julesism

Happy New Year !!

2012-01-01T08:45:00.000-08:00

5 things i picked up on new year's eve

1) BYOB means "bring your own bottle", not "bring your own bomb" as in the System of Down song

2) Never offer someone a beer before checking if there's any in the first place.

3) Chicken breast meat plus taiwanese spirit is awesome.

4) An egg bbq'ed tastes just like....an egg.

5) Simmering water onto hot used-BBQ charcoal equals to sauna plus a need for long bath after that.

Rock is not dead

2011-12-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
The children are safe,
cos' rock is not dead.

1) Ashes Divide

Formed: 2005
Origins: US
Band Members: Billy Howerdel & various artists
Thoughts: A Perfect Circle minus Maynard. Billy's solo project.

2) A Perfect Circle

Formed: 1999
Origins: Los Angeles
Band Members: Maynard James Keenan, Billu Howerdel, Josh Freese, James Iha & Matt McJunkins
Thoughts: Dream team. Guitar tech's rise to fame. Dark. Thought-provoking

3) Tool

Formed: 1990
Origins: Los Angeles
Band Members: Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Justin Chancellor & Danny Carey
Thoughts: God then, God now. Third eye. Listening to them is a journey....and a priviledge

4) Nine Inch Nails

Formed: 1988
Origins: Cleveland, Ohio
Band Members: Trent Reznor & Various artsist
Thoughts: Visual fest. Industrial goth. Lights in the Sky Tour. Hurt. We are not worthy, we are not worthy, Trent.

Shitzzz....NIN could start a war at 2:35 mins to 4:00mins.....

5) How to Destroy Angels

Formed: 2010
Origins: US
Band Members: Mariqueen Maandig, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Thoughts: Sinister. Dark. Nine-inch-Nails with female vocals. Joy Division.

6) Puscifer

Formed: 2007
Origins: California
Band Members: Maynard James Keenan & various artist
Thoughts: Anything goes. Maynard's side project. Far beyond comprehension.

7) Deftones

Formed: 1988
Origins: Sacramento, California
Band Members: Chino, Stephen, Chi (now-Sergio), Frank & Abe
Thoughts: Sex. Primal. Bloody. Get well soon Chi.

8) Brand New

Formed: 2000
Origins: Long Island, New York
Band Members: Jesse Lacey, Garrett Tierney, Brian Lane, Vincent Accardi & Derrick Sherman
Thoughts: Lyrical masterpiece. Memories. Takes music seriously. Destined to be great someday.

9) Chevelle

Formed: 1995
Origins: Grayslake, Illinois
Band Members: Pete Loeffler, Sam Loeffler & Dean Bernadini
Thoughts: Tool's children. Too good to be a 3 man band. Jimmy Fallon.

Welcoming 2012
In retrospect, 2011 has been a relatively rough year for me. In short, it was a year of loss, apprehension, regret and realization. (more to come in the next post). It was unfortunate (me still being pessimist) that it all happened on my 30th year of existence in this world. What it feels like to be 30? At this age, you start to realize the shape of your emotions and personality, in other words, who you really are. You start to evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses. I have been denying my weaknesses for far too long, so long that it has now become what defines me. I've got it all wrong all this while. Strengths are what defines you. I am still a work in progress. 2012 will be year i live each day.

My favourite female acts

2011-12-27T02:01:00.000-08:00

I have a weakness for female singers with good voices. For so long, Faye Wong and Sarah Mclachlan have created a world of great musical beauty. Their songs have not aged and are still up for a good listen. But since then, many wonderful female singers have sprung and have added up to my list of favourite singers.

Here, i have compiled a list of my most recent favourite female acts.

1) Corinne Bailey Rae
Her recorded album doesnt do justice to what this girl is capable of. The best way to appreciate Corinne Bailey Rae is to watch her live. She sings with a flood of emotions. Every time i hear her, i could feel her sadness and loneliness from the tragic death of her husband. With her eyes close and a smile that never fails to melt the audience, she sings gracefully,...just like an angel.

2) Hayley Williams
Yes, i know. She sold out. She ditched her band. And she was part of something related to the Twilight bandwagon (Decode). But as much as i would want to dislike her, i just could not get myself to do it. With or without the original Paramore lineup, this girl can carry the band with her energetic performance and strong husky vocals. She looks really comfortable on stage. Also, honestly, i think she's pretty hot, seeing this redhead head-banging on stage...hahaha

3) Lana Del Rey
Ok, i know im gonna get a lot of stick from the general readers for saying this but here goes. I hate Adele!!..for various reasons which i probably should not reveal here. If there's anything i could wish for this new year's, is that i hope Lana Del Rey pushes Adele into musical oblivion...hahaha. Lana is an up-and-coming singer who's so accurately described in her wikipedia page as a "gangsta Nancy Sinatra". She'll be releasing an album in Jan 2012, and i pray that pop music will not eat her up. I hope she makes the right move.

4) Henriette Sennenvaldt
Scandanavian countries are "notorious" for producing creepy female singers like Fever Ray and Bjork, but i would like to thank Denmark for bringing Henriette of Under Byen to my ears. She is one of mesmerizing beauty and voice. Henriette is everything that a diva is not. Probably the tiniest member of the magical band, Under Byen, but her impact to their music is immense.

5) Natasha Khan
Also known as Bat for Lashes, Natasha is a multi-talented musician. She's the hipster among the 5 listed here. She treats her music seriously and her talent is just too profound to ignore. With every new song, she never fails to surprise us with her uniquie distinct sounds.

Bkt Tinggi through the eyes of the Harinezumi

2011-09-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Balik Pulau Durian Farm Visit & Beach

2011-09-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

When i was a young boy, my dad grew a durian tree at our house compound. It was there as early as i could remember. It was not much of a tree, but it's branches and leaves sheltered a vast piece of land. We used an automatic sprinkler to water the roots. But as far as i could remember, it only bear one fruit. I could still remember the lonely hanging durian and when it finally fell, it was a cause for celebration. Watching my dad opening the durian was one of my memorable childhood memories, but now, the tree is gone, chopped down as it posed a risk due to its roots growing into my house. That was my first so called durian harvest and many years later, at present time, i got the opportunity to reap the harvest of someone's elses durian farm, thanks to a colleague of mine.

A few months back, at the end of the durian season, my colleague invited us to her family's durian farm for a visit. It was situated deep towards the hills of Balik Pulau, from a road that i pass by every day for work, but never knew where it leads to. We drove through rocky and winding roads and a river, occasionally sounding the horn to warn any oncoming traffic about our arrival. The road finally ended at a wooden hut, surrounded by lush greenery and fruit trees. We got down from our car only to be greeted by a pack of dogs, which barked and growled at us. Only in the presence of a familiar face/smell, that is my colleague, that the dogs calmed down and went prowling elsewhere.

We strolled around the wooden hut, as my colleague introduced a few of the fruit trees. I've always imagined farms to be an organized plot of land with rows of trees planted in equal distance and separated based on their fruit type, but in truth, it's just a big mash-up of fruit trees everywhere. You see banana, durian, rambutan, langsat and limau trees all scattered and living harmoniously. It's as if someone ate all these fruits at once, grabbed all their seeds, and threw them up in the air and let the trees grow out of them. One interesting myth about the limau tree is that women are not allowed to touch them. Any violation of this myth will cause the tree to "be jealous" and not bear any fruits forever. No one dared to be a smart ass and prove my colleague wrong.

We walked deeper towards the hills where the concentration of durian trees are higher. The interesting thing about all this is that we get to eat whichever durian that has fallen on the ground, provided the squirrel doesnt get there first. I seriously have no idea how squirrels do it, but at one time, we saw a nice looking durian on the grass, only to flip it over and see an innocent looking squirrel biting through the hole punctured into the durian. Crazy animals.

So we went scurrying around, looking for fallen durians, although i was praying that none will drop at the wrong time and at the wrong place, that is onto our heads. It was the end of the durian season, so the trees were pretty fruitless and we had to really squint our eyes to spot a durian. My estimate, the plantation is as huge as 4 football fields at least. We could walk all day, but we were satisfied and thankful with our harvest for that day.

We head back to the hut with our durians, and who would have thought that holding a durian by its stem would be so difficult and tiring. It was a long walk, and the durian stem was slowly slipping away from my fingers. At that time, i summoned my legs to help my arms, by walking faster back to the hut.

Opening a durian is quite a ceremonial ritual. It always starts with someone proclaiming that from the outer appearance of a durian such as the arrangements and thickness of thorns and the colour variation, the taste would either be bitter or sweet. After the proclamation, everyone else will start declaring their preference, ie. bitter or sweet. Oh yeah, basically, if humans have no races, the human population would be divided into bitter durian lovers, sweet durian lovers and durian haters. Then someone opens the durians. To do that, ive seen people using the chopping knife, pen knife, screwdriver, spoon, bare hands and even with their teeth (credit to the squirrel earlier). Whenever someone opens a durian, there is a big cloud of hope hovering around. Everyone takes a deep breath, anticipating, waiting for the first appearance of flesh and all is quiet. As soon as the first sight of white or yellow, the tense atmosphere finally breaks into a celebration mood. They start passing the durian around, submerging their fingers into the squishy flesh and start making comments about the taste. You see bloated mouths eveywhere, all talking with their mouths full. And then, ...the same repeats for the next durian.

The durians kept coming, and we did picked up different variations of durians. So we got quite a vast array of tasting. After the durians, we walked back to our cars. The farm workers were busy plucking the rambutans from the farm's prized rambutan tree. Im not really a fan of rambutans for 2 reasons. One is because of the ants and the other is because of the woody skin that sticks to the rambutan flesh if not eaten correctly. But besides that, the rambutans from the tree was really sweet and juicy. With a good dose of local fruits, we decided to head out from the farm to our next destination.

But before that, we stopped by for coconut drinks. According to a local, it's appeal is the thick juciy flesh from the coconuts that they served together with the drink. These came from really good plants indeed.

Little did i know that there is a beach at Balik Pulau. Though it was quite a distance, but it was well worth to discover a hidden jewel. It's actually next to an army camp. One good thing about this beach is that there are no horse riding and jet skis, nothing to spoil the view of the vast ocean before us. No need to look out for horse shit. No need to jump away from a oncoming jet ski. It's au-naturel.

There are families swimming and picniking and a couple of guys fishing. Except for a dead jellyfish lying by the beach, the seas look pretty inviting for a swim. But we did none of that. Instead, we brought a kite along. A fun activity but only if all the elements worked for you and not against you. First, there was no wind. Each of us ran like almost 100m holding the kite high up, hoping that the wind would guide it up. But of course, there is no wind...so it ended up crashing onto the sand. Secondly, it also landed onto the sea, and the kite was drenched wet, increasing its weight. Thirdly, someone pulled it while i was whole the frame. It broke, rendering it useless. We brought the kite there, few minutes later, we threw it away.

So that's pretty much an interesting weekend for us at the farm and at the beach.

Mistaken identity

2011-09-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've been a victim of a couple of mistaken identities in the past

DVD seller
Man: (holds a DVD and looks at me and asks in Hokkien) Is this clear?
Me: Yes

Cotton On Salesperson
Father with daughter: (daughter holding dress looking for size) Why dont you ask him over there? (points at me)
Me: (shakes head and hand. walk away)

Seafood waiter
Man looking for table: We have 13 people
Me: (straight show piss off face)

Lee Chong Wei's brother at Nasi Kandar Line Clear
Cashier: U...badminton?
Me: (stunned)...football
Cashier: (silent)...u look like Lee Chong Wei....brother...(moves hand to describe face and so forth)
Me: I get that alot (sighs in heart)

Few seconds being myself

2011-09-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

On the day Steve Jobs resigned, i woke up in the morning, drove to work, had Milo for breakfast. Then i attended a morning meeting, followed by lunch at 12. In the evening, i completed a few tasks and left for home after dinner. Then i watched a few episodes of Mad Men and slept at midnight. In other words, i didnt give a shit that Steve Jobs resigned. I'm sick and tired of this turtle neck shirt wearning dude telling us what "we" want every year!!

Ok, back to being julesism....

Last week's song playlist

2011-09-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

My song playlist at work

1) Crystal Castles - Not in Love featuring Robert Smith from the Cure.
Robert Smith doesnt look much. Unkempt messy hair, black makeup shades around his eyelids, and looking very much like a stale Goth artist. But he is the voice of a generation of UK new wave and post punk teens in the 80s and a well respected man in the music genre. Here, he lends his voice to one of the strongest emotional sounds of Crystal Castle.

2) Crystal Castles - Empathy
Empathy starts with a bass loop and a catchy looping tune, backing Alice Glass distorted screams, only to transcend to Alice's original angelic and serenating vocals. One of the more psychedelic songs of Crystal Castles. (the crowd partied really hard in most of the song's live performances in youtube. Imagine yourself in a pitch black crowded concert with lasers everywhere and this song blasting in the speakers..really loud)

3) Crystal Castles - Air War
This song is so trippy that i think it can convert a virgin lung into an ambassador of weed.

4) Crystal Castles - Untrust Us
One of Crystal Castles' more popular songs, with only 5 lines of lyrics, mostly in Spanish, repeated over and over that cocaine is not good for you. But then again, the title of the song is "untrust us".

5) Crystal Castles - Crimewave
My very first Crystal Castle song came from a random link that i clicked in youtube. It wasnt much at first, the video was a live performance in some show at the streets of Canada, featuring the band, but what intrigued me was Alice Glass's energy and Ethan Kath innovative use of the effects on Alice's vocals. Anyhow, from a punk band background, Alice on her own voice would have walked all over most bands.

6) Uffie - Pop the Glock
I'm not sure if i am jumping the pop bandwagon here, but this song is pretty catchy. From what i've read, netizens are comparing Uffie with Ke$ha, with both sides going all combat mode on debating who is better. Honestly, Ke$ha has expired her existence in music, with her music being overplayed in radio and fed endlessly to the masses. Who knows, Uffie might soon be following suit but until that happens, Uffie is still fresh to my ears.

7) Bon Iver - Beth/Rest (Solo Piano Version)
8) Bon Iver - Beach Baby (World Cafe)
I have no idea who this guy is until his diatribe on MTV's award show was published in Stereogum recently, that got me thinking about the decline of MTV. Here's a direct copy of what he said, sourced from his blog

"there are great moments in awards shows. bruno mars sounded really good doing ‘valerie’ for amy winehouse. i don’t think anyone is bummed that adele is killing everything. her voice was real and focused when i went thru and watched highlights from tonight. kanye and jay z are always murdering. beyonce is pregnant. yes this is awesome as shit, culturally speaking. but can i just ask, the reader, us, we … as non-rhetorically as possible: don’t we seem dumb? didn’t MTV lose the fight against themselves? Didn’t Rock’n'Roll STOP? Why are the lights so bright? isn’t our talent as artists enough? Why do we try SO hard? Does a moonman mean what it did back then? Should we feel pumped when we get one? Should our mom’s cry? I am not even thinking about it that hard. I will close my eyes in 90 seconds and have total peace… But, seriously. Why are we waving around so much? Why do we NEED this shit so bad? Why don’t we just have MUSIC? DO music? soul? I don’t know. I don’t mean to criticize. Anyone. Actually. Except for MTV. You might have had a very large opportunity to be stabilize your self as a global presence of culture and art about 15 years ago and you fucked the dog. Sorry. Im with my girls on this one. Its becoming increasingly clear as I think about it more and more, that the dollars, if they ARE apart of why you are doing something… they are apart of why you are doing something. that’s fucked to me. that’s the absence of spirit, glue, fabric of what makes us a person. it distracts us from what we could be doing: WORK. on EARTH. Better say this: Forget what I say. If you even read this, you’ll probably say to yourself, who is this ass saying shit? It doesn’t matter what i say. it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. But this one last thought: What would Bill Hicks say?"

It got me standing up in my cubicle applausing the article. While some may say he needs to get down his high horse, but it has some element of truth in it if you really think about it. It's a reality check, man. The best part was he referenced the late Bill Hicks!!
Now, back to the song. It's slow, comforting, serenating and melodramatic. Sometimes this is just what i need on a hard days work.

9) Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Whenever i want to drown out the voices near my cubicle, i put this on. Sometimes, i wonder if there can be any other rock bands that rock as hard as Lemmy and his band. To me, they represent a brand of no-nonsense, simplistic and straight to the point hard rock that appeals to Harley fanatics and beer bellies.

10) Nachtmystium - Every Last Drop
I think that in black metal bands, the constant growling vocals, aggressive riffs, negativity infested lyrics and this whole death and dark persona feels pretty pointless. It is a musical genre that i do not have patience for. But i lasted 8 minutes of the song "Every Last Drop" by Nachymystium, and it has one of the most epic guitar solos. If the world were to ever come to a sad end, that will be last guitar solo that the earth will ever hear.

11) Yuna - Penakut
Yuna is getting all the exposure any budding musician could wish for. And it's not from any aggressive marketing from large corporations but largely due to her immense musical talent and songwriting skills. In this song, Yuna cries out against the injustice of a forbidden love, which requires a sacrifice, a step back from harm's way. It is a lyrical masterpiece that appeals to almost anyone who has ever been in love ...and heartbroken.

12) Yuna - Someone Out of Town
Yuna's tendency to stay in the shadows of all things happening around her is evident in this song. She longs for love and relishes the prospect of the unexpected adventure that is laid before her. A truly jolly song that amidst the uncertainty at the beginning, it somehow leaves you with a positive feeling that everything will turn out well in the end.

Daisy

2011-07-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ive featured the band Brand New twice in my blog (Degausser-Brand New & Brand New New Album and i still cant get enough of them.

Here are 2 of my new favourites amongst a list of very good songs from their latest album Daisy

Daisy

The best part of the song is at 0.50-1.20s, when that eerily cool kid's voice is played against the backdrop of guitars. Cause it's unpredictable and yet fitting to the mood of the song.

[Child speaking:]
Uh, uh, by the will of thee
He wasn't finding anybody when he was on a shelf
I saw him in my dream

You Stole

College Humor - Troopers

2011-07-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

College Humor recently featured a new hilarious series called Troopers and it is clearly a parody of Star Wars. It revolves around the daily lives of 2 StormTroopers, Rich and Larry who are stationed in a spaceship called Dread Cruiser. Ocasionally, their master Dread Lord (based on the Darth Vader character) and a captured princess make an appearance in the series. The whole series is a mixture of wit and stupidity and it is extremely amusing to watch.

Click on link to view : College Humor Troopers

I will breakkkkk....

2011-05-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

ladies and gentlemen, the perfect scream...

Thought she couldnt do it live, but she pulled it off in this acoustic version

Acoustc version

Original version

Sucker Punch - Sweet Dreams

2011-05-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

Best five minutes of the movie Sucker Punch.

Maroon 5 Concert

2011-05-03T05:11:00.001-07:00

Song of the day: Next Girl - The Black Keys. It's hard to find a band that delivers such a strong message in their music and yet do it in a subtle and simplistic manner that stays true to its music roots and originality. The Black Keys, a blues-rock band comprising of guitars/vocals Dan Aurbach and drummer Patrick Carney, fall into this category. It's a proven formula that duo partnerships can rock harder than any quintet as epitomized by the band White Stripes, but ive got a feeling that The Black Keys will transgress over any potential or accolades ever achieved by the White Stripes. Definitely a band to watch out for and enjoy

Maroon5 Concert

April 29th will always be remembered as the day of the much anticipated Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton and also the day, pictures of a grandmother waiting in line to purchase an iPad2, surfaced into the internet. (pity)

For me, it was the day i finally got to see a concert at Bukit Jalil Stadium and one in which Maroon 5 will be performing. The last time i was there, it was for a Faye Wong concert in my college days, back when i had teenage fantasies of her. But that's the past. Anyway, I'm not an overnight fan of Maroon 5, but rather one that is looking for an opportunity to hang out with my wife and to enjoy some live music together.

The venue is indoors so there's like different standards of seats with different pricing. There are a few designated entrances and you need to make sure you're in the right one. Failing to do so, the ticket guys will have to send you back to the end of the line of the correct queue. So it's pretty strict but understandable due to the variations in ticket pricing.

In truth, i was in awe of the majestic space in the stadium. And i am quite impressed by the size of the stage, though ive heard a bigger one was prepared for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Anyway, one thing that was kinda peculiar to me was the way the organizers arranged the standing tickets. Now i always thought standing tickets should give you the best view and the best spot to at least have some sort of interaction with the band (maybe some eye contact at least), but hell no. There was at least a 100metre or so gap in between the stage and where the standing spots were. This gap is filled up with rows of plastic chairs, and not even the good ones mind you, but those chairs you usually see in public "ceramahs". Cmon, dont tell me they expect the front row fans to be sitting, tapping their feet throughout the concert..but more on this later.

So i havent have much luck in "being there shouting and screaming" when the band appears for the first time at the start of a concert. At deftones, i had to run like a crazy rabbit and though at that time, it was related to my need for water "outake" (toilet break), at Maroon 5 on the other hand, it was due to my need for water "intake". Procastinating at first, i finally decided to get a bottle of coke and mineral water, and since it seems that the band will be late anyway, i took a slow stroll away from my seat. As soon as i was paying for them, the fans started screaming and my phone was vibrating endlessly (wife calling me to come back). Everyone was running frantically. The stadium was all dark when i reached and people were screaming and shouting and clapping and i had to skip over a seated couple and stepped on a few shoes to get to my seat which was right in the middle of a row.

So the band started off with their current hit "Mysery" which has been in the radio endlessly for the past weeks. The stage looked awesome from up here (i'm seated at the upper right wing) with a variation of flashing lights. Adam Levine had plenty of space to move around and he's flanked by his guitarist, James Valentine on his left and the basist, Micky Madden on his right. Somehow, the band had 2 keyboardist that night on each side of the drummer, Matt Flynn. The sound was great due to the acoustics of the enclosed stadium. Some fans had those twinkling rainbow batons which they wave around and it added to the atmosphere of the concert.

By the 3rd song, everyone was all warmed up and as if the "party button" was just flicked on, a sudden wave of seated fans (remember those guys who were seated at the front on those plastic chairs?) rushed to the barriers that separated the stage from the fans, shouting and screaming. Finally, a rock concert. They started dancing and jumping all around, waving as Maroon 5 performed one of their edgier and rockier songs. One that i can remember had Adam Levine performed a guitar solo, which got all the female fans screaming for more.

Speaking of female fans, there's this one that nearly tore off my ear drums. It's funny what this girl could do to me what the band failed to do even with the best of the best of sound equipment. She has this really sharp horrifying shriek that would be heard at the beginning of every song, every time Adam Levine addresses his fans and every time he waves at us. It's forgivable at first but it went on for the whole concert, ignoring my subtle attempts to get her to stop by covering my ears. It got so bad that my mind end up subconsiously waiting for her shrieks when a new song starts. At one time, she was screaming how she loved Adam Levine's butt. But who am i to stop her from having her time of her life. I'm glad she enjoyed every moment of it.

Like that girl, most of the fans were really having a good time. Though ours were tickets with seats, some of us actually stood up and dance as Maroon 5 played some of their greatest hits like "Never Gonna Leave this Bed", "This Love", "Makes Me Wonder", "Sunday Morning", "Wont go home without you" and many more. Anyway, i was kinda disappointed with the slow rendition of "She will be loved" which Maroon 5 decided to perform that night. With only an acoustic guitar backing Adam Levine's vocals for that song, i felt that this slower version would be better played on acoustic sessions and not on a concert. But he got the crowd to sing along and they really enjoyed that whole exercise.

Remember the fans seated right at the front on their plastic chairs, who took the liberty to stand next to the barriers to get up close and personal to the band? Yeah, it was looking more like a rock concert when that happened. Until a bunch of security dudes decided to be party poopers and ordered them to get back to their "expensive" seats. This didnt go too well with the band, so thankfully Adam Levine stopped the security from damaging the atmosphere and to let the fans move up to the front, much to the cheers from the crowd. Awesome!

At the encore, Maroon 5 played 3 more songs and then it was goodbye. I have to admit, Maroon 5 definitely rocked on their edgier songs, and they looked to be having so much fun playing them as compared to their slower ones. For a singer that is known for his sexy though squeaky voice, Adam Levine looks pretty comfortable in his guitar solos and the band definitely gave it their 100% in revving up the crowd. It is their first time in Malaysia and they definitely gave a lasting impression for pop music fanatics everywhere.

As for me, for the first time, my wife and i had a decent 10 minute discussion on music after the concert, a moment to saviour indeed.

When i was a kid...

2011-04-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

Song of the day: Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd. It was during my internship in 2002 that i was introduced to this timeless band by my supervisor. Pink Floyd was never in my teenage rock fantasies but the appealing factor of this band is it's controversial album called "The Wall" that was released in 1979 and was later adapted into a feature film. To put it in a better words, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia which pretty much sums up the elements of the adapted film

The Wall is a rock opera that explores abandonment and isolation, symbolised by a metaphorical wall. The songs create an approximate storyline of events in the life of the protagonist, Pink, a character based on Waters, whose father was killed during the Second World War. Pink is oppressed by his overprotective mother, and tormented at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers. Each of these traumas become metaphoric "bricks in the wall". The protagonist eventually becomes a rock star, his relationships marred by infidelity, drug use, and outbursts of violence. As his marriage crumbles, he finishes building his wall, completing his isolation from human contact

It;s not something i would recommend for pleasure viewing. But still Roger Waters emotional & soulful solo at the beginning of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is a hallucinatory bridge that divides reality and the amazing psychedellic world that the band brings you to. Once you crosses it with your eyes closed, coming back to reality is a drag.

When I was a Kid...
Being a kid is awesome, with no responsibility to shoulder and it's a phase in life where time and tide do actually wait for you. It's a world where you can truly be yourself and be carefree, sort of like a dry sponge, so eager to absorb everything around you. Which when you eventually do, when you get older, you become this wet and dirty sponge that has grown weary from absorbing all the elements and influences of the world, be it good or bad and you probably lose track of who you once was. But yeah, never look back at the past, but some are just are just too hard to ignore.

When i was a kid...i ran with my mouth open and accidentally chewed a fly, true story

When i was a kid...i had a crush on the Pink Ranger.

When i was a kid...my hero was Chuck Norris. I mean seriously, i watched his black and white movie "Lone Qolf Macquade" (still on VCR back then) plentiful times. And oh yeah my other hero is Macgyver.

When i was a kid...i believed that there was a secret door to an enchanted world in my house and searched everywhere for it.

When i was a kid...i wanted to be a soldier.

When i was a kid...i only wanted to take pictures with zebras at the zoo.

When i was a kid...i asked my dad what breast meant at a dinner table. He told me that i heard it wrong and he meant the word "press".

When i was a kid...i would lie on a pillow and pile more pillows on top of myself and act like i was a hamburger. When there is a bolster around, i would be a hot dog. My sisters didnt find me funny.

When i was a kid...i pee'ed on all my drains in the house. Thanks to that, i learned water is an element that causes rust.

When i was a kid...i was really skinny and had bugs bunny teeth. I emphatised with the guys in "Revenge of the Nerds"

When i was a kid...i bathed with the toilet door open after watching Exorcist and ALiens on TV. They really should ban these from kids. I was tarumatised for years.

When i was a kid...i hated football but adored badminton.

When i was a kid...i thought i had super powers and would one day end up as a super hero. Im usally the reluctant hero who saves girls.

When i was a kid...i thought babies happen as a reward from God after a married couple just sleeps together (actually i blame this on the movies cause everytime a women announces her pregnancy, everyone is like so surprise and grateful to God)

When i was a kid...i watched tonnes of cartoons; Thundercats, Silverhawks, M.A.S.K., G.I.Joe, Robotech, Jem, Care Bears, My little Pony, Transformers, He-Man, Centurions, Dino-saucers, Dinoriders, Saber Rider & the Star Sheriff, Smurfs, Ghostbusters, Star-Com, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Voltron, Visionaries and many more which i cant think of now

When i was a kid...my favourite brand is Kiko and Kiki-lala

When i was a kid...i could hum to the tune of Airwolf's opening sequence

When i was a kid...i like to draw King Kong on my parents's whiteboard. Now i cant draw shit. Ever since i started skteching characters from "Gila-gila", every person i drew had big eyes and a large nose.

I've got many more, but it's too embarassing to reveal. So what's your "When i was a kid" moment?

Cameron Crowe and his great taste in music

2011-04-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Trent Reznor is a household name when it comes to rebelling against the fatcoats of the music industry. In May 2007 [source Wikipedia], he accussed Universal Music Group of ripping the fans off with their absurd pricing of the distribution of their album Year Zero. This transpired Trent to urge his fans to steal his music online instead of purchasing it legally. In 2008, his band Nine Inch Nails performed one of the most amazing shows as part of their "Lights in the Sky" North America Tour. The show was a mix of audio feast and visual wizardry which I have never thought possible. The video below has got to be one of the best visuals I have ever seen performed live.

Cameron Crowe and his great taste in music
"Singles" was my first Cameron Crowe movie. It was a movie about six of Seattle's youths and whose lives revolve around the city's ever expanding music scene. It was showcased at a time when Seattle musio/scene was at its bulgening stage and the soundtrack is a grunge's fanatic dream, with bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney headlining the discography. Here are a list of his movies and a couple of recognizable songs from their soundtracks.

Singles

1) Would - Alice in Chains
2) Breath and s Scream - Pearl Jam
3) Seasons - Chris Cornell
4) Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns - Mother Love Bone
5) Birth Ritual - Soundgarden
6) State of Love & Trust - Pearl Jam
7) Overblown - Mudhoney
8) Nearly Lost You - Screaming Trees
9) Drown - Smashing Pumpkins

Jerry Macguire

1) Secret Garden - Bruce Springsteen
2) World on a String -Neil Young
3) For Those About to Rock (We salute you) - AC/DC
4) Something in the Way- Nirvana
5) Shelter from the Storm - Bob Dylan
6) Magic Bus - The Who
7) Getting in Tune - The Who

Almost Famous

1) Lucky Trumble - Nancy Wilson (Crowe's wife and member of the rock band Heart)
2) Sparks - The Who
3) America - Simon & Garfunkel
4) One Way Out - The Allman Brothers Band
5) Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
6) That's The Way - Led Zeppelin
7) I'm Waiting For The Man - David Bowie
8) I've Seen All Good People: Your Move - Yes

Vanilla Sky

1) All the Right Friends - R.E.M.
2) Everything In It's Right Place - Radiohead
3) Svefn-G-Englar -Sigur Rus
4) Afrika Shox - Leftfield
5) Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
6) Fourth Time Around - Bob Dylan
7) Elevator Beat - Nancy Wilson
8) Sweetness Follows - R.E.M.
9) Where do I Begin - The Chemical Brothers

Elizabethtown

1) Come Pick Me Up - Ryan Adams
2) Where to Begin -My Morning Jacket
3) 60B (etown Theme) - Nancy Wilson
4) It'll All Work Out -Tom Petty

A Day In KL

2011-04-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

Quote of the day:
(while listening to Tool in the car radio)
Me: Wow! Awesome. Doesnt Tool bring you to places when you hear them?
Lan Sin: yeah, that place is hell
Hahahaha

Song of the day: Bulletproof Skin by Institute. Institute is a band formed by Bush frontman, Gavin Rossdale in 2005. Institute provides a sound that is so rare these days since the heydays of the Seattle Sound in the 90s, that is the the raw sound of old fashion riffs with the gravely vocals. The riffs at the beginning of this song sounded a lot like Helmet which is not surprising since its guitarist, Chris Taynor used to play with bands like Bush and Helment. Definitely one of the bands to look out for future album releases.

Cool to disappear but
I missed you most days
An army of tattooed angels
Have brought me back today

A Day In KL
Last weekend, Lan Sin and i took a drive down south to KL as we had to run some errands back home. Usually when im back south, i would just hibernate at my home but this time, we decided to go around, explore a bit.

We started off with brunch at Tai Thong Dim Sum next to Hotel Armada at PJ. It was quite a task to get your car up the multi storey car park due to the tight space and to make it worst, the ticket booth at the entrance is placed right at the tip of a slope, which can be quite a hassle for manual cars.

The restaurant had an authentic chinese and grandeur feel to it. Probably routine to KLites, but for someone that's always holed up in the rural areas of Penang, it was quite a refreshing sight.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the dim sums are at 50% discount, so we decided to go all out in our orders that morning. There is a variety of selections in the menu, and we got the usual standard orders. The dishes came pretty quick and the service had a personal touch to it, so it was quite a comforting dining experience. The crowd was made up mostly of the elderly folks with their children, laid back and just enjoying a wonderful morning meal. Soon, our table was filled to the brim with dim sum dishes that were waiting to entice our taste buds. Each of the dim sum was prepared with a generous amount of fresh ingredients.

Of course, even to dine with a 50% discount in this sort of restaurant does not guarantee that no holes will be burnt on our pockets. It was still slightly pricey and one does wonder if anyone would want to come here on weekdays. But overall, my dim sum craving is satisfied with a hearty meal.

To walk away our urge for an afternoon nap, we decided to go for a shopping trip at Pavillion. I have never driven to the Bukit Bintang area simply because it looks like a maze to me, but thankfully with a newly acquired GPS with us, it all seemed a lot easier.

Stepping foot into Pavillion, i realised why it is deemed as a shopping paradise in Malaysia. It has an endless choice of fashion outlets that caters to everyone from young to the old and from the expessive teens to the classy adults, it's a place spoilt for choice. We even had a chance to sit down by the runway to catch a fashion show from the fashion label Warehouse.

Besides fashion outlets, shopping complexes are also rated by the variety of food and beverages services that they offer within the premise. And i am very impressed by the size of the floor where the food outlets are situated at Pavillion. For any hungry man, it would definitely feel like a heaven's heaven.

One shop that we decided to visit after bumping into it when we entered Pavillion from our car park was MOF, Ministry of Food which serves sweet Japanese dessert. Radiation aside, the sight of a creamy green tea ice cream bathed in a bowl of red bean paste seems like a thing to desire for a lifetime. We orderd once of its chef choice which is green tea ice cream with hot (fresh from the oven) sweet potato and yam and the combination tasted really good.

Ice cream dipped in red bean paste

Green tea ice cream with yam and sweet potato

By then,it was almost time for dinner, and this was definitely the highlight of the day. My sister and bro in law who have been a food resident in PJ for years brought us to this place called "Ribs by Vintry", which apparently serves really good ribs and wine.

It's a classy and comfortable place, reminding me of the beautiful nights that accompany the many fine dining areas in Melbourne. At the entrance of Ribs, there were 2 shelves of an assortment of wine that can be savoured together with our meaty dinner that we were about to have.

The place with its selection of fine wine

For starters, we had 200g of roast pork and fried cheese. Many would disagree having roast pork for fine dining instead of having one by the dirty roadside stall, but this roast pork, apparently self made with their very own recipe has got to be one of the best ive ever eaten, with the crunchiness and the succulent fats at the right amount of greatness.

Roast Pork

Fried Cheese

We also got ourselves 2 variations of pasta; the Chef's Pasta and Tomyam Pasta. Lan Sin enjoyed the Chef's Pasta very much. It was prepared with a rather unorthodox ingredient, which is fried pork oil cubes (chu yao zha). Usually, i would eat that with wan tan mee, but for pasta, now that's surprising but equally delicous.

Chef Pasta

And our main course was the Barbarian Ribs, the standard meal with wine. It was a meal that was very much fitting to its name, Barbarian. Not only was the portion huge, but we ended up having to eat like a barbarian, that is to use our hands, just to get our teeth into the tight corners of the rib bone.

Barbarian Ribs

A bottle of red wine to complement our meat

My 2 favourite dishes of the night has got to the Buffalo Wings dipped in danish blue cheese and the ham wrapped around winter melon chunks. Danish blue cheese is an exact moniker of durians. It stinks but once you eat it, it's simply heaven. It's basically molded cheese that has turned blue so the smells really rotten. Imagine dipping hot steaming buffalo wings into melted danish blue cheese. Ahh..salivas on my keyboard already. The Ham on the other hand is something quite unique. It's prepared with a slice of thinly cut cured ham wrapped around a chunk of winter melon with some rocket salad inside the roll. It's one of those dishes that seduces your taste buds by bringing you to different stages of tasting. Salty at first, and then a rush of sweetness once you bite into the melon. Almost a puddle of saliva on my keyboard now.

Ham rolled over winter melon

Just love'em ribs

Lan Sin and I had great fun even for a short weekend back in KL. Yes, we can work like cows on weekdays but for a weekend of bliss with friends and family, it was well worth it.

Hope & Smile

2011-04-03T02:19:00.000-07:00

When the videos of the Japan Tsunami on March 11 surfaced in the Net, i was shocked and sad to witness such a catastrophe. When the waters subsided, news of a nuclear crisis at Fukushima-Daichi plant begin to spread over the media. From one disaster to another, Japan began to fall apart. I was devastated. A beautiful country embroiled in uncertainty and helpless under the forces of nature.

So it was not surprising to see aid and donations flowing from countries and celebrities from all over the world. One local "superstar" had the idea to hold a charity match to raise funds for the Tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan. He is our very own Datuk Lee Chong Wei, whom this weekend, decided to hold back-to-back badminton matches in Penang and KL as part of a charity exhibition match.

So last Saturday, Lan Sin and I visited the Dewan Tunku Geodesic Dome in Komtar to catch a glimpse of this recently crowned All-England Champion. No doubt, I'm more of a Lin Dan fan, but after witnessing the sheer determination and confidence of Chong Wei's win over Lin Dan, ive got to see this certain Chong Wei in person.

We were there early as we were afraid that the tickets would be sold out. And i'm glad we did because on paper, Chong Wei was suppose to play Misbun Sidek at 6pm, but turns out, there were several changes. First, there was a change in Chong Wei's opponent. He played against 4 players on the opposite side of the net who were junior Penang state players; Jia Wei, Jin Wei, Thien Hua and Chong Eng (who turns out to be CHong Wei's brother). Secondly, the match was brought forward from 6pm, as communicated to 5pm. So it was not surprising to see people trickling into the hall around 6pm only to see an empty court.

But all was well went we got there. There was a sense of anticipation among the crowd as they waited for their badminton idol to appear. Everyone was all smiles, being entertained by 2 emcees on stage who were constantly updating the crowd on the going ons of the event. Now as mentioned earlier, it's not all entirely about Chong Wei but also more of an event to raise funds for Japan, so there's some vendors out there selling T-shirts, racquets, drinks, magazines and etc where some of the proceeds from the sales go to the fund.

There were some singing performances earlier that morning and we were just in time for the first badminton match between 2 junior Penang state player doubles pairs, who would be Chong Wei's opponent later. Though just an exhibition, the two pairs showed their youthful exuberance and skills and it was a convincing proof that there's future in our Malaysian badminton.

And then the much awaited appearance of Chong Wei, who turned up on court with a "Hope & Smile" White T-shirt. Ive never seen a badminton game that involves a 1 against 4 player game, but i am pretty sure they do this in training all the time. Chong Wei is gifted with a fantastic pace and agility on court movements, ticky net play and a great ability on playing the ball wherever he wants it go with ease. He showed glimpses of his trickery by directing his racquet to hit on a certain angle, only at the last minute, to change his angle, confusing the opponent. Though at first trailing, he eventually came up tops to win the game 21-15 within 15 minutes.

After the game ended, with Chong Wei still drying himself from sweat, the crowd was invited up on stage for an autograph session with Chong Wei. Lan Sin and I hesitated at first since the queue was like never ending but since we're there, well why not. While at the queue, the vendors started promoting their sales aggressively especially the T-shirts. Both Lan Sin and I got one each, since it;s for a good cause. That's ok but when newspaper vendors started coming in selling their papers, and holding a big tin asking for donations, ive decided to hold on to my money for the night.

While it was a long wait to get up on stage, it passed by in a blink of an eye when we got up for a signature and a photo opportunity with Chong Wei. Overall it was a warm-hearted event and well done to the organizers and CHong Wei for this good cause.

Harinezumi Photo Set

2011-04-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

Digital Harinezumi cameras are designed to NOT take proper pictures. The LCD display does not show a preview when taking a picture means that you would not know what you are taking until you press the shutter. Meanwhile, certain hues are present in pictures and sometimes they go out of focus. These are not defects but merely part of the design of the camera. Here are a few unedited shots taken a while back.

Peach is a good colour for appetite.

Whatever you want in your life, it is out there.

Bratwurst sausages in Singapore

Not looking forward to the day that I am "too old for this".

But definitely looking forward to the New Year.

A flash back on life's beautiful moments

Turning my back for everything beautiful.

Full Benefits

2011-03-31T08:11:00.001-07:00

A guy and girl lying on a bed. They both say "hi", avoiding eye contact. Girl says "So work's gonna be weird today". Guy agrees.

This is what you're gonna get on the first 14 seconds to a 10 episode College Humor series entitled "Full Benefits", which is basically a satire on 2 office colleagaues, David & Sara who tries to lead a normal working relationship after a 1 night stand, but soon realises that it's easier said than done.

Just like it's POV series which i posted some time ago, they don't allow embedding, so just click on the links below to view the episodes in youtube.

Episode 1: Hook Up : The first morning at work after spending a night together is going to be difficult one for both David and Sara. So what's usually the "protocol" for these sort of things?...act normal, play it cool?...hmm..

Episode 2: Ditching Dan: To make things worsts, there's always a clueless friend in this sort of thing.

Episode 3: Cover Up: Eventually, someone's gonna want to know what they think of each other, or if they should take things seriously or rather the next level of a relationship. Too bad, David found out about it the hard way. Hahaha..the mutton chops reference in this episode was hilarious.

Episode 4: The Reveal: I guess this is probably the hardest thing that any couple has to do. That is to let it all out, full face confession to the whole world that you are both indeed seeing each other as a couple. What would be the friends' reaction be? Will things be any different after that?

Episode 5: The Party: At the beginning of any relationship, jealousy easily kicks in. You think that now that you're a couple, you've successfully crossed over to his/her personal boundaries and you should be treated extra special. And you tend to overeact when your partner gets extra friendly with other people. So that's when things get a bit tensed up due to jealousy. Yeah, so that's what this episode's about.

Episode 6: The Decision: What started as a casual 1 night stand has now blown out into a huge decision making process. "Yeah, but we wont know unless we try" -a well overused phrase in any relationship.

Episode 7: The Rumor: I guess the whole point of this episode is to show how rumors spread fast on new relationships. As we are all aware, at every exchange, the rumor always gets over-exaggerated. One interesting thing to note in this episode are the actions of the actors/actresses during the rumour exchange. Each action is co-related to the action of the next exchange. Example, on one exchange, you can see Amir knitting something and the next exhange, he was wearing a wool sweater.

Episode 8: Double Date: I hate double dates. The operative word here being -dates. I dont mind double-hanging out together. But NO to double-dates.

Episode 9: The Late Night: Dave and Sara gets into a tight spot when both of them, only just recently deciding to go on separate ways, was forced by their boss to stay late in office for work...and it doesnt help that the cleaning lady loves Kenny G hahaha

Episode 10: Dinner Party: Ah yes, the season finale. Hilarious moment: Joe's bear stories

Of something else

2011-03-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Havent been blogging for a while. It's been pretty hard for the past few weeks, but it helps that i am not left alone to dealt with all these that is goin on. There's not much to blog but i guess ill just share some of my interest to anyone who's reading.

What makes "The Dark Knight" and "Inception" great movies? Besides the well-thought storylines, top-of-the-game visual effects and great casts, the music that accompanies every scenes plays an important role as well. Both of these movies are honoured to have Hans Zimmer behind the sounds of each movie. Hans Zimmer is a German composer and has an impressive resume of movies in which he was the music producer. Besides the movies mentioned earlier, the list includes "The Lion King", "Gladiator", "Sherlock Holmes", "Angels & Demons" and a video game project called "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare2".

His theme for the movie Inception sounds extremely sinister and like the movie, totally blew my mind off. It felt like my speakers were about to explode at the end.

The Dark Knight's theme, thought slightly longer, had an enormous build-up. Whenever i hear it, i felt like i was jumping from building to building chasing criminals. Ironically, i sounded like spiderman. But you get the picture.

I've always been a fan of dark music since i was a kid. At school, I had a fascination for Enigma, Type-O-negative, Depeche Mode and anything that sounded depressing. Type-O-negative totally screwed my mind over until i had to throw that album just to recover from a bad phase of my life and vowed never to listen to them again. I've moved on from this, but every once in a while, i do feel myself attracted to anything dark.

"30 seconds to Mars" recent music video on their hit "Hurricane" with its dark sado masochistic themes and heavily graphical images have been running in my laptop for the past few days. Directed by the singer himself, Jared Leto who was once a hearthrob of the silver screen and is now a full time band singer, he quotes "Hurricane is a meditation on the violence of sex and the sex of violence. The video is a surrealistic dream, nightmare, fantasy through the streets of New York City at night where the people and places that are normally reserved for the darker recesses of this town are kind of brought into the light and celebrated. It’s like a big, giant art opening really where the freaks have taken over the town." Viewer discretion is advised.

My temporary solace of sanity

2011-03-05T06:26:00.000-08:00

This playlist will last me for a while...

1) Elite - Deftones
2) Passenger - Deftones
3) Panic Prone - Chevelle
4) All Secrets Known - Alice in Chains
5) Sleeping With Ghosts - Placebo
6) You've Seen the Butcher - Deftones
7) Xerces - Deftones
8) Tug O War - Chevelle
9) Careless Whisper - Seether
10) Digital Bath - Deftones
11) Vitamin R - Chevelle
12) Natalie Portman - Team Sleep
13) MX - Deftones
14) Running Up the Hill - Placebo
15) Get Some - Chevelle
16) Rocket Skates - Deftones

...

2011-03-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

If you ever enter my mind

Stay there

You'll live

Deftones Concert 2011

2011-02-17T05:11:00.000-08:00

As i munch away on the Bratwurst sausages with saukeraut at this highly recommended eatery in Plaza Singapore, i could see droves of youngsters, probably getting ready to go to the big event a few roads away at Fort Canning Park. Back at school, i could remember slotting in an "Alternative Hits" cassette into my radio player, listening to the Deftones track, "7 words" and constantly raping the rewind button so that i could hear it over and over again. And 15 years from then, i am finally living my dream of hearing them perform the same song live and what a performance it was. Deftones Diamond Eyes Tour Singapore 2011 made February 16 2011 a significant milestone in my life.

My passport

It was my very first time being in Singapore for a rock concert and i did not know what to expect from the crowd and the scene over there. As i made my way to Fort Canning Park, there was already quite a queue waiting for the gates to be opened. These are the mosh pit dwellers who would do anything to get up close and personal to the band and who would gladly be the "waves" that lift Chino when he body surfs onto the crowd. After collecting my tickets, i took a breather by the side, soaking the atmosphere and it dawned upon me that i was totally under-dress for a rock concert. I looked like someone who's visiting a friend's house for Chinese New Year. Concert-goers were clad in black- the official colour of rock concerts, tatoos were everywhere i looked, torn jeans, funky hairstyles and rock bands on the wrists, chains and all sorts.

So Fort Canning Park, as the name suggests is an outdoor venue for the concert. I've heard that it's a hilly place which lets you get a good view of the stage at the front and i guess it gives a "Rainforest festival" feel to it, what with all the surrounding trees and all. But this time, the stage was set up on a flat ground, so we dont get the hilly slopes. Anyway, also the venue was set up slightly smaller than the Nine Inch Nails concert last year, as i was told.

Crowd lingering before the concert

Beers were selling for $10 per cup, and it's a much needed booster to get rockin' for the concert. As concert goers slowly build up around the area, some of the guitar techs and sound check guys were up on stage doing their last rounds of checkups. So to rev up the mood a bit, usually they have opening bands, but they had none of it that night, and instead, some great tracks with sick riffs and beats were being played over the amps. Definitely beats any opening bands.

Waiting in anticipation

All around, you could feel the anticipation building up and you could feel a sense of connection between strangers. You could see friends meeting up, doing the secret handshakes and the friendly nods as people walk by each other. Being there itself while waiting for the band to appear, surrounded by fella concert goers who shares the same passion; it all felt like freedom to me. Freedom to express and to distance yourself from all rules and norms of life and to simply just be yourself in your own secret world; a world you build as a rebellious teenager but gets crushed as soon as you get a job and more responsibilities.

As we wait for the band to appear, i cant help but wonder if i should go to the toilet to ease myself so that i dont have to go in the middle of a song. I finally made my way to the mobile toilet right at the back and as luck would have it, as soon as i got out from the toilet, suddenly everyone was shouting like mad. Deftones just made it onto the stage. I ran like scared rabbits and the toilet area was dark like hell, and i was stomping onto mud, tree branches and all shit on the ground.

Stephen (guitars) got his spot at the right side of the stage, Frank (samples) was at the back, Abe (drums) and Sergio (bass) were camped on the left, while Chino (vocals) were free to roam. To be honest, i cant remember the song that Deftones started with, but it felt like thunder and lightning ripping through the amps. It would have totally blown off the rooftop, except that Fort Canning's an outdoor event. So anyway....the crowd was totally getting it and the head banging starts.

Chino

Monster Stephen

View from my spot

There's definitely no way that anyone could stay still with such awesome performances by Deftones. Mine usually starts with a simple tap on the foot, my hands would stay in my pockets and then my head just automatically goes into a minor repetive head nod. Usually when the chorus kicks in or some mind blowing riffs starts, this minor head movements suddenly turns into a full blown head bang. Feet now starting to go into some hypnotic stamp, and hands would start to relax a little. But not until the song gets so engaging that i lose all control of my neurons and both my hands start punching the air, doing all kinds of rock signs here and there and just going crazy and sometimes me looking like an idiot with a fit. But who cares. It's a rock concert damnit. Everyone's having an awesome time there.

The crowd went crazy when Deftones played "My Own Summer". There's just something about Chino that is simply unbelievable. He was so full of energy, running end to end, climbing up the speakers, getting the crowd involved, and for all his efforts, he still gets all his vocals in good pitch and still got the lungs to scream in every song. Stephen on the other hand seems to be quite a fan favourite. He's a big guy with a brutal beard and long hair and the visual image of him head banging with guitars is a moment to remember for the rest of my life. I think the crowd at the front was sort of chanting his name and all and i at the back could see him doing the "I am not worthy" bow a couple of times. He's got a down to earth character. Sergio was having a time of his life and he's no boring bass player. His hands were moving up and down the neck of the bass all the time and he's so into it. Abe the drummer is like being in a warzone. I feel exhausted just by looking at him thumping the drums and snares and it seemed like a whole lot of hard rocking was going on at the drums. Frank was in his usual self, with his cool demeanour. These guys just look really solid on stage.

Chino on guitars

The playlist that night includes a mix of songs from the early years to the ones from the new album Diamond Eyes. My favourite anthems of Deftones like Passenger, Digital Bath, and Change were played. And even though i dont know the lyrics of the songs by hard, i still went ahead and sang along and on the way, making up the words on my own. But to me, the best performance of that night by Deftones has got to be Rocket Skates. Stephen was a monster in this song. The riffs that he churned out was simply mind blowing, and the band was literally letting all hell loose in this song.

Under the moonlight

Other memorable performances to me were Sex Tape, Minerva, Diamond Eyes, Hole in the Earth and You've Seen the Butcher, though i wish they had performed Xerces and Elite. After almost reaching a maximum level of insanity/intensity, they finally played the final song of the night and it was none other than my school favourite: "7 words". As Chino screams "Suck, suck, suck, suck", i was jumping on the spot, punching my fist into the air, and yelling my lungs out. And when the song ended, they bid their farwell to the crowd and there i stood like a kid, stunned, rooted to the spot and felt like never wanting the night to end. But end, it did.

The crew packs for home

Deftones came and delivered a hell of a show, full of energy, and there's no "rock star" attitude in them. They played for the fans and that night itself, i felt like a renewed Deftones fan. I leave Fort Canning Park and Singapore knowing damn well, that for one night in 2011, i have truly lived.

POV

2011-02-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing. - source Wikipedia

Collegehumor has a series of comedic short films shot in POV style and they are hilarious. There's not much dialogue between the subject and others but you hear more of what's going on in his head. All the episodes are full of sarcasm and wit and the best episodes are the ones related to taboo subjects like buying a condom, first kiss, courtesy flushes in the bathroom, watching porn and many more. I could watch them over and over again. Here is a full list of episodes of collegehumor POV season 1. (as video embeds are disabled, please click on the link for viewing)

POV Ep1: Guy Stuck in History Class

POV Ep2: Dorm Bathroom

POV Ep3: Failing a Test

POV Ep4: Really Hot Girl

POV Ep5: Girl Buys Condoms

POV Ep6: Guy Buys Condoms

POV Ep7: Your First Kiss

POV Ep8: New Year's Eve

POV Ep9: Gym

POV Ep10: Trying to Fall Asleep

POV Ep11: Visiting a Friend

POV Ep12: Double Rainbow Guy in Everyday Life

POV Ep13: Rock Concert

Taiwan Thoughts - 9 points

2011-01-21T01:57:00.000-08:00

Song of the day: Distant Voices - Bush. "I never thought I'd get away, 'Cos all there is is fading fast today, Maybe you sleep well in your head, Bring on the night let the cold moon burn instead".

While i was cleaning up the boxes from my old house, i came across this mix tape that i did back in 1997. In it were some of my favourite songs from a bunch of tape collections that i used to have back then, though some of them left a blank page in my memory. Since i did not have a working cassette player at home, i had to search on youtube to hear how the songs were like. Bush has always been one of my favourite bands from my schooling days. Gavin's Rossdale's unclean, scruffy voice and being one of the best rock voices in the industry, together with Nigel Pulsford overdrive guitars gives out a very raw, grunge tune to most of the songs and creates a very yellow-light-worn-down-couch feeling to the nights listening to them.

Taiwan Thoughts - 9 points

With lack of a better material to write and with no camera in hand, i guess i will just continue my postings on my Taiwan trip. Towards the end of my trip in Taiwan, we hired a van tour to bring us to "Jiu Fen" aptly translated to 9 points, a small town and community residing on one of the highlands by the sea. It used to be a gold mining town and is now an attraction for tourists.

To compare Jiu Fen to Cameron Highlands does not bring much aesthatic justice to this place. The buildings are heavily influenced by chinese architecture and are lined up very close to one another, with narrow roads and seemingly lacking in certain facilities but surviving through the ages of time. Being there gives you a feeling that this small town, that has its backdrop of hills and the sea beyond, has gone through plenty of cultural changes, waves of hardship and prosperity and with the gold mine now closed completely, is relying heavily on the tourism industry to survive.

Our first stop was the market, which is a shaded narrow road between 2 long lines of shophouses. A variety of taiwanese pastries, local noodles and desserts are sold here. The narrow road is packed liked sardines and once in a while, a scooter would try to sneak around the crowd and i must say, i am quite amazed by the patience of the riders. They wait patiently for the people to give way and they don't sound the honk wildly. It's also a great place to get your souveniers, like postcards, key chains and beautifully packages pastries to bring back home.

We had a casual lunch there in one of the shops that had the President of Taiwan's photo displayed at the front counter. It was noodle's with some sort of tau foo cake.

After lunch, our tour guide brought us further up the hills to the gold mine site. In what was once a booming gold mine, is now a museum that depicts the historical events of the mining town. After a short visit at the museum, we headed out from the town and took a long sleepy ride to another scenic spot. I cant remember but probably the name of the place was "shi fen", which i guess means 10 points. Anyway, there was a river heavily scented with sulfur, coming from the volcanic highland regions of Taiwan. The trail along the river leads us to a small waterfall.

Our last destination of the day was probably the highlight of the whole Jiu Fen experience. As dawn was approaching, we came to this small village with roads so narrow that it seemed more suited for bicycles than cars. We came to this grocery shop and bought ourselves a sky lantern, which is more fondly known as KongMing Lantern. It's a paper lantern made up of a bamboo frame and at the base, contains a small candle, than when lighted, will cause the internal density of the lantern to reduce, causing the lantern to rise to the air.

I heard that this burning of KongMing Lanterns are banned in Penang as it might cause risks to the airplanes flying above the island, as well as high rise condominiums. After getting the lantern of our choice, we headed down the road that goes along a railway track. There were some small shops along the track and that would be the site where we will be letting go our lanterns.

Some of the owners of the shops were there to supervise the whole process. It looked to me like a motorbike shop which actually turned to a KongMing Lantern service shop in the night. They provided us with useful utensils to write our wishes onto the lanterns, since it is believed that these lanterns are wish bearers to the Gods in the skies.

There are a couple of very funny wishes. Some hoping that certain political parties will topple. Some hoping for more pay.A group of Hong Kong girls were hoping to find a love match haha..And of course the usual pursuit of happinness and health wishes. Once all of us have got our wishes onto the lantern, we then lighted the candle, and it took 4 person to stablize the lantern, one at each corner. The lantern got lighter and soon, we had to let go, to let it rise towards the skies above, until it becomes just a yellow speck against the blue backdrop.

Humankind

2011-01-12T01:18:00.000-08:00

Man is the only animal that deals in

that atrocity of atrocities. War. He is

the only one that gathers his brethren

about him and goes forth in cold blood

and calm pulse to exterminate his kind.

He is the only animal that for sordid

wages will march out...and help to

slaughter strangers of his own species

who have done him no harm and with

whom he has no quarrel...and in the

interval between campaigns, he washes

the blood off his hands and works for

"The Universal Brotherhood of Man" with

his mouth - Mark Twain

Why I should just wear jeans and T-shirt to work?

2011-01-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Song of the day: Lateralus - Tool. I have probably shared this song in my previous posts, but recently i came across a very interesting interpretation of the song in youtube that uses Fibonacci theory to explain the time signatures of the musical piece. Listening to Tool is like a spiritual journey to your inner soul. Well probably it isnt that complicated but im sure their live shows would be awesome.

yeah, i know im bored but ill just go ahead and write this...

It all started when i was with Leonard and Wee Meng, when a guy came up to ask us if we were engineers, in which we nodded our head and he followed proudly by saying that he could guessed easily as we were on jeans and T-shirt. Disagreeing with this stereotype, i decided to gather a couple of my friends to turn up at work with our most formal attire. Well I'm sure nobody would notice.

And how wrong i was. Here is a summary of responses from our social experiment
1) First manager that saw me, got a shock, asked if i was going anywhere and questioned me on whether i was attending an interview on that day. By the end of the day, 3 managers asked me the same dreaded question "Are you going for an interview?"

2) A friend of mine who also turned up in formal attire was questioned by his boss in the toilet on why the formal wear. Yeap, attire is now part of toilet small talk.

3) I was interviewed in my cubicle by my office friends on whether i was attending an interview and why the formal wear.

4) Almost all my colleagues asked me the same question, but the biggest response came from this particular group of colleagues who proudly announce by the cubicle isle that we were going for interviews, without even asking us. To rub salt to our embarassing wound, he then proclaimed that we were about to start up a new company. Now, maybe this looks pretty fine to you, but this was around lunch time when most people/managers are walking around and he was almost shouting. Performance review was coming so im seriously hoping there's no repercussions from this impulsive act.

5) Seeing shocking faces with mouth wide open was common on that day.

Throughout the day, i was feeling myself sticking out like a sore thumb; a pair of black slacks among a sea of jeans. But i guess, it wasnt all that bad. We got good seats at lunch outside and we get looked at by girls in the office and outside (haha..just kidding). In the end of the day, i do agree that formal attire doesnt seem to fit in in our "world". But then again (ignoring the title of the posts), i'm kinda sick of the routine life in a cubicle and 2011 is a year of action. Time to dress for success.

So let it be the first Friday of the month a Formal Attire Day in our office.

PNG Food Hunt Itinerary

2011-01-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

If you've realized, my past few blog postings have been pictureless, so they're kinda boring with words. I dont have a working camera with me, in fact ive have had no luck with cameras so far. 4 years and 2 spoilt cameras. Guess you guys just have to bear with my dull colourless writeup for now.

I've kept this in my blog for quite some time, but never felt like posting it. But just today,a friend of mine asked for a list of places to go in Penang, so somehow i dug up and fount this piece of work.

Penang Food Hunt Intinerary
I'm not much of a food commentator. Food commentators/bloggers have an amazing array of superlatives to describe food. Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods on the Travel and Living Channel for instance, has an unique ability to make shit (literally, i do think he's tried that before) tastes like cotton candy.

As i was saying, im not good in describing food, so i don't blog much about food, but recently, i was among a company of wonderful friends from afar who visited Penang, and i was very much honoured to bring them around. One can be amazed on how much our guests know about Penang. IN fact, some of the places were recommended by them and i was merely acting as a human GPS. Anyhow, i've compiled some of the places and come up with a template of Penang Itinerary Food Hunt. Here goes...

Morning
1) Morning Market behind Penang Free School
All types of Penang Street Food are sold here, but my favourite has got to be the Hokkien Mee and the Apom, which were highly recommended by my colleague. ONce, my friends and i were late to this hokkien mee stall, but the auntie who was closing, decided to serve us and even bought a new packet of taugeh to cater for our orders. You got to be there early.

Right opposite the hokkien mee stall is an uncle that sells apom. His son is the famous Aki Pancake owner in Super Tanker. And though his son's specialty is on the various tasty fillings of the Apom pancake, the father's specialty on the other hand is on its originality and simplicity.

2) Koay Teow Theng at Sungai Nibong Cafe
Used to have breakfast/lunch here occasionally, and turns out that this was voted as one of the must visit food courts in Penang. The Koay Teow Theng is an excellent meal for brunch, with tasty broth and my favourite boiled egg in which the egg yolk oozes out when you bite it.

This coffee shop also serves "roti babi"

3) Half boiled eggs & toast bread
Ah yes, one of the classic choice of breakfast. There are 2 options here. One is at a wooden shop nearby the airport and i'm sure many Free Industrial Zone employees will be aware of this. We would usually go to this breakfast spot to avoid fire drills in our company or sometimes on weekends. The other is at a backlane near Kimberley Road, just a road away from Dai Thong Dim Sum. The bread here is toasted with charcoal fire and a photograph of Lim Guan Eng's visit to this is displayed in the shop.

4) Aki Pancake at Super Tanker Food Court
As mentioned earlier, this stall belongs to the son of the Apom maker at the Penang Free School Morning Market. More variety of apom pancakes with a fusion of flavours are sold here. Anything with banana and chocolate is my favourite. Everytime i come over to the food court for dinner, i always see a long line of people making their oders at the stall.

5) Ak Thui Mee Suah at Sungai Pinang near the Honda Showroom
I've not been here, but it's said to be very good

Lunch/Evening
1) Cendol/Asam Laksa/Char Koay Teow at Penang Road
Everyone who's been to Penang would surely have eaten Cendol by the side of this shop. Endless queue, hot blazing sun, and the cendol tastes sooo good. Loves the fact that Phua Chu Kang was here once. Business is so good, that they have actually expand to another coffee shop behind with air conditioning, long tables and chairs. There's also another branch across the street right at the foot of Komtar, and it has a more modern outlook to it.

2) White Curry Mee at McAllistair Road
An airconditioned shop serving white curry mee and braised chicken. The curry mee is white in colour and patrons are free to add as much chilli as they like from the chilli container placed on each table. But based on feedback, it seems the chicken rice taste better. Closes on Monday.

3) Coconut Jelly, sold at Joez Coconut at Datuk Keramat
Jelly in a coconut, and definitely a cooling refreshment on a hot afternoon. Something that you can buy and eat in the car

4) Coconut Drink at McAllistair Road
Famous road side coconut drink stall. Let youself be amazed by the parang skills of the coconut vendor.

5) Mee Goreng at Bangkok Lane
Not been here, but heard that it is very good and not to miss when you are in Penang. The shops along Bangkok Lane, with their British Colonial architecture is a photographers playground. Most of them are now boutiques. Recent update: finally manage to try out the famous dish and it's as tasty as what i would expect based on feedbacks from everyone. It's wet but to my liking and the sauce that is used to fry the mee has a nice aroma to it. One of the best thing about it, are the pieces of squid mixed into the mee. It was well worth my 5 bucks

6) Asam Laksa
- Balik Pulau - my favourite, although it is far, but the drive up the hills is well worth it. Soup is tatsy and not heavy in mixture. Does not have that pungent fish smell unlike most that i have eaten in Penang. The chilly nutmeg drink is also a refreshing mix to the asam laksa.

- Pulau Tikus - behind Pulau Tikus market and just opposite the police station. An old shop also selling char koay teow. Recommended by a hometown friend and it tastes as good as the one in Balik Pulau. It was my favourite until i tasted the one in Balik Pulau.

- Others - Air itam market, Penang Road and etc.

7) Char Koay Teow
Ah yes, the symbol of Penang, the must have for anyone visiting Penang. I've never been to any famous Char Koay Teow stall in Penang, but i know there's 2 famous ones. One would be at Lorong Selamat where there's a long waiting time and another called Sister's Char Koay Teow at Macallistair Road, also with long waiting time. I guests if it tastes good, one has to be patient with their orders. Actually, the best char koay teow that i have ever had in Penang is one that is prepared by a Malay stall very near my office. It is just situated at the corner of the crossroads between the Free Trade Zone and the road that leads to Sunshine, under the flyover. People call it cheekily, Kuay Teow Ganja cause once you've tried it, you'll be back for it again. It's wet with a generous amounf of chilli paste and its served with 2 or 3 big prawns. But it's only served at night, and it opens once in a while.

8) Duck Meat Rice Near Komtar, near Love Lane
We had our Friday lunch there once. It's a corner shop near Komtar and they sell out really fast. There were a lot of customers making takeaway orders so it can be a while before you get your orders. Definitely one of the better duck rice that i have eaten in Penang.

9) Ais Kacang at Kek Sing Restaurant near Komtar
Recommended in Hazel's list, and the pictures from varous blogs looks really good

10) Him Heang Tam Bun Pneah
Something to bring back to your family and friends as a souvenir. Close on Sundays and orders can be made one day before, also available via phone. One of the reasons why Burmah Road is so jam on Fridays and weekends.

11) Ong Cheng Huat Seafood at Bagan Lallang
Shifting our focus to mainland, this is a seafood restaurant famously located deep in Bagan area. Patrons to this restaurant by default will order their main dishes; that is steam fish, spring chicken, steam octopus, prawn crackers, lalla and jellyfish.They also serve tapai drink which goes really well with 100plus. A must visit for anyone who visits Penang and a good shift from the usual hawker foods of Penang.

12) Pork Knuckles at Nibong Tebal
Situated behind Maybank, the pork knuckles is a must have and they also serve a variety of tasty dishes.

13) Crab Porridge at Nibong Tebal
The restaurant's name is NT Cheang Kee and is situated near the Nibong Tebal toll. When we got there around 3, the shop was closing. Although hesistant at first, they then decided to serve us after explaining that we came from a far far away to visit their restaurant.

Dinner
1) Koay Chap & Chicken Feet at Komtar
Highly recommended. If you want to experience a classic Penang hawker atmosphere, surrounded by pre-war shophouses and hovered by the towering Komtar, then this is the best place to go. At night, this place is brimming with food hunters and people from all walks of life. It's one of those places where speaking hokkien can be an advantage in ordering your food. And speaking of food, there's a variety of them. But my favourite is the Koay Chap which is actually pork variety mixture that is served together with some sort of noodle or porridge. There's also another stall that sells Chicken Feet, where the tastiness comes from its sauce. Another dish that i would recommend is the Char Koey Teow which is cooked over fire from charcoal, so it's got that woody flavour to it.

2) Nasi Kandar Beratur
This is one of my favourite nasi kandar shops that opens from night up to the wee hours in the morning. The name of this nasi kandar comes from the fact that there's always a long line of people waiting to get their food and you can see this line along the street as you pass by the shop. It's actually situated along the Muhibbah street where there's a mosque, a chinese and an Indian temple along it. Everytime i go there, it's always after dinner or something, but somehow, i always have the appetite to finish my rice at Nasi Kandar Beratur. It opens late at 10pm to the wee morning hours of 4am.

3) LokLok at Pulau Tikus Market
The last time i came here with my friends, an unfortunate incident happened when someone got bitten by a jellyfish at the shores of Penang. Too bad they didnt get to try the Lok Lok. It's got a variety of choices and some really spicy sauces for you to dip sticks in. Also, the night market has quite a friendly environment and besides lok lok, the hokkien mee is not bad either.

4) Night Market near Sunway Hotel/Gurney Drive
By default, anyone who visits Penang likes to come to these 2 places. Alright, they do serve a variety of hawker food and you can almost find anything here. But recently, i heard that Gurney Drive has deteriorated and the meals are getting overpriced. But a must go to for first time visitors to soak up the atmosphere

5) Leng Lui Thong Sui at Jelutong
Yes, a name that is made famous by KL people who visited Penang, so ive heard. A refreshing dessert where you can basically mix everything on the table. They say the ladies working in the shop is pretty hot, hence the name. So if you're curious, go check it out.

6) Ikan Bakar and Chicken Wings at Song River, Gurney Drive near Evergreen Hotel
The ikan bakar stall opens pretty late around 10plus, and when it's open, the orders coming in are plentiful. So to kill time waiting for the ikan bakar to come, there's a chicken wings stall nearby that serves really delicious and succulent chicken wings

7) Hokkien Mee and Ais kacang near Kwong Wah Yit Poh office
One of the places recommended by my hometown friends. The hokkien mee is pretty famous with lots of orders coming in, but they are pretty efficient. The ais kacang is the highlight of the night, with a generous amount of fillings.

Countdown Trip

2011-01-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a picture-less post. Still fresh from my trip back to KL for the New Year's celebration, i thought i would write a thought or two on my wonderful experience with the friends. The thing about hanging out with them is that it can be a new adventure that opens up to a room full of surprises. Thankfully, new year's eve was declared a holiday thanks to our Harimau Muda for winning the AFC Suzuki Cup. So i was able to drive back to KL from Penang after my Friday lunch.

Upon reaching KL, i met up with Dr. Low and Roy and car-pooled to Bangsar Shopping Centre to meet up with the rest of the gang for dinner at 7.30pm. The roads were surprisingly light in traffic so i guess everyone's some place else to do the countdown. We were early, so 3 of us decided to get a round of beers to warm up for dinner first. Probably i dont go out much in Penang, cause i was utterly wide-eyed in awe as we passed a variety of wonderful fine dining and pubs in BSC. Finally, we settled down at "The George & Dragon" pub. It's a comfortable pub with Tudor english style decor and a beautiful balcony outside that allows a relaxing drink among close friends and family. When we were there, the DJs were just getting ready on the sound equipment and buffet tables were being setup. The countdown is not far away.

The restaurants in BSC were mostly fully booked. There was a long line outside the Chilli's Restaurant. Thankfully Dome was still available and we met up with the rest of the gang for our dinner there. Jac and Regine had booked a few tables at the club Twenty-one Tables + Terraces at 11pm for our countdown, so we hung out for a while catching up with friends at Dome to kill time.

Somewhere before 11, we headed up to Twenty-one in high spirits and they got us a corner with a nice view of KLCC and for the fireworks display later. There was quite a crowd already in the club. Besides the usual Seremban gang, Jac and Regine also invited a couple of their colleagues, close friends, friend's friends and it all turned out to be a very friendly and interesting crowd indeed. People mingled around, meet new acquaintances, exchange numbers and took photos of each other.

Within seconds to midnight, we stopped whatever we were doing and starting counting down. By midnight, the fireworks display commenced, creating a colourful visual display of lights against the backdrop of the KLCC and the dark skies beyond. Hugs among friends ensued and kisses among couples to welcome the new year. If i was drunk enough, i would probably have belted out the song Auld Lang Syne.

And so, the party continued and i was getting drunker by the minute. I guess i probably drank too fast what with all the excitement around me. So i ended up most of my first hours of 2011, in the gents, puking my Dome dinner out. I was so stoned in the club, that even when my friends came and speak to me, i could only answer in one syllable or remained silent until the next question came. But it was all good in the end. Had not puked like that for ages. I guess this whole thing kind of remind me what's it like to have fun all over again.

2011 marks the year of the big 3. And it's definitely not a year of excuses, but more of a year for action. I've got a few resolutions in mind, thanks to some inspiration from my experience back to KL. It's interesting to see how much my friends have achieved and their ambition to always live larger than life. Sometimes, working like slaves in the semiconductor industry can pull you away from the realities of life or rather things that really matter. Man, ive got to go back more often.

Before i departed back to Penang, on Sunday, I came across 2 interesting eateries in Uptown Damansara. One of them is Village Park Nasi Lemak, which thanks to my friend Gary for bringing us there since i told him i had a huge craving for nasi lemak after puking my Dome dinner. It's a really packed restaurant that serves really good nasi lemak, the best i ever had, with the sweet sambal, 2 rendang chickens, fried eggs and steaming coconut rice with an aroma that satisfies every sensory of your body hahaha...and it's being managed by a chinese-muslim husband and wife team.

And then, there's the Departure Lounge cafe situated a few roads away from Village Park Nasi Lemak. It's a comfortable coffee house and the best thing i like about it is the selection of reading materials that they have there. There's a wide range of travelling books, historical readings, and i think there were some fictional books as well. Patrons there could have coffee while planning their next honeymoon, or their next backpacking adventures. I can;t help but think how this cafe reminds me of Australia.

I guess this whole trip back to KL was something that left a meaningful impression to my life. I welcome reminders like this to give me a kick in the ass to tell me, hey, the world's out there and you've got to explore it and to keep an open mind at all times. I guess it's probably late now that im writing this at 1am and i do hope whatever im writing above do make some sort of sense.

Have you got your tickets yet?

2010-12-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

Finally, Deftones is coming to Asia. I've made it to my first "Things to do in the year 2011" list. I have not forgiven myself for missing Nine Inch Nail's farewell tour in Singapore in 2008. Everytime i bring this up to Ell, he will give me a kick in the ass. This time, he reminded me on the Deftones thing and i have to go by hook or by crook. But i'm going to miss their stop in Malaysia on Feb 14 but the Singapore's one at Fort Canning will be on Feb 16. Please remember to get your tickets at http://www.deftones.com/. It will be an experience you will not ever want to miss.

It wont be the full lineup though as Chi Cheng (bassist) is still recovering from coma after a terrible car accident in 2008, so but they've got a temporary replacement in Sergio Vega and he's pretty good. I wonder if Chi Moreno will turn up with those knee high socks?

Here are some of my favourite songs from their new 2010 album: Diamond Eyes. I wonder how this guys do it. They have not changed their sound since the first time i heard about them in 1996. These guys really stay true to their fans.

2010 Memorable Moments

2010-12-24T18:50:00.001-08:00

2010 is coming to an end, and overall for me, it has been a good year. I have neglected my blog for almost a year and only recently, i managed to find time to write something on it. So i guess this post would summarize most of the memorable events that i have encountered in 2010.

1) Visiting India

Early this year, i was posted to Bangalore, India for 2 weeks. I did not have a good impression of this country on my first day cause i had no phone and no car and clueless. I had to hire a driver to get me out of the hotel. And i stood out like a sore thumb whenever i walk in the streets. But after a few days in the country, i begin to realize how wrong i was about India.

The food is awesome. I have always loved Indian Food. The gravy, the mutton, the butter chicken, the kebabs; they all seem to melt in your mouth, and everything tastes just right. The spices are just perfect. The naan (bread) that is served together is crunchy and baked to perfection (unlike in Malaysia where some taste stale and can be as hard as chewing gum). Thinking about it makes my mouth drool.

As we all know, India has one of the highest population per square feet in the world, and it's congested. The roads are crazy and the sound of honking is heard every minute. There are cows on the streets and people are everywhere. The people that i've met in India are generally friendly people, with similar interest and great passion as us Malaysians. They love their local food and sports and if you are close enough to them, they can really treat you like best friends.

I have many memorable moments in India. I will never forget the hospitality of my hosts and the friendly children in a local Indian wedding that i was invited to. And not to forget, our day trip to the Banerghatta National Park with a friendly colleague, Pradeep and his wife. You can read more about the trip here.

It does take a while to adapt to the cultures in India and once you understand and accept it, India becomes a beautiful place to go to. Would i go back to India? Yes of course i will.

2) Wedding night

Now this is one of the hardest things to write. I've avoided writing about this in my blog for some time now because no matter what i write or due to the lack of my own vocabulary, the words will not justify how much i appreciate the events of my wedding with Lan Sin. To me, it was an emotional event, filled with so many golden memories that it would make its own list of 2010 Memorable Moments.

The great moments officially started on the night before my wedding morning, where my Seremban buddies came back for a warm up dinner session in my place. We played poker up till midnight and ended the night with a silent toast of "yam seng". I could not sleep that night, nervous of what awaits me on my wedding day.

In the morning, we played the games and i had to embarrassingly sing a song for Lan Sin. I had to compose a song out of the blue, and i was really nervous. The first song that came into my mind started with the words "How could i love you"..and my friend yelled "What kind of song is that?" Hahaha, so i had to improvise here and there (not that the end product is any good anyway). Up to this day, my naughty niece would tease me with that song. Honestly, i cringe every time i hear it now.

In the night, i was so happy to see our guests. I tried my best to greet every one of them as i have promised myself that i would respect every wedding guests that we invited. I did make some mistakes in relative names and made some minor errors in table arrangement but we apologized to the guests personally after the wedding.

I was glad to see my Penang friends among the crowd of guests. It's amazing how they could make the long trip down and i will always be indebted to them

As i sat at the main table, i could see my best man Harry, my seremban buddies and my youngest sis (who is the appointed wedding coordinator) pacing around, making sure the program flow is smoothly ran. I cannot express in words how grateful i am to everyone who had helped to run the show.

When i was piss drunk at the end, i walked over to my seremban friends table and went to yam seng with them. I yelled with all my strength and did not want to put down my glass. 20+ years of friendship rushed through my memory. We have all experienced every phase of a friendship. I hugged some of them and did not want them to leave. I do not get to see them often thanks to myself getting a job in Penang. So i wanted to drink until i pass out. Of course, they had to put a stop to my drinking binge and they had to carry me back to my hotel room.

Back in my hotel room, i was still wanting to continue but with my family handling things in the room, i was forced to lay down. I could not control myself and my eldest sister finally calmed me down. I hugged my sister probably because i miss her but i guess it's also because i was grateful for all the things that she has sacrificed in taking care of the family. And then i passed out.

The next morning i texted my friends to ask how they were and then came down for breakfast to check on my Penang friends (who stayed at the hotel) to make sure that they were well taken care of. I hope that Lan Sin and i have done my best to make sure that they have an enjoyable night, knowing how far they have traveled just to attend this. I had a slight regret for getting myself drunk that night, knowing that i could have spend more time with the people around me that night.

It took me a while to recover from my hangover and when i got home, my family retold some of the stories that happened while i was drunk.

It's been a night to remember and even up to this day, Lan Sin and I kept reminding each other on how grateful we are to our familes, relatives and friends for giving us such wonderful memories.

3) Brother in Law's toast at ROM dinner

After our Registrar of Marriage in the noon, my sister organized a long table dinner at Ferringghi Garden Restaurant, a beautiful place with lush greenery, zen type deco and a relaxing ambience. We managed to get 2 long tables at the main dining area. The meals were Chinese to cater for a large group of us, consisting of Lan Sin's and my family.

After almost halfway into the dinner, my brother in law ordered some Wine and after a while stood up and proposed a toast to us, the newly weds. I could almost feel that i was in some American Wedding movie. The moment he lifted his glass, i could feel a sense of fate rushing into me. To me, it was just not a simple toast but a ceremonial initiation of the unity of two families. It was at that moment, i realize that our families have just gotten bigger. As all of us clicked our wine glasses together as we toasts, a new chapter of my life has just begun.

My family is proud to be part of Lan Sin's family and i do hope that they feel the same to be in my family now.

4) Controlling My Temper

Lately, i realized something. I have not lost my temper for a while now (*touch wood). Getting angry over someone or something is really energy consuming. I'm almost reaching my 30s now and it seems to be a waste of energy to be diverted into all these negative vibes. Call me selfish, but i would rather divert all these energy for myself, to work on something that i've dream of doing, to focus on some positive past times and so forth. I've cared less on the things that make me angry, realizing that most of the time, i have no control over these things anyway.

So i guess, it's good for me and wish me luck so that i can keep this up.

5) Australia

Every year, Lan sin and i try to go some place for a holiday, knowing that travelling and holidaying is important to refresh our minds and spirits. This year, it was Melbourne Australia. It was a wonderful experience. The relaxing nature of Australians and their pursuit of an enjoying lifestyle is an attraction to us.

A local Australian told us that you get to see locals surfing at the seas when the waves are good even on working days as they'll just take a day's leave for the sport. You see locals relaxing at fine coffee shops or indulging themselves on chocolates. And they have got an assortment of delicious food, food that induces the satisfaction of our taste buds.

We work so hard, forgetting the fine details of pampering ourselves and experiencing Melbourne gives you a reminder that work can wait for you to enjoy your life.

Also, Melbourne is a proud city of fashion. There's always this positive rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne and when Sydney claim that they had the best fashion in Australia, there was an uproar among Melbournians. Melbourne is a shopping haven with plenty of Oulets, so it's really good for girls. (aka Lan Sin)

Our last day in Melbourne was one of the best where we get to meet up with 2 Serembanians; Elaine and Adrian. They both played generous hosts to us and treated us to a very delicious dinner of ribs and cheese platter. We ended the night in an Irish bar in cental Melbourne. 4 asians in an Irish bar..hmm...thankfully we came out in one piece.

6) Changing Teams

After working for my ex-team for almost 6 years, i have decided that i need a change. It was a risk and it was a definite career suicide. But i'm looking at my long term future. I had to start over, to learn everything from scratch and to re-adapt. And now, after almost a year working in this new team, though with ups and downs, i feel that the change has been pretty positive. I'm going to avoid making comparisons between my old and new team, but i do want to talk about a significant impression of my new team.

In my new team, my boss usually gives top level pass downs and in this meetings, it is where he gives his motivation to the team. It is the only time where i come in to a meeting without any laptop, sit upright and listen intently to every word that he says. I keep my focus to every discussion in the meetings and by the end of it, i am always driven to improve, innovate and to work for the betterment of the team.

Now, some might think that it is a brainwashing session but there is a difference between a brainwash and a motivation. Brainwashing is typically used to cover up bad news(sometimes even deny) and make everything sounds flowery. Motivation on the hand is telling you the bad news and driving you to improve and to rectify our mistakes.

My boss once had a chat with me before my wedding. Probably sensing the stress that i was going through juggling work and the planning of my wedding, he gave me an outlook of reality. He says that "Whatever happens on your wedding night, it does not matter. What matters most is what happens after your wedding night", stressing the importance of the husband-wife relationship in a marriage.

7) Trying Golf for the first time

Only recently did i blog about this here. I've always wanted to try golf as i've heard that it's one of those games where when you watch it, it bores you to death, but once you try to play it, you get addicted to it forever. So during one of my group's team building, i finally got the chance to learn the ropes on driving and putting a golf ball.

So where do i go from here? Do i buy a new golf set? Do i get a golf club membership? Err...i guess i will still stick to football, but the whole golf experience is memorable to me. It's something that i've always wanted to try in my life.

8) Penang Food Hunt & Visits from Friends

Lan Sin and I love having guests or friends visiting Penang and i enjoy bringing them around. People generally visit Penang for 2 main things; the beach and the food. Now, pointing them to the beach is easy but finding good food requires some research.

So when my friends from Seremban told me that they will be visiting, i immediately got my colleagues for a weekend of food hunting. Although ive worked in Penang for years, i have not tried most of the Penang food recommendations from books and magazines. So it was really fun driving around Penang searching for the various food only with references from books, magazines and word of mouth. We had a weekend to explore the island and another weekend for mainland. I even came up with my own draft or itinerary on places to eat in Penang which i now refer to whenever someone visits.

Bringing friends around Penang, trying out different food and hearing their opinions be it good or bad about the food is a very fulfilling experience. And it's always a new experience every time.

Being Santa Claus

2010-12-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

For many years, it's all about being Secret Santa where you exchange gifts among colleagues, so this year, we decided to do something different that is to make gift donations to the children's home in Penang. Thankfully, ive got a couple of colleagues who are willing to chip in and by the end of the week, we managed to collect a box full of toys, gifts, colour pencils, mugs and some trinkets.

We've got Pokemon, soft dolls, colour pencils, crayons, ninja turtles, key chains, pickup sticks, yoyos, mugs, board games, tshirts and some other trinkets. Contributors include Kit Fei, Chin Leong, Lee Yee, Yuri, Chor Chen, Leonard, Pik Lay, Jonathan, Lan Sin, Weng Seng and some anonymous people haha

The children's home that we selected is the Rumah Kebajikan Seri Cahaya situated at Batu Maung which is the only home in my list that is having their kids staying over for xmas. The rest of the children's home will be empty for xmas as the kids will be going back to their mums or foster parents.

Upon reaching RK Seri Cahaya with Chin Leong, there were volunteers from a charity group who were making donations to the homes. Most of the kids were in the living room running and playing around. There were a couple of elderly ladies at the porch having their lunch and even invited us to join them. We declined politely and proceeded to speak to the volunteer teacher who handled our donations.

But you know what i should have done? I should have gone over to their table to have a chat with them. I guess that would be what the ladies wanted anyway.

To the people in the home, i guess having visitors is like a shining ray of sunlight. They welcome it and we should spend more time mingling around and nothing to be shy about. Some of the kids came over to take a peek at our toys and Chin Leong who's really good with kids spoke to some of them. The kids loved him, as he's tall and what i would call a gentle giant. Shaking his hand is as close as shaking hands with Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

I guess being Santa Claus can be quite a fullfilling job. I hope the kids will enjoy the gifts that were donated and hope it brings the "Merry" to their xmas. Would the toys bring much cheer to them? I would not know, but i can only hope that it would somehow bring a positive impact to their lifes. No matter what, it is a simple donation and nothing can be compared to the biggest contributors to the kids that are the teachers and volunteers of the children's home.

I have to credit this post to my hometown friend Tim Fernandez, CEO of Live & Inspire for his inspiration in spreading positivity among everyone he knows and for always wanting to give back to society. Recently, he played a major role in bringing Patch Adams to KL and according to many, it was an awesome and inspirational event.

Movie Marathon

2010-12-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

In conjunction with the winter solstice day, i have decided to do something special, that is to go for a movie marathon after work. 7.20pm for Chronicles of Narnia -Dawn Treader and 9.25pm for Social Network.

My first thoughts on the Narnia movie was, who the hell designed that serpent that attacked the Dawn Treader? It is hideous, brutal but totally awesome. Look at that thing!!

It looks like a triple cross breed between Aliens, Predator and Anaconda. The serpent is suppose to be the creation of Edmund's imagination and by looking at it, Edmund has got one hell of a sick twisted mind. The horrifying battle between the Narnians and this serpent is the climax of the movie and to me is the best part of it. Usually, serpents are pretty useless and predictable, but this one seems to be in an aggresive fit, relentlessly attacking the boat and at one point, split its upper torso to expand its wingspan and had tentacles protuding everywhere.

My nephew was in some school holiday activity few weeks ago where their teacher brought the class to watch this movie and he came back dazed and confused. After watching this movie, i can understand why. Besides the serpent, there are a couple of sudden shocks here and there and not to mention, Aslan looks pretty scary for a pre-schooler.

I have always been a fan of the Narnia movies partly because of the adorable Lucy whom i am very fond of. This round again, she gave a teary farewell to Aslan at the end of the movie as they leave the world of Narnia.

I met up with Chin Leong for the Social Network movie. I told him that this movie will be pretty gay cause Justin Timberlake's in it, but i was so wrong. It's a really good and inspiring movie.

The opening sequence of the movie where Mark went into an overdrive (drunken) mode to hack all the facebooks of each respective houses in Harvard to create FaceMash was mind intriguing. I tried so hard to follow each of his description but it happened so quick that i'm not sure if any of it makes sense anyway. But he's the youngest billionaire in the world, so it was pretty amazing.

But it's not all sunny for Mark, for there's always a price to pay for all the success and in Mark's case, it seems to be the lost of his best friend Eduardo and his college lover.

At the end of this movie, Mark is seen (looking dejected) adding his ex girlfriend at Facebook and clicking the refresh button every half a minute or so hoping that she accepts his friend request. Well, been there,done that (except not on an ex gf though)

I'm more appreciative on the hard work that goes into the development of Facebook. I'm so pumped up to have big dreams and to aim for the stars now. Probably it will die down in a day or two.

Best Films of 2010

2010-12-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of www.adamriff.com

1) Dogtooth
A Greek film about a husband and wife who keep their children imprisoned within their house and pretend that this is normal. [source wikipedia]

2) Four Lions
A British film and is a Jihad satire following a group of Jihadi Islamist terrorists from Sheffield, England.[source wikipedia]

3) Blue Valentine
The film centers on a married couple, Dean and Cindy, and their relationship over a number of years by shifting between different time periods [source wikipedia]

4) 127 hours
The film stars James Franco as real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston, who became trapped by a boulder in Robbers Roost, Utah, for more than five days in 2003 [source wikipedia]

5) Inception ...of course
Some dream interception shit, with an ending that got everyone debating for months.

Taiwan Thoughts - Temples

2010-12-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

LongShan Temple

Buddhism and Taoism are a few of the the biggest religion in Taiwan. There are several famous temples in Taipei and one of them is the LongShan temple, where worshippers at this temple practices both Buddhism and pray to Taoist deities. This temple was build with impressive Chinese classicial architecture and is a temple to behold.

The temple compound outside

Temple courtyard

When i was there, there was a huge crowd of worshippers inside. Yet, it felt very peaceful and serene. It was a long day, so i sat by the corridor to observe the proceedings. Beside me were a couple of elderly folks, just relaxing and spending time with God. Whispers of prayers surround the temple. The smell of burning incense filled the air and when night came, the candle lights lit up the whole temple. Opposite the Gods's altar was a long table where worshippers knelt and read a prayer book. They knelt for a long time.

Devotees reading their prayer books

I took a walk around the temple. The altar where the Gods were, was gated. No one could go in, but we could see the Gods inside. The walls of the temple were beautifully drawn with pictures depicting Chinese folklore. The bricks on the walls looked worn out and showed the many years where the temple has stood the test of time.

Drawings on the walls

One last photo shot before i leave

This is a temple that stood smack right in the middle of a city. After almost quarter to an hour sitting there, watching the people of all ages and background visiting the temple, it was time to head back to the hustle and bustle of the city outside.

Confucian Temple

The Confucian temple is devoted to the philosophy of Confucianism. This is actually one of my most interesting visits in Taiwan. As i entered the temple, it was very quiet and there was only a family by the pond. But as i walked on into the main courtyard, it was suddenly bustling with activity. As i stepped into the corridor, i could see people sitting on the floor, with a chinese tea set in front of them, following the instructions belted out by a teacher in front. They seemed to be practicing a Confucius ritual. At the side was a group of people siting by a table practicing caligraphy. Now, suddenly i was interested and a girl walked up to me and what followed was a barrage of chinese words, which i have no idea from beginning to end. She stopped, waiting for a reply from me. The words that came from my mouth was "err..English, please?". I know, i know, im an embarassment to Malaysian Chinese, but but, well no buts. I accept i am an embarassment.

Entrance to the Confucian Temple

Prayer Path

Thankfully, she's bilingual, so she explained to me that they were having demonstrations on several Confucian rituals and asked if i would like to join, which i immediately say yes. I was tired from all the walking alone on that day and all the self-talking, so i was glad to be involved in some activity. The reason why i was alone that day was because i wasnt feeling very well and i could not wake up for the full-day Floral Fest event which the rest of the gang went.

Happening

Calligraphy

So i got myself a seat on the floor, next to an American girl from Iowa. She's actually into the 1st 2 weeks of her teaching career in Taipei, so her chinese is worst than mine. hahaha. and finally, i get to speak English with someone. I'm actually in the middle of a demo, so someone actually came over to brief me on what i missed. It's a lesson on chinese tea drinking ceremony. You know how we chinese loves to enjoy a cup of hot chinese tea. There's actually a few steps on how to simmer your tea leaves with hot water, on how to pour your tea onto the cups and which cups you should give to your guests. Actually i kinda forgot the whole steps and all, but at least on that day, i had a chance to have some sort of interaction in Taipei. Furthermore, the organizers took pictures of us. I might end up in some newsletter.

Posing with my tea set

Prayer wishes

Temple next to the Confucian temple

Lotus Lake Temples

When i was in KaoShiung, we visited the large man-made Lotus Lake. This lake is famous for its blooming lotus, which i did not see any and also for its various temples surrounding the lake. These temples are build on the lake and the architecture of these temples are quite impressive, with a lot of deity structures carved from stones and depiction of Gods drawn on walls.

Dragon & Tiger Pagoda

The correct entrance to a tunnel at the Guan Yin temple. Do not enter from the tail

Another Confucian Temple at Lotus Lake

Just had to do it.

Taiwan Thoughts - Night Market Food (Part 2)

2010-12-11T23:51:00.000-08:00

..continuation from my previous post on Taiwan Night Markets

NING XIA NIGHT MARKET

So on one of our free nights on Taipei, we decided to go night market hunting. It involves a lot of walking and map scrutinizing but it's like a treasure hunt for us. Ning Xia night market is kinda like a 1 km walk from our hotel, but we're eager to find out what food is in store for us there.

Renyi at the main entrance of the night market

The night market is pretty small, only 1 street of stalls. It didnt take us long to cover the whole market. By that time, we were less eager on fried food since we have been stuffing ourselves with that sort of food for the past few nights. We wanted something light, so we started off with a dish of "Bak Zhang".

The Bak Zhang

Behind the stalls, there were a couple of food shops and one of them caught our attention. It was a shop that specializes on oysters, so we got ourselves a bowl of oyster soup and fried eggs with oysters (owh chien). Now, this owh chien tasted much better than the one we tried in Shilin. The taste was just right, with that fried, crunchiness taste, and was much starchier. This adds to the texture of the dish. The oyster soup, on the other hand was brimming with oysters. It's as if there were more oysters than soup in it. It was a hearty aphrodisiac meal, all gone to waste as it's an all male outing.

Oysters galore

GUANGZHOU & HUAXI NIGHT MARKET

These 2 markets are situated next to each other. They are just a walk away from the famous LongShan Temple. By my 5th night there, my mouth/appetite was in need of a proper rice meal. I began to cringe at the smell of Chow Tau Foo and stayed away from any fried snacks. Taipei was also starting to get colder as winter approaches. So i was indeed delighted to come across a meal with hot pork ribs soup and rice. I have to say that it was actually my most relaxing and stomach comforting meal that i have had the whole week in Taipei. The pork ribs boiled together with old cucumber was a homely recipe.

Warms the cockles of my heart

A small street leads into the indoor market of Huaxi, which is a place famous for its eels, tortoise, snake meat and other wildlife stocks. The stalls selling these meats prohibits any photo taking, but unknowingly i managed to snap a picture of a tatooed lady promoting her food. Huaxi night markets offer less on Taiwan snack foods and more on traditional chinese dishes. Walking along Huaxi gives you the impression that this is one of the older areas in Taipei. And also, watch out for the back alleys, as a lady might just approach you to offer her services. Do avoid at all cause.

Huaxi main entrance

Phyton lady

RAO HE NIGHT MARKET

Our last night market in Taipei turns out to be the first night market to establish in Taipei. It's recommended by some Macau friends that we met on our trip to Jiu Fen. They mentioned that the stall named "3 brothers" serves really good mutton and pork ribs soup. So off we headed straight to the shop, ignoring all the nice snacks that we encountered on our way.

3 brothers shop

A cold night, open air stalls with tables and chairs, simmering hot soup with pork ribs and succulent mutton, a bowl of rice with minced pork sauce, friendly environment and a beautiful crowd is a perfect setting for our last dinner in Taipei. Night markets in Taipei are indeed a prominent feature of what makes Taiwan simply unique.

Taiwan Thoughts - Night Market Food (Part 1)

2010-12-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

Taiwan is home to the best night markets in the world, with a huge variety of street foods on sale. I always thought there was only 1 night market in Taipei, but as in turns out, there are lots of them, almost one in every 5 streets away.

SHILIN NIGHT MARKET

This is the first night market that we visited on the day of our arrival. It is often considered to be the largest and the most famous night market in Taipei. So it's not surprising to see tourists buses and big crowds hovering around the market.

As soon as we entered the night market, we could smell a horrible stench. We knew that the infamous Smelly Tau Foo is on sale somewhere. My first taste of it was in Hong Kong, and i'm a bit surprise that they added some sort of sauce with the Tau Foo in Taiwan. I thought it should be served dry?

The Smelly Tau Foo Experience

Shilin is famous for the fried chicken meat, which i have to say is one of my favourite. It's so much better than the ones sold in Malaysia. The difference that i notice is that first, the meat's thicker and second, the fats of the chicken is not removed, hence creating some sort of soft texture as you bite into the chicken.

We love 'em chickens

Noodles as fillers

We also ordered some noodles in soup which was served with a very generous amount of wanton.

As soon as we finished our noodles, we headed deeper into the market, and we could see shop after shop selling "Owr Chien - fried eggs with oyster". We took a seat and ordered 2 plates. Personally, i prefer our local Penang ones. I find it peculiar that they added some sort of tomato sauce on top of the owr chien and it's somewhat lacking in the frying taste.

Fried eggs with oyster

That pretty much sums up our meals at Shilin. We continued our walk along the streets of Shilin. There were rows and rows of shops selling women's accessories and fashionable items, really a shopping haven for ladies. I was also surprised to see games stalls at one corner of the market. Taiwanese really bring new meaning to the word night market. Food + fashion + games = a Chinese delight.

SHIDA NIGHT MARKET

This is one night market that we had to walk almost 2 -3 km just to reach our destination from the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It is also situated near the National Taiwan University and it should be a good place for dinner and as expected, did offer a variety of interesting snacks.

Our first meal was the Mee Suah. Mee Suah in Malaysia is all about noodles in herbal soup served with duck meat or chicken drumstick. But over in Taiwan, the soup is a bit thicker and the mee suah's all swelled up. Pork's stomach is added into this dish to create a chewy texture to the whole meal. It's actually really good, and if you add some of their chilli paste into it, you're bound to for an explosive culinary experience.

Mee Suah with the chilli paste in the background

We then headed to a "tong sui" stall just opposite. We get to add a mixture of 3 fillings into a bowl of ice, similar to our ais kacang stall back home.

Tong Sui stall

One of my other favourites in this night market is their fried vegetables, probably you can call it as the Taiwanese version of Tempura. There's a whole lot of variety that you can select from. My best would be the mushrooms, caulliflower and the long beans. They would deep fry these vegetables, mix it with some garlic and some spices.

Fried vegetable (tempura) stall

The crowd in this night market mainly consists of students and teenagers, somewhat different than the touristy crowd back in Shilin. There are a couple of stalls that lets u choose the raw material on display, and you can get a packet of noodles and the cook at the stall would cook them together. It's like an instant meal of your choice.

One thing about travelling on winters, the nights are earlier. So it somewhat confuses our minds. We were very much earlier for our dinner so we had plenty of time to kill in the night market. So i noticed this shop that sells "Xiu Long Bau" and has a long queue and so with time to spare, i decided to visit this shop. As in turns out, the business is so good, that i had to place my order at the cashier, pay for it and then pick a number and wait for it to collect my orders. Nice. It's a system that works very well for crowd control.

Now serving no.220 and above

Xio Long Bau

XIMEN NIGHT MARKET

As the night is still young, we headed back to Ximen and took a walk around in search for food. We finally came across the PopCorn Chicken, which is highly recommended by a friend of ours in Penang. The bones in it makes it a bit hard to eat, but it's a great late night snack.

Popcorn chicken

And we also found the famous Mee Suah shop. There was a long queue of people placing their orders while in the front, patrons had to only sit on chairs as no tables were provided.

Ximen Mee Suah

KAOSHIUNG NIGHT MARKET

We took a trip down to the south of Taiwan to Kao Shiung on the 3rd day of our trip. Night markets are also an attraction in KaoShiung. After visiting 3 night markets before this, i was interested to see if there was anything different here.

My main meal of the night was this mutton soup with ginger and rice. Though this soup has a strong mutton smell to it, i still find it tolerable possibly because im a huge fan of mutton. This stall also serves mutton pan fried with ginger and i do see a lot of patrons ordering this dish.

Mutton soup

KaoShiung nigh market too is brimming with tourists and it seems to have a different laid back atmosphere, like a small town feel to it. There are plenty of other fried snacks on sale here, like the fried sotong, fried crabs and the fried mushroom.

Fried Mushrooms

There's this particular snack that i've seen in a few night markets which is the duck's meat from head to neck, including the beak. I'm not sure about the risk of hormones injected into the neck's of poultry so i avoided it.

Wee Han and the beak

The seafood congee which was sold at the end of the night market looks too good too miss, so i got one myself. There was a rich variety of ingredients in it, like clams, prawns, squid and etc.

Seafood congee

Taiwan Thoughts - Street Performers

2010-12-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

For the past week, i was in Taiwan. It was an eye opening experience for me, to really understand the true potential of a Chinese Community and Taiwan is indeed a good place to observe.

At Ximen, right after dropping off from the bus from Airport

Taiwan is fast becoming the hub for Chinese entertainment and they are one of the biggest producers of music artistes in the world. Hence, it is not surprising that during my visit to Taiwan, i did come across some very unique street performance and dance rehearsals.

Ximen at night

As we were heading back to out hotel at Ximen, there were a lot of hustle and bustle and a large crowd was swelling at the roadside courtyard in front of the MRT station. In the center of the circle of crowd, was a petite and cute looking girl beating away with great intensity and focus on her full drum set. She was playing the drum beats of Poker Face by Lady Gaga. RenYi told me that this girl whom i shall call Street Drummer Girl got herself famous when she entered a talent competition some time back and is getting rave reviews in youtube.

Crowd around Ximen, catching a glimpse of the Street Drummer Girl

Close up picture

Video of her performance in Youtube

I stood there for quite some time, spanning over 4-5 of her songs, admiring her talents. The crowd loves her. An uncle to my left was dancing away, jumping on the same spot, patting his legs as if in some sort of trance, mesmerized by her musical talents. A few teenagers clapped and cheered as she thumped away. Occasionally, a cool guy would saunter over to her donation box and give her a smile, hoping to catch her eye. The Street Drummer girl usually returns a smile to anyone who is generous enough to donate or anyone who is friendly enough to have a word with her.

Renyi's moment of truth with the Street Drummer Girl

The bottom line is that she has musical talents that everyone could only dream of, has an avenue to express or showcase her talents in front of so many people, (local and from foreign countries) and her music is widely appreciated by everyone in attendance. Ahh, Taiwan, a heaven for musicians

In action again

My impression of musical influences in Taiwan does not stop there. When i was at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, i was only expecting to see historical artifacts, crowd made up of tourists, guides and probably local peddlers. But i was surprised to see at the large compound around the memorials, there were crowds of teenagers in dance groups, rehearsing their dance routines. Some were even doing some cheerleading stunts with their pom poms.

Dancers taking a break from the routine. Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall in the backdrop

Getting a better view of the dancers

Dancers awaiting instructions from their teacher

This is something that i do not usually see in Malaysia. I felt like i was in a dance school. These teens are probably in a schooling years and they were guided by a professional dancer, which i assumed due to the way she/he dresses up hahaha. And there were several groups doing this here and there as if they were competing against each other.

Shake it, shake it

Next dance routine

Acrobatic dance routine at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall

Warming up i guess?

It feels like in Taiwan, youths are allowed the freedom to express themselves, and due to their cultural/pop influences, they chose an interesting activity which is to dance. Dancing might not be a preferred choice for parents for their children (more so in Malaysia), but in Taiwan, pop is huge. It's healthy and has a future. What's wrong with an extra curriculum in your hands when they get to meet new friends. And they dont even need the government to enforce any half hearted program to encourage them. (Malaysia = Rakan Muda). I guess musical talents in Taiwan are rewarded and appreciated by the majority. It works in Taiwan.

Hollywood Propaganda

2010-12-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

What does the movie "The Last Samurai" and "Avatar" have in common?

They both feature a white guy leading a bunch of natives to war.

Top 10 Horror Movies

2010-11-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Song of the day: Drawn Out - Dishwalla. Dishwalla is a rock band that produces hummable and melodious ballads, with soothing vocals from its lead man, JR Johnson. Drawn Out is a song from the album Opaline and touches on a relationship that is all worn out. Definitely a for late night listen. "

...OF TV SHOWS

I know this is a bit gay, but ive been keeping tabs on the two Amazing Race shows on AXN this season. So far, the ones ive been rooting for are still on the shows. For Amazing Race Asia, my favourite is the father-daughter pair from Indonesia, Natasha - Husein. Natasha is damn bubbly and nerdy at times and Husein, her dad, though looked serious at the beginning is starting to loosen up and acting kiddish lately and they can be damn comical to watch.

As for Amazing Race World, the team i'm rooting for is the lady surgeon pair, Nat-Kat for the simple fact that i think that they're the smartest team of the season but their Achilles heel is that they're really bad at maps, which is a big handicap for a race around the world.

...OF WEDDING BANDS

Yesterday night's Starz Band's performance at Pik Lay's wedding reception did a good job again. Previously, they were awesome at Lee Yee's wedding. Kudos to them and based on their performance, here are 5 things on what i think a good wedding band should be made of (Note: this applies to a wedding band, which has to perform throughout the night. It does not apply to special performances)

1) Wedding bands should absorb itself into the night's atmosphere. By the 2nd/3rd dish, the guests should not notice when the band is playing but will only notice when the band is NOT playing.

2) Wedding bands should not treat the wedding as their concert. In other words, dont outdress or outperform the bride and bridegroom.

3) Wedding bands should avoid small talk with wedding guests. Do not ask wedding guests hows the food unless you are the emcees. Do not share your emotional reasoning, childhood stories or previous love fling stories on why you are performing that particular song.

4) Do not switch the tempo of love songs into sad songs. "Kiss Me" should be sang happily

5) Do not sing break up songs, songs about one night stand, songs about 3rd party relationships, songs that talk about hitting the booty or anything about sex, songs with bad lyrics (Lenka's "I want my money back, i want my money back"), and i guess many more but you get the drift.

...OF TOP 10 HORROR MOVIES (in no particular order)

1) Aliens

The first time i saw it as a kid, i bathe with an open toilet door for weeks. hahaha. I was very young back then. I will never forget the scene when that baby alien popped its head out from the guy's abdomen/chest, with blood splurting everywhere, or when that cyborg in space started vomitting white blood. It was very scary for me and i remember that the movie was really cold and silent and seat-jolting.

2) The Grudge

The Grudge is the english version of Ju-On. I watched this movie in the cinema. At the beginning, when the girl pops up her head into the attic and all of a sudden that Ju-On ghost appeared, i knew at that moment that i have just got myself into a 2 hour roller coaster ride.

3) Descent

A Scottish movie about a group of girls getting themselves stuck in the darkest deepest helms of a cave and being eaten alive by cave creatures. Of course there's gore and dark corners but there's also some aspects on female vulnerability and human psychology that makes the whole encounter seem so real.

4) Dead Alive

A movie directed by Peter Jackson cant be that bad. This is a movie that i watched on my secondary school days at a Laser Disc shop. It's one of those earlier zombie movies where someone gets bitten and ends up being a zombie and all. The scenes here are really gruesome with blood and gore eveywhere. The highlight of the movie was when the hero used a lawn mower to mow over all the zombies.

5) Exorcist

The mother of all horror movies. Even till now, im still scared to watch this movie. The whole movie is so disturbing that you start questioning the essence of good vs evil.

6) Omen

The original Omen is standing side by side with Exorcist in terms of demoralizing your spirituality. It's a story about a devil baby adopted to an aristrocat couple and wants to rule the world. Several disturbing scenes include the baby crying hysterically as they visit the church, the scene where the dad goes upstairs to visit his son only to find a black jackal dog guarding the room and the part where the priest saw a premonition of his own death. Very disturbingly scary

7) The Thing

When people talk about horror movies about aliens, they always mention the one with Sigourney Weaver in it. But there's one which is equally as good with Kurt Russell as the main man. It's called The Thing, a story about an alien virus infecting a scientific expedition team in the Antartica. The human infected start turning into mutated monsters. At one scene, one head after being chopped off started mutating into a spider.

8) Saw

The 1st installment of the Saw series is the best of all of them. The victim is kidnapped and given a choice of life or death. But choosing life requires a sacrifice and it usually involves losing one of your limbs. This movie was so popular that it even sparked a reality show based on the concept of saw.

9) The Blair Witch Project

Not many people will like this movie because of the spinning and shaking of the camera, but when i was at uni, this movie created a big buzz. Everyone's got to watch it. So i got the VCD and watched it late at night just to make the best of the experience. I guess for me, the best part was the ending when they saw that house out of nowhere and the girl starts screaming hysterically and we could see marks of children's palms on the walls. That gave me the goose bumps

10) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I think i watched the remake one, i kinda hated it because the chainsaw bearing dude who kills everyone always get away with it in the expense of its victims. It's a slasher flick but it's really scary if it's true. The gore and the extremes of the scenes are there to make your heard jump an extra beat.

Have not been updating my blog for months

2010-11-25T03:46:00.000-08:00

...OF MUSIC

Finally after searching high and low for it, i've finally gotten Nicki Parrott's Moon River album, and from an unexpected CD shop - Popular Book Store in Gurney Plaza. I first heard the album from a clothes shop at Sunway Pyramid but i could not find the album anywhere. Tower Records has closed down in Penang and not a single CD shop in Penang has ever heard of it. I have it played in my car every day for the past week. It's a jazz album, and Nicki Parott delivers the sexiest vocals ever, backed up by a fantastic jazz band. She herself is a talented double bass player and her bass is profoundly heard throughout the album. It costs me RM72 cause it's imported from Japan and all but it was worth it.

Here's a song from her, though the fine lady in that video is someone else.

Nicki Parrott herself

Though in heart, i'm still a big fan of rock music, i'm developing an ear for jazz songs. I guess it has something to do with me almost reaching 30. Looking back, here are some of my favourite bands from young till now

10 years old - New Kids on the Block

12 years old - Kriss Kriss, Guns & Roses

13 years old - White Zombie

15 years old - Sepultura, Nirvana, Metallica, Anthrax

17 years old - Oasis, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins

20 years old - Pearl Jam, Silverchair, Radiohead

22 years old - Tool, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails

26 years old - Brand New, Goldfrapp, Under Byen

Present - Nicki Parrott

Gosh, writing this list of bands really brings back memories. I remember buying my first rock magazine and I would memorize all the band names in the CD catalogue in the magazine.

...OF OUTINGS

Lan Sin's trip to US has left me alone for most of the time. It gets really bad during weekends. It's more of being not able to express your opinions to someone that makes it really frustrating. With Lan Sin around, i could vent every frustration and share every happiness with someone, but now that she's in US, i usually talk to the walls at home and in the car.

So thankfully, JOe and Kerliy came up to Penang last weekend to attend their friend's wedding. I met up with them together with a Penang couple who is a friend of Joe. Everytime i meet up with a Seremban friend, it's always an occasion of firsts. I've always though that "Tutti Fruitti" restaurants only serve lunch meals (well at least the one at Bayan Lepas), but in fact there is one Tutti Fruitti Frozen Yogurt shop in Island Plaza, which i have not been for ages. It's a really nice place to hang out. You get an empty cup, fill it up with a variety of yogurt flavours, top it up with some sweets or nuts and then get it weigh and pay for the cup. All this while i thought Island Plaza is dead, but it's very much alive. In fact, i even met up with 2 of my colleagues there. Got to hang out more often, dude.

Penang Road row of bars is quite a relaxing place to hang out and watch the BPL

KerLiy, Me, Kate and Eddie outside Nasi Beratur for supper

The next day, before they departed back to Seremban, we met up for lunch at Look Yuen Chinese Restaurant at Bukit Minyak. It's this chinese restaurant situated along the flyover at Bkt Minyak that i have been eyeing for quite some time cause it's always pack every time i pass by. The food quality there is pretty good, where the fish curry is a must have. We even ordered 2 plates of kangkung cause it was really good. I'm definitely going back there again.

Look Yuen Restaurant

Nyonya fish

...OF CAREER

This year has definitely been a year of milestones. I'm thankful that i have been able to achieve some of it, but for now, career has been my greatest worry. You know they say 28-32 years are the ages that people tend to contemplate on their careers. I guess i am in this conundrum now. I feel that if i work on something that has no meaning or benefit to the well being of my own family (besides the pay feeding my family), then i would have no passion on that job at all.

...OF SPORTS

Last Monday was the first time i picked up a golf club and took a swing. It was our team's quarterly team building and we had it at the Bkt Jambul Golf Club. I have always wanted to learn golfing and i was really excited with this opportunity. We had group sessions on using the driver and putting. Trying to get the right swing posture is a struggle but once you get it, it's like time stopped as you watch your gold ball fly onto the greens.

Putting for me was much more fun. The curves on the turfs makes it an additional obstacle that you need to overcome besides having a good aim. The best part was having a putt competition with my biggest boss. Everyone knows that when you play against your boss, you need to make sure you lose. So that's what i did, lose. ...but not because i let it happen, but because i sucked.

The only reason i watch the golf channel was because of Michelle Wie, but now that i know how golf works, i watched it more often especially just before they swing the drivers. I'm interested to watch the postures and the right way to swing.

...OF MOVIES

Why does GSC give away a buy 2 free 1 ticket as birthday vouchers? Don't they know three's a crowd. It would be much more usable if they have a buy 1 free 1 ticket. Actually, i'm just thinking out loud here. The real reason i want to write something about movies is because i want to tell everyone how much i wish Lord Voldermort will kill Harry Potter once and for all.

Lan Sin, hope you are reading this from afar.....

CNY Trip to Melaka - Zoo

2010-02-26T17:23:00.000-08:00

On the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, Lan Sin and family invited me for a trip down to Melaka. I've never gone out for a trip during the CNY holidays, usually just hanging out with friends and family in my hometown, so i did not know what to expect on the crowd and atmosphere elsewhere.

We departed from Seremban in the morning and our first destination in Melaka was the Melaka Zoo. My pre-thoughts of the zoo was about seeing tired and badly fed animals, surrounded by cramped cages, BUT i was so wrong when i got in. I was very much impressed by the standard and quality of the zoo. The zoo had a good variety of animals, kept in well conditioned homes. There were no cramped spaces, and most of the animals had enough space to roam around.

At the entrance with Lan Sin

At the first stop in the zoo, we were greeted by colourful parrots on tree branches. As we walked on, there was a building with glass confines of small tree dwellers, something like the monkey family but smaller and with cool hair grooming. I'm not much of a monkey guy so ill move on from here.

Colours galore

Next, there was a large land, surrounded by wooden fence. In it, there were 2 rhinos resting under the tree, avoiding the hot basking sun, some zebras grazing on dried grass and gnus. There were a variety of herbivores as we walked on; ponies, buffaloes, goats, and tapirs. It was my first up close with a tapir, and surprisingly, it's pretty huge but kinda lazy; just sat there, ignoring us visitors.

Some zebras and rhinos in the background

Buffaloes looking extremely menacing

Ponies

Lazy Tapir

Once in a while, we would diverge from the path to an enclosed cage on the side, where we could enter. In one of the cages, there were some ducks and iguanas roaming around freely. As i was busily snapping away photographs in my national geographic poses, a bird above me decided to shit on me. Now at this type of situation, i can either panic which might result in everyone knowing that my shirt had animal feces, or stay calm and hope that nobody noticed. The obvious choice was to stay calm and clean myself, but as soon as the bird shit on me, i yelled "DAMN, A BIRD SHIT ON ME!!!". ANd hence, it became a national announcement. I reacted by proclaiming that now, i will get richer by buying my car's number plate for 4D lottery. But i am not the sort of guy who would buy lottery. Would you guys buy lottery if a bird shit on you?

Focus shot

The shot before i was shat

Ice cool

Moving on, we also got to see bats hanging upside down from tree branches and the famous sang kancil, who kicked a dog into the river, as legend states. Somehow, i think it's a con job story. If you ever get to see the size of a sang kancil, u'll understand what i mean. The dog has either got to be a poodle or a dog with 2 legs, .... probably 1 leg.

Sang Kancil

And then, of course there were the routine animal shows, with birds flying from left to right, parrots guessing the number and an orang utan playing a fool with the hosts. It was all in good humour.

Animal show in progress

Then, we came across a side show, where we get to snap pictures with a phyton over our shoulders. I've always had a phobia with snakes, but they do look harmless, and i guess the picture will make me look cool in Friendster (ok..ok..im just kidding, im not into limelights ok?). When you have the phyton over your shoulders, you could feel the scales moving and wriggling and then reality starts to hit you, that it indeed is a live animal, a big snake and it might be hungry...but when you're out there with a snake on your shoulders, you are a ROCK STAR, hahaha..

One shot for the road

Next, we headed to the a mini open safari, where we get to walk at this concrete platform, build high above the wilderness ground. Below, they were mostly cows, zebras, deers and giraffes. I've always thought that giraffes are unstable animals, as in u know, high point of gravity, long neck, flimsy legs, and it probably could tumble anytime. But when i looked at it closely, it does have an imposing presence, and a sort of majestic appeal to it.

Mini Afican Safari

In awe of the giraffes

There were many more animals to come, and we came across the elephant show. The elephant show's pretty off-colour, probably cause the elephants looked a bit haggard. We were entertained by the show's host showing us how to control and guide the elephant. Then 3 elephants with a musical instruments (tramboline, trumpet and harmonica) played a chinese new year medley which sounded like...err 3 musical instruments playing together. But it does take a lot of effort for the trainers to train the elephant to use the instruments, so bravo to them.

Elephant ride

Elephant show in progress

Member of the audience trying out his new vehicular transport

Touch the trunk for good luck

By then, it was almost 4pm. We spend almost the whole day at the zoo, and we have yet to see the main attraction, which is the tiger, well since it is the Year of the Tiger. Along the path to the tiger enclosure, we saw a mother orang utan nursing her baby. One could sense the loving motherly affection of the orang utan, and the word "animal" seems to be an inapproriate word to use for her.

Happy family

One happy ass

Also, we came across this gibbon area, where it's an open lush greenery with tall trees, and separated bya small lake from our path way. We took a while to spot a gibbon and lo and behold, we finally spotted one really close to us bathing by the side of the lake. As soon as we got near, it was afraid and hid itself from us. We stayed a wihile, and soon, it turned to us and we could see its features and the way it walks. It looks just like a human, thought of a smaller size, like a dwarf.

Gibbon

And finally we came to the tiger. Actually we arrived at the lion's den first. We could see the lion sleeping, at the far corner of the den. It looks white and simply uninterested. The tiger on the other hand, were pacing to and fro. There were 2 tigers, so at times, they were interacting with one another. I'm glad we caught them at their active state and they do look healthy. Finally a proper Malaysia zoo.

Playful tigers

The year of the tiger commences

By then, it was almost dark, and we have almost conquered the zoo, so we decided to head back to the entrance. Overall, i was satisfied with the conditions of the zoo, and hope that they maintain these standards or even better, look for further improvements.

Yeah, ill miss you too.

Next up, Famosa and Jonker Street....

Letting Go Live Crickets

2010-02-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to do this for quite some time but never had the initiative to do so for almost a year. This is common on Wesak Days where people ceremoniously release small animals or caged birds as an act of generosity, symbolic of generating good karma. The act also symbolizes the Buddha’s compassion for all things.

Pigeons, doves are common animals that are released, but i have heard rumours that irresponsible traders, (knowing that there is a demand for birds for these reasons), are catching pigeons and some even training them to fly back to their shop after the release. So to avoid this, i have decided to go for something less glamorous. Hence, the food of fishes ie. crickets.

I have always thought that insects would be a better choice of animal, but i have to be careful not to choose something that may backfire on my plan. Releasing an animal is a long term commitment. If I plan to release an animal, i do hope that i wont end up in a situation where i have to eat/kill that animal in the future. I don;t rear fishes and i dont often confront a cricket on my daily life, hence, that would make it a perfect choice for me. (note: a friend of mine released a crab and is now avoiding crab seafood)

So Lan Sin and i visited the fish shop and bought 2 bucks worth of crickets. We then headed to the bushes nearby my former apartment, stood by the roadside and freed the crickets into the open wilderness. Of course, prior to that, we wished for blessings for the coming new year. It was short and sweet.

Live Crickets

Lan Sin's share

Untieing the bag, ready to let the crickets go at the vast bushes in front of us

FREEDOM!!!

Now, i wouldnt say that this whole occasion would now make me a holy man. I believe that it takes more than that to be all high and mighty. But i guess im just looking for something to uplift my morale.

Bannerghatta National Park

2010-01-30T21:26:00.000-08:00

After a week's of Bangalore's heavy traffic, we decided to take a more relaxing trip and something more in touch with nature for our 2nd weekend here. Our Indian colleagues at our office had been suggesting a couple of locations for us. ONe of them was Kurgh, which is a holiday resort 6hours drive from Bangalore and requires us to stay a night there. The locals call it "Bangalore's Scotland". It sounded interesting but the plannings would be too last minute. So we decided for something nearer, the Bannerghatta National Park.

Bannerghatta National Park is situated at the South of Bangalore and is famous for its bus ride-style safari in the wilderness. Its major attraction is the white tiger.

It was a 1 hour drive from our hotel. Our colleague, Pradeep and his wife joined us for this trip. We got our tickets for the Grand Safari and there were several busses waiting for us to board. There were grills around the windows to protect us in case the animals get wild and start to maraud our bus. As expected the bus ride was a bumpy one and on a few occasions, i thought we were about to overturn.

View from my bus seat

Ohers in the bus

Our first destination was the herbivore park. The deers were roaming around freely, usually in herds. But i do find it a bit weird as the park rangers were feeding the deers. I thought the deers would be free to roam and graze the grasslands instead of being fed. Anyway up next was the bears. Bears are cuddly creatures and they resembled a huge black furball. We passed through one which was right next to our bus, licking its hinds. We tried to attract its attention to look up so that we could get a good photo moment, but it was just too shy. There were quite a number of bears scattered around. We spotted 2 bears playfully cuddling each other.

Deers in the wild

Feeding time for the deers

Bear trail

Furball

Next, we headed to the carnivore park. I start to wonder what would happen if they mixed the 2 parks together, the herbivores and the carnivores. There'll be some food chain action going in there. Anyway, the carnivore park was a bit of disappointment for me as the lions and tigers were a bit inactive. I have read somewhere that mornings are not a good time to visit the safaris. Anyhow, i have not visited the zoo in years and being able to see the lions and white tigers (looking in good health) was something that satisfied my childhood curiosity.

Spot the lioness

2 tigers lazing around

White tiger

After the safari, we took a walk around the zoo. There were snakes, alligators, hippopotamus, birds, baboons and the whole lot. There was also a side of the zoo for the elephants and elephant rides. Elephants are considered a sacred animal by the Indians, and when i asked Pradeep, he mentioned that almost all animals in India are worshipped. We also shared some stories about the education system in India. INterestingly, kindergarten at the age of 3 is an official school for them and they go through several levels from level 1 to level 11 (something like our Form 6). At level 10 or 11, they get to choose if they want to diverge to medicine (biology) or chemistry and physics.

Curious snake

Viper

A message board that says dont tease the animals

Elephant sanctuary

Happiness

Chin Yeun, Pei Shan, Me, Pradeep and wife

Hippos

By lunchtime, we decided to head back. We bid Pradeep and his wife goodbye and thanked them for their companionship. For lunch, our driver, John recommended us to this restaurant called Tandoor, which served very authentic and classy Indian cuisine. We enjoyed the lunch very much.

Tandoor restaurant

Naan and mutton curry for me

After lunch, we decided to go for some souvenir shopping at Commercial Street. Commercial Street is a buzzing shoppin district and it kind of reminded me of the shopping streets in Hong Kong. Anything that you want, you can buy there. Though not all of them are branded apparels but its fine. I'm just amused by the huge variety of things that you can get here. There's a street that sells sorely shoes and sandals, a street that sells sarees, a street that sells bracelets, and a street that sells handbags and the list goes on. Anyway, we bought quite a lot of souvenirs there and by 6, we decided to head back home to our hotel.

Mysore & a surprise visit

2010-01-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, we woke up early at 7am to catch our ride to Mysore, a famous weekend getaway for visitors to Bangalore. Ant was waiting for us at the lobby when we got down. As it was a 3 hours ride, some of us took a quick nap in the car.

The road to Mysore is nothing like the PLUS highways that we have back home. It's something like the old trunk roads that connects the rural towns like Mambau, Matin, Pajam or something like that. There were many small towns along the way to Mysore, and it gave me a first hand view of life outside the city in India. Most of them were farmers, and we could see Indians on bicyles. lorries and even cows, carrying their produce (vegetables, fruits, poultry) along the roads. At the paddy fields, there were farmers harvesting and some were using their cows to plough the land. Along the way, there were a few rivers and i saw the ladies srubbing and washing the clothes at the river bed. India certainly has a dense population. Every corner that you turn, you see someone. It's like Pudu everywhere.

Our first stop was the Tippu Sultan's Palace which is now in ruins thanks to heavy attacks from the British. Tippu Sultan was a famous Muslim ruler and according to Ant, his people loved him. Tippu was a strong warrior who had a lot of resistance against the British invasion. Ant drove us into his fort, which is now a modern day village. At the entrance of the fort, there was moat (which has dried up) surrounding the fort and during his rule, there were crodiles on the moat. Tippu would pour oil on the walls of the fortress, so that whoever climbs the fort, will slip into the crocodiles' mouths. Unfortunately, Tippu was shot by the British eventually and the spot where his body is found is now a landmark.

Mosque in the Tippu Fort

Close up of thr mosque

The Moat outside the Fort

After that, we proceeded to Mysore City and straight to the famous Mysore Palace, home of the last Maharajah of Mysore. We visited one of his palace, the Bangalore Palace, the day before, but this palace in Mysore is much more majestic than it. Many considered it to be an International Palace, where materials from all over the world were used to build it. It was architected by an English man. Ant helped us to get a tour guide in the palace grounds and we were introduced to Krishna, an experience man who has worked on the palace for more than 40 years.

Lining up for the tickets outside Mysore Palace

He gave us a very detailed explanation about the palace historical background and its architecture. The columns in the palace were made of metal from Glasgow, Scotland, the tiles were from London, UK, the chandeliers were from Bohemia and the glass windows at ceiling were made in Belgium. Hence, the name: International Palace. Like Bangalore Palace, there were many paintings in the palace, and they were painted in such a way that eyes and the fingers were always pointed at you no matter where you stand. I believe this effect is achieved by using a special technique to colour the shadows and shades. (that's my theory anyway).

Mysore Palace

There were also paintings of the current king's family, including few generations before him. We noticed that paintings of the royal ladies, always have their toes covered. There were also many drawings and carvings of Hindu Gods. Krishna mentioned that in Hindu mythology, all the demons were killed by female Gods. He further elaborated that females arestonger hence, they call India the "Mother"land.

Ok, im an jumping picture addict

Just the palace and I

Unfortunately, we could not capture any pictures in the palace. But once we completed the tour, we collected our cameras from the camera post at the entrance and started snapping outside the palace grounds.

Bronze Lion Statue from England

Elephant within the compounds of the palace

For lunch, we went to a hotel in Mysore. Ant told us that we might not be used to the waters if we eat at the roadside stalls in Mysore. It was a good thing that Ant was aware of our needs.

Dessert for digestion after lunch

Our next stop is a temple at the top of a hill. This temple belongs to the Wife of Lord Shiva, if i am not mistaken. According to Ant, the royal family occasionally comes to this temple for worship. Only Hindus were allowed into this temple, so we only captured some pictures outside.

Temple

Road downhill

Now comes the surprise visit part of the post.

Ant has been asking us about marriage for a couple of times. He decided to invite us for a wedding ceremony in Mysore so we said Ok, why not? So Ant drove us to this Marriage Hall and with a blink of an eye, we became guests in a marriage ceremony in Mysore, India. I can never in a million years believe that i would attend a wedding in India. I guess 3 of us, Chin Yeun, Pei Shan and I, stood out like a sore thumb in the marriage hall. I felt uncomfortable at first, but it turns out, Ant had some relationship with the bride, so it's all like a family thing for him. Soon, Ant and his relatives made us feel very comfortable. His cousin introduced himself to us and we met up with others. Soon, we realized it wasnt so bad after all.

When we entered the hall, the bride and the bridegroom were already on stage and there were people lining up to the stage to take pictures with them. And Ant invited us up as well. So we got up the stage, greeted the bride and bridegroom, and pictures were snapped. Now we have become part of a wedding photo album. We wished the newly weds blessings from us and a happy marriage.

Everyone was very generous and friendly. Even as we sat down, a small boy came to us to ask for our names. Later as we left, he gave each one of us a flower. Unforgetable.

After snapping our pictures, we joined Ant downstairs for lunch. It was really authentic banana leaf meal. Again, Ant requested Pepsi for us as he knows we cant drink their filtered water there. The food was really good, much much better than the one in Malaysia. It was definitely tasty and fresh, i would say. There was butter milk, cuury, papadam, coconut sweets and some vegetarian side dishes. After lunch, we thanked them for their hospitability and waved goodbye. What an amazing experience.

Us having lunch at the wedding

Me showing off the flower outside the entrance

Our next stop was the market at Mysore. Plenty of local fruits were sold there. Oranges and apples were grown in the hills of Mysore while grapes were from Bangalore.

Market street at Mysore

Bata, a worlwide brand

Inside the market

By 5pm, we decied to call it a day. And Ant had to take a 3 hour drive back to Bangalore. I slept throughout the ride back and i have to agree with the rest that this was truly an eye opening trip.

(Personal side note: I have still not gotten used to the honkings in the roads. It's really a norm here but everytime i hear a horn, i instantly jolt up to see what happened or get irritated. The problem is everywhere there's a horn sounding, and at the back of trunks, there is a sign that says "Please horn", so im jolting every now and then, inducing some road stress haha. I do plan to get used to it though, to silence the horns in my mind. Anyway, the drivers here does the most insane manouvers. )

Bangalore Day Out

2010-01-23T03:34:00.000-08:00

Just back from a truly new experience in Bangalore. We hired a driver to bring us around for sight seeing and we were very fortunate to meet up with Ant, a down to earth friendly man who brought us around. Our first destination was the Bull Temple.

Auto - rickshaws

According to Ant, at Indian temples, we can see a lot of carvings and statues that depict the Hindu God, Sivas and Ganesh. Ganesh is the son of Sivas and is usually portrayed with the head of the Elephant. Ant sort of gave us a Hindu Gods 101 while we were there and it was very interesting to know what each God represent and the story behind their features.

Bull Temple

First Pic together

When we entered the Bull Temple, we had to take off our shoes. Apparently, at some temples, only Hindu men are allowed to go and even so, they had to remove their shirts to enter. Fortunately Bull Temple is quite open to the public. In the Temple, there was a huge 600 years old rock, which was carved into a bull and covered with black oil and it was very sacred. The priest then gave us his blessings by touching our foreheads with the tip of his finger which was smeared with red powder. We then took a walk around, and Ant told us about the sacred snake which Indian women prayed to.

Ant identifying the Gods

After Blessings

After the Bull Temple, Ant decided to drop us at LalBagh Botanical Garden. The flower show was on during the weekends, so it was a good time to visit the gardens. The garden was huge and it's a place where Bangalore people seemed to enjoy for family picnics, photo taking and getaway from the hustle and bustle of their city life. It was extremely well maintained and it was safe, as there's police at every corner. At the entrance, there was a huge lake and further down the park, we could see a big rose garden. This is obviously a haven for avid photographers.

The lake

Humongous Tree

Glass House

Just at the entrance

Deeper into the park, was this big glass house and that was where the flower show was taking place. To get in, we had to go through some metal detector check. Even our bags were examined before entering. In there, there were very nice flower arrangements. The people there enjoyed the place and were taking pictures at every turn. I know some people will tend to be skeptical and will wonder what the fuss is all about, but if you would just take a deep breath and digest the surroundings, you will realse how magnificent the place is, and how the simplicty of the nature's colours of flowers and greenery can be so satisfying and interesting to our minds. It was all back to basics.

Guards at the Glass House

Leaving the Glass House

We were suppose to meet up with Ant at the other end of the gate, so we continued walking until we came up to this rock hill. On top of the hill was a shrine, which was build for the founder of Bangalore. It was a fitting location, as it stood right on top, overseeing the city.

Walk to the top of the rock hill

The shrine of the founder of Bangalore

Ant finally met up with us and we continued our ride to the Parliment Buildings. We did not get down at the buildings but drove through and stopped occasionally for photos.

The State Assembly

Monument for one of the heroes of indpendence

Then it was lunch time. My stomach told me to go for fast food, since i was afraid of catching a diarhoea, but since we are alreday in India, why not try their food. So we told Ant, we wanted indian food, and he brought us to this comfy restaurant. The place was alright, and we got mutton briyani, fish briyani and some naan. The naan was very good as it was crispy. The funny thing about this restaurant was that they had a Malaysian dish section in the menu.

Lunch at Shezan

Mutton Naan for me

After lunch, we headed to the Bangalore Palace, a famous landmark for visitors. The tour guide at the palace brought us around. According to him, there are 3 palaces in the state; one in Bangalore, in Mysore (which we are going tomorrow) and one in Wuti, a hill palace (i think). These palaces were build during the British occupation of India. The King who is now on the 26th generation of the throne, still stays in the palace occasionally.

Bangalore Palace

Sitting on 400 year old cushion probably. This is where the kings meet with other royalty.The queen actually sits across behind a wooden window. Queens were not allowed to meddle with the king's affairs. (correct me if i am wrong)
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The ceiling above were coated with real gold

It seems the King was an avid hunter. At the entrance, we were greeted by an elephant head hung at the wall. We walked through the passageway and we saw a lot of paintings by the kings, antiques, and gifts from other nations. We saw a lot of art works, like wallpaper from China, mosaics from Europe and Rosewood staircases. These had survived through time and is still standing before us in the modern times.The palace was grand and was a symbol of the grand kings that once ruled India.

A painting somewhat like the Mona Lisa, in a away the eyes follow you no matter where you stand

Family Courtyard

A pic by our tour guide

Mosaic from Europe

More Paintings

The tour guide made me sit on this chair made with the legs of the elephant hunted down by the King. Sorry, animal activists

The King's bedroom. The fan above was made by GE, many years ago

Us at the courtyard

Feeling like the King

Another view of the palace

After the palace, Ant brought us to some souvenir shops. We did not neccesarily had to buy anything, but in the end, we did buy some souvenirs back home. By 4pm, we were starting to feel exhausted so we decided to call it a day and Ant brought us back to the hotel.

It;s almost 6pm here and Chin Yeun, Pei Shan and I will be meeting up for dinner soon at 6.30. So i guess i wont be updating anytime until the next day. The plan for tomorrow is a whole day trip to Mysore. Till then....

Touchdown Bangalore

2010-01-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

Finally, i have arrived at Bangalore. Well, what can i say. Over here, it's a bit different. The place's somewhat how i have imagined based on the feedback from colleagues. The taxi ride from the hotel to the airport was a really breathtaking experience. Totally beats the rides in Bangkok. It seems that over here, it is widely acceptable to
(i) honk as soon as the red light turns green,
(ii) totally ignore the lanes on the road,
(iii) flash the headlights repeatedly, and sometimes, add in some honking in the process
(iv) pick up hitchhikers along the road
(v) drop hitchhikers in the middle of nowhere

Arrival Hall

Outside Bangalore Airport

But anyhow, we safely arrived at the hotel. Security at the hotel gates has been quite strict. The guards had a metal detector thing which they used to check the bottom of our taxi. They also checked the boot of our taxi.

When i got to my hotel room, i was like "what the heck" cause i saw some food crumbs on my coffee table and some banana skin. I told the porter to get room service to clean it up. The porter went over the coffee table and came back and told me that these are complimentary food by the hotel. I looked over at the coffee table again, and i saw 1 orange, 1 apple, 2 bananas and some cakes wrapped nicely on a plate. Shit, i was totally embarassed.

From far, it did look like someone messed up the table. But they were in fact complimentary snacks. Good effort though

At Le Meridien, they charge for internet usage, at around 720 Rupees for a day, which is around RM 50. It's been a long day, and i'm exhausted. It's almost 4am Penang time here. Still had not drank any Indian water yet. I'm looking forward to the next day. I'm sure India is a nice place to be.

Bangalore - Here I Come

2010-01-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

My first post for this blog was about my relocation to US. I remember clearly that on the eve of my travel, a pipe burst in my house, flooded the kitchen and caused a havoc with the landlord. Now come 2010, i'm travelling again. Not for a long period though, only for 2 weeks and at a closer region, India, home of our very own Datuk Sharukh Khan. No burst pipe this time though, but i did encounter a mishap today.

I took leave today to move some things to my new house. All went well as planned. But then, after all was done when i was about to go back home, i realized that i accidentally left my car keys in the car and as the car was so smart, it auto-locked itself, with my car keys, rented house keys and handphone in it. I was like a deer in front of headlights when i saw my keys through the car window. So near, yet so far. It took me a while to face the reality and that is i'm in deep shit.

First, i caught hold of a worker who was busy installing the auto gate at my neighbour's house. He took a small thin rod, enough to fit in the gap between the car window and the door, and he started "koreking". After a while he gave up and he offered me his motorbike to call a mechanic. Very nice of him, but there's one problem. I do not know how to ride a motorbike. So instead, i walked to the nearest mechanic and the mechanic told me he couldnt do it either. So i borrowed their phone and called for my rescue to bring my car's spare key from my rented house. But then, my rented house keys were in my car, so my rescue brigade had to collect my house key's from my housemate's office first. (later when i went home, it seems my housemate had 9 miss calls from my rescue brigade)

So while my rescue brigade were busy collecting my car's spare key, i was left wondering around, hoping to catch someone who might help. A van came, who was suppose to measure something in my house. I told the 2 gangster looking guys about my problem, and they volunteered to help. They had a plan. ONe of them took out their car alarm, and wanted to tweak the frequency so that it matches my car alarm's frequency. Canggih!! But then it failed as he realised that by doing so, he might mess up his own car alarm. Anyhow, i thanked them for being helpful and at least they kept me company for a while.

At that point, my throat was dry and my stomach began to growl. I have been watching a lot of "Man vs Wild" and I thought i might have to eat frogs and drink water from the roots of plants to survive. With no form of communication with the outside world, i felt helpless. Ok, maybe it was not that dramatic. But eventually, my rescue brigade came with my car spare key. It was a huge sigh of relief. They provided me with blankets, and hot milo as soon as they saw me...haha..ok now that's too dramatic, but the story's true. Thanks to Wee Han, Yoke Sun and Lan Sin, my heroes for the day.

Guess im just trying to rekindle my passion of writing in this blog. It's so dead. I hope this India thing will fire me up once again, probably to update my family on my stay over there. Doctor was telling me about the E.Coli in India waters, and even my boss told me not to brush teeth with their water. So here's how i have prepared myself

1) 50 charcoal pills
2) 5 packets of dehydration salt
3) Hepatitis A & B jabs
4) 12 mee in a mug, with different flavours.
5) Lots of toilet paper
6) Lots of biscuits, in fact i have one bag which only consists of food. I can only remember packing food and medicine. I dont remember myself packing any clothes yet.

Anyway, India here i come. After spending my schooling years watching Tamil/Hindu movies at 3pm on TV2, i'm finally getting the real Bollywood deal here.

Welcome to the Blue Foundation World

2010-01-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

New Years Resolution
I have a plan for 2010. My plan is to face each problem like it is a blessing to my life. I need to learn how to face adversity in the face and overcome it with my own efforts.

"Problems call forth our courage and wisdom...It is only because of problems, we grow mentally and spiritually...It is for this reason that wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems" - as quoted in the book The Road Less Travelled

Blue Foundation
Blue Foundation is a band formed a decade ago in Denmark. It has a heavy influence of melodramatic sound.

If the band name sounds familiar, it's probably because you have heard one of their songs from the Twilight soundtrack called Eyes on Fire.

Highly recommended if you like Fever Ray, Under Byen or Bat for Lashes.

Fever Ray

2009-11-29T22:44:00.000-08:00

Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson is Fever Ray, a Swedish singer who used to be the lead vocalist of The Knife. Her music are haunting and serenating and creates a chilling enigmatic feeling. Her image as a performer usually includes her wearing a mask and other theatrical elements. Possibly the Nordic version of Faye Wong.

Fever Ray - Keep the Streets Empty for Me

Fever Ray - If i had a Heart

And here they are, a live performance from The Knife (sis bro duo) with the most unique of the uniquest songs ever. Totally awesome. Seattle Weekly claims that they are "A forbidding abyss during winter and a solar explosion during summer". There's just something about the Swedish weather that makes them so awesome!!

The Knife - You Make Me Like Charity

MoonCake Festival 2009

2009-11-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

This is a long overdue post, but as a tradition, i always write a post on Moon Cake Festival Celebrations. This year, for lack of a better venue, we decided to do it at an apartment park at Putra Place, my previous rented home back in 2007.

Preparing for our lantern walk

Not many could make it on this day, as the arrangements for the gathering were done a bit last minute. Project was at its crunch mode and Wee Han only joined us later in the night as he had to join a phone conference after dinner.

group Picture

We hung our lanterns at our bench

Mooncakes were sold out that night at Jusco, so i only got the weird types that nobody wants. Chor Chen and Yuri were in-charge of lanterns. Jon who currently stays in Putra Place brought along some utensils and treated us to some beers.

Preparation spot

At the swimming pool

The park at Putra Place is a well maintained landscape. There's a swimming pool surrounded by lush greenery and flowers. We camped our stuffs at one of the benches. Coincidentally, a group of teenage girls were having a birthday BBQ nearby.

We lighted our lanterns and walked around the park as usual, occasionally taking pictures at certain spots. We then feast on the weird looking mooncakes that i bought. Jon brought along a butcher knife since that is the only knife he has in his home. Sounds like a bachelor pad to me.

Fancy stuffs

wats this doing on a mooncake festival?

Wee Han arrived later just in time to eat the remaining food. We then walked another round and finally we decided to call it a night. This is just one of the few gatherings that reminded us of life after work. It was refreshing.

Before we call it a night

Oktober Fest 2009

2009-11-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

This year, we could not pre-purchase the tickets to the Okt Fest as they had been sold out. So we decided to buy them on the spot on that night. That became a problem for us as when we reached the venue, the tickets that night were also sold out. Why they have so limited tickets this year, is because they want to control the crowd. Not wanting to budge, we decided to persuade the German lady to let us in, since there were people leaving from the event. Quite a number of patrons were forced to turn back because of no tickets. Not wanting to give up, we started to smuggle each other in, with friends from inside passing the tickets to us. I dont feel bad for breaking the law here cause it was almost 10 and since the event started at 7, there were already a great deal of people leaving from the event. Hence, the crowd within would have dissipated, and us coming in without any tickets wouldnt cause a big crowd commotion.

Getting the beers

Inside, the atmosphere was welcoming with patrons from all walks of life, enjoying themselves,laughing away with alcohol in their hands. People met new acquaintances, they danced together and they even formed a train, running around the venue.

Doing the train

Room for more passengers

We got our jugs of Tiger Beers and some Paulaners. Chor Chen and Yuri got some german sausages and some saurkraut. We sat quite far from the stage so we could not see the going-ons planned for the evening. I guessed we missed the arm wrestling and the beer drinking challenge earlier.

Cheers

When the DJ got on stage, it was time to move to the dance floor. The DJ started off with some old dance tracks from the 80s and then slowly moved on to the 90s and then the noughties. We had an enjoyable time there.

Exhausted and sweaty, we left the dance floor, and before we leave, we had one more round of German Food, selling at half price as the event was closing.

Supper

Birthday Week 2009

2009-11-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

Upon reaching another birthday milestone, i begin to wonder about all the things that i wish i had done better in my life. But the more i think about it, the more wrinkles i get, hence the older i look. So i'm not going to fret too much and just look positively ahead and make the best out of everything. Life's too short to dwell too much on our hit and misses.

Surprise Party for late Oct/Nov babies

My birthday happened to fall on a working day this year. Just few days before, Lan Sin invited me to have lunch with her on my birthday so i agreed. When i got into the car, she insisted on driving. Half way she stopped her car on the side of the road, took out a tie and started blindfolding me. I hesitated at first but as she kept insisting and since she tried so hard, i obliged. I let her blindfold me under one condition, i get to cover my face with a book since i dont want any glaring looks from other cars at traffic stops. Once in a while, i would try to peek through the tie or make some adjustments, but before i could do anything, Lan Sin would suddenly take her eyes off the road and use her hands to stop me. Since this was dangerous driving, i decided not to move so as not to encourage her to do anything hastily.

When the car finally stopped, i suddenly had the feeling that my office friends were waiting to ambush me at the restaurant. So i quickly removed the blindfold, and lo and behold, i saw their cars outside the restaurant. So my originally planned lunch with Lan Sin now turned out to be a gathering lunch with my friends at a Thai Restaurant. It was a good meal with 2 tables and it was organized by Soek Junn and gang for all the late October and November babies in the team.

Scorpios & Sagitariauses

When we got back, Soek Junn even prepared Ferrero Rocher chocolates in our cube as mini presents. It was really a great effort and i, together with the rest of the birthday babies thanked them.

Wee Han's Open House

On Friday, Wee Han held an open house at his new apartment at Gold Coast. A luxurious condominium with a beautiful view of the Penang Bridge and the sea. After spending his studying years in US, Wee Han managed to pick up some culinary skills and decided to treat us with some roasted chicken. Some of us also brought along some food for this pot luck / BBQ party.

Chef Wee Han

It was quite a crowd and a nice little gathering. Besides the roasted chicken, there were also wine chicken, cili garam, fried rice, tau foo, desserts and cheese cake. A mini BBQ pit was set up at the balcony, so we also had otak-otak, fish balls, corn and sweet potato.

It was raining that night so Astro was having its bad signal problem. Fortunately i brought my stash of DVDs and we started to watch Money No Enough. We were trying to get Chor Chen to cry at the final scene when the mother sacrificed herself. Not a single tear from his eyes though.

As it was getting late, the crowd started to dwindle. Some of us stayed back for a game of Taboo, and by 2am, we started to call it a night.

Taboo in progress

Karaoke Surprise

I know that Lan Sin likes to sing so when she invited me to accompany her for a 1 on 1 karaoke practice session at Redbox on Saturday, i agreed. I am not much of a Karaoke fan though, but i thought she needed some fun in her life since i have not had much time to bring her out due to work obligations lately.

When we reached Gurney Plaza, i dropped her off to book the room. After i had my car parked, i saw Chor Chen and Yuri descending from the escalator. They asked me where i was going and since i thought Lan Sin might not like the idea of me telling them that Lan Sin was having a karaoke practice session, i decided to lie to them.

When i finally got to room 12, lo and behold, there was Lan Sin and a group of my friends waiting for me. Damnit!!! Lan Sin surprised me for the second time in a week. And soon, Chor Chen and Yuri entered the room. I was like ..what??

It turned out that Lan Sin had organized a birthday party for me at Red Box. I appreciate her efforts and the rest for taking the time to attend this karaoke session, so i said to myself, time to let myself out from the shell and sing like there's no tomorrow.

Lan Sin & i and the birthday hat

Yuri with the birthday hat, whose birthday is 3 days before mine

So we sang and sang and sang. Even my sore throat was not going to stop me from having fun. We took turns to sing a variety of songs, chinese and english and it was all good. Wai Loon and Jon were releasing their angst and stress with an LMF song, Soek Junn and Chuan Ning were picking oldies from the Chinese list, Wee Han loves to rap, Yoke Sun croons like a true songstress, Yuri relishing her youth with Britney songs, Chor Chen shouting along on It's my Life from Bon Jovi, and Lan Sin and I just filling in the blanks. We all had a great time.

And it turned out, we spend 7 hours in the karaoke room from 2 to 9pm. They finally kicked us out. Since I was a Kim Gary card holder, we decided to have dinner at Kim Gary using my birthday voucher which entitled us to 50% discount on all meals ordered.

I was dead tired that night when i got home. It was memorable. As soon as i closed my eyes that night, i was already in dreamland. Thank you to everyone for the great time and i sincerely hope you guys enjoyed too.

Gunung Lang - Ipoh

2009-11-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Last week, we took a 1-day trip to Ipoh to attend Aan Chien's wedding. We departed in 2 cars from Penang at 7am, with empty stomachs and in anticipation for Ipoh food. Our first stop was the new Fu San dim sum restaurant, which was an intimidating 3 storey palace-like building situated just opposite it's dim sum rival, Ming Court. As expected, the place was packed and parking was a hassle, with those "vultures" charging us 3 bucks. Dim sum was expectedly nice, but hopefully we'll get to try something different in the future.

Then as usual, it was off to the Tau Fo Faa shop and then thereafter, we hang out at Chor Chen's place, waiting for our digestion system to work on our stomachs.

For lunch, we met up with leonard, xwei, wee cheng and alan at the "Yong Tau Foo (under the tree)" restaurant, at least that's what it's stated in the GPS. The food was a bit cold when we got there, so not as crunchy as before but still tasty. Xwei says there's a better shop near her place. Definitely will try it for our next trip. Starting to get bored with the original locations.

Asam Laksa with Yong Tau Foo

Lunch gathering

With time to spare, Xwei recommended us to visit this park called Gunung Lang. Although it was drizzling with cloudy weathers, we went ahead with the plan. There was a lot of parking when we got there, with a few visitors, some with their family and some couples fondling around. When we walked into the entrance of the building, there was this lake right in front of us. And further ahead of the lake was a park and to get there, we need to rent a boat from the counter. 1 ticket costs 3 bucks and we also got some fish food.

The lake at Gunung Lang. The natural patches at the white granite is supposed to resemble the image of Kuan Yin

Fishes

Ducks Galore

It was a man-made lake, formerly used for tin mining. There were huge cat-fishes swimming in the waters and some big white ducks hovering around. At the park across the lake, there was a beautiful landscape with lots of greenery and flowers. It was a big park. Near the entrance was a cage with rabbits. As we walked further around the park, there was a playground. I couldnt resist the swing.

Us at the entrance of the park upon disembarking from the boat

Taking pictures with CC Yap's dog

Rabbitsss

Further in the park was a bigger cage. There was a herd of deers in the cage, all cramped up together. ONe of them had antlers. Next to them were the ostriches. Their feathers were falling apart, as if they were in some sort of accident. I wonder if they do let these animals roam freely when the park closes.

Fallen

The man who could not be moved

Leaning Tower of PISA

Tower of Bable

This park would also be a good photographing haven for newly weds. We, however had other ideas in mind. We took jumping shots instead

And then, there was no gravity

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting...

...Those cats were fast as lightning

Heroes Uncut Version

Resident Evil Zombies and one floating David Blaine

We couldnt stay long as mosquitos started to feast freely on our blood. Damn those blood suckers!!

And so it was time for tea, so we headed to the original white town coffeeshop in old town. We missed it on our first trip here as it was closed, but thank God, it was opened this time. I am not a coffee drinker but i could tell that this shop's coffee had a stronger coffee aroma and some slight bitterness aftertaste. Something like how you would describe durian i guess.

By 6, some of us had to go back to Penang, while a couple of us stayed back for Aan Chien's wedding at Syuen Hotel. It was a memorable wedding, but we had to leave early as the bridge would be closing by 2am for the Penang Bridge run.

Brand New New Album

2009-11-09T22:07:00.001-08:00

I promise i will blog more often from now on. Off topic, here's a single from Brand New's newest (4th) album, Daisy. It's called "At the Bottom" and i just love the serene feel to it

Alternative studio version here

Bangkok Day 2

2009-09-11T23:41:00.001-07:00

On our 2nd day trip to Bangkok, we decided to do some shopping at Platinum Mall. It's something like our very own Sungai Wang plaza, where they sell a variety of clothings, mostly non-branded. Over there, there are 2 sets of prices; retail price and wholesale price. The prices on display are usually retail price and if you want a cheaper price, you ask for a wholesale price, where you have to buy more than one, usually 70-80% cheaper. So it's good to shop in groups.

The guys and the girls split up and planned to meet up in 3 hours time. Looking at the amount of women's shops in the complex, we were not surprised if the girls did not meet the 3 hour dateline. I like the shops in Platinum Mall. They sell really nice T-shirts at a very affordable price of around RM15 per piece (wholesale price). And the designs are not dull, some with very interesting tag lines and logos. And the shops that sell these are endless. Also the shops are very open to bargaining. I guess the only disappointment was that they dont sell much sports wear as in soccer jerseys.

As expected, 3 hours passed and the guys were the first to reach the meeting point. We had our lunch at the foodcourt at the highest level of Platinum Mall. They had a pre-paid card system, where you purchase a card from the counter and top up at any amount that you choose. You then take the card to any of the food stalls, place your order, and swap the card for payment. The good thing is after your meal,if you have extra cash in the card, you can return it at the counter and get your re-fund.

After lunch, the girls decided to continue their shopping spree. Nic accompanied Laura, so it was left with Joe, Chia and I. We left Platinum Mall to have a drink at one of the coffee shops outside. We came upon this really old coffee shop at one of the backlanes and ordered a bottle of Singha Beer. Joe took out a cigarette and started to smoke. Out of nowhere, a lady from the cash counter came to our table and asked Joe not to smoke and showed us a non-smoking sign at a cup on the table. As if our blindness was suddenly cured, we started to realise plenty of non-smoking sign surrounding us; on the walls and on the poles. I guess we were blinded by our Malaysian culture. Thai people are so civic conscious. Not a single person smoking on sight. Total respect.

Cofee Shop. Check out the no-smoking sign

We then headed back to meet up with the rest. It was Friday noon so it was quite hard to get a cab back to the hotel. Joe and the girls managed to get a cab, so it was left with Nic, Chia, Jing and Me to find one. We were thinking of taking the TukTuk back but the guy charged us an exorbitant amount of money, so screw it, we took a few km walk to the MRT station and took the monorail back home.

Back at the hotel, we were planning on our night actvities. Joe managed to catch hold of his friend in Malaysia who recommended a Thai tour guide to bring us around at Pattpong, the redlight district in Bangkok. So by 7, we met up with Toi, a friendly Thai man who was our designated tour guide for the night. He came to our hotel with a van that fit all 9 of us comfortably. It took us a while to get to our dinner place,because it seems Thaksin supporters were having a gathering that night, which caused us to take a detour bypassing town.

In Toi's van

For dinner, we had this very warm meal of pork meat soup served with rice or noodle. As we were eating, we asked for TomYam, in which Toi said it's easy to make TomYam using the ingredients that is already on the table. He mixed some chili powder, sugar, some sauce here and there onto our soup, and voila, we now have tomyam!!. It tasted really like Tomyam (rich in Thai taste) and it was really spicy. We tried to repeat this concoction ourselves but failed horribly. I guess it's a Thai talent.

Dinner

After dinner we headed to Pattpong. With Toi leading us, it seemed safer, and i would also recommend anyone who's interested to visit Pattpong to hire a Thai tour guide to lead you. With Toi, he planned all the shows for us, got rid of street peddlers who tried to harrass us (in other words, tried to coerce us into their bars by constant persuasion), and even got us discounted prices for the shows. While walking in Pattpong, he advised us to be careful of our belongings and not to purchase anything from the market there (expensive). We followed him along the streets and in the end came to this Agogo bar.

Streets of Pattpong

If i were to pronounce correctly, Agogo bar is where you get to see beautiful Thai girls wearing only a bikini and underwear (somtimes a thong), posing on stage, trying to entice you with their eyes, or rather their assets. Let me describe the place first. It's just like any ordinary disco with pop music blaring on the background. Now, imagine the bar in the disco. Replace bar with a stage. Replace an empty stage with a stage full of white bikini clad girls, with full makeup and prominent assets. No, you wont see the same girls on stage. IN fact, every 30 mins or so, a new batch of girls goes up stage. It's endless.

Us at the Agogo bar. Spot our new friend

And the patrons of the bar, as i look around consists of mostly older men. And right beside them, you see one of the Thai girls whispering in their ears and holding hands. We got our seats and drinks, and good seats indeed, as we got a good view of all the girls on stage. Whenever you look up, you see them trying to get an eye contact with you, giving you an inviting smile. And seems like my friend had an eye contact too long, and soon a Thai girl came down and hugged my friend from behind. Alas! My friend is trapped with a white bikini clad girl who wouldnt budge until you get her a drink and play drinking games with her. Of course, a thousand questions must be travelling across his mind. And one of them without a doubt has to be "Is this a guy or a gal hugging me from behind?" Nevertheless, im sure my friend had a great time

One before we leave

And soon, after a while, we decided we have seen enough of Agogo girls, and now it's time for some action. And what awaits us will never see light on the streets of Malaysia. It is Thailand's very own Ping Pong Show. I dont want to go into too much details on this show, but it involves naked Thai ladies performing acts of supreme skills with their body parts down south, that just by watching it, would leave girls cringing in pain and guys speechless and clueless, with mouths wide open. As Toi said, dont mess with Thai girls. They can kill you with their private parts.

The market at Pattpong

Group pic at the streets of Pattpong

But what awaits us next has to be the mother of all Pattpong shows. A show that you will only see once in your lifetime, but a lifetime to wash away the after effects of the show. That show my friend is Fishboy. In plain simple language, FishBoy is a show where you get to see a guy swimming naked in an aquarium. Did i also mention that you also get to see guys caressing themselves and smothering each other with shower foam while taking a bath on stage? Also did i also mention that one of them took off their underwear, and with a hardened p*nis slided to the front of the stage with it hanging few inches from our seats? No i guess not, but it did happened!!!

Looks interesting

Classic Boys Club

I don't know about you girls, who might be enjoying the whole thing but guys are not comfortable seeing naked guys caressing each other and displaying their dolphins few inch from our face. But the grand finale was what made us run out from the show. Yes, we raced out from the show like scared rats. We thought everything had ended, until two guys started humping each other on stage with that Slumdog Millionaire song playing on the background. Ok, the guys were on maximum tolerance on this guy to guy thing but it doesnt end there. The 2 guys humping each other got down from the stage, crawled to our seats like a wheelbarrow, and started talking to us, with the humping action all still going on. So what did we do? We gave them tips and ran out like scared rats. And not to forget, Toi was laughing all the way.

I had this sudden urge to vomit, which means good news. I am straight.

Ants

Bugs anyone?

We were laughing at ourselves after exiting the bar. What an experience it was. With our minds still partially disturbed, Toi decided to open up our minds to try something more positively stimulating to the brain, and that is supper. We came to his place, which i forgot the name, where Toi recommended us to stay in the future. There are quite a lot of hotels there and it was livelier at night with lots of food stalls opened. We had chicken rice for supper. Toi shared many stories with us about Thailand that night. It was really a one hell of a night for us.