Officially 29 & Officially a Citizen

It is the second day of July, the second day into the 2nd half of 2011. And it is the second day of me being 29. Having to say that I will be 30 next year, I'm actually quiet anxious to enter the stage of 30s. 30 means a lot to a man. As the saying goes, a man's life starts at 30. I suppose you will be bound by so many responsibilities. You are demanded to have house, car and a life time partner by then. I'm nothing close to that yet. If I describe my 20s as full of excitement, adventures and discovery then the next chapter will have to be stability and the sense of security.    

I believe and hoping that I'm moving on the right path towards the chapter. A recap of the first half of 2011, I wasn't doing bad. I started to see some increment in my bank account as well as some saving. I'm glad with that.  And to reward myself, I got myself a Citizen Eco Drive Chronograph watch. With the original price at 4 figures, it certainly isn't cheap to my standard. I know there are heaps out there who spend 5 figures on a watch. As I was considering Seiko or Citizen at a budget of RM1k. I opted for Eco drive technology despite the strong commercial marketing that Seiko display on. Hopefully this babe is going to serve me some good time.

And to round it off my half a year recap, I will like to express my gratitude and thanks to all those that have celebrated my 29th birthday with me. Appreciated all the dinners, lunch, cakes and gifts. I'm so blessed to have you all !!!

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8

I have been using Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 for 2 weeks now. I decided to give myself an upgrade after been served by SE G900 for a year and 2 months. It has almost become a trend that everyone you know is either own a touch screen phone or an ala blackberry. It just has to be a smart phone !! SE Xperia X8 priced at RM550, I thought that was a steal. Apart from the qwerty touch pad that I was struggling to get used to (but now getting better), I find X8 to be a vary handy phone. Boosted by Android as the operating system, you have a huge range of apps to download from Android market. Mostly are free !! The only complain will be the fixed focus camera quality. But you cannot expect a perfection with such a low price. Yes, I'm happy with my phone. Who say you need an Iphone when you have a much cheaper X8??

So Very Random...

Noticed that I have not been posting for almost 2 weeks now. I know if I do not have a topic to share, I might as well not posting anything. But I'm still struggling to come out with a topic yet, so I guess this will be the most uninformative post. Tata !! Good Night !

The Golden 2011

Happy new year 2011 !! This is gonna be my first post in the year 2011. I'm going to make it freestyle. So random, with no theme. The fact that I'm uploading a picture of butter crabs have nothing to do with what I'm going to write about. 

First of all, kudos to the Malaysian football team for bringing home the Suzuki cup. It was the first senior title after the 1989 SEA game gold medals. The Harimau Malaya is truly the king of ASEAN football in 2010 as we emerged champion as well on the earlier SEA game in Laos, an under-23 event.  

Lets hope the Westport KL Dragons is going to go strong as well to secure their first ABL title. Releasing of Hartman can be pretty sad. If it is for good of the team, it is most welcome. New adding, Justin Leith seems to be a tough player. That is exactly what we need. We need to add that bit of depth in the paint, we need to be rough and nasty. Lets hope that Nakaie and Justin combination can release more shooting chances  to Patrick, Rudy and Guga from 3 points range. Is Justin Leith the answer ? We shall wait till the next game.

With the Christmas and New Year celebration ceased to memory, the next anticipated big time is the Chinese New Year. I finally bought my flight ticket. To avoid Air Asia burning a hole on my wallet, I need to transit in Kuching instead of direct flight to Sibu. And I need to leave my home town on the second day of CNY to save a couple hundred bucks. But I'll be back as earlier as 27th Jan, that shall pretty much ease the sorrow.

And finally I wish everyone to have a prosperous 2011 as golden as the butter crabs. Be it in wealth, health, career, academically and relationship wise.

The Year 2010

 

It is this time of the year again that everyone is planning their new year resolution. I particularly has never really seriously set one before. But I guess I've been through quite a lot in 2010 and have learn a few trades. I'm no longer a man without a mission, no longer a nomad, no longer a man who persuade a hippies lifestyle, no longer a man who does not which to be bounded by commitment. 

Working holiday to New Zealand was the major event on my 2010 calendar. Initially it was a plan to save a relationship but it turn up to teach me how to live without one. I have to admit that I'm that kind of person who simply can't live without having a partner. In fact, I have never been living without one for less than 3 weeks period over the past 9 years. However, 8 months in New Zealand has lighted up my mind and soul. I met some special genuine people, a most kind heart person I ever met. And I'm glad that you are moving on well too. NZ taught me how to leave and let go. It is time for me to focus on a lot of things in life that I've neglected and far left behind.

I believe it will never be too late to catch up. I'm not that far behind I suppose. My 2011 new year resolution is just as simple as to settle down with my career, move on to get a new place to stay, a car and hopefully, lastly a stable relationship. Of course, I have not entirely giving up to backpack a few countries that I wish to go. I guess it will not happen in the next two years.

And it has been a year as well, since I started blogging seriously. Well, at least I'm still keeping my blog active. That is another achievement for the year 2010. Happy December !! The month full of holy joly !!!

 

Coffee Culture @ Timaru - Every good thing does come to an end.

 

 Today is the last day of my whole working holiday journey in New Zealand. It has been 8 months since. 8 months of sweet and sour. I will be departing to Melbourne before flying home.

 The sweet little her thought of buying me a breakfast. So we head to her favourite cafe, Coffee Culture.

 

Her favourite order, Iced chocolate. Dear, it is just not very nice to order yourself an iced drink in the morning though.  Seriously think the barista there has a very poor sense of decoration. Ugly mess ehh. ^^

 My cup of chocolate latte. Double shots of espresso, double shots of chocolate and double shots of steamed milk. That is what it claimed to be.

 The Jelly-tip cheese cake @ NZD6.90. With Yogurt. Cheese cake + Yogurt ?? Unique, I would say. The sour taste of Yogurt does seem to over power the cheese cake. We had to leave the Yogurt to a waste.

 Fresh fruit salad @ NZD7. That is a real burn in the wallet with those tiny little pieces. Hell.

Salamis & Gherkins with seeded topping bagel @ NZD5.90. Well, at least this one is very delightful and reasonably priced.

You have pretty much form a large part of my memories in New Zealand. Sincerely wishing you the very best of health and a blissful future ahead. May we meet again someday, somewhere. Thanks for the treat and more of all, been such a meaningful character. Take care sweetie. ^^

A Lifetime Casino

Greed lead to disastrous ending. But often it was greed that brought victory. Some people prefer to call that an "adventurous winning" or rather a winning blessed by lady luck. Whatever it is. Living is gambling We pray to wish that the lady luck will be on our side this time when come to decision making, We invest, we gamble for our future. This is like you are on one of those casino machine betting on hoping for a bonus. Often your next bet might transform you to be the next legend or just the guy next door.

Reality Bites

Life has never been the easiest. We are allow to have the down time, to feel the sadness and to sense the cruelness of reality. But we always need to stay strong, stay tough. As of the saying goes "Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” Be Tough.

Step Up

Dreams....If only you have dreams. The path that you step on right now may not be forever as you may always crossover. It is not the final destination. Just a part of your journey instead.

The Whisper of Aotearoa

The evil side of me tends to complain that New Zealand does not have much to offer apart from their naturally gifted  landscape and their extreme crazy interest on adrenaline rush sports . Always. Even after half a year in the land of the long white cloud. The pakeha "the non-indigenous" of New Zealand  namely the European has dominated big part of their presented culture. Dunedin as a Scottish town,  Christchurch as a English town, and there is this French town in the North island. Needless to mention the Asian conquered Auckland. Fair enough that New Zealand is a migration country. 

John Key and the crew emphasized on not to lose the genuine identity of the Maori culture every now and then. But I guess Rotorua is the only place that you don't feel like you are just in another English town. Forgive me for not being traveling enough, to see enough to make the judgement. I hope New Zealand can prove me wrong at the later stage of my journey.

Aging ?? Chill Out !!!

At the age of 28, I felt so insecure with what I'm doing now. I, for once used to wish that travelling can form a major part of my life style. I, for once wished that I can backpack through different nations for months. That was the reason why I took up working holiday in New Zealand.

Often now and then, the sense of insecureness strike me. Left me doubting what I'm doing and I no longer enjoy what I'm doing. I feel like this is perhaps the time to really settle down, to kick off my career, to have a stable relationship. Is that the sense of ealier mid-life crisis ?

I do not know. Was chatting to a friend, she commented that I'm doing what most working professions miss the most to "enjoy life". Yet my heart is so not with what I'm praticing right now. I guess I just need to enjoy what I'm doing and leave the future to the future.

爱昧。。。

 

爱昧真的让人受尽委屈吗？

Malaysians Are Multilingual ?

It is so often that when Malaysian come to have ice breaking introduction with Taiwanese or Chinese from mainland, the conversation will go like this :

TW/CN : Where are you from ?

MY : Malaysian

TW/CN : O...Malaysian..so you speak 5 languages then ?

I came to realize that ever since my years in England that Malaysians are reputable as multilingual. And I realize how important it is for you to master a few different languages. Malaysian in general speaks 3 languages. We should be thankful that there is at least freedom for us to speak our mother tongue as well as few different dialects. As for me myself, I do have 5 languages under my belt. Foo Chow as my mother tongue, english, malay, mandarin and cantonese.  Knowing an extra language has always been an advantage for us especially when we are overseas. I may not realize the usage when I was little, I used to question the usage of learning Malay. I questioned how many country in this world that speak Malay. Now that I'm wise enough to operate my poor brain, I fully aware that you dare not freaking call yourself a Malaysian if you cannot speak the national language. 

I do have a feeling that my mother tongue is going to stop at my generation. I highly doubt my children is going to communicate in Foo Chow. My younger brother does not speak Foo Chow that fluent as he converse in Mandarin with my parents. This is a sound example that our mother tongue have been taken over by Mandarin and English. The next generation will be encouraged to learn Latin languages like Spanish, Italian even French. It is pretty much me myself to play the role of rotating our mother tongue down to my next generation.

May God Bless Our Mother Tongue.

From the KiwiLand

I guess this will be my first post without any photo. WIFI is rather uncommon really in Christchurch. Or rather shall I said a free WIFI is very difficult to find here. An established cafe like Starbucks does not even serve Internet to their customer. I do have a lot of photos that I will like to share and true enough that New Zealand is a sceneric nation where awesome photo can be taken simply from every corner.

Apparently people has been comparing Christchurch to Cambridge of England. Partly because of its Avon river and punting. Christchurch is much bigger than Cambridge. It is a city with a main cathedral and a square where a lot of street bunkers will be sharing their talents. Christchurch's weekend seem to be rather quiet with a lot of shops not operating their business. I can only feel the buzz during the night when the party goers started to flood the clubbing zone.

To be Cont.....

Monday Blues......

The sun was shinning fiercely burning me inside the car as I was driving to fetch my sister. The Red Rede FM was tuning some really decent oldies as far as the 60s in their afternoon show. With a DJ's voice as deep as the good old Patrick Teo who used to be with Radio 4. No fancy Hip Hop, no dirty lyrics. It brought back memories when my father used to play a lot of these oldies when I was little. Which I never really did appreciate back then, I ranted for the Backstreet boys instead. And now after a good 28 years, I find myself being absorb into these sentimental oldies. I started listening every now and then. Which got me being complained by the people around me for being such an old folk. I guess being sentimental is a part of aging process ? 

It is your turn now...lil' bro

My younger brother is leaving for his engineering study in Australia tonight. He has always been that top student in the class that most of the expenses of his studies had been funded by scholarship. I'm sure you will have a great time in Brisbane. Adapt into their rather different culture and have fun. Safe flight and take good care of yourself, Raymond. Maybe we will see you sometime in Aussieland soon.

Christchurch Cougars

 

Christchurch Cougars is a professional basketball team which is at it first year in the New Zealand's National basketball League (NBL).  The Cougars are replacing Canterbury Rams as the only professional basketball team in the region of Canterbury. I'm glad to know that there is a local basketball team for me to support as I'm about to travel to Christchurch next week. As what I did when I was in Sunderland, with the Newcastle eagles and Kuala Lumpur with the KL Dragons.

I was over the moon when i received this email from the General Manager of the Cougars in respond to my inquiry about a possible job opportunity in the team. Of course, not as a basketball player but anything possible will do me a big favor. As working in an overseas basketball environment has always being a dream of mine. Lets hope this is the first step towards the thousand miles. To Carille, that is certainly very kind of you. Cheers !!

http://www.cougarsbasketball.co.nz

Happy Chinese New Year and FUCK that V day......

 

Today marks the end of OX year. We are welcoming the year of Tiger with full anticipation. The Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and the huge population of Chinese around the world are celebrating the lunar new year on the 14 Feb this year. And yeah..double celebration on....that miserable lovebird's day.      

    

The Chinese will welcome the year of tiger with fire crackers and fireworks. In a small town like Sibu where the Chinese are the predominant race, the fireworks display can be described as you are in the war scene. Best way to describe, bombing everywhere. Terrorist red alert if this will to happen in the land of Mr.Obama.
 

 

These will start off half an hour before the new year and last for a good one hour. With literally every Chinese family playing their part. Numerous bans on the crackers from the authority in charge failed miserably to stop the celebration.  No doubt. Such magnificent masterpiece is very  “Sibu-only”. Authentic Sibu experience. 

 May the year of Tiger bring in prosperity and great health to your family, my family and her family. May the good fortune be with you forever. Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fatt Chai and still Fuck that V day.

 

A Sad Gloomy Kuching

 

It has not been an easy week for me. Drastic change to my relationship plus i lost my phone. This week has been rather upset for me. I left KL and have a two days stay over in Kuching before heading back to Sibu for Chinese New Year. After all these happen, you don't expect me to be in the best mood for my trip.

  

Airport taxi service of RM26 to the city centre. 

  

I has not been eating much really in Kuching. You don't expect a person who has just turn single to have a good appetite. Don't you ?. Still i did not miss up the ever famous Kuching Kolo Mee. 

 

I wanted my trip to be a laid back one without much hassle and bustle tourism spot. Just a long walk along the Kuching water front. But this is still pretty heart breaking without that someone by your side.

  

I got myself booked into this RM20 dorm. I do not wish to stay alone. Dorm is very much a better option as you get to meet people.

  

Such as Sandra from Sweden. Which as been such a sweet and chatty young lady. Talking with you had actually makes my time better.

  

But i do wish to have a charming smile to be my companion along the road. Along the journey of my life.  Take good care of yourself as much as you has been taking care of me.

I'm a Single Man...........

  

It has been a hectic one week. A week which suppose to be full scheduled with farewell gathering with friends before i leave for New Zealand. But it turn up that i broke up with my girlfriend and i lost my phone (left it in a Taxi) in the same week. What a week indeed. These spoiled my mood. My mood to meet friends as a happy me rather than a moody one.

  

I got myself Sony Ericsson G900 yesterday. This is a smart phone, a rather cheap smart phone with WIFI, touch screen and 5mp camera. I'm pretty satisfy with this babe after a day of using. Priced @ RM650 plus a 2 GB memory card, I learn to appreciate its abilities. But the camera function seem to be a little off standard though.

Anyway, life move on. And I hope baby you will enjoy the single life that you has been demand for. I hope i will enjoy mine too. It has been tough without you by my side.