Introduction: Port Dickson

Note: More pictures in My Gallery.

Been more than 10 years since I last went for a vacation with my whole family & glad that my company has a benefit allowing staffs of higher position to reserve for these bungalows. But, I'm the only one from Glenmarie branch that had been to this bungalows. And the other staffs are waiting for my comments because they heard that its hard-chances to even make a reservation and they just dismissed the thought. And even the Admin & HR Department did not know there is such thing. I sort of stumble over this information and thought, "Why not?" I had not been to Port Dickson for so long and been finding a good chance to spend a weekend with my family away from the busy, polluted and noisy city life. Was really glad that my sister and her family can joined us as well and making reservation for it was just so simple, don't even have to be put on waiting list and all the negative comments that I hear from the MD's secretary, its not even true.

Left our home at about 8.10am to pick up my grandma at the other end of Klang town; Hill-top (our common calls). Weather was simply nice and non-sunny, probably because of the haze that's been around for the last couple of days. Dad do not allow me to drive so I only drove till Hill-top because he said "Little Camry" has not enough room and I told him, "Who said? My office people can go in the same car with 7 people." Think, he prefer to drive and so, I let him... Because, I also want him to check out driving long distance with it.

The highways are very straight and easy to follow. Now, they have a new highway from Port Dickson exit (North-South Highway) that do not require us to passed by Port Dickson town, we just have to follow the direction to Teluk Kemang. When, we reached Teluk Kemang, we saw a lot of abandon buildings and its just so quiet... not much cars on the road. My dad was trying to recall his past trips to that place and I was just busy looking for the signboards. Once we saw the Blue Lagoon in sight, we had to start looking for our bungalows' signboard. The entrance was so small; only 1 car can fit in. There are other signboards too and my mom & grandma was pretty teriffic with the road condition as its leads into the jungle. There are several bungalows along the narrow road and some have the "For Rent" signboard. Right then, my mom decided that we shouldn't leave the bungalows at night. Hehehe... Our bungalows are the last one on the road; and its right next to the thick lush green jungle. We reached at about 10am and Linda; the Supervisor Caretaker greeted us with a smile but I simply just still feel that she is not very "friendly" ever since I talked to her on the phone. So, I asked my sister to do most of the talking the whole duration I was there.

Bungalow: Annexe

Bungalow: Brunwells

The brownish sandy beach

My sister and her family arrived late so while waiting for them, we started to unpacked our things and I get to be on priority to choose the room I want. To my amazement, there are 3 beds in each room and there are still plenty of rooms to put extra beds. Brunwells is with 3 rooms and Annexe is with 2 rooms. Each room has attached bathroom and each bungalow has its own dining area, TV room and seating area (porch). Pictures attached will show you the bungalow designs; built in the British colonel time.

After selecting my room, I went around taking pictures. That explains why you don't see me much in the photoes. Whenever, I have a beach retreat, the first thing I want to do when I arrived will be to head down to the beach. But, was disappointed with the colour and the cleanliness of the beach here but its a private beach. Instead, walked around the premise and the thing that amazed us were the swings; hanging from the old tree's branch. Even mom went on it for a while. Uncle Peter set up the tent for Kristen under the tree, not sure what is it meant for...

Lunch was served shortly at 1.30pm when my sister and her family arrived. Very good home-cook meal. We are not allow to cook anything in their kitchen and Linda, Sarah & their mom prepared all meals for us. I was thinking of taking pictures of them preparing food but then, the kitchen door is always closed, dare not interupt them.

The beach & the sea is half a football field away; we have plenty of space to run around; that's what Kristen do. She roams around alone and we are always looking for her. She feels so much at home; like a prisoner just being released from prison because she don't get that much chance to run around in a wide field like this. The field has lots of grasshopper, other insects and lots of ants under all the tree roots. Busy taking food into their Queens. Took some pictures of them but didn't seems to able to see the tiny ants in action.

Kristen is so excited to get to the beach when the sun is already out, she brought along her "plastic containers & cups" ~ her version of pails & spade. Hehehe... I was taking pictures of her and couldn't stop myself from buidling the sandcastles with her. Then, she decided to walk out to sea and got her dress wet and that's when I asked her to go change into her swimwear and we all did as well. OOhhh... my first chance to swim in an open-sea because before this, I do not know how to swim and usually just dip myself in there. But, this time, I swam with the wave and it was marvellous. Unfortunately, my dad didn't capture me in action! As I said earlier, its kinda dirty and I'm feeling a little itchy here and there and we called it a day as the tide is coming in as well.

Most of them take a nap while I hang out watching TV and dozed off on the sofa for like 30 minutes. Waited for tea-time; the apple tart is pretty alright and I made my first home-made Mocha! I love it!!! Never tried one in any cafe and I'm kinda addicted to it now that I know how to make my own. After tea, everyone hang-out at the TV and porch either watching TV, play games and simply chatting away while waiting for our next meal. After Kristen had her porridge, I brought her for a stroll at the beach with my brother and the wind is so strong...

Was planning to take a shower after my dinner but was feeling sticky and all the mosquitoes are attacking, I head to shower at about 7pm while the rest of them still feeding the blood-sucker & killing them at the same time. Woh! Very tradisional way of a bath; water from the well and need to bath with a "scoop". Feeling cool and clean, got into my pajamas, have not got much chance to bath and get dressed in an air-cond room so often. So, simply enjoying the sensation of it. Joined the rest at the Annexe porch shortly after that.

At 8.30pm, we had steamboat for dinner and its all home-made; from the Yong Tau Fu to the fish & sotong balls. Grandma who is a good cook herself, said its really good because they really compact the Yong Tau Fu. I wasn't feeling on top of the world after several bites, and can't do much cooking of my own because there is only 1 pot of it right in the middle. So, like a princess being treated like one, my dad scooped all the different choices for me. We all enjoyed our meals with the sea breeze blowing in thru the windoes & doors, we are trying our best to finish all the food but still, we were too full. There was a plate leftover and we personally returned to Linda and hoped that her family can eat them. Don't go wasted into the rubbish bin when she clean up the table.

Its almost 10pm when we finished and we took a walked around the premise to digest our full tummy and we saw the "beam lights" from the Lighthouse nearby. One of our neighbours had a camp-fire on and they are all merrily drinking and chatting away. As its way passed Kristen's bed-time, she is asked to go to bed accompany by my sister and her family. So, left 5 of us in Brunwells watching an old Hong Kong movie. Dad said since the company so rich, need to invest in Astro. Only went to bed at 11ish because nothing better to do. The crickets are out and about but couldn't hear much of the crashing waves at the shore because the windows are tightly closed, have no idea how to open them.

The first sound of the birds chirping woke me up at about 5am and I thought, I would want to see the sun-rise but it was pirch blackness when I opened my door. So, I returned back to sleep and woke up again at 7am when I heard the crashing waves. Its nice... to wake to that kind of nature music... but no sun-rise to see. Dad and grandma were already up and about; I started opening all the big windows in the TV room and it was so breezy on Sunday... our hairs are everywhere. Hahaha... what a sight!

Laze and chit-chat while 1 by 1 of us wake up. We didn't know that we will get up that early so we had to wait a bit longer for breakfast at 9am. So, all of them went for a walk at the beach and I stayed behind to accompany grandma and chit chat with her; catching up on things. We had Western breakfast and I had Mocha again... We head out to sea shortly after breakfast and again, it was great but still the water makes my skin itch. Was in there for only about 20 minutes and decide to clean-up for good. So, this trip, I didn't get that tan as I thought I would be. Started to pack my things and head out to take more pictures and finally rest my butt watching TV. Nothing much to watch also on a Sunday morning and end up watching some Tamil movie.

Had our lunch at about 12ish and wasn't too happy that they served steamed cabbage rather than coleslaw or salad when its Mushroom soup, Chicken Chop, Baked Beans & French Fries. Weird, the cabbage just didn't blend in well. Also, its home-made and its delicious; I had 3 pieces of Chicken Chop, lots of Baked Beans & Fries and a plate of Mushroom soup. *Yum yum*

My sister and her family had to leave early because they are stopping by Seremban to visit a relative there. So, the rest of us just laze around; do whatever we wanna do and about 4pm we left the place. The journey back was okie but dad sturbonly refused to hear my direction so we had to pay a little extra for tols and make a big U-turn. Feeling tired now... I'm heading to bed... Good-bye to uncivilisation...

~A Family Portrait~

~By the Sea~

~View from A Window~

Life is Not Forever

My DEEPEST CONDOLENCES to Jaime & family.

Many times, I'm not sure how to comfort a friend who just lost his/her love ones. My belief is and I would tell them, "God loves him/her more than we do, that's why God took him/her back to be with Him in Heaven"...

For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning; though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalms 90:4-12

Love at First Sight

With a big smile, the first thing that came into my mind when I woke up this morning was "I WANT a Jack Russell!!" Think, in my dream, someone gave me a surprise gift which is a Jack Russell cuddling itself in a basket. Once, I had this plan that when I start my own family, I would want a pup rather than a baby. Hahaha... People will say, taking care of a pup is not as near as taking care of a new born baby. Both are very adorable and cute when they are few months old but gradually, pup turn to dog and they might not look as cute as they used to be. Meanwhile, baby might turn into charming man and beautiful lady. But... dog will always remains by our side but children don't... they will grow up and start their own family of their own... Just my thought... I'll probably be greedy and want both; pups and babies *chuckled*

This morning on the radio, I heard that RSCPA is putting some dogs to sleep if no one came to adopt the dogs, my heart goes out to them... why? why? My mom don't allow us to have pets other than fish and tortoise, that's why my brother and I can never adopt any pups or dogs into our house. But, I wonder, if its a "gift", can she accept that? Hhmmm.... The other day, Jeffery tempted me by bringing me to Pet Wonderland and we went to look at the puppies. He knows I love them dearly and yet, cannot own them. Once, a while, I do visit the pet shops to look at them whenever I passed by there. So, can someone give me a new born Russell pup please??

A Free Day at work...

It’s Monday again! Was a bit late to work today because my handphone just decide to give me problem this morning. After several times, trying to remove and put the battery back, it still didn’t work. So, I had to wake my dad up and swapped phone with him and I had to speed 110km/hr on a 90km/hr highway to work and usually after 8am, the highways and roads are kinda packed. Still managed to arrive office before 8.30am but took me like about 5 to 10 minutes struggling to get into a car park. Just some odd colleague parking at places, they shouldn’t park just for their convenience sake by leaving an actual parking lot empty right in the middle of two cars (side parking).

Was not planning to post anything this week thinking that I’ll had lots to do at work but I was surprised that my in-tray was empty and I only left some claims to work on and filings. Usually, Friday is my Filing Day because we can wear casual and since filings can be quite ‘dirty’ sometimes. So, don’t plan to touch them until Friday unless, I really couldn’t find more important things to do later. Other than that, I had to “clean up” the main company’s mess under the Fertilizer Division. That is the task I would rather not talk about now because thinking of it just gives me the stressful thought. But, I know I had to work on it one of these days… probably should continue on it today since I’m free.

Forgotten that for this 2 days, there will be General Manager & Marketing meetings, I had to remind myself to come earlier tomorrow to get a better parking lot or else, I would end up like today, circled the company’s premise two times trying to get a bigger parking space to fit my “Little Camry”. Oh yes, my dad will send my "Little Camry" for service after driven for 1 month. So, back to Wira. *grins*

Hope my brother can work some miracle on my handphone because I simply love that phone. I was just telling my brother to get me more colourful covers so that I can match with my dressing some times and I even played around the Sony Ericson website where they charged USD24 to have our own personalized cover. It’s cool! Even though the phone is kinda “dinosaur” already but I still do not plan to get a new one until the current one drop dead. It’s only 3 years old and I do not hope that it end its life so soon. Please be alright…

The weekend was kinda relax and nice because I get to go shopping with Jaime and meet up my ‘high school’ friends. Some catch up to do because have not meet up one of them for like half a year. 3 of them couldn’t make it but I met them quite often so it’s ok. Usually, we don’t meet up in a big group unless one of our birthdays is around the corner. Other than that, the best thing that happened to me was on Saturday. It won’t sounds like it’s a blast to many but to me personally plant a memorable moment. Finally, I could swim without an assistant of a swimming-board. Ever since I was diagnose to have “lumbar scoliosis” (mine is in-born, no surgery necessary & not serious as it sounds), I was advised by an old family doctor that swimming is the best medicine to cure my condition as the Chiropractor is too costly and won’t guarantee healing. Many of you who personally know me, before I had an X-Ray on my backbone structure, I was actually visiting Chiropractors and my dad even brought me miles from home just to seek a Chinese Sin-Sei’s in Lumut and all that just only fix the problem temporarily. In 2005, I decided to had an X-Ray and finally know what is actually wrong with my backbones. So, I had been going to my dad’s club to swim every Saturday whenever I could and since than, I had no backache problem unless, I sit too long in my office chair. Before swimming, I went to do a little gym; run on the tread-mill and did less than 50 sit-ups. And last night, my abdomen part was aching when I was laughing watching Rina & Phat Fabes on Quickie.

This morning, when I reached my office table, one of the cactus I adopted from Chua has a mini flowery bud growing. Soon, it will blossom. Can’t wait… so isn’t that beautiful? (My cactus: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3)

Voix du coeur ~ Voices from The Heart

Cher Stephane,

Se rappeler du jour vous m'avez laissé tomber un courrier court dans Meetic… qui est quand le jour nous nous connaissons d'abord. Comment le temps a passé et c'est déjà moitié par année. Causerie commencée avec toi par l'intermédiaire de MSN même sans savoir votre fond et votre préférence excepté vos regards que vous l'avez signalée vous-même sur la causerie. Habituellement, telles que j'ai rencontrées sont en ligne les personnes plutôt étranges, je devrais dire… le fou. Comment fou ! La fin de l'année dernière, était ma première rencontre rencontrant toutes sortes de personnes en ligne et je suis stupéfié là est tellement plus à découvrir et apprendre de toutes personnes autour du monde. Et vous êtes le seul qui maintient toujours étroitement dans le contact avec moi et j'apprécie vraiment cette amitié. Prend la première mesure à tout, l'amitié est tellement plus fiable simplement et plaisant et moins d'espérer et le meilleur ; il est toujours beau.

Quand j'ai décidé de stopper Meetic, qui était le temps j'a regardé votre profil et cela était quand je finis par vous connaître davantage en termes de votre aversion, votre travail, votre éducation et beaucoup d'autres choses que vous avez écrits dedans là. Se rappeler une fois, je t'ai demandé pourquoi vous projetez stopper Meetic aussi, vous m'avez dit, vous pensez que vous aviez trouvé votre âme-compagnon. WoW!!

Quoique, le moment où vous avez visité la Malaisie et le Singapour, nous ne soyons pas celui près de l'appel "ami" mais je vous rappelais toujours cela, si vous venez encore en Asie, vous avez obtenu de s'arrêter par kilolitre… ou Singapour ainsi nous pouvons nous réunir vers le haut. Naturellement, les choix sont encore à vous… *smile* Et on vous a remarqué une fois que dit à moi sera toujours dans mon esprit et je sourirai quand je pense à lui. Je t'ai dit que j'ai voulu rendre visite à ces caverne et toi m'a dit que, s'il n'est pas en raison de quelque km de distance de milliers, vous sera davantage qu'heureux de m'accompagner. C'était simplement la meilleure chose que j'ai de vos nouvelles !

J'avais apprécié mes moments de discuter la tasse du monde avec toi récemment… et une vendredi nuit, je suis resté vers le haut en retard vous accompagne du confort de ma pièce tandis que vous travaillez loin dans le bureau. Ensemble, nous avons examiné le match de phase entre l'Allemagne et l'Argentine. Et je tombe endormi sur mon cahier tout en attendant votre réponse. Hahaha… pensant à lui maintenant, ne pourrait pas m'arrêter de se demander… comme l'Internet étonnant peut avoir lieu dans votre vie.

Il y a plusieurs choses que j'ai découvert au sujet de toi qu'être différent de ceux que je rencontre en ligne ; vous êtes être simplement juste vous-même. Et c'est la meilleure partie de toi… bien que vous ne dactylographiiez jamais beaucoup mais n'importe ce que quand je cause avec toi (que je ne fais pas cela des jours de la semaine mais quand vient à toi, je toujours), je sens faire confortable que… il usine un sourire dans mon visage chaque nuit avant que je dorme.

Oui, de façon ou d'autre mes maux de coeur que vous ne t'avez pas dits me visitent Hanoï avec vos amis jusqu'à la toute dernière minute. Mais maintenant, elle est très bien. Juste un ami normal aurait été très excité pour partir en vacances et aurait dit quelque chose à son ami. Peut-être, vous êtes surexcité jusqu'à ce que vous ayez été sans voix. Ainsi, je suis également sans voix maintenant…

Note : Juste ne peut pas vous attendre pour revenir et pour me dire au sujet de votre voyage et pour partager vos photos.

Busy vs Disappointment

On a peaceful Saturday morning, just had my toast with coffee after cleaning up my room & helping mom to operate the new washing-machine. The old one decided to collapse after 20 over years last Thursday!! Kinda missed having American-style breakfast from hotels so decided to get up a bit earlier than usual to make my own breakfast. On regular working days, I can't take breakfast before 8am... even though, many people said breakfast is very important for the day. Just doesn't apply to my system. Thought, I'll spend this morning writing rather then go back to sleep.......

1st July; was planning to catch Disney Live Winnie the Pooh but my niece; Kristen is afraid of costume-creatures and there is no complimentary tickets even I had been begging from everyone. I won't mind paying RM70 but I need to drag a friend along with me who won't want to pay that amount of money to accompany me, right? Not sure whether the show was a success in Malaysia since Winnie the Pooh & Friends been touring around to perform round the globe. Read lots online article from adults and couldn't help wondering what I had missed...(Read: Review) and after looking at the stage pictures, I regretted so much for not following my child-like heart & childish voice in my mind. (Enjoy: Album 1, Album 2, Album 3)That reminds me that I had a great time a few years back when I watched Disney On Ice with Jeffery & Jamie. I still had the Mickey Mouse pop-corn box & a pair of Mickey & Minnie Mouse's mugs that we had ice-crush balls in it. We were freezing in there...

Since there is no Winnie the Pooh & Friends, Jeffery invited me for Superman Returns. Kinda hard to get the tickets since it was just on cinema so we got the 10.30am show. He was late for 30mins & I sun-bathed while waiting for him to pick me up. Once I got into his car, he said softly, "Sorry, but please don't say anything..." *chuckled* He understands me too well how much I hate people to be late!! He overslept and I went on a roller-coaster ride in his Getz and he had to pay additional tols in order to take the less traffic routes to One Utama. Hahaha... and when we got into the cinema, we had to endeavour watching 30mins of advertisment before the movie starts. Gosh.. so much advertisements!!! A few times, I tried stealing some sleep while waiting for the movie to start... I never watch the other Superman before so I had no idea what was before but somehow, I love Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) in this chapter compare to the series show of Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher). Don't be surprised to hear this but I'm not drooling when I watched Brandon Routh... *chuckled*. WHY?? 'Coz, he seems a bit boyish for Superman. Shouldn't Superman be manly-looked?

This week at work, I had been rushing for my "end-month closing" dateline. I had performed well for the last 2 months by meeting the dateline before the expected date by pressuring myself to max. Thus, no chance for the Accounts people to bug me and I couldn't be more happy with it. On Tuesday, head down to Asia Cafe with my colleagues (mostly the Corporate Service team & IT Dept). Been out with this people several times recently because my Department staffs just couldn't be bother to go out for lunch. Chua brought "rojak gravy" from Ipoh and we busy planning the raw materials the day before, so "rojak" was our dessert for the day. And yes! We had fun and its different... wasted, I didn't bring my camera with me. Come to think of it, how come I never think of camera-phone that time??? Hhmm... probably was too busy munching the "rojak". Hehehe... On Wednesday, felt a bit betrayed by one of my colleague and it affected me the whole day; either I'm being sensitive but can't be my observation proof me wrong? Just couldn't belief that just a simple advice can't be taken seriously. Instead, the other way around that happened... Was it human tend to behave like this? Always like to act oppossite to everything in order to feel challenged or proud of themselves? Once, my Uni-friend; Eric told me that, "These days, its hard to get true friends anymore, especially not in the corporate world... the only friends that still stick to us now are those from school, college and university. And they don't betrayed us and we still have little hope in trusting them." Guessed, he could be right... Once, we stepped out from the "education world", we practically faced with selfish people around us. Couldn't end the night with yet another disappointment that Stephane left me an offline message in Yahoo that he is away for vacation with his friends for 2 weeks. My heart just dropped on such a short noticed-given. So, my "live" comments & football spirit of World Cup Finals will be silent... On Thursday night, got a call from my sister informing that her family couldn't make it to the Port Dickson trip that I had planned for all of us because her hubby had to fly to Scotland on that weekend for job assignments. Asked me to re-schedule and I was like... urrgghhh... He just couldn't make himself available everytime when I even organised for my dad or mom's birthday lunch/dinner occasion. And now this?! Sis was suggesting I go ahead with my parents and my brother and that got me blown away... I emailed her and gave her a piece of my mind. "What is the purpose of me organising a family trip when your family can't even turn up? I can always go anywhere and whenever I like if it doesn't mean a thing to me at all... " As I spoke to dad on Friday, he said we should just go ahead with the plan with a very positive remark, "Its gonna be good to have a relaxing weekend by the beach and if its a nice place, we can go again with your sister & her family..." Dad just couldn't impressed me more when he always can soothe a bad situation and makes it look good again... so, basically, if my granny is not able to make it, its just gonna be the same crowd at home but in a bungalow on the beach. That perks me up a little... Was planning to meet up Jaime, Alan, Hau and the rest for World Cup Finals at Souled Out but my boss left for an oversea trip on Wednesday before I could apply for my leave. Looks like I had to watch it myself in my room and struggle to work the next day.

The start of the first week of July hasn't been quite well...probably the PMS that's affecting me so much this week. But, I had spend awful lot of hours on trying to beautify my Blog and I even installed the Chatbox... it sort of balanced out my mood and makes me feel better towards the weekends. I had been rushing my way back from work everyday in order to catch the Singaporean sitcom, "Home in Tao Payoh" and this week, it ended. So, I can stay back late at work from next week onwards 'coz the next sitcom is not good. Oopps...Time to had my lunch & hit the hay...

"Lovers meet tru fate & Loving someone is not wanting to own him but instead knowing that he is happy & blissfully blessed even if he choose to walk away from us one day."