Hold That Thought

Random Crappy Post

2010-02-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Just read the writings of a distant friend. She has such great skill in making up sentences that just feels right. Best of all, she uses simple words. Words that stirs your emotion when put together in a correct situation. Words that made me envy her talent. Words that are probably the reason I blogged lesser and lesser because I just can't write. Sigh... I hardly have a post where I can look back and say, well written, I'm so proud of you while looking at the mirror.

Three more days! That's how long I need to wait before I'll be back to my beautiful little island where I call home. Days are longer, especially during work time because all I could think of is the good food and fabulous company that I'll get to enjoy soon. BONUS! another topic heatedly discussed amongst the colleagues. There's a possibility that I'll get just a fraction of what the seniors are getting because I've not been there for more than a year. Sigh... but a least there is something right? I should be grateful then. All I need now is a little more greens for my CNY clothes. Yup, that's right, I haven't been doing any shopping and I'm thinking of just skipping the idea of buying new clothes as I'll be doing lesser visits this year. Save me all the fuss in getting the right size and design urgghh... that's what you get for being a +size haha... oh well I'm just to lazy to continue on. Will blog again when inspiration taps on me shoulder. Till then, Happy Chinese New Year everyone! ROAR!!!

Culinary Indulgence

2010-01-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

I figured might as well blog about something while I wait for the bleach to remove the curry stains off my white pants. Clumsy me dropped a nibble roti canai on to my pants. Has been ages, or so it seems, since I had my last roti canai. Cravings, urgh... why does it have to be the strongest during late nights. The thought of having freshly tossed dough lightly fried over a dollop of aromatic ghee then topped with piping hot curry made from freshly pounded chillies and grounded spices proved to be impossible to resist (I don't really fancy dhal). I guess that's the downside. I have way too high of an expectation that the real thing ended up tasting like a piece kitchen cloth. That was last night. Today, I succumb to yet another temptation... Bak Kut Teh. I had it for lunch and dinner. I know, the horror. I liked to treat myself to these sinful indulgence especially during my off days and guess what, I got three of them this week. I'll probably feel trice as guilty. I'm skipping supper today cause I've already planned out my menu for tomorrow's dinner. I kid you not...

Appetizers

Meatballs Cooked with Leffe Brune

Saute Mushrooms

Bacon Wrapped Cocktail Sausages

Bacon Strips

Belgium Sausage Platter

Main Courses

Moules Provencales

Brussels Style Pork Knuckle

Grilled Porkloin

Spaghetti Carbonara

*All items listed are subjected to changes without prior notification

I'll probably wolf down all of these with a pint of Hoegaarden. Perfect for a humid night. Of course I'm not having all of these by myself although I secretly wish to, only and if only I have super fast metabolism, sigh... Pictures will be up by tomorrow if I'm not feeling lazy caused by over digestion. Anyway, it's time for breakfast. As Julia Child would say, Bon Appetit!

Car Beautification Project

2010-01-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

NOoooOOoooo... My budget for lunch today was RM5 which I didn't manage to keep in range because I overspent by RM1. I was actually quite proud not t0 spend over RM10 cause I've always indulge in junk food after eating er... proper food, but guess what? On the way to the bank, I spent RM80 on this...

TOTAL DAMAGE: RM86!!! WAY............... OVER BUDGET

I've been wanting to give my car an uplift in appearance lately but but... MONEY NO ENOUGH!!! So when this guy came to me to demo his product I wasn't too interested, but got a bit lah... Then he sprayed this substance on my window despite me telling him not to and that's how I got con. Haha... Well, to be fair the products were quite good (I witness him demo okay!) and mum has been bugging me to buy those spray that makes the windscreen water-repellent during heavy rains. So I bought that. Then he came up with another product that claims to wipe off scratch marks. Same thing... was bought over after demo sigh... then another one which makes rubber, leather and etc... looks perfectly new and function like it was new lol... and it worked cause after another demo my windscreen wiper did not give out that annoying screech, that makes me wanna smash ma windscreen, when I turn it on, even without water! The End! Ya right. After paying I thought to myself what a hassle free shopping until I realized that there's this small dent in front of my car that had been there for like FOREVER!!! What's the point of buying these products then. Haiz... now if I wanna beautify my car I have to spend another half thousand fixing that dent and maybe more to coat my car with a new paint job. Geezus... Should I just ignore that dent, live in denial and pretend it is brand new or should I face the devil straight on and offer him some cash to burn in return for beauty :) I'm still talking about my car lah..

2009/2010

2010-01-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

Hi all. It's already halfway through the first month of 2010 and I still haven't make any customary post on the summary of the previous year and my new year resolutions so I'm going to do it now! I remember that I wanted to share with you guys some of my new year resolutions last year but I didn't get about to do it because I forgot to do so after postponing my plan haha... Last year, my 2 most important resolutions was somewhat fulfilled. First was to graduate with honors and the second one was, like more than half of the world's population, to lose weight. To be honest, losing weight has been my resolution for umpteen years, so I wasn't too hopeful for it to be achieved but thanks to internship, I lost more than what I'd bargained for. Sadly though, I'm slowly gaining back some pounds yikes. Discipline Ivan! Discipline! As a follow up to 2009, I shall present to you some of my 2010 resolutions.

1. Lose 10 kgs by July. (Approximately 1.5 kgs per month)

Meaning I'll have to slowly cut down on supper, carbonated drinks, carbohydrates and get involve in some physical activities.

2. Start cooking again at least 1 new dish a week. (Starting February)

I'm guilty of abandoning the kitchen for one whole year and I'm missing the pleasure of cooking a wholesome dish. After watching Julie & Julia, I'm inspired once again so here goes 48 weeks and 48 recipes, a guy and a moderate condo kitchen. How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait... The Ivan/Julia project. Coming soon to a computer terminal near you:) Okay I don't think I'll have enough money to buy Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" so I'll just grab any recipe which I'm interested in cooking aite?

3. Take more photos to capture precious moments of 2010.

Easy peasy. This means more camho session and of course I need to remember to bring along my camera everywhere I go if possible. I'm seriously in need of decent pictures of myself haha... and of course with my besties and family. Which brings me to my next resolution.

4. Strengthen bond with friends and family.

Different goals leads us to different places but I believe when it all comes crashing down on us we need something familiar to hold on to. I hope we all could be rocks to each other in the midst of a mighty river.

5. Settle on with a stable job.

Hopefully I'll be able to make up my mind by February. Get a good paying 5 days a week job with flexible hours and out of the world benefits. WAKE UP IVAN! WAKE UP! *snort back to reality* *falls back asleep*

6. Blog at least once a week.

To keep my dear readers (my friends la) happy and up to date on what's going on in my life and also as a diary for future nostalgic moments.

7. Continue with MBA (maybe)

If I have the $$$ and if by doing so will improve my opportunity to advance higher up in my career, then I'll most probably do it. Just maybe not this year.

I'll end this entry with a some cherished of moments in 2009;

The first half of the year was all about my life as a Hilton... I mean working in Hilton

Graduated in August. One of the proudest moment in my life so far I guess.

Finally a successful road trip. Destination, Malacca. The best part, conversation on our way back.

My 23rd Birthday :) Thank you all for making 2009 such a memorable year.

Migrate

2009-12-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

It's been exactly a month since I posted my last entry. Frankly, I don't feel like posting up anything but I'm sensing a bit of guilt for abandoning this blog for far too long. Any longer I would have given up on blogging again hah... So a lot has happened during the last month. Celebrated my 23rd birthday, getting a confirmation on my job and earning myself a battle scar on my left hand haha... that's what one of the psycho chef in my working place calls it. I accidentally slit my hand if you're wondering and no it's not on the wrist. Christmas is on the way but sadly I'll not be home to celebrate. Work, work, work... I'm really getting tired of the idea on working while everyone's enjoying quality time with their friends and family. I guess it's expected of those working in the service industry. Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. I miss my freedom and I also miss breakfast. Sigh... another year passing by so what have I accomplish? I'll leave that for my next post.

On another note, you know how some birds migrate to warmer places during winter.. well, in my case, December is like a migratory period for me. Unlike the birds which have a certain place to migrate to, I have to find a new one every year since the last 2 years. It's like a ritual and this ritual can be a stick in the ass. First, I need to find a way to move my ever expanding collection of junk and second I need to actually get a place so that I can move all those junk in, me included. Seems like a simple two step ritual right? Wrong! If you get this two steps screwed up you're heading straight to the bottomless fiery pit of hell... or the roadside. I'll leave you guys here while I continue to drown in my list of countless things to worry about before the year ends. TTYL.

Yearning

2009-11-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

Life has been gloomy this past week. I guess I can blame it on the weather but I actually find the equally gloomy weather comforting. I can't say the same for the part about my life though because it felt as if there is lack of something that completes me. I don't think being single is the cause of it either if that's what you're thinking hah! Sometimes I think about the future and the things that I want to own, the goals that I set and then I pause and ask myself so what if I've got'em all? Will it really fulfill this little void that I'm feeling inside? I remember when I was younger, owning a Playstation was the best thing that could happen to me. Once in a while I would spend time after school in a little shop in KOMTAR renting Playstation by the hour with a couple of friends until one fine day when I saved enough for my very own machine. It was the happiest moment of my life, back then, but guess what, the feeling lasted only a few days and then life goes on. You may think that a Playstation is just a small object but for a teenager that has no other goals than to play King of Fighters every hour of the day, it's a dream come true. Of course I've grown and so has my dreams and goals but the fact is, at the end, the satisfaction that you get out of achieving your current goals is just the same or maybe less because we'll eventually grow out of it and then the next obsession comes along. So how do I fill this emptiness inside? Have you ever asked yourself what's your purpose? I do, but I hope I won't have to soon.

Style or Substance

2009-10-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in a situation where you think that you are the most capable amongst the crowd for a position yet you are bound by "social etiquette" from voicing it out in fear that you'll be deemed as a snob or that you are full of yourself? The situation is worse when you live in a society that value style over substance. When a person in charge decides to go for someone with style over someone with substance for a specific task, what should the person with substance do? To make things relevant, I'll equate style with looks and substance with knowledge. I'll further define looks as a person who possess the perfect character and fits into the typical stereotype of how a person of a certain profession should look like eg. IT engineers should be serious and their looks should more on the nerdy side. Then there is the knowledgeable one who happens to possess the skills and proficiency to fully execute the task. I know there are those who happened to be blessed with both, lucky them, but I'll draw a line just so we don't make things complicated. What I'm trying to say is that people with style gets it easy with life. Others tend to trust them more and thinks that they are a much suitable candidate simply because most people judge a book by it's cover. Of course it's not their fault that they happen to have style but people with substance should be given a chance to compete therefore they should not be afraid or feel guilty to speak out or volunteer to lead the pack. Be warned though, your confidence will come with a price because as I said, people tend to judge you by the skin therefore even with sufficient knowledge you'll have to walk the extra mile to prove your capabilities and to shut down the naysayers.

I'm back to blogging again albeit a couple of days late because of work. I was supposed to be off yesterday but someone changed the schedule and forgotten to inform me. How convenient. I ended up being late for an hour but lucky for me, it was not a busy day and they could've been able to carry on without my presence lol... Anyway, just wanna post something up for the sake of posting something hence I shall end here as I'm suppose to be working double shifts tomorrow. Sigh.. BTW I'm currently following a series that I think you would find interesting...

GLEE... drama, comedy, dance, musical. It puts High School Musical to shame.

The cast of GLEE

My favorite line from this series thus far... It' not easy to break out from your comfort zone. People will tear you down and tell you that you shouldn't have bothered in the first place but let me tell you something, there's not much of a difference between a stadium full of cheering fans and an angry crowd screaming abuse at you. They are both just making a lot of noise. How you take it, is up to you. Convince yourself they are cheering for you. You do that and someday, they will.

PS. Play featured video for the trailer of GLEE

Preparations For The Future

2009-10-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hello world! I've just got back my mood for blogging. Nothing much worth mentioning happened to me for the past few weeks except for some minor drama at work. Typical sore losers who try to make people's life miserable because they can't bare to see other's success. Anyway, it's already October, meaning that the year is coming to an end soon. Really freaky how time went by so fast. I remember it wasn't the case when we were in highschool. Back then, every class seems like a century and a year seems like forever or maybe because maths and science subjects have the ability to slow down my perception on time lol... I know its a bit too early for new year resolutions but I want 2010 to be a fruitful year not just because it the year of the tiger (Tigers rule!!!), but because 2009 is like a year of "preparations" for me. Sort of like getting myself into shape literally and figuratively to achieve something. Therefore, next year I would like to see myself putting more effort into making things happen. So before the curtains close on 2009, I must forge ahead with the "preparations" as I anticipate the start of a new year.

On another note, two of my housemates had confirmed that they will be moving out by the end of this year because they will no longer be studying in the same institution. This means that I'll be bidding farewell to another familiar element in my life soon. Time to scout for a new crib! I already have several potential hotspot at sight and I sure hope that at least some of my amigos are gonna live together this time *insert hopeful look*. Anyway, the following pictures are taken from a website which features a unit for rent with a good location and a fair price. I can almost hear it say my name haha...

Speaking of me amigos, I'm excited that TSP is finally back to Malaysian shores. Hope to see you soon! The sooner the better. I'll keep this entry a short one because I'll be signing in for work extra early tomorrow. Preparing for a minor pre-function evening cocktail. Will probably post another entry by tomorrow or the day after.

Creepy Crawler

2009-09-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

Hey all. I've been pretty reluctant to blog these few days. Had been taken on a bumpy ride during work. One day you feel like you belong then it could be the opposite the next day. A lot had happened since my last post which leads to the always frustrating question of where should I start? Okay, since I've started on the topic of work, I shall share with you a good news or rather a bad news... Well, it depends on how you see it. I received my first unofficial paycheck from my current job! Great news right? Here comes the bad part, I'm not entitled for service points this month as I worked less than 12 days. To make things worst, I'm getting paid till the 25th of Aug only because that's their 'pay period' or what ever they call it which means I'm only getting 6 days worth of salary without service points! Ah well, at least its still a 3 figure lol... Guess I'll have to wait till the 25th of September for my first official paycheck. If you are wondering about the date, I think the cheque was issued on the 31st but I just got them 3 days ago and I still can't seem to find the time to cash them

So now that I've got some greens with me, I was thinking of getting myself something useful. Something that I was more determined to get after the last couple of days. Okay, why don't I tell you what happened the last couple of days. So here's how the story goes, it was during a night when I went for my bath leaving my room door wide opened which I seldom do, I don't know why. When I got out from shower, I could sense something was not quite right but I was too tired to bother. That night when I was lying on my bed about to drift off to la la land, I heard it. It was a faint squeaking sound. I thought for a moment and decided that it was impossible as I'm living on the 5th floor and with that logic, I fell into slumber. During the second night when I was busy surfing through the net, I heard it again. This time I went on a "witch hunt" leaving no shells unturned but yet I could not find 'the thing' I was looking for. I gave up after spending quite sometime, also because I had to answer nature's call. It was then when I opened my door I saw 'the thing' making a dash for the exit. It was so fast that I only managed to catch a shadowy glimpse of it heading towards the darkness of my unlit kitchen. I had to rudely decline mother nature's invitation for supper to continue my "witch hunt" in the kitchen. I equipped myself with a broom, ironically since I was suppose to be on a witch hunt not a witch run. Anyway, I started sweeping the entire surface area beneath every cupboards and tiny spaces that 'the thing' could have called a safe haven but to no avail. By then I thought to myself that it could have been hiding in a hole on the wall that I didn't know existed and there could be more of them. It was then that I spotted that one place that I didn't bother to move, simply because it was disgusting (that I blame it on an individual who failed every ISO cleanliness test ever to exist in the world). It was the maggot infested rubbish bin. I thought to myself that 'the thing' wouldn't dare mock me would it? I mean here I am basically trying to sweep it's guts out with my broom and all it could think of is getting some snacks? Well I shook the pathetic bin anyways just to be sure that I've covered the last known spot to me and behold, 'the thing' was finally spotted. It was squeaking while crawling very fast with it's head tilted upwards. I was too shocked to even find my voice let alone shattering glasses with a high pitch scream simply because it was the biggest frigging HOUSE LIZARD that I've ever saw in my life! It was even a wonder that I managed to gather thoughts such as, what the fuck is wrong with this world? I thought mice squeaks but a squeaking lizard? Since when did this evolution took place? Has too much American Idol turned this hopeful house lizards into some sort of reptilian sopranos? Nevertheless, I was glad it was not what I thought it was though it has caused a development of cleanliness paranoia to a certain degree hence the requirement to buy something as useful as a vacuum cleaner to suck up every speckle of dust in my room. Ah... what a great excuse for wanting to be lazy haha... I'm planning to use my RM 150 voucher that I obtained from PC Fair to buy this vacuum but I'm still in a dilemma as I initially wanted to purchase a spare battery for my camera.

Shall I be practical and go with the purchase of the vacuum?

Or should I purchase backups for camho session?

I can't help but to feel that working life is slowly domesticating me.

Life Goes On

2009-09-02T03:30:00.000-07:00

I do not dare to sleep even when it's 3 am already because I fear that I'll be drowsy later in my shift tomorrow (which is later today). So today (as in yesterday lol) was my off day and not wanting to waste the day away, I decided to go somewhere different for dinner. TTDI was where I ended up and lo, I found a Ramadan Bazaar. Banana leave was why I headed to TTDI but since I initially intended to go for these bazaars with some friends, I went ahead alone lol... Was quite a waste though as I didn't take my cam along. The first aroma that reaches my nostrils were Ayam Goreng Berempah and Murtabak which was at an insane price of RM10 but still selling. Wanted to buy the Briyani Johor but the queue was so long and I was already getting hungrier by the moment so I bought some piping hot chicken samosas instead. As I went along, I told myself not to spend too much like I always did in SS2 Pasar Malam. With that in mind, I went hunting for "finger foods" which was obviously cheaper but it was soon proven to be a failed strategy. The smaller the food, the more I need to fill in a big cosmic gap in my stomach and the tendency to go for varieties ended up burning another hole in my pocket. Not wanting to go home yet, I declare my own buka puasa in my own car which now smells like fish cake because of some Otak Muar grrr...

Went to the 'Pentagon of Entertainment' aka Ikea-Curve-Ikano-Cineleisure-Tesco combo for some walk kononya to burn some calories but ended up eating ice creams, tea eggs and an unidentified ex-flying object (Okay fine it's chicken but it has been mutilated so badly that it's unrecognizable. To prove my point, they called it dogs, hotdogs!!!). Wanted to watch Up but decided not to after the total damage received in the Ramadan Bazaar so I went scouting for The Library just to have a look at the interior. For those who don't know, this is no place for academia unless you are here to execute some "research" for your F&B project *winks*. When I got to the front I was quite astonished by the posh entrance (At this moment, while typing, I just realized I could have used my mobile to capture all the pictures). Slightly dismayed with the display of fake books which has the same cover printed over and over again but at least they made it looked like real books protruding from a REAL shelf instead to some fake posters of book shelfs *cough*official photographer of graduation*cough* I didn't go in because there was a host in front and I obviously didn't look like I was there for a drink with my Tesco plastic bags with me. Nevertheless, I still managed to get a glimpse or two of the interior and boy it was plush. I know if I have a house, I want it to have that kind of ambience or at least part of the house. I imagine it's the perfect hangout place. I'll put it in my to go list lol...

As for my work, the ever permanent 5 to 2 shift is as sucky as it can get. Working in F&B line is already a tough thing. It demands a lot but when you work at a constant 5 to 2 shift, it means total destruction of your social life which makes it double as hard since you are practically working when other people are free and trust me when I say that the odd hours of freedom you have is basically... uhmm... unpractical? Then again, I'm getting use to it which is scary cause I don't want to arghh... Sometimes when I see those seniors who comes back to the working place even when it's their off days, you get the idea... I'm like go get a life! As much as one has to be devoted to their work, I really believe you need to have a balance of social life. It's easier when one gets to go back to their family or friends but unfortunately I'm not that fortunate haha... I started my work with all my housemates on holiday, except for one which I occasionally spew some words to like okay, thanks, never mind and other words that does not need the usage of my brain neurons. To make things worse, I'm not exactly a morning person (meaning to say I rarely do social activities in the morning) so when I wake up at 2 or 3pm I check the news and proceed with some miscellaneous stuffs before getting ready for work. It's becoming a routine. Oh well, seems like I need plan B. Do I have one? We'll just have to wait and see.

The End

2009-08-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

It is finally over. I don't know how to summarize the whole feeling. Maybe it's a bit of sadness, happiness, anxiousness and dunno what other shit mixed together in one melting pot and KABOOM... that's my graduation. The rehearsal bored the hell out of me that's for sure but other than that, I felt that everything went on too fast. The time we get to say our goodbyes and to savour the moment was insufficient. At some point, it almost felt like the whole ceremony was to mark the end of my life. Ironically, in some places, graduation is also known as the commencement ceremony. The name itself should give you an idea that it is to mark the beginning of something, likely the start of a new life. I guess in my case, it should be a bit of both. Even though moving on can sometimes be a pain in the ass, I'm glad that I'm able to end this chapter of my life with a happy note. I'm thankful to achieve what I had achieved but I know in weeks to come, everything will soon be forgotten hence I shall not rest on my laurels. It's time to focus on my future.

My baby. I shall try not to sleep with it.

Speaking of the future, I have to admit that I was quite worried about being able to achieve my goals and to secure my desired career until recently. I remember those days in primary school I would fantasize about being an engineer. Well I kinda asked my mum what I should be if I like to build houses and she could have told me to be a construction worker but, like any other mums who wanted the best for their child, she mentioned 'engineer'. Fast forward to now, after changing gazillions of "cita cita saya ialah menjadi seorang" thingamajig, I finally realized that life has something else installed for me. My point is, we have no reason to be anxious of the future, provided that we consistently keep an eye out for opportunities because in a period of 10 years we may not know what will happen. It's good to have goals but hey, it's okay to "fine tune" your goals as you go along with life because you might never discover your true potential if you don't open yourself to different possibilities. One thing is for sure, success is never a solitary feat therefore I would like to thank my amazing friends for their support during times when I was at my lowest and to my beloved family. Though I may not always tell people how much I appreciate them face to face (because I'll feel awkward), rest assured I have never forgotten their contributions. So that's about it for today. As for tomorrow, a new life beckons. Let's call that chapter, the start of my career.

No, you are not going to see a clear picture of me in that hideous suit! Sobs.. now I know I look so ugly in those robes, I'll never attend Hogwarts let alone graduating in it *crying a river*.

Jobs of the Jobless

2009-08-12T01:53:00.000-07:00

Damn Blogger! I rechecked and I only have 48 post, 49 including this. Sigh... looks like there won't be any 50th celebration for me until the next post haha... sad case.

So today I was suppose to be on my journey back to Penang but the weather... the freaking weather was so so... perfect! Perfect for sleeping that is. So yeah, I kind of overslept and the last bus from 1 Utama to Penang was at 3.30 pm which I'm certain, with 45 minutes left, I'll not be able to catch in time. This means I'll have to go all the way to Puduraya if I still insist to go home which I'm too lazy to do. Imagine going out in the rain waiting at the shelterless bus stop and then having to endure an hour journey to Kota Raya after which I'll have to walk for another 10 minutes in the rain to reach the bus station with no guarantee of a bus ticket. With that in mind, I fell back to sleep for another hour without guilt because I got to blame Mother Nature *insert evil grin*.

Fast forward a couple of hours, I'm now wide awake since I just took an icy cold bath. Managed to get myself a dinner date and while I'm waiting for the moment to fulfill my hunger, I was wondering the kind of things that jobless people do. I mean since I'm one of them right now might as well be a good sport right? So I came up with the idea of singing the song 'Diva' by Beyonce with a twist, I'm suppose to only sing the part that goes

I'm a, a diva,

I'm a, I'm a, a diva (x forever)

Oh my, that part was played throughout the song with an occasional 2 second pause. It wasn't easy as I almost choke at one part but towards the end I was already a pro. I'm sure with a bit more practice and diligence, I'll successfully transform into a diva. Well, that's what all the self help books are teaching us no? Say it out loud and be persistent, you'll make it! Oh, on another unrelated matter, I noticed that Taylor Swift is a bit of a slut as well. All her songs are mostly about love and she sings about Drew, Stephen, Tim McGraw... Romeo? (delusional slut) and... Mary? (Katy Perry wannabe) and that girl is just 19, don't you think she should reserve some pheromones for the big four zero? Anyway, her songs are addictive. With this I shall end today's episode of Jobs of the Jobless. Signing off, yours truly.

Fifty (False Alarm)

2009-08-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

While everyone else celebrates the 10000000th post of their blog entry, I have to be content with celebrating 50th. Nevertheless, I'm surprise I'm still hitting the publish button every now and then, more so at present. At the moment, I feel liberated. In fact, too free that I'm feeling a bit worried at the same time. Hah! That's probably the first time you've heard that coming out from me. Contrary, I've been doing a lot of thinking. Mostly on relationships, with friends lah... Somehow, we've change. For better or worse I can't tell. One thing for sure is that we no longer enjoy the privileges of meeting that often. With everyone having their own agendas and not to forget the distance for some, we somehow miss a lot of each other's personal development. That comes to the question of how well do we know each other right now? I can't help but to associate ourselves to the residents of Wisteria Lane. Our current knowledge on each other is probably skin-deep. I'm not talking about the physical aspect but rather our emotional thoughts, the things that best friends share with each other. I'll admit that I've been guilty of not trying harder but it takes two to tango. In this case, it' not just two. In fact, it's more like line dancing.

I miss those times when we share everything under the sun. Somehow along the way, we started collecting little secrets and keep it in our own treasure box. It's contagious, it became a habit. It's probably one huge pile right now and that's likely how much we don't know each other.

PS: Happy 23rd B'day Tan Jee Mee.

My Resolution

2009-08-08T02:12:00.001-07:00

I chose a path. I stuck to my decision even when there was a last minute offer which was tempting enough to get me thinking for another few hours. Things could've been different if the offer was presented earlier but time has given me a chance to reflect thoroughly on my choices. No doubt I'm grateful for the opportunity given and I wish I'll be able to go back someday when the time is right. For now, it's about time I start anew.

Come this 18th of August, I will be officially graduating from college and therefore, a new chapter of my life begins. It's always exciting at the same time disheartening when something comes to an end. Exciting obviously because of what lies ahead but disheartening because we have to leave behind some of the things that we have grow to be fond of. Moving on is the word. As much as we want to cling to the comfort of the past, we have to make some space for the future and that includes letting go of some things we hold dearly. For those whose life has always revolve around college, the word graduation may even sound like a maudlin ballad.

Well, the second half of the year seemed to have started off on a negative note. Death was often the headlines be it on international, national or a personal level. For those who have lost love ones, may you find comfort in the presence of your family and friends. As for now, starting a new means I'll have to clean up some mess which includes a weeks worth of dirty laundry.

Self Medication

2009-08-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

My mind was and still is clouded by the burden of having to choose my career path. One day left for decision making. Perhaps I've already made a decision but I'm still creating doubt for myself because I'm afraid of stepping out from my comfort zone. Money or Brand? Why can't I have both? It really seems unfair that one have to choose between these two extremely important factors. I'm shameless in saying that I'm now, or at least I think I am, leaning towards money going against the advice of some people because the fact is I'm not born with a silver spoon. Having effectively cut off from financial support by this end of the month, the luxury of working for well known company is nearly not viable unless the job comes with a fair pay. In the mean time I'm hoping that I'll have the courage, wisdom and strength to do the right thing. The right thing, as cliche as it may sound, is always (okay, most of the time) to "follow your heart".

Well I'm probably done with asking for advice, temporarily. The thing about asking for advice is that, you'll end up more confused at times. The truth is most of us probably already know what we want but "asking for advice" was more like a way of us subconsciously seeking approval on our choices. When the advice given is supportive of our choices we would then think that the path was meant for us, that our choices are justified because there are people who think so too. However, if it's the other way round it might cause a massive lost in confidence, we may start to think about how our future seems so bleak because nobody seems to share the same sentiments therefore psychologically blinding us from all the opportunities that may have been installed. So in the end, it's best if we make our choices based on what we feel strongly for in the first place unless the advice given is substantial enough to prove that the decision we are about to take will lead us to a dead end.

Advice to self:

1# Stop the what ifs.

2# There's no point in comparing because it's your life, your battle, your only nemesis is yourself.

3# There's more than one way to achieve your goal.

4# It's your career, there's no such thing as guilt! Reject in the name of professionalism.

5# When in doubt, surround yourself with people that will support you no matter what choices you make.

6# Start to live your life to the fullest.

Okay, I'm feeling much better.

Move Over, It's A Makeover

2009-07-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

Finally! I did it! The agony of going through html codes sigh... I'm so IT illiterate. This isn't the finish product though. Notice some blank links and picture? Well, I ran out of patience. I'm not even sure if this is the template I want because there's too many extra features but it does looks cool right? In the mean time, I shall continue on my quest of searching for the perfect permanent template.

Life has been monotonous this few days with an exception of a few excursions. Sometimes I wish I can just live for the day itself without having to worry about what lies ahead. It sickens me to wake up everyday not knowing what's my next step to the future. I need people who have been through this phase to share their views with me. Why am I feeling like my life is a mismatched? Am I facing an extremely early mid-life crisis lol... I'm gonna end this now since it's suppose to be a short entry announcing the "new face" of my blog. Enjoy while I fix some small glitches.

Life After Study

2009-07-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, I woke up to the sound of raindrops and the sight of bluish hue with my ultra powerful fan blowing directly at me. I felt as if I was on some mountain top. The smell of rain, oh yes did I ever tell you that I love the smell of rain? The smell of rain always sets me in the mood for waxing nostalgic. It's extremely therapeutic, especially to me when coupled with the sound of raindrops, because it calms me down. It's like an invisible curtain separating you from the helter-skelter of the world. Strangely, it makes me feel safe. I reached for my comforter and snuggled, wishing that time would freeze at that very moment forever.

The past few weeks has been very taxing. I can't exactly pinpoint the cause as it is a combination or various events, mostly work related. As most of you (my close friends) know, I completed my internship more than a week ago. I thought now should be the time of my life. Time to enjoy freedom but I guess my conscience is not letting me go the easy way which should be a good thing but the irony is that the thought of getting things right is sucking the happiness out of my life. The more I think of my future, the more messed up I realized my life is. Sometimes I wish I have someone that can sit me down and tell me what's right and what's wrong. Someone to give me a piece of his mind or even a much more possessive parents? Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to have parents that gives me the freedom to do whatever I want but there are just times when you really need a guide in life and that's when the freedom starts to feel more like loneliness.

So I've been offered a job, sort of. Nothing is confirmed until I've been interviewed by the human resource. In the meantime I've found another position in the same place but different department which I might be more interested in and I've submitted my resume to the person in charge. Now the question is that am I right to hand in my resume to another person after accepting an offer by someone when nothing is confirmed yet? My initial thought was that it was my future and I need to think about myself first but then I thought it was also wrong of me to change my mind so fast. For me, both of the departments are of my interest is just that one might offer a better benefit than the other. It's now up to them to decide but I think I should give a call to check on the situation.

Putting that behind, I've tons of unfinished business before I can officially declare the start of my one month holiday. First I need to re-edit my dissertation before I send it for printing to be compiled into a book, then I need to completely reorganize my room to give me a fresh start and last but not least to draw a financial plan for my future. Money not enough mah...

The Lasallian Legacy

2009-06-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

Us Xaverians are a bunch of loyal, unique, crazy in a good way, brilliant in someway type of people. All thanks to the beautiful heritage of our school. Being called a Xaverian is a pride that I'll carry throughout my life and I believe the same goes for my fellow brothers and sisters as well. Even the name we identified ourselves with is uber cool. So cool I could almost hear myself saying, I'm Xaverian, I'm here to conquer the world! As I spent my teenage years within the walls of St. Xavier, I've discovered the many hidden treasures that this school possess waiting to be unearth by every little mischievous student. One of the most precious ones that I've found would be sincere friendship. There's so much to say but I believe a single entry in this blog can't justify the immense feeling that I have for my school. Therefore, this entry would be dedicated solely to the people who have made proper education possible in this side of the world, the ones that have been selflessly offering themselves for a purpose much bigger than their personal glory and to one of the last of Lasallian's living heritage, Brother Paul Ho...

I giggled like a little schoolgirl watching Bro. Paul being interviewed in the first two videos lol... The last video however carries an important message which is for us to continue safeguarding whatever that's left to preserve our school's rich heritage. For that, a big thank you to St Francis Xavier and the Lasallian brothers especially you Brother Paul. Farewell.

The Happiest Day Of The Year

2009-06-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Well, that's according to what I heard from FLY.FM. A mathematician supposedly came up with an equation which indicated that today was the most blissful day of 2009. Personally, I would say that today was full of joy, better than yesterday but hopefully not as good as tomorrow :) We celebrated "family day" today. It was an annual function that Hilton organized to foster tighter relations amongst the team member or whatever lah... The point is, I had fun! I managed to skip work because of this event. One thing though, it wasn't really as happening as I thought it would be. After a while, the event headed towards a monotonous mood. There wasn't many people attending when compared the ratio of the workers in the hotel. So where the heck did the fun came from you asked? After participating in a few activities, me and some of the other trainees decided to have our very own little excursions. Oh shoot! I forgot to mentioned the venue. It's held in the Lake Garden at KL. I would highly recommend this place for urbanites who are looking for some peacefully time away from the city, although technically it's situated in the city which means that you are fooling yourself if you are there to get away from the city. Get it? You do? I don't.

The entrance...

Jogger's path...

Some waterfall landscape...

Okay... continue on. First I suggested that we visit the deer farm since it was just a stone throw away from the place of the event hence our journey began...

They somehow looked like dogs to me lol, just that their ears are much more pointy

Such a dreamy gaze...

Whoops.. camho alert! So cute can? Pouting it's non-existent lips

After our obsessions with deer was over, we walked around , had some ice cream then walked back to our event site. That's when we saw the tram. It only cost us RM 0.50 cents for a short ride. So cheap, we went for a second round lol... There was still some time to kill after our second ride so we decided to be more adventurous and try something new... we rented a 'sampan'. However, before we could even get into it, we were "advised" by the caretaker to use the peddle boat instead. Oh well, at least I got to peddle away some unwanted thigh fats.

Started off with greetings from Mr & Mrs. Swan

Passed by Mr. Hobbit's humble abode

Alas, the fortress of desolate

All in all, I must say that the lake garden is very well maintained. Kudos to those who are in charged. It does not only provides a place to retreat for the public, it also generates economic benefits from renting it's facilities. N0w that's sustainability. At least I got to chill out after a traumatizing day before where I spent over nine hundred ringgit to service my car and buy a new adaptor.

Noticed that I managed to get online several times when my adaptor was faulty? Well, I pushed the limit and that's what happened.

Power Failure

2009-06-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

No, the world is not getting dark. It's my laptop adaptor. Stupid faulty wires! I got slightly more than half an hour before my life support gets cut off. So I'll just update you guys briefly on my life since the last entry. Time is passing real fast. So damn fast that I just realized that I have only 3 more weeks to go before I officially complete my internship. I still haven't type a single word for my report and I've yet to give out most of the evaluation forms to the respective managers in the various departments that I've trained at. Come to think of it, I've yet to do a lot of necessary things such as tidying my room, wash my dirty laundries, scout for jobs a.k.a. future plans but most importantly, I've yet to come out with a plan for my self-proclaimed 1 month holiday! Anyway, NCH managed to drop by KL during the weekend and we caught up with Alan as well. This time around, we did something spontaneous after a few rounds of crazy suggestions on what to do because we have kind of, or at least I've, gotten bored at shopping malls at the moment. Initially we met at Mid Valley, ate at Manhattan and then had some "light snacks". To cut the story short, we then proceeded to Food Garden and that's where we decided to pay a visit to the "royal chamber" in Serdang, after my plan on going to Cameron, Genting and Malacca was deemed "siao" by the friends. Oh God, 16 minutes left. Continue on, nothing is ever complete without food (knowing me, knowing you uh huh...) so we went scouting for hawker food. The meal was decent but made great with even greater company. Then we drop the "royal highness" before proceeding on our journey back without a proper road guide. I guess luck was by my side, again. That's about it. Goodbye my friends. Goodbye world.

I Scream For Ice Cream

2009-06-02T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dad came down to KL on Saturday after a long break. As usual, he'll tend to his own business while I go to work. Then at night we'll probably have some short "pillow talk" before I advance to dreamland. So on the night of his arrival, he hinted that we should go try out "the japanese restaurant that I mentioned earlier when I was back in Penang", which is Tenji. without much delay, I whipped out my lappie and proceed to click on the Google Earth icon. What? I don't have a GPS okay... So this would be the more economical solution for someone who has no sense of direction. For those of you who are trying to use Google Earth to navigate your way around town, be warned! If you are a person with no sense of direction then you should at least have a high sense of intuition or you'll end up some where in Jinjang. I have none of the above, I just got lucky. What you see on the screen could differ tremendously when it comes to the real thing especially with those pesky clouds that appears at random spots in the map causing some "blind spots".

We decided to make a move on Monday despite me telling my dad that we could potentially end up in Ipoh haha.. Nevertheless, I conquered Mont Kiara! or rather just Solaris Mont Kiara.

The food was okay I guess, I was more impressed with their selection of beverages which included free flow Sweet Thai imported coconuts (I had 6 or 7 of them), juices, sodas, various assortment of tea and coffee. The dessert counter was oh la la... but I was already filled to the brim. Didn't bother to take a lot of pictures as my hands were busy transporting food to my mouth hehe...

One of the "highlights" was the fresh oysters which has a sign besides it that says 'beware of food poisoning'. Oh what a convenient. So if a customer really got food poisoning and report it to the authority, are they gonna use the classic 'I told you so' as a defense. Duh! Besides that, they have cod fish, crab, lamb, beef.... basically, it's like a farm. Period. I think I'm game for another visit like real soon. *hint hint* Reason is because they are having a promotion for weekdays lunch session where they only charge RM 39.90++ !!! Promotion last until end of June ONLY ya... Adding to that, they also serve free flow Haagen Dazs which I didn't get to eat much because there was only a little left as I was reluctant to get some earlier due to the fact that I already had a pint of BR on the 31st...

My favorite combo of sinful indulgence, C n' PB with Old Fashion Butter Pecan.

Goodness, I'm becoming a slut for ice cream...

Where To Go? How Do I Get There?

2009-05-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days where my subconsciousness takes the lead in decision making. I'm doing things so spontaneously only to question myself later on how the heck did I came to that reaction. Anyway, after nearly 5 months into my internship, I only found out that one of the team members in my working place is living right across my condo. Blur right? Upon finding out, I spontaneously offered him a ride home. During the journey, I queried him on his career and what he thinks about his future developments. He seems to know where he's heading to and more importantly how to get there. When it comes to my turn to answer those questions, I couldn't really give a clear cut answer. I guessed that kind of freaked me out a little since time is slowly trickling away. I'm afraid I'll not be able to figure it out before the sand fills up the bottom part of the hourglass. To be fair to myself, I pretty much know what I really want when it comes too following my heart. Perhaps I should to take the leap. Perhaps it's about time for me to sit down and draw a masterplan that will connect all the missing dots to my dreams. Perhaps I need to have a little more faith in myself. Perhaps i should do all of the above... Time to put my focus on planning my journey ahead if I do not wanna get lost along the way.

That aside, at present, I'm working at Senses. Senses is a semi fine dining restaurant in Hilton, a brainchild of master chef Cheong Liew. Today was my first day so naturally time passes really fast although I'm working on a split shift. One thing that I like about this work place is the people. They are definitely not stingy when it comes to imparting knowledge to the trainees. Too bad I'll only be in this department for a week... shucks! Without further a due, let me introduce to you Senses in a thousand words...

The interior...

Feast to the eye....

Interesting usage of coconut shavings, cookie crumbs and chocolate shavings to portray an earthy element.

A masterpiece in the making... This dish will be completed by a piece of molten chocolate cake placed in the middle... and yes... those flowers are edible as I'm still alive hehe..

That's about it from me. Catch up with ya as soon as I can. Till then, I'll officially be on diet for as long as I need to lose the 2 kgs I gained while I was in Penang. Ciao.

5 Star Bus

2009-05-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm back in KL. Have been sleeping the whole afternoon as I didn't get much snooze time in the bus. The journey was bumpier than usual, which explains why I kept waking up every few minutes. Other than that, it took the bus 3 and a half hours to reach it's destination. Now for those who travel from KL to Penang by bus regularly, you would notice that the travel period is insanely short. Reason being the bus driver was under the delusion that he was transporting a busload of pregnant ladies about to due towards Sg. Buloh Hospital. However, he overshot and decided to drop "the pregnant ladies" in One Utama in hopes that the bliss of shopping would make them forget about giving birth. Enough of lame sarcasm, I requested dad to purchase my return tickets from a bus company called "5 Star" because I found out that the busses from that particular company does drop-offs at 1U aside from Puduraya. This is convenient to me as my condo is just another 5 minutes bus ride away from the mall. Having said that, I think I got ripoff for about RM 5 from that bus company. A regular ticket cost RM 35 for a single journey from PG to KL vice versa but my dad paid RM 40 for that ticket! According to to the person selling the tickets, the extra cost was for those who are getting off at 1U. Okay, that's a little pricey for the difference in distance between 1U and Puduraya but I'm willing to overlook that handicap since they are not forcing us to buy the tickets from them right? NO! Not when I found out that they are actually required to stop at 1U anyway so it's not really an extra service and the most ridiculous thing has to be that the stop at 1U is actually before the stop at Puduraya meaning we are paying extra for a shorter distance? Might as well purchase a ticket to Puduraya and walk off the bus when it reaches 1U without getting charged extra. What are they gonna do? Tie me to my seat until I reach Puduraya? Those dumb fucks must have been looking forward to earning some extra cash using cheap tactics like this. Anyway, thank god for the safe journey!

Gosh... 3 days of holidays seems a little short eh? My lovely island is still the same as ever with the exception of some new structures here and there. Somehow, I don't wish for some rapid development to take place in Penang anytime soon. I don't think we are ready for it, yet. Will discuss about it some other time, if I'm hardworking :P I managed to catch up with my good pals over delicious food and also celebrate me mum's 25th birthday hehe... Guess this short break should be enough to get me through my last month of internship. In the mean time, I got to kick my lazy ass and start to clean up my jungle of a room. Gotta go, just spotted a spide.. giant tarantula.

Decisions

2009-05-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

I'm scared. Not because I might not be able to handle whatever the future holds, but rather at the uncertainty. I have so many things I want to do yet they seemed improbable. In less than 2 more months I'm officially on my own. I'm still deciding whether to continue being in the hotel industry or go for something else related to my qualifications. I'm trying to keep my options open. I'm trying to figure out what I should do, the perfect job that will give me the experience that I need to achieve my dreams. If I were to work in a hotel, I wish there is a special position that allows me to move around different departments doing everything there is, exactly like what I'm doing now but with more empowerment. Sigh... which way now?

Emoness aside, I'm currently performing my internship at Caffe Cino, an outlet that specializes in coffee making! I was posted there for 3 weeks but just when I completed my first week, which is today, I was asked to be transferred back to my previous restaurant for one more week. Just my luck. Well, at least I managed to cram all my training on coffee making into the first week. Wheee.... now I'm a "separuh masak" barista... *berangan*. Latte anyone? Anyhow... since I'm going back to Sudu, my previous restaurant, might as well entice you guys with some pictures that I shamelessly rip off from some stranger's website muahahaha...

The entrance...

...foyer's ceiling, "horoscopic" motive..

Main dinning area...

...somewhere near the entrance la

Bread and CHEESE.... forever tempting me....

...fresh seafood and more!

On another note, I know I've been talking for ages on my new blog outlook but I've been having second thoughts since I set the new template in another different add (due to some reasons that I'm lazy to type out). This means that I'll have to say goodbye to hold-that-thought... I remain indecisive.

Krispy Kreme @ Berjaya Times Square

2009-04-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Should I? The queue could possibly puncture my legs... Um... but... but... it's the f*cking mother of all doughnuts! Goddess of doughnut goddesses... Smooth, puffy cloud-like texture coated with hot molten sugar glaze mmm... to the very last bite. Nope, I'm not going overseas to get this doughnut. It's already here! Yes, finally, after thinking that my crazy obsessions with doughnut phase is over, Krispy Kreme officially hits the shores of Malaysia tomorrow which is the 27 of April 2009 in Berjaya Times Square at 10 a.m. hence reviving my craze for one of Homer Simpson's favorite comfort food.

The world famous original glazed doughnuts.

I vividly remember my first encounter with doughnut mania when me and a bunch of gluttons hehe... was on our way on board our return bus from Puduraya to Penang. Back then, there were only the doughnuts which was sold at the warung (neh... the oil clotted one coated with sugar) or Dunkin which I thought was 'a slice of heaven' since my brother was raving about it to me some time earlier in stone age. Boy was I wrong, my expectations were so high that I bought a box of half dozen doughnuts for myself only to regret my decision as the nuts where soggy and the taste brought me no where near orgasm. Then about eons after my bad encounter with Dunkin, the emergence of Big Apple and J.Co doughnuts restored my faith in indulging in this guilty pleasure until I finally got sick of it lol... Now that Krispy Kreme is here, I'd better get myself ready for another round of faith renewal.

PS: The first customer will get 1 year supply of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Sayonara

2009-04-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Yet another goodbye, albeit a short one, 3 months to be precise. I can feel a tinge of jealousy in the midst of happiness as one of my friend is about to embark on a journey to the Land of the Rising Sun in order to fulfill his industrial placement. I'm mostly happy for him to be able to pursue his dreams and also excited to hear that he will be BLOGGING! Yes, you heard me right. So I'll hold him to his words. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but to relate to myself the classic "if only" statements. If only it was me who is going overseas... if only bla bla bla.. you get the point. Maybe next time. For now, I shall bid farewell to you hence the title of the post, which is actually kind of inappropriate since sayonara is only used when you are not going to see that someone ever again, if I'm not mistaken. Come to think of it again, it kind of make sense since I'm EXPECTING to see some changes in terms of experience and appearance in that someone therefore saying goodbye to the outdated old self forevah hehehe... however, please STAY AWAY from these two looks..

Um... a little bit too erm... speechless..

Well... if you ever run out of money to buy more cloths to cover up maybe...

Guess that's all for now. I just spent my entire off day doing nothing yeehaw... got to sleep as my shift starts at 7 a.m. tomorrow sigh... Best of luck in your journey, SKH.

Mumble Grumble

2009-04-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a long and tiring day. Fatigue finally caught after having only 2 to 3 hours of sleep for two consecutive nights. Things at work starts so seem so redundant to the point that my body was doing the exact same routine effortlessly while my mind starts to wonder about the motives of some people around me. Am I being paranoid? Or was my patience towards some pretentious hypocrites getting thinner. As I proceed further to uncover the many layer of mask that blankets this industry, I found myself getting more and more disgusted at reality. Are there anyone you can truly respect? People who succeed because of their own abilities and hard work, not because they are good at 'socializing'. Everyone have come to accept the fact that life is unfair but when justice is blind... that's a whole different story! Sometimes I just feel sorry for some people who did not get their fair share of recognition because some undeserving, conniving, fucking cunt knows how to sweet talk her way to getting the full honor. While that undeserving cunt deserves nothing but a six foot pole up her ass, I'm more disappointed at the so called leaders who either does not know how differentiate between genuine success and drama or decides to turn a blind eye. It's sad to see that people now a days, or at least in the industry I'm in, mostly have to resort to kissing ass to be successful. Not to say that kissing ass is wrong, it has to at least have some element of truth in it and not just simply saying something fake to make people happy.

What I just mentioned was a lot of things that happened lately that had been jumbled up. I just lost respect for some people at my working place. Perhaps I'll be more detail in the future when I'm not so sleepy arhh... *yawns*. On the bright side, I'm looking forward to celebrating one of my best pal's birthday! Can't wait to see all who's gonna be present at the dinner.

As I Wait For Dinner

2009-04-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

Just a short post to update all of you as my stomach keeps growling having to wait for the housemate to finish bathing so we can go out for dinner. I'm officially a glutton today... and most of the other days. I sucked at controlling my own diet. I start off everyday by telling myself I'm not gonna be tempted to eat extra, not today, not this time! Then the next thing I realize I'm sitting at the roadside gobbling up my clay pot chicken rice which I convincingly tell myself was made up of zero calories since the fire on the traditional charcoal stove had burned them off.

This is usually the scenario if I end my work at night. With my inabilities to well control my yearning for food, it's a total curse for me to have to walk through so many eateries before I reach the place where I park my car everyday.

So what am I doing on Good Friday... besides feasting on fabulous roasted half duck for lunch and bee ko moy and chien tnee kueh during tea time? I'm going for dinner! Thinking of having hokkien mee or lor mee, KL style. Yes, as I said, I'm a self confessed glutton. I was thinking of going out with friends today but decided against it as I did not make any prior arrangements. In addition, I need to save up some cash for an upcoming event :)

Anyways, I'm now in my third and my last week at a Chinese restaurant known as Chynna. It's suppose to be a "fine dining" restaurant serving Cantonese style gourmet dishes.

Promotional picture for Chynna. Ripped off from the Internet muahaha..

We even have a Tea Master dressed up in traditional costumes. Well, nearly all the staffs are dressed in traditional costumes.

Oh.. not to forget, I got my self a pair of adorable puppies. Yes! You heard me right! Finally! I swear they were calling for me to buy them when I crossed the shop. How could I resist.. and I really needed them as my faithful companion. I totally swear that I will constantly take them out for walks and never abandon them till the day they... oh unthinkable... Just have a look at them..

Puppies that don't shit around. Aren't they a pair of beauties?

Yes, I do have a thing for blings.

I knew somewhere in this world there is something made with me in mind. You got me at hello... *proceeds to vomit* I've been wearing these pair of puppies for a week now and I can safely say that they are worth every cent. With their new spring air technology, it's suppose to provide extra cushioning to your leg. Suitable for someone who walks a lot during work, like me :) Alas, beauty does come with a price to match but hey they were on discount albeit only 10 percent but I really needed them as my last pair of leather shoes work their ass off so hard that they went on a hunger strike with their mouth constantly open sigh.. I had to fire them for their disloyalty. Since I heard dogs were much much much more loyal hence I bought my current pair of puppies. Okay fine, a very himboistic attempt to justify my purchase but you get the idea... Oh well, that's about it from me. See ya when I see ya!

PS: Give me sometime to set up my new layout. Still debating between a more personal or professional outlook.

PPS: Guess who was in da house on Tuesday?

I even know which room he was staying in :) Too bad I'm not in room service anymore.

Updates: I'm back. I ended up having economic rice and pork leg with black vinegar. Starting to feel the guilt :(

People Trouble

2009-03-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

I'm suffering from a great deal of sloth! When I'm blogging this frequent, it usually means that I'm either getting a lot of inspiration or I'm using it as an excuse to not do what I'm suppose to be doing. In this case, it's the latter. I totally lost my mood to clean up my room as I just went through one of those roller coaster moments today where your emotional level is dragged up, down and all around. Here's a scoop of what's going on... Recently, I've been having weird encounters with some people at my work place which I previously had managed to keep a good rapport with but has somehow started giving me the cold treatment. I usually don't let this little things bother me if it's someone I don't really care about but I'm talking about people that I thought was suppose to be my friend (sort of la... more like close colleague). The weird things is I don't remember having did or say anything bad to them. So my theory would be that someone must have been bad mouthing me behind my back or they, as in my colleagues, must have pretended that they like me at the beginning but have started to loosen up their act. I'm not certain which is the correct answer but I would like to believe that I'm not such a bad person that people have to pretend to be nice to me so I'm going for the former reason which is that someone must have been talking behind my back. So there goes my bed of roses. For a moment I thought that I would have sailed through my internship like a holiday cruise but just like Titanic, I hit an iceberg. Nevertheless, I'm not planning to let my ship sink! I'll not let this iceberg stand in my way of reaching my desired destination! I'll crush it into pieces! Heck, I'll even support global warming if I have to! I'll have to toughen up emotionally and accept the fact that the ugly side of the world exists and it's not going away anytime soon. Yes, after 2 months, I'm starting to look pass the facade and noticed some flaws but I'm sure what I went through is happening everywhere in the world. Welcome to another round of POLITICS... it's my turn to roll the dice.

A Breezy Day

2009-03-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

I can't believe the day is about to be over. 24 hours is definitely insufficient as I have yet to complete all of my task. Part of me wants to just laze around all day long and enjoy the last bit of my day off but my conscience, the rational one, tells me that I need to wash my dirty laundry, clean my car, tidy my messy room, wash the toilet and update my weekly schedule. Instead of listening to my inner good side, I gave in to the dark force which explains why I'm blogging right now...

Speaking of blogging, I just noticed that lately I've been posting entries without a single picture which is so unlike my earlier posts. Ever since my laptop tragedy, I've been reluctant to transfer pics from my mobile to my lappy hence the absent of images from my blog. But fear not, I shall make sure that future entries will be filled with lots of visual aids enough to make you blind :) In fact, I think it's about time for me to reinvent my blog. I've been wanting to do something new ever since the Chinese New Year but because of my work I've been postponing a lot of ideas which could have seen me renovating and posting more frequent in this blog. So now that I'm no longer working split shift, which means that I'll have more time, I want to freshen up my blog and gradually introduce other new stuffs that I hope will keep you guys entertained.

As for my work life, I've shifted to a new F&B outlet at my hotel known as Board Walk after three weeks in Iketeru. Board Walk is some sort of a casual dining restaurant by the pool with live band during the evenings. I must admit that I was quite reluctant to transfer to this outlet due to my initial thought of the afternoon killer heat but I was quickly won over by the ambiance and the working culture over there. In addition to that, among us interns, the place is where all the "observations" should take place.

The relaxing atmosphere at the Board Walk

Sorry for the small picture but at least there is one right? For now I'm enjoying every moment when I'm there but I wouldn't dare to make any early assumptions as I've learned that disaster could be right at the corner. For instance, I had a minor setback during my second day there when I spilled 4 Pina Coladas in front of the guest. Well, unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you want to view it, it spilled on me instead of the guest. You can't really blame me. It was raining you see and I have to balance four really tall and slim glasses of Pina Coladas on a small round tray while holding an umbrella to shield the drinks (not me... sigh) from the rain. Then disaster happened when I slightly tilted the tray while putting down the umbrella. Lucky for me it happened when I was about to get off from work. The weird thing is I came home craving for Pina Colada so I went to the nearest 7/11 and bought a can of pineapple juice and a box of coconut milk. Thanks to Kel and Nick for my Malibu. Mixed those together and voila...

Rejuvenate yourself with a cold glass of this pineapple and rum concoction. A heavenly blend!

That's about it from me now. Keep watch for my next entry while I go make myself another dose of pineapple heaven.

Life At the Fast Lane

2009-02-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

Life is such a rush, at least for now. Two months into my internship and boy must I say, it has been a great but exhausting experience thus far. The one part I hate about work has nothing to do with work but rather going to and coming back from work. The traffic in KL is horrendous. If I ever hear anyone from KL complaining about the traffic in Penang, I vow that I'll give them two tight slap on the face. At least in Penang, you can actually predict where and when will the roads be congested. I have no idea how much is the unemployment rate in KL but people here seems to be free all the time, just 'lepak' on the streets for fun. Every damn hour it's jam! jam! jam! urgh... Another thing is the road. Is it just me or as a Penangite, we are too used to short cuts that I curse at roads over here every time I make a wrong turn. Seriously, one wrong turn and you might have to end up paying toll to use a highway that will eventually lead you to another damn toll! If your intention is to go to point A which is just opposite the road, you probably have to take a "city tour" before you actually reach that damn place! Okla... a bit too drama but still you get my point right? Hate those dumbass people who planned the roads here. Then comes my favorite part, the drivers in KL including Selangor lah... I have to sincerely thank them for giving me such a "memorable" experience. So much so that I would like to ram my car at them. Yeah, even when it means that the parents will ban me from driving until I reach 55.

Basically, the roads in KL/Selangor are flooded with cars that carries a variety of number plates. Why? Don't ask stupid question. The most I've encountered so far... are cars with number plates starting with W (duh), B (double duh), J, A and P. Just a brief intro, W stands for Wilayah Persekutuan (help me knock your head if you don't know), B represents Selangor but actually both W and B also same breed wan la. J is for Johor while A and P are carried by cars from Perak and Penang in respective order. So let me guide you through some of the "di Malaysia apapun Boleh" attitude that these different breeds of drivers possess and possibly, how to manhandle them.

Type of Breed

WXX XXXX or BXX XXXX

Description

In general, these breed of drivers are road bullies wannabe. On the highway they drive their cars so damn fast, just to look like the gangstas from "too fast too furious". I think the Works Minister should build a faster than fast lane to cater for them. I mean it's okay if they wanna crash and burn but the problem is they are so annoying when they just appear right behind you and start flashing their headlights signaling you to move aside because the "big boys" are here. Its not like I'm traveling at 40 km/h mind you. I was already at 100 to 110 km/h at that time and I seldom drive at that speed... before driving in KL that is. See, the bad influence from these stupid drivers. Worst still, there are some that go as far as to purposely drive near you just to scare you off. Why do I call them a wannabe. You see, these people are "half baked" when it comes to speeding. They might be high and mighty in the highways but most of them actually chicken out when it comes to narrow areas. These people are also an impatient bunch. They honk like fart coming out during a diarrhea.

My Verdict

Show off! No skill! Uncivilized!

How To manHandle Them

When they appear at the back of you flashing their headlights, just press the hazard lights to indicate that your car is having a problem, while you are driving at 100 km/h. Just hope that they get the sarcasm and f*ck off. Now two can play the lighting game. Fun huh? If they charge close to you, hit your breaks constantly while thinking about buying a brand new car. Better yet, get a sticker that says 'Kiss me and I'll sue you for sexual harassment' and paste it on your back windscreen while hitting on your breaks thinking about your brand new car. During traffic jams, it's your time to get even. Drive through the narrow space between them in slow motion making it look like you are the predator in the movie 'Jaws'. Let their heart pound like African Djembe drums hoping that they'll get a minor heart attack as your car moves closer by inches to their precious piece of junk. If they proceed to honk , you can either give them the finger or you can join in the honking game. Whichever it is, make sure you have some sort of tools in your car that can be used as a weapon just in case the mad cow decides to dare you for a one on one action (I meant a fight okay, not ahems...). If you don't have any weapons of tiny destruction hidden in your car, just make sure he gets down from the car first so that you can run over him. That is if you are in the mood for making 'ham chim peng'.

Type of Breed

JXX XXXX

No sufficient information available on these particular breed as there is still a lack of observation.

Type of Breed

AXX XXXX

Description

Another annoying type. They like to cut in front of you especially in the fast lane but then they are the direct opposite of WXX XXXX breed. They drive so damn tortoise la...

Verdict

To the left, to the left. Shift your slow asses to the corner left lane.

How To manHandle Them

This would be a little difficult as the are actually driving at the legal speed limit. I recommend that you memorize and recite this list of helpful words out loud. You can even combine them to make new sentence that will definitely keep you occupied while you wait for these slowpokes to buzz off. Although they might not be able to hear it, you are benefiting from this stress relief therapy.

Type of Breed

PXX XXXX

Description

Highly kiasu muahaha... does not like other drivers to overtake, can be quite 'kuai lan' when they feel like they are challenged!

Verdict

They cursed like 'chao ah beng' and PMS like 'chao ah lian' but they are the most civilized drivers ahems...

How To manHandle Them

You don't!

Aside from these normal civilian cars, there are also taxis, public buses and motorcycles! Don't worry, that's a different story that I don't intend to rant about right now or I'll die of high blood pressure before I get to post this entry. Anyway, this is just me stereotyping the drivers in KL lol... Therefore, all information provided here are highly fictional as Ivan was posting this entry while he was sleep driving. So kids, please do not try this at road. Yeah right...

Of Reunion and Farewell

2009-02-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

So it has been three freaking weeks since my last entry and I'm still struggling to find some time for this blog. No worries, I'm not giving up blogging. Just need some time to adjust my life to the crazy schedule that I have in F&B. Oh yes... FYI, I'm no longer in Housekeeping. I'm currently working in Iketeru, a Japanese fine dining restaurant in my hotel. Good news is I get to eat! Bad news is I have a 12 to 10 shift. Not that I'm working 10 hours but there is a 3 hours break somewhere in the middle of my shift which is maximum suckiness! Other than that I'm learning a lot from my internship. I've already gotten used to the environment so much so that sometimes I forgot that I'm actually a trainee and not a permanent staff. It's kinda freaky actually because I'm afraid that I might self consciously create an emotional bond with my working place and of course the people. Whatever it is, my spirit to give the best of me remains high... for now. Time will tell what's installed for me in the near future I guess.

On another note, I've been off from work for two days now because of my replacement holiday which means that I'm starting work tomorrow... I mean later this morning lol. I'm so thankful for this replacement holiday couldn't have come at the most strategic timing as my friends are back for their holidays from their internship in Langkawi. So the two days of my off days were spent together catching up on our life as a hotelier. Guess I was dead wrong when I thought we would never see each other again until graduation. Seeing them sure reminds me of how much I missed them sigh... okay okay enough of this mushy mushy stuff. The first day we managed to catch a movie and since I got to make the choice, I chose SM. I meant Slumdog Millionaire okay... dirty minds. Why they won so many Oscars? You have to watch it for yourself then :) Don't worry, I assure you that there are no rolling on endless field or hiding behind countless coconut trees type of musical drama in the middle of intense action to 'potong stim' however there is one at the end of the show haha... I guess Bollywood has somehow charmed Hollywood with their trademark musical dramas. Let's just hope they don't incorporate this idea in shows like Street Fighter or Dragon Ball. Back to the topic, last night we had steamboat at Damansara Village with one of our lecturers. It was all joke and fun but we had our serious moments especially when he gave us some reality check on our readiness for the hotel industry. Food was good and the environment was great. Would have describe more but this entry isn't about food hehe... After dinner we chatted a while then I randomly asked if we would be getting any chance to see each other again. Everyone agreed it would be almost impossible then we parted. Sigh... another goodbye.

Update U

2009-02-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

I'm drained... I've been in the housekeeping department since I came back from my extremely short but memorable Chinese New Year break. Thanks to my family and extended family for the opportunity to celebrate this festive season in an all new... concept? Lol.. I've noticed that there is a certain amount of inactivity in the blogsphere recently. Maybe everyone is still busy collecting "ang paus" while I'm working my arse out sigh... I've yet to see someone important ahems... I hope you know who you are. Please do come to KL if time permits. I got to end this post as I'm suppose to be dozing off to dreamland right about now due to my 9 to 5 shift this week. Will update by this weekend. Goodnight world zzzzzz........

Public Announcement

2009-01-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Just for the sake of posting something. I'm alive and kicking everyone! Okay maybe not kicking as I'm tired as hell this few days. Life as an intern started last Friday so expect me to update less frequent than I already am lol... Anyho.. I'll try my best to come out with something once in a while if I'm free. Working in shift is definitely not something I'm fond of as I can't really organize my time well.. Got to get use to it if I wanna survive in this line.

Next post I'll probably share with you guys some of my plans for the new year. Since I miss the opportunity to do so during the new year itself, I'll have to catch the next chance which is the Chinese New Year. Now be patient my dear readers :P Ah... and I'll also update about my chaotic work schedule which includes... a lot (see even I forgot how many) of departments. Celebrity spotting? One from Hong Kong which goes by the name of Justin something... Sorry, my IQ on eastern celebrity is probably around 40. As for today, we have our very own Ong Ka Ting and Ng Yen Yen rocking the house lol... At least I know I got home before Ms. Ng as she was just starting to dine when I was released. Okay I'm starting to type in nonsensical stuff to fill in the post so I'm going off now. I really need my beauty sleep. Can't even think straight (laughs) right now. God forbid if I find myself in dreamland as a concierge tomorrow, my internship would be only 6 days instead of 6 months. Miss you guys so much. See you guys soon. I hope.

I'll be Home for Christmas

2008-12-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

Heylo peeps! I finally made it back home just in time to celebrate Christmas, but I'll proly be heading back to KL before the new year so that I'll make it in time for my internship. I guess I can't have the best of both worlds, but so long as I'm able to spend some quality time with my family and friends, I think I'll call it a year. Gosh... I'm so tempted to end this post right now lol... Why do I always find myself out of words when I start typing? sheeh..

Okay lets talk about my life as a 21 year old shall we? Being 21, I encountered many 'first time' in my life. I meant those notable ones. These 'first time' events that occurred ranged from really eye opening to down right embarrassing moments, all of which I have come to cherish. Sadly, none of them was anything close to the subject of love ahems... Nevertheless, it was an emotional roller coaster to begin with, maybe because being 21 also marks the last year of my life in college. All I can say is that I'm very grateful to have met so many people with colorful character throughout my college life. These people are the ones who I spent late nights with trying to meet assignment datelines, talk about the best places to eat in town, share a boat ride down the Mekong river and stroll together aimlessly at the weekly night market. I'll definitely miss these bunch of people dearly as I have to accept the fact that everyone has to move on. Having said that, there is another set of people that I wouldn't know what to do if I had not met them. These people are the ones that I could be honest to, exchange secrets with, but most importantly they are the ones I share my life with. Best of all, I think I'll never have to move on from this relationship known as 'family'. What else can you ask for as a more precious gift? Merry Christmas.

There is a Christmas tree for everyone somewhere in the universe.

Not Ready To Be Nice

2008-12-18T04:30:00.000-08:00

I'm so f*cking pissed at some people. Why can't they just be more considerate? Am I being too accommodating that they start to take me for granted? On some other days I might have given this situation a pass but it just so happen to take place today. This f*cking day that I have so many things to worry about from pending rental issues to dumb school that don't pick up phone calls. To think that I have at least 1 week to spend in my hometown, now it seems like I might have to stay back to settle all this dumb problems. Why should I do everything and let people take me for granted? I'm just so tired of this shit.

I'm tired of smiling when I really meant to say f*ck off!

I'm tired to say it's okay when I really meant f*ck you!

Most of all I'm tired of trying to be nice when I actually want to f*cking bitch slap someone.

Maybe I'm not supposed to be nice? I don't feel like being a "nicer" person actually helps in my case as people often start to take advantage. Let me make this clear! I'm nice not because I need to, it's because I want to! Not to say I'm the "nicest" person but at least I'm trying to be as nice as possible. I don't know how long I can last. Seriously... I really hate being a B*TCH but sometimes being one makes us stronger. At least I think so. I'll admit that I actually felt happier when I'm not nice. How could this be? Like they say, the nice one always finishes last... I need time to think about it. For now, I just want to dump this shit to this blog. NO! This blog ain't a shit hole. Gowd... I feel so much better now. Well, so much for a Birthday cum Christmas post...

Dawn of a New Day

2008-12-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

Alright, I still can'tdecide

whether I should design

myown backdrop or just

use a blogger template

for my new layout so I

decided to go ahead with

blogging before the cows

come home lol... To be honest

I have no idea what I should blog about right

now. Lots of random thoughts are going through my

head. Ah... okay, here goes... As most of you know(referring

to my friends,just in case there are some random readers :D), I just

completed one of the most grueling task of me life... well... okay it's debatable. That's not the point. Point is... What the heck! I think I have

no point lol... I don't know what's happening actually.Just feeling emotional these couple of days.I guess it just hit me that me life in college is officially over. The sad thing was I didn't get the chance to actually say goodbye to my friends since I was busy meeting a dateline. I know I should be feeling light hearted right now since everything that I was worrying about the last few weeks had gone with the wind but is this really the end already? The people that I use to go to college with on a daily basis... Friends that I had my meals with... Lecturers that I complained on seeing very too often every semester... All I can do now is miss them and with time... probably these memories will slowly fade away, replaced by new ones. There are a few of my friends who are still going to be here, but I don't really know if I have the will to catch up with them. The truth is, I don't really know if they felt the same way about me. Am I just another person that walks pass their lives without really leaving any visible footprints? I think I would rather leave it as it is than to find out the truth. Besides, I'm not really good at handling emotional stuff... Heck, I rarely even show my emotions. Aside from being a b*tch at times... ahem... Sometimes I think it's hard to really connect with other people, aside from my close friends, because they will never really know me... It'll take a lot for me to open up to someone. Maybe that's why I hardly ever have personal conversations with most of them. Case in point, I remember when the last time I saw one of them it was raining <----(seriously) heavily<---- (dramatic effect). For privacy purposes lets name the person X <----(so generic I know). Okay stop captioning words Ivan! Back to the topic... X asked me a personal question reminding me that we've been friends for two and a half years so I should be honest. It was probably my last chance to make that connection but instead I told X I will send my answer via postage when I get home <---- (yeah rite). So there goes... story of me life. Cursed to keep everything to meself. Wishing people could read my thoughts without me having to convey it to them... Well at least I know my life isn't completely doomed. God has been gracious to me in many ways. During my countless crazy days, I have people who were there for me when I needed help most and these "angels" *laughs uncontrollably* comes in a form of close friends. I want to thank each and everyone of you who have helped me in so many ways... Some who helped me source for research materials, one who have stayed up till late nights proof reading my work, slotting in some nonsensical chats in between, that was probably one of the factors that kept me going on lol... and also my loyal reliable "house elf" haha... I'll give you my laundry when I get back home so you can be free! So on Saturday, I managed to complete my thesis at 11 a.m.. Just an hour ahead of the dateline. It was one of the most crazy feelings ever, having to race against time to complete what was termed as the most important subject in my academic life. I took a cab to save some time as I still haven't printed my work at that moment. Printing was exceptionally fast. I felt like kissing the auntie for being so efficient but I didn't want to risk getting a tight slap on my face. When I got to the staff room it was practically empty accept for one lecturer. We chatted for a bit. Mostly about "The Lost Thesis"... I told him I was actually contemplating on quitting at some point but decided against it. He told me that I shouldn't and I made the right choice for continuing. At that point I told meself everything I went through was worth it. I mean I knew it was worth it but I just needed someone to tell me that and it meant a lot to me that he did. Furthermore, I have a lot of respect for this particular lecturer, so there... value added to his words. I left my thesis on my subject lecturer's table but I wanted to thanked him for giving me the benefit of the doubt during my ordeal but when I get to see him I gave some lame excuse that I wanted to fill in the plagiarism form. I don't know why but I just felt like he was distancing himself from me? No longer that warm? Maybe it's all in my head. You can't really blame me right? I was practically deprived of sniffing my "dirty pillow" for so many nights because I either take short snoozes outside the living room or I fall straight asleep without quality time with my pillow. Whooh.... what a relief! I finally got everything out. Now I can move forward. Actually now is probably the best time to start a new chapter. Wait... make that another book... Yeah, that's more like it. Chapter one: Ivan noticed a hint of wrinkle on his forehead. He yelled, "OMG" only to be reminded by his consciousness not to use God's name in vanity... or was it

vain? Arghh... whatever... I totally suck at writting essays... Happy 22nd

anniversary to meself, I guess it's just me and my dirty pillow tonight.

Shipwreck

2008-11-29T12:46:00.000-08:00

I can't wait for December as it is probably my favorite month. Free of assignments and obligations, well most of it. It's a time where you just sit back and enjoy life doing anything that pleases you without having to feel the guilt of doing... nothing? Weird huh? A little contradicting but I think it kind of make sense. Sadly, that could be true for only one last time. I officially finished my last academic semester on the 26th of November after taking my final exam paper which means that there's only one thing left to do, work. I remember a few months ago I was so into starting a new life that I was anticipating the end of college. I had all these things planned up in my mind, tons of missions and goals which I want to share with you guys some other time. However, something happened recently that led me to reflect on my life, my laptop crashed.

What's the big deal right?
Everyone's laptop seems to go through this phase sometime in their lifecycle right?

Well, it just so happened that mine chose to crash at the most strategic time which was right after I lost my thumbdrive. You see, my thumbdrive was where I kept copies or backups of everything which are important, including my dissertation. Noticed the connection now?

Laptop Crashed + Lost Thumbdrive = No Dissertation = No Honors

(Conspiracy Theory)

It was one of the most hardest(redundancy to emphasize on the severity) things to digest and most likely the worst thing to happen to me this year. I used the the phrase 'most likely' as the year has yet to end, not that I'm looking forward to something even "BADDER" happening to me of course (okay, I should stop jinxing myself). As I said, it happened at the most strategic time because I just lost my thumbdrive not long then and did I mentioned my exam was on the following weekday itself? I was so depressed that I kept asking myself why does it(my laptop) have to crash at this time? I started to blame it on so many factors. Heck, I even went to the extent of blaming technology for conspiring to ruin my career. I tried to be rational after sometime as I needed to concentrate on my studies but my mind just wasn't ready to accept the fact that my 6 months of hard work was going into the drain, just in a snap. After contemplating on the various ways to solve this problem, I decided that I just can't go through this whole crap alone so I called dad who in turn called a technician who ended up calling me... sigh. I was then informed by the technician that my data will have a high success rate of recovery if I managed to convert my laptop into a portable hard disk by pressing some buttons which I did and was successful. I was then told to bring my laptop to the nearest service centre which was in The Gardens@MidValley for the technician to retrieve my data. Hope, I thought to myself. As luck would have it, the technician was on leave so I was told to leave my laptop for further diagnosis when he is back.

Hope can sometimes be cruel. As easy as someone may come into possession of it, it is also as easy for it to vanish into thin air. After all, hope is something that is intangible nonetheless powerful.

The next day, right before I sat for my second paper, I got a call from the customer service confirming that my data was officially gone because my hard drive was totally kaput. Again that news couldn't had came at a more strategic time. So much for the well wishes... That night I thought about the incident for a very long time until it hit me that because of one research paper my life was in a total mess. Is this it? Is this my life? So much emphasis placed on wanting to excel in studies, to have the best career and recognition? Not that all of it isn't important but I shouldn't have based my life on something so fragile that once it was gone I was left in the dark. This last semester was so messed up and everything was done in such a competitive atmosphere, I didn't have the chance to slow down and realize that I didn't sign up for this course to win the "best student of the decade" title. I remembered that I enrolled in this course because it was simply my passion, something I could relate to. People who know me well know that I sucked at nearly everything related to science, or nearly everything related to our country's education system. Simply put it this way, I'm not booksmart! Therefore, my course was more or less the most suitable path for me as it was more to creativity, logic and analysis rather than the plain old memorizing facts that I loathe. However, because of my self impose "competitive" nature, I kind of lose the gist of my choice in this course.

Come this January, my life as an intern will commence in Hilton, KL. In the mean time I've got lots of changes to do in terms of setting my life missions and goals. Life in general is so predictable, first you graduate then you work and build your career, popped up a kid or two then you retire and wait for your turn to decompose. I for one do not want to be stuck in this repetitive cycle of life. I want to devote more time to my family, friends and god. I want to do something different and unexpected. After all, I am by nature.. different.

That night itself, I recalled what my father told me. He asked me to pray that everything would be okay as god works in mysterious ways. I guess he was right. I was able to recover my transcripts through e-mail and my lecturer granted me an extension on the dateline. I even found extra info for my research that I might have overlooked if I had not lost my original copy. Most importantly, the incident gave me a new perspective on life. I know now who to build my life on. Now I just need to move my lazy ass and start making some changes.

This will be my last post... before I change my layout duh... Hence I'm ending this entry without wondering about anything because I think the picture is clear, I managed to find treasures amongst the shipwreck.

Barack Obama's Infomercial

2008-11-02T02:18:00.000-08:00

Heylo readers. I'm on my usual break from insanity again hence I decided to post up some videos I came across on youtube few days ago. Well ok fine I did not "came across" this video. I purposely went hunting for it and boy must I say it was pretty inspiring... for me. Nevermind on his (as some said flawed economic policies) truth be told, he can win this election based on his passion and charisma. I longed for the day when Malaysia can be as politically matured as what's been portrayed by this guy. Enjoy...

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Will be back with my normal entry after Nov 17 till then I couldn't help but wonder, will Obama be the next tenant of the White House?

PARIS FOR PRESIDENT

2008-10-30T02:57:00.000-07:00

Hey u guys.. I've been very occupied with assignments these few weeks. In addition to that, I've like 17 days left to submit my dissertation and I haven't even set an appointment for the interview. I'll post about Vietnam some other time cause I'm not really in the mood for a long post. I will, I promise (pinky swear). Life sucks at moments like this. I really wish I can finish my research in time or it'll be the end of the world for me, figuratively as I'm not the type that commit suicide because I'm kiasi. Speaking of the end of the world... look what I've found while taking a break from work..

Well, I got to admit with some people that she have better policies than that old dude.. what's his name again.. ah.. Mc Ain't... He's so.. behind time. Furthermore, to think of Palin as the president of U Ass should anything happen to him *nauseous*...

With all the election frenzy going on I couldn't help but wonder, what if Paris does become the commander in bikini? Now that's hot... maybe not.

Bygones

2008-09-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

I figured I better compose something before this blog goes on hibernation mode again so here goes... Logged in to Friendster just now out of curiosity to see if there was anything new after such a long time. I'm really not a fan of these types of application especially Facebook! It's so damn complicating... Blame it on my utter incompetency in handling complicated applications haha.. Maybe I just couldn't be bothered. Well, the truth is, I just hated the concept of making friends through an application. However, like it or not we still need it. Why? because nowadays people are just much more techno driven. Sigh.. it's like when you greet them in school it's not enough to strike up a conversation. You need to actually add them or accept their invitation in these applications so that they know you "like" them. I sure hope this does not become part of our culture in the future. Okay to be fair, this just applies to some people. Anyways, back to Friendster. I was clicking through my profile and there it was, a button that says "view blog". I just couldn't resist clicking it and the next thing I knew, I was reading every single entry. It's not so big a deal trust me. Just 11 entries from the whole blog... well actually a little bit more but some went missing (god knows why :P) I missed my old blog so much! I realized that the way I blogged was a bit different back then and all those entries sure did stirred some emotions. My last entry dated 31st December 2006 was when I was 20 years young :) So much had happened since then. Yeah I sure did move on but I think I might want to transfer all my post from Deep Down Under to this current blog if I find a way. Moving on but not letting go hehe... so contradicting. Looking back, I regretted that I had not blog a little more. Ahems.. I know I'm not blogging enough but at least it's better than the previous blog right? Alright, that about sums it all for now cause I'm gonna have to wake up at 8 a.m. for dim sum with a bunch of "tai tais"... haha... Promise to post something more interesting next time. Many things are happening in my life right now but it's just not the right time to share my thoughts. That's why I couldn't help but wonder, do I need another blog to keep my current thoughts?

2008 Olympic Games: Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni

2008-08-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Architectural Wonder a.k.a. The Bird's Nest

I'm sure most of us are aware of the Olympic season which is currently taking place. The event officially kicked off on the 8th of August 2008 at 8.08 p.m. which was considered an auspicious moment not only for the Chinese but for many other races as well. Speaking of the Chinese, being one myself albeit not "made in China", I couldn't help but to feel a sense of pride knowing that the land of our ancestors is hosting this celebrated event for the first time ever (hopefully not the last). Having been deprived of telly since moving to my current den, I was accepting the fact that I might not get the chance to join the millions for the live telecast of the opening ceremony until the very day itself when one of my classmates invited a bunch of us over her place for a "gold class" seating for the premier of the Summer Olympic 2008. I must say, it was with no doubt a breathtaking opening ceremony. No, I meant literally! I wonder what's the air quality like after they released those tons of fire power into the atmosphere lol... Anyway, it was a sight to behold. I think China had somewhat made it clear that they are a force to be reckoned with, an emerging economic powerhouse that is envied by a handful of developed country particularly the US. With controversies fueled by political motivated intentions, it is far too early to predict if the Olympic Games would actually work in favor of the People's Republic. Having said that, I'm all out for China to accumulate the most overall medals in the Olympic despite the fact that they'll be facing though competition from US and the land down under.

Olympic Mascot a.k.a. Fuwa which literally means good luck dolls

On a lighter note, while I was watching a friggin number of 204 countries parading by (take note that some of my friends had already fell asleep at 50), something caught my attention. It was the uniform of the athletes. Suddenly, the "Bird's Nest" turned into a giant runway. The lights were on and the athletes were voguing their stuffs. The critics had their claws out and they coined the term as (read in slow mo) "Olympic Fashion". There were many types of uniform (duh..), some were in their ethnic masterpiece while others opted for a modern approach blending classic with the current trend. My top three favorite countries has to be, in declining order, Great Britain, US followed by France. France stood out where the women's dressed was concerned. They were donning wide belts cinched around the jackets which was described by critics as a must have of the spring season fashion.

Fashion forward French

Then comes my second favorite uniform coming from the US. Who are they wearing? It's none other than.... *drums rolling*

Ralph Lauren! O.O

Every inch personally tailored for that classic American look.

Leaving the best for last, the British, who went for a simple clean cut look...

Impeccable style. Gorgeous. Love those slip on sneakers... and the jacket!

Below are some of the highlights of that night:

Don't they remind you of that DIGI yellow dude! But look how they transform themselves below...

transformed into fairies

The Globe

The Olympic Flame

Perhaps one of the most unforgettable moment of the night as written by some blogger was when Yao Ming, tallest player in the NBA, walked side by side with a nine year old boy who saved the lives of two of his classmates during the disastrous Sichuan Earthquake. A gentle giant with an innocent child. A sight to behold...

As I end this post I couldn't help but wonder, will Malaysia ever get the chance to host the Olympic?

Beginning of The End

2008-07-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

Heylo fellow netizens. Sorry for the delay. I've been trying to find some time to update since coming back from Brunei but to no avail. Life had been hectic since I missed my official first week in school due to work. There was a lot of catching up and decisions to be made owing to the fact that this is my last academic semester. Wow, it just hit me while I was typing that this is it. After this it'll be hello... reality. No more financial support from parents. I fondly remember when I first set foot on KL that it was a gush of fresh air, a new chapter in my life. A lot had changed since then. One thing for sure is that I'm more certain about my goals and what I want from life right now compared to say... couple of years ago? Anyway, there are still 4 more months before I finish my current semester so lets get back to the present day shall we? For this semester I'm taking 5 subjects plus a dissertation making it the last and the hardest semester of all. Imagine that I'm presently at the middle of my second week and the workload is as heavy as the middle of last semester. Some of the subjects are quite dull in the sense that it's more to theoretical applications. Nevertheless, to balance it up, I'm thrilled to be taking one of the most exciting subject in the entire course. It's none other than, International Tourism Development. Let me draw you a brief picture on what I'm having for the current semester aite...

1. International Tourism Development

2. International Marketing

3. Strategic Management

4. International Human Resource

5. Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions (MICE)

6. Dissertation a.k.a. Thesis a.k.a. Final Year Project for some.

Now what so interesting about this International Tourism subject? Hmm... the fact that we get to travel duh... After taking into consider the budget and the visa problems due to the fact that our class in an MNC, Multi National Class, we were given 5 places to consider for this trip which were;

1. Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2. ChiangMai, ChiangRai (Thailand) & Laos

3. Macau, China

4. Medan, Indonesia

5. Ho Chin Minh (Saigon), Vietnam

My personal favorite would be the latter, Vietnam followed by Thailand & Laos. If everything would to go as planned, including Bangkok by the end of this year, I would've visited 4 different countries! I'm thrilled and thankful to have this chance to travel before I start working which will definitely spell the end of my freedom to travel lol... As for my dissertation, I'm thinking of sticking to my previous title which is 'To Investigate The Economic Value of Prewar Buildings In Relation to Sustainable Tourism Development In Georgetown, Penang' since my research proposal had been approved. The school had also assigned a supervisor for my title so I doubt I'll have any chances of abandoning ship.

As this chapter of my life is reduced to a mere few pages, I couldn't help but wonder what's life like once I've been emancipated from my beloved parents?

PS: Below are some preview pics that I promised. I'll delete them in a few days time due to the protocol that we're not suppose to post pictures of such in any websites. Hence I'm doing something illegal muahahaha... Btw the pictures have nothing to do with the palace. It's just some VIP houses that MJ and Vanessa Mae used to occupied during their visit.

Non illegal pictures which are places where we visited...

Triple A's

2008-07-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

One more day before I leave for Brunei and I still haven't pack a single bit so I'll make this a short post just to make up for my absence in the following week. Today I went for window shopping in One Utama instead of concentrating on packing up things from my list of essential items. It was there that I experienced three different events that specifically relates to Ah Long, Air Force and Architecture.

First incident happened either at the opening ceremony or the anniversary of Monsoon-id where I bump into the star from Ah Long PTE. Um.. what's his name... Ah yes.. Mark Lee. Well, that's about it. Nothing particular in terms of celebrity sightings.

That's Mark Lee with Fann Wong

Next was a musical medley by the United States Air Force Band of the Pacific. It was held at the atrium and I must say, I'm impressed! The batch that performed called themselves 'Top Covers' and boy did they lived up to their name. The objective of the event was to foster goodwill between Malaysia and the US therefore there were some performances from our Royal Air Force as well. Halfway through the performance, the band dedicated a song to their bassist as it was his last performance with them if I'm not mistaken. I don't know why but the act itself coupled with the song which I couldn't remember the name struck a chord with me. Lucky my friends went back earlier or they might be thinking that I went psycho or something. Gosh.. I think there's something emo going on with me this few days haha... All in all, the performance made my day.

This is them performing My Country This of Thee in another place with a few different members from the ones I saw in 1 Utama.

As I was heading for the exit something took my attention. It was an exhibition of architecture models build from recycled items. I've always wanted to build one of my own haha...

Build from cardboards

These are from UTM. Doesn't it reminds you of something?

Certainly does for me. It looks like those shop houses in Georgetown.

Speaking of Georgetown, as of 7th of July 2008, the historical sites of Georgetown has been listed under UNESCO's World Heritage List along with Malacca as historic cities of the Straits of Malacca. I'm exhilarated with this news. I've been waiting for them to announce the result as they had mentioned it would be made known on early August. I guess they can't wait to share the good news haha... I'm so gonna boast about Penang to my classmates tomorrow! With this renowned title that Georgetown is holding right now, The Chief Minister had better do something about the conservation of the grand old lady, Georgetown. This is to prevent Georgetown from getting stripped off it's title as the granting of heritage sites by UNESCO is unique in the sense that it is not a permanent title, at least not for sites that has been below par. It would be a shame if that happens. Imagine Miss Universe getting her title stripped off now multiply that with a thousand. That's how humiliating! Alright, a tad too dramatic but still it make sense. Alan, remember I told you about making a blog together on the heritage of Penang? This must be a sign from the divine being that advocates this idea lol... Maybe we can get a few more of our friends to join in seeing that there were so many posts regarding our dear alma mater. So guys, please do help make this coming blog a success! Anyone?

Did I mention it's gonna be a short post? Screw that! Here's a random picture I took before snacking on those yummilicious Tau Sar Phneah. Okay, it's not really that random. Anyway, I'm dedicating this to none other than our very own TSP not forgetting all my other friends. Share share la...

Virtual Tau Sar Phneah from Hold That Thought

Today, I met someone. It was just a glance through. I was quite surprised to have seen what I saw. It was one of my BFF's crush. What I learn is to never judge a book by it's cover even the content page! I guess we got it all wrong. After this incident I couldn't help but wonder, what if I got mine wrong too?

A Royal Affair

2008-07-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

First of all, I'm not involve in any hanky-panky with the royal family. I think Malaysia's political scene has seen enough of these similar theatrics with all those drama queens accusing, backstabbing, playing the "victim" and acting like dumb blonds. Seriously "girls"! Enough cat fightings and superpoking each other (pun intended). Straighten up your acts or just send your resume to Hollywood.

Slightly off track haha... Straight to the point, I'm going to Brunei The Abode of Peace!

I think you know what flag is this... right...?

What's it got to do with the title above? Simply put it this way, it's the Kings 62nd B'day! Yes, it's Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaula, Sultan dan Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam's phews... big day and I'm one of the 16 chosen by my college to attend His Majesty's extravagant gala. To prove how grand it is, they even created a damn website for the event. Sadly, I'm not going as a VIP sighs.. We will be there for the sole purpose of assisting in the royal banquet which will be held at the Nurul Iman Palace! What's so "pah pai" about this palace? According to Wikipedia,

"Istana Nurul Iman contains 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, and a floor area of 2,152,782 square feet (200,000 m²). Amenities include 5 swimming pools, and an air conditioned stable for the Sultan's 200 polo ponies (Is he like a fan of 'My Little Pony'?), a 110-car garage, a banquet hall that can be expanded to accommodate up to 4,000 guests, and a mosque accommodating 1,500 people. The palace was built in 1984 at a cost of around $1.4 billion USD and has 564 chandeliers, 51,000 light bulbs, 44 stairwells, and 18 elevators. It is also a home to a car collection that includes custom-made Ferraris and Bentleys as well as 165 Rolls Royces. Istana Nurul Iman is indisputedly the world's largest residential and administrative palace currently in use for state functions, and at 2,152,782 square feet, Istana Nurul Iman certainly has more building floorspace than any other palace in the world".

Partial view of the palace with golden dome. Notice the houses are like the ones in our own Jetty area build on stilts. It's also a tourist attraction.

Bird's eye view of Nurul Iman Palace. It looks like the shape of a mosque!

VIP Seatings

VVIP Seatings

The Royal Banquet Hall

Now that's kick ass cool! However, there are restrictions on where one can or can't go as everyone involve in the function will be given a palace pass which is as sacred as a passport. In the event that it is stolen or misplaced, one will be required to lodge a police report. Another fascinating fact is that ladies are required to wear a headscarf, in local terms "tudung", while in the palace regardless of race or religion! I'm so gonna have a Kodak moment with my female companions teehee... By the way, I'll be there for 10 days starting from the 9th till the 18th of July. Which means I'll be back just in time to celebrate another "Royal B'day" lol... In addition, my trip will be at the expense of my college yeehah... On top of that, I'll be fulfilling another lame childhood dream of mine which is to fly on an airplane. I hope we are flying with MAS although I'm all for Tony, you go girl! Oops... i meant, you rock! As icing on the cake, we are gonna be paid. I'm not sure how much but some inside source suggested that it might be close to RM 1000! I'm starting to see Bangkok on the map lol... if I do get paid at the amount stated that is. Did I mention we'll be serving with equipments and cutlery made of PURE GOLD that might weigh up to a deadly 15 KG! I couldn't help but wonder, am I gonna cause a royal disaster?

Recap

2008-07-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hmm.. seem to be having trouble remembering who I took this picture with.

More than half a year after celebrating the New Year with Kel, ITCH & Nick (I hope I got all the shadows correct), I'm back again. I know, I know... I've said that I will not abandon this blog before but the work loads and activities of last semester really took a toll on me (not making excuses). Anyway, I would like to apologized to those who had constantly logged in only to be disappointed with the same old post entitled "My December" hence I take it that you guys would puke at the slightest mention of "the month which must not be named" but please don't, it's a special month for me *winks*. To make up for it, I've renovated my blog. Hope you like it. Well, 2008 has so far been quite a journey. Now before you start fainting on me I want to make it clear that I won't go into every details of what I've gone through so far. There, much more relieve already? Back to the topic, this first half of the year saw many "first time" encounter in my life which led to me being less a virgin. Okay, before you go any further please control your hormones as it has nothing to do with sex! What I meant was I've done things that I've never did before prior to this year. Starting with my trip to Malacca for work turned leisure purposes then followed by Johore purely in the name of fun and then pursuing my childhood dream of going to a foreign country, in this case, Singapore. Yes, I know it's no big deal for many people but it is for me as I've never been overseas before with the exception of crossing the Penang Bridge.

The following are pictures from my "business trip" to Malacca:

My first time having a room all to myself. Paid for by the boss!

Porta de Santiago. Around there was the area where we work.

Night shopping at the famed Jonker Walk.

View from the hotel which was supposedly the highest building in Malacca.

Delicious Fried Oysters.

The following are pictures from my trip to Johore and Singapore:

The supposedly famous Nasi Lemak stall at Johore.

The picture tells is all.

Chinatown in Singapore.

Well preserved heritage buildings.

Reminds me of Washington D.C.

Contrast of the old and the new at Clarke Quay.

The iconic Merlion which turns out to be smaller than expected.

Street shopping at Bugis Street.

Adding to that, I had my first hand experience in fine dining which I ended up being drunk, yup you heard me right, after umpteen glasses of wine mind you. I shall tick that off my list of "things to do before I die". Apparently, my classmates got it on video. As the saying goes, that's what friends are for, right?

Fine dining at K.L.C.C.

Then there was the chaotic conference which was dubbed "The First Gastronomic Conference in Malaysia" in which I was placed in charge of the F&B section but ended up doing more on decoration. All's well that ends well, I got an A for my Events Management and the co-organizer gave us a 7/10 which I assumed an A-, not bad for us first timers.

Lunch time!

Work in progress before dinner.

Dinner with "hostess" dressed in various ethnic clothings.

Of course besides those major activities there were other various ones that I will not elaborate on due to my laziness haha.. However, I want to officially thank Jim for the exquisite dinner he "belanja" us during his trip back to Penang for the CNY celebration. THANKIEW JEE MEE !!!

To sum it all, the first half of 2008 has so far been fruitful in the sense that I've gained a lot in terms of experience and also, sigh... weight. With all those traveling going on this year, I couldn't help but wonder, will our trip to Bangkok materialize?

My December

2007-12-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I'm back with lots of pictures this time. Had been really occupied recently. Looking back at this few days, all I can say is that I'm truly thankful that I'm blessed with beautiful people around me. These people of course are my family including my Aunt Linda and my BFF's. Sometimes I feel like I take you guys for granted especially my mum and dad, love you both gargantuously. Haha... if only I have the guts to say it to them. Weird... As for my BFF's, you guys probably know me a little bit more than my family for "some reasons". Thanks for being there for me and for baring the years of hissy fits that I threw at you guys lol... Enough emoness. Moving on to my birthday celebration which had taken place more than a week ago. So this is kind of an overdue post haha.. Anyway, my mum decided to take me to Cameron Highlands on my birthday, right after I came back from KL so I was taking short snoozes throughout my journey there. However, I do know how to get there by car now*hint*hint* roadtrip*coughs* Overall, Cameron is a superb place for those who are looking for peace of mind. Imagine a place where cool breeze gently brushes on your face while you are comfortably wrap up in your jacket and the sun's ray does not scorch but instead provides you with warmth. You can fall asleep just about anywhere there, preferably lying on the oceans of greenery under a bluish canopy vandalized only by fluffy white clouds.

The above are from Bharat Plantation

Cameron was a lot different when I last left. It has so many things to offer now, most importantly good food. My mum, knowing what I like most, took me on a food marathon. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

First up, Oldies and Goodies Restaurant. We were having second thoughts whether or not to enter as it was stated there "Roasted Restaurant" Was afraid we might come out "cooked". Glad we took the risk as the food was delicious. Maybe because it was the cold weather haha...

Clockwise from top; Roasted duck and pork, Deep Fried Fish coated with Sweet Sauce served in Sizzling Plate, Old Cucumber Soup, Three Layered Pork Meat Braised in Fermented Bean Curd Paste Sauce, Stir Fried Long Beans With Braised Mushrooms and Stir Fried Watercress with Light Oyster Sauce.

During the second day, we went there again but I only manage to snap the first dish because there was a Singaporean couple joining our table... have to behave myself lol... Anyway the dish was Claypot Seafood Curry.

Next, we went to the Bharat Plantation and I had a slice of Strawberry Cheese Cake...

Looks nice but at the end, I wasn't craving for seconds.

Then we headed for The Big Strawberry Farm. The name itself would give you the impression that the place is filled with strawberries but I searched high and low for straberries to no avail. Instead I found these...

The Hanging Gardens of Tomatoes...

...and my past obsessions, cactus.

As I climb further up, I saw signboards leading to heaven...

Now for the real thing...

Strawberry Sundae & Strawberry with Yoghurt and Honey

English Scone & Tea

I could barely walk after all those goodies so I did what I do best, sleep! Went back for a short nap and woke up just in time for dinner...

Steamboat!

The restaurant that we went to wasn't exactly nice but the fact that the night was chilly, anything with a bowl of hot soup would have tasted great. Anyhow, we initially wanted to go to one of the restaurants in Brinchang to experience the traditional way of using steamboats but sadly it was fully booked.

Took this pic from the web. The charcoals are placed at the bottom and the long spout is where the volcanic effect takes place.

After dinner, we went for a short walk in one of the night markets...

Bought myself a strawberry fondue. The lady actually told us she was camera shy, like it would stop us... snap! snap!

Then I saw this cute lil' pop-up christmas card and decided to purchase it. Bargained for the price of RM5 and was proud that I succeeded until I found out that Gurney was selling it for RM4.90 nett. Anyway, dedicating this card to Yong Ming and Jim who is not here with us. Merry Christmas! Ah... so economical.

As if dinner was ever enough, we went for desserts which doubles as my b'day cake. Can't believe it takes so long to be 10...

...and my all time favorite fruit, Durians!

Well, that was how I spent my birthday with my family but wait! There's more lol... please don't die of boredom... yet. I celebrated my b'day with some of my BFF a little later but nevertheless it was no less special. Where did they take me? Tag along to find out.

Located at Belisa Row, Jurin

Kel's dish...

...Alan's dish

Ansel going on a diet...

...Nick going on an eating frenzy.

Evil! While they enjoy their food I was left with nothing to eat. Just kidding, I wonder where did the pictures of my dish went to? Food was scrumptious. Would recommend this place if you are willing to foot in a little more cash. As usual, we went for seconds at FACES after our first phase of dinner. There's where the cake was cut and the present was opened...

My Birthday cake, French Cuppachino.

Want a piece of me?

Beautifully wrapped up

Doesn't this remind you of some toy?

Glitter lamp!

Thanks a lot guys! I really appreciate what you guys did for me and what a thoughtful present. Promise I'll take it to my new place. So, that's it. Come to think of it, I still haven't receive a key from dad or mum. Does this mean I'm still grounded by my parents? Oh well, Merry Christmas...

I'm Legal

2007-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

Two more hours before I head for Cameron Highlands. Kel picked me up from the bus terminal earlier and we went for a heavy supper which started with "Wan Than Mee" and ended with "Bak Kut Teh". Then we crash at Alan's for a chat. At last I managed to settle everything including my part for accommodation. Just hoping that the agent doesn't run away with our money, knock on wood. Yesterday was hectic as I have to rush to get everything done before I officially checked out from the hostel. Thanks to my housemate for lending me his room space to store my growing collections of junk. Poor him, paying for the same amount for a room half the original size lol... Took some pictures for memory sake that I'll post on my future entry. As I was leaving the hostel, I felt a slight drizzle. It was as if the hostel itself was grieving my departure. Okay fine, was just crapping. It has been raining consistently these few days actually. My point is, moving out was harder than I thought. Oh, before I left, there was this air spray freshener that I bought and it was still half full. So instead of wasting it, I decided to freshen the entire unit. Well, the outcome wasn't really what I expected as I ended up running out of the unit gasping for "fresher" air. After that, went to Ikea to meet up with the agent to pay for the booking fees for my accommodation then headed straight for KL to get tickets to Penang. However, tickets from "reliable" companies were all sold out so I decided to try my luck on the not so "reliable" company. That, my dear readers, was a MAJOR MISTAKE! I was charged RM35. With that amount, you would expect at least a 2-1 seater coach but instead I ended up in a 2-2 seater coach. Worst still, I fell asleep at the beginning of the trip and when I woke up it was already dark. Then when we were already four hours plus on our journey, I assumed we were somewhere near Penang until I saw an oh so familiar scene ahead. It was the tunnel near Ipoh, which meant there was another 2 hours plus until my destination. To channel out my negative thoughts and emotions at that time, I decided to relax and enjoy what ever view I could see in the dark. To my horror, I saw a reflection on the window with the word HELL almost completely spelled. Took a second look then noticed it was the digital clock on the bus. The time was 11.34. Twenty six minutes after that, I turned 21...

My Recent Rendezvous

2007-12-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

Peeps... I'm back sooner than expected. Would've been in Penang by now but due to "foreseen" circumstances, I'm stuck here. Today's appointment with the property agent didn't went as well as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, I managed to secure a unit, which means half of my worries gone. As for the other unit, I'll have to wait for news from the agent who assured me that she would be able to find a suitable place by tomorrow. Oh well, I guess all I can do for now is wait and see. Two more days and I'll be officially out from this dreaded place. Well, to be honest, after spending one and a half years here I was starting to get attach to this place. Neighbours with disco lights and loud music throughout the nights, slower than dial-up connection and jail-like bars for "protection". However, it was these few days that helped me realized that no matter where a person may be, it is the people around him that makes all the difference. With my close mates all off for the holidays, the atmosphere just isn't the same. Nights are much more bearable when you know that there is someone going through it with you. Lucky for me, I managed to get my mates to move in to my new place. So there, a better place with my best mates over here. Isn't that a happy ending? Speaking of happy ending, there's this movie that I watched two weeks ago which has gotten me hooked to it's soundtrack. This light hearted movie is a must watch, predictable but nevertheless a great way to kick off the holiday season. It is none other than Enchanted with it's addictive arrangement of songs. Then there's The Golden Compass which was not bad. Love... Nicole. She's such a versatile actress. Enough about movies, Kel came back last week from Newcastle but before heading straight to Penang, he stopped by KL and stayed over at Ansel's with Nick tagging along. I met them on the second day for a shopping spree. Opps... I meant window shopping spree followed up by a family bonding session during the night. It was so much fun. It was what I needed after those stressful days. Oh, did I mentioned that Kel brought along chocolates and most importantly he brought along my new precious...

My whites...

Familiar? Now that I've got a new phone I'll be posting with more pictures so that you guys out there don't fall asleep halfway through. Talking about those of you out there, I'm missing the rest my BFF's that I haven't seen for a long time. I've a confession to make. I'm lousy and just couldn't be bothered when it comes to using MSN partly due to the sucky connection and mostly my inability to chat for a long time to a box. So for those of you who are overseas, you guys know who you are, just want you to know that you guys are always on my thoughts. Okay, maybe not when I'm horny :P It's getting late right now, or should I say early? Guess it's time to end this random post. Say this time we end it with a happy news, shall we? *Drums rolling* Here goes... I manage to obtain straight A's for this semester! Hmm... wondering what I should ask for Christmas...

I'm Not Dead!

2007-12-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

Definitely not or I wouldn't be back with a new post. However, I might as well be. Why so? First of all I've had my most stressful semester so far, which explains my long absence, but I'm glad I made it through albeit lots of last minutes with a total of 8 individual assignments and 8 group assignments. Then when I thought the worst is over, I got threatened with the fact that I might be sleeping at the streets if I can't find myself a decent place to stay by the end of the year, which explains why I'm still stuck here in my hostel instead of being back with my family and friends. I guess we won't be neighbours, Ivan, as much as I want to because the house just wasn't meant to be mine. On top of all that, given the fact that the fate of 8 people including me is in my hands(a little dramatic but true :P ) just doesn't make things any more easier. I need to find a place ASAP! Oh, did I mention I lost my mobile? Thanks to Kel for solving my woes on that matter. All that and my partial greediness has also led to WEIGHT GAIN! Arghhhh... Pardon my negativity but before I could relax I need to settle everything. Damn, I need a fitness instructor. Oh, forget fitness instructor, I need a life coach. Sigh... To end this pathetic post, I'm going to let you in on my current thought; 9 subjects next semester! One word, dead...

PS: HAPPY 21st Al. Sorry that I couldn't put you in a happier post lol...

Yours Truly

2007-09-22T03:03:00.000-07:00

Finally, after a long hiatus I'm back with a new post. So happy now YM? Life has been a cycle of work and fatigue this couple of months. When I do get the free time, I'd rather spend it with my friends. So there, the reason for my absence. To be honest, I wouldn't have bothered to start blogging again until my mid term break if it wasn't for another of my friends departure towards a new life in Newcastle. Feeling honoured? Another blog dedicated to you, lucky sl*t. I'm stuck here with tons of assignments while you are there feasting your eyes on an all you can eat buffet. Sigh, I guess the grass is always greener at the other side of the fence. So, as a customary ritual I shall recap about what we have done in the past as if I was giving a speech at a funeral. Touch wood.

Lately I've been plague by memories from our bygone eras, yes we are slowly entering the OHP (old hag phase), so it's inevitable that I'll blog about that. Okay fine, I'll spare you the boredom of reading repeated tales so I think I'm going to scrap that idea. Fast forward to recent times, when "childhood" dreams of us going to the same university and staying at the same house seems more and more far-fetched. Each of us growing up with different point of views and interest, career wise, yet the homogeneous factors that we all share as a person never fail to bind our friendships. I miss the old times when life was mellow, who doesn't, but at the same time I'm psyched about what the future has install for us. Ah, the oodles of possibilities... career, power or maybe love? As for now, I shall temporarily mourn for I have one less person I can rely on physically, rain or shine. Those memories we all had together I shall leave for you to interpret. May it keep you warm during the cold winter days, just in case you fail to get your new crush under your blankets by Christmas. Lastly, for all that we've been through together, I can safely say that it has been a privilege to have known you as a friend, a confidant and a horny b*tch. I hereby declare us all BFF, best family forever. Yours truly...

PS: Do FedEx me one of those delicious items at the buffet counter will ya?

Bittersweet

2007-07-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was filled with happiness and also sadness, a mixed of joy and sorrow, events that are of contrast in terms of feelings. First of all, I woke up to a flu and as if that wasn't enough, I missed my bus by a few seconds. Then when I do get on the bus, there was a traffic jam. I reached school about an hour late thinking whether I should enter class or not and that's when I saw three of my friends sitting at the guard house, one of them crying. Apparently, she was robbed or rather another victim of snatch theft. I felt so bad for her. Sometimes I just don't understand why those brainless people can't earn themselves an honest living. Oh, I forgot, they are brainless. Anyway, we decided to accompany her to lodge a police report and that's when we saw the down side of our country's authority figure. Upon reaching the police station, the first thing we notice was the leaking roof. What's it with government buildings that seems to face endless cases of leaking roof? Sigh... Anyways, it was quite a relieve when we saw that they were actually using computer generated reports instead of the hand written ones. That was until their computer "froze" in the middle of the report. So we ended up making a 30 minutes report with tons of grammatical mistake. Worst still, one of them don't seem to even understand a word of English and when we told her that she forgot to state that there was a witness to the event in the report, she hesitated and chose to ignore it saying that it's okay. Speechless! How can she choose to omit the most important part of the incident? Let me just quote a fraction of her masterpiece "penjahat mendangtankan kepada mangsa dan tolak dia jatuh tanah lalu ambil bag dia". After having to endure a traumatic experience reading her "karangan", she asked us if there was anything wrong? I was wondering if that was a trick question.

The policeman that took our report before being taken over by a lady officer...

So, when everything had been said and done, you would have thought that the victim can now go back and have a good rest but instead she has to make another appointment in another police station just to tell the sergeant the same old story once again. Hello... haven't you guys heard of an invention called PHONE?

The sergeant using a phone! So they do know what is a phone...

At last we were back to college after dropping my friend back to her place. Pity that she has to go though this ordeal but lucky she she was unharmed. Nowadays, snatch thieves doubles up as murderers so better let it be your belongings than your life when it comes to being robbed. At least the day was not entirely a bad day as it was also a special day. I have two friends that are July 18th babies and they are none other than Alan and introducing Wan Kan...

Tadaa...

Ah... I'm melting...

Red eggs or melted birthday cake? I'll go for the eggs...

Prize giving ceremony. Lol...

Nice... but what's underneath it...

G-Strings!

21 SX

It was a small party but it was sure one of those that will leave an impact on your mind. I mean how could you forget that image lol... We were laughing our lungs out. Finally, the most important thing I have to say is, HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY ALAN!!! Indeed it was a day of bittersweet memories...

Frid@e the 13th

2007-07-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of the first week of my new semester. I've so far received 5 group assignments out of my 8 subjects and will be expecting a few more to come by on the second week. Last few days has been stressful but I think I'll manage to pull through. Well, the grouping problems are not as bad as it seems now that I'm beginning to get use to my working environment. I guess I've been lazing around too much during my holidays lol... Needed that kick to wake me up from my slumber. Looking on the bright side, this semester's assignments are a lot more interesting as it requires a lot of out door activities which happens to be what I love most.

Class ended earlier than as expected because my lecturer for Marketing took a day off and how nice of him for not informing us. We were practically waiting for 4 hours thinking that he was late because of his Friday prayers. Our bad. We should have known better, he wasn't that "holy" to begin with. Lucky for me, that 4 hours was not entirely wasted as I attended a meeting for a cocktail mixing competiton. Oh, did I mention I was one of the participant? Lol... Anyways, keeping my fingers crossed so that I won't make a fool out of myself during "The Day". With only five classes left, I'll be competing with experienced people from the industry. Thank god there will not be any flaring or I'll end up with broken glasses on my head. Initially, I intended to take up table setting but after reading the contract that requires me to bring my own tables and chair, I pass the idea. I mean, can you imagine me with tables and chairs in the LRT? Not to mention with my service uniform! Assuming if it happens, most likely the scenario would be me standing next to the door asking, coffee, tea or me? This offer only applies to "you know who".

Back to reality. Since I got back to my hostel early, I decided to have dinner with Aaron in SS2 but not before buying some Durians for dessert. The journey took us 50 minutes but it was worth it as I get to savor the dish that I was longing to order for so long. Spaghetti Meatballs! The best thing was, it only cost RM10 and you really get your money's worth. Share it with another person if you're not a big eater. I had an ice blended drink called Lily to accompany this dish.

Spaghetti with cheesy meatballs!

Lily; combibation of ice blended lychee, mango and some funky green stuff that replaced ribena. Served with chunks of watermelons and longans with nata de coco.

After meal, we decided to have a walk around the area before we head for the bus stop so that my stomach could digest all those junk I've swallowed. We were about to reach the bus stop when something related to this day happened, something unfortunated. Not to us but some other people so hold your drama. It was an accident involving 2 cars and a bike. I manage to caught a few shots but most of it turns out distorted when I view the pics the second time at my hostel. Creepy! Fortunately, on an unfortunate day, my skin grew a little thicker and I manage to capture bits of the after effect in short clips. At one point I was even shooed by someone.

The victim's bike...

The victim...

Help arrives...

The treatment...

Victim in agony...

Me getting shooed... that a$$h0l3!

Our bus came as soon as the victim was transferred into the ambulance. Reached home just in time for dessert as my dinner was halfway through my digestive system.

All hail the king...

I wasn't expecting much since it just cost me about RM10 for 2 durians but it turns out to be good. I guess today it's not a day like I've imagined, a series of unfortunate event, at least for me it wasn't...

Principle VS. Achievement

2007-07-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

What am I doing here? I'm suppose to be sleeping by now. In fact, I'm really tired and my brain neurons are probably half dead so pardon me if I happen to crap a lot in this post. I know... you guys are probably thinking, " Go ahead and sleep then!" I wish I could but there are a few things that has bothering me lately and I need to express this out before I continue college tomorrow or I'll risk suffering from emotional breakdown... just kidding! Okay, will talk about it later. Anyways, I've been wanting to post a lot of stuff but I just couldn't find enough time to do so. I really don't want this blog to be in another of my "temporary interest" category so I'm really trying hard to maintain it especially with my new schedule which requires me to enter class at 8 a.m. from Mondays to Fridays and finish at about 5 and sometimes 6p.m. Sigh, so much for having a life. I mean after those classes, I'd be so tired that I might possibly end up skipping dinner just so I could jump straight to bed. Hmm... to think of it, that's not entirely a bad thing since I'll be on my "dream diet", literally.

Moving on to the less crappy stuff, I'm so excited about the outcome of the latest 7 wonders of the world(Please visit Kel's blog for the pictures). Yes, I know it's yesterday's news but I couldn't resist blogging about it. To make it short and sweet, I'm so glad that The Great Wall made it to the list. Not that I was worried it wouldn't get a spot in the finals because if it doesn't, it would've been a scandal. The question is, with the newly announced 7 wonders in addition of the Pyramids of Giza which was given the sole right to maintain it's status without participating in the vote, wouldn't the whole thing be known as the 8 wonders of the world right now? Speaking of pyramids, Egypt later announced that the new 7 wonders has no value and the pyramids will be the only true wonder. WTF! Hello... don't they know that the ancient wonders are basically compiled by a bunch of Greek geeks that probably just travelled around the Mediterranean rim giving their one sided views on what's the wonders of the world? At least the new wonders are from a general point of view by people around the world. Having said that, I still agree that the pyramids are indeed a marvelous creation, withstanding the test of time therefore worthy of the title, wonders of the world.

Now that I've had my say, it's time to talk about "the thing" that has been bothering me. Lets put it this way, in my class there are people with different capabilities. Some are good in everything, some are weaker than others and some are generally good with a certain weakness. I fall in the third category. Now the problem arises when group assignments are handed out. Notice the word group? It's not like I can't work with people, just that it's a little bit different this semester. There are a lot of new people who are merging with our class for certain subjects and basically it adds in to the competition hence the high stress level. Since our assignments are given to us on our first day of class and our grouping was to be finalized on the next, it's expected that everyone would choose to group with people they know because we don't even get the chance to socialize yet. Our class decided to draw lots among ourselves with five to a group and I was quite happy with the outcome. Sadly, my joy was short lived because it was unfair that some groups were having a majority of people who are weaker so we decided to switch to make a balance. I guess you get the picture by now. During my last semester I had grouped with "hard to deal with" people before but I was okay with it because it was just my class and I knew what standards I need to achieve to get good grades but now with the addition of new people, I'm a little bit worried because I don't know where to set my standard therefore I can't afford any screw ups for this semester. Since this is mostly about my business class where presentation holds a greater deal of marks because proposals are important in the business world, I'm even more distress. I know what I'm thinking is a bit self centered because I actually know how the weaker people feels. It's as if they've been viewed as a burden even though they've tried their best, for some. I know this because I've been the weak one before. I'm in such a confusing stage right now, stuck between principle or achievement. On one hand, I felt that the right thing to do is to help others but on the other, my father pays his ass out for my education and the least I could do is not to let the past repeat itself. Advice? Anyone...

Round I*land Food Escapade

2007-07-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

In just a blink of an eye my holidays are over. I can't believe how time has pass us by. Today is one of those days where I sit down and think about the yesteryears. It amazed me in a way that although so many events had took place, sometimes it feels like we went through it just now. There was a theory I've heard before, that every event is actually happening at once but the only thing that puts them in order is time. Maybe there's some truth in it.

What have I done during my holidays? Let's see... I had basically eat, eat, eat and eat! So, to make sure that this post remains fat free I'm not going to elaborate about my eating escapades. Then again, there is no such thing as fat free in my dictionary so lets just make it a "low cholesterol" post okay? Deal. Of all the days, I would say that my last day in Penang was a day well spent. It was as close as it could get to feeling the thrill of yesteryears given that many are not in Penang anymore. Those days, we would have easily filled up two cars and sometimes more. Damn, when will we get the chance to do that again? With another friend going off soon, the line of possibilties seems to grow thinner. On a brighter note, lets talk about what I did on my last day in Penang before I left for Selangor. As I mentioned earlier, it was a day well spent because we finally get to go on our so called "round island" tour. Okay... it wasn't exactly round island but what do you expect? It's dangerous out there you know... we might get lost somewhere in the jungle and get kidnapped by unknown man eating tribes or worst still, terrorirst that will send videos of us getting beheaded to our family members and to think of that cheap video quality that will not make it pass the acadamy awards, it's definately not worth our lives! I know... highly dramatized. Blame it on my obsession of getting an oscar. Continue on we first headed to Balik Pulau, the land of delicious Laksa. Since I've been eating Asam Laksa for like about... all my life, I decided to go for the Laksa Lemak which was simply yummilicious!

The Laksa stall...

Laksa unite!

That's for breakfast. Next, we headed off for lunch. On the way we decided to use the "jungle path" as described by Al and Kel. Sigh, some people are just too modernized I guess. It's not a jungle for heaven sake! There was even a trafic light! Lol... The view, breath taking. I meant literally, the air was full of haze so if you wind down and take a deep breath it could cut your oxygen supply for real! Okay, not that serious but still at an unhealthy level. After driving aimlessly heading to town, we stop by for "Economic Rice", every Penangnite's staple diet, well at least for me it is. There's something about Georgetown that never cease to captivate my imagination. Perhaps its those pre-war buildings that manage to capture the essence of the old world charm.

Majestic pre-war buildings...

Hidden treasures...

Avanza models???

As if lunch is ever enough, we headed to Swatow Lane for dessert...

My goodies, not your goodies!

After we filled our belly with food we decided to go for a walk in Chew Thean Yeang, one of Penang biggest aquarium shop. Ironically, I was more attracted to the dogs than the fishes over there. At last, our trip come to an end because Kel has to go for classes so we dropped Al, yes Al, even when his house was like few meters away lol... Then, we bid farewell to Jus next. I was not ready to say my goodbyes yet but my turn came soon. Just like that I was back home chillin out in my balcony while listening to songs...

Partial view from my balcony...

Then, I lived happily ever after... until the phone rang. God was gracious to me. He knew that I couldn't posibbly leave Penang before having my dinner so he sent Nicholas...

Oops... that's Saint Nicholas.

Yes, this is the correct one...

We went to a coffee shop in Bayan Lepas that serves fresh seafood with noodles or porridge as their specialty.

Featuring model Kelvin: Shirt; Tesco brand-RM5 the most; Accessories; Barley Ice-RM1.20, Seafood Porridge-RM8

My RM11 seafood noodles sigh... Nevertheless it was deli-cious

Before heading back, we stopped by at Starbucks, E-Gate, for a short chat. Ordered their new beverage, Azuki Frappuccino which comes in milk or coffee based. I chose the milk based and it was "shiok" to the very last sip. Now that's a happy ending. I wish. I went back and I started packing my stuff to get ready for my trip back to study. Sigh, when I'm all alone at night sometimes I start to think about the future, so I took a stool and sat at my balcony once again listening to songs as my mind wonders about what the future holds. If the theory that I mentioned earlier is true, then there's a possibility that men can actually foresee their future. Well that's just me, thinking out loud...

Chili's Licensed to Grill

2007-06-30T04:50:00.000-07:00

Arghh... think I just heard a snapping sound coming from the back of my shirt. Oh well, it's kind of expected since I've been doing nothing but eating or doing something related to eating recently. There goes my resolution for a healthier diet. So I figured might as well get something out of it by blogging hence the title. After craving for so long, since my friends first recommended it to me in Selangor, I was thrilled that the franchise was brought to Penang. Gurney Plaza to be exact. I know you'd think that I'd be giving this restaurant a good review since I've been bugging lots of people to go dine here with me but sad to say, it was kind of a let down. Maybe it's because I was expecting too much since I was generally receiving good reviews from my fellow classmates on this place or maybe the Chili's in Selangor are of different standard but then again it's a franchise, I think it should taste the same anywhere.

Sorry for the blured picture... it was fine before I transfered it into my lappy

So, back to Chili's at Gurney Plaza. As we took a look at their menu, we as in Nick, Alan and I, we decided that we would share two main course and a drink. A drink? Yes, a drink. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cheapskate but to spend RM 7 something without tax on an ice lemon tea in a family retaurant is absurd! Well, to be fair, you actually get to refill "selected" drinks if you are not sharing. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of silly rule is that? I mean I get it that it's some kind of marketing strategy but come on! The biggest mistake is to tell your guess what they can or can't do with their food... or drinks! That's rule number one. Rule number two would be, do not stare at the guest as if they are going to sprint off without paying as soon as you look somewhere else! Guess what? They were guilty of that too. Well, on a brighter note, the atmosphere was kind of okay. It has a bar like feel just that it's brighter instead of that usual dark and gloomy.

Love what they did to the tables... crafted tiles

Prices for main course ranges from around RM20 something to RM30 something in general. This, in my opinion is a little bit on top of the roof especially in Penang where good foods are available in cheap and abundance. Well, about the food, it wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either. I'm sure that those of you who had been there would agree with me that the side dishes actually tastes better than the main course itself.

Both chicken dishes... and the desserts which were too expensive for our tastebuds

Down to the very last bite...

Dissatisfied customer...

Basically that was my review on the restaurant, feel free to leave any comments if you have anything to add or differ. As for myself, it's time for another round of food hunting...

Value for Money:
Ambience:
Service:
Food:
Overall Rating: