Busy Sunday

Today was supposed to be a rest day, being Sunday as it is. But no, there are a lotof things we need to do. For one, Wife reminded me that Kristine has her martial arts class, then after that, we need to go to buy sine stuff. And also, since its close to CNY, I got my Wife to call her Mom out for Lunch as well, not taking NO for an answer. What I did not like was the incessant rain that came early in the morning and lasted until evening.

1030-1045 AlanTAm's Bak Gua delivery
Delivered the Bak Gua to one of my friends who will then distribute the rest to other friends. I hope he likes it because this is his first time and I will know in a few day's time or, maybe next year.

1100-1230 Kristine's Martial Arts Class
Before I can settle down for breakfast, it was time to get everyone into the car for Kristine's Class. Well, RM25 for that long seems worth it. But then again, these are kids and the discipline is not so strict. Still, this is great for her, hopefully when she progresses, there is some sort of discipline in there.

Both girls with Granpa and Grandma

Kristine in her new uniform. As she has
not started her lesson, she did an
impromtu stance. So, her fist is wrong.

The warming up session. Because of the rain,
some students were late so they get a scolding
from the Masters

After that, Kristine was placed with the
other beginners. We noticed that she is
not paying much attention but rather
to the boys instead. Haih.

In the meantime, Kaelynn saw a lot of books
and so, being her usual self, she started to go
through them. Yep, she loves books.

She will go though over them, and what
she does not understand, she will try to
figure it our by herself or ask us.

At the same time, Kaelynn
has a new face.

Unfortunately, after the class, she started to try out all her moves on Kaelynn which causes a lot of mess and crying and harsh words.


1300-1700: Lunch with Mon-in-law and more shopping
So, after that, it was off to Lunch. Because there was a lot of traffic on the road, I had to take a lot of detours. I suspect it was due to the last minute shopping as the whole of Federal Highway towards Mid-Valley was jammed and the path towards PJ was not. And so, it was lunch at the Esquire kitchen where the service was quite moderate. But once hte food arrived, they came in droves.

Gifts being exchanged

AlanTam's Bak Gua

Its that time of the year again and AlanTam is selling bak gua for charity. I know he is a very busy person, what with his work in the Hospital and all but I was very grateful for it. OK, for those who do not know AlanTam, it is his nick in the Forums where I go to. So, AlanTam aka Ahlun aka eggtart, etc is not related to Alan Tam of Hong Kong.

Every year, I get mine from him and its delicious. Also, because its for charity, I do not mind buying them. For RM35.00 for one pack (500 grams, I think) it is a good bargain too. Also, because of the coming Chinese New Year, the prices are going near to RM90.00 for a one Kilo pack. However, this time I am cutting back and not order so much, not because of the money but its just the reality of it all is that its too much even for everyone in the house.

Anyway, I met him around 10-ish and from his very own words, "I am not sure if its nice or not this time as I ate a slice when I was very hungry. And when you're hungry, everything tasted nice".

And this year, apart from my Boss, his friend was
also interested in it too. I shudder to think how
many I would have to carry next year. Ha ha ha

And so, there are 13 packs like this. But this time,
all of us preferred pork to chicken.

Somehow, at the back of my mind, I am wondering if he ever wanted to expand this into a business and start to sell other stuff too, like crackers and mandarin oranges. I mean, just for Chinese New Year, la.

Update: The packs were opened the next day and as usual, the meat was soft and delicious. Unlike the hard slices my Mom bought earlier on. Still, what do I know about food?

All I know are that his are the best in my book.

The Coming of the Bengmobile II

Will this be the next Bengmobile?

And will I ever get to do this?

Home Alone

What a nice little Saturday! Wife is away for some Headmistress's daughter's wedding, my brother has gone to Mid-Valley to repair a Laptop while the rest of the family has gone out for lunch. which leave me being.... yes, you guessed it, HOME ALONE! Woo Hoo!

I have a lot of things to do but with everything else stashed away for the coming Chinese New year, which by coincidence, removes 99% of the items on my to-do list. Oh well, I guess World Domination and Buxom-girl Slavery will just have to wait.

For the first time, this is the only time which I have the
chance to 'play' with four Laptops in one go..... oh, and
listening to some MP3 from my Linkstation NAS

First thing first. Lunch. for a healthy meal, you
will need a lot of carbohydrates. So, here I am,
boiling some pasta, with some salt and oil added.
Don't ask me why the salt is needed. If my Wife
said so, then it is needed.

When I saw the leftover brown rice, it was already
too late since the pasta was already cooked. So, I
just added some bak gua to it.

When it comes to my 'special' dishes, the onions
never fails to bring out the flavours. In fact, most
of my improvised dishes usually taste of onions,
or garlic or something else which I am not sure is
something of this Earth. But this time, I am going
to add some tomatoes just in case it really sucks.

Once everything is ready, you just put it in.

Lastly, the hot pasta. I left it a little bit longer so
that it will soak up all the soup and taste better.
(OK, so I was a bit preoccupied with the photo
taking and they dried up unexpectedly.)

Don't forget to add some MGS pepper and some
mild chili powder too. This not only complements
the chicken stock but also masks the possible
heavy tinge of metal coming from the pot. I know
iron is good for you but not in this form.

Finally, stir the whole bowl clockwise five times with the
chopsticks and then counter-clockwise five times to, well,
untangle the chopsticks and you're ready to eat.

And don't forget that handy pack of ENO in case everything goes wrong....

The last day before CNY week

Today is the 'Last Day' at the office and so, everyone gets a share of the spoils. Spoils as in gifts from customers and suppliers. In other words, we had a lucky draw...

And as usual, one big vendor always ordered this fruit
cake for us. It is very delicious. I wanted to order but
I can never locate her. Moreover, this is homemade
and they do this on every CNY only.

During the Lucky Draw, I got this, which is great
for Wife. Or so I was told.

The funny part was this lass who
won the XO or something and she
is not allowed to drink it. Ha ha ha!

Pakcik calling.....

"Ni p'cik guna kad orng,tolng isikan p'cik top up RM 30 dinumber baru p'chik ni nom 0128140146,pasal p'cik ade kes dibalai polis boleh tak cepat sikit beli."

Translation: Uncle is using other people's number, please help top up RM30 onto my new number 0128140146, as Uncle is at a Police Station can you hurry up buy it.

I am not sure if this is true or not since the "other people's number" starts with +62, which is Indonesia. And the Devil in me wanted to text back, "Ha. Padan muka kau, p'cik. Tipu org lagi, Masuk balai la." [Translation: Seves you right, Uncle. Bluff people some more, you'll end up in the Police Station."

But I decided to ignore it completely. That is the problem with phone scams and if you do reply them, thay know, their bait has worked. And if its a genuine case, that p'chik will call back or something since he already has my number. Moreover, I don't know any Uncle in Indonesia. And the ones I know are either 'gone' (OK, industrial accidents in the most gruesome way) or are still here.

So, I just let it rest at that and think of a new topic for my blog.

Heck. I just did.

Happy New Year 2011

Wow. You guys are still here? Truth to be told, I am a bit busy at the moment as I am still trying to adjust my "Internet" time ever since Kristine has gone to Primary School.

Yeah, every night I come back, I only have enough energy to crawl around and sleep at any dark corner I see.

But lots of posts coming up soon.... hopefully.

Farewell, my friend

Well, I thought it was the end of everything last week but there was a slight hitch. Because we're all honest people *ahem*, we did not use a 'runner' to get our documentations done. Not because we want to save the runner's fee but everyone felt that it is not necessary. To cut a boring story short, I drive the new owner to the JPJ in Cheras somewhere to sort out the documentation, which is actually transfer of car ownership.

So, along the way, I told him, to take good care of the car, its history and also, most importantly, how each modification can be repaired if necessary.

All we need to do was to sign on the forms. And

that's it. No need runner. Troublesome but no
need runner.

This also gave me one more last chance to look at my
Bengmobile. It seemed that they have repaired the
rear bumper and a few minor things or else, they
would not be able tp pass the JPJ Inspection

One of the thing they did was to 'remove' the golden
tint on the windows. This was because the original
Satria windows was already a shade darker. So, by
the time of the JPJ enforcement, it was suddenly
'iillegal'.

I see they have replaced the broken dash and
cleaned up the area too. I wonder if they had
a go with the EL dials as they replaced the dash

Not only that, they have removed the seat covers
but retained the meters on the A-pillars

The seal of approval, by Puspakom

This is the rust which they have started to work on.
See the grey square? That's the cabin roof's courtesy
lights. So, when it rained....

This is the other hole. The roof definitely had to
be replaced. And that, my friends, is costly.

OK, I'll leave this on the windshield

But I definitely took this one with me. Not sure
if BengII needs it or not. The clear edges are
already yellowed

And so, this is really it. The final farewell to Bengmobile, which since 1997, has chalked up more than 260 thousand Km together. Courted a few girls, and well, tested a few Laws of Physics too. I was really sad but it had to be done. Because I need to take Kristine to the school every morning and it had to be a safe car.

Yes, stop thinking about Volvos, can?

How to eat socially Pt 2

I still do not know where to start either...

Kristine's new headgear

Well, its not, actually. Grandma just wrapped
the towel around her head but it looked great.

Resin Casting Workshop @ Multifilla

This is the first SFTPMS workshop that I have ever been and I must say, it is very educational. The Workshop was held at Multifilla, courtesy of Mr. Leong who was kind enough to sponsor the workshop material in addition to the food and drinks. Yes, there was food, in case you all missed it. (OH, OK. I gasak-ed all the seaweed crackers and potato crisps) *ahem*

The Workshop stared with Mr. Leong telling the
participants various Smooth-on products and
how to use them properly. This was a very good
lesson for me because I did not foresee some
potential problems when it comes to casting.
And not only that, we did get to see a small
and unique pressure chamber too.

After that, it was the "Mahagurus" who demonstrated
how castings are done. Smooth-on product that was used
had different effect and not only that, we learnt what
would happen if things are not mixed to the correct ratio.
(Hint: Its a very heaty subject). Here xamel1975 discuss
on how to mould and cast a subject that has very
off angles and protrusions. Also, I learnt that the cast
model, will shrink by 1mm or so when cured.

This is how a simple mould was being done. But there
are some problems. So, this is the reason why a lot of
Lego blocks go missing very quickly... druid_99 is
sweating, as if the chemicals are about to burst into
flames, making the whole casting process look very
dangerous. Actually, it is dangerous but with the right
knowledge, you will not DIE.

I don't have a macro lens but as the casting came out,
all the details from the mould was accurately transferred
to the casting. And if you really want to know, it a part of
a model radiator, where there is a lot of details.

This is a nice smooth-on casting but because the mould
was made very quickly for the Workshop, there were
some bubbles. later on, Mr. Leong said the casting can
still be recovered by a very simple technique. What I
want to highlight is that this casting cured very fast and
its very light was well. Compared to the usual resin kits,
this is feather light and still strong enough for further
sculpting if needed.

One final demo is the crystal clear 'water' which interested
me. But Mr. Leong did warn us that the final result, although
it is clear, it is rubbery. Unfortunately, someone else forgot
to read the manual because it said, "Leave overnight to cure..."

So, there you go, folks. The Workshop is really educational and now, I appreciate how difficult it was to create a model for casting, because there are a lot of things to consider before a perfect kit comes to your doorstep. But this is very different for those who copy the originals and recast them to sell to others for profit.

1:14 cars at Toys r Us

As soon as I have finished dealing with my customer today, I decided to have a stroll at the local Toys r Us to cheer myself up. The case I have been handling is not over yet and it is very stressful for me. What what did I see at TRU? The reason why I am looking for such car now is because of one nice little car i saw on the Internet. I cannot reveal it yet because to modify a car to such extend is beyond my skills. It would be really embarassing it if failed too.

A lot of 1:14 scale R/C cars, that is.
They were priced at RM89.95
(for members, la)

Shall I get the Camry? Nope because there are
no spoilers and sideskirts like the ones I see on
the roads. Lexus is out too because its well, not
brute looking enough.

The 350Z looked like a Porsche imitation. How about
the R35, hmmm? It looks brutish enough and fits my
requirement. But lets have a further look.

Well, this is way out of the question.

And Honda. pfft. I hate Hondas.

Ah, this I like and this is the exact car I am looking
for! But for RM79.90 and a bit smaller, this is one
that I will have to mull over.

The GT skirts and exhausts are all there but in the end....

Size does matter. Wha ha ha ha ha ha!

Delivering Goodwill

Its almost about a week before Chinese New Year and so, everyone is busy getting Ang Pow packets (empty one, of course), mandarin oranges, hampers and so on. To the Westerners, this is almost akin to bribery. To us, its part of life. The Company does this every year for their customers. And if you do not do this, you're the odd one out anyway. So, for this week, you will see a lot of delivery vans and bikes on the road. And you have to do this fast because by Thursday or so, it will be too late as the person concerned would be taking a long leave.

The boxes of oranges arrived last night from a freezer truck and so, by this morning, it was still cool and well, fresh. So, each of us were allocated to a certain amount plus spares (which I used for quality control). Although we can get the company van to deliver, I took a some to deliver to the customers I know which did gave me some problems last year. I always believe in the personal touch.

Although I have some customers, I personally delivered
a few as I know them well. Moreover, this is the one
chance I can really go there and thank them.

And before I go, I took the precaution to check all
the orangesfirst. Any bad ones were swapped. And
boy, I was glad I did that because out of 12 boxes,
a total of two boxes equivalent of oranges were bad.

And these customers were a bit difficult for
me in the past year and so, I have to make
sure everything is 'perfect'

In the end, everything is alright.
That is, except for the missing
two boxes of oranges. Pity the
fella who took and ate them.