Hari Raya Quarban 2009

I woke up at 8a.m. when Choo’s house phone rang. While waiting for Choo to wake up, I spent time taking out my white hair. There are so many visible ones on top and on the sides. I cannot imagine those at the back, must be over hundred of them.

We left the house around 10.30a.m. and went to town. Choo parked the car just in front of the Filipino market across from Servay Hypermarket. We walked to one of her friend’s shop to chit-chat or more like to kill time, before adjourning to Belmont Marco Polo Hotel for their weekend/public holiday buffet.

When we arrived at 11.30a.m., there was only one table occupied with a family of three persons. We chose a table near the window in the middle of the restaurant. Choo thought the buffet starts at 11.30a.m. but in fact the correct time is 11.00a.m.

The first thing Choo went for was the waffles. But she did not eat it until later on. She only ate half and I did not finish the other half for her.

I started off with salad. I always have soft spot for potato salad but tried not to take too much cos they filled up the tummy. The sausage and cucumber salad tasted absolutely yummy combined with the salad dressing. I did not like the tuna and boiled egg salad though.

Next I attacked the main course of 'nasi briyani' with lamb & fish curries, fried squid and a pathetic looking & overcooked prawn. Thumbs up for the lamb curry.

I did not have any other choices besides fried noodles so I took some and had them with some more lamb curry, the much loved salad and some potato wedges.

The first time when I wanted to try the ‘ikan bakar’, the waitress who was serving this walked away so I had to go back again and she was not there the second time so I helped myself. After she saw me trying to cut out the flesh of the fish with the knife and fork provided, she came over and served me. The fish went well with the 'belacan' sauce.

This tandoori drumstick was staring at me since the time I took a peek at all the main courses. I knew my tummy would be filled if I took one but I still did it. It was a bit on the dry side but still tasty.

Choo had the Indonesian ‘gado-gado first and told me to pick those that I wanna eat and go over to the counter so that the waitress can serve me with the sauce that was boiling hot instead of taking the sauce which was at room temperature on the buffet spread. When I was eating the 'gado-gado', they brought back a lot of memories for me cos I used to eat lots of them when I was in Down Under since some of my friends are from that country.

Then it was time for something sweet, though I usually avoid them most of the time.

The teeny weeny bit of ‘cendol’ was too sweet for me.

I tried a little bit of some of the desserts. Surprisingly they were not too sweet.

Lastly I had some fruits.

We were the last ones to leave after 2p.m. With our tummy full, we went around town for a little bit of shopping. Choo is so familiar with the town until she knows where are all the shops with cheap sales. I bought a couple of cheap T-shirts with unique prints of food on them without trying on them.

I also bought a kilogram of rambutans at the fruit market, next to the Filipino market across from Servay Hypermarket.

We went to a shoes shop and though the shoes were on sales, the prices are not cheap at all.

At Milimewa Supermarket, while Choo was searching for clothes from the pile of clothes on sale, I was looking for a thin sweater so that I can have a choice of which one to bring whenever I go for my short trips. Sophia Tsen called while I was doing this.

The white and light blue waterproof Cheetah thin jacket that I have for a few years looks a bit too sporty. I found one maroon colour (also from the Cheetah range) that fitted me quite nicely but I did not want to pay RM40 for it and told Choo to eye it for me should the price comes down.

After going to other places and shops for window shopping, then it was time to go home but before that we had to have dinner first.

We went to this restaurant at Taman Megah Jaya. One of Choo's church members told her about this restaurant. There were some tables with customers eventhough the time was only 6p.m. when we arrived.

The Wet Butter Prawns were a bit overcooked but very fresh and big. The sauce was a bit of the thin side as well.

The Stir-Fried Sabah Veges with Garlic were crunchy and not too old.

This Beancurd Hotpot was by far the best I ever had. The reason was the chef had put a tad of Rice Wine inside and the combination of wine and the food brought out a taste that was beyond words. (Normally I do not like to take the Chicken in Rice Wine).

As usual I had to finish everything that was on the table. Thank you Choo for the lovely dinner.

With so much food being consumed today, I had to burn off the calories. When we arrived home at Choo's place, we did some cleaning before taking shower. While Choo waited for the movie to come on, I had some rambutans before retiring for the night. I was quite sleepy by then.

Am I Ready?

Had dinner after 5p.m. since CTY was coming to fetch me to T2 at 6p.m. But he called before 6p.m. to say that he would come at 6.20p.m. At 6.20p.m. I went outside the house to wait since the weather was cooler outside with some breeze. Thank God I did not get any mossie bites.

CTY arrived at 6.35p.m. and there was major traffic congestion at Lintas Highway. He wanted to make a U-turn at the junction to City Mall but decided against it at the last second.

I was already hungry by the time we arrived at the Lintas Highway/Kolam Road intersection. CTY suggested we dropped by the bakery but I just wanna get to the airport.

Arrived at T2 just after 7p.m. The officer at the check-in counter asked where was Sophia Tsen. Unfortunately I had to tell him she was not coming.

There was a long queue as passengers were lining up to go through security check. Since I was travelling domestic, I did not have to go through Immigration. When I showed the Air Asia officer my I/C and boarding pass, he mentioned that the plane would only touch down at 9.05p.m. (My flight was supposed to be at 8.20p.m.) Shucks. Why can’t the other officer at the check-in counter inform all passengers when they checked in? I would not go in so early if he had told me. I would find food to eat first. But as a consolation, at least I had music and a book to occupy my time.

The plane did not touch down until 9.20p.m. and we boarded the plane ten minutes later. Since I was allocated the middle seat on the second last row, I boarded the plane at the rear door. Both my neighbours were already at their seat when I arrived.

As I was settling down in my seat, suddenly I heard a man saying that his seat had been occupied. My neighbour at the window seat sat on the wrong seat. Her seat was on the last row right aisle. My neighbour at the aisle seat & I got out from our seat to allow the lady to get out from our row.

After that my neighbour at the aisle seat picked up her bag and dumped it on the floor of the window seat. I thought she knew the man who was supposed to sit at the window seat. Apparently she did not and I think she was angry that the flight had been delayed.

Since construction work is still going on at the airport, the pilot announced that we had to wait for our turn to be air-borne. The announcement woke up the angry lady and when she realised that the plane had not even gone up to the air, she uttered the word ‘stupid’ and told the pilot to ‘shut up’.

I think we must have waited for what seemed like half an hour before we were air-borne.

The flight was smooth most of the way until we were about to reach Tawau. I experienced the worst turbulence in my whole life. If we did not have the seat belt on, I was pretty sure our head would have touched the ceiling on top of our seat. It was in this kind of situation, though I did not have any flash back of the past, I started thinking if I was taken from this world into the presence of the Almighty, would I be ready at that moment? I am happy to say I am.

The plane arrived Tawau Airport at 11p.m. I felt as if instead of arriving in Tawau, we had gone to KL cos of the delay and wasted time to be air-borne.

Choo Siow Chin met two strangers at the airport and talked to them in order to pass time waiting for me to arrive.

Since I was hungry, we were going to a coffee shop in her housing estate to have supper. When we reached the coffee shop, the rain was coming down. We thanked God that I had already arrived safely.

There were still some customers at the coffee shop and they were singing karaoke so loud. On some tables were lots of empty bottles of beer. We were not able to order anything because the chef had retired for the night.

We went back to Choo’s house and I cooked instant noodles to have for supper. We chit-chatted until 1.30a.m. and would have continued if I did not feel sleepy.

The Christmas Tree

This morning when I woke up, I prayed and asked God to give me good weather tonight after work so that CTY and I can go and collect the Christmas tree.

At 4.00p.m. there was no electricity supply in the office. I decided to leave after 4.30p.m.

Besides having good weather (an extremely hot one), we did not have to rush after dinner because the shop closes at 8p.m.

As we were at the back of Karamunsing Complex, a car was reversing out from the parking bay and we parked at that parking bay, outside the complex. PTL!

We went straight to the shop. The boss told us that his worker can help us to carry the box to the car. But since CTY was looking for something to buy and could not find it in this shop, I told the boss that we will come back.

CTY found what he wanted to buy in another shop and we returned to the shop.

The worker carried the box to the car.

This is the original Christmas tree with the in-built lights on. I have indirectly searched for a tree like this for the past eight years.

I still have not put these three boxes of decorations onto the tree.

Dinner at Home

Curtain

When we first bought the house, this is the curtain in my bedroom but of course in better condition. I like this curtain very much because it blocks out all sunlight or street lights from coming in.

But recently it depleted until this condition and I have to decide when to get new one.

Mum has been bugging me to take action but I have been in my ‘take it easy’ mode. By this I mean somehow it would work out in the end ie. I have the peace that God will provide.

And indeed He did provide. This came from Aunty Alice’s house in SDK and now it is mine. FOC.

'Buah Tampui'

This is first time I have seen and eaten this fruit.

Monica Leong gave them to me two days ago. She bought them at the Gaya Street Sunday market.

On the inside the shape is a bit like mangosteen. It tasted sourish and therefore I do not really like it.

At least I tried it.

Dinner at Home

Backyard

Today's Happenings

I had to arrive Canaanland Celebration early today as the other Usher Leader for the odd months Mr. Quek Lip Kie and his family had gone to KL for a break and therefore I had to help him out. in the haste of getting out of the house, I had forgotten the sermon notebook and the envelope for the offering.

Ivy Voon led P&W while Andrew Tai played the guitar and back up for Ivy. Beatrice Hiew was playing the keyboard while Terrence Lim was on the drums.

Rev. Lee Tak Vui preached on ‘Living Wisely.’

After Canaanland Celebration, Monica Leong asked whether I was free for lunch and I told her I wanted to go to Karamunsing Complex to hunt for Christmas tree.

I parked my car behind Chiu Thai Seng Supermarket and went into Monica’s car.

I directed her to park at the open space carpark once again. At first we thought one carload of people had just arrived and therefore there was no more parking bay available. But they were getting out of the place. As we were waiting for the car to get out, two other drivers were looking for available parking bay as well.

We went to have Usagi Japanese Restaurant for lunch.

The price of the Sushi Moriawase is not only cheaper than Fukurou Japanese Restaurant but it also comes in a set but the raw stuff were a bit fishy.

After lunch we went to search for the Christmas tree. We could not find the shop Sophia was telling me about. And after searching for a while, I called Sophia and it happened that she did not have any classes at UMS. Therefore she could tell me the exact location.

We found the shop and I saw some of trees were exactly the same ones I saw at Servay Hypermarket yesterday. I avoided those ones altogether.

I decided to buy the 6’ feet tree with in-built lights. The problem was I did not realise the whole thing was so heavy. There was no way Monica and I could carry it. Plus the tree would not be able to fit in her Proton Wira.

So I told the boss my dilemma and asked whether he could reserve one for me. He suggested I paid for it and they would store it for me until such time I could get a bigger car to transport it home.

CTY would only be back in two days’ time so I could only have the tree at the earliest on Wednesday night. If not, then I would have to wait until I come back from my Tawau trip.

After buying the Christmas tree, we went elsewhere for window shopping and suddenly mum called to ask where I was. She told me to takeaway some food for afternoon tea. So I bought two chicken puffs and ‘Siew Pau’s.

Before we left Karamunsing Complex, I finally bought the anti-virus for my pc. The original anti-virus expired long time ago and I did not bother to renew the licence online. At least I got it done.

When I came home, I had this chicken puff for afternoon tea.