non update Update

It's been more than a week since my last update. So busy making preparations to induct my new team in India - training material, scheduling, teleconferences, etc.. No time to update. So just some erratic, illogical ramblings for today

Right after I posted the blog on the hill trek during Prophet Mohd's birthday holiday, I got a spike in readership - almost 200 just for that one day. My normal hits was between 2 to 5 a day. Not sure what happened.

I also noticed that quite a few people stumbled onto my blog because of the piece I wrote on the Shinji Tanimura song - Subaru. In fact, one sweet looking girl - Steph Iiwa even emailed me for the mp3 of the song. Hey... if that's what it takes to make new contacts, I ain't complaining. Looks like Subaru runs in a lot of people's mind - addicitve??

I am going to be camping in Gurgaon, India (near New Delhi) for the next 2 weeks to welcome my new team, orientate them, rag them and what have you. Hope they (and I) survive the ordeal!!

Food tasting/ testing

And to end the Holy Thursday, We went to Oriental Restaurant in Jaya 33 to taste and test the food that was to be served during Madeline's wedding dinner in June. It was also an opportunity for Madeline's father to meet up with the future in-laws. On our side, mum, wife, Alex and myself were there. Yin San and father made up the Tham side of the family.

On the Hiew side, there was of course Vincent's parents, youngest brother and girlfriend. Including Vincent and Madeline we made up a dozen.

We started off with tidbits while waiting for everyone to turn up. The steamed groundnuts were savoury. When everybody was ready, the first dish was served. It was center pieced with Jellyfish and squid, tofu on the side, with steamed chicken and roast duck. Next, the traditional shark fin soup was served. Nothing to rave about. The suckling pig followed. Vincent's mum had reservation about this dish. Seems to be cruel to kill of the piglet just to satisfy our needs. This was followed by a Garoupa, which had it's flesh taken off, basted and fried with a touch of wasabi. The rest of the fish was deep fried. The meat was rather tasteless and most of us agreed that this may not be suitable for the wedding nite. This dish will be changed.

Then came the steamed freshwater prawns. It was very fresh. The meat had a twang to it. But Vincent's mum did not like the rather fishy taste. So this dish will also be changed. It will still be prawns served prepared and served differently. The next dish was a genuine fake vegetarian dish. Typically, this dish would be authentically vegetarian, but this one was served with roast pork . Interesting!! The main course ended with glutinous rice.

Appetizers was Chinese pancakes and some kind of dumpling finishing off with a double boiled cold, pear sweet soup.

Burp!!!!!

Hill Trek on a holiday

Today is a public holiday on the occasion of Prophet's Muhammad's birthday. We made plans to go hill trekking with Amy and her wards at 7.30am. As it turns out the young ones (Jaecie and Jinn Wuen) rather sleep longer during the holiday. So it was just Amy joining us. We had not been to this hill trek before. There was an article in the Chinese papers with very vague directions on how to get there.

After a couple of wrong turns and asking people where the entrance to the hill trek was, we managed to find it. It is located at the back of the Bukit Ketumbar condo. The start was relatively easy. Tree roots made natural steps in the trail. At some sections, some kind souls had tied ropes to help trekkers to hold on tight as they made their way up and down the slippery slopes.

If I remember my science classes correctly, the mini jungle is essentially a secondary forest. Lots of bushes at the lower levels, with lots of sunlight poking through the foliage. Very early on in the trek, we learn one basic rule of courtesy - greet everyone going up or down with a good morning or "cho sun" (Cantonese for good morning).

We met some hikers bringing along their dogs for the trek. Cute!! (sorry no photos - couldn't whip my camera out fast enough). Even met some familiar faces who were there the first time.Here is Sister Lydia and friend from the church.

As we made our way up, one can take time to reflect on the power of nature. You could still see civilization peeping through the foliage. There was a nest (termite??_ along the path. And this big boulder - split in half by 3 saplings over a long time.

By the time we got down more than an hour later, we were pooped. Took a break at the mamak stall with teh tarik and roti canai. Just had to snap this silly cockerel whose alarm clock seems to need calibration. At 10am, it was still happily crowing away.

My personal reward finally arrived

After waiting since August 2007, my Camry 2.0G has finally been delivered. It is everything that I had wanted.

A day outing at Genting

6 days of school holidays has already elapsed and I have still not taken the young one for a holiday. So when Alex's friend said they were going up on Saturday, we decided to make a day trip to meet up with them and let the young ones have some fun together. Their maid followed us in the early hours. We started at 7am, took a stop for breakfast and were at the theme park by 8.08am. The rest of the Ng family arrived after noon.

Alex and Jaecie had fun doing many of the rides at the outdoor theme park. Like the bumper boat rides.And waiting for the baby chair rides
It was a long day and we had numerous breaks throughout.
And Amy and Jingwen (Mun Mun - who is also on my Friendster) got all wet with the flume ride, but the evening in Snow world was just as interesting - cold and wet.
After dinner with the Ngs (their treat), we left for home at about 10am. Fog was thick, visibility was poor until Awana. I had never been in such a situation before. I had to drive at about 10 to 20km/hr. Arrived home safely at about 10.45pm.

Long day...............