First posting for 2009! Happy new year!

Ok, so I missed the new year mark by a few days (weeks, months). That's still not a good enough reason to not celebrate, so pop the champagne and drink up!

Yes, I'm extremely lazy to update my blog. Penning (typing) down my thoughts are not exactly high in my list of priorities. Heck, I do this mainly so I can laugh about what I was thinking a few days (weeks, months, years) ago!

Hmm...how about some updates, eh?

Let's see...Japan trip was an utter snooze-fest. There I was, a highly-trained network consultant (ahem!) and as I went for my first meeting with the project team, they provided me the detailed network design, configuration script and acceptance document. All neatly typed and formatted. My role? To do acceptance testing for 2 new network nodes. Timeline? Oh, about 3 months! To be honest, all projects should have this sort of buffer and I have to say that I was quite lucky since no major problems were experienced during the project phase. It was still boring though.

Important Japanese words I learnt:

kyukei = break (ie. let's take a break)

omori = large (ie. gimme large portion of food)

okawari = refill (mainly used for whatever free refills they give at that place)

kawaii = female human with wonderful personality (used when complimenting a girl, focusing only on inner beauty and not touching on any physical aspect at all)

With those 4 words, my stay in Japan was made so much more pleasant. I also didn't die of boredom (lotsa kyukei, conflict in middle-east and an Israeli Jew colleague made for interesting discussions in between those rare moments where I actually do work) and safely returned to my motherland where the first thing I ate was nasi goreng and some bbq stuff while surprising my dad with my return on his birthday.

It was awesome. I finally got to say "My presence is your present!" in real-life. That's one less item in my list of things to do before I die. I'm still having trouble with "Have a threesome with identical twins". Anyone here knows anyone who can help me with this?

No rest for the wicked though. About 1 month later, I'm off to Hanoi, Vietnam for some actual design work (instead of losta kyukei where the common topic of discussion was conflict in middle-east). Fortunately, a colleague of mine got married and I managed to satisfy my cravings for a decent nasi minyak before I'm stuck for 2 months in a country where dogs are considered a delicacy and pork's the main source of protein. For those who've never tried nasi minyak tanam before, I pity you. You have no idea how heavenly the taste is when the dish is done well. That wedding didn't disappoint at all. Succulent beef cooked in special gravy and spiced hard-boiled egg buried in special rice, all cooked together in one pot. Ahh....the aroma...

Bloody hell! I'm getting hungry! I guess I'll continue writing when my stomach's not complaining.

Cheers!

Disclaimer: Due to past track record of the writer's amazing ability to procrastinate, do not expect a continuation anytime soon.

Oog...

I've come to this wonderful conclusion. The best drink in the world is water. Plain 'ol H2O. Nothing beats water. It only took 4 trips to the toilet bowl for me to come to this revelation. I'm a fast learner.

Sadly, I'm also a fast forgetter! :P

Mustafa got married!!

Congratz to Mustafa and Leila! Here's to the two of you getting kids soon (which I hope will look more like Leila since you're an ugly bastard, Mus!).

When we received the wedding invites, we initially planned to take the bus to Singapore for the wedding. After some more discussions though, we decided to go there in 2 cars.

In my car will be me, Shah, Anand and Sulo while in Jeremy's car will be Jeremy and Sangheeta. While we planned to leave at around 2.30 pm, we ended up leaving KL at around 3.30 pm due to someone's amazing grasp of Einstein's theory about time being relative (*cough*Anand*cough*).

It was a nice leisurely drive down to Singapore, which took us about 5 hours or so. Ok, I lied. It wasn't nice and leisurely. The highway was a bit jammed and since I just got my car, I wanted to put it through it's paces. I *may* have driven a little bit faster than normal. Heh heh!

(The car handles exceedingly well at speeds up to 170 kmph. Couldn't really go faster due to the amount of vehicles on the road. Excellent handling and mileage is about the same as my old car.)

Reached Johor Bahru at about 8.30 pm. Jeremy's friend apparently booked us at some hotel but we couldn't bloody find it. In the end, we stayed at this rather dodgy-looking hotel. Later on, we discovered that the place we're staying was actually a brothel!! On the bright side, the room rates were quite cheap. They probably make their profit somewhere else. Hahahahaha!

Still, the beds were decent and the place had an in-compound car park so all in all, the hotel was perfect for our needs (no not *that* needs! sheesh!). Despite our hotel being perfect, Sulo decided to abandon us and stay with her relatives. I mean why would anyone want to sleep anywhere else? Within the same hotel compound is a pub and a 'health' spa! Talk about the perfect holiday getaway. Hehehehehe!

Woke up about 10.30 am the next day because Shah and Anand were basically jumping on me. Guys, don't disturb my sleep! Oh, and keep the damn TV volume down. I woke up to the sounds of a damn infomercial about a magic bullet and the feeling of being crushed by 2 heavy suckers...

Later in the afternoon, Suthesan arrived at the hotel since he'll be following us to Singapore. Macha, my turn is right after yours! Hahahaha!

We left for Singapore at about 4 pm and arrived at Mustafa's wedding venue at around 6.30 pm. It took longer than expected since we took the scenic route (we go lost...).

Mustafa and Leila's wedding had REALLY good food! I really liked the mutton. Damn...I'm thinking about it right now...Anyway, sadly the food was not quite enough for us. While the girls were maintaining decorum, the guys were definitely pigging out. The dishes finished a bit too fast for our liking. Next time round, we plan to spread ourselves around the hall, sitting on different tables. We have 6 men with huge appetites on our table while other tables were generally filled with women eating barely a plate of rice! We're not being greedy. We just don't like to see good food being wasted since other people don't eat as much. We're such thoughtful people.

Mustafa's younger brother, Hamoodi was also eating with us. We all wished it was Mustafa's younger sister, Zena who joined us instead of Hamoodi. Hamoodi eats a lot, leaving less food for all of us to share. That's the only reason why we prefer Zena instead of Hamoodi to join us. I'm serious!

We left Singapore at around 11.30 pm and reached KL around 3.30 am. It was a relatively uneventful drive. I had to stop by for a bit to power-nap since I was too tired but other that, it was uneventful except for one incident. Some idiot driving a VIOS fell asleep on the wheel I think. The car he's driving started drifting into my lane while I'm overtaking him. Arse. Remember, if you can't drive, don't! You'll endanger other people's lives. Not just your own.

With the trip to Singapore, my car has now reached 1000km. Woohoo! First service!

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!

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>

Langkawi, here I come!

W00t! I'm off to Langkawi! 3 days 2 nights of escape from the world. Heh, these days I look for whatever break I can find!

Will be back Monday, 30th April 2007.

YES!! I'm back!

After serving faithfully for the past 4 years or so, my computer died on Monday earlier this week. Well, to be more precise, it's either my motherboard or video card that died. I'm still not sure which. Doesn't really matter though. My computer's old and spare parts are very difficult to find sp I decided to buy new video card, processor, motherboard and RAM.

Ladies and gentlemen! Feast your eyes on the (important!) specs of my gaming machine!!

2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor
2 GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 7950 GT

Please excuse me while I laugh maniacally in pleasure. :D

Besides oozing with pure g4m1ng l33tn355, I'm now connected to the Global Village (ie. da Internet!) again thanks to this baby! W00t! More pr0n and warez! Uh, I mean more 'educational' stuff and 'intellectual' growth and all that. ;)

On a totally unrelated subject, don't forget! Speedzone Tour 2007 rave party is on Saturday evening 07/04/2007 at KL Tower. The next evening is Kanye West concert at the National Stadium. See ya there!

Down with the sickness, a reunion and fortune cookie strangeness!

Ugh...I hate getting sick. I always know when I'm gonna get sick when I get this strange crappy feeling at the back of my throat. Woke up on Friday with that lousy throat and by the time I got back from work that day, I was already having a fever. Argh...crapness!

To make matters worse, I was due to chill at my friend's place on Saturday night. I was really looking forward to it and getting sick threatened to derail my plans! Fortunately though, I was feeling better by Saturday evening so the chillin' part went on as planned. Hmm...I suspect I got sick by eating too much keropok lekor. I had 2 huge plates of it on Wednesday night so that's probably it. I think the last time I got sick was because of over-eating keropok lekor too. Dammit...I hope I'm not allegic to it or something. Keropok lekor is probably one of my favorite food! Must remember not to overdo it with the keropok lekor next time...

Anyway, on Saturday night I went to Jeremy's place. Sulo was kind enough to drive me there so I didn't have to drive to OUG in my current sick condition. As for my return trip, Joe sent me back. Thanks a lot, you two!! The turnout for our chillin' session was pretty good! Most of the usual gang I hung out in college were there. Heh, despite graduating more than 3 years ago, we're all pretty much the same suckers. Haven't met up with a lot of them for quite some time so it was really cool to catch up with each other's lives!

One of the items on the menu for that night were fortune cookies. Apparently they come in two flavors, orange and strawberries. I can't seem to find any strawberry flavored ones though so I had to settle for orange. It's pretty decent I guess but then, I think fortune cookies are the same everywhere. My fortune? "Stop searching forever. Happiness is right next to you." My friends' reactions? Oh, nothing much. As if choreographed, they all burst out laughing at the same! Yeesh...thanks a lot, you all! Interestingly enough, I got the same damned fortune 3 times that night. While I don't put much stock into those kinda stuff, I could do with a little less wisecracks!

We also played 21 that night. Me personally, I don't gamble as a matter of principle. If it's a game of chance, I'm not interested. Of course, under my own personal definition, poker is a game of skill and not of chance. Don't believe me? Go watch Casino Royale! Anyway, Jeremy managed to persuade me to join in by passing me his money. Hence, if I win, the money goes back to him. Since he's also the banker, if he wins the money STILL goes back to him. It sounds reasonable enough so I agreed. I think at the end of the night, I got a profit of 10 sen (which of course went to Jeremy). Heh, our bet per round is almost always 10 sen so I guess the value of my win is not that much. Then again, I started out with 1 buck so looking at it in perspective, I gained a 10% profit! Woohoo! Hahahahahaha!

I think we all went back home at around 3 something. It was an excellent night. I managed to meet up with a few of the old gang which I haven't seen for ages! It was really cool chillin' together again! It was excellent to see ya all, Shah, Niradj, Anand, Joe, Jeremy, Sangeeta, Ummi, Sulo and Deebha! Oh, and a thank you to our special guests, Murni, Azmiel, Hamdan and Dyana! Cheers!

Clubbing oddity

On Saturday night, a friend of mine was having her birthday celebration at her place. The plan was to gorge ourselves on delicious food, then head out to Heritage Road for some fun. The food was very very good! Perfectly cooked beryani rice, mutton curry and stir-fried vegetables. I have to admit that I over indulged on the food...slightly! ;)

Anyway, after food we all headed to Bed, this club opposite Loft on Heritage Road. I have to admit, I've never heard of that place before. Turns out, Bed is a pretty decent place. I think Loft is more happening though. I dropped by Loft for a moment and the party was in full swing! While Bed is quite nice, it was a little bit sad when on the dance floor, the guys outnumber the girls. Next time it's a Saturday night and I feel like clubbing, I'm heading to Loft! They have better guy to girl ratio. ;)

Anyway, while chilling out at Bed I noticed that my friend managed to grab this Mat Salleh's attention. They were talking and dancing on the dance floor when outta the blue, I noticed that they seem to be gesturing to each other a lot. I was wondering, what the heck was going on but since she didn't seem to need any help, I let them be. Later, when I was at the dance floor, out of the blue she asked me who do I think is gonna win the Champions League. Was it Barcelona or Real Madrid? Of course, I answered Barcelona with no hesitation. Heh! I have to admit though that normally on the dance floor, those are not the sort of conversation I'd expect to be having!

Later on during the mamak session after clubbing,I got my curiosity satisfied. Apparently while dancing together, my friend and her Mat Salleh friend got into an argument about football, of all things! The dude was apparently a Spanish who's a staunch supporter of Barcelona while my friend is a Real Madrid supporter. Yeesh! Of all the things a guy and a girl can do on the dance floor, arguing about football was probably the last thing I'd expect them to do. This gets my vote as the oddest thing 2 people of the opposite gender can do while clubbing! Hahahahahahaha!

Boyz II Men Concert

As some of you might know, Boyz II Men came down to Malaysia to perform for 2 nights in Genting's Arena of Stars. Since we're quite big fans, me and some friends decided to watch them live on Saturday night.

So here we are, me, Anand and Murni all raring to go. We all agreed to meet at my place since I'm the designated driver.

Agreed meeting time = 3 pm
Actual arrival time = 5 pm

Heh, Malaysian timing! =)

The drive up the Genting slopes was rather uneventful, the peace only broken by the occasional moan of pain from Anand. Heh, the dude gets carsick! Hahahahaha! Sorry bro, just had to share your pain with the world. Next time, we should try some crazy roller-coasters! ;)

We reached Genting at about 6.30 pm, I think. The way up was a bit slow. Moments like this increases my desire for a sports car! I was driving a Wira 1.5 and the car was carrying 2 big fellas and 1 little lady. I'm 75 kg while Anand is between 85 to 90 kg. Murni's weight? She'd kill me if I post it here. Heh!

Man...Genting is HUGE! Each time I go there, I keep getting lost...When I was checking on the status of our concert tickets, I actually walked one giant circle! If I took a right turn instead of a left turn, the ticket counter was actually about 10 metres away. Sigh...I need to get a bloody map for this place!

Anyway, after a quick dinner at KFC, we're picked up our tickets at the Arena of Stars itself and got to our seats. As I looked around, there was a lot of people! The venue was closed to full. Only the really crappy seats to the far left and far right of the stage was empty. No way in hell am I gonna embarrass myself so I planned to act cool and distinctly nonchalant when Boyz II Men were performing.

All those macho plans went out of the window once Boyz II Men started their performance with "On Bended Knees". Oh MAN! As soon as I heard the opening melody to that song, I was on my feet, cheering like a mad man with a huge grin on my face! Ahh...those music sure brings back nostalgia. I was listening to them when I'm in my secondary school! That's like more than 10 years ago! I have to admit I behave shamelessly like a little kid. I don't think I sat down much during the show. My throat was hoarse from all the shouting and my hands were a little numb from all the clapping. Heh, the show was REALLY good! I thoroughly enjoyed all the 1 hour and 30 minutes the concert! :D

The Boyz II Men ended their show with the song "End of the Road". It's an excellent song and a rather appropriate ending to an excellent show. Of course, when they left the stage after that song, none of the audience were ready to go back yet. We were all shouting for an encore! Being wonderful people that they are, they obliged with an excellent funky number. I have no idea what's the title to the song. Heck, maybe it was just some jamming but the effect was electrifying! Put a funky dance song and a HUGE audience who's out to enjoy themselves together and you'll get one MASSIVE party! Everyone was grooving to the music. It was EXCELLENT! I was very satisfied with the 100-odd bucks I spent for the tickets. :D

The drive back from Genting was rather tricky though. It was drizzling so the roads were a quite wet. Coupled with some thick fog and the fact that it's already night-time, driving down was way more challenging than driving up. Visibility was so bad, I think I could only see about 5 metres in front of me, max! For the next 30 minutes or so, I think I was only driving using the 2nd gear with a max speed of about 40 kmph. This time though, no moans from Anand since he was sleeping while we're all heading down the twisting road of Genting Highlands. Heh, smart fella!

We all reached my place at about 12.00 am, bringing back some really wonderful memories of a truly magnificent performance by Boyz II Men. :)

Ryan Star is amazing!

This guy rocks! I'm definitely buying his album once its out.

Channel[V] had a party at Zouk on Thursday night, with the main attraction being Ryan Star's performance. I was so excited about it, I even took the next day off from work! :D

The performance was amazing. Ryan Star sings with intensity other musicians rarely exhibit. Ok, the performance was occasionally marred by technical issues. Not sure how that managed to happen though. I'd think professionals do sound tests for this sort of performance. Anyway, despite those setbacks, I'd say the performance was a success. Beautiful music, wonderful vocals and amazing intensity! Too bad it was only for about 40 minutes or so. But man, it was 40 minutes of pure musical inspiration!

If he comes to KL to promote his album, I'm gonna get him to sign my cd!

I got sloshed at Ee-Lyn's b'day bash!

Oh damn...what a party! I got completely wasted! Can't do this too often though or I'd die of kidney failure. Heh!

I have to say, the night was a blur to me. Let's see...what do I remember?

- Oh, my name was Sanjay since that's the only way for me to get the free Guinness stout.
- May Li makes a better Muslim than me. She drank Sprite and water only.
- Julie got high faster than me, though I'm pretty sure I got more wasted than her.
- Some of Anand's colleagues came by. The chicks were pretty hawt! :P
- Laundry Bar suddenly stopped serving. Not quite sure why but that was my cue to leave the place and head to the hotel Ee-Lyn was staying for the night. I was already a bit high but I wanted more booze...
- Had more booze and talked a lot of crap in the hotel room. Aaron and Ee-Lyn were perfect hosts. Ee-Lyn got wasted. Julie wanted to see guys kiss each other (there is no amount of booze that will *ever* make me do that, my dear). Me and the toilet bowl became intimately acquainted.
- Slept over at the hotel room. Reached home about 9.30 am I think. Massive hangover...

Man...what a night!

Oh yeah, when enjoying nights like this, remember:
1. Never drink and drive.
2. Friends don't let friends drive home drunk.
3. Getting drunk with friends is fostering bonds of friendship (a very important part of Islam!). Getting drunk alone is just sad and could turn you into an alcoholic so don't do that.

PS: Yes, I'm fully aware that booze is not a respectable beverage for a Muslim. In my defence, that's about my only vice and I do plan to stop in the future. On the other hand, I believe that religion is about the relationship between me and God. I make my own choices and let God judge me when I die. I do appreciate all the well-meaning people who care about my soul. Don't worry though, I'm doing fine. When I decide to stop, I will. Thanks for caring. :)

Rest in peace...

My cat died about 2 weeks ago. Ah...she was 17 years old and lived a long and happy life so I guess it was time. You will always be remembered, Puss.

My cat started getting all sick and weak about 5 days before she passed away. That's one thing about cats. It happened so fast. One moment we're bewildered and worried, next moment me and my family are mourning her. It's said that cats seem to know when their time is up. My cat spent her last few active days before getting sick visiting all the favorite haunts. Normally lethargic, she actually jumped up onto the cars parked under the house porch to laze about there. It was slightly odd but we felt happy she's feeling active again.

When she got sick, my family sent her to the vet. The diagnosis wasn't good. She's old and her body systems are slowly shutting down, one by one. She was so weak at that time. She passed away about 4 days later at the vet. At first, we wanted to take her back but during the journey back home, she was very agitated so we felt it was best to leave her at the vet again. She passed away later that night.

I remember hearing that when approaching death, cats like to be alone. That must've been what she wanted, instead of coming back home with us. She was part of my life for 17 years. She stayed around long enough to see my brother finish his degree and my sister come back from England.

That night when she passed away, I dreamt of her. She was healthy and active again. She was also walking normally instead of limping. Normally a bit snobbish, this time she was very affectionate, nuzzling against my hand and letting me pet her. I miss you, Puss. Until we meet again, take care my dearest cat...

It's been a while...

Yup, it's been a while since I typed my blog. Various reasons for this really, but among other things, it's been a quite hectic life for me.

What can I say? At the start of October, I'm fully involved with a project to build up the entire backbone for a new mobile service provider. It's a rather massive job which I'm doing together with an expert from Australia. Now let me say again that it's been an absolute pleasure working in my present company. Ericsson has some of the finest engineers around and it's been an absolute privilege and honour to work with them. I think I can consider myself very lucky since I'm learning a lot of things that I can't get anywhere else by talking and discussing stuff with them. I'm sure you all already know. The best way to learn is not from books or classes, but from the people who has actually done it.

The first stage of the backbone was completed after 3 days, first circuit call (voice & video) after 7 days and first packet call (data transfer & web browsing) after 8 days. Imagine, all that accomplished in a total of 8 days! Until now, I'm still amazed at how we managed to accomplish all that. Keep in mind, we started the implementation with unconfigured hardwares and softwares and after 8 days, the core network was essentially completed. What was missing are external connectivities such as connections to other mobile networks (Celcom, etc) and to the international gateway. I love working with amazing people! :D

Right now I'm still involved with the project but now it's mainly integrating the core network with VAS (value added services) nodes such as SMS, MMS and WAP. I think I'd be quite busy all the way until the end of January. It can get tiring and there are plenty of challenges but on the bright side, at least I'm not bored. Besides, building up a network from scratch and integrating it with various components certainly looks good on my resume! :)

On non-work related matters, I'm now a proud owner of a 20" widescreen LCD monitor. The monitor is simply beautiful. I plan to do a marathon session of anime and tv-series one of these days. I've just got my hands on "Ghost In The Shell 2nd Gig" and "Lost" season 1. Ahh...perfect timing.

After spending a lot of my time on Neverwinter Nights online play, I'm now taking a break from it and am now enjoying "X3 - Reunion". The game is simply beautiful and space has never looked so pretty! I love the feeling of vastness that is present in "X3 - Reunion" and it's wonderful to go exploring the various space sectors in the game. Sure, it's a single player game but it rocks! Check it out at http://www.egosoft.com/games/x3/info_en.php

A quick tour of my room

I've finally included pictures in my blog, as you may have noticed with my previous post. Words are boring and since blogs can also include pictures, I figured I might as well bore people with pictures. It's economical, y'see? After all a picture's worth a thousand words. :D

Anyway, since I figured some of you are interested in pictures of this tiny new hut I'm staying in SS3, here are 2 pictures. What can I say? I'm a lazy photographer! I don't even have a proper camera. All pictures are taken by the 1.3 megapixel camera of a Z800i Sony Ericsson phone. This is not an endorsement for you to BUY a SONY ERICSSON phone. In fact, do not BUY SONY ERICSSON. Ahem!

This is my room. The bed's probably the best feature in this photo. As you can see from the box, I haven't really unpacked yet. Yes, that's a 'sejadah' that you see at the bottom left corner of the picture. I may be a bloody sinner but hey, I do pray...sometimes! Anyway, it's the heart that counts. By the way, that's my official line when I'm to be judged in the after-life. I'll keep you all posted if it works. Heh!

My favorite section of the room. That's my gaming rig!! 'Nuff said. :B

Oh yeah, I do plan to get a new chair. I kinda threw away my old chair when I moved so right now that chair is about all I could find when all the stuff arrived. It probably belonged to someone else...

The rooms do look a bit big compared to the outside photo that I posted previously. While the house is rather tiny, it's not so bad when you come inside. Y'know what they say about objects in the rear view mirror look closer than they are? Well...think of it this way. Photos of housing interiors look larger than they are...or something! ;)

I LOVE my new place

Travelling time to work now is less than 30 minutes. Yes yes yes!!!

The house a little run-down but every little minute saved on travelling time makes it really worth it. :D

Argh and yay!

Argh!! I just spent RM 150 on taxi fares for 3 1-way trips to and from office!

Sigh...coming back from the company team-building event, I actually left my car keys in Bukit Tinggi. I only realised I left it there when the bus stopped at the main gate of Ericsson. Obviously by that time is WAY to late to ask the bus to turn around! To keep the story short, I managed to contact the event organiser and she got the hotel to send my car key to their KL office. To get back home from Cyberjaya, I took a cab. RM 50 gone.

2 days later (didn't go to office the previous day since I got night work at that time), feeling rather happy with my spare car key, I took a cab to work. Another RM 50 gone, but it should be the last! Besides, at least I'm not the sucker driving in the bloody jam on LDP! =)

Come lunch time, I wanted to eat out so I went looking for my car. I even offered to be the driver for 2 of my colleagues. Found the car, unlocked it then sat on the driver's seat. My colleagues were also already seated and buckled up. Then I noticed my steering lock. I looked at my spare key. No steering lock key included in the key chain. Then I remembered. Both steering lock keys are attached with the key I left at Bukit Tinggi. Crap...Suffice to say that my colleagues were laughing like mad at this stage. I'll probably never hear the end of it. I was laughing too, and banging my head against the steerig wheel. Heh! So, I went to lunch on my colleagues car, and spent another RM 50 to go back home later that day. Sigh...

On the bright side, I've got a project in Phillipines! The project should last 1 or 2 weeks. Yay!! I'm now in demand in the South East Asia region! I'll be framing the ticket since that's the first ticket overseas for me that involves work. =D

I'm scheduled to start my work there on 17th October 2005. After spending 1 or 2 weeks there, I'll fly back to Malaysia for Aidilfitri. Then on the second day of Aidilfitri I'll be flying off to Dublin, Ireland for training. Scheduling is a bit tight but it should be fun! I'm gonna miss all the open houses though. Ah well...

Team-Building!

I just got back from my company's team-building event and I have to say that it's actually rather good. It was fun interacting with my colleagues in a non-office manner and I have to admit that it did a good job in diverting my attention towards something more positive. Life still sucks but I feel it's a bit more manageable now. The sad fact is that now I have more names to remember. Heh! I'll manage, I guess.

On a totally unrelated news, James Blunt's album "Back to Bedlam" is actually quite nice. The current hit song from him is "You're Beautiful" but the rest are just as good I think. His style is rather relaxing and his voice can really express the emotion of the song very well. Check out "High" and "Tears and Rain". Cheers!

Fitness First

I've always known that my fitness level is bad. ICT industry doesn't really require a very high level of fitness. Coupled with a sedentary lifestyle that revolves around computer games and diet that consists of a significant portion of junk food, my fitness level isn't amazing. Still, I figured as long as I'm not suffering from any illness, it should be fine.

Then I had my first shock. During a medical checkup, the doctor said I had high blood pressure. Man, was I shocked!! While it turned out to be caused by lack of sleep (was working day and night those 2 weeks), I figured a healthy body should be able to handle such things without reporting high-blood pressure.

My second shock happened when another doctor told me my pulse rate is a bit high during rest. While she said it's not dangerous, it shows that my fitness level is WAY below average and this shouldn't be happening to someone in my age group.

The last straw came when I'm shopping for new pants and my waist measurement is beginning to match my dad's! Heh, sorry dad! I love you but some parts of you, I don't think I want to emulate! =P

When I heard Fitness First was having a Merdeka promotion in which they waived the joining fee (and saving me RM 500), I woke up while it's still daylight on a holiday (*gasp*) and signed up for a Fitness First passport package. 6 months from now, I'll be so fit and buff, Baywatch will be falling over themselves to hire me while my work rate will be better than Davids when I play futsal! Heh heh!

Vacation Time

Woohoo! Time for my holiday!! Ahh....2 weeks of carefree bliss in UK and Greece! I plan to completely waste my trip by grabbing the nearest bed to the heater and snuggling under some pretty thick comforters. I can feel my stress level going down just by imagining this...

Sigh...the crapy part is that I'll be heading for my holiday completely and utterly BROKE! Living expenses has certainly risen since I started work. Petrol charges has gone up quite a bit and I just finished paying for my road tax and car insurance. Bummer...no money to spend. Fortunately, I got VISA, *in a deep, accented voice*, "the world most prefered card". =P

I'm supposed to leave my house at 9 am tomorrow. Sheesh! I'm actually waking before 2 pm on my freaking holiday. That's sacrilege!! I probably have to atone this gravest of sins by sleeping for at least 14 hours and waking up after 5 pm in UK. Heh heh!

Ahh...good 'ole UK. I'm gonna enjoy checking out the bookshops and eating fish and chips by the tube station. What can I say? I'm a man of simple taste. =)

Greece should be interesting though, especially since I've never been there before. Should be fun checking out the architecture of the Ancient Greece scattered throughout the country. I plan to pose next to every single naked women sculpture I can find and get my sister to take my picture. There should be plenty there! Hahaha!