up again?!

Sigh. The petrol price has gone up again. This time at a rate of 18.5% or 30 cents. Now its gonna cost a RM1.92 per liter which would mean about RM10 to RM15 extra per full tank for me. I knew it would go up to RM2 but did not expect it to happen so soon and that big a jump as well. Thought they would do it gradually. Guess the idea is to shock the public one shot and let it die down instead of doing it periodically. This way the goverment avoids constant animosity. Problem is this hike is going to cause a chain reaction whereby everything else will go up in price. From food to clothing to services. Sigh. My RM1 roti bakar is gonna be RM1.20 and my good ole Nescafe Ais might reach RM1.80. Arrggh. I'll be paying Sri Hartamas prices in a Seksyen 8 or SS2 mamak. God only knows what the prices in Sri Hartmas or Bangsar would be like.

It was funny about some of the complaints I read about in the newspaper today. One dude complained about paying more for his V-Power. Why not use regular la?! You want higher grade you pay for it right. Not like us regular folks are not affected as well. At least he can drop down a grade, where do we go?! Most cars can't even take Ron92 and not many petrol stations even have it anymore. Sigh. Some of my colleagues and friends have talked about car pooling or cycling to work. Public transport is a no no for most as we work UK and US hours. Sadly all this grumbling and mumbling will die down in about a weeks time. Before you know it everything is back to normal. It has happened every other time the petrol price went up so whats the difference now. Thank god I have a 1.3 liter car with a petrol consumption of anywhere between 11km to 15k per liter. Phew. Pity my mates who have GTIs and higher CC cars. They will be counting every single km they take. LOL.

One thing I found funny yesterday was one of my colleagues thought that the higher gear you reach in your car, the more petrol you consume. So he wanted to actually just use the first 3 gears and skip the other 2. LOL. Can you believe that?! Ignorance sure is bliss! Told the fella that he needed to reach the highest gear as fast as possible to lower his fuel consumption. To top that alot of my other colleagues didn't even know you could skip gears. They thought you need to go up accordingly. LOL. Funny la some people. Still can't stop laughing from it. Clowns.

glory glory man united!

Woo Hoo! Finally a trophy. Phew. Its been like ages since we last won something. I'm sure Fergie was shitting bricks till the game was considered signed and sealed. Pity Wigan though as they lost their number 1 goalie so early in the game which most probably changed everything. Oh well, a win is a win nonetheless. Would prefer an FA Cup or League trophy but I guess beggars can't be choosers right. Hopefully next season Fergie would have brought in some new blood especially in the midfield and defense region. Someone like Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard would be great in the center and maybe Terry or Hyypia in defense.

Anyways I'm happy we at least have something in the bag. =)

rooney celebrating the last goal of the game...


the red devils celebrating their win...

review: brokeback mountain...

I just got back from my Singapore trip and before I left I managed to catch Brokeback Mountain. I doubt it will ever be released in Malaysia legally due to 2 major reasons. Firstly its a gay love story which is a big no no in Malaysia. The 2nd reason is our great censors would have so much to chop up that we will only end up with 30 minutes or so and which cinema is going to show that?! Anyways if ever it did make it to Malaysia, I think the title's translation in BM would be either 'Gunung Belakang Sudah Pecah' or 'Gunung Belakang Pokai'. Hehe.

Now back to the review. After watching this movie, I felt rather disturbed. Actually I felt it right around 20 minutes into the show. Now don't get me wrong as I'm not a homophobe but somehow I just couldn't accept the idea. I know its common nowadays and there are more and more open gays out there, but I guess seeing it all the action in the open is too freaky for me. I do have to admit that as a movie, Brokeback Mountain is a gem. From the acting right down to the directing. I hope Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Ang Lee win their upcoming Oscar nominations. For Heath and Jake to potray something so difficult and to pull it off so effortlessly is a great achievement. Storywise its not as great as the hype but considering its the first (correct me if I'm wrong) blockbuster gay movie out there, its bound to be sensational. Its surprising that of all directors around, Ang Lee would be the one to pull this off. My hats off to him.

The storyline is about the troubles, confusion and heartache a gay couple faces during the 60s. From hiding the truth from the rest of their world to secretly meeting up just to be together. The story follows their life for 20 years whereby they get married, they get children, one of their spouse catches them smooching, their multiple secret rendezvous on a mountain in Wyoming (although movie shot in Canada) and towards the end where one of them gets beaten to death. Apart from the freaky love affair they share its sad to see the shit they go through especially how it all ends.

I would advise for serious movie buffs to catch this movie. Some of you might not be able to stomach it but its something worth experiencing. To those that have seen it, please hit me back with your comments. I'm interested to see how you perceive this movie. Cheers.

good ole seminars...

Whoopie its been awhile but I finally got sent to another seminar. A nice 2 day break away from work without any emails to reply, calls to make or colleagues to contend with. Plus this time around its on a topic I am really interested in. Something in line with my work. Its on 'Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Call Center Management' and is conducted by someone who I must say is very knowledgable, experienced and passionate about the material. So I was all ears and am enjoying it immensely. Plus the food isn't all that bad either. Hehe.

In my experience a seminar's quality is closely related to the speaker. The material could be perfect but if it was not presented well it would come out to be total rubbish. Not to mention how agonisingly slow the hours would go by. I still do have to admit that no matter how good the material, it is tough trying to stay awake and keep track. Besides the constant bombardment of information, I have to also contend with the weird hours. I'm usually going to sleep only at 4am and wake up around noon but this time I have to be at the seminar by 9am. So you can imagine the battle my body is having trying to cope with the sudden flip.

Tommorrow I'll have another days worth before I head back to work on Thursday. Good thing is I'm off on Friday and will be heading down to Singapore to visit a dear friend of mine, Poopie. Can't wait. Think the last time I saw her was about a year plus. Back when I still had Betty. Hopefully the weather will be nice and sunny over the weekend and not like how it has been here. The heat and rain is really frustrating. Makes it very much harder to sleep as well. Keep waking up all sweaty.

Alrighty then, think I better hit the sack. Gotta wake up at 7am tommorrow to be on time for the training. *Yaaawn* Gd' night folks and have a great weekend!

it sux to lose!

Arrggghh. Just got back from the friendly I mentioned earlier and we LOST! Losing is one thing but this was pretty bad. Think the scoreline was 10 to 20 something. Sigh. This is sad, really sad. We really need to buck up or at least play more often. The guys that played against us do it weekly while we do it once in a blue moon. I know I know it ain't a reason to lose. Damn frustrating I tell ya. We gotta get out act together and reinvite them for another friendly. This can't happen. NOOOOOOO. We don't lose. LOL.

First the Red Devils go down and now us. I can't take it. Not 2 losses in a day. This is too much to handle. Dammit I need a drink!!

sad sad day...

Sigh. What a sad night it is. Liverpool managed to tuck the only goal in and won the match. To make things worse Peter Crouch was the scorer. He is the tallest (i think) dude in English Premier League and sucks as being a striker. Arrggghh. The Red Devils were really playing bad. The defending was atrocious and the midfield had no flare. Nothing was being pumped up to give a striking chance. God only knows why Fletcher was kept on the field. He should have been out from the start of the 2nd half. Saha came in and made some difference but there wasn't anything being pumped up for him to even try.

To top of the misery, Alan Smith suffered a very agonizing injury. He fell onto his own leg which broke his leg and dislocated his ankle just before the end of the game. Ouch. Even I felt it just watching it happen. He was carried off on a stretcher and needed oxygen. News is he will be back but will be out for 8 months plus. Its a pity as he was vying for the World Cup call and he really deserves it. Hope he recovers well.

Sigh. Think I'm just gonna hit the sack. Got a friendly match of futsal tommorrow and hopefully we will be able to win that. You guys have a good night. Poopshoot out.

ahh vacation...

Ahhh after a long while I get to go on a nice break. Not that long but at least a week and a half. Got about 2 weeks more. Guess where to? Well finally I'm going on a cruise. Its a 5 night trip on Superstar Gemini along the Straits of Malacca. Cruise starts off at Port Klang to Langkawi, followed by Krabi and 2 nights in Phuket Island before heading back to Port Klang with a stopover at Penang. Should be an interesting trip. Hopefully I'll be able to absorb enuff of Thailand as I doubt I'll head there again anytime soon. I'm really dying to catch a Tiger Show but I heard they are now illegal. Sigh. And when I say Tiger Show I mean those shows where Thai women do all sorts of weird stuff with their genitalia. I know its gross but somehow I'm still curious especially hearing all sorts of stories about their 'skills' from various people. You don't see someone opening a bottle of coke with their vagina everyday now do you?!

One thing I know I can't miss are the cabaret shows done by Thai Ladyboys. Heard its pretty popular and well advertised by the tourism board. No harm in checking it out I guess as long as I don't get picked up by any weirdos. LOL. I know I know, who the hell would want to pick me up. But you never know right. Also I gotta make sure I try dem tasty fried insects. An old mate of mind had some and he said it ain't all that bad. A bit like eating cracklings or chips. Only drawback would be the shells getting stuck in between ya teeth. Maybe I'll bring my floss with me this time. LOL.

Damn I'm so excited about this. Feeling all jumpy and shit. La Di Da Di Da. Alrighty, better stop gleaming and get back on track. Still got 2 more weeks to slog through before I'm off. You guys take care and have a good weekend!

i'm on fire baby!!!

Damn what a great session of ping pong it was earlier. Went through about 9 games without losing any of em. Played 2 of my colleagues whom I usually lose to every now and then. This time I was on FIRE. Even when I was down 15 to 20 I could still manage to come back and win the game. Its a good feeling I tell ya. LOL. Great workout too. Hopefully this keeps up and not just a one off thing. Hmm maybe I am improving in my ping pong skills. Doubt it but better to think positive than to say it was luck right. Muahahaha. It sure is nice to win. =)

rematch time...

Ahh the time has finally come. Manchester United and Liverpool are about to have their rematch tommorrow at 830pm. Not too long ago MU beat Liverpool 1 - 0 with a lovely unexpected goal by Rio Ferdinand. Liverpool as expected whined about how lucky the Red Devils were and yada yada yada. A win is a win no matter how it came. Wonder what the scoreline will be like this time around. Hopefully MU will be able to pull it off again and shut the Reds up for good. Since Cristiano Ronaldo is on fire and I am sure Gary Neville would love to shove his cleats up Liverpool's ass, things should be looking mighty fine for the Red Devils.

As with the previous game, a group of us are heading down to Souled Out to catch the game and have some drinks. Maybe we'll see the same Liverpool geeks that we saw previously and rub it in again when MU beats Liverpool. LOL. I'm expecting a cracker of a game since both sides need the FA Cup trophy badly. MU's year seem to be running dry like last year and the trophy case is getting bare without any new silverware. Poor Rooney deserves something as well. He has been playing his heart out almost every single game this season.

Well good luck MU and knock em dead!

men are from mars, women are from venus...

This is something I got off a forum. ZerotoHundred to be exact and wanted to share. Real funny stuff.

Here's a prime example of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" offered by an English professor:

The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. "The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back-and-forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students, Rebecca and Gary.

THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)
At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)
He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

(Gary)
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)
Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neuroti whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F__KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steel novels!"

(Rebecca)
Asshole.

(Gary)
Bitch

(Rebecca)
F__K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!

(Gary)
Go drink some tea - whore.

(TEACHER)
A+ - I really liked this one.

10,000 baby...

Woo Hoo my baby has finally clocked 10,000 kilometres and on Valentines Day as well. In good time too. Its been about 7 months and a couple of weeks since I got my car. My previous baby Betty, only manage to clock 10,000 kms after close to a year. Looks like I'm doing a lot more travelling this time around. Good too because I want to get my baby run in fast. Soon I gotta arrange my last service with stupid Perodua Service Centre. After that its all DIY baby. No point paying those fools to do something that will cost me almost 50% cheaper. As well as the peace of mind that it was done properly. I actually drove around for 1km to get that as when I neared my home today after work it was at 9999. LOL.

Alright time for my beauty sleep. Gd'nite folks!

tgif...

Ahh finally the weekend is here. Have been feeling really bored and fedup with work recently. Can't wait to go on a loooong break. Hopefully to somewhere overseas. Actually at this moment anywhere will do. For now I have the weekend to look forward to. Even if I don't do anything productive, bumming around is sweet enuff. Good thing is tommorrow I'm going for my ICE (in car entertainment) road trip with Jam. Gonna survey some shops around Klang Valley and see what they have to offer for my baby. Hopefully settle down on a proper setup and get it done by this month. Its gonna put a dent in my pocket but I've been saving up. Haven't really spent much on my baby especially compared to Betty whereby within' 6 months I spent almost 1/3 the car's value on various things (suspension, wheels and ICE). This time around I'm going at it slowly. Lil' baby steps.

Alrighty I got to go play some ping pong with my office colleague. Beat him yesterday 5 games to 2 and hes itching for a rematch. Hopefully I'll be able to hold my position. Cya folks.

Update: I manage to beat him again 2 games to 1. LOL. Poor fellow.

good ole' chivas...

After about an hour or so reaching home we managed to get something going. We couldn't allow the night to end just like that right. Manage to gather a few mates to chill at my places and enjoy a bottle of Chivas. Liquid gold I tell ya! About 10 of us gathered outside my crib at the 'Pondok' over some drinks and chatter. Jam arrived about 2 hours later (as usual, always late, tonnes of excuses as well) with his guitar and the jamming session started.

Dev, Vick, Jam and Roofus were taking turns singing and free styling. It was fun. A nice slow night with friends. We ended it around 4am with a drive to KL to have the best sup kambing around. Its located at the entrance of Kampung Baru. One day I might blog more about it, maybe take some pics as well. By the time I reached home it was already about 5am plus. Exhausted as ever due to the Futsal game and being up all day, I hit my bed like a sack of potatoes. Woke up only about 1pm to my dad banging at my door. Had promised them to do some grocery shopping.

Got to take my shower now, going to treat my parents to a meal at Souled Out for their 31st wedding anniversary. Can't believe it. They manage to be together for 31 freaking years even with all the shouting and arguing every other day. LOL. Guess thats what marriage is about huh. Hope they have another 20 odd years together. Toodles.

yu sang dinner...

Finally I got my fix of yu sang (raw fish salad)! Woo hoo. Yummy stuff. Somehow I just love the medley of finely sliced vegetables, crackers, sesame seed and raw fish. Not forgetting the plum sauce dressing. If only it was something served all year round. I guess you can make it at home but I ain't much of a cook to begin with. Not to mention I'm too lazy. LOL.

A couple of mates and I got together for a Chinese New Year Yu Sang dinner. Firstly we were to eat at this popular place called New Paris in SS2. Very near my house but as expected it was PACKED! So much so there were people waiting outside of the restaurant and across the road. We decided to scrap that plan and head down to Section 17 which has a nice restaurant as well. Think its called Restoran Happy. It was packed as well but we managed to get a table immediately. We were eyeing some juicy roast duck hanging nearby but sadly told us all of em' have been booked by other customers, some of which aren't even there yet. Can you believe it? Gotta call in advance to book the damn thing. Oh well. As yu sang is a ready made item we got that soon after ordering. We took out time munching on it before the rest of our meal came. It was a good dinner. The surprising thing was the squid that we ordered. Like most people we were expecting sliced squid cooked in whatever way but it turned out to be these tiny baby octopus deep fried with birds eye chilli. Tasty stuff but creepy. Felt like we were eating fried insects. Plus I never knew these fellas were so small (between 4 to 8mm). Wish I had a camera with me to take some shots. Think words can't describe it.

After dinner we are now back at my crib for some drinks. Think later we are to get together with a few others but so far nothin concrete . Hope something comes up as I'm getting bored and sleepy. *Yaaawn*

friendly match...

Its been awhile but we managed to organise a friendly match of futsal with my colleague's friends. We thought why not give it a go, see how our team is progressing. Sadly we lost by 8 to 6. We should have won but we gave them our best keeper for both halfs since they were short by 1 player. Sigh. It sucks to lose. No worries a rematch is coming up soon and this time we are gonna keep our keeper! Hehe. We might end up playing with them more often as well. Its good for us as we get more exposure and hopefully improve on our skills. Then maybe we can realise our dream of forming a proper team and joining some futsal tournaments.

The biggest problem we are having is making sure everyone shows up. During normal days when we play against ourselves its hard to muster up around 8 people. But whenever we mention there is a friendly game, the whole freaking jing bang shows up. Even people we don't invite! Sigh. Its sad how some of these people think. Now we gonna start collecting the futsal court rental fee before the day itself, so at least if those people who ffk (short for fong fei kei or fly aeroplane which means being stood up) will feel the pinch.

Alrighty I think I better head to the showers, got a yee sang dinner date tonight with some mates. C'ya.

end of a chapter...

Finally after 31 days of prayers and what not, my Appa is finally laid to rest. Today marked the 31st day since his death and the last major prayers were done. My dad and I have been up since 4am for the first half prayers at Port Dickson and then to continue the 2nd half at my grandpa's home in Seremban. Prayers ended about 1pm with lunch being served to all those that came for the event. It was a tiring process which we would have skipped (since most of it being unnecessary) but the event was organised by my dad's bro and he wanted to have a 'big send off' so to speak.

Guess most of siblings are trying their level best to show how caring they are when they never really bothered about him for the last 4 years plus. My dad's bro even went to the extent of printing cards and books but whats the point really. The poor old man has passed and all he wanted were his children's love/care for the last few years but none of them bothered. Now when hes gone they come pouring in spending all sorts of money and parading around relatives to show their 'affection'. A lil' too late if you ask me. Hope they live to regret their actions but I doubt it since most of them are too selfish to even care. Oh well, thats how life is right. I'm happy that my grandpa is finally resting in peace and that my parents are less stressed out.

Think I better hit the sack now. *Yaaawn* Been up for more than 30 odd hours and I gotta head to work tommorrow as well. You guys take care aight. Toodles.