Merdeka Climb - Gunung Angsi via Bukit Putus

Every now and then, the siren calls and the next thing I know, I've agreed to go for a climb.

I have climbed Gunung Angsi once in 2007. It was my very first climb and I remembered suffering a lot. We went via the Ulu Bendol way and the rain lengthened our entire climb.

This time, 16 of us went via Bukit Putus.

We started our climb at 8.27am. It was steep for the first 20 minutes and I was out of breath within the first 10. Golly, I was thinking to myself that if this continues, I would not have enough strength by the end of the climb. It reminded me a little of the KFC in Gunung Ledang (although KFC felt like it was never ending)

We rested for a little while here.

The trail got easier after that.

Then it was uphill again, though not as steep as before.

Because I haven't been on this particular trail before, I wasn't sure where I was or how far before we reach peak. Aunty Chris said, "Don't worry. When we see KG coming down, you'd know that the peak isn't far away".

We continued climbing up and suddenly, we saw KG and a few others ahead. Hurrah! We have reached the summit in about 2 hours. Aunty Chris was pretty surprised because she expected to be climbing for at least another 1/2 hour or so.

Within another 10-15 minutes, the rest of the group appeared. We rested for a while, makan and minum, caught our breath before being called to sing the national anthem, "Negaraku" as it was Merdeka day for us. Someone so rajin, brought the Malaysian flag.

We even had a Merdeka cake, made by Aunty Chris (but I can't remember who susah-susah carried it up) specially for this climb. The words "Happy Merdeka" was suposed to be on it but we didn't think the icing could withstand the heat.

After filling our stomachs, we had a little song session led by Joo Tatt. There were 8 songs there but we only sang 7. Most of them were lively malay songs which required dancing and action. :-)

We spent about an hour on the summit and descended at 11.33am.

For me, going down was not much of a problem. My shoes are good, but Aunty Chris kept saying that it's slippery. Perhaps I should introduce her the Columbia shoes I wore.

During the descent, some were in front of us and some were at the back. KG, Aunty Chris, Pat Gan and I were together when KG wanted to take a different route. Because the entire climb was short, we decided that it was no harm trying another route back, thinking that it would not make much of a difference where time is concerned.

We were wrong. We had do a lot of climbing and at one point, we though we have strayed from the main mountain and moved on to another. We thought of turning back but decided that we still had time.

Suddenly, the trail was super steep .... and we were back onto the main trail. We cursed KG after that!! LOL

When we got back to the base, everyone was waiting for us. I think they were there for about 15-20 minutes and were wondering if we got lost.

There was only one small make-shift bathroom and we showered as quickly as possible. The guys didn't really shower.

We went to Ah Seng's coffeeshop for lunch before going back home.

Statistics:-

No of climbers : 16

Started climbing : 8.27am

Summited : 10.29am

Started descending : 11.33am

Arrival at the base : 1.22pm

Water intake : 1.5 liters

Food : one piece of cake

Floria 09

Never in my wildest imagination would I thought I would see beautifully decorated flowers in Malaysia such as these. But the impossible happened.

I was in Putrajaya early August going to Bahagian Pinjaman Perumahan for work stuff and caught sight of these colourful flowers at the open space car park.

Well, nice as it is, these were carefully placed in bags of soil for the Floria '09 fest and was said to only last a week. We were there on the second day and the flowers looked fresh despite the blazing sun.

In an indoor, fully air-conditioned huge make-shift tent, flowers were decorated in different shapes and sizes.

Rocky Road

I guess Cadbury has to come up with new flavours with fancy names ... and thus, Rocky Road doesn't refer to a certain type of road but a new flavour of Cadbury's.

This is not out in Malaysia yet, though ... so for chocolate lovers, go to Australia to get a taste of this new flavour. Come see me if you don't want to travel so far - while stocks last, of course.

KL Bird Park

Getting everyone to agree on going to the Bird Park was not a problem. Getting everyone's schedule to match was tough.

We planned this outing from May and told En in advance that she can't spoil our plans just because school had something on or that she suddenly developed fever or flu.
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Getting Brian to avail himself that day was not a problem at all. He would happily skip tuition for it... plus, he doesn't get sick too often.

Wayne, being 2+ years old, didn't have much of a schedule except for the fact that he sleeps in the afternoon.

Om was supposed to come but was stuck in Butterworth, visiting relatives.
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So, on Monday (July 20th), Matthew, MinChee, Eunice, Tusi, Brian, En, Wayne and I went to the KL Bird Park in 2 cars. We weren't sure where the place was and overshot along Jalan Parlimen going into Jalan Cenderawasih and ended up at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. We made a u-turn there and went all the way back to Jalan Parlimen and into Jln Cenderawasih.

The Bird Park is near Bukit Aman.

We arrived at about 10.30am and easily found many parking spots available.

The ticket booth was at the entrance of the park. For foreigners, it's RM42 perperson. For Malaysians (we must produce our Mykad to get this discount), we pay RM15 perperson. A further discount of RM5 would be given if we had produced either an MJ or Jusco card but I didn't know that - even though it was stated on a piece of laminated paper right in front of me. I didn't know it was a FURTHER discount. Children below 12 is RM6 perperson. Tusi managed to qualify under the RM15 level, having explained that she is the maid. Actually, we wanted her to have a good time, to enjoy a little and be a tourist.

This bird park is the biggest free- flight walk-in aviary in the world... and I didn't know that it existed until a couple of months ago.

The children were all excited, seeing huge birds walking along the path .. or perching on a branch above them. They kept exclaiming, "Look! There's a bird there" and pointing everywhere. Wayne was happily immitating En & Brian, saying, "Look, Bird".

The koi pond was a hit with the children. Earlier, at the ticket booth, I bought 3 packets of fish food. I passed two packets to them and those fat fish got fatter that day. Wayne really loved the fish. They were all playing with the water too.

We stopped for a break after walking for 1 hour 15 minutes. En and Brian, each having RM10, paid for their drinks. We are trying to instill in them the value of money and how to budget with what they have and what they want.

We got to take pictures with birds of our choice. I asked En and Brian if they wanted a group picture or single shots.... and they chose the latter. So, for RM8 perperson, they went in one by one.

En was pretty brave. The owl actually left marks on her scrawny arms.... and she is sooo not scared of the huge birds.

Brian was pretty scared. You can see it in his face. He kept saying that the birds were heavy.

Tusi was scared at first but wanted to look nice for the camera ... and so, she smiled her best.

As for me, I guess I am a natural, huh? I figured that I should also take this opportunity to have my picture taken ... a memento.

We hurried on to catch the 12.30 Bird Show at the other end of the park. Well, I must say, the children loved the show and the many tricks the birds were able to perform.

After the show, they played at the playground nearby. I actually didn't want them to "waste" time there but Eunice was kind enough to allow them 5 minutes (which turned out to be longer than that) to go down the slide.

We took another route to go back to the main entrance and came across this beautiful cascading waterfall (which is man-made, of course).

We also saw ostriches and emus .. those big bodied, skinny legged birds.

The nursery was nearby but there was nothing much in there.... except for chicks, artwork of the colouring competition held in December 2008 and some posters about how chicks grow into chickens. It was smelly in there.

There was also a gallery (air-conditioned, much to my delight) which showed deboned birds and the skeleton of two ostriches.

We walked on. By that time, it was past 1pm. En wanted to see more birds. Brian's stomach was growling. He kept saying that his lunch time is 1pm and En retorted that it was already 1.30pm .. so it makes no difference anyway.

En managed to get us to go into "World of Parrots". Brian soon forgot his hunger pangs when he was given a chance to feed the parrots. En fed the parrots too.

There was once when a bird landed on Brian's head .. it was a good thing he had his cap on, otherwise I shudder to think what Brian would do if the bird had a nature call to answer to. Anyway, Brian was a little worried about the bird, anyway, but I explained that the bird only wanted to reach the milky drink from that point.

We finally got to Hornbill Restaurant, much to Brian's relief. I ordered a chicken pie, Brian had beef burger, En chicken burger and Tusi ... well, because she hasn't tried potato wedges before, I ordered those for her. In the end, Eunice gave her half of her beef burger, En gave her another half of her chicken burger, I gave her a bite of my chicken pie and we all shared the wedges (because she simply couldn't finish so much food).

En and Brian both wanted to spend their balance money on icecream (for dessert). I told them that it's cheaper to get it outside the restaurant.. but on the way out, we had to pass through the gift shop and both of them wanted something in there. En wanted a pair of binoculours which cost RM10 and Brian wanted a plastic cap with a mini fan powered via solar energy and shades - this would set him back by RM19.

Now, En had only RM9 (not sure why she had so much, even after paying for her drink which cost her RM3 ... someone miscalculated very badly) and Brian, RM6.

I told them that they had to choose between the things that they wanted and ice cream .... and they decided to forgo the cool dessert.

I wanted to teach them the value of money .. so I questioned En first .... "You have only RM9 and the binoculours cost you RM10. How are you going to get the extra RM1?" She asked me to lend her RM10 and said that she will pay me back when we get home (I still haven't seen the money yet).

As for Brian, he is short of RM13 and knew that he couldn't pay me back even when he got home. Well, I was thinking .... for him to sacrifice the ice cream meant that he really wanted the cap, so I asked him for his RM6 and told him that I would come up with the balance.

Both En and Brian were very happy with their "toys" ... and didn't even think about their ice cream. Aunty Eunice was kind enough to say that she will spend us all ice cream - and that includes ME!!! :) :) :)

We left just before 4pm. En kept wanting to see the 3.30pm bird show (again!!) but I didn't want to get stuck in the traffic and explained that to her. She said that she didn't mind getting stuck in the traffic. Brian echoed her thoughts. I retorted that "I" was the one who would suffer because I was driving. I don't think they could relate to that. They were probably thinking, "So what? Sit in the car and wait with us-lah".

In the car, En was so tired, she was the first one to fall asleep. Tusi dozed off too. Brian was still awake, maybe thinking back on the many birds he had seen.

Mansions in the Afterlife

Even as I lay on my stomach and to blog about this, I hear the clanging of cymbals and the chanting of voices just outside my house.

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Last night, I half-witnessed the burning of a huge glittering mansion (and other fancy stuff) made of paper as a huge crowd gathered just outside my neighbour's house. Frankly, I was more worried about the fact that the flames might reach the overlaying electricity cables and we would be out of power for days!!

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I thought about the paper mansion and how some people think that by burning these replicas, the person whose body lays in the coffin would be able to enjoy these fine things in their afterlife.

I thought about what I believe in. I know that MY MANSION will be prepared and ready for me when I get to Heaven, not because some other people burned paper replicas but the fact that God said so. :)

Spending Unnecessarily

I was only supposed to buy 1.5 kg Dory fish, one bottle of tomato sauce and capsicum but ended up spending more than I ought to. It ALWAYS happens when I go to Tesco.

f.y.i - those things in the cart are not all mine. Some of the stuff belongs to Eunice

Homework Time

En is forever doing her homework or watching TV. Last Tuesday when I was at my parents' place, En was diligently doing her homework, after trying to persuade us (in vain) to chit chat in the living room - instead of at the dining table - so that she could eavesdrop on our conversation. I guess multi-tasking begins at a very young age.

Anyway, the music was blasting and she was comfortably slouching on the sofa and enjoying herself. Actually, she was in this weird position whereby if I were to be in that position and doing my homework, I might get cramped all over.

As I observed how she prefered this position to sitting at the dining table and doing her homework, I am also reminded by the fact that I lay on my stomach while using my laptop - a position that would be uncomfortable to most, but not to me :-)

Sweet & Sour Fish

I've always wanted to learn how to cook sweet & sour fish. The major factor that hindered me was the fact that I don't know how to buy fish, or rather, what sort of fish is suitable and more importantly, how to transform a fish with bones to fillets. As you can very well tell, I don't cook often, plus the fact that I am not a huge fish fan.

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A few weeks ago, we were shopping at Tesco and Eunice bought a packet of Dory fish which cost her a reasonable RM5.99 for a bout a kg of fish. And suddenly, I thought of so many things I could do with the 3 pieces of fish. I could make fish and chips or better still, learn how to cook sweet and sour fish.

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I asked my mum to teach me but she was too busy playing mahjong... and Tusi taught me how to cook. Of course, earlier on, my mum told Tusi what to do and Tusi was just reciting it from memory.

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Anyway, for those who love sweet and sour fish (or even chicken), here's the recipe:-

Chop the fish into bite-size. Marinate with white pepper, a little salt and a little chicken stock (liquid form)

For the batter, mix (normal) flour, a little self raising flour, a little salt and water. Dip the fish into the mixture before frying it.

Deep fry the fish until golden brown. Leave the fried fish aside to cool off.

For the gravy, fry chopped big oinions and sliced ginger.

Add chopped capsicum, tomatoes and mix vegetables

Add lots of tomato sauce (almost the whole bottle) and a little chilli sauce (about 3 or 4 tablespoons) for a very slight spicy taste. Add 1 or 2 teaspoon sugar.
Keep stiring until gravy shows signs of boiling. Pour gravy onto fried fish and serve

This is the end result. There was extra gravy but I poured it onto another bowl for those who want to eat rice with the gravy.



I gave some to my grandmother (she had eaten her dinner earlier) and she said it tasted nice. :)