I'm back =)

Since November last year, the world wide web is literally right at my bedside, and I started to disappear from the memories of cybercafe operators. Ironically, I failed to blog even with the existence of internet facilities in my apartment. I’ve been reading, reading, and reading other people’s blogs- whether they are my friends, strangers or even some politicians (actually I did write some, but they ended up as some monalisas in my draft folder). Some are thought-provoking, some are relaxing and sweet. Addictive lar. =p

_

Alright, so I’m now back, typing on my new toy- Dell Inspiron 1420. Err, not that new actually as I got it from PC fair in December. It was quite a bargain, Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 2GB RAM, with built-in webcam and three years Complete Cover, at just a few bucks over RM 3k._

Meet my dear, Ms. Inspiron.

In January, I was investigated regarding a mobile phone ‘suicide’ case in my apartment. Apparently, the police thought I purposely push my ex- a Sony Ericsson k750, down from my 13th floor balcony. Fortunately, final investigation shown that my ex was just being playful and wanted to try some thrilling sky-jumping.

Sayonara k750.

Just as February last year, we hosted a CNY party at our garden. Well, it was sorta a satay feast with colonel’s chicken barrels plus pizzas, attended by almost all the relatives. As expected, it was filled with classical questions, again. Haha.

In March, both of my parents moved to Shah Alam as daddy got transferred here. Finally, I’m now a local guy. Teehehe. You know, KL peeps are kinda ‘geographicist’; they won’t call you a local, even if you are a Malaysian. To qualify as a local, you must come from the capital or its nearby cities. Oh yea, and the best part of March- my naughty k750 was reborn as a k850 to serve her dear. =)

Morning rush hour- 6.50am, Federal Highway.

Not many of my coursemates are gonna continue studying advanced diploma. Our diploma final paper was on April 26th. Ironically, nothing seemed to be unusual on that day. All we did was wishing each other the usual plain vanilla goodbye. Yea and that was the ending of our whole entire two years of diploma. Pout.

Loneliness chills me.

P.S.: I just came back from my 3D/2N Cameron Highlands class trip. Though it wasn't attended by everyone, but I must say that it was pricelessly enjoyable. Do check out our happy moments here.

Long live 2DFI1. =)

A brief tour of Taiping

Petroleum is fun to be burnt. I spent my whole afternoon driving, as one of the newest competent drivers in town. I revisited the various landmarks of Malaysian’s wettest town in an exceptionally hot and sunny day.

_
Pit Stop 1: My secondary school.
_
I was supposed to get my Sijil SPM from the office and get rid of the school, but the fond memories of my schooling life prompted me to wonder around the largest school in town, even though the temperature was as high as in Saudi Arabia.

A miniature of my alma mater, courtesy of Friendster Groups: Hua Lian.

_
My school had changed in certain aspects. It has a new awful theme of brown and white in some of the main buildings. Sigh, I came to the school at the wrong timing, which was why I met virtually all strangers; none of them were sixth formers. I saw some of my ex-teachers, and the canteen operators. Just as few years back, Mr. Papindar Singh was still wearing a typical red turban. Ms. Rosmawati was still teaching Kemahiran Hidup in a similar tone, at the same lab. Mr. KK Lim looked as strict as last time. The Canteen A operators still struggling to come up with turnaround plan to compete with Canteen B. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, minus a hundred of yawns. Hm, so here you are: Hua Lian revisited...
_

Oh, my big 'brownie'. That's the administration block. The first two floors are offices, while the rest are class rooms. My classes were there for 3 out of 5 years.

A slice of Nature Supreme Pizza, in front of the school hall.

The inner-part, surrounded by hills. It has classrooms, more classrooms, basketball courts, and a better canteen.

Not-so-new-anymore Form Six block under a misleading cloudy sky - it didn't rain.
Hm, does Diamond water help in studies?

I revisited, I snapped, I sweated, I fled. Oh, gosh, I guess global warming is getting more serious. Having a school in the lake garden that surrounded by hills didn't help much. Duh.

_
Pit Stop 2: Taiping Town

Taiping Lake Garden. This picture shows you the evidence of hidro-tropism. =p
On the left is the country's oldest market. On the right is a small food court, Siang Malam - a venue for 'rain-betting' activities.

Theatre Road. Nah, we no longer have theatre or cinema in Taiping, but we preserved the old name of the road. It's a heritage. :)

Main Road.

When my dad was a kid, he used to stay in one of these shop lots in Kota Road.

Kota Road.

St. George's Institution, the alma mater of my daddy and grandpa.

Treacher Methodist Girls School, the alma mater of my mommy.

SM Convent, my sisters' secondary school.

Oh, btw, what makes an ISO-certified school, huh?

Municipal Plaza. It houses the biggest wet market in town, where some housewives gather, gossip every early morning. It's our local version of Wisteria Lane. =p

Taiping Buddhist Temple. It operates a kindergarten which I studied. I met lotsa friends there on Tuesday's Vesak Day.

Beautiful sunset in Kamunting, Taiping.

What drives me? McFlurry! =p

P.s.: Click here for my posting on Taiping food!

Taste buds civilisation

Americans are really good in establishing their own F&B businesses and reformat our taste buds to be their creations’ best friend. French fries might be originated from France, hamburger from Germany, and the best coffee bean from Java or Africa. But it was Uncle Sam’s families who popularized them, and we heart them more and more, day by day.

I suppose the history of Malaysian and Singaporean’s kopitiams could be traced back to centuries ago, even before the first European explorers arrived in America. In fact, I believe Parameswara was holding a cup of kopi ‘o’ while resting under the Malacca tree in 1400s. Besides, I also believe that Portuguese navigator and statesman, Afonso de Albuquerque drank cups of iced coffee ‘o’ before seizing Malacca in one of the hot and dry day of 1511. However, it was Coffee Bean and Starbucks that managed to popularize them in 1960s and 1970s, respectively. Do you know why? I seriously don’t.

If Colonel Harland Sanders and Ray Kroc were still alive, they might have been the current Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, if they chose to venture into politics, rather than just preparing the best fried-chicken, milkshake, hamburger, etc. Nevertheless, I could still see the bright future of our kopi ‘o’ (even I prefer frappuccinos), and the exotic varieties of street food. Yea, the latter is what I wanna blog about now (sorry for that long-winded introduction, =p).

Now, let me introduce you some of the really great noodles around my domicile.

A) Yee Fu Mee (aka 'He Fooled Me', =p)

A well-known street food among Kamunting folk. They have been selling their yummy menu since 1980s. 'He Fooled Me' is people's all-time favourite. Despite the large number of people standing near the stall waiting for their order to be prepared every night - for two decades, none of them has managed to duplicate their secret recipes! It has no name. So we usually call it: Esso, he fooled me! - because it's situated beside of the Kamunting's Esso station. Oh, fyi, they were not using Esso gas cylinder, it was Shell! It caters for weddings, too.

This was how he fooled me!

B) Wanton Mee
_

This awful-looking restaurant houses the town's awesome Wanton Mee. It's situated opposite of Medan Saujana's 7-Eleven.

Ironically, it was the maid who made me the noodle. She has been working there for years, safe-guarding the recipes from being duplicated. Look, she stared at me furiously when I was taking pictures! Gosh, we need more maids like her.

One tonne noodle? Nah, the portion was less than 100 grams, just good enough for supper.

Craving for more? Let me bring you to the one of the hawker centres in my hometown - Taiping Casual Market...

A very oddly-name Casual Market. I have no idea how it was named. Hm, a dress code, I suppose. It houses some of the best hawker foods in town. Not forgetting the best and not-so-fruity's Ais Kacang.

Uh oh, that guy with a pink shirt didn't obey the dress code!

Stall No.48 serves one of the best desserts in town...

...'Leng Chee Kang'.

Does blog hibernate?

Hibernate. Yea, I'm so sorry to say that my blog did that for quite some time. Lotsa things should be blogged. Nah, perhaps some selected things.

1. Courseworks

Two out of three subjects that I'm having this short semester required us to write our own research papers. I’m not gonna blog about my Finance coursework in order to avoid you from yawning another 3282218 times. For the Principles of Investment's coursework, we travelled around the city to get respondents for our survey on investment instruments. I prepared a 4-page questionnaire and photocopied 100 sets. 20 sets each team member. In order to make our report a little 'extraordinary', I decided to get some foreigners as our respondents. It wasn’t as easy as I’ve initially thought.

I spent one of my evenings in the city centre and only managed to get a handful of respondents. I attempted several tourists who were admiring the scenic KLCC Park. One of my targets, an Indian national, refused to respond to me. Then he said: ‘Sorry, I’m empty-handed. Perhaps you wanna ask from my daughter.’ I was like: Huh? Did I sound like a scammer? Sigh. Btw, I didn’t force him nor explain to him as he was quite unfriendly. That night, I only managed to get 4 respondents - 1 Dutch at KLCC Park, 1 Swedish at Bukit Bintang McDonald, 1 local Indian at monorail station, and 1 Malay barista at Coffee Bean. Yea, the forth respond costs an ice blended. =p

I found that many respondents were afraid of the word ‘investment’ printed on my questionnaire. They thought I was trying to cheat their money with some sorta doubtful investment instruments. So, what to do next? I realized that I have to target those frustrated people who stuck in the queue instead. Toll plaza perhaps?

Hm, I woke up in the next early morning and walked to the LRT station. Nah, I didn’t attempt those commuters who soon gonna be ‘sardinised’ in the crowded train. I headed to KLCC again. Like my previous visit, there were lotsa tourists queuing up for the Skybridge tickets. The queue looked like a long snake and it started some time ago. Apparently, the snake was sorta hungry, it swallowed me and I managed to travelled throughout its intestine, and came out (don’t ask me where) with 10 completed survey forms (2 British, 2 Americans, 2 Australians, 1 Swedish, 1 Indian, 1 Venezuelan, 1 forgotten). Each of the questionnaires needs about 5 minutes to complete. The best part of the experience was I managed to chat with them. I respect them for their friendliness which was beyond my expectation. Many of them were retired engineers. There were also a doctor, banker, etc. Perhaps I was too naive to ask the Americans about their political affiliation- I’ve got 1 Republican and 1 political virgin with no affiliation. The samples were analysed and I was the one who wrote the chart-filled 1.2k words research paper, which scored us the highest in the whole course. :)
_

waiting in the peak hour...

_ train approaching... (Oh, btw, my apartment is on the right, isn't that near?)

_ waiting for the train to reach the platform...
_

and the door to open... and 'sardinisation'...

_

My target queuing up for skybridge tickets.
_

The Skybridge tickets allow them to stand here for ten minutes. Hm.
_Gosh, I posted the wrong picture. This is the correct one - The Skybridge. :)
_

2. Taiping

I went back to Taiping recently and I managed to snap some nice pictures of my hometown. It's a peaceful town without a single skyscraper and the shops close either at 5pm or 9pm. It has the country’s oldest fire station, golf turf, lake garden, market, etc. It’s a town that looks virtually the same from the past, without any spectacular changes.

Taiping Clock Tower. Despite being a tower, it is still dwarfed by a nearby small building. It was the country's first fire station.

The local-version of 7-Eleven in my housing area. The owners of this shop are 'Ah Kau' and 'Ah Zu'. Hm, what a matching names. :)

My kindergarten. Durian and Honey Dew were the names of my kindergarten classes. I still remember they gave us doughnuts/biscuits, and milk during break time. I was wondering: why not durian and honey dew juice instead?

My kindergarten's playground. I used to hide inside that. Yea, that blue one, but I never asked my teachers what's its name. Any idea?

In-coming Tesco. Anticipating a more British-like hometown. :)

New Year & Barbecue

Hey peeps!

Guess what. I just escaped from a frightening Chemistry test – in my dreamland, again. I was really anxious prior to the test. Nevertheless, I received a nature’s call to wake up and pee! Thanks to the large amount of water that I drank earlier.

I’ve been really busy doing a lot of stuff throughout the Chinese New Year celebration, such as: decorating, greeting guests, visiting relatives, receiving red packets, barbecuing... Also, I was doing some hectic calculations to get my net profit for the past few days after deducting the losses incurred from you-know-what.

Aite, lets back to main topic. Living in a small town where tolerance between neighbours is a... erm, tradition. It was supposed to be a wild and noisy bbq party. Good for our neighbours, it didn’t turn out what it supposed to be. Instead we had a nice, sweet and innocent lil party.

The bbq started at about 6pm and ended at midnight with a huge turnout of about forty people. It rained for quite a while, but it didn't wash away our enthusiasm of barbecuing. We grilled, talked and indulged our tummies repeatedly the whole evening. As correctly pointed out by one of my friend, it was an evening with lotsa of classic questions popped out and answered, such as: how’s work or college or school or kindergarten? Some talked about the bullish stock market, while housewives definitely did some talking about recipes and compared their kids. Hmm, as I can see, it was an enjoyable night for all of us, albeit plenty of chickens are now flying without wings. Hopefully, those generous chickens could have their wings grown back by having some extra doses of vitamins. ;p

_

What's your BBQ moment?

A misleading pic. Hehe, we grilled chicken wings, not my lovely cousin.

An 'innocent' outdoor game. ;p

I’m so fortunate that my semester break coincides with the 15-days festival. On the fifth day of the New Year, we went to Penang for the following reasons:

i . To reactivate our tastebuds.

ii. To check out the newly-opened huge Queensbay Mall.

_

A small kid that dwarfed its historical seniors in George Town.

_

Yea, Penang is famous with its own version of Laksa, Prawn Mee, Char Kueh Teow... (I’m sure the list goes on though I couldn’t think of anything else). What I didn’t know was it’s famous for its Ais Kacang as well. *gasp* We had our lunch at a damn crowded coffee shop, Kafe Sin Se Kai (Direct translation: A Whole New World Café). Obviously, it sounds awful. But as long as it serves good food, who cares? =) We stimulated our tastebuds by indulging ourselves with its specialties. The fruity Ais Kacang costs a McFlurry, but three times tastier.

_

The weirdly-named famous Chinese café in Swatow Lane, near Penang Sheraton.

Its splendid Ais Kacang (I think they should have named it Ais Buah-buahan instead).

_

Like many others, we celebrated the Birthday of Jade Emperor on the ninth day of CNY. Oh... btw, I’ve posted some pictures below about that event:

_

With the offerings to the Jade Emperor. ;)

A small gathering in the wee hours after that celebration.

_

That's all for now. Let's hope it's the beginning of a year of happier days for everyone!

Cheers!