Appreciating Bugs in Gopeng

Last weekend, I organized a retreat for the youth leaders of my church. We went to Adeline's Rest House in Gopeng (which we've been before and her food is just as excellent... yumsss) where the young ones enjoyed white water rafting, wet abseiling down a waterfall as well as a jungle walk which included feeding leeches along the way and a crossing of a river.

As I was still coughing and KS was starting to get ill, we didn't join in the activities but stayed back and enjoyed a quiet evening with a book and a nap. There was a little girl who joined us for the trip and she decided bugs and the mention of leeches were too disgusting and scary to go for the jungle trek. So she stayed back and I found myself trying to make her appreciate bugs more. Yes, me, the very person who would prefer examining a lizard than a bug any time.

So I went around with her for a while and used my camera to create life in each creature. You know those micro shots of insects that everyone seems to have? Well, they're really not easy to take with a point and shoot.

Here was a flying wasp-like insect which posed for me on this leaf for a good 15-20 mins while I took shot after shot. Only this one turned out okay. Of course in the original photo, the subject was but a small dot. My story to the little girl was something like this, "Hey look at this wasp! So cute! It's posing for me!" 

More bug photos. This green beauty has a little C design on the shell. It's body, beneath the green shell, is red. So pretty!

Another random wasp which we both spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what it was doing.

Then there were clovers. I never knew they were furry!

Dragonflies also elicited screams from the girl so I made her observe their beautiful colours. "Look at it's colour! Doesn't it look like a light saber?"

In the end, did I succeed in making her less afraid of insects? For that few hours, she did scream when insects flew near her but I'd like to believe she was less afraid. But it will take a lot more effort to chip away that fear, if it ever does.

The curl of a vine. Just a random shot but I like the bokeh.

There was a stray cat there but he was rather shy. Kept us at a distance.

The little stream that runs along the Villa. Cool waters.

Anyway, along the way home, I thought I'd take a picture of yet another mysterious advertisement along the highway and share this with you.

Okaaaaay...

Wows and Not So Wows

A few exciting things has been happening, some really good and some not so good.

Firstly, at work, my bosses are giving me the chance to move into an area I've expressed keen interest on. They've carved out a role for me where I am to move a new part of the business and I'm very excited about it! Excited, thankful and grateful for this opportunity.

Yes, it's going to be frightening to prove myself in an area where I don't have any experience and I know there are challenges ahead. Nevertheless, I feel like my ladder is now leaning against a wall that I've been desiring for some time now!

Unfortunately, I fell ill three weeks ago while I'm trying to prove myself and have been on two days MC and a day off due to my cough, cold and fever. I'm still recuperating and really hope I get better (like tomorrow!). Not a very good impression, I know, and it couldn't have come at the worst timing.

Anyway, in between, I won a couple of lucky draws:

The first was a mini DVD player which I won at an internal office party. At first I didn't know what to do with it since I already own two DVD units in the house and didn't need another one. Luckily, before I gave it away, I checked with Dad who exclaimed it was just what he was looking for for his line dancing class!

Speaking of my two DVD players, a week ago, there was an electricity surge in my housing area which destroyed , amongst my two DVD players, my auto gate, water pump, computer, speakers and Apple Airport. Thankfully, most could be repaired while a few replacements need to take place. And thankfully, none of my white electrical appliances were affected like my fridge.

Moving on to my next lucky draw win, I attended a screening of the latest Spiderman sponsored by MasterCard. And yeah, I won one of their 3D2N Kota Kinabalu trips (excluding flights). Despite fairly restrictive conditions, I am now booked to visit KK next month! Even though KS and I have been KK not too long ago, we didn't manage to visit Kinabalu Park and this warrant gives us that one day tour. Yay!

Speaking of trips, this month will be an exceptionally busy one for KS and I. I'm now in Melaka for the weekend, next weekend we'll be in Gopeng, Perak with the youth leaders for a retreat and the weekend after, we'll be in Penang for a wedding and a short family vacation.

Then in August, we'll be in KK, September KS will be in Singapore and we'll need to be back in Melaka for another wedding. Then in mid November, we're off to Perth to watch George Michael for his Symphonica concert! Then hopefully we'll have a winter trip in December and in January I'll be going on a gals trip to Bandung.

And lastly, the other thing we won was a concert ticket to the MTV Live Stage featuring Justin Bieber which happened last night. KS gave it away to a colleague who's teenage girl is nuts over JB.

How this happened was KS office was giving away five pairs of tickets and the top five with the most voted rock star name in their internal Facebook page. I suggested KS to name himself RM1.50. Why? Because a couple of months ago, The Star reported the rapper 50 Cent and converted his name to the local currency.

So he was one of the top five liked names to win the tickets.

High Life & Star Studded Week

Two weeks ago, I had a spate of experiencing the high life in the course of my work. Okay, not a spate but for an ordinary Jo like me, two in a week is quite a lot. :)

The first was experiencing a 4 course Finnish meal prepared by Asian Food Channel (AFC) celebrity chef, Sara La Fountain. Unfortunately, since I do not have cable TV, I did not know who she was. She is this gorgeous chef from Finland and er, the rest of what I know of her comes from Wiki.

I loved the starter, a spoonful of minced beef and lamb combined with marinated beet and the dessert, baked Alaska with blueberry ice cream. Oooh! A far cry from the baked Alaska I had at a restaurant in PJ recently which had more egg white than any other ingredient with two dried chocolate cakes.

Tablespoonful of minced beef and lamb.

The lovely dessert

Sara La Fountain, my colleague Reg and I.

The second was a launch of my company's product launch which we held at a restaurant in town followed by a bus ride (complete with outriders) to Port Klang to board a boat where we sailed out to a rendezvous point to watch the setting sun.

On board the Lili Marleen

The gorgeous sunset

As you can imagine, I took quite a lot of sunset photos...

One of the caricature artists hard at work

The atmosphere was further pumped up by Ning Baizura's energizing performance which brought quite a lot of people into a dancing mood. So we boogied the night away with colleagues and partners. And got home at almost 2am with aching feet but happy to have been part of the organizing team.
  

Good friends

With Ning Baizura

Mid Life Crisis

Someone recently described mid life crisis as a result of people climbing up the corporate ladder which is leaning against the wrong wall and therefore changing career paths when they are supposed to be at the peak of their careers.

I found that this description sort of made sense. Unfortunately, there aren't many hiring managers out there who would want to hire someone without any experience in the exact same field or role. Regardless of the soft and hard skills picked up along the years of climbing that particular ladder, corporations want to see you having the exact experience in your cv for a considerable period of time.

Of course I'm not talking about moving from a being procurement executive to become an eye surgeon.

For example, I know of a friend who is doing sales but she doesn't quite like what she's doing and was hoping to move back into a product marketing role.

However, the people whom she has met for interviews have boxed her into sales roles. It's very sad to see the reality of this happening because we are then pushed up a corporate ladder onto a wall we don't want to be leaning against.

I wonder if this is also prevalent in other countries. I've always wondered if things would be better if Malaysians know what their personal strengths would be most suited for so that they would select the relevant course and therefore avoid this mid life crisis. Or would we still get bored eventually and long to try something else?

Smash & Attempted Grab

A couple of nights ago, my friend dropped me off home after work and a quick dinner. Before I alighted from her car, I pressed my auto-gate to open while I finished my conversation with her.

As I got out, I realized I had not stopped the gate mid-way but had allowed it to gape wide open which would take longer for me to close the gate. Stepping in and quickly activating the shutting of my gate, I suddenly heard the dreaded motorbike sound coming around the corner. I turned to take note of the motorcyclists and noted there were two people on the motorbike. Not a good sign.

As her usual precaution, my friend waited for me to safely get into the house and was ensuring her car doors were securely locked. Even as I watched through my painfully slowly closing gate, I saw the bike make a sharp u-turn and the pillion rider jumped off and run towards the drivers’ window. For a split second, I had the hope he was merely going to ask her for directions. Yes, even if it was past 10pm.

Alas, that wasn’t the case when I saw him attacking her window. I yelled “Woi!!! WOI!! WOI!!!” (I really didn't know what else to shout) at the top of my voice and stepped out of the house to help my friend before realizing I was unarmed and was also carrying my own handbag with no one in the house to help. Instead, I stepped back and blocked my gate from closing, all the while still shouting for him to stop.

By that time, he had gained access into the car and was attacking my friend. I shouted even louder, angry with helplessness and terrified he might be attacking her with a knife.

Thankfully, my neighbours heard my yells and had started coming out. At the first sound of a door opening, the robbers fled.

And again, thankfully, my friend had surface scratches and didn’t lose her bag. The neighbours gave us the nearby police station’s phone number for us to make a report.

However, despite having seen the robbers, neither of us could even tell what colour shirts they were wearing. So making a police report was futile and our terrifying experience merely seeped into the system as a statistic of a smash and attempted grab.

I am now paranoid and think I’m being followed everywhere. The whole incident played in my mind several times to see what we could have done to avoid this but really, we took our precautions at every step unless we were paranoid that there was probably a motorbike following us all the way from the office. But if they had followed, they would have already attacked when we stopped the car instead of waiting for a full minute or so.

I shudder to think that if my friend had driven off, I would have been easy picking. I didn’t have any means of defending myself. Or if they had a parang or knives, as these thieves are well known for carrying, the injuries would have been severe.

The experience left me feeling vulnerable and angry that there’s nothing I can do to catch them or to stop such occurrences from repeating.

Shopping Online

When Grace announced she was coming back to Malaysia for a holiday this year, she asked me to start buying all the stuff I wanted online which can't be shipped to me. At that time, my shopping list on Amazon was empty and I thought I had nothing to get.


I began searching for a replacement of my AllBlacks Coca-Cola backpack which I got for free when I was studying in NZ more than 10 years ago. This backpack has travelled the world with me including my U2 concerts as I could stash my camera, water bottle and jumper. Heck, I could have put in a watermelon or coconut in there if I had a need to. But after 10 years of hard use, it's finally showing wear and tear much to my great sadness.


Nevertheless, I started searching for THE backpack and came across this one:

eBags Mother Lode Weekender Convertible

This video instantly converted me into a fan.

Good grief! I could pack coconuts and watermelons in this and more! But then I started considering my needs again and while this would be a fantastic bag to take along for a 5 day trip, I'd still be left without a handbag to carry my essentials when I leave my clothes in the hotel to sight-see.


Plus, it just wasn't very stylish walking around with a (most of the time) half-empty backpack.


Then, I came across this and fell in love:

eBags Piazza Day Bag

It's just a sling bag and a (typical me) practical one. All comments highly praised this bag and while it doesn't look er, fashionable, I'm just going with the practical side of me and loving it.





What I like about this bag:

• That I am able to keep my camera in a separate compartment rather than having it roll around with my other things that scratches it. 
• The water bottle compartment is outside the bag (last Christmas my water bottle leaked and soaked my camera to my horror). 
• The neat media pocket as I prefer to hide my iPhone in the bag while listening to my music.
• The magnetic flap compared to Velcro, makes a silent opening, doesn't catch on your clothes and doesn't wear out after repeated use.
• That it's not susceptible to light scratches like a leather bag

I doubt if I can fit a jumper into this thing plus some comments mentioned about the rough strap. And I won't be able to fit my shopping when I go souvenir hunting.

Never mind. For that price, and the willingness of Grace carrying it back for me, I'm just gonna get it. 

Childhood "Chocolates"

Thanks for reminding me of this, Kelvin.

One day a long time ago when Jan started to learn how to crawl, we were all in my parents room in Alor Setar chatting while the evening sun was setting. I then noticed that Jan was missing from our sight so I got up to look for her. She was sitting quietly, tucked in a shadowed corner hidden beside my dad's table. I went up to her and was saying to her, "Why you sit so quietly in one corner by yourself?" when I noticed she was eating something.

Upon closer inspection, she was delightfully chewing on some chocolates (you know, those chocolate coated almond ovals you'd find from most chocolate brands). I exclaimed, "Wah! Where did you find chocolates and why didn't you share with us?" as I sat beside her and picked up one to pop into my mouth.

When it hit me. Wait a minute. How did chocolates get up here in the room. And why were they strewn on the floor. I carefully examined the piece I was about to bite into in the feeble lighting and realised what it was. Yes, they had fallen out of her nappies. I screamed and dropped it while she gave me a chocolately grin.

This one I managed to witness. Ron apparently took contents out of his training potty and did a face mask while Grace preferred the more exotic tastes of the body of a moth.

As I always maintain, I'm the normal one in my family.

Wedding in Langkawi

The weekend after watching Wicked in Singapore, KS and I flew up to Langkawi to attend my high school friend's wedding. It was a great, fun and relaxing trip for me as it always is with good friends and I only wished we all could have stayed a little longer to catch up.

A few of us stayed in Citin Hotel, which is a serviceable hotel in Kuah as the wedding was held in Westin,  just a short drive away. Not much changes to note about Langkawi except I realised we were conned into paying a lot more for car rental from the airport. It's definitely much cheaper (almost half the price) if you rent from outside the airport and particularly useful if you have a contact. I managed to get a name card from someone in Kuah so I'll be trying him out next time.

Anyway, back to the wedding, Shie Lee and Jin held a cosy and intimate wedding ceremony by the beach (my first beach wedding!) with thoughtful details such as providing woven fans in case the guests felt hot. I loved their choice of personalized favours (tea from TWG and M&Ms for the kids), the unique array of food, the photo booklet of all their past photos, their tree of fingerprints (which was a very much better execution that what KS and I had!) and their choice of their walk out song by U2 Beautiful Day (just like KS and I too! :P).

The anxious groom

The bride arrives

After the ceremony

 

The fingerprinted tree

Dinner ended fairly early since it was a buffet, leaving us a chance to gather at their villa to continue chatting with close friends. It was really great to catch up with Tsiang, Fuen and Josie (missing Khor Ling who's in Sydney) and look forward to more.

We also discovered the most fantastic nasi briyani in Kuah. My mouth is still salivating from the mere thought of it. It's at Langkawi Fair beside McDonalds called Fair Cafe.

Us after a fantastic meal before we went home.

Congrats again, Shie Lee and Jin!

Wicked, Singapore

We finally made it to Singapore to watch Wicked, our second show which we didn’t know the plot, storyline or characters (the first was We Will Rock You). All we knew it was something to do with a green witch and the Wizard of Oz.

I travelled to Singapore with a friend early Saturday morning as KS was already there due to work. I booked us a pretty boutique hotel in China Town called The Inn at Temple Street due to budget purposes and food location. I find that with my recent trips to Singapore, I’m finding out new pockets of Singapore I’ve never set foot into. A discovery of Singapore all over again despite going there for years!

The hotel was very nice, clean and most importantly, near food and the Chinatown MRT station! It’s still a little bit pricy and there’s no free wifi otherwise this would be THE place I’d stay the next time I go.

Anyway, back to the show, it was supposed to start at 7:30pm. I wanted to eat at this place called Astons in Little India (cheap and good food!) but had factored in only 15 minutes for travelling time. And I forgot that almost everywhere in Singapore, you’d have to queue. Still, I thought at 6pm, there wouldn’t be much of a queue but I was wrong. We waited 15 minutes (which isn’t long in Singapore standards I guess) before we were seated at 6:15pm. Ate quickly and went off at 6:45pm. It looked like we had plenty of time to reach Marina Bay Sands Theatre didn’t we?

Nope. By 7:15pm, after running all over the Doby Ghaut MRT station looking for the correct line to take, we were still on our way. My friend who had reached there earlier called to say she couldn’t collect the tickets because they needed to see the credit card that had made the purchase of the tickets. And if we don’t collect the tickets by 7:30pm, they will shut the counter and we would have to miss the show.

By 7:20pm plus, we arrived at the new MRT station (Bayfront) that opened into MBS (thank God!). I looked at KS and said, “See you at the theatre” and I ran for my life, calling out to anyone who looked like they worked there “WHERE IS THE THEATRE?!” to guide my sprint. Felt like I was in some Amazing Race but I didn't care anymore at that point.

All ended well as I managed to get the tickets in mere minutes before the counter closed. It took me almost the first half of the show to recover from my run.

As for the show, I truly enjoyed it. Sure, the costumes weren’t as fantastic as Lion King but I liked the story. Few things that stood out for me was the conversation between the Wizard of Oz and Elphaba, about changing the historical documents so that eventually the lies will be believed as truth and the sadness of Galinda on the things she had to do due to her chosen life of being a public figure. And the song, Defying Gravity. :)

Strange House Call

A couple of weeks ago, I was boiling some eggs for my sandwich when I heard a fairly loud crack from the stove. It sounded like one of the eggs had cracked really loudly but usually if they did, they didn't make such a loud sound.

Ignoring it, I continued to boil away and had taken the pot off the stove to start peeling the eggs when a louder explosion came from the burner that I just used. Fragments of a white shell-like substance made me even more curious and the only thing that is white on my burner is a little ceramic bit that formed the starter. So I thought it had exploded from the heat and was worried that it had something to do with the gas.

Mentioning this to my dad the next day, he immediately asked me not to switch it on again until he managed to get a technician to look at it, just in case there were further explosions.

So today, the technician finally came and my dad was all worried about him starting the stove. Instead, the guy looked at the burner carefully and didn't find anything unusual about the ceramic portion.

The small burner in the centre was the cause of concern

Small cup-like inside of the burner  

My dad lifted up the parts of the burner and noticed this strange white round balls at the bottom of the burner.  First thought he had was Lebensstil put them there for some aesthetic function until he compared the other burners which didn't have it.

Upon closer inspection, they both then realized they were lizard eggs. Yes, there were about 20 of them nestled inside my burner and when I had used it, the heat cooked the eggs and one exploded from the pressure.

The cooked lizard eggs in my dustbin

Dad concluded with slight embarrassment, "My daughter hardly uses her stove" to which the technician agreed immediately. I really wonder what his report is going to say when he gets back to the office.

Anyway, my dad was very impressed with the after sales service for Lebensstil as they offered to come on weekends or even after hours when my dad couldn't reach the technician.