The Chihuahua Family

If you have seen the picture of the mall-sized dogs on the homepage, you would probably wonder about the story of… the Chihuahua family. Well, they are not little puppies anymore, except for Bao Bei, the youngest dog. First, allow me to introduce the existing family members to you (in descending age):

1. Kent
2. Yoyo
3. Money
4. Coco
5. Syilling (Sze Ling)
6. Bao Bei (Precious)

Family Photo - Money, Bao Bei, Coco and Kent

I had a couple more dogs before this in Kedah (where I used to live) but one of them passed away after it fell sick. Following that, I had Kenny - it was a she but she was a really lazy dog. I tried to walk her several times but she just wouldn’t move a step. I ended up carrying her for a mile. So what happened to Kenny? Well, she got stolen but unfortunately, we couldn’t track her down. I heard a rumor that she was dognapped by an Indian man on a bicycle but I couldn’t find him or her. That was the end of my life with Kenny.

Then one day, Fiona, my eldest sis, bought Kent from her office’s neighbor. I could still remember when my parents came with Kent to visit me at MMU, Cyberjaya (where I was studying then). We went to the Cyberview Lodge for lunch, while Kent had the car all to himself.

Coco & Kent

Not long after we had Kent, Fiona bought another 2 Chihuahuas, who were brother and sister. They quarreled all the time, and the noise just drove Mom up to the wall. So, we gave away the brother to a friend who assured us that he would take good care of the puppy. True to his word, when Mom visited his house several times, she felt relieved that the dog was with a good owner. And oh, the puppy sister that we kept was Kiki. Kent and Kiki eventually got “married” and they were blessed with their first puppy, Yoyo.

Yoyo is very independent and she loved to explore the outside world (i.e. outside the house compound). She ran away from home countless times but fortunately, she always knew how to find her way back. Later, Yoyo had a brother called Money.

Money is not as adventurous or brave as Yoyo. He is always bullied by his dad, Kent. This is probably due to Kent wanting to remain as the alpha male and not allowing a younger dog to overthrow his authority. While all the dogs liked to be patted, poor Money loved it much more than the others. He would stick to Sze just to be stroked by him.

Wang Wang came after Money. He was the smallest dog I ever had. Weighing only 780g, he loved to join Mom and the family on our market trips and breakfast outings. He even appeared in a local newspaper which featured him as the smallest dog in Malaysia! Unfortunately, he passed away – we suspect that someone splashed chemical liquid on him out of jealousy, causing severe skin infections on his little body. Everyone was extremely upset about the incident, especially Mom.

Wang Wang

Coco, the 4th puppy, is different compared to her 3 elder siblings as her coat of hair is entirely brown in color, which she inherited from her mom, Kiki. The funny thing is that even her nose is brown! She is smart and hyper-active, with her legs moving faster than we can actually see. When she was little, Sze called her a rat (hehe…) as she looked very much like one. Meanwhile, Kiki has since passed on heroically while fighting with a snake in her kennel.


Syilling, on the other hand, was actually someone else’s puppy. Now, how did she get to be with us? The story goes like this… One day, a family friend brought a female dog to mate with Money and the dog gave birth to one puppy. Although by canine convention the puppy follows the father, Mom refused to accept the puppy as there was only one new born. Consequently, when the same dog later gave birth to another 2 puppies, the owner of the dog then insisted that we have Syilling this time.

Lastly, Bao Bei is the daughter of Kent and Yoyo (yes, father and daughter inbreeding). However, Bao Bei is still quite young and cute. He would run away from anyone who tried to carry him. As such, Sze calls him Pa Pai instead (which means snobbish in Cantonese).

Bao Bei

As the grand patriarch, Kent is now 8 years old and has cataract in both eyes. However, he is still the most muscular dog in the family and continues to run wild in circles chasing the “rain” whenever Mom waters the plants in the garden. Long live the Chihuahuas!

Fantastic Four Meme

Lilian tagged me for this meme. So I am continuing it here…

***Meme starts***

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:
- Admin (all sorts in England)
- Contract Programmer (in Royal Malaysian Navy but I am not a militant)
- IT Administrator (in a music college, the weekly performances were fun)
- Application Specialist (a Consultant for Microsoft products)


Four places I have lived:
- Padang Serai, Kulim (from age 1-15)
- Sitiawan, Perak (where I met Lilian)
- Salisbury, Wiltshire (I miss this town)
- Manchester (real cool city)

Four places I have been on vacation:
- England: London, York, Peak District (Derbyshire), Bath, Portsmouth, Kent
- Holland: Amsterdam, Utrecht, Wouderberg, Amersfoort, Kinderdyke, Nieuw Lekkerland, Edam, Hoorn, Oostland
- China: Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Kunming, Hong Kong, Guilin
- Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Krabi

Four of my favourite foods:
- Apple crumble (homemade)
- Lamb Lasagna (from Chinoz on the Park)
- Mousakka (Greeks)
- Vindaloo curry (from Curry Mile.. spiciest curry ever!)
* There are a lot more but I could only list 4!

Four places I would rather be right now:
- A buffet hi-tea (I am writing this in the afternoon)
- Airport (going somewhere for a long holiday)
- A spa having massage and sauna (buffet to follow)
- In a temple in Lhasa/Kathmandu

***Meme ends***

By the way, I haven’t seen F4 yet and will probably watch it from a DVD next week.

Cameron Highlands Trip

Sze and I went back to Sitiawan to visit my parents and celebrate Father’s Day on 16th June 2007. Along the way, we stopped by Kellie’s Castle, a historical local attraction in Batu Gajah. Further on, as we drove into Ayer Tawar town, we saw a “samseng” (gangster) shop… hehe. It was actually a small provisions shop that had an alternative meaning in its name.

We had dinner with my family that night and we decided to drop by Cameron Highlands on the way back to KL the next morning.

We took the new highway up to Cameron from Simpang Pulai. The road was much wider than the one from Tapah but it was still a rather winding hillside road. We were pleased that the rain had stopped before we departed. However, once we arrived (we stayed at the Equatorial Hotel, which was at the highest peak along the Cameron main road), a drizzle started and it became pretty chilly and misty up there.

After checking into our room, we went to Tanah Rata for lunch. Sze had wanted to go to the popular T-Café there but unfortunately, it was closed on Sunday. So we decided to go to a tea plantation café instead. We had passed by the junction to the Sungei Palas tea plantation earlier and decided to give that place a try.

The road to the Sg. Palas Boh Tea plantation was very narrow indeed. It seemed quite dangerous and scary (driving up this long and winding, narrow road is definitely not for inexperienced drivers) as it adjoins the Gunung Brinchang road, which is apparently the highest road in Peninsular Malaysia. However, after a few hundred meters from the road junction, we could already see a refreshingly beautiful scenery. Everything was just so… green and neat (unlike the typical jungle)!

We parked our car at the designated parking space, even as we saw another car continuing to drive past an authorized personnel only signboard. There was still a light drizzle and we walked under the umbrella for about 200m along a path towards the café. Yes, it was pretty romantic with the heavenly view and fresh, cool temperature.

At the café, we ordered 2 pieces of chocolate cake, a hotdog bun and a pot of Cameronian Boh tea. Both the cake and the tea had very little taste. We finished our food before we continued to enjoy the scenic sight. After that, we walked around the Boh Tea center reading about the discovery of Cameron Highlands and how the Boh Tea business started. We were really glad to have found this beautiful place despite the bland food.

A must eat fruit in Cameron Highlands is the strawberry. It is widely available and freshly plucked from the many farms there. Of course, looking for the sweetest strawberries was not an easy task. We first went to Raju’s Hill Strawberry Farm and bought a box of the fruit to eat back in our hotel room. They were quite sweet considering that most strawberries in Cameron are known to be more sour than the imported variety. We planned to try out more strawberry farms the next day.

After breakfast at our hotel café the next morning, we dropped by the nearby street market. The local produces of vegetables, fruits and flowers were rather cheap. We bought a box of tea (for Sze), a bunch of pink roses (for myself), crystal maize (for Fiona, my elder sis) and a bag of miscellaneous vegetables (for Naomi, my younger sis).

We then headed to the T-Café again for a light meal. The place seemed to be run by a Christian Indian family and was cozy and intimate. I think this would be the type of place where Lonely Planet travelers would like to go to. We ordered some of their specialty pastries and… they tasted great! Sze said that the café had some good online reviews and is highly recommended, which is not surprising since it is frequently visited by independent travelers.

After trying out more strawberries from a couple of other farms, we found that those from the Kasimanis Strawberry Farm were the sweetest. We bought 8 boxes of strawberries (for Sze’s parents and my sisters) and 2 bottles of strawberry and orange jam (for Sze’s parents). Newsflash: They plant oranges too! I have previously seen mandarin oranges in Cameron Highlands, but not the normal oranges… and the farm did not sell them at the stall either.

We started our journey back to KL after that. Cameron Highlands had been a pleasant and refreshing trip for both of us and we hope to visit it again soon.

View more Cameron pictures in our Photo Gallery.

What A Coincidence!

Look at this receipt. Notice what is so extraordinary about it? What are the chances of this happening?

Dubai Trip (19-23 May 2007)

“Sze, you have to go to Dubai,” I was told. “Huh? Whyyy? What if I don't wanna go?”

Everyone thinks going to Dubai would make a nice, exotic Arab holiday. But with Eunice being unable to travel with me, and me in the midst of rushing to finish the way overdue Logic Notes article, exam papers waiting to be marked (while my colleagues are almost finishing theirs), with an avalanche of student projects coming in the following week, plus me being totally unprepared for the exhibition workshop (I was doomed to embarrass myself and the college on the international stage), this last-minute traveling assignment had really come at a bad time for me. I was SO NOT looking forward to this trip - if ever there was a reluctant traveler, I was IT. All I could do was to make the best out of the situation.

The trip was for PALME Middle East 2007 - it was the Professional Sound, Light, Music, Audio Visual and Systems Integration Exhibition (previously known as PALA). ICOM had a booth at the exhibition and I had to man it together with Kenny, my colleague. Held at the Dubai International Exhibition Center in UAE, it was located in a large complex that also housed the Dubai World Trade Center and the Dubai International Convention Center... which all sounded very impressive indeed.

PALME Middle East 2007 at the Dubai International Exhibition Center.

Entrance to the DWTC Exhibition Complex via the Convention Gate.

Upon arrival, one of my first impressions of Dubai was the unique, designer-like architectural styles - many of its tall buildings were curved upwards like the Menara Telekom Malaysia building (or just imagine Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s 7-star hotel). There were less of the block-shaped, rectangular high-rise buildings, which are so common in Malaysia and on TV. While not all tall buildings would have the curved architecture, they would nonetheless have some other “designer” shapes. However, such buildings were not densely located as the Dubai skyline was quite sparse. Most other buildings were no more than a few stories high but there was heavy construction taking place everywhere in the desert sands of the city.

Speaking of desert, the common question would be, “How was the weather?” Well, it was very hot but there was no sweat... at least I hardly sweated (although “big” Kenny had sweat dripping from his face). I suppose this was due to the very dry desert air which also dried up my contact lenses.

Moreover, I had complained to the hotel maintenance that I was not getting cold tap water in my bathroom, as the water was hot enough to burn my face during shower. Upon checking, the technician said that the burning water was indeed their “cold” water! I could not believe the Dubai air temperature was so hot outside that even the tap water burned my skin... actually, I still cannot believe it, not even now.

And if Malaysians complain about the haze every now and then, Dubai looked somewhat hazy all the time. View of the scattered skyscrapers in the distance was never clear but I guess this was due to the dust of the desert sand.

The 1st day of the trip was our only “free day” (the next 3 days would be spent working while the last day would be at the airport and on-board the flight home). After Kenny and I had set up the booth at the DWTC Exhibition Complex, half the day was already gone. We spent what was left of that day sightseeing in Jumeirah, Wafi City and Karama.

Jumeirah appeared to be the posh area of the city. This was also where the waterfront and some of Dubai’s world famous hotels were located. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by Wafi Mall – it was like the Suria KLCC shopping mall, but minus the crowd. After taking a shower and a short rest back at the hotel, we headed out to Karama. It looked like the “old town” of the city and reminded me of the PJ SS2 commercial area with its many shoplots. We had our dinner and did most of our shopping there.

Jumeirah Beach Park, Dubai (cameras not allowed on the beach).

Dubai was an expensive city. The food was at least twice the prices of Kuala Lumpur while we easily exceeded our transportation allocation with the expensive cab fares. We had to be very careful with our food expenses; as such, drinking/entertainment in the nightspots and bars were totally out of the question. Many people had advised us to bring some USD currency but everything here in Dubai was in Dirham (AED), the local currency. Thus, the USD was not necessary as it would have to be converted to Dirham anyway.

I had been looking forward to watching the English FA Cup final for weeks and I had hoped to catch it (MU vs. Chelsea) here in Dubai. To my surprise, no one seemed to know anything about this football (soccer) match. The Dubai Sports channel was showing some German match but perhaps the hotel bar would show that cup final, I thought. However, upon checking, none of their cable channels had the match on either (I told you this trip was bad timing). So I was reduced to only getting “live” sms match updates from Eunice in Malaysia.

On the 1st night here, I set the alarm on my cell phone but forgot that it was in Malaysian time, so it rang at 4am… haha (Dubai was 4 hours behind Malaysian time). Anyway, daylight broke very early here, something like 2 hours earlier, and it felt like I was oversleeping, so I got up at 6am (as it felt like 8am already due to the early sunrise). Over the next few days, while Kenny slept or watched TV, I had to get up early, sleep late or forego that nap just to prepare for my workshop. Now, who said that Dubai would be a nice holiday?

After our 1st day at work, we queued up for a cab outside the DWTC. It turned out to be a 1¼-hour queue! Even then, it was only for a “shared” cab (with another 2 passengers), and we went to Karama for our dinner. Btw, all Dubai cabbies drove like F1 racers - hard acceleration and hard braking. However, the cabs were quite comfortable as the Toyota Camry was their most common taxi while the Toyota Estima MPV was another very common taxi here, both of which are considered luxurious vehicles in Malaysia. And oh, virtually no motorbikes on the roads (we only saw one bike throughout our stay here).

After dinner in Karama, we tried to buy some foodstuff to take back to our hotel room but that proved to be a rather difficult task – there were many restaurants around but none of the shops or supermarkets sold any foodstuff (dried/packed/canned food, snacks, ice-cream, etc). Many sold clothing, shoes, electronics, etc, just not food. Finally, we found one little store that had some foodstuff and we bought some snacks to eat in our room when we got hungry.

Another striking characteristic of Dubai was of course, the diversity of its people. If you think Malaysia is a melting pot of 3 races, wait till you see the mixture here – there were the white, tanned and black Arabs, the foreign whites/expatriates, Filipinos/South East Asians, Indians/South Asians and the occasional oriental/Chinese/East Asians. I also found that the residents here were all very Dubai-centric – there was interest only in all things Dubai, i.e. Dubai had to be the hub of everything.

Upon returning to Malaysia, I exchanged my “Arabian Nights” stories with the KLIA airport cabbie. His experiences with his Arab passengers were that they were quite generous with their money. But on the other hand, they also had many complaints, even though many services in their own countries were worse than in Kuala Lumpur. He went on to quote a Malay proverb, “Masuk kandang kambing mengembik, masuk kandang lembu menguak” (when in Rome, do as the Romans do). I guess my Dubai trip could probably have been better, but nevertheless, it was a life-enriching experience that made me appreciate home even more… ahh, home sweet home!

P.S. Photos courtesy of Kenny's camera.

Our Wednesday Movie

Catching movies on a Wednesday is not an easy task for most working people. Due to the bad city traffic and the rush to eat dinner as well as queuing for the movie tickets, it was a real challenge for us, especially since our offices are so far away from home (more than 1 hour’s drive). Moreover, Sze had to come pick me up from my house and then… more traffic jam on the way to the cineplex…

Nonetheless, we made it to Berjaya Times Square (BTS) for our Wednesday movie recently... So why Wednesday? Well, it’s because the cinemas have a special rate on every Wednesday. Since we have never really taken advantage of this movie day offer, we decided to have a go for it. We wanted to watch the movie 300 but the online reservation never works when you need it. Anyway, we arrived at the BTS cineplex an hour before showtime. Unfortunately, only some front row seats were available. So we decided to come back in 15 minutes time when the uncollected ticket reservations would be released.

In the meantime, we went to Kenny Roger’s Roasters (next to the cineplex) to order our dinner. While waiting for the food, Sze went to the movie counter again to buy the released tickets. He came back empty handed and said, “All the released tickets are gone. There are only 3 seats left on the 1st row.” Huh? How did the uncollected tickets get sold so quickly? Ok, never mind, since we have already ordered our dinner, we’ll just have to “experience the extra legroom” sitting on the very 1st row. So Sze went to the movie counter once more but he came back empty handed again…??? “There’s only 1 seat left,” he said. Is 300 so popular that even at the tailend of its showing, the 1st row seating is sold out on a weekday? Humph… we have no choice now but to see an alternative movie. So Sze went again to the movie counter… this time, he came back with tickets for Mr. Bean’s Holiday. He he, maybe the evening won’t turn out to be so bad after all.

We ate our dinner quickly and finished just in time for the movie. As we made our way to the cineplex entrance, a voice called out, “Mr. Sze, Mr. Sze!” It was Pui Yi, Sze’s student. She told us that the cineplex for the Mr. Bean show had broken down. She had also bought tickets for the same movie but had to change hers to another show. So we went to the movie counter to check. The ticket sellers seemed confused at first but they later confirmed the break down. There was no offer of a ticket refund and we could only exchange our tickets for another show. Our first two choices were 300 and Mr. Bean’s Holiday, and we did not want to settle for a third choice movie or hang around the mall till a midnight show, so we exchanged our tickets for 300 on Friday and topped up more than 50% to the ticket price (from the special Wednesday rate to the normal rate). We had rushed here all for nothing and then, we would be made to rush here again another day and on top of that, pay extra for that inconvenience… what a rip-off!

Come Friday, we rushed through the whole process again and this time, we got to see the movie. I didn’t read the synopsis and got somewhat excited when it started as it looked like a medieval legend type of movie. I have always liked movies like King Arthur, Troy, Alexander the Great, etc, so this would be another one of those medieval legend movies that I enjoy so much.

(Warning: Show spoiler ahead for those who will be watching it for the 1st time on DVD later.) The story was great. I’ve never heard of the Greek and Persian wars before due to my lack of knowledge in European-Middle Eastern history. I enjoyed the show till the ending which I thought did not have a proper closure and raised an unanswered question - what happened in that next battle led by Dilios? Did they finally achieve a decisive victory, or did the Persians outnumber them again?

I did some research and this is what I found out… 300 is a story based on the Battle of Thermopylae in 5th century BC. The last scene in the movie showed an alliance of 10,000 Spartans and 30,000 Greeks from other city-states a year later, facing the Persian army. This was to be the beginning of the Battle of Plataea, which would end the series of Greco-Persian wars during that time. The result was a decisive Greek victory over the Persians. Many years later, the Persian Empire would eventually be invaded and conquered by Alexander the Great.

I also wondered what happened to the little boy who was King Leonidas’ son in the movie. His name was Pleistarchus and he succeeded his father as the King of Sparta. However, his cousin, Pleistoanax, would act as the Regent during the early part of his reign as he had not come of age yet.

It has been a few weeks since we saw 300. We’ll be going to watch Mr. Bean this Wednesday, but definitely not at BTS. Hope we’ll have better luck this time ;)

Chinese New Year 2007 (18 Feb – 4 Mar 2007)

Chinese New Year (CNY) is a major celebration among the Chinese community here in Malaysia. This year is the Year of the Boar (or Pig, as some people may call it). In China, CNY is known as the Spring Festival and lasts for 15 days.

We had the reunion dinner with Sze’s family on the eve of CNY - my family was abroad, thus leaving my brother, little sis and me on our own. I was lucky to have Sze. My little sis was working throughout the first few days of CNY while my poor brother was home alone with the dogs. As little sis was transferred to another location for a couple of days, Sze and I drove her to work in Subang Jaya as she was not sure of the way. After dropping her off, we stopped by Subang Parade as I had wanted to buy a shirt for my lonely brother. As we were walking around, we saw a lion dance troupe preparing to start their performance. Soon after, 2 lions started their lively dance, distributing mandarin oranges and “attacking” the children along the way… hehe. It was an entertaining show and we had fun watching it.

"Don't eat me! Eat my daughter instead!!!"

"Yummy... the child was delicious..."

It had been a quiet and peaceful celebration for us. We’ve had a lazy few days before Sze started working on the 4th day of CNY. He had complained that the holidays were way too short and that his college was probably the only institution to resume classes that week. You could tell from the half deserted city and the absolutely fantastic traffic that everyone else was still away on holiday. It was a reminder to the farcical work resumption order early this year which insisted that he return to work from the semester holidays on 2nd January, only to be told to go home after clocking in as it was actually a public holiday (to replace Hari Raya Haji on Sunday). Now why was it that everyone knew about the holiday but yet the powers-that-be chose to ignore it? What’s wrong with them anyway?

On that same evening, Sze came to my house after work with a few guests. We were hosting a small dinner celebration for a few friends. Our honorable guests were Alice, Venus, Debbie and Josephine. We had also invited several others but they couldn’t make it… what a shame. I had prepared a simple dinner where we had spaghetti as the main course, salad as a side dish and “dragon eye” (longan) fruit as dessert. We had wine too - check out our blushing faces here in the photo gallery.

Unlike Sze, I had the whole week off from work. My colleagues and I visited my boss in Klang on the 5th day of CNY. Some had arrived earlier and the first thing they did was to start gambling. I lost more than RM30 playing cards with them. Well, it was more like visiting a casino rather than visiting the boss.

My parents and elder sis came back from their trip abroad on the 7th day of CNY. This day is known as the common man's birthday - the day when everyone grows one year older. It is a day when tossed raw fish salad, better known as Yee Sang, is eaten. This custom is adopted primarily by the Chinese communities in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Family and friends get together to toss the colorful salad and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity.

I followed my parents back to Sitiawan to celebrate the 9th day of CNY. This celebration is known as Bai Tien Gong. It is a big festival for the Hokkien Chinese where they will pray and make offerings to the Jade Emperor, the ruler of Heaven. At the stroke of midnight, my parents performed thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven. We made offerings of a whole roast pig, roast duck, chicken, pastries and fruits but the most important of all was the sugarcanes. This is because it was the humble sugarcane that had protected the Hokkiens when they were attacked by soldiers generations ago. They had hidden in a sugarcane plantation and thus escaped from being exterminated when the soldiers couldn’t find them.

As there was plenty of food, my Mom gave away most of it. By the way, did you know that I don’t eat pork? Not many of my friends realize this... hehe, so the first question they would always ask is, “Are you a Muslim?” No, I am not a Muslim but I just don’t eat pork for health reasons.

The 15th day of CNY is known as Chap Goh Meh. This day is often used to mark the end of the fortnight-long festivities. We forgot that there was a community organized celebration at a park near Sze’s house the night before and missed out on the event. Since Chap Goh Meh is also considered to be the Chinese Valentine’s Day, we wonder if single girls threw oranges into the lake there for the lucky single guys to catch?

We had a late dinner with Sze’s parents on this last day of the CNY. We had sweet and sour chicken, steamed fish, stewed mushroom, tofu and Chinese cabbage. Guess who did the cooking?... Sze’s Dad was the chief cook… hehe. Actually, both his parents prepared the food but it was Dad who did most of the cooking. We also had a bottle of red wine to go with the food. It was a fitting end to the long celebrations. Hope everyone had a good CNY too.