Day +575 : Fish head curry from Johore again!

I am fine today.

“Got curry fish head for dinner. Will reach KL 5pm.”

I received the message from my brother Richard who was coming back from Johore Bahru after meeting clients.

He brought back the same curry exactly 6 months ago. I blogged about this on my blog Day +360 : Fish head curry from Johore Bahru.

Again, I dared not touch the dish even though it looked so delicious because after bone marrow transplant, I can’t “tahan (stand)” hot and spicy food anymore :-( I could enjoy very hot food before the transplant.

But don’t worry; there are plenty of other delicious foods which are not hot and spicy :-)

A photo of the dish for you to enjoy :-)
See you next post :-)

Day + 574 : It sounds as good as a new one!

I am fine today.

We just got our Kawai upright piano overhauled this Monday.

“Now the piano is as good as a new one!” claimed the tuner who overhauled the piano.

We purchased this second hand Kawai piano in Miri, Sarawak just before we moved here. We moved it together in a container that transported my 1.3 Proton here. We paid RM9000 for this piano.

The tuner who serviced our piano had been tuning and repairing piano for a more than 20 years. He used to travel to Sarawak long time ago to provide piano tuning and repairing services. He told us a trip there would normally last for 6 months!

“It is better to buy a second piano than a new one,” he said.

It is because the quality of the piano would only be known a few years after the purchase. The quality of the sound can remain, getting better or getting worse. The one by which the sound is getting better should be the right choice. But how do we know it is getting better? “Call me, I will check for you,” he said.

We paid RM1500 for the overhaul and now the upright Piano sounds like semi-grand Piano :-)

The next overhauled was scheduled 10 years later :-)

Kawai logo inside the piano
Part that was taken away for servicing
Another parts taken away for servicing
Wear and tear of a 20 year old piano
The strings
The strings - zoom in view
See you next post :-)

Day +573 : Company Chinese New Year dinner

I am fine today.

I attended our company Chinese New Year dinner today at Cheong Hua Restaurant in Pusat Bandar Puchong. We ordered two tables for 17 staffs with each table cost RM586.

I thank God to be able to attend this dinner and to enjoy the delicious food :-)

Lao Sheng (捞生) - table 1 Lao Sheng (捞生) - table 2
Now I would like to share with you the nine-course meal that we had. They also gave one bottle of red wine per table.

Yu Sheng (鱼生) Four seasons
Shark fin soup
Steam fish
Prawn
Chicken
Vegetable
Glutinous rice
Dessert
And finally, "Yam Sheng" together.

See you next post :-)

Day +572 : Attending an open house, no, "open palace"

I am fine today.

I went to attend a church member’s “open palace” yesterday evening. We called it “open palace” instead of open house, because the semi-detached house is renovated like a palace.

The house itself costs RM800,000 and the renovation alone costs another RM500,000. So the total costs of the “palace” is RM1.3 million :-) The renovation took one year to complete.

Christ is the head of this house The garden
Swimming pool
A corner of the garden
Garden view from top
Family photo at the garden
Thanksgiving meeting before the dinner
I was leading songs

Though the house is as luxurious as palace, I still find my house at the kampong more interesting :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +571 : 3 for RM20 here, 5 for RM16 in the kampong

I am fine today.

The three - Joseph, David and Daniel (from left)Are we trying to sell off ourselves at the cheap price of RM20? No, no. We are talking about haircut. Three of us just got our hair cut today with a total cost of RM20. This is considered to be very cheap haircut in KL. The Indian barber shop that we always cut our hair charges RM8 per adult and RM6 per child. So I paid RM20 today.

The five - Adriel, Joseph, Daniel, Aaron and my wife, Angela

They went for haircut in the kampong during the holiday, and we were charged RM16 only - RM3 per children and RM4 per adult. Pretty cheap, isn't it?

This is another reason that we don't need to have a lot of money to survive in the kampong as I mentioned in my blog Day +561 : They are there by themselves :-)

Not enough money to spend? Back to kampong might be one of the solutions :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +570 : Are you doing business?

I am fine today.

“Are you doing business?” the vegetable seller asked me when I was purchasing vegetables at the market this morning. This was not the first time I was asked this question.

They mistakenly thought that I am a restaurant owner because I purchased a lot of vegetables, in the order of kilogram rather than few hundred grams as most customers normally do.

We need so much vegetable because we have 8 people in the family. Apart from this, we eat a lot of vegetable. This may explains why my wife and I scored very high Skin Carotenoid Score as mentioned in my blog Day +540 : I am 6 years younger than me?

Eat a lot of vegetable; it is good for health :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +569 : I buy Toyota Alphard, do you want my Mitsubishi Pajero?

I am fine today.

My brother-in-law (my boss) purchased a second hand 2.4L Toyota Alphard 2005 today with an on-the-road price RM210,000. He invited me and a car workshop owner to test drives the vehicle at the sales office.

Toyota Alphard 2005 is a luxury multi-purpose vehicle (MPV). The 2005 model comes with automatic sliding doors which slide open with a press of button. Very impressive! Apart from this, its internal design is spacious and comfortable. It could accommodate 8 passengers.

Toyota Alphard 2005

Internal view

My brother-in-law offered me his 1996 3.5L Mitsubishi Pajero to me free of charge. Though I need an 8-seater vehicle, I dared not accept the offer for two reasons. Firstly, the old Pajero maintenance cost is extremely high, and secondly, it consumes a lot of petrol; at least RM0.60 per km, I believe. I would rather squeeze in 8 people into the Perdana for now :-)

The Pajero is similar to this one
In the end, he traded in the Pajero at a price of RM20,000 only.

See you next post :-)

Day +568 : Pulau Ketam Trip (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

The restaurant's poster
The restaurant that we had our lunch

The package, we took the RM160 set lunch for 8-10 person. As our group consisted of 12 adult and 4 children. We side ordered another 2.5kg of crab. So we consumed more than 4 kg of crab :-)
William was in charge of choosing the crab.
Press here, the harder the better. This was the first time I saw people choosing crab this way :-)
Bamboo shell
Black pepper crab
Prawn

Fried sotong (squid)
Fish ball soup
Steam fish
Vegetable

Fried Mee Hoon with crab (side order)

Sweet sour crab

The dishes were not very delicious. Even though the crabs were alive when we chose them, my wife and I "stumbled across" some crabs which tasted bitter. We suspected they swapped (掉包) the alive crabs with the dead one in the kitchen :-(

Giant bamboo shell available for sale on the street. First time I ever see such large bamboo shell. I purchased 4kg - 2kg for myself and another 2kg for my brother Richard.
After cleaning - 2kg became 1kg
A zoom in view of the flesh of the giant bamboo shell. Like giant earthworm, dare to eat? See you next post :-)

Day +567 : Pulau Ketam Trip (1)

I am fine today.

My family went to Pulau Ketam (Crab Island) today with some of our church members. This is the first time we ever visit the island.

Pulau Ketam is a fishing island about 10 km west of Port Klang. We took a commuter train from Petaling station at Old Klang Road to the Pelabuhan Klang first and then proceed to Pulau Ketam using express boat. The train journey took us about 1 hour and the boat ride from the jetty to the island took about half an hour only.

The main objective for us to visit the island is to enjoy the seafood there, and besides this, we also want to see the uniqueness of this special island. There is no car on the island; the only vehicle that we saw was bicycle. So the air there should be cleaner than most places. Another interesting feature of the island is that all the houses there are built on stilt above the mangrove swamps.

Though the seafood was not as great as we expected, the island is definitely a place worthy to visit due to its uniqueness.

The Kereta Tanah Melayu's (KTM) commuter train, RM3.80 per adult from Petaling station to Pelabuhan Klang. Half price for children. Quiet and relaxing, but a little bit slow.
Take a group photo before boarding the train
Colourful boats at the Pelabuhan Klang's jetty
The ferry or express boat (RM7 per adult and RM4 per children for one way trip)
Pulau Ketam - view from the jetty
Another view from the jetty
Many small crabs on the mangroove swamp at the jetty. We saw someone catching the small crab successfully using fishing rod with squid as bait.
Very colourful crabs - first time I ever see this type of crab (click to get a larger view)
Joseph and Daniel "studying" the colourful crabs
The fire station (Bomba) of the island
The street
Aaron
Adriel
Family photo in the commuter train

Another view of street
To be continued and see you next post :-)