What the staff get up to at the office

Starring Ravi, Kah Choon, Kuang Fei, John Kit, David Yap

 

Sunrise at TC Beach, Kuantan

I know, I know, this ice cream has NOTHING to do with sunsets, but I just HAD to say something about the McDonalds ice cream at the Teluk Cempedak branch in Kuantan…….. you guys do a WONDERFUL ice-cream.  I mean, WHY can’t the McD people in Kuala Lumpur give us this kind of smooth, creamy, FULL 5 loops from the ice-cream machine? If someone from McDonalds is reading this, TAKE NOTE – I DON’T LIKE the ice-cream that is served at the Ampang Point branch – For goodness sakes, this is McDonalds, not brand XYZ! Lets have some consistency here. The ones at Ampang Point are getting smaller and smaller too.

 

Now, back to my Sunrise story………

Angie woke up at 6am to see the sunrise and so Allan went with her to the beach.  They said it was beautiful.  The skies changed colour many times before the actual sunrise at about 7am.  Then Angie just HAD to wake me up by calling me on the phone.  She managed to convince me on the second call.

 

All the pictures were taken by Allan with the Nikon.  If you’re wondering why there’s so much noise, its because he forgot to set the ISO and Andy had set it to 1600 the night before!!!

 

 

 

This one below was taken my me with my Nokia handphone.

 

They saw a monkey drinking the sea water at the beach

 

TC Beach Hotel

Teluk Cempedak Beach, otherwise known as TC Beach – Hyatt Hotel is at one end of this beach

(Pics taken by Veron – Nokia H/P)

On the other side is where most of the public gather

The beach is just behind this row of shops and car park

And just before the car park is this row of pretty run down bungalows called TC Beach Hotel.  Our initial plan was to go to Cherating, but ALL the hotels were fully booked – my fault actually, for procrastinating.

So we called our friend in Kuantan and he helped us get this place.  Its a no-star place, but ok if you’re not interested in amenities. Its thoroughly basic, we took the family room, its big and we could all fit in (brought our own camp bed for Andy), its air-conditioned, with a basic bathroom, TV, towels, 2 bottles of water and I guess that’s it! Not that we paid so much for it – cost us RM128 for the room for the 5 of us.

the outside looks ok, but you might get a shock when you get in. This is the ground floor.

It gets worse when you go further in

And the 1st floor is not well looked after

But the room is much better than the rest of the bungalow. We were just grateful to have a place to stay.

Other than that, the location is perfect, within walking distance to the beach, the shops, the food places and lots of parking. Oh, and for those who want to go for the day, there are public bathrooms available.

VBS, Walkathon, Holiday

This week has been busy, we started the week with our church’s walkathon (more on that in our youth blog later – www.mad4jesus.wordpress.com), then we had the Children’s Church VBS on Monday……. and I HAD to add to that by taking dragging the family for a 2D1N trip to Kuantan.  Took loads of pictures

Lots of souvenir shops, but we didn’t buy anything – Pic taken by Veron

Teluk Cempedak – public beach. Pic Taken by Veron

Both these pics, (top and bottom) were taken with my handy dandy mobile phone

Pics taken by Veron

 

Andrea didn’t get to go into the sea, cos she had an ear infection, sigh, the main purpose of this trip was to get the children to soak in the sea water, so that their sinuses can be cleansed by the sea water. (Pic taken by Veron)

Got Andy to try this shot a couple of times to “see” the wind in action.

Pic taken by Veron

Andy’s probably going to be upset by these pics, but I really like the water drops effects. Both top and bottom pics taken by Andrea

 

See how the water drops here are longish instead of round? Pic by Andrea

We really enjoyed ourselves, it was just so restful………and great sights Guess who we asked to take this picture? 

John Kit’s pics

John Kit bought himself a new camera and equipment and is learning photography, so we asked him to take our family pics when Anna came back for the summer holidays and he willingly did us a favour.  The results? – not too bad la. I really like the composition.  Of course for the meantime don’t compare with people like XJ. Thanks John:)

 

A date

Went for a date with Allan on Thursday night to the Sheraton Imperial, had a wonderful dinner, a free bottle of wine and a free super rich chocolate cake aptly named “Chocolate Mud”, was forced to overhear a couple having a tiff directly behind us – NO, we were NOT eavesdropping – they were just a tat too indiscreet, good thing the argument lasted for only about 10 mins, then they were all lovey dovey and mushy again.

Restaurant is called Villa Danielli

The free wine and cake

Wonderful view of the KL Tower from outside the restaurant

Our stay at the Westin Kuala Lumpur

Last year we Allan bought a hotel membership for my birthday which included a one night hotel stay at the Le Meridien, Sheraton or the Westin; 5 free meals for 2 pax, 4 free cakes, 1 bottle of wine and lots of other discount vouchers. All for RM500+.  The meals alone would have been worth it.  However, we have been so busy and didn’t have time to use it, now its nearly expiring, so we rushed to use it

2 weeks back, we decided on staying at the Westin Hotel. We were there last year and liked the place, the accessibility to food and the fact that it is in the Golden Triangle – lots to see

The room is spacious and tastefully furnished. I do like it, but I still think the room at the Grand Mercure Hotel in Shanghai is better in terms of facilities. Will be great if the Westin can provide free internet service to the customers. Other than that, its a great place, with great service.

Westin KL is famous for its mattress – what so special? I can’t remember, but its super comfortable and you know what? Its made in Malaysia ….. MALAYSIA BOLEH!!! You can buy the mattress and the full set of pillows and bolsters from the hotel.

The gym is really well equipped – I wish KDE would take a que from this place and upgrade their facilities plus have the gym well air-conditioned like the Westin’s gym. I get so tired out at KDE because of the heat.  Somehow, people have the wrong notion that sweating=fat loss=feel like I have really exercised=cannot have air-cond because can catch a chill!!! 

Allan working out – not bad for a 49 year old – lots of young people lose out to him in terms of fitness.  He has a resting heart rate of 48 – 54

Being fit & shapely=hard work=discipline

Breakfast at the Westin is an adventure!!! Its really, really good and an eye opener. See the small jars of food on the table? Well, they have “power food” – dunno how to explain la, but its good, healthy food.  The spread is lavish and the variety is fantastic.  Its all the usual that you will get anywhere in any hotel, but PLUS a lot of extras like, you can have a mini steak or lamb, and the beverages include fresh fruit juice, blended there and then

just one of the sections available for breakfast buffet

Honey is not from the jar, but from a honey comb

So who paid for the breakfast, which would have cost us RM68 (or thereabouts)? One of our friends from my school days, Yuw Ming, who is also the F&B Manager, gave us a treat Thanks Yuw Ming !

Did you know?

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are ’limbs,’ therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, ‘Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.’

As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October)! Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. (Ah….. now I know why they wore wigs :p) Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn’t wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term ‘big wig.’ Today we often use the term ‘he re comes the Big Wig’ because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy. 

In the late 1700s, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The ‘head of the household’ always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the ‘chair man.’ Today in business, we use the expression or title ‘Chairman’ or ’Chairman of the Board.’

 Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face she was told, ‘mind your own bee’s wax.’ Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term ‘crack a smile’ In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt. Therefore, the expression ‘losing face. ‘ (and I always thought losing face was a Chinese thing!!!)

Ladies wore corsets, which would lace up in the front. A proper and dignified woman, as in ’straight laced’ . . . Wore a tightly tied lace. 

 

This next one is so interesting

Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, TV’s or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to ‘go sip some ale’ and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. ‘You go sip here’ and ‘You go sip there.’ The two words ‘go sip’ were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term ‘gossip.’

One more: bet you didn’t know this!  In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem…how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a ’Monkey’ with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron; balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make ‘Brass Monkeys.’ Few land lubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would  come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, ‘Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.’ (All
this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn’t you?)

Duck Tour video

Our singapore Duck Tour trip – a video showing how the amphibious vehicle enters the water from land – video’s not very interesting but at least you get to see it before trying. Worth a go if you’ve never rode in one – just for the experience la.

A Malay Wedding

Went for a neighbour’s wedding on the 30th of July.  We were requested to wear either our national costume or a lounge suit.  We didn’t want to sweat, so National Costume it was.

Allan in his Chinese styled shirt and western looking sun glasses

The place? Would you believe it? Its just outside Jen (R) Tan Sri Ismail Omar’s bungalow, yep, the one that collapsed in 2002. You see, this is the wedding of Raja Alawiyah Raja Idris’ daughter and they are Tan Sri’s neighbours.  Its good to have a happy occasion to cover over the very sad one 6 year’s ago.

And this is the happy couple.  The bridegroom is from Texas, but if I’m not mistaken, a Central American by birth.

Our table – don’t you just love the beverage jug? Oh, and the drink is green, to make sure it matches the decoration……how do you like that?

 

So how did we get invited?

Well, Allan went for our area’s residents’ meeting and so there is a record of our names – Raja Alawiyah invited all the neighbours who went for the meeting I guess.

So we went – for the sake of being neighbourly and more than that …… for MUHIBBAH !!