My $1 Worth of Bitching

$1 Car Hijack Awareness

2007-12-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

Motor Trader Journalist's car nearly got hijack with this new method. Here's his article :

“Hey, brake awak sudah pecah, minyak keluar (your brake is broken and oil is coming out)!” Normally, a warning like that from another motorist would alarm you and you would immediately stop and jump out to look. But these days, that’s not such a wise idea, even if you are worried about the brakes leaking. This is because one of the tactics of robbers now is to use that warning to make you stop and get down – as this writer discovered this afternoon. Fortunately, however, I am not an average motorist who doesn’t know a lot about cars and whose first two thoughts were: “brake leaking… why didn’t the warning light come on?” and “two guys on a motorbike… be careful!”.
Fortunately, the second thought made me hesitate about getting down and in fact, even when they (two Indians on a motorbike) drew alongside me in the jam along Jalan Syed Putra, Kuala Lumpur, I only wound down the window a bit to ask them what they were saying. As I stopped the car, I was still thinking about the absence of a warning light which would normally come on because a leak will drop the brake fluid level and the sensor (which most cars have) will pick it up.
As I pulled over, the two guys stopped their motorcycle in front of me and the tall pillion rider got down (which also struck me as suspicious because most people usually shout a warning and then go off). It could be that because they were both wearing dark blue shirts with a Shell logo, they expected that unsuspecting motorists would let their guard down thinking they were mechanics. Anyway as the tall guy was getting down, I noticed that in his hand was a small container (like an Eye-mo bottle) and that immediately stopped me from getting out. I immediately drove off and kept an eye in the mirror but didn’t see them following me.
I drove on looking for a spot with plenty of people so that I could check on the front wheel and turned into the carpark at Muzium Negara. I was still alert for the possibility that they followed me so I quickly ran to the front to check – no oil, nothing visibly wrong – and as I rushed back to the door, around the corner they came! I jumped in and they did a u-turn and went off.
So be alert for this tactic which may be a new one. They may not want to hijack the car and probably just want to steal things and that container may have soapy water or something that can burn your eyes and as you are blinded, they open the doors and steal whatever they can find. So whatever you do, don’t get down and don’t stop further along thinking it is safe. If it is a brake problem, just drive carefully till you get to somewhere that has security guards nearby. And it is best not to head straight for home because you never know if they may still be following you, determined to rob you (hopefully, you were an unlucky random choice).
While on the subject of modus operandi, as the police have warned, be alert when you are rammed from behind and don’t get down. Drive to a police station to make your report – you are not committing an offence if no one has been injured and you can tell the police you were suspicious of the car that rammed you. Also, do not think that if there is just one person in the car that rammed you, it is safe because there have been reported cases where another car comes up and stops ahead and two guys get out with parangs and do their nasty things. You also need to be alert for the possibility that if you are talking to one of them one one side from inside the car, it is not safe because the others can smash the glass on the other side and grab you.
Sadly, it’s a dangerous world we live in these days and being alert and staying calm enough to be able to recognise danger signs is critical.

Source

Signs of Oil leaks.

1) If your brake fluid is indeed leaking you would notice that the pedal is softer and there will be a sinking feel when you step on it. Either that if it leaks badly you will surely hit something LOL!!! Your OIL indicator warning will be lighted on your Dashboard display.If its leaking on one side then you car will be pull to the sides as you hit the brakes.

2) Engine oil leaks will also bring up the OIL indicator warning lights. Once your engine oil/Engine lubricant (china man calls it black oil) wears off your engine will cease and your car will just roll till stop.

3) Clutch/ Auto transmission Fluid(ATF) its the same oil used for your brakes. If you're losing this, you'll notice your clutch is very much shorter than your usual step all the way to the back. Will eventually give you problem engaging your gear cause your Clutch is not engage properly.

4) Gear box oil, very seldom this will leak. If it does, please read number 3. Same problem engaging gears.

5) Fuel/Gas leak. Can you tell your car is on fire from your Mirrors?? Or feel the heat DUH!!

Careful, lately 4 wheel drives are still on top of the list, Hondas are also quite hot. If you drive a Proton like me then you wont have any problems. Dont flash your fancy Gauges and stereo sets in your car, you're inviting trouble. Just saw a Satria GTI smashed up in MidValley last 2 weeks after watching a movie, nice turbo car and pity the owner of the car. All the fancy gadgets gone. My co-worker's Mitsubishi Storm nearly got hijack few months back after he's done partying in KL, one car just ram into his rear at the traffic lights outside of Brickfield's Police station. Second car stop next to him and 3-4 fellas came out tried to take his keys but he fought back and drove off.

Finally It Arrived

2007-11-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

After nearly 2 months it arrived last Saturday. Really worth waiting for my new toy. 1GB Silver IPOD Shuffle came fully charged yeeehaaaa!!! I wont buy a new one for sure cos its too costly just to the bitten apple logo. I heard from my friend that some Shuffles were going out cheap last Thursday in Sunway Pyramid new wing. MYR99 promotion going on during the launch of the new Apple center in the mall. Also heard the queue was crazy.

I'm back from the dead!

2007-10-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Finally woke my lazy ass up to spend some time here. Wow I've gone for more than a month. Some pictures from the prize we won from the Walls Cornetto contest.

Meet up with organizers and winners at Subang Terminal 3 Airport. Getting our interview by Elaine from Hot/Fly FM. Apparently our recording was aired few days later during my sleeping time. Not that I care, I must have sounded like I just woke up and thats the fact. Apparently I heard Griza telling Eugene it was mainly Kalai and Aaron's voice over the radio more than any of us.

The lovely ladies who also won the contest with us. Half Griza face on the left, Chi Ling, Kalai and Elaine from G2 the events company that was running the show. Fries for lunch, the cafe doesnt have much to offer.

Our City Tour aircraft, Cessna 172 owned by the Royal Selangor Flying club hence the registration gets the 9M(Malaysia)-RFC. Me & Griza or Li Pin was the first to go up, Mr.Kan just tag along for field recording for reporting. The craft was darn small for me and it was seriously hot inside at the back seats. I felt like I was squatting more than sitting. Lucky Griza was petite and she seems quite comfortable even though I was occupying all the back space.

Mr.Kan caught in act, our official photographer for the event. Lucky fella get to work and paid and also enjoy at the same time. Tempted to rob his camera and all the accessories.

Bird's eye view of section 13 and 14 Petaling Jaya. Me office is somewhere down there. All the uncomfortable and hot feelings just vanished when we took off, the view was out of this world. Damn darn good experience, maybe once in a life time.

Malaysia's Parliament.This is where all funny and weird and crappy laws are made.

Captain Kumar impressing the gals, he's also the flight instructor for the Royal Selangor Flying Club. We had to ground after a short flight due to strong winds and it was starting to rain, our landing back in Subang was damn shiok!!! Plane was wobbling left and right felt like we gonna crash! Love the feel and the adrenaline rush. So the others couldnt fly on the same day, it wasnt advisable according to 3 pilots we had there. Aaron was giving his technical flight talk,... blah blah... yada yada. So their flight was postponed to the next afternoon.

Off to Sunway Extreme park for the 2nd event of the day. Just an overview of the circuit. Perfect sky, not too hot and sunny evening. Cant wait to trash and crash. Which I did -_-

Our slow carts, they didnt have any 100cc race cart around so no complains since its free. Alot of action on the track, I spun twice and crashed once trying to over take Kalai Schumacher. She was super FAST!!! What to do, I weigh nearly 3 times more than her. Each hairpin I over take her, she just zoom off on the straights. DAMN she was fast on the straights, not to mention she was only driving with one hand on the wheel and the other trying to keep the helmet from flying off her head. It was entertaining enough just to watch her from the back LOL!!

Meeting up again at Tarjine along Jalan Bukit Bntang for our dinner date. Lucky we guys had time to go home and freshen up other wise our bodies would have expired by the time we meet up for dinner at 8PM. SilverArrow team dating Chocoluv, lovely and intelligent ladies abit quiet and shy on the other hand but great companies. once more Chi Ling on the right, Kalai, Griza, Eugene, Aaron and meself.

For appitizers, we were served some salads and breads with the mashed paste. Never tried Moroccan food before and we were all starving. Food just kept coming till we had to drag another table just to put the dishes. Sorry no time to snap pictures on the food I couldnt resist the food. Highly recommend! Food price are quite reasonable from the menu and tasty as well. The gals was saying the food here beats Tarbush hands down. Tarjine lamb and the tomato rice was simply marvellous.

Chatting and waiting for dessert to be serve, lets not forget their infamous Moroccan black mint tea. Hot clam and soothing after a heavy meal. Taste like sweetened Listerine mouth wash.

Final picture of the night before we all left our own ways. Thanks to Walls, I'm sure we all had a jolly good time. Tarjine Restaurant is near the McDonalds at Bukit Bintang cross junction, just above of the luggage shop one shop from the alley. Will post more sky tour pics tomorrow.

2 Days Countdown.

2007-09-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Walls Cornetto contest prize briefing. Elaine from G2 was rather.... ermm well lets just say that she didnt turn out like what I had imagine her to look like from her voice thru our phone conversations. She's very pleasant and friendly lady with a sweet smile. One of her team mate was also there in the meeting room and she was more to the MILF looks. Manage to catch a glimpse or two on the other employees of G2, saw 2 hot chics.

Meeting was short and quick, they listed down out schedule for this Saturday at 2PM we're gonna start by taking off the Subang runway to KL for a 20mins air city tour. Plane can only fit 2 person excluding the pilot, so each guy will have to date a gal on the plane. After taking turns on the plane, we'll off to Shah Alam go cart track for a 30 mins spin and off for dinner at Tai Jian. No fucking idea where on earth is that place, couldnt Google it up also.

We meet up with the Girls team who won and would be so called our dates for the whole event. Although their 21 years old, they're sweet young gals. They looked more excited and hyped up than us. If I were meet anyone on the street, they might assumed I am out with my daughter. No Exaggeration, I just look very old. I am sooo uncle!

Lurve Kliks

2007-09-17T04:45:00.000-07:00

Woohooooo we won the bid contest!!!!! Walls office just called us up to arrange for meeting and briefing for the prize. Elaine sounds very sweet over the phone hmmm I wonder how she looks like on the other end. Very often voices can be very deceiving. Whacked all 10,000 points into the bid last 3 minutes and no one came close. DAMN the previous team WSC, bunch of youngsters won 2 prizes back to back. WHOOPED THEIR ASS!! Felt good, whooped Kenny Sia's team too. Final prize coming up soon and it will be the best prize and also the worse to bid for cause they can only afford to pay for 3 person on a 3days 2nights cruise trip to Phuket,Thailand. Higher competition and I'm just happy that we won the Wings of Lurve contest.

Here's what we won :

Sky trip on a plane around KL city
Go-Cart racing somewhere
Apple IPod nano shuffle (the most worth it)
Dinner date with the winning gal team (bunch of 21 ripe legal years old gals)

Wonder when we will be partying. Cant wait!!

Trust & Lies Best Combination

2007-09-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

Just watched Chris Rock movie recently tittled "I Think I love my Wife". It's a funny comedy with teasing scene, theres a good moral on TRUST we can all learn from the show.

I'm quite sure most men and women will go thru part of their life where they stand at a cross road and dont know which way to choose. This movie is quite good helping you to decide what's right and what is wrong. Lots beautiful bodies in the movie and alot of trust issues and how to abuse trusts. Basically Chris Rock plays a married man with a boring routine sexless life after 2 kids and his mind begins to stray especially when he meet his best friend's ex gal who I must say was quite hot and meaty. He was tempted so many times by her and she was those kinda sucking vampire bitch who only wants to have fun and no directions in life. Aint gonna spoil the movie for you, go watch it. I'm sure most of us walked this same path in the movie but at the end of the day we..... erm I mean most of us will choose the right path to walk. Some may find that Chris Rock cheated on his wife in the movie but to me, I wont consider his actions in the movie as cheating. What do you think? My question is,..... can you trust someone 100%? To me trust will need years to build and takes seconds to destroy it, that is why I can never trust anyone 100% NOT EVEN MYSELF!

Go watch the show,.... dont know if its out in cinemas yet but I manage to catch it on some PC. My opinion of the movie is that Chris did the right thing at the end of the movie and kept it all to himself. I dont think his wife played by Gina Torres will be able to handle the truth behind all the activities. If I was Chris Rock in that movie,...... I would have cheated my wife for sure mmmmm yummyy succulent piece of meat. MUAHHAHAH. Sometimes lies helps to make things better rather than ruining it. Abuse trust and lie our way through might eventually help, I dont encourage it but it would be a best last resort if you're beyond saving.

Malaysia's 50th Birthday

2007-08-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

Malaysia gone thru half a century of hardship and we're doing quite fine and good. Tough there were several incidents in pass that really made our people suffered but we all turned out pretty good. Was watching the live telecast of the celebration at Merdeka Square last midnight and I was quite curious and wonder what the hell was going thru their heads. True enough the people were there to celebrate and its a joyful event but few things werent right at all during the celebration. I was taught back in school that we should respect our national anthem unlike some Johor dickhead in Taiwan who thinks he can sing so well. I dont blame him for his opinion but there were thousands of Malaysians last night did a similar thing including of our Ministers and VIPs. When the clock struck 12AM our Prime Minister announced and shouted Merdeka (Independence) and the National Anthem was played. Instead of standing up right and still to sing our anthem those dumb pricks was happily waving mini flags. How ironic!

Second thing I notice was the flags that was waving in the crowd, it wasnt only the the country flag was being waved. I was surprised that there were UMNO (Malay Political Party), MIC (Indian Congress party), MCA (Chinese Political Party) and Gerakan (People Action party) flags were waving all over as many as the Malaysia flag. WHY??? Is it because that all are pro-government parties? Where are the political opposition parties? Arent they Malaysians too? Where was our ex Prime Minister? Was he too old to hang out late?

Thats why Malaysia is a great country, never fail to amuse me with funny thoughts. Great place, great food, great people. All equally balanced out with several negative matters which I will not wanna get involve with. I'm not a political writer like Jeff Ooi, but I am proud to be a citizen of Malaysia not the best place on earth but its good enough for 1 Malaysian Ringgit.

Walls Cornetto Lurve Kliks

2007-08-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

Walls makes the best ice cream cones and lately to hyped up and market their product more, they came up with some friendster alike web community for Cornettos lurvers. Its a brilliant site to boost up their sales with contests and redeemable products and discount vouchers with their business partners. Cornetto Royale comes in 5 amazing flavours and of cause its made in Thailand and that country my friends, are surpassing Malaysia in ice cream making and manufacturing. Stupid Malaysian ice creams are mainly palm based instead of dairy based, YUCKS. Then again if we dont buy back our palm oil our country's economy might just fall and crash.

$1 rates Cornetto Royale in the following order from best to the not too bad.

Royal Chocoluv - triple chocs consist of center filled choc sauce, chips and ice cream..... OMG super HIGH!!!

Royal BlackForrest Blossom - Choc ice cream with center filled raspberry sauce and tiny crushed Oreos on the top.

Royal Cookies & Sweet Dreams - Dairy ice cream with crushed cookies and center filled choc sauce....... I see the light, I think I'm in ice cream heaven.

Royal Tiramissyou - Tiramisu choc coffee ice cream with choc sauce.

Royal Miss You Berry Much - Only has long name but no chocs. Not too bad strawberry cream with bits of almonds and strawberry sauce at the base

First time in my life I participate on a public contest, Cornetto FRENZYYY!!!!! Aaron was so free and he signed a group to participate and bid for the prizes. He text me on Sunday and it really looked like it was something important "Check your yahoo messenger I left you a message". When I logged in and he left me a site and told me to register quickly, so I checked out whats the biggie and saw the contest. Lurve Kliks Bids.

The contest needed a group of 3 person below age 28 and we couldnt think of any so I picked Suben and got him to register too. Ever since then we've been hunting high and low for Walls freezer in convenience stores and petrol marts. Got conned once by buying old stock cones with not contest point

How the contest works?

Gather as much points from buying Cornetto Royals with the Contest Lid. Make sure its Flip & Click like this.

Each lid will have a code behind of it where you're suppose to key it in at the contest site and each lid will give you 100 points. The points may be used to redeem gifts, goodies or donate it to the team to bid for the prizes. Team will then decide which prizes to bid for and the auction begins, groups will then try to outbid each other till the very last minute before the auction close. Best thing is, the auction is divided into male participant groups and female participant groups so there are less competition. Main idea of this contest is for the wining male group to date the wining female group. 4 main prizes up for grabs in total but at the moment we're only hot on 1 which is called Dive into Lurve.

Dive into Lurve Goodies

Both group winner will get chauffeur to KL Aquaria then prep up for a dive in the large indoor tank with the Sand Tiger Sharks. Get shot....................... on camera and video. Then followed by dinner date at the Prime Grill, Crown Princess Hotel KL.

Good news our team Silver Arrow (dont know how on earth Aaron came up with that) are leading and hopefully we're gonna win. Unbelievable amount of Cornettos stocked in our freezers, I think its enough to last us a month! I hope the female lurve clits group winners...... ermm I mean kliks team are pretty and hot. Might need to use come cornettos to cool us down after dinner.

Reza & Lavinia's Wedding

2007-07-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Recently attend Reza & Lavinia's wedding at the Lone Pine Hotel located at Ferringhi Beach, Penang. Not many people could afford to throw such a wonderful and romantic wedding, I think it would be most gals dream to exchange vows by a sun setting beach followed by a garden pool side dinner with the sounds of rolling waves hitting the shores. It was a great party apart from the usual old fashion and normal chinese weddings I attended. This is something fresh to me and Mrs$1, although the cost for us to drive up to Penang plus hotel accommodation was costly but it was very well worth it.

We arrived late a missed them walking down the isle to exchange their vows.

Groom's family & relatives.

Path to heaven

Beach photo shoot : Waiting for the sun to touch the horizon

Found out that I've got some talents in photography

Some shot of the garden and pool side setup.

Excellent table settings. Hand made gifts for everyone by Lavinia. All tables were named after famous beach paradise, we were seated at Tahiti. Sea shells shape fridge magnets with our names written on with a small photo frame of their wedding picture. Baby blue and white theme for the night.

Macro shot on some decorative.

Started early on fluid diet, there were red grape juices, golden barley juices and single malt juices. Swaying like the trees before dinner started.

Yum Seng!!!! Toast to Mr.Carls and Mr. J.Walker

Bouquet tossing. Reza's sister caught it let hope theres another wedding here again some time soon.

Newly weds dancing.

Party time!!!! We're all doing the bhangra dance. Especially the light bulb twisting action.

Hot and humid night. Luckily it didnt rain because it rained the night before and the next day. Thank god there was a pool and many got thrown into it. Reza was thrown in 3 times and lost his mobile to the water on the 3rd deep. Poor dude injured his toe and was limping around all night. Fantastic night, great food except for the extremely well done lamb. Only suckie thing was I had to drive back to my hotel in Gurney and most of them stayed in Lone Pine. And the damn shitty thing was there was a road block on the way back to my hotel. Had to make a turn and went back drinking till 230AM.

Malacca's Food

2007-07-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Some good food to share from my recent Malacca trip 2 weeks ago, been really busy to post this. They're not that all to die for but great food enough to satisfy my fussy tounge and tummy. Didnt had much time this trip to get all the good food, so we'll just have to eat what ever. I know there are more food around but these are just something we discovered ourselves from our previous trips. it always easy to spot good food anywhere, just look out for long queue or non stop busy cook.

Meet Jonker Street uncle popiah. Indeed the best popiah in the world rated by $1, its even better than Penang's.

Close up shot by Hiew's camera, its perfect to me cause the skin is not too thin like most other popiah sellers. Its not soggy soaking wet with the turnip's gravy and best of all, the main secret ingredient is lard. You can opt not to have it in your but there no point without it. A teaspoon full of lard and crispy fried fat chucks.

Uncle also sells deep fried spring rolls, no lard in this but he makes it all up with his crispy home made skin. Perfect! These sells off extremely fast cause its limited, I couldnt get it this trip cause I only went there at nite.Photo courtesy from Hiew again. So remmeber if you wanna get your hand on these, get to Jonker at 6PM on weekends.

Dim Sum stall at Jonker, nothing special but good snacks to eat while walking around Jonker. Used to be MYR1 then went up to MYR1.20 and now its MYR1.50 for any 4 pieces. Forget the rest just choose the white coloured 'siew mai' on the top right corner. Thats the best, infact better than some other dim sum places I've been to.

Didnt had time for this also sigh,..... if you have a sweet tooth like me, please help yourself to this small lil bowl of diabetic chendol. Ice is very fine shaved, quite generous with the coconut milk and chendol jelly but best of all the thick 'Gula Melaka' (palm syrup) will sent you straight up to heaven. Also found at Jonker, you'll see 2 shops in the midlle of the street selling laksa and chendol. Both shop serves good chendol, Anyway its the syrup that makes me come back over and over cause they leave the syrup on the table and you just help yourselves with it as much as you can.

Recent discovery after I stumbled into some blogs while I was doing some Malacca food research. Tangkak beed noodles at Melaka Raya, awesome beef stocked brooth served with tender beef chuncks and tripe and brisket. Excellente!! Half muslim friendly place, its not certified Halal but iits doesnt server pork and there was a sign for non Halal food is prohibited in the shop. Saw some malay customers while we were eating there.

Devan & Tharsa's Engagement

2007-07-10T04:39:00.000-07:00

Tried to sleep after a long salsa night in KL but I had some task to finish up for Dave's engagement party. It took me a while to go thru my 2000 songs to select his music by the time I finished it was nearly 5am. Still couldnt shut my eyes after a cold waking shower. Felt like a few moment and it was 10am and it was time to get ready to leave, had to go to Reza & Lavinia's nikah ceremony at Reza's house. Mr&Mrs$1 was dressed in casual jeans and polo but that was really too under dressed compare to everyone else in Reza's house. We felt ackward, the ceremony was supose to be at 1030AM and the damn idiotic imam made everyone waited till 1250PM. Lucky I arrived late at noon and I didnt catch the nikah ceremony either, I had to leave to Malacca before my internal bio clock decides to shut down for rest. Bid farewel to Reza and off to Malacca, had to stop for fuel for my car and fuel for my tummy and something caught our attention.

As we all know that Malaysia is a multi racial country, but this is the first time we see a multi religion house. Highest level had this fat toaist laughing Buddha, then you can see the white statue of Virgin Mary carrying baby Jesus. Finally on the ground floor theres a ash coated Indian pumpkin to ward off bad omens. How bizzare!

Arrived, checked in and knocked out cold. Hotel service was rather crappy. Booked a single bed room and they fuckin gave me 2 single beds so whats the point of the booking for.When asked for extra shampoo they said "Sorry Sir we dont give extra" WTF??!! Damn room smells of ciggerattes. The room was fine after we aired iit for a while and the bed was comfy and clean.

Ceremony started at 8PM at the Church of Christ's kindergarden, all family members, friends and relatives were all present. Pastor Batumalai were giving a short sermon followed by some songs of praise. He then blessed the rings and engaged them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy ghost.

"With this cuffs, I bid my freedom and bachelor life goodbye"

Dinner Time! Awesome curries served. Not much left for second helping especially the mutton masala.

Simple and nice Rangoli (aka kolam) at the entrance to the hall where the ceremony was held.

Poor Ceasar. He was tied up to the pole outside. I still think he has small oriental eyes.

Kudi karans of CSA/CSC Advance Call Center.

Since we were on holy ground, Pastor already said that theres no spirits served because there were too many holy spirits around. So we had to rush off to Jonker St before our tables were given away to other customer at Ringo pub. And so it begins, endless flow of beers for the next few hours just like the Nordic halls of Valhalla. I was worried I would be knock out drunk with the whole kudi karans gang.

Nothing like a icy cold beer after a warm nite with curries. First round at Ringo pub.

2nd session at Libra just few doors away. Ringo was too hot so Raj went next door and started another session. Cheaper booze here too, MYR30 for a bucket of 5.

Toasting aomng ourselves at Libra before Dave came and join us.

Still at Libra waiting for Dave & Tharsa.........lost count of bottles.

Back at Ringo, Jay (with camera) came all back all the way from Miri for the ceremony and celebrations.

Dave & Tharsa dancing.

Ringo entertaining us,... real talented fellow runs a decent good pub and sings well.

Goutham came from India to attend this function.

Bunch of happy aunties jollying themselves, line dancing to Ringo's songs. Happening aunties.

That's it,...... if I go on posting more pics it will never end. later thos aunties came in and started picking us young guys and formed a very long conga line. next thing I know our whole gang and the aunties were doing the conga on the street. Good fun!! Said farwell to the whole gang as Ringo sang his last song for the night. Me & Mrs$1 left as the whole group went back to Libra to continue drinking. We didnt really count how much beers we purchase on both sides. My guess is a good 50 buckets that make 250 bottles of beers. Non of us were drunk and everyone was sober like hell. Dont need to get drunk to have fun, we all drove safely back to our own hotels.

$a1sa

2007-07-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well since the Malaysian Salsero was in town and he wanted to go dancing, I went along with him. Me and Mrs$1 never gone to a real dance club before so it was a good opportunity to check out the scene. We picked Allan and Stephanie up from his house and off to Little Havana in KL. Its quite hidden in town and I just so happened to passed by it last week to get myself some good beef noodles some where near there. Otherwise it would take us forever to search for that place.

Little Havana is really a very unique place, reminds me of those pubs in Cuba on Discovery travel channel. The setup is very plain simple and it gives the warm feeling and some pleasant cigar smell in the air. They serves great variety of cigar at reasonable price according to the online menu. Cover charge to go upstairs to salsa only cost us MYR10 each, my ears grew into trombone size when I heard they guy said 10bucks!!!! Best of all it comes with 1st drink and the choices were either a bottle of mineral water, soda or a draught beer. DAMN!!!!!! Hell no I'll take the first two choices, no kudi karan kupek(drunkard in Tamil) like me gonna be sober when theres alcohol around.

You could feel the heat rising as you walk up the stairs toward the dance floor upstairs. WOW its a great place, not much place to sit around and I was welcome with sweaty people spinning away on the dance floor. They look like they were having so much fun, I wish I could move like that but my fat body is too stiff.

Allan didnt waste time cause we arrived late and its closing soon. He danced his life away! Damn he has good stamina. I need to stop my weights lifting and get back into cardio machines.

Meet the gang, from left to right Michelle & Michelle, Allan & Steph, and this hot chic posing. WOooooo suits the temperature of the room.

Lovely couple from Kansas City, MO. You should see the passion they put into their dance, its more than passion, it was LOVE.

More Salsa in action. According to Salsero Allan, Salsa dance got its name from the dip sauce Salsa. DUH! I assume its because the dance and the sauce both have its alikes. Hot!

Stephanie giving Allan some tango lesson. She's good at tango, atta' girl!

We had a fun time even I didnt dance much, got a crash course at Merengue from Allan and Stephanie was giving me lesson on the dance floor. I couldnt stop moving my upper body, too much rave dance from my younger days. Went dont t get myself a icy cold Mojito, the best I tasted so far. Why is this the best? Because the bar tender used all the proper natural ingredients. Fresh squeezed lime juice not cordial or lemonade, lotsa mint leaves. He put alot of afford into pounding the line cutlet and mint, top up with a lil syrup and rum. Shake with ice and whola!!!! Perfect mojito. I really had a good time even though I wasnt high on alcohol, in a way I liked the crowd alot because not many smokers and not many drunkards making noise and causing trouble. Cheap nite, good company, great friends, superb dance performace by everyone much better than live ballroom dancing.

I still dont know who this hot chic, she looked so bored. I think she needs my company.AHAIKS!!

All the sweating and dancing got me hungry so we all went to Alor Rd to get some supper. Lucky its just a stone throw away from where we were.

Yummy Claypot Tom Yum Goong. Suits the heat from Salsa! PSSSSSsssssttttt!

Went home with a full stomach at 4am. Had some preparations to do for Dave's engagement, couldnt sleep then off I went driving down to Malacca. Will post that tonight.

July Updates

2007-07-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

Busy July. Happy Birthday to Doris my old college mate on 1st July, she's now flying with SIA in Singapore. I never fail to wish her belated birthday. 3rd July would be Suben's birthday, my old primary school mate. Quiet celebration this year with him this year, 2 years ago we celebrate his birthday in Malacca and last year he got pissed drunk and puked in my car. This year he celebrated quietly with his dear one. Last but not least 4th July, Hoorayy Independence Day in US and my pal Enghooi living downunder in Australia celebrated his 28th birthday.

Lotsa event happening this month, Reza & Lavina's wedding in PJ on Saturday 7-7-07 morning. I did drop by to say hi before left town for another function in Malacca. had to leave because me & Mrs$1 were seriously under dressed for a nikah session at Reza's house. I just got back from Dave's engagement party in Malacca on yesterday. Supah pack scheduled weekend. Got to scoot off to Penang for Reza & Lavina's wedding next weekend in Penang at Lone Pine Beach resort. Sighhhh.... a good short getaway though.

Battle of SLR

2007-07-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

Battle of the Single Lens Reflex camera its messing up with my head and stirring up my pockets. I gonna get a SLR camera and pick up photography skills, SLR cameras were never this cheap. I've set my eyes on the Canon EOS 350D, its old but its cheap and on top of that is not much difference compare to its newer brother EOS 400 besides its megapixels. Alas my long waited Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1 is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out of my budget. The damn super Leica lens cost more than the camera. SIGH!

Shortlisted cameras are as following :

Pentax K100D

I saw this on great bargain yesterday in Midvalley going for MYR1,999!! Its a fucking steal! It was a one day sale promotion else it will be back at MYR2,499. K100d feels good when it was held up and the dial designs and buttons are all nicely put to my fingers. I was held back by its 6MP capability even though I know that a camera doesnt not fully rely on the MP for its quality pictures. But my camera should at least last me till some new models come out in the next few years. DPreview highly recomended this model, then again he also recomended most of all the entry level SLR on Malaysian's shelves.

Nikon D40

I've always like Nikon camera, although their lower end point and shoot are never impressive but the SLR range has always been famous and favourite by many professional photograhpers whom prefere the cheapper Japanese compare to the western brands. Only draw back about Nikon is that their lens are slightly more expensive if I'm not mistaken. Any how D40 is a remarkable camera with 6.1MP and all the techincal yadas and blahs all pretty much similar to any other brands. I am more impressed by the less noisy pics at higher sensitivity that Nikon SLR produces.

Canon EOS 350D

Very old model launched back in 2005, but still matches and in someway out perform the newer models. Canon gives very good crispy pictures compare to the 2 rivals above maybe because of the CMOS sensor instead of the common CCD sensor most camera uses. Best of all its the cheapest among the 3 at MYR2,399 till end of August this year. More reviews are available at my favourite camera site DPreview.

Final battle would be Nikon vs Canon actually, mainly because of the after sales service and parts available are every where and the main offices are in Klang Valley both are just a short drive away. I guess i might need some sales convincing by the camera shop sales person.

Jazz @ TopRoom

2007-06-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

So hooked to jazz lately ever since my Miri trip. I do listen to jazz music but I dont really follow it much. I've always assumed that jazz performance are only held in some hotel lobbies or in KLCC mall, little did I knew that there are quite a few Jazz lounge are KL. TopRoom is one of the home ground for David Gomez and Junji Delfino. I completely missed out their performance during the Miri jazz festival but made it all up at TopRoom. This venue doesnt need any introduction because it just above of Top Hat fine dinning restaurant. Top Hat is an old colonial style bungalow hidden and tucked away by all the high rise buildings in the city. They're famous for fine dinning fusion and local cuisine all prep by 2 highly experienced chef.

As for TopRoom is just a small lil lounge above of the restaurant just big enough to fit about 50 or so. Not a very good place to drink and get drunk but rather a great place to drink get high and enjoy the music and socialise. Warm and cozy interior really brings up the ambiance and the great music. There were total of 4 sets by David and Junji that Saturday night together with Ismail on the bass guitar and Yaacob on the drums. David worked his fingers on the piano keys wonderfully and sang away. Junji joined in for the 2nd set later before they took a break. It was a wonderful night accompanied by Mrs$1 and 2 bottles of wine. Unfortunately the place is not crowd which is good and bad at the same, good because we didnt have to fight for a good spot and the room wouldnt be all smokey. Sadly instead of enjoying the small lil crowd that night, I felt that the place should be crowded for such a great performance. Com'on cover charge is only MYR20 and its cheap compare to discos in the city ripping your wallets at least two times more. Drink price are also reasonable priced like any other pubs. Even with all these good deal theres only 6 tables filled with only 16 patrons.

We meet and chat the TopHat owner Kevin Danker, according to Kevin his wife runs the show at Tophat and Junji and David runs the show at TopRoom while he sits in his law firm. Great guy, warm and friendly with his customers. He mentioned that TopRoom has been operating slightly more than a year and thhe crowd has always been llittle unless theres a big gig. We had bonus treat from David who just composed a song on that same evening, it was a great song. Also there was a special guest sitting behind of us who was Fedderick King from Scotland. No fuckin idea who he was but he had a great deep voice and did very well singing Nat King Cole's When I Fall in Love. Alas, we brought camera but the batteries werent charged. Great place great nite, missing a good cigar and best thing was free flow of crackers from the bar. Next performance I'll be going would be Julian Chan's Boplicity at Groove junction in Hartamas KL and maybe the last gig by Julian Chan before he leaves the country to further his study in his passion for music.

Miri International Jazz Festival 2007 (12th May)

2007-05-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

After a long tiring cave exploring day we didnt had much time to rest. Just sat around and did our laundry, the 2 room apartment hotel comes fully equipped. How good is that. By the time we took our turns in the shower it was already too late to rush for the festival, so we just took our own sweet time to laze around and enjoyed our seafood dinner in town. We had halal chinese seafood and it was good and fresh as for the price it was pretty much the same as what we'll be paying in KL. Took a cab to Park Everly Hotel because Zahir knocked out cold after the long day but he'll join us later much later.

Pavilion's view over to the garden with food stalls, projector screens and beach.

I was really looking forward for the 2nd day because of the Cuban Latin band. Even though I've no idea what gibberish they mumbling, their music always sound very alive. Here are the performance for the 2nd day in order:

Orak Naa Naa (Morocco/Germany)
George Washingmachine Quartet (UK/France /Australia)
Habana Sax (Cuba)
Dirty Dozen Brass Band (US)

Totally missed the whole Orak Naa Naa performance but Dave said it was no big deal. Maybe he was too high and busy with 4 of his best friends Mr. Daniel, Jack. He meet up with his old buddy and they got themselves a table and manage to pull some strings with the hotel management to bring in 4 bottles of Jack. Isnt that just good shite!!!

I wonder what happened to all the bottles. Check out their stoned faces.

We made it just in the nick of time to catch George's quartet when we arrived, very clean clear music without the drums. George's a great entertainer, dancing and hopping around the stage with his violin. Their music sounded a lil like western. After the last song, George announced that their CD is on sale out in of the booth outside and he promoted his CD wisely by saying that "Its rewritable"

My all time favourite performance on the 2nd day its simply SAXY!!! Habana Sax from Cuba.

Habana Sax doing their thang

Dirty Dozen Brass band once again. This time they played blues and Efrem blew the audiences away with his dual trumpet talent. Thats it for the 2007 festival, hardly touched any alcohol that night.

Purchased the Habana Sax CD from a booth outside and I got it fully autographed! WOHOOOO!!

Bumped into Jorge from Habana Sax at the hotel lobby just before we left.

Bid farewell to the 2007 fest, I'll see you guys there next year again on the 8th & 9th may 2008. Hope I can bring my whole family there next year. There are few Miri jazz videos available on YouTube, here the official video for tourism board.

$1 went to Niah Cave

2007-05-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Day 2 was rather dreadful and torturing but it was a great experience. We had breakfast in the hotel stuffing ourselves with calories knowing that it would be really helpful for our adventure. Too bad hotel only came with breakfast for 2 so poor Elisha had to go to the mall downstairs and she bought some sandwiches from Dave's deli. All packed with fluids and snacks and we're off to challenge Niah Cave, left our hotel close to noon. Journey to the cave took us about 1 hour with Zahir's skillful driving so instead of a 1.5hour journey we manage to get there in an hour flat. No speeding just plain KL driving at about 100km/h on average.

I went there a lil unprepared and as far as I know cave exploring will be smelly due to the bat/swallow's guano not forgetting the wet slippery ground. Silly me, I forgot caves are dark too and we didnt bring or purchase a torch light. Registered ourselves and paid MYR10 entrance fee to get to Niah cave, MYR1 boat ride per way across the river from the camp site/office.

See their happy faces, not knowing the torturous walk later.

Boat ride across a 30M river. Anyone could just swim across!

Let the adventurous journey begin. Samson was here.

Still walking!! Look nipah leaves for weaving.

Still not there yet!!

Jungle walk wasnt too bad actually, the path measures about 3.5KM to the cave entrance from the river bank. Right after the river bank, we passed a museum where we rented a torch light for MYR5. Our local government is doing a good job to preserving our national park, they're upgrading the path to concrete and slowly removing the old squeaky wooden planks. Finally after 1hour brisk walk, we made it to base of the hill where there were some local Iban native stalls selling handicrafts, souvenirs and drinks. Not too bad at all I was still breathing and I only finished a small 500ml bottle of mineral water, 3 litres more to go.

"Look here comes some suckers!!! Ahmoi come buy la"

After a short walk from the stalls, the flat path turns into scary high wooden bridges. You cant see the ground underneath your feet except trees and leaves. Not to mention that its wobbly at certain point, I LOVE IT!!! Felt like Indianna Jones! Never felt my home squeaky stairs more save.

Scary wooden stairs

Finally! Cave entrance rest house. These were built for the bird nest harvesters. Those visible long thingy at the back is not stalactite, its wooden sticks and PVC pipes tied together to reach the cave top for bird nest harvesting. Few hundreds of metres to the top! No wonder swallow's nest is so damn darn expensive its fucking hazardous job but someone has to do it. Rehydrate ourselves and squeeze dry my shirt. I might have weigh 2kilos lighter by now because I swear my sweat from my shirt could have filled a few cups. Fluid count : 2.5 litres left.

Ermmm,... helllooooo????? Echooo!!!! Into the cave! Niah cave has 3 parts : The Great Cave

2nd attraction of the cave is the Large Chamber where you will see most of the formations and light shafts. Stunning rock formation after thousands of year, but we werent admiring it. Our senses were more focused on the slippery surface and on the light spot from our torch lights. Mrs$1 was too busy taking pictures for me blog. Speaking of that, I'm just so glad I'm still here blogging about this. While were walking down some stairs in pitch black after the Large Chamber, I slipped and fell due to a broken wooded plank. God knows what might happen to me, maybe I'll break my leg or fall into the darkness and die.

I saw lights!!!! OMG!!! Go into the lights!!! I'm coming God!

We're greeted by greens once out of the Great cave and the Large Chambers. Zahir told us that it just a short stroll to the Painted cave. Zahir's making his 4th trip here at Niah cave.

Final destination, the painted cave. Hand squeezed my shirt twice here. Fluid lost surpass 2 litres. 1litre of drinks left. I hate my body cooling efficiency.

Modern cave men paintings on the walls. Took us 2 hours and 4.5KM to get to here and see this. Worthy? A bit of both I'd say. I'm just glad that its over and my shoes were killing my feet, I could feel blisters on my right toes and my damn left foot corns hurts like hell. More walking only means more pressure applied to these wounds.

Last view of the Great cave as we were leaving.

If I could only reach and break one piece down.

Overall it was quite a nice walk and the cool shady jungle paths were cooling even the sun was all out to roast us. If you guys ever wanna go to any caves in Malaysia please be prepare to get wet, dont dress up cause its going to be messy and dirty. Put on a pair of nice comfy shoes not sneakers they dont grip well in caves. Maybe a pair of Hi-tec, Timberland or Merrell hiking boots will be wonderful. Not much mosquitoes around and insect repellent wont work, it will be wash away by your dripping sweat. Bring lotsa lotsa drinking water, you may purchase them at the camp office or the Iban stalls and lastly never forget to bring torch lights. One may also bring your spare clothes and shower at the camp site, not nice to hop into people's car filthy. Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but puddle of sweat, butt print on the ground.

Couldnt wait to jump on the the hotel bed and rest my feet, I wanted to just camp at Niah and tell them to come and get me tomorrow.

Miri International Jazz Festival 2007 (11th May)

2007-05-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

This post is so long overdue. We were so hyped up and excited over this trip and it was rather well planned out actually. Our flight was scheduled to depart KL at 1620hr and our infamous AirAsia pushed the flight to 1808hr. Thanks to advance cellular technologies all passengers were notified almost 18 hours in advance. The initial plan was to leave KL at 1620hr and arrive at approximately 1840hr just in time for the party at 1900hr.

Since our flight was pushed forward what else can we say but to bitch and whine about it. AirAsia lead us to another disappointment by delaying another 45minutes and we finally left at close to 1900hr knowing that the crowd is gathering at the festival. Flight was no fun! No turbulence!! Not to mention there was a mannish looking air hostess which I think her brick wall foundation coating face made her look like a drag queen. Finally we touched down at about 2120hr Miri International Airport.

We're fortunate to have a friend there in Miri town to ferry us around in his car. Zahir was at Miri's airport waiting for us for over an hour I think. His KL driving skills and style got us to the festival in a mere 10minutes. No pictures were taken on the first day because I read somewhere in the terms & conditions at the official web site that we're not allowed to bring in cameras or any recording devices. Felt like an idiot when I saw everyone carrying cameras around, security wasnt 1st class either I was expecting security running through your bags and metal detectors like airport. By the time we reached Park City Everly we missed out the first band which was one of Malaysia's best David Gomez Jazz Sextet and the second band whom was KCP4 from India/Germany was coming to an end. We're werent all crazy for music cause we're famish and food was the first thing on our mind. I called up me office mates whom was there on an earlier flight made it from the start. They looked high by the time I got there, bastards started and didnt wait up for me! Food was rather overly priced but we manage to find a stall with a reasonable Bryanni curry rice which only cost MYR5 per plate. It surely beat the the food on AirAsia hands down in price and taste.

David Gomez and the Sextet featuring vocals by Junji Delfino

Here's David Gomez, my office mate Dave and vocalist Junji Delfino

This my other office mate Jam with David Gomez's sax player Julian

Heard me mates said the David's band was amazing and we manage to catch a lil of KCP4 on the large screen outside while having our dinner. Nothing beats the feeling of cold beer rushing down your throat after a meal. My curry rice was then accompanied by good ol'Heineken and a soothing cup of Mojito (pronounced as MoeHeeToe). There were 2 stages in the fest, one was the main indoor hall called the Pavilion where all the bands performed and 1 outdoor stage under the stars was solely for the Son2Nos band.

Next up after KCP4 onwards for day one was all the ultimate bands. First in line was Lluis Coloma the Master of boogiewoogie from Spain. Lluis lead with his own piano and keyboard together with 3 saxs, a cellist and a drummer. I truly bow to the boogiewoogie master, the performance was absolutely WICKED!!! Lluis made piano playing so easy like a kid slamming on the keys. Its the 2nd consecutive year Lluis and his band playing for the Miri festival, I hope they will make a return next year. Lluis even wrote and song just for this trip to Malaysia and its called "Goin' to Malaysia"

Lluis in action

Organisers did a very well job for the audiences to move around, every time a band finishes at the in door Pavilion they need to walk out to the outdoor stage where Son2Nos will perform while the next band and engineers prepare the main stage. Me, Jam & Dave were busy drinking while enjoying the songs, then spoted David Gomez and Junji smoking at one corner and we attacked them with our pens. We all hung out together till our cigarettes burnt out and out beer bottles emptied. Junji called us geeks after she found out that we're all computer techs. WHAT A BITCH!!!

No blank paper in sight so we just used the Programme

Final band of the day1 was the New Orleans Dirty Dozen Brass band. Well the name stands on its own, tuba, trombone, sax, trumpet and fantastic MardiGras performance. By far this was and the only largest band on stage also the brightest one and I almost went blind with those flashy brass. Efrem imitated Louie Armstrong voice, Kevin with his sax and Greg with the trumpet sang away the blues. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band completely blew the audiences.

Efrem with a real good blowjob

Day 1 ended slightly past 1AM, lucky for me Elisha was keeping Mrs1$ company while went drinking and dried my eyes out with chics. Sigh If only I was still single, so many fishes in that sea that day. I'll have to admit that the event was rather big and impressive might need to improve a lil here and there but it was satisfying. Day 1 photos are all courtesy of Dave & Jam, we went our seperate ways to our own hotels. Zahir dropped Mr&Mrs $1 with Elisha back to Imperial Hotel and our 2 room apartment was big and comfy. I was slightly unhappy because I didnt get high on alcohol after 5 mojitos and 5 beers SIGH! End of first day will post more exciting and life threatening encounter in Niah Cave exploring on the 2nd day.

April & May Summarization

2007-05-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Just realised I didnt post anything in April. Alot of things has happened since April fools day on the 1st. Overdue birthday wishes to some close and far away and also some parted ones.

April 2nd was Arron's birthday, I've known Aaron since I was 13 but we werent close untill we were in college. No celebrations this year because he was alcohol fasting for holly Easter. Just right after Easter ended, he threw a private party in Selangor Club in KL. Sad to know that I was the only school friend invited. Would have been great if Edmund was still around to drink with us. None the less the party was great had the chace to meet his flight academy mates and catch up with some of his old SAP colleagues. We sat drank and chat till late.

April 10th was Jessica's birthday, she will always be M'n Ee to me. An annual tradition for me to send out belated birthday text message wishes to her cell.

April 21st was my mother's 60th birthday. Some chinese family would be throwing a big celebration when they reach 60 thanking god that they're still alive. Some mothers are already grandmothers by 60 but not mine. Hmmm,.. ---- think my elder brother better do something about it. he better get marry first.

April 22nd is Allan's birthday who is so far away in America!! Damn!! I didnt know he is back in KL, I thought he said he's coming back in June.

Would like to extend my deepest condolences to the Khaw family. Ed's father passed on recently. I only came to know of his illness the day before he parted this world. Lucky Mary notified me and Aaron. It was really very sudden, he was a very healthy and strong man. I woke up one evening with alot of missed calls on my cell but I couldnt returned Mary & Aaron's calls because my cell was barred from calling out. Later I found out that Ed's dad was lying in hospital for the 10 days and doctor said he has slim chance living. Next day my cell rang and it woke me up and the bad news came in, he passed away in the morning and he was already at the funeral parlour. I jumped out of bed and rushed to the wake service to meet the family.

May 11-13th I flew to Miri for the Miri International Jazz Festival. Will post on my trip very soon with some pictures.

Today is May 21st. 2nd year I've miss celebrating Edmund's birthday. Usually we're just go out to get ourself some alcohol and watch some chics in disco, a typical guys nite out except with an occasion. There was one year on Ed's birthday, we were at Bliss disco and he got picked up by a chic. We had a great time that night teasing him and he was putting his cool act to impress the chic. LOL good times!!! Sighhh ---..............

Vacation

2007-05-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

Cant wait for tomorrow!! Its been sometime since I went on a vacation, gonna fly to East Malaysia for the Miri International Jazz Festival. There's gonna be quite a few renowned bands i heard, but I dont know any of them. Just gonna go and enjoy the music by the beach and gulp down some cold Heineken smoke my cigars and get high!! Hopefully my mates can smuggle a bottle of Scotch in. Hoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cant imagine I spent so much money for this when I can just go to the local jazz festival in Kuala Lumpur. Anyway Miri is a nice place one of the only part of East Malaysia that makes me feel at home.

Tax Time

2007-05-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

Sigh blogging is not easy I wonder how on earth does hardcore bloggers keep up with this. Some even post 2-3 articles a day. Craaaazeeee!!!

Maybe I am just too lazy........... well its that time of the year again, received my tax form early of the year and I was really keen to find out how much I had to pay the government to drive on shity roads and bad services from the law forces. Unfortunately I didnt get my EA from from my office till end of March. By then I've lost all my mood to do my tax calculations. None the less due date was 2 days ago and it wasnt that complicated this time round. I was too lazy to do any reduction and I dont think I have any to deduct for last year's income. Took my 15 minutes to fill up the form and DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OUCH!!

I was hoping my monthly salary deduction for tax would be sufficient, but hell no!! I had to fork up another MYR561. SHITE!!!! thats like 500 worth my bitchin!! Total tax was even more than my first pay when I started working.
Well no choice better pay up, gonna have to keep my records clean to buy a house later. I'll take it as a blessing in disguise, its fortunate to be paying taxes. Dont think I can survive on an income that is tax free.

Be a law abiding person, buy more books and send your parent for more medical check up this year. Reading materials deduction is up to MYR1000 for 2007 tax. Thats good news.

Highlands Breakaway

2007-03-27T04:59:00.000-07:00

Bonjour letuer, comment allez-vous. Guess where did $1 land his cul recently.

A view from the Observatory tower overseeing the whole town.

Thank God there's an elevator otherwise I wont climb that Observatory tower.

French bridge is falling down, falling down.

Daily flea market.

Main Entrée

Le Château

Renaissance painting all over the wall and ceiling of Le Château Convention Centre's Entree.

Mr. & Mrs $1 Bitch

The building architecture was outstanding, its different and its something you dont get to see every day back home. Building were colourful and vibrant but its didnt took any long than 3-4 minutes to admire everything. Le Château is the latest upcoming building at Colmar, it was suppose to be the 2nd casino in the country but our dear Government didnt allow it, tough luck its not the first time someone tries to open up a second casino resort. So the whole place is now converting into giant hotel and few large convention halls. Heard a rumour that each room will have jackpot machine for all guest, I seriously doubt it will be true because gambling is prohibited for the muslims.

OK France was rather small and we got bored quickly, so we decide to take short 10 minutes flight to Japan. We were greeted by a fascinating welcome sign....... which I think its nothing to be proud about, I am supprise that Malaysia Book of Records didnt record this.

DUH?! Self-proclaimed. Who on earth would wanna challenge this?

Japanese Botanical Garden.

Japanese Tea House.

There werent much to do in Japan either, it was just endless walking in a park full of trees, plants and flowers. The air was fresh and earthy and the kois swimming in the pond dont look like those original Japanese breed, its too small and the colours are not bright and outstanding. landscaping was rather impressive and quite well done I must say. The mossy rock garden really gave me the zen feeling, didnt took any pictures of the moss because I have plenty at home in my garden and my aquarium. I drove all the way up there to Japanese garden to see Singapore Moss (Vesicularia dubyana) how ironic is that.

We wanted to try the some Japanese food initially when we arrived, but we heard it was closed because the resort owner booked the place to have his lunch there. Anyway the price was seriously too much to pay for.

Took us about 1.5 hours to walk the entire Japanese and Botanical garden, all sweaty due to the humidity we decide to head back to our room in France. Flight was quite frequent and on time on a 30 minutes interval, but the passengers are plain dumb fuck. They dont line up and we actually sat there for 1.5 hours and missed 3 buses. I was cool because I was just stoning and day dreaming away while waiting, Mrs $1 was bitching away. LOL she was rather cute.

Back at the room finally the view from our balcony was cool and cozy, took a quick shower and rest meanwhile Mrs $1 manage to catch up with some episodes of Lost on the laptop before we left the hill for KL.

Here's are more photos taken from our trip.

Too much kind words mentioned up there, here's some fact about that Berjaya Hill Resorts. Food are superbly ridiculously fantastically lousy and expensive. We had Italian food and it suck big time, Pasta was horrible and the Blue cheese turkey ham Calzone was the biggest disappointment. Cant even see and taste any blue cheese in it. I once paid 20 over bucks for a horrible nasi lemak on my previous race up the hill night trip with my car enthusiast friends. not only food was expensive, everything else also from cheap food snacks to drinks and even souvenirs. Damn entrance fee was also a rip off, it cost MYR16 per adult to get into the hill. Sigh i could just go on bitching about that place on and on, I even bitched and shouted how rip off I felt to the Tan Sri Vincent Tan(Berjaya Chairman) when he walked pass me. Damn that chinaman! How on earth did they come up with a name call Colmar???I search up in a French dictionary and found nothing related to Colmar. Must be that chinaman went up there and started shivering during the construction phase and when people asked him why he said "Cold ma". There you go Cold Ma Tropicale

Good thing was I got in free, enjoyed the cool breeze, made my car tyres screamed on all those winding corners, it was near only took me 45 minutes from my house to the hills and full speed. A walk in the forest was rather pleasing and cooling despite the sunny sky. Great place for photography and bird watching, saw quite a few low crested birds if you know what I mean.

Berjaya Hill Resort entree fee of MYR16 will allow you to :

Get into Colmar
Get into Japanese/Botanical Garden
Get into Rabbit Farm

Activities available on the hill are as following :

Golf
Paint ball
Horse riding
Bowling
Snooker / pool
Archery
Swimming

Conclusion in 2 words : RIPPED OFF

Got Tagged!

2007-02-26T05:29:00.000-08:00

Got tagged by Cheryl 5 days ago but I didnt realised till today

Three things that scare me:
Senile drivers.
My girlfriend's driving
My hard drive Crash

Three people who make me laugh:
No one in particular, I'd laugh at anything and anyone thats funny.

Three things I love:
Animals!!!!
Bitchin
My aquarium

Three things I hate:
Not able to keep to my words
Traffic Jams
Hot humid weather

Three things I don't understand:
Human behaviour
How do they cork a wine bottle?
Religious people

Three things on my desk:
Lotsa old mails
Dust balls
Lotsa old magazines

Three things I'm doing right now:
Working
Blogging
Watching Movies

Three things I want to do before I die:
Take up culinary on European/Chinese cuisine
Open up a fine dining restaurant
Travel Europe

Three things I can do:
Cook for my girlfriend and family
I can arch my body backwards and make my toes touch my head (FREAKY!!)
Able to smell anything in the air before others do (my god gift dog nose)

Three things you should listen to:
Critics
Friends in trouble
Your spouse/partner

Three things you should never listen to:
Sales talk (if you wanna buy something you dont need people to convince you)
Chinese Opera
Yourself or friends that say "I'm not drunk" after whole night of drinking

Three things I'd like to learn:
How to make Chocolate desserts
How to drive like a professional racer
How to make more money$$$

Three favorite foods:
Anything with Chocolates
Most meaty stuff
Gwailo cuisine.
The list will never end if I specify my favourite food.

Three beverages I drink regularly:
H2O
Beer
Anything Alcoholic

Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid: I refer kid as below 12 year old
Misfit of Science, National Geographics, McGyver
Asterix comics, Tin Tin Comics, all sorts of other comics

3 people I have to tag:
Ben aka dsaintx
Ben aka Tha Poopshooter
Only 2 bloggers I know.

Happy Chinese New year!!

2007-02-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fatt Chai!! We all know its a piggy year this year but due to the multi racial country I live in, it needs to be change and known as BOARing year. Good health and prosperity to you all!

Valentine's

2007-02-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

Every mid February people across the world celebrates St.Valentine exchanging candies, flowers, gifts for their love ones. But does anyone really know who and why are people celebrating this mysterious day? Allow me to enlighten you with my research on St.Valentine festival. There seems to be 2-3 versions of Valentine’s day, but I’ll try my best to go as accurate possible.

Valentine release 1.01A(alpha) – The Christian Church
A long long time ago back in the 3rd century when Emperor Claudius II ruled the great Roman Empire there Bishop named Valentine. The emperor noticed that all young men in Rome are becoming too woosy to fight in war as they’re too emotionally attach with their duties as husbands and fathers. So he decided outlawed young men from getting marry to strengthen the Roman army against the Gauls, Huns, Turks…etc. St.Valentine defied Claudius II after seeing so many young lovers suffered, he would meet these couples in hidden places and joined them in sacrament of matrimony. Claudius soon found out of this love affair and had St.Valentine sentenced to death. Rumor was, while St.Valentine was in prison he also fell in love with the emperor’s daughter and sent her a love note signed “From your Valentine” the night before he was executed. What a naughty priest, I thought Roman Catholics priest are not suppose to do that. So there you go, he was killed and everyone was sad, Romanian women adored the story, Romanian men inspired by signature and use it to court gals. There was no official celebration till the end of the 5th century where Pope Gelasius declared February 14th as St.Valentine’s Day. By the way, this version was fully church approved because they made it up. Wholesome CRAP!!!

Valentine release 1.01B(beta) – The Lupercalia
Courtesy of wikipedia, the Lupercalia is an ancient ritual and festival practice in Rome before Christ. Its done annually on February 15th to ward off evil spirits and purifying the city with good health and fertility. The ritual begins with the sacrifice by Luperci (or the flamen dialis) of two male goats and a dog. Next two patrician young Luperci were led to the altar, to be anointed on their foreheads with the sacrificial blood, which was wiped off the bloody knife with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to smile and laugh; the smearing of the forehead with blood probably refers to human sacrifice originally practised at the festival.The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the victims, which were called Februa, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats, in imitation of Lupercus, and ran round the walls of the old Palatine city, the line of which was marked with stones, with the thongs in their hands in two bands, striking the people who crowded near. Girls and young women would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips. This was supposed to ensure fertility, prevent sterility in women and ease the pains of childbirth. This practice eventually ended when Christianity took over Roman Empire.

$1 review on Valentine’s Day
Hell knows back when,… somewhere sometime ago there was a conspiracy and it was lead by several parties. They were international giant candy companies, florist and greeting card companies. In order to earn large amount of money just for a day to cover up all their losses thru out the whole year they came up with ingenious ideas for loving suckers out there who have no clue why they are doing and celebrating this stupid day. Most people are doing it just because it’s a trend not knowing of the throat cutting conspiracies. SUCKERS!!! Valentine’s day is just another stupid celebration made up by the Caucasians to hook in more profits, another stupid celebration would be Halloween Day. I admit that I am not the romantic Casanova Romeo type, but I don’t see the necessity of splurging on Feb 14th yearly. To me I believe that if you love your partner, spouse, secret lover, concubine, mistress…etc so much every 14th of the month can be a Valentine’s Day. Moreover if you’re filthy rich and don’t know where to spend your money make everyday a Valentine’s Day. I left for work early today and there was very heavy traffic and jam on my way to work. Its unusual, unless theres a slight flood or heavy rain. Could it be a coincidence?? Feb 14th jam because idiots are rushing to meet up in town? Best of all I couldn’t get a decent parking when I went food hunting near my office. I was surprised to find Secret Recipe full house with quite a number of couples, HAHAHAHA serve them right for not making proper plans and reservations else where or they’re just elcheapo.

The Classic Valentine’s Gifts.
1) Flowers. Why flowers? Because it signifies beauty. Usually red roses, chinese are superstitious with white flowers because they use white flowers for funerals. Some culture white represents purity.
2) Candies/chocolates. It means that she is sweet.
3) Jewelries tells her that she is precious.
4) Lingerie means she’s sexy
5) Greeting cards, cheap but thoughtful.

Valentine don’t aren’t cheap either dining, gifts & flowers are priced sky high just for this occasion. Most restaurants will have a special menu for occasion like this and knowing its Valentine’s they sharpen their knives to cut throat. They usually remove the ala carte menus on special occasions and prepare a few standard full course set meals with lotsa bullshit fancy names. The reason they do that is because they can earn more and less work in the kitchen knowing that the place will be full house. Less preparation in the kitchen as the menus were preset and they charge more because they know couples would come in take their own sweet romantic time occupying the tables from other idiot who wanna dine out for the special occasion. So instead of serving 200 tables on a normal day they might only serve 100 tables on Valentine’s day. Another mistake my mate did was not making reservations WEEKS in advance or maybe even months in advance. No kidding, those who have celebrated before should know what am I talking about not that I ever did. Roses and flowers are 1000 times more expensive just on Feb 14th, on usual days a dozen bouquet only cost somewhere between MYR50 – MYR100. Valentine hikes it up to MYR200 – MYR400. Roses only cost 50cents a stalk from farm, you do the math. I heard a rumor that jewelries prices are also jacked up and then heavy discounts are given out in order to get customers. Great way to sell cheap cut stones for high price. Time to improvise with better and cheaper gifts for Valentine’s with my list.

Modern Valentine’s Gifts & Reasons.
1) Condoms. We all know after the fancy dinner and sweet talking theres gonna be wild love making tonite. So we don’t want STDs and unwanted babies
2) Yourself. Nothing is cheaper and more sexy than just tying a ribbon on yourself or on your crotch.

3) Chocolates. So that you can lick each other clean.
4) A Stool for sitting. Because you idiots didn’t make reservations a stool might be handy while waiting for a table.
5) Flowers, I strong don’t agree buying this but it can signify a different meaning. The classic 1 white rose among the reds has been wrongly assumed all these years as “You’re the 1 and Only”. Time for a change, but only buy this if she’s a virgin. Signifies that the white purity is gonna get bloody tonite. MUAHAHAHAHH!!!
6) Pregnancy test kit. I’m sure it will come in handy one fine day.
7) Electronic massaging chair. Its to save your energy to get her into the mood. Good relaxing tool after a hardcore night.
8) Sewing Kit. Helps him to patch up his huge hole in his wallet and pocket after spending too much money.
9) Holiday package or a night stay in the hotel. Lame excuse for being romantic, its more of privacy issue. Some people have kids at home, some hate to cleaning up mess, some cheating on their partner with someone else.

Anyway this post is indeed getting long, too long actually. I’d rather celebrate World AIDS Day knowing that I am doing something to make this world a better place. I’m not cheap!! Its just not practical to spend so much money on a silly occasion like this, why not donate those money to charity or invest them else where? Valentine’s is no biggie, hope you guys had a great fuck. Adios

Aquahobby

2007-02-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Finally gave away my 3 lonely Polypterus fishes to another fish enthusiast back early November last year and the only thing left behind was my good old reliable 10 year old aquarium. I had to divert my hobby into something new, something challenging, something that will satisfy my ego with praises on the outcome.
I had few criteria to my new fish keeping hobby, it has to be something that I’ve not kept before from my childhood days till present and it has to fit comfortably tank.

My tank dimensions and specs are as below :

Length : 4 feet (120cm)
Width : 1.5 feet (45cm)
Height : 1.5 feet (45cm)
Thickness : 6mm

This tank has been with my family for a very long time, the last fish it was housing was my 20 inches Green Arowana. It wanted to die so badly, he decided to jump out of the tank one night while I was out for just 3 hours. Boohoo,… loved that fish a lot.

OK so I got an empty tank didn’t know what to do with it my dream Arowana is just way too expensive for me to buy right now the market price is fetching more than 5000 my bitching value. So I decided to go with Discus (Symphysodon aequifasciata) known to be one of the nicest and most colorful Amazonian fishes. Its also a very well known fish that will keep owners on your toes if they want super quality products for breeding. Requires daily water change to balance out the perfect water condition and chemistry, various foods on daily basis…. blah blah list goes on. More or less like the arowanas but cheaper and smaller in size and can breed in indoor tanks.

Malaysia held its first Aquatic fair in KLCC in mid November 2006, I went there to check out fishes and hopefully to get something cheap. Discus was cheap but my tank wasn’t ready to store anything, then the ADA booth caught my eye with their impressive planted tank. ADA is short for Aquatic Design Amano by Takashi Amano of Japan, he’s world renowned aquascaper now hosting and judging the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest. The contest is world recognition and thousands of contestants participate every year. All I can say, all those damn planted tanks mesmerized me. Its very eye pleasing seeing all those greens and reds and browns plants swaying to the water current, fishes swimming like as if their in their own natural habitat. ZEN!!! That’s it for now,.. too lazy to post feeling sleepy in the office….. ZZZZzzzz too much movies to watch!! Be back for the tank setup, photosssss!!!

Rare Delicacies

2007-01-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

There is a Chinese saying ‘A chinaman will eat any living thing as long as the back faces the sky’. I guess the only animal’s back that doesn’t face the sky would be a dead decaying animal which is laying on its back rotting away. I am very sure it’s true because people really do eat weird things from lizards to creepy stuffs.

Thanks to Seki and Benji’s trip to Cambodia I managed to get my hand on some snacks that I have been dying to try. I think to most civilized modern city slickers like us would not even imagine how wonderful other food are besides the staple beef, chicken, seafood, mutton lamb…etc. WARNING! Read on at your own risk.

Meet Pinocchio's guardian angel Jiminy Cricket! "Stop lying Pinocchio or your dick will grow long" Ohh shuddup already come here you lil irritating bastard!! Munch!!! Munch!!! BURP! Yummy.A stupid gwailo will tell you it taste just like chicken, frankly speaking its damn darn good!! I couldnt stop eating it taste like fried anchovies salty and crunchy. Apparently this is the hottest selling snack in Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam. GOOD SHITE!! Jiminy gets 5 stars out of 5 no wonder my pet arowana loves it so much. If you do wanna try this out please remove the 2 back legs before putting it into your mouth its hard and prickly.

Asian farmers have learnt to control their crops from devastating locust by frying them in spicy oil. Gwailos should learn this from them as these hoppers are rich in protein. It pretty much taste the same as the cricket except this is 3 times larger and has a harder exoskeleton. $1 rates 3.5 stars for the locust.

Why bother popping Methylenedioxymethamphetamine(MDMA) aka Ecstasies to get high? May I suggest popping these healthier Silkworms, they are so much cheaper I think 1 MDMA pill can set you off from 1-2 jugs of beer which will also get you high! The same amount you pay for a MDMA can also get you 1 year supply of Silkworms. Cant rate this worm cause I dont like it, it's neither tasty or nasty. The texture reminds me of eating soft cooked soy beans. Lets move on to the final creepy crawly.

I specifically ordered this before they left for Cambodia, its the nastiest looking crawler I ever put in my mouth. Watched a Tarantula documentary on Animal Planet and they showed the Amazonian natives eating this and latter use the fangs as toothpicks. Unfortunately this spider's fangs has been removed. I expected they would remove the hairs on the body before frying them, but there were quite alot of hairs all over the legs. Tarantulas are vicious arachnids equipped with venom to dissolve they prey into soup for sucking and hairs that are highly sharp to avoid predators. They flick their body hairs into the air towards their predator's nostrils & eyes causing severe pain and irritation. Yet the mighty tarantula ended up in my tummy. BURP!!! Despite the nasty looks its actually not too bad. If can eat soft shell crabs, you can eat tarantulas. The texture is the same slightly crunchy and chewy, all these crawlers taste the same as they're fried in the same spicy oil. Would rate this a 4 star out of 5.

I didnt pose for the camera with those incests hanging in my mouth for the sake of this blog, I ATE all of it. I'm bitch but I aint a pussy. Conclusion, be adventurous with food cause you only live once. My motto is "Eat now, worry later". Ciao!

Medical Certs ROCKS!!!

2007-01-17T00:54:00.000-08:00

Just got back from the hospital, manage to get there and back in one piece. Kinda hard to drive knowing that my driving vision is limited. My neck cant turn to my right to see, so I managed to convinced my orthopaedic to give me 3 days off work till end of this week. ALRITE!!! On top of that my muscle relaxants makes me wobbly and drowsy speaking of it, my meds are kicking in.

The fucking shity thing that pisses me off was my damn fucking cocksucking medical insurance only covers upto 200 bucks per visit!! The shitty medical bill came to 280 and was given discount on the meds so totalled up to MYR260. Had to fucking sacrifice 2 jugs of beers on my own and cant claim back from my office either. What a BITCH!!! Please dont buy the medical insurance with the Lion mascot! Last year they said supplements are not covered this year they said only 200 bucks per visit. I had to pay for my nerve vitamins B last year which was cost me 1 jug of beer. The insurance should use a BITCH as a mascot instead of a stupid male lion.

No physio therapy this time, doc said I wasted my time and money since I already know whats wrong with me and how to cure it. But what the heck I've got the stupid medical insurance, why try to save money for my company not like they will give me more bonus or more increment. Anyone knows whats muscle tear called in medical terms? Doc told me but I forgot tried to see my medical report but no one on earth can ever read a doctor's hand writting. It begins with Fibrous.......

Stabbed in the back!

2007-01-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

My yearly muscular problem has struck me again it was roughly the same time last year when I was just rolling on my bed and I felt a pull on my back and tore a muscle. It happens to me a lot for the pass few years. I believe the problematic muscle that keeps on haunting me is my Erector Spinae – Spinalis, this muscle is located by the spine connecting to the laterals and shoulder plate.
This year I was working on my planted tank and I got too tired of sitting and squatting, so I took 2 beanbags and lay on my chest. Just when I reaching out to my tools I felt the bursting sensation on my upper back, and it instantly immobilized me. I couldn’t move for a few moments till my endocrine glands start producing and releasing Endomorphines(natural morphine for pain killing) which is also known as endorphins to counter act the pain. Beware when endorphins are released into my blood stream, stay away from me because it doesnt only act as a natural pain killer it raises anger like a PMS bitch! have you ever seens a person in pain happy? The pain wasn’t too bad on Sunday night I still manage to get to work on Monday, it started when I was watching Dr.House on my laptop on my bed and rolled over to the side and I felt a very sharp pain on the effected area. That was it!!!! Went into the kitchen to cook up some high protien food hoping it will recover during my sleep, unfortunately it didn’t work I had to call in for MC and went to the clinic to get a referal letter from the GP to see my orthopaedic today.
Enough of the long bitch story, allow me to share my pain with you. I cant recall how many times this happened to me but tere were quite a number of embarassing moments couple of years back. Once happened in my old office I was just helping some guys to carry some stuff and my muscle ripped! SMACK!!! I was laying on the floor faced down and my office mates back tought I fainted or something. Then there was this one time I was just tossing a child from my arms up into the air and RIPPED!!!! This time I couldn’t go down cause I had to catch the kid first then pin down by the pain. The pain is so excruciating that you can see tears rolling down my cheeks. Imagine this, taking deep breath hurts, coughing hurts, cant wash my hair, and slight sudden movement to my back hurts, walking…..etc the list just goes on. The effected muscle is also connected to the rib cage that explains the pain breathing. I’m off to the hospital for my check up and physio therapy, they better gimme a hot sweet looking nurse last year wasn’t too bad she was quite sweet and soft spoken.

Bow to the lil' Saint

2007-01-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

Just came back from an excruciating drinking session with my office mates and got a mail notification from my Messenger. Felt a little horny, so I decided to check my mails hoping its some adult rated mails I usually get from my mates, to my surprise the first mail was tittled Dylan Yeap. DAMN!!!! Congratulations dSaint and Di!! Proud parent of lil Dylan aka Lil Saint weighing at 2.71Kg. He look like a cute lil saint and so adorable!! No wonder he doesn’t blog and log on messenger anymore. I suspected he was on ‘DADDY’ leave but I wasn’t to sure. Such a BITCH!!!!!! Anyway will go visit them next week with some cigars.

It has been 2 years.....

2007-01-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

Ever had a buddy whom is closer to you than you own brothers? Someone who never fails to back you up in anyway when you feet lands in shit? The very same person whom would take a stab or a bullet for you.

I knew Edmund since we were in high school, only clicked when we were in college. Let’s just say we’re pretty much like brothers for 9 long years. Where ever you are Ed, I bet life is much better on the other side. It has been 2 years…… life is so different without you around we still miss you a lot. Not in the mood to write on this, rest in peace my brother.