Auld Lang Syne..

To hear the actual Auld Lang Syne sung in its original rendition and dialect is trully awe-inspiring ...to me at least. Sung nowadays during the last few tick-tocks of the year..ushering in the new year.

Happy New Year to all.

May the new year bring more wisdom, prosperity, health to you..(this being the boring greetings..) May the new year make you more conscious of your mortality and strive to live closer to the edge of sanity and death and still manage to hang to life by a mere thread and live vicariously!!!!!!!!!!!

Introducing...

Yesterday was another important event in my Sis' calendar. She is now officially taken... :) engaged to Mr. Chua Ling Biau or more known as Ahleong... There's a story as to why the name came about..
Congratulations are due Sis dearie. May the happiness that surrounds both of you like a crazy halo never dissipate but continue to flourish.

my grandma..proudly wearing the baju i sewed for her

Age is Just a Number...

Well... It's that time of the year again...
To think of mortality? ...
To think of wisdom?
Not exactly...
Pensive.. extremely pensive..
Oh well... Happy Birthday to me
Hope you've learnt something this year.

Kayak Star 1 for APMM (Maritim Sabah)

There is no way I am going to be fairer any time soon. Just freshly baked from the recent Kayak Star 1 & 2 course which I attended just last week, I went over to help Boss Fadhil conduct the Kayak 1 for the Maritim Sabah. There were 20 of them. Hehe... I was the model for the capsize. Nasib tia kana suru buat roll... bikin malu blum pass.

Fadhil : Apa beza 'Kenu' dengan 'kayak'?

Peserta2 dari APMM

Morning at Tg.Aru, First Beach

Gaya menjawab Ujian Bertulis

The only young lady taking the course

Kayak Anatomy

Warming up before the Practical Test


Fascinating..first time stung by jellyfish

APMM participants of Kayak Star 1 (That's me in red)

SOSEK Malindo

Cakap siang pandang-pandang, cakap malam dengar-dengar... so say the pepatah... Sigh. Blogs used to a place where you can say whatever and get away with it. So, even though I have an itch to scratch.. this kind of itch can't be scratch so easily. Kawan-kawan tau la tu kan...

Anyway... this time I was assigned to help with Water Activity instead of the usual Rope Element. Boohoo... ni kawan-kawan tali ni aa... jan dulu sign tu borang kasi lepas saya...

Surple..

Last month, I sent my car to a friend to have the bonnet of the car repainted. My black Wira sedan used to look very sleek with dark metallic sheen when I first got the ownership. Now aa... kasian my wira..

Anyhoo... the bonnet has lost it's sheen. I think kasi polish berabis also won't be enough.

what's the color of the bonnet? It's silverish..at some angle, depending on the light, it looks purple.. Mike Lima has a catchy name for it... surple.

before

after

Balik sekolah...

My cousin Faith will go back to school next year as a first former at SMK Limbanak. Aunti Phyllis called me last month asking me to sew a couple of pinafores for Faith. I said, "Ok". Maka-maka... lum pernah jait pinafore pun. hahahah

But i figured it woudn't be so hard to sew. The basic is just the skirt maa..
I took Faith's measurement. She, being the tomboy that she is, said," jangan kasi kembang tu skirt aa?" She didn't want to look too girlish maybe. Her mum said, " Jangan talampau ikut apa dia mau tu, Alie.. Kasi buat A-shape ja." "Ok..".

I bought 4 meters of the 60inch wide blue cotton cloth from Starlight in Segama. On sale waktu tu. I thought that would be enough but I suddenly felt like sewing Ninak another baju so after feeling and checking some fabric ( I remember Ninak saying she liked the last baju I made for her, sajuk, licak (hahaha) and had a nice motif).. I bought 1 1/2 meters for her.

So... just yesterday I started cutting the cloth for the pinafores and this morning, Ninak's baju. I sent the kain for edging this morning. Sesampai ja rumah, after lunch, I started sewing the pinafore.

Huih... finished the pinafore after 2 hours plus of sewing. Tu pun... banyak rehat. Sigup habis.. so minum green tea banyak-banyak. (I already bought a pack of Green Tea, Mona).

Faith with new uniform

I might not finish all tonight.. logot-logot lah.

Birthday Wish

I could kick my self on the head for not posting this earlier! But...better a bit late than waaay late...

To my dearest, dearest Sis, Sandra... Happy Birthday.

I don't always tell you this my dear

but having a sis like you

Has been wonderfully full of cheer

With lots of fun too

May the years ahead

Be filled with fulfilled wishes

And enrich you in all imaginable ways

And this I wish for you always.

So, once again, Happy Birthday!!

Introducing...

Introducing the new couple... Mr. and Mrs Sulaiman...

Congrats to the new couple... They already had the akad nikah in Tawau last month (the bride's residence) but for the kawan-kawan here, another reception was held at Kg. Brunei, Kimanis, which a few of us had the pleasure of attending.

All the best to both of you!

Kayak Star 2

The Kayak Star 2 course was held from the 3rd to the 6th especially for the trainers

of the Sabah Co-curricullumCentre . The venue for the course was the Lagoon Park, Karambunai . The Kayak trainers were Mr. Mohd Fadhil

and Mr. Agku Azanul aka Aweng.

By the end of the 4 days training, all of us 16 Star 2 and 8 Star 1 participants had

sore muscles and faces like burnt shrimps or udangs.

The Lagoon Park was a good venue for the course, in my opinion. The sea/water current wasn't that strong, which made it quite an ideal place to learn and practice the various sweeps and strokes, half rolls and full rolls... and there was plenty space on land for putting up tents/camps.

Some of the tents..

View of the Mount Kinabalu during sunrise.

Romyeo : Signal for 'stop'.

Warming up

Mr. Fadhil

Aweng( kiyuutt!) ...

Mona

Me...Panat oo

Alfred...(pssst...dulu dia anak dugong ni..)

Dugong wannabe..

Doing the 'X' rescue...

Revision before test...bergelimpangan atas lantai kepenatan...

macam-macam gaya(during test)

Alfred : betul ka ni aa?

Tn Aji : Maaaana suda bot ni aa?

mona : kanda...jangan la merajuk...

tn. aji : huh...tu la dinda..sepa suru lambat bawak eskrim..

julietpapagolf : projek makan kerang fresh...

sedap ooo...

sempat naik banana boat...

peserta Kayak Star 1 and Star 2


Congratulations to all the participants of Star 1 who passed with wonderful guidance from Mr. Fadhil. To the Star 2 participants who didn't make it, don't worry... There will be other chances...

Funny Bones

Good for laughs!!


If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

(Hardly seems worth it.)

If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

(Now that's more like it!)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet (O.M.G.!)

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life, I want to be a pig.)

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

(Creepy) (I'm still not over the pig.)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour

(Don't try this at home, maybe at work)

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

('Honey, I'm home. What the...?!')

The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes..lucky pig! Can you imagine?)

The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

(I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)

Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Something I always wanted to know.)

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

(Hmmmmmm...)

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

(okay, so that would be a good thing)

A cat's urine glows under a black light.

(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

( I know some people like that.)

Starfish have no brains

(I know some people like that too.)

Polar bears are left-handed.

(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(What about that pig??)

Weekender

JulietPapaGolf and his wife, Elizabeth participated in the recent Sabah Darts Open Championship recently. Mona and I were around to watch them, Elizabeth at least. This was held at Nexus, Karambunai Beach Resort. They didn't win, but dapat certificate la.

Mahal tu...

iklan minuman? or iklan gigi?

Elizabeth: Sedang membujak

Visitor sakai..

After that, Mona and I went jalan-jalan at 1Borneo. Mona, the Nike fan, bought herself a Nike water bottle. Ni la... fan betul.. sampai water bottle pun Nike brand.

For makan, Mona suggested we go to NewYorkNewYork. I wanted to try the Lambshanks...

no luck. The lambchops pun no luck. Ada di menu...tapi daging habis. Adaka...
So, I had the Irish potato salad and Spaghetti Bolognase with Giant Meatballs.

Mona had smoked salmon salad and Chicken Chops. For drinks I had Strawberry shakes.

Mona's main meal... Chicken chops

Mona ordered the Giant rootbeer float.

Ok la juga. I thought my potato salad dressing was a tad salty. Mona said her salmon was a bit salty juga. I couldn't finish my spaghetti oo... oiyo... sayang juga tidak finish. Very filling..
Next time maybe pigi cuba the Chinese food over at the other end of the same floor.

Introducing....newlyweds...Denis and Dorin@ Ann.
A small group of us from Penampang drove to Keningau on the 28th. After about 2 hours of driving up the meandering route of Moyog-Tambunan and the almost straight stretch of Tambunan-Keningau, we arrived at Keningau town. After a short makan stop, we checked in at Keningau Perkasa.
Around 7pm, Uncle Johny came to Perkasa to accompany us. I forgot the jalan ba. The last time I went to Patikang Ulu was early this year and it wasn't me driving. I was just the passenger, so... tidak ingat jalan. Upon reaching the venue... discovered that the whole(i think) surrounding kampung folks were there to make merry. The sound of bandboys could be heard miles away. Uncle Denis looked...almost serenely happy. Dorin...the nervous but happy bride. What was it the Ketua Kampung said that sort of tickled me? He was a bit tipsy but tried to be serious at the same time... he said something like this," ...Pada hari yang bahagia ini, kita semua ingin sama-sama meraikan perkahwinan antara Denis dan Dorin...Pada sesiapa yang mengganggu ketenteraman majlis ini, sama ada dalam bentuk pergaduhan..akan mendapat hukuman yang setimpal...atau disebabkan oleh pergaduhan atau apa-apa...yang menyebabkan kerugian atau kerosakan barang-barang perkakas di tempat ini juga... kamu akan menerima akibatnya...kamu akan dikenakan bayaran yang sepatutnya..."
Practical...I suppose. But I must say...this kind of wedding scene is the kind that has almost died a natural death in the Penampang area. The kampung style. The kampung folks seem to be really enjoying the food and the music. And oh...the music alternated from the modern (bandboys) to the traditional(the gongs).
When the gongs were beaten, a few folks would come out in the middle of the Kem - a 'dancing' space was made/cleared for that purpose- and dance. While the rest of the crowd would sit and drink and eat. What was yet another fun turn of even to watch was, when it was the bandboys' turn to play, Wah! almost all the people sitting would just stand up rush to the floor to dance. Kosong itu kem oh...
And the tajaus...sisiopon... two stations were made. All the tajaus..neatly arranged on long tables...with never-ending visitors. They flocked around the tajaus like bees to honey. No chance mau booking... If you want, you stand in line. I tell you...
It was almost midnight when we finally made it back to Perkasa.
To Mr Denis and Ms Dorin. I wish you happiness. My best to both of you.

It has been a busy, busy, busy week. I attended the Kursus Peningkatan Profesionalisme in Kem from 25th-28th. When I first took a look at the contents of the course, I thought to myself,"Uyoo...pretty heavy stuff here." But the first session of the night dispelled that thought. Kak Ram's 'ice-breaking' talk was hands-on and hilarious.. Plenty of alangs around to help with the merriment... What else... pengurusan Kawad... cooperative games... making paperwork... and learning the Seni Tari Malaysia from Mr.Erwan.
Penat I say... Penat. But in a way...fun.
Next in line for kem activity...Kayak Star 2. I just hope I'll be fit enough for the water exercise.

Real kitties

Last Sunday, the stray pregnant cat that had been visiting my place finally gave birth to 3 kittens. Days before that, she had been making surveys into the my study and spare room looking for places to nest her youngs. Saturday saw her scratching the inside of the box in my study. I knew the time was drawing near.

Come Sunday morning, I prepared a box and put it outside the balcony and shut the door so that she woudn't come in. Sometime at 10am I heard the first mewling of a kitty. The third kitty was born sometime around 1 pm. Sigh...

People say if cats come to you, it's a good sign. Good signs for what, I don't know. Do you?

Helicopter at Kem

When I found out that three helicopters were going to make stops at the padang of the Kem, I decided that invited or not, I'm going to be there to see them land.

So, yesterday morning, Mona texted at 6.20 am. asking if I was already awake.

Heheh(baru mo bangun)...

She picked me up 7-nish. Later we had our Soto at Munawarah, Tamparuli

with Tn A.A.

Why were the helicopters coming to land at the padang?

Asiability organized "Kinabalu Challenge" for some 56 participants from the UK and Aussie. 'Twas something like the Eco-Challenge type race.

First came the 3-4 km run which ended near Pusatko. Next, they were supposed to go for a survival camp somewhere near the forest up Kiulu and the Helis were to transport them there.

mike lima checking out one of the 3 helis

Mona

Me - tidak mo ketinggalan

one of the Orang Putehs with Mandahan!! hehe.. Adidas Kampung

vest says - British Military Fitness, The Kinabalu Challenge, Malaysia Borneo

Refuelling

Today the events that are going to happen are the bicycle race and rafting down the Kiulu river. Would've been there to witness the race except that...

lambat dapat tau and anyway,

I am going to be busy.. sending my car to a friend's

workshopt to have the car bonnet repainted..