Cameron Highland Trip....

Monday morning dawned bright and clear.....i was awake at 6 am....excited that we were going to Cameron Highland on this day....rushed through all the washing etc and by 7 am, woke Chin up...by 7.30 we were ready to go.
By 8, off we went....towards the highway to Simpang Pulai and from there to Cameron Highland...
The journey took a long time...2 and a half hours later, we were in Simpang Pulai....ascending the Titiwangsa range to Cameron Highland.....the road is not as winding and we were able to enjoy the view along the way....it was a hot day so we were grateful to be at last reaching a height where the temperature finally dropped a by a few degree...but still it was just cool to the skin.
We went to Blue Valley first before ascending further. Along the way, we discovered that Strawberry farming and products are the main commerce in this area.
We went around to Rose Valley before finally checked in to the hotel. Country Lodge - suggestion - don't stay here the next time you are in CH....it's noisy....maybe it was our luck.....there was a group of secondary school children staying there that night, so we came at the wrong time. Chin said they were very noisy that night and several people had complaint about them...haih...whatever happened to their teachers.....
Anyway, we visited the Pasar Malam and there wasnt mush to see since we were not interested to buy vegetables....
I guess there were too much vegetables around that some of the stalls used a cabbage to stick the strawberry stick onto it as display....hmm...
That night, we had nasi daun pisang but it wasnt that delicious....kena tipu lagi...Chin asked the person if both shops are own by the same owner and he said 'ya, sama.' So we thought we were having the same nasi with a group of chinese next to us. Apparently we discovered that the nasi from the Brinchang Restoran is better tasting...hahaha....
The next day saw us in Sungai Palas Tea Plantation...a beautiful place....definitely....we took photos, had scones and tea and sat on the verandah of the restaurant enjoying the strong cold wind.....It was truly a breathtaking place to sit back and relax....the scones weren't as delicious as the ones in The Smokehouse Hotel though....before we left, we bought some tea and took loads and loads and loads of photos....just the 2 of us...
Then, we checked in at the scenic Bala's Holiday Chalet...picturesque and quaint little place...very peaceful....and natural....cold...the temperature had dropped and it was cold now...or was it because we were hungry.....
We slept for an hour before we continued with our exploration. We went to have afternoon tea in The Smokehouse Hotel...a Tudor style setting...very English...the roaring fireplace, the Christmas deco, the English landscaped garden, the scones...glorious scones...delicious scones...hmmmm......with afternoon tea.....yummmy....
The next time we go to CH, we'll stay there just for the sake of staying there...to experience the quaint little setting.....
Throughout, the trip was enjoyable....but the place is too commercialise....i can't remember if we had ice cream but i am very sure we had 2 glasses of strawberry juice, one is a free drink because we said the first glass was too sweet and the owner of the stall apologised and unexpectedly made us a new one....we were grateful for his effort though...a good man....

Stories about people...

I made some new friends recently...meeting new people and ...well...disliking some people...that cant be help actually...

In the course of our life, we will meet with people whom we like and people we try to avoid from...but usually the second category will try to stick to you for some reason unknown....
The opposite attract kot....the theory of the stretching rubber band, i shall name it....
Take a rubber band for example. Stretch it and of course, when you do that, there is a force that try to make the rubber to get back to its original shape....for it doesnt like the new stretching self...
So, i think, makin you nak lari dari some ppl, some ppl just want to stick to you...hahhaa....
Back to the original story....
I attended a course recently...one that i cuba avoid but well....in the end, i still had to go....Of course, we tried to mingle around and get to know people and try to form an opinion of a person. Mostly, people like to stay within their safe environment - meaning, according to their race or religion....
So, during dinner, you could see the Indians sat with the Indians and the Malays sat with the Malays. I was thinking to myself : In Sarawak, we are so much more ecclectic...if one could use the word. We can't define if a person is of certain race but there are some that we can. But the thing is, during courses, people sit in a mix group, Indians, Ibans, Chinese or other races, laughing and joking and catching up each others life.
Here, the segregation is so obvious and i am always apprehensive because i do not fit in any of this segregation. And here i thought we are supposed to get to know each other. Oh...i digress of course from the original story...
So, came housekeeping time, i sat in front for an obvious reason, i forgot my spec. We were supposed to have a session but the lecturer got lost on the way to the hotel, so we were free to do our own thing. So, a few of us, my newly got to know crowd, decided to have a look around the hotel area to see if there's a place to hang out. Since there was nothing to see, we decided to wait for supper. A mistake on my part because once we were seated one teacher started to brag about herself....Hello sister, we just got to know each other and she was like BRAGGING totally about what she had sacrificed in school. I was thinking to myself, i have been in the profession for 8 1/2 years now and i have done lots more to help students....my...some people just cant stop talking about themselves...
Luckily i was saved by the arrival of my awaited friend, so i excused myself...
I was lucky to not end in the same group as her....
I guess it's really my fault, a fault that cant be help....people assume that i am a newly posted teacher mainly because i don't look old enough.....:p~
I met a fun to be with person though...by luck...she was in my group...Kak Faji. She has young spirit, always funny and full of fun...she practically brightened up our group and our group became the noisiest group there. Productive and noisy...
But Kak Faji is a bit bored with her roomie. She cant stop talking about herself too from what i gathered. We sat together for dinner and she just chatted away about herself.
The thing that Kak Faji couldnt stand was the way she talked about her love life. The brief story that i heard from herself made me come up with the same conclusion as Kak Faji too. Childish...macam budak sekolah or rather budak uni yang tak graduate degree lagi...adolescent...hahaha....She kept saying...marahnye...kenap die bagitau budak tu yang i tak buat ni buat tu...die nak break up with me ke...if he suddenly turn up kat hotel ni i nak buat ape ha? Akak lebih berpengalaman, bagitau la ape patut i buat....
Kak Faji was obviously buat derg je....then she said...want to go for a walk? We go to 7 E...boleh cool marah skit...luckily she refused, if not Kak Faji and I had to listen to her narration again. During our walk, Kak Faji said...ntah la, kita dah pass bab2 merajuk camtu...grow up la...mane ade org buat camtu lagi....macam budak2...so we laughed....
Well...people ni macam2 ade...ade masa tu we like...ade masa tu...kita langsung tak suke....

The journey towards successful human reproduction...

Last 2 months, the 3rd of Sept. was the beginning...i foresee a long journey of pain and hopes and frustration and much more to come and i hope the two of us will brave through it together.
Relatives of the husband side have been nagging for so long about our carefree lifestyle - childless that is - and thus incomplete in their eyes. Some even dare enough to ask boldly by saying "When are you going to make me an auntie?" I think being Malaysian, I or a majority of the women have to learn to be "thick face" when facing this situation....Malaysians are well-known for being notoriously tactless when it comes to reproduction of the human being.Hmmm....
So, in order to fulfill the general public views of a complete family, I called up LPPKN (Lembaga Penduduk dan Pembangunan Keluarga Negara) in KL to hopefully solve this problem. The country, in its effort to populate itself, has offered to foot half of the bills for reproducing the first child when it is successfully done. So, being the government servant that we are, we want to give the facility a try since we heard from colleagues that LPPKN has full facilities for this purpose.
The first appointment was just TEST solely - sperm count, blood test for specific hormones and also the interview.
Men are blessed with the luck to possess the equipment that produce the specimen without much pain (but i think it may cause pleasure to some) but women are not so lucky in this deal. We have to endure endless poking into our blood veins just to produce the blood for the tests required. We also have to face fallopian tube x-ray and the much invasive pap smear and not to mention endless blood test.
Well, I am trying to think positively despite all the pain and hardship that women have to endure and hopefully at the end of it, we will be successful in reproducing mini us.
I am supposed to fix an appointment for my X-ray on the 19th of this month and then, another blood test for progesterone and then go for a pap smear test. Then i have to wait patiently for the next visit of my best friend before i can set the date for my next LPPKN appointment.
Pray hard that there's nothing wrong with our reproductive system so that we can finally have the pleasure of having mini US.