Koi
The koi pool at Kek Lok Si. These koi fishes may worth hundreds of thousands or a million ringgit if they are of pure Japanese breed. Looks like they are not the pure Japanese breed. The kids enjoyed feeding the fishes very much.
Kek Lok Si
Kek Lok Si (or 极乐寺 in Chinese) is a Buddhist temple situated on a hill in Air Hitam in Penang. It is the best known Buddhist temple on the island and possibly the whole Malaysia. My last visit was more than 10 years ago with LA when I was giving talks at USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia).
We climbed up to the temple from the foot of the hill via a passage surrounded by souvenir stores. Sad to say, along the passage way, I saw garbage and many deserted stores. This is an awful site to this famous tourist spot on this pearl of orient.
Nonetheless, the temple is quite well maintained and many beautifying and expansion project are being carried out. IMO, the temple is rather too commercialized. Everywhere money, money, money. Encouraging tourists and Buddhist visitors to donate or buy stuff, good for the island economy (and the temple) but it is overdone. It is no exception in this materialistic world the temple has to seek financial for its survival and continue expansion and beautification to lure tourists. Sad, isn’t it?
The Goddess of Mercy and her two guardians on both side (photos below).
Our Princess Bread Maker
LA has got her Princess bread maker on February 11. She had made a few breads and they all tasted very good. Today she made another one after she managed to buy some special ingredients for bread making. She made a wholemeal bread with the wholemeal flour she bought from PJ. Here is the photo of the Princess bread maker and the delicious fresh hot wholemeal bread.
又是肉干飘香时
春节来咯！大街小巷每个角落肉干摊子林立，烤肉干的香味四处飘。又是肉干飘香的时侯。平时卖肉干的摊商零星可数。春节一到，可说卖肉干的人全都趁时机卖肉干大捞一笔。
肉干可是我的最爱。小时爸爸常买肉干让我夹面包当早餐。小时肉干还相当便宜的。现在肉干的价钱可要比我小时候贵了好多。这也是平时不买肉干吃的原因。不过偶尔会食指大动，买一点来吃。前两个礼拜就已经吃完一盒肉干。我那三个恐龙也很爱吃。不到三四天就吃完了。昨天朋友送来一盒肉干，晚上按耐不住，把它开了，吃了两片半。刚刚又吃了两片。
我喜欢单吃肉干，由其是猪肉切片的。如果配啤酒味道更好。肉干夹面包也美味。肉干拿来炒饭也很好。过了年，又要节食了。唉，一年一次吗…
Tiger
Previously, I wrote an article about a story of keeping tiger. Tiger is among the big ferocious cats I like. The tiger’s face is the main attraction, especially its captivating eyes.
Due to its beautiful fur, tiger has become an endangered species. Poachers hunt tigers for their beautiful fur. In some places, development activities have invaded tigers’ natural habitat forcing tigers to hunt for food near human settlement. Not all tigers hunt human. Most man hunters are old tigers which can no longer hunt like a young tiger and turn their hunting target to human. Many species have already extinct, like, the Javanese and Balinese tigers.
Tiger
I love tiger. It is so beautiful, especially the head. Tiger is the largest of the four big cats in the panthera genus. Tiger is native in the southern and eastern Asia. It is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore. I like to watch tiger in actions. Their movement is so light, stealthy but powerful.
Many years ago, there was a family at Sinn Hoe Garden, Bukit Baru keeping some tigers in their house compound. It was a hot topic and main attraction in this housing estate as well as in the town. Many people flocked to that house to see some tigers running loose in the house compound.
I was no exemption and joined the crowds. The house owner appeared to be the parent of a St David’s students. He was my junior and he knew me. So, I got the chance to be invited into their home and had a close encounter with their tigers. There were a few young cubs too. They were very playful. Their fur was so nice to touch.
Later, a news broke out. The owner was attacked by one of the tiger. Instantly, the news spread and haunted everyone especially people living at the estate. Soon, under social pressure, the owner had to give up his tigers and sent them to the zoo.
适量食用柿子可治疗风热咳嗽预防动脉硬化
我在十月写了一篇有关柿子的英语短文。我在网上看到了一篇关柿子的中文文章，转载在此和大家分享。
柿子（Persimmon）是柿子树（柿科柿属）的果实，原产于中国，柿子在中国大陆已有好几千年的历史，至今还有很多国家把柿子称为“中国的无花果”。不过现在许多国家也有，中国、日本、韩国和巴西是主要产地，以色列也逐渐赶上，发展出一种叫做莎隆果的新品种。美国各地则有野生的柿子。在中国，柿子是人们比较喜欢食用的水果，甜腻可口，营养丰富。不少人还喜欢在冬季吃冻柿子，别有味道。柿子既可生食，也可加工成柿饼、柿糕，柿子果脯、柿子果丹皮等，并可用来酿酒、制醋等。柿子营养丰富、色泽鲜艳、柔软多汁、香甜可口、老少喜食。
柿子营养价值很高，营养成分主要为糖类、果胶、蛋白质、脂肪、碳水化合物、微量元素和多种维生素。每100克熟柿中含有糖28克，其中主要是蔗糖、葡萄糖及果糖，含有碳水化合物15克，蛋白质1.36克，脂肪0.2克，碘量49.7毫克，以及钾、铁、钙、钠、镁、磷等矿物质和维生素C等。
科学家在用现代科学手段将柿子和苹果所含的营养成分进行对比之后，认为柿子在某些方面的优势要明显得多。例如，柿子的葡萄糖含量比苹果高出60%，膳食纤维含量等于苹果的2倍。而钠、钾、镁、钙、铁、锰的含量也大大超过了苹果。特别值得一提的是，柿子含有一种“酚类化合物”（苯酚或称石炭酸），对预防动脉硬化，降低心血管疾病发病率有很好的效果。柿子含有的膳食纤维、矿物质和石炭酸（一种抗氧化剂）成分，都是预防动脉硬化的要素。如果每天能食用柿子100克，便能有效地预防动脉硬化和心血管疾病。柿子预防心脏血管硬化的功效远大于苹果，堪称有益心脏健康的水果王。柿子富含果胶，它是一种水溶性的膳食纤维，有良好的润肠通便作用，对于纠正便秘，保持肠道正常菌群生长等有很好的作用。柿子含碘，所以因缺碘引起的地方性甲状腺肿大患者，食用柿子很有帮助。
据《本草纲目》所载：柿子味甘性寒，能消热去烦、止渴生津、润肺化痰、治疗热咳。中医认为，柿子味甘、涩，性凉。具有清热去燥、润肺化痰、止渴生津、健脾益胃、软坚、治痢、止血等功效。适用于风热咳嗽（不适用风寒咳嗽）、胃热伤阴、喉痛、吐血、甲状腺瘤、甲状腺肿大、大便干结、痔疮疼痛或出血等症。柿子是慢性支气管炎、高血压、动脉硬化、内外痔疮患者的天然保健食品。柿子有很多的药用价值，鲜柿、干柿饼、柿霜、柿蒂、柿叶都是很好的药物。柿饼：味甘，性平。具有润肺化痰、补脾涩肠、止血等功效，适用于燥痰咳嗽、脾虚食减、腹泻、便血、痔疮出血等症。柿霜：柿霜的成分主要是葡萄糖粉末。味甘，性凉。具有清热润肺，生津止渴，宁心泻火，凉血止血，消痔疗漏等功效。适用于肺热燥咳，咽干喉痛，口舌生疮，吐血，咯血等症。柿蒂：味甘，性平。具有降气止呃功效，适用于呃逆不止等症。柿叶：味苦，性凉。柿叶能软化血管、降低血压、防止动脉硬化、增加冠状动脉血流量，对高血压、冠心病、消化系统癌病有一定的效果。适用于各种急慢性炎症和出血等症。对肺结核咯血、胃溃疡吐血、眼底出血、血小板减少性紫癜和肺气胀满、咳嗽痰喘等有较好的疗效。由于嫩柿叶有利尿作用，所以柿叶茶还可以用来解酒。柿叶茶是利用夏季采摘的鲜柿叶经加工制成，与一般茶叶不同，柿叶茶呈弱酸性，而普通的红茶、绿茶和花茶呈弱减性。柿叶茶不含茶碱、咖啡因，晚上饮用不会因喝茶兴奋而导致失眠，反而可安神，是日常茶疗难得的健康饮品，深受国内外消费者的青睐。
吃柿子虽然有很多好处，但是有几点特别需要提醒：
1.空腹不能吃柿子。
因为柿子含有较多的鞣酸（或称单宁酸）及果胶，在空腹情况下它们会在胃酸的作用下形成大小不等的硬块，如果这些硬块不能通过幽门到达小肠，就会滞留在胃中形成胃柿结石，小的胃柿结石最初如杏子核，但是会愈积愈大。胃柿结石会愈结愈牢，不易粉碎，会引起胃粘膜充血、水肿、糜烂、溃疡，严重者可引起胃穿孔。
2.柿子皮不能吃。
柿子中的鞣酸绝大多数集中在皮中，在柿子脱涩时，不可能将其中的鞣酸全部脱尽，如果连皮一起吃更容易形成胃柿结石，尤其是脱涩工艺不完善时，其皮中含的鞣酸更多。
3.不要与含高蛋白的蟹、鱼、虾等食品一起吃。
在中医学中，螃蟹与柿子都属寒性食物，所以不能同食。从现代医学的角度来看，含高蛋白的蟹、鱼、虾在鞣酸的作用下，很易凝固成块，即胃柿结石。要避免发生以下情况：螃蟹＋柿子＝腹泻；白酒＋柿子＝会胸闷；红薯＋柿子＝会得结石。
4.糖尿病人勿食。
柿子中因含有糖类，而且大多是简单的双糖和单糖（蔗糖、果糖、葡萄糖即属此类），因此吃后很易被吸收，使血糖升高。凡体弱多病，脾胃虚寒，风寒咳嗽，妇女产后，女子月经期间，均忌食柿子。
5.适量使用。
柿子中的鞣酸能与食物中的钙、锌、镁、铁等矿物质形成不能被人体吸收的化合物，使这些营养素不能被利用，因此多吃柿子容易导致矿物质缺乏。一般，不在空腹的情况下，每次吃柿子不超过200克为宜。
6.食后漱口。
柿子所含的糖类和果胶，食用后总有一部分留在口腔里，特别是在牙缝中，加上弱酸性的鞣酸，很易对牙齿造成侵蚀，形成龋齿，因此在食用后宜喝几口水或及时漱口
A basket of rotten fruits
It’s Monday again, another week of teaching and training. As usual, I was looking for something to eat in the evening before going to dōkōkai. I thought of having some fruits so I look into the fruit basket on the table. Guess what?
OMG! Some fruits had rotten in the basket! They rot and got moldy. What a waste! I threw them away instantly without a second of hesitation. But I am glad that I’ve managed to save several from rotting in the basket. Perhaps they are lucky that I found them (or they found me?).
What a bizarre coincidence!!! 
Balsamic Vinegar
I had searched all the hypermarkets in Melaka but couldn’t find any balsamic vinegar. Finally, I have found it in Carrefour! Carrefour is a new hypermarket located in the second phase of Dataran Pahlawan.
The building design was really out of taste. The construction is not totally completed yet. The cement odor fills the building. Many shop lots are still vacant. The Carrefour hypermarket is located too high up. It occupies level 2 and 3. Groceries are found in level 3. It is rather inconvenient to push a heavy shopping cart full with groceries from Level 3 way down to ground floor although there are escalators. The lifts will be useless with huge crowd. Do you want to wait for the car to arrive?
The arrangement of goods is a little more messy than Tesco. The price? We find that Tesco is cheaper for its groceries. But, nonetheless, it is the only place in Melaka I can find balsamic vinegar.
I learned to eat bread with balsamic vinegar while I was on Okinawa. It is absolutely delicious!
Snake!
I like snake but I never touch one before. Today, I came to a close encounter with a snake. My telephone and DSL fritz again. I could not make a call from my house telephone so I went to mom’s house to report a faulty line to Telekom. When I arrived there slightly before noon, I saw a snake sliding on the electrical cable on the wall of the neighbor’s house. I saw its tail moving and sliding into the crevice between the wall and electric cable. At first glance, the color of the snake was black. It could be the venomous cobra. I could estimate it was about 3 to 4 feet long!
Without further delay, I called the Bomba (Fire Department) to help capture the snake. I waited at the front of mom’s house to keep an eye on the snake while waiting for the Bomba to arrive. After some minutes, they came in a fire engine.
They checked the crevice but could not find any sign of a snake. I told them that I really saw its tail about 2 feet long and that could not be a lizard’s tail. One of the guy inspected further under the crevice and he saw something and confirmed a snake was hiding in the crevice. He used a thick cable to reach into the crevice and the snake fell out.
I was right! It was about 4 feet long. Black but with some green and black cross hatching. They said it was “ular daun” (literally translated leaf snake).
The photo (click for larger view) is not so clear to confirm the species of the snake. But it could be Chrysopelea ornata or Chrysopelea paradisi (paradise tree snake). This tree snake could fly and often called flying snake or flying tree snake. Watch the movies how the snake “fly” here. This is a website of Jake Socha, a hepatologist from The University of Chicago. Very interesting.
Back to the snake. We thought it was dead or passed out because it was not moving. That’s why I went closer (but not too close) to take the photo. After a while, it became lively again and moved swiftly under my car. The Bomba men were trying to surround it but it moved too quickly and finally it found an exit and disappeared into the bushes in front of mom’s house. I saw it moving swiftly into the bush and I was closest to it. I could have picked up its tail but I did not have the gut to do it. Not like my karate grand master who is so quick that he can catch an Okinawan Habu snake with his bare hand. The Okinawan Habu snake is a very venomous snake on Okinawa.
The incident also brought two schoolmates to meet again. One of the Bomba guy, asked me if I was from St David just before they left. We exchanged some information and he appeared to be Khalid from 5A2, same year as me. What a happy ending. The snake did not die, two ex-schoolmate met again. Really happy ending.
First Commercial Photo Shoot
Just came back from the photo shoot at the studio. It was a real experience. The portable studio kit was easy to setup. It took less than 15 minutes for me to setup and lights up.
I met with a challenging and look impossible task. How to make a bouquet of flower to stand without a container/vase and not to let any instrument visible in the photo? It would look like as it floating in the air.
I had to improvise a little stand to support the bouquet vertically. I loved the challenge and finally solved the problem.
Product photography
Yesterday, I invested in a portable photography kit for photographing small artifacts or products. It is a necessity equipment to help LA to take some nice photos of her attractive products. The investment will also allow me to shoot product photos for other customers.
My first commercial shot looks not bad at all as you can see it here. I made the shot without any equipment except the camera, of course. The photo was taken in natural indirect sunlight and ambient flash. The shadows are soften by large aperture. Although, the result looks good, but being a perfectionist, this quality is below acceptable quality in commercial photography.
Victim of Human Negligence
Mimi “Qoink” Mae, a beautiful dog suffered from human negligence at the Veterinary Hospital of UPM (University Putra Malaysia). The careless, irresponsible, lazy attitude and negligence of the hospital staff caused a life of this lovely dog.
Visit her memorial website here and sign the petition to pursue accountability at UPM.
Smooth Yogurt
Many of the local brands of yogurt are heavily sweetened and I don’t really like them. Certainly, we don’t like to give them to the kids. All these local brands including imported brands of yogurt are really smooth. All the while, I enjoyed smooth yogurt. This becomes the opposite not long before I read in Purely Random about yogurt. LA has told me about stirring yogurt some times ago.
Don’t stir the yogurt! All the yogurts on the shelf are stirred and blended with bits and favors of fruits to enhance the taste. In the process of adding fruity favors and bits, the yogurt has to be stirred. Stirring breaks up the solid texture of the yogurt.
The Sunglo’s all natural yogurt contains all the solid texture. It tastes great when mixed with fruity jam!
The price of the yogurts are getting more expensive now. I am thinking of making our own yogurt. I will write about our experience making our own yogurt later.
Smile!
Have you ever experienced you missed a smile with your camera? Smile! Oops! This is especially true when you are taking a photo of a toddler. Now, worry no more. Sony’s revolutionary smile detection technology can recognize the subject’s facial expression and automatically click the shutter when a smile has been detected.
Simply select Smile Shutter, the camera will automatically click the shuttle whenever a smile is detected on the subject’s face. Cool!
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