Sheesh, Darn and Yum!

Last Saturday went to Leisure Mall for my birthday makan treat. Wanted to eat at Swensen's but it seems to have closed down there and taken over by a chinese restaurant. Anyway had the meal at Secret Recipe instead and the food at that branch was better than normal. The thing I wanted to say here is that outlet seems to be a hanging out place for couples to have their romantic rendezvous. Nothing wrong with that right but what got my goat that day was this malay couple. What already made me wanted to barf was the fact they shared a glass of drink and a plate of spaghetti ala the Lady and the Tramp but the thing that really grossed me out was the fact that the girl was the one groping the boy between the legs. It got me so worked up since my kids was around watching that I blurted out to the couple, if both of you wants to make a scene ala Paris Hilton, go find a private place and I told off the girl that she better take off her tudung as even the westerners in my foreign forays don't do what they are doing in public...sheesh....anyway they got the message and vacated the place soon after. Well after this incident we went for a walk around the mall and after entering a watch shop over there, we finally found our wedding anniversary watch. Nice looking pair, aren't they.

Darn it another one bit the dust. Another of our Nuris or Sea King Helicopters has gone down with all crew perished and the media spinning has started in earnest. Don't want to get into the blame and speculate game but just want to comment we cannot afford to go losing good people like this. You can blame the pilots, you can blame the weather or wahtever but the fact is the helis are old, with the first few units older than me. So replace the worst off units immediately, and you do not have to wait until LIMA 2007 to announce that the NH-90 has been selected to take over the CSAR role of the Nuri as what I am hearing now. This is good but the quantity mentioned is not enough to relieve the old war horses. The replacement of Nuris as transport is the more pressing requirement as you can see from the crash track records, transport was usually the role being carried out when the crashes occured and I am sure we have enough money to do so. As it is we have enough white livery aircraft already and money seems to be always available to procure these VVIP birds, so money should also be made available to buy transports for our servicemen. The litany now seems to be to call on the VIPs to fly on the Nuris to give them a taste of this bitter medicine, but I am sure this will not happen. But who knows, the sky may fall tomorrow and this accident will finally realises an announcement that the Nuri will be replaced. At least something good comes out of this but I am not holding my breath.


Finally to end this post on a delicious note, on my business trip to Penang on Monday finally managed to try what is called siput duri in Malay or what I understand is conch in English. I had these steamed and the taste was delicious though it must be eaten hot. The taste is like keropok ikan or fish crackers and surprisingly there is no taste of bitterness or slime as I what I initially expected since it looked like siput sedut or river escargot after digging the flesh out of the shells. next time I am in Penang, will bring the family to try out this delicacy. Many thanks to Laxamana for introducing the siput duri. A new dish to savour from now on. As what my driver told me after eating this, we should try out such new stuff as it will widen our food options, how true. Yum! Yum! And before I forget, finally managed to buy some markisa or passion fruit juice at the Chowrasta market. Man that place is a real gold mine for rare food items.