Friday, July 25, 2008

Things around Kitchen

My wife will says that I have 'flu' again. Photography virus. And she will shake her head and sometimes, complained about the noise I make as I click away.

Suddenly, I just feel to capture some of the things that I can find in my kitchen. If we care to slow down and take a look, we can see a lot of things that is intersting!
I have a box of 'duku-langsat' with me which I took back from my last trip back to hometown. it's sweet and only my brother and I would eat it.

I bought this cow from Sibu last year and I have two of these hangers in my kitchen which I seldom use. Anyway, Cowie mother likes it...

Knife, Knife..
Tomatoes which we bought earlier to cook for dinner tonight. We are cooking for Papa RaRa and Mummy RiRi together with their daughter RaRi as they are leaving to the EU.
A bottle of Lingonberry Drink from Sweden which we bought from Ikea. Now I have money plants in it and its growing very well at a corner in the kitchen.

Wine cork and sparkling juice cork lying at the kitchen's windows...I have forgotten that I actually keep them.

You see, Mdm Cowie loves cows and we have quite a bit of cow deco in the house. And this cows is actually smilling knowing that she will get to drink the tea soon!

Lipton tea...how can you beat a cup of tea in the evening


I bought this from Medan last year and I have it hanging in my kitchen since then...Don't really notice what is in the prayer but just hang it there from deco.

Ahh... eggs.. how can it be a kitchen, if there are no eggs...fresh from the market

My favorite brand of peanut butter... Goober. and I only loves the grape's flavour...smooth and sweet!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A new Blog

Since I started blogging two years back, I have started another two blogs.

Sciencejunkies was started when I started lecturing end of last year to help my students to learn more through the internet. Learning makes easy and interesting with the help of animation found online. Its a website also aims to help to spread the awareness of science where a lot of young people can learn and know what natures have in store for them. However, I have not able to update it for a while, but I hope to come back soon.

Today, I just started another blog, Candle of Hope. This blog aims to share some of my photograph taken duing my field study in the last 5 years and more to come. I love the Orang Asli or aborigines. They are my my field of study but don't get me wrong here. I believe, they should be given attention too in this modern and rapid development that is taken place. there is some much we can learn from them!

They have been living in sync with the nature for thousand of years and the nature and them live harmoniously! they can show us about the knowledge of tradisional medicine and also about the goodness of various flora and fauna they have come to rely on. Besides that, they can 'read' the environment!

Well, I hope at least more can be done for them!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

God's Plan, Salvation for All

I usually wake up about 6am during my schooling days to get ready and pray at the altar before going to school. Every 1st and 15th of the Chinese lunar calendar, I will leave earlier for school, to reach there before 7 so that I can make my way the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy to pray and be back before the school start. On these two days, I will also be a vegetarian, hoping that I will please gods I prayed to since as young as my mind can remember. Certain days, I will be at the Buddhist temple offering food to the monks and when examinations are near, I will hike to a mountain temple to pray and asked for blessings. There I will collect some pencils to be used during examinations and only to hike back after the exams to return the pencils that I had borrowed with new ones.

At home, as the eldest son and being the favorite and eldest grandson, a lot of traditional practices were to be carried out by me. Without fail, I will clean the altar and pray, and also to prepare the food offering to the gods we have at home. However, doing all these doesn’t give me any peace and assurance in any kind I hope to find but only to bring more anxiety in me. I am afraid if I have forgotten any occasion that I need to pray or if I had forget to return any of the pencils or foods that I collected from the temple for blessings, and the karma will brings me more harm.

Leaving home for university brings more anxiety to me and I try to locate a temple that is near to the campus for me to pray was futile. As times goes by, I get used to the life that is only focusing on myself and also studies. Before long, I have completed my bachelor but I was determined to pursue further most of my friends and course mates’ looks for jobs. As a Penangite, I just want to go back home and look for opportunities nearer to home to study but as people says, destiny itself brought me back to Kajang to further my studies.

Coming back here for my master and subsequent PhD was lonely. Most of the people I knows have moved back to their hometown after completing their degree. Being a person, who speaks mostly in English and poorly in Mandarin, only makes my circle of friends smaller. However, during one my diving trip, I met some friends that brought me to church. There I met up with some of my secondary schoolmates and friends. Because of the friendships that I found, I keep coming back on Sunday, just for fellowship.

As time goes by, I felt the love of God and the peace that I have been longing for. The joys of singing during worship just helps me to have the calmness that can’t be explain but only can be experience. I knew, at that time, this is what I wanted. However, my decision to accept Christ as my personal savior was hold back when I think of the responsibilities that I need to fulfill at home as a son and grandson. I imagine how my grandparents will be so disappointed with me and how I will breaks their heart, when I them I am now a Christian. This struggle for a while, but deep down I knew, this is what I wanted. Few months later, I accepted Christ as my Lord and I start to serve Him faithfully. However, more importantly, I knew, my service for Him gives me pure joy and not fear. I served because I love Him not out of obligations but with liberty I have in this relationship that I enjoyed personally.

Nevertheless, problems of breaking the news to my family about me being a Christian was hard. I never had the courage to tell my parents nor my grandparents whom I grew up with. Every time, they brought up the issues of filial piety and that I need to fulfill my responsibility especially during Chinese New Year, I will avoid it. Soon enough, they suspected that I am now a Christian, as I no longer pray when I visited them. However, all the while, they kept quite and so do I.

In church, I continue to serve in different ministry and also participated in mission trip locally and overseas. Whenever I go for a mission trip, my family members will just assume that I am traveling for research; they never asked and I never explained. However, I never failed to pray for their salvation and even pray for myself to have the courage to let them know that I am now a Christian. I tried to go back home more often and called them more. I knew, they want me to go home. This is one of the ways I try to tell them, I am still with the family though I am a Christian.

The day came when I have to break the piece of news to my family when I introduce to them my girlfriend, now my wife. I prayed that they will not reject her nor objected to the relationship since she is a Christian. I thanked God that everything goes well.

About 2 years later, I had to let them know we want to get married, but it will be in church. As usual, we prayed fervently and God answered our prayer. They consented for the church ceremony. I praised the Lord that it was my grandfather who actually defended us for the church ceremony when some relatives objected it. All the while, I was afraid that he will not take the news well but God open doors for us. I knew how hard he was with his own brother when he found out that his brother now is a Christian.

During the wedding, my parent and grandparent sat in the church together with all my relatives who travels from different part of the country to witness our holy matrimony. It was also the first time for most of my relatives to be in church and listen to the Good News. This has been my prayer since I accepted Christ, that all of them to be given a chance to come to church and listen to the Words of God.

Now that they have known, I prayed that God will continue to open doors and give me the opportunity to share with them about how a King actually will die for His children, so that we may live. I pray that all of them will come to acknowledge Jesus as their personal savior too, and it will not just be another religion they knew but never experience.

Every time, when I saw the picture of my parent and grandparent sitting in the church, I remember Psalm 105: 4-5 says Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonders He has done because in Jeremiah 29:11 says He has plans for us which is good, with a future and a hope. I thanked God for His goodness and grace that He continues to shower upon us and doors that He is opening for us.

Monday, July 7, 2008

INVALUABLE advice

I received an email this evening and after reading it, I realise this is great. Wonderful things which is so simple yet it solve our problems, which we faces some daily. If you think this is useful, pass it on...

I personally like the bed sheets, cornmeal and the powder advices!

Bed Sheets
After drying sheets, put both sheets and one pillowcase in the other pillow case. Fold neatly in a square. Next time you change sheets, you just take the one pillow case and all the sheets and pillow case are inside. No need to look for matches.

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Broken Glass
Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken pieces of glass - the fibers catch ones you can't see!

Easier thank you's
When you throw a bridal/baby shower, buy a pack of thank you cards for the guest of honor. During the party, pass out the envelopes and have everyone put their address on one. When the bride/new mother sends the thank you's, they're all addressed!

Name tag
If you purchase a new bike for your child, place their picture inside the handle bar before placing the grips on. If the bike is stolen and later recovered, remove the grip and there is your proof who owns the bike.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- voila -- static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser!
Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

Good-bye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2 with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' & can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, esp. if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Take baby powder to the beach
Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When you're ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand will slide right off your skin.

Have you learnt something today?

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Bako National Park, Sarawak

One of my favorite, top of the list, destination is always about the nature. Mountains, beaches, islands and more recently National Park. I am an outdoor person, so, it’s only natural for me to love these places.


I visited Kuching a couple of weeks back and on top of my list of places to visit is the Bako National Park where the Amazing Race Asia 1 race ended. I wanted to see for myself the beauty of this place.


Well, Kuching is always synonymous with ever presence cats and its everywhere. And the people in Kuching are so proud of it that they have them every nooks and corner of the town.


Am I the only one who think this cat has his whiskers on the eyebrown?

However, another that is famous in Sarawak is the crocodile. Everytime I cross the river that pass the Kuching town, somebody in the car will asked, is there any crocs bashing by the river bank?

Ah, yes, I am diverting. So, the trip to Bako National Park. It’s about 45 minutes drive to Bako, obviously, and its a pleasant drive there.


Once we reached the jetty, we were greeted with the infamous smell of ‘kaim hu’ or salty fish. The jetty has nothing to shout about, just an office and a jetty. This place is actually located at a fishing village. So, from the jetty, you can see lots of fishing boats and also houses built on stilt. This reminds me of the trip I make to Ranong last year.

The trip to Bako National Park cost us RM 94 for the boat ride both ways and also RM45 for the group ticket admission to the park.

One thing that continues to haunt us is the notice board reminding of crocodiles in the river.
On the way there, we can see a lot of nice scenery as we headed out towards the sea. Left and right are just swamp and at all times, we remind ourselves to keep our hand in the boat.
And not too long into the journey, we saw this!
Once we reach Bako, we were amazed by its beauty of the surrounding. And they have built basic amenities for visitors and if you want, you can opt to spend a few nights there too.
As we only planned for a day trip, we went to the reception to check ourselves in at the national park and choose to go for the short trail hike. We must always check in at the national park no matter how long you plan to be there. And if anytime we want to go for a hike, we have to register at the counter informing them of the time and trail we plan to do. This is for security and emergency reasons, so that they can come to look for you if you don’t make it back.
For the short trail, it says it takes about 3.5 hours to complete it. And this should be fine for us so that we can be back on time for the boat ride back before low tide. You don’t want to take a boat during low tide, if you don’t want to vomit!

This trail start back at where we landed and for the first part, we just walk on platform built on top of the swamp. One good reason for us to start here is that here we will do less hiking on the way up but more of descending. If we use the other way round, we will have to hike up the ladder more. So, from this side, it’s more gradual.
One thing that surprises me as we hike is the soil at this place.

The higher we go; we see white sand like we are at the beach. And, when we are at the top, its just lots and lots of rocks and flat plateau.
But we enjoy the hike up. We can see a lot of Nepenthes or more commonly known as monkey cup.

We saw lots of wonderful trees too.
But further we go into the trail, the trail gets harder. Too many roots on the ground and being cover by leaves make it hard for us to walk.

Then, we are going downhill. This is a relive since that we are running out of time. I think this took us more than 4 hours to complete. We thought we have walk so long only to see the mark saying half a kilometer that we covered in an hour.

Going downhill will bring us around big boulders, which sometimes can be scary. You don’t know what’s inside those holes!
But at the end of the hike, we love it and enjoy it much. But, if next time I am going again, I will plan to stay there at least for a night and take the long trail and bring LOTS and LOTS of WATER with me….

Such a paradox that we are surrounded with water (sea) yet we can’t drink and even the stream water too because it’s full of leaves and the facts it’s brownish it’s acidic.

At the end of the trail, we head out to the beach to check out the infamous beach during the Amazing Race Asia 1.

ahhh…

Oh yes, we saw another croc on our way back to jetty from the park!