Welcome Beatrice

Achilles' arrival has been deferred, so says the Gynae.

We are now anticipating Beatrice to be with us on 25 June 09. Long live my daughter Beatrice Chan.

How Achilles or Beatrice will look like today

Today marks the 13th week of Achilles/Beatrice's creation.

Here's how he or she would look like inside Darleng

Achilles @ Week 12

Not exactly clear on pix, but definitely active and kicking in the womb on LCD screen.

Another 28 weeks to go and we have a complete family on board.

Achilles @ Week #8

The clinical visit at Sunway Medical Centre shows a profile pix of Achilles (with little hand waiving to Samantha). He is about 17mm, that's double the size of what he was 2 weeks ago.

Progressing well, I reckon. Pix to be loaded when time permits

Sunset at Miri

The city of Miri's symbol, the statue of the Seahorse stands guard at the mouth of the river, as majestic as the Merlion of Singapore and the Cat statue from Kuching City.

This pix is taken just before sunset from the balcony of my hotel room at Parkcity Everlyotel, located adjacent to Marriott Miri. At USD61 / nite, it is a pleasant place to bunk in (4*). Circa 6 Nov 2008 (sunsets at 6.15pm)


A magnificient view of the sunset a the Luak Beach, where ParkCity Everly Hotel is located. Caught sunrise at Kuantan's Teluk Cempaka recently (where Hyatt Regency Hotel is located), the sunset here completes the saga.

The final minutes before the light vanishes across the South China Sea. Pix taken on wide angle using Panasonic TZ5 (pre-set on 'sunset' mode)

Dinner at nearby popular Taman Selera (equivalent to Medan Selera) food center. Located next to seaside, the sea breeze adds flavour to the ambience. Many stalls are located here, mostly with Chinese names. Popular in East Malaysia (particularly Sarawak) is the Paku vege dish (locally known as Midin). This cost an affordable RM 6.

This one kg plus of delicious crab only lightened my wallet by RM18. I think my wife enjoyed most of this 'crab' thingy.

The fish was rather small for RM 15. Taste wise rather blend. Nothing to shout about. But then, it's only one stall, at least a dozen there.

We visited the Boulevard Shopping Mall located about 5 km from the Hotel. Supposingly the largest (with a hypermart inside). Nothing extraordinary, except the usual cashiers we see in Klang Valley hypermarts are replaced by locals (and they are chinese). Also not seen are the hordes of populace with scarfs and unlike at the Peninsular, we have all races sitting together at the open air chinese restaurants enjoying dinner (much like Kuching).

Will be heading to Brunei tomorrow and take a gasp at Jerudong Park