pelf-ism is contagious

But it didn’t feel like I was away, did it?

I left for KL on Feb 2nd and spent about 3 days shopping with my Mum and sister till we literally dropped. I didn’t really enjoy shopping because I was never a fan, but I did enjoy the crowds. You know, it wouldn’t feel like Chinese New Year was approaching if there wasn’t a single customer in the shop! I love the bargains, I love trying out new clothes and shoes and I love listening to the Chinese New Year songs being played in shopping complexes.

But of course, all those came with a price. We had to put up with the heavy traffic, we had to hunt for a parking lot in shopping complexes, we had to queue at the cashier’s for practically everything and we had to put up with people who take forever to take our orders and send us our food.

Oh well..

But I’ve had a very enjoyable Chinese New Year celebration (in Ipoh), it was good to be back home and to see that everybody was doing great. We took tonnes of photos too, though I doubt I’d have time to select and upload them. But I’ll definitely share those pictures whenever they’re ready for viewing.

I returned to KT on Feb 12th night, and the last 3 days were spent picking up the bits and pieces of stuff that I left 10 days ago. And Valentine’s Day was celebrated with the love of my life — my Mum

At the moment, I am quite up to my neck planning and designing educational materials that I will be using in my Turtle Education Roadshows which will be conducted in March. So if you have experience working with school children aged 11 and 12 years, or if you have experience designing materials for primary school students, or if you’d like to offer your services (to help design an interactive poster and a T-shirt for the children), I’d be most pleased to hear from you

Till then, take care

This post has been set to auto-publish because I have gone home for my 10-day Chinese New Year holidays!

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is NARROW, and I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about my Mum’s village, Sungai Lembing. Sungai Lembing is a tin mining town some 42 km northwest of Kuantan in the state of Pahang, Malaysia.

A narrow lane in Sungai Lembing by Pelf Nyok.

Until the 1970s, Sungai Lembing was a major producer of underground tin. Sungai Lembing town developed in the 1880’s when the British set up the tin mining industry, although the history of mining in this area extends much further back. From 1891, the Pahang Consolidated Company Limited (PCCL), which was under British control, had a 77-year lease to mine the area. PCCL managed the mine from 1906 until its liquidation in 1986 when world tin prices collapsed. The pit mines were closed in 1986 due to high operational costs and low yields, but during their heyday they were among the largest and deepest in the world. The total tunnel length is 322 km, with a depth of between 610 m and 700 m.

Faded signboard which says “National Mining Workers Union Of Peninsular Malaysia” by Pelf Nyok.

And it was during the British control that Sungai Lembing flourished into a rich town, but after PCCL was closed, the town slowly turned into a sleepy hollow. People no longer remember what Sungai Lembing was once very famous for. People no longer visit the sleepy town because it doesn’t offer them anything anymore.