Lovers' Point Monterey

Summer is the time for get togethers, picnics and cook-outs / BBQ at the beach or parks or even kat belakang rumah...backyards. Kalau di Malaysia, rumah teres macam kat Shah Alam tu, nak buat apa-apa semua di depan rumah. The houses here on the other hand, are mostly designed with the garage in front so, kalau nak buat apa2 semua kat belakang. Musim panas ni the days are longer - sunset at 8.30pm - so more daylight time for activities. Jenuh jugak nak puasa nanti, kan!? Most children pulak are out of school - cuti sekolah - macam kat Malaysia jugak, time to do some family bonding! Well, a few of us - 17 adults & 17 children - did some bonding at a place called Lovers' Point in Monterey, which is around one and half hours from here. Monterey is one of the more beautiful coastal cities in California. I agree ! That was why I had no qualms or doubts when the group wanted to hold a picnic at Lovers' Point. Dari nama tempat pun dah tahu pasti menarik. With beach access just below, the nice cosy spot which Izzah & Ridhwan booked offers an excellent location to enjoy the beauty of Pacific Grove and Monterey Bay as well as picnic-ing. The weather was a bit foggy & chilly that day, but it got warmer and nice as the day went by. Upon arriving we quickly put up our 8-person tent that have not been opened since our camping trip in New Hampshire during summer of last year. The 2-room tent became a make shift surau for the ladies. The men however, solat berjemaah kat luar. We got the direction of kiblat from the GPS - how convenient! - and we verified its accuracy using Google Map at home. Bringing the satelite and internet technologies to our advantage... apa-apa pun insyaAllah di terima Allah...:-) Menurut internet, Monterey was established in 1770 by someone called Father Junipero Serra. Rupa-rupanya Monterey ni pernah jadi the state capital of California satu ketika dulu. Currently, the capital city is Sacramento which is located somewhere to the north of the state. There is also some military presence in Monterey and I hear quite a number of our military personnels attended training at the Naval Postgraduate School here awhile back. Maybe, a few of our Navy men are still there... stationed macam kat Rhode Island..who knows! Bila dah tiap keluarga bawa
sedikit sebanyak makanan... banyak la jadi nya, sampai sedeqah kat a group of Hispanics who took the spot after we left that afternoon. At first I was taken aback when one of them requested for makanan kita orang yang berlebeh. Kita patut bersyukur apa yang ada, tak semua yang bernasib baik macam kita. Tak sangka pulak dia orang pun makan Nasi Goreng Kampung! :-)


Salman Amir and Yusuf Chang grilling...








Jina with two of her 'men'... Isa keletihan..









:-) ....







The men in our group... July 4th birthday Aziz & July 8th birthday my beloved hubby...






The ladies ...







Untuk sesiapa yang ingin melihat mamalia yang terbesar di dunia ... kalau timbul..!







Mereka yang berani di lambung ombak.....and loads of insides to throw up!...:-)







An adult ticket cost almost $40 each... a pocket full for a 5 adults family..! On top of that, there is no guarantee any whale will surface and give a good show. So, we opted otherwise and reserve our curiosity for later.

The before picture... too bad tak der gambar rupa masing-masing selepas di lambung ombak Lautan Pasifik..! Tak sangka lautan nie mengganas jugak yer...

Bougainvilla - Bunga kertas yang dijumpai melingkar di tepi salah satu tangga di Cannery Row......seronok tengok..! Teringat akan pokok-pokok bunga kertas yang selalu kekeringan dalam pasu depan rumah di Shah Alam.. :-)

The 'cool' search engine

The internet has grown immensely and some people think that it's time for search engines to do so too. A new search engine sprung from the Silicon Valley named Cuil, pronounced as "cool", began processing requests for the first time last Monday July 28th. http://www.cuil.com/ . Cuil claims it searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft. The President and co-founder of the Bay Area start-up company, Anna Patterson is an ex-Googler who holds a computer science doctorate and mother of four. She began programming during a difficult pregnancy - how cool is that! Patterson leads the company with her husband, CEO and co-founder Tom Costello, who researched and developed search engines at Stanford University and IBM. They are joined by a third founder, ex-Googler Russell Power, and Vice President of Products Louis Monier, a veteran of Google and eBay who also was the founding technology chief of the AltaVista search engine. Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge or wisdom. Cuil says it has come up with a search engine that indexes 120 billion Web pages, ranks results by relevance instead of popularity, organizes the results by ideas and protects the privacy of its users. Inspite of all that, I found a lot of my search items using Cuil became confusing after some time and I resort Google-ing them back. Nevertheless, Cuil brought me to a free Malay portal website that have the same name as my blog... hmmm.. without the dot and blogspot you'ld reached there yourself. Although, I must say there's nothing much to see and read. Go on 'google' Cuil and experience it ... :-)

Blogsini's New Template..

Blogger has frequently prompted me to change my template to their new ones. After a long thought (scared my postings will suddenly disappear with the change), and now that I have some spare time.. not to mention moood, I have decided to at last change Blogsini's template. The previous template was quite a chore to deal with. Had to use some brain cells in Html editing! My MScIT qualification is made to good use after all.. :-) The new template is more user friendly with drag & drop features when adding new elements. There are 15 templates to choose from, with 3 or 4 colour choices. I don't quite prefer plains and whites, and I like 'My Profile' to be on the right. So I skipped the 'Minimas' and the 'Lefties'. I also don't prefer the backgrounds with dots, bubbles or pillars. That left me with 'Son of Moto' and 'Thisaway'. I chose the latter because its more my style.. However, Atiqah doesn't agree with this peachy, brownish colour. She says the previous pink colour is more vibrant! I don't know...... there are only 4 colours for this 'Thisaway' template: peach, blue, green & pink. Not too many choices! Any suggestions...?

Anybody can blog..!

Just recently Blogger Buzz announced that Blogger is now available in Malay! Hoo... Hoo.. Bahasa Melayu - The Malay Language ! Blogger says that it has a large base of users in Malaysia and they are excited to now bring Blogger in our native language.
I haven't really tested the features yet but I think its a good start understanding the commands in Malay let alone getting translations. Bagus tuu... Blogging is often seen as a young person's game. Orang selalu fikir blogging ni untuk yang muda-muda saja. It's not true... anybody can blog! I got to know about blogging in 2005 from Roslan Ramli - an ex-colleague. Mula-mula tu ingat boleh buat duit. Kelakar! Well, the last I checked my paypal account, I have around 7 dollars in it. I think Roslan would fare better than me! Actually, of the roughly 175,000 new blogs that are created every day, very few of them make any money. I suppose one really have to go all out both day and night at it, like a local man here in Silicon Valley who earns his living through blogging. Bill Belew is one of an emerging breed that spends brutal and irregular hours chained to a computer feeding the insatiable blogosphere machine. He takes his blogging very serious and says there's nothing easy about it. He writes for readers on the East Coast of US as early as 4am and has to log on around 4pm to catch Japanese readers. And, he checks his readership statistics as late as 11pm. It is said that he earned 60 to 70 percent of his income from blogging in 2007 totaling around 60 to 70 thousand dollars. Aduh... banyak tuu..tapi letih! Bill is 54. He maintains 4 blogs: http://www.panasianbiz.com/, http://www.risingsonofnihon.com/ http://www.thebizofknowledge.com/ and his own personal religion-heavy site.

How he gets traffic to his blogs, beats me! The number of older generation bloggers including octogenarian, and those who have retired or are approaching retirement are growing daily. The oldest that I read of was ( she passed last month ) Olive Riley, 108 who blogged with the help of her friend. Life of Riley can be found at http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/ . Currently Millie Garfield, 83 is acknowledged by ABC as the oldest blogger alive. She has appeared on the ABC show and her blog is http://mymomsblog.blogspot.com/. You can even see her on YouTube trying to openup 'stubborn' bottle caps.:-) As we get older, our social worlds can shrink and when we retire, there isn't the daily camaraderie of the workplace. Blogging is a powerful antidote for isolation and loneliness. Many believe - including me ! - that blogging is also a form of exercise for your mental health. Even at this age, I forget often and isn't it helpful to put it all in writing..!?
Elaine Frankonis http://www.kalilily.net/ Claude Covo-Farchi, 63 http://www.blogginginparis.com/ Pattie, 53 http://texastrifles.blogspot.com/ Ronni Bennet, 67 http://www.timegoesby.net/

Miss Universe 2008: Miss USA Falls again!

Sorry... can't help myself. It's all over the news and internet! :-) I don't have anything against Miss USA, but second year in a row.. C'mon..!

Here's a classy lady for you.... Miss Universe 2008 : Miss Venezuela....!

Miss Malaysia ? Once upon a time ( can't remember when ) we got into semifinals through Christina Ling (not too sure of name) from Ipoh. Then in late 70s Yasmin Yusuf won the Best Costume. She wore Baju Perak.. very nice! First time I noticed her was when she returned from Students Exchange Program to our school up on the hills.. I had always admired her beauty and height. I was in Form One then ! :-) I lost track of other Miss Malaysias after that. Now... I just don't bother..

Lotion & Cream Making Made Easy..

Last month I attended again a class under the Adult Education. No... not baking and cooking for me. This time it was Basics of Lotion Making with Lori Stoia. Before this I also took Soap Making Made Simple with her. Please read my May 2nd posting, if you'ld like to see the soaps I made. Lori taught us how to make the products from scratch. I am glad her recipes has no alcohol content. It's very simple actually and the result is guaranteed. Memang jadi macam lotion yang kita beli di pasaran ! We worked in twos and Amida was my 'lab-partner'. We know it would be more fun if we attend class with friends whom we could make mistakes and giggle with. The class shared together 2 digital weighing instrument, a microwave and 2 stick blenders .. we were always the last to finish.. Mana tak nya.. banyak ketawa! We had fun stamping and coloring our own signature labels. I named mine " Sweet & Simple " by Lady of Leisure (LoL)...he..he.. kelakar! With Amida, Cynthia and our products...

July 4th in California....

4th of July last year we huddled together along Charles River to experience the Independence Day fireworks in Boston. Read more of it in my previous posting... Boston ranked 3rd among the best fireworks show in US and lasted one whole hour. Usaha tu dalam sejuk-sejuk nak pergi tengok.. he..he.. This year it is extraordinarily hot in California on Independence Day - record temperatures everywhere, almost 700,000 acres have been burnt by wildfires, many have lost homes due to the fire and foreclosures, and almost everyone is complaining about the rising oil prices and the downward turn in the US economy - well, maybe excluding Bush and his administration who are still in denial! If homes are lost and oil prices are burning pockets, I think there is not much these days for any Californian to be proud of being independent. Except for living in one of the states to approve licence for same-sex marriages!! Shiiishh... Allah nak turun bala sekejap jer... Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco says the same-sex marriage industry brings in a lot of money to the city. That's really funny! I think he's just re-enforcing his support to his own idea. The fireworks show in Cupertino took place at Cupertino High School - lasted for only about 30 minutes. What is it with fireworks that captures people's hearts !? Ramai jugak Cupertino residents lining the streets....

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park ( pronounced "yo-se-mi-tee" ) is an Internationally Recognised Park and designated as a World Heritage Site in 1984. Well known for its spectacular granite cliffs, amazing waterfalls, clear gushing streams and ancient giant sequoia trees, this National Park sees over 3.5 million visitors through out the seasons of the year. Like Malaysia's National Park, Yosemite has centuries old trees and biological as well as geological treasures. I have read about and watched quite a few National Geographic episodes, - once upon a time - about those BIG, HUGE trees ( Sequoia, I think ) that could even allow vehicles to pass through them. So, I was on a mission to find those trees! We entered Yosemite National Park through the West Gate since Yosemite View Lodge is just before the entrance. It is quite difficult to get lodging during this time of year since visitors to this area make reservations 6 months ahead of time. We were lucky someone cancelled and made a river-view room available. Or else.. there are many camping sites we could set up tent but it wouldn't be fun with just the 5 of us. I remember around this time last year when we camped at New Hampshire with friends on the East Coast: The family and friends of Laila-Bill & her sister Lina-Dave, Tini & Sabri as well as Isma & Nizam. Every year in July Laila arranges camping activity for her friends, her children and their friends. I cannot forget the tons of food & equipment that she brings along! Terbayang-bayang Laila membakar apam balik, Lina mengipas sate.. Bila time nak balik, habis semua her love ones kena kerah untuk mengemas.. termasuk anak2 'mat salleh' ( her children's friends ) yang ikut sekali. Dengar cakap pulak tuu! Tini & Sabri have gone back to Malaysia. Tini is making her PHD and her experience as a lecturer in Northeastern University, Boston to good use in UKM. Shazmi - her 10 year old - yang bijak tu, I hear masih ber-slang American.. :-) Hassan - the 3 year old - dah besar and mula pandai mengusik his brother. Miss them ! Isma & Nizam came to visit us last week. Nizam has to be in California for a month implementing Nokia's billion dollar project with T-Mobile. Isma & their 10 year old Sara yang paling untung 'sambil menyelam minum air' - they have visited plenty of places in the US. The 20 dollars entrance fee to Yosemite is valid for 7 days - makna nya we can enter as many times as we like within the week. The one-way road circles inside the area, making driving easy without us looking out for on-coming cars. Certain parts the road can get very narrow - like the picture on the left above - which supports only one car each time to tunnel through the granite hill ! The sound of the gushing waters beating against rocks & boulders in the wide river could be heard rushing downstream on to our right. Somehow we could feel the serenity of the park which urged us on to find a good spot to picnic. Banyak picnic spots.. teringat pulak air terjun yang di beri nama Lata something, something di Sungai Seputih, Selama Perak - a few miles after passing my parents house there. During my younger days, we used to see a lot of visitors/ picnic-ers, passing through to go to the air terjun and berkelah. We could see more cars, motorbikes and sometimes busloads of children, kalau cuti sekolah. You'ld know they were going there to mandi-manda & berkelah by the looks of 'striped' towels hanging from the bus windows and also pelampung-pelampung tayar sticking out too! Picture on the right above is a distant view of the Yosemite Falls - Upper & Lower Falls. Every angle at the National Park looks like scenic views in a calendar or postcard ! There are many waterfalls there and visitors have to hike to some of them in order to get a better view. Bridal-Veil Falls on the right - the hike was not too bad though! At that height, we could feel the cool mist spraying all around. Much welcomed in the scorching heat of the day. One could also experience exploring Yosemite by bike, by raft, on an open-air tram or even on a mule or horseback ! Of course, if you go on foot it won't cost you a thing. If you really look at the rock formations, the waterfalls and the scenic views of the national park, you can't help feeling the wonders and blessings of God's gift. Allah pencipta alam... Geologically speaking pulak - about 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada ( range of mountains ) was uplifted... and then tilted to form its relatively gentle and dramatic slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, narrow canyons. About 1 million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet (1200 m) during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic landscape today. Located near Yosemite's South Entrance, the Mariposa Grove is the park's largest collection of giant sequoias. We had to park our car at Wawona Store parking area - 30 minutes away - and took a shuttle into Mariposa Grove as the access road to the grove closes intermittently due to limited parking inside. Using this free bus shuttle is encouraged to reduce congestion and parking delays. They want to control the number of cars inside so as not to disturb the condition of the ancient trees. I read somewhere that these trees can grow until 3000 years. The bigger they get, the older they are. Their roots grow very shallow - less than 6 feet ! Very strange I thought of HUGE trees like them. They can even tumble if their roots frequently get trodden upon, nevertheless once fallen they will not rot ( tak reput ! ). It makes sense not to allow cars beyond the grove parking lot. Trailers and private cars longer than 25 feet are prohibited even to enter the gates of Mariposa Grove. It means that we have to either go jungle tracking on foot or take the guided tour on an open-air tram that circles the designated routes inside Mariposa Grove, - costing 16 dollars each ! To save cost, I designated the job of searching for my tunnel tree to my kids during their one and half hour ride on the tram while both of us went back to Wawona Store to get our car. Apparently the sort of tree that I was looking for - Wawona Tunnel Tree - fell during the harsh winters of 1968 & 1969. Between 1881 - 1968, when it was carved, millions of people flocked here to drive through the tree - first in buggies eventually in cars. The other tunnel tree is the California Tree carved in 1895. Despite the huge hole in its trunk and weakened condition, the California Tree is alive and growing. With on-going research on trees and habitat done to this date, damage such as this would not be allowed to occur today. However, both tunnel trees helped to promote Mariposa Grove and has contributed to its inclusion into Yosemite National Park. Itu la some information gathered by my kids... Picture on the left is the Fallen Monarch. Notice the diameter of the roots relative to the height of the couple... Pokok ni tak der akar tunjang, tu sebab senang tumbang... Too bad the tram didn't stop for them to take more pictures.


One of the giant cones...










Yosemite View Lodge is worth staying ... There are also quite a number of pools & indoor spas in this facility. Ideal for those with small children. Honeymoon-ers pulak would love the view !




Just nice for the 5 of us... anak bujang tidur dalam sleeping bag kat bawah






Equiped with wide screen TV, fireplace, mini fridge, and a small kitchenette - 2 stove burner and a sink. There is a microwave hidden in the cabinet. Provided also are cutlery as well as pots & pans - which are not of much use to me. Kita bawa our own plastic utensils.. one small pot for heating the gravy... and of course the rice cooker is a must! Boss I cannot do without nasi lah...:-)

View of the river from the balcony outside our room... Too bad the rest of my San Jose friends cannot make it this time around. Being here for several years, they have been to Yosemite many-many times. I think the best time to visit this place of Allah's creation would be in Fall/Autumn or in Spring when it'll be a lot cooler. Winter would be beautiful but it'll be much too cold !

BIO2008 in San Diego

In my previous posting on May 7th of last year titled BIO2007 Boston, I mentioned the next BIO International Convention was going to be held in San Diego. Little did I know I would be there... or here in San Diego. Funny how life works ! Next year BIO2009 will be held in Georgia - it would wonderful if I could be there too..! ;-) This year, from 17th till 20th June Bio Techies all over the world gathered in San Diego Convention Center for their conference and exhibition. Compared to the 350+ last year, I hear Malaysia only sent 100 delegates this time, with the Chief Minister of Melaka Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and the current Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation Datuk Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili as the VVIPs. Of course, like last year I was not involved at all with the convention. My husband, on the other hand had to attend and so while he dives I simply took a drink.. - sambil menyelam minum air ! Atiqah tagged along since dia dah cuti sekolah for the summer. Too bad her brother & sister had classes .. San Diego lies just north of the Mexican border. I have included an image of the map of San Diego which shows its location relative to L.A and San Jose. It takes 8 hours driving from San Jose to San Diego. San Diego is situated near the sea.. it has its own bay macam San Francisco. Hence, the mild mediterranean climate. However, during our stay there San Diego experienced a heatwave. Temperature naik sampai 110 degrees F. I don't know berapa dalam deg C but I am sure lebeh panas dari kat KL. In KL it's hot & humid but here its hot & dry... Kadang-kadang tu 'segumpal' awan pun tak dak, clear blue sky allowing hot stinging penetrating rays of the sun directly on to you. I've always felt this condition is more dangerous & people here are likely to get skin cancer than anywhere else. Kita tak pernah dengar orang mati kepanasan kat negara kita, kan ? Tapi kat negara mat salleh ni, ada yang mati kalau sejuk sangat & silap2 ada jugak yang mati kalau panas sangat. Selalu mangsanya orang yang homeless or living alone, old & disabled. It costs a lot to provide heating and air conditioning! No wonder people who runs this country 'craves' and addicted to oil - minyak!. San Diego Convention Center located near the bay is the 21st largest in this country. Makna nya ada lagi yang lebeh besar. With almost 8 or 9 big exhibition halls, to me it's already HUGE! Looking at the pictures here, you know I couldn't get the whole building in one frame... panjang sangat! The design is like a ship... cantik ! There is the Convention Center train-stop right in front of it. Very convenient indeed for those who prefers to take the San Diego Transit train to that part of town. There are also many hotels surrounding the area. A few that caught my eye are Grand Hyatt, Marriot Hotel and Marina, Embassy Suites and Hilton Gaslamp. Unfortunately we couldn't get a room in any of those hotels sebab dah penuh! BIO Convention is an annual event so I guess once the next host is known, most of the BioTech companies buat block booking ahead of time. Notice the fog (kabus) creeping in the sky - temperature drops by a few degrees in seconds. San Diego is the BioTech Center of the West Coast like Boston is to the East Coast. San Diego also acts as a host that provides many military facilities to the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Marine Corps. It's not surprising that the decommissioned USS Midway - now turned into a muzeum - chose to serve her final duties at San Diego waterfront. Located at the Naval Pier between the Cruise Ship Terminal and the Seaport Village, the USS Midway was the largest ship in the world when commissioned in 1945. She served the United States longer than any other aircraft carrier, covering the surrender of Japan in WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam and Desert Storm during her prime time. Yokosuka, Japan was her homeport for 18 years. Hmmm... itu lah some of the information I got from the audio tour guide on top of the Hop On - Hop Off Double Decker Bus Tour. Atiqah and I took the ride on the city sightseeing bus for the fastest way to visit downtown San Diego. We bought tickets at Visitor Information Center in Old Town San Diego. The ticket costs 25 dollars for a 2-day pass but the operator charged us only 10 dollars each because we wanted only for a day. We went on the Harbor Loop which goes through the Embarcadero, USS Midway, Seaport Village, GasLamp area, Horton Plaza and Little Italy. The other loop goes through several parks and San Diego Zoo. I hear the San Diego Zoo is among the best.. their tagline says : If you don't see an animal there, it probably doesn't exist! Ada banyak lagi city tour buses which could be taken at Old Town but we picked the open top double decker bus sebab Atiqah nak duduk kat atas to have a better view. Hop On - Hop Off means that we could get off at any place within the loop and get back on the next double decker bus that's scheduled to come along. So the map and the bus schedule kita simpan untuk guna as reference to plan our visit. To me the Old Town San Diego is actually a Mexican Cultural Village - banyak crafts, potteries, mexican architectural buildings, restaurants.... like any other cultural village. I think the prices here are a bit cheaper than in downtown.. We didn't stop at USS Midway Muzeum because I thought Seaport Village has a lot more to offer. Rupa-rupa nya just souvenier shops from a few countries, restaurants and a view of the harbour. I heard that on board the USS Midway, you can learn about life on a Navy ship and how aircraft land and take off from an aircraft carrier. Visitors can also tour many of the USS Midway working areas and see more than 15 restored aircraft such as the Skyhawk, Tomcat, Hawkeye, Hornet....dan lain-lain yang sejenis dengan nya... that would be interesting, - to most men ! For me, tak tengok pun tak per...

Kena tunggu the next bus sebab I was too busy looking at other stuff and not the time...




A view of downtown San Diego from the top of the double decker bus...






Left picture is the entrance to the Historical Heart of
San Diego...GasLamp area... just across the street to the San Diego Convention Center.. kat sini la the European immigrants first settled..






Can't resist taking a picture of this building... kat sini AT&T pun kena kutuk jugak..!





PETCO PARK ni rupa-rupa nya baseball stadium... home of the San Diego Padres! Kami ingat taman untuk pets.. pergi tanya orang pulak tu... nampak sangat orang luar ! :-)






A souvenier shop at Horton Plaza...






On the right, entrance to Seaport Village... bangunan tu sebenarnya restoran. Nampak macam surau, kan...?





They don't mind me taking their picture dengan syarat share the profit if it sells on e-bay! I told them, nope I won't auction them off.. I'll just blog them !..

Exit of Balboa Park... where many muzeums and parks can be found..








San Diego Airspace Muzeum..








Inside is the International Hall of Fame..








At Aisha's lovely home with Zaleha & Zuaida, friends from home attending BIO Convention ... thank you for Aisha's grand hospitality...





Love this corner ....






$7.99 lunch buffet at Restoran Bismillah... The food there memang sedap.. I see even mat sallehs stop to eat.. ada tempat solat... :-)






Six Flags Theme Park outside of L.A

Kedai jual buah kat tepi Highway 5 ...