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.

381. HAPPY LABOUR DAY!

It's labour day tomorrow! A day for us laborers to relax :P Here's a link that explains the origin of Labour Day. So today, I get to party late into the nite as it's a public holiday tomorrow.

Spent the day just chilling at home. There's a pot luck organized by Wee & Raine. They invited the usual bunch. I was contemplating if I should stay or just go straight to Lai's place for the BBQ there. After much deliberation, decided to stay for the pot luck & then go over to KB for the BBQ. I cooked my *ahem* infamous Maggi mee goreng. Much to my delight, many approve of my culinary skills. Anyway really loved the coconut pie from Phillipines which Say Keat & Ee Lyne brought. Yummy.

The "crowd" @ the pot luck; the food

My Maggi Goreng; The Coconut pie from Phillipines

Then it's off to KB and bacon, sausages and chicken :) lovely. We end up playing baseball & soccer in Lai's backyard.

At Lai's house; Nicholas attempting to score a goal

380. Breezy day

Friday went by so fast and before I knew it, it's Saturday already. Was super busy during the first part of the day catching up on all the work that piled up while I was in S'pore.

Jack & Ann, managed to get the 12pm flight to JB, so I send them off and headed back to my office. Basically stayed till really late and spent the rest of the evening setting up my Treo to sync with my PC and playing with the new phone. It's awesome. Apart from some minor SMS issues, loved the phone, especially the display. It's just gorgeous.

Today went by rather fast too. We left the office at about 4pm. Got home and took a quick nap. Was greeted at the dinner table by my mom's infamous mutton curry! Heavenly! Then it's off to Soho with Seng, Wee & Raine to meet the usual kaki. Stayed there till 2:30am. *yawn* How time doth fly.

379. Back to Penang

Spent the past few days having ERP migration meetings in the office, meeting customers, visiting supplier's factory & also a day at the exhibition.

The fun bit of the trip was learning all the new things and seeing all the new printing technologies on display. In the evenings, we did visit a few watering holes and Sin Lim Square.

For the 2nd nite, we went over to this place called Crazy Elephant at Clarke Quey for a few drinks with Victor. I loved the place as they have a blues band playing. Have way thru, I went next door to get me some Chocolate Gelato. Yummy. After that, we stopped by Victor's friend's joint called Jupiter.

Crazy Elephant @ Clarke Quey


@Jupiter - Wee, Me, Victor & Kay

On the 3rd nite, it got interesting, our collegue took us to Chijmes for dinner & drinks. When we first arrived at the place, I thot, "Wow! look at the nice church building." I was surprised when he turned in and parked the car. Turns out that this is not a church (well, it was a convent, it was previously The Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus), it's now a trendy mix of makan place, watering hole & retail outlets. Very interesting concept. You can check out their website to see the full list of Retail and F&B outlets. Kinky. We proceeded to Balaclava after that. My bro and our collegues can really drink. Apparently there's this online publication called mumtazz that took our photos that nite.

Shot of CHIJMES


@ Balaclava with Des, Wee, CS & I (pic taken by Mumtazz photographer)

And on the final day, after we're done with the exhibition, we headed over to Sin Lim square. I wanted to check out the price of the Treo 650 to see how much cheaper it is over there compared to KL. One of the shops gave me a deal I couldn't refuse, my browsing turned purchase. I bought the limited Blue edition. It was a good deal at SGD920. I get an extra battery, screen protector, an extra stylus, a casing, a 256MB MMC Card & also a bluetooth headset. With this phone, I can finally send my old Treo 600 in for repairs.

My Treo Blue edition; Allure Sport

Once we reached the Penang Airport, I rushed over to the Duty Free shop to get my fragrance. Raine picked us up and we headed for Bah Kut Teh. Yummy, then received a call from Jack. Apparently they were suppose to fly to JB tonite, but they missed the flight. So we met up at Starbucks to share our sad stories. :)
_________________________

My Random Thots:

After a few drinks, the topic of women comes up (surprise, surprise):

Wee philosophized,"For the guys, beautiful, smart & loyal, you can have any 2 combination in a lady."

My thought for the ladies, handsome, rich and loyal, unfortunately they can only have 1 in their mate.

378. Manic Monday

So it's off to a busy start. Had to clear everything before flying off to S'pore later.

Rushed to the airport to check in at about 4:30ish. Everything going well. Raine came to see us off and while at the waiting Hall, was contemplating whether or not to buy Channel's Allure fragrance since mine's running low. Dowan to be smelling like sweat when meeting customers now do I. Tried Allure Sport, quite like it. I've been using Allure & Egoiste Platinum for a number of years now. Guess it's time for a change. I'll go over to S'pore and see if the perfumes there are any cheaper.

Touched down in S'pore and met our counterpart. Checked into our hotel (this time, at least the hotel was decent unlike the previous trip where we had to stay in Hotel 81) & had dinner at a makan place appropriately named "Chomp Chomp".

After dinner, we adjourned to Coffee Bean nearby for coffee and he briefed us on the latest development in our S'pore office and the new projects they're undertaking. Very enlightening.

377. Sick sunday

Didn't feel too well the whole day, so stayed in until later in the evening. Cannot tahan d. Have to go somewhere and do something. Even if just to go out for a drive. But decided to go watch a movie instead. Watched "The Sentinel", pretty good movie. I had a low expectation of it, thought it's the typical plot. Wrong man accused ala Harrison Ford in the Fugitive (It wasn't me! It was the one armed man, I tell u!) of planning the assasination of The President of the United States. Bla bla bla. It's nothing to shout about, but entertaining. Just the escape I needed for a boring Sunday.

Tomorrow will be a very hectic day with our flight to Singapore at 6pm. That means a full day at work and then rushing to the airport.

376. Sicker

But after a dose of 1000mg vitamin C and some sleep, feel a lot better. Adrian's house alarm was triggered and went over to check it for him. Everything is alright, so we head over to MPower to check on Chong's car.

That followed with dinner at Passion of Kerala. We're the only table there, so the service was excellent. Because we're all so hungry, I got a tad greedy and asked for more rice. I've never seen a pile of rice so high before :O even more surprising, I managed to finish it.

After that, Jack called so we head to meet him at Chef & Brew. Then it's back home for more rest.

Did managed to paint the remaining 2 layers on my helmet in the afternoon. Rather pleased with the result. :)

The final result

The reason I love this helmet; the faceplate can be lifted to become an open face helmet

_________________________

My Random Thots:

Suppose to be sound asleep now, but my blocked & runny nose is keeping me awake. It's now 430am and I'm still awake. My mind goes awandering and I figured if I don't "pen" my thots down, I'll probably forget them come morning light.

One of the reasons why I blog is to keep my memories, without which, I might as well not have lived. Lived as I may, but morality determines what kinda life I lived. Hmmmm, I wonder if I'm making sense. :P Anyway, people tell me morality is directly related to one's belief in God. I'd like to suggest that morality is directly related to how human you are. What differentiates us from other animals, some argue intelligence, others opposable thumbs, me? Morality.

For those who don't struggle with morality, congratulations! Whatever your religion advocates, be it heaven, nirvana or higher state of consciousness, you're on your way there.

In my humble life, I've been tempted many times, be it just to take a peep at the answer my neighbor has for question 5 in the exam hall, peep at a porn site and progressively serious stuff. The thing is, with every step you take towards the dark side, the next becomes easier. The question is when's the next step after which I lose my humanity and are no different from animals? Hopefully I've not cross that boundary and will never have worry about ever nearing the threshold. But only time tell and the people around me know. Is there a way to redeem points? To ammend my wrongs? To have it all forgiven......but then again by who? Perhaps therein lies the charm of religions. Miracle cure (pun intended).

MORALITY as defined by Dictionary.com

375. Sick!

Down with flu :( Well, I'm just gonna stay home and paint my helmet anyway. After a while, got bored of it and head up to Batu Ferringhi to get some DVDs and talk a walk. Hope I get well before my trip to S'pore. Hate travelling when not feeling well. Especially with the recent bird flu scare, bet people will look at me funny if I keep sneezing in the flight :D

My current project, the first coat of flat black, another 2 to go

On the way back home from office, caught this photo when I was waiting for the lights to turn green. This is typical all over Malaysia. Makes you wonder what's the use of the dumpster. I've seen people driving by and just attempting to dunk their rubbish. Guess they don't realise that they're no Michael Jordan or Larry Bird. Their dunks & 3 point throws suck big time. I bet there's more rubbish all around than actually in the dumpster. I've also seen a site near my house where there's trash all around a sign that reads, "Di larang membuang sampah di sini, denda RM500" (Do not litter here, Fine RM500). The council will come clear up the trash and put up the sign, guess what, a week later, there's a mountain of trash there. Guess as long as it's not their backyard, they'll continue to throw their rubbish there. Sigh! Malaysia Boleh!

374. My dad's b'day

It's my dad's b'day today, so we decided to have dinner to celebrate. We went over to Foong Yean at Jalan Tengah. Dunno if it's me down with flu or the food were just normal. Wasn't as good as I remembered it to be. Oh well, that was that. After dinner went back to stripping the paint off my helmet. I'm respraying it flat black. :D I just need something to occupy my free time :P

Yo! Yo! Yo! A pic of ma main man, Isaac in the car