My new car......Mercedes SL400

Got this on Sunday....special delivery. Not sure how / when i`m gonna drive it yet.

Some super high performance cars in my workshop......cool or what....

Ralfie in the workshop

Took Monday off to run soem errands. 1st on my list was the service Ralfie. Arrived at my workshop at 10:30 a.m. Ralfie got new spark plugs, soem high tech coolant, Mobile 1 engine oil...plus the nornam fluid changes. She seems brand new after that. Been neglecting her for a bit since April so thot it`ll be nice to re-charge.

The week so far...........

I can`t believe it`s Friday already.

I was half, no make 3/4 dead on monday & tuesday coz of our Tmn Negara trip.

Wednesday, had a movie date....Fantastic 4 wasn`t that fantastic.

Last nite, had lovely Japanese food at Rakuzen, Chulan Square.

This evening after work will go hiking to look for some limestone chips for my plants. If it doesn`t rain that is.

I will take it nice & easy over the weekend. Perhaps watch some dvds at home, perhaps catch up with some friends, or do light shopping. I`m on leave on Monday so that`s something to look forward to as well.

Wheeee..........

Way cool wallpapers....

Downloaded these from Digi website......

My new fav car......

Saw this on the internet many months ago & never thot I`d see it in M`sia as they were not bringing it in. Toyota Rush, 1.6 litre, 4wd....said to be the replacement model for the Kembara. Love it coz it saves fuel yet still has the 4wd looks & capabilities.

I almost broke into the car to try & hotwire it to test drive. In the 3 days we were in Tmn Negara, the S`porean owners were nowhere to be seen.

Woodlands Tmn Negara

It was eventful.......out trip tp Tmn Negara finally materialised. June 15th.....we started from KL at about 8:30 a.m. The memorable events were the nite jungle walk ( we saw 3 deers ), the canopy walk ( cool elevation ) , the rapids shooting ( we drank quite a bit of Sg Tembeling, Hali took in about 1 litre I think ), Negrito settlement....and of course, the office folks. I didn`t bring my Nikon so didn`t take many photos. Our guides who made it memorable were Shahidan, James, Cornelius, Aida & Adang.

A photo of the lodge, the sg tembeling which we drank from during the rapids shooting & the floating restaurants, one which floated away to the opposite side of the river bank overnite due to heavy rains.

Flooded

When I went for a meeting in Sheraton Imperial, this greeted me at the car park. Yuks, it was muddy & stank. Luckily my meeting was only 2 hours long, otherwise I`d be worried in casein rained. KL big city, flood prone. Bad image.

My new pitcher plant

I temankan a friend to see a pitcher plant seller in subang parade. In the end, I also ended up buying this baby. It`s a nepenthes veitchii. Gorgeous colour & unique pitcher. The price....2 pots for rm75.

A cutie pie mini torch lite for rm2.90

Got this from ACE....it`s made in china but wait.....for rm2.90, it`s ok as long as I ain`t consuming it....very bright for it`s size. Practical for searching for stuff in the car, blackouts etc. I bought it coz we are off to Tmn Negara tomorrow. We means us office folks.

Buy buy buy....

Little House on the Plains

This is a neat looking lodge / house. It faces Mount Kinabalu.

A weird handbag like plant

This was spotted in a highland nursery. I`ve seen it used in some flower decoration baskets before but never seen the actual plant.

Wild strawberries

I couldn`t believe my eyes. A strawberry shrub which had clusters of 7 or 8 fruits per bunch. Found in KK Park, but apparently available everywhere I was told. I was so impressed as I love strawberry plants & as far as my own knowledge stretches, s/berry plant are creeper like. Not a 7-foot high shrub. Zoweee.

Pretty slipper orchids

Protected species they might be, they still get poached & sold off. This is a lovely slipper orchid, collectors item. Prized for their ability to create hybrids. Snapped this photo from a side stall. They were selling this for rm100. Other stalls I checked were for a quarter of the price.

Cuban club

We wanted to have some beer so went into this pub with a Cuban band..the beer was cheap ( rm20 for a jug ) but the singing was lousy. It was still early at 9:30p.m. but the place was very very empty...nice set up tho, pity about the music. Sexy singers but can`t sing.

A place with a horny name

I knew this place existed from my last trip to Sabah but finally managed to locate it while having bfast....

A funneee toilet sign in Menggatal

All I can say is Eh ? But I did not do as told laaa.

Food there

The 2 dishes which I found extra lovely there are the Sabah vegetable & the Tuaran mee. The veg was very sweet & the mee was unique. Can`t find in KL....

Memorial park

This was pretty interesting...a memorial park in Kundasang. It had motive gardens from Australia & England plus our own Malaysia. Lotsa plants, flowers, nice view & of course, splendid cool air.

Kundasang.......here we come.

Mr R`s friend Lawrence ( of Arabia ? ) swung by to pick us up early Thursday morning & we had bfast at another friend`s place ( Gilbert ) before starting on our journey. The roads were a lil` busy as it was still Harvest Festival & people were having gatherings here & there.

Kundasang is actually at the foothill of Mount K. A holiday place in the hills for folks in Sabah as the weather is cool ( cold even ) and the scenery & flowers are impressive.

We had trouble locating the lodge we stayed at as it was offroad & the directions given were wrong. Personally, I`ve never been driven in such tough offroad conditions before & we were in an Iswara ! heheh. I`m talking about 45 degree inclines & really bad village roads. But phew, we made it.

I met up with Mr R`s other friends.....Johan, Robert, Ken, Aaron, George, Jerry, Alex plus Lawrence & Gilbert and Ritchie & me makes 11 folks. Hey, Ocean`s 11 !Quite a large group. It was an effort to make sure everyone was free for the trip but it being a holiday in Sabah made it easier.

Kinarut........the experience....

It`s always nice to go for holidays. Diff places. diff people, diff cultures....even if it`s still within the same country.

I landed at KK airport at 7:42 p.m. on 30th May 2007. Ritchie was already almost there to pick me up. After getting my luggage, I was the one who kept him waiting.

A lovely seafood dinner awaited me. I think it was a lil` expensive but mebbe coz the portions were huge...enough for 3 folks but only I was eating as Mr R is kinda sick of seafood already. Or perhaps watching his cholesterol levels ? Mmmmm....

A short tour of the town ensued. Then we went to his home. Kinarut is about 20 mins away from KK town. Quiet but not too. The `village` house was impressively big. It was cool at night & decently airy in the daytime. Mr R`s 2 dogs & 4 ( is it 4 ? ) cats plus his parents made up the numbers for house occupants.

We turned in early as we had a roadtrip early tmrw morning......yay !

Here are pics of his butchy car and his huge spacious double storey house.