Blogging today 30th June 2008, it's the last day of June, tomorrow everyone around the globe will be starting a new date and a new month on the calendar, boy how much more faster can the days go by? 1/2 of the year has gone by just at a blink of an eye, in 5 months time we will be celebrating christmas then there would be new year to look forward to and all the other festivals or rituals that we humans celebrate year in and year out.

There's just so many festivals to celebrate, especially if you are used to celebrating so many different kinds of cultures like me. In my homeland we celebrate Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali, Kadazan Havest Festival, Hari Gawai, Christmas and many many more other festivals. It's always exciting to look forward to all the different kinds of festivals celebrated in my country of origin., with so many different races of friends that we have, we are invited to celebrate the many festivals in unity and harmony. Not forgetting about the different food that we get to taste when we are invited to friends place to join in the celebration. I think that makes me appreciate and respect different cultures easily as we are so used to multi cultured living, it is good to know that there's always peace and hormany in my homeland.....I hope that it stays so as that's very important for the countries' stability.

I guess I must be missing the feelings of all these festivals and I know that soon it would be "Koh Chung" festival there in my homeland. Miss those yummy "Koh Chung"....hmmm too bad I don't know how to wrap "Koh Chung" myself.....

Now my main purpose of this blog is to blog about the last day of June instead I have gone out of topic, ah well, wishing everyone reading a good last day in June., see you in the next blog next month.

Sad

Feeling a bit down at this moment as I blog, received some sad news earlier in the afternoon after visiting one of the MSN sites that I belong to. A friend's Mother in-law just passed away and she and her hubby were not able to see their beloved Mother/MIL for the last time. I feel really sad for them as almost 4 years ago, I too had that almost similar experience with my mom. It was such a difficult time for me, during that 1 month my mom was in the hospital, she was going in and out of ICU, almost everyday I'll call to speak to my mom and at every phone call when I say that I would like to go home to see her, my mom and my dad always told me that I don't have to worry and don't have to come home...It was indeed a difficult period for me at that time....

I don't know whether I should say that I am glad that 9 months before my mom passed away, we, the whole family went back home to Sabah for our vacation. 9 months before, my mom was still healthy and there was nothing wrong with her health at all and I just couldn't imagine that 8 months later (she was hospitalised 2nd week of August), during that 1 month stay in the hospital, one fine day she suddenly just left us forever. Oh how I ache for my mom especially today, feeling really really down for my friend, I pray that God will give you and your hubby peace in your heart. May my friend's mom in-law's soul, my mom's soul and all deceased souls Rest in Peace. Amen.

Cherish your every moment with your loved ones as much as you can cause you can never tell what the future holds for each and every one of us. Here 1 moment and gone the next. Such is life, so difficult to predict.....

Lovely sunsets that I absolutely adore

Looking up into the sky, seeing so many planes crossing by each other, wondering where are all the planes flying to............wait for me, I would like to be on one of the planes too............

Let me introduce my grape plant to you, we have 2 of these plants, bought them about 2 years ago from a DIY store. The time when we bought them, it was in May I think, at that time there were only leaves without grapes, during the winter season we didn't even bother to bring the plants into the house and when spring 07 came we thought that the grape plants were gone case plants already, we were ready to get rid of them but little did we expect, few weeks later, we could see the plant started to flower, luckily we didn't throw the plant after all cause in July the flowers slowly turned into fruits and here it is on the pictures are 2 small bunches of grapes from our small terrace....they were quite sweet too. This year for now, we can see small flowers coming but no sign of grapes yet, wonder if we 'll have luck in tasting them again....

Bats ~ part 2

Continuation from the previous post about doing something to the bats, well my right side neighbour started chasing the bats yesterday morning by going up till the roof with his air pressure machine and blowing pressured air into the homes of the bats. I really wonder if what he did was effective, anyway I think that they should find another way to chase the bats away cause it's no use doing what they are doing now as the bats will always come back. Tonnie did some surfing on bats and it says that bats will always find their way back cause they have made the roofs as their home,. other than that, it is still not so warm yet outside so where can all the bats go plus our whole surrouding areas are all open fields. I propose that they call Animal services, they will know the proper way to catch the bats and to bring them to where they belong.

Bats

Don't know whether I should blog about this topic as bats are considered as protected creatures here in Holland., I hope I won't get into trouble for blogging about it though. It seems that there are lots and lots of bats making a home under our roofs., we are staying at a split level terrace house with 7 houses altogether in a row. These bats have been making a nuisance by pooping here and there and most of our balchonies are full with their poops, so a few neighbours came together to discuss the matter and they proposed that the bats be terminated, how they are going to go about that, I have no idea yet, will surely hear about that more if they really go ahead with their suggestion.

School Holidays

In a few weeks time, Samantha will be off from school, summer school holidays will be starting for her from 13th July ~ 28th August., that's gonna be 6 long weeks of school break for her. This year we won't be going away for the holidays and I have yet to plan what to do during the holidays. I hope that the weather will be good though, I am sure I won't be bringing the girls out everyday, so during the days that we will be home, as long as the weather is bright and sunny, at least Samantha will still be able to go cycling or play at the swing outside our house. Other than that she can play at the sand box at the garden or have a dip in the pool that we'll be setting up once the temperature gets even warmer, at least as warm as 27 degrees celcius onwards and I am sure Nicole will be happy tagging along her big sister.

Anyhow, one of the plans that is confirm is we'll be going to Duinrell on 30th August, got some cheap tickets as we are insured with Menzis and Menzis is offering it's members 5 Euro per ticket per person at Duinrell, that is cool....www.duinrell.nl

Some other places that came to mind for me to bring my munchkins are Tivoli in Berg en Dal...www.parktivoli.nl, the rides are suitable for children below 10 years, which is good as I
won't have to worry when Samantha goes on the rides on her own. Nearby the house there is also an indoor amusement activites hall but I would prefer to bring them outside to play at the moment, anyway will keep that place in mind.....May go to the zoo as well, at the end of the zoo there is a big playground, so that will be a nice place for the children to run wild.....well I am sure I will be able to find some other more places to bring them, there's still a few weeks for me to think about it....Yeah!!!

Wimbledon 2008

Wimbledon 2008 has started, it's gonna be a few boring afternoons for me here as I won't be able to enjoy my daily 1/2 hour Doctor's series on BBC1 which I enjoy very much.....Haven't actually check out how long the Wimbledon tournament will be on, oh well, I suppose I could find some other channels to watch since we have about 200 channels to watch, if only we could receive Malaysian Channels as well :(

Fuel hike in Malaysia

Feel sorry for my sister, she is rather concerned with the fuel hike that is going on there in Malaysia. Just a few hours ago, she told me that the petrol stations in Kota Kinabalu are going on strike and won't be selling any petrol for 3 days. Apparently the petrol station owners are demanding for more subsidy from the government, good luck to them.....

Here we go

So here I am joining in the blogging fever, I think I got my blogging bug from seeing friends interesing and lovely blogs. Hope I'll be able to maintain this blog and update it as often as possible........so here goes my 1st blog!!