happy ox year 2009!!!

as i am writing this post, it is about 12 midnight cny day. sound of firecrackers are resounding outside. sibu is sibu.. cny will never be the same in sibu without firecrackers. it is a lasting tradition and not even rule or regulation can put a stop to it.. wow, the crackers are getting louder and bolder. they are noisy and music to the ear at the same time. the sound marks a celebration, a festival shared with families and friends. happy chinese new year to all, may the year of the ox brings a stronger but cheerful year to you.

happy belated 62nd and 56th birthday..

dad and mum had a belated 62nd and 56th birthday celebraton respectively. i had been away from home for the past 2.5 years and had not been able to celebrate their past 3 birthdays with them. to make up for that, i decided to have a belated birthday at sheraton restaurant. yeah, i am earning my own money, why not let my parents had a meal at a posh restaurant once in a while?

the restaurant was quite full. there was an engagement dinner held at the same too. we did not have the famous fish head curry for mum did not fancy curry. so we had the usual meal albeit one blunder. one of our orders - 8 seasons dish was not taken and as we were quite full we did not insist on the order.

sorry for this picture of an-almost-finish-eaten-fish. i had almost forgotten to take a picture of this dish.

this is the sago milk fruit slices mixed desert or in mandarin si mi lu. my ex boss always ordered this when he treated us and i like this very much. however the taste was quite different and not as delicious as i remembered it to be.
altogether the bill came to a rm120++ inclusive drinks, peanuts and towels. quite ok for a sibu posh restaurant standard.

exhausted..

i've been travelling a lot lately for work purposes. this is the feeling of jet setting people i guess which i am not used too and too fragile for... in the previous three weeks i have been travelling to various sites with 3 days of break in between. after that will be back to hometown for work too which isn't too bad. hey home sweet home!!

charles soludo wants to give me $$$

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tun dr. mahathir's open house

i went to the hari raya open house of our ex prime minister tun dr mahathir mohamad at his mansion 58, jalan kuda emas, seri kembangan. he lives in an exclusive neighbourhood which consists of huge bungalowes, strictly guarded and furnished with a golf area. i guess only the rich live here.

the narrow otherwise shaddy road leading to tun's resident.

the security gate at the entrance of the neighbourhood

some garden along the way

here, you will not find caution, cow crossing

some mansions in the area. see how huge they are. i wonder which tycoon or millionaire lives here. it must cost a bomb to be able to live there for the area is 15 minutes away from kl and the same to putrajaya. it is also located next to the man made lake, mine's resort, quite a breathtaking view.

and this is the resident of tun. quite modest if compared to the rest. however it is charming, looks like an english cottage to me.

the residential management provide some tram to ferry people to the open house

full house!

long queue under the blazing hot sun! and one kind guard informed us that the queue was for people who wanted to greet tun and his wife. others who want to fill their stomach did not have to queue. since i have shook hands with tun and his wife when they visited my university some years back, i decide to skip the line. if i stayed, i would have gotten sunburn!

the people. so many of them!

the dishes. it was quite a mess to take the food. there was no queue unlike the one in pak lah's. and it was so hot!! i was soaking wet with sweat!!

saw tun and his wife greeted the people seating on sofas. guess old age does take its toll sometimes, huh. leo moggie and his wife greeted tun dr mahathir and tun dr siti hasmah as i took this photo.

and unexpectedly, leo moggie and his wife appeared taking some dishes. i thought he would be served instead of having to do it himself! he saw us taking pictures of him and he cheekily remarked, 'ooooooo, candid camera ehhhh' which sent us giggling. i thought of saying to him we are sarawakians but he already turned his back.

leo moggie's wife. i think many prominent sarawakians took caucasian women as their spouses if compared to their counterparts. look at taib mahmud, george chan...

the door to tun's bungalowe.

tun sh's rocking chair?

the same for tun m. are they specially made or what? i guess they were presents.

the beautiful wooden scuplture. i think it was some famous building in turkey or russia or italy...

beautiful orchids

again pretty colourful flowers.

the verandah of one of the rooms

the beautiful wood carving on the ceiling

some lady interviewed by rtm2

tun's son, a member of parliament, mukhriz arrived.

a closer shot of mukhriz. i was right beside him!

mukhriz and his wife's turn to greet the people. tun m and tun sh decided to take a break.

portable toilets. yeah, who wants constant knocking on the door asking to use the washroom?

the back portion of the house.

windows to whose room?

we decided to round the house and found a window with no curtain and managed to get a peep at dr sh having her lunch.

as my visit to pak lah's open house, this would also be my first and last visit. can't stand the hot sun and crowd. i just wanted to see tun dr m's mansion. at least i can say been there, done that.

pet pupz

i'm officially addicted to pet pupz on facebook. first thing i would do when logged onto the internet everyday is to go into facebook and trying to get more points and climb the ranking ladder for my lovely pup.

if you are new to pet pupz, first thing you would need to do is to buy a puppy. there are many breeds to choose from. mine is a coton de tulear because it looks like my dog in real life.

then you will need to feed your pet. log on everyday and you will get 170 points each time. you can use the points to feed, train, adopt another pup or even do the same to your friend's pup! your pup's hunger and happiness will decrease 4 points each day and you need to train your pup to increase their winning chance in the competitions.

when you have completed all trainings, a new stage called champz will be accessible and you would compete with other pups from other facebook users. right now i am number 559 with a total of 81857 points as compared to the pup with 182986 points at number 1. still a long way to go to catch up.

arrghhhh...

i hate it when people asked you to do something you didn't like.

today being the third day of raya, most are still on leave. this colleague of mine, a non-muslim asked me to punch in for him. said he was going for some blood checkup. why don't he just apply leave to do that. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......

and this ex-uni mate came here today. i think on purpose because he should know most of the people here are on leave. he had no reasons to see me, only my boss because he is trying to promote his company's products. and my boss is on leave, being a muslim. he did that on purpose, i know he did. i didn't want to have anything to do with him or that buaya friend of his. it's because of people like them, i set my friendster and facebook as private. he asked me out for lunch, luckily i have valid reason to stay in the office. i have to take care of the office, i said. phewwww... otherwise he would have to chance to ask me why this, why that, why i didn't accept his friend request on friendster, facebook and tag, where i am staying, why, where, why, where, why, where..... etc, etc and i don't wanna answer them!!