The Lawn Mower

It was just like yesterday when I was mowing my mum's previous house lawn with the very same machine that I used today to mow my lawn. This fantastic piece of machine had been with us for more than two decades and had never once tried to avoid doing it's job.

My first encounter with a lawn mower is a reel type and is powered by human power. I was not more than ten years old then and it looks almost exactly like the one in the picture. Looks like this piece of machine is frozen in time. Anyway if I am still using this type of lawn mower I would look like Mr. Muscle ....... hehehe!!!!!

A couple of years later my father brought home a four stroke gasoline powered push lawn mower. WOW!!! this powered mower really makes mowing a breeze but starting was a problem for me because back then I was just a small kid. Never knew how a four stroke gasoline engine work until years later in secondary school power mechanic classes that I learned about the basics of four stroke gasoline engine.

The first mower lasted us more than nine years before it gave up ......... err mainly due to neglect, lack maintenance and abuse. The second unit was not spared the torture too ................ you can see the service scars from the pictures .......... I did the handy repair work!!! When my mum moved into her present home with no lawn I took over the machine. From then on it is treated with respect and maintain according to schedule.

Today even though it is more than twenty five years old I am still using it to mow my lawn and it is still providing great service. Yes, nowadays I can start it with just one pull .......... guess I am BIG now ... hehe!! :)

Roast Beef

As far as I know roast beef is not in the menu in any restaurant except when Arby's was around and that was ages ago. So if you know of any restaurant serving roast beef as a dish do let me know ........... really appreciate it.

Today we had real delicious juicy roast beef for lunch and it was really yummy! yum!! yum!!! It was really good ....... succulent, tender, juicy and WOW!!! it was really heavenly .......... better than Arby's. My wife had perfected it and we get to enjoy it ,,,,,,,,,,, yum!! yum!!

To make great roast beef the cut to use is the fillet and local beef is our choice. It is not easy to get local beef fillet because it is a much sought after cut. It is the most tender part of the whole cow and there is not more than four kilograms of it. We normally have to make an advance booking for it when we want it.

To make roast beef one must not season it over night or even a few hours before roasting it which we found out from experience. Seasoning the beef early before roasting will cause the beef to be dry and fibrous so it is best to do it just before putting it into the oven. Do not worry about the seasoning not getting into the beef, the beef itself is tasty. The seasoning itself is very simple, just use fresh rosemary, garlic, black pepper, olive oil and salt.

Roast beef is traditionally eaten with Yorkshire pudding, due to time factor my wife did not make it today but it is still great with potatoes. Fantastic lunch today ........... guess what's next ......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)

Malacca Central Market

Not too long ago we had never ever thought of doing our marketing in the Central Market even though we frequent the hypermart across the road every now and then. The wet market is a place where most people will avoid going as much as possible but then again there are those who prefer the wet market to the hypermart. There are also those who frequent both the hypermart and wet market, these are the people who have the advantage of enjoying the best of both worlds.

It was about two years ago after my wife return from a trip to England to attend her nephew's wedding and one of her mission was to bring home a meat thermometer. Yes, a meat thermometer is right on top of the shopping list for her in England and that is all I wanted, nothing else. With a meat thermometer I can make roast beef the way I wanted it .......... rear, medium rear, done or well done .......... no need to play the guessing game. I had wanted to have roast beef for quite awhile and having the thermometer there us no excuse of not doing it.

The first piece of beef I used was frozen Australian Beef from our regular frozen food supplier. I was not able to get the part of cut that I wanted so had to settle for another. It turned out OK but I am sure it can be better remembering the texture of the very first bite of roast beef I ever had, it was tender and juicy. It was many many years ago and it was the first time in my life that I ever tasted roast beef .......... it is love at first bite hehehe!!! It was Arby's and the very first outlet was located in Jalan Barat in Petaling Jaya but sad to say it only lasted for a short period of time.

The search for the right cut of beef lead us to the central market and we were not able to get what we wanted on our first visit but we made contact. Nowadays we just call our regular butcher a day or two earlier before we make our weekly visit and place an order for our requirement ......... great service ya!!

The fishes there are also great and there are lots of variety to choose from. Our fishmonger is really a character and we now call him "Cikgu" (Malay for teacher) because he thought that I was a "Cikgu"

Our perception about the central market is now different from the past, we visit it almost weekly for our seafood and sometimes beef. So if you are going to check out the central market, be careful where you put your foot!!! It's WET :)

Rain

It was one of those wonderful morning to sleep in late where getting out of bed is almost sinful.Yes, it would really be nice to continue sleeping in this cold cold morning (we do not want to have air-conditioning) and the soothing rhythm from the gentle falling raindrops. Much as I would like to continue sleeping my old bladder did not allow me to do so ........... looking out the window and confirmed that it was not even dawn yet.

After having done my morning business, I decided to have my breakfast in the patio, a cup of coffee and one of those last remaining so delicious "bak-chang". (My dear friend from up north, sorry lah bo liao lo, next year maybe hor!) Took my time with breakfast, savouring every bite of the "bak-chang" while enjoying the real fresh rain washed morning air.It was really good.

Feeling confident that it would not rain anymore, decided to put the seedlings and replanted seeds out to catch the warmth of the morning sun. Then went up to the attic attic to change the water filter to the main tanks. Without warning it started to rain cats and dogs while I was busy with the filters. By the time I got to the seedlings and yet to germinate replanted seeds it was too late and it was a horrible sight. ARRGGHH!!! I could only save the seedlings. Guess I was mistaken that the calm was not the end of the rain but the beginning of a storm :(

Armed with a tatty umbrella, I made my way to my mini organic farm and was relived to see the plants were doing just fine. Glad that I mulched the raised beds too, if not precious compose that I added to enrich the soiled would had been washed away too. Looking at the plants enjoying rain while myself was getting almost drenched to the skin, I thought to myself "Guess nature have a way of taking care of itself" .......... but don't push your luck ya! :)

Roti Canai Sombong

"Roti Canai Sombong", this is what I would name this "roti canai" stall. "Sombong" is a Malay word meaning arrogant and haughty, yes that is the exact and only word to describe them. They can really put to test the patience of the most patience person alive and I have known of one such person who have lost his cool after being a customer for Donkey's years. Normally he would have his breakfast of "roti canai" and "teh tarik" before ordering his take away. While waiting for his take away he would have his second cup of "teh tarik" because the wait can really take quite a while, never knew the reason why but must wait. Customers who order take away only were always told "mesti tunggu" or "ta'da lagi" which means must wait or no more even though one can see very clearly there were lots more.

One day as usual this very patience person after having his "roti canai" and "teh tarik" placed his order for take away and was shocked at the reply "Eat in OK. take away no more lah!!" WOW!!! this really got to him even after a satisfying meal........poor guy ever since then he had never set foot in there ever since.
My wife is also their long time regular customer and we all like the haughty "roti canai" except for my princess. Their "roti canai" texture is just right ........ crispy with the right feel to the bite ........ the dhal (lentil curry) dip compliments the "roti canai" very well even though it is sometimes diluted and the taste ................ nice with great aeroma.
My wife usually make her order for take away before doing her marketing nearby and usually she still have to wait for her order after her marketing. She managed to befriend one of their employees and now she get a little bit more special service. She can now place advance order with a fixed time for pick up and it is always on time so far. Join me for "Roti Canai Sombong"? :)

Replanted

Well four months passed and errr!!! still no produce from the organic mini farm. Guess it is tough being a first time farmer and being an organic one does not make things any easier. The first lot of seeds planted did not germinate as I had mentioned earlier ............. actually only a single chili plant germinated and it is struggling to stay alive .......... looks like I might have to replace it with a new plant but than again I must try to save it to truly have green fingers.

Did some research before doing any replanting of the seeds and my Princess gave me a great tip about planting from seeds. Yes, I will share it with you all ............ she found this out from her very own experience when she first planted some herbs from seeds and it also did not germinate the very first time. She discovered that she had planted the seeds too deep and she fashioned a special tool out of toothpick by marking the required depth on it. Basically the depth required by tiny seeds is no more than 5mm. Thanks a million my dear princess the seeds are now seedlings.

The seeds that are now seedlings are perennial and the first batch of the choi sum seeds starting pots too have to be replanted too. With a heavy heart I disposed off the the seed pots into the compost heap with a big sigh!!!!

The replanting are all done and I am really looking forward to transplanting the seedlings real soon. :)

Chef To Be

My "Only Daughter" yes the youngest one is thinking to be a chef, not just a chef but a Famous Chef. She'll practise her culinary skills whenever she gets the chance to, not just cooking but artistic presentation too. She is capable of doing things that she have a strong interest in with no formal training like music. She played the piano very well which she learned by herself with some guidance from her mum. She recently bought a music keyboard with her own hard earned money from her part time job in a Chinese restaurant in a five star hotel.

Part time job, yes she is doing part time job in the kitchen and some time with her sister as a waitress in the same restaurant. She is getting great exposure and experience from working there. She had learned to cook butter prawns just by observation, yes it tasted just like those you get from premium Chinese restaurant .......... after a couple of try. Her most common dish at the moment is fried rice and she only cook what she fancied ........... hmmm!!!! Wonder when is she going to surprise us and cook something else :)

The Fence

Every morning when I wake up the first thing I do is to look out my window to look at my front yard. It is a nice view with of lots of green, the early birds everything just look so fresh at dawn. This is something that I never had the opportunity to enjoy when I was working in Kuala Lumpur, a place that I will never like even though I spent all my working life there.

One morning around mid-January this year, as usual I looked out my window when I woke up but something seems to be amiss. Since the sun is not out yet I decided to do my usual before going downstairs for a closer inspection. Upon opening the front door .......... "Oh my gosh !!!" my whole front beautiful natural bush kind of fence was destroyed and it is a hit and run case.

Time to play CSI, got the camera out and started to look for evidence .......... it was very easy, the culprit left the broken pieces of the car registration number plate at the crime scene. All I had to do is just to piece them together, not much thinking required .... hehe!! If he had remove just a couple of pieces of the broken plate then it would be very difficult to make a identification. Armed with the registration number we made a police report and at the same time contacted our insurance agent.



Our insurance agent was quick to react and got the adjuster to check out the crime scene on the same day. As usual the adjuster was very noncommittal but great at making very stupid comments and suggestions. I guess that he had a personality issue with himself.

After a couple of days and no response from the guilty party, we decided to pay them a visit. We got the ownership details from the road transport department with the police report. The vehicle was registered to a company in Malacca thus making the whole scenario favourable for us to pursue the matter of settlement personally instead of just relying on the insurance company. Relying on insurance company will just minimise our losses and that is why they employed the services of loss adjuster. Doing it our self there is no need to suffer any monetary losses just some intangible losses like anxiety, time, security and energy required for ground rehabilitation.

Locating the company was easy and after given the run around by some people in the company we managed to catch their General Manager. After a brief introduction of our self and spelling out very clearly of our intention to the General Manager, we went home with the assurance that she'll come back to us with a decent proposal. From the discussion we also found out that the culprit lied to his employer about the how, where and when the accident occurred until the police called them up to investigate base our report.

The next day a group of them including their insurance provider and contractor came to asses the situation. My request is simple and I gave them a choice. The first choice is to put everything back as it and I don't care what kind of plants they were going to use but they must ensure that the plants must live ........ hehe!!! I think this is a bit impossible. The hedge fencing is more than twenty years old and I had spent thousands of man hours if not millions maintaining it. I was willing to compromise on the second choice, a simple brick wall of acceptable quality .............. a brick wall so that we can maintain our privacy. As for the insurance matter they will have to deal with their own insurance company, not mine. I will return whatever compensation amount from their insurer if any to them minus our expenses to serve justice. See I am a reasonable person just requesting for what was rightfully ours.

A couple of days passed after their visit and I have to push them for a commitment but was told that their contractor did not want to do the job so they did not have a figure to work with. I guess they must had insisted to their contractor on my first choice cause it sounded cheaper. I rejected their request for us to get our own contractor cause I believe there would be a lot of mistrust from every party. A few days passed since then and we have to constantly bug them before they brought another contractor to make a quote base on the second choice.

A few more days later and after many phone calls we finally got a commitment from them ............ thank god it is finally over :)

Cholesterol

More than three months have passed since I got poor results from routine regular cholesterol test and was taken off the medication because of the bad side effects was rearing it's ugly head. I was told to go on a strict diet and do more exercise ........... or else!?!? Above photo is where I go for my clinical needs.

As I have mentioned before exercise I can do but strict diet??? ........... being a food person I guess strict diet is out of the question for me. Exercise ....... well I hate jogging and going for walks alone is real borrring. Cycling aimlessly is almost like jogging, just an unproductive way of using energy. Anyway I was inspired to start a mini farm while doing some work in my front yard.

Farming need a lot of physical work and since I have an excess of cholesterol I guess it is a good and productive way of making use of it hehe!!! I have to eat lots of vegetables too which is one of my favourite kind of food ............ good combi eh!!

Yesterday was my cholesterol routine check up day and my results showed a mark improvement. I guess the mini organic farm project really paid off even though there is no real plant yet .......... the seeds did not germinate. Anyway to me it is already a success ;)

Yabbies

Last Saturday did the aquarium shop circuit with my "Princess" and "Only Daughter" to check out what is available in the tropical fish market. My Princess bought a pair of round funny looking goldfish for her fish bowl. She bought a bottom filter too because the mortality rate in her fish bowl is really high. I was really taken up with the Yabbies, they really look delicious and interesting at the same time like little lobsters .......... hehe!!!

The next day, together with my wife we went to the aquarium shop to get some aquatic plants and guess what we got? ....... three yabbies and a bunch of aquatic plants .... I was overjoyed. When introduced into the fountain tank, all three make a straight line to hide under the large pot. After I planted the plants and while admiring the fountain, I noticed all three yabbies in a single file came out from their hiding place to explore the tank. The moment they noticed me, zoom they were back in their hiding place or should I say their safety zone.

Later I took a walk down the road to our neighbourhood aquarium shop to get five pairs of neon tetras. I really like neon tetras and when I had my first aquarium ages ago I had a pair of them. I am always fascinated with the neon stripe across body and they look so pleasant. I also got a packet of shrimps to eat any left over food in the crevices where all the other larger inhabitants could not reach, yes they are some kind of a clean up crew.

It is indeed a pleasant sight to have some life in the tank making the fountain more lively. I sat there for a good while observing the fishes, the shrimps and once in awhile the yabbies will stick their head out to take a peep.

Yesterday morning the plants were all uprooted and the fishes were no where to be seen. The number of shrimps were also greatly reduced ........... what happened? My wife checked too and could not see any fish at all. The yabbies???? They are still around ......... are they guilty?? Checked the Internet and found the yabbies are scientifically classified as Cherax destructor, they are destructive alright. They are very guilty of making the fishes, shrimps disappear and uprooting the plants.

This morning we decided that the yabbies must go .......... cook them?!? too small and only three so nope. Release them into a lake?? a big NO NO cause they are not native here. They must go if we want to have fish in our tank and finally we decided to give it back to the shop. We bought some fishes from the shop and were very pleasantly surprised that the shop keeper gave us a full refund for the yabbies. Once again the tank is lively...... :)

Cantonese Roast Duck

Cantonese Roast Duck ........ yum!! yum!! Yes I love it and my whole family love it too. We used to drive more than 20 kilometers just to buy Cantonese roast duck for a meal and it isn't that great tasting either :( just so so. Then one fine day I just decided why not roast our own duck since we have an oven which is big enough to do the job ..........yes it was a great idea :)

Where to get recipe huh!?! OK, I decided to Google it and oh my gosh!!! .......... there are 42,000 results for Cantonese roast duck. I started to check out about 30 or so sites and trying to associate the taste from memory with the the ingredients mentioned in each site. After virtually tasting about 20 recipes I managed to narrow it down to two most likely candidates and they were making my stomach rumble with hunger .... hehe!!!

First attempt I combined both recipes together by making use of the common items from both recipes but use my own method to do the roasting. I consulted my wife on how she roasted chicken and then I modified it to roast the duck with the breast up and without turning it ......err oven not that big :( to hang the duck. Result - the duck was gone in one sitting maybe because we only have a dish. Comments from the panel of judges (wife and children) is that it was just so so. To me it doesn't have the real taste of Cantonese roast duck at all but it is nice to eat not great.

After a couple of weeks later I made my second attempt by following this recipe as close as possible and this time turning the duck after the breast is almost golden brown. The judges comment this time is that it's great but the meat a bit tough. My wife really love the taste this time cause it really tasted like real good Cantonese roast duck. Guess what I am almost there :)

Two Saturdays ago was my third attempt and this time I let the breast reach a nice golden brown before turning it. WOW!!! it is just simply yummy yum yum ....... the best of all Cantonese roast duck I ever had and the texture is just right. The judges fought over the bits and pieces!!!

Like a piece? ...... :)

It's Done :)

Isn't it beautiful? Yes this is the final result after some minor changes here and there. This is a joint project and my wife contributions were most invaluable....... she have an eye for perfection developed over the years from interest in making the perfect dish, clothing, ............. Me!!! Well I am the carpenter, painter, plumber and electrician. There is still a little more work needed to make it more interesting like some plants, some fishes to swim around and ........... maybe a couple of tortoise !!!

The big flower pot is the result of after visiting many garden centers and we found it partially hidden by other more common pots. I think it is the last one and it has been there for quite awhile cause mosses were already growing on it. Anyway it is a perfect match and I need it to make it into a biofilter. A filter is necessary in order to keep the water crystal clear and I got idea from SKIPPY Filter.

When I first filled it with water from the tap, it looks like I have a trough full of diluted "teh tarik" Anyway it cleared by the next morning.

It is really great to be greeted by the sound of running water every morning when I open the front door and the sight of the fountain is just ahhh!!!.... so very pleasant :)