432. MERDEKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Independance day! This year, didn't really feel too excited about the Merdeka celebrations. There were a few reasons for my lack of enthusiasm, one of them is because of this article in The Star (1st article at the bottom of this blog entry). Goodness, to think that Putera Umno chairman Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim declares Mat Rempits as one of the country's assets! *Sigh* Our country is going to the dogs and taking our independance with it. Bear in mind that this statement by Abdul Azeez is made 9 days after Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Kamal Pasha Jamal said to The Star newspaper that, “They (the mat rempit) don’t respect the law” (2nd article at the bottom of this blog entry). There are other instances that shows complete lack of desire (I'm trying to find the most neutral word here) to promote peace and reduce racial tension in our country by our leaders, but I shall not comment on them less my blog turns political.

The celebration that outshined the Merdeka celebrations was Seok Hong's b'day at their home last nite. Just a small get together. It was lovely to have all the close friends together for some food, fun and fiesta. It was nice after a whole day of gloomy rainy wheather. Another worthy mention is the Chocolate & Pineapple cake. Was a bit apprehensive when I heard it, but it was actually very good. Yummy.

The b'day girl & her family; The Chocolate & Pineapple cake


Chuwy & his gift (the sunglasses) for his wife; The watch we got for her

After the party, met up with Jack, Chong & Ah Loy at Pelita opposite USM. Got back about 4ish. Can't really sleep becoz I had to send Seng & Larry to the airport at 6am and also to send Aze off.

After sending Seng & Aze off, it's back home to freshen up and meeting up with the guys @ Old Town Cafe for breakfast and coffee. It's off to an unnammed location for some fun with the camera. After that we adjourned to Chong's apt for tea. We ordered pizza and watched "She's the man".

Finally got some snooze while they finished off the movie. Then it's out to Subway @ E-Gate for dinner. Ahhh, this is how a holiday should be spent! :) 2 hrs cat nap and lotsa fun with friends! :D

@ Old Town with Ann & Jack; One of my fav shots for today's photo session

ARTICLE #1

Thursday August 31st, 2006

Mat Rempits our assests, says Putera Umno head

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 2,000 Mat Rempits (bikers) roared in approval when Putera Umno chairman Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim declared them to be one of the nation's “biggest assets.”

The young motorcyclists were participating in the Putera Motor Merdeka Ride last night to celebrate the country's 49th Independence Day.

“They (Mat Rempits) are sorely misunderstood. Because of a couple of bad seeds they have been discriminated against as a bane to society,” Abdul Azees said.

“I truly believe they have the potential and excellence to become the leaders of tomorrow. All they need is a chance to prove society wrong.”

The majority of the participants, when interviewed, couldn't agree more with Abdul Azeez 's statements.

“We are viewed as a menace because of our love for riding. It is very unfair to us,” said Md Fikri Abdullah, 18, who aspires to be a teacher.

The patriotic riders, most of whom were waving the Jalur Gemilang, were flagged off at Jalan Kampung Attap and made their way to the National Mosque and adjourned later to Merdeka Square with Abdul Azeez leading the convoy on his scooter.

The event also saw a flag presentation and a reading of vows at midnight to Federal Territories Minister Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique at the square as a show of the participants' patriotism and promise to serve society.

ARTICLE #2

Tuesday August 22nd, 2006

Cops ready to slam the brakes on illegal street racers

KUALA LUMPUR: The police will come down hard on the mat rempit (a colloquial Malay term for illegal street racers) as these so-called daredevils are a menace to other road users and a nuisance to the public.

Choosing to do their races at night, these mat rempit often show off their stunts with a variety of antics – like riding on one wheel, stretching both hands forwards while lying on the seat – as they speed through the streets and, sometimes, even through thick traffic.

The race is often flagged off by one of their groupies – female fans who follow them on their circuits – and the prize is often also a girl, if cash is short.

“They don’t respect the law,” Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Kamal Pasha Jamal say yesterday.

“They make illegal U-turns and drive in the opposite direction, against oncoming traffic.

“They also beat traffic lights and are even involved in snatch thefts.”

Citing a recent case, ACP Kamal Pasha said several illegal racers assaulted a policewoman on her way to work when she got involved in a minor accident involving some mat rempit.

“This is uncalled for. They are becoming wild,” he said, adding that the police would be carrying out an operation soon to rid the streets of illegal racers.

431. Changes

Chuwy & Jack will be leaving Penang soon. Chuwy will be heading for greener pastures that is KL & Jack is starting work back in his hometown of Changlun. Sigh, I need to find new lunch partner and also someone to roam around town at nite with. On a more positive note, guess I'll have a free place to bunk when I go KL or up north.

Bee Hong is in Penang with her hubby and baby. They dropped by my place so that we can catch up. After that, went over to Subbaidah for supper with Azelia, her bro and gang. While having supper, she had the bright idea of going round Penang island. So round Penang Island we did. That's the first time I went round Penang island in a convertible. It was a beautiful nite/morning for a drive. :)

While @ Subbaidah, Taman Perkaka; Eeeee, wat's dat?!?


My topless ride; A very happy driver

Dad, Mom & Seng will be flying off to Hong Kong tomolo. So it's up to Wee & I to take care of the house. Hmmmm. Too many changes happening at once. The drive round Penang island was a good way to clear some of the anxiety.

430. Monday *sigh*

Crappy day to be working. Had a headache the whole day, decided to leave work slightly earlier and get some rest. After dinner the guys came over to my place to chill. The few panadols I took didn't help. Arggghhhhh!

429. Just wanna sleep in

But that's not to be. Went to One Stop with Chong. Jack came by to pick us up from One Stop over to Carnation in Gurney Drive to have Bah Kut Teh with Tony. Tony's heading back to KL after breakfast.

We set off to Gurney Plaza & then Island Plaza. After all the walking around, we decided to chill at Old Town in E-Gate. Sally invited me over to their place for dinner. Wanted to get back home and take a nap before I head over to their place. Decided against it as I might oversleep. :)

The host by the BBQ pit, which is incidently where I spent most of my time


The abundance of food (this is only part of it)


Me doing wat my mama told me not to; The octopus' beak, I shud be a surgeon (after I overcome my hemoglobinophobia)

Dinner was good, had a good time mingling with the crowd. Was very intrigued with the octopus. I played around with it a bit. Disected it. It's been a while since I had a bbq over at my place. Perhaps I should organize one soon. Anyway, after dinner, it's off to the Ikan Bakar place besides Chong's apt. Chong, Jack & Ann is having their supper there.

428. Another weekend!

Gosh another week has flown by! My my my, how time doth fly when you're having fun. Basically another fast paced week. A good balance between work and fun though. Nothing significant happened.

Chong's finally back and brought back with him lotsa goodies and his return also means I handover the ownership of the toy pistol. Sigh, I'll miss it.

Went for a drive last nite, that was fun :) The newly paved roads are just wonderful to drive on. Better take advantage of it while it's still "virgin".

Finally went for Brazillian Cuisine @ 68 Kelawai Road. The food isn't anything to shout about. In fact, I think it's way overpriced for crappy food. I wasn't very impressed. After dinner it's off to Flix to meet up with Tony. He's drove up from KL.

Some of the food at 68; The guys

Really poofed d.

427. Ahhh Weekend!

Had dinner with Ling @ Jurin to celebrate her new job in KL as she'll be leaving next week d. After dinner we head to Haagen Daaz to meet with Chuwy, Chuang and their respective families. It was a nice evening after receiving some really bad news earlier in the evening.

426. The Break-Up

After a long week of staying back late at work and all, decided to take a break yesterday evening and went for a movie. We watched The Break-Up. It's a romantic comedy with a very interesting beginning. The show starts with Gary (Vaughn) hitting on Brooke (Aniston) at a ball game. Then jumps to the actual start of the show. They're together already and the show jumps to how he takes her for granted and she just keeps it bottled in until one day, she kablooie. Then bla bla bla, they break up. Then the mind games phase begins.

So do they actually still have feelings for each other? How did the movie end? Well, guess you'll have to watch it yourself. Don't want to spoil it.....in case any of you wanna watch it. Sad truth, I can identify with the movie. Most parts of the movie feels like my past played out on the big screen. Kinky. Learnt a thing or two. Better late than never eh. Oh well, here's to less break ups in the world :P Bah! What's so bad about break ups anyway? It's a good thing if you think about it. *Flame suit on*

PS: There's a lot of things to see on their official website.

425. Weekly Report

The week start as usual. Back to the kandang. Had to prepare for a customer visit on friday. It's a very important visit as it'll determine the volume of business we'll get from this customer. Glad it turned out very well.

To keep it short and sweet, Couldn't get tickets to Fourplay's concert! Basically managed to get my toy gun (technically it's Chong's, my one is still in transit), so I get to play with it first. Heh heh. Also managed to get my new roller bag. Not gonna complain too much, like the fact that it has many compartments and a built in combination lock.

Went for a drive to release steam on saturday nite to Teluk Bahang. On the way, we stopped for a while. Took the opportunity to snap a few shots.

D1 Grand Prix Malaysia is happening this weekend (12th & 13th Aug), but I didn't go as didn't feel like squeezing with the crowd. I would've gone if we had some kinda special arrangements, but that didn't happen. End up with a trip to Gurney with my bros, also met Lai, Nicholas & Adrian there. Took many photos of Ruyi & Isaac while on the way there. Both Ruyi & Isaac stuck their tongue at me. According to their parents, they don't do that often. They claim it's me. I'd like to argue that notion, but then again, I do remember getting the same reaction from members of the opposite sex. Hmmmmmm......

Then it's back home for dinner to celebrate my dad's b'day....well, it's his lunar calendar b'day (it's a tad complicated to explain). After the celebrations, it's time to get back to work.

Me brandishing my toy piece; My new roller bag (now I need to find someplace to go)


A shot of Batu Ferringhi


I've gotten these reactions from women far too many times


I've gotten these reactions from women too. "So how's the wheather, Ms X?" "Zzzzzzzzzzz"

___________________________

My Random Thots:

A little of my thots on the current state of the world.

Stolen from MSNBC's site

JERUSALEM - After a stormy debate Sunday, Israel’s Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to silence the army’s guns in less than 24 hours. The Israeli military embarked on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas, rocketing south Beirut with at least 20 missiles.

Hmmm, If the ceasefire were sincere, would the Israeli rush to send out as many "presents" as they can before the deadline expires on 8am on Monday. And the UN, what about the UN huh? They're really taking diplomacy to the next level......and that's not always a good thing. Too much talk while the bombs keep dropping. Well, I guess as long as the bombs aren't dropped on the people that controls UN (or rather as long as the bombs aren't dropped on those that has UN by the balls), bombs away!

Also stolen from MSNBC's site

ATLANTA - Loads of liquid goods discarded by airline passengers at security checkpoints will end up in the trash, not in the pockets of airport employees or others, officials at airports across the country promised Friday.

No exceptions — not even for cases of Napa Valley wine.

"We had people throw away a whole case of wine, or try to drink their wine in line," said San Francisco's International Airport duty manager Lily Wang.

U know, with the threat of terrorism on the airline industry, I thot up a win win solution :) I say we send all the confiscated liquid and gel and donate them to the needy. Kinda like a collection drive, the only difference is this time around, it'll be branded & good stuff that people actually can use.

Then I remembered the beer, wine & liquor that ppl buy at the duty free! Never fear, I'll fly my bros (err, I mean people I know who drinks a lot) to Heathrow (and all other airports affected) and let them stay there for a bit. I'm sure they'd be happy to guzzle up them contrabands! Selfish? Hardly! It's selfless of them to put themselves in harms way for our safety. Allow me to elaborate. All the drinkers can act as "sniffer dogs" too. The moment they detect liquid that's non alcoholic, they'll alert the authorities. Problem solved, all from "volunteers" workers too.

Cost: Minimal to none.
Disaster averted: Priceless!

OK, enough rambling, back to reality.

424. Back to the kandang

Got back from Hatyai today. We shopped a bit, but I only bought a work bag and a toy pistol. I brought the bag back, but the pistol will be shipped to me later. I forgot to look for a luggage bag, darn! We had a lot of fun chillin and Ah Soon who works in Hatyai joined us later. Oh, and the massage there was really cheap and good! 240baht for one and a half hours in a fancy facility. Surprisingly, this place also serves women. Gee, I really must do this again. :) Oh! We had lunch at KFC at Yippie's request. He wanted to try their Spicy Chicken Rice. It looked pretty good on their promo posters, so all of us ordered it. The first thing we noticed when it was served was it smells funny, kinda like something has gone bad. After tasting it, it was confirmed that something went bad. After getting used to the smell and taste, it was pretty ok, tolerable I guess. Their popcorn chicken however, is much tastier than what we have here in Malaysia.

Us; My 400Baht Bag


This is Thailand's KFC Spicy Chicken Rice, smells & tastes funny

Hiromi gave birth at 6:15am this morning. Chong's a father now!!!! :) He's as happy as any father would be and sent out photos of his bundle of joy.

Chong's bundle of joy!

Later in the evening, finally went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Well, it's a long movie (2hrs 30mis & I don't understand how it can get a U rating), but I think because my expectations were really high after all the good reviews, to me it was OK only. There were some parts that I thought were a bit much. Anyway, overall, it was good. I think if I went in with lower expectations, I would've been very very entertained. Anyway, while at the movie, Chuwy and I felt a bit odd, all around us, there were couples and I'm not talking about just for Pirates, I'm talking about the whole cinema. It's like bring-a-date-for-movie day. Even when buying tickets, the girl asked if I wanted a couple seat. Maybe I'm just a bit too concious about myself. Anyway, it's nice to see all the couples so happy together. Everyone deserves to be happy. I do wonder how many are just happy at that moment only, hiding the pain inside. Oh well, shouldn't be one of my worries. I have my own life to live. :)

423. Hatyai again!

Was stuck in a massive jam on the way to make a delivery to my customer's place in Bayan Lepas. All in all, was probably stuck for 3 hrs. Sheesh, what a waste of time. After that, it's off to supper at Subway with Chong, Jack and Loy. Really looking forward to my break tomorrow. Will be rushing home after work and then Jack will pick me up and off we go to Hatyai.

422. Another fun filled weekend

29th July - Sat

It's Chuwy's b'day! So we're off to celebrate it at Evergreen. But first, I have to get his b'day present. Bought some Christian CDs from Salvation. Haven't walked into that shop in ages. Decided to buy a VCD for Sean and Sophia as well. Also bought a few DVDs. Then it's off to MPH Gurney Plaza to get my Japanese for Dummies. Ran into Mook San and Lee Choo as well as Chuang and Niki. Guess everyone is on last minute shopping. :) After that, it's off to Evergreen Laurel Hotel. The dinner and celebrations were delightful. After that, it's off to KB for tuning.

The dummies boxed set which I bought; Sophia is such a sweet heart


The b'day boy and his lovely family


Before & After the buffet (Note my tummy)

30th July - Sun

Woke up and had breakfast with Chong, Ando San and Jack. Finally had my Subway! After that it's off to Kuala Kedah Jetty to pick up Yippie and Tomoko. Tomoko was sea sick on the way from Penang to Langkawi, so Yippie figured the trip to Kuala Kedah was shorter. The wheather wasn't on their side, it was pouring so the sea was rougher than normal. We stopped by KB for wan tan mee before heading back to Penang.

The view from the Kuala Kedah Jetty while waiting for Yippie

31st July - Mon

It's Chong's b'day, after we're done at the workshop, we headed to Golden BBQ steamboat to celebrate Chong's b'day. After stuffing ourselves silly, we head to Grand Bay to complete the celebrations. Oh, Chuwy threw in his resignation letter and will be heading to greener pastures.

Jack & Chong tossing the ball around while waiting for the cars to be ready


Shots taken while at the workshop; Our workshop's boss' son


Chong showing off his b'day cake

2nd Aug - Wednesday

Ando san will be leaving this evening. So met Chong and him for lunch at May Fong for their infamous Chicken Koay Teow, then sent him to Midlands for him to shop for DVDs while I get back to work. After work, Yippie and I went back to One Stop to pick him up. While waiting for him, Yippie sent his car for a wash while I shopped for shoes. Got myself a pair after seeing it on sale. I was gonna hang on to my previous shoe and shop for a proper one later, but a recent baseball accident ripped my shoes. So can't postpone the purchase any longer. Dinner was with the guys at Sriwan @ Crystal Point before sending Ando San to the airport.

After that it's off to Chong's house to "freshen" up before we head to Flix for their beach party!!! I was a tad overdressed though. Ran into Raine and her gang there. Ana and Prakash decided to join us at Flix for a while, while the rest went back.

My new shoe; Flix beach party


Chong & I (the sunglasses is so that I blend in); Felicia & I (Me trying hard to blend in with the beach wear theme)