E Selling

Wanted to sell these two bicycles on line this morning and I choose the most well known buying and selling site where everybody knows about it. As a keen first time user of this type of site, I read all the rules, regulations and instructions to be a registered user of the site so that I can make use of the site. After reading all that I obediently followed all instructions to put my advertisement in the web site.

WOW!!! I am now into E-commerce ..... all excited .....one more page and I am done ..... click..... Oh !#*+@# they want my credit card details even though I followed the instructions for a free listing ... oh !@#*+ again. Looks like it is a wasted effort. No way I will never provide my credit card details just for them to keep in their file. If I really do need their services and pay for something then maybe.

Anyone interested in buying the bicycle ........ buy one get one free ..... NO CREDIT CARD DETAILS required, just C.O.D. :)

Organic Farming

Having started the ground work for a mini veggie farm I have decided to take it a step further or is it a step back again. Yes organic farming or is it natural farming??? OK mine main intention is not to use pesticides, commercially chemically produced fertilisers or any form of environmentally unfriendly things. WOW!!! me a environmentalist hehe!!!

The picture on the left is newly cleared patch of about 2 meter by 1 meter to start a compost pile. Did lots of research on the internet and have to improvise a lot. Information are mainly from the 4 seasons area of the globe so conditions here are very much different. Ingredients are the same and I guess the end result should be the same since they are all biodegradable.

Armed with the information from the net and mixed with common sense, decided to do it the kampong style. Yes it is totally open without any kind of structure to ...... protect???.....keep it together???, yes totally open leaving it to the natural elements of our harsh equatorial climate to do it's job.

The picture on the right is the starting of the compost pile, mainly dried garden waste , vegetable and fruit peelings plus egg shells. I much surprise to note that the actual rubbish that goes into the rubbish bin is reduce by almost 70%. Actually we recycle everything possible in our house and with the recycling of the kitchen waste I think we qualify be friends of nature or simply "green people" :)

Mini Farm

After returning from my routine 3 to 4 monthly cholesterol check, the doctor strongly advice me to go on a strict diet and do daily exercise. Dieting is really tough for me cause I like to eat sinfully delicious food so it is really gonna be tough. Exercise ..... OK I can do it I think! Four months before that check up I did nothing but just eat and sleep........ I guess that is the reason for the very unfavourable test result. This was in mid-April.

I used to go for 6km brisk walk and it did help in the cholesterol matter. So day in day out after that I tried to go for walk again but nothing happened. I went only once from then until now. I guess it is the boredom, monotony and having to do it alone makes it real difficult to do it. Anyway one day while levelling the ground around the new fence I got an idea on how to maximise my effort on a win win situation. Yes I decided to start a mini farm right in my front yard. Oh ya the new fence have a story of it's own.

Instead of just digging up the higher level ground and dumping it onto the lower and uneven level area I decided to first remove the grass with its roots. Next step is to remove about 3 to 4 inches of the rich top soil and put it aside for planting the veggie later. Level of the area and dump the excess earth onto the uneven area around the fence to level it. Finally just dump the dug up grass with roots onto the newly levelled area around the fence and hope real hard that some of it will grow. If it does not I guess it will just decompose and fertilised the ground.

All the work here will be done manually as this is a cholesterol level lowering inspired project. The tools used up till today are just a very old hoe, spade and rake. The picture on the right is the result of after more than six hours of work ........ off course not continuous. I have no real experience in planting veggies and I do not know whether they are green :) I guess this is good for me cause I really sweat like a pig after about 30minutes of digging. Farming is great because it is a continuous affair and it is productive and I hope it will really help in lowering my cholesterol before my next check up in July.

The Attic

It was about 18 years ago when for the very first time I climbed into our newly purchased old house attic to inspect the water tank, I was really astonished to see the amount of space that can be utilised especially the wide area and height available. The house itself is about 40 years old then and after inspecting the the wood work in the attic I am really satisfied with the superb condition it is in. The water tank, it is rubbish all rusted and ready to cause a tsunami if not replaced.

Due to time and financial constrain at that time only the water tank and the other part of the house was upgraded into a home while the attic remain as a shelter for wild life. Pigeons, civet cats or musang and the occassional rats and mice ... yuks!!! The musang that actually made our attic it's home is named Eddie by my eldest daughter. Wonder where Eddie the musang is now after getting evicted.
After a couple of years later and improved financial health, a second phase of renovation was done and a staircase was installed for easy access to the attic level. Now the girls have their own room, the boy a room all to himself and off course the parents get the largest and brand new room :).
Time was still a constraint so no further construction was done to the attic. With the staircase installed and a large opening to the attic, we do get occassional unwelcome resident from the attic coming down to the second and ground level to give us a hair raising experience. Come to think it now it was quite fun chasing those critters around trying to catch it.
I did not contract this job to the contractors because I enjoy doing it myself moreover it is expensive. As a matter of fact all renovation work except for the masonry and roofing work are done by the contractors. It took me about 2 years to complete the first phase of the renovation working on weekends, public holidays and annual leave. The second phase was much faster working right into the wee hours of the morning because the family is already staying in.
Just 4 years ago I had to take a so called "voulantry self seperation" from my job, I decided to return to Malacca for good and so I have a lot of time to do as I please. So after lots of leisurely man hours (about a year or so I think) the attic is finally completed.

Finally it is HOME SWEET HOME

"Bak Chang"

The best "bak chang" were those made by my mum which my wife is now the best "bak chang" maker. She had taken the trouble to painstakingly learn the finer points of making this mouth watering super delicious thingy. The most difficult part is learning the recipe because my mum uses the most traditional way of measurement like for example 3 fingers full of salts or 2 and a 1/2 fingers of soya suace and I shall leave it to your imagination :). Anyway my wife persevered and decoded all those funny units of measurement into today's modern metric unit of measurement. My mum have also endorsed the quality and the tastiness and in her own words "wah!! pi wa cho eh ko ka hoh chiak". Translation "Wow!! it is much more delicious than those I made" Yep! lucky me will get to enjoy these superb creations for many more years to come.

Getting Started

Didn't know starting a blog is so difficult. Registered myself on this site like a month or so ago and had full of ideas of what to write....... guess what ..... I just went blank when it is time to make my first post :)

Came in here many times and log out with no success. Hey!!! I am really doing it, my very first post .... hehehe!!!! Guess I just have to follow what Nike's slogan says "Just Do It" and let it flow by itself.

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