This year’s Chinese New Year is especially different. It is warmer than usual… Maybe it’s the weather — it’s been quite hot lately. Maybe it is the lion dance that came to our house (courtesy of the developer, SP Setia). Or maybe it is the first time we’re actually celebrating Chinese New Year in Setia Alam. But I think it’s because this year, we had very dear friends dropping by to visit us.

On the second day of Chinese New Year, Steven & family and Jonathan dropped by for a visit. It was Jonathan’s first visit to our place. As for Steven & family, it was not their first to our place but we are equally happy and very touched each time they dropped by. It’s hard to see both of them since Jonathan lives in Singapore while Steven’s family is in Perak.

On the third day of Chinese New Year, we had Derrell & Su Fei, Dean & family, Kean Lai & family and Jude dropping by! Both Mrs Tai and I were extremely delighted by the visit! To me, visits from old friends are even better than visits from ‘Choy San Yeh’ (God of Prosperity). This year, besides the usual chatting and catching up, we also compared notes on being new parents — yup, Dean, Kean Lai and Derrell became fathers last year too (it’s the second one for Dean)!

Here are some photos of the lion dance (mouse-over the photos for caption)…

And here’s a photo with three of the babies — Katherine (Kean Lai), Matthew (Derrell) and Gabriel. But have to really look hard for the babies in the photo… heh heh…

Thank you everyone for making this CNY so special… And yes, I know there’s going to be another group coming this Saturday!

Hmmm… If you’re waiting for an invite, please don’t. As always, you dun need an invitation to drop by our place. We welcome family and friends all the time!

Not to be confused with our daughter Seraphine, SARA is an online community that started back in 2006. It started when a group of potential Setia Alam property buyers met in an online property forum and thought it would be great to have a forum dedicated to the new township. Within weeks, the domain setiaalam.net was registered and SARA was born. SARA forum was created not too long after that. SARA is short for Setia Alam Residents’ Association though it’s not really a legal association (yet?!?).

It is a project that I have been involved with from the start and I’m very proud to see how SARA has grown into a beautiful ‘girl’. The forum has been particularly popular and useful to potential buyers as well as existing owners. It has become the online place for potential buyers, owners and residents to gather and discuss issues related to the township (as well as other things like gossips, politics, movies, etc).

When SARA first started, I was not sure how the response would be. I was lucky to have a friend in the web hosting business. Sherman helped out by providing SARA with a very affordable home. This helped keep the running expenses low — we wanted SARA to be FREE for all and not be ‘tied’ to any corporate sponsor. In just three years, SARA forum has become quite successful — we have close to 3000 members and more importantly, it has helped and benefited many. Site statistics shows SARA getting what I would say is a reasonably good traffic (for a site run by amateurs).

An average of 6000 pageviews a day!

Being the site admin and moderator of such an active community website is truly an eye-opener as well as a great learning experience. We need to be constantly updating and staying ahead of spammers. Then there’s also the need to ensure no flamewar starts in the forum. However, it is something that I have passion for — not the admin and moderator stuffs, but in helping to make the site useful to the community.

But it is also very time consuming trying to maintain and moderate the site and forum. Mrs Tai will know… Day in, day out, I constantly check on the site to make sure all’s running well. Sometimes members will text me to let me know if something is not right, etc…

I believe SARA has reached the point where she is becoming an ‘adult’. She have her own ‘path’ to follow. I have also begun to feel that I have outlived my usefulness and will not able to serve SARA the way that I would like to. So, it is with a heavy heart when I give her away… Yup, I’m planning to give SARA away and I leave it to the two moderators to help look for a new ‘owner’.

As for me, I can surely do with the extra time for my family. I also have some idea on my next project(s) for the community. Oh well, one step at a time…

This one arrived this afternoon…

My brother bought a place in Setia Alam recently and put me as the referrer. It gave me enough points to redeem a bicycle and a microwave…

Little by little, day by day… The home becomes more complete… And cluttered! But what the heck, we’re loving every bit of it!

Oh ya, if you’re getting a property by SP Setia and don’t have anyone as referrer, can put me as referrer?

A few months back, our garden looked like this…

Mini jungle!

As you know, a few weeks back, we started work on our garden. Well, we didn’t actually do it ourselves… Instead, we outsourced it to two contractors — one for the wall and one for the grass. Here are some photos showing the work done over the past few weeks…

Piling works for the wall… Bakau piles were used.

No more chain-link fence!

Work in progress…

The front part of the garden…

More work in progress, this time at the car porch

Almost completed…

Want to know how it all turned out — the wall and the grass? Well…
(more…)

This arrived today…

It’s a Lerun Solaris mountain bike (MTB). It comes with:
FRAME : Alloy
FRONT FORK : Zoom Suspension fork
HANDLEBAR : Steel Rise bar
HANDLE STEM : Ritchey Aheadset
HEADSET : Oversized Ahead set
DRIVETRAIN : Shimano Altus mix 21-SP
TYRES & TUBE : Deli 26×2.00
RIMS : Alloy Single wall
COLOURS : Silver, Red
HUBS : Formula Alloy w/QR

Honestly… If you ask me, I don’t know what the above specs mean. I got them off the LeRun website. All I know is… I like it! I’ve been wanting to buy a bicycle for quite a while now… Ever since we moved into Setia Alam. But I had always put off the plan as there was just not enough money to spend…

Recently SP Setia added new redemption items and the MTB was one of the items available for redemption. Yup, I got it free though SP Setia’s privilege points redemption program. If you buy a house with them, you get some points. If you refer family and friends (who become purchasers), then you also get points.

Now I can cycle to the shops, absorb the fresh air in Setia Alam, etc…

Oh ya, in case you wanna buy a SP Setia house, do put me as referrer!

We’ve moved in for a year… Lots of things happened and didn’t happen in this one year…

Things that ‘happened’…
* got cabinets from Ikea
* Gerger went missing… Then was found and back with us…
* planted grass and flowers
* got a washing machine
* made several trips to UMMC
* signed up for organic vegetables delivery service
* got an aircond for our room…
* found a turtle
* garden (grass and flowers) all died…
* got another sofa… Ya, we have two… The first one was ‘rejected’ by many family members…
* Gabriel

Things that didn’t happen…
* some cabinets from Ikea is still not assembled yet. Well, I’ve still got a few days before the year officially ends…
* yet to do up the garden again….
* given up on ‘cleaning’ up and doing the finishing touches to the house… Never say you’ll do something after you move in… You’ll just end up being too lazy to do it…
* strike the jackpot… heh heh… Don’t buy, how to strike?!?
* Gerger is still not back with us yet. Wall is currently being done. Then there’s the grass. Then Gerger will be back with us…

OK, that about sums up one year…

And MeRrY Christmas…!!!

Setia Alam is new township and is barely more than 5 years old. It has its shares of issues. But one thing I noticed is that the residents there are quite friendly and helpful. I guess we’re also blessed to have wonderful neighbours.

Personally, I’ve been quite involved in Setia Alam. No, I do not work for the developer, SP Setia. Besides the SARA website, I’ve also been involved with MPP Zone 21. MPP stands for Majlis Perwakilan Penduduk and it is a committee formed by the local council, MBSA. Shah Alam is divided into different zones and Setia Alam comes under Zone 21.

MPP’s role is to organise activities on behalf of MBSA and be the liaison between MBSA and the local residents. My project for this year is to organise a series of gotong-royong. The first was held today. While the turn out was not as good as I had hoped, it was still good. I was particularly happy to see kids joining and having fun! These days, it is uncommon to find a gotong-royong event, what more in an urban area… So, many kids don’t really have a chance to join and have first hand experience in this activity called Gotong-Royong. I’m glad things are different in Setia Alam. I guess that’s also because the residents here are different and care for the township…

Just wanna share some photos taken today…

From what I could gather, those who helped out at the gotong-royong felt it was too short. Many felt there were more that could be done and achieved. If only we had more time and more volunteers. I felt the same too — Just too many things to do. And there’s a lot that can be improved… And things will definitely improve when we have the next one in January 2010!

This is my neighbour’s house… I believe it has been rented out to Tesco workers. So much for Corporate Social Responsibility… Or maybe this is part of Tesco’s green effort?

One can get lost in this thick jungle

Have to admire their green concept… But if the creepers lock the door, won’t it become a fire hazard?

While I love greens, I also believe there should be some sort of ‘management’. As you can see, the greens have invaded into neighbouring gardens, including mine. I was quite upset… I tried contacting the owner. He said he would contact the tenant. I also dropped Tesco a ‘feedback’ but no reply as well. All those were done about a month back.

But today, we decided we had enough and would not let our garden be turned into a jungle… So, we did what we could and got someone to cut the grass (and clear the jungle on our side)… Ya, I know… So much for DIY…

My garden after a ‘haircut’.

It really looks nicer now… And neat! But not sure if the cat is going to continue to visit us… And I guess there’ll be less butterflies too… Still, when you look at the before and after photo below, I’m sure you know what I mean when I say it really looks much better…

Before (L) and after (R) the cut

Mrs Tai showed me this photo she took this afternoon…

The curious visitor…

She said this visitor has been walking around our compound every day. Today, it wanted to try and come into the house. It did not realise Mrs Tai was inside… Until Mrs Tai took the photo. I guess that explains the BIG eyes…

And yes… That’s how bad the garden’s turned into…

Peat fire? Saw this just outside the Setia Alam toll (NKVE) on my way to my parent’s place this afternoon…

Firemen trying to put out the fire

On my way back this evening, I could still see smoke coming from that area…