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.

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.

Fatt Choy Yee Sang

Five Hot & Cold Varieties

Steamed Cod Fish in Light Soy Sauce

Crispy Fried Chicken

Stir Fried Lamb Chop with Black Pepper Sauce

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!

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!

Year of the Tiger

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 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.

Bird's Eye View of Miri 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.

Mayor Lawrence Lai

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.

Say No To Plastic Bag

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.

Beach at Taman Selera

A View of Miri City Fan

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.

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!

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.

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).

November 1…a very lazzzzzzzzzzzzzy� Sunday. As my family and I were driving around Miri city, we decided to stop by Courts Mammoth as they were having a “massive clearout” sale. There was quite a crowd there.

We did not buy anything as we just dropped in to “see see” only. As we were leaving, we saw this coffee table on sale at RM199. And it is an Obama coffee table!

Apparently the boss of Courts Mammoth is not an Obama fan. The coffee table looks so cheap and of poor quality.� Oh Obama!

Oh Obama, now don't you cry for me!

Zee Avi….her story sounds like a modern day fairy tale. Born in Miri in Sarawak (one of the 13 states that make up Malaysia) on the island of Borneo, she grew up in a liberal, encouraging household with a daddy who is very much into music.

Zee Avi

At 17, she used to lock herself in her room for hours on end to learn guitar playing. But guitar had to take a back seat for 4 years when she was studying fashion design in London. Upon returning to Malaysia, she picked up the guitar again and began writing songs and performing with a band.

Zee began recording her songs on a webcam and posting them on YouTube. How she came to record her debut album in Los Angeles is a 21st Century tale of the immense potential of the Internet.

The day before her 22nd birthday, she posted on YouTube what she intended to be her last video, a holiday song “No Christmas For Me”. �When she had time to check her emails, she had almost 3000 messages including a slew of record label offers. One of the offers came from Ian Montone of Montone Label after he had been shown her YouTube clip. And the rest is history.

Take a look at some of the rave reviews that have been heaped upon Zee’s debut album:

Then.S.Chong, Portland, OR USAA lesson on originality and complexity, August 26, 2009

I am blown away by how someone can turn simple music into such pleasure. Zee Avi does not rock, she is a reminder that the joy and therapeutic value of music is from the heart just as Jimi showed that the mastery of the electric guitar is from the soul not by the skills we hold acrobatic chords or scales.

David Hutchins, Charlotte, NC USATerrific singer and songs, July 10, 2009

The title track ‘Bitter Heart’ grabbed my attention (probably heard it hundreds of times by now) but every song on the CD is very good, appealing melodies with catchy rhythms. Zee Avi has a beautiful voice and her style of singing is arresting. Highly recommend the CD. To view live performances of some of these songs search for her on youtube.

R.Willis, Bellingham, WA USAGreat dinner music, June 27, 2009

This CD has everything you need for an evening of relaxation. Zee’s voice is so smooth and beautiful and the songs are catchy. You will be singing them later in your head. I am a massage therapist, and have even played this CD during a massage. She has the Amy Winehouse feel…. only better.

The Sideman, Boston. MA USAFantastic!!!, May 30, 2009

As a huge fan of the whole Brushfire label I generally like most of the artists that they put out. In this case I can easily say that I LOVE Zee Avi!! Fantastic voice, simple but wonderful lyrics and just the right amount of accompaniment (a lot of singer songwriters tend to over produce) this album hits all the right spots for me. I am thoroughly enjoying this while I wait and hope she comes on tour near me.

Juan Pablo Rodriguez, Miami, FL USAGreat Discovery, May 19, 2009

I discovered this wonderfully talented singer today while checking some of the featured videos for some people I follow on YouTube when I discovered a video of some live performances by Zee. I was instantly blown away by her great voice, fun lyrics, and generally mellow mood of her music. It’s not often that you see somebody like this with natural talent and is not produced from some manufactured formula. If your a fan of anybody along the lines of Norah Jones, you’ll definitely enjoy Zee.

All the above reviews were by Americans. It is so rare for an Asian singer (and a Malaysian!) to receive such glowing reviews from the Americans. Zee Avi has definitely struck a chord with them.

Whoever is reading this, please just sit back, relax and enjoy this YouTube video in which Zee performs 4 of her songs. �And if you enjoy the songs, go grab her CD but if you are from Miri, you may have to wait for a while as the local stores have sold out her CD. I know because I have been trying without success to buy her CD for almost a fortnight already.�The Speedy Stores inform me that they may receive fresh stock this week……I’m keeping my fingers crossed.