Got a SMS from our niece in Kuantan saying that her mother is seriously ill and in hospital, call her to find the latest situation and was told that this time it is rather serious, I discuss this with my wife and she say that we should visit her........ Well we decided to visit her the next day, that mean we have still to use the old road to Kuantan.... I had wanted to visit Kuantan, my hometown when the new Highway open to the publics come this August, but then we just could not wait for that day but instead to go early and visit here at the hospital....And then proceed with our holiday on the east coast.... So just after nine on Friday I drove to Kuantan and arrived there as usual four hours later..... All over the roadside there are sign boards showing the direction to the new Highway that could be use in just a week away...... On arrival at Kuantan we decided to visit her straight away at the Kuantan General Hospital...... It is one of those thing of old age, complication and other factors when one get old..., She is almost seventy and lost her husband when she was rather young, she did not remarried..... They had three children, two daughter and a son and now the two daughters had married and had children of their own, so she is a grandmother now, the boy has yet go get married and live all the time in London and only came back from time to time..... Well that is life and all of us are in passing on the blue planet..... We saw her at the bedside in the first class section of the hospital and talk to her.....Telling her to be strong and take it east for illness is part of life and we all had it sometime or other  our life.... After the visiting hours end we left her and head for the nearest hotel to spend the night there, before proceeding to Kuala Terengganu the next morning.......

Hi! I am back.... Have not been blogging for almost a week, went for a short holiday to the east coast.... Just back this evening and would be blogging again as usual.....

Blogging, yet another day and life continue to be wonderful.... Just an hour or so I met a friend at a coffee shop having his breakfast of tosei and teh tarik, among the usual breakfast that million of Malaysian have every morning, He ask me to join him for breakfast.... Malaysian always invite friends who happen to be around at eating time to join in and sometime it happen to friendly stranger also.... It is our way and it has been like that all the time that I know...., the Chinese Malaysian, when meeting friends or other would greet with the usual greeting of " Sudah makan" in Malay, which mean Have you eaten.... The Chinese never greet the westerner's way of saying How are you..... They always say Have you eaten..... It is their concerned for the wellbeing of their fellow being, that makes them greet others  this way.... It is indeed a beautiful way of greeting others.... Now a day one just say Hi or How are you or 'Apa khabar' which in Malay mean How are you..... The greeting may differ among Malaysian, but it meant the same.... It is a contact point to start the friendship or to make one.... I did not accept the invitation of my friend to join him for a drink  simply because I am having a takeaway of the same breakfast back to my house to enjoyed it with my wife and daughter, I do this from time to time for the love of it all.... Enjoying breakfast with my dear one..... I took the takeaway and thanks my friends for the invitation and head for home before this takeaway get cold....... That was this morning breakfast of tosei .... A favorite south Indian breakfast spread, that had been Malaysianised......... That is how my day start today..... Great......To all my friends.... Have a nice day......

The renovation work at the ceiling is progressing well.... It is getting to look like the image of the ceiling that I had imaging in my mind..... To get to this level of artistic work I had to spend many hours of supervising the workers, for they lack the imagination, just a sorts of a semi skilled foreign workers that would just do any works that you ask them to do, they would always say they could do the work but if you do not supervised them all the time, the work would turn messy and not to your liking.... It cost money to do renovation works and if the job is not well done, it would ruin rather then getting the place  better then before.... So knowing this facts I took time off to do the supervision myself...... And I am happy that they followed all my instructions..... Of course sometime they do not like being told to this or that, but it is my house and I am going to see this renovation all the days later on and to the workers they would see it for a few days only and after that they would leaves and if the job is not well done, it is the house owner that would be left miserable..... So not to be in that position, I spend times to discuss with the workers what had to be done and it look like things are going fine up till now... One thing we should know that doing renovation works of a house is easy said then done and for some works it is difficult to get good contractor to do the job well and you yourself should have some skill in interior decoration if you want to get the job done to your liking, otherwise it is worth getting the service of professional, if not your money would be gone to waste, with a poor job... Most of the immigrant workers in this country say they could do the job, but Malaysian know well that from where these workers came, they simply do not have the know how of interior decoration except for a few, that you find from time to time.., you have to look for such person if you want to get workers that could do the job for you well... I got one person for this job but then he could not do it alone, so he had to get his friends to help, that is where the problem lies.... Some want to get a quick job done and get paid and some have no interest in the artistic approach, so one had to be extra careful when getting foreign workers to do the jobs that had to do with fine arts, like interior decoration... Since I love interior decoration and have some knowledge of this aspect of home decoration.... I did the supervision myself and for this I had to spend considerable time and at time get frustrated.... But then when dealing with such workers you had to expect it..... Like do not leave anything that you love, old woods, stoned or artifact lying around, they might not understand the value of these things and would use to cut timber or to support ladder or other uses.... This just happen to a piece of hard wood that I had kept all along for interior deco and they took it for a simple piece of wood to cut other wood on it, lucky I saw it before they create more damage to it.... So tell the worker not to touch any things that are around and to asked first before using anything that is yours.... It would save a lot of inconvenience later on..... I am happy that things are getting on as planned up till now and hope that it would turn out alright and we would have a new ceiling at the front of the house......Well that was my day.....

I am doing some renovation to the front part of our house, the ceiling need some improving.... so I got a freelance sorts of workers.... and get him to put a touch up for my ceiling.....And because this workers do not have the knowledge of renovation works that need artistic approach.... I had to be there to supervised the works, so that it would turn out to my liking.....So I hardly had any time to blogged today.....

Oh! What a great time we had last evening.... It was yet another wedding reception.... This time it was held at the grand ballroom of the Mutiara Hotel in the golden triangle of Kuala Lumpur.. This hotel use to be the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, the place to be in the seventies and the eighties... It was closed for some time and renovated and back as a new five star hotel of a class of its own, now it is know as Mutiara.... Mutiara is pearl in Malay..... It is indeed a jewel in this part of the city.... The hotel, then Kuala Lumpur Hilton was our play ground in those days, being back to this hotel after a lapse of  sometimes... Seem like going back in time to the great time we have had in the days of our youth.... Now entering the grand ballroom which still use the name Nirwana, it remind me of the many days and night that I organized official function at this great hall, it was then the only ballroom that could accommodate two thousand guest at a go.... The new renovation have been given a  face lift and a new life of it own, though the hall is still known as the Nirwana.... To me personally it bring pleasant memories of our days together attending dinner and dance at this great hall....  Now in our golden age, my wife and me are happy that this venue once where we had enjoyed the party and the dinner in another period of our life.... is still there in its glory.... For this wedding reception this hall were decorated with the pomp and splendor that befitting the King for the day.... We call the new wed couple the King and Queen for the Day.... It is one of those day of a Malay wedding where tradition and contemporary blended together into a glamorous fusion of today's culture... in the making..... As we arrived we were greeted by the host, a closed friend and his charming wife... with all the cheerfulness in their greeting and the happiness that come to parents at such an occasion, a wedding of their daughter.... We makes our way into the great hall and met the others that had arrived earlier and saw the arrival of others in their best dress, some like us came in our tradition dress and the young would come in their fashioned contemporary dress.... in all the color of the rainbows, so vibrant and blended well with the event of the day..... The wedding reception of  a young couple...... After all the guests had arrived, the guest were treated with serenade of great music and song of bygone era... era of the Ma and Pa that host this wedding reception.... They were of our age and soon the music and songs  transported us back in times to those days of the seventies and early eighty... I guessed all the music and songs were specially selected by the host.... It bring me back memories of the great time we have had in this same hall years ago......  We makes ourselves comfortable at one of the table where a couple, a friend of ours were already sited, we greet each other and talk about this new renovated hall, soon more guests arrived and three more couple join us at our table..... The table were beautifully laid, with a bouquet of flowers placed on the centre together with the menu, it shows a mixture of Chinese food and traditional Malaysian cooking, we enjoy the chat as the musician play on entertain us with the oldies.... Beautiful songs accompany by a combo of three professional musician...... It was really well presented and personally I really enjoy listen to those old melodies and songs..... Soon the bride and the groom parade in leads by little children, proudly dressed for the occasion... It was like in those Cinderella scene, with music to company, making it a colorful scene to watch, the bride and the groom follows behind dress smart in contemporary clothing, specially made for this occasion, a gorgeous couple indeed..... They parade on to the main dais where they present themselves to the public for the first time as husband and wife..... Then they seated at the main table for the dinner to start..... First as a starter, the famous Chinese dish 'shark fin soup' were served, it was well done and refreshing to enjoy such a wonderful cooking, I enjoy shark fin soup and it is only at the Chinese restaurant that such dish are served.... It has a flavor of its own and only the Chinese know how to create the greatness of the taste of the wonder this starter dish.... We enjoy the dish while the waiter brought more foods to the tables,.... And soon another waiter served rice, for those dishes that were placed on the table were best eaten with white rice, as it is usually done in this country.... Rice being our staple food, no dinner is complete without rice..... It has been our tradition and we love it, for rice is the miracle food that have been with us all along our civilization..... The spread of foods laid on the table in varieties... ranging from grilled prawns, roasted chicken, beef in Soya sauce with spring anions, soft taufoo in mix vegetables, fried fish, and many more.... It all goes very well with white rice..... We sat to enjoy the meals while listening to the music and the song that were serenaded by three youth, who themselves played string instruments, it was indeed a great performance a la the Spanish quintet, once make popular by young Filipinos....... As usual there were speeches, but it was done well, short and sweet..... And the Host were seen going from table to table to meet the guests, and at our table, being a close friend that live in the same neighborhood, I took some pictures with my digital camera.... Just to immortalize some of the scene of this great traditional event...... We chat and continue eating and then watch the couple taking picture with a change of dress, first in their western dress, than a sorts of a traditional Asian dress.... It was indeed a beautiful sight to watch.... These young couple enjoying the moment of their life.... Like we say here ' King and Queen' for a day.... They then dance to the tune of a slow waltz...... Enjoying themselves and at the same time provide the quest a scene of the loving couple at their best......What a day..... The music continue to play some oldies and to me it was real entertaining...... At the break outside.... I then met the young musician and congratulate them for the great performance........ Like all good thing, wedding events like this brings back old memories and it was real nice to recall some of the same event of our wedding that took place some forty years ago........ Now in our golden age..... We sit to enjoy another events in the ever going tradition that are pass from generation to generation, the pomp and the splendor of Malay wedding still the same, well preserved and adapting to the time, the time of our grandchildren....... One of the most important aspect of Malay wedding reception is that guests would arrived in their best clothes, whether traditional or contemporary..... Which in a way add color to the already colorful events...... Soon the event draws to an end with the serving of dessert and coffee or tea...... I love coffee..... And enjoy the great coffee that were served at the table.... With that, the event ended at just after eleven in the evening...... We then congratulate the couple who had waited at the entrance and thanks the hosts for a great evening that we all enjoyed...... What an Evening..... A night to remember and talk about.., a receptions well done...... Great thanks to those proud parents that hosted this glorious event.....

Wow!.... Thanks Blogger for the new look to the formatting, those new buttons are really great, it would make blogging much fun... You people  at Blogger are really great, a really creative bunch of people...Thanks again for a job well done... I am indeed glad that I blog using Blogger... Have a nice day to all...

I just do not know why some people do not want to use their own name when sending email.., It is alright to use your registered user name but your real name should appear when sending mail.. They would use all sort of other names but their own.... I thinks there is something wrong with these people.. He or she probably have some sorts of a psychological problems and I think to some degree it shows the profile of such a person, like afraid of something or others.... I simply do not like to get email message from such address especially those that do not reveal their own name.... Just the other day I received an email from someone who works in one of the states in the Malaysian Borneo, who just refer himself as just siapa aku which translated into English means 'Who's Me or Who am I'... And to makes matter worse he use the Malay word aku instead of saya.... Using the Malay word aku to mean yourself to the general public is rather rude, the word saya would be a better word when making contact with the publics at large, especially to any new acquaintances or someone you have yet to meet... aku meaning Me is used among close friends only.... Why are these people hiding behind such name in their email address, I just do not really understand.... Perhaps they are worried to exposed themselves for the fear of the unknown.... To all such people out there I would like to advise them that they should not be afraid or shy to use their own name in an email address.... Instead they should be proud of their own name and used it as often as possible... Writing behind such a name shows that they are hiding something or are just afraid of exposing themselves.... So please be human about it and get out of that cocoon and be yourself....For being your true self is more important and precious than anything else... Hiding something!!...Is not a good sign, so be sincere about yourself and with that you would be able to handle the world better.... Have a nice day.....

Oh! Youth...What a time in your life!, say my friend who live in the California desert.... She has since sold her home in the desert and move to Tucson, Arizona and is still look for a new home..., the last I heard from her that she is still living in the suitcase and with a laptop computer given by her son, she has managed to wonder into cyberspace and that is how I know that she is still active and still looking for a new habitat to live... Like I had said before.... We human move all the time and if possible we do not like to be at the same spot all our live.. Of course there are a few that just do not want to move at all, but then these are the very few.... Most of us just love moving around and I guessed that is why we have legs and the brain to think of how to get around faster.... We are as yet satisfied of the speed of getting around and we are all the time looking of means and ways of getting around faster..... With our great asset the brain, we have develop the capacity to think all the time so that we human would have a better quality of life as we go on and one way of improving our quality of life is to be able to communicate better,thus the internet and with that we now have another media to communicate with ease and faster.... As for the physical way of transporting ourselves we have managed to invent machines that could fly faster and faster and eventually we would be able to get where we want to go on this planet faster then ever before... And in doing so we would surely improve our quality of our life beyond the dream of our forefathers... Coming back to the subject of Youth, to me it is a very interesting period of our journey of life... It is at this period that we would venture into many uncharted and unknown territories and experiences many new things that at time look rather foolish but youth is like that a period of challenges between peer group.... As most of us are single or unattached during this period, we would do things and wonder with excitement in what we do, like party all night long and enjoy careless about the new world that we would be going through, you makes friends along the way and at time you makes enemies as well for we are never without fault.... Some of the friendships last and some just became an acquaintance and as years goes by you soon lost track of them... But some of your closes friends, whether of the same sex like you or not you thence to stick around and continue to be friends..... As you progress in life with the energy of youth, you venture further and then when you have enough education, you go on to pursue you ambition and your career.... And just as you are at the peak of your youth, you met someone and love blossom... And in most cast in our culture you get married and settled down..... And began to live a life that are difference from that you left, the life as a single during your youth.... You now have responsibility that come with the new environment... And your live as a youth slowly began to end and you soon wonder what a change it has been and wished that you would be able to return to the land of 'youth' forever and continue enjoying life like no tomorrow.... But then as human you just could not just do that....For in our journey of life...Youth comes only at one time in that journey and if you do not use it to the fullest, then you miss that great opportunity... So to all those young people, with reasons do all those things and enjoy your youth and believe me you would never regret for that great moment in you life,as a youth... And as for me I am be proud to have gone through that kind experience in my Youth, for the period of youth just come but once in our entire life time... I love my 'youth' and enjoy every minute of whatever I did and have no regret at all for whatever happen, has happened and I believe that life is like that and we should enjoy every minute of it especially during our youth, for it is during our youth that we have more energy and the will to face all kind of challenges that came before us..... It is indeed a wonderful time the 'youth' in all of us....So my advise to all those young people, make "hays while the sun shines"....For this sun do not shine always..... Have a go with the time and you would surely have plenty of experiences and wisdom to talk about it at your golden age....My friends that is life.....

This is a panoramic view of the city of Kuala Lumpur....With the KL tower and the KLCC on the background..... 

This weekend we decided to leave for Malacca, we left the city at just past eight on Friday and took the North South Highway toward the south...As usual we got to the Sungei Besi Highway Toll and after going through the toll plaza, we proceed to the Malacca via the Air Keroh toll plaza..... Just after the toll plaza, I thought about my cell phone and took it to see whether it is ok, the reason being that our daughter and her friend wanted to do a tour of the city and that we would leave them at the city centre and than we would proceed to our apartment at Pantai Putri, with the cell phone it would be easy for us to contact each other later.... And when I look at my cell phone I found that there was no network connection, it is just blank, but the battery is ok so I check the micro chip to see whether it is in placed, with electronic sometime a slight miss match or not in contact the cell phone would not work... After doing all that I know about this cell phone I still could not see any network connection...So I decided to check the other phone that belong to my wife and it is still the same... I stop the car and decided to do a through check but it look like both cell phone are out... While driving I wonder what has happen to our cell phones, has the system network of the company broke down or what has happened.... It look like that we would not be able to use both cell phones for now.... When we got to the center of the city I drop our daughter and her friend and told them that since the cell phones could not be used and if it still like that later on, then we would not have any meant of communication with each other, as the apartment, there is not telephone.... With the introduction of the cell phone we have disconnect our fixed line phone at the apartment since we hardly used it now.....Our daughter say that not to worry and that they would take a cab after they have done their tour of the city....Well it is fine with us and I drove on and got to the apartment and still wondering and hoping that at this location I would get a connection, but still I did not get any connection and I keep asking others about this problem and did not seem to get anywhere.... So at the reception counter I asked the receptionist and almost all of them could not help me, until a young lady say that she had the same problem before and that she might be able to help... She say that you have to check the network and she did it and soon we got our cell phone running again, Oh! What a relief....After getting use to life with the cell phone...Without one, I am almost lost.... Like all new electronic gadgets, the young gets to it like duck to the water, but to people like me, in our golden age, the few things that I know about the cell phone are to makes call, received call, store telephone numbers in its memory bank and a little of SMS, other then that...I know very little about this tiny communication unit,whereas the young would used it in so many other ways, for games, calculator, and downloading music tone and others....Well it look like today I learned something new about using this cell phone... That is to check the network if the phone just go blank... As I had often said....We all keep learning and that is life....And the cell phone is now part of our life for without it we all are lost of how to communicate at an instance.... That is life with the cell phone.... Never leave your home without it, that is my motto now.... That is the new world we live now and cell phones are getting more sophisticated now, with camera and other features, like sending email and more..... To be in the know I guessed that I have to keep learning.... What a life in this golden age....Great....

This is the map of the new Highway to the Kuantan on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia... It would be open to the public this August.... It would reduced the traveling time from Kuala Lumpur to Kuantan considerably...And would make traveling to Kuantan a pleasure....The present road to Kuantan from Karak is still the same old road that was built during the colonial era and it takes some four hours to travel and with the new Highway it would just take about two an a half hours.... A great way to travel and enjoy the journey.... 

For those that are married here is a quote that I believe worth a ponder... It is the real world out there...

" Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished " -J.W.Von.Goethe.

Senduduk..... A wild flower found in the bush of the Malaysian roadside.... 

Quote:

"Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends whom we choose"...... Tehyi Hsieh..

It rain and I love rain, so I went out to the patio in front of our house and sat at the kopitian table and watch the rain and the wind that blows hard against the rattan blind that hang out front, I had put up the blind just to get the sun out at some evening and it has being hanging there all the while and once a while when strong wind blows it would just sways and brush against the side of the pillar that support the transparent roof, that keep the rain away, but allow the light to get through...I sat there listening to the pattering of the rain and the sound of the wind and watch the tree sways as the wind blows....There were no bird or insect around...They had fled away just before the rain...So now it is just the sound of the rain and wind bashing the tree against each other, making noise as it does... As I had said I love the rain and the smell of freshness that comes with it and at time it bring memories of my childhood when we would play in the rain in front of our house, careless of the world and enjoying ourselves and shivering in the cold until our little fingers get numb and shrink with the cold... I sat there and my mind wonder in silence and got lost track of the time... I was far away...To nowhere...Enjoying my fantasy....Imagining....And for a while living in fantasy land of a sorts.... A car horned and it jolt myself back to reality..... I laugh and continue to watch the rain... I went in to take a book to read out here while it rain outside....The rain bring down the temperature and it is a bit cool out here... I read a few passage of the book and at time I laugh at the characters that was portray in this book of a story of my county, some years gone by in the colonial period... It tell about a story of an anthropologist who was telling about his experiences while working in Africa.... A friend of his told him that if you want to help the local, you have to learn their language and understand their culture....So while he was doing a research in a village in Africa He was told by his boss that if He want to learn the language he had to stay in the hut for six months.....And stayed He did... And all he did during that time to communicate with the host were to 'point' with his finger at anything that He want and it goes on for the six months he was living in the hut with his host....And he told his friends that all he had learned during all the time was pointing his finger and that the host also did the same thing 'pointing a finger'.... Well that was how he managed to communicate and in the end he never learn the language of the native.... The communication was just done by pointing finger....So that is what makes me laugh... Well at least it makes my day.....

This is the patio of our house, it is call the Serambi in Malay... It is a place to sit and relax with friends for a cup of coffee, just for the fun of it and enjoy... All traditional Malay houses have serambi but in today's modern houses this part of the house has been left out and not to be seen anymore ...And as for my house I had it specially built to reflect my love for the tradition and the feeling that comes with the Malay traditional house.... Nostalgic I guessed... We would sit lotus style on a mat and relax.... A great concept of making it part of the house and yet it is outside the main house, thus it does not bother others if you and your friends stayed late to yarns and chat there.. What an interesting concept and it shows the wisdom of the past, our great heritage and the way to enjoy life in a simple way.....  

I guessed it is part of old age that sometime it works perfect but sometime it do not.... It is not me this time...It is my Classic Volvo....The brake do not seem to work and since the brake is a major part of any car...I just could not take any chance....It look like I had to sent it to the specialist to get it fixed... So I call the club's mechanic and told him of the problem and sure enough He say that it is a serious problem and He would attend it the next day.... So the next day a tow truck came and took my beau to the specialist.... It look like not only our species had to go to the specialist to get cured... My classic too had to be attended by a specialist since brake problem is considered a major problem in cars....Since a failed break is a disaster in waiting.... Not wanting to take any chance I told the mechanic to do what he could and get it done.... In the evening the mechanic call saying that it is a major brake failure and he had rectified it and it is now ok and ready to go.... Well as usual I asked him what is the damaged done... He say it is not much and the cost is reasonable for that type of surgery.... Well what can I say... It is another of those unexpected thing that happen in old age and the expenses is unforeseen, as we all know well, in budgeting we sometime makes allowances for 'unforeseen circumstances' and it look like this one is just that....And another unforeseen payment had to be made... It is one of those things that happen in real life... So the next morning I took a cab to the workshop and got the car back well running.... I just do not like to drive this classic through the city, without the power steering and automatic transmission, it need lots of energy to drive and maneuver it through those city roads and that many traffic lights....And it happen just before the lunch break so the traffics is a bit messy with many cars on the roads, on both sides of the roads.... It look like that people seem to be staying on the wrong side of the city all the time... Sometime I wonder why people living in the south had to go to work in the north or the west or the east... Why can't they live on the same side of the city and by doing so they do not have to criss crossed the city to get to their working places... But I guessed that is human nature.... We thence to settled at the wrong place all the time and had to travel to get to work... And no matter how much planning, we still landed to be living on the other side of the city or the streets... What is wrong with our species I just do not now.... May be a study should be done on this.... Like get the job first and then get the place to live.... Well it look like it is the story of the chicken and egg again.... Which one come first.... The egg or the chicken... Your answer is as good as mine... I think.... We would never be able to find the correct answer to this phenomenal of life... And as far as Malaysia is concerned it look like the number of cars on the roads goes on increasing.... The latest statistic released recently showed that in the year two zero zero three, some seven hundred and fifty thousand new vehicles were registered and that the estimated numbers to be registered this year would reach the one million mark....So it look like that we are going to have more and more cars on the road in the year to come.... It is a sorts of a Malaysian dream, everyone want to have a car of their own.... What can we say.... It is the best mode of getting from one place to another and it is at your command, unlike the LRT or the Monorail, it works on a fixed schedules and not at all at your command.... I guessed human being love to be at their own command.... So the cars are their choice..... That my friends is life......

We had a great Bar B Q at our daughter's house, nearby on the Saturday evening... It was a sorts of a family get together where three generations of the family were there, Us the grand's, our daughters and the grand children... And of course our son in law were there too... And this evening we had a guest as well... It was indeed interesting to be together in an atmosphere of joy, cooking, grilling on open fire and enjoying every minutes of the get together, that at time thence to be hilarious as the children having fun playing together at the small playground near the Bar B Q spot, where a table covered by a check table cloth, is set up in the open air... Like that you often see in the movie... But this evening it is for real, in a family get together in the tropic and on Saturday night.... The weather is rather humid and it is still hazy.... It look like it going to drizzle and it would be alright if it just drizzle and I hope it do not shower for it would spoil our outdoor Bar B Q and the fun that come with such a gathering... Surely we are not the only family that are having this sorts of evening gathering... I believe the same type of gathering of families are happening, at this very moment at another house or location in this country, or in another countries where the time zone are the same... And in places where the time zone are different, maybe families are just preparing to have their Bar B Q or in a different time zone ahead of ours, they had just finished having one... I guessed that Bar B Q have become a today's world culture of a sorts, being enjoyed by all, no matter where they are... It is the human in us that want to be together with our loved one and enjoy the good life... And a get together like this is a mean to an end ...The closeness.. Among family members..... So we got the chicken, the prawn and the lamb grilled and with the salad and the grilled potatoes and the sweet potatoes ready, we sat down to enjoy the spreads and chat among family... With the children careless about what is happening with the world around them and obviously enjoying the evening fun..., and our guest, a young American I supposed were enjoying this evening as well and perhaps nostalgic of such gathering back home sometime ago with his family... Well surely it would bring him good memories of home and the longing to be back home in California... Funny though... We long to be home when we are away... It is the same with all the culture, whether you are from the East or the West or wherever you are from.. Home is always in your heart...There is a saying here Hujan mas dinegeri orang, hujan batu dinegeri sendiri, lebeh baik dinegeri sendiri translated into English... "It rain gold in other countries, it rain stones in your own country, it is still better to be in your own country".. Well it is always like that with us... Home... Is still the best... So we chat and play with the grandkids and enjoy the foods and eventually call the night off at just before midnight... And looking forward for yet another such gathering the next time... Maybe when our foster children from Italy are around here with us come this October... It would then be another round of fun at another Bar B Q.... Well that is life .... Have fun....

Oh! What a great day....This morning at just past eleven in the morning a taxi came over to the house.... I was wondering why... Who had call a taxi on this Saturday morning.... Not me, maybe our daughter... But then she has just arrived home early this morning in a taxi from the Sentral station after a night traveling by train from Singapore and she and her fried are asleep now .... She could not get the bus to return to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore and instead took the night train from Singapore, that arrived in the wee hours of the morning at the Kuala Lumpur train station know as the Sentral Station, a new hub for trains and other means of communication that services the city of Kuala Lumpur.... The taxi stop at the gate and I was at the patio at that time, I saw the taxi driver alighted from the taxi and came over to the gate and asked me whether anyone had lost a small purse and that he had come to returned it to this address... I supposed that they got the address from the document inside the purse... Well for a few seconds I was lost... I asked the taxi driver whether He was the driver that send our daughter and her friend this morning and He said He did not and that another taxi driver did that... He continue to say that He had been asked to returned this purse that was found at the station.... He handed me the purse and I asked him to wait while I talk to my wife and wake up our daughter, who after the night train journey were exhausted and decided to sleep... And at the same time I unzipped the purse and true enough there inside the purse were our daughter's Identity Card,Credit Card and some changes... I paid the fare to the good taxi driver and thanks him for the good deed and at the same time send and an email of thanks to the authority at the Sentral... Well actually our daughter did not even realized that she had lost her purse and that only when it was returned that she realized the purse was missing....Thanks to those good people at the Sentral, the purse that contain among other things important documents... This incident manifest the value of our people who took upon themselves to do the good to others, thus result in the returned of the purse to its rightful owner, intact... What a Great relief to us that it is returned before it is even considered lost... Like I had said time and again....Life is a circle... If you do good deed and have good and caring heart you would not loose anything and in the greater scheme of things you would eventually be rewarded in some ways of others.... We have always teaches our children to be good and not to take anything that do not belong to them and if they ever found anything.., do take the trouble to return it to it rightful owner.... And at the same time do give a helping hand to others in time of needs... In my life things like these happen many times and I had always find a way to return the things that are not mine.... So today it is our turn to be on the receiving end.....That purse that was lost was returned before even the lost was notice....Thanks God for the guidance that had made this possible.... Good value and Us of being human, true to spirit of all our religious teaching... I had always believed that there are more good people with great hearts out there than those that are bad or evil.... I also believe the if we sow the good on our journey of life, goodness would be harvested in return and it is my belief that we should do all the good and give love sincerely without or never asking or want anything for doing it, just do it with the great feeling that you are doing something good and the rest leave it to the Creator to judge us, for the Lord knows and He is Love and the reward would just come when you least expected... Like what happen today.... The returned of the purse.... Is it not something to ponder... The magic of life itself.... Wonderful.. The true meaning of life... The beauty of life.... The spirit of being human... So on our journey of life, while we walk, run, climb and doing our daily works, do it diligently and with care, as well do its all in the spirit of goodness and love, and asked not for any reward or thanks, for it would come in due time... And when it comes you would feel so good that you something wonder whether you really deserved all the love and goodness that life brings from time to time.... Remember We all are in passing on this blue planet and if we could do just one good deed a day than life would be great and rewarding... The reward would manifest in many ways, that only time would tell.... For goodness would always be return with goodness...And Love would be returned with Love.... And with that life would be beautiful all through... What happen today shows that those people at the Sentral had good management style in their operation and with that comes the quality of people that they employed.., that in turn resulting in the product its services...A great services indeed... For my family and Me we salute those good people at the Sentral for a job well done, in the spirit of the Malaysian value that we deeply treasured... A heritage that had been passed down from generation to generation, in doing so making Malaysia great and it people greater then life itself.... Terima Kasih.....

[ the website of the Sentral ]

White Bougainvillaea that bloom throughout the year at our garden.... 

Smile!... It cost nothing to smile but It give others the beauty of life, which just could not be bought... It is a contribution that would makes life wonderful not only for yourself but to others that you makes contact when you smile... Is it not wonderful to have that special feeling of the wonder of a smile at the vary moment it happen.... You smile and the other smile back... You feel great and no amount of words could explain the enlivens and the feeling of love among us, so do smile for it not only brighten your day, its would as well brighten others as well... Once I visit a communist country and I was rather surprise that no one smile and when you look at them it is just like looking at a mannequin... Without the aura and the expression of love but instead you could feel that the person is afraid to even makes contact.... Maybe those people did not realized it but to us in Asia who are always friendly to others specially to strangers from another country, we fell the effect of such encounter.. It so inhuman... I believed that in a communist country that is so regimented, people do not like to make contact especially with strangers....Maybe they are afraid of being watch by big brother... But being in a free world we sometime forget that contact among human are an important factor of being human... When I was living in the USA, every time I walk among the crowed, some stranger would look at you and greet you by saying 'How you doing', or just 'Hi'!... And you return the greeting with a smile and reply that you are all right or simply 'Great'and end it of with 'Have a nice day or take care'... So you feel that you are not alone in the crowed...You are recognized and you exist in the crowed... But is some society people would just refused to make contact ... In Malaysia if you ask a stranger for help, He or She would try to help with a smile and it is a part of our culture to assist people who need a little information... That is our way and a thanks you and a smile would go a long way in making friends... So do smile for it cost nothing... Perhaps it could be the beginning of a new days of friendship in your life.... Who knows.... But if you refused to just smile or acknowledged a smile then you would be on the loosing end... For life is like that and someone has to start to communicate and it all start with a smile... Sure have a nice day and do not forget to Smile!!!