long Chinese New Year weekend

Was away for CNY and just got home today. I spend every CNY at my gran's place in Benut. Benut is a small town in southern state Johor. It's a really small kampung in the middle of nowhere. My gran is so old [she's 94 this year] that she doesn't even seem to recognise me anymore. Well sometimes she does. As usual, we'd spend the first 2 days in Johor then head down to Singapore where all my other relatives are. My dad comes from a large family and everyone moved to Singapore except my dad, who for some reason decided to move up north to KL. My uncle and family still lives in Benut with my gran.

This is the old house where my gran used to live till several years ago.

It was good to see my cousins again cos I don't get to see them often. Only once a year during CNY. But as my gran's health is progressively deteriorating, we try to make extra trips down to visit her.

I arrived in Singapore late Friday evening. Benut is a 90 min drive to Singapore but this time around I went with my uncle and the rest of my relos and my uncle decided to detour a couple of times to pick up groceries and why did he choose to travel via the Woodlands link? Traffic was so bad the journey took almost 4 hours!

I had planned to shop for a new camera in Singapore but as it turned out prices isn't cheaper there. What a total disappointment! Looks like I need to head down to Sg Wang/Low Yat this weekend. I did however pick up Ashin's new Japan photo travelguide book at Kino. It even came with the pre-order gift - a rather cool lanyard with a luggage tag. The book is so beautifully put together with loads of amazing pics. Now if only I could read the text! LOL

Escape to Japan book on sale in Kino.

The human traffic in Singapore never fails to amaze me. There are soooooo many people everywhere - particularly in Orchard Rd and Bugis. I'm not sure if it's the CNY crowd but as far as I can remember, those areas are always very crowded. Even the MRT trains were so packed. I can't stand the disinfectant smell on board those trains and when it's crowded it gets worse cos you get so many sweaty smelly people who stand soooo close to you it makes you feel like wanna throw up.

Food in Singapore is bad. I have said this once and many times before. This CNY I actually had KFC and western fare twice! Come to think of it, I had pork chop for lunch at Riblee's in Desa Sri Hartamas on CNY eve.. it was so yummy.

A couple of blocks from where I was staying in Singapore is a "coffee shop" and there's a Botak Jones western cuisine stall there selling what they claim as "authentic American food" and their tagline reads "Damn Good Food At A Damn Good Price" Yeah my foot! I had the rosemary lamb chop and it tasted nowhere even near damn good. I paid about $12 for that plate. Not exactly "a damn good price" considering that I was dining at a "coffee shop". Even the lamb chop at IMM Mall's food court is cheaper and tastier plus it's air-conditioned there. That's gonna be my first and last time dining at Botak Jones.

Rosemary lamb chop at Botak Jones

My cousin from Benut tagged along to Singapore so we had to babysit him for 2 days. The little rascal is quite a specimen.. he actually eats more than me, sleeps less than me and he's only 7! He drinks too! LOL. Well since I had to babysit him for 2 days, I figured giving him a couple bottles of beer might just put him out but guess I was wrong...

What ya looking at mate? Ain't never seen a kid drink?

Shabu Shabu

Last Friday I decided to go try out the recently opened shabu shabu restaurant at 1 Utama. It was the first time I had shabu shabu. Hee. Well to be honest it's not much different from steamboat/ hotpot. We ordered the sirloin steak & mixed set and it was more than enough for the two of us. Just like steamboat, we had a choice of soups. I went for the spicy szechuan soup.. which was OK except it was too beefy for my liking.

shabu shabu

szechuan beefy soup

Now then.. I've got a really cute gashapon of Link from Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass :) They came in the mail last month for my bro and there were duplicates of Link [3 in fact] so I pestered him for one. Ain't Link cute? Which reminds me, I have yet to finish that game on the DS. Man, I totally suck at that game! Can you believe I'm still stuck in the second dungeon. At least I'm getting somewhere on Phoenix Wright: Justice For All

Link on my keyboard

Never Forgive Never Forget

I went to watch "Sweeney Todd" in the cinema today. Didn't plan on watching it, but I was tired from all that walking in the mall. Amazingly, there was no Q at the ticketing counter and we got pretty good seats too despite picking up the tickets only about 30 minutes before the movie started.

I had no idea what the movie was about.. all I heard was it's a musical and Johnny Depp plays a barber in it. What I didn't expect was all that nonstop gore and gurgling blood throughout the film!! There was sooooooo much blood and this guy slitted so many throats of the poor customers who sat in his barber chair. Once the throat is slit, he chucks the body down in the basement where they're cooked and made into meat pies by his partner in crime. Ewwwww. And the blood.. there's so much of it!! It spurts and sprays like water from a garden hose!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeee... *faints* To be honest I did feel a wee bit nauseous at the end of the movie.

Blood and gore aside, it was a pretty dark movie but I liked it. *evil grin*

Mayday vs DT

I knew this was gonna happen. I had foreseen it. When Mayday's Malaysia concert was announced, I was mighty tempted to log on to Genting's website and grab the best available seats. It's been 2 years since I last saw them in concert [last year's JUMP album promo and guest starring at Leehom's 2006 Heroes of Earth Taiwan concert don't count k]

They are so good live, you have to see them with your own eyes and ears to believe me. They are AWESOME live!!! They will have you jumping on your seat by the end of the first song. Someone once said that you will only fully appreciate Mayday when you watch them live. How very true.

What held me back on buying the Mayday tickets immediately was cos I had heard that David Tao is having concerts in Singapore and Malaysia in April also. My main concern was that their concerts would clash. Well it's very unlikely that DT's KL concert would coincide with Mayday's Genting one as ticket sales would be badly affected if two major artists are having concerts in town on the same day. That leaves with the only possibility of DT's Singapore concert clashing with Mayday's Genting show. Boo hoo. I just found out today that DT is indeed having his Singapore "123 We Are All Wooden Men" leg of tour on 19 April 2008, the exact same day as Mayday's "JUMP" world tour. Oh dang!!!!! I hate having to choose between the two as both are my fave artist. But it looks like I will be at Mayday's show in Genting cos I had just bought my tickets for Mayday.

Feeling under the weather

I'm nursing a headache today. I can't tell if it's cos of the hot weather or cos I overslept today. Of late the weather is unbelievably hot. The weather here is always friggin hot come this time of the year when CNY is approaching.

CNY is just 2 weeks away and I haven't done much. Have yet to get started on the cleaning. Oh gosh.. for the first time in years, I didn't mail any CNY cards! Don't think I'm gonna bother this year cos I'm too lazy and it's too late to mail them abroad anyway.

Have you ever wondered if rock stars actually do play Guitar Hero? Well it looks like these two below do! LOL. Mayday were at a XBox promotion in Taiwan yesterday and it seems Ashin challenged Masa to a bout of Guitar Hero and lost by over 70,000 points [oh the shame!! but that's OK cos Ashin is still my guitar hero =) ]

Guitar Heroes: Masa vs Ashin

tickets to go see Jay Chou on Feb 23rd

Thaipusam break

Finally Thaipusam has been announced a holiday in KL. woohoooo!I found out about it on Monday morning.. what a pleasant surprise. It's yet another hectic week at work so I really needed a day off in between. Am gonna be swamped with work and deadlines till CNY. Sigh.

Mom surprised us when she cooked snails for dinner.. ewwwww *throws up* I had a whiff at the plate of disgusting and foul smelling snails and almost lost my appetite. The last time I had snails was when I was on a trip in Taiwan 2 years ago and the Tourism Board had organised a dinner.. it was one of those lavish 8-course meal. I remember when one of the dish had arrived, I started feasting till someone on the table said 'oh wo niu'.... then I almost threw up LOL

can of snails..

Mom's birthday

My mom's birthday falls on 18 January [trainspotter Jay Chou fans would note that it's the same day as Jay's birthday] Usual round of feasting and all.. I ate so much I think I have to go on a crash diet next week... don't wanna end up looking chubbier during CNY, especially when I have to visit relatives that I see only once a year. Hehe.

Munchies at Tony Roma's

Mayday Mayday

I just found out last night that Mayday are finally coming to Malaysia on their JUMP world tour. But why why why does it have to be at Genting?? That crappy venue. It's been 2 years since I last saw them play at Stadium Merdeka and I really wanna go see them again!!!!! 

They're playing Singapore the weekend after the Genting show.. ahhhh.. I wanna go too! OK I gotta sort out the Genting show first.. hehe. One at a time..

Mayday on their KL Final Home World Tour on 14 Jan 2006 - check out the sea of fans in red!

Lookie! My old SE W550i cellphone and the Mayday 2006 tickets :)

Back from Jakarta

Back from Jakarta.

It was a fairly short 4 day trip and pretty much most of the time was spent holed up in the hotel. It was good to meet up again with Anett and co. Much thanks for everything! Thanks for feeding us with all the wonderful local delicacies and taking us around and arranging everything. You guys are the bomb! [I miss the ikan bakar already.. ]

Novotel where we stayed. Pic taken from the warung Indomie across the hotel.

Late night snack at warung Indomie

My roomie is a huge Indomie fan. We went on a Indomie shopping spree the next day at the supermarket just below the hotel.

a shopping cart full of Indomie in assorted flavours

Jakarta sunrise 

They say you have to try ikan bakar if you go Indonesia and boy this is yummy yummy!!

This is the first time I've tried pisang bakar. Umm interesting combination of banana, cheese and chocolate.. don't look so appetising though after it's been wrapped for hours.

New Year 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Back at work as usual today.. after a series of yearend festive breaks.. in between clearing my annual leave.. it was nice to be at home and not doing anything.. though I was also out a lot with frens, shopping and pigging out. So now I am starting the new year.. skint and a lil rounder. LOL

I saw Elly’s pics the other day on Facebook, taken after a snowstorm in Boston. There was snow everywhere.. it was sooo beautiful.. I miss the snow.. I was in NYC and travelled for a bit this past Chinese New Year and it was the first time I had seen so much snow in my life.. no kidding. Right now it’s blazing HOT in KL. It’s so unbelievably hot that if I had a choice I would not leave my air-conditioned office today :P