Greetings!

Dear Honda Civic 2.0,

Hey beautiful! Welcome to my life. I'm sure we'll have an excellent time together. :)


Regards,
Amir

Farewell...

Dear Proton Wira 1.5M SE,

I'm really going to miss you. We've had some really good times together and you'll always be in my mind. Have a good life. :)

Regards,
Amir

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Have you ever wished that you could stay a kid forever? As I get older, I do get more wistful about my childhood. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were reading books. My favourite author at that time was Enid Blyton. I think I finished reading the Wishing Chair when I was 8 years old. I LOVED that book. I remember bringing that book everywhere. Each time my family would 'balik kampung' during Raya, I'd somehow managed to find a niche in the luggage to store my book so that I can read it when I arrived at my grandparent's place. The Wishing Chair was a wonderful fairy tale book.

Neil Gaiman's books can often be described as fairytales for adults. It's not quite your typical fantasy ala David Eddings or Robert Jordan. Instead, Neil Gaiman takes our childhood memories of fairy tales and nursery rhymes and somehow incorporates them in a story that is both exciting and enchanting.

Stardust is a story of a young man who is completely besotted by a young woman who doesn't seem to be interested in returning his affections. To prove his worth to her, he journeys into the realm of Faerie to bring back the falling star that they both observed while walking together.

Yes, I know. A little bit cliche. Read it though and I think you'd probably agree with me that Neil Gaiman is one of the best storytellers of our time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it! Among his other books are Neverwhere, American Gods and Anansi Boys. He also wrote a comic or graphic novel called Sandman. Wonderful storylines, all of them. I still rate Neverwhere as one of the best books I've ever read in my life!

I love lazy Sundays. They're simply perfect for enjoying a good book. I wonder what I'll be reading next Sunday. :D

FA Cup

Based on an earlier arrangement, me and Kenny were planning to watch the football match at Laundry Bar. Then another colleague, Kheng Loon was supposed to join us.

Due to some weird circumstances, me and yet another colleague, David ended up at TGIF to watch the match. We have no idea where Kheng Loon disappeared to but at TGIF we met another colleague, Sharon and her husband, both also watching football. Kenny arrived late, somehow manages to find a table at Laundry despite my and David's best efforts to find one earlier and then tells us that we won't be able to join him because he's with his friends and the table's for only 4 people. There's no more space for us to join him. Our reply to him?

"Dude, if you don't want to intro your girl friends to us, just say so la!" Hahahahaha!

Anyway, Kenny goes back to his (girl) friends at Laundry while the group at TGIF is joined by another person, my ex-colleague Gerald. Hence, the group at TGIF consists of the following:

Me - Barcelona and Juventus fan, supporting Chelsea to spite David but ended up cheering for Man Utd 'cos their playing style is nicer.
David - Man Utd fan, hoping that every Chelsea players suffers a broken leg that night.
Sharon's husband (whom I didn't get his name) - Chelsea fan.
Sharon - Apparently supporting Man Utd just to give her husband some competition but ended up cheering for Chelsea.
Gerald - Found the entire game boring 'cos there are no goals until the 116th minute.

We got a spot at the bar in TGIF. While the match was on a WAY smaller screen compared to Laundry, since we're at the bar it was WAY easier to order drinks and food. Anyone who's been to Laundry knows that the service there is pretty much crap. You'd order a drink there and if you're lucky, it'll arrive 45 minutes later. Of course, to grab the attention of the waiters there, you'd need to wave your hand up in the air for at least 15 minutes. All in all, about 60 minutes of wait for a bloody drink if you're lucky. Unlucky means the drink never gets to you, you give up waiting after 2 hours and go home.

Munchies for the night were 2 orders of chicken nachos, 1 regular size and 1 large size. I had a Jim Beam with coke and banana milkshake, David had 2 vodka limes while Gerald had a mudslide. We all had ice water to wash it all down. Sharon also passed us a slice of cheesecake but I'm ashamed to say that between me, David and Gerald, we only managed to finish 1/3 of that slice of cheesecake. I know! 3 virile men, renowned for their tremendous appetite in food (and other stuff!), couldn't even finish a bloody slice of cheesecake! We will forever remember this day in shame...

All in all, a pretty good night out. The game was decent enough (no penalties!), the food great and the company excellent! A slight let down about Man Utd losing since I thought they were the better side but Chelsea somehow managed to squeeze in a winner. Still, I'm more interested in the Champions League Finals this Thursday morning at 3 am. Any cup finals with Liverpool in it is bound to be a classic!

Metropolitan car thingy

Ahh...Saturday! Words cannot even begin to describe how much I love you!

Woke up at 1.00 pm today. Vaguely remembered that Sulo called me earlier in the morning. Had to call her back since I can't bloody remember what we were talking about. Heh!

At around 3 pm, my stomach complained of hunger. I was hunting for a late lunch kaki when Shah suggested that I drop by Metropolitan College to check out some car exhibition thingy.

Me: "Any food over there, Shah?"
Shah: "Sure, some mamak stuff."
Me: "On my way!"

When I arrived there, I'm a bit impressed. While it's not a really big exhibition, it seems to be quite well organized. Decent sound system, decent decorations and some really nice selection of vehicles! Most of my drooling was reserved for the Nissan Fairlady 350z. That is one SWEET car!! I also saw a Honda Civic with Mugen bodykit. Very beautiful! Mugen equipment costs a lot though...

The exhibition also featured some booth babes. They're quite pleasing to the eyes but I find them to be a bit on the thin side. While some guys like the stick thin look, I kinda prefer women with a little bit more flesh. Mmm....yummy...ok, enough of that mental image! Back to blogging!

While checking out the exhibition after having my lunch (which consists of a nasi goreng kampung, 2 roti canai, 1 milo ais, 1 teh 'o' ais and 1 ais kosong), I
found a booth selling magazines. Was browsing them for a while when I realized that booth was also selling Archie comics quite cheap. I *may* been a bit overzealous here. I bought 12 comics. The booth people were quite pleased with my patronage. Hahahahahaha!

Besides the comics, my purchase also includes 2 Red Bull drinks. I'm not really a big fan of Red Bull but Shah said it's for charity so what the heck. Red Bull booth was manned (womaned?) by a rather pretty girl but she was busy with something so I got served by 2 guys standing nearby. Ah well, there's always next year's exhibition!

Left Metropolitan College at about 6 pm. It was a rather fruitful outing! KKLau's booth gave me some ideas for my ICE (In Car Entertainment) while a stop at Magnum's booth makes me definitely want to get their safety and security film. To top it all off, I've got 12 new Archie comics!

Live Music @ Laundry!!

Don't miss it!

http://laundrybar.blogspot.com/2007/05/volume2-this-saturday.html

See ya all there!

A pause for thought...

While I was chilling after dinner with my mom and bro yesterday, something my mom said got me to re-evaluate my life. At the very least, it got me to realize what an ungrateful bastard I am.

My mom was buying stuff at the wet market. While she was choosing some fresh fish, another person next to her was also choosing stuff. Then my mom realized something. That person was choosing the smaller crabs. After making selecting those crabs, that person asked for the price. Hearing the price, that person then returned back those crabs and moved on.

The price? 9 bucks. 9 bloody bucks and that person returned back the crabs. Shit...

I feel like such a bastard. I spent almost 500 bucks on booze while in Langkawi and this person returned back crabs that costs 9 bucks. That just doesn't seem right...

Karrimor!

W00t! I've finally gotten myself a proper backpack. I'm now a proud owner of a Karrimor 75 litre backpack. Talked to a few friends and they recommended either a Deuter or a Karrimor. I couldn't find any shops selling Deuter so I went ahead with the Karrimor. No regrets though. A little bit pricey but hey, I doubt I'm gonna buy anymore bags anytime in the next 10 years or so. It's a worthwhile investment, I think. It's also a motivation for me to work harder, make more money and go traveling more! =D

I <3>

Angry

I'm still pissed off. Must think of happy thoughts...

Honesty

Of all the principles that I value in life, honesty probably ranks the the highest. Honesty builds upon the foundation in which trust can occur. Without honesty, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no real friendship.

Some people prefer not to know things. Knowing certain things could make life complicated and less perfect. I respect that. Everyone should have their own say in how they want to live their lives.

Not me though. I want the truth. If it's bad, then it's bad. Nothing much you can do about it. If it's good, then wonderful! At the end though, it must be the truth. I did not choose the words in my friendster profile description because it sounds nice. I am a seeker of truth. I can deal with the truth. What I can't deal with is living in a lie.