I’m back! Feeling stimulated and inspired (though tired) after getting away from it all and letting the wanderlust take over for 11 days. 3 August 2015After months of talking about it our most anticipated trip of the year was at long last here. My good friend May, her daughter Emma and I made our way…
As a hotelier over the years I have heard (and thank God I was spared from witnessing) my fair share of foreign tourists behaving in ways that are simply unacceptable in the eyes of the locals and disrespectful to the local customs and culture. When certain antics are seen as common and allowed in one…
Most of us had never expected that we would experience a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Kota Kinabalu in our lifetime as our state Sabah is outside the Pacific Ring of Fire, unlike our neighbouring countries the Philippines and Indonesia. The tremour we felt in KK early morning on 5 June lasted for only about 15 seconds…
5 June 2015, 7:17am 6.0-magnitude earthquake, 30 seconds West coast of Sabah, a place outside the Ring of Fire Trauma on Mt. Kinabalu, 18 deaths We mourn… We mourn for those who have lost their lives far too soon, most of them far too young, so unexpectedly and so tragically. To the families who have…
Chinese yellow rice wine (黄酒) making was something I had wanted to try for a long time. I eventually got round to having a go at it on a public holiday when I made a date with mum and got her to come over to teach me the process. The ingredients were minimal and uncomplicated,…
The wintry country air was fresh and invigorating and it was blissful to be out and about in the garden and enjoy what the nature has to offer at a leisurely pace. As Victor only bought the place last summer so he has yet to find out the full extend of the plants planted in…
After spending a considerable length of time going through Victor’s cacti in the desert garden, I moved on to other plants in the huge greenhouse. I enjoyed the few flowering plants that were blooming at the time and I could see that when the weather gets warmer in the coming months with the plants coming…
When you are stressed out with the daily grinds of life and need to get away from it all, go and spend time in the garden, talk to the trees and the flowers, get close to nature and get lost in the serenity. During my recent trip to the UK in March, I had the…
The flowers with two petal-like bracts are sweet and have pleasing colours in shades of red, pink, light yellow and white but the spiny stems look lethal and that was why I always stayed clear of this plant until I found out its common names a year ago. Now every time when I look at…
It was a really chilly morning when Joan and Stuart took me to Darlington train station to catch the train going north. I was bracing myself for colder weather up north in Scotland as the temperature normally tends to be a few degrees lower than that in England and wetter but I was very surprised…
Colourful Threads of Life 