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Planting cassava or Tapioca (Ubi Kayu)
 Tapioca was a staple food in many countries in the days before large-scale farming and processed food became a necessity. During the 2nd world war, our families lived on tapioca when rice was hard to obtain due to stoppage in cultivation. Tapioca is easy to plant and is a good source of carbohydrates.Now tapioca is planted in large scale for the production of starches and other food products. There is even plans to convert the starch into bio fuel.
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Datuk Rafiah Salim
 When Datuk Rafiah Salim was appointed as the ninth Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya on 8th May 2006, we women in Malaysia were very proud of her. She is after all the first lady Vice-Chancellor of the university in its 100 years of history. This is not the first time she has done us proud. For five years she was the assistant secretary General for Human Resource Management at the United Nations, New York. It was the highest post held by a Malaysian at the international body.
So, when someone mentioned that she has a lovely garden we jumped at the opportunity to talk to her and at the same time capture her garden in print. She was modest about the involvement in building up the garden but she obviously enjoys gardening.
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The Planet's Most Valuable Hotspots
 As I look out of my window, I think how lucky I am to have come from a tropical country. Living in London has made me realize how much I miss warm tropical air and seeing trees with a full head of leaves. It is amazing how so many people walk or drive pass the trees back home without realising how amazing and productive the area they live in is. Malaysia is well known for the high biodiversity of its flora and fauna, and so are some other places in the world, all collectively known as biodiversity hotspots.
The closest biodiversity hotspot to us is an area called Wallacea (which includes a series of Indonesian islands), named after its founder, Alfred Russel Wallace who was a British naturalist, explorer and biologist. He proposed the theory of natural selection, which leads Charles Darwin to publish his own works and theories sooner than intended. These groups of islands has such a huge range of flora and fauna along with high numbers of endemic species (animals that are found no where else in the world!) that every island in that area needs secure protected sites to preserve the region’s biodiversity. It has the second largest number of endemic birds (the first being the Tropical Andes, which is an area much larger than these islands put together) and is home to the largest lizard in the world, the Komodo dragon. It is no wonder that the expedition organisation I am working with for my 3rd year dissertation has ‘dubbed’ themselves Operation Wallacea.
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Baked tapioca dessert (Bengkang Ubi Kayu)
 Ingredients
1 cup of grated tapioca (after grating tapioca, the pulp should be squeezed to rid it of excess starch)
1/4 cup palm sugar or brown sugar
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
1/4 cup grated coconut
Method
1. Heat the coconut milk and palm sugar until the sugar dissolve.
2. Mix the tapioca pulp thoroughly with the liquid mixture and fill into a baking tin.
3. Bake at 180° until dark brown and firm.
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Flower Arrangements
 The Trans Floral Organisation, a floral arrangement school has its branch in Malaysia and is collaborating with GA to promote the art of floral arrangements. We intend to conduct workshops to give tips and know how on flower arrangements for the home. Gardeners can now learn to bring their flowers indoors to decorate different areas in the home. For starters, one of their florists showed us the simple way to arrange roses in a vase for the table and also how to prepare a hand bouquet.
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