Excellent trip until...

We had a very-very goodtime in Perhentian. The company was good, the room was ok, the food was yummy, the divemasters professional and also quite yummy if you were in a skirt, and best of all, the diving was excellent.

Visibility on the most part, was not too bad, but the life under Perhentian waters is wonderful! Loads and loads of anemone, and the fish seemed even friendlier than Sipadan! Managed to capture quite a few fish shots, something I had not managed to do succesfully before. My opinion is Perhentian offers some of the BEST diving in the East Coast. It is arguable, that Redang is better, but overall, I believe its better in Perhentian as the island tends to attract a more international crowd. We were practically the only Malaysians at the resort, not that we felt out of place mind you.. I only noticed it one dinner, when we were the only locals in the whole dining area.

The only thing that marred our stay was the Ferry service. On the way to the island, 60 people and all their luggage were crammed into a boat made for 40 passengers. The supposedly 1hour travel time became 1.5 hours due to the extra weight the boat was made to carry. There were not enough life jackets to go round and some people had to sit on the floor! To add insult to injury, the bloody ferry did not pick us up at the end of the trip!!

We waited for our ferry at 4pm, and by 4.30 we were getting a little anxious. 4.45 came and our resort manager received a call to say that we were left behind because the boat was overloaded. Surprise surprise. These people actually sell tickets.. I don't know why they even bother.

Left stranded, the resort said that they would send us back to the mainland with one of their dive boats. I think to myself.. we have been in these boats for 4 days now.. they seemed ok. Wrong. The boat ride back to the mainland was harrowing and not to mention wet! Needless to say we were quite pissed off, being put into such a predicament. Fortunately we made it to the mainland, and finally home to KL, allbeit a lot later than anticipated as the AirAsia flight was also delayed by an hour.

So it was a rather eventful trip to say the least. But would I return? YES.

The Beach Awaits

We are off to Perhentian to kick off our dive season tomorrow morning. Yay! Truth is, I am totally clueless about this trip, as my beloved has made all the reservations and is the main organisor. So I shall just tag along and see what is in store. You all have a great weekend now..

My baby turns 7

Benjamin is 7. A big boy now and he very recently welcomed a brand new brother! James. I hope they are all doing well in SA and that they are all adjusting well to being a new older brother, being a mother for the second time after 7 years, and being a brand new father! Congratulations to Asha and Martin and Benjamin.

6 degrees @ work

Was at my house yesterday, when one of my new neighbours popped in to say hello. She was quite impressed with what she saw, and enquired about who designed the plans. I had serious doubts if she new Kevin at all, but as it turned out, she did! It did not stop there.

We went over to her place to check out her lovely garden, when we discovered we had a ton of mutual friends. Maybe more, if we had more time to discover the links.

I found out that she was working with a NGO, a Women's Rights Activist and she is also in the Arts scene. Being in the art scene myself, I discovered that she was with the Five Arts group. Sunetra Fernando, a mutual friend and her "Rhythm in Bronze" Gamelan group, who recently concluded another successful concert, this time with the MPO, just had their post concert, wrap party in her house.

Complementing about her garden, she mentioned Seksan and his lovely wife/partner Carolyn and how they were going to come over one of these days to make suggestions to improve her already lovely garden. What an amazing coincidence. Seksan had also offered to come over to my place when it was closer to completion to help with our landscaping as well.

Cool eh?

New Pictures of Renovations Posted

Chui asked me to upload the latest pictures. Comparing this new set to what I posted a couple of weeks ago, I must say we have made quite a bit of progress. So go.. see for your self. pictures

Off with His Head!

Most of you will know by now that I am a Liverpool FC fan. And if you have been following the Red's fortunes for the last 3 years you will understand this rant!

LIVERPOOL FC SUCKS.

They cannot string ten passes together. The midfield is almost non-exsistant. The forwards lack decent feed, and when they do, lack the first touch. The defence have to do more work then they ought to do. Gerard Houlier MUST GO!

Everytime I see them play these days, it is just plain painful to watch, so called lesser teams with better coordination, better skill, and more imagination, kick Liverpool arse. Les Boss has said time and time again that he is building a team of the future. I see no future if we continue with playing like this and I wish the idiots on the Liverpool board has more sense! Maybe Thailand's PM, Taksin, should buy the club!

Uploaded Pictures of our Renovations

Pictures speak a thousand words. The truth is I am too lazy writing a thousand words, so pictures will just have to do.

Go check the pictures out.

Is it Bribery?

Gave Just Heavenly cakes to two of my immediate neighbours who must tolerate our renovation work and the noise. Call it being neighbourly, a trick which has helped an architect friend of ours build beyond legislations. As long as our neighbours don't make a complaint, we should be fine with the authorities.

Hope they enjoyed the cake.

Auspicious Day

Today is the day we start our renovations to our new home. With some Fung Shui advice from Chui's parents, we started the day working on some bits in the North West positions of the house followed by some more work on the South West before the real work of demolishing the rear extension. When I visited the site this morning, things were progressing nicely, the workmen had already started the demolision work and was almost done by the time I left.

They have to work quickly as they will need to create a path for the digger which will be used tomorrow.

A quick sms to my brother to order some nice cakes with a note of apology to my immediate neighbours which i hope will soothe their patience for the noise and inconveniece they will be experiencing over the next few weeks as the workers demolish more sections of the house.

We have been dreaming of the day.. and now its reality.

Starting the year...

Funny how time just flies by. I have been meaning to update my blog for sometime now, and have been a little tardy in this regard. Oh well.. its never too late I guess.

Firstly let me tell you about Daddy Martin. (Well.. that is what my son calls him.) I had a chance to have a proper conversation with him this time around when they were back for Christmas and it was a relevation. Martin is my ex wife's fiance and together they take very good care of Benjamin. Funny how things turn out for the best. I cannot think of two better people to be responsible for Ben, me included. Martin really does love Ben and together with Asha is raising Ben in a great way. You only have to meet Ben today and spend some time with him to realise that he is a great kid. Polite, disciplined, willing to share, but still with the kind of exuberance and kid should have. He is such a balanced child.. unbelievable.. and I thank God for it. And to Martin.. thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This year shall be a great year. I feel it in my bones. Chui and I will be renovating a home together, business is picking up... holidays are in the plans.. new friends... so its great overall, with so much to look forward too.

I hope you all have a great year as well. God Bless!!

Saved by my Palm

This happened last Saturday. Whilst waiting at the lights past Merdeka Square, a proton with three arseholes in it decided to ignore the double lines and tried to squeeze into my lane. A quick toot with my horn to voice my displeasure, gained a rather unpleasant result. Whilst they were right by my drivers side window, they strated hurling insults and were very angry. Their mothers must have not b-reast fed them when they were babies, resulting in the sort of uncouth behaviour fit for neanderthals!

Anyways, the lights changed, and they proceeded to continue to try and cut me off. So I decided to speed up. Blew them away travelling down past Jalan Bangsar past the old train station. However, as my intended destination was Brickfields, I was attending a funeral of all things, I was again caught up in traffic turning left into Brickfields. They stop right behind me, and one of them got out, walked to my car and continued urging me out of the car, hurling abuses, and also hitting my passenger side window. No real damage, but was rather unpleasant. Lights had changed, so I pressed on.. whilst they followed.

They managed to get in front of me, as I was making calls to my friends who were also attending the funeral. We got caught up at another set of traffic lights, and they were threathening to reverse into my car. One of them, practically had his whole scrawny body sticking out of the rear window, continuing to hurl abuses at me and telling me to pull over.

Then it dawned on me.. I had a palm with a camera attached. Why not take their pictures? At least i would have some photographic eveidence if this turned uglier! When the idiot who had his head poking out of the window realised that I was taking his picture.. he ducked right back in.

Suddenly, they did not seem so confrontational anymore! Another one of the arses came out with his camera phone to also take picture, as if to say.. we have a camera too! When the lights turned green, they sped off!


They drive a PROTON WIRA - JEB 5313!

If any of you are a cop or a person with any authority, please help put these specimens back into the pit they crawled out of.

My first Voice Over

You know how you say.. "those radio voice-overs.. always the same people.. (like Joe Hasham and company..) can't they find newer talent?" No? hahaha.. oh well..

I did my first Voice Over work last Wednesday. It all started innocently enough when I was at a studio for a Christmas jingle recording for Ritz Carlton. We had to sing or rather hum "I'll be home for Christmas" which was easy enough. Did a multitrack, which made 4 of us sound like a much much bigger choir. We even improvised extra parts. Just when I thought we were finished, the Creative Director and the Client asked me if I would like to try out for the Voice Over bit? Me.. me? But it says Joe Hasham on the script!

Well I did it.. so hear out for it over Light and Easy these coming weeks... and tell me what you think.. but be gentle.

Feeling Crabby

Funny how you don't eat something for a long time, and then all of a sudden all you seem to do is eating it all the time. Grin.. It all started in Semporna, where we had a sumptious seafood dinner there, with crabs as the highlight. It was good, getting your hands dirty again. Then wham! We have crabs again a few weeks later in Klang, then more crab at home, and then this weekend we were introduced to a restaurant in Jalan Imbi.

When we first arrived, every neuron in my brain shouted, "GET OUT!" Why? Well, the place was totally empty, and we all know the rules... the more patrons.. the better the food. I am very very glad we did not make a run for it, because, they served up the most excellent crab dish I have had in eons! Complete with dry toated bread to soak up the spicy crab sauce.. They should really bottle the stuff! It would make excellent dip. Thank you very much Chris! Next time we go there.. the meals on me.

New Blog Alert

My Cousin Andrew has started his own blog. He lives in Seattle. Go check his site out. The link is on the sidebar.

Wet Wet Wet

This is the most rain i have encountered in recent memory. It has been raining without fail for weeks! The worse part of rain is it makes my car really dirty! And washing it is just a perverse way of wasting money. But like any good car owner, I continue to keep it clean. I even sent my car for a thorough clean on Monday. Had the guys at my regular car grooming shop give it a good polish and a wax job, as well as to clean the upholstery. Sigh.. I did not even get a chance to enjoy my gleaming, almost new looking car, because it started raining cats and dogs before they finished! Oh well.. I console myself by saying it is good thing i had waxed the car, because it will extend its paint life. Yeah... right!

We had a great seafood lunch today with Lisa, Kok Loon, Nigel, Allan, Chris and Chui today in Klang. What an adventure, meeting at the side of the highway to convoy to a restaurant somewhere in Klang. Why an adventure you might ask? Well.. none of us knew exactly where we were going. The blind leading the blind. However, we are proud to annouce that we made it there for a great meal. The crab dish was excellent! We then proceeded back to Bumpsar for ice-cream, Thanks, Allan and Nigel for the treat! Off course, on the way back from Klang, it rained.

Sing Song and Virgin Vibes

My son called me up the other day at 6am his local time, making his half asleep mother dial the numbers and all. He was very excited as he had learnt a new song. Now, my son has until recently been half deaf due to damage to his ear drums caused by a serious illness a few years ago. He had recently undergone surgery to repair his damaged ear drums and has since recovered most of his hearing. He has been not exactly a lark learning to pray, I was worried for a while that he had gotten his mother's singing genes. Well.. he called and said "Dad, I learnt a new song!" And he proceeded to sing. I was very pleasantly surprised that he sang the whole song, lyrics and all in tune and in the same key!! I was so happy to learn of his new found vocal prowess, I could not even remember the name of the song that he sang, only that it was a Christmas song. Cool! There is hope.

Cousin Jade and her boyfriend were walking down the street in Brisbane, when they spotted Richard Branson. Jade whispered to her boyfriend.. look its Richard Branson, to whom he replied; who?? Hmmm.. he needs to read more papers..

Anyways, she goes "its Richard Branson of Virgin!", to which he very loudly replied, "He is a 50 some VIRGIN??" And this was within earshot of the fellow! Nyuk nyuk.. Poor sod.

The Trilogy of Mumbo Jumbo

Either the Waichowski brothers operate on a higher plane or they simply cannot resolve their own mumbo jumbo, that is the Matrix universe.

I expected resolve from the final instalment of the Matrix trilogy, but I was sorely disappointed as many questions remain unanswered and in fact, they introduced even more unanswered questions into the mix, such as Agent Smith calling the Oracle "Mother" suggesting that the Oracle was in fact the creator of Agent Smith. And after scouring the net for better enlightenment, I can come to only one conclusion.

They intend to do more Matrix movies. They have intentionally left enough questions unanswered to merit another movie. Sigh.. The only thing which is answered, is GREED. Make more movies.. make more money.

Microgooglesoft??

Arghhh.. I just read that Google and Microsoft are planning to merge! All I can say is this.. ITS THE END of another era.

i can see it now..

Announcing Microgooglesoft

A super duper enhanced search engine forund directly on your Windows XP and its free! Get up to 10 searched items a day. You wanna go deeper?

Register today for the enhanced version Microgooglesoft XP for only $29.99 and enjoy unlimited searches!

Sigh....

Pains in the Neck!

The dreadful feeling started early yesterday morning. I felt it.. and experience told me that it was the start of a full blown stiff neck. Pain number one. My darling gave me a back rub last night, but helped little in abating the pain in the neck I feel right now. My actions have become robotic again, only 3 to 4 days after recovering from my last back ache! Looks like another visit to my suddenly rich masseuse (Chui and I have already spent RM150 this month alone for relief). Looks like another RM50 gone!

Pain in the Neck Two. My favourite Client, decided late last Thursday evening to run a tribute ad to our out going PM in a local newspaper supplement with the material deadline set at 5pm Monday. Aiks! What? Are they mad? Okay.. no need to panic. We have been down this road before. Just give us a brief, let us know what you want, and we can work over the weekend to meet the deadline. But... no! It is already too late in the evening (this is still thursday), to give you a brief.. we will meet Monday (since Friday is a public holiday and being a long weekend we don't want to work) morning amongst ourselves, and decide a direction to take. WHAT?!

Monday morning comes.. precious time ticks away... and finally at about 11 am, we get the brief. Make us 4 new ads, for us to choose from! Hmm.. what was wrong with the ad that we had already done much earlier for a cancelled supplement in the AWSJ? Nope.. the committee decided that we want another ad. Okay.. So we get our direction, and we go make some ads. Luckily, this was one time where we got a rather clear route from them to take. We had the ads done by 1.30pm, and they were sent to the clients for clearing.

Time ticks away again...

At about 4pm.. they call. "We want the original ad afterall!" "That is the one which we will use". Ok. Cool. Lets get the film makers in. They have less than 1 hour to get the films done and delivered! Those in the know, will tell you that it is quite impossible to do. Afterall, it still takes time for travelling through and fro and so on. Many calls are made to plea for an extension in deadline.

FA is done, film makers have collected the CD containing the masters and they are off at 4.30pm. Hmm.. Phew.. it will be late.. but at least its done. Right?

WRONG!

We got call after call from the clients to make changes.. not big huge changes mind you, but rather small, insipid and idiotic changes that frankly, would have made no difference to the ad! For example. "Make logo bigger!" OK.. fine.. typical request.. So.. how much bigger? 10% bigger? No.. that will be too much.. "make it 2% bigger!" What? 2%? Sheesssh.. What kind of difference is that going to make?

Off course.. all these changes have to be made remotely. My colour separator has to make these changes on the master on his side. There is simply no more time available to make another commute to collect fresh FAs! They must have made at least 3 sets of redundant materials before the stupid need to make changes abated at about 5.30! Jeeez.. What else can possibly go wrong?!

Never ask for you may receive! Pain in the Neck Number Three!

PM leaves office on the 31st. DPM takes over on the 1st. We cannot have a tribute to the outgoing PM without a welcome to the new? Uhuh!!!

"We need another ad guys!" We cannot brief you till tomorrow.. Its already to late this evening to do it, besides.. its ramadan, we need to go break fast! And by the way.. the material deadline is Wednesday at 5pm....

ITS A NIGHTMARE! Actually no.. ITS PAINs IN THE NECK!

Bangsar?

I propose a new name for Bangsar. As I was driving down Bangsar today, I noticed that they have just constructed three new speed breakers along my favorite route. This is on top of the 500 breakers found here. As though the many road irregularities and the constant road work scars are not enough to make a rather unpleasant journey into and out of bangsar, they have to put up more of these really badly engineered mountains that test the best suspension systems on the best cars. Maybe its got to do with the proliferation of SUVs on the roads today. Hmm.. I wonder which came first.. the SUV of the road mountains? Maybe it is a conspiracy. Who knows..

Alll I do know, is that Bangsar shall be forever be renamed Bumpsar from now on, at least in my books!