More Cats Pics

My interests in cats hasn't waned but now am content in observing them from far. Below are a collection of cat pics that I captured in various places - KL, Kedah, Rompin

In KL: This one here is called "Boifren" coz he's the only male cat around my apartment. He knows that I called him Boifren coz he would get closer to me but would never let me touch him. Feisty one, this is.

In Rompin: Three generations of cats sleeping together, the aunty cat called Belang is smothering the little one, but he doesn't mind, whilst the mothercat "Kelabu" doesn't care what happens to her kitten

Closer look at how Belang is smothering the littel one (he is nameless at the momemt coz we don't know if he would survive or not since his two siblings died weeks before)

Kelabu - Sleep with one eye open

Playing with its mother

I called him "Si Gemuk" coz he's fat like a cow and eats a lot - needs supervision during mealtime coz he hogs the catfood

Belang sniffing around

The little one in action

In Kedah: I met these two in Sg Petani when we were checking out houses there. They looked starved so I gave them some catfood

These two fatties were around the turkey cage at my uncle's house in Sg Petani. Not very friendly though and obviously about to burst with kitties.

Biskut Mazola

Biskut kacang courtesy of Hanim

Whenever it’s Hari Raya and its our turn to go back to Yan, Kedah, I would look forward to eating biskut Mazola - a slightly salty peanut cookie that is so simple but decadent at the same time. My aunty who lives in Yan make the best biskut Mazola that I’d ever tasted. The peanut cookies are so good and none came close to hers. Sometimes I’d buy the readymade peanut cookies (as pictured above) but it never tasted as delicious like the ones she used to make.

Biskut Mazola also reminded me so much of my kampong in Yan. The big old family house in Yan, where everyone gathered for raya, was a fond memory in my mind. Our family, which always arrived last would have to sleep on the upper portion of the house. During the day, the place where we slept was like a veranda, always so airy and cool when all the French windows were opened. There were lime green carpeting on the wooden floor, which I always thought were cheery and refreshing to an otherwise ordinary kampong house. There was also a flight of stairs connecting outside to the veranda, and us kids always used that way for shortcut into the second floor when we played. 

For me, its not just the biskut but its the kampong life and being a youth at that time and playing around with my cousins (whom we only meet once a year since we lived so far awat) that I always associate with whenever I eat a piece of biskut Mazola.

Udang Galah in Rompin

Fresh Udang Galah in Rompin. A Grade B size of udang galah will set you back about RM60 per kilo plus cooking it. Featured here is udang galah cooked in chinese style sweet sambal with egg in it. This was about half a kilo of udang galah (about 16 pieces).

Look for the udang galah sign by the roadside and you'll know where to stop...

Road side restaurant along the road in Lanjut

If you have any doubts about the restaurant just look for the signage on the door that says "udang galah sold here"

Entrance to Lanjut, the udang galah restaurants are dotted on the opposite side of the road.

Strawberry Farm in Genting

Strawberry Farm in Genting - entrance is FOC, parking is easy

Craving for strawberries? Wanna see how strawberries are grown without having to go to Cameron Highlands? Then just drive up to Gohtong Jaya, halfway up to Genting and visit the Taman Santai Strawberi Genting. Apart from just a strawberry farm, this leisure farm concept is all encompassing area for family fun such as shopping, cafe, mini animal park (bee museum, parrots, albino python), mushroom farm, fresh fruits, vegies and flowers & shopping area. This place is good for a family fun afternoon.

Luscious strawberries in a bunch...tp rasa dia masam lah...

Cacat strawberry

Strawberries in various phase - ripe, green & flowering

The strawberry fruit comes out of the flower

Strawberries systematically planted in a pot, row after row. Visitors can pluck their own strawberries from the pots

Fancy strawberries dipped in chocolate?

The gang having a bit of refreshment with fresh strawberry blended, strawberry milkshake and strawberry tea

Tired of strawberries? Have some fried mushroom instead.

Passion fruits hanging low around the shops

Faris and the giant strawberry

There's also a mushroom farm. Loved the mushrooms there as it is fresh and there are certain species only found in highland

Loh Sang

We had a surprise last week from one of our partners, who brought in  the yee sang dish for our team to do loh sang, which is the act of mixing together the yee sang. Yee sang is basically like a salad dish with different ingredients such as raw fish, shredded veggies, jellyfish and in Malaysia they added crunchy keropok and mix it all together with plum sauce. The dish is suppose to bring greater abundance, so when we mix it together we are suppose to make a wish or wishes on the year to come. Most of us wished for bonus!

The Yee Sangdish set up

Consists of ginger, jellyfish, salmon, keropok, pomelo, coriander, sesame seed

Chef adding plum sauce to the yee sang before we do loh sang

Everyone in position with chopsticks in hand ready to loh sang the yee sang

The dish is mixed up

The aftermath

Burglarized!!

As I was getting ready to meet a couple of friends at KLCC after Maghrib to relax, I got a distressed call from Hubby who said that our house was broken in. Immediate thing that he noticed missing was his beloved PSP. A colleague of mine was kind enough to send me back that evening, which was raining cats and dogs by the way. Upon reaching home around 8++pm, my frontdoor neighbour was keeping an eye on my house and hubby and friend went to report the incident to the police. 

My neighbour said that when he came back around 6pm, my front grill was fine and he went in his house as ususal. Not until hubby knocked his door around 7.30pm and told him our house was broken into did he found out about it. It turns out the robber used a wrench to break my padlock and used a masterkey to open my door. He proceeded to my masterbedroom and took the PSP which was by the bedside and continued to ransacked my dressing table and found the jewellery box and additional 3 Coke bottles  full of  syillings (but left behind the ones filled with 1 cents!). Next he went to my spare bedroom and overturned the clothes rack but fortunately didn't touch my cabinet (I hate folding clothes). After founding nothing, he went to the gameroom and took hubby's Levi's jeans (which we only realized missing on Monday), a document bag containing hubby's birth cert, car grant/title, house pruchase agreement. Then he went into the living room and to my book cabinet and took three ornament boxes containg my brooches and nail clippesr!  Lucky he mislooked into one of the smaller ornament boxes as another of my gold bracelet and diamond earrings was in there. Also, on the coffeetable was my external hardisk, MP3 player and spare keys for both cars (which we found missing on Sunday).

The police arrived around 11pm, and there was one Investigating Officer and one CSI officer. They took photos of the ransacked rooms and dusted the jewellery box for fingerprints but couldn't find anything as there were overlapping fingerprints. But the robber did left behind a wrench and the CSI officer took that as well. I am sceptical that the police would find anything. We suspected that it was the work of youngsters, probably worked in pair and might be an inside job!

The robber ranscaked the masterbedroom and found my jewellery boxed stashed in the dressing table. There were 2 gold bracelets and one pair of gold earrings. One of the bracelet was for my engagement, and the earrings was given by a friend. He didn't took the other golden brcelet which was set with emerald stones, probbaly because it wasn't shiny and maybe he thought that it was costume jewellery. Actually, it was my late grandmother's and it has sentimental value. At least that family heirloom was saved based on sheer luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The jewellery box that was dusted for fingerprints ala CSI by Setapak Police Investigating Officer 

My spare bedroom was ransacked too and the clothes rack was overturned but he didn't find anything valuable

Hubby was paranoid and next day called for somebody to fix the existing lock and put another two locks inside the grill. One can never be too careful I suppose. What if the robber comes back to my house or someone else's unit, especially when they find its easy to break into the house?

Hubby's on vigilante mode and is rounding the apartment area around 5pm just to see if there is anybody's suspicious lurking around. And he's been sleeping on the couch with the TV on, just to be on the safe side. When someting like this happened, it makes us feel that the place I lived in is not so safe anymore and the threat of that thing happening again is looming around my head. The apartment committee is also on alert and somehow blamed it on the lax control of the guards. There is no recording system for people going in/out the apartment, the gate is not closed and cars and people can freely get in/out with ease.

Somehow I coped with the stress with TV and cooking...hubby's doing all the worrying and thinking how to safeguard our house. Hope nothing like this happens again...

Traipsing around Thailand

In front of Ayuthayya, the ancient city

The Background
I was in Bangkok a few moths ago for a 4 days working trip. Then I'd extended another 3 days to traipse around Bangkok. I'd been to Bangkok in 2007, but only briefly as I had to go to Pattaya for work. Last time I was in Bangkok, I'd only spent a few hours where I saw the traffic jams and went shopping at MBK.

The Situation

Only on our last day in Bangkok, and on the way to the airport ,that we heard about the red shirt's demonstration in Victoria Monument. Other than that, it was business as usual in Bangkok.

The Plan
So when I was given the chance to go to Bangkok, I'd included some must see sights. The trip was quite interesting because I was joined by my mum and aunty, which I'd not had the chance to travel with both of them before. I like the company because I'm not the type of traveler who can wander on their own to unknown places, especially being a woman and concerned of my safety when travelling. So I'd happily settled into the role of travel planner, researching on places to visit.  Since we're not really interested to see the Buddhist temple or Wat, I'd narrowed down the choices to more historical places such as the Death Railway in Kancahanaburi, Ayutthaya, and for culture experience - the Siam Niramit show and floating market.

Budhha head in a tree at Ayuthayya

We'd decided to travel one whole day to cover the sites. I'd rented a driver & car (standard issue: Toyota Vios) for the day (8am-8pm) for Baht1700, and had to fill in full tank of petrol which was about Baht1130.

The Destination 
We headed down West of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, which took about two and a half hours to reach. We visited the War Cemetery which was just by the side of the road. There were more than 6000 POW that perished during the Thailand-Burma Death Railway project.
 

Entrance to Kachanaburi War Memorial

"Happy memories, Ray Dear. Au revoir. Till we meet again. Mamma, Dad, Ken & Elsie"

In front of the Death Railway Museum & Research Centre, a good source of info for this history. Though I think they could've included more information on Malaya, as the train that carried the POW from Singapore to Thailand went thru Malaya. Even the number of civillians from Malaya who were taken as slaves (75,000 pax) and those who perished (42,000 pax) during the railway project was not mentioned extensively, which I think should be given more credit to it. Everybody suffered during the was and I'm sure that the Malaya people suffered as much as other nationalities. After we saw the memorial we went over to see the Bridge over River Kwae, more stories and pics by kerabu jantung .

The commercial floating market in Ayuthayya

Awesome temple of dragon, shown by our driver. Can't remember the exact location of the temple but this was from Kachanaburi going towards Ayuthayya

 

The Conclusion
The day ended with us watching the Siam Niramit show. The show is a must see for first timers in Bangkok. The staging and storytelling is engaging.

Highlight of the trip 
1. eating noodle soup at a Muslim stall in Kachanaburi. Made me feel like I was part of the community , enjoying a typical Thailand street cuisine. 
2. Went for massage which cost 400 baht for two hours in a dingy back alley of Bangkok. Heavenly! In  KL a one hour Thai massage would cost about RM40 (Arokaya House at The Mall).
3. Experiencing the BTS system. More extensive than our LRT system and conveniently located throughout the city. I stayed at Asia Hotel Bangkok and the BTS was connected to the hotel. Talk about convenient!

4. Going to Chatuchak market, though it was very hot. Advisable to go at night as they open to wee hours of the morning.

5. Discovering the Arab street in Bangkok and arguably the best briyani and lamb chop in Bangkok.  
6. Watching the Siam Niramit show.

I wish I had...
1. Visit the original floating market Damnoen Saduak, situated in Ratchaburi, on the way to Kachanaburi. We  only managed to see a commercialised floating market for tourists in Ayuthayya. Oh well...I was influenced by second hand info about the actual floating market was not really that much to look at, plus it is smelly. Next time I must see it for myself and not just depend on second hand info. Seeing is believing as people say.
2. Purchasing the cute charm bracelet with dangling, multi-coloured semi precious stones in silver setting that was sold at the gold market in Kachanaburi. It turns out that the price was much cheaper than Bangkok, and they have a wide variety of precious and semi precious stones set in silver or gold. 

The End

New Year, New Direction

A colleague said something to me during dinner tonight. Said I can easily crossover from government sector to the corporate world/private sector. That was a boost of morale for me. Maybe I am overtly cautious of making the jump since I am comfortable and secured when I landed the government job 8 years ago. Its quite scary to think how I would fare in the "outside" world. Could I make it working for a corporate company? Would I be able to compete with others? Those are the burning questions at the back of my mind that I needed concrete answers before I make a life-changing decision that could break or make my life.

Turns out there is more than just worrying how I would survive in the private sector. There are the matter of personal motivations such as making more money, loving the job and doing a good job, overall satisfaction of handling projects and acquiring new sets of skills. Plus, it'd be good to try other type of working environment that the government one. Working in the current organization gave me a good feel of corporate environment, enfused with government regulations. The work is more systematic and clear cut. I think maybe I used up more brain cells in the new job as I am out of the comfort zone as I have to be more creative, assertive and innovative. Good learning experience too.

So what shall it be?? Dare I move my coffee mug, as a motivator once told me to be bold to make the push. We'll see with the new year, there might be a new direction. Stay tuned!

By the way, Happy New Year 2011.

Being a Teenager

High school was a trying time for many of us. I wasn't popular in my second secondary school, but I get along well with others. I wasn't conventionally thin like all the other girls in school. I think I was a bit pretty (oh! the vainess of it all). Sure I had a lot of crushes but nothing materialize coz I never did anything about them. I didn't think anybody was interested in me.

Imagine my surprise when one day, a boy handed me a letter, mail from another boy. My heart was pounding in my ears, I was nervous and curious from where it was from, so I read the letter. In it were a school boy's confession of desire to know me more, and could I please call him at the numbers stated in the letter to get the ball rolling. Lo and behold, he was from my class. I remembered thinking that he was painfully shy and a bit reclusive. But he had the nerve to write me this letter, it must have taken up all he could to muster his courage to compose me that letter.

I never thought of him that way. I was indignant that he couldn't talk to me like a normal person would. I remembered thinking that we are classmates, therefore we are friends, and friends can talk to each other. I thought that I could talk to him next day about this 'thing', and I didn't call him as requested. But he didn't show up in school, and it went on for days. Then out of the blue, he would show up in school but missed lessons, and that became his pattern throughout the remainder of the school year. I felt guilty that he had skipped school because he was embarrassed by my rejection, or lack of response thereof by not calling upon him as stated. I felt responsible for him not doing well in school. We did passed by each other in the school hallways but it became one of those awkwards moments that I quickly pushed behing the corners of my mind.

Did I really made him reacted the way he did? I don't know as I never had the nerve to pursue it. I guess in some way, he was braver than me when he wrote that letter. Or maybe I didn't have the chance to explain myself. But anyway, I thought that a person should determine how his/her life's going to be despite the circumstances surrounding it. I'm not accountable for what happened but it would be nice if I could have a chance to say my peace.

Al-Fatihah

Al-Fatihah to the victims in Datuk Sosilawati's murder case. Takziah to all the family members. I can not imagine what they are going thru now....

This is not a claim to fame, arwah Ahmad Kamil & wife were the same batch with me in Matrics IIU in 96'. However, we are not in contact after IIU but friends used to bring updates about ex-IIU students, so we knew bits and pieces about other friends, including them.

Its sad and shocking to hear something like this happened to somebody we used to know. May arwah be in a better place now & Allah cucuri rahmatNya. May Allah give peace of mind to the families...Ameen

Hope the bastards who did this crime will be caught and heavily punished....Insya Allah..

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak and Maaf Zahir & Batin to my family and friends.

Hope our celebration is in moderation so that we won't gain back all the kilos that we had shed during the fasting month :p

Happy Burffday to Me...Yeay!

What a fun birthday this turns out to be. I turned 32 today!!

Last night had an awesome iftar with 2 good friends at TGI Friday's in Wangsa Walk. Ate till I puked afterwards - we ordered the Ramadhan set which had 3 appetizers & 3 main course. Ate till we can't eat anymore. Then had a nightcap at Bangi Kopitiam branch - met a couple of friends till around 12++. Tapau-ed the leftovers from TGIF and I ate them for sahur, but unfortunately puked again. Damn! I must be allergic to the fried mac & cheese. What a shame....

Anyway, we had a Hari Raya video shoot this morning. Everyone was told beforehand to doll up in our finest Hari Raya get ups - the girls in kebayas and baju kurungs and the boys in baju Melayu with songkok, and the odd mat salleh in baju batik!



The video director arranged us in lines, and I had to be in my tippy toes so that my face can be seen. Then the boss have to say a few words and have to shout out the raya cheers and waved to the camera and salam each other.


The boys (2 boys missing from this pic). Note the mat salleh wearing songkok(He's actually our consultant)...hehe...we should buy him a proper baju Melayu with all the trimmings - butang, songkok, sampin, even chapal - to get him ready for all the Hari Raya open houses.



The girls mainly in shades of purple, pink & green


The gediks (ok its just me who's gedik) - secondees from our old job

Room to Expand and Grow

Its easy to stick to your own niche
Sometimes must learn to grow out of your skin
and be uncomfortable just to feel comfortable
Change is difficult and strange
but to succeed one must gain

Responsibilities must be dealt with
Not stashed or swept away
Neither just to delegate nor escalate it
Maybe some help will set you on your way
Perhaps you'll grow to be good at it

Who knows what the human mind is capable of
For sure there's room to expand and grow
Till then I'll try and try more...

Morbidly morbid

Hubby's been having a weird fascination for airplane crashes these past few weeks, thanks to Nat Geo's Air Crash Investigation series. So when I come home at night, he'd start reiterating the latest serie of the air crash aired that day. He took it to the next level - forwarded to me a website that reports about air crashes that happened way back in the 60s till now, including the Airblue Pakistan doomed flight, last two days.

In my downtime, I started to browse thru the blog and even read some transcript from the black box recording of the crew on their final moments before death. When I got back from work, we swapped stories about the air crashes. I didn't want to do it but somehow got sucked in this conversation.

What is this morbid preoccupation with mortality or other sensational cases?

Is it imbedded in human nature to be attracted to all things sensation, eventhough it involves death? Hubby says, live curiously (taken from Nat Geo)

Normally, I'd be in my own bubble and try to steer away from stories of death, ghosts, etc. Its my way of keeping my mental health so that I won't be afraid of things. Now I am a little paranoid about flying, though I've done it hundreds of time before and not get hung up about it.

Ms Fantaghiro says airlines are very strict nowadays with safety.

Sure, but what about human error, weather and technical error? Things happen, and maybe they happen for a reason. Ms Fantaghiro says when death knocks, even the simplest act can be a cause of death. True that.

Footnote: Hubby's fascinated with a dead cat we saw on the road yesterday and been making jokes about the poor thing turning into a ghost, albeit a flattened one, to haunt me!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly......

I was jobless for about 6 months after I graduated. I think that's not too bad considering I been cramming my head for 6 years in Uni (matrix 2 years, main camp 4 years). Ok, I may exaggerate with the cramming thingy, but being jobless was quite fun and hopeless then. I tried applying for Master and a few jobs.

Then I got my first job with a goverment department. Stayed there for 7 years. Learning thru experience the way a government works. Still don't understand it though, the politics and all. Hated governmental meetings - especially with all the KSUs and SUBs and Ministries and what have you not. Very "skema" and rigid and beauracratic, and long winded and no decisions.

Then I was seconded to this company, albeit for two years only. It made me open my eyes. Working in a small organizations can be an upside. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows what everybody is suppose to do and is doing. The job function is very clear cut, unlike in government department its all matrix system. So, a government staff is like a jack of all trade but master of none. In a small company, everybody does his or her own job with efficiency. We can't afford to delay or push it to other staff - so there is accountability for the staff. In a government department, an higher grade officer can push the work to other officers. Or can push it to other divisions, or even push it to another ministry.

But in a small company, the chances of being promoted can be quite tough as there's no room to grow. But there is freedom in work unlike the gorvernment procedures.

Since I have started out to work in a government department, it is quite scary for me to switch to private sector. Especially with job security and all. I don't know how long this company will last, eventhough it is a GLC. Somehow, we have to make our roles relevant to the gorvernment in order for them to keep supporting us. A lot of GLCs are now having issues, like Sime Darby, and even companies like Pempena have gone down the drain. I have seen some ex-government staff who opted out to join these GLCs, have to come back and beg for their old jobs, after all these years. It is very demoralizing to do that especially if you are approaching the Golden Era.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, we just have to try very hard to be relevant.