What I've been up to …

Last Friday, after the 2-Day workshop, we were given a free tour of MAEPS compound.

We boarded the train/tram/open-air bus/or-whatever-you-call-it at about 5pm:

Some people who came after us:

Ready to go:

Quite cosy:

Here’s our guide:

We went round the compound. I couldn’t take shots of every section, but the few that I managed to capture are here.

The horse paddock:

Pineapple Showground (mainly for MAHA):

pineapple tree plants:

Their bus depo:

rodeo section (but no rodeo show that day ) :

We were told during the last MAHA, the rodeo show wa done by an Australian team.

The Grass area (those are expensive grass. Yes, the tall ones):

One of the many orchards:

One of the many surau and toilets area:

The nursery (we can visit the nursery during office hours to buy young plants of all sorts of fruits) :

Ample parking for MAHA:

The Information Centre:

Same building, but on the right hand side is the Ticket Counter:

Going up the hill to the Expo halls:

I don’t remember what this is, must be the mail hall:

The guide told us that we can have a function for up to 7000 pax (or did she say 700 parking space?). We can book the halls for any function, even wedding! Anybody fancy a wedding in the orchard/garden?

As were were coming back to where we parked our cars, the guide told us this is the back of “Rumah Kelantan”:

The yellow house in the background is “Rumah Perlis”.

She told us Rumah Kelantan is quite nice from the front. Another shot from the back:

Soon it was over, and we left the tram:

As we walked towards our cars, I saw some lasses going to the bridge (for photo shoot?) :

But I had to see the facade of Rumah Kelantan, so I turned right, and took this shot:

Another one:

From where I was standing, as I turned a bit to the left and looked further up, I could see the Viewing Tower (Balai Cerap) that our guide mentioned earlier, but I couldn’t get a good shot of it:

As I walked back to my car, I saw 2 ladies were still on the bridge:

Satisfied with the shots, and realising that most of us had left, I went to my car and drove out. As I was driving, I saw the bridge again, but from the other side, so I stopped the car, and took this one:

The white building with maroon roof is Rumah Terengganu (still under construction), and you can see part of Rumah Kelantan between it and the Viewing Tower. Rumah Johor (where our workshop was) is on the right side, blocked by the yellow pillars of the bridge.

I was a nice place, this MAEPS, and the rest of MARDI compound! I hope they take good care of all the facilities there.

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Nuni has gone back to Kota Bharu(KB) 2 nights ago (on Tues night), and DH, Aina and I will do so tomorrow noon. (So for those who follow Nuni’s blog, you can ignore it for a few days to come! She’ll be busy or “busy-bodying” in KB. Expect a lot of blogs from her next week! )

All these going back to KB is for DH’s cousin’s  wedding reception tomorrw night (the bersanding, etc).  It will continue unti lthe following day (for other guests). It may not sound important, but the bride’s mum is a special aunt, who has done so much for us, and still is, so it’s only fair that we go back to help make her daughter’s wedding merrier. Furthermore she’s a single mum – her DH passed away several years ago. Never mind that that her VVIP list  for tomorrow night’s wedding reception consists of a Tan Sri, and a few Datuks and Datuk Sri (as if we care!), hehehe.. As if we care… We’ll be at the background, making ourselves busy, or pretend to shoot some photos or video (ha, must remember to bring bac the camcorder!).

Today is my last day of work, and I hope to get a lot of things done, before I’m off to a busy weekend

To my fellow alumni who are in KB, I’m not sure if we can meet up, but watch up for my blog, as I am going to do some “jejak kasih” if I can squeeze in some time

-smz

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Nuni calls them lunchbags, because they are mini tote bags that we use to put our wallets and phones when we go out for lunch

I’ve made quite a few, for myself, and for my officemates. Last Sunday I made 2 more, and I think I have to make a few more .

So, the latest 2:

The black one with strawberries I’ve made one recently, as blogged here.

I made another one because another colleague wanted one just like that. And yesterday, a few others wanted the black bag too! Luckily the fabric can be bought at Nagoya next door to our office (i.e.  in Plaza Alam Sentral).

Both of them have inner pockets to put the handphone . They are  also reversible, as shown here:

All pix were taken by Nuni. She didn’t the pic of the other bag on the reverse side, and I can’t have anymore pic since I’ve given the bag away.

Now I wish to make other (bigger tote) bags, but I still owe some friends these little lunchbags. And I can imagine my friends in UNISEL who follow my blogs – they’ll be screaming for these bags too. I have been busy that I’ve not visited them for almost half year. They’ve asked for some brooches too!

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Or should I say “un-cendol-ful” search for Cendol Leman Dawi? Last Sunday my BIL & his missus told me about “Cendol Leman Dawi” which was featured by TV3 just the day before. They asked me, since I was going to visit Mae in Seremban, to check the place out.

I then googled “Leman Dawi” and got this:

And there were over 1000 hits:

When I checked on the google map, I found that it was quite near to Mae’s school, less than 10 km away:

The one in the red circle is the “Leman Dawi”‘ place, and Mae’s school is in green.

So, last Sunday, we left home slightly earlier, and headed straight to the place.

Alas, we were not so fortunate, and found this:

Some unlucky blokes, just like us!

Check the sign the red arrow is pointing to. It reads “Out of Cendol”!

Looking at the sign, it looks like it is quite common for the place to run out of cendol before the day is over. I bet the TV3 feature the day before just made it worse.

What’s so special with this place? I can’t really tell yet, since I’ve not tasted its cendol, but you can always google and read what others have said so far .

As for us, we WILL definitely try our luck again in the future  . And surely I’ll blog again.

By the way, those who don’t know what cendol is, just google “cendol” or chendol”. And if you click image, and you’ll get something like this:

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MAEPS stands for Malaysian Agro Exposition Park, Serdang.

Last Thursday and Friday I attended a workshop organised by JPA:

It was my first time at MAEPS. The surrounding is quite nice, and relaxing.

I think I’ll blog about MAEPS in a seperate blog.

I only brought my camera along on Friday, so here are some of the shots while we were having the discussion sessions.

About to start the session after the afternoon Friday prayer:

There were 3 groups of us, discussing different aspects of the topic:

Later at 4pm, it was time to represent our output. The audience:

I lost most of the pix during the presentation, but fortunately the pic of En Sahar doing the summary and closing was recovered:

We put together all the MOA’s banners (at the back of En Sahar) to block the glare of the afternoon light:

At the end of the session, we had a a group pic taken (this one by me):

Ignore the backdrop . Or if you are still curious, apparently there’s an on-going activity here every Saturday, as stated on the backdrop (and later confirmed by one of the MAEPS staff):

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Not that I have nothing to say, but I want to put these down in writing.Come to think of it, I have a few other topics to blog about!

Anyway, as for now, these are the things I want to write here:

First

I did the most stupidest thing last night. I wanted to copy the pix from mt camera’s SD card to the notebook, and most of the time, I would highlight the pix and click “Cut”, then I would go the destination folder and click “Paste”.

Somehow last night I clicked “Delete” instead of “Cut” and when I tried to paste, I just COULD NOT!

Fortunately, DH came to the rescue (not until this morning!). He retrieved the “deleted” pix, but there are several which just could not be recovered . Well, better than missing the whole lot!

Second

Sabre is now a friend on FB. I logged into FB to accept his request, and while still on the FB page, I saw this:

I saw the birthdate, and thought the box was about me. Then I saw “Current City” as Klang. I thought to myself, when did I put Klang? Then I looked at the birthdate again and again thought ” I was not born in 1960!”. THEN only it occured to me that I was still at Sabre’s FB page! LOL! :

And our names have the same root, hence meaning… 

BTW, I think I should put this in writing too – when DH played the Mamma Mia! the Movie blu-ray DVD, he planned to watch only the first 15 minutes (just like what he normally does to other movies screened at home). Results? He watched the ENTIRE movie, plus some of the extras!! LOL!

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When I came home from the workshop today, I saw a parcel on the table. Since it was addressed to DH, I didn’t bother to look at it.

DH came home quite late (just before 9pm) and when I told him there’s a parcel for him, he looked at it, and told me to open it, and said it was for me.

No, it’s not my birthday, and Valentine is gone, but when I opened it, it was indeed a pleasant surprise:

(

Yeah, it’s a Blu-ray copy of Mamma Mia! the movie.

So, tonight we watched that movie . The show ended just before midnight.

Actually I’ve watched the DVD version of the movie a month or so ago, but this time, watching it on Blu-ray was really satisfying!

Bok found it funny when James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) sings SOS:

And here with Meryl Streep:

And towards the end, James Bond Sam Carmichael (Brosnan) asking Donna (Streep) for hand in marriage:

The extra of the movie was the song “Waterloo” sang by the cast, here the macho-man:

Ah, so far it has been a good start to the weekend!

And to DH, thank you

I know I am going to play the Blu-ray disc many many more times to come!

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Tagging is something bloggers do for fun. I was tagged by Paul some time ago, but I’ve been too busy to continue it.

Earlier tonight I felt so sleepy that I took a nap. It was soon after I took 2 mugs of black (Kluang) coffee! I’ve been telling people coffee doesn’t have much effect on me, LOL!

When I woke up again at 10.30pm (abt 20 mins later), I was very fresh, and still am, despite the clock ticking past 1.45am! Gosh, I’m going to be very sleepy during Day 2 of the workshop that I am attending tomorrow.

(or maybe coffee has delayed effect on me?)

Anyway, back to this tagging game, I’m supposed to show the 6th pic in my 6th folder.

I check my “My Pictures” and guess whose folder I found?:

Inside Bok’s folder are old pix of him, which I collected to make the birthday wishes I gave him last year.

So, clicking the 6th pic (as shown above) I got this:

Hahaha!! This pic was taken when we went to Awana Kijal, many many years ago. It was either in 1994 or 1995 .

We took the opportunity to drive further north and visit the the Turtle Hatchery in Rantau Abang (as shown by the sign board in the pic).

Bok is my 2nd child, and like most 2nd child, he was quite a person to handle. I never thought that he would change so much. He’s now more caring and patient – a stark contrast to Bok then. Now Bok (his full name is Nur Nubli) is almost 23,

As for that trip, there was hardly any baby turtle, and it was blazing hot! Nonetheless, it was an educational trip for the kids

Now, I’ve done my part of the tagging, Paul.

Now I wish to tag:

1. Mrs Nordin
2. Natrah
3. Jabishah
4. Min
5. Nuni
6. Sabre23t

And yet I am still not sleepy…

2.00am.

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Very early this morning, i.e. before sunrise,  I just felt like sewing, and since DH was still out stationed, I would not be waking anybody up with the noise of my Janome .

Within 2o minutes I got it done:

I bought the black strawberry fabric at Nagoya, Plaza Alam Sentral yesterday, just before our 6.30pm meeting started.

The inner lining is also of strawberry design which I bought in Chiangmai last December:

I tested it by putting my bulky wallet:

Actually the little bag is reversible:

Nik told me that Ajun asked her about the bag that I made for her (Nik). So, since then, I thought if I have the time, I would make one for Ajun. So, when I gave this little bag to Ajun today, she was very happy   , and so was I!

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I have some sentiment memories of Ayer Hitam. I used to stop there with my familes, on our umpteen times going back to Muar from Singapore(to and fro) . We used to board the “Singapore-Malacca Express Bus” for the trip. What I understood was that the bus company was a sister company of “Singapore-Johore Express Bus”, where dad was one of the drivers. I knew most of the time we got discounted tickets to go back to Muar. Later in the late 1970s, I used to travel this route on my own! By then there were a few other express bus operators.

Ayer Hitam was a mandatory (the only one, I think) stop for the route between Johore Bahru and Muar in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Each time we stopped there, we would have our snack of boiled eggs (with soy sauce) and drinks (both my parents would order hot drinks while I would be excited to get either 7-Up or Kickspoo!). I think the restaurant (kopi tiam, really) was the only operating then. There was only ONE row of shop block ( I can’t really remember what shops the others were):

So, when I was there again last weekend, the first thing I looked for was that eatery. Unfortunately it is now a flower shop with the MCA office above it:

Note the year 1958 on the wall!

In those days the road was narrower, hence the space in front of the shop was much bigger, and the buses (and cars alike) would just part in front of the shop row.

By the way, to the left (hand-side) of the shop row, used to be some stalls selling the local produces (in those days it was mainly pisang salai), and later in the 1970s, the bus terminal was relocated to further left, which is now a petrol station:

That was Ayer Hitam then. Now the place has expanded to across the road, with a lot of shops to make mothers and kids happy.

Some of the interesting stalls:

There is even a one-way street, with stalls on one side and permanent shops on the other:

Fresh farming goods:

Home/garden decor:

The signboard of the stall attracted my attention. Is it an identity crisis?:

Chinese or Siamese?

I spotted some old time favourites of Ayer Hitam (clay piggy-banks of all shapes):

But I could not find my favourite mangosteen piggy-bank. The gas tanks are new to me (though I was told that they’ve been here for ages) and I like the peanuts too!

I remember having one of the cockerels when I was still in Singapore. In those days, we just had to break it open to get our coins:

Arg… I really had a good time going around the shops and stalls:

Pisang salai was the main produce in those days, but nowadays it only occupies a small corner of each outlet that sells snacks. I was told that not many people make them anymore – bananas are getting more expensive, and the work involved to produce the pisang salai is just too tedious. The farmers would opt for crisp banana chips or sell the bananas to bakeries that make banana cakes.

Pottery was the other attraction of Ayer Hitam, and I’m glad to say that it still is:

And more here:

Smaller ones here:

Even Halimi could resist them:

We went in a Hyundai Matrix – not big enough for all of us to really indulge ourselves in Ayer Hitam.

Kiddoes will love the abundance of their favourite characters (Spongebob, Patrick Star, just to name a few):

More:

And more:

And if you are preparing for weddings, you will not be disappointed here:

It certainly looks colourful here:

More flowers:

I think if DH and I take MIL here, we’ll make her very happy! (despite her being was here about 5 years ago) . Maybe can take them to the Kluang Station Kopi Tiam too, since Kluang is only about 20km away from Ayer Hitam.

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