Green Fingers

I have always loved a landed residence like my family’s home with a lawn around so that I could do gardening. I was swooning at someone else’s garden who is so well taken care of with colorful blossoming flowers and even once told the boss I need to have one for my past times. Now, our humble abode comes along with a reasonable sized lawn on its sideway and a small patch on the other way near to our main gate. Of late, my so-called ‘garden’ has turned into an overgrown bush, and is in the progress of becoming a jungle pretty soon and I bet it could soon hide a baby elephant! If you are wondering I’m busy, the answer is a definite YES. Besides, it is rather hard for me to get a freelance grass cutter that goes on a bicycle going around in my residential area. For the past 6 months we have been staying here, my lawn was only trimmed once last August 2013, upon asking a favor from a relative’s gardener.

There was once I attempted to trim the grass on my own manually. I only managed about 2.5m x 1.0m (based on my crude estimations) which is about one-tenth or so of the whole area, my back was super ultra mega painful the next morning and it lasted almost a week *gasp*. It was indeed an excellent way to sweat out and now, I am secretly missing the ache when it was over. Lol. There was one time where I attempted to grow zinnias. I bought the seedlings from Giant and excitedly wished upon the star to see bright red zinnia in a few weeks time. Three weeks passed, and finally I see some greens sprouting out. It grew and grew and finally gets taller and I have been visualizing red  bright flowers in my head and even took sometime to choose a ceramic vase with matching color. Unfortunately very much to my disappointment, they were all weeds. I am not sure whether it was the problem with the seeds or me. Feeling very much deflated, I started to believe that I don't have green fingers.

Since then, the small patch of lawn were ‘adopted’ by Papa Pang (my FIL). Occasionally, he will drop by to look after our house and also gave me a little but great help with my lawn (read: bush) and he claimed it as getting his dose of exercise. He made full use of the small area to grow spring onions, and even soursop tree!. There was a mango tree which he planted  ever since before we moved in and it has started bearing fruits. The mango tree has been so fruitful and we have enjoyed its fruits for some time now. As for the soursop, the tree is growing healthily, and is about 4-5 feet tall to-date. I am hoping that I will be able to get my gardening mojo back pronto! Wish me luck, or perhaps green thumb in time to come :)

Colors of India: Majestic Sunrise from Tiger Hill

Previously, all I knew about India ware about the famous Taj Mahal building and Indian culture which is associated to almost everything bright and colorful. My very limited exposure about how India looks like and what India has to offer has totally changed after the boss came back from his visit cum trekking in India, and of course after I made the boss to recap and share his experiences for long hours, which was definitely a rare sight for him who used to be an ardent good listener over a talker. Thus, I ought to jot this down before my memory slips away. Shall I be given an opportunity to visit this place one day, I would definitely jump into this idea at once :)

I was awed by many of the sceneries the boss brought back especially on the majestic sunrise occurrence from Tiger Hill, Darjeeling. At the very moment when I look through these photos, then only I realized that for many years of my life, sunrise and sunset went by me every day unnoticed. This post serves a reminder to myself that everything under the sky are meant to be treasured, to be appreciated :). How we have taken so many things for granted. A trip to India or more accurately Darjeeling is not going to be complete without the visit to Tiger Hill, which is located approximately 12km from Darjeeling town to witness the vibrant sunrise over the Himalayan mountains. Tiger Hill, the third highest mountain in the world standing at the height of about 8500 feet high over Kanchengjunga range and  the tip of Mount Everest, which is located 170km away (straight line distance)  is viewable from this point.

Visitors gathering by the observatory to witness the majestic occurrence.

Despite covered by thick lush forests on throughout the way up, this has not abstained the determination of visitors to experience the grand entrance of the fire ball as it peeps out through the thick mist and clouds. Visitors were recommended to get up in the wee hours during dawn, preferably around 0400hr to be able to get to the observatory in time to witness the gorgeous occurrence. Some even simile the occurrence as the world’s best scene, which I think can’t be more apt :). Here are few sequential panoramas of the sun rising occurrence from Tiger Hill.  

Sunrise on the way. The skies looked like it had caught fire.

The reddish yellow light of the sun has begun to emerge.

As the sun climbs up the horizon, the skies gradually turn into pulsating vibrant orange. 

What said to be specially unique and even some simile the occurrence as the world’s best scene was not merely on the sun rising phenomenon but watching the first ray of Sun shed light upon Kangchenjunga range, which was covered with thick snow , thereafter turns into red as the sun raises, followed by orange then into golden hue. The whole scenario took about 20 minutes before it turns into white again, when the Sun climbs up the horizon. 

Tiger Hill after the sunrise. 

Life is Just A Bowl of Cherries

Life is just a bowl of cherries; sometimes it’s afraid filled with worries. Don’t be afraid, when things go wrong, just be strong. When things seem up in the air, and everything is so unfair, and you stumble and fall, just pick up yourself and sing. If one day you lose your way, just remember one thing my friend. When you’re under a cloud, just visit music and sing. If one day you lose your way, just remember that I’m here to stay, don’t you give up and keepyour chin up. And be happy! (borrowed by the lyrics of a beautiful song, Happy by Mocca). This song has been and still one of my favorite and was once my phone’s ringtone for a long period of time :).

We have two cherry trees (i.e Commersonia bartramia) standing gracefully in our mini garden (or yard). For so many years down the road, I hardly recall the time when I last savored the fruits. One thing was that the soil covered by the canopy of the tree has aborted our turf from growing well and is a little sloppy especially after downpour, thus it was a little uncomfortable to be walked on. Second thing was also the main reason; there are a number of regular beautiful birds coming in pairs frolicking around the trees daily. They can literally finish up the whole tree all by themselves :)

My mom, as usual loves to spend her quality time on last Saturday morning (121111) in our  yard after marketing and came into the house with a handful of fully ripened cherries. Most of the time, we could only chance upon almost-ripen fruit, which are still in green with yellowish/pinkish hue yet edible and tasted as good (but not as sweet). I squirmed in delight the moment I saw a small bowl of cherries on the coffee table and unbelievingly asked her ‘Wao, how did you managed that?’  My mom answered, ‘the early birds get the worm’ (i.e cherries in this case), and added ‘to supersede the birds from getting the worm, you have to wake up surprisingly early!’ LOL

Perching on a Ladle

I have a thing for insect, but not all kind of insects. Cockroaches are definitely the first to be stroked out of the list.  I am always attracted to them but unfortunately, I know the name (in layman’s) only for some common ones. Here’s a grasshopper alighting on a ladle inside the utensil holder in our kitchen (081111). I just found out that there are 18,000 kinds of different grasshoppers in the world. So, this is certainly one of the 18k :) Many years back, when we have just moved into our current neighborhood, we can easily chanced upon rare and beautiful insects perching by inside the house. Prolly they were seeking refuge after the vast lush greenery had been chopped down for development.

I recollect vividly that I can easily catch up to 5 reasonably sized insects in one evening to be brought over to school the following day for Science subject when I was in my lower secondary. I was schooling in the afternoon session then, and I remembered of checking on them from time to time that morning at my nanny’s place. I was so pleased when they were still alive inside a plastic container with some breathing holes and few strands of grass inside the moment I reached the school. These days, we can still enjoy these little friends of God’s creation but no longer as often. The last time I saw one was penned down here :).

Overlooking South China Sea

The boss and his siblings extended their stay by two additional days after the NYFprogram has ended. It was the Independence cum Raya second day, was also theday to tour the city for the NYF participants who were interested. I met up the boss only sometime in the noon on 31082011, having the thought that he might want to spend some quality time with his siblings, but little did I know that all of them had their to-do lists and friends to go with pre-planned beforehand.

Since they were staying at the hotel located adjacent Suria, I met up the boss at the nearby mall. When we walked pass the hotel building from Wisma Merdeka, the boss pointed the hotel where he stayed which was also his first experience there. The only expression that I exclaimed was a whoa!. Not because of the hotel was built extraordinarily; but I have just discovered that the once old and shabby building that shared the similar acronym as my brother's name had been refurbished and converted to a hotel by the name of CBS Gaya Centre Hotel, tucked in conveniently in the heart of the city :). Back then, when my brother was a toddler and have just recognized ABC, we have always jested that it was his building, and he nodded agreeably. Lol.

Suria is still pretty bare and new to me, despite with the opening of handful numbers of new outlets from my previous visit. What attracted us was the food court at the top floor which overlooked the South China Sea. However, I safely assumed that what attracted the boss most was the KL ROJAK :P. I had not noticed that if not he mentioned to me that the rojak in CP and Suria were actually the same chain stall. We wanted a seat by the balcony, to get a better view of the sea but unfortunately, the food court were extremely packed, prolly due to the dual-celebrations which fell on a weekend and finding a seat even inside the eatery itself was an uphill task.

Uponspotting a seat, we headed over to Kuo Man Restaurant, where their home madefish ball soup is reputedly quite good, as well as the tom yam mee hoon. We hadwanted to order a bowl each to try, but unfortunately, they were sold out toosoon like hot cakes. Thus, we decided to settle for Claypot Delight. Uponpayment, we were told that we have to wait for a minimum of half an hour forthe boss’ stewed beef claypot rice. I then asked the guy to get my porridgeserved together with the stewed beef rice. He gave me a eyes rolling look andthat smacked me on my face at once on why did I make such a request, to which Iwas rather hungry that time. Lol.

While waiting, we had the mandatory plate of Rojak KL and a bowl of ABC. This bowl of ABC does not look as appealing to me, but it tasted fine. The processed jelly-alike thingy somehow gave me goose bumps when I look at them. Somehow, I like the contrasting color combination out of it :).

After a good 45 minutes of waiting, our meal finally arrived. I had a similar bowl of porridge for breakfast, somehow or other still hankering for more porridge that afternoon. Nothing much to shout about the typical Chinese style porridge, but it was good and even more appetizing with the yau char kwai to crunch on (which I rarely had unless dining for bak kut teh) and century eggs, the all-time porridge best companion!

The boss’ clay pot stewed beef rice, with a bull eyes egg in the middle. He commented it was good, and I tried some, and love its peppery sauce and the beef has no beefy smell :) This will definitely not be our last visit there, as the boss said he would like to try their other claypot fare and I would like to savor the tom yam which was sold out earlier.

It's a Shore Thing

I don’t blog chronologically these days :(. All my posts are jumbled up in term of sequence/date. This post is my one and only up-to-date post thus far, pausing so many long overdued posts :P. Not forgetting, Happy Malaysia Day to all, we Malaysians are truly blessed with public holidays. You are reading a Malaysia Day post for now, but you might be seeing an Independence Day or Mid-Autumn Festival next O.o

In the morning, I tagged along my mom to join the RE class students for an excursion to the beach in Second Beach, Tg. Aru. Retired to the bed early that morning, I dragged myself up again after 5 hours sleep. Off we went to the church to join other RE teachers with the lunch preparation to be brought over to the beach.

A view of the yachts docked on the shore

Spaghetti lunch for 150 paxs

By the beach

Sandcastles by the students

It had been quite a while since I last went to the beach and bythe time we touched down, there were a LOT of people camping by the beach andthe weather was merciful too. While the fellow students were having games, Ienjoyed myself sitting under a tree, enjoying cold breeze while watching all the students having a swell of time.

The big tree I dwelled under

Feeling all zen under the not-very-shady tree

Lush greenery. I love!

Yes, the breeze was cold but it was rather sunny. The prawn-head-me have totally forgotten about my hat *sigh*. Only upon touching home, I saw a slash of redness along my lowerneck, exactly where I have neglected when I apply the BB Cream this morning.Yes, I was sun-kissed and I have forgotten about sunblock too! *bummer me* Twas fun nevertheless and I reckoned that we should do this more often :)

Dancing Mantis

I spotted this praying mantis by our door grille this afternoon as my sister shouted “Look! Don’t you wanna take a photo of her?” I was wondering how she knew that it was a female and I asked her, to which she said because it has chubby frame. So, female it is :P This girl was kinda cooperative and did not shy away when I pointed my lens on her, and that was why I managed to take nearly 60 photos of her in a span of 10 minutes or so. She was practically turning herself around twirling like a ballet dancer on one of the horizontal grille bar before attempted to further crawl up the iron grille :).

Less than 2 days

We touched down Tawau airport with MAS Airlines as early as 8ish on the 19thJuly 2011, returning to the city the following night. Although it sounded like a dash-and-go trip, but in fact, there were ample of free time for us to kill, in that short 2 days 1 night trip. But, we didn’t manage to do any shopping or to tour around the town though. The last time I trod my feet there was in 2002 for Chinese New Year. Throughout our less than 2days trip there, our itinerary was very much an impromptu. Nothing has been planned earlier other than for official matters. The rest was spent in our room and relative’s houses. A very short but somehow we had some quality bonding time with the relatives.

On the first day upon arrival, we took a cab and headed straight to where my brother is going to further his studies and out-grow his teenage phase and coming back in the next 0.5 decade as an adult (excluding the occasional weekends or semester breaks that he’ll be home :P). After we have settled down with all the dorm registration, we were initially planning to go down town and tour around at our own pace before catching up with our relatives after the Sunday School classes.

However, boy oh boy, there was no taxi nor public transport going into the campus. We learnt this only from a senior student whom we brushed shoulder with by chance. He was a great help, but unfortunately to no avail since it was a semester break, the school compound was all quiet and tranquil with no sight of any passer-by or students yet. From what we understood, one shall walk to the nearest junction, which is about 5 kilometers (an approximation I made with the aid of imagination based on UMS’ route from SEIT to the furthest dorm) where public buses or taxi when luck strikes would be passing by. A lesson learnt here :). But thank God that after we have decided to give up and walk to the junction, after mom and I changed into our flats later on, we spotted a taxi chauffeuring a student, who was returning to the dorm. Voila, we hop into the cab right after that :).

While we were going on the cab heading to the town, our plan was called off as my uncle called up, and we decided to meet up at the Shell petrol station at Tmn. Bintang. So, off we went and had our breakfast at one of the well reputed kopitiam among the Chinese locals there. A mental note for myself that when ordering for drinks in most of the coffee shop, one shall emphasize accurately how you want your drinks to be prepared like; whether its a combination with condensed milk, evaporated milk, sugar or so forth. They will usually ask; but according to my aunt, if you look local, they will usually presume that you were ordering merely of what you mentioned added with water (i.e milo kosong or kopi kosong). I was dumbfounded when I was first asked what do I want to add to my drinks. The silly me surmised that they might be offering some special add-on(s) for hot drinks; i.e pearl, nata de coco or maybe jellies O.o

Below are some snippets and quick glance on what we did there, very much like a closer-to-the-nature getaway :P

Beautiful orchids

My aunt has a farm of reasonable size planted with varies of crops. Below clockwise from top left are dragon fruit buds, dragon fruit flower which will only bloom during night time with baby fruit underneath, goat’s manure used as fertilizers and eventually the organic dragon fruit.

From top left are part of the field planted with dragon fruit trees, dragon fruit tree with a couple of withered flowers (I heard a lot about the flower, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance to see it blooming during night time), we hand peeled the fruits back at our rest house, the fruits from our harvest that afternoon.

Calamansi and kaffir lime

A couple of amusement hours with this pretty and active toy poddle, Pearly. Not forgetting, a money lover too. Her batteries was perpetually in the full bar.

On the second day, most of the time was spent for registration. Everything was settled by 3pm before we headed for a hi-tea with my aunt and her husband before they sent us to the airport for our flight home.