Posts Tagged ‘Miri’
Hazy Miri….Go For The Culprits, Mayor!
The haze is back with a vengeance. I had a hard time cleaning up my garage yesterday afternoon as it was covered with ashes.
And this morning I woke up to find my housing estate enveloped in a thick haze. At first I thought it was a morning mist but when I walked out to my garage, I was hit with the pungent smell of smoke.
As I was sending my wife and my son to work, I could see the seriousness of the haze. In some places, visibility was only four to five metres. It was no wonder that cars had their headlights on.
As usual, the culprits for the current haze are mainly the moonlighting farmers who burn roadside land for cultivation of crops to earn some part-time income. These people have no regards for the dire consequences of their actions. They often play a game of hide-and-seek with the authorities. They start the roadside fires and then disappear. Sometimes the fires started by them rage out of control and the fire brigades have to be called in to help put out the fires. Later these farmers come back to claim their “territories” and start planting crops like corn. This happens every year.
A few days ago, the mayor of Miri warned of stern actions against open burning. The authorities would impose fines on those caught in the act of open burning. But as these farmers always play hide-and-seek with the authorities, it is not easy for the authorities to catch them. The mayor thus reiterated that the authorities would no longer hesitate to destroy the crops planted by these moonlighting farmers. I hope the authorities will really carry out their threats to destroy the crops planted by these moonlighting farmers as these farmers need to be taught a lesson. Go Mayor go!
When will we see haze-free days in Miri again? Sigh………..
What A Chinese New Year!
Almost a fortnight has gone by since my last blog article. After all the Chinese New Year visiting and activities, I got bitten by the lazy bug and have just been relaxing. I guess it is time to get back into the normal day-to-day routine again.
During the first few days of the Chinese New Year, my family visited the houses of quite a lot of relatives. With my son Clarence and his girl friend back from Penang to spend the Chinese New Year with us, our house was noisier and livelier than usual.
During the course of our Chinese New Year visiting, we came across this house with its water meter secured with barbed wire to prevent theft of the meter. It is truly surprising that there are people who would resort to stealing water meters but I have read newspaper reports about such thefts.
In another relative’s house, we came across quite a number of unwelcomed visitors. These visitors were crawling on the floor and the walls….upon closer examination, these visitors turned out to be dog lice! A relative of mine tried to kill the lice that he saw.
The lion dance troupe from Democratic Action Party (DAP) passed through our housing estate and performed a short dance in the garage of my house. Here in Miri, it is a very common practice for lion dance troupes from Chinese schools, associations and political parties to perform from house to house to raise funds. It adds to the Chinese New Year mood.
An unfortunate event happened on the third day of the Chinese New Year . One of my relatives hosted an open house on that day and we dropped by his house. My relative had ordered several dishes from a Malay so we savored the food. That night, both of my sons and I came down with bad diarhoea. My son Clarence was the most seriously affected as he had fever in addition to a severe case of diarhoea. I immediately suspected that the cause must be the curry that we had taken at the open house. My wife was not affected as she did not take the curry. The next day we found out that a lot of our other relatives who had been to the open house had diarhoea. And my relative who hosted the open house later told us he only found out that there was something wrong with the curry later that night. The curry had turned frothy!
My son Clarence and Amanda left Miri for Penang on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year. I felt so sad to see them go. And I felt so sorry for Clarence as he was still unwell from the food poisoning with bouts of fever as well as sore throat. On arrival in Penang, he had to see a doctor immediately and had to take the following day off as a medical leave.
Today is the twelfth day of the Chinese New Year. And in three more days, it is Chap Go Meh ….another round of big makan (eating) again!
Tiger Is Here..I mean Year of the Tiger…not Tiger Woods!
At the stroke of midnight about half an hour ago, the sky of Miri erupted in a glorious display of fireworks as the Chinese celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Tiger. And this was accompanied by deafening firecrackers that turned the whole city into a war-like zone. I managed to capture some of the firework display on my compact digital camera.
Chinese New Year Eve
Today is the eve of the Chinese New Year. It had been a tiring day doing last minute cleaning to make our house look spick and span.
We went to the airport at about 5.10 pm. to pick up my son Clarence and his girl friend Amanda who flew back from Penang to Miri by Air Asia. We then had our reunion dinner at the Han Palace Restaurant in Grand Palace Hotel. It was a seven-course dinner: Fatt Choy Yee Sang, Five Hot & Cold Varieties, Shark’s Fin Soup with Crabmeat, Crispy Fried Chicken, Steamed Cod Fish in Light Soy Sauce, Stir Fried Lamb Chop with Black Pepper Sauce and Stir Fried Prawns with Mushroom.
The food was good but not outstanding. For desserts, we were served fresh fruits and peanuts dumplings or tang yuan. And we were given a few mandarin oranges nicely wrapped in a small hamper.
It is 10 pm now. In two hours’ time, it will be Chinese New Year. And the whole Miri will be like a war-torn zone with firecrackers erupting everywhere and fireworks lighting up the dark sky. It will truly be a sight to behold!
It’s Almost Chinese New Year
We went to QQ Duck Specialist in Pelita Commercial Centre for breakfast today. This coffeeshop was doing brisk business because of its barbecue duck. As we parked our car, I noticed dozens of slaughtered ducks and chickens hanging on some railings behind the coffeeshop.
After breakfast, we went to Bintang Megamall to do some shopping. There were huge crowds there and it took us quite a while to find a parking slot. On arrival at the main entrance of the megamall, we saw a lion dance competition in progress and I managed to snap a few photos before entering the mall.
As soon as you enter the mall, you will immediately feel the Chinese New Year mood. You can see red almost everywhere. And Chinese New Year music fills the air…….oh ya, kong si kong si kong si ni!
I saw a Caucasian lady browsing around the store selling Chinese New Year lanterns and decorative items. I thought she was just killing time browsing but I later saw her leaving the mall with a few big red lanterns and Chinese New Year decorative items. I guess she must have been gripped by the Chinese New Year mood too, haha!
Miri - Malaysia’s First Green City
Miri is aiming at becoming the first green city in Malaysia with May 20 as the deadline. On May 20 this year, Miri will be celebrating its 5th anniversary as a city.
Since taking office, Mayor Lawrence Lai has impressed Mirians with his leadership and initiative to transform Miri into a better municipality. He has been busy visiting many parts of the municipality to listen to complaints from the people and trying to carry out improvements where necessary.
One of the first step undertaken by the Mayor towards making Miri a green city is appealing to Mirians to lend their wholehearted support to make Miri the first city to say no to plastic bags everyday.
The city council’s “Say No To Plastic” campaign launched on August 30 last year has garnered the support of local hypermarkets and supermarkets that give no free plastic bags on Sunday. With effect from this month, the no-plastic days were increased to 3 days every week from Friday to Sunday.
The city council has always been active in planting trees and plants in the city and the mayor has pledged to plant a minimum of 1000 trees per year. I can see nice landscaping in many areas of the city which makes the city look much more beautiful….kudos to the city council!
The city council is planning to hold landscaping competitions among schools to inculcate the “go green” culture among students. It is also encouraging all government departments and agencies to carry out landscaping too.
A major green project that the city council will implement is the bicycle track from Taman Selera to Lutong in two phases. Under the first phase, the bicycle track will link Taman Selera to Miri City Fan while the second phase will link Miri City Fan to Lutong. The aim of the project is to encourage more people to use bicycles thereby reducing the number of motor vehicles on the road.
The city council is studying the feasibility of installing solar or LED lightings for the whole city. With about 17,000 street lights in the city, the council is paying over RM7 million in electricity bills annually. It is estimated that the council can save between 60 to 70 percent in the electrical bills. And Miri will also become the first city in Malaysia to have such lightings if the project is implemented.
I wasn’t born in Miri but I have lived in Miri for almost 30 years and have come to love the city dearly. It is in my opinion the best place to live in Sarawak.
Arghh! Dengue Outbreak!
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.
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
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: 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!
Sunday’s Alright For Shopping
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!
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.
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.
Beautiful Sunday
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.
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!
I pity the poor mummy. With so many puppies to feed, she would be “sucked” dry! (not to mention sore nipples, haha!).
A Trip to Taman Selera Miri
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.

A Victim of the Force of Nature....a casuarina tree with its roots exposed due to erosion caused by sea waves
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.
The little crabs have also been busy….the beach was littered with their “masterpieces”.
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.

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).










































































