Hazy start

This morning when I woke up, the clear sunny sky was amiss. It was all hazy... has someone been doing some massive land clearing today?? Please stop! I hope I am not being selfish but I do miss my bright clear blue sky and most importantly, good air quality...

Take a peek to see how it was like this morning...

Bungai Beach

We decided to go for a short trip in our car to Bekenu yesterday evening. It's about 40 mins drive one way. The kids enjoyed the trip, whilst my parents had a chance to visit the old town of Bekenu (or Sibuti as it is also known) and also the famous nearby Bungai Beach. There wasn't much happening at Bekenu town itself as the market that we went to was already closed. Nevertheless, it was like stepping back in time to how old towns in Sarawak was like... simple rows of shop houses, a town hall, basic hospital facilities, etc.

After the town, we ventured to Bungai Beach. We had some coconut juice there and watched the fishermen catch "bubuk"i.e small pinkish prawns. It was interesting to see them spreading their nets and later scooping up their catch.

Oh yes, nearby the beach, the Miri Municipal Council has just erected a public toilet and I was shocked by the fees they charge to use it. I had to pay RM0.50; yes, 50 sen to get in!! This must be one of the most expensive toilet in East Malaysia!! Shocking eh?

At any beach, sand flies were flying around, so as a souvenir, I got bitten on my leg and is still swelling and itchy up until now.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Bungai Beach itself. Beautiful, isn't it?
















It was a lovely evening at Bungai beach.



















































This is how the fisherman go out to the "deeper" end with his net to catch "bubuk".



















The lady whom we bought the coconuts from also helped us open it. It was RM1.00 per coconut, service fee included. :D

Photos of our kids

Here are some pictures taken over last weekend and during the week. These are our precious little ones... enjoy!


We set up the pirate ship pool for the kids to cool down in hot sunny Miri last Saturday! They loved it.


















































































Celebrated Kung Kung's 67th birthday!


















Kids with their sunnies! Looking cool...

Joshua

Joshua, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

Here's a picture of my son sitting and waiting patiently for his mummy to run errands. With the dreaded HFM disease still spreading in east Malaysia, we have kept our two kids at home. So a car ride like today is a real treat for them.

The Song (lyrics)

CHRIS RICE lyrics

Age old truth

Today, I saw a very humbling thing. As I was flying on my way to KL for a short business trip, there sitting on the aisle seat diagonally to me was an elderly lady, wearing a yellow t-shirt with greyed hair. She looked pretty normal until meal time (I didn't quite noticed her until then). Her son, who was beside her, started putting the napkin on her and later proceeded to feed her. She just stared blankly into space. She ate what was being fed to her. She drank what was being offered to her.

My heart was touched in two ways; firstly, her son's dedication to her (from his gentle actions, I can see that there is much love and compassion) and secondly, would I age to be like her?
Aging is inevitable; that's how God has designed us. It's an age old truth. We cannot tell how we will be like when we are 70, 80, 90 or beyond but one thing we can be sure about is that when we put our hope in Christ, we can look toward a better and perfect place, a place without pain, sorrow or sickness; heaven!

It's a challenge to live each day to the fullest amidst the busy-nes of life and yet be heavenward minded. A song that comes to mind that speaks of this is found in an album called "Run the earth and watch the sky" by Chris Rice. (I may post the lyrics here when I get back home.)

As I continued to watch the elderly lady, my mind wonders what she would be dreaming of. I'm thankful for my parents who are approaching 70 and yet still relatively healthy for their age. Both my dad and mum are enjoying their grand kids and the blessings of life that God has bestowed upon them. As they say, wisdom comes with age but love knows no end; not even death! I love you Pa and Ma.

- This blog entry is a tribute to my parents and all those wise and elderly people out there.-















My mum & dad (photo taken in Dec 2005)

Flowering Cactus

At close to midnight yesterday, one of my cacti flowered! It has flowered before but that was last year. To see this flower is rather rare for me. It's either I missed it or did not realise it at all! It is beautifully strange that cacti would choose to come to full bloom in the middle of the night. The flower would usually last for the night and withers come day break. However, this particular flower remained in full bloom for the rest of the today! Cacti never stop to amaze me!

Here are two of the pictures I took last night.

Tommy or Timmy?

Besides the two virtual pets that both Josh and Jess have adopted in the page below (a tiger and a pig), Josh has a real live turtle. He (we think it is a 'he') dropped by our house one rainy day... we found him in our drain and we thought it would be good to give him shelter. Not long after, it became Josh's pet turtle.

When the turtle was found, he was just so tiny; perhaps about 2 inches in length. Like all pets, there comes the naming of the pet. As Josh is really into Bob the Builder, there was one episode where a turtle was lost. He was named Tommy by Rolly (one of Bob's machines) who found him. But when they found the owner, they realised that his name was actually Timmy. So with that, Josh decided to call his turtle Tommy. A few days later, he called it Timmy. So we asked him what his pet turtle's name is and the answer changes from day to day. So we now have a turtle with two names : Tommy and Timmy!
































NB : We do not let Josh nor Jess touch the turtle as they do bite and has a lot of bacteria on them when they live in an enclosed environment. We only allow Josh to feed the turtle and that is using a scoop to drop the food pallets into the 'aquarium'.

The day before the Oscars

Jack Nicholson in person!

When we reached LA last Saturday (4/3/06), my colleague and I decided to take a the Hollywood tour. Yes, we were walking along Hollywood Boulevard the day before the Oscars. The street was half closed as preparations were under way for the glamourous event. Police and security was crawling all over the Kodak Theatre. Needless to say the theatre was closed to the public. One of the major highlights of the tour was to have spotted Jack Nicholson walking along the street! I was just within 10m from the movie star! Who would have believed it! I will post the picture later (as I took it with my digital camera) when I get back home.

Kodak Theatre being "dressed" up for the Oscars.

Heavy security; Hollywood Blvd half closed!

Our tour guide brought us to the famous Farmers Market. It's a great place to eat as it is set up like a hawker centre. I had something mediterranean; a baked bread (bread was baked using the stone stove) with ham and eggs on it. It was an interesting dish... It looked more like a breakfast offering but hey, who says you can't have eggs and ham with bread at night? :p

Mississippi River

Mississippi River, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

We had a walk down to the ever famous Mississippi River bank after dinner at the Bourbon House (a seafood restaurant along Bourbon St.) one evening. It was a nice stroll after yet another dinner of seafood; we had oysters, crawfish, shrimp, catfish, etc.. (I reckon New Orleans would be a seafood lover's paradise!) Anyway, the huricane Katrina did quite a lot of damage in this part of the town. The Aquarium and the IMAX theatre located by the banks of the river were closed to public. These places took quite a beating from the fierce storm/hurricane. We were told that all the fishes, including the sharks died after the hurricane. How sad!



Since there was not much lighting along the banks, we could hardly make out the river itself. There were a few tug boats going downstream but we could not see the famous steam powered paddle boats. From what we could see, the river was rather wide with muddy waters (quite like most of our rivers back in Sarawak) but there was a bridge running across the river a distance away. This river meanders through quite a long distance through the States. All I could remember about this river is tales of Mark Twain!



After a good 20mins or so by the river bank, we headed back to the hotel. On our way back, we passed by a huge casino called Harrahs. It's amazing how places like these can spring back to business so fast whilst the surrounding area is still in need of restoration. It's also amazing to note that there were tonnes and tonnes of 5-star hotels like Marriott, Sheraton, etc. along Canal St.. We were informed by our hosts that New Orleans is one of those cities where it would attract a lot of conventions through out the year. Well, only time will tell if New Orleans will spring back to life after the hard beating it took from Katrina.



We ended at our hotel after a good stroll in town, too tired to do anything else. This is the reason why I have not blog much at all (as most nights are either filled with dinners or shopping - hosts bring us to these areas) except now; I'm flying back from New Orleans to LA to catch the midnight flight back to KL via Taipei).



Note : Apologies for the poor pictures taken here as everytime we were out and about, I would have left my camera behind at the hotel! Hence, I could only use my PDA to take these shots... Better than nothing I suppose.

Jazz at Bourbon St.

Jazz at Bourbon St., originally uploaded by Yong Family.

New Orleans is the birth place of jazz music. Our hosts brought us to this superb jazz bar located at Bourbon St. where there was this jazz band playing through the night. It was a great experience to listen to live jazz music. This particular jazz bar is an european jazz bar. I think it is called Freitzel or something like that. Bourbon St. is like the liveliest street here with all sorts of restaurants, bars, souvenir shops and.. err.. adult entertainment. But one thing I observed about this street is that it is not very clean; as you can imagine with people drinking and getting drunk and puking at the sidewalks! El stinko! One thing I found out about New Orleans is that it is a rather poor city compared to cities like Houston. Anyway, besides the drawbacks the city faces, I must say that the people here are rather friendly and hospitable. So, with a beer in one hand and my feet thumping to the jazzy beats, it was indeed a night to remember!

New Orleans

New Orleans, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

It's been awhile now since I last had an entry in my blog. It's only now I managed to find some time to blog. I'm in New Orleans and have been busy with meetings and also had excellent hosts... hence nights were filled with dinners. I was also having jet lag since last Monday, but it's better now.



Upon landing at Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans, my host brought my colleague and I to some shops. I didn't buy anything though. After that, my host gave us a tour of the Katrina torned city. There are still parts of the city where restoration work has not begun. It was a sad sight indeed. Residential areas were abandoned, mud and rubbish strewn everywhere, cars left to rot, trees that fell on roof tops and hardly any (if any at all) basic utilities in the neighbourhood. It is no wonder that some people are not returning home. The theme now for this city is "Together we rebuild". They do need a lot of help.



So what food have I had in this French influenced city? There is this doughnut-like cake called 'beignet'. Tastes a bit like 'eu char kuey' with sugar icing! There was also a hint of doughnut taste as it is made from flour. It's nice with coffee. There's also this famous soup that is native to the New Orleans people called 'gumbo'. It's like a seafood stew; shrimp, crawfish, sausage, veggies, etc. Honestly, I could not quite make out what it tastes like. Just plain 'ol soup.

In the air...

In the air..., originally uploaded by Yong Family.

[10:48am 04-March-2006]

So here I am at 5097m (and climbing) above mean sea level travelling at 711kmph. I have just left KLIA on my way to Los Angeles in USA. My journey started this morning at 5:45am from home to the Miri airport. It was a smooth journey from Miri to KLIA. I'm on a business trip to New Orleans (final destination) for a week long meeting. I had to bid farewell to my family who are still in Miri, with my parents (parents were recruited as back-up when I found out about my trip a couple of weeks ago). Our first stop on this long haul flight will be Taipei.



[1:38pm 04-March-2006]

Crusing now at a speed of 982kmph, with an altitude of 11578m. Just passing the Phillipines. This means it's just under 1hr now to Taipei. The temperature outside is -17degC, but it's cosy and warm in here.



[3:18pm 04-March-2006]

I'm sitting at the waiting area in Chiang Kai Shek international airport in Taipei. Nothing fantastic, just normal. Will be boarding the plane for LA at 3:50pm. Just relaxing now.

What a Daddy feels...

Sharing with you this beautiful song by Bob Carlisle, Butterfly Kisses (click here for the lyrics). This song beautifully sums up a relationship between a girl and her Daddy. I guess Daddies everywhere would feel the same about their daughters... I do!

Here's part of the lyrics...

"Butterfly kisses, with her mama there
Sticking little flowers all up in her hair
"Walk me down the aisle, daddy, it's just about time"
"Does my wedding gown look pretty, daddy?"
"Daddy, don't cry."
With all that I've done wrong,
I must have done something right
To deserve her love every morning,
And butterfly kisses
I couldn't ask God for more, man, this is what love is
I know I've gotta let her go, but I'll always remember
Every hug in the morning, and butterfly kisses..."

Here's a pic of my daughter.

A Word A Day

I have been subscribing to this FREE "A Word A Day"" from Anu Garg. AWAD looks at
unusual words;words we would normally not use in our day to day conversation nor
see often enough in publications.

I have been intrigued by some of the words he shared with us. You can be part of
his mailing list too by visiting his website :
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/

Below is an extract of what I received this week.
Thanks to Anu Garg.
Be refreshed and amused!

*****************************
This week we feature a potpourri of words. We opened a dictionary, shook
it gently, and these words fell out. They came in all shapes, sizes, and
senses. They're short and long. They're flighty and grouchy. Call 'em what
you will, a medley of words, a farrago, or a gallimaufry. They're disparate,
they're diverse. They are varied and variegated, unclassified and unsorted.
And they're all ready to serve.


volitant (VOL-i-tuhnt) adjective

  1. Flying or capable of flight.

  2. Active; moving about rapidly.

[From Latin volitare (to flutter), from volare (to fly). Volatile and volley
descended from the same source.]

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

 "Notwithstanding the volitant simmerings of Gershwin's right-sided tumor,
  his left brain could have assumed, over time, essential functions of his
  musical genius, allowing for his terminal inventiveness."
  Spencer Nadler; Brain-cell Memories; Harper's (New York); Sep 2000.

*****************************

Kid Control

I have been wanting to blog this since earlier this week but time did not permit. However, here I am and here are the pics I took over the weekend when we did our weekly grocery shopping. This is how we keep the kids at bay... they like it ... BUT only for a few minutes; after that we'll be chasing them around the supermarket! This is the life of young parents with toddlers at our hands.