PHOTOS: Bangkok April 2009

I feel guilty for having not blogged for 3 weeks, so here's a short post to show everyone I'm still here and haven't given up on my blogging!

I just came back from Bangkok a week ago. Was my first time there and I had high hopes for superb shopping and awesome nightlife. Well, shopping I wasn't disappointed. Although it was super tiring, but I managed to get a few items I'm really happy with. The malls and buildings are really nice and most importantly, have nice nice air-conditioning.

Nightlife, on the other hand, was a little disappointing. Lapsap Kel who proclaimed that RCA was awesome, was sadly mistaken. I think Sharry Berry had also mentioned partying there. Well, we went into Route 66 and 808, apparently two of the more happening clubs there, and were severely disappointed. By the music, the deejays and the crowd. The clubs themselves looked awesome... massive buildings and nice lighting. But I have to maintain that KL partygoers are so much more fun.

Ahh... well, I said I'd write a short post, but what the heck... here are the photos from Bangkok. These are not on my Facebook, so fret not, you will not be overloaded with the same photos :)


Smoky in the plane.


Pints of beer at Bully's!


Schrobbenmaster Rik and Alex K at Bamboo having shisha.


McDonald's in Thai script.


Me in stupid glasses in the iMax 3D theatre watching Monsters vs. Aliens.


Me and Plum at Gazebo. Holding an RM50 bloody cocktail there. Not even that much liquid in there!


Taking the boat to our destination... Platinum mall!


Schrobbenmaster Rik giving a weird face to the camera.


People getting off the boat.


In front of Central World.


Having dinner at the Old German Beer House before hitting the clubs.


One of the rooms in Route 66 at RCA.


Party people at 808.


Outside 808, people drenched in water and foam. Pre-Song Kran party, I reckon.


Adjourned to Wong's after and had a really fun time! That's Sophie and Pete. And a guy about to puke in the background.


That's Wong at work.


Mini chinese lanterns to show his heritage ;) And 80s music video to show how "young" he is? Heehee.


Next day, sightseeing on the Chao Praya.


View from the river.


Rehearsals at Wat Arun for the upcoming Song Kran festival.


Schrobbenmaster Rik and I at Wat Arun.


Some artsy photo snapping on his part.


Nice detailing on the Wat. Love how people in the old days could spend time on making beautiful and intricate things.


Watching a golden cat watching a white kitten half its size.


Man-made flood on Khao Sarn Road. Some pipes burst, I believe. Probably just another day in the lives of Khao Sarn backpackers.


"OMG what a bloody hot day". Jumping back in the boat to go home.

PHOTOS: Birthday 2009, Yassir's Birthday, Funny Dan

Not in the mood for work today so I'm diligently updating my blog. People go on living when they're not working, you know.

Here are some randoms from my party.


Uncle Henry and me.


Dunno why Sharry Berry wants to shout at me on my birthday *sniff*


Now she's feeling bad about it ;)

And some randoms from Always Wasted Yassir's







The many faces of Dan the Drinker


I really can't describe this expression.


About to throw up?


Dark, intense look a la Antonio Banderas?

What did I get for my birthday?

Okay, so here's the usefulness of having Wish Lists. Anyone who hasn't done so yet, should!

Seems the older you get, the less presents you receive. But the presents that you do receive are bigger and better! So no complaints there :)

• A shower FM radio ➤ thanks to Schrobbenmaster Rik
  
• Artsy/designer/vintage tableware (plates, cups, cutlery) ➤ thanks to Frachely and John T (who was nice enough to take photos at my party too)
  
• Any perfume in a beautiful bottle (btw, my Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel is finished) ➤ still open for any generous soul
  
• Wine glasses (at least ONE matching pair) ➤ thanks to Yelleh Belleh
  
• Comfy, soft, thick bathroom rugs (the larger the better) ➤ thanks to Tequila Lin and Dan the Drinker
  
• A short break to Bangkok, Thailand ➤ well, wasn't a gift, but I am going next week! ;)
  
• 3 months in Paris, France ➤ open for another generous soul (Mumsy Bumsy did sponsor some of my ticket to Melbourne, so it's just as great!)
  
• La Senza shopping vouchers (a gal can't have too much lingerie) ➤ anyone?
  
• Vodka or whisky (as stock for my next party - which the giver will most definitely be invited to) ➤ got some wine instead, which is just as good
  
• A large living room rug, preferably dark (black/brown/grey) and furry/hairy ➤ anyone??
  
• All-white plain/textured (NO patterns) tissue box covers ➤ guess this will go to my Christmas Wish List 2009
  
• Big white artificial flowers (roses/lilies/etc) - 20 of them would be lovely :P ➤ as will this!
  

Awesome gifts, thanks everyone!!

Zouk's 5th Birthday (Weekly roundup #3)

Yes, another weekly roundup because I've been too busy to update as regularly as I would love to.

After the plumber last week, guess what... time to fork out money again for my parking fines!! First up was MBPJ (formerly MPPJ, for those not in the know)... R kindly offered to go for me since his office is in the MBPJ tower anyway. He got it down to RM30! Whoopee! That's less than a movie for two at GSC Signature, by the way.

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Jaunty Josh had put our names down on the VIP guestlist for Zouk's 5th anniversary bash, so R and I headed there... 2 hours after we were supposed to (one's gotta be fashionably late, doesn't one? Okay, to be honest, it's actually, one's gotta have dinner, doesn't one?). We lined up at the Media and VIP invites booth looking very important and glad not to be queueing up with the commoners.

And then...

The woman there couldn't find our names! Grrr... she kept asking are you on the members' guestlist? And I kept saying, no, we should be on the VIP guestlist... and still she kept looking IN THE SAME LIST. It finally registered in her thick skull that we were on another list, and she picked up another piece of paper and found our names immediately. Phew. And a what the...?! How annoying of you to keep us VIPs standing there searching for our names? And then... she picks up the blue bands and sticks them on our wrists. Hey... it's the red bands that say VIP, I wanted to tell her. But I'm not that arrogant heehee. As long as I get in, and get to see what's happening in there, that's all that matters.

So we walk in and bump straight into Jaunty Josh with the customary hot blogger chick on his arm. Sometimes there are two. That night there were three. So he obviously had no time to chat to us. Just made some introductions all round, and we left him to check the rooms out.

The mainroom was pounding, really good music there. Got a drink, took a while as they usually do... bopped our heads a bit and watched people dancing. Then went exploring at Barsonic - which was completely empty! What a huge difference from when we were last there for that Japanese dude, whatsisname... oh yeah, Shinichi Osawa. Wasn't feeling any vibe up there so we moved to Phuture, which should always be packed since this is KL, after all. It was decently filled with a before midnight crowd, so we ordered a drink at the bar. Bumped into Giggsy Tan there too.

After about an hour we decided to give Barsonic another try, since it's our favourite room in the club. And yikes, it was another disappointment! Even after midnight, it was just as empty as before. Did see someone interesting though... one of my ex-crushes was there, taking me by surprise, but I was glad to realise that I had absolutely no feelings for him anymore. I just wanna find out what the bloody heck his problem was last December. Pfft... doesn't matter though. We just exchanged waves and then practised ignorance.

Finally went back down to Zouk and woohoo! Lapsap were there producing customary Barsonic sounds in Zouk mainroom. A little unbalancing, but awesome all the same! Ended the night enjoying their mixes... just had a whole lot of fun. Thanks Jaunty Josh!

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On Friday I had scheduled myself to pay the DBKL fine. Had to go into town to the main office in order to get my fine lowered to RM30, so I made the trip. It was a real experience for R! We thought the counter was at the lobby (as was told by the guy at the drive-in counter), but instead, R had to run up 22 floors (lifts were rosak, of course) in order to get the ticket stamped to reduce it to RM30, then run back down to pay at the lobby counter. Hmm... I had to make it up to him of course, which I surely did, with a yummy meal at Dome after that.

Didn't have much time after Dome before we had to get ready and leave again for Always Wasted Yassir's birthday party at Poppy. Ridiculously expensive parking there though... we shoulda just parked at 7atenine since we ended up having one last drink there after Poppy anyway. While there, we both got picked up by a drunken Scot. And then abused by a drunken Englishman. And consequently made peace with two Italians.

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Next up will be some miscellaneous photos from my birthday party (the official album is on Facebook) and some other randoms. Check back soon (hopefully)!

My toilet's sucking me dry

My toilet's done me in again!

The pipe below my sink, which holds it up (it's a wall-attached sink), came loose a few days ago and started leaking water out. Got it temporarily fixed with tape (Mr Tape is one of my favourite people in history) and called the plumber in this morning. I only had RM250 in my purse, but figured a bit of fixing up shouldn't cost too much, even if he has to buy another pipe.

Well, of course he had to buy a new pipe because, hey, this is me, and this is my birthday month... I seem to fork out a lot of money around this time of year. By the way, I didn't mention that I got another fine, this time by MBPJ. Same RM100 shit.

Anyway, he calls me from the shop to say he's found the matching pipe, and do I want to confirm his services for RM280? My eyes popped out of their sockets. Luckily I was wearing my specs then, so managed to catch them before they rolled away. Okay, that was a little gross and gory.

Obviously, I had to have it changed, so I said alright, for RM250.

So my purse is now as light as the Samsonite® Aeroline (a little advertising there, I dunno why). Just a couple months ago, I had to spend RM600 on unclogging my toilet bowl. Which didn't even really help, because in the end, they found out that the original plumbers had installed the wrong size toilet bowl for me, and I couldn't change my whole toilet bowl, it being only a couple years old.

Grrrrrr......... well, hopefully the dinner and movie tonight will lift my spirits a little :P

Just ruined my week.

I'd thought this week was my lucky week, being my birthday week - first, I found out that it's also school holidays, which means that I have no art classes to prepare for! Not only that, I don't have to wake up freaking early on Saturday, so I can party nicely on Friday (my birthday) itself!

Then, I decided to spend all week celebrating, well, pre-celebrating for the coming of my 26th birthday... not sure what's up yet, but it'll surely be fun! My birthday itself on Friday will be spent with close friends, with lots (and lots) of wine and talking nonsense all night... what could be better than that? :P The next day, I'll be celebrating with collegemates, another fun bunch of guys who talk even more nonsense. Here's hoping Dan The Drinker honours us with more yoga poses this year.

So all in all, I'm in a rather good mood this week. Work is not exceedingly stressful, life is great! And then...

I received a summons.

From DBKL (City Council), no less. Whose summonses are worse than the police's.

I was only gone a measly half an hour!!

And I have to pay RM100 for a spot that WAS NOT EVEN BLOCKING ANYONE.

I always find this happening - a driver gets fined for going 10km/h above speed limit, when the ones going 60km/h over... don't. I, who parked in a residential neighbourhood, far from any traffic, at 11am, get fined a whopping RM100, when the damn cars on Jalan Telawi (post office row), who hold up traffic and force two lanes into one... don't.

So I parked where I shouldn't have. But at least be fair and fine EVERYONE instead of the people who are easy to fine, ie. the people driving insignificant cars (meaning they're not lawyers, politicians, or children of lawyers, politicians).

PHOTOS: Penang CNY 2009

Yeah yeah I know CNY was several weeks ago, but I've been putting off displaying pics cuz there are just too many. Anyway these pics should be of some interest, cuz they're actually pics of when the whole family took a free shuttle bus (one of the new government's attempts to improve the island, yay!) around central Penang. I just snapped some interesting sights from my phone. Nice for those who've never been to Penang :)


Our starting point, the CAT (Central Area Transit) signpost at Komtar. It was really difficult to find actually.


View inside the shuttle bus. Pretty comfy.
Below are various scenes along the route. I put them all together cuz there were too many to display individually.




At the end of the route, waiting for the next shuttle bus to take us back :) Note the CNY redness hehe. And I dunno why Arya's (the little girl in front) face is like that...


Really nice architecture on this old building.


Old houses/buildings. Penang is full of 'em. How quaint.


Sorry, can't remember the name of this road.


Money changer street.


Gem and jewel street.


Colonial building. Penang has a few of these too, especially mansions.


This is near the ferries which cross back to the mainland. They have a few mini Big Bens on the island :)


The area behind my grandma's apartment has been transformed into some sort of park with interesting walkways... we explored one of them. Kids love walking around these 'secret gardens'.

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Finally done!!

And I'm rather excited about the coming weekend. Tonight, jazz at Souled Out, tomorrow... we'll see what happens!

PHOTOS: Really random

Need to clear my desktop up, so I'm uploading these two random photos.


Doesn't everyone just love receiving parcels? And this is a huge one too... lovely!! Inside was my excellent Eiffel Tower wall decal that I put on my Christmas 2008 Wish List. Thanks to G for making the effort to send this over - twice :) Once I finally get round to putting it up on my wall, photos will be here.


This is one very big reason I love living where I live. Not only in KL, urban jungle, but in this lovely home of mine. I just love the city lights! I could really just pull up a chair and watch this view for hours. Honestly.

Weekly round-up #2

It's Tuesday and I can't focus on work. That's the thing about having Mondays off (public holiday)... when you do get back to work, it's suddenly Tuesday and you've lost your Monday. I know that sounds strange, but that's how I feel today. What happened to all the things I have to do on Monday?

Having Monday off did allow for a super fun, albeit tiring and confusing Sunday.

Anyway, first things first... as I haven't been writing for a few days now, I should do another weekly round-up!

Thursday was Mumsy Bumsy's birthday, so Yelleh Belleh and I made dinner - experimental Aglio Olio. It was a fun and nice night.


Mumsy Bumsy at work while her two girls potter about the kitchen.


The dinner table setup.




Yelleh Belleh working the garlic.


Draining the water from the pasta.


Lovely view out the window when any of us cooks. That's what makes me love living in the city.




Happy birthday!!

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Friday was some Chivas launch party at Euphoria, MOS. Heard it was free flow so obviously put my name on the guestlist haha! The other attraction is that the venue is smoke-free woohoo! It was lovely getting home after and having normal smelling hair.


Only took 2 photos from my phone cuz I didn't wanna look too cheesy haha. This was one of the first acts, DJ Blink at the console, playing with live guitarist, bongo player and violinist. Very cool indeed.



Needless to say, I got kinda hammered. Awesome night indeed.

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Saturday went to watch Sarah Brightman in concert, on her Symphony tour. It wasn't as good as when she came a few years back, cuz this wasn't a real performance. She just stood around waving her skirt, singing. When I saw her a few years ago, she did the proper stage dancing, flying about stage with costumes, props and the whole caboodle.

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Sunday, Tequila Lin wanted to take advantage of the Monday holiday so we went to Sky Bar, along with a number of her other friends. Had really good wine, one of the only times I actually manage to select a good one. Think it was Green Point Shiraz, Yarra Valley.

Had a reeeaaalllly long night of it... adjourned to a guy's house after closing to continue the merriment. Tequila Lin was falling asleep towards the end, so we decided to leave soon after. Got freaking lost on the way back cuz this guy stays in Bukit Antarabangsa, and I found myself on the road to Genting and Zoo Negara... I think it took me an hour or so to get back to a familiar place!

Still a fun and very interesting night... ;)

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Just found these old photos of Schrobbenmaster Rik and I having dinner at an English pub, The George and Dragon in BSC. The food is actually really good!

Thank goodness this English pub had chilli sauce.


Pretty authentic looking.


My fish and chips. It was yummy!


His bangers 'n' mash. Smelt yummy!


He's really killing the bangers over there.

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Got a work meeting in a bit, so I'm off now.

Birthday Wish List 2009

Just over 2 weeks more to my birthday, so here's my list up again because the first one is waaaaaay down below, and I know no one can be bothered to scroll down in these times of extreme laziness.

• *NEW! A shower FM radio
  
• *NEW! Artsy/designer/vintage tableware (plates, cups, cutlery)
  
• *NEW! Any perfume in a beautiful bottle (btw, my Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel is finished)
  
• Wine glasses (at least ONE matching pair)
  
• Comfy, soft, thick bathroom rugs (the larger the better)
  
• A short break to Bangkok, Thailand
  
• 3 months in Paris, France
  
• La Senza shopping vouchers (a gal can't have too much lingerie)
  
• Vodka or whisky (as stock for my next party - which the giver will most definitely be invited to)
  
• A large living room rug, preferably dark (black/brown/grey) and furry/hairy
  
• All-white plain/textured (NO patterns) tissue box covers
  
• Big white artificial flowers (roses/lilies/etc) - 20 of them would be lovely :P
  

Puteri Gunung Ledang

I watched Puteri Gunung Ledang two weekends ago. It was the last show of the season and very well done. I really appreciated the subtitles at the side of the stage, because I could hardly understand anything they were saying! Flowery Malay language and Bahasa Indonesia can be really difficult to follow.

Tiara Jacquelina was amazing, with a really beautiful voice... can't say the same for Stephen Hughes, unfortunately, who showed more personality and charisma in the last 20 seconds of the show when he was bowing and showing some breakdance moves to the thunderous applause than in his whole performance as Hang Tuah. But the person who truly stood out for me was AC Mizal as Gusti Adipati. I'd always thought he was some silly idiot on his AC Di Sini TV show and commercials, but watching this show, within the first few seconds of his appearance onstage, I was thinking, "Wow, who's this guy? He's really brilliant!" And he had oodles and oodles of charisma even from where I was sitting (which was the length of two football fields away).

Anyway, the music was really good, singing was brilliant... only thing was that the love scenes tended to drag on for too long, making me feel a little bored. Cuz obviously we know you're in love, could you please stop singing so many five minute songs to show it?

Next season is a must-watch for those who haven't seen it. I don't know who's taking over Tiara's place as Gusti Puteri, but I'm sure she'll be just as brilliantly cast.

Last week round-up

So anyway, the police came and got my formal report. They were really nice... I believe they're from Internal Affairs. And they haven't contacted me for further information, so I guess that episode is over. What a relief! It was a good experience, though. I suggest to anyone else out there, if you're unhappy with any of the police services, just go ahead and make a report. We should be able to feel safe in the presence of our police force here, so people, do your part and give back to this country!

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What else is new?

I've started teaching an art class for kids at my ballet school (which is actually a performing arts school, teaching music, drama, art and dance). I've been teaching about 3 weeks already, and it's getting better. At first, the kids were a nightmare! But I think they're getting used to me being there and being in charge. I've been taking some photos of their finished artwork, so I might put them up here some time in the future (when I'm not feeling so lazy).

Have I mentioned that I've taken up jazz dance classes? If not, then yeah, I have. Two weeks going now, and it's been really great to be able to dance something else other than ballet. It gives more freedom than ballet and I think it just helps me get used to moving around the dancefloor and express myself through the movement.

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And onto the usual stuff...

Last Saturday was a big night at Zouk. The place was heaving! Everyone was trying to get into Phuture and Barsonic. We wanted to enter Barsonic, but they'd blocked entry for a while as it was too packed inside. We eventually did get in, though, and omg was it hot and sweaty in there! Thankfully, tall Schrobbenmaster Rik spotted a section which had less people, so we moved in there and enjoyed a reprieve from the hot and sweaty breaths of the Barsonicers.

It was Shinichi Osawa up there, which A was really hyped up about. I'd never heard of him, but he seems to be hot stuff, and his DJing was great. Had so much fun there!

After it all, we went back outside and I found all my friends friendly and tipsy from their night at Phuture. It was quite funny really. Then bumped into another old acquaintance at the exit, almost didn't recognise him! All in all, a great night and worth the lack of sleep it entailed.

Police abuse of power

Just came back from the IPK KL - Ibu Pejabat Kontinjen KL / Contingent Headquarters KL - ie. the KL police headquarters. Had a meeting with a top top police official, whose name I'm not sure I should say here. An extremely nice and friendly person.

My dad, me, Schrobbenmaster Rik and the top guy from NST met with this chief to report an incident which happened last Friday, February 20th.

I'm pretty tired of writing what happened, so just go read Schrobbenmaster Rik's version of events. Click on 'The Kawasaki Incident'.

Basically, we were driving in town when two motorcyclists swerved dangerously in front of us, causing us to honk at them twice. They then started following our car and knocking it telling us to stop. We obviously were pretty nervous about the situation and wondered what to do. Then they claimed they were Police. Flashed a card at us too. So we decided to stop and confront them, since we didn't want them harassing us all night.

They started flexing their muscles and acting arrogant with us, showing how 'powerful' they are. We wouldn't take any of it. Asked for their badge numbers. They refused and became defensive. Hailed a patrol car down to prove they really were policemen. They still refused to give us their badge numbers. The uniformed patrol policemen (who were calm and more professional) settled the issue and left. The bikers had no option but to leave us because they clearly knew they were abusing their power.

I was very indignant at their behaviour and promised to take this matter seriously. After all, if it happened to us, it could happen to lots of others. And not many others have the access to top officials that we do.

This is a little something that I can do to help the ailing public police system in our country, and I'll do what I can to make it a place people want to stay in and fight for, rather than leave for Australia at the slightest sign of trouble.

ps. Just got a call from an officer to make an appointment for further details tomorrow evening. I hope this officer is receptive and treats us with respect.

Doesn't it suck that we have to worry about our police officers not being respectful towards us?

Friday at Zouk KL

Last Friday I went to Zouk for Tequila Lin's colleague's birthday. Didn't know anyone but her and Schrobbenmaster Rik, but thought it'd be a good opportunity to meet new people.

As is the norm (for Malaysian-Chinese yuppies), it was Phuture that we all headed to. I hung out there for a bit, then decided to take a look round the other rooms with Schrobbenmaster Rik. Steve Lawler was spinning in the mainroom. Stayed there for a few minutes, but it didn't get any better so we left for Barsonic.

Barsonic was much more awesome and we ended staying there the entire night (apart from occasional forays back to Phuture to not seem antisocial!). Bumped into a few friends, and Schrobbenmaster Rik met a fellow Dutchman who looks like Keith Urban. As the good wingman he is (or trying to be), he pointed me out to Keith, but apparently I was too busy staring at the bar so we didn't get introduced. I've proper nagged Schrobbenmaster Rik about that already.

Do you know him?

Did you look twice at the guy on the left??

I did! I thought "Omg, what's Daniel doing in that video?!". And although I knew it couldn't be him, I just had to really look hard at it to convince myself.

What do you think?!

PHOTOS: Mogwai in KL

I've recently signed up for Twitter, recommended by Schrobbenmaster Rik... and after I heard that Chris Moyles was also on it, I just had to join.

Search for me if you're on Twitter - you should know my nickname.

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I went to watch Mogwai at the KL Convention Centre some time in January. I'd never heard of them or heard any of their music before that... I had to get on to Youtube to listen to a couple of songs. Sounded pretty good so decided to go. Good concert!






The only thing I saw out the corner of my eye was this white blob going up and down. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly found myself standing to this beanpole of a Singh, with a bright white turban and bushy black beard, headbanging next to me.