Found a lizard trapped inside our steamer today.
Yummy…. Steamed Lizard for lunch today…..
Would you like to know what steamed lizard taste like??
Then, read on…..
If you can swallow that (yuukkk!!) you must be out of your mind. :-))
Of course the lizard was released unharmed right after I am done with the photoshoot.
Still wondering how it got itself trapped in the steamer in the first place though.
More photos available at Free Photo Gallery
After the gory previous post, a humorous one regarding the situation here in Malaysia is in order. Article published in today’s Star
Maids on my mind
IN ALMOST every middle to high-income household, there lives someone who is not a member of the family, yet manages to have the most in-depth knowledge about every family member.
The father and mother may be the king and queen of the house, but it is this person everyone relies on for home-cooked food, crisp clothes and a clean living environment – our domestic helper, otherwise known as the maid.
When the subject of maids arises, some heads would shake and people would sigh.
“My maid is so hopeless”
“Mine is so stupid!”
“Mine stole my money, had an affair with an Indonesian man and ran away last night.”
In the newspapers, we read about maids who abuse the children in their care, maids who seduce their male employers, and maids who are dishonest and cannot be trusted.
If one didn’t know better, one would think that maids are hired for the sole purpose of making our lives a living nightmare.
Just as it would be hard to tell a serial killer from a superman, it is difficult for us to know, especially from just a picture, the mindset and personality of the person we are hiring to help us.
In the newspapers, there are reports of rape, murders and robberies; but this does not mean that everybody we come across is a rapist, a murderer or a robber.
Likewise, not every maid we come across is hopeless, stupid and will run off with the first man who promises them the moon and the stars.
My family has been extremely fortunate in the maids department. In the past 17 years, we have had four maids. The first two were from the Philippines and worked for four and five years, respectively. The third was from Indonesia and stayed with us for eight good, long years.
Our fourth and current maid arrived from Indonesia a month ago and is still trying to adjust to her new life here.
Sukini is 19-years-old, pleasant, intelligent and learns quickly. However, back in Indonesia, Sukini lived in a house with a dry-mud floor. She had never used electrical appliances nor cooked in her life.
It takes a saint’s patience and a bucketful of understanding to train an employee to do things the way you want them done.
Just like hiring a new employee in the corporate world, it would not be the best to yell and scream at our staff when they do not pick up the skills as quickly as we desire, or when they make a mistake.
Shouting at someone increases their fear and impedes their ability to absorb information. I have been in situations where I am so afraid to make a mistake that I lose my ability to think clearly and end up making more mistakes.
When maids leave everything familiar to them to work in a foreign country, they are equally apprehensive of how their employers will be like. It is also often that we hear stories of employers abusing their maids
Judging from the stories I hear and what I see, I have come to the conclusion that many maids have good intentions but wrong judgments.
For example, my grandfather noticed that for a week or so, the floor outside his room has been consistently wet. My aunt investigated and found that the maid has been diligently watering the fake plant placed there.
My next-door neighbour is so exasperated with his maid; he might get high blood pressure. One of the hospital-inducing incidents was when he cleaned his fish tank and left the sand out. The next morning, he woke up and found that all his sand was in his flowerpots.
Another common trait amongst maids is that they take instructions too literally. Employees would give instructions as to how they themselves would perceive it to be understood, but a maid’s background, culture and thinking are quite different from ours; therefore they would carry out an instruction the way they comprehend it.
My brother’s godfather’s maid drove him up the wall, and before she could drive him out of his own house, he sent her away to retain his sanity. One of the many mind-boggling instances was when he told her wait and to only clean the master bedroom once he and his wife are out of the room.
After that, he would find her waiting outside the bedroom door every morning, clutching the mop and the pail, as still and silent as an apparition. The first time he opened his door and saw her there, he jumped back and nearly had a heart attack.
Then there are the super-maids who seem to be able to anything and everything. My friend’s parents’ maid not only cooks and cleans; she obtained her driving license and is the designated driver when the family travels outstation. She also goes to the bank to pay all their bills.
Teaching a new maid is not unlike teaching a child – we have to spend enough time with them, explain everything in detail and know that mistakes are bound to occur.
Some people are luckier than others when it comes to maids, but like most things in life, luck is just a small part of the big picture, how things turn out depends largely on the decisions that we make.
Read the following article in the NST today:
It never pays to compare wives
JOHOR BARU: Hell hath no fury like a first wife scorned, as an Indonesian man found out when he needed 11 stitches to reattach his almost severed penis.
The incident took place at a kongsi in Taman Pulai Flora in Kangkar Pulai here, when the 43-year-old husband and his 48-year-old first wife were chatting in bed on Saturday night.
For reasons only known to him, the man was comparing his wife’s sexual prowess to that of his newly-wed second wife who is in her 30’s.
It is understood that the first wife was upset with such comparisons. She got out of bed, took a knife and attempted to chop off his penis.
Fortunately for the husband, she only managed to partially cut the man’s member. In shock and pain, the Indonesian contractor managed to put on his pants, mounted his motorcycle and rode to Sultanah Aminah Hospital here.
Doctors managed to reattach his penis and discharged him. He later lodged a police report at the Kangkar Pulai police station.
Nusajaya police chief Superintendent Aziz Ahmad said the woman was picked up after police raided the kongsi.
She will be charged under section 324 of the Penal code for voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, an offence that carries a three-year jail term and fine.
Last year, a similar incident occurred in Besut, Terengganu, when a woman sliced off her husband’s penis after she accused him of having an affair.
The following item is from the NST today. If it is true, then I can sadly say that the eagle has landed. :-((
Pity such a rare and majestic creature should die this way.
SANDAKAN: Wildlife rangers here will be bird watching in the coastal areas with good reason.
A large white bellied sea eagle is believed to have caused a major blackout last week when it struck a conductor at a 33kV tower located on a hill in Batu Sapi.
The bird, which has a wingspan of up to two metres, was electrocuted and in the process disrupted power supply to consumers within a five-km radius in the Batu Sapi and Kamunting areas.
Sabah Wildlife Department chief veterinarian Dr Sen Nathan said yesterday the department would be looking into the report and would likely conduct a survey in the area to gauge the population of the particular eagle.
“This particular coastal eagle normally occupies certain areas in pairs and not in large numbers like most bird species.
“If many are found in ‘risk’ areas, such as where there are power lines or if they are in the way of flight paths, then action that could be taken, including scaring off the birds with gunshots fired in the air,” he said.Sandakan Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd area manager Magdalene Chu said the blackout occurred around 6.30pm last Thursday. Power was restored after about three hours. “Witnesses informed us they heard an explosion followed by a fire at the tower. The impact of the fault caused several 33kV lines and many 11kV lines to trip,” she said.
Technicians were promptly mobilised to restore power at all affected substations and a team had tried to find the source of the problem the same night, but this was called off due to heavy rain.
“The following day we found a dead eagle in the vicinity of the tower,” said Chu, adding that it may have flown too close and struck a conductor at the tower.
Another humorous incident about the Father of the Nation in the NST yesterday:
All Tunku wanted was ‘to mandi’, not Mandy
Reading a reprint of the Aug 26, 1957 edition of ‘The Straits Times’, Sit Hin Kin was reminded of a humorous incident involving Tunku
KUALA LUMPUR: Sit Hin Kin is a great admirer of the Tunku. And like so many people who were acquainted with Tunku Abdul Rahman, he has a humorous story to tell about our first prime minister.
The 71-year-old was reminded of a quirky incident that occurred in London when he came across an article with the headline “Templer (I want bath) flies in” in the reprint of the Aug 26, 1957 edition of The Straits Times.
“In the 1960s, the Tunku visited England at the height of the Christine Keeler scandal. She was a high society call girl, having an affair with the then British war minister, John Profumo, and a Russian naval attache at the same time. She had a good friend named Mandy Rice.
“When our good Tunku arrived at London Airport, our high commissioner asked him what he wanted to do first. The Tunku replied: ‘First, I want mandi.’
“The British reception party stiffened, the polite smiles frozen on their faces. They thought the Tunku wanted Mandy Rice,” he laughed.
Sit, the executive chairman of oil and gas firm Petro-Mekong Corp Sdn Bhd, said he was excited when the New Straits Times distributed reprints of the Aug 26, 1957 to Sept 1, 1957 editions of The Straits Times.The newspapers, reprinted to mark the 50th anniversary of independence, brought back a “flood of memories, especially the advertisements”, said Sit. Pointing to the Gammeters Ltd watch advertisement in one of the old newspapers, he recalled: “I fell in love with the Eterna-Matic watch when I saw it on display in Singapore in 1955. It was the one and only watch that wound and ran on ball bearings. But at $200, I couldn’t afford it,” he said.And by the time he had saved up enough for the watch years later, it was nowhere to be found. Ten years ago, he chanced upon one in Singapore and purchased it for S$2,000, he said, proudly showing off his rather simple Eterna-Matic.
Sit added that he missed the spirit of unity of the old days.
“Back then, for example, we recognised that our Muslim friends did not eat pork and our Hindu friends did not eat beef. So we separated the food at the table but not the people.
“Today, both people and food have gone into separate corners, and that is very sad.”
I salute the people involved for their dedication and their ingenious innovation.
There sure is a lot of Macgyvers in this world. 
Pigtail macaques crossing the Sungai Menanggul with the help of a double-rope bridge. Picture by Edmund Samunting
KOTA KINABALU: It’s a low-tech solution, but it could be just what is needed to prevent inbreeding in the orang utan population.
A conservation group has been stringing rope bridges across rivers to replace the trees they used previously.
The first bridge was built across Sungai Resang more than two years ago, and since then Kampung Sukau villagers attached to the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project (KOCP) have built another three links.
One is at Sungai Menanggul, a popular spot for viewing wildlife as visitors travel along Sabah’s longest river, the Kinabatangan.
KOCP co-director Dr Isabelle Lackman-Ancrenaz said the main idea of getting orang utans to cross from one forested area to another was to reduce the risk of inbreeding now that the primate has been separated into small sub-populations as a result of forest degradation.
“It is a cheap and simple way of reducing the possibility of inbreeding among orang utans that live in degraded places. Translocating is another method but it has its problems.”Orang utans may look like solitary animals, but they are part of a well-organised society. Physically moving them to another area may lead to conflicts,” she said.Single rope bridges cost RM3,000, while double rope ones cost RM6,000, with an average length of 60 metres. KOCP’s bridges are made of chains wrapped with a hose made of a special fabric as regular ropes rot quickly in the humidity, risking the lives of animals.
The rope bridges were also benefiting other animals, she said.
Proboscis monkeys and pigtail macaques, and even reptiles, use the links.
The KOCP was building two more rope bridges in the area, she added.
Surveys show there are about 11,000 orang utan in Sabah and about 60 per cent live outside protected areas.
The first time I saw it, I thought “Wow, it looked like a drumstick!”. Of course, out come my trusty Canon to record this image for posterity.
Taste varies from slightly bitter-sweet and creamy (on the “meaty” end) to bland and fibrous nearer to the “bony” end. The “meaty” end is “wong yuk kon pau” taste. I felt rather full after eating this delicious and unusual-shaped fruit. By the way, this pod have only one seed.
It was half past seven in the evening of 30th August 2007, the eve of Malaysia’s Golden Jubilee Celebration. Huge crowds were forming at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) preparing for the countdown to Malaysia’s 50th Anniversary of Independence. The buildings around this hotspot is decorated and gaily lit with multi-coloured lights.
Unfortunately, me and my better half and son were not in the mood to join the party crowd. We were rushing to catch the 8.30 p.m. Wau Express to Kota Bahru. My BH has an appointment in KB and we tag along for the heck of it. We have to lug our heavy baggage from the Masjid Jamek Station to the Central Market LRT Station because the queue for the tickets stretches all the way from the ticket counters to quarter way up the stairs to the streets above!
We just do not have the time to queue so we lugged our luggage to the next station. We manage to get our tickets almost immediately at the Central Market Station. Although we arrive in time at the Sentral Station, there was only just enough time to ta pau (takeaway) McDonalds and have our dinner on the train.
Below is a photo on the inside of our coach.
We arrived at Gemas Station, Johore about 10 minutes before midnight. At exactly midnight, the blare of the trains’ whistle coupled with the explosions of the fireworks display is enough to wake the devils up (this being the seventh month in the Chinese Lunar Calender).
Of course, I grabbed my trusty Canon and started snapping away from the door of the coach. After a few shots, I decided to move nearer to the display and walked onto the pavement in my bare socks. Didn’t have the time to put on my shoes! The fireworks lasts for about 8 minutes.
Well this is something different. While the rest of the country are enjoying the fireworks in the city, either live or on TV, here a small group of travellers were treated to a memorable fireworks display to mark a historic moment of our nation’s history. Thank you KTM…..Thank you for the memories.
