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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Animal Anecdotes 15 : Maggie went MIA

It's been a long time since I write anything about the Animal Anecdotes. The latest about the doggies  is Maggie the alpha female dog went missing a couple of days ago. It is not known if she is either died or simply has moved on to something else in life. Therefore the current number of farm dogs comes down to a permanent 2 while another one - Blackie, will come and go as she wishes.

I wonder if the 2 dogs - Brownie and Joe will stick around for much longer and whether or not we will see Maggie again in the future. Only time will tell then.

The Yoga Headstand - Shirsha Asana

I woke up one morning this week and out of the blue have a sudden thought to do a headstand. I think my body is sensing that she will be in better health if I am to rotate 180 degrees - legs up and head down for at least a couple of seconds a day. Haha. And I went searching for some proper how to do a yoga headstand in YouTube and I think this is the best video to show you how.

Yoga Headstand - Shirsha Asana

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0-a_RoydT0

The benefits of the Shirsha Asana /Headstand are :

"improves many ailments, such as nervousness, tension, fatigue, sleeplessness, dullness, fear, poor blood circulation, bad memory, asthma, headaches, constipation, congested throat, liver or spleen, for female disorders, the initial stages of eye and nose troubles, and general lack of energy, vitality or self confidence.

It promotes hair growth by increasing circulation to the scalp improved brain function (intelligence and memory) and increased vitality and confidence.

It keeps the spine into correct alignment.

It restores the position of vital organs by reversing gravity.

It improves sleep." - excerpt from www.Holisticcare.com

Do note that people suffering from low and high blood pressure and women who are menstruating should NOT perform this headstand.

So, let's do a headstand now everybody!


Sunday, October 24, 2010

My kind of Running Music: Funktion Won - Kenneth Thomas & Shawn Michaels | Perfecto Vegas Album

Running is a one man, solo game. It is just you running and the next thing after yourself to keep the running momentum going is your running music playlist. My kind of music can be anything from trance, dance, electronica and pretty much anything similar to those kind of genre. All about pure beats and rhythm.

You have to give Funktion Won - Kenneth Thomas & Shawn Michaels a listen if you don't mind listening to cool, vibrating beats and it is yet another must have music in my running music playlist. So what do you have playing in your running playlist?

Funktion Won - Kenneth Thomas & Shawn Michaels (Paul Oakenfold : Perfecto Vegas Album)



You can also have a listen of Funktion Won (The Junkies Remix)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuX9TXZQWso

Lastly, Keep on Running, Yo!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon 2010

The Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon for this year 2010 begins today, 23th October 2010 kicking off in less than 7 hours from now for both Women Open and Men Veteran category. The Men Open will begin the next day on the 24th October 2010 at 7 am. Mount Kinabalu Climbathon is considered as the toughest mountain race in the world where competitors clocked on average of 3 hours on a 21 km race up and down the mountain.

It sounds unbelievable when compared to normal hikers who usually take about 3 to 5 hours only to reach from Timpohan Gate to Laban Rata rest point. That is yet another 2 hours or so from Laban Rata to Low's Peak. If you still can't believe that people actually do run in 3 hours in this climbathon, you really have to check out the video below and see these men run and bounce up the mountain in a breeze. And man, there really have super strong knees to hop down the mountain that quickly.

Video of Mius bin Balinting from Malaysia hopping down the mountain. He finishes third in the Mount Kinabalu Climbathon 2009.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdAajlwWN8M&feature=related

Friday, October 22, 2010

What to have in your travel first-aid kit?

I don't know about you guys, but I'm the kind of person who really like to prepare ahead especially for my travel and one of a must thing to pack is my very own personalized travel first-aid kit. If you think you can save all the trouble of personalizing your own first-aid kit and grab one of those over-the-counter first-aid box instead, oh well, please think again. There are higher chances that you won't get to use much of the stuff in the first-aid kit that you buy in the drugstore. There are always a lot of things missing in the kit that eventually you just need to grab more medicines that you really need for your travel.

Let's have a peek on some of the stuffs I must have in my very own travel first-aid kit. Here's the list:

- Any type of antiseptic cream like Dettol. It's good for prevention of infection in cuts, wounds, grazes, bites, stings and also works great as a sanitizer.

- Paracetamol or Aisprin.

- Flu meds of your choice. I personally use Clarinese because it doesn't make you sleepy or you can have Panadol Soluble as well. A Vicks Inhaler also works well for all your non-stop sniffing.

- In case of diarrhea, I always have some charcoal tablets handy like the Ultracarbon charcoal. You can also get your hands on some antidiarrheal medication or antacid of your choice from the drugstore. Another common brand that is also handy is a couple of sachets of Eno.It is also a type of antacid and works best to ease bloated stomach.

- ORS sachets to be used an an oral rehydration therapy especially during diarrhea.

- If  you know you have some kind of allergy and are prone to have a pretty bad, itchy rashes all over your body, get some prescribed medicines from your pharmacist. You are usually given both tablets and topical antihistamine creams to relieve the symptoms.

- A good tube of sunscreen and aloe vera gel. Aloe vera gel works as an after sun lotion.

- A good stock of adhesive bandages like Band-Aid or Hansaplast.

- Gauze swabs and tape.

- Any kind of deep heating rub. You have a lot of choice really from Tiger Balm (absolutely has no parts of Tiger content involved, just a brand name really) to pretty much any brand from over-the-counter. Deep heating rub or spray is good for mild body ache, sore muscle (especially after long walks during your travel), backache, sprains and joins associated with arthritis.

- A small bottle of hand sanitizer.

I pretty much have all those things pack in a clear zipper/ziploc bag because it's easier to check on the things you have in your first-aid kit right from the outside. Haha. I hope these first-aid kit content will help you to pack for your very own personalized first-aid or meds-kit for your travel. Never ever take simple precautions like this for granted because the least thing you wanted to happen is to get stuck in the airport about to board the plane with a bad diarrhea with no medicine in your pack or even at store in the airport building. Been there, done that. It was awful okay!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Are you going to run for the Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010?

So are you going to run for the Penang Bridge Marathon? If you ask me, my answer is most probably No! Haha.

In case you haven't known already, the Penang Bridge International Marathon a.k.a PBIM for this year 2010 is going to be held on the 21st November, which is roughly about one month from now. Registration is still open until the 31st of this month with no increase of price for every categories. However, the courier service option for your race pack will no longer be available now and you have to personally get your pack at the counter.

Click here to read more about Penang Bridge International Marathon this 21st November 2010

Oh, you may probably want to know why I won't be participating in this run, right? Oh well it's going to be another list of excuses really. Hihi. The fact is I love to run. I even ran almost all the way down from Low's Peak, Mount Kinabalu to Gunting Lagadan. Heck I love running. The reason for not participating this time around like every other time really ( you know I always wanted to run in a marathon) is just because of the timing. I don't think I can spend the next 30 days going through some intensive running practice and the last time I ran a near 5km, was last month and the timing was absolutely pathetic. I think it was more of a walking rather than running.

Anyhow, to my friend, Zue who is going to run on her first marathon which is the 10km category, I wish you a lot of luck and I hope you'll have a great time running. Oh my, am I really sure I'm going to miss out on this? *contemplating probably until the last day of registration ends. :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A sigh of relief...

This is yet another unrelated post on nothing at all on travel, sports and outdoor adventure. I'm just going to put up a post to cover up for a couple of days of missing posts. Anyways, the past couple of days have been extremely exhausting. All thanks to the blistering hot and dry weather, a great combination for extreme dehydration if you have to spend hours under the hot sun chasing 'animals'. Haha. That's a different story all together. Really, I kid you not.

Oh well, getting to the point...

I'm finally, I hope, can breathe a sigh of relief because I think I'm done with attending major weddings for this year. Haha. I think I've attended way too many weddings from typical kenduri weddings, to super protocol-classy (if you think so)-vip guests weddings, temple wedding (a real eye opener for me, was gawking at all time. haha), nice sit down - only close friends dinner reception with an after dinner hitting the dance floor party (so syiok), grand hall wedding and later on everyone goes crazy dancing in their sarees (this was fun crazy time too!). Pretty much I've attended weddings after weddings and I had lots of fun with every single one of them but...at the end of the day, there is always a but. Haha.

Probably I just had about enough of attending typical same old weddings. If only someone can come up with a crazy-fun wedding reception, let say casual beach wear with awesome bbq by the beach and some awesome after party, I'm pretty sure I'll be more than excited to attend it. Hehe.

On the other hand, weddings are pretty much the only time me and my mates get to have a tiny reunion, well at least something we had managed to do annually besides gathering at Chillies, Midvalley year after year. The wedding I'd attended last weekend was really great because three of my mates brought their little less than a year old babies along. Everyone got a tad too excited snapping pictures with the babies that we eventually made a little photo session group with the mamas, dads, babies and exactly two single girls...haha...completely and undeliberately overshadowing the newly weds sitting right behind us on the pelamin. Sorry Naz, we had forgotten about you for just a couple of minutes.

So yeah, I'm pretty happy all went well for all the wedding receptions that I'd attended and I guess, I better start buying proper outfit to prep up for next year's wedding ceremonies. By far, there should be about 2 weddings next year, if only I'm invited of course. :)

Friday, October 15, 2010

I think I need to go somewhere someplace...

As much as I really wanted to go out and go somewhere someplace, the reality is I really can't. Not now or not until end of the year. Well at least until I get some major major things going and I'm just going to go with the mantra that let all good come and be easy while  all bad be hard or all bad - shoo away please.

On another note, my dad is right now on his motorbike Euro trip. He is going to be there roughly for about 2 months. The last update that I got a couple of days ago, he was in France, just crossed over from the UK. It is already fall( it is already cold out there) and it is actually off-season for bikers to go riding. However, if you set your mind and determined enough to do something, regardless of anything, you will get over things. It's all mind over matter.

[caption id="attachment_1323" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dad on his Kawasaki KLR, not the one used for his Euro trip"][/caption]

My dad is traveling solo and on his rented motorcycle. I don't have any idea on the exact model of the bike he is traveling with but I do know it has to be one of those dual purpose or dual sport motorcycle. He is going totally old school and basic with no high-end GPS, relying solely on maps like how the family used to travel around the UK back in the 90's. It is too bad that he doesn't update his blog - Ride a bike travel on the go or what more tweet on his whereabouts. Haha. I suppose when you are traveling alone especially on the motorbike, you ought to focus more on the riding and experiencing the view rather than tweeting all the time. I think he got his little journal along with him, so we are going to have to wait on what he may be sharing on his trip at his blog: later on after he gets back.

Anyways, the whole point is, if you think you want to do something so much, just go out there, plan for it and just do it. I don't know about you, but for me, I'm dedicating my time to do the things I wanted to do and accomplish Right Now! I don't want to wait until I'm 'older' to do something. Life is so precious and if you haven't realized just yet, the clock seems to be ticking much faster these days. If you think you need to go somewhere someplace, go ahead, just GO!

Photo Essay : The trees, the green and the course

It's simply amazing on how much joy you can have when you immersed yourself amongst decades old trees and the greenery. The best part of all, you don't have to go far to enjoy this. Go out to your nearest parks, jungle tracks as well as that huge, green golf course you see all the time by the roadside - of course with this one, you got to somehow sneak yourself through the course. Haha.


A twin tower trees!




Somewhere near the bunker ( the pit of sand), that one tree is sticking out from its peers. It got struck by lightning, perhaps?



A perspective shot



Beautiful flowers littering the ground



Nature's humongous canopy



Myself, attempting to capture the panorama view of this super tall tree. It looks slightly crooked in this picture. In reality, the tree is very straight indeed. My best shot so far after three attempts to capture the panoramic view of this very tree.



Light green on dark brown. The red color thingy at the back is our turfmate. Hehe.



Leaves silhouette.



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Life's a dream - Lighthouse Family

Just want to share with ya'll this song : Life's a dream by Lighthouse Family. It's an old song, nothing new. It's about chasing your dream and going for it. If you are right now, sitting and loathing just about everything especially about work, probably it is high time to sit down and chase 'the dream'. Think about it you know.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTRAs_d4g2k

Life's a dream lyrics by Lighthouse Family:

What you gonna do with your Life?
When you gonna spend your time?
The way that you've always wanted
When you gonna make up your mind?
You won't get anywhere until
You know what it is you really want to do

And when you know where you're going to
There'll be no stopping you

If only you could remember your dream
You could be all the things you've always wanted to be

What's been stopping you all this time?
The worst thing that could happen ain't as bad

As you thought it would be
When you gonna go out and shine?
Cos sitting around just thinking about it
Ain't ever gonna do you any good

And when you know where you're going to
There'll be no stopping you

If only you could remember your dream
You could be all the things you've always wanted to be

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Gunung Ledang closure starting 8th October 2010

On my previous posts, I mentioned about giving a pass on Gunung Ledang trip that a friend of mine had arranged for November. Sometime last week, the said friend of mine mentioned that the Gunung Ledang trip has to be postponed altogether because starting from the 8th October, hiking activity on the mountain is not allowed. We are not entirely sure on why entrance to the mountain is closed but I'm pretty sure there are some safety concerns that resulted to the closure. As to when the entrance to Gunung Ledang will be opened back to the public, it is currently unknown.

So, I suppose if you are planning to make a trip up Gunung Ledang this month, you gotta make some amendments to that and worry not because there are other mountains to look forward to in the Peninsula Malaysia i.e. you can try to attempt the Trans Cameron expedition or if you are really tough and super fit, why not have a go at Trans Titiwangsa as well.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Photo Essay : The Beach-Langkawi, Malaysia

This is going to be the first of hopefully many series of future photo essays on YaszAmzah.com. For now, I'm going to start out with some photos of the beach and sea in Langkawi, Malaysia.


Nice weather, very breezy and not so hot for  4ish pm at Pantai Cenang, Langkawi.



A little boy playing by himself at the beach. His mum is running a small food stall on the beach, selling drinks and laksa. While his dad is running the boat business chartering tourists around the island.



Three little islands not so far away from shore located somewhere in Tanjung Rhu, Langkawi.



A white catamaran looking almost blue from the reflection of the blue sea. This photo is taken early in the morning just before 7 am.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The Season - the best outdoor sports video series

Are you an adrenaline junkie? Do you love the outdoor adventure? Does these sports - snowboarding, rock climbing, mountain climbing, paddling and mountain biking trigger a jolt of excitement for you? If you answer Yes to all of them, you certainly got to check The Season out.

The season is a 22-episode series on five different athletes doing the thing they love to do from snowboarding, bouldering, climbing, paddling and mountain biking. The season is claimed to be "The best outdoor sports video series" by Matador Network and I couldn't agree more on that. To experience the thrill of these outdoor sports, check out all episodes from The Season at their site : www.theseasontv.com

Work Hard, Play Hard by Tiësto feat Kay

If you haven't already known, I'm a big time DJ Tiesto fan. Yay! Work hard, play hard has been out on Tiesto's Myspace playlist for quite sometime now but I'm still loving it over and over again. =). Work hard and play hard all the time okay people!

You can listen to Work Hard, Play Hard by Tiesto featuring Kay for free from the YouTube link below or from Tiesto's Myspace link here.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6paCBds-rKI

For more songs on Tiesto's Album -  Kaleidoscope, click the play button on the playlist below.