clip of of my weekend trip to johor with friends from Japan

This clip was taken sometime in April 2010 during my weekend trip to Desa Rhu Fruit Farm.
The trip was meant for a friend and her hubby who was stationed in Singapore with the Japanese Embassy. Before leaving Singapore for good, we took them out for this trip. I didn't get to give them a copy of this clip. Thus I hope they could watch it here albeit far from clear.

UK self drive part 2

Part 2 of my UK self drive. Glasgow, Lake District, Liverpool, Stratford upon Avon, Cardiff and Bath,

UK self drive June 2011

My self drive trip in Uk Total distance covered....2700km in 12 days.
Part 1: London, Yorkshre, Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow

New toy

New toy to play with..........38 kg tube amp.

It sits perfectly on the rack.

Glowing in the dark in blue light. It sounds?
Superb.

Ibu Dalam Kenangan

Hari ini, umat islam menyambut Aidil Adha

Hari yang di raikan

Dengan penuh kesyaduan

Menghayati erti pengurbanan

Ibrahim dan Ismail anak kesayangan

Hari ini penuh kesyaduan

Teringat aku atas pemergian

Ibu kesayangan

Enam tahun berlalu

Ibu tetap dalam kenangan

Doa diiringkan

Atas segala pengurbanan

Semuga roh mu di tempatkan

Bersama orang2 yang beriman

Flea Market

Helping Yanti to set up her stall at a flea market at Scape last week. She is the only one in the family who is intrested in this line and often set up stall. Understand that she now has an online shop.


I remembered selling kueh when I was young (read very young). Every morning before going to school I would sell curry puff at the Mt Emily swimming pool. Those were the days when 5 cents can get you a piece of curry puff as big as today's Old Chang Kee.

Wait a minute........where's my mum's curry puff. Old Chang Kee was non existence when we first sell our curry puff more then 45 years ago and yet that old man today managed to set up stalls at every corner of the island selling his puff. What has gone wrong.

Mum has the skill to make curry puff and I guess thats all she has. But Old Chang Kee has more than that. He has bussiness acumen, foresight, capital, marketing skill, strategies and most of all GUTS. That make the difference.

Some pix taken in August at Sentosa

Sarah's birthday

Dinner at Kenny Rogers Bukit Indah early this month for Sara’s birthday.

(Berapa eh umur Sarah? Hehehehe lupa pulak)

Some pix taken on that day.

Birthday girl

Majlis 'Cukur Rambut' for Sofia

Little Sofia

We had a 'Cukur Rambut’ ceremony last Saturday for Sofia when she was just a month old. I had the honour to do the cutting of her hair as well.

The ceremony was attended by family members and close friends of Didi and Maris.

family

kueh kueh and pastries baked by my sister Anah and close friends

my grand nephew......Hamzah

1st day of Hari Raya (30 Aug 2011)

Pix taken on the 1st day of Hari Raya.

At home with extended family

Didi, Maris and Sofia

Pix of the day. Sofia on her 1st Hari Raya

Osman and Anah

Wifey and I....................Rafiah and Razni

The cousins

Today is the 12^th day and the 2^nd weekend of Hari Raya. We will probably be going out visiting friends and relatives later in the afternoon.

A lunch reunion of K1 80 was held at Islamic Restaurant last Friday. It was initiated and organized by Adrian Chua (1010) in conjunction with the Hari Raya. All of us had finally retired from the Force except for Nasri. This was our 2^nd reunion with the 1^st one held 2 years ago.

Adrian left the Force after less then 2 years in the service and is now a successful business man in the retail industry. For the rest of us, just being a contented salaried worker. Always relax and sometime happy. hehehehe

Lunch at the Islamic Restaurant

Adrian's shop front at New Bridge Road

(from left: Sazali, Jamal. Subali, Ahmad Sari, Adrian, Nasri and Shariff)

This week Thursday, I was at the PGS tournament at Raffles Golf Club. I think the month long lay off does affect my game but it was a good meet up with fellow friends from the Force.

(from left: Sazali, Azman, Syed Sagof and Salehudin)

I had a round of golf last week with Azman at Pulai after a month lay off during the Ramadhan. Being only the 3^rd day of Hari Raya, and the Malaysian National holiday, the course was rather quiet. Anyway it was good for us…..no pressure to hurry the game.

New member in the family

The house is still in a mess since last week due to the hacking and installing of a new kitchen cabinet. It was a simple job that goes beyond schedule. Even as I wrote this entry, the job is still on going. Thanks to the ‘boh chap’ attitude of the contractor. Every single job need to be supervised or else damage to other installation is imminent. It was so stressful and yet restless, for not being able to leave the house.

Anyway the stress has been broken with the unexpected early arrival of a new member in the family on Monday night. Marisa gave birth to a cute baby girl and I am now a grand daddy. Duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ninth Month & Seventh Month

Ramadhan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is a month of heightened devotion. Muslims all around the world will abstain from food and drink, through fasting, from dawn to sunset. In addition to fasting, Muslims are encouraged to do special prayers, called Tarawih which are held in the mosques every night. In Singapore however, it is not uncommon to see congregation holding this special prayers at void deck as well.

Coincidently, this month being the seventh month of the Chinese calendar is also a month of prayer and festival. Temples and clan association will hold dinner and auction at open fields to raise fund for communal use. This dinner will usually followed by music performance called ‘Getai’

Although the ‘Getai’ may cause noise pollution in the neighborhood and the praying congregation at the void deck may deprive others of the common area, being a cosmopolitan society, the community at large has accepted and tolerated such racial/ religious practice of others. That’s the beauty of living in Singapore.

However, if both activities were held close to each other, it may require a higher level of tolerance. Imagine one party so engrossed performing their prayer and supplication while the other party was having a live concert.

I experienced it last night. A ‘Getai’ live performance was just a 100 meter away from my congregation. When we were about to say ‘Allahu Akbar” I heard the other side said “Jajambo”. Hehehehehe welcome to Singapore

I had a round of golf last Saturday at Daiman with buddies from TRACOM. It was fun to be with them again since my retirement. This will be our last game till the end of Ramadhan.

Wedding at Kampung Kopok Bahru

These pix were taken last weekend at Kampung Kopok Bahru. We were there for a wedding of my cousin’s son.

Me and my uncle from Masai at the wedding reception.

Plucking fruits at my Auntie's house
and the excitement of plucking rambutans (hairy fruits) . hehehe

The harvested fruits. Rambutan, chiku and kedundung.

A short break from worklife

Since 7 July I managed quite a fair bit of activities.
1. Manage to spray lacquer my Back Loaded Horn speaker
2. Spray painted my DIY acoustic panels
3. Rearranged my hifi equipment
4. Re sleeved about 100 pcs of LPs (another 300 pcs on waiting list)
5. Did some shifting of the furniture at home
6. DIY shelving for flower pots (yet to be installed)
7. Archiving pix of UK trips for video slide
8. Twice a week of golfing with buddies
9. Removed that prominent feature
10. Family gathering and khenduri
11. Visit my paternal grandmother’s village in Johor (I mean its vicinity)
12. Replaced my damaged car plate

This ‘own time own target’ will soon end. Meanwhile, I’ll just relax and enjoy the free time.

The fully lacquered Back Loaded Horn speaker with its base.


The set up with the DIY acoustic panel against the rear wall.

13 July 2011 at Palm Villa

18 July 2011 at Daiman 20 July 2011 at Daiman

Family gathering with siblings and cousins on 16 July at Aloha Changi

Yesterday I drove to Kampung Perigi Aceh. It is situated near the Tg Putri Golf Course. Next to this village was once a plantation area called Kampung Kopok where my paternal grandma once lived. Kampung Kopok was demolished in the early 80s to make way for the Tg Langsat Industrial Park and the residents were relocated to a place near Masai renamed Kampung Kopok Bahru. There were about 100 families in the old village and most of them were related to my family.

The pix below were taken at the Kampung Perigi Aceh. The river is about 1 km away from my Grand Ma's house. My dad used to take a boat from Changi to this river in the 50s and walked to my Grand Ma's place