landlord

we finally kicked out the unwanted tenant living in the grill. that "thing" actually bulked up his cozy abode since the last time i saw it. unfortunately, we had to do the unthinkable. anyway, later i cleaned, brushed and sanitized the grill from top to bottom. several hours later, we had homemade burgers, corn and asparagus for dinner to kick off the 2008 bar-b-que season and it was absolute delicious and tasty:).

osprey

got nothing else to do last sunday and decided to check out the osprey nest on deerfield road. boy was she pissed when the female osprey saw that i was coming too closed to her nest. she was hovering over and kept an eye on me all the time. i was able to snap these pictures when she came back to her nest.

Where the Hell is Matt?

i remember watching this video last year and thought that it was funny and ingenous. back then, in one of the scene, the monks were probably thinking what an idiot he was. check out the second video clip, today everybody wants to dance with matt.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

bamboo

nope. this is not asparagus but bamboo shoot pushing out in the middle of our lawn. its a running bamboo, so, it is only natural that it is spreading all over the place. the other pic is another shoot that came out just a few days ago. i'll take a picture of it next week just to show the progress.

asparagus "tumis"

i have never cooked asparagus before. i've eaten it just never tried cooking it until recently when someone told me to cook it myself. the only way i have eaten it is when it is steamed. i'm sure other people have done it before and would thought which planet i am from. anyway, i gave it shot the other day. i sliced them just sayur kacang pendek. tumbuk some udang kering, halia and shallots. then, stir fried them all and last but not least throw in a little bit of belacan and to bring it up a notch. sungguh sedap!!!. i tried not to overcooked it and want taste the crunchiness of it when you bite them. i am so into asparagus nowadays especially when it is freshly picked. from the field.

heat wave

It was so hot the other day. Kindda make me think if the heat was just like home. Record temperature in manhattan during the last four days was about 98 F or about 37 C. according to weather.com, the current temperature in Sandakan, Sabah is about 81 F, feels like 86 F or 27 C, feels like 30 C. That is before you factor in the humidity, so, in short, the temperature in New York in the last four days was actually warmer than Sandakan. Aiyoo…so hot one lah. At least, this bird has a swimming pool to go to and cool himself down. in the first picture, it looks the bird was actually testing the water to see if it was cool for him before jumping into it.

"smoked-something" burger

its that time of the year again. time to fire up the grill in the backyard. however, i found someone or something made itself a comfy and cozy nest right on top of the stove. probably built it some time over the winter. guess, we'll be having "smoked-something" burger this summer.

times square

every time i don't have my camera with me, there will always be something interesting that will happen. well, not to say that times square the area where i work is a very quite place, but i think the most interesting things happened when you lest expect it. saw this man climbed the building while the news helicopters hovered around.

mukhsin

was busy with school and exams. however, i managed to catch a malaysian flick featured at moma. its a movie that came out in 2006, i think, entitled, mukhsin, directed and cowritten by yasmin ahmad. it has been something 15 years or maybe even more since the last time i watch a malay movie. plus i haven't seen many of the recent ones. well, except for p.ramlee's old movies which are always a classic. i read about the movie in new york times and found out that the movie won 2 awards during the berlin film festival in 2007, so, it has to be something.

the plotline is really simple actually where it revolves around a 10-year-old orked and a 12-year-old boy, mukhsin. around this relatively simple plotline of a blossoming young romance between the film's two young protagonists, are scenes of typical malaysian kampung life and the dynamics of different types of families that revolve around Orked and her mother, father, and the family's maid.

the other families which are given attention in the movie are mukhsin's family (with his elder brother who has lost his way in life and is trying desperately to find their mother who abandoned them at a young age, and their aunt who is trying to take care of the two boys as though they were her own), and orked's neighbours , one with the young daughter and pregnant mother who are hurt by the husband who wants to abandon them to take on a second wife.

the way the movies portrays a typical malaysian kampung life, it is as if you can feel the heat of the tropical weather back home eventhough i am away from home; the sweat, the heat and the smell of it all. the casts were good but somewhat looked a bit stiff and arkward at times but i supposed the director did so to capture the film's calm acuity. the character orked and mukhsin was played pretty well by both actors. i just wish the movie use more old malay music such as the keroncong which i thought was an excellent song that became the title track of the movie.

in short, the movie was great. it was like a breath of fresh air, at least for me. hope to see more movies like this and as good as this from malaysia.