While driving in Banting town with my wife looking for something to eat we stumbled upon a restaurant selling chicken rice.
Restoran Sin Loong Foong occupies a double storey corner shop lot located beside Jalan Bunga Pekan. It is also accessible from the side via a side road branching perpendicularly off the main road. With black coloured wooden tables and red plastic stools the interior decor was quite basic, otherwise it is clean and comfortable.
While chicken rice seems to be its main offering the shop also serves plain and curry noodle soup dishes. We ordered steamed chicken rice which was served in two plates, one for the rice and the other for the white steamed chicken meat.
Unlike the familiar chicken rice that I have eaten elsewhere, the chicken meat here is not flavoured with oil and light soya source. The steamed chicken meat here is seasoned with a beige colored creamy source with bits of goji berries (wolfberries) mixed into the source. Goji berries are a common ingredient used in the preparation of Chinese style herbal soups. Hence the presence of the red goji berries in the source give the chicken dish a subtle herbal flavour.
This restaurant appears to be popular with the locals. After stepping inside we found all the tables occupied except for one when the lone customer was waiting to settle the bill after finishing his meal. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the waiter to clear the table.
Since most of the people in this town are Hokkien speaking I asked the wife to do the ordering in the Hokkien dialect.
The service was prompt and efficient as we didn't have to wait long for our lunch meal to be served. The chicken rice meal was quite delicious and for RM11.50 for two persons, including a hot barley drink the price is not exorbitant.
Do you know that you can renew your Malaysian international passport with the minimum of hassle?
Got my wife's and mine done at the immigration department in Putrajaya within 1-1/2 hours. We went to the immigration office located on the third floor of a government building when it opened its door at 7.30am. and left the premises at 9.00am.
All you are required to bring along are your Mykad, cash to pay for the service and your expired passport.
The application process is simple and straightforward.
First you tell the officer at the reception the nature of your application and you will be given a ticket with a specific number for the type of application. After getting a number you sit down at the waiting area for your number to be flashed at the electronic score board.
When you see your number in the score board you go to the counter assigned to your number. At the counter you hand over your Mykad to the officer who will then insert it in a card reader to extract the relevant information stored in the card's chip. The officer will also scan your left and right hand thumbs to verify that the thumb scans match the thumb prints stored in the MyKad's chip.
When everything is in order the officer will ask you to pose for a digital snap shot of your face using a camera mounted beside the counter and operated by the officer. You will be asked to put on a black coat and remove your glasses, if you are wearing one before taking the snap shot. The black coat is provided free of charge, courtesy of the immigration department.
After the photo session the officer will take away your MyKad and also the expired old passport for further processing. After that you are required to stamp your right thumb print on a sheet of paper document. With the ticket counterfoil the officer will direct you to Counter 23 or 24 where you are required to pay the processing fee.
At the payment counter you pay the processing fee when your ticket number is flashed on the electronic scoreboard. Upon paying the fee you will get an official receipt and will be directed to wait for the passport to be issued at another counter. As a senior citizen I paid RM150 which is half the normal price for a 5-year passport.
At the collection counter, after signing an acknowledgment form you will be issued with the new passport. You will also be given back your Mykad and the cancelled expired passport with notches cut out at the edge of the document.
Today's menu for the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, and any disadvantaged person in need of a free meal, and also my humble lunch pack for the day.
Simple food consisting of cooked white rice and three types of vegetables ie long bean, canned red bean and radish packed in a plastic lunch box and one bottle of drinking water. Though the unappetizing food tastes bland, for this disadvantaged group of people it is their day's nourishment and sustainment. It fills their stomachs, enables them to stay out of hunger and help them get through the day.
When I think of TV images of hungry, skin and bones refugee children in war-torn and drought-hit countries eg Africa I realise that the free food that this NGO is offering is a incomparable luxury compared to what the refugees are getting in their countries.
With this realisation in mind I ate the humble vegetarian lunch pack filled with enormous gratitude and happiness.
Pushing hands in the park
Glad to be back in the park grappling with the guys after being out of action for about a month.
September was indeed a busy month for me. Illness, injury, rain, wedding dinners, outstation trips and attending to social functions and obligations that took up all the Saturdays and Sundays of last month kept me away from the sport.
Although I lost all the matches this morning to my more younger, heavier, experienced and stronger opponents nevertheless I was quite happy with the results. I felt that gradually I was giving them a harder time to pushing, uprooting and taking me down than before, probably because as time goes bye I gain more and more experience in handling the opposition with more "Yi" rather than reliance on muscular strength.
Thanks to wearing knee guards, other than general fatigue of the body and hands and some soreness and stiffness of my legs my weak knees were holding up well against all the power pushings and shovings.
Specialist Clinics at Putrajaya Hospital
The sign sticking out of the wall above the entrance depicting a stylised male figure was unmistakable. It is clear as broad daylight to the general public that the room behind the door and the signage is the male toilet. It is my habit before entering a toilet to always double check so that I don't enter a female toilet by mistake.
After stepping inside I was surprised to see wash basins and four toilet cubicles arranged side by side, but no urinals. How is it possible that urinals are not provided in a male toilet?
Thinking that I might have stepped into a female toilet by mistake I exited the room to check out the toilet sign for the third time. The signage shows clearly a male figure. Not satisfied I zoomed my vision in on the toilet sign of the adjacent room. That sign which depicts a stylised human figure wearing a dress tells me that that particular room is a female toilet and I was indeed in the men's toilet and not trespassing into a women's toilet.
What can I say? It seems to me that in the haste to draw up and complete the plans for construction of the hospital the architect and his team inncluding the hospital administrators have forgotten about the provision of urinals in the toilets for men. Hence except for the signage the male toilets are of the same design as the female toilets.
INTI Dojo Wed 24/9/2014 class
Even though I already knew the answer I asked the student members nevertheless. "Do you want to lay out the mats for the practice?"
As for me since I and the senior students here have been working out on the hard tiled concrete floor for years we have gotten used to it and even come to enjoy the experience.
Anyway the jig-saw mats are past their useful life spans. All of them are broken, hardened, dirty and smelly due to abuse, neglect, and wear and tear. Hence as the old, hardened, smelly and broken mats have lost their useful function it makes little difference between bouncing on mats or on bare tiled concrete.
At the start of each new semester when regular Aikido practice resumes I let the students decide and go along with their decision whether to use the mats or not as the junior trainees who sign up for their first class may feel extremely uncomfortable or even intimidated working out on a hard surface.
Since the latest renovation of the Student Center the college management had relocated the store to the back of the building. The store is where all the martial arts equipment, including the mats are stored. The new store is so remote from the training hall that we have to walk 15 minutes to get there, and another 15 minutes carrying the jig-saw mats for the return trip.
Last semester prior to the renovation when the old store was located next to the students affairs department, it was just a only short walk from the store to the dojo. And because of the ideal location of the old store all the martial arts clubs eg Aikido, Karate, TKD, Chinese Kick Boxing were using the mats whether they needed them or not.
However starting from this semester I notice that Karate, TKD and Chinese Kick Boxing have stopped using the mats probably for the same reason as Aikido; the hassle of the long distance walk and time to the store to take out the mats and later to return them for storage.
Silence. Nobody said any thing or expressed an opinion, including the new trainees. So looking at the smiling faces and the knowing looks all round I took it as a collective agreement to work out on what we have been accustomed to doing and come to enjoy for years, the hard ceramic tiled concrete floor.
One day you will just be a memory for some people no matter what good you have done. Just do your best to be a good one so that they can keep you in memory for the longest time.
While helping to pack the vegetarian meals together with the other volunteers at the KSK kitchen a lady dressed in the NGO's trademark red T-shirt caught my attention as she stood beside the counter after coming down from the upstairs administration office.
I recognised her immediately, having worked with her only once on 9/9/2014.
On that day I went with her in the food delivery van to another food distribution center in downtown KL. This place called Anjung Singgah, is located along Jalan Hang Lekiu. Set up by National Welfare Foundation (YKN or Yayasan Kebajikan Malaysia) the center is a temporary lodging and intervention center for the homeless. Other than temporary lodging Anjung Singgah also provides free meals for the homeless.
My involvement with Anjung Singgah was more incidental rather than planned. That morning when I stepped into the kitchen I bumped into the Project Director who was desperately looking for hands to help out at Anjung Singgah because one of the regular volunteers there could not come. At his request I assured him that I had no objection going there at all. So together with a lady volunteer the driver packed us together with the food into the van for the ride to Anjung Singgah. I believe that on that day this particular lady volunteer who works in the admin section upstairs was also roped in to help out at the last minute.
If not for a memorable incident I would consider that day's work at Anjung Singgah as just another ordinary and mundane day for me.
On the way to our destination, somewhere along busy Jalan Raja Chulan as we waited for the traffic in front to move on we heard a loud bang coming from the back of the van. The driver of a 4-wheel car belonging to a government agency had crashed into the back of the van. All of us alighted from the van and it was the lady who took some shots of the dent in the van with her phone camera and noted down the particulars of the driver of the 4-wheel. Fortunately as everyone was driving slowly due to the traffic congestion the collision was minor, only a dent and a broken tail light.
"Hi Mimi!" I greeted the lady flashing a smile and a hand wave.
I knew she recognised me but had some problem registering where or when she had seen me before. Here in KSK volunteers of all sorts come and go and unless you interact with the individual for some time each volunteer is just a nameless face that you see from time to time.
"High Mimi do you remember the traffic accident on 9/9/2014?" I asked her. The question instantly rang a bell in her memory when before it was just a hazy recollection of some one that she had met in the past.
When she asked if I was available to help out again at Anjung Singgah on Tuesdays, I said sure I would come in on next Tuesday to give a helping hand.
Salmon fish cut into steaks laid out neatly on a tray for sale. These frozen salmon steaks look appetizing. Bought two of these for a little over RM10.00 at the local Giant store.
My wife and I like to eat steamed or baked fish and these frozen salmon steaks are easy to prepare and cook. After defrosting and cleaning you can wrap it in aluminum foil and bake it in an electric oven. Alternatively you can steam it in a wok over water and high heat.
Steamed or aluminum baked salmon is one of our favorite one-dish meal which goes well with rice porridge. For lunch at home when there are only two persons eating, rice porridge with steamed fish as the only dish is what we eat on days when we have fish available in the fridge. Occasionally when sweet potatoes are available wifey will add some baked Japanese sweet potatoes into the porridge for additional flavour and also nutrition.
We are partial to these two types of cooking fish is because the benefits are obvious:
1. Valuable nutrients, vitamins and minerals of the food are preserved
2. Maintain food moisture and freshness
3. Preserves food colours and moisture
4. Soften food fibers making them tender and easily digestible
5. No need to use cooking oil or fat
6. Fast and easy. Can cook a complete meal in minutes
Yes! Laughter is definitely the best medicine.
I don't mind taking it everyday and I would surely add that to the top of my medicine prescription. However the big problem is that as you have to manufacture it yourself you can't buy the prescription any where off the shelf.
Due to the early morning shower shoppers had to negotiate and wade through pools of water to go about their groceries shopping chores. Apart from the water you have to be careful where you step, otherwise you might get your feet wet after stepping on a pool of water.
Even on dry days it is difficult to walk about in the market because the large crowd of shoppers and the narrow aisles hinder you from moving freely from one stall to another. And you are further restricted in your movements when you bring along a shopping cart to load and transport your purchases.
This is the Seri Petaling morning market where my wife and I go there to buy groceries. Although both of us have retired from work we go there every Saturday because it is on this day and Sunday where there are the most number of vendors operating their businesses there. And it is on these two days when the most number of working people who are off work come out to do their weekly groceries shopping as well.
The picture shown is that of a sundry stall where my wife patronises for the purchase of eggs and other dry sundry produces. My wife is waiting for the vendor to return her change after paying for the purchase of a box of eggs.
Balcony of Parkland Apartments, Brinchang, Cameron Highlands.
My daughter wanted to see some taiji movements up-close. So I sportingly played around with some movements randomly.
To my surprised using the view in front of the balcony and the solitary pine tree as a focal point and superimposed against a clear blue morning sky as a back drop she captured this poignant moment in transition as I was moving into a particular posture called "Diagonal Fly"
Trying to fix the defective switched socket outlet in the power extension unit.
After taking out the outlet and noting down the arrangement of the wiring I carefully made a sketch of the arrangement of the three neutral (blue), live (brown) and earth (green) wires so that should I need to replace the existing outlet I know how to reconnect all the wiring in the correct ports. Of course the easy way out is to go out to buy a new extension device.
However, I am from the old school where if something goes wrong with a device I try to fix the problem first instead of throwing away the old in favour of buying the new.
Today is my last of work at Wawasan Bersatu Sdn Bhd. Thank you for everything. So long and bye bye to corporate world.
Though we don't see the neighbour who live in the house across the street from ours often as they leave home for work early in the morning and only return late in the evening we were pleasant surprised to receive a full moon gift pack from the couple.
The gift pack contains some pretty impressive traditional full moon celebration items ie a 1/2 bird roasted chicken, chilli sauce, two red hard-boiled eggs, pickled ginger, a marble butter cake and an assortment of Chinese style steamed pastries, all packed in a beautifully themed paper box. In the old days when nobody was marketing such gift packs, parents who want to celebrate baby full moon would have to procure the items separately, packed and distribute them by themselves, a very labour and time intensive exercise.
What is full moon celebration? According to Chinese custom, when a baby turns one month old, a ceremony is held to celebrate her first month of life (the Chinese term translates as "full moon"). This coincides with the end of the new mum's confinement period, and both mother and baby are formally introduced to the extended family and friends for the first time.
In return for their kind gesture my family will visit the couple bearing gifts for their baby boy.
Photo: Though we don't see the neighbour who live in the house across the street from ours often as they leave home for work early in the morning and only return late in the evening we were pleasant surprised to receive a full moon gift pack from the couple. The gift pack contains some pretty impressive traditional full moon celebration items ie a 1/2 bird roasted chicken, chilli sauce, two red hard-boiled eggs, pickled ginger, a marble butter cake and an assortment of Chinese style steamed pastries, all packed in a beautifully themed paper box. In the old days when nobody was marketing such gift packs, parents who want to celebrate baby full moon would have to procure the items separately, packed and distribute them by themselves, a very labour and time intensive exercise. What is full moon celebration? According to Chinese custom, when a baby turns one month old, a ceremony is held to celebrate her first month of life (the Chinese term translates as "full moon"). This coincides with the end of the new mum's confinement period, and both mother and baby are formally introduced to the extended family and friends for the first time. In return for their kind gesture my family will visit the couple bearing gifts for their baby boy.
In another two weeks time I will be retiring for the second time from a well-paying regular day job.
After that as a retiree what am I going to do with my spare time?
Definitely not going out to look for another regular job. And definitely not staying in the house the whole day doing nothing but watching TV shows.
For the relatively comfortable and good life that I have been enjoying all this while, now in my golden years I feel the time has come to give something back to society.
I am seriously looking at volunteering as a helper to feed homeless street people in a soup kitchen outfit.
Aikido national Kyu Grading at MAA HQ Dojo June 15 2014
The painful condition of my right knee was making it difficult to sit balanced and upright in seiza. As a result I had to sit with my backside raised and my torso tilted forward to cope with the pain. It was more like half kneeing instead of sitting down.
After some time the pain became so unbearable that I had to change to sitting cross-legged.
I am not sure if anyone noticed my awkward sitting posture. If they did no one was telling.
Getting up on my feet from the sitting position was also difficult. I had to brace my right knee with my right hand in order to stand up straight.
Tomorrow I have to go to INTi to start the new training session and I wonder how I would cope with the painful knee condition. Pray that after a night and a day's rest the knee will get get better.
Just completed mounting the new "Orient" wall clock on the wall. At a time like this I wish that I was a 6-footer so that I didn't need to climb a ladder to mount the clock
To most people a clock is just a time piece to tell the time. To me a clock is like a window to my past.
In my growing up years as a boy I lived with my grand mother in a shop-house in Ipoh surrounded by watches and clocks. At that time all my grand mother's sons,who were my uncles, were tradesmen dealing with the sale and repair of watches and clocks. After school although I had no interest in the watch and clock business I would dutifully obliged my two uncles to help out in attending to customers at the counter.
Now the watch and clock business is no more. After my grandmother and uncles passed away none of their descendents wanted to take over the business.
I am surprised that the Japan-made brand "Orient" which existed in the 1960s when I was still a school boy is still in the market today.
Raining.
Each time when heavy rain with thunder and lashing winds strikes I worry about the water-tightness of the roof. Predictably the roof leaks again. With a LED head light strapped to my head I climbed up into the ceiling space via the ceiling inspection manhole to inspect the roof.
Where previously rain water would penetrate the porous plastering to run down the surface of the parapet wall to the ceiling and exit to the bedroom below this time the wall is dry as a bone, an indication that the last water-proof treatment applied to the parapet wall is working well.
Two wet patches in the ceiling board and also a wet patch at the bottom chord of the timber truss indicate that the rain water is leaking through the roof covering, either through gaps in the inter-locking tile arrangement or some tiles due to old age, wear and tear have become porous to water.
What if you can't find some suitable images from the internet that you want to download for use to tell a compelling story?
No problem. I draw my own illustration using MS Excel's drawing tools and convert the xls image into a jpg image like this picture.
Standing and balancing only on his right leg and using it as a pivot this person will rotate his body anti-clockwise leftward and to his rear for a left heel kick strike to his imaginary attacker who is approaching him from the back.
Although I know this technique like the back of my hand and have successfully done it uncountable times, this morning due to a momentary lapse of mind-body coordination, the power from the torque generated by the body-turn twisted my weak right knee.
The pain in the inflamed knee was so excruciating that I used the shopping cart as an improvised walker when I accompanied the wife to the supermarket. By my hands bracing against the shopping cart handle, I was able to take some pressure off my injured right knee as I walked slowly, painfully, stiffly and with a awkward limp helping my wife to shop for the week's groceries.
Although it is just a sprain it looks like I will have to take things easy for the next two weeks to allow time for the soft tissue knee injury to heal.
