The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms” - 4

Realizing that Bertrand has arrived, Alden exchanged a quick glance with him before continuing his conversation with the Grand Master. Bertrand could immediately tell from the expression on his brother’s face that something has gone terribly wrong. There was that dark cloud of concern looming over Alden’s brows. Walking down the aisle, Bertrand quickly found a seat at the front row bench and sat down.

Bertrand could faintly make out the conversation between Alden and the Grand Master, “Yes, tonight .. to depart…..” “ Yes, it… not encouraged… seek….” Shutting his eyes, Bertrand tried to concentrate on their conversation. However, their conversation ended abruptly when Solvin interrupted to inform the Grand Master that the hall was ready. Taking a step back, Alden bowed to the Grand Master, and took his seat beside his brother at the bench. A clearly excited Bertrand nudged his brother and whispered, “Hey Alden, what’s going on? What is the commotion all about?” Alden just replied, “Be patient brother, just listen to the Grand Master announcement.”

Fidgeting in his seat, Bertrand was very anxious as he looked around the hall, wondering what had happened that such an urgent gathering was called. All attendance has taken their seats around the oval-shaped hall. Two rows of benches encircled the main stage, which was located in the middle of the hall. Grand Master Eldorn took the stage and raised his right hand up, signaling the hall that he was going to speak. The hall immediately fell into silence, and all eyes was resting on the Grand Master, as Bertrand found out that he was not the only one perplexed with the happening of events tonight and there were many hoping for an answer.

Clearing his throat, the Grand Master voice filled the room, “Sons and daughters of Lunar, we are gathered here tonight as a matter of emergency. We have just received news that the Sunis tribe has resurfaced after laying dormant for the last four decades. The village of Moonlit up north has been caught by surprise and they are currently under continuous assault of the Sunis tribal army.” A wide-eyed Bertrand looked at Alden sitting beside him, while gasps of air swept across the audience. The Grand Master continued, “Casualties have been limited, as the village elders have managed to put up a magical barriers to ward off the intruders temporary. However, the situation is dire and they have called for help from all the nearby lunar tribes.” Thoughts raced through Bertrand’s mind, “We are the nearest to home and we are hundreds of miles away!!” Being a nomadic tribe, Lunar tribe members were scattered around the Land of Wayworth. While some were nearer to each others, some were extremely far apart.

Shocking Burglary

Just chatted with one of my ex-colleague, she’s just lost all her hard-earned money two weeks ago to bunch of f@$%^ burglars. The house was ransacked at mid-night, when all the family members were fast asleep upstairs.

She’s lost two laptops, handphone, wallet, digital camera… and the worst -> her new Toyota Vios!!!
I can’t help but to feel the pain for her… all gone in just one night. It also made me think of my newly completed house. I gonna plan and do all I can to secure the house.. but we can never be too careful in this country now.

Udang Besar (M) 9.89/kg only!!

This was the scene when you’re selling king prawn (m) @ 9.89/kg in one of the hypermarket.

It was all started by Tesco Malaysia during the CNY 2006 period to sell prawn at a ridiculously low price. The move was soon matched by the others hypermarket operator and the price have never gone down for a long period of time.

The tussle is most evident between Giant and Tesco. With the most recent price lowering exercise by Tesco, consumers can be guaranteed a prolonged price war between the two hypermarket operators and reap huge savings as the margin were lowered for most of the goods.

Always remember, to shop at Giant hypermarkets that are within the vicinity of a Tesco outlet and I can assure you that you’ll be finding a lot of cheap goods on sale.

Sunway Alam Suria – Our Home

Yes, we’ve just received the letter from Sunway City that our house is ready for vacant possesion.

This is our first house, and we’re both very excited about it.

Planning planning and more planning on what to buy and where to put em…

Shall post some photos on the new house soon!

My new Compaq nc6400

Just received my new notebook from the office administrator yesterday. It’s a new Compaq nc6400.

It’s a T7200 2.00GHz Core 2 Duo with 1GB DDR2 ram…

I’m the envy of the dept right now.. the first one to receive the first batch of the new laptops.

To my fans -> Haha.. if there’s any

Well, I haven’t written anything personal on my blog for quite some time now. Been busy writing my own fictional novel. Yeap, for those who have been following Lunar Warriors, it is my own creation. Still lots of ideas and images in my mind that I would definitely like to put in words. It’s still at its infant stages, hopefully I will have the motivation to keep writing and finish the whole story.

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms” - 3

Bertrand was tossing around his bed, unable to sleep because the night has been unusually hot and humid. With his eyes wide opened, Bertrand stared blankly at the barren ceiling, hoping to find some sleep before the morning begins. Hours have passed, and his eyes were finally getting heavier, slipping into the dreamland.

Suddenly, a series of loud bang on his room door jolted him wide-awake. “For heaven sake, what time is it now?!!” he cursed at the perpetrator that has ruined his sleep as he dragged his unwilling body out of the bed to open the door. Bertrand found the night watcher, Solvin standing outside the door with a brightly lit night lamp. Bertrand shielded his eyes from the lights instinctively with his hands as he grumbled, “Argh, I was just falling asleep..” “Master Bertrand, sorry for waking you up at this hour. Grand Master Eldorn has summoned for your presence in the great hall. Please make your way there now.” said Solvin. After delivering the message, he nodded slightly to Bertrand and left the room, bringing away the little night lamp that he has brought along, and the whole room was plunged back into darkness. Caught completely by surprise, Bertrand paused for a moment and tried to gather his thoughts. “This must be something important.” he uttered. Bertrand fumbled in the darkness and slipped into his shirt and pants before hastily making his way to the great hall.

Walking along the long corridors leading to the great hall, Bertrand could feel that the temple was unusually alive at this hour. Torches along the corridors were brightly lit and there were the occasional group of aides hurried by. Doubling his pace, Bertrand reached the main entrance to the great hall and he could see that the hall was already filled with apprentices like him and also the other masters of disciplines. At the center of the hall, stood his younger brother Alden, exchanging words with a very solemn faced Grand Master Eldorn.

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms” -2

Alden put his hand into his pouch and took out some dried raisin. Leaning against the wall, he started popping them into his mouth, chewing while his eyes were closed, grabbing some much-needed rest, as he had not slept for the past 2 days.

There was unmistakable resemblance between the two brothers. Both of them carried the same hawkish features, almond-shaped eagle eyes and sharp noses. Both of them sported a tattoo of the Red Crescent on their left arms, a clear signage of their descendant from the diminishing but powerful Lunar Tribe. Bertrand was much bigger in stature, with muscular arms and well-toned muscles all over his 6ft. 5 body. Alden stood a head shorter than his elder brother, with a leaner and slender body.

They were on the journey back to their village, after they had received the news that their beloved native land was besieged. Three years ago, they embarked on a journey to the sacred Temple of Moon, located deep in the heart of the Land of Wayworth. It was part of their journey in becoming a true lunaris. A journey, that would take at least six months of traveling through treacherous mountain terrains and poisonous swamps, through the Woods of Dead before ending with a one-week hike up Mount Moon, where the temple was located. The journey was to test them mentally and physically, as well as to attest their skills in preparation for the training in becoming a Lunaris – which meant the “Capable One”. However, reaching the temple had only marked the beginning of their grueling training in becoming a lunaris. They had since spent their last two winters at the temple, trained under the masters of their disciplines.

It was two days ago, in the wee hour of the morning that Alden was aroused from his sleep by a repeated tapping on his room windows. Alerted, Alden’s body sprung to life as he quickly grabbed his staff and recalled a spell of shielding to his mind. “Tap tap tap.. tap tap tap… tap tap tap.. tap tap..” the tapping continued outside the windows. Alden heightened his senses and listened intently to the noise, sensing no immediate danger after a while, he eased his guard and moved nearer to the window.
“Eeeeakkk..” he swung the windows opened. A familiar sight greeted him. A silver owl was perched on the hinges. “Silverhood, what are you doing here at this hour?” Alden said to the bird while extending his right arm. Recognizing the master’s gesture, Silverhood immediately hopped on to Alden’s arm. “I see, you’ve brought a message.”

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms”

“Tik…. tak.. tik.. tak” the sound of rain drops on the roof, echoed through the room. Bertrand was sitting at the corner of the room, cursing at the rain, his clothes soaked wet with water. His brother, Alden sat quietly across him. Weaving his fingers in the air and chanting the words of magic, he’s trying to conjure the spell of fire, to light up the small pile of firewood that Bertrand has made out from the broken pieces of furniture scattered around the room.

“Give it a rest Alden, those darn woods are too wet to be of any use. We’ve fought hard and long today, better save your energy for tomorrow’s journey home.” Bertrand uttered. Alden just stared blankly at his brother, too tired to even think about arguing such matter with him. He took out a wooden staff, pointed directly at the pile of wood and shouted “fireball!” out loud. A burst of energy channeled through his body, and a fireball shot out from the tip of the staff. For a moment, the light emitted by the fireball lit up the room. Bertrand lifted up his hand and shunned his eyes from the burning light, while mumbling some words to himself. Alden looked at the pile of wood that he had just ignited, shaking his head in disappointment that he needed the help of the staff again to cast such simple spell. Clutching his fist, Alden smashed the staff to the floor, and at the same time he shot a glance to his brother, warning him not to say a single word.

The flickering flame brought much needed warmth to the room. Alden wrapped himself up with a blanket and sat in front of the fire. His hand extended to the flame, warming his cold and slim fingers. Not wanting to waste the fire, Bertrand quickly sat down beside his brother, and pulled out a package of sliced meat that he has salvaged from the battlefield this morning. He skewed the sliced meat with his knife and started roasting them over the fire. Licking his lips, Bertrand eyes lit up in excitement as he watched the meat getting cooked. His stomach started to grumble as the smell of roast meat filled the air. Within minutes, the meat is cooked with its juice dripping into the flame below. Ignoring the heat, Bertrand’s hunger took the better of him as he swallowed a mouthful of sliced meat fresh from the fire. “Ummphhh, Arldennn.., yumm… the meat is pretty good, want some?” Bertrand mumbled to his brother while his hands were busy skewing the meat again. Alden shook his head slightly, he signaled to Bertrand to hand over his pouch.

Monday Moaning

People like to say good morning… but I prefer not to be greeted this morning. I am moaning over the complaints and sh*t passing acts that have magicked into my mailbox this morning.

It’s a common process where sh*t will fall into the mailbox over the weekends because I am not in the office to shove the sh*t away before they get to me. The sh*ter most probably is having constipation during weekdays because sh*t happens usually over the weekends (coincidentally I am off during weekends)

There’s a huge difference between taking responsibility & taking respons(h)i(t)bility.

Respons(h)i(t)bility usually carries the following characteristics :

- Fall from the sky
- In huge volume that will usually get you stuck knee-deep
- It strikes you right in the head and you don’t even know what is happening, and when you realize it, you are already dirty and stuck thus need to clean up the mess to set yourself free.
- If you get lucky once and you manage to clean up the sh*t, the probability of you being hit again dramatically increased!

Chap Goh Meh

Today is Chap Goh Meh, the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year and the first full-moon for the year. The phrase is a direct translate of Hokkien-dialect which means the night of fifteenth.

It is also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, where in certain parts of Malaysia you can see unmarried young ladies throw mandarin oranges into the sea hoping that it will be picked up by their future spouses :) This can be seen from "Number Eight Bridge" in Klang, Selangor and also Gurney Drive, Penang. Well, I only know of these two places so far...

Today is also a day where one of my ex-colleague's wedding dinner. It will be held in one of the famous chinese restaurants in Subang Jaya tonight.

White, black, blue and golden.. Cod cod cod!

Nowadays we get plenty of variety of cod fish in the market. Sometimes it is easy to get confused with all the fancy names around.

It’s best to buy your cod fish from reputable retailers as some times it is not easy to differentiate the quality of cod fish if you’re not very familiar with them.

You can easily get cod fish from Isetan, Jusco, Cold Storage and Giant outlets. The best cod fish is the white cod with its extremely fresh taste and smooth flesh. To my knowledge, there’s no fresh cod being imported to Malaysia and all the cod fish we’ve got in the market are imported in frozen whole fish form.

When you’re buying cod fish, you’re offered the choice of fresh cod slice (actually they’re thawed) or frozen vacuum-packed (Cold Storage and Giant offer this). It is actually better to buy the frozen cod as they’re essentially from the same source. Buying the thawed cod fish means you will need to cook them immediately and freezing them again is really not a good idea.
Remember, it is never good to thaw and refreeze your meat or seafood as it will ultimately spoil the quality of the product.

Fishy fishy where r u?

Our local fresh seafood supply is very dependent on the moon. The best way to determine when to buy marine fish is by checking the lunar calendar (chinese calendar).

Unlike western countries that practise deep sea fishing a lot, our regional fishermen are still pretty much using the age-old techniques in catching fishes. During full moon period (12th to 22nd in lunar calendar), the night sky is brightly lit and marine fishes (like kembong, mabong, sardin, cencaru & etc) will be diving deeper into the sea thus making the effort to catch them so much harder. When the supply is scarce, most fishermen would not opt to venture out to catch fish because the return simply doesn’t worth the effort.

During this period of time, fresh seafood will be fetching higher prices in the wet market. You will also notice that the quality of fish are less desirable. The wholeseller or distributor will be using their buffer stock or thawed frozen seafood during this period of time.
If you’re unsure of the quality of product, it’s better to eat freshwater fishes (catfish, patin or tilapiah) or frozen seafood (dory fillet or frozen wholefish) as that will guarantee you better product quality.