Sunday, July 29, 2007

Power of One!

Today was a turning point in my life as I discovered the "Malaysia-Today" website created by Raja Petra Kamarudin (cousin to the Selangor Sultan), who is a strong critic of the Badawi "Pak Lah" government. For the past couple of week I have read his blogs, which focus on telling the truth on the dirt of Malaysian politics and was astonished by the content in his blogs. You would have to read the blogs in their entirety to get a feel of what is going on in Malaysia today. Believe you me, it is not pretty. Never have I dreamt that Malaysia's problem with corruption and nepotism is huge, perpetrated by the big guns in Malaysian politics, would have escalated to such a scale. From corruption charges on the Police chief to Badawi flying to Australia in the middle of the night to talk to investigators from Washington on his son-in-law's corrupt involvement in the Iraq food-for-oil program. Thanks to the Internet, such information cannot be silenced by censorship, jail, death or the ISA Act. The Internet is as powerful today as television was in the 50's.

As you would have guessed, the Malaysian government tried to stop his blog by taking Raja Petra in for questioning, in relation to the comments placed in his blog. However, they (the infamous Malaysian police) could not arrest him. Why? 'Cause what is on the blog is the truth. I do not think the public would tolerate another "Anwar Ibrahim saga" (wonder what stories are being created to get Raja Petra in court). His blog not only digs out the dirt but in some cases, displays evidence (black and white). I can go on and on about what was written, but I would like to urge those who read my blog to spend a few minutes, take your cursor to the far right of this blog and click on the link that I have conveniently displayed (there is also the Keadilan site for your perusal).

You might ask me. What does us reading the "Malaysia-Today" blog got to do with title "Power of one"? Well, for the first time in my life, I felt that I should make a difference by spreading the truth on Malaysian politics and it starts with introducing those who visit this blog to "Malaysia-Today" site. This would be my contribution to the cause. The "cause" is to build awareness to those who read this blog. I am sure everyone is familiar with the phrase "You can bring the horse to the pond but you cannot force him to drink the water". My blog is the pond and you guys can choose to read the link or not, it is totally up to you. But for most of us being humans, we would like to drink from that pond.

Incidentally, this blog would also serve as a record to my future generations as evidence that their father, grandfather or great grandfather was not a man who worked, brought home the bacon and died. He contributed to society in some way by bringing forth awareness (it does not have to be big one). He believed that people were entitled to the truth and the truth begins with education and awareness.

My personal wish : UMNO to be defeated at the next elections and Anwar Ibrahim made the next PM of Malaysia. This is my honest solemn wish. I hope the guy up there is listening.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Disneyland here we come!

After several days of trawling the Net, we finally booked the hotels for our much-anticipated trip to Disneyland and Los Angeles. Although the trip is for the end of August, Shaayla is already very excited about and keeps talking about going to Disneyland to see Cinderella and Mickey Mouse. We've even done a calendar for her to cross out each day before our holiday!

We'll be doing 2 days in Disneyland to cover Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Then another 2 days further down south nearer to Redondo Beach, where we'll explore the famous Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach. And of course Suresh can't wait to explore the many restaurants at LA's Thai Town!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Of Chicken Rice and Bubur Cha Cha

Last night, Suresh's co-workers Daniel and Desiree came over for a casual get-together and dinner. Made chicken rice and bubur cha cha. Chicken rice turned out really well and all but 2 drumsticks were wiped out. Instead of just the usual coconut milk gravy, I added gula melaka to it and it was really much richer...and nicer.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Birthday Surprise for Johann


On Sunday, a surprise birthday party was organised for Johann. We brought Putri Salat and Chocolate Ganache cake. The cake turned out really well, with Suresh adding the icing letters on the cake.

Shaayla also tried riding on a 'big girl' bicycle for the first time. Guess we were surprised that she was actually tall enough to reach the pedals AND cycle! Our little girl is growing up...

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Sunny Sausalito


It was a beautiful sunny day at Sausalito, a tiny seaside town just a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. A short walk among the gift shops later, we lunched at a very cosy pizza cafe. While the pizza was good, the same can't be said for the mushroom omelette which was rather bland. Can't blame Shaayla for abandoning that in favour of the Italian pizza. Click here to see all the photos of our day trip.

The ferry ride on the Blue & Gold ferry across to Fisherman's Wharf was great. We stood by the rails on the top deck and with wind in our hairs, we slowly sailed past the (in)famous Alcatraz Island before docking at Pier 41. The place was, as usual, packed with tourists. The earlier seabreeze worked its charm and Shaayla was slowly lulled to sleep in her stroller. She slept through the shopping trip at "After the Quake" and another souvenir shop where Pati got a few SF gifts for every one back home.

A quick trip to the vista point later, it was dinner at Indonesia Restaurant. Food was excellent, especially the Sambal Udang and Oxtail Soup. Definitely worth a second trip back!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Exciting new recipe website

While browsing the web for chocolate cake recipes for Johan's birthday surprise this coming Sunday, I came across a really exciting website -- http://www.recipezaar.com. The collection is amazing and literally thousands of recipes...from main dishes to desserts. They are also conveniently categorised, with useful tools, such as handy recipe conversion and printing and consolidated shopping list. This is one site I'm definitely going to frequent.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Our blog...at last

Finally, this afternoon, I sat down and decided to try my hand at creating a blog for us. Must say it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. But took me sometime to get used to editing photos on Photoshop...again.

Last week, we attended Katelyn's 3-year old birthday party and Shaayla had her arm painted for the first time. She didn't want her face painted, but she was game for butterflies being painted on her arm. I also made a steamed nine-layer kuih for Katelyn's birthday party.