My Own Happiness Project

My Own Happiness Project
because happiness begins inside and flows out...

20080722

my life in the suburb....... laidback?

hardly......

In my office right now, using the internet because I've barely go the chance to go online during the daytime. Gone were the days when I could do multiple entries at once, now I could barely switch on the laptop...

Plus I am determined to not sleep at 830pm again today like I do every night I am here...

Anyway, just want to post a picture of the mountain that grew on my table over the past week, since I was not around... I came in earlier to clear almost half of it and by the time this picture was taken, I already sent half the documents out...

Anyway tomorrow is a much looked forward day since I'd be traveling on a boat to do supervision on a clinic that's about 2 hours away from the town, on a 30HP speedboat... and I'll have a cool lifejacket to put on [not the usual boring orange one]...

20080715

weekend escapades (2) ......

The next day we went out fora the real escapade. We were invited by another estate to come try out their jungle tracking trail, which leads to a waterfall and clear water river. But before that, another hour of driving through gravel roads and more palm trees......

Very peculiar, a concrete slab was built across the river to allow vehicles to cross.

After the morning poco-poco, we were all set for the trail, which takes about 45 minutes (or so they say) to finish, or 1.5km of windy up hills and down hills hiking.

The estate also has a licensed deer farm.

I was all excited about the trail but thinking of doing it in my loafers really killed the enthusiasm. Half of the time I was just trying to keep myself from slipping off. There is no grip at all on the shoes.

My loafers before its ruined. Will need a new pair when I get back I think.

A friendly reminder just before we got on the trail.

Now in between the above picture and the one below was a 1.3 km hike, I did not take pictures as I was concentrating on not slipping and die. Sad to admit that I almost got a black out on the track, and I was so exhausted I decided not to continue to the waterfall. There was a junction leading straight to the river and I got my emergency exit there. I was so spent, the estate officer decided that I should not walk the rest of the trail, and got a 4-wheel drive to my rescue. Now that's got to suck. I might be grateful now but my pride will be sore in the morning...

There's another funny incident in the jungle when I almost lost my cool. The guide that took us through the trail was a super fit young estate-worker, with the health status of an alpha-male wild stallion and a body so chiseled and taut packed with muscle (an ant wound be tired walking up and down the hills on his body) and even right from the beginning he was saying that the trail is short and we're near the end. That time I was still happy and excited, my energy reserve still in its maximal level. After what it seems like a million miles into the jungle, he still said we're near the end when we ask him how long we still have to go. At that time, the body was already tired and spilling the consequences of poor stamina resulting from growing up sedentary in the city all my life. I could still take it at that time.

After a few more near death experiences (being a tad bit over-dramatic here) I was all hanging on the mental will to carry on, thinking to myself that I could do it, I could do it. But at one point of time I just decided I needed to stop a while and take a breather. When Asked how long we still need to go, the guide happily answered "Oh, dekat sudah, sikit lagi"

I almost lost my cool (having vertigo and with very little blood flowing up the cerebrum) I snapped at him "Jangan cakap dekat, dekat saja bah, dari tadi lagi sya dengar tu dekat, dekat tapi tidak sampai juga. Kalau jauh kasi tau jauh, kalau belum setengah saya mau patah balik!!"

That was rather unexpected, the boy went urrmmm, did a bit of calculation and told us we already did about 900m, and another 600m to go. I went "Ok, kita teruskan"

Haha, speaking like a true scientist, relative terms means nothing to me... Give me figures, okay, figures and facts. We scientists thrive on those! Haha.

The 4 wheel drive that got my s.o.s... Before I got up, I saw a leech was about to come into the thread opening on my shoes. Calmly (or just because I was out of energy) I asked the guy to help me poke that thing with his cigarette. No way I am touching that thing. Then I took off my shoes and somehow, having half my foot covered in my own blood did not really surprised me. One of the leeches had a good meal off my second toe and somehow I must have dislodged it, but I continued bleeding inside. It was a horrible sight, like my toes got ran over by a tanker or something. Forgot to take picture of that.

My mood and spirit recovered after reaching the river...

A forced smile for the camera...

After that we had our picnic, mandi sungai and ended off with giving out certificates and gifts for our hosts.

I lost my appetite for the whole afternoon, but after mandi sungai, I was famished, and took my lunch in the car. In fact, any food would be good after mandi sungai.



20080714

weekend escapade (1) ......

It's been a while since I've had any substantial writings in my blog, and nowadays I'm doing more of reporting of activities than expressions of whatever's cooking in the coconut shell... anyway, something is better than anything, right? And this is sort of an online journal for me to keep track of what I've done and gone through... And that people don't really read my ramblings anyway.

Anyhow, I hope to be able to pen down some of the things I've been thinking about soon. Damn, I really hate writers' block.

So all that aside, last weekend I went away to Nangoh (still in Beluran) to Pamol Estate which was about 3-4 hours drive from Beluran town. The Sabah Nurses' Association was having a community activity there in conjunction with their annual celebration of Nurses' Day (which was supposed to be on 12th May) but postponed to this month to make this outing possible. Going out for a full weekend in some palm oil estates isn't the most happening plan to make, but I am actually in for a big surprise.

Gathering in front of Beluran Hospital to start the convoy of 5 carloadfuls of nurses.

With the staffs of Klinik Kesihatan Nangoh, about 2 hours from Beluran.

The entrance to Pamol Estate, owned by IOI Groups after it took over from Unilever. Not that any of this facts matter to me anyway.

The usual scenarios, of course, unending stretch of sawit, sawit, sawit, sawit, sawit, sawit, sawit, sawit.....

...until there was a sudden clearance at the estate, revealing...

... a golf course. smack right in the middle of nowhere! Golf course! No kidding!

Actually that area is developed for recreation for the staffs, and there were more sportive facilities around, like tennis court and a swimming pool, and not forgetting a Club House!

9-holes Golf Course at Pamol Estate.

At night, we were joined by the Senior Officer overlooking the whole IOI owned estates in that area, Mr Rugupathy. Since I was expected to give speech, I came in my batik.

Some of the kindergarten kids in full costumes preparing 70s a-go-go dance for us... Those were probably the times when their parents were just born!

Kadazan Sumazau dance - a compulsory staple in any Sabahan performances.

The 70s twist

The afore mentioned swimming pool

From left to right, Sr Malin, Sr Saibi, Sr Rosliah, Sr Justinah and Matron Ahadiah, my band of iron ladies that govern the district of Beluran (except for Sr Jus who works in the hospital)

For the past 1 year I've seldom got a chance to get a bucket ride (getting on the cargo of a pickup) so another consolation for coming to Beluran would be the opportunities for bucket rides again! Woo hoo!

The golf course on a beautiful morning. Too bad I don't know how to hold a club.

I have to get used to all this formality stuffs, as I was shocked to see people waiting for me at the hall with kompang and all! And arriving in a pickup bucket wasn't really my idea of elegance!! Sheesh, that was embarrassing.

Our main activity for that morning was to do a community health camp, providing tests for cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure check and all... I gave a talk about safe pregnancy and safe delivery, at first given time for 30 minutes but overshot to 1.5 hours...

If you're wondering what this old lady is doing, she's on an apparatus to count her body fat, and her visceral fat percentage, which is a more accurate calculation of body fat that contributes to sickness. Just by appearance I know she's okay, come on la!

Other than talks and healthy campaigns, the Nurses Association also did a fund raising by auctioning used clothes (starting from price as low as RM1.00) No kidding!

pesta rumbia 2008 (3) .........

The rest of the pictures from Pesta Rumbia trip... been standing too long in my "to blog" folder because of the bad internet connection in Sandakan, I've lost the mood to talk about it now, anyway, a picture tells a thousand words, so sit in for the lecture...