Volleyball

My sister and I were once volleyball school players. Even after we left school, we still played every now and then.

I think the last time I played in a real game was 10 years ago.

I played for my company in the year 1999 and 2001. They had the sports event every two years. Come to think of it, if we didn't win any medal, I would have forgotten that I played at all for my company.

As far as I can remember, I always had a personal volleyball ball (hmmm, you get what I mean) during my Secondary school days, since I was in Form 2 if I'm not mistaken. It was always shared with my sister. And when the ball got out of shaped (always due to them being rolled under a car), we would get another one, though maybe not immediately.

After our final exams in Secondary School (High School), we didn't play much and soon when the ball was old and worn, we threw that away but never got another.

This year, during our Kids' Sleepover party in March, we played volleyball with a BASKETBALL after the children went to sleep. There weren't any net, just passing the ball from one person to another- volleyball style.

Our forearms hurt like crazy.

It was then that we decided to get a volleyball, a cheap one. Cost only RM30. :)
Oh, we did ask about the Mikasa volleyball, a very famous brand during our time (and still is, I presume). It was priced at over RM200 now! Used to be worth only RM40.

So here's our brand new ball. Looks good and it was easy on the forearms. We didn't play with it until during church camp in May.

We only played 1 session.. and look what happen to the ball....

It got torn at the seams. :(

I think the guys did some kicking with it too, so yeah.

It was still "playable", but the direction of the ball wasn't accurate.

Then, a friend from US came to visit. It was her summer holidays and every year she comes back to see her relatives. It seems she played volleyball for her school and she wanted to practise her serving.

My sis discussed with me and we decided to get another ball.

So, we went back to the same shop again and told the shopkeeper what happened to the first ball. He was sympathetic and introduced another brand, a slightly more expensive one. I noticed, this ball has a bar code stamped on it. :D

We played only once with this ball, so let's just see how long this ball lasts. :)

My Very Own Mortar & Pestle

Yup, I FINALLY own an old fashion mortar and pestle. I had no reason to own one before, but ever since my cousin told me that she uses this to pound the biscuits for her cheesecake crust, I started looking for one. I remembered seeing a simple one in Ikea, but when I went there 2 days ago, they said it was a discontinued item. :(

I went shopping again today to one of the local shops in town and bought one. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't really mind.

Baking again

I planned to make cheesecake 2 days ago but I was too lazy. It's not that I don't have the ingredients. Just that I was plain lazy. :) Nah... I was busy cleaning the house. :)

This morning when I woke up, I asked myself, "Must I really make cheesecake today?". Yup, that lazy symptom was there again. I forced myself to get up and bring out all the stuff from the fridge and cabinet.

I dilly-dallied for 2 hours in front of the computer before actually starting to measure the ingredients. My reason was (It's a valid reason I must say), "hey the cheese takes time to soften." :D

My lazy mood kicked in full force. I took more than 1 hour preparing the cake!!

So, this is how it looks like before it's baked.

After being in the oven for more than 2 hours, it looked... err.. terrible. LOL

I used only 1 recipe but my cake tin wasn't big enough to fit in all , so I put the balance in another tin.

Fortunately I had a smaller oven. It saves me time. However, I noticed that this smaller oven didn't do justice to the cheesecake. The cake didn't rise at all. Come to think of it, it didn't work for my scones and pretzels the last time too.. hmm...

So, I had 2 cheesecakes at the end of the day. I gave 1 cake to my youth friends and brought the bigger cake to my cell meeting just now. I sorta forced everyone to eat. Thank God it tasted good. I failed in making the cake looked presentable though. I sprinkled some icing powder to cover the brown spots, but on the way to my friend's house, it started drizzling and the icing melted off.

I should have drizzled some chocolate on top, but I didn't have time.

I made green tea sponge cake, but it didn't turn out good. It was dry and not spongy at all. :(

I would definitely make the cheesecake again. Oh, I got the recipe from this website - click here.

Climbing Gunung Angsi Via Bukit Putus

Okay, I have to admit, this is my 2nd time climbing Gunung Angsi via Bukit Putus. I didn't blog about it the first time simply because I was too lazy. :P Well, maybe also because climbing this mountain via Bukit Putus is not as exciting as via Ulu Bendul.

You can read all my adventures of Gunung Angsi via Ulu Bendul here.

Gunung Angsi via Bukit Putus is a much shorter route as compared to via Ulu Bendul. It takes about 1.5 - 2 hours (depending on your fitness level) up and less than 1.5 hours down. 

The Bukit Putus entrance is way before the Ulu Bendul entrance. While driving heading to Kuala Pilah from Seremban, keep a look out for a sign which tells you to turn right to Bukit Putus. There isn't any signboard to indicate the entrance of the mountain and I guess the only way you can tell is to look for a car park on your left.

The car park is on your left and the entrance is on the opposite side of the road.

This is the starting point. On this little adventure, there were only 5 of us - Francis, Danny, RW, Ban Meng and I. We started our hike at 7.28am.

Francis is quite familiar with this route and he offered to take the lead. As you can tell, my stamina is not as good as his. He went ahead and waited for us when we were far behind.

So, this is the best part. At 9.09am, I came across this sign which says "18 mins to Summit". This is very encouraging to people like me who wants to know "how long more?" :D

For most of the time, Danny and I were together chitchatting. RW was having some difficulty after the 1st half an hour and Francis slowed down to keep her company while we went on ahead. Ban Meng was not far behind them.

A good view from Gunung Angsi.

At one point in time, we waited for a while for Francis and RW to catch up. Since we were hiking in a small group, we didn't want to be separated just in case one of us got injured.

9.15am. 12 minutes to the summit. So yeah, 6 minutes from the previous signboard. :D

9.20am. 6 minutes more to the summit.

9.28am. THE SUMMIT.  I guess I took a longer time because I was waiting for my friends? I'm not too sure.:)
Notice the circle on the picture above. That's where we came from.

Oh, one thing you should know is, there aren't any good views from the summit.

Francis packed some nasi lemak and ham for all of us. I brought my hot choc. 

Ban Meng arrived while we were eating. We sat for a while and left the summit at 10.09am.

11.09am - On the way down, we came across this little place called Panjang coffee hut or something like that. This little hut is owned by a tall man and people call him Panjang. I always hear from my other friends that he makes coffee for the climbers. On my first hike, the hut was closed. So you can imagine how delighted I was when I saw a flurry of people gathering round this place. It seems Panjang was open for business. :D. He doesn't charge, but people will usually leave him some foodstuff in kind for his generosity.

Danny had a glass of coffee. Panjang also made green bean soup.

A cosy place for people to rest before going down.

We left Panjang's hut at 11.20am and continued our descent.

The last part is quite steep.
We reached the car park at 11.43am.


So this is a summary of the time taken to ascend and descend.


7.28am - Started our climb
9.28am - Summited
10.09am - Started our descent
11.09am - 11.20am - Rested at Panjang's place.
11.43am - Back to the starting point.


2 hours up, 1 hour 23 mins down, excluding 11 minutes at Panjang's place.