Collecting Mykad

Finally, I manage to find time to collect my Mykad(new Identification Card) this morning.. After all the hassle waiting for my Mykad to be "ready" over the past 4 months. I posted the "interesting" story here earlier on. My Mykad was ready end of last month but I don't have free time to go to collect it :)

When I reached the National Registration Department (JPN) in Wisma TNB around 8:10 am in the morning, I was kinda surprised to see such a long queue.. I guess cos the deadline for"free" renewal of Mykad is coming soon (end of this year), and as usual, most people will only do things at the very last minute. The typical "wait-until-last-minute" Malaysians' attitude of getting things done :P After this, those who haven't do so, will be "charged". How much is the amount ? I have no idea...

I didn't actually count how many people are queueing up to renew their IC, but from just a quick glance, there are definitely more than 100 people. I went to the different counter to collect my Mykad. There's just few people queueing up here. Manage to get my Mykad pretty fast, within less than 10 minutes.

Frankly speaking, I'm expecting to see an awful photo in my Mykad (Don't know why, just that somehow the IC photo always looks funny and weird); but hahahha... Thank God, I'm wrong this time :D The photo looks nice :P

Log Book

Lately, there's lotsa Post Basic Students (PBS) asking for my "autographs" :P I mean ~ asking for my signature in their log books, as evidence that they have observed or assisted me or performed certain procedures under my supervision etc. These PBS are actually qualified nurses and medical assistants who wants to further their study in various disciplines... eg. intensive care, Operating theatre, midwives courses etc etc...

Looking at their log books, reminds me of those days during my medical student time as well as my housemanship time, whereby we were given a log book in the beginning of each posting.. And there are several procedures and operations that we need to observe, to assist as well as to peform individually with guidance or under supervision ..

For eg. in Obstetric and Gynaecology (O&G) posting during my 4th year medical undergraduate time, we need to conduct at least 10 normal deliveries and perform at least 5 episiotomies.. Have to stay back late or came back on weekends to complete our log books cos there were so many medical students; everyone competed for the cases.. And everyone wanted to complete their log book early.. And not to forget those nurses taking the midwife courses as well...

Woman's Heart ( 女人心 )

Woman's Heart(女人心) - This is one of my favourite songs.. I even created my own screensaver a year ago with some of my little doggy's photos and using these two mp3 songs Woman's Heart (女人心) and 赤的疑惑 as the background music. Those who never know or listen to this song(Woman's Heart 女人心) before; and if you are interested to do so ~ can listen to this song online by clicking on this website. There's even English translation regarding the meaning of the song over there.

This song, by late Anita Mui 梅艷芳, won the best original film song from the movie "東方三俠/Heroic Trio" in Hong Kong Film Award 1994. I remember watching this movie previously in one of the cinema in KL, not far away from Tung Shin Hospital. Can't remember which cinema is that already, since it's so long ago.. :)

What's your favourite song? At this moment, I'm listening to 女人心 :)

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

Get this link from JoeC regarding "How Much Is My Blog Worth?" I just blog for fun, and never think of my humble blog hold any values :D... Kekkeke... However, no harm testing; And out of curiosity as well :D

My blog is worth $14,678.04.
How much is your blog worth?

Err? Not bad also the result.. Hahhaha... Written there (on 28 October 2005) ~Your blog, http://chen22.blogspot.com, is worth $14,678.04

Happy Birthday, Kenneth

Dedicated to my KSL Kenneth aka Jellyfish :)

On this special day more than two decades ago, a baby jellyfish was born.. This jellyfish is somehow different from the other jellyfishes cos this jellyfish wear glasses :) Proven he has higher IQ compared to all the other jellyfishes... :D Hahaha...

Wish U Many Happy Returns and May All Your Dreams Come True
Happy Birthday, Kenneth :)

Char Koay Teow (炒粿条)

This Char Koay Teow (炒粿条) is bought from one of my favourite CKT hawker stalls over here in Penang. I love the Char Koay Teow(or Fried Flat Noodles) which are stir fried with a little lard, together with juicy big prawns & cockles, thin slices of Chinese sausages, fried egg, bean sprouts, chives and lotsa chillies..

Penang is well known for it's nice, yummy, delicious and mouth watering hawker food, especially Char Koay Teow and Penang Assam Laksa :) I think no one will disagree with me regarding this matter ;)

I just get to know that Char Koay Teow is available in Perth, Australia as well when I read Cynthia's posting yesterday night :) And not only Char Koay Teow, there's lotsa other Chinese food available as well, including Curry Mee and Assam Laksa. I'm amazed :D

Nowadays, most of us "Live to Eat", and not "Eat to Live" as the olden days phrase :P

23/5 Meme

Glutton Rabbit has tagged me 2 weeks ago recently with this 23/5 meme :P So lazy to do homework, and I have postponed it for almost 2 weeks already.

Well, not purely due to lazy as well lah.. I have other commitments as well..(giving excuses?) And furthermore, I have to do active on calls as well, which means working (very hard) and staying inside the hospital for 24 hours almost twice a week…

Actually I wanted to do this meme earlier onl, but looking at the total number of posts that I have written so far (near 200 posts altogether), I’m a bit lazy to count back which one is my 23rd post. This 23rd post must be one of my earlier posting written during my early stage of blogging :D

The instructions given for this 23/5 meme are :
1. Delve into your blog archive
2. Find your 23rd post
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions: Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas...
5. Tag five people to do the same

Mmmm...let’s see what it is about.. Take out a spade and start digging into my blog archive and search hard for the 23rd post.. Err.. Finally I found the 23rd post... written long long time ago in May.. And I noticed something as well.. Very co-incident. The 23th post was my old posting with the title Sunday and guess what?? I wrote that on 22nd May 2005. Look at the date 22/5 and the 23/5 Meme.. So "nearby"... Kakkaka.. If I previously post that "Sunday" post on 23rd May, then it would be perfect.. My 23/5 Meme is then written on 23/5.. Hahhahhaa…

Let me count.. The fifth sentence is "I think the last time i sit in front rows are during my university time, but even so, most of the time, I don't sit exactly in the first row, but the second or third row".

So, what I need to do next is ~ to ponder about the sentence above for the meaning or hidden agendas.

Most of the time, people don't like to take the front rows, especially in classes or attending lectures or tutorials or seminars.. and including church services as well.. Why so? I guess for students or undergraduates, the reasons why they don't want to sit at the front row is very obvious :D Cos the lecturers will always asks and bombard questions to those sitting at the front row :)Hahhaa.. That's why the first rows were always empty...

I still remember those days during my undergraduate time, everytime when there's lectures or tutorials or teaching.. my Malay coursemates will always occupy the back rows ~ well, they came early, so they have the priviledge to choose where they want to sit. So even though we (the Chinese) came later (we are still not late by the way.. something like arriving few minutes before the lectures or tutorials started), we always have the "best seats" awaiting for us.. the front row :D I don't mind sitting in the front rows actually. Clearer view as well. Of course the lecturer will ask questions especially to those sitting in the front row; more palpitations and brain cells need to work harder... but won't die if don't know how to answer, right? :P

And other reasons why people like to choose back seats are :~ if the lectures or seminars are boring, those who sit further behind at the back can zzzz easily or do their own stuffs behind(chatting or drawing or reading something else) without being noticed :P or they can even cabut or leave the lecture hall easily.. ;)

The five two other victims people that I would like to tag are:
1)Cynthia
2)Evol

But since Cynthia & Evol are having their exams now, you both can take your own sweet time to do the meme later on when u are free, no hurry :P

Those were the days..

Youngsters nowadays are so "fortunate" :) I still remember during my uni days, when I was doing my medical undergraduate in one of the local university here.. During those days, only one or two of my coursemates owned a computer or mobile phones, or in other word, just the minority have such priviledges. When we did assignments, we had to queue up in the library waiting for our turns to use the computers. I still remember doing my Community Health assignments in the library till late at night on Chap Goh Mei (and eating instant noodle maggie mee as my dinner :D ) Nowadays, most college or university kids own laptops or if not laptops, they have desktops. Computers are such a norm nowadays...

Handphones are such a norm nowadays. Nowadays, even primary school kids also have handphones. During my uni time, only a handful of people owned handphones. Those were the priviledged people. I still remember we have to queue up in front of the public phone booths waiting for our turns to use the public phone. Damn it when there was/were some long winded person/people talking on the phone booths :( And not forgetting those mosquitoes bites when waiting for our turn queueing up in the phone booth. And we always carry phone cards like telekom phone cards in our purses or wallets :) Those really were the days..

Internet? I only get access to internet during my third or fourth year in University (that was somewhere in 1996 or 1997). After I get to know about emails, life really changed :P We no longer have to depend on the "slow" Snail Mail.. which will take ages to reach the receipients and take long times as well to get the reply.. Just like everytime I sent mail back home (from KL to Sarawak), it takes around a week to reach the destination. But I still send Snail Mail back home previously cos there's no computer nor internet access in my house in Sarawak during those days. Emails are so superb and so convenience. Messages can be sent to multiple recipients throughout the world within seconds :)

Regarding computer ~I still remember the computers we used during my secondary school times, in the late 80's ~ those are the monochrome monitors which display only one colour for text and pictures.. The one available in my secondary school in the late 80's are the green colour text and picture display against the black blackground.. which I referred as "green screen" :P If not mistaken, the one available in my school is the IBM PC. I bet the youngsters nowadays have no idea of the existence of such computer and dunno how it looks like :P There's only one colour monitor available in my school ~ and that computer was indeed something very "precious". Only my computer club teacher get to used it.. Btw, I'm the honourable treasurer of the computer club in my secondary school :P

Windows are not yet introduced at that time.. I still remember some of the computer keyboard has a deck for cassette. And the floppy diskette we used were the 5 & 1/4 inches floppy disks:) I bet many youngsters nowadays never see (or know the existence of) the 5-1/4" diskette. These floppy disks have very short lifespans. Those who used it before will know why is it so :) I still have the diskettes back home in Sarawak but 100% the diskettes can't be used already.. and by the way, there 's no such floppy disk drive available nowadays. The programmes available were very minimal like DOS, Turbo Pasca, etc etc.. I can't remember most of the programmes already, but I can still remember some of the DOS commands.We don't have computers at home during those days. The first computer my family bought was in 1998 :)

Talking about camera, I get my first camera during my fourth year in university in 1996. Too bad there were no digital cameras yet at those days. Or else I will shoot lotsa interesting snapshots already.

Those days ~ no computers, no internet, no emails, no mobile phones, no digital camera etc etc.. And yet we can still survive and happy. Those were the days... ;)

Childhood days biscuits

Went to market this afternoon and noticed these biscuits... I bought some as well ~ the gem biscuits and the animal shaped biscuits. I think most of us have eaten these biscuits during our childhood times. If not mistaken, the last time I ate these biscuits was more than 2 decades ago already.

I think these are called Gem Biscuits (花占餅). Oval in shape, around 1.5 cm in diameter, with little pointy stars icing sugar on top in various colours ~ bright green, yellow, pink, white etc..

This gem biscuit is my old time favourites :) Each and everyone of us have our own ways of eating these little biscuits. I think most of us (including myself), when small time, will bite off the icing sugar part first and leave behind the plain biscuits to be eaten later on/or some even throw the plain biscuits away, hahaha.... Others might chew the whole biscuit together with the icing sugar.. Or is there anyone who eat the plain biscuit first & leave behind the sweet icing sugar to be eaten later on?? I doubt hardly there is any, or even if there is, its just minority only :P What's your way of eating it?

The animal shaped biscuits(獸形餅) ~ cat, bird, fish, owl, tortoise, hippotamus, cockerel, rabbit, elephant, etc etc... Another old time favourite of mine :D

Seeing these biscuits reminds me of my kindergarden days. During my kindy time, the only available "snacks" sold in my kindergarden (St Clement Kindergarden in Sarikei) were few pieces of these animal shaped biscuits and two sweets at the price of 10 cents (if I didn't remember wrongly).

House M.D. ~ My Review

Few weeks ago, I was introduced to this show, House M.D. by a friend, John, when we were chatting on YM. He mentioned this was one of his favourite shows and he recommended me to watch it :) Initially I didn't really follow the show but lately, I sort of hooked and have been watching it more regularly.

House M.D. is an American Medical t.v. series aired in our pay channel ASTRO on AXN channel 17 every Tuesday night at 10 pm in Malaysia. Dr. Gregory House is the main actor, playing the role of a maverick, cranky, arrogant, sarcastic, bitter but brilliant doctor with a limp, who specializes in infectious diseases. He heads a team of young doctors. He does whatever it takes to solve the puzzling cases that come his way. Hahah.. and not forgetting, the sarcasm and snide comments he made :)

Just something I noted from this series ~ the doctors in this series don't diagnose cases or treat patients the way as the doctors in real life do; No appropriate investigations done before a particular treatment is started or given, and to certain extends, seems like they treat patient as guinea pigs.. using the trial & error concept. They do their own lab investigations and analysis, and they did their own imaging. They even partake in the detectives jobs or police tasks besides their medical professions... eg. searching for clues in the street or ransacking the patient's house to look for any clues or things that helps to make the appropiate diagnosis or interviewing people on the street... Which means? They are damn free and have abundant free time to do all these jobs. And seems like they are only treating one or two patients only.. And the patients will stay alive till they find the clues which aids in the diagnosis even though the patients are in critical conditions.

These are things that doctors in real life won't be capable of doing, cos most of us are so tied up and so busy with our work and there are numerous patients we have to see or treat everyday. How can we leave aside our patients in the hospital? And every single minutes counts, especially dealing with critically ill patients. This is really something impossible in real life !! Anyway, this is just a pure drama series.. Nevertheless, it's still a great drama series.. and I do enjoy watching it ;)

House M.D. is just like the "Sherlock Holmes of Medicine". And I know there's lotsa House M.D. fans out there.. Are u one of them? What do u all think about this series? By the way, there's lotsa medical terminology being used in this drama series, which might sounds as jargon to those who are not in the medical lines.

Yeah.. another thing I noticed in the Malay subtitle in the series last Tuesday.. They translated the "ultrasound" to malay word "ultrabunyi".. LOL...Hahaha.. That's indeed a "direct translation" :P Ultrasound is still known as Ultrasound in Malay language lah..

Condolence to our Prime Minister

My deepest condolence to our Prime Minister, Pak Lah and his family.. as his beloved wife, Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, whom he described as his number 1 supporter, passed away at 7:55 am this morning at the age of 64, following a lengthy battle with breast cancer.

Our Prime Minister is a loving family man. Hope that he has the strength to undergo this moment coping with his loss and continue to stay strong.

May our First Lady rest in peace.

Oh Chean

Oh Chean or Fried Oysters Omelette ~ the oysters are fried to perfection into a sort of omelette made out of a mixture of cornstarch, eggs etc. Delicious and nice to eat when this delicacy is dipped into the sweet and hot chilli sauce served together :) This Oh Chean is one of my favourites. I always frequent one of the hawker stalls in Chulia Street. The above serving costs me RM4. Although most people likes the Oh Chean sold in the junction of Carnarvon Street and Kimberley Street; I don't cos I found the one sold there is very very oily... :P

Persimmon Farm

I have never been to Persimmon Farm before, although I saw the persimmon tree once during my previous visit to China. All the while, I thought Persimmon Farm is not available in Malaysia. I was really surprised to find out that there's actually Persimmon Farm in Cameron Highland. I only get to know about it when I saw the sign board on our way to the Boh Tea Plantation in Habu. We visited the farm on our way back from the tea plantation... There's few fierce dog guarding the farm but they are tied up :) They barked fiercely when we entered the farm.


We talked to the owner as well, and learnt something about persimmon(柿子). Apparently, the persimmons can't be eaten straightaway when plucked from the tree. After harvesting the persimmons, the fruits need to be "treated" first with carbon dioxide or CO2 for astringency removal. The processed fruits can only be consumed something like 4 days later on..

Xinhui Dialect (新會 粤方言)

My grandparents (both maternal and paternal side) are from Xinhui, a city in Guangdong (广东) province in Southern China. They migrated to Sarawak almost a century ago and settle down there in a small town called Sarikei(泗里街). The dialect we use in our daily conversation is the Cantonese dialect Xinhui group (新會 粤方言). There's quite a number of Xinhui dialect Cantonese speaking people in Sarikei. So far, I have not yet encountered anyone speaking this dialect over here in Peninsular Malaysia. I did a research in internet few days ago and this is what I found :)

Dialects of Cantonese
There are at least four major dialect groups of Cantonese:

• Yuehai, which includes the dialect spoken in Guangzhou 广州/廣州, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Chinese in Southeast Asia and the overseas worldwide Chinese of Cantonese origin as well as the dialects of Zhongshan, and Dongguan;

• Siyi or sei yap 四邑, (the dialects of Taishan, Enping, Kaiping, and Xinhui 新會 ; however exemplified by Taishan 台山 dialect);

• Gaoyang, as spoken in Yangjiang ; and

• Guinan (Nanning dialect) spoken widely in Guangxi.

However, Cantonese generally refers to the Yuehai(Yueyu) 粵語/粤语 dialect.

Just wonder... anyone of you speaking xinhui or sei yap cantonese dialect out there?

Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation (Cameron Highlands)

Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation is the third tea plantation we visited, located in Mt Brinchang in Cameron Highlands. The small winding road is fabulous. Another challenging and thrilling drive - through the long, winding, steep and narrow road (the width of a one-car lane). Need to honk at sharp corners as the road is very narrow. There was occassions whereby we had to reverse our car as some of the path could only take one vehicle at a time.

It's nice sniffing the smell of roasting tea leaves when we stepped into the Boh processing factory. A guide was on hand to explain the various processes. There were also signs with general information on the different processes. The factory visit was brief. I won't post any photos on this although I did take few snap shots inside the factory :)

There were overwhelming crowds in the Sg Palas Boh tea house but this didn't prevent us form having a cup of tea and a piece of scone over there. The cafe is overlooking the tea plantation. So we can really enjoy the nice tea plantation view while sipping the hot tea. The scone here is not as delicious as the one we have earlier on in T Cafe.

We visited the tea shop as well. Besides the tea accessories and linen, most teas sold there can be found in the lowlands. Didn't buy any tea products this time...

Tomatoes

Tomato... edible fruit or vegetable?? Whatever it is ... I like to eat them raw as snack or as salad...
These are shots taken from the Cactus Valley in Cameron Highlands.. Red juicy and ripe tomatoes growing on the vines ;)

My favourite is still the cherry tomatoes from Cameron Highland. The little red, ripe cherry tomatoes that are sweet and delicious even when eaten on their own ... :)

Grass Babies

The first time I see this Grass Babies thingy were in Cameron Highlands ;)
My first impression is... Err, this is something very cute :D
These Grass Babies might be available in the market for long time already, but well, this is the first time I see them ...

They come in various sizes and shapes.. Easy to maintain. First, soak the whole product inside the water for 20 minutes to let it absorb enough water. Then put the product onto the plate and keep the plate wet with water, so that the product can absorb the water and "grow"... The grass will grow in few days time.. and needs to trim the grass regularly.. Life span is around 1 year :)

Bought few back home, one for myself and others to give to my sister in law and friends.. Planned to give one to Wynnie, but too bad... She knows why already :P Sorry lah for that ;)

MyKad

Went to renew my IC (to the new MyKad) few months ago, in May 2005. After "scanning" my thumb prints, I was asked lotsa questions at that time.. While answering, I was wondering what the heck is going on??? Since they asked so many questions ~ like my old IC number, my date of birth, my parents name, all my brother and sisters name etc etc... I have no problem answering each of the questions. I want to tell her I can told her my parents old and new IC number as well and their date of birth as well, or all my brother and sisters date of birth, if they want further clarification for whatever things... :)

I asked her what was going on, and then only she told me ~ my finger print on my old IC was different from my current finger print... Really give me a shock leh!!! Hah? weird weird... How can this be? Finger prints can change one meh? They told me they will take longer time to process my MyKad..

I thought I am the only one facing this problem but apparently not, cos when I search in the forum, I noticed few other peoples facing the same problem as well ~ different finger prints.... Must be the stupiak fingerprint scanner problem causing all these errors.. And don't tell me my genes are "mutating" or some sort of "evolution" is going on... :P

I constantly checked their website "Semak Status Permohonan MyKad" to see whether my MyKad is ready already or not.. My hubby's Mykad was ready in July already but mine still "in progress".. Both of us applied together at the same time..

Mmmmmm..... I waited and waited for so long.. I called up JPN few weeks ago to ask what's going on, and finally they told me my MyKad is really... The website info was only updated few days later on... Phew.. Finally it's really. However, I still haven't collect my MyKad yet..

View Tower, Mt Brinchang (Cameron Highlands)

The highest peak on Cameron Highlands is Gunung Brinchang; at 2,030 metres or 6,666 feet (What a number - 6666 !) above sea level . This is the "highest point accessible by road" on the Peninsular.

This is another challenging and thrilling journey- drive through the long, winding, steep and narrow road (the width of a one-car lane) to reach the summit.. For those who are adventurous, there's jungle trekking and mountain hiking all the way up here (takes approximately 2 hours).

A Telekom transmitting station resides at the top, and there is a 15 metre high Viewing Tower. Climbing up the View Tower on top of Gunung Brinchang is another "challenging" experience, since the ladder is very steep with narrow steps ;) Going up is still alright. The difficult task is when coming down, really have to watch out cos the steps are indeed very narrow.. ;) But I will say, it's worthwhile to go for it; for the bird's eye-view of the magnificent view.

The View Tower was constructed of steel and it was as rigid... but I must lament at the amount of rust which has enveloped over most of the metal surfaces of the tower, including the handrails..

I will say it's quite misty upthere.. We have to wait for quite a while for the mist to dissipate for the clearer view.

Microbes can be cute :P

Microbes can be cute as well :) Do u believe that? Hahaha.... I'm not kidding when I say this. I think you might agree with me as well after you click on this website : Plush Microbes :P You can have a closer look on each microbes on this website

When I first clicked on this website, my initial response is : Wah... So cuteeee. I really dunno the microbes/germs/bugs can be so cute, so adorable and so lovely, when they are made into soft toys :P The person who invented all theses soft toys is very "creative", to come up with such an idea. Imaging yourself hugging or playing with microbes...

Hahhaha.... And the best thing is when we give this as present to our friend(s) on their birthdays, we can actually tell them, "Hi, I'm giving you Flu virus etc for your birthday... This one is even better.. Imagine this, giving someone Gonorrhoea or Syphilis for their birthdays... LOL

Among all the little microbes soft toys, I like this the most.. The little helicobacter pylori bacteria... I always remember this joke, whereby we called this germ as helicopter for fun previously during my medical school days. Well, helicobacter sounds like helicopter, right? :P This little bacteria can cause gastritis as well as peptic ulcer :P

Dengue Fever

What is the most scary thing in Penang at the moment?
Mosquito bite !!!!!!!!! especially Aedes aegypti mosquitoes !!!!!!!!!!!
(From what I remember, there's 4 serotypes of Aedes species )

Too many dengue cases lately.. and so many patients dying cos of dengue hemorrhagic fever.. In fact, Penang is now the "hot spot" for dengue fever. :(

Frankly speaking, I'm now really phobia of mosquitoes...

Last Saturday, I went to Secret Recipe @ Bayan Baru to meet up with three old university friends.. We know each other since 1993 or 1994.. Then we visited one of my friend's apartment. Aiyoh, after coming down from her apartment around 5:45 pm, I almost get bitten by one aedes mosquito. When I entered the car, I noticed this Aedes mosquito landing on my right forearm. Luckily I acted pretty fast and manage to kill the mosquito before it "attacked" me :P It's the Aedes mosquitoes cos I can see clearly the black and white stripes on the legs...

I have see and treated so many patients with Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (which can be fatal in certain cases...). And we have lost few patients cos of this.. The sad thing is these group of patients are "not very responsive" to resuscitation. Despite all the efforts and hard work given, (including the necessary blood products transfusion) trying to save them, they still succumbed towards the end. I do believe/suspect there's a "new"resistant strain of Aedes emerging, which cause severe "capillary leakage"...

Nowadays, the allocated wards in the hospital are "overflow" with patients already; there are numerous Dengue Fever patients.... although a number of them are actually viral fever..

Some tips to follow or remember :

• Aedes mosquitoes mostly bite at certain hours ~ dusk till dawn. Avoid going outdoors or doing exercise during these peak biting hours. And remember, exercise produce sweat, CO2, lactic acid and heat, which will attract mosquitoes..
  
• Try to wear long sleeves light coloured clothing, long pants or socks when going outdoor, cos this will help to reduce the chances of getting mosquito bites. Avoid wearing dark coloured clothings cos these attract mosquitoes.
  
• If possible, use Insect Repellent on exposed skin when going outdoors, especially when going to places with possiblity of getting mosquitoes bite(s). The most effective compound is DEET (N,N-diethyl meta-toluamide), an ingredient in most insect repellents.Even a short duration outdoors can expose one to mosquito bite. Don't apply insect repellent under the clothes. Avoid applying insect repellent to portions of the hands that are likely to come in contact with the mouth and eyes.
• Avoid or stay away from clear, stagnant water (These are aedes mosquitoes breeding ground)
• Seek medical treatment if having continuous high fever, muscle pain (myalgia), bone and joint pain (dengue fever is also known as "breakbone fever"), pain behind the eyes (retro orbital pain), red spots or rashes or petechiae on the skin, and bleeding tendencies...
• And remember, prevention is better than cure... Get rid of all the possible Aedes breeding grounds !! And don't merely depends on fogging, cos the Aedes is quite "immune" or "not susceptible" to fogging already. And bear in mind, fogging doesn't kill the mosquitoes larvaes in stagnant water.
  
• And up-to-date, there's no antiviral therapy or vaccine for dengue !
  

Afternoon Tea @ T-Cafe

T Cafe is a cosy and homely cafe located on the first floor above the MarryBrown fast food restaurant in Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands.

We stopped by this place on Sunday afternoon during our trip to Cameron Highlands but much to our disappointment, the place is closed. We only realised by then this place is closed every Sunday. The opening hours are from 11 am till 10 pm every day except Sunday. From what I gathered from friends ~ this place serves very nice apple pies, scones, cheese cakes and pancakes.

We came back here again the next day. Initially I thought they serve only western food but I'm wrong. They serve both Western and Eastern Cuisine.. including char koay teow as well :D ..

The lady boss, Terese is very warm and friendly Indian gal. She greeted us with a big smile. We can see numerous postcards, letter and photos sent by their customers (local and foreigners as well) on the notice board.. Good testimonies of their good, friendly and warm services.

The inferior design of this cafe is very cosy and homely-looked. It has lotsa wooden fixtures, contributing to a rather old-worldly look. There's a shelf on one corner with lotsa books, magazines and reading materials. One can check their e-mails online as well while waiting for their food to be served.. with just a small payment of 50 cents for 10 minutes.

We had a pot of hot Cameron tea together with cream scones, apple pie and banana pancake.

The scone were served warm with whipped cream, butter curls and strawberry jam. The texture is just nice with the buttery flavour. Yummy and delicious :)

The Banana pancake, with thin slices of banana inside the pancake. Small amount of icing sugar was sprinkled on top of the pancake. Recommended to take together with a scoop of ice cream and honey as well, but we didn't opt for the ice cream..

The Apple Pie. Icing sugar was sprinkled on top of the freshly baked apple pie as well. I will say they really serve nice apple pie here... :)

And of course, a cup of hot Cameron tea as well ;)

We came back here again the next day for another round of scones. My hubby really likes their scones very much. We have tasted the scones in few other places in Cameron Highland, and in our opinion, this place serve the best and most delicious scone, and some more, it's only RM 2 per piece :)

Beside scones, we had Choco Crepe, pasta and Mango Lassi as well.

Their Mango Lassi is one of the recommended drinks.. ( half a mango is mixed with the freshly home made yoghurt).

I will highly recommend my friends to drop by this place if they visit Cameron Highlands. And surely we will come back here again if we visit Cameron Highlands in the future..

Rain

It's raining cats and dogs over here at the moment... Nice to zzzzz...

Manage to catch this snapshot a couple of minutes ago..

Can see the rain "coming".. Part of the town is still clear but the other part is covered by the heavy rain already..

Jungle Trekking - The Mossy Forest (Cameron Highlands)

Cameron Highlands features a number of natural trails which varies in difficulty. If one wish to explore the harder trails, then it is recommended to engage the services of local guide.

To me, it's nice to do jungle trekking inside the tranquil mossy mountain forest in Cameron Highlands - the high altitude and cool air really make exploration interesting and fun; Believe me, you won't really sweat much.. ;) And the best thing is - very minimal insect bites .... and no mosquitoes !!!

We started our short jungle trekking journey in one of the jungle trail in Mt Brinchang.

I can't remember whether it rained or not earlier on in the day or the night before.. There's thick, soft chocolate slush in the ground which left behind "deep" footprint marks on the ground when we stepped our feet on it.. (can see the footprint marks from the photo above). Our guide told us those are not muds. Well, it's soft but not slippery. Stained my sport shoes :(

There are white stones on the way which indicates boundaries between Pahang and Perak (as in the photo above).

Luckily my stamina is still okie.. Didn't feel "chuan" or SOB (shortness of breath) during the jungle trekking. (Although I didn't exercise much lately. Must start back my exercise programme again)


There are green coloured moss on the tree (covered up the tree trunks as well as the branches) and clumps hanging down in small bundle :) Even the rock is covered with moss and lichen as well. Amazing scenery of the flora and fauna.

I would say it's a wonderful experience ;)