Long Raya Break

The Raya is just around the corner. I would like to wish all  my muslims friends Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir and Batin.

 Yesterday, my eldest turned 8. On the same day I met with his English teacher who complianed of his horrible writing and absent-minded attitude although he is smart. This is the first time I have to go meet a teacher to hear complaints about my children. Felt like I was reprimanded for not doing enough, :(. Anyways, I told the teacher I will check his homework more often and make sure he does not tear pages off his exercise books. Teacher even encourage the use of the cane! I am already a very strict parent when I take time to look into his work but maybe I don't do that often enough. Anyways, Happy Birthday boy and please buck up.



8 years old today!

Our plan to Penang next week will be more fun now since my brother and his family will join us together with my mother. Now I am trying to draw up a schedule since we will be travelling in 2 cars. I am thinking about travelling very early in the morning and stop for breakfast in Ipoh before proceeding to Penang. Hopefully the traffic will not be too bad. Will write more about our trip next week.

Recycling starts with YOU!

I saw a TV programme last week where they were discussing about recycling and what can we do as normal folks. A few important things were suggested by this learned Dr who is holding a position in Penang government (so sorry I forgot his name).

The use of plastic bags, was high on the list to reduce. As we know Selangor and Penang have started the no plastic bag day on Saturdays. But some of the shopping places I see in Selangor are not really doing so. It's probably because of their customers complaints. Businesses cannot be blamed because naturally, making money is their priority. If their customer are not happy, they will not be making money. Therefore I think, recycling needs to start from oneself, from the mindset of the people. When there isn't a demand for plastic bags, they will die a natural death.

There was also a discussion about those so called biodegradable plastic bags. Apparently, bags that are said to be biodegradable in Malaysia are not certified to be really biodegradable. They are only disintegrating physically, meaning that they break into pieces with time or when exposed to the outside weather factors such as sun and rain. The problem is they do not break up chemically, so the bags have broken into smaller pieces of plastic but those pieces are still there to pollute the environment. This is something I didn't realize. So biodegradable plastic bag are no go too.So people, bring your own bags when you go shopping, not just on Saturdays but everyday. If you do take home plastic bags, make sure you use them repeatedly until they are unusable.

Most people are aware that paper should be recycled. So we often see the old newspaper collectors coming to do their round in our neighbourhoods. Apart from that almost all type of waste materials can be recycled. Plastic water bottles, aluminum and tin cans, beverages  packs, packing materials etc.. For more facts about recycling, this is a good site to visit. Even styrofoam packing materials can be recycled. But from my knowledge, the recycling centres in Malaysia usually do not accept them for recycling as the effort and maybe cost to do so are too high. So if you can, one of the first thing you can start immediately is to minimise or stop completely the use of styrofoam packings. Bring your own reusable containers when you go pack food outside.

I am sure most people have heard "reduce, reuse and recycle". Very importantly to note, is that the sequence of activities should be as stated. Firstly, you need to reduce your waste. Use less and therefore waste less. When you do have waste, reuse them. Like using paper on the other side, or reusing plastic and glass container, etc. Then, finally when you really need to throw them away, you recycle them. The last one is done by separating your waste right at the point when you discard them, usually this means at home. I have started to have a recycling corner at home for more than 6 months now. We have 3 big bins, for paper, glass and tins/plastics. Then, we also have our regular bins for things we cannot recycle. By separating your wastes, you reduce the amount of rubbish that will end up in a landfill somewhere. This is very very important, do not expect some other human to go through your thrash for you to try and salvage recyclable materials. Either you do it or they will end up polluting the environment in some landfill.

Our recycling corner at home.

For the materials that you have separated, you have a few options to get rid of them. You can sell them at many recycling centres that I can see everywhere, you can also give them to the rubbish collectors who will then sell them and get a little pocket money or you can do like we do, we give to a charity organisation that give a strong emphasis on environment protection work. Every few weeks, we will send our items to their centre.

I have heard people complained, why do we only do this and not that? Why do we stop people from using plastic bags when there are more horrible pollutants in other wastes. My answer is very simple, start small, every bit counts. Cultivate the habit and start learning more about the different types of wastes and how to recycle them. If everyone can just take responsibility of his/her own trash and do the 3 Rs, we can reduce a substantial amount of the 19,000 tons of rubbish Malaysians produce daily.

What’s Up and Coming Up

There were disturbing news about the riots in UK this week. It is sad to see even a country like United Kingdom can descend into chaos (albeit not at a scale that would cause long term effects). It just goes to show that dissent can appear even in one of the world most advanced countries. From my readings, the riots and looting are the actions of unemployed youths trying to steal or rob stuff that otherwise they cannot afford. Leaders of countries should be proactive in battling issues that are affecting a big group of their citizens. More damage is done when actions are implemented after the frustrations of this group exploded. Yeah, you are right, it's easy to say that in one sentence but nobody said being elected leaders is a walk in the park. It's not a job for people with underdeveloped brains or guts (which we have a bunch of them in office here).

Apart from this, we also have the stock market massacre! All over the world, the stock markets, led by the US' Dow Jones, have been falling like crazy. It recovered a bit yesterday but who knows what will happen next. Here lies the opportunity to earn money and also to lose money. Looking my past experiences, I would be extremely cautious. Stock investment is really a hard ballgame to play. Oh well, we'll see.

Locally, we hear of the raid by Jais in a dinner at a church building. Won't really bother myself about it. It's not the 1st time ridiculous things like this happen here. But Malaysians have to remember, Malaysia is a country that we should all love and cherish. The government, the ministers and the laws etc., they are not Malaysia. These may come and go, government and ministers may be voted out, laws may be changed but Malaysia is country, my country. Please do not be frustrated with her, it's not her fault that things are getting from bad to worse. She is not the enemy, she is in need of her beloved citizens to make the right choices at the ballots. Oops, got carried away and a bit emo. You people know what you people need to do.

Now for something more relaxed. Planning to have a 2D 1N trip to Penang with the Brady Bunch. Booked a hotel already and come Raya holidays, we will be on our way. Been a long long while since I last went to Penang. In fact, I don't even remember it. So I am so looking forward to see the island again. Definitely will try to find all the famous authentic Penang food and see Kek Lok Si, Bukit Bendera, etc.. Maybe meet the Chief Minister at the same time in Komtar. If I do, I will make sure I snap a picture with him. Only worry now is who can help feed our dog which by the way is recovering nicely from her 'operation'. I am now looking for automatic dog feeder, will try to find out where we can get one.

 
There is a MATTA fair going on this weekend, maybe it's a good time to grab some cheap tours, planning to go somewhere over the sea with hubby end of the year. Short trip somewhere but haven't decided on the destination yet. While waiting for all that, I will be busy finishing my project runway - PJs (pants and shirt) for the boyz.

Weekend Activities

Birthday Boy with his cake.

Pretty standard week for me except on Friday night I took some timeout and went to meet my friends. It has been a long while since I met them. So the hubby (reluctantly) took care of all the kids while my friends and I chat until wee hours in the morning at one of their homes. It was great to be get a short break from the usual routine and chat about many many things, from politics to investments and from kids education to migration. I reached home at about 4.30am that morning, and got about 3 hours of sleep.

On Saturday, my brother's family and my mum came to visit and I made roast chicken, boiled potatoes and salad for lunch for them. The kids' cousins were here too, so the kids had fun playing computer games, iPad2 games and the regular masak-masak toys (for the girls). It was also my 2nd boy's birthday, so we took the in-laws, including the sister and brother-in-laws to Yip Seng near my house for chinese dinner. After that we had a small birthday cake for my boy who is officially 7. His brother's 8th birthday will be in about 2 weeks time.

On the same day we made appointment with the vet to perform spaying on my dog. So the poor bitch went under the knife. I had no choice, I don't want to disturb the whole neighbourhood again when she is on heat next (which is every 6 months). All the stray male dogs will stalk my house, making a din with the neighbours' dogs barking nonstop into the middle of the night. My hubby couldn't get a good night's sleep for a week, and I can just imagine how the neighbours must have hated us. Those stupid strays also broke my flower pots which were placed outside of the gate, :(. So my poor dog is recovering now from her operation, the vet said it will take about 10 days. The 1st day when she came back, she didn't want to eat but she was eating again the next day. We think maybe she knows something is different and something is missing in her. Oh, it hurts us to have to do this but we have to be responsible pet owners. We are sorry, Cotton :(.


On Sunday, after church, we rested at home. Cooked a nice dinner with dishes like Kimchi Dubu/tofu, stir-fried leek, radish soup, etc. After dinner, I took out my sewing machine after dinner to start work on making pyjamas for the boys. I like buying nice pieces of cloth when I see them but making time to work on them is a difficult task in itself. Hopefully I will be able to complete them soon.

Radish Soup which hubby made with slow-cooker. Miss it already!

Kimchi Dubu, loved t!

You think we are stupid, or what?!

Without realizing, we are already more than half way through 2011. August is a few days away. Apart from the usual crap and funnies you see in Malaysian politics (like what Patrick Teoh calls it) and the football qualifier matches between Singapore and Malaysia (which we lost with dignity), there were not many things happening that caught my attention this week except this one thing. There was a debate between Datuk Ambiga and the deputy Director of SPR, Datuk Wira held in Shah Alam on Wednesday. Didn't get to attend it but got to watch the videos online of the event. From what I saw from the videos, I can conclude that  Datuk Ambiga is really professional and made all her points clearly. My respect for her grew even more after I listened to her. Having said that, Datuk Wira is also brave for coming to the debate. We need more of these kinds of debate. People engaged with each other to talk about things face to face. Most importantly, in a public event like this one so that the general public can know too. I wish that our national TV could air these events instead of Government propaganda.

In the beginning of her introduction, Datuk Ambiga said that what we want from the candidates is a high standard of discussion on policies and not dirty politics. This is really apt. Who cares who is the actor in the latest secretly recorded sex videos! Tell us what the Ministers will do about improving standard and quality of living for the general folks like us. Tells us how can we ensure that our MACC, Police and Courts are doing their job in absolute fairness without a hint of bias towards anyone. How can we stop the unfair law from being abused at the pleasure of  some 'authorities'? How do we give answers to the people about those who have died in custody in gross injustice? When will the leaders, i.e. the ministers (prime or otherwise) take responsibilities about what is happening under their noses?

It's time we see candidates that talk and make sense and not making clowns of themselves. I refuse to believe that Malaysian Parliament candidates and the voters are not intelligent enough to partake in discussions affecting the future of our country for the betterment of our society. Political scandals can still surface, we need some spice sometimes. But not like the numbers that we are having now, which is a scandal overload, making the rakyat sick. Most of them are just plain stupid and plain lies, insulting the intellect of Malaysians. Malaysians are smart, you think we are stupid, or what?! But I can't say the same for some of those arrogant MPs and/or ministers that we have in our Parliament House.

For the coming 54th Merdeka Day, I pray that Almighty God will help Malaysia to be a nation of united people that does not tolerate racism, injustice and leaders who lack grey matter inside those hard skulls.

This is part 1 of the debate between Bersih and SPR.

Half Day Family Trip to Tg, Sepat

Malaysia is really blessed, sometimes we need to remember that. We have such wonderful places just a short way from where we stay that we seldom take time to explore.

Last weekend, we decided to visit Tg. Sepat. The drive is just slightly over an hour from Kajang. After some google map checks, we decided to go via Lekas. Exited at Nilai and drove towards Sepang. After Sepang, the 1st stop for us was Bagan Lalang. We started off almost 8am and reached Bagan Lalang at about 9am. The beach there is pretty nice, although it wasn't very clean. The tide was high so there was some of rubbish washed up to the shore. This is a big problem in Malaysia, as I see, there are full of litter bugs! Rubbish is conveniently discarded from cars, while walking in the park, it's disgusting. Worse still, the foreign workers who come to Malaysia to earn a living are also contributing to the litter problem. We have witnessed them throwing rubbish as they walked on the roads. It's really sad, sometimes I wish we have good enforcement like Singapore, Then all these litter bugs will be fined, hard.

Por Por helping to dig for treasures in the sand.

Oops, I digressed. Now back to the trip. We had breakfast at a makcik's stall of curry puffs and nasi lemak. The food was okay but the drinks of teh tariks, kopi ais and milo ais were hmmmm, let's say, I make them better at home. Anyways, we then proceeded to the beach and the kids played for some 15 minutes of so. Only one person did not enjoy the stop, my daughter! She wouldn't come down and walk because she didn't like the sand in her slippers or feet. So we had to carry her all the time...

Then it was time to leave for our destination which is Tg. Sepat. The road signs on the way were not helpful so we took some wrong turns and asked some locals. On the way, we saw many dragon fruit farms but I think none were opened to visitors yet. Too early, I guess. Finally, after another 20 minutes, we reached Tg. Sepat. It is a very small 'new village' next to the coast. I think there are about 10 narrow roads altogether there, so narrow that it's hard to allow 2 cars to pass together at a time.

We researched that one of the main attractions is Lover's Bridge (情人桥) so that was where we went 1st. It is a long jetty that is about 5 feet wide that extends quite a long way to the sea. The tide was high and it was really scary to walk on the bridge. I was really scared especially for the kids. There was no hand rails and any naughty shove could land one of the kids in the sea! I was extremely worried and nervous for everyone, so we walked carefully on the bridge, sometimes having to stand aside for men on motorbikes to pass! After the concrete bridge, it continued with wooden planks, which made me even more nervous. So we quickly took some pictures and headed back to shore. The pictures looked great.

Lover's Bridge (情人桥) which scares the hell out of me.

It is pretty long, half concrete half wood.

A view of the bridge from a restaurant which hasn't started business for the day yet.

On shore, we bought some food stuff from the shop like fish keropok and some sauces. A lady sold cooked fishballs to us. We sat at the benches and started to have our newly bought snacks.There were some restaurants there but I think business has not started yet. Plus, we we still full from the breakfast, so we decided to explore some shops in the town. Found the pau shop which we also know is famous, wanted to eat some but the ladies at the shop said they were not ready yet! And that was about 11am! She told us to come back about 12.30. So we left without any paus, wanted to visit the coffee powder shop but the roads towards it was under some repair so couldn't get there.

Next, we wanted to visit the mushroom farm. We managed to do another stop which was just some minutes from Tg. Sepat town. It looked like a jetty for yacht training, we spent about 15 minutes there. We drove toward Morib hoping to find the mushroom farm but we couldn't find it. Since it's still early and we really wanted to come back for the famous paus later, we drove on to Morib which wasn't that far away from Tg. Sepat.

Having a good, free and easy time at Morib Beach!

My in laws were reminiscing about old times when they brought their kids to Morib to play on the beach. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by the facilities newly build at the Morib beach. There was a park, with tiles pavements and jetty for visitors to enjoy the view of the sea. There were also toys and kites for sale. Toilets were new and clean at 30 sen per visit though :(. We enjoyed the sea breeze and let the kids run around the park. I was still worried when they got too near the railings. The open sea down there, just one slip away! I think I may have a sea phobia! I better learn to swim like a pro and make sure the kids can do the same. That may solve my phobia.

It was over 1pm when we left Morib and headed back to Tg. Sepat for the paus. We managed to get some paus, not all flavours were available because they were sold out! So we settled for Mui Choi with Pork paus and some sweet paus. Mother in Law commented that the skin of the paus were softer making it taste better and we all agreed. Also stop at the shop a few doors away to get some coffee powder. It's was already around 2pm, so we headed home. We did not have any bak kut teh or sea food lunch, I was a little disappointed. But we can always come back again to visit. Next time we stay longer (maybe overnight) and try more of the food that I read a lot from blogs.

Pau Prices

Local coffee; taste is ok only.

Life Goes On

A busy week, especially a crazy Friday. So many things to do so little time.

Still, have to bring up TBH's RCI report. After 2 years, the answer given to the late TBH's family is he was driven to suicide. I was really sad when I read about it, was even sick to my stomach. A colleague asked me if I expected a different outcome. Honestly, I was not surprised but rather very very disappointed because I still held a glimmer of hope.

A promising young man who was called in as a witness to investigate on a mere belief of a RM2K misuse of funds by a opposition led state, died the next morning under the custody of the MACC. I doubt his family members can accept that outcome, even I feel this is unconvincing. I guess the truth to his death will never be known because the dead cannot tell. I think we will get the same outcome with the 2nd RCI on Ahmad Sarbani case too. I am reading about it and I am so sad, so I cannot imagine how their families are feeling.

Still, life goes on. For the time being, I will put aside these unhappy thoughts. I have a life to live! Hubby and I decided to make a day trip to Tg. Sepat with the in laws and the kids tomorrow. One of my colleagues recommended the place to me sometime last year. I was planning to go there then. But the the famous murder of the business woman and 3 others happened at the location, so we didn't think it was appropriate to visit. But since a year has gone by, I don't feel turned off by the idea anymore. Read some blog postings about it so I think I roughly know what places to visit there. So you'll hear more about the trip soon. Will hopefully take some good shots too on my DSLR, which has been gathering dust for awhile. Wishing all a good weekend but please also keep our beloved country in our prayers.