Dinner in Ayer Tawar, Perak

At ING HWA Restaurant

Another trip to my family favorite food outlet but unfortunately my two sons were not around. Well, without fail, I will take them back for a visit since this is their grandfather home town. For this trip, I took Miss Fong along. Meeting us there was my brother in law with his family and also my wife whom we will fetch back to Penang.

Hock Chew's Dishes

Both of us 

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How to celebrate Christmas 2012

Spring Cleaning.

I do not have any peculiar planning but definitely spring cleaner my house today will be great. I might be tired after the work but still have an off day tomorrow. With this planning in mind , my part time maid arrived and we started cleaning area by area of my house. She started at the kitchen area and I, at my study area .Well, she has to finish the wet and later the dry kitchen which she completed by noon .As for me ,my study and than to the my sons' study room and by 3.00 pm, I have completed the living room with her together. The main rubbish is the our dog hair and all my office notes .

My Dinner
After the maid has left, I was back to my station checking my mail and hoping to find both my son online from Facebook and Skype but unfortunately none. Still have thing to do for I have to start learning how to handle my new IMac. At around, 6.00pm.my mind reminded me of my dinner for tonight. Since it is Christmas, a good dinner should be preferred. First choice was Subway due to the less oil policy and looking at my dinner table, I saw the bread and decided to drop by my neighborhood store, KK store, to pick up some dinner supply . Tuna and coffee will be fine. Arriving at the store , I realized that I should be celebrating and decided to buy a can of Tiger beer. First time, I bought one with intention of celebrating an occasion . After paying an extra ,RM 5.40 for that can of beer, I started to head back home .Another thought came into mind. I have bought a packet of " Prawn mee" from my favorite store in the market . I have totally forget about it. On arriving home , I stared into the packet of my noodle and hope that It did not spoilt . Pouring the soup out, I heated it up and than made my first taste from the pan. Wow, it was still so delicious and not spoilt at all .







Flicking though my mind, I was thinking of how to enjoy this bowl of noodle. Quickly transferring a movie into a pen drive, I went out to my living room and play the movie over my new LED TV . Perfectly seated down, and with the movie on, I finally have my perfect dinner for this Christmas. The prawn noodle, Hock Kien Mee, was still very warm, I love to eat hot .

The sound of my kettle reminded me of the coffee that I have bought from the store.
Great Dinner with a cup of hot coffee. to go along with ...
The final planning for tonight , a can of beer to celebrate with a second Blue-ray movie.





A few days back , I was really down ,sad, for the new LED Sony TV broke down and I was really scare that they could take weeks to repair it. This was not so for they immediately change the main mother board after verify and finding the main fault. Overall , 3 working days and it was back in my hall. Sad to said , my eldest son was not around to turn on my Wifi for me . I will try it to configure it tonight again . Wish me luck .!!!!!!!

Well, I would like to wish all my readers out there, " Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year " . Cheers! !
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 2

One of the main reason of getting an Ipad 2

" Continuous blogging when on the move". I have stopped for so many months and recently started back due to one simple comment from a colleague " I have observed that you have not being writing something in your blog" . Very true indeed. Since purchasing this IPad, I have been searching for an app that is compatible with Blogspot. Here I am , tonight ,trying to use this new app and hoping whatever I will posting will turn up ok.




My recent photo inside the new restaurant, " yea " in Penang Times Square.

The food is very delicious and you could not completely taste all of them for you would be very full due to many varieties. Will take my children to here again when they return for their R & R. 




Continue tomorrow .

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 2

Trying to be a speaker .

Obeiliao, the speaker.
The topic " Why Career in Construction"

I have given several speeches to student before but during last Friday , it was a real challenge. In fact , nothing great or frightening at all except that I was giving that speech in front of other company speakers. It was in this auditorium that many companies set up their individual booths too.

Every speakers were given a short duration to present their topica but I was in fact very daring to request a duration of 2 hours......... and also specifying that mine should be after lunch break. It was possible due to their department head and lecturers support.

At 12.45pm , my mind told me that I should start attracting the students attention and whoever were in the hall so I started of using pictures of how Safety were taken for granted in our daily life and also in our construction industry. By 1.05 pm. all the building science students were already seated and most of them were laughing on the pictures that I have projected from my Ipad 2.....the very first time presenting without the laptop..... Very happy for me because those additional gadgets that I have purchased for making presentation really work well. Hmm... could be better if using HDMI cord..... Always thinking that I should try my best and speak like """Steve Job"" haa... haaa....This Ipad was given to me by my wife after watching Steve Job presentation >>>>!!!!!! True....

The pictures project on the screen could have been better if I was using power point or keynote. I was so busy with the site work that I could only present it by "pdf" Well, lucky for me, it ended up well. By the way , I did not stand on stage but with the same level as the student who were seated. The main reason was I could not point with the pointer if I was on stage. Well, nevertheless I noticed that some started to doze but I did received some respond of questions from the floor when going through the slides.

After completed that speech, I received the following feed back from the audiences..
1. Mr. Kang, "I finally understand what my younger brother was doing in the construction industries"
2. Another , "Well, I finally understand what is hill slope development."
3. " You are telling the students to be humble etc and the final slide was utmost important
to them ....Quote by a Senior Vice President of Citibank: "I am still fresh on the road, no different from any of you all and I need to be very hardworking to be successful in my life."
4. Another Quote from Mother Theresa: "The miracle is not that we do this work, but we are happy to do it"
5. last was from the lecturer, "Be Humble"
By the end of the speech, the students were informed that two of their senior made this presentation possible when they were undergoing their training with us. They were present during the Career Talk held in USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia ) Penang on March 5, 2011.
My final thanks to my boss and department head for allowing me to present that speech .

What have I learned from Public Speaking???

1. Enhanced Personal and Social Abilities
2.Improved Academic and Career Skills
3.Improved Public Speaking Abilities

Preparing a Public Speech>

1. Select your topic and purpose
2.Analyze your audience
3. Research your topic
4. Develop your write up
5. Support your main points
6. Organise your speech materials.
7. Simple terms in the speech
8. Have Introduction, Conclusion and Transitions.
9. Rehearse your speech
10. Deliver your Speech.

The most important of all is to brain storm the overall write up ......opinion from different angles are of utmost important.


What else???? Getting to know more my IPAD 2.......

I hope that I have given enough advice through the presentation to all the students...
on the Life in the Construction Industries


Forget to take some pictures ...maybe could get them from the lecturers,

Being a "Daddy"

Daddy, Daddy.....

The thought of getting married came with a proposal through an International call to my wife as I was preparing to travel back to Penang for R & R from Iran. During that short conversation, my wife agreed and we decided to meet in Bangkok and have our short honeymoon in Pattaya. 3 years later, returning to work in Penang, we decided to have our own children.

The arrival of my two children

On that fine morning, I went to work as usual to Hotel Equatorial. Before leaving,my wife told me to be prepared for there was some slight discharge and I asked her whether I should send her to the hospital and she calmly answered, no. Bring a clean T shirt with you, in case I am giving birth today. When I was at site,I was went to work as usual and did not get excited until my colleague told me that my wife called and informed me that she was on the way to the hospital. Well, when reaching the hospital car park, I change into a neat T shirt and rush to the delivery ward. I asked for my wife and a nurse came through the delivery room and just look at me. She told me that my wife gave birth to a baby boy. I asked her how she knew that I was the father. She smiled and said, "Your baby has your nose" . Is that so I asked and she smiled and said wait till you see him. She helped me put on the hospital robe and took me in. True enough, the baby boy has that typical feature.
My second son too has a typical resemblance, a mole in the ear like mine.

Being a father..my memory.

I have to sleep in a separate room for the nanny will sleep with my wife and take care of my child so that my wife could have a good rest. She even cooked for all of us. Oh, how excited I would be to reach home early each day to look at my son and not to miss the delicious food that my wife left for me to eat. During confinement, all wife will have special meal cooked by the nanny. Very delicious especially the fried chicken with Sesame oil and the most important, the Red wine "Mee Suai" Hock Chew noodle. My first lesson as a father was to learn to fold the napkin, "Lampin". Each night , I would carry out this chorus for the nanny would be very busy preparing for my wife to bed also bring the hot water and milk, etc . I was given a chance to change the napkin for my son 2 weeks later. Oop, the smell of urine and sometime shit on it. Being a father, this work came in automatically.. After the nanny has left us, my wife and me has to start to adjust to my son crying each night when he was hungry. From many friends advice, we started to adjust the last feed before we went to bed ( normally 11.00 pm and the next at 6.00 am. Well, we gave him water to drink in between and slowly he got use to it and only woke up to have his full milk meal at 6.00pm. My wife and I started to adjust our working hours and normally, I would pick up my son from our neighbor and let him sleep as early as 9.00pm. How to make a child go to sleep?. I have always heard that some children would not sleep and create so much hustle . Very fortunately, my first son was so easy. I would laid him on the bed beside me and just patted him . Automatically, he would go to bed.
The next thing was clearing of all breakable items in the house and also building a small gate at the bottom of the staircase to prevent him from crawling up the stair.Even then, he managed to break some of my favorite wood carving from Bali, Indonesia accidentally. He was very active. For the milk, if the instruction stated on the milk container was 4 ounce of water to 4 scoop of milk, we would reduce the milk to 3 ounce instead. Why this, well, we are leaving in the tropic so the weather might increase increase the warmest in the baby. It worked well .


With the arrival of my second son, I started to sleep with my eldest son for the nanny has to take care of my wife again. During this period , I created a closeness with my eldest son. Again, I was given the delicious confinement food that the nanny would cook for my wife....miss them so much....

to continue.................how to make both my sons sleep?????until my wife return from work...

Food Gallery in Penang Times Square

Delicious Food

So many stores of International choice and but could only purchase a meal from one particular store tonight. Even within one store has so many varieties . Well , my wife ordered her favorite "Fish noodle" wherelse I ordered and tried the noodle with mushroom and pork . Saw my colleague , Mr Beh ordering this meal last week and now is my turn . Well, very delicious and even more with the "sambal belacan".
As usual ,I started my bad habit of tasting other people food and this time was my wife meal, so delicious too.
After finishing out dinner we quickly went over to the outlets below . My wife said that she would return to go through shopping at the new outlets since we were in a rush to go home.

Picture of the store that we have order our meals tonight.

Project Management

Recently after being encouraged by my Boss and HR Manager to give a career talk to the students of one of the local University, USM ( University Sains Malaysia), I started to think of myself of whether I should be going back for further studies.. As one of my ex staff, Ir Heng, mentioned to me over the phone, " You have been practicing it practically and why not give it a try to study the academically way and finally weighting the two. You might be worry of the examination but take it as challenge. Fail or pass will not be important but you will gain the knowledge of management and be able to teach to future students".

So sitting down , I started to ask myself, What are the Good Habit of a good Project Manager.?
1. Can be counted on to follow through.
2. Take care of the teams
3. Always mentoring and teaching them
4. Being sociable
5. Are respectful and polite.
6. Remain even tempered , understanding and sympathetic
7. Can follow instructions and processes
8. Stay positive
9. Understand and manage costs
10. Are willing to speak the truth
11. Dress and act appropriately too.
12. Honest in all dealings
13. Accept Change..
14. Sharing of past experiences.

Looking at the above points, where do I stand ??

........................to continue .............

At 55

Being a blogger, 4 years later

Today, I am 55 years old. Young at heart but various illness system seems to set in.
Going back to my younger days, these few incidents left marks on me:.
1. A deep cut on my left leg. My dad took me to the Penang's General Hospital and got it stitched up
2. Bitten by a snake while playing in the river inside our fruit plantation.
3. Fell down from a tree due to my carelessness. I was trying to do a fireman rope that could pull myself up a tree but half way up I forgot to hold tightly onto the main rope and eventually I dropped to the ground. Suffered internal injury but was saved by a very sincere staff of my dad.
4. Walking through a glass panel while staying in Hotel Equatorial, KL. Ending up 9 stitches.

The worse of the 4 was falling down from the tree. Until today, I still have some regular muscle ache and to over come this issue, I am learning to walk on a piece of bamboo as recommended by an old operator from Low Theons & Sons. He was working with us in one of our project, University Place. I would said that it was some kind of reflexology and made me sweat after stepping on it for 10 minutes
Thinking of what my staff have done on this great day, I decided to treat the staffs from Moonlight Bay and Island Resort to a simple lunch. At the meantime thanking them on the effort that they have given to me and my company in accomplishing the Moonlight Bay's project and also the on going Island Resort.


Mr Beh and I sharing our birthday together , I, 55 and him 65. so coincidentally both of us March 15


Moonlight Bay's Staffs












Well, a cake presented by the staff. I thanked the staff and a simple speech for them.
" I would like to thank everyone of you who are presented here today and also the rest who are not presented here but directly or indirectly helping to finish all the projects for the last 40 years. Apart from this, we have to work hard together to finish this present project. Keep up with the good work and always work as a team."





As quoted by one of their wishes to me , "A better increment for the following year".
I told them that I would forward their wishes to my Senior Head and also our Boss.

War zone Countries

My entry

Flipping over my expired passport, I found the date the I entered Iran after the revolution:...........
I recalled how I became a hero when leaving the plane, Air France ,just wearing a thin shirt and have a few pure wool blankets which was wrapped around at certain parts of my body by the air stewardess to keep me warm till I received my luggage in the airport. Well, the administrative staff did not informed me that it was winter in Iran.

Other than that I was the only foreigner leaving the plane ! quoted by an American lady who was beside me on the journey from Bangkok to Tehran. The Iranian who were queuing up for their turn to enter the airport proper were so kind to let me in first after explaining to the Airport security. Even before entering , I took a few moment to catch the snow with my hands. Very interesting to feel the coldness in my palm.Upon receiving my luggage, I quickly took out the winter jacket which was given by my brother who have returned from the States
All these stories were repeated many times whenever I were having meals gathering with my friends.Some would feel bored with the stories but nevertheless they could have missed a few on how I retreated from Iran during outbreak of Iran & Iraq war.

Looking at the recent news on Egypt and Libya, I recalled my friend, an electrician who told me how they left Iran during the revolution. Pan Am, an American airline took them out to the nearest city ,Rome, and after converting their air tickets they took the earliest flight back to Singapore. Pan Am was flying none stop to evacuate all foreigners.

.........................to continue on the my retreat to Istanbul, Turkey and the option our Malaysian Embassy gave us.......Pakistan route, Moscow by train and finally the decision by my company to take the Turkey journey..................Hope I still the pictures .....from my album........... I manage to take a small souvenir Persian carpet .out...........???...

another story on how being greed saved my life. .....Op...I have never told this story to my Dad and Mum for sure they will stop me returning to Iran to work.>>!!!!

My Father, The Chinaman

He has passed away many years ago but his name still lingers within the local Tanjong Bungah's community

1st recall.

On one fine day , I was wondering how the sea shore at the back of our old house where I was born would look like after so many years. While walking along the small path , I saw three elderly Malay men sitting beneath an old tree. As usual I bowed my head slightly and wished them, "Selamat Pagi", ( Good morning) and immediately walked past them. They too returned my wish with a low tone, "Pagi", (Morning). Upon reaching the seaside, I was very surprised at the changes . Nevertheless, I was very happy for the beach was quite clean like it was before. I recalled how I would play with the Freebie when the wind was very strong. This freebie was given to me by my eldest brother from the US. It took me many hours of practice and finally I mastered it. I would throw it into the air, against the wind ,and eventually it would return back to my hand . This beach brought back many good and bad memories.

I recalled another dangerous accident that happened to me. On that day while walking along the shore I was washed and dragged into the sea by a very strong wave in front of many people, all sunbathing on higher ground. I was trying to cross to the other side but accidentally slipped and fell into the rough sea . Luckily for me, I was able to relax and allow the wave to pull me back into the sea. I closed my eyes and was worried that I would hit some rocks beneath the wave. I immediately swam out into the sea in accordance with the wave. When I returned back to the shore, my swimming truck was so full of the sand that I could feel that it would slip off my body. Standing up I immediately, pulled open the trunk and let all the sand out. Looking around, I was very scared and happy that I was not too far from the sea shore. Still panicky, I waited for the next wave that would push me back to the sea shore. Eventually, I landed on the shore and all the RAAF's ( Royal Australian Air Force) personnel who saw the whole incident came over to me and asked me whether I was ok. I thanked them. Shaken and tired, I started to jog back .

Well,there were many good and bad incidents. Looking again at the sea, I decided to go home. Again I hadto pass the three wise Malay men. I was very surprised when they called me this time, "Anak Say Eng ,mari sini" ( Say Eng's son come here). I immediately went over to them and they introduced themselves as retired policemen who were formerly stationed at the Tanjong Bungah police station. They asked me where I was staying and how my Dad ( Say Eng) was.I told them that he had passed away and they were quite sad upon hearing the news.
All of a sudden, they told me that during the olden days when they were working in the police station, my father was trusted by all of them and whenever my dad came and bailed somebody out, they would allow it without further inquiries. Even the Penghulu ( local headman) trusted my Dad a lot. Wow, I thanked them for the information and walked back to my car that was parked along the main road. In the car, I started to think about the issue and asked myself how a Chinaman could gain so much trust with the local people.

2nd recall

On a Sunday afternoon, I heard somebody calling my dad . At the gate was a Malay man calling my dad and upon further questioning, he told my dad that his mum would like to meet him. I asked my dad whether that was a problem. My dad just smiled and said it had to do with money , probably a debt. I asked my dad whether he wanted to collect the debt back and he said a firm 'No".Then, I told him that we had to take along a red packet envelope in case she still insisted on paying the debt.
Upon arrival at her home, she took out a small little booklet, (555) and told my Dad that she wished to pay the amount in it. (Oops, I have forgotten to tell you all that my dad owned a grocery shop and some of the locals would purchase goods or foodstuff from us and the amount owed would be recorded and paid at the end of each month) As predicted she still insisted to pay even when my dad said there was no need.
Hence, my dad collected the cash from her and immediately told her that she had no more debt with us. Turning around he asked me to put the money into the red packet and returned the red packet to her. At the beginning she did not want to accept it but my dad told her he was giving her as a "Ang Pow" for her journey and wished her,Bon voyage.
I asked my dad why he decided not to take the amount and he mentioned to me that ALL of us have grown up and have got good careers. We no longer needed this money. Hence the decision.

In Education



A few days back, my eldest brother forward a photograph to me which I would like to attach in this blog. Well, the printed words were self explanatory . It was to giving back to the society.My eldest brother and his wife contributed to an educational institution by setting up a conference room.If my father was around he would be very happy that his eldest son and daughter -in- law completed part of his wish and mission. Well, if only I could do too.......!

The Chung Ling story.

My sister and brother in law taught in Chung High School, Penang. One day, my sister told us of a story when a student in her school approached her to ask her about my eldest brother who was also from Chung Ling. My sister said that the student went to KL for a scholarship interview and after the interview , the interviewer told him the scholarship was offered by an ex student of his school by the surname, Mr. Kang. The student asked my sister whether it could be her younger brother and my sister replied likely not but then the real truth is that it was.

The Golden Drawer.
............record of debt owed to my father still kept here till today.

Have fun with Bill

Bill with his auntie, Janet
Iphone in our genes???
Recently, my brother and his family came back to Penang for a short holiday. During dinner time, we shared an in depth usage of the Iphone 4. His son, Bill explained to us about the fantastic apps of Google map and also a bit on the robotic car that is on trial in the US by Google. Cool.
Extra usage of this map was shown to us and we also found out that my niece, Nina, was also involved in the production of Google maps in Google. Now, I understand the reason why Nina was able to inform me through email on the availability of Penang Island in the Google Map. That was very great.
Surprisingly, all of us have upgraded our Iphone 3G to 4. While having dinner, I explained to Bill as to why I decided to buy an Iphone. Well, other than the push mail, I have surfed many types of phones and found that none of them have the engineering apps that I needed.
Another main reason was their explanation to me during their earlier trip back to Penang . During that journey from the airport to hotel, the 3 Harvard and 1 MIT scholars gave me their personal opnions. Once that they left Penang , I went straight to the local telecom provider and bought one. Bill send me a note, "It runs in the family".

Have fun with Bill.
Never have I been together with my nephew but during this trip,his extra day in Penang made us very excited. We were delighted to have meals with him. "Have fun with Bill" as yelled his mum to me before flying out Penang a day earlier.

No doubt the lunch time I had with him was quite short, I found out out that he would try any food except the sourish ones. He ordered the Penang, "Char Koay Teow" and loved it. He took a photo snap of the fried noodles. He immediately twittered it and even linked it to an apps , Foodspotting". the website address is http://bit.ly/fjhYPw. Cool, when you know how to use the type of apps from an Iphone. Before dropping back to his hotel, we went over to a stall and bought a local Malay "kueh". I only knew that he loved it when he informed us during dinner time.
A short review of his trip. After arriving in KL, he took a trip down to Singapore to meet up with his friend and then took a trip to explore Malacca, Ipoh and finally met his parents in Penang.

Bill and food
A day earlier, I asked Bill what type of food he would like to eat and he mentioned a type of shell fish. On that night, we drove to a few stalls and finally found it in town. In this coffee shop, "Kopitiam" ( in hokkien dialect) there were many varieties of local Penang food. He ordered prawn mee ; my wife ordered big meehoon and me , meesuai noodle soup . Apart from this we ordered fried oyster with egg and 2 additional dishes : stingray and the shell fish. Bill's mum reminded me that Billy's food could not be too spicy for Bill had to travel a long way.


Shell fish that Bill loved to eat



Fried Oyster with eggs

Pan fried Stingray


Bill posting the food pic to his twitter and Foodspotting.