Pied-fantail bird in the evening

Ok....it would seem like I'm a little obsessed with taking videos or photos of birds at my house right now because in my previous post I posted something about birds as well. Actually I'm not obsessed....I'm just taking the opportunity as they come. It's not always that I get to see a bird at a very close range.

It just so happened that when I was doing laundry in the evening, I saw the Pied Fantail bird looking for food outside our cage like space at the back of our house. I could see that it was searching for insects to eat. It didn't realise I was there taking a video of it because I was in the cage like section of the house. So it kinda camouflage me in a way. So it didn't notice me at all and kept searching for food..

This is by far the coolest experience because I've never been so close to a Pied-Fantail bird before! It was so cool to be able to look at it closely as it fan open it's tail every now and then. :)

The White-Throated Kingfisher in my garden!

What a lovely lovely surprise! I was happily having breakfast with my Mom this morning and suddenly we saw this White-Throated Kingfisher in our garden. What a rare sight! I quickly went to grab my digital camera and started taking videos of the bird and also snapped some photos of it. I was so afraid that the bird would notice me. Luckily it didn't! I was very very quiet! hehe!

I've seen this bird many times before in our neighbourhood. Every time I  go out for my morning ride at the park, I would see them on the telephone line or up on the trees. It's never easy to get a shot of it. They are not that tame and are easily scared whenever they see humans staring at them hehehe.

But I managed to take a shot of it coz we made a cage outside our house like the photo you see above. I just love having breakfast and dinner here because we get to enjoy the fresh air minus all the flies, mosquitoes and bird poo! LOL! ;) Even the birds don't notice us when we take photos or videos of them when we are standing inside the cage. The minute they see us outside the cage, they would fly away. So I guess the cage sort of like camouflaged us a bit hehehe. I can now take more photos of nature without disturbing them. Love it!

Ais kacang salji

Ais kacang salji special........yes.....that's what I'm talking about here....the photo you see above is my current favourite cold dessert! See how happy I am when I'm having it? hehehehe! Super happy indeed! I recently discovered about it while watching TV, when they did a feature about it in the news. Immediately I had to find out how to get to the place where they are selling it. It's quite far from where I'm staying....quite a long drive to get a dessert ehehehe. 

The photo you see below is where the ais kacang salji is located......at Restoran Dinalang in Simpang Empat Kangkong, it's right next to Balai Polis Simpang Empat...you can't miss it...... :). I remembered asking around about it from my friends in Facebook for the directions to get to this place. Luckily a couple of them gave me the directions and it was quite easy for me to follow.

Once the location is found, I just had to go and get a scoop! Actually.....more than a scoop....a bowl of it! In the beginning I didn't know that they served the ais kacang salji in two different servings. One is the normal ais kacang salji and the other is the "special" one! Of course the special one is extra special and extra delicious. The normal one looks like the photo below.....less fillings and less ice of course. The special one is like the photo at the top.

The taste of the ais kacang salji is beyond amazing. It reminds me of my childhood seriously. A very authentic taste that brings you back in time. They made their own sugar syrup, red beans and jelly for this dessert and they made them fresh everyday. That's one of the reasons why it tastes so good. Plus of course the ice is shredded so thinly that it looks like snow.....and feels so soft and smooth unlike all the other ais kacang I've tasted before. By the way......for those who don't know what ais kacang salji means...... ais means ice.......kacang means beans and salji means snow.....so it's ice beans snow eheheheh! :D

They also sell kuey teow sup daging......like the photo below......I love it too.....love the taste.....sometimes I like the bihun sup daging as well. Well, all I can say is that everything that they sell here tastes so good and the price is super cheap. That's the best thing about staying in Kedah!!!

Post mortem

It's been 6 months! Wow......I can't believe that it's been 6 months since I started my health improvement program. It all started because of the issue with my eczema. And now, it's more than that. It has affected my weight....it has also affected my overall health. I feel great, I look great and I'm definitely happier than before.

Thinking back on the time I started it, it included a sugar free diet and also excluding all the food that would trigger my eczema. But for the past 3 months now I've been on a gluten free diet as well. And that really hit the target. I really lost a lot of weight just by excluding all the food that are not gluten free. I was really surprised at how effective it was compared to the sugar free diet. But of course, the best part is that my eczema has reduced a lot. And it's been improving day by day. I'm so happy about it. Amazing how taking the right food for my body can make such a huge impact on my skin. I knew that it would work, I just needed some discipline and some motivation to do it.

It definitely it not an easy thing to do. Restraining myself from eating all those yummy food was very difficult. Even though I know that those yummy food would hurt my body but I still wanted to eat them. So that was something very hard for me to do. I remembered how sad I was during the first couple of months. I was not able to accept the fact that I couldn't eat what I had been eating before. The worst was letting go of bread. I love eating bread so much. In fact, I love eating bread more than eating rice. But I'm glad now I can live without it. And I'm especially glad now that I know I lost a lot of weight because I let go of it.

Total weight lost since 14th of February ----> 10 kg!!! And I managed to keep it off!! I haven't gained any of the weight I've lost so far and I'm trying to lose more. I still need to lose another 10 kg. Hopefully with me following my diet closely and also working out everyday will give me good results. I also hope that by year end, all the eczema will be gone. I'm so determined to get rid of them for good.

What I love about my daily routine now is my determination on working out everyday. I even subscribed to some Youtube channels that provides easy workout routines for me to follow and do everyday. I'm so happy that I can do them now on a daily basis. I was not able to do them before when my feet were in such a bad condition. Now I'm more flexible and even able to do Pilates and Abdominal workout. It's great! I'm focusing on simple routines first. But will slowly advance to more difficult routines hopefully in months to come.

I'm even planning out on doing a timetable for me to organize my daily schedule. I've a lot to get done and I'm always missing something out each day. So I'm seriously hoping that the timetable will help me be more organized. Just talking about being organized is not going to help at all. Been there. It didn't work. I know now that I really need a timetable. I need to SEE what I have to do. So that I actually DO it. :)

The green tree snake

This video was taken on 30th of July 2013 but only now do I have some little time to blog about it. I was doing laundry at the back of the house when I thought of checking out the gherkin tree to see if there are any new gherkins available for me to pick out.

But as I got near to the gherkin tree, I noticed something that was out of the ordinary about the tree. One of the branch looked extra big and shiny. That's when I realised it wasn't a branch. It was the body of the green tree snake!! Yikes!!!

I got really scared and ran into the house. But I guess I wasn't that scared to take a video of it ehehe! So I did. Luckily there are windows in the kitchen that are just a feet away from the gherkin tree. So I just stood by the window and recorded a video of the snake. I was happy that a couple of the Yellow-vented Bulbul dropped by and made an appearance in the video too! heheh!

The cute culprits!

I took a video of the Yellow-vented Bulbul birds just the other day.......I was inside the house standing right by the window when taking the video. Those birds didn't even notice me standing there.....I was so quiet....never made a sound......while they happily ate the flowers of the bean tree.

They've been eating the flowers almost every day now. So much so that we could never get the chance to see the beans grow because they've been eating up all the flowers. Poor tree!

But even so.....it's always a joy to watch the birds eat....and flying playfully in the garden outside our house. We don't have pet birds but these birds are like pets except that they are free to fly and roam anywhere they like and be free to do what they want. 

I really enjoy watching them. It's the simple joys of life......simple things that makes us happy.....the little things that reminds us of our Creator.....and how wonderful His creations are. :)

Baby birds

I was spying on a couple of birds that were making a nest at our house a few weeks back. Soon enough the nest were ready and one day I saw 2 little eggs inside it. Guess where the nest is??? See the photo below! eheheh!

Below is the video I took of them before they left their nest......lots of fur on their bodies and they can fly now. I'm gonna miss them.

Below are the photos of the mother and father of these little baby birds. They are called the Yellow-vented Bulbul....or in Malay, they are called Burung Merbah Kapur. Sorry if the photo of the birds are not that clear.....I had a hard time trying to take a photo of them, since they would fly away once they catch me trying to take their picture ehehehe. I took the photos from the window in my studio....that was the only way they wouldn't notice me. :)

We got lemons!

Our one and only lemon tree in our garden has finally bear some fruits this year. In the beginning, I saw a lot of flowers on the tree......but after a while some dropped off and only a few remained.

Same goes with the fruit. Some managed to hang on to the tree and some dropped off. Only the strong ones remain and hopefully we will be able to taste them.

I can't wait to see the lemons grow bigger and turn really yellow like the photos of lemons I see in the internet. How wonderful it would be if there were many of them on the tree. 

It would be great not having to buy lemons anymore and just pluck them from the tree. The lemons that they sell over  here at the supermarket are so expensive.

I love using lemons with tea and also with fresh fruits......not to mention cooking them with fish.....so yummy! ;)

Gherkins!

I'm just so excited that we now have gherkins in our garden. I remember when I was younger, my grandmother used to plant them at her place. I used to eat them right from the tree itself whenever I play in her garden. She would always be wondering what happened to all her gherkins.....where had they gone to?? HEhehehehehe.......they all went to my stomach!! LOL!

I love eating them with nasi lemak......they are so crunchy and tasty. ;)

On the move again

I miss blogging here. Miss sharing my thoughts here. Been so occupied with work lately, and when that happens, I just lose the mood to write...... plus there were two deaths in my family in March and April.....one after another. That really made it worse for me. Totally lost the mood to write anything. My uncle died in March and my cousin brother died in April. Their death left a huge impact on me and I'm sure on to the rest of my family as well. I still can't believe that they've gone forever. They are in a better place now I'm sure...... :(

I started cycling again after almost a year I think......I'm not sure.....it's been so long since I last cycled. Both my feet hurt so bad since last year due to the eczema that I couldn't even walk properly let alone cycle. I started cycling again late last month and it's been wonderful. I haven't felt that way for so long. I just love cycling so much. I felt like fainting a few times when cycling though on the first day......I was out of breath and had to make a few stops to catch my breath and hydrate myself.

I had to deal with a psychotic little dog as well who would try to chase me every morning on my way to the cycling track. Sigh....not really sure what is it's problem though......perhaps the little bugger was just excited about me cycling again and was trying to cheer me on.....but since I don't understand dog language, the little bugger and I would misunderstand each other everyday. LOL! Kinda stressful thing to go through each morning but I won't give up cycling just because of that.

I wanted to briskwalk too......which I have done so on the treadmill we have at home. So twice a day I'll have my exercise done once in the morning and once in the evening. I definitely prefer to cycle in the mornings and briskwalk in the evenings.

So far I've lost a total of 8 kilograms of my weight since I started the special diet in February. I still can't believe I managed to do that. I can't believe how overweight I was before either. The illness was the cause of me gaining the weight......and now it is also the cause of me losing it. Sad but true.

I had to get myself a new pair of sport shoes for my terribly swollen feet.....I couldn't wear my old sport shoes anymore coz they won't be able to fit like before. I'm glad the new sport shoes worked out well and I was able to cycle with no problem at all and it didn't give me any pain while cycling.

I love cycling nearby a park at my neighbourhood coz the place is so beautiful.....so many old houses to look at that are still in good condition. I would make a few stops when cycling and take a few shots of things that interests me. The fresh morning air is wonderful since there are so many greens there.....so many big trees especially. The perfect place in Alor Setar for me. ;)