It's Up

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

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

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"

"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"

"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

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

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!!!