When engineers make Ketupat

Ahh...don't you just love the details engineers put into things you thought were plain simple.


Malaysia's Ketupat

The Ketupat - type of rice dumpling or rice cake - is one of the popular Malay delicacies that have been listed as heritage food in Malaysia. The Ketupat, when translated in English, is literally a made from glutinous rice.

It’s usually wrapped in a triangular shape using the leaves of the fan palm Licuala. Wrapped in a pouch of woven palm leaves, is then boiled for hours. As the rice cooks, the grains expand to fill the pouch and the rice becomes compressed into soft cakes.

In Malaysia, Ketupat is also traditionally served by Malays at open houses on festive occasions such as Idul Fitri (Hari Raya Aidilfitri).

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri from The Green Mechanics
Kota Kinabalu,
25 June 2017

Credit to: (i)Hollidays in malaysia - click for more info

(ii)Anonymous - for the image/drawing (via whatsap)

Disclaimer:
The copyright owner of the image may come forward to identify that this image is theirs and that in no circumstances should be publish unless otherwise stated, to which the administrator  shall be obliged to remove such image from the website.

My wish is to become a smart phone

Received this and I tought I should share it for this generation and for the generation to come. Read and see what you make of it. Nothing was changed from the original text.

Sad but true

A teacher after the dinner she started checking homework done by the students. Her husband is strolling around with a smart phone playing his favourite game 'Candy Crush Saga'.

When reading the last note, the wife starts crying with silent tears.

Her husband saw this and asked, 'Why are you crying dear?

What happened?'

Wife: 'Yesterday I gave homework to my 1st Standard students, to write something on topic -My Wish-.

'Husband: 'OK, but why are you crying?

'Wife: 'Today while checking the last note, it makes me cry.

'Husband curiously: 'What's written in the note that makes you cry?

'Wife: 'Listen'

My wish is to become a smart phone.

My parents love smart phone very much.

They care for smart phone so much that sometimes they forget to care for me.When my father comes from office tired, he has time for smart phone but not for me.

When my parents are doing some important work and smart phone is ringing, within single ring they attend to the phone, but not me even...even if I am crying.

They play games on their smart phones not with me.When they are talking to someone on their smart phone, they never listen to me even if I am telling something important.

So, My wish is to become a smart phone.

After listening the note husband got emotional and asked the wife, 'who wrote this?'.

Wife: 'Our son'.

Gadgets are beneficial, but they are for our ease not to cease the love amongst family and loved ones.

Children see and feel everything what happens with & around them. Things get imprinted on their mind with an everlasting effect. Let's take due care, so that they do not grow with any false impressions.

Source: anonymous 

GST rates of other countries and Malaysia's compared

IThe final countdown is on. By April 1, 2015 we will join the 90% of the world's population to 'enjoy' the much debated Good and Services Tax.

The concept of GST (Goods and Services Tax) - not to be mistaken for the current Government Sales and Service Tax, GST - was invented by a French tax official in the 1950s. In some countries it is known as VAT, or Value-Added Tax.

Today, more than 160 nations, including the European Union and Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Singapore and China practice this form of taxation. Roughly 90% of the world's population live in countries with VAT or GST.

Here are some of the tax rates of countries around the world who have implement GST or VAT:

Table 1: Selected nations around Malaysia and other Commonwealth countries.

Do I agree with implementation of GST in Malaysia?

It doesn't matter. Really. What I agree or disagree is not important; it is going to happen regardless.

I have this to say though:-

To the people who manage the tax money we pay: Just be prudent, transparent with the expenses. Put the money to good use. 

To fellow consumers: If you think tax is bad, then you should also be against the current taxation system, especially individual tax. No one want to pay tax, right. Me included.

But since it is legal requirement, we might as well share the burden. All of us

Malaysia is number 1 for mobile Internet access

This would give you an indication of mobile device usage in this country.

A study conducted by TNS which includes more than 150,000 interviews across 56 countries on consumers' online behaviour shows that Malaysia is 1 out of only 5 places in the world where smartphone usage has outstripped computers.

The 5 countries where smartphone usage has outstripped computers are:

The study found that in Malaysia, 35% of the users surveyed said that they exclusively use their smartphones and no other device to access the Internet, making Malaysia the #1 country in the world when it comes to smartphone Internet access exclusivity.

The same high smartphone adoption pattern stretched across the rest of the Asia Pacific region with many of the countries above the 50% adoption mark. Even countries that traditionally have lagged behind have registered significant growth like Vietnam at 36%, up 16 percent from 2013.


Apart from Malaysia, the only smartphone-only Internet access was true for other Asian countries:

Vietnam: 24%
Singapore: 16%
South Korea: 14%
Hong Kong: 14%

In the Western world this trend is a single-digit one, e.g. Germany is at 7%, and the UK at 6%.


Search engines

Using search engines on smartphones is ubiquitous. 72% of Malaysians do this at least once a month, and the figures are even higher in the rest of Asia  - Singapore: 88%, Vietnam: 92%, Korea: 99%, Japan: 91%. This is a global trend with the UK, France and Germany all reporting figures of 88%.

On internet penetration 

Malaysians have at least 1.2 Internet-enabled devices, which underlines the importance of the multi-screen trend: using more than one device to achieve a task, or using devices simultaneously.

"This research clearly shows that Asian consumers have taken charge of the internet, and are shaping it in their own image - Malaysians are at the forefront of this trend, using their mobile devices to access news, look for local businesses and watch videos." - Sajith Sivanandan, MD, Google Malaysia.

- Source: CW Malaysia

A house with rooms that turn 90-degree

Been itchy to blog for a long time now, and the slow pace in the implementation of the RE and the never ending power supply issues here seem to flame this urge even more. But the semester is busy and blogging has to take the back seat for now.

Anyway, this popped up in my 'green stuff' email subscription recently. Apparently, in the name of efficiency and adaptability, some innovative architects in Iran came up with weather defying house design: A house with 90^o rotating rooms. How about that for creativity.


Rotate your room according to the sun position, season or for functional requirement. Photo sourced from archdaily.


Called the Sharifi-ha House, it is a seven-floor house in Tehran with three rectangular rooms that can rotate up to 90^o in accordance with the season. The design was inspired by Iranian mansions that had separate living rooms for both summer and winter.

When extended outward, the spaces offer each floor its own terrace. The rooms serve a functional purpose as well - the lowest is a breakfast area, the middle a home office and the top was planned as a guest room.

How it work

The owner is importing CNC and other similar industrial German machines, and the structural system is to be fabricated in Germany. This custom CNC-machined mechanisms functions like the turntables used at auto shows.

"In summertime, Sharifi-ha House offers an open/transparent /perforated volume with wide, large terraces. In contrast, during Tehran’s cold, snowy winters the volume closes down, offering minimal openings and a total absence of those wide summer terraces." - archdaily

Source: If you are interested, there is extensive details here at archdaily.

Farmer builds space shuttle and rocket on his roof!

About two years ago I posted a couple of interesting pictures of a 'missile' on a roof top I saw at Wired Aperture. It was actually a dismantled fighter plane oil tank that a man in Yantai (China) turned into a solar water heater for his home. The man's wife said her husband found the tank in a pile of iron scrap at a local recycling station.

This time, also in China, a farmer build a giant 'space shuttle and rocket' on his roof top.


Huang Yuzhan spent more than a year building the 7m high rocket and 3.8m high shuttle.


Realizing his childhood dream

He had always dreamed about building his own space shuttle ever since being a child. But while most people would give up such an ambition as impractical, this Chinese farmer could just not let the dream go.

Mr Yuzhan spent more than a year building the 7m high rocket and 3.8m high shuttle at his home in Xiapu village, in southern China's Guangdong Province. The rocket, complete with two boosters on either side, is now a prominent feature of the Xiapu skyline, rising high above the surrounding buildings.

Not really a 'giant' structure as claimed by Daily Mail

The impressive structure, which appears to be made of ceramic tile, sits proudly on the top of the farmer's house. Earlier this week, Daily Mail reported on former Chinese military man Jian Lin, who built a fully functioning replica of the People's Liberation Army's Type 63A light tank, featuring a cannon that actually fires.



Mr Yuzhan had always dreamed about building his own space shuttle ever since being a child


You can read further about this and see more pics at The Daily Mail.


TheGreenMechanics: That's one pretty cool hobby and imagination put into reality.

Malaysia's richest people in 2014

Here is a bit of a source of motivation for the weekend. Not just the amount of cash we are talking about, but the story behind their wealth.

The 10 richest people in Malaysia is listed below, and for a complete narration about the privileged few, head on to Forbes website.





Billionaire Robert Kuok once again led the list of the richest people in Malaysia for the ninth time in a row with a fortune of US$11.5 billion, down US$1 billion from last year.

According to the latest list of Malaysia's richest person by Forbes, Kuok has led the pack since 2006 when Forbes began ranking the richest Malaysians.

Source: www.astroawani.com

Invisible skyscraper? Yes, it's possible and South Korea is building one!

If you once thought constructing an invisible skyscraper was impossible, think again. You may not see something like the Invisible Man, but, yeah that's the idea.


GDS Architects aims to provide the world's first invisible tower, representing the Power of Absence and the Strength of "Nothingness". Image: GDS Architects


According to a recent press release, US-based GDS Archictects will be building an invisible 450m tower in Seoul, South Korea, a first of its kind to be ever built. To give you an idea, the skyscraper, called Infinity Tower, is slightly taller than our own Kuala Lumpur Tower which stands at 421m high.


How it works. This concept image shows how the LEDs will work to make the tower seem invisible. Image: GDS Architects


Michael Collins, Director at GDS, says the tower will boast the third highest observation deck in the world and will use a sophisticated LED façade system with optical cameras to create the illusion of invisibility.

The building will feature a significant amount of clear glass with open floor plans, allowing visitors to look down multiple levels. There are plans to make the skyscraper a mega billboard where advertisements and special screenings are expected to be broadcasted across its surface.

The tower is also set to include a water park, movie theaters and restaurants, making it a truly unique multipurpose building.

No completion date has been set yet, but when completed, it's expected to come in 6th on the list of the world's highest towers, behind Tokyo SkyTree, Guangzhou's CantonTower, Toronto's CN Tower, Moscow's Ostankino Tower and Shanghai's Oriental Pearl.

Without a doubt it will become one of the great attractions in Seoul.


Complete article and more pictures at NDTV

World’s slowest moving drop caught on camera after 13 years!

It took them 13 years to finally capture on camera a single drop of the world's slowest-moving drop - a bitumen, or asphalt drop. That's very very slow, but it sure moves.

No wonder, you find the tarred road moving a little bit after few years, and it moves much faster than 13 years due to the vehicular weight it is holding on a daily basis.

Exactly how this experiment can benefit mankind, I don't know but for the sake of reading, here it goes:


Fall of a drop of tar pitch caught on camera for the first time. Image source: Discovery News


Slowest drop caught on camera

The second-longest running science experiment in history has just yielded its strange result: a sticky, black drop of pitch.

Set up in 1944 at Trinity College Dublin, the experiment is meant to reveal the strange properties of bitumen -- pitch, or asphalt -- which appears solid at room temperature but is in fact flowing very, very slowly.

At around 5 o'clock in the afternoon on July 11, 2013, physicist Shane Bergin and colleagues recorded what Nature described as one of the most eagerly anticipated and exhilarating drips in science.

“We were all so excited,” Bergin told Nature. “It’s been such a great talking point, with colleagues eager to investigate the mechanics of the break, and the viscosity of the pitch.”

The Trinity College team estimates the pitch to be about 2 million times more viscous than honey, or 20 billion times the viscosity of water.

The origin of the experiment is lost in history, although a similar experiment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, set up in 1927, is tagged by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest running lab experiment.


More details, go to Nature News

World's first Test-tube beef burger unveiled

A different (or should I say odd) way of making meat, I doubt I'd ever want to replace the beef in my burger with one.

Besides, meat may not even be an accurate name for it. If you think it has potential to become 'meat', it must have greater nutritional value than its predecessor. Nah, I'll stick to my real beef burger, for now.

Fancy a test-tube burger? Image credit: Discovery news

World's first test tube burger tasted in London

Early this week, Scientists unveiled the world's first lab-grown beef burger, serving it up to volunteers in London in what they hope is the start of a food revolution.

The 140-gram (about five-ounce) patty, which cost more than 250,000 euros (RM1.08 million) to produce, has been made using strands of meat grown from muscle cells taken from a living cow. Mixed with salt, egg powder and breadcrumbs to improve the taste, and colored with red beetroot juice and saffron, researchers claim it will taste similar to a normal burger.

A volunteer said he was expecting the texture to be more soft, adding it was close to meat but not as juicy.


How it is made

Cells are taken from organic cows and placed in a nutrient solution to create muscle tissue. The cells then grew into small strands of meat, 20,000 of which were required to make the burger. Although it is very expensive, the costs of cultured beef are likely to fall as more is produced and scientists claim it could be available in supermarkets within 10 to 20 years.

"Our burger is made from muscle cells taken from a cow. We haven't altered them in any way. For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hopefully taste like the real thing."
- Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands.


TheGreenMechanics: A very expensive burger, but time will tell if human will eventually shift to eating such edible as we run out of food.


Read the full article here.

How many cows can you fit in a Wira?

Answer: 3
And they were to be joined by 3 other passengers (or rather thieves).

The equally burning question would probably be "How do you put 3 cows in a Wira?"
To which the thieves would perhaps answer : "Open the boot, shove the cows in, and close it!"


But this is no joke. It really happened. Read on to find out....


In you go! The thieves managed to put in one of the cows in the boot. Photo credit: The Star


Thieves tried but failed in their attempt

BUKIT MERTAJAM: After knocking out three cows using tranquillisers, three men shoved the animals into a Proton Wira in Sungai Lembu here in their grand theft plan.

The thieves, in their 20s, had used a blowpipe to sedate the animals, which were fenced up in an oil palm estate, at about 1am on Friday.

A witness, who declined to be identified, said he saw the thieves struggling to put the unconscious cows into the car which was without the backseat. He quickly alerted the voluntary patrol unit in the area.

At the same time, one of the three men had gotten into the car and driven away, while the other two hopped onto two motorcycles and followed from behind.

“As they were about to reach the main road, the patrol unit arrived and tried to stop them.

“The driver rushed out of the car and hopped onto one of the motorcycles and fled,” he added.

Villagers later took about three hours to free the dazed cows from the car.

A police spokesman said the cattle owner had lodged a report, adding that the three men were suspected to be involved in other cattle theft cases in the area.


Source: The Star Online

Interesting street-view of Shanghai

There are many places of interest in the busy city of Shanghai and it is totally unfair to force yourself to visit all of them in a span of just one or two days. A four- or five-day tour would be more like it.

I asked our host what is the population of Shanghai and was told that it's currently about 24 million. Compare this to Malaysia's (the whole country) 29 million people and you get the idea how condensed people are in the big city.

The followings are some of the not-so-glamorous selection of street photos during our visit:-

They say you miss the Oriental Pearl Tower and you've missed Shanghai. I tend to agree.

It maybe a modern city but there's nothing wrong capping a skyscraper with a piece of history.

Taxi drivers are in a 'cage' of their own, well protected. I think this is a good one to emulate.

This bear glass has Arabic wordings on it. I don't understand what is written there but it somehow feels awkward.[BTW, I don't drink]

In Shanghai, 'honking' seem to be the way of communication and you'll hear pretty much (or rather, too much) of them everywhere. So, that sign up there is necessary sometimes.

Ran out of idea for a catchy website name? Try numbers. They are unique, too.

Minimalist. An umbrella could be your taxi-stand shade when needed.

Smart idea - A trader using solar panel to power up his photo kiosk at The Bund. It costs you RMB20 to RMB40 per 8" frame.

Some people like the idea of a limousine as their wedding car

while...some prefer to wait for the taxi

UFO spaceship ready to 'sail' on Huangpu River? No, that's Mercedes-Benz Arena, the auto giant's show centre.

And...finally my favourite - Solar-powered road signage. It's cool and I like it.

Stay tuned. A posting of a different kind of captures will follow soon.

World's largest solar-powered boat sails to study climate change

Name           : MS Tûranor PlanetSolar , Owner : PlanetSolar
Builder         : Knierim Yachtbau, Kiel, Germany
Cost             : €15 million
Launched     : 31 March 2010

Length           : 31 m (35 m with flaps)
Beam            : 15 m (23m with flaps)
Propulsion     : 2 Permanent Magnet Synchronous Electrical Motors - 60kW each (max) @ 1600 rpm
                      2 Permanent Magnet Synchronous Electrical Motors - 10kW each (max) @ 1000 rpm
Speed           : 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)  - maximum
                       7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph) - cruising

MS Tûranor PlanetSolar is the largest solar-powered boat in the world.

In a mission to study the Gulf Stream

NEW YORK: The world's largest fully solar-powered boat, Turanor PlanetSolar, docked in New York on June18, 2013 during a mission to study the effects of climate change on the Gulf Stream current.

Sponsored in part by the Swiss government, the 35-metre (115-foot) catamaran is crowned with solar panels that retract in port but open like a bird's wings to take best advantage of the sun's rays when at sea. Weighing in at 90 tonnes, it travels at an average five knots.

The ship set sail from La Ciotat in France just over two months ago. And since it has made stops including the southeastern US city of Miami on its information gathering mission on climate change and the Gulf current.

"I myself live in Brittany, west of France, and we are very worried. We all know that if the Gulf Stream changes, even a little bit, our climate will deteriorate quiet a lot."
- Gerard d'Aboville, the boat's French captain.

The Gulf Stream sends a huge mass of warmer water from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic, giving Atlantic Europe a relatively temperate climate for its l

It also keeps areas it crosses in the Americas, such the West Indies, from being excessively arid.

PlanetSolar will be cruising through August with stops planned in Boston, Newfoundland, Iceland and Norway.

"Our goal is to understand the complex interactions between physics, biology and climate ... to refine climate simulation," said Martin Beniston of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva. - AFP


Image credit: Fievet/AFP via Designyourrust

The Miracle Pine in Japan

While flying on Malaysia Airlines today, I saw this on its inflight magazine and I thought it's worth sharing. I have little doubt that, if we have one here, it would definitely be a popular spot for the superstitious four-digit punters.


The Miracle Pine. Image: Malaysia Airlines - Going Places


Proud Pine

Of the 70,000 trees that once stood in the old forest of Rikuzentakata in the Iwaya Prefecture of Honshu, only one was left standing after the earthquake of Mar 2011. The sole survivor was nicknamed the 'Miracle Pine', though it succumbed to toxic salinity levels deposited in the soil a year later.

But now it has risen again anew, in the form of a sculpture - the Miracle Pine Project - marking the second anniversary of the disaster.

Using plastic moulds of the pine tree's trunk and branches, and steel needles for the leaves, the 1.4 tonne sculpture is anchored exactly where the original tree stood, which during its life survived not just one, but three devastating tsunamis.


Reference: MAS Going Places - June 2013

First woman in space ready for 'one-way flight to Mars'

When you've achieved everything you've wanted in life, you'd stop at nothing to fulfill 'self-actualisation' in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Not even death will get in your way.

This seems to be what Russia's Valentina Tereshkova is doing: she's ready to make a risky trip to Mars and is prepared to accept the possibility that she may not be coming back to earth in one piece.

Risky trip to the Red Planet

Russia's Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to go to space, said on Friday she was ready to score another coup and fly to Mars, even if it would be just a one-way trip.

"Mars is my favourite planet," the 76-year old told a news conference in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City) outside Moscow, home to a cosmonaut training centre.

Tereshkova, who became a national heroine at the tender age of 26 when she made a solo space flight in 1963, said she had been part of the group who studied the possibility of going to the Red Planet.

"But we know the human limits. And for us this remains a dream. Most likely the first flight will be one way. But I am ready," she said.

Under the call sign Chaika (Seagull), Tereshkova during her three-day mission circled the Earth 48 times, her flight becoming a major propaganda coup for the Soviet Union.

On June 16, Russia will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tereshkova's historic flight.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to space.


Source - AFP

Two Malaysians among World's 100 richest

While it is none of mine and your business to know their wealth, it is good to just get some inspiration to know who make it to the top of the chart financially. Among the many billionaires listed by Forbes magazine recently we have two Malaysians in the top ten.

Tables: Net worth calculated March 2013.

World's richest - mostly from United States

According to Forbes rich list, Robert Kuok remains Malaysia's richest person with a fortune of US$12.5 billion (RM39 billion). His holdings include the Shangri-La Hotels, Kerry Properties and the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-language newspaper.

Malaysia's richest (Top 10 with two of them in the world's 100 richest persons)

Source: Forbes

Broken goal during Africa Nations Cup match

Spurs striker Adebayor scored as Togo send Algeria packing in a group match of the Africa Nations Cup 2013 yesterday. That's why he was missed in the Tottenham Hotspurs - Manchester United BPL game last week as they were held to a 1-1 draw.

But that's not the talking point here. It's about the broken goal post during the Africa Nations Cup match that baffled many. Amazing!

Can you imagine watching international level football tournament and the goal frame is broken?

Image: video grab from Eurosport

Broken goal holds up Nations Cup clash

RUSTENBURG, South Africa (Reuters) – The African Nations Cup match between Algeria and Togo on Saturday descended into late farce when a player’s weight caused the goal frame to break.

In scenes familiar in junior football on park pitches on Sunday mornings, one of the goals started to lean over and had to be taken down and fixed, causing a 13-minute delay with the match poised at 1-0 to Togo.

The goal frame started leaning out of shape in the 86th minute after Algeria midfielder Adlene Guedioura hauled himself on to the netting in frustration after another attempt on goal came to nothing.

Play continued for a few moments until Madagascan referee Hamada Namplandraza noticed something was wrong, setting off the delay as a possee of men tried to fix it by holding the leaning post upright.

They then removed the whole goal frame as bemused players and 20,000 spectators watched on.

"The stoppage helped us to score our second goal," said Togo goalkeeper Kossi Agassa after Dove Wome wrapped up the match shortly after the resumption of play with a neatly taken goal.

Stadium manager Gary Parker-Nance said the staff involved were left with little option but to replace the goal frame.

"The bottom of the stantion was broken and had to be replaced. At times like that you just have to get it fixed, keep calm and do it as quickly as you can," he said.

To complete the farce, instead of playing out the last four minutes and whatever stoppage time there was, Namplandraza added an extra 16 minutes to the match.

What's for dinner: Zimbabwe's mopane worms!

I read an interesting stomach-turning diet coverage by Associated Press' Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi. The writer wrote about people consuming worms, or to be exact, caterpillars. But like what people say - one's cure is other's poison. so, let's not pass the verdict indiscriminately.

That's for today's dinner. Wikipedia photo

Pretty big guy!

Mopane worms are large edible caterpillar found in much of Africa.

A mopane worm hatches and as it grows, it sheds skin 4 times in its five larval stages, after which the mopane worm is considered most suitable for harvesting.

Otherwise it goes into pupal stage and transforms into giant moth, commonly called emperor moth due to it size.

The worms can be eaten dry, as crunchy as potato chips, or cooked and drenched in sauce to enhance the taste.


You may want to try your hands on these:

During harvest season, the compounds are covered with thousands of worms, laid out to dry in the hot sun. AP photo through mail.com


Nutritional value

Mopane worms are high in healthy nutrients and contain 3 times the amount of protein as beef. Eating worms is less taxing on the environment than consuming beef because it takes far fewer leaves to produce worms than it does feed to produce the same amount of beef.

Dried mopane worms have even been exported to other countries and can be found in African restaurants in Paris.


A useful recipe

This is a recipe that AP says "is one of the tastiest":

Ingredients (Mopane Worms for 4 persons):
500 grams dried mopane worms; three tomatoes, diced or 1 can of tomatoes; two onions, diced; 1/2 teaspoon turmeric; three fresh green chilies, finely chopped; three cloves of garlic, finely chopped; tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely chopped.

Cooking it:
Soak dried worms in water for 3-4 hours to reconstitute. Fry onions in groundnut oil on medium heat until translucent. Add turmeric, chilies, garlic and ginger. Fry for about five minutes. Add tomatoes and cook on low for about 20 minutes until spices are well blended. Add drained worms and cook until they have softened a bit but still are a little crunchy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with pap, called sadza in Zimbabwe.



This article was derived from AP

Runaway groom showed up late, only in T-shirt and Shorts!

Ok, this must be the 2013 'wedding of the year' for the wrong reason. A feat you wouldn't fancy copying.

Can someone from Bukit Mertajam, Penang verify this story?


Bride's family left red-faced by runaway groom

A groom-to-be from Bukit Mertajam left his bride and her family red-faced when he failed to show up for their wedding, Nanyang Siang Pau reported.

News of the “runaway groom” spread like wildfire and quickly became the talk of the small town.

The wedding was supposed to take place on Sunday morning but the man, aged about 30, only showed up at the bride's house that afternoon, clad in just a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

A chef of a catering service, who was hired to handle three wedding banquets for the couple including a 180-table dinner on Sunday, said he could not even collect the RM20,000 for the wedding eve buffet dinner held at the bride's home.

When the chef went to the bride's house to meet the groom for payment, the groom reportedly took out his wallet and said: “All I have is RM35, and I also owe the bank four months' instalment for my car.”

A relative of the bride said they were suspicious of the groom when none of his family members or friends showed up for the dinner on Saturday.

Source: The Star

Malaysia Monument @ Tugu Peringatan Malaysia

The Malaysia Monument is located between DBKK building and Horizon Hotel, somewhere along Jalan Pantai (some people call it Beach Street) in Kota Kinabalu city centre.

In front of the monument, there is a beautiful replica of the city's mascot, the Great Egret. The monument was erected to commemorate the inclusion of Sabah & Sarawak into the Federation of Malaya on 16 Sept 1963, to form a federation we know today as Malaysia.

Navigate to Jalan Pantai and look for the roundabout with egret replicas.

"Tugu Peringatan Malaysia"

View from the vantage point

For visitors and tourists hoping to get more information about this monument, you'll be disappointed as the plaque has been removed for as long as I can remember, probably by vandals and no effort by anyone to put up another to replace it.

So, there is very little one can tell about it.