A fruitful year for Wen Jia

This year marks the 3rd year since Wen Jia was born. She has been doing wonderfully in terms of physical and intelligence growth.
Physically she is a healthy, tall girl with improved physical strength - a natural process of growth.  Like most of the grown up kids, she doesn't like to eat vege.  We often mixed meat or fish with finely cut vege so that she could  get a better combination of nutrients as much as possible.
She likes most types of food especially oranges, and grapes.  Her taste on fruits has changed a lot. Her old time favourites such as banana, papaya, and apple have now become part of the list of food that she will avoid.  Well, I forgot to mention that she likes pineapple - the one cooked together with pork rib, or even in pineapple fried rice. 
In terms of learning and games, she has started to pick up interest in puzzle. We started with some simple puzzles (the 12 pieces one) and slowly moved to 18 pieces and 24 pieces.  She still need some guidance when come to the more complex one but overall it was a good start.  My friend in Singapore was right, always start with some character that she likes the most and she will slowly build interest in whichever games associate to those characters.  In Wen Jia's case, she likes the Mickey & Minnie, and also the Disney Princess puzzles the most.
On flash card learning, it has been reduced significantly. I have started to show more on the computer than the hand-made ones.  Also, she has started to explore more online learning such as the ones in sesame street, Nick Jr, etc.  The important part is, I selected the games for her to suit her age and development. 
She started rhythmic gymnastics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmic_gymnastics) class early this year.  Possibly due to her yong age, the results have not been significant. Anyway, as our objective wasn't for her to be a gymnast or the sort, it is fine for her to play and have fun in the class once a week. 
She joined a mandarin word card lesson under a "Teacher Yap's" program.  It has been very good that she managed to pick up 20 over charcters over a period of 1 month but she has lost interest in the class soon after her 3rd month.  Our observation (having personally sit in the centre to wait for Wen Jia to finish her class) was that the teaching quality has deteriorated so much so until her actual time spent in the lesson was merely 20 minutes out of 1.5 hours in the centre.  We stopped the lesson for a while and would decide in next year if she should continue. 
I started Hooked on Phonics program with her since early this year after been introduced to this material by a friend in Singapore.  She has just completed Pre-K Level 1.  A bit slow but I think it was partly my fault for not been able to spend more time more frequently with her on the lesson.  Overall it was a fun program to follow, and I took it as an oppotunity to foster bonding with my girl.
Wen Jia will be in Pre-Kindy when the school opens next year.  Seriously we will have to observe more on her progress and most importantly to understand more about what is going on in the kindergarten.  It is really not about how good she can cope with her homework but it is very much on how well she enjoys a new learning milestone.

台湾自游 9/15- 9/25 （后记）

这是我们此次台湾行的一点观察：
一，说台湾美食多，还蛮见仁见智的。可能是囗味方面不一样，我还是觉得美食还真不容易找的。
二，到台湾不懂华语华文真还不容易行走。其一，告示牌基本上以中文书写。其二，广大民众对英语的掌握其实非常有限。
三，台湾尤其是台北的人文素养堪称很不错。比方说，地铁及巴士人潮总会规规矩矩排队上车。像在KL般插队的现象几乎不可能在那里发生。还有，地铁里的博爱座是不会被年轻人霸占的。就算是在人多没位子坐的时候，那些博爱座绝对会是空着的。
四，夜市见不到垃圾。这是自己留意很久的事。不只是此行，在前几次因洽公而偷闲逛过夜市，情况和这一次一样。街上有好多食档供外带，奇的是街道上却是完全找不到垃圾的踪影。更怪的是，几乎所有夜市都不提供垃圾桶。垃圾到底去了哪? 我怀疑人们都不将垃圾当场丢弃，而是把它们带在身上，待回家时才丢。遇到此景，我这个游客想随处丢垃圾都深感惭愧。
五，台湾的餐馆，小吃店极不环保！到处都是用即用即弃筷子及杯子。想必是比较讲究卫生以及清洁工成本考量，现在要在台湾找一间没用即丢型餐具恐怕很难。

My Trip to Taiwan 15-25/9 2010

This is a long anticipated trip which had been planned for six month.
We booked the Eva  Air ticket in March with a pretty good price. All-in returned fare costs only RM 791 per person.

Since it is a DIY tour, we have made it a ten days trip to have more time to enjoy the places of attraction of Taiwan.
Yes, this is a family trip with Siew Wei and my princess Jia with us.
September 15 afternoon, we took the EVA Air flight to Taipei. Arrived at Taipei at around 9:30pm. Checked in into Hope Hotel. It is a fairly good hotel with proximity to the Taipei Main Station.

September 16 trip is as follows:

10:00 am - 12:00 pm National Palace Museum
12:30 pm - 4:30 pm Sing Yi Rd - Coconut Grove spa cuisine restaurant
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm Tamsui Old Street, Fisherman's Wharf.
It is worth mentioning that the Coconut Grove Japanese spa food package comes with a 45 minutes private spa, kind of a new experience for us.  It costs us TWD1980 for the entire package.
 
The hot spring water is piped into the room, with a separately run cold water from mountain spring water. It means better regulation of hot and cold water only by adjusting the water lever.

 

The night view of  the Fisherman's Wharf.

September 17's trip is as follows:
9:00 am - Check-out
9:30 am - 11:30 am Taipei 101 Mall
12:00 pm - 3:30 pm Hsimenting district
5:40 pm - 7:46 pm take train to Hualien 
8:30 pm Checkin -Qian Hao Home Stay
9:00 pm - 11:00 pm Night Market

This is the famous Ah Zhong noodle in Hsimenting . I think it tastes well, but my wife was not so impressed.

Have you seen white colour bitter gourd before? The species can be found everywhere in Taipei.

On 18 September we hired a taxi driver for the Taroko Gorge tour. Program is as follows:

Taroko arches - Visitor Center - Shakadang - Changchun Shrine - Swallow - Tunnel of Nine Turns - Mother Bridge - Yuewang Ting - green water Trail - Intertek - Liufang Bridge - Seven Star Lake -back to hotel
Taroko Gorge is a must visit for Hualian.

As our visit coincide with the Fanapi typhoon attack to Taiwan, the entrance to Liufang Bridge, and Changchun Shrine was closed.

Jia showed her smiling face! The background is Qixingtan. The name Qixingtan suggests that it is composed of seven lakes. The original Qixingtan or Seven Star Lake has been occupied by Japanese soldiers, and now the Air Force base. The place where I stand now, is a seaside near the Pacific Ocean and it is named  Qixingtan after the request by the original Qixingtan  residents
The tour guide told us the ancient story of the cross-island highway. This road was built some 50 years ago and can be considered as the first of its kind in Taiwan. The road cut across mountains, and it was a time-consuming construction which required huge man power. There were a lot of unsung heroes who sacrificed for the constuction of the road.

One of the attractions of the Eternal Spring Shrine is a place to commemorate those who were killed during the construction of the road.

The picture above shows TianXiang, is a rest stop with accommodation, service stations, and traffic check and interpretation services. We climbed up from here for the Cheung Tak Temple, of which the world's tallest golden statue of "Di Zhang" Buddha (36 feet high) is located.

Also in this photo - Xiao Gu, our taxi driver and guide for the day.

Hualien famous dishes are fried oysters, Bian Shi (dumplings), potatoes and so on.
As the Fanapi typhoon will hit Taiwan tomorrow, and Hualien is exactly the point where the typhoon landed. In order to not to get stucked Hualien for a few days, we then changed our plan and travelled back to Taipei as Taipei is believed to be of less impact compared to Hualien.

9 / 19, Typhoon day.
It was declared Public Holiday for Taipei.  Most of the shopping malls are closed for business. We went to Shilin night market at night though.

9 / 20 schedule is as follows:

11:30 - 2:30 pm Yehliu
2:30 pm - 5:00 pm Juifen town
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm Din Tai Fung and ZhongXiao FuXing.
Yehliu is a geological park in Taipei with the well-known lion head formation.

The famous lion head. Photo taken by a middle-age security guard, who volunteered to shoot for us. 

Juifen sterrt.  Used to be settlement for the gold miners during the old days.

9 / 21 schedule as follows:

8:45 am - 9:40 am Taipei to Taichung (Kuo Kuang Bus)
11:35 - 1:20 pm hired a private car to Sun Moon Lake
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Sun Moon Lake Cruises

Sun Moon Lake attractions:

Shueishe Visitor Center - Asagiri Pier - Man Mo Temple - Peacock Garden - Centre -" 達邵依"- XuanZhuang Shi- XuanGuang Shi- One Tunnel - Tou She- Water Club Pier - Water Club Dam - Water Agency Visitor Center

4:55 pm - 6:22 pm back to Taichung.
8:30 pm - 10:00 pm Feng Chia Night Market

Sun Moon Lake is Taiwan's largest alpine lake.
I personally think that this place is not that interesting.



9 / 22 and 9 / 23 two-day tour to Alishan

We joined a local tour from Jiayi to Alishan which happened to cover accomodation in Alishan with meals, entrance to the Alishan National Park, and transportation.
9 / 22 mainly travel Alishan Forest Recreation Area.
9 / 23 viewing of sunrise in the morning, and FenQiHu in the afternoon.

Shenmu railway station

It is a must do in Alishan - sunrise in the early morning. Fortunately, we managed to catch a good view of sunrise due to good weather.

Zhu Shan Railway Station. We took this train up to the mountain for sighting of sunrise.

9 / 23:

4:25 pm-6pm train from Chiayi to Tainan

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ChiKan
8:30 pm - 9:00 pm - Garden Night Market
 
 

It is worth mentioning is that managed to enjoy the best food in Taiwan at Tainan Garden night Market. Among the food are fried oyster, hot plate noodle, bean curd, etc.



9 / 24 Heritage Tour of Tainan
10:30 am - 12:30 pm Anping Fort & De Ji tree house
4:46pm - 8:20 pm train back to Taipei

Anping Fort

Anping Fort

The Tree House

9/25 Good bye Taiwan.  Back to home sweet home.

台湾自游-9/15 - 9/25 （一）

这是一个计划了整半年的一次旅行。
既然是自游，便为自己安排了较长的十天行程，以便能更有时间好好欣赏台湾各个景点。
随行的有秀慧还有小宝贝嘉嘉。
9月15日搭長榮航空下午的班机往台北。到台北已是夜晚九点多了。入住一家叫全家欢的饭店。饭店还算不错，优点是靠近台北车站。
9月16日的行程如下：
10:00 am – 12:00 pm 國立故宮博物院
12:30pm – 4:30pm 行義路溫泉- 椰林溫泉美食餐廳
5:00pm – 8:00pm 淡水老街 +　渔人码头。
值得一提的是，在椰林温泉美食点了日式套餐，还算很丰富。花了TWD1980还附送45分钟的私人温泉，也算是不错的体验。

温泉水是由水管导入室内，冷水则是山泉水。冷热可自由调控。
淡水该数渔人码头的夜景最漂亮．

9月17日的行程如下：


9:00am – 退房
9:30am - 11:30am台北101 购物中心
12:00pm - 3:30pm 西门町商圈
5:40pm – 7:46pm 乘搭自强号火车往花莲
8:30pm 入住『阡豪行腳之家』
9:00pm – 11:00pm 南滨夜市


这就是在西门町出名的阿宗面线。我觉得味道还好，老婆就不是那么喜欢。

 有见过白色苦瓜吗？在台北这品种到处都是。

花莲的南滨夜市不算热闹， 但蚝煎还蛮好吃的。

9月18日雇用了花莲一位叫小古的，游太魯閣。 行程如下：
阡豪之家早上9:00出發--太魯閣牌樓--遊客中心--砂卡礑--長春祠--燕子口--九曲洞--慈母橋--岳王亭--綠水步道--天祥--流芳橋--七星潭--市區或民宿 

太魯閣是来花莲必游景点。
由于恰逢台湾有台风警报，有一两个景点是局部封闭的。像流芳桥，長春祠就是只在外面看看而已。

看女儿笑得多开心！背景是七星潭。 要提一提，七星潭顾名思义是由七个湖组成。原本的七星潭已被日本兵占用了，现为空军基地。按居民要求把七星潭临近太平洋我站着的这个地方也叫七星潭。

导游小古说了一段东西横贯公路的故事。这一条路在50年前能建成也算是创举。此路横跨山脉，以当时的技术而言是费时费力的。当时也有好多幕后英雄因此而牺牲了。
景点之一的長春祠是一處為紀念開鑿中橫公路時，殉職於東段最驚險的合流段之141名員工，而建立的祠堂。

上图是天祥， 其实是个中途食宿休息站，並設有服務站，提供遊憩諮詢，路況查詢及解說服務等。我们由这爬上祥德寺， 庙外便是全世界最高的地藏王菩薩金佛像（高36尺） 的所在地。

和导游小古的合照。



花莲著名的美食有蚝煎，扁食（其实是水饺来的），土豆等。
由于明天凡娜比台风将袭台，而花莲就刚好是台风眼着陆地，灾情该会是严重的。我们没办法，为了不要困在花莲几天，便临时改行程回台北。

9/19 台风过境台湾岛。是13级大台风！不知是幸运或不幸，台湾今年以来第一次台风竟被我们遇上了。
9/19 那都不能去。连大如Sogo的商场都放假不做生意了。晚上还是去了一趟士林夜市，但好多商家都休业。

9/20 的行程如下：
11:30 – 2:30pm 野柳風景區
2:30 pm – 5:00pm 瑞芳鎮 , 九份
7:00pm – 9:30pm 鼎泰丰 复兴店 及忠孝复兴商圈。
今天算是坐巴士最多的一天。野柳及九份都是乘巴士前往。
野柳就是台北的一个地质公园（geopark）。 我想最有名的莫过于那个狮子头咯。
 

 

 
九份老街以前是淘金的地方。
 

 
9/21 的行程如下：
 
8:45am – 9:40am (国光巴士）
11:35 – 1:20pm  坐车去南投日月潭
3:00 pm – 4:00pm 日月潭游船
日月潭景点：
水社遊客中心 - 朝霧碼頭 –文武廟 – 孔雀園 – 活動中心 – 達邵依 – 玄奘寺 – 玄光寺 – 一號隧道 – 頭社 – 水社碼頭 – 水社壩 – 水社遊客中心
自行車租借處：德化社、日月潭青年活動中心、涵碧樓
4:55pm – 6:22pm 回台中. 

8:30pm – 10:00pm 逢甲夜市

日月潭是台湾最大的高山湖泊。好像是用来发电的。
我觉得这地方也没有太多特点。也许是我们没租脚踏车环湖的关系，总觉得司机大哥带去的地方也不过这样。

9/22 及 9/23 阿里山两日游
参加了达庆旅行社的团去阿里山。
9/22 主要是游 阿里山森林遊樂區。 9/23 重点是日出及奋起湖。

神木火车站。

上阿里山一定得看日出喔！好幸运今早能见度好好。

祝山火车站。 我们就是搭这列火车上山观日出的。

9/23： 4:25pm –6pm 乘火车从嘉义往台南
6:00pm – 8:00pm 赤嵌楼
8:30pm – 9:00pm -花园夜市

赤嵌楼

值得一提的是，我们在花园夜市吃到了我们认为台湾最好吃的美食。有蚝煎，铁板面，豆腐花等。

9/24 台南古迹之旅

10:30am – 12:30pm 安平古堡 & 德记洋行，树屋
4:46 – 8:20pm 坐火车回台北

安平古堡

安平古堡

德记洋行，树屋

9/25 回家

劉特佐你好样！

七月尾的八卦新闻要数劉特佐在美国的风流快活事件最令人津津乐道。
陆续出街的有狗仔的小道照片及传神到几近身历其境的报道。几乎每项报导都不忘将其与“马来西亚”扯上关系， 盖因刘先生是不折不扣的马来西亚人。
其实满足人们好奇心该是办报人的天职之一吧。要不然本地星报该不会一头条封面再加內页四版“独家”报导专访Jho刘的新闻。http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/29/nation/6753558&sec=nation
我本身认为刘氏再怎么有本事，是二十岁赚第一桶金还是三十岁，那关我屁事。 需不需要占版位来替他宣传？美其名说是要听一听当事人“我方的故事”。
不是酸葡萄心态，我想我们往后真不能对印刷媒体有任何的期望。若刘氏是百万富翁，今天他有钱出钱，做公益行善捐了个十万八万，那报纸为他登了个头版表扬一下，我举手举脚赞同。
说失望真还蛮失望的，什么叫涉及公众利益媒体大概都摆一边了。这年头还真难找到有正义的新闻工作者。自己比较欣赏的反倒是免费报纸 The Sun Citizen Nades 专栏的 R. Nadeswaran 和Down 2 Earth 的 Terence Fernandez 。 两人是出了名揭露涉及公众利益的新闻工作者。文章每每触及行政弊端，偏差，只为不让真相被扫入地毯下。http://www.sun2surf.com/section.cfm?id=275

童真

转眼间女儿已快三岁了。现在已长高长大了许多。比起其他同龄的孩子，嘉是属于高大型的。她的身高有103cm， 体重有17kg。

小妮子这几个月的成长是非常显著的。在心智,语言技巧及表达能力方面的进步更是突飞猛进的。

这时候的她，是超鬼马搞怪的。对事物的兴趣更是比之前更深入及全面。 比方说，看图书有妈妈及小孩的画页，会假设那是嘉嘉及妈咪。还会问，爹地呢，怎么爹地不在图里面？

女儿大了，对之前不太有兴趣的玩具及游戏却忽然间爱不释手。之前教过的东西像是瞬间开窍般都能掌握了。我深觉之前的努力的确没有白费。

小孩的确像是一张白纸，很纯很真。看她的一举一动，一颦一笑都散发着童真。这过程也许并不会很长，但重要的是身为父母的我和她，会非常珍惜嘉嘉这一段成长过程。

Reducing Subsidy or Reducing Corruption?

On last week, Idris Jala revealed the fact that we are heavily subsidized and that if the country continues to be run that way, it will face bancruptcy by year 2019! (full details in http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/27/nation/20100527171008&sec=nation
Yes, we have to be awared that we are given the highest subsidies - 4.6 per cent of GDP even higher than Indonesia (2.7 per cent) & Philippines (0.2 per cent). What Idris failed to adress is the fact that the government operating expenditure has been soaring over the past years and that the deficiencies in the delivery system has caused billions of ringgit losses to the country.
Few recent examples are the PKFZ scandal and the huge overrun of Bakun Dam project. There were certainly misconduct by certain party which Rakyat ended up have to foot the bill.
On the other hand, what had government done in curbing corruption? Millions of Ringgit can be salvaged and channeled to even allowing greater subsidy for the poor if there is politically will to curb corruption. I felt ashamed to claim myself as Malaysian when looking at the deteriorating standing of us in the Corruption Index
.

You help me, I help you

The phrase "You help me, I help me" has become the most sought after
phrase in Google.
It ranks No 1 out of 2,680,000,000 search result!
Clicking on the link will
bring you to a video of our Prime Minister speaking to public while
campaigning in Rajang Park, Sibu.
He went to Sibu with a purpose, obviously was to hunt for votes so that
BN candidate could win the battle.
He stated his motive very clearly in the beginning of that speech:
"I want to make a deal with you", he said.
"can we have that understanding or not. the understanding is simple: You
help me, I help you."
Haha, sounds familiar? I just know that when most of our Malaysian
friends got stopped by the cop, it was either the cop making the offer or
we making the offer: "Boleh tolong tak, encik?". Then the officer will ask
(pretending he doesn't know): "Macam mana?".
It really made me think of the scene when watching our Top Government
Servant speaks the same tone.
To further ensure the Chinese folks in Sibu understand what he meant, he
made it more specific:"If you deliver me Robert Lau on Sunday, on Monday i will ask the check to be prepared."
And do you know how much was it? 5 million!
The most funny part is he thought that that 5 million is his money.
"Lu mau 5 just, gua mau Robert Lau menang.
Lu tak payah keluar duit, gua kena keluar duit"
Gosh! Do all our BIG people think that they own the country therefore all
the tax payers' money belongs to them? I tend to believe that they do.
I salute Sibu people for making the right choice. Though adding 1 to the
MP count for opposition does not change the overall status but it means
a rejection to vote baiting from someone who think he can fool the people
again and again.

Project with an international "giant"

I have been in my current project for close to 11 months already by now.
Go by our typical project lifecycle of 5-6 months, this project is considered "extremely" long. To be frank, I am very demoralized by the fact that it has been prolonged from March to Apr and then to May.
Well, there are things not within my control, more so for this project. It is part of a huge integrated project with so much of dependencies. My Company plays the role as provider for the portal solution as part of a bigger program managed by a big system integrator. Things did not go the way I would like it to be, particularly there were so much of slippage in other deliverables that had caused the project target to move from one date further to another.
It has not been a good project for me. Not a successfully one by my definition. Stakeholder management, for instance has been way weak with no clear ownership of deliverables. At times, no culprit could be identified for any delays let alone the accountability part of it.
This is a difficult project and difficult experience for me. But come to think about it, if it is not because of this project, how on earth will i realize that the rest of my previous projects were so manageable and successful?
It is a precious lesson.

Escalation

I thought it would have been a great year in career for me in the year of Ox last year but it turned out to be quite disappointing.
It was disastrous as I was literally having a very bad relationship with my counterpart at the other side of the camp (the system integrator of the project that I am running). We were in the fight mode, with lots of accussations and finger pointings that both have to resolve to due to things that are beyond our control.
This is the urgly fact about the big word "escalation".
I did not want to end the year like that but sadly I have to live with it and began a new year with the not-too-perfect spirit.
Lesson learned: Escalate when you think that you will get 99% if not 100% support from the people at the top. Otherwise, it marks the start of a tiring, long process of convicing even your own people not to mention people at the other camp.
Everyone are protecting their own interest, unless these people felt threaten, they may not support you full heartedly even they are in the same camp as you.
This isn't politic, this is the art of survival.
I regret been truthful.
Well, it is a lesson learned. After all work isn't everything in my life.

又是鸡奸这回事

近几天报章头条都是国会反对党领袖鸡奸案的审讯新闻。 说实在的，那还蛮沉闷的。
谁不知道安华有过十年前的一场鸡奸案，而现在又依样画葫芦地来多一场。相信也好，不信也好，我纳闷的是这事真那么有新闻价值吗？
看赛夫那年轻人在法庭上露骨的讲述被唱后庭花的经过，反而觉得那伤似乎没那么深。见图中对着大床指指点点的赛夫，像是要借案子的曝光度来羞辱安华的成分多一点。
不知道公正最终会站哪边，但很希望这戏会快快演完，因为看得人有点厌倦了。

小妮子爱说话

嘉已快步入两岁半了。近来在语言技巧方面很明显地提升了很多。
小妮子什么都会拿来问。见到剪草工人就问”what doing?" 意即 “what is he doing?"。看到报纸上足球员跌地的痛苦表情，劈口就问 ”what happened uncle?"。 女儿开始掌握简单句子了。
到这年龄，她对性别年龄也有了基本认识了。电视或书刊上男女老幼的图片画面她都能一一辨别 auntie, uncle, "kor kor", "jie jie", 妹妹， 弟弟 之分。
想在的嘉嘉，活像个”问题女生“。”十万个为什么“ 那种。任何时候任何事都会问一通。她的口头禅似乎变成了 ”what? why? 等等。
我知道这是她学习的另一里程碑。开始在提问中获得新的知识及技巧。现在要做的是认真聆听，有问必答。

BFM 89.9

Yes, I am going to talk about Radio Station.
I recently came across this station when performing my random "seek" at the FM frequencies on my boring drive to work in one morning.
It was the voice of Caroline Oh the ex Lite FM DJ that induced me to listen on. Then that was these funny slogans such as "Best Footfall Moment", "Bribe Free Malaysian", "Busy Finding Money" that attracted me to stay on. Out of curiousity, I was trying to find out what on earth is this station is all about.
Well, BFM is actually the first and only one Business radio station in Malaysia. Its main focus is obviously business news, market summary, exclusive interviews with corporate figures, etc. Sounds dry isn't it, but not really. The good thing about this station is that it strike a balance between business and entertainment. Segments such as sports, lifestyles, and entertainment info serve in between the music and business segments.
It is not my favourite station yet mainly due to the fact that the songs do not go too well with me. But the market snapshot at 9:15 am is a must listen for me as it starts my day up with some brief market info around the world.
BFM 89.9 is only available in Klang Valley, Seremban, and certain parts of Pahang though.