Sister at home = good life!

With Esther at home, she got the motivation to bake and cook. So, yesterday, she made ...
muffin ... not many, just 6 of them!
Tonight, she cooks "special chicken" ("gong bao chicken" 宫保鸡丁) to feed the two young boys. Guess what did she put in the chicken...
... dry chili. She said, just two pieces and it is not hot. After she finished cooking, she tried it and said "It is hot!". So, what about the two boys? Never mind.. they will eat....just hide the dry chili below the meat! Joshua ate one piece and exclaimed "I am going to be a fire dragon tonight!" So he armed himself with a jar of water to "douse out the flame" and they finished the plate of chicken! Esther surely has a way to make sure that they eat spicy food. I have just cooked curry fish floss + fried rice this morning.
Now, what shall we do with this baby after Esther leaves in October? Go to the orphanage or we continue to keep him?

Latest Figurine

Ah Jon got his latest delivery of figurine today. It came all the way in from Hong Kong by FedEx special delivery. And this figurine is heavy! I think it is probably more than 1kg. It will really hurt if you are being hit by this object! Even the broom is very heavy as if it is made from solid steel.
Ah Jon claimed that this figurine has a market value of RM800! I have no idea how much it is worth but I know it is expensive from the look and feel. This figurine is about a foot tall.
I saw a lot of "low quality figurines" in a hypermarket in Miri and comparing their quality to this one, they are miles apart!

Fridge defrosted!

Can you imagine you wake up in the morning and found that the food in the freezer compartment is almost thawed ... Thanks God that I didn't have much thing in the freezer. So, first thing I check (or rather hear) was the compressor. Ok, it was still running. Then I found that the blower fan was dead! Old problem has returned, ie, the water discharge tubing is blocked and has prevented effective discharge of water from the cooling element.
This also means that the cooler coil compartment is frozen with ice and the ice had blocked the moving fan. This time, I decided to "service" it myself. I removed the two screws, and pushed the cover forwards to completely dislocate it...
... and expose the coiling coil and fan at the back. Checking the base, I immediately confirmed what I have suspected - frozen cooling coil compartment. The task now is to defrost the ice and clean ...

...the discharge "catch" which is in the lower compartment of the fridge. The discharge tubing was blocked due to years of usage. After cleaning everything, I just reassemble everything back and bingo...my fridge is working again....hehehe, the fridge guy will not make money from me this time. Total effort was about 70 minutes. The ice was partially defrosted when the base was open.

For your information, this fridge is now 29 years old. You will notice that the cooling coil is made of copper tubing whereas the modern ones are made from aluminium which corrode easily. I bought it in Singapore while I was working there and it was made in Japan. It is healthier than my 9 years old fridge, eg, the seal on the freezer is still so strong that I need to pull real hard to open it whereas the new fridge can't even hold properly!

Tip:
Next time when you send your fridge for service, you must make sure that you specifically ask to have the drain pipe to be blown clean. Before they send it back, make you ask to ensure that this is done. Otherwise, the fan will be blocked by ice and within a short time, it has to be sent back to the service center. A "problematic" fridge can frustrate you and you would want to change a new ones.

Esther is now Back

After two years in Leeds, 6 weeks in Sweden, 1 week in Belgium enjoying her holiday, one month in Singapore doing her elective at NUS, 2 weeks in West Malaysia, she finally found her way home last Saturday night.

Even though she didn't come home straight, her bag was full of goodies for the brothers at home...chocolate, etc. Some were of special request by the younger brothers.

Then I realised that Esther is now a big girl, ie, grown up! She dressed in a manner that she called it fashionable. Anyway, I thought she looks good in that dress but mum think that it is hot for her! What she means was that the tropical heat will grill her as she complained that Miri weather is hot!

Ah...next year June she will graduate. She needs to stay for another two years to do her houseman.

Her three brothers have been pestering the sister to make/cook something for them. I would say that all the siblings were very close to each other. So, last night, she cooked ...

...this chicken for the boys. They loved it very much and almost finished the whole chicken last night.

I kept this "coconut mango" in the fridge for her to eat. Reflecting back, I can now understand why my own parents did the same kind of thing for us! They will always leave something for us.

Fruits... fruits... at our home.

Having a landed property has many advantages. First, we can plant whatever we want. Next, if I am lazy like now, I let the grass grows. My neighbour reminded me that the grass is a perfect place for snake. I would tell them that it is ok as they mean no harm. Indeed, I saw a couple of snakes before but no big deal. They are more scare of us. So, if I feel energetic, I would plant some veggie. This year has been a good year, although the weather is dry. We have a bumper crop of "coconut mangoes", local mangoes, bananas...

... now we have rambutan... (Janice, you missed it by a day!)

... and also this orange.

Timothy finishes his UPSR exam

Timothy finishes his UPSR (6th year primary school public exam)yesterday (10-September 2009).

Yesterday afternoon, he had his last paper on aptitude test! If we ask him whether the paper was easy or hard, he would tell us that all the papers were very difficult. Anyway, whatever it is, we will know the result in 3 months.

Rabbit... an eating machine?

We have this rabbit from our friend, Yee. When he bought it a couple of months ago, this rabbit was quite small.

Now, as the day passes, I think he is getting smarter. When he needs food or wanting to get out of his cage, he would chew on the wire of the cage!

Look, he is very big now. I wonder when he will actually stop growing! If I give him a bundle of veggie, he would finish it off. If I feed him 3 times a day, he would still eat everything. He really seems to enjoy the veggie so much... he chewed on the crunchy stalk and the sound made by the teeth made me feel like trying the veggie stalk myself!!
Anyone know how big he will grow? As big as a goat? Or a cow (I saw it on fantasy movie)? Afterall, they are all vegeterian. I shall wait and see. But seeing that he is getting so smart now, I think my friend's (Nilesh) desires for a rabbit stew will not materialise anymore.

Maxis SMS spamming?

My business friend sent me an SMS to confirm certain question I asked. The message was only 8 characters long. Initially, I received the message and I deleted it. Then two hours later, I started to receive the same message a couple of times. To my surprised, the SMS didn't stop coming in. It somehow slowed down a little in the evening. This morning, when I got up, I have received the same message 70+ times.


By today evening, 6:00PM, I have 133 messages! So, I deleted all of them. Tonight, 3 hours later, I received another 70+ messages. What has gone wrong? Anyone has any idea? I am sure that Maxis doesn't need to increase revenue in this manner. Computer fault?

Niah Cave - the dark and the painted

The story continues from yesterday's post. We were about to enter the darkest part of the cave. It is total darkness, ie, absence of light! We can't even see an inch in front of us without torch light.
To read all my other blogs on Niah, click here.

The team was entering the descending staircase ...

I used my flash to snap a photo of the dark cave ...

One of the girls spotted this cricket on a metal bin...

Finally, we arrived at the exit. It has a rest area and a gateway to the painted cave. The painted cave is another 10 minutes walk away.

Look back into the dark cave ...

The painted cave! The painting is more or less gone!

The entrance of the painted cave.
By this I am now concluding this series of posts on Niah Cave. It is worthwhile going but do slow down and enjoy the surrounding. The cost is RM10 per adult, RM5 for student. The boat ride is RM1 each way for each person. There is group package, eg, group of 5 will cost RM30.

Niah Cave... The journey beyong the main entrance #1

This story continues from my previous entries. We have just entered the main entrance, walked for perhaps 150M, and in front of us, is a passage of cave with very low light.

At this point and looking back, I can see the light from the main entrance penetrating through the darkness of the interior ...

Looking forward, the light is dim. So dim that this picture was taken at an ISO of 25,000 F2.8 1/8s. The picture is actually quite "noisy" and the only way for me to resolve this is to use a tripod and reduce the ISO. Perhaps, on next trip to Niah Cave, I will bring along a tripod.

We continued walking to the middle section, where we can see light coming through....

... light from a distance opening! Perhaps, I call this the "back entrance" of the cave which leads to the painted caves.

... and I looked back and saw nice formation of the rock and shadow... the wall has structure built for bird nest harvesting ...

... looking further right from the above point ...

... nice formation and structure everywhere!

... more rock formation ...

... sculpture by nature under a dim light source from above ...

... a resting place with shade in a cave? Yes, to protect you from dropping from birds and bats!
At this point, we are about to enter the darkest part of the cave. This is what I called our 2nd half of the adventure. Photos will come soon!
All the above photos were taken with extremely high ISO and low speed. Walking around would require a torch light. I have enhanced the image slightly.

New Look

I am currently applying a new template to this blog. Please bear with me for a while.

A New Blog for my Friend

Over the weekend, I have been busy creating a new blog for my friend Winnie and Austin. They have an orchard somewhere near SOP not too far from Miri. They will have fruits, especially durian, soon. So, do check out!! Especially durian lovers, you must not miss the opportunity. The blog is still under construction. Do give me ideas as to what you would like to see on their blog.
http://sabaorchard.blogspot.com
I am now very tempted to change the format of this blog to be like his!
Thanks.

I am a "lucky" winner again!

Don't ever believe this crap. Just search REFNO.REF:UKL/74-A0802742009 on google and you will find that this reference number appears everywhere.

I received this through my e-mail:
WINNING NOTIFICATION
The United Kingdom National Lottery wishes to inform you that the results of the E-mail address ballot international program by Great Britain . Your email account have been picked as a winner of a lump sum pay out of Eight hundred and ninety-one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-four Great Britain pounds (£891,934.00 pounds sterlings) in cash credited to file REF NO. REF:UKL/74-A0802742009. This is from total prize money of GBP £4,459,670.00 shared among the FIVE (5) international winners in this category.

Contact Fred Martins with details via;(claim.agent255@gala.net),Tel:+44-7011-1275-22

***IMPORTANT*** FILL OUT THIS WINNERS VERIFICATION FORM BELOW:
*Name:.....*Address:......*Country:.....*Sex:....*Age:.....*Tel:...*Occupation:...

All winning must be claimed not later than 14 working days from this notification. ...
This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.
Sincerely,
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Online Coordinator,
CAMELOT GROUP,
Operator of The National Lottery

Niah - The journey into the deep

Along the way to the cave, there is this souvenir shop. It is literally in the middle of nowhere with so very few customers. They have been here for a long time already as I saw them during my last trip many years ago.
We are bad buyer of souvenir and we didn't buy anything!
Along the way, we spend time to look at the nature. Before we realise it, we were at the bottom of this flight of stairs...
... leading to the traders' cave. There are wooden structures built in the 50s' still standing. It is worth noting that the joints are special. The use of nails were non existence! See how the points were held together.
I don't see this kind of design nowadays. I remember our old house was built in this manner using belian (iron) wood. They are termite proof!
This cave was where the native sold the bird nest. Nowadays, bird nest business is not done this way anymore. We can see the spider web on top of the rock... they are in the business to catch small insects for their meals!
Ok... we proceed our journey up a flight of stairs...
From the top of the stairs looking down, this is how the traders' cave looks like.
This is another view from the top of the stairs.
Then we were at the entrance to the great cave. We were greeted by this "old archeological excavation" which had halted many years ago.
On the far end of the great cave, we could see a hut. We didn't go over to have a close look. From the roof of the great cave, we could see bamboo stick coming downward. They were left there by the bird nest farmer.
The roof of the great cave is lined by swiftlets/bats ... can you spot them?
The journey into the great cave starts here...it is believed that this great cave was once under water and a great flood or whatever had swept through it and left behind sign of wavy erosion made only possible by water. Was it caused by the great flood of Noah's time?
... beautiful formation of rock inside the cave. We are about to enter the first part of the darker cave. Pictures from my posting on Tuesday were taken just beyond this point.
... I will post more pictures showing the total darkness part of the eerie black cave!