Dad's 70th Birthday

Farewell 2009 Hello 2010

The 2010 New year Countdown begins. Its twelve months since my It's 2009 blog. This year's countdown is a bit special as we get to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday to mark 2010's arrival. The family had a moderate celebration this year as we know that taking life slow and easy means that we can get to see more New year celebrations. Our family priest in leading our family in prayers spoke about Methuselah the oldest man on record: who reached 969 years old (Genesis 5:27) as in those days there were less health hazards. And so with the luxuries of food and drinks available in this century there is a tendency to over indulge in too many 'toxic' things..... *hic*.... oops. I guess I am guilty here with regards to over consumption of the good things in life.

But it is important to recognise that the family would never be where we are if not for the sacrifices of our parents and our grandparents. And it is during this times that each and every one of us make sure we continue their struggle to make a better living. With that said my Mum and Dad are always the pillars of our family's strength continuing to lead us in  the faith and also encouraging us everytime we set to explore new challenges in life - be it in our careers, investment in a new house or car and many more.

'70' candles for Dad's cake


Dad blows his Birthday Cake


Cake cutting - the grandchildren wishing Grandpa a Happy Birthday - Jason, Shania and Justin


The New Year feast begins

And so it is with this note Nadai Nama Nama will wishes all its readers a Happy 2010. May the new year bring new opportunities as it does with bringing more challenges. The celebration of our birthdays are timelines of our achievements as during that time we reflect where we are and how much we have harvested. Its a time to assess how we have spent our 365 days in that year. How much have we put in for our selves, our family and those who matter to us. How much have we given back to society? To the State? To the Country in which we are given the freedom and opportunity to flourish. How we handle the various trials and turbulences shows what type of person we are - the choices we make. And if opportunities fly by, try to make the best of it for it may only be with us for that moment . Happy Birthday Dad, and thank you Mummy and Daddy! To all Nadai Nama Nama visitors......be strong and may God Bless You All.

Teamwork

A Day At Sibu Wharf

Spend a few good minutes at the Sibu Wharf and you will get to see a lot of interesting scenes. The Rajang River is a big and wide waterway, well known for being the mode of transport for several major divisions. So any water debris floating along the river sometimes pose a major hazard for the water vessels. It can be a small piece of wood or it can be a bigger version. One big floating log became a hindrance for the boats berthing at the wharf a few days ago and I was impressed by the teamwork amongst the express boat owners (and also some members of the public) to clear the obstruction.

Omigosh....that's one mean looking log lodged between the boats

Analysing the problem.....okay, its really a log and not some giant creature waiting to pounce on anyone

Right people, let's get the ropes and get this hindrance out of the way

Okay, we have it covered.....just push it to the side

Go Go Go! its almost out of the way!

Yeah! We did it.....good teamwork people! Now the river traffic can flow freely......

But hey wait.............

So I looked at the cheerful face amongst those boat operators,,,,,yeap, teamwork was the key to getting that log out of the way. My wish is that they could have applied that teamwork spirit to clearing the surroundings at the Express Boat Wharf. Now that would be worth cheering about. One do not have to wait for the Council or Sarawak Rivers Board or the Natural Resource and Environment Board to work this out. Well that's another story for our 'need for a government agency to organise a gotong royong' activity to clear this floating wastes'mentality. Looking forward to 2010 and more Gotong Royongs.

Christmas Fs

Christmas 2009

Christmas may mean different from one person to the next. For Christians worldwide it is Jesus Christ's birthday. Coupled with the holidays it is also an opportunity to spend time with our loved ones. So its no surprise that we made that 600 km journey drive home from Kuching to Sibu on Christmas Eve, rushing to make it to the evening Christmas Mass at Sibu Iban Methodist Church. I can't share much this Christmas as i discovered that I did not do so well in the PMR. Yeah, I have to admit I had 5 Fs for Christmas this year but I enjoyed it anyway. I should try my best to do well next year but these Fs are the ones I do not mind having.

Family

Mum and Dad waited for us to arrive at home in Sibu. Shania could not wait to meet her grandpa and grandma and kept asking when we would reach Sibu. She was not cranky though as she had been travelling like this since she was two years old. On arrival we proceeded to the Methodist Iban Church where we again met our other family members and relatives. It was a reuinion of some sort as I grew up with the Church and the familiar faces there were as cheery as ever. We got to see the younger version of us when those Sunday School children performed their Christmas songs with their Santa Claus hat and Reeindeer horns. Some may feel that its important to make a distinction between the true meaning of Christmas and also when the idea of Santa Claus and his reeindeers should come in. Here we have an open mind and try to make it enjoyable for everyone without trying to be extreme in our beliefs. The spirit of presents and giving is encouraged as reflected in our Right Honourable Prime Minister's Christmas message. Though he only published it in his 1Malaysia Blog, hopefully he can be more 1Malaysian (putting politics aside) when doing so in future. Even Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader attended Christmas Eve Mass at the Nativity Church in Bethlehem.

From Getty Images: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas(L), Victor Batarseh, Mayor of Bethlehem (M) Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad (R) are taking part in Midnight Mass ceremony, which marks the beginning of Christmas Day, the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on December 24 2009


In time for Christmas Eve Mass at the Methodist Iban Church, Sibu


Not to be missed - performance by the Sunday School children of the Methodist Iban Church


The spirit of giving - Uncle Umpang contributes to the Christmas Charity Collection


Regular Nadai Nama Nama stars enjoying Christmas - Sis Debbie, nephews Justin and Jason and bro in law Johnady while Shania is with her grandad at the back, happy to meet her cousins

Friends

Who can forget last Christmas's 2008 glitch when Cikgu Mamat struggled desperately with the computer display. This year he is more than prepared as the presentation was smooth and without hiccups. I also got to meet a few Facebooker friends for the first time at Church like Boffman. He may be see to be a musician at heart if you do get to visit him in facebook but up close he has a charitable heart. So Merry Christmas to all the other friends whom I did not manage to say Hi in Church.

Cikgu Mamat,our technical expert of last year's celebration is ready with all the backup gadgets and not too complicated slides


Boffman Henry, my Facebook friend who happen to be a relative from Bawang Assan

Fun

The fun continues when we got home and the children have their time at decorating the Christmas Tree while the grown ups have several toasts of the Christmas spirit....*hic*.

Shania decorates the Christmas tree with Aunty Evelyn


Christmas Toast - Oohaaa.

Food and Feasts

The final two Fs one cannot avoid during celebrations like this are the food and drinks and parties. Yes, it will be a week full of attempts to beat the food menus shown in the Asian Food Channel shown in Astro. Food can be an important factor in encouraging World Peace because wars occur sometimes due to the lack of it. So I'll say yes to making sure that all nations reduce their spendings on buying or making designer weapons and focus more on making food available to their people or other poor nations that lack it.

Food was aplenty on Christmas and we had our Christmas dinner at the famous Joystar, Sungai Merah.


Then there was Aunty Evelyn's Birthday where we celebrated both the Birthday and Christmas again at their house


One thing for sure, the local dishes prepared sure beats the fancy restaurant food anytime.

That's about it for now as we enjoy our family moments together this Christmas. I would not know if I would be scolded for getting this Fs but its not always about Failures. Fs are freaking good sometimes - only do not get the wrong ones. Have a Fantastic Christmas people!

Merry Christmas 2009

Countdown to Christmas

Nadai Nama Nama wishes all its readers a Merry Christmas 2009 and Happy New Year 2010. I will be on leave starting next week and will try to implement the changes to the website. Incidently our Exabyte server also found the inspiration to do some housekeeping this year end and so we would be experiencing some technical difficulty in connectivity and some pictures will not show. Which is why the photo in this post is uploaded to blogger and not pointed to my server.

However I am all set for 2010 and plans are underway to try to get some good images for the blog - or maybe should I open a reliable photo sharing account which are aplenty in the net. Decisions decisions decisions. I hope my Nikon D5000 will not disappoint me. My Dell Inspiron Mini however will be unable to fit in the heavy photo editing tool (like Adobe Photoshop) which means I have to look for some lighter alternatives to enable me to edit photos while on the move with my Inspiron. No worries as the CHIP magazine has provided some softwares to test with. One thing i will also wish for in 2010 is on the reliability of the Internet services @ connectivity in Sarawak. I don't care which one as I almost have almost all of them except for the Wimax or that P wiggy thingy. My new Nokia E66 will partner my reliable Sony Ericsson P1i (which I almost replaced with a Blackberry 8520 but I need to revise that after discovering Dell Inspiron is just as good) so maybe I'd be looking at what Android phones have to offer. So far the CSL Mobile Internet Modem is performing well on Celcoms's 3G while Digi's Edge and Hotlink's 3G are used as backup.

So Christmas is looking White and New Year is looking Bright - I hope you all have made the necessary plans for the exciting ride. Cheers all!

Macha 1Malaysia Beguang

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Stopover At Beguang

When news that the Angkasawan Malaysia Dr. SMS was going to make plans to visit our longhouse, Rumah Richard Nanga Beguang, I made plans to try out my Nikon D5000 for the event. They were part of a motivational program arranged by the Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia (PNM) as part of their reading campaign "Aram Kitai Macha 1Malaysia" in Kapit. Though the Angkasawan did not show up in the end, the 140 visitors who dropped by at Rumah Richard had a glimpse of Nanga Beguang. It is also hoped that once the Ketua Pengarah of PNM, Ybhg Dato' Raslin Abu Bakar sees what we need at the longhouse we would get the computers that we are requesting for to be placed at our KEMAS Resource Centre.

Getting the tickets for the Kuching to Sibu trip was easy made through the Internet. Gone are the days when one has to queue up at the Malaysia Airlines Office to catch a glimpse of those pretty ladies at the counter. Booking online and printing out the tickets is pretty quick if you do not forget your password or the Internet does not disconnect halfway during the payment process.


The trip on the new MASwing plane (the ATR model)was a refreshing experience. The safety announcement was made with video presentation on a small television screen which automatically open before take off. There are some potentials for in flight movies soon I hope.


I had to get to Rumah Richard before 8:30 am as the Express Boat, Sarawak Boleh, used by the PNM team to travel from Sibu to Kapit was quite a speedster. It can travel to Kapit under three hours from Sibu. Back in the old days it would take about seven hours at least. I took the eraliest flight from Kuching and when I reach Sibu I managed to catch early sunrise at the Sibu Airport.


My transporter from Sibu Airport to Semaram boat stop was Robert Angkah, my ever reliable schoolmate.I trust that his driving skills will get me to Semaram on time. He eventually went with me to Rumah Richard.


However one cannot resist the famous coffee shops in Sibu, and so we made a stopover at Sibu Jaya for a quick kampua mee. I tried out Facebooking in the Sibu Jaya area on my 'new' Dell Inspiron Mini using Digi broadband. The surf speed was acceptable.


Trying out my Dell Inspiron Mini on the longboat - its okay to surf if there is an Internet connection along the river. I guess this is when Celcom Territory plays its role. But carrying a netbook which has a battery life of about 5 - 6 hours brings a whole new meaning to connectivity while on the move. One can say it would be easier to do on a smartphone but one has to consider if heavier work requiring wordprocessors or databases are in the task, a netbook is preferred.


Just before we reached Rumah Richard Nanga Beguang our boat which was using a 15 horsepower outboard motor engine was overtaken by the Sarawak Boleh Express Boat used by the Pustaka Negara Malaysia team. We were certainly no match for the big boat as it cruised past us.


Though we were about 15 minutes behind, I managed to see Ybhg Dato' Raslin walking out of the KEMAS Resource and being led to the longhouse's welcoming arch to perform the tree planting ceremony.


Ybhg Dato' Raslin plants a tree to mark his visit to Rumah Richard, Nanga Beguang.


The welcoming lineup at Rumah Richard had its attractions.


The welcoming ceremony for Ybhg Dato' Raslin begins


Ybhg Dato' Raslin was led along the length of the longhouse as he shook hands with the longhouse folks who greeted him and his team


The official ceremony begins and Ybhg Dato' Raslin was given our longhouse profile for viewing


From their expressions I believe it was some of the visitors' first trip to a longhouse


The welcoming 'miring' ceremony was another attraction as Ybhg Dato' Raslin tries out making the piring (decorate the miring plate) and circling white chicken over it


Then there was the welcoming dance performed by the longhouse folks


Exchange of souveniers ceremony


When the official speeches were over, it was 'eating' time as guests were offered to taste the local fruits and delicacies like bamboo chicken, jack fruits, buah isau, dabai...yum yum yum.


Though it was almost the end of the durian season we had some to offer our honourable guests - seen here En. Japri Bujang from Pustaka Negeri Sarawak enjoying the King of Fruits with Yhbhg Dato' Raslin


Before going to Kapit, Ybhg Dato' Raslin and his PNM team and also Pustaka Negeri Sarawak  took a group photo with the longhouse committee members

Finally it was time for the Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia to proceed on with their journey. The longhouse folks waved goodbye as Sarawak Boleh started its engine with the PNM team and continued its journey downriver to Kapit. It was our hope that the PNM will not forget about our small village at Nanga Beguang and our requests. We hope that the whole trip was fruitful and that we had succeeded in doing our part to showcase Sarawak people's hospitality. Thank you PNM and also Pustaka Negeri Sarawak. Send our regards to Dr. SMS too. Before I rushed back to Kuching with Robert we had a quick round of festivity and lots of food. Christmas comes early to Naga Beguang. Cheers.

Added Video taken by Robert Angkah during the visit - I did not know he was also a part time video man and he had me in picture when I was 'knocked out' by tuak. :)