The smallest grape in the World

The girls were eating grape meant for wine making and
were amazed at the size of it.

Kaelynn found a smaller one. It was so small that
even her fingers were huge. Best of all, no seeds!


[Update] Here is a photo of those grapes

How rumours started.....

Deena: OK, I'm going to scout ahead. You check six
Luke: OK, and I sense something very strong....
Deena: .....right.

Spy Droid: Fwoar! Lookit whut the cam got! This guys a pervert!

There's somthing wrong with my Nokia 5800.....

Sigh. Its been months and I still have not had it sent to Nokia for diagnosis. The phone is so unpredictable these days. One moment, it could be playing MP3 songs and do not hang while we're taking photos. The, the phone either resets itself or when I enter the Internet, it kicks me out. Sigh. Sigh. Haiiiiiiiihhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And now, the camera.

If I look into Windows preview, the picture is there.
You can see Kristine licking her fingers (top left)

But when I clicked to open the picture, this is what I
got. Somehow the image got overlapped or something


Merdeka!

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!
Patriotic little Kristine showing her loyalty
to her country. But behind all this, there is
a secret. So secret that we don't know what
it was. But now I can reveal it.....

Yes, she is the Freedom Fighter.
A Fighter for a better place, a place
where Daddy does not scold her, a
place where you can eat as much
sweets and watch Channel 616 on
Astro as much as you want.
And here she is, vowing to keep
on fighting, even with a scratched
leg. See? Already got supporter too

Apologies

First and foremost, I would like to apologise for my last post. I was very depressed because at that very moment, I felt as if I was standing on a stage, with all the bright lights shining at me. And I was shouting, joking and presenting to an audience whom I could not see. I could hear no one clapping, no laughter nor even a cough. And standing there, I was smiling like a fool, while inside, I was crying (for attention?).

But why was I so depressed?


Very simple. We went to The Mall. Years ago, it was one of the busiest shopping centres in KL. Now, its like dying. Maybe its because of the H1N1. Maybe its because of the long 3-day weekend. Maybe its the Economy.

Or maybe, its just me.


Whatever it was, the moment I entered the place, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of sadness, being lost and well, the whole place is gloomy. And so, my mind went to overdrive, thinking about my Life, not getting a better job, my own mortality, and so on. Needless to say, by the time we left, I felt as if there is no more hope for my future, since I am always poor, unable to provide well for my Wife and the two girls in a few more years to come.

Mommy put on the mask for Kristine. And then
Kaelynn wanted it too. But in less than a minute,
she took it off as it was a bit too uncomfortable.


She just wanted to follow and
try things her elder sister did
and then only decide if it is
good or not.

Kristine trying out some of the shoes. Kaelynn
followed suit. I had to take lead her away so
that Mommy and Kristine can choose in peace.

So we went to Nelson's to get a cup of buttered corn.

By the time Kristine had chosen
her shoes, they also went to the
Nelson's shop but to get some
waffels. Had to call wife because
I did not have much cash to pay

Kaelynn eating her corn. We settled at
the Food Court andI managed to get
two cups of fresh orange and Honey
Tea. Later on, when I came back
from the toilet, they threw away the
corn because there was hair inside.
I didn't ask what type of hair.

The whole place is so dim, quiet and people shuffling
about. Its like entering a museum for dead shopping
centres. Maybe its the ceiling too.


This waterfall used to be full of people and at the back,
the Food Court, bakery and some sushi place would be
full of people. Now, the water is just trickling, the back
area sealed off with some shop and so on.

By the time we left, and arrived home, the two girls
were fast asleep and so we sneaked to Mid-Valley.
Yeah, the place is also starting to lose people too.
I was hoping Mid-Valley would cheer me up but
it was not to be. Even the Carrefour trolley did not
care much.

At least I know they are still
using the old Toshiba System.
How do I know? I know la.

Lost of people taking pictures here but without
my Nikon D50 and the girls, its not the same.


The I realised that my current project is getting
too complicated and so, there goes my mood too.

Why I am not posting.....

For the next few weeks, we could be busy installing and
testing the CCTV for a customer of ours, who bought
them from China. So, I am speeding up in building my
own diagnostic tool. Yeah, you can buy them off Internet
plus PTZ controls thrown in too. Anyway, I want to see
how mine works in the field. And so, I will be very busy
completing this, hopefully, by 31st August 2009.

BTW, I am not sure how many of you are reading my blog. So please drop a note in the comments box because if there is no response, I don't see the point in posting and continuing to blog anymore. I might just concentrate on my own Website instead.

Weird Dreams

This is a very funny dream. For some unknown reason, I was given (or maybe, I own) a box of small Chinese bottles. These are like those small Chinese bottles which you see in those movies.
But these bottles are special. Why I had them, I do not know.

And so, with this wooden box, I have quite a number of
them, all arranged nicely in a very presentable manner.

Unfortunately, they're all labelled in some
weird Chinese characters which I do not
even recognise at all. And there are no
instructions too. These small clay bottles
are dark brown and have those red paper
seals. As for the yellow red labels with black
Chinese characters, they are a mystery.

And so, I poured them into a plastic cup.
Nothing much in there, except for some
clear liquid with the consistency of egg
whites. But as I poured further, there
was a small little softlike egg-like thing
which came out. And when I peered into
the cup, it looked like a very small human
embryo, which is quickly forming........

....into a cute dough-like human figure. It lookes
like a small figure, about four inches high. And
when it opened its mouth, I can see a set of teeth
in there. I am not sure if it has bones but the way
it is growing, I am sure it has. I do not want to
touch it either because although it looked tough, I
was afraid I might crush it with my hands. The top
of its head is starting to dry but its foot is still sticky,
and still wet, like a half-boiled egg.

And it was hungry. I do not want to feed it any
meat as I was afraid it might not be able to bite
it (or maybe its vegetarian) and so I took some
bits of other food, which I am not sure what it
was and gave it to him. He took it and ate with
relish. So far, it has not made any noise nor
attempted to escape from the cup. Because I
was busy, I decided to leave it alone and hid in
a drawer until I am free to later on to deal with it.

But when I came back, all I found in the cup was a
brown looking dried nugget or toast. There were
flies everywhere and the small figure was gone.
Was this what's left of it or did someone dipped
a piece of toast in some semi-boiled egg?

There were there bottles in there but I did not want to try in case there were more msyterious things coming out of it. Since I am what you would call a banana, I would have to wait until someone can read the characters on the label to me later on. Initially, I wanted to look for another bottle marked female or something so that this little guy won't be lonely. But the more I looked at the labels, the more I got lost. Also, what if they, you know, multiply when we're not around? Anyway, when I looked at the guy, he seemed so harmless and although he is naked, I do not see any reproductive organs..........

Broken.....

So now, I know what happened to the other lost
mini PKD gun. It was broken and someone hid it
away. I am disappointed with this deception but
also glad its broken as now I know the quality of
the toy. But also, I now have an excuse to open it

The Murtabak

Ah, the Murtabak. Nothing but dough, eggs, onions
and meat all packed into a small thick parcel. I used
to think of this as complete food because by the time
you finished one, you can't eat anything else. But
nowadays, after not eating it for years, the murtabak
this time managed to surprise me. It now comes with
bits of bones minus the red onion side dish.


The opinion of this writer does not necessarily agree with his stomach. And the name of the restaurant has been kept secret in case you wanted to go there and taste the bones as well.

Weird Dreams

And just after that dream, was this one, which I remembered clearly right after my toilet break.

This time, I was back in my old company again. But with my friend Jeffrey who still works there. So, he brings me around the company, with as much authority as he can. But I still have to know that my place is in one area, as a dealer and not a staff. After much exploring, we went to the dealer's table and met with another dealer who is having problems with the Toshiba PABX's software.


Much as I wanted to help, my friend stopped me because it is not my job but the technician's. Seeing that he is right, I relented and we both decided to leave the company's premises and go for a drink across the road. And just as we were settling down, we met face to face with another ex-technician, who has decided to join back the company. I have nothing against him but (in this dream) he has screwed a few customers and ours too, and then ran off. So, after greeting him, I left him on his own and returned to our table.

And then, suddenly I was pushed from behind and the my fall tipped the table and spilled our drinks. I quickly picked myself up and saw that the ex-tenician running away, into a black building. I gave chase and we arrived at some kind of lounge with a pool table. I saw him grabbed an insertion tool on the pool table. Why he did not grab the pair of scissors, I do not know. But I did not take the pair of scissors. By the time I caught up with him, he was already in the elevator, which I stopped the doors from closing with my hands.

"Why did you do that?"
"..........." he is not showing his famous smile now.
"Why did you do that?", I asked again
"..........."
"Are you afraid of me? Are you?"
He just nodded. Maybe he was also startled as to why he pushed me as well.
"Just a yes or no. Say it", but he was afraid.

And I did something stupid as well. Not being satisfied, I gestured to someone outside the elevator, (hopefully for him too see) that I want him taken care of before letting the lift close its doors. I mean, why should i do that? I have blocked his blows which he did use the tool on me, like a knife. I know I can beat him because my blocks was faster than his swing. I could have stopped this there and then but I do not want to be violent.

Why is this dream here? I am not sure. This tech was once with another dealer and like all techs, he assumed his employment with them would give him shares of the company, etc. But it did not work out.

[In real life, a dealer told me he can access a feature which we did not encourage as it would bring a lot of problems to the customer. But the dealer spoke his name and asks us to look into this feature]

My actual role in the house.....

Kaelynn: Daddy?
Me: What?
Kaelynn: Your phone, Daddy.
Me: Thank you. Why is it off?
Kaelynn: You charge it back and give it to me, OK?
Me: . . . . .

The Girl with the Nail Polish

While work is work, but this week I have been coming back late. And when I did, there was a surprise in store. Seemed like Kristine has been going wild with her nail polish. She was targeting everyone's nails. Even my Dad was not spared!

And so, over in this corner, we
have the victims hiding here.


As you can see, everyone's nails have been painted

Unfortunately, they were not done
in a Professional way.

Keep your distance.....

As we were going to Pulau Indah, I was
following this truck until I realise what
the white sticker meant.
So, no need to be perishable too.

Weekend at the Sunway Resort (Hotel and Spa)

Kristine was waiting for me since this morning. But then she realised, I had to go to work and for the rest of the day, she just waited and waited. And by the time I got home, I had to quickly rush to get some things ready. And when we rushed out, we forgot this and that and had to return home again. By then, the car had to be refueled just in case.

And so, why was it so important?

Because we got a weekend stay at Sunway Resort's Hotel & Spa, thanks to one of my Brother in Law. And as usual, both girls were very excited.

Never too late to start them young, eh?
OH, OK, inside her bag was her Winnie
and Kelynn's favourite blanket. Its just
bulky but not heavy. To her, its HEAVY.

And thanks to Wife's foresight, we got a very
nice room with a view but we had to give up
on something, which is, a double bed. I wanted
to rent on of the beds I've seen outside on the
corridors but had second thoughts because they
were just not enough room in there.

Yep, nice view, isn't it? Wanted to get the kids there
but they do not have any swimming costumes and
neither did we. Also, you can't do much with just over
two hours left of Sunlight. I mean, by the time we got
them some costumes.............. its bye-bye time.

So, we sort of lazed around in the room for a while,
luckily, there was a cartoon channel on the TV. I said
luckily as the girls were so energetic, they were
screaming and jumping about in there.

By the time, they have cooled down, we let them
have the next best thing, not as good but still fun.

Yep, a small little swimming pool. I let them have
their fun until later on, when I came in, the water
was almost freezing. They have been playing with
cold water instead. We quickly wrapped them up
and got them in to the bed to warm up. Had to
turn off the air-con as it was always showing 23ºC
eventhough I ramped it up to 27
ºC

Finally, in the evening, we came down to the Sunway
Piramid, the Information Counter personnel gave us
some brochure and invited us to go the main area
Seems there were some activity going on for kids.


But by this late in the evening, the only activity
left was watching the bees clinging to a man and
story time. There were not much things left.


Kristine as afraid of taking any activities or join
the other children while Kaelynn was happy to
go near (but no join as well). Then again, with
so many doting parents surrounding the kids.....

And after much window shopping, we settled for a
Korean dinner at Chego Korea BBQ. Maybe we're
tired or there were nothing else to eat but I just
agreed with Wife to go in there, nice and cute girls
at the front or not. They served the food very fast
mainly because we arrived earlier than the dinner
time crowd. Here, we were served the side dishes
and the pieces of marinated meat. Wife was in the
middle of cooking the meat while the kids realised
everything tasted, well, hot.

Turns out that we do not have to do much as most
of the things will be done by the staff. The waitress
cut up the meat and vege, then proceeded to stir
fry them on the (now) heated grill. Oh, the green
lettuce leaves are for you to wrap the cooked meat
into a roll and then eat it. Notice the soya/chili/salt
mix on the left, once she has finished, they were gone
and I so wanted to try the chili powder. Turned out
its not necessary as everything was hot & spicy.

The girls looking on with interest. But later on, they
gave up on the meal as everything was either too
hot, spicy, sweet or just weird. So we got them some
instant noodles, 100plus, junk food on the way back.
It was too late to go for another meal as we were
too full to do another round of DBKL in case they do
not want to eat either.

Here is the shot of the meat that has been cooked. After
that, the waitress would cut everything up into small
pieces. The meat is very nice and sweet, but methinks
is a bit spicy too as the girls would not eat them. But I
got Kristine to eat a bit as I told her, everyone in the
family can eat hot stuff.

Later on, the waiter came and helped
mix the rice (bim bim bap) which is my
favourite and as usual, always forget to
mix it up first. I like it because it has
a nice mixture of soft and crunchy rice
mixed inside it. Yeah, its also like hot
claypot chicken rice.


See? All mixed and delicious!

And then the spicy soup came. Delicious too unless
you start coughing, which is bad news. But the best
thing is that all the side dishes are refillable and so,
we had double helpings of kimchi. And I am starting
to like them, but not as much as I love acar.

This was taken in the night as I could not sleep after
someone's karate kick woke me up.

Its not easy to share a bed especially when the
girls move about in their sleep. I ended up on
the foot of of the bed while Wife ended up on
the opposite side. As for the girls, well, they're
everywhere.

I missed the morning shot but
since we're on the opposite, we
can't see the Sun. Anyway, this
is the shot at about 1030, before
anyone entered the park.

One new attraction which I did not notice was this.
In a nutshell, its just a big tipping barrel when full.
But later on, I saw a lot of people underneath it,
waiting for it to tip over. Just like the Lat cartoon
when everyone was saving water during bath time.

This time, I made sure the water is hot so that the
girls would not catch any cold. Its still hard to set
the air-con's temperature and so we set it to off.
Yes, yes, we're wasting water but there is no bath
tub at home anymore. The mini-pool does not count.

While waiting for everyone to get ready, I got
Kristine to quiet down by getting her to draw
something on the Hotel's stationery.


First time I saw her drawing a girl. I am a bit worried
about the hair part, though. If this is her unconscious
or indirect way of expressing herself, I am worried.


One round of window shopping and
lunch before going home. Here, we
we're fooling around while waiting
for Mommy to find us. (We're lost)

With so much choices, we let Kristine
choose where to eat for lunch. And so,
KFC it is. Later on, she threw up. I too
wanted to throw up as the chicken, ....
"thing" I got was so dry and the rice
tasted like a half-hearted attempt


In the end, Kristine ha a slight fever of 37.2º and
everyone
slept until late evening. Me? I am still
exhausted. Very exhausted because I am still
recovering from Thursday ordeal, then
there is
last night's sleeping ordeal. Maybe its the weather
as I felt so lethargic, hot and my mind's swimming