The Hinge

A Longing

2012-01-20T00:33:00.002+08:00

Sudden urge hits me.

Makes me want to throw a few basics together and pack my bags. I feel like hopping on the next flight out of here.
Anywhere will do.

I wonder if it's because of the talk about New Earth.

How much did that phone call from Bario contribute?

Itching to take off. Most unlike me =)

Sukau

2011-11-25T23:13:00.001+08:00

Sukau. One of the loveliest places I have visited. I am told it means "tall tree" in the local Chinese dialect. A place where you wake up to the call of gibbons and hornbills.
The place we stayed? Hot water supplied from solar panels. The cooking oil is re-used as oil for the lamps to light our paths.

More in my next post.

Almost Losing It

2011-11-25T14:00:00.000+08:00

Just when I thought I could keep the dreaded weight at bay...

HOW CAN ANYONE RESIST JUST BRAZILS?!

The Place I Call Home

2011-11-23T13:43:00.000+08:00

My granny was born in this part of the world. Then she was taken across the South China Sea where her father went in search of work.

Later, when I told Grandma that I was going to this land to work and live, she smiled contentedly, saying that I was going home for her.

This is the view from a place where I had gone to do some work.
Is it any wonder I consider this my home and not my place of birth?

That's Mount Kinabalu in the far distance.

Here's another shot, taken from the International Airport.

Awesome, don't you think?

Stripes

2011-11-21T13:25:00.000+08:00

She wanted a new look. The paint on the walls were faded and patchy. Dull too.

So after weeks of planning (I am a busy person) we finally fixed a date, got the paints, brushes rollers, masking tape, and what-nots and got down to it.

It took us two days, six small cans of paint, eight rolls of masking tape and many hours.
But we finally did it.

Here's a glimpse of Arrow #3's room, with all it's pink and white stripe glory. In the background is the loads of masking tape removed from the wall. We decided to paint the stripes on and not get wallpaper. It was more fun though challenging. Phew! Talk about making memories!

Passing the Blame

2011-11-19T23:15:00.000+08:00

See, this is what I mean!

I post about needing to diet and what happens? Visitors come to town. Of course we have to take them out and to entertain them.

Where I live, seafood is fresh and aplenty. Naturally we take them for dinner.

Hubby and I know the nicest places to have cheap and yummy food.
Like this special sauce telapia fish. Yum.

How can I possibly lose weight or keep it off? It's all the fault of these visitors!

Diet!

2011-11-17T13:06:00.000+08:00

I have lost a lot of weight but am in critical danger now of gaining it back again!

Even food such as salads seem to cling to my hips!
Not to mention my waistline - it seems to have a life of its own, constantly expanding!

I try to stick to fruits only but find myself being lured by good cooking and sumptuous spreads by friends.

When I go on holidays I seem to develop a super hyper appetite.

Can anyone help? Suggestions?!

Another Snippet

2011-11-15T22:46:00.000+08:00

Here's another angle of my tree. As you can see, the theme is gold and silver this year.
Let me tell you about these items you can see on the tree.

The little trumpet was given by a friend many years ago. Every time I put this up, I thank God for her and bless her.

The string of pearls were a gift from another friend - I think. I am not sure but I bless her also when I put them up!

The white baubel is a few years old and I bought loads of them going cheap. Some I decorated and gave as gifts.

The gold poinsettia is super old. It is actually falling apart but I still nurse it each year.

The tinsel was bought many years ago too. One of the years where I made a major purchase of good, thick and bushy tinsel!

The icicle is part of a gold and silver set I found last year. The lights were bought around the same time, as was the multi-pointed star. I set aside a little amount each year to purchase new items. I now have five huge boxes full. My next major purchase will be a new tree. This one is super old - older than my daughter and she is going 16 in four months' time! So no small purchases this year. Saving up instead!

A Snippet

2011-11-13T00:55:00.000+08:00

Like I said, soon. My tree has gone up.

Like this angle?
Later the rest will go up. Meanwhile, this will do for now.

Does it make you curious to see the rest of the tree?

Stay tuned....

Soon....

2011-11-11T00:03:00.000+08:00

Blink and it's already November.

Normally I would be more prepared.

My decorations would be up by now.

Actually, they are usually up by October. This is because November and December are such busy months otherwise.
This time, however, I am behind schedule.

Hence I need to make adjustments. Soon....

Snap!

2011-11-09T23:46:00.000+08:00

I was waiting to pick up a friend at a hotel lobby.

There was a display in the atrium.

This caught my eye, and I was so glad that I had my camera handy!
Love it!

Nice and Free!

2011-11-07T23:41:00.000+08:00

Hubby and I went out with a friend the other day. We were just catching up.

What was a good albeit short time turned even better when we were given free nice special crepes.
The giver had prepared these for photos and decided to bless us with them! Super!

Far better than the dish I had ordered, which was extra salty and lathered in oil.....

A Different Kind of Water Painting

2011-11-06T23:35:00.000+08:00

This is really so clever, creative and fun.

Accidentally Nice

2011-11-04T23:22:00.001+08:00

It was one of those moments. I had picked up my little "point-and-shoot" camera. The plate was empty - the first dish was quickly devoured because everyone was hungry. The lights were still down and the flickering candle, which was the centrepiece of the dish, was begging to be framed in a photo.

This is the result.
And I like it very much!

The MPO

2011-11-01T22:46:00.001+08:00

The MPO. Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. On their tour.

What a lovely evening we had. The auditorium was small, and from almost every seat, you would be able to see. We had some nice seats and could hear and see even the facial expressions. Joy.
What was nice also was that Arrow #3 could comment about certain instruments and how she could hear them.

I also learned from a friend the difference between the Philharmonic and the Symphonic. One has brass and drums and percussion. The latter doesn't - all strings. I prefer the former.

Yes indeed, a very nice evening.... even though the friend we brought along broke all the rules written in fine print at the back of the ticket.... you know, the one that says No slippers. No collarless shirts. No jeans. No shorts. Yes, you get the picture....

Known

2011-10-31T22:33:00.000+08:00

There are some places in the place we live where Hubby and I just walk in to have breakfast and we don't have to open our mouths to order. We just smile, nod our heads, and sit back.

This is one such place. These ladies know our regular drink order and how we prefer a nice mug of piping hot water to soak our chopsticks and spoons in.
The other staff know what specifically we like to have for our noodle order - Hubby has his usual mixed meats dried noodle, and I delight in the shredded meat version, sans green spring onions. They also know I like extra vegetables in my soup and Hubby inevitably gives me his portion too.

Something about being set in our ways as we grow older?

Or a case of just being simple, knowing what we like, and enjoying our choices.....

Mosies

2011-10-29T22:21:00.000+08:00

I am not a happy person right now.....

For some reason, I have attracted bites. Not one, not two, not even three. I have five mosquito bites on me! Two on the one arm, one on the other arm, one on the back of my right leg and the other (of all places) is on my neck!

As if being bitten is not enough, I find the bites swelling up more and more. They don't just swell a bit and die down. Rather, they stay big, distended, irritating and somewhat disturbing. Not just because of the itchiness. The disturbing thing is that the swellings don't go down. It is almost as if I have become allergic to these bites!

Anyone heard of anything like this i.e. an allergy developing where previously there was none where mosquito bites are concerned?

Sleeping Comforts

2011-10-26T06:20:00.001+08:00

When I go on my travels, I am always asked, "Did you sleep well?"

My answer is inevitably "Yes!" I think there were only two occasions I recall in the past few years when I had a bad night's sleep. Both were because of noisy neighbours. Alas, because of the "backpacking" style of accommodation, it was not conducive to complain.

One reason why I can sleep well is because I sleep on all sorts of surfaces. Even the floor, the ground. Of course, my favourite and most comfortable would be the bed, and a wooden one at that. There's something rustic and welcoming about a nice wooden bed. Wooden beds such as ones from England - the Warren Evans ones - are superb. They offer beds of a wide range.

Back home, however, for now, I have to stick to the simple, push-together-two-singles-stick-a-double-mattress-on-top version! Ah well, like I said, I can sleep in most conditions!

A Special People

2011-10-25T22:13:00.000+08:00

I have long wanted to meet a special people. Local indigenous to our land, they are a small group but quite a number of them hold high positions in society and are influential.

So it was quite a joy to make this trip and finally get connected. I had to take two flights. One was small craft with two propellers. The next was even smaller.

Imagine being greeted like this!

Hugs

2011-10-23T20:36:00.000+08:00

Recent events. Sad events. And yet happy events.

The passing on of a dear one. The changing of address. The death of someone.

In times like these, I am glad for items such as the handphone where messages like this one can be sent.
Especially when you can't be there physically.

D-I-Y

2011-10-22T21:04:00.000+08:00

When in England, where labour costs are high, we learned to do a lot of thing. I not only laid carpet, strip and put up wall papers, I even made shelves and knocked together a table. Not bad eh?

Hence handling a drill was no problem. I know how to make sure the drill bit doesn't slide when trying to make the first bite into the tile. I know how to make sure the tile doesn't crack as you drilled.
Hence finally after having moved in for years, I put up a shelf in Arrow #3's bathroom! Haha!

Now for the other two....

It Happened!

2011-10-20T20:20:00.000+08:00

It's something you read about in emails. You know, those forwards that so-called friends inundate you with, together with the whole string of email addresses of other people. You might just skim through if you have the time, and then either click the delete button or just move on to the next email.

You hardly ever think it would happen to you.

But this did happen to me.

I came out from a meeting in my office and smelt burnt plastic. My staff said the cable for my laptop had smoked, caught fire, melted! The laptop was in hibernate mode.....
I am so glad that this didn't happen during the night as I slept - I tend to have the laptop plugged in then too!

The Eye for It

2011-10-18T00:31:00.002+08:00

If I was in a shop and saw these flowers, I would never pick them out.

If I was browsing and saw this vase, I would not give it a second glance.
Put together however, in the eyes of an expert, voila! What an absolutely lovely masterpiece!

Trip Highlight #1

2011-10-13T21:48:00.000+08:00

One afternoon I heard my name being shouted out repeatedly. I dropped what I was doing in the kitchen and went over to another part of the longhouse.

Voila! Meet Turu - a juvenile, tame-yet-wild hornbill who is owned by the whole village and yet doesn't belong to anyone.
It's cool when you can feed a bird by the hand like this!

Trip Away

2011-10-12T21:23:00.000+08:00

I like going away once in a while. Recently I was able to fulfill an invitation to go to a nearby state and visit this lovely place called Bario. A place set in the Sarawakian highlands where electricity is by the generator set (except for one building in the village). To get there, I had to take a small ATS plane and the get on board an even smaller Twin Otter plane! You can see a photo here.