Saturday, December 27, 2008
____ Fullerton. _____ Wedding. Weddings, used to be one of my favourite functions or rather events to attend when I was a primary school kid. Well certainly not every wedding is my favourite, I really dislike those that come with the very long speeches given by an old pastor or sometimes a beautiful but monotoned lady.
It has been almost a decade since I last went for a wedding and this time round, I'm going for my neighbour's one. My very immediate neighbour Jason. His wedding was held at Fullerton's ballroom, a very formal and grand wedding I must say. Most people say that wedding invitations costs a bomb, however this wedding invitation costs a specific type of bomb, a nuclear bomb. Parking costs $2.50 per half an hour, that's five freaking bucks per hour, good thing we get a free pass for being guests of the wedding.
Can't remember the last time I wore a tie, good thing I still know how to tie one. Finally after so long, I got to suit up once again, and it definitely felt good. Getting the tie from my closet brought back lots of memories of secondary school, the many Tuesdays that I forgot to bring a tie for chapel.
Stepping into the grand ballroom, I could only notice old people, the only young ones were my neighbours whom were all quiet girls, which left me no other choice but to talk to their dads. The plates served on the tables were exquisitely designed and so were the decorations throughout the room. It was as if the wedding was made for perfection. Then, as usual like any other wedding, they started showing videos and photos of the wedding process before serving the food. Oh, the food, I must say I was quite disappointed with them, it was simply average! Well, who cares, the atmosphere was awesome...
Then I start to wonder, the guy had to go through so much trouble just to get the lady that he loves out of her apartment, he had to trouble so many people to help him get this wedding done into such perfection, spend so much money to make it happen and invite almost 50 tables of guests to just simply...
witness him marrying his wife.
Would I cir cum to such trouble if I were to really get married?
artificious ' 11:59 pm
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Kuala Lumpur
Date: 22/12/08
1000hours - Reached the apartment "Suasana Sentral Residence". It is a condominium situated in the KL Sentral region, very close to the Hilton hotel which I stayed in the last time I was in K.L. The apartment was purchased by my Aunt, she gave us the keys so that we could stay during our K.L trip. The apartment was bought intentionally to rent to expatriates. The condominium is very new so there were still some workers there doing the last touch ups which made the place very dusty. The apartment was pretty big, 3 rooms, a kitchen, 2 toilets and a huge guest area. One thing I loved about the master bedroom's toilet is it's very open concept, it doesn't have walls, instead it has huge glass panels that passerby at the corridors can see right through while you're bathing. Awesome eh? Sadly most of the neighbours weren't moved in yet and even if they were, they had blinds to cover the whole thing. Just after exploring the entire apartment, two beautiful Caucasians came knocking on our door asking for salt as they realized that they ran out of salt while cooking their lunch. If only my parents and grandma wasn't there, I'd definitely invite them over for dinner.
1200hours - After unpacking our stuff and getting familiarised with the security stuff of the condominium, we headed to Asia's biggest mall, "Mid Valley Megamall". Back in Singapore, I did a research of it on the Internet and it looked so very enticing but when we got there, all hopes were pretty dashed as we certainly have been there before. Well, since it has been almost two years since we last stepped into this mall, why not give it a try. Had our lunch at the food court, food was amazingly up to standard but the service was horrible, people had faces of charcoal. Seriously, it was as if I entered a mall of sadness, I guess they only light up if you tip them a little more. After lunch we went strolling around the entire mall. 20 minutes later, my Dad and I got bored of the speed of the ladies so we set a meeting time and location to meet up with them at 1530hours.
1448hours - Dad and I completed strolling through the entire megamall and found a underground passage way to another mall which was like the 'paragon' of Singapore, its called "The Gardens". We found a "Reef" outlet and was shocked to find that the sandals that I bought in Singapore was cheaper than the one there. After strolling through the two buildings, I decided to go and find a HTC Touch HD to try on. We walked back to the HTC shop in Megamall and for the first time ever, I managed to fool a salesman that I'm Malaysian by speaking to him in Cantonese and for the very first time, get to have a hands on experience with the Touch HD.
1530hours - Met up with the ladies and we headed to KLCC, not for shopping but for a underwater experience in a shopping centre, the "KL Aquaria". The place was filled with all types of fishes, insects and reptiles, doubt I saw any mammals. It was a very nice learning experience and the tour around the entire Aquaria was longer than expected.
1822hours - Headed for dinner at a nearby open air Ha Ka restaurant. Shared a bottle of Guiness Stout with my dad, didn't know stouts were so bitterly delicious.
2030hours - Back to apartment.
Date: 23/12/08
0645hours - Went down to level 7 with Daddy for Gym.
0746hours - Went swimming.
1030hours - Arrived at China town where we had our retro style breakfast by the road before heading to the bus interchange to board a bus to "Batu Caves".
1100hours - Got into bus 11 where we waited half an hour before the bus started its journey. In the bus, there was this single travelling Japanese girl who looked quite sweet and innocent but she was being hit on by this Malaysian Indian who kept flirting with her constantly. It was a very awkward scene which my dad kept laughing throughout the entire journey while listening to his conversation. He asked if she was married, what she liked, talked about his sister, even gave her a gift and the very last finale, told her the wrong stop to alight. When we were really close to Batu Caves, he told her during the stop before the correct one that it was Batu Caves and she nearly alighted before my dad asked the driver to reconfirm. Good thing she overheard and decided not to follow the Indian, if she did, I wonder where she'd end up.
1240hours - After climbing 272 steps, we finally reached the main entrance of the huge cave. It was infested with monkeys and sparrows, the monkeys, not to mess with. My grandma took out a slice of bread and fed it to the baby monkeys situated at the end of the cave, as we walked out of the cave down the the stairs, the monkeys followed us all the way only until my dad tightened the opening of the plastic bag, not allowing any smell of bread to spill did they then wander off.
1400hours - Went to Butterfly park, was a total knock off for the entrance fee. Well, they do have loads of butterflies, and nothing more.
1500hours - Took a cab to Chinatown for more shopping. Apparently my taste for pirated goods have been long gone but I did buy one thing, a pirated DVD of "The Sopranos" season 1.
1830hours - Went back to our apartment to get our car and used my mum's navigator phone to find our way to Greeview restaurant recommended by my Aunt. We tried finding the place for more than an hour but no sign of it, reason was mainly because the navigator's map wasn't digitised. So in the end, we went to the nearby shopping centre to have a Japanese dinner.
0000hours - Lights out.
Date: 24/12/08
0730hours - Gym.
1000hours - Went back to Chinatown for some light shopping.
1200hours - Had lunch in Chinatown, the food was great especially when it is situated in a 1970s style of dining. Oh, it was really cheap as well.
1500hours - Headed to Imbi Plaza, a place well known for electronics. I was actually looking forward to going there but, after reaching there, the place was like a junkyard for unwanted electric goods. Spent only 15 minutes in the complex and I felt utterly bored.
1520hours - Went to Bukit Bintang Road to stroll, but in the end my dad found himself a hair wash service while I found myself a "DELL XPS" free to try CPU. The CPU was Quad Core with a 8800GT Nvidia graphic card, I felt like robbing it home. I played Crysis on it, set everything to the highest, maxed the resolution and the anti aliasing. Shockingly, the game was as smooth as playing a low end game like DOTA.
1700hours - Took a train then a taxi to Greenview restaurant, this time we managed to find it! The food there was awesome, seriously delicious but all good things came with a price tag. Normally food in Malaysia would be cheaper by half but in this restaurant, even after converting back to Singapore dollar, the price is the same.
2030hours - Finding a taxi was very difficult at that area, took us almost half an hour to finally get one. The two ladies then went back to their apartment while Dad and I went to Bukit Bintang to experience KL's night life.
2150hours - Reached "Sungei Wang Shopping Centre" situated at Bukit Bintang, the atmosphere and the crowd was unimaginable. Teenagers around my age regardless male or female wore Christmas hats or other Christmas decorations around themselves, many even wore devil horns on their heads which I really don't quite get, or maybe they don't get what Christmas means. Well, other than their insane dressings, the crowd that these teenagers formed were huge enough to almost block the roads causing traffic congestion. Almost everyone had this party spray can where guys would spray at any girl that they see or walk pass them, the roads of the area were littered with party poppers, spray cans, rubbish, beer bottles and more. I then came to realize, Malaysians are actually much more than I thought they were, girls here are so much more open, people here actually party like theres no tomorrow.
2313hours - Walked to an area where most of KL's top clubs or bars were situated. Amazingly the customers going into these clubs weren't of my age but close to my dad's age. I wanted to go into one of them so badly but due to the very long queues and high ticket prices, I decided not to. Seriously, the music was awesome, the beer ladies were hot, the customers were very well dressed and the atmosphere was high, it was a God forbidden Hell yea Christmas eve.
23.45hours - We rushed to KLCC to catch the last train back to KL Sentral.
0000hours - "Merry Christmas Dad."
Date:25/12/08
0900hours - Woke up and packed everything, the day to return back to home sweet home.
1100hours - Went to "The Gardens" for lunch at the "Purple Cane" restaurant. This restaurant specializes in brewing tea and oh boy, their tea is excellent. Well, of course in such a classy place, prices are very much the same as Singapore.
1400hours - KL trip sort of ends, time to head back to Singapore.
OFFICIAL END OF HOLIDAY TRIPS.
artificious ' 11:59 pm
Thursday, December 18, 2008
KOH SAMUI (15-12-08 to 18-12-08)
Day 1
2100hours: Arrived at Chaba Samui hotel.
2230hours: Checked into our rooms after settling our trips.
2300hours: Strolled down Chaweng Road, we then realized that Koh Samui is in fact a paradise for the Caucasians. 90% of the people walking the streets were either Australians, French, Americans, British or once in a while, Germans. Well certainly it was a surprise for me but indeed pleasurable, spend so little yet you get a mini feeling that you're in a white country. The night life there is simply awesome, bars and clubs filled every corner of Chaweng. Oh and one more thing, the ladies, gosh they were hot, seriously, I've never seen so many hot ladies in my life situated in one long road. They're absolutely up to the standard of models, sadly 95% of them are taken!
0000hours: Got into a restaurant for supper, well I had plenty of food, a huge burger, squid, vegetables and a glass of Singapore Sling. Food there was heavenly, I'd say that cause I love spicy food.
0130hours: Headed back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 2
0700hours: Woke up with yet indeed another surprise, not a good one actually. My parent's bed was infested with ants and they had been biting both of all night long. Well, you know what this means, time to complain! Complain they did and we got upgraded to the deluxe suite for free.
0815hours: A safari pick up arrived to get us to our morning safari trip at Samui's jungle.
0900hours: Arrived at the elephant Jungle Trekking place. We got on top of the elephants and the locals brought us into the jungle, and I mean really, the jungle. The journey started off with the best part, crossing a small river and having the elephants climbing narrow rocky paths into the jungle. I was very impressed with the abilities of these huge animals, definitely a good experience.
1015hours: The pick up got us to another location where we learnt how to cook Thai curry and the way they pronounce curry, really made me wanna laugh... "Khoo Rii..."
After curry making session, we had some entertainment with a very naughty little monkey, it was pretty lazy in picking those coconuts.
1100hours: Got to the last location of the trip, a view of the tallest waterfall in Samui. Not far from the waterfall, elephants can be seen crossing the small river, a beautiful sight.
1300hours: Had lunch at a small restaurant, the food was once again very delicious but somehow it wasn't completely Thai style, it seemed to be specially cooked to cater for the white customers.
1400hours: Went shopping, which we didn't buy a single thing, things there had low quality with high prices, not quite a shopping paradise. After which we headed back to our hotel to change for a swim at the beach.
2000hours: Reached a very new bar called "Bar Ice", it is kept at 7 degrees celcius inside but it has an entrance fee of close to S$40, such a knock off, so we decided to head back to the same restaurant we had our supper the other day.
2200hours: Strolled around Chaweng road and realized that the groceries were way cheaper than S'pore so Mummy got a whole load of them.
2130hours: My dad was at a bar called "Solo Bar" waiting for us, he was lazy to shop around so he sat there to drink. Met him there to have a drink of Tiger since they didn't have Erdinger, what a shame. The bar was filled with white ladies, some were dancing to the music, very awkward to be in such a place with my dad but oh well, it was cool...
0000hours: Got back to the hotel.
Day 3
0715hours: A van came to pick us up to send us to the jetty where the boat will bring us to Koh Tao, the diving paradise. In the van, once again, filled with white people.
0815hours: Boarded the huge air-conditioned, leather seated, equipped with television boat. The boat started to show the movie "Alvin & The Chipmunks", good thing I haven't caught it so I had a straight 2 hours of entertainment.
1000hours: Reached our destination and headed straight for the "easy divers" shop on that island. The place had 3 small islands joined together by a man made sand path which from far really made people look as if they were walking on water. The scenery was stunning.
1040hours: After packing our diving equipments, we brought them to the little dive boat and headed out to the open waters.
1053hours: Daddy and I followed the Dive Master down into the water.
(Daddy was a commercial diver in the past so diving to him was really, chicken feet. However I on the other hand am still quite new to this 'sport')
4 people followed the dive master, my dad and I with two other white guys, one of them particularly fat.
As we descended down, the way they went down was totally different from what I had learnt. From my experience, leisure divers descend with their legs going down first but this time, everyone went down head first, finning quickly to the sea bed. I had to equalize much more and faster to keep up with the pressure change. Soon we were all at the bottom, 18 metres below the surface. Then the dive master led us through a 'cave', quite scary for me as I had never done anything like it before. The aquatic life in there was many times more than Tioman but the condition of the corals and water were very much similar, I expected more colour but as commercialised Samui is, most of the corals were destroyed.
1130hours: Got out of the water after 37 minutes of awesome bottom time with a maximum depth of 18.5 metres, breaking my past record of 17 metres. Took out my mask on the surface and that was when my dad told me, "Malcolm, are you ok? You're bleeding from your nose."
Yeap, I saw a damn beautiful mermaid underwater.
Nah! Nothing of such sort, after realizing that I was soaking in a mask of blood, I found that my left ear was deaf, literally.
I got so freaking scared then I told my dad, he said it was ok but I still didn't believe him, I was in a state of shock, didn't say a word till I had all my equipments packed properly.
The dive master, as usual, a white guy, gave me a glass of warm water and told me to tilt my head and pour them into my left ear before rocking my head to the left for the water to clear. After doing that a few times, my ear was slightly better but I was feeling a little drunk and my bleeding hadn't really stopped.
1200hours: Got back to Koh Tao for lunch, with cats that would sneak up right beside you to wait for you to give them food, really adorable. My ear was much better, guess it was the view at the restaurant, new arrivals of hotties, korean and hong kong ladies were there having lunch as well.
1300hours: Went to explore the beautiful islands.
1530hours: Got on board the boat to head back to Samui, this time they showed the movie that I always wanted to watch, but never did expect myself watching it in a small screened noisy environment, the movie, "WANTED".
1800hours: Arrived back at Chaweng Road where we strolled through the 'expensive district' while my dad had his padicure... hmm... -_-
2000hours: The massage lady gave my dad the address of this Thai restaurant which my dad requested, emphasizing that the food be as original as possible. The restaurant was pretty far away from Chaweng but when we reached there, the trip was definitely worth it. The food served was simply awesome, can't find such taste even in Singapore's Golden Mile Complex, the best was the Tom Yum Goong, it was so spicy it could seriously knock you backwards.
2115hours: Got back to Chaweng where we went to find a pair of Reef sandals for my dad but the price here is surprisingly more expensive than in Singapore! Oh well, so I went to get myself a bottle of Erdinger and brought it back to the hotel to drink while I watched "Employee of the Month".
2330hours: Lights out.
Day 4
0800hours: Woke up, ate the very boring and lousy breafast and headed to the beach for an unexpectedly long sun tan... Ooo the view, yea the view was Aww... wait for it... wait for it... SOME!!
1200hours: Went for lunch and got myself a waterproof bag, mainly for diving.
1415hours: Check out.
1500hours: Check in. At the airport. First time ever, in an un-airconditioned airport.
1640hours: Lift off baby...
1930hours(S'pore time): Touch down in S'pore.
THE END OF KOH SAMUI TRIP.
NOW, PREPARE FOR KL TRIP.
artificious ' 11:50 pm
Sunday, December 14, 2008
8pm (13/12/08) - Arrived at Singapore Yacht club with Mummy and Daddy. It has been more than 8 years since I last stepped into this place, the last time I was in here, I was fishing with my old buddy Enoch. Well, this time round I'm here to really survey and make judgements of the place cause my Dad is fishing for another club to join.
The entrance was... well, average, no security guards greeting you, no pretty desk receptionists, no red carpet. All they had at the entrance was a short skirt Santa Claus girl. Then we strolled around the club, they had 2 restaurants, seriously, 2 only?? Plus, one has air-con while the other doesn't. Alright there's a good point coming up, beside the restaurants is a vast parking lot for Yachts and boats, quite a nice scenery to have while eating, but it gives one a feeling, "I should really get a yacht." Then as you turn 10 degrees away from the yachts and look further into the horizon, you see three massive metal 'legs' towering into the sky, a huge oil rig. That place is PPL which belongs to Sembawang Corp. and as I am in that particular industry, coming here to relax isn't really relaxing when you still can see your work. It took us less than 15 minutes to stroll around the entire club, its that small! Actually it isn't, 70% of the space was given to parking those Yachts. Then they have recreational stuff like a swimming pool (which only serves for children), a jack-pot room (which is rather small) and a gym (that is seriously hopeless). In short, the place is so much lousier than my current Singapore Swimming Club but my Dad who has been here quite a few times wasn't disappointed with my cold practical comments, he said, "Wait, you'll see why..." He then brought me up to the bar, the only bar in the entire complex, and that is where I found his meaning.
The bar had two beer ladies, one was from China and the other, after introductions, got to know that she is the same age as me and is studying in Shatec. I had no idea she was the same age as me, didn't know 18 year olds would dress up like that... Ooo damn she was hot... Dad then ordered Tiger once again, and we started playing pool at their very old pool table while waiting for Dad's friends. Soon, my Dad's friends Wayne and Shafi arrived and so did more customers. The atmosphere of the bar was one word, "FRIENDLY". I mean seriously, the last few bars that I went, nobody gives a damn about you till you approach them, but here, they approach you as if you've known them for years. As time passed by, I realized I've made a new friend, his name is Aaron, 17 years old and a bloody prodigy of pool. His pool skills are unbelievably good, never seen such skills before...
Around 11pm, more customers came in and the live band started singing more songs. Their voices are so much better compared to Swimming Club's singers. The two ladies singing seem to know my Dad quite well, one even gave her email to him for him to send the song requested to her.. Damn... he must have had skills to pick up girls when he was young. I was getting kind of bored, wasn't even feeling tipsy after drinking down tiger like water, so I ordered an "All American" to try out what Charlie Sheen always drinks, "Bourbon". After only half a glass, my face was cherry red. The beer lady even laughed at me... uggh... damn...
11.45pm - Left the bar and headed for home, one hell of a night.
artificious ' 12:00 am
Friday, December 12, 2008
Happy Birthday Genevieve!
Good morning!
I am terribly sorry, I had no idea that you did such a nice tribute for me on your blog! Saw it about a week ago and I'm really sorry that I didn't say another thank you to you... Well, I guess I shall make use of this opportunity to amend my mistake and write you a "Birthday post" as well!
Oh gosh, can't quite remember the last time we talked, was it Nov 18 or 19? Ah doesn't matter, life's been busy with all the common tests and your projects...
Haha Lil-Genny turning 18, which reminds me, we should really go hang out after I get back from Thailand and maybe Malaysia as well.
xoxo.
artificious ' 12:01 am
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Discovered something on Youtube.
Seriously astonishing.
Watched Quantum of Solace? If you did, this technology might be very familiar to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc
11.00pm 5/12/08 - Walked to Harry's with my parents, dad ordered 3 glasses of Tiger, each cost a whooping $15. Okay, maybe this price might be fine with you but I've never had such expensive Tiger before. Alright, it might be said to be reasonable since one glass consists of 3 cans of Tiger and each can is approximately $5. Then after finishing my first glass, I was good, no redness at all! Then he ordered another glass for me! & this time, my face flushed like a rose. Oooh damn, 6 cans before common tests? God bless me.
artificious ' 12:42 am
