A little surprise from Chad Los Banos

I haven't heard from Chad Los Banos for some time.

He works in a corrections facility in Hawaii and the last time I touched base with him, he was having some sort of difficulties with work.

Recently, I received a package from Boker Germany with two of his knives which he designed.

Chad played a major role in the Malaysia Knife Forums and is a solid person in terms of character.

I wish him well and hope that he would someday return to the scene.

Awana trail closed

A couple of weeks ago, I organised an outing to the Awana trail near Genting Highland.

When we arrived at the trail head, it was barricaded and a security guard who was on patrol rode past us and said we had to gain permission to access the area.

What used to be a popular haunt for birders and macro photographers is no a no-access zone.

We went to the resort's club house and were told that an entrance fee of RM35 will be charged with a waiver form.

Now, this happened in August and was a result from an accident where some smart assed birder got hurt when he stumbled a couple of hundred meters into a ravine.

This stupid guy's action has a cascading effect.

After all the formalities with some help from nice guy Eddie, we checked out the route and managed to get a couple of shots taken.

For me, the Awana trail now is a another placed added in the 'no-go' list.

Kem Usaha

I've just conducted a weekend camp with my buddy Bob Lew to help a bunch of boy scouts with the merit badges.

There are several aspects that got me thinking about them.

Firstly, they were neglected by their leaders. None of them have basic camping skills.

Teaching them the right way of course, was our task.

We took them camping for a night at Sungai Tua forest reserve which is a State park located about 30-minutes from KL's city centre.

There were four boys in the group. There were 14-year-old and one is a 15-year-old kid.

Bob and I had prepared for this a month ago and talked about their characters.

One of them were given the task to organize his group.

This lil fella turned out to be a true manipulator.

He got the others to work, while he sits back and did almost nothing.

Another kid is literally a brat.

The only boy with potential is the quiet one. Never talks much, pretty much puts the manipulative kid in his place.

As for the older kid, his mother wants him to be a King scout. At all cost. She even bribed Bob with packed pork chops! Hahah!

Way I see it, the kids have to work very had to prove themselves worth of the three merit badges in the Boy Scout's scheme.

This was decided by Bob who is a good judge of character.

I saw how they worked and summed up that there's much to be done.

As a matter of fact, their troop has lagged behind so far, its in a state of disarray.

That said, we would have a lot to do in getting them back on track.

Next test would be a 6km journey.