I ‘Heart’ Myself

This morning, I received an email from a very long-distance 32-year old friend, Norwati. She’s now pursuing a Doctorate in Civil Engineering at University of Leeds, United Kingdom. Impressive, eh? Brainy and berani. Everytime she emails me once in a while, she never forgets to remind me this…

“Sometimes you are too busy loving someone you forget to love yourself”

Eventhough, I have heard of the quote somewhere before but anyway… thanks darling, I will always keep that in mind.

Big Girls Don’t Cry

I just saw MAS’s MH194 fly my soulmate away… to Mumbai, India.

I repetitively told myself it would only be 5 days… and I should not be shedding tears.

Coz’ big girls don’t cry… And he's gonna come back with souvenirs (yayyy!!)

Haaaaa.... I failed.

ZaZu Beach Bistro

Bet’cha never heard of this place before!

ZaZu Beach Bistro is an amazing newly opened dining place owned by a friend’s cousin, located deep inside the Sunway Lagoon. Skeptical? Well, don’t be… just walk straight into the hearth of the lagoon and you will find it there, serene, beautiful and unique. Looove every bit of it! Highly recommended!

For reservations, call Mr. Elwin Pratikno at +60162001800 or go direct to ZaZu Beach Bistro, Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach, No. 3, Jalan PJS 11/11, Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

KL International Tattoo 2007

Can you believe it? I came to Stadium Merdeka twice on, 7th September and 8th September 2007, to see this spectacular event! Mentang-mentanglah anak askar… semangat patriotik!

(And hey Acob a.k.a. Mr. Dazed and Confused, nice to see you there after so long… what a pleasant surprise!)

In conjunction of Malaysia’s 50th Independence Anniversary, the Malaysian Armed Forces (backbone of Malaysia’s defense) in collboration with the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia proudly presented the KL International Tattoo 2007 at the historic Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. 13 other countries had also participated in the event - Australia, France, Korea, Brunei, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Philippine, Thailand, Jordan, United States, New Zealand and United Kingdom. 

The show on 7th Sept 2007

The show on 8th Sept 2007

Another Year Has Passed

My other-half’s 45th birthday was celebrated on the day of the ‘Let’s Paint The War’ Paintball 2007 itself which was on the 1st of September 2007. Sweet surprise party, it was. Eventhough the party was done one day earlier than it was supposed to be, but since everyone was pretty much free and available on that paintball day, why not?

And here are what I got for him - a flashy Montblanc’s latest design city bag (also known as clutch bag) for men to go along with his Montblanc fountain pen, Montblanc wallet (43rd birthday) and Montblanc cufflinks (44th birthday), - and a personalized cover page of Malaysia Tatler magazine with his face on it (for security reason I cannot reveal his face in here… ooppsss sorry!). But I can tell you, it’s soooo cool!

Special thanks to Wana for the wonderful and creative fake Malaysia Tatler you made for him. I still owe you a dinner, babe! And to Ifah for being such a reliable accomplice who made the plan work perfectly. Thanks for the time and energy you spared for me especially on the part where we had to sneak out at night to hide the birthday presents. It was tiring, wasn’t it? Thank you too to the rest of you who made it to the event - Fazrin, Wun, Nenney, Adam, Aziz and wife, Fadzli, Nora and son Awe, Rahimah, Yani, Dektee, Reebox and wife Yana. The whole event was a suksessssssss!

Another year has passed and at 45 years old, you still haven’t lost your looks, hun. So stop worrying and lamenting about your looks. You’re looking juuusstt niiiceeee…. to me especially. Hope that I, together with the rest of the clowns had painted your day with colours!

Happy 45th birthday, sweetheart!

Fiery Flowers In The Sky

In honour of the 50th Merdeka, the Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia hosted the biggest celebration in the country, the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) which was held for 2 weeks at Putrajaya International Convention Center. Five big countries partook in the competition - Canada, Japan, Italy, Australia and last but least, Malaysia.

Yes, on the 31st August 2007, my friends and I high-spiritedly went to Putrajaya to check out the MIFC. Yes, we were amongst the crowd of approximately 100 thousand people who came over to PICC to see Team Japan showing off their masterpiece that night. And yes, we were also among those people who had lined up for almost 2 hours to get into one of the dirty, filthy, shit-filled portable toilets. Gross! I swore to God, I would never ever use any portable toilet again in my life!

The incandescent displays started at 12 midnight due to Merdeka countdown and lasted for like 25 minutes. Well, I was expecting for some music during the Team Japan’s fireworks show, but so unlike Team Italy, the only music we could hear was the explosive sounds of the massive firecrackers. However, the Japan’s non-musical firework show, at the end, spectacular!

I believe there are six common colours in fireworks - white, yellow, red, green, blue and amber - which are made using specific checmical compounds. Deep blue and purple are the most difficult colours to create as they have very narrow bands on the colour spectrum. Blue and green are actually considered the most dangerous colours to produce, speaking of which, one of the greatest challenges to the pyrotechnicians.

Let’s Paint The War - Part II

I remembered the first time I played paintball, it was 5 years back. At that time, this exciting warlike sport was still new in Malaysia. Tengku Loreta a.k.a Lola and her cousins were the responsible ones in introducing me to this sport and we had our very first fake war experience at Sunway X-treme Park. Well, that was a 5 year-old story and I am ‘a retired soldier’.

‘Let’s Paint The War’ event was organized at X-tion Paintball, Bukit Jalil last weekend, 1st of September 2007 at 2.00pm. Guess what, from 8 people who had confirmed on their participations much much much earlier, the number increased to 14 people on the day of war itself. Stupendous! The paintball enthusiasts were then divided into two teams, Red Battalion and Blue Battalion. So…

Two sworn enemies,

Two bombarding squads,

One 7-aside battle,

One battleground,

One “Capture The Flags” challenge,

One victorious battalion,

One defeated squad,

One birthday cake. Eh, one birthday cake? How come a birthday cake gets into the picture, aahh?

It was absolutely an event I had wanted it to be… a fun exciting colourful war.