5 years and counting

When I was a 5 year old kid..gazillions of years ago..i was living with my grandparents in the hills. It was a good time, playing chase under and around cows, climbing trees(though I wasn’t allowed to) and eating ice cream in the cold. It was also the year I got my most treasured bear- Wise Old. He is still with me till today, though honestly, he could use fresh stuffing.

Times change and people evolve. Kids today have a different turn on their lives. For example Mr Tiny has weekends where he is so busy, he barely has the time to play hide-and-seek. Just a couple of weeks ago, we went out to watch HowToTrainYourDragon 2 with him and he stayed with us overnight. Though too young now, but If he had a twitter account, this would probably be his timeline:

Saturday

10.00 Think I shall wear the blue tee today for my class. Lets go counting!  #Ilevel #Saturdaymorningroutine

12.00 McD for lunch, didn’t spill my milo #score!

1.30 Papa decided we head to mid valley to check out the mighty #transformers #dinobot. He is my hero

4.00 Off to Puchong for #HowToTrainYourDragon2 with the #minions.

7.00 The movie could have been better, like #Frozen. But the cinema is empty, so running around is cool.#cinema #empty

7.30 This place aint so bad, got lots of place to run. Cmon #minions, catch me #playplayplay #screammyheadoff

7.45 Dinner at Wong Kok #orangejuice #mee #scareyourparents

9.30 Off to Bapu House, yeay! #Serdang #grandparentshome #slowdriversontheroad

11.00 #ilovemytoys #dinotoys before bedtime. Grandma always tells great stories.

Sunday

7.30 Dang this aunties are still sleeping. How do I wake them up? Any ideas?

8.00 decided to go with the ‘jump-on-you’ approach. At ‘least they are awake. Off to breakfast!

10.00 Shimbu needs a shower. I manage to help carry him to the car. #lovepets

11.15 Stupid big black dog at the groomers scared me. #serioustears #dontlovepets

12.00 Drive around town looking for chicken rice. I saw a toystore. Wonder if I can make #minions stop there

12.45 I love #chicken rice!

1.30 so it seems shimbu is ready to go home. No way im gonna go back in that store. #bigblackdog

2.00 yeah, shimbu looks cleaner. I wish I was a guinea pig.

4.00 #minions bought me some cake. Waiting for mama and papa now..wish it wasn’t a school day tomoro.

Well, moved on from Mickey to Lion Dances to Dinosaurs to cars to Lego and now Transformers, it will be interesting to see where Mr Tiny’s interests go next

One thing is for sure, there is nothing that can beat these blessings that come in the smallest form..

Happy 5^th Birthday to our Cheeky Monkey! Chicken rice all around!

A Monday supposition

Monday, 24^th February. 9.35am

I look up to the blue sky, the sun is out, blaring its brightness. I wonder if it would rain today or if we are going to go through another day of heat wave. I sent up a silent prayer for a drizzle.

Monday, 24^th February. 10.00am

Noticed there aren't many people at the Province. Probably a case of the Monday Blues. Seems to be more and more people being affected these days. Reks came by, her new green blouse swishing with each step she takes, she tells me she needs a coffee and something to eat before she could face the day. Another case of the blues, I thought to myself.  I grab my pouch and go down the escalator. Isn't much left at the godforsaken-cafeteria, but hey, when you gotta eat. You gotta eat.

Monday, 24^th February. 10.40am

There is tense in the air as we walk in the Province. Even the AC seems to have slowed to keep pace with our heartbeats. I throw my pouch onto the table, swinging my chair around,  as I screen my counterparts faces. The Minz looks terrified. She starts rambling on about a woman screaming on the other side of the Province. Giggles joins her, confirming her story that they all heard a woman screaming, like she had been possessed. This sounded too weird. Even on my standards.

Monday, 24^th February. 10.42am

I pick up my pen as I move about the clutter of head in the province. Woman 1 claims the scream was a long one. Woman 2 says it was short. Woman 3 says it emitted from the right of the building and Woman 4 says it was from the left. One person thinks it sounded like screeching tyres and another just thought it was the cleaner lady’s trolley grazing along the floor. I marvel at the human mind. The same sound, and yet everyone heard it differently.

Monday, 24^th February. 11.00am

I walk to the WC situated just outside the province. The probable scene of the crime. I stand by the walls for about 5 minutes and let Aunty Jo investigate inside the stalls. She comes out, head shaking. Nothing to report.Someone comes up to me and says they went out the doors when they heard the scream but found no person or persons at the scene.

I gaze out to the rolling clouds, a dead end. Whoever it was, she seems to have disappeared into thin air.

Jesselton Misty Tales Day 2

Day 2

The skies had really opened up the next morning and we were advised against driving up to Kundasang in the weather. As we sat broodily looking out from the lodge pantry, the rain slowly reduced to a light drizzle.

We spotted a chicken rice shop nearby and having has our fill on steamed chicken( funnily we couldn’t find any restaurants that sold Roasted Chicken rice), we happily bertolak to Kundasang to stay closer to the majestic and very shy Mount KK. Along the way, we made a pit stop at the Puh Toh Tze temple in Tuaran, where they have a large statue of Kuan Yin greeting visitors.

We then proceeded to get some snacks and drinks at the Giant along Tuaran. This is very advisable, as Kundasang really doesn’t have much save for a couple of simple stores. Will probably need to drive all the way down to Ranau for a decent drink or a Guardian store..so we decided  to get our stash before heading up

Mummy, how do i get to school, my cycle is stuck on the roof

Dorothy's house landed on a witch..and here?

We then made a pitstop at the Rumah Terbalik at Tamparuli. We Paid an entrance fee of RM5(for Mycard holders) and got to take some pictures outside the house and were told no photo taking inside the house. To be honest, the story the tour guide gave us of the background of the house made no sense and this visit was not really worth the time. Basically we were walking on the “ceiling”, with fans, lamp and even lizard toys next to our feet. All the furniture is arranged above our head, so it was sort of like we were ghost hovering along the celing like spidermen. Probably would have been cooler if someone got some motion sickness or something and everyone would have gone nuts trying to get out, but it was would have been too confusing, motion sick and all..and then..well you get the point, it just would have made the trip more interesting. But my companions are all made of steel and were happily skipping room to room terbalik-ly.

Rumah Tembikai also got

The road to Kundasang was winding and the rain and fog did not make the journey any easier but lucky for us, Tonti is a great driver and nothing could distract her from the long drive up. We missed the turning to our hotel, not our fault, the Kinabalu Mountain Lodge is situated away from the main road and if you miss the sign, you are pretty much screwed, like we were. GPS doesn’t really work way up here, so it was just us and our instincts, which just made matters worse cause everyone’s instincts was pointing to a different direction. So we drove up the Kinabalu Park which was actually 2km away from our lodge to ask for directions. The lady at the counter asked for entrance fee before realizing we were only asking directions. We then headed down and got lost again and went back to the Park for better instructions and the lady asked for entrance fees again!

This was actually taken at 6.30am on Day 3 when the mist cleared for like half an hour, but this is the view from our room at the lodge

Drive up to the lodge

After getting more accurate directions from the very helpful staff at the Park, we headed onto the road that leads to our lodge. The lodge is situated 1KM off from the main road. It’s a steep drive up to the lodge and can get quite muddy heading up and we had to drive on the lowest gear. It is advisable to get to the lodge before 6pm as it gets dark fairly quickly and there is no lights along the road heading up to the lodge.

The weather was very cold, and were all freezing, except for Deviljoe, whose shorts was still too warm for her. The rooms have no heater nor AC and trust me, none is needed. The bathrooms are shared and dinner is RM8 per pax, prepared upon request by the caretakers. We had brought some instant noodles and the warm soup was more than comforting.

Couldn’t see much of the view, which was all mist anyway, once it got darker and we got down and ready for a cold night

Jesselton Misty Tales Day 1

The land under the breeze.Sabah…what started out as Jesselton town is now known as Kota Kinabalu and this is a place where history runs deep, and can be witnessed by the actions of the people here. Ask anyone and they will tell you their town is Jesselton and you can find many shops still using this name in their business signages.

This is my first trip to Sabah with the diplodocus, Deviljoe and Tonti Chee, to which I must say, the furthest state of Malaysia has proven to be one of the most interesting and beautiful places.

Day 1

We decided to spend our first night at KK Town before heading out to Kundasang the next day. Having our 90 day pass to Sabah and securing our Myvi for the drive around town, we headed to Gaya Street to find our accommodation at the Asian Adventure Lodge.

Part of the Gaya Street decorated for CNY 2014

The view from the Lodge Pantry

It wasn’t very hard to find our hotel, but the parking was a pain in the ass. As the street is pretty much as famous as KL’s Petaling Street,  you can imagine the kind of parking space they had. Most of the shops entrances are actually behind the main street, so if you see a signboard for a restaurant along Gaya, don’t be surprised to find no entrance to the shop.

Though we reached 3 hours later than our check in time, we were a little surprised to find the room not ready. Hungry and excited, we decided to dump our bags at the reception and skipped off to the nearby restaurant Fong Ip for some chow.Whatever you do, do not ask for roti canai or nasi lemak around here. Pretty much sucks.

The shared pantry. Breakfast is provided but is a simple toast and jam

After jalan jalan for a bit, we headed back to the tiny lodge to shower and change. The owner, I found, was a little too talkative and wasn’t too subtle in hiding her political views. So if you decide to stay here, be prepared to hear her many interesting views and life stories + do not book on Agoda as she blatantly informed me that she does not check the bookings made on this site..sigh, no wonder la our room wasn’t ready when we arrived. But she is very helpful in giving ideas on the dos and donts around KK and offers good prices if one is interested on tours. But since we had rented a Myvi, its much cheaper to get around compared to taking tours to the sites.

The temperature dropped to about 21 deg at night and winds can get pretty chilly. It was a cool welcome from the heatwave that is Kuala Lumpur. This first night, we decided to have some local Chinese food and  coconut pudding from Restoran masakan sedap@ Hilltop, Jalan Lintas, Luyang. The pudding is served in the coconut itself and looks like tau foo fa but it’s very cooling and fresh.

The Pudding comes in the coconut, 1 coconut is plenty to be shared by 4 pax

One dish down on my list of to-eats..45 more to go. Some how I have doubt that I can completely try everything that’s on my list..but hey, when on holiday, whats reasonable right?



Whats say now Mayan?

I remember the end of 2012 and everyone was wondering how the Mayan prediction would affect them. A cycle had ended and new one was beginning. But new cycles does not only mean good beginnings, sometimes they bring good endings too

So for this post I would like to dedicate my writing to those whom I have had the privilege of seeing or hearing their new cycle stories of 2013

To the man who thought that he had found an undying and eternal love in his marriage, but who instead is faced with separation and singledom this new year’s eve, okey, I know that sounds kind of rough, but what I want to say is that life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect it to. But it’s always the darkest before the dawn, so keep the spirit up!

To the man who got married this year after many battles with his traditional minded parents, I wish you all the best and happiness with your new wife. Count your blessings everyday.

To the lady who after hanging on to many different arms of men, (okey that’s rough too, but hey who said life was smooth anyway?)Am honestly grateful that you have landed one(arm?) for good. May you have that (arm?) to hold for many many years to come.

To the lady who is pregnant this New Year’s eve (Yeay!!! Woo HOOO!), there is no greater joy in having a little one. I don’t have one of my own, but one dino-nephew is enough to bring the joy of the planet to my home. Anyway,  May you be blessed with gazillion more children and I shall always be around to be the coolest aunt they have.

To the lady who is celebrating her tiny tot’s first New Year, may he always be blessed with friends who have the bond and love as we do.

To the one who lost her love this year, I know just how hard it gets. But stay on that road, and remember you have so much love all around you. Especially from your sisters and family members( probably I should eat this advice myself)

To the one who lost a friend this year. You should have known better, but friends will forgive and forget. Do not give up if you think they are worth your time.

To the one who had found a new friend this year, friendship is something that can stay with you your whole life. They will love you for who you are, always be that shoulder to cry on, to play pranks on and friends are the one who will let you eat as many cupcakes as you want without reminding you about damn calories. Cherish it as it is a good friend that makes the world go round.

Every year comes with different stories and different surprises. Bring it on 2014!

Tana Aina Farrah Soraya

Wow. Hasn’t it been awhile. Tons going on in the month of October, and I just missed posting stuff. The loss of a 13 year friendship, and an 8 month friendship, and the seemed failure at building a working relationship with someones. And all within a few weeks, phew, it really can take an emotional toll on a person.

Anyway, every day is a new day, and with it comes new stories and new people. So here’s me hoping for sunnier days ahead.

Speaking of sunny days, I think we all need to get out into the sun once in a while. Go to the seaside…go to the playground… or Maybe a jungle?

I had heard from people at work and the beloved Pabi that there was a retreat getaway into the wilderness about an hour’s drive from KL. The Tana Aina resort is located in Bentong, Pahang and is definitely a place built for city dwellers to take a weekend away from all electronic gadgetry and just lounge around a river like an iguana. Tana Aina is actually 88 acres and is owned by a Puan Sri Sabrina, whom we had the grace of meeting on our stay at the resort. A robust lady, she has divided the land into 5 different areas and each of the area is named after one of her 5 daughters. The resort is named Tana Aina Fara Soraya. The resort comes with a camping ground, chalets and dorms  so guest can choose their accommodation style and price is at per person per night.

Campsite

Day 1

Thinking that the camping would be more of a challenge, diplodocus, chooz, pekster and I decided to try it out. The journey to Bentong took us about an hour’s drive to the 808 exit off the PLUS. Now be sure to call the driver and inform them of your exit as the phone line gets pretty bad after this. We then drove on a smaller road, bypassing small towns..be sure to look out for Kampong Sang Lee, the Durian King Kampong as the turn off to the resort is about 2 km after this kampong.

Kg Sang Lee

Fofi had to go onto a gravel road of about 400 meters before we reached the parking lot of the resort. From here we had to take a 4 wheel drive into the resort itself. If there are many guests, some of them will be ‘placed’ on a small lorry for the ride into the resort. Don’t get me wrong here, am sure its loads of fun, but in my personal opinion, it’s Like chickens going into the market.

Anyways, the minute we got down from the 4 wheeler, we were greeted with welcome drinks(lime and mint, my favourite!) and cool towels. There was only one other family there, who was checking out, and after signing our indemnity forms, we were informed that for today, we would be the only guests in the entire resort. Couldn’t get any better than this…

Toilets are very close the camp..but  pls keep clean folks

Our bags were brought down into the tent. So much for roughing it, we didn’t even need to carry our own bags! The tent had power supply in it, so we had a fan and a socket to charge our phones. Looked like the best tent in the house as it faced the river and had the best way to get down to the river and laze on the rocks. As we sat (jumping for joy) at the being the favored guests, we got the call for lunch( boleh pergi makan sekarang ye kak, music to our ears) The communal  dining hall  is  about 50m from our camp and is situated next to the river. Our plates and cutlery were laid out on the table just next to the river and there was the most amount of food we have seen in a while. 5 different dishes, rice, fruits and 2 types of dessert. For a second, it did feel like we were chickens to be taken to the market. But the food was amazing and something about eating outdoors just makes one more hungrier.

Our tent



Free Durians!



Our lunch- fit for a king



Durian Pudding

 

The first afternoon is meant for trekking to a nearby waterfall. We had to forgo this activity, as some of us were not very well, but the trek goes through 2 rivers, the first is about knee deep and the 2^nd is about 6 feet of water. Guest are provided with life jackets and even pelampungs to get across the 2^nd waterfall and is quite safe. Though we only lounged about the river in front of the camp, and ate durians by the riverside, it was more than relaxing to just soak up the sights and sounds so its okay even if you miss any of the activities.

Diplodocus did manage to get a real Iguana’s attention and though the chooz tried to get closer to the guy (maybe she thought she could make a new friend), one of the staff managed to shoo him off the rock that was near our tent. Plenty of frogs (many princes’ for Pekster) and watch out for the colorful butterflies and dragonflies. Lucky enough, you might catch some blue birds on the trees in front of your tent.

This is followed by tea break at 4.30(more food). We had doughnuts and curry puffs with Mee Hoon and more fruits. After which we decided to explore the resort.  There is a TV right after the communal dining and guests can watch astro here or spend the time reading. There is a bookcase with some magazines, so if you don’t bring your own, just borrow one from the cupboard.

The Y would have loved this tea break

A bridge across the river will bring you to the dorms, communal hall and the chalets. Tons of fish in the river, you can ask the staff the there for fish food(RM2 a pack) and just stand around hours on end, feeding fish. There are swings and seating areas a plenty for guests to just sit back and enjoy the view.  As we headed back to our tent, we pit stopped at the dining and had our dose of misai kucing tea. Oh, did I mention? We get tea, coffee and misai kucing tea, which is an excellent antioxidant, free round the clock.

Biscuits are also free 24/7

Dinner is served at 7.30 and we had so much of barbequed meats, fries, garlic bread, spaghetti and nasi goring, and the yummiest dessert of fruits and cream and kuih koci…whoosh,  I really didn’t think I could eat any more. Come to think of it now, I seriously miss that food. This is then followed by a night walk up a hill, its kind of steep to go up the hill and it takes roughly 20 minutes for a fit person to reach the top. From what I hear, the sight of a sky full of stars is worth the hike.

 

But then again, we for-went this activity too, as we were too beat to do anything. So instead, they put on MIB3 for us at the Dewan and we played scrabble while watching the movie. Still unsure if FIFA is acceptable, but congrats to our first time winner, Pekster. We went back to our tent around 11, after another dose of misai kucing, and I would advise to bring along your own blankets as the ones provided were pretty thin. There is no hot water at the resort and having showered with ICY cold water, the night air does not get warmer, so either bring along your blankets, or thicker nightwear.

 

Day 2

The morning walk is at 7am, guest will need to go up manmade steep stairs to reach the top of the hill to enjoy the sunrise. Pekster and I decided to take the walk later as we just wanted a slow day. We woke to cool morning air and the sound of the water rushing by. Then headed out to the communal for our breakfast of nasi lemak, bathura, roti bom, toast and jam, cereal and fruits. One could really get use to this, trust me.

Part of the breakfast

Start of the trek. There is a tougher track for advanced hikers that go along the route of abt 5km into the jungle

jambu air! unfortunately, not ripe

While the chooz and diplodocus decided to get their noses into their books, pekster and I went round to check out the dorms. Being the only guests, we were allowed to go anywhere in the resort and to even go into the other empty rooms and chalets. The dorms are situated on the first floor above the communal hall, so if you want somewhere more cleaner and further from iguanas and frogs, you can lodge here. The Toilets are situated just outside the dorms and are very clean.

From the dorms, we headed up the hill. The resort has plenty of fruit trees, so we tried to guess which tree is for which fruit, and some of the fruits were only just growing. Along the way up,  the bends are pretty steep, and having my knee issue, we took our time to go up. Try not to go alone as in some of the bends, there are also straight tracks that go around the hill, so always have someone with you to avoid getting lost. The view from the top of the hill is cool, and the overall trek is fairly easy..makes Broga hill look like mount Everest. Took us an hour(plus lepak time) to go up and make the journey down.

Stairs for the morning walkers

View of the top. Jangan sesat ye

More misai kucing tea, and we could see by then that the days guest was starting to stream in. The resort gets about 100 visitors per weekend on average and we had a really good time being the only guests, as we had the priority on every corner. After a shower and saying our goodbyes to the animals of the resort, Chooz had her goodbyes for her friend, the bees, pekster to her husband, the frog prince and diplodocus to her beloved iguana king. You will all be sorely missed..we headed back to the city, relaxed and happy.

Parcel from life

It doesn’t matter, where we take this road.

Someone’s gotta go.

And now, we are only ashes on the ground

-Pop lyrics-

Grief, they say is part and parcel of life.

Whether be it the passing of someone or the loss of another’s presence in our lives due to other reasons, or simply watching that person slip away from you and being unable to do anything about it. It is an experience that we go through at some point of our lives, and it shapes and defines the kind of human being we will end up becoming.

To each his own.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with grief, some of us pretend that nothing has happened and go about their days as it has always been. Some simply pick up the pieces and move along, finding a point in time and space that will place them closer to the lost one, like listening to the song that was theirs. Some of us give up and slow down simply because the sky isn’t as blue any longer. And some of us paint the sky with rainbow colours and change who and what they were to something totally different. Perhaps becoming someone else might make their experience someone else’s and they wouldn’t need to deal with the pain. And then there’s some who make others laugh so that they can cover their own sadness with the sound. Or maybe we just do all of the above at some point in our process of dealing with it.

And that’s a definite. At some point, we would have to face with what life dealt us.

And though everyone is different, one thing is the same- that at the end of the day, we are all just trying to keep our hearts safe.