March 2005

The day I got back to work was awful. So many issues here and there and everywhere!

Sigh… where are my new underlings?!

Oh well, managed to solve 75% today. The remaining ones are a tough bunch though.

Last night, the bunch of us including Shahz, A, Fish, Henry, Zoe, Andy, Khay Hoi, Gary, Sue & Toby celebrated Fishie’s birthday with dinner at Sudu at the Hilton Central. The plan was to meet there at 7, but I only managed to leave the office at 6 feeling so cheesed off so I was a little late.

Actually, the LRT ride from the office made it worse. 😀

The way food is served here is pretty interesting. You get to pick a main course (I took the seabass fillet, which wasn’t so good) and appetizers and desserts were pretty much buffet-style. Since they were supposed to be appetizers, most of them came in small cute dishes and we were pretty much having a go at every different item served.

And there were oysters. Ahh…

I miss Shang oysters…

Anyway, we makan banyak.

After that, we took a stroll to the hotel pool area. Despite being in the middle of bustling area, the scenery and setting up there was gorgeous. The Hilton shared its pool with its neighbor Le Meridian, and accompanying it is a nice mix of foliage plus strategically placed seating areas. There were also many huge candles waiting to be lit, which Andy kindly did so.

Unfortunately, someone also strategically placed a beer bottle behind my seat. Not good, especially with cameras around.

We sat down, chatted about nonsense, and left at midnight.

Now back to the present. Today was pretty okay, having not think about the huge workload and instead going through each task in a somewhat systematic manner (easy first, harder ones later). There was also some commotion this morning in the lobby when Daimler Chrysler was showcasing the SLR McLaren. Damn, it’s such a nice car. I was about to take pictures but they were about to start their official event and there were TV crews abound. Didn’t want to look too jakun, so I decided to come back later for pictures. To my dismay, the car disappeared only 2 hours later. 🙁

Well, at least I saw Raikonen. For a bit.

Got home at 6, and it turns out Merv had a surprise gift for the Fish: a birthday cake! We made some plans and it didn’t take much to get Fish to Merv’s place for the candle-blowing.

Blowing, as in.. to blow wind at.

After that, it was mahjong after a long long time. Hooray!

Today’s accomplishments: Sei Chi Fei, Tin Wu. In 3 rounds. 😀

We found Choy NOT at the promised meeting place but further into the jetty area. Got our tickets settled and off we were on the pretty fast-going ferry to the Coral Platform. The ride itself was pretty smooth. TV was right in front of us, so couldn’t ignore the episode of Sesame Street (ringtone!). Up on deck, the sea breeze was awesome and since the sun wasn’t high it was pretty nice and cool.

Chick alert: none. Maybe some attached Jap tourists.

Got onto the platform close to 10.45. The sun was bright and it shows signs of a great day. We got right into preparing for our dive, gearing up into the stuff Choy brought along (mask & wetsuit for me), and picking up the more heavy duty equipment (bcd, regulator, tanks) from the local divemasters.

This is the part where we made an attempt on Henry’s life. As my dive buddy, I’m supposed to check his equipment before going in, and vice versa. Checked his tank valve. Hmm.. it wasn’t fully open.. so I start cranking it. Then he exclaimed that he had already opened it. Believing him, I start turning it the other way all the way.

Then Zoe tried to fix it and ended up being an accomplice. 😀

So we go in, redid some of our more basic stuff at the bottom. The water was rather murky with so much activity going on around us (it was the start of the school holidays anyway) but it was still bearable. We could at least see each other and the different marine life. Variety could’ve been better, but we’ll probably see that in our future dives.

The 3 of us followed Choy with Zoe guarding the rear. Went here, went there. Saw fish, some big, some small, and one with an oxygen tank. I personally enjoyed taunting the clownfish and staring at the tame garoupas.

After about 45 mins we got back out for a break and lunch. The food was much better than we expected, with a good selection of stuff. Not as good as the Lemon Garden or Sudu, of course.

Then, took a brief look at the underwater observatory in which I didn’t see much, and went on with our second dive for the day.

Actually, maybe this was the time we tried to kill Henry. Oh well, he’s still around nonetheless.

This time, Zoe took the lead. I was usually somewhere at the bottom cuz there was something weird going on with my BCD and I didn’t want to inflate it too much. It was pretty ok just floating around just by finning. Managed to catch close views of sea urchins and whatnots on the ocean floor. Sometimes I’d lose my buddies, only to find them hovering above me. It’s tough stretching your neck upwards underwater.

(tbc)

🙂

Pictures uploading at the gallery as I type.

After that, we had lunch at a coffee shop nearby, then proceeded to take a short break in our rooms before heading out to see Zoe’s auntie in Tanjung Bunga. T’was alright. Got slobbered by 4 friendly dogs in the process. Oh well, I managed to ‘samak’ sometime later.

For dinner, we took a walk to nearby Gurney Drive, to savor some of Penang’s well-known delicacies. Some of the things we had were Muar Chee, Prawn Mee, and the Dim Sum thingie on sticks. Zoe started off Si Guo Tang (a dessert with 4 things) and she and Fish finished up with Char Kuey Teow.

Then there was a short card session and off to bed we went.

We greeted the morning as early as 6am to make sure that we don’t miss the only ferry to the platform. Took a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before heading down to the peer to meet up with our instructor Choy. Not Kum Wah.

(to be continued, again. time to get ready for work :()

y0!

Just returned from a trip up north. Henry, Fish and I hopped onto ferries to go to the Pulau Payar Coral Platform to take our initiation dive into the sea. Zoe also came along as assistant instructor.

The journey began with Henry picking us all up in his turbo-charged 323 early Sunday morning. Showed them the way to the Section 17 market for some good ol’ nasi lemak, which was still good and cheap (RM1!).

After that, it was straight all the way up north via the NKVE (besides the toilet breaks). Had a minor problem when we got to Butterworth (cuz the map had a road which hasn’t been built yet!) but we managed to find and catch a ride to Penang on a ferry to let Henry take a break (none of us dared try his turbo). As we moved along, the opposing sea breeze was such a refreshing one and helped remove most of the highway heat.

On the island itself, we managed to find the Georgetown Berjaya Hotel thanks to Fishie’s expert navigation and Henry’s driving instinct without much hassle. The roads were such a pain though; it’s no wonder Penang drivers drive the way they do. Zoe, being a Penang kid, was familiarizing herself with all the places she’s been to before.

We quickly checked in and got ourselves acquainted with the rooms, one which we tried to change cuz it was of sub-par quality. In fact, the hotel itself wasn’t on form, and we had problems with housekeeping not giving us towels or taking away certain ones after the first day or not providing basic 4-star amenities. The first room we got to seemed to be in disrepair, and it almost seemed like it was haunted. Luckily, no encounters throughout the two days.

(to be continued. time for tennis :P)

At Starbucks now using my lil sister’s notebook. Sooo tempted to get my own.

We’re here with Fish, Henry, and Choo, recounting all the funny things I did during mahjong. The life of the party, as they say.

… dunno what else to say. Oh well.

Today was the last day of training. Finished early before lunch, so we made a pact not to go back to the office. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t turn off my phone though; my afternoon nap was interrupted countless times.

Work on the garage is continuing slowly. I’ve managed to put in some working validation code, but don’t expect to see anything on your browser yet.

Almost got whacked by a White Proton Saga plated WGF 9019 on the way home from work today.

As usual, I’d take the shortcut through Section 16 to bypass the jam towards the Section 16 roundabout from UH, cutting out from Jalan Universiti and ending up at Jalan Dato’ Abu Bakar. Also as usual, I made sure the lane I was turning into (it’s all about lanes today, I swear) was clear, finding a good pocket between traffic to go in.

A little risky however, because that road has two lanes. Perhaps I should’ve checked both lanes, but I’d be there forever. Seems that as I turned out, another car on the fast lane was trying to overtake a truck by cutting into the left lane.

As a result, screeching tyres, swear words, nasty gestures, evil glares, and not noticing Fish at the roundabout.

Thinking back, if there was a collision, it would’ve been officially my fault. But with all those old ads about overtaking cars from the left, you’d think some people would do otherwise, especially with kids in the car.

Sigh, I concede. This time. Won’t say the same for this morning.

Breathe.

Went to town with Merv. He managed to get his 6230 at the last minute for his mom’s b’day. I managed to send in my sister’s webcam for repair under warranty and got meself a 256MB MMC card for the phone. Loading up new MP3s as I type. 😀 Throughout the entire evening, we’ve managed to catch an eyeful of sweet looking things. As Merv coined it, it’s the stare-way to heaven!

The Weld.

A place no longer glimmering in its glorious past.

A place with lots of office people looking for food at 1 o’clock.

Lots of office women too.

Some are pretty. Some not. Be wary of your angle, for you may fall into a trap. Nausea ensues. Maybe even blindness.

Anyway, it’s now the 3rd day of training at MUI Plaza (for SAP Programming in HR), and things are pretty OK so far. Work’s piling on back at the office, some of which I toiled an extra 3 hours last night despite the temptation to strictly stick to office hours. Thankfully we’ll be done early today. And only half day on Friday. Tomorrow will be a short break in the schedule, having to go for an ISO Awareness Program down in Bangi. Tsk.

For you guys out there who need to stock up on office attire to replace those moth-ridden ones, come by the Weld for Caserini’s closing down sale. 80% off everything pretty much. Got meself some nice ones to replace my dad’s hand-me-downs. Yep.

Duvet status: Still not so nice.

I had a weird encounter on the way to work this morning.

The University Hospital exit to the Federal Highway is quite busy as usual. A bunch of us were filtering into it, trying to avoid a bus whose stop happened to be right at the corner of the turn in. So biasalah, the curve having the size of two lanes, allows more traffic to go at once.

So here I am on the fast lane of that curve, keeping to lane even as I got onto the offramp. The bus, having stopped, was taking half of the slow lane. This Volvo behind me and I simply went our way. There was another 4wd in front of us, but a bit slow.

Towards the lower part of the ramp, we were right behind the 4wd, urging it to go faster. Having no patience, and since I had planned to take the super slow lane (the highway had 4 lanes at this stretch) I decided to cut left and travel along that particular lane.

It was at this point I notice a black Honda Civic/City (the non-racing type :P) matching my speed behind me. Note that I was already going quite fast at this point. I didn’t think much of it at that point. He/she may be in a rush somewhere.

So there was this slow bike on my lane… so I cut right behind a lorry. Lorry was also slow, so I cut right again with lots of room to spare in front of another lorry.

The Civic was following my every move.

Now I was starting to wonder what this car was trying to do. By that time, we’ve already reached my Bangsar exit, so I signalled left and slowed down, wondering what the Civic would do next.

Then she flashed me.

I was like… WTF?! It cheesed me off so much I applied more brakes to see who the mofo was.

It was some auntie in a tudung. Not so old, but relatively an auntie nonetheless.

She stared at me. I stared back. That moment seemed like eternity as we exchanged blows with our eyes.

As she passed onwards on the highway, I finished it off with a menacing hand gesture. Should’ve gotten her plate, but it’s not good to keep your eyes off the road for too long.

…

Still wondering what I did to deserve the flash. I really really hate it when I get flashed, unless I happen to know the driver or without some malignant message. When you see one, you can usually tell whether it is hostile or not. This one was super hot.

Was it the time I was cutting into the turning after being stuck behind a car going to Gasing?

Was it the time I passed by the bus, not caring to let her cut in from the left?

Was it the time I cut out from behind the 4wd?

Hmm.. no matter how I piece it back together, I still can’t figure it out for sure. It would definitely have to do with any of the 3 above, probably the first one, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anyone in the way.

Oh well, at least it was fun.

Just finished watching Beyond the Clouds, a heartening anime movie about a promise of 3 youngsters deferred for 3 years due to one of them mysteriously disappearing.

Reminds me of 20th Century Boys somewhat.. and Eva. No robots though.

Also.. HDIC buffet was gewd. Merv and I had 11 scoops each. Shahz and my lil bro had 6 each. Woo~ Strawberry Cheesecake is awesome!

Thinking of putting up a database of all the freakin cars whose drivers have no freakin manners. I’ve got two entries so far stashed in the backend. Gotta put the tables together and the frontend up and running.

PS: I also just found out that Rengoku got hacked as well. 2 days after the main site. Hmmm.. still wondering if I’ve actually patched what I intended to before it happened. Oh well… no biggie.