There has been a sharp increase in dengue cases in Sarawak this year when compared to last year. The current year-to-date number of dengue cases in Sarawak is 3247 compared to 1287 in the same period last year.� And Miri has the most cases (704) accounting for about 21.7% of the cases and there have been 2 deaths in Miri. Krokop, Pujut, Piasau and Permyjaya are some of the areas with the highest number of cases.

This is cause for concern. And the authorities are taking action to combat the situation. Fogging has started in many areas and the authorities has warned residents that they will impose a fine of RM500 on residents whose premises and compounds are found to be mosquito breeding grounds.

Dengue can be life-threatening. Unlike malaria, dengue is just as prevalent in urban areas as in rural areas.� Dengue is transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquito which feed during the day.

There is a simple dengue treatment that a lot of people have tried and have attested to its efficacy This is how this treatment is carried out. Take 3-4 papaya leaves (use only the leafy part with no stem or sap). Clean the leaves and then pound them and squeeze using a filter cloth to get about 2 tablespoonfuls of the juice. Do not boil the leaves or rinse with hot water! Take a dose of 2 tablespoonfuls once a day until full recovery.� Within a couple of days of taking the juice, the dengue patient will see an increase in their platelet count and overcome the dengue fever.

Papaya leaves....treatment for dengue fever

But prevention is better than cure. Take steps to eliminate mosquito breeding places in and around your house. I have heard of a mosquito trap created by some elementary students in Taiwan and it seems to be a very effective mosquito trap from the comments that I read online. I have not tried it out myself so I cannot vouch for it. There is no harm trying it out as it is very cheap to build one. These are what you need to build the trap:

1 two litre plastic bottle

50 grams brown sugar

1 gram yeast

1 thermometer

Measuring cup

Knife

Black paper

Sealing materials

Steps 1-3

Step 1: Cut the bottle as shown above.

Step 2: Put 200 ml hot water in the measuring cup, add in 50 gram of brown sugar and stir. Place the measuring cup in a larger container containing cold water to cool the temperature till 40 degree Celcius.

Step 3: Then pour the sugar water into the cut plastic bottle and add yeast. There is no need to stir the yeast. When yeast ferments, it produces carbon dioxide.

Step 4-5

Step 4: When you cut the plastic bottle in Step 1, don’t throw away the top part. You will now put this top part upside down into the bottle containing the sugar water and yeast so that it looks like a funnel.Seal the edges of this funnel.

Step 5: Cover the bottle with black paper as mosquitoes like dark places and carbon dioxide. Your trap is now ready to be deployed. Place it in some darker corners. You will see the effectiveness of the trap within a few days.� Remember to replace the sugar water and yeast every two weeks.

I will try to make a couple of this trap this weekend and will let you know if it works. Apparently this trap works well with certain species of mosquitoes and not all mosquitoes.Have a great time catching mosquitoes!

Another Sunday and another trip to Emart…and this is what we bought:

A kilo of langsat for RM3

This is what a wild durian look like when it is opened up:

And this is a tampoi “exposed”…..and “naked”.

Play around with some of these fruits and you can get interesting “fruity” art!

It�s so frustrating. Streamyx connection in my house has been down since about yesterday. I contacted Streamyx�s hotline today and went through a series of troubleshooting procedures with them via telephone without any luck. They promised to send a technician to my house within 2-3 business days. What the heck!

The Streamyx downtime proved costly for me. I had been planning to bid for an eBay auction closing at about 9.20 am yesterday. The auction was for a huge collection of stamps, coins and sports collectibles weighing about 30 kilos. I had intended to put in a bid of $1,000 for the item 30-40 seconds before its closing but I was unable to do so due to the Streamyx downtime. I later found out that someone won the item for less than $600. Had I been able to place my bid, I would have won that item.

Being unable to surf the Internet, my family and I spent hours shopping yesterday. We first had lunch at Cheng Kee Chicken Rice at Krokop 10. As usual, the place was packed. Try out the steamed tofu�it�s nice. It seems that a lot of chicken rice outlets in Miri are doing a roaring business.

After our lunch, we walked over to the nearby Krokop market where we bought a kilogram of the local olives. I have a soft spot for these olives since young. You just soak these olives in warm water and when they have softened, you can either add some salt or black soya sauce and sugar. If you manage to buy the good quality ones, they taste so yummy!

We then dropped by Ng Sian Hap Pottery where we bought 4 flower pots and some groceries. My wife decided to buy some orchid plants to add to her collection of flowers and plants so we drove to LG Nursery situated just before the Lutong Bridge as you drive from town to Lutong.

LG Nursery has a good variety of flowers and plants. We had a great time looking around the place and what made it even more pleasant was the friendliness of the lady towkay or �towkay neo� and her staff. We ended up buying 2 orchid plants,and 2 other plants plus 2 kilograms of mangoes. One of the plants that we bought have leaves that look like butterflies.I love mangoes!

This looks weird!

This reminds me of a certain part of the male anatomy, haha!

Another new addition to my wife's plant collection

Mangolicious!

Emart was our final destination before we headed home. At the tamu there, we bought another orchid plant and two soursops (locally known as durian belanda). In Hokkien, we call the soursop �ang mo durian� meaning Caucasian durians�..I think it�s probably because of the white flesh of the fruit. By the way, sousop is now known as a fruit with amazing health benefits. Its botanical name is Annonaceae muricata or graviala.

The third orchid plant bought by my wife

Soursop (aka ang mo durian aka graviala)

I am now writing this inside Double Star Restaurant in Pelita Commercial Centre as the place has WIFI access. I really hope Streamyx will send a technician to my house soonest and restore my internet connection. It�s such a pain in the ass to have no access to the internet at home.

Today is the birthday of my cousin Sylvester Lim and his daughter Krystle. I find it amazing that a father and a daughter share the same birthday. I guess that is probably why there is such a special bond between my cousin and his daughter. To my cousin and my niece, I wish you both �an awesome birthday. Sylvester, you finally hit the magical 55 today…..can I call you a senior citizen now?

I finished listing my China first day covers, stamp presentation packs and maxim cards on eBay this afternoon. That gave me a sense of accomplishment. �It was then that I realised how hungry I was…it was almost 3.30pm and I had not taken any lunch. I went to Pelita Commercial Centre to have a plate of “char siew” (barbecue) pork rice and some cucur pisang (banana fritters).

After picking up my wife and my son from their respective offices, we drove back to Senadin to have dinner at one of the restaurants there. �After dinner, I noticed this huge rainbow in the sky….I have hardly ever seen such a huge rainbow. �I don’t know why but seeing the huge rainbow gave me a sense of euphoria and a feeling that something good is going to happen.

On reaching our home, I checked my mails and my eBay account……hmmm, there had been a few sales from my eBay listings. I took a quick warm bathe and then left my house to attend the World Vision Sharing Session by Malaysian actress Lee Sinje at the Imperial Hotel. �I have been a World Vision child sponsor for a couple of years so I did not want to miss the opportunity to hear an Asian movie queen ( Lee Sinje won the Golden Horse Best Actress Award for her role in the Hong Kong horror movie “The Eye”) sharing her experience with World Vision child sponsorship.

I estimate the crowd to be over 200. �Lee Sinje received a very warm applause when she entered the ballroom where the session was being held. �She shared her experience about going to Mongolia to meet her sponsored child and what an impact it had on her. She also talked about her trips to Africa and India. She obviously touched quite a lot of hearts with her sharing as evidenced by the number of people signing up as child sponsors after the sharing session.

I was deeply touched by Lee’s sincere sharing and her commitment to help World Vision. I signed up to sponsor another child. For only RM50 a month, you can sign up to be a child sponsor. Think about it..by just sacrificing one dinner outing each month, you can make a difference in this world!

I know there are a lot of people out there who have the thinking that they cannot make any difference. In their mind, they think of the millions and millions of starving children and they just conclude that they cannot do anything about it and so they adopt an indifferent attitude. WAKE UP PLEASE! YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT……YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! You cannot sponsor millions of children but you can make an immense difference in the life of the child you sponsor! You will be giving that child a chance in life, a chance for the child to reach his/her potential.

If you are still not convinced that you can make a difference, please watch the following YouTube movie and let its message sink into your heart.

Yesterday was a beautiful Sunday except for the unbearable heat.� My wife, my son Les and I went out at about 11.15 am and we dropped by Double Star Restaurant for brunch as I was meeting up with my friend Michelle Tan from Brunei at that restaurant.

As we were ordering our food, Michelle arrived. I got to know Michelle in April this year at an internet marketing seminar in Miri and we have since then became friends.

Michelle is an enterprising lady and has recently started business selling Hello Kitty products from her home in Brunei.� You can visit her blog at :

www.hellokittyandmymelody.blogspot.com

Michelle has also started selling her Hello Kitty products on eBay and that was why she wanted to meet up with me to learn more about selling on eBay. I shared with her some of my eBay experience and also some tips on selling on eBay.� It was embarrassing for� me because Michelle not only gave me some gifts she had bought in Taiwan but she also foot the restaurant bill without my knowing. Thanks a lot, Michelle! The next round is on me.

I noted that the restaurant was fully packed. I guess the unbearable heat contributed partly to the brisk business. Double Star is nicely air-conditioned and with WIFI access and enjoys good business everyday.

After leaving the restaurant, we dropped off Les at Boulevard Shopping Complex as he was meeting up with his friends. We drove around and decided to drop by Beautiful Garden. We were surprised that this was quite a big place as we passed by it everyday and it looked like a small nursery from the road.

Entrance to Beautiful Garden

Plants aplenty

Young plants at the nursery

Lovely flower

Cactus

Lots of cactus for sale

Cactus plant with nice flowers

We bought 2 bags of soil and a bottle of organic insecticide as some of my wife’s plants have been under attack by ants and insects.

We then dropped by the house of my sis-in-law Vun (my wife’s� younger sister) whose dog has recently given birth to a litter of 9 puppies! Gosh, if human beings are so “productive”,� we would have a huge population explosion!

Three of the puppies

The proud mother with some of her puppies

Five of the puppies pushing and shoving for their mummy's milk

I pity the poor mummy. With so many puppies to feed, she would be “sucked” dry! (not to mention sore nipples, haha!).

It has been ages ( years?) since I last visited Taman Selera. I have been thinking of going there for quite a while but I kept on procrastinating. This morning I decided to JUST DO IT.

Beach at Taman Selera

Jetty At Taman Selera

Another View of Taman Selera Beach

A Victim of the Force of Nature....a casuarina tree with its roots exposed due to erosion caused by sea waves

Remedial Work To Counter Erosion

The food stalls at Taman Selera.....the stalls only open in the late afternoon

Looking out to South China Sea

Children playground

The leaning coconut trees

Shady pathway

It was a worthwhile trip. There were hardly any people there apart from some maintenance workers doing erosion repair work and a few people fishing on the jetties.

It was a bit therapeutic to watch the waves roll in and crash on the jetties.

Waves crashing on the jetty

Mighty waves

The little crabs have also been busy….the beach was littered with their “masterpieces”.

The crabs have been busy.

A crab masterpiece

Mr Crab, don't be shy...come out and play play.

Nature's masterpiece

Sadly there seems to be hardly any flowers in the garden there.� All I can find was some small grass flowers. I cannot even find any periwinkle flowers, the Miri City Flower! How nice it would be if there is a garden blooming with all types of flowers.

One of the very few flowers I was able to find

Nice shady trees

Ferns growing on a tree

Apparition at Taman Selera.....call the ghostbusters! Nay...this is just the flower of some plants....I know with my compact camera, I will not be able to capture this flower particularly with a sea breeze blowing but I was curious to see how the photo would come out......and THIS IS IT! (no, I'm not promoting Michael Jackson's posthumous movie).

My wife, my son Les and I went to the newly-renovated SCR at Soon Hup Tower for dinner yesterday. The restaurant looks nice and more “up-market” now compared to the run-down look before the renovation.

Looks very clean and nice

We ordered a portion of the plain steamed chicken and the fried chicken,� a spring roll and fried baby kai-lan plus an iced milo, an ice-lemon tea, a hot tea “o” and 4 plates of rice.

The bill for the dinner was a reasonable RM23 (less than USD7). So if you are looking to grab a quick reasonably-priced meal in a cool, cosy and clean setting, head down to SCR at Soon Hup Tower.