400. X-Men III

Wee left for China today, which means his responsibility at work falls on my lap & to add to that, one of my colleague will be going on leave starting tomorrow for a week! So in the course of the next few days, I have to cover for 2 person and also make sure my customers are happy. This sounds like a job for Batman©.

After work, rushed to see X-Men III: The Final Stand with Anthony & Jia Li. It was an enjoyable show until their final showdown between The X-Men Vs The Brotherhood. The build up was good, but the ending was an anti climax, to me at least. I feel the fight scenes were corny, but then again, I guess they had to stay true to the comics. Funny, it didn't feel so corny when I was reading them comics. Perhaps time has taken it's toll on my mind. Overall it's still a good movie. If one stays long enough at the end credits, there were hints that Professor X isn't dead & Magneto's lost of powers are temporary. Perhaps Cyclops isn't dead too. Oh well, guess we'll have to wait for the 4th sequel to find out.

Popcorn bucket and drinks promotion from The Cinema

399. Deteriorating Sunday

Actually managed to crawl to church this morning. After which, just had a quick brunch and hoping to crawl back into bed. But after brunch near the church and sending Adrian home, Chong calls and asks if want to meet up at E-Gate for lunch. I took a 30mins nap and off I went.

Jack and Anthony showed up later.

Antz and Chong went upstairs to GCF designs to view some kitchen equip while the rest of us just hung out at Starbucks. Ran into Fong Yee there. She's asking me to join her cellgroup and all, but i reckon she won't be asking me that for a while after I told her my current stand on organized religion in general and all forms of religious bigotry in particular. Muah har har har har.

Chong comes back and ask to see if my car key is the original or a copy. I told him I'm using the duplicate and the originals are at home. He insists to see it. So I pass him my key chain. He takes it and returns them to me a few minutes later.........with a huge reindeer on it! Wha the! Apparently he got a souvenier from GCF in the form of a reindeer bottle opener!

After we're done with E-Gate, it's off to town to see a few more kitchen showrooms. Unfortunately, they're all closed on sundays. We ended up in Gurney plaza. We hung out a bit before 6:30pm comes around and I have to meet up with my bros for dinner at Ingolf. Looking forward to that. It's been a while since I last had good German food.

Alas, it's not meant to be. The place is fully reserved and we'd have to wait at least 30mins. Wee didn't want to wait so off we go to hunt for other places. Raine suggested we try Sea Breeze. I protested as the place is known for cheap drinks and never their food. I guess I didn't protest strong enough. Once we were there, they decided to order chinese dishes! Arrggghhhhh! Who comes to a place like this to order chinese food. As expected, the food sucked! I guess the fact that I was really hungry and sleepy isn't the most condusive environment to nurture my patience. Sheesh, thought that it was a waste of what could've been a nice nite out. From a really high expectation of having German food, we ended up with crappy chinese food.

And the fact that Michael was stripped of his pole position for alledged unsportsmanlike behavior in the Monte Carlo F1 qualifyings was another blow to my already kaputed mood. So he starts from position 20 on the grid for the race. Sigh. Though he did well to finish the race 5th.

Anyway, felt a lot better after a 10mins power nap in the car on the way home. Guess I was taking everything too seriously :P

398. House warming & B'day celebrations

We were invited to Jimbo's house warming and also to celebrate Seng's B'day. We got off work and I had sometime to change some blown fuse in my car before heading over to Jimbo's place. The traffic is horrendous. Must be the influx of out-of-towners due to the school holidays. This is the down side when u're living in the "Pearl of the Orient".

Anyway, got to Jimbo's place about 8ish and was given a house tour. Think the interior design is very well done. Especially loved the attic. :)

So basically we hung out watching the F1 qualifiers, world cup friendlies & even a James Bond movie (this is a different one from the one I saw in KL and this one is funny too). Seng & Larry was very engrossed in the World Cup friendlies in which Germany won 7-0 against Luxemburg.

The clock struck 12 and Fen brings out the cake! By now, everyone's a tad tipsy from the beers and I end up taking most of the cake....what else is new. Hey! What I lack in alcohol consumption, I make up in food intake. :P 'Twas a good evening.

Our host preparing the food; Seng, Larry & Wee looking at the live score for the World Cup match on the laptop


Seng cutting the cake while Fen looks on; The patio a.k.a smoking corner


A view of the living room from outside; This set of lights caught my attention

397. The bug zapper!

Dad bought us each a bug zapper, well, it's not really a bug zapper. It's more like an ancient chinese bug torture system. What it does is, it attracts them bugs with the really "seductive" (Hey! If the insects think they're seductive, then they are! To each their own) UV lamp. When the bug flies near the lamp, the gale force suction of the fan will suck it into a holding cell below. There, they'll be held without food/fluid/blood until they dehydrate and die. Kinky. Because I'm an insect lover, I'd much prefer the bug zapper. I think it's much more "humane" to use the bug zapper.

"The light, it's so pretty..........KAPOW!" end of story!

With this current system

"The light, it's so pretty...........whooosh!"
"Wha the! How did I end up in here?"
"Omigosh! There are carcasses everywhere! They're all shriveled up!"
"Help!!!!!! Lemme out of here!"

4 days later......
"I'm still alive, someone please save me!"

a day later......
Singing to Bananarama's Help!
"Help! I need somebody
Help! Not just anybody
Help! You know I need someone
Help!

When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
And now those days are gone, I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the door

(chorus)
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
Down down down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
'Round 'round 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Ground ground ground
Won't you please, please help me

Pete, look, I think I'm a bit toppy.
And I'm a bit bottomy, Pete.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways
My independence seems to vanish in the haze
But every now and then I feel so insecure
I know that I just need you like I've never done before

(chorus)
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
HELP!
And I do appreciate you being 'round
HELP!
Help me get my feet back on the ground
HELP!
Won't you please, please help me

They're gonna take the Bananas off 'ere aren't they ?
Yeah. They're just doing backing vocals. We're singing the medley.
Well, we better be. Otherwise there'll be trouble.
Hm, hm !

When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
And now those days are gone, I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the door

(chorus)
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
Down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
'Round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Ground
Won't you please, please help me
Help me, help me, Ooh"

Yet another day later........
Singing to Wilson Phillips' Release Me
"I know that its time for a change
Mmm but when that change comes
Will you still feel the same?

How many times have I tried to turn this love around?
I dont want to give up
But baby its time I had two feet on the ground
Can you release me
Can you release me
Now that youre gone I cant help myself from wondering
Oh, if youd have come down from your high
Would weve been all right?
Release me
Can you release me

Chorus:
Come on baby, come on baby
You knew it was time to just let go
cause we want to be free
But somehow its just not that easy
Come on darlin, hear me darlin
cause youre a waste of time for me
Im trying to make you see
That baby youve just got to release me
Release me
Release me
Im not going back to you anymore
Finally my weakened heart is healing though very slow
So stop coming around my door
cause youre not gonna find
What youre looking for

(chorus)

What is this power youve got on me
What is this power, oh
What is it,what is it

(chorus)

Release me
Will you release me
Ah...release me
Will you release me"

Finally, there's silence and the poor little bugger dies......

Damn, and all I wanted was a bug zapper!

___________________________

My Random Thots:

Before I get emails or comments telling me what a sensitive soul I am and all. And how I care so much for the wellbeing of insects and all. Lemme clarify, I'm bitter ok! I just want to have the thrill of seeing them bbqed instantly! Instant gratification I tell u! Now, I get this thing that not only tortures the bloody insects, it tortures me too. I just wanna see them burn......NOW!

396. Home Sweet Home again

Spent the day at Tony's apt, it's a beautiful place. Then headed over to 1 Utama for more shopping. Finally left KL about 8ish. Stopped by Ipoh for their infamous beansprout chicken. Yummy! Finally got home after 1am. Saw mom's sweater in the living room. It's nice to know mom's back :)

Souvenirs that mom got for me from Japan & Korea

My finger is almost fully healed after almost 4 mths. :)

395. Sepang Drag Battle

Left Penang about 12ish for KL. Went straight to the Royal Bintang hotel at The Curve. While waiting for Tony and the rest of the guys to reach KL, we went shopping at the curve. We stopped by the Sony Style store. I fell in love with the Vaio TX range of notebook. The VGN-TX27GP/B is really sexy and at 1.25Kgs including battery, it's light. Finally Sony decided to add SD card slot instead of just their propriety Memory Stick slot. Damn! Can't afford it so decide to buy some speakers for my room instead. :)

Finally, the guys arrives in KL, but unfortunately one of the cars spun off the highway in the heavy rain. Visit the them at the hospital. They were very lucky all escaped with minor injuries. We then proceed to Sepang F1 Track for the drag battle (yes, including those guys who were involved in the accident). Man, those guys are hardcore.

The car that we were there so see

What a long day!

394. Gee, a week flew by liau

It's a good thing when a week went by without me realising it. Last nite we attended a dinner organized by the Chinese Chamber or Commerce. It was the Chamber's ISO9001 certificate presentation ceremony. Of course all the big shots were there. But at RM500 pax, the food really sucked. But I guess since it's for charity, ok loe. Didn't even get to the dessert as my bros wanted to leave earlier. To cut a long story short, by the time I slept, it was already 4am.

Had to rush to clear my work this morning as I have to leave for Ipoh by 1pm for a meeting. Staying up late last nite was not a good idea and tomorrow, will be heading to KL with Jack and Ann to watch the Sepang Drag Battle Round 2.

393. Meeting day again

Stuck in the monthly meeting today. The chairperson digressed and started talking about marriage.

His thots are that the wedding vows shouldn't say, "Till death do us part!"

He say it should just say, "Can you stand staying together for the next 30yrs?"

He said the 30 yrs is not a test, the 30 yrs timeline is for the sake of the children. As long as the couple can stay together for 30 yrs, at least the children would've grown up and can take care of themselves. Then the parents can do what they want (His exact words were "they can go fly kite"). Much bitterness I sense in him. Maybe he have had some bad experience growing up. Oh well.

392. Home Sweet Home

Went for the meeting at the consultant's office, she brought her husband along in case we were gonna be notty. Heh heh. Anyway, After that for lunch with Wee and Shara, again at TGIF at The Curve. Then it's back to Penang. Mom's leaving tonite. Went for a haircut and watched F1. MSC came in 2nd, but it was an awesome race to watch. At least Ferrari is competitive again.

391. Weekend in KL

Left for KL after lunch near the office at about 1pm. while talking to Ana at lunch, realised that my driver's license will expire in a week. To think I was laughing at her for not realising her license will expire soon. We reached Prakash's house in Kelana Jaya at about 5ish. He's putting us up for the nite. Save me a couple of bucks for hotel.

Took a cab to Ikano Power Center while Wee, Raine and Ana goes to Eric's wedding. My priority for this trip is to send in my Treo to Harvey Norman for repairs and also our meeting tomorrow with our consultants.

Got to Harvey Norman and the experience was rather pleasant. The staff was really friendly and helpful. I was out of there in 5 minutes.

Met up with Jo for dinner at TGIF. The Jack Daniel's burger was excellent. Then met up with Lena and Andy for coffee at Mont Kiara. Stayed there till about midnite when Wee came to pick me up. We're off to Bo Jangles in Sri Hartamas. When we got there, I spotted this very interesting looking Volvo. Looks like the top have been chopped off and the windscreen raked back. Anyway, so we went into Bo Jangles and there was no live band playing, instead they're showing the live FA cup match.

The guys decided it wasn't happening enough and decided to go another Pub called Backyard. When we got there, there it is again! The Volvo is following us. It isn't until later that I found out that it belonged to on of our friends. After chatting with him, found out it's a limited edition Volvo 262C designed by Bertone. Only 6622 units were ever produced. Went inside the pub and the match is also showing, but the crowd is much more happening here. :) After the match (btw, liverpool won in a penalty shoot out), the band started playing. Wow! They're pretty good. Enjoyed the rest of the evening.

The classic Volvo 262C

______________________

My Random Thots:

Was telling one of the guys that I lack motivation in my life (a nice way of saying I'm lazy). He told me then I need to look at life differently. That I need to be motivated by fear. I protested that being motivated by passion is much better than fear. He insists that fear is more powerful. Think about losing your friends. Think about losing your job. Think about when you're 40 and your friends have moved up the corporate ladder and you're still stuck where you are. Hmmmmm, inspirational.

390. Suspicious Minds

Suspicious Minds
Elvis "The King" Presley
(Words & Music by Mark James)

We’re caught in a trap
I can’t walk out
Because I love you too much baby

Why can’t you see
What you’re doing to me
When you don’t believe a word I say?

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds

So, if an old friend I know
Drops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?

Here we go again
Asking where I’ve been
You can’t see these tears are real
I’m crying

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And be can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds

Oh let our love survive
Or dry the tears from your eyes
Let’s don’t let a good thing die

When honey, you know
I’ve never lied to you
Mmm yeah, yeah

Chris Daughtry sang that Elvis song on tuesday's American Idol show in which he was eliminated. Actually I was rooting for him & Katharine McPhee. Amazingly both of my choices are in the Final 4. I wonder if Katharine will win? OK, now back to the song. I hope you don't empathathize with Mr Mark James and his emotions when he wrote the lyrics to this song. It's a dark place to be.

If anyone sees this T-Shirt, pls buy it for me :)

The whole day was spent lazing around. :) Lovely holiday. Was suppose to go to Yen Chin's cellgroup meeting, but it was cancelled. So decided to just chill and had dinner at US Pizza. Had their new garlic crust pizza. Really nice. After that Yew Peng came over and we hung out for a bit before we decided to go for a drive. Drove up to Balik Pulau and then to the coastal highway. Was good and needed the "fresh" air. Gosh, now I gotta pack for my trip to KL tomorrow.

This little fella fell onto my car when I came home, my car's noise may have startled the fella

389. Pre mother's day dinner

Today is a bit of a rush to clear all paper work as tomorrow is a public holiday. We're also celebrating mother's day earlier because mom will be flying off to Japan & Korea early sunday morning, Fen will be in Muar and Raine will be in KL. So we decided to have the celebrations tonite intead. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MOTHERS. God knows the pain you've endured.

The 3 mothers

______________________________

My Random Thots:

It's actually quite hard for me to put others first before me. To put their feelings first before mine. That's the beauty of my mom. She's not a preacher, she's a doer. Guess I'm more of a preacher than a doer. Time to revamp

388. Mission Impossible: III

Finally saw the Mission Impossible: III last nite. It's been fully booked since it premiered. It was as good as the preview. Wasn't dissapointed at all. This one easily surpasses its predecessors in terms of action and plot. It's about 2hrs long but it didn't feel that long at all.

Incidently, while at Gurney Plaza for the movie, came across this Marie France slimming promotion, they're giving ppl slimming treatments in public and have slimming contests.

Picture this, "Ladies & gents, this slim & slender beauty here was a fat tub 'o lard just a few hours ago. Now lookie, she's slim. And lookie over there, more people whom we'll humiliate momentarily by parading them on this stage for all to see. Heck, we'll start by shrink wrapping them in public first! Come one, come all"

Then their spoke person appears to tell her success story, nope, Christy wasn't around.

- Info provided by ANN, paraphrased by me

After seeing their "OTHER" spokeperson (We all know & love Christy Chung - Yes, I'm shallow :P), I figured that I'll keep my shape as it's me! This reminds me of Kenny Sia's blog entry. Perhaps some bloke at Marie France saw Kenny's blog and decided that they should use a real fat celebrity that we all love and turn her into an anorexic *cough* goddess *cough*. Honestly, I think Irene looked better as she was sans this slimming treatment. Perhaps I am not shallow after all :O perhaps, there's hope for me........both my physical shape as well as my mental state. :)

Btw, Kenny's letter to OSIM even managed to get the attention of Channel V & he's also featured on Klue. That fella is making a name for himself. He should, hell of a funny guy. More info on the show is available on his blog.

Later in the day, got an invitation to visit the Church Street Pier & its marina. A friend is thinking of setting up his business there. It's really a nice place with a decent view. It seems the council have big plans for this area. Will be looking forward to it.

Shots of the pier & the marina

387. Haw Flakes

It's been a while since I last had some of these goodies. Was at a local convenience store and I saw them. Had to get them for old times sake besides I needed something to munch at the office.

386. Spectacle Sunday

Went to Georgetown Baptist Church today instead of RGBC. After church, since I'm in town already, decided to get my eyes checked. :) My optician tested my eyesight and to my surprise, my eyesight actually got better. My astigmatism was 75 but now it's down to 25 & Hyperopia is 50 on both sides. I was told I don't need the glasses unless I want to throw money away. :) Since I don't have money to throw away, figured I'll not get prescription glasses.

Got home and stayed home to clear my work...at least tried to. Went for dinner at a beef steamboat place in town beside the Waterfall Hotel. Nice place. The bacon was brilliant. The spicy soup base wasn't as spicy as it looks though. After that it's off to Starbucks again for more lepaking.

Beef soup/spicy (Mah Lat) soup steamboat; Bacon, lettuce missing tomato (wish I can bbq em)

385. UFO Sighting

According to a report in the New Straits Times yesterday, an Unidentified Flying Object was sighted in Penang by an Australian tourist. He took this grainy photo of the alleged UFO. Why is it that pictures of them UFOs, Bigfoot & lochness monster are all grainy? Anyway, anyone wanna bet that people will begin to flock to Paradise Sandy Beach Resort to verify the story and hope to maybe capture a pic for themselves. Oh, I bet there'll be an increase in the report of UFO sightings over the weekend ;) Malaysia Boleh!

After dinner, met up with Jack & Ann at Tesco before going over to Starbucks at E-Gate. Ran into Edward, Selena & family and also Marcus & gang. We were there till 11ish before we got bored of the place. Since we have to send Ann back home in town, we decided to drop by the Crepe Cottage in gurney drive. Amazingly it's still open. Unfortuntately, they're only serving the desserts. The waitress recommended the hot apple crepe. It was really good. Not too pricey too. Will definitely come back one of these days to try their main course.

The Crepe Cottage's Menu; Their hot apple dessert

Still wide awake & bored, we decided to head to the Pulau Jerejak jetty for a photoshoot with our ever willing models. We left when it started to drizzle.

Our models

384. KFC Chicken Chop


Finally had a chance to try the KFC Chicken Chop. I was busy the whole day with work and rushing around, finally at about 5pm, had a chance to eat. Even with the fact that it was my first meal of the day, the chicken chop was nothing to shout about. I can get better & cheaper chicken chop at the local coffee shop. :P I'll stick to their snack plate. This reminds me of the chicken I tried at Marybrown in BJC, also crap. Bet that place will close in the near future. The workers are rude, the place is cramped and the food tastes bland. Bleh.

383. Seng's new car

Seng took delivery of his new car last nite. Was too busy preparing for meeting at work that I didn't even realise it was parked out front until this morning when I was leaving for work. Glad that I managed to get ready for the presentation. Stayed up whole nite preparing some documents *yawn* needless to say, clouded my judgement be today. Anyway, there's a craze today about the time and date. 01:02:03:04:05:06 1:02.03am 4th May 2006. Oh well, some lady even tattooed herself and The Star newspaper even organized a contest.

Seng's babe! I think she's sexy :P Yummy

382. Secrets of Street Magic

Apparently it's a show on Astro Channel 70 Starworld about the secrets of street magic. Basically they're trying to reveal David Blaine's magic, including his infamous levitation trick. Very interesting. Even after seeing how it's done, I can't help but be amazed that one can do all that in real time in front of real audience. Can't discount the fact that it still takes extrodinary skill to fool so many pairs of eyes.

The next show is scheduled at 11am to 12noon.