PJS Public Speaking Class 2nd & 3rd Batch 2008 团年饭 Tuan Nian Fan

Pre-dinner time.....

As usual, the busy Guo Hui and Giah Pooi haha....... Dunno what Hon Sheng is laughing at.

Something wrong with the photographer. The curtain spoiled.

Another strange angle taken by the photographer....too far....

Purple Cane is quite nice. Getting ready for a shot outside the restaurant.

Picture Time.........

Hey hey.......be more sensitive to the camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dunno what captured Guo Hui's attention up there....

Final Shot

Bolehland soon to be known as Kebetulan Land

The land of bolehness filled with the boleh-bengs and boleh-lians are soon to be known as kebetulan land (I am contemplating to use coincidence-land but it will violate the government's-err....sorry, UMNO's effort to promote Bahasa Melayu...again....errr....or Bahasa Malaysia. But you may ask, then why use the word land? Oh...cox again, it's inline with the flip-flop policy of current government mah)

Read more about the fate and destiny and the mother of all coincidences showing in our country here by Maverick Meanwhile, I will be praying for a coincidence to befall on me that it will be such a coincidence Bill Gates shares my name and IC number and most importantly all his bank account as well. ................................................................. (praying for coincidence.................jangan kacau)

KK Challenge 3 - A Dismal Performance

The KK Challenge 3 Team 1 (eerr....we always registered as early as possible, well....at least v got #1 sticker though never get the chance to grab #1 hahahaha). Taken with the team mates, Leslie, Frederick and Teo. Organiser Corny here as well. Nope...nope......nope........ No unethical alliances with the organisers, you see....no hands over shoulder like the one taken with VK Lingam and Tun Eusoff Chin who the former purportedly "tagging" along wif Tun's vacation in NZ. Correct...correct.....correct (taking the cue from Lingam).... the judiciary is messed up (sorry to the few with high integrity, didn't mean you guys)

Team "Undecided" Welcome back to Frederick!!!

Relegated to position # 5. Previous position in KK Challenge # 2 is The Runner-Up to Team Main Tembak. We vowed to come back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Candy Time 1

It's erection (Zam says....) time again so it's candy time.

Candy Time #1 : Thaipusam is public holiday in KL and Putrajaya

"Warning - It's A Musical"

OK, seriously, Malaysian cinema operator should seriously put up this notice in the future to all their advertisement on the musicals shown.

Last night when I watched the Johnny Depp's 1st foray into musical, "Sweeny Todd" in one of the local KK cineplex with Sophia and her friend, the audience broke into laughter when the character started to sing. YES..... they start to giggle and laugh their heart out. This is not the 1st time cox I remember when I watched "Dreamgirls" with Julia, it was the same as well!!!! Ppl started to laugh when Jennifer Hudson started to wail "And I'm telling you........................ I'm not going........."

So, to avoid misunderstanding; which we thought was what happened to the teenagers sitting in front of us, maybe they're expecting some gruesome killing "Saw"-like kinda movie given the dark preview and promo materials....... PLEASE PUT UP THE NOTICE ABOVE - NOTICE TO ALL THE CINEMA OPERATOR IN MALAYSIA

200108

Hmm...

OK, 5th place in the KK Challenge Hunt, a drop from the 2nd place in the previous installment.

Just now, Lee Chong Wei won the Malaysian Open for the 4th time!!! A great game with nice and suspense net shot. Lee Hyun Il lost in 3 sets.

Last Movie in 2007 - Warlord

Yes, some of you, especially the young ones will be wondering what's tat above? That's how the cinema ticket looks like before GSC's and TGV's computer printed ones. It's very manual with the ticket seller marking with color pencil (here, marked with black color pencil on the number 3, meaning cinema 3) and the back of the ticket was written with the seat number. Yes, it's cineplex and you might as well be perplexed as to why cineplex using this kind of ticket??? It's the cineplex in Sandakan. Guess that answered your question.

OK, the ticket above is for the Chinese movie, Warlord by the director Peter Chan who gives us Perhaps, Love, a long-lost Chinese Western-style musical feature and Love Stories, Comrades a classic love stories featuring Maggie Cheung. The men movie as I would like to label it with the star-studding cast including Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Hsu Jing Lei.

Yes, Jet Li can act. Andy as well. And Takeshi too!!! Enjoyable movie which didn't disappoint me especially considering the fact that I watched this on Dec 31, 2007!!!! Yes, I watched the 915pm show which ended about 1130pm, just in time to drive in to the Sandakan town filled with our unofficial PR of Sabah ushering in the new 2008.

Hope the cineplex have good business so that SDK people has somewhere to go besides Giant and playing mahjong.

2007 Golden Globe Awards - without the glitz n glamour

Due to the strike of the writers, the usual Golden Globe Awards show was scrapped and being changed to sth akin to a news report in announcing the winners. Apa maksudnya???? MEANS NO red carpet coverage, means that no cleavages, the boos-and-yays of the stars dressing sense, the funny and sometimes boring acceptance speeches as well as the successful or unsuccessful banters between the presenters.

Fortunately I won't be free to watch it even if the show goes on haha....

But this year, my list of movies-to-watch are......

1. Atonement

2. There Will Be Blood

3. No Country For Old Men

4. American Gangster

5. Eastern Promises

6. Michael Clayton

7. The Great Debaters

8. Juno

9. Sweeny Todd

10. Charlie Wilson's War

(OK, I'm sucker for those nominated pictures but this year's contenders are really strong and equally weighty)

11. Away From Her (well....should be worth it even if it's just for Julie Christie)

12. La Vie en Rose (besides the fact Marion Cotillard won many awards for this role, I love Edith Piaf, the main character in this movie bt THE famous French songstress)

13. I'm Not There (lots of Bob Dylan and Cate Blanchett as the male Bob Dylan)

14. The Kite Runner (read the book, how can I miss the movie???)

15. Lust, Caution (errr.......)

16. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French entry for foreign movie)

17. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

And for the TV Series.....

1. Californication

2. Weeds

3. Longford

4. Dexter

5. Damages

What I Read in 2007 (Part 2)

pic courtesy of amazon.com since the book is with my sister

And most importantly, read this book by the wickedly funny Malaysian writer Kam Raslan, the brother of Karim Raslan, called . Check out his website as well, http://www.kamraslan.com/

silly

OK, I know the income tax dateline is still far ahead... April is still 4 months away but here's something to remind you:

They said we should all pay our tax with a smile. I tried - but they wanted cash

What I Read in 2007

Bought most of them in 2007 and some dated back to 2006 but only managed to read them in 2007.

Pilihan Raya (election or like Zam said, erection) atau Pilihan Jalan Raya by Hishamuddin Rais. A nice take of the current political scenario in Malaysia, written by Rais who gave us a near yet intimate in the scene clearly dominated by the UMNO. Rais is also a filmmaker, notable with a road film called Dari Jemapoh ke Manchester.

I am always enchanted by the French and this is an account by an American who moved his family to France and details his life graping with the eccentricities of the Francophile.

A funny read indeed. Of course, he's more well known appearing in the automobile show in Astro but he is funny and it's obvious in this book.

A 2-series of travelogue written by the Sin Chew Jit Poh journalist, 林悦 and her photographer friend. Recommended. A great deal from Popular Bookstore, a hefty 15% discount.

Bought from Kinokuniya. 同场加映 by 迈克, a HK writer who's sharp and sarcastic hence, entertaiining.

Another 2 books from 2 different author from HK. 戏影追星 by 陶杰 who's an academician and radio host. 等待香港 - 娱乐篇 by 林奕华 who's also theater art practitioner and screenwriter.

按键回转 by the famous Malaysian Chinese writer 龚万辉 & 婉君. A collection of their music review in local newspaper. It's accompanied by a complimentary CD of musics by 婉君.

This is a must read for those who wish to understand more about Malaysia and Islam in the Malaysian context in particular. "From Majapahit to Putrajaya" by Farish A. Noor who's a respected academician with articles published in MalaysiaKini and a load of alternative-stream-media (as opposed to msm - mainstream media).

OK, I promised to finish the unread ones before start buying again. :)

想你是临睡的习惯 - 动力火车 (Power Station)

寂寞是临睡的习惯

习惯是一个人守着

冰冷的床 和烟灰缸

没有你的孤单

想你在这样的夜晚

打开窗吹着冷风

故意把 灯关上

试着想像你笑的模样

不懂我的爱在你生命中占据多少份量

让你哭泣却是我心深处最痛的伤

最残酷的惩罚

I WILL NEVER TRY TO BREAK YOUR HEART

我不愿这样让爱情不由自主陷入一场两败俱伤的战

I WILL NEVER TRY TO BREAK YOUR HEART

我真的不想再面对没有你的寂寞夜晚

烟雾迷茫的孤单

Do you?

Scary Me....

I think I should be forgiven for this super scary picture taken at the entrance at the Angkor Wat. It's 5am in the morning for Pete's sake. It's a 3-day pass, cost me USD40, which was the most expensive transaction I did for this Siem Reap revisit.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 (Part 1) Day 4 (Part 2) Day 5

Buruk Siku

In Malay, buruk siku means when you give sth to someone, then you take it back. But in this case, it's should never been given in the first place, as it's something not meant to be given but it's something possessed inherently.

Seems like the happiness of the catholic church and the democratic minded folks was short-lived as "the Cabinet decided" that Herald can't use the word "Allah" in its publications.


This (read here) comes a few days after the permit renewal was approved without any condition.


It's like the government is doing the chocolate advertisement, "Now You See, Now You Don't"!!!!! Speaking of consistency!!!! Gosh.....


Wat can I say? Dumbfounded. Astounded. Conclusion? No hope. Not only the weighing scale is not accurate anymore but there's no scale anymore.

2008 welcomes...................

...........the event with the bangs (pardon the pun)

Soiled Leg had a broken leg now in politics. Admire his guts to admit the dvd but wish he could stop further commenting on this issue esp about "regretted going to the same hotel and same room" which shows no remorse on his side. Having said that, he's one of the rare breed of politicians who's no-nonsense and no tai-chi. Wasted.

Iowa caucus will see the lead of the presidential hopeful. Not that I'm not patriotic but since we don't know the real date for our erection (Zam again...) and we are advised not to speculate though our Erection (Zam again.....) Commission abruptly-passed-parliamental-bill-enabled chairman claimed to know when's the next erection (Zam again...) gonna be, so I can only focus on other nation's. Somemore the one in Pakistan is delayed and HK will only get their first real erection (Zam again.....) in 2017. Oh by the way, should we be grateful that we have erection (Zam again.....) every 5 years and not like those HKers who will get theirs in 10 years time?

Welcome to Sabah

It's Seppo (middle) and Hanna (left), a sweet couple from Finland whom I picked up from the entrance to the Kinabalu National Park few weeks ago. They were waiting for a bus to Sandakan to no avail apparently as they start to do the hitchhiking sign when I'm near. They were so ecstatic when I asked them to jump in as I was on the way to Sandakan as well. Driving with companion is always better than driving alone. And in this case, it was a fun and pleasant one as well. They were in Sabah for holiday and had booked a place in Sepilok Jungle Resort, which coincidentally owned by my friend's dad!

Thanks for the company and wish them have a great time in Sabah. As I always mixed up the capitals of the Scandinavian countries before this, now I remember that Helsinki is the capital of Finland, the Nokialand while Oslo and Stockholm are Norway's and Sweden's respectively. Hanna, you should be proud of me hahaha!!!!

Pic taken in Sepilok Jungle Resort, Sandakan.