Life n Memories

Cooling a ADSL Modem Router without modification.

2011-09-28T00:24:00.000+08:00

Have you ever noticed how hot a adsl modem can get? Yes itcan get pretty hot and there is no in build cooling system other than a fewventilation slots on the casing itself. I am not sure whether it is true formost adsl modems, but I am sure of those that I had used before. I am not surewhat is the max operating temperature for a adsl modem but operating at apretty hot temperature is not a good sign.

I recently got myself a new adsl modem router after my oldone had the misfortune of being fried by lightning. That one too runs prettyhot and so I had it hung in a way that it will get maximum exposure in the air,like hanging a wet blanket out to dry. It didn't work because there is nobreeze because it is indoor and in a out of sight place. From my experience, ahot modem will cause the line to be disconnected by itself which can be veryfrustrating at times.

This new adsl modem router too runs pretty hot and this timeI decided to do something about it with whatever I have available. This modemcomes with a 2 year manufacturer's warranty and so I cannot do any modificationto it because it will void the warranty. Basing on this I decided on a externalcooling fan to increase the air circulation outside the modem.

Checking through my collection of junks, I managed to gathertogether the necessary parts to put together the external cooling fan. Some of the parts are almost 40 years old,the fan itself was saved from a pile of other items to be dismantled and

soldto the junk yard. The fan was taken out from a computer CPU because it wasrunning intermittently with lots of noise ....... thought that it was going tokick the bucket then. Since I am building a proto-type and as long as it canwork long enough to confirm my set up will work, it was OK for me. Then Ithought maybe a little oil down the spindle might help, guess what, it isworking perfectly right now, guess it must have been real thirsty after workingfor more than 4 years without a drink!

The rubber base is a must, without it the whole thing mightjust move around from the vibration of the fan. It is also to keep the wholecontraption steady because the modem is going to sit right on top of it. Theidea is to have the fan blowing from the bottom of the modem and leaving thetop safe to operate the switches and wires. The rubber base will also keep themodem steady when handling the switches and wires.

Next is to connect the power supply for the fan to a DC powersupply source since it is a DC powered fan. The AC to DC converter was takenout of retirement after it had faithfully served us 24/7 for many yearspowering a caller ID gadget for land line telephones. A tip here for connectingwires without having a lump in it. I guess the picture is self explantory.

Having the contraption assembled, it just did not look rightwith the fan so far down and with a some modifications got the fan to where Iwanted it to be. The fan have to be closer to the modem so that it can enjoythe full blast of the
cooling air. It is not necessary to have it that tall,just about a centimeter above the base would be great and everything would bemore stable. I did not want to cut the supporting screws and since it is stableenough for me I left it as it is. Next placed the modem where it is supposed tobe and it is done. This modem have some ribs at the bottom and so it sits quitesteadily on the contraption.
So far it had been running for about 3 weeks now and the modem is running at about just the room temperature and the warranty on it is 100% intact.

Project Aquaponics

2011-06-02T23:46:00.002+08:00

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. I was introduced to this process of farming by a member of Garden Stew, the gardening forum that I particpate in. My intention was to plant cool weather veggies like lettuce, romaines, spinach, leeks and so on. Incidentally I found out that leeks cannot be planted this way and growing leeks is really different. Anyway I wanted to start a hydroponic system organically and I never knew aquaponics existed.

My princess did planted some veggies using the traditional hydroponics method when she was still in school. The system came in a set complete with all the chemical for the nutrients and veggies seeds. I was impressed with the way the veggies grew and from this memory I decided maybe I can grow cool weather veggies this way. So after lots of googling and asking around in Garden Stew, I was introduced to aquaponics. More googling and concluded the only way I can do this organically is by aquaponics. There are web sites that claim that their chemical nutrients for the hydroponics is organic but I wanted something that I can have easy access to locally at minimum cost.

There are many methods to set up an aquaponics system and after considering the basics of space and hardware, I decided on the ebb and flow method. For a detail account of my set up please check out my blog on my aquaponics in Garden Stew.

Anyway I had my first harvest just a couple of days ago which is "nai bai" and had it for lunch today. It tasted just as good as those planted on the ground and it is finer. As for the planting of cool weather, I guess it is out of the question now. I planted a whole bed with lettuce and it is not doing well. Most of the leaves were scorched by the super hot sun and they are bolting. So instead of getting nice bunch of leafy lettuce, I am getting long skinny ones. Looks like planting cool climate veggies here would remain a fantasy for me.

Hey!! I hope I have encountered the BLANK!!

BLANK!

2011-04-30T23:52:00.000+08:00

It is really difficult for me to post anything lately. I have had wanted to post many things but when I log on all I can do is ................................ yes, just BLANK!! Nothing seems to enter my mind, sometimes after just keying in a few words and it is just BLANK again! Hmmm .................. don't ask me why because I have no idea myself why this BLANK is happening.

Right now I am fighting with this BLANK thingie so that I continue with my blog. I am going to post this even though it is a BLANK and if I can do it, I guess I might just overcome this BLANK period. A post is a post right?

Ham

2011-01-09T00:22:00.000+08:00

Ham to me is a very delicious cured and cooked pork that is ready to be eaten. Chicken ham, turkey ham and whatever other ham is just nonsense. It was really difficult for me to enjoy ham in the past because of the extremely high unjustified cost so it is just look, salivate and bye bye.

I wanted to make ham earlier but was put off by the difficult and almost impossible curing process at home and in this hot tropical climate. I guess I was looking at the wrong site. Some of the sites mentioned that a curing chamber is a must to cure ham, guess they are making a different kind of ham. Anyway I was naive at making ham and all I know at that time is just to eat it.

Anyway December last year Home minister once again brought up the subject about making ham since I had success in making bacon and sausages. Hmmm....... bacon & eggs, sausages, ham also ..... wah!!! can have mat salleh breakfast almost every day huh!!! Yes, I was with Google soon enough clicking away on how to make ham. There were many sites on how to cook cured and raw ham until I came across this Making Ham At Home site. After reading through, I thought to myself that it is not as difficult as I had imagine. I guess I had been looking at the wrong place all this while.

Next is to look for the hardware required to do the job and guess what, yes they are already available and does not take up much space in the fridge. Ingredients were also already available except for the raw ham itself. Almost everything is already there and all it needed was just to put them together.

Five days later, we were enjoying the most delicious ever cooked ham for breakfast and it is really easy to do. If you ever thought of doing cooked ham at home, just do it!!

2011

2011-01-06T10:47:00.002+08:00

A great shot by my son

2011, a brand new year and a new decade in the millenium. 2010 had been a great year for me and I am sure 2011 will be too! No sciatica, yummie braised pork leg, made bacon after wanting to for a couple of years, sausages .....also yummie!! Got my Intel i7 computer which is actual a project originally planned for this year. Original plan was a Intel i5 but with such great tempting price ......... it is now history. My princess is also now in the vicious economy eco-system full time, somewhere near the middle of the food chain. I harvested my very first luffa from my mini farm and also the sweetest of the sweetest sweet corn you can ever imagined. Yes 2010 was a great year.

I am looking forward to materialising my ideas for 2011 because the brain is already working overtime on some project for this year. The most interesting project I guess would be aquaponics and I am really excited about it. A project that is already on it's way is making cooked ham ........ a couple of days more and YUMMIE time!!!!!

Golf

2010-09-23T22:49:00.001+08:00

Golf is a funny game played with a set of 14 clubs and a tiny hard ball full of dimples. When I was a kid I used to watch golf on TV, most probably the US Masters Tournament, where Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player were fighting for the Masters Title. To be honest I do not have the slightest idea what I was watching, I was just impressed how the camera man can follow a small ball in motion. Par, birdie, bogie, under ….. these are all Greek to me but I like the vast area of open space, beautifully kept grass and lakes …… nice.

When I was a teenager, I got to know that golf is for the rich and old, so I didn’t bother to pay any attention to it. Later I got to know a rich man’s kid whose father plays golf and so did he. I was kind of a surprise why a young guy like him plays golf. One fine day he invited a couple of us to try out the game with him at the Ayer Keroh Golf and Country Club that his father was a member. We were not told to prepare anything so I went in my shorts, T-shirt and favourite sandals. He was in full golf attire and we looked like his caddies. Well, maybe that is his way of getting us in for a free game.

Once in the course we were each given a club and a ball. All I can remember it was kind of a frustrating trying to hit such a small with small headed club but I liked the vast greeneries and lakes. We had to walk because at that time buggies were unheard of. I enjoyed the walk and I have no memories of playing golf at all …… maybe I wasn’t able to hit it at all. I have no idea how many holes we actually “played” but it did not at all aroused my interest in golf.

It was after many many years that I was exposed to golf again. I was in my thirties and was having a business dinner with one of my most important client together with a Japanese supplier and my Japanese boss. They were talking about golf and it was still all Greek to me then. Later on I was given a so called old set, it wasn’t complete and looks more like trash. By that time I realised that most of my clients and suppliers are into golf. So I decided to give it a try.

With no knowledge at all I went to the golf shop to just look around and have a feel of what it is like, wow!!! expensive. Anyway I bought a trainer ball, one of those plastic ball with a string attached to it and just starting whacking it. Just whacking the trainer ball is getting me nowhere, so I decided that I should get proper coaching. With proper coaching I guess I would be able to have a better basic foundation and understanding of the game better. My knowledge of golf is still like zero at that time except that one has to be a member of a club which was very expensive to become a member. I guess my decision to take up golf was to a certain extend the influence from my clients, suppliers and especially the comment made my big boss that I could be a nominated as a member to one of the golf club memberships owned by the company if I could play. With that in mind I invested in a basic golf lesson package.

It was not a easy decision to make and only after lots of thoughts that I decided to get involved in this funny game. After many hours invested in the swing, I only managed to get the ball air borne and the distance is pathetic. After completing my first basic course, I was invited to play a 9 or maybe 18 holes game which I do not have any memory at all because I was so busy either trying to hit the ball or looking for the ball. My host was really patient with me and he was one of my customer that really encouraged me to take up golf.

After many more hours in the driving range, it was still a frustrating time of trying to hit the ball and looking for the ball in the course, but it was getting a little better because my knowledge of golf was also getting better. Not all clubs manufacturer make their products in the same manner and there are actually clubs for players of different skill level. Guess what I decided to get a new set of clubs that suit me better and at the same time a refresher basic golf swing correction package. Wow!! that instructor really helped me put my swing together and I was really pleased with my own progress. From then on I was really playing golf, not just trying to hit the ball but really playing it and enjoying it. Sometimes still have to look for the ball.

My Scale Models

2010-09-07T21:29:00.007+08:00

One of my longest lasting hobbies is scale model collecting. I can still remember what was the first scale model I had, a military Land Rover from Corgi. I was just a kid then and that land rover belongs to my cousin. When we visited them, I just kept on playing with it because I really like it. When it was pushed it made a noise like just like a Land Rover with off road tyres. No it did not have a sound generator but the sound is just natural to it. They gave it to me because they knew I really like it and I really clocked plenty of fun mileage on it. Hmmmm …….. wonder where it is now.

The next piece is a Sky Hawk fighter jet when I was in primary four, off course there were many other stuffs in between which is not worth mentioning like plastic figurines, vehicles and others. The Sky Hawk fighter jet was a self assembly plastic model kit. One of the rich kid in my class brought it to school to show off and it instantly caught my attention. After all the “huu haa” my classmate offered to buy me one if I can come up with the cash. Well after a month or so I managed to save enough from my pocket money without spending a single cent for that whole period. It cost me just below RM5.00 I think and that long to save for it. Later on I found out that a shop in then Newcome Road called CY Chang were selling these models.

Every time whenever I passed by that shop I would spend time admiring at all the models that were on display to lure people like me. I can still remember those state of the art train models by Hornby, they all look so real with a whooping price tag to go with it. Well I guess I can only dream about it because not only because of the price but also the space needed. Anyway it was much later in my life that I was able to realise this hobby after the Sky Hawk.

Most of the models I had - only a few - then were war aircraft including the famous B52 and Mustang. I had a couple of battle ships and an aircraft carrier too. The B52 was really large and when there is a breeze, the propellers would turn. It fell a couple of times from its stand because of strong breeze and I had to repair it a couple of times.

Then came the Japanese Model kits, mostly of automobiles and some are even powered by battery. One of the model that I really spend lots of hours detailing was a Datsun 240Z by Fujimi. It was like the 240Z was THE car at that time and the model is really detail with engine. Then came the motorbikes by Tamiya and I had a real big collection of it but the one I like best is the Honda Super Cup or commonly known as "cup chai".

Most of these plastic scale model kit cannot last long because they are very flimsy and our weather here is not kind to them. As of today only a few of the plastics models that are still with me, most of them needed repair and still in the box when I transported them back to Malacca. Maybe one of these fine day I might just take a look at them.

Not long ago, actually about 10 years ago while I was killing time in the Atria Shopping Centre in Damansara Jaya, a display model shop caught my interest. I was really impressed by the collection of highly detail metal die cast model they had. By the time I left the shop, I was sure I would like to start my own little collection. Yes, yes, yes, I know I can only stare at it, push it around and make some engine noise by myself – V-R-O-O-M-Mmmmm……I was happy with my buy and I guess this is the part of human nature that is not logical only understood by capitalist.

One fine day like 10years or so ago, I decided that the time was right because there was a sale in Metro Sungei Wang Plaza and I got my very first die cast model, a Ferrari 550 Maranello 1/18 scale by Bburago. Slowly and surely one after another started rolling in.

Metal die cast model are much more robust and so far all those that I acquired are still with me almost in the same condition when I got it, never driven on the road before …… hehehe!!! A little dusty though.

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Want to go for a spin? You chose the ride and I’ll push, you make the sound ya!!! …….. Vrooommmmmm ……………..

Sausages

2010-07-28T13:44:00.001+08:00

Recently I had the urge to make sausages from scratch, maybe it was the sausage meat that home minister made a long time ago after she returned from her vacation in the United Kingdom. She just made the meat without stuffing it into a casing and it tasted good but it was just like eating flavoured minced meat.

I don’t actually care for commercialised sausages because they are really boring. I eat it because it’s there and the only sausages that I did thought of wanting to eat were those from Euro.Deli until I made my very own – yummie!!!

First problem encountered is getting casing because nobody sells the casing here. Hmmm…… no casing, sausages not in casing just don’t feel right to me even though many web sites do have recipes without the casing. Like I mentioned earlier, eating sausages meat without stuffing into casing is just like eating flavoured minced meat. I guess I had to make it myself ……….. OK.

Did a lot of research both on and off the web, pork intestine was my bet because it is easily available and I had eaten like thousand of miles of it. It is really nice to eat and the large intestine cooked with pineapple ..WOW!!! is really yummie!! which is a dish that only my mum used to cook.

Got my first length of intestine from Tesco and I cleaned it by myself which is my very first time. Hey, it is kind of a fun and real easy too!! Lots of salt inside out, that’s it!!

For the filling mix I consulted my best friend Google, there tons and tons of recipes for sausages and it was a difficult choice at first. After awhile with lots of imagination to the taste and checking what ingredients are available and Bratwurst was elected. With some modifications to the recipe, I proceeded to making the sausages manually …… yes all with my two bare hand.

Now the hardware, yes besides the usual kitchen hardware like cleaver, chopping board, mixing bowl ………. a special tool is required that is the sausage stuffer. Well I thought we did not have one so I improvised and made a very simple one and managed to stuff all the 1 kilo of Bratwurst. It wasn’t easy and my arms felt like they were about to drop out of their sockets after I finished….ouch!!

Wow!!! homemade sausages are sausages, they are really good and worth every drop of sweat, err……… no sweat dropped into the mixture in case you were wondering. Princess cooked a sausage meal with the sausages I made and it was really ………….. mmmm……. yummie delicious.

My mind was working on the next flavour of sausages to make immediately after having tasted the very first one I made. People says that the cook usually don’t like to eat their own cooking, yes I guess they are just cook but Chefs will always love their own food and that’s me ……… hehehe!!!!!

I was also thinking how can I improve on the improvised on the stuffer. Currently it takes like a whole lot of time and muscle power to stuff them. I was thinking of a giant syringe kind assisted by a some kind mechanical thingy to press the plunger …… then I remembered that home minister mentioned about some meat grinder she got like ages ago and it is not functional. I had a look at it and it is like a toy, all plastic and guess what, it has a sausage stuffer attachment …….. what a delightful discovery.

With the discovery of the stuffer, I started working on the next batch to test out the toy like thing and it worked!!!! Yahooo!! making the stuffing process almost breeze. From then on the mileage of sausage of different flavours just keep on increasing, one thing for sure they are all so yummie!!!!

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Check out Princess blog for her part of the action in sausage making and eating!!

☺

BACON

2010-07-15T22:42:00.002+08:00

Every morning all around the world for a very very long time, there is definitely at least one person will be having bacon and eggs for breakfast, if not hundreds, thousands or even millions. Yes bacon, eggs and croissants is the king of breakfast, well at least to me is the breakfast of all breakfast. It must be real pork bacon or else it is just nonsense.
In the past I used to look at the bacons that were sold in the supermarkets but were more disgusted with them than wanting to eat them. Looks OK in the packing, super thin slices and lots of fats when opened, disappear when fried!!! This is what you get in this part of the world.
It was about a year or more ago that I first thought of making my own bacon since I wasn’t able to enjoy those store bought bacon like thingie which should be labelled as cured lards!!! I googled and was discouraged on doing so because of the many equipments and refrigerator space required. To make matter worse I was thinking of smoked bacon which means more equipment is needed.
Everything seems impossible then and had to drop the whole idea. The thought of having to eat store bacon is still a NO NO for me and the burning desire to have real bacon becomes silently stronger and stronger day by day. Then late last year home minister asked me about making bacon again while cleaning a beautiful piece of pork belly which she just bought from the butcher. With the pork belly in sight, the burning desire to have real bacon was really strong and I could just taste it!!
I started to google “Making bacon at home” and once again the same disappointing site appear on the screen. This time I am much more determined and search further ……... Dry cured bacon, WOW!! it is really easy to make with a bit of common sense.

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Self-made bacon is indeed a real joy to eat, it is super delicious and I can never get enough of it ….. yum yum!! Try it and you’ll never want store bought bacon anymore!!!!
Now I am thinking of self-made croissants …….. the King of Breakfast!!!

☺

My First Luffa

2010-06-23T12:46:00.001+08:00

Luffa or petola is one of our favourite veggie except for my son ….. I wonder why????

My first attempt at planting this veggie was fruitless but the plant grew very well and I think it became a bit too much for the shared trellis and it collapsed after a storm. Yes initially there was no petola plant but when the pole bean did not make it, I replaced it with petola and I guess by that time when it was growing at it’s max, the trellis must have had worn out.

The next plant was planted on its own trellis which is of the teepee kind but this plant had to be destroyed because it was infested with hairy caterpillars.

The third plant was also planted on its own teepee trellis and it grew real well but no luffa. There were many flowers and mini luffas that just drop off. Anyway just decided to just let it continue growing since I had no new plants to plant yet.

Then one morning during my usual walk in the mini-farm, I was pleasantly surprised to see a portion of a luffa sticking out from among the leaves of the plant. This is my first luffa after more than three years.

In the west, luffa are usually left on the plant to grow old and dry up. They are then used as bathroom accessories. Here we eat it as soon as it is big enough for the table …… it was really delicious, my very first one, yum!! yum!!

It was already almost big enough for the table when I

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discover it and not wanting it to be taken by some pesky pest, I harvested it. Home minister made egg luffa omelette for dinner ………. burrp!! yummie!!!

A Pineapple Tale

2010-04-09T22:24:00.002+08:00

I do not normally eat raw pineapple in my homeland because 99.9% of the time it is sour and sharp. What I mean by sharp is that it irritates the inside of my mouth to extend that it causes cuts and roughness on the tongue. From a young age I learned that there are only two kinds of pineapples, the sour kind which is normal in size and the half sweet and half sour kind which is large. The large kind is called Sarawak Pineapple.

When I first visited Thailand, I was really surprised that their pineapple is 100% sweet and very nice to eat. Whenever I am there I would eat as much pineapple as possible because they are sweet and heavenly to eat. To-date I have not tasted a sour pineapple from Thailand ever before. Sometimes I wonder why nobody grew the same species here or is it just a natural thing that pineapples in Thailand are always sweet.

Quite awhile ago, my wife’s aunt gave her a Sarawak Pineapple from her own garden and almost 90% of the fruit was sweet. It was a large fruit and with the help of our son she planted the crown. At that time I was very busy climbing the corporate ladder and was not at all interested in planting. Over the years we had eaten the fruits of this neglected plant a couple of times and it was really sweet but it was getting smaller and smaller.

It was in June 2008 when we had one of the fruit from the original neglected plant offspring and I was forced decided by Home Minister to plant the crown of that fruit in the mini farm. After a year and nine months plus minus a couple of days we were

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rewarded with a two and a half kilo or five and a half pounds very sweet and yummie fruit. I am really glad that I was forced decided to plant it.

The crown of this fruit is now planted in a pot to be given to a very close friend of ours when she come visit next. I still have another plant in progress. The original plant will soon produce a new shoot for another awesome fruit soon.

Mini Farm Up-Date

2010-04-03T00:06:00.001+08:00

Today my mini farm is almost two years old and it is maturing but is still very much an infant. In my first year of planting everything just seems to be easy except for the bout with sciatica which resulted from excessive extreme digging with the hoe which I broke the hoe stem. The mini farm then was like a mini jungle!!

After getting the mini farm back to looking like a farm, I started to get uninvited guest to feast on my produce, yes those damn pest of all kinds. Being a first time farmer, I just tried to cope with manual power to get rid of those pesky varmints. I had to destroy my angled luffa plant because it was infested with some kind of creepy hairy caterpillars …. yucks!!!!

In desperation I started googling for solutions and joined this very friendly and helpful forum web site “Garden Stew”. It is indeed a real nice gardening and social web site with lots of friendly and helpful members. I have benefitted a lot since becoming a member of Garden Stew and is happy to say that I have also contributed some to the www. This really make farming/gardening more meaningful. Just last week, Frank the founder of Garden Stew drop by for a short visit and I was really honoured. I was the first member he visited since he set up the Garden Stew.

Last year towards end December till late February this year the weather was really hot and dry making it very difficult to plant anything. The produce from the mini farm was minimal and it wasn’t really tasty. This phenomena is not normal and some experts have labelled it as El Nino/La Nina. Well I guess if capitalist just keep on raping the earth, then ……… your guess is as good as mine as to which direction we are heading to.

Now the mini farm is aging nicely but have yet to attain a balance. Hmmm!! It is mini I hope it can establish a mini balanced eco-system so that those varmints can become food for the friendly inhabitants of the mini farm. Currently those varmints are more or less under control the very organic way and those delicious veggies are starting to fill up the kitchen and our tummies too!!!

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Warehouse Sale

2010-03-18T22:29:00.003+08:00

It is a sale and on top of it …. YAHOO!!! it is a WAREHOUSE sale. It is not just a sale, a mega sale but a WAREHOUSE sale. WOW!!! it must be great. Those were the thoughts that came to mine mind when Home Minister told me about this warehouse sale and I insisted that we must be one of the first few to be there to enjoy the goodies.

Me being not a shopping kaki or a sale chaser was really surprised at myself to be one of the first few visitors to this WAREHOUSE sale on opening day itself together with Home Minister and Princess. Just a few minutes before they open the door it is already a big mistake to be there having to put up with some no brainer organisers. A very loud DJ who thinks he is some kind of celebrity help make the situation worse. The prices …….. blueak !!! nothing special neither were the merchandise. In short it SUCKS!! full time.

From my experience in the past I always walk out of a WAREHOUSE sale satisfied with what I purchased at a real bargain. These sales were always at the WAREHOUSE of the company holding the sales. I guess holding the sales in their very own WAREHOUSE cut down lots of unnecessary cost. Having to move the product out of the WAREHOUSE to another state just simply add tons of unnecessary cost to products and having a celeb wanna be DJ does not help either. Guess I was suckered by the word WAREHOUSE.

Greetings!!

2010-02-14T00:01:00.001+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

☺

Wildlife at Home

2010-02-05T23:39:00.004+08:00

When we first bought our home way back in the ‘80s, I never expected that there will be so many uninvited guests. The very first one was the slithery kind which I accidentally stepped on it when I was clearing the front yard of the overgrown lalang grass. Since the lalang grass was really long I couldn’t see what I was stepping on as I move along cutting the grass with a very blunt sickle. I was moving backwards and I felt I was stepping on something soft and I quickly turn around to see what it was as I was only wearing my kind of slippers. To my surprise I saw a section of a python at least more than 8 inches across where I had my foot on earlier. Whew!!! I was lucky it did not turn around and attack me ……. maybe the lalang was too long for it to turn around or it was busy feeding. Anyway it was nowhere to be found the next day when I went to look for it.
After we moved in there were the odd one or two mice which we could easily deal with until some very inconsiderate people move in a couple of houses away and set up a bean curd processing factory illegally. They just discharge their liquid waste into the drains and dump the solids around their house causing much of a stench in the neighbourhood. To make matter worst their irresponsible behaviour attracted lots of rats of various sizes. We can see large rats taking a stroll past our backyard and smaller ones dashing across towards their paradise. Luckily the authorities took action after some complaints were lodge and they were shut down. The rats remained for awhile and we had to invest in 3 traps to get rid of them.
Then there were the pigeons which thought that building their nest in our roof is cool. Looking around the neighbourhood I can still see some kind of pigeon house ruins that remain standing in some of the houses. Well your guess is as good as mine; they must be abandoned by previous residents or even current ones. Getting rid of them was really difficult because they chose the apex of the roof to make their home. One day home minister saw a long thick furry thingy hanging down from the top of the bedroom window at night and I guess that really freak her out. At that time I was still working in KL and was only home on weekends. After some investigation it was confirmed that a “musang” had taken up residence in the roof and the piegons evicted.
A homemade trap ….. I made it off course ☺…… was setup in the attic and managed to trap two very young juveniles. I was in Kuala Lumpur at that time so home minister called the “bomba” or fire brigade to dispose of the trapped intruders with ma musang (aka ma mu) watching very protectively over them. There was no response from “perhilitan” or wildlife department when she called them before calling “bomba”. After a brief show of aggression between the “bomba” and ma mu, ma mu decide that she was outnumbered and left into the darkness with her one remaining offspring. The “bomba” also left with the juvenile “musangs” together my Bosch variable speed power drill. At that time I was still transforming the attic into The Penthouse.
The next intruder was a lone monkey that was making a nuisance of itself on the roof and again “bomba” was called in. A group of them came and started making monkey faces at the monkey …… don’t ask me I have no idea why and moreover I wasn’t there that time too. The monkey moved to the back of the house and the group of “monkeys” on the ground follow suit back and forth displaying their herd mentality or no mentality. One of them even tried using our gardening hose to spray water at the monkey and I guessed the monkey had a real good laugh. Eventually the monkey left.
A couple of years later, another ma mu came to make our roof her home and had her brood of four. One day ma mu did not return to feed her brood and they came wandering out of their safe house due to hunger. She could had suffered an accident or was caught by somebody somewhere else. I was constructing the penthouse at that time and saw them coming out from a hole which leads to the apex of my room ceiling. I managed to catch three of them and the fourth managed to get away from our house into the darkness.
Then came the “burung tiong” or myna birds taking over the safe house where the “musangs” were. They would bring whatever kind of rubbish to make their nest in the roof. They stayed for a couple of years until recently when another ma mu decided to make my house roof a training ground for bird hunting for her three offsprings. Ma mu was not able to get into the area between the roof and the ceiling because I had sealed off all possible entry point after the last experience. Since mama mu cannot get in she sent her young ones in to do the job because they are smaller and is able to get in through the smaller openings. They sure made a lot of noise jumping around attacking their prey. I noticed some bird feathers on the ground every morning.
This time since “perhilitan” had set up their web-site, I made a e-complaint and one of the condition mentioned is that they will at take least 3 days to respond. Instead of waiting I decided to get a trap and try to trap them myself. OK got the trap and set it up just outside princess room.
The “perhilitan” people did come with their trap but did not set it up because I already had my own. They recommended some different baits from what I am using to be more effective because three days had passed with no result. Then early next morning two juveniles were caught in the trap while the third juvenile was circling the trap with ma mu looking for a way to release the two in the trap. When I got closer to the trap ma mu and the remaining offspring decided to leave knowing there is nothing else they could do.
Got the “perhilitan” to come and take the two trapped juveniles away. One of them got its freedom due to the carelessness of the “perhilitan” people while transferring the captured into their cage. The little fellow was really fast in seizing the one opportunity to get away. In a matter of seconds it was already scurrying its way up towards the neighbour’s roof. I guess ma mu and the other must be watching from there.
Then there were also bats who thought that my son’s room air conditioner is a bat cave. Their guano stinks to high heaven … yuucckks!!!!! The second time when I dismantled the air conditioner to clean it after the first time which I thought I had solved the problem, I discovered there was a gap of about an inch through the wall. The gap was at the area where the piping of the air conditioner exit the room. Got some sealant and sealed the gap and that should solve the problem ……...whew!!!

Once a most unique intruder came and ended up in the cooking pot. A mud crab with its pincers tied up …… guess it must had escaped from someone else’s cooking pot. Couldn’t find its owner so ….. hehe!!!

Braised Leg of Pork.

2010-01-19T23:17:00.002+08:00

After having eaten the "mui choy kau yoke" it is time to really deal with the porkie leg, you know the braised kind with tender chewy skin and fats that melts in your mouth ...... it is really delicious .....hmmm..... just had some of the left overs from my successful first attempt and it is still as good ..... yum, yum!! Used to have this dish when I visited Sg. Petani for business trip with my collegue, yes it was good and I am really happy that I can cook this dish myself now, and I can have it whenever I want now ....hehehe!!!!!!.

I started my quest for the perfect braised pork leg after my breakfast and morning paper routine towards end of last year. Home minister had to wake up real early, around 5:30am to get the porkie leg and she only managed to get it from another stall instead of the original shop she usually went too. That day was the last major festival for the Chinese before the coming new lunar year and pork was in extreme high demand, so even though home minister was there before 6:00am they were almost sold out. I guess she had to pay a premium from the other stall, anyway important thing is that we got the leg.

The premium porkie leg was nicely cleaned and one of the large bones removed. I would have preferred that the bone intact so that the meat won't shrink as much when it is fried but I might have to cut the leg into two pieces to fit into the wok for frying. This dish call for the three process of cooking that is boil, fried and braised. It took me nearly the whole day to cook this dish but the desire to eat push me on ☺and I was really worn out at the end ot it.

All the tiredness and aches just disappeared when I took my first mouthful of this very very special sin food of mine, it is just simply scrumptious ......... want some?

Good Morning 2010!!!

2010-01-01T08:15:00.001+08:00

Let's make 2010 better, practice 3R, Reuse, Recycle and Reduce.

We can help Mother Earth on her journey. JUST DO IT!!

Good Bye 2009

2009-12-31T20:48:00.001+08:00

Once again we are here at the end of another journey round the sun ......... to some it had been a great journey then there are those who would say good riddance and it is just another day for some. But then again how many of us really did do something for Mother Earth? Only you can answer this question.

Take a moment and and think what we could had done to help our Mother Earth get better, to make 2010 journey BETTER before the countdown to 2010!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2009-12-25T00:00:00.002+08:00

"Mui Choy Kau Yoke"- Yummie!!

2009-12-16T20:50:00.002+08:00

It had been a very very long time since I had this very delicious sinful dish and I had no idea where in Malacca can I indulge myself with this so very delicious mouth watering dish. The desire to have this dish again is really bugging me so I decided to make it myself with no knowledge of how to at all ......... thanks to the www (world wide web) I managed to check like out so many sites posted with this delicious dish.

After sieving through many recipes I could almost taste the flavour and the fats of the pork melting in my mouth .... yeah!!! yum!! yum!! Finally I narrow it two recipes base on the way it is prepared, ingredients and a vivid imagination ....... hehe!!! Then it is off to the Chinese foodstuff shop in Kampong Pantei to get the "mui chi" the sweet variety. The porkie?? Home Minister had two beautiful pieces of pork belly in the freezer and it was perfect for the two recipes.

Prepared both dishes at the same time, one for lunch and another for dinner .......... ding dong ding dong ding dong and the first one was ready for lunch. Wow!!! the aroma was really mouth watering, took a whole spoon full and stuffed my face ...... wah!!ha!!ha!! very 'kiam' salty I mean, looks like sweet "mui chai" is also kind of a salty ........ the pork very tasty but on the hard side and the fats did not melt in the mouth.

After having a salty experience for lunch, at dinner suspecting that the "mui chai" is going to be salty too, I was more careful so I took only enough to taste it. Yup! I was right it was just as salty. The mean was of the same texture but less tasty ....... anyway after discussion with Home Minister we decided to just eat the pork and reuse the "mui chai" with a modified and improve the two recipe also adding in some of our very own know how.

A couple of days later after getting over the shock of the earlier failure, Home Minister got another beautiful piece of belly meat to try out with modified and improved recipe and to reuse the “mui chai”. This time the “mui chai” was thoroughly washed and instead of steaming, we had it pressure cooked. The ingredients was also adjusted ……………. it was really smelling wonderful and thinking of it now is making me ………. I WANT MORE!!!! YES!! YES!! YES!! This time is the real thing, it is heavenly …….. I did it …. yahoo!!!

Me n Oats

2009-10-26T11:38:00.005+08:00

My last cholesterol check up was like about a month ago and six months before that I had been faithfully taking oats for almost every meal. Yes, almost every meal like 99% of it because I think I want to believe the craps in their advertisements. The only time when I do not take oats is when I had noodles or western food which is not that often but definitely I will have oats at least in one of my daily meals. I think I already had consumed like a few tons of it!!!! Hehehe!!! Just joking.

Basing on the advertisement by oats companies and write ups in the Internet, my cholesterol level should be a big fat ZERO!!! or at least within specifications or at least lower than the level of my previous check up before this. Craps!! it is higher, much higher …….. "Hey!!!! oats makers what kind of crap are you people talking about!!!!” Never like oats anyway and the wonderful point is that I do not have to eat oats any more …………. Great!!! :)

Now who is the wise guy who wrote the specifications levels anyway?? ……… ever wonder about that?? Huh!! There are so many kinds of people in this world ….. big, thin, fat, small, ugly, pretty and so on and so on ………. can we all be generalized??? Ohh well …………… Life is too short so guess I’ll just enjoy it ain’t got no time to play with this boring cholesterol thingy anymore!

The Graduation

2009-09-03T20:26:00.003+08:00

It was 8th August 2009 translated into 8-8-09 an auspicious day for the Chinese and my Princess but it was a sleep deprived morning for me. My Princess is officially a First Class Honours Graduate in Bachelor of Communications – Public Relations and also a recipient of the Book Prize. It is indeed a very proud moment for us to see her receiving her scroll and with all that excitement I was still able to capture the moment on a video clip.

Just a week or two before I had to try on my son’s super large pants and shirt when he was at his largest for Princess graduation because I don’t think I could get into any of my old formal clothes. I had grown and was conferred the title of Big D by Princess. “OH MY GOSH!! That is not my body, why is my head on the wrong body!!” Yes, that is the actual words that came out of me when I turned around to look at myself in the mirror after putting on those humongous clothing but it was very comfortable and airy. Home minister did not want me going around looking like Humpty Dumpty so she got me a set of more fitting clothing.

We decided to go to Kuala Lumpur a day before because the graduation ceremony is in the morning and Princess had to be there like 7:30am and the guest by 8:00am. We left home at a leisurely pace and had Seremban beef noodle for lunch as usual. This time the old chariot was not packed to the brim unlike the last few outstation trips. Princess seems to be very much interested about the durian kind of thingy in Mid-valley and was rambling about it many days before the trip. So the first stop was in Mid-valley and I waited by the road side because we were a bit push for time after I made a wrong turning.

Home minister friend from her university days offered to put us up for the night and bought us a delicious dinner in Chilis in Princess honour for her outstanding achievement. After the mandatory stop in Mid-Valley we headed straight for our hostess house to unload some stuffs and pick her up for the second half of the day’s itinerary.

Fear of being caught in unnecessary traffic jams we left for the Mall a little early and took a leisurely drive arriving ahead of schedule. Did our business of payment for Only Child’s college and hostel fees and still had a lot of time before she finished classes. Since we were in the Mall which is a shopping complex, we tried hanging around aimlessly like teenagers but we got bored real quickly so we headed to the college’s waiting area.

At the waiting area we met the college student counselor and were told many tales about Only Child …… Wow!! Is she becoming famous or infamous?? Anyway it is nice to know that she is getting on comfortably and I am sure she too will make us proud.

By the time we retired to bed it was late, being in a new environment always makes it difficult for me to fall asleep and having only one pillow did not make the sleeping journey any easier. Before I knew it with a real heavy head I had to drag myself out of bed, yes it is time to wake up and everyone is already awake with lots of activities going on.

Hmmm!! The wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the sight of an assortment of Danish pastries must have kicked me back into life all ready to face the day challenges. After saying our goodbyes to our kind and wonderful hostess, we headed into Kuala Lumpur to Wisma MCA where the graduation ceremony is being held just before the first light.

We made it just in time for Princess to report herself and she was the very first one there in the room. After parking the old chariot in a secure and cool place we made our way to the main hall where the ceremony is going to be held and were ushered to be seated in the guest area. Attendance was only by invitation and Princess was able to get an additional invitation for Only Child.

After waiting and waiting and waiting as usual the ceremony started and my head started to feel heavy again from sleep deficiency. Trying real hard to catch as many forty winks as possible during the speeches so that I can recharge myself to capture on video the once in a life time moment of watching Princess receiving her scroll. She was called and in just a wink of the eye the whole process was over but it is embedded in my memories forever. We were all very proud to see her walking across the stage to receive her scroll.

Almost everyone were taking photos with those in Harry Porter’s uniform just outside the building when the ceremony was over, yes off course including us too. Then it was again to Mid-Valley for lunch and some quick shopping before we head back to home sweet home.

Almost Recovered.

2009-07-16T11:44:00.008+08:00

Just a couple of days ago I was able to harvest some leafy veggies for the table after almost more than six months of no cultivation because of the bout with sciatica. It is indeed a pleasure to have freshly picked leafy organic veggies on the table which made eating much more pleasurable and a great excuse for a broader waist line….hehe!! Anyway I am glad that the mini farm is almost fully recovered.

I am now into my second year of being an organic farmer that I never knew I had this kind of interest and ‘ahem’ talents. This is indeed a great discovery for myself and I am very please about it not only because it is productive but a real wonderful feeling that words cannot describe. Even my mum was surprised. OK let’s not get melodramatic here but it is good to be close to nature which is something I always enjoy.

Having survived the first year I had made some changes to make the farm more organized after learning from my mistakes. The first and most important lesson that I learned is that never ever force yourself to continue working when you feel your back is letting up. I was rehabilitating one of the beds so that I can get some leafy veggies going just before the wet season sets in so I was a bit tight on time. Thinking that my old cranky body is still like a ship shape John Deere, I put in full throttle and guess what …. I got sciatica and was in pain for almost two months but managed to finish rehabilitating that bed just before the attack. The weeds were having wild parties on the rehabilitated and fertilized with my specially cured organic compost beds. I guess that was a real good lesson learnt and now whenever I feel the slightest threat to my delicate back I would just take it easy until the threat is gone.

Having quite a lot of time on my hands while recovering from the sciatica, I decided to make a study to improve on the starter pods that I am using. It was kind of a frustrating when I had an idea but was not able to carry it out physically but the pain from the sciatica quickly dismiss the desire to try it out. The moment I recovered from the sciatica I started the slow and tedious process of having to rehabilitate all the six beds all over again. It was slow, very slow because I could still feel the agony of the sciatica pain running down the whole of my right leg from the small of my back without mercy. Just thinking about it still sent a chill down my spine but nevertheless I am now into the last bed.

Having rehabilitated one of the beds I decided to try out the idea I had by using egg trays as starter pods after some modification because it is much easier to handle. I was really pleased with the results because by virtue of its shape I can stand the pods in shallow water thus keeping the seeds watered all the time and transplanting was much easier. Moreover the egg tray decomposed much easier because it is made of mashed paper and it is easily available.

I have also discovered that climbers cannot share the same trellis because the faster growing plant would practically take over the whole trellis suffocating the more timid one. I have not planted any of the climbers yet this year and I intend to do so real soon. I have some idea on how to plant them and I will plant them individually on mini hills this time. Seeds, some seed deteriorate really fast even thought it was kept in a dark cool place and I was surprised to find that it was powdery when I wanted to use it. Now I decided to keep only the newly purchased seeds in the fridge because many people say that seed can last much longer in the fridge.

Now only leafy veggies are planted on beds and others are on mini hills …..yeah!! it is great to be planting again.

Oats

2009-07-02T22:21:00.008+08:00

In the early sixties or earlier I had my first taste of oats and one thing for sure it is Quaker Oats. Till today the first thing that comes into my mind when anybody mentioned Quaker, oats will quickly register in my mind because Quaker was the only brand available when I was growing up I think. In those days we get to eat oats quite often for a while for breakfast only because it was really fast to prepare. It was kind of a fun then because I get to prepare it myself, actually everything was on the table and I just had to mix it myself after mum pour the boiling hot water in it. The recipe was very simple just oats, sugar and boiling hot water. I just cannot remember why or when I stop eating it but I can remember the taste, it is just a sweet and boring. I guess it must be the do it yourself part that makes me eat it and when the novelty died out I guess that is also when I stopped eating it ……hmmm ….. Maybe!

Just recently I just restarted to eat oats as a weapon to help me in my never ending battle with cholesterol and the famous battle of the bulge ……hehehe!! Even Sun Tzu is not able to help me here. Taking oats is my last resort at fighting cholesterol and if it does not work then…….. I stayed away from oats because eating oats is really boring and yucks!! So is exercising. Playing game and doing constructive labour is my way of spending energy other than the daily routine needs of walking, talking, eating and etcetera. Let’s hope I don’t really need to rely on exercise to help expand the stored energy.

OK I did mentioned that I tried walking and it was nice initially but I guess when it becomes a routine it is just boring to walk aimlessly even though I was burning calories. Swimming, errr …. Let us just continue with the oats OK? Hehe!! ….. Never thought that I would be eating oats again after all these years, oh well!!

If you were to Google oats you would get something like more than seven million sites talking about oats and I guess all of them are talking about how great oats are against cholesterol. Many people that I know say likewise and some even swear by it but not doctors, as far as I know none had recommended oats to me but fish yes…….mmm, I wonder why? To make eating oats bearable I first tried eating it by mixing with my coffee for breakfast and it tasted OK but I had to drink more coffee after drink eat the oat coffee so I guess it is a no no because coffee consumption will increase. Next I made oats sandwiches and it tasted quite good with lots of bite. It is really easy to make, just spread butter and kaya or jam if you like on a single slice of bread and top it up with instant oats. Then fold the bread once and hold tightly the end that is going in the mouth last so that the oats do not fall out …… try it, it is quite interesting and better than whole meal bread …hehe!!

Eating with bread the amount of oats consumed per day would not be enough so I decided to have for lunch and dinner as well if possible. Being an Asian and rice being my staple diet it is quite easy to include oats in my meals, I just reduce the amount of rice I am having and replace it with oats. There is no need to boil or cook the oats just use instant oats and add it into the rice and gravy or soup it. Oats don’t really have any kind of strong taste so everything just taste the same except for the structure, it is just like eating rice cooked with too much water. The beauty of it is that there is no real increase in intake and I should feel my pants getting looser.

So far to date I think I had consumed more than two kilos of instant oats and there are so much more variety of brands to choose from nowadays. I usually chose the cheapest and to date I had eaten three different brands and they are all the same in taste, I guess instant oats are just instant oats. My next cholesterol test is in September, so till then I am really keeping my fingers crossed.

Picture Story

2009-06-23T00:31:00.003+08:00

Identify.

Approach.

Satisfaction.

Unpleasant Incident - Conclusion.

2009-06-20T12:48:00.006+08:00

The uncalled incident in TESCO is now settled and today I had closure on this matter after meeting up with their store manager.

After I lodged the official complaint at the Customer Care counter and on line, I only managed to get a reply in my email on June 18th after eleven days .......... oh OK, I guess it is still within the fourteen days as mentioned in their website. I do not know what had happened to the written complaint that I made at the Customer Care counter.

On the evening after receiving the email, I got a call from the store manager apologising for the unpleasant and uncalled for incident. He was very apologetic through out the conversation and explained the corrective action that had been taken to ensure that incidents like this would not happen again. Assured me that it is safe to visit their store again and requested me to meet up with him the next time I am there.

Today we had to get quite a few groceries and we decided to get it from TESCO so that I could meet up with the store manager face to face. I was surprised to meet quite a young chappy to be the store manager and he was polite. I guessed he must had put on his apologetic face and seemed very concerned that such a thing could had have happened. When I asked him why there was no respond to the complaint note that I filed with the Customer Care service counter, he was quick to respond that he was on leave at that time. Hmm!! On leave eh! How about somebody else like an assistant to respond unless it is thought off as an unimportant matter or is it a coincident that he came back on the same day that I received the email from their head office? Hey man!! I was not born yesterday you know!!! Anyway I was satisfied with the action and not wanting to pursue the matter any further, I gave him a smile that translate to "Don't crap me", shook hands and parted company.

I guess after becoming a TESCO person, it is difficult not to patronise the place.

Sandals

2009-06-16T22:39:00.000+08:00

I had been using the same kind of sandals or slippers or flip flops whatever you might want to call it from the same manufacturer since I was a teenager or was it before I was a teenager. The manufacturer is Bata and the slogan then was "First to Bata then to school" and they were the maker of the very famous Badminton Master where everyone wants to be seen in a pair at that time. Yes it was cool to be seen in a pair of Badminton Master at that time as it is to be in a pair of Nike today. I remembered that I used mine until it was really worn till my last little toe can be seen protuding out, yes it really lasted a very, very long time.

After the Badminton Master came their very popular sandals,I had three pairs when I was working in Kuala Lumpur and were using them everyday when I came back home to Malacca for good. Why three pairs? ........ one pair for use in Malacca every time I came back for the weekends or whenever I am home. The second pair is for use during the week days when I am in Kuala Lumpur in my apartment and the third was always in the car which is for after a game of golf. Wow!!!! really sound like a luxury huh!

Those three pairs of sandals were bought like at least six years ago, more likely more than six years ago. The first pair, one of them the right foot side split into half on top side while the left side was still in great condition so Home Minister with her McGyver skills learned from being a great fan of the tube salvaged it with just a short length of raffia string. It was repaired more than a year ago and it is still in service today, Wow!! Looks like it is going to go the extra hundred kilometers.

The next pair just had a seizure about two month ago, it disintegrated while I was using it working in the farm so it cannot be saved. It was given some kind of burial in some landfill by SWM because I just dumped it into the thrash bin as it is not recyclable.

The last pair is very worn out and it is used only on special days especially wet days like going swimming and rainy day for the last month or so. It is great for wet days because it is not water absorbent so that it can be dried fast and it has anti-skid properties. Worried that this only remaining pair might die of exhaustion soon I started to shop for the exact same type in almost all the Bata outlets but couldn't find any. Yeah I was disappointed, really really disappointed and having coming to terms that I am not able to get this very special kind of slippers anymore so I bought what I thought to be the next best replacement.

Hardly two months after having it, it is already starting to split up thus putting me into a real difficult situation of wanting those kind of sandals that I was so used to. Come to think of it that kind of sandals really had a big part of my feet life, they had been on buses, boat, cars, airplanes and train not mentioning five stars hotels and premier golf clubs. They were great for all occasions. With the lousy new pair I was even forced to get a formal pair for formal wear which until today my feet are still not comfortable in it.

Last Friday I had a real pleasant surprise when I came in for dinner, a brand new pair of the sandals were under the table to welcome my feet. Princess had managed to get a pair of this which she called legendary Bata slippers for me as a father's day present. Thanks a million dear Princess you are a real life saver and my feet are really happy again. Thank You!!

Unpleasant Incident

2009-06-11T21:56:00.009+08:00

Last Monday as usual Home Minister and myself went to TESCO to shop for our and mum-in-law's weekly groceries and stuffs. It was as usual pleasant with lots of things to browse at until we bought two heads of broccoli because they were lovely. The broccoli had to suffer unnecessary abuse by a very unpleasant TESCO's staff and it wasn't lovely anymore after the uncalled for incident. We have our rights as a customer and a member of the public so we made an official complaint in writing at the customer service counter and was promised that it would be pass on to the management. Just to make sure our complaint don't go a stray, we made another complaint through their web site.

According to their web-site, all complaints will be attended to within 14 days and till today there is no response from the Malacca store where we made the complaint at the service counter.

My IC number and Clubcard number is not the true number so as to prevent misuse, it is only to show that I did fill it in.

The actual complaint that was made through their web-site.

My every visit to your store was always pleasant. Being a resident of Malacca and a retiree, I always look forward to the weekly visits to your store for almost all our daily needs. Yes, your service was excellent with great product range and prices until today.

I was really shocked at the attitude of one of your male staff towards my wife and me. We were waiting patiently in queue for our turn to have our two lovely heads of broccoli weighed and tagged at the fresh vegetable weighing counter. When it was our turn, my wife passed the broccoli in a plastic bag to him.

While sealing the plastic bag, a female staff came and said something to your male staff and he immediately left the counter with our broccoli in hand, leaving the counter unattended. Not knowing where he was going, I called out to him, he turned
around and glared at me. He then return and chucked the broccoli onto the counter. He then walked away in a huff, shouting at us.

We really wanted the broccoli so we asked that female male staff to weigh and tag it. All she could do was to give us a blank look, not knowing what to do. Moments later the male staff came back, still shouting at us and unwillingly weighed and tagged the broccoli. Then he threw (yes, THREW) the broccoli on the counter. Throwing a dirty look at us, he walked off, yelling and challenging us to lodge a complaint.

Fearing for our safety I quickly filled up a complaint form at the customer service counter while my wife paid for the purchases even though we only managed to get about half of what we had on our list. Now I am wondering whether I should go back to your store to complete our weekly shopping and risk being harassed or just go to Giant or Mydin which are, incidentally,nearer to our home.

Now let's see whether they really love to hear from us!! ten more days to go and counting.

Swimming

2009-06-07T14:44:00.000+08:00

After many failed attempt at restarting my morning walk to keep fit after recovering from sciatica, I decided to do some swimming. I had been considering and reconsidering lots and lots of time trying to find a reason why should I not go swimming until one day last week my Home Minister and Princess came back from Jusco sales with a brand new pair of swimming trunks. Yes they had committed me and I guess there is no way out.

The pool in the golf club that I am a member of is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the mornings of weekdays. I decided on going there in the morning so that I can attend to my mini farm in the evening so that it is not hot. Moreover in the morning there will be less or no people in the pool and with this current heat wave it would be nice to soak in the pool. Suddenly it sounds so nice soaking in the cool pool with a glass of cold lemonade.....hehe!!!

Last Tuesday was the day and Princess came along too. All my three kids are really good at swimming because they had swimming lessons even before starting kindergarten. Swimming is a good skill to learn becuase we never know when it will come in handy. I learned how to swim by myself after watching and being influenced by Tarzan in my younger days. My early day experience of swimming was in padi fields and mud ponds with the buffaloes just like Tarzan huh!! It was really great fun then. OoEeOoEeo..orrr....

To my surprise when I first step into the pool was that the water was not cool at all but kind of a warm. In the begining I was like a chicken in water, I really struggled to keep a float but after a while I was again swimming like Tarzan but with no stamina. After every lap I had to rest for awhile before I go on to do the next lap. Totally I did ten laps and I was quite exhausted ....... err breath-wise not lenght-wise ....hehe!!

OK cholesterol watch out, I want to do this like three times a week and it is going to be lenght-wise lap soon.......

Trip to Kampar

2009-06-01T10:18:00.000+08:00

My son decided to further his studies in UTAR after completing his STPM. The course that he is doing is conducted in UTAR new campus in Kampar. As usual for everyone of our child by default we had to send them and their belongings to their new temporary homes. Princess is the record holder for the largest and most number of items that was packed into our old faithful and our Only Daughter got the least number of items.

We left on late Sunday morning and we took the trunk road to Seremban instead of the highway as it is more interesting. We were rewarded with a rare sighting of the train passing by the most probably only railway crossing in Malacca state. Travelling by train is not popular because it is very slow and inconvenient. The infrastructure of road and air travel was upgraded with time but the railway seems to had been frozen in time only until recently. Anyway we were excited to see the train including me ..... hehe!!!

Seremban beef noodle was a real treat for us because the last time we pass by this way we missed it by a couple of minutes because they were closing up for the day. It was a real disappointment that time so it was a really great to be able to enjoy it this time. Yes, yummy!!yummy!! Thought of having two bowls to make up for the last time but I had to refrain myself or else I might fall asleep while driving with a fully loaded tummy on a very hot afternoon :(

The rest of the journey was on the highway and it was kind of a boring with occasional stops at rest area to attend to nature call. Stopping at rest area is also a great way to take a break from the monotony of travelling on a highway and to stretches oneself.

At three pm with the sun burning real hot we arrived in Kampar, a place that is new to almost all of us except me but it was like donkey years ago since I was here last. No memory of this place at all but had no problem locating the the hotel whereabouts. Kampar is a small town so it was really easy to get around. The first stop is the Grand Kampar Hotel to freshen up a bit before the tedious task of room hunting for my son.

From earlier research done we understand that there were mainly two areas of housing which is West Lake area and Taman Perdana. Our first stop was in Taman Bandar Baru a newly completed area and was turned of by a foul, loud mouth Nicole who seemed to have a little monopoly of the area. Next stop was the West Lake area and there were like hundreds of people crowding at a house turned into some kind of office to cash in on the influx of new students starting their courses in UTAR and KTAR. This is the first year where UTAR and maybe KTAR is conducting most their courses here in their main facilities in Kampar.

After checking out a few houses, this area is syndicated by a few wanna get rich quick capitalist. Any area in the house that can be partitioned into a room is being partitioned off thus increasing the number of occupant per house and so is the cash return. It is like a refugee center and paying good money for unhealthy living. Not liking what we saw we went on to Taman Perdana where the accommodation is in flats. The area did not look safe or decent so we did not even bothered to make any enquiry there.

After going round the older housing area with no sign of any room to let we decided to head back to the West Lake area and check out some of those houses that we bypass earlier on. Luck was with us we managed to meet up with someone who have a house across the road where foul mouth Nicole was. The house is brand new and the owner only wanted six people to stay in it. Our son got a room with his own attached bathroom and I guess he should be very comfortable in it. It is a really decent and nice place.

Having settled the most important item in our agenda for the trip we headed to Kampar old town to have claypot chicken rice which is famous in this little town. It was nice and yummy cooked almost to perfection. Next stop TESCO the only modern store in Kampar to buy some more necessities before we call it a night. The whole of TESCO was flooded with outstation people doing a bit of last minute shopping before settling into their new abode. Extension cords, brooms, brushes, detergents and buckets were really hot items as the racks containing these items were almost empty.

The next morning breakfast was in the hotel as in was included in the room rate and the spread was really miserable. Oh well since it was included and there were fried eggs, it was still something to fill the tummy right?

It was registration time for my son after breakfast and all of us went to UTAR with him. Princess was really proud to be there because it is her alma mater ....... incidentally she graduated with first class honours,congrats and well done my dear. OK registration was really fast and we walked around the campus to have a look see before heading to Ipoh for lunch. We wanted to eat the famous Ipoh white flat noodles with chicken and drink the old town white coffee. Having not been to Ipoh for a long time I was really surprised that the amount of traffic had really grown and it was really congested in the town center. We were unable to locate where old town is but we got our yummy food and white coffee.

We headed back to Kampar after we were done in Ipoh and went straight to Yau Kee restaurant for the famous curry chicken in the bread which is a unique dish maybe made famous by this restaurant. We had a loaf of chicken curry in the bread and pork knuckle noodles .... they were both good.

After sending sonny back to his new abode and said our goodbyes we headed back for home with a quick stop in Isetan for some take away sushi for dinner. It was really a hectic two days and I am really glad to be home sweet home.

Languages

2009-05-17T00:14:00.009+08:00

I was born with a Hokkien tongue, yes Hokkien is my mother tongue and Hokkien is a dialect of the Chinese language. Both my parents do not speak English and I wasn't sure when I was exposed to the English language. I attended an English medium school and everyone speak English in school. In Malaysia it is compulsory to study Bahasa Malaysia which is the national language of the country.

By the time I finished school I could only speak English, Bahasa Malaysia and Hokkien. In Malacca where my home is most Chinese speak Mandarin but Hokkien is acceptable to a certain level. Being educated in an English medium school and every one I know seems to speak English only, in my own little world I thought I was from England when I was a little kid .... hehe!!!

When I started working in Kuala Lumpur, the majority of people speaks Cantonese which is also a Chinese dialect which I couldn't speak a word of. Anyway I was able to get by with some kind of universal sign language and managed to learn a few word for my own survival in this vicious place. Then there was this Cantonese TV soap opera series "Man In The Net"which I have no idea how I got myself deeply interested in watching it. I don't even understand the language or dialect but I was watching it. With sheer determination I learned to understand and speak Cantonese, not to master the language but enough to get by. I was able to enjoy the Cantonese soap opera series more and continued to watch more soap operas ........ hehe!!!

My children all went to Chinese Primary School where the main medium of instruction is Mandarin and are very fluent with the language now. We parents were non speakers of this language mainly because we do not know how. Me, I had a little lesson while in primary school, very very little ...... just enough to write my own name and sometimes I even get it wrong ...blush! blush!

Recently my Princess who had just finished her final year university is back home with us and she had been speaking alot of Mandarin with me. I do not know how it started but we converse a lot in Mandarin and this really help me in improving my spoken ability for this language. I am now confidence enough to engage in a Mandarin conversation with anyone who can speak it. Princess had started blogging too, just click on Princess and you will get to her blog.

A language learned even though just spoken is very vast knowledge earned.

Pandan

2009-05-03T12:21:00.010+08:00

The pandan is a very versatile plant even though only the leaves are useable. It's fragrant is really pleasant and is used in cooking and baking. Just as vanilla is to the Europeans, pandan is to the Asians. Yes I have it in my mini farm and it is one of the first residence.

Before planting the pandan, it was always a big challenge to get it whenever Home Minister need it for a certain dish that calls for pandan as part of its recipe. First there is the reconnaissance mission so that proper tools can be brought along for the infiltrate, retrieve and run mission ..... hehe!! In impromptu cases it is normally snatch, hide and look Innocent ........ this is only possible when the plant is by the road side.... hehe!!

Pandan is a must have for 'nasi lemak' or else it is just not 'nasi lemak'. When cooking rice just add a leaf of pandan and you will extra fragrance rice. A leaf of pandan in a kettle of boiling water for drinking will give the plain drinking water a wonderful aroma too. 'Kaya' without pandan is nonsense.

One of my favourite cake is pandan chiffon, not any store bought pandan chiffon but only home made by Home Minister herself is the best. To make pandan chiffon guest who have to extract the juice from the pandan leaves, yes yours truly...... me!Extracting the juice is no easy task, it takes about two hours and the leaves from two pandan plants to get about a quarter cup of juice concentrate. The effort is really well worth it because the juice is natural and organic while the pandan chiffon is really yummy!!

Having not eaten pandan leaf chicken for a long time, together with Princess we decided to make it ourself. She did the seasoning and baking while I did the wrapping. She had a great idea of her own to weave a basket of pandan leaves and bake the chicken in it. I preferred the traditional way of wrapping bite size pieces of chicken meat with the leaves because of the close contact of the leaves with the meat.

Pandan leaf chicken is actually a Thai dish and we had the cooking process modified to make it healthier. Instead of frying it we baked it and the aroma was fantastic. The end result was a real yummy dinner.

Stall No.1

2009-05-01T10:28:00.014+08:00

Our Princess gave us a treat a couple of weeks ago at this open restaurant in the Portuguese Settlement. Stall no.1 as it is commonly know to many is the first stall located in the row of food stalls serving Portuguese styled seafood in the Portuguese Settlement. The actual name of the restaurant is Sea Terrace.

The first time we went there with the intention to eat was with a very close long time friend of the Home Minister from her uni days and her sister from England. We were disappointed because it was not open and we were crowded with very hard selling representative from all the other stalls....... luckily we managed to sneak away from them and made a quick getaway. We were told that if we cannot get a place in store no.1, don't bother to try the others. I guess it must be the very over selling by the hard selling from the other stalls that turn us off from even eating at any of the other stalls that day.

From our experience at stall no.1, the food is generally very much Malaccanised and there is not a hint of Portuguese in it at all, even the name of the dishes. The calamari deep fried rings were really good and it is a must eat. The BBQ clams and mussels were good too but the dip is a disappointment. The otak otak is nice and only male crabs available ......... hmmm wonder whatever happened to the females crabs, haven't had crab roe like for a thousand years.

On the whole we enjoyed the seafood dinner ....... if you are thinking of Portuguese food then it will be a real BIG disappointment, but then again were they promoting Portuguese food?? Or is it just by default that we expect Portuguese food because it is located in the Portugese Settlement and operated by them.

Oh ya! the crowd seems to be in Stall no.1 only.

Japanese Cuisine

2009-04-25T11:39:00.011+08:00

Japanese food is one of my favourite and will never ever get enough of it. Yes I can have it everyday without getting sick of it. My family share this same passion and we will enjoy it whenever we can.

In Malacca I guess the best Japanese restaurant is Kampachi in the Equatorial Hotel ...... I think it is the only true Japanese restaurant in Malacca. There was a Japanese owned ramen restaurant but it did not last long. Another is teppanyaki style and is locally owned ...... the food is very much localised but it is still OK.

Our favourite at the moment is Kampachi especially their Sunday lunch buffet. The spread is great and it is a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon by having breakfast, lunch and dinner all together at a leisurely pace. Shall we pig out??

BURRRP!!!

Taking Shape

2009-04-16T12:23:00.001+08:00

Day by day, inch by inch with sheer determination the weeds were removed by hand even though the memory of the agony suffered from the sciatica was still very fresh in my mind. Every evening depending on the condition of my poor back and butt, I had to decide whether to make use of bare hands, sickle or hoe. Heavy machinery ....err... I mean lawn mower was a no no at that time cause starting it after such a long time in a state of inactivity was no easy matter.

Bare hands is the most relaxed because I can either sit on a stool or the ground ....... set back, creepy crawly can craw up you know where, bitten by bugs and if not careful poke by mimosa weeds in the butt ....... ouch!! ouch!! Sickle can cut very quickly and close to the ground ........ set back, to much movement either in a crouching or squatting position which is quite taxing on the back. The hoe is great for removing weeds at the root level but it is taxing on the waist and butt.

Brrup!! brrup!! after four or five times I was still unable to get the lawn mower started ........ oh my poor back!! My back was much better last week so I thought it was time to bring in the "heavy mean machinery" aka the lawn mower to get more done. Hmmm!! changed the spark plug and brrrup!! pup!! pop! One more time and it came to life again hungry for weeds.

I did suffer some consequences the next day but lucky for me it rained that evening and I was spared the agony of deciding to do or not to do. It had been raining of and on so my progress was slowed down a little. Got an okra, a couple of brinjals and a lime planted and they are all doing very well. The mini farm is really getting back into shape now and I am looking forward to be able to start planting leafy veggies real soon.

Me.......I am getting out of shape with lots of aches everywhere and lots of extra weight to carry around ..... hehehe!!!

"Satay Celup"

2009-04-13T08:55:00.001+08:00

"Satay Celup" is a unique dish that is only available in Malacca City as far as I know. "Satay" many says it is from the Hokkien word meaning three pieces of goodies on a stick roasted and "celup" is Malay for dip or something like that. Japanese also have goodies on a stick like "yakitori" which is also roasted and "satay" in Malaysia is a commonly known dish of roasted meat on a stick. "Satay celup" well there is no roasting at all but lots of boiling, some even refer to it as a volcanic meal due to the likeness of the boiling gravy to boiling lava.

My first taste of "satay celup" was when I was in secondary school and they were located just behind the Cathay cinema build across the Malacca River. The one that I can remember very well is Kingtu. Eating there was an experience itself with the stinking river underneath you. It was really a very popular place for a snack after a movie and it was quite pack on weekends. I was not a real fan of "satay celup" then because "satay celup" was always almost equals to diarrhea for. Some basic requirement was required to eat "satay celup" at that time, a sharp eye and highly sensitive sense to smell so as to avoid stale food or a stomach of steel. I had neither and had to gain experience the hard way.

If my memory does not fail me I think there were two way of eating "satay celup", express and leisurely. Express was stand up at the counter and dip into a common pot of sauce and leisurely was to sit down like nowadays but the sauce was never changed.

Recently I had been enjoying "satay celup" on a few occasions in the most popular shop which is Capitol Satay. A new pot of sauce is provided for every new customers and the food is not stale because I did not suffer any consequences......hehe!! There are a couple more of these "satay celup" shops and I was told that they were OK too. "Satay Celup" anyone?

Starting Over

2009-03-31T22:59:00.008+08:00

A couple of days ago I guess I was feeling much better after being able to drive a little and was able to ride in the car around town with no pain ....... only discomfort, I decided to do something about the mini-farm. I really had to do something or the mini-farm will become a mini savannah grassland complete with creepy crawlies as residents, you know the cold and "clamy" or slimy kind ......... yeech!!!

With a hoe in hand I headed to the mini-farm to access the situation to decide from where I should start first .......... hmm ...... guess I had to clear the compost area first so that I can make use of the place to start a new compost heap after all there were going to be lots of vegetation that need to be composted. So very carefully I started to dig out the grass very gently ensuring only a very minimal of strain was allowed on any part of my anatomy. After not having done anything physical for more than a month I was really stiff all over and with a very strong fear of a relapse of the sciatica, I took a rest after not more than five strokes of the hoe.

After clearing only a very small portion of the ground like less than a square meter I decided to stop cause I thought there was small pain in the small of my back and knees. Imagination or not I rather be safe than sorry. The next day luckily it rained so rest no strain. Anyway to-date the compost area is done, not completely done, but is done and there is still a very very verrryyy long way to go!!

Chinese Beef Soup

2009-03-26T16:20:00.006+08:00

Chinese beef soup with the inside ..... meaning the stomach, tendons, intestines, etc...... is always a favorite dish of mine. My youngest daughter is also crazy about it.

My first taste of beef soup was when I was in primary school and my mum bought it from Third Cross Street and it was really heavenly. Whenever my mum brought along a tiffin carrier like kind of contraption to pick us up from school, I would really be looking forward to lunch because the contraption was used for containing the beef soup ...... plastic bags were unheard off at that time. Anyway it was a great lost when the hawker of this delicious soup pass on because there was no successor so the recipe went with him.

Another great eating beef soup is in Seremban and it is served with noodles. The beef soup and the noodles are served separately but as a set. The noodles are served mixed with a thick sauce and the soup in a separate bowl. My cousins used to feed us with this very yummy beef noodles whenever we visit during our school holidays when I was still in school. It is nice to know that there were successors for this great beef noodles and both my daughters is just crazy about it.

Another place that serve great beef noodle is in Jasin but there was no successor so it is just a memory today. This place serves the beef noodles with a choice of either "dry" or in soup. Dry meaning that the noodles are separated from the soup and it is mixed with a thick sauce and my choice is always the dry one because it is tastier.

About more than five years ago we discovered this place called “Sup Lembu Tangkak” or Tangkak Beef Soup right in Malacca itself. Tangkak is a small town along the border of Malacca and Johore and I had heard of this very popular beef noodle soup but never did make an attempt to look for it before the few times I was in Tangkak. The next natural thing to do upon discovering this place was to patronise it. The very first time we were there I wanted the dry kind but was totally rejected by the shop owner and was told that people come here for the soup….Oh!!! OK we changed our order according to what was available and totally enjoyed it.

Today they are located along Panjang Road, a journey of a humble beginning from just a stall in a food court to a rented place and their very own building now so I was told. Whatever made them decide to operate in Malacca is really a good choice cause I can enjoy it whenever I feel like it. The original stall is still in Tangkak. Shall we??

Morning After

2009-03-20T09:51:00.002+08:00

Ouch!! Ouch!! Ouch!! Yes it is hurting more than normal after yesterday's quest this morning but it was really a big step forward .....hmmm!! looks like it is a no pain no gain kind of situation ya!

Step Forward.

2009-03-19T11:08:00.012+08:00

Today is the thirty sixth day of just being in a state of inertness ....... Ooops!! sorry the day before yesterday was quite eventful and did quite a fair bit of running around after being almost in a comatose stage. Thanks to my wife and wife's friend and sister I was able to take a giant step forward in my road to recovery from the arrgh!! sciatica. Yesterday was a full day of rest and I am really happy that the degree of pain did not increase after the long period of riding in the car running around town playing assistant tour guide the day before. It is still painful but bearable.

OK I think I am going to do some gardening this evening and I really do hope that there will be no consequences after that. I planted an eggplant seeds about a week ago and the seedling need to be transplanted for it to grow further. Since I think I am much better now I have to make the next step ya!! It is about twelve noon now and the sun is really scorching hot so come evening when the weather is more conducive, I will be in the garden ....... wish me luck.

Hi I am back .......... OK just had my bath and dinner ........ so far so good, just very little new pain but just some aching here and there ......... wooh!!! too early to come to any conclusion at the moment but I did it, yes I managed to clear an earlier prepared bed of weeds and planted the brinjal seedling. With a sickle in hand just after I had my afternoon nap about four o'clock I started with my quest. First the overgrown weeds around the bed was trimmed inch by inch with a sickle and having to take a break after every few strokes to give my legs and back a rest. The earth on the bed itself was loosen with a screw driver like tool and the weeds removed by hands making sure that the roots of the weeds were removed too.

After about two and a half hours the bed was ready for planting and my buttocks was starting to hurt a little. I was so close to achieving my quest so I decided to ignore the growing pains and continue to put the seedling in the ground. After another thirty minutes or so it's done complete with mulching. I am really glad that it was done feeling a sense of great achievement and taking another step forward in my recovery even though I start to limb a little from the new pain then.

Now I am just wondering whether I should had stop immediately when there was a first pinch of pain or was it foolish of me to to persevere even though some pain was developing. Well guess I will only know by tomorrow morning. Oh ya, I can now sleep a little better.

Unscheduled Stop

2009-03-14T11:57:00.023+08:00

Last Tuesday very early morning at about 1:30AM was just like any other early morning for the past nearly one month I had to wake up to relief the pain in my right leg due to the sciatica problem. Sleeping through the night was impossible for me for the time being, it was like taking naps because every other hour I must walk around to relief the pain.

While struggling out of bed with a piercing pain from my right buttock down to my knee I heard a loud crunching noise of metal and plastic being compressed at high speed. I peeped out of the window and saw what looks like a motorcycle had collided with a car at the T-junction down the road. OOooo ouch my leg hurts and I wondered how much longer will I have to suffer this meaningless pain.

Moments later some people were shouting at each other at the top of their voice for causing their unscheduled stop. Once again I looked out of the window, this time standing up straight and was able see better. There was another car involved in the collision head on with the other car while the motor bike was lying on the side. While the people involved in the drama were accusing each other for causing the unscheduled stop passer by quickly rushed to pull the motorbike away from the two damaged cars and flames started coming out from one or both the cars ..... it was difficult to tell cause both the cars were like stuck to each other. The flame grew real fast and devoured both the cars in a matter of minutes before the firemen arrived to put it out. The crowd also grew as fast as the fire and I was surprised to see so many of them gathered in such a short time at this very early morning hour. The driver of one of the car was swearing away of being cursed ........ guess he will blame any thing but failed to be responsible of his own action. A couple of police cars and an ambulance were there to watch the drama. Both the wreckage were removed from the scene of the accident once the fire was put out and the crowd also dispersed.

I put away my camera and quietly slipped back into bed keeping my fingers crossed hoping to sleep right through till sunrise but it did not happened.

Shattered Dream

2009-03-12T12:03:00.000+08:00

Today is the twenty ninth day since I got an wanted present from hell and I have not had a single night of decent sleep since. Yes it is the sciatica that I am talking about. The recovery process is really slow and it is really a great way to torture anyone to get information ......... I don't think Rambo can withstand this kind of torture too!!! kekeke!!

I had rehabilitated and added compost to all six of the long beds so that they would be ready for planting when the raining season starts. Mini hills were constructed for perennials because there is now a concept after gaining some very valuable hands on experience last year. It is exciting and was really looking forward to the raining season to realise my concept. I could imagine the result of an almost continuous flow of greens on the table and the sweet taste of home grown organics almost daily.

The raining season had started a while back and my mini farm is getting overgrown with weeds. The raised beds were covered with a layer of organic green not veggies but a crown of weeds. All mini hills are being slowly devoured by the weeds and so are the poor herbal plants. The compost pile is also not spared as the weeds enjoyed themselves wholeheartedly to the gourmet cuisine which I used to jealously guard against them. Sometimes I can even hear them party all night long ...hehe!! just kidding.

Every evening I am tempted to do something to check the uncontrolled growing of the weeds but the fear of aggravating the situation I am in never fail to stop me. I am still in pain not just pain but very irritating kind of pain. I really hope my mini farm would not be an undergrowth when I am fit enough to rework it. My tools are also rusting away due to the idleness ........ Anyone care to give me a hand.

Sciatica

2009-02-21T11:19:00.000+08:00

Sciatica is from hell! Trust me you would not want such a thingy but then again sometime it is a gift from nature which cannot be refused or rejected if you are the chosen one to receive it. When such a condition is at its prime one cannot sit, lie down, stand up, et cetra, et cetra without the feel of excruciating pain. The only solution is an injection of pain killer right in the cheek of the buttock for some decent relief.

It is not over after the injection, the pain will linger on for not the next couple of days but weeks. Sleeping is almost impossible and so is sitting down. Getting up from a lying down position is really a killer; the only way for a small relief is to walk around with a therapy of pain killer. A constant pain is felt at one of the buttock's cheek and therefore you will be bestowed with the title "Pain In The Ass"

Lot of rest is required and that is not at all an easy thing to do. You will know what I mean if you are one of the "lucky" one to receive this gift from nature. I was not able to do anything even I wanted to since I received this gift nine days ago. I am still suffering but a little less now. OUCH!!!

The Feast

2009-02-12T20:07:00.000+08:00

Once a year we will have a feast and eat ourselves silly ....... maybe a couple of times in a year hee!!hee!! Most Chinese people call this particular get together to eat among family members during this time of the year particularly on the eve of the Chinese New Year a Reunion Dinner. We do not think it is necessary to have it on the eve or dinner time, just a time which is convenient for everyone and my mum was the only guest.

This year we had it a couple of days before Chinese New Year and as usual it was scrumptious. Just thinking about the dishes that we had makes my mouth water.....mmm yum! yum!

The first dish is of course the "Yee Sang - 鱼生". Traditionally this dish was only eaten on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, nowadays it is eaten anytime just before and during the fifteen days of the Chinese New Year celebration. Chinese being Chinese will cease at any opportunity to make an additional dollar if it is viable. There are too many versions of stories to this dish but one thing for sure it is a damn good appetiser.

Braised sea cucumber with fish maw with pork in black sauce.....this is my favorite. The fish maws were collected over a period of time and the sea cucumbers were from our regular specialty Chinese food stuff supplier and Jusco. Those from Jusco were good to eat but those from our regular supplier were heavenly. Eating sea cucumber is not just for the taste but also the bite, it must not be overcooked but just right. My wife had mastered the art of cooking these heavenly delicious eating thingy.

Butter Prawns, a dish that Princess prepared which The Only Daughter learn how to do from her place of part time work. The pomfret, The Only Daughter favorite was steamed to perfection but coriander garnishing had to be a private affair. My mum and I were the only two persons who enjoy these very fragrant leaves. To the uninitiated it stinks!!

Soup of the day was dried scallop soup specially prepared by Princess and so were the fresh American scallops with broccoli in XO sauce.

Last but not least a two point something kilo roast duck Cantonese style by yours truly.

Indoor Rain

2009-02-03T13:09:00.010+08:00

The water pressure to our home from the mains had dropped drastically over the past few years and the quality of water is horrible most of the time. The pressure is extremely low at peak hours and it is really a nuisance and irritant. For example if somebody is having a bath with the instant hot water shower which greatly depended on water pressure to operate and someone else turn on a tap to wash something the instant hot water shower will turn off ......... "Hey!!! Who turned on the tap?" is the usual response coming from the bathroom when the warm water becomes cold water.

Having a warm shower is quite a hassle sometimes but and getting the laundry done ....... have to ask the home minister. Normally it takes about an hour but with the ridiculously low pressure it had been extended to more than two hours. About two weeks ago with no major backache, I decided to proceed with some modification of the plumbing to increase the pressure to the washing machine to reduce the unnecessary waste of time and electricity. I had to make sure that my back was in sound condition because the working area is very cramp and I did not want to be immobilised in there. I have a weak back from an accident ages ago.

After inspecting the existing pipes and got some measurement I went to the friendly hardware shop down the road to get the supplies. I bought the thin walled Upvc pipes thinking that it would be more flexible as there was some minor bends required. I am making a changing the supply source to the washing machine from the mains to the storage tank.

After spending almost a whole afternoon working on the piping with most of the time in the cramped place of under the roof, I was really glad that it was done. Thank god my back did not give up on me.

The home minister usually does the laundry at night and tonight was no different from any other night. She started the machine just before having a bath and I would be relaxing in the family room by that time. "Ging-gong ging-gong ...... praaahhhhh" the sound of heavy dripping water came from the kitchen, the rain had started! Oh sh*#!!, I quickly ran upstairs and turned off the storage tank supply line to the new pipes I put in.

It was tough, really really tough to accept the fact of having to get into the roof to repair the broken piping. That night I did not sleep well thinking of the extra unnecessary work and was wondering what went wrong. Luckily my back was still OK.

Reluctantly the next morning I slide open the roof tiles and was surprise to see that the Upvc pipe actually broke because of stress and not because of a poor joining work. Having understood the whole scenario I decided to replaced all the piping with heavy duty type and reroute it for minimum stress.

It had been more than two weeks now and I guess it is now safe to say a job well done!

Another Snatch Thief

2009-01-30T22:42:00.004+08:00

Today when we went over to my mum for dinner my sister told me that my mum was a victim of a snatch thief again. This time the idiotic swine came right into the porch of my mum's home and snatched her very low cost necklace. It happened around late morning and my mum's house is an intermediate unit of a double storey terrace house. She was crouching to get something out of her car from the passenger side when she just returned from town last Wednesday. She did not close her gate first.

People let us not give these idiotic swines a chance, be suspicious, be aware!!

Burglary

2009-01-28T22:01:00.003+08:00

It was like any other hot afternoon after having our lunch and it was time for me to have some shut eyes. My children were out doing part time job leaving my wife and myself the luxury of a long nap on a real hot afternoon. My wife was awoken by a phone call and I by an irritating marketing sms message and we continued napping after that.

In the evening my neighbour informed that their house was broken into while they were out visiting relatives. They were away for less than two hours. Their house was ransacked by the idiotic swine of a burglar and it got away with some cash.

We were burglarised before and the feeling was just horrible. What are the authorities doing? Just not long ago there was a snatch thief which I witnessed also in broad daylight. I have lived in this neighbourhood for more than thirty eight years and I believe the amount of patrol here by the police is becoming lax or non existence at all.

In the past I can see policeman patrolling on foot, then on bicycles and onto motorbikes. Now no more foot or bicycle policeman, motorbikes ....... where are you Mr. Policeman? Patrol car, WOW!! it is great to zoom around flashing the siren lights in the comfort of air conditioning.

People be aware of your surroundings and be suspicious of any kind of characters that do not fit into the scenario. Those idiotic swines are everywhere.

Fish Maw 花膠

2009-01-27T21:09:00.015+08:00

Fish maw is a delicacy in Chinese cuisines. It is really nice to eat when properly prepared and I really do love it ....... yummy!! It is more of a texture food and it does not have a fishy taste. Because of the high cost it is only found in the supermarkets before Chinese New Year.

When we first started buying whole fresh fish from the central market I started collecting the fish maws which was in June last year. Before that we usually get our fish from the frozen food supplier, we decided to buy fresh fish because they stopped importing the fillet of the Dory fish. They replaced it with some kind of fresh water fish which is not to our liking.

When I saw the fishmonger gutting the fish and the maw popping out I was instantly reminded of how yummy fish maw with sea cucumber was. My mum used to collect the maws too and having watched how she prepared it for storage and cooking, I decided to give it a try.

The maw had to be cleaned of all things that were not supposed to be there and the best way to do it is by bare hands with some help from the finger nails. Most of it were fats anyway with some gooey stuff here and there ........ yes your hands are going to smell fishy for awhile after that, hehe!!

After the cleaning is done it had to be dried under the sun for a day or two until it turn transparent golden colour. I dried mine with a length of roasting string and hang it on the clothes line. You can do it any way you like as long as it is hung.

Once it is dried I stored them in the freezer until a week or so before this Chinese New Year to do the second last process of frying them before cooking them to be eaten. Frying the fish maw need some skill in getting the oil to the right temperature and the only way is by trial and error. If the oil is not hot enough then it will not rise, if it is too hot it will rise suddenly and get burnt real fast with the oil splattering all over. Good luck! Before cooking it just soak it in water for awhile and it is ready to be made into a delicious yummy dish.

Not all fish have maws and not all fish maws are of the same quality. From my experience with market bought fish I would rate the threadfin salmon as the best, then barramundi and snapper being the lowest. I judged the quality by the colour and the thickness, the thicker it is the greater is the yummy feeling ........... starting your collection??

Chinese New Year

2009-01-26T10:41:00.004+08:00

Enjoy some yummies!!! The "ang pao" is for luck.

Chilly Winds

2009-01-20T22:11:00.009+08:00

Normally about a month before Chinese New Year chilly winds will blow and these winds are from the northern hemisphere. Geographically these are the North Easterly winds from Central Asia. This is the time when the humidity level in the air is greatly reduced causing much of the lawns in most houses to dry up with the help of the ever hot sunny sun.

This year the wind had been exceptionally cool until it is chilly in the early to late mornings. I had not experienced this phenomena for a very very long time but I am glad to have this opportunity again. Taking a deep breath in the early morning reminds me of the time when we were staying in the village when I was just a kid. During this time our mum would make sure that we had our sweater on in the mornings so that we would not catch a cold. This was also the time when we had to help out in the kitchen to make Chinese New Year goodies like rolling the love letters, grating pineapple for pineapple tarts, cutting pastry into shapes for kuih bangkit, pounding hundreds of eggs to make kuay nang koh or steam egg cake and so on . It was hard work but we know Chinese New Year was close by and the fun that goes with it.

It was really a nostalgic moment and I am glad that Chinese New Year is just round the corner.

Annual Leave

2009-01-19T23:18:00.005+08:00

Annual leave and Chinese New Year used to be a little bit of a problem because my staffs were all Chinese and were from out of town.

The weather a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year is normally very dry and the lawn in my home usually dries up before the festivities. After the harvest of my last leafy veggie which is water convolvulus, I decided not to continue planting any kind of leafy veggie or new plants until after the dry spell is over so I gave the leafy veggies their annual leave ....hehe!!!

This year the Chinese New Year winds or the North Easterly is really chilly in the early to late mornings and they are dry winds. Working in the mini farm makes me thirsty much faster than usual and I can see that my lawn turning brown day by day.

Work on the mini farm had to be continuous because the beds had to be turned over and fertilised for the next batch of veggies when the dry spell is over. The perennials had to be taken care of because the weeds and the pests do not take annual leave instead they work over time. The zucchini was masjestic when I first planted it but now it looks pathetic. It was attacked by some kind of bugs which I had to extermidate them one by one by hand. GRrrr!!! I hate the destructive kind of bugs.

Just can't wait for the dry spell to be over so that the mini farm can once again be green with veggies.

Kuala Lumpur

2009-01-17T22:21:00.011+08:00

Last Sunday we made a trip to Kuala Lumpur which I could do without if possible but I had to enrolled my youngest daughter in the The Legend International College of Hospitality and Tourism for her chosen course the next day. She had chosen to do culinary arts and together with her sister decided on this college. Her sister is now in UTAR doing her final year.

We took the old trunk road to Seremban since we had a lot of time and also hoping to eat the famous beef noodles yum!! yum!! in the Seremban central market. We arrived at the stall just in time to watch them close arr!! well!! maybe next time. Well we left Seremban without gaining any weight and headed to Kuala Lumpur by the PLUS highway.

Traffic was already building up from the returning crowds to Kuala Lumpur who had left the maddening place for a more peaceful and pleasant place like Malacca. Luckily we started on our journey much earlier than scheduled. I remembered I had to push my way through with the returning crowd to Kuala Lumpur every weekend when I was working there ...... thank god I don't have to do it anymore!!!

We had dinner in Kuala Lumpur, a brief stop in Vistana Hotel because my youngest daughter needed to answer an emergency call of nature ....... she had food poisioning from the lunch which she had when she was out this morning. She really had us worried for awhile but luckily she recovered later at night after we stuffed her with ultra carbon and a tube of Po Chai Pills.

We spent the night in my sister's place and left for the college early next morning trying to avoid the unnecessary traffic jams. I made a wrong turn and we were in a expressway flooded with traffic which should be renamed "snail way" which is more appropriate than expressway.

Ding dong ding dong ding dong, it was pass noon after getting her registered, paid her fees, inspected her hostel and got her settled more or less before we left. We were happy to be going home back in Malacca but there was a strange feeling like something is missing just like when I sent my eldest daughter to start her university course almost three years ago.

We missed you "Princess" and "Only Daughter".

Convenient Inconvenience

2009-01-09T22:37:00.015+08:00

Last Tuesday was just like any other ordinary day except for some people busy laying pipes for underground electric cables on the outside of the west side of my home. The pipes that they were laying have to go across the main road and the were equipped with state of the art underground boring machine to minimise the inconvenience to the public which is very convenient for them. WOW!!! what great technology, passerby did not even notice that a pipe was crawling across under the road as they pass by. The machine is compact and only need to be parked on the road shoulder to carry out the whole process.

I actually stood at my wall fence to watch them feeding the pipe into the ground ....... suddenly water started gushing out near the boring machine where the pipe was supposed to come out. The workers were running here and there trying to contain the leak. At the same time a large tourist bus full of tourist was passing by but was abruptly stop on its path. The rear wheels had sunk breaking the tarmac at the weakness point where the water is gushing out at great pressure making a big hole.

The tourist bus was immobilised for a while because the rear left side wheels were trapped in the hole and was resting on its chassis. That was when I rushed into the house to alert everyone at home to watch the greatest excitement of the day ....hehe!!! When I got back to my strategic location to watch the excitement of the day, the bus already managed to pull itself out of the mini trench created by the power of the gushing water. From then on it looks like a geyser?...a fountain?....or a natural gushing spring? I left my camera in the car and my son had taken the car out so I was not able to catch any of the excitement on err ...... I think it is now called digital code, no longer on film. Luckily my eldest daughter managed to catch some of the excitements with her handy cell phone camera.

No it was not underground water but an underground water supply pipe that was punctured. I don't think it was the boring machine or the large tour bus fault ...... your guess is as good as mine.

After the excitement was done the inconvenience set in, yes the taps were dry and it was just about dinner time with a whole load of laundry to be done not mentioning all of us have not had our bath yet. GRRRR!!!!!! Ooo that nincompoop!!!

The morning after the burst pipe was already replaced and the taps were flowing again but the water pressure was worst than Manneken Pis, more of a trickle. Half of the road had to be closed so that the huge hole can be covered and the road surface repaired. The photos taken in the morning of the big hole were all lost due to some problem with camera. I had to take it apart to repaired it and is now working perfectly again.

The damaged done was major and heavy machinery's had to be brought in to do the job. Lots of lorry loads of sand and stones were needed to fill up the hole.

Finally by evening the road was completely repaired and the traffic flow was back to normal. What a big mess for a simple job.

Coronation Park

2009-01-07T23:00:00.003+08:00

It was a lovely place to be at with lots of of things to play with .... seesaw, monkey bars, slides etc-etc. Yes it was like a giant play ground for me when I was a kid. Once in a while my father would bring us to this place with a real large playground equiped with all sorts of playground equipments one can think off, it was like paradise to me then ..... oh ya there is a beautiful garden too!!

No more playground now and the whole place have shrunk .... the beautiful fountain where I used to stretched my arms as far as possible to catch the droplets is also gone. The car park is now converted to a display area for some old retired transportation machines.

The iron cross was erected in 1954 by the Malacca Historical Society to replace an earlier cross made from wood. The site is the location of the legendary "St Francis Xavier's Rock". Legends says that St. Francis Xavier first set foot on this rock before landing in Malacca. Before the area was reclaimed, it was said that the rock was never covered by the sea during high tide. Others had different tales to tell.

The public swimming pool was built in the late sixties early seventies I think is still popular. I used to spend lots of hot afternoons there during my teen years. No there were no bikinis to see because Malacca girls were very shy I think, I just love to swim and soak in the water. I learned to scuba dive there too!

It was a beautiful park but now b-o-o-ring.

2009

2009-01-04T20:22:00.005+08:00

To most having to start work for 2009 is tomorrow. The long year end holiday ends tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the start of a new school year for most and for some the very first time.

For us it is a different kind of new year, no more school going children also means no more sending them here and there for tuitions. My son is now waiting for his Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia results and my youngest daughter for her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.

My youngest daughter had already sign up to do a course in culinary arts and is starting this month in Kuala Lumpur. She wants to be a chef.

I guess in life there are many chapters and we just entered into a new chapter.

Pleasant Surprise

2008-12-31T16:53:00.003+08:00

This afternoon when I was lying down as usual for my little indulgence of a afternoon nap my youngest daughter shouted "Mummy, mummy, there is a man at the gate!!!" It was the delivery man from the florist delivering a beautiful bouquet of orchids. It is a beautiful bouquet of New Year Greetings from my wife's elder sister in the United States.

Best wishes to you too from all of us and have a great 2009!!

New Year

2008-12-30T23:04:00.004+08:00

In just a matter of hours 2008 would be concluded, yes another year is going ……… soon 2009 will be here. 2008 is a good year for me and is looking forward to 2009 …….. a year older is a year wiser sometimes ….. hehe!!

New Year resolution??? Hmm….. maybe trim a couple of kilos!?…err more like ten or more ..hehe!!! Let's move on!!! Don't stay behind ya!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Old Piano

2008-12-27T22:26:00.000+08:00

We have had two pianos since we moved into our own home about 17 years ago, not at once but one after another. The first piano was a gift from my mum-in-law to her favourite granddaughter, my Princess, whom she always refer to as her "seh kian" in Foochow. My wife learned to play the piano on the very same piano that was given to my eldest daughter. Her grandmother had hopes that she could be a performing pianist one day after she herself was not able to do so because of world war two and her daughter failed her ....... I was told.

That piano did not stayed with us long because it was infested with wood eating creepy crawlies and so it had to be put to sleep.

The second piano came from my mum when she moved house, she does not play the piano and it was a space eater to her. She was really relieved when we agreed to take that piano off her hands. That was my sister's piano which my father bought. My wife got it serviced and tuned for Princess to practice on for her lessons which she hated.

That poor piano was also idle in our home for a long time until one fine day my only daughter decided to play it and with some guidance from her mum, she is playing it real well with no formal lesson. She is really interested in playing the piano and had progress to an electronic keyboard which she bought herself. My son used to play high speed Fur Elise and some other pieces on that piano from memory. Now he plays the guitar like his father used to ........ he can play better.

We decided to sell the piano as it was once again idle and getting real close to expiry. It was sold about a week ago and now it is only a memory.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T22:51:00.003+08:00

It's the time of the year so have a JOLLY, MERRY CHRISTMAS .......... Cheers!!!

My Primary School Headmaster

2008-12-19T21:49:00.004+08:00

While surfing the net I found out that my primary school headmaster recently passed away ten days short of his eighty six birthday. Let us have a minute of silence in respect for this kind, caring, sincere and selfless person Mr. Chua Cheng Chye.

I was really touched by his sincerity and kindness even when I was just a kid in primary school. To me he is the greatest man that I had ever known. I am really proud to say that he was my principal in Anglo Chinese Primary School.

Early Morning Walk

2008-12-17T12:44:00.011+08:00

Last week I had the luxury of going for a very early morning walk and it was really refreshing especially there is no traffic. I was up before six and the full moon shinning through the windows caught my eyes ...... it was a different sight, enchanting. Normally I would just go back to sleep but this time the setting moon seems to invite me to go for a real early morning walk.

Before six-thirty I was out of the house, the cold morning air was really refreshing and reminded me of my camping days when I was a boy scout while in school. The whole neighbourhood seems to be asleep or just wanting to wake up except for the roti canai sombong people and a few coffee shops that were getting ready for the breakfast crowd. The open air market traders were trickling in to claim their space and some of them looks half awake.

Further down the road I turned into a housing estate beside a kampong and everything was quite and peaceful, even the usual barking dog refused to get up to bark at me. Cock-a-doodle-do, yes the familiar sound of a rooster crowing ....... it feels good to be reminded of the time when were staying in the kampong. More and more roosters started crowing like as though they were having a long distance discussion with each other ..... are they?

It was dawn when I reached the express way and it was a really peaceful not even a car in sight ...... wonder how much longer before this kind of scenario is never to be seen or experinced again. By the time I got home, the traffic was already starting to get busy ...... Good Morning.

It's Strong

2008-12-15T20:38:00.008+08:00

Looks and feel can be deceiving, yes the trellis is now supporting almost the whole weight of the four plants and there is no sign of stress at all. Since setting up the trellis, it had been subjected to mini-hurricane like rain and thunderstorm, scorching sun and the extra weight of some birds. Looks like my engineering sense is good and my handy work is like a piece of fine art ...... hehe!! blush!!blush!!

To date we already had a couple of the cucumbers and it was really good. The French beans just started to flower and the Goa beans is kind of a slow. Petola?? errr ........ well there is no petola, I made a mistake because I did not labelled the seedlings and what I thought is a petola is actually a cucumber. The petola did not germinate and I planted another cucumber instead. Aiyoh!! Very shy-lah!!

Cinemas

2008-12-15T09:35:00.000+08:00

It was ages ago since I watch a movie in a cinema ....... anyway it is impossible to do that now cause all the cinemas in Malacca is gone. Cineplex is now the big screen and I have not been to one yet mainly because I am not a movie kind of person. Most or almost all movies on the big screen nowadays will make its way to the television after awhile so no big deal ya!!

My first experience with the big screen was maybe more than forty years ago in Federal Cinema. At that time this was the newest cinema with air conditioning and the sound system ....... err no idea just too young to know the difference then but one thing for sure it was really loud. It was a family outing and the movie was my father's choice and being a big family we occupied almost the whole row!

The movie was a Mandarin movie entitled "The One-Armed Swordsman". I remembered there were lots of violent in this movie and the hero only had an arm. His weapon was a broken sword and literally singled handed he killed almost the whole army. Till today I still cannot understand why he cut himself across his own body almost severing it into two while annihilating the army. Crazy movie.

In those days air conditioning was really a big thing and it put you a class above the rest if you have it. Cinemas at that time were equipped with powerful industrial fans and even on a hot day it was not hot in the cinemas, a little warm maybe.

Sitting were divided into circle seats, first, second and third class. Circle seats were located on what we call the mezzanine floor today, the most expansive and comfortable place to watch the movie from. The first class was the furthest most from the screen on the ground floor, the second class is in between the first and third class closest to the screen. During our school days we were able to watch a movie at a fraction of the cost with some special signals to the usher...... hehe!!

Today these once magnificent buildings are left to rot with the exception of Kammah and Lido. Kammah had been turned into a social club while Lido into a supermarket. Rex, Central, Sun and Savoy demolished while Federal and Cathay is in a real sorry state. What is left of Capitol were just it's walls and Oriental is just a place for the ghost.

Home Meal Loaf

2008-12-14T08:48:00.000+08:00

Plain loaf, whole meal and off course the best loaf is always the Home Meal kind which is only available at home .... not any home but only a home with a baker :) The aroma of freshly baked bread is a real fringe benefit in a home which produces home meal bread ....hmmm, yum! yum!!

Freshly baked home meal bread is best eaten with salted butter and the humble kaya, it is so good even the crust is a must eat.

New Monitor

2008-12-13T12:08:00.005+08:00

Yesterday was a real busy day running here, there and everywhere including Pikom Fair. The highlight of the day was off course the new monitor.

A day before the fair my son and I went round some computer shops to check out the choice of monitors available and to compare specifications among the different brands. After talking to the sales people in the shops we conclude on a Samsung 22 inches wide screen latest model.

Yesterday was the first day of the fair and I am back!!!

Computer Problem

2008-12-08T11:19:00.004+08:00

My computer monitor gave me a black and blank look when I switched it on this morning ........ after checking here and there I pronounced that it is dead. Always without fail or a complaint for the past six years it always light up from Windows 98 to XP and almost Vista. Looks like it's useful life had expired.

Hey!! Pikom Fair is on this weekend, good timing .......... should I get a twenty two inch wide screen? ;) any sponsors?......hehe!! I am currently using my Princess laptop at the moment.

Spring Cleaning

2008-12-05T21:43:00.013+08:00

Last Monday was spring cleaning time again, the yearly ritual of having a clean home to welcome Christmas and the new year. We live in the equatorial area and there is no spring time just sunny or rainy time but we still use the term spring cleaning.

This year I was lucky because my old worn out back acted up a day or two before Monday so I was allowed medical leave ........ hehe!! It's a real scary thought of having to clean all the 30 windows with 6 panes each totalling 180 pieces not counting those from the door panels and upstairs too. This year the home minister engaged the help of a foreign professional, her mum's maid from Indonesia and it took her more than a day just to do the downstairs only. My wife did the upstairs herself and the kids did their their own rooms.

In my younger days when I was a kid, spring cleaning was much more severe because my father liked lots of unnecessary things like ornaments for display and framed calender pictures. Cleaning the ornaments and picture frames of the dust and cob webs that gathered over a period of more than 360 days was really a tough job. Everything that hang on the walls and ceilings have to be removed and cleaned. Display cabinets have to be cleared out to be cleaned and the items on display will also need to be cleaned. Not only the floors need to be washed but the furniture too. It was crazy!!!

Thanks to our home minister for keeping our home clean everyday and super clean now, Christmas and 2009 here we come!

A Fresh Loaf

2008-11-29T23:38:00.009+08:00

Today the familiar aroma of freshly baked bread once again filled the air in our home and it was really good. Yes the home minister had got a new bread maker for our home and it is a Kenwood this time.

We had not had home made bread since our first bread maker died on us about a month ago. It was not easy to shop for a bread maker because it is not popular here. My wife knew that Jusco had some Kenwood bread makers in stock and we went to have a look but was disappointed because it was not the model she had in mind. According to the sales person that was the only one left and there will not be any new stock coming in.

A couple of days ago while we were in Jusco, my wife noticed something that looked like a bread maker amidst other electrical appliances on display ....... it was indeed a bread maker and it was the model she wanted. Having had a lot of experience of being a regular customer she knew exactly what to do to and got a hefty discount ........ hehehe!!! It is now sitting pretty exactly in the same place as where the previous bread maker was.

It is great to have home made bread again...... yum!! yum!! Join me for a slice...

Note: This loaf was made with left over ingridents and it did not rise properly so it is kind of a funnily flat shaped on top......... hehe!! According to home minister the yeast had retired. Will post a photo of the second loaf when available.

Wolferstan Road, Malacca.

2008-11-28T22:25:00.001+08:00

Driving down a road is very much different from walking on it especially if the road is familiar to you for a very very long time. I just recently found out how much had changed when I took a walk down Wolferstan Road recently, lots of memories too. I have had very many a time driven through it to get to my destination without noticing the changes except for the obvious ....... guess it is just to get from point A to B.

I started from Bayview Hotel and remembered that Wearnes Bros was located just opposite. Wearnes Bros were dealers for British cars and the memory of brand new Mini cars, chain saws are still very fresh in my mind not forgetting the then very popular Minor 1000. My father was in the automotive industry and sometimes he bring us there to do his business while we waited. Beside Bayview was Malacca Motor Supply selling Opel and GM cars in the past and is now a 24hrs convenience store.

Further down the road opposite where the Renaissance now stand was a shop selling branded shirts like Arrow, Lifting and Van Heusen. Opposite this place where the Orchid Hotel now stand was a florist ........ my mum used to do some of her gardening shopping here. The big mansion now CIMB bank is still standing with full of glory but can't say the same for the ruined Capitol cinema. Hey! the aquarium shop in the lane just beside the CIMB bank is still there and it looks exactly the same as I remembered it about 40 years ago ......... could it be frozen in time??

Wisma Bendahara, the very first shopping complex in Malacca is now very much an eye sore, from day one when it opened, to me it looks sleazy! Just behind this so called shopping complex was at one time a very famous place called Malacca Coconut Island or MCI in short. Most Malaccans in my generation knows about what this place is famous for and I shall not disclose its secret.... hehe!!!

The Savoy cinema now is no longer there, beside it stands the 9 storey flats which was the first high rise and tallest building in Malacca. Being the first tallest building in Malacca it was really a popular place for people to end their sorrows the quick way. Before the flats were build it was the Malacca fire station.

Ahh!! yes!! Bee Loon, the brand that was on every school going kid waist and collar, not on the outside but on the inside ....... during my time no free advertising. I got some of my school uniforms and a scout uniform from this place too. When they first started they were located in the street behind and at that time it was just a home industry.

Wolferstan Road is now Bendahara Road ........ some people in Malacca have this strange urge to rename roads as and when they like it. Why?? Your guess is as good as mine.

Dinner

2008-11-25T22:53:00.005+08:00

My "Only Daughter" ................remember the one that is thinking of becoming a Chef ........... finished her SPM today and she prepared a complete dinner for us. This is her first time to prepare a whole dinner by herself for us and it was delicious. I do not know what are the dishes called but I'll describe them ............ err!! she doesn't know what they were called too!!!!

It was potato wedges, American potatoes, baked with butter, fresh sweet basil and rosemary........ I am guessing. The wedges were topped with fried minced pork in some kind of delicious gravy and real creamy kind of cream .......... it was a simple meal but delicious.

KFC

2008-11-24T22:10:00.000+08:00

KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken is the first fried chicken fast food to be in Malaysia and I have no idea when did it happened. I have no memory when did I ever had my first bite of KFC and from which outlet, all I can remember is that once in a very long while it is OK to have KFC.
My last experience before this recent visit to KFC was just eeee.....yucks!!! it was a terrible experience. It was a couple of years ago and I suddenly had the urge to eat KFC and so off we went to the outlet in Jusco Malacca. The ambience was terrible, gloomy and musty ......... the chicken pieces were pathetic looking, smell of stale oil and loaded with oil .......... what happened!!!!! I swore I would never eat KFC again after that ........ what a let down.
My wife was rewarded for outstanding performance at work with quite a fair bid of KFC vouchers and so we went for a KFC treat last week. This time base on Princess recommendation we went to the very first outlet that was established in Malacca in Mata Kuching Road. The place here is more welcoming and as usual I ordered my usual original recipe which is my favourite. Yes it is the real KFC here and it's finger licking good.

Malacca River

2008-11-16T12:00:00.011+08:00

Last Sunday I took a along the Malacca river ........... wow! it was interesting!! I felt like a tourist taking pictures of almost everything that I thought was interesting ...............

Started my walk from "Taman Rempah" or Herb Garden in English .......... not Spice Garden as indicated .......... bad English. It is a good choice to start from there because the parking is free ........ yes, Malacca government charges parking even on Sundays, terrible!

The first thing I noticed about the river is the familiar smell of used engine oil, diesel mixed with rubbish is still there but faint and noticeable. The water is very much better kind of a greyish brown unlike in the past black with a layer of oil on top with floaties too ......... yucks!!! and double yucks!!!

As a child I used to hang around the area opposite the Majestic Hotel after my hair cut under the angsana tree by the river while waiting for my father to take us home. At that time Malacca was a real sleepy hollow and really safe to wonder around by myself. His office was just across the road from the barber. I was always fascinated with the colourful fiddler crabs that were residents of the mud banks and would only show itself during low tide. There were mudskippers too and very interesting to watch how they actually crawl on the river banks in search of food ....... funny creatures.

During high tide there were thousands of disgusting "belukangs" or catfish scavenging for food. It was really a disgusting sight watching them with their whiskers and gulping mouth taking in anything that were in their way ........eee!!..... just like a scene from a scary disgusting movie .......... it is making my skin crawl. This is the time also when fishing boat leave for their fishing trips and those that had left a day or so earlier would return to their berth. Sometimes I wished I could just go fishing with them ......... wishful thinking. But if given the opportunity even now I would jumped at the opportunity ........... anyone like to invite me?.......hehe!!

Further down the river around Kampung Pantei area I can still remember the barges carrying rice and other dried foodstuff to warehouses in that area. I like to watch the people moving the barges with just bamboo poles pushed into the river bed and just using their legs to move it. Such a big thing being moved by just a few person.

All those are gone now even the high and low tide in the river .......... the river near the mouth is now diverted to flow through a gate. The water in the river is always kept at high tide level so that the river cruise boats can navigate along the river.

It was a nostalgic walk and I really had a good time ....... join me?

It's Up

2008-11-15T11:43:00.009+08:00

Yes I have finally put up the trellis. It still look flimsy even though I made another hoping that they can lean on each other to be more stable. My mum's first comment is "Mana u kau lat!!" in Hokkien ........ in English "It's not strong!!" Errrrr ............ me no comment just keeping my fingers crossed.

From logical point of view I don't think it is big enough or strong enough ...... I have four plants there and they are Goa Beans, French Beans, Petola and Cucumber. Just naming the veggies made it sounds like there is not enough space on the trellis............. should I start looking for stronger and longer poles?????

The pedometer, ah yes!! I opened it up and fiddle fut with the switch like thingy inside and it is now working not perfectly but more reasonably.

Malacca Daily Photos

2008-11-13T22:51:00.002+08:00

Just to let you know that I have changed the url to Malacca Daily Photos. Inconvenience cause is most regretted and THANK YOU for following my humble blog.

Morning Walk

2008-11-12T10:19:00.012+08:00

This morning I restarted my morning walking session after a break of almost or is it more than a year!?!? It took me almost a month to do it ........ I suppose I have to force myself to do it to assist in lowering my current enemy number one cholesterol ...... hehe!!!

The night before I chartered a course around my neighbourhood with Google Earth for a distance of about four kilometers. This route that I planned out have many turning back point just in case I could not complete the whole course...... hehe!!!

I really enjoyed the walk and completed the whole course with no thoughts of taking a short cut at all. I really feel good after the walk instead of feeling worn out...wow!!! it's refreshing.

The pedometer is a disappointment, at the end of my walk the pedometer only showed 2,289 steps. Let's do some maths ........ OK according to Google Earth the distance is about 3,854 meters and if my step length is about 50cm then I would have walked at least 7,708 steps ........... I guess the pedometer is just a gadget to add some fun to the walking ............ what am I talking about ......... grrrr!!!! Anyway I got myself walking again.

"Pasar Malam"

2008-11-10T20:30:00.002+08:00

"Pasar malam" is a Malay word that literally means night market and in my vicinity there are three different "pasar malam" sites that operates on different days of the week. The “pasar malam” that we frequent is the one on Thursdays and is just about two hundred meters opposite our house.

In the past “pasar malam” almost equate to cheap stuff at a cheap price but nowadays it is still cheap stuff but more likely at an expensive price. Most people expect the prices to be lower than those in the shops because these vendors do not have to pay maintenance and rentals for shop space but this is no longer true. Like any other business people I believed these people want to maximize their profits too. So to play this game we have to be smart shoppers, target for reasonable prices and do not assume the prices were cheap, check it out first and compare prices.

The "pasar malam" is a convinent place to get veggies, fruits and sundries, sometimes snacks too. Comparing to the open air market in my area the "pasar malam" varieties of products are much more. Patronising the same stall has it advantages, we get regular customer treatment ........ sometimes special discount too! Anyway being a smart shopper is always the best way to shop.

"Saba Shioyaki"

2008-11-07T12:35:00.007+08:00

"Saba Shioyaki" is one of my favourite Japanese dish and I have not had it for quite some time. It is a real simple good eating dish ........... “saba” is mackerel, “shio” is salt and “yaki” is grilled ......... as the name suggest it is just grilled mackerel seasoned in salt.

Last week the thought of having "saba shioyaki" just quitely crept into my mind and made me craved for it. Googled the recipe and was happy to learn that it was real easy to prepare. So on Monday bought a 1.5 kg mackerel and got it filleted by the fishmonger.

About 30 minutes before lunch I prepared the fillets to be grilled and got the oven pre-heated to the max temp at the same time. Yum!! yum!! It was really good.

Bandar Hilir

2008-11-06T20:18:00.003+08:00

When I first migrated to Malacca in the sixties from Seremban, the in place here was Bandar Hilir. Bandar Hilir in English is downtown or literally town end. Yes I am a migrant to this beautiful place called Malacca and it has been wonderful staying here. Strangely enough I have very early memories of Malacca but not of Seremban from where I originated.

Bandar Hilir was just a place where lots of hawkers sell their food under the large raintrees in front of the A'Famosa from evening to early hours of the morning. The sea then was just after the very large field and the Coronation park was just beside it. The smell of carbide lamps, roasted cuttle fish, freshly scalded clams and cold cold iced "pat poh" or "leng chee kang" drinks are still very fresh in my mind. Yes those carefree wonderful years of doing nothing, just running around and making a nuisance of oneself .........hehehe!!!!

Then during my teenage years, Bandar Hilir was still the place to hang out and it was THE place to be on Saturday nights. By that time the hawkers under the trees were already relocated to where the Taming Sari Tower is now located and was popularly known as glutton's corner by the locals. The hawkers were upgraded to stall owners and the sea was just across the road from the stalls. The seafront had always been very popular for strollers and there were large crowds of people every evening enjoying the sea breeze.

Today the seafront is no longer there and neither is glutton's corner. The seafront was reclaimed and a shopping center was built on it together with some other concrete structures. Then the very large field was mutilated to make way for another shopping mall proudly named after the field that was there before - Dataran Phalawan. This very large field was where our first Prime Minister announced our independence from the British the very first time upon returning from England. At that time this very big field was only known as Padang Bandar Hilir or Bandar Hilir Field.

Bandar Hilir will always be a popular spot .............

Pedometer

2008-11-03T21:40:00.005+08:00

At one time I forced myself to walk about six kilometers a day to control my cholesterol and it did helped. I stopped ...... why??? I do not know!!!! The farming did help a little in arresting the increasing level of the total cholesterol ......... as a matter of fact it did reduced the level.

Recently I bought a pedometer from Tesco and wanted to start walking again to get into shape ......... hehe!!! For two weeks I had been monitoring the number of steps I walked per day and today is the day that I am supposed to start increasing the number of steps by twenty percent until I can average ten thousand steps per day.

Aacchooo!!!! I am down with a cold, sore throat and flu and I only managed three thousand steps today ........... arrgh!!!! Guess just have to work harder on the remaining six days huh!!!

Herbs

2008-10-31T08:43:00.000+08:00

My princess brought back more herbs for me to plant and now I can say I have two sections in my mini organic farm .....veggies and herbs.

The herbs are lemon grass, pandan, ginger, curry leaves, sweet basil, sage, rosemary and oregano. The earlier basil that was planted was Thai basil and not sweet basil. Princess was not satisfied with the taste and so she went to look for the basil seedlings in Cold Storage again. The first time she bought it, it was the last pot left and it was not properly labelled. When she discovered that what she bought the first time was Thai basil, she decided to get the right one this time. The pesto sauce was great even though it was Thai basil .......... I wonder whether she is going to make pesto sauce again this time with the correct basil?????? Oh ya, the Thai basil plant was already removed from the herb garden and is now in the compost after collecting the seeds.

Having a herb garden is really a boon to kitchen and the key to extra delicious dishes. Working around the herb plants are always so rewarding because ahhh!!! so delicious scents. Fresh herbs are always the best.

Snatch Thieves

2008-10-27T20:58:00.004+08:00

This evening while I was tending to my mini farm I heard someone shouted "Ooi"!! I look up over the wall fence, I saw a youth running towards a waiting motorcycle with a ladie's hand bag in tow. By the time I realised that it was a snatch thief, all I could do was also "Ooi"!! How I wish I was closer so that I can clobber those thieves with the hoe in my hand with no pity...... those swines, or even note down the registration number of the motorbike.

The victim was an elderly lady maybe in her sixties, she just pick herself up and continued on her way quickly.......... I wonder whether she was too shocked to comprehend what just happened or just wanted to quickly get to her destination of her safety zone.

My mum was also a victim before, those scoundrels snatch the plastic bag with her cell phone in it while she was walking to the market in the morning. My mum-in-law too lost her gold chain to one of this scums and recently my wife's very close friend too was a victim.

People out there, please be very careful and if you are abled bodied, please do something. Those parasites of society need to be eliminated ........ yes I am angry ........VERY ANGRY!!!

The Fountain

2008-10-26T16:17:00.010+08:00

About six months had passed since we set up a fountain to add a water element to our house. The fountain is now more natural with the ecological cycle going through its cycle and stabilising the water quality. Some say the brown fungus growth are yucky!!! ......... yucky?? I don't think so because it is a very important part of the ecosystem ......... looks yucky maybe but not yucky.

The inhabitants are very happy with the quality of life in there and are really having a great time in there. So far I have only changed the water once in the very early stage because of contamination. Till now it is great, no problem at all and all the fishes are very healthy.

The plants ......... beautiful ya!!! the bamboo is kind of a bonsai kind which I did it myself, the yam leaf ........ Princess brought it all the way back from Petaling Jaya and the I do not what you call it long leaf kind of plant is from my mum.

The Bread Maker

2008-10-23T22:40:00.006+08:00

Yesterday our bread maker made a squeak while doing its job and died. Luckily my wife heard it, if not we would not have any bread for breakfast this morning……. she continued baking the bread in the oven.

The bread maker had been with us for a while and had really served us well. From day one when we had it our bread were exclusively homemade and it had not failed us before except when someone decided to climb the lamp post with their car and cause a power disruption in the vicinity ….hehe!!! Other than bread my wife used it for kneading dough to make buns and pizza base.

This morning I did a surgery on the bread maker hoping that it is just a minor problem …….. nope one of the wires with the connector at the circuit board was burnt. The wire looks like it is connected to some kind of sensor and I guess the circuit board must be having some kind of problem too.

Me no electrician if it is dead, it’s dead.

Collecting Seeds

2008-10-20T21:42:00.012+08:00

The next step in my farming adventure at this stage I guess is to ensure continuity.......... yes seed collection. For most of the plants I still have lots of seeds especially those that I collected from the kitchen. For those that I bought it is increasing in varieties ......... hehe!!!! I also received some more seeds from my sister-in-law from USA recently ....... :) wow seeds every where!!!!

OK my plan is to allow each plant/fruit to grow to maturity so that I can collect the seeds of the breeds that I like most when my stocks run low. For hybrids I will not do it because from what I read the chances of getting freak plants is very high when planting from seeds of hybrid plants.

At the moment I need to collect the seeds from the basil plant that my Princess bought from Cold Storage as seedlings. We have collected more than enough of the leaves for the moment, even distributed some to lucky people .......... organic air dried hand prepared basil .......wow!!! hehe!!! Since there was more than enough to go round, I decided to let it flower so that I can collect the seeds. From what I read the leaves should be collected before the plant start to flower and the flower buds should be removed to extend the period for leaves collection. Leaves collected after the plant had flowered are not as pungent so is of lower quality to people who enjoy basil.

Collecting the seeds is not difficult. The flowers were left to mature on the plant itself ......... deciding when the flowers were ready for harvest is a little difficult since it was my first time. I made two harvest two make sure that the flowers were matured enough. After harvesting, they were left to dry for a couple of days.

To separate the seeds from the pods need to be careful because the seeds are quite fine. Make sure it is not windy or else the wind can just blow them away. Using the thumb and first finger, rubbed the dried pods and the seed will fall out but make sure it falls into a container so that it will not be blown off. Need some basil seeds???

A New Chapter

2008-10-16T22:48:00.011+08:00

My organic mini farm is now into a new chapter, an unpleasant one though ........ yes pests. When I had an active part in the economic chain, I had to deal with lots of pests but of a different kind. Dealing with human pests I had a lot of experience in but garden insect pests ........ it's totally new for me.

Last week I noticed that the leaves of the okra plant is turning yellow and some of the leaves have a layer of white powdery stuff on it. One of the bell capsicum looks retarded ...... at first we thought it was a different species. The brinjal leaves were rather holy .......... oops!! I mean fully of holes.

Inspected the leaves one by one and found that there were lots of activity going on some of them. Little township were already established on the underside of the leaves while some were in the process of construction and the pest were already partying..........Whoaa!!! this is bad. Surf the net to find a suitable solution to this problem.

Some of the sites suggested chemical pesticides and send them to kingdom come ........... hehe!!!! very tempting but I am into organic ........ not interested in poisioning myself and family ........ you know like the current melamine cases. Some recommended using a mild soap solution .......... naa!!! chemicals too!!!

From my research there are good bugs and naughty bugs, the trick is to control the number of naughty kind of bugs with the good kind. One of the most effective way without using chemicals is of course physically removing them. The worst pest at the moment are aphids, they are also carrier of plant disease and is transmitted when they suck the juice from the plants. They even deposite some kind of sweetish stuff that encourages somekind of whitish coloured fungus to grow and damage the plant.

Pests ....... Ooooooo!!!! this pesky little things BUT I still think the worst kind of pest are those of the human kind .......

"Sio Bak" & "Chiak Sio"

2008-10-15T11:40:00.013+08:00

"Sio Bak" is Hokkien for roast pork and "Chiak Sio" is lean roast. For the Chinese roast pork is traditionally eaten with lean roast. The part for the roast pork must be from the belly and the lean roast usually just any lean part will do .......... the seasoning is different but I think it is quite simple. If you want to know I'll have to ask my wife, she is the expert, me I just eat only hehe!!

A great "sio bak" is not only in the taste but also in the bite and feel, all have to be perfect to make it special. If you have eaten "sio bak" I am sure you know what I mean right! There are just "sio bak", so so one and wow!!! mouth watering kind. The mouth watering kind is really hard to come by ............ it has to be perfect in taste, the meat is juicy and tender, the skin .......cruck cruck cruck yup crispy and crunchy ........ just thinking of it is making my mouth watering .........whoa!!! After much trial and error in the past, my wife's "sio bak" is classified in the mouth watering section ....yum yum!!! I think the trick is in the process of roasting.

From young I had never really fancied "chiak sio" because it is boring until my mum started making it herself. Stall bought "chiak sio" is meaningless, usually fibrous, dry and tasteless. My mum taught my wife how to do it and she made some modification to perfect it. Her "chiak sio" is full of taste, smooth and juicy making you always wanting more after the first piece. In simple words "HO CIAK"

Clocks

2008-10-12T22:08:00.029+08:00

Clocks are indeed a timeless piece of machine and time stop when they stop working ............ craps eh! .......... hehehe!!!!

I like pendulum clocks and I have quite a number of them in my home but none are antique clocks because I don't believe in buying them ............ if you want to give me one thank you!! The pendulum wall clocks are really a pleasing sight and they will never be outdated, yes timeless.

A couple of days ago I just got two of my pendulum wall clocks working again with new quartz electronic clock work. The first one was from Germany which I bought when I was there in the nineties and hand carried it back all the way home. The original clock work was quartz electronic and I had to replaced it once before because it died ............ so now it is the third time.

The second clock is a fully mechanically pendulum wall clock and it was the first mechanical pendulum clock that I bought. It was made in China, a replica of some kind of antique clock ......... I think it is the Lipizzaner Horse Clock which was made in Germany. The escapement gear was worn out unevenly and thus it was not able to keep accurate time. I tried to adjust the rocker to keep the time right but ........... no result and I guess the only option was to change the escapement gear or change the mechanical clock work to quartz electronic ........... I decided on a quartz electronic since it is much easier to replace.

Now I have three quartz electronic pendulum wall clock and the third one is a replica of a classic school house long drop regulator "a" clock made by Citizen. This one has been with us for quite a long time now and it is still keeping good time. It did gave some trouble like stop working but I managed to get it started again .......... I don't know how but I did it ...... hehe!!

Another four pendulum wall clocks are mechanical and they are running perfectly. Three were China made, antique replicas and another is Japanese .......... Seiko I think. It is really an old boring mechanical pendulum wall clock and it had been around for more than thirty years I think. Actually it had already stop working when I got it and I managed to revive it.

Other than pendulum wall clocks there are also other types of clocks in the house including one in the upstairs toilet. One day I think the pendulum wall clocks are going to be worth quite a fair bit ............ don't you think so?

A Treat

2008-10-11T12:48:00.004+08:00

Yesterday our Princess gave us a lunch treat at the Saravanah Indian Restaurant down the road, yes it was a banana leaf curry rice treat for lunch. It was a great treat but I can't really say much about the food now. The last time we were there the food seems to be tastier but this time it is either too salty or just blend, the veggies were OK though. At the end of the meal there was a small surprise .......... a sweet desert drink. Thanks for the treat Princess. Pictures courtesy of Princess cellphone camera.

Trellis

2008-10-10T11:11:00.008+08:00

My trellis is completed and it is made of bamboos that I collected from the fence. I intent to use it for planting angled luffa and zucchini. The zucchini seeds I got it from my sister-in-law from the United States. She brought it back when she was on holiday.

The bamboos are now dry and they feel strong but the final product look flimsy. I wonder whether it is strong enough ....... guess I'll have to wait until ........ hey!! maybe I can reinforce it, better safe than sorry ya!!

Black Forest Gateau

2008-10-08T12:03:00.015+08:00

Black Forest Gateau is a cake that my wife had really mastered. My first taste of this cake is like err .... more than thirty years ago and that was when my wife then my girlfriend .......first learned to make it from a teacher friend and she loved it. Everybody loved the black forest gateau and she loved the compliments that comes with it. The taste is just ..... mmmmmm!! heavenly........ yum yum!!!!

The appearance is .... err the creativity is great you should see some of the cakes she made and decorated when she was into selling them. The Black Forest Gateau was a hit and the best seller too!! Nowadays she only sell her cakes to a selected few lucky people only. Our wedding cake, she made it too and the guest just couldn't get enough of it.

Other than black forest gateau, her range of cheese cakes are fantastic too. Eclairs, cream puff, steam cake .......... all yummy yum yum!! not only is she a great cook but a great baker too!! Join me for a piece !!

Veggie Bed Rehabilitation

2008-10-05T22:35:00.011+08:00

After the harvest of the leafy veggies, the process of growing them is complete and the bed need to be rehabilitated before another batch of veggies can be planted. It is a good feeling to know that I have completed the whole cycle of planting veggies from seeds to the dinning table ......... really great!!

Rehabilitating the bed is pretty easy, just dig up the whole bed just like ploughing and replenished it with compost. My idea of doing this is to get rid of the weeds that were starting to grow every where and any where around or on the bed. It is also to aerate the soil and add in more nutrients for the next batch of veggies. The bed need to mulched too!

Princess made some weather proof labels for the mini farm and it really help in keeping track when the veggies can be harvested ............ I like it.... :)

BBQ

2008-10-04T01:11:00.009+08:00

BBQ is a great way to eat, not the commercial kind but our own kind is always the best. My Princess is home from her first semester break of her final year in uni. Being a food lover like me she proposed to have a BBQ and we had it last Monday. The best way to really enjoy a BBQ is to make it private so our only "guest" were my mum and mum-in-law.

Making it private is the best because we do not need to worry about the guest and usually the host will end up not eating. Commercial BBQ is boring, no choice just eat what is available, sometimes have to fight for the food too!! Private .........ahhh!!! Yes is the best kind, we can decide how to eat, what to eat, how well to cook, eat and cook ...... play with fire ........... many many things to enjoy!!!

We had lamb, seasoned with organic rosemary from our very own herb garden. Other ingredients errr.......have to ask my wife she seasoned it. It was really delicious barbecued to exactly the way I like it by myself....hehe!!! The chicken wings were seasoned by Princess and barbecued to perfection by her ........ yum yum ....it's great. Potatoes in jacket, really yummy with butter and organic basil also from our herb garden. Fish, red snapper, baked in foil with spicy sauce a'la home minister style ............ "ho ciak!!!". The calamari and the mussels hmmm ............ just heavenly mouth watering with the special sambal sauce specially prepared by my wife. The salad was fantastic too!

It was a fantastic BBQ, everyone had a great time and our tummy were filled to the brim. If you really want to have a great BBQ, yes do it yourself privately. :)

New Blog

2008-10-02T12:07:00.004+08:00

I started a new blog entitled Malacca Daily Photo and it is going to be mainly a pictorial blog about Malacca. There are many places that we take for granted yesterday and today it is no longer there. Places that are interesting, places with fond memories or just a place that was just there, once no longer there no amount of words can really describe it. But if a photo was taken, it is imortalised .... :)

Windy Day

2008-09-30T23:14:00.006+08:00

Today was a really windy day and it was really nice until after my afternoon nap. I was outside the house this whole morning clearing up after last night BBQ and it was a really a great BBQ, everyone had a great time even my sister-in-law from England was here virtually.

After done with the clearing up, I watered the plants and was a little worried about the windy condition. Anyway I the wind would slow down and went on with my usual business. In the evening my Princess told that the "edamame" plant was broken and my immediate reply was "it must be the wind" Yes it was the wind indeed, instead of getting weaker as I thought it got stronger ....... looks like I'll have to start all over again. Anyway all is not lost as I have some knowledge on the finer points about growing "edamame". My princess collected all the edible beans and boiled them ........ yum yum they were good!! Well at least I got to eat some. :)

The Bed

2008-09-28T23:39:00.012+08:00

Last night my two girls came downstairs to complaint that their bed had collapsed just when I was about to go to bed......... well off course there were alot of who did this and that and this that caused the bed to collapsed ........... ki kok ki kok ki kok!!!!!!!! So I reluctantly trudge upstairs to asses the damage and is not at all pleased at the prospect of having to repair it there and then.

Whew what a relief I had when I saw that the base planking just slipped from the rail ........ looks like poor design and excess movement causes it to drop. Place the base planking carefully back on to the rail so that the girls can have a good night sleep on the bed. No that is not a permanent solution, will do the the modification in the morning ......... I need my rest too ....... goodnight zzzzzz.

Early this morning after doing my usual Sunday morning things and business, I decided to correct the flaw in bed. My two girls went to do part time work early this morning so the bed was free for me to work on it. After ding-dong ding-dong for about an hour and a half or so plus a few gallons of sweat .......... it was really a warm morning ........ it was done. Ladies the bed is very stable now and papa always do a great job ya!! :)

"Balik Kampung"

2008-09-27T12:26:00.006+08:00

Just finished reading the Star Newspaper this morning and was relieved that I need not do the "Balik Kampung" thingy anymore. "Balik Kampung" is the Malay term for returning to hometown and it is really a stressful, tedious and full of nonsense thing to do during a major festival. It is really an exodus of people from Kuala Lumpur to all the other states.

I have been doing the "Balik Kampung" every weekend for almost thirty years when I was making a living in Kuala Lumpur. To make the routes safer during major festivals, the police had implemented an operation called Ops Sikap and after reading the article today I am really happy that I do not need to go through this anymore...... I am HOME :)

Basil

2008-09-26T22:02:00.007+08:00

Basil is really a fantastic herb. Remember the basil plant that I mentioned in "Green Fingers", it is fully grown now. It is a great herb and is used a lot in Italian cooking. I really love the smell and taste of basil.

My Princess bought the basil seedling from Kuala Lumpur and one of her intention was to make pesto sauce. She had wanted to try spaghetti in pesto sauce but did not want to make use of commercially available ones. Yes she had already try it but did not like it, me I love it. On the second try, less of the pesto sauce was used and this time everyone like it. We tried adding it with spaghetti bolognese and it was ..... Mama Mia!!!! Delicious!!!

The surplus of the basil leaves are being dried for storage and distribution to people who are interested in it. The leaves of the basil must be constantly harvested or else it would be wasted. I am now waiting for the collect the seeds to plant new plants. Need some basil? :)

Smiling Again

2008-09-23T22:24:00.002+08:00

This morning while clipping my nails I noticed that my left thumb nail seems to be smiling at me ............... why it is no longer CACAT :)

The Cupboard

2008-09-22T12:28:00.019+08:00

Not long ago my Home Minister requested me to construct a cupboard but I had to reject. Under current situation of excessively high pump price of fuel the timber yard refused to deliver small quantities. Even though I know them very well they just out right refused ........... I even suggested that they drop it off should they be passing my place to deliver orders that justify the cost and I don't mind waiting. The answer is still NO because it is inconvenient and very likely that they will forget because it is not their normal practice. If I want the lumber, I had to find my own way to get it back home ........ can't blame them can I? Moreover the cost of lumber had spiral upwards.

Anyway after some calculation and my poor back condition, maybe it is cheaper to buy one, so off we went to check it out. Yes the mass produced type is much cheaper but there is still a problem ........ can it go up the staircase to the location it is intended for?

Last Sunday we had a break and found the perfect cupboard at a fantastic discount too. It was a Completly Knock Down (CKD)/Do It Yourself (DIY) three door wardrobe so there is no problem whether it can go up the staircase or not. Errr..... only a small problem, they don't deliver because it was from one of the hypermarts and it was a CKD/DIY. We were using our small car then and was not sure whether it could fit in or not. After some quick measurement ......... alright!! it fit but some changes have to be made concerning the sitting arrangement.

After reaching home with the two packages, yes it came in two boxes, and two hours or so later it was done with a little help from my abled body son to do the heavy lifting. While assembling the cupboard I was impressed with the precision of the cut and holes, everything just fitted so well! I was prepared to do some refitting but there is no need at all ....... wonder where it was made.

While clearing up the boxes to be reused or recycling, guess what I saw printed on the box "Made in France" :)

Good Eat

2008-09-21T20:16:00.008+08:00

Yes it is "Good Eat" as in Hokkien "HO CIAK!!!" and that is how I would describe the recent harvest from the organic mini farm. The farm is mini but the yield and produce is gigantic and really "ho ciak"

The okra is long and fat and have thick walls. My wife cooked it with sambal belacan and every bite is just heavenly ......... full of bite, crunchy yet tender with full of mouth watering sweetness. Enjoy the photos below ........ yum!! yum!!

The "kai-lan" is just as great and it was stir fried with ginger and garlic.....yummy!!yum!!yum!!

The brassica or "chai sim" in Hokkien cooked with noodles and wah lau eh!!! just fantastic .......... gave some to my mum too!! just the veggie.

HO! CIAK!!! :)