TRIP TO LAS VEGAS FROM 27TH TO 30TH OCTOBER

Well, this is our last stop of travel. It's Las Vegas.

This is the place for Gaming and Adult Entertainment.

I wanna to see why people are saying "What happened in Las Vegas stay with Las Vegas !!!"

The moment we landed at Las Vegas airport, I could see that people disappeared very fast either in their own transport or through shutter bus.

We did not rent car at this place. We stay in Flamingo Hotel which is just in the center of Strip of Las Vegas. Having 5 big luggage, Alan had to give tip to load & unload. ( Honestly, I am not in favor of giving tips- Don always give 20% of the bill amount and I hate it !!!!)

What appeared in my eyes were all kinds of Casino... Casino ......signage; There are huge buildings close to each other; some are joined with the overhead bridge to link to the hotel on the other side of the road.

This is my niece Sze Thien

This is really a shopping Paradise if you have $$$$$$


Some pics of Hotel around the strip


Venice in Las Vegas

Some beautiful Fine Art around building

A glance to the Casino

All the tall hotel buildings close to each other

CASINO !!!

Cloudy sky within the hotel building

The famous Tao Restaurant

We took our buffet dinner in this hotel - $22 per person

Donny & Marie Show in Flamingo. We could not get ticket to the show!

Flamingo Hotel : a cosy look of the room

Alan's 5 big luggage, 2 of which were their shopping stuff !!!

Before checking them in, we have to weigh at the airport to make sure they were each below 50lb to avoid paying extra charges of $50 per case !!

There are more to show about Las Vegas...........

To be continued !!!!

TRIP TO SAN FRANCISCO FROM 24TH TO 27TH OCTOBER 2008

We were flying from east to west of USA!

After a long flight ( 7 hours include 1 hr in transit ) from Tampa to San Francisco of California, it was almost 11 pm when we checked in the hotel.

The next morning, we went visiting various places; Aquarium of the Bay, Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, China Town and Trolley Ride. It was interesting to take cable car ride up and down the steep hill in the city as well as driving down the zip-zap road by car at Lombard Street.

The weather was cold when we reached the Golden Gate Bridge on the 2nd day. We were unable to see the whole bridge as it was very foggy. Hence, none of us was able to capture a good snap of the bridge. In the afternoon we went back to the bridge again ; the weather was still bad!

On the whole, San Francisco is an unique city to visit . There are lots of charming attractions and places to explore. We can see performers on the street. Tourists all over the world are crowed along the bay and the boardwalk. At pier 39, there are more than 100 of sea lions live in Dock K. They are huge, playful and nosiy.

One private owned sailboat at Pier 39

Our dinner at Pier Market Seafood Restaurant

Bread Bowl ( sour dough with creamy soup)

Salmon Teriyaki

Cioppino ( Alan loved this very much!)

Special Grill

Sweet & sour Calamari

Green Salad

Buffalo wing ( My favour)

Alan loved the foods at this restaurant that we went back for the last dinner before we left for Las Vegas .........

( to be continued)

OUR TRIP TO ORLANDO FROM 19th to 23rd OCTOBER 2008 WITH ALAN'S FAMILY

Alan & family arrived Orlando airport on 19th Oct from Toronto after being to Vancouver to visit his daughter Sze Xian then to Toronto to attend his son Dawang's Graduation Ceremony.

Ah Don organised the whole travel plan from booking flight, places to visit and places to stay at each stop . When we heard that they came with at least 3 big luggages, we have to upgrade car to a bigger SUV for transportation.

On 20th, we spent a day in Magic Kingdom. We lined from one ride to another when Fast Pass was not available. We were excited after each ride and adventure!! The most attractive events were the firework and the parade.

On 21st, we were at Epcot for the whole day. It was the day of seeing all the Cartoon characters, taking pictures & signatures; some ride,test track,etc

On 22nd, we spent another day in Universal studio where we continued to have fun and experience shooting of movie etc

This was the house we stayed in Orlando
& the rented car SUV for 6 passengers

Alan & Wife & Sze Thien in Magic Kingdom

You will see this only if you are lucky !! Time to pee!!!

Some parades in Disney World at night

We were having fun in race track

It's me !!!

Universal Studio

Epcot by Night

None of us dare to try this !!!

We came back to Sarasota on 23rd. Ah don stopped us at Prime Outlet mall. It was a crazy shopping day for Alan & family. Nike, Guess, shoes and 3 more luggages to add on !!:):)

On 24th, we took them to beach at Siesta Key, stopped a while in Women Exchange store to get some ideas of sales of used item by consignment; At 2 PM we have to rush to airport for departure to San Francisco !!!

( To be continued )

MY BROTHER & FAMILY WILL BE HERE!!

Yes! Yes! my youngest brother Alan, his wife and daughter Sze Thien will be coming to Orlando this coming Sunday. We will pick them up from airport at Orlando. We will be there for 4 days.


I am really excited and happy to see them here. Unfortunately, my niece Sze xian and nephew Dawang are unable to join us for the tour. My niece who is in the college is having exam and my nephew has to go for his medical appointment in Toronto.

We have included him in our trip to Orlando, San Francisco and Las Vegas. So , we have to cancel his flight all the way from Buffalo back to Vancouver. The flights involved virgin American, Delta Air line, US Airways and SouthWest Airlines

While talking with these airlines about the cancellation, I was surprised to find that one of the airlines imposed the penalty which is even more than the cost to the flight !!! STUDPID US Airways!! Only SouthWest Airlines offered credit for rebooking within 12 months without cancellation Fee!!!

I guess this is the price that we have to pay by taking the convenience to book online !!!

Anyway, that's is not a big issue! Most importantly, I hope Dawang's medical report will be a good one; In that case he still can catch up with us as soon as the test result is out !!

It was a long flight from Malaysia /Singapore to Canada /North America. It takes more than 20 hours in the plane. With the jet-leg and the different time zone, I am sure my brother find it hard to adjust his body for the first few days. When I talked to him last night, he told me he could not sleep !!! ha ha ha how could he sleep in his day time !!!

It's good for him to travel and rewind himself once in a while; he and my 3rd younger brother David have been working very hard to build their business. I am always proud of their success in business.

My DAUGHTER - LIEW SU-YEE

Just realized that I did not write anything in my blog for October ! Imagine how time flies......
My daughter is now 29 Years from YESTERDAY !!!

Here she is!!

I have missed celebrating her Birthday for the 3rd Year. Originally, I have the thought of going back in October so that I can celebrate the Birthday for her. Then, I have to defer my plan because, my youngest brother and the family are coming to Canada to attend my nephew Dawang's graduation ceremony in Toronto on 18th October; they left S'pore yesterday and will arrive Vancouver today to visit their Daughter Sze Xian, she is in the college.

After the ceremony, they will visit me ! I am so exciting and can't wait seeing them here! This is the 2nd time that they visit Canada & USA. The last trip was in September 2006. We took them to New York city and Atlantic City as well as the shopping spree at the Outlet mall and the Flea Market.

For this trip, we are planning to visit most of the attractions in Orlando, San Fransisco and Las Vegas.

Ok, let come back to my daughter's Birthday, I did not get her any Birthday Present yet. I thought of buying her a Video Camera but she declined because she said it is more convenient to get one with local warranty and also she does not need one. You know..... it is not easy to think about buying present for my daughter. But, one thing for sure and that I know is whatever come from Nike will suit her; that's why I am going to get her something from Nike. I can get my brother to pass to her when they return to Malaysia! .... hmmmm I can save the postage to top up the price of gift to her !

I sent her some e cards prior to 10.10. then followed with my creation of 15 slides of Birthday Cards in power point for her.

She is my little girl ......... though she has her own characters and personality, we do share some similarities - she is a self-disciplined and determined person just like ME !!!

Another similarity can be seen unless she changed her mind to speed up , otherwsie she is just like ME too -late marriage ... My first marriage was at my age of 30 going to 31. So, the questio is ........Is she going to get marry any earlier ???? Good question right !

I am very happy that she really have a good time for her birthday, I like to thank Alex and all her members & friends who made my daughter happy as ever before !!

For more information, go to her blog......http://su-yee.blogspot.com/

OUR PETS - PARAKEETS & FINCH

Now we have 3 birds in the house.

Parakeets - Named " Putera" & "Puteri"

Finch - Named " Whatever"

Side view of "Whatever"

New place for our pets

The Finch was a lovely and talkative bird when we bought it from an estate sale on 9/20/2008. We were then on our normal Garage Sale on Saturday. We wanted to find a bigger cage to house our 2 parakeets bought on 09/06/2008.

When it was about time for us to end our hopping around and went for lunch, an estate sale along the road caught my eyes. There were 2 bird cages placed outside the yard of a house near the traffic light. Don pulled the car to the side and I jumped straight to the house and asked the owner how much could I have the cage. He replied that the bird went with the cage. At my first glance, I thought I liked the cage but did not like the bird; next, I was not sure if I were able to keep another bird. So I left with disappointment.

While in the car, I kept thinking about the bird and the cage. Suddenly, there was an urge that I wanted to have the cage & the bird; I was figuring that I could exchange the finch's cage and & trade with that of Parakeets. Having such thought, I asked Don to reverse the car back to that house. When I returned there, the owner had left for lunch. I requested the other guy to reach his cell phone , which he did. without any further negotiation, he accepted my offered price !!

Now, since it was not a good idea to have our lunch and leave the bird in the car under the hot sun. oh yes, it was a super hot day! We went home right away.

In the car, we were discusiing what name to be given to this finch. It was friendly and making a lot of noise in the car. Being unable to give it a proper name so we simply named it " Whatever" !!! And this is in fact a nice name for the pet ! ha ha ha.

After our lunch, I cleaned the cage and transferred the parakeets to this bigger cage that belongs to "Whatever". It looked good since "whatever" is such a tiny bird ! But, ever since moving to the small cage, "Whatever" stopped singing. It was flying around and looking for an escape! "Whatever" was not happy in the small cage. He was crying instead of singing.......... :(:(:(:( This went on for nearly a week till he felt safe with us again. This happened the same to the parakeets. they were both unhappy and frightened in the new cage. I regretted for making such a quick change. I should have waited till such time that they are familiar with us.

Anyway, I am glad that they are friendly and happy again. Every morning I carry the cages to the patio while I do my exercise. They will sing and echo to other birds chirping in the woods. Watching them is such a fun!!!! They make me happy too!

Expert says>>>>>>>>> Keeping pet is good for seniors ....... So here I am .. ha ha ha ha....

DON'T WAIT TILL IT'S TOO LATE

I receive ArcaMax's newsletter everyday. Below is a letter from one reader to ABBY that I like to keep as Reminder ....Thing can happen any time when you are least aware ; we can be caught in a situation where we are totally unprepared. I do not want to be in a situation where I have to say something like this ......." I hope I can turn back the clock and let me do what I should do which I didn't or to undo what I have done with quilt "

I always remember my father's last word to my mother before he died in 1964, He told my mother to take care and love me more as he felt he did not love me as much as my other 2 sisters during his life time. (I knew the reason why .. because, I was very naughty in my teen and less smart than my 2 sisters! ). That last word changed my life. I became the queen of the house but that also turned me into a better person that deserved my mother extra care and love .

Here is the letter from the reader:

DEAR ABBY: I recently lost my wife to a long illness. When she could no longer work, I tried to give her the best quality of life I could. It took a toll. I worked long hours to give her everything she needed. The medical bills were astronomical. All she ever wanted was me. I was always the macho type, and "I love you" was always hard for me to say. (I'm a real tough guy.)

Well, this tough guy would give anything for one more chance to say it. She died so suddenly, it was like it wasn't real. For the first couple of weeks I threw myself into work and thought I could handle it. When the death certificate arrived in the mail, that's when I fell apart. I feel guilty because I was gone so much. I miss her terribly. Sometimes the loneliness is so bad it feels like someone is standing on my chest.

Abby, I would like to remind all the other macho guys out there that TIME is something you only get so much of. It is precious, but unfortunately, limited. I realized, too late, that it's not enough that my wife "knew" I loved her. I should have told her more often. I know now that "I wish I would have," "I know I should have," and "If I had just one more chance" are the worst things in the world to hear yourself say when it is already too late.

PLEASE tell your spouse you love her or him. You never know if the last time you say it might be the last time you get the chance. -- -- ( from ) TOO LATE IN TENNESSEE

REPLY FROM ABBY :

DEAR TOO LATE: Please accept my deepest sympathy for the death of your wife. Your letter makes clear the depth of the loss you are feeling. Although true lovers never get enough of each other, I am sure she understood the strain you were under and that you loved her. Readers, this gentleman's letter carries with it an important message.

"I love you" is the sweetest music a person can hear. Bouquets of flowers smell the sweetest when they are in the hands of the recipient, not stacked by her (or his) casket. And praise is most appreciated when it can be heard by the person who has earned it, not when it's recited in a eulogy after he or she has passed. So speak up now, before it truly is too late.

HELP !!!!

BYL is asking how much she can get in surviver benefits if she murders me !!!! OH MY GOSH !!! I cannot close my eyes or I might not wake up !!!!


H E L PPPPPPPP !!!!! Ha ! Ha! Ha!!!!!

WHAT A FEELING

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!

AH DON

FOR THE FEELING

& THE APPRECIATION

LOVE BYL

My Birthday

BYL has left out a few things about my B. D. that I thought I might mention.

The gifts I got were the phone, an 8gb Memory Stick for the phone, a couple of shirts, two pair of shorts and hair conditioner!!! These are all things I bought for myself a few days before my B. D. !!!

This is how BYL buys me gifts. Anything I buy prior to a special day she takes, hands it to me and says Happy ______. This is GREAT!! It means I get exactly what I want. I tease her about this but it does not bother me. I tease her that I have to buy my own gifts but then she reminds me of the golden rule: What is mine (Ah Don's) is hers and what is hers is hers!!! So, by this rule, whatever gifts I get she is buying and whatever gifts I buy for her she is buying !!! HA HA HA HA HA!!! Only a woman can take what seems obvious and turn it around to their advantage !!! HA HA!!!

On my B. D., I took BYL to the SGI Women's Meeting, then took her shopping for 3 hours, then had a nice late lunch early dinner, then took her home so she could rest, then I went grocery shopping and also bought my B. D. cake. Hmmm ... seems like these were mainly things for BYL !! ?? !! ?? Ha Ha Ha!

I kid about the things above but they do not bother me. There is a simple reason. Every day BYL gives me her kindness, caring and love !!! These are more precious than any other gift she could give me. I love BYL with my whole heart and am the luckiest man alive to have her love.

Thank you Beautiful Young Lady

AH DON'S BIRTHDAY

It was Ah Don's Birthday yesterday. He is 59Y +1 D today !

In this life, he will never have any chance to catch up with my age ! I am ahead of him in this race ! :):):)

It' really hard to think about what to buy for him for the birthday. So, whatever he bought for his personal use before his birthday, I claimed that as his Present from me. For this year, he has a new red Sony Ericsson W580i! cell phone..........And guess who paid for it ???? Ha ha ha....

In the morning, He sent me for the SGI Women meeting. He used to sit around for the meeting , So . I thought I could get the members to sing the Birthday Song for him but he left the meeting earlier as he could hardly hear the talk while the kids around were noisy.

After the meeting, we went for our lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. We ordered the Lobster & Shrimp Dip and Baby Back Ribs. For the joy of it, I ordered Cider Margarita. The foods were nice and the margarita was good. But, as soon as we walked out the restaurant, I became very tipsy. I thought it was nothing unusual but Ah Don insisted that I should take a rest and sent me home right away. Truly, I was flat right away on the couch!! And he went shopping for our weekly groceries alone. Poor Birthday Boy.

In the evening, there was a small cheese cake to mark his birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AH DON

WHAT A DAY ?

Can't imagine this could happen !!

When I woke up this morning, everything looked fine to me until when I about to go to the patio then only I realized that the back door was close but not locked !!! When I looked out, the door to the garage remained open too! It was left open since yesterday afternoon when I worked on something in the garage!

Thank god. Nothing happened!

Next, as usual, I like to place my shoes under the hot sun on Sunday. When there was a sudden downpour in the afternoon, all my shoes got wet!!

This is certainly not a good day when Ah Don is not around ! :(:(:( Because, he is the last one to close the door and will help me put away the shoes if he sees the rain coming !

Nevertheless, I did have a good evening to watch the whole show of "Coco Chanel". I was unable to find the Lifetime channel for this movie last night. By the time I found it, it was almost towards the end of the movie. Luckily, there was a replay at 7 pm this evening . I liked this show. I enjoyed her character and admire her creativeness, innovation and persevere attitude.

PRAYER

I was watching a lifetime movie up to 12 Midnight last night. Thought I could wake up late this morning. But, an unknown call woke me up at 8 o'clock!

Ah Don left for Misshawaka, Indiana yesterday morning to visit his eldest sister. She has been discharged from the hospital to rest at the nunnery home; It is sad to hear that her condition is not encouraging.

On the other hand, my eldest sister has to go for her second operation yesterday due to some complication after the first operation. My daughter called me this morning to update.her condition. It's a relief to hear that her operation went fine.

This is why any calls that ring anytime is overwhelming to me.

As I am unable to visit either one of them, all I can do is to keep chanting to my Gohonzon and send them abundant daimuku to get well as soon as possible.

NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO

"A STRONG PRAYER TO THE GOHONZON IS CERTAIN TO BE REALIZED!"

THERE ARE THREE CONDITIONS,HOWEVER:

NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO,

NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO AND MORE NAM-MYOHO-RENGE-KYO

****************************************************

MY LIFE MY PHOTOS

I like to collect my photos. They are good to trace back my look in the past . From them I see how I matured "progressively" over years. They also enable me to visualize my look in another 5 years or 10 years . I don;t want to assume my look over the age of 75 because I really don't want to to live that long !

It is funny but true. I always have this idea - if the time is up for me, I like to die peacefully and beautifully. That's why I like to leave more pictures for my love one to have memory of me when I am gone.

Hey, please do not think that I want to end my life with the above thinking. It is merely something in my mind if I have the choice to choose how & when to die beautifully !!!!.

But why did I have the thinking ?

Well. let me tell you honestly,! I am very scare to suffer from pain due to sickness more so if I am unable to look after myself and need to be served!

I always admire those people who have the strong will and spirit to fight against their sickness or overcome their disability to become strong again.

Since I don;t have this kind of fighting spirit , the only choice for me to prevent the suffering. Hence, I choose to keep my health manageable by doing exercise and going for natural healing and remedy.

My goodness! Why did I bring up this topic???? I thought, I just want to keep some Pics in my blog ....


Anyway, this is just a "Play Play " only ! haha ha ha....

FINALLY WE HAVE THE PETS!!!

This afternoon, after our lunch at one of the Chinese & Japanese restaurants, we thought of getting some household items from the nearby store. It ended up we went into Petsland to look at pets on sale. I have always wanted to keep some birds eversince we are not allowed to have cat. For this reason, we bought a nice cage sometime ago just waiting for the right bird to house in !

There were several lovely puppies selling at 50% off the normal price just for today; but they are not for me even though I love to have them. I love all animals. There were some lovely and talkative parrots that could be touch and hold. Their prices were ranging from $1,299.00 to $2,499.00.!!!!

On the other side of these expensive birds, there were these cute little "parakeets" in green, yellow , blue and grey colors. Some 30 Nos of them were playing and hopping about. I was very attracted by them. I stood and looked at them for a long time . Then, I noticed 2 grey and blue birds were very loving to each other. I wanted to have them !!! So, we bought the couple home !!

I named then " Putera" and Puteri" . In Malay, it means, "Prince" and "Princess"

I took their first Picture.......... I hope we can train them to talk in future ..... meanwhile, I have to learn how to take care of them. From what I read from the Internet, it said we must treat them like a 3 years old toddler !!! I bet, for sure they are ! They are my babies !!

LISTEN TO MY BODY & UNWELCOMING AUGUST

It was just one of those days that I could have stressed myself with work or have strained my eyes too much on the pc that I felt so sleepy and tired last night. I went to bed before 10 o'clock!. It had been a long long time that I did not go to bed this early!

Guess my body is sending this alarming reminder that I do need more rest!!

**************************************************************

The month of August 2008 wasn't a good month in my record.

First of all, we were threatened by the news that Tropical Storm Fay would hit here on the 19th and that Sarasota was under " Hurricane Watch" Thanks God, Fay did not make a landfall here so nothing happened ! But, it's a good for us to learn something about how to handle the situation if it happens.

Secondly, with the recent change of the Phone Provider to our office's phone system, we encountered various complications and interruptions after the installation. The communication system was down for several times in a week. Ah Don has to provide temporary connection or transfer the machines to ensure the main line was available for the communication. I would say this is the worse phone company I came across. Their management team is so inadequate and irresponsible. They did not make an effort to provide us with solution. Since we are providing IVR system for clinical study and involved randomizing of subjects throughout the world, we could not afford to lose the connection at any hour of the day and night. So Ah Don has to go back to the office during the weekends to check the servers and machine to ensure that they were working fine. As a result, I missed 2 weeks of outing to Garage sale!!!

Thirdly, I received a news from home that my eldest sister was undergoing a major operation in Sunway Medical Center in Malaysia. She has to be closely monitored by doctor in the ICU for few days. This was certainly not a good news. I was told that prior to this, she suffered severe pain to her body. She has gone down so much because she could not eat for 2 weeks. She was weak and could not walk up right. It hurt to hear that she has to go through this kind of suffering; the worse of it is nobody is able to relieve her pain except the pain killer. I am very sad about this !! But, it's exciting to hear that she is progressing and recovering faster than expected after the operation. My niece Yee Mei told me that her Christian friends all over the world are praying for her good health. I am sure the prayer is positively answered for her . I will make a trip home before end of this year or during the Chinese New Year to see her. Meanwhile, my niece and my daughter are updating me on her progress everyday.

Coincidentally. we also got another bad news that Ah Don's eldest sister was admitted to ICU for intensive care due to her existing and unknown medical complication. It has been a while that I heard about her poor health that trouble her on and off over the last few years. She has been confined to wheelchair for sometime. I met her once in May 2008 when we joined the celebration of her 50th anniversary as nun in Indiana. She looked good and cheerful at that time. I pray and hope that she will get well soon so that Mom does not have to travel up and down visiting and worrying about her. Thanks to Sharon for the update on her progress of treatment. as well as keeping Mom accompanied for the hard time. Due to our work commitment, we are yet be able to visit her.

So, those were the bad and unwelcoming experience in August. However, there are something remarkable and significant for record here.

Of course... we are talking about the grand success of the Olympic Games hosted by China in Beijing . It was the best ceremony event that I have even seen on TV. I am proud that China was able to organise such a wonderful and remarkable event in this world event. China Boleh !

Another thing to note is the date of 08.08.08 - this is certainly the most wonderful & special day for people to mark and celebrate their special occasions. Thousands of Chinese couple tied their knots on this day.

Hmmm ... this makes me wonder which day would my daughter pick if she decided to tie the knot one day !

We are waiting , waiting ........