Sale of my photo 10/18/2011
 
Yes!  Someone is keen to buy one of my photos.  I had taken a shot of US President Obama's former school in Jakarta, Indonesia and had posted the photo on Flickr and StumbleUpon. 

The sale was agreed upon before I left for Chiang Mai, Thailand on 7.10.2011.  It had been finalised yesterday after my return from my trip to Chiang Mai.
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Yes, age is catching up.  Not only are we growing old, our house and everything, fixtures & fittings, are old too and need repair or to be replaced.  Recently our room air conditioning unit stop funtioning, our refrigerator door's gasket decided its time to give up and our kitchen ceiling fan also felt it is time for a change.  It is really scary to think of other items when things are getting so expensive with the rising cost of labour, materials, transportation, etc.

Talking about age catching up with us, the workmen who came to replace the air conditioning unit said to me that one to two years ago they could easily lift the outdoor motor unit up 8 - 10 feet to fix on the wall.  Now they have to struggle to bring down the old motor from the wall.  So they decided to fix the new outdoor unit lower down.  Well, this is nothing new to me as I am also struggling to do things which I could do easily last time.  I tire out easily now and need to rest my old bones frequently.  Lifting of flower pots is a tough job now.

Now have to say goodbye to the young age and welcome old man.


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This morning I really had a "flying" fall when I rush into my house to get the garbage as I thought I heard the truck coming.  We have 2 flight of stairs up the second hall from the main hall.  I thought I cleared the steps but apparently it was an illusion and I hit it and went flying a short distance.  It was no laughing matter.

I thought of our pet dog long ago when it used to run into the house and crashed onto the wall beside the stairs.  At times it did the same flying stunt like me this morning when it was getting old.






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Hornet\'s nest 08/23/2011
 
There was a hornet's nest just next door.  The building besides my house is vacant for a long time and out of the blue suddenly there was a hornet's nest on the wall.  OMG!  I've being stung before and the experience is scary and painful.

The council workers came in the evening to clear the nest.  What a mess.  They try to burn the nest at first but their  fire was too big and they charred the wall of the building.   Then they damaged the nest and it fell to the gtound.  They managed to destroy the nest but not the hornets although some got burnt.  What a headache for me when the hornet swarm over to my garden trying to find a resting place for the night.  I finished my half can of aerosol spray on them but without much success.  The next morning water did a better job and I turned on the garden tap full and shoot at the hornets trying to settle down under the tree in my garden.

Before the destruction of the nest I took a few photos of the nest.  I could not imagine the nest could be so beautifully crafted.  Take a look at the picture below.


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I believed I do so.  Every morning I will be working all round my garden keeping it neat, trimed and green.  Normally I would spend 3-4 hours in my garden.

Love gardening?  Now I would say no.  My garden is now too big for an old man to maintain.  Lots of work - squating & standing for long hours and standing high up the tall ladder.  Each time I'm back from holiday I will be forced to speed up my movement to clear the overgrowth.

I'm getting older each year and I do not know how much longer I can bend and climb and keep the green.
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Perak is one of the states of Malaysia.  Lumut is a harbor town and stations the National Navy biggest base on the west coast of Malaysia.  Lumut is also the gateway to Pangkor Island.  Tourist will have to take a ferry from Lumut to cross over to the island.

On 20.7.2011 we spend 2 nights at the Swiss Golf & Spa Resort in Lumut.  It is a beautiful place with a nice beach.  However, it is too far inland from the road and one cannot find any other eating place than the hotel's restaurants.  On the 2nd day of our stay we took the hotel's shuttle bus service to the ferry terminal to cross to Pangkor Island.

Not much to see on the island.  There are few tourist attractions here compared to the other islands of Malaysia. 

We are lucky to be Malaysians.  We can pack our bags  and drive to the many interesting places we like, anytime.  It is a small and peaceful country.
The sandy beach of the Swiss Golf resort.
Sunset by the beach.  I love this.
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The resort swimming pool
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No.  In the zoo you see the animals in their cages/enclosures.  In this safari we see the animals from within our car.  It is the.....
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This is the warning!  Everyone must be in their cars with windows closed.  Anyway, man-eating animals are in a different enclosed area so that they do not feed on the other tame animals.
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The other tame animals move about in groups and stay in  their own area.  I presume that's their feeding ground.
This is my first time seeing these animals so close.  Some times it can be a bit scary like when the rhino decided to run towards us and we thought it is going to charge at our car.  Somehow it just cross the road in front of us.  Another incident when a monkey climbed on top of our car and wanted to have a better view of us inside.


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My wife and daughter love to jump for the camera just to see the effect in picture.  During our recent europe trip there are many photos of them jumping all over.  The most funny photo is the one showing my daughter like flying with the wind besides the Canterbury cathedral in England.  In fact the wind was very strong at that time.

Take a look at the photo below which I have uploaded onto my Flickr account.
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During our stay in England my wife and myself decided to go to Hampton Court on 13.5.2011 and we took a train from Surbiton train station direct to Hampton Court station.  I do not want to see the palace as I am not a fan of old palace.  So we got our tickets to the garden instead and enjoyed it.  It's big and beautiful.
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England 06/01/2011
 
My holiday in England is coming to an end.  I will be flying back to Penang, Malaysia this Saturday.  This is my third trip to England and is the most enjoyable.  This time I stayed for six weeks. 

My daughter and son-in-law are now working near London and are staying in Surbiton, Kingston-upon-Thames.  It is a very nice and quiet place with parks and pond and shops nearby.  Since both of them are at work most of the day, my wife and myself have lots of time to "get to know" the area.

In Malaysia it is impossible to walk far due to the very hot weather.  Here is so cool and windy and we can walk for miles.  On the first day, after our return from Europe trip, we walked to Kingston, about an hour of walking as we are not sure of the bus route.  Yes, we do take the bus on our later trips to this busy town.  Our next "discovery" is the smaller town of Surbiton, which is about 15 minutes of walking and another one nearby, Tolworth.  We took the train to Hampton Court and London too.

We went to Woburn Safari Park and Canterbury and during the recent Bank holiday we spent 3 nights in Cornwall, Wales.  We really have a great time - thanks to my daughter & son-in-law.

Now I  have lots of interesting photos  and it is going to take me some time to sort them out before uploading onto my website. 




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