Malaysian motorcyclists versus Vietnamese motorcyclists

Lynnee blogged about the top 10 things Malaysia bikers do that annoy the heck outta her. Her 10 reasons I couldn't agree more.

If you happen to visit Ho Chi Minh City, formerly called Saigon before the Vietnam war, then you will see why the Malaysian motorcyclists are not so bad after all.


A "herd" of motorcyclists will stop next to you at every single junction. They get so bloody close to you, you can practically reach out your hand to "sakai" their heads for getting so close or grab their butts whichever you like. Oh yea, helmets are not compulsory so you can "sakai" harder if you choose the former!


See how close they get. This lady can even smile for the camera. The little kid was not wearing a helmet. He wore a hat instead. I guess hats and baseball caps are stronger and tougher than helmets in Vietnam.


Just wear a baseball cap and with just one hand on the bike handle, off your go on your bike. No problems!


Run! The bikers from hell are coming.

Travelling in a car/taxi is as scary as crossing the street on foot. They honk whenever and wherever they like. There are no road rules in HCM City. Oh dear, I had the culture shock of my life when I was there!

Bloggers meet - 30th Jan 2005

Check out the pics of the gathering at The Digital Awakening.

Guess what's this?

Can you guess what is this photo showing? The winner will get a teh tarik treat from me. Muahaha... Good luck!


-=Update=-
Well, boys and girls... it is a jet engine of a Cathay Pacific's Boeing 777-300 aircraft. Here is the full picture.


One anonymous and Jinny Wong got it right (Applause, applause, clap, clap)

Lucia, no it wasn't a toilet roll. Tho it looks like a roll alright...

To anonymous, whoever you are, you hit the nail on the head.

Sweetspirit, you agreed with Lilian that it's a sticker on the wall/shelf in the airport express train. Wow... very imaginative of Lilian, but sorry la... not correct. :)

Lynnee, Rolls Royce doesn't make planes, they make the jet engines.

Joez, your guess is close. Okay lah, cincai, half glass of teh tarik for you.

Jinny, you are correct. Discovery channel is one of my fav channel. Your next teh tarik is on me.

Well ladies and gentlemen. You want it, there you have it. Hope you had fun guessing. Anybody wanna have another round of "Guess what's this?" lol!

Chinese New Year Holiday

Woohooo... Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Factory will shut down from 8th to 13th Feb. So if I apply 7th (Monday) off, then I don't have to work from 5th to 13th Feb. That's 9 days off! But the bad part is we will be forced to take 2 days annual leave on 8th (Tue) and 12th (Sat).

Take one full day annual leave for a half day (12th Feb - Sat). Wasting my annual leave. What a pity, so sayang.

Bloggers meet in Penang

More details di sini and di situ.

Chilling out in Hong Kong

Alot of people have asked me where did I go while I was there over the weekend? Some colleagues asked which interesting places did I visit? You know that kind of tourist questions ... did you see this, did you eat this? How was the weather? Was it cold?

As a matter of fact, I did not go to HK as a tourist. I was there on a mission. A very personal one. Anyway, here are 2 more pics taken when I was there.


A newly married couple posing for a perfect picture with friends and relatives near the Arena of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui.


The hustle and bustle of the night market over shadows the quietness of the flats above.

Everything is busy

Did you know that Hong Kong's Kwai Chung port is probably one of the busiest container ports in the world? With few natural resources and lack of space, Hong Kong relies heavily on international trade to propel its economy. How busy a port is measured by the TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units) or how many 20 footer containers it handles per year. To give you any idea how busy this port is, approx 15 million TEUs, that is 15,000,000 boxes of 20 footer containers pass through this port yearly.

The Kwai Chung port in Hong Kong is one of the main gateway to Guangdong, Southern China. With other economies like Vietnam catching up on international trade, can Kwai Chung remains as the busiest container port in the world?

Like its port, the night markets in Hong Kong is as happening.

Known as Fa Yuen Kai or Flower market street in Prince Edward (near Mong Kok - pronounced Wong Kok in cantonese), this is one of HK's popular night markets. Streets are named after the goods which are commonly sold in the respective streets. The most famous are of course, the Por Hai Kai or Sport Shoe Street and Lou Yan Kai or Ladies Market. Very crowded at night. Lotsa people, locals and tourists alike browsing the goods on display. Lotsa things to see and buy ranging from fake football jerseys to fake boobs!

And the airport.... just like what is currently on air in Astro's channel 30 (Wah Lai Toi) in the cantonese drama, Triumph in the skies or something - bz!

Good night for now... time to crash so that I can wake up tomorrow morning and proceed to delete emails (arggh!) in the office tomorrow.

Bumpy ride

Today is my second day in HK. Arrived yesterday afternoon. The flight was terrible, very bumpy 80% of the time. That was definitely one of the worst flight I have experienced. Felt so sick and nausea and at times, felt like throwing up. Lunch in the flight was served only one hour before we touched down in Chek Lap Kok HK International Airport. It was delayed because of the jerky and rough flight caused by the strong tailwind according to one stewardess. Lunch was either beef with noodles or fish with rice. I wanted the former but the airstewardess talked me into the latter cos there wasnt any beef/noodles left in her cart. Tasted like .... typical aeroplane food if you know what i mean. Gonne have hot pot or what we call steamboat in Malaysia for dinner in my friend's house tonight. Then tomorrow, will be treated lunch by a few HK colleagues. Till my next post....

Look mom! No helmets

Armed with a digicam almost everywhere I go now, I spotted 3 bikes with a pillion rider each without helmets in Greenland - in one of the busiest roads in Penang. What struck me was how these guys have no regards for the law whatsoever. None of them wore a helmet and they were riding their bikes dangerously endangering the lives of other motorists. They can break their heads and die for all I care.

2 bikes, the other one is blocked by the bike on the left.


That's the other bike on the right. See how this bike is in the middle of the lane? This ain't no motorcycle lane so I just followed them from behind. We are the King of the road or today is a good day to die, they seemed to be thinking.

On another note, I will leave for HK tomorrow and I searched through some of the foreign currencies I have. Managed to find more or less HKD900.

I got some Thai Baht, some Sing Dollars, US Dollars, a couple hundreds of Euros, HK Dollars, some Chinese Renminbis and plenty of coins from Swiss Francs to the now defunct French Francs.

Working on a holiday

I was with Alice in wonderland when suddenly *ring ring*, well not exactly *ring ring* but one cantonese tune from my mobile woke me up. Checked the time, it was a quarter past eight. Casually, I picked up the phone to see which dumbass who was calling me early in the morning on a public holiday. It was my boss. Trying not to sound like I was asleep when he called I answered his call.

Me: Yes boss?

Boss: Yea, yea. We got a situation here. You know the customer XXXXX who just placed an order last week.... well, I just received an sms from him and he wants to reduce the qty ordered. Do you know if this order is already being produced?

Then he proceeded to tell me the new/reduced order breakdown and gave me the customer's mobile no. if case I needed to contact him.

Me: (Thinking - knn this time chee kek liau) Aiyah, let me go back to the office and find out. I could check with the schedulers or YYYYYY (the production manager) and ask him to help.

Boss: Okay but do you think they have already started?

Me: Errr... I think not yet maybe next week. Okay, I go and find out now. (Grrrrr...geram nia)

Boss: Btw, I am now driving to KL.

So here I am in the office blogging this entry. In case you are wondering, production order had been issued for original order. Chiak lat liau.... Arrrgggh!

knn is not cnn. This is not a typo hor!

What kind of jambu is this?

Do you consider jambu an exotic fruit? Or even erotic? Well... ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, check this out

I wonder how sweet it taste.


What a kinky fruit.


Enjoy this big juicy jambu.

I am graduating

Oh my God! I am so happy today. Correction, I am ecstatic! Ahem... I have unofficially obtained my master's degree - got my results this morning. Yay... Wheee!!! Time to celebrate like there's no tomorrow!

I had to work my butt off to get to this day. The satisfaction I am feeling now is simply indescribable. It's worth every single bit of my effort. There were definitely many challenges, obstacles, sweat, blood, sex lotsa porns and sufferings both physically and mentally but in the end I still prevail.

Don't try to run, I can keep up with you. Nothing can stop me from trying to get you! And I finally gotcha!

Anyway, the uni will be expecting to hear from me preeeeety soon to inquire about the convo which I hear is probably going to be sometime in July. Well...well... It's in UK so maybe I will graduate in absentia.

Btw, I still could not proof that blogging can improve memory, but what the hey, suddenly I feel so smart and intelligent. Lol!

I even got back from work to enjoy a nice dinner at home. Lots of dishes tonight.

There is a fried egg, baked beans, "ka na"/local vegetable, chicken chops, luncheon meat, curry chicken, "bak steak"/meat balls with potatoes and onions, "asam belai"/kinda like laksa soup, more chicken, chinese herbs soup and a plate of steam rice.

Even they are doing it

I dedicate this entry to all the psychos out there.

Awww...take me baybeh...take me...This little fella on top is pretty ambitious and got balls too. Don't you think so?


Was it as good for you as it was for me?


Yea, it was... but I am so tired now.


Starring in this animal sex stunt is the little dog on top (sorry i dont know your name) and Pug.

View from 17th floor

From the balcony, one can see the Penang State Mosque till the Kek Lok Si Pagoda including the statue of the Kuan Im.

While on the other side in the corridor, you'll see some skyscrapers and condos in Gurney Drive all the way to Komtar.


That's the Menara UMNO in the middle.


Then we have the offices - MBF Tower, Northam Tower... along the millionaire's row.


Berjaya hotel on the left.


But when you look down from the corridor, you'll see the pool area.


A number of kids and adults enjoying the pool on a lazy sunday afternoon.


Just chilling and relaxing in the pool.

Germans doing it

Last month, I blogged about the locals doing it. This morning when I was getting ready to drive to work with my eyes half opened, I saw the Germans were getting to it.

Getting horny early in the morning, eh?


These 2 german shepherds were doing it almost in the same spot and the same style as the locals. And tonight I will be having dinner with 5 German customers... coincidence? I try not to think of the Germans in the pics here when I see the customers tonight.

Renovation - muh new sliding doors, cee wah!

Ladies and Gentlemen, renovation in my new place is almost done. It involves hacking away existing windows/walls and installing sliding doors among others. 3 brand new sliding doors have been put up - one in the living area, one in the master bedroom and another in the 2nd bedroom.

Buying this property last year is by far my biggest investment - to plan for my future. I got a 3 room apartment, 1100 sq feet in total. Quite a few families have already moved in. I guess they wanted to settle down before the Chinese New Year starts. I am not in a hurry though. Will be taking my own sweet time to slowly buy stuffs to fill up my new place.

This is the new sliding doors in the living. It's the 17th floor, btw.


And this is the 2nd bedroom. Workmanship is so-so.

Normal Distribution Chart

Today we will be learning about the normal distribution curve aka Bell Curve and skewness of the normal distribution chart.

Taken from pages view per day. Chart is slightly skewed to the right ie. the tail is on the right side. So skewed to the left means the tail is on the left la...geddit? Notice that pages viewed started to increase on 26th Dec 2004 when the tsunami disaster occured.

Bonus day

Today is bonus day and I got my bonus today. Time for celebration? I don't think so. It's a miserable 0.6 bonus on top of the 13th month salary I get every year. Now, can you tell me how pathetic is that? I hear other people are getting 3 months, and some even 4 months bonus. This fuctory sucks.

Hamburger

My dinner last night.

Dinner at home

This is the normal food I get for dinner at home. Gives you an idea what I eat at home. Wow... I didnt realise until now I actually arranged the plates and bowls nicely in rows when I took this pic!

1st row from the top (L to R): Fried eggs with onions, 2 pieces of crab sticks with mayonaise filling, tau hu
2nd row (L to R): Hair Ken or prawn fritters, curry chicken, cucumber, fried chicken
3rd row (L to R): Ladies fingers or ocra, prawn curry with cucumber, jew hu char, sayong chai soup
bottom row (L to R): Khor kua with chilly, steamed rice, cabai burung ... and by the way, these dishes are for 4 person.

Sad, Sad Story... Pls adopt this boy

A seven year old boy from Klang was at the center of a Magistrate courtroom drama Friday morning when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him.

The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents, so the judge awarded custody to his aunt. The boy, however, stated that his aunt beat him more than his parents and refused to live there.

Therefore, the judge suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried out that they beat him more than anyone. In an unprecedented move, the judge dramatically allowed the boy to choose who should have custody of him.

Custody was finally granted to the Malaysian National Football Team this morning as the boy firmly believes that they are not capable of beating anyone.

Hahaha! Gotcha!

A pathetic post

I snapped this pic while driving home from work along Vale of Tempe Road. You know, the very twisty road to Tanjung Bungah. There are some stories about this road. Got ghost la, this la, that la... I use this road everyday but I see no ghost yet.


A steam roller was seen here smoothening the road surface after tarring.


My dinner - cintan mee cooked in wanton mee style.


My "bang chang kueh" is thicker than Lilian's. Heh!


There is a "pasar malam" or night market near where I stay on Tuesdays. So normally we will "tah pau" our dinner. We have "bak chang" on top of the pic, a butter bun, wanton mee, "bang chang kueh" or pancake, sliced "mee koo" and 2 packets of "ang tau sung" / ais kacang la! and 2 pieces of bun (dunno what filling inside)...

Blooper

See what the movie directors have missed out during the making of the below movies. Lights, camera... annnnnnnnd ek syen!


Is this Johnny Depp? Is Adidas his sponsor?


Walkie talkie??? Hello....?


It's a bird... No, it's a plane la


I shoot ar.. I tell u I shoot u ar!


Eh... Can see my rolex ah?

A quick joke

I was testing the children in my Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.

I asked them, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?"

"NO!" the children answered.

"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"

Again, the answer was, "NO!"

By now I was starting to smile. Hey, this was fun!

"Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?" I asked them again.

Again, they all answered, "NO!"

I was just bursting with pride for them.

Well, I continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"

A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA BE DEAD."

Electronic tickets to HK

Great! I got my return e-tickets from my travel agent last Friday. Had them despatched over the Hong Kong SuperCity package to my house.


The package consists of the e-tickets, a HK SuperCity discount booklet, coupons for the hotel, for the airport transfer, for a free lobster noodle and a baggage tag.


So my flight is confirmed to depart Penang on 22nd Jan (Sat) and I will return on 25th Jan (Tue) - 4D3N ... *sob* *sob* only a short trip.

Bye Bye Weekend

The weekend has come and now it is almost gone. I always have this funny feeling in the late afternoon on Sundays. The thought of waking up to the buzz of my alarm clock early tommorow and driving to work with muh eyes half open ... argh ... work work work!!! So many problems at work, too many people to please and so many crticisms to face. Some people ought to think first before they advise others!

Pin Through Hole - Components Porn

Some Panasonic factory operators have too much free time in their hands.

Last day of the celebration

Yesterday was the last day of the celebration to mark the birthday of the Elephant God. I was at the temple from 9pm till midnight, to shoot more pics & to see the closing ceremony.


Folded joss papers or commonly known as "khim" to be burnt later in the night to mark the closing ceremony. "Khim" means gold in hokkien.


This is the front part of the temple. On the background is the singing stage.


The birthday of "Dato Kong" is also celebrated on the last day of the celebration. "Nasi kunyit", coconuts, durians, "sirih" and "curut"/cigars are some of the offerings to "Dato".


Skimpily dressed girl singing.


Girl in red performing the last few songs for the night.



After all the singing is done, the 8 deities or "Pek Sien" came from the stage to pray to all the deities as part of the closing ritual.


This is the "spirit branch" or "Gia Kee" in hokkien.


2 persons will hold the "kee" or branch on each end and a spirit will move the "kee" about. First time for me to see this - very interesting.


The branch supposedly possessed by a spirit kept hitting the table of the altar.

Entertainment for the deities?

Singing troupe with ladies dressed in sexy outfits performing on stage. More entertainment for the crowd rather than for the deities.


Food consisting of cooking oil, 3-in-1 coffee, bee hoon, instant noodles, rice, biscuits and crackers donated by devotees which will go to a welfare home.

The Baby God

Taoist believes there are many kinds of Gods. Similar to the Indians. The picture below is an interesting one. It shows the Baby God or known as the "Loh Chiar Kong". As the name suggest, this God is a baby. So what do you offer to a baby? Well you offer a baby a pacifier, of course. No kidding. See for yourself - 5 "gu leng taus" are offered to the Baby God.

www.dictionary.com defines a "gu leng tau" as a rubber or plastic nipple or teething ring for a baby to suck or chew on.


The puppets in action - presumably to entertain the deities.

Lucia's Chaly, My Honda Civic C70

With reference to Lucia's Chaly motorbike, I like to show her my bike. This is muh humble Honda Civic.... C70


I used it as my faithful transport to school since 1995. School was Saint Xavier's Institution for me. This bike is about 10 years old now. I have neglected it after I got my 2nd wife 1st car. Haha.... I have a reminder from this bike. I have a scar on my right arm after I skidded and fell together with her in "Chui Tee Lor" or Vale of Tempe.

Now I use her to do my errands like going to the post office, the banks....

Cheng Kong Phor Sat Birthday

This afternoon I was at a temple to pray in conjunction with the celebration of one deity's birthday (Cheng Kong Phor Sat) which falls on tomorrow, 3rd Jan 2005. I am gonna introduce some of the deities in this temple which I normally go to during such kind of celebrations.

This is the "Cheng Kong Phor Sat", also known as the Elephant God if I am not mistaken. You can see it has a small elephant on top.


The front view of the Tai Pee Sun temple in Tanjung Bungah. The "Thnee Kong" or the God of Heaven's altar is right in front.


Another view from outside. Big "Wu Lou" on the right to burn the joss papers.


"Thnee Kong" or God of Heaven's altar.


Flags surrounding the temple.


This is quite a common deity which one can find in many temples. "Choon Tay Phor Sat" is a deity with many hands.


"Bee To"


The famous "Kuan Kong" or the God of War. Those who watches cantonese triad movies will know this "Ang Kong".


"Tua Pek Kong", is always housed in a separate building and will be offered roasted pigs to celebrate his birthday. One can ask for lucky numbers from "Tua Pek Kong" for 4D like I did this afternoon. I ain't gonna tell you what numbers I got. Go ask "Tua Pek Kong" yourself.


Below "Tua Pek Kong" is the "Hor Yeah" or the Tiger God.


In another separate area is the "Dato Kong". Nasi kunyit normally is offered to "Dato Kong"


"Mi Leh Hood" or commonly known as the Laughing Buddha.


Assortments of other deities can also be found in the temple.


Offerings to the deities.


Lotus candles.


"Mee koo" which tastes like bread for the members of the temple. Taste great with black coffee.


"Mui Sin" or the spirit of the doors that wards off bad spirits from entering the temple.


Even the birds made their nest inside the temple, on the ceiling. The twigs are called "Liu Kee".


Close up of the nest.


Strange... bubbles keep on appearing in the water offered to the deities.


"Cha Ka Lay" or puppet show is presented to the Gods one day before the "Cheng Kong Phor Sat" or the Elephant God's birthday.


Puppet show stage.


Tomorrow, on the real day of the Elephant God's birthday, there will be a singing troupe supposedly to entertain the Gods. I think the guests and visitors will enjoy themselves more. This is the stage for tomorrow's event.


Another common sight in temples where you can see a pair of dragons on the roof top.


A dragon in the sky....


Beautiful giant dragon joss sticks.


Look at the size of these giant joss sticks. Very common in temples in Penang.


Nowadays in the streets of Penang, you can see so many cars with the "Amitabha" kind of sticker. Spotted this BMW parked outside the temple.


This is the founder of the Tai Pee Sun Temple. This article was published in The Sunday Times in Nov 2, 1958 with the headline, "The rock that refused to budge".

Special thanks to my younger brother for the names of all the "Ang Kongs". I hope he is right. "Ang Kongs" means Gods in our Penang hokkien dialect.

Renovation in progress

I have requested the contractor to do some minor renovation to my new apartment. Those fcuking contractors charge so much to do some renovation. I dunno anyone of you who have bought new apartment units also face the same problem like me? The contractor there does no allow other contractors from outside to do the job. The price they quote is simply too expensive like 1.5 times more. Wondering whether CAP can do something or not?



Cost me more than RM5000 just to do the following ...
1> Install grilles as shown in the pics
2> Install sliding doors in living room, master bedroom and 2nd bedroom.
3> Shift main door out a little as in the 1st pic above.

Arghhhh! So geram only... I better finish my lunch

I am having fried rice or char pui and....


Kopi peng


Char pui and kopi peng - they sure make a good combination, I reckon.

How come so blur one?

The 1st day of 2005 - I let a riceboy loose. Although I managed to "shoot" him 3 times, the pics turned out to be very blur. I don't know whether this Canon PowerShot A40 got the anti-shake feature like Lilian's more than RM2k new toy or not? Dunno how to use, no manual one. Anyway, I'm not those hardcore photographers so it's ok la.


This purple color riceboy got 2...no let me count 1, 2, 3, 4....yea 4 big and loud exhaust pipes! A pair at each side. Dunno why he wanted so many exhaust pipes for? Fly to the moon and back?


Can you see the exhausts now? Also comes with super big spoilers at the back of the car.


Vroom...vroom... wonder when it's gonna take off and why is it still on the road if it has 4 exhausts and 1 big ass spoiler?

Opps... my boobs

Never do that. Never release pigeons at your wedding.
Ashotiwoth - are you reading dude?

Shipment to Colombo, Sri Lanka

Just came back from a bbq party sort of to celebrate and welcome the new year. I was speaking to a shipping executive and she told me that Tzu Chi had just sent a container consisting of food stuff, clothes...etc... by vessel to Colombo, Sri Lanka - to help the tsunami victims. They seemed to have a problem as they don't know who to contact to clear the cargo. Anyway, the shipping exec I met had already advised them to get in touch with the shipping agent's counterpart in Colombo to arrange for clearance when the vessel arrives.

-=Happy New Year Ya All=-

May your good health be confirmed by your dentist, gastro-endocrinologist, urologist, psychologist, optician and fortune-teller.

May your physiotherapist, chiropractor, therapist, witch doctor and your slimming clinic tell you,you don't have to come anymore.

May your salary, your housing subsidy, the contents of your house and all your shares increase in value, and may your blood pressure, weight, house loan, tax and cholesterol all decrease.

May all your friends remember you and may the taxman forget you exist.

May your walls be too high for the neighborhood's thieves but low enough for you to hop over when you have forgotten your keys.

May you have an honest government and a dishonest beauty therapist.

May you have an intelligent Prime Minister and a fool for a TV license checker.

And the best of everything else for 2005.........Happy New Year!

Cheers!
Source: Unknown