Scrap-It-Lah challenge

I entered this layout for Scrap-It-Lah May challenge, and guess what? I won! This is my first time winning a challenge, and am very happy about it :) I didnt expect to win, and this layout was done using free papers from Scrapbook Magazine! Thanks Scrap-It-Lah for the lovely challenge.

Also, I am honored to be part of their design team! Thank you for the opportunity, ladies. Although I am new at this, I'll try my best to create lovely layouts for you guys, and at the same time promote Scrapbooking to more people in Malaysia!

Check out Scrap-It-Lah June challenge, which you have to interpret a lovely sketch by Jessy, in addition to making your own flowers from patterned papers and buttons. This is the same challenge we had in the crop party @ Scrappingville, where I did a layout about Zara's heart-melting smiles. We need more submission, especially to new talents to reveal themselves. It is also a great solution if you're having an artist-block.. just follow the challenge's instructions!

So, what are you waiting for, Scrap-It-Lah!

Pirates of Kuala Kubu Pictures

Ok.. after reading my hubby's long story, here are the pictures. The pictures do tell the whole story but thanks hubby for the long lovely and semangatnyer story. Do enjoy the pictures.. another round???

Starting point.... The calm before the storm.

Air tenang.. sempat posing lagi. Biar guide jelah kayu sorang2.

One of the rapids we survived

Contoh of a very good "overleft" and bukan "overlap" (pelat tul org asli ni)

Sempit takleh lalu - boleh sumbat lagi ni bang!

Skillful maneuvering by the guides. Power tul diorang!

Air penuh dalam sponge bob raft

Badak air (shahrul, pakli, lukman) overboard. i think this is when agus was shouting (sengau) Shahruls name

Parking raft while posing away

Hanyutkan diri and tutup hidup while approaching the rapids. Tenggelam babe!

Group photo beside the waterfall + " are you ok?" hand signal

Chilling at the waterfall while snacking away

Capsize mengejut by Nanyang and Tez

Floating away till the end.. this is the romantic part.. (not in the pic)

Happy that we survived the rapids..

The Spongebob crew, including cross-eyed captain Nanyang and Co-pilot Tez... and me ripe tomato in the making..

The whole crew of the kuala kubu pirates..

Pirates of the Kuala Kubu Baru part 3

Lets start where we left off... Feeling cool seeing what we went through

So when you see the pictures back or just look back you'll feel how the heck we got passed that. Certain rapids had small openings where you go over more rocks than water but we did. Honestly, the guides were the cool ones. They knew what to do and how to approach everything. Once they knew that we will never get through, they asked us to jump out and they went through it themselves (pulling and lifting the raft). Badan Nanyang and Tez sekeping but boy were they strong.

There was one rapid they let us hanyutkan diri. When we parked our raft on the sides (that time pun ada helicopter lalu usha what we were doing), they will walk us up the rapids and teach us how to go through it. I went through it twice while some tak pergi langsung (Agus - takut air tul! macam kambing). Tutup hidung (taknak bagi air masuk) and kaki depan (kick off the rocks) was important tapi kalau bontot tak langgar batu tak sahnye lah. The other good thing, they will be there on top the rocks taking our pictures. It goes for other rapids too. Smart huh!! Selling the pics CD's for only RM3. Cant beat that anywhere in the world. RM3 for once in a lifetime pics. Org lain mesti dah ketuknye!

Other rapids were amazing especially one called 'chicken drop' (sape yg drop to kira ayam lah kot). It was a 4.5 class rapid. Unfortunately, Mr. Crabs raft had 4 casualties (1 guide, Shahrul, Lukman, Pakli). More unfortunately i wasnt able to see it and make fun of them. After interviewing them about it, here are the kesimpulannya.

Intention terkeluar raft: Saja2 je.. nanti boleh ceriter kat kawan2. (ketulenan niat masih belum dipastikan)
Salah sapa: Shah tolak!
Sapa hebat: Agus gak! i still cant believe dia boleh angkat shahrul (100kg vs 50kg). shahrul pulak berterima kasih ngan ejek cara agus called his name (agus memang sengau sikit) saying nasib baik bukan malaikat maut.
Lesson learned: Jgn panik.. walaupun muka time tu cuak giler
What to do: Baca syahadah kalau dah kena air (shahrul lulus), appreciate kecantikkan sungai walaupun dah takde nafas, jerit lebih2 untuk meng'happening'kan keadaan (kononnya.. and bukan pasal takut/panik).

After all the rapids, we had a break at a waterfall. Cantik and sejuk air dia. I even had a taste. sedap.. boleh buat air mineral. We also had a light snack... never knew uncle toby's can taste that good (penat and lapar lah katakan). Adalah a few of us cuba meditate (alah2 menuntut silat) under the storming water. Felt great, better than any jacuzzi cuma sejuk je. After hanging out and sharing stories (time ni lah crew Mr. Crabs ceriter pasal overboard) i felt jeles yg our sponge bob crew takde yg tulen2 overboard. So i decided then i pun nak overboard lah! (keeping the intention to myself).

So we went on and yes i went overboard the first chance ade rapid yg ganas sikit. Rasa best... ada menggelabah, adrelin rush, tertelan air, test swimming skills and so forth lah. Haziq was there to pull me up. (ungkit lepas tu.. dia kata 'i save ur life man!'). Even Mr. Crabs crew witness me fall out. Tapi ngan macho nye i answered 'saje2 je... nanti boleh ceriter kat kawan'. I guess nobody bought my reasons because of my all willing poyoness.

Later on there was only one rapid left. You can here it about half a km away sounds like a jet engine or a factory machine but unlike the others u cant see it from upstream. Rasa macam one of those waterfall dalam cartoons. Tenang je and then drop. Nanyang was being very quiet about it. Sekali tengok memang dia niat nak capsize kan kitorang there. Once we were on top of the drop. Dia jerit the famous last words "OVER RIGHTTTT". I was thinking apehal right ni...dah nak terjatuh dah ni.. suddenly sedar2 je everything was white and my eyes/nose/ears/mouth and other holes were filed with water. Pandai betul org asli ni buat surprise. kitorang lak gullable sangat but thats what we paid for and we think we got our moneys worth. Saje to make Mr. Crabs crew jeles... diorang lagi sekali tak dicapsizekan due to the ketumpatan masing2.

After the capsize.. we floated all the way to the exit point. It felt like 1km or so. time ni romantic2.. pegang2 tangan while floating away. The wifey said kalah romantic venice. Yg takde pasangan tu.. tengok jelah (hazman jeles and desperate) and some couldnt be bothered pun tinggalkan bini (agus, shahrul + shah). Bakar sikit bagi wife2 semua jeles.

Once we got off, we were greated with hot nasi lemak/sandwich/coffee etc.. it felt heavenly. makan tak ingat dunia and seperti biasa wafi first sekali mencekik. Layann gilerrr makann!! kesian the later ppl yg makan mesti tak cukup. Bagus strategy kita untuk makan dulu! later on we washed up, took pictures, bought the CDs and said our goodbyes to the organizer and guides. The ride back home was fun too because we played the typical travelling games naming ppl/buah/country/tv show starting with a specific alphabet. 1 hour or so later we reached Shah Alam and decided to minum dulu at White House Coffee in section 9. After saying goodbyes and stuff we all went home tired, satisfied, happy and full of stories to tell our loved ones.

Personally it was a great experience and ranked as highly fun in my books. Terus lupa all the stress at work, home, life and so on. Battery booster betul. I promise this won't be the last expedition i am having. Maybe next time pergi camping kot at tampin. i'll float the idea around and see what i can come up with. i apoligize for the long read but i hope you enjoyed our story.

Pirates of the Kuala Kubu Baru part 2

Where was i... Hand signals..

So the best part of this hand signals was the signal for 'are u ok?'. They way you do it is to make ur hands macam "ooo-somm burung" or "suap nasi" and then tap the top of your head. So imagine when 30 of you doing it... macam nak ajak satu kampung burung datang makan kutu rambut. Apart from the hand signals, they taught us how to us the helmet, paddle and life jacket. Memandangkan some of us are big headed, a few had trouble finding the right sized helmet. Pasang terbalik pun tak muat jugak like shahrul and lukman. They pakai terbalik so nak cover their big heads kot. Shah and Wafi dah lah gebu2 comel2.. u add another life jacket terus jadi michelin-man or maybe a glimpse of what they would look like in 10years time without dieting. Have to say Agus and Pakli still maintain figure. Damn.. sekepengs!

To familiarize with the paddles and instructions, we played a game catching paddles to left or right based on commands. Sabotajing each other was how some of us got through. example: lukman baling paddle to the ground before lari to the next or some of us just holds on to the paddles leaving no available paddles for some like shafik (rasanya lukman was guilty of this too). After all this, it was time to get on the raft. 6 of us to a raft. Our guide was the crossed eyed named Nanyang (nasib baik takyah eye-contact sangat) and another was called Tez. They were great. Hebat giler org asli ni!

Our raft was nicknamed Sponge Bob and the other geng's was Mr. Crabs. Sponge Bob crew was maz, shafik, man, haziq, faz and myself (ringan2 and agile je crew ni). While the other one was all the heavy weights Shahrul, Wafi, shah, lukman and pakli while there was one papan called Agus. Walaupun dah offset ngan Agus, seems like Mr. Crabs raft was overloaded so angin raft kena adjust a few minutes into the rowing (not surprising.. not surprising at all).

When we started out, some of us had problems following instructions. To me, Nanyang pelat sangat. E.g. 'Overleft' sounded like 'overlap'. faz and haziq way in front couldnt hear. So time tengah mengelabah kena back paddle dioarang rilex je forward paddle sedangkan batu besar depan mata. Haziq memang susah ikut instructions pun lagi2 ada alasan tak dengar.

I forgot to tell you that the water was perfect (suam2, fresh, clean), jungle was great, sun was bright just heated enough to dry us but not burn us (apart from maz... letak mentol study pun maz sunburn.. she looks like a ripe tomato now). I've been to NY rafting expedition and it was never this good. So Malaysia does rock!!! and Malaysia memang boleh!! The company handling this (PieRose) was just great - professional, fun, organized, friendly and cool ppl). One of those few things i can brag to my non-malaysian freinds. Our rafting rivers are better than yours.

So first 10 minutes dia bagi practice ikut instructions. We had to directional paddle, move around on the raft and so on. Lepas to dia bagi capsize one time bagi minum air sikit. kalau nampak putih (awan) just go up, kalau kuning (bawah raft) crawl sideways out of the raft Paling penting jangan panik. Takde nafas pun jangan panik (teory jelah.. sape tak panick). Raft Mr. Carbs unfortunately tak practice capsize. i sincerely believe the guides were worried takleh nak angkat badak air sekor2 tu.

Our first challenge was a level 3 rapid (i couldnt remember all the rapid names..too excited). There they named a big rock "batu bapok" because one raft full of bapoks (no offence to any bapoks.. includes you lukman) were thrown out after hitting it. Coincidently behind the big rocks, you can see a cliff that looks like a face. (pikir balik it looked like hazman..hahahaha). We tackled the rapid ngan suspens sekali but "tak panik". Semualah tak panik. It was cool after you see the rapids from downstream what you just went through. Rasa macam power je!

gtg again.. to be continured

Pirates of the Kuala Kubu Baru part 1

Its been a year since we first heard of the white water rafting activity in Kuala Kubu. Since hari raya 2008 actually when wafi told us and promised to organize an outing for the rest of us. Old story.. but wafi tak buat2 pun :p. Bz man sekarang since his new posting in MISC (yg betul2 handle lanun) ceo's office (org penting).

Nonetheless, i berjaya convince some friends/panglima/hulubalang to take up our lanun(rafting) challenge. There were 12 hulubalang's yg berani menyahut cabaran ada berani: Monsterous Maz, Horor Hazman, Hantunya Haziq, Furious Faz, Spanking Shafik, Shahrul Sparrow (adik jack sparrow), Flying (Sinking sepatutnya) Dutchman Wafi, Loco (giler) Lukman, Scary Shah, Alamak Agus, Powernya Pakli and lastly Panglima Gagah Perkasa Zul. FYI, yuran lanun challenge ini adalah rm180 tidak termasuk insurance (semua tak takutkan nyawa)

Berdasarkan treasure map yg dibekalkan kami perlu berkumpul di kuala kubu post office at 9am. so we decided to gather at pelabuhan may first (shahruls house) at 730am lepas tu tolak beramai naik van scooby-do shahrul (color je tak ranggi) and shah's pickup ninja turtle (bekas pizza banyak). Walaupun dutchman wafi sudah sms "bro.. aku pukul 6 dah bangun" he still was the last one to arrive at 745am eventhough kalau jogging rumah dia only takes 2 minutes (yes 2 minutes .. even wafi yg jog). Wafi had to by breakfast for the house (family man + responsible). Sometimes we wonder pasal apalah wafi takde girlfriend.

Going there was an eye opener. We had to go through Bukit Beruntung (sambil nyanyi lagu along bukit beruntung). Gilerrr Horrrorr... There were so many rundown abandon buildings rasa macam kat bosnia/serbia. We said Osama lepak sini mesti happy nya. Dont know what/who did wrong here. Sedih org yg have to stay there.. rasa macam kena tipu je. Once we reached Kuala Kubu we were trying to find the post office. Not suprising, we got lost. Ada lah org tu after seeing all the buildings tulis kuala kubu and dah lepas town.. dia kata straight lagi 2km baru jumpa kuala kubu.. tak jumpa2 pun.. kuala lipis adalah lagi 150km. Lagi sorang tu.. dah sampai post office baru cakap " haa.. ni lah dia post office" (duh..we all can read) sedangkan harap dia yg tunjuk jalan.

After breakfast, tukar costume semua.. we were on our way to the entry point of the expedition. It was about 2 km from the Sg Selangor dam. From there we can see the water release at the dams discharge. So we knew the water was going to be great. We started of (while tunggu driver hantar kereter at the exit point) by hanyuting diri sendiri upstream. I got a little excited and hanyutkan diri awal2 while trying to join the others (tapi tak sengaja and tak larat nak lawan the current). We were all suprised at the strenght of the water but we loved it.

After sorang2 kena collect downstream, we started the safety briefing and stuff. The best part of it was the hand signals.... alamak.. gtg will continue part 2 soon hopefully with the pics.