Happy Merdeka Malaysia.

Tomorrow we will celebrate our 53rd  Independent day.

 53 years is a long time.  May this year be a special year. I prayed   God will continue to prosper this nation and give wisdom to our Prime Minister and his cabinet  ministers. I prayed those who sowed seeds of discord will be silent. I prayed everyone will live peacefully with one another. I prayed there will not be any mistrusted with one another. I prayed the spirit of rascialism will be nullified. I prayed that we will truly be one race, -Malaysian.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALAYSIA.

 

Photography workshop

Since getting my olympus Slr camera, this is the first time I had signed up to attend a photography workshop.It was organised by the olympus e-system malaysia.  I thought since I had my trusted Gps with me , one hour should be enough to find the place. I started my drive from klang at around 9.00am after having my breakfast and reached Mont Kiara with half an hour to spare or so I thought, but it directed me to a wrong location and meanwhile the time was catching up and it was past the 10.00 am and I still could not find the place. I had arrived at the residence area of Mont Kiara instead of the business center, I tried to call the office only to listen to their voice recording. It was an off day at Olympus, being a saturday. I almost felt like giving up and headed for home ,when I received a call from their office, and got the direction to their office. When I reached there, the meeting had already started. Soon it was lunch time and for our pratical we drove to the butterfly park to put into practice what we had learnt from the workshop. We were given about  one hour and 20 minutes to take our photos and we were to meet at the car park at the agreed time. We we finally reached the car park we found the gate was locked and the guard had gone home. The organiser sought the help from the staff at the butterfly park and a couple of phone calls were made and after half an hour it appeared no one  was coming to unlock the gate.So the instructed someone from their office to break the lock. Everyone was shouting for joy. Apparently we were not the only one who were locked out. There were other tourists and visitors as well  to the park, who had parked their cars at the same place where our cars were parked.

We met at the olympus again and each participant were to select at least two of their favourite photos for the lecturer to comment. I had pick up quite a bit from this workshop and I think this is money well spent and reasonally priced compared to those offered by other company .The fees is inclusive of a lunch, hand out and a free photography magazine worth Rm9.00.
Here are some of  the photographs taken . Hope you will enjoyed them, as much  as I enjoyed taking them.

Holiday at Hatyai

After my retirement, and in between jobs, it was time for a break and since Air asia has added Hatyai to their route I deceided to have my holiday there. It has been quite a while since I last went there.I think it was around the 70s they still have flight to Hatyai and then they stop flying. Prior to August, those visiting the part of Thailand have to take the bus or  fly to alor star and from there take a van or taxi to Hatyai.  Not many people were aware that now they can fly from Kuala Lumpur to Hatyai and were surprised when I told them I came by plane. 

Even though flying saved alot of time and is very convenience, I will avoid flying if it was possible . Ever since my last unpleasant experience on a domestic flight to the east coast of malaysia, where the plane flew through an air pocket, I had this fright when ever I fly.Even on this trip there was some suspense(at least for me) when the chief stewardess announced "Ladies and Gentlemen the fasten your seat belt is now on  due to turbulence" Thank God, nothing happen, otherwise I would not be blogging this .

Anyway back to my trip at Hatyai, nothing has changed much except for some new Hotels. However one thing I noted was our Ringgit was not readily accepted anymore, unlike those days, when our currency was much stronger against the Baht. So I have to shop carefully and smartly. I am still not use to the food serve here,other than those served in the Hotels,which is quite expensive. Lee Gardens still serve buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner after all these years. This is a favourite place for tourists and this is value for money.Just for 100 baht( 10 malaysian ringgit )you can eat to your heart's content and maybe skip lunch if you are having breakfast and  dinner if you are having lunch. I met an elderly man who introduced himself as Tan and offered to take me around town and of course I had to buy him a meal each time. One of the morning he took me to a bah kut teh restaurant. After seeing what he had ordered, I order porridge instead. Guess what was in the bah kut teh?  Pig blood and Pig brain..Oh I am gonna be sick. I notice garlic are served with the skin and certainly not chopped into little pieces like back home.

When you are in Hatyai one of the must is a foot massage and a fully body massage.I did not want to missed this either and pamper myself to a good  foot massage after walking around so much.

It was a good trip. As they say in Thailand Sabai, sabai. 

foot massage

massage girls to pamper you.

I must be crazy,

  I used to tease my friend who seems to be taking part in marathon and used to run in almost every marathon and even goes overseas just to take part in the race. In fact it was like every month that he and lately together with his girl friend, they will be in some kind of a race.One moment they will be at Malacca, and next they will be at Penang or Singapore. I guess that is their passion. Some how got myself talk into doing a back to back hike at tabur east and west this morning. Talk about being crazy I used to call my friend crazy. Now looks like who is crazy. I left  klang for taman melawati at 5.15am and reach there around 6.05 am and waited for the rest of the gangs to arrived and we began to climb up the mountain at 7.15am at Tabur East and  came down around 11.15am almost 3 hours plus due to alot of stop. I took my niece along on this trip.(yes I must have been crazy since this is her first hike)  Got to our cars , get some stuff and started to climb tabur west. Unlike the east side , there was'nt much shade on the west side and at 11 plus the sun was  just unbearable. By the time we got down around 3.00pm  almost after 9 hours of hiking, my legs just refuse to cooperate with me and I had to sit down quite frequently just to rest my feet., while waiting for my niece to catch up with me.  What a relief it was when we finally reach at the foot of the hill. I am really proud of my niece, being a first timer hiker she did alright. After a quick  change to a dry shirt we headed straight to a reflexlogy shop to give our feet a good massage. It's been a long time since I had done anything so crazy as this. The last time I did this was a 11 hours hike a couple of years ago.  My jogger friend had also invite me for a 12 hours walk in malacca at the end of year. . I wonder should I accept the invitation?   Nah.. I think I am too old for this crazy stuff.

with my lovely niece

Congratulation Ms Jenny Foh

Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you Ms Jenny Foh 2nd runner up winner of Ms Hypertune 2010.

It was an honour to able to shoot her at sinkinchan paddy field recently. It was also a pleasant surprise and honour that she has choosen one of my photo on her blog   and on her fan page here.

Congratulations Jenny Foh for being crown 2nd runner up of Ms Hypertune 2010

Photoshooting at Paddy field.

Last sunday I joined a group for a trip to sinkinchan  for a photoshoot. This time there were three models,instead of the normal two. Since I had never been to that part before I left klang earlier. It was almost two hours before I reached the destination. I had no trouble finding the place thanks to my trusted Gps. I have been  totally dependable on my Gps whenever I go to a new place. I got there a few minutes later than the agreed time, called up the organiser who was caught in a jam and therefore will be a couple of minutes late as well. Sinkinchan is a small town just after Tanjung karang, in Kuala Selangor.  There are many paddy fields and this was the setting for our photoshoots.  This is my second time I am  joining a group for a photoshooting session. I have learnt quite a bit from my earlier session, and this  trip I picked up some pointers too. Hopefully I can learnt more when I attend the photography workshop at the end of the month at the olympus headquaters.
Here are some of  the shots from the trip.

Jenny Foh, 2nd runner up of Ms Hypertune 2010

WHEN IT RAIN, NOT NECESSARY MEANS THE GROUND WILL BE SLIPPERY

It is not easy to organise an event.  I was told to post up an event on facebook for a hiking trip to tabur west .

The event was posted weeks ago and inviations was sent out accordingly. I purposely  put it as a closed event, with a few friends as admin .whereby we only invited those people who are keen and quite sure of attending.

A few of my friends confirm their attendance, and I was comfortable with the numbers. Then just a few days before the event one of them had a fall, and so could not make it. Another one sent me a message saying he is down with flu  .I got the message on thursday, but the event is on saturday. surely he would have recover by then right? Coincident or what?  One of my niece also indicated she wanted to join me on this trip and was very excited about it and even post it on her status on facebook.  Then came the bad news. Since it rained on Friday she text me saying her dad would not allow her to go now due to the heavy rain. I called up my brother in law giving him the assurance I would take good care of his daughter,but he would not change his mind. His reasons was the trails might be slippery. What?  This is rock/quaz hill , how can it be slippery? All he had to do was to ask and I could have told him. Anyway my friends manage to get some of his friends to join and there was a good turn out today.

It was a good trip. The ground was dry , it was as if it never rain at all on the hill top.
However for first timer it would be good if you get  know more about this hill. you may read about  safety here

The trail was dry as ever

Here comes the samurai

Have you ever wanted to be a samurai?  I am sure you must have wished to be one at one time or another. I remember watching the show Samurai on Tv as a kid and used to play samurais and ninjas with the Neighborhood kids .Look, we don't have video games, back then ok? Even tv was a luxury and we used to stand in front of the neighbours to watch our favourite shows in black and white. Color tvs came much later on. Anyway if you still  have a yeaning to be a samurai or even wanted to carry the 'samurai sword' without getting yourself in trouble with the law, well now you can. Actually it's not a real sword, only the handle looks like the sword handle. In actual fact it is just an umbrella., not just your ordinary umbrella it's  the samurai umbrella.

 

It looks kinda cool carrying this around. Emm wonder if I should get one??

You can order it at this website

Mr & Mrs Lim

Just came back from the Rom of my eldest son,Reuben. He is now  the legal husband to his new bride in the eyes of the law. He nows has a family of this own and must learn to take responsiblity and plan his future.

We got  home after having our lunch and  thought we could rest when we heard a commotion from the second son's room. They were litterally fighting. Both of them have a fiery tempers.Have to pull them apart and got them  to sit down and have a family meeting. Have to give them some  counselling. The work of the parent is never ending. Hopefulling  they will grow up and not repeat this silly mistakes again.

IT KEEPS RIGHT ON A HURTING

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING

It's your birthday day today, my dear daughter snow,

Just to wish you well, and may you have the best in life and hope you will find what you are looking for.

Love ,Dad.

ARE YOU A PROBLEM SOLVER?

This is what my pastor wrote in the newsletter this morning and I hope you will be blessed by it.

Are you a problem solverwhen there is a proble in your workplace..are you the one they call?
When a sistuation needs attention at church...are you the first one asked to help out?
Do you look for opportunities to utilize your gifts to serve others by solving problems??
Do you go the extra miles in the workplace..offering suggestions to solve problems or do you think,"that's not my problem" or "I'm not paid to do that"

Proverbs 3:37 in the new living translation offers some very good advice to those wanting and praying for greater opportunities to open up.
"Do not withold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them"

Your ability to solve problems..will open greater doors of opportunities for you."Initiative is doing the right thing without being told to do it" Too many people do just enough to get by-just enough to draw salary and that's why promotion never seems to manifest.
Be pro-active..if you see a problem in your workplace..offer solution don't wait for yor boss to ask opinion or assistance.
"if you preach, just preach God's message, nothing else;if you help;just help,don't take over;if you teach, stick to your teaching;if you give encouraging guidance,be careful that you don't get  bossy;if you're put in charge, don't manipulate;if you're called to give aid to people in distress,keep your eyes open and be quick to response;if you work with the disadvantaged,don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them.
keep a smile on your face"  Romans 12:6-9 msg
Find the problem closes to you..and solve it.
by Pas.Alan Tan