Activities at Kee Palace

Being the second day of the New Year, we decided to visit the Kee Palace. Everyone was there, and suffice to say we all had a good time. It was also a time to catch up with everyone especially for me as during the last few months, I was very busy handing over things. Lunch was as usual, one of the highlights there but dinner, courtesy of Second Brother in Law, took me by surprise. And not only that, the other surprise is that all of a suddent, I am very very fat again. I can tell because the belts I wore are starting to feel uncomfortably tight.....

Kristine showing her enthusiasm
in helping to move the bags into
the car.

But once they met Ian again, it was a fun-filled
day for everyone. I had to make sure they don't
get too rough with him as they kept dragging
him here and there. At one time, I had to get
Ian to spit out the pistachio shells he kept
chewing in his mouth.

This is Hang-Hang the (second) youngest in the
family. And already he got everyone's attention.
I say second because a new one just came in last
month.

Like most places I've gone to, it was always the men
who have the meals first, prepared by their Wives.
Once they have finished, it was the children's turn
and then the Ladies themselves, picking whatever
was left. I feel a bit ackward but then, not because
I am so comfortable, until I want the roles to be
reversed. You know why? Because in general, men
are lousy cooks and everyone would get food
poisoning and there would be fights to see who is
the best Cook at the end of the day.

Dinner at Xenri

This is a very nice Japanese restaurant where
the food came coming non-stop. We started off
with the 'Lou Sang' with real salmon slices.

One of my nephew and I were lucky to be sitting
in the middle between two 'gangs'. One of the
gangs do not eat sushi, and so we get to have
all the raw stuff to our (stomach's) contend.

This is simply delicious! It was
so fresh, there were no 'fishy'
smell or aftertaste.

I convinced one of the niece to try it as they never
liked raw food. Then again, not many do because
of the fact its Japanese or that its disgusting. We
were lucky as it is fresh and so, there were no
*ahem* vomitting.

Ah, the first bowl of sake. It must
be warm and this one is really nice
not like the one I had nearly more
than a decade ago which tasted
like gasoline. The sake is warm and
I feel so uninhibited after the sips.

Not sure what it was but its heavenly

Ramen. Not my style.

Tempura. OK, but not today.

Chawan mushi. Ah, the delicious soft
silky texture of steamed egg and its
contents. OK, so I did not try this one
but when I had them at Sushi King in
the 90's, it was heavenly. Unfortunately,
you cannot mix ketchup with it.

At almost every dish, this is a
must have. Unagi.

Now, I have (Clockwise top left) green
tea, red wine, sake. Hic.

Thish is the Sabah Fish. Grilled to perfection
and perfected at grealling.

Another cup of sake....

Who, Man! They skinned a snail
to make this pot of tea.

And to insult the add, they lemonise
the prawn inside the tea of soup

And now, the tofu I think, which is rice
to shepr liek fotu of jsut friedn rice but
got 2 yeah 2 you now, 2, one is sifood
and yeah, the other ois not seafood ut
is, ah, shicken. yeah, kfc.

How many cups did I have?
I dunno. You can js count when
you'd picsing the drink. But whoo
the haead pain is start now. I got
git i 4 cups. ye, curp the for, so
jto the hear.

Balls. Tey frogot the dslaes sauce to
fo with the saue stgand the asleft if
st to thes wetts. yeah,gwe me anter
suku, i want mro sukr. dirnk sukp

Hic

Wa,,,you me too?

Wif stope tme drink. suke is 18, wie is 14 and
this ha, pushovrt is 5oni. 5 ha ha ha aha
ha h
aha

a
gdqb
shw
gbry

Anyway, after I sobered, we were playing with pop-pops.
Those small little firecrackers which when you thwon it
to the ground, explodes. Krsitine was not too excitred as
she spooted sparks. But Kaelynn and Ian jsut tjrew and
thewre those thing.s

When I was asmall, these pop=pops were jsut
small papr bags but now, they are like small
dyinite sticks.

My new soldering jig

OK, so soldering the huge amount of PCBs is starting to get to me. And its not easy with all the components dropping off to the table or floor. So, I made a soldering jig myself to stop all these nonsense and also, to help speed up the process. Still, after soldering so much, I think I am ready to ask those guys to do it all for me. Want to know why?

Apart from getting tired eyes, the solder lead is yes, as the name implies, has lead and without a proper solder exhaust fan, I've been breathing them for hours. This is why I have a headache after each soldering session. And to so a simple exhaust fan it going to take about RM200.00 or so. Sigh.

Yes, I finally gave in and bought the RM29.00
helping hand tool last week. But I am not using
the whole tool, that is why I kept the magnifying
glass away.

Its a very simple construction. You just put your
populated PCB (component side) onto a sponge,
then use rubber bands to secure it to a board.
Turn it upside down and the sponge will keep
the components in place. Now you can solder
in peace without worrying about missing stuff.

See? All the components are lined up perfectly.

Unfortunately, after a few boards, the sponge sort
of got melted or something because some of the
components came loose and I had to re-adjust
them back and resolder them.