Me, Yuin & Li Yi took a drive down to Putrajaya to watch at least ONE session of the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2008 since I completely missed last year’s.

It was my first time down to Putrajaya too, but since it was at night, and we were in a rush, I wasn’t quite able to enjoy the famed architecture and landscaping there.

Stopped by the roadside and enjoyed the 20 minutes spectacle! Yuin was busy snapping away with her SLR hehe, so the photos here are courtesy from her..

Although not as impressive as the professional galleries you can see online (we didn’t have a tripod, or proper lenses), but they are still nice..

FoOie + YY + Elmo = Explosive..

Potong stim - me and Li Yi’s punya background fireworks macam mati pucuk… *sweat*

Sorry ar, the photos I took for the both of you ended up even worse hahaha

Rock Climbing!

I haven’t been rock climbing in years! Around 7 to be exact.. since Gilagang days when I used to climb at The Summit. Although I was a certified belayer back then, I completely forgot all my knots.. but this was one helluva nice refresher course for me..

Helluva nice because:

1. It was my first time at Camp5 in 1U, and I’m VERY impressed with their facilities, friendly members, trainers, etc.
2. Climbing with Hooi Lian, Li Yi, and their friends!
3. I haven’t exerted myself quite like this in a LOOOONG while. It felt good, the workout, the challenge.. My arms and legs were literally jelly for the next few days.

That’s Li Yi reaching the end of her super high ‘yellow’ route.. I tried the same course, but couldn’t finish the last 2 handholds!

And me, no strength left to proceed anymore

Good load of healthy fun. Pushes yourself to your limits. Makes you wanna overcome your fears. Meet friends in the process.

Soo does anyone wanna take up a membership plan with me? Lemme know!

Andrea got the suite at Redbox Plus in Pavillion for her 24th birthday party, opened 4 bottles, had a buffet dinner for all, and it lasted from 8pm all the way till 3am…

I may not go to the karaoke very often, but the room was the biggest I’ve been in. Projector screen, side tables and bar stools, private toilet, fleece rugs & pillows, cordless mikes, JBL speakers, LCD TV (Olympics broadcast) and all the space to run around, dance and make complete fools of ourselves.

We took a total of 300+ photos with the 3 main cameras from Jacq, Nic & Nish that night (all Canon Ixus by the way). I’ll let them do the talking..

Panoramic view of the room, when things have yet to turn wild..

R-L : Andrea’s brother Adrian, Jacq, Amber Chia, her sister, and her friend (dunno them wan.. haha)

The gamblers.. L-R : Constipated Nic, Chin li, Ziet & Lam

Clockwise from lower right : Tanya, Sue Ann, Faz, FoOie (dropping a marshmallow into mouth), Andrea, Nish, Nic & Uma

And… what is a karaoke without pictures of people hard at work singing!

The FoO brothers!

Faz : “We are the cheeky girls, Touch my bum this is life!” Tanya : “OK!”

Our hostess and birthday girl, really getting INTO her song..

Nish all emo now..

Singing our hearts out (badly)

Andrea tipsy & high

Of course, under the influence of alcohol, and in the company of friends that we feel completely uninhibited with, one tends to do reallllly crazy things. So many photos that I can’t put up here sadly, as they are all hilarious, embarassing, and PRICELESS.. Oh well, as agreed - what happened in that room, stays in that room..

Truly unforgettable.

It’s been awhile since I last played Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow.. I missed a few of their earlier ‘gathering of the Wolves’, so I was determined not to miss this mega session on Nish’s birthday!

Took me an hour to piece together the above panorama from 5 separate photos. It’s a bird’s eye view of the game from where I was sitting.. Feel free to click on it to see the larger version!

For those who do not know how the game goes.. Here’s generally what happens during a game turn.

Before the game starts, character cards (consisting of villagers and werewolves) are randomly dealt to each player facedown. Players are allowed to see their characters, but are not allowed to show them to anyone else..

Moderator : Night falls and everyone goes to sleep
Everyone : *everyone closes their eyes*
Moderator : Werewolves, open your eyes.. who would you like to kill tonight?
Werewolves : *silently & secretly chooses their victim*
Moderator : Ok, werewolves go back to sleep.. Town wakes up…. and finds poor XyZ killed in his sleep!

*Now EVERYONE must discuss, accuse, defend, lie, bullshit, bluff, deflect and nominate their way into choosing ONE poor sod to sacrifice in the name of justice.*

Moderator : Has everyone made a decision? Ready? Cast your votes!
Everyone : *everyone points at who they think is a werewolf..*
Moderator : Ok, ABC I’m so sorry, you have been put to the death by the villagers. *turn over ABC’s character card* Oh No guys! you have just killed an innocent villager!

… And the cycle continues with another night, until either all the werewolves have been hunted down, or all the villagers are dead…

And that’s only the ultra simplified version. We have a whole lot of special character cards that introduces different abilities to every villager - the Seer, the Little Girl, the Hunter, the Witch, the Cupid, etc. and that’s not counting the other stuff from the expansion pack hehe..

“She’s the werewolf” “NO SHE’s the Werewolf!”

“OK OK, fasterr.. cast your votes!”

“Happy Birthday Nish!”

Absolutely delicious Tiramisu cake from Suchan Deli.. MUST TRY! I had two slices mann..

Of course, that session wasn’t quite the end.. We got around to playing it again at Andrea’s place just a few days later!

SkyBar

In September last year, I blogged about my first visit to SkyBar at Trader’s Hotel. Yuinie (whom I’ve yet to meet then) left a comment on my post expressing an interest in checking the place out too.. Ever since, I was supposed to take her visit SkyBar, and the plans only finally came through now - almost a year later!

Poor Darrell tak boleh masuk initially cause underdressed, but managed to get him in eventually..

The Ladies : Sue Yin, Hooi Lian, Li Yi & Yuinie

It was their first time, so we were well equipped with cameras.. chilled out a bit and took some photos, before heading back.

L-R : Li Yi, FoOie & Darrell

I didn’t realize she was THAT drunk in this shot haha..

With my eyes closed, I wasn’t aware that they weren’t posing drunk… eeshk

Went down to Subang for a few rounds of pool and getting trashed at it by Darrell. Hmmph at YY and LY for FFK-ing!

*Note* Very long post ahead with tonnes of photos. Photos with a maroon border around it means that they are click-able if you want to see a higher res image.

Day 1

The flight there took us about 3 hours. The plane was packed - not a single seat was left empty.

Along the way, we actually managed to see 2 volcanoes - one of them in the midst of an eruption!

We stayed at Hard Rock Hotel on Kuta Beach for the entire duration of our trip. Lemme just add by saying that Hard Rock Hotel was a great choice - you can’t go wrong it.

That’s our cozy room with 2 huge queen sized beds. The pool was so jaw-droppingly magnificent, the above picture doesn’t do it justice. It extends further to the left with a section for water polo, more sunbathing lounge chairs, and even a man made sandy area for beach volleyball…

Grabbed a quick late lunch at a nearby deli, then headed to the beach to sit down and..

.. watch the sunset

Checked out some commercialized shops just behind the hotel, grabbed some groceries, and almost got conned by a ’scratch and win’ promotion scheme… (don’t ask). Took a cab to look for Immi’s old friend Leslie at his workplace - Hu’s Bar - in Seminyak. A classy place with what one of the best outdoor garden lounge designs I have seen…

L-R : Pia, Leslie, Immi & FoOie

After a lonng chat (thanks Leslie for the drinks!), we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest..

Day 2

I took my time to wake up this morning, the bed was just way toooo comfy. Immi managed to squeeze in a breakfast session all by herself, and even a short swim at the pool while I only got up just in time (Yeah, I can be quite the sleepyhead)to get ready for our white water rafting trip!

Bad traffic conditions (road closures and construction) caused a major delay in our ETA, and it took us 3 hours to get to our drop off point at the Telaga Waja river. However, we managed to see some interesting sights along the way..

Balinese women have an incredible ability to balance crazy heavy loads on their heads. And I NEVER saw any of the men doing the same…

A collective community cremation. That huge tower is called a “wada” which houses the body of the deceased and is carried by the villagers to the cremation site. That small shelter on the left houses a huge black bull - symbol of the Brahma caste, which will house the sarcophagus of the body just before it is cremated.

This small lorry was carting THREE cows in the back.. I tried to take a picture as we drove past - but obviously, it didn’t quite turn out right. Poor cow on the left, forced to endure his partner’s u-know-what…

Of course, there were many more interesting sights and sounds that I didn’t manage to capture on camera. There was a man shepherding a whole flock of ducklings on the main road (bloody cute), an old lady bathing topless by the roadside, kids waving and shouting hello to the van (cause there were some foreigners with us).. etc.

We eventually reached our destination, was introduced to our guide - Johnny, and the fun begins..

The river is located deep in a valley, which required us to hike down some steep steps in order to reach it. Beautiful, peaceful and idyllic scenery here…

One of the rest stops, with a gorgeous waterfall..

The valley itself is filled with waterfalls, each one of them cascading over the tall edges. Johnny purposely took us under the one ahead in this photo, and got us all drenched..

A photo of us taken by a professional photographer. That’s Johnny sitting behind us, doing ALL of the work..

Along the way, its not surprising to see some natives washing their clothes by the riverside - or more commonly, bathing - stark naked. When we pass by, they’d abashedly curl up and sit down in the river to hide themselves with a sheepish grin, while the women will cover their breasts with their hands..

When we passed this bunch of bathing kids, they cheekily splashed water all over us! Not before I managed to take these 2 photos.. Hah!

After having our simple meal after the rafting adventure, we started our journey home. Due to the earlier delays, I reached back too late to try out bungee jumping - which was initially on my agenda.. Immi went for a spa at night, while I went for a walk around town…

Interesting piece of info gleaned from Immi’s masseuse - Traditionally, girls in Bali (and Java) apparently get married as young as 13 years old, and for a woman to reach the age of 20 without getting married means shes usually not wanted. Some of them won’t even go through the marriage ceremony unless she can prove that she can get pregnant - which means the guy usually gets the girl pregnant first. Men there also practice polygamy. A waitress we spoke to confessed that she is her husband’s 3rd wife, and he sits at home while all 3 of his wifes work and bring home the income.. haha. (I’m SURE this doesn’t apply to ALL Balinese :P)

Followed by a mini night picnic by the beach side..

Day 3

A very early morning start, as we chartered a private van, with a driver and a guide to take us on a full day tour around Bali…

The first half of the trip was us checking out the arts and crafts for which the Balinese are renowned for..

Our first stop was to see how the Balinese do their hand weaving using a loom (on the left), and using wax to dot out the outlines in their batik (on the right).

We also stopped by to see how handmade wood carvings are done, as well as visit a painter’s house.

It was at the above painter’s house that the traditional Balinese home structure and architecture was explained to us. After entering their narrow front gate, you will often see a wall called an ‘aling-aling’ meant to ward off evil spirits. The remainder of the house is divided into separate compounds - one for praying (usually in the direction facing Mt. Agung), a central court for ceremonies, single story blocks to house different family members (husband-wife, kids, grandparents, etc.), and a cooking area.

The Balinese are very spiritual and religious - each household has an entire area filled with altars dedicated to their respective Hindu Gods and ancestors.

Sights like this are very common, especially in the town of Batubulan which is famous for its stone carvings.

We also stopped by to visit a silver & goldsmithing shop, and we got to preview some of their silverware pieces - many of which are really tribal and aren’t easy to find in Malaysia.. Didn’t have much time to shop though, there were still tonnes to do for the rest of the day..

Me and Immi were also curious to see if we could locate any Kopi Luwak during our trip there, and we asked our guide to take us to look for it - hence the next stop was a coffee and spice garden..

A guy demonstrating how beans are roasted and pounded, while the pretty young lass served us our coffee..

Just in case you didn’t know, here’s how Kopi Luwak is made.. A sample of 2 coffee cherries. Green ones are unripe, while the red ones are ripe. The civet cat (aka luwak), eats these cherries, and digests the fruit except for the seed (coffee bean) which passes through its digestive tract and undergoes certain chemical and enzyme changes. It’s PooPoo is collected, and the beans processed into the famous/infamous Kopi Luwak - the rarest, most novel and most expensive coffee in the world..

I spent almost RM100 on 2×100gm jars - relatively cheap, since according to Wiki, a cafe in the States were selling a cup of kopi luwak for USD99 each..

OK, next up - drive to Kintamani for lunch while gazing at the spectacular view of the still active volcano - Mt. Batur, and the largest lake on Bali - Batur Lake.

Took me an hour to piece this panoramic shot together, but at least you can also now appreciate what I saw there. The black streaks down the mountain sides are old lava flows, which is mostly harvested for the sand and volcanic rock for Balinese construction and agriculture..

If you squint, you’ll see a small white stretch on the right of the volcano, across the lake. This is the ancient village of Trunyan, accessible only by boat, and the only remainder of the original Balinese settlers which have not been influenced by the Javanese Majapahit in the 14th century. One of their unique cultures is that they do not bury or cremate their dead, but instead leave them in the open under a Banyan tree to decompose. The Banyan tree surprisingly eliminates any odor from the decomposition. I would love to go see this macabre bone filled cemetery myself one day..

Okay next up! A trip to the largest temple in all of Bali, the mother temple of Besakih. We all had to wear a sarong before being allowed into the temple, both as a sign of respect and to cover our knees.

The entrance to the main temple courtyard. Small statues line both the left and right of the stairs - one side with characters from the Ramayana epics, while the other from the Mahabharata epics. Much of Bali is filled with similiar statues from both these Hindu stories, so having knowledge of both epics might help you identify and relate to what you see in Bali better..

It’s personally my good fortune to be able to visit this temple on one of its busiest days - a communal cremation and prayers day. As it was evening, much of the cremation ceremonies have finished, and villagers from all over Bali has changed into a yellow/white garb to come to the temple and ‘invite the spirits of their ancestors back home with them’.

They pray and receive blessing by touching some rice to their foreheads, heart and mouth as a symbol of prosperity.

We hiked up to the highest temple in the Northern part of Besakih, ‘Pura Gelap’ dedicated to Vishnu, before hiking back down to our transport for a loonng drive back down south to Tanah Lot. We were rushing there so that we could catch the famous sunset there, but along the way, we ended up with a..

…flat tire. That’s Made (pronounced mud-deh) our tour guide waving at the camera, and Nyoman our driver changing the tire..

By the time we got there however, the sun had already set, but there was still a little light left. The temple is named Tanah Lot as Tanah = ground, while Lot is a local pronunciation of Laut = sea. Hence its known as the Temple on the sea.. or something like that..

It was low tide, so people could walk across to the temple to take some photos.. Ordinarily, the temple would seem like its floating in the sea as per its name..

Once it got too dark, we began the final leg of our journey - to another famous spot, the long stretch of Jimbaran beach, which is transformed into a massive dining area by the sea, with delicious BBQ grilled seafood.. mmmm..

Jimbaran

My dinner.. BBQ prawns, squid, mussels and red snapper.. I swear it’s actually a lot more delicious than it looks!

FoOie & Immi

Day 4

Slept in, woke up late, and checked out of our hotel. Nothing much to do in 1 hour, so we headed down to Kuta beach again to lounge there and look at people surfing (there were a lot of them). Most were probably there to train for the Rip Curl surfing competition which was being held that week..

Pinky & Patrick sunbathing

A surfer dude..

Kuta Beach!

Got on the plane, and ordered lunch from AirAsia’s new menu. The pictures on the menu all fake wan! Haha, the actual presentation of the food is a lot less appetizing, but I can assure you - it was pretty damn tasty..

When we touched down, we still had hunger pangs, and had some craving for pork, so we headed to Midvalley’s Mr. Ho’s Fine Foods for some of their..

Sausage Feast & Roast Pork.. YUM.

Lugged our luggage into the cinema to watch a night movie (X-Files : I Want To Believe), before heading home at midnight for some much needed rest…

It was an unforgettable trip. It isn’t often that I get a chance to absorb so much of a local culture during such a short trip, that it actually made me want to dedicate more time to finding out about the Balinese way of life. Sadly, many of the Balinese have been undergoing a lot of hardship since the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings.

Immi was a great travel companion - not many girls could have shared in the spirit of adventure, curiosity and discovery that usually hits me on such trips. She was happily throwing her own questions, joking with, and befriending the natives that we came into contact with. We got so many awkward “Here on Honeymoon? Married? Bf Gf?” questions that we ended up playing along to it just to avoid explaining ourselves (they CANNOT comprehend a girl and a guy who is unattached coming to these trips) - which eventually led to even more unexpected awkward situations:

For example, while taking a photo for us, the cameraman will always go “closer, closer… romantic a bitt” *sweat*
Or we’d end up discussing with our tour guide about HIS personal love problems, about how many kids we should have, the best positions to get a boy or a girl… *sweatx10*.. hahaha..

Would I come back to Bali again? Definitely. One day when I have my scuba license, so I can go check out the shipwreck up north in Lovina, or if I haven’t yet bungee jumped, at least I now know where I can do it. I have yet to taste their famous Babi Guling or Crispy Duck, see the Uluwatu Kecak dance, the many other temples, hike up one of the volcanoes to peer into the crater, etc. And when I have money, I also now know where to get some very interesting interior decor for my future home..

Anyway, after trying it out, I can only say this.. “I LOVE IT!”

Over the last year, Facebook has become synonymous with massive hordes of viral applications that serve no real purpose, with many of them doing the same thing in different ways. Send me a hatching egg, no send me a growing gift instead.. no SPAM BOTH of em as gifts. Poke your friends, no, superpoke them better, or X them or Hug them or whatever. Write on your wall, your Superwall, your Advanced Wall, heck got nothing to write, so just forward lameass videos, other peoples artwork and chain letters. Vampires lar, Werewolves, Gangsters lar, Mafias, Soldiers lar, Knights, Anything lar.. iDescribe me, Superlatives, Nickname me, Have sex with me, etc etc etc etc. The list goes on and on and on..

Facebook literally became the biggest and most cluttered up social networking site (rivaling MySpace) and waste of time ever.

Honestly, I’d prefer to just log on to see new photos uploaded by my friends, read other friends notes comments and conversations, establish new contacts with like-minded people in Groups, get updated on latest events and who’s attending, chat, and more, instead of the silly stuff above.

The New Facebook does just that! It’s ultra streamlined, leaner, cleaner and meaner now. A lot more emphasis is placed on your relationships and social circle activities and the previous focus on useless apps has been removed.

Here’s what I like most about The New Facebook:

Awesome Feature #1 : Tabs!

I love tabs. Sometimes I wish I can tab everything and not just websites in my browser. The New Facebook automatically separates your Profile into 3 main tabs - Your Wall, Info and Photos. Which is great, because it minimizes clutter and these are the 3 main things people want to see when they visit your profile anyway.

What’s even better is that you can also add your favourite Application into New tabs! You know all those movable hideable windows that your various apps used to have in your old Facebook profile? Well, you can move ALL of them into a Tab called Boxes. Talk about compartmentalizing! At least I don’t have to leave them cluttering up my Facebook profile now.

Awesome Feature #2 : The Publisher

You can post new photos, write on your wall, publish new stuff, write a new Note, update your status, etc etc, simply by accessing your own Profile. Less hassle..

Awesome Feature #3 : The NEW Wall

The biggest change of all IMHO. The Wall has now been MERGED with the News Feed! Now your profile page just shows a long list of the latest news related to you, as well as Wall messages from your friends. True that it might be hard to find certain things - but that’s easily remedied with a Wall ‘Filter’ which allows you to split your Wall posts into either posts from yourself and posts from your friends.

Fuck the other walls and their spam content man.

Awesome Feature #4 : New Sidebar

This narrow spot is now the only place for you to park applications that you want to display on Facebook. At this time, it seems that most applications do not display properly when parked there, as its too narrow. But I wouldn’t mind putting a few relevant and useful apps here (eg. a birthday calendar, my daily horoscope, motivational quotes).. But I had some major problems getting most apps to display here for now.. guess the application developers have some updating to do…

And now the BEST PART. IF you click on a friend’s link to view THEIR profile…

You can now ‘comment’ on almost EVERY single Wall post / News Feed on their profile page! XXX just added YYY as a friend and you want to comment? Comment away! XXX joined YYY group, comment away! Hey, you can even have a ‘comment conversation’ on just a single news feed! This should be the right way to maintain social circles at a networking site like Facebook - rather than through all the pointless applications..

Currently, you can choose to use the New Facebook by logging into the new URL at http://www.new.facebook.com in case Facebook’s ‘Try Me’ link doesn’t work.

There will definitely be resistance to change no doubt - especially by many of the application developers and their respective fans, since the concept has changed quite radically. For example, when Airin first tried it out - she was upset that she couldn’t see her FluffPet (and her beautifully decorated habitat) on her Profile page anymore (which also means that public profile viewers might not be able to ‘pet, feed or race’ her Pet as often). I completely understand her since I once actively used that app before… but I’m sure its just a matter of getting used to how certain things work.. I for one have added my Fluff Friends to a tab of its own..

There are plenty of other minor changes (social ad placements, the way photos are handled, homepage layout, etc.) Overall however, I see this is as a good sign for Facebook, as its maturing into something that will be functionally better for its users at the end of the day. We just have to keep an open mind…

For those who don’t know what GilaGang is, I already wrote a little about it in my first ‘guest-blogging’ article over here at Jen’s blog, while she elaborated even more about this GilaBodega session here.

The only reason we had it at La Bodega was because our initial plan to have it at Zouk’s Mambo Night didn’t materialize due to poor response. Doesn’t seem like we might actually manage to hold a GilaCubbing session anytime soon now.. haha.

Hmm, I wonder what other Gila stuff we can do together..

Anyway, here are the way overdue photos from that night. And just because I’ve never done this before, I’m gonna go about introducing each and everyone to my dear readers - which happens to be your goodselves!

Top : FoOie, Bottom L-R : Siew Keng, Meiz

Since I refer to everyone by their original Chinese names as I’ve come to know them, thus Siew Keng will always be affectionately known as Siew Keng, SK or KangKang to me (rather than Rosalind) hehe.. I’ve had plenty of fun times with this girl many years ago, and it caught me completely by surprise when she announced her plans for marriage by this year end.

What’s awesome was that I was right there with her when she first met her husband-to-be Naz. At THAT time, she was actually interested in Naz’s other friend TY *husssh*, but it was Naz who eventually managed to steal her heart. They’ve been together for almost 5 years now. Well Kangkang, I’ve got lots of interesting/compromising photos of you, including our spastic sessions in Bel’s room - which I shall reveal to the public one day when the time is right OK? hehe..

Meiz! The feisty witty carnivorous chiq who was supposed to be my ‘geisha‘ since she affectionately calls me her ‘danna‘.. This poor danna however never got any action from her though.. I was never served tea, she has never plucked at a shamisen , nor danced for me either.. so lousy right.. cis. Nevermind, this danna never buys or sponsors her training and kimonoes anyway.

L-R : Jason & FoOie

Jason aka Spinky! The biggest buaya in GilaGang - ’nuff said. Even came in with a shirt proclaiming that he “Scored Last Night”.. just too bad it didn’t quite turn out right in the above photo though haha.. Bring lar your gf to the next GilaGathering.. How can you let her miss out on your history weyyy.. We’ve got so many juicy stories to tell..

L-R : Katharina, Kok Keong, Pui Ling & FoOie

Katharina! Kok’s German friend from Perth who’s here to visit for a few days. A very friendly chatty girl, who’s studying film! Bravo for actually daring to taste that small piece of durian girl.. Kok Keong, no need introduction lar - knew this bugger when we were just kids, and now he’s ran off to hide his face in Perth. I haven’t seen him for 2 years before his trip back in July.. and now that he’s gone back to Perth, I probably won’t see him again for another 2 years..

Oh Pui Ling, one of the most sporting girls I know! Started off really skinny and somewhat tomboyish, but really blossomed into this hawt babe in recent years. Haha, unknown to most, she’s also a closet bookworm, and is the reason for my recent spat of chiq literature that I’ve been reading. Mind you, her recommendations have all been awesome.

Top : FoOie, Bottom L-R : Low Jen, Pei Pei & Faz

Low Jen! A semi-shy, yet super friendly, soft spoken adorable girl who’s just finished her CLP exams, and is gonna be a practicing lawyer very soon. Dont prei prei… and her CUTE friend Pei Pei (pun intended ), whom I didn’t get to talk to much that night (unfortunately) hahaha. Her demure, charming smile, masks one helluva husky sexy voice. Oh well, hopefully got other opportunities..

Faz.. What can I say. Every year that passes, she becomes that much cooler to hang out with. This picture doesn’t do justice to her recently shaved Mohawk crew cut. You’ll probably bump into her if you frequent local gigs as she plays a mean-ass guitar in her jazz band. Faz, you are my soul sista - cause we both have the ability to emo very well. hahahaha

And finally a groupshot minus Peix2

Sooo many more missing GilaGangers, hopefully will get to intro the rest after the next gathering. GilaBodega was quite a success!

BTW, as promised, no more pimples!

On the way to paradise!

As we rushed to get there before the sun set, I sped most of the way (averaging at 150kph) - which was fast enough that I didn’t have to cut to the slow lane even once during my entire drive there. And guess what. Roadblock. Only for the police to wave my car across! PHEW. And then, tempting fate (what are the odds of 2 roadblocks on the same highway), I continued my pace. Only to get into another roadblock.. who were just happening to pack up. Talk about G-LUCK. Lesson learned - don’t speed to East Coast in the daytime.

Had dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, and then drove North towards Kerteh to see the amazing petrochemical refineries along the coast. At night, the view of the structures here can be quite spectacular - like some futuristic sci-fi city of lights and fire - literally, as rows of pylons continuously spew flame into the night sky that it turns it partly reddish.

.. and a strange green patch on my chest.

Back to the room for a round of our favourite boardgame.. and then off we go down to the beach for a night walk..

with Ken’s SLR in tow..

for some ridiculous night shots.. (the things we do when its dark)

and some very interesting photos done by setting the camera to overexpose for about 30 seconds while we draw images in the dark with our lit handphones.. (Images c & d were completely unplanned - we didn’t know what the other dude was gonna draw..)

1. (Ken) HELLO, (Ui Hua) FRON (can’t spell in the dark), (FoOie) KUANTAN
2. (FoOie) Car on left colliding with, (Ken) Car on right, (Ui Hua) Guy in center Exploding.. (you can see a bit of the silhoutte!)
3. (Ui Hua) Camera pointing at, (Ken) Couple having sex, (FoOie) outside a House… hmm
4. (Ui Hua) Penis, (Ken) Dog, (FoOie) Teeth filled Jaws.. hmmmmmx2…

Getting a little too Freudian for our tastes…

As we only had two breakfast coupons, Jacq and Ken did the honors by smuggling up this amazing selection of pastries in her handbag for us!

We checked out, and headed down to the coastline for some fun and sun..

First time ATV Quad Biking - although its the smaller version of the real things, these 4-wheelers are still loads of fun!

rented a volleyball and got my forearms all swollen from some umm.. volleying, followed by some netball dunking..

and some swimming..

..and some lounging in the sun/shade..

..Before we all decided its time to headback to KL. Stopped by for dinner at Kemaman for some stuffed crab, then zoomed home (I followed the speed limit this time I swear..)

Hey Fei, if you are reading this, I’d just like to wish you ALL the best in your future undertakings over at Sydney, and may you find actuarial science a piece of cake (as you no doubt will with a sharp mind like yours).. What surprises me is that you also have a natural affinity for the arts - an observation based entirely on your flair for photography and captioning your photos (small evidence over at your blog), the beautifully expressive letters and messages you write and let’s not even get started on those tear jerking videos you are capable of directing, editing and filming. And ALL of this have rubbed off on me by showing me ways in how I should express myself more (as a typically unemotional male)..

It’s been a great few months of getting to know you - the spontaneous, fun loving, friendly and adventurous girl I’ll come to miss in the days ahead. Stay happy, stay cool and stay pretty over there! And PLEASE cut down on the caffeine!

Fei a little teary-eyed over at KLIA

A Drink with Sandie

Ah! Finally got to meet up with Sandie aka Squiikivois again for a one-on-one chat after soooOOoo longggggg.

The sweetest, cutest girl I know (I’m not exaggerating), and someone I really look up to for her decision to drop her full time job (after graduating in Finance), to pursue her lifelong passion to teach piano instead. Sandie, we really should have more drinks like this, and hopefully soon!

Movie with Yuin Yin & Friends

Went out with Yuin Yin and 2 of her friends whom I got to know off the web. Who says you can’t make new friends online nowadays?

It’s been awhile since I last saw YY since she had to go back to Russia to continue her medical studies, and THEN she had to head off to Europe for a long road trip (jeles betul).

L-R : Darrell Tan & Yuin Yin

L-R : FoOie & Li Yi

Yuin Yin maintains a blog of her own over at yuinyin.com, and we got to know each other because I was inspired by her personal tales of her fight against cancer late last year. I left an encouraging comment on her blog then, and I haven’t looked back since. Li Yi, I got to meet during the first ice-breaker with Yuin back in January - a fellow Facebooker and ex-Warbooker whom we also tease as The Legendary D Cup Girl . And of course Darrell Tan - the crazy joker whom I have Friends for Sale to thank as he kept buying me and giving me silly nicknames.

Shockingly, it seems that me and Darrell have been introduced before… possibly EIGHT years ago during an old Gilagang gathering in Sunway Pyramid, by our mutual pal Hui Mei! And here we are meeting up again in a completely different situation with different people… What a freaking small world…

Andrienne’s Farewell

My deepest condolences to Andrea and her family with the passing of Andrienne (Andrea’s elder sister) on the 21st July to cancer.

Although I never really got to know Andrienne personally, what really amazed me was how she ALWAYS remembered my name every time we met. It’s a cruel world for Andrienne to be taken away at such a tender age of 31, leaving behind her 2 young adorable sons Adam and Joshua. Having also just lost my grandfather late last year to cancer, I’ve come to realize just how fragile life really is, and how we should treasure every single moment that we have.. My heart really goes out to you Andrea..

Been having some second thoughts about putting the following photo up - it is ashamedly the only photo of Andrienne that I have, taken more than 5 years ago during Adam’s full moon party. Oh, what the heck - if it’s my only photo of her, I might as well, as this shall be my personal remembrance of her (in this blog) for the years ahead..

That’s Andrienne in pink standing in the background of this photo, and yeah, that’s Fei, Angeline and Jacq during a time when I have yet to hang out with them..

It was Fei’s last few nights here before she flies off to Oz for her studies, so we initially aimed to hit Skybar. However, due to delays, we arrived AFTER the Twin Towers lights were switched off, and Ken was unable to take any nice pics of the KL nightline with his Nikon SLR. But we did adjourn to Hartamas Devi’s for drinks and Shisha and we subsequently went crazy with our cameras.

L-R : Ui Hua, FoOie, Fei & Ken

There’s a first time for everything haha.. Won’t be making a habit of this though..

L-R : Jacq, Ui Hua, Fei & Ken

After yum char, we were a little bored, so we decided to head down to Subang AsiaCafe for some late night pool..

Credits to Fei for this cool photo How fast do you think I was driving?

…..Teamwork…..

I still suck at this game man..

Ken the hustler!

Superfly! Despite being flicked off, pinched and thrown off, and rolled over by a pool ball, it still keeps coming back for more…

I don’t smoke Shisha, so this was the first night that I really gave it a go. It has also been awhile since I actually touched a pool que, and it brought back lots of memories too.. We took so many nice photos that I just don’t have the space to put them all up here.. but you probably wouldn’t wanna see more camwhoring photos of ourselves in the same place anyway haha..

Don’t worry, I’ve got a backlog of other photos and posts to write.. more to come!

• Where do I even begin. The movie I’ve been waiting for all year, and the amount of hype, anticipation and news regarding it left me with insanely high expectations. This also got me worried as that would make the movie really hard to live up to my standards.
• My fears were misplaced though, because after the 2.5 hours of screentime, I left with my jaw open and completely satisfied. Christopher Nolan is now firmly rooted as my favourite director of ALL time. Christian Bale, who has always been my fave actor since Equilibrium and The Prestige, secured his standing in my list as well. I don’t even need to heap anymore praise on Heath Ledger’s role as The Joker - if he doesn’t at least get an Oscar nod for best actor, I swear I’ll cry foul of the highest degree. The Dark Knight left me with goosebumps even days after the movie.

• The Joker is downright one of the most sinister villains to ever grace the big screen. If there was anything I’d regret about the movie, is that Heath Ledger will not be able to reprise his role in any subsequent Batman sequels.
• The plot was solidly written, all the actors were amazing and the action scenes were gratifying. You are constantly left at the edge of your seat, not knowing how things will end, and where the movie was gonna take you. The dark ruthless Gotham City never felt more alive as a breathing entity, filled with citizens that are accurate portrayals of our current societies, paranoid over terrorism and crime, and distrustful over anything abnormal. This movie is an epic clash between 2 memorable comic characters and their disturbing personas, while its intelligent portrayal of good vs evil and right vs wrong deserves the highest praise.
• Ironman was a kids movie compared to this. The Dark Knight is without a doubt, not only the best superhero movie ever but also a superbly crafted action crime thriller that few can compare with. Hopefully this will set the standards for ALL other comic/game/novel adaptations that follows…
• At the time of writing, The Dark Knight has an unbelievable 9.6/10 on IMDB (out of 70,000 votes), and is ranked as the NUMBER 1 movie of all time on IMDB Top 250. It also scored a whopping 94% on Rottentomatoes. Well, I’ll let the figures speak for themselves.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D (2008)

• This movie is currently being shown in only 1 hall in the whole country - Midvalley GSC Hall 4. It wasn’t easy getting tickets for it either, as most people started getting them 2 days in advance due to the limited seats.
• The only other full length 3D movie I watched before this was Polar Express @ IMAX many many years ago. Other 3D experiences was the short theme park versions in both Gold Coast and back here in Malaysia. This is my first proper full length movie purposely filmed for 3D that had real actors and actresses instead of computer animations.
• Let’s just say that the result is simply breathtaking. Not to mention the movie takes place in strange new places giving the entire movie a surreal atmosphere. Nothing beats jumping out of your seat or all the other myriad reactions you will get as things fly, splash, pop up and are thrown at your face. In 3D, this movie is truly visually arresting.
• Forget the thin unoriginal plot (I read the original Jules Verne book some time ago), or the sub-par acting, or the lame script, or the lack of any real action and how it all seemed to end so quickly. Forget all that, because this was not meant to be a serious movie to begin with. When it comes down to it - this movie is perfect to watch with friends and family just so that you can laugh about it later (or remember how you tried to duck or move your head away).
• Don’t watch this in a normal non-3D cinema. Pay the extra for 3D. It’s definitely worth it.
• P.S. 3D version has no subtitles of any sort - so if you can’t catch English very well, you’ve been warned.

Hancock (2008)

• Hancock is a guy with some amazing superpowers - strength, flight, invulnerability - but he’s got no memory of his past, and is a useless alcoholic with complete disregard for the people around him. Then he saves a nice PR guy (Jason Bateman), who then tries to change the public perception of him by encouraging him to become a better person. Hancock then unwittingly falls in love with the poor dude’s Hot wife (Charlize Theron) and following all this is a twist in the movie here I should not reveal.
• What is with Will Smith and his ability to command roles in extremely high budget yet sub-par blockbusters? The premise for all of his recent movies are always interesting - but usually lacking a great deal after a first watch through. This movie is no different (ala the disappointing I Am Legend). Plus his constantly pouty whiny face here just made me feel like smacking him throughout the movie.
• Regardless, this movie taps into the basic part of us that prefers seeing superhumans whom are still bound by ordinary human rules (just like in the Heroes series). There’s a somewhat strange exhilaration in seeing a junkie, drunk, asshole, LOSER rise above his humble beginnings to kick major ass and do the right things (kinda similar to Wanted).
• I completely disliked much of the later parts of the movie, as I felt the plot twist and explanation for it was too simplistic and convenient. I can’t elaborate more here without risk of ruining the movie for most people. Regardless, one shouldn’t take this movie too seriously and watch it with a pinch of salt. It was otherwise quite entertaining.

Wanted (2008)

• An adaptation from a comic book short series that I have not heard about - the trailers looked good, and the rating on IMDB wasn’t too bad either, which sparked my curiousity. It’s about a typical failure of a guy, whose life is changed completely when he gets tracked down by a fraternity of assassins, and is told that his ‘panic attacks’ if controlled allows him to slow time down and become a super killer (and do superhuman feats).
• Execution wise was not too bad, with lots of slow mo over the top action scenes paying tribute to movies like The Matrix and Equilibrium (which is never a bad thing). However, what I couldn’t accept was the constant use of the ‘bending the bullet’ technique - which anyone with any elementary logic in physics will know is impossible IRREGARDLESS of one’s ability to slow time down or have heightened reflexes.
• I read a bit of the comic later, and also came to realize that the movie only took the simplest of the plots to turn into a movie. The Wanted comic contained much more colorful characters and enemies ala Hellboy style. I can imagine most comic fans feeling a little cheated by this cheaper interpretation of the series.
• But all that aside, Wanted is still a lot of good clean enjoyable fun - and one movie any action fans shouldn’t miss.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

• Based on the award winning novel from Amy Tan of the same name, this is a deep retrospective movie that looks into the lives of 4 Chinese daughter-mother pairs and their corresponding relationships.
• No English movie has ever managed to capture the difficulties, and complexities regarding the personal lifes of Asian women quite as well as this one (although there are a few good Chinese films that did). Every single actress managed to bring their tragic strong women characters to life in this highly contemplative, moving, emotional, and meaningful movie.
• The Joy Luck Club is filled with moral values, great quotes and lessons to learn. Read the book if you can, and if you can’t this movie is probably the next best thing. If this movie doesn’t tug at your heartstrings / tear glands (even if you are a guy), there must be something wrong with you.

Get Smart (2008)

• A remake and throwback to a supposedly famous spy comedy from the 80’s. Too bad I never watched the originals, and can’t draw comparisons.
• Agent 23 (Steve Carell) - formally a paper pusher analyst for CONTROL, who is given field agent status (but lacks experience and gets himself into all sorts of shitty situations) and who teams up with Agent 99 (a downright breathtaking Anne Hathaway) to try and foil the terrorist group KAOS’s plan to nuke Los Angeles.
• This is stupid comedy at its purest (utter clumsiness, wardrobe malfunctions, and embarassing & outrageous situations rules the day) , and definitely worth a few good laughs. It’s not entirely dissimilar to Leslie Nielsen’s Naked Gun series, or the more recent Johnny English.. Only if you are up for some mindless entertainment..

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

• Great effort from DreamWorks Animation. They used to only have one decent animated movie under their belt (Shrek), but with this, they can safely say that they now have two. I can soo see this movie doing exceedingly well outside of the states.
• A tribute / parody to the true blue kung fu movies of old - always about a complete underdog who ends up becoming a powerful kung fu practitioner who saves the day by defeating the truly evil villain. If you’ve seen enough of the olden day kung fu movie classics (or series) you’ll know what I mean. You name it, they did it - from all the hardship trials and training sessions, typical chopstick fights, discovering hidden powers, paralyzing nerve strikes, and corny wisdom.
• Plenty of hilarious laugh out loud moments. Master Oogway anyone? Acupuncture scene? Shifu dying? Father revealing secret to son? Oh man, some great sarcastic slapstick comedy here.
• Very nicely done animated action sequences too including an awesome jail escape scene.
• Just didn’t enjoy the ‘rushed’ ending. Po’s sudden rise to power was quite unexplained, and left me wondering if I missed anything. This movie could have done much better with an extra 30 mins in it. It’s too short as it is. However, its still definitely a worthwhile watch..

I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

• A horrible lousy movie. Our heroine gets kidnapped and tortured/maimed by a serial killer, but when she’s found alive, she insists that shes not who everyone thinks she is, and that the real victim is still in mortal danger. The plot twist was decently original, although very poorly executed - and that’s about the ONLY good thing I can say about the movie.
• Interested in watching Lindsay Lohan give some of the most awful pole dancing ever? Fully clothed at that and not even the slightest bit erotic. I guess not. And it wasn’t even integral to the plotline.
• The writing, script, screenplay, direction, acting EVERYTHING was terrible. Some scenes were so utterly unbelievable and ridiculous, you’d be daft not to laugh or at least snigger. Note that this was the movie that won 8 Razzie Awards. EIGHT of them. lol. Why the heck did I even pop this into the DVD player. Urgh.

Alvin & The Chipmunks (2007)

• A remake of a cartoon from the 50’s (goodness, thats half a century ago!).
• Dave, a struggling lyricist and musician meets 3 singing chipmunks which he will eventually grow to love, and become their manager during their rise to fame. Simple plot of course, but poorly executed.. It was more or less just an endless trudge through monotony hoping for the next brief glimpses of the cute chipmunks. Heck, if you don’t like cute stuff, I suggest you run far far away.
• Shrill high pitched singing, forgettable songs and cute covers that you don’t wanna be caught dead hearing by your friends makes up most of the music in the movie.
• I unfortunately didn’t find ANY of the acting in the movie believable, nor did any portion of the script resonate with me emotionally. It’s like the movie spends way toooo much time trying to be adorable (which it succeeds with flying colors), but completely loses out on the stuff that makes a movie ‘good’.

Rendition (2007)

• Terrorist bomb explodes in Egypt killing an American. Wrongfully suspected Egyptian engineer (Omar Metwally) married to an American wife (Reese Witherspoon) gets kidnapped by American officials and is forced to undergo torture (under the Extraordinary Rendition act that allows Americans to capture, move and imprison individuals suspected of terrorism and deny them basic constitutional rights). Multiple storyline continues - wife tries to locate missing husband, High ranking Egyptian security official interrogates to try and find culprit of the bombing while his daughter runs away with a wrong chap and an assigned CIA Agent (Jake Gyllenhall) bears witness to the torture proceedings and comes face to face with his own conscience..
• Let’s not spoil too much here, Rendition is a fantastic drama thriller with an good twist near the end. It is superbly acted by ALL of the cast. The Egyptian subplots where the actors and actresses spoke in their native tongue was refreshing to see in a Hollywood production. Cinematography and direction was steady and focused and the musical score was befitting and haunting.
• More importantly, it raises a crucial question - is it OK to torture an individual if there is the chance that it may save others in our current terrorism induced climate of fear? How far can we go before we cross the line? Despite the movie not making a much deeper impact than it should (the plot allowed for this to be much much more cerebral), Rendition is still an eye opener to me.
• Watch this if you can, and if you have, I wonder what’s your take on the whole thing too. Based on what I’ve been reading on the IMDB forums, the sheer number of people that condone torture purely for the benefit of their own security and safety, scares me.

Feast of Love (2007)

• Take a drama and slap together a plot that includes as many possible angles of love, love at first sight, loss of loved ones, lesbianism, infidelity, parenthood, sacrifice - the giving and taking and innocence of it all, and you’ll have Feast of Love on your hands.
• Too bad though that the merging of all these plots in this movie was only slightly above average at best. There were some good performances by some of the characters but the main thing that ruined this movie for me were the gratuitous nudity and sex scenes. I can understand when sex is used to help project the love between characters in a movie, but to keep using it over and over again, boob slip shots, naked discussions, etc made it all just a little bit over the top for a serious love drama. But I guess most people will want to watch this now for this reason alone haha. And you wonder why this was never screened in Malaysia.
• Some great lessons to be learnt here too.. Including a particular man to man talk where I wished I was at the receiving end of the advice given (at a weaker point in my life):