Hotel Lobby, soooo Bali design
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
The Essence of Time
Time. More time, less time. Many of us lament that we do not have enough time. We have no time for this and that. But time goes on and on. It waits for no one. If you miss it you miss it, period. You miss the seconds you can miss the minutes, then the hours, then the days, the weeks, and the months...... So time is what you make of it. Face it. Make the time.
It has been more than a month since I last posted onto this blog. Many of my contacts, who often visit this blog, have wondered and some even called me and/or eMailed me wondering if anything had happened to me. To all I wish to say thank you for the concern and my apologies if I had caused anxieties in any way. For those who called we have spoken and for those who eMailed I will reply in due course.
No excuses. I had just let time slip by. Busy? partly yes. I had quite a lot of things to do in the last nine weeks or so that I just neglected this blog. Procrastination? Yes that was part of it too. Sometime I just sit at the front patio and looked at the goings on outside of my house, or with my thoughts wandering to the past or wondering on the present and the future.
I had traveled as well part of the period, mostly within the country, to visit mum in the South or granddaughter Najla in the North-east. I was in also Bali for nine days in early August. I will write on it soon.
Therefore time did pass on and on and left me wondering and wandering….. I must always keep on top of time, make the best of it, and not let it overwhelm me….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
It has been more than a month since I last posted onto this blog. Many of my contacts, who often visit this blog, have wondered and some even called me and/or eMailed me wondering if anything had happened to me. To all I wish to say thank you for the concern and my apologies if I had caused anxieties in any way. For those who called we have spoken and for those who eMailed I will reply in due course.
No excuses. I had just let time slip by. Busy? partly yes. I had quite a lot of things to do in the last nine weeks or so that I just neglected this blog. Procrastination? Yes that was part of it too. Sometime I just sit at the front patio and looked at the goings on outside of my house, or with my thoughts wandering to the past or wondering on the present and the future.
I had traveled as well part of the period, mostly within the country, to visit mum in the South or granddaughter Najla in the North-east. I was in also Bali for nine days in early August. I will write on it soon.
Therefore time did pass on and on and left me wondering and wandering….. I must always keep on top of time, make the best of it, and not let it overwhelm me….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
Friday, July 01, 2005
Lunch Outing With The Kids
“Buffet Lunch Promotion”, the advertising banner says. Over 70 different types of food available to choose from, at only RM15.00. 30% discount for children and free for 3 years old and below. This is at the Park City Everly Hotel, Bintulu. A four star rated hotel, the only one ‘classy’ hotel in town. This hotel was the Park City Beverly Hotel when it started operations about eight years ago, but sometime over the years they dropped the B in Beverly. Why I wonder. I remember seeing raised eyebrows or that cynical smile on people when the name Beverly Hotel was mentioned. Perhaps that is one reason the name was changed or maybe there has been a change in management.
We went for the buffet lunch at the hotel with the kids. The restaurant was quite full and there were children running around. We had reservations, so there was no problem getting seats. The two kids were given fancy balloons each by a dressed up clown at the entrance to the restaurant. They kept playing and clowning around with the balloons. We were seated at the centre region of the restaurant, quite close to where the food spreads were and the hot drink dispenser was the closest. Haziq or Dedek seemed to like playing and running around close to the hot drink dispensing table. Mini had to keep reminding him not to go too close to the table saying that the drinks there were hot. Each time he will move away and said “sorry mummy”. When he kept going back there Mini finally said, “Haziq! Do not go there. Its hot. Afterwards you knock into it and it will catch fire.” He spontaneously replied,”Oooooh! Fireeeee, fire. Call the fire truck to wash the fire mummy” while running away from the table. My my my, children, you just cannot get angry with them.
As the ad says, there was a very wide selection of food, but the usual types you get in a buffet, and nothing extraordinary. However, I found that the choice provided and their preparations were good and most of them complement each other. A wide selection of salads, a variety of main dishes, and a selection of rice, noodles and breads, and tasty too. I tried not to forget to take only a little each of what I fancied amongst the spread, lest I overindulge, which was so easy to do under the circumstances. It is very easy to overeat at buffet meals. One tends to want to try every dish offered. After all, buffets are meant to be ‘eat as much as you like’ or is it ‘eat as much as you can??’. And you can always see people, gluttons rather, heaping up foods on their plates. It is ok if they are all eaten up, but when they are left uneaten in the plates and thrown away ……. that cannot be excused. It is a sin …………
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu
We went for the buffet lunch at the hotel with the kids. The restaurant was quite full and there were children running around. We had reservations, so there was no problem getting seats. The two kids were given fancy balloons each by a dressed up clown at the entrance to the restaurant. They kept playing and clowning around with the balloons. We were seated at the centre region of the restaurant, quite close to where the food spreads were and the hot drink dispenser was the closest. Haziq or Dedek seemed to like playing and running around close to the hot drink dispensing table. Mini had to keep reminding him not to go too close to the table saying that the drinks there were hot. Each time he will move away and said “sorry mummy”. When he kept going back there Mini finally said, “Haziq! Do not go there. Its hot. Afterwards you knock into it and it will catch fire.” He spontaneously replied,”Oooooh! Fireeeee, fire. Call the fire truck to wash the fire mummy” while running away from the table. My my my, children, you just cannot get angry with them.
As the ad says, there was a very wide selection of food, but the usual types you get in a buffet, and nothing extraordinary. However, I found that the choice provided and their preparations were good and most of them complement each other. A wide selection of salads, a variety of main dishes, and a selection of rice, noodles and breads, and tasty too. I tried not to forget to take only a little each of what I fancied amongst the spread, lest I overindulge, which was so easy to do under the circumstances. It is very easy to overeat at buffet meals. One tends to want to try every dish offered. After all, buffets are meant to be ‘eat as much as you like’ or is it ‘eat as much as you can??’. And you can always see people, gluttons rather, heaping up foods on their plates. It is ok if they are all eaten up, but when they are left uneaten in the plates and thrown away ……. that cannot be excused. It is a sin …………
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
My Bintulu Routine
Sending Babang to school and fetching him back at noon time is now a routine, not by choice, but imposed on me by the kid himself. He refused to come out of the school when Mini went to fetch him one day and only after much persuasion he came out. When he reached home he said to me, in a most confident manner:
Babang: Tok Bah please send and fetch Babang every day.
Tok Bah: What happens if Tok Bah cannot fetch Babang?
Babang: Noooo. Tok Bah must come and fetch Babang. Not Mummy or Daddy.
Tok Bah: What happens if Tok Bah is late?
Babang: Babang wait
Tok Bah: Ok. But what happens when Tok Bah go back to KL?
Babang: Then Mummy or daddy can come.
Very sure of himself. But this is one chore I gladly do, otherwise I will get bored in Bintulu.
After sending him to school in the mornings, Ram and I will go to the park for our morning exercises. On a working day, the park will be quite deserted and it is nice to have the jogging track to ourselves mostly. I like the morning smell of the park. The rustic smell of fallen leaves, wet tree bark and flowers. The sound of birds chirping and singing, the odd insects, and the rustling of leaves swaying in the morning breeze. The sound of waves lashing at the beach, trying to reformat the sand or misplace the odd logs or plastic bottles or some rubbish it carries along each time. The damp earth and grass opening up to the rays of the sun flitting through the trees, branches and leaves.
We will spend about an hour or so at the park in the mornings before heading home, or to the market or supermarket for the odd stuff required. The major marketing stuff are usually bought once a week by Shaffik. We only need to purchase the supplementary stuff now and then, and also to have an excuse to go downtown.
In the evenings we will again go to the park and more often than not the kids will follow us. In the evenings the park will be quite crowded and one can then spy all sorts of behaviours of people using the park. It is always very interesting to observe these people, the various characters, as I slowly jog along. All of them I see every day. Some very intent in their exercise routine, some very casual, and some unconcerned of the needs of others around them, as though the park is made just for them. There are also the picnickers, the family groups and others sitting around having fun. Then there are the young couples, some still in school uniforms, dotting the secluded parts and the heavily shaded parts of the park, oblivious to, no, blind to, the world around them. Observing all these people makes me forget the jogging efforts I have to make, and makes it less tiring too. It becomes a fun jog for me.
The park, as a recreational outlet for the Bintulu community, is a very useful place for the locals to practice healthy activities, as they say, for the mind, body and soul. Necking young couples aside, the place do infuse pleasant relaxation atmospheres for the people, encouraging healthy living. Sadly though, not enough of these sorts of facilities are provided for the people in this beloved country of ours. Every piece of vacant land available in housing estates, and complexes are usually taken up for commercial gains. Parks will be the last consideration. I have also seen a number of designated parks redeveloped into other commercially valued development. Young and not so young children have no parks to go to and we, adults lament at them hanging out in shopping complexes………
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu
Sending Babang to school and fetching him back at noon time is now a routine, not by choice, but imposed on me by the kid himself. He refused to come out of the school when Mini went to fetch him one day and only after much persuasion he came out. When he reached home he said to me, in a most confident manner:
Babang: Tok Bah please send and fetch Babang every day.
Tok Bah: What happens if Tok Bah cannot fetch Babang?
Babang: Noooo. Tok Bah must come and fetch Babang. Not Mummy or Daddy.
Tok Bah: What happens if Tok Bah is late?
Babang: Babang wait
Tok Bah: Ok. But what happens when Tok Bah go back to KL?
Babang: Then Mummy or daddy can come.
Very sure of himself. But this is one chore I gladly do, otherwise I will get bored in Bintulu.
After sending him to school in the mornings, Ram and I will go to the park for our morning exercises. On a working day, the park will be quite deserted and it is nice to have the jogging track to ourselves mostly. I like the morning smell of the park. The rustic smell of fallen leaves, wet tree bark and flowers. The sound of birds chirping and singing, the odd insects, and the rustling of leaves swaying in the morning breeze. The sound of waves lashing at the beach, trying to reformat the sand or misplace the odd logs or plastic bottles or some rubbish it carries along each time. The damp earth and grass opening up to the rays of the sun flitting through the trees, branches and leaves.
We will spend about an hour or so at the park in the mornings before heading home, or to the market or supermarket for the odd stuff required. The major marketing stuff are usually bought once a week by Shaffik. We only need to purchase the supplementary stuff now and then, and also to have an excuse to go downtown.
In the evenings we will again go to the park and more often than not the kids will follow us. In the evenings the park will be quite crowded and one can then spy all sorts of behaviours of people using the park. It is always very interesting to observe these people, the various characters, as I slowly jog along. All of them I see every day. Some very intent in their exercise routine, some very casual, and some unconcerned of the needs of others around them, as though the park is made just for them. There are also the picnickers, the family groups and others sitting around having fun. Then there are the young couples, some still in school uniforms, dotting the secluded parts and the heavily shaded parts of the park, oblivious to, no, blind to, the world around them. Observing all these people makes me forget the jogging efforts I have to make, and makes it less tiring too. It becomes a fun jog for me.
The park, as a recreational outlet for the Bintulu community, is a very useful place for the locals to practice healthy activities, as they say, for the mind, body and soul. Necking young couples aside, the place do infuse pleasant relaxation atmospheres for the people, encouraging healthy living. Sadly though, not enough of these sorts of facilities are provided for the people in this beloved country of ours. Every piece of vacant land available in housing estates, and complexes are usually taken up for commercial gains. Parks will be the last consideration. I have also seen a number of designated parks redeveloped into other commercially valued development. Young and not so young children have no parks to go to and we, adults lament at them hanging out in shopping complexes………
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu
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