This is the Golden Dragon and Spicy Tuna Sushi.

Once we reached the Ipoh bus station, we headed to a vegeterian restaurant to have our dinner.  It was about 7pm already.  Of course, we ordered our favorite dishes - the vegeterian Sushi and the yummy fresh green Sea Grass.  We also ordered other food but these two are the most “welcomed” in our menu.

This is a slice of Golden Dragon Sushi.

Be prepared!!!  Don’t drool on this mouth-watering dish!!!  Let me tell you something.  This sushi is made of mango to substitute the raw fish.  Extremely delicious!!! The mango they used is fresh, smooth, sweet and tasty.

This is a slice of the Spicy Vegi-Tuna Sushi.  The green colour sauce is Washabi, and the pink colour slices are gingers.

This is a plate of Sea Grass mixed with sesame and cabbage.  They are nutritious.

We usually visit this vegetarian restaurant twice or more when we are back to Ipoh. Everytime we walked into the restaurant, it is always full of people.  It’s so delighted to see many people eating vegetarian food.  That also means for that moment, a bit less animal will suffer from being killed to fulfill the hunger of human beings.

Oh, we have forgotten to introduce the name of the restaurant.  It is called “Fu Tian” in Chinese and it means the place that you can plant and grow your prosperity in this life time. 

This type of grasshopper can easily be found in my garden.  Their size are very small (about 1.5 cm or less).  They appear on top of a type of cactus in a big group when their mother gave birth to them.  Their mother will leave them there and dissapear.  From the cactus, they will start jumping here and there.  Then they will search for grass, which will be their new home and start their new life.  When they are still young, they cannot jump very far, soon they practice their legs’ muscles and getting stonger and stronger.

This grasshopper like to eat my plants, but I still like it because it allow me to get very close to it and take its photo.  They are cute because they are short, unlike other bigger grasshoppers.  Sometime, I move them from my plant to grass where they can have endless grass to eat.

Hello Mr. / Ms. Grasshopper, do you feel proud because I post your photo here?

I have recently cut down a very big willow tree in my garden.  There were about 10 big branches.  I cut down all of them except the main branch.  And I removed the leaves on the main branch as well.  Two weeks later, now, it becomes like this.  There are more that 30 new shoots now and I know they are going to become big branches in the future.

This is the first time I post “photoshopped” pictures in this blog.  I was inspired by the background of the photo above.  I wanted to remove the background or make it blur while I was taking the picture but it is not possible because the fence is too close to the willow tree.  Then I try to solve the background problem using photoshop.  I used Hue control to make the willow shoots have a higher contrast with the background fence.

Suddenly I discover that using the Hue control in photoshop to change the colour of the leaves to create different feeling on the pictures.

This is the look in the fall season, giving me a feeling that the leaves are going to disappear soon, and the weather is getting colder. 

This is a totally different plant where its shoots are in red colour.  Some trees has its new leaves in red colour and turn to green slowly.

Adding green colour to this picture makes it look like artificial plant.  Some bamboo trees have this colour, you have to touch its leaves physically to determine whether it is the real plants.

I don’t like to “photoshop” (edit) photos usually.  I prefer to keep the photos’ original colour.  But today I have tried and discovered something new.  I know why!  This world is colourful, beautiful and wonderful, that’s why this post is colourful as well.

OK, what happens if I change the leaves into purple or black and white colour?  I don’t think I want to post them here and you will not like to see them as well.  You will only find nature photos here.

This is a special variety of ShuiMei flower which has multiple layer of petals.  It has a very nice smell especially in the evening breeze.

In Chinese ”Shui” mean water, “Mei” means plum.  Therefore it’s also know as Wild Water Plum in English.  Besides, it has the name of Water Jasmine in English because of its smell I think.  It is under Apocynaceae family, and its scientific name is called Wrightia religiosa.  From the information I have got from Singapore National Park website, its origin is from Malaysia and Thailand.

It is a good plant where you can turn it into bonsai in any shape because of its flexibility.

Now, please follow me, use your imagination to imagine the smell of this flower.

First lets us imagine the smell of jasmine.  It has the similar smell as the jasmine flower but it is different.  It’s a bit sour, just like the plum (since it is called water plum), not too sour, but very nice.  Please imagine the taste of plum.  Now, you can imagine the smell when the plum mix with the jasmine.  Yes, that’s the smell.  But it is not the taste of ice lemon jasmine tea.  Now, imagine the smell, not the taste, the smell of jasmine plus the plum which is not too sour.  That’s right.

This is normal ShuiMei flower which only has single layer petal.  When making bonsai, this is the first choice instead of the multi-layer-petal ShuiMei because of the size of its leaves.  Although its flower has only single layer, but its leaves are smaller which make it more suitable to become a bonsai. 

It grows very well in tropical climate and it can bloom throughout the year as long as you know how to control it.  In order to make it bloom, what you need to do is just to remove all its leaves, then water it frequently, it will bloom in 4 to 6 weeks.

Yesterday morning, my ex-colleague asked for help to rescue her pc.  From what she told me through the phone, I had a feeling that she might loss all her data.  She told me that her computer was making a loud noise and it hung.

When I switch on her PC, I heard the harddisk was making clicking noices.  It’s very loud.  Surprisingly it was still be able to show the logo of Window, but it hung.  The clicking noice was happening continuoulsy on and off.  I shut it down to prevent further damage to the harddisk.

The data is very important to her, because she has spent a lot of time with the data.  With a little bit of hope because I still can see the windows logo, I have tried to access the harddrive throught another computer but the harddisk drive failed to make its content appear, I used a USB external power case, it also failed.  I used a software to create the image of the whole harddisk, it did not proceed after it show it progress at 0%. 

Finally, I told her that the harddisk failed.  SiewPeng and I know that her heart has sank.  SiewPeng said that this situation is like a doctor comes out of the operation room, and tell the patient’s family who have waited for sometime, “Sorry, we have tried our best.”  I feel very sorry about her harddisk.

I have experienced that long time before, and now, I have learned that backup of the data is as important as you put in your effort to work on those data.  I store all my important data in 3 location, in the computer, DVD, and external harddisk and do a weekly backup.

Luckily she has printed her PHD research.  I ask her when did she start to hear the clicking noice, she said it was quite sometime already, but she seldom use the PC.  Then a thought came across my mind that this situation is similar to a car.  If there is something wrong with our car, we should get it fix, even though we seldom use the car.  Otherwise we don’t know what is going to happen the next time we use it.  It may endanger our life.

Save for rainy days.