Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Queensbay Mall

In my last trip to Penang, I only manage to visit one shopping mall, the Queensbay Mall.

Queensbay Mall is the longest shopping mall in Penang Island, located at Bayan Lepas. The mall is vibrant and full of activities, one can shop, play, relax, get together, entertain, be entertained.

The mall is huge. I reckon 1 full day is required to fully appreciate it.

Here are some snap shots inside the mall. There are a few toy shops at the top floor for those interested in vintage toys.

I was here after the Hari Raya celebration and the decorations were still available at the time of my visit

I was only there for about 1 hour as I was following someone here. Hence, I only quickly browse through the shops here. It is a good place to shop but its location is a bit far from the city centre.

This is my last post for 2008. Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Year End Wedding Dinner

Tonight my childhood friend, Thomas Teo held a wedding dinner at Mingziang Court at Kingwood Hotel. He is married to Connie Wong.

Here are the overview of the Mingziang Court and its main stage

Thomas and Connie with their parents at the main entrance of Mingziang Court to greet the guests

Thomas and Connie's wedding photo

The bride and groom making their way to the main table after all guests had arrived and seated

Cake cutting ceremony

This are the members at my table. Mostly are my schoolmates from primary and secondary school with our wives

Good thing was Tiger beer was served cold to us. Not many wedding dinner I attend now serve beer so I'm very happy to see beer was served here.

The first dish was what we called the "cold dish"

Then the shark fin soup follows. Nowadays most of the restaurant here serve imitation shark fin soup.

Duck with rice dumpling inside

Steamed fish

Halfway to the dinner, the MC, Teck Sung invited the bride and groom to come on to the stage to open the "sparkling juice" and pour it onto the tier of glasses.

The bride and groom with their parents making a toast.

After that, roasted chicken was served in 2 flavour.

Broccoli and Chinese mushroom

Prawn with almond nut

Bride and groom making a round visit and we had a photo session with them

Last dish was the dessert. I have no idea what it was. Strangely, no fruits was served for dessert.

Number 8 is always a lucky number for the Chinese and one will notice there are always 8 dishes served during the wedding dinner or banquet.

Congratulation to Thomas and Connie!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Love Earth Day @ Sibu

For the first time the Sibu Municipal Council organized "Love Earth Day" at Heng Hua Garden on the 27th December. I think they are trying to create awareness to the people of Sibu as the current land fills here are almost max out.

It is a good effort but I think they should had thought about this earlier. I even personally e-mail to the council with my proposals some 1-2 years ago but I guess they just dump it to the bin. I think the council is more worry about public's perception about them rather than the environment as they quickly sprang into action when a complain (which was made by phone call rather than write in) from a rich businessman about the bumpy road at Jalan Kampung Dato.

The principles of reuse, recycle and reduce had been implemented in some developed countries such as Singapore and the EU for a long time already and only now they are trying to start instill it to our community. Wonder why they are so short sighted.

This is Heng Hua Garden, the venue for the Love Earth Day. I not too sure whether this is a good location. There are hardly any parking spaces around here although there are many parking spaces within 5 minutes walk but people of Sibu are well known for their laziness to walk to the intended destination.

There was a section selling bonsai plant

There is an exhibition about Garbage Enzyme which caught my attention

It looks quite easy to produce the garbage enzyme by going through the brochure at the exhibit. One will need air tight container, water, brown sugar and kitchen waste (fruits and vegetables). Mix the water (60% of the container), brown sugar (10% of the water content) and the kitchen waste (80% of the container content) accordingly. Ferment for 3 months and the garbage enzyme is ready. I wonder whether the the end product stinks or not.

It is claimed that the enyzme can be used to clear clogged pipe, anti bacteria, antiseptic, natural house cleaner, detergent, fertilizer, and etc.

The enzyme was available and sold here

There was also a section for recycling e-waste. Too bad I didn't realize about it as I have a defective keyboard which I could recycle.

The main area was the basketball court at Heng Hua Garden. I don't see a lot of people around. Guess the people here are not so keen on such awareness campaign.

Here are some fine works derived from domestic rubbish and waste.

Also on sale here were second hand clothes and books

There was a waste collection point nearby Heng Hua Garden (opposite the church). Mountains of recycleable items can be found here.

I also brought along some recycleable items from my home such as paper, plastic bottles and glass.

Unfortunately, I had left some carbon footprints that day as I need to bring all those recyclable items with my car.

I doubt this campaign will create any awareness if the attendance was used as a yardstick. The intention is good but was poorly executed.

I had put some suggestions before to reduce carbon footprints which I believe is suitable in Sibu but was totally ignored by the council and I will repeat them again here:

- Provide each household with rubbish segregation bins for recyclable items
- Recycling centres should not be locked and located appropriately.
- Recycling bins should be strategically located such as in shopping malls and etc
- Create bicycle lane to encourage people to cycle
- Use LED lighting to replace the existing less efficient light bulbs
- Explore the possibility of renewable energy