Saturday, May 31, 2008

Day +696 : Holiday at Awana Genting - Photos (2)

I am fine today. Continue posting holiday photos...

In the swimming pool at Awana Genting. This was my first time swimming in a public pool after bone marrow transplant :-) The reason I avoid the public swimming pool for so long is because the pool might be "infectous" as there are so many people using it.
Happy Aaron - very seldom he got a chance to play water in a pool
Adriel was very happy too!
Daniel showed off his swimming skill
Joseph was having fun
A group photo - Aaron stopped swimming early as he could not stand the coldness.
A break due to rain
Adriel and Joseph during the break
Water slide - Joseph

It's Daniel's turnMy turn :-) I was the only father sliding in that morning :-)
Getting a little bit hurt after first slide, but this did not prevent me for making further attempts - of course without getting hurt again :-)
Three of us sliding down at once and hitting each other while dropping into the pool :-(
Oops! Capture nothing. My wife took great effor to capture us sliding down on the camera and in many occasions, she missed us :-)
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Friday, May 30, 2008

Day +695 : Holiday at Awana Genting - Photos (1)

I am fine today.

I would like to share with you moments of our 29 - 31 May holiday at Awana Genting.

We reached Awana Genting at about 2:30pm yesterday after one and half hour drive from Puchong. We managed to check in to the 2 rooms apartment smoothy after arriving there.

The Garden Suite apartment that we stayed is very spacious but it does not possess a good view to the golf course as it is blocked by another apartment.

It rained heavily not long after we checked in to the room, so the children was unable to swim in the swimming pool. Fortunately, the apartment unit is equipped with a jaguzzi where the children could have some fun playing the water.

Aaron and Adriel having fun in the jaguzzi - this followed by Joseph and Daniel and then me and my wife. As the jaguzzi could not accomodate all of us at once, we had to take turn.
Group photo for the children beside the swimming pool
A family photo - Daniel was checking if Aaron had fever :-)
Beetle display in Awana
Initially, we did not plan to go to the Genting Highland Resort but we were given 12 two-way cable car tickets when we checked in. So we changed our mind and boarded the cable car to the Genting Highland Resort the second day's morning.

Aaron at the Genting Highland Resort
Adriel
Aaron and Adriel
A family photo

Lunch at First World Hotel - KFC chicken rice
Aaron enjoying the French Fry
Adriel enjoying the cucumber - she likes cucumber very much.
Reward tickets emitted by the arcade game machine when the gamer achieves high score. The tickets can be used to exchange gifts. I saw some gamers held a big pile of this reward tickets but I wonder if a "professional" gamer could earn gifts that worth more than the money he spends on the game.
View from the cable car on the way down to the cable car station
Cable cars
Forest
Another view
Big fern
The water bottle that we brought up hill distorted when it reaches the cable car station. Why? It is due to the pressure difference on the top of the hill and the cable car station.
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Day +694 : Going for holiday!

I am fine today.

We are going for a 3 days two nights holiday at Awana Genting.

My brother Richard booked a 2 rooms apartment for us under his sister-in-law time share program many months ago. So we got free accomodation which worth more than RM700 :-)

We will start our journey at 1:00pm and will be back on Saturday afternoon.

Again, this is a children holiday, parents busy day :-)

See you next post :-)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Day +693 : Is raw food diet the best?

I am fine today.

I came across an article on Sin Chew Daily today that said that raw food diet is not necessary the best.

I was advised by someone to eat raw vegetable or take raw vegetable juice after I was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Someone even advised me to have raw vegetable juice as my main diet during my first chemotherapy. This is in fact a very dangerous advice as consuming raw vegetable juice exposes the patient who is weak in immunity during chemotherapy to infection.

If someone proposes you to convert to raw food diet, do have a second thought. An article on The New York Times talking about the best way to cook the vegetables mentioned a recent research on raw food diet.

“Surprisingly, raw and plain vegetables are not always best. In The British Journal of Nutrition next month, researchers will report a study involving 198 Germans who strictly adhered to a raw food diet, meaning that 95 percent of their total food intake came from raw food. They had normal levels of vitamin A and relatively high levels of beta carotene.

But they fell short when it came to lycopene, a carotenoid found in tomatoes and other red-pigmented vegetables that is one of the most potent antioxidants. Nearly 80 percent of them had plasma lycopene levels below average.

“There is a misperception that raw foods are always going to be better,” says Steven K. Clinton, a nutrition researcher and professor of internal medicine in the medical oncology division at Ohio State University. “For fruits and vegetables, a lot of times a little bit of cooking and a little bit of processing actually can be helpful.””

The whole article can be read here, and the Sin Chew Daily's article is attached below.
See you next post :-)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Day +692 : Naughty or smart?

I am fine today.

What Aaron is doing? What do you have in mind when you see this picture? Shake your head and says, "naughty boy!"?

In fact he is not playing; he has a mission to accomplish.

When he heard that we were going to church last Sunday morning, he quickly pulled out the drawer of Adriel's cupboard and climbed onto it so that he could reach his clothes cupboard to select a smart clothes to wear to the church :-)

Naughty? No. Smart. Why? He found a solution to his problem instantly when we announced that we were going to church :-) So no condemnation or punishment, but praises to him :-)

See you next post :-)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Day +691 : Visiting Kuala Selangor Nature Park (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday..

The mangrove planting plot in the park Bird watching tower
A type of mangrove plant with a very special reproductive mechanism. Do you see something like French Bean hanging on the tree? They are not French Bean, but seedlings that grow on the tree. When they are ready to be "born", they will just drop from the tree and poke into the soil and grow straight away. This prevent the tide from sweeping them away. Amazing?
A zoom in view of the seedlings.
Freshly dropped seedlings - see how it plants itself firmly on the ground:-)
Young mangrove trees and the roots for breathing.
Another type of mangrove tree
Hidden flower fruit - the flower of this type of mangrove plant is hidden inside the fruit. So we will not see the flower unless we open the fruit.
This leave store salt from the salty water. I don't know if it is suitable to replace salt in cooking.
Man-made bird breeding ground RiverMuzium
After visiting the nature park and enjoyed a seafood dinner, my wife visited the firefly park.
A firefly model.
Local product of Kuala Selangor
My wife said she was astounded by the wonder of nature during the visit. While visiting the firefly park, she saw numerious fireflies all blinking at the same tempo. There was no conductor around, how do they know when to turn on and turn off their light? We have to have conductor to keep the tempo in a choir but to do it well, a lot of practice is needed. Do fireflies practise?

Nature itself is miracle and our almighty God is the conductor :-)

See you next post :-)

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Day +690 : Visiting Kuala Selangor Nature Park (1)

I am fine today.

My wife visited Kuala Selangor Nature Park yesterday. The visit served as part of the teacher's education program mandated by the education department.

The trip was accompanied by four botanists that delivered many interesting stories about the plants and animals in the park. Even though we didn't go with her, we enjoyed the stories and photos that she brought back to us.

I would like to share with you some photos that she took.

The fee to enter the nature park - very cheap. Less than a plate of noodles or chicken rice. Click any of the photos to get a larger view.
Some of the birds found at the man-made bird breeding ground, but unfortunately this is not the right season as the bird already migrated back to their home at this particular time.
Termite nest - this is not soil, but the vomited fibre by the termite
Some ferns found in the park
Attap tree - we used the leaves as thatch (roof) in the kampong last time
Attap fruit - can be eaten and made into attap sugar
"Buta-buta" plant or "Blind" plant - its latex might cause serious irritation to the eyes
Noni plant - people believed it can be used to treat cancer
Monkeys on Bukit Melawati at the brink of the park. Look at the baby monkey, different colour from its mother.
To be continued and see you next post :-)