Monday, December 26, 2011

Sayang Kinabalu, The Versatile and Liebster Award

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
A Giant Russian Sunflower bloom for us on Christmas day.

Usually at the end of the year my family will usually spend this part of the year on the Land below of the wind which is Sabah one of the Malaysia state that is  one part of Borneo island. My Japanese friends will come and visit Sabah tomorrow and my parents will entertain them as my replacement. I hope they enjoy their visit there very much. The last time we were in Sabah was December 2007 and Ilhan was still a baby learning how to sit.
Bamboo Orchestra- Sayang Kinabalu (Loving Kinabalu)


Tinggi Tinggi Gunung Kinabalu (As high as you are Mount Kinabalu)
Tinggi lagi sayang sama kamu (Higher is my love for you)
Biru biru hujung Kinabalu tengok dari jauh (How sky blue is Kinabalu peak appear from faraway)
Hati saya rindu... (My heart miss you Kinabalu)

Kinabalu dekat di Kundasang (Kinabalu is close to Kundasang)
Banyak sayur boleh pilih pilih (So many vegetables to choose from there)
Apa guna pergi luar negeri (What is the use going overseas)
Naik Kinabalu hati saya rindu... (My heart miss climbing Kinabalu)

Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in South-East Asia (higher than Mt. Fuji). Although, it is a few hours drive away from my mama village, we can clearly see its peak on a sunny day. There are many beautiful diving sites in Sabah. My brother obtained his scuba diving license recently and hopefully I get to dive with him to enjoy the ocean garden that can be very mesmerising. He probably has to refresh my memory about diving basic since its been almost 10 years? that I last did scuba diving.

I would like to thank Phoebe from Ballynoe Cottage for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks to Jody (Spring Garden Acre) and Lrong (Potager Y @ Japan) for the Liebster Award.
I feel very honoured and humble that our blog was selected.

"Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. 
The Liebster is awarded to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.

Now for the rules (I just copy and paste it):
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun!

So without any particular order, here are some of the blogs that we have enjoyed reading that we like to pass on the Versatile Blogger Award and Liebster Blog:

Angelina~ The Meow Factor;
A cat with her big family which is involved in many different kind of charities and organisation. Ehem... I hope their balcony garden will be fill up with many plants soon. They are very good in Maths. Always wonder how they did they came up with big numbers so soon.

Liz~Suburban Tomato;
She has a very productive veggie garden. She lives in Australia too but her winter is a little bit colder than us. Amazingly, she harvest her vegetables all year round. Check out her nice recipes as well.

Sean L~ Half A Pound Of Treacle;
He writes on a wide range of topics and very thoroughly did  research regarding the topic he posted. I learn many new things from his blog such as about Malaysia native plants, cultural festival, and beautiful places to visit. His balcony is growing with many variety of plants. It must be an amazing sight when people look up to his balcony garden from below.

Sue~Our Plot At Green Lane Allotments;
I learn a lot from her about gardening and I enjoy looking at her nature and wildlife photos too. There are many useful links in her blog for novice gardener on how to grow things. Sue very good at knowing good and bad insects in the garden too.

Lena~Frozen Wings;
Each time Lena posted new recipes on her cooking blog, I am so amazed on how creative she is. One day, I hope she teach me how to bake. I remember how she made our traditional kuih pulut panggang look like sushi.

I hope you visit this wonderful blogs and enjoyed the music as well.

28 comments:

Mark Willis said...

Hi Diana; It's nice for us to learn a little of your family history and background. In my Army days I spent some time in Brunei, and I also visited Sarawak, so I can imagine what Sabah is like.
Did you know that I was born in Malaysia? (Ipoh, Perak).

Congrats on the receipt of your awards, BTW. Richly deserved!

cikmanggis said...

tahniah dapat awards hehe:)...suka dengar budak budak tiup alat muzik tu...Insyallah ada rezeki nak melawat Kundasang....

Cassie @ Melbourne said...

I am glad that your sunflower bloomed so beautifully, my prominence sunset sunflower which bloomed in the morning, smashed by the hail storm in the afternoon. It was devastating.

Sunray Gardens said...

That Sunflower is beautiful!
Cher Sunray Gardens

cathy@home said...

I love the Sunflower and the trip back home I bet you must be a little homesick I know I am.

Mr. H. said...

Merry Christmas, the music was wonderful.:)

rainfield61 said...

Wish you a successful 2012.

And many achievements setinggi Gunung Kinabalu.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Sabah has special names for veggies. I remembered sayur "pahit" and another one sayur "manis".... Happy New Year.

Stephanie said...

I have not been there. My husband has been telling me about KK and how nice is the place. I wish to be there one day ;-) Enjoy your holidays and have a great week.

Liz said...

I would love to visit Sabah one day- it sounds lovely. Thank you so much for the award I really appreciate it! I love your sunflower - a lovely way to end to year! I have really enjoyed finding and reading your blog this year - thankyou!

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

What a treat that beautiful sunflower on Christmas Day. I enjoyed reading about how your family enjoys the holidays. May your garden continue to do well and Happy New Year!

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Auwww MKG!!!! I'm so honoured. When we started blogging wayyyy back in 2006, it was basically as an outlet for my Mama to rave and rant...which I gradually take over as my 3R skills improve. Anyway, thanks for the award...much appreciated. purrr....meow!

Malar said...

Gunung Kinabalu must be very beautiful place! Hope you can go back soon!

Sean L said...

What a beautiful sunflower for Christmas. I missed the opportunity to go up Mt Kinabalu the last time I went to Sabah, and only get to admire it from afar. Congrats on your awards. So honoured to have you name my blog for the Liebster Award. Thank you so much :-)

kitchen flavours said...

Congratulations on the awards!
I have not been to Sabah yet, came back from Kuching trip just recently.
Your Sunflower is really huge and beautiful!
Happy New Year!!

shaz said...

Awww, hopefully you'll get to return to your family di Negeri di Bawah Bayu very soon. You truly deserve your award :)

kitsapFG said...

Loved the music, lyrics/poem, and the images you paint of your home. I hope you can visit there again soon.

Jody said...

It's been a little while since we gave you that award and we still think you're the best! We're glad you could pass it along!

Lrong Lim said...

Didn't know you scuba too... my missus and I are fond of going to the islands off Sabah to scuba... our last trip was in July...

Sue Garrett said...

Thank you so much for the award and mention. I'm trying hard to decide who to pass it on to as many of the blogs I visit either already have the award or don't use Blogger so I don't know how many followers they have.

I'll keep thinking though

kumittyi said...

I enjoyed the music very much.It is very beautiful and pastoral,isn't it?
And I have just googled Mt.Kinabalu and Sabah.
Your hometown is really beautiful place,I think.
I'm going back my parents' house tomorrow with my family by car.
I hope You and your family will have a Great year 2o12.

Jody said...

We got your seeds! Hooray. I can't wait to plant them. We'll start the Chervil right away. And Aussie brown onions, Kai-lan, larkspur and dill... Hooray. Thank you so much for the Christmas gift. It makes us feel so good to be thought of by you and your family.

Autumn Belle said...

I love KK too! Rindu sama rindu. Selamat Menyambut Tahun Baru 2012!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mark~I remembered that you were born in Ipoh. The East Malaysia and Malaysia Peninsular is really different in a lot of things.So its really interesting to visit many parts of Malaysia.

Cikmanggis~Nanti kalau kebetulan saya ada dekat Sabah bolehlah bawa jalan-jalan.

Cassie~Sorry to hear about the storm. Weather so strange all over Australia. Here we are facing extreme heat for New Year. Many of our plants perished.

Cher~It has a very cheerful happy face.

Cathy~Always feel homesick during festive season.

Mr. H~Happy that you enjoyed the music. Hope you have A Happy New Year and more chance to ice skate.

Rainfield61~I don't have many aims for next year. But I do hope I can finish my studies.

Bangchik and Kakdah~Yes, they do have different names of vegetables here compared to semenanjung. Same as roti as well, roti paun will be bread and roti will be biscuits.

Stephanie~Hope you will have the chance to travel to Sabah. Many things to do and experience there.

Liz~I did not plant many sunflower this year compared previous year. So I was really happy that this one bloom before the extreme summer weather came. I am glad that I get to know you through your blog.

Gardener on Sherlock Street~It is a wonderful treat to have them blooming through the festive season. Stay warm and I wonder if it will be a white new year for you as well like Christmas day.

Cat-from-Sydney~Selamat tahun baru and hope you all have a merry day.

Malar~My mother culture use to believe that the soul will return to Kinabalu after death. Kinabalu were believed as a spiritual and sacred place.

Sean L~There are always second chance;). I have not climb it either. I have climbed Mt. Fuji and other Mountain in Japan but not yet our Kinabalu.

Joyce~Sounds like you have a lovely trip to Kuching. Next you can plan on going to Sabah.

Shaz~Rindulah balik kampung.

KitsapFG~I hope so too that I can go back home soon.

Jody~Thank you so much for the award. Hope you have heap fun with those seeds.

Lrong~I enjoyed scuba diving very much. Hope our kids grow faster and can tag along with us soon. There are so many beautiful island in Sabah. I do hope that it will stay that way with proper planning for development.

Sue~Felt the same way.It was not easy to decide which blog to pass it on.

Kumittyi~My Japanese friends just visited my parents in Sabah and really enjoyed their stay there. Happy New Year to you.

Autumn Belle~I miss the fresh seafood there in KK!

mummyseri said...

salam kenal, saya rindu kk, rindu lagu itu juga..

mummyseri said...

salam kenal, saya tuka link ye ;)

lena said...

oh, thank you for sharing the award with me. i teach you how to cook and you teach me gardening. Deal?? haha!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mummyseri~Salam perkenalan. Oh memang teramat rindu.

Lena~You got a deal...hehehe...