OT Survery Course Ended

Finally!!!

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The last day for our OT Survey course was 2 nights ago. I was so relieved. Don't get me wrong. The course is great and the lecturer excellent. It's just that I've been so pressed for time that I just wanted my schedule to be more flexible, that I would have more time for myself.

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I remember a few years back, the schedule of a dentist friend I know had all his weekday nights filled with church related activities. And I remember thinking, "wow!!! How does he do it?"

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Now that I have experienced such a heavy schedule, I don't think I want to go through that again. Hmmm... maybe it's a sign of getting old???

New IT Expert

Last week I moaned about how I felt like a chicken without its head.

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I had been spending half a day figuring out what was wrong with my computer. Jim finally managed to help me with getting all my documents back. He created a new ID for me and transfered all my data from one profile to the new one.

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I was estatic.

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BUT .....

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I couldn't connect to the system and I couldn't send/receive any emails from my outlook express. I don't really mind not being able to receive/send any emails from my outlook express because over the past few months I told my purchasers to write to me via my gmail address. But there was this other generic email address which comes into my outlook express and most of them are enquiries - this means more business for us. And I know I had to get this outlook express fixed incase someone out there is wanting a house urgently.

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Also, I really needed the system so that I could do my work.

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I did a few tests on a few computers and different passwords and finally connected the problem to the "Administrator". I changed certain things in the server and tried logging on to the system from my computer. Voila! I did it!!! I managed to solve the problem. Yeh!

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My next problem to solve was the outlook express. All I needed were the two passwords which I wasn't privy of previously. Emily (my colleague) helped me a little and I also tried asking the IT people in my HQ. Finally, I called another person (whom I have never spoken to before) and she managed to find out the password for me to retrieve my emails. Phew!!!

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My computer problems are now solved! Woohoo!!! After almost 1 month of being computer-less. You know, I wonder how people survive without the usage of a computer....

The Little Dog

For the past 2 weeks, this little dog had been paying me a friendly visit whenever I go out or come back home. He (not sure of its gender but it sure looks like a "he") would come near me when I am closing/opening the gate.

After a few days, I started giving him food from my freezer. Knowing me, I've got lots of extra (and sometimes expired) stuff in my fridge. I gave him one or two sausages a day and filled up a small container with water.

At first, he was rather shy and ran away. After a while, he came very close and ate the (cold, frozen) sausage.

He is now bold enough to come into the compound of the house but he knows his limitations and would leave the compound when we ask him to.

I've just run out of sausages.

And yesterday, I went to Jusco to buy a box of dog biscuits. I haven't bought dog biscuits before and don't know if I bought the correct one. There were a few to choose from. I'm hoping that he's not too "spoiled" by the daily supply of sausages that he would not eat the biscuits.

No Water?

I live in a modest house almost at the bottom of the hill. My humble abode is at a T-junction where the car lights would shine into my house had it not been for the intimidating wall that surrounded my compound. Every morning and afternoon, during a school day, the front of my house looked like Jalan Tun Razak on a busy day. Cars seemed to materialise from every direction. I have been a victim of a minor accident simply because I needed to get back home at the wrong time.

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Because of the heavy traffic outside my house, plus the fact that I live close to the main road, my house would be covered in "black" dust at the end of each day even though I'd close all my doors and windows whether I am in or not. Someone once commented, "Do you treat your house like a hotel? The doors and windows are always closed and I don't see anyone there". I had to explain the nasty dust over and over again.

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There were times when the whole row on my side would be in darkness. No so on the other side. It seemed to me that the other side ALWAYS had electricity.

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My neighbours (not immediate neighbours, though) have probably never known that there were such services as MPS collecting rubbish to dispose them at some remote area. So, almost everyday, the smell of smoke would be blown to the direction of my house, causing all my clothes to stink! Yucky!!! Sometimes I had to rewash my clothes because of the horrible smell.

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And yet, when one of the pipes burst and water doesn't flow through, I would still have water from the main pipe; not a lot but enough.

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Last Sunday, the water pressure was quite low, I checked the whole house, in case I left a tap running, and was quite convinced that the fault wasn't mine.

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That night, I called JBA. Apparently, more than 200 people called in to report water loss. And when I asked what the problem was and how long would we be without water, he didn't know. In fact, he said that the technicians were working on finding the problem. He wasn't even sure if it were a water pipe burst ... or ... etc.

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I hung up and didn't think much about it.

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On Monday evening, the water pressure was even lower and the water was quite brown. I bathed in my parents' place and took a huge pile of clothes for washing.

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I even managed to wash my car. Imagine that. People around my area would most probably wonder why I had water when they didn't have any.

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This is the secret. I live in a place low enough for me to have a little water and yet, it is high enough not to be flooded when it rained cats and dogs.

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I guess this more than made up for the fact that the location of my house had so many flaws. :)

The Cure for Diarrhoea

I don't get diarrhoea very often but when I do, all I could think of is : gosh! What a great way to get slimmer. Having said that, I know of people whose stomachs are weak and experience diarrhoea often as a result of mild food poisoning.

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I received the following via email and even though I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, I'd like to share it with you.....

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When someone gets diarrhoea, sometimes the solution is so easy, we wonder why anyone has to suffer.

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The secret is in rice water.
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This is already known in this region. Ask your maids -- Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Filipina and they would know about it.

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My mother knew about it. When Dr Albert Winsemius came to Singapore many years ago for a farewell and thank you dinner in his honour, he brought along his wife Aly and his granddaughter, Jolijn. Both women came down with very bad gastroenteritis. They saw the doctor who gave them medication. It was slow to work.
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Mother boiled some rice in lots of water and went to their hotel with two 1.5L bottles of rice water.

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I cringed in shame at the offer of this folk remedy, which seemed so primitive to me. Never heard of this cure before. To my surprise, it worked, and they were even able to go out for dinner the next day. Both were exclaiming how the rice water did the trick of making them well again. Well, luckily it worked, I thought to myself.

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I was discussing this a few years back with Kim Ng, the ex-matron of KK Hospital. She said, yes, that is what Professor Wong Hock Boon, the notable paediatrician teaches. I was shocked and made some comments how could he? It was common knowledge so what had he got to do with it?

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Many months later, I regretted laughing at it. Dr Christina Shanta Emmanuel, who is the CEO of...uh, which group I have forgotten. Either National Health Group, or Polyclinics, or whatever.. regarded me seriously when I brought up the topic like it was good fun. She said that Prof Wong Hock Boon had presented a paper on it. At some conference. After he had done clinical trials.

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Then his results were published in the Lancet, the Medical Journal all doctors read. In fact, said Shanta, he was credited for saving the lives of 2 million African babies by this method.

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Ah, so! I am impressed.
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It is rice water and not rice, that does the trick. I have found it effective again and again. You take a handful of rice and boil it in a large saucepan with lots of water. Like three or four large glasses. Then you cool that and drink the water. If you are in a hurry to relieve the ailing person, take the saucepan off the fire and dunk it in a frying pan or basin of cool water with ice cubes if necessary.

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This gives the patient a chance to drink the rice water sooner and cure himself or herself sooner.
When drinking the rice water, make sure there is lots of it. You have to tell the patient that enough water must go in to line your guts from throat to other end, all 10 to 12 metres of it. If you take rice, it stays in the stomach. If you take broth, some of it may go into the small intestine.

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But if you take rice water, it will carry rice grains to every inch of your small and large intestine to the end where the problem is.
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How does it work? Even Prof Wong Hock Boon doesn't know. Read the attached file. Or go to ...
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*http://rehydrate.org/dd/dd06.htm#page2*

FRIM

Feeling so frustrated at work, I decided to take a day off just to forget about work. I called Eunice and asked her which day she would be free so that we could go somewhere. She replied "Any day".

I took leave on the 21st and decided that we should go to FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) to check the place out - mainly to see if we could bring the kids there some day.

MCTC heard about our plans and decided to come along. He needed this exercise for his "Operation Chilling" and we were more than happy to have him go with us. The plus factor is that he would drive us around.

We left my place at 8.15am, had breakfast at the Nilai rest area and arrived at the Sg Besi toll at about 9.30am. Traffic was relatively light, though at some point, it was a little heavy.

The ride was smooth until MCTC decided to use the highway to Kepong.

From there, he got the Selayang Hospital and Sungai Buluh Hospital mixed up. He kept wanting to go towards Sg Buluh even though we kept telling him to go towards Kepong.

We arrived at the Sungai Buluh Hospital and that was when MCTC realised that he was supposed to look out for the Selayang Hospital.

A few u-turns and detours later, we were on the right track. We went to Kepong and from there, there were many sign boards pointing towards FRIM.

We finally arrived at FRIM at 10.30am. At the guard house, we paid RM7.00 before driving into the large compound.

I had in mind a place full of tall trees, walking / jogging path, a little road that would lead to the car parks, a building and toilet facilities. I imagined it to be like Big Basin, CA. I was totally wrong. There were lots of buildings and even a school there. There were proper roads from the entrance right deep into the miniature "forest".

Not knowing where to go, we drove around the huge compound.

We drove around for a bit just to get our bearings right. We found the information office at Block 6 and made some enquiries. The lady on duty was kind enough to scare Eunice off with the mention of leeches being plentiful that day as it was raining earlier. And because of that, Eunice refused to walk on any wet trails.

We drove a little further, parked the car and started our hike on Rover Track. There was a tree which had fallen during the night and it blocked our way but we managed to walk over it.

The pathway was easy and we were able to have a decent conversation without gasping for air. It was indeed a nice hike. The air was cool and clean from the rain that morning. We came across some other hikers and joggers.

After about 40 minutes, we came to the canopy walk turnoff. Earlier, the info lady mentioned that the canopy walk was closed for maintenance from April 20th to May 25th. We didn't make that right turn as we knew that it would be a waste of time.

We walked on and came to a very nice waterfall. There were a few other waterfalls but this was the best.

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There was a time when the pathway was filled with dead leaves and it felt like autumn.

We finally came to a proper road... and civilisation.

It started drizzling when we were on Jalan Symington. Being experienced hikers, both Eunice and I had an umbrella each incase the rain got heavy. I brought a cap and Eunice brought at least one poncho. We were really well prepared for the rain but we didn't use any of the rain gears.

We saw banners leading the way to the Malay Tea House and headed there.

We decided to stop for a break. We bought some kuih and drinks.

Then we continued on with our walk.



We saw bamboo trees and I told Eunice that Pandas love bamboo trees.

Then we saw the name of the tree on the tree bark saying "Eucalyptus ..." and I told Eunice that koalas love eucalyptus.

The above houses looked warm and cozy. Looked like a place for the FRIM workers but I couldn't tell for sure

We finally arrived at our starting point. A total of 1 hour and 54 minutes since we started our walk. Phew! That was our exercise for the week.

We changed and left FRIM for Lau Yat. I wanted to get several things but only ended up with a 4G SD card, which I bought for RM35.00.

Time seemed to have flown. We planned to leave KL by 4pm but was about 15 minutes behind time. We didn't even have time for lunch.

Traffic was alright and we managed to get to the Sg Besi toll just after 5pm.

Our late lunch was at the Nilai rest area. It was 5.20pm and we were indeed very hungry. We gobbled down our food and started our journey back.

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It was 6pm when I got back. What great timing. :) I still had time for a slow shower to get ready for my class at 7.30pm.

Chicken Without a Head

The past 2 weeks at work had been terrible. The server at the office kept shutting down and it was 2 months before we decided to get a new one.

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We thought that with a new server, our work problems would be solved. Right?

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WRONG!

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When Jim (an external IT "expert") worked on the server, he told us that we would not be able to use the system for a day. Well, it turned out to be 2-3 days for most of us. He was able to get 5 computers linked to the new server within 2 days. Those computers are so ancient, they ought to be in a museum and because of that, he didn't face much problems with the link - except the fact that the 85% of data in one of the computers could not be retrieved. My poor colleague had to redo most of her reports. If you were to wonder why she didn't back up her files, it was because her computer was so old, it didn't have a USB port.

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Two other computers, one of which was mine, were XPs and Jim ran into some problems. He just couldn't link them to the server. Finally, after two weeks, he sort of gave up and asked us to go local. And because of that, I couldn't access my outlook express PLUS I couldn't edit or do anything at all to the "system". This is sooo frustrating.

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I really did feel like a chicken without its head for the past two weeks. I couldn't get much work done as I couldn't use the system PLUS, I had to use my personal laptop to get my reports done. I couldn't print my reports and had to email them to someone who could print them out for me. It was really a waste of precious time.

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These days, when I get to the office, a sense of dread would come upon me as I spend half a day wondering what was wrong with my computer. Most of the time, I would be trying to map the network, or trying to figure out why I couldn't print anything at all, etc.

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I called my IT people in KL.... somehow I think they can't help me as they sounded blur when I told them my problem.

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I guess I'll just have to pester "someone" until the problem is solved.

MPH Book Vouchers

Last Saturday evening, I picked Eunice from Jusco to drop her off at a house warming party before shooting off to fetch dear hubby from a restaurant (he actually gate crashed on someone's wedding dinner!!!!) to Jusco for our dinner. On the way to Jusco, he told me that he had some MPH vouchers which were given to him as a gift from a talk he gave that afternoon.

We accumulated some MPH rebates and both the vouchers and rebate came up to RM343.00. Woohoo!!! The timing was great as I was running out of books to read.

We spent more than RM350 worth of books in MPH. I've already finished reading two easy-to-read books! :)

Hiking Backpack

Eversince I gave away (out of the gratitude and kindness of my heart!!) my hiking backpack 1.5 years ago, I've always wondered if someone would be kind enough to go to HCM, Vietnam to get me another one.

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Over here in Malaysia, one backpack like this would easily cost more than RM100., and it would not be as nice as the one which was purchased in Vietnam.

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Last month, JohnnyK went to Vietnam and KG asked him to buy a few backpacks. Because of luggage weight and space, Johnnny only managed to get two and KG reserved one for me :-)

This backpack is better designed than the previous one, especially the front portion. The older one had zips running from top to bottom and if I don't zip it up properly, things might fall off from the side. I think this bag has more compartments in front, and it is easier segregate the different essential stuff.

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What I like especially about this backpack (and also the other one) is the wire mesh at the back which allows air to flow between the backpack and my back. I tried to find a backpack like this in Malaysia but only those super huge ones have.

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I am not sure how long this backpack can last because it only cost me less than RM40. I think it's worth buying it, even if it can last about 8-10 climbs.

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Anyone going to HCM, Vietnam, please let me know. I might want to get more backpacks like this.

Unexpected Visitors

My cell is one of the 4 youth cells in Agape. It is also notoriously known to end late every Friday. Most of the other cells finish at 9.15 or 9.30pm. For us, that's normally when the lesson begins.

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We'd start of with Icebreaker at 8.15pm, followed by Worship, Lesson, Prayer and Testimony and lastly, FOOD! We'd normally enjoy the icebreaker sessions. I was horrified that some cells skipped that part and went straight to worship. I think that it really helps us get to know each other better. Not only that, it helps us bond better.

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Last Friday's icebreaker was complimenting each other. We were each given a piece of paper where we write our names on the top portion of the sheet. The piece of paper is then passed on to the next person for him/her to write good things about the owner of the paper. The piece of paper will eventually get back to the owner and we'd get to read what good things others have to say about us. Mine went like this (verbatim):-

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-happy-go-lucky

-give great advice

-a loving, caring, beautiful and intelligent wife

-smart

-loves to smile and love

-always encouraging, a jovial person =p

-very artistic and helpful

-very kind and loving

-encouraging

-very creative

-super kind and loving

-smart

-funny, unlike her <-- LOL, joking

-an original

-helpful, busy a great aunty

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Icebreaker ended at 9.10pm. Late! Normally we'd finish by 8.50pm. Anyway, that was the major cause of us ending late. Rajen, when he started sharing, told us that it would be a short lesson. Well, it was not! By the time we finished praying, it was 10.40pm - a record for us.

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What was surprising were the sudden burst of unexpected visitors :- Bro DickK, MCTC, Eunice, Matt and Minchee. They stayed (and helped me finish the food) until 11.50pm.

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After they left, I suddenly remembered that I had to make dessert (bean curd pudding, a.k.a dadih) for a party I was not invited for - well, the following day, I found out that it was a miscommunication and that I was actually invited for this party but it was too late as I had other plans.

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I guess it was "pay back" time. Eunice helped me when I needed her help and now she asked me to make dessert for this party and I very well can't say "no", can I? She actually asked me to make the bean curd pudding AND Konyaku jelly but I told her that I can only manage one.

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Anyway, by the time I finished making the pudding, mopped the floor, washed the pot and bowls, showered, it was 1.15am. Gosh! Late! I was already so tired but needed to get online for something.

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I slept at 2.10am. It was way past my bedtime and believe me, my insomnia was cured that night. :)

Tight Schedule

Sometimes I wonder if I do take on more than I can. Rajen seemed to think so and everytime I tell him that I am thinking of getting involved in a new ministry, he'd ask me to drop another.

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I used to have 3 weeknights off every week. Not anymore.

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I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. And with our cell not having any musician most of the time, I felt the need to take lessons from DY. He offered me free lessons. I chose to pay him for his time, not because he needed the money badly but because I knew that if I didn't pay for it, I might not take it seriously.

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So every week, I diligently go for classes. I practise almost everyday. I made sure I did my "homework", which basically means practise! practise! and practise!

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Monday is now my guitar lesson night.

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Recently, I took up two interesting courses. OT Survey and World Religions. There goes my Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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Which now leaves me with NO weeknight off as Wednesday and Friday nights are prayer and cell meeting nights respectively.

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Saturdays & Sundays are always reserved for wedding dinners, birthday parties, etc, etc, etc

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Early last week, I had to go for my guitar lesson early, just to get to the supermarket by 8.40pm for my dinner and grocery shopping. It was a mad dash in and out of the supermarket. I felt like I was in a Supermarket Sweep Competition. I ended up spending RM330 on household stuff.

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Some of my friends asked me how I managed to fit everything in 24 hours.

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Only two ways :-

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1) Sleep less.

2) Get a twin

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With work during the day and many activities during the night, I really didn't have the time to clean my house. Dear twin was kind enough to bring Tusi over for a few hours to clean my place - while I was at work. Phew!!! Otherwise the house would be in total chaos.

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Dear twin is also my errand girl - post a letter, bank in money, buy stuff from town, send a cheque to this outlet, etc, etc, etc.

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So for those who do not have a twin, sleep less. :)

World Religions

I've always been fascinated with the many religions in this world. What do people believe in and why. The sacrifices, the rituals, the holy book (of teachings), etc.

Put it this way. I was brought up in a christian family and from young, I was taught that Jesus is the only way. Pretty simple, yeah?

But is there more to it? Why are people willing to die for their faith? To be martryed and condemned by the world? There's just got to be more than just believing, right?

Many years ago ... about 15 years, I think, I attended a World Religions course taught by Rev. LimYC. I must say, I can't even remember what I learned, despite my fascination with the different major religions of the world.

A few weeks ago, I signed up for the same course, taught by the same lecturer! I'm auditing, of course. And this time, I hope that I'd pay more attention to what is being taught. :)

Who Did It?

We had an Easter Skit Presentation last Sunday written by AaronC and directed by JennyW.

It started off with Azriel portraying as a whip that was slashed across Jesus' back, followed by Hazel who was made into a crown of thorns for Jesus' head. Cynthia was the Golgotta on which the blood of Jesus flowed onto.

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Aaron, Rebecca and Fifi were the angels in Heaven, while Grace played the nails who blamed the hammer (Justin) for using her to nail Jesus onto the cross. Justin then blamed Bernard, the Roman soldier, who used him to hammer the nails to hang Jesus on the cross. And everyone started blaming each other.

It ended with a song by Ray Boltz - The Hammer

I was in the crowd

The day that Jesus died

And as He hung upon the cross

His mother cried

I saw the crown of thorns He wore

The stripes upon His back

The water and the blood ran out

And then the sky turned black

My mind was filled with anger

My heart was filled with shame

This man brought only healing

Who could bring Him pain

Why does it seem the strong

Always victimize the weak

And suddenly I found myself

Standing to my feet

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CHORUS:

And I cried,Who nailed Him there?

This child of peace and mercy

Who nailed Him there?

Come and face me like a man

Who nailed Him there?

And the crowd began to mock me

I cried, Oh my God,I do not understand

Then I turned and saw the hammer

In my hand!

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I am just a Roman soldier

An ordinary man

I love my wife and children

I do the best I can

How could I have killed Him?

It must be someone else

There's got to be an answer

I just can't blame myself

CHORUS :

I nailed Him there

The child of peace and mercy

I nailed Him there

I am the guilty man

I nailed Him there

With my sins and my transgressions

I cried, Oh my God,Now I understand

When I turned and saw the hammer

...In my hand

Chewing Gum

What do people chew gum for?

For some, it's to see how big a bubble they can blow

For others, it's to take away the nicotine cravings

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For me?

2 reasons :-

1) Keep me from falling asleep during classes

2) Helps wipe away plague

:-)

G1

Now that I've made up my mind NOT to replace the iphone, I decided to look for BETTER phones; NOT that I am thinking of changing it but well, you know, I'm always thinking "How long will this fragile iphone of mine last, especially with someone as klutzy as I am?"

Knowing that my friend Eric from the US is very up-to-date in IT matters, I asked him what phone is he using ... and he answered, "G1". He had this phone for a few months and told me that he's still playing with it, which means, he's happy with this purchase.

I'm thinking, my next phone might be a G1. Unfortunately, it still hasn't arrived at the shores of Malaysia yet and I am hoping that by the time I need to change my iphone, it would be readily available here.

Meanwhile, check out the reviews for this phone :-

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/t-mobile-g1-black/4505-6452_7-33283585.html

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/16/review-t-mobile-g1/

Irreparable

I have always been quite a clumsy person, even when I was much younger.

Every since I got the iphone, I dropped it many times, and each time, my phone suffered little small bruises here and there.

On March 20th, I was on the phone when I felt it slip from me and down it went, CRACK! My heart broke almost immediately. The rest of the story can be found here.

To cut a long story short, after attempting to call Applecare Malaysia and Applecare Singapore, I was asked to send the phone back to Hong Kong, where I got the phone from.

The conversation I had with Applecare Singapore went like this :-

He : How can help you?

Me : My name is Rachel and I am calling from Malaysia. My iphone screen cracked. Can I send it to you to get it fixed?

He : Can I have your serial number?

Me : *************

He : Can I have your IMEI number?

Me : What??

He : Your IMEI number. Go to the same place where your serial number is

Me : Ok ... ************

He : (a little cynical) Is this phone yours or are you calling on behalf of someone?

Me : This phone is mine

He : (suspiciously) Where did you get it from?

Me : Oh, one of my friends bought it from Hong Kong

He : And what is your friend's name?

Me : Hazel

He : Ah!!! You've got to send it back to Hong Kong then

Me : !!!!!!

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I contacted Hazel to ask Applecare in HK and she emailed me back saying that the phone cannot be repaired and that for HKD3220, they would give me a new phone.

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Gosh!

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I spent 1-2 days wondering if it's worth the $$. And I decided that it was not. Well, firstly, knowing how klutzy I could be, I might drop the phone and break it the moment I got the new phone. Another thing is .... I've already spent so much on this phone (well, actually it's dear hubby's money), is it worth it? I mean, I hardly use the applications and the ipod function. PLUS, I just found out that I was charged RM74.00 for data on my phone charges - sometimes because I accidentally touched one of the internet based applications.

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I talked to dear hubby about this and he said that he would fork out the money if I wanted it done. :-) How sweet of him.

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But I had already made up my mind. I would use the phone until it could no longer be used. I would try to lengthen its lifespan to the maximum to justify the cost of it.

Wife Beater?

Yesterday, I woke up with a terrbile pain in my chest. I didn't panic because it was not near my heart. Nevertheless, it lingered long enough for me to wonder if something was wrong with me.

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Then I remembered that dear hubby called me up one day to asked if I hit him hard the night before.

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I woke dear hubby to ask him that same question. I asked if he punched me! He was horrified and said, "No".

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Throughout the day, I felt the pain intermittently. Thank God it is not as bad now as it was when I woke up yesterday. Still, I wonder if I should go see a doctor just to confirm that I am okay or not......

No Where To Go

We planned to take the kids to Jeramtoi (waterfall) last Sunday. We told them about this outing two weeks ago. Well, actually, Eunice asked En about it and her reply was that if she is not too busy, she'd go. Gosh!! These days the kids are so busy, you'd have to make an appointment just to bring them out to have fun.

On Sunday, I saw En in church and reminded her about the Jeramtoi outing and she told me that she wanted to go to S2 Lakepark instead. When I told her that it was alright that she didn't come along and that I would be taking Mae-Z and Brian anyway, she changed her mind and "reluctantly" agreed to come with me.

After church, while making further plans with Sharon, we found out that En would be going to S2 because her friend Joy would be there. And because of that, the whole plan to go to Jeramtoi was cancelled. What a let down.

We didn't know what to do with our "free" Sunday afternoon. Eunice suggested that she and I go to Bagan Lalang to scout out the place for possible future outings with the kids but Steve said that the roads might be jammed because of the Grand Prix F1 race.

Sigh!

With nothing to do, I decided to fry some kuih kodok and make bean curd pudding. Eunice baked a cake for a friend of hers.

With that, we didn't feel as though the whole afternoon was wasted.

In hind sight, it was a good thing this outing was cancelled because it rained cats and dogs from 3pm - 6pm - theexact time we reserved for our Jeramtoi trip.

Chocolates

I LOVE chocolates, especially those bitter sweet ones. Apart from that, the cadbury milk chocolate would do.

And because chololates set an allergic reaction which causes poor hubby to develop a severe headache after consuming it, he stayed as far away from MY clocolates as possible. He could eat white chocolates, though. And from the picture above, two of them are white chocolate bars, of which, I found too milky.

Everytime someone comes from Australia, chocolates seemed to be a perfect gift. And over the years (yes, YEARS!) I've been receiving high grade imported chocolates.

And while I LOVE chocolates a lot, I can't eat them all in such a short period of time. So, they are kept in the fridge until ... until I suddenly check the due date and found one or two to be expired. Yep!! I just checked and found that TWO of them are expired.

Sigh!!! Someone once told me that it was a crime to allow chocolates to be expired. But don't blame me either, too much chocolates would cause a million pimples to pop up on my face.

And so ..... here's my "collection" of chocolates waiting to be consumed!

Osram Means .....

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

That was what I uttered to God when I woke up perspiring a few nights ago because the electricity got cut off at about 10.30pm.

I was in the middle of scrapbooking my Egypt vacation (yeah!!! I know. It was more than a year ago since I came back from Egypt and I still haven't scrapbooked that trip yet. It's better late than never, right?) when poof! the electricity went off.

A few months ago, I was in Singapore and I spotted all these lights. I bought the Osram light for SGD9.90 at a grocery shop near the MRT station. Later, while I was at the budget shop at Bukit Batok, I spotted a similar light but it only cost me SGD 1.05. IT was like CHEAP sale to me, so I grabbed at least 10 of those. The other slightly bigger light cost me SGD5.90.

I placed them at strategic places in the house.

Not knowing how long the darkness would last, I took a COLD shower and went to bed at 11pm. I was hoping that it would rain cats and dogs so that the muggy weather would turn chilly.

There wasn't any rain. Not even hints of it. No thunder, nor lightning; not even a drop of rain.

Dear hubby was reading a book with the help of the Osram light and I placed a few more behind him so that it would be brighter.

I went to sleep and tried not to think about how warm it was. I believe I did sleep for a little while. Then it got so warm, I was perspiring all over. I slept on the cold floor. I could hear dear hubby tossing back and forth. It was really a surprise that he found it warm as well. I always thought him to be a "cold" blooded person cause he is ALWAYS feeling very cold. I'm glad to discover that he's human afterall.

Just before 2am, I cried out a desperate plea to God ... "God, let there be light"

And there was light!! The electricity came back about a minute after I uttered my prayer.

And both of us slept well after that. :)

Bye-bye, Kuantan

....... Continuation from here, here and here

We left Sg Lembing just before noon and headed back to Kuantan. Our plans were to leave Kuantan as early as possible to check out Tasik Chini - about an hour away from Kuantan.

We got back t oour homestay, showered, packed our stuff and went to New Capitol, a popular chicken rice restaurant in Kuantan town recommended by HY. We were there just in time to order the last 5 bowls of chicken rice.

To tell you the truth, I think the chicken rice in Seremban is a lot better. Maybe it's a "different" kind of chicken rice that made it special over there.

We quickly finished our lunch and went to a shop nearby to buy some floats. We were thinking of another outing with En and Brian.

Just before we left Kuantan, we dropped by Sin Kee Hung to get some salted fish and other preserved seafood requested by friends and relatives. I didn't think I would buy a lot but ended up spending about RM90 on stuff mostly for other people.

We left Kuantan after that.

It started raining when we saw the Tasik Chini signboard. Despite the rain, we dcided to continue with our plans to check the place out. We left the highway and got onto the road leading to Tasik Chini. Somewhere along the way, we saw "Tasik Chini - 28km".

We calculated .... to get there and back out again would take about an hour. By then, it was raining rather heavily. We still had time, so we continued that long, lonely journey. There were not many signboards on Tasik Chini after that and we wondered if we were on the right path or not.

We passed by one or two kampungs but other than that, we were alone on the road with trees lining both sides of the way.

We finally saw someone selling some kuih and decided to ask if we were on the right path or not. He assured us that it was just nearby and we followed his direction.

We came to a teh tarik coloured lake and wondered if that could possibly be Tasik Chini. It looked different from the picture we saw in the map.

A man came to us on a motorcycle. He explained that the "lake" in front of us was actually Sg Pahang and to get to Tasik Chini, we had to rent a boat and it would be a 2.5 hour ride into Tasik Chini. The rent of a boat (including the guide) would cost us RM80. A maximum of 5 passangers (excl the guide) could get onto it.

We asked if the river would be as dirty as the Sg Pahang and he said that it would be blue in colour and that we'd get to see some water lilies and also the kampung of the orang asli.

He asked if we were interested to rent a boat but it was already 6pm and it was far too late for a 2.5 hour ride so we declined and told him that we'd check it out next time.

We left the place and headed back to Seremban, only stopping once for a short tea break.

Our ETA was 10.30pm but we managed to get back by 10pm. Not surprising cause MCTC was at the wheels. Now I am wondering if I would receive a summond one month after this trip.

O Little Town of Sg Lembing

Continuation from here and here.
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From the base of the hill, we walked towards the little town in Sg Lembing. Pasar pagi (Morning Market) greeted us near the food court.

But just prior to that, we walked past a dewan (city hall) and a primary & secondary school.

After that was a library old enough to have the word "khutub khanah" on the building. I didn't know that was the malay word for library until MCTC told me about it. The new word for it is perpustakaan.

The pasar pagi was near the food court. It was a mini one and I bought an insect killer that cost me RM60 - Minchee bargained from RM70 to RM60.

Breakfast was next on the agenda. We went back to the same place where we had a drink before the climb. This time, the proprietor was a little busy serving other customers and he didn't have time to talk to us.

Sg Lembing town area is really very "remote" and small. One could walk from one end to the other and not feel tired. A very Chinese community with simple people living quiet & simple lives.

We went to the Sg Lembing museum after breakfast. An old mining company (PCCL) was closed down years ago and some of the remains from it were put on display.

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The museum was surprisingly well maintained and brightly lit. I would say that it did look more uplifting than the town area, because it was recently refurbished.

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There were a few almost ancient office machines which were used in this place. And if you're old enough, you just might recognise some of them.

After the museum, we wanted to go to the crystal place but it was closed.

We came to a suspension bridge and crossed over to the other side. This bridge is strong enough for motorcycles to ride on.

On the other side of the bridge was a little village. Just a few provision shops and kampung houses lined near the bank of the river.

We didn't stay long there (nothing much to see) and decided to head back to Kuantan.

Bukit Panorama

......... continuation from here

The alarm rang at 3am. I woke up from my very deep sleep and felt wide awake all of a sudden. This middle-of-the-night excitement reminded me of my Mt K climb. I got ready quickly. It was warm enough to have a full shower - which included washing my hair.

At 3.30am, I woke MCTC up. He was really half asleep and looked as though the bed might win this battle. We managed to persuade him to get up, saying that Minchee would drive while he slept in the car.

At 4am, we left for Sg Lembing. The roads were almost derserted but at that time of the morning, I was surprised to see quite a number of cars roaming the street.

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We soon got out of Kuantan town and was heading toward the remote part leading to Sg Lembing. Let me tell you, it was DARK. When we looked behind, it was pitch black. No street lamps at all. Plus, it was quite misty and we couldn't go at 110km/h - like what we did the day before. At most, we went about 60-70km/h.

We arrived at the sleepy town before 5am and wondered what happened to other climbers. It was quite dark, save for a few street lamps placed strategically at different parts of the area. We saw an elderly man walking and asked him the directions to Bukit Panaroma. He pointed to one direction and explained that it was a week before All Souls Day and there might not be many people climbing that day. He said that people normally start their climb at 5.30am.

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WHAT!!!! I exclaimed inwardly. We woke up early and now we had to wait???

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The food court was nearby, so we headed that way. There were some people there, preparing food stuff before they began their business. At one end was a man, selling drinks.

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With nothing much to do, we ordered our drinks and had a chat with the proprietor, who surprisingly spoke English well. Minchee spoke to him most of the time (in Mandarin), asking him about the area and other "tourist" sites.

At 5.30am, we saw one or two vehicles and decided to start our climb.

There was this broad stairway which was brightly lit by the street lamp. We climbed up .... only to find ourselves in the midst of a potential snake infested overgrown mini jungle when we got to the top. Right in front of us was an uncompleted building which looked like a good drug addict hideout. There was no where else to go.

We turned back and saw another narrow stairway on the left.

And thus, begun our little climb.

The steps were a little steep in the begining and not surprisingly, after the 20th step, I started to perspire and pant. Minchee was steadily keeping a good pace -without seating a drop. I don't remember hearing her pant either.

Soon, we were about 15 steps ahead of MCTC and Eunice. The other group was behind us too. We stopped every now and then to wait for MCTC and Eunice but soon, we were moving so far ahead, we couldn't even see the other team. We skept stopping every now and then if we were too far ahead- until we could see some light from the back.

After the second pondok, we started going downhill a little. I looked around me and noticed that it was already the peak. But the people kept moving on. It was there that Minchee and I decided to wait until MCTC and Eunice caught up with us.

They came about 7-10 minutes later and we walked together until we arrived at our destination.

The sun was not up yet and we had to wait another 10 minutes or so. Based on our very leisurely ascend, I'd say that we made it to the top in about an hour and had we not stop to wait, we could've done it in 40-45 minutes.

The sun came out -at last. And we snapped lots of pictures.

The veiw was simply breathtaking and it does indeed looked like a sea of clouds. MCTC, who had never climbed any hills or mountains before, looked at the beautiful view and deicded that it justified him getting up so early and climbing up this hill.

Though the sun was rising, it sure did look as though it was setting. The play of colours and the combination of the light blue sky with the orange glow of the sun made the whole scenery look mystical.

I think there were about 20 of us up there, some were enjoying the view, some were busy taking pictures.

We must've spent at least an hour there. When the sun rose high enough for us to feel the heat, we descended. On the way down, we stopped many times to take pictures - much of MCTC's amusement.

Descending was easy. I kinda missed a step once and fell a little - simply because I was too busy taking pictures as well as walking down.

The stairs and little pondok

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I love the beautify sun rays peeking out from the cloud.

to be continued .............