Merdeka Road Trip '07

Date: 31st Aug - 1st Sept 2007
Destination: Klang-->Ipoh-->Penang-->Klang
Weather: Clear, Rain occasionally
No of participants: 5

Day 1

Originally planned to start journey at 4am, but as usual, there's some who can't get up on time. The day before was spent with CJ, ML, Nyuet, Thean, Stv, Chiang Wei at Yuen Steamboat. Been a while since I was there. Honey chicken wings are still a crowd favourite. You can see all the kiasu-ism surface once the chicken wings are replenished. Craziness and too bad none of us took any pics. Well, had a great laugh and I went back quite late. Got home, chuck a few clothes in my bag. But couldn't sleep that much that night, so I slept at 2. Woke up at 3 to bathe. Waited till 430am, then only Fatt came by to fetch me. (Got to catch an episode of Scrubs before he came sumore~!) After picking WS, KW and Bev, then off we go. It was already 5am. Head down to Ipoh and first destination was dimsum~! It was only 730am and Foh San was already packed with ppl...mostly from KL :P



So this is the dim sum place if you happened to drop by Ipoh town one day. It's in the old town area, and a piece of advice, if you don't want to wait long for a place, go there as early as 6.45am or 7am. Or not you'll be standing and watching people eat till they leave. Frankly, I don't really like that feeling of being looked at while I'm eating also. So after makan, all of us blur dy, not sure where to head to. Bev suggested we go some temples to see see. We were going around the town and we saw: Salted Chicken. Since it's a famous delicacy there, why not eh? We got down and bought ourselves one. Cost RM16 perbird. Worth every cent you pay for it coz taste is just excellent. Not as salty as you think, and with the chinese herbs, it's just superb! So again, when you swing by Ipoh old town one day, check out this place. (Pic below)



Then off we go to Kek Lok Dong and Sam Po Dong. No idea what they are called in English. Temples in the caves?(Ipoh ppl, help me out here...) Anyway, really nice temples. 1st of was KLD.A really nice and serene place. No wonder there were so many people there for morning exercise. I wished there was one in Klang. You can see a lot of workers maintaining the place.







Beautiful, rite?? Okay, so after that was SPD. Got a little lost looking for it. SPD wasn't as beautiful as KLD.Bev told us the special thing about this place is the tortoise pond.Kinda sad actually, you can see from the pic below that the pond is overcrowded.







AND THEN WE SAW THIS....



Okay...no porn stuff here, this is just for general knowledge. Tortoise mating...there were some serious humping then. Think Fatt got it on video. It went on all the time we were there. Bev overheard two old men commenting that it had been going on since at least half n hour ago..And then there were curious kids asking their parents what's going on. One of the parent had to tell her kid that the tortoise was playing with each other. We were there for 15 minutes? When we left, it was still going on....

After that, we got back to town coz Fatt was craving for a good cup of Ipoh White Coffee. WS got in touch with her ex-colleague and we went to a coffeeshop to enjoy a really good cup of white coffee. Then we had early lunch. Another packed up coffeeshop. Maybe coz not much shops opened on that day and the sudden influx of ppl from KL/Selangor visiting on that day. We can see all cars with plate alphabets starting with "W" and "B".

Next destination: Penang~!! ..in my next blog entry.

New addition to my cubicle

Isn't it just sooo adorable...

Thot I'd put somethings to make the table look more...personalised :D But these few days when I came to work, kinda realised that someone moved my stuff! Not sure who, so in the meantime..this adorable little fella will be kept in the drawer everyday before I leave. My colleague's water tumbler also can get lost, it's still a mystery~!

Rainy day today but yesterday was kinda nice. Watched the fireworks thingy...found a spot to watch without paying.. :P I know, kiamsiap, but then RM38.50 for entrance wor. Something that I'll only pay once. :P It was great!Team Australia. I think it was more impressive compared to the Malaysian team. Another reason is I was very far when viewing Team Malaysia. No pics, coz I don't have a high end camera to capture it. Hmm...quiet day at work. Getting quite boring... sighh..

Bangkok Pt 2

So I stopped at the part that we were left at the temple by our good ol' tuk-tuk driver. Being the optimistic me, I told PJ, let's just walk a bit and see whether he's there waiting in front. So we walked..and walked...approached by a tuk-tuk driver who refuse to send us to our destination with that same 30 Baht, he demanded 40 Baht,saying it's peak hour traffic and stuff. I said no...so we walked...and then came a junction. We took out our ever-so-reliable map but we still have no idea which part we were at. Then came a really kind-hearted local. She approached us.

Stranger#3:Can I help you?
PJ:Yes (trust me, I was skeptical and I was still thinking should we trust her...been in malaysia too long, not used to such a hospitable environment)
Stranger#3:Where you want to go?
PJ:Grand Palace
Stranger#3:Oh, you can take bus number 45. Only 7 Baht.Fast, the bus coming.
(At that time we're making our way there..suddenly.... I heard the lady shouting, so I turn around)
Stranger#3: Faster, bus coming, take this one~!! (She was running after the bus with us!!)

Thanks to such a helpful stranger, we got on the bus. An off we go. This was our bus ride...

And then I saw a very familiar Malaysia landmark there...


Finally, we've arrived our destination...after some temple hopping. Cost us 250Baht to enter the place. And you need to decently dressed for it, no sleeveless, or u have to borrow clothes to cover yourself. A few pics of the place.









We spent the whole afternoon there and by the time we left the place, it was already close to evening. Wanted to head to Wat Pho for a massage session but too bad already closed. Really not our day. We waited for the boat to get us back to where we came from. Took the skytrain back. Dead tired from the walking, we rested in our hotel room till it was time for dinner. Didn't really have a place in mind to go, so we headed to Hard Rock Cafe. Had dinner and enjoyed ourselves there till late night.
There was a live band performing that night. Was kinda cool...Coz we're the only girls-only pair, think we kinda caught their attention..both from the band and the waiters and waitresses that night. It was quite fun...


The lead singers...the one on the right, her name is Sharon..don't know the guy's name though.


A nice group pic...with the Irish girl who was so drunk that night that she started to talk and talk and talk.....

When they were done singing, they had too much of free beer/shots left. Remember Sharon?The 2 shots in her hand in the pic up there, she gave me one. Not sure what liquour is that also. I just took it. Then one of them pass us beer also. We sat and talk for a while. The band was really good, but then they felt that their music is not really appreciated considering they are told to perform older songs. They will be traveling around the world performing. And they are from the Phillipines.After finishing the beer, we were on our way back to the hotel.

Day 3

Woke up with a terrible headache. Seriously, I wasn't sure it's coz of the liquour I took the night before or just not enough sleep. Went down for breakfast and after that was suppose to head to Pratunam market. Since I thought it would be nice to see the life of the Thai ppl, we walked the back lane and whaddaya know? LOST lor. So in the end, we just got on the skytrain and went to CentralWorld area.We were at Starbucks just relaxing... And after that my headache got worse, so we went back to the hotel and started packing our stuff.We got the cab to the airport. We checked in REALLY early, and went for super expensive lunch at the airport. Our flight was at 455pm Bangkok time.Bumpy ride back to KL, cloudy and lots of turbulence and OLD plane with REALLY noisy passengers sharing their experience at Patpong(Red light district). Thank goodness most of the time was spent sleeping, but those time when I was awake, I overheard the guys at the back talking bout the "cultural" shows that they were watching there.Seriously, it wasn't anything I was interested to know. Touched down at LCCT at about 8pm.

So that kinda sums up my short trip to Bangkok. It was overall an interesting getaway. Although I didn't really get to do what I wanted, or buy more stuff or eaten more food, it's still an eye-opener. Different culture, the people that we met, interaction with locals, exposure to the polluted air...it's unforgettable. The even more unforgettable was the chicken pox thing right after :P Anyway, if I have the time to go there again, I'll probably be more prepared...and I want to visit other places, like the floating market and ancient city and also the beaches there! :)

BANGKOK!

Date: 15- 17 July 2007
Weather: Clear, Rain occasionally
No of participant: 2
Accomodation: Asia Hotel Bangkok

Day 1

Arrived at 1130am BANGKOK TIME. Took a taxi from the airport that cost us 400 baht. I'm still thinking whether we were cheated or not. Nevermind, it was an Avanza, so we had a comfortable ride to the hotel. Checked in. Think Pei Jet made the booking too long, even the reception guy couldn't find her booking information at first. So after all the hooha, we got our Deluxe room which was at RM200 pernite. Quite pricey for an old place like that. But the most convenient would be the direct access to the skytrain station. We grabbbed some maps and got our lonely planet to plan for the rest of the days that we're there. Kinda planned our itenary for the next day. After waiting for PJ's colleagues from Thailand,we got to lunch...in a Chinese restaurant. We had dim sum which was only 19 baht perbasket, which is like really cheap and they have it in a set - 10 baskets. They ordered a noodle too, too bad no pictures on food..coz I thot it would be rude to ask them to wait for me to take pic since everyone was hungry. PJ's friends were kind enough to buy us lunch~! Next, we were off to Catuchak market,I think that should be the way to spell that place. It was Sunday and time was limited to go over the whole place. This place have anything you can think of..REALLY. Don't think 2 days is enough also for the weekend market. Look at the crowd~!!





This is one of the few stalls I captured with my camera. Fresh juice. Intersting...behind this stall is where I found an interesting snack.


Can you guess what is it? It's sweet coz the filing is green bean paste. Something like the Chinese "ang ku kueh" filing, but the outer layer is like konyaku jelly.
We were just walking around and I only bought 2 tops from the market. Wished I had more time there. One of PJ's colleague came with her bf, so when it was close to 5pm, we were on our way back in his car. Saw a lot of the new Vios on the road. Looks kinda nice.

When we got back to the hotel, we waited for PJ's another colleague to meet up with us for dinner. He came and brought his family, what an adorable family. He and his wife were wearing the same clothes and their daughter is just toooooo cute~!! Can't help it, had to take a pic!


This is Hua. So cute, I think she's only about 3 years old. With limited English,can't really communicate with her. Just ask her the basics. "hi","how are you?" ...you know..those "kids" language. Again I did not take pictures of our dinner, I seriously felt impolite and weird, so I kept my camera. But we had some authentic Thai cuisine. The "tomyam kung" was excellent.They kept on feeding us with whatever that's on the table. They ordered stuff that we don't know. To be polite, we just much down whatever that's in front of us. :p The best was the durian ice-cream~!! Heavenly~~!!

After dinner, we thought of visiting Chinatown. PJ's colleague was nice enough to give us a ride around chinatown. It was raining and there's really nothing much we can do. Then we went to Riverpoint thinking that we would get to hunt for the Adidas jacket that PJ eyed on here, but kena tipu la. So we walked for a while and took the taxi back to the hotel.

Day 2

Woke up to an early day, breakfast at the hotel. Bacons~ and Siew Yuk~!!(Roasted pork). Been sometime since I saw pork served in a hotel breakfast spread. :P So we got to the train station and purchased the one-day pass. 120 Baht. Got to the end,and took the Chao Phraya Boatride. Bought another one-day pass. 100 Baht. And off we go to the Grand Palace...


This is like one of the tourist boats that was taking all the tourist.


Temple of Dawn, we didn't visit this place. Just thought it looked nice and took a pic of it when we're on our boat ride.

On the boat, we met a couple from California and another older couple from UK. Quite friendly people. So we got to the palace after about 20 minutes of boat ride? One thing we didn't expect was....it was Monday and it's prayers day~! So no entry to the palace till after lunch. We're like...huh?? And since we're also lost in translation in this place, not knowing what to do, there was this guy at the guard post that told us, we could go to the surrounding temples to sight-see first before returning to the Grand Palace.

Stranger#1: Oh, you can go to see temples over here and here(Pointing at a few temples up north from where we are in our map)Take the tuk-tuk and maybe you can go to the Thai Centre. Shopping, now got sales. Only 30 Baht.

Oh, whaddaya know, there was a tuk-tuk driver on the right and waving his hands at us. Considering that we can't go anywhere dy, mind as well we kill time that way la...further more, only 30 Baht to that few places. Sounded okay to us, and I was so looking forward to a tuk-tuk ride...so we took it and had our share of the polluted air of Bangkok. First off was one of the temples..sigh, don't ask me the names..I only know it's Wat something.. :P Boring..nothing much there. When we got out, our tuk-tuk driver wanted to take a leak. So we were there and waited for him and another stranger was talking to us. Thais are friendly people I guess.

Stranger#2: Oh, you two are not from here.
PJ: Yes.
Stranger#2: Where are you from?
Me: Malaysia
Stranger#2: Oh, Kuala Lumpur? Nice place. I am reporter with Bangkok Times. Today is prayers day, I bring my mother here for prayers. Where are you going after this?
PJ: To the Thai Centre
Stranger#2: Ohh, good. Now they have sales. It's good. You go there and buy. It's for your mother. Very good investment. You buy now and give your mother and after she passed on, you get it back. So good investment.
(PJ and I were looking at each other after he said that and started laughing...not sure what kind of message he was trying to convey though...)

Okay, after that short conversation, we got to the Thai centre. It was a jewelry place. This guy was promoting their red ruby and yellow sapphire to us. With lifetime gurantee and cost much lesser compared to back home. True enough, but then our main purpose was not to get any jewellery, so we just walked a round and got out.
Our tuk-tuk driver was curious whether we got anything, we said no. Then he brought us to another place. Although we didn't want to go, he was close to begging coz he said he just wanted a coupon. SO since we're such good hearted people(:P), we agreed. He brought us to another jewellery place. And came out with nothing either. Next was supposedly our last temple before we return to the Grand Palace. Ok, this temple I remember coz it was translated to English :P The Golden Mount. It's a temple on top of a hill and you get a view of that part of Bangkok from the top.



Something to see on our way up.


This is our tuk-tuk driver...There's a lot to remember about this guy...why?? Because he left us there at that Golden Mount temple~!!! Can you believe it. We're quite some distance from the Grand Palace and we haven't even pay him. Maybe the 30 Baht he can do without. I'm thinking he was pissed off with us for not purchasing anything from the places he brought us to.

So let's stop for here now... will continue blogging with bangkok part 2. :)

Took too long of a break..

Whoa..nice to be back and blogging. So it's almost a month..wow. So what happened? Chicken Pox Attack~!! (If anyone out there knows the medical term to this particular condition, do share with me)


Well, finally it happened. Unexpected, unwanted. And it happened a day after I got back from Bangkok. So until today, I still have no idea where I contracted it from. Maybe from someone new I met? No idea...still unexplainable to me. But anyhow, it's been such a boring 2 weeks cooked up at home. I'm back and jumping around in office~! Kinda sad considering the main thing I wanted to do was to get back to work. SERIOUSLY, it gets really boring at home coz you can't possibly go out.No internet also...no shows to watch, no mood to do anything. So I ended up napping during the afternoons. I want to thank everyone who has been REALLY REALLY nice to send your get well greetings. My colleagues, thanks for the fruit+flower basket. Really came as a surprise to me...and I was very touched.Pic as attached....

So moodless since I got back to work. Maybe it's the new office(or it's the 2 weeks break). Yea, I've finally shifted to Shah Alam. Nearer to home...but takes about the same amount of time to get there and the old office...no difference, the only one is the rush hour jam. But 2 years in Sunway...kinda miss it there. The new place, everyone has their own partition but if u wanna talk, u can sit up straight, then you could see eye level, if not, then just stand up la. But since it's a big place, the echoes are really loud if we were to make noise :P But these 2 days is just getting used to la. Next week la..my working mood should be back, I'm still at the stage where I'm exploring on what time I should leave home to get to office in time and get a good parking space. I think the best spot should be in front of the guard house. It's quite scary to walk far...especially by myself. Bangkok highlights in my next blog post. :)

FATE...do you believe?

I'm a believer. Everyone you cross path with would be because of fate. It's fate that brings people together. And it's also fate that I have not met that someone special yet...(kinda questioning that already...maybe I'm fated to be alone... sad..)It is also fate that I've met some incredibly amazing people that had taught me a lot and also changed my perception about a lot of things.

Ohh well, I spent last weekend re-reading Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. Had to re-read it coz someone asked about the book, which I don't remember much of the storyline at that time.(It was 2 years ago when I got the book!) But anyhow, it's still a good book and you have to get a copy to read. The book tells how each people that Eddie(the main character) had met or just simply cross path made that significant impact in his life without knowing it himself...interesting eh? FATE... :)

Bread, Bread, I love you!

I have to start singing that tune in my head. Over-excessive expenditure during sales month can really kill me. Another shopping retreat last weekend. Can't believe this, it's like this shopping thing has this power over me. So my lunch plan for the coming weeks: Bread, bread and bread.

Well, the main reason for this whole thing is coz of Bangkok. That's happening in the mid of this month. Money should go to there, so all my money is frozen for that now. Not sure how much I'll be spending for that, but still I need to reserve some for it. Not to say I regret shopping that day la, it was great~! :P Just that I need to refrain from another retail therapy session till...at least end of august? My car insurance needs renewal, that's another sum of money to go.

And last weekend was also the time that I realised that among my uni friends, my salary was the lowest among all of them. hhhhmmmmm.....no comment la.I'm staying coz I want to learn as much as possible and..MY SALARY IS THE LOWEST! Can't get over that just yet. I need a pep talk...I wonder who can give me that.

My Motto?

I had an interesting conversation last night with a new friend. Quite intriguing. He posed this question: What's your motto in life? I was shocked coz it's the first time chatting with him and he asked me such a deep question, I seriously thought he was going to sell me something. Turns out he was just curious...
Anyway, I'm a simple girl...so my motto in life is to live it to the fullest and do things that you won't regret. What's yours? Think about it...

The Great Singapore Sales

Everyone should make a trip down to check out the sales there. Clothes are going as low as SGD5~!! Brands like U2/Giordano/Hang Ten has clothes from SGD8 and above.Too bad din have the time to stay longer, would be nice to shop for my working attire. Didn't really buy much either, spent a big amount on my brother's present for his house. Kinda budgeted for that only, the rest of the shopping just happen to come along :P Went for a massage too. Kinda felt like a "water-fish" after my sis-in-law told me SGD28 was too pricey for a half-n-hour massage.(thinking back, yea, I WAS REALLY A GOOD BIG FAT WATER-FISH!) But the good side of it was, although a half-n-hour session, it was a good one~! Seriously, i think the lady only used half her energy to apply to my back. It was damn painful~! You must be asking, "why pay so much for such torture?" Felt so light after the massage session, she really loosen up all my veins. Too bad the massage only for my upper back only. The main area of concern for that day was my aching feet from walking. I only spent the afternoon and Taka and it's not even enough! I didn't get any shoes~!!(which I think will make it up here in m'sia :P )

For the first time, I went to CommunicAsia that was held at Singapore Expo this year.
Lots of freebies to offer~! Haha, I grabbed one or 2. Met my fellow colleagues and my bosses there. They were really surprised to see me. Since I'm in town, why not eh?
Saw an old friend too. So not too bad, and learn a couple of new things. Overall it's quite interesting...for me.not sure bout the rest, since the stuff that I was looking at was more related to what I do now.The best freebie I got was the 1GB USB drive. I almost bought one from here already and it's great that I have a FREE one now.(That will save up about RM40...that's good, I can buy shoes now~!)

Oh I've finally saw the new house. Very nicely renovated and decorated~! My brother and sis-in-law really put in a lot of effort in it. I think he has the biggest house compared to my elder brothers. And with his resort-like theme, there's gonna be a lot to do to maintain it. Looks real cosy though, which is nice. Will bring my camera there the next time to capture some pics. I like the plasma and home-theatre system~! And his study also quite cool.

Such a short holiday...had to make my way back on Sunday morning! Not too bad I guess. Taking off for the rest of the day...ta!

Dumpling festival

It's that time of the year again where you munch down dumplings. This year...was a little special for me.I've been spending these small festivities by myself the past few years...being in uni and parents being away in singapore.

This year, my aunts made it a little more "warm" for me. Hahaha, got dumplings from them. Well..made it special I guess. At least I'm still remembered? (Like sooooo SAD and PATHETIC~!) But can't really blame me rite?It's these times that I miss my family the most, and it's my niece's birthday too. Wonder how did her birthday party went. Not done with the dumpling story, my neighbour also gave me some. She said and I quote "Since you alone there and no one to eat with, pass you some-lah"
Ok...that sounded worse rite? BUT I'm okay. Ate the dumplings and there's 2 more in the fridge. Memorable dumpling festival. :)

Looking forward for my long weekend in Singapore..Would be great to take some timeoff from work.it's been 2 months since I was last there. An earlier off before Bangkok NEXT MONTH! And Langkawi in September! Didn't know I had that much planned :P All trips paid already, so will be going, no matter what! Means I seriously can't spend much during the sales this time around. Also not planning to spend that much in SG too. Will just check out some stuff, I hope can refrain myself.. SO I better act busy again. Back to my analysis...Have a good week~!

Do you remember your first cup of Starbucks coffee?

Who doesn't need a good cup of coffee? And my favourite place to get it is no other than Starbucks. They recently introduced 2 new drinks... If u ask me, I'd say "Just stick to your regular coffee". Been spending too much time in Starbucks coz of work. Out of the many coffee choices in the menu, I think I've tried a big percentage of it. They used to have my favourite drink : Rhumba in their menu..which I missed soo much!!

I think my first cup of starbucks was back in my uni days. Couple of years ago... but these days, as I hang out more in Starbucks, I see younger ppl in their teens getting their coffee there. Back in those days, I wouldn't step into Starbucks. SO kids these days are pretty lucky... I hope they know how to appreciate all the things that they have now. Heck, they have better and more modern handphones than me~! (And I work in the telecommunications industry~!)

Here, attached below are the pic of the 2 new drinks mentioned, if u have a curious tastebud, you can always try them out.

June~

Nice month..coz it's the start of SALES~!!! Don't you just love the sound of that word!! AND my bangkok trip is gonna be in July~! That's another month to countdown.
Recently planned for Langkawi somewhere in October. Let's hope the new project thingy won't be in the way of my trips. All already been paid for. Made arrangements earlier already. I don't want to leave knowing that work's undone.

It's a little free today. I get to sit and do nothing...well, am suppose to read up on things, but that can wait. Just thought of taking things slow today. Laziness kicking in after been stuck with the software the past 2 days. Still a lot to go. :P

Big bro came back the other day bringing back my nieces and my parents. So good to see them. Can't believe that my youngest niece is already 1year +. Adorable little fella. It's just a relaxing day at work.. :P So was in the mood to blog a little, you know to mark the new month~! That's all la, nothing much to talk about also. Just crapping my way through my Tuesday. :D

Queues...Long queues....

You see, the one thing I love about hypermarkets are the express lanes. So when I buy less items, I still can get out within 15 minutes. The most horrible thing happened yesterday...THEY CLOSED THE EXPRESS LANE~!!! And surprisingly, there were quite a crowd for a monday night. I had to get the 2 bottles of water coz the water supply at home is just too polluted. It's WHITE~!~! So nvm, I queued. But if anyone in TESCO Klang reading this, PLEASE PLEASE don't ever close the express lane, it's just so inconveinient for ppl like me who only buy less than 10 items~!

There's one weekend when I went to hypermarket to just get some things, and I turned back looking at the amount of people queueing up. Rather go another time to get it. It's just me and queues...I dun like 'em. Not that I encourage ppl to jump queues though. I hate those ppl too, coz they slow down the whole process.So enough rambling for this time la...will blog another time.

Updates updates...

Well, nothing really much to write about this time around, just thought of just updating my blog. SO recently there's 2 colleagues looking at new phone; one of them eventually went to get his the past weekend. Dunno how he ended up with an N80. I was checking out mine too...erm...my future phone...that is if I actually like it when I see it. Here...you can see it. Introducing the W660i :



Cool eh? Looks nice in picture, let's hope the real thing looks nice. But that would be sometime before that happens.

So there's this big thing that happened last week. A big tree branch fell off right in front of me and my colleagues. I was still blur when the whole incident happened. I am still blur...coz I was the only one in the car who didn't hear the branch breaking. I just saw it fell. There was a couple of pedestrians who were screaming as they ran off the place. Well..thank GOD for surviving that. Can't imagine what we would turn out to be if we were passing there a little earlier...creepy eh? Things can just happen to you...doesn't matter when or where. Which kinda reminded me of something some trainer taught us during the safety training: "Accidents work 24/7 and knows no holiday"

Let's just say it's been quite an up and down thing since I last blogged. and it's been crazy la...and i'll just need to blog another time coz Nyuet is here. Need to catch up with her.

Kena Con~!!

When I got into work today, the only news that was going around was the one about my colleague who got con by a particular travel agency. If you haven't heard, there's news on it in The Star. If you missed it, I've pasted the link below.

Star news reporting on it

How absurd! People saved up for 10 years to go for this once-in-a-lifetime trip and those f*#%i&* just cheat their hard-earned money. SO next time everyone just need to be extra-cautious about all those travel agencies.

On another not so sad note, my weekend was another short one but quite interesting in a way. Learned a couple of things, surprising things~! Got my first wedding invite for this year. The dinner is this weekend! Got my blood test report back. Just didn't like it that Judy got hold of it and already looked through it without my permission. Maybe she thought that I wouldn't get what those in the report would mean, but still...although u work there, u still need my permission to look at my health screening report, rite??? Even if you'd seen it already, still some courtesy to ask again...I don't mind if you'd asked coz I know I wouldn't understand lots of stuff in the report and I would need explanation. STILL...I felt she shouldn't have done it. Besides the me-being-a-bit-irritated-by-her, the report came out to be not that bad. The way she told me over SMS , "eh, your report very good la!" Then she was telling how detox had made the readings look the way they were. Most probably. Just some minor things, I need a jab and I need to exercise more...and erm...still about the weight issue..sigh, am really trying hard to work on that~! My cholestrol level is okay,just that my good ones are lesser than my bad ones. So need to exercise to increase in that. I was surprised considering I've been eating so much meat over the past 25 years~! Till that one-month (2-weeks detox plus 2 more weeks of staying away from meat), i think it was brought down. But still, there's work to be done with myself. Will be my goal for this year lar. Lower down my weight till the ideal one, and increase whatever need to be increased. will go again for next blood test in 6 mnths probably. Considering coming from parents with HBP, my BP is quite good..which is a good sign. Okay..so the healthy thingy will continue la.

SO that's all to ramble about this morning la...Will write another time.

MLM

Haha..everyone knows what's that~! If you're new at it, it's Multi-Level Marketing, where in this business you work hard to find people to work for you who will help you to generate more income. The truth is, it does work. It's like the easiest way to earn a lot in a short duration of time..but the ugly side of it, it turns oneself to a money minded alien till no one dares to go close and the only friends you really have is those that goes to centres to listen to the brain-washing sessions with you.

I'm in it. Not that I'm gonna turn into one of those aliens. Not going for talks or brain washing session, I'm just in to get discounts for the supplements that I'll be taking. It's a 20% off frm the normal price. And my supplements cost a lot~ it's weird how after 2 weeks of non-stop dosage of supplements, you tend to rely on them at times. Plus judy's been on it for the few times that we went out to yumcha... persuasive? oklar... just that I thought if I'd join then she'll get off the talks bout it. Too much of that kinda talk can really ruin a nice yumcha session. Frankly, we don't talk much on any other things, it's just about products and how joining the membership would make me a richer girl. You see, you'll start thinking to yourself, she got it going so well, why can't you? It's the psychological thing that they know how to grab. So what will be my plan after this? Well, as I said earlier, I'm only in as a sleeping member. Probably will start with their products then can evaluate it and introduce to some other ppl...who knows, I might end up an alien too~! Scary, scary thought.... but to my friends who are reading this, no worries, I won't be bugging you all with the products, I'll call you guys up for the sake of meeting and catching up.

It's a free day in office. So I'm just blogging and reading stuff... hoping for an exicting weekend ahead.

I ran down a kitten!

Sigh,I really didn't see it and by the time I react, it was too slow. Can't believe I ran down a kitten!!!! It was jumping in pain...Still can remember it as I look over the rear mirror. :( Now I understand how CJ felt when she ram a dog on the highway. Felt real bad and cried. Thank god that Sihsin was there. What a way to start the day. I'll be vegetarian for the next week. No mood la...write another time la.

Phantom of The Opera

Yeahh...was a great show~! Got so pumped up for the show that I borrowed the OST from the Phantom movie to listen everyday before the day of the show. Hahaha..so before the play started, I'd already got a few songs singing in my head. Seriously, my favourite was Angel Of Music. After the watching the play, I still like that song, plus a few more, Phantom of the Opera and Masquerade is nice. :)



Anyway, details of my show:

Venue: Esplanade, Singapore
Date: 22 April 2007
Time: 2pm

Very nice place indeed. The setup was amazing~! The seats we got were not too bad. Balcony seats though, one bad thing about it, i think we couldn't see the left side of the stage. Which is only a small part I think. Coz there's one scene where everyone looks toward that side and all I could see was the side of the stage. Not sure whether there's anything there or not. Coz there was another scene when everyone looks up and there were really nothing there. :P

It was a superb show for me. Raoul was sooooooo leng chai~! Haha...they made the Phantom look really ugly. Kristy was okay, I think the one that plays her friend is more stand out compared to her. But can salute all the sopranos...very good la. I liked the show overall, but comparing to the CD I've been listening, I think there was suppose to be a sword-fight scene which I dun think was put in. Besides that, it's all good. Surprise factor there, comedy also got...annnnddddd....yes, I cried~! So sad coming to the last part. Got magic show also... the part where he disappear! (Well, we all know he went through that hole behind the chair la.. :P ) Still my favourite scene would be the part where Phantom kidnaps Kristy to his dungeon-like home. The whole stage was changed, he was rowing a bot, candles came up the stage...really awed by it. If you miss this one time..well...if it ever comes to tour again, you HAVE to watch it. It's a classic and you have to watch it at least once in your lifetime! It's all worth my SGD120. I'm still listening to the soundtrack till today!

Had the urge to get the programs...but it was way too expensive. SGD25!Actually was more interested in the mug. Very special mug. The mask of the phantom will appear when u pour in hot water..not sure how much is the mug...thot I saw SGD30. The movie poster was SGD10. You see the "SGD" word?? it's RM x 2.3 ~~!! SO in the end, didn't get anything la. Just memories of the show and some pics taken that day is good enough~! Which reminds me, need to ask sis-in-law for the pic.

Alritey..let's hope for a good day for everyone today~! I hope I have one free day.

Detox-ed~!

So it's been 2 weeks. Can say I'm officially detox-ed..with the "ed"... how do you really justify that? no idea... Weight loss..yes. Diet change...yes. I'm on fruits and vegetables most of the time. Will stick to that temporary...will see how things go from here. A bit of a high price to pay, but everyone's been telling me that it's worth it...and it's time to tell myself the same thing...After 2 weeks, I'm 3/4 convinced. :D

It'll be another hectic week in KL, I think. Phantom of the Opera is this coming Sunday!!!!! muahaha.. can't wait can't wait. Let's hope it's not disappointing. SGD120 for the show. Going off to singapore the end of the week. My parents are flying off to China on the same weekend. What a coincidence! Not sure how to tell them about my detox program...I'm thinking they'll have lots to say seeing what I still have to swallow daily~!!! I also want to vomit dy....

Back to work.. :P Hope everyone has a good day...

Bowling~!

Another Motorola event was on last Monday. This time around it's bowling~! I was bowling with an awesome team. Well...too bad they don't have 10 in a team..then it would've been more fun. Considering that most of my teammates never bowled for the past 4 years, we did quite good actually. 6/48. I think that's a good achievement. Imagine if we'd practised beforehand...muahaha... My individual ranking also not that bad ...lucky number 13! That's out of 70...something to be proud of. What's good about this blog is I won't be blogging too much. Gonna share some pics.

Us before the game...Look at the T-shirts for this time around. Sigh...Like factory workers only~!!

Us after the game...so exhausted alredy...

Nice pic taken by Lum, my new colleague, photography freak! (no offence.. :P)

Maybe should take up the initiative with the photoshop editing skills..then would be able to edit the pics myself next time. So alrite..till the next tournament that we're gonna enjoy that would be all for today.

Turning into a workaholic?

Just had this urge to write.Was busy ..am still busy since after CNY.Now preping for the new task, let's hope it all goes well. been very slow, it's slowly deterioting..help help! Sigh...

Last week was kinda cool...went to the movies on a weekday~! Free tickets, so no complaints.The show: Pan's Labyrinth. Spanish movie, but turns out to be quite good. Although some parts were kinda brutal, some were kinda creepy...but overall, it's not that bad. Quite a unique movie. The more interesting part is my movie company. Won 4 tickets from Cinema Online. Got Bev, Nyuet and Chia Wei to watch it with. The interesting part is none of them knew each other until that night. :)

Bev's free these days. She's taking a break from her relationship.Not sure for how long but she did say something bout her liking thedecision. I'm not really in the position to advise/support/comment. Just that I was there with her when her bf asked for the break,she was really sad...she got drunk that night. But the night of the movies and even last Friday, she was all smiles, not really sure how things are already now.SO what did I observe? Never resolve a problem through SMS, things will just get misunderstood and people might get hurt...AND getting drunk won't settle the matter.I do hope that they get back together.

Went to a wedding last weekend. My cousin got married. She's only 22.Sad, I barely know her.Seriously, don't think she knew who I am either. I just knew some of the relatives there that night. The wedding dinner was in KL, so since my dad was eager to go( he came back from Singapore for that dinner), then I thought I'd send him there considering that I knew the roads near that area. (thanks to my work~!)It turned out to be quite a traditional Chinese wedding where they have people going up the stage for karaoke!!! Felt weird coz it's a dinner in a chinese restaurantin the midst of KL~! Felt like it's those wedding in the rural areas instead.

So it's another day at work....today worked late sumore. Will be taking off dy.

MARCH~!

Already March..woohoo...2 years countdown till I work off my bond period. Still no idea what's things gonna be like after that... hmm....

Last Saturday went to Angie's new condo-warming in Cheras. We bought her an IKEA lamp. Small place, but good enough for a small family. The uneasy feeling was coz most of the people staying there were mostly foreigners. Heard SC said ther's a college nearby, that's why. Just felt awkward and uneasy around them. Makes you think whether it's safe to actually stay there. Nvm that, I've finally saw Zheng after SO SO long...same goes with WJ. Although WJ din go abroad, but seldom get to see him.Heard he's quite famous there in DG :P Soo Yee, Kah Huey, Chye Hsia also..been a while since I saw them. Angie prepared steamboat for all of us. Her house, paintings and design all DIY. Her hubby lost 4kg doing all that~!! Gosh, her husband is getting thinner and thinner everytime we see him. After that delighting session, SC and I head over to Jian's in PJ. Was there for a while, met with Jian Peng...i think that was his name. Quite leng chai. Just hang out there for a while then left, was quite late already.

Last day of CNY was great. Surprisingly, the phrase "chap goh mei" was never even uttered..except of for the radio DJs. Nevermind, everyone was still in the CNY mood, although many agree that it's been a boring one this year. Started off with open house in KY's. Quite a crowd actually. After that was to my boss' house next door...we were there till about 5. Learnt how to play mahjong...quite an interesting game. Need to train up for that already.. Mahjong lesson only lasted about half and hour. We had to head on to Pang's new house after that. Quite a lot has been said about the new "mansion"... Very nicely done. Considering the money, time and effort put into it. I think the thing that got everyone talking the day after would be the kids that were running all over the Pang's living room: they were eating KFC by themselves on his new couch,kids of only 3-5 years, you can imagine how sloppy they could get. 100plus all over the couch and floor... (REAL HAVOC~! Made a few colleagues re-think the idea of having kids....) And with the kids around, we couldn't really test out his new home theater sound system. After getting back to Klang, had another rummy mahjong session at WS'. Was an enjoyable session there...bet they kinda regret asking me to go play. :P

And SO that was my CNY 2007. The angpaus that are unopened, will be left that way till the next CNY. The Feng Shui master mentioned that if they were kept under your pillow, some fortune will come back to you or something like that. Will just see.

Back...with a clean machine

Well...did the inevitable: REFORMAT! No other choice. Now machine cleaned liao...but after putting back all the software I need, it's already 20GB gone~! Not really sure what I put in it.

CNY CNY ... boring CNY this year. Was happy to see my nieces though. Had a great time with them. Went back to Bidor this year, nothing changed. My cousins are all grown up though. 4 pretty girls, one handsome guy and one more naughty irrespectful brat. Can't really blame him for what he's become. His dad passed away a few years ago, his mom is a little slow and his uncles just spoils him. It was actually a very short CNY celebration this year. Started only when my brother came back on CNY eve and ended after they went back on the 3rd day of CNY. The house was so quiet after they left, wasn't that used to it suddenly.

Last weekend was a quiet + crazy one. Went for mahjong session at CJ's. Kalah ...sad, dunno how much I lost in that house. Then went over to CW's. We all spent the night chitchatting till morning~! Then dimsum session...Really crazy lar.

VIRUS ATTACK

STUPID...kena attack by Trojan Horse, recovery might be impossible and might need to resort to reformat. SO SO SO many of my applications gone.... sigh... but can't do that for now, coz will need to transfer out software license. Crap~! sooo in the shitty mood now...will not blog already.

Dong Dong Chiang....

CNY is here...Can finally feel it~! Only a couple of days away. Excited..coz mom will be back!! Finally bought parents the Imperial Wine, hopefully it;s something good la. Kinda ran out of ideas on what to get them. Last year was Eu Yan Sang, this year Imperial, next year ???? Don't know. Can't get them electrical stuff, coz they don't really use it. Chicken essence? My mom have dozens of that, unfinished yet. Bird's Nest, brother already gave them that. So if I run out of idea next year, it'll only be cash for them to buy whatever they want la. Since they're most of the time in Singapore, me giving them RM is just a small figure after conversion...SIGH....

It's another V-Day...I don't have that special someone to share it with yet....I have a group of single friends who planned for a dinner + birthday celebration. It's suppose to be 1st year anniversary for the Kura-Kura group...can't believe it's already a year since we all met and set up the group. True enough that throughout the year there's a lot of drama that went on. Truthfully, all this while didn't even think of it much till some of them actually took it personally to be something negatively wrong. So let's hope the coming year, all that drama will dissolve into something good? Thean is leaving for India soon. Not sure the whole group is aware of that, but will make an effort to get all of them together for his farewell.

So that's it for this entry, just a shoutout to all my colleagues who reads my blog: THANK YOU PEOPLE. No idea why u all interested in this crap also.

Meeting boys...erm...MEN

It was a weekend of nothing accomplished, except continuing watching TVB Drama and supposedly CNY shopping which ended up only buying a book~!! Totally not CNY related. And then, my friend, J told me the story of her date the night before:

Characters: J and HSL
First version of the story(She wasn't comfortable of telling all since we had another company with us)

J met HSL on the internet in a friend-finding program. They corresponded through email and exchanged numbers. Was supposed to meet last week, but she got caught up with work that time. So they finally met on Saturday for dinner. Dinner was okay, then after that J suggested Genting. So they went. Stepped into a disco there, danced. They came down from Genting about 2am+. She reached home at 3+am.

Second version of the story(It's me and her alone)

J met HSL on the internet in a friend-finding program. They corresponded through email and exchanged numbers. Was supposed to meet last week, but she got caught up with work that time. So they finally met on Saturday for dinner. He started making moves on her during dinner.Then after that, thinking that it's too bored to do anything in town, J suggested Genting. So they went. HSL occasionally tried to whisper to her ears and taking the chance to lick her ears. They stepped into a disco there,filled with a lot of foreiners. They were dancing and HSL was very "forceful" with his dance moves. Especially pulling J's hand to him and pushing his little friend down there on her. They came down from Genting about 2am+. HSL suggested to J to go up to his house with a promise that nothing will happen. She being a little terrified then of course said no and he dropped her back at her car. She reached home at 3+am. While on the road, she was followed by 3 cars which was on her left, right and back.

MY thoughts:

1) It's good that she mentioned about the date to me the day before, well, at least a friend knows what's happening IF there's something to happen.

2) It was a foolish move to let your guard down when going out with someone that you just met. She should have brought a weapon at least.

3) Another foolish thing was continuing on with the date although she knew HSL intentions were bad. She said she might just be too desperate to be with someone.

4) Most men you meet these days, especially those you met online have only one intention when they meet you: SEX.

5) If she would have went up to HSL's house, she'll be date raped. She herself said it~!

6) If you all are still wondering, I don't know the name of the guy, HSL just stands for none other than HAM SAP LOU~!

With that said, seems like the possibility that I meet a decent guy in the coming year would be close to zero? Will let fate to decide, let's hope I don't get into a situation that my friend got into...She was still a little shaken up after the whole incident.

Spring is here?

I'm just waiting for the CNY mood to kick in....I wonder how long it'll take. Probably when I really start with the spring cleaning is when it'll come. So let's see the checklist for stuff to do before CNY:

1) Clean up my room/house ...... Negative
2) Buy CNY biscuits ......Negative
3) Decorate the house .....Negative
4) Shop for new clothes.... Negative
5) Shop for present for parents ... Negative

Sigh...nothing is done~! It;s less than a month to CNY~!!!! But one thing I know, my dad will be coming back before CNY to do the stocking up of food stuff. Hmm..by then I hope my room will be cleaned! Always wonder how I can live with the messiness( is there such word?? ).

I'll be getting my biscuits today...haha, at least some thing done in that checklist. Next is to get stuff that I can hang around the house. Year of the Boar, according to the PDF file, it's going to be a good year for the Dog people, haha, it says I'll meet my prospective lover this year too. Something to look forward to?? Don't know.. says the same thing every year. Till then, will continue listening to my ultimate CNY combo song to get into the mood

Rainy days

Been raining a lot lately...kinda brings down the mood to do anything...yea..ANYTHING at all (suppose to spring clean since CNY is like ..less than a month~!! ) Well, parents thought of going to China for CNY, but plan cancelled coz of too last minute and this year will be spending CNY in Klang.

To start, proud to say I've completed one book that I bought recently. Working on the 2nd book now... still a lot of books to cover...accumulated from last year. :P Working towards resolution #4 or #3...doesn't matter...just need to complete as much books I can~!

Oh ya..bout the toll hike, well, I've decided to just give that Rm2.20. Too lazy to go all the way, calculating the time, the petrol, the bad road conditions... I've no choice after all.

Ohh Ohh...got my haircut over the weekend..nothing new, just had it trimmed :p Just only knew that my hairdresser shifted and she's been there for 5 months already...hmmm..seems like forever since my last haircut. Need to update my mom later. It's another 26 days to CNY, haven't done anything...imagine if my mom was around at home, she'll be going all naggy and excited with the coming new year...sighh...it's sooo quiet at home. Let's hope the spirits up by next week...clean clean clean...need to get CNY stuff also...will wait for dad for that.

Looks like my survivor download is done..and i shall be signing off...

Happy New Year 2007!!

Happy New Year~!! Yea, the new year is finally here...

Recap on 2006:

1) Met a really cool bunch of friends thus Kura-Kura gang was formed.
2) Clubbed more than before~!
3) More family gatherings for this year
4) Became an aunt to 2 more nieces
5) Travelled more to Singapore than ever before
6) Completed a project at work - travelled to Penang too much till can memorise all main roads~!
7) Started playing CS and slowly got addicted to it
8) Shopped more than before~!
9) Didn't get a bf yet
10) Backyard got broken in and wash basin was stolen
11) Attended 2 weddings, 1 ROM ( yea..adding another sis-in-law~!)
12) Met up with old friends from uni.
13) Got my confirmation at work..which means my 3-year countdown starts ( Come March, it'll be 1 year~~!!! )
14) Lived alone majority of the time at home for the past year
15) Lost and gained weight throughout the whole year...sigh, back to square one
16) Ate more range of stuff this year..as in those restaurants that I've never visited last time.
17) Updated my blog
18) Sony Ericsson W550i got stolen, replaced with Motorola E398
19) Got so stressed at work that I broke down
20) Got closer to my colleagues..it's a fun bunch now - went to A Famosa together
21) Mom got into the hospital and thank god she's alrite now
22) Had 4 birthday celebrations the past year
23) Went for SPA~! My first experience...

Alrite...can't really think much already. ..should be all lar. And the new year resolution:

1) Diet...sigh..so hard to get the motivation for this
2) Finish reading all the books that I had left unread or half way read
3) Travel to somewhere...haven't decided on this yet
4) Shop less, save more
5) Do something out of the ordinary ...at least one thing, still trying to narrow down some stuff that I can do :P

Don't really dare to have so many resolutions since most of it might take a lot to achieve...but I think I achieved one of last year's resolution which is to update my blog. so...yippee to that~!

and the start of the new year was the date for the toll hike. Now have to divert my route, and I'd need to wait till 730 to leave office..let's hope the jam already ease.

This is what's left...

Sighh.....

Where's my wash basin???

I live in a dangerous neighbourhood

What you think was safe once is no more safe now....Even at home~! Damn, my backyard was broken in yesterday and the people took away the steel wash basin. Well, besides that, they've been "visiting"my backyard for scrap metal and stuff... I can't really do much, since no one's home. Report to police? Not that they can do much either, it is afterall a small matter to them. But what's lacking at my neighbourhood is police patrol, or even neighbourhood watch. The neighbourhood watch is only for those who paid them to do it. Not that they go around in the afternoons when the robbers strike. They do it in broad daylight~!!!

My neighbour was robbed in front of her house about 2 weeks ago. She was coming down from her car to open the gate, then the robber came, threaten her at knife point and robbed her~! It happened at about 5-6pm...c'mon~!! daylight robbery....gosh...what neighbourhood am I living in man??? I need to move already... oh ya...and this was the second time that it happened to my neighbour.

A colleague related her story to me, she was surrounded by a group of people with parang...not knife but PARANG when she was walking from her house to her car...they robbed her there and left. happened in PJ...but doesn't mean can't happen anywhere else...

So in conclusion ..there's no such thing as safe anymore. I should be putting my migration plan a few years ahead.... sigh....

Year end sickness...

Damn...been coughing a lot lately. Sigh, I want to get well by tomorrow I hope. Brother's ROM thingy is this coming weekend. I seriously need to get well. Fever and cough...sigh..might take sometime...but feeling way better already.

I WANNA GO FOR A HOLIDAY~! PJ just asked me for Bangkok around end of march, early april next year. Most probably will go la. haha...bought the Phantom of the Opera tickets for next year. Another SGD120 gone. it's SGD~!! only showing in Singapore mar. Don't want to miss that. Should be worth the watch...getting a balcony seat somemore. Hmmm....Something to look forward in 2007.

Big expenditure during December. Need to save. Don't know what other things that are going to come up...it's only the beginning of the month. Feels like so long...going to make 2 trips to Singapore this month. One for this weekend and another during Christmas. so there's 2 weekends taken up. Another one would be for new year dy....Judy said something bout a party. If she tells me more about it, might consider that.

Money spending weekend

Wow...Year-End-Sales just started..and I'm proud to announce that I've contributed to the country's economy already. Even prouder coz I didn't get SHOES~! Sihsin labeled me as the shoe-freak dy. Maybe will be able to find some when I'm down in Singapore for the weekend. Yeap, brother's ROM thingy is this coming weekend. Very fast. Not sure whether my mom will actually like the dress I bought...but then again, it's REALLY hard to satisfy her...so DON'T CARE.

I've realised I've been spending a lot of time with SC these 2 weekends. Haha, just like the good ol' days. Her birthday is coming soon....can't really think of what to get her. She got me this crystal rose thingy from HK. Her annual family trip. Wah, talking bout family trips, Jac is in China now also. Another annual family trip. CW will be going to Taiwan for his family trip....Hmm.....everyone going for family trips. And yea, should start this tradition in my family also lar. Maybe next year...I need to save money for that. RM -> SGD.....not that I can take a lot of it. It'll just have to happen ..SLOWLY. :p

24th Birthday celebration

Thank you to all for my friends and colleagues that were there to celebrate it with me. This year is a good year. At least I know my birthday wish is coming true.

Total candles blown out for this memorable occasion: 1+1+24+24+10=60!!!! Gosh, I turn 60 this year. nevermind..i'm still happy that everyone took the effort to prepare and have those celebrations.

1) Celebrations with colleagues:
TGIF lunch. Had spaghetti, they made me do the Birthday ritual thingy. Haha...a bit embarassing, so thank God no one got it on video. It's just me singing song...out of tune~! :P
Had a birthday treat there. Videos will be uploaded to my multiply site later. After that, they bought me a secret recipe cake for tea time. Chocolate Indulgence ....yumm... they took 24 small candles and put it all around. Pics will be in my multiply site also. Too lazy to upload all here.



2) Celebration with Kura-Kuras
Steamboat at Chiang Wei's place. He's nice enough to prepare the soup base and buy the other food stuff in the market. Kesian him, went to market and kena called uncle. :P But nvm, it was one incredible effort to collect everyone and celebrate my brithday. Thank you kura-kuras~! Thanks to Thean for the gift also. Love it~! We makan till all stomach bloated and the cake was GOOD~!! Still don't know who smashed my face on it.


3) Celebration at Wong Kok
Belated birthday celebration with Mell, CY, Seng, Koh, SC and the birthday boy, Yin Hau. went to Wong Kok for dinner. Thanks to Mell, CY and YH for the present. I like it...will use it next time. We had the birthday treat in Wong Kok also...the Big Glass of tea. Had some food that didn't really taste that nice. But we all had a good laugh, coz Ah Seng, the big joker/storyteller was there.



Well, there's also Chew to thank for the dinner on Monday nite. And those who sent all the birthday sms-es, emails and also calls. Especially touched when Zheng called all the way from UK. Thanks Thanks....Many Many thanks.. can check out the multiply site for the rest of the pics la.

THE DAY

Once a year..
It's here again..
Getting older..
Getting wiser..
Thank you all..
For remembering..
the day..
MY DAY..

Are you healthy?

My Singapore trip this time around was...informative. Yea, one day we were out for lunch in Toa Payoh and there's this free health screening and dental checkup organised by the NUS Medical and Dentistry students. Whoa, med students...all leng chai and leng luis... :P But all of them are in their 3rd year of studies I think.

It was gaining the interest of a crowd of senior citizens. Well, since they offer really good goodie bags, my parents, my sis-in-law and I thought...what the heck?it's free and I get free stuff. So we went to get our queue numbers. First start off with the weight and height measurements. Next was my blood pressure and then glucose level. Nothing much, besides the fact that I'm overweight...sigh... BMI was not at a healthy side. I kinda expected that. And the soon-to-be doctor also said, besides that, I'm perfectly healthy...hmm.. After that, I think I should go and get myself a full body checkup. They had to take my BP readings 3 times. First 2 times shows that it was quite high. The 3rd shows that I'm normal. Freaked me out a bit. My glucose level was normal too.

We thought of going away before the dentistry student approached my mom, telling her bout the free dental checkup. So it was another round of waiting for the checkup. After years and years of not visiting a dentist; the results: I need scaling ( whatever that means... ). The student just told me to go to a dentist and mention that. Ok...and she was also nice enough to chat a little while. So happened that she's Malaysian too. And after the lesson on how to brush your teeth, she passed me a bag of goodies. I can say..their freebies..is REALLY good~! Thinking back on my uni days, there weren't one/more company that's willing to sponsor that much of stuff~!! So it was a rewarding day...I mean, besides the freebies,it does make me stop and think bout getting that full body checkup. As they always say, prevention is better than cure...

RM35 for a school bus seat???

Talking bout travelling in the festive season, I know:

1. Seats are limited or even not available for last minute ppl
2. There's gonna be LOTS and LOTS of ppl
3. JAM

So my travel experience this time:

1. Got my ticket to Singapore on Hari Raya eve. ( Lucky shot, bought it 2 days before but then it was the last seat and the ride was bumpy.) There was a couple, from the way they were talking, I guess, they might be from Indon? Don't really care, but I know they were heading to JB. What happened was they didn't check on their bus ticket when they bought it. it was written there 10:30 AM. The time then 10:30 PM. So we were all held up because these 2 ppl would not budge, especially the wife. She keeps on saying that she got night tickets, and this is the once in a year thing, with prayers and all that. At one point, I do pity her. But then again, it was her mistake for not checking the ticket issued. (LESSON TO BE LEARNT 1: Always check the details of the tickets purchased before leaving the counter~!) So, after 15 minutes of really high pitch bickering with the husband, the bus driver decided to let her sit on the step, promising her that she'll reach her destination. She actually did sit on the step for that 4-5 hours journey. So that was my way there.

2. My way back. Was on the Singapore Express to JB. In Larkin, there were these "poachers" looking for their "victims". People always say, buy from the counters to avoid conmen. Well, what I did was exactly that and I still kena tipu~! Stupid~! The fella pointed to the picture of their typical express bus. So yea, ok. You charge me RM35 and you send me back to my hometown. Fine, in my heart I was thinking, 1030am bus, brings me back to Klang, okay. Although dad suggested RM25 that goes to KL. But why the hassle? Mind as well go straight back. BUT you know what? We got a RM35 SCHOOL BUS SEAT each. DAMN~! WTF is this? You tell me straight that it's a school bus instead of showing me the picture and tell me loads of crap. SUPER WIRA express, not going to take that bus ever again~!! ( LESSON TO BE LEARNT 2: ALWAYS ask what bus, always buy earlier tickets to get better seats )

I think the most important lesson is: DON'T TRAVEL DURING FESTIVE SEASON~!

*This post was suppose to be posted earlier before I went to Penang, but got caught up with work in the middle of composing.

A short trip

Singapore~! Haven't been there for a few months...lemme think, hm...don't really remember when I last visited. The Raya hols was around, didn't have much to do so decided to come down for a break, since I got the whole week off. My gosh...my accumulated hours came up to be 47 hrs~! Can you believe that?~! Since I don't get to earn much, so mind as well I take the break. There's nothing much to do here. Pratically lazing around, XBox, then Drama serials, then playing with my nieces.

Just saw the mail from Fatt. He said "Have you thought of the New Year resolution we made last year?" and something about have you achieve it. Frankly, I'm not sure whether I made any. But to sum it up for now, it's been a good year despite some sad stories. I've met with the Kura-Kura ppl, made efforts to meet up with old friends, shopped a lot compared to last time, got a new niece ( and one more should be arriving in November), my 3rd brother getting registered in Dec( banquet next yr), got invited to 2 weddings (haha, think i blogged about that), lost my W550, finally went to Penang for work, my first SPA experience, blogging more than last time, haven't found my knight in shining armour though....the list goes on. Hmm...it'll be in my blog somewhere in December la, maybe some other stuff will happen by next month or even next week~! Anyway, back to the resolution thingy, think will make one at the end of the year.

That's all for now la...want to catch some TVB shows. Will only be back home on Sunday. Then it's work again~!

A Quick Entry

This is will be a short entry. Am back in town after a short trip to Penang. A bit sick of that place already lar...but will still make a trip up there after Raya. Let's hope it'll turn out better than expected. It's really nice to see all the hard work put into it and the results are good. I think the most satisfying part of the whole project was when we first receive the statistics...and the project is gonna end soon. =D Coming to the ending of October. Wow..there's like 2 more months and it's BYE BYE 2006. Still uncertain about the whole office-shifting thing. I might end up in KL or Shah Alam. Let's hope it's the latter. =D

Will end here la..nothing much is coming into my head now. I want to leave the office already.

Penang...again

Well well..I am back here. This time around, I'm staying in this luxurious hotel; Northam. Ask any Penangnites...they will know which hotel. hehee...lovely view. This time staying on the 24th floor. And it's been work since I've reached here on Tuesday. That Tuesday morning was really cool, it's like battle station in the meeting room. It was 8.10pm ( yea, was late coz I needed to pick everyone up) , everyone was geared up for the challenges that was to come. Well, some glitches in the morning, that needed us to patch the right things back in. Said something wrongly to the boss at the same time...I dunno what to feel anyway. Sighh...

So been driving all around Penang, and this time around, there's more people in the car. Not as stressed out as last time as the seniors are with us this time around. According to schedule, I'm suppose to be here for 2 weeks. This is my 5th day here dy. Had to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival here. Not celebration also, coz was working and came back so tired. Was working on saturday too.

Been having the hotel buffet breakfast daily...and too much of it, getting BORING~! Too much of hawker food is also boring~~~!! Today, met up with CM, ST, CK, CK, KH, Shaun, Fai for dinnner. Ate at Hai Nan Town near the ferry jetty. Food was a little expensive but it was good. After that was Tong Sui at Jalan Nagor. Not that bad. Probably coz we're too full, then din finish. Oh ya, before that met up with Cheng Mun. Frankly, I forgotten it's her bday. Always thot it's tmr....but nvm. Bought her a cup of coffee. Don't feel that bad dy. Went shopping a while with her also.

So it's another driving day tmr...need to get some time off when I get back to KL.

Pigging around

Not even sure that word exist~! But I've been sleeping a lot the past weekend. It's like a sleeping weekend..totally. Tried to finish up The Triangle..but I slept off...AGAIN~!!!! Don't really know what's going on.

So besides sleeping the only interesting thing I did over the weekend was attending Fatt's performance with Every Fallen Thursday in S.I.T. Kinda cool..feels like being back in uni. Truthfully, I think his band is kinda cool. I like the music that they play too. I'm surprised. :P Anyway, that show cost us RM10 each. It was entertaining enough. Dances and singing. It's really like those uni activities last time la. Sooo missing it.

Another thing to blog about is Fatt lost his car in SS15!! Poor thing. Lost his guitar too. I think this year is the most dramatic for him lar. He met with accident, had to claim insurance for the damage, then now his car got lost. So ppl...really, dun leave anything valuable in ur cars mann...especially laptops. Thank god he took out his new laptop and brought it with him. Last Friday left my laptop in my car, so worried from the moment I step down from the car till I got home. So the next time also I'll be bringing my laptop down la. Doesn't matter how heavy, I'll drag it along if I have to.

New week, was told to go for outstation tomorrow. So need to prepare for that. And besides that, will just sit and wait for the next thing to happen...*yawn....

Crappy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid blog...kicked me out when i was done with my post. Totally lost the whole piece that I composed since an hour ago~! KNS~!

Lazy to re-type all lar...just highlight the main things...which was the wedding last weekend. Everyone had a great time. It wasn't a grand thing. Just simple and nice. That's how I want my wedding to be also. It was suppose to be a very sweet event, with the bride and groom exchanging their vows, but the groom...need to make corrections to the previous post la...let's just say he's a better engineer than a romantic guy. :P The bride was beautiful, the car was really nice too. The photographers were good too. I prefer this wedding dinner than the previous wan lar. My colleagues were good. Eating with them was funny from the time the night started. It was fun~! Had a little too much of alcohol on that night too. Din get drunk, but a lot to give me a headache. But after that also joined the Kura-Kura-ians for a game of pool and yumcha session before I really got back about 2 plus. Slept straight after that.

Friday nite got a visit from an old friend all the way from Ampang. CY came to visit and yumcha session in Starbucks till bout 12 plus. He started la...with his stories bout his work and all. It's like you heard it all before...but he's considered lucky to be able to travel around...he's probably off to Laos already now. But he's complaning bout his work already...and I cannot take the bragging part. Maybe he din meant it with the bragging, but it sounded like it when he said it. I wonder if he knows... and I don't really know how to say it to him also. So I just let him talk la.

Ok lar..another working week already. Need to pay my loans too. Think I just got an SMS to remind me of the due date. :p Will get it done during lunch. So that's all...don't want the server to kick me out again.

Almost almost...

Yea..thank God again for brakes mann....Close shave as what Steph said. Almost bang into a Waja coz of the sudden emergency brake of the cars in front...not sure how many. But no accidents happened. THANK GOODNESS. Fully stepped on my brakes.. Sudden adrenaline rush to the head also. Note to self: Keep a reasonable distance with the car in front next time. ( I doubt that kinda note will work, but it's worth a try :P )

Latest news...i got my laptop RAM upgraded. it's running on 1GB of RAM..which is a big improvement to it, but starting up still takes up some time compared to the upgrade from 256MB to 512MB last time. Too much stuff at my start-up, need another round of "housekeeping".

Was at KLCC yesterday for the Telecommunications exhibition. Met up with some old friends..mostly juniors. Even saw my cousin there, but he said he almost could not recognise me. Nothing much that really attracts me there. You get awed with the speed of the latest wireless broadband...1Mbps. Besides that, it's basically exhibition of products/tools. Not much freebies for us too. Only a couple of pens, calendar. Oh ya...took picture with Dayang Nurfaizah, one of the finalist for One in A Million.

Recently got back in touch with Khai Tzer. He will be appearing on TV soon enough. will watch out for that. Not sure he's ok bout me giving him some publicity, but watch out for it. Debuting on the 21st of this month. Will probably meet up with him to yumcha one of these weeks and get more info on that.

So boring today...but I hope no more accidents or near-accidents encounter already lar. *touchwood* Looking forward for the weekends........ :)

Wedding dinner receptions

Once mention the word WEDDING, I'm sure each girl that you meet has their own DREAM/FANTASY wedding. I was at one last weekend. A good friend of mine finally got married after 7-year-relationship with his gf. More of a typical Chinese wedding banquet with 9-course dinner and super noisy environment with old relatives speaking loudly in Hokkien. CJ was telling me she wants her wedding to be one dedicated for friends, and the other for family. Hmm...looking at my brothers weddings...things are getting more boring? It'll start off with slide presentation, then food presentation..then makan..then speech, then champagne, then cake cutting ceremony.

There's something new this coming wedding that I'll be attending this weekend. It's my colleague. Romantic guy I assume...coz it's all about first impression. The wedding invitation is something new. Lovely poem written by his future bride-to-be. Custom made. Impressive( well..it also means he already dumped in a whole lum sum for this once in a lifetime thing...which I think is REALLY sweet ). Din take a snap shot of it...but it's just sweet. And the wedding will be the first ever buffet-style wedding that I'll be attending. ( Not that I'd attend a lot before, heyyy...come to think of it, this islike my 2nd wedding invite...I mean...not including those relatives-invite-parents-and-parents-drag-us-along type. ) And I heard a lot bout his plans for his wedding. It's gonna be under a canopy, they are gonna exchange vows in the garden before the dinner reception. Wow..sounds like what you see on tv eh? Looking forward to that. Will be bringing my camera then.

Last week was also Fatt's first gig. I missed that coz mood down. I dun really know what mood I was in. Just in the mood to stay home alone. I heard it was okay, wasn't that bad. I slept at 12. Heard fireworks outside, just wasn't in the mood and also tired and restless at the same time. Weekend also just passed by. After the wedding dinner, went for drinking session at CW's house. Drank quite a lot..din reach drunk stage. I was still very much sane. Fatt was totally drunk and started crapping and screaming. LD, WS and CW also KO. It wasn't that bad session, laughed at Fatt was the best entertainment la. So after that, all went back. The next day went yumcha at Oldtown. Yea, the Omega half boiled eggs was really GOOD~! :P

So after that LONG weekend...(friday din felt like a working day.... ) it's back to work~!

New phone, old line

After the incident 2 weeks ago, I bought over my colleague's phone. Motorola E398. Looks new. Getting used to the Motorola interface. The surround sound from the phone is kinda cool. Still discovering....sigh...makes me think of my lost phone. So many other features that I havent look at yet...

Okay, been busy with work. Slowed down the past few days. Money also still that low...credit card bills unsettled. Ok...been complaining bout lack of money since Day 1, but it's the truth. Eating out with my colleagues during lunch is still that hurting to my pocket. Yesterday was Dragon-i...cost RM25 for each. But it was goooood food...so no complaints. REALLY good xiao long bao~! and also the Shanghai noodles. GOOD GOOD.

Makan session with the Kura-Kura-ians last weekend. Sat was at Gold Leaf, eat dishes with rice. Sun was in Port Klang, eating noodles...mostly spicy stuff, Kok Wai was trying very hard to eat. Hahah...poor thing. Think when the guys ordered they totally forgot bout KW. He ended up with 3 glasses of cincau~! :P The food? Not bad at all. Never explored Klang for food that much...till I met the Kura-Kura-ians. Last weekend, we had this small ceremony in Chiang Wei's place to mark the end of the badminton match that lasted for 2 months. Haha...yea...longer than World Cup... :p Certs were passed out and we had COLD Dominos pizza coz our dear Fatt was late. After that was squash session where Chiang Wei accidentally hit the squash ball to my eye~!!! I'm ok lar...just blueblack. Still got a mark.... hopefully it gets well before my parents return for this weekend.

So that's all for this time...can't believe my friend said blogging is a waste of time...wow...his words, sank in there and then. If you're reading this, I'm ok, I respect other ppl's decisions... :) Lunch ...~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pure rotten luck

Name: Sony Ericsson W500
Lifetime: 8 months
Case: STOLEN~! @ Gurney Plaza, Penang

What the heck is wrong with the society these days mann....My precious was stolen from me on that particular Saturday where I thought I was lucky enough to catch Click and also buy some stuff for half price~!!~ The world of unfairness..Of course, I am to be blamed for it also coz I wasn't careful enough. This is soooooo sad...................... Penang...some memories MAN....

I'm currently sending over files back to KV, been tired and sleepless the past nite..rushing to finish all. This is like torture....although the up part bout the whole trip to Penang is meeting up with my friends...and GOOD FOOD. I've gained back all the weight I lost the past week. But there's also the down part on the phone thingy...SIGHH...alrite...practically brain dead and not processing alot of things well..better write in another time...

PENANG

Mention Penang and all you can think is: FOOD~! Been here for 5 days already, only ate like normal yesterday. Before that was busy driving around for my scan drive. Being paired with a weak partner is not encouraging plus all the problems with the equipment. WHICH in the end of the day needed another team to help us out. They are here today and WOW, we're here in this deluxe suite. :P Better than those RM80 - RM100 /day hotels.

Yesterday was bad, I kinda reached breaking point. After that, I realised that I'm working with a very united and supportive team. Which is another push for myself to work harder. All I have to learn now is to not stress myself out that easy. Think it's the no-communication with my partner is the one causing the anxiety and insecurity. So crazy man... but one msg from KY(my supervisor)...he said this: "YL, don't think so much, there's not big problems that we cannot solve,take care".

With that said, I cried. I cried for thinking so much, I cried coz I lost confidence, I cried coz i was just plain stupid. But I know how much my teammates support me, so I'm all well and will do better. I just need to stop making mistakes...I SERIOUSLY need to learn that. Actually before the Penang trip, Chow(my previous supervisor) was very helpful in finding a place for me to stay. Gosh, I love my colleagues a lot.

SO, it's getting late. I'm on the 29th floor of Northam Hotel, overlooking the sea. Simply magnificent. I'm gonna spend my weekend here. Kinda last minute decision, but will make an effort to meet up with all my friends. So far met up with ST, CK, Kok Hui, Shaun, Foong Tek, Cheng Mun and Kenneth. Will be meeting up Poh Imm and William. The rest...I'll see how. :) So will sign off frm Penang. It had been a tiring, crazy but most of all, a week of discovery. :D

Stress at work

Wow...I'm finally feeling that STRESS...Been crazy these few days with the database stuff. Killing my eyes with excel... That day was more stressed out when the engineer told me I have limited time to executed some commands. Damn scaryyyy.....

Anyway...it's getting close to ONE year. Yea...in a couple of days actually. Going to treat myself with something good. Still not sure what is that yet. Kinda broke this month having to pay for my car insurance and Penang and family day thingy this coming Saturday.

Last weekend...Beggar chicken. Well...one thing for sure is I wont be making a second trip back there to eat. All the stuff kinda taste the same...something like stewed herbal chicken/duck/pork leg.The boneless fish was interesting, but in the end, just tasted like some fish cake. Soup also tasted like some normal pig intestine soup that you can find it at any normal hawker stall. Rating: 2 out of 5.

Oh ya..the Tmn Wahyu Fish Head Curry. Again, expectations were a bit too high, so kinda disappointed in the end. Same thing as Beggars Chicken. Expensive, not worth the money and travel time.

Food talk eh...hmm...since we're there. There's this nice place in Bdr Puteri. Bumbu Bali. Had Mell's bday there. I think the food is quite okay. Balinese food. Most of the marination had a touch of lemongrass taste in it. With other spices I assume. Portion quite big when you're talking bout those Nasi type of orders. For the ladies menu, well...it's a small small portion. Kinda felt like being ripped off.... :P but then, it's low fat and all that crap lar. As friend stated, food with that spice taste can only last one or 2 trips, and you'll get bored of it.

Another one that I like now is O~Viet. in Sunway. Nice food, nice restaurant...nice drink~!! There's only one cold drink that I like from there....DST5: 3 bean mix. ..or something like that. The hot drink? Drip-Coffee....STRONG AND SIMPLY GOOD. food wise...so far, most of the stuff that I tasted is kinda nice. Again with the taste of the lemongrass, but it's really good food.

Jap food....ZEN. My TOP list of food to eat when I have the money. Can be quite expensive, but food is good, so no other bad comments.Place is nice, quite, ambience is there. Sunway also. Must be a place to try out...Sashimi is fresh...havent tried their sushi. Unagi is not that bad there either.

Fast food wise...I kinda like the KFC BBQ Cheesy meltz...not that bad. McD's beef foldover is also good. Pizzza hut...i like their pasta range...currently looking at the Prawn Olio. only tasted once...need to try it again to really confirm it's nice. :P

Well well...enough of food talk already. Going off....it's another tiring day. It's been a moody day for me...I just want it all to go away, but I guess only that someone can help me with it...sighh...