pot and turned those plants and jump back before I woke up? Luckily, I am not one who is too indulged with fantasies or fairy tales. Did someone sneak into my compound to do this stupid thing? Another stupid thought. Anyway, I did not give out thinking of a solution to that puzzle. Finally, one morning I saw a frog on the edge of the pot and the mystery was solved. For those who study science will know of Newton's third law of motion which states that for every action there will be an equal reaction in the opposite direction. The frog liked to visit the floating plants and jumped from one plant to another. So each time the frog jumped forward from a plant it kicked the plant backward and usually turned it upside down. Lesson number four : Do not give up easily and continue to think as solutions will favour a thinking mind.

There are more other interesting things just about the fish pond but I do not wish to annoy readers with these trivial things when 2012 is just around the corner. But then if we look around us and see people who are supposed to be doing big things quarreling like kids, my thought may not be too childish after all. I shall continue the next time.