Teluk Chempedak

We went to Teluk Chempedak last night and had a lovely time together. There are some trees missing and some works going on, but it was still a nice evening out. We arrived just as the sun was setting below these trees...

Lauren was not as scared of the sea as she was the last time we took her, and we managed to get this picture reasonably close to the shore...

But after I tried to dangle her little legs in the sea water, she stiffened up and strangled me, and she was still scared. So we retreated a few paces and as I put her down on the sand for a picture, she tried to run away to mummy. Here is the 'Lauren is scared' shot...

Being the mischievous baby that she is, every time we want to take a picture with her using the timer, she looks at the camera for the ten seconds where people generally shuffle around hurriedly to get in shape for the picture, and then when the red dot begins flashing two seconds before the camera fires, she has this annoying tendency to look directly down, as can be seen here...

The sun soon set and we made our way to the toilet to wash our feet and sit down beside the promenade for a while, enjoying the smooth cool air. Here is a view of the sea...

And finally, no visit to Teluk Chempedak is complete without eating something at McDonalds. It is a beautifully designed restaurant, although the service was nowhere near adequate. We simply had French Fries and an Oreo McFlurry, and as we were about to leave, I noticed Ronald McDonald, the worldwide image of this food chain, sitting on his chair beneath his restaurant name, almost as it were, casually looking out to sea. I love this picture...

Lauren's Fashion Show

Today's entry is a pictorial entry of my daughter's recent fashion show. Hope you like it!

Hope you liked the pictures. She's a real cutie and we love her so much!

Hong Kong Food and Tea Restaurant

(March 2015 update: unfortunately, Hong Kong Food & Tea is no longer in service at EC Mall Kuantan)


We decided to eat out at the Hong Kong Food and Tea Restaurant this lunchtime. This is a tried-and-tested eatery so we knew we were in for a good meal. There is a nice serene atmosphere in this restaurant as the soft music plays in the background. And despite a huge picture of Hong Kong city losing its stickiness at the corners, the restaurant is impeccably kept.

When we arrived at just after 11.30am we had the entire place to ourselves. Lauren chose our place to sit from a vast array of options. I think we must have been the first customers of the day.

After spending a portion of time browsing through the menus and trying to stop Lauren from tearing one of the smaller menus up, I decided to order a ham and pineapple focaccia, whilst Fie opted for her favourite black pepper pork rice, and we requested a side order of French Fries for Lauren.

Now we normally order our favourite chocolate and strawberry milkshakes, but recently we have resumed making home-made milkshakes from susu and vanilla ice-cream, so we went for fizzy lemon ribena.

That was delicious and very refreshing. Lauren was determined to get the piece of lemon out of the jug but was disappointed when she finally got it into her mouth!!! The food was nice yet again although Fie's dish was a little spicier than usual, she said. The bill came to RM26.90 with a 10% service charge but we struggled to find any evidence as to why the service charge could be so high.

Anyway, we do like the food there and we will be there again sometime in the future.

Thanks and enjoy Kuantan

I would like to say thank you to 110 people from various countries of the world. My gratitude goes to those of you from Malaysia, USofA, Singapore, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Qatar, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and China who have logged on to my blog since its creation. I hope you will continue visiting my site and enjoy the variety of topics I will be writing about. Writing is a passion of mine, particularly about sporting events and finals, and also about religious and faith-promoting topics.

My wife's university is closed all of next week due to the H1N1 outbreak and so we decided to go and visit Taman Kejiranan and the Teruntum Zoo in celebratory attitude. We enjoyed the scenery and quiet atmosphere at Taman Kejiranan, although mosquitoes and red ants proved to be an annoying menace.

We then ventured on to the local zoo which is rather poorly maintained, but a little larger than we thought. Our daughter enjoyed the monkeys, ostrich and horses whilst I enjoyed taking this picture of a very old tree...

Finally we enquired at the golf Driving Range opposite the zoo. Maybe next week we will go there in proper golfing attire, which is one of the rules (long pants and collar shirt) so that I can practice driving a basket of 100 balls. I love the feeling of pinging a golf ball a couple hundred yards as it flies off the head. A basket of 100 balls will cost me RM10 with an additional RM5 charge to rent a golf club.

At Taman Kejiranan with my wife and daughter...

Roger Federer

It's been rather amusing sifting through various questions and answers on Yahoo! Answers concerning Roger Federer. There seems to be two camps of loyal die-hard fans: those belonging to Federer and those attached to Nadal. The debate concerning the two of them seems to be brewing warmly. Federer fans show the 15 Grand Slams as evidence that he is better. Nadal's corner draw on their head-to-head record, which shows Nadal as being on top.

Nadal has been the only player to beat Federer in Grand Slam finals. Federer has played in 20 finals, winning 15 of them, and losing to Nadal in the other five. The Spanish player has appeared in 8 Grand Slam finals, winning 6, and losing to Federer in the other 2.

I believe head-to-head records are not so important as trophies won. With a record 15 Grand Slams, Federer is undoubtedly the best at this moment in time, and there's nothing Nadal can do about it. Beating Federer in a few finals doesn't make Nadal better than him. In football, some of the top teams tend to struggle against the same lower opposition each season. That doesn't mean that the likes of West Ham or Bolton are better than Manchester United. In football, success is measured over the entire course of a season, culminating with the lifting of trophies. And so it goes in tennis. Federer's 15 major titles show just how far ahead he is of everyone, and I'm 100% sure that Rafael Nadal himself would be the first to acknowledge that fact. They have a deep respect for each other and their respective achievements.

For me there is no debate. I don't think Nadal will be able to reach double figures in Grand Slams because of his dodgy knees. What do you think? Nadal is like an itch on Federer's back, irritating, but gone when you find the right tool to eradicate it. Feel free to leave your thoughts...