Arsenal and Fulham Last Night

Arsenal beat local rivals Fulham last night, but it was not really something to get me all excited. Martin Tyler summed it all up when he said that the match had an 'end of season' feel to it, even though Fulham were fighting for relegation, and with a new manager on his first game struggling to impress.

Frankly, i like Fulham. I like Chris Coleman, and was kinda surprised when they let him go just like that. Did the management realized that they were going to get relegated anyway? I thought it was pretty unkind of them to have let him go in such a manner, but such is professional football in England these days.

As for the Arsenal supporters, i suppose most of them are only looking forward to next season and the return of the stars like Henry, van Persie and perhaps one or two new signings to set Emirates on fire. Undoubtedly there will one or two departures, most like Baptista (never looked happy) and maybe Ljungberg, but as they always say, players come and go.

No One Was Kicked Out

Last night's Idol Gives Back show was really good, and at the end of it all, none of the six contestants were eliminated. It wasn't the 'biggest shock in the history of American Idol' as Ryan Seacrest kept plugging shamelessly, but i think it was in good spirit given the whole sentiment of charity last night.

I thought the performances were okay only, not as spectacular as they made it out to be, but in some parts it was good, like the bit with Jack Blakc and Seal. Jack Black isn't readily identifiable with the American Idol image, he's more of an MTV kind of pseudo-celeb, but i guess it doesn't hurt for Idol to try to connect with a different, more lucrative demograph.

Celine Dion did this 'duet' with the King, Elvis Presley, through the magic of audio and video technology, i wonder how much the producers paid to get the rights to that one. I've heard Elvis, alongside the Beatles are some the notoriously famous artistes that have stoically refused to allow their songs to be used in the show before, but i suppose everyone has a price, dead or alive.

The video footage of the kids across America and Africa were tastefully kept in good intentions, although i note that Simon Cowell still kept his aloofness at the first time he went on stage, and what's with Paula's dress?!

Thank Goodness, Order is Restored to the Universe

Sanjaya is out of American Idol.

And finally, some degree of order is restored to the universe. There was definitely some unbalance to the force when that smiley kid cruised his way to the last 7 of the biggest TV show in America (and i can probably safely say, the world).

I supposed his a nice kid and all, nothing against him, but there were definitely a lot more talented people on the show that were booted off before he was. I'm not talking about those in the final twelve (those guys were DEFINITELY better than him!), some of those who didn't make get past the auditions were surely more talented than him?

But anyway, i read this piece on Yahoo! News that speculated that Sanjaya and his sister would make it really big post-AI if they were signed on by some kiddie channel, like Nickelodeon or something like that. Fine, definitely would work. If he didn't sing on the show, that is. He can do his hula-hula dance, perm his precious hair in whatever style he wants, no problem. I can see lots of potential if he sticks to the program.

If You Have Lots of One Cent Coins in Your Wallet

Thought for the day:


If you have lots of credit cards your wallet now, you probably

You probably don't use some of them a lot;

or

can't say no to those annoying credit card salespeople.


***


If you have lots of 1 ringgit coins in your wallet now, you probably

still don't know that they aren't worth anything now.


***


If you have lots of 1 sen coins in your wallet now, you probably

eat at McDonalds a lot;

or

pay utility bills over the counter.


***


If you have lots of RM50 notes wallet now, you should probably

watch out for pickpockets.


***


hmmm. How many more days to payday again...?

*Sigh*

Another Episode in Saga of My Proton

Regular readers of this blog (yes, all TWO of you) will remember me mentioning about my (un)trusty old Proton Iswara, which DBKL is considering to award the “Oldest Proton in the City” special prize soon.

These days I seldom use it, due to a variety of reasons, namely – air-con not working, engine overheats every time I get anywhere within 2 meters of Jalan Tun Razak, etc. You get the picture. So recently, its been spending a lot of time parked outside my house depriving the grass under it of sunlight, so much so there’s a patch of yellowing grass everytime I reverse the car out.

Then last week my wife, who starts the car every 3 days or so, told me it couldn’t start. So on Sunday, I popped the hood, thinking that the battery connector is loose, one of the many frequent problems I’m already used to with this award winning car. But no, the connectors were firmly in place (gee, at least something isn’t loose or falling onto the highway for once).

The last time my mechanic changed the battery was just over a year ago (he kindly engraves the date of change onto the top of the plastic cover, of my battery, not my car), so I reckon the battery is temporarily dead due to unuse, not like totally dead. Usually my car battery lasts somewhere between 18-20 months, depending on usage, providing I don’t bleed the battery dry inside every time.

Every time I had a dead battery in the past, I’d push start the car. Because it’s so easy and fun to do so. But this time, my car was parked in an awkward position facing uphill, so we decided to do something I’ve never done before – jumpstart the thing. So we whipped out the cables from another car (always have cables, especially if you drive an automatic car, or else you’ll spend a lot of time having meaningful phone calls with AAM).

So we move another live car as close as possible to the dead car (very difficult especially the dead car is parked in front of a railing next to a tree) connected the cables. Red cable joins red connector to red connector, similarly for black. If you’re jumper cables come in any other colour, it’s time to see your eye doctor.

Anyway, we managed to get the dead car up and running again. And a few lessons learnt:

• Make sure you start the car at least once every three days.


• Driving a car without air-conditioning is bloody uncomfortable.


• After taking off the cables, don’t touch the copper parts together. Sparks hurt.

If This Was My Last Post

AhPek tagged on this really interesting one.



The scenario is this...

Bloggers: The blogosphere is coming to an end.

You have one last post. What is it going to be?

What is the final summary of your blog?

What is the one last gem that you want to leave with your readers?

Hmm... the concept of the blogosphere ending is a little harder to visualize, unlike global warming. What would cause this apocalypse? An international ban on free speech? A self destruction of the medium brought on by over commercialization? I dunno, let's just assume the Internet has run it's useful course and resources are low, and the powers that be decided that blogs have to go since they use up a lot of bandwidth and probably 'not important' as other websites (like p0rn) so blogs are going to be killed off...

So here goes nothing.

My last blog post:

Ladies and germs, it's been a fun ride. Blogging was cool (and is pretty much still cool) and now it's gonna be killed off, but i'm not too distressed about it. Although through all these years, i have met a lot of new friends, made some money (actually, a LOT of money, but let's go with 'some'...), and generally had a blast writing, expressing myself and reading lots of fun stuff.

But life isn't all about the Internet (believe it or not), and it certainly isn't all about blogging only. There's so much to do in life away from the PC - books to read, people to talk to, places to see, food to taste, so much more in this wide world that people have slowly forgotten about.

So, once i close my wordpress tab, and shut down the PC, i'm gonna take my beautiful wife and two angels, and probably go and eat our 'sang yee phin' (snakeskin fish slices) at that famous restaurant in Seri Kembangan.

So long, it's been fun, and thanks for all the fish.

End of transmission.

The Weekend Is Upon Us Again

Yep, it's Friday night again, and I'm not entirely sure how much of 'me time' i'm gonna get in the next 60 hours or so until Monday morning. Weekends are sometimes overrated for me, the company thinks they're giving me a huge thing with 1.5 days off, but in actual sort, it's a lot less than that.

For starters working half day on Saturdays is actually a lot more than just half a day, i still get up early, drive to work, and by the time i get home, it's past 2 at the earliest, so just add a couple of hours more, it's a regular work day. Never like working Saturdays.

Anyway, tomorrow we're having dinner with Pat and MY, and John and Shang. I think John won't be coming, what with PC Fair and all, so maybe it'll be the few of us and maybe MY's parents if they're joining us. It's for our help in last week's full moon party, actually we didn't do much to help, i just drove pat to get the satay from the food court. But i always enjoy a good dinner, especially one with good friends. The food may not be fabulous, it's the company that counts.

Speaking of which, not sure who's playing who for the EPL tomorrow. I've been off footy for awhile, actually, partially due to the fact that i'm never around on Saturday nights.

I't not even 11.30pm, yet and i'm sleepy. Gotta get some coffee. See you guys in a minute.

Drinking Too Much Coffee Makes My Teeth Yellow

I drink about 2 full cups of coffee everyday. I can’t start my day without one, and I can’t get through the long afternoon without falling asleep if I don’t get another caffeine fix. It has been this way for quite a few years now, I suppose it’s one of the by-products of working in a stressful environment.

One thing that has resulted from all this caffeine is that my teeth is getting yellow. I don’t smoke, but if I did it’d be a lot worse. I don’t need my dentist to tell me that (although he still tells me every time I see him), I can pretty much see it for myself every time I look into the mirror to brush my teeth. Unfortunately my dentist has emigrated to Australia.

Anyway, gargling with mouthwash helps alleviate the problem slightly, but only just slightly. I’m been thinking of whitening my teeth. I dunno, it looks quite tempting, but i need to find a dentist first. This is a good place to start, it's very useful and a great resource for you.

Although I should really cut down on coffee, that should really help a lot.



(This is a sponsored post)

Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage

I’ve just finished the second season of Black Lagoon, called The Second Barrage. Actually, it didn’t really seem like the second season to me, I watch all 24 episodes of the 2 seasons in one long continuous stretch, over a slow few months.

First off, for those who haven’t watched Black Lagoon, it’s anime about the a pirate torpedo boat and it’s 4 crew members, Dutch, Revy, Rock and Benny. It’s a modern-style anime, with good 2D and 3D animation over what looks like watercolored background. The important thing to know is that the series is pretty violent – it isn’t something you’d see on Saturday morning cartoons on RTM2, there’s lots of swearing, lots of guns and blades, severed heads, bloodshed and all that jazz that get our moral guardians in tight knots.

Season two has only 3 story arcs, the first one is about the murderous Romanian twins ('Bloodsport Fairytale' Ep#13-15), the second is the one with the counterfeiter girl ('Greenback Jane' Ep#16-18), and the last one is the pretty long one about the Japanese Yakuza ('Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise' Ep #19-24).

The first thing I notice about the progression into the second season is the growing significance of two characters into the storylines – Eda from the Church of Violence and Balalaika from Hotel Moscow. In comparison, there is less emphasis on uber-cool Dutch and Benny, who hardly even feature much in some episodes. The last story arc excludes both of them almost completely.

Eda is appeared in only one or two episodes only in Season 1, here she’s added as more of a comic relief, playing Revy’s ‘friend’ and accomplice mostly, as much of a ‘friend’ Revy can have. She’s quite funny at times, and not too shabby with the guns, although not as deadly as Revy, of course. Miss Balalaika, mostly client to the Lagoon Company, plays a key role in the storylines here, and quite a bit of her history is revealed towards the end.

Black Lagoon is, at the heart of it, still the Rock and Revy show. Rock is still philosophical and human as ever, but I still feel that his character is still not entirely believeable as a member of the crew, how do you keep that shirt and tie clean and uncreased all this time?! Revy, on the other hand grows in character and yet remains a loose cannon as before, the way we all like it.

I found the Romanian Twins storyline a bit too much, even for a matured anime. Rock’s justification at the end of the arc didn’t save it for me, however you look at it. It's also a little unbelieveable how a couple of pre-pubescent kinds can be so well-skilled with an axe that's probably heavier than them, but then again that's fiction.

At the end of the season, everyone comes back to Roanapor, and nothing much has changed for the city and the characters, probably paving an easy transition into Season 3. And Eda’s probably relieved that Revy still hasn’t ‘done it’ with Rock yet...

Oh Well, Haley's Out

Oh well, Haley's out of American Idol. I liked her, probably not for her singing, if you get my drift. She had a bad night yesterday, so i was really half expecting her to be voted off. 'Turn the Beat Around' is one difficult song to sing, and she didn't handle it well at all.

But the reality of it is this - one more week that Sanjaya will be around. For yet another week, he isn't even in the bottom three. I must say he must have overwhelming support from Americans or those rumors of the Indian call-centres are really true. But i think the kids really like him - there aren't any other teeny-boppers on the show, except Jordin, but she's really a matured singer. If you told me she was 26 instead of 19 i'd believe you anyday.

So JLo actually appeared on the show, now that's a REAL superstar. I wonder how American Idol got hold of her to appear. Next week i hear it's country and western music week. i'm not a fan of that genre, and this year there's no Bo Bice or Carrie Underwood to carry the country music flag, so probably all the stars will be struggling to pick appropriate songs.

So who's my favorite now? Not sure i have one, but Blake is quite good. Of course in terms of talent Lakisha and Melinda are still miles away from the pack, but that alone isn't enough to get you to the final. It isn't all about the talent only, right? We'll see how it goes next week.

My Favourite Bon Jovi Tracks

I didn’t realize it until the other day, I’ve been listening to Bon Jovi for more than 22 years. They started off as a poodle rock band out of Jersey, with their big hair and make-up that was the look at that time, through the maturing 90’s and right up until today where they are almost coming to the ‘aging rockers’ category.

Bon Jovi had always been the epitomy of good time rock and roll for me. A little less decadent than Poison and Motley Crue, but I think their music stands up much better over time compared to their long gone peers (Ratt? Winger?).

Anyway, i have most of their albums, and over the years have some of my favourite songs, here's my list (it's important to note that while songs from some albums are significantly missing here, it doesn't mean i don't like the album):

Living On A Prayer
What can I say? The first Bon Jovi song I heard, and the first one I fell in love with. The perfect hair-metal song that captures the mood of the era, wasn’t it? I love the working class story of getting by…

"It doesn’t matter if we make or not, we’ve got each other, and that’s a lot for love…"

Ironically, Bon Jovi would mention Tony and Gina again in another song 20 years later, I bet you know which one.

I’ll Be There For You
This is actually from their New Jersey album, the difficult one after ‘Slippery When Wet’ made them famous. I thought this was one of their best ballads, especially compared to the crappy ones from the 90’s onwards.

Dry County
One of the rare BJ songs with a message, it’s also only a few tracks I like from the Keep the Faith era. For some reasons, the lyrics remind me a lot of the Scorpions ‘Under the Same Sun’. Keep the Faith isn't high on my list of BJ albums, maybe because of the direction of music they had decided to take at that time, but this track still hums in my mind sometimes.

It’s My Life
A true return to form for the boys from Jersey. Bon Jovi obviously know only too well that in the new millennium, they will never be as famous as they once were, as the reality and evolution of rock music mean that their fans are already middle aged housewives, and the rock kakis (fans) are now probably nearing forty. But in the age of Linkin Park and Nickelback, Bon Jovi released a really fantastic record, and this single really showed that they still mean business.

Blaze of Glory
Not strictly a Bon Jovi, this was released by Jon Bon Jovi as a solo singer for the Young Guns soundtrack. I absolutely love this song, I remember always playing it on the jukebox at the Malay stall near my house. If that’s not enough, the video was superb, too.

Notable mentions:
You Give Love a Bad Name
Miracle
My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms

I'm thinking BJ will still rock on for some time, even if they aren't the biggest live draw anymore. But you as they say, rock lives on...

More Safety Tips You Should Heed

This is the continuation of the previous posting on safety in and around construction. At the break-neck speed the city and our country is developing, there are construction sites all over the country. Like it or not, dangers from construction sites affect us even without us knowing. You are advised to read the earlier post here.

In the second part of our installment, we list out more safety points when you are near construction sites.

Whenever you see trailers on the road transporting construction materials like concrete precast drains or, steel bars or girders, always give way and do not follow closely. If you need to overtake, stay two lanes away. We know this sounds like basic driving advice, but every week we see all these horrifying accidents on the road and in the papers involving these long, dangerous vehicles. Most of the time, it’s the innocent motorists and passers-by that pay the price. We once knew this contractor that send out heavy steel materials every night from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur via trailers. The journey takes more than 8 hours because the heavy trailers travel very slowly in the dead of the night. And more often than not, the poor drivers work for days with minimal rest and sleep, so…

Whenever there is building work going on, there is also a threat of dengue. Even if your neighbour is doing a small renovation work or a huge highrise construction, as long as there is stagnant water, mosquitoes will breed. In large construction sites where workers stay in kongsi, dengue is quite common, and most of the time unaccounted for. If at any time, you feel that mosquitoes are breeding in a site near your house or office, alert the Department of Health or the local council.

Recently another case made the front page of a local newspaper, where some shopowners were complaining about the tower crane from a nearby high rise construction site swings over their premises. While the JKKP investigates the matter, at any time should you never walk or pass under a moving crane, be it a tower crane or a mobile crane. If a case like this one occurs (radius of tower crane exceeds limit of construction site), alert the local council.

Gravity Defying Tower To Be Built in Singapore

We know this has nothing to do with Malaysian property either, but since it's a slow Monday morning, might as well...

Dutch architectural firm OMA is designing an office tower for the Far East Organization, a company some Malaysians are familiar with. The tower, a free standing gravity defying structure, will be called Scott's Tower, situated near Orchard Road.

The 153 meter tall tower will be located at the intersection of Scotts Road and Cairnhill Road, in close proximity to Orchard Road, Singapore’s famous shopping and lifestyle street. With 20,000m² of built floor area, the building will provide 68 high-end apartment units with panoramic views. The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core.

No kidding. I bet the price per square foot is going to be a LOT higher than the RM450psf you get in Mont'Kiara... let's not even talk about the maintenance fees...

Tumpang To Buy, Get Discount (and my dream Camry)

You know how when you want to buy something from the sundry shop, you always ask around your friends / colleagues to buy together so that you can get better discounts? Now there is a local website that is expanding this idea online called Tumpang.com.

The idea is simple - first you gather some people who want to buy the same thing - books, movie premier tickets, anything. Then buy in bulk at a lower price, and everyone shares the savings. Great idea, right?
As an example, there is an offer to get Spiderman 3 movie tickets at RM4 here.

Great idea, cool website design. You know how it is with Malaysians and discount / sales, right? Thanks for the heads-up, James.

I wonder if a few of us 'tumpang' together, any chance we can get an awesome discount on the new Camry...? I totally fell in love with that ride, man...

(pic from carbuyersnotebook.com)

Me And the New Espresso Machine

My office has a spanking new espresso machine, and boy, is it a lot of fun.

I’ve never liked all these designer coffee with their fancy names (espresso? Latte? Cappuccino? Apa binatang ini semua?), except for one or two I usually order at Starbucks or Coffee Bean.

You see ah, I like my coffee sweet, like the ones you get at the old town kopitiam. Nescafe is okay la, but getting a right brew is like Mission Impossible. Either too bitter or too sweet or too undrinkable. Plus drinking too much Nescafe will result in one of the following:

• Yeet hei (heatiness)


• My pee smelling, um, Nescafe.


• Any other condition related to item one above, like sore throat, etc.

Anyways, this espresso machine in my office very teh pwn one. The satchets dem expensive one, but I beginning to try out all the different combinations of tastes and methods. So far the decaf latte is my favourite. At least not so yeet hei...

Sanjaya, Oh Sanjaya... And Don't Forget to Vote For the Worst

The other while walking around in Ampang Park i saw this PS2 game on sale:

WHAT?! An American Idol game? For PS2?!

(not sure if the pic shows up, but if you click on the image you can see the details of the game on Amazon's page)

So how do you play? Sing into your mike (or controller?) and let the 3 judges rate you?

Too bad i don't have a PS2 or else i'd tried it out. If i get to play Simon Cowell, now THAT would make a good game.

***

Speaking of American Idol, this season is turning into almost a fiasco. Yes, I'm talking about Sanjaya Malakar. Frankly, i think he's one of those contestants the judges (or producers) put into the final 24 to attract a certain demographic of viewers, like they did with the Chicken Little guy and Bucky from last season. They don't seriously believe that these contestants can go on to win, but they sure can draw in the audience.

But this has gone a step too far. he's now in the last 8, and have no signs of losing steam. But he IS definitely getting the buzz American Idol sorely needs. If you remember, there's this Myspace blogger known only as J who has vowed a hunger strike until poor little Sanjaya is voted off the show. But due to medical reasons, the hunger strike was called off after 16 days...

also, you may want to check out this funny website also about AI and sanjaya: Vote for the Worst

This Should Explain A Lot to Most of You

Star: I need a new name for my new image – something that projects my personality and aura to my million of fans worldwide…

Agent: Fans? What fans? Millions?

Star: You know, all those teenage girls that watch my TV show, and that are going to buy my new music CD showing off my awesome undiscovered singing talent.

Agent: (cough, cough) Talent? What talent? Sometimes some things should stay undiscovered. Weren’t you kicked out of the Korean Idol auditions 4 years in a row?

Star: You should hear my new CD. My music is haunting yet beautiful, my recording company is talking about a tour to support the album. You know, lots of MTV-style dancing, showing off my washboard abs and skimpily dressed back-up dancers. There’ll be female dancers, too. MTV is American for “MUSIC TELEVISION”, you know that?

Agent: Oh wow, did you figure out that all by yourself? Which reminds me, have you re-paid your mom and grandma for the liposuction on your stomach?

Star: I’ve been thinking about my name. All this green-eco-environmentally conscious crap seems to be hot, so something along those lines, hor?

Agent: And what did you have in mind? “Greenhouse Gases”? “Polarcaps Melting”? Ooo! Ooo! How about “ChloroFluroCarbon”? Rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?

Star: No, no. Something short, one word. So that all those screaming girls can fit my name in the signs they hold up during my sell-out concerts. Besides, I have problems with big English words, like ‘contract’ and ‘credibility’.

Agent: How about ‘Bland’? Or ‘Crap’? Oh wait, maybe ‘Lame’?

Star: Are those environmentally-friendly? I’ve been using this awesome space age technology called “Google” on my 10-year nephew’s computer, have you heard of it? It awesome!

Agent: Google? I *think* I’ve heard of it… (rolls eyes)

Star: How about ‘Haze’?

Agent: It’s unhealthy, everybody hates it, it makes people sick, YES, IT’S PERFECT FOR YOU…!

Star: But I dunno, I don’t like words with ‘z’ with in it. Hard to sign my autograph for my millions of screaming fans…

Agent: Hmmm, environmental single syllable words? How about Rain? You’re practically a washout anyway.

Star: Rain? I LIKE IT! I can see it now – the biggest rising star in Asia… RAIN IS COMING!!!

Agent: Then you probably should bring in your mother’s laundry outside...

Where I Would Like To Go... (Rather Than Sitting Here at Home)

Got this from the washing machine mom, laundryamah, supposed to do it last weekend but my host provider was migrating servers, so kenot do, this morning doing halfway my Screamyx died on me, so now i'm doing it again... remember to save the draft... remember to save the draft... remember to save the draft..

Anyways, its a travel tag, and i kind of like this one. I've recently been bitten by the travel bug and have started going on lots of holidays with my family, after NOT going anywhere for about ten years. You see ah, when i got married last time, my wife and i got no money one, so we never go anywhere, then like 2 years ago, i got fed-up, went to make NEW passport for my whole family (teh very special one, with canggih microchip one) and we only started to travel.

Where would i like to go? Lots and lots places - Gold Coast Australia, Japan in winter, England and France, Italy, New York, you name it, I want to go. While I am dreaming, i might as well ask for a Mitsubishi Evo X.

But seriously, the place i would like to go next is, of course Hong Kong. We are planning to go real soon, like in a couple of months, hopefully. I only need to settle one small problem, persuading my company to approve my precious annual leave for the whole week.

Why [tag]Hong Kong[/tag]? No particular reason, really, it's affordable (its affordable if you compare it with all the places mentioned above), and it's a great place for a family to go. Plus, both my wife and i grew up watching lots and lots Hong Kong TV series and movies, so it'll probably be cool to see all these places... Actually, my wife watch a lot, i didn't really watch that much...

Hong Kong Disneyland

Victoria Peak

What to see in Hong Kong? There's lots to see and do, you can find a lot of helpful resources on the Net, as we are researching these few days. But some places we are definitely seeing are Victoria Peak, Kowloon Park, Ocean Park, Hong Kong Disneyland (hopefully we get to spend the night there), the famous markets and shopping centres, etc. By the way we're not going to Shenzhen even though ALL the promoters at MATTA were pushing it heavily. Why would i want to waste a day there?!

Ocen Park

So there, hopefully i get time off from work and i can go... for the dim sum... for the taan tart... for the scenic ferry across the Harbour...

Starlight Cinema

Have you ever wanted to watch good anime on a large screen?

Have you dreamed of enjoying subtle Japanese humour and candor under the polluted Malaysian night sky?

Think that Japanese girls with big shimmering eyes, pleated skirt, knee-high socks and pink hair are uber-cool? (Oversized sword optional)

Saccharinely sweet Disney cartoons making you hurl?

Tired of crappy dated shows on Animax?

Want to understand the Japanese theaterical psyche but cannot understand what heck Kabuki is about?

Want to make under the night sky to the images and haunting music of intricate J-pop ballads (while other people give you weird looks)?

.
.
.
.

Now's your chance.


Come the Starlight Cinema Week by Emina Cyber of MMU.

2nd to 5th April. 8pm onwards. It's free.

Aw heck, just read the poster.

Where I Would Like To Go… (Rather Than Sitting Here at Home)

Got this from the washing machine mom, laundryamah, supposed to do it last weekend but my host provider was migrating servers, so kenot do, this morning doing halfway my Screamyx died on me, so now i'm doing it again... remember to save the draft... remember to save the draft... remember to save the draft...

Anyways, its a travel tag, and i kind of like this one. I’ve recently been bitten by the travel bug and have started going on lots of holidays with my family, after NOT going anywhere for about ten years. You see ah, when i got married last time, my wife and i got no money one, so we never go anywhere, then like 2 years ago, i got fed-up, went to make NEW passport for my whole family (teh very special one, with canggih microchip one) and we only started to travel.

Where would i like to go? Lots and lots places - Gold Coast Australia, Japan in winter, England and France, Italy, New York, you name it, I want to go. While I am dreaming, i might as well ask for a Mitsubishi Evo X.

But seriously, the place i would like to go next is, of course Hong Kong. We are planning to go real soon, like in a couple of months, hopefully. I only need to settle one small problem, persuading my company to approve my precious annual leave for the whole week.

Why Hong Kong? No particular reason, really, it’s affordable (its affordable if you compare it with all the places mentioned above), and it’s a great place for a family to go. Plus, both my wife and i grew up watching lots and lots Hong Kong TV series and movies, so it'll probably be cool to see all these places... Actually, my wife watch a lot, i didn’t really watch that much

What to see in Hong Kong? There’s lots to see and do, you can find a lot of helpful resources on the Net, as we are researching these few days. But some places we are definitely seeing are Victoria Peak, Kowloon Park, Ocean Park, Hong Kong Disneyland (hopefully we get to spend the night there), the famous markets and shopping centres, etc. By the way we’re not going to Shenzhen even though ALL the promoters at MATTA were pushing it heavily. Why would i want to waste a day there?!

So there, hopefully i get time off from work and i can go... for the dim sum... for the taan tart... for the scenic ferry across the Harbour.