4 Days In Miri

During the Hari Raya holidays end of last month, hubby and I plus another lady from our church conducted a short seminar in one of our branch churches in Miri, Sarawak. Brought my kids, Miss SweetTeen and Mr. CoolGuy along, since they've never been to East Malaysia. They were a bit apprehensive at first, not knowing what to expect, but I reassured them that we were going to a city and not to the inlands.

We took the AirAsia flight from KLIA2, the newer part of our Kuala Lumpur International Airport. No wonder we were told to check in 3 hours earlier, as the queues were long because of the holiday season and there's quite a lot of walking to do from the check-in point right up to the boarding gate.

When we landed, the Pastor's children were waiting at the airport to fetch us to the apartment where we would be staying. We spent Sunday morning in church and then spent a few hours at their largest mall, Bintang Megamall, at the request of my city kids. We didn't plan to explore nature on this trip because of time constrains...perhaps we'll do that the next time we come.

The next day, we taught at the day-long seminar in a church  which comprises of mainly Iban folks. It was quite a challenge for us to teach in Bahasa Malaysia as it's not a language that we use daily. We really appreciated the fact that each of the ladies in the church had painstakingly prepared a traditional dish for us for lunch. 

Umai - preserved sliced fish 

Shoots of the palm oil plant cooked in coconut milk gravy

Pork cooked in bamboo

In the evening, my children spent some time with the youths in the church while we adults tried to explore a bit of Miri on our own...until we realised that getting a taxi in Miri is a costly affair. It was RM30 for a one way trip to anywhere in town. 

We looked up the internet and thought that we would have a look at Merdeka Mall. The taxi driver was a friendly guy and gave us a short history lesson on Miri. We found this supermarket in the mall that stocked quite a lot of imported biscuits and seasoning at a low price. 

These are usually twice the price in KL

The next day, the Pastor's daughter took us to try the famous Sarawak kolok mee and Sarawak laksa.

kolok mee

laksa

Visited the market, Tamu Muhibbah, in the middle of town.

Various kinds of Sarawak rice 

Local mango the size of a small coconut

Pisang tanduk at RM10 a piece

Durian isu - with flesh the colour of egg yolk
and tastes milky sweet.

Went up to the highest point in Miri called Canada Hill, where the first oil well called the 'Grand Old Lady' is located. 

Grand Old Lady oil well

View of the city on a hazy day...

Then it was off to the airport to catch a flight home.

Glad to reach home safely. Remembering those
who have boarded a plane and never arrived at
their destination.

Things Happen

It has been a painful month for many people in our nation as well as around the world with the shooting down of our Malaysian Airlines MH17 as well as the Taiwanese and Algerian plane crashes all happening within a week.

I also know of a passing of a wonderful young man, someone whom I didn't know personally, but he had been to our church to conduct free guitar lessons for some of our youths. He had been Leukaemia-free for a few months before experiencing a relapse. He left behind a young wife and a 3 year old daughter.

Some things are beyond our control and we can only pray for peace and comfort for those who are grieving over the loss of their loved ones.

What I've learnt is that life on earth is not always a pleasant journey. Just as rain falls on the good and the bad without discrimination, we are glad when things go well but bad things sometimes happen to good people as well and vice versa. The way we respond to these situations is what makes the difference. We can either retaliate in anger or respond with grace.

A few days ago, a 14 year old motorcyclist riding without a license was speeding on his father's motorbike and crashed into my car behind the passenger-side door as I waiting at the traffic lights. Thankfully he only had minor cuts and bruises. His bike was badly damaged and a part of his bike had cut right through my car tyre causing a puncture. A portion of my back bumper was also dented. My car is only 10 months old.

Damaged tyre rim and a large cut on the left

Of course I was furious at first. But causing a scene (with or without a steering lock...some of you would understand what I mean. *wink*) would not bring about much good result, other than getting my face posted all over Facebook! Hubby had told me earlier over the phone that he was coming home early that day, and guess who was just passing by when I was standing by the side of the road talking to the injured motorcyclist! I was glad to have hubby around as I wasn't sure what to do. The motorcyclist looked quite frightened when I asked for his father's phone number.

The next thing I knew, the 14 year old kid's older brother also passed by on the same road on his way home from work and stopped to see what was going on. Firstly he gave his kid brother a good scolding and then he came over to offer compensation. They aren't very well-to-do people and at one point we just wanted to drop the whole matter and let them off the hook since the damage to my car wasn't too great. But the other guy gave his phone number and said he would compensate us.

We got the repairs done the next day amounting to around RM250 and hubby contacted the kid's brother to ask for half the amount. I'm glad the matter got settled in a calm manner. Sometimes being level-headed and showing a bit of kindness to someone else is just the antidote to selfishness and revenge in this imperfect world that we live in.

22 Years Already?

My wedding was 22 years ago but I still remember every detail as if it had just happened yesterday. This year hubby and I had a simple celebration. 

Hubby took the day off a few days ago when we both had less on our daily schedule. Had a quick breakfast of hotcakes at McD's and then headed to Mid Valley mall to catch the latest Tom Cruise movie, "Edge Of Tomorrow". We haven't gone to the cinema on our own for a very long time as we usually have our kids with us. 

Then it was off to lunch at Tony Roma's. Hubby had his beef ribs while I ordered chicken. I had planned to have dessert but we were too full after the meal.

Headed for home after a bit of shopping and then took the kids out for dinner. Hubby wanted to buy a matching pair of watches for the both of us and after going from shop to shop we finally settled on a simple design.

Looked up the internet to find out how
to pose for this shot.
Our kids were making faces while we
switched hands and poses
again and again to get the best shot, haha.

I like this quote I read a few days ago:

"Every love story is beautiful but ours is my favourite."

Looking forward to many more anniversaries to come :)

4 Senses and 1 Non-sense

For as long as I can remember, I have  banished the words "I can't" from my vocabulary. My motto in life has always been "I can and I will". Growing up with 2 brothers  has made me resolve never to be pushed aside and be told that I couldn't do what boys could do, just because I was a girl.

However, as age catches up with me, I find that there are some things that I find harder to do. Objects I could lift without any problems a few years back now feels rather heavy and my back would complain.

A few weeks back I caught what I thought was just a common stomach virus, but it turned out much worse than that. It started with bouts of diarrhea and throwing up, but when I couldn't get out of bed because the room would spin and there was constant ringing in my ears causing my hearing to diminish that I began to worry a little. Thankfully, the doctor at a clinic nearby had the good sense to refer me to the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist right away. 

At the ENT doctor's clinic, I was told to get a hearing test done. My usually optimistic ENT doctor who would usually say, "Don't worry, lah. I'll prescribe some medicine and you'll be fine in no time." took one look at the results of my hearing test and looked a bit worried after I described all my symptoms. A virus had attacked the nerves in my ears and affected my sense of balance as well as my ability to hear certain frequencies of sound. On top of that, I had totally lost my sense of smell. So he gave me a high dose of steroids to try and help me regain my hearing and sense of smell.

To cut a long story short, after 2 weeks of constant medication I have regained about 95% of my hearing although I have a constant high pitch buzzing in my ears that I have since learnt to ignore. I can drive around again as things don't seem to spin in circles around my head anymore. In short, life has gone back to as normal as it can be after some damaged nerves in my ears. 

However, the nerves in my nose are still not functioning. Of course I can't do a lot of things in life but this is a major "I CAN'T" for me..."I can't smell" :(

To some people it doesn't seem like a bad thing to have 4 senses out of 5. I am grateful that I can still taste, though. But I derive a lot of pleasure out of baking, and for someone who can tell how many more minutes before my cupcakes are done in the oven just based on smell alone, it is quite distressing not to be able to smell. Looking at the bright side, at least bad odours don't bother me anymore.

My doctor tells me that he can't do much about that. It might come back or it might not. But I'm really glad I still have my hearing and being a person very much involved in music, I would choose my hearing over my sense of smell. 

Being thankful for little things helps. Life goes on.

A Fun Escape

We didn't plan any trip this school holidays so hubby and I decided to take our kids to The Escape Room at Berjaya Times Square mall for a fun afternoon together.

The Escape Room is a challenge game with various themes. We looked at their website and initially wanted to go to eCurve but the time slots that we wanted were all fully booked, so we chose Berjaya Times Square instead. Booking can be done online, several days ahead without any payment. The staff will give us a phone call on the day we have chosen just to confirm our attendance and we only pay at the venue. 

Entrance fee is RM32 per person but there is a small discount for students with the Student ID card. Secondary students can bring their library card.

Each room has a fixed difficulty level, from 3 (easy) to 5 (difficult), and not being very adventurous we chose the one with a difficulty level of 4 - The Vampire Chronicles. The maximum number of people allowed in each room is 8, but no one else wanted our time slot so we had the whole room to ourselves.


We had to keep our bags and mobile phones in a locker so I couldn't take any photos to show on my blog, but there's their official video here to give you an idea of what's it's all about.


The challenge is to get clues within the room and solve the puzzle before 45 minutes is up. 

We started off the game by being handcuffed together -
all four of us. The our guide gave us instructions before
sending us into our allocated room.

We could find the key to unlock our handcuffs and managed to solve the first puzzle. Unfortunately we took too long trying to figure out some mathematical clues and didn't manage to escape in time. Our guide was good, when our time was up he came in and explained all the answers to us. It turned out to be simpler than we thought and goes to show that sometimes we think of complicated ways to solve a puzzle when the the solution is actually quite simple.

We went "Uh-oh" when our timer showed this.

So in the end we had to take a photo with a big LOSER sign, haha. Those we escape before 45 minutes would get to hold the WINNER signboard instead.