I am evolving!

I just vacuumed my apartment. Ok...you may stop laughing now. C'mon! I'm not THAT spoiled! Sigh...

Anyway, I just cleaned up my apartment. Notice I said 'clean'. My apartment is still untidy!

I also bought fruits for myself. I have to admit that the quality of food I'm eating here is close to garbage. Ok...I'm exaggerating but seriously, I'm used to way better quality of food back home. The sushi's fine I guess but the good stuff is more expensive than I'm willing to pay. Sure, you can get a meal for 500 yen. However, that meal will consist of rice and some meat or fish (being cooked is optional). No vegetables, which means no source of vitamins and minerals. A really crappy diet. Hence, me with my bag of grapes. I'd buy apples or oranges next time once I find a nearer fruit stall to my apartment. I'm *not* going to carry a big bag of apples/oranges across 10 train stops...

As the food is generally cheap and horrible or good and expensive, I'm now spending my free time checking out search results for "cooking for 1" on google. Yup, I'm independent, standing on my own two feet and all that crap.

I think I might be succumbing to the dark side and actually become a 21st century man who cooks and clean. Holy shit...

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!

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.

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. :)

Overseas

Yay! I've finally got the green light to head out to Manila. My flight will be tomorrow morning. Heh, I'm rather excited. This is my first official working trip overseas! I'm framing my boarding pass stub.

I won't be in Malaysia for about a month. I'll be back for about 2 days for Aidilfitri but after that I'll be flying straight to Ireland. I should be back in Malaysia 20th November onwards.

Sigh...I'm gonna miss all the Aidilfitri open houses. Still, I heard Irish pubs are pretty decent! Heh heh!