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...

Niq and Chui Ying's Blog

My brother and sister-in-law have just created their own blog: Ying & Niq's Niche. Yay! :o)

Oriental Treat

Last night we had friends over for dinner. This time we decided to serve something oriental instead of doing our regular Western. On our menu were mixed veg, brinjal with dried shrimps, chicken in gravy (prepared specially by Bart) and pork ribs 'tau cheong' soup. For dessert, we had lychee and we washed all of that down with Whispers of Summer (a pleasant blend of passion fruit, orange and other fruit juice).


[The Eastern Spread: All ready to be savoured]

Mixing Juices

After meeting the Malaysian Idol finalists, we headed to Chulia Street for our favourite fresh mixed-fruit juice. The stall is just in front of the Betel Nut Cafe, facing Love Lane. You can order any mix you dare to try. Our favourite mix is banana with pineapple. Since today they were out of bananas, we tried a glass of apple and pineapple, and another glass of guava and pineapple. Very refreshing... ahhh!


[Fruit Mix Mania: Dare to try nangka with papaya?]

After our dose of mixed-fruit juice, we headed down the coastal highway and ended up having dinner at Sri Tanjung, a place for ikan bakar and Malay-Thai cuisine.


[Dinner at Sri Tanjung: Grilled ray fish, deep fried squid and kailan with salted fish (not in photo)... RM20]

Sri Tanjung is located near the Penang Bridge, across the highway from the N-Park and E-Park apartments. It is hidden from view on the highway due to tall hedges grown by the roadside. The turning into Sri Tanjung is also very inconspicuous. Be very alert if you intend to go there for the first time. Missing the turning would require you to make a very, very long round trip to get back on the correct side of the highway.

Idols on the Island

We were at Gurney Plaza to meet six of the seven Malaysian Idol finalists. We got their autographs, too. The Idols who were present were Nita, Daniel, Farah, Adam, Faizul and Ash. Xerra couldn't make it. Unfortunately, they had all run out of autograph cards. So, I resorted to giving each of them name cards to sign on :o).


[Difficult to get close: Quite a turnout... lots of screaming girl-fans, especially of Daniel]


[Up Close And Personal: Aha! Finally... getting closer...]


[The Autographs! (From L to R, top to bottom) Daniel, Nita, Farah, Adam, Faizul and Ash]

Second Encounter

Angie and I presented at the 57th Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend held at College General, Penang from 12-14 August 2005. Twenty-five couples attended the Weekend. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Gerard Theraviam (making his debut with CEE Penang), and Chris and Lina Baptist. This is our second time presenting.


[57th CEE Weekend presenting team: (from L to R) Bart, Angie, Lina, Chris and Fr. Gerard. Photo taken by Peter Liew]


[Participants of the 57th CEE Weekend with the presenting team and supporting couples]

CEE Penang's website: click here.
Photos of the 57th Weekend: Album 1 and Album 2.
Peter and Gladys' post: click here.

Doodle Duck

Angie was in a doodling mood the other day. This was what she drew on a used envelop. Does the song sound familiar?


[Quack Quack!]

Chick Chack!

A new photoblog... at the moment, it's called Bart's Fifth Eye.

Love Fruit

During our past two trips to Cameron Highlands, we bought some buah cinta (love fruit). Some people call it the hill tomato as its flesh has a tomato-ish texture. Taste-wise it is sourish with a delicate aromatic sweetish taste. Angie doesn't quite like it because it is sour but I quite like it.

Yee Yee told us that she has seen this fruit in Australia and it is called tamarillo. After doing a simple search on the internet, apparently, it was once considered "a lost food of the Incas". It has been renamed and commercialised in New Zealand. For more information, you can check out this site.


[Fruit d'Amour: Probably named as such because of its shape... like a heart]

Hokey Pokey

After our offal meal last Thursday, we joined Peter, Gladys, Uncle Chris and Aunty Lina for snooker at the Oriental Club at Anson Road. We had fun and we were laughing at each other's snookering antics.


[Cueing for Fun: Waiting for our turns...]


[Read, Aim, Poke!: Angie having a go...]

Offal Offering

Last Thursday (21 July 2005), we joined a group of relatives (Yee Yee from Australia was back on a visit) for offal noodles at the Ho Ping coffee shop at the junction of Jalan Kampung Malabar and Penang Road. By default, each bowl has a couple of minced meat balls, kidney, heart, liver, intestine and brain. Luckily we went in a group and we could pass on stuff we hadn't had the 'guts' to gobble down.


[A Bowl of Pig: (clockwise from top) kidney, meatball, heart, liver, more meat balls, more liver, intestine and brain]


[Brain in a Bowl: A handful of intelligence...]


[Ho Ping Coffee Shop: Junction of Jalan Kampung Malabar and Penang Road at dusk]

Highland Workshop

Over the weekend, we attended a Catholic Engaged Encounter Workshop held at the KRS Pines Retirement Home in Cameron Highlands. The workshop was facilitated by Fr. Ambrose Vaz, and Connie and Lewis Shan from Singapore. Thirteen of us, including the facilitators, attended the workshop.

In between sessions, we had steamboat dinner at You Hoo restaurant in Brinchang, visited the Brinchang Night Market, and had a durian party on Saturday night. Before we left this afternoon, we stopped at Kea Farm.


[See-through Lift: Interesting machine at the Home]


[Fun with Food: Fr. Ambrose digs in...]


[Cool Contrast: No sweat at this night market]


[Satay Strawberries: You can coat these with honey, sugar or chocolate]


[Delirious over Durians: Finger licking good...]


[Dried Flowers at Kea Farm]

Angie left Camerons feeling unwell and uncomfortable (headache and nausea). She is feeling much better now and is resting/sleeping as I write.

More photos available at CEE's Photo Album and Peter and Gladys' Blog.

BEC Meeting

We attended our BEC (Basic Ecclesial Community) gathering last Thursday (14 July 2005) night. This time it was a combined meeting between BEC 4 and 5 of Zone G. Quite a good turnout.

What do we do at BEC meetings? Well, there's a monthly reflection paper that is used as a guide for discussion or sharing on a certain topic. The topic of the reflection this month was on Harmony and Reconciliation.


[Fellowship: We had a little fellowship after our discussion]


[Pleased to meet you: Toes interact too...]