Week 6 – becoming a mom

My last entry was week 35, that was when Bindy was still in me. Literally. She’s 6 weeks now and growing fast. All that stress and frustration from weeks of sleepless nights as we, both of us, mom and dad, settle into the world of parent hood, is quickly diminishing to routine feedings, cooing, nappy changes, cuddling and cleaning. Waking up in the wee hours is a given and taking turns having dinner is expected. Watching a movie through dinner time is a luxury and even taking a little time off with Shrky on our own while my mom is here with me is a blessing that I learnt not to ever take for granted anymore. It has been difficult, no doubt about that, transistioning is tough. Who says it was easy but the books could never quite say it out loudly enough~ but Thank heavens and God in all wonders of wonder, it is certainly true, being a mother is a blessing and an experience…its humbles you yet toughens you up. It slows you down yet time goes by so quickly. I used to wonder when she will be able to fit in all her over sized gift dresses and play with her toys…yet today, I wondered how she grew up so quickly within a month + . My little girl, babe, Bindy.

Welcome to the world Bindy.

35 weeks

and counting.
most people including books would certainly recommend that come closer the time, chuck the calendar and stop counting. Enjoy the final weeks.

Theoretically have about 4-5 weeks to go to full term,
Thankfully, I’m not plagued with backaches and water retention….(0r should I be adding ‘yet’ at the end of the sentence??) Bending is a problem though and I find myself coming up with creative ways to pick something up or simply use more of my knees. Getting winded is apparently common too, at the end of a flight of stairs, I find myself palpitating somewhat!

But this ‘week’ also means the end of my flying days (MAS allows 35 weeks on international and 36 on local), although I still have a week more to go before I’m really grounded, I don’t really like the idea of boarding a small Fokker 50 through the stormy clouds to KK which I am missing my apartment there at the moment and the view over the bay. Speaking of which, its July and its looking more like what October used to look like. Stormy, raininy, windy. Its taboo for me to use thewords ‘global warming’, I think the words has been over used that its lost it meaning, its used by so many politicians or people to make them sound learned and concerned. Well, at least I think so….but coming back to the weather. Are we seeing a shift in the weather pattern? October (last few years) now looks very calm…a normally great end to the diving season. Of which I won’t be able to enjoy this year.

This weekend and the last couple, I spend mainly organising my pc and photos, books, dvds and junk around the house. My trusty companion Mango, never far

Ok, I have to get back to ‘work’, I still have a couple of things to clear in the library and office before I can start on another project…painting, no not on walls, on a canvas…although walls do sound interesting now…wonder how Shrky would react if I start mural-ling the walls ! muah ahahah! More photos of my lazy sundays on facebook.

..

Say bye bye to Sabah?

clipped from thestar.com.my Sulu Sultanate issuing birth certs to Filipinos? By NG CHENG YEE KUALA LUMPUR: The issuance of birth certificates by the Sultanate of Sulu to illegal immigrants from the Philippines in Sabah has raised the question of sovereignty of Malaysia and the state, said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang. âœHow can this take place? âœIt challenges the question of the sovereignty of Malaysia in Sabah and there is a disturbing implication in terms of long-term consequences because of the subsisting claim of the land in Sabah by the Filipinos,” he said at the Parliament lobby Wednesday. He said the issue was of great concern to the people in Sabah as the estimated number of illegal immigrants had exceeded the number of Sabahans. âœIt makes Sabahans the strangers in their own land and this is why there is so much unhappiness among the people there,â he said. He said there were about 100,000 to 140,000 illegal immigrants in Sabah in 1978 but the number had since risen to about 1.5 million.

Oh, I don’t mean to impress my depression on you lot but reading this, I just can’t help to think …if there are more illegals immigrants in Sabah then there are Sabahans, and the illegals are being issued a ‘certificate’ which gives these lot what they’ve always wanted…a home, then isn’t it possible that one day, the Sulu rebels might just sound the horn and take over Sabah, forcing Sabah to secess from Malaysia?

Hmmm…

Great Bread – where to get it in Miri!

The test of whether or not my bread was edible is Shrky’s appetite. He devoured my experimental bread …literally! So that’s good news. But it took about 2 tries before I was pleasantly surprised myself.

 

Never been a kitchen loving gal, but I’ve been talking about not getting good bread around here.

 

There are 3 bakeries where French bread is available. 

• Southern’s Bakery, the French crust is crunchy but it’s too white and dry in the inside, a little too plain to taste, past a day old and your jaws will be in for a workout. Perhaps that’s what French is suppose to taste like, hey…I wasn’t raised on bread alone and French bread when I was growing up- huh, what’s that?? Today I love it because it’s the most versatile medium to prepare meals with. Shrky says I should open up a sandwich store…perhaps I would one day…or is he just being sweet…
• Anyway, there’s Hot Cross Buns French and Ma Baker’s. They don’t do as much French bread as Southern, just a couple but I prefer them, it keeps better after a day and the crust smells sweet. The inside is spongy and the crust is…crunchier, less jaw action required.  

 The perfect bread?

Am not a bread expert but my perfect bread is…crunchy on the outside, but not too thick a crust that it hurts my palette when I bite through. Sweet smelling crust, so when I bring the bread to my mouth, the fragrant brown crust makes your mouth water. Then when you finally bite though, it tears nicely without too much ripping action (as if you’re eating raw meat!) and a chest full of crumbs. Oh and, whole meal preferable. makes me feel healthier.

 

Did I manage to find it? Nah, not in Miri. So, surfing I went to find the secrets of home made French bread.

 

I used this recipe for bread enough for 1 night’s meal for 2 persons:

1 x cup white

1 x cup whole meal

<1 x teaspoon of salt

1 x teaspoon of dry bakers yeast

1 x cup of warm water

 

Mix the flour together in a bowl (there isn’t a lot, so no need to overkill with a big bowl) and salt. Apparently salt binds the gluten in bread.

 

In another bowl, mix the yeast into the warm water. Packet says you don’t need to but on my second try, I found that mixing it in water actually improved the bread…somehow….

 

Now….work the flour mix into the water mix till it looks like a dough. I use a ladle to start with because initially, it would really remind you of making an instant oats meal. Once it starts to separate from the sides, I take it out on to a floured surface and knead it.

 

TIP 1: Kneading is important! 10 minutes is sufficient, less then that your dough will be heavy with folds and clumps of flour.

 

Once done, roll the dough in a bowl lightly coated with olive oil/butter so the surface is ‘oiled’ and it won’t crack. It also makes the bread smell nice. Leave it in there and cover with plastic and cloth. Go do other things for 45 minutes or so.

 

TIP 2: Leaving dough too long does not mean better. 2 hours max I was told. I usually leave if for 1 hour only. Once I left it too long and it smells…

 

After an hour, it should have doubled in size, punch it with a vengeance for fun. Then knead it again for a bit. Roll it out into rectangles, and fold it into a cylinder like how French bread is suppose to look like or flattish like a ciabatta.

 

Place it in a tray and leave again for 30 minutes, cover with cloth. It should rise again a bit.

 

Finally, fire up the oven, max it! Leave if on for 15 minutes before popping the tray in along with a bowl of water.

 

Time it to 15 minutes, after which take the water bowl out and continue baking for another 5-10 minutes or till it browns. I find total time 20 minutes is sufficient or it gets too brown.

 

Ready to eat!!!!

 

TIP 3: Apparently the water bowl makes the inside soft and the outside crusty..??? seems to work in my oven! Try it! Its actually crunchy!

 

So this is as close to getting good bread for me. I didn’t use any bread maker, wasn’t interested in a loaf but might get it for the kneading bits. Its not exactly French bread, but its whole meal, its tastier, doesn’t make my jaw too hard and pretty crunchy yet spongy – not crumbly. Perfect for a simple matured cheddar cheese sandwich.

Fuel prices up but pay >_< zlitch

A couple of things happened in the last two weeks…but 1 upsets me most…why are things around us getting more and more expensive but my pay is not rising???? My pay is not being compensated at all for the rise in fuel and rice. Ok given that we’re both not great rice eaters, so the price increase wouldn’t quite get to us…no I lied, we bought a couple of 5kg packets of rice from the Pottery Shop and GKs to stock up…in case doom and gloom does happen and the government will start to force us to eat ‘broken’ rice and water. So yeah, suddenly, we are rice aware, suddenly it became important for us to ‘stock’ up. So now, we’ve got a couple of packets in our cupboards. Hopefully, weasels won’t find its way in there.

Then fuel increased by 40%, I’m now paying $2.50 per liter. Last weekend, it costs me $150 to fill up, used to cost me around $90, and that’s already high considering that just beginning of last year I was paying around $70 for a full tank. And during this time, my pay hasn’t come up a cinch. On average, I’ll be spending $450 (more or less) of fuel just to get to work and back and do some of the things I normally do….grocery shopping, meals and bank. 

I’ve lost an average of $60 for every fill. Oh wait, if you walk into a restaurant and ask for an additional bowl of rice, you get slapped at least $1.00 and a small bowl, it was I remembered 50 cents. For breakfast, T-c-peng and mee kolok has increased too, guess how much, to around 40% as well! So my breakfast has increased by 40%.

Lets take a look at my usual dinner meal of bread and cheese, at GK’s, mature cheddar costs $27-28 a block. And that will last us about 3-4 days max on strictly bread and cheese. It was….$12-15 a block. So that’s more then 100% increase…and my pay…>_< ???? nada. So dinner has increased by 100%!

(Ironically, driving across the border, I can get cheese at B6 = $15 ish.)

Lunch averages to about $15-18 each for a serving of chicken, char siew and duck mixed rice + 1 lemon teh peng. I once remembered $12 was a luxury. 

Benefits seems to be eroding too, we used to have a clinic and a bank near by, now that’s gone. Sure, you could call it a luxury to have the company you work for actually have a clinic and bank especially for the staff, but it was a benefit, I signed up for it. Now, I have to drive at least 20-30 minutes away to get to the nearest one – on my time and my gas.

Great…so, what the action plan?

1.       boycott work 100% or reduce work done by 40-60%

2.       rob bank just enough to compensate for my 40-60% loss of income due to rising consumer prices and eroding employee benefits

3.       hijack the van that delivers the $ to the atm in the foyer

4.       drive to Brunei and fill in my fuel there and buy cartons of cheese and overflow the market with my favorite cheese at a much cheaper price

5.       promote/encourage anorexia as a remedy for price-pay conflict

6.       picket in front of management

 

Hmm… being evil requires a lot more effort…I think I’ll just go home and whine….

The fur(apple) of my eye….

…or furkids. My hubby scoffs at the description, ‘furkids’.  Seriously, ‘Pets are pets. Kids are not pets…and pets are not kids!’ Well, what would I know huh…? 10 weeks and counting, I’ll be able to say them words with a lot more conviction! 

But hang on, this doesn’t mean that they should be treated like slugs, slimy and void of personality. Oh, I’m still angered by what happened to Baloo (see previous postings). Two days ago, I collected my cocker, Mango from Betty’s vet. She has boarding services as well, and a fellow Sabahan. Her staff wanted to update her details, chip #, vaccination date etc and then.. I learnt the horrid news, that the Live Animal Center (LAC) has yet again…’lost’ another cat in boarding.  I didn’t bother asking details or why the ‘polite’ substitute of ‘lost’ for ’killed’, what for…only to guess that the facilities has not improved since Baloo was mauled by their guard dogs? Dogs that they claim they need because of the level of crime in the area…what…they’re keeping gold bullions in there?? And what was hurtful was the casual blaim that a kid might have wondered into the kennel and opened the cage because Baloo and Bagheera is ‘oh so cute’ and they couldn’t possibly deny visitors the privilege of petting and playing with them…didn’t know Miri has a petting zoo.

Baloo was Bagheera’s pillow, always.  We leave Baghee now with Doris, our trusty and amazing day time house helper.  She comes over to feed her during our weekend getaways while Mango is whizzed away to Betties’. i am a lot happier with Mango’s facilities too, her kennel is cleaned everytime it is soiled, given that Mango only does her biz once a day, that makes her a lovely dog to care for. She’s in doors, and she gets her morning walk and is handled by people who love dogs. One time in LAC, a handler draged her out of her kennel like a guni sack and she came back with fleas and matted fur that I had to clip her beautiful red locks. At Betties’, all boarders gets a flea treatment, Frontline to be sure those nasties don’t decide to go a gold rush. I love it, I think its a great idea…Mango lives with me…last thing I need is someone elses fleas! With a bit of fee, she gets a lovely bath, hair combed, nail clipped and ears cleaned before she comes home again.

When we do go away longer then a weekend, we board Bagheera there too. The cat room is upstairs now. Previously it was also in the same area as the dogs…what you’d ask would keep them safe from the fellow canine boarders? Well, care takers who seem to be more turned on and a policy of no visitors allowed in kennelling rooms plus doors. 
Today, its improved. Roomier, well aired, clean and a floor away from their canine compatriots. Suits me fine…I have no qualms promoting an establishment that continues to improve…to most of us…our pets are part of the family.

Today, the pouffe below is not longer the kitty’s throne, she prefers the lounge sofa, sharky’s lap or my lounge wrap. Mango sits near my feet or Sharky’s hoping for food scraps (which would never happen but she waits for it anyway and plays her long beautiful eyelashes on us for pity) and would settle on or around her white mat below with a bone. I bought her a Kong rubber toy which she now brings it along everywhere hoping you’d throw it so she can run after it and slobber it with slime…(not retrieve it..my bimbo dog knows no joy in retreiving.)

  

Ahh..what bliss. The fur’pples of my eye.  

pp/s all photos are taken by my sis on her last trip to Miri (Dec 07)

Children of Mulu – the world’s heritage

DSC_0731 copy
Originally uploaded by Rajah Brooke

the truth is this…the photos were experimental. I had my medium zoom 300mm with me. I was uninspired, and pregnant. well, not that it has anything to do with taking photos…funny how that fact happen to find its way into everything!

Doing Mulu is not difficult, if you keep to the touring path that is. The Deer and Lang’s cave is about 3.8km away from the HQ, all on flat plank walk. So as long as you’re not loading yourself with camera equipments and is relatively healthy, a preggie can manage this rather well.

The caves are another 2-2.5 km in total. So you’ll be walking almost 10km in total over a slow 4-5 hours. So water is crucial but at the end of the 3.8k, is the bat observatory and a new addition just opened March 20th 2008 or there abouts by the Prince of Monaco, a Bat Cam…quite literally…an IR cam in the midst of bat action! Here, the bar is open for a refreshing cold canned or bottled drinks. Food, just crackers. So bring your own favorite hunger cruncher.

Now the photo here is taken at the Penan village enroute to cave # 3 & 4 which is reached via a 20 minute ride on a river boat. The center of the village is a huge soccer field, always seen it overgrown and empty. At the fringe of the field is a school and a craft stall. Thats where the kids were, along with the women busy either beading intricate wall hangers and bracelets or weaving mats.

More portraits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rajahbrooke/sets/72157602873215867/

As I happily took photos 5-6 meters away, a lot of the children gazed into the space in front of them. Not really focusing or interested in the tourist who were busy fingering through the bead works.

My dad in-law has a habit of popping his mouth with his finger, in most cases leads to a roaring laughter from the innocent.

I went on pondering if the children understood why their village, on a daily basis is visited by people with no real interest to purchase anything other then just a couple of cheap souvenirs and why cameras often click in their faces or faces of their mom’s or gramps.

I pondered if they knew Mulu the way i and other visitors, know it…and if I knew Mulu the way they do. I doubt it. The children all dressed in torn t-shirts, tousled hair and empty gazes.

I wondered if the parks and the resort knew and appreciated the crafts they so meticulously worked on day in and day out. I figured they didn’t…if they did, I’d have seen their works in the souvenir shops…instead the souvenir shops sells wood works that looks more african then local and imported perfumes and t-shirts with crass designs.

But hey, these are ‘ponder-vations’ from an uninspired, 5mths pregnant gal.

Mulu, UNESCO World Heritage park…the children of Mulu, the world’s heritage….?

The Rajah in Mulu

the rajah in mulu
Originally uploaded by Rajah Brooke

I’ll write more about the Mulu trip later but for this entry, its about the Rajah. This trip, the rajah brooke was everywhere! in the hotel lobby, board walk, outside the room, the cave entrance, the loo entrance, the pavement, on trees, on rivers…you name it! uurrgh! but the annoying thing is that they never never seem to settle down!!! this was the closest. To me, its the most beautiful butterfly in the world! a Birdwing butterfly, its wing span is greater then 17cm! and the green just glows and catches your eye from a mile away!! It reminds me of a hummingbird at times. This photo was taken with my 300 VR lens..its quite heavy and not quite long enough. Sometimes I wish the camera has AI to track and predict the butterfly’s path!

EarthDay #2: The Exhibitions and the Value of Corals

The exhibition that was to propel me to a life a kin to Galen Rowell’s wife…went well. Shry’s banner was loud and proud and the 2×3 ‘ high colour, gloss photos was the attracting the crowd like a the blue light of a fly catcher.

On the left of this banner, a picture of me, looming over the striking colours the reefs of Miri has to offer. The center, Ronald van As, taken at the Kenyalang Reef, Malaysia’s first rigs-to-reef project. In her hey day as an oil and gas slave, she was called the Baram-8. Since 2004, she plays hosts to myriads of fish, soft corals and hard corals are also beginning to flourish. Here, Ronald teases a lone lion fish with his peircing curiosity.

The VIPs included Datuk Patinggi-Tan Sri George Chan, Shrky’s extensive knowledge in corals and his contagious passion to all things underwater kept them interested for over 10 minutes. Considering that most booth roamers would barely reach the 2 minute mark, we thought there was genuine interest!

This busy picture of hard coral plates, gorgonians, branching corals, featherstars often requires someone to help decipher the apparent chaos.

The irony about life, i think, is that chaos is a key indicator of sustainability. The key to survival. Some people call it sustainable development, others symbiotic relationship, diversity, multi-cultural etc. People call it anything they want to suit the political agenda of the day. I think, apparent chaos is the key to potential success of a community and its habitat. It bids more question of how can this busy-ness, messy-ness be so successful and beautiful yet ugly at the same time. The ‘mistake’ sometimes, is ‘humanising’ nature by ‘organising’ it and enforcing a pattern that ‘we’ can easily and better comprehend….afterall, being human, we associate patterns and symmetry to beauty…don’t we? (below, the mesmerising patterns of a palm oil plantation)

 
Some of these coral are old!!!!!!!!!! It is difficult to put a finger on the rate of coral growth, the variables are plentiful and its growth are slow, that much we know. Some papers quote 0.8 – 80 mm/year! while others settle to around 2-3mm/year, and potentially 2-3 faster in the Atlantic ocean. Some of these corals are as wide as I am tall…sure I’m  not Miss Universe tall, at 146cm, taking say a 10mm/year growth, some of these corals could be more then 1400 years old! Even  if  that seems unbelievable, lets take the 80mm/year, its still at least 180 years old. In KK, where a number of dive sites has been fish-bombed to sand bits, after about 10 years of dormancy, branching corals of about 20 cm can be seen. That’s about 20mm ish/year growth. SADly, at about 20cm, its the perfect size for a table top souvenir. Found sold at around rm20-30 in airport souvenir shop and some ‘local craft’ shops, yeah…. so that places  the economic value of corals at rm1-2 per cm!!! I feel sick, and at the same time sad for these merchants who sells this. Angry at those who buys.

Today, I celebrate Earth Day at home, while Shrky joins 50 others for a ‘Net Clearing’ effort in Kenyalang Reef, organised by The Sarawak Tourism, hosted by Voo (Seridan Mulu). I wonder what these 50 would bring home…a feel good moment in their lives? a free dive for the year? a new line in their resume? a new entry in their journal? … its a start…

World Earth Day 2008- and what do I do?

Earthday is the 20th April. Miri is organising a couple of this this weekend, a reef cleanup in the Baram-8 or now known as Kenyalang reef on Sunday and an exhibition. My bubbly hubby Shrky (Ian Jones) was invited to put up an exhibition this afternoon on his underwater photoes. I’d say about time, he has lovely photos. Hopefully this will propel us to new horizons and I can say I am married to a famous underwater photographer, writer, producer and director of documentaries, artist, musician etc and I can retire and manage his publicity  , promotional events, brochures, graphic designs, event organising and maybe even be really good at my art! 

Today, the company I work for has a half day afternoon ’off’. Cleverly disguised under the HR policy of Work life balance, every 3rd friday of the month, the afternoon is for the staff to practice ’Work hard play hard’ (WHPH) . It seems that we need to be reminded to have a bit of fun in the company of your collegues. You can read it 2 ways, we are NOT having fun at work or we are being worked TOO HARD! Eitherway, the majority would continue on the day as usual, dredging their fingers into the keyboards while the other half takes off to ???. And there is the minority who were volunteered to organise an activity for the department to part take as a team, afterall, it was part intended as a team building opportunity too…y’know, use your voice for once and have a face to face conversation on other interest instead of emails and company matters? 

Right..in about half hour, I’ll be going home to fetch a camera to record this epic moment when he becomes famous and I become a happy, satisfied ’house’ wife…more to report later. 

In the mean time, last year (Oct 07) I organised a WHPH activty for my team, it was a Miri River cruise. Last february (08), the croc spotter of Miri (me, Shrky and Jonathan) went up river with his boat. 

This is what we saw. 

the year before…

 
a lot of the river scenes were like this, may not be the exact spot as the photo above but the river is changing. Once I Iook forward to these trips because its peaceful, green and the shadows cast by the trees calms the fierce afternoon sun. Now, I barely remember these welcoming shadows anymore. Just fierce angry sun. Part of the river is blocked by floating plants and stinks of rotting vegetation, what you get when the river is high in nitrates. We are losing our natural filters, those mangrove roots and riverine trees filters nutrients, junk and chemicals into the river. now the toxic soup flows freely int the river which eventually empties into the sea, smothering our reefs with silt and algae. 

Hmmm…World Earth Day ? Do we celebrate it to remind ourselves that it is beautiful yet fragile or to accidently expose these secret edens to obsessed developers? Do we celebrate it with jubilant wows of beauty or depressing moans of loss? Do you think people here even care to care?