Posts

Campaigning

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Hoist Those Flags Swiped from williamnyk . During the two-week campaign period, I merely attended half a Teresa Kok speech at Sri Petaling night market and a Carol Chew dinner at Happy Garden. Teresa stood on the back of a truck to deliver her speech, while Carol had a proper stage with three local ge dai entertainers to fill in the lulls. Carol is a fantastic speaker with a speech that reads like a Pengajian Am essay, while Teresa goes for a more down-to-earth approach-- fiery and sprinkled expletives. Hehe. Being the newbie, quite a number of MCA heavyweights spoke for her during the dinner. One speaker was most honest when he said: "Don't let our Carol lose too many votes..." I definitely clapped to that. At least they're not deluded. But they still pour out the campaign funds, just in case lar. In addition to that, they even had an ex-DAP member denounce Teresa. Many allegations and mud-slinging. Halfway through, it rained really heavily, and his voice

The First Salvo

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perfect? Swiped from Megan * . Here's an update from the frontline of my war against acne . I recently consulted with a highly-recommended recommended dermatologist near Tung Shin hospital. Heard only praises about him and apparently SK also found someone raving about him on a blog. Lotsa patients and the weird thing is, appointments aren't allowed. Walked in on a Saturday at 9:30am and found that the doctor would only be in an hour later. So factoring that in with the fact that I was fifth in line, SK and I walked over to Wisma S&M to do some really EARLY DVD shopping. Only one or two were open, and I bought a couple of DVDs from the bargain bin at MYR3.50 per disc. Fantastic! Got myself "Hoyakashi - Japanase Classice Horror: The Animation", "Tales From Earthsea" and "Dororo". Believe it or not, SK got herself some anime with a busty girl in a bikini out front. :P. By the time we got back, it was just in time for my turn. Dr Chang tur

Cornered

It has been shitty this past week. Work has been overlapping between phase one training sessions and mock runs with phase two development. The timeline is so screwed up. And more ad hoc stuff like demos had to turn up. Stupid internal red tape and power struggles in top management, each trying to usurp resources for their own gain. Sigh. Pelanduk Mati di Tengah.

Nomination

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Stand Behind the Yellow Line II Swiped from williamnyk . The 12th General Elections results are already out and here I am talking about the nomination day for the Seputeh Parliamentary Seat that happened some Sundays back. Just a simple police-escorted procession from the Seri Petaling bean sprout chicken shop to Seri Petaling Multi-purpose Hall. Everyone wore white with a red-streaked DAP cap. Flags were distributed ( not the pathetic mini flags but the broomstick-as-flag-pole variety ) and they found that there were more flags than hands. Therefore, I ended up hoisting two ( *&*@&^%*&*: ). Everyone followed behind a Hilux laden with over-zealous flag-waving women and an AV set blaring the song "Together" ( a political song calling for change ). Even had a "leader" who would scream out slogans and the rest would follow. However, certain phrases were more popular than others... "Vote for Change, Vote for DAP!" "Teresa Pasti Menang

Away

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umbrella mushroom Swiped from AraiGordai . Hi guys. I'll be away in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok from Wednesday till Friday for work-related stuff. I'm going with my boss ( UGH )and the schedule is tight, so I guess no naughty stuff can be arranged. :(. Anyway, I'll be home in time for election, and that will be another draining weekend to be blogged about later. See ya later.

Kluang

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collageKluang Swiped from williamnyk . Nestled between Dataran Prima and Aman Suria is a cosy little restaurant called Kluang Noodle House . Just tried it on a whim. Aman Suria has become a weekly haunt for me since there are a lot of eateries there and the traffic situation is calm and parking is ample. What's their specialty you may ask? Hand-made noodles without preservative and what not. The noodles they make are slightly thicker than your japanese ramen, kinda like the Kin Kin Pan Mee that DanielH recommended. The texture is good and firm, without any floury aftertaste. Tried their Curry Tomyam Noodles ( an interesting mix of curry and tom yum soup with a generous seafood toppings ), Rendang Chicken Dry Noodles ( a lemak-y, whole chicken thigh rendang served on dry noodles, minced pork and vegetables ) and Ma Lat Noodles ( Taiwan-style spicy noodles. I find it a bit oily due to the chilly oil used, but I guessed that can't be helped ). Good food and big portions

Annual Dinner

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collageAnnualDin2008 Swiped from williamnyk . "The Sexiest Voice" "The Most Kissable Lips" "The Best Ass" "The Most Sparkling Eyes" Believe or not, those were the awards given out during my company's annual dinner at the KL Hilton recently. The recipient's weren't exactly the best candidates as it turned out to be like past year's popularity contests. The recipient of the sexiest voice award even did a stupid William Shatner impersonation. Sexy? Not. Well, come to think of it, if I combine two of the above awards, one can get: "The Most Kissable Ass" Now, THAT would be something. Attended the dinner in quite a zombified state as I was out the whole day menziarah my married colleagues. Got some red packets and won at blackjack. :D. When my colleagues and I arrived at the venue, we entered into the lift with a family of three. (Why this mamat so familiar one?) ("Oh shit! The Chairman!") The Chairman gav

A Let Down

Shokubutsu Grapefruit Sparkle stinks! Long live Orange Peel Essence!

It's a Sony VDay

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collageVDay Swiped from williamnyk . Technically it was KH and I's second VDay, but we didn't celebrate it last year because we had just started off late January and were away from each other. We really haven't really understood how much we loved each other. So, this year, we officially celebrated it as as our first VDay as described here . Since most of the salient points had been blogged about, let me just fill in some of the holes. Yes, we did celebrate it the "tourist-y" way at KL Tower. And true enough, I did pull a long face when I had trudge around Bukit Nanas carrying a 3kg laptop bag in the sweltering heat. Oh, wait... KH offered to carry my bag, but still I sulked. :P. KH had wanted to exchange some SGD, so when actually stopped at a money changer near the Bukit Nanas Monorail station and the guy actually offered to give us a "student rate". This has no importance in the story, just trying to jemur nyawa a bit. Indulge me. By the time

Gai-Sensei!

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Gai-Sensei! Swiped from Seloy . Note: Pathetic filler post until I get my photos in order for the next "proper" post. It's so disturbing to see someone cosplay as Gai-sensei....! I'd rather do a Mayuri. :P AND... the office air-conditioning system is on the blink till the end of the week. I'm dying here.... lack of oygen... ack!

Pearl of the Orient III: The Journey South

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Herbal Duck Swiped from williamnyk . ... continued from previous post ... As soon as the food tour ended, we drove out of Penang Island to Sungai Petani, Kedah. Destination: My brother-in-law's sister's place. It was my first time in Kedah actually. The sister lives at the industrial area of Sungai Petani-- a up-and-coming township. The roads were good and the housing areas looked organized. I felt like I was in KL. Spent the night there watching "The Fellowship of the King" and playing "Brave Story" on my brother-in-law's PSP. The next morning, I met the little prince of the house, Yang-Yang. An extremely shy and xenophobic kid. I heard that he won't even let his aunt carry him though she had lived with him for a month! Surpisingly, the kid took a liking to me. I had been told that the odds of him letting me carry him is like striking 4D. Heh. An interesting fact about the house-- there are no mirrors, except at the dresser in the master be

Friday Blues

It is Friday and I get no TGIF feeling at all. Had a farewell KTV lunch for my resigning colleague this afternoon, and no amount of fooling around with mic cheered me up. Understaffed with no replacement in sight. 101 problems and matters to attend to. Then I received an sms from KH. More bad news. Something was lost. Was a bit sad, but KH was quick to console me and something Jaded Jeremy told me about the importance of the intangible over the material things made me snap out of my gloom. Sorry I made you worry dear. I am ok now and it is not your fault.

The Pearl of the Orient II: The Journey Around

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collagePenang20082 Swiped from williamnyk . ... continued from previous post ... Woke up to this: (Mum on the phone) "Do you have a hairdryer?" "Sudah habis." (1 hour later) "Are the hairdryers available yet?" "Actually we don't have any." ($#@|@^%&*^&<%*:<*}?&^%) This is the kind of service one gets for MYR110. I wonder if this was the case when I asked for an extra bed the night before. Even our doors had to be opened using the hotel's master key since the keys were "misplaced". Oh well. We checked out and had our breakfast at Restoran Shiang Hai , at Wisma Red Rock. Kinda a shock for me-- self-service dim sum . Get the food yourself. Refill the tea yourself. Average fare. The only thing worth praising is the char siew bao and the steamed pork ribs ( love the fragrant rice wine gravy ). Our food tour started at 11:00am on Saturday at Restoran Chopper Board , Gurney Plaza. Met the rest of the foodies

The Pearl of the Orient I: The Journey North

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collagePenang2008 Swiped from williamnyk . Almost half of three centuries had passed since I last set foot on Penang Island. My last visit there was with a rombongan sekolah for World Children's Day. I was also supposed to visit during Mel's sister's wedding but that plan somehow fell through. Normally, my CNY is spent cooped up at home. This year is an exception to the norm-- my sister invited the family to a food appreciation trip there. Never passing up a chance for a family trip, mum, bro and I signed on for it. 138 smackeroos per head. We left for Penang on CNY2 and also managed to cram in a pit stop at Taiping to visit an old friend of mum's. Traffic conditions were good, except at the Penang Bridge. Now I understand why I keep hearing the same traffic reports everyday. Bountiful toll booths, but they all eventually converge into a measley two lanes. Lunch was at a random food court as not many places were open. Ordered chicken rice, Char Kuey Teow and Yong Tau

Walk Away

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Leave Swiped from ·BigGolf· . With phase II of my development in full swing, my resource pool has taken another hit. A colleague has decided to resign after 6 years with the company. Didn't even bother to wait for the increment that was to be in one or two months time. Can't really blame her. Promises are made, but they are never kept. You either wait or you leave. Sigh. But I must say that it's really bad timing. The requirements are pouring in and other projects are starting too and this constantly puts a strain on my small kingdom. The Emperor will sooner or later raise troops for the looming war ahead, and sad to say, my holdings will be commandeered. Good troops are hard to come by and replacements slow to be found. The Emperor plays a dangerous game of balance. Shifting his troops here and there. Too little butter spread over too big a piece of bread. "So when is it your turn to leave? Are you still learning anything from your work? Too comfortable alrea

Princess XX

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Princess XX Swiped from williamnyk . The newest addition to my STAR LRT celebrity member is Princess XX. Aptly named so because she is the epitome of femininity. The XX sex chromosome. She is the Puteri Lilin of legend. The damsel in distress. A fragile flower petal. The moment she enters the train, she will glide to the handrail and cling to it-- barely. As if the lightest of secret farts from nearby passengers can dislodge her from her place. She rests her weight on one foot. She lightly bends her leg and cocks her head to one side, letting her curls dangle. She looks up with hooded eyes, bedroom eyes. She pouts. Ever in the most feminine of dresses ( perhaps she buys XXL at "Little Princess" outlets? ). Strappy dresses ( often the bellpepper variety! ) with a cardigan over. Sometimes a giant bow on her bosom. Her dainty feet are always in shoes fit for a ballerina. Crystal bracelets crawl up both her forearms. I wonder if she stirs interest in the men who share t

Reunion

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collage1CNY2008Home Swiped from williamnyk . No Yasmin Ahmad CNY ad for Petronas this year. Read in the papers that the "Go home for reunion dinner, if you can" ad was visualised by a young hotshot from some gweilo firm. Thinking about it, reunion dinner is getting to be a smaller and smaller affair with each passing year. When I was a kid, my whole family would travel from Kuantan to Teluk Intan ( a 7-8 hours trunk road drive ) to have dinner with my grandma, uncle and cousins. As the years passed, nearly all my cousins started their own family and it was quite a challenge getting everyone together in one place anymore. Later, dad passed on, my grandma passed away and even my uncle called it a day. Eventually, we had reunion dinner in KL and my lengthy CNY trip eventually became a day trip to see my aunt and cousins. With my sister married, reunion dinner is just me, my mum and bro. A quiet affair, but still mum outdoes herself every year though she complains that

The Grand Millennium

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collageGrandMillennium Swiped from williamnyk . "Sir, would you like to do a balance transfer? 0%..." "Sir, the holiday season is coming, interested to take a cash advance for a well-deserved vacation?" "Congratulations, you've been given a free check-up with the Heart, Stroke and Cancer Center..." "Hello Sir, we are offering you a free-for-life platinum credit card..." "Just for a small membership fee, you get to enjoy our dining benefits and you get a complimentary night's stay..." I said no to all of them, but I kinda caved in to the last telemarketer. Benefits and privileges. You actually pay for them. The whole year I was holding the card, I just used their free buffet voucher and treated my sister and bro-in-law to a 50%-off high tea. Since the complimentary stay I had was already expiring, I decided to use it on FT Day lor. When I purchased the membership, the hotel was called "The Regent", now it is ca

Neway

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Neway Swiped from williamnyk . Note: I'm back! Some stale posts for y'all! Enjoy... Was at Neway Karaoke, Bandar Puchong Jaya a couple of weekends back with SK, HP and BeiBei for a kind of pre-CNY crooning. It was my first time at that outlet and I must say that the floor space was pretty impressive. Everything was shiny and new. Our room was tastefully decorated unlike RedBox's gaudy wallpaper. My only complaint is the English song selection. Really pathethic. They don't even have Rihanna's "Umbrella" ( I can imagine KH heaving a sigh of relief )! My song list was as follows: Theresa Teng's "Don't Pick The Roadside Wild Flowers" Madonna's "Vogue" Siti Nurhaliza's "Bukan Cinta Biasa" Ella's "Gemilang" The Carpenter's "Goodbye To Love" Spice Girls' "Two Become One" Hoobastank's "TheReason" The Cranberrie's "Dreams" ???'s "Lov

CNY from The Island

Hi readers. Just a short post from my phone. Hope everyone is enjoying this Mickey Mouse Year holidays. I am currently in Sg Petani and will be making my way back to KL on Sunday. Major food post in the pipeline! Keep an eye out! Ciao! p.s.: Dear KH, sorry that I couldn't spend as much time with you as I wanted. Hugs. I'll make it up to you. :)