Day +523 : The more we drive, the more fuel lefts :-)

I am fine today.

I promised Daniel and Joseph to go fishing in the evening, but in the last minute we realised that we didn’t have the right fishing hook to catch the small fish in the streams nearby.

Daniel is a hot tempered boy, he was very angry with me. In order to calm him down, I fetched the children to round the kampong using motorcycle as a "compensation" for not bringing him to go fishing today.

Motorcycle is the most common transport in the kampong. I started to ride it to school when I was about 12 years old. Of course there was no way to get a driving license at that time, but considering the poor road condition in the kampong, my driving skill was definitely better than those who possessed a driving license in the town :-)

Daniel questioned me whether the motorcycle had fuel left half way through the journey. Without answering him directly, I asked him to look at the fuel metre on the front panel of the motorcycle which showed the following reading.

Daniel was very happy with the metre reading, because the fuel metre was pointing at "E". Why? His interpretation of the reading is "E" = Enough, "F" = Finish. As the metre always goes from "F" to "E", the more we drive, the more "Enough" the fuel we had :-) How I wish what he thought was true because with that I would never need to pump the ever price-increasing petrol again :-)

I managed to fetch 3 children at once – one in front and two at the back :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +522 : Attending Sunday service at kampong’s church

I am fine today.

We attended the Sunday service at the kampong’s church in the morning. This is the church that I attended since I was young. I learned many things through the church: bible teaching, music, public relationship and many more.

Time passes swiftly. Many church members that once served the Lord together with me are growing old now; with white hair and mark of wrinkles. They were very happy to see me and my family, and would like to listen to my sharing again. As I didn’t prepare to share this morning, I promised them a sharing next Sunday.

It is one of the rare churches in Sarawak where the service is conducted in Foochow dialect :-)

The children took photo with my maid(left most) and my second sister's daughter(right most)

The stage.

The woman choir.

The audience.

I cooked Braised Yam and Pork Belly Slices in Reddish Cheese(南乳芋香焖腩片) for the first time. Though it didn't look as good as the one in the recipie book, it tasted extremely good. A dish with 1.2kg of pork belly and 3kg of yam was completely consumed in a single meal :-)

The perserved beancurd or Reddish Cheese (南乳) is one of the main ingredient for the dish. My wife and I searched for it high and low at Bintangor town. After visiting 5 shops and just before we gave up, we managed to find it at a mini market :-)See you next post :-)

Day +521 : Visiting my third sister Sie Chuo

I am fine today.

I went to Sibu in the morning to fetch my second sister Sie Kiong and her two daughters to our to kampong’s house at Sg. Mador. After that we visited our second sister together with my mother and some other family members.

My third sister Sie Chuo is very kind. She is the one who donated the bone marrow to me. It seemed that she remembered very well the day that I should do my follow-up because very often she called me on the day to enquire about the status of my health. Apart from this, we also keep in touch regularly.

She fully supplies milk powder to my youngest son Aaron free of charge since the beginning until now. One of my nieces who stayed in the kampong also receives the same free milk powder supply for her two children :-)

We had lunch and dinner at Sie Chuo’s house. She prepared a lot of delicious food for us :-)
A youth cell group meeting was held as her house at night, and I was invited to share my testimony in the meeting.

My wife and I had this "Wet Fried Mee (湿炒面)" as our breakfast at the Sibu Central Market. It had been more than 10 years since we last having this type of noodle. Again, a big bowl costs RM 2.80 only.

The Lanang Bridge toll - no exception for motorcycle; RM3.00 for car and RM0.50 for motorcycle.
Petrol kiosk attendance pumps the petrol for motorists - a service that
A "stony" field next to my sister's house.
Aaron was so excited to play at the field.
Adriel danced at the field.

A fruitful Ciku tree outside the house.
Flower.
Another type of flower.
Rooster resting under the papaya tree.
The meal :-)
Very delicicous homemade Sushi as the supper for the cell group. It tasts better than the one found in the Japanese restaurant :-)
Youth cell group meeting.
See you next post :-)

Day +520 : A 71-year old grand birthday celebration (作寿)

I am fine today.

We reached our kampong at 6:30pm last night. Thank to the new Lanang Bridge (at least new to my wife and children as they are using the bridge for the first time) that once more than one hour journey now took only half an hour :-)

Immediately I reached home, I started to cook Fried Hokkien Mee for my family. It took me almost two hours to finish cooking the 4kg Hokkien Mee that I brought back from KL. My family members enjoyed the Mee very much. This type of fat yellow Mee is not available in Sarawak.

I also fried Sin-Chew Meehon for my family members in the morning. Since I enjoy cooking very much and I have plenty of time in the kampong this time, I will try to prepare a few new dishes to share with the family members in kampong. In order to practice cooking in this holiday, I brought back four cookbooks :-)

In noon time today, we went to Sarikei to visit my wife’s family. I packed Kentucky Fried Chicken meal and Kampua Mee for my wife’s family for lunch. As the durian season is starting to pick up, we went to taste durian in the town in the afternoon. A piece of durian that weighs about 2kg costs RM10. I still feel that the D24 in KL taste better :-)

We celebrated my mother-in-law 71-year old grand birthday (作寿) in the evening. This was kind of an ad hoc arrangement to me; my father-in-law told me about this only when I reached Sarikei. Since they had prepared all the food for the dinner, we went to purchase a cake for celebration in the last minute as our contribution to the celebration :-)

The Nyelong Ferry. The opposite is Sarikei town. We stucked at the jetty for about one hour. I should use other route.

A group photo with my wife's brother family. The one on the right of my mother-in-law is my father-in-law.
A happy mother-in-law with the children.
Part of the dishes for the dinner.
Very delicious sweeet sour pork rib. Only available at home town.
Foochow special dish called "Taiping Egg(太平蛋)" which I like very much.
Adriel was stung by bee for the first time tonight. We used to live in the kampong with this type of bee which was attracted by light. The sting is extremely painful. Fortunately, after applying the fresh Aloe Vera, the pain disappeared magically :-)

See you next post :-)

Day + 519 : Home town delicacies (2)

I am fine today.

My wife and I went to taste the “fried-cooked” Mee in the Sibu central market this morning. After that we purchase a lot Foochow cakes and biscuits in the market.

A big bowl of fried-cooked Mee cost RM2.80 only.
The native market. One type of Foochow biscuit called "Lee Bin"
"Guang Bin" Another type of cake.
The internet access here is pretty unstable here. It is very difficult for me to post images. I will post more pictures when I have better internet access facility.

I will be leaving for my home village Sg. Mador now where no internet access service is available. I will blog through internet cafe in Bintangor town if possible.

See you next post :-)

Day +518 : Home town delicacies (1)

I am fine today.

My wife and I went to eat Kampua Mee first thing in the morning :-)

In the afternoon, I accompanied my second sister and third sister (my stem cell donor) to purchase LCD monitors. We purchased two Samsung 19” wide screen monitors at a cost of RM725 per unit. This is about RM40 more expensive compared to the KL’s price.

Joseph and Daniel complained that life at my 2nd sister’s house is too boring for them, so they followed my third sister to Bintangor in the evening.

At night, my wife and I visited Sibu night market. We purchased many delicacies and had a small party before going to bed :-)

A big plate of delicous Kampua Mee cost RM2.00 only :-)
Sibu night market - open nigthly.
One of the barbecue stalls.
Some dim sum.
Another stall selling various types of cakes.
See you next post :-)

Day +517 : Finally, the long awaited holiday begin!

I am fine today.

Today, we flew to Sarawak in two teams: the first consists of my mother-in-law, the maid and my niece Nga Ming and the second consists of the six of us – my wife and I with the four children.

The first team used 7:05am LCCT-Sibu Airsia flight. They left for the airport as early as 5:00am in the morning. In order to make sure that everything is in order, I woke up at 4:30am in the morning; managed to sleep for four and half hours – very sleepy!

The second team left for the airport at 6:30am using airport Limousine service. A normal KLIA Airport Limousine (Proton Wira) couldn’t fit six of us, so I called a Korean made mini-MPV which was just sufficient for us. The mini-MPV is also under the KLIA Airport Limousine Services and it cost RM55 for a trip between Puchong and KLIA. We took the 8:50am KLIA-Sibu MAS flight and reached Sibu at about 11:00am.

We will stayed in my second sister (Nga Ming’s mother) house for one or two days before moving to Bintangor – our home village.

I was in Normah Specialist Centre (NMSC) in Kuching doing my first round of chemotherapy at this time two years ago – lying on the bed most of the time. No one would know what would happen to me two years later. At that time, I also didn’t know that I would have to go through a bone marrow transplant.

I thank God for his grace and mercy for sustaining my life to enjoy this great holiday with my family.

Happy children at KLIA. Fortunately, they found the trolley interesting to play with; else my wife and I had to chase after them everywhere in the airport.
Adriel with the children food.
Daniel and Joseph were enjoying the food.
The cover of the paper food container was designed to allow the children to make paper airplane after the meal. This keep them occupied after the meal.
The adult meal.
See you next post :-)

Day +516 : Busy preparing for holiday

I am fine today.

My sister-in-law’s family went back to Miri this afternoon after having two weeks holiday here. I am very glad to have them here for the past two weeks.

My wife and I are very busy preparing for our own holiday to Sarawak from 4th to 23rd December. In fact, my wife started to pack the children clothing a few days ago. It is definitely not an easy task to bring four children for long holidays. There are too many things to prepare.

I could not help my wife much as I have a very important issue to resolve in the office. Our main software quality control system was buggy for the past few weeks. If I don’t settle the problem before I am off for holiday, the staffs in the office will encounter certain degree of inconveniences due to the unstable and buggy system.

Even though I reach home late tonight (9:30pm), I feel very much relieved as I do not have to carry the problem on my holiday trip :-) I am also very happy to see that my wife has get everything ready for the trip :-)

I also acquired a new HP 6510b notebook computer this afternoon so that I can do some study and experience on some important software development issues if I have time to spare during the holiday. This notebook will replace the heavy notebook that I have since I did my bone marrow transplant. It is powerful, light and easy to carry :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +515 : A birthday party that cost a wedding dinner

I am fine today.

My family, together with my sister-in-law’s family, niece and nephew went to attend a 21-year old birthday part of a church member.

The parents told me that they catered food for 100 guests with a cost of RM16.80 per head. Together with other expenses, I believe the party would cost them at least RM2000.

Children nowadays are very lucky to have the luxury of having such an expensive birthday party. I can’t even remember if I celebrated my 21-year old birthday.

In fact, the RM2000 was sufficient for us who stayed in the kampong to have a 10 tables wedding lunch or dinner that serve 100 guests :-)

The broad smile birthday boy Zhi Qiao (2nd one from the left) A performance that drew flowers.
A very sweet and delicious chocolate birthday cake.
Adriel, Joseph and my wife enjoying the food.
Daniel with my sister-in-law and her daughter.
Joseph with my sister-in-law's sons.
The food.

I wish Zhi Qiao a happy birthday and may God bless his future undertakings.

See you next post :-)

Day +514 : A win-win solution? (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

An open government would not impose all sorts of restrictions to impede the development of mother-tongue education of other races. It is very unfortunate to hear people boasting that the shifting of S.R.J.K (C) Ladang Harcroft as a win-win solution. Under an open government, the vocabulary of “shifting” should not exist; it should be as simple as “just close and build” the school as needed.

Under the current government policy, the Chinese community is very nervous about the closing down of Chinese school because once it is closed down, it is forever closed down and the total number of Chinese school would be reduced by one, but on the other hand, the Chinese population is growing.

For a citizen that could not think properly as claimed by many politicians (that is why they like to think for us), I would treat the shifting as a lose-lose solution. The shifting only shows that the Chinese community does not get a fair and just treatment from the government. On the other hand, the government would lose the contribution of the Chinese school and most importantly, the heart of people.

See you next post :-)