Saturday, June 12, 2004
Durian Runtuh!!!
No, not the "Wall's Ice Cream" promotion!
We're well into durian season in Malaysia and they've been falling from the trees in our little orchard out in our little village of Lenggeng in the past 2 weeks. Funny how these durians started falling when mum's in London..hmm, I wonder if she planned it this way, because by the time she got back, the durians would have started the fermentation process and hence qualify to be tempoyak!
Well it's been a fairly busy week. Of all weeks, this was the one when my bosses from overseas decided to descend upon KL for one of their regular meetings. I took the opportunity to turn this into a good thing, and lined up several activities to keep them busy - we had bowling, dinner at the Sundanese restaurant, and even karaoke! Our GM had a rather peculiar request during karaoke though, he asked for all the different groups to sing their national anthems, which was really interesting as we got to hear the national anthems for the Philippines, China and even the "Flower of Scotland". Sadly our Australian colleagues could not work our whether to sing "Waltzin Matilda" or "Advance Australia Fair", which didn't really matter as they did not know the words to either song!
Squash! Yes..I'm really getting into the swing of this game again! Keep playing twice a week at least and I should improve. I'll have to pluck up more courage to play at the Lake Club though...playing with different people really helps.
Around the world, an eventful week. While the former World War II Allies celebrated the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the 40th President of the USA quietly passed away.As he was being laid to rest on June 11th, it was singer Ray Charles' turn to leave this earth.
For the rest of us, life goes on, and life will get pretty interesting with the start of Malaysian Idol and the kick off of the UEFA Euro 2004 Cup on June 13th!
No, not the "Wall's Ice Cream" promotion!
We're well into durian season in Malaysia and they've been falling from the trees in our little orchard out in our little village of Lenggeng in the past 2 weeks. Funny how these durians started falling when mum's in London..hmm, I wonder if she planned it this way, because by the time she got back, the durians would have started the fermentation process and hence qualify to be tempoyak!
Well it's been a fairly busy week. Of all weeks, this was the one when my bosses from overseas decided to descend upon KL for one of their regular meetings. I took the opportunity to turn this into a good thing, and lined up several activities to keep them busy - we had bowling, dinner at the Sundanese restaurant, and even karaoke! Our GM had a rather peculiar request during karaoke though, he asked for all the different groups to sing their national anthems, which was really interesting as we got to hear the national anthems for the Philippines, China and even the "Flower of Scotland". Sadly our Australian colleagues could not work our whether to sing "Waltzin Matilda" or "Advance Australia Fair", which didn't really matter as they did not know the words to either song!
Squash! Yes..I'm really getting into the swing of this game again! Keep playing twice a week at least and I should improve. I'll have to pluck up more courage to play at the Lake Club though...playing with different people really helps.
Around the world, an eventful week. While the former World War II Allies celebrated the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the 40th President of the USA quietly passed away.As he was being laid to rest on June 11th, it was singer Ray Charles' turn to leave this earth.
For the rest of us, life goes on, and life will get pretty interesting with the start of Malaysian Idol and the kick off of the UEFA Euro 2004 Cup on June 13th!
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Of Squash Racquets and Tempoyak
Bought my new squash racquet last night at One Utama - Head T-160 "The Power of Light" that cost me RM233 after 30% discount from the original price of RM339. The Royal Sporting House also gave RM 20 vouchers to boot. Tried playing with it today at the Lake Club. As usual, everytime you hit about in those squash courts, a senior member would come up and ask for a game.."Young Man, how about a quick game?" Gulp! THat usually spells trouble, for although the member may be well into his 60's, he would use more skill & experience rather than brute strength to give yours truly, a truly great runaround in the courts! Yes, even my ultra light T-160 Head racquet was no match for "Uncle Looi"! Funny enough, I started dreaming of tempoyak in the last set!..aah..tempoyak..some love it, most loathe it! Been trying to get instructions on how to make this from my mum. It's durian season in Lenggeng and dad's been transporting durians, mangosteens and rambutans from the dusun. But tempoyak seems easy enough to make...but beware! explosions can happen! I guess that's why durians & tempoyaks are banned from hotels, planes, trains and buses. If the 9-11 terrorists knew about tempoyak well....
Anyway, time to make some!!
I actually found a discussion on tempoyak in Google:
forums.egullet.com/ index.php?showtopic=23925&view=getlastpost
Mum's Instructions on How to Make Tempoyak
-Remove Durian flesh with fork and put into bottle.
-Add one teaspoon of salt on top, fill only half the bottle.
-Loosely cover bottle with paper for 2 days then put into fridge.
-Ta da! Tempoyak!
[Warning! Don't fully fill up the bottle...you run the risk of explosions!]
How to Make the Sambal
- 2 chilli merah & 6 chilli padi.
-Tumbuk & put salt.
- That's it! How much simpler can it be?
Maybe I should start another Blog entirely dedicated to Mum's recipes...."Manja Mama's Recipe Online"?; "Minangkabau Secret Recipe Online"?..hmm...
Bought my new squash racquet last night at One Utama - Head T-160 "The Power of Light" that cost me RM233 after 30% discount from the original price of RM339. The Royal Sporting House also gave RM 20 vouchers to boot. Tried playing with it today at the Lake Club. As usual, everytime you hit about in those squash courts, a senior member would come up and ask for a game.."Young Man, how about a quick game?" Gulp! THat usually spells trouble, for although the member may be well into his 60's, he would use more skill & experience rather than brute strength to give yours truly, a truly great runaround in the courts! Yes, even my ultra light T-160 Head racquet was no match for "Uncle Looi"! Funny enough, I started dreaming of tempoyak in the last set!..aah..tempoyak..some love it, most loathe it! Been trying to get instructions on how to make this from my mum. It's durian season in Lenggeng and dad's been transporting durians, mangosteens and rambutans from the dusun. But tempoyak seems easy enough to make...but beware! explosions can happen! I guess that's why durians & tempoyaks are banned from hotels, planes, trains and buses. If the 9-11 terrorists knew about tempoyak well....
Anyway, time to make some!!
I actually found a discussion on tempoyak in Google:
forums.egullet.com/ index.php?showtopic=23925&view=getlastpost
Mum's Instructions on How to Make Tempoyak
-Remove Durian flesh with fork and put into bottle.
-Add one teaspoon of salt on top, fill only half the bottle.
-Loosely cover bottle with paper for 2 days then put into fridge.
-Ta da! Tempoyak!
[Warning! Don't fully fill up the bottle...you run the risk of explosions!]
How to Make the Sambal
- 2 chilli merah & 6 chilli padi.
-Tumbuk & put salt.
- That's it! How much simpler can it be?
Maybe I should start another Blog entirely dedicated to Mum's recipes...."Manja Mama's Recipe Online"?; "Minangkabau Secret Recipe Online"?..hmm...
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
SAMAN!!
I was not able to renew the road tax for my Alfa Romeo due to being BLACKLISTED by JPJ, mainly due to the accident I had back in Oct 2003 which resulted in the summonse which I conveniently forgot to settle! Luck for us the Government of Malaysia's efforts to promote ICT via the Multimedia Super Corridor enables repeat offenders like me to view summonses online! I even subsribed to eServices tonight.
JPJ Online Blacklist Inquiry
eServices
