288. New Year's Eve

Another year comes to a close. Another emotional roller coaster year :P If my anger management class is anything to go by, I should've gone psycho by now. :) Hmmm, perhaps I already am.

Oh well, We're just gonna have a simple gathering at my place. To quietly ease into the new year.

The guys came over, we ordered pizza and set up the PS2 and had a few games of snooker. They left at 4am and that was that. We decided to meet up at Starbucks for coffee tomorrow morning.

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My Random Thots:

Had some time to reflect on the whole year. So many losses, so much pain and yet so many new things/experiece gained and so much joy and happiness. At least this year, I have a blog to retain the memories.

287. Eve of New year's eve!

Had lunch with Chuwy where he gave me my Christmas present! Darn it! Another family which I didn't get any presents for! I miss my little helpers. Sigh, gone are the days I guess.

Met up with Yippie, Chong and Jack at MPower and then to the Pulau Tikus market for dinner. Haven't been there in a while. Had the economy noodles and green beans soup. Man, the simple pleasures in life eh.

After that, we took a drive to Teluk Bahang dam. Then headed over to my place to chill.

286. Blur

Been so busy with work and all that this whole week again went by in a flash! Normally the year end would be routine and quiet. Everyone will be in holiday mood and things won't be so tense. But this year is a tad different, it seems that my customers were rushing a lot of last minute orders.

Managed to have dinner with Yippie, Chong and Jack. Then headed to town to meet Dave, his wife, Adrian and Eva at Shamrock. Ran into Ken Khor there. Haven't seen him in a while.

285. The sky is falling!

The ceiling of my office collasped and hit 3 of my colleagues. All 3 of them are ok with nothing broken. Luckily it happened in the least congested area.



It's pass 9pm when I received a call from Adrian, one of his friend's (Dave) car overheated on the Penang bridge. He's on the way to pick me up. Errr, Hey! waita minute, I didn't sign up for this???? Oh well, heck, I'd expect the same if my car had problems.

So I got a few bottles of water and my towing cable. On the way to the bridge, got a call from Chong saying that he managed to get a tow truck to tow the friend's car from the bridge to Chong's house. So we'll meet at Chong's place instead.

So while waiting for the tow truck and Dave to arrive, we decided to have a little supper at the ikan bakar place beside Chong's apartment.

After that drama, Nicholas and Anthony called to say they're meeting up for a drink. Joined them for a quick one before headed home.

284. Boxing day

A year has passed since the Tsunami, how time doth fly. It's amazing how things can change within a year. Glad that things are slowly returning to normal.

Was suppose to attend Ching Yi's wedding in KL today, but because Chuwy fell sick last minute, we couldn't go :( was really looking forward to it.

283. Christmas BBQ

Yesterday, I had a long day at work and then headed off to Adrian's house for a BBQ in the evening. It was raining, but we're not gonna let a little rain ruin a party :P

Tomoko will be leaving us on the 26th, so it's kinda like a farewell for her too. For now, we dunno when she'll come back. Missed the chance for her to style my hair, she did a good job for Chong, wonder what she can do for me. :) She did recommend that I keep sideburns instead of cutting them off, that's easy enough to do :P

We all left at about 1ish. Somehow this year's Christmas seems more simple and quiet. Previously, it has been carollings and endless church events and travelling. This year, it seems that I have so much time on my hands during these festive times. I gotta admit, I do feel a bit nostalgic.

The venue; East coast and West coast rivalry

Emmm, the, err, happening crowd :)

This morning, managed to wake up and actually went to church. Well, after all, tis the day of our dear saviour's birth.

The venue; Can you spot the angels?

They were all over the place I tell you! :)

The devil's advocate & I; Joseph, Me, Joanne & Kenny

The church put up an impressive play/dance. The decor was no less impressive. Sally invited me to join her family for pork ribs at her place. As tempting as that sounds, I didn't want to impose. I have a choice, go Gurney plaza or home. Hmmm, not really a choice. I went back to my warm, inviting bed and drifted off to sleep. Gosh, there must be more than this.

Yippie came to pick me up and we're off to Haagen Daaz, meeting the rest of the guys there at 10ish. Jo dropped by and gave me my Christmas present! Gosh, I feel really bad! I didn't get anyone anything!!!!!!!

Look out, there's a psycho at the window!

282. Jimbo's wedding

It was Jee Ming and Hooi San's wedding last nite. It was held at Shangri-La. The dinner was nice and everyone had a good time.

After dinner, we adjourned to Pangkor Room to continue the party. For the first time in my life, I tried sucking in Helium gas from the balloons to see what I sound like :D It became a fad and soon everyone tried it. Even the bridegroom and Wee did a duet. :D It was hilarious.

Dave offered free drinks for everyone if they go to Soho and surprise surprise, my bros went. I dropped them off and had to sent Pang Kok back coz he was totally wasted. Gosh. When I finally got back to Soho, it's already 10 past 3. When we finally got home, it was close to 5am! *yawn*

281. Recap the past 2 weeks

12th Dec (Monday)
It's Chuang's B'day tomorrow. So we had dinner at Mr Ho's. It's my first time there and I gotta say, the food is good. I like it. I think it's because of the fact that they serve lotsa pork and sausages on the menu. It was all good. After dinner, it was time to reveal the presents. Chuwy, Seok Hong and I got him a photo album, while his wife got him a PSP! Yup! A playstation portable! :) I wonder if she realises the repercussions ;)

14th Dec (Wednesday)
Finally done with everything, it's time for Ando San and Yasumoto San to leave us. I took the day off so that can take them shopping and all. Went over to gurney plaza and we bought them each a pewter souvenier and then over to One Stop for DVD shopping. After tea, we headed to the airport for dinner at the infamous Sg Tiram Seafood porridge.

As with Tsuiki, it was a simple send off for them and that's the end of that "adventure". Really happy that my car is back to "normal".

Jack, Yasumoto San, Me, Chong, Ando San and Yew Peng

15th Dec (Thursday)
Tomorrow is my birthday! Gosh, I'm getting old :P Anyway, so tonite, Wee, Seng, Ai Fen, Lorna and I will be heading over to Soho to celebrate! Hmmm, this will be interesting. Somehow, not too looking forward to this b'day. The celebration was nice and quiet.

At Soho

Me & cake #1

16th Dec (Friday)
Woo Hoo! It's my birthday! Didn't feel that great at all. Well, my office server crashed this morning and the rest of the day was spent doing damage control. This is a mission critical server, so we need to get this up and running pronto. There goes my plan to take it easy today. Hope I'm not gonna be late for my pizza party at home.

Chuwy, Seok Hong, Sophia, Sean, Chuang and Niki came over at 9pm. Seng, Ai Fen & Ruyi was also around but left coz Ruyi had to sleep by 9ish. Wee couldn't make it coz he's still stuck in office and Raine had another thingy going on. Chuwy brought a video clip of Sophia's graduation celebration where she danced and all. Talk about proud father :D

Chuwy & gang & cake #2

After they left, went over to meet the rest of the gang at Grand Bay.

While at Grand Bay - Anthony & Jack, Jack taking aim

Didn't stay too long coz I still have to worry about the server.

Chong and Hiromi are finally officially married today after all the red tape because she's a foreigner.

17th Dec (Saturday)
Finally got 2 terminals up and running. That should buy me some time :) After work, went to Gurney plaza and Midlands with Yew Peng and Tomoko. Will be meeting the guys for dinner at Golden BBQ steamboat near Swatow Lane, opposite Continental Bakery. After stuffing ourselves silly, Anthony brought out the cake! Gosh, it's a cake of a football field complete with players and ref. I even received a birthday gift from the management in the form a a key chain. :) With the cake, comes the usual birthday song and wish. Then comes "smash the birthday boy's face in the cake" thingy. I had to pull the candle from the cake without using my hands. Guess I was too fast for any of them. I got away clean, hey, after so many birthday celebrations, one has to develope one of 2 skills, lightning quick candle pull outs or cleaning cake off face ;)

At Golden BBQ Steamboat

Anthony bringing in cake #3

Song & dance

A quick glance to the back before I swoop in and pull the candle out

Accepting a customary birthday egg from Lai

We adjourned once again to Grand bay to further the celebrations! Finally left at about 3am. That was interesting.

Got this neat little gadget as a b'day gift from Seng, Fen, Wee and Raine. It's a MP3 player that transmits through radio frequency. You just plug it into your car cigarette lighter and switch on your radio. Kinky!

18th Dec (Sunday)
It's Tening's B'day today! Ahh, it's nice to have company :D Well, went over to the office with Wee to sort out the server issue. Didn't do much, just head over to Gurney Plaza after that and back home.

21st Dec (Wednesday)
Today was the usual day except that I attended an anger management class. Just something that I thought I'll take for the fun of it. Turns out to be quite interesting. Basically this is an introductionary class. It starts off with finding out if you have any external stressors that my cause you to be potentially emotionally "disturbed". Have you encountered any of the following situations in the past 12mths: A divorce, parent's divorce, partner cheating on you, best friend betraying you, threatened at work, and so on and so forth. Each situation is assigned a value. At the end of the day, you add up all the points and you get a total. below 30pts, you have no external stressors and you may leave the class. 31 to 60pts, you have mild stressors, 61pts and above, you definitely need to stay for this class. Guess what, my grand total was 230pts! No kidding! I scared myself too. See, I have a good excuse to act the way I do. I'm psychologically unstable! And the worse part is, the good doctor said that these are only external factors, there are internal ones to consider. But that requires regressing into my childhood. :P

Well, overall I learnt quite a bit, but to get further, I'll need to attend one on one sessions with him to understand and resolve my anger :P In other words, here, gimme your wallet and lie down on this couch.

Well, one interesting thought he shared, "Having expectations are ok, insistance on the expectations being met is the problem."

22nd Dec (Thursday)
Watched King Kong tonite. This show is bringing up my anger! :) Guess my expectations were a bit too high. Dunno what to think of it. Here's what I got from the show.

"Girl meets guy, girl crazy for guy, girl sacrificed to monkey, guy hunts monkey to save girl, girl falls for monkey, monkey falls for girl, guy desappointed he lost to monkey, guy realises he still likes girl, goes after girl again, this time monkey dies, girl "settles" for guy?????"

What the hell? Did I miss something here? I say, if girl likes monkey, then let her be, she probably don't deserve men!

Hey, I'm not sexist ok, I mean, if guy likes car, then leave him be, he probably don't deserve girl!

280. Back! Well, not quite.

Been gone for 10days :) twas very busy with work and the car. Had an average of only 4hrs sleep everyday. *Yawn* Will update the blog once I gather my thots.

279. A week of craziness!

And another week of the same coming up. After rushing from my office to my customer's place to the workshop and only getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep each day, she's finally alive. 'Twas all worth it!

Sent Tsuiki San to the airport last nite and back he goes to Japan. The rest will leave probably at the end of the week only.

278. Another Manic Monday

Rushed over to the hotel to pick up Ando san to send him to the workshop. After that rushed over to Chong's place in Kepala Batas to pick up an engine stand and back to the workshop. Then it's off to see my customer and then back to office.

After dinner went to the workshop with Jack to pick up Tsuiki san and bring him to Gurney for him to buy a bluetooth headset. It seems it's a lot cheaper here than Japan.

After they're done with work, took them to Segafredo at Upper Penang Road for drinks and internet access. :) Looking forward to my bed. It's been a very productive and educational day.

277. BBQ sunday

The day started with tea at Starbucks e-Gate. After which Chong, Hiromi & I proceeded to a Japanese convenience store, Meijiya along Kelawai road. Chong and Hiromi had to shop for stuff for tonite's BBQ. Since I'm there, I thought I'll buy some Japanese stuff :) I ended up with RM60+ worth of instant noodles. What can be more Japanese than that eh? :P

That's a whole lotta instant noodles

After that went over to Tesco for more shopping.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at Chong's place preparing for the BBQ and mostly just chillin.

Picked up Ando san and his entourage at 7:10pm and we headed back to Chong's place to start the BBQ proper. It was good to catch up with the rest of the guys too. Yew Peng, Tomoko, Jack, Ann, Anthony and Jia Li was there too.

Finally sent them back to their hotel at about 1ish. Spent about 2 hours watching them unpack. It's amazing what they can squeeze into their luggages.

276. What a day!

Last nite was Adrian's last nite with us before he leaves for Australia for Eva's graduation. We won't see him until the 18th. He just hung out at my place until we met Yew Peng, Anthony, Jack, Ann & Jia Li. Ah Teong joined us at Kayu too. Haven't gone out with since his accident. Good to see him on his foot again. He's still as jovial as ever.

Well, went to work as usual today. Had to make urgent deliveries to my customer again. Found out my car is leaking engine oil after the service. So had to bring it back to my mech. Yew Peng picked me up from there. We went back to his place to pick up Tomoko and then Jack. After a quick lunch, we are off to Chang Lun to meet Chong and hang out.

We reached Chang Lun and headed to Chang Lun's only mall to have a go at archery :) Not bad for a first try after several years. Managed to hit the target 72 arrows out of 72. Had loads of fun and all for only RM15 as compared with 24 arrows for RM12 in Penang. Can't wait for their paintball center to open. Now that would be fun.

Jack, Me & Yew Peng and the range


Me lining up for a shot and my first round


2nd & 3rd round

After archery we are on the way to the car when we noticed a crowd gathering at the car park in front of the mall. We took a look and found that they are renting out midget bikes for RM10 for 10mins :) Didn't feel like it, but after some persuasion from Jack and Yew Peng, decided to go for it. It was really fun, took a while to get used to it, but it was fun once I did. It really felt clumsy. Glad I went for it. Another thing off my list. :)

After all the action,we went over to the mini zoo and to our surprise, found out that Tigers can swim and like to play in the water. These are the same tigers we were playing with a year back. They are huge now. I actually took a video of the tiger leaping into the pool.

Finally reached Penang about 1am. What a day!