Battle of Cape Rachado 1606

Dutch VOC with help from Johor versus Portuguese (Malacca).

The lighthouse at the cape witnessed the fierce battle involving 31 ships with cannons and numerous hands aboard.

If the story narrated in the link below is true, I can imagine how precious the resources of this great land were during the days in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Rachado

I wish to bring the family and pay a visit to the lighthouse in February during Ahad's Family Day insyaAllah.

a baby's smile

such a wonderful thing

when he smiles innocently

to me

RM5 Chicken Chop, My Friend's Tom Yam & Kenny Rogers Roasters

I guess it was not a good decision to haul the whole family to Hutan Bandar last Saturday night. The aim was to sample the cheapest Chicken Chop in JB. While Confucius said, "good thing no cheap, cheap thing no good", I reckon this might not be the case, as the owner of the business is a hotel chef. High chance he would adhere to some decent standard, if not spectacular.

 

The place was featured in Utusan Malaysia a few days prior, and Naza too, has been telling me about it much earlier than that. Factor in Saturday night, and the open air dining over there was packed with no table to spare. We came at about 9.45pm, and I could easily park the car. Quite a surprise at the beginning, for there are not many parking space available. Looking at the tables full with patrons but only with drinks, then only I realized that people may have opted to go off empty handed (and stomach). Such was the case with us, eventually. Naza met a friend from Ulu Tiram who had ordered since 8.50 pm. It was around 10 pm at that time, and she still haven't receive her order yet. She went to ZZ Restoran for her dinner, by the way, before coming back to Hutan Bandar for her Chicken Chop to-go. So that was it.

 

Wondering where to go at first, we ended up at My Friend's Tom Yam Restaurant. Quite nice, as there were not many people around. Plus, we could order western menu if we really want to eat chicken chop... Naza ordered seafood tom yam (with crab), salted fish kailan, buttered prawn, battered squids, siakap 3 rasa, nasi goreng cina for the kids, and drinks. Mak ordered mi ladna for herself, and the waiter said that it would take some time. Mak didn't mind with that, for she really wanted to sample the dish.

 

In about 2 minutes, we were served with the white rice and battered squids. And followed by Mak's mi ladna very soon after. Not quite as long as I had imagined it would be, after all. For that, I awarded 4 (out of 5) stars for their quick service. In less than 10 minutes, everyone else's dishes were all ready on the round table. It impressed me straight away.

 

We ate (me, a bit later - babysitting Umar) and it was time for the bill. Total was RM107 for 3 adults and 2 children. Not too bad. Well, it beats dining at Kenny Rogers Roasters having Kenny's Quarters (RM15) and drinks (RM7) for each, plus taxes. At least for the variety of tastes.

2010 - a new decade?

Mathematically, it's a misconception.

1.1.2010 is the beginning of the end of a decade. As simple as that. Not that simple? Read on.

I was quite disturbed to hear (well... mostly, read) people saying "Happy New Year 2010. Welcome to a new decade".

1st January 2010 is the first day of the year. But, it's not the first day of the decade.

A decade is a period of 10 years, a word from Greek 'deca' which means ten.

How do you count from 1 to 10? I have never heard people start counting from 0. Do you?

We count from one. 1 is the beginning.

Following the same rule, the first year of the decade should be the year 2011.

The first month of the year is January.

The first day of January, well, you get my drift now...

So, to state the obvious, the first day of the next decade would be the 1st of January 2011.

1.1.2011 - not that nice.

1.1.11 - much, much better.

As I said in the beginning of this entry, 1st January 2010 is merely the beginning of the end of the decade. Got it now?

2000 - the new millennium?

This was also a misconception. Ehm ehm... a miscalculation.

So the whole world celebrated the new millennium 1 year earlier than it should be. There were cries from people who knows how to count that the celebration was premature. But heck, 1.1.2001 as the new millennium? The numbers are not that tasty. 'C'mon, give us a break, you nerdy people', they said.

Anyway, democracy sometimes may mean that all the idiots are united.

By the way, 1.1.11 is quite catchy.

My prediction: come that day, marketing people will tout it as 'the beginning of a new decade'.

Surely, that day will see lots of weddings and newspaper headings like 'new decade babies', 'wedded on a new decade', etc.

We'll see...