Beauty and the Beast

Here I am wearing an Alpha Laboratories vest. Alpha is a premier manufacturer of food supplements in New Zealand. Next to me is Kelly who attends to our account. Hopefully I don't look like an ugly duckling next to her :-0 lol

Alpha's products are produced to stringent standards set by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia; all these in a BSE-free, clean, green environment.

Eating at Ming Court (Auckland)

This is Lion Red, a great amber beer. 

Sashimi crayfish

Crayfish steamed

A very nice steam fish

Specific Juices at MBC

This is a shop that sells heaps of fruits and has a juice counter

Below is the spread of fruits available for sale

I bought this particular drink

Give this to your kid?

Got heart problems then maybe try this!

The friendly guy serving me my drink (No.15).

 

Durian and fruit season at the Chen family estate

The wild boars got to the cempedaks. They are able to reach fruits at a height of 5-6 feet.

This is at 6-7 feet and the wild boar had torn off bits of the newspaper

The cempedaks are covered with newspaper to prevent bees from eating and spoiling them

A view of the distant mountains from the estate

This is a special durian tree. It is called Gam Si Mau (Golden Bearded Cat) species of durian.

This is D24 species tree

Duku Langsat

Duku Langsat tree

I look forward to eating durians each year since young

Our rambutans are not quite ripe yet

View of the estate

Durian!

Too lazy to walk!

A view looking into one of our fish pond!

Look like a monkey! Literally there are monkeys that come and eat the whole tree of rambutans and my uncle has to get the rifle out.

View of the restaurant in the distance and a fish pond

The restaurant from another view

My new hair-do

Ha! Ha! A friend of mine took this photo using an i-phone while we were celebrating his wife's birthday at Redbox karaoke (Pavillion). 

From the phone he could add different hair-do onto the picture.

Bamboo chopsticks

At first this looked like a set of wooden chopsticks

If you examine the cross section of the chopstick, you will notice the bamboo grains.

Back with my swiming

I have struggled with my fitness this year as it has been hectic. I used to work out 5 times a week but this year it has been rather rare to do it more than twice a week.

Last month I started swimming seriously again and realize not how many unused muscles I had , but how many unusable ones there were. I barely could swim 20 laps a month ago. Today, yippee, I managed to do 32 laps. Yes gone are the days when it was 40-50 laps of the 50 meter pool within 50 minutes, but well guess I have to age gracefully.

Sourish sushi

I forgot what this is called but it was sourish. The yellow part is the fish eggs that has been merged onto the fish.

Didn't taste that nice actually. Had a sour taste.

Fugu fish

I saw these 2 real fugu fish (or whatever is left of them) now being a "lamp".

Fugu fish is a poisonous fish that is a delicacy in Japan. If it is not prepared properly for eating, it can kill you! Still over 100 people die a year from eating the fugu fish. 

I am yet to try the fugu fish, but am sure my chance will come when I visit Japan next year :-).

Ikura sushi

Below is not a Californian Roll. It is called Ikura sushi, a type of fish eggs

Salmon fish head

Some soup with an egg

Bringing the fish, frogs, urinating prawns and scorpions I bought to a nearby restaurant

Arriving at a restaurant at the Seafood Market

The frogs are still jumping in the bag

Nice veggies!

The urinating prawns

The fried scorpions!

Really crunchy scorpions!

Small black chicken soup in coconut

The lou shi ban fish I bought in the market.

The legs the cook amputated from the poor frogs! They must be going around in wheelchairs now :-(.