Category Archives: Events

Esther 2nd Birthday

Ok, I know this is kinda an extremely late post (10 days to be exact), as I believe I have been quiet for quite some time already.  Plus haven’t been podcasting for the past 2 weeks already.  Well, for starters I’m kinda brain drain right now due to the fact that I don’t know what to talk about.  Yeah, go figure.  Besides that, I’m busy reconstructing a website which was supposedly be my side income, but have neglected it for quite some time already.  So that really took up more of my time.  Anyway, will try to be more frequent again as everything has sort of slow down for me.

Finally 2 years old

My little girl is finally 2 years old.  And the cake you see there is the cake she decided to choose for herself.  We thought she wanted the one with the princess or Winnie the Pooh, as she has been talking about it inside the car when we headed over to Taka.  Anyway, when we flipped the album to see which cake she wants.  She started shouting “ELMO!”, and didn’t want to choose other cakes.  Even as much as we tried to check with her how many times to see if she really wants it or either the princess or winnie the pooh, she kept on insisting on Elmo.  Until she got fed up and choose the princess one.  But we ended up telling her she’ll be getting the Elmo cake and she was thrilled.  But the catch was that she needs to wait till Friday evening before can get it.

Trying on Mommy's Clothes

So on Monday, she have not totally forgotten about the cake yet.  She was wondering how many times she has to fall asleep before she gets to see Elmo again.  So mommy decided to distract her on all that, and start giving her things to do to take a few things off her mind.  Mommy just washed her blouse and decided to give Esther a try on how she would look like.  When I first saw this pic when Deluxe showed to me, it looks as if she was wearing a Kimono.  Maybe I should try looking for one and buy something like that for her. Never the less, it was all good.

Give me my cake please

Anyway, Deluxe told me on Wednesday she was talking to her bears and dolls, saying that still need to wait till Friday.  When Daddy close the shop, we will go and get the Elmo cake.  Poor little girl, learning what patience is all about.  But she’s kinda cute, and Deluxe was trying very hard not to laugh.  Friday came, but she still needed to wait.  So Deluxe went and try letting her use her new birthday clothes, special thanks to her Grandaunty Zainap.  So this is how she looks like in the picture below.

Trying her new clothes

Anyway, the long wait has finally come.  When she saw Elmo for the first time, you could see the biggest smile she has ever made.  Instead of a purple Elmo that was in the picture, hers is a red color cake.   So the next day we finally celebrate Esther birthday.  Last year, just 3 weeks before her birthday she started walking.  This year, 1 week before her birthday she became potty train already.  And yes, she’s starting to grow up to be a big girl already.  That’s pretty much about it for now.   Will post up some other photos of her tomorrow.  You guys have a good day.

Mooncake Festival at Carpenter Street

Last night, Mom in law, Deluxe, Esther and I went to Carpenter Street to visit the mooncake festival which is currently being held there from the 17th to 22nd of September. Every year, one week before we celebrate mooncake festival the roads leading to Carpenter Street will be block, to pave way for traders from all around Kuching to set up their stalls and trade on the streets. During this time you can pretty much get local delicacies as well as moon cakes.  It seems to me that every year, the numbers of stalls seem to be getting lesser and lesser. One stall in particular that sells hot dog cheese choose to not show up this year, which happens to be the stall I always visit every night. I guess they were worried about the weather whereby last year; it tends to rain almost every night. But that did not prevent the crowd from coming to visit all the stalls. Tonight apparently will be the opening ceremony, and I heard that the chief minister will be around to officiate it.

The Fireman who offered himself to take a picture with Esther

Anyway, I wasn’t in the mood of purchasing last night because I’ve already eaten and all the food doesn’t seem to appeal me. And of course the hot dog cheese wasn’t available so I didn’t want to get anything else well apart from that. Anyway, Esther was able to witness a real fire-truck and rode on a motorcycle which was used by the firemen.
We wanted to place her inside the fire truck, but apparently the policemen seem to find it irritating and ended up getting everyone down and prevent them from sitting inside while taking pictures. The fireman, who was standing there, asked him what’s wrong with people going inside to take pictures. Apparently I couldn’t hear a clear answer from the policeman, but over heard from someone that he was worried that we’ll end up spoiling the fire truck. Ah well, it’s all good.

Esther & Her Fire-Bike

Another thing one should be aware of this celebration here in carpenter street. You wouldn’t be surprise to find all walk of races enjoying the atmosphere of this Chinese festival. You would be able to see the Orang Ulu as well as Malays having stalls or booth to display their culture and artworks. And every year without fail, just in front of one of the shops there would be a group of men and women dressed in their batik and kebaya clothes and started to play the drums and violin. And there would always be a man singing, backed up by lady vocals to arouse the crowd to join in with their joget. Yes, it’s that happening here at carpenter street. Something I hope that people will understand about 1 Malaysia, for those who never experience it hehehe.

This is how we East Side do it.

Anyway, that’s pretty much about it for my side here. I might be dropping by there again tonight, and hopefully more stalls will be open. You guys have a good weekend.  Photos taken was with my Canon A70, decided to bring it out as my 400D is starting to give problems and kinda bulky especially when carry Esther.  Might bring it out later tonight and see how it goes.

For more pictures you can head over to this post here taken with my Canon 400D

http://www.alexjong.com/2010/09/20/mooncake-festival-2010-pictures/

And if you would like to find out more about this Mid Autumn Festival, you can head on over here to listen to our podcast which we made few weeks ago.

http://www.alexjong.com/2010/09/04/ark-02-part-1-mooncake-festival-part/

Mooncake Celebration

Elias, Couldn't recall her name, & Esther   Got caught up with a few things last week.  As I’m still looking for the perfect template to renovate a few sites.  Lol.  Anyway, how we celebrated moon cake festival?  Well, we attended the church celebration on the 26th September.  It was packed with a lot of people, but Deluxe, Esther and myself decided to excuse ourselves first because Esther was getting a bit cranky probably due to the heat.  The night started off with singsparation, whereby Tsou Kai did an excellent job again cranking up people to get up and sing.  Got to give him credit for his eagerness as well as creativity.  After that there were a music presentation made by the youth, and shortly after that, it was question and answer time once again.  Like last year, if you get the correct answer you will get Ang Pao for all your effort.  After that, I believe it was the lantern procession but we didn’t stayed on for it.

  Esther was curious by the different types of laternAnyway, behind the street of Main Bazaar from 29th September till the 3rd of October, there would be an annual food sales at the back.  However this year, the stalls seems to be less compared to the previous year.  The crowd also didn’t turned up from what I expect it to be.  A few stalls which we normally would go would be a stall selling Hot Dog Cheese a must get, but it wasn’t there.  Anyway, it was a bit disappointing because it wasn’t as happening as before.  Maybe it was due to the rain last year, people didn’t want to set up any stalls.  Oh well, never the less, it was still good as Esther had been wanting to go out every night to see what’s happening at the back.

  Anyhow we did managed to green bean mooncake for ourselves.  The taste was a bit funny though.  Either that, maybe it wasn’t the typical type of mooncake one would normally buy.  But anyway, it’s all good.  Ok.  I think I’ll just log off now as I’m heading back to work in search of the perfect template for some school.  Lol.  Have a nice day every one.

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Merdeka

Malaysian Flag

In the spirit of Merdeka.  I thought that this video clip that was done by Katak Chua was very inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzyzcCvgog

Daulat Tuanku

Here they come. Got to admire the dedication of these police  Unfortunately due to my internet connection I wasn’t able to update my blog for the past few days.  I did a very long post, and each time I click save or apply the whole thing just wipe out without saving and gave me an error.  Apparently this has been my 12th attempt in making this post.  I’m still having a hard time uploading my Jakarta trip pictures.  Sigh, we shall see how it goes as I’m now currently typing all these in words first then try to post it later.

  Before I proceed, my brother in law told me while I was in Jakarta apparently this site AlexJong.com had attracted many fleas which apparently start to spam my mail, and also tried to max out my monthly bandwith.  Fortunately my brother in law saw it in the nick of time and shut down my site temporary for a few days while I was asked to patch my files as well as update the firewall of the server.  Never the less, it’s all good.  So far so good, as no complaints yet, so I still need to keep my guard up if that were to happen once again.

  Ok, on to my story.  On the 27th of July which happens to be the opening ceremony of the Dun Building.  So was invited for the opening and apparently they were going to have a meeting the following day.  But the preparation for this event took them a week before the actual date.  The traffic police have been working very hard by going around in circles using the same routes, as well as sealing off the entrance to make sure that they are able to set up stalls in the middle of the road.  So you could pretty much imagine the amount of havoc as well as traffic jam that have been caused by these road blocks.

Road blocks were set up for these stalls to be put up.  Well, you can’t blame them for doing so as it was part of their duty.  So it’s all good.  But whether rain or shine you can be sure that these police were giving their 202% in making sure everything goes smoothly.  So you pretty much can’t blame them for not doing their job right.  So kudos to all the traffic police who put their effort in every little thing they do.  You sure have my respect.

  It was a fun filled busy events, as people from everywhere in Kuching came down to the waterfront to witness what actually happened on that day.  At night you would find fireworks display which I think could have cost easily 100-200k ?  I don’t know, probably just a rough figure.  Never the less, the fireworks were really beautiful.  Plus the procession of boats, were really something.  As many stood in awe, they began to start taking pictures as well many of them camwhore in front of the boats but it was all good. 
  Anyway I think I need to stop now as I’m pretty much exhausted from the work load for today.  For more pictures you can :- Click Here

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