You think you can't cook?

Recently our company organised a huge party with probably 500 tables of guests. To cater for all the food, the company engaged some very popular restaurants and hotels. We were all familiar with all those restaurants and we naturally have high expectation! Looking at the menu, the names of all the dishes were not fanciful, perhaps rather plain names.

When this dish was served, someone told me at another table that they are eating fried eggs, apparently with too much baking soda added for frying. At our table, I saw some unfamiliar dark bits on something! Checking the menu, the nearest we thought must be the Oyster Omelette! So, what do you think is this thing?

After sinking my teeth into this tart, I knew immediately that it was made from pineapple. Ok, the taste was good and the deco... I think it was done by kids learning how to coordinate the hand movement.
Anyway, many years ago, I went to a friend's home and I tried to cook something. It turned out to be disaster, too salty, too... Now, I realised that you cannot cook properly when you are in a new environment as proven by these cooks. So, if you are a daughter-in-law and did badly in cooking, I hope the MIL will be more understanding now.

Deer Food Plots

Deer food plots are becoming very popular for property owners who are trying to not only help the local deer herd survive the winter months but to also provide high nutrient food all year long. In some areas deer populations are increasingly competing with Moose populations that are on the rise, which decreases the amount of browse available for the deer population. It's important to provide crops that will provide food at different times of the year. The photos below are just a few examples of the crops that deer utilize through the fall and winter months, as well as spring summer and fall.

This project also involved the planting of Hemlock three year old seedlings along trails and travel corridors to not only provide feed, but to also provide shelter and to lead deer from their bedding areas into the feed plots. They also planted red oak seedlings and some white pine seedlings.

The property owner also logged portions of the property to remove some of the older trees and to provide tops for winter forage. In subsequent years the food plots will be increased in size and location to provide food throughout the property, additional lime will be added to decrease the acidic conditions of the soils, and additional seedlings will be planted.
This project involved the planting of numerous different strips, including Frigid Forage, corn, soybeans, clover, sugar beets, carrots, and other mixtures specifically designed to provide food at different times of the year.

Moose Hunting 2010

Well my 2010 moose hunting season has come and gone. It was a beautiful week, fairly mild temperatures, not too much rain, full moon, and crisp mornings. It felt good to get out and experience the bush, spend time with family friends and fellow hunters. Although we weren't successful, I did have an encounter with an eleven point buck that was priceless. I had just arrived at my stand for the morning and noticed a fresh deer bed right where I was going to stand. Within minutes I caught a nose coming around a large Hemlock to my left, I remained motionless and this huge Whitetail emerged broadside at 15 yards. he was dark, huge, and had a sticker tine about 8 inches off his left side. He very cautiously continued to get closer; all of a sudden he stopped and looked directly at me, he knew there was something there, he just couldn't figure out what it was, he dropped his head and quickly raised it again trying to catch me. We played this game for about five minutes, I never moved. At the closest point he was 10vyards away, this moment made my hunt, even though I never saw a moose. It's great to experience such a magnificent animal in his domain.

Anwar Ibrahim is in town

This morning, the Pakatan Rakyat component parties are in town. I went to their talk...

Familiar faces. They will be there again this evening...

Dr. Teo residence is crowed!

The main speaker, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

A lady, who is sick, requested to see Anwar. So she came in the ambulance. 

His speech is captivating! 

They will be speaking again this evening at 7:00PM at the same place.

Hybrid Cars

If I believe the press, excise duty for hybrid cars will be removed from next year for cars below 2000cc. Quote from The Star "It is estimated that the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius, now costing RM129,000 and RM175,000 respectively, would have a new price tag of RM100,980 and RM128,046 correspondingly following the excise duty exemption." The main question would be the cost of running the car. I looked at only one aspect of "cost of ownership" (operating cost), ie, fuel consumption.

The above report is from a US government website. If we are having the same model in Malaysia, my simple conclusion is that your monthly bill for fuel is reduced by about 30-40%!
So, if you are buying a new car, perhaps you should onsider a hybrid car for the sake of our planet earth.


Update: I was told that every battery cost about RM3,000 and there are seven of them. Battery needs replacement between 5-7 years. That will make you about RM20,000 poorer!

Birds at Kuala Baram Lagoon 12th October

Pacific Golden Plover.

It was low tide today when observation was made from 0700-0800hrs. The following birds were observed on the flats ...

1) Far Eastern Curlew
2) Marsh Sandpiper
3) Pacific Golden Plover
4) Lesser Sand Plover
5) Whimbrel
6) Common Sandpiper
7) Red-necked Stint ... close to a hundred birds spread out close to the wet sections, one individual was still sporting breeding colors
8) Common Sandpiper
9) Ruff
10) Common Kingfisher ... I've been looking for this chap since I last saw him a long while ago. It was perched near the flats, called out a few times before I finally noticed it. It then flew back to it's favorite perch behind the small hut on the other side of the embankment.
11) Pacific Reef Egret (grey morph)
12) Chinese Egret
13) Little Egret
14) Curlew Sandpiper
15) Terek Sandpiper
16) Sanderling
17) Grey Plover
18) Grey Wagtail
19) Cattle Egret by the roadside.
20) Collared Kingfisher

There're rather a distance away into the flats, the only option was to shoot using a digiscope
set-up. A hide would be absolutely necessary otherwise.

Nazeri Abghani/MNS Miri/Oct 2010

New wader at Kuala Baram Lagoon!

Black-winged Stilt digiscoped by Musa Musbah 29th Sep 2010, there were a pair foraging at low tide that day.

To date, we got a few new visitors to Kuala Baram Lagoon:

One Asian Dowitcher spotted 09th August foraging together with a Black-tailed Godwit
One Curlew Sandpiper spotted 10th August by Nazeri Abghani
Two Rudddy Turnstone spotted by Musa Musbah 29th September, 3 individuals were spotted 05th October by Musa and Nazeri.
Two Black-winged Stilt by Musa 29th September.
One Far Eastern Curlew spotted by Musa and Nazeri 05th October at Kuala Baram. Musa also spotted the same species at Kuala Sg Bakam a few days earlier.
One Ruff spotted by Musa and Nazeri 05th October at Kuala Baram.

With more pairs of eyes out there on the mudflats, there's sure going to be more species added to the Kuala Baram Lagoon list. If you haven't been wader watching, come and join us one of these days ... who knows, you might enjoy it!