Childhood Revisited

Being a lazy driver as I am always has the advantage of having all your limbs at your disposal. Our sunset cruise looking at the Indian Ocean brings back memories of my childhood. This picture taken from our moving vehicle is Sungai Berembang which was once a picnic spot for the locals. The silhouette structure is a bridge crossing the river and that distant island was once so close that we can send catapult’s marble right to the island. What I saw now was once a school, mosque and houses swallowed by the Indian Ocean. What was once a swampy area now turned into rocky retaining wall. What a sight of a swallow flying over the island trying to tell us something here. Whatever is happening, my main concern now is that I'm suffering from severe toothache.

Pride & Glory

~my backyard collection~

Can anyone spot the little one eating our pride and glory?

Silver Lining

There is a silver lining in every cloud, so don’t get mad - get glad. One of the unexpected bonuses to thick cloud is the silver lining you can see when the sun's shining behind the cloud.

I guess the same goes with life!!

Strange!

This 1966 VW Beetle was with me for five years and this spot under the two cherry trees has always been the parking spot during the day before it slipped into the porch at night. This exact picture was placed on eBay in 2004 and a guy who won the bid took a six hours nonstop ride home. A few months after the bug left, both the cherry trees strangely enough, died. Maybe both the trees missed the companionship - Who knows!

Judgmental Part II

OK, it’s been too long since my last “real” post. Posting on weekends gets harder and harder with working all weekend, kids, sleep, and the many other weekend activities. One thing still keep on bugging me this week so I decided to channel it here.

Never mind about the previous posting on this issue. It seems to me, that when most people meet another person they either treat them with love or judgment. It's like we have taken a side with each person. We have become their judge and we give them love and acceptance or judgment based on our whims. How many times do you hear other people tear someone else down? How many times do you do it? We have decided to judge them.

If we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, how can we be so judgmental and hard on them? We want love and mercy for ourselves, why can't we give it to the ones we meet every day? Instead we size them up and pick out their flaws - as if we have none of our own. We notice every sin of theirs, but gloss over our own. Yes, we are sinners that need Maker's grace and blessings. They are sinners that need our Maker's grace and blessings. Aren't they just like you and me? The only difference is we are adding judgment to our list of sins and are ignoring most other positive characters in a person

Blessing in Disguise!

What would you do if your car won’t start after work? You pulled out the key - get your camera – look for interesting object – pray that you get a good shot – post it to Blogger. That was what exactly happened to me after work. Afraid that the engine would flood, I walked around the green area outside my office with camera in hand. I spotted this beautiful flower protruding to the sky that I never noticed before and took a few shots. So here it is and my car started the first time after that. Looks like the flower is pointing up there telling me everything happens for a good reason – and in a mysterious way too.

Holy Cactus!!!

Driving home from Kenduri in Alor Star, we decided to stop by our regular Auntie’s Nursery to get bigger pots for our overgrown pandanus. Sharina was browsing for the right pots and I was looking around for appropriate plants for the house – just in case. My eyes caught something wicked and I really have to blog this. The picture above explains everything (I hope) and we walked away with two bigger pots – without any plants.

My Photo Page

I've just created my photo page at FLICKR. You can browse through my pictures by clicking the LINK on the right frame. If you like the picture above, you might like to see the rest of the album. Most pictures were taken around the vaccinity of my hometown - Kodiang.

Green is Sexy!

I was walking down the corridor towards our washroom on a very dull gloomy day but the view in front of me caught my attention. A huge green trash-can complemented by a greener view ahead – trash free. Make me thinking how sexy the green can be even without the blue sky or streaks of white cloud.

It’s been said that if we like something, we’ll tell 3 people, but if we hate it, we’ll tell 12. Needless to say, I like this view so much that I walked back to the office (postponing my nature calls) and capture this shot so that I can blog this. Trash has always been a major problem in public places in Malaysia. Sometimes our favorite products are like adorable pets that pee on the furniture: we love them, but we don’t love their filthy habit. Wasteful packaging is annoying, unnecessary and more expensive to produce. Plastic bottles, Styrofoam containers, canned drinks and plastic bags are just a few of the long list of harmful items if not disposed properly.

Please think again before you toss out another trash – Green is really Sexy!!!

My Capsicum Bears Fruits.

Capsicum is a plant with a densely branched stem. The plant reaches 0.5–1.5 m (20–60 in). Single white flowers bear the fruit which is green when unripe, changing principally to red; some varieties may ripen to brown or purple.

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Today is a gloomy Saturday morning with nothing much going. After a short visit to our local Day’s Market (Nat), we just bunk around the house with our son who is having a slight fever watching Madagascar.

Since our house in a village near Kodiang, we have no need to “keep up with the Jones?” Having the best looking lawn in the neighborhood is a goal many men and women have stressed over for years but not for us. So I decided to explore our backyard under slight drizzle. To my amazement, my capsicum bears fruits. I remembered tossing a few seeds into an unused plant pots and blessed by the rainy season and here they are. Since I was outside the house, I decided to get my hands dirty so I planted a mango that has been nursed by my 96 year-old grandma. Not a bad gloomy Saturday after all and now its pouring cats and dogs.

Yes, it seems that the rains have finally reached Kodiang. That was the only reason I woke up this early to write - the weather. It is raining, the sky is gray, and it is the perfect time to play Maroon 5’s song Sunday Morning (or Diana's Krall's Isn't This a Lovely Day !!!!).

Later today, I managed to catch this view.

Heavy rain creates temporary puddles in my backyard and frequently attracted herons to come and look for fish maybe. There are times when they came in a flock of up to thirty birds. Here you can spot nine of them lurking for fish under my pomelo trees.