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With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

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Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

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Friday, September 16, 2011

Twin Hibiscus for Malaysia Day 2011

1. Clock Tower of Sultan Abdul Samad Building

Today, we Malaysians will be having a double celebration:
(a) Our country's 54th year of independence, and
(b) Malaysia's 48th birthday.

This 40m high Clock Tower with the shiny copper dome is draped in our national flag called the "Jalur Gemilang" (Stripes of Glory)".

“Twin Hibiscus for Malaysia Day 2011", a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on Sept 16th, 2011.



2. Bunga Raya

The Bunga Raya Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Brilliant Red' is our National Flower.


3. Bunga Raya 2-in-1

Can you see 2 flowers here?

4. Bunga Raya twins

This is quite unusual - 2 flowers from a single stalk.
The flowers are joined at the base like a pair of Siamese twins.
Twin flowers for twin celebrations,
2-in-1 flowers for 2-in-1 celebrations!

5. Sunbird on my hibiscus

This has never happened before in my city home garden.
An olive-backed sunbird came for a drink of nectar on my hibiscus flower.
It was a real close encounter for me, less than 5 ft away and I was thrilled!

6. A group of soldiers walking past the stage during the rehersal

This is the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, nicknamed the Grand Old Lady of Kuala Lumpur **.

It is an icon of our colonial past and the seat of the government of Malaya when Kuala Lumpur first became the capital of the Federated Malay States in 1895.  It now houses the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture of Malaysia. The superior courts used to be here but these have since been relocated elsewhere*.

The building was designed by A.C. Norman and built in 1894-1897 to house several important government departments during the British Administration. It has the British Raj style with Moorish architecture.*

Even in the those days, sustainable green architecture had been incorporated into the building struture which was designed to suit our climate. Some examples are the thick walls, high ceiling and cross ventilation.**

This place is a famous landmark and major tourist attraction. It was the site of a 1992 Hong Kong movie, "Police Story 3" staring Jackie Chan and former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh.

7. School students and teachers form the bulk of the 10,000 Malaysia Day 2011 parade participants  

The field in front of Sultan Abdul Samad Building is the Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) which was formerly known as Selangor Club Padang. Dataran Merdeka is a symbol of our freedom and independence from our colonial masters.

Many historical events were (and still are) held here, the most important was the Declaration of Independence by our country's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. At the stroke of midnight on August 31st, 1957, the Union Jack was lowered and the national flag of Malaya raised for the very first time at the tune of our national anthem, the Negaraku. This was followed by 7 chants of "Merdeka" by the crowd with Tunku leading the way.*

Dataran Merdeka is the favourite place for our National Day parades and celebration to commemorate the independence of Malaya and thereafter the formation of Malaysia.


8. Youths of today - Malaysia's future is in your hands

My son and his classmates are taking part in the Malaysia Day celebrations 2011. I came here to take a look at the rehersals but couldn't get a snapshot of him. His attire is blue, hidden among the sea of happy faces here. He is taking part as a field performance participant volunteer. This is a new experience for him, attending the month long practice under the hot sun at the Bukit Jalil Stadium and the last few days of rehersals at Merdeka Square. This week, he had to be at school as early as 4:30am to take the school bus from Klang to Kuala Lumpur.

It is good that so many youths are joining in the celebrations. Afterall, the future of our country belongs to them. It is good to instil the spirit of patriotism from a young age. I am sure they will take home many meaningful and happy experiences to share with loved ones in the future. They may not feel it now, but 10-20 years later, it will be a treasure trove of memories to relate to their children, grandchildren and the future generations. I am glad that my son has a hand in creating our history today.

Malaya achieved independence from the British on 31 August 1957 but Malaysia was born on September 16th, 1963 with the addition of 2 more states from Borneo island i.e. Sabah and Sarawak. Singapore was still a part of Malaysia then before it separated from us in 1965. Last year, Sept 16th was declared a public holiday to commemorate Malaysia Day. This is the first year we are having the twin celebrations.

9. Young faces, happy expressions - a colourful and united Malaysia!

During the colonial days, cricket was a popular game on this field. The building in front is the Royal Selangor Club.  Founded in 1884, it used to be an exclusive "whites-only" club.

We are currently having hazy skies as a result of fires in Sumatra and Borneo. Let's hope today will be nice and clear blue skies.

Happy 48th Birthday, Malaysia!
Selamat Hari Malaysia!

For more pictures, visit this link: NST - Colours of Malaysia Day

Footnote:
* Sourece: Wikipedia
** Architect Lim Take Bane mentioned this in a programme about our heritage buildings on Astro TV on 14 Sept 2011.

This is my entry for :
1) Fertilizer Friday - hosted by Glenda of Tootise Time, and
2) Weekend Flowers #12 - hosted by Tina
3) Today's Flowers # 161 - TF team Santilli - Denise - Pupo - Sandy Carlson

27 comments:

  1. Enjoy your holiday. Some nice photos of what is going on and some lovely blooms also.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  2. Happy Malaysia Day and Happy holiday. Yes can see 2 flower in 1 stalk...blooming on time to celebrate twin celebration ;)

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  3. nice hibiscus! never seen like that one before. happy holiday and happy birthday malaysia! love your blog.
    -angel

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  4. You are so good in observing the extraordinary. But i observed the awesome colors of the youngsters in celebration in front of that building. I always see that bird always zipping nectar from our hibiscus, we have that red too, but because it is so small i cannot get a good shot. It sometimes have nest hanging on our lime tree.

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  5. Happy Independence Day!The pictures are great, and the information about your country is very interesting.

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  6. ♥♫♪Olá, amiga!
    *✿ Bela data, linda comemoração!
    Bom Feriado!!!
    ♥♫♪Bom fim de semana!
    *•Beijinhos.
    ✿.Brasil

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  7. Happy Malaysia Day!
    How nice that you managed to get a photo of the bird in the hibiscus.

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  8. Selamat Hari Jadi Malaysia! Hope you have a long relaxing weekend with your love ones.

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  9. I love when people are patriotic to the country, and so glad the youth are participating in your twin celebration. What a serendipitous find on the hibiscus!

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  10. Happy Independence Day. I liked how all the participants were so colorfully dressed.

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  11. What a happy celebration! I love that gigantic flag. The kids look pretty happy here.
    What a grand tradition!
    And the hibiscus are beautiful as well. Thanks for sharing!
    Hugs

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  12. It's so cool to have a window into the world via your blog! The twin hibiscus flowers are amazing btw. :)

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  13. Happy Birthday Malaysia!

    4:30 am?!! My goodness! How far is it from your home to school? He must have been up as early as 3:30 am. Then again, it must be a very good experience for them. The young lady in the yellow shirt seems to be enjoying herself as with the other young ones in the next photo.

    You have a good capture of the sunbird. My wife tried to take a picture of the ones that visit our garden but since she has ornithophobia, she could not get in for a closer shot.

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  14. Hi everyone! Thank you very much for coming here to celebrate Malaysia Day with me. Loved your comments too.

    Bom,
    1) Yeah! he woke up at about 4am as our home is pretty near to his school. We parents had been waking up at 3:30am though for the duration of his 'duties'. Klang is about 40 km to KL or 30-45 min drive.

    2) Most of them are students between ages 14-16. Happy faces, fresh outlook and dreams about the future. They shall have lots of meaningful memories to share with their loved ones in the future.

    3) Ornithophobia? I had to google this and learnt a new word today, haha! The bird was too fast for my point and shoot camera and I only had one single shot. How nice if it could land on my hand.

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  15. Thanks for joining Weekend Flowers with this lovely blossoms :)

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  16. You were quick to be able to get the bird! Great shot. Nice history lesson too.

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  17. Nature's wonders!
    Thanks for sharing.

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  18. Hello! And Happy Birthday to Malaysia!
    My daughter gave me a half dead Hibiscus and I didn't even know what it was as it was in such bad shape. Now it has gotten new leaves, and bloomed..and now I know. I am the proud owner of a lovely Hibiscus like yours. I hope it grows to be as beautiful!! :)

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  19. Happy Independence Day and Happy Birthday to your country. The youth look so joyful in their colorful clothing. Thanks for sharing some of your history.

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  20. Lovely the way your hibiscus was showing you that it too was double celebrating the day.

    Happy Independence and Malaysia day!

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  21. Happy Malaysia Day!!
    I've seen a pair of sunbirds which comes regularly to my neighbour's hibiscus plants and they always flew away before I could get my camera!

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  22. To me, this is the classic hibiscus flower... very pretty photos of them...

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  23. Congratulations! And isn't it nice that you have such a happy accident of twin hibiscus! Very pretty!

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  24. Wow! you went for the parade?
    It look so colourful!
    Nice shot of hibuscus with bird!

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  25. girl...I used to have several of these in my house...but alas they were overtaken by spidermites...and I was just so new to gardening and plants...that I didn't know what to do to save them. I loved them!!! Great post this week...thanks for linking in!

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