A very large silverfish

First of all, they are not fish. Their names were derived from its silvery colour and they way they move like a fish. And these buggers like to eat things that contain usually starchy stuff mainly, paper. Or precious books. The silverfish is also one of my hated enemies apart from termites. As they devour a lot of my precious books.

These pests are usually about 1cm (body only) and are very soft (and fragile). So when I see them going into hiding into one of the books, I just thump the suspected area and its dead. But today, this is different. I saw this one at one of my customer's place.

Its quite big and as I carefully moved the ruler in, it was not even
fazed. So, you can see how big it was. Since its at the customer's
place and not mine, there is no reason for me to affect its quality
of life. Really.

Happy Birthday, Kristine!

So, as of today, Kristine is officially four years old. And in another year's time, no more special privileges when it comes to kids discounts or eating for free. Ha ha ha ha. I was so busy working that I nearly forgot all about it. Luckily, Wife managed everything this time and well, everything went well, with presents from everyone.

Kristine was more engrossed with the Strawberries on the cake

And this is where she cuts the cake for everyone, after the fright
with blowing candles.

OK, so this time we got some party hats as well.

Attack of the less sweet Soya Bean Milk

[18122008 1334]

As I was walking down the streets back to the car park, suddenly a 4x4 park on the road shoulder and the occupants jumped out. Very quickly, they started to take cans on drinks and started to pass it to the crowd, saying, "Its free! Take it! Less Sugar". Once everyone recovered from the shock (I mean, where got people rush to you to give you free tings one?) it was a promotion gig from F&N Seasons new Soya Bean Milk which contained less sugar. I took one from them and because their memory was not so good, I took another one after I help them take pictures with their phone-camera.

There were three of them on the 4x4

While one was opening the cartons in the 4x4, the others would start
to hand them out and also the "educational" leaflets.

Its a bit intimidating when your partner gives you a can and you come
into the scene and start taking photos as if to identify which victim got
the cans. Actually, they want shots of people and their expressions
when they got the cans. But such PR can turn out dangerously wrong.

I tasted it and I must say, its very nice. No different from the normal
soya bean drink, though. But then again, I seldom drink Soya bean
since I was 25 years old.

The perils of pigments

[17122008 2030]

When I came home, well, the two girls were nowhere to be seen. They were taken to task by Mommy because of what they did with markers and paints. So, on the floor were the clues of their crimes........

Books were ruined

Masterpieces were created

And the start of face painting

System down in Puchong II

[17122008 1700]

After some relaxing light service calls, its time to get back to the serious stuff. The PABX that originally belonged to the Puchong customer is now classified as "beyond economical repair" and so, the Penang system would be used for this site. Not bad for them because they have been asking for a bigger system as they have more staff now and by virtue of an "Act of God", they got what they wanted.

Since the system was too big to fit
into the cupboard, I had to mount
it onto the top and warned them
not to put anything on top or else

Because I was so busy setting up the system, I completely forgot about
my breakfast which by now, turned to afternoon tea. Unfortunately, the
vitamin pill packed the day before, reacted with the mayonnaise and the
egg, which broke and seeped into the break. I had to eat it of course as
it would be too expensive and dangerous (Wife & Mom will kill me) to eat
out. Boy, it tasted like nothing on earth. I can imagine it to be eating a
dead lizard, full of those metallic taste (blood?). It tasted worse than that
Bovril/Marmite mixed with copper.

By the time I had finised setting up, it was business as usual and all the staff now ignored the ringing of the Digital phones instead of the spare phones I have set up earlier. While I was busy, I found out that apart from a nasty road-block we avoided earler, there was a raid by some authorities which rounded up the customer's hired seciruty guards and car wash staff. Wow.

Trip to Sg. Petani Day 3

Today is the third and last day of our Holidays. Time really flies! By now, Kristine and Kaelynn have started to warm up to everyone and enjoying themselves. And the plan is to go home after lunch or slightly later in the afternoon.

In the morning, Kristine saw SIL#5 doing make-up and she was
intrigued.

So, SIL#5 treated her to some make-up session. Kristine was
fascinated but afraid of the affect since she does not know what
she wanted.

First, it was the blusher which made her cheeks looked rosy

And then, it was the lipstick. Well, there was a bit of a problem with the
lipstick. All the time, Kristine wanted to have lipstick on her lips which
explains why she loved the red lipstick sweets. But when it came to the
real lipstick, well, she was afraid of how it looked and also the taste.

A much calmer Kristine after the make-up. Or shall I say, she is trying
to practice her smouldering looks. Ha ha ha ha

Meanwhile, her cousins are starting to get bored with the wooden
stacking game...

And so, Kristine decided to take them and use
it for her own creativity. Yep, a tower

And its a very tall tower which if topples,
does not completely topple at once.

And for lunch, we went vegetarian. I still cannot get over the fact
what for a vegetarian dish, they must have vegetarian prawns,
vegetarian meat, vegetarian what nots. Vege is vege and meat is
meat. Its like feeling not guilty eating vege meat because you did
not kill an animal and yet you get to eat your "meat". Kinda stupid
if you ask me. Anyway, the petai is the best dish of all.

Halfway through the lunch, Boss called and asked me a favour on my
way back to check on a system. So, everyone decided to end the lunch
on a short note, rushed back home and get our laundry and bags packed
packed up. I felt guilty because of that while SIL#1 argued and insist my
Boss pay for the rest of the toll and petrol since our leave has ended and
gone "official". Wife was not happy but she knows its the nature of my job.

And where were we supposed to go to check the system? Yep. Penang

The customer has moved to a new building and left this PABX intact. Since
the new PABX was set up by a (now broken) competitor, we did not service
this are. But after much discussion between my Boss and the customer, they
agreed to my suggeston to remove the system since there was no one else
there except for the security guard. While he let up drive the car into the
office (heh heh), I got started on my work while Wife made sure the two very
excited girls do not run off and straight onto the road. Now, she knows how
hard I work, going here and there. Ha ha ha ha!

The trip back took longer than we thought. After searching in vain for
Gurney Drive, we decided to go back home instead. And by the time
we gone through patches of rain and few R&R stops, it was very late
into the night. The next day, both of us were very very tired. I wondered
how a normal five hour trip can turn into an eight hour trip instead

Trip to Sg. Petani Day 2

It feels weird and familiar sleeping in a house full of people whom I know. In fact, I can describe the feeling to be "comfortable". Although its weird, I like to have a lot of family members around me and yet I feel lonely (sometimes) and WANT to be alone. Anyway, today is the second day and all I can say is, we're going to be eating and eating since there is nothing else to do here. OK, I have a plan to explore shopping centres but come to think of it, its a bit silly, driving up all the way just to shopping centres.

Still, because there are a lot of things to eat and also some Astro to distract us, time passed by very quickly. But its great for Wife because she get to enjoy herself once in a while. Not so great for me because she did not allow me to surf the Internet on one of the niece's Notebook in case I got "lost" for hours.

Kristine enjoying the flatness of the kitchen
floor tiles.

Oooh..... food on a stick! Want to know what it is?

Here you go. Unfortunately, Wife does not want me to keep the shells

So, the first activity of the day is to have brunch or shall I say, pre-lunch lunch?
We went to a place which is quite secluded. Its famous for its sotong kangkung

And also the otak-otak (Fish paste). This is a very fast shot because
Wife does not want me to take photos every few seconds. The chicken
rice was for Kaelynn but eventually, we ended eating them since the
two girls got full easily.

My Wife gave me this drink and all I can say it, it tasted like
blended red bean. Its very nice.

Here, the girls took my umbra drink, a blended drink made from
those kedondongs. Its expensive because these small kedondongs
are small, slightly bigger than a quail's eggs and so, someone must
paid for peeling the skins.

As for lunch, we went to another place which was famous for another dish.
No, not the fried squid as shown here, but

These soft fluffy bread with some kind of oily deep fried crispy
stuff in them. Mix it with the sotong above and its Heaven

At night, its at G.Tiang's. This is a nice place not because
every one wears a uniform but because of the delicious food

Here, we get to choose the fish to be
grilled and also, other seafood dishes.

So, we had a lot of food, from Hor Fun to fried sotong to cripsy
tofu (which is crispy outside and soft and creamy inside)

Then followed by the grilled fish, crabs and also some thing else I forgot.
By this time, Kaelynn was sleeping on my lap and so, I could either eat
or shoot photos.....

Kristine loved the crabs and we took turns getting the crab meat out
of the shells for her. By the time Kaelynn woke up, it was time to leave
the restaurant. Poor girl. Unfortunately, she did not have much appetite

Back home, the children amused themselves with Stack 'em, the
equivalent version of Jenga. Kristine got excited and then, all her
cousins allowed her to play. This shot was taken a split second
before it toppled.

Yep, she is great at it, with no falling blocks
(not by her doing anyway)

After a change of clothes, she continued
until she got too exited and bumped into
the glass coffee table. (The next morning
she had bruises)

Trip to Sg. Petani Day 1

[13122008]

OK, so here is another Holiday trip! One of our Sister in Law came back from Australia and so, after much "persuasion" I took another day's leave (15122008) so that we could all go to Sg. Petani to visit Sister in Law #3 up North. The day started with SIL #2 (Sister In Law) dropping SIL #6 to our house before we could begin the trip. SIL#2 could not follow us since her hubby is coming back on that day. On the way, we have to pick up SIL#1 at the Sg. Buloh bridge. Yeah, I know, I am beginning to rethink my role whether I am a husband or just a driver. Ha ha ha ha!

On the way, we stopped by Ipoh so that we could have some lunch and also some fruits. Its going to be a party tonight. Meanwhile, SIL#4 and he whole family passed us and reached Sg. Petani first.

Kristine givine Kaelynn a sisterly glare
about sharing seats with SIL#6.

A stopover in Ipoh, where SIL#6 tried the Hakka Meal
which I forgot what it was called. I tried it years ago and
I am not quite used to it. It jsut tasted .... green.

Buying pomeloes

I don't know why they did this all of a sudden and I did not ask.
I just took the shots first. Then I realised I switched off the
auto-focus because it was dark in the shop earlier.

Sometimes, I think we should have gotten a Toyota HiAce van
instead. Ha ha ha ha! The boot is loaded with food and more
food. Yep, tonight's definitely going to be a great party.

Meanwhile, after arriving in Sg. Petani, BIL#3 took some of us to a
bird's nest site where people cultivated these nests.

Its dark and cool inside and I had to use the flash. Most of the time,
it was too dark for the auto-focus to work. Anyway, this shot shows
the birds busy making a nest on the specially prepared wooden beam

And over here, this is a typical bird's nest. Its about 3-4 inches
in length. They could not use air-conditioning to make the place
cooler since the ideal atmostphere is to be cool and damp and not
cool and dry (aircon). So they used other equipment. Not only
that, they also played recordings of the swallows and its very
painful to the ears because they used tweeters (high frequency)