Last Day.

On this very fateful day, May 30th, 2008 where I met Jen in the morning after parking my car, afternoon for lunch at Sushi King, in the evening to get our car and night for Yum Cha session at Steven's Corner, would also my last working day in The Company after 2 years and 15 days of employment. Quite a duration considering my previous job lasted 15 days short of a year, lols. Perhaps it did not really feel that long since I have been working in 3 different locations, the KL office, the Singapore office on and off and the client's office in the heart of Singapore where I get to see loads of SG chicks in formal *drools*.

Monday onwards, I'll be working in one of those twin towers unless they decided to kick me elsewhere, there's a possibility to that. Funny how I never get to have some well deserved break, be it a short one, in between job changes. Still, I should be grateful this time around, at least I get to laze as much as I wanted to during the weekends. The previous one had me serving my last day on Friday, doing my final preparations and packings on Saturday and off to Singapore on Sunday, like, wtf. Didn't even manage to have a proper farewell gathering with loved ones and friends.

And how time flies, felt like it was just yesterday that I hunted around Outram Park aimlessly for food with D, who btw, had left The Company about a year back. Then came the transfer to the head office in SG, spending days and nights far away from Jacklyn, family and friends for long durations while struggling in the initial period looking for suitable accomodation. Come to think of it, I kinda miss my eventual landlord and his family, also all those weekends of movies and buffet dinners with E. Gone also were the days of total freedom.

Anyhow, I better not bore you with more of my grandfather adventures in The Company, let's hope that with this switch, things will change for the better *crosses fingers*. Alas, I took my final steps out of the office doors just like any other ordinary day, there were no farewells, no souvenirs, no nothing, not that I was expecting anything. Perhaps its something not practised or only applicable if you've been employed for more than 5 years, lols. Looking at it from a brighter point of view, it just further strengthens my believe that leaving The Company is indeed the right decision.

Adios to The Company. A new chapter has begun.

p/s - to my dear munaks, the above is not at all referring to you nor the other peeps still in The Company alright? I know you guys still love me, I'm referring to THEM as a whole. Don't terasa okay? lols. I still owe you a Hello Kitty graffiti on your new ride, do remind me of it.

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Bosan.

Because I felt a little bored with my current interface, I decided to tweak here and there a little and this, my dear friends, are the results of my itchy fingers. Now that I think about it, I could have used the time spent on this doing something a little more productive, sigh.

Anyway, I'm thinking of a new banner but at the same time, totally clueless about it. I'm open for suggestions, anyone? Did I hear outsourcing? No thank you.

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Neck of a Bottle.

Just a little less than six months before the actual day, feels like there's so much left to do but at the same time, nothing left to do. Contradicting, yes I know but that's how I felt. Its like how we have yet to get our temporary furnishings but can't proceed since the renovation has yet to start at my parent's house, mine still have a long way to go. Or how we have yet to compile the guests list and make the table arrangements, guests count from our parents still pending. Or how I have yet to complete the slideshows for the dinner because, well, kinda lazy to do them, okay I'll count this out. Decorations for the venue can't be confirmed as well since we still can't confirm the actual headcount yet, the food tasting session. Selection of gowns for the actual day, can't be done too early since new arrivals come every now and then.

Unless its coming from the older generation, whoever told you getting married is a fairly simple affair, you can shove your to-do list down his/her throat.

See what I mean, there are really lots of stuff to be taken care of but nothing to proceed with because most of the things are in pending mode. I'm just worried that we'll have to rush through everything in the end due to the bottleneck that can't be cleared at the moment, that's every couple's worst nightmare. Perhaps I should start sourcing for a professional wedding planner to take away all my worries *rubs chin*.

Just received news from Jacklyn that the wedding photos are ready for the 2nd viewing, all photoshopped and complete with designs, I'm so excited, I hope the pictures turn out good. Can hardly wait for Saturday to quickly arrive. Hence, if everything's alright, another task can be striked off from the never ending list of to-dos before the dinner *beams*. Oh, guess what, I haven't even put up a proper entry of our marriage registration day. Woe is me.

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Muar-hahahaha (2).

Dinner at Bukit Bakri, eat until so full that my stomach felt like exploding before heading for a short stroll at the other side of Tanjung Emas where lots of people can be seen fishing. There's a large field somewhere along the man-made shore where we spent quite an amount of time trying to fly a kite with lightnings in the distance, blowing soap bubbles which according to some were really addictive and flying spinner that looks like those buluh terbangs from Doraemon. Lots of kids were seen riding electronic karts as well. Random images of food ahead, sorry for the bad quality, was really hungry until hand shaking lols.

fried beehoon with crab and loads of mini crab shells pieces which I accidentally but continouosly bit into OUCH

brandon's favourite stir fried vegetables, it was not really the vegetables that he enjoys but some other ingredients in it. hint - lards

fried calamari yang super best, dish gone in record time like chipsmore cookies

fried spring rolls woot

another speciality, prawn meehoon in claypot woo hoo

this is actually chicken wings in special sauce that I really like but in this picture it looked like piles after piles of shit so sorry

'wut put' that is different from the ones we normally have in KL, its braised sweet sourish pork as filling if I'm not mistaken

Didn't bring camera out, so this is the only picture that I have from the quick stroll @ Tanjung Emas that lasted 3 hours until 1am-ish of Jacklyn blowing bubbles yang tak berapa jadi. That might be Hikaru and Jen in the background purchasing the kite.

Ah So, the following morning, we departed to Malacca for a super short trip which was only about 35 minutes plus drive from Muar. Our one and only destination, our sole purpose, was to head to Jonker dessert in Jonker Street to have many, many bowls of cendols with loads of gula melaka yums!!! Walking around the streets did bring back lots of memory of the times I was last there during my graduation ceremony.

To be honest, for the whole year I was in MMU to do my foundations back then, I never did venture out of Bukit Beruang much, I wonder why. Only upon graduating from my degree (bout 3 years plus later) did I try my first ever satay celup, seafood at Portuguese village, the midnight char siew rice, walking along Jonker street, the over-commercialized chicken rice balls, visiting Mahkota Parade and all those stuff. Guess I wasn't much of an adventurous guy.

After the makan-makan, we headed home. Enough of my endless grandfather stories, to think that I'm still quite young but have so much to say. Random pictures ahead.

Jonker Dessert, everyone's favourite place. On the left is the stall selling cendol while the stall on the right sells various types of noodles, that's Brandon and Cherrie btw with Jen, Junn and Hikaru in the background

old old old old old skool interior

my bowl of Chicken Baba Laksa or Baba Chicken Laksa, looks more like curry noodle with curry chicken to me but still very sedaps

the oh so heavenly bowl of cendol, this is before I taruh all the gula melaka. Kena marah from Jacklyn also because taruh a lot, huhuhu

accecories from a random souvenir shop where the uncle kept spinning gasing of various sizes and designs for us to see, free demonstration woh

Jacklyn with the largest pineapple tart in Malaysia, not edible one okay. Freshly baked tarts in the background, the aroma so tantalizing

traffic jam in Malacca town

And with this entry ends the 2 part series of Muar-hahahaha. A very big thank you to Mr and Mrs Heng aka Brandon and Cherrie for sacrificing their weekend to layan us, guiding us around Muar and Malacca, bringing us to makan all the sedap-sedap foods and making a huge mess out of your rooms, lols. Very Kam Siah Lu. Now, to plan for the next road trip, hehehe.

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Muar-hahahaha (1).

Title inspired by Jen, you know I'm not that creative.

Pre-trip plan included picking up Jen, Jacklyn and Hikaru from their houses respectively then proceed to my house where Junn will be meeting us up for dinner before finally beginning our journey to Muar. Mana tau, me and Jen was stuck in the most horrible congestion ever possible for 3 hours plus, travelling from Sentral to Setapak then Cheras and thus, Junn had to fetch Jacklyn who fetched Hikaru earlier to our meeting point instead. Fuh, berterabur until only around 10 plus did we managed to grab dinner at Taman Cheras.

And sampai Muar post midnight for some early morning spicy wantons plus ultimate video discoveries on YouTube which kept us awake much longer than intended. Awake much earlier than expected, zombified, due to bright morning sun rays beaming into our room. While some prepared food for our little picnic later, others lazed around trying to catch up on sleep but to no avail. Had some awesome yet cheap chicken rice balls (chicken included) for brunch then dropped by @ Tanjung Emas for a while before heading to panjat Gunung Ledang YAYS.

Bebola Nasi Ayam, these things are huge man and it only costs a fraction of what you pay for these similar stuff in Malacca, sheesh

AYAMs not KAMBINGs, much better than the average chicken rice meals you have in KL

Muar punya otak-otak is the best

mr Junn squatting by the tanjung, looking at mudskippers at that moment of time

mrs Cherrie, miss Jen, adik Hikaru sedang makan ice-cream and mr Junn

The main purpose for the trip to Ledang (some 40 minutes drive from Muar) was to soak ourselves silly in the waterfalls and to reach the falls, we had to trek through an ascending path which reminded me of all those intensive trainings before the KK trip. Due to the dense forestation and lack of breeze, halfway through the ascend, I was already totally soaked in sweat and 10 meters to our destination, I was out of breath, lols. The slippery rocks made getting into the water a difficult task, had to be really careful else its all the way down for you woo hoo. And the water was oh so cold, pretty much like soaking yourself in ice water, had me in shivers most of the time but it was all good.

While some remained in the waters, the thrill seekers climbed to the top looking for treasure and treasure they found, in the form of a better location. Some tried fishing with whatever resources we could get our hands on but to no avail, the fishes were much smarter than expected. Food was especially good, DIY sandwiches with either sardines, fried luncheon meat, egg mayo with lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes as fillings yummy.

the waterfalls at the highest peak reachable by yours truly (means its actually not the highest one lah, but entry to the ones above this is actually restricted)

Our personal fridge, just to chill things a little, hehehe

cherrie, jen, jacklyn and junn enjoying the food. jacklyn takut jatuh sakit so she didn't join us in the waters

hikaru at the top of the world, this was taken moments before he started to climb down and slipped but luckily didn't go all the way down

jed kena hentam

hikaru trying to hentam jacklyn, ta bin lei

the person who whacked me in two pictures above

Much, much later, after spending close to 4 hours at the falls, it was time to head back. Before ending the post, you can read more about the Legend of Gunung Ledang here. Part 2 coming up really soon, entry will include a short drop-by at Malacca to satisfy our cravings.

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Super (Tired) Sunday.

Hello all, baru balik from Malacca, over-overexhausted until halfway watching the Monaco GP also fell asleep and ter-awake only to find Kimi at 5th position ramming into the back of Adrian Sutil (4th - shocking) and ended without points, then Massa also dropped to 3rd from pole position wtf happened lah!

And now, halfway writing this post, I can hear the bed calling out to me clearly... come to me jed, come to meeeee... you know you want to sleeeppppp... *flops*

Note: flops was the sound of me dropping onto the bed and falling alseep almost immediately, this part was written early in the morning the following day.

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Away.

Hello all, just to inform everyone that there'll be no updates this coming weekend because Jed will be heading off to Muar later for a short weekend getaway. Not that I post consistently during the weekends all this while anyway, hahaha. See y'all soon, don't miss me.

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Minus One.

There stood a small stall selling fruits and rojak, manned by a middle aged malay lady, in the food court that we frequent for our weekly dosage of banana leaf rice which is by the way, much better and cheaper compared to others around Brickfields. And on one fine day, I was in the mood for some sour mango, not caused by pregnancy, you were thinking of saying that, didn't you?

So, the lady proceeded to prepare a fresh packet for me on seeing that there was none left in the fruits box. I told her I'll take the whole thing and she nodded. Some peeling, washing, cutting and later, she begin putting the slices into a packet, one by one. On reaching the final one, she made a count of those in the packet and from the look on her face, it seems as though she was considering whether to put it in as well. And finally, after a lapse of 5 seconds, she left the final one out.

Pretty odd if you ask me, so, I repeated to the lady that I'll take the whole thing. She said to me, cannot, cannot, one packet is like this one. *please insert multiple wtfs and sweat emoticons here* Hence, I paid 1.50 for my packet of sour mango minus one and walked away. End of another granfather story.

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Better Now than Later.

There's a wise saying of follow, do not put off till tomorrow what you can do today and below is the true account of a young lad who heed not, the wise words and almost landed himself into 30-inch deep shit. This is his story...

It all started on a fateful Monday night, when the lad noticed the fuel indicator starting to blink upon reaching the home. Feeling exhausted and weary from a day full of energy-draining activities, the lad decided to only refuel the following morning, there's a station along the way to his destination anyway. Never will the lad has the slightest clue on the series of events that will befall upon him the very next day.

The congestion on that particular day, on the journey into the heart of the city, was somehow much worse compared to norm. Due to this delay caused by traffic, the lad had no choice but to refuel only at the end of the day; any later, he will be paying an arm as well as a leg for the parking charges. At this point of time, the lad has traveled 11 KMs and stuck in traffic for 45 minutes, since the indicator started blinking. He was worried.

Much later, upon exiting the parking lot, the lad quickly drove to the nearest station only to find the refueling system in some technical glitch, he was left speechless. He now has to choose between two paths, both with only one refueling station along the way. Fearing congestion along the usual route, the lad headed for the other path and the station was in sight within 5 minutes. Before he was able to breathe a sigh of relief, the lad shocked beyond words as upon reaching, the station was barricaded and closed. Lady luck must have taken an emergency leave on that very day.

No choice but to push on ahead, praying the next station in sight would be operational. As if the situation is not critical enough, the lad got stuck in the worst traffic ever, being able to only move inches few minutes. The AC was turned off, fearing the worst, palms sweating. To him, it was like a curse, a string of bad luck, aimed at stalling his car in the middle of rush hour traffic for the very first time. When he finally get to refuel, journey of less than 1 KM took almost 40 minutes, and he vowed to love Caltex forever. To him, that was the longest 40 minutes of his life, so far.

KLCC was the next destination and the lad now drives a car equipped with a full tank of fuel, thank goodness. But his revelation did not last long, soon enough, he was clouded in rage and antagonism, the lad was stuck in a traffic so bad that he was planning to rip the guts off the next driver who annoyed him. It took him no less than half and hour getting from Sungei Wang to KLCC, he should really have stuck to his initial plan to take the Putra instead.

The curse finally ended at his destination. Thus, the moral of the story is always to listen to words from the wise. Should Jed has refueled the night before, all of this could have been avoided, totally. However, he is thankful that he managed to survive to the next station with the remaining fuel load, else, who knows what lies ahead of him.

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Farming Garden.

Also known as Taman Pertanian, located in Shah Alam. I never even heard of this place until just recently, when the gang decided to do something healthier for a change instead of the usual late night sit down chit chat drink sweet stuff then head home outings. Cycling, at the mentioned location was the plan and by 8.30am on the 19th of May, 2008, we began our journey to the unknown. Before that, we had breakfast at McDonalds yang takde breakfast set, only pancakes, because they ran out of muffins, must be the free McMuffin thingy that they had some time back.

You can either choose to trek, cycle or take the shuttle service available, which I'm not too sure if its free, to move around, visiting attractions such as the Yellow Water Dam, Animal Farms, Four Seasons Gardens (comes with extra charges to enter), Mushroom Garden and so on, so forth. Or you can just do what we did, cycle around aimlessly and take pictures. Pictures in random order.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight... eh, sorry, this is just Taman Pertanian, no wild animals included. Salah Lagu

Penghulu (village heads) from various villages gather round for their monthly meetings

Urban monkehs enjoying themselves by climbing trees, how that fella in brown reach so high above I absolutely have no idea

A cycling trail

Ada orang pakai selipar kayuh basikal, hebats. Ada orang pakai kasut tapi tak pakai socks, lagi hebat. Guess who's who, winner gets, uhrm, smelly socks from me, 2 pairs

Crossing the bridge of Terathabia, beware the lurking monsters

Last but not least, group picture minus the cameraman

Entrance fees to the Taman Pertanian was 3 ringgit per person, bicycle rental for 4 hours was 6 ringgit, unless you get those newer ones, the 4 seasons garden for 3 ringgit which you'll enter probably just for the AC. Multiple stalls selling drinks at normal price available throughout the taman, no worries on running low on liquids and stuff, think I spent quite a sum on these. Honestly, who can resist an icy cool can of 100 plus on a hot and sunny day? Headed over to SS2 for late lunch before adjourning to KTZ desserts later, end of grandfather story.

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A Day In The Life.

Of a recently married man during the weekends, based on a true story, in chronological order (morning - night). This shall serve as a rough guide to all men planning to get married soon.

Saturday - 17th May, 2008
- woke up early, planned to send car for servicing only to realize that her father has driven her car over to Pandan Jaya

- suggestion to give her father a call before proceeding with her plan to drive the dad's car over to abovementioned location for exchange ignored

- reached about 45 minutes later due to driver not agreeing to my directions thus getting lost and traffic congestion. Her father has already started driving back home. Nice

- sent car for servicing, due to overwhelming business, had to wait close to 5 hours plus until completion, headed home first (at this point, in case you were wondering, both of us drove there)

- mopped floor then fell asleep on sofa, rudely awoken by Jacklyn who was surfing the web all this while. The service completed earlier than expected

- picked-up the second wife, then headed over to Pavilion to meet up with a friend from Singapore + her ex-colleagues

- Dinner @ home, sent Jacklyn home, slept

Sunday - 18th May, 2008
- Headed out for Wan Tan Mee breakfast with ex-high school mates at Taman Cheras, somehow, all of us seemed to have become extremely talkative. Must be the old age. Breakfast lasted close to 2 1/2 hours

- On driving errand before heading out to Leisure Mall to meet up with Sam to discuss and do a review on my existing policies, lasted for close to 3 hours. Discovery of the day, Shakey's no longer serve Pepsi

- Brought Mum out to TESCO for a shopping spree, no idea why but she insisted on dining at the food court, which sucked to the extend that neither of us could finish our food

- Somehow, I find the arrangement of items in TESCO very messy, confusing and disorganized. Bought some Big Apple doughnuts which totally sucks. The filling was very little, texture felt empty, the outer layer over fried

- Slept early

And there you have it, the true accounts of a married man during his first weekend. The End.

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The Hunter Hunted.

Few weeks back, I was actively searching for job opportunities through all mediums possible, newspapers, headhunters, online job sites, references through friends and such. Out of the many applications that I've sent out, I only heard from a few of them, inclusive of those who called to inform that they no longer have vacancies or my application was unsuccessful. Truth to be told, it was pretty demoralizing and had me totally worried.

Now that I'm no longer searching for jobs, I have companies and hunters calling me on and off, sometimes a few calls per day, requesting my presence for interviews. I've even received calls from different agents of the same organization before, ish. So frequent that it's starting to become annoying.


Funny how things turn out to be at times, no there when you're desperately seeking, everywhere when you're not looking.

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Just A Moment.

Image taken when walking up to Plaza Sentral from the parking using my k770i. Something that I don't get to see everyday, a bright blue sky.

Upon returning from the trip where the 400D floated in the skies, glided on sea-waters and strolled the streets of Ao Nang on a shutter frenzy mode, it has yet to see much action anymore. Moved to a new, much more secure home, though not exactly a pretty one. Let's just hope that its owner will be able to find some time to let it out into the open skies and vast lands once again, doing what its supposed to do. Amen.

A shimmer of light, flickering in the darkness of the night skies. Do you see it? Do you?

Yes but seeing alone is not enough, I want to capture it. To capture such beautiful light, so it shall not be lost from our memories in times to come.

To see, when we wanted to see, to show, when we wanted to show.

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High, High, Into the Sky.

Krabi Trip Day 3 - Evening - Shopping, again

Some random images before I start, good news for y'all, the Krabi trip series is finally coming to an end, woo hoo. Upon returning to the shores which was in low tide again, we were greeted by vendors selling photos of us in cute picture frames. The others seemed to have realized but I was totally clueless on when and where the photos were actually taken O_o!! Cleaned and rested, more pancakes and a short stroll later, we were rejoined by Selina and Winnie before heading off to Wang Sai again for another round of seafood dinner yums! Quite a small world as we managed to bump into the group of students again, lols.

After makan and more shopping later, we decided to call it a day but not before the highlight of the night, release of the Kuo Ming Lantern, courtesy of Brandon, a first for me. More pictures:

A random shot of Ao Nang, evening edition

Mango Salad thingy, two words, super spicy. Not for the weak

Not so candid moment, again

Jacklyn again

Soap carvings, funny thing is, Rames was gonna purchased one and the price stated was 100 baht. When he asked for the price, just for fun I guess, the vendor had the cheek to charge him 150 baht, lols

Wang Sai Seafood Restaurant, or Wai Sang according to Jen, lols

Krabi Trip Day 4 - Leaving on a Jet Plane

Finally, the day for us to return to KL and return to our boring and mundane life has arrived. Headed out to the airport earlier, fell asleep in the departure hall, arrived safely in LCCT, took a bus back to KL Sentral, headed back to Jacklyn's house by cab. From morning till night, all I had was a small bowl of Maggi curry during the flight and by dinner time, I was wobbling around, half dead, due to extreme hunger.

In exception for some slight unpleasant encounter with the hotel staff, the trip was superb though I did wish that we have had more time to rest. Having to be awake earlier and sleeping later than a normal working day during vacation is just not right, I need my sleep lah. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed reading the Krabi posts as much as I have suffered writing them. Plain and lifeless posts coming up soon.

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Front Seat Not For Me.

Krabi Trip Day 3 - Morning - Full Speed Ahead

Island Hopping! In which I have rekindled my fear of sitting in the front section of a speedboat, first discovered during the trip to Redang. This one's much worst as there were nothing much to hold onto infront and the boat was powered by 2 V8 engines. While I was nearly scared to death and on the verge of puking, the others were having the time of their life, to my total bewilderment. Perhaps I'm getting too old, mentally, for these type of excitement or water based activities are just not my cup of tea, sigh. Well, back to the hopping which brought us to a total of 6 different locations, as follow:

1. Bamboo Island
2. Viking Cave
3. Maya Beach
4. Phi Phi Don
5. Phi Phi Lay
6. Railey Beach

On board with us were some locals, an Austrian, a Korean, the 2 Ang Moh ladies who were with us during the canoeing session yesterday, 2 Ang Moh guys, an Ang Moh couple and a bunch of students from California (ABCs) who were, as Jen nicely put it, almost as crazy as themselves, not me, lols. Throughout the day, the boat either stops for snorkeling sessions or drops us at certain beaches for 40-45 minutes to basically do whatever we wanted to, else, it'll be cruising around in low speed for us to enjoy the marvels of nature.

We had one heck of a driver + guide as well, super friendly and approachable, told us so much stuff including the time when the Tsunami swept the islands, which was really saddening and heartbreaking, maybe because we're hearing from a person who was deeply affected by the disaster. That aside, here are some pictures taken during the island hopping in random order:

Smiley face on Jacklyn's back. This is what happens when you ask a bunch of siao people to help you apply sunscreen on your back, muahaha. This was not my idea, btw

Rames, Jen, Cherrie, Jacklyn, Brandon and the invisible fat guy behind the camera

Still Rames, Jen, Cherrie, Jacklyn, Brandon and the invisible fat guy behind the camera. Happiness beyond words

Okay, finally a picture with yours truly in it. This was taken by letting the camera float in the sea-water, no lah, just kidding

Sun Wu Kong Jen

Sat Sei Yan pose. Yalah, yalah, I still remember you're the one who taught me how to take this photo okay, give you all the credits loh, :P

A sad reminder of the past in the present

Random picture

Of us by the seaside

Taken during one of the snorkeling session, fishes feasting on watermelon peel? I was initially quite surprised when the driver flung it out into the open sea when he finished his slice of watermelon, lols

Leave you all with a final picture to drool at for the rest of the day

The cost of this island hopping activity costs 1000 baht per person, which I consider pretty cheap since it includes a free buffet lunch and rental for snorkeling masks but please don't be expecting too much for the food. Here's a trick, there's loads of tourists information centers around Ao Nang that helps tourists to organize such activities. Hence, head to these centers directly instead of letting your hotel do the arrangements for you *coughs*discounts*coughs*. I think our trip had to be stopped earlier due to change in weather conditions as the guide kinda rushed us through a few places.

That's all for the morning + afternoon of day 3, just a little more to go and the whole Krabi series shall come to an end.

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