Friday, February 27, 2009

Our Birds Need Your Help!!!!

A PLEA.
PLEASE DONATE A BIRD FEEDER!

Dear Birders & Bird Lovers especially in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Being a new birder, and also having read 2 years of magazines from the UK and the US, it was wonderful to note that people there loves, conserves and even protects all their Wild Birds found naturally.

It is very strange that we in Asia were not taught to appreciate Wild Birds.

One can find so many pets shops selling bred birds and accessories to feed them. The same goes to hamsters and white mice.

In Malaysia, we still have many areas which are heavily forrested near homes. There are many Malaysian bird species, some endemic, can be spotted once awhile. Many are now coming out of their habitat because of their areas being cleared for agriculture, industries and housing.
We are fast losing these kind of lands .

Two year ago, we realised that we, as Bird Lovers, can help.
If each and everyone of us just put up a bird feeder (either the seed type or the nectar ones)
we can play a part in their survival.

But we found out that there is not a single shop in our Town, nor in our City, nor in our State, nor in our entire Country and eventually not even in the entire South East Asia that sells these kind of bird feeders!!!!!

This is really STRANGE because even in our education system, we were not really told exactly how to save our own nature! There are so many blabbering about saving our rare Malayan Tigers [which would be extinct in 10 years] but exactly how? We do not know, but maybe, go directly into the jungles to shoot the damn poachers ourselves!!! Our existing nature clubs and associations are even clueless about this kind of feeding. One even doubted me if feeding Wild Birds this way could work!!

I proved them wrong! Thank Gawd. It Works!

We made several types of nectar feeders to try and our Malaysian Sunbirds fed from it!!!!
Two kinds of 'do-it-yourself' feeders and with a bird bath.
Just then why are we Asians so negative about doing this? Some even said that the Wild Birds carries the Avian Flu Bugs!!!! Sheeshs!!! What da Bull! Clearly very un-educated!

Due to unsuitable materials available, our DIY feeders began to break apart.
We made it out from recycleable materials thus the cracking, discoloring thus breaking down.
We are getting tired of making new ones which could only lasts 4 months at a time.

We need to buy suitable feeders which are actually designed and made for that purpose.
The funny thing is that many of these feeders are Made in China but not a single piece can be bought in any Asian Countries!

We enquired via the internet and found that they are not that costly. Only the freight/post charges are impossible to meet. For example, a feeder only costs USD 12.00 and the cost to send a single piece is 3 times that much! This is ridiculous!

We would now like to make an Honest Plea to all Birders there to help us feed our local birds.
If you have a spare (unused) feeder of either the seed and the nectar type, please donate it to us.
The nectar type with side rail (above photo)
Another nectar type with side rails (above photo)
This is the seed type (above photo)

Excess feeders collected would be given FREE to our other Birders throughout our country so that we can share and help to feed our hungry Wild Birds.

Please pass this message to your friends and fellow birders or view this blogsite especially at my older posting at 1, 2, 3 and 4 here. A YouTube video is also a proof that it works!
You can also contact me at donaldghtan.at.gmail.dot.com (please key in actual email address the normal way. This is due to anti-spamming) for further infomation and the address to send the feeders. Please do not send CASH as we are not soliciting for it. We just need the feeders as we cannot buy it here even we have the cash!

For the nectar feeders, please send the type with side railing because our Sunbirds cannot hoover like the Hummers. They need to 'stand' to feed. Also do not send seeds or feeds because it will cause some Quarantine/Agriculture problems here in Malaysia.
And importantly, please state a note that these are bird feeders as a gift/donation and not for sale because, we may be faced with the un-necessary import and sales tax imposed!

Thank you so much for reading this. We sincerely hope that you can contribute.

Please remember to pass this plea to your friends. This is the least we can do for our very own Wild Birds.

Thanks once again.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Plane over Gurney Plaza, Penang

GOTCHA!!

Google Earth is one of my favourite site for the World's Pictorial Information.

Armchair travelling, or rather armchair 'flying' was never that easy with so much large maps and atlas. Just by moving your fingers and rolling your mouse, one gets so much information about where and what places are all about. With its new 3D feature, we can now tilt the picture 'slide' ways to get a beeter feel of the place.

Early last year, while 'flying' about Peninsula Malaysia, I spotted a Boeing 777 flying over Gurney Plaza in Penang Malaysia. The satellite shot was taken on 23rd. January, 2005.
You can also see the plane's shadow on the ground.
This is a rare shot as the aircraft was flying at least 10,000 meters above sea level.
(Please click on above image to enlarge.)

This plane is either belonging to Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific.

The Co-Ordinates are at:-

5°26′04.71″ N
100°18′37.87″ E

Many other have also reported shots like these at different parts of the world and have attracted interested person to 'go out and seek' these rare gems.

Google Earth (and Google Maps) are the current modern computer tools that is easy to use and understand and I have been using this since 2004. Go get yours today if you have not download it yet. It is free from Google.

Note: These pictures are from Google Earth. They were not shot by me as I have yet learnt
to 'fly' that high yet! Ha!Ha!
Thanks Google.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Peria/FooGua/KhorGuay

Bitter Gourd
aka Bitter Melon

Its scientific name is Momordica charantia (Wikipedia)


Our first harvest of one of our favourite vegetable, the Bitter Gourd [the chinese variety]

(also known in Hokkien as Khor Guay) was from our very own garden and grown 100% organically. It is very special to us for all of our hard work.

Wifey made some natural organic enzymes out of fruits & vegetables as an organic fertilizer and it works!

Again for the first time, we let it ripen till it turns yellow. It is slightly softer than the ordinary ones bought from the wet market. It is rare to obtain such ripe gourds at the market because all of them are harvested green . Buying them yellow would meant that they are about to be rotting!

Ours were deliberately left to ripen before harvest.
That is the difference.

Ours are purely organic too. No pesticides, no toxic fungicides, no chemical fertilizer and fresh.

Just look at the deep red seed pith!


Contrary to what was written, the yellow gourd is sweeter and less bitter than the green ones. It has a fruity taste and contains a strong yellow Phyto-nutrient similar to the colorful capsicums.
We made a Chinese (Hokkien) soup dish called "Khor Guay Bark Kin Th'ng" that uses thin slices of seasoned lean pork, chopped garlic and the bitter gourd.

Delicious!!! No added salt to remove its bitterness and less cooking time to enjoy all its nutrients.

This is one vegetable to watch and is being studied closely by scientists in China and Australia for its properties to help those who has elevated blood/sugar levels, HIV and Malaria.

It have also been noted for its cleansing properties such as detoxification of our liver.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Fishy & Empty!

KLANG SENTRAL (again!)

EMPTY & QUIET!
Now it is also SMELLY!!!!!

Drove up again to the spanking new Klang Sentral Bus and Taxi Terminal located 12Km NORTH of Klang ..............................in a town called Meru .
Klang Sentral is located in Meru.
It is NOT located in Klang but Meru (incidentally it is off Jalan Meru).
Just like the City of Ipoh...located 150Kms north of Jalan Ipoh in the City of Kuala Lumpur !!!!
See how politicians speak? Just like snakes....forked tougue!!!!!!
Even many Klangites, especially those who lives across the Klang River, in Kelang Selatan (South) do not even know where Klang Sentral is!!!!!

The former MB buggered big time by almost declaring to the world that Klang would be a "Developed City"....just before he got fucked big time by the Rakyat!!!!!!

Klang Utara folks DO NOT even have a HOSPITAL!!!!!!! but Klang Selantan people got FOUR near to each other!!!! If any of Klang Utara folks gets a serious health problem, getting to PJ or Subang is quicker!!! Also because of an on-going two-year traffic jam!!!!!

Back to the blessed KLANG SENTRAL.
Yesterday and about 5pm, we went there to see what was happening to the RM300 MILLION
"White Elephant". The whole damn place smells like SHIT! Human shit that is.
All because a sewerage pump house is located so near the BUS area..... say about 200 feet!!!!! And also guess what?
With so little people using this bus stop and with close to 200 empty shops....just where all da shit came from???? Poor maintenence again? Pump rosak-ed already ?
The new roads are already 'cracked-up' and damaged. There are already potholes!!!! Rather strange especially with so little buses moving around.

No one seemed interested in renting or buying all the new shops and is gawd awfully deserted!!
Why build when no one is seriously keen to buy? Why build so many? Just think of all the 'importation' of foreign workers to build this place in a hurry? Are we really short of shops? Houses? I also doubt Giant Hypermarket would be built unless they are in the mood to commit 'Hara-kiri"......Ha!Ha!

A Classic example is the PKNS's empty shopshouses located right in the biggest Pasar in Klang Town. There are almost 300 'rentable' units of first to third floors but are empty right now.
What we can see are units being used to 'house' all those foreign workers working in the wet market and shops located in the ground floors. Please go there and see it for your self.
Yet we see PKNS hurry to clear land/hillslopes to build, build and build like crazy! For what?
It's deserted, quiet, smelly and the entire project look so.......................FISHY!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Tom Yam Day

TOM YAM KUNG

Today is Thursday and we had (DIY) Tom Yam Kung for dinner.
We used (XL) Extra Large White Prawns, Kurau (not senangin) fish head with fresh Galangal, Kafir Lime Leaves, and fresh Tumeric for the added punch!
Fresh fish (local) just bought an hour ago and is not sold frozen

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Frontside Backside.

SENTRAL COMPLICATED

Where else in the World can one get confuse with the word 'central' ?
Central is central, North is North, South is South. There is no two ways about it.

But here is Klang, the current suffering faced by bus passengers is just more than confusing.

The old main Bus terminal is called Klang Utara Terminal (North) which is located right in the heart of the city and is really centralised. It was there since Klang was founded aound 1800s when horses and bullock carts were the main medium of transport.

Then in 2006, some 'smart arse' made a decision just because some smart arse businessmen suggested that some palm oil swamp that costs only 40sen per square feet (now the total costs RM300million) be made into a transportation HUB (.....just hate that word....another one is......."World Class"........). At this price, one can build a small AIRPORT.

The trouble is that this new Bus and Taxi station (intimately called "Sentral"....in malay for Central) is located near a village called Meru ,12 Km North of Klang town. This is where the confusion starts.
Sentral is geographically located in North of Klang and Klang North terminal is convenietly located in the Central part of Klang.

The Reason? Money!
Why all the fuss? Simply ridiculous!

If I want to go to Kuala Lumpur and I reside in the city of Klang, I would have to go up 12 Km Northwards (to the new Sentral terminal) to get a bus which would eventually go back down south to Klang town to reach the Federal Highway and then, to Kuala Lumpur!!!!!

What Fuck is all this? How can I save time and money if I have to drive 30 minutes to the north, then park my car and pay some more and spent 40 minutes by bus to Klang town again and then another one hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur? I might as well drive to KL myself!!! Fuck! What kind of brains did MPK have?
The main trouble is that Agreements have already been signed with the privateers and to break it, it would cost the citizens millions of Ringgit in penalty!!!!!
Just like all those 'privatised' projects like the Highways, Parking meters........need we say more?
How can all these change?
(Picture above): The RM300Million Sentral Klang Project!!!!!

Just sack all these uneducated limp pricks in the Authority who are ...incidentally..politicians not fit to make critical decisions which would help ordinary citizens like you and me.
Aren't we suffering enough already? This Sentral Sucks Big Time for us Klangites!!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Five thousand calls later!

Whadda Fark?
It was reported yesterday in the press, that a frustrated girl after reaching puberty made 5000 prank calls to the Emergency department (equiv. to 911) ......the fuck is that the Department concerned, let her off the hook (by the' limp prick ' boss) who in many previous press statements said that stern actions would be taken for so many hoax calls!

No, not 5 calls, 50 calls or even 500 calls. It is a frigging 5000 calls using her hand phone!!!!!!Malaysia Boleh!

Again, just whadda fuck her parents were doing? She is only 17 years old and who pays for her phone bills? Surely she is not working or earning a salary? Looks like the parents are also fucked up. Maybe they should have taught her how to use the 'vibrating' feature of her handphone to pass her time.

This incident alone like the hoax calls made and the limp prick's forgiveness should have gone to da Malaysia's Book of Records of sorts!!!! Our Gormen's Authorities Fucked Big Time!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Waiting for these games!

2009 Playstation 3 Games

The following are new Sony Playstation 3 games that i would sure like to get my paws on!

They are:-
1) Tom Clancy's HAWX

2) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3) Killzone 2
4) Resident Evil 5
5) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
6) Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising .........this game is very interesting as it is based on a fictional storyline about a war with China versus USA over an island near the Spratlys!!!

Just imagine all these games in full 720/1080p High Definition and Dolby Digital 7.1 Sound!!!!

AWESOME!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Good Food

CNY Goodies

Quality and not Quantity My friends.

Nothing beats good food. SeaFood that is.

Went up Northwards to Kuala Selangor and had excellent ( and fresh..!!) Shark's Fin soup ......
.......and our favourite, Steamed fresh Scallops in wine and with big green chilli padi!
Wowie!!