Leisurely Langkawi

On Sunday (25 Sept 2005) we took an early morning ferry up north. Destination: Langkawi
Accommodation: Awana Porto Malai
Transport on island: rented car (Thanks for your help, Peter)
Camera: courtesy of Nicholas (Thanks, Niq)


[Awana Porto Malai: a pleasant stay...]

First activity: Island Hopping
Review: Good. We took the package organised by the hotel which took us to Tasik Dayang Bunting and Pulau Beras Basah, as well as to watch eagles feeding.


[Tasik Dayang Bunting: Note how the hills resemble a pregnant woman lying down...]


[Eagle Feeding: The eagles feast on chicken skin...]

On Monday, we took a round-island drive.
Location 1: Gunung Mat Cincang. This is where the cable car is located. Quite a scary experience because of the height. Plus, the wind was quite strong so the gondola was swaying quite a bit. Not too kind on the heart, but exciting nevertheless. There was also a large suspension brigde. As you walk across it, you can experience the extremely strong winds blowing across the mountains.


[Suspension Brigde: Fear Factor in Langkawi]

Location 2: Pebble Beach. Most of the beach here is covered with pebbles instead of the customary sand one associates with beaches. Where we stopped, however, there was some sand. The fascinating thing is the colour of the sand was orangy - something like laterite.


[Pebble Beach]

Location 3: Black Sand Beach. What can I say... the sand was black... BUT there was some 'contamination' to the sand... the sea brought some regular-coloured beach sand to the shore, but if you scrape that sand, as I'm doing in the picture, you'll see that it's only on the surface... the real sand on the beach is... BLACK...!!! ;-)


[Black Sand Beach]

Location 4: Tanjung Rhu. Rhu is Malay for Casuarina. So, obviously there were lots of casuarina trees here, and there was a wide area of sand. Good for telematches...

Location 5: Hot Spring.


[Ayer Hangat: Natural Hot Water available... ;-)]

Location 6: Kuah town. Last minute shopping before leaving for home... chocolates and booze were our focus...

Holidays, holidays, holidays

The semester break has started for me, and with it our holidays. Last Thursday (22 Sept 2005) we went to my sister, Aileen's, place in Bukit Merah after work. Dinner was homemade tuna quiche... We spent the night there, chatting and watching a concert of songs from various musicals on DVD.

On Friday, Bart and I entertained ourselves in Taiping while Aileen worked. In the morning we were the youngest visitors at the Lake Gardens ;-) I am sad to report that the water level was quite low.

Later in the morning we decided to go to Maxwell Hill (or Bukit Larut, for those who don't know the English name). There, we enjoyed the fresh air, a suspension bridge, a lookout tower and a playground which had swings big enough for adults. However, the highlight (for me, anyway) was the lovely concrete slide that allowed us to be children again! *Wheeeeee*

In the evening, we went back to Bukit Merah to lepak and wait. We had a dinner appointment with Aileen. After dinner we headed back to Penang, but poor Aileen had to continue working...

No photos from this trip, as you will see from our previous blog entry, our camera went kaput on us... ;-(

Image Sensor Disaster

It senses images but, alas, it didn't sense its untimely demise. Our digital camera's image sensor went kaput yesterday *tears rolling down cheeks* *sniff*. The images appeared like brownish ghostly figures. Our camera is now at the shop waiting to be sent for service. This may take about 2 months I heard *cold sweat*. How to wait that long? Uughoohhh!!

Bye... let me go and cry now... Waaaahaaahaaaa!

Pizza Square

Yesterday (19 Sept 2005), we had Niq and Chui Ying over for a pizza party. Our square pizza had two kinds of toppings:

Topping 1: Minced pork (in traditional chinese sauces) with scallop mushroom.
Topping 2: Chicken chunks (cooked with marmite, honey, perry vinegar and soy sauce) with pineapple.

These were topped off with capsicum and mozarella cheese.


[Pizza Square: No, that's not the name of a new shopping mall]

Part Yuet Sarp Umph!

This year's mooncake festival came and went. We are proud to announce that we didn't even buy one crinkle-wrapped mooncake. Rather, we opted for the more cottage-industry-type mooncakes which obviously tasted like mooncakes too... duh!


[The Moon Is Round: Eyes, Nose and Mouth...]

This year, Angie gleefully bought a 'traditional' glass-paper goldfish lantern. "No battery-operated, irritating-sounding, cartoon-shaped and 'fake' lantern in our household," she says.


[Quiet and Cute: Angie's glowing glass-paper goldfish lantern]

The eve of the festival saw us at Peter and Elle's place for a barbecue.


[Moonlight Barbecue: Peter getting groovy at the grill]

Them Soddy Scripts!

Angie is into her third day of marking exam scripts *dark clouds* and we are both cranky...

Finally bought ourselves a household ladder this morning which costs RM63. A hefty price to pay just to get high enough to replace a RM1 flourescent tube starter.

I occupied myself with two projects today while Angie wrestled with them soddy scripts. Project Alpha was yet another apple cider brewing project.


[Apple Cider: September 2005 vintage]

Project Beta was a Chick-a-Mush-a-burg Pizza a.k.a chicken burger chunks with orchid mushroom pizza. We had this for dinner. Will be having its leftovers for breakfast tomorrow.


[Chick-a-Mush-a-burg Pizza: What do you get when you cross a chicken with a mushroom?]

Okay. Gotta resume being cranky...

Bubble Gum and Random Ramblings

Oh! It's been a long time since we last chewed one of these...


[Bubble Gum]

One piece didn't seem enough to blow a decent bubble but that didn't stop us from being kids again :o). Unfortunately, these did not have the artificial tattoos.

Tonight, we had instant bak kut teh noodles with french beans and meatballs. Odd choice of vegetables but today's dinner menu was rather unplanned.


[Instant Bak Kut Teh: What will they think of next?]

On a more sombre note... Angie starts marking exam scripts today *pout* *pull hair*.

The Week That Was, That Is and That Is To End

On Monday night (29 Aug), I was in a baking mood. So while Bart was away for choir practice I busied myself with a new recipe - Cappuccino Squares. The result: very cappuccino - coffee with 'white froth' on top and chocolate sprinkles :-)


[Cappuccino Square: the coffee lover's cake]

On Tuesday, Bart and I decided to go for the pair look. I had recently purchased a maroon blouse (which matched perfectly with one of Bart's shirts) and also some scarfs. So I was eager to parade in them ;-)


[Mutiara Match]

Yesterday, Wednesday was Merdeka Day. Happy Independence Day, Malaysia! Bart and I spent literally the whole day lazing at home. Only went out to get dinner - which was not entirely satisfactory. So we compensated by indulging in some tim sum, white radish cake, cheese roll and sausage in pastry roll :-)

Today, Thursday, was the Bishop Anthony (of Penang Diocese)'s silver episcopal jubilee. The Cathedral Choir was on duty, so we were in church today singing our hearts out. Bart was on the organ. The mass lasted two and a half hours - about forty-five minutes to an hour was devoted to speeches!

Tomorrow, Friday, is the last day of the semester for me. Hurrah! *Three cheers* *clap, clap, clap* Sadly (or not), Bart will have to begin teaching next week...