Happy Dumpling Day

Today, 28 May 08 is Duan-Wu Festival (端午节), also known as Dumpling Festival or Dragon Boat Festival. Let us see what are the highlights for the Duan-Wu Festival:

Rice Dumplings (粽子)

Generally, a day you may skip your favorite mee wantan, laksa, fried kueh tiaw, chicken rice and etc for the breakfast, lunch & dinner, but only feed your hungry stomach with the rice dumpling(s)......^ ^ I noticed that most young generation like to eat rice dumpling, but they never manage to learn how to wrap a rice dumpling from the elderly. These days, this special tradition food can be found everywhere at any time, especially in the "KopiTiam" (cafe), Chinese restaurant & hawker centre.

the rice dumplings

Standing Eggs

A day even if you are not a magician, you are able to make an egg standing on the floor on its end in the noon time. I have heard many words regarding this, but never manage to find out the truth in the past 30 years. Well, today I did the 1st experiment and it proved that what people said is not a myth; and what interesting is some people found that we actually can stand an egg on its end on any day of the year, as long as we are patience enough to find out the balance point of an egg.

standing eggs on the floor in the noon time

Noon Time Water (午时水)

Whilst I was a small child, my parent told that the water taken from the well, pond or pool in the noon time of the Duan-Wu Festival has the magical power, by which it is good for health if we drink it; and can wash out the dirt (bad luck) if we shower our self with the water. Have you ever heard about this legend? Do you believe in it?

Dragon Boat Race (龙舟赛)

The last but not least, is the dragon boat race, which normally only perform on Duan-Wu Festival. The boat used is long & narrow, canoe-styled human powered boat, which decorated with a dragon head & tail at each end, and is equipped with a drum & paddles. During the tradition dragon boat racing, the drummer responsible to lead the paddlers on the timing and frequency of the paddling strokes by a rhythmic beating of a drum.

Happy Duan-Wu Festival
please be reminded not to eat too many of dumplings
as the glutinous rice no good for the digestive system
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Priceless Collections

I had just cleaning up the few boxes in my bed room last few days. Just noticed that I kept lots of rubbishes (unwanted things) in the past 15 years, of course some of them are priceless & memorable to me. See what I found?

A Sony walkman, the first & the last walkman I ever had in my 30 years of life. I bought it in year 1992, with the first income I earnt from the part time job as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant (during the school holiday). I was in Transition Class that time.

My 1st & last Sony Walkman

Few secondary school's magazines. The one shown below is indeed special & unique to me, you know why? I designed the cover's artwork and in-charged the graphic works for the magazine inserts; between I am the one who responsible to collect & edit (of course the majority were done by teachers) the articles for the Mandarin section. I was in Form 5 that time.

School Magazine of Year 1998

A stack of letter envelopes, which were accumulated since year 1992 (Transition Class) to year 2003 (Degree 2nd year). I started looking for a penpal in year 1992, I got 5-6 penpals but all not last long. My first & the last penpal was a girl from Tawau, Sabah, named Shelly. At first, we contact each other by letter writing, then by typing & printing, later by email or sms; up-to-date, we rarely contact each other, only sms occasionally...^ ^ Sigh! We seem not appreciate at all on the convenient brought by the advance technology.

a stack of letter envelopes (almost 150 pieces)

A piece of Chinese New Year Night poster, my artwork in year 2002. I was in Degree 1st year. Actually I contributed 2 poster designs for the CNY night, one as shown below, one (Koi Carp Fishes) was missing a day after putted on the notice board. No body knew who removed it from the notice board...I guess must some one who admire my artwork though? ^ ^

Chinese New Year Night Poster

My very own made bookmarks, which were created during the semester break of the university (1st year). Most are paper artworks (cut & paste), which can be considered a very fine artwork I ever made. At first I made them for selling purpose (for extra pocket money), but don't know why until now never sell even one, and still kept with me. I got around 50 pieces of bookmarks for each design (as in the last picture).

my fine paper artworks, bookmarks

my own hand-made bookmarks

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Malaysia Badminton Team

2009 LI-NING Sudirman Cup World Team Badminton Championships (Guang Zhou, China) was just closing the curtain yesterday night (17 May 09). Malaysia badminton team failed to reach the Final, as they were beaten by China in the semi-final on 16/5 (MAS:CHN - 0:3). Very sad yet proud! ^ ^

Mixed-Double: Mohd Fairuzizuan & Wong Pei Tty

Well, even lost, a good news is that Malaysia team has broke the record by presenting theirselve into the Sudirman Cup's Semi-Final for the very first time since the game founded in 1989. However, I was shocked! The 1st time? Why Malaysia team never reach the semi or final round of the Sudirman Cup in the past 20 years? e_e'''

Man-Single: Lee Chong Wei

It is expected that even though M'sia badminton team has made a breakthrough in the 11th Sudirman Cup and Lee Chong Wei has won the silver medal in the Beijing Olympic 2008, still many badminton fans (especially the Malaysians) are very disappointed with our badminton players' performance, they will keep criticizing as long as M'sia badminton team is the second, and not the champion in all the international-level badminton games!

Man-Double: Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong

Instead of feeling disappointed & keep criticizing, we must give our badminton team a full support, a compliment & an encouragement for their good efforts & contributions to our country. We must understand that M'sia badminton team is in a disadvantage situation, by which:

1. Compare to China or Indonesia, Malaysia has less population. I guess it is acceptable if I make an assumption that "Number of badminton talents is proportionate to the population size by country". e.g while M'sia only has one man-single who up to the standard, China has more than 3!
2. Do you think environmental factors (e.g climate) may influence one's performance. e.g while M'sia has a tropical climate, countries like China, Korea & Denmark has 4 seasons? Of course, the attitude, confidence & psychological quality plays an important role too in determine if one performs well.

Childhood Memories: HandmadeToys

Haiyoyoh......so terrible! Why children in these days are very hard to be pleased & satisfied? Well as you can observe, most of the children keep saying that they have no toys, and keep making noise, keep crying, and keep persuading the adult(s) to buy them a toy......while the fact is that they are actually already immersed in a stack of toys!

Are they over spoilt by their parents or relatives? Or am I jealousy on their luck & happiness? I didn't have many toys, probably the number of toys that I have had during the childhood can be counted with only 5 fingers; while the children now-a-day have tons of toys from different categories & sizes......

technology toy doll for children in the recent days

Perhaps I shouldn't blame the children for hard to pleased & too materialism, instead I should be more understanding. I and them are born in the different years & circumstances, so of course we experienced the different childhood under the different economy & social status.

Yes, is true that they have lots of toys, but this doesn't mean they are as happy & as lucky as a small kid like me. At least I am a bit creative than the children in the recent days. Why not? While they have the technology toy dolls, I had my handmade-paper toy doll which they will never have chance to see & play with, unless they get know about it from my blog. But I don't think they read my blog? Now you know how damn lucky am I? I am even now curious & wondering, have you seen it before? ^ ^

my handmade-paper toy doll

I had the dragonfly as my playmate whilst I am a small kid too, it brought me lots of fun & joys. Anyway it is sad & sorry, I am a bit unhumanize & cruel to this lovely fellow......I broke its wings off up to the 1/2, and tighten its tail with a length of thread, then let it flied in the air. It can't fly high with the broken wings......it was my natural and "batteryless" aircraft or helicopter! Haizzz......小时无知, 不知不罪, 南无阿尼陀佛!

the dragonfly, my natural & "batteryless" helicopter

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Childhood Memories: "Pok Shui"

Today is Wesak Day & tomorrow is Mother Day......wish all Buddhist a Happy Wesak Day & all mums around the world a Happy Mother Day! I LOVE YOU, MUM! hUG hUG ya ^ ^

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Do you like carbonated drinks? You prefer Coke, 7Up, Sprite, F&N, Pepsi or the others?

20 years ago, we used to call it "Pok Shui", I don't know why, by right it suppose to be "Qi Shui =汽水" (I am a Hakka). I think the "Pok" is origins from the sound made when we remove the cap from the bottle (last time glass bottles are used), and "Shui" means "liquid", so the combination of the 2 becomes "Pok Shui"......^ ^

the famous carbonated drink~Coca Cola (coke)

While I am still a small kid, the definition of "Pok Shui" to me is " a drink that I only have chance to drink on CNY eve or during CNY......"! I am not kidding, my parent will only buy such drinks when CNY day is coming, we only drink carbonated drinks on CNY days, not the other days.

Can you imagine how obedience were we? We will never "curi curi minum" the "Pok Shui" even if parents not at home; we will wait the CNY eve to come patiently, and only started to remove the cap after the eve dinner! Wow...cool with a bottle of "Pok Shui" in the hands. Ya, we normally kept (hide) 1 or 2 bottles with us secretly, as we worried all the drinks finished upon served to the guests before the Chap Goh Mei comes......

alcoholic drink ~ Carlsberg beer

Well, everything changed now......the children in the recent days can drink the carbonated drinks as much as they wished, with the rules they have extra pocket money & no prohibition from the adults. What worse is while last time we brought a bottle of plain water, now some kids bring 1 bottle of carbonated drink (1.5 litre) to school......not for partying, ok! It is replacement to the plain water! No wonder we growth paralelly, they growth laterally lah......^ ^

Now a day, you can see lots of teenagers go pubbing & clubbing so often (while I only had 1 or 2 in the past 30 years! ~sigh~), of course they drink so often too! Hence don't be too surprise if one day you see a small kid of primary school with a glass or bottle of alcoholic drink in his/her hand. And therefore, it is nothing weird at all if small kids drink carbonated drinks like drinking the plain water, or even drink more than the plain water......haizz! Please guide the small childs properly lah before the thing(s) become(S) out of our monitoring & control!

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Childhood Memories: Quarrel on Dinning Table

As mentioned in the previous entries, I'm a "Kampung Kia". I had 5 siblings, 4 brothers & 1 sister. My dad (a builder) was the only one who worked at that time. I didn't know if my family status during the childhood can be considered as poor or not, but certainly was not rich.

I still remember, a quarrel will begin occasionally when dinning time came! As I said, we were not rich, hence it is impossible for my mum to prepare a big size serving meal that enough for 7 persons. So my mum played a role to divide each dish evenly before the dinning time.


Well, not all dishes can be divided fairly......e.g normally my mum only bought 1/2 chicken, she can do nothing if all child insisted want to eat the chicken wing or chicken thigh, unless she buy only chicken wings / thighs (will cost more). This is why a quarrel sometime can't be avoided during the dinning time...^ ^

End of each month, we can expected that my mum will only served us one dish, which was either boiled, fried, steamed, or whatever culinary method, it still just a chicken egg! Consumption of canned foods became often too; and sometime we even only ate groundnut oil & soy sauce mixed rice! Simple but delicious......^ ^

The small child in the recent days are a bit more lucky, they generally eat more than enough. They are even choosy, this no good, that no like. I can understand if they love only the nice foods; but I am so curious: there are so many choices of foods, why minority of them only like to eat eggs, chicken's skin, pork's fatty part, instant noodle & etc? They can have such foods everyday without feeling bored or disgust......e_e'''

While these small child's eating habit results in the waste of foods, there are lots of peoples around the world are suffering of starvation & famine! Nevertheless, what is unforgivable & what I am so sorry about is many adults also make the same mistake, wasting of foods. Below is a very nice video to share, which most of you might watched it before. I found this video at Jayce Ooi's Paradise.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Chicken a la Carte by Ferdinand Dimadura

Remark: I am proud that myself never waste foods since a small kid, instead I eat for other peoples too......this is one of the reasons why I gain weight easily......^ ^

Childhood Memories: Happy Less Perfect Life

Kampung Mangka, is where I spent my childhood, is a rural area in Muara Tuang, Samarahan. I lived in an old zinc house, which is surrounded by the bushes & jungle until I was 14 years old. My house was far apart from other houses, at least 150-200M in distance......so generally, I can say that I didn't have any neighbour.

brothers & sister...which one is me?

I owned few playgrounds nearby my house, however neither swing, seesaw, rocking horse, nor sliding board is found here. The vegetable farm, black pepper farm & the cocoa farm are the playgrounds, where I played & worked under the hot sun, and sometime in the wind & rain. I went for bird hunting with slingshot & fishing at the river in the jungle occasionally too......

school's group photo (I'm in Primary 2, year 1987)

I woke up at 5:30a.m & walked to school at 6:15a.m. on school days. The journey roughly took 45-60 minutes, is around 2 miles (equal to 3.2 KM) away from my home. Most pupils wore the cheapest sandal to school (as shown by red circle in the 2nd photo), only minority were afford to wear the white school shoes, and 3-5 pupils were actually came to school with naked foots! ^ ^ Ya, do you know that, my headmaster is father to the 何海其 (Ho Hai Chyi), one of the presenters in AEC's Evening Edition (新闻报报看)?

my x-classmates & teachers (Primary 6, year 1991)

No matter how bad is the weather, I didn't care if it was a hot sun, heavy rain or strong wind, I walked 6.4KM on a rocky road every school day. I never manage to escape any class, unless I was sicked. It was really a hard time, when the sandal strap is broken in the middle of the journey! Yeah, is time to buy a new pair of sandals......Oop, don't desire too much, my mum is a very good shoe-maker, she will repair it for us, joined back the broken part by a nail or a wire.

my school shoes, your sandal in the toilet

Hey, small kids in the modern time, what happen to you all? Why some of you seem not willing go for classes in the air-conditional school? Your parents will never ever ask you walk to school on foots, if they are afford to send you to the school at least in a school van or bus, or even in a Merz, BMW or may be a Ferrari or what ever! You should feel lucky to born in a much perfect enviroment, so please do appreciate it.

Oh ya, while I had a happy less perfect childhood, you seem have a not so happy perfect childhood. Ok, I think now I have an answer why lots of rich people prefer move & stay at a rural area? It is because of a simple & less perfect village's life shall bring them more joys & happiness, and create less troubles & pressure......!