Bye bye 2010

To be honest, this year FLEW by so fast that I was lost in its wake. Its time again to review what I have managed to achieve from my wishlist.

Able to read chinese newspaper - Failed
Somehow i could't find time anymore after I found the site which should help me understand the Chinese words

Air-conditioning for the house - Failed
The money had to be used to pay my father's hospital fees so we will stick with fans for another year

Fix car's external problems - Failed
Somewhat similar to the above, was hoping that my bonus would enable me to finally fix the dents all over my car :(

Goodbye Tiger - Failed
Although there were several really good prospects BUT none were actually successful. Another not so happy year ...

Really say Goodbye? - Unsure
Again I don't know what to do, very confusing.

To weight <=75kg
I didn't even try to really attempt this. For health reasons, I should somehow get this achieved.

Use my passport again before it expires - Success! 17/9/2010 - 3/10/2010
Initially was quite disappointed that none of my friends would accompany me to go on a trip. Frustrated, I decided to travel alone and visit some friends overseas. Very enjoyable although it did set me back a cool 8-9k

Aotearoa - 16 days in 1 post

A picture collage summary of some of the places I went during my trip to New Zealand. I suppose this is better than reading a wall of text from my recollection.

Day 1, Auckland : Views from Teresa's place, Brunch @ Coffee Club

Day 2, Auckland : One Tree Hill Domain, Late brunch @ De Fontein, Mission Bay, other places in Auckland

Day 3, Christchurch : Views around Cathedral Square, Christchurch Gondola & Tram, Bridge of Remembrance, earthquake affected buildings, Hotel SO

Day 4, to Mt Cook : Pictures taken from bus en route to Mt Cook ie Canterbury Plain, Lake Tekapo & Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Pukaki, Mt Cook (Aoraki)

Day 5, Mid-Autumn festical @ Christchurch + Auckland : More views around town in Christchurch, International Antartic Centre + Hagglund ride, Mid-Autumn celebration with friends in Auckland

Day 6, Auckland : Sky Tower, views around Auckland city, Train ride to and fro Panmure, flew to Wellington and had dinner with Pauline

Day 7, Areas outside of Wellington : Cape Palliser, Ngawi, Pinnacles, Stonehenge Aotearoa

Day 8, Wellington : Wellington Botannical Gardens, Wellington Cable Car, Devil's Gate + Red Rocks, Oriental Parade, Weta Caves, Carluci Land

Day 9, Wellington : Around town taking pics of famous buildings, Old St Paul's Church, National Museum of Te Papa Tongarewa, deserts at Strawberry Fare

Day 10, Wellington to Taupo : Enjoyable whole day drive, Subway lunch, Turoa ski fields, Taupo

Day 11, Taupo to Rotorua : Huka Falls, Araratia Rapids, Te Puia, Mitai Maori Village' Show and Hangi

Day 12, Rotorua : Around Rotorua, Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, Waimangu Volcanic Valley, Rotorua Skyline + Luge, Hell's Gate Mud Spa

Day 13 + 14, Rotorua to Auckland : Geyser view from my room, Rotorua Museum, Kuirau Park for free geothermal attraction stuff, Tirau's iconic i-Site buidling, view from Mt Wellington, around Auckland

Day 15 + 16, Auckland : Horse riding @ Muriwai Beach, Nando's lunch, Bethell's beach walk, views from Michael's home

What I liked :
- Very nice people during working hours
- Very informative signs everywhere
- People really do follow the speed limit
- Breathtaking sceneries and attractions
- Creative car plates
- Fantastic roads to drive on
- Big food portions
- Honest people
- A lot of creative designs of buildings, tickets, cars, etc
- Relatively cheap chocolates and amazing variety
- CLEAN and FREE toilets everywhere with toilet paper!

What i disliked :
- Unpredictable weather
- Places with super slow speed limits eg 30kmph zzz
- Our lousy currency rate
- Very cold outside, very hot inside ...
- Maoris reminds me of ... Malays :x
- Bone chilling winds and gales
- Similar attractions at the major cities

Others :
- Black swans are EVERYWHERE!

Another wishlist completed =D

I now have a pad

Lady luck have been kind to me this year as I have received a number of items from lucky draws but this has been the biggest by far! My number was picked during my company dinner. This year's lucky draw was very limited ie only 2 units of Ipads, I believe they were donated by our Senior Management team and brought in from Singapore.

There were about 800 people in the hall yesterday night and with only 2 lucky draw prizes, the odds are heavily stacked against you. But when the emcee announced the first 2 digit of the drawn number, it was down to a combination of 10 people. I could not believe it, seriously my range of number was picked out of the hundreds of others. I was quite excited and my colleagues on the same table were cheering for me too =D

The holders of the remaining 10 possible winners were forced to do some silly stunts in hoping that the people whose number were not picked would not feel too bad. Finally, time for the truth and the emcee announced that the final number was "James Bond's number", I quickly ran towards to stage while waving my hands in the air in sheer joy ^_^

When I got on to the stage, I flashed them my lucky draw card and the rest my friend is history! I was the envy of the crowd alongst with my colleagues and friends :p Sorry lar, my number was really picked mar =D I thanked the manager and the emcee and the photographers took pictures of me with a million dollar smile =D

On stage being presented with the Ipad ^o^

When I got back to my table, I just refuse to let go of my prized possession. My friends who were on another table scampered over and muttered that their birthday was around the corner and whatever that crossed their mind in hoping that I would give them my precious :p My reply was very sarcastic as I held my prize to my face to show that it was indeed my precious. I opened my package to check the content to give and estimation of the price.

No, its not a 4D number 1639, its a 16GB 3G Ipad

When the event ended, we all exit the hall to take more pictures with other colleagues. I was congratulated by others but there was a particular person whom I must mention because she caught me by surprise. Like many others before her, she congratulated me and with a swift motion she managed to grab my Ipad and tried to run away with it. Since I know her quite well so I was sure that it was just a joke and she could easily afford it if she really wanted to buy it.

When I got home, I took a real look at the whole package and found that the case was bought as an accessory, I would assume that it was bought because the person who brought the prizes back from Singapore is a thoughtful person.

Now my problem is, "What do I do with an Ipad?" I can use it as an Ipod since I have always wanted one :D It size really makes me want to carry it around for meetings :p One my colleague immediately suggested for me to jailbreak it.

The Ipad

The manuals and infamous Apple stickers

The cable and USB socket charger

The protective case priced at SGD58

Free faulty PS2

A few weeks back, my friend have given up on his PS2 and his brother have no interest to play games on it anymore and i jokingly asked if I could take off him. Surprisingly, he said yes but not so surprisingly seeing that he got it on the super cheap from his friend who sold it to him for an insanely low price of RM50!!!

Well the catch to take this machine off him was that I had to send it for repairs as something was wrong with it since it is able to play DVD movies but not PS2 games =_=" Oh well, a small price to pay for a limited edition white PS2 :)

So last Wednesday after an outing with my bunch of friends, he gave me his PS2 and his entire collection of over 100 games. I did not have time until yesterday to send it for repairs but I have however enquired from a shop about the cost to repair it. Initially, I was quite hesitant because the person told me that I had to change the lens and an IC but i emphasized that if it could play DVDs, there should not be anything wrong with the lens, logical right?

So I sent it for repairs yesterday and indeed the repairman just replaced the IC telling me that it was too old and its quite natural that it died. Time to play games which I have missed out for many many years :p In the end the cost of owning a PS2 for now is RM65 ie the cost to replace the IC.

The limited edition Gran Tourismo white console with its 2 white controllers

Up close on the white console

The bag of games :D

Ten Ten Ten ...

This weekend did not start on a good note, literally because while browsing my Facebook updates, a friend posted a series of sad Korean songs. One of the MV caught my attention and eventhough there was no English subtitles, i watched the 2 parts and amazingly i cried influenced by the rhythm and story in the MV.

Its about what you would do if you had the chance to turn back time or change the past. Im sure in some moments of our lives we would look back and regret some of the choices/actions that we have made/taken. Many of which we would like to go back and change. I do have many things which I would love to change BUT it is not possible to change what is past.

포지션 - 그대가 이세상에 있는것 만으로

한동안 그대가 내 곁을 떠나가 버렸다는 것을
믿을 수 없었지만 더 이상 난 부정할 수 없네
내 진실을 주고 해맑은 사랑을 느꼈는데
어느새 그대에 마음이 내게서 멀어져갔네

이제 사랑이 너무 두려워
이런 아픔을 견딜 수 없어
무너진 나의 가슴을 어디에서

위로 받을 수 있을까
아니야 나는 사랑한거야
영원히 변하지 않는 그런 사랑을
그래 나는 후회하지 않아
사랑이 떠나버려도 내겐 소중한 것을
가슴깊이 느끼네
그대가 이 세상에 있는것 만으로
내겐 기쁨을 주는데
내겐 기쁨을 주는데

위로 받을 수 있을까
아니야 나는 사랑한거야
영원히 변하지 않는 그런 사랑을
그래 나는 후회하지 않아
사랑이 떠나버려도 내겐 소중한 것을
가슴깊이 느끼네
그대가 이 세상에 있는것 만으로
내겐 기쁨을 주는데
내겐 기쁨을 주는데

Korean like Japanese are quite complicated to be translated. So some things may be lost in translation :(

Position - You, just being in this world

for a while I couldn’t believe that you’ve
Left my side but I can no longer deny it
I had felt a refreshing form of love and you’ve given me the truth
But at one point, your heart has been distancing yourself from me

Now I’m so afraid of that love
I can’t endure this kind of pain
Where am I supposed to find comfort
For my crushed heart?

No I l had loved
A kind of love that would never change
Yes, I have no regrets
Even if that love leaves, it’s precious to me
I can feel it deep inside my heart
You, just being in this world
Gives me happiness
Gives me happiness

No I l had loved
A kind of love that would never change
Yes, I have no regrets
Even if that love leaves, it’s precious to me
I can feel it deep inside my heart
You, just being in this world
Gives me happiness
Gives me happiness

Should I thank my friend for introducing such a beautiful and meaningful song or should i be angry for making me down for the weekend?

Food Adventure @ Cristang

Ever since we got our yearly big payout aka bonus, my colleagues and i have been more willing to spend a little bit more for lunch. On the same week we got the payment, we went to a restaurant which normally we would only go on paydays. The following day we went to Kin Kin Curry Pan Mee at Medan Tuanku. Today we went to an interesting place called Cristang at 8 Avenue, near PJ Hilton. Their speciality, pork burgers!

Cristang signage - "Pork in all its glory"

As i was in a meeting when they made reservations and ordered food via phone call to the place, i was told that we will be tasting 5 types of pork burgers. From other blogs, the burgers looked big and there were only 3 guys, 2 of whom have bigger stomach so i was sweating already before we left office. As many people are still away on extended holiday for Hari Raya, Federal Highway was quite clear and we reached the place in less than 20 minutes. Since we made reservations and have ordered in advance, we just had to order our drinks before our burgers were served in around 10-15 minutes after we were seated.

The menu for selection of Pork Burgers, i suppose P denotes pork :p
Premium BavariCUM?
Nice ambiance
P2 Burger - Pork patty (P1) with bacon
P3 = P2 + Chili Con Carne (something like yuk sui with chili)
P4 = P3 + petai, busuknyer
P9 = P1 + Kimchi + Vegetable side dish
P10 Mk 2 = P3 + jalapeno ie more spicy
Dessert = Fried butter cake with icecream
After the 5 shared burgers, we snapped up this dessert in about 2 minutes according to timestamp XD
Tapau for another colleague who always have noon meeting, P3

Since this was quite an adhoc lunch outside, nobody brought a camera and my phone camera was said to be the best so i was tasked to take the pictures. However we were all quite hungry and so nobody remembered to take pictures hence the more than half eaten burgers before picture was taken scenario above :p

As you can see from the timestamps, we were like beasts and managed to gobble down the 5 burgers in around the same time that it took for us to get to the place. I would recommend the burgers with at least the Chili Corn Carne level. I don't like petai so i quickly washed P4 down with my drink.

Although everyone got a little slow when the last piece of the shared burgers were lapped up, we did agree to a dessert which was highly recommended by my colleague who suggested the place. I am also not a big fan of butter flavoured foods but i had no problem finishing this dessert well within 2 minutes. Almost like sekejap ada, sekejap tarak.

In summary, YUMMY!!! Porku burger hontonyi oushi, sugoi, besto. The damage for each person inclusive of drinks was RM39. IMHO it was worth the price, porkstifaction =D~~

The damage even before i board the plane

After a very long absence from vacations, i finally managed to grow enough balls to want to go on a vacation which does jive with my new year resolution to want to use my passport at least 1 more time before it expires next year. As with most vacations, there will be costs involved for the travel. Being a calculative person, i do keep track of my expenditure from time to time especially when im on a tight budget.

Now let's take a look at the damage before i even board the plane to my destination :

MAS return tickets to New Zealand : RM2880 + 9% interest for 12 month installments ~ RM261.6 per month
JetStar return tickets to Christchurch : NZD132 ~ Rm303.6
Air NZ Auckland to Wellington : NZD60 ~ RM138
Car rental from Wellington to Auckland : NZD152.75 ~ RM351.33
Accomodation at Rotorua for 2 nights : RM400

Misc preparations :

International Driving License : RM150
Sunscreen : RM25
Shoes : RM100
Waterproof camera bag : RM100
Socks : RM75

So in total that's already more than 4.5k before i even leave the country ...

Im planning to bring NZD2k so that's another 4.6k, 10k for a trip because i don't have a travel partner who wants to go to nearer destinations like HK, Taiwan etc :( What to do, everyone have gone to those destinations before or have made other reservations later this year.

Some randomness to end my post :)

The stuff which are going to be in my backpack, maybe not the waterproof camera bag :p

Some test pics which i took with my camera inside the waterproof camera case :

Perhaps it works better underwater?

Wisdom minus 2

After more than a month of suffering, i have finally managed to purge 2 wisdoms. Unfortunately i am still clutching my cheek because its now quite swollen and i dislike eating time. Not just because i can't use my whole mouth to chew, i don't feel like opening my jaw wider than an inch, reminds me of the surgery that i had to keep it ajar while 2 strangers are looking into it and one of them shoving metal instruments into my mouth to remove my unwanted wisdoms.

I look like half a chipmunk now, one side of my cheek is stuffed with a nut so it looks swollen. Can't have much of expressions too. The skin is stretched so much so that it is uncomfortable to make a smile.

On 1 hand im glad that im rid of a menace that has caused me some sleepless nights due to the intensity of the pain that it spread up to my head. Those nights i had to take a ponstan just to resume sleep. Awoken in the middle of the night to a pulsing headache is something that i won't want to experience too often. On the other hand, im clutching my face as if shyness is just showing on the left side of my face.

The meds that im taking now are quite a mouthful, mostly antibiotics to make sure that my wound won't become infected as its surrounded by bacteria which are naturally living in my mouth. Surprisingly i had not taken a single painkiller so far as the pain is much more tolerable than i imagined except for the fact that i will get hungry and will need to use my mouth.

Also since i required stitches to close up my lower jaw wounds, the doctor left quite a long trailing surgery thread that is making my tongue busy to try to get rid of that annoying piece of thing from between my jaws. Hopefully it will dissolve faster than what im told because its really getting on my nerve! Feels like a piece of food stuck at the back of my mouth ...

I think i understand why some people would not want to have any teeth removal procedures being done in the evening because if the bleeding have not stopped before you go to bed, you might drool blood onto your pillow. Yes, there are a few blood stains on my pillow =_=

Since my lower left jaw's wisdom tooth damaged my good working tooth, i need to go back to the hospital to get it fixed and also schedule for another surgery to remove my last wisdom. I think i will do that after my trip, don't want to be not able to use my mouth to taste the wonders of New Zealand :D though most of the food there are red meat, which i do not fancy =_="

Eels - Fresh Feeling

This is the first time i heard this song and imagine my reaction when google results turned up that a fish is singing it LOL. Not really sure why i liked it but perhaps it was a very suitable song to be playing in the background of a drama that im watching. The lyrics don't really stand out too much nor does it have those striking words that might jive with your life's events. Anyways, here are the lyrics :)

Eels - Fresh Feeling

You don't have a clue
What it is like to be next to you
I'm here to tell you
That it is good
That it is true

[Chorus : ]
Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling
[End Chorus]

Try
Try to forget what's in the past
Tomorrow is here
Love,
Orange sky above lighting your way
There's nothing to fear

[Chorus]

Some people are good
Babe in the 'hood
So pure and so free
I'd make a safe bet
You're gonna get whatever you need

[Chorus]

That fresh feeling
This is that fresh feeling ...

Last of my 20s

As many of friends would have voiced out before me, I am now officially into my final year of 20s. Its not like the big 3 0 scares me because i have always been said to be older than i look.

Anyways the signs have been there all the while. When i was 15, a distant aunt commented that i looked like a 25 year old and should get married @_@||| I almost fainted and i was really seeing stars after hearing that. Now that im getting balder, i look more like someone entering the 40s zzz

There had been quite a few "first"s for me this year. The most obvious one would of course be my trip to New Zealand WOOT! Have been quite down for many reasons and i was looking forward to have a trip hopefully with some friends but many of whom have made their plans well in advance or maybe i should say that i was the one too slow to want to join them? Well whatever the reason, i think i prefer decisions made not too much in advance and hence my sudden urge to travel partly due to the several promotions held by a few airlines. If i had company, i would most likely would have travelled to Hong Kong or Taiwan or Korea or a place in the region. But as things developed, i could not find a friend to go with so i just went big and picked New Zealand :)

I have always wanted to go New Zealand especially after watching Lord of the Rings. There is a strange attraction about it. Of course then there is an outstanding conversation i had with a very good friend of mine that i would love to visit her there. So after many many days of asking around and consideration, i just went for it not knowing if my bonus will be able to cover for my expenditures but what the heck. If you think too much sometimes, it just won't happen.

I also did something uncharacteristic of me, something which i never thought i would do. Anyways, i tried it and it did not work out as well as i wanted it. Well at least i have done what i have always tried to picture i would do. Guess the things in movies only happens in movies.

Something coincidental happened in my game too :p

Ranked 888th in the game after gaining 18 rankings on 8/8/2010.

That's a lot of "8"s to my liking XD the number of players online i finally got it after my 3rd screenshot :D Just wanted to make it look more nice :p

Looking forward to my trip and hope that my work won't be piling up when i get back tomorrow but i already know i have loads to do.

Typing on my wet pillow

I just experienced something which i NEVER EVER expected from a western movie which surprisingly lasted for 2 hours for its category. I cried from beginning till end of the movie. Fortunately, i did not watch it in a cinema, else i'd be heading straight to my car and drive home without ever lifting my head to see anyone. My eyes are so swollen that any blind person would have known that i had cried my heart out.

I must admit that i am sometimes quite a sensitive person, emo perhaps from time to time due to various reasons. I have sometimes require a vice to help me unblock my unhappiness, something like a volcano looking for a way to blow its top.

Like i said, never had i imagined that a western movie would stir my emotions so much. Korean movies have done so to me but seriously i really did not expect to sleep on a wet pillow from a western movie.

Last but not least, who would have thought that Gerard Butler would be in such a movie. From a 300's squad leader to this, one of his many lovey-dovey movies. I'd give this a 2 thumbs up and prepare a box of tissues :p

What's the movie? "P/S : I Love You" :)

Unwanted wisdoms

Ironic as it may sound, many people pray and search for wisdom when in actual fact there are 4 growing in your mouth :p The wisdom tooth, today according to my dentist is called the unwanted/useless tooth. So, are you searching wisdom whereby there are 4 unwanted wisdoms in your mouth waiting to wreck your life?

Im using such a harsh word because the dentist told me that the amount that i have to pay to get rid of just 1 unwanted wisdom is RM600! @_@" The bad news for me is that i need to get rid of 2! What's worse, yes there is more bad news, a tooth adjacent to my left lower jaw's wisdom tooth is dead. So the cheapest solution is to get rid of 3 teeth =_=" reason being that if i wanted to save the dead tooth, i need to fork out around RM1900 =_=|||

Should have went to GH when i first got the referal letter. Perhaps it would have just been RM100 or so. Now i have to get rid of an infection first before any consideration can be made to perform the surgery to remove the 2 wisdoms. I hope the next dentist is not going to tell me that i can't do both tooth at the same time. That would be a double whammy because as today's dentist explained to me that my jaw would hurt for at least 3 days ... =_=||| and the dentist would happily give me 3 days MC. That's all great and dandy but its bothering me now!

Although i have gotten some painkillers but i have not taken any as yet because the pain was still bearable but now, the pain level is rising fast. So maybe i need to start popping painkillers tomorrow. The antibiotic course that i must go through will take around 5 days. So maybe, just maybe i will try to flaunt it and visit yet another dentist this Saturday to try to resolve this unwanted wisdom. Antibiotics, please work, i just i want to get rid of my unwanted wisdoms ...

Come to think of it, i might need to pop a painkiller tonight before i sleep :( Not to mention the headache about the amount i have to spend to get rid of these unwanted wisdoms ...

你要的愛太完美 ... ?

Initially i wanted to name this post as "Differences or Similarities" but after listening to 胡楊林 - 香水有毒, i find that its content is quite similar to what i had in mind for this post. Ok time to get to my point, i sat down the other day trying to help a friend who is having a relationship problem. Who am i to give advice seeing that im in such a mess? Oh well perhaps because i have always been there as a friend who offers an ear and sometimes when possible provide ideas.

Usually when you enter into a relationship, it is then when your partner will let his/her guard down and show you their true self. Be it good, be it bad, it is for you to assess. Most people would take some time to assess whether the partner they are going out with is someone who you would want to spend the rest of your life with. Then comes my question, "Differences or Similarities?".

What kind of a person are looking for? Someone who completes you but thinks differently or Someone who understands you but is dead boring because you two are too alike? That got me thinking, when you say you are looking for someone of this quality ... is it something which clicks with you or its something which you do not possess? Perhaps you are not able to answer it as fast as you thought you would. Conventional studies tells us that more often than not you will subconciously choose someone who reminds you of your parents.

I will take some points in our conversation as example :

1) My partner is a very confident person. My partner will set a goal and will work towards that goal and will overcome what is in his/her way to get to the destination.
- The partner is trying to provide what the partner perceives as "more" important needs.
- I am not critisizing that the partner is overconfident because the partner is very capable and is until now able to achieve what he set out to do albeit some of them took a very long time.
- Some people call this confidence as ego. It depends on which angle you try to analyze the partner. The partner is just trying to do what the partner thinks its best more often than not without consulting my friend.
- It is definitely great to have and see a plan through. Not many people is able to persevere achieve a goal set quite high.
* In this sense, this character compliments my friend who sometimes can be a little fickle minded and may change his/her mind during the course of the long journey. Again, there is nothing wrong at all with my friend's character because you have to adapt to what you face.
* The rule of karma applies? What you gain, you must lose something of equal importance? To achieve his/her goal, my friend would have to sacrifice his/her needs in order for the partner to be able to carry out his/her plan for "their" future.

2) I don't understand why my partner would not listen?
- For a person who is focused, his/her view will be narrowed down to his/her goal. Just as the speculation that when a tiger is fixed on its target, it will ignore its surroundings to focus on its prey.
* I always say that a relationship is about 2 people, a 2 way communication. If a person is not listening to the other, the other will feel neglected or feels that his/her thoughts are not getting through or understood by the target.
* Sometimes its just too hard to pierce a hard head with much needed advice.

3) Stretching it thin
- There are many instances that we sometimes may take things for granted, best example "I love you". Before you are committed, these sweet and cuddly words will flow like water flowing imminently to the sea. After you have commited, it seems that these things are taken for granted because (in my own words) "your stocks are wholly owned by me now and vice versa" ie we are stuck together now.
* Everyone has needs, different needs for sure. Some people just need a glimpse of your face before heading out for work, a quick peck before leaving the house, a goodnight kiss, a pat on the back for a job well done etc etc etc
- Your sweet loving voice via a long distance call chatting up sometimes about nothing is worth a trip to Hell and back.
* A video chat would suffice for the need of seeing you being there for me.

~ All of this will of course lead to friction which can work both ways. Small arguments might help to get the message across albeit in a not so good way. If a big argument breaks out, its may spell "The End". A delicate balance needs to exist of which both MUST understand and tolerate.
~ A plan in a relationship should have the couple's thoughts put into it, when do you plan to get married, have kids, where/what the house is, etc etc etc. Setting a personal goal which jives with the common goal which were agreed upon is better than enforcing your plans to your partner which may disagree with your plan.
~ When having a conversation, it should always have the couple's sharing their mind and preferably accepted and understood by both.
~ When being together is more than just a signing on a piece of paper but really being together.
~ You are exchanging your time/effort/love for something in return, preferably something you want. Very much like going to work and expecting to receive your salary on payday. Heck, its even like Santa giving his presents in exchange for your good behaviour of a year :)
~ I suppose any discussion with regards to relationship will eventually lead to the famous book on relationship to better understand how their partner work, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus

What do you look for in relationship? You want enough similarities to understand you but you also need differences to fill in the gap which will complete your life. I have seen people having many similarities got together but they broke up despite the initial great relationship they had. I have also seen people of different worlds able to be together but the struggle to understand each other is monumental and it really depends if they both are able to keep it together.

胡楊林 - 香水有毒

我曾經愛過這樣一個男人
他說我是世上最美的女人
我爲他保留著那一份天真
關上愛別人的門
也是這個被我深愛的男人
把我變成世上最笨的女人
他說的每句話我都會當真
他說最愛我的唇

我的要求幷不高
待我像從前一樣好
可是有一天你說了同樣的話
把別人擁入懷抱

你身上有她的香水味
是我鼻子犯的罪
不該嗅到她的美
檫掉一切陪你睡
你身上有她的香水味;
是你賜給的自卑
你要的愛太完美
我永遠都學不會

Perhaps i was already emotional overcome on the day when i replayed this song because it brought tears to my eyes when i really went on to try to understand each sentence.

p/s : I hate perfume, i feel like puking if i am able to smell someone who has used too much perfume to the extent that i call it 臭水, smelly water for those who are unable to translate it.

琥

In conjuction with the year of the tiger, a singer got my attention as hisher name is 黃小琥. Initially when i heard this name, i was expecting a guy. I heard her song over the radio and wanted to know who sang it and when it was announced, i almost choked to hear that a woman is using that name. The reason being that its quite a masculine name.

Her current famous song now is 沒那麼簡單. So me being me, i went and search her songs and enjoyed a few others such as 伴, 误点 and 不只是朋友. Some of the lyrics in my opinion were very moving. Like many, i do relate the meaning of the songs to my life and experiences. Her voice is very powerful and perhaps that is why her songs are special.

黃小琥 - 沒那麼簡單

沒那麼簡單 就能找到 聊得來的伴
尤其是在 看過了那麼多的背叛
總是不安 只好強悍
誰謀殺了我的浪漫

沒那麼簡單 就能去愛 別的全不看
變得實際 也許好也許壞各一半
不愛孤單 一久也習慣
不用擔心誰 也不用被誰管

感覺快樂就忙東忙西
感覺累了就放空自己
別人說的話 隨便聽一聽 自己作決定
不想擁有太多情緒
一杯紅酒配電影
在周末晚上 關上了手機 舒服窩在沙發裡

相愛沒有那麼容易 每個人有他的脾氣
過了愛作夢的年紀 轟轟烈烈不如平靜
幸福沒有那麼容易 才會特別讓人著迷
什麼都不懂的年紀
曾經最掏心 所以最開心 曾經

沒那麼簡單 就能去愛 別的全不看
變得實際 也許好也許壞各一半
不愛孤單 一久也習慣
不用擔心誰 也不用被誰管

感覺快樂就忙東忙西
感覺累了就放空自己
別人說的話 隨便聽一聽 自己作決定
不想擁有太多情緒
一杯紅酒配電影
在周末晚上 關上了手機 舒服窩在沙發裡

相愛沒有那麼容易 每個人有他的脾氣
過了愛作夢的年紀 轟轟烈烈不如平靜
幸福沒有那麼容易 才會特別讓人著迷
什麼都不懂的年紀
曾經最掏心 所以最開心 曾經

相愛沒有那麼容易 每個人有他的脾氣
過了愛作夢的年紀 轟轟烈烈不如平靜
幸福沒有那麼容易 才會特別讓人著迷
什麼都不懂的年紀
曾經最掏心 所以最開心 曾經
想念最傷心 但卻最動心 的記憶

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

黃小琥 - 伴

如果　命運可以訂做
如果　有另一次選擇
我想我　還是會　把手讓你緊握
快樂地陪你去坎坷

就算　你有天變落魄
就算　你老得不能動
我想我　還是會　挽著你看日落
你的心疼在淚光中


嘴巴上　彼此嫌麻煩
眼神中　關懷那麼滿
沒說愛　卻早已認定一輩子的伴

在人前　從來不浪漫
在心中　卻總為對方打算
最懂的人最暖的伴


就算　我以後變囉嗦
就算　我老了有病痛
我想你　還是會　照顧我到最後
隱藏脆弱不眠不休


沒有辛酸　沒有遺憾
什麼是陪伴　什麼是心安　你是答案

沒那麼簡單 means "Not That Easy" and 伴 means "Partner". Both of which the content are meaningful to me.

英"壳"兰

If you are not into football then stop reading as this post is not for you at all.

Ok for those who kept on reading, NO, i did not made a mistake in writing England in chinese. Let me explain, 壳 means shell. On paper, the English seems to have a bunch of top class players however when on the pitch, sometimes they play like a bunch of Championship or lower level players. Unable to defend, pass and least of all to score. So this "shell" of a team is not able to do what a nation expected them to do not to mention the millions of fans around the world. That being said, im not just overly critisizing one team only, the so called big teams are like a heavy stone in a lake.

Being an avid Manchester United fan, i would naturally know quite a number of English players who featured in the team not to mention the other superstars from other countries whose names are now even known to ladies who used to say, "Why would anyone be interested in watching a game where 22 men chase around for a ball?". Since some of the games are late at night i can only pick and choose a couple which i think would be worth watching and of course must be worth staying up and looking (+ feeling) like a zombie the next day at work.

Actually im not a big fan of the World Cup. I remember my first time watching it, 1994 US World Cup, i asked my dad to wake up early morning before school to watch Brazil vs Italy. I can't even get past first half and slept through until after the penalty XD

What i do like about the World Cup is to (hopefully) see some of the players which i buy in Football Manager games to flourish and make their names whereby there were relatively unknown to the outside world until they are now able to show their faces on so many television sets around the world. Sadly though most of the young players which i do buy may not be able to make it into the first team because there are seniors there which are supposed to be more established and mature to handle the pressure of the World Cup.

For the real footballing world perhaps this is where ambitious players or really good players who aren't at a big club yet to show what they can do and hoped to be signed before the next league season starts. The problem with buying players after the World Cup is that the prices would be inflated as they are now world famous literally :p Luckily for my team, Javier Hernandez was bought just before the World Cup started and he did show his qualities :)

Most football fans would be banking for a Brazil vs Argentina/Spain final. According to FIFA's fixture table, that seems really possible because these 3 countries are really strong. What most people be hoping for would be that it would have to go down to a penalty shoot out as that would be REALLY boring! Crisp passing and fast counter attack would make the game much much more enjoyable, just have to hope that the officials are able to keep up to pace and NOT to make wrong decisions like they have several times in the earlier stages not to mention eliminating England and Mexico. And of course Ireland's defeat to France via Henry's handball aided goal.

To end this post, i think i just can't help to take a swipe at international superstar Jackie Chan for his infamous epic World Cup blunder comment about who will be in the World Cup final, "Barcelona and Milan" ROFLMAOzedong!!!

Lego Big Morl - Ray

Strange title isn't it? Its actually a name of a Jpop band. This song was the other song which played in the background of a famous Japanese drama, Akai Ito. Yeah, crazy as it may sound i went and rewatch the whole series (11 episodes of 45 minutes) although i could basically remember almost every twist and turn of the drama. That's when i noticed that i did not have this song in the OST album which i burned along with the drama. Not an easy task to search a song which you do not know the title nor singer coupled with the fact that i don't understand japanese that well. So the next best thing was to try to search for the song with the translated meaning. Luckily this yielded the desired result and i found out the band with this strange name.

This is the supposed Japanese lyrics :

すべての意味があなたになるように歌にしよう
この感触も このコードも この甘みも 色も 匂いも

五感ではあなたのすべては理解できない 表せない
僕のありったけで そうありったけで都合のいいように受けとる

時々あなたは冷たく そんな時決まって世界はキレイで
僕ばっかりがその優しさを飲みほしてしまったような

過去を引きずる僕は 未来しか見ないあなたを
卑怯な手で鎖に繋いでは あなたの自由を奪ってるのかな

弱い僕はあなたのいない世界を生きる自信はないの
だからせめて先に死なせて
強いあなたは言うでしょう 「そんな事言うんじゃないの」
つまり あなたは僕の生きる光

Ray...
Ray...

Here are the translations by TimeLesSub, the fansub group that translated the drama :

Subete no imi ga anata ni
I’ll take everything you mean to me

Naru youni uta ni shiyo
And turn it into a song

Kopno kanshoku mo kono kodomo
This feeling, this chord

Kono amami mo iro mo nioi wo
This sweetness, this color and this fragrance



Gokaide wa anata no subete wa
The five senses can’t understand

Rikai dekinai ara wa se nai
All that you are, nor even express it

Boku no arittake de, sou, arittake de
So all there is of me, yes, all there is

Tsumru mo ii youni uketeru
Must be in good condition so I can understand



Tokidoki anata wa tsumetaku
From time to time you can be cold

Sona toki kimatte sekai wa kireide
At times like those the world is beautiful

Boku bakari ga sono yasashita no
All I can do is drink in

Nomi hoshite shimatta youna
That gentleness



Kago wo hisisuru boku wa
While I dwell on the past

Mirai shiga minai anata wo
You see anly the future

Hikyouna te de kusari ni tsunaide wa
While I cowardly try to chain you

Anata no jyuu wo ubatteru kana?
Are you fighting for your freedom?


Yowai boku wa anata no inai sekai mo ikiru
If you weren’t in this world I’d be weak

Jishin wa nai no dakara semete saki ni shin nazete
And without confidence, so at least let me die before you

Tsuyoi anata wa iu desho? “Sonna koko iun jyanai no?”
You said be strong, didn’t you? “Don’t say such things”

Tsumari anata wa boku no ikiru hikari
In other words, you are the light of my life

Ray…

Ray…

Initially the song sounded wonderful but almost at the end they started jamming in a manner which i don't really appreciate. Sorry lar for those who are very good in music and can appreciate perhaps the hard stuff that they did to achieve that racket :p

Not my money to spend

I suppose this has been the case for many years now. Like most of my colleagues (if what they claim is real), our salary is gone before it enters our account. How so? Credit card bills, installments and whatever loans that you currently have. If you have standing instructions to pay them then its deducted even before it goes into your account. So what is left can also be considered as not your's because if you need some sort of transportation to work, the money that you need to spend is not your's as well because it has to be paid to get you to the place which will pay at the end of the month. Its such a vicious and tight circle that you almost cannot get out of :(

I was offered to go on a trip with a friend to Sabah. I was so excited that i quickly checked airline ticket prices and try to find the best rate. Nice, its just RM500 for return trip. Since the offer was that i would be given free accomodation and perhaps even some free meals so RM500 for a well needed vacation is considered cheap. Then it struck me when it came to paying, i don't have the RM500 to buy the tickets because the money is not for me to spend ...

When i went for a haircut just before CNY a few months back, the hairdresser commented that my hair is thinning and seeing his opportunity to try to sell his treatment package, he offered to do a free hair scan to show the health of my hair. I have done that scan before and know the advices so i fast forward him to intro me the products and the whole package would be something in the region of RM900 for 10 treatments or so. Judging from my facial expression, the hairdresser quickly change his approach and tried to sell only the shampoo + tonic package which was somewhere in the region of RM200. Seeing that its CNY and i have not really checked the damage incurred to me for the festive season, i can only decline. After CNY, i came to realize that i was over-reaching much more than i thought and eaten into a budget which i cannot refill :(

Last week there was a promotion going on in my company's foyer. I found an interesting and very useful item. So i asked for the price of the item and was quickly taken aback by the price tag (after discount) of RM100. Ok, im not going to fork out RM100 for something which i will not be using too often. My colleagues who were with me at that time told me that that was a cheap price to pay. They bought their's for more than RM100 albeit a different brand. I can only politely give a smile back to them.

After lunch, they tried to convince me to buy the item again saying that its really cheap and i should get one. I just could not take anymore of this so i just went ahead and told them the truth that my money now is to prepare (if required) to bribe the headmaster of the school which i try to enrol my son into.

These people whom i have described before in my previous post that they always claim not rich can somehow always manage to afford expensive stuff usually the sums are >RM500 and claims that its CHEAP but when they really need to spend on the other necessities, they will be reluctant to part with RM1 or RM10. For me, wherever possible i will be reluctant to part with RM1 or less. Perhaps they came from a better off family before so they are used to buying those branded stuff. However the strange thing is, most of them are not that is why they are not willing to part with RM1 on necessities but would much rather spend their hard earnedsaved money on the branded stuff.

My current goal now would be to ensure that my son is able to enter the school of my choice NOT because its a good school but rather the distance. It would be convenient in the future if need be to fetch him or to go to his school. Anyways, chinese schools would be expensive anyways so i need to prepare as best as i can. More years of not my money to spend still ...

1000 Chinese Characters

I was once told that if you could memorize 1000 of the most used chinese characters, you would be able to read a newspaper without much problem. In view that i am a banana who is enrolling his son to a chinese school, i must be able to understand or able to teach him if he asks.

There has been several incidences where he asked me to read to him what was in his books but i was unfortunately and very disappointed with myself that i am not able to comply to such a simple wish :(

Since i do not have a co-pilot anymore so i have to suck it up and take up the challenge of learning one of the most complex language ever created with more than 50000 characters in its arsenal. Although i am not totally illiterate in chinese but i fall way short of 1000 characters. Perhaps at a max, i could get around 50-100 characters which is not good enough sometimes to read even the headlines =_="

With a little help from Google, i managed to find this site which offers a flash card like interface to help you learn chinese. I hope to be able to memorize the 1000 characters so i may be able to read a chinese newspaper or rather more importantly, able to read to my son :)

A long time coming

Pfft, can't believe its May and i just started my wishlist :p Seems reasonably achievable

Air-conditioning for the house
Pretty straightforward IMHO

Fix my car's external problems
Though its only bringing me to the LRT station everyday but i want it to look like its old self not the current dented here and there :(

Goodbye Tiger
To be finally able to leave

Really say Goodbye?
No explanation necessary

To weight <=75kg
The below chart shows that im in the overweight section :(



Use my passport again before it expires
As straightforward as it can be ;)

How the hell do you ...

put on contact lens??? Today i took many many attempts to put that small piece of plastic onto my eye but my eyes blinked every time i got the lens about 1 cm near my eye :( Tried again and again but there is just no way i could get the lens nearer to my cornea.

In my final attempt (not because i gave up), i managed to touch the lens to my cornea BUT BUT BUT my eyes blinked before it could properly set and it tore :( To make matters worse its a colored lens ie expensive. Well the upside is that i got it for free :p Downside is that i did not get to look good for a day :(

So seriously how do you wear contacts? I still have a few more contacts which i also got for free to try to wear. Friend who wear contacts, please pass on your tips and tricks or techniques. p/s : as you can already guess, i have not touched my cornea before so putting on and taking off will be a MAJOR challenge.

I really don't like wearing glasses, sorry lar to those who wear glasses. Its so mafan, always will slide down and make me look so uncle :(

Like butter spread over too much bread

I remember i wanted to blog about how stretched i was at work earlier this year. Stretched to the point where stress would accumulate at my neck and it was so stiff that i can't look to the side. Actually we are stretched in terms of staff, 3 colleagues left and no replacement have come in. The boss' favourite tagline, "Nobody is irreplaceable". Sure its easy for him to say, especially now that he is no longer my boss in a way due to a recent restructure. Just 50% of a boss because he is double hatting ie taking care of 2 portfolios.

To make matters worse, we the supposed replacements for the earlier exodus of staff to foreign banks which just established themselves in Malaysia, are totally new to this field of work. Like many people, one will be very motivated to work in what they thought would be interesting. I was actually overjoyed with the initial work. No more programming, no more bugs, no more pulling my hair out thinking what if the fuck is wrong with my codes, etc. After the orientation and honeymoon period, the workload began to pile up because to begin with we were understaffed as a group of 10 (boss included) would support the whole company.

The learning curve was really like the exponential line because i had to be thrown into the thick of the heat because like i mentioned we were understaffed and others have their own work to do. Asking over and over again ticked them off and you can see it on their faces if not in the tone of their replies. Luckily and thankfully, i have other friends who helped me in my work. They guided me away from most pitfalls but one learns better and faster by doing mistakes. So sometimes i was intentionally left in the dark to fall and to learn to watch out for the dangers so that i won't repeat them.

The bad thing about me is that sometimes i am slow to pick up on some things and its quite apparent now that im in quite a big mess now. My colleagues do offer help sometimes to help me catch up to their speed. I was told i was not running fast enough as my colleagues pace in doing work so i need to catch up. Well to be honest, now im really tired of this running. Getting old ei? Huffing and puffing everyday until im exhausted and will need to go to sleep by 10.30pm every night. By the time i get to my bed, my eyelids are no longer able to be open but i still need to make sure that my little one falls asleep before i can sleep in peace.

Taking leave for rest or even the long break during CNY did not do any good because if you are not work, the work will still pile there waiting for your return. If you go any longer, you can be sure that the pile will only get bigger. I so so wished that i could bring my little one somewhere during his school break this week but that is not to be. Sigh, a big project cutover is looming and the top people are focusing on the successful cutover so that their project may finally begin. On second thought, im actually handling 2 big projects which in the project manager's word would be, "It must not fail!".

"Like butter spread over too much bread" is actually quoted from Bilbo Baggins in the movie, The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring.

I won a Canon Ixus ^_^

On 3rd of March, i got a peculiar email titled, "Canon - Capture the Moment" as below

Hi Lawsh,

Congratulations!

You probably have seen from SportsCenter Asia program that you have won the SportsCenter – Canon Capture the Moment contest for [month] [year]. Your caption was the best caption of for the month of [month] [year].

We would like to make arrangements for sending the Canon IXUS 200IS to you, kindly provide your full contact details please.
Name in full
Address
Telephone number
Identification number

We look forward to hearing from you soon

Keep the captions coming!

Best regards,

C*** L**

I went to check on the competition website and true enough, my name was listed there! I quickly replied the email with all the required details :D I was overwhelmed with joy that i went and print out result page and boasted to my colleagues :p When i was finally able to sit down again, i went to check on the prize and its worth :D Available in 4 colors and retailed at RM1398. WOOT!!!

I was told that the prize would be sent to me by Canon's advertising company. So, true to their words, the advertising company contacted me with and email titled "Congratualtions! You've won a Canon Ixus 200IS" --> yes, it is a typo error was made by the sender :p

Hi Lawsh

Thank you for participating Canon – Capture The Moment contest on ESPNSTAR.com.

In our record, you are the winner for the month of [month] [year] . On behalf of Canon, the delivery of your prize will now be arranged immediately. Please reply to this email in order to acknowledge your contact details below are absolutely correct before we activate the delivery

Name: Lawsh

Address: Blah Blah Blah

Malaysia

Contact number: 60-1xxxxxxxx

Please also note that prize(s) are not exchangeable for cash and/or kind and all unclaimed prizes will be donated to charity. Should you have any further queries, please kindly contact V***** H** at +65 xxxx xxxx or v*****@d*****.com.sg.

Thank you again for your participation and continued support. We look forward to hearing from you soon.


Yours sincerely,

V***** H**

Regional Account Director

D***** Singspore Pte Ltd (on behalf of Canon Singapore Pte Ltd)

So i acknowledged this email and chose Gold color and was again happily awaiting for my prize ^_^ A few more days later, i got another email update to tell me that my prize will be delivered using DHL from Singapore. Woohoo! Finally its coming! I tracked the shipment from time to time but today its status was delivered :D

Prize picked up from Singapore --> Hong Kong --> Malaysia.

I was kind of dumbfounded that my camera traveled that far in just 2 days. From a neighbouring country sent to Hong Kong to be sorted @_@ before being sent to Malaysia. However, this also shows the efficiency of DHL in delivering their parcel as promised. *2 thumbs up!*

Now for the pictures of the new camera ^_^

The long awaited parcel ^_^

Inside the parcel was an envelope with my name :D

The prize was carefully wrapped with bubble wrap ^_^

Unwrapped the bubble wrap protector ...

A display of all the items in the box

Singling out the most important item in the box :p

Tada! It is finally revealed ^_^

Real color is brown but now it really does look like gold in colour :D

Down side is there is no memory card :( Luckily though i have an extra memory card from my previous camera :D So now i have 2 great cameras. Will need to take some time to explore the full functionalities but so far, its got both features of touch screen and button menus. You can tilt the camera slightly to scroll to the next picture OR slide it with your finger similar to iPhone :p