After 10 years, I meet up with all my ex-colleagues from FAM Interactive for a reunion dinner and drinking session in Puchong. We had a nice dinner at Restoran 8 Road. If you wanna know how the food there was like, you can check out George's Makantrip Blog :-)
Allan, me and KC.
After dinner, we adjourned to Overtime and had a barrel of Stärker Beer, trading stories and tall tales... LOL. Tall tales mostly coming from me... hahaha. A few of the guys got married and some were proud parents. Some remained in the happy realm of bachelorhood refusing to make that final commitment.
Worth mentioning was Eugene, whom have sworn never to ever get married and have any kids, now a proud father constantly twitting about is son, Shane... LOL.
Esther, Eugene, Derrick, me, KC and Leong.
Tapping from the barrel.
Leong and KC having good conversation and catching up with old times!
I totally forgot to take photo and video of the occasion. Luckily, George, the diligent food blogger was there to record some of the happenings. Unfortunately, not in any of the photos above were George and Aaron... LOL.
Also, Boon Hui, Mike and Edwin were not present for the reunion as they were in Japan, USA and New Zealand respectively.
Anyway, the current plan was to do this again some time soon... probably during Chinese New Year at someone's house... LOL.
Recently, an open source company (Open Dynamics) I was involved with, organised a seminar called "Automating Your Business Processes The CODE-LESS Way" in Jakarta, Indonesia. The seminar was held on Aug 9th, I was in Jakarta for a good 3 days.
Here are some of the highlights of my trip... :-)
I discovered this cheese snacks that was really tasty... :-) Brought a bunch home. Will buy more the next time I am there.
A very tired colleague of mine on our way back to KL.
It was really weird for me to see a street peddler selling real human hair!
Check out the complete selection of human hair for sale! Creep me out!
A Night of Fine Chinese Dining and Cooking Wine
The night before the seminar, me and my colleagues were invited to dine in a very nice and classy Chinese restaurant in Setia Budi One. I believe the name of the restaurant was called Ming. Our Indonesian patron was Pak Kuang and through him, we met Jason, although just met, felt like a long lost brother!
Pak Kuang and Jason were very close friends and Jason had just gotten back to Jakarta from Hong Kong, and that night was their night of catching up with old times. We were fortunate enough to be invited along to share in an experience that none of us would easily forget :-)
Before dinner was served, we were surprised to see Pak Kuang and Jason being served a bottle of Chinese cooking wine. The wine was poured into a clay test-tube like container submerged in hot water in a tall clay cup. A smaller wine cup was was placed on top to contain the heat. (I am poor at explaining this. Watch the video :P) In any case, the intention was to heat up the cooking wine before drinking.
Needless to say, we were all very curious. Why were they drinking Chinese cooking wine? Hey... cooking wine for cooking? When we asked, we received a very logical explanation... LOL.
Jason believes that it is the drinking companions that one has, that decides how good the wine and food taste; and how enjoyable the night will be. With that philosophy in mind, if the companionship is not enjoyable, then neither would the most expensive bottle of french wine.
But if one's company is enjoyable, whether it's cooking wine or one of the most expensive french wine, you will enjoy and cherish that moment.
And true to Jason's words, all of us enjoyed the Chinese cooking wine with a taste that was of good friends sharing conversation, laughter and fun. Oh... and the food was good too... LOL.
We drank 4 bottles and wanted more... but it was getting late and we had a seminar to conduct the next day! The episode just begged to be revisited and we intend to do it soon... :-) The following are some videos I took of the occasion.
On the first day of 2010, the family went on a trip to Bentong. We were invited by my sister-in-law, who came down from Ipoh, to have breakfast in Bentong and then pay a visit to a nearby Buddhist Nature Farm (together with all her Buddhist friends). My sister-in-law is a staunch practitioner of the Buddhist philosophy. She started her journey into Buddhism about 5 years ago when she became a full fledged vegetarian.
We reached the farm at about 1pm in the afternoon. The weather was just nice with enough cloud covers to make it a cooling afternoon. I took the kids for a walk around the farm. The farm is actually a sanctuary for all living things. The people who ran the farm accepts all kind of animals from anyone who wants to donate them.
The water lily lake in the farm has lots of fishes, mostly donated by the public. You can see my kids were not enthusiastic about getting their photo taken.
Things started to get exciting for them when I took them to feed the cows. They were scared at first... but after a while... no fear... LOL.
Then we went to the goat stalls and the kids just loved feeding the hungry goats.
Jodene and Jordan reluctantly looked at me, when I told them I want to take a photo of them.
A family photo with the goats.
After the "animal farm", we followed the entourage to Bentong's Hot Spring. By then it was 2 plus in the afternoon. To my surprise, the Hot Spring was right next to the highway.
A suspension bridge leading to the Karak Highway across the river.Only if you think you are as versatile as the infamous Indiana Jones, would I advise you to cross over. The planks were loose and some parts rotten.
Just opposite the suspension bridge was the Bentong Hot Spring, in it's full glory! Sad!
When we reached the Hot Spring, I wanted to leave immediately... It was very sad to see that the place was in deplorable condition. Irresponsible visitors just piled up rubbishes next to the picnic hut area. The picnic huts were dirty and the wooden floor rotting.
To make matters worse, the state government did not see the sense of maintaining this natural wonder. The guard house were run-down and all signs were hard to read. Compared to the nearby waterfall at Hutan Lipur Lentang, this place is a shame! I am no environmentalist or a tree-hugger, but I just think this is plain negligence on the State government part.
The odd thing was that you still see a lot of tourists sitting by the hot spring soaking their feet. Some even immerse themselves and their children in the water. I wish I had taken some photos of the water just to show how disgusting it was. To each, its own I suppose...
Every year, the family will be celebrating 5 birthdays month after month starting from November through to February, and then in April for the 6th one.
And Jordan's birthday is the one that kicks off the monthly birthday celebration. Of course, when you talk about birthdays, my 5 years old daughter will be asking why Jordan's birthday always starts first... LOL. And that will start a debate among her siblings about which one is first, then counting down to the one in April.
I tried explaining to them that technically, the year starts in January and therefore the first birthday should be in January, which is their mom's. Deaf ears I tell you! In the end, I just let them "figure" it out, and decide among themselves which one "starts" first.
My kids, Jodene, Nicole, Jordan and Joel, or Feb, April, Nov and Dec... if you like... LOL.
Jordan and Joel eager to cut the cheese cake.
Cute little Jared.
The family, my wife, Nicole, my mom, Jordan, Joel and Jodene.
Jodene, my mom and Nicole.
Lets see who gets to cut the cheesecake.
After much ado about nothing, the children's conclusion is that Jordan's birthday on November 14th is the first and Nicole is the last in April. Who wants to argue with that? Not me!
Its been a year since they picked up cycling. All of them learn how to ride using the push and glide technique, which I blogged about back in August in 2008.
Since then, Joel, Jordan and Jodene have their own bikes now, albeit used and old. Now they are so fast and daring.
Jordan, Jodene and Joel, each their own bikes.
Jodene and the old hand-me-down bike from Uncle Joe.
Two weekends ago, I took the family back to Batu Gajah for "Qingming" or "Ching Ming" Festival. My wife's family members were gathering for Qingming. Qingming is essentially the honoring of ancestors or ancestors memorial day, where family members gathered together to visit, sweep and clean the tomb and grave sites.
During the visit to the grand parents' kampung (a small village), I took the opportunity to take the kids motorbike riding around the old tin mining "wasteland", which practically surrounded the whole kampung.
The "wasteland" of Batu Gajah. Made me feel like I am playing my Fallout 3 game... LOL.
Another pix of the "wasteland" that only scant of vegetation can survive.
The boys (Jordan and Joel) happy as can be to be able to ride on a motorbike... Hahah.
The kids had a grand time. They wanted more but unfortunately, it started raining and we had to head back. When we reached the grand parents' house, we managed to catch an ice cream seller on motorbike. Needless to say, they two boys were screaming for ice creams.
After the ride, back at the grand parents' house, Jordan and Joel had a popcicle each as a reward for behaving.
In the end, it was ice-cream for everyone.... including the grand parents... LOL.
A couple of days ago, my kids were watching the Ice Age 2:The Meltdown animation at home. I could hear them giggling and all three of them were stoked on the part where Crash the possum was flying through the air and singing, "I believe I can fly..." before crashing into a tree in mid flight.
Ever since that day they have been singing, "I believe I can fly..." and could not complete the rest of the lyrics... LOL. Many of us will remember this famous hit song by Roberta Kelly. And I am sure you have continued by humming, "... I believe I can touch the sky..." Well, that was what happened to me. For some reason, I got to humming along with my kids for a couple of days. I could only remember part of the extremely catchy chorus.
So today, on the way home while stopping at traffic lights, I decided to used my mobile phone to search for the lyrics on Google. I showed the lyrics to my 2 sons and we started singing the chorus.
I believe I can fly I believe I can touch the sky I think about it every night and day Spread my wings and fly away I believe I can soar I see me running through that open door I believe I can fly I believe I can fly I believe I can fly
Before long I asked my seven years old son, Jordan, "Do you know the meaning of 'soar'?" He replied that he did not. And so I explained that it means "flying very high in the sky and gliding in the air".
Then just out of curiosity, I asked him if he knew what it meant, "running through that open door"? Without hesitation, he replied, "Go to heaven lah."
I was quite stunned with his reply. It never occurred to me that he could grasp the abstract in such a perceptive manner when he offered his interpretation. I am definitely no literati and have no idea if the interpretation of "open door" equates "heaven", but now, I would certainly give it due consideration if I were to analyze the deeper meaning of the lyrics.
Later, when we reached home, I searched for Ice Age 2 on YouTube and found the above clip and an excellent William Hung rendition of "I Believe I Can Fly".
My wife's sister-in-law gave her this plant a while back and told her that it was an apple tree. I could not believe it. Apple trees don't grow in Malaysia right? They need a more temperate type of climate right? Anyway, it has been more than 4 months and the plant had started to fruit.
The fruits sure looked like apples. My kids were pretty excited and could not wait to eat them. The taste was a bit sweet and tangy. The texture felt like apple.
In the end, what I think gave away the "apple" was the seed. There was only a single seed and it was definitely too big when compared to the apple that we normally buy from the supermarkets.
A couple of weeks back, I took the family back to Ipoh for the weekend. Since my wife's parents have not been staying in their house in Batu Gajah (about a half hour drive from Ipoh), she told me to go there and pluck some mangoes before they all get rotten.
Everyone in the family loves mango, whether the mangoes are sweet, sour or even unripe, my wife will find a way to make them into something really tasty. The favourite being sliced mangoes in "rojak" sauce.
I took my eight years old son, Joel and we spent the afternoon plucking mangoes from two mango trees planted by my wife's grandma. She passed away a couple of years ago and everyone really misses her, including my kids, whom till today, always refer to Batu Gajah as "Tai-po" place.
Joel plucking mangoes.
In the end, we plucked about 30 mangoes.
Joel looking for mangoes.
Finally, he spotted some mangoes and managed to pluck one.
While I was plucking the mangoes with my eldest son, I remembered thinking that, we all get to enjoy these mangoes simply because Tai-po had planted them. At that moment, I asked myself, what will I leave behind for my children when the time comes for me to go? Will it be something as simple and as enjoyable as a mango tree, where every so often they will come by and enjoy the fruits? And perhaps tell stories to one another underneath the shade of the mango tree?
I have no answer for myself now, but I think I roughly know, where the spiders are.
This article was wrongly published in the Wildgeeks.org blog. I have moved it here, where it belongs. Last night, as the title states, I was having "One of Those Days". An update though, today I have successfully fixed the cooler fridge problem... :-) Looks like it is going to be a great day today... LOL. It is just one of those days that everything seems to go wrong!
This morning when I got to office, I could not log in to my Dell notebook. I could only see and move the mouse on a black screen. The day before, I did not shutdown and had only locked my Ubuntu desktop thinking that I could resume work immediately the next day.
Using another terminal to log in, I rebooted the notebook. Next thing I knew, it could not start-up as it could not find the boot loader! I got a colleague to help out. He managed to log in and did a "fsck" (file system check) and before we knew what happened, Gnome desktop could not load and the "home" directory went missing!
Turns out that my Ubuntu partition went and got corrupted on me. We managed to retrieve almost all of my important files in the "Lost and Found" directory. The complete day was totally wasted! I have not decided what I was gonna do with the notebook yet. Left it till Monday to figure it out. Sigh!
When I reach home today, my maid told me that the chiller fridge is acting up. I went to the wet kitchen and heard a terrible screeching sound coming from the chiller fridge! I switched off the fridge and decided to have a look.
Turned out that the screeching sound was coming from the cooling fan between the compressor and the condenser. The plastic bracket holding the fan blades to the dynamo broke and the fan blades were hitting the side of the condenser. And without the fan, the compressor and condenser would over heat... sigh!
The chiller fridge with all the fruits and vegetables removed.
After dismantling the sliding brackets, I managed to slide the compressors out.
I removed the whole fan bewteen the compressor and the condenser.
Another view of the fan.
The electrical power source in the fridge.
The condenser with the fan removed.
Tomorrow was supposed to be my day of cycling with the guys. But now it looked like I have to spend the morning hunting for fan parts before the shops close at noon!
Darn it! Just when I published this post, I realised that I posted in the WRONG blog!! Niah mah!!!! What a jinxed day!
A mouse had been staying with the family for a week now. I tried chasing it out of the house but it always managed to hide in the storeroom beneath the stairs. We suspected that it must have gotten into the house through one of those drainage holes in the bathrooms.
Every night my wife would be telling me, "Did you hear that?". "What's that sound coming from the kitchen?" The kids would be giggling... curious and yet frightened. LOL.
That night, at about 10:00pm, I set the mouse trap up in the kitchen. I used a piece of Cheezel as the bait. Before we knew it, the trap was sprung. At about midnight, I went into the kitchen and saw the mouse in the trap... yeah!
The next morning, my kids were thrilled to discover the mouse in the trap. They were full of questions. Like why did it come to the house. Where does it live? And like any self-respecting parent who can't face the truth, I told them a Disney-type story. You dun wanna know! LOL.
Frightened.
Let me out!
Yeah, it was a tiny mouse... :-)
Jodene looking at the mouse.
Joel and Jodene beside the mouse trap.
I got the feeling that the kids wanted to keep it as a pet. Obviously, the lady in the house would have none of that... LOL.
Later that day, I drove it some distance from the house before letting it go. The mouse fled in a blink of an eye. Hopefully that's the last time we get to see of it.
Wow, I would never imagine that something like that could happen in our own backyard. I mean, we only watch and hear about this kind of x-files from Discovery channel or from the movies... LOL
The Six Million Dollar Man
Back in the 70s (still in Miri, Sarawak), when I was about 12, I used to watch and follow The Six Million Dollar Man television series. I can't remember clearly, but there were a few episodes dedicated to "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch". After searching on IMDB, here are the information links to the episodes:
Back in those days, no one could rely on ever finish watching a complete season of any TV series on our Malaysian Television networks. Sometimes, episodes were even thrown out of sequence, e.g. you will watch episodes 4 before you watch episode 3. Their reliability were a lot to be desired.
However, I was residing in Miri during that time and we could receive television broadcast from Brunei, it is sad to say that Brunei were much more reliable in their broadcasting than their Malaysian counterparts.
The Bionic Woman (2007)
Recently, NBC announced the return of The Bionic Woman (2007). I have watched a few episodes and found the series wanting. The big question is, will they bring back the "Bigfoot" story line? I for one hope so, but in the meantime, I will stay clear of it... LOL
The "Daro BigFoot"
I have a knack for letting my mind wander and get off topic... LOL. Anyway, I do hope that there will be more evidences of the "Daro Bigfoot" and hopefully a sighting with photographic or video evidences.
As it is, Daro is attracting a lot of curious tourists. Lets hope some international broadcaster/producer will pursue and investigate this further.
Btw, check out this fan-made Six Million Dollar Man - Bigfoot Tribute:
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