Nothing is impossible!!

When someone tells you that you can ' t do something...



Look around...



Consider all options...



Then GO for it!



Use all the things God gave you!




Be creative!



In the end, you will succeed and prove them wrong!



"Nothing is impossible, if your heart is willing"

"Have A Winning Life"

Source:
www.abunawas.com

Beautifully Imperfect

Yasmin Ahmad. Does that ring a bell?

Perhaps you have seen her commerciala for PETRONAS on television on different festive occasions like this:



Yasmin films such as Rabun (My Failing Eyesight) (2003), Sepet (Chinese Eye) (2004)
and Gubra (Anxiety) (2006) have been screened at major international film festivals and have won her praises and numerous international prizes.

In Yasmin's films and commercials, negative events or sensitive issues can be turned into positive lessons.



Recently, Yasmin Ahmad has done commercials for Singapore's Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports with a "Think family" theme.

The advertisement, which debuted on television in Singapore last Sunday, is set at a funeral, depicts an interracial marriage and talks about bodily functions. And the eulogy at the funeral is both funny and touching.



Here's another of Yasmin commercials for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Spore:

Morning Town Ride - The Seekers

LOMBOK: A Touch of the East

What better idea to furnish and decorate your home with products sourced from the East and made from materials that originate from Southeast Asia such as silk, rattan, vines, hyacinth fibres, bamboo and teak wood.

An online store, Lombok, offers to give an ambience of the mystical east by bringing the eastern flavour to home furnishings and accessories for homeowners worldwide.



Log basket

Most of the products are furniture made of teak wood (including reclaimed teak) which are transformed into a unique traditional and classic look while reclaimed teak gives them a colonial and old antique style.

One furniture I would like to highlight is the round dining table. The round dining table is common in home as well as traditional coffee shops across Southeast Asia, especially in the past. It gives an inviting accent to the dining room area. However, round dining table in Southeast Asia often comes with marble top or with glass top overlaying the wood.



One good thing about Lombok is that you have a varieties of choices to choose from. When it comes to lamp shades, you can have different designs made from different materials like taffeta silk, tussar silk, dupoin silk, satin, linen/ramie and so forth.








Or for laundry baskets, you can choose those made from rattan, jungle string or hyacinth fibres and they are done meticulously with fine craftmanship.








Despite having sourced the products from South East Asia, there are little products with ethnically inspiring designs unique to the region.

Few of the products are indigenously unique but the bamboo oil lamp holder is one of them.



For instance candle stands can be made from Sarawak pottery. These Sarawak potteries are with motifs that is the result of Chinese and indigenous designs which are cleverly combined. Such Sarawak pottery was once on display at Harrods in London.





There are also plentiful of fabrics or weavings such as songket and ikat with unique style and patterns from throughout Southeast Asia, particularly from Borneo that can be used for cushion covers, table runners, lamp shades and the likes.

Cityscape of Kuching

Multi lingual Road Signs

Sarawak is a land blessed with abundance and diversity. Ours is a land rich in natural resources. Whilst the diversity of flora and fauna is among the highest in the world and a treasure trove, the diversity of her peoples is equally unrivalled and also amongst its greatest wealth.

Caption: Jalan College or College Road. Jalan is a Malay work for Road. College is an English word and it is the name for the road leading to the Batu Lintang Teachers' College, a premier institution from the British colonial days.

From the multi-ethnic diversity, we have richness in cultures and languages. Perhaps the richest of them all is tolerace among its many races.

Caption: Lorong Foochow 1N or Foochow Lane 1N. Foochow is a South Chinese dialect group which migrated to Sarawak at the turn of last century under a scheme proposed by Rajah Charles Brooke, the Second Rajah. The lane is nicely labelled in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese.

The beauty of Sarawak is often reflected and exemplified by the road signs in multi-languages in all the major towns. Such beauty is unsurpassed elsewhere in Malaysia or Southeast Asia and should be zealously guarded by all Sarawakians.

Sarawakians need to treasure such thing around us and not take it for granted.

Cave Endemic as Indoor Plant

Limestone hills at Bau near to Kuching, Sarawak

Limestone hills offer many microhabitats and niches such as open rocky surfaces, drip lines, cave interior, etc. As such, many different kind of plants have evolved and adapt to the different niches. As a result, many limestone plant species are endemic – meaning restricted in distribution to a particular area and no where else in the world.

In Sarawak, limestone hills are mostly found in Kuching and Miri region. Limestone plants are difficult and problematic to establish and grow because they require basic (high pH) substrate or soil, are slow growing and seeds are difficult to germinate because they might require unique and specific mycorrhizae fungi.

I have the opportunity to collect and grow Begonia from Bau limestone cave as indoor plant. Cave plants make ideal and good indoor plants because they need low light intensity.

Here I will share how I establish the limestone cave begonia which I have grown for three years now.

First of all, choose limestone rock of a suitable size.

Next, collect begonia from limestone caves. Try to collect the plants together with the natural substrate or soil in the vicinity of the plants.

Then place the begonia together with the substrate on the limestone rock.

Place the limestone rocks in a container filled with water. The capillary action will pull the water up the limestone rocks. This will help to establish a limestone cave-like habitat as the cave is always everwet with water dripping.

Such method of establishing limestone plants can be used for artificial limestone landscape in your garden or on walls. A mist fan or mist-forming nozzle can be added to create the cave ambience.