F.R.I.E.N.D.S

FRIENDS has been a hot topic lately.. A topic that stir different thoughts...
* Angel wrote friends...
* May wrote If I could turn back time...
* King's wife wrote I turn to You...

I was flipping through the old photo album and came across this vintage photo. Taken in 1992 in Kabong Beach, Sarawak together with my Upper Six classmates (my old friends). We went to Kabong Beach the next day after we our last paper in STPM exam as planned. Wah.. come to think about it, I had left secondary school for 14 years .... We chartered a school bus for the trip and departed early in the morning. Few hours later, we reached our final destination - the isolated Kabong Beach. And that was the last time I had outing and crazy time together with my ex classmates. Those were the innocent good old days; Everyone is so pure and sincere.

I can't remember a word about what we were yakking about during our 2 days and 1 night trip in Kabong Beach. The only thing I remembered was most of us didn't sleep and stayed awake throughout the night... lying down or sitting on the beach in small groups.. looking at the stars and the dark sky.. looking at and listening to the plashing of fiery waves (of the South China Sea)... enjoying the cool breeze.. sharing our thoughts etc... During those days, we totally had no idea and clueless what the future has in store for us.

Although friends come and friends go, I still keep in touch with most of my ex classmates or schoolmates (via sms or phone call or email, but not on regular basis). Nowadays, we hardly have time to meet up coz everyone is busy with their own lives, their commitments, their families and their jobs. Moreover, each and everyone of us is working in different towns or different states or different countries. But... One good thing is we still have reunion gathering each year (without fail) during Chinese New Year in my hometown - a small town called Sarikei. Too bad I cannot made it to join them for the last 2 gatherings..

Appreciate what we have while it lasts ;)

Magic Wand??

I came back home during lunch hour in the afternoon to get some important documents which I left behind. When I was just about to leave home, I heard the ding dong sound... I opened the door & saw Mr Postman awaiting out there with a parcel... all the way from the KiasuLand, Singapore !!! Thanks Carcar for the wonderful gift. Guess what is it???

I opened the parcel and saw this... Little Octopus or Sotong? Two words to describe it - So cute !!!!!!!!! Hold on... there is a wooden stick attached to the octopus... I'm cracking my head, wondering what is it....

It looks like Magic Wand woh.. Remember the fairy godmother with the magic wand (with a star attached to the other end) we read in the fairy tales during our childhood time? Might be I can turn people into octopus or sotong by pointing the octopus end towards them.. Taa-daa... What a brilliant idea !!

But when i looked at the octopus again... examining in great details.. front & back, up & down, left & right, again & again... I come to the final conclusion.. This is an Octopus Stick Massager !!! Might be I can use the octopus to piak at others too... Wonderful piak-ing tool !!! I like !!! Muacks to Carcar for such a wonderful gift :)

Psssss.. Ah Boy loves this toy too leh.. He admires it and pleads me to give this cute little fella to him.. Sorry lah, my little doggy, The cute octopus is mine.

Yeah, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Carcar once again for the lovely heart card which she sent me in early November. Thank Q Thank Q.

My Gadgets, My Toys...

These are my toys and my beloved gadgets... which are either black or grey in colour.. I love black... I don't fancy pink. Black is great. Black is cool. Black is mysterious. I know Leonald loves black too, judging from his Black, Blacken, Blackie post.

My one year old Pentium D processor-based Desktop, with my doggy picture as wallpaper.

Webcam

Microphone

Volume control for PC speaker.

My Digital Cameras - Konica Minolta Z2 (bought in 2004).

The handy digital camera, Minolta Dimage X50 (bought in 2005).

The Nokia N73 handphone (bought in September 2006) with the misty Mt Kinabalu scene as wallpaper.

My faithful companion - My PDA, Palm Tx (bought in July 2006).

The Transcend JetFlash 512Mb Thumb Drive (bought in 2005).

Kenny is in Town

Kenny, the rocker is in town.. He balik kampung to visit his parents and took this opportunity to jalan-jalan cari makan in Penang. What else to do in Penang besides eating ??? First of all, we visited the famous Penang Assam Laksa (the one next to the longkang) in Air Itam Market. As usual the place is packed & full house. Manage to get a seat after a while. The vendor must be making big bucks huh? Halfway eating, we witnessed one sad incident... stray puppies being caught by the MPPP. The puppies were yelling and crying for help.... The way the puppies being caught was kejam. Don't ask me how... *Sob*.

While we were savouring the assam laksa in Penang island, that someone-someone out there at the same time having nice food & long hours of chit-chat in KL ;) After our first round of food, we wandered and drove around a while.. Well... come to think about it, not many interesting places to go in Penang except makan... So we ended up in another makan place called Swatow Lane. This time we managed to secure a seat inside the air-conditioned room. The place is fully occupied and noisy like pasar :P

Kenny said "This is what we called Char Koay Teow" (in comparison to the char koay teow he had in KL) :D

This is what we called Chen-dol (with my name in it.. *Perasan*), the sweet concoction with gigantic kidney beans.

White-white tei Chee Cheong Fun with stinky black-black tei prawn paste gravy, red-red tei chilli paste, sesame oil and sesame seed. Time to play with the rolled up steamed rice flour. The one I like the most is from New Lane, but only available at night time.

Related entry :
My Balik Kampung Trip

Chewing GUM?

While driving from Sabah back to Brunei, we drove pass the GUM Clinic in Limbang district. The first time I heard about and knew the existence of GUM Clinics was during my medical school days in the mid 90's. My first impression of GUM clinic at that time was... Is that a periodontal clinic? Hahaha..

I'm sure some of you don't know what is GUM clinics. Some might not even realise the existence of such clinic.. GUM clinic has nothing to do with periodontal nor gum related disease. It is not a dental clinic either. GUM Clinics are Genito-Urinary Medicine Clinics that specialize in sexual health including STD (STD is not "Sambungjauh Terus Dail" but Sexually Transmitted Diseases) and VD (Venereal Diseases). Bukan Klinik Gigi atau Klinik Gusi :P

蛋蛋 (旦旦 )Post

This is 蛋 蛋/旦旦 (aka egg or telur) post.. 旦 is close relative of 王八旦, 混旦 and 臭鸡旦. Today I will torture the 旦旦 by eating them...

I'm conducting a wu liao survey on how you eat torture your half-boiled eggs...
1. Slurp the egg white first and eat the yolk later (save the best for the last)?
2. Or sapu the egg yolk first?
3. Or beat & mix the egg yolk together with the egg white prior to makan?
4. Or mix it with soy sauce?
5. Or sprinkle a dash of pepper?
6. Or eat the half boiled egg together with toasted bread?
7. Or... u don't eat half-boiled eggs cos scared of Salmonella infection?

I cannot resist but to giggle each time I see this modified Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes...

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Cannot put Humpty Dumpty back again.
Had scrambled eggs for breakfast again !!!

Related entry :
Eggs(鸡蛋)

Sabah : Mt Kinabalu (2)

Misty sceneries taken from the car on our way down from Mt Kinabalu back to Kinabalu Park... Thank God this is purely mist & not the deadly haze !!!

朦朦胧胧.... Seeing this, I quickly wind down the car window to enjoy the cool breeze. Syiok. Mmmm.. Misty reminds me of Misti :P

Finally, we were back to the "lowland" - The Kinabalu Park. Still windy (Sabah = The Land Below the Wind/Negeri Di Bawah Bayu. It's windy everywhere). Oh ya, ini pokok manyak comel. Lain daripada yang lain.

Nice or not? Must give face a bit.. Even though not nice also must say nice, okie?

How about this? Cantik? Boleh tahan saja? Err..Nice also, right? :P

This is the overall scene of the plant.. Is the plant ugly? Yes? No?? Whatever lah.. I took the previous two shots from this ugly looking plant.

Sabah : Weird Fruits

I came across these fruits in Sabah. This is my first encounter with such fruits. I have no idea what are these fruits called. I really hope someone can enlighten me with the names of the fruits.

The appearance resemble gigantic Pulasan - I meant the soft spikey "hair" ;)

I'm still wondering... Ini buah apa? *Updated* = Buah Terap

The taste... Mmmm... not bad :)

This one - looks like persimmon. And... the fruit smells like vomitus. No joke !!!

The flesh kinda resembles apple.. One word to describe the taste.... Yucks. Tak sedap leh... For those who likes this fruit, sorry lah...This is just my personal opinion. As you know, one man's meat is another man's poison, and vice versa :P

生

生是一首我非常喜欢的老歌. 这首歌很好听，歌词写得也特别好. Nice old song (in the late 80's) by Jacky Wu (吴宗宪). I love the lyrics. Listening to nice music/songs are therapeutic. When I feel unhappy or sad, I will play some meaningful nice songs and this method really helps. I would like to dedicate this song to Carcar (♥Hope the car is fully repaired and won't breakdown again♥), and also to everyone out there who likes this song.

生 (吴宗宪)

从第一声哭泣开始 你便注定要走这么一遭
所有人世间的事 从此就要一一尝过
要学会看清一切 要学会认清黑白
要会分别是与非 知道这样对不对

从第一声哭泣开始 你便注定拥有喜和苦
所有人世间的事 从此就要踏上征途
要学会说声抱歉 要学会明白别人
要会分别善与恶 要知道这样好不好

你的心在成长的过程中 必然会有些转变
但是永远都别忘记 最原始最美
或许你将面临困难 和难以理解
但是别灰心 我们都曾经 走过这么一回

从第一声哭泣开始 你便注定要离开这世界
所有人世间的事 从此就要抛在脑后
要学会刺激自己 要学会安慰别人
要会分析成与败 要知道这样错了没

你的心在成长的过程中 必然会有些转变
但是永远都别忘记 最原始最美
或许你将面临困难 和难以理解
但是别灰心 我们都曾经 走过这么一回

你的心在异动的岁月里 必然会跟着转变
但是永远都别忘记 最原始最美
或许你将面临挫折 和难以选择
但是别灰心 我们都曾经 是这样的过来

Tortoise Talk

3 weeks ago, on one fine Sunday evening... after gasak the mouth watering Penang Assam Laksa in Air Itam Market, I spent my evening together with the 龟仔龟女 in the Tortoise Pond near the Kek Lok Si Temple.

There are few hundreds tortoises in the pond... I spent almost an hour looking at the teenage mutant ninja turtles groovy little animals of various sizes with wizened face, stumpy legs and shorty tails.

The outstanding tortoise cos of the shell "colour". Lain daripada yang lain.

Tortoise munching the fibrous leafy kangkung..

Wah... Look at the claws. I dunno tortoise has claws too !!!

Tortoise stretching his front legs after his afternoon nap...

Old tortoise (from the Great great Grandpa category). Smooth shells and "thick skinned" tortoise with stumpy legs. Take note of the thick layer of skin on the neck. The concentric rings on the shell is hardly visible.

Another old Grandpa tortoise with shinny smooth shell.

This one looks like turtle :P

Err.... Watch Out Mr Tortoise /龟先生.. U put yourself in a dangerous position.. Guess what happened the next minute?

The poor tortoise lost balance and PK (pok kai) - I meant fell down lah... Luckily he didn't crack his shell...

四脚朝天... The poor tortoise struggling and trying hard to get up but couldn't... So kesian :(

Sabah : Mt Kinabalu

Entrance to the "starting point" for the enthusiastic climbers who want to conquer Mt Kinabalu (the tallest mountain in South East Asia with the height of 4,101m).

The "Hall of Frame" - The 19th Mount Kinabalu International Climbaton 2005. My name will never appear on the board unless I photoshop the picture :P *grin*

Mmmm.... The "anaemic" looking trees which require blood transfusion :P

The climb (up Mount Kinabalu) begins at the Timpohon Hut/Pondok Timpohon (located at the 1866 m altitude). Nope, I didn't climb the Mt Kinabalu (might be I will do so the next time, might be not.... )

I love this - The Misty View. Fresh Cool Air and Refreshing Cold Breeze. We can temporary forget about the haze which hit the whole Malaysia during that period of time (early October), whereby the API hits unhealthy value in several places.

I can 101% assure u this is definitely NOT haze (else I will cabut as fast as I can..) :P

Two successful climbers on their way back from the summit trail, to Pondok Timpohon. Might be I will take up the challenge in the future? Mmmm... or might be not? Let's see...

And I was amazed with the attires they wore for the climb. Shorts? It is freezing cold at the summit of the mountain in the early morning. Nah... they must had changed their attires somewhere on their way :P

Leaves with different colour..