My Symphony...

Just dropping by...

2011-07-31T22:51:00.002+08:00

Tried accessing this site, checking to see if it has been disabled..seems not. Too lazy to write these days.

Ticket - bought
Itinerary - done
Budget - done
Train timetable - done
Currency - already exchanged since March
Visa - pending
Shopping list - WIP

Yippee! Can't wait for trip! Keeping fingers crossed that it will be all systems GO this round. I MISS YOU!!!!

Before that...going for a short getaway next week :)

Neglected

2010-08-15T22:44:00.002+08:00

Hmm...my blog has been neglected for quite some time...sob sob...no time to take care. Have activities lined up every month till year end. Will be tiring and burning a big hole in my pocket...but taking it as it comes. :)

Quote of the Day

2010-05-04T14:09:00.001+08:00

"Badminton is for sissies, squash is for machos". Go figure it out.

Restless

2010-05-03T10:35:00.005+08:00

For the first time, on a replacement holiday, I feel restless and lost. Don't know what to do. Had the intention to wash both cars and wax one of them but woke up past 9 and sun was shining brightly d. So gave up that plan. Maybe I shall just go read some backlog magazines that I have. Tons of them actually...

My whole body is aching. Went for squash last week and after effects only hit me on the 2nd day. :I If you think badminton is tiring...try going for a game of squash! Might go for another session this evening pending court availability. :)

Ah well, maybe I shall just go procrastinate...

人生

2010-03-02T10:34:00.001+08:00

珍惜眼前人。今天不知明天会发生什么事。在短短的八天内，两位朋友回到佛土去了。

上星期一，一位年纪轻轻26岁的朋友因在年初二时脑袋里血管爆裂而往生。今天一早又收到消息一位朋友的父亲今早往生了。朋友的父亲已住院两个星期了。我们还经常每天都有去探望他。情况还渐渐好的。他人也蛮老了，90岁。可能是时候回到佛陀的身边。

朋友，安息吧！愿你们一路好走。回到佛陀身边吧！

Hello 2010

2010-01-20T23:32:00.008+08:00

It's more than a month this place was not updated...have been busy busy busy. Hopefully it can slow down a bit before the next wave comes. :)

Within 2 months, I've been to 3 countries. First to here for vacation. It was a blast!

Then to here to attend a wedding, but I didn't get to visit QVM this trip. Was busy running around town helping with the wedding.

And less than 5 days upon reaching back to Penang, I was off to here on business. By that time I was so exhausted to the max. With the F1 taxi drivers bringing your blood pressure up, I didn't felt like going anywhere afterwork. Moreover, it was cold. But i got to see snow for a day. :)

Nope, don't get to rest upon returning from Shanghai, the momentum kept on going for the Penang banquet. It was great that everything went on smoothly. Thanks to the help of many parties.

I will post up pics of Penang banquet once I get green light from the newlyweds :)

I'm Still Alive

2009-11-25T22:36:00.002+08:00

Yea...long time didn't update my blog. I am still well alive. My photos are way way way backlog. I'll try to post up Day 1 pics in these 2 days. Had a great time in Japan. Wished that I had more time to spend at Dotombori (Osaka) for shopping! :( Nevermind, maybe there's another time for it. :)

Am kinda poisoned while I was at BIC Camera. Darn but due to constraints, I can't buy it now. Guess will have to just be contemplete with what I have at the moment and will see how it goes next year.

Better get back to process/select my pics first for posting. Till the next post...

Freaking Crazy Week

2009-10-02T16:35:00.002+08:00

It has been a freaking crazy week. Non stop working. Issues, upgrades, vendor escalations, customer demands, after work activities etc etc. I hate it...every time when wanna travel also like that one eh. Crazy crazy crazy...

I have never felt so tired before, even my boss said during my 1:1, you sound very tired. Yeah...

Was given the opportunity last weekend and carried out some wedding photography. It was my 1st. How was it you may ask? Err...not so prepared..snapping at the right timing.. inexperienced.. tiring.. etc etc. Ah 1st's times are always like that eh.. *grin* I too had my 1st ride in a Mini Cooper S and also on a Harvey!! Woo hoo...will post some pics later.

Finally it's Friday, think I'll get any rest? NOPE! Tomorrow will be another full day till late night over at a friend's orchard near Mengkuang Dam to celebrate mooncake festival. I'm gonna pack my kit, tripod and flash (thanks to a friend) inclusive there to practice some night shots.Sunday morning to be spent over at temple till 2pm-ish.

Sheesh man, wonder if I'll ever have time to pack my luggage! Or maybe I'll just hop onto the plane, bagless, and shop there for my new wardrobe of clothes? Good idea?

Jeans

2009-09-04T15:45:00.000+08:00

Jeans - I'm sure we all own at least 1 pair of it. How much are we willing to pay for a pair of it?

One fine day last week, I went to 2 malls and did some jeans hunting. Existingly I have 3 pairs of jeans, 2 from US and 1 from Hongkie. 2 out of 3 are already dropping down and it's time to downsize. I've tried on so many jeans in a day! Most of the time I have problem with jeans whereby it fits my thigh but there is a big gap at the waist portion. But last week, I finally found the one that suits me best. It slips on my thighs nicely and there is no big gap at the waist! I so love it. BUT. It costs RM259! With $$ running low, it feels a bit painful to buy that pair of jeans that I like! Sobz...so in the end I told the salesguy that I'll consider first and walked out from the shop.

Should I or should I not get it?

New Season Soon

2009-08-10T08:35:00.001+08:00

It has been quite a number of months where the English series season ended. We were anticipating every week for the next episodes, what will happen to Hiro Nakamura? What powers will Syler obtain next? What tricks does Dr House have up his sleeve on his next patient? Since House has entered the psychotic hospital, what will happen in the next season?

All these anticipation...Fret not, the new season will be coming soon! Come WW39, we will have our favourite movie series airing new seasons! House, Heroes, CSI Miami, CSI New York, CSI Las Vegas, and even new season of Amazing Race! There will be a 2 hour season premier of Heroes and House! Awesome!

Looking forward to the series marathon again in September!

Cherish

2009-07-31T00:04:00.001+08:00

Cherish your loved ones...
For it is the small things that you remember;
the little imperfections that made them perfect for you!

Information Overload

2009-07-24T22:49:00.005+08:00

So many books, so many brochures, pamphlets, not forgetting the world wide web. Wonder how much my brain can take in. Information overload! It needs a reboot to free up the cache. :)

It's good nevertheless, it's all good...

New Room

2009-07-20T23:05:00.007+08:00

Ok this is long overdue. Here're some pics of my new room. Anyone wanna help me unload my stuff? :) All the rooms still do not have mosquito netting and curtains though. The want to change all the build-in cupboards have to be placed on hold tentatively. There'll be another single bed fitted into my room later on.

messy room

another view

night light, mum says it looks Japanese

Manager's Backing

2009-07-15T13:18:00.000+08:00

It's good to know that you have your manager's backing with relation to the earlier post.

Trip Planning, Room Reno Completed, Photo Shoot

2009-07-13T23:08:00.002+08:00

Did quite a lot of reading up for our upcoming trip in Nov during this long weekend. Now I have a better idea of where to visit in Kyoto and how to save on transportation fees. I shall come up with 1st draft soon. :)

Have 'moved' back into my 'new' room after sleeping on the floor downstairs for the past 5 weeks. My room walls were given a new coat of paint and did some rearranging of furniture in my room. We shall wait a little longer before we have all the cupboards changed. Hopefully my small wall lamp will be fixed up some time this week. Will share some pics of my new room in a few days time. It was easy to just dump everything into boxes prior to the renovation. Now that the rooms are ready, wonder how long will it take me to move the books back into order in my cabinets? Ah...

Tried some photo shoot during the weekend, playing with lights. Had to make do with bare minimum what I had in hand only as I do not own a flash. The object is still not sharp enough though. Will need more practise on this.

Budgeting Structure UP

2009-07-06T23:39:00.000+08:00

For a start, have managed to get the budgeting structure up with bare minimum at the moment with only airfare, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Woohoo! Engine starting to warm up liao.

Conversation with My Bro

2009-07-06T22:00:00.003+08:00

Here was what we talked about like 10 mins ago...can vomit blood.

Me says:your toys are being put to use
Me says:just to let u know
Bro™ says:wat? u found my dildo?
Bro™ says:omfg
Me says:ya...i found your toys!
Me says:and i am playing with them
Me says:hahaha
Me says:i will wash them up for u
Me says:dont worry
Me says:let me send u the link
Me says:http://leebotakstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/space-jam-bunny.html
Me says:http://leebotakstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/henry-j-waternoose-iii-in-action.html
Me says:check them out n see if u recognize your toys
Bro™ says:i even forgot if i had these ones
Me says:hahah
Me says:you have many more in your cupboard!
Me says:i'm gonna take them out and play with them
Me says:and u know what i found?
Bro™ says:wat
Me says:i even found xxx's phone number under one of your toys!
Me says:sheesh
Bro™ says:dam
Bro™ says:ur'e finding all sorts of secret stuff in my room
Me says:yea Mun Wai says:first i find c*****
Me says:next i find your toys
Me says:and then i find your secret hiding place for phone numbers!
Me says:wonder what else i am gonna find later
Bro™ says:http://munnersymphony.blogspot.com/
Bro™ says:wats this? Mun Wai says:damn
Me says:blog la
Bro™ says:小慧
Bro™ says:HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA
Bro™ says:HAHHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAA
Me says:ugh...you wait and see...i will post this conversation online
Bro™ says:I actually posted the conversation to my friend already
Bro™ says:even before u mentioned it
Me says:bummer u

Count Down

2009-07-06T21:56:00.000+08:00

Exactly 4 more months. Counting down eagerly! Can't wait for the day to come.

Renovation

2009-06-30T00:25:00.004+08:00

Just thought of sharing the progress of on going renovation. Below 2 pics were taken on 6/24 morning. Room windows were removed off to be fitted with new ones.

Noticed how ugly the ceiling board was? I've been starring at it for the past 29 years! Bye bye to them!

My room is now completed and the wireman will come fix up the small room light tomorrow morning. The wall has been given a new coat of paint. Parquet floor has been varnished. The wall color I picked turned out much lighter than I expected. Next will need to redecorate my room.

Will post some pics of my new room next week.

Who Cares!

2009-06-25T15:58:00.001+08:00

The mouth belongs to other people,
I have no control over them,
and I dont intend to confront those people.
I don't want to care what other people say and comment.
I will let it be as it is,
for I know what is the truth.

It does not matter where I work from,
be it from tech savvy Japan or secluded Saudi desert or on the Himalayan mountain range,
As long as the place has internet connection,
that is where you will find me.

At the end of the day,
I finish up my work,
I complete my IMBOS,
I produce end results,
I can answer to my manager.

That is the most important part.
Who cares what other people says!

Breakaway

2009-06-15T16:00:00.001+08:00

At some point, it feels great to breakaway.
Breakaway from all the polutions of human mankind.
Breakaway from all the gossiping.
Breakaway from all the rat race that is surrounding you.
Breakaway from all the ...

No, I am not in a bikini in a secluded island.
No, I am not enjoying the perks of airconditioning in the freaking hot weather.
No, I am not on leave.

I am just having my breakaway time!

Such Bad Luck

2009-03-09T14:33:00.005+08:00

I tell you I had such bad luck these few days man...I had bugs in my food two days in a row! On Friday morning I had breakfast at the roti bakar place. 3 of us went there and all 3 of us ordered the same food - which was 3 sets of softboil egg and roti bakar. So ngam the softboil egg I got, when I ate till the bottom, I saw a bug there, more of like a small cockroach! Darn! Eat till bottom only see that...

Then on Saturday night, we went to buy back dinner from Island Glades. I bought Pan Mee from the stall at Mandarin Cafe. Came back home to eat...yum yum. Eat till almost the end, then suddenly I felt like vomitting...WTF...I saw ANOTHER BIGGER BUG! BIGGER THAN YESTERDAYS! A 1.5cm long cockroach! Kanasai %^&*(!

Alex was laughing his head off at me...say I am SO lucky to eat bugs two days in a row. Agh....

So, on Sunday, we asked a friend what is the number to buy for cockroach. It was 427. So Alex said buy 7427 number lo. And last night we checked what number opened...and guess what?!?! It opened 4277 in Special!!! WTF!!! Aghhh....the 7 open in the wrong place!

Should I buy the number again today? I am contemplating...

...

2009-01-22T15:35:00.002+08:00

Don't know what to say...mo chang these few days...talked to much to uncle J. Later dunno will become like uncle J or not. Looks like a lot of things to do, but dunno what has been accomplished either. Ugh!!!

Mind suddenly went blank. Can't recall some important dates, can't do calculation. HELP! I think I'm gonna start eating chocolates!

New Year

2009-01-07T15:13:00.000+08:00

Start of the new year, no motivation to work after long break. Engine so cold now. Another 2 more weeks will be CNY...another holiday break...where to find motivation la!

More Ummph

2008-10-23T17:01:00.000+08:00

Ah...my babe's performance has increased slightly. This tank, she managed to go up till 400.1km, purely city drive! I know to some that figure is still not so good, but I am happy to see an improvement. Hopefully she can slowly increase and get better mileage for this tank. :)

接受

2008-10-11T22:37:00.002+08:00

现在的我，心情不知如何，开心？伤心？麻木？生气？失望？真的好复杂。。。

小时候，不知你有没有那种“被接受”的感觉。朋友不要参你一同玩，把你推到一边去，你会感到不被接受。上了中学，一定有一班你比较参得来的朋友。当你进入了college时期，也有你一班要好的朋友。

一男一女察出火花，男方要鼓起勇气来问女的“你愿意做我的女朋友吗？”女的点点头，这也是一种的“接受”。谈恋爱时，一对恋人在一起，也是一种的“接受”。到了某个阶段，要见家长，会慌张，不知对方家长是否会“接受”你？

我妈又再来吵我，都不明白她在吵什么，好烦。反正明年都有茶给她喝。你我之间的“接受”，不知何时才可实现。是否真的有缘无份。。。

Too much time today alone. Mind was wondering off again too far away.

Lesson of the Day

2008-10-03T11:17:00.003+08:00

Never try to wax two cars in a day!

Just completed one and another still waiting there for me to complete...my whole body is aching now and yet to recover from a 6 month layoff of badminton session on Wednesday!

Anyone wanna help?

Life Journey Part 2

2008-09-22T15:36:00.001+08:00

I didn't care what the person said, I worked my ass up from the bottom. I switched from 100m to hurdles event instead with the guidance of my coach. We had a huge pool of athletes in my school, so we had the privilege to specialize in certain events. Afternoon trainings were from 4-6pm. We had afternoon trainings every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays at Westland School field. Tuesday and Thursday trainings are held back at school. Occasionally when there is competition round the corner, we even had trainings on Saturday and Sundays. I skip Friday trainings for another reason. Tell you why later. J Can you imagine staying under the hot sun from 3:30pm onwards? Looking back, I can't imagine how I went through all the 6 years under the hot sun and yet I couldn't stand the heat now!

Be it rain or shine, trainings will carry on. On rainy days, we were placed through strength training either in the gym or some other activities. So there is no running away. :) The intensity will be toned down during off-peak season and for those who are in Form 3 and Form 5, we were not required to come to training after State level competitions in order for us to concentrate on our studies. Everyone…and I meant everyone from my coach, to my seniors and even juniors were rooting for me in my first zone level competition to beat that person, I came SO close to beating her. Just a minor mistake in the last hurdle cost me victory. Although I won 2nd place, but the joy of winning wasn’t there. Sigh…my coach came looking for me, sat down with me, asked me what had happened out there. I felt that I had let him down and also let myself down for not giving my 110%. I let that be a reminder to me and carried on training hard everyday…till the point that there was once I had a massive huge patch of blue black on whole of my left calve, from the top till the bottom. It was a very awful sight to see. It took close to 1 month to fully recover. Besides that, having blue black marks on my right knee was a norm to me.

As you can see, from the constant training and gym work, my bone structure changed and muscle build up, especially on my calves and arms. Well…that was the sacrifice that I had made in choosing my Athletic ‘career’. But I had no regrets on that. J Oh btw, did I mention to you before that my high school was very famous in sports? That was why we specially had this sports class where we studied in the morning and attended trainings in the afternoon. We were once known for being the power house in athletics, volleyball, netball, just to name a few. However, that is not the case anymore. From what I heard, after we left school and after the change of headmistress, the school sports standard dropped drastically coz the new headmistress only likes the students to excel in studies. Sob sob…

In my last 2 years of Athletics career, I changed my event from hurdles to pentathlon (五项全能). Heard of it before? It’s a 5 event event that takes place within 2 days – 100m hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, and 800m. Imagine the training I went through to correct my techniques….repeating them over and over again. All hard work paid off during my last year of high school and as the school captain that year, we managed to win back the champion school title which we marginally lost the previous year. That was so sweet! So, besides classes, most of my time during high school days was spent at Westland field and also over at Penang City Stadium or some times at USM stadium. My daily routine is pretty much mundane. Morning attend school, mum will come pick me up after school and I’ll have packed lunch in the car. Reach home, bath, try to finish up as much homework as possible, change, and then head off for training, come back home dinner, and then finish up homework, then sleep…and the cycle repeats again the next morning. Pretty mundane eh? To date, I still have the pair of spikes that I wear during high school days. I wanted to throw it away but my dad asked me to keep it.

As for badminton, I started playing I believe was in Standard 3/4 like that. When I was in Remove that year, dad sent me for trainings. So every Friday and Sundays were spent playing/training badminton at Bkt Dumber. There were a handful of female players only, so I mainly mix with the guys and train/play with them. J So I started training from remove right up till form 5. I carried on playing badminton when I was in college. Representing the faculty and also the college. Now working…also carry on playing badminton for the fun of it. Ai but then I’ve stopped for half a year d…rusty liao, no more stamina d. Surely whole body will ache with I start playing again next month. Need to get back in shape…..

Life Journey Part 1

2008-09-18T15:00:00.007+08:00

Reading one of Nicolekiss's September blog entry made me reflected on myself, how I walked the path of life since I was born. Childhood remains pretty vague to me at the point of time as I can't remember much. All I remembered was that my dad used to take me and my siblings to the playground near my house during the evenings for swings, slides, and monkey climbs. I can't even remember if I ever played masak-masak. But those do not matter to me anymore.

I attended kindy at USM, which was all thought in English. I finished reading the collection of Peter & Jane books and pretty much liked recess time when we get to go out to the field to play. :)

Moving from kindy to primary school was a nightmare as I went from a fully English spoken background to a fully Mandarin speaking Chinese medium primary school! Both my parents are English educated and although they have minimal command of Mandarin, I wasn't really exposed to it before I entered primary years. Imagine poor me not understanding a single word of Mandarin and the rest weren't that good in English. Communication was a big issue to me. I felt left out and didn't like to go to school. I even begged my mum not to send me there. It ended up my grandma had to accompany me to school. I really felt bad that she had to go through this together with me. Grandma I love you! During night time, my mum will sit down together with me to complete the massive tons of homework. This was also how she managed to pick up basic Mandarin. Nevertheless, I was a problematic child during primary school days right up to Primary 6, results were pretty bad. I was more inclined towards outdoors and fell in love with badminton and started running. I remembered during Primary 6, I took part in the 100m event during sports day and came in 3rd. I was on cloud nine that time. That was the start of my Athletics career.

As my results weren't too impressive in the UPSR exam, I had to do an extra year in Remove. I remembered the first two weeks, I attended the afternoon school session. One day, I was called upon and offered to attend classes in the morning session instead. This is a special morning session class in Remove, Form 1, and Form 2 for athletes in all fields. My parents didn't really object of me taking up this offer as long as my results are up to the mark. We attended classes in the morning, twice weekly morning trainings and trainings were also carried out in the afternoon. This was also the year where I experienced a lot of hurtful back stabbing from one of my classmate. It was really a bitter pill to swallow. I take it that the person was jealous because I wasn't a school representative during primary school and just based on a 3rd place win, I was being offered a place in Sports Class.

to be continued...

Happy Birthday Bro!

2008-09-16T15:09:00.002+08:00

Today's my brother's birthday! Happy Birthday Daniel! So you gonna make a b'day speach later tonight? :)

心酸

2008-09-16T15:03:00.001+08:00

好久没提起这件事情了。但今天不知不觉与一位同事谈话，提起这件事，控制不了自己，眼泪下流。目前只能默默然，勇敢地向前走。我哭了。。。

GeorgeTown a UNESCO World Heritage Site Celebration

2008-07-28T11:16:00.004+08:00

Had the opportunity to walk around inner George Town together with my dad on Saturday night for the celebration. There were a number of very nice Chinese Temples in inner George Town which I have never step foot in the vacinity before (how shameful). The temples were well restored and the paint work, vividly colored. Nice pictorial signboards were placed up at the temple grounds, explaining the historical origins of the temple and each architectural building or different parts of the building grounds.

Khoo Kongsi was beautifully lit up during the night time. Adding to the superb celebration atmosphere were cultural performances like chinese orchestras from secondary school students, operas, chinese puppets performances etc.

When we walked pass the old clock tower, the roundabout junction where the income tax office is, we saw a LOT of people waiting there. I was wondering what was going on. All of them were standing there waiting with their camera setup on tripod. Only them I recall that there will be fireworks display once the Penang Governor officially declares George Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This reminds me of our April Japan trip where a lot of the professional photographers were waiting patiently for the right time to snap nice shots of Sakura at Mt Minobu.

Of course I brought along my camera for photo taking session on this eventful day. Currently have yet to process them. Once done, they will be uploaded to smugmug. So stay tuned.

Goodbye MyPhotoAlbum, Hello SmugMug

2008-07-28T11:08:00.001+08:00

As the title says it all, my link at MyPhotoAlbum has been moved to the attic. Nevertheless, I have moved over to SmugMug. WooHoo..

I'm in the process of sorting out certain pictures to be uploaded. Do drop by to view my pictures and leave some comments! Thanks ya...

Munner's new site @ http://munwai.smugmug.com. Enjoy!

Chiba, Japan

2008-07-07T22:03:00.006+08:00

Yokoso Japan! This is my 2nd trip to Japan this year. Did a brief 2 day stopover in Chiba city on the way back from US. A friend from OSD joined me to Japan as she was on her way back from CR. There's basically nothing much to see in Chiba city unless you travel way out to the outskirts. Nevertheless, it was a great to be back in Japan again.

Our plane touched down at Narita slightly earlier than scheduled. We were practically alternating between running with our backpacks and doing speed walking from the gate to the immigration counters to catch a train out to Chiba St in 1 hours time. We made it onto the train with 10 mins to spare!

We were greeted by rain upon arrival at Chiba St. It was drizzling. I had quite a time walking down 3 flights of stairs carrying 2 big luggages. It was hard work. It was good that the hotel was near the train station and had no problem finding it after asking around on directions.

the 3 flights of stairs

Weather was around 22-24 degrees celcius with cloudy skies and slight wind blowing. Very nice weather indeed. The 1st day was spent exploring Chiba St, finding out if there're any escalator or elevator so that we do not need to climb those 3 flight of stairs again when we leave for Narita! I noticed that there's a small food shop that sells rice and ramen for as low as 300 Yen! Very good deal. And Filet-o-Fish is only 100 Yen! Savouring Japanese food is such arousing to our tastebuds. More so in Japan itself!

Our time in Japan was spent visiting temples, shrines, parks, walking around the city, looking at beutiful Japanese ladies, and also experiencing the Chiba Urban Monorail, where the tracks are actually at the top instead of bottom. Hence, the monorail cabin is hanging on the tracks. Not forgetting numerous visits to hyakuyen shops for our shopping spree! Hahaha...

Will there be a 3rd visit to Japan this year? I shall procastinate.....

Chicago Part 2

2008-07-07T21:26:00.005+08:00

I actually found Chicago to be a much nicer place than Vegas. The weather was nice and cooling, on top of that it's windy. I met up with a high school friend of my sis who is now based in Chicago. Met her at her neighbourhood and she bought me around her very nice hood which coincidently hosted the Art festival that particualr week. Basically they have stalls selling artistic items ranging from paintings, sculptures, to photography, not forgetting all the food and beer! I am not the artistic type of person but personally admired all the photography on display for sale, particularly the x-ray photography which I find it very interesting.

Attended training for a week over in Oak Brooks. A small city with nothing much of attraction which is about 20 mins drive away from Chicago City. However, McDonalds HQ is actually located in Oak Brooks. The building isn't impressive at all and it's called McDonald Plaza. They have a McDonald shuttle van plying the nearby offices, picking up customers and dropping them to the McDonalds outlet nearby!

Traffic is particularly bad from 5pm onwards when everyone tries to get onto the tollway/freeway. So it's stop and go traffic during that time. Each tollway which you pass thru will cost you USD 80 cents. There are small toll booths which are not man-ed, and you just throw in the 80 cents into the big 'bowl'. Right after the 'toll booth', you'll see a signboard, asking you to visit this particular website to pay your toll if you haven't done so. Wonder how many Americans actually do that in this materialistic and moral degrading society??

From my earlier posting, you may have known that my luggages did not arrive with me in Chicago on Saturday evening. I was bag-less for more than 48 hours! Damn it man. It was so unconvenient without all my necessities. It was such a relieve seeing my luggage at the front desk on the 3rd day. However, my relieve was cut short upon opening my luggage and seeing all the items was not in the order which I packed my bag in Vegas. There was a notice in my luggage, stating that TSA has opened my bags for inspection. It got worse whereby I found out that there were missing items in my luggage and they took/confiscated my M&M chocolates! Damn it. Of all things M&Ms?!?!?! Apparently my luggage strap went missing too. Heck.

周末

2008-07-07T21:10:00.002+08:00

上个周末你做了些什么呢？有没有完成你所想要做的事件？会不会觉得48小时不够用？或觉得不知到要做些什么好？

其实有好多事情需要做与处理，但到现在都还没完成。感觉上一无所成。是不是时间分配的不好？或是没意志力去完成呢？

Chicago

2008-06-14T09:29:00.000+08:00

Here I am, standing aimlessly at Chicago Ohare Airport, without my luggages! WTF, my bags did not arrive with me in Chicago! I am so cloth-less now! First United damaged my bag and not wanting to compensate me, now they loose my bags?! Damn it! Made a report at the United counter and they rest assured that my bags will be delivered to my hotel tomorrow morning.

Hertz provided me with this car and I was like "wow" when I saw it. Hmm...but I went back and told them that I do not need such a big car! Bummer me huh?

This was what I exchanged for in the end - Mazda 6. It's not a bad car at all. VERY good on petrol consumption. To date, I've driven more than 100 miles (1 round trip out to Chicago city and daily stop and go drive in Oak Brook). BTW, Oak Brook is about 20 mins away from Chicago city center. And guess what, I've only consumed up 1/4 of the petrol tank!

When I reached the hotel car park, I just noticed that I had an unwanted guest in my car! I had to remove it out from the car else who knows where it'll move on to and I'll end up with a bad itch.

Valley of Fire

2008-06-13T13:39:00.004+08:00

500 millian years ago, this desert was a sea, warm and shallow. Full with life. For 400 million years, marine animals and plants thrived in the sun-lit depths of this valley.

Valley of Fire is a geological park, that derived its name from red standstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs. The present landscape that we see today have been created by complexed geologic process that have been operating on this earth since the beginning of time.

The park is full of rocks of many colors - white, grey, brown, purple, and red. All of them are forms of the same type of rocks - sedimentary. They tell a story of ancient seas & beaches, of times when heat from deep in the earth changed the mantle at the surface.

This park is about 1 hrs drive away from Las Vegas, which was what my adventure of the day was. It was hot! We get to drive around the valley, viewing the scenic route. Stopping by for picture taking at assigned rest areas. Below are some pictures of the Valley. Will post more up once I get home and setup another site as my original site @ myphotoalbum.com has been closed down!

My Lucky Day

2008-06-11T09:13:00.000+08:00

It was my lucky day...came across the below shop unexpectedly while finding Babies R Us. I was on fifth heaven. How can I not stop by to have a bite? I've heard so much about it and finally today's my lucky day. I had a chocolate iced creme filled donut. It was SO soft and nice!!

Right after that, RIBS as my dinner...slup!

Vegas

2008-06-10T22:15:00.000+08:00

Seating comfortably here on the beanbags while waiting for the next session to start. Just to make sure I dont fall asleep here. :) How's Vegas so far if you may ask...HOT! HOT! HOT! Even when it's 7 something in the evening, you can still feel the heat and it's so dry here, not forgetting it's a concreate jungle here with so many hotels on The Strip.

Have received a Pontiac G6 car this week. Pretty good a car...at first I thought there was something wrong with the fuel needle as it wasn't dropping. But alas it dropped a little today.

It was a bummer that my new luggage got damaged on the LAX-LAS sector on United Airlines. One of the luggage feet came out. UA does not insure that damaged feet and it seems that our travel desk insurance does not either! They only cover for flight delays and lost luggage! Logged a case with UA to complain and see what they can do for me. Furthermore it's a brand new luggage! Ughh...

Breakfast and lunch are provided daily by the conference. We pick up packed breakfast every morning at the foyer before start of sessions. Have snapped a few pictures and the night shots turned out not too bad this time after some pointers from Lee Botak. :D Will post them up later.

Walked around a few hotels here, and the very first thing that greats you when you enter the main door is not the front lobby/reception area, but the casino!! Mine you, each and every hotel that I went in so far, the casinos are packed with ppl! Didn't like it as it was filled with smoke as there's so many ppl smoking. No wonder it's called Sin City.

Journey to Las Vegas

2008-06-10T14:39:00.008+08:00

Nothing really special about the trip though...just that I bum-ed into the ex-PG Chief Minister lining up in the SIA economy class queue! Aiya I thought it was he and his wife travelling in economy class and checking in themselves, but it was just sending their daughter off. To US I suppose so..And also my company's MD was at the airport, sending off his wife to somewhere.

Snapped the below pictures in Changi Airport T3. Guess what places are they? Even the guy angmo was so amused with this place and came running in taking photographs!

Yeah...it's the ladies toilet! The men's toilet not like this one ka? Or maybe I should also run in and look see and snap pictures at the men's toilet to see if it's like that too? Wahahaha...

Weather is so dry here in Vegas. Don't like it at all and don't feel like going outside also. I am now pondering if do I really want to go visit the national parks or not as it's so HOT & DRY! Practically need to douse myself in lotion. But a bit sim tia la...pour so much of my expensive lotion, so I ended up using the hotel lotion...I wonder one bottle can last me how many days?

1.2KG in 4 Days

2008-05-30T11:46:00.000+08:00

At the beginning of this week it was xKG. Yesterday afternoon I checked and it was ↓ 0.8KG, and this morning I checked, it went further ↓ by 0.4KG!

I am sure this was the result of skipping 2 lunches this week. Readers, please do not skip lunch! It is unhealthy. I bet it's just water loss and I'll gain back the weight.

My Patience has its Limits

2008-05-29T23:38:00.004+08:00

Help!

Can someone be kind enough to donate some ear plugs for me? I've had enough of all these noise polution from EOTY. I am sick of hearing his sickening laugh, I'm sick of hearing him complain, I'm sick of having him march into the conference room, and he can be SO thick face to sit down there and start talking nonstop. He keeps on asking you once every hour what is your progress on getting the environment landed. How do you expect us to make much headway when you come uninvitingly into the room and sit your big arse down on the chair and start talking nonstop, disturbing our work!!! I really do not know how much longer can I tahan. Maybe one day when I loose my patience...I will have the courage to ask him to F*** off. Cool down cool down...

Oh Lord Buddha, is this a test? Please guide me to keep my patience in control for I do not want to create bad karma. May You guide and lead EOTY to the middle path.

Or maybe I should just lock the door up or better still stick the below at the conference room door??

Japan day 2: Journey to Mt Minobu

2008-05-17T22:54:00.020+08:00

The sky was bright when we woke up close to 6AM, checked out from hotel and started our journey to Mt Minobu. (I wished that we had more sleep!) It took another 6hrs train ride to reach our final destination. We met up with Chien at Shinjuku St. enroute to Mt Minobu. The 1000 Yen (RM30) train from Narita airport to Nippori St took us 2 whole hours as it stops at each and every station on the way out to the city. What to do...that's the cheapest among all transportation from airport to city.

All of our stomach were growling loudly at midway point to Shinjuku. Once we reached Shinjuku and met up with Chien, we had breakfast at a small noodle shop in Shinjuku St. It was SO nice, at least to our stomach as we were all so hungry by then. There's a bakery just beside the noodle shop, we happily bought a few buns for our next 2.5 hour journey. There's so much variety in the bakery to choose from. All looks so appealing...dont know which to buy, if I had the $$$, would have bought one each to try! Haha...

Scenery on the way to Minobu was so serene. You see farm land where they plant vegetable and also grapes. The sky was clear and we managed to see Mt Fuji from the train. There were still snow on top of the mountain. We reached Minobu train station at 2PM and had to wait for another 20 mins for the next bus to Minobu town. While Chien and I looked after all the luggages at the bus stop, the rest of the gang went off snapping pictures.

It was a 15 mins bus ride to our final destination - Mt Minobu. BUT, it will be another 500-600 meters up hill to reach Hino Sawa Bou, where we will be staying! It was pretty challenging for the older folks, so we had to stop a few times to catch our breath.

Mt Minobu is where Nichiren Shu's main temple (Kuonji) is. This place is also one of the top places in Japan for cherry blossom viewing, especially for weeping sakura (branches of sakura that drops downwards). Loads of cars and buses ferrying local tourists come to Mt Minobu during sakura season for sakura viewing. One who intends to visit this place actually need to have a special permit for parking in this area! If you do not have this permit, you are not allowed to park in the area! Tourists start visiting this beautiful serene mountain as early as 7-8am! By 9am, you will see cars waiting PATIENTLY in line. I meant patiently as in the Japanese will just stick to the queue, you don't hear a single honk, and they don't cut queues! I wonder when ever will Malaysians' mentality and civic mindness reach that level?

We checked into Hino Sawa Bou and the lady caretaker of this Inn still remembers both Chien and I. :) She is a nice lady and is able to speak some simple english. We were given 2 rooms for the first night and 3 rooms thereafter. Mind you, it's mens one room & ladies one room la. It was a bit cramp for 5 ladies to share the room but it was bareable. There was afternoon tea ready for us in the room already - Japanese tea (ocha) and also biscuits for each of us. We rested our tired legs while enjoying the tea.

Not long after at 5pm, the lady caretaker came and informed us that furo is ready, which means bath is ready. Yes, it's public bath! As the caretaker knows that we are not so comfortable with the culture of taking bath together, she was courteous enough to let us have our bath 1hr earlier than the usual bath opening hours. In Japan, hot water is expensive, hence, you do not get to take your bath whenever you like.

Chien took the gang up to Kuonji temple grounds and also the surrounding areas to walk around while I stayed back to settle some things. Dinner was served at 6pm daily and we adjourned back to our rooms after dinner and called it a day.

KCF151

2008-05-12T18:43:00.001+08:00

My dear friends, please look out for this black Honda City with the car plate number KCF151. The lady driver hit onto my car and sped off!! Luckily it was only scratches and my bumper wasn't dented. But still...kek sim nia!

Japan day 1: Arrival at Narita

2008-05-06T21:12:00.005+08:00

It was pretty hard on the body after more than 15 hours of travel back from US and with only 1 day of rest to unpack and repack again for the Japan trip. It seems to take forever to reach the land of the rising sun although the plane ride was only 7 hours away. I tell you, I so SICK of air travel at that point of time! Anyhow, I've survived the 'touture' and made it to Japan in one piece! If we would have known earlier that we will be going to US, then it wouldn't be such pain travelling halfway round the globe this way, I could have just saved on my airfare too by doing a stopover in Japan! Ah well...I had to be a tour guide and take a group of 8 from Penang over to Japan and meet up with Chien over there. So that doesn't leave me much choice.

Service on CX wasn't good at all. One can press the button to call for the airsteward/stewardess, but no one seems to come to your attention. Furthermore, the small light on the cabin top will just switch off like that without anyone coming to attend to you. I had to press the button a few times, only will an airstewardess come. This happened again on the way back to Penang. What if this was a life threatening emergency? Wouldn't the person be dead by now?

We touched down at Narita around 8:15pm but we had a long taxi due to the fact that there was still another plane in our designated arrival gate. It took about 20 mins of taxi-ing and finally, with a sigh of relieve, we made it to Japan! It was a long walk from the arrival gate to the immigration counters. Clearing immigration wasn't that bad in Narita and we didn't bum into any issues. Upon arriving at the arrival hall, we were greeted by our luggages seating there on the floor. They were jumping with joy seeing us, waiting for us to pick them up. Unlike in Penang Airport where you had to wait ages for the bags to arrive!

It was late, we had to stay overnight in Narita Airport Rest House for the night before moving out to Mt Minobu the next day. There's still some time to kill before the next hotel shuttle bus arrives, so ChenChen and I went downstairs to check on the train schedule and fare the next day out to Shinjuku St while the rest of the group waited at the arrival hall.

Luckily it wasn't a long ride to the hotel as it is just inside the airport perimeter, just beside terminal 1. It was close to 9:30pm when we finally settled into our respective rooms. The convenience store in the hotel was closed by that time, I had a peek in their ice-cream freezer, hoping to see muar chee ice-cream there. But lady luck didn't shine on me, ice-cream stock was low and muar chee icecream was no where to be found. :( Hopefully when we come back in 10 days time, they have stocked up ice-cream and there will be muar chee ice-cream available! :D We've tasted this 2 years back when we stayed at this hotel and it was very nice!

I was too exhausted to snap pictures on the airport and also the hotel room. Had to call it a day as we are departing early tomorrow morning to catch the train out to Shinjuku enroute to Minobu. It will be another 7-8 hours of travelling tomorrow.

Robbed!

2008-05-04T23:06:00.006+08:00

Woke up this morning by the sound of mum talking loudly downstairs and got to know that we have fallen prey to idiotic people that went around the neighbourhood stealling iron grills last night. There were around 8-10 houses with iron grills removed! I guess the thieves were happily going around the neighbourhood for their iron grill spree between 1:30am to 6:30am this morning. With the amount of houses impacted, they should have at least went around on a lorry or something like that, but I didn't hear anything. I guess I slept like a pig last night. :P

Now there's a big hole in front of my gate and we had to use a plank to partially cover the hole for the time being while my DIY handyman father tries to get this resolved! How unconvenient. Mum went and made a police report on this case, asking for police patrol in the neighbourhood. I wonder if they will really come for patrols, knowing how hardworking our police force are!! Hah.

Back to normal

2008-04-28T15:05:00.003+08:00

It has been 2 weeks since I got back from the land of the rising sun. Finally can say that I'm back to my normal/mundane routine - wake up, eat, go to work, sleep. How boring...

Work is back on track, managed to clear most of the mails and projects are slowly picking up pace after close to 1 month being away from office. Received some not so good news that the "employee of the year" will be managing the EDL landings, so I had to make sure that this person does not stick his/her leg into the project and claim credits at the end of the day. Luckily the person will only manage landings from Q3 onwards and PG is safe from his/her evil doings. So I had to ensure that PG completes landing in Q2. So far everything is on track...wish my good luck.

Secondly, I need to start my weekly badminton sessions again. And no, I don't mean just going for 2 hours of games. This will not help me to loose weight...I need real practices! I need to sweat it out. I need to carry on with my so called "weight reduction program", which I think does not exist?! Anyhow I've reached my first milestone, reaching the second milestone seems so hard...gambate!

Thirdly, I am still seating on the fence, procastinating as to whether I should or should not do a stop over in Japan on my way back from US on my upcoming trip, considering the fact that I just came back from Japan 2 weeks ago! But what the heck, you just need to pay RM66 for the stopover as compared to forking out RM2.5K for the airticket yourself. Don't intend to stay too long as my leave is limited due to the planned year end holidays (11 days of leave required!), maybe just 3 days in Japan for the stopover. So will now need to look for some places nearby Tokyo or Narita for the stopover. Anyone has suggestions? Gifu or Takayama looks nice, but dont know how far is the travelling time from Narita.

Forth, look out for my travel logs of Japan later on...slowly but surely it will be posted up. :)

Fifth, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara here I come!!!! Weeeeee....anyone wanna join? Date, month, year, budget - a big ? muahahah...

ただいま

2008-04-10T23:32:00.003+08:00

I'm back to a place called Penang.....

Enjoy!

2008-02-15T18:00:00.003+08:00

Look...I have a badge too. Can I follow along to work?

Macau

2008-02-15T17:21:00.013+08:00

Food was nice, bought the original Portugese tart (that's what they claimed) from Lord Stow's bakery. Gunn recommended that I try their chocolate tart too, which I did. And my I tell you, it was NICE!! It costs RM3 for one.

People buy the local products like there's no tomorrow, or as if there's gonna be a price hike, or worse still a curfew!!

For more pictures of Macau, please refer here.

The Venetian Resort Hotel

2008-02-15T16:41:00.001+08:00

Here's a long long overdue post. It could have been longer, but I've decided to cut it short. :)

By the time we checked in, it was already way past dinner time. The free shuttle bus was waiting for passengers right outside of the Macau airport. What romantic lighting! The resort was just 5 mins ride away from the airport.Below was the place where we checked in. It wasn't impressive at all to me for a resort with so much hype and advertisement placed in...I thought. Here's a 4D number for you to go buy later..haha..
I spent close to half an hour taking pictures of the room and doing some exploration of the room. It's huge, coz first time staying in a suite ma. There're 2 queen bed and a sofa that can be converted to be a sofa bed. So in total 6 pax can bunk in that room!

There's a small living room in the suite where you have the work table. Guess what...you even have your own printer, fax, and copier machine in the room!!
Next up...the toilet...very huge one too, also pretty spacious. Looks kinda high class with most of the furniture gold platted. Ah common...it's a 5 star resort! :D There's actually a dressing table on the left hand corner of the pic below, which was not being captured.
Even the shampoo and soap look high class.
Enough of photo taking of the room...so we headed out for some food. There's a food court there...lots of variety.

After filling up our empty stomach...time to walk around the resort and snap pictures. Later only found out that below is the actual main lobby. This only looks more like a resort lobby as compared to the one that we used!! :D

But beware...there are a lot of food that makes you FAT! Haha..

For more pictures of Venetian Resort, pls refer to this site.

AirAsia experience

2007-12-26T17:03:00.000+08:00

Have you experienced flying with AirAsia with the motto - Now everyone can fly? How was your experience? Good? Bad?

I personally have taken it a few times, the latest being to Macau. So how was the experience? Wasn't too happy with it though for a few reasons. Or maybe for the price you pay, that is what you get?

En route from Penang to KL, there was a huge group of Vietnamese factory workers going back to their home country, they carried on board big and small bags, I'm sure it's more than the 7kg allowed. Seated next to me was a Vietnamese lady. I was reading a magazine with my right elbow on the arm rest. This lady then place her entire left hand on the arm rest even knowing that my right elbow was there. So I was the loser here and had to let her use the arm rest. Just upon touching down in KL, you can hear all those Nokia tunes when one switches on the handphone. The air stewardess had to ask them to switch it off or risk having their phone confiscated.

The journey back from Macau to KL was yet another experience. We were queing up in line at the departure gate, about 5th in line from the front. When we were allowed to board the plane, there was a sudden rush of people (typical China residents) to the front from left and right. As usual, passengers with express boarding and also senior citizens were allowed to board the plane first. There was this Indonesian guy who was supposed to queue behind me, jumped queue, and shoved to the front, demanding to board the plane (he did not pay extra for Xpress boarding). He became roudy and shouted to the poor girl maning the gate, "How much is it for the Xpress boarding, I pay you now. This is bu$h*t. I've got 3 kids and we need to board the plane first. Yada yada yada" That was when all hells broke loose and people from behind started pushing. Imagine we being squashed like sardines! Gosh. After having our boarding pass checked, you can see people practically running on the runway to board the plane! More of like the Amazing Race! Just to grab a seat in the front rows! Haha...that was so funny to watch. Majority do not know that the emergency exit rows have the most leg room! Lol...

The flight back got delayed right from Macau back to Penang. At KL, there was a bunch of 4 year old kids, about 15 of them, that went on a field trip to KL with their kindergarden teachers. Imagine a bunch of hyper active 4 year olds travelling on the same flight as you! The flight back from KL to Penang got delayed again (very typical of AirAsia) and only took off at 11pm. Not long after the captain announced that we are about to touch down in Penang. I looked down at my watch and it was only 11:30pm and we are about to touch down! Wow...30 mins to fly KL-PG sector!

What a long and tiring trip back to Penang. Wonder if I will ever want to take AirAsia again..... I wonder.....

Much needed time off

2007-12-17T12:53:00.000+08:00

I will be at the below location from tomorrow onwards for a week or so. Will snap some nice pics with the new camera. Hopefully it arrives on time, else I will use Alex's camera. So stay tuned...

New toy

2007-12-12T16:29:00.001+08:00

Have been pondering for quite some time, whether should I invest in a DSLR as I've already have a prosumer Powershot S3 IS just over a year old. There's an ongoing promotion which is worth it to go get one now. Buy...not buying...buy...not buying...hai...In the end, I've decided to purchase it. So I'll need to make good use of it next week during my much needed time off and this time, I need to make sure I set the auto focus to AUTOMATIC!!!

So...I'm gonna pick up the new toy tomorrow...song!

Imitation Nike's

2007-12-10T12:40:00.000+08:00

I received an sms from my bro last nite..it goes as following...

"I am sorry to tell your China Nike shoe that I'm wearing now, the sole half dropping off already. Will use rubber band to hold it in one piece till I get back to Penang."

Hahahah...my dad was laughing away after seeing the sms. That's what you get when buying imitation Nike's. My bro is so much vain-er than me when it comes to shoes. Lets see..he has 4 pairs of basketball shoes, 1 pair of casual shoe, and dunno how many more pairs which I do not know and have lost count of it!

Finals: 1-3

2007-12-02T15:37:00.000+08:00

As expected, we lost 1-3 to Agilent again this year. Unexpectedly, we won 1 match against them. Neverthess, we had fun and teamwork and team spirit was great. As a consolation, we received a medal and a Nike jacket. We found out that the Nike jacket is a fake Nike the next day! Haha..

The guys fared better than us, over throwing the defending champions with a margin of 3-1. It was exciting watching them play, all their games lasted 3 sets. We had to wait for them to wrap up before prize presentation ceremony can proceed. By then, it was almost 1030pm already...

Round robin 3: 3-2

2007-11-28T15:17:00.000+08:00

我的天啊！昨天的比赛，全场最吵的可以说是我们吧，因为我们喊得好大声！每当队友赢了一分，我们就在旁边喊，拍手拍个不停，为队友打气。平常的我，如果电视有播哪里的羽球公开赛，与父亲一同看，一定没有声音的。妈妈都说，电视开着好像没有人在看如此！但是昨天的我，好像个疯人，一同喊，一同拍手，为队友打气。心跳得如此的快。手冷脚软。原因呢是因为我们的第一队输了给对方。我们全部都在斗。幸好接着连续三场取得胜利，进入了半决赛，在半决赛时不必面对往两年的冠军。

现今星期五半决赛的对手 - Seagate，也蛮强的。这次的strategy要把它排好啊！

Round robin 2 : 5-0

2007-11-27T15:32:00.000+08:00

昨天我们以5-0的成绩胜利了Renasas. 今晚的对手Avago蛮强，希望我们的队长和教练能够把pairing排对来，再次的胜利，进入半决赛。

Round Robin 1 : 5-0

2007-11-25T11:38:00.000+08:00

We've won our first match against Jabil with a score of 5-0. It was our first game. Nervousness crept into the game for a number of us, especially the new comers. I sat out of this match as my old injury was acting up again. :( Hopefully I will be able to play tomorrow.

Our team manager was so tensed watching us play! He went "no no, dont hit like this...must hit like that...aiyo aiyo...I cannot watch liao...heart attack oh..." Haha...I see him like that I also kin cheong.

We also had the opportunity to watch Agilent, the defending champions for the past 2 years, play last night. They were playing just next to us. Oh my...really sweat. Seems like there are a few new comers on their team and mind you, they are GOOD!

Will post some pics up later once I have time...

FTZ Badminton Fixture

2007-11-20T16:07:00.000+08:00

Finally received the match fixtures. Below are the days which the ladies team will be playing. Do drop by at Bkt Dumbar badminton courts to support us. :)

Did not know that we are getting baby-t jerseys this year as compared to the normal t-shirts. We received the baby-t's yesterday with our name embroidery and guess what...they were just ngam ngam fitting. My goodness...

FTZ Badminton Tourney 2007

2007-11-12T16:41:00.000+08:00

The annual FTZ Badminton tourney is round the corner again - from Nov 24 to Dec 1 2007 @ Bukit Dumbar badminton courts. We are sending in 1 men's and 1 women's team. A total of 8 factories have registered for the women's team event. Grouping as below. Fixture should be out soon. Will have it posted once I get it. Do remember to come and support us oh! :)

Trip to Singapore

2007-11-11T17:11:00.000+08:00

Was down south to attend a seminar, schedule was pretty pack. Had the privilege to stay at Pan Pac hotel. Sad to say it was not up to my expectation. The carpet and room furniture were tad old. There's still lots of room for improvement in their buffet breakfast.

I've been given an upgrade to a room with balcony on the highest floor. The king bed feels like 2 single bed joined together! Below are some pics of view from my balcony. Notice the construction going on in the left side of pic...that would eventually be the new casino.

柔佛之旅

2007-11-09T16:18:00.000+08:00

几乎忙了三个星期。从新加坡training一个星期，周末飞下柔佛参加college同学的婚礼，赶回槟城，然后第二天又趁飞机飞往新加坡参加一个seminar。好累。。。好累。。。

这是我第一次去柔佛。毕业后一大班柔佛的同学都叫我到哪儿去玩玩。毕业后也有六年了吧，到今因为刚巧婚礼，所以决定下去一趟吧！不然就个他们骂个不停！在柔佛感觉上要从point A到 point B，要驾一段好远的路程。另一件事可见到的是在柔佛到处都在建房屋！好多好多的屋子，好多的新住宅区。

Sungai Rengit 离开柔佛大约一个小时出的车程。因为半途下大雨所以两个小时才抵达。这是个小镇，只有两条街。当晚的婚宴大概有一百座吧，几乎整个小镇的居民都出席。没法子因为同学的父亲挺有名的。能够与一大班的同学再次相聚，嘻嘻哈哈的，感觉好快乐。在此要谢谢顺华小弟两天在柔佛的招待。我等着你们上来槟城玩哦！

还在等着朋友寄他说拍的照片给我，才将它们post在http://munwai.myphotoalbum.com/吧！

Donut craze

2007-10-24T19:25:00.000+08:00

There seems to be some kind of donut craze in Singapore lately, that's what I understood from one of the Singaporean here. The queue is about 10-15 meters long and people buy by the dozen!!! The shops even limited the customers to a maximum of 2 dozens of donuts!

I did not understand what is so crazy about it. So, I bought just one donut the other day to try it out, to taste whether is it really that worth it to queue up for the donuts. Can't remember what was the name of donut I bought, but it had dark chocolate in the middle. OMG, I can tell you that it was SOOOOOOOOOO good! The donut was fresh and hot, and when I bite into the center part, dark chocolate was practically oozing out from the side of my mouth. Luckily didn't dirty my shirt!

Imagine blood by the mouth of a dracula. Instead of blood, I had warm, smooth, creamy dark chocolate flowing down the side of my mouth! It was such an indulgence. Yum yum...

Stuffed in Singapore

2007-10-22T19:04:00.000+08:00

Greetings from Singapore! After checking into my hotel, I was amused when I got into the hotel room, I was greeted with a baby cot in my room! WTH I did not request for a baby cot! I had to call down to housekeeping and tell them to remove the baby cot from my room. They thought that I have requested for one when I booked my room...NO I DIDN'T, why would I want a baby cot. Yeah I know you guys must be laughing now. :P

Information overload on 1st day of training. Trying to visualize on how the processes are being implemented in our company and it's confusing at times. We're stuffed with food. 1030am morning tea break...come 1230pm buffet lunch at coffee house (which was damn good)...then again at 330pm is the afternoon tea break. Not to mention that they have a coffee machine for us too. So I'm enjoying the daily cup of Latte or Cappucino. :D Gosh man, I am NOT going to stand on the weighing scale available in the hotel room! I'll surely faint seeing where the needle stops! Hahaha... control, I need self control.

I still need to do assignment on a case study and complete a few questions on the mock exam later tonite. Not forgetting to study for the upcoming test on Friday. Sob sob...no shopping for me. :(

Have you received your news?

2007-10-20T23:17:00.000+08:00

My dear friends, wonder have you got your news yet? Are you safe? I've got my news. Will be safe for this round, at least. Can't help wondering what about next round. Hmm...It seems pretty bad this round as I've heard of a lot of friends who are impacted. Sob sob. Come to think of it, people who were working hard got the cut, where as people like "Employee of the Year" is safe! Darn man.... The package seems pretty attractive though. Life goes on....for those who have yet to receive their news, my well wishes goes out to you!

Read in the papers today that there's another mall attack in Manila. At Makati financial district. Glorietta Mall was the target this time. It was an upscale mall. Thinking back, I was at this mall close to 1.5 years back. My CV counterpart treated me dinner here. Reading the news sent shivers down my spine. What if this attack happened when I was there? All the what ifs... Security is tight in Manila and Makati, I'm sure it's the same in other districts. There are security guard posts standing in front of each shopping mall entrance, where they check your bags before they let you into the mall. Same goes for hotels. They even have an additional security check on cars before they let you into the hotel compound. No where is safe now...

New toy

2007-10-12T23:27:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since my last post. Been somewhat busy this last week. Hoorey I received a new toy on my bday, a new T61 laptop. My 4 year old T40 machine was giving me problems and since my scheduled refresh is end of this month, thanks to dear that helped out, my refresh schedule was brought forward. :D

How is the new toy? It doesn't look as sleek as the IBM T40 and I find that the battery drains quite fast. Still getting used to the 14.1" wide screen. Have been re-installing all the necessary software for the past day and still testing out the bluetooth function.

There should be news next week. Hopefully I will still get to utilize this machine for the next 4 years?

Birthday

2007-10-11T23:50:00.000+08:00

The title says it all...it's my bday! How was it celebrated? Well...thanks to a bunch of great colleagues, I was treated lunch and the birthday cake was simply superb!!! Even my mum said "Very nice oh...even nicer than Secret Recipe...what to buy ah?" Haha..Received a lot of birthday greetings from colleagues and sms greetings from relatives and college friends. Thanks a lot ya!!

Didn't expect any surprises and didn't receive any. As usual. Any presents? An opened packet of half full NIPS chocolate!!! In other words, none. As usual. Sigh..

"Where you wanna go eat?"
"QE II"
"You dont wanna go G Hotel eat Japanese food?"
"Well that was one of my options too which I had think of, ok la, we go Japanese food at G Hotel"
"You sure?"
"Yeah, we go G Hotel, then you can treat me QE II another day"
"Yeah dream la"

I guess it was because of the nice Belgium Cheesecake taken at 4pm, wasn't too hungry over dinner but ended up pretty full. Yet I still had little room left for dessert - homemade Kuyogoma ice cream. What's that you may ask. That's black sesame seed ice cream. This cost us RM10 for the single scope ice cream! How did it taste? Frankly, it was not as 香as the one I had in Japan. And it's much more cheaper to have it in Japan even after the conversion rate! So Kancil, make sure you taste this in Japan when you come across it. Btw, Yen dropped to 2.89! Thinking of buying some for keeps to be used next year!

*note: no pics to share as I am still figuring out how to transfer the files over to my laptop from his mobile phone through bluetooth. Read following post.

十月的目标

2007-10-06T22:23:00.000+08:00

停止了两个星期没练球，下个星期要加倍努力了。原本十一月尾的印度trip已confirm没去了，所以现在应集中精神去练球，也同时进行减轻计划。阿曼，记得来为我们加油哦！

Vacation

2007-10-01T14:08:00.001+08:00

The vacation bug has started! So many people are off for vacation. His parents just came back; My parents just left; a number of bloggers going off for holiday this month and next month...HOW NICE!I wanna go for vacation too!

There're already plans made for end of next year to attend my bro's convo in Aussie and at the same time tour Aussie. Since my sis is now in New Zealand on work assignment till January next year, maybe it's a good idea to go tour NZ now since I'll get free accomodation. Lol. :D

There're also talks on visiting The Land of the Rising Sun - Japan, next year too. Wonder if it'll materialize? Anyone wanna go?

Addicted & frustrated

2007-09-26T00:00:00.000+08:00

I am SO desperate now!!!!! Heroes season 2 has started in the States but I can't seem to locate a single copy of it. Anyone out there manage to locate a copy of it?!?!?!

Super frust now!

Photo shooting session

2007-09-24T14:38:00.000+08:00

Invited by a colleague of mine for photo shooting over at the PG International Lantern Festival at Auto City Juru. Looking at pictures from other photographers, looks very nice although need to pay RM15 per entry! Kinda tempted over the offer. :) It has been a while not snapping any pics, it's time to pick up the camera and make full use of it again.

Initially I thought that this Lantern Festival was only for a short period of time as had the impression it will be over once Mid Autumn Festival is over this week. Mana tau, the exhibition will be on until December!!! Wow...I was also told that the organizer will be adding more upcoming themes like Hari Raya, Depavali, and not forgetting Christmas!!!

Of course during Raya you will be seeing mostly green colored lanterns, Depavali and especially Christmas should be an interesting time to go for photo shoot as I expect them to be nice!

I've not done night shooting before and I bet my skills suck but I am tempted to take up the offer. I intend to have dinner over at the Chicago Rib House, what to eat? Of course RIBS!! My fav. Anyone tried out this place before? Don't misunderstand oh...taking pictures is the primary intention whereas having Ribs is an add on! To those avid photographers out there, anyone wanna join the outing??

Scratches

2007-09-23T11:55:00.000+08:00

Poor me...
So many scratches
Here and there
Why oh why...
Why do you all treat me like that

Nevertheless I'm happy
As I've just received a gift
A new shinny coat...how nice!

Time will heal
I'm sure you will try your best to heal my scratches

Rain rain go away

2007-09-16T14:01:00.000+08:00

It has been raining non-stop for the past 48hrs. Isn't it nice to sleep in? I don't get to wash my baby for the past 2 weeks already and she did not get a nice shining coat for the past 2 months! :( Wonder when will the rain stop???

Bought some Japanese language books from Kinokuniya. Will I ever have the determination to pick up the language this time round? Lets wait and see...

Trip to 1U

2007-09-12T22:37:00.000+08:00

Woke up this morning feeling fully charged after the rest day yesterday. Decided to head out to 1U. Heard from colleague that there is a free shuttle bus to Ikano from Kelana Jaya LRT St. That's great I thought. It was quite a long journey having to take the LRT out to KJ from KLCC, 25 mins to be accurate. Upon reaching KJ at 10:35am, the free shuttle bus service to Ikano is 10am and the next one is at 11:30am. Oh no, made a mistake, I should have check out the shuttle schedule beforehand. Oh well, of course I am not going to sit there and wait 1 hr just for the free shuttle. Looking around the place, it's either taking Rapid KL or the cab to my intended destination.

Had a look at the signboards of Rapid KL, trying to figure out which bus route takes me to 1U. Confusing for a first timer *blush*. I went and ask the cab drivers seating there chit-chatting while waiting for water fish like me to approach them for business. "Pergi 1 Utama berapa?" I asked. The guy happily walked to his cab and asked me to follow him. He has not answered my question yet, so I asked again "Uncle, pergi 1 Utama berapa?" He said "15 Ringgit". I stopped walking and said "Har? Bukan jalan meter ka?"15 Ringgit tak boleh kurang?" "Tak boleh" was the answer. WHAT?!?! That is a total rip off man. "Takpa, I tak mau" was my next answer to him and walked off back to the bus stop. Asked some ppl waiting for buses there on which bus to take to 1U and they were kind enough to point me to the right bus which costs me only RM2 to 1U. Great!

Only did window shopping there. So happened that there was Honda roadshow there at new wing ground floor and guess what...apart from City and Civic which were on display there, Type R and Hybrid were on display too! Woohoo, that made my day man! Knowing that 光头梨dreams of owning Type R, so I SMS-ed to kacau him. Sorry ya, you couldn't concentrate on the seminar after that. Haha..I personally don't really like the interior of Type R. I checked out the Hybrid too, interior is fully leather with 6 CD changer as compared to 1.8 Civic. Exterior ducktail spoiler looks sporty and nice. However, I wonder if the 1.3 engine is sufficient for this big car? We shall wait for the review to see how it goes. For those Type R fans out there, the Honda roadshow is on until Sunday at new wing, 1 Utama ground floor. Go check it out!

R&R

2007-09-11T21:39:00.000+08:00

别误会，在此R&R不是Roles & Responsibility, 而是Rest & Relax! 今天没打算去那里，翻开看看Spa Menu，好想去pamper下自己。看了价钱，又有点心疼因为价钱相当贵。最后，关了只眼睛下去Spa做appointment。现在我的裤袋破了个相当大的洞，嗨。但信好是一年一次。选择了一个steam, full body scrub和full body massage的package。两个字形容－relexing和ＳＯＮＧ！

Time off in KL

2007-09-10T15:57:00.000+08:00

My legs are tired...have been walking since the shops opened this morning. The mega sales have just ended, yet I went shopping! It was more of a window shopping type but there were a few items on my list that I needed to get and I managed to find one that I like. It feels nice, not needing to think of work. Frankly, I perfer to shop overseas. Not that I am being snobbish or whatsoever but I dont like the culture here where you walk into a shop and the sales assistant will follow you around wherever you walk in the shop! Wonder which mall should I head to tomorrow. Or maybe I shall pamper myself at the spa tomorrow...Hehe...

Btw, PoiPoi if you reading this, I am enjoying my DUNKIN DONUT while typing this blog. Muahahah...I didn't bring my cam here this trip, so no pictures to tempt you. Geez this is so sinful I can tell you. I've lost 1.5kg the past month and plan to loose another 1.5kg this month. Just one donut won't kill me rite?! The funny thing when I was ordering the donut, I told the person "1 mocha donut to go" and she was looking at me. Only then I realized and told her "take away". Ngek...mindset still tuned to US. :)

Neeways...need to head to the gym to loose some weight...Later!!

冲劲力

2007-09-05T14:32:00.000+08:00

嗨...近来毫无心情。不再拥有以前的冲劲力。以前做得蛮开心的。对工作上还蛮有兴趣的。可能是现在工作范围以不同了。感觉上范围已被缩小。想要去做的，但又要考虑到这还是不是我的工作范围，我应该不应该去做。搞得我兴趣也慢慢地减少了。

以前的我当有冲劲力去工作时，虽然做得蛮累的，但对自己的工作感得很满足；今天的我，范围被缩小，得做得也少了，应该好轻松，但反过来好无聊。是不是好矛盾呢？在这comfort zone也蛮久了，不懂是不是时间该考虑换环境呢...

还有两天就放假了，好高兴！好期望下个星期可以好好的休息，不用为任何事情烦恼。啊对，需要烦恼的是不可以花太多钱啊！哈哈。但也好想花个痛快，too bad sales 已完了。Anyways, 有好几样东西是要买的。希望在那儿可以找到我喜欢的啦！Hoorey...can't wait!

这也是我第一次用华语post blog. 我的华语好烂，如果有什么差错，请原谅哦。SPM 考华语是刚刚好pass 的那种！

Cheap bargains

2007-09-02T09:42:00.000+08:00

Accompanied parents to look for curtains at QB but ended up not purchasing any. Not that they were not nice, just that they decided not to change the curtains yet at this point of time. I had the intention to purchase a new pair of badminton shoes as my current pair is worn out. Saw that there were some cheap promotional Dunlop court shoes on sale for RM39.90, which was dirt cheap. The quality looks pretty satisfactory. Normal badminton shoes cost RM100 and above. So what the heck, I bought that pair of shoes.

Happily wore the pair of new shoes for training on Saturday. My good comments - shoe was comfy. My BAD comments - grip was not good and tiny bits of the rubber sole has come out!!! OMG! Luckily I brought along my old pair of shoes, so had to change back to the old shoes for the remaining session.

Dad asked me to go exchange to another pair of shoes of different brand from QB as I still have the receipt. I was thinking....can meh? This is Malaysia. Good customer service??? I seriously doubt so. If in the States, then that will be a different story.

So the moral behind this story → cheap bargains ≠good quality!!! Hai....

Dogsitting

2007-08-31T20:46:00.000+08:00

What have I been up to this whole week? Instead of babysitting, I've been dogsitting! Yeah, looking after CoCo - Chien's poodle, while he's away for a weeks training. Brought him over to my place and it was a tough week. Since he's not familiar with my place, he was peeing all over the place and my mum was furious!! He particularly like THE spot on one of the cabinet. I got feddup with cleaning so I moved his business tray over to the cabinet and he obediently went to the tray whenever he needed to do his big small business. But occasionally 抗议, peeing wherever he likes! He was crying on the first night here and was seating at my front door all day long, waiting for his owner to come back. Hopefully he will not go cookoo after a week!!

He's got all his toys in my living room. Notice the red fish, I bought that for him from Hong Kong. That was his fav toy earlier. The dinosaur is now his fav. The boomerang and ladybird was from US. Will be dogsitting till Sunday night, then Merdeka for me!!

Housewarming

2007-08-31T14:04:00.000+08:00

Was down in Ipoh last weekend to attend my uncle's housewarming. He booked the function room and catered buffet dinner there. My sis, Chien, and I bought Jusco gift vouchers as a gift him and he and my aunt bought the below set of diningware.

Was pretty bored with nothing much to do after dinner. We cousins ended up playing in the kiddy playground while the adults were chatting away in the function room enjoying the aircond. There's also a pool table there, so the elder ones played pool while the younger ones were hogging the computer playing computer games. Got bored playing pool as all of us are not good in it and it took us a LONG time to complete a game...so what's up next? Karaoke! BUT we did not have any karaoke CDs with us. What to do? We used music CDs and just sing along with it lo. We sang 光良's 童话 over and over again. The room was not sound proof, and we sounded like croaking frogs! Who cares anyway...haha. Below is a pic of we cousins. Missing here is 2 Singapore cousins, my sis, and bro.

The night was still young. We got bored singing. Had to entertain ourselves. So we ended up doing act 1...

act 2...

and act 3

My first blog

2007-08-30T15:39:00.000+08:00

Ok Ok, so here I am with my first blog after much persuasion from colleagues. Will try to blog whenever there is something exciting or whatever I feel like saying. So stay tuned...