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When Every Cent Counts

We are going through challenging times. No question about that. What I ask myself however is this. Is my life about wants or needs? We can actually take stock of what answers we get by looking around our own home. Are there things that cost us when we bought it but have not even touched it for the last year or so? Why did we buy those things in the first place? Want or need?

Sorry folks but I'm into one of those writing moods so I'll try to get to the point.

I love music. In my car, in my living room, my bedroom, my bathroom… I have my music playing. When I work I listen. When I chill, I listen. That's me. But today, I looked at my collection of CDs that is about 1,400 on my last count, and I realised I haven't even touched one of them over the last few years! Mind you, I bought multiple copies of the same album. First on vinyl growing up, then cassettes. Then I had them on DAT and on to Mini Disc. Finally on CDs. Of course those were limited to my favourites of about 20 titles. Of course I had them converted to digital for iTunes. But you get the idea.

Why am I not playing them? Because I have moved on to streaming services. First Spotify, then Rdio and now on Apple Music. I have come to the conclusion that a subscription service is one of the best invention yet. Why? Because you no longer need to own what you need.

That's a key realisation. You pay RM14.00 per month and you have almost any album you want on all your devices, including new releases everyday. And it's legal. Why own it when you just need to listen to them? The day will come when I'm wondering what I'll do with those CDs (some are pretty nice limited edition box sets). I'd be that much richer if I can convert them back to cash at the price I bought them (dreaming mode on).

Wifey is a different story. She loves to read. And I have to buy her a wall cabinet for her books and it's still not enough. Will she ever take out a book she read and read it again? I doubt that. It takes up room and it ages away. But she is now beginning to finally convert to reading on her iPad. She can have as many books as she wants and it'll only take up about 5 in by 8 inch mini iPad space. And there's now a subscription service too where you can read any book you want. And we save some trees along the way.

Movies. It's the same. First I used Netfllix and now we have iFlix at only RM8.00 per month.

The thing is, if you find your expenses are a little over, just cancel your subscription and live within your means. When you can afford it, just re-subscribe and the good thing is these services keep your data, play history, playlists and bookmarks. You own nothing, You just pay for the rights to read, listen or view them.

Okay, you may say that's just all entertainment. New technology can actually de-clutter your life.

How many of you have photo albums? Or videos of special occasions like weddings. Now be honest. How often do you take it out and look at them? Rarely. And they sit somewhere in our house and again is subject to deterioration. You may argue and say now you have digital copies stored on hard disks. Again I ask you. How often do you plug those hard disk to your computer and look through them? In fact my daughter just asked if I could find my grandson's first birthday's photos when she knows she has them. She probably just don't know where to look, or maybe she knows I can get them in like under a minute.

How? Cloud service. And it's free.

I have Flickr accounts for my personal albums, my church and my company. One terabyte each. That's enough for years of photos. And it can be auto-uploaded from all your devices. I put them in albums and tag them. So to find anything, I just key in Caden (my grandson) and birthday and all the photos will appear. I can retrieve them at full resolution or just play a slide slideshow of them right off Flickr app or in this case send a link for my daughter to view or download them.

Then there's Google Photos. Unlimited space. Auto uploaded and videos included. And it has smart search. It recognises things, places and occasions. So if you search dogs, any dog photo in your collection will appear, chronologically by date. Or search weddings and all wedding photos will appear. In the U.S.. versions, faces can also be recognised and I believe that feature will be here soon. All your photos and videos available via a username and password. And it's all private unless you choose to share them.

Is it safe? Well, it's safer than your computer or hard disk or photo albums. Your computer can be stolen and often together with your hard disk. Or your hard disk may just choose to die or fail at the most unexpected moment. Or a fire can destroy them all. I've heard of horror stories where all the memories they had were wiped out when a thief broke in and took all their computers and hard disks. You can replace them but you can never replace what's in them.

Cloud services on the other hand has multiple backups in different locations. And you can access them from anywhere in the world on any device that's online. Often over dinner, I'll just show a photo from the past related to what we were talking about and they are amazed I keep those photos in my phone. They're not. I just pluck them off the clouds, figuratively.

It's the same with my business. Now is the time to run lean. We used to spend tens of thousands to buy design software and pay again for every upgrade. Now we just subscribe to cloud service. It's always the latest version and no upgrade fees. We don't own the software as in having a physical copy. It's a subscription for rights of use, again via a username and password. So I can work on a project on any computer even if they don't have that software. I just log in, download and continue my work.

And we learn to outsource services and talents via strategic partnerships. We used to do everything in-house. Photography, web and multimedia. Even though they were not our main focus. Now we have partners who can do them better and at a lower cost to us because we only pay when we need the job done and is no longer part of our overhead.

Don't get me wrong. I am not against owning things. I am against hoarding things. Things we pay for but hardly use. If it's something you use frequently, by all means. But if there is a better way in having our needs met without having to buy them, why not? Especially now when the ringgit is not taking us as far as it used to. I am taking a reality check.

My church is undergoing a major renovation and we have a "gotong-royong" day where we try to clear stuff. I am surprised how hard it was in making decisions to throw things. Even things that are no longer in use, like VCDs and VHS tapes. That's because they cost money. We are still physically burning CDs of sermons. I wonder why, when YouTube offers free and unlimited space to store them in the clouds. It's easier to share them and they don't deteriorate over time. There needs to be a shift in mindset. Having things we can hold in our hands no longer means what they used to. Technology have changed all that and we should embrace them because they'll help us save money and provide a convenience we never knew possible.

I leave you with this thought. Every trash we throw away was something we paid for. Nothing we own means much one day, so if we were to take a hard look at the things we spent our hard earned money on, is there an alternative that can save us some money and yet get us what we need. That will make us good stewards of our money.

Alor Star Foodie Trip

It is rare that we can get all our Song nephews and niece with their spouses and children together for an outing. This is where social network comes to play and made it possible for us to coordinate the dates and get all on board way before they planned their trip back to Penang. All thanks Facebook.
Note: technology is integral to this blog post ;)

Enjoying "Lam Mee" before the journey starts.

And so the day began with how else but breakfast before the journey. And we rendezvous at Island Glades for the famous Lam Mee. Have to start with makan on a foodie trip right?

We had to go back to Edwin's apartment to get his phone (young and forgetful) and also a change of clothes for one of the kids. Then it's first stop at Bedong just a little North of Sungai Petani. And we were there just for Man Tau and Herbal Tea.

The ritual before any meal. Camera and smartphones eat first!

Steaming hot and fluffy on the outside and crispy and savory inside. Everyone tried to guess what's the ingredient but no winners here as we don't have a clue what's in it that tastes sooooo good. Secret recipe I guess.

Savouring his last bite!

Terence can't get enough of it and it goes so well with the Hor Yan Hor herbal tea with sour plum. Just the appetizer before lunch in Alor Star.

We travelled in 2 vehicles so we used an app called Voxer to help us communicate walkie-talkie style. Hi-tech stuff is just the thing for this bunch. After a leisurely drive where padi fields were the main attraction (you're talking about a group that NEEDS rice) we reached Alor Star, where our Song roots started.

Lunch was at a place where their Ah Kong used to frequent for lunch call Restoran LTK. Typical Alor Star choo char. And what a lunch it was. Evidenced by the plates left after the meal.

Big cheh cheh now got duty. Anthea watching over Emmanuel.

Food almost finish but notice the amount of rice still on their plates.

To work off lunch, the shop guy told us we must visit the Padi Museum when in Alor Star so we thought it's a good idea for rice kaki like us. So we took out Waze (remember I said we're a hi-tech bunch) and set towards the museum, passing Jalan Putra where their Ah Kong and Ah Mah used to stay. It was a longer journey than anticipated and signages were literally non-existence. Had to trust Waze to get us there.

Sam getting his children up-close to Mr. Lion.

Finally we arrived and spend much time (like all the time) shooting in macro mode on ants, flies, eggs, spiders, dragonflies and flowers. The children were fascinated by the lion sculpture at the entrance. Padi was not on the agenda and we cheapskate travelers refused to pay the entrance fee just to see how padi is grown and harvested. Being cheapo must have been a Penang thing ;p.

Shot of the day, the frozen still Mr. Fly.

And these are the very aggressive fire ants. Had to warn the kids not to go near.

And here is the proof. Fire ants that lined the drains and my shot of the day, a close up of a fly, like really really close. But we did find time to take the only group photo for the trip. Tada, two generation of Songs in one picture. Wish Pam, Ky-Shen and Jo Law was here. That would really complete the picture.

These are one of the most well behaved children we have seen. Make traveling with children a real joy!

Next stop is the home I was at as a toddler. It has now become a coffee shop so we decided to stop there for tea and coffee before going for laksa. This is after all a foodie trip right?!

This use to be my home till I was eight.

Terence loved the coffee here but Melinda and I found the tea so so only. Told them who stayed in which room and where the jambu tree and banana trees were. I also went to Flickr (hi-tech wat) and showed them classic black and white photos of the house when we were staying there. It was down memory lane indeed for me.

We decide to go somewhere for the kids as they have been so well behaved even though they are tired following us adults on non-stop eating. So it's to the Alor Star garden.

We walked quite a distance from the car park to get to some Malay stalls that sell laksa Kedah! Must eat whenever in Alor Star. It was just beside a man-made pond, where I used to go steal water plants for my aquarium. Hehehe...Fell into it once!

The long walk in the gardens to get to more food!

Chek chek faster faster shoot. You can see Edwin eyeing mine too.

The laksa coupled with ice kacang were the perfect tea before dinner. All the Songs prefer Malay laksa to Penang laksa because the noodles are made of rice which has a different texture. And the soup, yummy. Sour not sweet. No "Ong Lai".

The kids had some time running around and went on the swings. Poor things, this was the only time they got to have some fun. And they thoroughly deserved it for being so well behaved. Credit goes to the parents! Melinda got to carry Elliot, and at his age, just so cute with his adorable eyes. Heart melts.

Meet Elliot. Dreamy eyes...

By the time we left, the sun has set and it's time for dinner. I wanted to take them to "Hai Tau Kee" but it has shifted so we had to guess the location based on the direction given by the boss of Restoran LTK, where we had lunch. We finally found it on the other side of the river where the old market was. It's now more like a hawker centre but all the stalls are still there.

The place where excellent Alor Star hawker food congregates.

Our must-have orders are Alor Star "Wanton Mee" which is different from Penang's being lightly flavored and no "or tau eiu" and "Ying Yong", which we call "Char Hor Fun" in Penang. Terence loved it and said its better than the one at Bee Hooi. We also had "See Kuo Th'ng" but it is not so good any more with less ingredients. We also ordered "Ban Chean Kueh" and "O-Chean". Another feast and this one is to round up our foodie trip.

By now the kids are ready to call it a day and so are we. What a trip of non-stop eating.

Elliot and Emmanuel have gone to dreamland and we had our fill of Alor Star flavours and are already looking forward to the next trip.

Baby is Hungry!!!

Babee was back this weekend and wanted to have breakfast (and) lunch with us so it's Hai Onn for healthy toast and eggs.

Then she and wifey went to steam their hair while after dropping me at office.

And lunch is her favourite CRC Restaurant where surprise surprise she opted for something different - curry prawns.

Had a wonderful time catching up and wifey spent quality time with baby talking sweet nothings to her during breakfast.

Went UP Alor Star while going DOWN memory lane

Sis and Paul ko, my brother-in-law was up here from Singapore for a short break so we planned a trip up to Alor Star since they have not been there from such a long time ago. It was with an itinerary filled with food, glorious Alor Star food and familiar places from long ago. A nostalgic trip was on the menu.

So first stop was Sungai Petani. We took the South Exit so that we could take a slow drive through old town SP, where Sis could revisit the old bus station she remembered and the kok kok steamed rice where they would stop over for lunch before heading to Alor Star in the 70s.

Because Paul ko was in development before and he has seen Bandar Laguna Merbok township from the last trip, we decided to drop by Bukit Banyan, the latest hill development in SP. We dropped by to see two Terrace homes and one Semi-D show house. Quite an impressive development for SP standard.

From there we headed North towards Bedong where the famous Man Tau can be found in a quaint Kopi Tiam that also does great Hakka Choo Char. The owner was proud to serve us four Man Tau immediately when I told her my sis came all the way from Singapore to try this. We had our Man Tau with Hor Yan Hor herbal tea with sour plum. Not disappointed as the couple tried to decipher what's the secret ingredient to its unique taste. While eating, we saw someone carted away 90 take-away Man Tou.

The Man Tou and traditional Hor Yan Hor herbal tea.

Next up was lunch in Alor Star. We were torn between the coffee shop where our parent used to frequent or the new place me and Melinda went at Teluk Wanjah which served delicious GIANT Prawns and Black Pomfret fried with black sauce and chilli padi.

Since Pekan Cina was the first stop and we saw the kopi tiam was open, we decided to have lunch at the old place, Restoran LTK. Not disappointed. It was as good as we remembered it and by the time we finished, all plates were clean.

Restoran Low Teik Kee, still looking like it was 20 years ago.

The Char Siew Siow Bak was excellent and next came the Kor Kua.

Then the Sambal prawns and finally the Steamed Grouper. Paul ko said this was the better quality red grouper.

Then we went next door where a traditional sundry shop was still open. You don't see these in the cities any more.

The happy couple after lunch at the sundry shop.

With our tummies well fed after a hearty lunch, we took to visiting familiar places in Alor Star. We drove through the heart of town where the beautiful state mosque is still as majestic, surrounded by beautiful architecture that have been well preserved, like the State Museum and Gallery.

Jalan Putra was next, looking for the house of Ah Por, where sis and I stayed before. I was there till 8 but I remembered that house very well. It's still there but has been a coffee shop for many years.

The house where chi chi and I grew up in. We both had lots of memories there and remembered well who slept in which rooms, looking at the upstair's windows on the outside.

Then we went pass the river and took the outer ring road that led us straight to Jalan Sultanah, where I stayed till my move to Penang. Much have changed with so many flyovers under construction it took a while for me to find my way into the housing estate, originally known as United Park and later Jalan Sri Taman.

See, proof. That's 60A, Jalan Sri Taman, my home before I left for Penang.

We found the house, 60A and the unit beside 59A which my brother Jimmie stayed. We passed by Ah Por's house further down the road, then decided to look for Ai Tin Chi's house. I remembered it was the 3rd house but it seems it's now being rented out to an Indian doctor and two houses down, we found Ah Bah ko. Ai Tin Chi was down in Singapore and though we woke him from his afternoon nap, he was kind enough to offer to lead us to where the Malay Laksa is sold.

Meet Ah Bah Ko, my cousin-in-law. Woke him up from an afternoon nap!

Melinda, looking really happy with her three plants.

He gifted Melinda with three pots of flowering plants, with the white flowered Frangi Pani being supposedly a rare strain.

Next we passed by Ah Jee Ee's home beside a sundry shop fronting the football play ground where I frequent every evening. The football field is gone and now overgrown with trees and shrubs.

Finally, we left Jalan Sri Taman and headed for Laksa. We took a detour to Jalan Wanjah, pass the Kelinik Pergigian where I had my braces done for 4 years and showed them the stall where the BIG prawns were. It will have to be another visit for lunch there.

We went pass the old house at Jalan Putra again, this time from the side road, Jalan Lumpur, for more picture taking.

The same Jalan Putra house, this time from Jalan Lumpur.

Then it's Laksa, passing through Pekan Rabu. Yes! The stall was open even though Ah Bah ko said she's no longer there. The kind lady served us our Laksa, two with hae ko and two without. But she hurried us since my car was illegally parked and risked a summon. She was more worried about it than we were. Hahaha.

The Assam Laksa Kedah style. We plan to have the genuine Teluk Kechai Laksa on the next trip which is real Kedah Malay laksa, located on the way to Kuala Kedah.

Then we went hunting for chi chi's convent school. Had to use gps and finally after asking a student at Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid, we found it.

Unfortunately, it's no longer the school she went to. It has all changed including the students there, mainly Malay girls in their tudung.

We then went to my school, Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid, and that has not changed, everything there was as I remembered it, including my class rooms, the school hall and even the bicycle shed where I parked by bicycle. Even the football fields remained the same. So nice. More photographs followed.

That's me, the proud collegian! Notice how the school slogan is still in English. A rare sight in Kedah!

That done, our trip's itinerary came to and end and it was time to head back to Penang.

What a good trip blessed by good weather. We had good company, great food, nostalgic sights and plenty of lazy indulgences. Definitely more to come.

Rubber Seeds

Hard to imagine we could have so much fun with these simple seeds.

Meet Buah-Cina-Mati (top) and Kapok (bottom). My prized Champions!

Right after school under the post midday sun, we boys would go to the rubber estates and collect these seeds. There are specific types that we look for, highly prized being those with thick shells.

Here's why. One of the games we played is to take turns to try break another rubber seed by placing ours over them and then smash it with our palms.

Of course, the weaker seed would break and you'll have to give a seed to your opponent if yours broke. That's two, considering the one that just broke!

So how did I conned them? Haha...yes I was quite a rascal growing up. I would pick a strong seed, kapok and buah-china-mati being my favourites (more about the naming strategy later) and "modify" them.

First, carefully remove a layer of skin from the base of the seed where the stem was. Keep that skin cos you'll need to use it to patch back later.

Then use a thin wire and push into the hole and dig out as much of the seeds inside as you can. Can't get them all out? No problem. Drip a few drops of sugared water and leave your seeds where ants frequent. By the next day, they would have cleaned up the insides. Ants are hardworking creatures you know ;).

Okay, here's the hard part. Get a candle and drip wax into the hole to fill up the insides. Not easy as they clog up the hole quickly so it's a repeated process of drip drip drip, clean hole, drip drip drip, clean hole, drip drip drip. Takes a full half day for ONE seed but totally worth it. We kids back then have plenty of time. Less homework, or rather play first, homework later (what homework?) ;p.

Once it's full, heat the wax near the hole and quickly put back that skin to cover the hole.

You can see the seed on the right no longer have a skin to cover the wax while the other seed's skin has shrunk!

That's it! These are champions and have never been beaten, which accounts for why I still have them ;). There's another secret to making them look good. Rubber seeds all look alike except for their shape. So how does mine have distinct colours and shape? You need to remove it's outer skin. Break open any rubber seeds or those that have been cracked and use its fleshy insides to polish your rubber seed. It will gain a sheen and reveal its true colours. That's when you'll know what type of seeds you've got! The kapok have got ridges, that make them strong (looks like one of those aliens' shells) while Buah-Cina-Mati is wedge shape to give it a good hammer action. Which is stronger here? Don't know. Never pitted them against each other. Never will. Shared title lah.

Boring looking normal unpolished rubber seeds.

These are the capsules with three lobes = three rubber seeds

The way we find ours is because we know which tree has what seeds. That's how we got the name of Buah-Cina-Mati. You see, it is so sought after you won't find them on the floor of the rubber estate. To get them, you'll need to climb the tree to get it's seed capsule. That's where the story went that a Chinese boy fell to his death trying. Of course there are experts who climb them and sell the seeds. Make more money per ounce than tapping rubber sap I tell you. Real wan.

I love the sounds of crackling rubber seed capsules exploding and raining down seeds. When you hold them right after they fall, it's warm.

Another prank we did using rubber seeds is to rub them hard on the cement floor and touch a friend. It BURNS! And I tell you, do it properly and you leave a scar! Hahaha...

It's a shady escapade and we can spend hours here looking for seeds. Prized ones.

These are the kind of rubber estate that was behind my house after plots of padi fields. They are not the types you see along the old trunk roads that are well kept with lined trees and commercialized. There were lots of undergrowth, so we have to watch out for SNAKES. Oh yes, we need to watch out for bees too, cos there were lots of bee hives. You are not hard-core if you have not been stung by bees or face-off with a snake. Twice I had close shaves with cobras.

Other distractions here are spiders, the fighting ones. We catch them and put them in match boxes. Another posts perhaps about spiders :)

Those were the days. Good days where our cares in life was indeed so simple, just don't get stung!!!