Chooi and Stephen's visit - part 1

Finally...... after more than 10 years, Stephen and Chooi is back in Malaysia for another visit (their second in infinity!). The last time my younger sister came back, we were having a bad case of the HAZE. Malaysia was suffering from El Nino with water shortages. Anwar was sacked and charged with sodomy. And Commonwealth games were just around the corner.

This time, we did have slight haze (many times better than 10 years ago). NO water shortages (touch wood and knock head). And of course we have another sodomy charge against Anwar. Some things never change!

I had invited both Stephen and Chooi over for Madeline's wedding, but they could not make it, even though I was paying for their return tickets from London. This month, August, another event was coming up - mum's birthday. So I extended my invitation again. This time, they were available. It also happens to be Stephen's birthday on 18th.

Stephen arrived on 12th morning. Good flight and he looked almost rested. After taking him on a whirlwind tour of KL and PJ - recce my new house in Denai Alam, dropped into the office, dropped into Shirley's house, popped into 1 Utama - he was pooped for the day.

Next day, I took Mum and him up to Cameron Highlands for a 3 days 2 nights trip. The highlands almost behaved themselves. Nights got as cold as 15 degrees and it only drizzled in the late afternoons when we were resting after morning trips to various places. Stephen was really "fatt far tin" - literally meaning mad about the flowers. Almost every place we went to with flora and fauna - he would be exploring almost every corner, identifying many that he thought could not have existed in Malaysia. There was some differences in how the flora and fauna grows in Camerons compared to England.

For example, he was asking one farm - how many crops of strawberries could they harvest from a plant before the strawberry plant died. Apparently in England - only 1 harvest. That's more due to the weather than anything else. It took a while to convey to him that the strawberry plants in Camerons gives and continues to give throughout the year since we do not have Winter to contend with. He certainly enjoyed the trip and so did Mum. In all her visits, she had always been stuck in the kitchen preparing food for the family that brought her up there.

This time, she got to see a tea bush for the first time in her life. While we were buying honey from the farm near to Equatorial Hotel, she had a very lively conversation with the owner - a youngish looking 60 year old who told us that the business was started by her grandparents and passed down the generations. She swore she recognized me from previous visits. Thank goodness that I chose the straight and steady path in life. Any other path, and I would be the most recognizable wanted person around.

Chooi flew in only on 16th. She had a bad flight. Plane took off late and just when they were about to land, some idiot who probably drank too much vomited over her and a couple of other passengers. By the time she cleaned up and got to her bags, some gifts she had packed in her baggage had been pilfered!! I was waiting at the arrival hall for almost 3 hours!! I called up Malaysian Airlines to make sure she had boarded. I called Immigration to see if they were holding any UK citizens in there (she has taken up UK citizenship after marriage). I went to the security office to see if they would allow me a security pass to enter to do a search. All to no avail!!.

That night, we had a dinner to celebrate Mum's birthday (as well as Stephen's). Mum kind of liked Jun Kee in Taman Midah. In addition to the usual dishes we ordered (Curry fishhead, steamed fish, Ku Lo yoke and others), we also had sharkfin soup - just for Chooi since she had not had this for ages. As you can see, we polished off almost everything on the table!

After dinner, we adjourned to my house where we had a make-up tea ceremony for Vincent and Madeline. Stephen couldn't figure out what in the world we we doing. He held on to his cup of tea and had to be told to sip the tea - not finish it. Actually Chooi had to be told the same too.

Well, I have to be off to Singapore for business visit for 2 weeks. Stephen will join me from 23rd to 28th. Chooi goes back to London on 21st.

Tired!!

Re-experiencing Studio Ghibli

Having a 10 year old at home (Alex) means that I would frequently be reliving parts of my childhood, though not necessarily at the same age/time continuum. The first time I saw the Anime My Neighbor Totoro must have been in my early teens.

A few months ago, I saw a box set of 4 in 1 movies from Studios Ghibli. So I bought it to let Alex see some of the Anime of some decades ago. I think I must have been drawn to it by the silhouette of Totoro on the box, despite the absence of the show itself in the collection. To my surprise, Alex liked it. I say surprise because his is the age of Disney, Nicktoons and what have you. It was even more surprising when I insisted on playing the DVD on Japanese language with English subtitles. I guess the nuances and emotions conveys better in original language.

The 4 in 1 collection starts off with Spirited Away. The level of details and realism in many of the scenes are astounding - considering that this is Anime! The Cat's Return was also entertaining

The 4 in 1 movie collection was good, but it did not have Totoro My neighbor. So when I saw another box set with 17 movies in it, and it was on sale for HALF PRICE! I bought it without hesitation - Totoro My Neighbor was amongst the collection. I think the movies from Studios Ghibli carries some moral and ethical messages in many of them.

Have fun surfing the net for more info on Studios Ghibli. With the Malaysian Mega sale in full swing now, i think it is relatively easy to get the box sets at a discount.

Denai Alam house - a month and the half later

The Denai Alam house has been undergoing renovations for the past month and the half. The external walls have been completed. Doing the extensions with my neighbor presents a better and more aesthetic look to the whole renovations. If everything proceeds without problems, i guess the renovations should be completed before the end of August. What a mess it is in now. Looks more like a house in a war zone.
So far RM30K has been paid out to the contractor. I still remember in the early 80s, when I renovated and extended a previous house in Taman Melawati, I had extended more than double the buildup that i am doing today. It was also double storey and created a new large bedroom and pushed the wet kitchen all the way to the back. And the cost then, including electrical and everything else was only RM20K. But those were the days when you could get a decent meal for less than RM2.00.

Sigh!

Korean BBQ @ Kangsane Restaurant, Ampang

The power cut on Saturday had minimal effect on us as we had planned to be out the whole day, including dinner with Elaine and family. Besides Elaine, there was her mum and dad of course. Tagging along were her aunt, her boyfriend and her brother and sister-in-law to be (soon, very soon).

It has been a very long time since I was in Korea. And Korean BBQ is something that I used to look forward to whenever I visited Seoul. So for this round, in view of my very much belated birthday as well as Grace's (also belated), I decided to treat Elaine's family to Korean BBQ. There is an enclave of Koreans near Ampang Point, Ampang. Along with that was a plethora of Korean restaurants, supermarkets and so on. Not having experienced any Korean BBQ in town, I asked around and search other blogs for write ups on Korean BBQ.

I settled for one called Kangsane. We had pork belly, marinated pork, marinated beef, chicken, 2 dishes of fried gyoza, 1 plate of steamed gyoza, lala soup and whole bunch of standard side dishes which includes the must have Korean kimchi. Besides having green tea, 6 of us opted for Korean beer. Not bad (the beer I mean).

The bill came to a whopping RM554.00 for 10 of us. Will not be having Korean for a long long while more!

Powerless for a day

Tenaga Nasional (National Electricity Board or TNB) cut the power to a couple of streets in my neighborhood, including to my house, on Saturday, 26th July. I never really noticed it until I was affected, that TNB has been upgrading the power cables in my neighborhood!! As I looked around, I saw that most streets already had their power cables upgraded and that we were amongst the last few streets to be upgraded.

One of the electricity poles is right in front of my house. The TNB truck came along, dropped off a huge roll of new cables and distributed it's workforce all along the stretch of street.

Then a smallish sized wireman climbed up the ladder, maneuvered for half an hour trying to cut the 5 cables (3 phase + street lighting + neutral ) and then gave up after cutting 1 cable. The rest of the job was done by the truck lift within 5 minutes.

Power was cutoff until almost 8pm. Darn!!