Short Family Holiday to Krabi, Thailand

 The 8 pictures above were all taken in Railay Beach. Picture postcard perfect beach

 Ao Nang beach

View from my balcony

I took a short break with the family to Krabi. It's our first time there although we've been to the neighbouring island of Phuket several times. The weather held up fine and I was able to snap several hundred pics with the trusted Nokia N8. Hope to go back there again soon since it's virtually in our backyard. Food was cheap and the people friendly. What more can you ask for really.

Merry Christmas Folks

It's that time of the year again. To all my friends and and family I wish you nothing but joy and happiness.May the Lord continue to bless you with good health and shield you from harm.

To those of us who have lost a loved one, may their memories live on in us forever.

I miss you Stephen Lee

Great Fun With Kids BJJ

Today we had great fun with the kids at their 1st ever BJJ class. Marcos started the class by showing the kids the proper way of bowing to inculcate respect towards their fellow team mates. This was followed by some stretching exercises (not my best showing) and some floor exercises to get the kids comfortable with moving on the ground. As a final appetizer, the kids were briefly shown some positions from the closed-guard and side mount.

I am not sure about the kids (actually they enjoyed themselves) but I definitely had a great time today, being able to bond with the girls and hopefully being able to do something together and sharing the same hobby. It's only the first class but let's hope the kids stick to it. Fingers cross. Osu!!

'Customer' Dissatisfaction

A letter of Complaint has been forwarded to mommy management (again)

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Jalan Morib,Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

I Need Motivation : Robert Drysdale, I Give You the Job!

I'll admit this much, as far as motivation to train is concerned, 2010 is a bad year. The kids are growing up fast and I'll be reaching the big 40 soon and instinctively I've been pushing hard towards work ie. filling the coffers.But it is what it is. Sometimes we have to prioritize in life but that doesn't mean I've given up training completely. At the bare minimum I still train at least once a week. This week I've trained 3X. So it's not all that shabby.

The immediate plan (if I can achieve it) is to tweak my work 'system' so that i can free up more time to train. There's still several months till the end of the year, so let's see how it goes.

Here's Robert Drysdale giving me the motivation needed (he does not know it but he's doing a great job, hahaha).

Mothers' Day 2010

Happy Mothers' Day all mothers. We would not have made it without you

A 7 Year Old's Point of View

I really shouldn't be doing this but as I flipped through Dawncie's notebook/diary she had this to say about me, I shall reproduce word for word what she wrote :

"..papi has high colestrol that isn't good and his colestrol has gone higher and it is not, good indeed I hope his colestrol goes down if not, he may have to take drugs. I hope he doesn't end up like Michel Jackson Greatest signer and king of pop ... mom is very woried and I hope that some thing will work I don't want him (papi) to take drugs bye bye".

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Jalan Klang Lama,Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

Impromptu B'day Party at Mandarin Oriental

Today we had a simple celebration of sorts of Marcos' birthday at the Mandarin Oriental. It didn't start out as such as Richard invited us over for dinner after open mats. As we chatted along, suddenly out of nowhere a sax player showed up and the birthday song was playing and out came the birthday cake.

All in all it was a great nite out with a great bunch of guys.

2 Months of Skool

Today marks the end of 2 months of school for the girls.

Our initial fears of enrolling them in the Chinese school system have proven to be unfounded as they seem to be coping quite well with mandarin. It's actually quite cool to see them conversing in mandarin nowadays (well occasionally anyway) considering both me & the missus can't speak a word of mandarin. Hey maybe one day I might pick it up from them. Who knows.

Anyway here's a snapshot of them finishing up their homework today

- Posted from my iPhone

Bible Giving Ceremony

Just a short post. The kids received their first bibles last Sunday for newly promoted Standard 1 students.

The Weekly Grind

Every Friday afternoon without fail, Dawn & Grace will cry through their piano class. It seems that the theory part of the lesson is tough. I've never taken music lessons in my life, so I am kinda in the dark and consequently of not much help.

Thankfully, they enjoy the practical part of it more. It's difficult for me to see them 'suffer' through this but ultimately I hope that they will benefit from something I've never had.

Dang kids!! I am gonna tally up the costs and make them pay it all back into my retirement fund!!

Dr. Escobar PhD

Just a short note. This is our very own Dr. Escobar Phd (in house doctor, BJJ coach, father, mother etc to all of us at Escobar BJJ academy ) draining the ears of 'Pok Cik'. Looks painful..heheheh..but that's the price to pay

Time Flies Y'all (Blue Skies and Everything Nice)

This morning I had a chat with the Mrs and it dawned upon me that the kids will the starting their Standard 1 in 2 months time. It wasn't that long ago that the Stork brought them in, I can still remember it like it was yesterday..both of them wrapped up in their blankets and easily fitting between my palms and the crook of my elbows.

What brought about the conversation was that there were a lot of things that were still needed to be taught to the girls before they start school. Simple stuff like how to buy things with their pocket-money, how to tell time or even how not to talk to strangers. It may seem a long time ago, but I still remember these same lessons as they were taught to me by my parents some 30 plus years ago.

As usual the bulk of these 'lessons' will be handled by Sumi. I don't aknowledge it often enough but Sumi is THE PERFECT mom for the kids. I am not home during the day so I don't actually see how the kids are being guided daily but as I see how the kids have progressed so far, I know they are in perfect hands.

Good kids and a good loving wife. What more can a guy ask for? Nothing.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bored Bananas

Today I was back in Kuantan again for some work matter at the Land Office. That was disposed off quickly enough which left me with a bit of time which I spent mostly at the family home visiting my mom.

At the time of writing, mom's busy with her gardening and I was out there for a bit accompanying her. She with the rake and me with the camera. And since there were some banana trees in the compound, I decided to take some pictures. These are the results. I know I know, I was bored and there wasn't much really to do here at home.

But a bit of good news, while preparing to upload these fotos, Pastor Hugh Smith dropped in for a visit to see how mom was doing. I've known Pastor Smith almost my entire life (actually since I was 5). He first came to Malaysia in 1976 as a missionary and was here for many years. He subsequently left for other parts of the world to spread the Word and returned to Kuantan to retire several years ago. 86 years old and still full of energy. Man of God, nuff said.

Just Another Nite...Not

To say that last Thursday (19/03/09) was just another night would be misleading. It was a night of double celebrations. Well, firstly the 4 stooges (Aaron, Fang, Me & Raul) got promoted to blue belts and to top it off we also celebrated Marcos' birthday. It was good to see everyone turn up for training and I am sure we were all surprised that each of us got to roll twice with Marcos & Chico (continuously) respectively. Of course we also celebrated the return of Chico from China after 3 months as head coach of China BJJ.

This guy is something else...just got off the plane, 1 hour in the car from KLIA to the academy, change of Gi and "let's roll". Chico will be in town for 2 weeks and guys if you are reading this, let's make full use of this opportunity and learn up as much as we can.

Brian & Abigail

It's been a while since I attended a wedding and yesterday I had the opportunity to attend my cousin Brian's wedding at Equatorial Bangi. I must say I enjoyed myself thoroughly even though weddings are not usually my thing. Dawn & Grace were roped in to be flower girls for the occasion and fortunately for us, they behaved themselves and that's saying a lot for a pair of 5 year olds.

Since the ceremony was held outdoors, I think all parties concerned were worried that the rains would wash out the occasion. It was already pouring in KL & PJ when we were driving to Bangi. Believe me when I tell you a miracle happened when the clouds held back its contents. It only started to drizzle when everything was concluded.

Later in the night, we had the usual 10 course dinner which concluded around 11 p.m. I am very happy for Brian & Abigail and I wish them nothing but happiness, prosperity, and good health. Congrats cuz.