Posts

Ox-y

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CNY20092 Swiped from williamnyk . It's the year of the Ox, and that makes my brother 36 this year. Already his 3rd cycle. How time flies. As I age, I notice the Lunar New Year being increasingly "faraway". The significance eludes me at times. I guess its true that festivals are really for the kids. However, this is not to say that I'm indifferent about the occasion. I try my best to absorb the atmosphere or if there is a lack of it, try to create some. Ever since my dad and grandma passed away and my sister got married, things have been getting simpler and simpler. No more annual pilgrimages and perayaan besar-besaran . Reunion dinner is normally just an affair between my brother, mum and I. Although its a small gathering, mum spares no effort in preparing a big spread. But as I age, my mum advances in age too, and I can see that her stamina has decreased and she finds it harder to organise things. I try my best to help her, but I find it best to always let h

Art Class

Hi people! I'm sure you're all enjoying the CNY holidays, stuffing your face, watching tv, sleeping, gambling, and running about town in the sweltering CNY weather. I'm not here to blog about my CNY yet for fear of ruining my tardy image. I'm just here to make a random observation-- did you know that if you pee into a cistern that uses toilet blue, the water turns green. The mixing of prime colours! That's all for our Ox Year Art Attack! You can now get back to eating that last piece of bak kwa. :) -- Regards, William

HCNY

There isn't any CNY-themed men's underwear in department stores this year! Preposterous! What a mockery! That aside, here's wishing all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year that's sprinkled with all things good and if some bad things do slip in, hope that they're easily reversed. Lou sang with Wagyu beef, anyone? -- Regards, William

Last Rites

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I am grateful for the prayers, thoughts and concerns that were expressed in response to my post . My aunt finally breathed her last breath in the presence of family members last Thursday. Her suffering has ended and a new journey has begun for her. Mum and I left KL for Bagan Sungai Burung on Friday afternoon. The drive there was quite horrendous during the last leg as the trunk road leading from the PLUS exit to Sungai Burung is really bumpy ( worse than Kuching by a factor of 3 ) and eerily devoid of vehicles. By the time we arrived at the village, it was around 6:00pm. Went to pay my respects and proceeded to make myself useful by folding paper offerings. The funeral was quite unique. To me, it was kinda like a party with a buffet line. It's amazing that a funerary post like this can turn into a food post. Well, dinner was served at 7:00pm-- stewed duck, fried duck, fried suk yu ( blanched and salted Mabong ), stir-fried vegetables, Kung Pao cuttlefish, baked catfish, and seaf

Gimme Gimme Gimme

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BDAY2008XenriCollage Swiped from williamnyk . Months have passed since my birthday in October and you know what? I have yet to finish blogging about it ( QueerR, choke or not? ). Quite an injustice to the loved ones around me as all your gifts are precious to me. Time to reveal the final gifts: A Nokia 5220 cellphone from KH -- We talk everynight on the phone and my old Samsung SGH-X700 was a bit giler according to him. He could hear a fan-like noise in the background and it irked him to no end. Therefore, he bought me a new phone! Love its music playback quality. Thanks again, baby! A scrapbook from SK -- With lots of love, she made a scrapbook from scratch, highlighting events along the year of 2008. A very thoughtful gift. Thanks dear! A Japanese procelein rice bowl from Jaded Jeremy -- For some reason, I love eating out of Japanese rice bowls and for that same reason, he got me one. KH lugged it back to KL for me. Arigato, JJ-kun! A Braun Buffel half-rim spectacle frame f

Fai Zhai

In my company, there's this guy who joined my product team last year. We shall call him FZ. He had zero business and technical knowledge of the product, and yet my Fatty Boss pushed him up as a Team Lead. This irked Lan to no end. According to Lan, his only purpose was to sit in on meetings ( blindly passing requirements to the technical team ), writing e-mails to tai chi responsibility and gain credit for reporting project statuses, Facebook, Facebook and more Facebook. And recently, Fatty Boss even introduced him to my JellyfishHead Project Manager as his assistant in overseeing all the implementation sites. I nearly choked on my water. Well, FZ recently sent me an e-mail asking for technical training material. I conveniently ignored it after my collague told me that he is so useless that even after giving him a sample document, he expects you to change it to suit his context. Later, he added me on GTalk. I rejected that too. I wonder how long before the jig is up. :P.

Pay Up

Bah! The Borang BE 2008 has arrived in my postbox. The deadline is the end of April, but perhaps they are trying to take advantage of the Chinese custom of clearing their debts before CNY. :S -- Regards, William

NZX Revisited

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Yup, I was at NZX again, but not to repeat that fiasco at Full House . I was there to meet some ex-classmates from my Kuantan days and since one of them lived nearby and SK wanted so much to see the Disney thingy there ( we ended up taking pictures of the tarps they use to cordone off the exhibition area ). Kit brought his wife, kid and cousin ( my dar pinged immediately! ). Kit's baby took an immediately liking to me, but later switched to my other classmate, Ko. We hypothesised that it was due to his moustache. Ko came with Rene ( his future wife ) who also happens to be from the class next door. And SK was all clingy-clingy and feeding me stuff at the dinner table, so that kinda makes it look like a reunion of 3 couples. Sure to cause a stir in the rumour mill. The ones married with kids have their family to worry about. Those planning to get married have all the preparations to stress over. SK and I merely nod. We were supposed to eat at 7:00pm, but it was delayed for an hour d

Telephone Etiquette

A hypothetical question ;P : You're in your room doing a review of the latest Japanese exercise video to hit your download folder. Nearly at the end of your workout , with your target heart-rate nearly achieved and you're all wet and sweaty , your boyfriend gives you a call. In such a situation, what would you do?

Prayers for the Sick

My mum's eldest sister has been suffering from fourth stage liver cancer since last year. It has metastasized. She is now on her deathbed awaiting the final release. I pray that her suffering will end soon. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. -- Regards, William

So You Think You Can Dance

Have you ever heard of the Tiong Hua Dance Festival ? If you have not, let me explain. It's actually a dance competition organised by the Anxi Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. For 21 years, they invited various primary schools, secondary schools and dance troupes to take part. This year, it was held at the HGH Convention Center in Sentul. Of the 3 days, I attended the second day, which was dedicated to the secondary school category. 13 Chinese schools participated with 1 absentee. I was quite impressed with the performances. Most had good costume and music, but some of the choreography sucked. Actually, I was expecting traditional dance, but contemporary and modern dance influences had a big showing that night. I guess after 21 years, everyone wanted to try something new to get the judges' attention. My favourite was the second contestant, a school from Petalig Jaya. The music was haunting and the costumes were ghostly and wispy. The dancers seemed like the were glidin

Day V: Broken Promises

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Kuching200813 Swiped from williamnyk . Since our flight out was at 1530, we couldn't do very much that day. We slept in a little and did our packing. POD then brought us out to Top One Foodcourt for a very good Sarawak Laksa . Great rice noodles and gravy so fantastic that you want to lap it all up. After a little more last minute shopping, POD sent us to the airport. Upon arrival, we found out that our flight was CANCELLED. The staff claim that they had notified all passengers. A check on their CRM system revealed that they had sent KH an e-mail. KH receive neither SMS nor e-mail. But anyway, who the hell checks e-mail on their holidays! No guarantee for cancelled flights, only for those that are delayed. Our complaints were ignored. But I think Air Asia is not making good on their promise with all the irate letters I see in The Star lately. Seeing that we had 4 hours to kill, POD brought us back to his place for lunch. His mum had cooked up a storm! Stewed pork, chicken

Orang Memberi, Kita Merasa

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Way past XMAS, but what to do. I'm tardy. :P. My "eldest" di 's favourite food joint is Yuen Steamboat at Sunway. If I'm not mistaken, I've had three dinners there with him and Takashi. As usual, we loaded up on prawns, but didn't bother with the BBQ chicken wings this time. Managed to catch up with him and the boyfriend regarding work and stuff. I finally managed to pass him his belated birthday present ( MPH vouchers ) and we exchanged Christmas gifts. They gave me a Body Shop gift pack consisting of olive, shea and strawberry soap. I wonder if KH would appreciate "little William" smelling of strawberries... :P. For Takashi, I bought him a Santa Claus-themed papier mache box, perfect for keeping condoms and lube. :P. I also had a gift exchange at the office. It was a simple affair at Old Town , The Pavilion ( more expensive! ). I gave away a pair of Skinxwear bikini briefs and received a cute illuminated glass nativity scene from Memory Lane.

Beware of Falling Objects

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Shoddy workmanship seems to be the norm in the construction sector these days. If you want "better quality" ( read: standard ), better be prepared to fork out another 100k. Talam is the poster boy of sub-standard developers. The current house I'm living in is a great example of their commitment to "quality". So far, my family had to deal with cracks, uneven windows ( more trapezoid than rectangular ), leaking roofs, lousy plumbing and haywire wiring. The latest incident involved a piece of decorative cement centrepiece fall off from the wall of the second floor. It crashed onto the awning ( destroying the tiles in the process ) before crushing the flower pots on my porch! That piece of cement could really smash someone's head in. On the way down, the decorative arch was also ripped off and boy was I surprised to find that it was just polystyrene and plaster ( standard practise according to my civil engineer sister ). Luckily I don't park my car there and

Pawns

In my product team, there is a serious shortage of resources and talent after a series of resignations last year. As a result of that, certain seniors and team leaders are in hot demand especially when there are multiple projects going on at the same time. The movement of people can be very ad hoc depending on how things go. The term that is usually used is "fire-fighting". From this you can gauge that the situation is quite precarious, like the proverbial "egg on the edge of a buffalo's horn". Such a team leader was recently assigned to my project. We shall henceforth refer to him as Lan. Since his project was done and over with, he was "temporarily" assigned to my project to help "put out some fires". Everything was fine and dandy until his services were required elsewhere. To understand the problem, I must first explain the screwed up way my project is run. In reality, all the resources belong to my fatty boss. However, my project is mana

Full House

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For some unknown reason, Apollo asked for a lunch outing on Aidiladha. Everyone thought that he had something to announce. A new boyfriend? A new job? Struck 4D? Turned out to be none of the things I mentioned. He genuinely wanted catch up with everyone. Cheh! Haha. Just joking la. Anyway, it was at NZX . Changed quite a bit since I've been there. Many shops have closed down and many shops have took their place. Quite volatile. But in other words, quite fresh. DanielH suggested a boutique restaurant there called Full House . An all-white house, complete with balcony and vintage mini cooper out front. Everything in there cute-sy and for sale. The perfect place to camwhore if not for their horrible service. After waiting for 40 minutes, only 3 out of the 6 sets we ordered arrived. The hunger had thrown DanielH into a foul mood and by our third inquiry, we kinda had the last straw. Reminder to the waitress. Reminder to the supervisor. The supervisor came and ignored our complaints, wi

A Letter To My Son

Wahai anakku Mohammad DanielH, Maafkan bapamu ini yang telah mengabaikan tanggungjawabnya sebagai seorang ketua keluarga yang penyanyang. Berkali-kali, saya telah mengecewakan kamu. Bermacam-macam alasan telah mu dengar setiap kali papa menolak pintaanmu untuk menghabiskan masa bersama-sama. Maafkan papa. Saya gagal mencurahkan kasih sayang dalam kehidupanmu. Saya gagal dalam membimbing dan memberi panduan hidup kepadamu. Papa amat kesal. Ibumu juga tidak mampu mengisi kekosongan ini. Saya akui bahawa ibumu juga bermasalah, seorang kaki botol yang asyik terbelenggu di dalam kemabukan. Segala ini Papa akan cuba atasi. Papa berjanji. Dengarkanlah lagu ini yang Papa pilih istimewa untukmu... Daddy, Daddy wasn't there, Daddy, Daddy wasn't there, To take me to the fair, He seems he doesn't care, Daddy wasn't there, When I was first baptised, When I was critisised, When I was ostrasissed, When I was jazzercised, Eating kidney pies, When I was modernised, When I was circumcise

Nine

I can't believe it's already 2009. The year kinda blazed through. The only thing that made me aware of the winding up of the year was the holidays that were piled up against each other. Nine was the day in October that I was born on. Nine was the number of the first house I stayed in KL. Nine is the number of images of my .... Well.... Lol. In terms of work, tings do not seem to have gotten better, but I have come to realise an important thing though- the power of delegation. But I am cautious of it coz when one gets to used to outsourcing one's 'hands' and 'legs', it can be really tough roughing out yourself. My love life did not see many dramatic and emotional episodes. KH would agree that our two trips together were the highlights of the year. But more importantly, I feel that our degree of trust has increased. Health-wise, my acne has gotten under control and I am in the pink of health. However, I have begun to see the ravages of time. My social life is

Faux Pas

Please forgive the horrible mistake in the last post. It was meant to be an e-mail... NOT a blog post. :'(. Thanks Javier for the heads up.

Sleeping Habits

I asked Chester where he would be counting down the new year and he replied that it would be at home, on his bed to precise. Following up, I asked whether there would be someone else joining him there and he gave a positive answer- my teddy bear and my bolster. Well, both are technically hump-worthy, but that's besides the point. That sms conversation prompted me to ask this question: What do you have on your bed? I'm very minimalistic in this sense. Nothing more than a pillow and a blanket. And when the weather gets hot, even the pillow and blanket can go (and some clothes too). So, I eagerly await your feedback, be it a legion of soft toys or a couple of Antonio Banderas blow up dolls. Silakan... And oh yeah, HAPPY NO. NINE! -- Regards, William

City Slickers! : Day IV

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Kuching20089 Swiped from williamnyk . The day started off with another hearty breakfast out of town ( forgotten the name! ). Four bowls of exquisitely-made noodles with char siew , a piping hot bowl of pork and vegetable soup in the middle and a round of coffee and milo only cost MYR12! It was delicious and freaking cheap. A very quiet place with real honest folks. Nic dropped his wallet there some days back and he actually got it back. After breakfast, he headed back to town pray at the oldest Tua Peh Kong Temple in Kuching. The temple's located at a busy intersection in town and is currently under restoration. Just opposite the road was the Chinese Museum, supposedly the only Chinese Museum in Malaysia, according to the caretaker. The simple, one-room museum housed musical instruments, clothing, artifacts and stories about the various Chinese groups that came to Sarawak in the early days. Finishing that, we visited the Waterfront . Nothing much to see there. Just intere

MOF

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XMASOffice2008 Swiped from williamnyk . Fancy Japanese desserts and coffee? Don't mind paying a little extra for your sugar rush? If you responded positively to both questions, then you should give MOF a try. Located at The Pavilion and brought to you by Izakaya. The abbreviation stands for Ministry of Food, not the Ministry of Finance. The decor is nice and the place is spacious, but the only thing that irks me is the furniture. Small and cramped. MOF is hardly a place of high customer turnover, so I do not see why they employed such a char chan teng approach. Went there because I managed to "convince" my colleague ( who was celebrating her birthday ) to semi-treat us. Every item on the menu only MYR5!! Hehe. Having the subsidy made the food so much more affordable. I ordered the Macha Imo for MYR11. Like the MOF in Singapore, certain items from the menu come served with an information card to help you better enjoy the food. According to my card, the dish is

All Under One Roof: Day III

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Kuching20085 Swiped from williamnyk . Recuperating from the previous day's great outdoors adventure, we decided to take it a little easy and head to the Sarawak Cultural Village , Damai Beach. Breakfast was at the wet market again, but this time we had hand-made noodles. Also delicious. KH tried out Dian Bian Hu -- a Teochew dish that's made out of flour that scraped off from the edges of a giant wok into a broth of pork. Never seen anything quite like it-- eaten with a spoon and has "sick person food" written all over it. It was another bumpy 40-minute car ride out to Damai Beach, Santubong. Was quite a challenge to take pictures of Santubong mountain from the car. There's this legend that Gunung Santubong and Gunung Sejinjang were once extremely beautiful princesses from the Heavens who eventually bloodied each other with a weaving knife and a paddy mortar due to jealousy. Nearly forgotten song. I remember singing it during my primary school days. Signa

Confusion

I had short and sweet trip to Singapore and I'm penning down my thoughts from the express bus. It is best described as a Triple Play- a family trip, a shopping trip and a BF trip. On the family end, got to see my bro before his vacation in Australia and also my aunt and cousins. Got to see my niece Miko too who has grown to be quite a little princess who rolls her eyes in disdain a tad too much. Had a nice lunch buffet with them at Sakura, Omnitheatre. On arrival, we shopped for eight hours at Orchard! Mum and SK bought several pieces of clothing and shoes at the first mall we entered. I too managed to some work shoes at Pedro. Interesting highlights were seeing Charleswanmushi (huge pecs, that guy) in the flesh and the Xmas decor. I managed to spend time with KH on Xmas day after the mass at St Mary of the Angels that incidently has a very young and cute Franciscan Friar. Looks so adorable in his cassock. Met up at City Link mall and later joined Potato Bill and his BF, Stan for d

Merii Kurisimasu

Tomorrow I'll be on a mission to spread Christmas cheer to my fellow queers down in Singapore. But most importantly, I'll be visiting a certain naughty boy and making sure he gets a piece coal in his sock and a kiss on his lips. :). So, a Merry Christmas to all of you! -- Regards, William

Raining on Land and Sea: Day II

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Kuching20082PreBako Swiped from williamnyk . On Sunday, we got up early and headed to Kenyalang Park Wet Market for a quick breakfast of Sarawak's fabled Mee Kolok . The food court was located one floor above the wafting smells of dead chickens, pigs and assorted seafood. Sure brings back memories. I'm amazed by the sheer amount of fresh produce they have. Needless to say, breakfast was superb. Though simple, the springy noodles and the char siew provided much satisfaction. The meal was completed with a cup of coffee ( I still can't seem to convince KH that every cup of coffee served in Sarawak IS Sarawak Coffee :P ). Post-breakfast entertainment was a pair of humping dogs at the parking lot. We exited after paying MYR0.20 ( !!! ) and headed for Bako. The road there was real bumpy. It was worse for us sitting at the back of POD's Kancil with super hard springs. A few times during the trip I felt that my Mee Kolok was about to do an escape. But we survived

Nirvana

My boss shocked us all with the following statement today, "I had nothing to do on the LRT today, so I gave it some thought and managed to raise three error logs!" To which my colleague retorted, "Wow, you could that without even physically accessing the system?!" I guess his workaholic nature has finally raised him to another higher plane of consciousness. For the betterment of the system. Heh. Chou for yap mor. -- Regards, William

In the Clear

Remember I told you guys that I managed to get my General Manager to defer the twenty three days of residual annual leave I had lying around? Well, turns out that I have to clear those days by March 2009 and I have to submit my leave plans for those days by the end of the year. That being the case, I have been stringing my Xmas and New Year's leave together and also my CNY and Federal Territory Day leave. But that still leaves me with a fortnight. Quite impossible to schedule and that still depends on the approval of my Project Manager and how smooth things go during the User Acceptance Test. Well, I just hope that my year end leave is approved first and worry about the rest later. I hope to be able to say to my colleagues, SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! -- Regards, William

Not Going Home Yet?

Ever since I started swimming more than a year ago, I have noticed a general improvement in my health. Week by week, I'm swimming a little more laps and I no longer feel like my hands and legs are gonna fall off. I'm glad that I actually went through with this New Year resolution. In addition to the obvious benefits to the cardiovascular system and the muscle framework, it also works wonders for my eyes. Just yesterday, four eye candy were frolicking in the pool. A nice mix of lean twinks and semi-hunks. The semi-hunk was from the Mainland and was real tanned with a strong chest and shoulders. He was fooling around in the pool, being all playful and stupid. He kept on shaking the water from his hair and grunting in pleasure from his exertions. But the best thing was, he kept stealing glances at me and SK. After horsing around with his basketball, getting in and out of the pool, hitting his head on the pool wall and trying to look cute rubbing his forehead, he suddenly spoke to

Raining Cats and Cats: Day I

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Kuching20081 Swiped from williamnyk . Note: Long overdue! My November trip to Kuching was quite a milestone as it was my inaugral trip to East Malaysia and my second holiday with KH. It was a great experience and the company was good. Definitely "My Most Unforgettable Experience" essay material. Haha. Starting out, the trip seemed to be full of obstacles. On the morning we were supposed to leave for the LCCT, some transportation difficulties cropped up, but SK settled it for me very quickly. And then, on our way to the LCCT, SK missed the last exit and she had to fly at 140km/h to make up for lost time. Arriving at the check-in counter, we were solicited by a Sarawakian auntie to bring some stuff for her onto the flight. I was naturally cautious, but it turned out that she didn't want us as drug mules, but as IKEA mules. :). The flight was uneventful except for a debate I had with KH regarding EM waves and airline safety. Kuching International Airport is quite im

Family Tree

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This is to celebrate the latest addition to the family-- Cheryl's 8th Dear, Leonardo. Reference .

Tridiuum

One. My fatty boss called a colleague of mine to reprimand him for not supporting him during a resource meeting. However, I left the meeting thinking that his objective was met. If he didn't get what he wanted, then I guess that it's his fault for not making it clear with the other party. Shifting the blame. The weasely way out. Two. The funniest thing I've ever seen on the rush hour monorail- a monorail attendant forcefully extricated a annoying passenger at the entrance who was blocking a whole load of people who were trying to alight. Like popping a stubborn pimple! I laughed out loud! Three. The simple pleasures of life- Stuck in close quarters with three Korean Navy boys in a packed monorail car. I now have a new-found appreciation for men in uniform. Yummy! -- Regards, William

ASM

As of lunch time today, there's still 94 million ASM units left for investment. Go over to your nearest PNB agent now! -- Regards, William

An Earful

In my company, resources often lose focus and become demoralised due to ad hoc requests. The opportunity for new business is always a priority at the expense of disrupting current deals that had been closed. But this does not mean one does not need to deliver. Things are always rushed and non-existant features are always expected to be provided at the shortest notice. Shoddy work and even if we get the job, the shoddy-ness will find it's way into the project. And so, I was called to work at 9:00am one Saturday morning to do some nonsensical things only to find that nobody had the key unlock the office! And so, I wasted 90 minutes of my time at a nearby mamak shop with my fatty boss. Had to listen to a pep talk that had been rehashed time and time again. This is what I heard over a cup of cow's milk tea:   "I treat you like my brother." "I often think about your career path." "The grass isn't greener on the other side." "I do not see

Blow your Mind

Dewan Bandaraya never ceases to amuse. Overkill seems to be a buzzword for them. Nearly every night on my walk along Jln Sultan Ismail, I get to see their workers using a leafblower on less than fifteen dried leaves at a time. Something that can be accomplished with a lidi broom is poorly-handled with something that guzzles kerosene, is noisy and spews exhaust. And the leaves are just blown away to another stretch of the sidewalk, together with our tax dollars. Go figure. -- Regards, William

Paste

I recently changed my brand of toothpaste from Colgate Total to Oral B Tooth and Gum Care. I regret it. The lack of mint in the formulation leaves a horrible aftertaste in my mouth- as though it had been bloodied. Anyone care to swap? -- Regards, William

$$$

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Shoot: Money No Enough 2 Swiped from quachee . "Money No Enough II" was definitely not high in my list of "must-watch" movies, heck, it's not even in the list. But that didn't stop me from watching it anyway. Watched it with my mum at GSC IOI Mall as some kind of family activity. Mandarin and Hokkien definitely suit her as the last time I brought her to a Hollywood action movie, she kinda dozed off in the middle. GSC IOI is really like a blast from the past. The disorganized feel and the aged feel of the interior reminded me of the cinemas from my childhood-- Rex and Golden. I did not watch the first movie, but from what I gather, it's not critical. Same characters, different story. Jack Neo raises many issues that are quite close to home-- toll collection, disillusionment with the government, MLM, business failures, reality TV shows, traffic demerits, ungrateful kids, caring for the elderly and infirm, family ties, brotherly love, living in deb

Wardrobe Malfunction

Cute boy walks into Monorail car sporting JPop hair and a preppy knit sweater open down to mid abdomen sans an inner shirt. A backpack is slung over his left shoulder. Unbeknownst to him, that exposed his left chest and left his nipple perky under the air conditioning. Disbelief was painted on the womans face beside him. I merely smiled. Priceless. Ok, I admit it, I took a second look. Haha.

Birthday Details

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collageEtch Swiped from williamnyk . Note: It has been more than a month since my birthday.... better late than never! The 9th of October was a weekday, so my birthday celebration was very low key. On my way to work, SK passed me several gifts. Firstly was a Jean Perrie stretch T from my beloved KH. Full of crosses and pink triangles. Make your own interpretation. Haha. Also a card with yukma stuff that's for my eyes only. Next was a couple of paper Japanese paper etching books from SK and Pikey. HP completed the set by buying me a cutting mat. The President of my Di Association posted me a cute bear and card that made me smile. Lunch was with colleagues at Xenri D' Garden Terrace, Menara Hap Seng. It was a real late lunch due to a horrible meeting with my boss. My colleagues from my previous site waited for me for 1.5 hours! By the time I arrived, they had finished eating. But it was just in time for my boss to pick up the tab. Hehe. I had their sashimi lunch set. D

Recurring Theme

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Pulp Fiction Swiped from magnusmagnus . After so many years after its release, I have finally watched Quentin Tarantino's movie, Pulp Fiction . Never really knew what the movie was about. Whatever preconception I had was from the classic scene where John Travolta and Uma Thurman were dancing to the tune of Misirlou ( gotta use that for my ringtone one of these days ). I give it 2 thumbs up. It was 2.5 hours long, but it was very engaging and the pace was good. Although I watched it over the span of 3 days ( one of my bad habits when it comes to non-pornographic movies, :P ), it was good. Maybe because the whole movie was separated into nice inter-related short stories that are told in a broken timeline. Kill Bill was also told the same way. Other similarities include the character of the rapist. In Kill Bill, The Bride was regularly raped by Bud in her comatose state. Marsellus Wallace, the gangster boss in Pulp Fiction was buggered by Zed while in captivity. Bud died a v

A Wet Cat is not a Pleasant Cat

More updates as events warrant.

Bast

The merciful Lord has granted me a lull in my project, thus I will be holidaying in The City of Cats with KH starting from this Saturday till next Wednesday. My first trip to East Malaysia really. I am told it is quite a sleepy town, but I am excited anyway to see The Land Beneath the Wind with my dear KH. See ya all later. Hehe. Jellicle Cats come out tonight, Jellicle Cats come one, come all. The Jellicle Moon is shining bright, Jellicle Cats come to the Jellicle Ball.

Twitter

I am wasting my youth sitting in a meeting for hours and hours without much conclusion. zzz.

Holy Smokes

Personally, I find smoking a disgusting habit. Everytime my colleague comes back from his fag break, he smells burnt to a crisp. Luckily KH does not smoke. I cannot imagine kissing a chimney. Currently at the place I work, a lot of the people there smoke in the stairwell. So basically a simple climb up a few floors can simulate a hike up Everest with the lack of oxygen. Worse yet are the people who smoke in the toilet. I do not know whether smoking helps relieve constipation, but the smell of smoke clinging to my clothes everytime I take a piss is really annoying. How I wish sprinklers would go off whenever an inconsiderate smoker lights up. Smoke less, live more.

Chmurka the Messy Glutton!

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Chmurka the Messy Glutton! Swiped from pyza* . I've been going to Raya open houses ever since I was a kid. Growing up in government quarters over in the east coast has it privileges when it comes to Raya time. Everyone knows my mum because she's one of the main baju kurung seamstresses in the area. It was the good old days when the food was really good and had a homely quality to it. In addition to the neighbourhood celebrations, I would also attend the open houses at the Menteri Besar and Tengku Mahkota's residence. However, as the years progressed, the food became less luxurious, the green pau 's shrank, the door gifts disappeared and the crowds became bigger. In short, open houses became ugly. It is one of the reasons I no longer attend Badawi's do at PWTC anymore. Crazy queues up numerous escalators, lousy food and a cattle sort of herding strategy for crowd dispersal. So after stopping for a couple of years, this year I went to Tun Mahathir's open

Raya BBQ

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collageRaya2008 Swiped from williamnyk . Staleness Factor: 4/5 - I hope it's still the Syawal month... :P An eventful Raya this year. Woke up at 7:00am to take my mum jogging at Taman Bukit Jalil. During the jog, mum ran into an old friend whom she has not seen for 8 years. Found out that his wife is losing her fight against cancer. Managed to visit her at the Chinese Maternity Hospital the day after. A fated meet up. After the jog, we had breakfast at Sri Petaling. Lunch was with SK, Ryan and Apollo at Duck King , Jaya One. Turns out that the kitchen ventilator went on Raya holiday, so more than half of the items on the menu were not available. The kitchen staff were sweating like pigs behind the glass and it nearly turned into a strip show back there. Managed to try their famous Golden Roast Duck ( excellent ), cha siew ( good ), Golden Sand Pao ( interesting pao with hot, dripping filling of custard and egg yolk ), Superior Soup Lala ( above average ), Loh Pak Kou (

On Leave

Can you guys believe that I currently have 43.5 days of annual leave to my name? And the even more shocking news is that I need to clear 23.5 days by year end or it will go up in smoke. For years and years we are asked to fill up our deferred leave forms stating TIGHT PROJECT SCHEDULE, and now they come up with this. Time to go on a looooong holiday and forget about all this shit.

What is your Flavour

If you frequently club, you may know of a mamak stall off Jalan P. Ramlee that serves some pretty good fried noodles. In their drunken stupor and exhaustion, revellers may not notice their unique food preparation methods. But since I work near there, I get to see some pretty disturbing things. A lot of lime is used and prior to frying the noodles, I saw the chef squeeze around five limes into the wok with his hands. There is nothing wrong with that except that the juice is squeezed onto his other hand and he makes a motion like he is washing his fingers with a kendi. Appetizing aint it. The next step would be to wash under his fingernails. haha. But the food is really great. Really.

LRT Obervations 3

Note: LRT Observations 2 didn't quite turn out right. :P. But the comments are welcome anyway. Haha. Using the Touch 'n Go has no benefit other than to slow down your passage through the turnstiles either due to faulty hardware or limited lanes. Forget about a single card for all lines. You saw what the One Ring did to Frodo. Just buy individual stored value cards and you will enjoy better access and a even a bonus ride at the end. And you can also avoid the pain of frequent Touch n' Go reload downtimes. Not being able to squeeze onto the Monorail during peak hours drive many to go further upstream before travelling downstream. Some people at Bukit Jalil LRT do it just to get seats. I have not tried it personlly, but I guess one either spends the time waiting and praying or spending the time taking the more convoluted route. I guess it does make sense when 5 monorail cars can head down to KL Sentral for every car that heads to Titiwangsa. Always baffles. More beautif

Error in Previous Post

So sorry that there is an error in the previous post, stupid coding. The connection having problem. Will repair it asap. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

LRT Observation 2

TW9yZSBiZWF1dGlmdWwgcGVvcGxlIGFuZCBQTFVzIHRha2UgdGhlIEFtcGFuZyBsaW5lIGlu IGNvbXBhcmlzb24gdG8gdGhlIFNlcmkgUGV0YWxpbmcgbGluZSBiYXNlZCBvbiBteSBmcmVx dWVudCBvYnNlcnZhdGlvbnMgYXQgTWFzamlkIEphbWVrIGFuZCBIYW5nIFR1YWggc3RhdGlv bi4gQnV0IHRoZSBNb25vcmFpbCBiZWF0cyBTVEFSIGhhbmRzIGRvd24uCgpJIGFtIGxpdmlu ZyBhdCB0aGUgd3JvbmcgZW5kIG9mIEtMIGl0IHNlZW1zLiAKClVzaW5nIHRoZSBUb3VjaCBu IEdvIGhhcyBubyBiZW5lZml0IG90aGVyIHRoYW4gdG8gc2xvdyBkb3duIHlvdXIgcGFzc2Fn ZSB0aHJvdWdoIHRoZSB0dXJuc3RpbGVzIGVpdGhlciBkdWUgdG8gZmF1bHR5IGhhcmR3YXJl IG9yIGxpbWl0ZWQgbGFuZXMuIAoKRm9yZ2V0IGFib3V0IGEgc2luZ2xlIGNhcmQgZm9yIGFs bC4gWW91IHNhdyB3aGF0IHRoZSBPbmUgUmluZyBkaWQgdG8gRnJvZG8uIEp1c3QgYnV5IHN0 b3JlZCB2YWx1ZSBjYXJkcyBhbmQgeW91IHdpbGwgZW5qb3kgYmV0dGVyIGFjY2VzcyBhbiBl -- Luv, SheoKun

Hole

I lament. There is a hole in my soul, And I cry when it rains. My shoe laments. There is a hole in my sole, And my socks aint dry when it rains. Sigh. The shoes I bought from Singapore last year have disintegrated. Time to shop for a new pair while my trusty pair from since uni year 1 must come out of retirement. Looks like the Speedy Rhino trampled all over the Crocodile.

m2u

Maybank has launched their all new Maybank2u interface. A facelift and a few jabs of Botox. But it could really use some sheep placenta shots while they are at it. Looks pretty and classier too, but the screen real estate has shrunk considerably and the response time is atrocious. 3 minutes to load a confirmation screen. Goodness. Hope its just a slow recovery after the major surgery. I guess the system tweaking should be finished soon after all these initial performance hiccups for an improved banking experience. I depend on it a lot ever since Saturday banking was axed. In the meantime, I will have to get used to watching the progress icon spin and spin and spin and spin...

Bile

SK had her gall bladder removed on Monday and is now recuperating at a private hospital in Cheras. She is still not well enough to stand and still experiences pain, so she will be warded for a little while longer. However, she is already starting to take some semi solid food. A word of Thanks to all the well wishers who have definitely made her hospital stay more bearable. But she is also not without entertainment from her 3 8 wardmates. I will give her the honour of blogging about that. I pray that she will be well enough to be discharged tomorrow.

Tira-Miss-U

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Finn Peters @ the Polish Club Birmingham, October 11th. 2008 Swiped from Garry Corbett . Staleness Factor: 6/5. Before blogging about my own birthday, must get this out of the way first! Celebrated Janvier's boyfriend's ( Lam Lam ) birthday at Alexis, Great Eastern Mall some Saturdays ago. Mum was off gallivanting in Johor, travelling around Bukit Tinggi, Kulai and Muar with her posse, so I had a little more freedom. Anyway, Lam Lam is a difficult person to shop for. I don't really know what he likes. Even contemplated buying him a buku latihan matematik ! Had to resort to calling Janvier for some pointers. Finally settled on a bedsheet and an Esprit t. It was a surprise party that started an hour late due to logistics and traffic problems. But never mind, we started the reverie without the star anyway. Wine and cocktails were poured. It was fun seeing Alex getting all playful and loud, while even the most composed JL showed some interesting change after a Long Isl

Eruption

The dreaded showdown between my General Manager and a Project Director did not materialize. If the Project Director turned up, it would have been a clash of titanic proportions. My GM was visibly agitated with all the accusations hurled at us. For all these years, I have never seen him raise his voice. Today, he was nearly shouting at the Project Manager and he seemed to have a wild look in his eyes. However, his thoughts were clear on the matter. If we cannot work together and keep on arguing about ownership, then I will just walk out of the project. I have better things to deal with. The truth of the matter is, the partner that we have been working with for so many long years are very uncooperative. A dinosaur that refuses to change but is adamant for others to fit their archaic ways. Musuh dalam selimut. Sigh. It is not surprising that so far two vendors have failed to work with them. Walk away. Ah, what a prospect.

28

Yes folks, I will be turning 28 tomorrow. The chinese love this number because it sounds like EASY RICH. However, it can also mean EASY FAT. I hope it will be the former for me, NOT the latter. Unfortunately, my birthday coincides with a dark time in my working life. Not quite in the mood to celebrate it really, but celebrate it I will. My wish list is not updated, so you can all just do me a funds transfer. Thanks. Muacks in advance.

Buka Puasa

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DNA Swiped from williamnyk . Staleness Factor: 6/5 => A blast from the past! Whenever KH comes back to KL, it is usually a juggling act of priorities. He has to plan time for me and his family. Ditto for me. Sometimes, scheduling is easy. At other times, clashes may happen and we have to accept the disappointment. Fortunately, his recent trip was very fruitful as I managed to occupy 50% of his time in KL. For 3 days in a row, we got to be together and it felt good ( his mother grumbled, "Seeing HIM again ah?" ). On Saturday, after work ( I got an earful from my boss at 9:00am, but more of that in a dedicated post ), SK and I went to pick him up at his home and sat down to lunch at Capri Dessert , Seri Petaling. Had an interesting meal of Claypot Rice with Stewed Ribs and Lotus Root. Also had their Fried Seawood Roll that actually looked like mini mussels after it was sliced. Dropped SK off at her home before proceeding to Amcorp Mall. I bought "A Thousand Pie

LRT Observations 1

Someone walks toward the turnstile. He stops halfway to fumble for his stored value ticket but does not find it. People in that situation normally do not realise that they are obstructing traffic. Please move to one side. Someone walks to the turnstile and inserts his ticket. It fails to turn. He backs up and steps on someone's toes. We normally forget that someone is behind us. So please look first. And please don't tailgate. This community service message is in no way sponsored by RapidKL.

FFK

For those of you of who are not familiar with the Cantonese dialect, FFK is an abbreviation of fong fei kei, that literally means to release an aeroplane. It sounds similar to another phrase that is close to my heart, ta fei kei. That means spank the aeroplane which corresponds to Englishs spank the monkey. But that is another topic for another time. Back to our original story of FFK. This phrase means to not honour an appointment. To not come when you earlier agreed to. When it is a group thing, I really do not bother too much as less people equals more intimacy, but it is in bad taste to FFK if there are reservations involved. Worse still are people who organize the thing but FFK instead. I really do not know what to say at times. Another wondrous example are also people who do not inform you that they will FFK, but rather drop the bomb on you after you go looking for them. This Syawal month, i take the opportunity to apologise to everyone that I had FFKed.

Look At Yourself

When peeing at the urinal, some people like to look away, stare at the ceiling or something. On the other hand, some like to take a better aim at actually keep their eyes trained on the "little fireman". So for those of us who like to look, all we can get is usually the bird's eye view. However, an alternative is available at Neway BTS. Along the row of urinals is a mirror right above it, running unhindered from one end to the other. You can look at yourself pee from a frontal view and more interestingly, minimal effort is required to look at the person beside you pee (or maybe even several people). Hehe.   I wonder what the real rationale for the mirror is....