That is the question!!

 

There was a tiny article in the Star today about an employee taking the landlord of her company's office building to court for getting bed bug bites at work.  Apparently, her encounter with these little creatures left her "unable to work" and "suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder".

 

I emphatize!

 

And then her lawyer makes a statement to the effect that he has filed lawsuits over bed bug infestations in hotels, cruise ships and apartment buildings before.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm ....... I wonder if I could .... maybe perhaps .... NAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ... not in Malaysia kwa ...

 

 

Mel and I attended this formal dinner yesterday night that turned out to be an absolute circus!  I'm not going to say what dinner because these people hold high, powerful positions, and are extremely influential, and the last thing I want is to be charged for libel or sedition or whatever the rage is these days!!  Hah.

 

In any case, the invitation card said 7pm - and we arrived on time - and the hall wasn't even one third full.  Oooooh, my pet peeve is people not being punctual, as you would have worked out from one of my earlier blogs on why I dislike wedding dinners so much.

 

But I digress.  So we sit down, and the hall slowly starts to fill up.  Men are dressed either in batik or in suits.  Ladies are dressed to the nines.  Then you get the one or two odd people who show up in jeans and t-shirts - and I'm like ... But the invitation said FORMAL ATTIRE ... !!

 

The food was awful - it was served cold, and they didn't even change the plates after every round, which meant that by the time they served the fried rice at the end of the meal, I had chicken sauce, fish sauce, vege sauce and an assortment of chicken bones, fish bones and prawn shells on my plate.  For a "formal" dinner, I certainly had higher expectations!

 

The emcee had terrible English, no sense of humour (or at least one that I found pathetic) - the speeches were dull and long - and we didn't even win anything at the lucky draw.

 

BUT - I suppose this organization or club or body or whatever you want to call them - really does do a lot of charity work, so I hope the money that they obviously tried to save on the dinner will go towards a good cause.

 

Mel and I were making wise-ass comments throughout the dinner, which made it bearable, but which I shall not put on here because a lot of them were rude and most of them were bordering on being disrespectful - but hey, we made our own fun!

 

AND - I didn't trip over my 3-inch killer heels and crack open my skull, although that was a very real possibility - so I was very proud of myself.

 

 

With all the unrest within our government, this video crosses all boundaries of race, religion and culture - and encompasses what it is to be Malaysian.

 

   

 

Please offer your support by clicking here!

 

 

Day 3:

 

The diving was pretty okay though.  Nothing extremely spectacular or out of the ordinary.  But good nonetheless. 

 

We had some pretty ripping currents at one of the dives.  Our divers had to hold on to a coral rock face to stop from being swept away, and even then, they were horizontal when doing our safety stop.  There were also some tremendous thermoclines that were no fun at all.  At some places, the temperature dropped to 26 degrees C ... VERY cold.

 

But I'll admit the corals at Tenggol are very rich, very colourful and very beautiful.

 

The only thing I snapped a picture of was a huge jellyfish.  The sunlight was in a perfect position, and that helped.

 

 

The "dive center" though, was another disappointment in a whole string of disappointments.  It had no walls and no ceiling.  Just the wooden structures.  It was also built on stilts, and had a loose high wooden step that you used to get up onto it.

 

 

By this time, I figured that by the end of the trip, I would either have sustained some tropical illness from unknown bug bites, or fallen down from the dive center and cracked open my skull.  At this point right now, it was the former.

 

Day 4:

 

I was VERY glad to leave the island. 

 

We stayed back an extra day at Kuala Terengganu as we had a meeting there.  Aaron said we were gonna stay at Sri Malaysia.  I said NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I want a proper hotel, or we're driving back to KL NOW!!  What Lynette wants, Lynette gets. 

 

Park Royal was full, so we settled for Grand Continental.  I got the small bed, but who cares, it was bed bug free!!

 

 

The first thing I did was to fill up the bathtub and empty both the bottles of bubble bath into it.  I soaked for a good half an hour because I just felt SO dirty from Tenggol, and my bites were itching and driving me insane.

 

I thought I would have a good night's rest, finally, without having to wake up in the middle of the night to the pitter patter of scurrying feet and praying they wouldn't head your way.  You see, the bathroom door at Tenggol "Resort" wouldn't close.  Good thing I'm not one to be known for my modesty. 

 

But alas, that was not to be, as Aaron snored (loudly!) the whole night.

 

Hummpphhhhhh.  I was NOT a happy camper.

 

Day 5:

 

HOME SWEET HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1:

 

We left for Dungun today.  The journey was fairly uneventful.  We had the usual pee and smoke stops - it was all going smoothly - then we exited the East-West Highway, just slightly before Kuantan (I think!).  I pulled out my trusty map, as I will have to make a journey to the east coast by myself at some point in June, and I wanted to be sure I knew my way.  Oh, not too bad - I thought to myself - Dungun looks pretty close - we should be there in under an hour, tops.  I said as much to Aaron, and his reply was a half snigger, half snort.  Rule No. 1 - it is NEVER as close as it seems on the map.  After 45 minutes, we had moved 2 cm up the green coloured marked road on the map.  We had another 6-8cm to go.  Obviously I was going to have to re-think this whole 'length of journey' thing.

 

In any case, we finally arrived at Dungun, and were greeted warmly by a group (gang?) of Mat Rempits.  Nothing like a scary looking, loud sounding bunch of motorcycle terrorists to welcome you into a town.

 

We arrived at our "hotel".  The rooms took a bit of sorting out as obviously, they are not used to having such a large crowd turn up.  The costs were RM40.10 for a twin room and RM68.25 for a triple room.  I thought the additional ten cent and twenty five cent charges were hilarious!  The lady at the counter didn't share my amusement, however. 

 

So I very very cautiously pushed open my room door.  The room was a blast!  The aircon switch was totally ancient, of the type I grew up using as a child and haven't seen in the last 20 years!!

 

 

But the room was clean, albeit a little basic ...

 

 

And they were even thoughtful enough to line the dustbins!!

 

 

Day 2:

 

After a restless night and an uneventful, but not terribly yummy breakfast, we went to the Dungun jetty.  Hmmmmmmmm .... I would NEVER have thought it was a jetty.  As far as my eye could tell, it was a junk yard cum retirement base for old boats cum dumping ground.

 

 

After finding out that the boat ride to Tenggol would take almost 2 hours (!!), we decided to use the toilet first.  Mistake.  So there we were, lining up for the toilet - apparently some people needed it more urgently than others ...

 

 

And THIS is what we were queueing up for ... ??!

 

 

Ughhhhhhh.

 

The boat ride was fairly smooth, but on one of those huge wooden fishing boats.

 

 

We arrived at the "resort".

 

The rooms were totally scary.  Listen - I can do basic - I can do no aircon, I can do no hot water - I can do hole in the ground instead of toilet bowl.  But I CANNOT do rats in the bathroom, I CANNOT do huge spider webs just above my bed, I CANNOT do shutters that are sealed shut from years of grime.

 

 

The beds looked clean and comfortable enough. 

 

 

But then I later discovered that they are home to an extremely friendly bunch of bed bugs.  I am COVERED in bug bites.  I look like I have measles.  I would take a picture for you if I didn't look like some diseased monster.  So I shall spare you the ghastly sight.

 

We DID, however, have a lovely view from our room door.

 

 

If you wanted to take the risk of either standing outside and being bitten to death by mosquitoes, or leaving the room door open and having large unknown flying insects swarm inside.  We did both on separate occasions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Prince turns three today ... !

 

I called him this morning, and when he picked up the phone, I said "HIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!" .. and before I could break into a birthday song, he went, "TAI YEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" ...

 

Then when I started singing Happy Birthday, slightly off key but with lots of gusto and enthusiasm, he was giggling away.

 

I am not exaggerating nor being bias when I say he is the CUTEST thing on the face of this earth!

 

Off to Tenggol this afternoon, back on Tuesday ...

 

xoxo

 

 

 

 

How appealing is that face ..... ??!

Ten things you should know about me but probably don't.

 

Or ...

 

Ten things you don't know about me but probably should.

 

Or ...

 

Ten things you will soon know about me but will wish you didn't.

 

1.  I aspire to be the best I can be in whatever I do.  Not for the benefit of others, but so that I can be biting and sarcastic ala Dr House or Simon Cowell or Kimora Lee Simmons.  You must be brilliant in your field of work and expertise to get away with telling others that they are idiotic assholes.

 

2.  I hold grudges and I NEVER forget.   

 

3.  I don't want any more kids, not so that I can give the best to Mel, but because I am too selfish and self-absorbed to give of myself sacrificially to another human being.  But mainly because I'm too vain.  I am not the type who glows serenely when pregnant, but rather am one who turns into hideous, over-inflated, out-of-proportion monster-type creature.

 

4.  I am not the feminist I portray to be.  I will gladly settle down with a guy.  Who bows to my every whim and fancy, and who worships the ground I walk on.  I require copious gushing and adoration.

 

5.  I have vicious bad moods and an explosive nature caused by a hormone imbalance.  But I refuse to take medication because one of the side effects is weight gain.

 

6.  I procrastinate.

 

7.  I have a low threshold for boredom.  My mind needs to be constantly stimulated.  Being predictable and doing the same thing day in and day out saps me of energy.

 

8.  I do things and say things without thinking.  Very rarely do I regret what I have done or said.  It may not be kind, but it is always true.  And we all know that truth hurts!   

 

9.  I can't count.

Took my folks for a Mother's Day (belated) and Father's Day (early) dinner at Vincenzo, One Bangsar last night.  I normally don't like to take them out on commercialized days, such as Mother's Day, for a variety of reasons.  First of all, it's so damn crowded everywhere.  Second of all, they limit the menu to set dishes.  Set dishes annoy me.  Third of all, they bulk cook their food, which can make really good food taste less than special.

 

In any case, having a weakness for Italian food, I decided on Vincenzo.  Also because they have great meat dishes, as my dad is not a big fan of pasta nor cheese.

 

Bread and chopped up olives to start off, of course.  The olives were good, but I still prefer the malt vinegar and olive oil dip that they sometimes serve instead.

 

 

The appetizers.  We had mixed bruschetta, which consisted of the traditional tomato, sauteed mushrooms, smoked salmon and some kind of goose liver pate.  It was good!  Not sure why I don't have a picture of it though ...

 

We also had the pan seared scallop with rocket salad.  This won hands down as the best appetizer of the evening.  The scallops were reasonably sized, lightly seared - the tomato balsamic dressing that they put on it was really tasty - and they had parmesan shavings on top of it all, which complimented the dish perfectly.  Yummmmm.

 

 

Mel loves escargots, so we ordered a half dozen of those.  It came with a garlic butter sauce, which mom found too garlicky for her taste, but which the rest of us enjoyed.

 

 

Dad had the black angus steak - it came sitting on top of a bed of roasted vegetables - and it had a layer of beef bacon on it.  Dad asked for medium, and it came out perfectly pink.  Not many places can do a good medium!  However, Dad ordered it sans the gorgonzola cheese, which I thought was a shame, but hey, it was his meal!  It was served with brown sauce.

 

 

Dad's verdict?  "It was the best steak I've had in years" ...

 

Mom, Mel and I shared two pasta dishes between ourselves, as we wanted to leave room for dessert without doing the stuff-ourselves-silly thing.

 

After MUCH deliberation (let me just mention here that the service there is impeccable - the waiters are extremely patient), we decided on the baby lobster and one with scallop, smoked salmon and prawns.

 

We had the baby lobster with fettucine.  It came with sun-dried tomatos, black olives, asparagus, garlic and chilli - and, of course, lobster.  Lovely lovely lovely.

 

 

The scallop, smoked salmon and prawns was even better!  We had it with spaghetti - and it was tossed with garlic, chilli, olive oil and a white wine sauce.  It was tangy and light and every now and then, you'd bite into black pepper, and it was just a gastronomical delight.

 

 

Mom's verdict?  "One of the best pastas I've ever had" ...

 

Of course nothing is complete without dessert, and you can't go to an italian restaurant without ordering their panna cotta!  So that's what we had!  This classic italian pudding came with some sliced mango on top.  VERY smooth and creamy.

 

 

Mom and dad couldn't resist a good ole apple pie and vanilla ice cream.  Nothing fantastic about this, it tasted like any normal apple pie would.

 

 

And Mel wanted her creme brulee ... the caramel glaze was perfect!  It was nicely seared, and it was crunchy - and the insides were soft and cold - and Mel relished every bite!

 

 

Vincenzo will definitely be seeing more of us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hurt my lower back.

 

After having not touched the piano for years, I suddenly felt like playing it on Monday, after my day out at the Gardens.  Maybe the Gardens was so aesthetically pleasing that it inspired me.

 

In any case, I dug out one of my favorite classical pieces, The Harmonious Blacksmith - which is the final piece of Handel's masterpiece, Air and Variations, Suite #5 in E Major.  About 20 years ago, I had actually had the entire piece memorized.  I'm not sure how, but I did!

 

So I was hunched up over the piano, trying to flex my stiff fingers from years of unuse - and I must have been at it for about 3 hours.

 

Well, the Blacksmith is still not very Harmonious.

 

But here it is, as it is supposed to sound (!), played on the harpsichord.

 

    

 

Isn't it beautiful?  Hard to imagine my fingers used to be nimble enough to do those scales!

 

 

 

 

Hey, some of my pictures from the Mabul / Sipadan trip came out on Sipadan Water Village's blog!!  Click here to see! 

 

 

Usually I try and stay away from politics, but I am incensed by the arrest and charge of sedition against Raja Petra Kamaruddin! 

 

 

It is not a matter of whether or not we agree with his articles, and about what he writes.  It is a matter of our freedom of expression, and the right to voice our opinions as part of a democratic nation. 

 

For that alone, I stand in solidarity with him.

 

Raja Petra, the Rakyat is with you!

 

 

 

 

Contentment is coming back from an extremely satisfying dive trip - I may be physically tired, but I am also mentally, emotionally and spiritually renewed and refreshed.

 

Looking back at my pictures, I just realised the diversity of the amount of marine life there is.  Being able to observe the behavior of and the intricate relationships between the different marine life fascinate me immensely.

 

* lets out a big sigh of contentment*

 

 

 

 

I wrote in one of my previous blogs that my main aim this Mabul / Sipadan trip was to take pictures of frogfish, and that actually, I would love to be able to take pictures of seahorses, but that since there weren't any there, except for the pygmy seahorses, I'd settle for my second favorite, which are the froggies.  A close second, I might add!

 

So ...... mission accomplished!  We saw both varieties of frogfishes - the giant one, and my personal favorite - the painted clown one!  I have like 89 pictures of frogfish in total, but since I appreciate the fact that not all of you may be frogfish lovers, I shall post only one of each!

 

 

 

But to give you an idea of the size of the painted frogfish, check this picture out ...

 

 

The yellow blob is the painted frogfish, damn cute right??!

 

As my room-mate said while I was downloading the pictures from my camera into my laptop after one of the dives - is there anything else to see besides the frogfish??  Heh.

 

As a matter of fact, there WAS - I'm obsessed, but not to the exclusion of everything else!

 

So here is some other stuff that we saw ...

 

A pair of ornate ghost pipefish ..

 

 

Nudibranchs (again, tons of pics, so I shall just post one!) ..

 

 

Octopus ..

 

 

Batfish ..

 

 

Snake eel (actually it was hunting, but I missed that shot, and just got it as it was swimming towards me) ..

 

 

We went on an awesome night dive too!  We saw hermit crabs ..

 

 

An absolutely stunning tube worm that was glowing from the inside, oh my goodness, one of the nicest things I have ever seen on a night dive ..

 

 

Isn't that just simply breathtakingly beautiful??

 

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT ..........

 

I had the biggest, nicest, heart-stopping, warm-feeling-in-your-gut surprise from Alex and some of the divemasters there, whom I keep in constant touch with, but who all conspired, apparently, to keep this a secret from me until I was there.

 

Are you ready for this ...

 

A THORNY SEAHORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

I have more than a hundred pictures of this seahorse, taken from different angles, and again, I don't expect you to share my enthusiasm for these creatures, so I shall just post a few of them up!  Here is a night shot of it ...

 

 

And the obligatory size comparison picture ... here is one of me looking at it adoringly ...

 

 

I am simply SO over-the-moon happy, you have no idea!