Rum & Raisin

Of Photo-diarrhea + Photo-hemorrhoids

2010-07-18T12:34:00.000+08:00

It has been almost 2 weeks, or even more since I last updated. Been pretty busy since rotation started, even though I start with Family Medicine. Can imagine how I would totally disappear when I'm in Surgery or OB/GYN, lol. Anyway, I've missed out on updating so much that it'd be impossible for me to elaborate, so I figure I might as well just drop all the self-explanatory photos out here. Lazy, I know, but it's better than nothing :)

First off, Date with Bi @ Atlantic City

Basically, Bi was just dying to go somewhere with a beach. One of her crazy cravings which comes and goes. So we figure since Atlantic City was the nearest one with a beach, why not? Hair super ugly was just too long and flat.

Next: Trip to New York City with the Malaysians

Timesquare, New York!

Reminds me of the scene when Hiro from Heroes teleported there and raised his hands jubilantly.

Hopes and Dreams, ready to be thrown down as confetti(s) during the New Year countdown every year.

Random cool car while walking along the roads of Timesquare.

In this huge Hershey's and M&M's Outlet.

In some park. Not Central Park, because Central park is this:

Obviously just came from the chocolate stores, munching healthily in the park, lol!

Pei-Wen & Lay Queen.

God said "Let There Be Light", and there was light.

Love how the light travels along the pavement in this one.

It was taken during the Golden Hour, precisely 6pm.

Amazing view from the top of the Empire State Building.

Awesome!

They didn't let me bring my tripod up though, so had to rely on my hands resting on the pillars while the ultra slow shuttle speed snaps.

Next: The Niagara Falls

This has been what this whole trip is about. The Niagara Falls! Okay I wasn't all too hyped, but it turned out much better than I envisioned it to be! Awesomeness only experienceable by being there.

Golden hour of the day again.

The falls, at first glance.

Was the only joker lugging around a tripod amidst all the water splashing onto me and the mist.

Effort well rewarded!

Ironic how the mini waterfall beside the Niagara Falls turned out to be the best picture.

The next day, from another angle.

The rainbow was not photoshopped!

The mastermind of the whole trip, Bi & I!

Next: Trip to Liberty Island

The Statue of Liberty.

Food for thought: The statue of Liberty was initially gold in color. It oxidized throughout the years and eventually became....well, green. Lol.

Had a few great angles on the lady, Just had to post em all up :)

One of the top reasons why you shouldn't own a Point&Shoot.

The rest, shooting from the island.

Yinn Cher, Kim Loon & Lay Queen.

Bi & I.

Picture courtesy of Kim Loon!

The flag flying majestically.

Funny how I never notice Malaysia's flag every flying so when I was back in Malaysia.

One of the best posters I've ever seen over here, haha!

And of course, one last picture to summarize everything!

Are you ready

..for the Mother of all up-skirts?

Of Fireworks and 1st Attempt at Slow Shutter Speed Photography

2010-07-01T14:27:00.000+08:00

One fine day, the girls (Bi, Lay Queen & Vi-Zanne) were just too bored and could not bear going through the weekend doing nothing but watch the World Cup with the guys in the lounge, haha. Even if it was Spain vs Portugal. So they decided to come together to make Sushi! Basically Vi Zanne had the tools like the sushi mat, and Bi & Queen got the raw materials.

Bi stoning whilst tou-ing lan.

Hahah jokes.

Actually had a picture of Queen and Vizanne at work but it got corrupted, oops.

Sushi tasted really good. Was a good change from chinese home cook food and indomee(s). Couldn't afford salmon and all though. Hong Mun had a fair share in it too. Anyway, the day after we went to watch fireworks! It was Wawa welcomes America Food Fair and Fireworks I think. Needless to say, Kim Loon & I were properly armed with our cameras!

Bi & Queen doing chipmunk faces while waiting for Kim to get ready.

Hong Mun & Ivan at the back.

Us outside Martin's Hall.

The little vain pot posing for a profile picture!

Sights & scenes @ the function.

There were A LOT of people there.

Stores selling food & drinks.

The stall here was selling Philadelphia's infamous Water Ice. Slurp.

Our oh so unhealthy pasar malam -ish food.

Chicken Quesadilla for me and Cheese Fries for her.

9.30pm: Start of fireworks!!

Below are the better pictures I managed to capture. Kinda closed up because I had to use my 50mm Prime lens since it was just too dark for my kit lens to function.

Fireworks being fired from the ship in the middle of the river.

All in all, it sure looked like an awesome but insanely expensive 15 minutes fireworks show!

Thought it would never end. Was snapping for he first 7 minutes and decided to put my camera away and enjoy the moment instead.

Oh yeah, that picture that I've been wanting to take? Was actually this:

Otter Fountain outside the library.

(Click to enlarge)

Reason why I had to time it properly was because I needed the sky to get dark enough to get a slower shuttle speed to maximize the water falling effect, but the campus turns the water off at 8.30pm. So I was basically snapping from 8.26pm till 8.30pm and took the best one. The shuttle speed could use another 7 seconds or so though.

The square outside Martin's Hall (Right building).

Left building is our CSU center. In IMU it used to be this section on the first floor.

I love my campus :)

Speaking of slow shuttle speed and water falls, tomorrow would be the mother of them all -- Niagara Falls :D will be touring around New York again for the 2nd time to cover all bases. Will update then!

Of an Up-and-coming Neurosurgeon cum Photographer

2010-06-26T14:15:00.001+08:00

Just last month, Ooi Yinn Cher walked into the conference room while I was doing a bit of studying, asking me "eh, if I wanted to buy a camera, which one should I get?". 1 month later, we're walking around Philadelphia taking shots everywhere.

Well, I'm no expert, but due to his budget constrains and considering it's his first camera to start with, I got him to go with the Nikon D40, which he got for an extremely good price on Amazon.com. Came with a basic kit lens. And right after his shelf exams, we set out and he picked up a few things here and there, mainly the basics of ISO, shuttle speed, aperture, white balance etc. The more technical area, I shall leave it to Kim Loon to help him with it since he uses the same model and he's more technically sound than me.

The puppy and his camera!

We were mostly lingering around City Hall.

Just like how every student should be in the OR & the wards, always get yourself comfortable before anything else.

Tsk, typical honor student.

Du lan face.

Btw, he wears that singlet 5 times a week, LOL.

My best angle of City Hall & Mr. Penn.

Click to enlarge! :)

Have been trying to get the correct lighting for this specific photo I have been trying to take. Hopefully will get it done by tomorrow!

Ghana vs USA, neutral stand, it'd be interesting to see USA win, also interesting to see them lose.
England vs Germany, same, it'd be nice to see the usual EPL stars I watch all year long win, but Germany have awesomely nice jerseys so.... ahha both way's good.
Ultimately I root for Spain, although they haven't been anywhere close their best despite the previous 2 wins. They'd certainly lose to Brazil right now. Would like to see either Spain, Argentina or Brazil make the finals.

Of My Birthday!

2010-06-14T12:00:00.001+08:00

First off, it has been 3 weeks before I finally met up with Vi-Zanne in Philly because she was on her vacation in London. Such a pleasure catching up with her after so long! What's better is that now the Malaysians in TJU knows her as well. Watch out Philly, we're expanding, lol! We met up for a typical Sunday morning Dim Sum, which incidentally was my first dim sum meal in the states!

My all-time favourite -- Zha Leong!

I wouldn't have took this picture in Malaysia, but it's just so fascinating seeing it around in the states.

I know, damn jakun.

Sour little boy unhappy with the white balance.

Lay Queen, the bunny after her fair share of dim sum.

Us @ Imperial Inn :)

CKS-ians

Hong Mun, Vi-Zanne, Me. (missing Jing Yi here)

Okay on to the 2nd year anniversary with bi :) We headed to Caribou Cafe after researching for any nice places to eat around Philly. No regrets right there. I would've said it's one of the better places I've ever eaten here so far (until bi brought me to Del Fresco for my bday, but we'll get there).

A bird's eye view of Caribou Cafe.

My medium-rare steak with fries.

Just look at those seasoning on the red meat *drools*

Hope we have years to come to further discover more good food around the area :) ♥

As for my birthday, the rest of the gang and I headed out to Devil's Alley for some awesome ribs as recommended by Aaron, except he didn't go because nothing on the menu was below 400 calories, lol! It was my birthday so I was going anyway.

Devil's Alley.

The all so famous ribs @ Devil's Alley.

Was not too bad, a 7.5/10? comparable to the all-you-can-eat-ribs I had @ Tony Roma, London.

Us that night.

Only reason why I would make a picture B&W or Sepia is because the noise level was just too high.

Thanks guys! Appreciate it a lot :)

(notice how Yinn Cher is ALWAYS in his scrubs)

Now on to the birthday dinner bi brought me to. It was ridunkulously AWESOME. Best dinner I've ever had so far in Philly, arguably the best in my life! It was @ Del Fresco, a comparable steakhouse to Peter Luger's, except with much more class.

The view from where we dined. Simply lovely.

Credits to bi's camera cause my camera could not function as effectively since it was a dim setting.

♥

Bi's VIP.

(Some martini soaked with pineapple for 14 days and squeezed out)

My medium-rare 16oz T-Bone Steak seasoned and cooked to perfection.

Went extremely well with the Cabernet Sauvignon - Louis M Martini 2007 red wine the waitress recommended.

So good.

The complimentary cake courtesy of Del Fresco.

Pretty rich, so guilty eating it, but the heck with it.

Bi & I.
(Button pressed and WB adjusted by Aaron)

Thanks for the night dear! Enjoyed it to the max.

(Excuse the junk around it, this was in my room)

Of Recovered Photos! (Sights & Scenes of Philadelphia)

2010-06-11T05:04:00.000+08:00

FINALLY. After an excruciatingly long and painful 2 weeks, experimenting with different free memory card recovery softwares here and there, Kim Loon finally got one (an open source) that recovered all my photos. That guy's a genius. And I realize that they are mostly of sceneries around Philadelphia, and some of Atlantic City. So here are some of Atlantic City's:

Kim Loon, my housemate!

Bally's Casino/Hotel

No it's not that Caesars Palace at Las Vegas, but it's equally nice.

The casinos were pretty awesome, with slot machines everywhere, poker tables, black jack tables, roulette tables etc etc all over the place. Aaron and Joshua tried their hands at the Blackjack table and ran away with about $120, but lost it in Roulette, lol. I spent my time at the slots machine and won $54, paid for the transport and dinner, hehe! Hong Mun & Kim Loon had to run from security cause they're not legal, yet. But what was really good, actually, was the outlets! Stuffs there are CHEAP. Bought a few shirts, shorts and a pair of sneakers which I recently posted. Would surely be back for more shopping when I can afford it.

And here are some of the better photos of Philadelphia City Center:

Lay Queen & Pei-Wen, having fun at the park.

Hong Mun spotted them doing it and decided to join in the fun.

Noob holding Kim Loon's camera as an accessory.

Philadelphia's City Hall.

Was used to film majority of the film Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Fox.

Random shot of the streets of Philadelphia.

I think this is Logan Square. There are like 4 squares and I always mix them up.

A memorial statue I suppose. Another random shot.

Malaysia's flag in Philadelphia.

We're not so unknown after all.

Love the sky in US. They're just so dynamic.

View from Logan Square.

The big boss.

William Penn, founder of the city.

There used to be a ruling whereby no building was supposed to be built higher than William Penn's statue. Until one day some rich fella decided to go ahead and violate the tradition.

The Philadelphia Flyers have never won the Stanley Cup ever since.

CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)

http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/pediatric-rankings

Bi & I at the University of Pennsylvania.

Had my birthday yesterday. Was an awesome day. Girlfriend was awesome arranging everything, awesome present, cooked and brought lunch for me @ work, friends went out for dinner together, Vi Zanne traveled down to have dinner too, Seeki called, Kim Loon got the most awesome cake, all the birthday wishes etc etc. Will leave those for the next post! :)

Of Our 2nd Year Anniversary :)

2010-06-06T04:36:00.000+08:00

A picture says a thousand words.

You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You could be the one I'll always love
You could be the one who listens
To my deepest inquisitions
You could be the one I'll always love

I'll be there as soon as I can
But I'm busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before

First there was the one who challenged
All my dreams and all my balance
She could never be as good as you
You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You should be the one I'll always love

I'll be there as soon as I can
But I'm busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before

I'll be there as soon as I can
But I'm busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before

Before you

♥

Of New Laptops and a Special Someone's Birthday

2010-05-30T12:45:00.000+08:00

It's finally here...... It's FINALLY here..!!

My 17-inch Gateway FX!!

Came in the mail like 5 days ago. The box was massive. Was so so excited that I just tore the box and wrappings open to have a look at it, hid it in the room and took dinner, and ran right back to it. It's so huge, it dwarfs my Sony Vaio.

Sony Vaio, you have served me for 4 years now and I appreciate everything you have done for me.

But as the Windows XP in you ages, and the wireless button loosens, it's time you serve someone who isn't as fussy as me -- my mum. You'd be well on your way back to Malaysia soon enough.

NVIDIA GeForce GGTX 260M

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Now for my Razor mouse to arrive.

Anyway, on to what's more important..

Happy 23rd Birthday Dear!! ♥

This little baby girl turned 23 3 days ago.

We initially planned to go to this Brazilian place, but it cost like $55 per person and it's buffet style, so we figured it might not be worth it since baby can't really eat much. Instead, we went to Fat Salmon on 8th Street (Aaron's recommendation), and we did not regret one bit (I didn't at least, saved me $50!)

Some salmon dish.

All their dishes names were too fancy for me to remember all of them, but they were awesome!

I would reckon this is some unagi dish. One of the better dishes!

Bi & I!

Waitress didn't do too bad a job in snapping it in such a dark setting.

Since baby always had a sweet tooth, we then headed to Naked Chocolate for some dessert/chocolate, arguably the best chocolate place (vs Max Brenner's) in philly :) I was extremely full by then, but bi has a separate stomach for desserts so it was all good.

Absolutely stunning :)

No pictures of chocolate since I took it blur, surgeon hands taking weekend off, haha!

The next day when we got back home from dinner, I was rushing to watch the Boston-Orlando match. Orlando disappointingly lost, but anyway, not the point, lol. The rest of the Malaysians gathered on the 2nd floor to surprise her with a birthday cake. Chocolate truffle cake, gonna get fat man.

Surprise! In her room.

The Malaysian Peeps!

Sue Yueh, Lay Queen, Hong Mun, Joshua, Bi, Me, Aaron, Yinn Cher (in his blardy scrubs), Kim Loon.

Didn't put my watermark on the pictures because the 2 pictures above are courtesy of Kim Loon! Love his SB-600 flash, need to learn how to use mine soon before class starts.

Okay, time for supper with the belated birthday girl ♥ and a nice movie on my Gateway's 17-inch HD screen. Lol! Still trying to recover the damn corrupted files/photos from my memory card.

Of Lost Photos and Orientation Updates

2010-05-24T00:14:00.001+08:00

Well, I took like about 200 pictures or so throughout the time we went to Atlantic City, and Washington Square etc, but lost ALL of them to data corruption of my memory card! Damn annoyed. Hopefully the free recovery software I just installed can recover them, or I'll have to consider purchasing one if it's gonna help me in the long run. So hopefully, my next post title would be "Of Recovered Photos"!

Last week, Dr. Lisa Sanders came to give a talk in the Alumni Hall. An inspiring one. Even though I purchased the $20 book, I doubt I will ever have time, or find time for that matter of fact, to read it. Probably got it just for this:

Gen Surg? Int Med? Gen Surg? Int Med?

Urgh.

Anyway, Friday was probably the last day under Dr Majdan. Being a cardiologist he is, he tutored us extensively on EKGs and murmurs, some simple X-ray reading, brought us on rounds in the hospitals and more. One of the most compassionate person I've ever met. So Friday, he brought us around Philadelphia in his car!

Class of 2012 & Dr. Majdan.

Classic American diner meal. Their milkshake is to die for.

Lovely boathouse he brought us to.

Bi & I.

He brought us all around, to places like the Wachovia Center (stadium where the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers play), the Citizens Bank Park (where the Phillies play, it's baseball) and the stadium where the Philadelphia Eagles play, forgot the name of the stadium. Lazy to edit the pictures extensively so I'll just upload em in FB.

Dr Majdan & I.

Okay, cannot tahan already. Need to go find some food. Hopefully back soon with recovered photos!

Of Fresh Kicks!

2010-05-18T02:27:00.000+08:00

My new fresh kicks from Atlantic City.

Absolutely love Nike Dunks, especially when it's in my favourite colour!

Rushing for class now, will update more tonight.

Of My Arrival at TJU's Campus

2010-05-10T11:27:00.000+08:00

It's been a long while since I last updated. Been really busy with everything and I'm always out the whole day that by the time I get back home, I just want to lie down and watch some tv and go to sleep. Okay, busy cause all we've been doing is Dota-ing all night till the wee hours and then crash on the bed, hehe. Anyway, some really outdated photos:

A small view of the center square of my campus where my dorm is facing.

Dr. Watson's.

The place where I had my first ever meal once I arrived. Yinn Cher, Yinn Khurn & Aaron brought us there. Pub food beats Edinburgh's pub food. Maybe it had something to do with what a certain someone encouraged me to order in Edinburgh. (*ahem* keng *ahem*)

Aaron. Incredibly hard for me to get a shot of him since he is a very shy boy. Hehe.

Yinn Cher a.k.a Small Yinn.

Got my I.D. the very next week and signed up for a phone plan and got my Blackberry Bold 9700.

Have been waiting for this moment, a smart phone finally! =D I noob have been using not-so-smart phones all my life.

These few days the seniors have been bringing us all around Phili visiting places, gardens etc etc. It's really a nice place, and everything is close by so walking have been our primary choice of transport.

Down at the park.

Capturing people when they don't realize you're shooting them produces better pictures.

The famous Love sign with the fountain.

Perfect place to go for a picnic or just waste time walking along the fountain.

I kinda forgot where I took this, but it was really really pretty.

The most enthu fella on the trip.

Noone owns as many Jefferson Medical College as him!

Reading Terminal Market.
We mostly go there for fruits cause it's cheaper, the rest are just more expensive as compared to other markets.

Last week, bi and I made a trip to New York. Primary reason was to visit my uncle Tien Loi and Wei Phin's dad since he was in NY for a conference, but we took the opportunity to go sight see-ing too.

Walking around in one of the parks.

Could see the Statue of Liberty from the park but was too small to take a picture of it. But managed to see..

..the Empire State Building. =)

As time was limited, we couldn't go inside, and didn't take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Will do that the next time round I guess.

Other random park photos:

Random sculptures lying on the ground.

Sculpture in remembrance of 11th of September

Uncle Tien Loi had arranged a fantastic meal for us at Peter Luger's Steakhouse. Really nice of him to take the effort to book the place way in advance. And the steak tasted really good, one of the best I've eaten so far.

Peter Luger Steakhouse.

It's damn fattening, but other than that no complaints. Their fries were awesome too.

At church,

Aaron: Eh dude, let's go for it! *huge grin*

Me: So the conference thingy at California is in October? I'd be starting my second rotation already!

Yinn Cher: What's your second rotation?

Me: Psychiatry.

Yinn Cher: OH yeah you'd be needing church.

Next update: Atlantic City!

Of Los Angeles, City of Angels (Day 2&3)

2010-05-01T06:38:00.001+08:00

It's snowing in the highlands in LA. Which is sorta fake, because the weather isn't all that cold, but there's snow, almost like it's man-made but it's real snow. Anyway before I post all the snow pictures, on the 2nd day we went to this theme park called Six Flags! Pretty awesome if you're in it for the big rides rather than simulated ones or shows like in Universal Studio, enjoyed it more even though the ticket price was almost twice as cheap!

At 6 Flags. Was a pretty sunny day. Jacket damn extra.

This is bi, being all tourist-y and all. Lol.

Picture credited to bi, awesome shot :) There was this 3 point shootout game in the theme park. I figured what the heck, why just it a shot since we were there for fun, and won 2 teddy bears with UCLA sweaters, awesome. Haha at least the $ didn't go to waste.

This picture was taken 10 minutes after I dropped uncle Alan's son's phone when i was on a roller coaster ride, ironically it was the tallest roller coaster in the world, sighh, felt guilty as hell as he didn't want to accept my money as compensation quoting it as an accident I didn't intend to commit. Stupid ride!

The next day, uncle Alan drove 2 hours up the mountains just to see snow, and the scenary was reallt beautiful. It was a bit colder up there, but nice nevertheless.

Bi & I at the hilltop.

Uncle Alan & Aunty Sharon! Best hosts ever.

Love how soft untouched snow on the ground is.

Bi & I again.

Later on he brought us to Hollywood street. It was a change of setting, since it was all city-like over there. Traffic was bad, parking wasn't any better, but it was worth the trip.

Bumblebee.

They live among us. Lol.

This fella has a star of his own on the Walk of Fame?

With Mickey Mouse.

Pei-Wen and...... shit I forgot her name, lol.

Anyway, it's a college friend of hers back in Singapore who is now an accountant in California, so they decided to meet up since we were there.

Okay, reason for me blogging this in a hurry is that I need to rush to the kitchen to help her out with the cooking already. She's gonna kill me. Will blog about arriving at TJU next!

Of Los Angeles, City of Angels

2010-04-27T05:15:00.000+08:00

After an agonizingly long flight, I reached Los Angeles! Managed to catch 2012 and 2 episodes of Big Bang Theory, the rest of the way I slept, hence the major jetlag when I reached. Anyway the plan was to spend 3 days in LA before heading to Philadelphia. My dad's childhood friend picked us up from the airport and was practically hosting us the whole 3 days and was awesome. Brought us to all the places and all. Really grateful for having uncle Alan around during my stay in LA.

Well, my first meal directly after uncle Alan picked us up from the airport was..

In-N-Out Burgers!

Wanted to try it out since bi's friend highly recommended it, and the online reviews were awesome, and it didn't disappoint :) What's disappointing is that it's only available in California, damn.

Uncle Alan's house was really nice. The house was huge, the neighbourhood was peaceful and quiet, and they had pets too! Really a great start to our arrival in the US.

The house!

Pet #1 - Lucky, the mixed Chi Hua Hua.

Pet #2 - ....didn't get the hamster's name.

Anyway, the very next day uncle Alan brought us to Universal Studio. The ticket was really expensive, about $68 or so. Was pretty good. Kinda lazy to elaborate on it, so I'll just post the pictures up?

Universal Studios! Weather was really nice, Genting Highland-ish about 17 degree celcius or so?

Cold-intolerant girlfriend braving a smile through the cutting wind!

Bi & I.

Shrek & us!

Bugger have his arms over my girl.

Scooby, Shaggy & us!

We went on this tour in Universal Studios, where they bring you around in a tramp showing you the movie sets where they film the movies and all, which was pretty awesome since you'd go "eh, this set is familiar, they used it in etc etc..!" but I thought this was the coolest out of the all. (Rest of them pictures uploaded on FB)

Scene used in Angels & Demons.

Random scenary pictures:

Fooling around in the merchandise store:
(Didn't buy anything, everything was just too expensive! Tourist area, what to do)

Her choice of a water bottle.

My choice of a water bottle.

This really cool Dark Knight poster which I was REALLY tempted to get for my room, but it was $9.99. Sigh.

Chucky!

That basically was my first 2 days in LA. Am at a Starbucks cafe 2 minutes away from my dormitory in Phili blogging since we only get internet once I get my student ID on Tuesday, means Wednesday Malaysia time. Everything needs a student ID -- phone line, laptop discount, internet, sigh. Will blog about the remaining days in LA soon!

Of Farewells & Departure

2010-04-21T05:36:00.000+08:00

The day is finally here. I'm spending my last night in Malaysia, awake at 5am refusing to go to sleep. I have no idea why I'm still wide awake, lol. Anyway have been extremely busy packing, getting documents ready, last minute arrangements, but most importantly, last minute meetups and farewells with people close to me before I left for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania =)

First up, was the meetup with my Wesley Methodist School friends who were back in Malaysia for the easter break! We went to Oneworld Hotel for their buffet lunch, which wasn't bad at all.

Photo courtesy of Foong Wai though.

We didn't have a tripod so we took turns taking the picture, lol.

Met up with Ding this morning was wantan mee. Caught off-guard and kena zha-ed by him for the final time. Damn.

Then, there was the dinner with my PJST basketball teammates since we were in high school. I was highly skeptical about this materializing at first since it was them. But surprisingly, they took the initiative, and we had one of the best catch up times ever, again, in Oneworld Hotel for their buffet dinner, which was similiar to their buffet lunch, lol.

Thanks guys, for the gifts! Even though one of em is just plain ridiculous. In a funny way, lol.

Sheaffer Pen carved with my name from Soon Peng & Weng Sum.

Jersey from Ho Yeaow Loong. This really shocked me.

Gonna wear it to ball in the states, maybe it makes me jump higher, lol!

...and a chicken plushie from Lou Kai, Sheng Khai & Koeh Liang.

Kinda obvious which is the ridiculous gift, lol.

Some shots I took around the hotel while waiting for them to arrive.

Then it was back to IMU, to meet up with Farook and Daniel, the library furnitures =D We had our traditional Friday Kin Kin Pan Mee lunch, headed back to uni and fooled around, and headed home to berak out the chilli. My stomach is spared for the next year or so at least.

Something I dreaded but will miss when I'm in the states.

Daniel Ang!

And after that, it was the Sri Cahaya gathering, which was literally confirmed at the 11th hour. We had it at A&W in SS2 because Kim, our main organizer, was craving waffles with ice-cream and root beer float. Damn it even makes me hungry now. It was certainly nice to see all my Sri Cahaya friends again, been so long since I last saw all of them. Made my day =)

The peeps who turned up.

Was using my kit lens so the picture isn't awesomely clear.

Then there's the Bukit Kiara basketball friends. Thanks to Louis Kheng Wee Pin, who one fine day introduced me to Sunday ball games at the club, these full court stints have been what I look forward to every single week. Love the feeling of sprinting up and down the court and sweating it all out. Beats running on a treadmill.

Jack, me & Kek Thye.

Kek Thye & I.

My 3 pointers betting mate. And yes, I still lose to him despite him being a center.

Pffftttttt.

Then again, it has made me a better shooter ever since. The fear of losing $ is effective.

Just last night, bi and I met up with Pei Hwa & Wen Dy at Banana Leaf, Centerpoint. Just a casual meetup to catch up one last time before leaving. They drastically improved my first ball in volleyball, lol! Hopefully I don't lose touch when I go over to the states.

Saya punya girlfriend, Wen Dy & Pei Hwa.

Oh ya, bi straightened her hair =)

And last but not least, my family =) We took a family portrait using my camera and a tripod at home. Figured it was a good use of my camera and I preferred the picture to be in a more natural setting when we're all in our natural element (excuse to save $), lol. Yeah, it was for a photo to be put on my study table.

Indoor Portrait.

Outdoor portrait.

This was with the dogs. You have no idea how long it took us to get all of them to sit still and look at the camera, lol.

Well, that's it from Malaysia. My next post would be from Philadelphia already. Hope I won't get too homesick. Till then!

Of Leaving Home

2010-04-16T01:38:00.000+08:00

I officially have less than a week left in Malaysia. The sad feeling of not wanting to leave this sad country is slowly dawning upon me. Well, not so much of leaving this country, but leaving my family, and my home. Life goes on I guess.

And oddly, everything comes up when it's down to those few days before you really leave. Suddenly there are these plans, suddenly there's more paperwork to be done, suddenly you need to get this, etc etc. Been a tiring and frustrating few days, and really busy too, so this would be a semi-short post. Would update more by the weekend!

Since I was leaving within the week, mum & dad have been making it a point to meet me for lunch, finding time in between their working hours. Yesterday, they took me for an executive lunch at Italian On Sixth!

Italian on Sixth

My tuna salad.

Didn't taste too good. Mum's Caesar Salad was better.

My Rib Eye Steak with Mushroom Gravy.

This, on the other hand, was pretty good :)

Mum's Spaghetti Seafood Oglio.

Tasted pretty ordinary, but their prawns were fresh and juicy.

My Tiramisu as the dessert.

All nice & soggy, just the way I like it.

Why weren't there any pictures of my dad's food? Cause he opted for the salad bar, so when he did stacked all his servings on his plate, it wasn't too presentable, Haha. Sorry dad!

The quiet roads of Sierramas.

Gonna miss this junction to my house when I'm gone.

Of Photo Post-production

2010-04-12T01:43:00.001+08:00

Okay, I'm no pro at photography, neither am I good at photo-editing / post-production, but I figured I'd write a little about things I've learnt about post-production along the way. All these are really simple and direct forward, not to mention, free! :)

This is a picture I took of the Eye of London using my Panasonic Lumix LX3 semi-pro camera.

Picture is pretty poorly lighted. Highlight & shadow balance off. But with Picasa, I can easily adjust the lighting and composition to make my picture twice as nice and compelling as it already is now. It's extremely user-friendly, and completely free for download here. In this case, the temperature of the picture was just nice but in any event it isn't, it can be adjustable in Picasa too. :) After Picasa tuning:

The picture instantly becomes fresher and clearer.

Tip: It allows u to cheat a little, in the sense that you use a really fast shuttle speed to get better pictures, and use Picasa to tune it a little, giving u sharp & well-litted pictures!

After getting the right lighting for your picture, you can further improve it (varies by individual opinions) by giving it a frame or adding your very own watermark, or both. The easiest way you can do both, for me, is using Picnik. It's a photo-editing website which is free and user-friendly too. All you need to do is to create your own account, and you're set to go! It allows you to add all sorts of different borders (which is not featured in Picasa) as well as add special effects, items, words etc. Flick'r uses Picnik as their photo-editing programme. You can actually opt for the premium account, which requires a little payment for extra features, but I really think the basic FOC account is good enough :) Click here to go to their website. So after adding a border and a watermark:

See how much difference it makes by just a few tweaks here and there? =) There you have it, simple and free ways I use to edit my picture. Doesn't take a genius to do it. Once you've mastered it and grew bored of the same stuffs, you can move on to Photoshop or Aperture, and when you do, teach me too. I have yet to learn or even own the software!

Of Packing

2010-04-09T01:42:00.000+08:00

Well, I've finally started packing. With 2 weeks to go, i still think it's a bit too early to start packing. With the limited amount of clothes guys have, we'd end up with nothing to wear if we pack so early on. But then again, it gives me more time to go "OH! Forgot to pack that in" over this 2 weeks so I guess it's a good start.

My smaller luggage. Realized I packed more sports attire than formal wear, but it's only cause I can re-use my formal wear 3-4 times but I sweat in my sports attire everytime I use it = laundry which I foresee myself neglecting, so yeah, lol.

A little home-sickness was dawning upon me when I first started packing. Before that, I really couldn't feel anything about leaving Malaysia for US for a year or even more. Maybe it's the whole packing thing which makes u go "shit, I'm really leaving". Oh well, life goes on, just gotta look ahead.

My new glasses! hehe. Yeap, the brand is Animal, pretty cool brand in fact. Never knew they sold glasses. Transition lens, meaning the lens turns into a semi-sunglasses under the sunlight. Awesome.

Room's in a mess because of my packing. Gonna get some rest now. Rafael wasted my effort staying up till 5.30am last night. Saturday -- lunch with Ding, Choon Yeauw, Xin Yi, Foong Wai etc etc! (dunno who else is going, lol)

Of Farewell Gifts

2010-04-04T11:42:00.000+08:00

Sigh. I refuse to let the 1-2 Man Utd defeat to Chelsea dampen my spirits! So on a brighter note, my aunt gave me a Cardiology III Littman Stethscope as my farewell/good luck gift to the US! Awesomee.

Was playing with it on myself.

Still couldn't tell if it was a normal heart beat or a murmur -.-"

On a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Off to Pavillion with family for lunch now. Days left in Malaysia slowly ticking away. Sigh. On another happier note, Ding Shyong is back in KL! Better meet up before Choon Yeauw and Xin Yi elopes to an island.

Of Performances!

2010-04-02T11:12:00.000+08:00

This week was pretty eventful. First off, there was Wendy's performance, LOVE, at ICOM (International College of Music) in Setapak, KL. Truth be told, I never knew the building existed even though I used to always pass that road, lol! But a pretty awesome place! Farook and Pei Hua ffk-ed!

Somehow this picture gives me the feel of a Jay Chou album.

Too bad she hates him.

What's the best way to cover up a picture with too much noise?

Change it to black & white, you barely notice the noise, hehe.

Next up, was pwen's dance performance in conjunction with IMU's Go Green Campaign! It was bi's last dance. Ironically, it was Huei-Wen's first.

Which Side Are You On?

IMU's Go Green Campaign.

Seow Shu Yee.

Dance Club's Committee Performance.

There's my love! =D

Just Another Crew dance performance!

Probably the last dance in IMU for her, so I made sure I tried my best to take nice pictures, although I generally suck in taking action photos.

Glaring sunlight helped with the shuttle speed though.

The Don.

Jade, Music Club president.

That's all for now. Heading to Kin Kin Pan Mee for lunch with Farook, Ray Mun & Daniel! Referee-ing at night. Hope I don't need a timeout of my own later on if you know what I mean.

Of the Finer Things/Food in Life

2010-03-31T12:45:00.000+08:00

I'll just keep this nice and short -- Lafite, Shangrilla, KL. Normally, I would never afford to go for fine-dining, but because we have a Prestige card, it's free 1 pax per bill, which means a 50% discount for a meal for 2, so me & pwen decided to indulge in their showcase lunch one fine afternoon.

The ambience at Lafite.

Nothing changed -- the setting, the food, chef Damon, perfect =D

Roast duck with pineapple dices & drops of BBQ sauce.

Fish with pineapple dices.

Can you just see the taste oozing out of the picture, lol.

Usually, you'd come to think that this would be my plate since it's fully filled right?

Well, it wasn't, lol. It was this pig's plate:

Playing with the flower stress ball that was on the table.

And of course, the best part to the showcase lunch -- the main course:

Cod fish, with potato and long beans beneath.

Forgot what was the foam made up of, lol.

It was heavenly. Honestly, enjoyed it more than my own main meal:

Lamb shank with avacado and some tiny rice thing which i forgot its name.

Meat was really tender and nice. Cod fish still tasted the best though. Hehe.

I would take this platter of dessert over Haagen Daaz anytime.

Am salivating just by looking at it, this 20 minutes after I had my breakfast.

Shots taken by bi. I told her that was a stressball so she squashed it, only to tell me it was real flowers. -.-"

At the lobby of Shangrilla.

After happily paying my 50% discounted bill, we headed to my mum's shop, where I had to pick out 2 frames to make new spectacles to bring over to the US. Not uploading any pictures about it cause 90% of the frame looked hideous. Managed to pick out 2 nice ones though, 1 for outings and 1 for home use/ OTs.

Was trying to get a good shot of her candidly, cause she never smiles properly when you ask her to, lol.

Of Disadvantages of Studying in a Western Country

2010-03-28T16:12:00.000+08:00

Soon this year, this show will be coming out.......

.....and I won't be able to watch it because it won't be in cinemas in the US! UGH!

My best friend would be Bittorrent.

Time to go for bball at Kiara now!

Of Reunions and Basketball!

2010-03-27T10:55:00.000+08:00

IMU have basically been having this Inter-Batch Basketball League, where batches will square off against each other every Monday-Friday night. I suppose it was organized since IMU Cup has became a House system but they still wanted to compete as a batch. So IMU hired my coach to be the referee and to select the IMU Basketball team, I suppose handing him the reigns to coaching the team.

So 1 day after he made his selection, he invited us (his own Petaling Jaya team) to have a friendly match against the IMU team. Dammmnnnnn excited cause it meant I get to meet up and play with friends I haven't seen for ages! And to my delight & surprise, only 1 fella FFK-ed, lol.

Khai Sean, Me & Kelvin.

Prepping and fooling around before the start of the game.

Bi helped take pictures while we were playing. Really have no clue how to improve on game shots -- where everyone is running at such high speed & the lighting sometimes isn't that great. All of them turn out blur most of the time despite maxing out on ISO and shuttle speed. Help, anyone? Nevertheless:

Starting the fastbreak.

Game shots.

These 2 buggers were late, so these were the only shots I have of them.

Weng Sum & Soon Peng.

Okay la, actually got 1 nice shot of Weng Sum. Credits to bi for shooting it while I was playing.

Sang Weng Sum.

Anyone could tell age was catching up on us. Everyone was a tad bit slower, some were lazy to run. Some stayed at one half of the court. Nevertheless, it's the fun and company that was awesome, and I guess that's all that matters.

And 1 more thing.....

Knee guards DO work! Takes away all the stress and pain in the knee!

Should have gotten it much much earlier.

And shows which I'm counting the days down to:

Iron Man 2

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Clash of the Titans

Can't wait!

Of Internet Security and Evitable Regrets

2010-03-24T02:46:00.000+08:00

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=157128708260&ref=nf

"Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later sometime in your life. And when you're young, you make mistakes and do a lot of stupid stuffs, and I've been hearing a lot about young people who're posting stuffs on Facebook and suddenly they'd be applying for a job, someone's gonna search, and you know. and that's just come political advice...(etc)"

Barack Obama

In a nutshell: Whatever you post on the internet is accessible to everyone on the planet, including your future employers. So think twice before posting stuffs on any public network, be it Facebook or your blog or whatsoever. Ask yourself, have you ever posted something that potentially may come back and haunt you, anything which you wouldn't want your future employers or future kids to look at?

Just some food for thought :)

Have a good day everyone!

Of an Insanely Early Hike to Broga Hills

2010-03-22T11:22:00.000+08:00

I've always wanted to hike up Broga Hills. Ever since seeing pictures from Jing Guo's hikes up, and also almost going up once. And opportunity arose when bi's dad wanted to hike on a Sunday morning. Well, there was one thing I did not anticipate ahead of all the fun and all the nice pictures I could take -- the hour that we were supposed to wake up.

The plan was to wake up at 4am and leave at 4.30am, but we overslept a bit and woke up at 4.30am and left at 5.30am. Still pretty damn early despite oversleeping for an hour! Arrived at about 6.20am, and was shocked to see about 20 cars which were already parked along the roadside, all geared up for the hike too. I never knew it was so crowded!

Basically, it was still so dark, that I could only start taking pictures when it was around 7-7.30am. The hike was so crowded, mosquitoes aplenty, but it was worth it :)

Mum once asked how was Broga Hills like.

My answer at that time was : "Dehh, u got watch Gladiator or not. When he dies he walks back to his home, then got a lot of tall tall grass around him one"

Should've just said : " A lot of tall lalangs"

If only wide-angle lens were cheaper. Sigh.

Monkey sighting on top of a rock on Broga Hills.

Thought they only had this in Batu Caves.

My camera-addicted bi.

Love how the lalangs make the pictures nicer, especially how lalang sounds so ke le feh.

I shamelessly admit that I used this pic even though my hair was chopped and the picture was taken far too closed up because I happen to look relatively better here than in the rest of em =p

On the 3rd peak with the 2nd peak at the back of us.

There were 4 peaks in total.

At the 4th peak of Broga Hill!

A mere 400m, but it was more taxing than that since there were 4 peaks to climb. 400m was the highest point of the peaks.

Actually the journey up was pretty simple. It was the journey down which almost took my already damaged knees. I sound old.

Of AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens

2010-03-17T15:08:00.001+08:00

I know it's kinda late since I got it 2-3 weeks ago, but I bought a AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens for my Nikon D70 body! =D Along with my kit lens, should suffice for the time being and when I head to the US, I suppose?

Brought it along to the steamboat dinner with Group 11 last week to have a trial run at it, and the pictures were a massive improvement from the kit lens (of course la right, lol).

Huei-Wen & Pei-Wen

Sisters when put tgt becomes.....

....retards. Lol just joking!

Love this picture of her.

By far best pic of her in my opinion =)

Anyway, you know how every year after orientation the junior batch have a charity home visit where they pay a visit to either an orphanage or old folk's home and donate $ & clothes etc? Yesterday they had a charity home sales where we raise funds for the charity home visit. So we were to bake cupcakes (only sellable thing we know how to bake) to be sold in the atrium.

All the cupcakes that were intended to be sold.

They sold it for Rm4 per cupcake I think. Was a pretty decent profit margin :)

The most difficult part was transporting it there. Every little bump or turn would unsettle all the cupcakes and they'd crash into each other's icing.

Bi & I.

Decent picture spoiled by a yellow hue towards the bottom cause the strap was partially blocking the lens when it was on timer, lol.

Our stall. Loved the food.

Potato salad was gone before I could try any.

But the Lo Hon Guo (air mata kuching) went from Rm2 a cup to RM1 a cup to RM1 a cup buy 1 free 1 to eventually stoch clearance -- free. Pffft!

Fascinated customers buying cupcakes!

Sorry Arthur, I had to do this.

Chee Kin looking all so fatherly.

Zi Xuan looking rather hornily.

Chew Hsia, Penny, Shun Wei & Celine.

Best friends (I think?)

Melissa & Celine.

He who is afraid of lizards.

Ming Wai.

Jia Wei & Amanda.

This time neither one was defocused, hehe.

Us.

I swear the IMU logo behind was accidental. Didn't intend for it to be there.

Ms Aznah from SSD (Student Service Department)!

She's a little camera shy =P

Hair getting rather long. Can't even stand up now.

Speaking of long hair, supposed to get a hair cut right after I'm done with this post, hehe!

Sam Ye Han,

MEDTCH110 Orientation president,

deep in thoughts,

about his latest fantasy indulgence.

Off to my haircut now! and then ball at Damansara Perdana at night. Please knee, don't fail on me now. I'm gonna wear a knee guard and drown you with counter pain, so please don't hurt.

Of a Birthday Celebration and Family Photo

2010-03-15T20:30:00.000+08:00

Last week was my dad's birthday. So seeing that I had a lot of time in my hands, mum asked me to bake him some cupcakes and a cake. So naturally, I had to call some reinforcement to help me out (hehe).

I didn't take any photos of the process since it would be just too messy, and it means I won't be doing much work and bi would be doing everything, so I'll just post the end-product:

Cupcakes! A bit noob looking la, lol. Didn't have much time to prepare.

Chocolate banana cake! (aperture of the lens ter

Was pretty happy with how it turned out!

But I'll be honest with you. It looks ten times better than how it tasted, lol!

Later on that night, we went to eat crab @ King Crab, Kelana Jaya since my dad loves crab. Had buttermilk crab and ham dan crab. Damn nice. Haven't had crab in a while.

Family photo with monkey in the middle.

Happy birthday daddy!

I know you read my blog, don't pretend.

Ah, the delights of malaysian food. Sigh this is getting me hungry.

Random picture of my LX3 recording bi's dance.

Manchester United avenged their 3-0 loss to Fulham last year with a 3-0 win! Won me a measly RM10, but money is still money!

Lee Chong Wei won his All-England finals, which is kinda annoying to mention since everyone everywhere is FB-shouting or tweeting about it, but yeah.

Joel Gan & Samantha Tee, please get back to me ASAP if you're coming back this weekend! We've got a movie to watch.

Of....I Don't Know, Lol.

2010-03-14T02:44:00.001+08:00

♥

Of Reasons Why I'm Emberrassed to be a Malaysian. Yes, it's that bad.

2010-03-12T02:36:00.000+08:00

More brutality while in the custody of Malaysian cops. This time around in Cheras Pandan Mewah on Oct 31, 2009 7:48pm not only the police officers in are getting into the action but also civilians from the local public. The guy at the center of everyone attention in the video below is said to be suspected of theft allegedly. This is going to do wonders for tourism because not only vacationers have to fear the criminals but also the police. I don't know for sure whether the suspect is really guilty of stealing or not so I don't know if he is a totally innocent victim of the or a criminal himself who had this coming in someway. But surely he does not deserve to be beaten in the head with a hammer. And surely asssualt is a more serious crime then theft. According to reports, the guy being beaten stole from the boss of a workshop that fix cars so the workers are the civilians you see taking revenge in front of the police. And when they are done, the police started their own beating session.

- Gutter Uncensored

Seriously man. What a way to promote Malaysian tourism. Yes, if any of you out there planning to visit our beautiful country, this is as real as it gets -- lawless.

The police tried to their most minimum capacity to stop the public from almost committing murder because at the back of their head, they secretly wanted the alleged robber to be beaten up, or killed. I hope you lose your jobs. Enforcing justice is obviously too huge and important a responsibility for a person of your class and mentality to handle.

Vision 2020 my ass. With this kind of people and mentality still around, Mimpi 2020 la.

Of Malaysia Traffic Jams

2010-03-09T01:57:00.002+08:00

This happens when you get stuck on LDP @ Sunway Toll

We should have more trains.

Of Cupcakes

2010-03-07T21:23:00.000+08:00

Last week (or last last week, somewhere along that timeline), bi went to some cupcake-making workshop or some sort with Wen Xia in Jaya1 (is it?). And when I saw her cupcakes she made & brought back, I must say, it looked exactly like those sold outside, with pretty decors and all. So she being the enthusiast she is, wanted to try it out on her own. We (or rather she) bought the ingredients at Bake with Yen, Taman Mayang, and headed over to my place for a baking session.

Sieving the flour & castor sugar.

Head chef at work. I basically was just snapping pictures and doing whatever she told me to. Was clueless! (Usually it's the other way round =P)

And when I DID have something to do.....

See? So effortless! =D It was blending itself.

Filling the cup with the pastry. It was too full though, overfilled when the self-raising flour, well, raised in the oven.

Fresh, from the oven.

It was damn good though, crispy on the outside, soft & warm on the inside.

My first ever made cupcake! Nice or not?

Okay, it's the second. The first one's icing turned out like crap cause I haven't got the hang of curling it like a MCD ice cream on a cone.

Final product:

Nice eh? The cupcake was really good.

Icing was super sweet, but that's how all icings are supposed to be right?

Only one problem:

I don't dare to eat them cause it's too fattening.

Of Holiday Time-Killing in the Form of Orientation

2010-03-03T23:37:00.000+08:00

Well, in the past week I have been pre-occupied with the MEDT110 orientation. Weird that now instead of batches being M10- it has become M11-. Anyway, I actually joined cause bi wanted to, and I thought since I have plenty of time, it didn't sound too bad. Then I realized it would present as a great opportunity for me to play around/practise with my loaned D70 before I return it.

Pictures from Track Trip to Lake Garden:

Group 11!

Waiting outside IMU before leaving.

Our first destination was to Tugu Negara. What's more interesting? I've never been there, in my life. Such a Malaysian. Nevertheless, it was pretty nice. Worth visiting at least once in your lifetime.

Pei-Wen, Melissa & Jo Wee

Upon arrival.

Sam (orientation president) & Man Lo.

Memorial at the back of them.

Lydia & Chun Tean camwhoring.

The fountain in the middle of the vicinity.

It was so damn hot I almost jumped into it. Malaysian weather : Either too damn hot or raining everyday.

Brokeback Fountain.

Sam & Man Lo.

Arthur & Lydia.

With the back of the Tugu Negara at the back of them. Lol.

The boy's parents was asking him to pose in front of the memorial for them to take a picture.

Pretty convenient for me too. But after that he kept looking at my direction/camera instead of his parent's. XD

"Duhhhhh...."

I got this kid's parent's permission this time for this!

Melissa & Chun Tean.

We then headed to Dataran Merdeka for a quick photo, and then to Petaling Street. The task there was to take pictures of the group eating 3 well known dishes in Petaling Street, so we opted for their porridge, chee cheong fan & their air mata kuching, which was the best in my opinion.

All sorts of Porridge. Their century egg was nice.

Guess who else was there?
Jenan, Group 13 infiltrator XD He was damn noob-looking throughout the orientation, hence successfully fooling the group all the way to the end.

Pei-Wen, Me, Melissa, Shun Wei & Lydia.

Back in the dance room rehearsing for Dress Code 2.

Ming Wai's The Hulk impersonation.

All in all, was pretty fun. Didn't regret joining orientation. Next up for me -- preparing/packing to go over to US and revising syllabus. TMD.

Group 11 - $millions

Orienation group names are meant to be lame!

Of Food. Again.

2010-03-02T10:28:00.000+08:00

Actually, I meant to blog about orientation that I participated since I was so free but hadn't had the time to upload the pictures. So as of now, this will do I guess?

Last week, Jian Yung & Su Yiin (my cousins) were flying back to Aussie, so we had lunch at this Jap place in KL -- Fukuharu.

Fukuharu Menu.

It's their only menu, besides the dessert one, cool eh?

I was kinda late, so my mum made my order. She told me she ordered Rib Eye Tepanyaki for me. How cool is that, Rib Eye Tepanyaki?? First time see.

My Rib Eye Tepanyaki.

Wasn't too bad, portion pretty small though.

Grilled Eringi Mushroom. One of the better dishes.

Bi's Unagi set? Forgot the name of the set already.

Mochi. Was damn nice. Maybe cause it was sweeter than those you get in pasar malams.

Our Chocochino. Tasted like chocolate milkshake.

Sigh. After everything, my heart still remains with one dish.............

Meng Kee Char Siew, Glenmarie.

Why do you have to be so far away T.T

Us at Snowflake, Subang Jaya.

Will update on orientation in the coming days?

Of Backlogged Outings Updates

2010-02-25T20:30:00.000+08:00

Okay, I have like 3-4 folders of pictures on my desktop un-uploaded, so I figure I just uploaded them all at once. Lazy, but I'm kinda short of time everyday, so an update is still an update =)

CNY Dim Sum Breakfast @ Summer Palace, Damansara:

Summer Palace, Tai Thong Group.

Keat Boon wanted to have dim sum breakfast, and I recommended the place. Actually, we headed to some restaurant in uptown, but they didn't have char leong, so we figured Summer Palace had, only to switch to the place and find out they didn't even know what it was. UGH.

Honey BBQ Ribs.

Prawn Chee Cheong Fun, not too bad.

Siew Mai.

Char Siew Pau.

Okay, if I was gonna post up pictures of every dim sum we had, it's gonna take forever so I'll stop here.

Su Lin & Ven Xhin.

Both have already left for Australia. Good luck for your final year!

I don't know if she was intentionally posing, but if she was, poser-nya!

But overall a nice picture of Ven Xhin.

Well, for this outing and the next, there won't be any pictures of me. Cause coincidentally, for both outings, the person who took my picture focused on the background and completely de-focused me, making me a blur shadow in front of a clear surrounding! Well, Keat Boon was the unfortunate victim here since I took pictures with him means all my blur photos, is his blur photos too XD

And this outing have got to be the outing-of-the-ribs. Stupid & emberassing!

Behind every Honey BBQ Rib lies a story.

This rib is RM16 btw. -.-"

Tze Yang's homecoming @ Dragon - i, Mid Valley:

TY's back in KL for the Chinese New Year! It's been 2 year, I think, since I last saw him. He went back to his hometown in Batu Pahat, but came to KL and was staying in Putrajaya. No idea how he got to Mid Valley, and back home, lol.

Honey BBQ Ribs.

You see the trend here right?

Classic Xiu Long Bau.

I embarrassingly broke my first one on my spoon, as evidently pointed out by See Ki as soon as it broke.

I was supposed to snap a picture of Karmen, Seeki & Samantha, when all 3 of them went "WAIT WAIT!" and started adjusting their hair and smile, and TY was like "snap them now!". So:

All 3 of them adjusting their hair for....

...this, lol! I honestly don't see the difference before and after adjusting!

Karmen, Seeki & Samantha.

TY & Karmen sneaking into the picture.

Once again, no picture of me cause Seeki was focusing on this random guy-who-looks-like-a-girl at the table behind me! She's settling down in Australia now, all the best there Seeki! I know you'll do well there, but try not to pick fights over there! As to TY, hope to see u soon, like, when you come visit US? Lol. Karmen & Samantha, enjoy your last week of holidays!

CNY Open House @ Sierramas, Sg. Buloh:

I once told Choon Yeauw during basketball, that if he extends his stay in Malaysia, I'd organize the open house this year and call the guys over. And he did (damn! lol jus jk). And so did I. Next time if I was to have it at 2pm, I'd better tell them it's at 12.30pm. Cause I purposely told them it was at 1.30pm, they still turned up at 3pm!

Kok Ang & Chuen Seng.

One Malaysia.

Prof Kingston analyzing the cards diligently.

Choon Yeauw & Wei Lynn.

CY says the next time you see his picture here, he would be much leaner. I listen first! =P

Bi & me.

I look like crap with glasses, but I'm back on with contact lenses! Terrible period of time.

This was taken by a Nikon D90 with a prime lens btw. Not fair of my camera to take credit, lol.

The guys / Hartamas bball kaki.

We gambled for an hour or so, with Choon Yeauw being the dealer first, and when he was wiped clean, Wei Ping took over. And he wiped the rest of us clean, lol!

Warning: The following pictures may be NSFW. Contains excessively amount of chio-ness on the wrong gender and guranteed to be hair-raising.

Choon Yeauw

Justin & Kingston.

Plane ticket booked for the 21st of April. Hopefully can get my VISA and accomodations settled by then, and meet up with friends I haven't met up with or the rest for one more time before I leave =)

Of Overdue Liberation!

2010-02-23T01:01:00.000+08:00

It's finally here!

All the wait, the anxiety, it's over!

And best part is, my girlfriend is going with me =D

Time for arrangements and plannings! (VISA, plane tickets, accommodations etc)

Of Countless Family Dinners and Gambling, Hallmarks of Chinese New Year

2010-02-21T03:26:00.000+08:00

My favourite time of the year have finally came, and gone. Time really flies when you're having fun. Those yee sang meals and gambling into the night will soon pass by. Not to mention those red packets. So before Chinese New Year officially ends, here's a brief update on what I've been up to, although it would probably be 90% similar to anyone who's celebrating CNY.

Reunion Dinner @ grandparent's place:

The classic CNY dish -- Yee Sang.

Things you can hear from my table during lou sang:

"May everyone have a great and prosperous year!"

"May XXX score straight As this year for SPM!"

"May I get 4 di(s) for chor dai di later!"

"May I chao other ppl 13 cards later!"

True enough, Wei Phin got 4 di(s) at the very first round and whacked everyone for 30bucks each.

The other foods that rounded up the reunion dinner.

Nothing like having dinner with the whole family courtesy of grandma's cooking.

After dinner, we then engaged in a variety of activities that encouraged socializing(loads of screaming though) that was perfectly healthy (adrenaline pumping) and danger free.

The very essence of Chinese New Year.

This year have been a slow year for me. Wasn't winning much on black jack and ngau, had terrible cards in poker, didn't dare to play mah jong, and don't even get me started on chor dai di....

Other people's usual hand.

My usual hand.

You tell me how...!

Aces - massively overrated.

Given a choice, I would rather have....

Hehehe.

Problem with playing chor dai di too much.

It's faster money than traditional blackjack. (of course, the odds against it is there too)

While we were going at each other, the girls(cousins and aunts) had things to do on their own too!

Equipped for the occasion!

Red nail polish for the Chinese New Year!

And to cap off this Chinese New Year post......

"Conformity - where the odd one gets left out in the cold"

- Barney Stinson's office's motivational poster.

"You just can’t help it when simplicity comes back to you."

- Jing Guo, Wong

Of Random Funny Pictures

2010-02-16T01:00:00.000+08:00

Came across few funny & interesting pictures on Facebook. A little random, but just for laughs.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Of Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day and High School Gathering

2010-02-14T11:39:00.000+08:00

On Friday night, we were having a high school semi-reunion dinner (small one) at Bavarian Bierhaus, The Curve, Damansara. Melissa, Jessy, Choon Yeauw, Justin & I(accompanied by bi) attended. Koi Lin, See Ki (uncharacteristically!) & Samantha FFK-ed..!

Bavarian Bierhaus.

Even the signboard looks cool!

First off, the food:

Honey & Pepper Pork Knuckles.

Combo Pork Knuckles (Bierhaus Flavour)

Combo because it came with a huge sausage and pork loin, which was as hard as a rock.

German Dumplings.

Choon Yeauw ordered this. The meat was ordinary but the dumplings were surprisingly tasty!

A lil meat meshed with cheddar cheese, I think?

Frankly speaking, the last time I was here (My 21st birthday with people I love), the food was AWESOME. However, tonight was a different story altogether. The pork tasted like it was kept for us since last week, hard and dry, the skin was even harder! Disappointed sial. The only thing that was nice, according to them, since I didn't have any of it, was...

..their beer! Stella Artois. I took a sip, didn't taste as bitter as any beer I have ever tasted last time.

A night to forget in terms of food, since it wasn't cheap at all to begin with. Argh! See Ki & Samantha must be grinning right now that they missed it. On to the people!

(Forgive the blur pics, with their dim lighting it was pretty hard to get a shot to begin with, with such low shuttle speed)

Melissa, Jessy & Choon Yeauw!

Pei-Wen & I

Choon Yeauw & Justin Wan.

Had an awesome time. Hope to do it soon again. Open house anyone?
and lastly....

Happy Chinese New Year & Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!

Of Melaka, Capital of Good Food!

2010-02-11T20:30:00.011+08:00

Last week, bi and I headed down to Malacca. Was supposed to go with Chloe, Siew Kim, Chee Keen and Qian Hui I think, since Seremban is on holidays, but somehow only Siew Kim and Chee Keen could make it, as well as Geowin and their friends. So we decided to head down early, and just meet up with them when they arrive.

(Warning: picture vomit ahead. Since there are so many pictures, less words yeah :D )

Bi & I fooling around with the camera along the corridors of Malacca. Authenticity.

We were super hungry when we got there. Was looking high and low for this Teochew restaurant Tzun Tzin recommended, but instead stumble upon this beautiful river (polluted actually, but not if u look at it from far). Sucks that I forgot to bring my tripod.

Where was the first place we headed for food?

Chicken rice balls!

Frankly speaking, it wasn't all that great. The rice mashed up into a ball wasn't as nice as eating it normally on a plate. And the chicken, tasted like chicken?

Where to wash of all the food? Of course must go for cendol at....

Jonker 88, Jonker Street, Malacca.

Cendol. Best after-meal dessert. Awesome, mostly cause of the gula melaka, damn nice.

Too bad I don't enjoy Durian Cendol. Ughh.

Decorations at Jonker 88. Authenticity, again.

Bi had a friend who's studying in Melaka, so was supposed to meet up with her at Jonker 88 for simple lunch and catch up a little.

Pei-Wen & Hui Xia

Shortly after, Siew Kim, Chee Keen and Geowin arrived! At Jonker 88 too, lol! Haven't seen them for ages, since EOS5 I think..? Cheek brought his Nikon D70. or was it Geowin's?

Anyhow, was too jobless, so I profile-ed some of the pictures, hehehehhe.

Geowin, you can get the softcopy of the original picture from me.

Think it looks cool, lol.

We continue-ed walking to digest sikit sikit. They met up with their friends who just arrived, so we were pretty much on our own from thereafter.

Roads of Malacca.

Jonker Street.

Christ Church Melaka.

Shouldn't it be "Christ Church Malacca"?

Some memorial board? Oops, no, it's some British Settlement thing.

Paparazzi shot.

Random pictures taken at some confectionery shop.

Bi's work of art.

Yes I was taking a nap so I won't fall asleep during the drive back later.

After my 40 minutes nap, we headed to Xiang Ji's Satay House! Why was it so special? They serve pork satays, wow, that's a first! Basically just pork and chicken satays, with peanut sauce and cucumber and onion and cubes of rice. Simple but nice!

Pork Satay. It was pretty okay.

Not extremely tasty but it's something different?

That was our appetizer to the main purpose bi pulled me all the way to Malacca in the first place anyway -- Satay Celup. We headed over to McQuek's Satay Steamboat Recipe for dinner. (Place recommended by Hui Xia. For those who wants to try Satay Celup but can't take spicy like me!)

McQuek's Satay Steamboat Recipe.

They serve less spicy Satay Celup!

Adding the peanut to the soup.

All in all it was pretty awesome, since I'm a fan of the peanut sauce anyway :)

After dinner, we wanted to head over to try Bunga Raya Oh Chien. But we dropped by this house, again recommended by Hui Xia, that sells awesome pineapple tarts. So awesome she limited us to one box each, or she won't have enough to sell to other customers. Pfft!

Bee Bee Pineapple Tart House.

The goods.

It was pretty damn awesome. Maybe it was cause it was fresh out of the oven, but it was so soft and sweet. One of the better meals I had in Malacca. Weird huh?

And of course, not to miss out on Bunga Raya Oh Chien. Recommended by Wei Phin's Food Blog. And it did not disappoint.

One of the better oh chiens I've tasted so far. So good.

Mum asked me to ta pao one serving home for my brother who likes oh chien too.

After the oh chien, I was pretty tired from all the walking and pretty full from the food. But bi just had this one last craving for another serving of cendol at Jonker88. Unfortunately, it was closed by then, but fortunately so happen there was a Pasar Malam along Jonker Street that night, so we managed to get...

..Mango Cendol! Definitely beats Durian Cendol. Could taste that it was made out of fresh mango, not all those artificial puree you can buy.

View of the pasar malam in Malacca.

Isn't half as crowded as the pasar malam in KL.

We had to position the camera on the car and lift the lens with handphone and wallet etc. Must remember to bring tripod next time.

Such a boring drive back the next day.

Hate driving outstation, but it was totally worth it.

Of Inter-church Games

2010-02-09T20:30:00.002+08:00

A lil overdue, but better late than never?

Last weekend, I represented SIBKL in the first ever Inter-church games held, hosted by PJEFC. Participated in basketball and volleyball. Frankly speaking, was gunning for gold in basketball and silver in volleyball, but the end result was:

Basketball : 1st runner up

Volleyball: 3rd runner up

Shucks. No more next year since I won't be here anymore. But was really glad I was a part of this, met new friends (my teammates in particular) and caught up with friends I haven't seen for some time =)

SIBKL

We had a good run though. =)

Of Brought Forward Valentine's Day

2010-02-06T20:30:00.006+08:00

As all of us know, Valentine's Day this year coincides with Chinese New Year. That, and all the price of flowers and lunch/dinner places are exaggeratedly inflated. Hence, we decided to set a date aside (4th of Feb) as our Valentine's Day, escaping crowds and burnt wallets/purse or missing family gatherings on the first day of CNY.

As to my preparations:
(I can make big pictures too now! Nyek)

I decided to bake stg. Was planning to bake meringue with strawberry cream, scones and strawberry with mascaporne cheese.

Meringue. Probably the ONLY thing that came out 100% successfully.

All prepped to be thrown into the food processor to make strawberry puree.

The one that turned out about 70% successful:

Strawberry with mascaporne cheese cream.

30% fail cause the cream began to curdle once I beat it too long. Saved what I could of it.

What happened to the scones? It came out alright.....

Hard enough to kill someone if you throw it hard enough at his/her head.

Okay, so baking was clearly an epic fail. Now I know why I'm studying medicine and not culinary arts. I thought it was as simple as following instructions. Clearly not. How am I to survive overseas next time. Things that DID turn out well? -- Things that were ready made to be bought XD

Opted for white roses instead of the traditional red ones! Had a lil glitter on it, nicee.

Don't mind me, just enjoying the luxury of having a DSLR even though it's not mine, hehe!

We decided to head over to Kampachi, Pavillon since bi was having craving for Japanese food. I remembered the food to be pretty expensive, but certainly not AS EXPENSIVE as it turned out to be when the bill finally came. Thanks bi, for footing the bill!

Kampachi, Pavillon.

Some unagi roll? The full roll is in eights, we had half the roll. (Half the price too, hehe)

So after proper lunch, we headed to MOF (Ministry of Food) to get dessert! Die la 1 whole week never go gym already somemore indulge like that. I can do this, next month 5 times a week at least!

Well, I only order one thing in MOF, which is....

.....forgot the name already, lol!

But it's the one with the ice cream, fried sweet potato and red bean. Macha something?

There was this other thing that we tried which wasn't too bad...

Authentic Mochi!

Something different from those you can find in pasar malams, in terms of consistency.

Exploiting the camera to the max. Lol.

Gonna be my profile picture for years to come. Vain pot.

The plan then was to head back to my place and relax. Downloaded New Police Story (starring Jackie Chan & Nicholas Tse) the night before to watch. Was probably the 5th time watching it since secondary school but still good! Would recommend it to Vanessa and Marcus since last I heard u 2 have been looking for movies to watch, or was it just Marcus? But then realised it's in canto!

Valentine's Day + Chinese New Year!

Say Hi to Leng Zhai!

My present!

This was taking with my Lumix LX3 though, lol!

Of Nikon D90 DSLR

2010-02-03T20:30:00.000+08:00

My uncle have long known I've been wanting to get a Nikon D90. So last night, he kindly passed me his Nikon D70, asking me to play with it for a few weeks, to really make sure I wanna get a DSLR. How kind of him!

Will be so having fun playing with it for days to come. Nyek.

Nikon D70 is no D90, but it still works!

Of Food Posts not in a Food Blog

2010-02-01T17:37:00.003+08:00

With reference to a comment on my chatbox saying my blog is like a food blog with pictures of food more than pictures of people, which is quite true, but I can explain! My camera takes nicer pictures of food than people, so I tend to like to capture pictures of food. This post is another typical example, except, it has nice human pictures too, cause I was using Wei Phin's Nikon D80 that day, hehe.

Saturday, after korean BBQ dinner in Sri Hartamas, we headed to Jalan Kepong for Klang Valley's best ice kacang, Fei Lou Zhap Shuet (Fat Man ABC Ice Kacang), recommended by Wei Phin.

Best Ice Kacang I have ever ate.
The ice was so smooth and soft it melted when I was stirring it with all the ingredients.
Goes for RM2.90 with "ga liu".

And on Sunday, it was my grandfather's company dinner at Imbi Palace. What so significant? It was the first time of the year I ate Yee Sang! Lagi bring out the CNY spirit in me already. Ang Pau and gambling, please come quicker T.T Food there was pretty okay, not fantastic but not bad either.

Yee Sang, my love for the month of February.

Lam Mei Fan.
Another signature dish of the Chinese New Year.

Mum.
You will NEVER find another picture of her looking this pretty.
Damn my pictures are nice! (perasan sial)

Mum with Aunty Annie.

Be Ku (youngest uncle from mum's side) & Aunty Annie.
He made me RM10 richer when Man Utd whacked Arsenal 3-1, hehe.

Wei Phin & I.
Being photographed instead of photographing.
I hate it when my own pictures aren't as nice as the ones I take! (perasan round 2)

More updates soon! Yet to transfer pics from my camera, been too busy.

1994.

Of Murderous Chilli & CNY Decorations

2010-01-29T22:47:00.006+08:00

As a food blogger, many would be surprised to find out that Wei Phin has never tried Kin Kin Pan Mee before. Furthermore, I've been owing Joel kin kin with Farook for a fairly long time too. So one fine day (Wednesday morning), we decided to finally go get some. We opted for the Kin Kin Pan Mee, Pandan Indah branch since it's closer to Chloe who is in IMU.

Kin Kin Pan Mee, Pandan Indah, KL.

Their legendary pan mee, with their insanely spicy chilli flakes.
It's not the spiciness that's scary, it's the aftermath -- excruciatingly painful bowel movements.
Never ever leave your bowl of pan mee unattended if eating with a bunch of friends.

While Wei Phin was going snap-happy with his Nikon D80 and fixed focus lens, I was making the best out of my Lumix LX3 =P Sigh, one fine day, my Nikon D90, one fine day (beginning to seem further than ever). Chloe was messing with it, and here's her try at it:

Pei-Wen. Not bad at all I must say. Semi pro leh not pro cam.
I guess surely there is a certain level of pro-ness with her specific set of skills at camwhoring.
Compliment intended!

Me, trying to match photo for photo.
Except it focus on the chopstick instead of her, lol. Can't blame me, don't have manual focus!

Pretty boy and handsome girl!
Why spanish fooooodddddd..........

This is the first time my mum has spent on Chinese New Year decorations. And it has already been up for a good 2weeks, and they have started playing Mah Jong for a week already. Doesn't help at all in making the wait for CNY less torturing. Ang Paus and poker games!!

Inter-church games start tomorrow. Playing for SIBKL for basketball and volleyball. Been having problems with my knee (arthralgia, correction credits to See Ki) for a week or so, so I've resorted to counterpain (which was fairly effective) and bought a knee guard. Intelligently, I left the knee guard at Alexis while having Pavlova and Banoffee Cake with bi. @$%&$@&. Guess I can get it tomorrow and use for the 2nd day of inter-church games on Sunday.

Of Great Food, Movies and Company(s)

2010-01-26T20:30:00.001+08:00

Well, Bi won tickets to Tooth Fairy from Nuffnang last last week or so, and she decided to use the passes with me after I convinced her against watching with her sis (nyek), so we decided to catch a movie before that too. Was supposed to be Sherlock Holmes since she hasn't watched it yet, but it's off the cinemas already, so it was Legion.

But before that the 3 blind mice (quote See Ki) went to have lunch at Chillies! We're still going for Spanish or German food, I'm damn hungry now.

My awesome Southwestern Sling.
Orange + Strawberry + Pineapple = Slurp

Tortilla Chips with Cheese & Beef Dip. One of the nicer meals.

Joel's BBQ Lamb Cutlets (is it?)

See Ki's...... something.
Uh oh I forgot what was it called. But she managed to finish half, not bad at all.

...and my, yeap, Caesar Salad. I came from gym.
No, Marcus, I do not have a dildo permanently up my a**.

Joel & See Ki.

Me & Joel.

After that, See Ki & Joel went on to watch the Tooth Fairy. I watched Legion with bi.

Geek question of the day: Anyone can tell me why a picture of a water fountain came up in my mind when I see/hear the word Legion?

I've been hearing everyone debating if it's an anti-christ show. But just like what Joel says, it's blasphemy. That aside, it was a pretty good show, maybe cause Joel severely lowered my expectations of the show, lol. I thought that the angels were pretty cool. Interesting storyline, suspense aplenty. They should've added more angels fighting scene though. Ratings: 7/10

We had time to kill before Tooth Fairy after that, so we did miscellaneous stuffs (like visiting Huei-Wen who's working at Promod) and eventually had dinner at Dave's.

I forgot to take a picture of Dave's signboard, so I got this picture off Kenny Sia's blog.
Dave's Pizza, Pasta, Vino @ 1 Utama.

Our sole order (it was kinda pricy) -- Full Rack of BBQ Pork Ribs.
Dave's is a very non-halal restaurant, serving an assortment of pork dishes. Nevertheless, it tasted really nice. Heard their Pork Belly was awesome but didn't order it.

Yeah, i'm still wearing glasses. Eye not completely healed.
Really bums me especially when I'm playing ball or running in the gym.

How do you know you have surgeon hands?
When you can camwhore at a shuttle speed of 2.5secs and still not get too blur a picture.
(The place was really, really dim)
(It was her hand, not mine)

And off, we went to watch the Tooth Fairy! Okay, I'm actually a pretty huge fan of Dwayne Johnson. He just cracks me up and I really like his acting so any of his movie can't go too badly for me. And it was hilarious. Half of the time I'm looking at him thinking "Shit, I want to be that ripped too" and the other half of the time I'm laughing. Storyline kinda a lil kiddy like Bedtime Story (Epic fail) but somehow it was a really good movie. Rating: 8.5/10

Tooth Fairy

But the best movie overall I've watched so far? is still Sherlock Holmes. Not Avatar. =P

Gonna have Kin Kin Pan Mee (Cheras Branch) with Bi, See Ki, Joel, Wei Phin & Chloe tomorrow. Kin Kin for the 6th time in 1 and a half month. Awesome. Groan......

♥

Of Photoediting (Picasa)

2010-01-24T01:23:00.002+08:00

Well, I captioned the photo below as bi's attempt at getting the "bo keh" effect using macro auto focus mode of my LX3. And apparently it didn't do the picture or her skills justice, lol. So she teached me the wonders of Picasa as to touching up pictures lighting and highlights. And it was easier than I thought.

This is my first try editing a picture I took, so cut me some slack yeah.

Before:

After:

Pro: My pictures would be a whole lot nicer looking from now on.
Con: My pictures would require a whole lot of time to be attended to before used for blogging.

Of Meringue Baking (Slurp)

2010-01-22T20:30:00.000+08:00

Well, I've been wanting to bake meringue for a very, VERY long time. 2 months to be precise. All the ingredients have been lying in my house's fridge, cupboard and table for a very long time. And yesterday I finally was able to successfully bake meringue with bi. A little too sweet, but at least it didn't collapse? Hehe.

Ingredients + Preparations

Bi's try at photography. Not bad!

That's only 3 egg whites. At the end of whipping(30-40mins) it, it's volume expanded so much it was enough to produce all these....

Cool eh? heheh. Turned out perfect, except it was a little too sweet, even for me. Less sugar next time.

Anyway, just meringue was too plain to eat on it's own. And i remembered the last time me, See Ki & Vanessa visited Nikki in Ipoh he treated us to his own meringue and strawberry puree, both home-made by him. So adapting the same idea (thanks Nikki), we googled for the strawberry puree and proceeded to make some.

These Korean Strawberries (cheaper than highland one's) became......

...this! Was more plain than Nikki's.
Ours was just blending the strawberry with castor sugar and a bit of lemon to bring out the strawberry flavor in it. I think Nikki's had a lil honey?

Anyway, I would say baking meringue and making puree was pretty simple that even we didn't screw it up the first time round. Any of u who's interested in baking meringue for fun or as finger food...

Joy of Baking
A pretty good website for recipes.

Next day was farewell dinner with Keat Boon and Tzun Tzin. The latter ham sup is flying back to the UK, and since when I'm over at the States he'd be graduating it'd be a while before we meet again. Where did we eat? Pasta Zanmai, hehehe.

Soft Shell Crab. Not fresh.

Our jug of juice.
Supposedly orange + apple + carrot with chunks of other fruits inside.

I was into it more for the dessert actually:

My strawberry parfait. Cost a bomb at RM15, but it's only the 2nd one I had in 2 years so fair enough?

Of Ninja Burgers.

2010-01-19T20:30:00.001+08:00

See Ki called to ask if I wanted to have brunch with Joel & her at Tropicana City Mall. It was supposed to be at 11am, but I had training so I initially bailed on them. Lucky for me they rescheduled to 2pm, or I wouldn't have been able to try Ninja Joe's pork burgers!
(It's a pretty nice change, since everyone gets frustrated when even Tony Roma doesn't serve pork)

Well, I'm sorta the last out of the 3 of us to blog about this since I was out the whole day, but that also means they couldn't get my pics since I wasn't home till night. Mhuahaha. Think they went with See Ki's camera. So here are some from my LX3!

The Ninja Joe face kinda look like a burger.

Anyway the burgers were kinda small, it wasn't even the size of my palm.
But tasty, nevertheless. Not sure if it was the sauce or the pork.
Goes for about RM4.20 a burger? Lemonade was RM2.50.

In Joel's context, Gundam loves tities.

Well, there was this cool condition that if your name is Joe you get RM1 off. So cheapos See Ki & Joel (I haven't reached at that point of time) managed to harass the poor waitress into taking the JOEL out of Joel's name and deduct the RM1 from the bill. Hahahah!

After paying the bill, we took pictures around the place (I refuse to admit it is camwhore. My LX3 is no whore).

Wearing glasses since my eyes still bongkak. DAMN itchy I tell you.

See Ki digging Ninja Joe's nose. Probably got sick of her chihuahuas' noses?

Best picture of them all.
Joel feeling all good getting a boner at Ninja Joe's expense.

Robin & Batman.

And what after? Well, more food, but mainly because it was convenient, fast, nice and cheap!

Ham Sap Lou with his ice-cream!

Getting very sleepy now, hence the simplicity of the whole post. A picture speaks a thousand words, so those 10,000 words should keep you guys reading long enough till my next post.

Of Houses for rent. (One house, actually)

2010-01-17T22:12:00.002+08:00

Bungalow in Taman P.Ramlee, Setapak.

Build-up: 1800 square feet

4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms

Furnished with build-ins (wardrobe, kitchen, cabinets, air-con, house alarm)

RM1800 per month O&O (On nearest offer)

Available anytime. If interested, please call 019-3351660.

Of Good, Bad and Good Food Again.

2010-01-15T22:22:00.008+08:00

First things first.....

Marcus Chow just got himself a Twitter account.

..!!

Just last last month I remember him screaming "ZHI VEN U TWIT SUMMORE I'M GONNA **** U LA!".. "I don't understand why you people twit".

Regardless, welcome to the cult! =D

Good Food #1: Su Chien's coming home dinner

My cousin, Su Chien got back from Aussieland last month and will only be around for a month or less. So they called us over for dinner. Well, I pretty much know the 3 sisters and mum cooks awfully well, and sometimes too much of a perfectionist, but the dinner was simply overwhelming.

Home made Pizzas. Probably the simplest meal of the night.

Behind the scenes: The kitchen.

Slabs of BBQ Pork Ribs!
Flashes of the all-you-can-eat-ribs of Tony Roma's in London comes to mind. Oh my tian.

The usual honey glazed turkey ham with cranberry sauce.

Lamb cutlets with the marinate before and after the cooking. This was the best in my opinion. Damn tasty, literally.

The cook herself! Don't be deceived by her smile. She was screaming at me for wondering around the kitchen with my camera. Wei Phin helped with some of the cookings.

Dining hall for the kids.

Dining hall for the adults.

Dinner by the Ang family.
Hardcore.....

Bad Food #2: Pei-Wen's mum birthday dinner at Palate Palette, Kuala Lumpur.

Online reviews said that Palate Palette was actually a pretty good place to go to for dinner. Setting was pretty creative and refreshing, food was good etc etc. Bull faeces. Environment wise yes, the drinks were also pretty okay, but the food was just horrible. Maybe it was just for that night's batch of food, but I couldn't even bring myself to finish my own dish!

Tropical Punch or stg like that.
Orange + Pineapple + Coconut milk. Was pretty good.

Cookies & Cream Smoothie. Not a big fan but Pei-Wen likes them.

Chicken Lollipops. Lol. Probably the best dish there. Was really good.
The rest of the food didn't deserve to get their pictures posted here, lol.

Family picture.
I will not post any picture of myself that day because I had a swollen eye, hence no contact lens, hence glasses, with a T-shirt that made me look like a hunchback.

I would advise anyone against trying that place out. The only thing nice there is their drinks and the chicken lollipops. Good place for drinks.

Good Food #3: Korean BBQ at Daorae, Sri Hartamas.

Pei-Wen haven't had korean for a year ever since her Korean trip, so she was kinda craving for Korean BBQ. So we opted for the best korean place in Hartamas in my opinion -- Daorae, and it still IS the best place =D

Even the vegetables and sauces deserved their pictures here more than Palate Palette's food!

Their Pork marinated with sweet soy sauce. Wahhhh nice. Slurp.

Pancake on the house.
Love their pancakes, even though it's just flour and oil = excess calories I hate but don't mind sacrificing for good food.

Us.
Can see my slightly bongkak eye or not? Damn yong sui. @#$^%@
Getting better though.

Shall end the post just like how I always whine in all my other posts.
I want my D90.............. T.T

Of Photography.

2010-01-14T23:34:00.002+08:00

Anyone who have been reading my blog, or have been talking to me, knows that I regretted settling for a semi-pro cam just because it isn't as bulky as a DSLR camera. Semi-pro(s) give u a taste of what you can get out of a good camera, making you tend to want more -- DSLRs. I don't care how big they are, it's worth the pictures.

Ek Guan have been playing with his for quite some time now. And recently he set up his own photoblog.

Ek Guan's Photoblog / tumblr site.

Need I say more why I want a DSLR?

Continue updating Ek Guan. It shall fuel my motivation to get my D90 one day, in the very near future =D

More updates tomorrow, camera is overflowing with pictures already.

Of Joel G & Lucia O

2010-01-12T20:30:00.000+08:00

This past week I've been out with Joel & See Ki twice, so I figured might as well compose it in one post. We actually were set on going for bagels in the morning at Departure Lounge, specifically. There's one branch in Aman Suria, and another in Solaris, Mt Kiara. So last Wednesday, we headed for Aman Suria's, since it was the nearer one.

We persevered bravely through the morning work jam and the drizzle, only to find that the place was closed down. Urgh. So we opted for this other restaurant nearby, forgot the name of the place. Pretty okay. We were just too hungry to be bothered lah.

BBQ Chicken Chop. Their fries were awesome though.

Me, See Ki & Joel.

Well, that day was supposedly our Wii day. So I brought my wii and we headed to See Ki's house to playing Rayman Raving Rabbids! Hehe. Purposely bought another 2 controllers so we could play 4 players, though Andrew & Brandon both FFK-ed us.

See Ki fighting a losing battle.
She thinks if she wears the same color as me she'll be able to do just as well. Just Joking!

Cheeky boy Joel.
He brought his Cannon DSLR (forgot the model) and I was playing with it. Kinda underexposed here, oops.

Me & Joel settling matters like Men.
Marcus, I would've beaten your friend back in SG if I had enough practise!

There was this gift that See Ki initially got for Marcus, but she for some reason couldn't get it to him on time, so she gave it to me instead. It was a Sorella Desk Calendar. Oh boy, Marcus you definitely will regret missing out on this. It's mine now and I'm not giving it back, hehehe! Thanks See Ki!

The exterior and ribbons look really pretty, but we all know I'm smiling about what's inside.

Our second outing, was to hunt down Departure's Lounge's bagels in Solaris, the remaining branch, but it was more for Joel's 21st Birthday Breakfast! Happy birthday ham sup lou! Stay cheeky and handsome!

Well, so what happened when we reached? It was closed. -.-" Deng sum deng fai. I give up lah. So we headed to Coffee Bean cause they had bagels too! Just not as good.

Me & Joel both had Salmon & Egg Fuccacia. Only See Ki had the bagels...

....ta daa! Cream Cheese Bagel.
The cream cheese wasn't even fresh, it was just a spread as you can see.

Happy Birthday Joel!
(Belated 1 day)

They headed to 1u (I suppose) to watch Old Dogs, whereas I headed home since I was supposed to watch it with Pei-Wen. Resting at home before basketball later on. Right eye kinda bongkak, maybe it's my contact lens. Hope I don't get a corneal ulcer again.

Of Endless Food

2010-01-10T03:08:00.008+08:00

The 2 Ham Sups (Ding Shyong & Dian Hoong) were leaving on Friday morning, hence we decided to go out one more time on Thursday. We all met at Atria to head over to Bon Bon's Cafe. Really good healthy food but kinda pricy I must say. Ham Tzin was absent cause he had to go for a authentic Brazilian Wax.

Me & Keat Boon

Camel, Amanda, Dian Hoong.

Shall spare you all with food pictures of the place, since there are complaints that too many food pictures make the blog post kinda boring =P (Actually also because the lighting was a bit yellow-y so it didn't look very nice).

We were eating at like 1.30pm, and I woke up at 11am so I was damn hungry. Hence, the super heavy branch (Romania Pasta, Pumpkin Soup, Ice Lemon Tea, Tuna Quiche, French Toast & Ice Cream). The plan was to go bowling at 1u, but we eventually ended up playing in the arcade. =D

Guys playing, Amanda taking picture, lol.

Ding Shyong with his favourite arcade machine.
No, it wasn't for his sister, he was getting it himself.

Ding Shyong & Keat Boon giving birth.
1....... 2...........

.....PUSH!

And since we had time to kill, we headed over to Haagen Daaz. Wasted sial, I was so full already! Ding Shyong treated though, thank you!

Poser Amanda.

Ding Shyong's gadget.
If you know what I mean. Hollow punya.

Dian Hoong & Amanda's Orea tower or something like that.

Me & Keat Boon's Mango Tango.

We all left at 5.45pm. Pei-Wen came to 1u to meet me because we had to rush to Mid Valley. She had to go shop for Ian's birthday present (last minute sial, but I don't think Ian reads my blog so nvm lah, hehe) and I was meeting See Ki & Nikki to have a dinner before Nicholas flies back :) Eventually decided on Pasta Zanmai. Excellent choice, except I was so full already! Wish to go back there one more time when I am hungry. T.T

Me & Nicholas.
Yeah, I admit, I like your camera =P

Unagi Pasta. See? Wished I was hungry back then =S
Kinda reminds me of Kin Kin Pan Mee though since there was like a pouch egg for us to stir into there.

Guess who else did I bump into at Pasta Zanmai?

Si Ying & Ivan.

Angie, Syndee & me.
Angie's head look puny because she purposely sat further even when her head is small itself already.

Nicholas, See Ki, Me.
See you soon in Dec hopefully Nicholas!

And after that, had to rush over to Bangsar Shopping Complex for Ian's 23rd Birthday Dinner at WIP (Work In Progress). See? Can die lah all the food. Lol. Opted not to eat and ordered a drink instead.

Birthday boy Ian & Pei-Wen.

Mango Chicken Thigh =D

Salmon Pizza. Looks awesome, right? Didn't take a bite. Wished I was hungry. T.T

Us!

My seniors from WMS & OOs (Orientation Officers) from 2007! Wow that was ages ago.
Yunn Cheng & Xin Nee.

Maggie and Pei-Wen potrait shot.
They found this one spot which was nice to take pics with.

Rushing off to lunch and bball now. Gym & exercise resolution going just fine this year =D If only I could do something about the healthy diet part.

Of Retards.

2010-01-09T00:31:00.003+08:00

BBC News:

Malaysian churches fire-bombed as 'Allah' row escalates

Three churches have been attacked in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, ahead of protests by Muslim groups.
The administrative offices of one church were destroyed by a firebomb attack and one of the other two churches attacked was slightly damaged.
Some Muslim groups are angry at a court decision allowing non-Muslims to use the word Allah to refer to God.
The government of the mainly Muslim nation has condemned the attacks on the churches and vowed to take action.
About 60% of Malaysians are Malay Muslims and the government relies on their vote.

There also significant Chinese and Indian minorities, who are mainly Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.
The controversy stems from a ban on a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, using the word Allah in its Malay-language edition.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court struck down the three-year old ban on non-Muslims using of the word Allah.
Some major Muslim organisations, including the Islamic political party, PAS, have agreed with the court, saying other Abrahamic religions - Christinaity and Judiasm - may use the word.
But some vocal groups, including the Muslim Youth Movement, Abim, have cast the use of the word Allah as a surreptitious effort on the part of Christians to try to seduce Muslims away from Islam.

The government will take whatever steps it can to prevent such acts

Prime Minister Najib Razak

Church officials say that although the word Allah originated in Arabic, Malays have used it for centuries to refer generally to God, and Arabic-speaking Christians used it before Islam was founded, reports the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott.
Molotov cocktails
The argument has continued in the media and the courts for months but had not become violent - until assailants on motorbikes were seen smashing the windows of the Metro Tabernacle Church, a Protestant church in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
The ground floor office of the three-storey church was destroyed in a blaze a little after midnight, said Kevin Ang, a church spokesman.

Most of Malaysia's population is Muslim

Kuala Lumpur police Chief Mohamad Sabtu Osman said police had found a wrench, an empty petrol tin and two scorched motorbikes at the scene.
Separately, Molotov cocktails were thrown into the compounds of two other churches before dawn, causing minor damage in one and none in the other, church officials said.
Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned the attacks, saying such actions would "destroy our country's harmony".
"The government will take whatever steps it can to prevent such acts," he said.
There was tight security at all churches in Malaysia and at several mosques where protests against the court's ruling took place, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur.
Mass nationwide demonstrations failed to materialise on Friday, but protesters at mosques in Kuala Lumpur carried placards reading "Allah is only for us" and "Heresy arises from words wrongly used".
"I hope the court will understand the feeling of the majority Muslims of Malaysia," said Ahmad Johari, at the National Mosque.
"We can fight to the death over this issue," he told Associated Press news agency.
The government has appealed against the court verdict and the High Court has suspended the decision's implementation until the appeal is heard.

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Are you freaking kidding me. Just when I thought these people can no longer stoop down any lower, they pull something like this off. I'm not generalizing, but I have to say, majority of them out there, you guys, are just plain retarded. Have you not evolved yet? All you are doing is tainting the holy image of Islam making the rest of the world think that Muslims are generally just retarded unevolved primates who needs help.

"I hope the court will understand the feeling of the majority Muslims of Malaysia," said Ahmad Johari, at the National Mosque.

"We can fight to the death over this issue," he told Associated Press news agency.

Well, judging by the responses from the general majority of Muslims of Malaysia, Muslims of Malaysia, are, indeed, retarded. Stop embarrassing yourselves, the world is already laughing enough at all of you. Or rather, stop embarrassing those sane Muslims who you think share your sentiments but actually don't. I've met some amazing, intellectual muslims, mostly JPA students, during my college days. You are just the minority Muslims of Malaysia who have yet to evolve. Go to school please.

Of gatherings and gatherings.

2010-01-07T00:50:00.000+08:00

The day has come, where my stomach has to brace the chilli of Kin Kin Pan Mee. Okay, I'm not exaggerating. I put damn lil chilli, but my stomach is just THAT sensitive! Don't ask me, guess I'm born like that or I eat too clean on normal days.

Anyway, a whole bunch of us were supposed to meet at Kin Kin for brunch, at 11am. Naturally, everyone turned up at about 12pm. Despite the chilli, it was still good, so I usually brace through it with 2-3 cups of leong cha and a packet of tissue to wipe off my sweat.

Kin Kin's Chilli Pan Mee.
Excuse the chopped off egg white. Someone with the affinity for egg whites stole mine.

The chilli.
My stomach just hid under my transverse colon when it saw this.

Anyway, the guys decided to go to MV to catch Avatar. Since I've seen it and it's a 3 hour long movie, I decided to skip it and meet up with them after the movie. So Pei-Wen & I went to BSC (Bangsar Shopping Complex) to hunt for nice organizers/planners. Just as we reach, my intestines did somersaults and I HAD to use the toilet. Told u it was sensitive. Less than 3 hours. But BSC's toilets were so amazingly awesome/clean! and nice smell. it was so spacious and comfortable, that I was even comfy enough to make a phone call while I was sitting in my own cubicle! Ok I know, TMI. Anyway, our main purpose in Bangsar -- Mango Mania.

The refreshing interior of Mango Mania.
Their Mango Yoghurt Ice Cream is so good. RM11.50 with freshly cut mango though.
No pics of it cause I got too carried away I ate half before I thought of snapping it. So not typical of me right =.=

Best I can get out of my LX3. U can get a peep of the yoghurt ice-cream untouched int he background, lol.

Okay, anyway after that I dropped her back and headed to MABA to catch the KL Dragons vs Satria Muda (Indonesia). Met Soon Peng and Jeng Shiun there. I had to reach early, like at 5.30 when the game was at 8, since Yeaw Loong had to pass me the tickets before he starts meeting and warm up. So there I was, stoning, and suddenly, abdominal contractions again! WTF! Diarrhea strike when I'm at a public chinese place like MABA?! in Petaling Street!? Means dirty toilets where u need to squat those kind! Oh my tian.

I had half a mind to post some dirty toilet I googled up which would potray what I thought the toilet wud be like, but it was just too disgusting. So we'll just skip that. But I still headed for the toilet anyway. A guy has got to lau sai when he has to lau sai, no? Better than a drain. Then, as I opened the door...

It's frigging clean! The toilet seat was SPOTLESS! The yellow is naturally yellow, dunno why, but no smell, no nothing, clean and dry! MABA's toilet FREAKING SAVED MY LIFE!
And to this, a tribute, to the toilet of MABA to which I will always be grateful to.....

Malaysia Boleh.

Okay, back to the basketball stuff...

KL Dragons Drummers.
Pretty ordinary, but what can you do with just drums anyway.

KL Dragonettes they call themselves.
Not cheerleaders, they just hired entertainers to dance around and all. Our official cheer team should be better, and hotter in my opinion.

KL Dragons warming up.
Sorry LX3 zoom not really awesome, need a zoom lens.

KL Dragons team lineup.

Action photo.

Tan Jeng Shiun syiok sendiri! Hahah funniest dude ever.

Soon Peng & Me.
No his hair is not that la la one. He was wearing a cap so it got pressed down, lol.

After that? Rush in my not so fast Odyssey all the way back to Taman Paramount for Hokkien Mee and Satay and Ikan Bakar with the rest of them. Yeap, met back with the rest at 9.30pm, but it would eventually turn out to be okay since they stayed on till arounf 12am or so.

Satay.
I bit off all the fats before I ate, which is 1/3 the satay.
Ding says I just wasted 20cents for every satay I ate.

It was the best catch up session we ever had. We talked about so many things and really did some catching up. And in the midst of the conversation, Amanda suggested taking it to A&W recently opened in SS2, so off we went. A&W for what?

For their ice-cream waffles of course! and root beer float la, hehe.

All of us, at A&W.
L-R: Tzun Tzin, Ding Shyong, Dian Hoong, Keat Boon, Ven Xhin, Me, Amanda.

Gonna meet up with them again tomorrow for lunch then bowling. Awesome-ness, to meeting up, not the bowling part.