Morning Blood Bath

"Dennis! Wake up quick! " my mom yelled while banging at my door and it sounds urgent.
I got out of bed pushing my blanket and pillows to the floor and dash out wondering what's the emergency.
I got downstairs to the garden and found my dogs Eddie and Sandy covered in blood and stuck on to each other, somehow Sandy got her hind leg caught in Eddie's choke chain, Sandy gets panic easily, while I was there she kept on struggling and attacking Eddie and anyone that comes close. At that moment Eddie was struggling to breath and was defending himself from the attacks from Sandy. Eddie was calm the whole time except when Sandy decided to go crazy, knowing that it is clear to me that I had to pin Sandy down in order to get them loose and the only way to do this was to press her head down with my leg so that I could work on the chain with my hands.
It was a very difficult thing to do, they are both wet because my mom thinks that if she spray enough water at the dogs they will eventually be free, I guess she had no idea how Sandy actually reacts to water, giving her a bath is like a wrestling death match.
When I managed to keep the situation under control, mom ran in to fetch something to cut the chain. First she bring a small wire cutter, it was useless because it is made to cut wires. Then she bring a metal sheet cutter which is reasonable in size but equally useless in when it comes to cutting chain. Again Sandy struggled and managed to get herself free from me, right away she attack Eddie and got him hard on his tail. I thought that I could pry her mouth open with my hands but as I was trying to do that she bite down even harder and got one of my finger trapped in her jaws I watch as she put a puncture wound on my fingers, when I manage to free myself I ran in to the house to get a Lineman's pliers and a slip joint pliers. I needed these 2 because the Lineman could actually do the cutting and I could use both to bend the steel ring. At last I got them both loose, Sandy ran right straight under the car with a limping while Eddie being himself was running around the garden playing on the grass... both seems to be doing OK.
Mom convinced me and bring me to the clinic to get a doctor to have a look at my injuries, for me it's just something minor, no need for a doctor but I just do as she says or else there will be no end to it.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Earth Day

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Hatched Tarantula and a Cheesy Watermark

About a month ago I noticed one of my Indian ornamental Tarantula (Poecilotheria regalis) was behaving quite unusual, it's been webbing up it's enclosure a lot, but on 15Th march 2009 the mystery is clear as I caught it making an egg sac.
I was trilled but was still skeptical about the success rate of this one since the female actually molted after I mated it a few months back. Yet today I came home with a surprise waiting right in my bedroom.


Just like every other night for the pass few weeks, I did my routine check on the egg sac however I was expecting this one to either fail or get eaten and this is based on my experience. One thing that I should keep in mind is that we, human beings still have not fully understand spiders or how nature works. I manage to find spider lings actively crawling around the egg sac, they were fat and quite large in size, first instar at 1.5 to 2cm.

There were few babies to deal with, at about 50 of them it only took me less then an hour to separate and rehouse them all, don't need a maternity/paternity at this crucial time at work which will be something I'll be happy about very soon.


Have a Great Day
Dennis

Talentime

Finally had the chance to go watch Yasmin Ahmad's Talentime on Wednesday, had to go all the way to KLCC for the show since there isn't much showtime left for this one, yet it's all worth it.
While most film company or directors are making Chinese Films or Malay Films or Indian Films , Yasmin seems to be one of the very few Malaysian Filmmaker to be making Malaysian Films, the saddest part is that her work is recognized and awarded in many other countries except Malaysia, I can't help but to wonder why...
Talentime tells the life stories of a group of inter-school talentime participants, like most of Yasmin's work there are plenty of emotional to be found in this film. The songs featured in the movie are really good to a point that it got stuck in my head, so good that I even bought the Original Sound Track yesterday.
Do watch this, put this on your "things-to-do-before-I-die" list if you have to.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

The Trail Trackers' Guide to Penang

Cruising on the highway at sure-kena-saman speed, Eddie leads the pack of 9 (or was it 13) of us to the glorious land of Penang Island. With his not-so-trusty GPS and con job speed trap detection device we drove ahead, stopping by Ipoh for some dim sum breakfast at Restaurant Foh San and as usual we gotta wait/compete with other hungry people for a place to seat. For me it's just another place to fill my stomach, been there so many times that the romance of it is gone.

Siew Mai with expiry date

After our dim sum and coffee stop in Ipoh, we continue on north-bound towards Penang, we stopped at a few rest stops to regroup, the others couldn't really cope with Eddie's superb driving skills, one of the cars even overheated and had to be sent to the mechanic in Penang.

So hard to choose

On the Penang Bridge, we were discussing which hotel should we check into, Peking Hotel and Malaysia Hotel were among the suggested place to stay. Both are at about the same rate and they are both on the same street facing each other. It is when we arrived at the street to have a look at the hotel that we knew which one would be a better choice. A 4 stories hotel that look run down on the outside cannot be a better compared to the 10 stories Malaysia Hotel.

Almost RM7 Char Kway Teow

Once we checked in the hotel and refresh ourselves, we continued on foot to Lorong Selamat for some famous Char Kway Teow, I didn't really get to have a taste to tell how good or bad was it but I get so see some drama between Eddie and the Kway Teow seller. seems like there was a fuss about a few of us changing table after making our order which confused the sellers. Eddie is usually calm didn't look too happy about being scolded for switching tables made the decision to cancel the order and go else where, so our next destination was to Lorong Baru for some pig intestine porridge and other stuff like that, the ideal time to be there is about 7 which is dinner time however we were there kinda early to try anything that's really good other then the porriage.

After our eating spree at Lorong Baru, we move on like invading vikings to Lebuh Keng Kwee for cendol. No Penang trip is complete without cendol on Lebuh Keng Kwee, there is no way to describe how good it is, you can only try to know.
No matter what, this chendol is a must for anyone who's visiting Penang.

Eddie agrees

After cendol we made our move back to the hotel to take a break from all that eating, took shower and play cards, we waited for Eddie's friend to take us to dinner at Balik Pulau's Bukit Genting Hill. The restaurant is actually located on top of the hill and it is a great spot to watch the sun set while having dinner, the food there it just average but it is possible that I was too full from the eating spree... nah!
The place has a stunning view and a cooling atmosphere that's for sure, so it's still good and worth it in my book.

Sunset at Bukit Genting Hill

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Chilling at Chilling Falls

Picture Intentionally stolen from www.thefrogcroaks.blogspot.com

A few of my friends asked me why I don't ask them out for one of my many outdoor "mis-"adventures, so I decided to put up an easy trip for them to give them a taste of what it's like to be out in the wild.
My invitation spread like wild fire and within 2 days I already have more then 20 people confirmed for the activities with an additional 8 person making it a total of 26 person for me to take care of. My days before the trip was flooded with doubts, I wasn't too sure if I could manage that many people and remain calm, the feedback I got from the previous trips got me branded with the nickname "Commando" mainly due to my constant need to yell out at people to keep the group together. It is a Good thing that the "doctor" gave me order not to shout during the trip.

I woke up at 4.30AM and quickly got ready to meet up with the rest at Devi's corner for breakfast, from there we were supposed to leave at 6am but a few people were a bit late, lucky for them that I too had to delay to get the passenger arrangements done.

Soon we were on our way via the NKVE heading towards Rawang, where we'll be exiting to take the old road to get to Kuala Kubu Bharu. The convoy of 6 cars got me quite worried at first, I got my passengers to help me keep an eye out for the other cars so that I can focus on driving with the aid of the GPS. It was a pleasant drive to be passing the Selangor Dam driving on the wide empty road and having the sun rise to greet us with it's warming embrace.

Soon we arrived at the landmark dumpster car park and gate to the fish sanctuary, this is the point were we parked our cars and get in to our gears for the trek. A short 15 minutes walk from the car we arrive at the fishery department building to register ourselves.
I still remember what the place was like about 15 years ago, there was no sign of humanity there back then, it's just one big open area for campers and nature lovers, there was no huts or bridge, the toilet is a hole dug in tall grass. This is the place where I first camp when I was young, the place I first look up the night sky and realized that there are much more stars here compared to the city's night sky.

I got Linus to play a couple of ice breaker games with the group as most of them do not know each other, which did it's job of getting everyone accustom with one another. Soon after we are on our way heading to the falls, I had the novices up in front, smokers and low stamina people in the center and the more experienced at the back, I was to lead the group with the aid of Aaron as sweeper and Linus as photographer and marshal.

So we hiked, passing through a path between the bushes in to the jungle. I've been here many times before however being overconfident had me leading the group to the wrong path, for some reason we are now on a path I don't know of, a path far from the river. Not wanting to waste the group's energy I got them to take a break while I scout for a route back to the river, good thing that we have the GPS handy to let us know how far are we from the actual trail, thanks to that we got back to the river rather quickly.

At one of the river crossing I notice another group catching up behind ours, seems to me that we now have a race to reach the falls first. The first one there will have the honor of having the best spot which is on top of the giant boulder by the waterfall.


Due to certain event I've lost the mood to continue writing, so this post will have to end here.

Have A Great Day
Dennis