"How I Met Your Mother?"

No i am not talking about your mother.... i am talking about a comedy half hour serial called "How I Met Your Mother?". Watched two episodes when I was in Melbourne...and i thought it was very well scripted... Very nice. I give it an 8/10. Wld have given a 9 but I minus 1 point because i don't know if it can be a long running show like 'Friends' or 'Fraser'.

Hopefully they will start airing it over here soon, but in the mean time i will just be looking forward to "Heroes" which will start this 31 of Dec on Astro. I have heard a lot of good things about this show....... i hope it doesn't disappoint

END

Merry Christmas!!! and a Happy New Year!!!

....It's the most wonderful time of the year...... you cld almost hear Frank Sinatra belting that out on every corner....

Nat King Cole, Snowmen, Band Aid, Shopping, Caroling and Electric shocks..... ahhh!! the smell of burnt hair in the morning...... but most of all its the coming together of friends and family..........Christmas...

Wishing all of you a VEry MErry ChristMAs.... and a happy New yEar.......

The Best Car Theft Prevention System

I was in penang last weekend and noticed a running condition car with the latest Car Theft Prevention System. I would say that it is an ingenious solution... dont you think?

Mo

VH in Melb Day 6, 7 & 8

I am sure some of you will be happy to know that i have nothing much to say about days 6, 7 & 8. All the highlights of the trip were over and there was only one thing left to do.............. Shopping!! and also more sightseeing around the city.

We went all over town visiting shops of which I quickly found a few camera shops and scale model shops and comic shops and magazine shops...... their range of products were superb. Rose got me a scale model of the millenium falcon for my birthday/christmas. Cant wait to get started on it ...but rose commented that i will only finish it in 2020.

we also went to Myers, ....looked at the cloths and bought some christmas decoration which where really pretty. Wish they had deco like that here. I bought Rose the 'Scene It' musical edition game for christmas. She already has the movie edition which is an excellent game to play. It is an interactive trivia game. We also bought some wonderful chocolates at a place called Block Arcade. Simply delicious.....


We also went shopping at an area called Richmond, which was about 15 minutes from flinders station. It was recommeded by our new found friend Flo, on its cheap clothing. Well it was not that cheap, but cheap by Aussie standards anyways, because everywhere else the cloths were really expensive, like 50 aussie and above but in richmond you could get a blouse for 20 aussie. but thats like 60 ringgit ok.... believe me shopping for clothing is alot cheaper in M'sia.

Well thats about it, I hope a few insomniacs got cured after reading all my VH in Melb post, and i also hope that most of you enjoyed the photos atleast.

.....till i find someting else to write tata...

END

VH in Melb Day 5 - Great Ocean Road

“Great Ocean Drive was really cool…. Rose did not feel too well along the winding costal roads but I was having a ball of a time down shifting and powering up along the twisting corners…. Hmmm maybe that’s why she was feeling a little quizzy”

We left early because it was almost 300 km to our destination ‘the 12 Apostles’ which is at the end of Great Ocean Drive. Along the way we stopped at an aboriginal centre and bought some souvenirs and looked at some Aboriginal art. We later stopped a few times along the way but the most notable stop was somewhere after Geelong. The mist was tick; the air was crisp and of cos windy. Some huge trees had even grown into the shape of the wind ( I am not kidding)…that’s how windy the place was. And the waves where crashing over the beach…. Strangely the water was warm, …tempting us to get in… but we decided not to because we weren’t even halfway to the Apostles.


We stopped at a lighthouse called Split Point Lighthouse (I think) as usual the view was breathtaking. The waves were pounding on the coastal cliffs …beautiful… The interesting thing was, there were wild cockatoos hanging around there (for those who don’t know… it is like white parrots …ok) … they where fat buggers … we also saw the infamous kookaburra bird perched on a telephone wire.


We had lunch at a little coastal town called Lorne. I think the main town was less then a kilometer square. We walked the stretch of this nice little cozy town and contemplated on visiting a waterfall a few kilometers north of the town. Again we decided against it and went on our way.

After driving about 50 km from Lorne, (somewhere near Apollo Bay), after passing countless number of ‘coastal scenes with spectacular’ cliffs, I found myself getting bored. (its never a good thing when you have too much of a good thing). Just then the road swerved away from the coast and we suddenly found ourselves driving through a thick forest which according to the map was the State Forest. After that it was one farmland after another, more forest and more farmland after that. And then there was more forest. I was beginning to get tired but the winding roads kept me sharp. It was only about 100 km later did we get on to the coastal roads again…

We finally were getting closer to the 12 apostles and Dono pointed out that we should stop at a place called Gibson Steps which lead us down to a stretch of beach, where we cld walk to the 1st Apostle. I guess I should explain that the 12 apostles are these rock formations sticking out of the coast, which was created by millions of years of bombardment from waves. We spent some time here at Gibson Steps before going to the main viewing point towards the 12 Apostles. It was magnificent… maybe I was a little tired because after a while, it just looked like giant rocks to me. Magnificent looking giant rock!

To get back to the city we used the A1 freeway ofcos. It was more then 100km shorter then Great Ocean Road and most of it was straight along Farmland. It started looking like it was going to rain and the wind was starting to pick up. Believe me the winds were really really strong but I was able to keep a constant 120 to 130 km in crosswinds. There where times where I had to drop my speed to about 90km because it was getting harder to hold on to the steering wheel… it was about that time I saw a big rig truck struggling to keep in his lane…. The rain was picking up but as soon as it slowed down I pick up speed again. The rain wasn’t as heavy as it is in M’sia but the winds were harsh… brutal even. The sun was beginning to set and it was spectacular. The colours were just out of this world. I just had to brave the strong winds to get out of the car and take a picture of it. And believe me when I tell you that me and my camera did not do justice to the sunset. It was a long and tiring day and we had covered about 520 km when we reached Shanti’s apartment in Melbourne. By then it was 9.30pm and yesterday’s leftovers were consumed over some nice wine.


mo
to be continued

VH in Melb Day 4 - Mornington Peninsular

The 4th and 5th day we planned to drive out of the City. We decided to go to Mornington first then do Great Ocean Road the next day. We rented a Toyota Yaris for two days and picked it up from Hertz after a wonderful western breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and bacon. Yes Real Bacon folks…. Not the stupid chicken bacon we get in M’sia….. Real !!! Bacon!! Mmm….and the portions were of cos huge… I am a fatty!!

My first quest was to find Brighton Beach (notice how I said ‘My’ and not ‘Our’). Brighton Beach in Melbourne was a recreation of Brighton Beach in England, where they built colourful bath huts on the beach which were really expensive to rent. With the lack of a special detailed Map of Victoria which we forgot to pick up at the car rental place, we were lost….. but I bluffed my way there using a normal street map which I had and managed to get to a beach area ….and with the help of a few locals …we found Brighton Beach. Got a few shots of the huts and then we continued on our journey towards Mornington Peninsular which is known for its vineyards, breweries and hand made chocolates….mmmmm…


We managed to find the Chocolate place but to our disappointment they where closed on Mondays… yes it was a Monday and as we drove on we found that almost all the beer breweries and some of the vineyards were closed… but that’s ok… the drive was excellent… it was a beautiful scenic drive…. Vineyards to the left …vineyards to the right… “Hey look, a flock of sheep”… like Flo would say …”sooooo pretty!!”...

We visited a vineyard called ‘Darling’ and we got to taste different kinds of wine at this “pretty” place. It was simply brilliant. After Shanti and Rose bought a few bottles of wine, we went out to the chateau’ but the ‘wine grower/farmer guy’ (what do you call these people?) told us that they just planted the new vines and it only will be ready in March and Jun ….that’s when they start harvesting the grapes. I guess we will be making a trip to Melbourne in March some time in the distant future. We were getting a little bored so we just drove on,… stopping only to take in the scenery along the way. As it was getting late we decided to head back to the city. Anyway ….it was a pleasant drive thru Mornington ,…… all 230 km of it….

Somewhere near St Kilda (I think) we stopped at a Safeway Hypermarket to buy some groceries, because the girls decided to cook dinner tonight. It was a lovely little dinner with the best of friends.


mo
to be continued

VH in Melb Day 3 - From St Kilda to St Patrick

After a whole day at the Telstra Dome Stadium we toke over time waking up the next day. Rose and I went over to Victoria Market around 12ish and I think the Queen Victoria Market is the most cleanest and nicest’ wet market I have ever seen. We spent the whole afternoon looking over the concert photos…. Man! What a concert!!.......After getting a bite to eat, Rose, Me and my mates then hoped on a tram head south out of the City to St Kilda Beach. The flee market isn’t too bad, a lot of unique Art, Jewelries, etc etc, but as I have mentioned before, it all starts to close by 5ish and guess what time we got there?

St Kilda was a little boring but maybe we were just a little bit tired. The Beach there wasn’t too bad but it reminded us of PD… nothing that great… but of cos if you wanted to go bird watching (both the flying and non-flying kind) then this is the place to be, especially the crowd on Weekends. There’s an old theme park there called Luna Park, which had a scary entrance, at least for me. But we where not really interested in going in. So we decided to make our way back to the Tram Stop and got the second tram (because the first one was full) back into the City.

When we got to the city we hoped on another Tram to head east to see St Patrick’s Cathedral. We cld see it from certain places in the City and it looked really beautiful. As we got nearer to it only then I cld see that it was not only beautiful but it was also magnificent. The details where so intricate and wonderful. And when we went in… a sudden calm just swept through me. It was an incredible feeling …just don’t know what to say. Breathtaking!

We decided to take a walk all the way to the Carlton Garden’s which was beautifully landscaped and back to the city and on the way there a unique Mosaic piece which was done on a Fire Station caught our attention. (actually it was nearer to St’Pat’s)… it was about the Mythology of fire….


It really was cool! We had dinner in Central Melbourne and then our new friend Flo took us to snooker centre in Chinatown which looked just like the snooker centres in M'sia. Felt like i was home..

mo
to be continued

VH in Melb Day 2 - The City of Blinding Lights

This is the day I have been waiting for since last year December. U2 Vertigo Tour 06… AAARRrrrraRRRgggHHh!!!! YeaH yeah yeah Woahoooooo!!!.... and man what a day it was. We had free standing tickets… so it was a siapa cepat dia dapat…. We called the Stadium and found out that Security was not allowing anyone to camp over night and that people will only be able to wait in line at 7am. So we all agreed that we will be up early get there by 7, but somewhere between my tummy giving way because it could not handle all that good food yesterday and us looking for coffee and breakfast in the city, and picking up the tickets from shanti’s friend, we only managed to get there at around 9am. There was already a big crowd all patiently waiting… but not as many as I thought would be there. There were barricades arranged and divided into equal parts of space, which lead from the entrance to the perimeter around the stadium. Each pen was closed off once it was full. Now it was just a waiting game….

The sun came out …. and the wind subsided … and for the first time since I touched down in Melbourne…. I started to sweat… it was at least 30Cs… there was no shade and my skin was on fire. Now I regret cursing the cold freezing wind……

Around 4pm or was it 5pm we where asked to get ready…(yes we all patiently waited that long)…. we could hear The Edge (David Howell Evans) practicing inside the stadium…… u2 were beginning to warm up!… They started to play ‘One Tree Hill’… I just froze… oh how I wish I was inside now…. Everyone cheered when the song ended….. ….. Then goose bumps spread thru out my hand …as the opening notes to ‘Walk On’ ….began… I could not believe it… I was listening to them LIVE… even though it was from outside the stadium… it was still invigorating… Are they going to sing these songs during the concert? Well they didn’t. Apparently they where practicing for Auckland.

They started letting us in after U2 had stopped practicing. That was like 6ish….thats when they slowly opened each pen to let us in. It was really well organized ….and the crowd even though a little rowdy did not push or shove their way thru. Unlike the experience I had at the Bon Jovi concert in M’sia back in ..was it 94 or 95. I was stuck in a wall of people and I almost lost an arm. ….Anyway it was still a long wait because the show is only at 9.15pm and the opening act by Kenya West started at 8pm. So, we waited 12 hours in line to get really close to our favourite rock band. How close?...about 25 feet from the main stage, 7 feet from the ramp leading to the small secondary stage which was 15 feet behind us. There was another ramp and stage on the other end of the main stage. Talk about a window seat. For safety reasons 1 third of the field closes to the stage was sectioned off and they limited the number of free standing ticket holders getting in. Suddenly the 12 hour wait was worth it. Even though I wasn’t looking forward to Mr West, I found myself moving to the beat when the P Diddy look-alike got on stage. Not too bad….he was entertaining.

The stage backdrop was this huge wall filled with tiny diodes… I had seen the Boston concert on DVD and what they did with the wall was fantastic. U2 concerts are known for this, which they started using back in 1993, for their ZooTV concert tours and again for their Giant Lemon tour (Popmart Tour). I was very much looking forward to it… and as the sun slowly went down at nearly 8.45pm the crowd was getting intense and to pass the time we all played with beach balls (like 10 beach balls being tossed around the whole stadium by the crowd) and we did Mexican waves.. Stuperb crowd I tell you.

….then it happened… The Edge started playing the opening to ‘City of Blinding Lights’ on the keyboard and the stage light up as a surge of adrenaline shot thru my body…. The crowd roared!!!!... then Bono (Paul David Hewson) walked up the small stage on the other end and began to sing…. The crowd roared again!!!...The concert was simply awesome. All that I have dreamt of, and much much more…. Song after song after song… I was just filled with all kinds of emotions all at once. And I just don’t know what else to say… I know I have been writing some lengthy blogs about my Vertigo Honeymoon in Melbourne but for the 2 hours of being bombarded by U2 LIVE… all I can say is that it was the best 2 hours of my life. ……. Below is the order of songs they sang that nite.

City of Blinding Lights,
Vertigo,
Elevation,
I Will Follow,
New Year's Day,
Beautiful Day – sang bits of Sgt. Pepper's - Here Comes the Sun,
Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of,
Angel of Harlem, - Bono brings an Indian girl near the secondary stage and gives her a piggy back ride around the main stage. lucky girl.
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own,
Love and Peace or Else,
Sunday Bloody Sunday, - Bono brings young boy on to the stage to say No More, in the middle of the song
Bullet the Blue Sky,
Miss Sarajevo,
Pride,
Where the Streets Have No Name,
One

The Fly,
Mysterious Ways,
With or Without You – Bono bring a woman on stage and sing bits of Love Will Tear Us Apart,
The Saints Are Coming, – Latest single.
Desire,
Kite






mo
to be continued.......