D![K HEAD

The Bas about swerved from the left most lane almost taking out a few cars in the middle lane forcing me to give him way.... luckily the guy behind me didnt hit into me... Jezzz...

What a D![K Head!!!........


Yes he did swerve from the left most lane to make it to the U-turn.... im not making that up!!

END

Fractured Stranger

I really hate it when movie makers try so hard to make a clever plot that almost always has a twist in it….. But then it turns out to be so dumb that it is seemed like they were making it up while they were filming the movie… Well at least that’s how I felt after watched the movie Fracture and Perfect Stranger.

Fracture had an interesting plot but as the story unfolded it eventually got really really predictable….. like they were running out of steam…. Sir Anthony Hopkins played his usual self… so it was terribly stale because we have seen this kind of character in all his other stereotypical made for Hopkins movies…

Basically it is about a rich engineer killing his wife and confessing the murder but then masterminded a devises plan whereby there wasn’t a single trace of evidence against him. Not even CSI could find anything… (Where’s Grissom when you need him)… Once he is set free he can not be prosecuted even if they find evidence of his crime because of the Double Jeopardy Law and blah blah technical crap…. Sounds interesting right … Oh how wrong was I to think it was….

I haven’t reviewed a movie in a long time and in fact I watched Fracture two months ago… and I cant seem to remember much about it…. But I do remember how bad it was though …….. Unfortunately….

Among the two movies, Perfect Stranger had the worst plot which I am not even going to bother explaining, but if you ever what to see a really bad actress who overacts every single scene… then by all means watch Halle Berry in this flick….. In her defense however, I must say she is Very Berry Good… babe with a capitol G… gorgeous! But Alba is still the best lah……keke… Anyway the most wasted actor in this movie was the one played by Bruce Willis… such a total waste lah… They should have just given him a gun and just let him blow the brains out of every other character… now that would have made a more interesting twist in the ending…

Perfect Stranger I will rate a 3/10 and Fracture gets just 0.5 points more because Anthony Hopkins is just so good in his ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ kind of role.

END

The Dirt on Ipoh

Finally, after much planning APM went for their second annual retreat which was at the LaSalle Centre in Ipoh, Perak. Everyone was eager to ….errrrrr.. retreat. Well at least most of us atleast. There were only 18 of us going because some were not free on Raya weekend….. ….. wait did you say RAYA WEEKEND!!!

Yes we went on Hari Raya Weekend… that’s ok … everything was paid for…. however, that was not the highlight of my trip…. My brother-in-law loaned me his BMW 5-series to take to Ipoh … and man! it was surperb…….Although the car felt like a barge at low revs… it handled really really well all over the rev' counter… after all it is a BMW…. It was also surprisingly maneuverable along tight roads even if it was jammed and I even found no trouble getting it into small parking bays…. Sweet!!! … There was a VCD player in the car with two monitors on each headrest and one on the centre console in front. So we watched a few shows like Monsters Inc and an episode of Transformers cartoon (My bro-in-law has young kids). We also watched a few episodes of Friends, Faulty Towers and Rose even managed to slip in the first episode of Sex In The City…

Before leaving at 6.00am last Saturday (13th Oct), all I could think of is the long queues at the toll or traffic crawls from Rawang all the way to Ipoh…. But to my surprise traffic wasn’t that bad… we did encounter a bit of jam here and there but that was because of incomplete emergency lanes along the North South Highway which can you imagine were closed, thus causing jams when a car or two broke down and had no choice but to stop on the slow lane…. I don’t get it…. Shouldn’t they have completed the emergency lanes before the “balik kampong” exodus? I was even almost side swiped by a lorry which had to avoid a stalled car on the slow lane….. sigh… "my heart is skip a beats"!!… …..the last thing I wanted to do was wreck the Beemer…. I wonder how many accidents were caused because of unfinished emergency lanes…….ofcos you wont read that in the papers..... Anyway thankfully nothing happened on our journey to Ipoh and we actually managed to get there by 8:15am. Thats about 45 minutes longer then normal travel time...

(Waiting for Leona out side Jusco)

Leona (A former APM member who is now working in Ipoh ) met us at Jusco Ipoh (… or is it called Ipoh Parade) and guided us to the LaSalle Centre. But before that, she took us to Jalan Bandar Timah for Ipoh’s famous white coffee and breakfast…. The place was so crowded with people even though there were a dozen or so coffee shops around … most (I guess the famous ones atleast) were packed with people… we had to wait about 20 minutes before we got a table but there was only enough place for half of us… so the rest of us waited another half hour before another table was available….but after we got our tables it felt uncomfortable because there were more people coming into the shop and they would just stand next to you waiting for you to finish and clear the table……. I didn’t really like the coffee either but the Yong Tau Foo was tasty and very very cheap. Half the price that i would pay in KL. One sad thing I immediately noticed when i was waiting outside was that it was very dirty… there was rubbish here and there…from the roads to the pavement to the side walk to the floors of the eateries ... all around there…. … it’s hard to describe lah…it was like someone had cleaned it in haste….hmmmm Used plates were just dumped on the floor and on the side walks! eeeeeeeee….DiiiRTtttttY!!!! im not saying that the eateries in Klang Valley are any better but my first impression of Ipoh and its food didn’t get to a good start…

Waiting outside to get a table.... notice anything on the pavement?

Aww so cute a pigeon eating from a plate on the PAVEMENT...

(the crowd in the shop)

We continued our convoy to LaSalle Centre after breakfast. The place had a ‘sudden’ entrance whereby it was along a heavy main road and then all of a sudden we needed to take a left turn down a small descending road which led to the LaSalle Centre. It was kinda cool cause you’re ‘suddenly’ brought into a pretty garden….

We checked into our rooms and found that it wasn’t very nice. Bunked-beds are crammed into a small partitioned room with a bathroom with no hot water…. Oh well…at least it was clean....... I guess for church group’ retreats it was ok…but they did have a very good multipurpose hall with everything that you needed to conduct your sessions… I was impressed with that… first session started about 11ish…

All our sessions throughout the retreat went well …. Praises to all speakers yah…good job…

I went with Leona to get lunch while the others stayed back for a session. She took me to a food court which was next to the Ipoh Stadium (forgot the real name but it was a big stadium). We got fried Kuay Teow and Wantan Mee…. Again the food was very tasty but the place was dirty, not as dirty as where we had breakfast but bad enough…

(St Michael's School)

After lunch and the afternoon session we had a bit of free time before we got ready for sunset mass. I went out for a little photo-session walk … didn’t get very far from LaSalle Centre maybe about a little over a kilometer because I didn’t really have that much time… if I ever come to Ipoh again I will definitely need to have a whole day just exploring the lovely old buildings all over here. Most of the buildings on this side (old town) of Ipoh are more then a century old…

When we reached St Michaels Church we found that mass was only at 7pm not 6pm… aiyah!! I could have had a longer photo-session walk… oh well… anyway since we were so early we stayed for novena . The church was fully air-cond… although it was nice, it was too cold and I was freezing my butt off half way through mass… The choir was pretty good …four rows and without mics’…and they sang in 4 parts … …nice…. Just before the final prayer, the priest asked all the newcomers and visiting attendees to stand up… we all stood up and received a clap from the congregation. Sheesh!!!... it was a little embarrassing.

(Took this while waiting at the lights on the way to dinner. On photo editing done as like all my photos, just choose the B&W option on my camera. keke.... taking a B&W from a BMW...kekeke... ok i shut up now....)

After mass we headed out for dinner…. Just like breakfast, all the eateries and restaurants where packed with people…. Most were waiting outside the entrance for a table to be available… service was bad because it was so crowded and the staff couldn’t handle it… you could feel the tension in the waitresses' faces… she even dumped the cutlery on our table like she was going to stab us with it…. Food took forever, the first dish was only served about 35 minutes after we order the food….. … I wasn’t too impressed with the food either… some dishes were nice and some were so so… hmmm but nothing really wowed me… I've eaten better food in Klang...…. Then just before everyone had finished, one of the girls let out a little cry and pushed her plate aside… …there was a small little dragon fly in her meal…..!!!!!!!! it must have been in one of the vegetable dishes…… I’m telling you ...food preparation in Ipoh is very very bad…… when we complained about it they just ignored us completely… then we complained again at the counter and guess what they did… they gave us a RM 5 discount..!!...!!! small little dragonflies cost RM5 in Ipoh!!...... So people! when ordering food in Ipoh, tell them to hold the dragonflies unless of cos you don’t mind paying extra.....

(The RM5 dragonfly)

We had breakfast at the centre, (thank god!!) But lunch was either fried rice or fried mee…. the latter was tasty but the fried rice was terrible… That’s it guys… IPOH FOOD IS OVERATED… only thing nice about Ipoh is the wide variety of traditional Chinese biscuits and sweets… vely cheap and vely nice and of cause the limestone hills and caves all around Ipoh…. Most of the caves near to Ipoh house temples, both Buddist and Hindu temples… we visited one before we left Ipoh… which I will elaborate on later.

(The porch that will be turned into our BBQ area)

In the evening, G and I went to Jusco to get the BBQ stuff and while we were at the cashier we saw that it was raining heavily outside… We bought the food anyway and hoped that it will stop raining……. It never did…. It just rained and rained and rained… and just went you thought it was stopping … it started to rain heavier. G and I got permission from one of the LaSalle brothers to start the BBQ in the porch …. So we all gathered for BBQ in the porch… then Rose pointed out to me that there wasn’t enough food especially sausages…. ALAMAK!!... so Leona, G and myself hopped went back to Jusco…. It was really jammed getting there and the parking lots were so congested. Leona and I got out in the pouring rain and practically ran all the way to the supermarket. After getting all that we needed we decided to run back to the car since it took so long to get to Jusco… im sure there where a number of hungry souls back at the LaSalle Centre… kekekee… but can you imagine a Chinese girl running in the mall and an Indian dude running along behind her…. It looked like I was chasing her…… luckily I wasn’t wrestled to the ground by the security guard….



After we had cleaned up the porch (which the LaSalle Brothers were quite impressed the next morning becos they though we would make a mess of it) and having our baths we pretty much were just hanging around joking and laughing till the wee hours of the night… we only slept around 4am.

(G, showing us how its done...)

Morning came too soon and I pretty much woke up at 8.00am but only got my butt out of bet at 9.30am and started to pack my stuff… eventually everyone got packed and ready and we left at about 11.30. Leona wanted to take us to the Buddist Temple which was in a limestone cave (I forgot the name of the temple). It was not bad but we couldn’t stay long which was bad for me because I could have gone photo hunting for hours…. Kekeke …





Well all of us were getting really hungry and we were looking forward to the Duck Rice lunch at a Restaurant not too far from the temple…. but as you might have guessed …. It was packed and there was no chance of us getting a table yet alone two…. So we went to the confectionary store nearby which had every type of traditional kuih muih and cookies that Ipoh is famous for…… the Duck Rice place was still packed after our detour so Leona another branch of the same restaurant which was nearer to Jusco. I must say the duck rice was not bad... (even thought I didn't like it ...I tasted it anyway) .. it was better then the duck rice in had in SS2 PJ (that one I had no choice but to eat cos boss belanja). But since I don’t like duck rice I ate fish instead (They were out of chicken :P )

We left Ipoh about 4pm after a few stops. Then It was jam for most of the journey packed with cars…then we found that the police was stopping cars one by one near Jelapang……. The stupid police was the cause of the jam… unbelievable lah.. … and whats worse was… they stopped G … we all then waited at the side of the road for him and when we rejoined us a few minutes later we found out that the Stupid police accused him of driving along the emergency lane……. Which of cause was bullshit!!!???????... Damn Stupid Makan Babi punya Police…. Ofcos G just said “where got! Im in convoy with a few other cars”… … another cop looked around his car probably to find a reason to give him a ticket…. But ofcos didn’t find anything and then just asked him to move along…….Stupid Pigs!!!!

It started to rain and it rained all the way back to PJ….The Tapah rest stop was like a sea of cars… and there were still people trying to get in …. Sheesh… Well, we all made it back in one piece and since G brought walkie talkies for each car, we were in direct communication with each car throughout the journey… laughter ensured… Fred, if you’re reading this ...ah….. just want to say u'r one hairy joker lah.

**APM Retreat 2007**

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END

Freedom From Fear

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

- Aung San Suu Kyi

A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom
- Walk On by U2





Free Burma, Free Aung San Suu Kyi

Grasshopper 5: The Gathering

I dont @$%#^&%(#$ believe this lah... now the chinese grasshoppers are working together with the indian grasshoppers.... gosh!!... i need to buy more bug spray.....

It was a pretty productive week (last week). My company was closed on the 25th of Sept... So I decided to service the Satria myself for half the price even thought i had to buy an oil filter wrench. The best part is i was able to buy the black oil with a better grade then the what is used by the garages. Changing the black oil and oil filter was easy enough but i did have an issue of filling in too much oil.... which was over the max line by about 5mm... got a little messy after that cos i had to go back under the car and drain it again ...slowly... but other then that it turned out ok... i even gave the car a wash.

But before that i had gone to get my beetle's road tax and insurance sorted out... annoyingly the premium had increased and the agent cldnt tell me why... i got a little annoyed after that but i felt better after when i got a good deal on an oil filter and oil filter wrench at a shop right next to the insurance shop. Then when i renewed my road tax i found that its now cheaper by RM20 ringgit... cool...

Had to stop over at work but then after lunch i made my way to a vw workshop in kayu ara which is not too far from my office. To my shock the whole place has been flattened and there is going to be an apartment built there.... Alamak!!! not where am i going to get a 'radio delete plate' for my bug before its painted...... i had heard that if you continue driving through kayu ara you will land up in taman megah or the old lim kok wing building... so i though i will just give it a try since i had the time.......... i found myself near the Projet Petrol Station near Atria..... imagine my surprise and delight when i drove by another VW workshop called APD Auto which is run by an elderly chap named Francis Lai...... he is a pleasant guy who has run the shop for the past 15 years... and guess what? he has the radio delete plate that im looking for ........but he doesnt have the chrome trim that goes with it... no matter..... i will get it anyway.... but he has a few plates which are from beetles and ghias of a few model years.... unfortunately he and I cant seem to different shade which is from which year because the differences are so small... so i will be taking the whole bunch tomorrow to match it with my car in Klang and picking the one that looks best on it...... i cant wait lah...

It was an eventful week i tell you....... It was not all good however because there was an incident at work which really got my heart boiling last friday...... lets just say that there are people in the world who are so naturally rude that they are so brave in being a jerk ...so easily... but cant seem to be brave enough to admit they were wrong and offer an apology... but then again ...why do i have expectation when they are only being their natural chicken shit self......

luckily it was a friday and I had the treasure hunt the next day which im sure u guys/gal read in my last post... was really really fun...... that really helped my demotivated self....

END

just a footnote: If the only other reason to come in to work other then work, is a funny bald Irish guy.... then one needs to seriously rethink things....

Time Out in Melaka

We started the hunt in USJ 1 and were surprised because Leg 1 had to be done on foot. Once we had finished all 5 questions of Leg 1 the Marshal then gave us the Tulips and the Questions for Leg 2. We then drive from one sector to the other using The Tulips. Some sectors are about 300 meters and can be as far as 20km. But sectors with answers are usually shorter then 2km. We are given 7.5 hours to finish the treasurehunt. So since we started at 8am, we need to check in at the Legacy hotel by 3.30pm. Since this was only a beginners/novice treasurehunt only 26 teams/cars took part.

We left Leg 1 second from last, so it was imperative that we get to the start of Leg 2 at Sg Besi Toll really fast. The only way I know how to get there is through the Seremban exit from Federal Highway. Elisa (one of our team mates) gave me a really quick way to get to the Federal Highway from USJ1. I was impressed. And as we were making our way towards KL, Elisa then says there is a way to get there through the Ipoh turnoff from the road towards Subang… So I make a dive for the exit… with Rose gritting her teeth hoping I don’t crash her car into a signpost…After turning of into the highway I said, hey! how do we get to Sg Besi Toll from here… that’s when Elisa says, Oh Shit! Sg Besi Toll ? I thought Sg Buloh Toll…!!!!! Shitttt!!!!... we then turned off at Kota Damansara and made our way to the LDP through Mutiara Damansara. Headed to the Kerichi link near Mont Kiara and got into the Federal Highway…. Then when I got to the Seremban turnoff I suddenly thought to myself Hey! Is the Toll ahead called Sg Besi Toll?... ahhh!!.. Why cant I remember suddenly….??? after confirming with a friend over the phone that we were on the right path, we reached the Sg Besi Toll after 45 minutes. We were definitely in last place…

Our first question was along the Kajang SILK highway from there we made our way to Semenyih… We then drove through most of the back roads of Seremban, Rempai, Gemas, Ayer Keroh and many other small towns which lead us towards Melaka City…

Elisa and Donovan went through almost all the question with ease, Rose and I also spotted a few answers too. But there were 3 questions which we were totally baffled and just could not find the answers. We had to turn back and give it another ‘drive by’. We knew for sure that we got one answer wrong but anyhow we were making good time.

Apart from the 35 questions which were 3 points each, we also had to solve 5 puzzle questions, each describes an item or ‘treasures’ which we need to submit with our answer sheet. Donovan and Elisa were quick to solve these puzzles but the problem was we could not find all 5 items in one place. We where down to 2 more treasures towards the last hour of the race which were, 100plus Active and a 250ml carton of Magnolia Apple Jus… we cldnt stop anywhere at that time cos we where slowly running out of time. We found the 100plus Active somewhere close to Melaka town but we still had no luck with the Magnolia… We did however find a 1 liter carton but we needed to find the 250ml one… Arrrrggghhh!!!... Our last resort was Tesco on the way to Melaka Town…Elisa and Donovan went into in as Rose and I waited outside with the engine running … and to our horror Tesco didn’t even have Magnolia Fruit Jus of any kind… Arrrrggghhhh!!.... it was about 5 minutes to 3pm and traffic was shit…. Then just as we were getting out of Tesco we saw a signboard saying ‘Giant’ 2 km to the right…. We turned into that roads but found that the jam was really bad …not to mention that the traffic lights take so long to change…… so we decided to turn back to get to a 7eleven we saw just after the junction… Our hopes weren’t high because we had checked in a few 7 elevens along the way and never found it…. There was also a sundry shop nearby, so the girls went there as Donovan ran to the 7eleven. The girls came out empty handed but as we drove towards the 7eleven, Donovan came out waving the 250ml Magnolia Apple Jus in his hand…. Success!!!

Now we were just worried of the terrible traffic jam towards Melaka Town …and we had to stop at so many traffic lights too... But with all that we still managed to clock in at the Lobby of Legacy Hotel with 5 minutes to spare…… what a relief…..

We didn’t want to go to far from the hotel so we drove around nearby to find a place to eat. We couldn’t find anything open… we even went to Hang Tuah Mall which was like a ghost ship… nothing was open… we found a mamak shop and a kopitiam near the hotel but both were very dirty… So we just ate at Legacy Hotel… Lunch was not bad but not good either… and it took forever … I think Donovan got his food almost an hour later…

the food didn’t fare any better at dinner…. But the ice kacang and the kuih kuih was nice… After the results and answers where announced we found that we only had one question wrong… We were so delighted!!!... Did we win!!???.. nope!! There was a tie between 4th, 5th and 6th place with only one wrong answer…. So it was down to time differences… and we were announced at 6th place!!! Noooooo!!!!!... The 1st, 2nd and 3rd places were also tied with full points!!... FULL POINTS!!! So they where also judged on time difference …... oh well!!!...

6th place isn’t that bad I guess…. We received RM 120 worth of Jusco vouchers and 2 coupons for a night stay at the Pulai Desaru Beach Resort. I’ve never heard of this place… will have to google it later…

We were all tired after dinner but we thought we will go check out the nightlife in Melaka City. Went to Bandar Hilir but the jam was terrible and we only found alot of Chinese Pubs and Bars.... with techno music ...so we tried to head back....the signboards around Melaka didn’t help lah. ... ... We even found signboards and traffic signs pointing the wrong way as we found out later that many roads have only recently been turned into one way streets… so as expected we got lost… we were going in circles. … We circled Makotar Parade 3 times and had gone around Bandar Hilir twice. In the end we landed up along Jonker Street ….then some how we landed up in Jalan Laksamana Cheng Hoe… that’s when we stopped and asked for directions back to our hotel… by the time we got back it was already 11.30pm… so we just hanged out in our room watching tv and had beers… and then went to bed…

The next morning I ‘kinda’ forced Rose and Donovan to follow me to the Heritage row after breakfast …. They both silently followed me even though they really wanted to strangle my neck for making them walk in the hot sun instead of heading back home….... but I wanted to take pictures of the A’Famosa ...… hehehe sorry guys… …

I didn’t have time to take any pictures during the hunt … but here are some pictures taken along the Heritage Row the next day.

I got nothing to say about the hotel except that the chandeliers were interesting........

I cant believe they have river tours on Melaka River... its so dirty... but then again its not as dirty as Klang River....



A really old chevy... apparently used at the Merdeka Celebrations

I didnt know that the tourist police operates the Bamboo Hut Bistro.... just kindding...

END

The Golden Compass