Warehouse Sale

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.

Picture Story

Identify.

Approach.

Satisfaction.

Swimming

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.......

BBQ

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

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 .... :)

SCUBA Diving

The ocean is a mysterious, exciting, interesting with lots of fun place and scuba diving is a great sports ......... is my favourite. The very first time I saw people scuba diving was on TV in the sixties, yes I was still a kiddo then but I knew that is something that I really wanna do someday. The TV program was Sea Hunt and whenever it was on I will be glued right in front of the screen, it was black and white then. Even thought it was black and white I was really fascinated with the view underwater. Hundred and fifty-five episodes of this show were produced and I watched every single one.

At that time most of my diving adventures were in the bath tub with a hose for breathing ....... hehe!!! The bath tubs we had at that time was just an extra large pot for holding water and it was not meant for soaking in. A used large Planta can was used to scoop water for a typical Malaysian splash bath. Well at least I can say that I had dive in a place where even Jacques Yves Cousteau have not explored ......... hehe!!!

After having explored every nooks and corner of the large bath pot and much older, I took my first official scuba diving course to be a certified diver in 1985. My first dive was off Pulau Pemanggil and oh wow!!!! it is really beautiful and it is in colour .......... the feeling is just out of this world. After about three years of active diving our group disbanded because everyone were busy trying to make a living. It was really terrific to be able to do something that I had really wanted to as a kid. At that time when I was only able to dive in the large bath pot, I never knew that I would really be scuba diving .......... it's great.

My last scuba diving trip was in year 2003 to one of the ultimate international scuba diving destination, Sipadan. Yes Sipadan is really a diving haven for scuba divers and it is a must go destination for most scuba divers. I had wanted to visit this great diving place ever since I heard about it when I started scuba diving ........ err real scuba diving not the one in the bath pot. The pictures here were all taken in Sipadan. Let's go to Sipadan !!! :)

Recycling

Our recycling store is getting overloaded ......... guess it's time to make a trip to the recycling center. Before loading the stuff into the old chariot, I'll have to do some sorting and organised the loading. The loading must be organised to avoid confusion during unloading and weighing at the center. The recyclables were separated into paper, plastics and metal ........ no glass why huh???? Old bottles are not accepted by the recycling center in Malacca and I do not have the slightest idea why .......... can somebody enlighten me??? The recyclables can be sent to the recycling center unsorted but the returns are much less compared to sorted recyclables.

The recycling center we send our recyclables to is Ong Peck Seng or OPS in short. I think OPS is named by the children of the original founder of this company because OPS is a bit more hip ......you know like YSL hehe!!!! Anyway OPS had been around for a real long time and is the largest in Malacca with a real good reputation.

Recycling is a great way to keep our environment healthy ............ have you done your part yet? :)

The Fence

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

Yabbies

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cycling

About two years ago ....... I think!!!.... I had a windfall in the golf course while playing golf and decided to buy a bicycle which I have been eyeing. OK it is a Polygon Mecha entry level MTB, made fully from aluminum alloy with Shimano components and also some other branded parts. It has full suspension so it is easy on this bag of old bones :)


I got my first bicycle when I was 12, it was an old used bicycle that my mum bought from a neighbour in the kampong we were staying. Even though it was an old bicycle, I had a lot of great time with it exploring the sites around Malacca and the daily rides to school and back. Yes "HAVE WHEELS WILL TRAVEL"...... hehehe!!!


Initially after getting the new bicycle, I revisited most of the places that I used to explore when I was a kid and it was a real disappointment. Beautiful mud ponds where we spend most of our time during the schools holidays swimming with the buffaloes, favourite fishing holes and padi fields were all gone. Ya, no thanks to development ...... all we get now is just housing estates which is not really occupied or just abandoned.


Nowadays I just use it as a runabout to run errants nearby about within a radius of 5 km. One has to be real careful when cycling in Malacca cause the road and motorist are not bicycle friendly. Cycling in the housing estate is not much fun either cause there is always the never ending numbers of road humps.

Whenever the adventurous spirit in me starts to itch, I will still ride a bicycle to explore .................... Join Me :)

Feeling Good

Today is World Environment Day and for the first time in my life I actually felt I have done my part for Mother Earth even though it is only a tiny weeny bit. Actually I was not aware that today is World Environment Day until I read the newspapers this morning. I was able to associate myself with the articles in the newspaper with what I am doing daily and it just feel great.

So PEOPLE WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR

THE FUTURE OF OUR ONLY HOME IS IN OUR OWN HANDS

IT'S UP TO US TO SAVE IT

LET'S DO IT!!!!!!!

Yeah!!! It Feels Good!!!

E Selling

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

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

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

Getting Started

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

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

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