Looking Back.... 2010

"Wonder" Cube Competition

"Wonder" Cube??? What the hell is that??? Ahaaa........ here is the story of "Wonder" Cube. I went back Malaysia for my vacation from 2Sep2010 to 16Sep2010. The day before my vacation, I went for souvenir hunting and I bought this cute cube made of timber. It has colourful beads arranged in circles at 4 of its sides. There was no name on the box, so I decided to call it "Wonder" Cube. Nice name, right?

The idea is to mix up all the colour beads and then in the shortest time arrange back same colour beads into the same sides. After trying it for a couple of days, we brought it along to our breakfast in Serendah. And, we decided we should compete among ourselves to see who can solve the puzzle in the shortest time. So, the "Wonder" Cube Competition went off.........

The youngest started first as usual ( being bullied by the older ones...............)

Then the oldest one took over as usual also ( bullied by the young ones...........)

Then the cheeky one took her turn ( she didn't get the title 'cheeky' for nothing coz she won the competition.........cheers!!!)

The cheekiest one took her turn ( watch her facial expression in the following video and you will agree with her title 'cheekiest'. Moreover, she was trying out other funny steps that she eventually messed up and didn't finish........... served her right!!!)

So, without further delay, presenting to you in the following video clip, THE

"Wonder" Cube Competition!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH

The Magical Beauty Of Sunset

The Magical Beauty Of Sunset


It is one of my most enjoyable moment......

5 minutes. Yea, it takes only 5 minutes for

the sun to touch the horizon and vanish

below it.

It's magnificent colour combination of red,

orange and pink blending with the blueness

of the sky is just too difficult for words

to describe.

It is this very moment that I am completely

overwhelmed by such great creation and

realize that I, when comparing to it, is

just too small.

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美丽的夕阳

不去想他们拥有美丽的太阳，
我看见每天的夕阳也会有变化，
我知道。。。。。

Today is 101010......

Today is 101010.......... wow!!!! A Perfect 10 Day!!!

That's what I want to have everyday...... A Perfect 10 Day

S0 starting today, 101010, I am gonna

1. treat myself nice

2. treat people around even nicer

And enjoy A Perfect 10 Day................

What say you?

Tea Plantation in Cameron Highland

Just couldn't resist the beautiful greens........... Remember the previous trip to Cameron Highland, more than 12 years ago, did not leave me with anything impressive. Maybe at that time the kids were too small..... the youngest one weren't even born yet, too busy attending to the kids. Or maybe I wasn't that much connected the nature. The flowers, cactus, strawberries, though as pretty, really didn't impressed me at that time.
This time around, they did, even though I believe they are just the same. So I guess after more than 12 years older, I got more connected to nature. Especially the tea plantation, the cool weather, the green........ just indescribable!!!

Musical Fountain, Burj Khalifa

Spectacular display............ just mesmerizing!!!

TODAY.... INSIGNIFICANT, SO SHUT UP!!!

Before I can even start writing anything here, there is already this loud "SHUT UP!!! NOTHING SIGNIFICANT TODAY" ringing in my ears. Yes, today is 12 Aug 2010, the most insignificant day in my life............ and I will shut up after next three paragraphs.

So, it is not about today. It is about yesterday...... 11 Aug 2010, also known as 1 Ramadan 1431. It was the first day of 30-days fasting for the Muslims. Fasting is very significant event in the UAE. Employers are told to give the workers only 6 hours per day work instead of the normal of 8 hours per day. Yet, when I went rounding my site at 10.00am yesterday, I found only 3 workers working on site. There were supposed to be more than 40 workers on site, so where were the rest? This was only the first day of fasting month, and was I supposed to shut up? Was it not significant?

Yea, it is not today. It is the next 142 days. Why? Because today is the 858th day I am in UAE and 142 days later, I will be 1000 days in UAE. Wow!!! Don't know what to say...... Not in my wildest imagination as I embarked into my first flight on 7 Apr 2008, that I will see my 1000th day here. I was told the project period was 10 months. At the very most, it will take up to a year. Yet it is only 142 days away to the 1000th day. Well, maybe I will not hit 1000th day as the work needs not more than 100 days to complete. But then in UAE, almost all projects are slow and nobody actually really knows. And it really doesn't matter right now whether it is 900 days or 1000 days as it is way too far from initial expectation. The good questions suddenly emerge in my mind : Who is to be blamed for this delay? The workers? The weather? The system? Or could it be me? Maybe, I should just shut up.

One more day, which is also not today. It is very easy to guess. It is tomorrow, 13 Aug 2010. No reward for correct guessing. It is my birthday, my 45th birthday. So Happy Birthday to me....... shut up lah. Happy 45th Birthday....... SHUT UPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

。。那天。。

那天。。。。我 在我的“非死不可” post 了一段 杨丞琳的 名曲 “庆祝”。。。。。
《每个梦都得到祝福。。。。 每颗泪都变成珍珠。。。。
每盏灯都像许愿的蜡烛。。。。 每一天都值得庆祝。。。。》

在美国的一个表妹就这样 post 了一个 comment 。。。。。
《 wah..... now you write in Chinese?》
想不到我这个英校生也会写了不少的华文字。
那今天就让你知道我还有很多你没想到的呢。。。。。

那天。。。。 同一天，我大女儿也在她的 blog 写了一个 post。
相当长，有英文字，有华文字，我一读就发现第一个英文字写错了，
第一个华文字也写错了。
我说你有没有搞错， 你是华校生，怎么第一个字都给写错了。
你有看到我今天在 “非死不可” 写的 华文 post 吗？
她说她是匆匆忙忙的写那一段 post，而我的post 是 copy 的。。。。。。
那今天想让你知道，这一段不是 copy 的。。。。 是 original 的。

那天。。。。 不是同一天， 几年前的有一天，
我的太太拿了一份华文报到我身边。
老公老公， 这段作文写的很好， 我读给你听听。
她就从头到尾读了给我听。
我说，写的很好，我也来写。。。。。
《哇。。。。 我堂堂一个华校老师，都不敢说我来写，
怎么会轮到你这个英校生来写呢？》
那今天总算写了一段，跌破了你的眼镜吧！！！

那天。。。。 1979年， 我初中二开学的那一天，
给朋友出卖了。。。。。
倪老师报告说要开华文补习班。
那我就很有兴趣的报了名。
第一天上补习班的时候吓了一跳，
十几个学生报名上补习班，只有我一个是男生，
其他的都是女生。
那时真的不懂，上还是不上好，
就在这样脸红红的，三心两意 的，上了一年的华文补习班，
而今天，31年后还能写出这一段， 还不错吧。。。。谢谢倪老师！！！

PECULIAR PEDESTRIAN CROSSING, AL AIN

Firstly, this is a sad story. Sad because it is no more there right now. This pedestrian crossing was captured on 27 Jun 2008 when I was there for a casual visit, a town in UAE called Al Ain. The disappointing moment was in Dec 2008, when I made another trip there. Out of curiosity, I was eager to take another look at it. Yea, I wanted to take another walk across it, but it was no more there. It was demolished ................. for road widening, I guessed.




Secondly, this pedestrian crossing was peculiar. Peculiar in the sense that both ends were spiral in shape. Now, spiral slides in children's playground, I have seen a lot. Spiral water slides in water theme park, I have seen and played. Yet pedestrian crossing with spiral ends was first in my whole life and I believe this was the one and only one found in the whole world. Somebody out there got to prove me wrong.....................



Thirdly, this peculiar looking pedestrian crossing stood in the middle of a town called Al Ain. Peculiar as this structure maybe, the town is equally mysterious. On my 4 or 5 trips there, I discovered lots of mysteries that will tickle our minds................. oasis, forts, museum etc. This limited space is insufficient to describe all the mysteries. Check out on my new posts or better still, if you happened (or planning) to be in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, just don't forget to include AL AIN into your itinerary............ha ha!!!

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi

It was 12 June 2010, around 4.30pm. I was on my way home from Abu Dhabi town. I stopped by to take some pictures of this picturesque, newly renovated mosque called SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE.


It had been my desire for the past 2 and half years of my living in Abu Dhabi to take these pictures. But somehow, eventhough I used to pass by here quite often, I didn't manage to do it for reasons such as, it was under renovation, couldn't find roadside to stop and snap, weather too hot, etc.......etc

This time around, timing was perfect, weather was good. I was in excellent mood also. Approaching about one km away, I was searching for safe roadside to stop but couldn't find. Just when I was about to give up, one slip road appeared.

I took my lucky turn into it and this overwhelming building came straight into my view. It took me nearly one hour of hardwork and........


.......presenting 5 of them here, is the biggest mosque in UAE and 8th biggest mosque in the world to charm your heart away!!!

.......and if it indeed charmed you and you would like to know more details about it, look into www.answers.com/topic/sheikh-zayed-mosque

Advertising The Beauty Of Saadiyat Island

I posted these beautiful pictures of Saadiyat Island in my Facebook couple of days ago. A friend commented that they were nice..........wow!!! That's why they landed here...........

LIFTING OF TRANSFORMER INTO POSITION

It was 22Apr2010. 2 nos of transformers, weighing over 100 tonnes each, were to be lifted into Bay 1 and Bay 3 of SS5 of Saadiyat Island. A 500 tonnes mobile crane was hired to do the job. The process started about 8 in the morning with assembling of crane taken up 3 hours. Actual lifting of the first transformer into Bay 1 started about 11 am and completed at 12 pm. After lunch break, the mobile crane was reposition to Bay 3 and lifting from 2pm to 3 pm. Easy like peanut................

SERENE'S TRIP TO UAE

NEWS-IN-PICTURES

I enjoyed reading/watching "NEWS-IN-PICTURES". Following are my favourite websites :

1. boston.com/bigpicture

2. sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos

3. time.com/time/photogallery

4. telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews

5. miamiherald.com/graphics

6. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo

Sunrise in UAE

Scenes that I see everyday on the way to work. The red round fire ball rises from the horizon and colours the sky golden....truly overwhelming. This is beauty of nature that not even the cleverest man in the world can make it............

45 LESSONS IN LIFE

Learn these lessons .............for enjoyment in LIFE!!!

Click here