my best friend's wedding...

2008 is coming to an end, and I'm not gonna let the year pass by without a mention of my best friend's wedding. ; )

I must say this is one of my best moments in 2008, seeing a close friend for over 10 years, getting married. And for sure, this is the most memorable day for Ang and Pei Li.

A very belated Congratulations to Ang and Pei Li, and I hope you'll live happily ever after!

liverpool's early christmas gift...

Well, what do you know.

Christmas is in a couple of days, and Liverpool are surprisingly STILL at the top of the league table.

One would’ve guessed Liverpool would be slumping down the table with two successive draws and with some dreaded displays of late, but then again who would’ve thought the rest of the big guns are having their patchy mid-season form on as well?

Chelsea is having some tough time themselves, and with John Terry now out for three matches during the festive season, that will surely be a major loss for the men in blue.

Arsenal are already choking all the way this season, and although nobody’s writing off anybody, I sincerely believe it’ll be a huge challenge for Arsene Wenger’s side to mount a credible climb up the pecking orders with the league getting so competitive now.

Man Utd may be having 2 extra games in hand, but that doesn’t mean there are 6 points in the pocket. They can be as close as 1 point behind Liverpool, but they can also be as far as 7 points away if results go our way. And let’s not forget Evra is having a lengthy ban himself, and he has been one of the most consistent performers in the Man Utd squad now.

And let’s not forget Aston Villa is making a statement to break into the Big Four stronghold, and at the moment they certainly look like they are more than capable to do so.

It’s a fun festive season this Christmas, and though Bolton and Newcastle aren’t totally pushovers, I certainly hope Liverpool will end 2009 top of the league, and it’ll be a bonus if we can pull away from the chasing pack. ;)

Merry Christmas everybody!

december...

I would really liked to blog about my friend's and my brother's wedding in these past week, but until today I still can't find myself capable of reaching to my home PC and download some photos into it. And well, to be honest, I am kinda in a rush to finish up all the pending jobs I'm currently holding, and then take a week off work (and home too) for a breather.

First weekend in December:
At work, followed by Ang's wedding.

Second weekend in December:
My brother's wedding. And it's pretty stressful to be the punching bag of many stressful people around you.

Third weekend in December:
Which is this coming weekend, my girlfriend had planned a river-rafting trip near Gua Tempurung with my ol' housemates and uni friends, and then perhaps going to the hot-spring in Sungkai as well.

Fourth weekend in December:
Right after Christmas, my girlfriend's mom and sis will be visiting KL, and will spend the entire week off from work and home too. Well, I had to since there'll always be traces of work back at home I have run away in order to escape from work!

can the reds stay top?

I've never seen Liverpool leading the table so many months into a season and as far as I'm concerned, this may well be one season that we can finally be challenging for the title.

I don't really want to set the expectations too high so I won't be disappointed come end of the season next May, but to watch the current Liverpool team play is pretty much all the joy since the team has proved to be able to play some beautiful football at par with Arsenal and Man Utd. Of course, grinding out results and points along the way make the games more enjoyable too. ;)

And on top of everything, the team actually looks like they are not playing up to their best yet, Keane hasn't got into any sort of goal-scoring act, Torres in-and-out with injuries, inconsistent fullbacks of Dossena and Aurelio, long-term injury to Skrtel, and Mascherano looked like he's quite jaded after going for the Olympic games. So how good can this team be when everyone's back and hitting form? I don't know, but I'm excited if the team gets to show the entire league what they're capable of.

Blackburn up next without a win in their last 9 games. Let's see how Liverpool will cope with this physical side and make a statement.

It's a great season to watch Liverpool play, and it's a great month to catch plenty of matches!

it's been a long time...

What do you know, after 12 years and we're still in touch.

VSG, truly second to none. Hahahaha...:)

welcome to the world...

Welcome to the world, little ones...

The three little hoglets, 10-days old.

Aren't they cute little buggers?

while i was away...

Hmm, I guess nothing much happened back here. Almost didn't make it back home to KL after I lost my temporary visa slip. Luckily the immigration officers were a bit lenient and let me off with a warning.

Oh, and while I was away? My hedgehog gave birth to three beautiful hoglets. :)

Can't believe I missed the first few days of the babies growing up, and with nobody at home knowing what to do with them!

Finally got to see them tucked nicely in the hidebox sleeping late yesterday night when I finally reached home, and thankfully all hoglets and the mom are safe and healthy. I guess when the mommy hedgehog gets less protective I'll be able to take several photos of the 'rambutans' (as my family calls them) to be uploading into this blog. :P

travel-mania...

It has been quite a hectic couple of months for me, in the past few weeks I've been traveling to Seremban, Kuantan, Penang, Kuantan, Penang, Penang and Ipoh, for the following week I'll be going to Tawau and then Kota Kinabalu, before going back to Ipoh again next month.

Traveling around has always been something which I enjoyed, but when it's for work, it wrecks the mood. Sometimes, that is. And the mental torture of pre- and post-paperwork, calls, production and planning, some strands of white hair will soon come popping up.

Will be working full-day tomorrow and will again be back in office on Sunday for preparations before I board a flight to Tawau next Monday.

So the blog will remain dormant again for quite some time, hahaha...

ugly side of me...

Don't really know what happened yesterday. I guess the bad mood really got into my head and did some damage.

Anyway, it was a bit uncharacteristic of me to blow my fuse and lost my temper in the way I did, and apologies to everyone at the receiving end of my 'not very nice' words.

I guess my mind's clearer today and I was acting a bit too foolishly to be a cause of concern for many.

I'll learn to take things easy and take control of my life. Life is too precious to be wasted the way I did yesterday.

finally back...

Well, what do you expect, the only reason I actually write a post today is because I finally fall ill and took the day off.

But that doesn't mean I'm off work. It's just that I'm working from home today. Countless phone calls. And a little bit of traveling. Twice.

So much for a day which I'm supposed to rest at home. I'm starting to feel that I won't be able to really have a proper day off anymore.

26 and counting...

26 days since I last have an off-day.

21 days more to go before my next day off.

Woohoo...

6 colleagues have gone down with illness and took MCs in the past fortnight and I'm still feeling relatively healthy (or at least that's what my brain is telling me).

Come on, 3 weeks to go, I know I can make it...

my first nuffnang ringgit...

After about like, 2-3 months putting Nuffnang's ad in my blog, I finally registered the first ringgit earned through CTR!

Okay, so it's only RM1, but then again, my blog is finally making money for me. Although it's only enough to buy me a glass of herbal tea in a chinese kopitiam, I'm optimistic that somewhere in the near future I'll be able to withdraw my first official 'pay' from Nuffnang once I hit RM50, so I guess I have a good reason to continue blogging well.

On another note, went to the tailor yesterday to make myself a matching suit and trousers for my brother's wedding end of the year. I'm gonna be like, RM900 poorer before end of the month, but on the other hand, I guess I have got my dress code ready for the many wedding invitations starting from next month. Hmm, minus my brother's, there like one, two, three, FOUR weddings I'll be attending from next month onwards till next February.

I can actually FEEL that age is finally catching up.

can't wait for the new season to start...

It's 12.30 on a Friday afternoon and I'm blogging during my lunchtime. How sad is that? Anyway, it's been too hectic lately and I seriously need some time off work.

Back to the title, the Barclays Premier League will begin in a short several weeks' time, and to liven things up, I'm engaging the polls by Nuffnang for the first time in my blog, 'where will Liverpool Football Club end up this coming season?'

Rafa Benitez has acquired quite a decent number of players in Andrea Dossena (jersey No. 2), Philip Degen (27), Robbie Keane (7), David Ngog (24) and Diego Cavalieri (1), while Harry Kewell and Peter Crouch were the only notable departures during the pre-season, while Leto leaves for Olympiakos on a season-long loan.

Possibly more signings as well, Gareth Barry's transfer saga looks to be concluding soon, but it may signal the end of the Anfield road for a few reds, sacrificed to fund the likely Barry transfer.

On top of that, watching the friendlies so far, several youngsters have been showing promising displays with the likes of Daniel Pacheco, Stephen Darby, Jay Spearing, Emiliano Insua, Damien Plessis and Krisztian Nemeth grabbing some spotlights when the regulars were rested.

While Chelsea signed several top class players, Man Utd and Arsenal don't seem to be very active in the transfer window this time around, although make no mistakes the teams are still filled with quality in every position.

Perhaps this will be Rafa Benitez's make or break season, but how well will he do, and where will he bring Liverpool, up or down?

18 days and counting...

It is now officially 18 days since my last off-day. 30 days to go before I get to have another off-day.

Dang. Feels like my productivity rate has plummeted drastically in the past week.

And I now can't tell the days of the week because everyday feels the same.

This is not good.

overtime...

All my off-days for the month of August had been frozen, so I'll be working 7 days/week for the next few weeks. Don't be surprised to see less of me online these days, it's going to be all work, work and work only to look forward to at the time being.

Plus overtime too.

I'm getting easily irritated recently, too stressed and lacking adequate sleep. Life, at this moment, sucks to the max.

changes...

I had lunch together with two of my ex-coursemates and a senior from my university days (all furthering studies after their degrees) yesterday, we briefly chatted about everything we used to talk about back when we were still studying. I haven't seen them for several months, and seriously it's a bit embarassing that once we joined the workforce I don't really take time offs to catch up with old friends.

Today, I received a message through facebook from one of them. He said I don't look as cheerful as before. He said I looked like a matured man.

Work stress? I don't know. I still have that crazy, wacky and crappy side inside of me, I think, but yeah, perhaps age is catching up.

I miss the old me. When will this other side of me show up again?

bad morning...

Start off the day by receiving an early phone call from my bank stating that there have been some over-withdrawal and I need to make a fund transfer to my current account before 10am. My account has been pretty messed up recently as the fundraising, company claims and my parents are all using the my same account, it's pretty hard to track all the transactions and I finally got punished for bad management.

We didn't suscribe any internet services in our PJ home, and I couldn't settle the problem online through my e-account.

I rushed back to the office to transfer the fund online and arrived at 9.30am only to find out that the office's network has been down. Immediately I rushed to the nearest bank to make a contra. But due to a newbie at the counter who has no idea how to transfer funds from a savings account to a current account, the transaction was only completed 5 minutes after 10.

As if it's not bad enough, I came back to the office to find the network working fine, browsed my e-account and found that I've been penalized RM100.00 for the late fund transfer.

And bloody hell I wasted my petrol and sleep as well.

Need to settle down a little and manage my time properly I guess. It's been a hectic month of July and there's 9 more days to go, hopefully I'll get through the month in one piece.

testing times...

I intended to update here a couple of days back, but again something came up and I don't really have the time.

To be honest, lately, especially the last 2-3 weeks, I felt that I am completely drowned in my jobs and there are times where I wonder if 24 hours in a day is really enough, because there's just so much things to do.

It's like what I already said, second half of the year will always be busier than the first, and with the current economy not looking so good, there are just too many reasons why I should spend more time doing something more beneficial than blogging. Which is sad, really, because life like this sucks.

But I guess these days we don't really have any options, do we?

Many thanks to our country's government for making my life miserable. You never fail to disappoint me.

introducing cactus & quills...

I have promised to upload photos of my hedgehogs and after a little effort, ehem... I proudly present to you, Cactus & Quills!

Cactus

Cactus is the male hedgehog I brought back home in March from a home breeder. He has good temperaments and can fall asleep on anyone's lap. Picky eater, but will snap up mealworms when in sight! Cactus is the more 'athletic' one between the two hedgehogs I have, he'll make sure he gets enough exercise by running in the wheels every night (and leaves his poop all over the wheel). Cactus also likes to get his head stuck inside a toilet paper roll and bang around. ;) Quite a clumsy hedgehog, always tumbling around in his cage.

Quills

Quills was brought back roughly 2 weeks ago. She is considered quite grumpy and would rather be left alone in her cage, but once she gets outside she'll wander off very fast. Quills' rather friendly and tame when you have food in your hands, she'll come to you uninvited. ;) A bit on the plump side as she doesn't really know what to do with the wheels, the only thing she plays with is the bell ball which she keeps knocking around late at night.

Will need to take some time to study their behaviours, these two young hedgehogs are wonderful pets to have, and I learn new things about them as days go by. Honestly, hedgehogs are not suitable pets for many people because they're solitary animals, you don't get to play with them daily like dogs or cats, and they are unlikely to show any sort of emotions. But once you get to know each of their personalities, you'll fall in love with them. :)

bangkok day 2...

Continued from here.

Woke up pretty early on the second day and headed for breakfast in the guesthouse's lounge. After that we took a short walk to the Sala Daeng BTS Skytrain which is like 5 minutes away from where we stayed.

Patpong during daytime.

Funny to see how many shops with Japanese names along the streets of Patpong, I didn't even notice that when we arrived. It's like a mini Japanese Street here.

BTS Skytrain. Way more efficient than Malaysia's LRT.

We decided to go to Pratunam Market which is, according to the map, located quite near the Phaya Thai Station.

Apparently we got it wrong.

Took us more than half an hour's walk from the station to the market (under the hot sun), we swore that we won't take anything other than taxi to return later.

Streets in Pratunam Market.

Pratunam Market is a place where you'll find plenty of tailors selling custom-made working blouses, pants, or old folks' attires. We initially thought we could get some decent buys here but sadly we got that wrong. The stuff sold here are just not our styles. But that didn't stop me from getting a pair of jeans at 300Baht (RM30) though!

The famous Jay Puy.

After spending the entire morning & noon in Pratunam, we headed back to the guesthouse for a short rest before proceeding to China Town.

We got to China Town close to evening hours, and once we stepped out of the taxi we went straight to the much talked-about Jay Puy, rice served with thick kaeng karii, a chinese-style curry. You can almost certainly miss the stall if you're not paying attention, simply because the curry stall doesn't look like they're doing business.

In fact, you don't even see tables anywhere. Everyone either sit on plastic stools holding up your plate of curry rice or you just tapao and leave. There's a variety of curries available, but we again chose the one most people ordered, the thick pork curry with potato.

Yummy!

Suffice to say, it's by far the best meal we've had in Bangkok throughout our 4-day stay.

Mr Cowboy preparing pork satays.

That, and the pork satays where you can find almost everywhere in Bangkok. They all taste the same, which is simply delicious!!

And they're only at 10Baht (RM1) per stick!

I bought one everytime I passed by a stall selling pork satays. I just can't resist it.;)

I can eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Around 7pm, we went back to get dressed up for the night.

Sirocco & Sky Bar.

You can see pictures of the bar circulating in emails, people speak in awe of this place, which means you can't miss out Sirocco when visiting Bangkok.

Located at the 63rd floor of Lebua Hotel, you get to see the most magnificent view of Chao Phraya River behind you under the romantic moonlight.

Back to reality though, nothing here is cheap.

We spent a close 2,000Baht (RM200) for drinks alone (OMG!).

Lightning strikes.

But really, you cannot not come here. Just sitting up here looking at the majestic view of Bangkok's nightlights is priceless.

Our expensive drinks.

Too bad though, that it rained after a while. We thought we could enjoy the entire night outside admiring the lights of Bangkok city, but fate had it that it rained cats and dogs for the rest of the night.

Bangkok's night lights.

But not before we took enough pictures of the amazing view from the top of the world.

Simply beautiful.

To be continued...

bangkok day 1...

Have I mentioned that I was in Bangkok last month for a holiday?

These photos are a bit late, but didn't really have the time to write a lengthy post until now, so this is the update.

The gueshouse we stayed during the first two days.

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is locally known as 'Krung Thep' or 'City of Angels', It's a short form of the Thai name, which I don't think anyone uses at all. The full-length version of its name, when translated, is something like 'Great city of angels, the repository of divine gems, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital full of nine noble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living place of reincarnated spirits'.

Now you know why us 'foreigners' simply call this capital 'Bangkok', derived from 'Bang Makok' or Village of Olive Plums.

Cafe Kaldi is a local version of Starbucks. This is one of many you'll find along the streets in Bangkok.

During our four-day trip, we stayed in Silom for the first two nights. We stayed a bit further from the Riverside, closer to the nightlife in the city. While it used to be known for the shipping and ports during the olden days, Silom has transformed into a business area packed with office workers during the day.

At night though, the entire place magically turns into the infamous night bazaar and red light district of Patpong.

One of the stalls in Soi Pradit, Silom.

We stayed in a decent guesthouse called 'Take a Nap Hotel', which really isn't a hotel. It's a budget guesthouse for free-n-easy travelers like us, but with more privacy. Every room has different 'themes', if that's what it's called, and at 1300Baht/night (~RM130) for a double room + breakfast, it's considered relatively cheap in the area.

Our first meal in Bangkok, and it's heavenly. ;)

We arrived at the guesthouse at 11.30am, and the receptionists are more than welcome to allow us early check-in. Once settled down, we proceed to walk over to Soi Pradit Market, about 20-30 minutes walk from our guesthouse. Not known for anything extravaganza, but always packed with office workers during lunch hours. We went for the stall with the most customers and ordered what everyone else were eating, rice with braised (?) pork. Or something like that, I don't know. I just pointed and showed 2 fingers (for two), and there comes the plates with delicious pork rice. It's a pretty common sight to see Thais plucking the chilli and chew them when they're eating any meals, but since spicy's the trend here I'm not surprised.

Neilson Hays Library

On the way back we stopped by Neilson Hays Library. This wasn't our intended stop, but the architecture and designs are so captivating that we went in for a short visit.

Entrance of Neilson Hays Library

It was a pretty well-kept old library with the classic feel. Very brightly-lit, and although a bit small, it's extremely cosy to be sitting in here and reading a book.

Enjoying the air-conditioner in the library after a long walk.

You'll find plenty of foreigners taking some time and hang around in this library and enjoying a book or two.

Jim Thompson Store.

Opposite the road of our guesthouse is the Jim Thompson Store. Jim Thompson is the company that revived the silk industry in Bangkok and you'll find plenty of Jim Thompson outlets in Bangkok. There are plenty of stuff (not just silks) sold here, tableclothes, wallets, handbags, pillowcases, cookies and even Jim Thompson postcards. While I think everything in the store are quite overpriced, the place is worth a visit for any tourists. I don't encourage to buy anything there though...;)

Soi Polo Fried Chicken.

Towards the evening we took a cab to Lumphini and went to try out the much recommended Soi Polo Fried Chicken. Most cabbies have no idea where is the location unless you show the map, and seriously at that time I felt I may have been misled to think the fried chicken is really that good.

Personally, it tasted so-so, pretty much like our local mamak's fried chicken. Perhaps 'farangs' don't really enjoy their KFCs and prefer these, I don't know.

Suan Lum Night Bazaar.

From there we took a short walk to the Suan Lum night bazaar. When we arrived it was still pretty early (6pm), but most stalls were already up and ready to do business.

Illegal vendors in Suan Lum operating as usual despite court battles to close it down.

Suan Lum night bazaar is only a few years old, and is just getting its crowd when it was announced to be closed soon for other developments. But that doesn't stop the vendors from opening the stalls. If you don't read the local papers you won't even realize that these vendors are actually operating illegally!

This night bazaar isn't the cheapest naturally, but bargain hard and you'll be able to get a thing or two for dirt cheap prices. Of course, there are some other bazaars and markets in town where you can get great deals as well, but for the first night we're content to get our hands full shopping for souvenirs here.

Patpong Street at night.

Around 9pm we left the bazaar with both hands busy carrying plastic bags filled with clothes, souvenirs and shoes. Took a taxi back to our guesthouse and had a short rest before we went back down to enjoy the nightlife in Patpong.

Patpong is famous for its gay bars and tiger shows, while the night market is filled with over-inflated items. For a T-shirt you can get in Suan Lum for 150Baht, you're likely to find the same shirt here selling at 300Baht.

The notorious street filled with gaybars in Patpong.

We took a short stroll along the few streets there, but really, if you're smart and have done your research you wouldn't want to buy anything here. Plus, it's not really fun to have 20-30 Thais
asking if you're interested to watch pingpong shows, which I don't really want to explain here.;)

To be continued...

4 years down the road and nothing much has changed...

In a little more than a month, this blog would be celebrating its 4th birthday. I don't think I'll be free on that day to wish my blog a happy birthday (I'm slotted in 'busy' mode that week), so I might as well blog about it since I remember about this now.

My first post was crap. It was written due to pressure from a couple of friends who blog as well. I didn't expect 4 years on, I still have this blog. And actively blogging still.

4 years back, there weren't many blogs in Malaysia. I know I'm not the first who caught the blog flu, but really, even project petaling street has just begun operation for some time. There are plenty of great stuff to read in that blogtal.

I struggled to write in html back then. I still do, but thanks to blogsphere's popularity nowadays the host does everything for you.

I can blog about anyone I want then because nobody knows, since nobody really reads blogs.

I lost my passion in blogging some years back during the time where plenty of useless blogs mushrooming out from nowhere, and everyone tries to make money out of blogging. Reading others' blogs became fun no more because people are copying and pasting news just to get easy money. Quality bloggers shunted the blogsphere, and I lost interest as well.

I don't know what spurred me to continue blogging, but I just thought of something just recently.

Maybe 10 years, 20 years, perhaps even 50 years down the road, I would have compiled a thorough journey of my life, and I can imagine myself laughing my socks off reading the first few posts I made. This will be my diary and will be recording many more important events in my life, my loved ones, my friends, my country, my everything.

50 years later, if I'm blessed with grandchildren, they would be sitting on my lap, reading back the old posts, and ask me why the heck my generation is so out of fashion.

Happy be-'earlied' 4th birthday to my blog.

There will be many more anniversaries to come.

ray of light...

It's been almost a week since I last updated.

And yes, I have got the new hedgehog, yet to name it, don't really know what to call it but I don't think that matters much since she won't know I'm calling her anyway. Haven't had the time to take any photos of this snowflake hedgehog, but you guys can bet I sure will post them up here when I do. Unfortunately the hedgehog is a bit bad-tempered, so far she has not quilled down any time I tried to touch it. The hissing and puffing sound sure makes it like she's a bit grumpy. Too grumpy to my liking. But well, I think I'll have ways to tame her.

On another issue, I'm thinking of something new to start. While it's too early to say anything, but I think I've found something which I think I will have a passion in doing.

No, it's not breeding hedgehogs, although yeah, I'm planning to do that as well, but um... I think I'll make a public announcement when I achieve some success in it.

In any case, I think I'll be pretty busy for the coming months due to this new thing that I wanna do, plus my job and hedgehog breeding, and heck, my brother's getting married end of the year (have I mentioned it?). This will not be good for my health, hahaha...

But like the frequently used proverb, "no pain no gain". This is the time to go through some pain I guess. Wish me luck!

my second hedgehog...

3 months after getting Cactus, I've finally decided to get a female hedgehog, first step towards my plan of becoming a hobbyist breeder.

I have reserved a 4 month-old female hedgehog, a solid snowflake with dominant white quills from another fellow hedgehog enthusiast. Consider my lady luck because I was scouting for a platinum-coloured, but an all white snowflake will be a beauty as well.

Will be getting the hedgehog this Saturday if nothing goes wrong, after some time I'll be posting pictures of the new addition here in my blog...:)

ads back in...

After blogging several years without any ads in my personal blog, I'm beginning to let loose a little and add one into mine. What's better than earning a little cash while spending time on your hobby right?

To be honest, I've been registered with Nuffnang for a couple of years already, I think, but I did not really concentrate in a blog for the purpose of drawing click through ratio from my friends, who are the majority of my blog readers anyway. Therefore I started another blog, which is now defunct (unfortunately). I found that blogging what people loves to read is not what I really want to do.

I blog about what I love to read, and what I would want to read back 10 years down the road. And I think this blog serves my purpose, and reverted back to active posting with this blog for the past year. I mean, I write what I want to write, and to hell who cares what you guys want to read, right?

My blog has been ads-free for as long as it existed, and finally I've decided to include one that does not get into everyone's face, but at the same time is given enough attention while viewers get to read what they wanted to read. I'm not expecting much of a passive income by including Nuffnang's ad, but hey, it's a Malaysian's effort and heck I feel better putting Nuffnang's ad rather than any other advertisements from foreign companies. Support local product they said, no?

78 cents...

Ouch.

that rock that bothers us all...

"I still maintain my stand that we have half the victory, and half the failure. All are rocks anyway, there is no mempelam (mango) there, nothing, not even a blade of grass. But people like to rub it in. But let's face it. Malaysia did not lose all. Whoever says that, either he or she does not understand the international law result, or they are playing belukar politics."

"It is a subjective assessment, of course. The fact that Batu Puteh is not with Malaysia now, I think that is the nagging problem. The fact that we have Middle Rocks, not many people appreciate."

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim's opinion on ICJ's verdict to rule that Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore, while claiming that it should have been Malaysia's.

While I understand that our current Foreign Minister shouldn't be blamed for the lost of the island to Singapore, I seriously think he's in self-denial to claim that we have half the victory, when the only win situation is to claim back all our islands. Losing any of these rocks are just pure failure. Nothing else.

The maps of Malaysia put forward does not even recognise Batu Puteh as part of Malaysia, and it is purely our fault that the island was eventually awarded the the tiny country south of us. How can the important letters and documents go missing, and why do we let Singapore maintain the island independently in the first place?

Just concentrate to get back Batu Puteh and stop critisizing citizens for feeling disappointed that part of our country is lost.

united malaysia for malaysians...

Got the link through a close friend's blog, and finally got to listen and watch the music video after numerous attempts, don't have a speaker you see, I'm poor...;) Goofy as it seems, the video served it's purpose to call for unity in our home, our country, our beloved Malaysia.

As of now (10.37pm, 28 May 2008), 59,469 individuals have downloaded the song, over 100,000 had listened the song through youtube, and thousands of bloggers are spreading the same message through their blogs: we all hope for a single united nation and we are all proud to be Malaysians. See beyond colours and you will see that we are brothers and sisters, after all.



Spread the love, Malaysians. Spread the love.

Our country needs it.

content...

You know, sometimes you really wonder if you're experiencing difference phases in life after being alive for a quarter of a century. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm not old enough to talk philosophy, but sometimes, at times, I begin to feel more and more content with whatever I have now in my life, or anything that may come in the future.

There has always been times when I felt that I do not make enough money to live a comfortable life. Call me materialistic, or anything you wish, but that's what makes the world spin, no? I want to, I need to, be financially-independent if I'm being serious in buying my own home to stay with my beloved one, and to take care of my family with ease, while at the same time making enough money to travel to places I have never been to, and perhaps going for some occasional fine-dinings if my financial situation permits.

I'd live extremely frugal at times in recent years, to the extent that I thought I can save a couple of bucks if I have bread for lunch instead of a decent chicken rice with iced tea. At times I'm very satisfied, but there will be times where I wonder if I'm doing enough.

But then again, from time to time, I'd have moments where I sit back to think, long and thoroughly that maybe, perhaps maybe, sometimes money isn't everything. I'd count my blessings to have a proper roof over my head now. I'd appreciate myself if I can spend a little more to have some decent dinner outings with my girlfriend. I would spend a little to pamper myself and the people surrounding me, just for the sake of spending. During these moments, I would think that there aren't more important things in life than having a good time, and enjoying life to the fullest in slow-motion.

I know it won't be long before I go full throttle in making money again, but it's always during phases like these I would tend to sit back and relax, and think about what's best in life. And a cup of nice hot coffee on a Sunday afternoon, with nothing else to worry about, it's as though the best thing that can happen to me at the moment.

Sometimes, after taking a couple of steps forward, you need to take one step backward just to have a wider view of the road ahead of you.

Sometimes, it keeps you sane.

Other times, it keeps you happy too. I'm content to be happy, at the moment.

tortoise...

I've uploaded quite some photos of Cactus lately, it'll be biased if I didn't put in any photos of my beloved tortoise as well.

Photo uploading will do for now, lately I'm a bit too busy to think of proper stuff to blog about. Things may change though after the Bangkok trip end of this month.

So for the time being, enjoy some tortoise photos!

crépes cottage...

Went to Butterworth and Penang last weekend (whew, I travel a lot lately...), and finally had the chance to stop by Crépes Cottage for some much recommended pancake desserts my friends have been praising non-stop.

Swoosh!

Crépes Cottage is owned by an old lady by the name Agnes, and is located somewhere along Gurney Drive. It's a very small cottage by the roadside, with ample parking spaces behind the comfy wooden cottage.

Strawberry Roll

Coincidentally, my girlfriend's best buddy worked for quite some time in this cafe, being the nephew of the owner, as a chef. Many of my friends have dined here and left with praises and good reviews, while for me, 3's a charm as I finally get to test the desserts after failing to have any meals the first two times I dropped by.

Traffic Light

Both my girlfriend and I met up with her other friends working in Penang just to have a taste of the much-talked pancake desserts, we ordered 5 different pancakes for our 11pm supper, one being a new dessert yet to be named.

Hot Apple

I personally find the pancakes very unique, you seriously don't find these kind of desserts at a lot of places.

Italian Iced Coffee

My girlfriend paid tremendous compliments to her best bud who has never served her any desserts available in the menu everytime she visits. And this time there's no difference, we have a specially-made chocolate pancake dessert pre-ordered.

Unnamed Dessert specially made for us!

Am pretty satisfied with the environment and food, I've never tried having supper in such cosy cottage with such colourful walls. And the final bill that came that night was pretty astonishing as well, we spent only RM60.00 on 5 pancake desserts and 5 drinks. Quite a bargain compared to any other eateries along Gurney Drive.

Mango Cup

Crépes Cottage is located at 77-A, Gurney Drive, Penang Island. You can contact Agnes at 019-448 1680 for reservations especially on weekends as there are limited tables in the air-conditioned cottage. For a large gathering of sorts you'll need to sit in the lawn outside, but you'll get the enjoy the breezy wind at night.

Great place to hang out during weekends, too bad they closes at midnight. But they don't mind if you sit around chatting the night away as long as you pays the bill!

whisked away...

I took the last Friday off and left for a short relaxing trip to Malacca. Time to take a short break from work before the busy season approaches. And it's 0.5 of another resolution fulfilled for the year 2008.

Took off around late noon and arrived Malacca Town in less than 2 hours, my girlfriend and I went straight to Jonker Walk's dessert house for a nice bowl of durian cendol. Hanged around until 6pm and when our ex-housemates were off work, we met up for a satay celup session, slurp!

After dinner, we headed back to Jonker Walk for a little shopping spree, but I was obviously very exhausted that night, my legs were wobbly and my eyes were watery even though the clock has not hit 11pm yet. Spent the night at my ex-housemates' rented apartment, which was quite comfy (and those buggers are renting it for RM2XX a month, OMG how the prices differ from KL properties!!!).

The following morning we headed back the street again for some chicken rice ball, before going to the infamous A Farmosa and the Santiago Fort. We took a trishaw ride around the Stadhuys just to kill time, before heading down to Muar to look for my ex-housemate (the same one, working in Malacca but went back to hometown in Muar). We again had some food fest, went for some char koay teow, pork and pork intestine satays and the last but not least, Muar's signature food otak-otak! Well, there's nothing much about the trip other than food, but when you travel for food you go for good food, hahahaha...

Meanwhile, I've captured a better picture of Cactus, this time with a decent camera.

Introducing, Cactus!!!

I like to pretend to look like some soft toy...

Uploaded a large image, but I reduced the quality because this blog kept returning errors when I tried uploading a bigger file size.

cactus...

Finally, some photos of my hedgehog...:)

I've decided to name this little bugger 'Cactus', for obvious reasons. He has a bitemark on his right ear, and I don't think it can fully recover and grow back the missing part. But this guy's still as handsome as ever.

Made him a tupperware home for snuggling during the day time.

Busy exploring and sniffing around in my room when I brought him up first time.

More interested in nibbling the tissue. Bad boy!

Trying to run away when I picked him up. This fella can't sit still.



After all the hassle, decided to take a nap and ignore me.

Yummy!!! Dinner time for Cactus. The bowl's always empty by the time I wake up in the morning.

Took these pictures using my camera phone, hence the bad quality. Wait till I bring home a DSLR, there'll be better shots for uploading...;)

Someone has offered me another female salt & pepper hedgehog, together with the cage, food, and the wheel as well, at quite a bargain price because he is moving and is no longer able to keep it. I'm still wondering if I should get it, will it be too early for me to have 2? I'm still learning new things with Cactus everyday, I doubt if a second one coming now would be a good time. Heck, today I spent half an hour chasing after the little bugger in the house when I took him out to clean his cage.