One of my favorite food: Indian Mamak Food

During my semester break, I went back to Malaysia for a month. I managed to enjoy some of my favorite food and one of them is called Indian Mamak Food. Indian Mamak food is very popular in Malaysia and the food comprises of Nasi Kandar (yellow spiced rice with a variety of side dishes such as chicken curry, fish curry, mutton curry and beef curry that you could choose from), tosai (pronounced as "toe-say" : thin soft and crispy bread), roti canai (crispy bread with curry), mee goreng mamak (fried noodles), naan (toasted bread) with tandoori chicken and roti tisu (extra thin, crispy and sweetened bread). There are plenty of different mamak food chains in Malaysia and the following are a couple of shots from different shops.

Take note of the writings below the TOSAI word. Yes, it says TOSAI ANACONDA SPECIAL! I did not know what the heck was an ANACONDA tosai until I asked the guy. He told me that it is an extra long tosai bread, just like an anaconda snake! I did not order that tosai because we could not even finish our various different dishes on our table. Perhaps I will try it next time when I return to Malaysia.

Here is a photo of the Roti Canai that I mentioned earlier. They are basically made of flour and toasted on a hot plate to make it crispy. Similarly, by adding eggs the Roti Canai will become Roti Telor. Murtabak is made with beef and onions inside the bread.

The following photo shows you how tall a Roti Tisu (thin like tissue paper). The guy had to sprinkle some sugar, condensed milk and honey around the conical structure before laying it down on 2 plates prior to serving it to customers.
This Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar was one of the earliest shops to be established in Penang. When we moved to Klang, they also had branches there. I am sure the franchise has spread all across west Malaysia by now.

I am pretty sure the profit margin of these mamak shops are good because most of the different variety of food are mostly made of flour. Flour is cheap in Malaysia and these shops charge a couple of dollars for a dish. Mamak stalls reminded me of one of my ex-colleagues who used to eat dinner there every night (without fail)! This single guy spends most of his after work hours watching football on the mamak stalls' flat screen TVs (one of the methods to attract crowds).
After posting this photo, I realized that this mamak stall actually had a plastic bag to wrap up the leak on their water pipe! Noticed the red bag in front of the stall?....LOL!

Missing In Action

Wow! It has been such a long time since I put up any posts on my blog!! Anyway, I was very very busy with my full time studies for my Masters in Integrated Water Management from the University of Queensland.

Studying never used to be so tough. Despite doing the course full time, I never had the privilege of the full time student benefits such as what I used to have during my undergrad studies. Officially, I am a full time student but I still need to help manage 2 kids (a 6 month old and a 3 year old). However, I was fortunate to live with my in-laws and they really helped a lot in terms of giving me some spare time to study. Normally my "study time" at home is from 8pm-11:30pm when the kids are asleep. I have never read so much literature in such as short period of time in my entire life. However, all the information about water is so interesting. Studying in this course feels as if I am trying to take in as much water as I could from a water hose shooting into my mouth (quoted by some former student of the course)!

Anyway, let me try to load some photos to remind myself what have I been doing for the past few months that I did not have time to blog....

Ah, this was a nice shot of Brisbane city from the City Cat catamaran that ferried us from our field trip back to the university. The Brisbane River is so amazing. Every time I cycle past the river, it gives me a sense of serenity and joyfulness.
This is the Wivenhoe Dam, approximately 2 hours' drive away from Brisbane. It is one of the major dams that provides water supply to the Southeast Queensland region.
Brisbane had its annual Dragon Boat race back in April. 20 over teams from all over Brisbane came to compete in this event. I was there with my eldest son to watch the event during that weekend.
Besides the dragon boat races, they also had dragon dances as well. My boy was pretty fascinated by the "dragon" since he always listen to stories about these mythical creatures.
Lastly, North Stradbroke Island... located off the coast of Brisbane, NSI was the location that all of the integrated water management students spent 3 nights (our 1st field trip).
I have to catch a flight later tonight, so I will stop here and perhaps continue after my one month break! Stay tuned...;)

Photos of the month - Feb'10

Once again I apologize for not blogging for such a long time. Time flies! Especially when we have plenty of activities and visitors around. My wife's aunt and my wife's friend came to stay with us in Dec'09 and Feb'10 respectively. With a blink of an eye, it has been 3 months since I moved from Palembang to Brisbane and now I have 2 kids! Perhaps one of the reasons I failed to blog was the lack of internet time as well. In Brisbane, I had to share the PC with my wife at night and most of the time it is limited to 1 hour. Sometimes we had to catch something interesting on TV or some of the downloaded series like Gossip Girls, Desperate Housewives or Brothers and Sisters... Anyway, here are some shots with comments to summarize what happened for the past few weeks:

We started to let our 3 year old son attend gymnastics sessions. 45 mins per week of instructed "play" to test the toddler's "stretchability" has been the weekly Wednesday morning activity. I am one of the only 2 fathers bringing our kids to the session. Majority of the mums were there as their dads all go to work! Lucky me for being able to fit this father and son session into my non-classes day.
We also brought our son for swimming lessons. He used to be very confident in water. In Cairns last year, he even dived into the pool without any goggles. However, this year he began to fuss more about water entering his eyes. He even refused to attend one of the swim lessons until mom stepped in and brought him there every week (plus a box of orange juice from the swim school every time he goes).
I managed to bring my son to Sea World Gold Coast a few weeks back. We managed to get the 6 month multiple entry ticket for $100, which is very worth it as every normal entry would cost $70. Here's a shot of him with the polar bear.

Of course, we won't miss the main event which is the dolphin show. Too bad there's no Shamu or Killer Whale shows like the ones in Orlando. However, I read that some rogue whale killed its trainer last week.....

Since the arrival of our 2nd son, his elder brother has been very excited. The elder one keeps asking us to carry the baby (which worries us!). Sometimes, he just gets too excited and acts rough towards the baby. So we always need to keep an eye on both the BIG and SMALL babies!
Other than nights with intermittent sleep (waking up every 2 hours), we have days where the baby take us by surprise! Leaky nappies and thunderous farts just make the day very interesting!

We enjoy good food especially when my wife's friend who stayed with us for 3 weeks decided to cook a few meals for us. Yummy yum yum chicken rolls....

Figs - my first time eating figs was a very palatable one!


Living life is about experiencing events & how we make a difference in other people's lives. Pessimistic people see life as boring and routine. That's why we need to consciously make it more eventful instead of let life pass you by. Routine is sometimes good but never too long. See you again in March'10!

Photos of the week - Dinosaurs & Crazy Sales

The museum had this DIG DINOS event and one of the attractions was the LIVE T-REX. It made roaring sounds that scared the shit out of my son - look at the lady's legs!

Boxing Day Rush - everybody had to queue up to get onto the escalators and there were wardens to monitor the "boarding" process so that it won't break down.

A storm was brewing sometime before Xmas day...... wished we had more rain this summer. It's getting too darn hot!

Milton Park - 5 mins ride away from our house. The place for my son to play train master!

Cycling - the most common activity for father and son bonding.

Brisbane City

Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland Australia, is my current stop. We should be staying here minimal for another 1.5-2 years, so I should call it HOME for now.

This 2 Million population's city has a very good bicycle path. It takes me only 15 mins to ride along the Brisbane riverside to the City. Driving to the city often incurs hefty parking charges. Therefore, cycling is the best mode of transport (FOC). Other means of getting to the city include via the City Cat ferry, by train or by bus if you do not want the hassle of looking for car parks.

In Brisbane, people seldom need to go to the city because every suburb has its self sustaining facilities like shopping malls, parks and shops. So far, I have cycled to the city to visit the museum, the man-made beach, government and banking institutions. Below are some good shots of Brisbane City downtown. The photo with the multiple colored buildings is the City Council Library. The one with the old architecture is the Treasury Building where the city's Casino is located. City buses and City Cats could be seen as well. I was really proud of these last 2 photos as they looked like post card shots! I took them from my bike on a 30C sunny afternoon.

Santa Brought Us A Gift

Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I was pretty preoccupied with Santa's gift in 2009 until now.

We were expecting our new child sometime early Jan 2010 but my wife started to have contractions on the early hours of Boxing Day. I have always thought that the Boxing Day (day after Xmas) was related to the boxing sport until I finally had time to google boxing day. It is a day whereby the old Victorians used to put gifts into small boxes to give to workers like postmen, garbage collectors and other public servants.

Boxing Day is also the day where huge sales are everywhere. There were really people who lined up from 5am outside the department stores waiting for them to open at 8am. Initially we were also planning to get to the shops for some loot, but the plan was slightly changed with my wife's contractions that started at 4am. We were packed and ready to go to the hospital but the contractions slowed down. My wife rang the hospital and the staff advised her to wait. In the end we decided to go shopping instead. I was a bit worried that she might give birth at the mall! I had a pen and paper with me recording all the times of her contractions while we walked and shopped.

After lunch, we had to drive to the hospital because her contractions got more frequent. However, as soon as we arrived at the hospital, the contractions started to slow down again..... I waited with her until I got kicked out from the hospital at 10pm. I managed to get some sleep until 1am on the next day when she called to say that she is about to give birth. I rushed to the hospital to find that she was already at the delivery bed. Within 30 mins, she gave birth to a charming baby boy! We really thanked and praised the Lord for giving my wife a safe delivery to a healthy child.

The next day, we informed our family members and they brought along our 3 year old son to see his baby brother. He was pretty excited to see and hold the baby. This is the start of our "new" life with an additional family member. Stay tuned for more news to come and what happened between 27th December and 15th January....;)

SAHF

I am sure many moms are familiar with the term SAHM because it stands for Stay-At-Home-Mother or moms who work at home. They could be housewives or moms who has a part time business.

Since leaving Palembang, I have been a SAHF (Stay At Home Father). Initially, it was a blow to my morale since I was the major family income provider for the past 6 years. Suddenly, I felt as if I was no longer contributing to the family cause, plus there were so many new things to learn about living in Brisbane and Australia. Experiencing a new environment change is never easy. After 2 weeks of struggle and support from my wife, I finally found my footing and also bearings around doing things in Brisbane.

Life suddenly became full of purpose since I now have more time to spend with my 3 year old son and my wife. Teaching my son, reading to him, playing with him, taking him out for a ride or run in the park.... nothing beats spending quality uninterrupted family time. Now, I have ample time to learn about being a stay-at-home father, at least until uni starts again.

Entertainment That's Worth The $$ - The Wiggles Concert

Many of you might think that $35 Wiggles Concerts were only meant for kids but you were wrong. We managed to buy last minute tickets for the Wiggles Concert 2 weeks ago.

The event was held at the Brisbane Entertainment Center. We drove off 1.5 hours before the event and were surprised by the number of cars entering the car park. We had to line up for almost 30 mins before we could get a car park and it costs $10!

I did not have very high hopes of an entertaining event because I thought that it would be more like a kids event whereby the Wiggles (Sam, Murray, Jeff and Anthony - the yellow, red, purple and blue Wiggles respectively) provide kids with some sing-a-longs. We managed to get front row seats which were just 2m away from the stage.

The concert had a big round platform in the middle, trapezes and swings hanging from the roof. The show started with the circus ring master Ringo introducing the Wiggles. Acrobats and gymnasts came out performing their respective feats and created a circus-like atmosphere. Of course there were singing, jokes and performances by all the Wiggles.

I was surprised that many adults were as excited as the kids when they saw their favourite Wiggle perform on stage. We also knew many songs that they performed and had a great time as well. For sure, the $35 front row seats were definitely worth it for the 1.5 hour concert!

New Chapter in Brisbane - starts with free, free & free concerts

I have finally settled down in Brisbane for good (at least for the next couple of years). Leaving Palembang was difficult but I have finally started my new chapter in life in Brisbane.

Not having to work until school starts next year means everyday feels like a Sunday. Sometimes it is hard to even keep track of the dates and days of the week. Due to the many activities being lined up, I seldom have time to even log on to the internet or use the computer!

Summer is starting in Australia now, which also means we are gonna have a HOT Christmas in a few more week's time. All the places are decorated with xmas ornaments and xmas trees. It also happens that the city of Brisbane starts to organize free concerts. For the past 5 days, I have attended 3 free concerts: The Lord Mayor's Xmas Carols Concert, C&K Children's Concert and the City Hall's Senior Xmas Concert.

The Lord Mayor's Xmas Carols Concert was held at the Botanical Gardens. We were there 2 hours before to reserve our seats but the place was almost jammed packed by the time we got there. We managed to find a place along the grass slopes by the side of the concert stage to place our picnic spreads. It was fun to be in a picnic cum concert atmosphere like this.

The C&K Children's Concert was held at the Brisbane Convention Center. They had a small animal exhibit (a bilby - see above photo, and a slink), play sessions with kids with the C&K staff (C&K is a kindergarten chain) followed by the concert. The City Hall's Senior Concert was held at City Hall. Supposedly meant for seniors but we booked tickets for the whole family to attend.

So far, my new chapter in the world down under is filled with concerts and days out. Have not had a stay without any events or stay-at-home days yet.... which is good! It's gonna be a HOT HOT Christmas!

Short Trip Back To Malaysia

Finally I left Palembang (the place that I used to call home for the past 3 years) and headed back to Malaysia for a short trip before leaving for Brisbane.

My wife was a bit upset when she got to know that I had my "holiday" in Malaysia while she had to manage my active toddler son at home. Anyway, I got to meet up with many childhood friends (up to 25 years of friendship) and former colleagues.

I spent most of the time with my dad as I stayed with him. We had almost every meal at Penang's famous hawker food stalls nearby my place. I managed to slot in afternoon tea and supper with friends while major meal sessions were "reserved" for my dad and my relatives.

"Brisbane" will be the beginning of my new chapter in life where I shall become a dad for the 2nd time and go back to school to further my studies. I am still anxious to be unemployed and had to stay with my in-laws (not that I've never done it before but this time is for a longer period of time). Will I be able to turn on my "study brain" after so many years? Will I be able to cope with studying, take care of a toddler, take care of a newborn and manage a good family relationship at the same time? It looks as if I have too many balls to juggle at the same time.... Nevertheless, I am still positive about my new life in Brisbane and what lies ahead of 2010.

Interesting Indonesian Language

After 3 years in Palembang, I could speak and write Indonesian "dikit dikit" (a little bit). Here are some of the alphabet pronunciations that are different from English:

A - ah
B - beh
C - chey
D - day
E - er
F - eff
G - gay (no kidding!)

H - ha
I - aye
J - jay
K - ka
L - el
M - am
N - an
O - oh
P - pay

Q - kee
R - ar
S - ass
T - tay
U - ooo
V - fey

W - way
X - axe
Y - yay
Z - zet

Try to sing the ABCD song in Bahasa Indonesia....LOL!

When I first arrived, I was pretty "bingung" (confused) when somebody mentioned to me that he drives a "Fey-Way" car (VW = Volkswagon)!

Despite the fact that Indonesia was never colonized by the British (30 years under Dutch's rule), the Indonesian language has a lot of terms similar to English (just to name a few):

1. Halte (hall-ter): bus stop, from the word halt.
2. Helm (hell-lem): helmet.
3. Amplop (aam-plope): envelope.
4. Baut (ba-oot): bolt.
   

Some slight difference between Indonesian and Malay terms (just to name a few also):

1. Karna, Karena - Kerana (Malay) - Because (English)
2. Bisa - Boleh (Malay) - Can (English)
3. Butuh - Perlu (Malay) - Need (English)
4. Becak - Beca (Malay) - Trishaw (English)
5. Wewenang - Tanggung-jawab (Malay) - Responsibility (English)
6. Sendok - Sudu (Malay) - Spoon (English)
7. Cangkir - Cawan (Malay) - Cup (English)
   

I guess that's all for my limited Indonesian translations. Tomorrow will be my last day in Palembang.... # leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again #. Palembang will always have its place in my heart despite all the power problems. I am sure that sometime in my life, "I'LL BE BACK"! Adios Palembang!

Geisha - Indonesian, Not Japanese

For the past month that I was in Palembang, my cable TV was disconnected and I was forced to watch local Indonesian TV. I discovered this band called GEISHA that has very nice songs. The female vocalist's voice reminds me of the group HEART. My friends kept saying that I am intoxicated by Indonesian music after 3 years here but I still love it.

Here are some of my favourite songs from Geisha with their MVs:

Jika Cinta Dia - If you love her


Takkan Pernah Ada - Never Have Been


Selalu Salah - Always Wrong
(this song does not have the original music video)

Leaving With A Price

I have submitted my resignation from the company last month but the company did not have any replacement identified for me until earlier this week.

I was glad that I was finally able to leave Palembang since my family is already in Brisbane. Thanks to the internet, I was still able to chat using Skype and Windows Live Messenger with my wife everyday and also see them via video once in awhile.

It has been tough for my wife to take care of my energetic son by herself. I decided to request for an earlier departure. My employment contract states that I will need to provide 2 months advance notice prior to departure. Therefore, I have to stay until mid Dec'09 which is too long for me a wait.

I talked to my GM and also MD in a nice manner about this dilemma. My MD did not get angry during the conversation and said he will discuss the matter with my GM. Later that day, I received a call from my GM saying that the company has given me permission to leave by middle of this month but will not be paying me 1/2 a months salary because I broke the employment contract. However, I need to work until middle of the month. He said that the company could have taken legal action against me for my premature departure and should take on this "small penalty".

At first I wanted to appeal but in the end I figured that the company needed a way out and they need to do something in order to prevent people from leaving the company at a short notice.

Is 1/2 a month's work without pay justifiable for earlier freedom?

A Baby's (Not Mine) Day Out

Last weekend I invited my driver Iwan and his wife Ida to visit the museum in Palembang. Iwan did ask me whether it is ok to bring along a 6 month old baby and I agreed. He told me that this baby belongs to Ida's aunt who has 7 children. Every weekend Iwan and Ida will babysit the 6-month-old boy overnight. Iwan said that that baby is very easy to handle and does not REWEL (make a fuss).

I was also anxious to see how a 6 month old would not make a fuss if taken out for a day.


The baby's name is Satria (aka warrior). The couple dressed him up in a thick furry jacket on that hot Sunday morning. Satria also had a singlet covered by a red and white shirt. Iwan was dressed in black (2 layers) while Ida was in tudung (head dress) plus a jacket. I could not understand why they mentioned that they are afraid to catch a cold in this hot weather!


We spent approximately 2 hours visiting 2 different museums at the Ampera bridge area (both within walking distance). They fed the baby milk in a bottle (mixing sachets of milk powder with normal temp water). Satria did not make a lot of noise, only soft grunts and burps. He does not like to wear shoes. So he often kicks his shoes off.

After the museum, they smelt something foul but realized that they did not bring any spare nappies! Iwan said, "he normally poops in the afternoon". It shows that they still need some training before they get to know how to handle babies...Scout's motto, "Always be prepared"!.....LOL!

Therefore, we had to drive to a sundry shop to buy PAMPERS for Satria. Nappies in Bahasa Indonesia are called Pampers irregardless of whether it is Pampers brand or not. After Satria was cleaned up in a public toilet nearby, we headed out for lunch.

I took them to the famous MI CELOR stall in Palembang. Mi Celor is a noodle dish with thick coconut gravy. Iwan held Satria with one hand at the side but the baby kept wanting to pull the plates and spoons from the table. In the end, I finished up my mi celor quickly and temporarily baby sit Satria while the 2 dug into their noodles.

After lunch, we headed home. The A/C in the car was so comfortable that Satria fell asleep. As you can see from the photo, his arms were bent like a bow facing upwards as he snoozed throughout the way home.

It was an interesting day out for us. Not so much of the contents inside the museum but because a 6 month old baby was tagging along. The weekend stay for the baby should serve as good practice for Iwan and Ida but I warned them not to expect the same of their own newborn when Ida delivers sometime in March next year. Every baby is different.

Until now I still have Blog formatting problems: everytime I insert photos, my formatting will get screwed up. I have looked in the FAQ sections of Blogger but could not find a good solution for my formatting problems yet. If you have any ideas on how to resolve it, please let me know.

Photos Of The Week - Tofu & Trucks

2 weeks ago I taught my maid to steam tofu. Obviously she has never done steaming before with a steamer, so I told her to put the square soft tofus onto a metal plate and steam it for 10 mins. When I came back I was surprised to see the following dish on my table!

This was her steamed tofu dish with fried garlic on top.....but it was all mashed up and out of shape! So the next day I asked her what happened and she told me that she steamed the tofu for >1 hour!!

No problem, she was on her learning curve. However, last week the steamed tofu dish came out to be like this....

I was surprised again. Not only the tofu is all mashed up, it was perfectly round. I ate half of the tofu dish and asked her what happened the next day. She said, "I used a plastic container to close up the tofu and steam it".



I almost fainted when I heard that she put a plastic container covering up the tofu and put it on a metal plate to steam under the >100c steamer! The plastic would have melted and I would have eaten all the toxins from the heated plastic container. I have been poisoned by my maid.... She was banned from steaming tofu from that day onwards.



In Palembang, all the trucks that carry fertilizers into the estates are only limited to 8 tons compared to Malaysia's 20 tons due to the bad road infrastucture. Any trucks > 8 tons will not be able to enter the dirt roads.



They have funny funny writings all over the trucks and this is one of them.... KEKASIH HALAL - literally it meant LEGAL LOVER. So what does Legal Lover mean? I am sure it does not mean THE WIFE.

What Is A MOCAK?

Yesterday afternoon when my driver came to pick me up for lunch, he told me that there was a power outage at home. Therefore, I was not able to heat up the food from the fridge and had to buy some take-away food. I wanted to try this Mi Aceh (Aceh noodles) from a nearby shop, so we drove there. It was pouring. When we got to the Mi Aceh stall, we saw a MOCAK (sounds like "mow-chuck") or Motor-Becak (Motorized-trishaw).

The Mocak belongs to the Mi Aceh guy. He is from Aceh (northern Sumatra) and claims that he brought the mocak to Palembang by bus. It was dismantled into smaller pieces then put on a bus. When it got here, he re-assembled it back. He said it is very popular to have mocaks in Aceh and it is legal. The Palembang city regulations prohibit mocaks to be driven but I guess he is still driving it illegally around this area.

If you examine the mocak carefully, you can see that it can take on a total of 7 passengers - the bike rider and pillion rider on the bike section (2), plus 3 leaning back at the carriage section and 2 more facing opposite the 3 persons!

The Mi Aceh guy stir fries the noodles then use a lid to cover them up and steam it. It is a spicy dish. If you look properly at his stall, you can see a piece of beef hanging there. Other than the Mi Aceh, I also took away some BATAGOR which is something like dumplings and fried tofu (see photo below). I would not say that the Mi Aceh & Batagor were nice but at least I got to know more about the MOCAKs.