Ich bin eins mit der Natur and Coffee

Spiffy-looking mobile shop for ZUS Coffee at Seremban Southbound R&R

I've been an admirer of ZUS COFFEE brand from quoting them as a case study for my reflective essay on Corporate Innovation & Entrepreneurship subject under my Online Distance Learning MBA program and always looking out for the nearest outlet whenever I am in Johor, Selangor, KL or any other states in Peninsular Malaysia in order to complete the written assignments for the subjects under my MBA program whilst I sustain my momentum with a cup or cup(s) of Americano. It is after all, one of Malaysia's homegrown brand of coffee shop outlets, expanding beyond their outlets to selling off-the-shelf beverages in Familymart chains, supermarkets and hypermarkets competing with the likes of established brands such as Starbucks. One of the strategic marketing collaboration ZUS Coffee did was with Niko Neko on their Matcha Macam campaign back in June 2024 which you can read about HERE. Their marketing video featured a cat licking the screen of the poster featuring the Matcha-flavoured drinks such as their latte series which can be viewed HERE. What goes well with coffee? Pastries & puffs, of which I am reminded of a lovely cafe along Old Klang Road called Le Pont which is also a bakery. Love their cream puffs which contain both strawberry and chocolate fillings. I use to buy these for my niece and nephew. Le Pont Patisserie website can be viewed HERE      

Cream Puffs at Le Pont with KKs

Further up north along the borders of Selangor (Hulu Selangor) and Perak (Tanjung Malim), rivers flow with crystal clear waters where one can peer into the bottom filled with sand, pebbles, stones, rocks and leaf litter. The first spot where I encountered such a clean flowing river was in Tanjung Malim, Perak. Alexandra Vasiliu (Romanian writer) wrote a book entitled "Blooming: Poems on Love, Self-Discovery and Femininity" which included a poem about the river as part of   as below:-

My heart is a river.

Come closer,

dive into my waters,

and quench your thirst.

I am giving you all my love

According to the Germans Ich bin eins mit der Natur is to be one with nature. More Waldeinsamkeit moments are captured in the next blog.

River flows quietly and serenely which makes me feel likewise

A small wooden plank leads one towards the river

Of Gulls, Terns and Sweet Childhood Memories

Seagulls or terns are mentioned in a soulful song Awan Yang Terpilu (Lonely Cloud) sang by Ning Baizura. An extract from the first lines of that song:-

Kerana cinta

Aku kembara

Bagai camar melintas laut

Mencari pohon untuk berteduh

Full lyrics are available HERE.  

Seabirds portal (screenshot below) with an interesting seabird life history database which reflects the global population trend of species such as Whiskered Tern (stable), Chinese Crested Tern (decreasing), Little Tern (decreasing), Little White Tern (stable) etc.

I would be transported back to my childhood in Kedah whenever I tasted the Nian Gao which were made by Aunty Yong (the sweetcakes as pictured below). She has a sister who lives in Kedah whom she visits often. I bought two of Aunty Yong's Nian Gao earlier this year hoping to relive the days when my late grandmother would cut a thin slice of the Kedah homemade sweet-cake for me when I requested to have some during my stay with her in my maternal family home in Lunas. I discovered the Permatang Pauh ricefields are located close to Lunas when I birded around that area with friends back in 2016, which can be read HERE.  More information about Permatang Pauh can be read HERE.

During my legal practice days, my taxi driver Mr. Khoo would stop by Yong Peng, Johor for morning breakfast, before we reach Johor Bahru. The journey to JB from Segamat started at 5am for both of us. We'd have a good breakfast in Yong Peng before I hit the courts and land office in JB for a day of non-stop work. On our way back to Segamat, Mr. Khoo recommended a local pastries shop called Eng Hin. It was a happy moment for me to learn that Eng Hin is still running their pastries business (their shopfront as pictured below). Their traditional Chinese biscuits are chewy and not sweet. The iPackTravel website blogger's yummy review of Eng Hin biscuits can be read HERE.  

A well-hidden noodles manufacturer was discovered recently in Yong Peng. Mee Hock Chew signage was plastered against a nostalgic-looking wooden house and it was this signage that led me to the location of this one-storey noodles shop-lot. The delicious smell of the freshly boiled noodles stopped me in my tracks. Who says one can only get free smells of cookies:) I could not resist buying their home-made mee suah and yee mee varieties. It looks like Mee Hock Chew is a major supplier to a number of restaurants according to their Facebook page HERE. A scene from the first Kung Fu Panda movie about Mr. Ping, the duck/goose character who just want to make the wonderful noodles and who wants to learn how to make tofu concludes this post.  

Lion Dance Brings Festive Cheer To Bernama

Lion Dance Brings Festive Cheer To Bernama: Lion Dance, SEA Limited, Bernama, Terence Siau, Ch

OCBC Chinese New Year 2025 themed red packets featured the lion head, gold fish, orange and flower - quirky and colourful. The front portion of the ang pow packets as pictured above. The flip-side of the ang pow packets features pairs as pictured below:-

OCBC Chinese New Year greetings can be viewed HERE. To digress, the Malaysian ccTLD operator introduced a virtual keyboard popup when Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) were introduced back in 2011 for .MY where users could register three scripts which were Jawi, Chinese (Simplified) and Tamil at the second level of .MY. Registrations were free of charge back then. The operator has since stopped accepting new registrations. However, the early registrants of IDNs could still use the virtual keyboard (as pictured below) to find out about the status of the previously registered IDN domain names. 

A website which also featured IPv6 address shortener as well as an IDN punycode converter tool, amongst others can also be explored HERE. Am grateful my sister from Singapore could spend CNY this Year of the Wood Snake in KL and Johor. She wouldn't approve of me posting pictures of her in my blog so I'd like to just share a picture of a macaroon with the auspicious character "Prosperity" below which reminded me of a short morning break we had at the Mill Bakery cafe in Desa Sri Hartamas before we resumed the hectic preparations and chores to be done. This will be the final post on CNY 2025 from yours truly. Here's to more adventures and memorable moments to be experienced for the year ahead.