Few days ago, in a sunny afternoon, I noticed that there were shadows of the fence and a plant reflected on our kitchen’s window.  There was a car outside our house, reflected the strong sunlight and shone on the windows, but in between the light of the sun from the car and the windows, there are fence and plants.  All of them were in the right places which create this effect.

It gave me a thought.  Everything happen around us is the causes of everything in their own position.  We can change our own position to make things happen differently.  We can also make others change but actually we are changing / moving on our own at the first place by trying to communicate, sending signal or just change it directly by doing something.  In the cases of which our forces / efforts are stronger than other’s changes or resistant, the effect will be according to what changes we have made to everything around us that involved.

Read carefully and you may understand what I mean.

This is a damselfly, not a dragonfly. Both are similar, but they are actually different. When a dragonfly rests, its wings are parrallel with the body, whereas a damselfly put its wings at its back. This is the main difference.

In Chinese, it is called “DouNiang”. “Dou” means bean, and “Niang” means mother or lady. It is called the “Lady of the Bean” in Chinese. That is true because this name describe actually how she behaves, she looks weak and soft. When she moves in the air, she always has a beautiful dance, just like a beautiful lady. She can stop in the air for a second, and then move backward and forward. She is shy but not really afraid of showing off her beautiful dance. She will not fly away unless you touch her or getting too close to her.

Similar to dragonfly, she lives next to the water, damselfly can have different types of colours, red, blue, green golden or combination of these colours. Usually the colour is shiny and silvery.

I likes to see her dance. It was many years ago, by the side of the drain behind my house, the damselflies could even stopped on my hand and let me have a close look at her. They are really beautiful. Besides butterflies, they are the prettiest insects. Since the drain was removed I seldom see damselfly anymore around my house, until weeks ago when I bring my camera to a place called Stutong Park, where we always go there for jogging. I am really happy because I can see a damselfly again.

Next to the damselfly, there is a bigger and similar insect. Yes, this is the dragonfly. He is stronger, make louder noise sometimes when it flies.

They are very much different, aren’t they?

My watch - taken after the “heart transplant”

This is my watch. I bought it last year after my last watch malfunctioned for a long period of time. I remember that I have lived my life without a watch for quite some time until I get this one.

I like its functions and its design. I take her with me everywhere I go. Everyday is alive with a watch by my side again until one day…it went completely blank! No matter what button I pressed, nothing showed up. I began to feel despair.

Heart of the watch - It controls the frequency of the clock

We went to a shop that sells watch and looked for the “doctor” for my watch. He diagnosed that my watch had a “heart failure”. My heart sank on the spot. He also explained a few things about watches to us. Actually, I was careless to neglect some signs showned before her “heart failure” occurred. Her time was often getting faster without any reason because her “heartbeat” was abnormal and too fast. I should have noticed it and should not have taken it for granted.

At first, he said that the watch couldn’t be saved anymore but then…he gave us a solution. My watch required a “heart transplant” in order for her to be alive again and to conduct the “heart transplant”, he is going to take a “heart” from another watch and put it into my watch. But he said this might not work but he will try his best. I think he can sense the despair as he saw the expression on my face that day. Thank you, Dr. Watch.

It’s less than 1 cm - extremely tiny

Initially, he told me I can fetch her after a week so I did as told. But, he said the first trial failed. She worked for a while but then her new “heart” stopped beating. He said he needed more time as this is a tougher case to deal with. So, I asked myself to be patient and waited for his call. Day and night passed by. Soon, a phone call was heard but missed. And then came a text message which said “Your watch is fixed. Please do come and collect anytime when free. I am from … Watch Dealer.”

I jumped up with overjoy! My watch is alive!

From what I’ve been through with my watch, I learned that we must not take things for granted. I think everybody knows this but sometimes we tend to forget about it easily. Therefore, we must constantly remind ourselves to care about everything and everybody around us. Who knows, one day, you might not have a second chance anymore.

We found these lady fingers in a supermarket last weekend, and we bought them a packet each. Their prices were the same, but their colours are different. We seldom see a red lady finger, so we give it a try.

Lady finger is also called okra in US English. In Chinese it is called “YangJiaoDou” which means the “Goat-Horn-shaped Bean“. It is also called “QiuKui” in Chinese, where “Qiu” means Autumn and “Kui” means sunflower. I do not understand why it is also called “Sunflower in the Autumn“, but this name is seldom used locally except in Taiwan or China. In Malay it is called “Bendi“, whereas its scientific name is called “Abelmoschus esculentus“.

Not everybody like to eat lady fingers because it is sticky. However, the sticky juice is actually good for reducing our body’s absorbing rate on fat and cholesterol. The thick and sticky juice is called “mucilaginous”, which is an excellent thickener for stews and soups as well.

If you do not like to eat Lady Fingers, why not give yourself a try. You don’t like to eat before doesn’t mean that you will not like it in the future. Remember, this vegetable is good for health. It is nutritious, it contains vitamin A, B9, C and Calsium and Magnesium.

Next, let me tell you what I have done in the photo session of these lady fingers. I used a wooden table to make the background dark. I set up a tripod, because I wanted to try to increase the “depth of field” by reducing the aperture. The apearture is set to f/8 which is the smallest setting on the camera. And the speed is between 1 to 2 seconds on ISO 100. The light on the ceiling is not bright enought. I used timer to prevent the shaking effect. But the timer is fixed at 10 seconds, which make me a bit impatient.

Nowadays a modern camera has 2 options for its timer, you can choose a 2 seconds timer or a 10 seconds timer. My friend has a Nikon DSLR (I forgot the model). He never needs a long timer because he got a remote control for the shutter release. He can press the shutter release without touching the camera.

I have successfully increase the depth of field, where all the lady fingers are sharp in the photo.

Red and Green are totally contrast with each other, what do you think when they are next to each other? I suddenly thought of the traffic light when I see red and green next to each other.

The Sarawak River has cut Kuching City into two parts. Across the river from the Waterfront is the northern part plus the western CBD including Satok area is under the administration of Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara (Kuching North City Hall),   where as from the Waterfront area (southern area of the river) plus the eastern CBD, towards the South China Sea is administered by Majlis Bandaraya Kuching Selatan (Kuching South City Council).  Both MBKS and DBKU have a mayor each except the third local government that administers the rural areas which is called Majlis Perbandaran Padawan (Padawan Municipal Council).

The Sungai Sarawak (Sarawak River) also allows transportation for residents in northern city and visitors from Waterfront to get across the river to go to their destination.  Although there are two bridges that allows cars to get across the river but they are big turns.

Do you notice that this guy’s cap colour is same the his sponsor’s colour? 

The mini ferries are sponsored by local telcos (in red and yellow colours).  Recently there is a new colour for the mini ferries in purple colour, it is sponsored by a five star hotel which is very near to the Waterfront, I do not have the picture of them because when I took these pictures the purple-colour boats have not launched yet.

For tourist you can board the Sarawak River Cruise.  It provides foods and entertainments while bring you around on the Sarawak River.  I have heard that the good time to take this tour is in the evening because you will be able to see the sunset on the river.  This time we did not have enough time to try it, we will try it next time.

A two-legged boat.

I am not sure what this boat is for but it seems like a police boat.

There are also private boats on the river in different shapes.  Some of them even have the plate number just like a car.  In Kuching, the older series of car plate number is QKA xxxx to QKT xxxx, I saw a boat with QKH xxxx.

As I said earlier there are at least 2 ferry landings within the Waterfront area.  Let’s have a closer look.

There is a path on each ferries landing to let you walk down to the boat and there is a green floating platform which will automatically adjust its height according to the water level on the river.  Sometimes it goes up a bit but sometimes it is lower.  It is quite intelligent compare to some other place.  Can you imagine if there is only a small piece of wood that connect the land to the boats?  Many ladies and kids may afraid to get into the boats because they afraid that they will fall into the river.  This will not happen in Kuching Waterfront because the platform is wide enough and you can safely board the boats or mini ferries.

An old man wearing a hat walking towards the ferry landing platform.

These round-shaped shelters allow passenger to sit and wait for the boats, but is also a place for some people to sit there and have a closer look at the river.

This is the first series of Visit My Own Hometown where SiewPeng and I have visited Kuching Waterfront.  There are many other interesting things to see in Waterfront such as the musical fountain, the sunset on the Sarawak River Cruise, and stalls in Waterfront.  We will tell you more next time we visit Waterfront again.  We have our next destination to go on.