Finally found time to scrapbook

After our anniversary, I started helping Simon in the family hardware business. Very big change from the world of corporate communications to hardware. But it's good to learn something new. Besides, if I were to practice CC here in Miri, I need to improve my Malay by leaps and bounds!

I finally found time to complete my take for a SB challenge where I had to feature kid's drawings and use the title "Undiscovered Picasso". Since Jonathan can't draw at 10months, I managed to get a friend to ask her son to draw me anything. Turns out 11yr old Danny loves drawing characters from Pokemon. I didn't have any SB mojo until the last min, where I found that the drawings fit Prima's Printables range.
I trimmed all the characters and their names and used this cityscape piece, so the cartoon characters looks like they've conquered the city. And we found a photo of Danny wearing a hoodie, so like a graffiti artist. Here's my take. Gosh, I haven't used colour pencils for a long time... and below is a close-up of the artist.

No Catch Report for 9 May Luconia Fishing Trip

I managed to join one of the senior fishing kaki team for this Miri, Luconia Jigging Trip. We were all prepared to get the 40kg GTs and Amberjacks at 2 of the famous oil rigs.

However 1 week before our trip, the ship owner lost his smaller boat (was meant to get nearer to the oil rig platform for fishing) during the towing. So here was the 1st bad new to our trip - no more fishing at the oil rigs.

To add matter worse, mother nature decided to act up on the day we set sail. The tail of the Typhoon Matmo that will travelling along South China Sea toward Philipine wanted to pay us a visit.

The red circle indicated here was the location where we were fishing.

We met at least 1-2m swells along the way to Luconia. The 19 hours trip there was no joke even to the season anglers. We had a super old wooden fishing boat which could only travel at 9 knots again the swell. I puked twice along the way and had to lie down on my back all the way to feel better. Most of us will resting to conserve as much energy as we could before we reached our 1st spot.

So many equipments were being brought for this trip.

Rods - Sevenseas, Gensis, Shimano Jigwrex, Jigging Master.

Reels - Shimano Ocea Jigger 4000, 5000, Stella 20000, Twinpower 8000PG, Triton TSS4, Daiwa Saltiga.

Terminal Jigs - more than 100 pcs ranging from 250g to 600g (fishing depth: 100-200m)

Leader Line- 125 -200 lbs (1.0-1.5mm dia)

Upon reaching the 1st spot, Tony, Louis, Tiong and Mark dropped their 300g jigs down and hoping something would bite along the way. Nothing came out after trying for 15 mins at the 1st spot. We decided to go to another spot nearby to try.

All in all we tried 3 spots and only small bites were felt on the jigs, but no hook on. I think most of the fishes decided to stay home because of the Typhoon.

We decided to sail back 1 day earlier as multiple storms were brewing at the horizon and the swells were getting stronger and stronger. One of the Lao Chiao suggested to call it a day as it was too dangerous to jig on wooden platform without a safety railing and the swells did not make the jigging experience better. Better to be safe than sorry, I just followed their advice to turn back. I lied down most of the time to make myself felt better.

I am glad that I am back inshore safely after 30+ hrs of boat ride and only 30 mins + of jigging. When I got the news regarding the tychoon sweeping through the South China Sea, I thank God for his protection during this trip. After this trip, I will only go for shorter distance (nearer to the shore) to fish liao. No point of travelling so far and no fish would be caught.

Scrapping Challenges

I took part in two online scrapping challenges on Scrap n Crop's forum in May 2008. The first one challenge required us to scrap an old photo of ourself and use a min of two Basic Grey patterned papers and journaling of any kind. Luckily, my mom visited me the weekend before the deadline closed and brought two old photos of me.


I submitted two designs. The first 'The best of times - a walk in the garden', I used a craft knife to cut out the intricate flower design. I thought it would be difficult and I would have blisters at the end of it. But no lah. In the photo, my mom brought mr bro and me for a walk in the garden together with our neighbour and her daughter. All the kids had been bribed with biscuits so we were looking at the camera.

In the 2nd design, I cut the pp into strips and crimped them into a frame (followed ki Memories instructions for Paper Accent). Then I cut another piece to be part of the frame. This was fun and I finished the piece in an hour.

In the end, my first design won. The design team had difficulty choosing and she also chose another two winners.


In the second challenge, we had to scrap using the quote "There is no measure greater than this: the joy that comes from a child's happiness". Simon had taken Jon's photo one morning and captured Jon laughing and showing his first two teeth. I didn't have any mojo and decided to leave the pieces on the cardstock for two days. Then I played around with the placement and added more embellishments. they all fell into place.

Guess what? I won too! and I got this RAK (random act of kindness) as a prize.