Happy New Year 2009

30 Dec 2008: Just a day to go where 2008 will end. Too many things happened to me throughout the year. Definitely couldn't avoid sadness and disappointment. But let's not to talk about those, I'm here to list down those great and happy moments in year 2008:

1. I've started blogging and have got to know bunch of funny and crazy people out here. Well, you should know who you are. :)

2. Went to Phuket and Krabi with a group of colleague and we had great fun there.

3. Gone up to Mount KK for the 2nd time. The 1st time was 7 years back. Obviously, it was tougher this time around comparing to the 1st attempt. Aging...what else can I blame on.

4. Joined the Turtle Rehabilitation Program organized by UTM. It wasn't as fun as expected, but I've gained a lot knowledge and experience through this program. I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to Prof Chan and all the staff.

5. Very first time participation on Walkathon event at Putrajaya. It was challenging and tiring, but the achievement was priceless.

6. Went down to Singapore and had a very fun and enjoyable trip with Jay, Martin, Steven, Lee and Kenny. You guys are fantastic.

7. Malacca trip. It is always great being together with Alu and Meg regardless of the location.

Above are some of the millions that I could recall for now. 2008 was a good year for me, I should say. How about yourself? Bought myself a watch as a reward for all the hard works done throughout 2008.

Finally, wish every one of you a happy new year 2009. May all your wishes come true in year 2009.

A loving trip to Historical city

27 - 28 DEC 2008: A beloved friend of mine (Alu) was back from UK for her yearly home-visiting. Therefore, Meg has planned for a 2D1N trip to Malacca since Alu misses our local food very much.

On the day itself, I woke up at 7am to pick them up from Cheras to meet Lee at Kajang. We had seafood noodle as breakfast in Cheras before departed to Lee's house, where we reached at around 10am. So 6 of us in 2 cars, drove all the way down South to Malacca. We met with another friend of us (Local Boy) in Malacca and went to Jonker Street for lunch. The traffic in Malacca town was very bad as it was a long weekend and holiday break for most of the people. And I did observe that most of the cars' plate number started with W or B. Damn, Selangor and KL people are just too free, aren't we? Moreover, the weather was terribly hot. I'm always wondering what kind of attraction does Malacca has that attracts so many tourist. Historical architectures? Food? Weather? Handy craft? Can you name me others?

My friends wanted to go for Malacca famous chicken rice ball as lunch, and the queue was horribly long even under the hot sun. Gosh, I'm gonna be a roasted chicken before I'm getting my turn, I was thinking. We queued for around 20 minutes (My skin was burnt) before we seated and served with food. The chicken rice served was pretty normal that we could always get a better serving in KL. And the rice ball looked smaller compared to my last visit. After the meal where most of us were so full, we decided to walk around Jonker Street. Walked down the street, we took quite a lot of light snacks such as Chendol, Machi, Kuih Nyonya, Satay Babi etc. and those foods were really nice I should say.

Checked in to our Hotel (Baba House) which is located next to Jonker Street. Meg done the reservation earlier last few weeks, where this hotel was actually her 2nd choice as the 1st hotel was full. Walked into the lobby, the hotel looked nicely decorated in Baba and Nyoya style. All the furniture and decors matched very well with the theme presented. However, the service given by reception and housekeeping wasn't that pleasant. The 3 rooms reserved weren't ready though we checked in at 4pm. Moreover, the room's condition wasn't as good as shown in their website and the check-out process took ages to complete.

As we've been out since early morning, we decided to take a short nap before our dinner at 7pm. Woke up at 6pm to get myself ready for the evening session where we went for stay celup and fried oyster. As usual, we enjoyed the food very much as these are the famous food in Malacca. After the dinner, Local Boy brought us to the Portuguese Settlement to enjoy the sight-seeing of Christmas decors. The place was packed and those houses were very nicely decorated with lots of creative colorful lightings. And our Prime Minister was there as well for speech and visiting. All of us were very tired that we went back to hotel for rest at 1am.



Woke up at 8:30am the next morning for our breakfast served by hotel. It was a very simple breakfast of breads, scramble egg and coffee/tea. The portion was small that most of us couldn't even felt the food inside our stomach after taken it. Therefore, we went for 2nd round of breakfast at Jonker Street where we took our favourite Asam Laksa. Always love the Asam Laksa here.

Drove back to KL after checked out from hotel so that we could have enough rest before attending a wedding dinner of our course mate at Bankers Club. It was a fun trip with a lot of eating though Malacca itself wasn't a fantastic choice of place considering the bad traffic and hot weather. :)

Roars in Singapore

18/19 DEC 2008: Took LRT from Sungai Besi to Pudu Raya for our 11:50pm bus to Singapore. It has been a year since the last time I took Star LRT, where it just took me 20 minutes from Sungai Besi to Plaza Rakyat; which is pretty fast from my point of view. Talking about the condition of the LRT itself, it didn't really change much in term of cleanliness and comfortable. But I just don't like the slippery metal seats. Anyway, the bus was punctual to depart sharply at 11:50pm where we reached Singapore Custom at 4am. The total of 4 hours journey from KL to Singapore was quite fast that I wasn't sure what the speed was as I was sleeping along the way. Just like that, I entered Singapore with a warm greeting from the custom officer. Singaporean is kind of friendly I was thinking.

Continued our bus journey till the last stop at Lavender where we took MRT from Lavender to Ang Mo Kio, the place where we stayed for the next 3 days. Steven was so nice to offer us a stay at his sister's house where I was deeply touched by his offer. However, I had an unpleasant experience with the MRT counter officer where he was so impatient with my questions that started to give me a bad impression of the people here in the neighborhood country. Upon reached Ang Mo Kio, we took an early breakfast at nearby food court. We took asam laksa recommended by Steven, where it was so tasty at a reasonable price tag of SGD3. Food in Singapore is much cheaper than Malaysia (If you don't convert the currency). Since we have travelled since the night before, we took a nap until 11am before we went for lunch and shopping around City Hall. After few hours of walk, we went to Chinatown to meet with Martin, Lee and Kenny for dinner. We had our dinner at nearby food court (forgotten the place's name) where they ordered quite a lot of famous local food for us to try. I love the fried prawn mee here. After the dinner, we went to a nearby pub for some drinks before headed back home to hit the sack at 11pm.



20 DEC 2008: Woke up at 1oam for breakfast. This time around, I took prawn mee that it was a bit tasteless for my preference. Rested and took a shower before started our journey of the day to Orchard. Met-up with our friends (Lee and Kenny) for lunch at Food Republic where I took beef noodle that turned out pretty tasty. The beef was tender and the sauce was nice. Nothing much we could do for rest of the day apart from shopping as Ochard is a heaven for shoppers. But I bought nothing, hehe. Passed by LV and saw a long queue in front of the boutique. Wow, bet economy wasn’t that bad now I was thinking. We took a short break for hi-tea at a coffee house in front of California Fitness. All of us showed our tired faces, which was kind of cute. Had a long conversation about how health conscious the local people are, while looking at those gym-fit men and women walking in and out of the gym. From the obversation done, I came out with a conclusion that most of the local people have fairer skin color compared with us, though the country itself is just separated by a bridge down Peninsular Malaysia. Headed to Tanjong Pagar for dinner and clubbing until 3am, where we took a taxi back to Ang Mo kia that cost us SGD15. Not too bad I supposed.

21 DEC 2008: It was our last day in Singapore. As all of us slept late the night before, we woke up at 11am for brunch at Ang Mo Kio. I had Mee Siam, which was pretty nice. We walked around AMK Plaza for final shopping. Kenny was so nice to join us after his lunch with family. Packed our stuff and headed to Lavender at 7pm. We were very glad and happy as Martin and Kenny had accompanied us for whole day. We took Thai food as dinner before we sent Martin and Kenny off as we didn't want them to wait until 11:30pm for our bus. Moreover, it was windy that we afraid it might rain. It was sad to say goodbye that we hugged each other. I really hope to see and catch up with them again in a short future.

Martin, Lee and Kenny: Thanks a lot for the hospitality offered and we do appreciate every moment of togetherness with you all.

Visit Singapore 2008

18 DEC 2008: Still remembered the last time I went down to Singapore was December 2007 for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, and it was already year ago. Well, another year older for me. Anyhow, I didn't participate in this year’s Marathon as the schedule was too close with the Putrajaya Walkathon. Will try to make it next year, I promise. :)

Today is the day where I will go down for 3D2N trip with the purpose of friends visiting, walk-around and dancing perhaps (follow Twilight’s footstep, hehe). Hopefully, it will be an enjoyable trip this time around. However, I’m kind of worry about the huge congestion at the new Sultan Iskandar CIQ complex, as seen on newspaper. Damn...I just hate human traffic.



See you guys around 3 days later. :)

1st Putrajaya 12-hours Walkathon

13 – 14 DEC 2008: It was a great and meaningful experience for me that I’ve joined the 1st Putrajaya 12-hours Walkathon. I’ve started my training since few weeks back in order to prepare myself for this event. And for the past few days, I was kind of nervous and worried that I couldn’t complete the 24 km limit, as this would be my very 1st walkathon event.

On the day itself, we reached pretty early to Dataran Putrajaya so that we would have enough time to collect our goodies bag and setup our tents. Putrajaya is a very nice place with plenty of wonderfully designed and built bridges and buildings. More than 500 participants had participated in the event where our team consisted of 10 very close friends of mine. For men-open category, we have to complete 24 km within 12 hours to receive the medal. While for women-category, the limit was 18 km.



The walkathon started punctually at 8pm where I took almost 6 hours to complete 24 km with some breaks in between. I felt pretty relax for the 1st 10 km where I walked averagely 11 minutes per km. Took a 15 minutes break after completed 14km for a light dinner cum supper. I could felt the muscle-ache after the short break where the last 10km thereafter was a terrible and painful experience, where it was totally a different experience compared with marathon. I took a short nap at 5am after completed my 25th km and woke up an hour later for another 1 km, where my total distance was 26 km.

It was great that all of us had successfully completed the walk and received our medals. Anyhow, what made us happier was the support given by some other close friends. Thanks a lot to Kia Liang & wife, Ding and Meia who paid us a visit at the middle of night. A small action done that meant a lot for every one of us, especially when we were so tired and de-motivated. It touched deeply, at least for me. The walkathon was officially over at 8am (14th) where the prize-giving ceremony was conducted at 8:30am. And for the lucky draw, I almost got the grand prize as the winner was A036 while my number was A037.



The organizer has done a good job in planning and organizing the whole event. Simple food such as fried mihun, fried rice, nuggets, sausages etc. were served along the event with some remote toilets located at various locations around the route. However, the weather was bad with some rains at the middle of night where we felt glad that we had our tent ready.

I’m still feeling tired and sleepy now though. Guess it will take some time for full recovery. And for all my team mates, I love every one of you and you all are always the best!!!

Shop more to boost economy growth?

11 DEC 2008: It was a public holiday for Selangor to celebrate our Sultan's birthday. Therefore, I went to Mid Valley with family with the main purpose to exchange some SGD for my trip down to Singapore next weekend. We reached there at 11am and the parking spaces were almost full. I was in luck today that could get my car parked within 10 minutes.

The crowd was as expected since it was a holiday where long queue was seen everywhere from boutiques to restaurants. Looked at those shoppers with paper bags from branded boutiques, I was wondering how bad the economy could be nowadays. MNG was terribly packed with their "Up to 50%" sales (Hehe, my sisters went for it), G2000 was pretty quiet, ZARA has no sales going on...sales everywhere!!!

Anyway, I think Mid Valley has done a great job on Christmas decors that the Center Court was nicely decorated with some huge Christmas trees with a stage surrounded by artificial animals, which has became a popular spot for photograph. We were there for almost a whole day until 4pm. A tiring day it was.



After some noon-nap, I joined few close friends for dinner at Seri Petaling to discuss on preparation for the 12-hours walkathon. It's just 2 days to go and I'm a little bit nervous now. Really hope it'll be a fun and memorable experience.

2D1N Kukup trip

7 DEC 2008: Woke up at 5:30am for breakfast with family and waited for the bus to arrive at 7am. It was such a pain to get my butt up at this hour. The bus was quite punctual to arrive 10 minutes after 7, where we started our journey down to the south. As we were the last pick-up point that most of the front seats have been occupied, I took a seat at the back with a younger cousin of mine.

We reached the 1st destination at around 11am, which was a temple located in Batu Pahat. I’ve heard a lot about this place from my relatives, where there's a myth about those fishes in the temple that a single touch on them will give you a good luck. Some of my aunties do hit 4D after their previous trip here. The very 1st impression when I saw the pond was that…such a small artificial pond it is, while lot of people laid themselves around the pond just to touch those fishes. Some simple instructions when you happen to go there someday; Just lay down, put you hand into the water and waiting for those fishes to swim through your fingers, and wait for the good luck to come. Interesting enough? You might lost one of your finger, but who cares as you might win millions ringgit later. It was silly but we had a lot of fun and laughter. Talking about the temple itself, it was nicely built with some colorful statues of gods located around the temples.



After taken our lunch, we proceeded to the 2nd destination that was another temple (again!!!). I have no idea what to talk about this temple as I’m not so religious. I did nothing here other than snapped around with my camera.



After stucked inside the bus for 10 hours, we finally reached Kukup at around 5pm. I could felt the pain all over my body, from my back to ass, down to my feet. I immediately smelt the “fresh” air from the fishing village nearby the minute stepped my feet on the ground. We proceeded to a light dinner at one of the restaurant as there would be another round of seafood BBQ at 8pm. Nothing could be done at night time here apart from some mahjong and karaoke while I played with PSP most of the time.

8 DEC 2008: Woke up at 6:30am for breakfast at 7am, as we supposed to have a tour to nearby fish ponds. However, the tour was cancelled due to the heavy rain since the night before. It was bad for us as there were no other entertainments around. Therefore, we slowly took our long-hours breakfast and packed our stuff before checked out at 10am. Along the way back, we had a few stops at Malacca (lunch) and Seremban (dinner) where we finally reached home at 9pm. Home sweet home...

Bye Bye KL

6 DEC 2008: I was a bit tired after a whole day of babysitting my nephew. We have done some shopping, car test-drive, cycling, eating and couldn't miss sleeping as well. A very enjoyable day I should say.

By the way, I'll be leaving the town tomorrow early morning down to Johor for family trip. It's a 2D1N trip to Kukup Island since Monday is a public holiday. Damn, should put the blame on my bad geographic knowledge that I have never heard of this place before . For those of you who been to this place before, any idea where is it and how great is this place?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Dinner and drinking sessions with Bloggers

4 DEC 2008: Met up with Anton and sbanboy for dinner at one of the Shabu-shabu restaurant in Bandar Puteri. Felt sorry as I was late by 15 minutes due to the unexpected traffic (Hehe, normal excuse for Malaysian I guess). We quickly ordered some foods as all of us were hungry till can finish a whole lamb. The food served was fine but I like that Kimchi soup the most (with additional cost of course). Proceeded to nearby Station 1 for another round of drink after dinner.

A lot conversations happened throughout the night and I had wonderful time being with both of them. However, one bad thing about them that made myself felt unknowledgeable where they had so much thoughts and opinions on various subjects while I was keeping my mouth shut most of the time. Hope I didn't bore them. But hey, don't we always learn from the best? And yes, I did learn something from our conversations. Thanks man.

Here are some of the photos taken by sbanboy as he brought his compact camera along. Well, he has got a good skill that most of the photos of mine turned out pretty slim and nice. Nice job man.

PS: Not dare to post those photos of them as they might kill me.

Nephew 4th Birthday Celebration

2 DEC 2008: Today was a special day for my whole family as we've celebrated my nephew's 4th birthday at nearby restaurant. As the dinner started at 7:30pm, I still managed to have a short jog after work, as part of training for the 12 Hours Walkathon at Putrajaya next week. Wish me luck!!

The dinner was lovely that my brother-in-law ordered quite a lot dishes that were more than enough for 12 of us. My nephew was so happy throughout the night and so do I.

Happy Birthday my dear!!!

Snapped some photos with my lovely nephew and niece before the dinner.

Understanding subconscious and body language

1 DEC 2008: Time really flies that we are in the last month of 2008. As a preparation for my next year's income tax, I bought 2 books from MPH last week as I've got a RM100 voucher during my company dinner last June. Anyway, one of the book is about body language and another one is a about dreams. Well, don't get me wrong that I ain't a day dreamer (Although sometimes I did), but it happens sometimes that I have some weird dreams, which I really wish to know what do those dreams meant to be. Sounded a bit silly but some people does believe that dream is actually a kind of communication between our subconscious and reality. I couldn't explain too much here as I'm just reaching page 11 of the book.

Once I've mastered this knowledge, perhaps I could provide FOC dream interpretation service for every one of you. What an ambitious me.



I went out with my elder brother after work to buy a bicycle as a birthday gift for my nephew. We've celebrated his birthday together for the past 3 years and tomorrow will be 4th. I really hope that we could keep this going every year, and nothing happier than seeing him grows up day by day.

My precious, uncle really loves you so much.

Thing turns out better if we less expecting it to be?

30 NOV 2008: It was a lovely Sunday where I've spent another whole day with family. I do noticed that I've been spending less time with family lately especially on weekend due to some personal stuff, and I do felt sorry about it. Being together with them during these 2 days made me realized how important are they to me, and how much joy I've been missing for the past few weeks. Guess I'm another family man...:)

Anyway, we went to A Yat Abalone restaurant in Avenue K for dim sum breakfast. Frankly speaking, I didn't really expect the dim sum to be good as dim sum isn't their specialty by looking at the restaurant's name itself. However, it turned out to be so good that dim sum was fantastic and fresh with good services given by the waitress. Hence, I couldn't help but wonder whether thing normally turns out better if we less expecting it to be? There were times where I had very bad disappointments when I put too much expectation on something that ended with disasters. But a friend of mine used to tell me, life without expectation is like a sea without wave...we ain't go anywhere.

Anyhow, the breakfast cost us a bomb, but it was priceless to be together with someone we love.



We hopped over to KLCC after the breakfast for some foot exercises. There's a gigantic nicely decorated Christmas tree at the Center Court of KLCC, which has attracted huge amount of tourists for photography. And I did take some photos for sure. This is the biggest Christmas tree I've seen so far for this year. Do you know anywhere with bigger Christmas tree?

Gloria VS Alex

29 Nov 2008: I have no idea what I've been busy with for the past whole week until I have no time to update my blog. I tried to recall, but nothing significant happened. Yet another week has just gone. Early Saturday morning, I went to 1U for shopping with family after our breakfast at Cheras. Spent almost a whole day there (10am - 4pm) but end up bought nothing. Initially I thought the so called Malaysia Year-End sales were supposed to start today, but I couldn't see much sales going on. What a disappointment I should say.



Finally I've got a full collection of Madagascar headgears. I’ve been gone through mountains and rivers to get the last 2 headgears. The stories started with Alex that on the last selling day of the headgear (26 Nov), I went for lunch with colleague at nearby McD purposely to get it. But the journey ended up with disappointment that the headgear was sold out. It is fine I was thinking as I will go PJ at the end of the day that I can try my luck again.

So we went to McD in SS2 after dinner but yet another disappointment happened that it was sold out as well. Damn, is it really that tough to get this Alex? With such a sorrow that I probably wouldn’t have a full collections, I suddenly saw someone look-alike Mr. Anton. Therefore I dropped him a call to verify it but ended up it was another mistake. I shared with him about my poor situation that he said will try to get it for me around his area, and he really did get it. Really thankful to Mr. Anton for his help, or else I couldn't have such a camwhoring opportunity with these Madagascar headgears again...Hehe.

3D2N Pusing/Ipoh Trip

21 Nov 2008: I worked from home today as I knew that I have to drive off from home at 4pm. I was the driver of this trip accompanied by 3 other passengers. We started our journey to the North at around 5pm from Kota Damansara and reached Pusing at around 8pm with a stop in between for toilet and snacks. After several calls with the groom and some wrong turnings around Ipoh, we finally reached Pusing. We waited by the road side where groom drove out to guide us to his house. Lovely and quiet housing area it was. Bachelor night was nice with a lot of relatives (Well, really a LOT) and good food but most importantly was the company itself. Groom has rented a double-storey house nearby specifically for us, which was a very clean and comfortable house.

22 Nov 2008: Woke up at 9am for simple breakfast at groom's house. Since they didn't serve coffee, we drove out for another round of drink and some morning look-around. The town was totally different from the night before, with a lot stalls and coffee shops operating at daytime. Started our journey to bride's house at 11am where it took us almost 4o minutes of drive. As usual, played some games prepared that weren't tough enough for us, I should say. As we supposed to follow the groom back to his house, but we didn't that we drove to Ipoh old town for white coffee and chee cheong fun. I just love the food in Ipoh. Will definitely come back again someday.

Went back to Pusing at 4pm and had some rest before drove out to the restaurant at 6:30pm. Reached the restaurant at 7pm and found out that most of the guests were there. Seems that people in small town has better punctuality than those living in city. I was very hungry, but still I've taken a opportunity to snap some photos around. Dinner officially started at 8pm and the foods served were simple but tasted very good.

It was a wedding reception that supposingly groom should've got drunk, but he didn't. Hence, we proceeded with a 2nd round of drink at groom's house after dinner until 2am. All of us were happy finally as we’ve finished all 11 bottles of brandy and seeing a drunken groom.

23 Nov 2008: Woke up pretty late (9am) as we stayed until pretty late the night before. We went to Ipoh town for their famous dim sum breakfast and apparently Ipoh bean sprouts/chicken an hour later after dim sum. Drove back to KL with a heavy stomach and reached home at 3pm.

Basically, it was a tiring but happy 3D2N trip. I really enjoyed the company of those close friends as we could rarely get a time for outing all-together. Besides, we’ve got to know some new friends who are so fantastic and playful. Hope to catch up with them again someday in KL.

Anyhow, how was your weekend? Hope you had a wonderful weekend. :)

Smoking habits in Czech Republic

20 Nov 2008: My Company has a development center in Prague, Czech Republic where some of my colleagues were so lucky enough to be sent there for training. While some of them (Czech) were here as well (My lady boss was here early of the year and we had a wonderful week together). From my observation, most of them are smokers where it wasn’t a surprise for me as smokers are just everywhere. I believe you can simply find one by looking around you. You can even smell or kiss them (If they are good looking) to verify it, just if you want to go further.

Speaking about Prague, I’ve got a gift from Mr. D who was back from Prague few weeks ago. Guess what, it’s a match-box containing matches of course (What else to put inside there? No more lizard please). Nothing spectacular about the match-box but I’ve received quite a similar thing from another colleague of mine (Ms. E) a year back. I couldn’t help but wonder whether match-box is the best gift they could ever get from the country itself. I’ve been looking around the Internet to justify this and found out that around 30-40% of adult there are smokers and smoking caused a total of 18,000 deaths in a year. Aw, this could be a very sad statistic at least for me though I’m not the citizen of the country itself. The curious me was wondering whether their government has done some GOOD actions to reduce the amount of smokers. Maybe they can learn from us by keep increasing the price of cigarettes and start printing some photos and warning on the box itself. Can anyone tell me whether this helps? Looked around again, yet I still saw some peoples smoking out there.

Time really flies that it’s Thursday today, without much realizing it. I’ll be heading to Ipoh tomorrow late noon. Guess I won’t have time to update this over the next few days. I’m gonna miss every one of you and hell ya, I will snap some photos there to be shared here. Take care and enjoy your weekend!!!

Can a car hit a flying bird?

19 Nov 2008: You know what, I always envy of bird as they can fly around so freely around the sky without having to go through any accident unless there's an air crash with airplane that could rarely happens. Not until today that my team mate came to office with a shoe box on her hand. As she appeared out of sudden beside of me with that box and asked me to guess what was inside there, I was seriously kind of freaked out as I worried it was a lizard in there (Yeah, I just don't really like lizard). Apparently, it was a bird, which was hit by her car. Wow, how fast she drove to hit this flying bird I was thinking. Guys, never ever look down on those lady drivers. :)

Anyway, that was really kind-hearted of her to bring the bird back. The bird looked so calm that one of his leg was broken. My team mate planned to bring him for medical check-up. She is such a lovely lady I was thinking. The funny thing was that they left a note on top of the box during lunch time that reads "DO NOT OPEN!! INJURED BIRD INSIDE", which I've made a good laugh on it.

Considering that the bird might need some loves, and since I have lots to offer...please accept a kiss from this little brother.

Coffee drinking with Alex, Marty, Melman & Gloria

15 Nov 2008: Received a call from Mr. I while driving back home to meet up at McD, where I said yes without think twice. Since the McD is located nearby my house, I reached earlier and got myself a cup of coffee (Caffeine at 11pm, not bad huh). A cup of black coffee (with 2 teaspoons of sugar and without creamer) was enough to make me feel so good. What made me happier was that I've got a company from Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria.

Mr. I arrived after 15 minutes and gave me this red bomb. Therefore, I have to drive up to Ipoh next weekend for the wedding dinner. Any recommendation for food and "fun" in Ipoh?

Being a silly Marty

13 Nov 2008: Went for lunch at Alamanda with colleagues as one of them wanted to buy the Madagascar headgear for her daughter (She wants to collect 4 of them). Since they started selling headgear of new character (Marty) today, I therefore bought one as well.

Marty, the funny zebra in Madagascar. In the first movie, Marty was the one who suggested them to go back to the wild that city wasn't their real home. A real silly him to come out with such idea but I do admire him a lot. How many of us really dare to make such dramatic changes and willing to bear all the consequences? Being in the place that you hardly know whether you can survive is definitely a huge challenge. Would you take such challenges in your life?

James Bond : Next Generation

Just a little quiz here:

Who is the next generation of James Bond?

Tips:

1) He has sexy eyes, just like his father does.
2) He enjoys being naked too.
3) He doesn't like alcoholic drinks.

The answer is:



He might be too old (58 yrs old) as the son of James Bond. Perhaps father?

Santa Claus is coming to town

8 Nov 2008: Drove to Pandan Indah for spicy pan mee with Meg and proceeded to Pavilion after lunch (Sounded like I'm a frequent visitor there). Without any motive, we just walked around and surprisingly that we saw some human statues in front of Tangs. It had attracted quite a lot shoppers and even caused some human traffic. I was thinking that it's not an easy task to attract customers nowadays that they have to do use such a marketing strategy. However, those models are very good looking bunch of peoples :).

Before our stomach was able to digest the lunch taken, we went to Izzi for dinner where we've ordered quite a lot of food that cost us RM60++. I wasn’t felt so good during the dinner as I could felt a minor sore within my throat, which I normally ignore it until it gets worse.



9 Nov 2008: As expected, my sore throat is getting worse after a night of sleep. On top of that, I’m having flu and cough. Ah...after so many frequent but short visits of my best friend (flu), I think he's planning to stay longer this time around. Anyway, I went to a nearby Jusco with family for some groceries shopping and saw some Christmas decorations around the mall. Even though I'm not Christian, I do like these kind of Christmas decorations very much especially the Christmas tree...love the colors.

I and a group of my friends have an annual tradition to go for a dinner together during Christmas Eve, which had never failed for the past few years. As far as I'm remembered, 2005 and 2006 were at The Ship (Uptown) while last year was at Tony Romas (The Curve). The dinner normally cost us a bomb but we're trying to keep this tradition every year and hopefully for years to come. It's always not easy to get some friends that we could get along very well with and I'm very glad that I'm having few of them.



P/S: By the time writing this blog entry, I was stuffing my running nose with some tissue papers so that I wouldn't wet the floor. Hopefully after a nice sleep, it will get better.

I Like to Move It, Move It

7 NOV 2008: After 2 days of compassionate leave, today was my first day back to office. Everything remain unchanged...my cube, desktop pc, coffee cup etc still located at the place where they used to be. It was another usual "lazy" Friday where I went off a little earlier than usual from office heading to Loreal warehouse sales at Jaya33. The crowd wasn't as bad as expected that I still managed to walk for few rounds and bought some skin care products. They have quite a number of brands there included Biotherm, Lancome etc. and the products sold are kind of cheap comparing with normal price. We (My sister and I) didn't spend too much time there in order to avoid heavy traffic on the way back home.



After taken shower, I went for dinner with dad and sister at McD. It has been so long since the last time we had fast food together as my dad isn't a fast food person. The childish me bought a Madagascar headgear (It's Melman until 12th Nov) for RM5.90 and had a wonderful self-enjoyable moment with it (Meg called this camwhoring..hehe).

She gave up finally...

4 NOV 2008: After years of fighting with her sickness, my grandma finally gave up this morning. She has left us permanently, but every part of her will remain in our memories forever.

And I noticed that I don't have any photo taken together with her alone :(

New haircut and candid shots with nephew & niece

3 Nov 2008: Drove all the way from Cyberjaya to Kuchai Lama for my monthly haircut. This is the outcome after an hour in the hair salon. What do you think?

My lovely nephew and niece were around when I came back home after the haircut. Therefore, I just took a quick dinner and snapped some candid shots with them. My nephew is always that energetic and playful and his sister is following in his footsteps :). Guess I won't be able to handle both of them together in the near future.

Wedding Marathon

1 Nov 2008: I’ve received 5 wedding invitations for the month of November till January 2009, where the very 1st of them was held on last weekend. No more unexpected invitation for me hopefully. Speaking about the wedding ceremony last weekend, the groom is my ex-colleague cum close buddy of mine. He is the youngest among few of us where we used to tease him a lot, as he was so desperate of getting a girl friend. And now, he’s the one who tied the knot earliest among us that I’m really proud and happy for him.

Well, never ever ask when would be my turn as this could be the toughest question that I’ve never thought of. Sometimes, I just think that I’m not the marriage type of person…I’m just too used to be single.

As I was one of the chosen “Heng Tai (Brothers)”, I woke up at 6am as I've to reach the groom’s house in Kota Kemuning at 7:30am for some preparations and breakfast. Pink was the theme where all of us have to dress in “PINK” (I felt like a pink panther). At 8:30am sharp, we drove off from his house to USJ to pick up the bride. Couldn’t avoid some games prepared by those sisters that involved some push up, tasty food and drink, singing etc. Generally, it wasn’t so tough but fun. Thanks Angie and Lai for their kindness of not gave us a tough time. Back to groom’s house for some tea-drinking ceremony before we called off for the day at around 2pm.



While on my way back home, I received a SMS from Meg asking for dinner at Sunway Pyramid. I accepted her invitation where I joined her and Mr. Lee for dinner at Italiannes Sunway Pyramid right after I went back home for shower. Always enjoy their company.

2 Nov 2008: It was time for the wedding dinner. In order to save petrol and tol fare, we've decided to car pool to the Subang Imperial China restaurant. Therefore, I drove to Chak's house with my dress-up after taken 2 hours of noon-nap (Went for Terry Fox run ealier in the morning). We reached the restaurant at 6pm to help on some preparation before the dinner started at 8:20pm. It was an 8-course dinner set where the food was just average. However, it was fine for me as I was walking around most of the time for “Yam Seng (Toast)” with his friends and relatives. Guess that’s the purpose of being a “Heng Tai” to make sure the groom won’t get drunk before the dinner ends. It took me around 5 hours in the restaurant itself before we had our brotherhood’s toast with the groom and back home to hit the sack.

However, it’s kind of bothering me on the real purpose of wedding dinner nowadays. Would it be a sharing of joy and happiness? Or is it just a ceremony to show the engagement? And does it really necessary?

Anyway, I’m truly wishing YF and Eunice a happily ever after married life. You really made it my buddy. :)

Terry Fox Run 2008

2 Nov 2008: This is a once a year event where I have to get my ass off the bed at 5:30am. After done with all those morning routines, I drove all the way to Lake Garden where I have picked up my buddies at Bandar Kinrara and Taman Desa along the way. Looking out through my car’s window, this is a lovely morning I was thinking. I can feel the chilling fresh air running through my face, making me sneeze occasionally. I couldn’t remember clearly the last time I woke up and drove out at this kind of hour, perhaps was 5 months back during the Cameron trip?

Due to the smooth traffic, we reached Lake Garden 5 minutes before 7am. However, guess it wasn’t early enough that the nearest car park was already full. This gave us no choice but to go for 2nd nearest car park where we have to walk for around 1km before reaching the starting point. Perhaps we were kind of too early that the crowd wasn’t there yet. While waiting for some other friend to reach, we took our breakfast as banana and mineral water were provided. Apparently, the place started to fill up with fellow participants at 8am++. The host of the event was Yasmin Yusoff where she has given some speech and led the warm up exercise before the run started at 9:15am.



It was a fun walk and run of 3.5km where I’ve started with walk for the first few hundred meters due to heavy human traffic. It took me less than 30 minutes to finish the run before I could enjoy some free food again where I’ve taken some muffins, curry puff, and Milo this time around. I felt good every time I finished a run that I could feel myself a few kilograms lighter. Unfortunately, my group of friends is so into food that they’ll normally go for heavy meal after the run. It takes less than an hour to wash away all the effort, perhaps gaining more than that. Maybe I shouldn’t join them for food next time around, should I? But good food, how could I resist it?

Let's run with Terry Fox

29 Oct 2008: Finally, I've got the Terry Fox Run 2008 shirt today. I was so worried previously that I couldn't get the shirt before the run this coming Sunday. I know that the shirt is available for purchase on the spot, but you know, just to be safe that I have the right size for the shirt. Many thanks to Janice for getting me the shirt and not forgotten the guy who sent over the shirt to our office (Too bad that I've forgotten his name). I love this shirt the first time I saw it. It's nicely designed and the colours used are bright and sharp. Well done to the designer!!

A nice shirt without a gorgeous and hunky model is just like a nasi lemak without sambal, it's just imperfect. When I was so busy looking around for the perfect model, this hot little cupid flew down from heaven. And by looking at his eyes, I knew he is the one that I was looking for. Doesn't he look fabulous here with the shirt?

For those that will join the Terry Fox run this coming Sunday, hope to see you all there. Just drop by and say hi to me if you see me around. :)

Hurt, is because you care...

28 Oct 2008: Weather was so nice today comparing to last week, where it was raining almost everyday. I spent 8 hours in office working on my own stuff peacefully without interruption from anyone. The feeling was awesome but kind of lonely some of the time as all my close colleagues were on time-off (Yeah, most of them are Indian).And I’m happy of myself that I’m still able to keep on with my jogging routine nowadays. Snapped this photo after my jog:


I’m feeling good and relax to see such a lovely sunset

While I was checking some emails and thinking about what to blog, I’ve been told by my dad that my grandma’s health is getting worse nowadays. She’s 80++ years old now and I think perhaps it would be a relief for her to leave in peace now rather than keep on fighting with the sickness. It’s hurt deeply seeing her in such a condition.

Hence, I couldn’t help but wondering…what would I be at that age? Can I even survive until 80? Perhaps not I think. Life is just too short for us to keep on waiting for the next thing to happen. Therefore, appreciate everyone around you and let go those that didn’t appreciate who we are.

Still the same Pavilion KL

27 Oct 2008 : It was 2 weeks back since the last time I went to Pavilion KL. I had a wonderful time with Meg and Mr Lee that day, as I recalled. So, what has changed after 2 weeks? Nothing much as I've noticed. Still the same Pavilion with lot of luxury boutiques around, and this place is always packed with human being. Had a simple lunch at food court to fill up my empty stomach where I've taken porridge (Gosh, I think I was addicted to it...all because of Mr Lee who introduced this to me 2 weeks back). I’ve done some shopping at Tangs that I've bought a new shirt for upcoming best friend’s wedding. Yeah...I bought a shirt again!!! Hello...70% discount, how could I resist it?

Since I don't think there's other stuff that I can afford to buy there in Pavilion, I decided to catch up a movie (Bangkok Dangerous). What's so dangerous about Bangkok? Perhaps the director should consider our country if he's planning for a sequel...Malaysia Dangerous, which I believe would fit better by looking at our rising criminal rates and political issues.

Nothing to be surprise about while walking around here apart from a small painting booth located nearby Marc Jacobs. I was pretty attracted to the painting as I do like painting very much. Believe it or not, I used to be good in drawing and painting when I was young that I believe it was a natural talent. But I think some talents are tend to fade out when you didn't polish it, even though it's gifted by god.

A relaxing weekend before Deepavali

24 Oct 2008 : It's always nice to meet and chat with a bunch of peoples who have been missing in your life for quite some time. I was invited to my ex-company open house for the Hari Raya, where I had a chance to meet with some ex-colleague that I used to see everyday back on year 2003-2005. Sharing some update among ourselves, and recall back some good/bad memories/experiences while being in the company, such as the unforgettable Bangladesh trip, company's financial issue etc, that makes me really proud of those who are still surviving there until now. You guys are the real man!!! And I'm glad that I was still invited though I've left the company for 3 years. This makes me wondering, how many of you still keeping a good relationship with your ex-boss without any monetary benefit involved?

It was a rainy night that I drove all the way from Cyberjaya to Shah Alam after work, but fortunately that I still able to reach on-time as I was using NKVE highway (of course I have to pay for the expensive tol fare). I’ve snapped some photos when I was waiting inside the car due to heavy rain.



25 OCT 2008 : Still able to wake up early in the morning for breakfast with dad. This time around I had a fried kuey tiew with coffee. Not too bad I think if I could keep this breakfast thingy as a routine for everyday Saturday’s morning (Provided I don't overslept). I was kind of attracted to entertainment news that talks about the sexiness among celebrities. And Hsu Qi was selected as a winner of sexiest lips over Angelina Jolie. Well, perhaps you might have a doubt on their judgment though I still prefer Mrs Pitt than our sexy Asian babe. How do you actually define sexiness? Would it be a feeling by its own (Differ from every individual) or do we have a standard measurement for sexiness?

I brought my nephew to a nearby shopping mall that I wanted to spend some quality time with him as I've not seen him for the past 2 weeks. He has now started wearing cap and kind of felt like he has grown taller. How many other things has changed for the past 2 weeks, I was thinking.

26 Oct 2008 : Sunday is always a family day for me. Despite of any emergency, I always try to keep this day for my family. We went for a simple breakfast early in the morning followed by some shopping at a shopping mall. The outing ended at 3pm that I still managed to get a short nap until 6pm before we went out for dinner. It was another heavy dinner that we've ordered 5 dishes, which most of them are seafood!!! I just love seafood so much, especially crab.

It was a lovely weekend after all. And tomorrow would be Deepavali...wishing all my Indian friends a Happy Deepavali!!! Don't forget to invite me for your open house. :)

The rainbow's gold

It was another rainy day but fortunately the rain came after I finished my jog. Traffic wasn't bad along the way back. Indeed I received a little surprise that I saw a rainbow while I was driving back home. Can hardly recall the last time I saw it. It was a definite beauty, like a ray of colourful light from heaven.



When I was a kid, I used to believe that there's a pot of gold with every rainbow where the place itself is unreachable by an ordinary person like me...unless I can fly. As time goes by, this kind of belief will eventually go out of our mind. And I was wondering, is it why we seem to have less happiness now? Do we lose our happiness when we lost our belief?

Smell of South Africa

A colleague of mine, Ms J was back from South Africa yesterday that today was her 1st day of work after the trip. She spent 3 weeks travelling around the country, and I was expecting a lot interesting and kinky stories from her to share with, but unfortunately she has disappointed me with her 5 minutes stories? Well, perhaps she was too tired or she left her brain with some gorgeous guys in South Africa. Anyway, I'm kind of jealous with Ms J sometimes that she has travelled to a lot places that I've never thought of going before...Nepal, South Africa...and her next target is India. GOOD LUCK Ms J!!!



This is the key chain given by Ms J that she bought from South Africa. Hopefully it’s not made in China. :)

Speaking about souvenirs, I do like key chain very much especially those with special statue or symbol representing the country of origin.






It has been a relaxing day for me that I've decided to go for another round of jogging after work. This would be the 2nd for the week, hopefully I can keep this routine for months to come so that I can cut off some weight...I'm out of shape now!!! The weather wasn't perfect with high possibility of raining but thank god it didn't. Perhaps it's final quarter of the year that rain has been pouring non-stop for the past week, especially at late noon that causes massive traffic everywhere.



For all runners out there, please don't get wet and take good care of yourselves.

FYI, Terry Fox Run KL 2008 will be held in Lake Garden, Kl on 2nd November 2008. Terry Fox run is an annual charity run event to help raise funds for cancer research. I'm really proud and happy that this would be my 2nd year of joining this annual event. There are 2 routes for this year; 5km for adult and 3.5km for family run. You just need to purchase the limited edition Terry Fox t-shirt at RM25 in order to participate in this event. Please come and join the fun!!