.....times of refreshing.....

I was stopping my car besides a condo while waiting for my wife to collect some documents. While glancing around the condo to see if there's any pretty babes around, I notice this small hibiscus hiding among the bushes. I quickly got out of the car, walk towards the bushes, kneel down and took a macro shot of the hibiscus with my iphone.


It was not a perfect picture but I like it very much. I also posted it on my Instagram account. Well, philosophy wise, it also said there's always an hidden beauty or talent in everyone of us....you just need a little effort for yourselves or others to discover it.

Have a good weekend!

On a lighter note, I know Yong Peng did produce a lot of pastries and bicsuits but I didn't know they also famous for 'heong peh'. Well, I really don't know which term to use to describe this pastry, whether its kompia, don't know what 'sou' in canto, pia as my Indonesians colleagues called it and etc. They sold it at one of the express bus rest stops near the NS highway.

One of the stalls there

The good thing is they baked the pastry there and it's fresh from the oven. I sample all their three flavours, lotus, yam and 'tau sar' and they were really good. Anyway, its still fresh and hot. Besides that, they also sold siew pow and pineapple tarts.

I bought all the three flavours and even after a few days, the pastries were still nice, though not as crunchy as before when it was fresh from oven. OK, now I got more options to buy 'heong peh' , besides Ipoh and Penang.

I felt terrible over the last weekend and it's all thanks to my Prince2 (Project management) Practitioner exam which I failed by a few marks. I was in a meeting then when I received the email and for a while, I could not focus on the meeting though I tried. Well, in actual fact, most of the folks failed in their first attempt as it was not an easy exam and usually it has to be retake 2-3 times before you finally earn that certification. However, I still can't over it and feeling slight disappointment. Moreover, I have to pay S$368 to resit the exam which is to schedule mid next month.

Anyway, nothing much I can do except to resit again and study more and do more mock up questions. Moreover I only had 4 nights to study in the past, as well as it's not an easy exam to pass in the first attempt. I also need to adjust my usual activities to allocate time for studies.

Sigh...how I wished I pass it but that's life!

I was passing by Yong Peng after a short weekend at Seremban to accompany my wife for the Ching Ming festival. Well, as usual, our craving for foochow dish were usually back when we are nearing Yong Peng and thus, we drove in to this peaceful town, which was also the rest place for the express buses.

We are back at this humble Old Street Town restaurant, situated near the NS  highway interchange. The first thing I want are their famous foochow soup, which tasted great with some drops of vinegar. I had two small bowls. :)

Next, we just ordered the food as recommended by the lady boss though I would love to have the red wine chicken but most of the folks are either down with sore throat or cough.

A simple but delicious ginger fried fish slices on a cold evening

'fan shue yip' ... light vegetable dish

Fried Pork Ribs in marmite sauce

I like this dish as they really fried the pork ribs to be very crunchy and the sweet marmite sauce really tantalised the taste bud. I had a few pieces of it.

and cups of chinese tea

With hot chinese tea, that makes up a simple meal while we continued our journey back home to JB. Here's the address and directions, nothing too fancy but a nice simple meal...

Almost yearly, I accompanied my wife to pay a visit to her late mum at the Nilai Memorial Park, together with my in laws. We were at the memorial park a week later after the Qing Ming festival was over but there are still lots of cars. I took a number of pictures and posted them on my facebook. Anyway, here are some of the pictures.

The temple at the park

A landscape view of the temple far away...

Love this shot I captured from a Lotus Pond

 

Another view of the temple .... it's so windy there!

Lots of folks still visiting and paying respect to their  loved ones ...

Preparation....err...notice the LV bag there ?? On the right is an Ipad..heheh...

fruits... which I got from Singapore

No joke here... father in law with bros in law... don't play play...

Another landscape view of the park... the place is peaceful!

Love this pix... a lotus pond and oriental structures

The place where ashes urns are placed

A nice little lake ...

 

Yours Truly and little princess....

I find that the place is kinda peaceful, organised, clean and serene. In fact, I took a walk alone around the park and doesn't feel eerie, unlike those older type of cemetaries.

Have a good week, folks!

I guess lots of folks were envying me for the past week as I was at Orchard Road (Singapore's shopping belt) for the whole week, in a five-star hotel at Pan Pacific doing a training course. I had buffet for the whole 5 day training and not forgetting the two tea breaks in the morning and afternoon with free flow gourmet coffee and a variety of teas.It sounds good as it may seem but that's one of toughest and busiest week I had.

The restaurant where I had my lunch daily last week

There were two exams in the training, one on Wednesday and the other on Friday. The first three days were focused on a fast paced course of instructions where we have to paid attention to it before we sat for the first exam, which is also a pre-requisite for the second exam. Buffet lunch was cut short by the American instructor as we needed to keep to the schedule. Thus, it was a kinda 'rush' buffet.

Exam time!!

It's actually not all that 'glamour' when having a training at a 5-star hotel. The stress of studying and preparing for exams definitely take precedence and before you knows it, time passed by and you are at the end of the training. It was real busy and stressful too. I am glad I passed the first exam and keeping my fingers crossed for the second 'super tough' exam's result, which will be released two weeks later. However, I love walking around Orchard Road around 5pm, where the courses ended daily.

Have a good week, folks!