Wood stove cleaning...

These are not very exciting pictures, so to say...

But just for the sake of recording the happenings with the wood stove...

  

Yes, we called in the professionals to do a cleanup some days ago...

We have been using the wood stove for just about a season and a half... and this is how the insides of the chimney looks...

Wrapping one end of the chimney with a plastic bag, the insides are cleaned with a steel brush...

It cost quite a bundle to hire these professionals... 

As they were doing the cleaning, I made sure to took note as I intend to do the cleaning myself next season...

Hiking boots...

I am really poor at throwing away old stuff...
Especially stuff that I have grown to love... to cherish...

And this pair of hiking boots is certainly one of those 'difficult-to-throw-away' stuff, even thought it is worn out...

These boots had accompanied me to Mt. Fuji, twice...
I walked many a hill, most often than not, solo, at Nagano, Gifu, and Aichi Prefectures when I was a graduate student at Nagoya University in the 1990s...

My sweeto haato says, 'you cannot bring them to your grave when you kick the bucket... better to off-load one's belongings as we age... go light-weight...'
Good advice, no doubt... but still...
Perhaps I can try to be imaginative and convert them into 'flower pots' for my garden later on...

Man's cooking?

Once or twice a year, my sweeto haato visits her mum and stay for a few days...
I am always happy to see that they enjoy each others' company during such occasions...
For those few days, I am left to my own devices with regards to food...
The shot below shows yours truly trying to steam some stuff...
Brown rice and sauteed daikon (radish) which was actually pre-prepared by my missus...
And fish, yellow-tail... with vegetables at the far left... my 'original'...

During one 'lonely' weekend, attempted to cook some soup...
The lazy way, actually, where I can literally throw any ingredients I wanted into the iron pot (dutch oven)...
I did this outside, in the garden...
I put in too many ingredients... tofu, mushroom, carrot, garlic, potatoes, onion... more than 10 different types...
(When my missus returned and saw this picture, she couldn't help exclaiming hidoi... iro ha nai... oishiiso ja nai...   (translation: terrible... no color... doesn't look delicious...)

And while sorting out the photos, I can across this shot...
Yaki-meishi kai ankake... or fried rice with bamboo-shell clam gravy...
Cooked not by me but by my sweeto haato...
Compared to the rather bland concoction in both taste and appearance that I had churned out, it is times like this when I am reminded of my lucky stars to have someone cook so well for me...

Trip to Pulau Tenggol...

Heard quite a bit about the scuba diving in Pulau (island) Tenggol, off the coast of the state of Trengganu on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia...

Made a trip there in 2009... and found out that the diving was not much to shout about...

Furthermore, my underwater photos were totally washed out as I was trying out to figure out how to operate the (then) new camera...

So, it was not surprising that the pictures above the water was better...

This peanut-nibbling squirrel came really close to us when we were relaxing in the bungalow... perhaps about a meter away?

Don't really know the name of this flower...

It was quite big, and the tree was thriving at the sandy beach...

After dinner one day, we strolled along the beach...

The scene from this distance was not too bad...

On the return leg, spent a whole day at Kuala Trengganu city...

The interesting parts of the city was within walking distance from our hotel...  

The shot above is the city market... 

I was, as usual, looking for durians...

We had enough time to take a ferry to the other side of the Trengganu River...

The specialty of the folks there were fish cakes and shrimp paste aka 'belacan'... 

My missus suggested that we try the fish cakes...

Tried we did, and almost immediately, I found myself groaning... serious diarrhea attack... ooh...