You think you can't cook?

Recently our company organised a huge party with probably 500 tables of guests. To cater for all the food, the company engaged some very popular restaurants and hotels. We were all familiar with all those restaurants and we naturally have high expectation! Looking at the menu, the names of all the dishes were not fanciful, perhaps rather plain names.

When this dish was served, someone told me at another table that they are eating fried eggs, apparently with too much baking soda added for frying. At our table, I saw some unfamiliar dark bits on something! Checking the menu, the nearest we thought must be the Oyster Omelette! So, what do you think is this thing?

After sinking my teeth into this tart, I knew immediately that it was made from pineapple. Ok, the taste was good and the deco... I think it was done by kids learning how to coordinate the hand movement.
Anyway, many years ago, I went to a friend's home and I tried to cook something. It turned out to be disaster, too salty, too... Now, I realised that you cannot cook properly when you are in a new environment as proven by these cooks. So, if you are a daughter-in-law and did badly in cooking, I hope the MIL will be more understanding now.

Anwar Ibrahim is in town

This morning, the Pakatan Rakyat component parties are in town. I went to their talk...

Familiar faces. They will be there again this evening...

Dr. Teo residence is crowed!

The main speaker, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

A lady, who is sick, requested to see Anwar. So she came in the ambulance. 

His speech is captivating! 

They will be speaking again this evening at 7:00PM at the same place.

Hybrid Cars

If I believe the press, excise duty for hybrid cars will be removed from next year for cars below 2000cc. Quote from The Star "It is estimated that the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius, now costing RM129,000 and RM175,000 respectively, would have a new price tag of RM100,980 and RM128,046 correspondingly following the excise duty exemption." The main question would be the cost of running the car. I looked at only one aspect of "cost of ownership" (operating cost), ie, fuel consumption.

The above report is from a US government website. If we are having the same model in Malaysia, my simple conclusion is that your monthly bill for fuel is reduced by about 30-40%!
So, if you are buying a new car, perhaps you should onsider a hybrid car for the sake of our planet earth.


Update: I was told that every battery cost about RM3,000 and there are seven of them. Battery needs replacement between 5-7 years. That will make you about RM20,000 poorer!

ARPS & FPSM award for Siew

The president of Miri Photographic Society was awarded Distinction as Fellow of the Society of Photographers - Malaysia and Associate of Royal Photographic Society of UK. Mr Siew organised a dinner to celebrate  his success.

Mr. Ting, Ex President, gave an opening speech.

Presentation of present

More presentation of present

Cheers ....

The happy couple tonight.

Thanks and congratulation to Mr. Siew.

Square brain?!

During dinner, Timothy announced this:

爸爸，Joshua 脑子是四方形的! (Daddy, Joshua's brain is square)
Me: 为什么会这样？(Why is that?)
Oh, he cannot twist his brain!
(What Timothy meant was that Joshua way of thinking is not flexible enough or twist around like a ball!)


Kids today know how to express much better than us last time. They are exposed to more information. However, many lack physical play time. If you have children, how would you strike a balance between play, developing social skill and playing with gadgets?

Surprised delivery

Yesterday evening, a poslaju (Express post) arrived and delivered a package to Ah Jon. He was scratching his head wondering why a lady called JL should send him a package after all he had not ordered anything. However, I immediately knew that it was something from his sister Stephanie. We had picked up some clues from facebook that something is on the way which will cost as much as the parcel itself. So...

... Ah Jon couldn't wait to open it and found these two packages all the way from Leeds in UK. They are original Pocky made in Japan but bought in Leeds. The boys were so overwhelmed with joy and each one of them can only have a little share... hahaha 4 sticks of each one!
This is the first thing Steph bought for the brothers with her first pay. Thanks, Stephanie. They all love them.

Blood donation, are you scared?

Last week, I responded to my friend, Kho from Dayang, for blood donation. I donate blood regularly. Everything has the first time and I must admit that I was a little scare. Then, I realised that the only part that was a little scary was the pricking of the finger for a drop of blood. At that time, the poking was manual and it was a little painful. First, they poked on the finger tip. Now, here is the secret... ask them to poke at the side of the finger tip as it is less painful.

I was the last to arrive. The house was full. 70+ people registered and only 50+ qualify. The blood donation process is quite simple. Fill in a form, register, take blood sample to ensure that you have enough blood, etc. Take your blood pressure. If all cleared...

... a jab of local anesthetic. No pain here! 

Then the big needle is inserted into the vein. Totally no pain due to the above jab!

Secure the needle.

Let the blood flow... until the package is full. For men, it is 1 pint, for ladies, it is less... can't remember how much now.

... done. 

The day's harvest! About 51 packages.

Kho (right) and his staff. Everyone have a treat of some makan and T-shirt of Dayang...

Dayang ultra modern office building at Riam Road.

So will you give blood next time if you have never done before?

Good news on budget 2010

Some good news for budget 2010, eg:

IMPORT duty on approximately 300 items will be abolished to promote Malaysia as Asia’s shopping haven.
The goods are apparel, handbags, shoes, shampoo, suits, children’s apparel, wallets, hair colourants, golf balls, imitation jewellery, talcum powder, curtains, table cloth, blankets, bed sheets, shirts, undergarments, lingerie, nightwear, perfumes and mosquito netting.

Read more here

The other good news is the full excise duty exemptions on hybrid cars! So, hold your brake for those are going to buy new car! The prices of these cars are almost the same as in langkawi! By the way, apparently only Honda and Toyota have hybrid cars in Malaysia!

Read more here.

The only problem now is whether the benefit is going to the consumers or not!

Digital Miri City

On 14th Oct 2010, we saw the official launch of Digital Miri City Strategy.

Miri at night.

Launching by Deputy Chief Minister

A huge crowd turned up, comprising people from the government, Curtin, Shell and others.

Mr Teoh, big boss from Sain gave the opening speech.

Hellen from SSB signed on behalf of the company.

Planting of "3 pillars". I forgot what they mean.

Some of the staff from SSB.

Everyone was treated for a meal. There was more than enough food for everyone.

Catering was by Julia Catering. I think the food was not bad. Can be recommended!

Many stayed back for the grand lucky draw prize of an Apple iPhone. This lucky student from Riam got it!
I was hoping to hear the real plan to turn Miri into a digital City. But just high level talk!

Help.. please let me out!

What do you think they are telling you?

Looks like he is telling us to have pity on him.... 

Yeah... give me food!

Dogs are cute but these species can be very fierce!

Ex Kenyalang Visit to the college

After the reunion dinner at Dynasty Hotel, Miri, some of the group members went to the college to visit the old school. They also presented two mini scholarship awards to two students. There are a lot of changes at the college but the entrance is still familiar...

As students, walking along this long stretch brings back bitter sweet memories for many...

... this is also called the lover's lane!

Some of the old building never change... but infested by termite now.

... this is where I sat so many years ago! Looking out of the window was a lighthouse, etc...

... we walked this corridor hundreds of times!

A group photo for remembrance!

To see all the photos taken during the visit to the college, please click here.

Have you seen this...

I have seen this place many times while I travel back from KL. In my opinion, this is probably the largest private house in Miri.

It is not possible to see it from the main road but from the sea. Today, I chanced upon it ...

Ex Kenyalang Reunion

Last night (9-Oct-2010) saw the reunion of almost 100 ex-Kenyalang at Dynasty Hotel. I will be publishing  another blog to tell you who are the Kenyalang.

Ex Tanjong Lobang College Students

Some of the ex students from the late 60's and early '70's.

Chris, a lawyer and a rock star!

Time to bid farewell again... meet again next year?
During my own reunion I attended last time, everyone felt that we should meet more often. But there is so much commitment by everyone that it becomes quite impractical to do reunion often as there are a lot to prepare.
To see all the photos taken during the reunion dinner, please click here.

Dogs attract more dog!

We first started keeping dog well back in early 80's. However, after seeing them suffered in pain, especially during sickness, we decided not to keep any. In a blink of the eye, 20+ years passed and in 2008, we decided to keep one dog ...

Snowie. We kept her after much pressure from the young boys. We ended up spending more than RM700 to treat her STD and her still birth of puppies! Then, three months ago, we got this ...

... Spoty. He is learning to be passionate like Snowie, jumping up and down whenever we came back. However, this fellow is also very fierce. He may be young, but he ...

... can even challenge this dog, which is a few times heavier than him. We found this dog, hungry and tired, in our compund a few days ago. I have never seen him before even in our neighbourhood. He looks neat, tidy and his fur is nice. He definitely looks well kept.
However, I realised that he refused to go "home". So, where is he from? Has he been dumped by his owner or he lost his way? If this is your dog or you would like to adopt him, please let me know.