There are family members who are on their way to 11°C Taiwan and 1°C Canada.

Yes, just one operative word : COLD!

I have not been anywhere below 20°C for ten years (and I don’t count artificially-freezing Singapore’s Snow City).

Fortunately we are able to enjoy a little (natural) dip in temperature when we go to highlands like Kundasang (gateway to Mount Kinabalu) and Patau (gateway to the cold-straight-from-Crocker-Range Mahua Waterfall) back in Sabah.

We have not been to Kundasang for a few years though, as the whole place is becoming expensive, crowded and no longer as cold as it was many years back when putting on socks to bed is a MUST.

We went to Patau recently for a short getaway and although it is also no longer a must to sleep with socks, this quiet kampung has its own special charm.

Simple houses with rustic furniture, the friendly natives with their singsong dialect, the green paddy field right in front and blue hills and mountain beyond.

And the most important factor for me – no big buses of crowd that drown out the sound of nature.

A certain take-note message received this morning had me going through a lot of sites to find a certain movie to watch in full – online.

But as fast as I found the right site, it was also quickly removed and my progress status at this time is – FAILED.

It’s not that we do not want to spend that $6-$7 that it cost to watch a movie in a cinema but there are various legit factors why learning how to download videos from youtube is a useful skill.

Such as, the movie is not being shown in “the cinema near you”.

Or that the movie is so old that nobody even cares about it – but you.

Perhaps you just want to watch a little snippet of the movie before you decide to watch the whole thing elsewhere – and a trailer just does not cut it.

As for this particular attempt, I have given it up and will therefore only look for the book.

When deciding on a hotel room for us – our must-haves include swimming pool/bathtub AND spacious room.

That was our issue with the hotel that we stayed at for a short holiday recently.

Promised to be a 65 square metres, I booked and paid for one of their Executive Double room at a rate that was within the range of other branded hotels in town. But despite the professional welcome – a note complete with my name and the extra baby cot that I requested waiting in the room – I was not happy with the room because it was half the promised size!

The kind of size that is fine for a couple but will make my kids go crazy from not being able to move (without hitting anything) AND drive us mad from trying to suppress their natural tendency to explore, somersault and cartwheel – within 5 mins flat.

Fortunately before we anything was broken or anyone was hurt, they upgraded us to a much bigger room.

Sigh, gone are the days when any nice hotel room will do for us.

I can foresee a much harder time choosing hotel rooms that fit our needs (and budget). A two-bedrooms apartment with living/dining room or kitchen (plus stove and stainless steel sinks) is probably our only options in two years time!

In the meantime, any room we choose has to be big enough – as in my family-speak – for at least one complete cartwheel.

Chatting with my parents is always entertaining.

Being very sociable couple, they come across all kinds of people and hear all sorts of stories like one tension-filled funeral complete with threats of rifle-shootings! Ten times more interesting than any make-believe soap operas.

But their best stories are ones that never fail to give me goosebumps – even told many times over.

Such as one set more than 30 years ago when roads that linked the interior towns of Sabah were still sparsely used with few vehicles on the road. Just a few kilometres out of any interior town, it’s thick virgin forest on both sides of the road.

On one such road, my father stopped his car, rolled down his window and gave in to his fatigue. Suddenly, he was jolted awake by some licking/slurping sounds coming clearly and loudly from behind his car.

His tired mind decided some cows were drinking water nearby – until he was again awaken by the same sound.

This time he was reminded that he was in a thick jungle IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

Of course there were no cows around…

Attending house parties need no longer be a stressful thing for parents with active kids.

These days, just whip out an iPad or an iPhone or even just a simple iPod-Touch and even the most adventurous kids can be subdued to sit still and relieved grown-ups can then make all the merry party noises.

Just looking around at parties where this scenario really took place brought to my mind the man behind all these i-objects – and especially his intriguing post-retirement stories.

It is a little hard to sympathise with his biological parents (who gave him up for adoption) if you consider the fact that if he was not adopted and raised by the Jobs family, this man may simply be working in for e.g. careers like one of those Healthcare Specialists Jobs. No less important but nowhere as critical to our generations as what he did turn out to be.

Imagine. No Jobs family. No Steve.

No Steve Jobs. No Apple. No iPad!

So thank goodness for that turn of event in his life and now, please excuse me as I get back to one of my i‘s.