Lovely Day Today

 Today I attended a workshop on Facebook and Twitter run by two very capable 

  and knowledgeable young men, Johan and Alex.

The workshop was organised by SWEPA, a women's organisation, for its members.
It was held at the Sabah Skills Training Centre which has got many rooms for training purposes.

I learned many things and hope to apply them before I forget. The bane of seniors is the remarkable ability to forget things very quickly and the snail's pace of learning new things. Sigh...... if only my brain were 40 years younger!

Today's workshop was an extension of the earlier one which was too short to cover the topics so those who did not attend today have really missed out many things.

Facebook is not a waste of time and is not as trivial as many people perceive it to be. It's an excellent tool for communication and its applications are very useful those in biz as well.

Twitter is even more fascinating. Thousands of tweets are flying in space and there is so much to learn.

I would like to record my gratitude to Johan and Alex and to Hanaa, the lovely Mrs. Johan and their delightful daughter for the knowledge they have so generously shared today. Thank you, my friends. It was truly a rainbow day for me.

Children.... blessings from God

This morning I was pleasantly surprised and delighted when my little granddaughter's name was announced as the winner of the Bible verses quiz.  Our church celebrated Sunday School Sunday this morning and presentations were made. The children received certificates and tokens and those who did well in the quicz received their trophies and medals.

I could see the joy in the children's faces as they were called out to be acknowledged in front of the congregation.

These children ranged from one to 12 years old. The little ones are so innocent, devoid of guile and deceit. Their songs and the little skit of David and Goliath did us proud.

As the pastor said, children are sincere, honest and very straightforward. In the Bible when there were thousands who after listening to Jesus' preaching, were hungry and there was no food around, it was a little boy who came forward with his basket to offer what he had, five small barley loaves and two little fish. From this small offering, Jesus was able to feed the multitude and there were 12 baskets left over to spare.

Children are blessings from God to be cherished and loved, to be nurtured and brought up to do what is right and to stand up to be counted. They are not to be abused or neglected.

They are not to be regarded as unwanted by-products of casual relationships and discarded like used tissue.

Those of us who have children and grandchildren will know the joy these youngsters bring into our lives. No doubt as they grow up they will lose their innocence and become wise to the ways of the world. This is where parental guidance becomes crucial, to teach them, to be their role models and to be there for them, giving them support as they make their way through what can sometimes be a painful experience in making the transition from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood.

Let us all celebrate Children's Day by making a difference to any child that we know who needs a helping hand. There are many who are not as lucky as we are.

Happy Deepavali!

Today is Deepavali, the Festival of Lights which is celebrated among the Indian community. Behind this festival is the legend where good triumphs over evil. It is celebrated with sweet treats and Indian food.

However this year, my sister decided on her version of 1Malaysia. My younger sister is married to an Indian and they have three lovely girls, who do not look alike. She has a grandson Ishan who is 15 months old.  She served Indian tidbits and western cookies plus delicious nasi lemak served with Indian curry, Malay sambal sotong, Indian mutton curry and Malay prawn sambal.

 Of course there are the kangkong, ikan bilis ( fried anchovies) , groundnuts and cucumber which are a must for nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk, pandan and serai (lemon grass)).

My pictures don't do justice to the lovely spread she put out for family and guests. I don't know how to take good photos or how to upload them nicely and in the right place.

Not all my siblings were present as some of them are not in Malaysia at the moment. Anyway it was a good gathering of not only the Lim clan but also friends of the family with their children and grandchildren. Lots of things to talk about, besides the food. My youngest sister steamed some delicious Chinese cupcakes made from sweet potatoes. She also fried some Chinese style noodles for the children who are unable to eat the spicy food.

The guys had their drinks and talked among themselves, topics ranging from golf to local politics. The ladies had their own things to talk about. My nephew recently proposed to his girlfriend underwater during a dive at Pulau Sipadan, a world heritage site and one of the world's top diving spots. Nowadays the youngsters do things very differently and they certainly are not short of creative options. Weddings on the beach are also very popular these days. Well, why not?

Malaysia has very beautiful beaches and I understand from some of my friends that many couples from China come to Sabah to get married because they love the beaches we have.

On the left is the mutton curry and in the background is the prawn sambal. These two dishes were cooked by the Indian lady who comes to cook for my sister, who being Chinese, does not know how to cook the Indian style.

That's the beauty of a mixed marriage. You get to eat the food of the two different cultures, in this case, spicy Indian food and Chinese stir-fries and Chinese boiled soup. My sister's soups are absolutely delicious. My children always prefer hers to mine.

On the left is the chicken rendang, also spicy but dry, without any gravy. The chicken is soft and tender, a favorite with the guests.

On the right is my niece Sunitha, who is pictured with some of the tidbits being served today. In the bottles are the spicy Indian tidbits such as Muruku ( different varieties) , kuih rose, and other savory bites.

Guests came and went. Just before we left, my sister urged us to take some food home so that we need not cook or go out for dinner. This practice is very familiar with Malaysians, the practice of "tah pau" meaning taking the food home with you. Even when you eat out in the restaurant, if you still have food left over, it is the usual practice to tell the waiter to "tah pau". We either take it home so that we can eat it on the following day or we give it to the dog. No one lifts an eyebrow at this. It is an accepted practice here. So I "tah pau" back the fragrant nasi lemak and my sister gave me a tupperware of curry chicken, my favorite. Of course there were the usual condiments that accompany the nasi lemak. Yum yum, am looking forward to having it again tonight. How not to grow fat?????

Of towers and coffee shops

This time round, there are more changes since my last visit to Kuala Lumpur. Near where my daughter lives, an abandoned condominium tower has resumed work and the structure is rapidly towering into the sky, adding yet another change to the skyline. It's certainly getting more crowded in KL as new towers sprout up like mushrooms.

There are too many of these towers and the high density of people, not to say the number of cars, make such housing developments unattractive in terms of space and traffic. One can say the traffic jam begins in these housing areas as cars crawl out from respective feeder roads onto the main ones.

However the more people there are, the more economic opportunities there will be for the people in the service and food industries. The coffee shops proliferate everywhere offering all kinds of food and drinks at any hour of day.  It is not uncommon to find different stalls operating in the mornings and afternoons. Last night we scouted out a new place (new to us) and the food a la homestyle cooking was good. We plan to go there once more to try out the German pork knuckle which is one of my hubby's favorite dishes. I enjoyed the sambal prawn petai ( spicy prawn and smelly beans ) though I wished there were more petai rather than onions.

Tonight my niece and her husband are hosting a dinner for the family and we have been invited. It's to a place we've not been before so I'm looking forward to this.

This morning we had a different type of noodles for breakfast, what is known as pan mee but tweaked to make it different from the usual stuff. Instead of the flat noodle, this was like the stringy noodles and it was served dry with the usual ikan bilis ( fried anchovies) and vegetable ( tow kei) eggdrop soup. We had to add special roasted chili to the mee and therein lies the difference. The taste was unusual and had a "kick" to it. I forgot my camera so I don't have a picture of it.

All kinds of  food can be found easily but to "sniff" out the special ones, you need the locals to tell you where to find them. My son who lives in Singapore insisted that we try this one so my daughter took us there. She had been introduced to it by her cousins and my son found it very special when his sister took him there to try it out as pan mee is his favorite breakfast whenever he is back in KL.

Every trip home to KL is a gastronomic trip! Eating all the food that I miss in the Land below the Wind (Borneo Island) and drinking the thick black coffee is a taste of paradise! I look forward to each trip with gusto and with a gleam in my eyes when I think of the treat in store for my palate. Besides, it's durian season again!! (those 'smelly apples' as my nephew used to call them but now he's a great fan!!) Oh, how not to put on weight???? More on the benefits of the durian in my next post.