Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Here is a video of the room I stayed in while in Bali. Excuse the drunk cameraman look, I was excited. You can also download the video.



Friday, July 01, 2005

Hey, we're here in KLIA playing withn Free Internet, I guess the emphasis is on 'free', since there isn't much Internet to go by. Thank you very much Samsung Digitall connect. My 28.8 modem was better.

Anyway, beggars can't be choosers, and we've spent the last ten minutes trying to post this. And if you don't see it, it means it hasn't.

We're off to Bali and shopping. And temples. And sunsets. And shopping.

Bai Bai

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Has it actually been so long since I last wrote? ( think the preceedeing sentence has become a bit of a traditional precursor for me to any one of my blogs - whenever you don't see this, it must not be me writing! ;) )

By the way, another coool thing that happened while I was in Perhentian was that I was part of the fire show - what? you beg to ask. Well, let me tell you - it's cool having friends in high places. What happened was, there was 'Lady Boy' who was one of the waiters at Bubu Resort - and some of you may know how I have this 'thing' for lady boys, hehehehehehee. Anyway, he was very nice with orange hair; didn't like Mr Black though - arrogant son of a slug - he got his though! Alright, let's get back to happier news. Lady Boy was one of the performers in the nightly fire show....he'd had two chains dangling from each hand, both of which have a ball of fire hanging at one end. These balls are lighted up and guess what, there you go - fire balls for a fire show. He'd swing them balls every which way and create these beautiful patterns in the night scene.

To make everything even more exciting and personal for the audience, of course some of us in the crowd were invited to go on sand (no stage) and try swinging for our lives......Lady Boy picked me, I went, all game and excited and did my turn entertaining my big group of friends. So much fodder for the cameras. No camera of my own but anyway, Liz got a beautiful clear-on pic of me which I shall try to put on the moment I get my hands on it.

Here I am looking for life experiences - there you go, there's one!

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Sun, Surf and ...

Woohoo!!! Two weekends in a row by the beautiful beach! Or next to seawater of some description, anyway.

First weekend was a mini-break at Perhentian. I cunningly decided to take a break from mundane work with my office mates by taking a holiday at Pulau Perhentian with my office mates. I know. Go figure.

But if it wasn't for them, I'd probably not go snorkelling. You know, I'm pretty keen on this stuff, apart from the fact that I can't swim. It's okay. I was never motivated enough. And that's what pelampung are for anyway.

I went snorkelling at Kota Kinabalu and everything was cool. Except maybe for those wormsie things.

Anyway, I know now that when you snorkel you sometimes see these striped worms, but they're not really worms, they're jellyfish. I know this now. Don't need to freak out so much. Forewarned is forearmed.

And the great thing is, there aren't that many stripey jellyfish at Perhentian. Snorkelling is so cool, a whole new world opens up before your eyes. For example, there are fish, big ones. Coral, beautiful, colourful coral. And then there were the Sea slugs.

You know, when you say "slug", you think "black thing that crawls in the garden, looks like a snail without a shell"? Well, the sea slugs I saw were like that, except that they're bigger. Like "length of my arm" bigger. Okay, so my arms are on the short side, but, hey, they were big enough for me to go "OHMIGODOHMIGODOHMIGOD!" when I saw them.

And if that doesn't sound too freaky, try saying that underwater the next time.

Of course, this guy who shall remain nameless, picked one up and tried to drape it on me.

You know how I said I couldn't swim? Amazing how fast you learn with enough motivation.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Life sucks! Friday was a good beginning to some much needed rest period before the days really heats up next week. But, I mut have done something wrong in my past life cos it definitely ain't that easy!

Can't go into details but rest assured, it's days like these, on top of everything else, that makes you wanna throw in the towel. It'll come in time, it ain't always easy, you'll learn is what they all say but you know what, at this precise moment, it sure as heck seems like they're lying.

End of the year - I'll wait until end of the year and then that'll be it because if I don't go, my soul will.

Thursday, May 05, 2005


Old Me.


New Me!
A couple of things have happened peeps (- for those of you not in the know, 'peeps' means 'people'!)

Firstly - Errolyn's cut her hair (!!!)
Secondly - Errolyn spent RM120 at the Times Warehouse Sale (!)

So, which do you want to hear about first?

Well, obviously I've put up some pics of myself with long hair and my new hairstyle which actually looked so good on the first day that I hugged my professional hairstylist - Annita Hisham of Curlers & Trimmers in Desa Sri Hartamas - and thanked her very very profusely. I was almost teary-eyed cos I wanted to do it but had the usual suspects - concern, excitement, reservation, eagerness and of course, my faithful friends - urge, desire and let's-do-this-now!!!!!!

For those of you who don't know me from childhood, I've had 'beautiful' long hair since I was yea high, not least because the two or three times I have experimented with short hairstyles, mum has commented that I look like an Indonesian maid! I also had another nickname - 'Butterball'. Funny how you remember these things huh?

Anyways, I didn't think I looked sooooooo bad for those 'different' hairstyles but obviously short hair doesn't get you as many looks as long hair does. Frequently enough, people say long hair is sexy and guess what, I think it is definitely TRUE! No offense to all the short-furred people out there but you know what, we can't deny that the length of one's hair almost always does influence the looker whether he/she realises it or not! Gosh, am I rambling? Do you just want me to get to the point?

So - I cut my hair. Mum said no, D said hmmmmm, sis said yeah, friends said try it slow. You see, originally, I had wanted the Anita Sarawak haircut. Hairstylist said no. :)

Secondly, there was a Times warehouse sale in PJ - in that building where people hold a lot of warehouse sales? Behind Colgate-Palmolive is how they describe it. Anyway, if you go around that vicinity, you'll be able to see a white sign on the ground that says 'Free Parking for Times warehouse sale'. The guard will then hand you a yellow parking ticket and very diligently tell you to collect the parking voucher from Times.

How do I know he diligently does this? Cos I went twice!

First time I went and bought quite a few books totalling RM120 with 2 books worth RM1 each. This was their gimmick you see - 'cheaper thatn newspaper'!!!! And a lot of other novels (Mum and I love Greg Iles) worth RM8. Can you imagine! The normal RRP (Recommended Retail Price) is somewhere around RM30-40 and here we can get it for RM8. Some hard-cover books were RM15 and of course there were the more expensive ones too like James Patterson (whom I love - can't read his books fast enough!) for RM24. Bought the Volume 1-4 of Stephen King's Dark Tower set for RM30, one Orson SCott Card's SongMaster for RM 8 (I loved Ender! - as I have said in my review of Ender here on my website - if you haven't, you need to, no matter what the genre you prefer!)

Then I went a second time, and bought one contemporary 'Chick Lit' - well, the bookstores call it 'Chic Lit' but somehow I think they mean the former! :)
Couldn't bring myself to buy it the first time around cos it didn't seem right to spend money on frivolous Chick Lit. I know, I know, the other novels are all fiction too but they seem to require more thought and planning and effort since the books I like to read usually involve a lot of twists in medical/legal/espionage/horror thrillers. But anyway, only RM 8 right? And let's see, bought another RM 1 novel since they change the novels, everyday I think. There was another Iles book for RM 1 but sadly I had already bought it for RM 8 the other day - DAMN!

So, when you buy RM100 and above (accumulated receipts of one day only), you get a complimentary RM5 voucher to use at Times, valid until 31st July. And if you buy RM300 and above (again accumulated receipts of one day only), you get a very nice Times bag. So, with D buying RM200 and above and me RM100 and above, we got a nice Times bag - which you may see me carrying around now!

So that was my eventful!!!!! weekend. And this weekend I am going home - which promises to be even more fun, love and comfort. I miss home. I want to go home. I miss everything it represents to me - family, comfort, luxury, familiarity, closeness.

Too-de-loo!

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Post of 25th April 2005
(With pictures)
An Intimate Evening with Lea Salonga - Broadway Pleasures.

Lea Salonga sang only one Miss Saigon song, one Les Miz and a lot of other songs I didn't really like. Her voice is as pure as ever and I enjoyed it to no end but I definitely wouldn't have minded more songs that I liked.

Mrs Rob has been married for 'a little over a year now' (as she kept reminding us) and still very much in love. In fact, the theme for the night was Love. It affected some and didn't affect some.

There was her Broadway album for sale at half-time (which I have already got courtesy of D's visit to the Filipino MP3 market....hehehehehe....The 'Voice of God' announced that it would be on sale after the concert but actually sales started, and ended, at half time intermission!!! Quite a few people missed out on it. Demand definitely sky-rocketed when 'God' promised that Lea herself would come out and autograph your copy of her album.

Lea came out in her 'ugliest costume of the year' a blue suit first and then changed into a shiny red off-the-shoulder chiffon thingy with pants. She looked really bigger on stage - as in more substantial from my vantage point to the left of the stage, one tier up and beautifully right in front of the stage! Circle 1 - A3-6!

But boy! When she came out to sign her album, I couldn't recognise her! On stage she looked bigger and older and not so captivating but in person, she came back to normal size, looked 22 and lived up to all beauty expectations. LA SALONGA IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND THIS IS COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO ALREADY THOUGHT SHE WAS RAVISHING. SHE EXCEEDED EXPECTATION STILL!

Overall, repertoire could have been improved, I thought her voice sounded a bit nyaring but stil mesmerising. As someone very aptly put it, she acts her songs! It isn't just singing - another gem like her is Celine Dion. That's why I can't understand when people say Carrie Underwood and Jaclyn Victor sing well. Yeah they have the voice but they don't emote, they don't bring the song to life, they don't send shivers up your spine and make you want to cry. When Lea sings, I believe.

Well, there is my adventure with Lea - I have been within the closest proximity ever with her and now go home sated. The train ride again - very romantic - all the old world charm and rocking soothing motions - except the AutoDoor won't open for me!

Lovely.
Post of 23rd April 2005

It's my fourth/fifth/sixth trip to Sinsapore and I've definitely run out of things to do, places to see and malls to visit. People always say shopping is fabulous in Singapore....I beg to disagree. Whoever said that must have said it a decade ago before shopping exploded in Malaysia what with the advent of MidValley Megamall; my personal all-time favourite, although I must say Sunway Pyramid comes a close second.

What do people actually do in Singapore? God knows during my second trip itself, I had already exhausted all the 'pleasures' of Singapore - night safari, sentosa island, orchard road.

On my wonderful train trip down here to Singapore on KTM Berhad's Senandung Malam (the train with the sleeping berths), when we crossed the straits between Malaysian soil and Singaporean....lo and behold, the FINE city didn't seem to fine! Malaysian waters were clean but Singaporean waters.....were....(piss!) not! How odd!

Anyway, why am I in Singapore again you may ask? Is it some perverse sado masochistic desire within me, coming back again? A resounding No! I just had to come cos this is the only location and the only night that Lea Salonga - Queen of the Musicals is performing.

Back in Malaysia, it is DAD'S Birthday but according to Lilian Too, I must not travel long distance this month, so I wasn't planning to go home to Penang. But what is a girl to do when Lea Salonga comes to a town near you????? Brave the odds and pray hard as hell! I do feel terrible about daddy's birthday though and wish I could tear myself into two and be everywhere I wished to be all at the same time - preferably with the Lea Salonga concert in Malaysia - but......

Anyway, there was one good development from my visit to Singapore. Edward Kee apartments - BEE-OO-TEE-FULL! I wish I lived here is all I can say!

Anyway, will write more tomorrow about the non-diva diva! Too de loo and til
tomorrow - We Must Love Her!

Sunday, April 03, 2005

It sure is hard planning a holiday! If any of you out there know of a tour agency or travel agent who hosts tours to China with an ENGLISH SPEAKING GUIDE, please let me know! I am desperate. You would think there would be quite a few tours out there with guides who speak adequate English - but it doesn't seem to be the case.

I don't know why I agreed to do the logistics for this trip. Damn! We're looking to go to Australia or China. Australia because we've never been there and perhaps, it's time we did since people seem to rave about it alot although I've never been particularly entranced by it.

China because it was cheaper than Australia but the more I research about it, the more attractive it gets! The Great Wall, the beautiful lakes and rivers and gorges - I heard that the 3 Gorges is flooded up already and the people have been relocated! A natural beauty gone forever! It is sacrilegous that the Chinese government has allowed such an atrocity but.....I guess it is also embarrassing that I have only now found out about it.

I'm definitely looking forward to any input anyone out there can give me with regards to touring Australia or China. I'm not afraid to say I don't know much about either country and get really nauseous looking at the computer too long. Our Malaysians websites also don't seem to provide much information when it comes to their possible itineraries and I've sent some enquiries to their email addresses only to have emails come back to me saying the 'inbox is full' (!!!!) or that delivery is impossible due to some technical glitch or another. Do our tour operators rely solely on walk in business then??????? In this day and age!

I for one, do not have the time to walk into each and every tour agency out there under our hot hot sun to ask you questions and remember all that you have told me! So, TOUR OPERATORS/TRAVEL AGENCIES OUT THERE TAKE NOTE! I would like to contact you online and have you give me substantial information that is HELPFUL - preferably online too so I can file away your answer and contact you if you're good enough!

Reliance so far looks to be the best one out there with a nice website and down-loadable itineraries and price! (most important!) I'm definitely looking forward to even more good service from them.

So anyway, back to the focus - let me know if there are any particularly good travel agencies out there that do Aust/China. THANKS!