武大郎烧并 Wu Dalang biscuits

说起武大郎，人们马上会联想到(水浒传)中打虎英雄武松的哥哥，那位其貌不扬，以卖烧并为生，后来被西门庆害死的苦命人，而令天的武大郎却是一位借惜日武大郎之名，在杭州河坊街谋生的伙计

If you mention Wu Dalang immediately one will think of the character in the show call "All men are brothers". He is the older brother of Wu Song the hero who killed a tiger. Wu Dalang is short and ugly and sells biscuits for a living.

Now you have short people in China at Hangzhou's Hefang street selling Wu Dalang biscuits.

Williams Landing in Melbourne

With Allan and Christy in their new Melbourne home. They were my ex-neighbours in Puchong, Malaysia. My last trip was Jan 2010 and if you go to my blog Jan 2010 you can see that I have aged but not them hehe!.

Downtown Auckland

Banking on the ALL BLACKS!

Larose - simply the best

Pilgrim 2010



Martin Pickering, Winemaker at Stonyrigde with a bottle of Lina Negra 2009



On my left in the black is Mr.Stephen White owner of Stonyrigde; On my right is Martin and David Jackson the General Manager.



Martin and we with a bottle of Larose 2010.

The 2008 vintage received very high praise from one of America’s most notorious wine critics Robert Parker Jnr.

He scored the wine 93-95 points with these remarks “ The 2008 Larose shows great purity on the nose: blackberry, wild hedgerow and a touch of dried herbs. Quite understated but very good definition. There is a lovely chocolate scent off-stage that should evolve with time (think Pomerol.) The palate is very smooth, nice definition, dominated by the new oak at the moment but there is certainly sufficient fruit to support it. Very fine tannins on the finish that exudes so much precision and poise. It is superb.

Stonyridge@Waiheke Island, New Zealand

"One of the Top 10 Must-Visit Wineries in the World"
-By Robert Joseph
The Guardian, UK - June 2007

Yum cha with Vitaco (health food giant in Australia and New Zealand)

With Dave Foreman (General Manager, International) and Rosanne Keys (Market Manager, South East Asia)

Alpha Laboratories - New Zealand's largest natural health supplement manufacturer

On my left is a Malaysian brilliant biochem grad from TAR uni Novanne Seah who is charming and pretty. She is the key account manager.

Lunch at Cin Cin at the Quay (Auckland CBD waterfront). Real excellent Angus rib eye

Rib eye- you cant get it any better
Lovely snapper

Christchurch, post earthquake

Christchurch had an earthquake last year and another February this year. Behind is is the CBD and is cordoned off. 2/3 of the CBD was damaged and they have pulled down 500 buildings and there is about 500 more to pull down.

Drive from Wellington to Martinborough, a wine hub

Managing grass

New Zealand has rye grass which grows like weed. The cows eat this grass so it is important to manage the soil and grass. Soil needs two things - phosphate and urea so fertilizers are given. Grass if grows too long ie. after 3rd leaf shoot will make the first leaf go dry and accumulate fungus which the cows hate. So if too long the farmers will cut it and accumulate the grass for the cows to eat later.

Milking cows the high tech way

Rotating platform milking machine in NZ

the cows are milked twice a day. In the morning they give about 13 liters and in the afternoon 8 to 9 liters each.

Taking on the All Blacks. The Wallabies against the All Blacks in tonite's semifinals

Greetings from Rugby World Cup 2011 from Auckland airport

Kepong Hash 5th anniversary run

Since running again 2 weeks ago I have lost 2 kg (from 91 to 89kg). Yesterday's run started at Taman Majalela and we coursed through the roads to a hilly jungle patch in Desa Park City and then back to the road heading back.

This was the final version that was on TV (they padded the front bid of my speech)

Will be traveling next weekend for 2 weeks so look out for some very interesting places I am visiting.

At Adam's wedding

With Tony Pua, Member of Parliament Petaling Jaya Utara which is the constituency I vote in.

Sunday Hash 4, 9th anniversay run and dinner

More than 400 of us entered the jungle at 4pm yesterday in Bandar Teknologi Kajang. Short run followed by drinks. Later we adjourned to a nearby restaurant (huge) in Seminyih for a Hawaiian nite dinner party.