~ Making sense of it all. ~

Happy Birthday! To me!

2008-05-06T22:18:00.002+08:00

You know you're getting closer to the Big Three O (i.e: getting OLD) when:

- you end up at home completely sober, without a drop of alcohol in yr bloodstream
- turning in before 11pm, just because you're so damn tired
- you're beginning to notice patches of scalp showing (sign of thinning hair? *gasp*!!!)

Spent 28 years of age relatively quiet today. Should have taken the day off, but sadly... too much stuff to finish to even think of taking leave!

Had lunch with my usual lunch gang @ Sakae Sushi, then dinner with me mates. Called it a day at 9pm and headed home. Sad, I know.

So anyway, here's to me. And what's hopefully turning out to be a good career streak. And to better luck in matters of the heart... a couple o'potential leads... we'll just have to see how those turn out now, won't we ;)

Thanks for the SMSes and calls, peeps! (and if you forgot, I'm going to hunt you down.. somebody gonna get hurt real bad...)

:)
J

Alzheimer's coming early. Damn early

2008-04-21T23:05:00.002+08:00

They say forgetfulness starts to rear it's ugly head around 50-ish to 60. From forgetting things like where you put the newspaper... it gradually becomes worse until you forget your kid's own name.

I think I'm on the fast-track to forgetfulness nowadays... and it's getting worse! At first it was forgetting people's names (yes, even those of hot chicks - so it's NOT selective memory OK!).... now I even forget what I'm supposed to do at work!

I'm the kind of numbskull who can walk into someone's cube 2m away, stop dead and smile at the person inside who's wondering WTF this joker is doing standing outside, scratching his head.

In the kind of job I'm in.. forgetting your customer's names isn't something you wanna be doing on a regular basis. Especially when the bloke is shaking your hand going "Hey J! How are you la? Long time no see!"

Sigh. I'm getting old and I know it. Very soon I'll be forgetting your name.

Remind me who you are again?

:)
J

Shanghai-ed

2008-04-06T20:33:00.003+08:00

Exhausted.

Utterly tired.

Sleep deprived.

With a nagging sore throat.

All after 3D and 2N of a frantic biz trip to Shanghai, for a biz conference. And man.. what a rushed trip it's been! Got barely enuff time to plunk my ass down in the hotel room and enjoy the sights/sounds before I'm off to work.

Hmm... now that I recall back... I think I've spent less than 12 hrs over the course of 3D2N in my hotel room! And that's after paying more than RM1k for 2 nights' stay. But then again, it was $$ worth spending... seeing as how the hotel is spanking new (1 yr old), 5-star and in a accessible place downtown. Oh, and let's not forget the fact it's all on my company's tab :P

Enough talk, more pics!

The view from my hotel room.... I've got two.. yes, you read that right.. TWO LCD TVs in my room! One 32" fella just across my bed, and another smaller one you see here, just above the long bath.

More mischievous guests of this room would probably have enjoyed the transparent glass separating the bed and the shower. Imagine getting home after a hard day's conference-ing, and lying on the bed with a glass o'wine, enjoying the view of your partner getting lathered up.

I smell a storyline for an adult video flick already.

On Day 2, I met up with some colleagues from Shanghai who brought me to this utterly fab bar in downtown Pu'xi... right across the Bund. The place is called Bar Rouge, located in a building called 18 on the Bund... pretty swanky, with over 90% gweilos.

Cover charge was surprisingly reasonable, given it's fantastic location - only RMB100 (approx RM50). But no free 1st drink though. The bar makes a mean mojito.

The bar is right at the top of a building, and it opens up to the rooftop, where you can sip on your pretentious alco, enjoying the Shanghai skyline and 15 deg C weather. Awesomeness.

My party decided to drink the night away - given I don't drink (well, socially anyway)... so, busied myself with my DSLR on the rooftop :)

Got to make a mental note to return to this bar when I'm next in Shanghai... good music, nice crowd, good ambience and fantab view.

Back to Singapore en-route to PG via the island, on Day 3... managed to snap this of the new Terminal 3 building in Changi airport. The place is goddamn huge! Almost endless, walking from one end to another. I much prefer Singapore's Terminal 2.

3 days in Shanghai breathing in the smoky air and I'm paying the price for it already - coming down with a sore throat which I have the nagging suspicion - will develop into the mother of all sore throats.

Sigh.

J

Banana heads back to the Motherland

2008-03-26T21:48:00.002+08:00

Yep, you read that right.. this Banana who doesn't speak a smatter of Canto/Mandarin (cuss words don't count) is on a biz trip to China next week. Shanghai, to be precise.

That means writing down directions to/from hotel in Chinese, and preparing to put up with weird stares from cab drivers who automatically assume I'm one of them and start firing away in mainland Mandarin.

Oh the joy.

At least in Taiwan, I could impress the cabbies with my powderful command of PG Hokkien.

Tiong Kok.. wa lai liauuu!

:)
J

will someone pave the goddamned road already?

2008-03-23T20:30:00.002+08:00

The new gahmen of Penang has exactly 4 years to pave the road outside my house. And while they're at that, they might as well pave the coastal expressway from Jln Tengku Kudin all the way up to Queensbay... having my car go airbone for a few seconds everytime I hit a depression in the road isn't quite that fun anymore after the 1,256th time.

4 years. I pray that's enough time for Guan Eng's merry men to undo the rot from the boys in blue.
In the meantime, I will still harbor hope that one day, I'll wake up to the fresh smell of new asphalt and bitumen outside my house.

Yup, one can always dream....

J

PS: flying off to Shanghai nxt weekend for a biz trip... pics up when I get back. Be nice when I'm away, people!

And you are....????

2008-03-01T15:12:00.002+08:00

Was walking out of my friendly neighbourhood pharmacy when I heard a loud ruckus coming from outside... apparently, it was some bullshit propaganda being blasted out through loudhailers mounted on a 4WD. Decorated all over with more propaganda imagery - that iconic white weighing scale on a blue background.

Cue rolling of eyes, muttering a curse to myself about disturbing neighbourhood peace and proceeded to walk to my car when...

this mob of 40-smtg yr old people walked into my path. One fella stood right in front of me, thrust his hand out and smiled. And this was the conversation that ensued:

40-smtg dude: HELLO SIR! HOW ARE YOU??!!

me: umm.. good. (in plain English: "Who the fuck are you? Get the fuck out of my way!")

40-smtg dude: Good.. Good! *thrusts bullshit propaganda leaflets into my hand* Here, this is for you... please vote for me!

me: *starting to be a bit pissed* I'm sorry, who are you?

40-smtg dude: *smiles starts to fade* I'm XXX (I can't remember his name now.. Tan something something), your MP for the Air Putih state seat. Please vote for me! *smile gets bigger*

me: *smiles politely back (thoughts in back of mind: "yeah.. riiiiightt...")

As you can probably tell, I'm no big fan of the BN. Personally, the BN rep for my area (Air Itam/Bukit Bendera) has done little to improve the qual of life here in the past 5 years.

Traffic is worse than before. Traffic lights are old, broken and not replaced.

Potholes get larger.

More housing development keeps sprouting up, but the main roads are still as wide as they were 30 years ago.

And the list goes on.

So Mr Tan-whoever-you-are, you sir.. are not getting my vote this year.

Then again, the DAP had my constituency 10 years ago and they didn't do jackshit either. Deciding BN or DAP is the lesser of the 2 evils - but at least if the DAP win, there's SOME form of check and balance in the higher echelons to keep an eye all the bullshitters there.

This whole election reminds me of that Aliens Vs Predator 2 movie catchphrase...

"No matter who wins, we lose"

:)
J

Off to see the wizard...

2008-02-29T22:04:00.003+08:00

Folks, yours truly is going to find out where his destiny lies. And to do that, he must cross the great divide, traffic jams and bloody motorcyclists to a shophouse in Taman Pekaka. For there lies the wonderful wizard of Oz...

I'm off to see a fortune teller tmrw. Just for the heck of it. I've never had my fortune read... either my palm-readers, tarot-card readers nor by any other mystical devices. So, this shd be interesting.

Will I die owning a 3-storey bungalow in Jesselton Crescent? Or end up having my 1-room flat mortgaged by loan sharks?

Will I find the love of my life and live happily ever after?

Will I find eternal job satisfaction?

Will I have kids and be a good dad?

Who will win American Idol?

Will DAP take over Penang?

So many all-important questions to ask. And so little time. This fortune teller dude is apparently so damned popular people have to take a number in the morning.

BEFORE coming BACK in the afternoon to queue AGAIN to see him.

This should be an interesting experience. He/she better have some answers else I want my money back.

On another note, I absolutely absolutely LOVE the "starts in my toes and crinkles my nose" song... you know the one lah... it's played on radio almost every other day now. It's so damned catchy ainnit.

Then today I decided to google it and found out the singer's one Colbie Caillat.

Not only does she have an amazing voice... SHE IS FREAKIN HOT. Just look at her!

Holy crap! If I had known she was this hot, I'd have downloaded the rest of her songs ages ago! . Needless to say, I'm sold. Now if only Mr Fortune Teller Dude can forsee me bumping into her, on a street somewhere in the near future.... *melts*

Can't stop listening to the song - it's so addictive. Have it on repeat on YouTube every time my PC is on, and it's set on rotation on my car's MP3 stereo.

Get addicted. Turn up the speakers. You know you want to.

Love it love it love it.

J

60.

2008-02-27T21:59:00.002+08:00

Sixty.

That's in kilos, people. It's the weight this scrawny punk is aiming to hit by end of March, or so help me Lord (of Carbs and Free Weights!).

When I weighed myself last week at the gym, I apparently clocked in 59.5. So bloody happy the thrice-sometimes-quad weekly gym trips seemed to be paying off.

Then I went home and took a dump.

Then the next day when I weighed myself again, I was back to 59.0. $%^&!&(^&*$%$#%^*!!!!!

Holy crap.... literally.

:)
J

Jamie Oliver konon

2008-02-11T23:08:00.000+08:00

I'm cooking this weekend for some friends... hosting 'em at my place. On the menu: cream de la mushroom soup (home-made thank you very much, none of that canned pretentious crap), spaghetti ala...err... tomatoe? And of course tons of ice lemon tea.

And the chef responsible for bringing you this gastranomous meal? Yours truly la! It's been 3 long years since I cooked anything more than maggi mee goreng, maggi mee kicap, maggi mee kari and err... other variations of maggi mee. So naturally, I'm quite nervous.

Oh well, if it doesn't work out, Domino's is on speedial :)

And I've informed the incoming lunch horde to be prepared to take MC the following Monday. Just in case.

If you read about 20 people found poisoned to death @ home in nxt Monday's newspapers, no it wasn't a planned suicide.

Just a Jamie Oliver meal that went horribly, horribly wrong.

*crosses fingers*

:P
J

dong dong chiang! dong dong chiang!

2008-02-08T14:14:00.000+08:00

another year, another CNY celebration. yet another reunion. another meet-up with friends from the past. and of course, another round of visiting relatives and collecting $$ :P

haven't been blogging much lately lah.. been spending wayyy too much time on FaceBook. FB's the devil i tell you. the friggin antichrist. if the world were to end, may it end after my level 7 Vampire's kicked the stuffing outta everyone else!

will try & update a bit later... but look me up in FB if you wanna find me!

happy CNY peeps! may yr angpow collections this year surpass last year's, and be adjusted for inflation and cost of living :P

:)
J

And my '08 New Years' Resolutions are...

2008-01-03T20:49:00.000+08:00

1. Eat healthier. That means less oil. And MSG.

2. Work out more and pack more pounds on my wussy-sized frame.

3. Learn to fuckin' swim already!

4. Fall in love. With someone who loves me for the crazy, hopeless romantic but bloody nice boy that I am. Really one. (easier said than done, this one... ;)

5. Visit at least 1 foreign, overseas destination on holiday. And NO, cities on the other side of the PG bridge DON'T count.

6. Be less blur at work.

7. Strike one more item off my Life's To-Do List (avert your gaze to the left)

Chances of scratching at least one item off my Resolution list? Hmmm. Probably 1 in 10. Think #2 has the best chance of working out. That, and #5. If the trip to Bali I'm planning for in late '08 works out.

Just realized today there's TWO more public holidays - Awal Muharram next week and Thaipusam 2 weeks after that, I think.

How to do work and be productive, like that?? Blink and CNY holidays will be here before you know it. Not that I'm complaining, of course. Hell no.

Ahhh. Guess there's a benefit to staying put in Malaysia after all, eh?

My Dec31st celebration countdown was everything I had hoped for it be - full of fun, a good dinner, a somewhat-OK-only movie, fireworks.... spent in the quiet company of another. Throw in a few glasses of wine (cooler) and good conversation, and this Dec 31st could possibly be the best, albeit unexpected one I've spent yet.

And just how did you spend Dec 31st?

PS: Chrissy, if you're even reading this... are you still alive? Email us already!

;)
J

A very Singaporean Xmas '07!

2007-12-27T23:02:00.000+08:00

Just got back to terra firma after a week of crazy shopping, food and even more shopping down south (well not that far down south, more like far enough to reach Singapore....)

Damn lau juak, my trip was this time. Lots to see, lots more to do. And hard-earned currency to spend like water.

Man, I miss Singapore already... what with the crazy crazy sales going on before Xmas and the even better ones on Boxing Day/pre-NY's 08 sales. But more on spending like there's no tmrw later yeah?

World, meet my beyootiful niece, Caitlin.

At 2 yrs old, she's already terrorizing my brother and sis-in-law to no end.... now I know why they call toddlers @ 2 yrs old "the Terrible Twos"! But we still love her to bits :)

I absolutely love this shot. I was just sitting on the floor next to her, playing with my camera and squeezing off random shots, when I managed to catch this. Love how the morning sunlight streaming in to the window by her right, is lighting up her right side just so... casting a very soft pall on her angelic face! *meltz*

No touching Uncle J's camera! Bad girl!

Then there was the eating part. Man, have I been pigging out this Xmas. My cousins took me to so many excellent food joints across the island.. I'm losing count where I've been already!

One thing I'll always remember about this particular trip was the amount of ice cream I had.... being an ice-cream lover, I told my cousins to bring me out to as many ice cream joints as possible!

And boy did I have ice-cream from across the whole damned world... from rich, creamy ones to gelato low-fat ones.... from Ben & Jerry's, to Andersen's from Denmark, and across Asia to the likes of Haato, from Japan.

The best of the lot? Definitely Haato, hands down. Just check out their website... gotta love their tagline:

Haato: follow your heart

And follow my heart it did, although it burnt a small hole in my pocket. OK la, then again it wasn't that expensive (SGD 4.50 for a double-scoop cone).

If any of my faithful readers (yes, all 3 of you) ever head down to Singapore anytime soon, please do your tastebuds a favour and follow your heart.... straight to the nearest Haato ice-cream shop! If you love ice cream as much as I do, you won't be disappointed. Try out their rum and raisin, pistachio and green tea flavors... it's all gelato, and low-fat, but not as sweet nor rich as the Haagen Dasz types.

Moving on... to Xmas dinner proper!

As with tradition in the J household, Xmas dinner is always celebrated at my aunt's place in SG. Although none of us are Christians, we all celebrate the spirit (and commercialism heh) of Xmas, and have the traditional Xmas dinner, complete with presents, an elaborate Xmas tree and the usual stuff.

Check out how beautiful the table settings are. One of my cousins is damn creative, and love piecing these little trinklets together. Each family member at the dinner table had their initials personalized on this nice wooden clothes peg. Ahhh... sweet.

Oven-roasted turkey? Check. Stuffing? Check. Cranberry sauce? Baked sweet potatoes in their jackets? Check and check. Bavarian premium sausages? Check. Honey-glazed ham? Check!

And of course, which Xmas would not be complete without the all-too-traditional Xmas log. This one's from Swensen's. Xmas ice-cream cake, that is. Bloody sinful, but tiz the season to be jolly!

Just going thru these pics is making my tummy rumble already. Look at all that heavenly food! Goddamn it! I wanna go back in time and relive Xmas again!

And now, on to the dark, metrosexual-wannabe part of tonight's happy happy blog.... the shopping.

Oh good God, the shopping.

Sales, lots of it. Damage to wallet... lots of it!

Running the credit card figures now... appears I've slightly (only slightly k!) overspent on shopping stuff this year. Heh, bet you saw that one coming.

In just 4 days of marathon shopping that would make any ancient Greek olympian athlete cower in fear, I managed to cover all the major shopping points of Singapore: Orchard Rd, Bugis Junction, Raffles Sq, City Link Underpass, SUNTEC, VivoCity, HarborFront, IMM, Jurong Mall and a sprinkle of warehouse clearance sales.

Yes, I know I need therapy. But seriously, the sales were good la.

And I ended up fulfilling my quota of shopping targets: found my usual brands and made a few new discoveries too. Fell in love with one particular line of men's fashion-wear called Re. It's a Singapore-brand, with boutiques in Takshimaya and The Heeren (which is another fashion boutique along Orchard Rd I've come to love - Jamie: if you're down in SG anytime soon, you'll want to check this place out! Lots of cocktail dresses and such here).

Guys: if you need an elegant dress shirt for that cocktail party or to wear on that all-important first date with that hot chick, go check Re out (if you're in SG lah).

As a small-framed guy with narrow shoulders, it's often hard for me to find shirts (esp dress shirts) that fit me. Most of the time, I have to go for brands with slim-fit lines, else I end up looking like a clothes-hanger. So everytime I discover a brand of men's clothes that have a wide range of slim-fits, I'm a very happy man.

Another good brand I'm keeping an eye on for next time... River Island and Mexx.

KIV the former for smart/casual wear, while keeping the latter in mind for the more up-market, suave look threads.

As the plane landed back in PG this afternoon, I felt my heart sinking... depressing feeling it is, esp coming back from a holiday.

Sigh, I miss Singapore already. Ah well, there's always next year!

:)
J

ratat-gym-ouille

2007-12-18T21:35:00.000+08:00

Something's up with me and for the life of me I can't figure what it is.

It's been driving me to the gym. Four days in a row.

But somehow, I'm not complaining. Looking forward to working up a sweat, actually... and relish the point I push my body to near exhaustion when the world starts spinning around.

And that's only after 20 mins on the treadmill, k. You can stop laughing now.

But seriously... I don't know what's on my mind lately. There's so much stuff - of late - taking real estate up there *points to brain*... stuff that's confusing, stuff that's frustrating, stuff about my work, stuff about my personal life.... and stuff I can't just put my finger on.... that I think I'm subconsciously taking it out on the treadmill.

And the stationary bikes. And the lat machines. And the ab crunchers. At least the sore muscles are growing bigger, micrometer by micrometer....

Nothing like losing a litre of sweat to calm the mind, eh? On the bright side, I've been sleeping like a baby since my marathon gym runs.

Think I'm beginning to know what being a gym rat feels like!

:)
J

bring on Xmas

2007-12-15T20:07:00.000+08:00

Finally got all my Xmas shopping done today. Bloody achievement I tell you... especially with crazy traffic and tons of outstation vehicles clogging the road.

Leaving for S'pore next Fri to spend Xmas with the cousins, the bro and his family. Haven't a clue how to start packing, and how to fit all those presents in! Let's see, this year's Santa list will include....

- Bodyshop stuff for the aunt and uncle

- more Bodyshop stuff for the cousins (OK, so I got lazy and decided to take the easy way out...)

- a nice pepper mill/grinder for the bro and sis-in-law (had no idea what to get for my elder brother. I was thinking bootleg DVDs from PG, but somehow that doesn't seem very Christmassy. Hmm, then again, maybe if I wrapped all the DVDs in a nice red & green ribbon, that might do the trick!

Wracked my brain thinking what the hell to get them when the ultimate present idea came to me as I woke up today - since his wife loves cooking (for him), so what cook wouldn't appreciate freshly ground black pepper in the kitchen, no?)

- Toys' R Us toy set for bro's 2yr old daughter (I have NO idea what 2yr old kids play with these days lah... in my days, I was probably chasing my dog around in the garden. Or spaced out in front of the TV watching Sesame Street & Electric Company)

Haven't got anything for her yet, and I'm not quite sure what to get.

I think I know what she'd like... but I doubt I'd find it in PG stores. Haaihh. So, to Singapore I turn and pray I find it there! It's going to be past Xmas when she gets it, but I suppose it's the thought that counts, eh?

If I cannot cari, she'll just have to settle for a nice glass of white wine and dinner on Dec 31st ;)

:)
J

koff koff

2007-12-02T21:09:00.000+08:00

been sick as a dog the past week. Started off with an innocent-looking sore throat that quickly grew balls of steel and proceeded to do a hostile takeover of my immune system.

then came the fever. and cough. and icky-looking yellow phlegm. *curses*

went to see the doc on thurs. got some antibiotics, finished the course and i still feel like a truck slammed into me! then again, i've been staying waaaay past my bedtime the past few days, so that didn't help.

will be heading down to singapore for xmas - woohoo! haven't been there in 2 yrs now, so am definitely looking forward to the pre & post xmas shopping sprees. Vivocity, Orchard, Raffles, Suntec... HERE I COME!

time for meds again... gaaah. more later, folks!

J

PS: In case anyone's wondering, yes... dinner, movie, and the stroll along the beach - just talking about life and all things in between - that came afterwards was all good.

then again, i think i'm more confused now than ever! :)

Lost and Found

2007-11-23T21:52:00.000+08:00

I was recently reminded of just how much of a klutz I am...

Had got 2 free tickets to GSC courtesy of the company you see, so there I was @ GSC Queensbay happily waiting in line to watch Beowulf. After getting said tickets, they went straight into my pocket. Then I went to Borders to look-see some stuff & kill time whilst waiting for the show. Then when I got back to the cinema's entrance...

I just couldn't find the damned tickets! Damn panic man. Check wallet none. Left pocket none. Right pocket none. Hunted around the men's room none. Went back to Borders and hunted around the last place I was standing in the book aisles...none also! Gone-lah, I thought, until....

In a flash of momentary, fleeting brilliance I decided to ask the friendly folks at the Borders Info Counter if they saw anything - and lo and behold, were my 2 tickets. Apparently someone had found them on the floor in Borders and decided to pass it to the counter.

Damn was that a close call. If not for the tickets being free, my wallet would've probably felt more painful.

Mr/Miss whoever-you-are-who-found-my-tickets-who-happens-to-be-reading-this-entry, Godbless you dude. Or dudette.

I was telling my movie partner for the night ML that my faith in the Malaysian public has been restored. Or at least the M'sian public who shop at Borders lah.

So that was the drama for the night.

Got another one coming tmrw. Remember that girl I was blogging about some time ago, whom I met and went out for dinner/drinks with? And who subsequently made my head spin? Really really hard? After nearly 1/2 yr of zero contact, she called and we talked. a lot. then she said she's coming to the island tmrw. then asked me out. for a movie.

And I said yes.

Sometimes I think I knowingly dig my own grave, jumping right into it.

Repeat to self: it's just dinner.... and a movie.... just dinner.... and a movie...

Arghhh stupid stupiddddd..... *bangs head on wall & groans*

J

It's been 1 year...

2007-11-06T21:49:00.000+08:00

...since I last joined the gym. Coming to a year this Dec, to be exact. Been a bloody year already but no big big rippling muscles one??? I want a refund!!!

Hmm, at least I managed to scale Mt K without dying - that shows running on the treadmill like your proverbial rat has gotta have helped somehow, yeah? Think I need to change my reps/sets and go for max weights vs. max sets which is what I'm doing right now. Hmmmm.

OK, note to self: 2008's new goal will be get fitter. To be more exact, pack on some muscles already and rip shirts at the seams. Me Hulk!!! Hulk crush Rambo-wannabe showoff at gym!!

Oh, and just in case anyone's wondering, no I haven't been in touch with the Jap chick. Why? Who knows lah. Been IM-ming her but people not free apparently. And I haven't been exactly shaking my legs at work too. Plus she's not online at home so the only opportunity to talk would be at the office. So haven't been kacau-ing her as much as I'd like to. Oh well. T'was good while it lasted. We'll see what happens to this ~~tragic love story~~ epic Jap drama K? ;)

The hols are coming around AND I CAN ALMOST HEAR those damned Xmas albums jingling their way to the telly, online and on radio already. Every year, they come out just. a little bit. earlier. than the previous year. Oi, Xmas doesn't begin until 2 months later! Xmas spirit my foot... it can wait until the start of Dec at the very least!

Somehow, I ended up with bloody short crop of hair at my last visit to the hairdresser. My regular guy looked damn pissed for some reason, so I think he ended taking it out on my poor head. At least he cropped it evenly - shaves me a good 5 mins in getting the hair styled every morning! Oh, and the new chick who washed my head (err is her job title "head-washer chick?") was kinda cute and had this nice dimple when she smiled, so all's forgiven. See how damn easy it is to please me!

:)
J

48 hours

2007-10-27T21:26:00.001+08:00

... is exactly how long it took for me to be hopelessly and completely smitten by someone I just met. Make that exactly 2 days ago.

Beautiful, mild-mannered, and armed with a demure smile that could melt hearts, launch 1000 ships and break down the Berlin wall... she completely took my breath away. Over the course of the past 2 days, we laughed at anything and everything, discovered a common love of movies, music and travel... and much more.

How not to fall for someone who can remember scenes from You've Got Mail, and relate to music like Matchbox 20's new album and Missy Higgins' Where I Stood? Think she had me when Matchbox's new solo - These Hard Times - played in my car and she immediately smiled and said how the opening tune would be perfect for a long, un-ending road cutting through a rolling countryside. That's what I thought too! *cue goofy smile that thankfully went unseen in darkness of said car* Marry me already!

Oh, and did I mention she's from Japan? Yup, full-blooded, 22-yr old Japanese girl.

... which leads to this next self-predicted, realistic realization: Like all good things that eventually have to come to an end, I'm afraid this story won't end in a fairytale ending. Japan damn far la wei, plus Tokyo isn't exactly the cheapest city in the world! (2nd most expensive after Moscow, I think). And she's no reason to travel back here for work anymore. Noooo.... Damnit!

Dropping her off at her hotel last night, circa 1am.... was probably the hardest thing I've had to do in the past 2 weeks (apart from writing a long-overdue email to a friend and finally getting down to cleaning my room). Saying goodbye is always hard, yeah? Sighh. Tell me about it.

She asked if I'd be at the airport today to see her off.

I had to sadly shake my head with a firm no... it would be almost impossible - given I had already committed to taking another group of foreign colleagues out for a sightseeing tour of Penang. Plus, I don't think I would have gone to the airport anyway if I were free - saying goodbye once is already hard enough! No point making it harder than it already is.

Ever felt an instant connection to a complete stranger in the first few minutes of ever speaking to them? I have. It's an amazing feeling. Of course, it helps when said stranger is a total hottie :P

Aya-chan - if by a stroke of miracle (or really bad luck) you somehow get to this blog - you're probably 35,000 ft above Singapore making you way home to Tokyo right about now... I'm missing you already.

Thank you for an amazing past 48 hours... You've made me feel alive again (never mind you're slowly killing me now by leaving when you did :)

And yes ML - I think I described myself perfectly too. Hopeless romantic, hopelessly in love with the idea of being in love :P

Back to the grindstone, terra firma and reality - next week.

Now excuse me while I go bang my head on the wall and groan repeatedly. Women - can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em!

:)
J

Cute until beh tahan

2007-09-19T22:21:00.000+08:00

I still owe you guys Labuan pictures, I know. Lazy to post them up and add captions - too bloody many! And not many great shots either. Wait la yeah!

And yes, guilty as charged for not updating my blog! Been bloody busy with Facebook: throwing pillows, sheep, dogs, cats, bananas and any/all form of animals at people among others. Then there's that extremely addictive Vampire and Fight Club too.

Goddamn it: Facebook is bloody addictive! Now go get an account already!

In the meantime, world meet my two cousin's kids: Geraint and Alyssa. They're so damn cute I love 'em to death!

Think these were taken sometime in late July when they were over in Penang for a quick visit with the family. They're otherwise with their parents (my cousins - mum's side) in the US.

Taken somewhere outside ParkRoyal's beach in Batu Ferringhi. Now if only every day could be spent lazing at the beach.. ahhhhhhh....

World, meet my baby cuzz Alyssa!

And here's her older brother Geraint. Named after one of Arthur's fabled knights of the round table. Both their parents are crazy about medieval English history, you see

Now you see why I sayang them to death! Grrr... can't wait to see them again. By the time I meet up with 'em, they'll probably be all grown up and have forgotten about their Unc J over here already. Aihhhhhhh!

Can't wait for Raya hols around the corner. The big bro's coming out from SG, so at least there'll be company around for the long hols. Am gonna be on leave the whole week so there's an added bonus.

Now, on to find that goddamn lemang I've been craving for (happens every single Raya). If anyone knows of a good lemang stall (am looking for the authentic stuff - wood-fired lemang in bamboo tubes by the side of the road kinda places), lemme know ASAP! I've only 4 more days to find it!!

If you don't see me updating this as often as you think I should be, hop on over to Facebook and look me up!

:)
J

Sabah '07: Simpang Mengayau - the tip of the world!!

2007-09-02T21:18:00.000+08:00

OK, so it's not really the tip of the world - more like the tip of Borneo lah. Simpang Mengayau is the northern-most point of Borneo and the furthest point North you can go on before you meet the sea.

We went to the place after checking out of the Rungus longhouse. The view that greeted us was simply S T U N N I N G!

The long path from the carpark that leads to the tip of Borneo. I can imagine an Amazing Race Asia episode being shot right here - with the trademark pitstop carpet laid out at the very end of this trail!

Can...almost...reach....the....tip....ughhhhh....too...short! (I'm trying to point at the "left ear of the doggie"...

Woohoo! I'm at the tip of Borneo! That piece of rock behind me is the furthest point north of the island of Borneo (that means Sabah + Sarawak + Kalimantan lah)

OMG - just look at that blue sky and blue blue BLUE water. Holy crap! We were kicking ourselves for not coming here earlier and spending time lazing by the beach. Arghhh!!!!

Too bad we didn't have more time to spend walking around the beach here - time was short and we had to get our asses to Kota Kinabalu - 3.5 hrs by car away - in order to catch our ferry to Labuan.

From the highest mountain in South East Asia to the farthest point north of Borneo all in 3 days - this must be some record :)

Next up - Labuan pictures and a fitting end to my journey.

:)
J

Sabah '07: Day 3 - Poring & Rungus Longhouse

2007-09-02T20:16:00.000+08:00

And so the journey continues!

After coming down from Mt K, the 3 of us hopped into a local cab and made a beeline for our next destination: the Poring hot springs, approx 1 hr by car away, where we'd be checking in for the night.

Got to Poring about 5pm and immediately checked in. And KO-ed. 14 hours of hiking up and down finally took it's toll :)

I loved my room at Poring hot springs - again, similar to the lodge we had at K Park, this one didn't disappoint! Called the Jungle Lodge, at RM250/night, it was a tad expensive. But bloody worth it - just look at my room w/attached outdoor jacuzzi!

Sleep never felt this good. :D

Sadly, I didn't have time to take any outdoor shots in/around Poring. Sleep more important!

The next morning, after soaking ourselves in the hot springs followed by a hearty meal, we limped our way to a waiting cab who took us back to Kota Kinabalu city - a 2 hr car ride. By then, my calves and thighs were hurting like a bitch! Rubbing copious amounts of Tiger balm and Counterpain muscle ache ointment helped somewhat. Oh. The. Pain!

Decided to rent a car at KK and drive ourselves north, to Kudat - Sabah's most northern city. We were headed to the Rungus longhouse @ Kudat for an overnight stay.

By some amazing stroke of luck, we found our way to Kudat without getting lost! Haha! That's a first!

Behold the house built entirely of bamboo! Amazing, I must say. Just look at that! This longhouse is part of the Rungus community - a tribe of natives who mostly farm and hunt in Sabah. Most of them now work/live in Kudat. Some of 'em still live in longhouses built by their ancestors. Along with gullible tourists willing to pay good $$ to experience life in the jungle....

Ling looking lost and forlorn in our little cubbyhole they call a room.... :)

Dusk saw mosquitoes invading the longhouse - but they weren't the only ones - we spotted a frog (toad?) in our room also. World, meet Kermit. Junior. Kermit kept us company all nite, and helped reduce the mosquito population in our room. Bless your little froggie heart, Kermit. Here's hoping you don't end up in some Chinese stir-fried dish...
Accommodation here was cheap - a steal actually - at RM50/night. That included breakfast, dinner (both cooked by locals) and a traditional show too. Sweet! Dinner, pictured here, washed down with a generous helping of authentic Sabah tea. Mmmm mmm.

The locals put on a show for us - which included the local kids! They were jumping around between rows of bamboos clapped together. Apparently this is a favorite pastime of the local kids here.

Me, I watched Sesame Street, Thundercats and lit fireworks aimed at stray cats outside my house.

But that's just me.

Hot Rungus chick. One problem with her though - throughout the whole performance, she never smiled! Sheesh.

So what is there to do after dark? When in Kudat, do like the locals do, and PARTAYYY!! Ling and I joined some of the locals singing, dancing and yes, drinking. Ohoho especially that last part. Who needs Chivas - bring on the local rice wine! Called tapai, it's rice fermented with yeast and left in a jar for a min of 1 week. The locals send it off to a distiller for distillation and walla - happy juice.

And damn, can these natives sing. From Guns N Roses, to Queen, to Scorpions and local rock bands, they strung song after song in between generous helpings of tapai.

This is the life, I tell you. I had tons of fun that night - with good company, good music and good alcohol - what more can you ask for?

Apparently the Rungus tribe is femes for producing beads. Pretty ones at that. I bought a few back for the family/friends. They were dirt cheap - RM3 for a bracelet which takes up to 2 days to thread. RM3 is a steal!

I absolutely love this shot. This is Jennifer, a local Rungus kid who stayed in the longhouse next door. She was a little shy at first but soon warmed up to us. The village headman told us she's mixed - British blood with local Rungus. Damn comel, wei!

I must say this longhouse experience was an eye-opener to me. A city slicker to the core, staying in a longhouse in the middle of the jungle is the last thing I'd expect to be doing, what more staying up mingling and drinking with locals like old friends.

Hello next-door neighbour people!

I'm so glad I did this - it's a very liberating experience to get out of your comfort zone and try something totally unexpected ;)

In the morning - cursing the bloody rooster that started crowing at 4am - nursing a headache and slight hangover from copious ~~tequilla~~ tapai shots, we worked our way north to the Tip of Borneo - Simpang Mengayau.

The view that greeted us simply blew us away. Oh baby, bloody beeyootiful man.

That blog entry soon!

:)
J

Mount Kinabalu: Veni, Vedi, Vinci!

2007-09-02T16:56:00.000+08:00

I'm back!!!

Holy cow, and what a trip it's been. For the uninitiated, I've just returned from a trip to Sabah a.k.a Land ~~Above~~ Below the Wind. And yes, if you're wondering.... yes, I DID reach the top of the mountain (all 4095m of it).. woohoo!

Looking back at the pictures I've taken, I can't begin to remember how I even made it up there.

But that's a story for later. So much more to tell, before the climb. Hmm where to start, where to start...

First, let me say it's been tough. No, not the damn climb, but rather living without Net access for seven whole days straight. This, coming from a dude who stares at a PC at work for a living 12 hrs a day, 5 days a week. Add more healthy doses of radiation from my home PC on weekends and you have a PC addict.

Next, this trip has been bittersweet. Moments of pure ecstasy mixed with moments I wish time would freeze and I could hit rewind again. More on that later too.

Back to the trip. In a nutshell, I spent 7 days of backpacking across Sabah, in which me and my 2 traveling companions:

scaled Mt. K (encore: WOOHOOOoOOOOoOO!!!!)
soaked our feet in Poring Hot Springs
drove ourselves to Kudat - Sabah's northern-most city
stayed in a traditional Rungus longhouse
got cozy with the locals and subsequently got high on tapai (native rice wine)
set foot on Simpang Mengayau - the "Tip of Borneo"
got involved in a car accident
nearly missed our ferry to Labuan
visited the Federal Territory of Labuan
spent 60 ringgit on the shortest taxi ride ever, and
endured a 3 hr bloody flight AirAsia flight delay

On with the blow-by-blow. Get ready for tons of pics! Pray you have a good broadband connection... :)

Day 1: Kota Kinabalu to Kinabalu Park
Having touched down at KK, one thing immediately caught my attention: the KK airport is more modern than Penang! And THERE'S A BLOODY BURGER KING IN KOTA KINABALU!!! Bloody hell, too much man. East Malaysia has a BK while us fuggers up north in PG can't even get an outlet opened here. WTF!!

Anyway, after gorging on a marvelous BK Whopper - complete with onion rings of course - we hopped on a local taxi and headed to our ultimate destination - Kinabalu Park, home to SE Asia's tallest mountain yet.

Along the 1 hr drive from KK, to K Park, the mountain - with its peak covered in mist - came into view...

Doesn't look so imposing from here, eh? Our muscles paid dearly for it though... :)

Mt. K, meet your match! I come to conquer you... entrance to my hotel for the night - a good 10 mins walk away from the main building. Behind, the mountain looms... taunting us to climb her (K, that sounded dirty)...

Eventually, we reached the entrance of K-Park, and the home of our shelter for the night. Being the high-class intrepid traveler I am, staying in a shared dorm is something I cannot do. I need peace and quiet, and sleeping with strangers in the same room ain't my cup of tea.

So we checked into the RM 210/night Liwagu Suite. This was when I had my second "HOLY SHIT!" moment (first was seeing Mt K appear from behind a cloud of mist as we were driving to K Park). Just look at the room!

Ling, my companion on the trip, decides the spot is comfy enough to pass out

It's a bloody typical English chalet - with sofa and TV w/Astro downstairs and a comfy queen-sized bed upstairs. Best RM210 I ever paid for. RM 30/night dorms? Sorry lah - no way, dude!

The Liwagu Restaurant, adjacent to my room. We had dinner and breakfast here. Prices were reasonable - RM15 for a full American breakfast and approx RM20 or so for a lamb steak. Not bad what!

The next morning, we started our climb proper - it was time to get this show on the road. We opted for the Mesilau Trail up Mt K (the common one most folks use is usually via Timpohon gate).

Apparently, Mesilau, although being 2km longer than Timpohon, offers a more scenic view. It's also harder to climb... since the trail winds up and down through 3 small hills before joining up with the Timpohon trail 5kms in.

Choosing the Mesilau trail was the best decision we made in the trip. The view was amazing - with exotic plants like the periuk kera pitcher plant and scores of waterfalls peppered along the trip. You wouldn't see all this on Timpohon. Awesomeness.

That's our 4x4 parked out front. Journey from K-Park to the beginning of the Mesilau trail took approx 1 hr by car. We stopped at a local village for our guide to get provisions before heading up.

And so the journey of pain and torture begins. Here we go!

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Waterfalls like these were common along the trail

That's our guide Hali in the shot. He doubled as our porter too, and carried our backpacks up. We made good friends with him - chatty chap who kept us entertained with local songs (yes the fucker can sing) and told jokes to keep us in high spirits. Hali has been up Mt K 500 times over 5 years... o_O!!!!

Slowly, ever so slowly, the air became thinner and colder, mist set in and the view gave way to this....

My traveling companion Ling takes a shot of the mountain in its awesomeness. At this point, we're approx 2500m up, with 2 hsr of climbing left to go. Feet don't fail me now!

Finally, after 7 hours of hard climbing, we reach our shack for the night - Panar Laban hut. The main resthouse - Laban Rata - is ~5 mins walk below.

After a hot shower and dumping our stuff at the shack, we walked down in the bitter cold and failing sunlight to Laban Rata resthouse for hot food.

And this view of the sunset:

Despite being bloody tired, none of us slept well that night. Think I got as much as 45 mins of sleep total. Why? The shack was FUCKING COLD, with no heater. Think of it as sleeping in an ice box, with the wind howling outside. I had to wrap myself in 3 blankets, 2 shirts AND long johns just to stay warm.

Tip for prospective climbers - book in advance and stay the night at Laban Rata resthouse, as none of the other huts are heated! Unless you don't mind freezing your balls off, spending the night at the LR resthouse is the only way to go.

We wake up at 2am the following morning - tired, cold and hungry. But there's no time to brood, for we've a bloody mountain to climb. Time for the main act! Gearing up, we join the steady procession of other sleepy climbers (nearly 200 in all) as we trudge up the mountain...

The higher we go, the colder it gets and the wind starts to howl, whipping up a freezing, punishing ice-cold storm. I've got on 2 layers of clothes, my Timberland-all weather jacket, tracksuit, thermal socks, face-mask and I'm still cold!

I didn't make it up in time for sunrise, sadly. Think I was as close as 20 mins away from the summit (Low's Peak) when the sun broke over the horizon...

This view above took my breath away. Here I was, at the top of the world, alone on a jagged peak with my 2 traveling companions an hour away with the guide behind them. Nothing but me and Mama Nature. I sit down, catching my breath and quietly watch the amazing nature show unfolding before me...

The friggin mountain is so tall it's shadow engulfs a whole village below! Reminds me of the alien motherships in that 90s sci-fi movie Independence Day. Someone commented "walau ehhh.... I didn't know Malaysia got Pyramids!!"

20 mins later, I'm at the top. I can go no further. This is it. I've done it.

In a rare, never-published-before photo, Jase poses triumphantly at the top of Mount K. J DA MAN!! :)

As the moment of ecstasy fades, we realize we're screwed - muscle ache or no muscle ache, there's only one way down the mountain. Shit! Die la... how to climb down like that! Just look at that amazing view as we're scaling down - guided by only a single white rope...

Miraculously, 2 hrs later, we make it down to Laban Rata resthouse. We're the last ones down. All the other folks seem to have gone down like mountain goats while we amble down like 70 year old men (okay and woman. Sorry Ling!)

A hot shower, 2 hot Vicos and a hot meal of noodles later, we set down for Timpohon gate (we came up using Mesilau but opted to go down using the easier Timpohon route).

The climb down is easily the hardest part of the journey, hands down. Climbing down was a BITCH. Step by painful step, wracked with aching calves and sore feet, we ambled down slowly.

It was so tiring I didn't even have energy to yank out my camera from my backpack and fire off some shots!

If there was a moment I thought I would just curl up and die, hiking down Mt. K. would be it (as opposed to having this thought while climbing up the mountain. heh.)

We reach Timpohon 5 hrs later at 5pm. I'd never been happier to see our shuttle bus waiting to bring us back to K-Park. We get back to the Park, check out, and head to our next destination: Poring Hot Springs.

But that's a story for another day, yeah. The saga continues. Stay tuned!

:)
J

Back!!!!

2007-08-23T21:33:00.000+08:00

Sorry guys.. I know I haven't been religiously blogging for AGES... I blame a crazy workload!

Much has happened over the past month... which in no random order included me...

having a lightning biz trip to SG... having only received 24 hrs prior notice
cuddling up with my 2 favorite nephews & nieces (more pics of that later)
strolling around inner Georgetown, with camera in-hand capturing moments of everyday PG life (yes, more of that too soon!)
falling sick with a near-death food-poisoning drama
having to postpone my Mt. K hike out by 4 days

Details, details, details. This weekend. Promise! *crosses fingers*

:)
J

Almost too easy

2007-07-20T11:32:00.000+08:00

Just realized I got charged annual membership fees for my 2 Shittybank credit cards
- one for RM70 and another for RM45.

Hell will freeze over when the day comes I fork out good money to pay for annual membership fees!

So it was time to give the friendly Shittybank folks a call.

Getting out of paying annual credit card charges is easy - just call the bank, speak to the phone monkey on the other end and ask to cancel your card. Naturally, they'd ask you why. Cue you making a small fuss about paying for fees when other banks (randomly insert bank name here) are giving free-for-life cards.

Said phone monkey will immediately offer to cancel said fees. It's fun to hear them almost begging for you to not cancel your card with them....

Wash, rinse, repeat - once every year.

Easy peasy.

Now I just have to wait a few days and repeat the process for card #2.

:)
J

A wedding and a funeral

2007-07-15T20:19:00.000+08:00

What a weekend - and what a roller coaster of emotions it's been.

Ever attended a wedding and a funeral - within the same day? I have. Or did, rather.

On Saturday morning, off I went across the Bridge, just me and my trusty ride, into the unknown depths of the Mainland - armed only with a map printed on the back of a wedding card. Had a Malay colleague's wedding kenduri to attend, you see.

Thinking I'd be the only joker who'd get lost (since almost everyone else I knew who were going to the wedding were BM natives) - the tables were turned when I was the only fella who remembered to bring the map-cum-wedding-invitation-card.

So there all of 3 colleague's cars parked patiently at the side of the highway, waiting for me to come and lead the way to the venue. Bloody funny, I tell you.

Fast forward 4 hours later, I sped home, showered, changed and headed off to another social gathering - this time, a sombre one - for another colleague's mum had drawn her last breath late Friday night.

To make matters sadder, her mum had gone from bad to worse in a span of half a day - what began as a high blood pressure incident led to unconsciousness from which she never came out of - and finally to death.

Having to give her an assuring hug as tears flowed freely was one thing - finding the right words to say to comfort her at that emotional moment was something I struggled with. Just what do you say to someone who just lost her mum unexpectedly? Sigh.

So, there you have it - my Saturday in a nutshell. A collective 120 kms clocked within a day - with all that driving to and fro.

I never thought I'd be hugging two very different people with two very different emotions within a day - one dispensed with broad smiles and laughter, while the other a grim one, trying to be strong and holding back tears of sadness.

On another note - I'm completely and utterly in love with Michael Buble's new song from his latest album (Just call me irresponsible) - it's called "Lost". If you're a fan of Buble or just like jazz with strong vocals and a good piano melody - go buy the CD/download the song already.

A perfect song for an emotive, rain-drenched weekend.

J

Bring on the 3-day weekend!

2007-07-12T20:50:00.000+08:00

Finally, having a state Governor is proving useful - since the good fella's birthday is this Saturday, Penang gets a day off on the following Monday.

Woohoo! 3-day weekend! Hmmm.. what to do, what to do.

Laundry.

Wash the cars.

Explore Tropical Spice Garden for some nature photography (Bunny, want or not?)

Oh, and maybe throw in a hike to Monkey Beach and that lighthouse at Muka Head that's been on my To Do list (the mental one, not the one on the left) - will be sure to bring the D40 along!

Hmm... and I just realized my Blogs R Us link on the left is pretty outdated. Gotta remember to update it! Soon, k?

:)
J
PS: Haven't called or messaged her for over a week. And counting. Come on self-resolve: don't fail me now!!

To Kerachut we go!

2007-07-01T21:10:00.000+08:00

I did something totally and completely unexpected today.

I woke at ~~7.00~~ ~~7.15~~ 7.30. To go hiking.

And might I remind you it's a Sunday. When ppl are supposed to be happily romping in Never-never Land.

To a place north of this rock I call home.... a place called Pantai Kerachut to be more exact.

Ignoring ominous thunder grumbling in the distance, I schweepily grabbed Vico on the way out and slowly made my way 20kms north....

I've heard so much of the place over the years, but never actually made it there. Until a good friend S suggested I drag my lazy ass over there and join him on a harsh morning wakeup call. Of course, the prospect of single, supposedly hot chicks joining us made the offer that much more enticing ;)

The trek took ~ 1.5 hrs up and down a series of gentle hills, before reaching the pantai proper. This was the view of the fishermens' jetty at the entrance to the beach, circa 8.15 a.m. if I had made it an hour earlier, I would prolly have been in time to catch a breaktaking golden orange sunrise...

Playing with focus areas... it's amazing how different focus areas results in photos that tell two very different stories... look closer on the underside of the leaf in focus, and you'll note there's a bug (beetle I think) of some sort latched on it

Of course with a hiking trip like this, and prospective good nature shots to be had, my trusty D40 went into the backpack, along with a hearty supply of water and an extra shirt.

Image of the jetty, in the distance. I like this shot... was crouched behind some fruit tree with some nasty fire ants swarming on the branches barely an arms' length away!

I like the last one too... if this shot ever makes it to some pretentious art gallery, I shall call this "Blur Dreamy Girl romping on idyllic beach" :P

Said blur girl was a new acquaintance I met on the trip - friend of a friend. Good natured, pharmacist-to-be. Extremely mischievous, feisty and talkative. Reminds me very much of my colleague in Shanghai. She'd been up Mt. Kinabalu before, so chatted amiably about her experience.... so much so we happened to walk on ahead of the pack, leading to immediate cat-calls we were going to cho-sue (Hokkien for 'monkey biz') in the trees. KNN... bloody lot of friends I have :)

I love seeing waves crash on the rocks... absolutely lovely. Gimme a good book and a mojito, and I'd be perfectly happy perched by a rock under the shade for hours.

3 hrs later, we caught a speedboat home (25 min boat ride, RM10/head)... pity my camera ran outta batt else I'd have caught some mean pics on the ride home... note to self: charge batts esp after heavy use @ friend's wedding the night before!

Headed to town for some good ol' PG hawker food grub (I walloped 1 plate curry mee, 1 plate chicken rice keh liau, 2 iced barleys and 2 scoops of gelato ice cream in a cone. And I was still hungry after that :P)

Next field trip: attempting near-death hike to Monkey Beach, and to a certain lighthouse on the northern-most end of the island. Supposedly a strenous hike. Good practice for my Mt. K attempt next month!

The End.

:)
J

Aihhhh....

2007-06-28T20:52:00.000+08:00

Just a week ago to this day, I'd be waiting for that damned clock to tick faster so Friday and a particular dinner event would come sooner.

Fast forward a week later and that eagerness has pretty much gone down the drain.

Long story short: dinner date good, conversation good, everything else after that not so good. It's a complicated web, to say the least (aren't they all?)... with my gut feeling telling me I've more to lose pursuing this one than I have to gain.

So.

Listen to gut feeling already!

Turn around and hightail? Not quite lah.

Will still keep in touch with her, albeit occasionally. But no more dinner or movie invitations in the near future, I reckon.

Don't get me wrong - I still think she's a great girl and we appear to have hit it off quite well. But (and there always is a but)... better not lah. For my sake and everyone else involved in this merry melo-drama.

The hardest part? Spending the last 72 hrs fighting the urge to pick up the phone, holding my breath and speed-dialling that magic number to ask how her day went.

Whatever happens, happens. I'm not gonna wait around forever.

When relating incidents of the past week to a good friend - I was told I have the tendency of rushing in too quickly.

Like HERROOOOooo... tell me smtg I don't know already! :P

0-100 faster than your neighbourhood Ah Beng's modified Satria. Minus the butt-ugly rear spoiler.

Aihhh.... my life is one bloody Yasmin Ahmad drama at times... except I don't crash and die in a pool of blood at the end while my cell rings as she calls....

Back to lazy weekends curled in bed! Now who's up to see WTF (What the Fuss) is with Transformers?

:)
J

the aftermath

2007-06-23T15:32:00.000+08:00

mmmm... last night. Was good. :)

Dinner was good. We talked, and ate... and talked... and ate... then I realized the girl has a penchant for sweet raisins, having nibbled on plate after plate of 'em (we were having dinner at Tao - a Jap buffet place in Juru AutoCity). Somehow I found this quite cute - how many people do you know raid raisins from the dessert counter vs. ordering endless trays of salmon sashimi?

We talked about work, life, her career opportunities, our friend (which we have in common - always a safe topic to have in hand, when conversation runs dry), movies and - well, almost everything. Hell we talked so much until the place began closing down at 11 (cue lights shutting off section by section).

I'm beginning to discover she's quite the Mary Jane - your typical girl next door, no airs about her (not that I've seen yet anyway), and unlike my ex - appears to have her head screwed on the right way. Of course, the fact she's got lovely brown eyes and this amazing dimple that lights up when she smiles does help ;)

We adjourned to Starbucks post-dinner to continue good conversation - then she ran off to Bed (the club) for a quick drink with some clients from work. Being the patient gentleman I was, of course I offered to wait until she was done to give her a ride home. Takkan just gonna leave her there and take off, right? (all together now: of course notttt!)

What touched me the most about this girl thru-out the night was what she said as I dropped her at her front gate circa 1am... "drive safely. message me when you get back?"

Yes, I'm a sucker for the little things that count. That she's aware I have to drive 30 kms across the bridge back to my home on the island says something, what more of seeking confirmation I made it back in one piece.

This one's looking to be a keeper.

Uh huh, the silly grin stayed plastered thru-out the drive home :)

And naturally, Brain and Heart reconvened at an impromptu UN General Assembly the moment I hit the sack. Pertinent questions were raised and debated in good detail: am I reading too much into this? Am I really into her, or just riding the thrill of the chase? Did she have fun? Does she like me - not in a potential good friend kinda way? Could this be the start of something amazing?

Questions, questions, questions. I suppose time will tell.

For now, it's time to head out and get to buying tickets for tonight's movie date *cue said silly grin*

:)
J

:)

2007-06-22T00:01:00.000+08:00

Big day tomorrow.

Shirt's ironed. Reservations made. Car's fuelled (and cleaned).

Now please let me still remember the directions she gave me to her place thank you lord amen. Seemingly trustworthy sense of direction - do not fail me now!

Then somehow along the way throughout a marathon hour-long phone call tonite, plans were inadvertently made for Saturday too.

So I've seen Hot Fuzz already and think it rocks (it's only the funniest goddamn show on the planet since "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"). No harm watching it again on Sat nite, no?

Here's to... possibilities. Potentially exciting ones, at that.

*cue big goofy grin*

Stay cool.
Remember to breathe.
No blaring air horn at stupid motorists.
May the Force be with you. Errr... me.

:)
J

On second thought...

2007-06-19T14:36:00.000+08:00

Stop blinking your eyes, for they do not deceive you.

Yes, I removed the post.

After some deep thought (accompanied by a glass of ~~'90 Bordeaux~~ iced Ribena), perhaps telling all wasn't such a good idea.

You never know who's reading.

Or God-forbid, in a cruel twist of fate... she is. (now wouldn't that be funny....)

Don't want to scare the poor girl away before she gets to know the charming dude behind the goofy smile, now do we?

Better this way, lah.

Gotta love self-censorship.

We now return to your regular programming.

:)
J
P/S: if you've just tuned in... well.... herrro. And if you're feeling confused, don't worry: you're not the only one!

Fated one, I tell you!

2007-06-16T20:21:00.000+08:00

I woke up ~~this morning~~ after lunch blinking sleepily, yawned and peered out my bedroom window at what seemed like imminent rain.

"Hey, we haven't gone shopping in awhile, eh? Time for some new threads. That shit you're wearing is soooo last summer" said Brain to Conscious Mind (henceforth referenced as 'CM'.)

"Yeah man! And talking about shopping, it's about bloody time you got rid of old clothes in your damned wardrobe...." chided CM.

"OK, set. We clean out the wardrobe," suggested CM. "..and then drop off old stuff @ Salvation Army, then go out shopping, K? Hmmm.. wonder if M'sia Mega Sales started yet or not..."

"Roger that!" Brain exclaimed, before promptly ordering Body to lie it's ass back in that comfy bed and curl up for another 20 mins :P

So here's the weird part.... I was reading the papers during lunch at home today... and right there... smack on the front page of the Metro section - The Star, was the grand announcement of Malaysia Mega Sales! WHICH STARTS TODAY!

The signs were obvious: Fate's telling me to go out and spend insane amounts of money.

Eh, I've been damned good this year K. Haven't gone on a serious shopping binge since.... hrmm *thinks*.... pre-Chinese New Year. That's bloody ages ago. Time for new threads.

So 4 hours and many, many credit card swipes later... I come home pleased. Mission accomplished!

Damage to wallet: in the region of about $500

Stores I made happy today: Levis (finally got a new pair of 505 Regular Straights... the last time I bought jeans was like... 2 yrs ago), G2K (a shirt for the office, 2 tees), Espirit (2 tees for 99.90) and FOS stuff. Very productive, no?

Charities for make benefit of glorious nation: Salvation Army

Retail therapy acquired: priceless!

Hell, today was damned productive.... probably the most productive I've had in recent memory. Imagine this: in a little over 4 hours, I managed to:

- buy 5 shirts and a pair of jeans (got it's length altered summore)
- buy dinner for family
- meet an old friend @ when accomplishing above, and exchanged pleasantries
- stop @ ATM, get cash
- get a haircut (and finally finish reading those 2 issues of TIME)
- wash the car
- wash the koi pond's filter
- get a bath

Thank you, I'm proud of myself too.

Now do your bit for the nation's economy; go forth and shop!

:)
J

Am I emo?

2007-06-14T10:40:00.001+08:00

You are almost emo. You listen to music with emo lyrics like Linkin Park (crawling in my skin) but haven't really ventured into the acoustic sounds of the true emo audiophile. You might have shaggy hair, but only because you're lazy, not really because you strive for emo-ness.

AreYouEmo.com

Bloody hell, I'm emo-ed over the fact I'm almost emo!! *lol*

For the record, I do listen to Linkin Park. Their latest album: Minutes to Midnight, rocks socks!

Concluding pics of Taiwan coming....

:)
J

Taiwan Day 3: Conversations with cabbies

2007-06-12T17:40:00.000+08:00

Man, I seem to have a knack for starting hillarious conversations with my cab drivers. In Hokkien. The latest one went like this:

Me: Hello! Lu eh kong Hokkien ua boh? (Hi! Can you speak Hokkien?)

Cabbie: ya ya! (yes! yes!)

Me: Ho say! (sweet!)

*we talk about the weather (it's been raining lots), sightseeing and other safe topics, when...*

Me: Uncle bhat khi Malaysia boh? (has uncle been to M'sia?)

Cabbie: Wah? mm-bat... wa bat khi Singapore nia (no, I've been to Singapore only)

Me: Owh. Singapore eh lang chin chia kiasu... (Singaporeans all kiasu - I'm gonna kena from my S'porean cousins when they read this...)

Cabbie: Si aar? Wa thia kong Malaysia eh cha-bor ka liau chin chia sui (Really? I heard Malaysian chicks are all hot)

Me: *enters deep pondering thought* Eh sai la... OK OK la... (not bad, OK OK only - shit, this time gonna kena from my female friends when they read this hehe...)

Me: Taiwan eh cha bor ka sui (Taiwanese chicks prettier - yes, I AM aware I'm digging a pretty deep hole for myself, when my female bloggers chance upon this post...)

Cabbie: aan chua kong leh? (how so?)

Me: chi peng eh cha bor ka liau bin chin chia kut... ko si pek pek... tha mor teng teng... si pek sui... (chicks here have flawless skin, fair and have lovely long hair... damn, they're hot!)

Cabbie: tiok la! Wa eh boh ma si aneh kuan jee chap nee koay (my wife was like that 20 years ago)

*we both laugh like hyenas - typical male bonding session... in a cab*

Me: Wa ai choi boh si, wa ka lai Taiwan choi.... (when I want to get married, I'll come to Taiwan and find a local chick to marry)

Cabbie: ho! wa eh kai siau (sweet! I can reccommend a few nice girls)

*conversation then digresses to the Computex tradeshow, cost of living and other non-controversial topics that won't get me hentam-ed by my readers... :)*

Nothing like talking to a local cabbie to discover the soul of a city (or in this case, it's women). Especially when you're travelling alone and have lack of companions to talk crap with, cabbies make a good conversational piece.

It's my last day here and the rain FINALLY decides to stop pouring. If I didn't know better... the island's glad to see me leave...

Next stop: home!

P-S: Wrote this last Thurs but only managed to post this today... work's been a bitch.... more pics soon!

:)
J

Taiwan Day 2: rain, more rain, hotel, auto ass-washer, Computex chicks

2007-06-05T21:47:00.000+08:00

Bloody miserable day this is. Been raining since last night and didn't stop until late in the AM. Got caught in the mother of all jams on the way to Computex 2007 for my company's conference call this morning...

... traffic got stuck at a standstill so badly, the taxi cab driver actually asked me to take a hike (literally) and walk the remaining 400m to the place. I'd get there faster on foot, apparently.

The fella even threw in his umbrella (twas still raining) for TWD 100 added to the taxi fare. Damn cheap man... this deal beats Giordano umbrella sale prices on rainy days back home!

Photo time.

My hotel... complete with a chain of high-end boutiques right outside. Not the kind of street shopping I was hoping for...

Hotel lobby. Korean chick + 3 piece band ensemble complete with grand piano & sax player entertains after 9pm. S-P-I-F-F-Y! If I weren't afraid of sitting alone at the high-class dining area (table complete with candlelight)... looking like I got stood up... I'd be down there right now.

Jap restaurant. Too exp for me and my company budget

My breakfast place every AM

My suite, complete with 42" plasma TV and damn comfy king sized bed. All that space... and no one to share with... aihhhhh.....

D Toilet.

Now this I found interesting.... a toilet complete with an Automatic AssHole Washer (TM)! Peering closer in curiosity...

Buttons for adjusting ass-washing pulsating stream, buttons for controlling water temperature... hell, there's even a button for adjusting seat temperature! (note to self: do not leave setting marked "Hot" overnight before plunking ass down absent mindedly the next morning... yeah. Ouch.)

Me, I'm an old-fashioned guy and prefer washing my ass the old-fashioned way: a stream of water from a pipe. Won't have it anyway else and certainly won't trust a damned machine to wash it (ass) for me.

On to Computex... Asia's largest premier IT tradeshow. Lots to see, lots of freebies and giveaways to collect...

Examples of some booths and the accompanying booth babes. I like the last one... by a company called XFX. They specialize in PC gaming graphics cards... I bought one 2 yrs ago and I'm still a firm believer in the company!

Have no idea what the AMD folks were up to...

But I'd prefer these 3 over the "competition", anytime ;)

Intel also displayed a "wall of motherboards" running on their latest 3-series chipset technology

Finishing off with this 2.5 storey high billboard ad right outside the world's tallest tower: Taipei 101. Sweet.

J

When PG Hokkien Boy meets Taiwan Cabbie

2007-06-04T21:56:00.000+08:00

I took a cab today to Shinlin Market (more pics on that down the post)... the conversation was way too funny (and too fuckin' weird) for me not to mention here. It went smtg like this...

*J gets into cab*

J: Hi... errr... you go Shinlin Market?

Cabbie: Shinlinnnn Mahhkettt? *grunts*.... owhhh.... yea yea! OK OK....

*cab speeds off. J remembers a friend back in M'sia saying Taiwan people apparently speak Hokkien, & decides to try his powderful PG Hokkien with said cabbie...*

J: Uncle... lu eh kong Hokkien ua boh? (uncle, you be speaking Hokkien?)

Cabbie: Aey! (Yes!)

J: Ho-say! Wah, ho pun la... ka eng ka Uncle kong uah (Wah, good also lah.. easier for me to speak to Uncle)

Cabbie: Lu ooo bor boi? (So, are you married?)

J: Oh, boh lah.... boh kahwin koe *smiles politely* (nope, ain't married yet)

Cabbie: Cho mie leh? (Why?)

J: Errr... boh chioi tiuk tay hoe eh cha boh koe.... (err.... never found the right girl yet) *laughs awkwardly* (thought to self: OK Mr. Kepoh... back the fuck off!)

Cabbie: *in all seriousness* lu si gay hor? (are you gay?)

J: O_o

*momentary awkward silence*

......

J: BOH LAAA!!! Kanneh! (bloody hell! up yours!!!! WTF makes you say that??!!!)

the conversation goes on a while later on the topic of my sexual preferences (Uncle apparently is straight and proud of it) and we end up talking about women and the problems with 'em (cue snigger from dudes everywhere!)... ;)

So there you go. Barely 6 hrs into stepping foot in Taiwan and I'm already asked about my sexual preferences. By a cab driver.

What next lah?!

Photos of Shinlin market (a very popular night market stretching a few KMs along the roadside... in downtown Taiwan. The girls will LOVE this place.. god know how many shoe shops and top shops all over the place...)

Not very good pics, I know... I didn't want to flash my D40 around too much hence the hurried shots (might as well hang a large neon sign saying ROB ME! NOW!).

More tales from the East soon!

:)
J

Taiwan en-route: People, yellow cabs, chicks

2007-06-04T21:30:00.001+08:00

I made it! To Taiwan! In one piece! Still sane and brightly bushy eyed! Despite being awake from a god-awful 5am till now! Woohoo!

So the flight was pretty uneventful... except for 2 very very hot chicks that just happened to be seated next to me. Suddenly the prospect of being stuck for 4 hrs on a tin can 25000 ft in the air didn't see all that bad ;)

With long flowing black hair, a killer bod, nice erm.. assets (front and rear bumper, so to speak) and oh-so-soft eyes, fleeting thoughts of having a menage a trois with her and her friend (quite cute also) wasn't hard to come by. Down boy.... bad J.

One minor catch though... she didn't speak English too much (from mainland China, I finally deduced through 10 mins of hand gestures). So the rest of the trip was spent with me offering her a Kit Kat (twas dessert with my tray - awww how sweet) and making small talk. Then again, it was more of me talking and her just nodding shyly and smiling sweetly.

Dammnit I SO regret not learning Mandarin now! *bangs head repeatedly on airplane fuselage*... I was THIS close to texting my Chinese-ed friend and asking him HTF (that's How The...) you say "Hi there, I'm J... what's your name and who's your cute friend?" in Chinese.... aihhh.

I gave her my biz card though.. so let's hope the chick knows how to at least read introductory England and knows how to use the Net.

One can hope :)

Taiwan reminds me of Penang.... foliage is the same.... traffic madness about the same... and the shops selling stuff are about the same too. Photos coming in another post!

TW... I'm lovin it!

;)
J

To Taiwan @ the last minute

2007-06-01T20:14:00.000+08:00

I'm off to Taiwan for a biz conference and for this event in 48 hrs. The fun part? Getting the notice to go 24 hrs ago. Holy shitness indeed. Then there's the mad rush to get a visa (apparently I don't need one for a short biz trip) and to secure flight tickets. Heaved a sigh of relief when the travel agency managed to get me seats on Cathay Pac. Woohoo!

Having never been to the country before, I have no idea what to expect (other than it's raining kitties and doggies, and the weather's hovering in the mid 20s). So many questions... where to shop? what to sightsee? is the food any good? are cabbies gonna understand this banana boy who no be speaking Chinese?

My hotel's smack in the middle of Taipei so there better be good sightseeing places around. Taipei 101 and the Chiang Kai Shek memorial come to mind. Then someone mentioned smtg about temples.

Got my homework cut out for me. That, plus lotsa packing.

Now let's just hope my immune system doesn't throw a bitch fit and get me sick again. Missing one cool outstation trip on the company's bill is quite enough in a year.

Back in a week with pics!

Now if anyone's been to Taiwan/Taipei to be more precise, let me know what's cool to do there.

:)
J

Just when you thought this blog was dead...

2007-05-17T20:41:00.000+08:00

Riiight. Like I'm going to stop blogging anytime soon. Nothing like continuous pokes and profanity-laced reminders from friends to get you back on the blogging bandwagon...

Much has happened since my last entry:

I fell sick and missed my US trip.

I burned my non-refundable domestic flight tickets from Portland, Oregon on the western seaboard to Raleigh, North Carolina in the east. Damage to wallet: ~RM 900. Facial expression when Continental customer support told me the tickets were non-refundable: priceless.

It's bloody raining almost every day. Smack during peak hour rush-home traffic. With the rain come jams. Lots of it. $%^&.

My travelling companions on my Aug Mt. Kinabalu climb may pull out, putting my entire fucking trip at risk. I'm tempted to fly there anyway and climb the damned mountain solo.

I re-discovered my love for reading, and finished two novels in a week. Life of Pi was a damn waste of money (how the hell is a novel about a boy and a tiger stranded in a boat in the middle of a fucking ocean supposed to make me believe in God? (nvm the fact I already do - I want a refund!!) On the flip-side, Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis totally rocks. Stephen's the Man.

I lost 1 kilo in 2 weeks (blame the sinus medication) and subsequently regained 0.5kg after hearty orgasmic post-recovery makan sessions involving many of Mother Nature's beloved 4-legged animals.

I finally watched Chronicles of Narnia, after putting it off for ages. Blame the pirates for not putting it on the Net for downloading sooner. Thank you Hollywood for completing screwing whatever fragments of treasured childhood memories reading the original book I have left.

I submitted my taxes 2 days before the deadline and am damned proud of it.

I saw Spidey 3 and agreed whole-heartedly with 2 things:
1. Kirsten Dunst is still damn hot
2. The black suit is way cool
(Okay so there's a #3): Like too many cooks, too many villians spoil the show.

J.R.R. Tolkien's new book Children of Hurin isn't out on paperback yet. Bloody hell.

I find myself cursing and cussing more often now. Even in the office. With HR managers sitting all around my cube. Not like that's a problem, but still. The bouts of repressed PMS-like anger are not a good sign.

And while you're scrolling through this post, hop on over to my new-found online buddy Az's blog.... who knew Az who's my colleague at work was a serial blogger. Her 3 kids are so cute it makes one wonder if she sold her soul in exchange for her kid's adorable-ness.

I promise to try blogging more frequently... the keyword being try.

:)
JC

I'm still alive. Really.

2007-04-11T20:17:00.000+08:00

Barely anyway. Hola, ppl! Yes yes... I know it's been awhile. The usual excuses apply (work, laziness, procrastination etc etc). Plus I've been sick for weeks... remnants of a bloody flu superbug that's left me with a wheezing cough no antibiotic can cure.

I'm off to the States in 2 weeks for a week-long conference. Roadtrippp! woohoo! Then it's another week of personal vacation, visiting my cousin in North Carolina. By the time I get back, I will have literally circled the globe. Around the world in 2 weeks, this is.

More when I get back. Oh, the shopping and photos to be taken.... *rubs hands with glee*

P/S: if anyone knows a sure-fire cure for a wheezing cough, tell.

J

Kek Lok Si.... Bhd.

2007-02-28T20:24:00.000+08:00

I'll explain what I mean in a sec. Meanwhile, bon appetit:

Lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The explosion of red temporarily blinded me when I first saw the huge array of lanterns...

A smaller pavillion ringed by said lanterns, and another ground-level shot trying to capture the half-moon in the same frame. Moon would've stood out clearer had it not been so doggone cloudy

I can only imagine what the temple's nighly electricity bill must be.

Main pagoda, ringed by lanterns, lanterns and more lanterns.

Huffing n puffing my way up a series of spiralling steps in the pagoda leads to it's summit, and this awesome view. It's times like these I wish I had a wide-angle lens, just to be able to capture the entire sweeping view in one frame. Goddamnit.

And now, to the rant. If you've been to the Kek Lok Si temple in recent days (since it lit up like a Xmas tree), you'd have surely noticed the small, but subtle fees you're being charged just for visiting. Little things like

RM2 parking fee for parking at the lower pavillion area
RM2 "entrance" fee for entry into the main pagoda area
RM2 parking fee for parking at the upper Kuan Yin statue area

Since when did a temple start charging so bloody much for every single little thing? The entrance fee I can live with, but paying TWICE for car entry into TWO separate areas of what is essentially one big sprawling temple ground is an unbelievable ripoff. Soliciting donations from visitors and putting up donation boxes in every corner of the temple I can live with, but this whole charging-for-everything fiasco is just sad.

And just to drive home my point:

Ignore the very bad camera shake. My bad for snapping sans flash in low-light conditions. Avoided using the flash for obvious reasons (drawing his attention lah! But he looked up anyway. Even had the cheek to smile for the camera)

That, my friends... is a monk. Using a laptop. But not just ANY laptop. It's a Mac. A monk on a Mac. That's gotta be a new record. And no, somehow I don't think it's a donated unit by some well-wisher looking to upgrade.

Now you know where those countless fees are going to. That, and paying the electricity bill for all those lights. It's sad to see the direction these places of worship are going in. What happened to temples that just charged you reasonable prices for prayer paraphernalia?

It's the era of Kek Lok Si Bhd./Inc. alright.

PG's CNY Cultural Street Festival - Dong Dong Chiang!

2007-02-25T15:27:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer: This is gonna be ONE HELLUVA long photo blog, so don't bitch 'bout loading times.

On with the show then.

Discovered yesterday that my beeyootiful home of Penang was organizing some CNY street festival, in conjunction with the local PG state government, Tourism Ministry and local hotels here. So off the D40 and tripod went into the boot, on a merry round of photo taking!

The whole of inner Georgetown's historical enclave was cordoned off for the festivities. Despite the traffic chaos, I somehow managed to secure an extremely sweet parking space a block or two from the main entrance. That meant less huffing n puffing, carrying said camera equipment from car to the venue in the blistering heat.

All photos taken approx 3-5 p.m.

The "award winning" PG float, which apparently won 1st (2nd? 3rd?) place in the recent Malaysia Floral Fest

I'm home! This is the Cheah Kongsi clanhouse where my clan gathered to catch up and drink the nights away, in the days of old. Yes, I am a Cheah and a Hokkien descendant. Never mind the fact my spoken Hokkien's a bit broken and has an English twang to it. Haaaih. True blue banana, I am. And no, that's not me posing in the front, but my good buddy S instead.

Found this sculpture at the Cheah kongsi temple grounds really interesting. These clay figurines were just 2 inches in height, and sitting under shade of a miniature bonsai plant. This pic marks my maiden forey into the photographic technique known as bokeh. It's a fancy term for keeping the desired subject in focus while blurring the background somewhat, drawing your eyes' attention to the main subject while still keeping some aspect of the background in context.

Or something like that.

These lanterns were just dangling there, strung up across a street. Neat.

I found this really amusing... Chinese opera performers taking an afternoon siesta under the main stage... LOL! Ran away right after snapping this, much to the I-am-not-amused look of the sleepy-eyed performers :)

Shots of a 128-strong Chinese drum entourage doing their thing. These drummers were from diff primary & secondary schools on the island. Standing right there in the thick of the action was amazing... nothing quite like feeling the beat of 128 drums rattling your bones!

In a rare paedophile moment, both my good buddy S and I agreed the chick in the background (left) had Good Potential to be a cute hottie, give or take another 5 years to develop and mature.

Random shots of the festivity. Love the shot of the arch framed by the blue sky behind.

These dudes were on stilts. Think they're supposed to be representatives of diff Chinese deities. Shows you how much I know about my own culture :P

In the middle of the street, there were these 12 fixtures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. Not a bad idea. Note how the entire celebration took place right in front of a mosque (2nd pic)... which led me thinking about the different cultures we have right here co-existing with each other.

Helloooo Teow Chiew village! Lots to makan here.... street vendors setup row after row of roadside stalls. Never mind the fact you could find stalls selling coconut water to cendol to char koay teow to mee jawa along this "village".... somehow I don't think the Teowchews invented mee jawa :)

Chinese opera! I had no idea what they were saying, so I quickly lost interest.

Experimented with different shutter speeds in this shot. Pretty cool how you capture different moments at different speeds.... too fast a shutter speed and you freeze the action....

... while slowing it down lends a blur of movement to the whole show. Awesomeness.

Sorrylah people, didn't have any night shots of the celebrations. Took off around 6pm... had to run for dinner date. Pity I couldn't stay on until dusk though, would've love to capture the essence of the celebrations at night, complete with flickering lanterns and all. Sigh... maybe next year!

This is the first time ever I've attended a cultural festivity, in recent memory. The last time I went for a parade or cultural event in PG of any sort, it was back in my primary school days when my grandparents would bring me along for the show. Walking the streets of inner PG with a camera and cap to keep the sun out, I really felt like a tourist in my own state! Had no idea there was so many sights, sounds and history of my own culture and historical places in my own state I have no clue about. It's almost shameful.

Note to self: attend more cultural festivities!

:)
J

My trusty D40 and me

2007-02-11T16:14:00.000+08:00

... along with the D40's new-found best friend, a sturdy Canon tripod went on another late-night photo shooting spree again. This time, we decided to try out the view from PG's evergreen Equatorial Hotel (home of the revered, renowned upclass Jappy restaurant Kampachi) and Pearl Island Country Club, another swanky locale 15 mins away.

Sadly, the views weren't too good though. Coupled with a full-moon (too much light!) and strong breezes, that meant most photos were washed out or had the treeline somewhat blurry.

Bah humbug. See for yourselves...

Shots of EQ's pool-side area by night. Poolside reflection somewhat distorted by breeze!

Tried framing the shot of a full moon peeking behind coconut trees, but again, got interrupted by strong winds! Note undesired lens flare to the right of the picture. Grrrr. This calls for some powderful PhotoShop skills...

View of the city from the Pearl Island Country Club's balcony. Tree swaying in the wind added a somewhat unexpected, cool blurry effect

On another note, can't believe CNY is only a week away! Man, time flies.

More shots next week.... of the Kek Lok Si temple all lit up. Now that should promise some pretty awesome night shots!

:)
J

PS: To a certain individual who's just begun her year-long life in the Land of Oz... here's hoping it's a great one! Now stop wasting precious broadband time reading this & get back to work! ;P

My new obsession

2007-01-23T17:57:00.000+08:00

And a very bloody expensive one it's turned out to be. Just last weekend, I went out and acquired myself a nifty new gadget.... one I've always wanted to have for awhile now. Folks, meet my new....

... Nikon D40, marking my debut entry into the wunnerful world of DSLR photography! It's 2 weeks old and counting. Add in the Nikon SB-600 Speedlight (external Flash), and the final pricetag is a pretty hefty 4-digit one. Let's just say my CNY shopping is over before it even began :)

So, why the sudden need to go out and splurge? Well, for one my existing point-and-shoot compact IXUS 500 decided to die on me (after 3 long years of service travelling with me to over 3 countries and 4 holidays). Not bad for a cam that preserved memories of Redang, Singapore, Shanghai and the US. Not bad at all.

Field-tested my new preciousss at Penang's latest (and only, if I may add) 6-star hotel: the Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa. Having newly reopened after a few years of renovation, I figured it's gardens were a perfect place to bring out the inner camwhore in me. So there I was, running around the resort's gardens with camera and tripod in tow, at 10pm on a Sunday night. Surprisingly, I didn't get kicked out of the hotel by security. Must be the whole shorts-slippers-and shirt look that passed me off as a spoiled hotel guest out for a casual late night stroll...

Angsana trees by the beach. Good thing the hotel management preserved the trees during the renovation works. Clever folks.

Pool-side.

The ultimate in spa experience: Rasa's 6-star Chi spa (try saying that 6 times faster...)

Amazing shots, if I do say so myself. :) Lots to improve on, though. The amount of detail this camera captures is fantastic... should I have shot these with my rusty old Canon IXUS 500, it wouldn't have turned out as nicely as the ones above.

Can't hardly wait for CNY to arrive.... that's when the Kek Lok Si temple will be all lit up at night. And that's where I'll be, armed with my new toy and tripod!

Woohoo.. 2007! Now gimme my CNY hols!

2007-01-06T22:21:00.000+08:00

6 days into the new year and I'm already counting down the days to Chinese New Year... another whole week of not working (yes, am planning to take the whole week off)... woohoo!

My resolution to be a fitter and buffier J is apparently holding steady... still hitting the gym 3 times a week. Haven't seen any amazing changes yet though. Think it'll take another month or so of sweating it out before those huge ripping muscles come out of hiding :P

Bloody weatherman (and the Star) says PG and all the northern states are supposed to have heavy rainfall this week, potentially flooding low-lying areas. Either we hired a bomoh to jampi the rain away or the weatherman was high on crack when he made the forecast - nothing but blue skies up here so far. Hope it does rain though... my car's due for a wash.

Nikon D40. That's my soon-to-be-purchased brand new spiffy SLR camera. The old IXUS 400 I had finally flatlined after 3 years of faithfully tagging along with me to Redang, US, China and around the country, not to mention enduring the ~~many~~ occasional hard drops over the years. Sent it back to Canon for repairs but I doubt the bill will be cheap. So, I decided against getting another point-and-shoot cam, and going one-up into the world of digital SLR photography! Spent weeks trawling the WWW for tips on my next purchase (Canon? Nikon? Sony?) and speaking to existing SLR owners. So that's that... Nikon it is! This next purchase will break the bank though. Wonder how much my liver's worth...

Oh, and I finally got down to putting a new chatbox in on the left. And it only took THREE months for me to fix it!

Later folks!

:)
J

J joins gym, hell freezes over

2006-12-15T15:57:00.000+08:00

I just joined a gym. When the company already has one. Just because I can. And wanted to.

So there I went and joined Fitness Studio. What spurred the recent urge to pay $90 and go on a punishing torture regime? (benefit of enjoying the company's corporate rate. Ordinary peons shell out $100). Oh where do I start...

- FINALLY being able to buy NORMAL sized shirts, instead of puny XS ones
- FINALLY being able to buy l/sleeved shirts off the rack vs tailor-made ones
- NOT feeling like a truck hits me every afternoon @ work
- hot chicks doing BodyCombat classes next door of course!

Just 3 weeks into a brutal Mon/Wed/Fri regime and I'm already feeling the difference.. increased mental alertness, not falling asleep at the wheel on daily commutes (tho that'll still happen regardless I reckon) and looser muscles. Plus, being able to sleep like a baby every night helps a lot too.

Having a partner-in-crime join me on these gym outings certainly helps... at least there's company to kick your ass into shape when you're feeling lazy to work out.

I'm starting off my new & improved Towards-A-Buffier-J Regime with baby steps... 1/2 hr on the fixed weight machines followed by a good 1/2 sweat on the treadmill. Wash, rinse, repeat Mon/Wed/Fri. Add in the usual hiking on weekends and I'll turn my one-pack around soon enuff!

Goodbye unproductive shopping-trips-coz-I-can-never-wear-those-nice-shirts-that-are-always-out-of-my-size, hello buffier shoulders!

New Year Resolutions be damned... I'm getting a head start on mine. May my unwavering spirit of determination not potong stim until at least Chinese New Yr!

:)
J

Broken fridge. Melted ice cream. Heart cries.

2006-12-01T15:47:00.000+08:00

Half a tub of melted Haagen Dazs rum & raisin.

That's the casualty report that I came home to, discovering the fridge had coughed it's last freon-induced breath over the day.

HALF A TUB.

Of GOOD HAAGEN DAZS ice cream.

Ouch indeed. Why God.... whyyyy???!!!!!

Don't think I'll look at another quart of ice cream the same way ever again.

:(
J

Ni hao baby! Shanghai by day & by night...

2006-11-24T21:04:00.000+08:00

Man I haven't been blogging for awhile. Already beginning to forget what my blogger username and password is :P

Ah... the Bund. Fond memories of this one. Being Shanghai's premier tourist attraction, it's sidewalks are full of ppl taking pictures of Pudong district across the river (I think that's Pudong anyway) before hopping over the street to Nanjing Road, the Orchard Road of the East :)

Of course, the city skyline is best appreciated at night....

Man, I love this shot. Beautiful ainnit? Took close to 30 different shots with different ISO, shutter speed and aperture settings before finding the sweet spot. Without a tripod, and shivering in 12 deg C weather with a strong wind freezing my b@lls off, it's amazing this shot actually came out the way I hoped it to be!

East Nanjing Road. The shopping center of Shanghai. Lots to see here... rows n rows of shops selling mostly high-end fashion. And pearls. Which I bought for a certain someone. Whole different story for another time ;)

So yeah.. the bloody road's so long they've named it West and East Nanjing. Takes a good erm... 1/2 hr walking leisurely from one end to another. Or you can always hop on a tram shuttle that plies one end to another.

Nine West. Closes at 10 p.m. Just HAD to take this one for ML. ML, eat yr heart out! Wahahahaha..... :P

Saved the piece d' resistance for last...

Xiao long pau? Check! Pearl shopping? Check! Trying out broken Mandarin 1-liners on unsuspecting cab drivers? Check! Hairy Crabs during Winter? Check!

Couldn't have left Shanghai without trying this delicacy. Only during winter, apparently (which is right now). Had this at our hotel's Chinese restaurant... they charged ~RMB 180 per crab. The bloody thing is so small it fits right into the palm of my hand.

As you can see, the crab is hairy.

Very.

Cracking it open.... there's very little meat inside. Not quite like our black crabs back here. But the meat's surprising naturally sweet & tender.. and that's just with boiling the crab in hot water. No wonder it's so expensive.

So there you go: my Shanghai trip in 1000 words or less. Not quite the city I'd like to stay/work in.... the whole language barrier's one reason I wouldn't stay there. 2nd would be the super-packed city itself. Too busy/chaotic for me. Gimme PG road bullies and bloody motorcyclists any day.

Tons of other pics, but lazy to resize and upload.

Oh, did I mention my China colleagues think I look like a native Shanghainese?? Like... hewwwroooo???? No wonder the locals kept on talking to me in Chinese, but when turning to my colleagues beside me, immediately spoke English (!!).

Of course, the moment I open my mouth, the true banana within is discovered :P

Promise to TRY and blog more often, K? Dun mogok.

:)
JC

Ni hao baby! Chapter One of a Very Long Webpage...

2006-11-24T20:42:00.000+08:00

Hola! How you fine ppl doin.... yes, your eyes do not deceive you... I'm back! After a long hiatus, that is. Sorry lah, work's been crazy like you wouldn't believe.

Anyway, I'm just back from the city of a billion gazillion spitting people: China. a.k.a The MotherLand. Shanghai, to be more precise. Work took me there for a week. 5.5 hr plane trip was good (bloody turbulent on the return leg), food was spicy (not too good) and the people ermm... friendly. Doesn't help that this slitty-eyed banana not be speaking Mandarin very well. Still, got some good bargains (at least I think it was good(!))... and managed to squeeze some sightseeing in.

On with the show.

Behold my hotel room. The 5-star Regent, smack in the middle of downtown China. My room came equipped with 42" plasma screen, electric curtains, in-room jacuzzi, and a rain-shower stall. All t'was missing was a Chinese hooker on speedial. Gotta leave a note for the hotel mgr next time around. The price for a day of luxury? RMB 1100... or approx RM 500++. Thank God the company AMEX is paying for it.

Hotel lobby. Very nice. Got piano. And spiffy cocktails. Sweet. Next.

View of Shanghai city from my room. Pic taken on a VERY RARE clear day. Most mornings, the whole skyline would be shrouded in an ugly grey blanket. And here we are complaining of the haze.

Ah, this one I miss the most. Chinese xiao long pau. Delicious morsels of dim-sum like dumplings with stewed pork inside. Bite into one and you'll taste the pork juices sealed within. Greedy buggers (like yours truly) who eagerly bit into one despite warnings to let it cool first nearly got his tongue burnt off by super-heated pork juices.

They should carry a warning label on these dishes.

Anyway, this pic was taken in the femes xia long pau place in YuYuan Gardens... a shopping cum sightseeing place in downtown Shanghai.

If there's one thing about China I'll always remember.. it's the people. Or more like the BILLIONS of people that seem to be everywhere at once. On the road. On the sidewalk. In shopping malls. Queuing for cabs. Case in pt (see pic)... YuYuan Garden is apparently always packed during weekends. Another golden note the Lonely Planet guide conveniently left out.

Note the Starbucks outlet store sign in the middle. China welcomes capitalism with open arms, it seems :)

Shots of various places in the Gardens themselves. Takes 'bout an hour to walk around the whole place from start to end. Lots to see if you're into Chinese history, architecture and stuff. Helps a lot if you read Mandarin else you'll be left squinting at lines and lines of squiggly neat blocks of writing on the walls. Like yrs truly.

A moat seemed to surround the entire place... filled with tons n tons of koi swimming to the surface when you put yr hand near. Must be stocking up for yee sang next year. Fantastic.

OK, the sage continues tmrw! Lemme go upload em....

:)
J

bloody tagboard

2006-10-15T15:53:00.000+08:00

looks my beloved free tagboard's been replaced by some company called c-Panel (hostile takeover?) So will remove it for now until I hunt for another one.

reccomendations for other free tagboards, people?

:)
J

Livin' life on the edge

2006-10-05T21:15:00.000+08:00

In-car, one hand on a Snickers bar while the other's on a wheel busy dodging traffic at 120 km/h.

And the lap's busy nursing a bottle of water.

They should have health warnings on them Snickers bars.

:)
J

First out of the box: junk food

2006-10-02T16:18:00.000+08:00

Still alive, pulse is still intact.

So here I am in Kulim, Kedah, sitting in a icy-cold 10' x 10' prison cell cube. It's been close to a month since the office move from Penang... and I think I'm coping OK. Having SmartTAG to breeze through toll plazas certainly help. Then again, not so much since I often run into a smackload of traffic right after the toll plaza.... haaaih.

The 2 boxes of my stuff from PG's still here, in all it's glorious unpacked state. First thing I unpacked outta the box? My stash of junk food, my 3-in-1 Milo Fuze packets and disposable chopsticks.

Sad, I know.

:)
J

Deported.

2006-09-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

Booya! It's been awhile ainnit?

Busy lah.

Y'know, with work.

And washing the cars every week.

And making cash runs to Shittybank. Damn you capitalist economy.

And trying to keep my runs around the damn air itam dam less than 22 mins (shaved 15 secs off since i started regular jogs last mth. Wheee! Then again, I probably had the wind behind me...)

So, where was I.

Oh yeah, back to keeping this blog's pulse pumping.

Now, on to the title of this week/month's pointless entry...

It's official: I'm moving to KM. Oops, make that Kulim (as in Kulim, Kedah) for you non-mycompanynamehere fellas. Like I've been telling everyone in the know: the difficult part isn't the hour-long commute (45 mins when I drive, during non-peak hrs of coz), it's packing up the trash decorating my cube walls and taking up prime real estate in my office drawers. Sigh. Here I go packing up again when I just unpacked my stuff into the new job barely 8 mths ago...

Wait a min.. what the hell is Wang Lee Hom's Kiss Goodbye doing playing on my Winamp???! Oh wait. Didn't ML gimme that song a mth ago... (again, at my request haha)

K, we return after that short message from our sponsors. Where the fuck was I?

Right, unpacking. So there's a whole lotta crap sitting around waiting to be packed back into pretty cardboard boxes, slapped on a mover's truck and headed on a northbound 70 kilometre roadtrip.

This new change of environment should be interesting. New horizons. New people. Same dead-end job (oops, sorry boss!). Someone once told me at the end of the day, it's just a job, so bite the bullet and live with it. Never mind the commute. Never mind the snarling jams. Never mind the fact I forgot to buy Smart TAG again on the way home (#$!^&!!!). As long as it pays the dough, right?

I'll leave that debate for another day. Post cereal with ice-cold milk calls.

I'm gonna miss you, island.

J

I helped organize your dept event and all I got was Tupperware

2006-08-15T17:20:00.000+08:00

a small 500ml blue one too. WTF.

That'll make a fine addition to my Salvation Army box. Am sure the kids will love drinking out of a shiny new container vs the chipped mugs they've been using all along.

See, who says I don't do my bit for charity?

:)
J

Where are public hols when you need one?

2006-07-31T17:58:00.000+08:00

'Ello... am back from the dead. Usual excuses apply: too tied up with work (it's been a crazy, crazy month), too jaded to blog and that old "holy shit! It's August ALREADY??!" how-fast-time-flies-by excuse applies too.

So, I had a fun weekend. Did you? The whole KL gang was out for a couple'o days, contributing to PG hawker revenue and clogging up the streets with traffic pollution. Oh wait, I take that last one back since I was the one driving them around most of the time :P

Was it just me or did this time's GPT event seem..... less energetic? Like potong stim liddat lah. I was just telling ML and she agrees. I suppose everyone's getting on with age, and was too tired mentally/physically to really have a good time out. Anyway, I had fun and I'm sure the good ol' gang did too. Now I need a weekend to recover from the one that just went by :)

The next GPT's gotta be out of PG (maybe even outta the country!)... think that'll help restore energy levels!

Am headed to KL this Thurs for a day trip. It's all biz. Should have some time free to myself for a spot of shopping or dinner. Any takers? Get in line now! :P

:)
J

3

2006-06-17T22:27:00.000+08:00

... was topic of a yet another questionnare I was tagged to do, this time by our lovely Aewis, way back in May. Haven't been checking blogs lately, hence the delay (curse you SL!). So since I've been a good boy and have completed processing the gazillions of mails sitting in my work Inbox, here goes:

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Jase
2. Stupid Fuck
3. Various Hokkien profanities unsuitable even for a 18-PL site such as this

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My voice
2. My inability to gain weight despite eating like a starved Namibian child
3. Did I mention #1?

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My height
2. Speaking like a bullet train most times, resulting in some ppl "catching no ball"
3. Procrastination esp when it comes to $ matters

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Pineng-kia
2. Your typical Chinese banana
3. Think my family roots date back to the Baba & Nyonyas of 'yore

THREE THINGS YOU CAN'T STAND:
1. Beautiful, physically stunning chicks who can't form a simple sentence
2. Motorcyclists
3. Penang traffic in general

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Job security
2. Wondering what the hell I'll do with the rest of my life
3. Losing my mojo when I turn 30

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SHOWS:
1. Girls Gone Wild #234
2. Southpark
3. Gilmore Girls

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE JAPANESE ANIMES:
Don't watch, don't know

THREE OF YOUR CURRENT FAVORITE SONGS:
1. Gone - Sheryl Crow
2. Trouble Sleeping - Punishers (or was it by someone else??)
3. Under the Iron Sea - Keane

THREE MOVIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO WATCH:
1. When Supes comes out
2. Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift (speaking 'bout this movie, the F&F folks should think about making the next film about PG motorists. They can call the next one "Fast & the Furious: Penang Balls)
3. Cars! Again! Coz it's THAT good!

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Simple moisturizing cream
2. Retin-A anti-acne cream
3. Water

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Ben Frank shirt (Ben who??)
2. Padini khakis
3. Hush puppies underwear

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Sex and more sex. Duh!

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE GENDER THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Physical beauty
2. Eyes that draw you in like a moth to the flame
3. Wavelength compatibility

THREE BAD HABITS:
1. Procrastination
2. Honking/flashing cars that do 70 in a 70 zone
3. Not exercising as much as I should be

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Playing the latest n greatest PC games
2. Catching up on downloaded series
3. Zzzzz

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Get laid
2. Pet a golden retriever
3. Go on a holiday and forget about work

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING OR CURRENTLY PURSUING:
1. Corporate communications
2. Event mgmt
3. Marketing

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Sydney, Aust
2. New York, New York
2. Kate Beckinsdale's bed

THREE KIDS' NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Justin
2. Geraint
3. Jacqueline

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. See the world
2. Find the love of my life and populate the Earth
3. Complete everything on my To Do List (see sidebar)

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GUY:
1. I curse
2. I swear
3. I drive like a bat out of hell

INITIALS OF THREE CRUSHES:
1. J
2. J
3. J

Damn, that is SOME coincidence (and no, I'm not in love with myself, you sycophants!)

THREE PEOPLE YOU TAG TO DO THE SURVEY:
1. Chrissy
2. Tiffy
3. Humpty Dumpty

Deep throat... sans long hair

2006-06-14T23:33:00.000+08:00

Got a call on the way home today... t'was my colleague in the KL sales office. Have dealt with her over phone only and never met her face to face before. Apparently she's in town and wanted me to know.

Been trying to meet up with her for some time now... the work I do entails a fair bit of networking, and being able to understand how our sales folks operate is always a welcome opportunity. So when I heard she was in town, of course I invited her out for dinner and post dinner drinks w/pleasant networking chatter.

And of course it doesn't hurt that she sounds real cute over the phone... ;)

So there I was in Gurney's KimGary chatting her up when she smiles coyly and mentions I don't look anything like I sound over the phone.

Uhhh... OK. Soooo... is that a good thing?

Apparently the image of me she was building in her head as we spoke over the phone was "a tall guy with long hair, chiselled chin complete with earring" Apparently that's the look that's supposed to go with a voice like mine.

Well, sorry to burst your bubble babe. I'm not gay nor do I sound like one.

T'was a good meeting anyway. Definitely looking forward to seeing her again ;)

On other worldly matters, pls GO WATCH CARS. Easily the best movie I've EVER seen this year. Hands down. Pixar's done it again. The cinema I was in even erupted in laughter and clapped at one point in the movie (ending scene at the racetrack, where he pits and gets his tyres changed - see it and you'll get what I mean!). Now how many times do you see a sea of people in the cinema ALL COLLECTIVELY CLAPPING at a screen?

Suffice to say I'm never gonna look at a sky-blue Porsche 911 the same way ever again :)

Going to download the soundtrack now. Can't get Sheryl Crow's Real Gone (title track) outta my head.

Just msg-ed the sales chick g'nite and thanks for the drinks. Hey, I gotta treat my customers well, k!

:)
J

I not stupid!

2006-06-12T17:20:00.000+08:00

So, am taking a MENSA test next weekend.

Just for the fun of it.

RM 35.

No language, no calculation questions involved (woohoo!)

Finally, this is my one chance to find an answer to the question that's been on my mind for all eternity...

~~Is there a God?~~
~~What am I going to have for dinner today?~~
Am I stupider than the average person?

Yeah yeah, don't need to be a genius to answer that one. Smart alecks.

:)
J

Alone in the dark

2006-06-04T21:08:00.000+08:00

Back I am! Bruised and battered, with ego intact, no less :)

Today I underwent the most punishing exercise in my 26 years of existence... caving at Gua Tempurung. And not just the go-in look-see-look-see 15 min guided tour mind you, this was the full-out adventure. 4 hours of being stuck in an underground cavern in pitch darkness, save a torch to light the way and 15 other groaning people behind me + 1 guide.

Have always wanted to try a hand at caving, so decided to head outta the city for awhile and drive down to Ipoh for some hor fun chicken & a spot of caving. Got 3 like-minded friends together and off we went at 7.30am bright and early. Road tripppp! Had no idea the damned tour was gonna be 4 hours long. From climbing up 70-degree rock slopes, sliding down slippery rocky cliffs and wading in ice-cold water up to my chest, I can now safely say "been there, done that"!

The drive over was pretty smooth... got a chance to put my new ride to the speed test. And that basically meant finding a long stretch of road with no traffic in the way, praying the cops weren't out speed-hunting, and flooring the gas. Managed to hit ~155 km/h peak (and that's with 3+1 passengers in the car and a decent load of luggage). Not too shabby for a 1.3A locally-made car.

Some observations from today's trip:

1. Some people have no decent fucking sense of civic consciousness. Along the cave trek, we often saw strewn mineral water bottles, bubble-gum wrappers and graffiti in all languages, shape and form scrawled on the cave walls. What the fuck is wrong with you people?? Take your fucking trash out with you and leave the damned cave as it was! /end vent

2. Once you've done the RM22 4-hr trek, there's no reason to do it again. Esp when they charge you RM1 to change clothes in the toilet/bathe (30 cents to pee). Unless my shower head is spouting Evian/Perrier, there's no fucking way I'm ever going to be ripped off to change drenched, muddy clothes into clean ones ever again.

3. Tour guides have absurd sense of humor. Along the trek, he was pointing out shapes made by the stalactices/stalagmites along the cave ceiling. I remembered some of the more memorable ones: "pregnant mother", "goat's head", "tortoise", "monkey driving car" (???), "flock of cows" etc. Me? I say you see what you want to see. The 4 of us decided to spot much more interesting shapes like "dildo", "vibrator", "girl giving head", "Ivan's dick" (shortest stalagmite we could find), etc. You get the idea. Oh, and we also spotted a shape on the cave ceiling that resembled a pair of Oakleys. No shit, that.

4. You don't want to bring a puny pen-sized AAA Maglite flashlight on a 4 hour cave trek in pitch darkness. Especially so when the bright owner of the flashlight forgot to change the batteries before he left for the trip, resulting in him walking in total darkness, slamming his skull into cave walls and low ceilings. Note to self: must bring the Big Daddy Maglite (4-cell AA) for future excursions into the darkness.

5. Ipoh hor fun chicken place in Ipoh town isn't open from 3pm to 6pm. Hence arriving at 4.00pm, starving & dehydrated means having to settle for so-so Ipoh dishes, looking forlornly across the street as the Ipoh hor fun chicken place(s) just begin to open shop...

6. Falken rubber & front/back stabilizer bars do help with grip & taking corners at high speeds. Sadly, that isn't enough to keep up with a 2.4L Camry with a fondness for tailgating & impatient flashing of headlights to get outta the way. Curse you Camry owner with the Penang plates!

Next up: Caving round #2. Gua Niah / Mulu anyone?

:)
J

Been awhile

2006-05-14T16:02:00.000+08:00

Guilty as charged.

Just hit me this blog's been left unattended for close to a month. Holy crap. Time sure flies. My bad. Blame the usual round of suspects... work, boredom, jaded-ness and the other humdrums of life that seems to speed the clock up somewhat.

Parents are away in S'pore for 2 wks visiting the bro and his newest addition to the family. I would've gone too if not for the 1) lack of S'pore Sales (bad timing - Great Singapore Sale isn't for the next few months, and the Xmas sales aren't due until, well... Xmas) and 2) work piling up sky high. In any case, with 2 weeks of having the hse to myself, enjoying the quiet solitude isn't any reason to complain :)

So May 6th came and went pretty quietly as it always does. To all that called/SMSed/dropped by unexpectedly... lova ya guys lots! To those that forgot, well... suffice to say you won't be getting any calls come your birthday! (and no Chrissy, calling a day later doesn't count :P) Spent the day with family, since my fav nephew & niece were down from S'pore. Nothing beats spending your b/day with 2 hyperactive kids running around Youth Park, playing on the slides and terrorizing the neighbourhood. Gonna miss those two when they emigrate to the States with their parents. Oh well. Even more reason to go visit 'em eh.

Getting jaded with life. Think I need a break. A really long one. Preferably with sandy beaches and azure-blue skies. And crystal-clear waters with Nemos swimmin' in them. I'm thinking a return to Redang or even venturing north to Phi Phi later in the year. Anyone interested?

Just finished filming another corporate video for the company. This one had me appearing on-screen doing what the industry calls a "hostlink" (anchoring the video, introducing the various segments ala CNN). Feedback on it was pretty good... all except for one comment from a senior site manager that I still can't get outta my head. Apparently, Mr Senior Mgr thought I had a "heavy American accent" and that I "shouldn't put on an American accent on camera, it sounds very fake one".

This one got me flabbergasted.

Me? American accent? What the fuck? Hello, do I look like I've spent XX years living in the US? How the hell would I get an "American" accent when I've lived all my years here? OK, granted 26 years of watching telly 90% filled with US shows (damn you Sesame Street) *might* be responsible for the slight slang and occasional expletive-filled sentences. Still, WTF? The boss, who relayed the comment to me, was flabbergasted as well. Sheesh.

Oh well, on the bright side, my potential to fake an accent and actually pull it off never looked better.

Next up, French. C'est la vie, mon cheri?

:)
J

My Myvi Baby

2006-04-16T18:27:00.000+08:00

Hello World! Pardon the temp. hiatus... I've been sick. Mentally, physically, spiritually. Check all that apply. Had the flu for the past 2 weeks, and a nasty phlegm-ly cough that's persisting 'till today.

Doesn't help that my workload's been far-out crazy and the boss has been chewing my ass. Somehow we're not seeing eye to eye lately, and that's been causing a Great Disturbance in the Force. *sigh*. We've got to sit down and have a heart2heart talk when she gets back from her holiday end of April... best not to let wounds fester, yeah?

On to happier stuff. My car's here! Took a bloody 9 months for me to finally get my keys, and let's not even talk about the part where my driver's door lock didn't work even before I drove it out of the dealer's premises. An entire Saturday morning spent in Perodua's service center fixed that problem, though.

First thing to go: the crappy sound system. And what's with the bloody CD player with letterin so huge even the blind can see? Give me my Pioneer MP3 head unit or give me death! Let the cam-whoring begin!

4 days old and already 142 km on the meter. 900-odd to go 'til my first service. The white LED backlight on the meter console is kinda pretty though. Reminds me of that on my friend's Altis. Neat.

Lightning Audio decal outside. A sneak preview to what's lying within...

Decided to go with a Lightning Audio set of rear speakers. These 6" x 9" babies pump out 220W. All that's missing is an amp! Bookmarking that one once I'm out of bankruptcy. Had to drill two holes in the back board-thingy though, to mount 'em. Was afraid the board wouldn't be sturdy enough to hold the weight... turned out the speaks weren't that heavy, and the board held. At least Perodua did something right...

Whoops! Forgot to rotate the last pic :) Between a set of Alpine, JBL and this Lightning Audio (henceforth referred to as LA) speaker system that all cost about the same, I went with the latter. Audio purists might be getting a coronary at me choosing LA over JBL. Tried out the speaks at the audio shop, and I must say LA kicked JBL's 3-syllable ass. LA's sound was much clearer and sharper... ultimately that was what I wanted in a car audio system. So LA it was.

View from below. The audio shop folks did a great job with the wiring, concealing everything under the seats and behind the plastic panelling along the door. Two thumbs up for workmanship.

Final shot of what the speaks look like from outside, with rear tailgate raised.

Figured since I was already going to mount 2 additional speakers, might as go all out and change the existing ones! So in went 2 more 4" LA speakers, replacing the original ones that came with the car. Total damage = $600 for 4 LA speakers + installation.

Now, upgrading the speakers while keeping the same prissy CD player would just be wrong on so many levels. So out goes the CD player, along with part of dash, and in goes a custom-dash ($150) that'll accomodate my Pioneer MP3 player. And it fits perfectly!

This unit supports 50Wx4... car now sounds heads and shoulders above compared to the original. Money well spent! Here's to scrolling through a million MP3s while being stuck in traffic! Woohoo!

Next thing to go: the pissy-sounding horn. Definitely not going to get the attention of lane-cutters with the lame original horn. So in went a twin air-horn system (the ones in red)

Close-up of the horn mounted above the engine. Lane-cutters, motorcyclists and other stupid motorists: you've been warned. Piss me off and prepare to experience a temporary loss of hearing.

Accoustic insulation/heat shield for the engine bay. Decided to go with an original Perodua set. $85 I think. Noticeable decrease in engine noise since I installed it. Not too shabby.

Went ahead and bought pre-cut Myvi rubber mats. Call me old-school, but those new non-rubber mats just don't do it for me.

Put in an arm rest too, just because.

Oh, and I also fitted in a chrome grille in the front and back of the car. Forgot to take pictures of that one. And let's not forget the motion sensor I added to the top of the rear-view mirror. That should deter window-smashes somewhat.

Spent the whole of Saturday afternoon at the shop while the guys made the changes above. Have just contributed ~$1100 to the local car audio enthusiasts industry. Next big project: wheels and rims! Bring on them 15" lightweight alloy rims and Falken tyres!

F1 Sepang: 800 kms, 8 hrs, sore butt, stiff neck

2006-03-22T21:33:00.000+08:00

Like Chrissy, I survived the F1 fevaaa!! The journey there was a far-out roadtrip though... made it to Sepang & back in a day. Left bright and early at 7am with the rest of the team from work I was chaperoning, caught the race, got caught in a massive gridlock leaving Sepang, and sped home at 7pm... finally reaching my place close to 2 in the morning.

My bed never, ever looked so good.

The crowds at Sepang were unbelivable... tons n tons of ppl, cars, buses and those bloody Renault flags waving all over the place (oh okay, fine... to you Renault fans out there, your team did do a 1-2 finish so I suppose you deserve that much.. :P)

Heard Kimi got mobbed when he was foolish enuff to venture out from the confines of the paddock. Too bad I wasn't there to see it in person... was probably crawling along the highway leading to Sepang with 1,000,000 other people. 2 friggin' hours just to get from the Sepang toll to the Circuit's front door.

Got what-appeared-to-be-really-good "front-row" seats facing the south side, in the lower-mall, Citrine area. Little did I know the distance from the gate of entry (where they check your bags for bombs/chihuahuas/water bottles) to my seat was like the length of 10 football fields, and then some. Didn't help that when my team & I got to our seats, we were told they were "free seating" instead, even tho each ticket had pre-assigned seat numbers on them. WTF?! All that trouble calmly explaining to the sales mgr who booked my seats on the phone which seats I wanted that offer the best view down the drain! $%&*$%^&*!!!!

Somehow, my entourage didn't get their bags checked... which turned out to be a good thing, since I brought in 3 cans of 100 Plus ice-cold straight outta the Coleman cooler on the bus, and a huge ass water bottle. Plus, there was that thing with us not getting ripped off having to buy $4 mineral water and $15 pizzas. It's all good.

Pics.

This was where I sat. Full house, with 10 mins to go before the lights go green on the grid

~~Beverly hillbillies~~ Them "covered hillstand" ticket holders. Boy, were they sure glad it was pretty cloudy that day...

Safety car making it's first rounds

Go Petronas!

Safety lap!

Couldn't resist this one: now how cute is that kid?

Someone's Honda KO-ed halfway thru the race. Don't ask.. I forgot who.

Probably the clearest images of Ferrari I managed to take thru the whole 2 hours. And that's only becoz Schuey & Massa slowed down enough to take shake-free pics during the victory lap

Safety car rounding up the field

Mass exodus. God-knows-how-many-people leaving circuit all at once = 2 hr jam on h/way

Suffice to say, this will probably be my first and last F1 race for a while. Not unless someone gets me those sweet Paddock tickets, of course. Oh well, suppose I can't really complain since I got a free trip to/from courtesy of the company. Guess the job does have it's pros after all ;)

Now, the only problem with having a $500 seat smack in the middle of a long straight is having to deal with cars accelerating right by you from right to left. Having to follow said car movements with your neck repeatedly over a course of 2 hrs results in blurry eyes and a bloody stiff neck afterwards.

Oh, and just for fun, we unravelled this banner right after the race at the main entrance as people were streaming out. Lotsa bemused looks from passers-by, considering our sponsored team had a car crash out, and another scraping by at 6th place (or was it 7th?). Some sporting Ferrari & Renault fans who saw our banner even cheered for us and took some pics. Heh. BMW powerrrrrr!

Still trying to recover from the trip... this weekend will be one of extreme hibernation & lack of physical activity for sure.

Oh, and I'm now itching more then ever to get myself one of those sweet prosumer Digital-SLR cams like what some of the folks at the race were carrying. Gimme a Nikon D700S already!!! Last I checked, it was $5000 or so. Sigh. How much does a kidney fetch on the black market again?

:)
J

Bring on the umbrella babes

2006-03-14T23:24:00.000+08:00

Swore I'd at least try to keep this blog updated once every week when I first started out... then it became once a fortnight... and now, once a month. That is, if there's any at all. I blame work! Which BTW, seems to be piling on as the weeks/months roll by. Can't hardly believe it's March already. Where the hell did Jan & Feb go? I want my CNY holidays back! Once you're piled deep in work, the days fly by like skeletal cows grazing on the sidewalk whilst crusing along the highway...

Speakin' about cruisin along highways... I'm headed to KL this weekend. Now now, sit your collective asses down and don't get allll excited, I'm only here on a day trip. Company-sponsored one, that is. Guess who's getting a free grandstand ticket to Sepang F1? Muahahahaha... selling your soul to the company does bring some side benefits after all ;)

Too bad I'm not high up the food chain enough for me to get paddock tickets (the ones where you get close enough to sniff F1 petrol fumes right outta the car & take a stroll along the pits) Plus technically, it's not a free ride for me, since it's considered a "semi" working trip. Have my KL counterparts to meet up and talk shop, plus the usual round of biz-card exchanging and networking. And I'll be sorta representing the company at Sepang, since the comp. technically's a Corporate Business Partner (i.e: sponsor) of one of the F1 cars now.

Oh, and no cheering for the opposition. So with a heavy heart, I have to reluctantly say "screw you McLaren" & "screw you Ferrari". Which means being decked out in blue & white, and keeping eyes on only this one car...

Now of all the cars they could've backed, why the hell back this one??! Argghhh....

Oh well, it should be a fun trip nevertheless. Am travelling down via a chartered stage bus along with a few other employees... one of em' Super V.I.P double-decker ones at that. Figured since I can't weasel a flight ticket out, might as well travel down in style.

Load up the beer and bring on the umbrella babes! Road tripppp! Woohoooo!!!!

:)
J

P-S: If you happen to have seats in the Grandstand - Lower Mall / Citrine Area on the 19th, hop on by seat J25 and say hi. I'll be the dude decked out in blue & white face paint with the company logo imprinted on one cheek. The things I do for company branding... *sigh*

Random incoherent thoughts

2006-02-28T22:58:00.000+08:00

Yes, I haven't been blogging for quite awhile.

No, I haven't had the time, unfortunately. Still don't. I blame the job. :(

Heard about the floods in KL... now what's up with that? Strange that PG didn't see a single drop of rain when the flash floods happened... which is kinda weird. It needs to rain here (and by rain I don't mean a few promising drops for a few minutes then nothingness) and it needs to happen NOW! It's bloody hot up here!

Saw the petrol price increase on the front page today. No wonder everyone was making a beeline for the petrol stations last night. Yeah, like queueing up for 1/2 hour with the engine idling is gonna save you some. Like... hewwwwoooo? Did the math (and my math skills should by no means be trusted 100%): a 30 cent increase per litre would mean pumping a full tank of gas for my modest 40-litre car would now cost $12 bucks more than usual. Ouch. Oh, and my heartfelt condolences to a certain dude who's driving a gas-guzzling Saab. Yeah, I feel your pain bro. Hey, at least you don't have to do those fortnightly PG <-> KL long distance commutes anymore eh? *koff koff KOFF*..... :P

Work's good. Boss is on a 3-week overseas trip. Y'know what they say... when the cat's away, the mice come out to play! Woohoo! Partayyyy!

Haagen Dasz fondue rocks. And pls do not ever utter that 4 Letter Word (d-i-e-t) when you're out having little balls of fat-laden ice cream heaven, dipped in molten chocolate sauce. Pity we don't get Ben & Jerry's here. Sigh.

Need to catch up on other blogs... haven't checked my regular blog haunts for quite some time now. I blame the job and the long hours (on the flipside you could also blame my poor time management skills but I prefer to stick to the former....)

Going for a wedding dinner this weekend. Have no idea where the place is, only that it involves travelling across the bridge to The Other Side. This should be fun. Road trip!

Some U.S. colleagues are coming out this weekend too. Need to bring them out clubbing/getting wasted and gossiping about top managers. Too many events over a space of only 2 preciouss days. Take a number people!

I found! Gelato! Being sold! In Penang! Woohooo! Haven't tried it yet though, but it appears to be the authentic Italian deal. Adding that one to the To-Do List.

New car hasn't come yet. Curse you car dealers for the incessant delays and lame excuses. Need to call Perodua (am getting a Myvi) and shell them. Adding that one to tomm's To-Do List.

A colleague's been having some personal problems at work. Next few weeks/mths are gonna be tough on all of us as we come together to support in this time of need. Which reminds me... need to bring another box of tissue paper to the office tommorow... the last box was pretty much used up in multiple crying sessions (if you need to ask, it obviously wasn't me doing the crying)... Aihhhhh.

Tired and need zzzz.

That, and another holiday (don't we all)...

:)
J

PS: This blog entry goes out to a Certain Someone who just discovered this lil' corner of the Net... You know who you are! Don't dig too far into the archives now... :P

Well it's about time!

2006-02-14T21:43:00.000+08:00

OK! Enough with the emails and IMs! I'm updating my blog already! Was gonna trudge off and clear some work emails but here I am. Are ya HAPPY NOWWWW?????

Brain's numb. Think it has to do with work. That and getting the mental wheels turning again after the loooooong holiday season. Then again, what holiday am I bitching about? I've been logging in and checking work emails from home every single day!!!

So it's V Day today. Guys, I feel for you. Really, I do. Overpriced roses and overbooked fancy restaurants? Gobless Visa (oh OK, Mastercard too)... now nothing says 'I wuff you' better than a nice, home-cooked meal and a nice footrub for the loved one, yes? Maybe throw in some Westlife warbling in the background, and the bed's going to be a-creakin' tonight.

If this actually works & you get lucky, let me know. Will bookmark this for next year's V Day.

Talking about V Day, I'm supposed to organize this V Day celebration event for my company this Friday. Ain't exactly feeling much love here, so am not too keen on playing proj mgr/taskmaster again.

Pity the boss doesn't see it that way. Sigh.

So up go the styrofoam cutouts of hearts, sprinkled with rose-red glitter dust and glitzy custom-designed posters trumpeting the event's date/time/venue. Oh, and let's not forget scouring ~~the Net~~ mininova, downloading the soppiest lovey-dovey tunes ever to use as background music on D Day. Aarghhh!

Am on my 3rd tin of kuih kapit now. Finishing a tin in 3 days all by myself is quite the record. For some reason mum ordered more tins this yr than last. Or maybe no one's been visiting.

Was supposed to head out for some Haagen Dasz lovin' later tonight with the guys. We've got some free HD vouchers to clear out. Then my friend just HAD to bring up the issue of how 3 guys alone in Haagen Dasz on V Day would look totally gay.

Same friend just then had a moment of brilliant self-realization that his HD vouchers were stuck in a locked drawer back in the office.

Argghhh!!!!! Where's my lime daiquiri??!!!!

:)
J

Barely breathing

2006-01-23T20:33:00.000+08:00

No, I'm not referring to that song by Duncan Sheik (Duncan who???). Week Three's up people, and I'm still alive! With whatever remains of my sanity! The job has been much more stressful than I ever anticipated... past few weeks since I joined on Jan 3rd have been an all-out sprint from the beginning with no water breaks.

You gotta hit the ground running! I expect nothing less from you! the boss said.

Time management very important one okay? said colleague #1.

A social life? What's that?? colleague #2 smiled sarcastically.

All words of wisdom to me before I signed my ~~soul~~ name away on the offer letter. But did I listen? Noooo. Did I laugh in their face and tell 'em things couldn't be that bad? Hell yeah!

Gotta pay more attention next time.

So, what could I possibly be up to this past 3 weeks to leave my blog unattended? How about producing a goddamned corporate video from scratch? Yep. With no storyboard, no conceptual outline, and just a 5-word theme to base the video on, I somehow miraculously managed to produce a corporate video which would be shown to oh... 10,000-odd staff nationwide. Unfuckingbelievable.

Paid for it dearly though. Breaking out again from all that stress, and I've apparently lost 4 kgs since 2006 ticked over from '05. No wonder my old jeans can fit again. 17-hr workdays, 7 days a week tends to do that to ya.

Am glad post-production work on the video wrapped up last weekend... that gives me a few precious weeks to breathe again and recollect, plus piece together whatever torn shreds of my sanity remains before the next big corporate video comes along 2 mths from now. Working with a professional video production studio was pretty cool too... spent most of time away from the office, travelling with the video crew on a shoot, or back in the studio observing post-production work.

Helps that the creative director I was tasked to work with was one hot (albeit sadly taken) chick. Helps a lot. Here's seeing you again in 2 mths for the next one!

Gotta talk to the boss tomm about my upcoming US trip. Am supposed to head over mid-March for a month plus (sorry Chrissy, don't think I'll make it for this yr's GPT... oh well, at least the other PG folks will be around eh?)... must say I'm looking forward to it. Hooters here I come!

More updates if/when time permits (i.e: never!)

Have a good doggie year ahead, people. Woof woof!

:)
J

A State of Utter Exhaustion

2006-01-05T21:59:00.000+08:00

... can only begin to describe my current state of mind. Come Friday (today, by the time most of you read this), I would have successfully, miraculously survived Week 1 of my new job. *pats self on back*

Moving to the job has been a mind-blowing experience. So much to learn, so much to do and only X hours in a day to do 'em all. And that doesn't count the last-minute assholes who run up to my cube breathless wanting this done "not by the end of today, but now!". So much has gone on in the past week with work that I've skipped meals, ignored MSN IMs and generally stopped reading other blogs as frequently as I used to. Holy crap indeed.

Been so freakin' tied up with work from Hour 1 of Day 1 that most of my junk from the previous workplace tiz still sitting in their neat lil' stacked boxes waiting to be unpacked. Talk about hitting the ground running. Speaking 'bout running... I feel like I've run a friggin 10km marathon, what with all the back-to-back meetings I've been having yesterday, today, tommorow, next week and the calendar pages after that. Sleeping in meetings is a thing of the past, who knew having to actually pay attn to what various clowns are blabbering on about can be such a strain on the mind. Oh, it hurts... the pain! The pain!

On the flipside, having flexible working hours means I can get to work as I please, when I please or just work from home if I don't feel like dealing with office colleagues or rush-hour traffic and insufficient parking spaces. Then there's the benefit of expensing my Streamyx bills to the dept, flexi-lunch hours and 2 hour lunch breaks on Friday. Never had that back in the old place. So there IS a God. Oh yeah babeh.

I must say the hardest part of my new job isn't the exhausting marathon meetings orhaving to deal with clowns who can't string together a proper sentence. And let's not even go near the fact that colleagues in a 20m radius of my cube are all married with young babies; resulting in me being tormented daily with talk of the latest Anakku Sale and the classic Dumex Vs Nestle battle of infant formulas.

Oh nooooo.

Having to keep my mouth shut happens to be hardest. Why? Coz I just happen to work in an environment where I am involved in super-top-secret-don't-you-dare-breathe-word-of-this-to-anyone company strategic policies and top-level decision-making stuff. Ask me what I did today at work and I'd probably accidentally divulge information that would be worth... a lot. Not quite superspy James Bond stuff but pretty close :)

On to more visually stimulating news... pics of my Xmas trip down south!

Yes, I know Xmas is over but the Xmas spirit rocks on! Freakin' tall Xmas tree in Ngee Ann City (mega shopping complex along Orchard Rd)

So.... pwetty....

... indeed! Hello, hello. Stan-Chart chicks promo-ing some credit card stuff. The dude on the left looks totally gay, but the 2nd chick from the right was quite the hottie. Pity you could land a 777 Dreamliner on her chest... Welcome to Changi International, the weather outside is 32 C. On behalf of the cabin crew, thank you for flying Singapore Airlines... /end MCP post

People n lots more people. Cool Nike advert in the background

Attack of the M&Ms. Yep, it was a very candy Xmas along Orchard this yr

More pics later when I've got some shuteye. More endless meetings tommorow. Datelines to challenge, people to entertain. Fun.

:)
J

A new year: a new layout :)

2006-01-01T21:55:00.000+08:00

So I finally got down to updating this blog o'mine... yes, I know the last purple-themed one gave some of you permanent cross-eyed syndrome from squinting at the text so hard. All that's in the past now! Decided to revert back to the original template I was using back when this blog first started; was going for a brand-new template, but couldn't be bothered to play around with the blog layout any more than necessary. So this will do for now :)

Happy 2006!

Can't believe it's yet another year already. Is it just me or does time simply seem to fly by more and more quickly as you get older? It seemed like just yesterday when I was celebrating Xmas 2004 in S'pore with my cousins and family. Where'd time go?

Speaking 'bout S'pore, I just got back last Friday from the Land Down South (no, not that quite far south as Australia!), after a somewhat fulfilling trip. Didn't do quite as much shopping as I was hoping for, still it was quite a fair bit ;)

Will be tweaking the layout in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here's hoping 2006 turns out to be everything you're hoping it to be: career-wise, family, health, happiness and all that other big-picture stuff. Oh, and let's not forget matters of the heart also. Yep. Especially that last one.

Pics of my Xmas trip coming soon!

:)
J

Off to Singapore!

2005-12-23T12:35:00.000+08:00

Gonna be a really quick one today... yes yes, am guilty as sin for not keeping this blog as updated as I used (or hoped) to. Sigh. Just haven't had time, what with the new job coming 'round, and other matters of importance in my life.

So I packed up all my stuff in my old cubicle at work. It's a bittersweet feeling: leaving the workplace that's been my 2nd home for the past 4 years. Yet it's pretty exciting looking forward to unchartered waters; new teammates, new team dynamics, a whole different set of office politics (don't we all love that one) and a whole new workplace.

Flight to S'pore leaves in 4 hours, and I'm not done packing yet. Every year-end, when I make my annual migration down south, I always leave with the nagging feeling I'm leaving something behind. It's no different this year... I'm BOUND to forget SOMETHING when the realization kicks in 21,000 ft in the air :)

The new boss apparently's headed to S'pore too on the same flight. Hope we can get seats together... lots of stuff I need to talk to her about before I begin work proper on Jan 03rd.

I'll be back in 2006 with a new blog layout and many, many pics of a very Singaporean Xmas.

Here's hoping you've a great weekend, people!

;)
J

Little bundle of joy

2005-12-12T08:19:00.000+08:00

G'morning ppl! Yes, I know it's a Monday. Yes, I know you're sleepy and grouchy (especially you, Princess! :P) ... go get coffee already! Nothing like a shot of drugs in the morning to kick start the system!

Got these pics from my bro down in S'pore yesterday. Apparently, I'm an uncle! And not just because I'm getting old! Sis-in-law gave birth to a healthy, happy 3.2 kg baby girl last week, 2 weeks before her due date. And here I was hoping my new niece would be a Xmas baby. Rats.

World, meet Caitlin, the newest addition to my family. Yeah, me likes her name too *beams* :)

For a week-old baby, I'm surprised she has so much hair! At this rate, she'll be due for a haircut in no time.

Can't wait for my SG trip in 2 weeks... this time around, my trip south won't be just about Xmas shopping, Boxing Day sales and the Great Isetan Sale... oh nooo... I have a niece to spoil rotten ;)

Yeah, I know I haven't been blogging lately... this site is in dire need of a revamp. If you're still seeing page load errors or funny blank spaces between blog entries in IE/Firefox... well, tough. :P
On another note, spending quality time with a certain someone all of Saturday was awesome. Pity it rained in the late afternoon though, else the day would've been perfect.

Wait, I take that back. It already was.

:)
J

I'm still alive

2005-11-28T09:59:00.000+08:00

Yes, I realise I haven't been updating this in quite awhile.

No, I haven't been kidnapped.

No, I haven't got lost/assaulted/devoured by crazed monkeys on my weekly hikes up PG Hill.

Yes, I've been pretty busy with some other stuff. No, I'm not gonna mention what it is. Yet. ;)

So, on to updates proper. Whaddaya wanna know? Let's see. I've got most of my Xmas shopping done already, so that's good. Still have to hunt for 4-5 Xmas prezzies for the folks back in S'pore when I do my year-end traditional pilgrimage south for the holidays.

Flight tickets down south and back? Check. All paid for F.O.C., courtesy of KrisFlyer miles accrued during my last biz trip to the States. Gotta love frequent flyer miles!

Work's been good, the usual usual. Pretty busy nowadays tying up loose ends as I prepare for the Big Job Move in Jan. Gonna miss the team and the uni campus-like work environment here. The new place is full of dare-I-say-it... grown ups! *shock, awed look* Ah well, at least my new team's a wild, crazy bunch of post-menopausal women. And I'm the only guy in the team. This should be fun to watch. :)

This shd be about that time of the year when I lie in bed at night blinking furiously, contemplating what resolutions I shd be making for 2006. Not that I've kept any of the previous ones, of course. Still, it's fun to make 'em up and laugh at what an ass you were making oh-so-promising resolutions when Dec comes a-calling.

I wonder what 2006 has in store for me. 2005 was quite a tame ride, with little to no emotional rollercoasters nor any other forms of adrenalin rides.

Can't say it'll be the same for 2006. Regardless, I think this is one ride I'm willing to take. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, yes?

Oh, and next year I resolve to sleep really early and not have extremely late night phone calls.

Yeah, that's it.

:)
J

Contentedness.

2005-11-24T08:58:00.000+08:00

Amazing what a lil' thoughtful note when you least expect it can do this early in the morning.

Is it just me or do I hear birds a-chirpin' in the forest?

Thurs just looked a whole lot brighter. Thanks you.

*silly grin*

:)
J

As seen in a male restroom

2005-11-21T08:02:00.000+08:00

Was at the PSDC building (that's the Penang Skills Development Center spanky new building for you non-PG folks) last week for a leadership conference. Had to use the loo when I spotted this.

I'm sorry, but shouldn't the last drop be in the urinal?

Guys, never underestimate the importance of shakin' before zippin'.

:)
J

US Photoblog Series: San Francisco Food Binge

2005-11-14T20:19:00.000+08:00

Yet another very long photo essay on my past US trip which included the very gay metropolitan cosmos of San Francisco.

DISCLAIMER: Do NOT venture further downwards if you've haven't had dinner/supper/breakfast/tea yet. You've been warned! :P

The very, very femes Fisherman's Wharf. Whole lotta people here milling about which isn't surprising since it's the tourist spot in town

What's a Grotto, you ask? Beats me dude. Your guess is as good as mine. Google it! You could get really cheap seafood here. Like so...

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are huge-ass crabs. Nothing like the puny black ones you get over here. And in case you were wondering, the ones in the tank are still alive.

Obviously a trip to San Fran is never complete without at least sampling some of the Bay's finest crustaceans. World, meet crab. Crab, meet very hungry, salivating world. Crabs here are prepared in a really weird way that didn't go down very well with me. After picking out your choice crab, they drop the poor bugger alive in boiling hot water. After a few minutes, said crab is then yanked outta the vat of churning 100 deg C water and immediately dunked into ice-cold water. Then it's served. Yep, it's served cold. Not hot. Not warm. Cold. Really really cold. Ever tried peeling crabs apart while it's ice cold & chewing down cold crab meat? I thought so. Feels really really really weird.

Present a hungry diner with said boiled crab above and this is what you get an hour later :P Fingers were bloody tired after having to peel through all that crabshell. The pain was worth it tho. Muahahaha.

Next up... exhibit B. So, after a meal of wholly-cooked crab, what's next on the menu? Why... crabcakes of course! I had no idea what crabcakes were until that fateful day. Pretty cute-looking dish but bloody expensive. Gotta love having meals on the company tab ;)

Next!

Ah, the creme de la creme of my trip to the Bay... whole Maine lobster! Steamed, and lightly seared in butter. One serving of this fella's enough to send you into cardiac arrest. Almost looks too pretty to eat... not!

Some candy I saw in a candy store. Not being a huge fan of candy, I moved on to other things

Ferry counter. Get your tickets to Alcatraz and other cruises here! Bloody long queue for tickets to Alcatraz, luckily I remembered to book them online prior to my arrival in SF. Hallelujah.

More pics when I remember to post 'em.

:)
J

A perfect, albeit rainy, Saturday

2005-11-12T20:49:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm back. Yes, I haven't updated this ragamuffin site for awhile. Been busy see. With a whole lot of things which will be explained in due course. At least I'm updating now, so stop whining :P

So it's close to 9.00am on a Saturday night, sitting upright in bed hammerin' away at my laptop keypad while Michael Nyman soothes the soul in the background, raindrops pit patterin' softly against my bedroom window outside.

Ahh, ain't nothing like some great jazz & piano pieces playing softly to end a somewhat productive, happy day. ;)

So what's been going on in my life lately? Plenty. First things first... I'm back to Monday-Friday 9-5 working schedule. Bloody tiring. Don't know how you run-of-the mill corporate ~~whores~~ workers do it. I'm missing my 3-days-off in a week already. Damnit. (For the uninitiated: I used to have 4-day workweeks, with a minimum of 3 days off in a row. That was bloody fantastic. All gone now, sadly. *sniff*)

Why move back to such a typical corporate workweek? Point #2 coming up. I got the job! ("What job??" you collective buggers ask excitedly). Jesus... do I have to explain everything from scratch? My avid readers/loyal fans/serial blogger stalkers will remember me applying for 2 separate jobs vastly different in scope and field a few months back. One which I wasn't too keen on BUT would let me remain in my present department, and the other which had to do with a field I have absolutely zilch experience factor BUT has excellent promise & job satisfaction.

Well, I finally heard the news from the hiring manager... I got the job I was hoping for (the 2nd one lah)... woohoo! I start Jan 03rd next year. Will be venturing into a brand new realm of job scope... totally uncharted territory. Plus points of said new job: Travelling opportunities, a fun & (potentially) great kick-ass manager, and freedom to work from home when necessary. And the not-so-great ones: having to move to a different building away from friends and colleagues I've spent 4 years of my corporate working life with.

Yeah, I know. Time to trot out of my Taurean comfort zone ;)

Which brings us to today's blog headline... what makes this Saturday of all past Saturdays supposedly "perfect"? Ah, wouldn't you like to know. Let's just say it involved waking really, really early, a hand-drawn map to an undisclosed location, pleasant chatter over hot breakfast whilst it poured outside, time spent at a bank, some productive shopping, more pleasant chatter over lunch and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.

Awesome.

;)
J

US Photoblog Series: San Francisco Downtown

2005-10-31T14:09:00.000+08:00

Just occured to me that I still have photos of my previous US trip that were left unblogged. Getting old n senile in my years, I tell you :)

Anyway, to the uninitiated, I was in the States for a month, back in Aug on company bizness. Spent most of my days pigging out on top quality charbroiled steaks, AppleBee's and Ben & Jerry ice cream. Damn, life was good then. No wonder I gained like 3 kgs when I came back!

Drove from Sacramento in south California to San Fran with colleagues one fine weekend. Trip took barely an hour, thanks in part to my reckless speeding & a 3.5L car engine. Spent the weekend traipsing around San Fran, but sadly didn't have much time to see all there was to see over there. Sigh. Maybe next time.

On with the show.

What, never seen a tourist taking pictures before? My hotel for the weekend. Located smack right in the middle of the city, with major shopping centers barely 10 mins walk away. Sweet.

Interior of the hotel's lobby. Very classic old-school hotel, and reputedly one of the finer places to stay in and around the city.

Outside the hotel looking down the street

Ah, who could forget the very femes landmark of San Fran... cable cars! They're a pain to ride in though. Always full of gwailo tourists and the queues are damn long.

GAP! The shopping center that is. Yes, it takes up that whole building. Love the architecture.

Some church on some unknown street... I forget. The tall spire of the church caught my attention from 2 blocks away and I made my way there on foot, hauling ass with 3 bitchy, tired, grumbling colleagues behind.

Love this shot... the architecture of the church is amazing. If there's one thing I love about San Francisco, it's the architecture of the buildings there, esp the Victorian houses. Reminds me of doll houses back in my childhood days. Not that I played with any, of course.

View of the Bay area and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Sailing boats manned with rich capitalist pigs sail the high seas.

These 2 dudes were doing the "robot" complete with machine-like noises. Loaded tourists would then put in quarters in their donation cans in front. Hope that silver paint's washable. Now why can't our KL/PG beggars earn a living like this??

I don't...

...see anything...

Holy crap! There it is!!!

Saving the best for last... the Golden Gate bridge. On most days, half the bridge is perpetually shrouded in mist & fog blown in from the Pacific making for an interesting driving experience across it. Halfway across, you're wondering WTF (where) you are and where'd the damn bridge go, then all of a sudden you emerge outta the fog into bright blue skies! With an AMAZING view right in front of ya!

More pics as soon as I find enough time to upload 'em to Photobucket. Have a good weekend and quit pigging on on that muruku!

:)
J

Xtreme Hibernation | Se7en

2005-10-23T11:17:00.000+08:00

Jesus, what a week it's been. Spent the last 3 days of the week coordinating a massive company-wide roadshow event. Lotsa running around, lotsa talking to customers, lotsa eye candy. Esp. that last one. Damn, that Finance chick in green with the long curly hair was hot. Sizzling prime rib hot. GrrrRRR.

Anyway, got back home late Fri night & proceeded to crash for the next 17 hours. You read that right... I slept for a grand holy-shit! total of SEVENTEEN hours!! Went to bed around midnight & only woke the next day at 5.3o. PM. o_O! This sure beats my all-time record of 13 hours set in '93 when I had them german measles (Wasn't fun looking like a spotted chicken for 2 weeks.) At least then, I had sleep-inducing drugs to blame for the marathon record. This time, it was the late nights & 6am wakeup calls for the past 3 days.

And what was with that whole Monday's-gonna-be-a-public-holiday crap? Since when does a country EVER declare a PUBLIC holiday when the WIFE of a head of the country dies? Started seeing random mails about that elusive Monday hol. fly around as soon as she died... anyway I wouldn't be complaining if it were true. Would you? ;)

On to other spur-of-the-moment matters currently zipping by my brain...

Saw this "Se7en" meme on Tiffy's blog today & thought it would be fun to do. Now, I'd normally give the middle-finger to the person who'd send me a chain meme, but since 7 is my fav. all-time number and my address, I'll let this one fly. (Note: Tiffy, I'd still give you the middle finger anytime :P)

7 things that scare me:
1. Them Psycho movies (this one takes "mama's boy" to a whole new level)
2. The Exorcist (the mother of all horror movies. Gave me many, many creepy nights & permanently screwed with my childhood brain)
3. Paris Hilton
4. Butterflies
5. Moths (don't laugh. It's a clinical condition... Nicole Kidman's scared of butterflies & moths too. Google "Mottephobia or Lepidopterophobia")
6. Growing old with no kids
7. Moving to a new job outside my comfort zone: new colleagues, new building, new work scope

7 random facts:
1. Can't swim
2. Can't ride a bike
3. Often forget people's names (yes, even the hot chicks I've been intro-ed to)
4. I have Post cereal with ice-cold choc milk every single night before bed
5. On the issue of Post, I love PostSecret: great concept, fresh input every week. Very interesting, to say the least.
6. Can't speak Mandarin/Canto. Typical banana.
7. Hate doing memes. Making an exception this time :P

7 things I hope to do before I die:
1. Get pissed-drunk
2. Own a Beamer
3. Have kids & watch them grow to be as bratty as their dad was
4. Go zorbing & get over fear of heights
5. Have menage-a-trois with Kristin Kreuk & Keira Knightely
6. Date that hot Finance chick in green with the long curly hair
7. See Europe already

7 things I can do:
1. Chat with friends online whilst chairing a meeting whilst maintaining nonchalant look
2. Follow 14 telly series simultaneously
3. Spend excessively on unnecessary shit. It's a gift, I tell you.
4. Say nice things about ppl who don't deserve it
5. Hopeful optimist, stubborn pessimist
6. Climb PG Hill without going into cardiac arrest
7. Complete this damned meme already

7 ppl I pass this to:
1. You!
2. And you!
3. Chrissy
4. Kat
5. That other Kat
6. Minishorts (you are SO doing this :P)
7. Suans

Total volume of music files on your PC:
14 GB

I meant music files, not porn.
Oops. Close to 8GB then :P

The last CD(s) I bought:
One of Kevin Kern's albums.. don't quite remember

Song playing right now:
None

7 songs I listen to a lot:
1. Daniel Powter's Song Six! DaMN I love that song!!
2. Daniel Powter's Bad Day!
3. Stereophonics's Have a Nice Day
4. Lifehouse's You & Me (Tiffy: yeah me too!)
5. Any song from my Jim Brickman collection
6. Johnathan Caine - Body language
7. Roxxette - Vulnerable

K, I'm outta here. More next week.

:)
J

Marathon week

2005-10-16T16:43:00.000+08:00

5 days counting down...

4 major items left unattended...

3 incompetent event managers...

2 corporate site-wide events...

1 very, very busy me!

Sigh!

Oh, and 0 parts of my body that'll not be aching come end of this week. Well, everywhere except there of course. Hmmm, then again you'll never know, eh. Fortune favours the bold ;)

:)
J

Soya bean milk with added goodness of asbestos

2005-10-10T13:39:00.000+08:00

Yep, guilty as charged for the sin of not updating this in awhile. My bad. As usual, I blame work (then again who doesn't?). Didn't help that the Singapore relatives decided to fly out for a week in PG... playing chauffeur, tour-guide and foodie specialist leaves precious little time for blogging :)

Oh, lemme post this one up before I forget. Spotted this sign hanging outside some shop selling soya bean milk drinks. Took this via cam-phone 3 wks ago when I made a quick "Ipoh chicken rice" run...

"Kacang soya tanpa serbuk asbestos" (soya bean milk minus the asbestos). Yes, better that than the alternative with asbestos, yeah?

The new-age soya bean milk drink: now with vitamins, minerals and asbestos for your healthy, yummy goodness. Bottoms up!

:)
J

Ipoh chickens goooooood

2005-10-03T18:36:00.000+08:00

Gonna be a short one: just came back from KL yesterday... clothes are still in the backpack left on the floor. Gotta remember to do laundry later. Where's the ~~maid~~ mum when you need her...

Stopped by Ipoh on the way home and miraculously found my way past Jusco into Ipoh Old Town for some good ol' fashioned chikken rice. Anyway, what is with Ipoh's hor fun noodles and chicken rice? Damn they're good! Can't get enuff! Our dinner party gobbled down one entire heaped plate of white chicken & taugeh, and then called for seconds. Think we ordered enuff food to feed a 3rd world country. And then some. Last time I sampled Ipoh's authentic cuisine was ages and ages ago (last week).

Now, Ipoh chicken rice is one dish I would be EVER WILLING to spend 2 hours on the road for. That, and the taugeh (bean sprouts for you non-M'sians). Good God, I can't get enuff of it. More! More! More!!!!

Think it's the limestone and the Ipoh water that makes the food so damn good, and the Ipoh chicks so damn fair and cute.

Now why can't we get some of that Ipoh water over here in PG... am sure the local PG chicks would stand to benefit.

:)
J
PS: No PG chicks were harmed/offended during the making of this ~~motion picture~~ senseless blog entry.

Catching up

2005-09-25T18:00:00.000+08:00

Random posts catching up over the week's events...

++++++++++++++++++++++
Parents are still away in China. Apparently having a fantastic time eating weird animal parts and soggy vegetables. And traipsing up and down the Great Wall. Fun. Gonna miss having the house to myself. Got pretty lonely at first coming back to a pitch-black home (my bad for always forgetting to set the auto-timer when I leave in the morning). Oh well, at least the neighbours now know the occupants of No. 7 aren't dead, what with all the loud trance music I've been blasting ;)

++++++++++++++++++++++
Got bored over the weekend so decided to head south to Ipoh for some authentic Ipoh hor fun and chicken rice. Dragged Pete along and we took off in my car. Trip turned out to be quite an event, with us getting hopelessly lost in Ipoh old town, what with 1 super-blur PG driver and another bloody clueless PG navigator (thanks a bunch Pete). Finally found our way to some chicken rice joint where we ate like pigs (think the place is called Wong's XXX.. over in Ipoh old town central).

The joyride down to Ipoh also gave me a chance to speed-test my 2.5 yr-old Waja. Ever since I've had it, the furthest it's been is to KL and that was only on one occasion many moons ago. Confined to city driving for over 2 yrs, I could sense the car was itching to be pushed beyond legal limits ;) After having Pete confirm his life insurance was still valid, I found a nice long, sweet stretch of uninterrupted highway and proceeded to floor it. Managed to clock 180kmph before a bloody Lotus Elise decided to do some speed-tests on it's own and overtook. Ever seen a Waja playing catch-up with a Lotus? Neither have I. Didn't happen on that day, not in this lifetime, heh.

Having heard quite a bit about Sunway's "Lost City of Tambun" water theme park, Pete and I decied to try and weasel our way in without paying. So we made our way to Tambun (it's a bloody 30 min drive from the Ipoh Selatan exit) and insisted on seeing the Sales Manager. We
masqueraded as 2 officials from our company, and spun this fictitious story about our department interested in organizing a large-scale teambuilding event at the theme park. All that talking done off-the-cuff, with a straight face and a firm handshake. So could we please go in & have a look around?

Of course we could. Even better, the Sales Manager and her assistant gave us the VIP treatment & even took us around for a grand-scale tour of the place. No shit. Got shown around the whole theme park with the two of them pointing out this attraction and that feature etc. All that was missing was a "would you like an iced latte, sir?" invite. Hell, if I had just asked, I would probably have got it.

So yeah, the park's impressive. Small in size, but can fit a good few thousand people at the minimum. And all that BS-ing/masquerading actually came in useful, since I'm now seriously contemplating organizing our next dept. teambuilding there after the grand tour.

If this isn't corporate fraud at it's highest level, I don't know what is. Damn, I'm good. :P

++++++++++++++++++++++
Weekend was spent attending the dept's annual dinner event at E&O Hotel in PG. Spiffy place, which meant a coat and tie was necessary. Event turned out to be really good.. beyond my expectations (we all know dept-organized dinners tend to suck and be a major bore). MCs were chatty and actually funny, games organized were interesting and the various dances/sketches/performances were well err.. performed. Gotta give it to this year's organizing committee, they did hell of a job.

Now, on to the actual reason why I would even bother attending: chicks. Lots of them, looking... very different with their gowns, dresses, hairdos and makeup. Hardly recognized the girls... they looked so different with makeup and proper hairdo. One cute-looking chick I've never seen before made eye contact and smiled at me, which caught me off-guard for a moment. Had to stand there like an idiot blinking in confusion trying to remember who she was... later discovered she was my colleague sitting barely 10m from me at work. Holy shit! The miracle of makeup!

And those hairdos! What is it with you women and hairdos that take like... 5 hours to prepare? Saw all manners of hairstyles... one even appeared like the chick was wearing a dead squirrel on her head. Didn't help that the dead squirrel was peppered with gold/silver/blue/purple dust that glittered brighter than an airport runway at night. Hmmm, at least the chick looked cute...

Had an interesting conversation with Pete while we were standing in the corridor outside the ballroom, casually people-watching.

Pete: "OMG! Check out those tits!"
Me: "What? Where Where???" *looks frantically around*
Pete: "There-lah you idiot!" *points at a chick over in the corner*
Me: *looks over* "Hot damn! Those are nice tits!" *nosebleed* *nosebleed*
Pete: "Never seen her before-lah. Wonder who she is..."
Me: "Dunno-lah. Must be some chick from across the building."

As we continued sipping our pretentious cocktails (watered down orange juice) and checking out said chick, I furiously tried to place her in my mind. That face somehow looked very familiar...

... and it did. Pete rushed over to my table later on in the night, having discovered the identity of the Jane Doe With Nice Titties. Turns out she was one of our colleagues in a different team whom we work with regularly. o_O!! Both of us nearly choked on our drinks. Goddamn! Never saw that one coming! Must say I'm going to look at her in a completely different light from now on ;)

Jesus, these annual dinner affairs can be hazardous. For all you know, that mysterious, sultry, hot chick you've just met and are hitting on could be your teammate. Sweet Jesus. o_O

Never underestimate the power of makeup, glitter dust and dead squirrel hairstyles.

:)
J

Quietly reflecting life... and death

2005-09-21T13:23:00.000+08:00

Just heard from Minishorts that Elaine's dad passed away yesterday. Though I don't know her personally, I must say it saddened me to hear the news. I can't begin to imagine what she must be going through right now... the grief, the sorrow and the heavy-hearted feeling that's always present during the death of a loved one, especially one so close...

... which brings me to the subject of today's blog entry: is it just me or have more people close to us been passing away of late? Case in point: 2 nights ago, a relative called to inform me that my grand-uncle died of sudden cardiac arrest. That news was quickly followed up by the news that another relative died (cancer), then a neighbour 2 streets away (old age), a colleague's grandaddy (old age), another colleague's relative (cancer) and now Elaine's dad. All this happened in the span of 2 weeks, give or take.

If I didn't know any better, it would seem the Grim Reaper's decided to stop by for a visit.

I can't imagine what I'd do if my dad suddenly passed away. Though I know that day will come to each of us eventually, it's a day I'm quietly dreading and hoping beyond hope it will not arrive.

The recent spate of deaths in my circle of friends, relatives and colleagues made me realise how much we take loved ones for granted sometimes. Me, I'm guilty as sin. Although I bitch incessantly about my parents' continuous M16 rapid-fire nagging, unnecessary (and often unwelcome) advice on everything and anything, I can't deny the fact that they still are my parents at the end of the day and I love them to bits (although that was debatable during heated arguments with mum back in my rebellious, wise-ass years).

As I've grown older and (hopefully somewhat) wiser, I've realised that they're doing this for my own good and they really do want what's best for me. Mum always knows best, I suppose.

When I go back tonight to an empty house (parents are away in China), I will be quitely reflecting upon the years past and the moments of joy (and sheer agony, heh) spent with mum and dad all this while.

Skies have been dark and gloomy past few days... how fitting that the heavens reflect my current state of mind.

In closing, today's Moral of the ~~Story~~ Blog Entry is never take loved ones for granted. You'll never know when it's too late to say "I love you" or share that one last hug.

Elaine, wherever you are, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Stay strong; you'll pull through this.

J

So long,Jee-Koo Kong

2005-09-20T10:09:00.000+08:00

Gonna be a short one today. Came home last night exhausted after a hard day's work to have the phone ringing off the hook while I was taking a shower. Wondering WTF the incessant caller was & mentally cussing him and his family to Kingdom Come, I walked out nude, dripping wet to answer the phone. T'was my mum's brother (my uncle la). Apparently grand-uncle #2 (~~mom's mom~~ grandmother's brother) just kicked the bucket after a relapse of a heart attack. Sigh.

Since the parents are away happily traipsing around Beijing on a 9-day whirlwind tour, it was up to me to attend the funeral, representing the family to pay our last respects (and pay the "pek kim" (condolence money paid to the deceased's family).

Now I'm not a big fan of funerals... always avoid attending one whenever/wherever possible. Funerals always give me that weird uncomfortable feeling in the deep of my tummy... the kind of feeling that gets you depressed for no apparent reason & leaves you without an appetite. Then again, maybe it's just me. *shrugs*

Wonder how much pek kim I should give... have no idea what the "market rate" is. Mum always handles the attending of funerals for relatives. Godbless her for being the PR rep of the family :)

Gonna miss that grand-uncle dude. Wasn't particularly close to him but my parents were. He was quite the stickler for rules & etiquette: no shoes in the house (then again, I wouldn't have anyone wearing shoes into mine too), no crossing of legs when sitting across him, speaking in complete sentences with minimal use of Malaysian Engrish and such. Yep, pretty much an old-school kind of grand uncle. Very old school. Complete with an impeccable command of England, booming authoritative voice and liberal usage of the term "Young man!" and "When I was your age...."

Gonna miss you Jee-Koo Kong*. RIP.

J
*Jee Koo Kong: Penang Hokkien for "2nd grand-uncle"

Dogging: Hot Survivor chics doggy style (what?)

2005-09-16T16:37:00.000+08:00

Was browsing around my usual online haunts when I came upon this very interesting news article on a new oh-what-shall-we-call-it... favourite pasttime activity called "dogging".

In case you're wondering... no, "dogging" does not refer to walking your dog. Nor does it refer to you performing any inhumane, kinky acts on your dog.

Dogging refers to the act of having sex in a car parked in public places, within full view of spectators and interested voyeurs peeking in on all the action from outside the car.

Yep, you read that right. WTF?! Yep. Exactly what I said when I first read that article.

Apparently dogging started out in the UK (damn those horny Brits for coming up with weird shit like this) and is now gaining notoriety & popularity all over the world. Historically, the term "dogging" is thought to have been coined by the act of voyeurs "dogging" or following a lovey-dovey couple to secluded areas in the hopes of getting a free show.

Now wouldn't it be so much easier to just download porn? Stupid Brits. *shakes head & mutters*

So, anyway... there's a whole set of "unwritten" rules to getting "dogged" (K, I made that word up). Here's how it works: First, you're supposed to drive into a public car park area at night and flash your lights once, while leaving the engine running. This will signal potential "doggers" that you're available and waiting to be shagged. It'll also signal any interested voyeurs to come on over and view the action. Second, you're supposed to leave the doors unlocked so other interested participants can climb in/out of the car to join in the fun. And third, you should engage the parking brake just so the car doesn't take off in the middle of all the pounding action (doh).

Simple, 'non? That's what you think. Just when you thought this shit can't get any weirder... well, it does!

Before one engages in dogging, one must take note of the 10 Dogging Sex Commandments (no, I do not make this shit up):

LOL! #5's my favourite!

More on dogging and the 10 commandments which I shamelessly pilfered off this site here.

If anyone's interested, I will be in PG Youth Park's car parking lot tommorow evening. Look for a mean-looking silver Waja with flashing headlights. First come, first served (literally). Oh, and please enter the car using the front passenger door. The rear door handle's broken. ;)

K, enuff of weird Brit shit. On to more interesting stuff.

Survivor premiered last night in the States! Woohoo! The show, in it's eleventh season (Jesus H. C!) this time round, takes place among the ancient Mayan ruins in Guatamala. Am in the midst of downloading the season premier... should be done in a few hours (rubs hands in anticipation)... woohoo! What's more interesting, Survivor: Guatamala this season brings back 2 ex-Survivors from last season's Survivor: Palau... 2hot2chiq Stephenie & waiter Bobby Jon! o_O

Stephenie's back! WooHOO! SO much more reason to watch the show now. Like like season's Survivor, I was rooting for Steph to win. I take it so were many many others, hence the producers' decision to bring her back again by popular demand for another shot at the million bucks.

As with previous Survivors, hot chicks abound. Here's my personal pick among the 18 new faces:

I'm rooting for Steph and the last one (Danni). Damn Danni's hot. Smokin'!. Rawr. I'm anticipating some vicious catfights/backstabbing/hissy fits between her and Steph... bring it on!

You'll have to view the full bio at CBS' official Survivor: Guatamala site here. Here's hoping ntv7/local channels bring the show to town soon! Me, I'll be snuggled up tonight with my glass of iced milk and ~~popcorn~~ chips watching the show. I'll say it again: God Bless BitTorrent. :P

:)
J

Marriage proposals & broken car doors

2005-09-15T13:54:00.000+08:00

*Yawnnnn*

G'mornin' folks. Oh wait, it's too bright to be morning still. Jesus.... it's 2PM already?! Heh. Looks like I overslept. Again. Doncha just love waking up after lunch on a weekday when everyone else is working? I do! Thank the Lord & His homies for blessing me with a 4-day workweek ;)

So, I just got out of bed complete with that fresh-outta-bed look: hair's tousled, eyes are bloodshot and I'm wondering what day/year it is. Happens everytime I crash at 4am the previous night. Decided to update the blog on the spur of the moment, so stop bitchin' about me not updating already! Don't you people know patience is a supposed virtue??

Where was I? Oh yeah, incessant rambling. Caught the season premiere of Gilmore Girls last night! Woohoo! Season Six, episode One! Before you reach for that ASTRO TV mag wondering when the hell GG is showing and how come no one told you about it, don't bother... it's not showing on the local circuit yet. That's where the beauty of BitTorrent and mininova.org come in ;)

Was fortunate enough to have the download complete last night instead of today. Was hopping with anticipation on what was gonna happen in the new season, especially since the last season ended with a cliffhanger. Rory quit Yale! Lorelai proposed to Luke! Rory moves out! How many guys do you know watch Gilmore Girls! ? :P

New season kicked off right where the last ep. ended. In Luke's diner with Lorelai popping the question unexpectedly. All it took were seven lines of dialogue to make me squeal like a blonde airhead at a Gucci sale.

Here's the first 7 lines of the season... imagine Lorelai & Luke having this conversation and you'll understand the need to squeal:

"What?”
"Luke, will you …”
"Yes.”
"Well, you don’t have to answer so …”
"Yes.”
"We can take a minute to …”
"No.”
The two grin.

o_O! Trust me, you have to see the show for yourself to fully grasp the moment. They're FINALLY getting married after SIX seasons of What Ifs! It's really happening! About fuckin' time!

Gotta give it to the show's producers and writers... 6 seasons of Gilmore Girls and it still blows me away every week. Hot damn.

Yes, it's the Great TV Season again. If you're a fan of US dramas & TV shows, now's the time to cancel social appointments, dump the gf/bf, fire up BitTorrent & download shows like there's no tommorow. Over the course of the month, all the major TV networks make their season debuts... GG, Lost, Alias, CSI, Desperate Housewives, the works.

Lost debuts it's season premiere next week in the States! Serial downloaders, bookmark 21st Sept! And if you're in Hawaii on the 21st, you'll be lucky enuff to catch the show LIVE in a special sneak preview being broadcasted on the beaches of Oahu. If you've been following the show, you would have been itching to FINALLY know what the hell the hatch (which was finally blown open in last season's cliffhanger) leads to.

My money's on the hatch leading to an underground Burger King. Double Whoppers all round.

It's interesting to see what people think of the show. From what I've gathered so far, some think the island's either:

1. Run by a secret government project
2. Located on some alien planet
3. Purgatory where everyone's dead

Me, I still think the island's a secret Whopper testing facility run by Burger King. If it is, heads are gonna roll at BK. Like, WTF... you can have BK outlets in KL AND on some goddamn deserted island in the middle of nowhere, BUT you can't open ONE friggin outlet in Penang???

K, enuff on TV shows. Time to wrap this up and get a bath.

Discovered yesterday the rear passenger door handle of my Waja broke. Again. Right after I got it fixed at Proton 2 bloody months ago. KNNCB!

Bloody quality control Proton has. No wonder Mahathir decided to return all his Protons.

:)
J

U.S. Photoblog Series - Lake Tahoe CA

2005-09-11T15:13:00.000+08:00

So, apparently I'm still very much alive after having my wisdom teeth forcibly yanked from my bleeding, pulpitating gums. Still have yet to feel any pain, although a nasty side effect has been me coming down with a nasty bout of flu. Yep, wheezing cough, runny cold, sore throat, bloodshot eyes, the works.

Think it has to do with the surgery. Germs must've somehow infected my open wounds. Had to take a few days off work. And to think I had a perfectly clean no-MC track record so far this year. Rats, what a cryin' shame :P

Almost forgot to post more pics from the States. Intended to blog about 'em some weeks back but got sidetracked by innane ramblings... as usual.

Lock and load!

So, among the many beyootiful places I visited over in the States last month was this amazing place called Lake Tahoe. Straddling the borders of Nevada & ~~some other state~~ California, the lake spans 22 miles across and is 12 miles wide. Holds some 39 trillion gallons of melted alpine glacier runoff and is ice-cold. Perfect for a early-morning dip, eh? More oh-so-fun facts here.

Most people who've been to Tahoe have said it's one of the most scenic lakes in North America, and probably the world. After having been there, I must say I can't dispute that :)

On to pics... lots and lots of 'em. God bless your broadband connection....

No, this isn't a Salem High Country ad (though it was probably filmed here heh). Pic taken on the windy drive up to the lake.

Some of the more touristy places selling overpriced junk and overpriced souvenirs. I did all my shopping here!

The ski lodge that operates year-round. For USD $16, you can buy a gondola ticket to take you to the top of the mountain...

As we're ascending the mountain. First stop, some 1000ft above sea level. Notice how azure-blue the sky is... magnifique'!

The view from the top of the mountain. It's allll lake down there people, 39 trillion gallons of it. Squint closely and you'll see some leisure boats skimming the surface...

At the pinnacle of the mountain. This is the place to get off if you're a skiier... the skiing areas are right around the corner

Ski lifts to take you up the slope. Of course it's summer right now, so the mountain's snow-less and the lifts are non-operational. Still, I'd love to have taken a ride to the very top just for the view...

Back at the foot of the mountain. Nice horsie.

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous would often adjourn here after meetings for a... drink

Queued for half a friggin hour to get tickets for this open-deck cruise boat that would take me on a leisurely paddle on the lake

Tons of people everywhere. It is after all, summer. No, the half-naked guy in red shorts was not supposed to be the focus of the pic :P

That concludes this edition of cam-whoring. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some cough medicine to quaff.

Being sick ain't fun. *cough*

:)
J

Getting stupider

2005-09-04T18:44:00.000+08:00

I finally did it. Plucked up enough courage yesterday to face my worst fears... to venture where no self-respecting 25 year old healthy male in the prime of his life would venture...

A trip to the dentist to have my wisdom teeth removed.

Now, I'm not a big fan of pain. And it's not because I have small cajones (on the contrary *ahem*)... oh noooo. My teeth have been fine all these while. Never had the need to wear braces back when I was a kid, and my teeth are hole-free to this day. Except of course, for 4 very annoying wisdom teeth that only recently started to give me problems.

So off I went to see the doc. Appointment was at 11am and I was in the clinic at 10.55 (there's precision timing for you) only to find the damned doc hadn't arrived yet. It's 11am for Christ's sake! What kind of doc gets in to work past 11am?? And more importantly WTF (why) am I trusting such a doc to yank my teeth?!

According to the nurse at the desk, this particular doc is only at the clinic once a month. Bugger has another gig at Assunta Hospital in PJ and flies down once a month to this PG clinic to service his customers.

And apparently he was late today becoz his flight from KL was delayed. Bloody MAS.

So there I sat for a good 1 hr flipping thru my stack of Time mags which I very cleverly thought to bring, when Mr Doc runs in the door all hot and flustered. 10 minutes later I get called in. Sighing, I roll up my mags, get my ass off the sofa, take a deep breath and walk towards the light (of the doctor's office)...

...only to find myself in a very nice plush room with weird gleaming alien-like devices surrounding a OSIM-like chair. Some soothing piano music playing in the background. Spiffy place this guy operates out of. Not bad.

Doc and I exchange "hewlo, how are yous" and the usual yadda yadda but I'm not listening much as my gaze is transfixed upon this very sweet, chio nurse standing by the side of the doc's chair. Damn, that's a cute chick. I'm thinking she's been hired deliberately to put 25-year old males at ease. Screw the soothing piano music... I'm at ease already.

Doc starts off by injecting some anasthetic drug via a nasty gleaming 7" long syringe direct into my gums. Bracing for a world of hellish pain, I grimace and clench my fist. As expected, it hurts like a bitch. But I'm a man... I can take the pain! Bring it on! Woohoo! Mommmmmmy!

Doc then walks out of the room for a bit and I take the chance to start chatting with the cute chio nurse. 5 mins into the conversation when I'm attempting to turn on the charm, I notice my words are slurring. WTF?! Bloody anasthetic's taking effect and numbing my entire left jaw! I can't talk properly! Attempt at sweet-talking said chick goes horribly wrong as I start slurring words like a 80-yr old geezer with Parkinsons. Realising conversation is useless, I am left with no choice but to lie back on the chair and seduce her with my eyes. Goddamnit.

Cheery doc makes his entrance again and straps on his face mask. Spotlight overhead turns on and the world's shrouded in white light. 3 faces leer over me and I hear the sound of a drill starting up.

It's showtime.

If you've had your teeth removed before you'd know that there's nothing worse than the sound of a high-speed drill raping your wide, gaping mouth. Thank God the anasthesia worked as advertised and spared me the agony of feeling my own teeth being forcibly yanked out by a pair of clamps. And Thank God that cute chick was right in front of my eyes the whole time, assisting the doc with suction. Now there's a sight for sore eyes. *melts*

So, 30 mins later... the supposed ordeal is over. Cute nurse presents me with a tray filled w/5 shards of tooth (teeth?)... glistening with blood and saliva. O_o.......

Thought the bloody ordeal was over but noooo... another surprise awaited me at the cashier. Guess how much the bloody bill came to? $900! Yes you read that right! NINE HUNDRED FRIGGIN BUCKS to yank 2 wisdom teeth (left upper, left lower)! Jesus C! Thank God my company's medical plan covers it somewhat else I'd be screwed. Did I get fleeced or what? Colleague who's been thru wisdom teeth removal at this very clinic theorizes I may have received the services of a bona fide dental surgeon, as opposed to a standard dentist, hence the higher cost. Either the surgeon's a miracle worker or part of the cost goes to financing that hot nurse chick (not complaining either way) :)

Proceeded to drive home sans 2 teeth and spent the rest of yesterday afternoon attempting to take a nap while popping painkiller pills and spitting out blood every 5 mins. Jesus, the amount of blood I shed yesterday would probably resolve PG Hospital's bloodbank shortage. Thankfully, I haven't had any nasty side effects like swelling of the cheeks, or even pain. I'm pretty amazed though... haven't felt any pain at all in my mouth since the surgery (was expecting the pain to be a real bitch)... so much so I stopped taking the painkillers. Sutures are supposed to "disappear" or "melt" on their own a few weeks after, so I don't need to come back for a follow-up. Interesting.

I'm thinking that with no pain and no swelling afterwards, that was a good $900 well spent. Don't you?

Now to wait til' next year when I go back to have the other half of my mouth terrorized by a drill. Pray that sweet young nurse chic's gonna be there still. One can only hope, eh.

With 2 wisdom teeth lost, I feel stupider already.

:)
J

Crossroads.

2005-08-31T22:32:00.000+08:00

Before you say anything, I had lots and lots of work to do K? So don't bitch about me not updating my blog. Yes yes, I know you, you and you had lots of work too. Who doesn't eh. K, we'll agree to disagree and leave it at that :P

So, how are things? If I haven't mentioned it before, I've had tons of work. Especially in the past week which has turned out to be a really interesting, tumultous one with a few ups and lots of downs. More on that later.

So, where to start on what I've been up to these past 2 weeks... basically, big decisions are looming on the horizon. Work-related decisions. Recent events at work have set into motion more events that seem to have whizzed past with incredible speed.

K, I'll quit with that metaphorical bullshit already. :)

I'm about to change jobs. Very soon. Can't give much more details about the reasons behind it since quite a few ppl at work read this (word would have gone round eventually.. my bad for blogging at work and having unsuspecting ppl creep up behind me thus blowing away all hope for anonymity). Anyway, those of you who know why will know lah. Nothing much we can do, yes? Oh well... time to move on then. In the coming weeks, I will probably be offered 2 completely different jobs that deal with 2 completely different realms from each other. Kinda like the North and South pole. Wait, bad analogy (since they're both frozen and basically have the same geographical features). Uhhh.. kinda like Badawi and Mahathir. KFC and McD. Post Great Grain cereal and Kellogg's.

Alright so I suck at analogies. Here's the lowdown: one job has to do with meeting people, dabbling into some journalism, and event management. Completely and utterly different from what I'm doing now. Very interesting, yes? I would agree. The other has to do with data crunching and is effectively still within my IT department's realm. Was all set to accept the latter when recent events (there's that phrase again) resulted in me having this 2nd job opening up.

So, what's a man to do eh. Choices, choices, choices. Do I stick to convention, boringness, multiple shades of grey and all that shit... and go with a job I know I can do and will be familiar with? Or do I put it all on the table and take a leap into the unknown? Venture forth into uncharted territory? Doing so would mean getting out of my comfort zone completely and utterly, with no turning back.

New manager... new colleagues... new department... new office building awaits with the new job. The job itself sounds really interesting and caught my attention as soon as I learned about it from my colleague. Personally, I'm leaning towards this job. The hiring manager sounds really cool, very much a left-brain kinda person and very passionate about the job. And I'm a guy who's really big on being able to work in harmony with your manager. Get this: in the meeting I had with this new manager to learn more about the job, she immediately asked me what my horoscope was. Somewhat stunned, I replied "uhh... Taurus?" She then sat back, smiled and replied "Good. We'll work well together". Apparently, she's a Capricorn and these two stars are extremely compatible. Or so she and this website say. I mean, how cool is that? Wouldn't you want to work with someone who immediately asks what your horoscope is when you first meet? How many hiring managers do you know that actually do that?

So, nothing's set in stone yet. A couple more interviews to go but the second job has been verbally offered. Should be a matter of paperwork that remains. My gut instinct is itching to reach out and take that plunge off the cliff into the unknown. Think I'll listen to my instinct this time. God knows it's been right. Mostly anyway.

A Crossroad beckons.

The left path leads into uncharted territory with joy or extreme regret waiting around the bend.

The right path's a straight road leading back into familiar areas.

Which road would you take?

Heck, life's too short to regret. *turns left*

:)
J

PS: Of course I could just have blogged simply that I've got 2 job offers and I'm taking the other one. But where's the fun in that? :P

U.S. Photoblog Series - Sacramento & Hard Rock Cafe

2005-08-21T17:53:00.000+08:00

The merry round of cam-whoring, trigger-happy pictures of my trip continues...

This time, it's about Sacramento. History 101 before we continue... Sacramento (henceforth referred to as "Sac") is the capital of California (I think) and the seat of the local state government. If you're wondering who the Governor aka. Terminator of California is, well, you haven't been reading the news much have you?

Sac's divided into two portions: Old Sac (a beeyootifully preserved old town similar in look and feel to that of the old cowboy wild wild west towns) and New Sac which is where everything else is. Colleagues and I drove up to Sac from Folsom, which is where I was at. Journey took approx. 45 minutes by interstate highway. Gotta love driving on the wrong side of the road at 130 km/h.

Some pics of buildings preserved in Old Sac for ~~tourists'~~ history's sake:

The golden arches (no, not that one) that led to the inner sanctum of the preserved Old town Sacramento

"I'll have one Smith & Wesson .45, a double-barrel shotgun and 500 rounds of ammo. Oh, and can I have fries with that?"

Choices, choices, choices... how come no Balinese massage one? I demand a refund!

Some old-school bar & hotel I think. It appears to have survived the test of time. Pity it's now some sort of gathering place for Harley biker rednecks. Beautifully preserved, no doubt.

Moving into the New Town now. Behold the HRC!

Bow mortals, before the Temple of the Rock Gods

Interior of the Hard Rock Cafe. Nice ambience and even nicer skydome ceiling thingy in the center. Pity there were people having dinner under that particular ceiling when I visited else I'd have lay flat on their table to take a shot of the ceiling's architecture

HRC monopoly set. Was thinking of buying it for novelty's sake when it hit me I wouldn't be able to lug the damn thing home given my limited suitcase space. Shucks.

HRC poker set. Another way cool novelty item. Should make for interesting conversations with the relatives come Chinese New Year

Random shot of someone's house

World, meet Rover the doggie. Rover, along with his owner and owner's hubby were sitting opposite our table at a pub in Sac. Couldn't resist taking a shot. Bugger constantly sniffed around my beer mug the whole time we were there. Oh, and according to the owner, Rover has been known to lap up a margarita or two. An alcoholic doggie... I'd pay good $$ to see that!

Some shots of wacky signages and floor mats being sold at one tourist shop...

LOL! :)

The trip to Sac ended here... the mother of all CD/record shops... the Virgin superstore!

More pics soon!

:)
J

U.S. Photoblog Series - Food binge

2005-08-17T21:36:00.000+08:00

Hello! It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Heh. I blame jetlag and the massive hours spent sleeping in the past 48 hours. Finally arrived back in home sweet home on Sunday after 4 separate flights, 20.5 hours in the air and another 10 hours waiting in transit. When I finally reached home and met the parents, they nearly freaked out when I appeared to have put on quite some weight. Face is now much rounder than before and I’ve apparently filled out quite a bit (skinny boy here you see). Weighed myself and I’ve put on some 2 kgs. That’s 2 kgs in 3 friggin’ weeks. DamN! ‘Course that shouldn’t be surprising considering the kind of food I’ve been having over there. 12 oz steaks every other day, an assortment of carbo-rich food and 3x my usual servings per meal. Sigh. Time to hit the gym for real again. No more slacking off this time!

Immediately unpacked (was surprisingly lucid enough to unpack everything) everything into neat little piles of new purchases, new clothes, existing clothes, laundry, and food. Yep, bought a whole lotta food back. Chocs, nuts and the works. More on that in another post.

Anyway, I then decided to take a short “nap” at 4pm… the nap eventually turned into a marathon 16 hour zzz session which resulted me waking around lunchtime the next day. Jesus Christ, Lord Almighty indeed. Completely missed dinner, supper, breakfast and even lunch the next day. No shit. When I finally woke from my near-comatose slumber, I had to sit up in bed and blink slowly a couple of times before asking myself 3 critical questions that came to mind:

1. Where am I?
2. What day is it?
3. What year is it?

:P

Felt like I had been repeatedly thumped with a sledgehammer. Muscles were sore and brain took a good 15 minutes to form coherent sentences. This must be what it feels like to be wasted. Sign me up! Woohoo!

So, long story short… it was a GREAT 3 weeks. Saw some amazing things, met some amazing colleagues and drove some pretty far out vehicles. Lots to tell, lots to blog about and close to 800 pics to publish. ‘Course I won’t be publishing ALL of ‘em, so gimme some time to sort thru ‘em and pick out the good ones.

Over the next few weeks, stay tuned as I go thru my pic folders and sort everything out. Anything and everything I blog about re. the US trip will be categorized under the “U.S. Photoblog Series” title as I’m calling it. Much easier to sort thru my blog entries this way.

K, enuff rambling! Let’s get the bandwidth-hogging pics slideshow on the road!

First up, here’s an idea of what my near-daily sustenance included:

That’s right folks… double-tier 10 oz. well-done cheeseburgers with a healthy serving of fries on the side. Enough food to serve a 3rd world nation. And then some.

This was one of my favourite places… the Cheesecake Factory! Now, it’s not quite a literal “cheesecake factory”, but it it reputed to serve the best cheesecakes this side of the coast. The place was packed each and every time I went though… wait-times for a table was close to 20 minutes minimum. All that wait just to get a slice of this…

Leave all those 4 letter words (eg: “diet”) at the door! Get your cardiologist on speedial! Notify the nearest trauma room! Embrace the world of cheese and feel the looooove! Good shit these cakes. Loved the tiramisu… the cake absolutely melts in your mouth. No wonder people don’t seem to mind waiting 20 mins for a damned table (although you can just as easily order some slices to go)

Interior of the Factory. Neat. Love the hanging ornaments.

So, after clogging our arteries with the wholesome goodness of cheese, cheese and more cheese (with copious amounts of whipped cream), we adjourned to get some alcohol. After all, if you’re gonna screw your body up with cheese OD, then do it right and get some alcohol in there as well!

Venue of choice: Yager’s pub. Came highly reccomended by US colleagues.

A fine bar with an impressive selection of microbrewed beer from around the world. Too bad I don’t drink beer.

So, that’s it for the night. Staggered back to the hotel, crashed and went off to work the next day and to this place…

This ice cream parlour is called Coldstone and comes highly reccomended by colleagues. Only the finest dining places and cuisine will do for me :)

The flavours…

… and the toppings…

This place sure makes interesting ice cream. All the flavours are home-made and once you choose your flavour, they dig up one huge-ass scoop from the container and plop it on an ice-cold marble slab (hence the store name: Coldstone) suspended in a tub of running, freezing water. Then using 2 flat ladles, they proceed to knead the blob of ice cream apart. This is where it gets interesting: you then choose your topping, and it goes into the center of the blob like so:

Then the blob, along with your selected topping in the middle is quickly and neatly rolled into a huge ball and packed into your choice of waffle cone or cup. Sweetness. I cannot believe this method of serving ice cream with toppings rolled into it hasn’t caught on over here already. Now if only I had some cash available and a business sense, I would have opened a few outlets here already! Coldstone and it’s ice-cream selection… I miss it already. Arrghh!

Of course after having all that ice cream, sure to get thirsty one right? Naturally you’ll order a glass of water like so…

Now, why settle for plain iced water when the company’s picking up the tab? Oh noooo… plain ice water wouldn’t do… only this will do the company AMEX justice…

I sure hope my dept’s Finance team isn’t reading this.

That’s it for part I. Will have more pics up in a few days. Stay tuned!

:)
J

Homebound.... at last!

2005-08-11T14:33:00.000+08:00

Yes, I know I haven't been updating and blogging for a long time. Yes, I know you want more pictures of whatever/wherever I've been up to over here. Yes, it has been a long, looooong trip.

3 weeks have since passed since I first stepped foot in sunny California. Weather here's amazing... a tad damn hot (38 C in the afternoon) with very little humidity. My office colleagues always ask me what I think of the heat here compared to the sizzler we have back home. I always tell 'em the same thing:

- In Cali, stepping out of an a/c room into the blazing sun is like opening an oven and plunging your face in. Dry heat but damn hot nevertheless.
- In Penang, stepping out of an a/c room into the blazing sun is like opening the door to a sauna and plunging in. Damn humid heat.

Somehow, I've gotten used to the heat here... "acclimatized", those powderful Engrish people call it. With the humidity being so low, you hardly sweat even when under the sun. Try doing that back home and your shirt will be soaked in minutes.

So anyway, back to my original point... yeah, it's been three wonderful blissful weeks. Have to admit I haven't missed home (nope, not at all). Most people who know me find that pretty amazing, but I always tell them I haven't had the friggin' time to miss home (or anyone for that matter). Work has been just crazy, with me up to my neck running around like a damn headless chicken from 9-5. Then at night, it's always dinner with colleagues and drinks later. Then it's back home where I collapse and zzz until 4am when my eyes open by themselves. Goddamnit. Three weeks here and I STILL get up at 4am! On the dot! At least I get to roll over and go back to sleep again 'till the soft, lovely sounds of Smooth Jazz 94.7FM KSSJ, Sacramento wake me from drowsy slumber at 7.35am M-F. (Godbless excellente' jazz music and radio alarms)

Tomm's the last day of work... gonna be busy running around the office saying goodbye, snapping pics and signing autographs. K, prolly not that last one. More like clearing the damn Inbox before I leave for home. Tiuuuuu.

Day after tomm's itinerary will see a a total of 21 hours spent in the air and close to 8 hours spent waiting in airports for connecting flights. They better have updated the in-flight movie listing since the last time I was on SIA's Executive Economy class Leadership flight (17.5 hrs of non-stop flight fun from LAX -> S'pore). And the ~~waitresses~~ in-flight stewardesses better be hot. Very.

Yes yes.. I'll have more pics of San Fran, Lake Tahoe and other camwhore shots posted up when I get back. All 850+ shots totalling 600MB of 'em. Oh you'd better have broadband.

Now how the hell am I going to fit all my shopping items into just TWO luggage bags? It's not possible I tell you! I blame Mastercard & Visa for encouraging my manic shoppaholic tendencies! ARGH!

:)
J

P-S: What's all this I hear about the damn haze back home? "Reaching Hazardous Levels" and all that? No shit! Hmmm.. maybe I should stay here a few weeks longer.... that'll give me 'enuff time to hit that strip bar. Again. HmmmMMM....

Sneak preview of what I've been up to

2005-08-04T13:29:00.000+08:00

:D
J

bzbzbzbzbzbz

2005-08-02T15:17:00.000+08:00

Pardon the lack of posts... work has just been crazy the past week. Lots of loose ends to tie up, 400++ photos to process n transfer to laptop n endless shopping to do.

Will blog soon with tons of pics!

:)
J

Of nightmares & jetlag

2005-07-27T13:36:00.000+08:00

Yep, am still jetlegged. And this is my.... 4th night in California. Sigh. Am going to bed at 10pm and find myself consistently waking up at 3am the past few nights for no apparent reason. Think it's because of the weird vivid nightmares I've been getting. The kind that leaves you sweating and with a racing pulse when you suddenly wake up. Haven't got those nightmares for years now. Wonder WTF's scaring the bejesus out of my unconscious mind. After I wake, I'll be drifting in and out of sleep until the bloody sun rises (which it does at a very early 5am over here) and I'm left blinking sleepily as the day progresses. Wash, rinse, repeat. *groans*

Since I couldn't sleep much, decided to stay up and watch the sun rise in the early morning...

Taken at 5am...

And a little later at 5.15am. Beautiful, ain't it? Love how the color blends in and changes closer to the horizon.

Work's been good. Met my US counterparts and US teammates yesterday at my first day at work. Love how my office building has a Starbucks coffee joint in the lobby. Quite a queue in the mornings. Pity I don't drink coffee. Yep, no drugs for me.

Colleagues here were nice enough to get me a welcome basket. Was really touched when I walked into my new office cube and found a prettily packaged basked tied up in a nice little bow.

The basket looks messed up... my fault! Unwrapped the basket before I took the pic, and my clumsy hands didn't know how to tie the ribbon back up properly. :P

I got a welcome card too!

Awww... how sweet.

The guys n gals were good enough to get me some almonds and assorted nuts, along with what appears to be dark chocolate. Not really a fan of choc, so will prolly pass those bars off to the relatives. Saves me the trouble of carting back even more chocolates for the pesky uncles n aunts back home.

Then there was these weird packages in aluminium shrink wrap.... eh?

Unwrapping them revealed these...

Disposable cameras. Erm... OK. Thank you. I think. The team's reasoning was that they didn't know if I brought a camera with me(D-UH!), and so decided to get me some disposable cams anyway. Oh well. It's the thought that counts eh. I suppose they'll come in handy if my digicam decides to flatline on me (touchwood).

Managed to wake at 4am last night, an hour later than the usual 3am. Hoping to aim for 5am tonight. Pray for me!

:)
J

Greetings from Sacramento, California

2005-07-24T23:38:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm still alive. Barely. Blame 20 hours of being in the air with very little sleep! Touched down in LAX sometime Sat afternoon (US time), and proceeded to get totally lost in the huge friggin' airport. With 7 domestic terminals, 1 huge international terminal and very unhelpful signage, it's easy to get lost in the place. Managed to make our way to the free "LAX airport connections" shuttle service outside and found our way to the domestic terminal #7 for our United Airlines flight from LAX to Sacramento.

If you're scratching your head wondering where on Earth Sacramento is, uhh... keep on scratching. :P Sac's in California, over in the west coast. It's about 2 hours drive to San Fran, so it's pretty far south and pretty close to the Pacific Ocean coastline.

First thing that hit me when I stepped out of the airport was the extreme heat. Jesus it's HOT! And not our kind of Malaysian hot n humid weather, it's a really dry kind of heat here. Just to give you an idea of how friggin hot it is here... it's in the middle of summer right now and there are never any clouds in the sky. Afternoon temps can hit 40 C, with temps in the desert areas like Las Vegas hitting 47 C. That's hot enough to fry and egg on your head. And everything else in it!

Thank God I was sensible enough to bring my fav. black Nike cap and Oakley shades. Whatever "dri-fit technology" Nike touts it has in it's baseball cap range, it works! At least the heat from my head quickly evaporates and doesn't get trapped in the cap & roast my skull any more than necessary. Nike Dri-Fit 2 thumbs up!

OK, enough typing. On to pics!

This was the rental car from Hertz that I'm driving. It's a Ford Taurus, 2.0 litre car, with auto-transmission and a GPS navigation device built-in. Neat.

Close-up of the GPS navigation system. It's called NeverLost, and contrary to it's name, it got us lost more than a few times. Bloody GPS my ass. What you do is key in the address of the place you want to get to (eg: "Sunrise Mall"), and the unit plots the most efficient route to get to the mall. Every few miles, the unit will voice-prompt you with stuff like "freeway entrance in 1 mile, prepare to exit", "turn left in 0.5 miles" etc. Some problems with the device: How the hell do I judge distance in miles? And why can't the damn unit convert miles into KMs?

Yep, this sure made driving the past 2 days really interesting. Missed a few freeway exits and nearly ended up in another state altogether :P Oh, and driving on the right is quite an experience. Very nearly forgot that driving here's on the right lane, especially at intersections when your first reaction is to turn into the left lane...

... right into oncoming traffic. Like I said... fun! :)

Oh, and I got highlighted and honked at by some cars while on the interstate. I naturally assumed that the left lane was for slow vehicles, and was keeping to the left. Cars started tailgating me and began to highlight furiously. Being your typical PG driver, I cursed and ignored them altogether. Even considered giving the bugger behind me the finger. Decided not to after some second thoughts... you never know if the driver behind you has a loaded shotgun under the seat. And guns are legal here. Irritated American drivers + loaded shotgun = premature end to my month-long US trip. Eventually realising something was very wrong when everyone started piling up behind me, I pulled to the right and traffic immediately overtook on the left. Lesson of the day: slow lane's on the left, you ass. Oops. Sorry, Mr. Americans!

Eventually, we found our way to the right place.

View from my hotel window to the left...

... and to the right.

Once we checked in and crashed for the next 10 hours straight from excessive jetlag, it was time to explore the local community. And what better way to do that than to go shopping! :D

One of the smaller malls we went to yesterday. Not much stuff there, though.

(Mei Lin... take SPECIAL NOTE of this particular 9-West store... it's only 3 minutes away from my hotel. Offer valid till Aug 13th. You know the email address to place yr orders. ;)

Am pretty happy with the location of my hotel, as it's only 5 minutes away to a huge shopping mall called the "Folsom Premier Outlet". Most of the major stores like Guess, Hush Pupps, Nautica, Nike, Gap and the rest of the stores you see above are here. And the best thing is.. they're all on mid-summer sale! Woohoooo!

Oh, and here's some shots of my hotel. After getting duly lost at the airport, we drove for an hour and reached the hotel at 2.30am. Then we discovered the damn door was locked and no one was at the front counter. Another good 10 minutes of hollering and knocking on the door proceeded before someone came out to open it. &^&#^(*.

Sigh. It's a little past midnight KL time and a little over 9 am California time. Haven't slept a single wink since last night... body's must stil be running on M'sian time. The 2 other colleagues I'm travelling with didn't get much sleep either. Yep, we are sooooo fucked. It'll be interesting to see what happens tonight... if I still can't sleep I'm popping some sleeping pills.

Jet lag is never fun.

Will blog more when I'm rid of my panda eyes.

Trust everything's going fine back home? Homesickness hasn't kicked in yet. Bet it will after 3 weeks of being here. Oh well, we'll see.

*yawwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnn*

:)
J

T Minus 5

2005-07-17T20:41:00.000+08:00

Exactly 5 days to go until I depart from this rock and head 15,000,000 miles East to LA a.k.a the City of ~~Sin~~ Angels (K, so I don’t really know how far LA is from Penang but it sure is helluva far). Will be taking a direct, non-stop 17 hour flight from Singapore to LA. Flying SIA as I hear SIA’s long-haul service is much better than MAS’s.

Oh, and the stewardess chicks are a tad hotter as well. Definitely a bonus for sore eyes when you’re bored looking out the window.

From LA, I have a wonderful 6–hour long transit window before I catch my next domestic flight to Sacramento, California. Then it’s another hour-long drive by rented car to my hotel where I shall crash for the night and never ever wake up. Due to the time difference, I should get in to my hotel in Cali. by about 12 midnight. Have to remember to keep to the right-side of the roads. Americans and their road systems. Why can’t everyone be like the Brits and drive on the LEFT? Haaaaaih.

Haven’t begun packing. Gotta start this week for sure. Dad’s asking me to take his hard-case Samsonite Oyster luggage bag which I’m very reluctant to as the damn thing weights a ton. And that’s BEFORE you start loading it up. Will also have to remember to pack some extra empty bags, what with the huge shopping list I have. And most of the items there aren’t for me! Have weird requests to buy stuff from friends & colleagues… ranging from DVDs, music CDs, high-performance spark plugs, an electronic wood-carving set, a Darth Vader figurine, Maglites and even a Nine West ladies’ bag (yes, you know who you are). Heck, one colleague even asked me to bring him a baby’s stroller all the way from the States for his new-born hellspawn. WTF? Am I missing something or did baby strollers get banned here recently? Jesus.

Just when you think you’ve heard it all.. another one comes along. Another colleague asked me if I could get him a Taser-like personal stun gun. If you have no idea what a stun gun or a Taser is, you haven’t been watching many US action films lately have you? See here. It’s supposedly for his g/f’s safety when she has to wander through dark areas alone. Oh, how sweet. If she were attacked, at least she could defend herself (stun guns are banned in M’sia FYI) and give the would-be rapist an instant 50,000 volt wake-up call. Told my colleague he’d better not piss her off else he’s gonna find himself on the receiving end of the stunner. Or she’ll just zap him when he sneaks downstairs in the middle of the night to watch EPL. Or when he’s not in the mood for “quality time” and can’t get it up. Nothing like 50,000 volts to give you instant wood. Yep, no more of that “not tonight dear, I’m tired” crap. :P

Whichever Customs official that inspects my luggage will be in for a surprise. Let’s hope he doesn’t find the stun gun. Won’t have enuff cash left at the end of the trip to bail myself out of jail, much less bribe said Customs official. Uhhh, do you accept Visa?

:)
J

Yes, you're at the right place

2005-07-14T23:01:00.000+08:00

No, my page didn’t get hijacked by hackers. Yes people.. you’re looking at a brand new layout! Welcome to my new home. Been meaning to change the layout for some time now, but never really had the mood to do it until today (to those of you who’ve been pestering me to change my blog layout: ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? :p) Spent close to two friggin’ hours Photoshopping the pic in the background (this was what it looked like originally) so it would fit in properly and had the right blend of colors so as to not overpower the general text. Also spent some major time customizing the template code to include the stuff you see on the left.

What’s with the bridge in the background? Some abstract meaning behind it? Or just some random pic I found off the Net? Heh. I’ll leave that one for you to decide. All I can say I started out the layout redesign process listening to Kevin Kern :)

Will be making some minor tweaks to the layout as the week goes on: so bear with me. Site’s currently optimized for 1024x768 displays… so you people with crummy 800x600 screens… tough. What are you still doing on 800x600 anyway?? Oh, and the blog template you see now was heavily modified from an original one created by this ~~Neddish/Nellenish~~ Dutch person. (what are people from Netherlands called? Dutch?)

I love what I’ve done to the place. Don’t you?

:) J

PS: There seems to be a problem viewing my blog in Firefox… there’s tons of empty space after the C&H comic strip. I’m workin’ on fixin’ it. No problems viewing this site on IE though. For once, MS got something right.

Gettin' some oral lovin'

2005-07-10T22:12:00.000+08:00

Woke up yesterday at 3pm like I normally do. Felt groggy like I’ve been thwacked with a baseball bat like I normally do. Took a piss half-awake and completely missed the target the first few seconds like I normally do. Brushed my teeth like I normally do. Rinsed and spat toothpaste out like I normally do. Color of spat toothpaste was decorated with streaks of bright red.

Hmmm.. now that’s something you don’t get to see everyday.

At first, I thought my blurry vision was still fucked from waking mid-afternoon, and that I was seeing things. Or I had cut my lip when I somehow rolled off the bed and thunked face-first into the cold floor below… like I normally do. On some days. Ran tongue around mouth. Nope, no pain there. Where’s all the blood coming from? Pinched myself just to make sure I wasn’t having some elaborate bathroom horror nightmare. Nope, arm hurts. What gives?

Rushed to get my mini-AA Maglite pen-torch so I could play dentist on myself in the mirror. Found the source of the wound.. a tiny hole in the far recess of my mouth.. where my wisdom tooth is.

Now, most of you people would have your wisdom teeth removed when you were young(er). I didn’t. Heck, I never even went to a dentist until I was 15. Thankfully I was blessed with good, cavity-free teeth and well-informed parents who didn’t OD me on sugar, sweets and candy like the other kids. Yep, I had a pretty deprived childhood. So, I still have my set of four beyootifully-formed wisdom teeth growing happily into my gums until yesterday morning when it apparently decided to do a Dante’s Peak, puncture the gum and spew blood-red volcanic lava. Strange that despite my apparent wound, I don’t feel any pain whatsoever. Either last nite’s alcohol ingested during clubbing session’s still working it’s pain-inducing magic in my system or my pain threshold just went up a few notches.

Looks like it’s time to pay the neighbourhood dentist a visit for some TLC. Knowing the dentist he’s probably gonna reccomend I have my wisdom teeth surgically removed. But I don’t want to have ‘em removed… won’t removing your wisdom teeth make you like… you know… less wise? Think the term for it is stupid.

Bet this would explain why Bush doesn’t have any wisdom teeth.

Anyway, that’s a story for another time. I hate dentists. Always have, always will. Well, not hate hate. More like avoid unless absolute-fuckingly necessary. Even the very thought of going for my annual scaling & polishing session drives my pulse up a couple o’notches. And driving home at rush hour does enuff of that. The sound of a whirring drill and your wide, gaping mouth don’t go together very well. Stuff like that should stay in medieval torture chambers where they belong.

Now where’s that dental card of mine… time to make an appointment. And a will before I pay Dr. D a visit. Bet the pain of removing them in-grown teeth’s gonna be a real bitch. S’OK… I’m a man… what’s a little pain eh? Bring it on. I can take it. Yep. Can I have general instead of local anaesthetic? Put me to sleep… please! SHOW SOME MERCY!!!!!

Dentist appointment… 4 days to go.

*deep breath*

:(
J

PS: This whole removin-the-wisdom-teeth thing got me thinking… if everyone really IS born with wisdom teeth, then why the hell do we need to remove ‘em? Put it this way: It’s not wise to remove your goddamn wisdom teeth! Must be another conspiracy hatched by the dental industry. Ranks right up there along with overpriced Oral B toothbrushes and their “the brand more dentists use themselves” tagline. Goddamn dental corporations.

High-speed, near-death experience

2005-07-03T23:46:00.000+08:00

Warning: Long post. Very. Could not be bothered to edit for clarity. Don’t bitch.

Was travelling to work today as I normally do every Sunday (yes I work Sundays. Yes, I know it’s sinful to work on Sundays), just cruisin’ along my usual route, sun in my eyes and good ATB trance pumping in the background when I suddenly heard a weird sound coming somewhere from behind my car…

…whap whap whap whap…

It was a fuckin’ flat tyre. At the time, I thought the whap whap whap sound was coming from my car’s rear bass speakers, since I was listening to trance music after all. I remember thinking to myself “hu-wah… since when my bass speakers pack such a punch one?! Must be ATB’s new album! Walau eh!”. Of course that was when I started to feel the characteristic bumpy ride that only meant my bass-speakers did not magically turn into some Bang & Olufsen high-end audio speaks, but rather it was time to snap back into reality.

Being the gentlemanly driver I am, I immediately darted across 3 lanes of traffic without signalling and pulled over into some side road just in time to hear the dreaded screech of bare metal on road, which meant the tyre had really gone completely flat. Cursed, got out of car, took a look at the rear tyre and cursed again in many colorful languages reflecting the multiracial nature of our wonderful country. At first, I had thought it was a simple tyre puncture, with some nail or sharp screw being the culprit… then I saw the punctured tyre. Or what was left of it. Apparently one part of the tyre’s sidewall had burst completely.

Time for a live demo of the gaping hole that was left in said tyre: Make a fist with your hand. Good. Now, make as though you want to punch somebody (boss/ idiot co-worker works well). Good. You could fit your entire fist into the punctured hole! Goddamn! In all my 25 years of experiencing tyre flatouts, I have never seen such a tyre literally exploding, leaving behind bits & pieces of rubber in it’s wake. MPPP city council sweeper who was sweeping said road this morning: My apologies for making your job harder!

So, now that culprit was identified, it was time to change the damned tyre. Got the tyre jack out from the boot, and encountered the 2nd Mind-Bogging Problem Of The Day: Where the hell does the jack go under the car?? In case you’re wondering, no you don’t simply shove the jack under any part of the car and start jacking ~~off~~ up. Jack the wrong part and you’ll send the car crashing down or worst punch a hole through the soft underbelly and ruin your undercarriage. Each car has a pre-determined “jack point” on each side, usually located by distinctive grooves under the car door. However, my 10–year old car had some bodywork done some time ago and thus such grooves were no longer visible from the side. Cue more colorful expletives at this point. The shit had literally hit the fan.

So, I did the next best thing and called Dad who told me to “pick a spot that looks solid” and shove the jack there. Yes, my Dad can always be counted on when most needed. 10 minutes of grunting and the car begins to rise slowlyyyyyy inch by inch. All the while, I’m praying it doesn’t come crashing down onto my foot, thus ending my potentially illustrious football career (I don’t play football but I could have!).

10 minutes into the roadside drama, and I’m sweating like a pig under the midday sun. My shirt’s drenched and I’m considering stripping half-naked. Then again, that’s not such a good idea considering I’m right next to a major road and wouldn’t want to cause a major accident by people swerving away blinded by the sight before them. Next problem: loosening the tyre nuts. Now, if you’ve ever changed a tyre before, you’ll know it’s a major bitch loosening the 4 nuts that hold the tyre against the rest of the car. Brute strength is often needed and I’m not exactly Mr. Universe. Another 10 minutes of huffing before I contemplate calling AAM and having the AAM dudes change the tyre for me… that would be plain wussy. If you’re a girl OK-lah… understandable. Imagine a 25 year-old guy calling AAM for a freakin’ tyre change! Wussy, no? So, I draw on my hidden super-strength, curse a few times for good measure and give the wrench one last mighty pull. It’s budging! Don’t give up! PULL YOU FREAKIN’ WUSS! PULLLLL!!! UrrrrrrhhhhhHH!!! I come close to blacking out from exhaustion when it loosens! Woohoo!

One nut down, 3 more to go.

A grand total of 15 minutes pass before the damned tyre is changed, and I’m sitting on the kerb panting from exhaustion. How the bloody F1 teams change a tyre in less than 5 seconds I’ll never know. Dad arrives in the other car just in time to see me packing up the jack and heaving the punctured tyre back into the boot. We both head back to the nearest tyre shop to get a new tyre which sets me back $90.

Luckily I wasn’t speeding as I normally would have along that stretch, else I would have ended up meeting a premature end. Now wouldn’t that be sad. Who would entertain you with long-drawn stories on Mondays, eh?

Moral of the story: If you’re a girl with sizeable boobs and have a flat tyre, flaunt it best you can to get some strapping dude to stop and help you change the tyre while you sit comfortably in the car with the A/C running. Or you could just call AAM and do the latter anyway. Oh, and speeding kills.

Damn, it’s times like these you need a Beamer with run-flat tyres. Perhaps in the next life.

Think it’s time I get a new car. Shaun, this weekend you and I going to that damn Perodua showroom and booking our Myvis. Settle?

:)
J

A year ALREADY??!

2005-06-28T14:40:00.000+08:00

Holy crap… I almost forgot! (thanks Nieve for reminding me! much luv babe!) that this blog of mine turns a grand old ONE today! Err make that yesterday! Or was it the day before last? Anyway… ‘I’definitely turned One a couple of days ago. Jesus. How time flies eh. I remember back in the days when all I did was take a backseat when it came to blogging… preferring to read silently from the sidelines, commenting on the blogs of others occasionally and refusing to start one on my own, despite the nagging & pestering of close friends and online acquantainces. “Too lazy to update la” I said. “Nothing much to say one la” I added. “Kanneh you all think I so free one issit?” I cursed. I guess when push came to shove (and someone must’ve shoved real hard… Taurians are notorious for sheer stubborness), I finally trotted onto the blogging arena and thus this lil’ blog o’mine was born.

Over the course of the odd-year or so since I started this site, I’ve got to know so many new folks, who like me, love to read blogs and love to reach out and communicate with like-minded folks. In essence, this site has been a welcome distraction from work and provides a mental relief at the end of the day. It’s good to come home n fire up the PC, allow the brain to switch to Cruise Control mode, and just blog about anything and everything. I think the term for it is “mental masturbation”. And what a climax it’s been ;)

Looking back at all the good ol’ days, I smile to myself as I re-read some of the postings I made… from that great escapade to Redang, to the amazing Xmas I spent in Singapore with my family of cousins and the CNY celebrations back home, complete with fireworks. ‘Course there were many others… just too lazy to go dig them all up :)

So, please raise your glasses and drink to… the many many blogs that keep us all entertained throughout our pathetic meaningless existence, and the people behind ‘em that strive to keep ‘em as frequently updated as possible. And here’s the Post that Started It All.

All together now… Happy Birthday to…… Me! Where’s my birthday cake??! Damn I feel old.

:)
J

P-S: On reflection, I’ve often wondered who in the big bloody world out there actually takes the time to click on over to my site and read the crap I post every week. Apart from the regular folks (yes, I know who you are la!), Who Are You Folks? I’d sure like to know my readers better. Drop me a mail, add me to MSN or if you’re too shy-shy then just leave a comment here. At least lemme know you exist… I’m curious! And you know what killed the cat!